text:
The Economy and Success According to Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Zen Buddhist master, Thich Nhat Hanh has a very different theory about why our ecosystems are dying and our financial systems are crumbling. The Vietnamese monk credited with bringing mindfulness to the West believes that our desperation to succeed at all costs fuels our voracious economic system. An innumerable number of worldly 'sicknesses' come from this singular philosophical vice.
On one of Hanh's Facebook posts he said, "Each one of us has to ask ourselves, What do I really want? Do I really want to be Number One? Or do I want to be happy? If you want success, you may sacrifice your happiness for it. You can become a victim of success, but you can never become a victim of happiness."
Thay – as his followers call him, is no stranger to the ideology of the movers and shakers in our world economy. He was invited to speak in Silicon Valley by Steve Jobs once, and has met with the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim. He has also met with senior Google engineers to discuss how they could develop technologies which could be more compassionate and bring about positive change, instead of increasing people's stress and isolation, taking them away from nature, and one another.
He recently explained his concern with how people pin their happiness on success in an interview with the Guardian.
"If you know how to practice mindfulness you can generate peace and joy right here, right now. And you'll appreciate that and it will change you. In the beginning, you believe that if you cannot become number one, you cannot be happy, but if you practice mindfulness you will readily release that kind of idea. We need not fear that mindfulness might become only a means and not an end because in mindfulness the means and the end are the same thing. There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way."
Thay warns, however, that practicing mindfulness just to be more productive at work, or only to enjoy more material success will leave the practitioner with a pale shadow of awareness compared to what true mindfulness can provide. He suggests,
"If you consider mindfulness as a means of having a lot of money, then you have not touched its true purpose. It may look like the practice of mindfulness but inside there's no peace, no joy, no happiness produced. It's just an imitation. If you don't feel the energy of brotherhood, of sisterhood, radiating from your work, that is not mindfulness."
As company executives in banking, oil production, agriculture, manufacturing, tech, and other fields strive to be successful, are they missing out on the true peace that might come from preserving an ecosystem, or helping to protect biodiversity? Are these titans of industry reflective of our social and political slant toward ever-increasing spending, a lack of accountability fiscally and environmentally, and the disassociation workers feel from their families and friends while constantly trying to work harder and earn more?
Thay says that all businesses should be conducted in such a way that all the employees can experience happiness. He says that helping to change society for the better can fill us with a sense of accomplishment that doesn't come from focusing purely on profits.
When top CEOs make 300% more than their workers, and include stock incentives, luxury cars, and healthy expense accounts, how can balance truly be upheld?
When the world's top 3,000 firms are responsible for over $2.2 trillion in environmental damage, how can we find joy from nature?
When even Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who now heads up the software firm Asana calls out the tech industry for a lack of work-life balance, how can anyone find time to practice mindfulness or meditation?
Furthermore, even loss of life is acceptable in the name of profits. The 'business' of war has allowed the 100 largest contractors to sell more than $410 billion in arms and military services. Just 10 of those companies sold over $208 billion – while providing the means to kill millions.
Is it any wonder employees are broke, stressed out, and burned out from a lack of balance, no connection with other people, and an incessant work flow that promises very little reward, either financial or otherwise, from their toil?
Then there is the debt-based financial system of the Federal Reserve, propping up this entire show.
But the truth is that we don't actually need the Federal Reserve. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in United States history happened during the decades before the Federal Reserve was created.
We also don't need CEOs who make 300 times what their employees do, or ridiculous government policies which allow the notion of corporations as people, while ignoring the basic needs of real people.
Our courts have extended constitutional protections to the most unconscious among us, preserving a way of life that does not allow true happiness. Our constant aim for success has warped our original goal – to be happy. Isn't that why people want more money, more power, and more 'things.' But as Thay says, this is a false way to attain happiness.
What this quiet Zen monk is trying to tell us is that our entire society is upside down. Our economic system protects mindlessness, not mindfulness.
He says that the primary affliction of our modern civilization is that we don't know how to handle the suffering inside us and so we attempt to cover it up with all kinds of consumption.
Retailers peddle a host of devices to help us cover up the suffering inside. But unless and until we're able to face our suffering, we can't be present and available to life, and happiness will continue to elude us.
How do we change our economic policies so that all employees can be happy? It might help to look at our true goals. It might help to acknowledge the pain we've caused thousands of people by perpetuating war for the sake of profits. Success doesn't automatically equal happiness, not if the definition of success only includes the bottom line.
We can measure success by our fulfillment in life, by the people we've been able to touch with our good deeds, or a mindful interaction, by having friends, experiencing love, being able to walk in a forest, or learn how to play a musical instrument.
Perhaps the true goal should be peacefulness instead of happiness, even. As Hanh has said,
"If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society will benefit from our peace." This could be our new definition of success.
Image: Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village
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Polk County Snake Removal
Poisonous Or Nonpoisonous
Nuisance Wildlife Removal provides same day, professional Polk County snake removal service. Our technicians are trained in Florida snake identification to distinguish between venomous snakes like the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and non-venomous snakes such as the very common black snake or black racer. We remove all types of snakes, venomous or non-venomous, including North America's most venomous snake, the eastern coral snake. Dangerous or not, large or small, we can catch and remove snakes of all species found in Polk County, including pythons and cobras.
Snake Locator
We are also highly experienced in snake prevention methods, keeping those slithering reptiles away from your Polk County property. Snakes can be deterred in a number of ways. Like any mammal they like to be in safe areas with a lot of cover and areas with a healthy food supply, like rats and mice. Our technicians are trained to find snake nests and determine why the snakes are there in the first place. This allows us to effectively not only remove snakes already present but to help prevent other snakes from moving in later.
Snake Return Prevention
For a lot of people, a snake in the house is a terrifying thought. We know areas commonly susceptible to allowing a snake inside your home and can seal these areas against entry, preventing this snake nightmare.
So whether you need a snake removal technician immediately, need some snake prevention help, or need your home sealed to prevent snakes from getting in the house, give Nuisance Wildlife Removal a call at 866-263-WILD for any Polk County snake control issue.

subset: commoncrawl


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So you've got an Egg-Bot… Congratulations! You may want to share with others what this amazing machine can do. Here's what I've learned since I built my Egg-Bot and demoed it at a number of events.
What you'll need:
- Egg Bot
- Computer with Inkscape + Egg-Bot Extension
- USB Cable
- Markers (I prefer Sharpies)
- Eggs!
This is the most basic list of things you need to get the Egg Bot drawing on eggs. I'll also offer up a few items I've found useful later in this post.
And of course you don't have to draw on eggs, but I tend to prefer them for a number of reasons. Plus, it is called the Egg-Bot.
We'll assume you've already got the Egg-Bot up and running, connected to a computer with a USB cable, and Inkscape and the Egg-Bot extension is installed and working. If that's not the case, visit the Egg-Bot wiki and get it all working. We're mainly going to cover an actual demo.
So… You've got a working Egg-Bot. Where do we begin?
You're gonna need some eggs. I tend to buy white eggs at the nearest grocery store. The cheaper the better. If it's an all day affair, I may buy 48 or more eggs, and if it's a smaller affair, a dozen or two will suffice.
Raw or Hard-boiled?
The first time I demo'd the Egg-Bot I ran to the store, bought 54 eggs and headed to Milwaukee Makerspace to get set up. I ended up printing almost every egg, and I gave a lot of them away. To kids. I kept telling kids to not drop them, put them in their pockets, or leave them in their parent's cars.
Raw eggs seem to work fine in the Egg-Bot, but you have to be ready for when they break. Breaking while in the machine can be messy. Egg on your plunger is no fun.
Pro-tip: Bring some napkins or paper towel! Great for cleaning up broken eggs, and useful to get the ink flowing from a Sharpie.
The good thing about raw eggs is, if you get one that turns out totally awesome, you can try to hollow it out and save it, which is something you can't do with a hard-boiled egg.
As for Hard-boiled eggs? They are much more compatible with children. Almost every time I've done a demo, there are kids involved, and they are not gentle with eggs. Hard-boiled eggs also mean less-mess if they break. The downside is that you need to boil them. When's the last time you boiled 48 eggs? It takes some time… (I still haven't tried the oven method yet, but it's on my list!)
Start Early!
If you've decided to use hard-boiled eggs, you need to allow time to boil them, but even if you are using raw eggs, you'll want to start early. Like, a day or two early.
I like to show up to a demo with a bunch of eggs already printed. So at least a day before the event, spend some time printing some awesome eggs. Now's the time to try those designs that may take a long time to print. Also, experiment! The eggs you print before the demo will be put on display while you print other eggs.
Pro-tip: If you've got an iPad or some sort of digital picture frame device, set it up to do a slide show of your best eggs. I've also showed some of my eggs with a simple display board and a bunch of photos attached. This is the kid-friendly way to do it.
Give Them Away!
It seems to happen every time… someone wants an egg. What to do? Give them an egg! usually during an event I end up printing more than one of a specific design, so once I have two or more, I don't mind giving one away. Half the fun of the Egg-Bot is seeing it in action, and the other half is seeing the final product. If you give away too many at first, you've got nothing to show, so balance it appropriately.
Pro-tip: Keep a bunch of plastic baggies on-hand for people to put eggs in, especially if they are raw!
Show Them Off!
Sure, you can just use egg cartons to hold your eggs, but I like a nice piece of "egg crate" foam which is practically made for holding eggs! It's easier to pick up and set down the eggs as compared to an egg carton, and it looks much better. As a bonus, it actually goes in the box that holds the Egg-Bot, so it serves a dual-purpose. Sure you can use a basket, but this tends to put egg against egg, which could lead to cracking.
Talk It Up!
I usually let people know what I like about the Egg-Bot. I tell them what it does, and mention that it's a kit (they often ask if I "invented" it) and they can buy they kit, or download the instructions and build one themselves. I usually say "The Egg-Bot is an open source art robot" or something along those lines. I tell people that you can do Christmas ornaments, ping-pong balls, and other "roundish" objects with it, and that there is even an engraving attachment. If you're excited about it, people tend to take interest it in. Most people walk away smiling and talking about how cool it is.
I Need Art!
Hopefully you've got some SVG files on hand… if not, get some! You can check out Thingiverse for Egg-Bot-able designs, or you could make your own, or you can scour the public domain repository at OpenClipArt.org looking for things that work. Depending on your Inkscape skills you may be able to grab things from OpenClipArt on the fly, edit them for the Egg-Bot, and print them all during the event while talking to people. It's not easy, but yeah, I have done it. Oh, you can also just design your own art if you have those kind of skills. :)
In Conclusion…
Did I forget anything? Probably. Oh yeah, bring a power strip and an extension cord! You never know where you might be in relation to an outlet, but those two things always come in handy. Don't do any crazy software updates just before a demo. Test everything the day before to make sure it works, then leave it as-is. OK, that's all I can think of… Egg-Bot on my friends, Egg-Bot on!


