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The chance to offer samples to prospective volume buyers will be available at the new Craft Beer Pavilion at International Pizza Expo, March 19-21, 2013, in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
A crowd of 7,000 of the most successful independent and small-chain pizzeria owners and managers will converge at the 29th annual Expo. Recognizing the synergies between beer and pizza, and between craft brewers and the increasing craftsmanship of pizza makers, Pizza Expo has set aside space on the exhibit hall floor for members of these two like-minded enterprises to meet and discuss building profitable craft beer programs at the nation's best pizza restaurants.
Quick facts: Annual U.S. pizza restaurant sales — $40 billion. Pizzerias in the U.S. — 65,000. Pizzerias that serve beer — 30,000-plus. Pizzerias that serve craft beers — not enough, but the number is growing rapidly.
The pizza segment, like the craft beer segment, has continued to grow during the slow economy while other dining out concepts have declined. Pizza Expo is a business-to-business trade show attended by pizza operators seeking new ways to improve their businesses. The show floor is 5.5 football fields in size and features 425-plus exhibitors.
Pizza Expo is offering discounted-rate space in the Craft Beer Pavilion and a turnkey package that makes it easy for brewers to have a presence there. In addition, craft brews from exhibiting brewers will be featured at the popular Beer & Bull Idea Exchanges at the close of show hours on the first two days of the event — at no extra charge to the brewers.
Also, the conference package at Expo includes three panel discussions on profitable craft beer strategies for pizzerias.
We've taken several steps to make craft beer the beverage focus at International Pizza Expo 2013.
To be a part of it all, contact Bobbie MacIntosh at 800-489-8324, ext. 515. Or email her at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Pizza Expo | Bruce Allar | firstname.lastname@example.com | Bobbie MacIntosh, booth sales email@example.com | PizzaExpo.com


text: Does anyone out there remember the Commodore Amiga game console? If you do then you would have heard of a game called SYNDICATE, an early release by EA GAMES and BULLFROG PRODUCTIONS way back in 1993. Them days it was a fixed isometric, tactical shooter game, involving a team of cyborg agents. It did cause . . . → Read More: Syndicate-It's All In Your Head!

subset: commoncrawl


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Add vehicles to compare. You can compare up to 3 vehicles at a time.
Price includes $495 closing fee. Price does not include SC Infrastructure Maintenance Fee, tags, title, or any other applicable taxes and fees. All prices, specifications and availability subject to change without notice. Any dealer installed accessories are excluded from the price. Contact dealer for most current information ------ Your dealer will walk you through SC�â¬â¢s tax, title, and license fees to arrive at the final out-the-door price of your car. Price may exclude tax, title, tags, governmental fees, any emissions testing charges, and any finance charges (if applicable). Unless otherwise stated separately in the vehicle details, price does not include processing, administrative, closing or similar fees. Please contact this dealer to confirm that this vehicle is still available. Current mileage may vary due to test drives and vehicle relocation. Tax, title, license (unless itemized above) are extra. Not available with special finance, lease and some other offers.
used Chevrolet Dealership near Charleston
Explore our inventory of used 2004 Chevrolet vehicles for sale near Charleston, SC. As your North Charleston Chevrolet dealership, we offer an unbeatable selection of used vehicles at great prices. Whether you're seeking to buy or lease, the sales professional at Crews Chevrolet will work with you to help you get the best deal on a car, truck, or SUV in North Charleston. Questions about one of our used cars? Call us at (843) 480-0041 or contact us online, and we'll get back to you promptly. When you're ready to test drive a used 2004 Chevrolet vehicle at Crews Chevrolet, visit our Chevy dealership near Charleston, Summerville, and Goose Creek.
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Customer Reviews (1417 Reviews)
My truck was finished in a reasonable time.
My truck was finished in a reasonable time.
St D. NORTH CHARLESTON
Always professional
Always professional
Ronald M. NORTH CHARLESTON
The person that checked me in was very...
The person that checked me in was very very nice.
Mary D. NORTH CHARLESTON
James "Frank" Jordan is our car guy. Now...
James "Frank" Jordan is our car guy. Now he's our truck guy too. He made sure my experience was as painless as possible while ensuring I was matched w...
Barbara B. BOWMAN
They handled my service quickly and...
They handled my service quickly and politely.
Charles S. MOUNT PLEASANT
Very pleased
Very pleased
Pamela W. GOOSE CREEK
Great service and good atmosphere
Great service and good atmosphere
Donald W. HANAHAN
it was great
it was great
Carlton Z. NORTH CHARLESTON
Andre Williams did a great job and got...
Andre Williams did a great job and got me everything I wanted!
Scott D. MOUNT PLEASANT
This is the absolutely best dealership I...
This is the absolutely best dealership I have personally ever associated with, the most professional, courteous, and caring staff in all of Charleston...
Thomas M. HANAHAN


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ABC News correspondent Amy Robach says she has breast cancer, a month after she was given a mammogram on the air for a "Good Morning America" story.
"Honestly, I was a little reluctant at first," Robach admitted on "GMA" Monday morning. "I'm 40, I'm the age and I've been putting it off."
Robach got the screening as part of the show's October Pink initiative, aimed at encouraging viewers to get checked, according to People.
She said she was shocked by the news, as she has no family history of the disease. A doctor has since told her that the mammogram saved her life, and she'll have both breasts surgically removed Thursday, she announced.
"It's still hard for me to say the words out loud: 'I have breast cancer,'" Robach said.
Robach was a frequent fill-in on ABC's morning show while Robin Roberts was fighting a serious blood and bone marrow disease.
Roberts held Robach's hand as her "GMA" colleagues wished her well.
"You're going to beat this," they told her.
Robach is married to "Melrose Place" actor Andrew Shue, with whom she has two daughters and three stepsons. Shue appeared alongside her on Monday's telecast.
"Telling my children was the toughest part," Robach said. "But that's when you get strong, because you have to be strong for other people."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Kristen Stewart: Truck Driver in Los Angeles!
Kristen Stewart drives around town in her blue pickup truck on Saturday afternoon (April 20) in Los Angeles.
The 23-year old Twilight actress wore a baseball cap backwards while driving around solo.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Kristen Stewart
Earlier this week, Kristen was joined by longtime boyfriend Robert Pattinson at the 2013 Coachella Music Festival while checking out the music scene.
In case you missed the good news, Kristen has been officially confirmed for the Snow White and the Huntsmen sequel which is set to release in 2015!


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Whimsical Topsy Turvy Cake (231)
This whimsical topsy turvy cake was created for a Bat Mitzvah. All three layers are chocolate cake with vanilla filling.
We also created 185 matching cookies for the party
We received some wonderful feedback from our client about this cake:
Now that I've calmed down a bit, I just wanted to tell you how incredible the cookies and cake were. The cookies looked (and tasted) fabulous, and the cake was absolutely gorgeous and delicious. When I get some pictures from my photographer I will definitely e-mail them to you to see – the florist did a great job on the place card table where the cookies were and the cake looked so pretty on the table with the
Thanks again for everything.


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Summerhall is a ruined castle in the Stormlands, near the borders of both the Reach and Dorne. It was formerly the summer palace of House Targaryen and the third and newest of the strongholds of that house, after Dragonstone and the Red Keep of King's Landing.[1]
Summerhall was destroyed by fire approximately forty years before the events of the series begin. The fire killed both Aegon V Targaryen, his heir, and his lifelong friend Ser Duncan the Tall. It is rumored to have been caused by an attempt to hatch dragon eggs.[1]
Season 1
Robert Baratheon killed his first man during the Battle of Summerhall, a soldier of House Tarly, during Robert's Rebellion.[2]
In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Summerhall has special significance for several members of House Targaryen. King Daeron II built it as a place of peace and relaxation away from court. One of his sons, Prince Maekar, adopted it as his main household. Along with King Aegon V, and his heir Prince Duncan the Small many members of the Targaryen household were killed during the fire. The deaths resulted in King Jaehaerys II taking the Iron Throne. However, the fire was said to have traumatised King Jaehaerys, and he died young only two years later, leaving his son Aerys II Targaryen as King. Summerhall was also the place, where a midget woods witch, who had prophesied that "a promised prince" would be born of Aerys and Rhaella Targaryen. Ser Duncan the Tall was likely killed in the fire as well, since Ser Gerold Hightower was Lord Commander of the Kingsguard the following year when Barristan Selmy joined.
Aerys II's own son, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, was fascinated by the ruins of Summerhall. He was born on the day that the fire took place and visited it several times.
See also
- Summerhall on A Wiki of Ice and Fire (spoilers from the books)
|Regional Capital:
Felwood · Haystack Hall · Bronzegate · Evenfall Hall · Summerhall · Griffin's Roost · Rain House · Mistwood · Stonehelm · Blackhaven · Crow's Nest · Nightsong
|Geographic Features:
Dornish Marches · Estermont · The Kingswood · Rainwood · Wendwater River · Shipbreaker Bay · Tarth


