text:
Team 1: OnSite
OnSite is developing a rapid blood test to help first responders diagnose stroke. This will reduce the time the patient has to wait for treatment to begin, ultimately reducing disability and recovery costs.
Team 2: Artifacts
Artifacts is a medical device company that is designing a personalized concussion detector for athletes competing in high impact sports that utilizes an accelerometer and heart rate variability.
Team 3: GuardianMB
The Guardian will detect impact and biological activity of sub-concussions to prevent further brain damage from occurring.
Team 4: Paranostics
Paranostics is working to make rapid parasite detection more affordable and less invasive through the use of saliva sample sources.
Team 5: HumbleTech
Rapid and precise dosing syringe.
Team 6: Slapband
We are developing a wristband with a built-in blood pressure monitor. This device will be able to measure blood pressure continuously for any signs of cardiovascular disease. Blood pressure readings will be sent wirelessly to a user's smart phone device.
Team 7: Theia Optics
Our product uses simple components to image and detect pressure ulcers before they reach the surface of the skin.
Team 8: PneumaLife
PneumaLife is developing an at-home apnea monitor for premature infants that is more comfortable, less invasive while still providing a medically relevant level of sensitivity and incorporates vibrational stimulation to encourage breathing recovery.
Team 9: Syroto Bioprinters
Syroto Bioprinters fast track and scale up pharmaceutical testing protocols with accurate and versatile dispensing to meet any research needs.
Team 10: Lodestar Innovations
Lodestar Innovation's NeuRewards targeted movement reinforcement system is a ground breaking physical therapeutic device that takes advantage of infants' own neuroplasticity to heal peripheral nerve injury.
Team 11: LaserFocus
A noninvasive approach to septoplasty that mechanically corrects a deviated septum. We would also like to use Wordpress for our website design.
Team 12: Spiro
Game-based device to increase patient adherence to respiratory therapy.
Team 13: AsthMonitor
We are providing a point-of-care device for the measurement of asthma medication compliance.
Team 14: Medlight
We are developing an LED Surgical Headlamp with automatic lighting capability that mantains standards in lighting quality, battery life, and comfort.
Team 15: Maker Therapy: Mobile
We aim to enrich the lives of hospital inpatients through the use of educational entertainment technology incorporated into mobile Maker Spaces.
Team 16: Stempoint
STEMpoint provides an intracranial access probe that monitors temperature at different depths and fluid extraction alongside brain cooling technology for cerebral tissue preservation during induced hypothermia.
Team 17: BubTech
Delivering oxygen to heal wounds.
Team 18: Diet Tech
The EaterTrack is a novel wearable device that uses non-invasive sensors to accurately detect user food intake and behavior.
Team 19: ProMotion
A wearable device that tracks hand motion to bring about a cessation of smoking.
Team 20: Hippo Optics
An innovative solution to better understand the memory formation pathway in the hippocampus of the brain.
Team 21: Cannalyst
Cannalyst is developing a portable and easy-to-use device that will be used for precise THC detection that will target the markets of law enforcement and personal use.
Team 22: Greenlight
A portable, analysis tool to quantify THC concentration from colorimetric saliva-based THC assays.
Team 23: NanoCurv Impressions
A state of the art artificial cornea implant with nanopattern surfaces, capable of fighting microbes and promoting body integration.
Team 24: PCRbot
A diagnosis device that increases the sample volume of thermal cycler for PCR technology.
Team 25: iComfort
Our device aims to facilitate self-examinations by using ultrasound technology in a similar form factor as sports bras.
Team 26: aFlux
aFlux is an implantable device that increases flow in the left atrial appendage of the heart reducing the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation patients.
We are celebrating the culmination of the Biomedical Device Design capstone course at UC Irvine. Join us over food and drinks as the senior design teams showcase their prototypes and compete for a chance to win BioENGINE Fellowships and Capstone Design Awards.
*Note: BioENGINE Fellowship candidates are also eligible for Capstone Design Awards
Sorry we missed you, check out photos from our event!
UCI Applied Innovation (The Cove)
5141 California Ave, Suite 200
Click to download
Click to download
Click to download
For more information about the BioENGINE initiative, click here


text:
Read on for the full story . . .
The first house was a lovely Victorian vernacular farmhouse style with a cute porch on the front, a tin roof, and a huge backyard on a double lot. It was on a nice street and within walking distance of downtown in my chosen city of Sanford, which is not just quaint but an actually viable, working downtown with shops, restaurants, and a very good independent bookstore.
Unfortunately, the owners didn't really want to sell it, which is a bit of a puzzlement. (Read the first few posts tagged "House" for more about that.) They never even responded to my offer.
I looked at some others which were not tempting. Then I fell in with a Craftsman style -- nice porch, beautiful interior woodwork a la Frank Lloyd Wright, partially restored. The yard was a lot smaller, but it was large enough. This time, I offered the listing price but again, no response to my offer.
(This is not the actual house, but it's a great example of a Craftsman bungalow; photo from here.)
Apparently there are investors back in the market, which is wise: these are nice houses in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, probably undervalued right now, and sure to appreciate. Meanwhile you can pay a $500 mortgage and rent them out for $800 to $1000 a month . . . which is a great deal if you can get it. The investors are buying with cash, which makes my conventional financing look pretty unattractive in comparison.
Enter the third house I was serious about: Colonial style one-story, nicely remodeled, good location, but with quite a small yard and a vacant lot next door. Much would depend on whether the vacant lot could be purchased and added to the property . . . but I made an offer anyway, again for list price. Still, no response. The sellers went with another offer -- which I now know has been withdrawn. I bet the house failed inspection. It was built in 1930, after all.
Enter the current candidate. Oh, goodness, I love this one! It makes me want to just wave good-bye to the other three! It's very different, though: mid-Century ranch style, concrete block with plaster walls inside, terrazzo floors, carport, definitely a fixer-upper, but it is on three lots in a really lovely neighborhood of large homes and large lots. And across the street is a low area that will probably never be developed, so it's a natural dream. (There might even be a spring down there -- what fun it would be to check that out!) Oh, the garden I could have in such a space!
I am already dreaming of replacing the sliding glass doors with French doors and having a vegetable garden and installing a pond and . . . You get the idea. It could be a dream come true and a wonderful multi-year project to create something really special there. (And if all that happens, the Before, During and After photos will show up here, for sure!)
Making an offer tomorrow on that one. Please, please cross your fingers for me. I am seriously in love this time.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
vlad01 wrote:Source of the post I just call it LCD cancer
I'll be sure to spread the meme then . It sounds a bit like a edgy cyberpunk band.
Anyway, I had a peek at the pixio PX329 reviews - and yeah, pretty good stuff. But I could not help but notice that 13% of the ratings are 1 star, which in my experience is a tad high. Then again a lot of people are pretty lousy when it comes to trouble-shooting computers.
Now if only you had a great CPU and GPU to go with it...


text:
THIS was the week that Lawrence Savarese Jr. had prepared for all year: the start of the much-postponed, meticulously orchestrated move by American Express to its granite-and-glass headquarters in the new World Financial Center in Battery Park City. Mr. Savarese is executive vice president for facilities at Shearson Lehman Brothers, the brokerage arm of American Express and the first subsidiary to make the move.
For companies, much like people, moving is an experience that is both dreaded and unavoidable. And American Express's move is several orders of magnitude larger than the norm. The company has 8,202 people to be ensconced by mid-1986 in 2.3 million square feet in its tower, the largest of the four to be built in the World Financial Center. Though it is not the biggest building project ever undertaken, the numbers are awesome enough: 12,000 separate telephone lines in the tower, 13,640 miles of cable wire on the trading floors. And because it includes a brokerage firm that depends on instantaneous communication, billions of dollars rest on getting it right from the start.
That is not to say that everything does go right. Some chaos crept in this week. Security was so tight that new and temporary employees assigned to start on Monday were stopped in the lobby; the telephone system was so new that the receptionist was unable to reach their departments, and was reduced to asking other visitors to carry up urgent S O S's. Even people who passed security had trouble getting upstairs; at least two of the elevators were still allocated to construction workers.
If security was too tight downstairs, it had evidently been too lax upstairs. Some of the equipment had disappeared, particularly the high-tech telephones, called voice data terminals, that have become popular black-market commodities. ''They have legs,'' Mr. Savarese said. ''The small pieces walk.''
In the library, there was a plethora of jacks, but nothing to plug into them. Xerox had failed to bring over the machines that copy securities documents for staff members; in the meantime Shearson Lehman was ordering them from outside agencies at a cost, Ronald Dow, the chief librarian, estimated, of $1,000 an hour. Mr. Dow wore a beeper because, he said, his wife was expecting a baby at any minute and he did not have a voice data terminal.Continue reading the main story
Unlike most individuals, of course, American Express can afford dozens of high-priced experts to help with the move. It has employed a firm of architects, as well as packers (El-Cee Trucking) and movers (Mega Van and Storage) specializing in corporate moves. The architectural firm alone, Swanke Hayden Connell, was paid upward of $17 million, Mr. Savarese said. THE devout hope at Shearson Lehman is that the move will be its last for a long time. Thanks to mergers, growth and the real estate squeeze in lower Manhattan, the company and its member parts have been itinerant for years. In 1978, Shearson Hayden Stone took five floors in the World Trade Center - but a year later, after a merger with Loeb Rhoades, it was spilling over. In 1981 Shearson Loeb Rhoades merged with American Express, in its own building on Broad Street. In 1983 the entire company announced plans to move its headquarters and 6,000 people to the World Financial Center. By 1984 it was installing equipment in the new building's lower floors for a major back-office operation (currently at 17 Battery) and scheduling the move for March 1985.
Then American Express bought Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. A trading operation needs lots of room and, because its new building has a step-back design, its lower floors are twice as spacious as the upper ones. So the traders claimed the space, and the back-office equipment was ripped out. The change cost millions, set the move back to October and, as things stand now, Mr. Savarese said, ''we're almost at capacity before we move in.''
Floor by floor, foot by foot, American Express has been planning the move for more than a year. It has laid out a timetable for its subsidiaries and drawn up a ''stacking plan,'' allocating the subsidiaries to different floors. (Shearson Lehman Brothers will take about 25 percent of the building's space.) It has issued a ''We're on the Move'' handbook to employees that begins on an exalted note - it proclaims the tower ''a building for the 21st century'' - and goes on to give more practical information, like where to pick up Chinese take-out and how to get the automatic coffee makers to work at night. THE meticulous preparation lasted right up to moving day. In recent weeks, furniture and telecommunications lines had been installed on the 15th through 18th floors, for Shearson Lehman's investment bankers. Their files were shifted over the weekend. On Monday, American Express placed a stack of floor plans on each receptionist's desk, a red or white carnation on each desk, and coffee and cake on every floor.
The careful planning helped most people accept the changes with equanimity. ''It won't be as bad as the first troops hitting the beaches at Normandy,'' said Albert Bellas, senior executive vice president for public finance for Shearson Lehman, when he arrived Monday morning.
Each weekend this month the subsidiary will take over another floor or two; the top executives are scheduled to move next week, the traders in mid-November. For two weeks prior to that move, the Quotrons and other equipment will be tested in mock-trading conditions. But yesterday, Mr. Savarese was preparing for the next moving day: Monday. ''New York people adjust much easier,'' he said. ''Their whole lives have been adjusting.''Continue reading the main story