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Stripe Wallpaper Red, Cream & Grey Direct Wallpapers E40910
Product Description
- A stylish stripe design wallpaper
- Can be hung vertically or horizontally
- Ideal for feature walls or entire rooms
- 10.05m (32.10 ft) long x 53cm (21in) wide
- Free match pattern
- High quality lightly textured wallpaper
- Easy to apply
- Paste the paper wallpaper
- Washable
- Colour: Red / Cream / Grey
Stripe Wallpaper - Red / Cream / Grey - E40910
This stylish yet simple Stripe Wallpaper features a wide stripe design in complimentary tones of red, cream and grey that can be hung either vertically or horizontally. Easy to apply, this high quality lightly textured wallpaper would look great as a feature wall or equally good when used to decorate a whole room.
Product Reviews
Write Your Own Review
Delivery Costs
Here at Price Right Home we offer a number of shipping services to ensure you get your parcel, when you want it.
- Free UK Delivery for orders above $39.99 available on all UK mainland orders!
- We also offer additional delivery methods including Next Day Delivery (Free on orders over $99.99)* and Standard Delivery (Only $5.99). Please note that all Next Day and Weekend deliveries will need to be placed before 2pm the working day before the desired delivery date. (*exclusions apply)
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- For more info on all shipping methods and rates, including International Delivery, please see our Delivery section.
Contact Us
Customer Services:
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Int. tel: 0044 1628 627470
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Monday - Friday | 8.00am - 5.00pm
Our Address:
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This page contains a lot of graphics.
Please do not link directly to any of
the graphics on this site. I am always moving and rearranging things and
it may not be here next week! Right click on the graphic you wish to use
and then choose save as from the pop-up menu. Save the file in My
Documents on your computer or on a disc. You may then upload the file onto
your server or into your account and use it wherever you wish.
Clipart and animated gifs.���
Background Sets���
Weekly Devotion and Bible Study���


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There is a shattered palm
on this fierce shore,
its plumes the rusting helm-
et of a dead warrior.
Numb Antony, in the torpor
stretching her inert
sex near him like a sleeping cat,
knows his heart is the real desert.
Over the dunes
of her heaving,
to his heart's drumming
fades the mirage of the legions,
across love-tousled sheets,
the triremes fading.
Ar the carved door of her temple
a fly wrings its message.
He brushes a damp hair
away from an ear
as perfect as a sleeping child's.
He stares, inert, the fallen column.
He lies like a copper palm
tree at three in the afternoon
by a hot sea
and a river, in Egypt, Tobago
Her salt marsh dries in the heat
where he foundered
without armor.
He exchanged an empire for her beads of sweat,
the uproar of arenas,
the changing surf
of senators, for
this silent ceiling over silent sand –
this grizzled bear, whose fur,
moulting, is silvered –
for this quick fox with her
sweet stench. By sleep dismembered,
his head
is in Egypt, his feet
in Rome, his groin a desert
trench with its dead soldier.
He drifts a finger
through her stiff hair
crisp as a mare's fountaining tail.
Shadows creep up the palace tile.
He is too tired to move;
a groan would waken
trumpets, one more gesture
war. His glare,
a shield
reflecting fires,
a brass brow that cannot frown
at carnage, sweats the sun's force.
It is not the turmoil
of autumnal lust,
its treacheries, that drove
him, fired and grimed with dust,
this far, not even love,
but a great rage without
clamor, that grew great
because its depth is quiet;
it hears the river
of her young brown blood,
it feels the whole sky quiver
with her blue eyelid.
She sleeps with the soft engine of a child,
that sleep which scythes
the stalks of lances, fells the
harvest of legions
with nothing for its knives,
that makes Caesars,
sputtering at flies,
slapping their foreheads
with the laurel's imprint,
drunkards, comedians.
All-humbling sleep, whose peace
is sweet as death,
whose silence has
all the sea's weight and volubility,
who swings this globe by a hair's trembling breath.
Shattered and wild and
palm-crowned Antony,
rusting in Egypt,
ready to lose the world,
to Actium and sand,
everything else
is vanity, but this tenderness
for a woman not his mistress
but his sleeping child.
The sky is cloudless. The afternoon is mild.


text:
Look mom, I've been published! Well not exactly but I do have one recipe published in this great new book coming out on March 14! It's called Les Carnivores Infidèles (The Unfaithful Carnivores) and contains 60 vegetarian recipes designed for carnivores who would like to lower their meat consumption. The recipes are beautiful, delicious and easy to make. My friend Catherine Lefebvre, who is a nutritionist and a blogger, is the author of this magnificent book. She meticulously tested and adjusted all the recipes in the book and supervised the whole process. The result is a gorgeous volume filled with 60 recipes and nutritional information presented in a fun and humourous way.
I just received my copy of Les Carnivores Infidèles and I absolutely love everything about this book! The photos were taken by Albert Elbilia and they are beautiful, as you can see in this post. I am so proud to be part of this project! The book will be available in bookstores on March 14 and will soon be available on Amazon. Unfortunately, it is only available in French for now so all of you non-french speaking people, you must find a french speaking neighbour/friend/family member asap and ask them to translate!
You will find my recipe for moussaka, a Lebanese eggplant and tomato dish very different from the better known Greek moussaka on page 112. As a special treat though, I am publishing it here today! 🙂
- 2 eggplants, cut in 1/2″ slices
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, sliced thin
- 4 garlic cloves,
- 1x540ml can of chickpeas, drained and rinced
- 6 tomatoes, diced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander (freshly ground is better)
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C)
- Place the eggplant slices on a cookie sheet, brush with olive oil and cook for 30 minutes (or until done)
- In the meantime, sauté the onion and garlic in a pan. Add the spices and mix. Take off the heat and add the tomatoes. Reserve.
- When the eggplant is done, place the slices in a pan, cover with the rest of the ingredients and place in the oven for another 30 minutes.
- Serve with whole wheat pita bread. This dish can be eaten at room temperature or cold. Enjoy!
If you do try it, let me know how it turns out! I like making this recipe at the end of summer when tomatoes and eggplants are at their best but you can make it any time of the year.
You can check out the Les Carnivores Infidèles's website and blog here.
You can also follow the unfaithful adventures of Les Carnivores Infidèles on Twitter (@lescarnivores) and on Facebook.