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"We Listen to NPR Precisely To Avoid This Sort of Stupidity"
The tedious, annoying complaints of public radio listeners.
On Valentine's Day, NPR's All Things Considered ran a two-and-a-half-minute segment about Justin Bieber fans gone wild. When the teen star lost at the Grammys to Esperanza Spalding, a few of Bieber's aggrieved minions defaced the jazz singer's Wikipedia entry, changing Spalding's middle name to "Quesadilla" and telling her to "go die in a hole." ATC anchor Michele Norris talked about the incident with Linda Holmes, the network's pop culture blogger. Norris sounded amused. As close listeners of NPR know, the hosts draw on a wide vocal range to signal a story's emotional tone; Norris and her colleagues can go from sounding alarmed to intrigued to positively delighted over the course of a two-hour show. For the Bieber segment, Norris' tone said, We understand this is a light story, but you know what, we've just heard about protests in Egypt and the apocalyptic federal budget, so why don't we take a break with Justin Bieber before getting on to that piece about poverty in America?
Not all listeners got the message. "Was it really necessary to spend any time, even four minutes, on one account of teenagers being mean to people online?" wrote a listener from Olympia, Wash. "I hope ATC isn't turning into a tabloid!" tsk-tsked someone else. Another Valentine's story—a three-minute piece about Mattel's new marketing campaign for Ken and Barbie—elicited yet more anger. "For a few seconds, I felt my ears were deceiving me on two fronts," said a guy from Beverly Hills. "One, that I was hearing an April Fool-type story when I thought it was Valentine's Day. And second, that my radio had somehow mysteriously changed from NPR to a commercial channel."
I'm an NPR groupie. I listen to public radio for several hours a day—more often than I watch TV, more often than I do actual work. There's only one thing I hate about my daily companion: my fellow listeners. Not all of them—just the ones who write in to complain whenever anything related to pop music, celebrities, technology, or other subjects that appeal to people under 40 comes across their precious wireless.
For proof that NPR letter-writers are the stodgiest, whiniest, most self-importantly insufferable snobs of all time, just search through the network's archives, which records the letters that All Things Considered and other NPR shows read on-air once or twice a week. Among the many, many topics that listeners have deemed off-limits for NPR, you'll find blogging ("another example of the slow decline of our once-educated society"); Tiger Woods ("what a waste of my time"); the National Enquirer (NPR's citing it as a source "shook me to the core"); adulterous Gov. Mark Sanford ("Can't NPR reporters find more important events going on in the world?"); comedians Adam Carolla and Mo Rocca; the rapper Waka Flocka Flame ("For this, I donate part of my precious pension?"); Twitter ("the CB radio of our era—just as much hype, just as much lasting impact"); Bristol Palin ("The only thing this story provoked me to do was change the station"); Levi Johnston ("We do not care about this subject"); Mel Gibson ("Shame on the producers of ATC for allowing such a scrape at the very bottom of the barrel"); heavy metal legend Dio ("You didn't have to do it just because he died recently"); e-books (they can't compare to "the smell of new paper"); the iPad ("a foolish waste of time"); the thought of children using the iPad ("Hopefully, this will be followed up by an uplifting story about the great things that are happening to children in the realm of outdoor play and unhooking from screen time"); and, perennially, sports. "You can't mention sports without someone saying, 'Why are you covering sports—it's just a bunch of Neanderthals, it's just a bunch of fascists!' " says NPR sports correspondent (and Slate sports podcast " Hang Up and Listen" panelist) Mike Pesca.
For many years, I ignored such letters. I'm 32, but I generally share the sensibilities of folks much older than myself—I watch NewsHour and go to bed at 9:30—so I'm used to encountering people who frown on anything produced after 1981. I blew my top, though, when I heard listeners' responses to Michael Jackson's death. NPR ran several fine pieces about Jackson, my favorite being a segment in which fans around the world sang their own versions of Jackson's hits. The report was sweet, touching, and a creative use of the network's far-flung correspondents—NPR at its best. The letter-writers hated it. All Things Considered devoted two spots to complaints from listeners who thought that Jackson's death—the biggest pop culture news of 2009—was inconsequential. "Et tu, NPR? I thought you would offer a safe refuge from the barrage of Michael Jackson coverage on every other media outlet, but alas, no," said a woman from Pennsylvania. What about "Uyghur unrest in China, fighting in Mogadishu and dozens of deaths in Afghanistan?" wrote another listener. Clearly not given to hyperbole, he added, "If Jackson had lived in ancient Rome, would Nero have moonwalked while his city burned?"
Since then, I've grown to hate these listeners. Oh, I hate them, hate them, hate them. Every time one of their narrow-minded, classist letters makes it on the air, I contemplate burning my tote bag in protest. The problem, for me, isn't just that some people don't like some things NPR covers. It's that these reflexively snobby pseudo-intellectuals see NPR as their own—a refuge from the mad world outside, a "safe," high-minded palace that should never be sullied by anything more outré than James Taylor (whom, of course, they love). Not only do these letter-writers perpetuate the worst caricature of public radio, but their views don't track with what you actually hear on the air. Over the years, public radio fans have heard Terry Gross interview Gene Simmons and Ira Glass confess his love for Howard Stern.
If these snoots love public radio as much as I do, then one of us must be missing the boat about what public radio is supposed to be about. Is it me, or them?
It's them. Over the last couple of weeks I've spoken to several people who work at NPR and elsewhere in public radio, as well as people who've studied the public radio audience. After all these conversations, I've concluded that the letter-writers' views don't represent most of us who listen to public radio. Their correspondence is the product of a psychology particular to public radio—since they spend so much time with the radio, and because they even donate to keep it alive, they believe it should reflect their high-brow passions.
"The first wave of letters tends to be the people who are grumpy about what we've done, particularly pop culture," says Christopher Turpin, the executive producer of All Things Considered. "They feel very strongly that they don't want us getting into the gutter." But that's not the whole story. "What tends to happen is that the day after we air those letters, we get a bigger wave from people who say, 'I loved your piece on Charlie Sheen,' or 'Please, more Ken and Barbie!' " Turpin says. In other words, the grumps are the outliers.
NPR doesn't usually air these kinder letters, Turpin says, because "we don't like to pat ourselves on the back." But Turpin has good reason to believe that they represent the "silent majority" of NPR listeners. To the horror of many NPR snoots, many of the people who work at the network love pop culture. "I noticed it during the Winona Ryder shoplifting trial—the entire staff of ATC was gathered around the television to watch the verdict," Turpin says. * "That was the moment a light bulb went off." NPR staffers generally come to the network after a lifetime of obsession with public radio; if the staff loved celebrity news, Turpin came to realize, most listeners probably do too.
Public radio's audience statistics seem to back up this story. From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, public radio saw an enormous spike in listeners. In 2003, 11 percent of all Americans—and a quarter of college graduates—regularly listened to public radio, according to a 2006 study of the public radio audience by researchers George Bailey and David Giovannoni. The growth was made up in large part by young listeners—people born after 1970—who now account for the second-largest share of public radio listeners, after baby boomers.
In the last decade, NPR has moved deftly to keep these younger people listening. Jay Kernis, a longtime producer who now works at CNN, is generally credited with encouraging NPR staffers to cover pop culture more often. In an e-mail, he told me that he did so because "NPR programming and coverage should not be elite, but reflect a wide range of American expression—high, low, remarkable, strange, etc.—as long as it was worthy of the audience's attention." Many of the reports on pop culture that I've heard on NPR live up to this mandate; they're smart, funny, informative, and deep. A year ago, for instance, NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon spent 10 minutes interviewing Ke$ha, whose single "Tik Tok" was then at the top of the charts. It was as thorough an examination of her rise as I've heard anywhere else, and it was also just fun to listen to. Of course, the letter-writers couldn't stand it. ("I thought this radio station was supposed to be a bit more cultivated and cultured than most. What an insult," one said. "We listen to NPR precisely to avoid this sort of stupidity," claimed another.)
After plateauing between 2003 and 2007, NPR's audience has been growing lately. * Still, like many media outlets, its audience is also getting older; between 1999 and 2009, the median age of NPR News' audience rose from 47 to 52. This shift has produced some anxiety in public radio circles. NPR, it's clear, needs to attract younger audiences without dumbing itself down and without turning off the boomers who are its most fervent listeners. One idea that's been floated is to create stations that target programming to young people. "In large markets, you could have a channel for NPR News listeners in their 20s and 30s, essentially the children of most of today's listeners," says Bailey, president of the public radio consulting company Walrus Research. "But that doesn't mean the younger station would be for idiots. In fact these people would be the most-informed, educated, politically active segment of the 30-year-olds."
Tell that to the snoots! I suspect that any move to create stations for young people would be met with howls of protest from the letter-writing classes. Here's hoping public radio officials ignore them. Indeed, let's all ignore them. The next time you hear a smarmy letter wishing that NPR would quit wasting its time telling you about Charlie Sheen, let me suggest that you respond with pity, not anger. Clinging to an outmoded view of what's fit for consumption by the rest of us—it's just so, so sad. Indeed, I listen to NPR precisely to avoid that sort of stupidity.
Correction, March 2, 2011: This article previously misspelled Winona Ryder's first name. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
Correction, March 3, 2011: This article originally claimed that NPR's audience has declined over the last five years. NPR's listenership has actually increased since plateauing between 2003 and 2007. (Return to the corrected sentence.)


