text:
Soon after the February 2011 fall of Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood opened its first public headquarters in a luxury villa in Cairo, with its symbol, two golden swords under the Quran with the slogan "Prepare," displayed on giant sign on the front. It was a landmark moment: After decades as a banned organization, the Muslim fundamentalist group was declaring it was now legal, public and a powerhouse in the new Egypt. Symbolically, the headquarters was located on a plateau where many of the group's early, executed leaders were buried decades ago.
Elections made it the strongest party in parliament and elevated one of its own, Mohammed Mursi, as the country's first democratically chosen president. On Monday, that headquarters was overrun, burned and ransacked by protesters who demanded Mursi's ouster.
A look at the Brotherhood:
The Brotherhood was founded in 1928, advocating rule by Shariah, or Islamic law, and grew into Egypt's most organized, disciplined and widespread political group, with millions of members nationwide and branches across the Islamic world.
At the top is the "general guide," currently Mohammed Badie. The group's executive leadership body is the Guidance Council, made up of 16-19 members. The general guide and the guidance council are chosen by the Shoura Council, the group's version of a legislature made up of 75-90 members chosen by regional councils nationwide.
The man believed to be the most powerful member is Badie's deputy, Khairat el-Shater, a wealthy businessman who was initially the Brotherhood's candidate for president until he was disqualified because of a previous prison term. Mursi ran in his place.
The Brotherhood's members swear an oath to "listen and obey" the group's leadership and are organized into a tight hierarchy. At the base is the "usra" or "family," basically a study group small enough that its members can meet regularly, build personal bonds, and discuss the group's teachings on Islam. Each of the thousands of "families" nationwide reports up a pyramid of authority and gets instructions from above.
Families in the blood-relative sense of the word also play a major role. Brotherhood members tend to marry within the organization, socialize together in its network of mosques, clubs and schools, and raise their children in the group. Its members include a wide range of professionals - doctors, engineers, teachers and, importantly, very successful businessmen whose profits along with required dues help fund the group.
The group also runs extensive charities, providing free or cheap medical care, food and other services to the poor.
That structure helped the group survive and even spread during its years of arrests and crackdowns, particularly under Mubarak. It also made it a powerful force in elections, able to bring out many highly organized volunteers to campaign for Brotherhood candidates.
"The banned organization"
In its early decades, the Brotherhood was involved in assassinations of Egypt's British colonial rulers and Egyptian officials. In 1954, President Gamal Abdel-Nasser banned the Brotherhood after blaming it for a failed assassination attempt against him. Leaders were executed and thousands of its members imprisoned, often subjected to torture.
In the next nearly 60 years, however, it grew, sometimes underground, sometimes semi-overt. It would test the limits of what the regimes would allow or would strike tacit deals with authorities, sometimes facing heavy crackdowns if it went too far.
Abdel-Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat, initially gave it some room to maneuver, and the group formally renounced the use of violence in 1973. The Brotherhood and other Islamist movements established strong networks in the universities, although Sadat arrested many when student activists began to denounce his rule. They were later freed by Mubarak, who took power after Sadat's 1981 assassination.
Under Mubarak, the group made forays into parliamentary elections, although the regime's rigid control and vote-rigging ensured opposition victories were minimal. It was allowed to run candidates under recognized opposition political parties in the mid- 1980s. In the early 1990s, it performed strongly in union elections, winning control of the leadership of several. Mubarak lashed back, suspending union leaderships and arresting Brotherhood members.
In the 2000s, the group pushed back into politics, running candidates as independents in parliamentary elections. Moderates in the group argued that the Brotherhood accepted the principles of democracy, and that the only way Egypt could be truly democratic was if the group was legal and allowed to compete freely. Its biggest victory came in 2005, when its candidates won a fifth of parliament's seats, despite clashes when Mubarak's security forces tried to block opposition voters.
The stunning showing prompted a new backlash. Mubarak's regime accused the group of plotting violence and money-laundering, jailing some of its top leaders, including al-Shater. Mubarak also rolled back promised political reforms, passing constitutional amendments that solidified his party's grip on elections.
When mainly leftist and secular youth called for massive protests against Mubarak on Jan. 25, 2011, the Brotherhood's leadership declined to join. However, young members did, and after a few days the leadership backed the protests. Still, even during the height of the 18-day uprising, Brotherhood officials met with Mubarak's intelligence chief, raising accusations they were willing to strike a deal if the ban on the group was lifted.
Soon after Mubarak fell on Feb. 11, 2011, the military rulers who took power lifted the ban. It quickly formed its first political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, initially led by Mursi.
The organization calls for rule by God's law in Egypt, although it is often vague. Members say the group tolerates a range of opinion, but all on the conservative end of the scale.
Two figures hold a powerful sway over the Brotherhood's thought: Hassan al-Banna and Sayed Outb.
Al-Banna, a former teacher, founded the Brotherhood to resist both Britain's colonial rule and secularism in Egyptian society. Deeply conservative, he was a strong organizer and emphasized the idea that preaching and activism will spread the word of Islam. He was assassinated in 1949.
Qutb, a secular writer-turned-Islamist, rose in the Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s. He advocated a hard-line view that Islam must transform society and that a society that did not follow its precepts was in the "Jahiliya," or pre-Islamic pagan age. His ideology had a strong influence on modern-day jihadist groups. He was executed by Abdel-Nasser's regime in 1966.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party's platform calls for Egypt to be a "civil, democratic state with an Islamic basis," saying it accepts the precepts of liberal democracy, such as free elections, the transfer of power and the will of elected bodies in establishing law. But the group, along with other Islamists, put clauses into the post-Mubarak constitution strengthening requirements that laws passed by parliament must not contradict Shariah.
At the same time, many in the top leadership are seen as religious hard-liners, and the ultraconservative Salafi ideology has made strong inroads into the group recently.
House of Brotherhood's top leader attacked, says his sonEgypt's security forces attacked the house of the Muslim Brotherhood's deputy leader Khairat el-Shater and "kidnapped" his ... Middle East
Syria: Egypt's Brotherhood model a failureThe Muslim Brotherhood has proven a failure in Egypt, Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said on Monday, as Egyptian protesters ... Middle East
Muslim Brotherhood vows action after Cairo headquarters attackedThe armed men who ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo on Monday had crossed a red line of violence, the ruling movement told ... Middle East


text:
Powerdriven Stadium Rock Anthem. Guaranteed to make the crowd going wild. Soaring Guitars, groovy Bassline, shouting and claping crowd, applause.
Delivers the right atmosphere for all your Stadium, Soccer, Football or Rugby intro and footage. High energy and remarkable.
Soundalikes : Metallica, AC/DC ,Bush, Hardrock, NIN, Ministry, Helmet, Motörhead, Metal,

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Update, 01.21.13: All four East Bay finalists went on to be winners in the 2013 Good Food Awards which were announced on the evening of Jan. 19 at a reception at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. See the full list of winners.
Original story: Four East Bay companies are finalists in the national 2013 Good Food Awards, three of whom were founded in Berkeley.
West Berkeley salumi company, Fra' Mani, run by former Oliveto chef Paul Bertolli, is a finalist in the Charcuterie category for its Salame Toscano. The Cultured Pickle Shop, owned by Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley and also in west Berkeley, made it to the finals in the Pickles category for its Japanese Cucumber and Arame Kimchee and its Kasu-Zuke Jalapeños. INNA Jam, which owner Dafna Kory recently moved from Berkeley to Emeryville, is a finalist in the Preserves category for its Pretty Spicy Fresno Chili Jam. And Alameda-based St. George Spirits, reached the final stretch in the Spirits category for its Agua Libre California Agricole Rum and its Aqua Perfecta Poire Eau de Vie.
A total of 114 winners, representing 132 products, are set to be announced tonight at a ceremony held at San Francisco's Ferry Building presided over by Berkeley restaurateur and sustainable food champion Alice Waters.
The other categories, other than Charcuterie, Pickles, Preserves and Spirits, are Beer, Cheese, Chocolat, Coffee and Confections, and there are a good number of Bay Area names on the 185-long finalists list.
The national competition — which is in its third year and aims to honor people who make food that is delicious, respectful of the environment, and connected to communities and cultural traditions – has seen East Bay winners before. Cultured, Café Rouge and Bison Brewery were all victorious in the awards' first year in 2011. And Café Rouge made a repeat appearance as a winner last year.
As well as the gala awards ceremony tonight, the Good Food Awards organizers, Seedling Projects, host a marketplace at the Ferry Building on Saturday Jan. 19 showcasing the foods of the entrants from around the country. Tickets for both are available via Event Brite.
Food awards tap Berkeley taste makers for national contest [01.13.12]
Beer, tongue, and pickles: three Berkeley food makers win awards [01.17.11]
Jam maker turns hobby into thriving local business [02.18.11]
Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley, Cultured Pickle Shop [09.07.11]
This story also appears on Berkeleyside's online East Bay food magazine Nosh. Follow Berkeleyside NOSH on Twitter, and on Facebook.