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[Editor's Note: This is part of an ongoing series of stories in which the ABC15 Investigators and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting collaborated to explore how Arizona regulates the storage and transportation of hazardous chemicals across the state.]
By Brandon Quester, AZCIR | Lauren Gilger and Maria Tomasch, ABC15
PHOENIX – More than 2.8 million Arizona residents — or 44 percent of the state's population — live within areas that are most vulnerable to a catastrophic accidental release of gaseous, and sometimes explosive hazardous chemicals.
The toxic agents, which the Environmental Protection Agency deems extremely hazardous, include chemicals such as anhydrous ammonia, chlorine and hydrofluoric acid. They are stored in more than 100 facilities that dot the Arizona landscape and, when released, can cause temporary blindness, searing pain, suffocation, and even death.
The radius of these danger zones can reach up to 22 miles from the center of the incident. They include clouds of toxic gases or explosions from flammable materials in the worst possible accident scenarios at Arizona facilities designated by the EPA as a serious risk to residential populations.
The "worst-case" scenarios are part of the EPA's Risk Management Plan (RMP) law, which requires facilities storing large amounts of hazardous materials to file the plans for emergency planning and risk assessment purposes. The companies include water treatment plants, grocery store distribution centers and commonly known businesses such as Target, Wal-Mart and Shamrock Farms.
The EPA is tasked with collecting and maintaining these records, but a patchwork of state and federal regulations make it unclear whether the plans are effective in protecting surrounding communities, the ABC15 Investigators and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting found through a months-long analysis of federal records.
Toxic and flammable worst-case scenarios limited in scope
The information within RMPs limits emergency planning because the worst-case scenarios only describe leaks from the containers of specific chemicals that exceed storage thresholds. It doesn't take into account the proximity of other containers storing the same chemical, the total amount of all chemicals stored at the facility, or the combination of different chemicals at that location.
Click the video to view this story as it appeared on ABC15
The plans also fail to determine realistic estimates of residential populations surrounding these facilities. The estimates don't include employees within the facility or the schools, hospitals, businesses and transportation routes nearby.
And it's unclear whether facilities importing these chemicals are following RMP laws. One Arizona facility was mentioned, but not identified, in a recent EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that questioned whether that facility was reporting its chemical imports. According to the OIG opinion, the chemicals weren't identified on the company's current RMP documents.
The report also stated that between October 2008 and March 2012, 460 accidents were reported to the EPA at 323 RMP facilities across the U.S. The accidents caused more than $260 million in damages, which resulted in 14 fatalities, at least 330 injuries and caused more than 64,000 people to shelter in place when the chemicals leaked.
The most recent leak in Arizona happened on May 5, 2014, when a construction crew at the Intel Corporation's Ocotillo Campus plant severed a pipe containing ammonia. It exposed 12 people to the toxic gas, all of whom required on-site treatment. Two of them were later transported to local hospitals.
"The public should be greatly concerned about these facilities," said Sean Moulton, director of Open Government Policy, which is part of the Center for Effective Government, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency and public access to information. "As a public, as a country, as a general population, we probably know less now and are less prepared for emergencies at these facilities than we were 15 years ago when the (Risk Management Program) started."
ABC15 and AZCIR reporters spent several months collecting and analyzing federal documents from the EPA to determine what hazards exist in and around Arizona communities and whether the necessary oversight is in place if a worst-case scenario became an actual disaster.
The RMP reporting requirements were designed to reduce chemical risks within communities surrounding these facilities and to help local fire, police and emergency response personnel to prepare for an accidental releases of the toxic and flammable chemicals.
The list of RMP chemicals is long, but it doesn't include ammonium nitrate, the chemical compound that caused the 2013 explosion in West, Texas, which killed 15 people and injured hundreds more.
ABC15 and AZCIR reporters explored sweeping shortfalls and absent regulatory oversight of ammonium nitrate in the first part of this series, which includes implications for other chemicals stored at facilities such as those identified in RMP laws.
A retail exemption exists for companies selling ammonium nitrate directly to consumers, which allows the facility to avoid chemical reporting requirements. Reporters found a similar retail exemption is in place for companies that should file Risk Management Plans.
Companies selling propane and other flammable fuels at a stationary facility, in which more than half of its income is from direct sales to consumers, are not required to file an RMP.
This flammable fuels retail exemption was added to the EPA's RMP law in 1999 through an amendment known as the Chemical Safety Information, Site Security and Fuels Regulatory Relief Act, and was designed to help companies such as gas stations from having to submit RMP documents.
Moulton said even if companies store the fuels in quantities that exceed RMP reporting requirements, they aren't required to file the emergency plans and risk assessment documents with the EPA.
"The RMP is a great first step in terms of understanding the risks in our front yard," Moulton said. "But it has a number of holes that prevent it from really giving us the full picture."
Public access to RMPs heavily guarded
Because of increased threats from terrorism, the act also limited public access to RMP documents. The EPA previously posted the plans online. The changes restricted public access to the Off-Site Consequence Analysis information, known as the "worst-case" scenario portion of the plan.
Now, one person can only review 10 facilities per month, in person, without any electronic recording devices, within a federal reading room, and under the supervision of federal agents.
Arizona has just two such rooms available for public access to these documents. One is in Phoenix and the other is in Flagstaff, Ariz.
"Unfortunately, in an effort to get security, we've swung too far into the realm of protecting information or withholding it," Moulton said, who advocates for public transparency with the Center for Effective Government. "We ignore the benefits of information and how it can actually help make communities safer."
But Mark Howard, the director of the Arizona Emergency Response Commission, said the security concerns for high risk facilities outweigh the benefits of full public disclosure.
This is the same approach Howard cited for protecting lists of ammonium nitrate storage facilities in the first part of ABC15 and AZCIR's investigation of hazardous materials oversight.
Howard is responsible for managing emergency plans from local and state emergency response personnel across Arizona, which includes chemical inventory lists and access to the EPA's RMP documents. He said it is up to the EPA to provide public access to RMP listings but that for the information he is able to release, he balances the business's security interests with that of the public's right to know.
"We do try to protect (the information)," Howard said. "I do want to make sure that the businesses are confident that we're going to secure their information concerning their facility.
"How is that going to serve that citizen any better to know what's there?" Howard said.
Moulton said knowing this information is an important part of emergency planning for communities and first responders.
"First, at the most fundamental level in terms of emergency management, you can't plan for an emergency if you don't know that there's a risk," Moulton said.
Information exists on the EPA's Vulnerable Zone Indicator website, which allows residents to search for RMP facilities to determine if their home is within a worst-case danger zone. The website will send an email notification to anyone searching for facilities and will inform them if an RMP facility is nearby.
The website doesn't, however, list or name the facilities in its emailed response. Instead, it forwards a link to the EPA's website which details the nearest local emergency response planning committee.
Arizona chemical leaks highlight need for public awareness
Risk management plan facilities are often located within the state's densest population centers. In the most extreme of Arizona's worst-case scenarios, one gaseous explosion has the potential to impact an estimated 1.9 million people.
That facility is DPC Enterprises in Glendale, Ariz. In 2003 it had a chlorine gas leak of 1,900 pounds that led to the evacuation of a 1 1/2 square mile area in Glendale and Phoenix, and required 16 people to be treated for exposure, 11 of whom were police officers. If the company's worst-case scenario incident were to happen, 180,000 pounds of chlorine would release into the air with the potential to spread 14 miles in each direction.
"By far, the most common calls here in the state are with ammonia — anhydrous ammonia, or the gaseous form, and chlorine," said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, co-director of the Poison Control Center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix.
LoVecchio said that it would be "very, very hard for any hospital in Phoenix — or even all of the metro Phoenix hospitals" to deal with an accident involving hundreds or thousands of patients.
In all, Arizona has 178 facilities that have filed risk management plans with the EPA. But of those, only 112 are currently active within the RMP database. The remaining facilities have deregistered, meaning the company no longer stores chemicals in the amounts that require filing, changed its chemical processing procedures to safer models, or no longer stores the chemicals at all, among other reasons.
Accidents like the 2003 leak at DPC Enterprises in Glendale, Ariz., highlight the need for public awareness of potential hazards within their neighborhoods as well as the firefighters and police officers responding to such incidents.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which investigates chemical leaks across the U.S., released the findings of its investigation into the 2003 DPC Enterprises leak and found significant lapses with safety procedures at the facility and the ability of first responders to communicate during a chemical accident.
"The (2003 chemical leak) occurred over 10 years ago and has been the subject of extensive review both internally at the company and externally by the Chemical Safety Board and others," Wayne Penick, manager of safety, health and security at DPC Enterprises, stated in an email. "DPC acted swiftly to address the finding of these reviews, implemented extensive corrective actions, and has not experienced any similar accidents since."
Increased oversight could improve community safety
The EPA is responsible for regulating RMP compliance, which includes inspections and oversight of states such as Arizona.
"When we do an RMP inspection in Arizona or anywhere else in the region, we invite local authorities or fire department to join us," EPA spokeswoman Margot Perez-Sullivan stated in an email.
Perez-Sullivan said the EPA works closely with the Arizona State Emergency Response Commission, Local Emergency Planning Committees and emergency response personnel within the jurisdiction of RMP facilities.
Howard said his commission doesn't receive the RMP documents directly from facilities. Instead, he said, the commission has access to the database, which houses the plans. He said it's up to local emergency planning committees within each county to incorporate and plan for RMP facilities, but that the commission does review the resulting emergency plans.
"(Emergency planning) is really more at the local level than it is at my office," Howard said.
According to the April report from the EPA's Office of Inspector General, increased federal oversight of RMP facilities that import and export hazardous chemicals could help with state and community-level emergency planning.
The report identified large shipments of anhydrous ammonia and chlorine entering U.S. ports and facilities, indicating that some facilities aren't filing RMPs as they should.
It analyzed data from hazardous material imports and found that chemicals exceeding the RMP threshold requirements are arriving at companies that haven't filed with the EPA. This includes facilities that imported more chemicals than the amounts listed on the company's current RMP.
It also found return shipments of empty containers, implying the facility either produced or stored amounts of chemicals requiring RMP reporting but didn't have such a plan on file.
Arizona is one of several states that are singled out in the report. It said one facility here received return shipments of empty anhydrous ammonia containers, which the OIG estimated could have stored 34,000-40,000 pounds of the hazardous chemical. The facility had an RMP on file, but it did not include documentation for anhydrous ammonia.
Officials from the EPA's OIG said the findings still need to be verified from the report but that the information can be useful for the RMP program to determine if shortfalls in oversight exist.
Failure to follow RMP program requirements can lead to accidental release of these toxic chemicals and "inadequate responses to protect the public when such accidents occur," the OIG report stated.
It's this risk for potential accidents, combined with the explosion in West, Texas in 2013, that prompted an executive order from President Barack Obama to improve the safety and security of chemical facilities across the U.S. It creates a national working group, which is tasked with examining current laws and to make recommendations on how to improve the safety of storing and transporting hazardous materials in the U.S. The recommendations from the group are expected early this summer.
Holly Brown with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting contributed spatial analysis and mapping for this story.
*Banner photo by Brandon Quester/AZCIR


