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the HUTT RIVER BOARD - formed in 1879
I have taken some extracts from the Hutt City Library site from the page
Lower Hutt Past and Present (1941)
I highly recommend a visit to their site for some wonderful info and photos of that district and the early settlers.
Some short overviews from their database:
journal 1 - settlers of LOWER HUTT 1839 - 1941
journal 2 - the PILGRIM MOTHERS of the Hutt Valley
journal 3 - PETONE's first 100 years, a list of names
journal 4 - PETONE men who fell WWI - list of names
journal 5 - FREEMASONRY - Ulster Lodge No. 62
journal 6 - LOYAL PETONE LODGE No, 6542
journal 7 - Ancient Order Of Foresters COURT EPUNI, 7314
journal 8 - INDEPENANT ORDER OF RECHABITIES
journal 9 - PETONE Branch - Hibernian Australasian Society 1910
journal 10 - PETONE PIONEER BRANCH Oddfellows
journal 11 - HERETAUNGA LODGE & STAR of PETONE LODGE
journal 12 - PONEKE LODGE - Ancient Order of DRUIDS
journal 13 - PETONE Town Board - formed 1881
journal 14 - HUTT RIVER BOARD - formed 1879
(additions in italics or capitals are mine)
- (remember the article was written in 1941)
The story of the river and a description of the magnificent bush which almost covered the Valley when the white man came appear elsewhere. Native forest disappears quickly where the settler thrives; but this process had not gone far when the settlers found that the course of the river where the banks had been cleared became wider and shallower and the banks were undermined with every fresh. The position became more acute as the clearings were extended and much valuable land was swept away. The river was less steady in its flow and when the river rose, it grew ugly.
As the menace from the floods increased, steps more or less futile were attempted by the river-side dwellers to restrain the river and as early as 1853 the advice of Mr. ROBERTS, a civil engineer, was sought. He recommended the widening and straightening of the main channel and the construction of an embankment to keep the river to its course. But such an undertaking was quite beyond the resources of the residents.
For a long time a selfish policy was followed: each river-side owner protected his own frontage as best he could, regardless of damage done to his neighbours lower clown, until the position became intolerabale.
Then a River Board was set up to co-ordinate the work.
The first board was formed in 1879, its members being Messrs. Thomas MASON (chairman), S. R. JOHNSON, P. BRUCE, W. B. BUICK and P. SPEEDY.
Few meetings were held and little useful work was done.
The last recorded meeting was held in 1887, though apparently this board nominally existed until 1898.
Flooding was then very frequent, but no real effort was made to cope with it. Many old residents still give vivid accounts of their disastrous experiences and a visible record hangs on the wall of the present River Board's office showing the dimensions of the flood in November 1898. Feeling ran so high that prominent residents took action, and eventually presented a memorial to the Government requesting the abolition of the board. This request was granted, and Dr. J. R. Purdy and Messrs. W. A. Fitzherbert, G. Scales, W. G. Foster and E. P. Bunny, who were mainly responsible for the agitation, were elected the first members of the new board.
They appointed Mr. E. P. Bunny legal adviser, a position he still holds after nearly forty-two years.
The many big floods of 1898 gave the board much to worry about. The "Hutt and Petone Chronicle," in June, 1898, was insistent that a remedy could be found and a prophetic article appeared in that journal: "We do not for a moment suggest," it stated, "that a perfect remedy is at present possible, but what we are certain of is that a scheme of river conservation, unselfishly pursued, would make the Hutt Valley the garden of New Zealand."
The formation of the first active board was authorised by Proclamation gazetted on February 16th 1899 and an election was held a month later.
This resulted in Messrs. D. SLADDEN (father of the present engineer), W. A. FITZHERBERT, W. G. FOSTER, E. J. RIDDIFORD and Dr. J. R. PURDY being elected and they chose Mr. SLADDEN as their chairman.
Mr. P. R. PURSER, the Town Clerk, was appointed clerk at a salary of 25 per annum. The board rented the Borough Council Chambers for its business meetings at 20 per annum.
Finance for the building of the stop-banks was offered by private persons and institutions, but the board declined these offers in favour of an inscribed loan of 48,000. The wisdom of this decision is shown by the fact that already more than half of the amount has been re-paid and by February, 1945, the whole debt will be wiped out.
Mr. LAING-MEASON was appointed Engineer and it is largely due to his knowledge and ability that the stop-banks, commenced in 1901, have proved so effective.
There followed a period when the board, for reasons of economy, decided to dispense with the services of the engineer whose plans were so complete that the loss was not apparent for some time.
The board launched a new scheme to keep the channel clear by means of a floating bucket-dredge, but difficulties arose, and the newly-elected board "recalled the pilot," disposed of the dredge and inaugurated the present scheme of licensing contractors to remove shingle on a royalty basis. During the last ten years over one million cubic yards of metal have been removed by the several drag line shingle plants operating in the area controlled by the board.
On the eastern bank of the river, between the two bridges, stand two structures. One, a big stone flanked by ornamental walls and pillars, is erected "In memory of G. LAING MEASON, Engineer to the Hutt & River Board, 1898-1924." The other, a little further south on the same bank, is a recently-completed square concrete tower containing an instrument that automatically records every variation in the rise and fall of the river.
After the death of Mr. MEASON, Mr. H. SLADDEN was appointed engineer. Mr. SLADEN had, as a cadet under Mr. MEASON, become fully conversant with all the details of the river protection scheme and was able to continue the plans as laid down by his former chief.
The board has, from time to time, acquired lands adjacent to the river and these valuable assets now include Gear Island and land at the estuary.
The present board controls the river from Silverstream to Wakefield Street on the western side and to the sea on the eastern side of the river.
The need for unified control of the whole of the river in the Valley, to which attention has been drawn by recent events, was recognised by Mr. W. T. NEILL, late Surveyor-General, who, reporting on the river in 1931, said: "It is essential that the River Board should have control of the river from Maori Bank to the sea. . . . ."
In spite of the fact that each successive flood has demonstrated the adequacy of the protective works there can, and will be, no slackening of the important work of improving the channel.
The present board consists of Dr. B. J. DUDLEY (chairman), Messrs. J. W. ANDREWS, F. J. JONES, J. MITCHELL and WARD PEAREE, with Mr. E. P. BUNNY as solicitor and Mr. A. J. GEARING as clerk (a position he has occupied for fourteen years).
Mr. P. R. PURSER
Mr. PURSER was appointed Town Clerk in February 1892, a position he held for 21 1/2 years. He was also the first clerk of the Hutt River Board, established in 1899.
The Hutt County Council held its first meeting in the Court House at Lower Hutt on the 4th January 1877 and Mr. T. MASON was elected chairman. At the following meeting, held in the Mechanics' Institute, WILLAM JONES was appointed Clerk and W. A. FITZHERBERT Engineer to the County. The subsequent meetings were all held in Wellington.
The increasing powers of the County Council at the expense of the Highways Board eventually led to the Board being merged with the County Council on the 30th April 1892. Each of the boards levied a rate of 1/2d. in the 1 and when they were merged the rate struck by the County Council was 1d. in the 1 of the capital value.
To-day the Hutt County Council controls an area of about 100,000 acres, 35 per cent of which is non rateable. The total revenue last year was 30,189, of which 27,618 was collected in rates.
on 2011-06-06 01:25:37
ngairedith has been a Family Tree Circles member since Feb 2008.


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It's pretty hard to find the actual reason of these kind of error . But one thing is sure that template is causing issue.
The most common reason for this error is missing of dependency . for e.g. missing feature.
Best solution is to run the STPInspector tool . It will help to diagnose whether all the dependency are present in server or missing something .
You can get tool from STPINSPECTOR