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The Davenports - from Brooklyn, USA.
Track Listing:
1 Where Shall We Hang Elena? 3:58
2 I Don't Know What To Do 2:10
3 Don't Be Mad At Me 4:12
4 You Kind Of Kept The Deal 4:15
5 Miranda In Her Room 3:51
6 Leanne 3:11
7 With Me Or Against Me 3:15
8 Freedom 3:26
9 Away From Me 3:25
10 To The End 2:03
*** Please note when this item is purchased on its own or individually, it is dispatched via standard Australia Post and no tracking is provided. If you prefer to have this item sent with tracking, either select a second item or select Tracked or Express Post at check-out. ***
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It is really important to keep in mind that, although the records are new and sealed they sometimes have 3 or 4 ports of call before they make it to us and then you. The manufacturer, the distributor, customs, our warehouse and then out to you. This does mean that, from time to time, albeit very rarely, some records (particularly the covers) will have slight deficiencies such as small creases, split seams, corner scuffs etc. This is normal and part of the process and are generally considered 'superficial transit wear'.
We are an online business so our records aren't getting flicked through and/or tossed around daily. We store our merchandise in a temperature controlled warehouse and always handle and package them with great care to ensure you receive them in as good condition as possible.
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Chill out, PETA. The cat piano was the work of a German scholar over 350 years ago. Athanasius Kircher designed the cat piano and documented it in the Musurgia Universalis in 1650. The piano was designed to raise the spirits of an Italian prince who was too stressed out. The musician would select cats whose voices were at different pitches then arrange them in the pens accordingly. The piano delivered sharp pokes into the tails of the cats. Cruel? Definitely. Funny? Yeah, a little bit.
Did Elon Musk Regret Buying Twitter? | Walter Isaacson Interview
The Cat Piano [We-make-money]


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Effective October 16, 2013
Boys & Girls Clubs of America is a national organization that serves local independent member organizations (the "Local Boys & Girls Clubs"). Together Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Local Boys & Girls Clubs form one of the nation's largest networks of local youth organizations dedicated to promoting the health, social, educational, vocational and character development of youth throughout the United States of America.
Each Boys & Girls Club organization is a separate legal entity, is governed by an independent board of directors, executive committee or other governing body and is solely responsible for its own affairs, including, but not limited to, matters of safety; compliance with federal, state and local laws; physical facilities; uses of technology, finances; policies and programs and personnel policies and decisions. Each Local Boys & Girls Club has sole authority to hire, to terminate, to prescribe the duties of and to establish the terms of employment of its employees and officers.
The national Boys & Girls Clubs of America has no authority with respect to employment policies or decisions of Local Boys & Girls Clubs. Accordingly, each Local Boys & Girls Club controls its own affairs and Boys & Girls Clubs of America does not control and cannot be held responsible for the actions of Local Boys & Girls Clubs.
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Amos Addresses the Nations: Amos 1:3-2:3
The first section of Amos startles us. The editorial heading prepared us to hear a word from Yahweh to Israel. Instead, the first six of eight proverbial sayings are addressed to regional nations. How does a Yahwehist prophet speak to the nations, on what basis, and about what? To be sure, he does finally get to Israel (2:6-16) after he also addresses Judah (2:4-5). Nevertheless, his starting point is surprising.
But this is not all that startles us. Amos does not address the imperial powers at all. There is no mention of Assyria or Egypt. They are not even on his radar. Instead he addresses the nations that are contiguous with Israel and Judah–six regional powers: Damascus (Aram), Gaza (Philistines), Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. Amos focuses on Judah and Israel's immediate neighbors, the people with whom they would have daily interaction.
The nations addressed are: Damascus (NE of Israel), Gaza (SW of Judah), Tyre (NW of Israel), Edom (SE of Judah), Ammon (E of Israel) and Moab (E of Judah). His list goes back and forth between Israel and Judah, and north-south/east-west with its directions. It is difficult to discern an order here but some have suggested that it is like a tightening circle. Amos is strangling Israel and Judah with a rope. And Israel is the last in the list to whom Amos addresses the message of the book. Israel is not alone–others are accountable as well. But Israel is Amos's focus.
This opening section should give us pause. Amos does not address the nations as covenant people. There is no appeal to the Torah or to divine expectations from some kind of "special revelation." Nevertheless, his words are stern, unyielding, and determinative. Amos thinks he is in a position to assess the morality of the nations.
On what basis does Amos do this? It is not the Torah per se. Rather, it is because Yahweh is the God of all nations, not just Israel and Judah. God has invested in humanity as a whole. God has expectations and designs for humanity scattered among the nations.
What is clear, however, is that the nations have pursued agendas and practices that are not consistent with God's design for humanity . In particular, they have embraced torture, indiscriminate killing, and slavery. They have committed crimes against humanity.
There is something, Amos seems to assume, within the human being or something about their existence within the creation that demands humane treatment, encourages mercy and condemns war crimes. There is something about humanity itself which condemns inhumanity.
Curiously, he does not mention idolatry, at least overtly. He is focused on the war footing and abusive relationships among the nations rather than their cultic religions. This is sufficient for their condemnation no matter what else is involved.
Indeed, Amos knows that the nations are filled with other transgressions. He begins every oracle with a proverb: "For three transgressions of X, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." Proverbially, he knows there are y four transgressions which means he knows they are numerous. But Amos only names one in each case, and the one he names is a war crime of some sort; they are about human inhumanity to other humans.
Each of the nations were created out of humanity. God empowered these nations, set their boundaries, and raised up their rulers. God intended each of these human communities to live out the image in which they were created. But they did not. Instead, the nations favored their own security, power, and wealth, and they pursued those interests through violent and inhuman means.
God still addresses the nations through Amos. The divine intent and the principles embedded in our function as the images of God still remain. Nations are called to live out that divine intent and embody those principles. And nations, even the United States of America, are still judged by these principles.
The message of Amos is still relevant, and Amos continues to address the nations. But nations continue their inhumanity, torture and indiscriminate killing; humans continue to enslave other humans. Consequently, as with Israel and Judah's six neighbors, their judgment is certain.


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Kansas - Colby
Sales Tax Calculator of Colby for 2019 Q3
Calculation of the general sales taxes of the city Colby, Kansas for 2019 Q3
How 2019 Q3 Sales taxes are calculated in Colby
The Colby, Kansas, general sales tax rate is 6.5%. The sales tax rate is always 8.75%
Every 2019 Q3 combined rates mentioned above are the results of Kansas state rate (6.5%), the county rate (1.5%), the Kansas cities rate (0.75%). There is no special rate for Colby.
The Colby's tax rate may change depending of the type of purchase.
Please refer to the Kansas website for more sales taxes information.
Colby city rate(s)
8.75% is the smallest possible tax rate (67701, Colby, Kansas)
The average combined rate of every zip code in Colby, Kansas is 8.75%


text:
I believe the chicken before the egg
though I believe in the egg. I believe
eating is a form of touch carried
to the bitter end; I believe chocolate
is good for you; I believe I'm a lefty
in a right-handed world, which does not
make me gauche, or abnormal, or sinister.
I believe "normal" is just a cycle on
the washing machine; I believe the touch
of hands has the power to heal, though
nothing will ever fill this immeasurable
hole in the center of my chest. I believe
in kissing; I believe in mail; I believe
in salt over the shoulder, a watched
pot never boils, and if I sit by my
mailbox waiting for the letter I want
it will never arrive—not because of
superstition, but because that's not
how life works. I believe in work:
phone calls, typing, multiplying,
black coffee, write write write, dig
dig dig, sweep sweep. I believe in
a slow, tortuous sweep of tongue
down the lover's belly; I believe I've
been swept off my feet more than once
and it's a good idea not to name names.
Digging for names is part of my work,
but that's a different poem. I believe
there's a difference between men and
women and I thank God for it. I believe
in God, and if you hold the door
and carry my books, I'll be sure to ask
for your name. What is your name? Do
you believe in ghosts? I believe
the morning my father died I heard him
whistling "Danny Boy" in the bathroom,
and a week later saw him standing in
the living room with a suitcase in his
hand. We never got to say good-bye, he
said, and I said I don't believe in
good-byes. I believe that's why I have
this hole in my chest; sometimes it's
rabid; sometimes it's incoherent. I
believe I'll survive. I believe that
"early to bed and early to rise" is
a boring way to live. I believe good
poets borrow, great poets steal, and
if only we'd stop trying to be happy
we could have a pretty good time. I
believe time doesn't heal all wounds;
I believe in getting flowers for no
reason; I believe "Give a Hoot, Don't
Pollute," "Reading is Fundamental,"
Yankee Stadium belongs in the Bronx,
and the best bagels in New York are
boiled and baked on the corner of First
and 21st. I believe in Santa
Claus, Jimmy Stewart, ZuZu's petals,
Arbor Day, and that ugly baby I keep
dreaming about—she lives inside me
opening and closing her wide mouth.
I believe she will never taste her
mother's milk; she will never be
beautiful; she will always wonder what
it's like to be born; and if you hold
your hand right here—touch me right
here, as if this is all that matters,
this is all you ever wanted, I believe
something might move inside me,
and it would be more than I could stand.
Meg Kearney


text:
Export 8 results:Author Title Type [ Year]
Filters: Author is David Feldman [Clear All Filters]
Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Financing Solar. 2016. LBNL-1004372..
"Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends: Historical, Recent, and Near-Term Projections - 2014 Edition." 2014..
"Tracking US photovoltaic system prices 1998-2012: a rapidly changing market." Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications (2014) n/a - n/a..
Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance of System (Soft) Costs for U.S. Photovoltaic Systems Using a Data-Driven Analysis from PV Installer Survey Results. 2012. LBNL-5963E..
"Quantifying non-hardware balance of system costs for photovoltaic installations in the United States using a combined annual expenditure-labor hour productivity approach." 2012 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. Austin, TX, USA: IEEE, 2012. 001762 - 001767..