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On Thursday the Senate passed its version of the financial reform bill, and the reconciliation process with the previously passed House bill will now begin. What are the implications for consumer protection? The similarities between the two bills in the area of consumer protection and more notable than their differences, but there are some distinctions to keep in mind and some troubling issues common to both bills. Consumer protection is a worthy goal, especially given some of the documented abuses leading up to and during the financial crisis, but bad regulation may be worse than under-regulation.
Results tagged "consumer protection" from Regulating Wall Street
You might think that the Senate has enough to do attempting to save the country from another financial crisis. Measuring and regulating systemic risk, orderly liquidation of failing financial institutions, Freddie and Fannie, rating agencies--the list of critical issues is long and the problems are complex. However, significant regulatory reform is apparently not enough to keep our diligent Senators busy. A couple of weeks ago Senator Tom Harkin took the time out to propose capping ATM fees, and this past week the Senate approved an amendment put forward by Senator Richard Durbin to reduce the "swipe fees" that banks and other companies charge on credit and debit card transactions.
Apparently some people in the Senate think that price controls are the appropriate tool for consumer protection. Ideas have been floated in the past to regulate interest rates on payday loans and credit card fees, and the latest target is ATM fees. Senator Tom Harkin seems to believe that restricting ATM fees to "a reasonable upper limit of 50 cents per transaction" will actually benefit consumers. Unfortunately, the logic underlying such a proposal shows a fundamental misunderstanding of, or perhaps disregard for, economics.
by Vicki Morwitz and Robert Whitelaw
This spring Senator Dodd unveiled a Senate bill claiming to place the protection of consumers at the top of the list. Consumers--homebuyers, taxpayers, the everyman investor--were the big losers in the greatest financial crisis in recent history. Now, with a bill moving swiftly, perhaps, through the Senate, victory may be at hand. Or is it?


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When washing delicate clothes in lower temperatures, choose a liquid detergent instead of powder. It dissolves better – and is the most sensitive option.
Extending the average life of your clothes by just three months leads to a 5-10 percent reduction in carbon, water and waste footprint.
Every single one of our garments is designed to be long lasting both in quality and style. They are built to be worn, adjusted, mended, loved and recycled.
Brush your wool clothes with a clothing brush, it reduces pilling and adds shine while removing unwanted residue.
Wash your clothes right and they will last longer. Use a laundry bag for fine materials such as silk, viscose, wool and Tencel – and turn the clothes inside out to avoid colour changes.
Pilling is a common occurrence in natural materials such as cashmere. Brush a sweater stone gently across your clothes to remove pilling, it's the most eco friendly and gentle alternative.
Value your clothes instead of treating them as interchangeable – always consider repairing before replacing.
Avoid hanging your soft knits, they will loose their shape. Instead, lay it flat to dry and to store.
Elastane and Lycra fibers are sensitive to heat, use a damp cloth in-between when ironing and wash inside out as cold as possible.
Think twice before washing, hanging a sweater or a pair of trousers to air outside is often enough to regain a fresh feeling.
Choose your shipping country in order to see correct pricing, delivery times & shipping costs. Please be aware that the price of an item may vary based on your shipping destination to reflect local market pricing and taxes.


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New Balance
420 Back Pack
Navy Grey
420 Back Pack By New Balance
Versatile New Balance backpack in a navy and grey colourway, featuring a zipped main compartment with further pockets consisting of a laptop section and a small zipped pocket. Other details include a further zipped compartment on the front, embroidered branding on the front and branded zips throughout.
- - 100% polyester
- - Adjustable straps
About New Balance
New Balance began as a Boston-based arch support company in the early 1900's, developed into a specialized shoe manufacturer in the 1970's, and has grown to become a leading global athletic products company. To ensure the best fitting, best performing shoes and apparel, they focus on improving technology and production methods. A big part of that is maintaining five manufacturing facilities in the United States and one in United Kingdom.
Style number 1588532321
- UK Standard Delivery: £3.50 or FREE on full price items. Delivery within 3-5 working days.
- Next Day UK Delivery: £5.00. Order up to 9pm* Mon - Thurs
- Saturday Delivery: £6.00. Order by 5pm Friday*
- Sunday Delivery: £7.00. Order by 5pm Friday*
- Click & Collect: FREE and available within 3 working days to any of our UK and Irish OFFICE / OFFSPRING stores
- CollectPlus£3.50 or FREE on full price items delivery in 2-3 working days to any CollectPlus location
- International Delivery: Cost dependant on country. International Standard Delivery within 2-10 working days. International Express Delivery within 2-5 working days.
* Click here for full delivery details
Not happy with a purchase? No problem. You can return to our warehouse, via Collect+ or to one of our UK stores within 28 days of purchase.
Footwear should be unworn and in its original packaging. Your refund will then be processed back to your original method of payment.Click here for more information on returns.
Click here for full delivery times and cost
|Delivery Options
|Cut off time
|Delivery Times
|Delivery Options, Cost, Cut Off Time & Delivery Times
|Standard Delivery UK & NI YODEL
|£3.50 or FREE on full price products**
|Delivery between 8am-8pm, Mon-Fri
|Standard Delivery UK & NI
Delivery between 8am-8pm, Mon-Fri £3.50
|Next Working Day UK & NI PARCELFORCE
|Order up to 9PM*
|Delivery between 8am-8pm, Mon-Fri
|Next Working Day UK & NI
Order up to 5pm*
Delivery between 8am-8pm, Mon-Fri £5.00
|Saturday & Sunday UK & NI PARCELFORCE
|Order by 5PM Friday*
|Delivery between 8am-8pm, Sat & Sun
|Saturday & Sunday UK & NI
Order up to 5pm*
Delivery between 8am-8pm, Sat & Sun £6.00, £7.00
|Click & Collect Delivery to store
|Available within 3 Working Days*
|Click & Collect
Delivery to store
Available within 3 Working Days*
|International Standard & International Express DPD
|Delivery costs depend on country
|Delivery between 2-10 Working Days*
International Standard & International Express DPD
Delivery cost is dependant on country
Delivery between 2-10 Working Days*
*Click here for full delivery details
**FREE delivery not applicable on sale items and excludes selected shoe laces & shoe care


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The Smyrna Farmers Market is set to start Saturday, June 16.
WHAT WE'VE REPORTED Earlier this year, a group of residents in Smyrna started working with an AmeriCorps VISTA worker from the Delaware Economic Development Office to see if it would be a good idea to start a farmers market in Smyrna.
Meetings were held, surveys were sent out and the group started planning the farmers market with a tentative opening date in June.
WHAT'S NEW Plans are still underway with the farmers market official start date of Saturday, June 16 creeping around the corner.
According to a press release from the Delaware Economic Development Office, vendor applications are being accepted; local farmers, processors, artisans and craft workers, and non-profit organizations are invited to apply. Youth up to 18 years old are also encouraged to apply as junior vendors.
When the market starts on June 16, the community can expect farm fresh produce, herbs, flowers, eggs, meats, jams and jellies, artwork, jewelry and other local items.
Carly James, the AmeriCorps VISTA worker from DEDO, said in the release that the survey showed Smyrna residents and community organizations expressed a desire for a farmers market in the town.
There are a few fundraising activities to support the market. The group is selling tickets for a 50/50 drawing with the winner announced at 10 a.m. at the grand opening celebration. Sambo's Tavern in Leipsic has donated a gift package. Tickets are $2 each, or 3 for $5, and can be purchased at the restaurant.
"Farmers markets are not only community spaces for socializing and gathering, but they are also community-sponsored engines for economic development," James said. "The Smyrna Farmers Market will connect Smyrna's rich agricultural history with its present demand for local, affordable, healthy food options.