text:
Hotel Pelourinho
Bem Vindo • Welcome • Bienvenido • Witamy • Willkommen • Bienvenue • Benvenuto
The Hotel Pelourinho is part of the site named by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.
The Hotel Pelourinho has a breakfast room, with a view to the Pelourinho and the Baía de Todos os Santos, elevator, stores at the lobby, travel agency and internet access.
The Hotel building is part of the personal history of the writer Jorge Amado, who lived there when the place was a student republic and where he wrote his novel named Suor.


text:
1. Assumptions underlying much of the poetry, fiction, and art
An (anti-Romantic) belief in original sin and in fallen man and nature; omnipresence of evil and the grotesque; lack of health, balance, and innocence.
2. Mood and tone
3. Imagery
4. Goal or theme
Incomplete and unsuccessful attempts to escape the human condition by means of posing, artifice, and evil, all of which are conceived of as unnatural and therefore better than nature.
5. Techniques (a)
An emphasis on brief lyric forms (cp. Romanticism) and a corollary concentration upon intense moments, climaxes of insight, or spots of time and memory.
6. Techniques (b)
These epiphanies and perfect moments often connected with landscapes or scenes, thus preserving an instant of time in an "artificial" form (compare Tennyson's "Mariana").
7. Techniques (c)
Central technique of implicit contrast that often involves both extreme or hyperbolic juxtapositions and a reference to standards or beliefs for intense effect in which the speaker supposedly does not believe. As Richard Le Gallienne writes in "The Décadent to His Soul" (English Poems,1892), "Sin is no sin when virtue is forgot. / It is so good in sin to keep in sight. . . Ah, that's the thrill!
8. Techniques (d)
A corollary use of allusion almost entirely for emphasis or effect -- as opposed to more traditional allusions both for effect and also to locate a work or statement ideologically. Thus, whereas Wordsworth or Tennyson use complex allusions to Christianity as a means of communicating their own more or less orthodox belief, Decadents like Dowson do so more for the impact produced by taking something religious, say, a sacrement, for an aesthetic effect. This technique, which the Decadents often use to make themselves appear self-consciously naughty, become a staple of Modernism.
Last modified 17 September 2002


text:
It's not just you, NBA executives think LeBron will be a Bull, too.
You watched the draft day moves by the Chicago Bulls, saw they freed up almost enough room for two max guys to go along side Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, and you thought, "That is where LeBron is going to go."
You are not alone.
According to one NBA executive who spoke with the New York Times, LeBron is ChiTown bound.
The executive, who did not want to be identified discussing a player who is not yet a free agent, said he had gathered from discussions with his fellow N.B.A. executives that James was strongly leaning toward joining the Bulls in tandem with another free agent, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors.
"I think it's a done deal," the executive said....
But their proposals will be without the flair and drama of a free-agent tour, because James has decided to have everyone come to him. Various teams, like the Knicks, had lined up chefs and celebrities to help attract James, but with the meetings in Ohio, the discussion will be about rosters, not restaurants.
"He is going to make a basketball decision, so all that is unnecessary," the executive said. "He just saved a lot of people a lot of money."
What we've learned: That NBA executives are thinking just like you. But until we get real word from LeBron and his inner circle, we don't know.
Still, I'd rather be Chicago than just about any other team right now. Even Cleveland.


text:
CRS: United States Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, September 9, 2008
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: United States Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom
CRS report number: RS22452
Author(s): Hannah Fischer, Knowledge Services Group
Date: September 9, 2008
- Abstract
- This report presents difficult-to-find statistics regarding U.S. military casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF, Afghanistan), including those concerning medical evacuations, amputations, and the demographics of casualties. Some of these statistics are publically available at the Department of Defense's (DOD's) website, whereas others have been obtained through contact with experts at DOD.
- Download


text: The following is from the CorporateWatch WebSite Feature "MNC Masala: India and Globalization" (http://www.corpwatch.org/feature/india/globalization/neo.html) It offers a pretty clear, concise, and cogent definition of Machine. Jeff Moebus New Orleans, LA ..................................................... What is "Neo-Liberalism"? A brief definition for activists - by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia "Neo-liberalism" is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 25 years or so. Although the word is rarely heard in the United States, you can clearly see the effects of neo-liberalism here (Chiapas) as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. "Liberalism" can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. In the U.S. political liberalism has been a strategy to prevent social conflict. It is presented to poor and working people as progressive compared to conservative or Rightwing. Economic liberalism is different. Conservative politicians who say they hate "liberals" -- meaning the political type -- have no real problem with economic liberalism, including neoliberalism. "Neo" means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, an English economist, published a book in 1776 called THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation's economy to develop. Such ideas were "liberal" in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism encouraged "free" enterprise," "free" competition -- which came to mean, free for the capitalists to make huge profits as they wished. Economic liberalism prevailed in the United States through the 1800s and early 1900s. Then the Great Depression of the 1930s led an economist named John Maynard Keynes to a theory that challenged liberalism as the best policy for capitalists. He said, in essence, that full employment is necessary for capitalism to grow and it can be achieved only if governments and central banks intervene to increase employment. These ideas had much influence on President Roosevelt's New Deal -- which did improve life for many people. The belief that government should advance the common good became widely accepted. But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That's what makes it "neo" or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing neo-liberalism on a global scale. A memorable definition of this process came from Subcomandante Marcos at the Zapatista-sponsored Encuentro Intercontinental por la Humanidad y contra el Neo-liberalismo (Inter-continental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism) of August 1996 in Chiapas when he said: "what the Right offers is to turn the world into one big mall where they can buy Indians here, women there ...." and he might have added, children, immigrants, workers or even a whole country like Mexico." The main points of neo-liberalism include: 1) THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much. 2) CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business. 3) DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job. 4) PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs. 5) ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy." Around the world, neo-liberalism has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is raging all over Latin America. The first clear example of neo-liberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman), after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico. As one scholar said, "Neoliberalism means the neo-colonization of Latin America." In the United States neo-liberalism is destroying welfare programs; attacking the rights of labor (including all immigrant workers); and cutbacking social programs. The Republican "Contract" on America is pure neo-liberalism. Its supporters are working hard to deny protection to children, youth, women, the planet itself -- and trying to trick us into acceptance by saying this will "get government off my back." The beneficiaries of neo-liberalism are a minority of the world's people. For the vast majority it brings even more suffering than before: suffering without the small, hard-won gains of the last 60 years, suffering without end. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Elizabeth Martinez is a longtime civil rights activist and author of several books, including "500 Years of Chicano History in Photographs." Arnoldo Garcia is a member of the Oakland-based Comite Emiliano Zapata, affiliated to the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico. Both writers attended the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and against Neoliberalism, held July 27-August 3,1996, in La Realidad, Chiapas.


text:
Health first
Curcumin Supreme (120 caps)
Health First's Curcumin Supreme contains clinically proven Meriva® Curcumin Phytosome® Plus MSM, ALA & Grape Seed Extract. This formula helps to relieve joint pain associated with osteoarthritis, and the pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee. Provides antioxidants for the maintenance of good health. Contains patented, clinically-researched MERIVA Curcumin Phytosome.
Free from: artificial flavours, artificial colours, gluten, wheat, lactose, dairy, preservatives, added sugar, yeast and GMO materials.
Medicinal ingredients: Each tablet contains: Meriva (Curcumin Phytosome Complex – 250 mg (containing curcumin (curcuma longa) turmeric rhizome extract; 50 mg 30:1, equivalent to 1500 mg; phosphatidylcholine (from Glycine max, soybean) 100 mg); MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) – 375 mg; Alpha Lipoic Acid – 25 mg; Grape seed (Vitis vinifera) extract – 25 mg (standardized to 80% oligomeric proanthcyanidins)
Non-medicinal ingredients: Microcrystalline cellulose, colloidal silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, hypromellose.
Adults (19 years and older): Take 2 capsules twice daily with food and avoid taking at bedtime.
Recommended duration of use: Use for a minimum of 4 weeks to see beneficial effects. For use beyond 3 months please consult your health care practitioner.
Risk information:
Do not use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you have diabetes, are taking antiplatelet medication, blood thinners, have gallstones or a bile duct obstruction, stomach ulcers or excess stomach acid. Consult a health care practitioner if symptoms persist or worsen. Some people may experience mild gastrointestinal bloating, constipation or indigestion.
Keep out of the reach of children. Do not use if under cap safety seal is broken. Store in a cool, dry place.