text:
Tonight on The Colbert Report, Marvel chief creative officer — and longtime writer/artist — Joe Quesada confirmed rumors that Cap's longtime ally Sam Wilson, a.k.a. The Falcon, would be taking the adamantium shield from original Cap Steve Rogers. As of this fall, Captain America will be a man of color.
Created in 1969, Wilson/Falcon was the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics, and has been a persistently important character in the Marvel universe. He first appeared in the pages of Captain America, and ever since, he's been especially important in stories about the Star-Spangled Avenger — one need look no further than Falcon's cinematic debut (as portrayed by Anthony Mackie) in this year's box-office mega-hit Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The ins and outs of Steve Rogers's abdication are a bit too complicated to bore you with here. But basically, he lost the power of his life-extending, power-giving Super-Soldier Serum and is rapidly aging. Marvel has said Rogers isn't dying, but he'll be taking a backseat and offering remote support to Wilson.
While the soon-to-be-ex-Falcon will not be the first African-American to don the Captain's shield — that distinction goes to the character Isaiah Bradley, introduced in the 2003 limited series Truth: Red, White, and Black — this high visibility passing of the shield, coming as it does shortly after the recent announcement of a female Thor, certainly appears to indicate a concerted effort on Marvel's part to include more diverse faces within the top-tier superhero landscape. What's next, a transgender Iron Man?


text:
Lucchese Craftsmanship
Horseman Construction
Detail Construction
Horseman boots embody classic Western style with elegant details. They are built with premium materials inside and out for years of comfortable outdoor wear. The premium leather lining absorbs moisture and helps keep feet cool. Both heel and heel counter are leather. We use a natural leather outsole stitched to the front three-quarters of the insole; hand-hammered brass nails secure the parts that are closest to the boot's heel. This technique is called three-quarter welt construction. It's a method that sometimes incorporates lemonwood pegs, but for boots that will be worn in high-moisture areas, we choose brass nails instead.
Premium Leather
The premium leather lining absorbs moisture and withstands years of wear.
Three-quarter welt
With a three-quarter welt, the front of the outsole is stitched to the front of the insole.
Brass Nails
Brass nails are a good choice for boots that will be worn in high-moisture areas.


text:
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
By Nick Patten , Betsey Swardlick, Penina Gal, Joshua Rosen, José-Luis Olivares, and Jon Chad.
Werewolves! Oh goodness gracious me! Werewolves are awesome! Rarrrrrrgggghhh. (Though looking through this comic, it seems some variation on "Awoooooo" is the most popular werewolf phrase.)
I really liked this little comics anthology which featured comics from a bunch of different people, all of which I enjoyed. They're generally of the humorous variety, though there is a more melancholic one, and the final one is straight up action.
The comics themselves deal with turning into a werewolf ("Aaah. I've vomited all my human teeth!!"), being a werewolf, having sex with a werewolf, hiding behind a werewolf, and the ever popular fighting a werewolf.
Of the stories the strangest is probably the Snoopy crossover by José-Luis Olivares, my favourite joke is the one pager by Jon Chad, and my favourite artwork in the piece by Joshua Rosen (see below), though I am wondering who did the cover as it is rad. I did like all of the comics though, and if you like werewolves you should definitely find a copy.
Who spilled my red wine?!
Posted by tomorrowboy 2.9 at 1:22 AM
Labels: minicomics, monsters
1 comment:
- AnonymousDecember 4, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Thanks for the write-up! Nick Patten drew the cover, and his current site is http://unreachablebeasts.blogspot.com/ReplyDelete
Actually, most of the Werewolf crew have new websites, anyone interested in those or in our two other volumes can check out http://werewolfanthology.com for all that info! Thanks!
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text:
EL PASO – A UFO was spotted over El Paso last night. The same UFO that was over New York last week!
Federal authorities have confirmed that a UFO was hovering over El Paso last night. Authorities believe it is the same UFO that was over New York City last week.
WWN reported last week that the "mysterious lights" that were over New York City on October 14th belong to a UFO, which was confirmed by the Defense Department. "We don't regularly release this information to the public," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates who went on to say, "I do believe that the alien invasion is underway. There is overwhelming evidence now."
Here's a comparison. The picture on the left was taken of the UFO that hovered over New York last week. The picture on the right was the UFO seen over El Paso last night. You think it's the same UFO?
Last night a number of witnesses in El Paso area called local police stations and newsrooms to report the UFOs that mysteriously appeared in the sky over the southern state.
Many reported a light appearing, which split into three 'orbs', each with a tail behind it. A fourth light appeared briefly, before all the lights were suddenly extinguished.
"It was definitely a UFO. I know an alien when I see one, " said Toby Blake of El Paso. "I knew something was going on because the cows ran for the barn. They were scared. And you know something, we was scared, too. The whole damn town was scared!"
The lights, which were captured on video, were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA confirmed that the lights belonged to an alien spaceship – though they later denied it.
"We thought we shot the UFO down over the Atlantic last week." said a Navy pilot. The Navy confirmed the take down, but the UFO is back. "It looks like the same UFO, but it may just be part of an Alien Spaceship Battalion," said John Comito, Director of the FAA.
Here's an incomplete news report about the EL Paso UFO:


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Masculine Wellness
By Roger Bowman Posted on January 19, 2018 In No Comments
About the Author
Roger Bowman is an aspiring entrepreneur, wellness coach, a certified personal trainer & weight management specialist with American Council on Exercise (ACE) and among all other things fitness and lifestyle related, an IFBB pro in men's physique. Since starting his health and fitness career way back in 2001, Roger has succeeded in many facets within the industry including running health food stores, helping hundreds of clients in the gym, online throughout the country as a consultant with medical groups, and also taking the lead with product development and writing educational health and fitness articles with a leading supplement company. With a background as a competitive wrestler, bodybuilder and sports enthusiast, competition and training have always been a part of Roger's life. Even as an adolescent he started becoming very conscious of food choices and nutrition as it was very relevant to maintaining weight and a competitive edge in wrestling. This easily flowed into his early adult life when he discovered the bodybuilding lifestyle in 1997 and participated in a couple of the early "Body for Life" challenges. After learning so much and making such a drastic change mentally and physically, he was hooked for life with a healthy and fit way of living even further. This passion quickly transcended into helping others around him do the same as he coached and led them into following a similar lifestyle. Roger left the family woodworking business soon after to pursue a career in the health and fitness industry full time following what he knew in his heart, was his calling in life. Soon after, Roger managed a couple health food/supplement stores for the next 9+ years while at the same time becoming an ACE certified personal trainer and building a very well respected fitness training business in his local communities. His reputation for being a great trainer with an incredible working knowledge of nutrition and supplements eventually attracted outside attention from a local wellness clinic that specialized in doctor supervised hormone optimizing, wellness and weight loss programs in late 2011. This soon had Roger being recruited and him stepping away from the supplement store scene and into more of a medical side of health and wellness. This lead Roger into yet another area of the human body that he soon excelled at as a sought-after expert consultant, working with doctors and their clients. Roger has since worked with 4 different "anti-aging"/wellness clinics, groups and affiliate doctors. Currently, he works solely as a consultant to one of these medical groups by the name of Youth-Rx, which is the bulk of his daily work today. In 2012, soon after men's physique class was introduced into the NPC and IFBB, Roger seen his chance to shine and bring his years of experience working on his personal body and physique, to the stage for all to see. With professional coaching from Remi Bruyninga to help Roger with his posing and stage presentation, he was off and running. In just his 2nd year of competitions, success was quickly seen winning a couple national qualifying NPC shows. Later that year, this had him traveling out to nationals as a sponsored athlete in which he ended up earning his IFBB pro card in the summer of 2013. Roger did all of his own nutrition and training to prep for and win his competitions. He has since coached several clients to compete and win their's as well. His work in the field led to attracting the attention of a popular up and coming supplement company that recruited him to take the lead on product development for their nutritional supplements in late 2014. He also has heavily contributed to their educational material including videos and blogs on various topics in the health and fitness industry. After being a small part owner in the company, he has since sold his shares and moved on to pursue other ventures as of the spring of 2016. In January of 2016, Roger was named in Metro Parent magazine as one of metro Detroit's top personal trainers of 2015. He still pursues his mission today to help people look and feel their best where he helps a select number of clients in his now hometown of Toledo, Ohio. In Roger's Words: "I have and always will practice what I preach. I bring book smarts, TONS of personal experience and an extensive history of continuing education to the forefront when teaching and educating my clients, something I think is too rare with this industry these days." If you haven't already, Google "Roger Bowman's Fitness & Wellness Coaching" (copy/paste that) to see reviews and more. Cheers to being your best, -Roger