subset: commoncrawl


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Ciudad del Cusco
Situada en el corazón de los Andes, esta ciudad se convirtió bajo el gobierno del Inca Pachacutec en un centro urbano complejo con funciones religiosas y administrativas diferenciadas. Su área circundante estaba dividida en zonas claramente delimitadas para la producción agrícola, artesanal y manufacturera. Al adueñarse de la ciudad en el siglo XVI, los conquistadores españoles conservaron su estructura, pero construyeron iglesias y palacios sobre las ruinas de los templos y monumentos de la ciudad incaica.
Declaratoria de la ciudad de Cusco como Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad
Durante el 7 periodo de sesiones del Comité del Patrimonio Mundial, realizado en Florencia, Italia entre el 5 y el 9 de diciembre de 1983, a través de la Decisión 07COM VIII.29 se declaró a la ciudad de Cusco patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad. El valor universal excepcional de la ciudad de Cusco fue sustentado en los criterios iii) y IV) de la Convención del Patrimonio Mundial. El Comité recomendó que la zona de protección se extenderá a los alrededores de la ciudad.
Síntesis histórica del bien
The City of Cuzco, at 3,400 m above sea level, is located in a fertile alluvial valley fed by several rivers in the heart of the Central Peruvian Andes of South America. Under the rule of Inca Pachacuteq (Tito Cusi Inca Yupanqui), in the 15th century, the city was redesigned and remodelled after a pre-Inca occupation process of over 3,000 years, and became the capital of the Tawantinsuyu Inca Empire, which covered much of the South American Andes between the 15th and 16th centuries AD.
The Imperial city of the Incas was developed as a complex urban centre with distinct religious and administrative functions which were perfectly defined, distributed and organized. The religious and government buildings were accompanied by the exclusive abodes for royal families, forming an unprecedented symbolic urban compound, which shows a stone construction technology with exceptional aesthetic and structural properties, such as the Temple of the Sun or Qoricancha, the Aqllahuasi, the Sunturcancha, the Kusicancha and a series of very finely finished buildings that shape the Inca compound as an indivisible unity of Inca urbanism. The noble city was clearly isolated from the clearly delineated areas for agricultural, artisan and industrial production as well as from the surrounding neighbourhoods. The pre-Hispanic patterns and buildings that shaped the Imperial city of the Incas are visible today.
With the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, the urban structure of the Inca imperial city of Cuzco was preserved and temples, monasteries and manor houses were built over the Inca city. They were mostly of baroque style with local adaptations, which created a unique and high quality mixed configuration representing the initial juxtaposition and fusion of different periods and cultures, as well as the city's historic continuity. The city's remarkable syncretism is evident not only in its physical structure but also in the Viceroyalty's artistic expression. It became one of the most important centres of religious art creation and production in the continent. It is also important for its population's customs and traditions, many of which still keep their ancestral origins. From its complex past, woven with significant events and beautiful legends, the city has retained a remarkable monumental ensemble and coherence and is today an amazing amalgam of the Inca capital and the colonial city. Of the first, it preserves impressive vestiges, especially its plan: walls of meticulously cut granite or andesite, rectilinear streets running within the walls, and the ruins of the Sun Temple. Of the colonial city, there remain the freshly whitewashed squat houses, the palace and the marvellous Baroque churches which achieved the impossible fusion of the Plateresco, Mudejar or Churrigueresco styles with that of the Inca tradition.
Valor universal excepcional(VUE)
Criterio iii: Convención de Patrimonio Mundial
The City of Cuzco is a unique testimony of the ancient Inca civilization, heart of Tawantinsuyu imperial government, which exercised political, religious and administrative control over much of the South American Andes between the 15th and 16th centuries. The city represents the sum of 3,000 years of indigenous and autonomous cultural development in the Peruvian southern Andes.
Criterio iv: Convención de Patrimonio Mundial
The City of Cuzco provides a unique testimony to the urban and architectural achievements of important political, economic and cultural settlements during the pre-Columbian era in South America. It is a representative and exceptional example of the confluence of two distinct cultures; Inca and Hispanic, which through the centuries produced an outstanding cultural syncretism and configured a unique urban structure and architectural form.
The City of Cuzco maintains the spatial organization and most buildings from the ancient Inca Empire capital and the Viceroyalty. Along its streets and squares, it shows its original urban and architectural characteristics. Despite urban growth, the sectors that make up the Inca imperial city are recognizable, including the ancient stone structures and their advanced construction technique. Such structures define and enclose streets and canchas (housing units), on which colonial and republican houses, monasteries and churches rose and kept intact all their architectural components and works of art inside them. This entire group of attributes can be found unaltered within the delimited area maintaining its structural, material and urban integrity.
One of the main factors threatening the integrity of the City of Cuzco is earthquakes. After the 1950 earthquake many culturally valuable buildings deteriorated and have not been repaired yet due to lack of funding. The lack of technical and regulatory documents on urban management generates saturation of services in the city centre disrupting its integrity and affecting its use. Several private buildings are deteriorated by overuse, overcrowding, lack of maintenance and lack of financial resources which threatens their physical integrity.
The authenticity of the City of Cuzco is supported by the physical evidence of its urban composition in streets and squares, original layout, urban and architectural values, use of space and the Inca and Colonial architecture. These characteristics are testimony of Cuzco's importance as centre of the political power and of its symbiosis with colonial settlement and assembling patterns from the 15th century, which allows us to more clearly understand the city and its historic processes. The site's originality and authenticity is also supported by 16th century documents collected by direct witnesses since the Hispanic conquest. The factors threatening the attributes of the City of Cuzco have not affected the authenticity of its basic elements. However, new tourism development is threatening the preservation and functional capacity of ancient buildings, which in some cases are altered or replaced by new buildings for tourism and trade, relocating the original dwellers to the periphery.
Último informe del estado de Conservación (2013)
Último informe del Perú sobre el estado de conservación


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Chicago's minimum wage for non-tipped workers will increase on July 1 from $10.00/hour to $10.50. For tipped workers, it will increase from $5.45 to $5.95.
However, for the rest of Illinois, the hourly wage will remain at $8.25 and $4.95, where it's been since 2011.
If you're an employee, you might want to remind your employer, so they don't "forget" to update their payroll system. We're looking at you, Domino's.


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The first piece of armor listed in the Armor of God is truth. Seeking the truth in all things, in every encounter keeps us from trying to, "win" arguments or "always be right" about a topic. We do not need to force what we know into a topic, situation or discussion.
Truth Is Armor
We can sincerely have a discussion and have no other objective other than seeking and delivering the truth.
Other powers to add to sincerity are forgiveness, listening, curiosity and a willingness to learn. There are many more super powers to discuss but for today, let's raise our awareness on our sincerity and seeking the truth.
Sincerity Seeks TruthAs we get equipped and build fortitude in the way we think, we become a calm, cool customer. We are also armed with knowledge that the God of all creation has given us and a wisdom that blows away anything the world has to offer.
So we can maintain our confidence in the Lord and our love toward others while remaining inquisitive about things we do not know or that may be unclear.
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. - 1 Peter 1:22 NLT
The scriptures arm us with knowledge of history, science, social interaction, world events past, present and future, paranormal activity, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say as we get closer to the Lord we become armed to the teeth. :-)
He Who Is Wise Wins SoulsHow we wield this knowledge and our approach is powerful as well. Sincerity is a super power in our delivery of the Gospel. If we disregard our sincerity, can we win arguments? Sure we can! Can we use our knowledge in a prideful way just to get the victory in a debate? Indeed.
The point here is that the only win that matters is the salvation of a soul. Because the knowledge and abilities of a Christian can be so powerful we must come from a heart that is sincere and understands our Father's objectives. Let's use our powers for good and not evil.
Sincerity and seeking the truth is the best approach for wielding the information we have.
But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. - 1 Timothy 1:5 NASB
We always want to be learning as well as teaching, guiding and winning souls. It's a great formula that keeps our mind fixed on the Lord and His objectives. Let's be as good of a student as we are a teacher. We have nothing to prove.
Be the person God created you to be with all confidence. Keep learning. Keep growing. Your sincerity is a powerful tool.
Take Action!
When you engage someone with the Gospel or things of God do you feel like they are not getting it?
Oof! For sure. It's OK. Focus on delivering the Word and let the Holy Spirit do His work in that person.
If your attitude is one of sincerity you don't have anything to prove. Can you be more prepared next time around? Sure you can. Staying sincere in your objective of knowing and delivering the truth will keep you on track to do good and do no harm.
Please, add your thoughts in the comment section.


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September 14, 2018
May 15, 2018
Chapter on Policy Design for Sustainability at Multiple Scales: The Case of Transboundary Haze Pollution in Southeast Asia. Published in the Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability.
March 27, 2018
Co-authored book with B. Guy Peters, Giliberto Capano, Michael Howlett, Meng-Hsuan Chou and Pauline Ravinet on Designing for Policy Effectiveness published by Cambridge University Press


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The environment is suffering as are the people. In light of this, sustainability has become a major concern for businesses. It pressurizes them to adapt accordingly so that their practices meet the need of the changing environment.
That's where we come in. We nurture companies to compete, expand opportunity and excel in today's dynamic business environments.
To catalyse innovative ideas and solutions, in India, and globally, to enable business, and its stakeholders, in sustainable value creation.
Be a global leader, in thought and action, to drive transformation, towards sustainable development.
On the eve of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [also known as the Earth Summit or Rio Summit] in June 1992, a new global organisation - Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) - was founded to involve business in sustainable development issues.
A similar and parallel movement emerged in India at the very same time as the BCSD. In 1991, Ratan Tata of the Tata Group of Companies, a leading corporate conglomerate in India, was selected to represent India, China and SouthEast Asia in the BCSD. Being a past president of the leading industry association, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), known as Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI) at that time, Ratan Tata urged the industry association to organise a regional conference "Changing Course towards Sustainable Development". Recognising the importance of this emerging discipline, the then Director-General, Tarun Das, willingly accepted this responsibility. The regional initiative was lead by Avininder Singh, Chairman, CII National Environment Committee. Eminent global, regional and national personalities participated in this milestone conference. This included Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Summit, Stephan Schmidheiny, Founder of the BCSD and author of Changing Course, Hugh Faulkner, a former Canadian politician, industrialist & co-founder of BCSD, and Ratan Tata. Through this conference, Indian industry leaders made a strong commitment and a solid intellectual foundation was laid to what is today the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CII-ITC CESD).
From its challenging origin to its stand-apart identity, Seema Arora, Executive Director of CII-ITC CESD, shares the evolution and future of CESD.
CESD is a place where people build careers in conceptualising and delivering a sustainable future for the planet. We create a place for people to develop and grow themselves as professionals with a drive to make a difference in the society. Our work calls for people with strong values and a tendency to work independently within structures of the organisation. There is space for thinkers and doers who want to be challenged and open to change.
Send us your profile at email@example.com or to the contact specified in a job announcement.


