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Proficiency: Battle Axe
Proficiency: Battle Axe is an active Weapon Ability in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Abilities are usually class-specific, and players may opt to make a Multiclass character in order to pick from a mixture of two different ability trees. However, rarely some Abilities can be found in 2 or more Classes.
Proficiency in a weapon or shield grants access to a modal ability for use with the associated item type. These abilities are situational and may be turned on or off to meet the tactical needs of a battle.
Proficiency: Battle Axe Information
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Yahoo stock surges in anticipation of Alibaba IPO
Alibaba's IPO is anticipated to produce Yahoo's second multibillion dollar windfall in two years
Yahoo is getting another lift from its stake China's Alibaba Group, a thriving Internet company that has helped mask Yahoo's own financial funk.
Investors latched on to Yahoo Monday in anticipation of a huge windfall from Alibaba's initial public offering of stock later this year. Alibaba triggered the latest wave of excitement about its forthcoming IPO with a Sunday announcement of its intention to list its stock on a U.S. exchange instead of in Hong Kong. The precise timing of the IPO is still unclear, although the documents for the filing are expected to be filed within the next six months.
Alibaba's IPO is anticipated to produce Yahoo's second multibillion dollar windfall in two years. The money could be used to pay stockholders a one-time dividend, buy back more stock or finance an acquisition of another Internet service that could help Yahoo bring in more revenue after years of contraction.
Yahoo's stock gained $1.51, or 4 percent, to close Monday at $39.11. The shares have nearly doubled in the past year, primarily because Yahoo's 24 percent stake in Alibaba has been the only way for most investors to buy a slice of a company that is likened to China's version of eBay and Amazon.com. Yahoo now boasts a market value $39 billion - most of which analysts estimate is tied to Alibaba's success.
Even as Yahoo's stock surges, the Sunnyvale, California, company's long-running struggle to revive its revenue growth continues as online advertisers steadily shift more of their spending to Internet search leader Google Inc. and social networking leader Facebook Inc.
Yahoo Inc. hired its current CEO, Marissa Mayer, from Google in July 2012 in hopes of engineering a turnaround, but so far she hasn't been able to boost Yahoo's revenue. Mayer has said that it still may take another year or two before Yahoo's revenue is growing at the same rate as the overall Internet market, a timeline most investors are willing to tolerate because of the company's prized investment in Alibaba.
Although her regime benefits from the Alibaba stake, Mayer had nothing to do with Yahoo's original $1 billion investment in the company in 2005. The deal was engineered by two of her predecessors as CEO, company co-founder Jerry Yang and former movie studio boss Terry Semel. Another former CEO, Carol Bartz, resisted shareholder pressure to sell all of Yahoo's Alibaba stake during 2010 and 2011.
Yahoo trimmed its Alibaba stake from about 43 percent in 2012 when it sold 523 million shares back to the Chinese company for $7.1 billion, or $13.54 per share. Alibaba is now believed to be worth considerably more than that, largely because of its rapid growth. Although Alibaba doesn't disclose its results, Yahoo has been revealing how the Chinese company is faring as part of its quarterly earnings announcements.
Alibaba's revenue during the first nine months of last year totaled $4.9 billion, a 60 percent increase from the previous year, according to Yahoo's regulatory filings. By comparison, Yahoo's revenue during the same period totaled $3.4 billion, a 6 percent decline from the previous year.
As part of its 2012 deal with Alibaba, Yahoo can sell about half of its stake -up to 261.5 million shares in the Chinese company's upcoming IPO. That would likely be enough to bring billions of dollars into Yahoo while still allowing the company to retain a roughly 12 percent stake in Alibaba, a slice that could become even more valuable if Alibaba keeps growing at a rapid clip.
BGC Financial Partners analyst Colin Gillis sees a downside to Yahoo cashing out of Alibaba. After Yahoo sells more of its Alibaba holdings, the company's earnings are likely to shrink because less money will be coming in from its Asian investments. Those investments, which also include a 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, accounted for two-thirds of Yahoo's $1.4 billion profit last year.
China web giant Alibaba gears up for U.S. IPOE-commerce firm launching what is likely to be year's biggest initial public offering Technology
Yahoo email accounts breached with stolen passwordsHackers accessed accounts to loot information, U.S. internet giant says Digital
Yahoo's revenue slides as ad prices dip againInternet giant's overall revenue fell 6 percent in the last three months of 2013 Digital
Yahoo CEO lets go top lieutenant in surprise moveChief Operating Officer Henrique de Castro was likely let go for not boosting enough revenue, says analyst Digital
Yahoo dives deeper into media with online magazinesThe new online magazines, focused on technology and food, were showcased during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Digital


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Fullmoon CD DVD Cover Artwork
Elegant and unique CD Cover Artwork. Suitable for Clubs, Bars or Concert events… Easy to modify, change elements of design, dimensions, all text editable.The final package you download includes a fully layered, renamed, grouped PSD file.
Print dimensions:
- 12×12 cm + bleed
- 4 PSD Files
- Front Cover (12×12 cm + bleed)
- Front Inside Cover (12×12 cm + bleed)
- Disk Cover (11,6×11,6 cm + bleed)
- Back Cover (11,8×15 cm + bleed)
- Perfectly Aligned
- Open in All CS Version
- Organised layers and grouped
- 0.25 inch Bleed Area and Guideline
The pack includes:
- 4 Photoshop files
You can download this font here: devil-breeze
- Used all images are FREE!
- If you have some questions, please contact me through my profile page.
- If you like this file please rate it, thank you.


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Merlin's weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin's weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
"What's 43 Folders?"
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann's website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
Back to GTD: Do a fast "mind-sweep"
Merlin Mann | Jul 24 2006
This post is part of the periodic "Back to GTD" series, designed to help you improve your implementation of David Allen's Getting Things Done.
Whether you learned GTD from the book or heard it from The David himself (via one of his excellent seminars), you know that the vital first stage of Getting Things Done is Collection.
As laid out in Chapter 5:
And, as David succinctly states elsewhere in the book, if you don't use a dedicated inbox in the context of a healthy collection habit, your whole house or office turns into your inbox. And that just doesn't scale. Failing to do so in recent weeks may be why you've fallen off the GTD wagon.
So, just as you learned Collection as the first step in implementing GTD (and to subsequently maintain your system), it's precisely the place to start when you're trying to properly get back into it.
And for the errant GTDer, I feel like the most powerful collection exercise is what DA calls "the mind-sweep."
Why the Sweep?
The idea behind the mind-sweep is to identify and gather everything that is making claims on your attention or is likely to affect the larger areas of responsibility in your life -- everything that's quietly burning cycles, stealing focus, and whittling away at your attention -- so that you can then decide what (if anything) must be done about each of those things.
By and large, you'll discover, your head is flooded with this stuff that you aren't or haven't been doing anything about. Not coincidentally, this is almost always stuff that represents some kind of incompletion, functional fuzziness, or procrastination on your part. And as long as you let that stuff accumulate as chunky deposits on the edges of your perception, it's very unlikely it'll get done since -- well -- they won't get done until they're been captured and properly started, right?
I mean, you don't sit around all day obsessing over chores and errands you finished two years ago, do you? No. Duh. They're done. And that's where you want to eventually re-locate all that you're not doing now: "done." That all starts with an exhaustive mind-sweep.
Get it on paper
As I tell my coaching peeps, anxiety unexpectedly becomes your best friend once you start to make a list, so try starting with a single sheet of printer paper and a pencil, set a timer for 10 minutes, and just begin scraping every conceivable anxiety and "open loop" from the corners of your brainpan.
Definitely begin with the hopelessly-behind project that's making you insane right now (don't front; you know that's why you're here), then proceed methodically (and eventually stream-of-consciousness-ly) through every flash of thought that makes you cringe, groan, pause, ponder, or exclaim; these are the runaway processes that are (at least partly) responsible for your brain's current CPU issues. You need them out.
Work the anxiety
Remember, this is your big chance to reward that overly sensitive constitution of yours by converting the fuel for flopsweat into items that can later be made actionable (or deferred or delegated or killed etc). But you can't do anything about it until it's been captured and evaluated in some location that has better lighting than the inside of your pointy little head. So, be courageous, loosen your brain's sphincter, and let 'er rip.
It's very useful here to employ the "Incompletion Triggers List" that David Allen provides in Getting Things Done (look in Chapter 5). If you can read phrases like "Cash flow," "Upcoming Events: Birthdays," and "Areas to Clean" and not feel some cringe of nagging incompletion -- well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. Reading that list sends my own head into paroxysms.