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Ted and Tamara in the outer courtyard of the mosque.
Carpet and one of the supporting columns.
Stained glass and nave dome.
Main dome, 77ft in diameter.
Transition from the main dome (left) to a side dome (right). Shows a damaged/unrestored section of tile.
Side dome and alcoves. Love the tile.
One of the smaller light fixtures. These are why there are so many cables running through the domes- they used to be oil lamps.
Good shot of one of the side domes and main supports (lower right). Shows some of the 20,000 tiles.
Writing above a door to the outer courtyard.
Ablution stations outside the blue mosque. These are actively used.
One of the massive doors to the outer courtyard.
A beautiful dome in the outer courtyard.


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Global Finance Names The World's Best Emerging Markets Banks In The Middle East 2014
New York, March 17, 2014 - Global Finance magazine has named the World's Best Emerging Markets Banks in the Middle East in an exclusive survey to be published in the May 2014 issue. Global Finance editors—with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and banking consultants—selected the best emerging markets bank in the region and in 14 countries.
Criteria for choosing the winners included growth in assets, profitability, strategic relationships, customer service, competitive pricing, and innovative products. In addition, for the first time, a poll of Global Finance 's corporate readership was conducted in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of the results.
This is the twenty first year that the magazine has selected top banking performers in emerging markets. The report covers best banks in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.
"Faced with slowing growth and volatile markets, these banks are star performers under increasingly challenging conditions," said Joseph D. Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance . "The banks that Global Finance is honoring may not be the largest or oldest, but they are the best at targeting their products and offerings to the specific markets they serve."
|Arab Bank
|Ahli United Bank
|Commercial International Bank
|Bank of Baghdad
|Bank Melli Iran
|Arab Bank
|National Bank of Kuwait
|BLOM Bank
|Ahli Bank
|Bank of Palestine
|Qatar National Bank
|Saudi Arabia
|Samba Financial Group
|United Arab Emirates
|National Bank of Abu Dhabi
|Arab Bank Yemen


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Those dirty devils Alektra and Nikki dragged Johnny down to hell to get a piece of his huge cock. Things are heating up in the Inferno now they've laid him on a table, and started rubbing down his oily body with their huge tits and eager hands. They're hoping to seduce him with a nasty threesome so dirty and hot he'll never want to leave. And once you see these sluts 69-ing each other and sharing his cock like the hungry hos they are, you'll want to join him in this pussy-pounding paradise


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27 March 2005 16:00
speedjazz today 27/03/2005 32 pages d'art du jourby hurlantenova
speedjazz today 27/03/2005 32 pages d'art du jour
1 (1 marks)
Founded in late 2003 and heartquartered in France, we are non-profit and independant.
We believe in the open web, think internet services should be sustainable, build for the long term.
While we are re-launching the service, we only accept new members through invitation.
last mark : 27/03/2005 16:07


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Ukrainian church restoration reverses communist changes
A church in Ukraine that Soviet authorities once seized for use as a "monument of communism" will once again be a place for Christian worship after renovations remove a neo-classical façade erected to disguise its nature, informs CNA.
"The church does not look like a place of worship. It wears a mask, as it were. It is in disguise. We want to take away this mask," Fr. Grzegorz Romanowicz, the Franciscan Capuchin provincial in Ukraine, told the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
"Until now, many people do not even recognize the building as a church from the outside."
St. Joseph's Church in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, is now in Catholic hands after a 20-year-long ownership dispute. Franciscan Capuchins now have pastoral care of the church, and the last stages of restoration are underway.
Since 1949 the church was used as a library, a boxing hall and offices. Soviet authorities erected the façade in 1949 to hide the building's origin as a church. That façade is set to be removed later in February.
Fr. Romanowicz said the church was originally seized to serve as a "monument of communism." Since the confiscation, the façade has acted like "a gag on the church" that forces it into silence.
"Now the church seeks to win back its identity."
The Catholic Church moved to reclaim the property after the government promised in 1988 to return all religious property which had been confiscated. The building's then-owner, Dugsburry Inc., contested a ruling that the Catholic Church was the property's rightful owner.
The dispute even turned violent when security guards physically attacked believers, including elderly women, who were peacefully demonstrating for the property's return.
The ongoing disagreement led to neglect of the building. Its roof was removed, exposing 130-year-old frescos to the elements. A 2006 arson also caused major damage. The property was legally recognized as church-owned in 2009, but other bureaucratic problems kept repairs from being made.
Aid to the Church in Need has given grants of about $185,000 to the church restoration project. It believes the building is important to pastoral work in the area.
Dnipropetrovsk is the third largest city in Ukraine. It is within the Catholic Diocese of Kharkiv and Zaporizhia. The diocese serves about 60,000 Catholics, about three percent of the local population.


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I ran across Startups Anonymous, and a post entitled, "We're Shutting Down and I'm Scared" caught my eye:
For better or worse, I've either been through or participated in shutting many companies down, so I thought it would be fun and potentially useful to provide my blow-by-blow advice:
After over two years, backing from a well-known accelerator, nearly
one million in funding and a decent amount of traction, we're shutting
> Over half of all *VC* funded startups go belly up, so you're definitely not alone.
I'm scared. I'm also sad, disappointed, ashamed, embarrassed & deflated. But mostly just scared.
> That's natural. The way to get past the fear is to take action.
Nobody but my cofounder and I are aware we're shutting down yet. It's
been a few days since we made the decision and I haven't even gotten up
the courage to tell my family.
> The sooner you tell them, the better. If the situation were reversed, would you want to know as soon as possible, or later, when there wasn't any time for you to help?
We haven't paid ourselves a salary for some time with the hopes that
we would raise more money, but also because we couldn't afford to. My
wife was counting on me to raise more money, now I have to tell her the
> You'd better tell her right away. She is an equal partner in your life. And if she leaves you over money, you're better off without her.
We didn't leave enough money in the bank to pay off our debt, so now
we need to tell people we can't pay. Are they going to come after me, or
my house and my car? I'm broke and I'm scared.
> It's called piercing the corporate veil. As long as you didn't sign any personal guarantees, legally you have no personal obligations.
Our investors believed in us. They believed in what we were building
and our abilities to execute on the vision and future we painted for
them. Now we need to tell them that we lost their money. Will they
forgive us? Will any investor ever trust us again?
> Over 70% of pre-A companies lose all their investors' money. If you have professional investors, they know it's simply part of the game.
What are we going to do now? I can't afford to start from scratch
again. I'm broke and it's not fair to my wife to go any longer without
pay. Even if I could, what would I even do? Will I be able to get a job?
I can't go much longer without a paycheck. But, I can't imagine working
for somebody else. I wish my wife understood that.
> The sooner you tell friends and family, the sooner they can help you find a job. And I don't give a damn that you can't imagine working for somebody else–upgrade your imagination and do what you have to do to support your family. I'd wash dishes or clean toilets if I had to. It's not like I don't do both at home for my own family!
Are we going to get ridiculed for failing? What's more scary, is
anyone even going to care? After all, maybe that's why we didn't make
> You won't get ridiculed for failing because nearly everyone fails. As long as you didn't do something incredibly stupid and/or illegal, no one will give a crap. In life in general, no one wastes any time thinking about your problems, except maybe your mother. We've got our own problems to worry about. Get your life in order, build up some cash, and rehearse the following line:
"My last startup failed. Here's what I learned…."
Good luck next time!