text:
Russian Civil War Update (1.3)
Glisterr, in Update Progress
Recommended Posts
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Age Of Civilizations II MEGAMOD v5.0 | NEW UPDATE! | PC VERSION! | 1 2 3 4 28
By PHZanoniGamer, in Mods
- project alpha
- addon+
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- 689 replies
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Our picks
The War of Revolutions 1756First, greetings to all of you, The story of our mod will take place between 1756-1760-1776-1789-1803 and after. If we need to explain briefly; It will be equipped with Events and other new mechanics that will include the 7 Years' War, the Beginning of the Industrial Revolution, America's Struggle for Independence, the outbreak of the French Revolution, and finally the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent historical issues.
- 191 replies
(1Mn Views) Conquerors v1.5.1 "Conquerors of the New Age" / DOWNLOAD NOW!
Kerems2434 posted a topic in Mods,
Map Editor 2.0
Reich posted a topic in Download,Improved version of the map editor, which differs from the usual one in that this version does not need to constantly restart the editor and manually rename the province files. This innovation will significantly reduce the time spent on creating a map and save your nerves.
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Age of Civilizations 2 | Addon 2.0 | ALIVEAddon 2.0 is our new global modification, designed to revise the idea of the original, and significantly expand its potential, due to the excellent implementation.
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Picked Byleonsojko627391,
Age of Elder Scrolls | FROZEN
Suzema posted a topic in Mods,Age of Elder Scrolls - is a mod that takes you to the universe of Elder Scrolls, to the planet Nirn. There will be:
- A big map of Nirn;
- Large count of elaborated scenarios;
- New ideologies;
- New diseases;
- Music from TES games;
- Remaded ages;
- Various wonders;
This mod will be developed for a long time, during the development something new will be added.
We are in VK - https://vk.com/ageofelderscrolls
- 383 replies
Picked ByMr.Snake,


text:
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text:
Here are today's five thing to know about Cheesecake:
- Pennsylvania Dutch-style cheesecake uses a slightly tangy type of cheese with larger curds and less water content, called pot or farmer's cheese.
- Philadelphia-style cheesecake is lighter in texture, yet richer in flavor than New York style cheesecake.
- Farmer's cheese cheesecake is the contemporary implementation for the traditional use of baking to preserve fresh cheese and is often baked in a cake form along with fresh fruit like a tart.
- Country-style cheesecake uses buttermilk to produce a firm texture while decreasing the pH (increasing acidity) to extend shelf life.
- Lactose free cheesecake may be made either with lactose-free cream cheese or as an imitation using Vegan recipes combining non-dairy cream cheese alternatives with other lactose-free ingredient
Today's Food History
- 1422 Charles VI of France died. It was during Charles VI rule that Taillevent was made Master of the King's kitchens. Charles VI also gave sole rights for the aging of Roquefort cheese to the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and all Roquefort must still be aged in the caves there today.
- 1449 George Plantagenet, duke of Clarence was born. Brother of Edward IV whom he was accused of plotting against. He was thrown into prison and secretly executed in the Tower of London. The rumor is that he was drowned in a butt (large cask) of malmsey wine.
- 1879 Thomas Edison demonstrated the first commercially practical light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
- 1990 Tom Carvel died. He was the inventor of the soft-serve ice cream machine, and founder of the Carvel ice cream chain.
Check out my book!
Categories: Food Holidays, October Food Holidays, Uncategorized


text:
ENGLEWOOD, Colo –Just like each of the 17 weeks of the regular season, NFL games were the most watched programs on television last week.
The Divisional Round games combined to average more than 34 million viewers and were the four most-watched shows on television. The fifth-most watched show was the BCS National Championship game between Florida State and Auburn, which drew 25.6 million viewers.
The Broncos-Chargers game on Sunday drew the largest audience of the four games as an average of 41.2 million viewers tuned in. Those numbers represent the second-most watch Sunday AFC Divisional Round game in 26 years.
The Panthers-49ers game drew the second-largest audience of the week with 33.3 million viewers.
Since the 2013 Academy Awards, just eight programs have averaged 30 million viewers, each of them NFL games. These numbers reflect a year-long trend that has seen ratings boost for NFL teams in their local markets. Last season, each team averaged a rating of 27.4, this year that number is up to 28.5.
The Broncos averaged a rating of 43.5 in their local market this season which was second-best in the league behind only New Orleans. Both the Saints and the Broncos tied for the league lead with a local market share of 73.
That Broncos' rating of 43.5 is a 17-percent increase from last season when the team averaged a 37.2 rating. Those numbers also represent a 37 percent increase from 2011 and an 83 percent increase from 2010. League-wide there was a four percent increase in ratings in the local markets.


text:
This post is shamelessly personal.
I have two sons that I love with all my heart. They are artists: one a musician, one a builder of fire-and-steel dreams. The dream builder works with a group called The Department of Spontaneous Combustion. They are building something amazing:
Imagine putting on a headset that takes the electrical activity in your brain and uses it to control the fireworks (LED lights and flame effects) on a fifteen foot sculpture of a brain.
Now pause and ask yourself: How cool is THAT?
Now, make it cooler: after they meet their commitment to take this thing to Burning Man 2013, they will bring it back to Oakland and take it to schools to inspire students to pursue the studies behind this artwork: math, science, biology, psychology, metalworking, art, and electronics. The name of this sculpture is Mens Amplio ["Mind Expanded"] because that is what it is going to do. It's not going to be just a fabulous toy (although it will certainly be one) – it's going to inspire and educate.
There's a catch: it's expensive to build something like this. It incorporates steel and LEDs, electronics and fire effects. They got seed funding from the Black Rock Arts Foundation to start the build. For that, they made a commitment to show it first at Burning Man, and to eschew corporate sponsorship. Now they are doing the rest of the funding via an indigogo campaign. You can see the campaign and a film about it at this link:
(If you watch the film, the guy in the white tee shirt is my eldest. He built the thing that bends steel pipes into curlicues.)
Because I believe in this project, and I believe in bringing it to the Oakland public schools, I am going to make a Free-Gift-With-Purchase offer to anyone who contributes to the Mens Amplio Indigogo Campaign: If you will send me a copy of your "thank you" email for contributing ANY AMOUNT to the project, I will treat you to One Session (drink included) with the Coffee Shop Rabbi. I will meet you at a coffee shop, bar, or similar place anywhere in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, and we can talk about or study anything you want.
Also, for those of you who don't know me well: I don't proselytize. That is, I am not going to "sell" Judaism to you. If you want to talk about religion, your bad experience with religion, Israel, atheism, Christianity, grief, or something else, go for it, the coffee (or beer) is on me. I love my work because I have something to learn from everyone.
I also consult on Hebrew tattoos (avoid making a mistake that will put you on this site) and will happily provide an ear and consult about dealing with impossible relatives.
To get my email address, fill out the form below. I will write you back with an email list to which you can forward your thank you letter, and we can schedule our session.
I'm doing this because I believe in this project, and I am fond of the crew building it.
Wishing every one of you a week of blessing and Torah!


text:
52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History
Week 18 - Weather
Thanks to GeneaBloggers and Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog for these prompts.
Week 18. Weather. Do you have any memorable weather memories from your childhood? How did your family cope and pass the time with adverse weather? When faced with bad weather in the present day, what do you do when you're stuck at home?
1. For many years, as a native Iowan, living across the United States, I told of the May 28th snow storm when I was a child, on our farm... I could not remember the year, nor did 'anyone else' I talked to, it seemed. I continued to tell the story, of course, when extreme weather was part of the conversation. My dad died in 1977... some years later, Mom married again, to another Iowa farmer. One day, probably early 1990s, it came up in conversation that I began to tell my 'May 28th snow storm' story - how Mom had a club meeting at the farm house that night, and what a mess it was.
Her husband, Roland, picked right up on the story - "Yes, it was 1947," he said. "I remember it at our farm; it was awful for that time of year" .... and went on and on about his recall of the event! How happy I was, to sit there and listen to another story of the same May 28th, 1947 snow storm I recalled so vividly from when I was just approaching my 8th birthday a month or so later...
2. Iowa - 100 year floods - 2 in just a few years
3. Table Rock Lake, MO - also 2 - 100 year floods in 4 years, 2008, 2011
Photo taken yesterday of Table Rock Lake and Dam with lake level just under max, gates in full release flooding many homes and parts of Branson Landing below...
Water from that last one not totally receded yet - watch out those of you in the lower Mississippi River regions in coming weeks!
Families are Forever! ;-)