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Our laziness and misplaced priorities regarding the Sunday and holy day services, keep us from our obligations to God, and endanger the soul, for in keeping ourselves away from God's temple, we remain afar from the cure that comes from participating in the Divine Mysteries. Saint Gregory Palamas tells us that we "may remain uncured, suffering from unbelief in your soul because of deeds or words, and failing to approach Christ's surgery to receive... holy healing".
Orthodoxy is not a religion by which we can attain salvation in the privacy of our own home, for our faith is a communal faith, whereby we participate in the Body of Christ in a corporate way. It is in this life that we must participate in the communal life of the Church, for after death there is no treatment for that which separates us from God. There is no repentance after this life, because all people share the same end. Each of us is destined to see the Glory of God at the Second Coming of Christ.
Protopresbyter John Romanides tells us, "All people will see the Glory (Uncreated Light) of God, and from this viewpoint they have the same end. Everyone, of course, will see the Glory of God, but with one difference: The saved will see the Glory of God as a most sweet and never-setting Light, whereas the damned will see the same Glory of God as a consuming fire that will burn them."
Our laziness, and our misplaced priorities, keep us from the Divine Mysteries, and deprive our soul of the healing grace that comes with an encounter with the Living God. As the Hospital of the Soul, the Church has been established by Christ Himself as that place wherein we receive the cure, so that we may bask in the Eternal Banquet that awaits us in the after life. By depriving ourselves of the grace filled Mysteries in this life, that are only found within the life of the Church, we separate ourselves from the very treatment that ensures eternal bliss in the next life.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: Interior view of Holy Virgin "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Cathedral in San Francisco.
Saturday July 5, 2014 / June 22, 2014
4th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Apostles' (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed
St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco the Wonderworker (movable holiday on the Saturday closest to June 19th).
Hieromartyr Eusebius, bishop of Samosata (380).
New Hieromartyr Gennadius priest (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Theodore and Gabriel (1938).
New Hieromartyr Michael Stephanovsky.
Martyrs Zeno and his servant Zenas of Philadelphia (304).
Martyrs Galacteon, Juliana, and Saturninus of Constantinople.
St. Gregory metropolitan of Valasha (1834) (Romania).
St. Alban, protomartyr of Britain (305) (Celtic & British).
Martyr Pompian (Greek).
1,480 martyrs of Samaria in Palestine (615).
You can read the life of the saint by clicking on the highlighted name.
"Blogs and social networks give us new opportunities for the Christian mission...Not to be present there means to display our helplessness and lack of care for the salvation of our brothers." His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
The Scripture Readings for the Day
"Blogs and social networks give us new opportunities for the Christian mission...Not to be present there means to display our helplessness and lack of care for the salvation of our brothers." His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
The Scripture Readings for the Day
Romans 6:11-1711 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
Matthew 8:14-23
Peter's Mother-in-Law Healed14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.
Many Healed in the Evening16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
"He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses."
And bore our sicknesses."
The Cost of Discipleship18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."
20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
Wind and Wave Obey Jesus23 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.
I invite my readers to listen to my Ancient Faith Radio podcasts:
All-Merciful Saviour Monastery is a monastery of the Western American Diocese, under the omophor of His Eminence Kyrill, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America. The Monastery is a non-profit 501 C3 organization under IRS regulations. All donations are therefore tax deductible. We depend on the generosity of our friends and benefactors. You can donate to the monastery through PayPal, or by sending donations directly to the monastery's mailing address.
All-Merciful Saviour Monastery
PO Box 2420
Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420 USA
Abbot Tryphon's email address:


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it's the 4th birthday of this sorry looking corpse so i've decided to have a better looking, more mentally well adjusted, taller, smarter second blogchild to make up for the failed efforts of my first and now deceased spawn. RIP baby, long live Cruel Rhythm.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
cruel rhythm.
Posted by jamila FUCKING DANCE at 11:00 Links to this post 0 comments
tags: cruel rhythm
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The rain stopped before our monthly field trip began. Seven of us walked the protected trails of the Kitchell-Lindquist Dunes Preserve and the windy north side of the Grand Haven Channel this morning recording 30 species of birds.
In the woods of the preserve we saw Swainson's Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, a female Scarlet Tanager and some warblers including Yellow-rumped. Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Harrier and Red-tailed Hawk migrated overhead.
The highlight was a sleeping Eastern Whip-Poor-Will brought to our attention by a mobbing group of chickadees and nuthatches that must have mistaken it for a raptor.
A Merlin greeted us at the north pier parking lot and seven Sanderling fought the strong winds while foraging along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of the pier.


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The Camille Conte Show 9-24-15
Sep 25th, 2015 by thecamilleconteshow
Rockin' it today with The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers, Talking Heads, Warren Zevon and new music from Alanis Morissette, Maia Sharp and City and Colour. Plus This Day in Music History and The Joke of the Week with The World's Greatest Joke Teller! Enjoy.
Exciting changes coming to the show in October! Stay tuned!


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It's here -- that feeling of back to school. Stores line their aisles with shiny lunchboxes and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils fills the hair.
Ah, to be young again. But who says that adults can't enjoy a little schoolhouse inspiration? Here is a roundup of schoolhouse-inspired products that is a mix of vintage, industrial, and fantasticly geek chic.
Tick tock, tick tock. That clock on the wall may have haunted you as you looked at it yearning for the day to be over at school, but the ticking from an old-fashioned pendulum clock in your living room will only soothe.
The lighting hanging throughout the hallways never did give off the best glow, but this schoolhouse-inspired pendant from Restoration Hardware will surely be luminous in your kitchen.
Bells were often used in pioneer days to announce the beginning and end to the school day. Though ringing isn't necessary, it does make for a lovely and unexpected accessory to have on a wall.
The original 1930s schoolhouse chair design, updated to fit modern day comfort.
Ugh, I hated chemistry class, but I absolutely love this bar stool that looks like it's straight out of the lab.
Chalkboards no longer have to be home to difficult math equations -- now we can fill them with inspirational quotes, grocery lists, and create amazing chalkboard paint projects.
I mentioned I hated chemistry, right? So it's ironic that it is seemingly the one class with the most chic accessories. Turn bottles once filled with acidic liquids into pretty flower vases.
Do you have any schoolhouse-inspired decor in your home?
Images via MrMitch/Flickr, Walmart.com, RestorationHardware.com, LightHouseLandings.com, PotteryBarn.com, CrateAndBarrel.com, jawcey/Flickr, Etsy.com


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The Marion Cultural Corridor project is a collaboration between the Marion Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Downtown Marion Inc. The purpose of the project is expressed in the introductory document shared with the community in September 2016.
The historic Downtown Marion area will be the cultural hub of the community where residents and visitors gather to experience a truly local environment of shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues while creating a sense of place that the community uses as a foundation for feelings of pride and self-worth. That sense of pride and place, while triggered by a revitalized downtown, will not be restricted to the downtown, but will be applied to the entire city and county. For that reason, we will use the term "cultural corridor" to describe the area bounded on the east by the Harding Home and the west by Union Station. The distance north and south of that line should be fluid, dictated by the activities of local businesses.
Cultural corridor initiatives have been successfully achieved throughout the U.S. and internationally. While those projects focused on the cultural and performing arts in development planning, the Marion Cultural Corridor speaks to the broader definition of the term. This broader definition, defined by Merriam Webster's dictionary as, "the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations," is the glue that holds us together and requires a physical presence best achieved in a historic downtown area.


text: On Nov 11, 2007 2:20 PM, Neil Aggarwal <neil at jammconsulting.com> wrote: > Hello: > > I have a server set up a CentOS 5 server for a client > to push files onto using FTP. > > I have a cron job to process the files and > move them to another directory. > > Sometimes, the cron job executes while the client > is still uploading a file (Some of them can be large) > and I get a partial file. > > Is there a way to tell when a file has finished > uploading? > > I am using the vsftpd daemon installed using yum. > > Thanks, > Neil Wow, all quite involved answers. You may be able to get the list of files to process using 'find'. If you check using "-mmin +X", you might be able to get only files that haven't been updated in X minutes. That should filter out anything in progress. If a transfer is stopped in the middle, then restarted later, that wouldn't help here. It's possible that the FTP daemon might not update this information, so you'll have to expieriment. It's worth a shot before you start telling the client to modify their process.