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Media Center
Media Center
Congressional Briefing: The State of Nutrition on the School Lunch Tray
Apr. 22, 2014
Doctors Award 'Golden Carrot' to Nation's Healthiest School Lunch Leaders
Oct. 24, 2013
Making the Grade: Doctors Rank Healthiest School Lunch Programs in America
Nov. 5, 2012
Doctors Name Healthiest School Lunch Programs in United States
Sept. 7, 2012
The Stalled "Let's Move" Campaign Needs to Get Back in Gear, Doctors Say
Aug. 8, 2012
Doctors Petition USDA to Remove Milk as Required Food from School Lunches
July 19, 2012
Dietitians Rank Five Worst School Breakfasts: Ham and Egg Biscuit Tops List
March 8, 2012
Doctors Name Healthiest School Lunch Programs in United States
Oct. 19, 2011
Vegetarian Recipes Are Winners in USDA's Healthy Kids Contest
June 16, 2011
Doctors Name Healthiest School Lunch Programs in United States
Oct. 13, 2010
Doctors Call On Congress to Seize Historic Opportunity
June 11, 2010
Dietitians Rank Five Worst School Lunches: Beef and Cheese Nachos, Meatloaf Top List
May 11, 2010
One Doctor Takes to Airwaves to Confront Childhood Obesity Myths
April 29, 2010
Olympic Athletes Urge Congress to Pass Healthy School Meals Act
April 2, 2010
Scarlett Johansson Urges Congress to Pass Healthy School Meals Act
March 18, 2010
Healthy School Meals Act Rewards Schools for Offering Low-Fat Options
March 18, 2010
NBA Champion Calls on Congress to Support Vegetarian School Lunch Options
Nov. 19, 2009
Montel's Daughter Stars in TV Ad Urging Congress to Support Healthy School Lunches
Aug. 24, 2009
Girl in Metro Ads Asks: 'President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?'
Aug. 4, 2009
Actor Tobey Maguire Joins the Healthy School Lunch Revolution
July 30, 2009
Montel's Daughter Delivers Healthy School Lunch Petition with 50,000 Signatures to Congresswoman Barbara Lee
June 17, 2009
Give Students Vegetarian Lunch Options, Montel's Daughter Urges Congress in CNN Commercial
April 28, 2009
Doctors Seek to Ban Hot Dogs and Similar Meats from School Lunches; Federal Petition for Rulemaking Filed with USDA Just Before National School Lunch Week
Oct. 9, 2008
School Lunch Report Finds Many Schools Battling Rising Costs to Serve Healthful Meals
Sept. 30, 2008


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Scientific name: Lentinellus
micheneri (Berk. & M. A.
Curtis) Pegler
Derivation of name: Lentus means "pliable" and
"tenacious" as in chewy and ellus is the diminutive form.
Omphal- means "navel" (umbilicus)
perhaps referring
to the depressed center of the cap.
Synonyms: Lentinellus omphalodes (Fr.) P. Karst.;
Lentinus omphalodes (Fr.) Fr.;
Common name(s): Stalked Lentinellus.
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Order: Russulales
Family: Auriscalpiaceae
Occurrence on wood substrate: Saprobic; solitary or in
small groups on deciduous or coniferous wood or on moss-
covered ground; August through November.
Dimensions: Caps 2.5-5 cm wide; stipes 0.5-5 cm long and
0.5-4 mm thick.
Cap: Smooth; pinkish to brownish, darkening brown;
developing a depressed center in age.
Gills: Attached to decurrent; edges toothed and torn;
whitish to tinged
Spore print: Buff.
Stipe: Brownish overall; central to off-center; dry, smooth,
and ridged.
Veil: Absent.
Edibility: Inedible.
Comments: There are a number of other Lentinellus
species (e.g., Figure 7 shows Lentinellus cochleatus)
and all are too bitter to be
edible. My keys include
only two of the more common and conspicuous species:
Lentinellus omphalodes and Lentinellus ursinus. The
presence of amyloid spores distinguishes Lentinellus
from the genus Lentinus.
More information at MushroomExpert.com:
Figure 1. A grouping of Lentinellus omphalodes specimens
growing on fallen dead branches and woody debris of deciduous
trees. Photo © Gary Emberger.
Figure 2. A closer view of the specimens in Figure 1. Photo ©
Gary Emberger.
Figure 3.
Note the nearly central stipes.
Photo © William Roody.
Figure 4. The navel-like depression in the center of the cap
of this specimen illustrates the omphalodes part of the
scientific name of this fungus. Photo © Steve Nelsen.
Figure 5. The gills have serrated edges typical
Lentinellus genus. Photo © Steve Nelsen.
Figure 6. Note the variation in gill attachment evident in the
somewhat decurrent gills of the specimen in Figure 5 compared
to this specimen. Photo © Gary Emberger.
Figure 7. This photograph of Lentinellus cochleatus
the clustered growth habit of this species with
several caps
from stalks fused at their bases - a
trait not shared by
L. omphalodes. In
several other
respects, though, Lentinellus cochleatus resembles
Photo © Steve Nelsen.


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Tongue tie is when the bottom of the tongue is attached to the floor of the mouth.
This makes it hard for the tip of the tongue to move freely.
The tongue is connected to the bottom of the mouth by a band of tissue called the lingual frenulum. In people with tongue tie, this band is overly short and thick. The exact cause of tongue tie is not known. Your genes may play a role. The problem tends to run in some families.
In a newborn or infant, the symptoms of tongue tie are similar to the symptoms in a child who is having problems with breast feeding. Symptoms may include:
The breastfeeding mother may have problems with breast pain, plugged milk ducts, or painful breasts, and may feel frustrated.
Most experts do not recommend that health care providers examine newborns for tongue tie unless there are breastfeeding problems.
Most health care providers only consider tongue tie when:
Most breastfeeding problems can be managed easily. A person who specializes in breastfeeding (lactation consultant) can help with breastfeeding issues.
Tongue tie surgery, called a frenulotomy, is rarely needed. The surgery involves cutting the tissue under the tongue. It is most often done in the doctor's office. Infection or bleeding afterwards are possible, but rare.
Surgery for more severe cases is done in a hospital operating room. A surgical procedure called a z-plasty closure may be needed to prevent scar tissue from forming.
On rare occasions, tongue tie has been linked to problems with tooth development, swallowing, or speech.
Hall DM, Renfrew MJ. Tongue tie. Arch Dis Child. 2005;90:1211-1215. Review. Erratum in: Arch Dis Child. 2006;91:797.
Tinanoff N. Common lesions of the oral soft tissues. In: Kliegman RM, Behrman RE, Jenson HB, Stanton BF, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 19th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 307.


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"With each additional day of silence, I truly recognize what is potentially the greatest threat posed by A&E Network to the treatment and recovery community - their indifference."
- Raymond G. Ferrero III, Esq.
- Raymond G. Ferrero III, Esq.
A&E Intervention Season 11 is coming to a close, but not without controversy. Episode 10 - "Courtney,"which aired on March 05, 2012, resulted in a flood of harsh criticism against the show over the intervention of 20 year old heroin addict Courtney (the self-identified "junkie princess") by interventionist Donna Chavous of Intervention911. Donna Chavous' heavy handed tactics, unprofessional language and threats of incarceration against Courtney were described in posts on A&E's website by viewers as "bullying tactics" and "lies"from what one poster 'Marisa' called a "power hungry bully." Additional comments warned A&E to: "get rid of her before she gets someone killed." The message was clear. A&E viewers were outraged at the overall direction of their beloved 'Intervention' with additions to the cast like Donna Chavous – and, they were going to be heard.


text:
At Real Estate Professionals, you have confidence you are working with a high quality professional who cares about your best interests. Contact your Real Estate Professionals associate directly.
|Melissa Gogol
|Melissa Gogol
Real Estate Professionals Inc.
Calgary, AB T3B4Z1
Phone: 403-829-1537
<< Back to Agents Directory
|Home Search About Us Agents REP Experience Calgary & Area Join Our Team Contact
|Real Estate Professionals Inc. offers powerful
real estate tools for people looking to buy Calgary real estate or sell
Calgary real estate. This Calgary real estate website allows you to search
the MLS for Calgary homes for sale and find a sales associate, whether
buying a Calgary home or selling a Calgary home. Here you can also find
links to local Calgary resources and information on relocating to Calgary.
Also, if you are interested in a real estate career and want to find a
real estate office in Calgary, contact Real Estate Professionals Inc.
for information on a career in real estate.
©Real Estate Professionals Inc. All Rights Reserved. All information is deemed to be accurate but is not guaranteed.
Website designed and developed by Hobbs/Herder.


text:
The record start to the regular season and the President's Trophy were a promise.
The Blackhawks kept it Monday night.
In the most improbable, impossible way.
Down 2-1 with goalie Corey Crawford on the bench in the third period of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, Bryan Bickell banged in the tying goal with 1:16 to go.
Seventeen seconds later, Dave Bolland slammed home a loose puck.
Cup, please.
One minute, the Hawks seemed headed for a Game 7. Next thing you know, champions.
Authoring a shocking end to a stunning season, the Hawks indeed had made good on their word and actions. The Hawks had delivered their second Stanley Cup in...


text:
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Due to variances in monitors, the colors and patterns displayed may vary slightly from the actual product. Physical samples should be ordered prior to specifying.
Metal plates, seamed together with slight tarnishing are the inspiration behind Alston. Highlighted in the earthy tones with splashes of copper and amber, this design will give a grandiose pitch to your space.