text:
JournalismPakistan.com September 24, 2012
WASHINGTON: A State Department spokesman sharply criticized CNN Saturday, saying the network had reported on the diary of American ambassador Christopher Stevens after his death at the US consulate in Libya despite the objections of his family.
State Department spokesman Philippe Reines said CNN took Stevens' personal journal from the site where he and three other Americans were killed in an armed attack in Benghazi on September 11 and used it in reporting on the story despite the express wishes of his family members.
"Whose first instinct is to remove from a crime scene the diary of a man killed along with three other Americans serving our country, read it, transcribe it, email it around your newsroom for others to read, and only when their curiosity is fully satisfied thinks to call the family or notify the authorities?" Reines said in a statement.
CNN responded that it did not initially report on the existence of the journal out of respect for the family, but ultimately "felt there were issues raised in the journal which required full reporting."
"We think the public had a right to know what CNN had learned from multiple sources about the fears and warnings of a terror threat before the Benghazi attack which are now raising questions about why the State Department didn't do more to protect Ambassador Stevens and other US personnel," CNN said in a written statement emailed to Reuters.
"Perhaps the real question here is why the State Department is now attacking the messenger," CNN said in the statement.
In a story posted on its website, CNN reported that it found the journal on the floor of the consulate compound, which it said was "largely unsecured."
CNN described the diary as seven pages of handwriting in a hand-bound book and said it contained tips about the situation in Libya that the network corroborated with other sources.
In his statement, Reines said that CNN staffers asked Stevens' family members at least several times in phone calls if the network could report on the contents and were repeatedly told that the family wanted to see it first.
"But the Stevens family was never given that chance. I guess four days was as long as CNN could control themselves, so they just went ahead and used it. Entirely because they felt like it," he said. - Reuters
The News, April 1, 2019
If my call is so important to them, why don't they answer it for 22 minutes?
How come when I want to, but something specific online is the only item out of stock.
When I get into a queue or lane going fast, the moment I get in, it becomes the slowest and refuses to budge.Read more... | Archives


text:
I could not play this as it says i have to download it. Some people have to download and some do not apparently
http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/fo ... 213842913/
the above is the forum link to enable the zavod graveyard shift map
Basically go to origin/store/search for night operations and add as a dlc..
Zavod Graveyard shift Night Operations new map
Discussions about Problems with or during gaming, Game Settings, etc.
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July 1st, 2016 5:07 AM by Jackie A. Graves
Buying a home is probably the
largest purchase you'll make in your lifetime. And choosing the right type of
mortgage loan is one of the most important decisions you'll make in the
homebuying process. With so many different options out there, it can be hard to
find an affordable home loan that meets your financial goals.
by asking yourself "How
much house can I afford?" After taking inventory of your debts,
credit score, income and other monthly bills, you can make an
informed decision about the terms of your mortgage.
are three key loan decisions you'll need to make.
are two main types of mortgages: a conventional
loan guaranteed by a private lender or banking institution, or a
government-backed loan.
government-backed mortgages come in one of three forms:
three programs follow the limits for conforming loans and have low down
payment requirements. More on that later.
loans, on the other hand, are offered and backed by private entities such as
banks, credit unions, private lenders or savings institutions. Borrowers need
good credit to qualify. This is because the loans aren't guaranteed by an
outside source — so the possibility of borrower default poses a
greater risk for lenders.
loans have terms of 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. They also require much
larger down payments than government-backed loans. Borrowers are expected
to put down at least 5%, but that amount can vary based on the lender and the
borrower's credit history.
If you
don't have a lot of cash saved up for a down payment but have solid credit and
a stable income, a government-backed loan is likely the way to go. Keep in mind
that if you choose a conventional or government-backed loan and you're
making less than a 20% down payment, you'll have to pay for private
mortgage insurance.
If you
can afford to save up a large down payment and build your credit score while
lowering your debt-to-income ratio, a conventional loan is a great choice
that can eliminate some of the extra fees and higher interest rates that may
come with a government-backed loan.
you've chosen your loan, you'll decide whether you want a fixed or
an adjustable rate.
Your choice determines the interest you'll be charged.
interest rate on a fixed-rate loan never changes. If you're settled in your
career, have a growing family and are ready to set down some roots, a 15- or
30-year fixed-rate loan might be your best bet, because you'll always know what
your monthly mortgage payment will be. It's worth noting, though, that if other
fees are rolled into your monthly mortgage payment, such as annual property
taxes or homeowner's association dues, there may be some fluctuation over
mortgages, or ARMs, have interest rates that reset at specific intervals. They
typically begin with lower interest rates than fixed-rate loans, sometimes
called teaser rates. After the initial term ends, the interest rate — and your
monthly payment — increases or decreases annually based on an index,
plus a margin. They most often appeal to younger, more mobile buyers who
plan to stay in their homes for just a few years or refinance when the teaser
rate is about to end. Paying a lower interest rate in those initial years could
save hundreds of dollars each month that could fund other investments.
amount of money you borrow tells your lender a lot about your level of
risk — and it has a big impact on your interest rate. For this reason, home
loans fall into two main size categories: conforming
and non-conforming.
loans meet the loan limit guidelines set by government-sponsored mortgage
associations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2016, conforming home loans
for single-family homes in most of the continental U.S. are limited to $417,000.
In designated high-cost areas, such as Hawaii and Alaska, the conforming loan
limit for single-family homes goes up to $625,500.
can be non-conforming for a few different reasons. Some, called jumbo
loans, are for borrowers whose loan amounts are higher than the conforming loan
limits in their areas. Jumbo loans are considered riskier and come with higher
interest rates to protect lenders. You'll need to make a larger down payment
(at least 20%) and have pristine credit to qualify for one. Other types of
non-conforming loans include those made to borrowers with poor credit, high
debt or recent bankruptcies.
If you
want to stay within conforming loan limits so you get a lower interest rate,
you'll need to tailor your home search to properties priced below the loan
limit for your area. If you want a house that's priced above your local limit,
you can still qualify for a conforming loan if you have a big enough down
payment to bring the loan amount down below the limit.
All of
these options might seem overwhelming at first glance. But bear in mind that
the type of loan you wind up getting will depend largely on your credit
profile, income and overall financial goals. Before you start shopping for a home
loan, take complete stock of your finances and try to boost
your credit score as
much as possible.
If you
need guidance, contact a lender or mortgage broker in your area to help you
crunch the numbers and explore your options.
By Deborah Kearns - To view the
original article click here


text:
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text:
Stevie Wonder: Stevie's Moog Music...
Penny Valentine, Sounds, 22 January 1972
"I never did realise it would take me so long to lose that 'Little' Stevie Wonder tag. There are times when I wish I'd only just started right this minute. It's amazing how many people still think of me as this sweet young kid."
Total word count of piece: 1084


text:
Above, the uncanny floundering of USC wide receiver and All-American Robert Woods after he got spun around on a helmet-to-helmet hit. The spin itself might have made him dizzy—Woods does a full 180 after the hit—but as Jesse Palmer noted during the aftermath, it was pretty obvious Woods had his "bell rung." When Woods got up, he started toward the wrong sideline.
No matter, Woods only missed one play. ESPN's postgame notebook:
Woods said he remembered most of the incident.
"I remember trying to run," he said. "But I couldn't see. And then I fell."
About an hour after the game's conclusion, he said he hadn't seen the video of it, yet, but noted it was "probably on YouTube."
Woods said the concussion test given to him by USC's medical staff consisted of three questions: Who is the current president, what is today's date and what is 100 minus 7, minus 7, minus 7.
He passed all three, he said, and was allowed to return to the game after one missed play.
"There's no way you're gonna have Robert sit on the bench, no matter what it is," [teammate Marquis] Lee said.
Guys, no cause for concern: he remembers "most of the incident" and the president's name. Rub some dirt on it (your brain) and get back out there.
h/t Adam


text:
Japanese Department Store May Want to Look Up the Word 'Fucking'
If only we could have sat in on the meeting where the marketing team for this Osaka department store came up with the idea for their "Fuckin' Sale," spotted early this month by a reader of Jake Adelstein's Japan Subculture blog.
-There should be some cool English words on these signs.
-How about "Fuckin' Sale?"
-What's that mean?
-Fuckin' means, like, really good. So it's a really good sale.
-And there's no other meaning to "fuckin'? Nothing at all that might embarrass us on the internet? Remember what happened with our Save-a-Shit-Ton promotion…