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The Monsterpod is an industrial strength camera tripod that can stick to any surface (yes, I mean anything) to capture you in any high-action shots in any angle imaginable.
The Monsterpod can stick to trees, brick walls, cement, steel, and just about any other type of surface (up to 1,000). The pod can hold almost any point and shoot (up to 20 ounces) and can keep it's position for up to 10 minutes.
Implications - Products that can easily be stored or transported continue to fit well into consumer's busy, on-the-go lives. The use of sticky materials further adds to the utility value of a product as it helps prevent consumers from dropping it.
Super Sticky Camera Pods
More Stats +/-
Targus AWM13 Tripod Speakers
Bionic Tripods
Sleek Tripod Chairs
Flexible Camera Tripods
Stick-Anywhere Camera Tripods
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The Monsterpod Adheres to Any Surface
- By: Rose NazaraliAug 11, 2009 Updated: Aug 16 2011
References: pulp.co.nz & bookofjoe
References: pulp.co.nz & bookofjoe


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As reported, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed to hear Qualcomm's appeal of the ITC order, and on Tuesday stayed enforcement of the ITC ban on handsets containing Qualcomm's chips (but not the ban on Qualcomm's chips). The surprise victory — in time for the Christmas selling season — is the first Qualcomm success since they changed legal counsel a month ago.
Reading the appeals brief (graciously provided by the UT), there were some interesting points:
- Qualcomm was joined in its appeal by five handset makers (Motorola, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, Sanyo) and two carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile). Verizon was absent because they cut a side deal, but Sprint was conspicuously absent; AFAIK most of the Sanyo phones imported into the US are sold by Sprint. That the GSM carriers are the ones supporting Qualcomm suggests how well they have done in cracking the W-CDMA market.
- The appeals court's ruling suggests that they are leaning towards reinstating the Administrative Law Judge's finding that banned import of Qualcomm's chips but not phones containing those chips — since the phone makers were not parties to those proceedings and thus not found to have infringed Broadcom's patent. Broadcom had asked that phones also be banned, and the ITC (unlike the ALJ) agreed with Broadcom.
Technorati Tags: Broadcom, patent infringement, Qualcomm


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- Shoot from as far away as possible
- Do not follow your shot
- Shoot first pass never
- Trash talk as much as possible
- Watch the rebound...boxing out is for losers
- If you can't do any of these things wear a Kobe jersey and sit on the speaker...Thug life!
After scouting for a couple of days I figured I would unleash my measly talents on the court... this was ill advised! I showed up and quickly took up residence on the "mixed backpacker" team. Two of us seemed like we had played before. It started well, I set some screens for someone who could actually dribble and was eager to grab a couple rebounds and earn my keep. One of the players on my team was aimlessly running around with no concept of guarding the guy who was picking him apart. It was this Aimless Wanderer that almost ruined my summer. A shot went up and I actually boxed out (this is one of my few abilities), I turned to grab the rebound and the Aimless Wanderer was right beside me apparently trying to make sure our team was sticking together. My foot caught on his foot and I went over the top of my ankle and to the ground in a heap. I'm certain I screamed in imitation of a 200lbs cat dying, and curled up in the fetal position. Needless to say I didn't get the rebound and was not going to be playing again anytime soon.
I crawled to the sidelines tying my shoe as tight as it would go hoping it wouldn't swell. It swelled. After sitting with it elevated, I figured I would be able to "walk it off" on the way home. I made my 'goodbyes' and was quickly forgotten after logging 3 minutes and the worst stat line you could imagine. I kept my head up and gritted my teeth for the 2km walk home. On the way I actually almost limped over the actor Matthew Fox. Later on we googled him, and found out he is filming a movie here over the next month or so. Jess has been on a Matthew Fox hunt ever since...
I had a couple of hours before Jess was done work to try and get healthy so she'd keep letting me out of the house on my own. I hit it with some frozen peas and elevation, but it fought back with swelling bruising and waves of pain. My ankle was winning this battle in the worst kind of way. When Jess got home she lightened the mood by telling me it looked broken and I was screwed. I nearly cried. I started thinking and decided all I needed was a good nights sleep and would bounce back in the morning. I slept well and woke up to get ready for work. I turned the shower on and had to take a seat as the world started spinning and blackness crept into my vision. Things were getting serious. I called work and took a rain check on the day.
We took a cab to a nearby medical centre where they x-rayed my ankle. I was shitting my pants at this point thinking I had ruined my vacation. I must have done something good in a previous life because the x-rays came back with no breaks. I had only destroyed every ligament in my foot and ankle and done something to the tendon above my ankle to make it bulge out. It had also become infected overnight so I was prescribed antibiotics as well. I got the true New Zealand experience when the physiotherapist shaved half way up my shin - sheep style, and taped it for a little support. Now the waiting game started for the swelling to go down.
The pictures do not do it justice. We lost sight of both sides of my ankle bones for a week and were treated to every color of bruising imaginable. I became a pain relieving, anti-inflammatory pharmacy on crutches. It will be six weeks before I can start using my leg for anything other than its good looks. It was a truly horrifying experience but I am lucky my wife has taken care of me and it was easy to get treatment. It really hasn't deterred me from playing, (I have been described as being violently independent and stubborn from a young age), so I will be back on the courts as early as I can. I guess Jess and Romel-saurus tricked me better than I thought.


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Oregon Rescinds Regulation To Make Restaurant Workers Wear Gloves
The gloves are off - once again - at Oregon restaurants. Regulators had passed a law that would require all food service employees to wear gloves when preparing a meal. Now, following heavy protests from employees and customers alike, they've rescinded the ruling.
At the heart of the regulation was safety. Legislators ruled that the gloves helped prevent the spread of disease. They do; But, chefs also say that the gloves prevent them from doing their job properly. There's an old adage in the kitchen that bare hands are the chefs' best tool.
With the law now off the books, restaurant cooks are back to abiding by the "double-hand-washing" rule which they were bound to before.
State shelves requirement that restaurant workers wear gloves | MailTribune.com.


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Lithuania is getting ready for truly the most awaited fashion event of the year – Juozas Statkevicius Spring/Summer 2014 fashion show. Juozas shows are the most spectacular comparing to colleagues from Baltic states, largest scale from all points of view – venue, models and hype behind it. As the day of the show approaches, secrets get revealed and here's what's attention worthy. This year Juozas packs his show not only with Lithuanian in-town models, but brings world class top models like Edita Vilkevičiūtė and Julija Steponavičiūtė to walk the show. As also the most promising new faces (Lithuanian of course) who had experience all around the world last season. There girls are Kotryna Lipkevičiūtė, Evelina Sriebalytė and Kristina Petrošiūtė. Designer hasn't forgot about his muse – Lithuanian iconic model Ditė Antanaitytė, who started her career more than 10 years ago by walking Fendi, Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs, Max Mara and other high-class brand shows. We're waiting for the show impatiently to see what Juozas has made this year!
Here's a video of the Spring/Summer 2013 show also held in Vilnius!


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What's Going On Here? Sanaa Lathan & NFL Baller Colin Kaepernick...Dating?
42-year-old Sanaa Lathan & 25-year-old Colin Kaepernick may be gettin' it poppin'. Check out a pic from their weekend dinner date and their lovey dovey words inside...
So, this happened. Best Man Holiday actress Sanaa Lathan & NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick had a dinner date this weekend. How random is this?
The two hotties aren't shy about letting the world know how they feel either. No word on how long they've been seeing each other, or if this was just a one off type deal, but they got a little cutesy on IG about it.
Sanaa posted the pic above, leaning on the 49ers QB's shoulder, saying a simple, "xoxo".
Colin then Re-grammed the same pic saying, "this".
Sounds like more than just a run of the mill friendly dinner date to us.
One of Sanaa's followers commented on the pic saying:
This is why he's been playing like shit lol
Colin & his team are 2-2 so far this season.
Looks like Sanaa's got herself a sexy young one who's got some serious coin. And Colin's got himself one of the baddest vets in the game.
So....are we feeling this?
Photo: Sanaa's IG


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BT's commercial roll-out of its next generation fibre network has been brought forward by several months.
BT has now said that it will complete its national fibre broadband roll-out during spring 2014, instead of the end of 2014. The original target was the end of 2015, which was previously brought forward to 2014 after greater progress was made.
BT says the quicker fibre roll-out will contribute to the government's aim of the UK having the best "superfast broadband" network amongst major European countries by 2015.
Culture minister Maria Miller said, "Fibre technology is a major driver of economic growth and I am delighted to see BT make such good progress in helping to get the UK connected. Connectivity is a key issue for people across the country whether in rural or urban areas."
BT is recruiting additional engineers to help with fibre installations, with greater numbers expected to be hired as the fibre footprint expands. When complete, BT says its commercial fibre footprint will be the largest in the UK, covering around 19 million homes and businesses.
BT says it has passed more than 12 million premises with the fibre technology to date and that it will "overtake Virgin Media's cable footprint in the coming months".
So far 950,000 premises are connected to fibre broadband over the BT network, the company said. BT previously said it had 750,000 fibre customers at the end of July.
Fibre connections are still a small part of BT's customer base, however, as it has a total of 17 million broadband customers connected to its network, most of them through traditional and much slower copper wires.
Last month BT said it had boosted the speed of its top-of-the-range BT Infinity broadband package from 100mbps to 160mbps. BT Infinity 160mb is a fibre-to-the-premises (FTTH) broadband service, and is currently only available from a limited number of exchanges.


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Lead can be found in construction workplaces. It is commonly used as a specialist material (eg roof flashings) and present in older buildings (eg in paint or pipework). Lead can cause serious health problems such as anaemia or kidney disease and published research has linked exposure to a small number of occupational cancers. This page tells you how to control these risks and why.
The Control of Lead at Work (CLAW) Regulation 2002 says you must protect employees against the risks from lead. Follow the Assess, Control and Review model. Pay particular attention to:
Identify and assess: Identify those tasks where you are going to use lead or create lead dust or fume. Pay particular attention to situations where significant exposure is expected. This may include:
Follow the controls below. You will have to consider additional controls for particularly high risk tasks like abrasive blasting.
Prevent: Where possible think about eliminating or reducing the amount of lead used or contact with it. Consider:
Control: Even if you minimise some of the risk this way, you may still do other work that might involve exposure to lead. Control the risk by:
Work Method – limit the amount of dust or fume you create. Consider using one or a combination of:
Train: Workers need to know how to use the controls properly. They also need to be aware of the risks from lead. Make sure they have read and understood the guidance Lead and You.
Industry guidance on removing old lead paint can be found on the website of:
Supervise: Ensure that controls such as work methods, PPE and welfare are effective and used by the workers. Anyone wearing tight fitting RPE needs to be clean shaven and face fit tested.
Maintain: Make sure that there is enough water, plastic sheeting, clothing etc. and equipment is properly maintained.
Monitor: Appropriate medical surveillance is needed if workers have significant exposure.
You can absorb lead into your body when you breathe in lead dust or fume. You can also swallow lead dust and debris for example if you eat, drink, smoke or bite your nails without washing your hands or face. Any lead you absorb will circulate in your blood. Your body gets rid of a small amount of lead each time you go to the toilet, but some will stay in your body, stored mainly in your bones. It can stay there for many years without making you ill.
If the level of lead in your body gets too high, it can cause symptoms such as headaches, tiredness, irritability, anaemia or stomach pains. Continued uncontrolled exposure can cause more serious problems like kidney, nerve and brain damage, and even possibly cancer.