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ETS, National Urban League to Discuss Impact of Common Core State Standards on Underserved Communities
Feb 05, 2013, 02:33 EST
PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Implementation of the Common Core State Standards and assessments will offer many challenges to educators and students, but none more so than to historically underserved communities, many of whom lack resources. On February 9, the National Urban League and Educational Testing Service (ETS) will meet at ETS to discuss these issues and consider strategies to succeed with the new standards and assessments. The symposium, titled "Taking Action: Navigating the Common Core State Standards and Assessments," is the third in a series of "Saturdays at ETS" conferences, and will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Chauncey Conference Center in Princeton, N.J.
(Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120110/DC33419LOGO)
"Implementation of the Common Core State Standards and assessments promises to improve the quality of education in the nations' schools and has the potential to contribute to strengthening curricula and help close achievement gaps," says Michael T. Nettles, Senior Vice President and Edmund W. Gordon Chair of ETS's Policy Evaluation and Research Center. "But, we must answer some important questions. How can we use the new standards and assessments to strengthen education for underserved students in our poorest schools and communities? How can we engage the entire community in understanding and supporting the improvements expected from the Common Core initiative? And how can ensure that teaching, learning and assessment are implemented thoroughly and fairly for all those involved?"
The goals of the "Saturdays at ETS" series are to:
- highlight leading ideas and research on the key elements of a timely education policy topic
- consider changes in policies and practices that can provide a springboard for improvements
- provide focus on underperforming students and parental engagement
- identify the resources needed to eliminate barriers and support academic success
To attend this event, please register here.
About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org
SOURCE Educational Testing Service


text:
Home / Boxing / TRAINING EQUIPMENT / Speed Bags & Accessories / Ringside Speed Bag
Model Number: RPSB
The Ringside Speed Bag is our premiere bag with it's razor sharp accuracy, unparalleled speed, and long lasting durability. New rubber bladders add to the quick response time and overall endurance of the Speed Bag. New, durable leather construction, triple-stitched with the strongest nylon thread available.
Available in Extra Small (5"x8"), Small (6"x9"), Medium (7"x10"), and Large (7"x11").
Available Options:
Boxing, Martial Arts, Mixed Martial Arts, Kickboxing and all other contact sports are high risk sports and users of these products are subject to personal injury. These training and fitness accessories provide a degree of protection but are not warranted to protect the user from injury. The user must assume full responsibility for any injury sustained through the use of these products. Depending on usage, the protective quality will diminish in time and require replacement.
© Copyright 2018 Full Contact Sports
Privacy and security | Return policy | Shipping policy


text:
Forum:"Edit Page" security question claims Bilbo is Frodo's uncle
Tolkien Gateway > Forums > "Edit Page" security question claims Bilbo is Frodo's uncle
When I edited a page, I was asked, "What is the name of Frodo's uncle?"
I did not know the answer "Bilbo", because Bilbo is Frodo's first cousin and his second cousin. Frodo's *actual* uncles are Dinodas, Didonas, Saradas, and Rorimac (old Rory) Brandybuck; and Dudo Baggins.
Please change the security question to read, "What is the name of the person thought to be Frodo's uncle?" In this way people will know they are expected to give a wrong answer as if it was a right answer. —Unsigned comment by Webgiant (talk • contribs).
- Whilst Bilbo was not strictly Frodo's uncle, Frodo regarded him as his uncle and Bilbo regarded Frodo as his nephew. But you do have a point. Perhaps we could change the question to be "Who was Bilbo's adopted heir?". And, obviously, this would change the answer to "Frodo".-- KingAragorn talk contribs edits email 10:41, 26 June 2012 (UTC)


text:
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text:
FLATWOODS, W.Va. (AP) — A "Buckwild" cast member is back behind bars in West Virginia.
A judge ordered 24-year-old Salwa Amin back to Central Regional Jail on Wednesday after violating the terms of her previous release.
Amin was charged last month with two counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and initially jailed on $200,000 bond. Defense attorney Michael Callaghan got that reduced to $100,000. She's now being held without bond.
Callaghan didn't immediately return messages Wednesday, but a jail official says a warrant shows Amin violated the release conditions by failing to appear in court.
"Buckwild" shows wild young West Virginians. It has drawn criticism for what some see as a negative portrayal of the state's youth.


text:
Written by Deb Egenberger Wednesday, 01 December 2010 20:44
Sometimes, the year after a best-ever season can be a let down.
Not for the Gothenburg wrestling team. Not this year.
The Swedes are on the brink of yet another record-setting season on the mat both as a team and as a group of strong individuals.
"Every year as we get more successful and the expectations change," said coach Eric Manstedt. "The kids are really working their tails off and I think in the end we're going to see one of the best wrestling teams this school has ever had."
Gothenburg returns 16 letter winners including five state qualifiers and two state medalists.
"We are extremely experienced," Manstedt said. "The kids are coming back stronger and hungrier with some pretty lofty goals."
Of course the Swede wrestling team would like to fill the school's trophy case but this season is about far more than hardware.
It's about proving they are worthy of carrying the target that's been placed on their backs.
"We've come a long way in what some people say is a short amount of time," Manstedt said.
And the boys want more.
Junior Mitchell Spiegel and senior Tanner Schwanz have re-written the school's record board.
Both have qualified for state each year and each earned sixth-place medals in Omaha last winter.
Spiegel, who will wrestle again at 103 pounds, has his sights set on a higher state finish.
"He's got some real good goals in mind," Manstedt said, "very achievable goals."
Schwanz is just one win away from 100 career victories and is only 10 takedowns shy of the school's career record.
Manstedt said moving up two weights from last year to 130 should not hinder Schwanz in any way.
"He's a very determined young man," the coach said.
Fellow returning state qualifiers Bryce Eggleston, Kyle Demoret and Dane Ehlers all have common goals: return to Omaha and make their presence known.
Eggleston, a junior, will wrestle at 135 pounds.
"His work ethic has been tremendous," Manstedt said.
Demoret returns to the 170-pound class. The coach said the senior has provided solid leadership through action.
"He's probably less than 30 seconds total away from being a three-time state qualifier," Manstedt said of Demoret. "He comes back to the mat prepared to wrestle every match."
Ehlers, a junior who returns to the heavyweight class, has been open to
Find the complete story in our print edition. Receive the entire issue of the Gothenburg Times on-line in PDF format each Wednesday for only $25 per year. Call 308-537-3636 to subscribe.


text: Tour & News U.S. Open: How Tricky Conditions at Oakmont Will Affect Play Tuesday, June 14, 2016 You May Like Courses & Travel Hal Sutton's Boot Ranch makes a kick-a– comeback Equipment Vokey unveils limited edition WedgeWorks T-Grind wedge in slate blue Tour & News Fantasy Six Pack: Get these players in your lineup at the Tour Championship Tour & News Tiger Woods on new Tour Championship format: 'Pretty simple, pretty straightforward' Tour & News Want to weigh in on the distance debate? A new survey from the governing bodies lets your voice be heard Equipment Ask an Equipment Expert: Are grips important in golf? And does grip size matter?


text:
Search terms
Computer workstation
Versatile styling allows the Slimline to be used in the tower position against a wall or flat on a desktop. Pure Power filters out noise and surges keeping your equipment safe, picture sharp and sound crisp. See all benefits
Unfortunately this product is no longer available
This new surge protection technology provides 27% greater surge protection capacity and better heat dissipation for safe, more reliable and longer lasting surge protection.
Built-in filtering technology ensures the best performance from your components. It guards against signal interference and loss of data. The higher the dB rating the better the noise reduction.
This flat and angled design conveniently directs the cord away from the lower outlet and allows furniture to sit more closely to the wall.
This LED alert lights up to indicate the surge protector is working properly.
Collects the power cords and directs them away from the device in an organized fashion to keep the area clutter-free.
Protects your connected equipment for the life of the product.
These connectors route the telephone line through the surge protector and split the line to allow two devices to be connected. It offers the convenience of leaving two devices connected constantly even though they may not be used simultaneously
Provides power to the unit which can be 6 feet from the AC outlet.
Safety slides provide a protective barrier that block the outlet so small objects cannot get in. Keeps children safer.
Connectors route the coaxial signal through the surge protector to protect against surges and spikes.
These connectors accommodate an RJ11 cord, routing the telephone line through the surge protector to guard against spikes and surges.
This automatic shutdown technology senses when the device has reached capacity and automatically shuts down electricity to your equipment. It protects against subsequent surges, even if you are not present


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Exemplary Practices in Mental Health and Aging
The NC Mental Health and Aging Coalition invites you to share the work that you are doing to support the mental health of older adults. The Coalition will compile and share contributions with you and others as part of an effort to capture ongoing work across the state and to provide a baseline for planning. Please forward this to others who may have information to share. Many thanks!


text:
Mummers hit by warehouse fire win 1st place
Wiring problems caused Dec. 10 blaze
Mummers hit by warehouse fire win 1st place
Wiring problems caused Dec. 10 blaze
A Mummers string band that had some of its props damaged in a warehouse fire won a first-place prize in the annual New Year's Day parade.
Some of the Fralinger String Band's props were damaged in the Dec. 10 blaze in south Philadelphia. The group said a firewall saved most of them and it was able to make repairs and march on New Year's.
Fralinger is one of many clubs that participate in the Mummers Parade each Jan. 1, a century-old tradition often described as Philadelphia's Mardi Gras.
The group took first place in the string band division, besting second-place Quaker City by six-tenths of a point. Fralinger captain Thomas D'Amore also took first place out of 17 captains.
Investigators said wiring problems caused the blaze.