text:
Do you want to see a drag race between a Lamborghini Aventador, a McLaren MP4-12C, a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black-Series, a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, a Shelby Mustang GT500, a Jaguar XKR-S, a Porsche 911 Carrera S, and a Subaru BRZ. If you do, you should be happy, because Motor Trend was nice enough to fulfill your desire.
Tell us which one you think is going to win before you watch the video. Yeah... we all know that the Subaru was doomed to a distant last place.
[via YouTube]
Follow @ComplexRides


text:
Blog Back
It is clear to me that low carbon technologies such as solar and storage will become so cheap that they will enable a shift away from fossil fuels. In the coming years, we will see renewables increasingly powering our homes and businesses and eventually over the next 30 years we will see automobiles fully electrify and maybe over the next 50 years heat as well. But this begs the question whether this is fast enough to save our planet from the impacts of carbon related climate change. The answer to that is probably no which then leads to the question what needs to be done. My view is very simple, and that is tax carbon. There is no way around it.
Over the next 50 years low carbon technologies such as solar and wind as well as energy efficiency technologies such as LEDs will reduce fossil fuel consumption and reduce carbon emissions significantly. In fact, if renewables could be ramped up to replace coal and if EVs could replace internal combustion engines then global emissions could fall by circa 13.5 Gt of CO2 per annum which is 40% of global energy related emissions. That would have big impact but let's be clear that is likely to take 50 years under current investment scenarios and this is not fast enough to put the world on a path to a "2⁰C" pathway.
What we need to do is increase investments in clean energy sources as well as reduce investments in fossil fuels. But in places like Europe annual renewable installations are actually going down. Part of the reason for this is how renewables have been financed. The costs of building out renewables and any related grid infrastructure have been put on the electricity bill of the end customer which in turn reduces any incentives for those customers to electrify their heating systems or their automobiles. Would it not, for instance, make more sense to put those costs onto the fossil fuels instead? And the timing could not be better given the low prices of coal, oil and gas. Whatsmore, the taxing of carbon could also lead to new business models particularly in the underserved building efficiency segment.
On the other side, there are huge investments still taking place in fossil fuels across the world. India, for instance, plans to open 50GW of new coal generation in the next years and there are massive investments taking place every day into oil and gas noting that the oil and gas Majors are some of the biggest and best financed companies in the world. Think Gazprom, Exxon, BP, Shell, and Saudi Aramco to name but five. Their annual investment budgets are ginormous. And they are investing 100s of billions of dollars every year into oil and gas and they are doing so because they are making money doing it. And yes some oil companies such as Statoil and Total are starting to invest in renewables but their capital expenditures in this area are a fraction of their yearly investments into oil and gas.
Part of the issue is that it is not easy for oil and gas companies to invest in renewables. For a start renewables is mostly about electricity generation, which is not the core competence of an oil or gas company which means they don't have the culture, knowhow or systems needed to make the necessary investments let alone manage those assets. But the bigger issue is that these companies generate higher returns in oil and gas than they do in renewables. And until that changes they and the investors behind the oil companies will not systematically deploy their extensive balance sheets into renewables. And let's be clear, we need their capital. Someone like Exxon invests in oil and gas circa $30bn per year which would be enough for them to take 50% market share in global solar!
The key going forward is to incentivise fossil fuel companies to move their capital elsewhere and if we are really serious about tackling climate change then we have no choice but to bring in carbon taxes. But my concern is that there are very governments out there brave enough to do this.


text:
Let me begin by apologizing for how long it has taken me to post an update. Between packing, moving, unpacking and school; I just haven't had the time to do much of anything.
The scab that formed over the tattoo completely came off (with the help of tubing on the lake) the second week of August. The area hasn't hurt really at all since I've gone to the doctor.
The area is scarred, but there is noticeable areas of fading and even areas where the outlining looks like it has completely faded away. I am going to start putting scar cream on it in hopes to lessen the scarring. I do plan on applying another layer of Nuviderm, but i am going to wait quite a while before I do so. Luckily I have one more refill of silver sulfa at the pharmacy which i am going to get before I apply the third application of Nuviderm.
I will keep updating, but they are going to be more spread out, since its going to take a while to see any major differences.


text:
From the very beginning, music has been an enormously important part of the Phantasm series. Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave's theme music has become an iconic staple of the franchise and genre as it winds itself through each sequel, always evolving.
Personally, I really dig hearing musically inclined phans perform their own covers of it. Some infuse it with a hard metal sound while others go more action epic in the direction of Phantasm II. Today, I've got a unique cover for you to check out from composer Dan J. Schulte, a highly dedicated franchise follower for several decades now. If you saw either the Halloween: 25 Years of Terror of Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy documentaries, then you've already heard Dan's work and you know it is pretty awesome.
Dan's cover, which clocks in at seven minutes long in this video, is titled Phantasms and strongly evokes the music of John Carpenter. I'm talking John Carpenter back when he was collaborating with Alan Howarth circa Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Horror fans will know that is a great period in Carpenter's career to evoke. Also being a huge Halloween fan, it's really no surprise where Dan takes inspiration from on this piece.
I implore you to give this Phantasm theme tribute a shot. Don't just hit play and click over to another tab. Go grab some headphones and close your eyes. Soak this in. Revel in the imagery it conjures inside your mind. I dare you to let yourself be alone with the spooky phantasmic sounds of Dan's tribute. It is surely a treat.
You can check out more of Dan's music here. You can also download an extended, higher-quality version of this tribute on his website as well.


text:
ERM has a longstanding commitment to ethical business conduct in our operations and supply chains, and is opposed to all forms of corruption and unethical business conduct. We are particularly strong supporters of the international effort to abolish all forms of modern slavery.
Accordingly, ERM provides our third Modern Slavery Statement wherein we provide an overview of the approach and tools we have in place to prevent modern slavery in our business and supply chains (in more detail than we provided in our first Statement), and describe the specific actions that we have taken in the past fiscal year.
Download ERM's 2018 Statement on Modern Slavery
This Statement covers all subsidiaries of the ERM Group for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2018.
Download the complete list of ERM's subsidiaries
Download ERM's 2017 Statement on Modern Slavery
Download ERM's 2016 Statement on Modern Slavery
ERM is committed to support international efforts against slavery, child labor and human trafficking in conformance with the ERM Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015, and other applicable international laws.
Copyright © 2000 - 2019 ERM Group, Inc., All rights reserved


text:
About (taken from website): Dixie Belle Paint can be used on wood (inc. painted wood), metal, glass, ceramic, you name it, with no prep work! Cause Southern Girls don't like to sweat!
My baby girl is finally about to move into her own room and she was given a piece of furniture that I had when I was really little. And because it so old it needed a face lift.. bad. I found this company that had beautiful chalk paints. Now I have never worked with anything other than household paints and acrylic paints. So, I didn't know what to expect and how her dresser would come out. I am not a brave person and I don't like a lot of change, but I took a huge chance and picked out 2 colors to 2-tone her dresser and I got so excited to paint when it arrived. The colors were even more beautiful in person than online.
Dixie Belle Chalk Paint was truly simple to use, and now my favorite! There was no sanding or stripping required. All I needed to do was wash the dresser down with soap and water. I've never worked with such a thick paint before, but it made it really nice because I didn't have to paint more than 2 coats. The first coat did show brush strokes and the paint soaked into the dresser a little, but the second covered it really nicely. It dried completely in about 20 minutes and didn't leave any drips, down the side if I got a little too much on the brush. I got a 32 ounce container thinking that I would use it all, and I couldn't believe how little paint I actually used. It left enough paint that I am able to paint a 6 foot shelf for her also. I finished it off with 2 coats of a clear coat.
Our friends at Dixie Belle Paint is offering 1 fan to win a Sample Gift Bag; which includes a burlap bag with a 4 oz paint of their choice of Sea Glass, Driftwood or Drop Cloth, a 4 oz clear coat, a paint brush and a sanding sponge. The gift bag retails for $19.95 and is everything you need for a small furniture piece.
10/19 – 10/27
US Residents Only 18+
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."