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'Joe the Plumber' wins, barely
Yes, Marcy Kaptur blew out Dennis Kucinich, and Jean Schmidt unexpectedly lost her House seat to a challenger.
But one of the biggest — and most overlooked — surprises of Tuesday night was in a northeast Ohio Republican congressional primary. There, Samuel Wurzelbacher, who is better known from campaign 2008 as " Joe the Plumber," almost lost his House bid to an obscure auctioneer named Steve Kraus — when the dust settled, Wurzelbacher escaped with a narrow 51 to 48 percent victory.
To say Kraus was underfunded would be an understatement: Through the middle of last month, Kraus had raised and spent less than $10,000 — a pittance in the world of modern-day congressional campaigns. Wurzelbacher, by contrast, raised and spent over $60,000.
Wurzelbacher hasn't exactly been embraced by the Republican establishment, largely because GOP officials regard the northeastern Ohio-based 9th District as tilting heavily Democratic and an unlikely November pickup. The National Republican Congressional Committee hasn't bothered to add Wurzelbacher to its "Young Guns" program for top recruits. After Kaptur beat Kucinich, "Joe the Plumber" will now face the veteran Democrat in the fall.
Still, Wurzelbacher's candidacy has been greeted with enthusiasm by some conservatives. Late last month, Herman Cain came to Ohio to campaign for him.
Reached by phone Tuesday evening, Kraus said he wasn't surprised he was running so closely with Wurzelbacher.
"I've done a lot of campaigning and knocked on a lot of doors, and a lot of people told me they liked my message better than they liked Joe's."
On the campaign trail, Kraus embraced the tea-party mantle, railing against federal spending and the ballooning national debt.
Asked why he thought he fared strongly, Kraus seemed to suggest that voters took him more seriously than they took Wurzelbacher.
"I think people are looking for substance," he said.
Wurzelbacher did not respond to a message left on his cell-phone voice-mail.