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By L ( Elizabeth ) Lawes, on 30 May 2013
Seminal early '80s music magazine Flexipop! can be found online at the Music Mags 1970s-1980s blog. The magazine, which was launched in 1980 and lasted two years, featured a free free flexi disc with each issue. Each issue is digitised in full, including all adverts and editorial material, and is an excellent example of '80s graphic design and pop culture. The blog also features a Flexipop discography.


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Balancing digitalization, decommissioning, and a need to remain relevant and the lower "for the foreseeable future" scenario made for a complex range of topics at SPE Offshore Europe 2017.
Bob Dudley. Photo from SPE Offshore Europe.
The industry has worked hard to improve efficiencies and cut costs but, more needs to be done to ensure long-term health, remain relevant and attract future generations of technology savvy individuals to the industry, the opening plenary session at SPE Offshore Europe 2017 heard.
The concerns were raised by plenary speakers, comprising BP CEO Bob Dudley, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, Wood Group CEO Robin Watson, Petrobras chief exploration and production officer Solange Guedes, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Jones MP, and SPE President Janeen Judah, alongside conference chairman Catherine MacGregor, who is also Schlumberger's Drilling Group President.
This year, 35,000 people attended SPE Offshore Europe at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, in early September, according to co-organizers Reed and SPE, down from >50,000 in 2015, and >63,000 in 2013 (a record). Look to the pre-boom figures, however, and it's less of a drop, the show attracted 48,000 in 2011. Among the exhibitors, 44 countries were represented, with delegates from 100 countries.
Robin Watson. Photo from SPE Offshore Europe.
With a lack of major news announcements, the event was reflective but forward looking. A key to industry reinvention will be new technologies, but the industry will also need the people to use them, Watson told the plenary session. He said that some 350,000 industry jobs had been lost globally since the downturn started three years ago. "Some of these jobs will never return. This is a generational shift," he said.
The shift the industry is experiencing was highlighted by industry body Oil & Gas UK during the event. Its Economic Report 2017 was launched at a business breakfast and showed that UK oil and gas industry job losses had slowed to 13,000 in 2017, compared to 60,000 in 2016.
The report also said an estimated US$6 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions were made in the UK oil and gas sector in 1H 2016, pointing to a turn in fortunes for the basin. Much of the activity has been driven by private equity backed firms, whose approach to doing business in the basin is enabling new business models, particularly around closer working relationships with contractors, including where the latter works in return for future payments or production.
The $6 billion figure didn't include Total's acquisition of Maersk Oil, however, a move that could signal further job losses due to the $400 million annual synergies Total said could be made by joining the two firms. Uncertainty over Brexit adds further to the murky path ahead for the North Sea industry.
Significant focus at this year's event was on digitalization and decommissioning. MacGregor told the event: "Whatever you think about high power computing, or the advent of digital construction, or fully utilizing production data to make systems run better… The impact is enormous. And it will make the industry more attractive."
Robin Wye, BP Group Technology research commercialization manager, told the event that digital is going to change how the industry does business. "We have subsurface engineers and scientists looking at cutting their workflows by a factor of 10 or 100, as well as getting a better result," he says. "But it may take a decade before we're seeing a major impact of that transformation, but every bit of our business is being impacted by how we use digital technology."
BP sees this area as worth investing in. BP Ventures, for example, has invested in Beyond Limits, an artificial general intelligence software company, which has artificial intelligence (AI) technology on board a Mars rover, he said.
Ragnhild Ulvik, vice president, Innovation GSB Corporate Strategy and Innovation, Statoil, said the firm expects to invest NOK1-2 billion (£100-200 million) from now until 2020, in addition to current IT investment the company is making.
"We have a vast amount of data and we only use a small fraction of it. The amount of data increases 25% each year. We have so much data that we don't even know what we know," Ulvik said.
However, a joint study by software company AVEVA and Westwood Global Energy Group, released during SPE Offshore Europe, found that while the benefits of digitalization, using tools such as intelligent data management and laser scanning to create a Digital Twin, are generally recognized, the industry's risk averse culture coupled with reduced budgets and common misconceptions has been preventing its full potential from being realized.
Recognizing the rapidly expanding decommissioning sector, SPE Offshore Europe devoted one of its six halls to the discipline this year, including a themed exhibition and dedicated conference space.
"Are we thinking big enough, or is the challenge smaller than we think," was the key questions asked at the decommissioning keynote, led by North Sea industry leaders, including session moderator Steve Phimister, who is upstream director UK & Ireland for Shell.
One of the challenges is reducing the £60 billion bill to remove the UK North Sea's oil and gas infrastructure by at least 35% – a target set by the UK's Oil and Gas Authority and described as ambitious by Phimister, but thought achievable.
Phimister told SPE Offshore Europe: "We really do have to think quite deeply and differently about it [decommissioning], and draw on all the expertise in the industry, take on the issues… find the solutions and smart ways of working together whether in execution strategies or contracting strategies."
CNR International's decommissioning project manager, Roy Aspden, said an important question is how the industry was developing the capability to respond to the sheer size of the decommissioning challenge: around 470 installations will need to be decommissioned over the coming decades in the UK North Sea alone.
He said: "Six years ago, we had zero [decommissioning] capability in the company, and faced decommissioning the tallest, deepest, most northerly [installation] in Murchison. So, we needed to build capability pretty quickly."
Forging ahead
Hermod – in 1979 on its first job, the Piper A platform. Image from Heerema Marine Contractors.
While field development announcements were thin on the ground during SPE Offshore Europe, there some positive stories for the industry to digest.
Aker Solutions announced it had secured a front-end engineering and design contract from Nexen Petroleum UK for a second phase development of the Buzzard field. The project could see up to 12 subsea trees added to the field. FEED is due to complete by the end of the year.
Buzzard, which has a four-platform complex in place, is 100km north-east of Aberdeen and has an estimated 1.5 billion bbl in place.
Subsea 7 signed a letter of intent with Royal IHC in the Netherlands for the construction of a new, <US$300 million reel-lay vessel and associated pipe lay equipment for delivery in early 2020. A firm contract is expected to be awarded before the end of 2017.
The vessel will be targeted towards longer tie-back developments and will replace the Seven Navica, which is expected to be retired from reel-lay operations in due course.
Boskalis won contracts, including transporting the West White Rose platform topsides in North America, transport of offshore wind jackets in Europe, and taking Heerema Marine Contractor's Hermod semisubmersible crane vessel to China to be scrapped. The vessel set sail late September from Rotterdam for Zhoushan, China, where Hermod will be delivered to be dismantled and recycled at the Zhoushan Changhong International Ship Recycling yard. HMC's new semisubmersible crane vessel, Sleipnir, which will be equipped with two 10,000-tonne cranes, is due in service in 2019, with contracts for Noble Energy on the Leviathan development and Maersk Oil on the Tyra Future project already booked.
Read more from Offshore Europe 2017 here.


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NC inmate quickly found after prison escape
NC inmate quickly found after prison escape
A North Carolina inmate due for release in five months is facing additional prison time after a brief escape from a minimum-security lockup.
The state Department of Public Safety says 22-year-old Jacob Hilton was reported missing after an inmate count Saturday afternoon at Gaston Correctional Center in Dallas.
Agency spokesman Keith Acree says Hilton was captured nearly four hours later walking along a highway about four miles from the prison.
Hilton was serving three-and-a-half years for possession of a firearm by a felon and numerous counts of breaking and entering and larceny. He was scheduled for release in October.
Acree says Hilton will be charged with a felony for the escape.