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I finally found plenty of information about Comics Spain! Last time I tried, I couldn't, because the company that manufactured these plastic figures is not called "Comics Spain", but "Comic Figuras S.L.".
Comic Figuras S.L. was a Spanish plastic (PVC) figure manufacturer settled in Granollers, a town near Barcelona. The company was founded sometime by the early 80s. Unofficial sources say the company was founded after two store owners travelled to one of the big toy fairs in Germany (Nürnberg, probably) and discovered Schleich's Smurfs. They bought some boxes of these small plastic figures, and sold them in their store with great success, so they decided to become themselves manufacturers. Without any license they produced unmarked Smurfs as well as other toy figures. These unmarked Smurfs are called among collectors "CNTs".
It seems that Yolanda acquired the rights to sell Schleich's Smurfs in Spain, so they sued Comic Figuras S.L. and won the case. The production of Smurfs stopped, but Comic Figuras tried to find other licenses to keep producing figures.
The first known catalogues of the company appeared in 1985, and back then, it had already purchased some licenses and was producing figures legally. This was the situation for the next 3 years, but in 1988, Disney decided not to renew those licenses.
Up to this point, the story of the company becomes quite blurry: in 1992, the company went into receivership, with an asset of 232 million pesetas and a debt of 148 million pesetas (La Vanguardia,25th January 1993). This triggered some legal investigations that did not discover anything illegal.
The company produced figures after 1992 for which they had lost the license years ago; according to La Vanguardia, the 9th of April 1997, police confiscated 10 tons of plastic figures for piracy and falsification. A few days before some investigators discovered in a shop unlicensed figures of "Delfy and His Friends", a Spanish tv-series. After some enquiries, the police found the storehouse of Comics Figuras and closed it, confiscating the figures. Another two companies were also closed after they found the casts to produce the figures. If the production was made by Comics Figuras or one of the other companies, it is unknown to me. Police arrested the owner of the toy store and other three people, while the person in charge of Comics Figures had fleed around 7 months before.
Among the confiscated products there were Disney and Warner Bros. characters, as well as characters from the Spanish publishing house "Ediciones B" (Clever & Smart) and even the Barcelona Football Club. The confiscated figures had a value of 2000 million pesetas (around 12 million Euros).
The figures have enormous quality, and today they're pretty scarce. Many collectors are trying to get them, and the prices are quite high… mostly considering that all company stocks were presumably destroyed. Their Smurf and Superheroes series are maybe the most popular, but as you could see in the catalogue images, there were many series made, I do not really how did they select which series would be manufactured or which wouldn't, I guess they would simply produce figures from any tv-series, comics or films that were popular (or were supposed to become popular, but didn't) back then. As a result, there are some really weird series, like 11 figures from the comic books "Shoe" by Jeff McNelly. Never heard about them before…
By the way, most figures have (many) colour variations, what it's normal considering that they were hand painted and that they were produced during many consecutive years. Here's for example a variation of Rowlf the Dog.
Figures are marked (C) 86 HA! Comics Spain plus the CE mark.
And to finish this article, I will leave here the pictures of all catalogues I could find. I thank Sergio for them. You can visit his store at todocoleccion. Resolution of the pictures is not very good, but good enough to recognise most of the figures.
|catalogue - around 1985
|catalogue - around 1985
|catalogue - around 1991-1992
|catalogue - around 1991-1992
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Names: KERMIT THE FROG, MISS PIGGY, FOZZIE BEAR, ANIMAL, ROWLF THE DOG and GONZO.
- Alternate Names: LA RANA GUSTAVO, SRTA. PIGGY, FOZZIE EL OSO, ANIMAL, RUFO EL PERRO and GONZO (Spanish - Spain) LA RANA RENÉ (South American Spanish)
- Toy Line: Pequeñecos / Muppet Babies)
- Year: 1986
- Company: Comics Spain/ Comic Figuras S.L. (Spain)


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Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 - First Look
Sega shows off the first few levels of Sonic's return to his classic gaming roots.
There are few gaming franchises that are as polarizing as Sonic the Hedgehog. On one side, you have fans that are fiercely devoted to the Sonic of old--the fast-paced, side-scrolling games that were immensely popular on the Sega Genesis. On the other side, there are equally devoted fans of Sonic's most recent 3D outings. Somewhere in the middle exists a horrible no-man's-land where the two sides of fans continually clash over what the franchise is doing right and what it's doing wrong. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I seemingly functions as a compromise between the two legions of fans--perhaps leaning a bit more toward old-school Sonic fans. It has the classic gameplay of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games, but its portrayal of Sonic himself falls more in line with the recent 3D games.
Our first look at the game took us through three levels main levels and a boss battle in the Splash Hill Zone portion of the game. This portion was a lush tropical location that looked similar to other starting areas in the older Sonic games, albeit in smooth and vibrant HD (in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions). Splash Hill Zone Act 1 gives you an opportunity to become reacquainted with some of Sonic's basic abilities; among them are the spin dash move and homing jump (a helpful target appears onscreen indicating what enemy or item box Sonic will leap toward while in midair). And, of course, Sonic still runs really fast. We saw him zipping through a variety of corkscrews and loops with relative ease, occasionally bouncing around the level with the aid of bumpers placed at various points.
Splash Hill Zone Act 2 and Act 3 add a bit more variety. In Act 2, we saw Sonic approach an area that involved swinging from one vine to the next, which seemed like it could be more difficult when zipping through a level at full speed. In Act 3, a bit more trickery was introduced with zip lines placed throughout the level. In all three acts, we saw an assortment of enemies (known as badniks in the Sonic universe), ranging from the plodding ladybug-like motobug to the chameleon that likes to shoot projectiles at Sonic before disappearing back into the wall. As far as items in these levels are concerned, we got a brief glimpse of the shoe power-up in action (which lets Sonic run even faster), as well as the shield power-up that grants Sonic a brief moment of invulnerability.
If you reach the end of these levels with more than 50 rings collected, you have the opportunity to jump into a giant ring that takes you to a bonus level. These levels are similar to those found in the original Sonic the Hedgehog in that you have to guide Sonic through a rotating maze. The interesting thing here is that in the Wii and PS3 versions of the game, you can use the Wii Remote or the Sixaxis controller to rotate the level manually to guide Sonic through (the 360 version will just use the analog sticks). There are barriers in the maze, but these can be unlocked by collecting a specific number of rings.
When you reach the end of these mazes, you'll see a chaos emerald. Collecting all of the chaos emeralds in Sonic 4 is actually quite important--you won't be able to see the "real" ending and the tie-in for the next episode if you don't successfully capture all of them. Thankfully, Sonic 4 includes a handy stage select option where you can jump right back into a level after beating it, so you don't have to play through the entire game to achieve this goal.
We spent the last few moments of the demo taking a look at the first boss battle in Sonic 4: Episode I. This boss battle is similar to a previous battle with Dr. Eggman, who floats around in his ship with a massive pendulum attached. The major difference between this fight and similar ones in previous Sonic games is that after Eggman is inflicted with damage, his attack pattern completely changes. After it changes, the pendulum becomes a massive mallet and Eggman swings it around to smash Sonic with it. Sega tells us that most of the boss battles in the game will have similar variations on familiar confrontations with Eggman. With that, our demo ended, and while we can plainly see that Sonic 4 will strike a chord with fans of the classic game, we're left wondering how well it'll control. We'll be sure to find out before Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I's release on WiiWare, Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network this summer.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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3.5 stars
"I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more."
Begins this short story of a man, whose name is not mentioned, who is addicted to morphine and is having a mental collapse. He recounts the horrible tale when he was Merchant Marine and describes why he is in his present state.
In the early days of WWI, the ship that our main character was on was captured by Germans. He escapes on a lifeboat and is adrift at sea for many days. He soon despairs at the thought of never being found or of never finding land.
After a few days, the man awakens in the middle of black slime. He realizes that he is on some sort of disgusting land surrounded by dead fish. He comes to the conclusion that somehow there was a volcanic eruption which brought part of the ocean floor above sea level. He gets back on his boat and decides to wait a few more days for the ground to dry.
On the third day, the land is dry enough to walk on. The man ventures out in hopes to find freedom. He soon finds a white stone protruding from the ground. He learns that it's a monolith that has strange hieroglyphs depicting unknown sea creatures and weird humanoids. As he studies the monolith, he then becomes petrified when he sees a horrific creature coming out of the water near the monolith.
This story was incredibly short but packed with many details. It is obvious that this story is the beginning of the Cthulu Mythos that Lovecraft is famous for. The description of the black land was too vivid and I felt sorry for the main character. It would be terrifying to be in his situation.
The ending was also a little surprising, but not as strong as the rest of the story. In all, it was a great read.
If you would like to read this short story, you can visit the H.P. Lovecraft Archives or you could listen to the audio book below. Also below the audio, there's a short animated film interpretation of "Dagon." Enjoy!