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by David DeGraw
Global Research, July 6, 2011
When Obama launched his re-election propaganda campaign to trick the American public into thinking that he intends to end the Af-Pak War, he said that the "War on Terror" has cost $1 trillion over the past decade. While that is a staggering amount of money, he was beingdeceitful once again.As you may have heard, a newly released study by the Eisenhower Research Project at Brown University revealed that the cost of the War on Terror is significantly greater than Obama has said. The little passing coverage the study received in the mainstream press cited $3.7 trillion as the total cost, which was the most conservative estimate. The moderate estimate, which the mainstream media ignored, was $4.4 trillion. In addition, interest payments on these costs will most likely exceed $1 trillion, which brings the total cost up to at least $5.4 trillion. The report also states that the following costs are not even included in this total:
"THESE TOTALS DO NOT INCLUDE: Medicare costs for injured veterans after age 65; Expenses for veterans paid for by state and local government budgets; Promised $5.3 billion reconstruction aid for Afghanistan; Additional macroeconomic consequences of war spending including infrastructure and jobs."David Callahan, reporting for The Policy Shop, summed up the report's cost estimates:
"… the total direct and indirect costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed $6 trillion…. That figure comes from combining congressional appropriations for the wars over the past decade ($1.3 trillion), additional spending by the Pentagon related to the wars ($326 – $652 billion), interest so far on Pentagon war appropriations, all of which was borrowed ($185 billion), immediate medical costs for veterans ($32 billion), war related foreign aid ($74 billion), homeland security spending ($401 billion), projected medical costs for veterans through 2051 ($589 – $934 billion), social costs to military families ($295 – $400 billion), projected Pentagon war spending and foreign aid as troops wind down in the two war zones ($453 billion); and interest payments on all this spending through 2020 ($1 trillion)."Once you add up all these costs, and also consider the fact that these wars are not ending anytime soon, the War on Terror will easily cost us well over $6 trillion. To put the War on Terror's cost in context, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the total cost of World War II, adjusted for inflation, was $4.1 trillion.
Another major deception is the reported annual military budget. The FY 2012 military budget is often cited as being $690 billion. Again, that is a huge sum of money for one year. However, when you add up all the other military expenditures not included in this budget, you find that our true total annual budget "likely exceeds $1.5 trillion."
To put this cost in perspective, as the average American has little understanding of how much money this is, one trillion is equal to 1000 billion. If you took all the state budget deficits and combined them, which are leading to cuts in vital social programs that will negatively impact the lives of millions of Americans, you would need a small fraction of one trillion, $140 billion (roughly equivalent to the annual military interest payment), to balance every state budget and avoid cuts to all programs.
Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars In Fraud And Waste
When you breakdown the spending on the War on Terror, you see hundreds of billions of dollars in shocking fraud and waste across the board. When it comes to fraud, a Defense Department report revealed:
"The military paid a total of $285 billion to more than 100 contractors between 2007 and '09, even though those same companies were defrauding taxpayers in the same period… What's perhaps most shocking is that billions of dollars went to contractors who had been either suspended or debarred for misusing taxpayer funds. The Pentagon also spent $270 billion on 91 contractors involved in civil fraud cases… Another $682 million went to 30 contractors convicted of criminal fraud."There have also been several cases where billions of dollars have gone missing. To name one recent revelation, the Federal Reserve shipped between $6.6 billion to $18.7 billion to Iraq for reconstruction that was stolen. The reason there is such discrepancy in the amount stolen in this case is due to the fact that the New York Federal Reserve is refusing to disclose the total amount. This is just one of several cases wherebillions of dollars in aide to Iraq and Afghanistan have gone missing. Not to mention the obscene and exorbitant fees charged by many private military companies. Earlier this year, the Congressional Commission on Wartime Contracting revealed that "tens of billions of dollars" have been wasted on private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan – and the amount spent on private contracting hasdramatically increased during the Obama Administration.
When it comes to shocking examples of waste, it costs the military in Afghanistan $400 for a gallon gas, and the Marines alone use 800,000 gallons a day. Another report reveals that the military spends $20.2 billion a year on air conditioning. That's $20.2 billion a year on AC. There are more absurdities in military spending than you can imagine. The list goes on and on.
Let's also not forget that the Pentagon's "own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends." By these measures, the estimated overall total of $1.5 trillion in annual military spending would mean that $375 billion goes unaccounted for, per year.
War Is A Racket
For anyone who researches this, it is easy to see that the primary goal is not our safety, it is huge profits for military companies and global banking interests. As famed two-time Congressional Medal of Honor Award winner Major General Butler said:
"War is a racket… easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious… It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives….The global financial elite profit off of the war, while the American public bares the severe financial costs. In this regard, not to mention the loss of life and civil liberties, the War on Terror is a war against the American people. As President Eisenhower said, every dollar spent on war is a dollar not spent on education, food, health care, etc:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."Spiraling Toward World War III
When you research the geopolitical environment, as scary as it sounds, you will conclude that if we stay on our present course, we are headed for an escalation in wars. As we spiral toward World War III, with collapsing economies, increasingly extreme weather conditions, limited resources and rising demand, the US military machine is on steroids, creating enemies and arming brutal regimes all over the world.
The pivotal US relationship with Pakistan is going from bad to worse. Leading American adversaries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia, Iraq, Syria and Iran have all been building strong alliances with China. Obama continues to support the US-NATO war with Libya and the Saudi Arabian led military crackdown on popular uprisings in many countries throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. In this region, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Somalia and Ivory Coast, to name a few countries, are all flaring up in armed conflict. Not to mention Israel's escalating conflicts with Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. The highly under-reported international drug war is also becoming much more violent, with private military contractors once again reaping huge profits.
Mix all these increasing tensions with runaway military spending and war profiteering, and you have Eisenhower's worst fears realized, a world dominated by out of control military companies.
~ To track how your hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted, follow our military spending news wire here:
Military Spending Watch
Military Spending Watch
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Thursday, July 7, 2011
The "War On Terror" Is A $6 Trillion Racket, Exceeding The Total Cost Of World War II
Here is the way to cut trillions from the debt..........STOP the illegal wars and occupations,then end the Fed....simple
Posted by Deb Simon at Thursday, July 07, 2011
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The CPAC 2010 Experience (35 Pics): Day 2
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Early on in the day Pamela Gellar's "Jihad: The Political Third Rail" event was high on my list of priorities. It featured : "Steve Coughlin, Wafa Sultan, Allen West, Simon Deng, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, & Robert Spencer." Unfortunately, I was pressed for time and the event was packed. Every seat was filled and there were maybe 50 people standing in the back.
Fun fact: Comment I heard about Pamela at the event: "She does more to fight terror than the US Army!"
I did, at least, get a picture of Pamela before I had to bail.
I ran into E.M. Zanotti and Ashley Matt in the hallway.
As per usual during CPAC, bloggers row was hopping.
The real Wonkette, Time's Ana Marie Cox, was even on hand. I walked up, introduced myself, and not only did she seem to know who I was, she assured me that she reads Right Wing News. I have to admit I'm a little dubious of that assertion, but if one of the few lefty writers I consider clever and funny actually peruses my material, I'll take it as a compliment.
Also, from bloggers row that day:
Liz Mair and my buddy, Steve Poizner's Press Secretary Bettina Inclan
Steve Poizner's Press Secretary Bettina Inclan and John Hawkins
Part of the Smart Girl Politics crew: Jenny Erikson, Mommentator, Teri Christoph, & Ashley Sewell
Unfortunately, I was apparently the only person on bloggers row having a hard time connecting to the wireless networks there. So, I headed down to the XPAC lounger to take advantage of their screaming connection. Kevin McCullough & Stephen Baldwin deserve some credit for putting that together. It had comfortable couches, free video games, great wireless, and cheap snacks. It cost $15 to use for the conference — unless you were a blogger. We got in free. McCullough & Baldwin spent a good bit of time roaming around and I saw Mike Pence, who gave one of the best speeches of the conference, roaming around as well.
Ed Morrissey, who had received a Blogger of the Year award that was intro'd (via video) by Rush Limbaugh showed up, along with his charming wife Marcia and we sat around chatting for 45 minutes. During that time Ed had a few people come up just to talk with him or take pics with him. I made sure to ask them if they'd like to speak to "THE Ed Morrissey" when they did.
Meanwhile, I was prepping for my PJTV interviews. I scored a JD Hayworth interview for them Monday — and it went well, despite the fact that it was my first TV interview. I had a Tim Pawlenty interview coming up — and honestly, it ended up being a little messy. It was the first time I was standing there with a mike, we had like 2 minutes to set up, and he had roughly 3 minutes for the interview. You'd think it would be simple, but because I am so used to doing phone interviews, I don't normally think about moving a microphone around. Like I said, we got it in the end, but it was still a little sloppy looking. Incidentally, in case you were wondering, Tim Pawlenty is running from his old pro-cap and trade position at full speed. Of course, given the new information about data manipulation and shabby reports, that makes perfect sense.
After the Pawlenty interview, I had the world series of interviews still to go: Ann Coulter. Here's a little secret: despite her fierce persona, Ann Coulter is actually an extraordinarily nice person — and it's not just me saying that. I've heard at least two people talk about just running into Coulter somewhere, like an airport, and how friendly she was. Unfortunately, she's such a rock star at an event like CPAC, that she can't walk 5 feet through the building without security clearing a path through the teeming masses of fans rushing to her side.
Ann showed up at 7 PM, when there wasn't necessarily a lot going on at CPAC near where we were. Her security told me that we could have her for 10 minutes — which was pretty tight because I was going to be doing a 5 minute interview with her and then Dana Loesch, who absolutely loves Ann, was going to be doing a short interview, too.
So, I do my interview and Ann, as always, delivered. After a John Edwards question that turned into a bit of a bust, I said something like, "Ann, it has been a long time since you've gotten into a major controversy, so I have to ask: Have you gone soft on liberals?" I don't want to give away the response, but let's just say the word "f@ggot" was used 3 times.
Fun fact: I'm estimating here, but Ann must be 6′ 2″ in heels.
That was my last question and so, I popped up, Dana Loesch jumped into my chair, and got ready to do her interview. About this time, Michael Steele shows up, busts through the growing crowd (It grew to probably 100 people in the 10 minutes Ann was there) and starts talking to Ann. The two of them were very friendly with each other and I got a snap of Ann whispering in Steele's ear:
I think the PJTV producers were starting to get really worried that Ann and Steele would talk too long and her security would whisk her away before she got in an interview. But, Steele eventually bolted and Dana got in her questions.
Now, you may be wondering: how can you see these wonderful interviews? You just sign up at PJTV. Incidentally, I may not have scored a zillion interviews for PJTV, but I did at least score the two interviews that are headlining their coverage. That pleases me because I always like to give people their money's worth.
While all these interviews and interview prep was going on, I missed Ryan Sorba getting boo'd off the stage for trashing GOProud.
I'd also like to note that a month ago, when I interviewed Christopher Barron from GOProud, liberal blogs were making a big deal out of the fact that no one from GOProud had been given a speaking slot at CPAC. Well, guess what? Someone from GOProud did end up speaking on a panel.
At this point, you may be saying: you haven't talked a lot about the speeches and panels for the day. That's true. There are reasons for that. The building — and even the surrounding area — was particularly tough on the lame little Tracfone I was using. There were times when the sound quality was so bad, I couldn't even tell whom I was talking to; so I ended up crisscrossing the building back and forth to talk to people over and over again. That's in addition to heading to events all over the building as well.
Also, even though I don't consider myself to be a big deal in the conservative movement, between my introducing myself to people, people who recognized me from the blog or Townhall saying hello, and consultants bringing their clients over, I must have personally met somewhere between 100-150 people for the first time over a three day period.
In any case, as the day wound down, a group of bloggers I was with merged with a RFC Radio/Smart Girl Politics outing. We ended up with roughly 25 people bouncing out for dinner.
Funny story from dinner: the night before, I had gotten a cheesy sounding email signed "Sharon," saying she couldn't make it to dinner. I thought it was from RWN blogger Sharon Soon (who did a superlative job covering CPAC on RWN this week-end) and I wanted to goof on her for the weird email name. So, I wrote back, "What is that, your stripper name?" : No response. The next morning I asked Sharon Soon about it and she said it wasn't her. Whoops! Worse yet — I didn't even remember inviting another Sharon to dinner. Turns out it was Sharon from The Liberal Heretic, who ended up sitting directly across from me that dinner — right beside of her mother. Thank goodness, I'm great at talking fast. Among other people at dinner were…
Sharon from The Liberal Heretic, Fingers Malloy, and Rachel Alexander
After dinner, I packed it in and got ready for the third and final day of CPAC 2010.
Also see,
The CPAC 2010 Experience (35 Pics): Day 1
The CPAC 2010 Experience (35 Pics): Day 3
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This paper presents a library written by C# language for the online handwriting recognition system using UNIPEN-online handwritten training set. The recognition engine based on convolution neural networks and yields recognition rates to 99% to MNIST training set, 97% to UNIPEN's digit training set (1a), 89% to a collection of 44022 capital letters and digits (1a,1b) and 89% to lower case letters (1c). These networks are combined to create a larger system which can recognize 62 English characters and digits. A proposed handwriting segmentation algorithm is carried out which can extract sentences, words and characters from handwritten text. The characters then are given as the input to the network.Keywords: artificial intelligent, convolution, neural network, UNIPEN, pattern recognition.
Originated in late 1950's, Artificial neural networks (ANN) did not gain much popularity until 1980s when a computer boom era. Today, ANNs are mostly used for solution of complex real world problems. This paper provides brief information of one very specific neural network (a convolutional neural network) built for one very specific purpose (to recognize handwritten digits and letters). The author also created a library for the neural network written by C# language which has shown the best performance on handwriting recognition task (MNIST and UNIPEN) using two essential techniques: elastic distortion that vastly expanded the size of the training set and convolution neural network. By using a network prototype in the library, the recognition system can create, load multi different neural networks on runtime. Furthermore, the system can combine several component networks to recognize a larger pattern dataset.
The ability of multi-layer neural networks trained with gradient descent to learn complex, high-dimentional, non-linear mappings from large collections of examples make them obvious candidates for image recognition tasks. In the traditional model of pattern recognition, a hand-designed feature extractor gathers relevant information from input and eliminates irrelevant variabilities. A trainer classifier (normally, a standard, fully-connected multi-layer neural network can be used as a classifier) then categorizes the resulting feature vectors into classes. However, it could have some problems which should influent to the recognition results. The convolution neural network solves this shortcoming of traditional one to achieve the best performance on pattern recognition task.
Fig. 1. A Typical Convolutional Neural Network (LeNET 5)[1]<o:p>
The CNNs is a special form of multi-layer neural network. Like other networks, CNNs are trained by back propagation algorithms. The difference is inside their architecture. The convolutional network combines three architectural ideas to ensure some degree of shift, scale, and distortion invariance: local receptive field, shared weights (or weight replication) spatial or temporal sub-sampling. They have been designed especially to recognize patterns directly from digital images with the minimum of pre-processing operations. The preprocessing and classification modules are in a single integrated scheme. The architecture details of CNN have been described comprehensively in articles of Dr. Yahn LeCun and Dr. Patrice Simard [1],[3].
The typical convolutional neural network for handwritten digit recognition is shown in figure. 1. It consists a set of several layers. The input layer is of size 32 x32 and receives the gray-level image containing the digit to recognize. The pixel intensities are normalized between −1 and +1. The first hidden layer C1 consists six feature maps each having 25 weights, constituting a 5x5 trainable kernel, and a bias. The values of the feature map are computed by convolving the input layer with respective kernel and applying an activation function to get the results. All values of the feature map are constrained to share the same trainable kernel or the same weights values. Because of the border effects, the feature maps' size is 28x28, smaller than the input layer.
Each convolution layer is followed by a sub-sampling layer which reduces the dimension of the respective convolution layer's feature maps by factor two. Hence the sub-sampling maps of the hidden layer S2 are of size 14x14. Similarly, layer C3 has 16 convolution maps of size 10x10 and layer S4 has 16 sub-sampling maps of size 5x5. The functions are implemented exactly as same as the layer C1 and S2 perform. The S4 layer's feature maps are of size 5x5 which is too small for a third convolution layer. The C1 to S4 layers of this neural network can be viewed as a trainable feature extractor. Then, a trainable classifier is added to the feature extractor, in the form of 3 fully connected layers (a universal classifier).
Fig. 2. An input image followed by a feature map performing a 5 × 5 convolution and a 2 × 2 sub-sampling map
Dr. Partrice Simard in his article "Best Practices for Convolutional Neural Networks Applied to Visual Document Analysis," [3] presented a different model of CNN for handwritten digit recognition which integrated convolution and sub-sampling processes in to a single layer. This model extracts simple feature maps at a higher resolution, and then converts them into more complex feature maps at a coarser resolution by sub-sampling a layer by a factor two. The width of the trainable kernel is chosen be centered on a unit (odd size), to have sufficient overlap to not lose information (3 would be too small with only one unit overlap), but yet to not have redundant computation (7 would be too large, with 5 units or over 70% overlap). Padding the input (making it larger so that there are feature units centered on the border) does not improve performance significantly. With no padding, a sub-sampling of two, and a trainable kernel of size 5x5, each convolution layer reduces the feature map size from n to (n-3)/2. Since the initial MNIST input using in this model is of size 28x28, the nearest value which generates an integer size after 2 layers of convolution is 29x29. After 2 layers of convolution, the feature of size 5x5 is too small for a third layer of convolution. The first two layers of this neural network can be viewed as a trainable feature extractor. Then, a trainable classifier is added to the feature extractor, in the form of 2 fully connected layers (a universal classifier).
Fig. 3. A convolution network based on Dr. Partrice Simard's model<o:p>
Back Propagation
Back propagation is the process that updates the change in the weights for each layer, which starts with the last layer and moves backwards through the layers until the first layer is reached. Standard back propagation does not need to be used in the network library because of slow convergence. Instead, the technique called "Stochastic diagonal Levenberg-Marquardt method", which was proposed by Dr. LeCun in his article "Efficient BackProp" [2], has been applied.
In a large collaborative effort, a wide number of research institutes and industry have generated the UNIPEN standard and database [5]. Originally hosted by NIST, the data was divided into two distributions, dubbed the training set (train_r01_v07 set) and devset. Since 1999, the International UNIPEN Foundation (iUF) hosts the data, with the goal to safeguard the distribution of the training set and to promote the use of online handwriting in research and applications.
Due to UNIPEN training set is collection of particular datasets from different research institutes, these datasets are decomposed using some specific procedure. In order to be able to compare my system's recognition results to published researches, the UNIPEN training set is used as training input to my recognizer. However, my approach is a little bit different; some general points in the structure of these datasets have been found to create a procedure which can decompose all datasets in the training set correctly in most cases.
The UNIPEN format is described in [5],[6],[15]. The format of a UNIPEN data file has KEYWORDS which are divided to several groups like: Mandatory declarations, Data documentation, Alphabet, Lexicon, Data layout, Unit system, Pen trajectory¸ Data annotations. In order to get the information and categorize these keywords, a collection of classes based on the above groups have been created which can help the system to get and categorize all necessary information from data file.
Image pre-processing and segmentation
Segmentation is an important step to pattern recognition system. Normally, projection techniques are applied to separate lines, words, and characters in a text image. However, it will be difficult if characters are organized in confusion. Therefore, a new algorithm has been developed to solve this issue.
Fig. 4. New algorithm for getting isolated character's rectangle boundary.
Fig. 5. Steps of isolated character
The figure 5 presents a sample of applying the above algorithm to a hand written character. Getting character's rectangle boundary is started from the first left pixel of the character. The boundary is expanded step by step from left to right, from top to bottom until the boundary can wrap the character. A similar algorithm can be applied to get the character's boundary from the topmost pixel.
By changing horizontal and vertical steps, the system can get not only isolated characters but also words or sentences without changing algorithm.
Fig. 6. Samples of word segmentation and isolated
character segmentation
Using this technique together with other well-known segmentation methods can help the system to recognize characters better in complex text images.
The recognition results of the convolution network are really high to small patterns collection such as digit, capital letters or lower case letters etc. However, when we want to create a larger neural network which can recognize a bigger collection like digit and English letters (62 characters) for example, the problems begin appear. Finding an optimized and large enough network becomes more difficult, training network by large input patterns takes much longer time. Convergent speech of the network is slower and especially, the accuracy rate is significant decrease because bigger bad written characters, many similar and confusable characters etc. Furthermore, assuming we can create a good enough network which can recognize accurately English characters but it certainly cannot recognize properly a special character outsize its outputs set (a Russian or Chinese character) because it does not have expansion capacity. Therefore, creating a unique network for very large patterns classifier is very difficult and may be impossible.
Fig. 7. A handwriting recognition system
using multi neural networks
The proposed solution to the above problems is instead of using a unique big network we can use multi smaller networks which have very high recognition rate to these own output sets. Beside the official output sets (digit, letters…) these networks have an additional unknown output (unknown character). It means that if the input pattern is not recognized as a character of official outputs it will be understand as an unknown character (Figure 3). For a large pattern collection like handwritten characters, there are so many similar characters which can make not only machine but also human confuse in some cases such as: O, 0 and o; 9, 4,g,q etc. These characters can make networks misrecognize. By using an additional spellchecker/voting module at the output, the system can significant increate recognition rate. The input pattern is recognized by all component networks. These outputs (except unknown outputs) then will be set as the inputs of the spellchecker/voting module. The module will bases on previous recognized characters, internal dictionary and other factors to decide which one will be the most accurated recognized character.
This solution overcomes almost limits of the traditional model. The new system includes a several small networks which are simple for optimizing to get the best recognition results. Training these small networks takes less time than a huge network. Especially, the new model is really flexible and expandable. Depending on the requirement we can load one or more networks; we can also add new networks to the system to recognize new patterns without change or rebuilt the model. All these small networks have reusable capacity to another multi neural networks system.
In order to evaluate the library to a handwritten recognition system, the author experiments the library on two different handwritten training sets are MNIST and UNIPEN. The results can reach to 99% accuracy rate to MNIST training set [10], 97% to UNIPEN digits, 89% to UNIPEN digits and capital letters (1a,1b) and 89% to UNIPEN lower case letters (1c)[13].
Fig. 8. Network
training interface using UNIPEN trainset (experiment in 1c)
The figure 8 is the network training interface of the demo program. The training can reach to 89% accuracy after 48 epochs to lower case letters set 1c (the first training time is 30 epochs, the second time is 18 epochs). After the first 30 epochs, the etaTrainingRate was too small which influenced to network training performance. So the network was trained again in second time with bigger initial etaTrainingRate = 0.00045.
Fig. 9. Statistics
of network training' parameters after 62 epochs
Figure 9 is network training's parameters statistics of the digits and capital letters recognition network (36 outputs network). By using Stochastic diagonal Levenberg-Marquardt method in back propagation process, the convergent speech of network becomes much faster than standard back propagation. After 65 epochs the accuracy rate of the network can reach to 89%.
In order to recognize a larger character set such as English characters (62 characters), a recognition system based on the model presented in figure 5 has been created. This system is a combination of three high recognition rate neural networks: digit (97%), capital letters (89%) and low case letters (89%). The system has proved its efficient recognition capacity by using an additional spell checker module.
Fig. 10. Mouse
drawing characters recognition using multi networks [13]
All the library, demo program, source code and training results can be downloaded at [13].
The paper presented a method of handwriting recognition using artificial convolution neural network. By the combination of convolution neural network, elastic distortion technique and Stochastic diagonal Levenberg-Marquardt method, the experimental neural networks can reach to positive results. Furthermore, the proposed model using multi component neural networks also presented an ability of creating efficient and flexible recognition systems to large pattern sets such as English characters set etc. By using a spell checker and voting module at the output, the proposed system can choose the most accurated characters from high recognition rate component networks. Hence, it can get the better recognition results to a traditional one.
Y. LeCun, L. Bottou, Y. Bengio, and P. Haffner, "Gradient-Based Learning Applied to Document Recognition", Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 11, pp. 2278-2324, Nov. 1998. [46 pages].
2. Y. LeCun, L. Bottou, G. Orr, and K. Muller, "Efficient BackProp", in Neural Networks: Tricks of the trade, (G. Orr and Muller K., eds.), 1998. [44 pages]
3. Patrice Y. Simard, Dave Steinkraus, John Platt, "Best Practices for Convolutional Neural Networks Applied to Visual Document Analysis," International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR), IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp. 958-962, 2003.
4. Fabien Lauer, Ching Y. Suen and Gerard Bloch, "A Trainable Feature Extractor for Handwritten Digit Recognition", Elsevier Science, February 2006
5. I. Guyon, L. Schomaker, R. Plamondon, R. Liberman, and S. Janet, "Unipen project of on-line data exchange and recognizer benchmarks". In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, ICPR'94, pages 29–33, Jerusalem, Israel, October 1994. IAPRIEEE.
6. Louis Vuurpijl, Ralph Niels, Merijn van Erp Nijmegen, "Verifying the UNIPEN devset".
7. Marc Parizeau, Alexandre Lemieux, and Christian Gagné, "Character Recognition Experiments using Unipen Data". Parizeau & al., Proc. of ICDAR 2001, September 10-13, Seatle.
8. List of publications by Dr. Yann LeCun. http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/publis/index.html
9. Mike O'Neill, "Neural Network for Recognition of Handwritten Digits". http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/16650/Neural-Network-for-Recognition-of-Handwritten-Digi
10. Pham Viet Dung, "Neural Network for Recognition of Handwritten Digits in C#". http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/143059/Neural-Network-for-Recognition-of-Handwritten-Digi
11. Pham Viet Dung, "Library for online handwriting recognition system using UNIPEN database". http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/363596/Library-for-online-handwriting-recognition-system
12. Pham Viet Dung, "UPV – UNIPEN online handwriting recognition database viewer control". http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/346244/UPV-UNIPEN-online-handwriting-recognition-database
13. Pham Viet Dung," Large pattern recognition system using multi neural networks ". http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/376798/Large-pattern-recognition-system-using-multi-neura
14. Modified NIST ("MNIST") database (11,594 KB total).
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)
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text:
McGrath Greater Springfield Running Festival 2019
The 2019 Greater Springfield Marathon held on 15th August 2019 was changed from last year to be just the out and back loops at the top of Springfield. The course included some tight little hills and provided runners of all ages and ability the opportunity to mingle and encourage each other on the course. This provided a great atmosphere for the event.
The event is an awesome morning road race and was run in near perfect morning conditions in Springfield, Brisbane. The race precinct was situated right next to the start and finish line.
All events started at the same time and then proceeded to do different numbers of laps of the course. Light cloud cover kept the temperatures down and made for some great photo opportunities.
The Dreamsport Photography team was there and all the low res unedited photos are available free on Facebook in the following folders. Feel free to tag and share. These free images are made available thanks to all the sponsors in the banners on each photo.
- Crowd Photos
- Start Line Photos
- Arterial Turn Album 1
- Arterial Turn Album 2
- Arterial Turn Album 3
- Start Area Photos
- Hookes Terrace Album 1
- Hookes Terrace Album 2
- Hookes Terrace Album 3
- Finish Line Album 1
- Finish Line Album 2
- Finish Line Album 3
- Kids 1KM Race Photos
- Presentations
We know that many people want to purchase their high res edited photos without the big advertising sponsors for a memory of the event. So we have made them all available to you for that as well. These are all numbered by bib number.
All the samples are in the 2019 Greater Springfield Marathon Gallery
How to Purchase
We do things a little differently from other companies.
- We don't have a shopping cart because we don't mass produce images.
- We individually edit every photo we sell.
- We shoot high resolution large images – suitable for you to print A3 size or more. Why have pro gear and not use it?
- We have some special deals for competitors in the Greater Springfield Marathon.
- We have lots of happy customers who keep coming back for more
- We specialise in Sports Photography Events in Brisbane and South East Queensland
So you have to find just the ones you want to buy and email to let us know the file numbers for each image. OR you could say please give me all my images – show us one – and we will locate the rest for you.
We then send you a payment link for secure credit card payment and away we go. We supply bulk images via a drop box download link and individual ones we email. We also will accept bank transfer. Sorry no peanuts accepted.
Prints we ship to you in a flat cardboard parcel for protection.
Note: sample photos are unedited, low quality and size and have a large watermark. Purchased edited images are adjusted for exposure and colour and provided as full size digital images with a small discreet watermark in the corner. Some sample photos are also too dark or too light. this will be corrected in the edited image.
Use our bib search system to locate your photos. Enter your bib number and search, or drill down into the event and specific galleries. if your race number was less than 100 please include the leading zeros – eg. race number 3 is 003, 49 is 049 etc. You can also search for "nonumber" in case we have photos where your number wasn't visible.
We do a special deal for all your own photos. This is a fantastic deal if we were able to get lots of photos of you and you can't choose which one you like best. Well don't choose, just grab them all for one flat price. What makes it even easier is you just email us one image of you or tell us your race number and we take it from there!
We don't believe you should have to shell out big bucks after the event to get measly images of yourself. We have a very realistic pricing structure. After all we enter events and want our photos too, so we know what its like as a competitor. Great pricing for families to pool together; the more you buy the cheaper it gets.
- one photo $13
- two photos $25
- three photos $33
- up to 10 photos $43
- after that $4 per photo
We would love to produce a beautiful A4 (8"x12") glossy image for you of your favourite images. Individual prints are available in 2 easy sizes;
- 6"x4" $6 each
- 12"x8" $20 each
All prints are shipped flat in cardboard parcels and there is a postage and handling cost of $7.50 (AUS).