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Maine dad finds knife in son's birthday cake
Cake bought at Walmart, dad says
Maine dad finds knife in son's birthday cake
Cake bought at Walmart, dad says
LEWISTON, Maine —
A Lewiston man says he's considering legal action after finding a knife in the cake he bought for his son's second-birthday party.
Nathan Bibeau says as the family was slicing into the Elmo birthday cake bought at the Auburn Walmart, someone spotted a small metal paring knife.
Bibeau tells WGME-TV he was "pretty disappointed," and called Walmart immediately.
Walmart apologized and offered a refund. A corporate spokeswoman said the knife incident "should not have happened," and the retailer was eliminating use of the knives at store bakeries nationwide.
Bibeau says the damage was done. His son's birthday party was ruined.
He says he has talked to a lawyer, but says the incident will not stop him from shopping at Walmart.


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Fresh Start Policy
Effective May 1, 2003, a former University of Alaska Southeast undergraduate who returns to the University after a minimum of three years will have the opportunity to petition to begin a new cumulative (or Fresh Start) GPA .
Petitions for a Fresh Start must be completed as part of the admissions process. The Fresh Start is declared provisionally at the point of admission, but not awarded permanently until the student has started and completed 12 credits of academic study with a cumulative GPA for those 12 credits of 2.5 or higher.
When the Fresh Start is permanently declared, all previous UAS grades and credits earned more than three years prior to the current admission date are excluded from consideration for degree requirements. It is not possible to select some grades and credits to exclude while retaining others. Only University of Alaska Southeast grades and credits will be excluded. When the Fresh Start is permanently declared, the transcript will state that the cumulative GPA shown is a Fresh Start GPA. The old grades will remain on the transcript, but are not used to calculate the cumulative GPA. Courses passed but excluded by the Fresh Start GPA may not be used to meet university graduation requirements.
A student may be allowed advanced standing or a waiver of requirements just as any non-Fresh Start student, but won't be allowed credit by examination for courses lost through use of the Fresh Start GPA program. Students who elect to use the Fresh Start GPA do not qualify for certificate or degree-based honors but would qualify for semester-based awards for grade point average.
A student may begin a Fresh Start GPA only once. Students wishing to petition for a Fresh Start GPA should contact the Admissions Office prior to applying for admission.


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Size: 4 ounces
Item 8436
Southern Style Nuts™ traces its roots all the way back to 1922, when the Denison Peanut Company was founded. Later, the company changed its name to Southern Style Nuts. They have individually batch-roasted all of their products to ensure the highest quality possible. Adhering to this Southern tradition of cooking results in their products' distinct taste and crunch, something many companies cannot match.


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Illinois: Jim Furyk became only the sixth player to shoot a magical 59 on the PGA Tour with a sizzling display of near flawless shot-making in Friday`s second round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club.
Despite breezy conditions on the outskirts of Chicago, the American piled up 11 birdies, one bogey and an eagle at the par-four 15th to fire a course record 12-under 59 that left him in a tie for the lead after 36 holes with compatriot Brandt Snedeker.
Needing to birdie his final hole, the par-four ninth, for the magical number, Furyk split the fairway off the tee, struck a superb gap wedge from 103 yards to three feet and calmly rolled in the putt before pumping his right fist in delight.
"It`ll sink in later," Furyk told reporters after rebounding in stunning fashion from his opening 72.
"I`m excited ... but I`ll have to calm down later on tonight and realise that I`ve got myself in contention in a golf tournament where I was, whatever, nine back starting the day.
"I still have a good weekend ahead of me. I`m excited for that. But no, I`ll enjoy these next few hours at least and have fun with it."
Furyk`s electrifying score lowered the course record of 63, set by fellow American Snedeker the previous day, and left him with an 11-under total of 131 in the third of the PGA Tour`s four FedExCup playoff events.
He hit 14 of 14 fairways, reached 17 of 18 greens in regulation and totalled only 23 putts.
"I`ve played a couple of good ones (rounds) throughout my career," said the 16-times PGA Tour winner whose only major victory came at the 2003 U.S. Open. "I remember a 62 at Doral once where I think the next best score was 67.
"That kind of defines really good rounds is a guy goes out and shoots four or five shots better than the rest of the field.
"But that magic number, it`s hard to get under 30 on (one) nine, and then it`s really hard to get under 60 for a day. It definitely played some tricks with my head on the way in."
Furyk set up his astonishing round with an explosive outward nine of eight-under 28 that included his eagle at the 15th where he holed out from 115 yards in the fairway.
Further birdies at the second, third, and fourth raised hopes of a possible first 58 on the U.S. circuit but the 43-year-old American made his only mistake of the day with a three-putt bogey at the fifth.
However, he immediately recovered by sinking an 11-foot birdie putt at the seventh and, despite failing to birdie the par-five eighth, signed off in style with another birdie at the ninth.
"A little hectic down the stretch," Furyk smiled. "Just told myself on nine, `How many opportunities are you going to have in your life to do this? Got to take advantage of it.`
"I tried to knock it in there tight and make it as easy on yourself as you can. There`s not much I could have improved on today, so I think I`ll sleep well."
The five players who have shot 59s on the PGA Tour are Americans Al Geiberger (1977 Memphis Classic), Chip Beck (1991 Las Vegas Invitational), David Duval (1999 Bob Hope Classic) and Paul Goydos (2010 John Deere Classic) as well as Australian Stuart Appleby (2010 Greenbrier Classic).


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A Hardware Lisp Interpreter by Frank Buss
Frank Buss wrote: "My goal is to write an interpreter, which uses a state machine and not the Common Lisp call stack, because then it is easier to translate it to VHDL. I think I can simplify the sour...
Building a Windows CLISP version
This page explains how to build GNU CLISP from source code on an MS Windows system, and deliver a sample hello world executable application.
CLoX: Common Lisp Objects for XEmacs
CLoX is an ongoing attempt to provide a full Emacs Lisp implementation of the Common Lisp Object System, including its underlying meta-object protocol, for XEmacs. This paper describes the early devel...
Early CL History
A text collection about early commercial Common Lisp implementations on XEROX, DEC, and other machines.
Henry Baker's Archive of Research Papers
Collection of papers on programming languages research, including some on Common Lisp implementation issues and CLOS.
Kent Pitman's Publications
A collection of research papers, journal articles, essays and other Lisp writings by Kent Pitman. Covered topics include Common Lisp design and standardization, Artificial Intelligence, software engi...
Planet SBCL
Blog aggregator site for blogs of developers of the SBCL Common Lisp implementation.
SBCL on boinkor.net
A site that provides services and resources for SBCL developers and users: automatically updated benchmark data on various versions of SBCL, documentation, and an Arch repository for the source tree.
cmucl and multiprocessing
An introduction to the CMUCL multiprocessing facilities. It documents the external symbols of the MP package and provides links to additional resources.


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What to CookWeeknight Cooking
Rustic Cauliflower Bake
So friends, in the category of cooking-as-life-metaphor, my Rustic Cauliflower Bake was one hot white mess, a Mad Men conjurer with a farm-to-table prescience, a decadent rapscallion with a virtuous soul. In short, it is a dish you should consider inviting for Thanksgiving.
We begin with the grim reality that cutting cauliflower is a pill. I am inclined less toward trimming than whacking at it like an unwelcome weed. As your friend, I can't help but encourage you to get one of the those cream colored lovelies from the market at this time of year, but as your partner in week night sanity, I encourage you to get someone else to cut it up.
As that petulant brassica oleracea steamed away in my chicken stock and water, I mixed up my cheeses, sour cream and spices, skipping the garlic powder simply because I had none. (Had I given it proper consideration, I would have softened some fresh garlic in olive oil, which would be a fine addition to this dish. Think about it.)
Here is where it all came together: I didn't even drain that cauliflower, because there was just a tad of liquid left in my pan (but no I did not overcook it and nor should you). I didn't so much mix it with my creamy spices as dump that stuff on top and give it a stir. I used cheap cheddar from Trader Joe's, nothing-special sour cream and some whatever bread crumbs BUT also the last of the tiny red and yellow tomatoes from the market, sliced up so gently, and then all topped with some ambrosial Spanish paprika I picked up over spring break in Miami.
High and low, babies, just as we like it.
I cooked it until it smelled good, which was around the 35 minutes ashley_samuel_pierson called for.
What is amazing about this dish is that unlike the veggies in so many nostalgic casseroles, the cauliflower maintains just enough firmness to gently resist your bite, while the cream mix melts around in submission, the paprika landing a fragrant final punch. I can't say this dish will be the most beautiful at your table , but it will be among the more welcome. As you serve it, ask your guests to tell a story about their worst job ever. Dig in.
Rustic Cauliflower Bake by ashley_samuel_pierson
Serves 4 to 6
- 1 bunch cauliflower
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon powdered onion
- 2 tablespoons ground mustard
- ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese- finely grated
- 1 tomato- sliced
- 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- paprika
- Cook cauliflower in chicken broth until just tender. Use 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup water.
Mix together worcestershire sauce, powered onion, ground mustard, black pepper, sour cream, and cheddar cheese.
Fold this mixture gently with the cooked cauliflower until well coated. Place in a 2.5 quart baking dish. (Spray baking dish with cooking spray before pouring in mixture.)
Slice tomatoes thinly and place over top of cauliflower mixture.
Mix bread crumbs with melted butter.
Sprinkle bread crumbs and paprika on top of tomatoes and cauliflower mixture.
Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 35 minutes.