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The Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE) invites submissions for a Special Issue titled "Agile in Teaching and Learning" expected to be published in early 2018.
In recent years the use of agile software development methods, or agile for short, has become increasingly popular as a way of producing software in a lighter, quicker, more people-centered manner. Agile represents an emerging set of software development methodologies based upon the concepts of adaptability and flexibility. Since the release of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, the popularity and use of agile has continued to grow. Specific agile methodologies such as Scrum and eXtreme Programming have gained widespread recognition. As such there has been a wealth of academic research published related to the implementation of agile in industry.
With the stronghold that agile has established in industry and subsequent industry-related academic research, its impact on information systems education and how graduates in the computing disciplines are being prepared in agile is growing in importance. The focus of this special issue is the implementation of agile in the classroom as it relates to both teaching and learning. The guest editors welcome papers describing how agile has been implemented into the classroom, how agile principles and practices have been used to improve teaching and learning, what the future of agile in education looks like, and other topics related to the use of agile in teaching and learning.
For this special issue of JISE, we invite the submission of high-quality, innovative, and insightful articles. Topics include but are not limited to:
Papers for this special issue are due on June 30, 2017 (extensions considered on a case by case basis). Prospective authors are welcome to submit an abstract to the Guest Editors for preliminary feedback on the appropriateness of their planned manuscript. Please send your submissions in Microsoft Word format by email to: Dr. Jason Sharp with a copy to Dr. Guido Lang. Papers should not exceed 7,000 words including all sections, figures, tables, and references. All papers will be blind peer reviewed and are subject to editing for journal style, clarity, organization, and space. Shorter teaching cases and experience reports (between 2,000 and 3,000 words) are also welcome. In the event that some papers submitted to this special issue are accepted for publication but cannot be accommodated within the special issue, those articles will be published within regular future issues.
Please refer to the JISE submission guidelines for additional information.


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Having grown up in the Cotswolds and gone to school at the now disappeared Northleach Grammar School, your blogger was transported back in time by a story in The Telegraph last week, focusing on the richness and the beauty of the limestone which is hewn from the nearby Farmington quarry. The article highlighted the sustainability of natural #stone with its low embodied energy – a theme which we at Plastic Surgeon fully support as it resonates with our repair ethos, and the #save our surfaces campaign we launched at this year's Ecobuild.
As members of the Cast Stone Association we are well aware that there are some very good examples of reconstituted stone out there in the market, and we regularly repair items such as balustrades and window mullions that get damaged during the build process, but natural stone offers varieties and often an ageing process which manufacturers struggle to match.
The writer of the Telegraph article cited the Norman church of Saint Peter in Farmington as a prime example of Cotswold stone's qualities: referring to it as "a tiny gothic gem guarding one thousand years of parish history. Its walls, archways and pillars are all from the local stone: a luscious buttery yellow limestone that comes out of the earth soft enough to carve fine detail with a chisel, and which hardens to become a long-lived building material."
The rich yellow limestone which dominates the original streetscapes to iconic towns such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, and the 'Slaughters' – used for roofing as well as walls – takes on a darker hue and an organic dimension as it ages and mellows. Concrete, by contrast, tends to stain and spall leading to iconic eyesores such as Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre having featured in shortlists of the UK's worst buildings many times down the decades.
In addition, cement – as a significant constituent of concrete – has a high embodied energy content from the limestone and other raw materials having to be fire at high temperature.
The article quoted Liza Hanks, who owns Cotswold-based Winchcombe Reclamation and stated: "Old Cotswold building stones, or York flagstones can be cleaned up and used again and again and again, We employ seven people who chip off old lime mortar, re-dress and if necessary re- drill old stone tiles, bricks, fireplaces, copings and quoins. My big plea to people re-using these materials – that may well have been recycled several times over centuries – is to use lime, rather than cement mortar as hard cement mortar is impossible to remove from old stones."
It is also worth pointing out that cement mortars do not 'breath' like lime based ones and tend to blow the face off old masonry; either requiring large sections to be replaced or leading to a lengthy restoration job for our Finishers.
In fact here at Plastic Surgeon our R&D department has, over the years, put an enormous amount of work into refining techniques for the repair and colour matching of different stone types: from slate and granite, through to the various colours of sandstone and marble; the latter's marvelous patterns resulting from enormous heat and pressure back in geological time. Our team has also developed a tinting system which enables areas of stonework or other masonry to be over-coated when they have suffered severe degradation from the weather, or perhaps some form of graffiti attack.
The UK's architectural landscape has numerous examples of beautiful brickwork and more modern cladding materials making bold visual statements. And moving indoors, a sweeping marble staircase or granite worktops may not suit every style of property or purchaser's pocket, but wherever natural stone is used, we at Plastic Surgeon celebrate its endless individuality, style and sustainability. And if it should get marked or damaged, we're here to help ensure it actually achieves the very long life potential that nature intended.
Save Our (Stone) Surfaces.


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Stormy relationship with your business?
You never expected sunny skies every day, but you also didn't expect it to be quite so tough.
What the heck happened to running a profitable business from your heart with ease and joy?
photo by Kelly DeLay on Flickr
You can have more profit and more ease in your business and let love and kindness lead the way.
That's what you always intended. But instead, you're here – filled with stress, an unending to do list and frustration.
Re-imagine what running your business would feel like with more profit, ease, joy, freedom, and love (and maybe some rest, too).
It's still possible for you.
Hi! I'm Steve Mattus
I've been supporting business owners for 18+ years and have built multiple successful businesses during that time.
I became an ordained minister back in 1986. I incorporated coaching into my life and business starting in 2009.
I'm a ninja implementing business processes, a grand-master wizard with systems, an engaging teacher and a good-hearted fella with an intuitive gift for integrating deep heart healing.
I've helped hundreds of business owners bring healing, relief and profitability to their business journey.
You can learn more about me here, if you like.
It's not every day that you get an insightful, thoughtful and personal note helping you have a better day.
It's true... you won't get one every day. Promise. Three times a week at most.
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More than a gym. A community of individuals striving to be better each day. PE is one big disfunctional family of martial artists, warriors, moms, dads, and kids. PE is a place for everyone. Getting in the door is the hard part, staying is easy!
PE's own brand of killer circuit training. Warrior workouts are created to bring out the warrior in us all. They are designed to help you move better, faster, longer, in all directions, and more weight. We have traditional strength exercises, ninja warrior style obstacle course training, kickboxing, and our own brand of functional movement exercises. Workouts are doable by anyone but suck for everyone
Duane Ludwig's BANG Muay Thai system (BMT) is a rigorously developed Muay Thai system developed by Ludwig himself. Ludwig is one of the most technical strikers in MMA, and owner of the UFC fastest knockout. This class is instructed by Karate world champion and professional MMA fighter Josh Quayhagen. This is a fun way to learn self-defense and get in shape while moving up through the BMT belt ranking system. Good for practitioners 12 and older of any experience level.
A mix of our Warrior Workout with some beginner kickboxing. This class is a fun one to try out if you are a first timer.
This is a fun exciting time for the kids and even the parents. This class combines martial arts, fitness, and mental awareness. It focuses on discipline and character all the while improving balance, agility, and coordination. If your child struggles with self-confidence, focus, discipline, and or social situations this class is designed to improve these areas for our young warriors.
These classes are great for everyone. If you are a high school or college athlete wanting to improve, this is a great class for you! The focus here is on speed, agility, reaction, and mentality. These classes are led by Josh and Zack and are changing everyday. Like the warrior workout, this class encompasses traditional as well as our own brand of exercises and movements.


text: Tired 06/13/2018 I hate going to memorials. The first one I attended to honor a soldier was in the fall of 2007. The academic year was maybe two weeks old, the seniors had just gotten back from celebrating Ring weekend, and we had all formed up for recall formation. After we were dismissed, our TAC officer gathered us all together and told us our company-mate's brother had been killed in Afghanistan. Still new to even the idea of the military, most of the freshman-- myself included-- didn't fully understand,


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Space Shuttle Discovery Launched at 4:50PM ET today
I was talking to a friend at work today about the shuttle launch. We were reminiscing about previous launches and how this will be one of the final shuttle missions before the entire program is scrubbed. I'm hopeful that while there's not much more to do with the current program and that taxpayer money is perhaps better spent elsewhere right now, I have to think that space exploration is 'soon' headed beyond the capabilities of current shuttles. Mars anyone? Read more to watch live streaming video from spaceflightnow at livestream.com
According to Engadget "This is the last mission for Discovery and the third-to-last mission for the entire Space Shuttle program, and it's the first mission to carry a humanoid robot into space: our friend Robonaut 2"


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Marvin Offers Products Meeting Passive House Standards
Marvin Windows & Doors now offers a wide range of wood windows made in the U.S.A. with domestic and imported hardware that will meet both the strict European and U.S. standards for passive building. Certification from both U.S. and European bodies is pending, the firm reports.
The products eliminate the need for builders and homeowners to wait for more than two months for passive windows to ship from Europe, the manufacturer notes. Working with its glazing partners on its passive building windows, Marvin is using quad-glazing Heat Mirror products to meet the standards on its Ultimate Casement and Direct Glaze products.
"With our long history of custom manufacturing and our skilled, experienced work force, we're able to craft windows that will meet the highest standards of energy efficiency while allowing design freedom," says Mike Laufman, senior manager of Marvin Signature Services, which offers one-on-one design and manufacturing support for custom projects. "There's a perception that passive buildings need to be blank-walled fortresses with tiny slits for windows. But with Marvin products, architects and homeowners will be able to specify any design feature—even large expanses of glass—using windows that look like our regular product lines yet meet the strictest standards of passive building."
"There is no silver bullet to achieve passive building criteria, but windows are a key consideration in passive building design," says Christine Marvin, director of marketing. "Because our products are built here, Marvin can offer builders a shorter lead time than international manufacturers. And our extensive independent dealer network means we can support the project from the time it's drawn up until after installation. This is another great example of Marvin working one on one with its customers to deliver the perfect windows for each project."