text:
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text:
|@(#) $Header: /tcpdump/master/tcpdump/README,v 1.68 2008-12-15 00:05:27 guy Exp $ (LBL)
|TCPDUMP 4.x.y
|Now maintained by "The Tcpdump Group"
|See www.tcpdump.org
|Please send inquiries/comments/reports to:
|Anonymous Git is available via:
|git clone git://bpf.tcpdump.org/tcpdump
|Version 4.x.y of TCPDUMP can be retrieved with the CVS tag "tcpdump_4_xrely":
|cvs -d :pserver:cvs.tcpdump.org:/tcpdump/master checkout -r tcpdump_4_xrely tcpdump
|Please submit patches against the master copy to the tcpdump project on
|formerly from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
|Network Research Group <firstname.lastname@example.com>
|ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/tcpdump.tar.Z (3.4)
|This directory contains source code for tcpdump, a tool for network
|monitoring and data acquisition. This software was originally
|developed by the Network Research Group at the Lawrence Berkeley
|National Laboratory. The original distribution is available via
|anonymous ftp to ftp.ee.lbl.gov, in tcpdump.tar.Z. More recent
|development is performed at tcpdump.org, http://www.tcpdump.org/
|Tcpdump uses libpcap, a system-independent interface for user-level
|packet capture. Before building tcpdump, you must first retrieve and
|build libpcap, also originally from LBL and now being maintained by
|tcpdump.org; see http://www.tcpdump.org/ .
|Once libpcap is built (either install it or make sure it's in
|../libpcap), you can build tcpdump using the procedure in the INSTALL
|The program is loosely based on SMI's "etherfind" although none of the
|etherfind code remains. It was originally written by Van Jacobson as
|part of an ongoing research project to investigate and improve tcp and
|internet gateway performance. The parts of the program originally
|taken from Sun's etherfind were later re-written by Steven McCanne of
|LBL. To insure that there would be no vestige of proprietary code in
|tcpdump, Steve wrote these pieces from the specification given by the
|manual entry, with no access to the source of tcpdump or etherfind.
|Over the past few years, tcpdump has been steadily improved by the
|excellent contributions from the Internet community (just browse
|through the CHANGES file). We are grateful for all the input.
|Richard Stevens gives an excellent treatment of the Internet protocols
|in his book ``TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1''. If you want to learn more
|about tcpdump and how to interpret its output, pick up this book.
|Some tools for viewing and analyzing tcpdump trace files are available
|from the Internet Traffic Archive:
|Another tool that tcpdump users might find useful is tcpslice:
|It is a program that can be used to extract portions of tcpdump binary
|trace files. See the above distribution for further details and
|Problems, bugs, questions, desirable enhancements, etc. should be sent
|to the address "email@example.com". Bugs, support
|requests, and feature requests may also be submitted on the SourceForge
|site for tcpdump at
|Source code contributions, etc. should be sent to the email address
|submitted as patches on the SourceForge site for tcpdump.
|Current versions can be found at www.tcpdump.org, or the SourceForge
|site for tcpdump.
|- The TCPdump team
|original text by: Steve McCanne, Craig Leres, Van Jacobson
|This directory also contains some short awk programs intended as
|examples of ways to reduce tcpdump data when you're tracking
|particular network problems:
|Simplifies the tcpdump trace for an ftp (or other unidirectional
|tcp transfer). Since we assume that one host only sends and
|the other only acks, all address information is left off and
|we just note if the packet is a "send" or an "ack".
|There is one output line per line of the original trace.
|Field 1 is the packet time in decimal seconds, relative
|to the start of the conversation. Field 2 is delta-time
|from last packet. Field 3 is packet type/direction.
|"Send" means data going from sender to receiver, "ack"
|means an ack going from the receiver to the sender. A
|preceding "*" indicates that the data is a retransmission.
|A preceding "-" indicates a hole in the sequence space
|(i.e., missing packet(s)), a "#" means an odd-size (not max
|seg size) packet. Field 4 has the packet flags
|(same format as raw trace). Field 5 is the sequence
|number (start seq. num for sender, next expected seq number
|for acks). The number in parens following an ack is
|the delta-time from the first send of the packet to the
|ack. A number in parens following a send is the
|delta-time from the first send of the packet to the
|current send (on duplicate packets only). Duplicate
|sends or acks have a number in square brackets showing
|the number of duplicates so far.
|Here is a short sample from near the start of an ftp:
|3.00 0.20 send . 512
|3.20 0.20 ack . 1024 (0.20)
|3.20 0.00 send P 1024
|3.40 0.20 ack . 1536 (0.20)
|3.80 0.40 * send . 0 (3.80) [2]
|3.82 0.02 * ack . 1536 (0.62) [2]
|Three seconds into the conversation, bytes 512 through 1023
|were sent. 200ms later they were acked. Shortly thereafter
|bytes 1024-1535 were sent and again acked after 200ms.
|Then, for no apparent reason, 0-511 is retransmitted, 3.8
|seconds after its initial send (the round trip time for this
|ftp was 1sec, +-500ms). Since the receiver is expecting
|1536, 1536 is re-acked when 0 arrives.
|Computes chunk summary data for an ftp (or similar
|unidirectional tcp transfer). [A "chunk" refers to
|a chunk of the sequence space -- essentially the packet
|sequence number divided by the max segment size.]
|A summary line is printed showing the number of chunks,
|the number of packets it took to send that many chunks
|(if there are no lost or duplicated packets, the number
|of packets should equal the number of chunks) and the
|number of acks.
|Following the summary line is one line of information
|per chunk. The line contains eight fields:
|1 - the chunk number
|2 - the start sequence number for this chunk
|3 - time of first send
|4 - time of last send
|5 - time of first ack
|6 - time of last ack
|7 - number of times chunk was sent
|8 - number of times chunk was acked
|(all times are in decimal seconds, relative to the start
|of the conversation.)
|As an example, here is the first part of the output for
|an ftp trace:
|# 134 chunks. 536 packets sent. 508 acks.
|1 1 0.00 5.80 0.20 0.20 4 1
|2 513 0.28 6.20 0.40 0.40 4 1
|3 1025 1.16 6.32 1.20 1.20 4 1
|4 1561 1.86 15.00 2.00 2.00 6 1
|5 2049 2.16 15.44 2.20 2.20 5 1
|6 2585 2.64 16.44 2.80 2.80 5 1
|7 3073 3.00 16.66 3.20 3.20 4 1
|8 3609 3.20 17.24 3.40 5.82 4 11
|9 4097 6.02 6.58 6.20 6.80 2 5
|This says that 134 chunks were transferred (about 70K
|since the average packet size was 512 bytes). It took
|536 packets to transfer the data (i.e., on the average
|each chunk was transmitted four times). Looking at,
|say, chunk 4, we see it represents the 512 bytes of
|sequence space from 1561 to 2048. It was first sent
|1.86 seconds into the conversation. It was last
|sent 15 seconds into the conversation and was sent
|a total of 6 times (i.e., it was retransmitted every
|2 seconds on the average). It was acked once, 140ms
|after it first arrived.
|Output one line per send or ack, respectively, in the form
|<time> <seq. number>
|where <time> is the time in seconds since the start of the
|transfer and <seq. number> is the sequence number being sent
|or acked. I typically plot this data looking for suspicious
|The problem I was looking at was the bulk-data-transfer
|throughput of medium delay network paths (1-6 sec. round trip
|time) under typical DARPA Internet conditions. The trace of the
|ftp transfer of a large file was used as the raw data source.
|The method was:
|- On a local host (but not the Sun running tcpdump), connect to
|the remote ftp.
|- On the monitor Sun, start the trace going. E.g.,
|tcpdump host local-host and remote-host and port ftp-data >tracefile
|- On local, do either a get or put of a large file (~500KB),
|preferably to the null device (to minimize effects like
|closing the receive window while waiting for a disk write).
|- When transfer is finished, stop tcpdump. Use awk to make up
|two files of summary data (maxsize is the maximum packet size,
|tracedata is the file of tcpdump tracedata):
|awk -f send-ack.awk packetsize=avgsize tracedata >sa
|awk -f packetdat.awk packetsize=avgsize tracedata >pd
|- While the summary data files are printing, take a look at
|how the transfer behaved:
|awk -f stime.awk tracedata | xgraph
|(90% of what you learn seems to happen in this step).
|- Do all of the above steps several times, both directions,
|at different times of day, with different protocol
|implementations on the other end.
|- Using one of the Unix data analysis packages (in my case,
|S and Gary Perlman's Unix|Stat), spend a few months staring
|at the data.
|- Change something in the local protocol implementation and
|redo the steps above.
|- Once a week, tell your funding agent that you're discovering
|wonderful things and you'll write up that research report
|"real soon now".


text:
Cuban cigar sales hit record as China demand surges
On a roll
A surge in sales of Cuba's legendary cigars in China helped manufacturer Habanos S.A.'s global revenue rise 12 percent to hit a record of around $500 million last year, the company said on Monday at the start of Cuba's annual cigar festival.
Sudden demand in China
Habanos S.A., a 50-50 joint venture between the Cuban state and Britain's Imperial Brands Plc, said sales in China, its third export market after Spain and France, jumped 33 percent in value in 2017.
"Without doubt, there is potential for China to become the biggest market at a global level," Habanos Vice President of Development Jose María Lopez told Reuters after the company's annual news conference, while puffing on a smoke.
Best in the world
The Cuban cigar company's hand-rolled cigars, which include brands such as Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas, are considered by many as the best in the world, and the festival attracts wealthy tobacco aficionados and retailers from all over for a week of extravagant parties and tours of plantations and factories.
Lopez said that growth in global sales of Cuban cigars last year outpaced the luxury goods market, which expanded 5 percent, according to consultancy Bain & Co. He put sales growth down to several good tobacco harvests and new products.
The Habanos executive said the outlook was also positive, given solid demand and "excellent" climatic conditions. Hurricane Irma, which wrought havoc throughout much of Cuba last year, left the western, prime tobacco-growing state of Pinar del Rio mostly unscathed.
Top exports for Cuban economy
Cigars are one of the top exports for the Cuban economy.
However, the Caribbean island cannot sell its signature export to the biggest market worldwide for cigars, the United States, due to the decades-old US trade embargo.
Trump's hostility has no effect on sales
Improved US-Cuba relations under former US President Barack Obama stoked a boom in international travel to Cuba and boosted cigar sales on the island, with American visitors able to take home as many cigars as they wanted.
Lopez said US President Donald Trump's more hostile policy toward Cuba, including tighter restrictions on US travel, did not appear to have impacted sales so far. Domestic revenue rose around 15 percent last year.
"We trust that despite Trump's measures the Cuban market will continue to grow in 2018," he said.
Cuban symbol
Cigars have been Cuba's signature product ever since Christopher Columbus saw natives smoking rolled up tobacco leaves when he first sailed to the Caribbean island in 1492.
Late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was often seen puffing on his favored kind, the long and thin 'lancero', until he quit in 1985.