text:
A new and exciting range of shift knobs are available from Sparco. The whole range has been renewed with the addition of new models, new colors, and anatomical grips. Particular attention has been paid to the anodizing and color variations of the different models to complement Sparcos steering wheel line.
Momos experience in automotive styling and development of anatomical grips for steering wheels come together as a complete range of shift knobs that respond to the various individual requirements of form and function. Utilizing only select leathers, woods, alloys, and composites, Momo balances both aesthetic and technical lines in the anatomy of knob to complement the interior of any vehicle.
OMP offers a complete range of knobs in chromium plated aluminum or top-grain leathers combining both functionality and hard wearing good looks. OMP knobs accentuate the complete range of OMP interior products for both the race or street application. OMP knobs in concept and design are from out of this world.


text:
Mark Power spent some time living in Poland in 2010/2011and sought permission to photograph Catholic Church services in the city of Krakow. Power is a self-confessed "lapsed Catholic" and MASS comes as the considered result of his curious fascination with the dominance of Catholicism that he witnessed in Poland. Photographs of the slits in collection boxes (motifs of the Catholic Church) span each double page spread, and it becomes something of a game of discovery to fold out the pages and pore over what scene lies beneath. Large and sumptuous photographs of congregations that detail and reflect the lavish opulence of Catholicism act as effective metaphors. Bound in the traditional liturgical colours of purple and gold, the book is a powerful investigation into the omnipresence and influence of Catholicism in Poland, and is a promising example of one of the first books from new London-based publishing house GOST.
£45 / 118pp / Jan 2013 / GOST
Reviewed by Joanna Cresswell
Buy the book here


text:
Before you start planning for the repository, go through Veeam Backup & Replication online documentation at https://www.veeam.com/documentation-guides-datasheets.html to get basic understanding of repositories.
A backup repository is a storage location used by Veeam Backup & Replication jobs to store backup files, copies of VMs and metadata for replicated VMs. Technically, a backup repository is a server that runs the Veeam Transport Service and provides a destination folder on the backup storage. Each job can use only one repository as its destination storage, but one repository can be used by multiple jobs.
You can balance the load across the backup infrastructure by setting up several repositories in the environment and limiting the number of concurrent jobs for each repository, or if you have a proper license you can leverage Scale-out Backup Repository as explained later on in this section.
The 3-2-1 rule states that an environment, in order to be properly protected, has to have 3 copies of data, stored on 2 different media, with at least 1 copy in a different location. Each of the parts of the rule involves the use of a storage device, that's why a Backup Repository is such a key component in each Veeam deployment.
The 3-2-1 rule however is a data protection strategy, whereas availability requires the different storage implemented in this strategy to support additional capabilities like:
Instant VM recovery
File transforms
Distant copies
Item restoration
Sure Backup
This is the reason why v9.0 introduced two major new features for Veeam backup repositories : Scale-out Backup Repository and Per-VM Backup chains.


text:
I'm now on a Win7 Pro machine. I simply plugged in my wheel and Win7 found it and made it operational. Unfortunately, I do not have FFB in driving sims that I previously had FFB. (Nascar 2003 Season, Dirt Racer, GPL for instance.) Nor do I have the Logitech control panel for the device, as would be expected.
The wheel has been a solid and trouble free wheel, if a bit "slow" on account of the motors needed for FFB.
My question:
Should I uninstall this device via the "add/remove" program and reinstall using the Logitech software CD? Think that would give me access to the FFB feature?
All for now.
Old Simmer
Andre Ming
Edited by Old Simmer, Sep 03 2017 - 12:31 PM.


text:
Lightly sprinkle the fish with the Creole Seafood Seasoning.
In a hot cast-iron skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Sear the fish on both sides until the flesh is opaque about 3 minutes each side.
Combine the Hollandaise Sauce with chili-garlic sauce, chipotle powder and crabmeat.
Serve each fillet with 1/4 cup sauce.
Combine all the ingredients and mix. Store in a sealed container.
Melt the butter and margarine in a 1-quart saucepan over low heat. Raise the heat and bring to a rapid boil. Remove from the heat and cool, about 5 minutes. Skim the foam from the top and discard. Pour the butter into a large glass measuring cup and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a medium stainless steel mixing bowl or in the top of a double boiler, combine all the remaining ingredients. Mix together with a metal whisk until blended.
Place the bowl over a pan of slowly simmering, but not boiling, water. The bowl must never touch the water. Vigorously whisk the egg mixture, picking up the bowl frequently to let the steam escape. Whip until the egg mixture is very light and creamy and has a sheen, 6 to 8 minutes. This amount of beating is important so that the cooked eggs will better be able to hold the butter. Remove the bowl from the pan of hot water. Gradually ladle about 1/4 cup of the butter mixture (use the top butterfat, not the butter solids on the bottom) into the egg mixture while vigorously whipping the sauce. Make sure the butter you add is well mixed into the sauce before adding more. Continue gradually adding the surface butterfat until you've added about 1 cup.
So that you can get to the butter solids, ladle out and reserve about 1/2 cup surface butterfat into the sauce, whisking well. Use any remaining bottom solids in another dish. Then, gradually whisk in enough of the reserved top butterfat to produce a fairly thick sauce. The butterfat thickens the sauce, so you may not need to use it all. Serve immediately (or as soon as possible, keeping the sauce in a warm place, such as on top of the stove, until ready to serve).
Beat the yolks over heat long enough to fill them with lots of air bubbles - but be careful to control the heat so the yolks don't harden. In order for the butter to enter, fill and expand the bubbles in the yolks, they have to be in a liquid state. Once you start adding the melted butter, don't apply heat again because that would cause the oil to expand too much and break the air bubbles, resulting in a separated sauce. For the same reason, don't reheat the sauce once it is completed. Don't let the sauce get too cool, either, because the oil will congeal and contract and cause the bubbles to burst. The ideal is to keep the sauce as close to body temperature as possible.
This recipe was provided by a chef, restaurant or culinary professional. It has not been tested for home use.


text:
Swiss Sensibilities
This issue features 15 examples of Swiss architecture, including the most recent projects by Chiristian Kerez, Gigon / Guyer and Valerio Olgiati. By now, Swiss architecture from the German language region that includes Zurich and Basel has become a familiar topic in the architectural media. How have buildings by architects who were once called representatives of Minimalism or designers of Swiss Boxes changed? On one hand, we see attempts to discover new possibilities in materials and an interest in the richness of colors; on the other hand is a stricter approach to tectonics. However, it seems that there is something about their work that reminds us of the timelessness of Swiss architecture. It is impossible to describe it concretely, but it might be their dignified attitude toward architecture. This issue also includes two articles as the second installment of the Sustainability Survey: one is Sustainability in Switzerland, which introduces the activities of the non-profit foundation myclimate, a spin-off from ETH Zurich; the other is Climate as a Design Factor, which analyzes the relationship between design and the central European Swiss climate. (a+u)
Christian Kerez
Leutschenbach School
Gigon / Guyer
Swiss Museum of Transport
Hotel City Garden
Conversion Rosenberg
Valerio Olgiati
The New Visitor Center for the Swiss National Park
Localarchitecture and Bureau dArchitecture Danilo Mondada
A Temporary Chapel for the Deaconesses of St-Loup
Peter Mrkli
Swiss Re Next
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) /Studio Monte Rosa
New Monte Rosa Hut
Gramazio & Kohler
Private House in Riedikon
Research in Digital Materiality Conducted at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich)
Miller & Maranta
Spa Samedan
Villa on the Lake Shore
Christ & Gantenbein AG Architekten
Swiss National Museum, Restoration
Swiss National Museum, Extension
Markus Wespi Jrme de Meuron architects
Wood House in Caviano
amrein giger architekten
Villa Sarona, Residential Care Home
Boltshauser Architekten
Atelier Dubsstrasse
Sustainability Survey vol. 2:
Sustainability in Switzerland
Sylke Gruhnwald
Climate as a Design Factor
Roman Brunner, Christian Hnger


text:
19 June 2016
Trying to get Comfy
17 comments:
I hope the paparazzi went away finally!ReplyDelete
Awww Lucy, when you are being so very cute, how can your Mum resist showing us?ReplyDelete
Happy napping!
That sure looks like a cozy place to snooze, Lucy. Now, if only you could get some privacy...ReplyDelete
Oh Lucy, those are such great pictures of you. You do look very comfy and clean. Tees sends his best to you.ReplyDelete
The flashy box always seems to ruin a good nap. That was a good plan of yours to pull the blanket down and get comfy, Lucy.ReplyDelete
I hope you get a good snoozy in pretty Lucy!ReplyDelete
OH goodness Lucy I sure hope that you were able to get that nap in!ReplyDelete
OH you dear girl. I hope you were obeyed and everything was fluffed and put right. xoxoxoReplyDelete
It looks like it's a hard work for being comfy today ! PurrsReplyDelete
Poor Lucy, the pawparazzi never give you a break.ReplyDelete
good nite two ewe lucy....dreem oh tees, waves ta hannah & heerz two a grate evening ~~~~~~ ♥♥♥ReplyDelete
Poor baby, no privacy! Sweet dreams :)ReplyDelete
It is annoying to wait for the flashy box to leave :/ReplyDelete
Purrs Georgia and Julie,
Treasure and JJ
We know you want privacy, Lucy, but the pawparazzi just can't resist your beauty!ReplyDelete
Hugs to you, Hannah and Mum!
I nose just what you mean Lucy..you spend all that effort getting comfy and then your privacy is ruined wiv that flashy beast!!!!*sigh*ReplyDelete
Loves and licky kisses
Hard work to find the right position !ReplyDelete