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Media Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
ALISO VIEJO, CA – August 05, 2014 – Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMSI) Productivity and Graphics group today announced new versions of its Poser® and Anime Studio® software designed to help Unity™ game developers create and integrate 2D and 3D content directly into their projects. New Poser Pro Game Dev lets content developers quickly transform high resolution Poser 3D characters into efficient assets suitable for real-time gaming. Anime Studio Pro 10.1 offers improved workflow and a broad set of 2D animation tools to create Unity content. Both products now support FBX file format for fast, easy import to the Unity platform, and both are now offered on the Unity Asset Store, adding a rich set of prebuilt 2D and 3D content to the Unity game development ecosystem.
"The hundreds of thousands of Unity Asset Store users now have easy access to two awesomely powerful tools with Poser Pro Game Dev and Anime Studio," said Caitlyn Meeks, Asset Store Manager at Unity Technologies. "Smith Micro's catalog of 2D and 3D tools support Unity very well and are a natural fit for our users, offering up excellent options that enhance the Unity ecosystem for developers who want a character system that combines animation tools with content."
Poser® Pro Game Dev includes several features that allow content developers to create high-resolution, 3D assets and deploy them directly into the Unity ecosystem as size-efficient, game-ready content using the new FBX import/export feature:
With Anime Studio Pro 10.1, users won't need to purchase or learn to use any other software when creating 2D animations for game development. Anime Studio Pro is perfect for game developers looking for an efficient alternative to tedious frame-by-frame animation. Anime Studio Pro provides Unity users:
"Poser Pro Game Dev and Anime Studio Pro are perfectly suited for the Unity ecosystem, offering character animation systems that make it easy to customize and animate our stock characters, plus other content from companies like Mixamo, and export it as ready-to-deploy Unity game assets," said Steve Yatson, Vice President of Productivity and Graphics Solutions at Smith Micro. "We're excited to make our massive content library available to Unity developers, and give our worldwide community of Poser and Anime Studio developers a convenient way to bring their designs to gaming."
"With the new version of Poser, Mixamo customers will be able to edit characters and animations coming from our Fuse character creator and our animation service, gaining also the ability to render scenes with those characters for cut scenes and promotional graphics," said Stefano Corazza, CEO Mixamo. "We have been Poser fans for many years, and Poser Pro Game Dev will be a powerful tool for this space."
Poser Pro Game Dev and Anime Studio Pro 10.1 both support FBX import of content directly to the Unity platform. FBX, the adaptable file format for 3D animation from Autodesk®, is the most common method for integrating animated 2D and 3D assets in Unity.
Pricing and Availability:
Poser Pro Game Dev is priced at $499.99, with upgrade pricing from previous versions of Poser and Poser Pro available.
Anime Studio 10.1 is priced at $299.99, with upgrade pricing from previous versions of Anime Studio available.
Both products can be purchased from the Unity Asset Store, or directly from Smith Micro: http://poser.smithmicro.com/buy.html
For more information about Poser Pro Game Dev, visit: http://poser.smithmicro.com/gamedev.html For more information about Anime Studio 10.1, visit: anime.smithmicro.com
About Smith Micro Software, Inc. - Productivity and Graphics Group:
Based in Santa Cruz, CA, Smith Micro's Productivity and Graphics Group produces award-winning software that inspires consumer creativity and enables efficiency. The Group's suite of creative programs provides artists of all skill levels – from novice to professional – with the tools to illustrate, animate and apply 2D and 3D art to a wide variety of mediums, from comic books to short films to gaming platforms. With millions of users around the globe, the Group's portfolio includes leading brands such as: Poser, Anime Studio, Manga Studio and StuffIt. For more information, visit: http://my.smithmicro.com/
About Unity Technologies:
Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance development platform used to make creative and intelligent interactive 3D and 2D experiences. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of over 630,000 monthly active developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. To remain at the forefront of innovation, Unity Technologies tirelessly re-invests in its award-winning 3D and 2D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace, Everyplay, and Unity Cloud services. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices located worldwide. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, forward-looking statements relating to the company's financial prospects and other projections of its performance, the existence of new market opportunities and interest in the company's products and solutions, and the company's ability to increase its revenue and regain profitability by capitalizing on these new market opportunities and interest and introducing new products and solutions. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are changes in demand for the company's products from its customers and their end-users, new and changing technologies, customer acceptance of those technologies, new and continuing adverse economic conditions, and the company's ability to compete effectively with other software companies. These and other factors discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made on the basis of the views and assumptions of management regarding future events and business performance as of the date of this release, and the company does not undertake any obligation to update these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release.
Smith Micro and the Smith Micro logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Smith Micro Software, Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Smith Micro and any other company.
Suzanne Runald Smith Micro Software, Inc. +1 (949) 362-5800 email@example.com


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Overwatch Tracer Line Shirt - Women's$24.00
"Hey, this is no time for standing around!" Tracer fights to right wrongs wherever the opportunity presents itself, even forward or backwards in time! Recall and secure this official BlizzCon 2017 Overwatchshirt today!
Available in women's sizes S - 2XL, made of 50% poly, 25% combed ring-spun cotton and 25% rayon.


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Published on January 13, 2016
Sometimes it really is worth sweating the small things in life. Pinrace is intended to replace safety pins for attaching race numbers – making the job easier, keeping everything more securely in place and preventing damage to expensive running kit.
The way that Pinrace works is both simple and elegant. Each pack contains four pairs of small, super-strong magnets housed in plastic casing. And when we say super-strong we really mean it; these nickel-plated neodymium magnets have a gripping strength of 1.6 kg each. To attach: simply put one magnet from each pair beneath your running shirt and the other over, clamping the race number in place. Repeat for each corner with small adjustments made by gently pulling in to place. Fitting a number to the back of a running shirt simply involves prepositioning the Pinrace magnets before putting it on. See, simple.
Getting things straight
If you're the kind of runner that's a little OCD about getting your number exactly in the right place (and god forbid it should be wonky) then Pinrace is certainly for you. Beyond that there's the added security – though we've personally never lost a pinned number – and, more importantly, the saving in damage to expensive running tops. Pinrace doesn't leave holes, doesn't leave marks.
Where's the rub?
Downsides? Not really. We rather thought they might feel uncomfortable against the skin, but that's really not the case. Certainly they're noticeable when you first put them on, but once running we completely forgot they were there. When putting Pinrace on there was a tendency for the plastic caps that cover the magnets to occasionally pop off and they are a pain to fit back on with wind-chilled fingers. The solution is to slide the magnets apart rather than tugging at them.
Probably not advisable to use Pinrace if you have a chest-mounted HRM and definitely keep them (literally) at arms length from expensive GPS and smartphones on the run.
Pick your pin
Warning aside RunningMonkey really likes Pinrace; not indispensible, not an essential but certainly a great running extra that's been really well thought through, designed and executed. Available in a choice of colours Pinrace retail at £7.99 for a pack of four (i.e. good for attaching one number) or £37.95 for a set of five; ideal if you fancy splitting the purchase with running buddies. Customise versions with club logos are also available, priced on application.
Full detail and online purchase of Pinrace at pinrace.com – you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.