Relentless, exhaustive, and focused
For the sweep to really do its best work, you must call upon extraordinary willpower to stay in collection mode. Remember the day you finally "got" how GTD worked by firewalling your planning time from your doing time? Same idea here. No straying.
Don't go tearing ass toward beginning every task you capture the second it occurs to you. If you're really behind in collection and suffer from distraction, I would (non-canonically) suggest even a sparing use of the two-minute rule. Don't afford yourself opportunities to break concentration if you're really on a roll. Staying focused on, as DA says, quantity of items captured is paramount. Be slavish about constantly returning to capture and follow every mental rabbit hole as far as it goes. Relief is at the other end.
Remember, your brain is smarter than you, and it can't be tricked into thinking that things are taken care of when they actually aren't. It's kind of a dick like that.
So, if the ten minute timer dings, and you've still got stuff on your mind, just keep on plowing away. It might take ten minutes just for you to sufficiently loosen up, and it's important that you gather as much as you can -- particularly if it's been a while since you've done this.
So, now what?
Well, if you've read GTD, you know what to do next; you process.
But, for the purposes of seeing this particular collection strictly in terms of getting back into GTD, I'd suggest also asking yourself a few questions as you read through your list:
See if you aren't feeling a little better about getting back into things. Do you need more collection or can you proceed to processing? Cool. Onward!
Better collection habits
Remember, now, this doesn't all just happen once; ubiquitous capture is a process that means staying mindful, always having the collection tools you need nearby, and then using them. No, it doesn't have to be a Hipster PDA -- it could be a Treo, a whiteboard, or the side of your freshly shorn cat. The point is, capture the first time you think of it and you can rededicate that mental processing cycle to more interesting creative work.
Have you had good luck using Collection and mind-sweeps to get back into Getting Things Done? Got an inspiring tip to help other folks get back in the swing via smart Collection?
Quick Mindsweep... Whenever you fell off...
Submitted by moonlanders blog (not verified) on July 29, 2006 - 3:46am.
Quick Mindsweep...
Whenever you fell off the GTD wagon one way to get back on track is to restart collecting. A quick mindsweep is how to do it. Merlin Mann made an excellent posting about it. You can read it here. What...
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The march toward musical empire began on Oct. 22, 2003, in a bar in Milan, Italy, 4,300 miles away from Detroit. Fans of Club Brugge K.V., in town for their team's group-stage UEFA Champions League clash against European giant A.C. Milan, gathered to knock back some pre-match beers. Over a stereo blared seven notes: Da...da-DA-da da DAAH DAAH, the signature riff of a minor American hit song.
By normal pop-music expectations, the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" had already passed its peak. Released in March of that year, the single reached No. 1 on Billboard's alternative rock chart in early July, stayed there for three weeks, then had begun to fade out. But the members of the Blue Army, a Brugge supporters group, liked what they were hearing and began to sing along. "It's a very catchy tune," Blue Army spokesman Geert De Cang wrote in an email.
Eight years later, the riff-turned-anthem is ubiquitous and seemingly inevitable, an organic part of global sports culture. On Thanksgiving night, 71,000 fans at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore chanted the riff in unison. You'll likely hear it again when the Ravens host the Texans on Sunday, in the background of the broadcast.
But in Milan, at the beginning, it was purely spontaneous and local. Kickoff was coming. The visiting Belgians moved out into the city center, still singing. They kept chanting it in the stands of the San Siro—Oh...oh-OH-oh oh OHH OHH—as Peruvian striker Andres Mendoza stunned Milan with a goal in the 33rd minute and Brugge made it hold up for a shocking 1-0 upset. Filing out of the stadium, they continued to belt it out.
The song traveled back to Belgium with them, and the Brugge crowd began singing it at home games. The club itself eventually started blasting "Seven Nation Army" through the stadium speakers after goals.
Then, on Feb. 15, 2006, Club Brugge hosted A.S. Roma in a UEFA Cup match. The visitors won, 2-1, and the Roma supporters apparently picked up the song from their hosts.
"I had never heard the song before we stepped on the field in Bruges," Roma captain Francesco Totti told a Dutch newspaper later. "Since then, I can't get the 'Po po po po po poo pooo' out of my head. It sounded fantastic and the crowd was immediately totally into it. I quickly went out and bought one of the band's albums."
So "Seven Nation Army," having gone from Milan to Bruges, marched back to Italy again. Italians call it the "po po po po" song. By the time the World Cup kicked off in Germany that June, it had become the Italian national team's unofficial theme. Sports Illustrated reported that fans had serenaded Totti with the song during Italy's group-stage win over Ghana. The Azzurri beat France in the final on July 9, and amid the ensuing celebration, "Seven Nation Army" chants popped up on the streets of Rome.
On July 11 in Milan, Italian soccer stars Alessandro Del Piero and Marco Materazzi—the victim of Zinedine Zidane's head butt—led a crowd rendition of "Seven Nation Army" from the stage at a Rolling Stones concert. Soon, Jack White himself weighed in: "I am honored that the Italians have adopted this song as their own," White said. "Nothing is more beautiful than when people embrace a melody and allow it to enter the pantheon of folk music."
"It's still hard for me to digest," said Ben Swank, an executive at Third Man Records, White's label, on the phone from his office in Nashville. Swank was present at the birth of "Seven Nation Army," in January 2002—a moment whose significance was notably lost on him.
"[H]e was with us on tour in Australia when I wrote that song at soundcheck," White told Rolling Stone in 2009. "I was playing it for Meg and he was walking by and I said, 'Swank, check this riff out.' And he said, 'It's OK.' [Laughs]."
"Weirdly enough," Swank said, "I didn't like it. I said, 'I don't know man, you can do better.'" But the finished product, the opening track on Elephant, made him a believer. "It's the directness and simplicity of it," he says. "That's the appeal of their band across the board. I feel that way about all my favorite music of theirs. It's more emotion-based than thought-out or planned."
What makes "Seven Nation Army" different from most stadium anthems is that it actually has replay value. In February 2004, it won a Grammy for Best Rock song. The Grammys aren't the ideal barometer of cool, but "Who Let the Dogs Out?" never won a little gilded gramophone, did it? [CORRECTION: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" won Best Dance Recording in 2000. Deadspin regrets overestimating the Grammys.] It's not syrupy like "Sweet Caroline," or melodramatic like "We Are the Champions," or gimmicky (or performed by a horrible, horrible person) like "Rock and Roll Part II." A few years ago, The Guardian wondered if it was "the indiest football anthem of all time."
"Seven Nation Army" made a beachhead in American sports in State College, Penn. According to a 2006 story in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Penn State spokesperson Guido D'Elia—who is still the director of communications and branding for the embattled football program—was inspired by hearing a Public Radio International story about A.S. Roma's use of the song. D'Elia, who also introduced the now unavoidable German techno track "Kernkraft 400" to Nittany Lions fans, had found something new:
D'Elia had the Blue Band try it out during the soggy Blue-White scrimmage. And he's preparing a dubbed version of Jack White's seven-note guitar lick from the song in hopes the students will start in with their own wohhh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhh-ohhh. If they don't, he'll scrap it. If they do, he'll keep it.
By the middle of the 2006 season, "Seven Nation Army" was a Beaver Stadium staple. (This year, as Penn State students gathered on Nov. 8 outside the university administration building, they began singing Joe Paterno's first name over the riff.)
At the same time, Arrangers' Publishing of Nashville had begun selling "Seven Nation Army" sheet music for marching bands, turning the angry one-guitar song into ensemble music. The hypnotic riff—which White reportedly produced by feeding his guitar through an effects pedal to make it sound like a bass—fit the new arrangement nicely. "The doom of it," Swank says, "makes it perfect for a marching band."
The Boston College band picked it up immediately, and the song has kept spreading. "It was very simple to play, angry, very loud, and kind of aggressive," Arrangers' Publishing vice president Jeff Hearington said. "The minute I heard it I said, 'We need to try to license this.'" The company has sold about 2,000 copies, Hearington said.
Today, there are few athletic venues the song hasn't invaded. "Seven Nation Army" has appeared at both Michigan and Ohio State, and also at obscure schools (check out this rendition by St. Cloud State's band). At Euro 2008, it was played and chanted incessantly at stadiums in Austria and Switzerland. It's popped up in NBA arenas and at NFL stadiums, competing with standbys like "Hells Bells," "Welcome to the Jungle," and "Crazy Train" for time on the endless loop.