text:
A number of companies and hotels will offer pyrotechnics shows around the state on New Year's Eve as part of celebrations.
Maui might get more crackle and pop this New Year's Eve.
Dry conditions prompt fireworks warning
Beginning at midnight, employees at Tanioka's Seafoods and Catering in Waipahu were to begin cutting large blocks of ahi into thin slices. The pre-dawn work today is in anticipation of the morning arrival of scores of customers who ordered sashimi for New Year's.
President Barack Obama continued his low-key holiday vacation, spending several hours at the secluded North Shore home of a high school friend.
Karl Rove, a senior advisor and top political strategist to former President George W. Bush, is scheduled to appear at the state GOP's annual Lincoln Day dinner in February, local Republicans said Wednesday.
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio host, is "resting comfortably" in the Queen's Medical Center after suffering chest pains, his program said in a statement.
In stark contrast to Sarah Palin, whose Hawaii vacation was photographed and touted in the press, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is enjoying a very private luxurious time at the Four Seasons Hualalai resort on the Big Island.
Crime in Honolulu rose nearly 6 percent in the first half of 2009, even as it fell nationwide.
Despite an initial rejection by the governor ... a proposed agreement to reduce the number of teacher furlough days is still alive.
Hawaii County is moving forward with its revised version of a $1.4 million upgrade to Reed's Bay Beach Park in Hilo.
Firefighters continued to build a fire break around the Kealakekua Ranch fire Tuesday, West Hawaii Battalion Chief Reuben Chun said.
Many Hawaii County property owners are abusing agricultural tax exemptions and not paying their fair share of taxes, according to the chairman of the Real Property Tax Board of Review.
The voters' rejection in 2008 of a proposed charter amendment that would have loosened ethical restrictions does not impact how the law is interpreted, county officials have determined.
Do you walk three miles to and from work everyday? Would you expect a 7-year-old to?
A recent study has thrown new light on the previously underestimated extent of pre-contact Hawaiian agriculture, particularly in dry lee areas of the Big Island.
Pearl Harbor Military Terminated Community Oversite Boards Monitoring Toxic Contamination Cleanups - Posted on by Henry Curtis Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) are Congressional-military approved bodies that seek to inform the military of community p...