text:
Welcome to Lawn Fawn inspiration week! Today I have two projects to share with you using the products from the latest release, I hope you're enjoying the inspiration week so far!
My first project features Fab Flowers and I created a feminine everyday card using different colors of inks on the flowers and masking them to create my bouquets.
Y used watercolor paper and added some water to create that watercolor look. Then I die cut the flower panel with the Fancy Scalloped Rectangle dies and poped up my sentiment on a Dotted Circle.
My second card features Hang in There and I made a window card to showcase that super cute sloth! I love him hanging there on his branch haha!
I colored The inside with Distress inks and all the images with Copics and added some texture to the front of the card stamping a woodgraing background on it.
I hope you like them! For more inspiration you can visit the Lawn Fawn blog, the DT has amazing samples, Kelly is sharing some videos and, of course, there are giveaways!
Thank you so much for stopping by, have a great day!
Supply list:
Flowers card:
Sloth card:


text:
Stable isotope analysis is a critical technique for upstream reservoir exploration through well profiling. Understanding the origin of oil and gas in any new reservoir is an essential requirement for determining its feasibility and suitability to exploitation making stable isotope analysis a key function of any petrochemical service laboratory.
Recent plays into unconventional resources such as shale gas and coal bed methane as well as traditional crude reservoirs are suitable for stable isotope analysis and PetrovisION provides the complete solution for both sample types.
PetrovisION offers significantly improved return on investment with minimal instrument contact time required and substantial data handling capabilities making the PetrovisION a crucial resource for your laboratory.
BiovisION is a complete solution for stable isotope-based food analysis, consisting of the following modules:
isoprime visION Stable Isotope Analyzer
Simplicity is what isoprime visION is about. Creating something simple seems, well, simple - but in fact, simplicity can only be achieved once the fundamental requirements of our customers are understood. With this clarity, isoprime visION offers a completely new experience of stable isotope analysis: an experience where the user is free from the routine chores of maintenance, allowing them to focus on the science, not the instrumentation.
isoprime visION offers exceptional bulk and compound-specific isotope analysis through market-leading technology from Elementar and Agilent Technologies. Harnessing this technical ability through the isoprime visION finally opens the power of stable isotopes to practically any laboratory.
centrION monitoring gas handling and inlet interface system
centrION is the powerful core of the isoprime visION system. With complete automation through digital control, centrION is the central interface for isoprime visION's inlet systems, as well as handling the monitoring and gas injections required for instrument performance-checking.
The great thing about centrION is that you don't even know it's there. Completely integrated into the isoprime visION footprint and handled intelligently by IonOS, centrION works seamlessly to perform complicated tasks with incredible simplicity.
With centrION, users are finally released from the daily maintenance of their instrument and can focus purely on their science.
ionOS BiovisION operating licence for acquisition and data processing
ionOS is the revolutionary new software for the isoprime visION stable isotope analyser. It works in concert with the isoprime visION and centrION to provide an unrivalled level of intelligent control.
Designed completely from the ground up with stable isotope analysis as the sole function, IonOS is the most sophisticated yet simple software suite ever created. Its clean user interface belies the level of sophistication within, giving users unrivalled capabilities to generate exceptional data with ease.
IonOS allows isoprime visION to reclaim responsibility for sample analysis from the user by offering incredible functionality both pre and post-acquisition, significantly reducing instrument contact time.
GC5 & Agilent 7890B GC
Compound specific isotope analysis is a fundamental tool for analysing complex oil samples for well profiling as well as analysing δ13C and δ2H isotopes of natural gases to determine their source and maturity. The GC5 offers exceptional sensitivity for low concentration analytes whilst maintaining chromatographic integrity of sample peaks during compound conversion. The robust and long-lasting oxidation conditions in the conversion furnace means that very high molecular weight compounds can be analyzed routinely. As a VAR partner of Agilent Technologies, the GC5 system takes full advantage of the market leading Agilent 7890B GC system to create the highest performance GC-IRMS system for your research.
Identify Compounds with GC-MS
When running complex oil samples, run times can extend up to 2-3 hours with 100's compounds eluting from the GC column. With this complexity, it is very difficult to confidently declare which compounds you are actually analyzing since the molecular structure of the compound is destroyed in the high temperature furnace. By combining an Agilent 5975C MSD with PetrovisION, a single sample injection can be performed resulting in both compound identification and isotope analysis saving large amounts of time through not performing two injections.
Analyse Bulk Isotopes of NSO's
Heavy oils contain large amounts of nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen (as well as other heavy metals) as well as asphaltenes and resins. This makes the oils less amenable to GC analysis and so bulk isotope analysis of these compounds can be useful to characterise the oils. Bulk δ13C and δ2H are also possible for quick screening of oils samples using the vario PYRO cube for high throughput.
Automate Gas Analysis with Isotubes
The use of Isotubes (ISOTECH Laboratories Inc.) to deliver natural gas samples from the well head to the laboratory is becoming increasingly common thanks to the easy shipment and durability of the Isotubes. We can supply PetrovisION with a specialized autosampler from Gerstel allowing for the rapid, fully automated analysis of large numbers of Isotubes, bringing high throughput and lower operating costs.
Perform Water Analysis
Water is commonly used in the drilling process, and the recent advances in hydraulic fracturing have brought scrutiny in to the consumption of water resources for this process. Analysis of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes may be useful for determining the source of waters and distinguishing between pumped surface waters and aquifers. Adding the vario LIQUID sampler to PetrovisION makes this analysis simple and straightforward.
PetrovisION is a complete solution for stable isotope analysis in
petrochemistry and comprises of these modules:


text:
Product Description
From the Mauna Kai Black Label Collection, this Starfish stretch metal bangle is perfect for a casual outfit or brightening up an evening attire. Stretch fit bangle is held together with 2 pieces of black elastic cord. Inside circumference measures 7.75".
Image and description courtesy of Madden Corp


text:
Deaths from heroin and prescription drugs more than doubled last year at the Jersey Shore, a locale well known as a vacation destination.
Three people in Ocean County, New Jersey have already died in 2014 from drug overdoses, according to NBC News.
Local police said a brand of heroin sold under the name "Bud Light" may be tainted.
Ocean County, which includes a number of beach towns, is home to the reality series "The Jersey Shore." The county has the highest number of heroin-related emergency room admissions in the state. In 2011, Ocean County had 11 percent of all heroin-related ER admissions. The following year, 11.4 percent of heroin-related admissions were in the county, although it has less than 7 percent of the state's population.
Deaths related to heroin and prescription drugs jumped from 53 in 2012, to 112 last year. The majority of the deaths were related to heroin, the article notes. A total of 1,188 people died from overdoses throughout New Jersey in 2013.
"It is a suburban epidemic facing us throughout New Jersey," said Angelo Valente, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey. "A lot of suburban counties are affected at dangerous levels." He said young people are starting with prescription drugs, and moving to heroin. "This is no longer just an inner city issue," added Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor's office. He added people are snorting heroin, which is purer and cheaper than in the past.
Prosecutors in Ocean County have distributed warning cards to funeral homes, advising families to dispose of unused prescription medications left behind by the deceased.
Earlier this year, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law a measure that encourages people to report drug overdoses. The law allows people to call 911 to report a drug overdose, without the fear of getting arrested for drug possession themselves.


text:
Revealed: And the most popular boy and girl names are...
PUBLISHED: 09:00 21 September 2017 | UPDATED: 09:21 21 September 2017
The most popular baby names for 2016 in England and Wales have been revealed with Olivia and Oliver being ranked as the number one choices.
The data, released by the Office for National Statistics, revealed that Olivia and Oliver are the most popular baby names of 2016.
Olivia replaced Amelia which had occupied the top position for five years.
Olivia came out top in five out of nine regions across England, and in Wales - the name was also top in 2008 and 2010.
Oliver has now been in the number one spot for four years in a row - the name was most popular in six regions in England and in Wales.
Muhammad replaced William in the top 10 names for boys last year, while Poppy dropped out of the top 10 for girls, making way for Lily.
Four new entries have entered the top 100 girls' names these are Felicity, Iris, Luna and Lydia.
They replaced Bethany, Hollie, Katie and Lacey which were there in 2015.
New entries in the top 100 boys' names include Albie, Arlo, Ezra, Finn, Jasper and Jesse which replaced Callum, Connor, Jamie, Kian, Seth and Sonny which were in the top 100 in 2015.
There were 696,271 live births recorded in England and Wales in 2016.
The statistics are based on names first recorded at live births which occurred over 12 months.
A total of 64,000 different names were given to babies in 2016.