This past summer, the Ravens polled fans about what song should rally the crowd into the fourth quarter at home games. "Seven Nation Army" beat out "Enter Sandman" and Joe Satriani's "Crowd Chant," among others, in the final balloting, and it is now a ritual. The Detroit Lions joined in, too, playing the song at Ford Field. In October, coach Jim Schwartz mentioned it on Twitter. "I rarely notice music during timeouts," he wrote, "but I did enjoy #WhiteStripes 7 Nation Army last night. Great response by crowd."
Swank is still bemused by the song's all-conquering success. He glimpsed the extent of its reach more than five years ago, while vacationing on the island of Formentera during the 2006 World Cup. There, on a 32-square-mile dot in the middle of the Mediterranean, he heard a group of Italians chanting the riff White had composed at that Australian soundcheck. "He accidentally wrote a folk song," Swank said. "You do the best you can, but you can't predict where it's going to go."
Alan Siegel is a writer in Washington, D.C. Contact him at email@example.com; follow him on Twitter @alansiegeldc. Image by Jim Cooke.


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Senate hearing investigating recalls targets GM's legal staff
A Senate subcommittee chairwoman says General Motors should have fired its chief lawyer in the wake of a long-delayed recall of millions of small cars.
An internal report found GM attorneys signed settlements with the families of crash victims but didn't tell engineers or top executives about mounting problems with ignition switches. It also found that GM's legal staff acted without urgency.
GM says faulty ignition switches were responsible for at least 13 deaths. It took the company 11 years to recall the cars.
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri says GM's chief counsel, Michael Milliken, should be fired.
In prepared testimony, Milliken said he didn't learn about the switch issue until February and took immediate action.
Milliken, GM CEO Mary Barra and others are appearing Thursday before the subcommittee.


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MANY people became rightfully upset about bailouts given to big banks during the mortgage crisis. But it turns out that they are still going on, if more quietly, through the back door.
The existence of one such secret deal, struck in July between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank of America, came to light just last week in court filings.
That the New York Fed would shower favors on a big financial institution may not surprise. It has long shielded large banks from assertive regulation and increased capital requirements.
Still, last week's details of the undisclosed settlement between the New York Fed and Bank of America are remarkable. Not only do the filings show the New York Fed helping to thwart another institution's fraud case against the bank, they also reveal that the New York Fed agreed to give away what may be billions of dollars in potential legal claims.
Here's the skinny: Late last Wednesday, the New York Fed said in a court filing that in July it had released Bank of America from all legal claims arising from losses in some mortgage-backed securities the Fed received when the government bailed out the American International Group in 2008. One surprise in the filing, which was part of a case brought by A.I.G., was that the New York Fed let Bank of America off the hook even as A.I.G. was seeking to recover $7 billion in losses on those very mortgage securities.
It gets better.
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Search for a charity of your choice to donate to in memory of Hyacinth.
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~ In our series of letters from African journalists, novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani profiles the lawyer who brokered the release of 82 women captured by Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
When 57-year-old Zannah Mustapha arrived for the handover of the 82 Chibok girls freed from Boko Haram after three years in captivity, a militant read out the girls' names from a list.
One by one, the abducted schoolgirls, now women, lined up along the outskirts of a forest near Kumshe town, on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. Each of them was covered from head to ankle in a dark-coloured hijab.
"I went ahead of the Red Cross. They [the militants] brought the girls to me," said Mr Mustapha, the lawyer from Borno state in north-east Nigeria.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionMr Mustapha says the girls started singing for joy when they got into Red Cross vehicles
He has been mediating between the government and militants for the release of the Chibok girls and for an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari told the media that his government was willing to negotiate with "credible" leaders of Boko Haram for the release of the girls.
More than 200 of them were abducted a year earlier from the north-eastern town of Chibok, sparking global outrage.
Previous attempts had failed, with different groups coming forward, each claiming to be the militants in possession of the missing schoolgirls.
It was Mr Mustapha who succeeded in convincing the Nigerian authorities that this particular group should be taken for what they say, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu told me.
The freed women will now have to rebuild their lives
"He had dealt with them in the past and they keep to their word," he said.
Mr Mustapha's role as a mediator dates back to his founding the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School in 2007, to provide free Islamic-based education to orphans and the poor.
When the Boko Haram insurgency erupted in 2009, the school offered admission to the children of soldiers and government officials killed by the militants, as well as those of militants killed by the
The 82 met the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari after they were rescued
Mr Mustapha then sought the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which began providing free meals to the pupils.
He also encouraged parents to form an association which would reach out to other widows and convince them to send their children to his school.
The ICRC soon extended its humanitarian services to the mothers, providing them free food and other items every month.
"This was at a time when the wives of Boko Haram militants were being arrested and their houses demolished, so Boko Haram saw me and the ICRC as neutral parties," Mr Mustapha said.
During the previous government of President Goodluck Jonathan, former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Maiduguri, the epicentre of the insurgency, to intervene in the escalating crisis.
He then set up a group to discuss peace with Boko Haram. Mr Mustapha was included in it because of the relationship he had forged with the families of Boko Haram militants.
After the Swiss ambassador to Nigeria paid a visit to the Future Prowess school in 2012, he arranged for Mr Mustapha to go to Zurich and Geneva to receive formal training as a mediator.
"We were already trying to negotiate peace with Boko Haram before the Chibok girls were kidnapped," Mr Mustapha said.
The initial negotiation was for a batch of 20 Chibok girls to be released.
But, as a sign of commitment to their relationship, Boko Haram added an extra woman, whom Mr Mustapha said was their gift to him, hence the number 21.
Image copyrightOFFICE OF THE FIRST LADYImage captionThe kidnapping provoked global outrage in 2014 including from Michelle Obama
When they were released in October 2016, she was chosen by Boko Haram to read out the names of the other 20 women from a list.
Mr Mustapha said the 21 women were lined up and asked by Boko Haram militants if they had been raped. They all said they were not.
When a militant approached a woman who was carrying a baby, she said that she was pregnant at the time of her abduction, having got married a few weeks earlier.
The baby girl in her arms, she said, was her husband's child.
For some reason, Boko Haram, a group that has cultivated a reputation for brutality, wanted it to be known that it was only after the women "agreed" to get married that the militants had sexual relations with them.
"I felt that I have done something that is worth saying to the world that I have done this," Mr Mustapha said.
This process of lining up the women, pointing at each one and asking the same question, was repeated at the beginning of May when 82 more women were released.
One of about seven Boko Haram militants, who accompanied them, went from woman to woman asking: "Throughout the time you were with us, did anyone rape you or touch you?" Mr Mustapha said, adding that each of them replied in the negative.
None of the second batch of 82 captives came with a child.
But one had an amputated limb and was walking with crutches, an injury she sustained, according to what Mr Mustapha was told, during Nigerian military air strikes against Boko Haram.
'They all ran'
"You are free today," Mr Mustapha announced to the 82 women after all the names were called out.
"They all smiled," he said.
He believes that their subdued reaction was as a result of the presence of the militants, all armed with guns, some wearing army camouflage uniforms and boots.
Mr Mustapha then took some photographs with the women. The militants also had their video camera on hand and recorded the event. ICRC vehicles eventually arrived.
"When I told them to go to the cars, they all ran," Mr Mustapha said. "Immediately they entered the vehicles, they started singing for joy. Some shed tears."
Mr Mustapha has received a number of accolades for his work with Future Prowess School. He was a finalist for the 2016 Robert Burns humanitarian award, given to those who have "saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through self-sacrifice, selfless service, hands-on charitable or volunteer work, or other acts". He was also given a 2017 Aurora Prize Modern Day Hero award, for those whose "life and actions guarantee the safe existence of others".
However, he described handing over the 82 freed girls to the Nigerian government as "the highest point in my life".
"I felt that I have done something that is worth saying to the world that I have done this," he said.
Published by BBC.
Edited by Ola Shamsuldeen Adeniji.