text: DevExtreme ASP.NET MVC Tree List is a jQuery-powered control for displaying hierarchical data. Its key features include: data binding to Web API and MVC controllers, data shaping, editing and validation, virtual scrolling, and many more. Tree List supports strongly-typed HTML helpers, which supplies it with client-side validation based on Data Annotations by default. You can choose between Razor C# and Razor VB syntax and use lambda expressions when configuring it.


text:
Answer Man
A Good Soaking
Q: How does Disney keep all those topiaries watered during the annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival?
A: Answer Man has suspected for years that Donald Duck's nephews—Huey, Dewey and Louie—waddle around with a really long water hose every night after the park closes. He just can't prove it. So until that story breaks, here's the official version.
The secret is tubing. Lots of it. Quarter-inch irrigation tubing winds its way through most of the 100 or so topiaries that are the stars of the festival. There are tiny holes every 6 to 12 inches from which water oozes. Yes, from Woody's arm to Mickey's leg to the Fantasia hippo's bounteous backside—the Mouse's horticulturists have it covered.
Yet, these topiaries don't need as much water as you might think. On average, only about three minutes of soaking, once a day, says Renee Worrell, Walt Disney World topiary production planner. Why so little? Because the plants are rooted in sphagnum moss, which holds the moisture like a sponge. And from the who-would-have-guessed department: To keep those lovely begonias, creeping fig, sweet alyssum and other plants in place, the Epcot experts use…hairpins. A few hundred thousand of them.
Is it any wonder that, after 19 years, we've grown rather attached to this festival?
Q: How can merchants keep crowds from losing control at the release of a coveted consumer product?
The much-desired Foamposite Galaxy
A: Cops on horseback and in riot gear can help—that staved off trouble at Florida Mall recently before the planned release of a limited edition shoe called—take a deep breath—the Nike Air Foamposite One Galaxy.
"Goal-oriented actors'' is how crowd behavior expert Clark McPhail refers to these eager folks. The key to preventing a mad rush is "regulating priority of access,'' says McPhail, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He points to changes Walmart made in its procedures for Black Friday sales after an employee was trampled to death in New York in 2008. The following year, the store stayed open from 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day throughout the night so there was no mad rush. People were given tickets for the most desired items to avoid "rush and grab.'' And employees spoke from raised platforms to let the crowd know what was going on.
Indeed, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued crowd management safety guidelines for retailers. They include using numbered wristbands or even an Internet lottery for "hot'' items, like the aforementioned Nike sneakers. Um, no thanks. Answer Man has decided to stick with his hot-looking $20 walking shoes from Costco.