text:
Sign In
Poster Exhibition
Mental models of placebo and vaccine-induced seropositivity among MSM in India: implications for interventions to counter preventive misconception among prospective HIV vaccine trial participants
V. Chakrapani
, P.A. Newman
, S. Mengle
, D. Shinde
, D.K. Dakshinamoorthy
, R. Nelson
M. Shunmugam
Centre for Sexuality and Health Research and Policy (C-SHaRP), Chennai, India,
The Humsafar Trust, Mumbai, India,
University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work/Centre for Applied Social Research, Toronto, Canada
Understanding of key HIV vaccine trial concepts is important to ensuring informed decision-making about participation. In order to prepare for future trials among MSM in India, we explored how mental models (simplified cognitive representations of complex concepts) may influence understanding of trial concepts, with the purpose of informing educational interventions.
From October 2013 to January 2014 we conducted 40 in-depth interviews among a purposive sampling of diverse MSM from three community-based organizations in Chennai and Mumbai, and six key informant interviews with healthcare providers and community leaders. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. We used techniques of metaphor analysis and frame analysis to identify and explore mental models relevant to HIV vaccine trials, including placebo-control and vaccine-induced HIV seropositivity (VISP).
Participants'' mean age was 28.1 years (SD=6.3); 65% (n=26) completed college and 80% (n=32) were employed, 20% (n=8) in sex work. Participants generally indicated understanding of vaccines; however, randomized controlled trials presented a variety of challenges. Participants largely understood "placebo," providing several examples ("distilled water", "fake product"); but the rationale behind randomized controlled trials was often misunderstood. For some, placebos were seen as an excuse for researchers in the event a test vaccine is not efficacious. Some described an imperative to unblind trial volunteers throughout, so appropriate ''precautions'' (e.g., condom use) can be taken. Participants with greater understanding referred to advertisements comparing two health drinks, detergents. VISP was largely misinterpreted as actual HIV infection: due to vaccine-induced infection, ''live'' HIV injection, and trial use of unsterile needles. Understanding of "false-positive" HIV tests facilitated accurate conceptions of VISP. A variety of misconceptions supported not practicing safer sex, including belief in test vaccine efficacy, "helping" researchers determine efficacy, and using VISP to surmise one was "protected."
Some mental models, based on participants'' existing web of knowledge, facilitated understanding of key HIV vaccine trial concepts; but several others supported inaccuracies about trial rationales, risks, and fuelled preventive misconception. An evidence-informed mental models approach based on local understandings may complement traditional scientific literacy efforts to support HIV vaccine trial preparedness among MSM in India.
Download the e-Poster
Back to the Programme-at-a-Glance
Contact Us
Site map
© 2012 International AIDS Society


text:
David dEscoto
Website: http://www.dexios.info
Bio: David and Kim d'Escoto were once skeptical about homeschooling, never even considering the idea until their firstborn entered first grade. Today, they have six children and have been homeschooling for 14 years. Drawing from his experience as an adult Bible teacher and church ministry leader, and her background in elementary education, the d'Escotos are committed to reaching out to families and spreading the homeschool vision. The d'Escotos' interviews appear on the IndoctriNation DVD Bonus Features and are contributors to the IndoctriNation book.
Posts by David dEscoto:
The Religion of Public Schools - 22 Jan 2014
Our film and book contain the thoughts of many experts and this blog is no different. Herein you can be up-to-date on issues pertaining to the IndoctriNation project, public schools, homeschooling, education policy, and the timeless wisdom of the Word of God.
Our Bloggers
- Colin Gunn (20)
- David d'Escoto (1)
- Matthew and Ellen Gerwitz (13)
- RC Murray (4)
- Scott Eash (18)
- Backstage Pass (7)
- Book (3)
- Bus Tour (34)
- Christian parents (15)
- Endorsements (6)
- Events (5)
- Feedback (8)
- Film production (4)
- Press Release (3)
- Public School News (6)
- Publicity (9)
- Uncategorized (29)


text: Under various discussions, folks have been showing their steering wheels so I thought it would be cool to have them under one heading, for future references too. 1. Original leather 38cm CSL Petri with long hub 2. 38cm Petri with leather wrap by master Alpina craftsman (has a new home/ owner) 3. 40cm Petri with foam wrap. Spokes were too far gone so I had it painted grey metallic. Soon to receive a leather wrap 4. 38cm BLACK Petri with foam wrap. Authentic and a very rare find 5. 37.5cm Momo Prototipo. The Prototipo lettering has peeled off over the years. Keshav


text: Share: Comments Print September 26, 2014 at 5:59 AM Bus hits 84-year-old woman in Monroe Posted by Lisa Cowan The Associated Press MONROE, Wash. — A Community Transit bus hit an 84-year-old woman Thursday night in Monroe. Police say the woman was knocked under a parked minivan. Witnesses told KIRO 7 an officer lifted the minivan just enough so they could help pull the woman out. She was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett with life-threatening injuries. Comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: bus, monroe


text:
California's Ghoul is a metal outfit I'm starting to admire for two reasons. First off, their music offers a pretty nice blend of death metal and thrash metal. Nice! But what's also interesting about this group is that they manage to reinforce just about every metal stereotype until their music has this slightly amusing, slightly self-aware schtick to it.
Good news: We don't need to take everything seriously all the time.
I'm sure these guys enjoy some Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, and Anthrax, but Ghoul seems equally influenced by stuff like Gwar and comic books, too.
The video above is for the track "Metallicus Ex Mortis," which comes of the band's latest album, Transmission Zero. Look for it on Tankcrimes.


text: We have a new mirror set up ready to be added to the public mirror list. Location: Abrera (Barcelona), SPAIN Organization: IDL3 Network (web page are under construction) Contact: Jose Ant. Crespo - admin at mail.idl3.net Versions: 5.4 Architectures: All DVD: No RSYNC: None (for the moment) FTP: ftp.idl3.net/public/OS/Mirrors/Linux/CentOS HTTP: ftp://ftp.idl3.net/public/OS/Mirrors/Linux/CentOS Updated 1x a day from mirror.centos.org Uplink: 100Mb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-mirror/attachments/20091126/a2ff9ad5/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 91133 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-mirror/attachments/20091126/a2ff9ad5/attachment.jpe


text:
February 9, 2019
The 3rd International Conference on Video and Image Processing is to be held in Shanghai, China on December 20-23.
January 3, 2019
ICVIP 2018 was held successfully in Hong Kong on Dec.29-31. The
photos are sorted out. (Click)
December 17, 2018
The detailed conference schedule is finalized. (Click)
December 2, 2018
Welcome Assoc. Prof. Hong Liu and Asst. Prof. Edgar Bryan
Nicart, etc. 6 experts join in technical committee. (Click)
November 6, 2018
Welcome Asst. Prof. Yejin Kim, Dr. Ahed Abugabah, and Dr.
Peter H. F. Ng join in technical committee. (Click)
September 26, 2018
Upon requests from authors, we decided to extend the submission deadline to November 5.
September 3, 2018
Prof. Rajneesh Sharma and Prof. Byung-Gyu Kim, etc. join in technical committee.(Click)
August 10, 2018
The final round call for papers starts today and will end on
September 25.
June 29, 2018
The conference venue is confirmed to be Kowloonbay International
Trade & Exhibition Centre. (Click)
June 22, 2018
ICVIP 2017 Proceedings indexed by
Compendex and
Scopus already.
April 19, 2018
Prof. David Zhang and Prof. Chin-Chen Chang will deliver keynote
speech at the conference. (
March 26, 2018
ICVIP 2017 proceedings are available in ACM Digital Library. (Click)
February 27, 2018
Prof. Mao Kezhi and Prof. Liang Xuefeng have confirmed to deliver
keynote speech at the conference.
January 18, 2018
ICVIP 2018 will be held in Hong Kong on December 29-31, 2018.
January 8, 2018
ICVIP 2017 photos are available online now. (Know
January 2, 2018
ICVIP 2017 has been held successfully on Dec.27-29, 2017.
December 13, 2017
The full conference schedule is
available online. (Click)
October 22, 2017
Prof.Yongmei Zhang, Prof. Jiancheng Lv, and Prof. Xueming Li join in the technical committee.
September 10, 2017
The final round calling for papers starts today and will end on
October 10.
August 14, 2017
Dr. Zhilei Liu, Asst. Prof. Dr. H. RAMESH, Lecturer Cuicui Zhang, Prof. Prof. Albert Gan, Prof. Dr. Binod Kumar, Dr. Viet Ngo, and Prof. Guangming Shi join in technical committee.
July 31, 2017
The second round call for papers
starts today and will end on September 10.
June 18, 2017
Dr. Selvamuthukumaran joins in technical committee.
April 27, 2017
Prof. Chinchen Chang will deliver a keynote speech!
April 7, 2017
Prof. Maode Ma will deliver a keynote speech!
April 7, 2017
Prof. Mao Kezhi will deliver a keynote speech!
April 7, 2017
Prof. Lipo Wang will deliver a keynote speech!
March 2, 2017
ICVIP 2017 is calling for reviewers! Please send your CV to email@example.com
February 28, 2017
The official website of ICVIP 2017 has been updated.
February 16, 2017
International Conference on Video and Image Processing will take place on December 27-29, 2017 in Singapore as a special session of ICIT 2017.


text:
Hurricane Sandy Reliefby Representative Paul Tonko
Posted on 2013-01-02
TONKO. Just yesterday, Americans celebrated New Year's Day. They
ushered in 2013. As we rang in the new year, the usual message of hope
that accompanies the new year--any new year--rang hollow for millions
of Americans because of actions taken at the close of that New Year's
Day here late last night. People were met with the devastating news
that we were not going to take up a measure that would respond to
Superstorm Sandy.
And so I rise today to ask the leadership of this House, the people's House, to respond accordingly to the needs of people. I make this request not through some political calculus but rather through the lens of caring and concern and compassion, which ought to be the hallmark of this great institution. We ought not forget that the role that we play here calls upon our moral responsibility to engage our actions and our compassion and empathy for the people we represent or perhaps do not represent directly. Because we, I believe, need to relate to that measurement of compassion to family, friends, neighbors and yes, at times, total strangers.
I make this request sensitized by a situation in my district, the 21st Congressional District at the time, in upstate New York, just about a year-plus before the devastation of Sandy. The torturous treatment of Mother Nature through Irene and Lee on that congressional district, my congressional district, stole lives, wiped away livestock, flooded homes, tore away the hopes and dreams of individuals, and found people abandoned, having lost everything for which they ever worked. And I witnessed how people responded to that tragedy. They picked up and mustered the strength. But they required government to be their partner at that very dark moment in their lives. Having witnessed that pain, having visited communities and having talked with the people, shared tears with the people, I understand that now this situation, in a much more densely populated area of our State, and in neighboring States, requires our assistance, immediate assistance, to respond with compassion.
Mr. Speaker, and leadership of this House, I implore you to respond with compassion and empathy and bring us to the floor to acknowledge and support the funding for Superstorm Sandy.