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Book Chapter
"Plastic Representation of the Reachable Space for a Humanoid Robot", in From Animals to Animats 12, vol. 7426, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 167-176.,
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"TRANSPARENT SHARING OF LINKS IN INMOS TOOLSET APPLICATIONS", in Transputer Applications and Systems '94: Proceedings of the 1994 World Transputer Congress, vol. 41, 1994, pp. 739-747.,
"UJI HRI-BD: A New Human-Robot Interaction Benchmark Dataset", in Human-Robot Interactions. Principles, Technologies and Challenges, Nova Publishers New York, 2015, pp. 57–74.,
"Visual analysis of robot and animal colonies", in Swarm Robotics, In-Tech, 2010, pp. 91–101.,
"A visual application for studying cooperative behaviours", in Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing, Acta Press, 2007, pp. 70–75.,
"Visual-Aided Guidance for the Maintenance of Multirobot Formations", in Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 83, 2013, pp. 217-228.,
Conference Paper
"The 2007 Spanish Humanoids Competition: From the Winners Point of View", in 8th Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions, Aveiro (Portugal), 2008.,
"3D Grasp Synthesis Based on a Visual Cortex Model", in The First IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2006. BioRob 2006.The First IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2006. BioRob 2006., Pisa, Italy, 2006.,
"3D Grasp Synthesis Based on Object Exploration", in 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, Kunming, China, 2006.,
"An active learning approach for assessing robot grasp reliability", in Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2004. (IROS 2004). Proceedings. 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on, 2004.,
"Adaptive Saccade Controller Inspired by the Primates' Cerebellum", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, Washington, USA, 2015.,
"Augmenting the Reachable Space in the NAO Humanoid Robot", in AAAI Workshops, 2012.,
"Bayesian Multimodal Integration in a Robot Replicating Human Head and Eye Movements", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014.,
"Between frustration and elation: sense of control regulates the intrinsic motivation for motor learning", in AAAI Workshop on Lifelong learning, 2011.,
"Body Language for Mood Induction Procedures", in Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Extended Abstracts, New York, NY, USA, 2015.,


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On an early June morning as you leave the barn after milking and head for the house for breakfast, the whole world seems to be just right. The mare stands by her foal, head down as though asleep. Even the foal, belly full of milk, stretched out on its side, is dozing. The early morning sun warms your back as it reflects off the dew on the grass and flowers appear to be sprinkled with diamonds. The fragrance of the grass you cut for hay yesterday reaches your nose on the almost imperceptible breeze. A far off dove calling for a mate is the only sound, the other birds having already sung their "good morning," and commenced their search for food.
People who have not spent a large part of their lives getting out of bed before daylight to care for livestock don't seem to understand the pleasure in doing so. Perhaps it takes a "morning person" to appreciate this, or perhaps it is something one adapts to through life experience. Regardless of the reason, nothing can compare to the sights, sounds, and odors of a June morning, lifting one's spirit to heights seldom reached throughout the rest of the year.
Back in the days when country veterinarians spent more time trying to cure livestock ills than prevent them, the phone would almost stop ringing in early June. All too often when the phone did ring, it was because of a dire emergency. Even today too many part-time livestock farmers don't call a veterinarian to prevent disease in their family, waiting for illness to strike before making a call. Of course, even with the best-run disease-prevention program, livestock injuries and accidents do happen, and some diseases such as rabies know no season. Some recent questions reflect this:
Caring for a Torn Cow Teat
Last summer our family milk cow tried to crawl through a barbed-wire fence to reach her calf and tore a hole in one teat so deep that the milk ran out. The wound healed in a week or so, but milk still leaked out of the hole continually, particularly when we got the cow ready to milk. She will go dry next month–will the hole into the milk duct heal then, or is there anything I can do to help it heal?
When your cow is fully dry, with local anesthesia or perhaps the use of a tranquilizer, your veterinarian will be able to recut the outer skin and suture the wound. This looks easy, but requires much skill and patience. Antibiotics are usually infused into the repaired quarter, and your veterinarian may suggest you keep the cow in a clean, well-bedded stall instead of turning her to pasture where she may pull the stitches out on a bush or tall grass.
This type of wound can also be surgically repaired if attended to immediately after it happens. But the after care is much more difficult, involving milking the injured teat with a milk tube and maintaining absolute cleanliness. Since the injured quarter would need to be infused with antibiotics during the healing process, milk from all four quarters would have to be kept from human consumption. Still, it is worth a try, and if it doesn't heal, there is always a second chance at the dry period. Good luck!
First Aid for a Cut Milk Vein
Last spring, one of our two dairy cows came in from pasture with blood literally streaming from the large milk vein under her belly. I held a cotton pack on it until a neighbor came to help. He put cobwebs on the cut, and the bleeding stopped. We turned her out that night, and the next morning I found her dead in a puddle of blood. What should I have done differently?
You started out fine by putting pressure on the wound, and holding it until you got help, but a cut milk vein will not hold unless stitched. I have seen some real farmer ingenuity in stopping the bleeding from cut milk veins temporarily. These include everything from diaper pins to large paper clips. Still, when a cow lies down again, the thick wall of the huge vein gives way and bleeding starts again. Unless you feel competent to stitch a cut milk vein, call your veterinarian. Even he or she will have a difficult time, but at least they have the proper instruments and suture material.
Keeping Livestock Safe from Rabies
Last fall, I read that three cases of rabies had been diagnosed in white-tail deer in a northeastern state. I had always thought of rabies as a disease of dogs, cats, and wild creatures that bite, such as raccoon, foxes, and coyotes. In our area, deer come into the pasture where we have our own livestock. Can they spread rabies to our domestic animals, and how would I know if a cow, horse, or sheep had the disease? I can't imagine that they go around biting and snapping as a rabid dog does.
Rabies, a fatal disease in all animals, was known in the past as "hydrophobia," which means fear of water. The most evident symptom in an advanced case of the disease is the inability to swallow, due to painful spasms, and later paralysis of the esophagus. In all species, symptoms in early cases vary so much that it is considered by most veterinary texts as one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose.
The first thing that you as a livestock or pet owner should understand is that there are two forms of the disease, commonly referred to as "furious," and "dumb." The furious cases, the animal extremely agitated, charging anything that moves, biting, chewing, and seemingly unafraid, are the ones that receive the most attention and are the most frightening. Dumb cases are really more dangerous to humans, since they attract little attention, and the animal may seem "just a little off" or "strange."
Although bites are the normal way the disease is spread, you should know that the saliva from an infected animal is the principal carrier of the virus causing the disease. It can enter your body through a break in the skin on your hand, or by getting into your eye. If rabies has been diagnosed in your area, any animal–wild or domestic–acting the least bit odd should be considered as a possible early case of the disease. Do not put your hands in such an animal's mouth. Most cases will turn out to be from something else, such as lead poisoning, nervous acetonemia, or listeriosis. As a livestock owner, you cannot ignore this. You need veterinary help, but you and your veterinarian are dealing with the possibility of a disease fatal to yourselves, and must be careful.
The classic dumb form of rabies is the dog who disappears for a day or two, then returns home acting either unusually affectionate or unfriendly. Its lower jaw droops or it just slobbers as though something is stuck in its throat or mouth. The admonishment given veterinary students years ago, "Beware of the dog with a bone in its throat," is still good advice for every person in an area where rabies has been reported.
Since cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and even hogs with rabies may chew on inedible things, or chew on hay and not be able to swallow, let's alter the warning to say, "Beware of any animal with something stuck in its mouth." Let's also add, "Beware of any wild creature that is not abnormally unafraid of you."
Theoretically, a rabid deer could infect your livestock; but more likely, a wandering rabid fox, coon, skunk, coyote, or dog would be the culprit. The classic rabies symptoms in the cow are weakness of the rear quarters, drooping tail, or tail pulled to one side, straining, staggering, bellowing, or attempting to bellow and resembling a yawn, chewing on wood or stall piping, slobbering, bloating as when choking, charging but seemingly not to see, going down, and finally death.
In sheep, symptoms are similar, but they do not bleat. Goats, too, have similar symptoms, but they do bleat. As an example of the difficulty in diagnosis, a baby goat eating one rhododendron leaf will have all of the above symptoms, and bleat a sad little sound that would break the heart of the most hardened person you know.
Horses with rabies may become agitated, even attack and bite, or they may be seen as lame, then act dull, stagger, and go down. Equine encephalomyelitis (sleeping sickness) comes to my mind as a disease very difficult to differentiate from dumb rabies in the live horse.
Pigs with rabies become agitated and will attack. Sows will show chomping motions, salivation and twitching of the nose. They will go down on their sides, and go through running motions with their legs. These symptoms are also seen in eclampsia and other diseases in sows.
The most frightening case of rabies to have contact with is in the domestic cat, or the wild squirrel. Being able to climb, either species with the furious form of rabies can invoke a reign of terror. Rabies in the squirrel is rare, or at least rarely seen, but cats with rabies are too frequent in rabies prone areas.
I have not experienced or been able to find anything on rabies in the llama. I would expect them to be in as much danger to the disease from getting bitten as any other pastured domestic animal. In a rabies-prone area, any animal with nervous symptoms should be handled with care, and seen by a veterinarian familiar with the species involved. Watch MOTHER for more information on llamas.