text:
Best Bath & Basement Remodeling Company in Lancaster Ohio!
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text:
My favorite side dish takes five minutes to make. It has only three steps. No garlic or shallots get minced, nothing gets topped with butter, and shockingly, it involves no truffle salt. It has only two ingredients, and the only reason I've held out this long telling you about it is because when I see a recipe that swears it will combine two ingredients in an entirely new and innovative way, I roll my eyes.
But this doesn't mean that you should be limited by my jaded expectations. In fact, I'd be spectacularly sad if you were, because this is wonderful. Fantastic. It's so fresh but deep, so simple but eloquent. I have craved it incessantly this week, and am certain I could eat it morning, noon and night.
I had it for the first time at the Red Cat restaurant in Chelsea a few years ago. I liked it, but found it a tad oily for my tastes. I don't like it when something as innocent and taste in its original packaging as zucchini is rendered into something excessive. (Fine, you got me, I'm lying.) I started making a version of it at home with far more minimalism, not to mention improvisation: I don't measure a thing about this. That's right, nothing gets measured. If you want a high almond-to-zucchini ratio, go for it. If you want more zucchini than almond, this will work for you as well. The only two things that matter are that the almonds get brown and toasty in the pan, and that you only cook the zucchini for one minute.
It cannot be made in advance. It benefits from a good salt and pepper seasoning. You can throw some thin slices of parmesan on or skip it, as I often do, but beyond this, no matter how hard I try, I can not make this any less simple than it is. It is impervious to my need to make everything more difficult than it actually is. It will not bend to my fusspot will. It wants nothing to do with my fluted tart pans, my differently textured salts and my lightly fried discs of garlic. This recipe could be my Lord Voldemort; I'm convinced it mocks me.
The last time we ate at the Red Cat, they inserted the recipe for this with our check. I have to admit, I snickered. Two frying pans? Adding ingredients to each half at a time and setting them aside? A quarter-cup of olive oil? Apparently somebody figured out how to make this dish high-maintenance, and for once, it wasn't me. For a minute there I gloated, until I realized that the joke was on me because they'd already figured out how to market it for eight bucks a serving. Thank goodness I've got no qualms about giving the goodies away for free, eh?
More zucchini:
Quick Zucchini Sauté
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons thinly sliced almonds
- 1 medium or 2 small zucchinis, cut into 1/8-inch matchsticks
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Peelings of pecorino romano or parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)


text:
The Lumia 800 was one of the most beautiful phones ever built in the long history of phone-building. It is widely acknowledged as the best Windows phone around. The next version, the Lumia 900, is bigger, faster, and—maybe most surprisingly—cheaper.
The Lumia 900 is a phone that every single person should consider owning.
Update: AT&T has told us the free Lumia 900 promotion was "temporary" and no longer offered. Still, our score remains, and a hundred dollars is a damn good price.
Why It Matters
The Lumia line is—let's face it—maybe the last chance Nokia has to make anyone care about its brand again. Nokia, as a manufacturer, has a legacy of excellent hardware. The company used to make some truly terrific phones—ones lots of us grew up with. Simple and nearly indestructible, these cellular candy bars set lasting standards. They were lovely, square, and ubiquitous. Today, they are endangered.
Nokia and Windows Phone are star-crossed lovers, pulled together by gadget fate. They both have a mutual respect for artfulness, geometry, and clever design. They're also both screwed if people don't start caring about each of them very, very soon. Each company knows this, and the price plan for the 900 shows it: The device is being sold for a liquidation-level $100
(or even $0!), despite its LTE alacrity and a design reminiscent of an alien treasure chest.
If the 900 bombs, it might not be a blunder Nokia or Microsoft can just brush off. This phone needs many, many people to notice it, adopt it, and truly love having it in their lives.
Using It
The 900 uses the juicy latest version of Windows Phone's OS—7.5 Mango. The phone itself has pretty much the exact same button layout as previous Lumia versions. On the right side you've got your volume rocker, power/sleep button, and hardware camera shutter. Each is sturdy, and comfortable without being plump. It's a cinch to trigger each with one hand, and the rounded polycarbonate body is as grippable as any fine metal block—and amazingly skinny to the point of perfect pocketability. Like, surprisingly skinny. It's a treat.
The rest is what you would expect from a Windows Phone in April 2012—in terms of software and specs, there are no surprises here. And that's fine.
The Lumia 900 is a beautiful object. Even in garish cyan—or "blue," as it's known to us plebes—the combination of Nokia's spaceship hardware and Microsoft's super-futuristic Metro vibe make the phone a handset of the future. The specs are nothing singular, but this is one phone that will keep you from thinking about its specs.
And why bother? You'll be too busy enjoying the thing to sweat its guts. Like its similarly colossal cousin, the HTC Titan, the Lumia 900 is able to do what its Android peers can never quite pull off: Remain stunning as its size expands. The 3.7-inch 800 is a prettier gadget for sure—probably one of the most gorgeously designed of all time—and Nokia just puffed it up to 4.3 inches. We would've liked an un-raised bezel as graceful as the 800's—but that's a quibble—the screen doesn't exactly melt into the body, but it's still nice and flat.
Windows Phone, as an OS, is fundamentally rectangular and minimal. That's its best aesthetic virtue. So inflating the ol' rectangle a little bit just gives the beauty more room to swim. It's like pouring gravy into a larger bowl. Or fancy wine. Whatever. That's not to say a 6-inch Windows Phone would make sense (it wouldn't!), but the augmented Lumia doesn't feel fattened, it feels broadened. It's an exquisite slab of super-responsive, clear glass and a bright, tough-as-a-brick body. Trust me! I tossed the 900 high into the air. It landed in a muddy field. It was fine.
But back to bright. The whole phone is bright. The display absolutely sings. Colors are, for the most part, terrific and vivid, and blacks are blacker than I've seen on any handset. Text pops with legibility and photos are sharp and vivid. It's a pleasure to swipe across—you just want to keep touching that wide pixel plane—and LTE only makes the phone feel more likely to make you smile.
In both New York and Washington, DC, AT&T's LTE connection was swift, delivering around 10 megabits of download and 4 megabits of upload speed on average. That's not as fast as advertised, but it's about as quick as many residential broadband hookups. Web pages, email attachments, and photo uploads all fly by. It's absolutely a huge data jump from the AT&T experience on, say, an iPhone 4S, and packs enough battery life to carry you over a day.
Oh, and hey, this thing costs $100 at most. One hundred dollars for a fast phone that's a pleasure to use.
No Like
Windows Phone is a pure, graphically preeminent operating system, but it's still a lonely one. The app store is a claustrophobic back alley. Internet Explorer is damn good, but it's on the slow side. In SunSpider, IE scores 7,000, roughly on par with molasses—double its competitors.
Of the paltry top-tier apps available, many need polish—Spotify wouldn't work on my Lumia at all, an issue AT&T is aware of. These are charges you can level at all Windows Phones, but in the case of the Lumia's gemlike form, it's a particularly sore spot. When you snap the 900 awake, you feel like you're holding the state of the art. And you sort of are. But then you realize how quickly you run into the software dead ends, and you cringe. The software needs updating. The Lumia 900 is hobbled mostly by factors out of its control.
Except for the couple in its control, like the over-saturated AMOLED screens (occasionally muddled whites, brights are sometimes too bright), okay-I-guess camera (photos are often over-saturated, washed out, or underexposed). These are a bummer, but not damning.
Should I Buy It?
Probably—it's only $100,
or zero dollars if you're a new AT&T subscriber, which you might be. Either way, it's paltry cover fee to enter the Nokia LTE Windows Phone beauty pageant. It's so quick and elegant. Sure, the apps could be better, and there are occasional imaging inaccuracies and overblown colors. Let them overblow. You're holding a pixel feat.
Lumia 900
Price: $100,
Free for new AT&T customers
Processor: 1.4 GHz
Display: 4.3-inch 800 x 480 AMOLED
Storage: 16 GB, non-expandable
Camera: 8 MP rear, 1 MP front, 720p video capture
Weight: 0.35 pounds
Dimensions: 2.7 x 0.45 x 0.35 inches
Colors: Cyan, Matte Black, Glossy White
GizRank: 4