text:
Agile Solutions
Business Applications
IT Consultancy
Our IT experts help our customers to achieve their goals. We have profiles with both operational and managerial expertise.
Our solutions are aimed at relieving our customers' concerns about IT and how it impacts their business.
Cegeka stuck to the budget and timing and shared their thoughts with us at every step of the process.Katrien van Gerven, General Manager Heilig Hart Leuven
Thanks to clear arrangements with Cegeka and their fast response times, we were able to implement a substantial upgrade in a short-term project.Tim Vanbelle, CIO Belgosuc


text:
Inside The Beltway -- October '99
Ag policy update from the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.
Jump down menu:
Ag Approps: Bizarre at the Bazaar
House Moves Crop Insurance
CRP 20th Sign-up
Who's against Anti-Degradation?
Beginning Farmer Advisory Commission
USDA Backs Hormone-free Beef… for Europe
Wetland Permits
FSMIP Awards
USDA Entrepreneur Initiative
Comment on NRCS Conservation Standards
USGS Pesticide Reports
Previous editions of Inside the Beltway
Inside the Beltway is Sustainable Farming Connection's online version of the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group's Washington Report. We reproduce it with MSAWG's permission. Do not reproduce or post to any electronic network without specific permission. Contact Brad DeVries firstname.lastname@example.com for more information.
Farm Aid 1999 came to D.C.'s doorstep last month and was, to the ears of this undeniably aging reporter, loud. Very loud. Like, is there any difference between Supersucker and Bare, Jr., other than the fact that one is loud and angst-ridden, and one is the other way around? Then again, I learned that I really do like the Barenaked Ladies, so maybe I can put off the subscription to Modern Maturity a few more years. Maybe I'll go get a tattoo.
Of particular note were the scathing reviews the whole Freedom to Farm approach got during the press events (a Farmer Forum and a press conference with several of the artists) that preceded the concert, and from many of the artists on stage.
With the concert so close to Washington, the Campaign for Family Farms (including several MSAWG member groups) and Family Farm Coalition took the opportunity to organize farmer and activist meetings with legislators, USDA officials and others. They also organized a spirited "Stop Freedom to Farm" rally on Capitol Hill.
While in town, about 40 hog producers and supporters paid an unscheduled visit to the offices of the National Pork Producers Council to demand of Al Tank, CEO of the NPPC, that the Council stop trying to delay or derail a required vote on the continuation of the mandatory pork checkoff. While participants generally agreed the meeting went well, it's not clear that Mr. Tank would share that assessment.
Farm Aid co-founder Neil Young noted at the rally that it might be worth having Farm Aid near the Capitol every year, "until we get this thing fixed." In that case, I've got plenty of time to pick up a set of earplugs before Supersucker returns.
Ag Approps & Emergency $$$
The House-Senate conference report for the combined $61 billion FY 2000 agriculture appropriations and $8.7 billion emergency farm aid spending package was filed after midnight on October 1, with the House approving the package 240-175 later that morning. Senate action is expected as we go to press (week of October 4), although it is subject to a "hold" by northeast supporters of the dairy compact, and a threatened filibuster by mid-Atlantic states Senators who think the legislation shortchanges drought-damaged farms in that region.
Emergency Supplemental: The final emergency aid package includes $1.2 billion in disaster relief, well short of the amount expected to be needed for drought and natural disaster victims -- an amount that among other things demonstrates the relative weakness of east coast legislators in ag debates. A separate $508 million for farm relief for Hurricane Floyd is pending in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The rest of the emergency package remains the same as the Senate-passed bill:
The bill doubles the payment limitation for Loan Deficiency Payments to $150,000, bringing to a whopping $460,000 the combined payment limitation for crop 1999 farm program payments. It also provides for marketing certificate payments in cash or in-kind that would be completely exempt from payment limitations. The bill extends dairy price support levels for one year, makes permanent the provision to distribute AMTA payments in a lump sum at the start of the fiscal year, and requires USDA to make LDPs on grain sorghum grown for silage or hay and on wheat that is grazed.
Mandatory Price Reporting: Nearly a year after last year's conference committee turned down mandatory livestock price reporting language, a version close to the one passed by the Senate Ag Committee this summer was incorporated into the conference agreement. This language is considerably stronger than the version approved by the House Ag Committee, but still weaker than we wanted. Nonetheless, it is a major step forward and at least a partial victory for all the hog and cattle producers who raised hell following last year's inaction. We will report on this new law in the next issue after further analysis of the final language and its implications.
Dairy and Trade with Cuba: In the final weeks of conference consideration of the bill, the two biggest points of contention were the Northeast Dairy Compact and proposed removal of food embargoes to a variety of countries including Cuba. The debate was so hot that in the end the conference was actually canceled and the shape of the final bill determined solely by the House and Senate Republican leadership and subcommittee chairs. Both the dairy compact and trade with Cuba sections were ultimately dropped, with a promise on dairy for a Senate vote on the milk marketing order bill before adjournment, at which time the Compact could presumably re-emerge. Trade with Cuba, a hot new Farm Bureau priority, will also likely re-emerge on another vehicle soon. If nothing else, it'll be great fun to be able to rail against the AFBF for "losing" Cuba!
In the end, the leadership was able to secure the signatures of 15 of the 24 members of the "virtual" conference to report the bill, but only after considerable arm-twisting. Among the Republicans, Senator Specter (dairy) and Representatives Walsh (dairy) and Nethercutt (Cuba) refused to sign, while Democratic Senators Harkin, Dorgan, and Durbin and Representatives Kaptur and DeLauro refused to sign (emergency package), as did Representative Hinchey (dairy). The regional politics of dairy made it impossible for the GOP to force the bill through a regular conference session on a partisan basis, but nonetheless did allow them to secure critical Democratic signatures to the report once the dairy compact was removed.
More to Come?: Obviously, we were unsuccessful in receiving any consideration in conference (since it did not actually meet) for emergency spending for conservation, credit, or marketing and rural development, nor was there a chance to debate weakened payment limitations. Some of these issues were addressed in a Democratic alternative that would have been offered by Senator Harkin and Dorgan. Everyone concedes that additional funding will be required at least for credit and for disaster aid, and House Chairman Skeen has already been quoted as saying another emergency supplemental will be pulled together soon -- the fourth since last October! This will give us another opportunity to try to put other issues in play.
Final Outcomes for FY 2000: Despite budget caps, there were some big winners in the regular appropriations bill. For instance, food safety activities across all agencies received a $52 million increase, the Agricultural Research Service research budget shot up nearly $50 million, and FSA salaries and expenses went up $80 million in addition to the $56 million in emergency money.
On our priority programs, ATTRA went up by $200,000 to $1.5 million, rural coop development grants went up $2 million to $4 million, state mediation grants went up $1 million to $3 million, and the Wetlands Reserve program went up by 30,000 acres to 150,000 acres. Everything else stayed at level funding, except for direct farm ownership and operating loans, which took a huge nosedive but will likely be included in another emergency supplemental bill early next year. Some miscellaneous observations on other funding matters follow.
Research: The ARS research budget continues to climb. No existing ARS programs were cut and more money was added for ARS-proposed research on such issues as genomics, germplasm preservation, manure handling, pathogen control, carbon cycle, hypoxia, invasive weeds, plus a nearly equal amount for congressional earmarks. The latter included small earmarks for an organic specialist and a sustainable vineyard specialist in California.
A similar observation for the CSREES budget -- over $2 million was added in earmarks for "sustainable agriculture" projects in MT, NE, PA, MI, and CA, with increases for the PA and MT projects and a new start for CA exceeding the $500,000 increase for SARE proposed by the President's budget. Despite the predictable annual special earmarks jamboree, the sustainable and organic movements have not engaged in this funding route to any significant degree.
Also in the research arena, for the first time some CSREES programs will be run as "integrated activities" under Section 406 of the 1997 Ag Research Bill, with research and extension programs funded under one joint account for water quality, food safety, and several pesticide programs. The funding is the same as was previously available separately, except for a new $4 million for the FQPA risk mitigation program for major food crops.
Although not included under this new "integrated activities" account, the SARE program was the pioneer in joint research and extension programming. USDA had proposed $4 million for a small farm research initiative under this Section 406 authority, but for the second straight year Congress refused to fund it.
Marketing: The Ag Marketing Service gets $51.6 million for FY 2000, an increase of nearly $3 million, including $321,000 for enhancing market opportunities for small farmers, perhaps the only budget initiative stemming from implementation of A Time to Act that received funding. With regard to organic certification, the conference agreement includes a directive to AMS to publish draft regulations in 2000 on national organic standards for seafood, a matter of considerable contention within the organic community.
Conservation: The Natural Resources Conservation Service received a $20 million increase in "conservation operations" (includes technical assistance and other agency expenses), or about $20 million less than the President requested. Included in this amount is a $2 million increase in the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative to $17 million, and almost $8 million for Animal Feeding Operation activities.
With the exception of the acreage enrollment increase for WRP, the conservation incentive programs were shut out of budget increases. A special earmark of $250,000 was added under the Farmland Protection Program for New Hampshire. Six pilot projects were authorized for biomass harvesting from CRP land. USDA can do one in each of six states, provided that no more than one harvest a year is allowed, no more than 25% of acreage in a given district is harvested, no wetlands or buffers are harvested, and a payment reduction is made.
Rural Development: The Rural Business Enterprise Grant program received about $35 million, while $3.5 million was targeted for the similar Rural Business Opportunity Grant program. Combined that roughly equals last year's appropriation. Report language directs the Department to give "consideration" to, among a multitude of other projects, the Land Stewardship Alliance and the Western Massachusetts food processing center, two offshoots of the IFFS Network.
For rural coop development grants, statutory language was added to target at least 25% of the funds to coops or coop associations that assist small, minority farmers. The conferees also directed the Department to consider the National Pork Producers Council's proposal for a feasibility study on national pork producer-owned coops.
House Moves Crop Insurance
H.R. 2599, the "Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 1999," was approved by voice vote on the House floor on September 29. The bill would add $1.5 billion per year to the cost of the crop and revenue insurance programs, bringing the total subsidy up to about $3.3 billion per year.
The $6 billion in new costs to accomplish this from 2001-2004 was approved as part of the budget resolution earlier this year. In addition, the emergency supplemental appropriation (see above) includes $400 million in additional subsidies for FY 2000.
Only two amendments were approved to the House Agriculture Committee-passed bill. One would establish a pilot program to insure livestock against natural disasters, and the other expresses the sense of Congress that USDA should encourage minority and limited resource farmer participation in the insurance programs.
An expected amendment from ranking minority member Charlie Stenholm (D-TX) to transfer a substantial part of the $6 billion to cover the costs of a new "supplemental income payment program" was not offered after the Congressional Budget Office stuck it with a huge budget score. The Stenholm proposal, which has been endorsed in general terms by Secretary Glickman, would provide cash payments to commodity producers anytime national revenue fell below 85% of the previous five-year average.
As reported in previous Washington Reports, the crop insurance reform bill would increase premium subsidies for buy-up coverage, establish pilot programs for livestock and specialty crop coverage, and fund research for new crop insurance options. It also adds language preventing discrimination against sustainable and organic farming practices.
The House bill would not provide for whole farm revenue insurance coverage, link receipt of subsidies to conservation compliance, nor target subsidies to family farms. On these grounds, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition wrote to House members opposing passage of the bill in its current form.
Attention now turns to the Senate, where it remains unclear whether the Ag Committee will approve a bill yet this year. Chairman Lugar circulated a draft copy of his proposed bill to members the last week of September. The Lugar proposal is very different than the House bill or any of the three major Senate bills already introduced (see previous Reports for summaries of these bills). This would make it difficult for a mark-up to proceed quickly.
Instead of direct premium subsidies, the Lugar bill would create a new "risk management payment" which the producer could pocket or use to pay down a crop or revenue insurance premium. The payment would be based on actual production history, with a payment rate determined by USDA. The total amount of payments per year would be capped at $1.275 billion.
In return for the payment, the producer would agree to use at least 2 of 8 "risk management practices":
The Lugar bill also creates a whole farm revenue insurance pilot project, not to exceed $10 million in producer paid premiums in 2001 rising to $40 million in 2004. The Coalition endorses this concept, but is urging the Chairman and Committee members to increase the size of the pilot and include provisions to directly encourage crop and enterprise diversification.
Like all the other bills under consideration, the Lugar bill does not link subsidies to conservation compliance and does not attempt to limit payments to any one operation or target benefits to smaller farms.
In an October 4 open letter to the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Prez Robert Shapiro made the surprise announcement that his company would not pursue Terminator or other sterile seed technologies … for the time being.