Treatment of rabies is considered hopeless in all species including man. Diagnosis may only be made by laboratory tests using part of the suspected animal's brain. For accurate diagnosis, animals suspected of having rabies should be allowed to die from the disease and their brain, or a portion of it, removed.
To prevent further pain and suffering of the sick animal and for the safety of humans and other animals, long-acting anesthetics and narcotics should be used until death occurs.
Local health officials should be notified of any suspected case of rabies, particularly if humans have been exposed. The easiest way to do this is to call your local veterinarian if he or she has not already been involved.
If you or anyone you are responsible for is bitten by an animal or has contact with the saliva from an animal that could have rabies, immediately wash with soap and lots of water.
If a bite wound is incurred, even if rabies is not suspected, it should be seen by a physician for evaluation and treatment. The animal that did the biting should, if at all possible, be confined and observed by a veterinarian for at least a week, to be sure that no rabies symptoms develop.
Rabies may be prevented in both humans and domestic animals by vaccination. Every area of the country, in fact the entire world, has different sets of circumstances as far as rabies is concerned. Only your veterinarian is qualified to recommend vaccination procedures for your animals that would be practical for your own situation.


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1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2004
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/02/2004
|Page tools: Print Page
As well as Australia's national accounts, the ABS produces annual accounts for each of Australia's states and territories. These provide estimates of gross state product (GSP) and state final demand. GSP is produced by summing the incomes generated in the production process (the income approach to measuring total production). State final demand is equal to the sum of government and household final consumption expenditure and public and private gross fixed capital formation. Estimates of state final demand and GSP are available in both current price and chain volume terms.
29.22 GSP PER HEAD OF MEAN POPULATION(a)


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Though Shuttles Are Retired, NASA Needs More Astronauts, Panel Says
NASA needs to hire a few more astronauts. That's according to a panel of outside experts enlisted by the agency to review the size of the astronaut corps now that the space shuttles are retired. (The panel's report is posted here.)
With the shuttles headed for museums, NASA will be flying fewer astronauts — only four to six will go up to the space station each year, for long-duration missions that last months. The agency currently has about 60 active duty astronauts.
"Why did we need so many astronauts? That was what we went in basically questioning," says Joe Rothenberg, a former NASA senior official who co-chaired the National Research Council committee that examined the astronaut corps.
He says, to his surprise, the committee found that NASA actually needs to keep a few more astronauts on staff. "We realized that they were taking some risks, or building some risks into the program, by not having enough astronauts," says Rothenberg.
The committee did not recommend a specific number of additional astronauts that NASA should plan to keep on staff in the future, says Rothenberg, because factors like maintaining the right skill mix may influence that number. "It's less than ten. Maybe closer to five," he estimates.
Long duration missions pose staffing challenges that are different than two-week shuttle trips. Astronauts need years of training to be ready to live and work on the station. They need to be familiar with laboratories built in other countries. And because the Russian space agency currently has the only spaceship capable of carrying crew to the station, American astronauts have to be trained to fly in it.
Health requirements are more stringent for long-duration missions, and the report notes that 13 astronauts have become medically ineligible for long-duration missions after they were assigned to a mission but before they could fly — highlighting the need for an adequate number of potential replacements with the right skills.
The report cites recent examples of NASA already having trouble in finding the right replacement astronaut in a pinch — for example, after one astronaut assigned to a shuttle mission experienced a serious bicycle injury. "This incident highlights that the Astronaut Corps is approaching a point where it lacks sufficient margin required to deal with unexpected personnel situations," the report notes.
Plus, when astronauts return from a six-month stay in space, they may not re-qualify for flight, for medical reasons including vision problems, bone loss, or radiation exposure.
Astronauts also have to be available to fill other important roles, such as working in Mission Control and training other astronauts.
What's more, commercial companies are working to develop private capsules that could carry NASA astronauts up to the station. The agency wants those "space taxis" or "rental cars" to fill the old transportation role that its space shuttles used to play. Those companies will expect some involvement from NASA astronauts in developing those new vehicles.
The number of active-duty astronauts working for NASA has declined dramatically in recent years — from around 150 in 1999 to around 60 now. And the committee notes that, in the coming years, NASA may see more astronauts than usual retiring, because of uncertainty about the future of spaceflight.
[Nell Greenfieldboyce is a correspondent on NPR's Science Desk.]
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Think you're going to ace freshman year? Want to put money on that? A website called Ultrinsic is taking wagers on grades from students at 36 colleges nationwide starting this month. Just as Las Vegas sports books set odds on football games, Ultrinsic will pay you top dollar for A's, a little less for the more likely outcome of a B average or better, and so on. You can also wager you'll fail a class by buying what Ultrinsic calls "grade insurance." CEO Steven Wolf insists this is not online gambling, which is technically illegal in the United States, because wagers with Ultrinsic involve skill. "The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people's stuff you bet on — your own stuff you invest in," Wolf says. "Everything's true about it, I'm just trying to say that the underlying concept is a little bit more than just making a bet — it's actually an incentive." Your mother may disagree, however, that it's a smart way to spend money — never mind that it's legal. And a California gambling law expert says she may be right, once you take into account the factors besides skill that contribute to academic performance. Here's how Wolf says the website works: A student registers, uploads his or her schedule and gives Ultrinsic access to official school records. The New York-based site then calculates odds based on the student's college history and any information it can dig up on the difficulty of each class, the topic and other factors. The student decides how much to wager up to a cap that starts at $25 and increases with use. Alex Winter, a 20-year-old about to start his junior year majoring in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, says he placed wagers through Ultrinsic after getting a flier on campus. "I said, 'OK, that sounds like an easy way to make money,' so I signed up," says Winter, who bet $20 to $50 each on six of the 10 classes he took last year and cleared $150 overall. Students at Penn and New York University could play at Ultrinsic last year. Its expansion this month to 34 more campuses comes with new funding, Wolf says. He wouldn't name the investors or say how much they put in. Ultrinsic saves its longest shots for fresh-faced high school graduates: If you wager $20 that you'll finish college with a 4.0 GPA and follow through, you'll get $2,000 when you graduate. At 100-1 odds, that's about like a typical seven-team football parlay bet in Sin City. Instead of picking the right side in seven games, though, a student has to win in every class over an entire college career. Winter, who says his GPA is 3.7, says he never thought about whether his wagers were illegal because he liked being pushed to work harder. "That never really crossed my mind," he says. "Looking back, if there were to be any legal issues, I wouldn't feel that bad because it's for a good cause." Ultrinsic's lawyers say it has nothing to worry about because getting good grades takes skill and students are betting on themselves, Wolf says. Legal definitions of gambling usually list three elements — chance, some sort of fee or wager and a prize, says I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert and professor at Whittier Law School in California. Carnival games offer prizes for a fee, but skill is ostensibly required to win. Contests advertised on cereal boxes offer prizes and winners are chosen by chance, but the box always says "no purchase necessary." With Ultrinsic, things are less clear. "It's not entirely within the control of the (player)," Rose says, offering the example of a professor of his who gave everyone A's after learning he wouldn't be considered for tenure. Another teacher could be equally capricious in handing out C's. "But it is mostly within their control." And Winter questions how well Ultrinsic's algorithms set odds: Ultrinsic bet 2-to-1 that he wouldn't get an A-minus or better in an African history class he's heard most students ace. "I shouldn't have made $100 on top of the $50 I got back," Winter says. Still, a common test to determine the role of skill — whether you can purposely lose — seems to apply to Ultrinsic, Rose says. "Certainly, you could have crappy grades." Given the role of skill, Ultrinsic might be legal under both federal and state law, Rose says. Tell that to Internet poker players, who have been fighting a 2006 federal ban on online gambling, hoping to get online card rooms legalized. Even with a series of court decisions, the law remains vague. A Congressional committee this summer approved legislation to legalize and regulate online gambling, but the bill has a long road ahead. Rose asked who will ensure the company makes good on bets or guard against students cheating. And he suggested that laws governing insurance — which was once considered gambling — could apply to students betting on bad outcomes. But colleges may not be able to limit use of Ultrinsic, just as they face significant obstacles steering students away from other potential dangers outside class, like binge drinking or unsafe sex. A spokesman for Penn declined comment, as did a spokeswoman for the University of California, Berkeley. An NYU spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment. Wolf hopes to attract about 100 students per school — 3,600 in all — this academic year. Whether they win will be their choice, he says. "There's definitely a lot of variables, but the biggest variable is how much effort the student wants to put in," Wolf says. "In general, if anybody would study 10 hours a day consistently for one class, they would get whatever grade they wanted to get."