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E.Bekhbayar brings gold from the International Free Style Wrestling Cup
The second International Free Style Wrestling Cup in honor of the politician, socialist activist, and academic D.Kunyev took place Taraz, Kazakhstan last week.
On the first day of the competition, wrestlers in 55, 66, 84, 120 kilogram categories competed.
Mongolia's International Sports Master E.Bekhbayar won the gold medal in the men's 55 kilogram category. E.Bekhbayar also won gold at the Grand Prix, Dortmund, Germany earlier this year.
Mongolian wrestlers, Aldar Sports Commission's Sport Master B.Batmagnai competed in the 66 kilogram division on the first day of the competition, and Avragch Sport Commission's International Sports Master O.Uitvmen in the 84 kilogram catagory.
Nine countries participated in the competition, including; USA, Belarus, Gurj, Canada, Kazkhastan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The opening ceremony for the tournament took place at the Taraz-Arena sport hall. The prize for the winners are; first place 5,000 USD, second place 3,000 USD, third place
Short URL: http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=6490


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And yes, it's that time again ... time to announce another prize!
Our donor this time around is Angie Lofthouse, who is donating e-book downloads of her three sci-fi novellas: Consecrated, Refuge, and Renegade. Here's a little bit about each of these books:
To enter to win this prize, leave a comment in this trail. You can also come back and leave another comment tomorrow and be entered twice. If you'd like to learn more about Angie, click here.
Now, to continue my walk down Memory Lane as we celebrate my ten-year anniversary ...
After publishing Strength to Endure, I wanted to turn my attention to something lighter. Historical fiction is difficult to write, especially when it is centered around a war. I decided to try my hand at a comedy, and I wrote the first draft of what would later become Agent in Old Lace. But it wasn't time to publish that book - not yet. I pitched it to my publisher, and around that time, we decided to part ways. We stayed on good terms with each other, and we're still friends today.
I sent Agent in Old Lace out to a few more publishers - only under its working title, Faith Beyond Fear - and while I waited, I got to work on a family history story which I called Season of Sacrifice. My great-great-grandfather was Benjamin Perkins, who engineered the passage through the Hole in the Rock in southern Utah, and I was blessed to have access to his life story. I felt that this should be my next project. I researched for 80 hours, wrote for 80 hours, and there was my book. Of everything I've ever written, this is the book that makes me the most proud - not because it's the most well-written, because gracious knows I've learned a lot since then, but because I was able to pay tribute to my ancestors and tell their story in a way I believe pleased them.
This book has an interesting publishing history, more than any other book I've ever written. Benjamin was a polygamist, and I am descended from his second wife. The LDS market doesn't publish books about polygamy, and while I had a lot of interest, I had to make a choice: take out the polygamy and be published, or leave the polygamy in and not get it published. I wrestled with that for a long time. I held out hope that if I kept trying, I would find that magical publishing contract, but it never materialized. So in 2008 - yes, four years after I released Strength to Endure - I self-published Season of Sacrifice with the help of my good friend BJ Rowley. Keep in mind, self-publishing wasn't nearly as easy or accepted in 2008 as it is today - my, how times have changed in the last couple of years. And having a four-year gap between publications is pretty much the kiss of death for a career, but stay tuned, and I shall continue to tell you my story as we progress through my anniversary celebration.
All righty - leave your comments and let's start gathering up names for the drawing for Angie's sci-fi novellas!


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The U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear two huge gay marriage cases this term, and today the California citizens fighting gay marriage in that state filed their first brief on the merits of the case.
That brief gives us a clue about the tactics supporters of California's anti-gay marriage measure Proposition 8 will use in arguing the voter-approved law is Constitutional.
In making their case, Prop 8 supporters say marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples because they're the only ones who are capable of having kids.
Of course, this argument defies logic in a "Modern Family" age when same-sex couples are perfectly capable of having kids using various non-traditional methods. Here's the gist of their argument, from the brief:
"The age-old definition of marriage distinguishes between relationships of a man and a woman and all other types of relationships, including same-sex relationships. This distinction is rooted in a basic biological fact that goes to the heart of the state's interest in regulating marriage: the unique capacity of intimate relationships between men and women to create new life."
The brief doesn't mention whether the elderly or infertile should be allowed to get hitched.


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Sixteen Case
Is Manufacturing In The United States Toast?
Since the 2000-2001 recession, manufacturing output has grown much more slowly than in any previous recovery, and even that growth might be over-estimated because government data do a poor job of capturing how much more foreign content there is in "American" products. If so, then U.S. output is barely higher than it was in 2000.
A recent study by the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research shows how output -- defined as value added, or sales minus the cost of purchased inputs -- could be overstated. A $10-million pump manufacturer that buys $5-million worth of shafts, seals and motors would have value-added of $5 million.
But what if some of those shafts, seals and motors get re-sourced from U.S. to offshore factories, and the same inputs now cost $4 million? Magically, the pumpmaker's value-added -- which is how government data measure output -- rises from $5 million to $6 million. In fact, the value of goods and services that the pumpmaker produced in the United States didn't change.
The Upjohn Institute study estimates that U.S. manufacturing output is probably growing 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent less per year than the government's statistics say it is. That's significant, because even those statistics show a pretty weak recovery: the Federal Reserve Board's index of U.S. industrial production in June was up just 13.4 percent from its 2002 level -- barely a 2.5 percent annual improvement after a plunge from 2000 to 2002.
If that 2.5 percent growth rate is really, say, 2.2 percent, then production in 2007 is up just 11.5 percent from 2002, and less than 6 percent from 2000.
In other words, over a period in which U.S. GDP has risen by nearly 25 percent, more than three-quarters of the increase in demand for manufactured goods would have had to have been satisfied by a rise in net imports.
Other pundits tell us that it's somehow inevitable that manufacturing employment must decline, thanks to a combination of rising productivity and the growing share of output made in low-wage nations. A new study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) compiles 1990 and 2005 manufacturing jobs data for every country. On a global scale, productivity is allowing output to grow by about 4 percent a year with no increase in jobs. Interestingly, most countries -- the rich ones through policy, the poorer ones through big additions to capacity -- have maintained or grown their factory job sector. A relative handful of countries -- led by the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan --have borne almost all of the losses. Between 1990 and 2005, Britain lost 43.5 percent of its manufacturing jobs (2.6 million); Germany lost 31 percent of its manufacturing jobs (3.6 million); the United States lost 24 percent (5.09 million); and Japan lost 22 percent of its manufacturing jobs (3.36 million).
The New York Times' Thomas Friedman's best-selling book "The World is Flat" describes globalization as a straight-up blessing, a rising tide that lifts all boats. Apparently not. Not only has the United States shed between four and five million manufacturing jobs (depending on the survey), but there are 35,000 fewer U.S. factories than there were eight years ago. This is not some slow, productivity-driven event like the 85 percent drop in farm jobs from 1900 to 2000, but a largely trade-driven impact. As we will see, only half the problem is that other nation's manufacturers are "beating" ours; the other half is that, in industry after industry, U.S.-based large-firm customers -- think GM, GE, Wal-Mart -- are telling their American suppliers to increase their "offshore footprint."
Reluctantly or not, many suppliers are listening and sourcing more work offshore. Since 2002 corporate profits have doubled, matching their highest share of GDP ever in 2006. Yet government data show domestic investment growing more slowly than in any previous postwar recovery. Corporations report an 18- to 20-percent annual increase in their total global investments. That means that companies are investing more outside the United States and less here at home. And that, in turn, helps to explain why more than 40 percent of the imports into the United States, which totaled $1.8 trillion (or 13 percent of GDP) in 2006, weren't from "foreign competitors," but from U.S.-based corporations' facilities and contractors offshore.
There are, and will always be, some products that need to be made close to where they are consumed because they are too bulky to ship, or because it is too risky to have long supply lines. Unfortunately, most of the products consumed in North America are easily shippable, and -- except for the largest items -- air freight is a viable option. Just look at UPS's and FedEx's exploding Asia business. A great July/August 2007 Atlantic Monthly article called "China Makes the World Takes" shows how laptops ordered online in the U.S. today will be assembled in China tomorrow and be FedEx'd to Long Beach the day after that. A lot is going to China and other low-wage countries.
Unless something is done about this situation, then onshore manufacturing is sure to shrink further -- perhaps quite soon and perhaps quite dramatically.
What can be done? One possibility is that many more U.S. manufacturers could contract out more of their work to low-wage country producers. But managing a far-flung supply chain is expensive, and hence probably not practical for smaller companies. Another possibility is for U.S. policy to change. The United States could get much more aggressive with respect to foreign subsidies, currency practices and labor standards, signaling that it will not continue forever to act as the buyer of last resort. The government could move toward more regulation of U.S.-based multinational corporations using the tax code to signal a preference for onshore production and onshore purchasing. These ideas, while still ridiculed as "protectionist" by most economists, have won new respectability in recent months through the work of the Horizon Project (see www.horizonproject.us).
But don't hold your breath.
There's still a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington that it's anti-business to get in the way of "free trade." This means that -- unless something drastic changes in American politics -- manufacturers are on their own.
Manufacturers have to figure out whether and how their companies can meet the low prices of low-wage offshore producers and, for products where they can't, decide whether to move the work offshore or exit the business.
Economists at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) believe that the data show that much of the work that manufacturers are tempted to move offshore can be performed profitably in the United States. But manufacturers facing this flat new world need to know what it will take to stay, fight and win. Manufacturers need to know:
1. By how much do prices (and therefore costs) have to come down to keep business?
2. Which actions will drive down costs the most to have a better shot at competing against low-wage competition?
Consulting firms report differences between on- and offshore parts ranging from 30 percent to as much as 50 percent. But at MMTC, we have concluded that the true landed cost advantage of a typical low-wage offshore producer is really more like 17 percent. The two charts on page nine show our analysis, comparing a $10-million U.S. facility to a $10-million low-wage-country (LWC) competitor. But those are just averages. The low-wage country landed cost advantage could be 17 percent, but it can also be 7 percent, 27 percent or 37 percent depending on the type of business.
Just as important: How much of the cost gap could be eliminated by increasing productivity? By reducing inventory? By redesigning products? By a further drop in the value of the U.S. dollar? What will it take to get costs down below the 100.00 index value of that typical low-wage-country producer?
Even though the average U.S. manufacturer's costs are about 17 percent higher than the average low-wage-country manufacturer's landed cost, 20 percent of U.S.-based manufacturers already have lower costs than their low-wage-country competitors (see below). In some industries, 35 percent of U.S. plants are lower-cost. Just as important, another 30 percent of U.S. manufacturers are within striking distance of LWC producers' average landed cost.
-- Daniel Luria is Research Director at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center
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