While we pride ourselves on spunky writing here at the MSAWG DC Report, it's hard to beat the lead line in the press release from the best Terminator terrorizers in the business, the Rural Advancement Foundation International. They write:"With biotech's Silver Bullet firmly imbedded in its own foot, Monsanto is dropping its guns, abandoning the Terminator, and telling farmers that it wants to play nice. Not so fast, hombre!"
The Shapiro letter (which is available on the web at http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/gurt/default.htm ) says that Monsanto is making a public commitment to not commercialize any "sterile seed technologies." The letter does leave the door at least slightly ajar for other "gene protection systems," such as those that would inactivate only a specific gene or genes responsible for a bio-engineered trait, which RAFI has dubbed "traitor" technologies. For more info, be sure to check out RAFI's Website at: http://www.rafi.org.
CRP 20th Sign-up
The USDA has announced that the 20th CRP sign-up will be held from January 18, 2000 through February 11, 2000. CRP contracts awarded under this sign-up will become effective October 1, 2000. As of October 1, 1999, approximately 31.5 million acres were enrolled under CRP contracts, with an additional 400,000 acres currently under CRP contracts expected to expire by October 1, 2000.
The announcement did not indicate how much acreage the USDA intends to hold in reserve for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program or the CRP continuous sign-up program, although Secretary Glickman did encourage producers to consider enrolling acreage in the continuous sign-up program and previously committed to a goal of 4 to 5.5 million acres.
MSAWG and SAC have urged the USDA to modify the continuous sign-up program to provide greater incentives for enrollment and the USDA has indicated at recent Congressional hearings that it intends to make some changes. The SAC staff, however, has heard that modifications by USDA may be delayed for 2 to 3 months.
If Congress does not expand the current total enrollment authorization of 36.4 million CRP acres, the next sign-up will likely be highly competitive with a relatively small amount of acreage enrolled in the program. The CRP program announcement and the Environmental Benefits Index for the 20th sign-up, which is combined with a cost-factor in ranking acreage offered for enrollment, are available at the website http://ww.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/crpinfo.htm.
USDA also recently issued an assessment of CRP acreage by state as of September, 1999 and CRP contract payments by state as of October, 1999. The CRP currently pays an average of $5,000 per farm and $45.16 per acre on more than 400,000 contracts and 270,000 farms. Texas leads the states in CRP acreage, with 12.2 percent of the total CRP acres, followed by North Dakota with 10.3 percent and Montana with 9.9 percent. Iowa CRP acres receive the highest percentage of CRP payments, 10.2 percent of the total, followed by Texas with 9.6 percent of the total and Kansas with 7.6 percent of the total. For the entire state-by-state table, see the website http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/1999/10/0391.
Who's against Anti-Degradation
The EPA has released two proposed rules to strengthen the Clean Water Act's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process. 64 Fed. Reg. at pp. 46011-46055 and at pp. 46057-46089 (August 23, 1999).
Under this process, the total amount of pollutant a water body can receive without exceeding its water quality standard is estimated and the sources of pollutants, both point source and non-point source (including agricultural runoff), are also estimated. The proposed rules provide the details as to how these estimates are made and what procedures should be adopted to ensure that the pollutants do not exceed the water quality standards.
A copy of the TMDL rules is available in the Federal Register announcement or on the EPA website at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/proprule.html. The EPA recently extended the due date for comments on the proposed ruled to December 22, 1999. Federal Register, Vol. 64 at p. 53304 (Oct. 1., 1999).
Comments on the TMDL proposed rules may be submitted to the Comment Clerk for the TMDL Rule, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460 or by e-mail to email@example.com. Note that comments on the rule focusing on the TMDL program should be submitted with reference to Water Docket (W-98-31) and comments on the accompanying rule concerning water quality standards and anti-degradation policy should reference Water Docket (W-99-04).
The SAC office has been tracking TMDL issues and plans to submit comments focused on agricultural pollution issues relevant to the TMDL process. For more detailed information, we recommend that you check the Clean Water Network TMDL website http://www.cwn.org/, which also has links to EPA sites. For more information on TMDL issues, contact Kathy Nemsick, Clean Water Network, phone: 202-289-2395, or email: email@example.com.
Beginning Farmer Advisory Committee
The long-delayed USDA Advisory Committee on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, established by the 1992 credit act, held its first meeting in Washington on August 30-September 2. SAC's Ferd Hoefner is one of 18 committee members appointed by Secretary Glickman.
At the conclusion of its meeting, the committee unanimously forwarded to the Secretary 6 urgent recommendations from among the several dozen that it began to develop. In a letter to Glickman, the committee calls on USDA to actively support $120 million in funding for direct and guaranteed credit programs as part of the pending emergency supplemental appropriation to bring total farm ownership and operating loan funds up to 110% of the FY 99 levels.
The committee also urged USDA leadership to change the tax code to allow USDA loan guarantees on state "aggie bond" loans and to exempt aggie bonds from state volume caps on industrial revenue bonds. To enhance the federal-state partnership for beginning farmers, the committee recommended a comprehensive assessment of existing programs, as well as the personal involvement of the Secretary in encouraging inactive states to step up to the plate. Improved staffing to handle the huge increase in loan activity, and continued support for full funding for the outreach and technical assistance program for minority farmers, rounded out the urgent action items.
The Committee hopes to meet again in March in Kansas City, at which time it will finalize many of the other recommendations already discussed at the first meeting. For more information, contact Ferd Hoefner.
USDA Backs Hormone-free Beef… for Europe
USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) and Ag Marketing Service (AMS) announced the development of a system of third-party certification for the European Union (EU) Non-Hormone Treated Cattle program. The EU requires that imported beef come from cattle not treated with growth-promoting hormones. I
n place since 1989, FSIS suspended its EU Non-Hormone Treated Cattle program on July 16, 1999, over concerns with control and credibility of the certification. As a result, AMS is taking more responsibility for the program. The certification program has three basic components:
Copies of the FSIS program requirements for farms and packing plants are available from the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Corps Wetland Permits
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to phase-out Nationwide Permit No. 26 and replace it with 5 new permits and revisions to 6 existing permits, including revision of NWP 40 which deals with wetland conversion for agricultural uses. NWP 26 has allowed the conversion of up to 3 acres of isolated or headwater wetlands without public notification or analysis of alternatives. Although this proposal to replace NWP No. 26 has significant flaws, particularly for agricultural lands, overall it may improve wetlands protection.
In an attempt to block any significant reform to the Nationwide Permit No. 26, pro-development riders had been added to the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for FY2000. One rider would have allowed a developer to sue the federal government based solely on a determination that land contained wetlands, regardless of whether the developer requested a Section 404 permit to develop the land. The second rider would have delayed indefinitely any administrative reforms to the NWP No.26.
A successful fight to remove these riders was led by Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN). The comment period on the Army Corps proposal closes October 7, 1999 and the SAC office is submitting comments. The full text of the proposed modifications to the NWP program may be found in the Federal Register, July 21, 1999 at pp. 39251-39371 or on the web at the Army Corps website http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/functions/cw/cecwo/reg/. For more information on this issue, contact Martha Noble at the SAC office.
FSMIP Awards
USDA has announced the award of the second and final round of 1999 Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) grants to fifteen states. The awards are granted by USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service to state Departments of Agriculture, or other appropriate state agencies, to assist in conducting studies or developing innovative approaches related to the marketing of agricultural products.
State agencies can cooperate with non-profit organizations in submitting a proposal. For example, in this round of grants, $45,000 was awarded to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for a project in cooperation with the Organic Alliance to develop educational materials that explain organic farming and provide for better informed consumer food choices.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture, the other MSAWG state agency granted an award in this round, was given $80,000 for a project in cooperation with the University of Illinois to develop a system for collecting and distributing information on the compositional characteristics of corn and soybean products, and the associated price differentials. Any wagers on whether or not they'll be tracking differentials between GMO and non-GMO corn and beans?
This year, USDA indicated that the FSMIP would focus on the marketing issues and concerns identified in the Time to Act report of the National Commission on Small Farms, including projects aimed at developing marketing strategies and initiatives that primarily benefit small farms and projects in which state agencies partner with community-based organizations interested in pursuing local or regional food system strategies.
We here at SAC will be encouraging USDA to retain this focus in subsequent years and will also be working to urge Congress to increase the FSMIP budget from $1.2 million in FY99 to $15 million in FY01. More information on the FSMIP is available on the website http://www.ams.usda.gov/tmd/fsmip.htm.
USDA Entrepreneur Initiative
The USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service held a workshop on Entrepreneurial Agriculture in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1999. The workshop is aimed at building a USDA "toolkit" of opportunities for entrepreneurial agriculture and forestry. The agency intends that the workshop will be the first of a series of workshops, which will include participation by USDA agencies, partners, and customers involved with entrepreneurial training and support.
The primary aim of the workshops is to identify needs and opportunities for cross-agency support for agricultural and natural resource based entrepreneurship and value-added opportunities focused on small businesses. The toolkit itself is currently envisioned as a resource notebook which identifies and compiles or references existing publications, programs, and curricula which can be used by agencies in fostering entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The USDA intends to identify any missing "tools" and put the toolkit to use throughout USDA. The workshop series will fulfill one of the fifteen commitments made by USDA in the May, 1999 National Town Meeting on sustainable development held in Detroit, Michigan.
Speakers at the first workshop included John Allen of the University of Nebraska, who has developed a new business and marketing curriculum entitled "Tilling the Soil of Opportunity", with funding from a SARE grant and cooperation with the Center for Rural Affairs among others. Greg Taylor of Texas A&M University described the agenda for a professional development workshop to be held in November, which is intended to introduce and give training to agency staff on fostering entrepreneurial initiatives in the communities they serve. This is the first of five pilot programs around the nation to provide this professional agency staff training.
This entrepreneurial initiative parallels efforts underway by the MSAWG Marketing Committee to review critically USDA and other federal agency programs that can be used by farmers and rural communities to foster value-added marketing and local food networks. In the SAC office, Martha Noble will work with the MSAWG Marketing Committee to provide our perspectives and recommendations to the USDA in improving and coordinating these programs.
Comment on Conservation Standards
The NRCS has given notice that it is seeking public comment on six new or revised conservation practice standards in its National Handbook of Conservation Practices. See Federal Register, Vol. 64 at p. 49439 (September 13, 1999).
The standards include Closure of Waste Impoundments, Conservation Cover, Contour Farming, Cover Crop, Contour Stripcropping, Grassed Waterway, and Irrigation System: Microirrigation. At the request of the SAC staff, and other participants in the Clean Water Network Feedlot Work Group, the NRCS has begun, with this notice, posting conservation practice standards open for public comment on the web at http://www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/practice_stds.html. We have also requested that NRCS include a description of proposed changes to standard revisions and the agency's rationales for new or revised standards.
Those of you involved in the regulation of animal feeding operations / factory farms, note that one of new proposed practice standards addresses the Closure of Waste Impoundments (Code No. 360). Comments on these practice standards must be submitted in writing by November 12, 1999 to William Hughey, National Agricultural Engineer, NRCS, P.O. Box 2890, Room 6139-S, Washington, D.C. 20013-2890. The SAC office will be reviewing and commenting on these proposed new and revised standards. Contact Martha Noble if you have trouble finding the standards on the web or if you have any questions or comments.
USGS Pesticide Report
The U.S. Geological Survey has released two reports on pesticides and water quality, entitled "Distribution of Major Herbicides in Ground Water of the United States" (Water-Resources Investigation Report No. 98-4245) and "Pesticides in the Streams of the United States Initial Results from the National Water-Quality Assessment Program" (Water-Resources Investigation Report No. 98-4222).
The reports indicate that pesticides are widespread in the nation's groundwater and streams. The reports also note that the EPA has not established drinking water criteria for many of the detected pesticides and that no criteria have been established for the transformation products of any of the pesticides.
Copies of these reports can be purchased from the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Information Services, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225-0286. We also have an extra copy in the SAC office available on a first-ask, first-get basis. Contact Martha Noble or Brad DeVries at (202) 547-5754 or e-mail email@example.com.
©1999 Committee for Sustainable Farm Publishing
Please read about our usage permission policy and disclaimer.
Send comments, suggestions and questions to the site author:
Craig Cramer email@example.com
Coded using HoTMetaL Pro 3.0. Best viewed in Netscape 3.0 or later.
Please see our credits page for more information.