U. bet: College students gamble on own grades
Think you're going to ace freshman year? Want to put money on that? The website Ultrinsic allows students to bet on what grades they will get in college courses.
/ Source: The Associated Press


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The difference between what nonprofits should spend and what they actually do spend, is about 14 cents -- at least in the mind of the average person.
The average American believes that a charity should spend no more than 23 percent on overhead but that charities actually spend 36.9 cents on the dollar. These were some of the findings in "Where'd My Money Go?," a survey by Phoenix, Ariz.-based Grey Matter Research & Consulting.
One in five Americans, about 21 percent, believe that nonprofits spend 20 to 29 percent of donations on overhead. Some 65 percent believe nonprofits spend less than 50 cents for every dollar on overhead, with 9 percent saying they believe charities generally spend less than 10 cents for every dollar on administrative expenses. About 8 percent believe nonprofits spend more than 80 percent on overhead.
In terms of what Americans think charities should spend administratively, 27 percent said it should be 10 to 19 cents of every dollar, and 24 percent believe it should be 20 to 29 cents. Only 18 percent of those surveyed said that 40 percent or more is a reasonable amount to spend on overhead.
The survey, released Tuesday, is an update of a 2008 study of the same name. Grey Matter President Ron Sellers said he wanted to revisit the public's perception of charities after the recession. "So much has happened, financially and socially" since 2008, he said. "Nonprofits are struggling, and there seems to be a concentration on intelligent financial design, belt tightening, things like that. I was curious whether any of that had any effect as to how people saw nonprofit organizations," he said.
Only one thing surprised him: how similar the recent results were to 2008. "I expected at least some variation. It was so identical I had to re-check the figures and make sure we didn't use the data from 2008," he said.
"From our experience, donors in general and the general public have, in many cases, unreasonable expectations about how much a charity should be spending on overhead," said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance (WGA) in Arlington, Va. "This expectation is fueled by a lot of influences but has been around for some time."
The WGA recommends fundraising costs not exceed 35 percent of related contributions, but Weiner suggested that the public look at more than just the statistics. "Ratios in general can result in false positives," he said. "You may have an organization with excellent numbers, but it may not have good governance, or have much of an impact with its mission. That's one of the limitations of looking at finances alone."
About 62 percent of Americans think that nonprofits spend more than is reasonable on overhead; a quarter believe they spend exactly what's reasonable, and 13 percent believe they spend less than what they consider reasonable. There was some variation among certain demographics but not a lot.
Only 52 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 believed charities spend more on overhead than is reasonable, but 69 percent of those respondents aged 50 and above believe nonprofits spend more than is reasonable. The less a person earns, the lower the likelihood is that they believe nonprofits spend more than is appropriate. For those with yearly household incomes less than $30,000, 55 percent think more than a reasonable amount on overhead is generally spent, compared to 70 percent for those making more than $100,000 per year.
There was very little variation on the amount people thought charities actually spent on overhead, but the range of what people thought was appropriate was slightly greater. People aged 65 and older thought 19.2 cents on the dollar was appropriate, which was the lowest figure, while African-Americans felt that 28.4 percent of donations was reasonable for overhead, the highest among the various demographics. Political and religious leanings did not make much of a difference either, though Democrats and those with no religious preference had the lowest percentages of those who thought not-for-profits spend too much on overhead.
This story originally appeared in The NonProfit Times


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Here's the Hardrock course description summary:
The Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run is an ultramarathon of 100.5 miles in length, plus 33,992 feet of climb and 33,992 feet of descent for a total elevation change of 67,984 feet, at an average elevation of over 11,000 feet. The race is held on a loop course on 4WD roads, dirt trails, and cross country in Southern Colorado's San Juan Range, USA.
First my story, then a brief summary of Deb's, but her whole story will have to be told by her. If I can get her to write a report, I'll post it.
One thing that is a known...I'm getting old. I turned 60 last November and no, I don't feel 60, but when you start aging, things start to happen. With me it's vertigo. It's taken me out of the last three 100's. A fact that In know is my Mom has vertigo....my doc said it's genetic, but can be treated. I think if it affected my daily life now like it was a year ago, I'd be concerned and seeking treatment, but it's no longer showing up on a daily basis, so I'm not concerned. Short story is I'm done with 100's and feel good with that decision...
With Hardrock this year our plan was to run it together with her brother Drew pacing me the whole way. At Kroger's Canteen aid station (Virginius), we were going to re-announce our engagement on this 10th anniversary of doing that back in 2001 at that place. 10th because 2002 was cancelled due to a forest fire in Durango. The day was going well, when just before the aid station, as we climbed up through Mendota Saddle, I felt the first spin. Then nausea, which got increasingly worse as we climbed and I struggled to get down off of the peak in the loose scree. We sent Deb on down to Ouray to get fueled and to take a break and Drew was to catch her soon after that to pace her in. Walking down Camp Bird Road, I had to stop occasionally to stop the vertigo by pointing my flashlight on the ground and stare at that non moving object. About 2 miles up from the aid station, someone came up and gave me a ride in, with Drew continuing in order to run the whole 100 and to try to catch Deb. Within an hour of sitting and drinking Coke, the spins stopped and I got to watch Drew off. He didn't catch her until after Engineer (4 hours later) and the two of them continued on.
So I'm officially done running 100's....I've been running them since 1998 when I ran a 19:45 at Vermont in my first. Sue Johnston asked me what I thought, I told her it sucked...since that time I've run 8 more 100's and not many of them were positive experiences. I think maybe the 2004 Bighorn was OK, but was still a struggle. So why keep running them? I'm not. I'm tired of running into the night, I'm tired of getting sick to my stomach (all the time) and I'm tired of the struggles. Yeah, I'll still run ultras...mostly 50K's and certainly not longer than 50 in an official race. I'd like to someday get through the VHTRC Reverse Ring to complete that circuit, but that's a fat ass and no entry fee. I'd also like to see if I can qualify for the Boston Marathon again as a 60 year old.
Life was good before I ran my first 100...I was running races that ended in the same daylight, I was faster, I would sometimes win! Then I got sucked into the 100 mile vortex and the rest is history. Why do we think that if you don't run a 100, you're not a "real" ultrarunner? Why 100? Why not the 24 hour race? I can't imagine those that run those 6 day races...My friend Dima showed up at Hardrock with a shirt that said "Life is Crap" and the image was of a hiker with poles in the mountains with rain and lightening about to strike him on the head. It was perfect...
So that's it, I'm done....and with it possibly this blog, which I also struggle to maintain.
As for Deb's Hardrock, what more can I say than she is bad ass. She was the last finisher, coming in at 47:49 and the oldest female finisher in the history of the run. She has told me that she never really had any bad memories of this year, she just kept moving one foot in front of the other and got it done. One point in the run during the Pole Creek section, her back tightened up and she was having trouble breathing deep, but a chiro adjustment at Cunningham aid station fixed that and allowed her to move a little quicker and get in under the clock.
It was a nervous moment at the finish at 5:45am Sunday morning....all the finishers had come in but Deb and Drew. Many of the finishers were there to see the final runners coming in and Margaret Heaphy couldn't stand the suspense and walked up to the corner to look up towards the ski area to see if anyone was coming. We heard her "whoo!" and knew they were headed in, Deb and Drew turned the corner and ran like they only had a minute to spare, which made the whole scenario more dramatic. They ran into the chute and kissed the rock together. Deb for her 2nd official finish, this time in the "other " direction and Drew kissing the rock unofficially. No one was keeping him from kissing the rock ;-)
Here is a video I took of them finishing...
I really love that video...Deb put everything she had into that finish and now she's a real Hardrocker having finished both directions. Will she ever get in again is the question!
For the rest of my photos go here : https://picasaweb.google.com/115735202507108304958/2012HardrockHundred
For Hardrock results, go here: http://ultrarun.net/HR100/CourseRunRank/Live
So that's it...next up is the Silverton Alpine Marathon on Aug 25th and after that the Mt Taylor 50K south of Albuquerque last weekend of September. That weekend I was planning on running the Bear, but withdrew rather than waste yet another entry fee. Mt Taylor will be more fun and we'll be done sometime in the afternoon ;-)
First up though is this coming weekend where Deb is running the Speedgoat 50K while I volunteer there.
Hope everyone is doing well and continues down the path of their choice...
Steve and Deb
12/12 update:
After talking with Deb, she convinced me to enter and leave it to fate whether I run Hardrock again. I did get in and will be running ;-) Life is funny that way!


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This short film serves as a cautionary tale to farmers who recklessly cut down trees on their land. When prairie farmers engaged in this practice to facilitate plowing, they discovered that the trees had served as windbreaks protecting top soil from erosion. The Dominion Department of Agriculture's experimental station at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, cultivated acres of young trees for distribution to farmers.
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My friend Rhondi told me about this recipe and I was SOOO excited about trying it. I love Beef Stroganoff, so this sounded like a great variation. Plus, when you get to make it in the crockpot, it's even better!
(Anyone have any great Beef Stroganoff recipes to share? I am wanting to make one of those soon too!)
Here it is, pictures courtesy of All Recipes, because I ate it all before I remembered to take a picture. Yes, it was that good!
- 1 lb frozen chicken breast
- 1 container sliced mushrooms
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 packed onion soup mix
- 1- 16 oz tub sour cream
- Place frozen chicken breast and mushrooms in the bottom of the crock pot. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over.
- Cook on low for about 6-7 hours. Stirring hourly so the sauce doesn't stick and burn.
- Before serving,I shred the chicken in the pot with the sauce and serve over egg noodles.


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KABUL, Afghanistan – Besides going after a medal in the boxing ring at the London Olympics, Sadaf Rahimi will be taking a few punches in the fight for equal rights for Afghan women.
There are female Afghan success stories, yet most women in Afghanistan remain second-class citizens, many cloaked from head-to-toe in blue burqas, some abused or hidden in their homes.
Rahimi, a determined 17-year-old student, wants to become the new face of Afghan women, gaining honor and dignity for herself and other women in here war-torn country and improving their image worldwide.
She will get her chance this summer in London, where women's boxing makes its Olympic debut.
"When we participate in the outside competitions, there is pressure on us," Rahimi said while training in a makeshift gym in the Afghan capital. "But I will try to show that an Afghan girl can enter the ring and achieve a position for Afghanistan."
In line with conservative norms for women in Afghanistan, Rahimi is expecting to wear black tights under her boxing gear at the Olympics to cover her knees. She trains for hours three days a week, punching heavy bags and sparring with her teammates and trainers.
They throw punches on faded pink and green mats covering a concrete floor of a room in an Afghan sports stadium where the hardline Taliban regime used to stage public executions. The female boxers still don't have a real boxing ring to hone their skills.
After the Taliban banned women from participating in sporting events, the International Olympic Committee suspended Afghanistan from the games. Afghanistan missed the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as a result. The Taliban were toppled in 2001 and the suspension was lifted the following year. Afghanistan sent female athletes — for the first time in its history — to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Rahimi, who has the support of her family in Kabul, is following in the footsteps of Robina Muqimyar, the female Afghan runner who competed in Athens. Another woman, Mehboda Ahdyar, was scheduled to go to the 2008 Beijing Games but couldn't compete because of injuries.
"I am well aware that my opponents in the London 2012 Olympics are more powerful and even twice as good as me, but I have prepared myself to participate and win a medal," said Rahimi, who started boxing four years ago and won a silver medal during a boxing competition in Tajikistan.
Female boxing is an unusual sport in a country like Afghanistan, where most of the women are still struggling for their rights and get little respect in the male-dominated society.
Recently in Baghlan province in the north, 15-year-old Sahar Gul was locked up, beaten with cables and tortured by her husband and in-laws after she refused to work as a prostitute. They deny any wrongdoing. She became the bruised and bloodied face of women's rights in Afghanistan after being rescued in late December when an uncle called police.
Her story shocked Afghanistan and prompted calls to end underage marriage. The legal marriage age in Afghanistan is 16, but the United Nations estimates that half of all girls are forced to marry before their 16th birthday.
In Kunduz province, also in the north, a 30-year-old woman named Storay was killed last month because she gave birth to a third baby girl, instead of a boy. Storay, who used only one name, was slain, allegedly by her husband, when her third child was 3 months old. Her husband has left the family.
Despite such atrocities, there are increasing opportunities for Afghan women who want to participate in sports, said Mohammad Saber Sharifi, the coach of the Afghan female boxing team.
The team was established by the Afghan Olympic Committee in 2007 and so far has registered more than two dozen female boxers.
Rahimi, who fights in the 54-kilogram (118.8 pounds) weight class, will get into the Olympics through a wild card berth. She plans to travel to London on Feb. 19 to train for several weeks. In May she will fight in a competition in China, but win or lose there, she will be at the Olympics in London.
"Sadaf Rahimi is the only girl who will participate in these games," Sharifi said. "She will represent all Afghan women, which makes her the biggest female personality in Afghanistan."
Things have been much easier for male athletes in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's first Olympic medal winner was Rohullah Nikpai, who won a bronze medal in men's taekwondo in 2008, defeating rivals from Germany, England and Spanish world champion Juan Antonio Ramos at the Beijing Games.
Because of insecurity in Afghanistan, his family fled to Iran where he grew up. He returned to Afghanistan in 2004 — four years after the Taliban government collapsed. After participating in Beijing, he became a symbol of national pride.
"In the 2008 Olympics, I won a bronze medal and I am hopeful to win a gold medal in the Olympic 2012 in London," Nikpai said.
Two other male athletes will round out the foursome who will represent Afghanistan in this year's games. Massoud Azizi, a 25-year-old, 100-meter sprinter who competed in 2008 in Beijing, and Nasar Ahmad Bahawi, another taekwondo fighter.
"The people are expecting a lot from us. We know we will face the hardest opponents," said Bahawi, who practices inside a newly built gym at the sports stadium under the supervision of a foreign coach and Afghan trainer. "We have the prayers of our people, and God willing, we will do well."


text:
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Hump Day - Yeah
Good evening - boy it is hard to get back into the swing of making cards after being on vacation. Trying to work the rust off the mo jo. I had seen this sketch site (Freshly Made Sketches) in the last few weeks so today I saw their weekly sketch and decided I would try it out. It is a very versatile sketch and then comes the hard part - what paper to use, what stamp to use - sometimes that is almost overwhelming. I finally settled on paper from this 6 x 6 pad from Simple Stories - Happy Day.
The stamp is from my collection - I have used it in the past. It is by Hero Arts. I stamped the image in VersaMark and a distress ink and then clear embossed. It did not all clear emboss. After the card was assembled I added a little color to the image with Copics.
I think this will be a great card for my next Operation Write Home box. Everyone enjoy the remainder of your evening - I suppose I need to figure out what I will wear to work tomorrow and wind things down for the evening.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 8:34 PM 8 comments:
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Still Feeling Punny
Thanks to CAS-ual Friday - I am having a punny week. Fun to make a punny card sometimes and bring smiles to people faces.
I have a friend who has a PIG collection (Ivanka would be her name) - so I do have quite a few pig stamps and some sentiments also. This pig stamp and sentiment are from Inky Antics. I used some Authentique paper for the card.
This card will be for Operation Write Home - guaranteed smiles.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 8:21 PM 4 comments:
Monday, February 27, 2012
Oldie Moldie Monday
Yes - it is Monday - Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love to some old paper - I am a collector of 6 x 6 pads - and am excited more companies are offering 6 x 6 pads - so I can add to my collection - and unfortunately sometimes you don't use them up - or you don't use them - and they become "oldie moldie" - Monday makes me bring it out and show some love to it.
This Basic Grey Collection is - Olivia. CAS-Friday is having a challenge this week to "be punny" - so I did a card on Sunday for that - but I felt the need to continue being punny this week. Thus - being a true Wisconsin "cheesehead" - I had to make a cow card - isn't it utterly fabulous. The stamp and sentiment are from a local stamp company Crackerbox Palace.
I clean embossed the sentiment and cow - my Colorbox Chalk ink was the perfect color but I wanted a little depth - so I first inked my stamp with VersaMark and then with the chalk in. I used a clear embossing powder and got the look I wanted. I backed each paper with black to set it off some. The sentiment is pop dotted.
This card will go in my Operation Write Home box - I am sure there is someone who this card will make smile.
Hope your Monday is Utterly Fabulous.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 1 comment:
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Did You Miss Me?
I was on vacation in Naples, FL - although Wisconsin has not had a bad winter - Naples weather was much better. Warmth and sunshine. I got to see many things - alligators, beautiful homes, the beach, lots of great shopping - but unfortunately - no paper or stamp stores in the area - so sad. Coming home was an adventure in several ways but we are trying to forget about that and just remember the best parts of the vacation.