text:
Several pieces of the 2018 Supercars silly season hinge on Prodrive Racing Australias current moves to buy a fourth Racing Entitlements Contract.
Team co-owner Rod Nash has confirmed to Supercars.com that the squad is keen to purchase a fourth REC, but insists a deal to do so is yet to be struck.
The team currently owns the #5, #6 and #55 RECs, while the #56 is owned by Jason Bright, moving to the squad at the start of 2017 to replace Super Black Racing as its fourth car.
As previously reported, Prodrive is working through details of an agreement with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport for the latter to run customer equipment next year.
The discussions have included the option of LDM scaling back to a single car, allowing Prodrive to purchase the teams second REC to run Richie Stanaway as its fourth entry.
Potentially standing in the way of such a deal is Bright, who has told Supercars.com that his agreement with Prodrive includes the team continuing to run his REC in 2018.
Bright is keen to remain a REC owner regardless of his driving future and says he has no intentions of moving it to another team.
There is an agreement in place for them [Prodrive] to use my license, so unless that is terminated, then it will be here for them to use, he told Supercars.com.
I have an agreement to drive here either as a full-timer or a co-driver in the years to come as well, but as to what that is, probably in the next few weeks well make that decision.
Jason Bright Jason Bright
If a deal is struck by Prodrive to purchase the LDM REC and Brights REC is cut loose from the team, where it would be redeployed is currently unclear.
Among the possibilities is that it could open the door for Dunlop Super2 team Matt Stone Racing to enter the series with its young gun Todd Hazelwood.
The teams backer Jason Gomersall declared earlier this year his intention to facilitate a move to the main game for MSR and Hazelwood, pending the availability of a REC.
Other Dunlop Super2 stars Garry Jacobson and Jack Le Brocq have meanwhile been linked to the seat at a single-car LDM, with current driver Alex Rullo no certainty to return.
Jacobson is currently in his second year with Prodrive in Super2 and, like Stanaway, made a strong case for a promotion with impressive stints in the recent PIRTEK Enduro Cup.
Placing Stanaway in its main team and Jacobson at a customer outfit appears an ideal scenario for Prodrive, which already has Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom locked into its three lead entries.
Nash says that REC discussions are being had with both LDM and Bright, adding that there remains much to play out in the coming weeks.
We collectively currently only own three RECs [#5 and #6 as PRA and #55 as Rod Nash Racing] and our modelling is to go to owning four, Nash confirmed.
That hasnt quite come off in the last year or two, we would have liked to have done that, but its like musical chairs at this time of year, the discussion is going on.
Rod Nash Rod Nash
Whether it happens this year or next, were certainly out there having discussions with other REC holders making it known that wed like to purchase a fourth.
Its just the business model. We are running the fourth car ourselves, its totally in-house, we deal directly with the sponsor and the driver is signed up with PRA [Prodrive Racing Australia].
We are fully running the fourth REC and it makes sense to own it.
Dumbrell meanwhile added that his deal with Prodrive is close, but admits that the REC scenario and how many cars his team will run remains a work-in-progress.
Were still in discussions with Prodrive. Its quite technical and it takes time to nut out all the pieces you do and dont want to include, he told Supercars.com.
Obviously theyve still got some bits to work out at their end with RECs and bits and pieces, but our intention is to proceed and run PRA equipment.
Were 99 percent there on everything, so its about nutting out the finer bits and pieces, as well as working out how were going to do it with one or two cars.
Elsewhere, the unfolding Supercars silly season has seen Anton De Pasquale emerge as the front-runner for the second seat at Erebus, replacing Dale Wood.
Those with uncertain futures include the likes of James Moffat and Will Davison, with respective teams Garry Rogers Motorsport and Tekno yet to declare their plans.
GRM protégé James Golding is thought a likely successor to Moffat at GRM, while Le Brocq is one of a number of drivers to have been linked with the Tekno seat.