It was good to get home and play with my paper. Yeah - I do miss creating - CAS-ual Fridays challenge is "Jest for the Pun of it" - that is a fun challenge. Hopefully my card is clean and simple enough for the challenge. I used the Basic Grey collection - Little Black Dress - for the paper selection. The stamp is from Stamps by Judith. The stamp was clean embossed so it has a little depth. The card design was based on a card I saw on the Hero Arts Blog from this last week.
Another friend is starting her battle with breast cancer so this will be one of her cards to cheer her along her road to recovery.
Thanks for stopping by. Now to find something to make for Oldie Moldie Monday.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 5:24 PM 2 comments:
Labels: Basic Grey, CAS-ual Fridays, Hero Arts, Stamps by Judith
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Another CPS sketch and the last valentine card of the year
My last valentine card for this year - this was sent to my oldest daughter and her husband. Since she is not a fan of the color pink - I went with very non traditional colors - this card is based on Day 3 of the CPS 5 Year anniversary. I move the sentiment to the other side and added lots of layers - what else is new for me. I do love layers.
The monkey stamp is by Stampendous and the paper by Echo Park Paper Company.
I do wish I could have done all the sketches but was busy doing other things.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:14 PM 2 comments:
Monday, February 13, 2012
Eat Cake Graphics and Oldie Moldie Monday
Meet Oliver - a cutie from Eat Cake Graphics - with his little paw in the air - I feel like he is probably saying "High Five" - my granddogs can do that. Can your dogs do that. I was babysitting one week end and I decided little Londyn needed to learn how to do "High Five" - she wasn't a year old yet - and by the time Mom came - she knew how to do High Five.
It is Oldie Moldie Monday - so I dug in my paper - actually I just went to where those 6 x 6 Basic Grey pads are and grabbed one and started making this card - I have started to really like to create with orange. Normally I like to create several cards for Oldie Moldie Monday - but too much on my plate right now - plus I was playing all week end with Operation Write Home and their virtual card making party.
This card is based on the sketch at Card Positioning System - it is part of their 5 year anniversary celebration. This is the sketch from Day 9.
Enjoy your Monday.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 4 comments:
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Card Positioning System Anniversary Pary
The final push to get my own valentine cards made - I have to put the insides in 4 and still make one - so I think I am doing pretty good - I hope. This card design is based on Day 13 sketch on the Card Positioning Systems 5th Anniverary celebration - This card is for my Mom - her favorite color is pink so - of course - the card had to be pink.
The paper I used is by Authentique - this particular grouping had just the right colors for the valentine card. My other loves flowers so I choes to cut my heart where the roses were. I highlighted them with a Stardust pen to give them some sparkle. I also used a Martha Stewart Doily. I added a SRM Sticker and the card is finished - well almost - I need to do the inside yet.
Happpy Sunday - today I need to accomplish so much - first load of laundry is washing - going to bake a dessert and then when I go into town to get a few groceries and last minute things for my trip - I will pick up some hart shaped pizzas for my neighbors and deliver them with the dessert for Valentine's Day. $6 for a gift for a family - not too shabby - plus dessert - they will love it.
Enjoy your day.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 8:12 AM 2 comments:
Saturday, February 11, 2012
More CPS and OWH challenges
Time to start on my next box of cards for OWH - I sent a box of 63 cards off today. This card is based on the sketch at Card Positioning System - they are having a 5 year anniversary celebration - OWH is also having a virtual card party/challenges - and the challenge was to use a ship - of course I have made all those sticker cards in this last week - but I found one boat stamp in my collection which I embossed with some navy embossing powder (fits the next challenge on OWH) - I have no idea who makes the stamp - It really isn't a ship more like a dinghy. I do like how it turned out though..
Happy evening.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 5:52 PM 9 comments:
Valentine Day Cards
Ok Valentine's Day is next week so I do need to send a few - gee - how long does it take to get mail to Alaska - my youngest now lives there - hopefully it gets there sometime next week.
The image is the Friday Freebie from Dustin Pike. Isn't it cute - made making the cards so fast. I had this great set of paper from Die Cuts With a View - but it has glitter so I won't use it for my Operation Write Home Cards.
The first card is based on the 14th day sketch at CPS's five year anniversary.
Well gotta go - need to get to the post office - I have a 2 hour window here in my little town - and need to clear the sidewalk. Have a wonderful day.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 9:28 AM 6 comments:
Friday, February 10, 2012
CPS and OWH Challenges Unite
A card I made - covers a few challenges - first is Day 6 sketch on Card Positioning System - celebrating 5 years. Congratulations. Also Operation Write Home is having a virtual card making party - two new challenges each night - this card first two of the challenges - tropical colors (pink, yellow and green) and birthday card. I used my Silhouette to cut the lattice work - new designs this week and just perfect for a cardmaker. I just bought one set - (4 in the set) wanted to see if I liked them - guess what I llike them. I stamped a Hero Arts flower in VersaMark and embossed with clear embossing powder and then layers a couple more flowers to add some depth. One flower was cut with the Silhouette.
I do need to make valentine cards.
Everyone enjoy your Friday.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 6 comments:
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Mother's Day card
this is my card for the Operation Write Home sketch this week. I used the free digi designed by Sandy. I think I made another CAS card - maybe I am getting better at this.
I printed out the image, matted it in black. The card base is Hero Arts paper - so it is white on the inside - a very pretty blue. The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. I added a black bow. I am also adding this to the ribbon challenge.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 4 comments:
Labels: CAS, Hero Arts, My Mind's Eye, Operation Write Home
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Card Positioning Systems, Penny Black, and Operation Write Home
Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their third anniversary with 15 days of sketches. This is my take on the sketch on Day 4. More Authentique paper, Penny Black sticker and SRM Sticker. This card is going in my next box for Operation Write Home.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Authentique, Operation Write Home, Penny Black, SRM Stickers
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
More Penny Black Stickers
OWH Stars and Stamps is having a virtual card party - one challenge last night - was masculine/nautical - I do believe this card qualifies. If you check out Saturday's post - you will see a couple other cards made with these Penny Black Stickers - they are so gorgeous. I have used some great Authentique paper as the accent color and an SRM sticker for the sentiment.
Everyone have a wonderful Tuesday.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:36 AM 10 comments:
Labels: Authentique, Operation Write Home, Penny Black, SRM Stickers
Monday, February 6, 2012
Oldie Moldie Monday
I grabbed another one of those wonderful 6 x 6 Basic Grey pads and made my cards for this day. I have made 2 of each design. The cards are for Operation Write Home. I think the top card could be used for Mother's Day or any time you want someone to know they are very special. Of course, who doesn't love cupcakes - doesn't have to be a birthday card. The sentiment is from Eat Cake Graphics.
Everyone enjoy your day and dig into some of that older paper and make some beautiful card.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 6:00 AM 2 comments:
Labels: Basic Grey, Eat Cake Graphics, Operation Write Home
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Stampendous Belated Birthday Wishes
Good Sunday morning - are you ready to watch the super bowl or the commercials? I will listen to it and pay closer attention to the commercials. Since the Green Bay Packers are not playing, it does not mean as much to me.
My card today is based on one of the sketches from Card Positioning System - they are celebrating their 5th anniversary - with 15 days of sketches - this sketch is from Day 2. The challenge from Stampendous this month is to use texture. I have added texture with an embossing folder and have pop dotted the image and sentiment.
The stamp is from Stampendous and the birthday sentiment is from SRM Stickers. Of course, I had to add a little bling because every little girl loves bling and Molly's favorite color is purple.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 11:24 AM 3 comments:
Labels: Card Positioning System, Cuddlebug, SRM Stickers, Stampendous
Saturday, February 4, 2012
CAS Card Class and OWH SKIP
Good Saturday - today I am sharing a couple cards I made. They are posted on the Stars and Stamps blog today for the introduction of a SKIP. We have ten posts with cards inspired by the CAS online class we took. Please go check it out.
Few details about my cards. My focus - embrace your white space - well I am embracing my "cream space". I wanted to make some masculine cards and use these Penny Black stickers. Aren't they great stickers. My cream background is dry embossed. It is a Cuddlebug folder. I used both sides of the embossed cardstock. Which do you prefer - embossed side up or down. I cut a shape from a Spellbinder die cut. I used SRM Stickers on each card.
Have you tried to make any CAS cards (clean and simple)? I don't think it is easy to make a nice CAS card. Did I achieve it?
Posted by Paper Therapy Ponderings at 4:00 AM 9 comments:
Labels: Operation Write Home, Penny Black, Spellbinders, SRM Stickers
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