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TECH TRENDS—Enterprise IT
Designed for home use, Apple computers are finding their niche in some government offices
When you think of the Apple Macintosh, you might think of a smooth-running, elegantly designed, though comparatively expensive, laptop or desktop computer that is used largely in homes. But can Macs also play a part in the workplace?
The answer seems to be, increasingly, yes. For instance, the Orange County, Calif., Sheriff's Department recently purchased 175 iMacs and MacBook laptops, which will work within the department's Microsoft Windows environment. "They are used in regular office space for all types of assignments," said Assistant Sheriff James McDonald. "We also use them in the training room and we use some for video editing and podcasting."
Macs go to workCould your next phone be an iPhone?More on Macs in the enterprise
Orange County is not alone. A recent study conducted by analyst firm Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) seems to suggest Apple is creeping into the enterprise. A survey of 700 organizations — about 9 percent of which were government agencies — found that 23 percent reported that they have a significant number of Macs in their organizations. Significant, in this study, means more than 50 percent of the desktop computers.
"There is a distinct, discernible trend" of more Apple hardware use in the enterprise, said Laura DiDio, a principal at ITIC.
The rise of Macs seems to be the result of several factors. One, of course, is the quality of Apple — its products are renowned for their relative ease-of-use and secure settings. But perhaps more pertinent is that Apple's recent shift from using IBM PowerPC to Intel microprocessors lets users run Microsoft Windows programs, either through a dual-boot or virtualization arrangement.
Other factors include the Apple iPhone and iPod. Consumers have flocked to these devices, and a few were so impressed with them that they bought Macs.
"You had a situation where the consumers who loved Apple came into the office and asked the IT manager to use a Mac for work," DiDio said.
Daily use Many government offices that have Macs are using them for specialized functions.
For instance, one of the largest clinics of the Veterans Affairs Department, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, uses about 80 Macs for CT scans.
The clinic's doctors found that 3-D images provide far more information than 2-D ones, though 3-D images require more processing power. At first, the clinic set up its 3-D imaging software, OsiriX, on a set of Windows 2000 servers. This caused delays, however. So, instead, the unit equipped each doctor with a Mac powerful enough to run OsiriX, said Dr. Roy Soetikno, chief of the clinic's Gastrointestinal Section and Endoscopy Unit.
"Now we can have hundreds of people doing imaging on their desktops," Soetikno said.
The Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md., uses Macs to run modeling and simulation projects to help create safer vehicles for soldiers. The Army Aberdeen Test Center uses a fleet of Mac Pros for high-definition video editing. Forensics labs also seem to like Macs. Both the New York State Police and the Miami-Dade County Forensic Labs use them for computer forensic analysis. San Antonio just completed a proof-of-concept evaluation of whether it could use Macs for city operations.
The Mobile County, Ala., District Attorney's Office runs only Apple hardware. It has about 100 employees, all of whom use Apple MacBooks or MacBook Pro computers, said Lisa Lemler, the office's technology administrator.
The office's IT staff has only three people, so the use of Apple computers helps streamline a lot of the low-level configuration duties that often besiege Microsoft Windows or Unix administrators. The Macs are "ready to go out of the box," Lemler said. Instead of Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server, the department uses Apple Open Directory and Apple Mail Server. "Information is granted based on the account on the laptop, so someone can't come in from the outside and jump on the network," Lemler said.
The district attorney's office uses iCal server for calendaring, and the tech team uses Apple Remote Desktop for updates and troubleshooting. The computers run Microsoft Office for Macs as the productivity suite.
File formats used to be a bigger problem than they are now, said District Attorney John Tyson. Microsoft Office documents now work reliably on PCs and Macs, and a lot more people use Web-based formats that all computers can understand.
"With people going more and more Web-based, it is a nonissue," Tyson said.
Enterprise support Systems administrators suffer the enthusiasms of their users, trying to make some shiny new gadget or software work safely within the network. For this reason, they might mistrust Macs. But they should not fear the Apple. Contrary to popular belief, Macs have enterprise support tools and can coexist in a Windows world.
"Is there enough enterprise-management software [for Macs]? No, there is never enough," said ITIC's DiDio. "Are there some? Yes."
The first product any administrator should consider is Apple Mac OS X Server, which can act as a console for managing all the Macs on your network. It has a number of features that can streamline routine management tasks.
After installing the Macs, administrators will need some tools to keep them humming. Apple Remote Desktop can be a Swiss army knife for administrators. It can inventory all the Macs on a network and report on memory size and component use. It can download software to a large number of machines and be used to take control of a client's machine for remote diagnostics and repair. Administrators also can use the software to execute routine scripts that automatically perform actions across all the machines on a network.
Another essential tool is Apple's Workgroup Manager. Think of it as Active Directory for an Apple network. It allows administrators to set permissions for everyone on the network by specifying which users and groups of users can access which folders and programs. "Say you had a bank of machines that you wanted to prevent people from burning CDs on," said Eric Zelenka, senior worldwide product manager at Apple. "You can [specify] that these machines won't burn CDs and DVDs."
The underlying technology for setting permissions for Macs is Open Directory, which is available on OS X Server. Open Directory uses Kerberos network authentication protocols and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Because both are open standards, administrators can also use third-party tools to set permissions for Macs.
A Mac in a Windows world Administrators who have been around for a while might remember past headaches caused by integrating Macs into a Microsoft Windows environment. However, before they reach for the aspirin, they should take a look at what Apple and others have done to establish a peaceful coexistence with the software offerings from Redmond, Wash.
For example, OS X clients have the option of using Active Directory as the authenticating agent. So when a user logs in, the Microsoft Exchange server grants the necessary permissions.
"You point your client or your server at Active Directory, and your [operating system] will call Active Directory whenever its needs to view a user group lookup or any sort of authentication," Zelenka said. "Your Mac will adhere to whatever the security policies were that was set by Active Directory."
File sharing also has gotten easier in recent years. Mac OS X and OS X Server now include the Server Message Block client and server software, which allows authorized Mac users to browse files on Microsoft Windows computers. It also allows Microsoft Windows users to do the same on Mac computers.
Even if your organization uses Microsoft Exchange for e-mail, Mac users can easily send and receive e-mail messages. Exchange supports the Internet Message Access Protocol, and Mac uses IMAP to download and send messages through Apple's Mail client, the e-mail client in Microsoft Office for Mac or any other e-mail client that supports the protocol.
For better or worse, most enterprise networks are deployed from a Microsoft Windows environment. So it would be nice for the administrator to control all the Macs in the shop from a Microsoft Windows machine. To this end, a consortium of vendors have banded together as the Enterprise Desktop Alliance to offer a coherent toolset for managing Macs from a Windows environment. Companies include Centrify (for identity management), Parallels (for virtualization), Atempo (data security) and GroupLogic (for file and print services).
Steps to go Although plenty of software is available for Apple enterprise support, questions remain about Apple's ability to support the hardware and software. A quick browse of the Apple Fed-talk mailing list finds no shortage of government employees trying to find answers to problems they've encountered as they try to get Macs to work in official environments.
Apple is "in position to support large sales of MacBooks," DiDio said. "I'm not sure they are in a position to...provide the large-scale technical support to the enterprise, should issues arise." As one IT manager told DiDio, "Look, I can't have people running to the mall when I have a problem."
Historically, Apple has been slow to support government-led standardization initiatives, such as the Common Access Card for military users. Apple now offers a guide for equipping Macs for CAC use, but not before more than a few administrators tried tackling the problem.
The Navy Marine Corps Intranet, for example, doesn't support Macs. Mac users can still access the Web-facing portions of their NMCI services. However, since 2006, logging on to NMCI services requires a digital certificate on a CAC or USB key drive. And Mac users with such certificates have found it difficult to access NMCI services, especially if their computers run the Tiger (OS X 10.4) or Leopard (OS X 10.5) operating systems. Fortunately, Dennis Hayes, chief technology officer at EDS, which manages NMCI, recently posted a set of procedures so Mac users can access NMCI's public-facing Web services, such as e-mail and calendar functions.
Hayes and other members of the EDS team worked with Apple's federal office to create a standard process for certifying NMCI users. EDS and Apple spent about two months creating, documenting and testing the procedure, Hayes said.
Apple has some catching up to do on the Federal Desktop Core Configuration, too. FDDC is a set of secure configurations for operating systems that federal agencies are mandated to use. Microsoft and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have hammered out a Windows configuration, but one is not in place for Mac OS X. The good news is that a team in the Army's chief information office is in the early stages of developing a comparable configuration model for Apple Macs.
The price of intangibles When you buy Apple computers, you pay top dollar. DiDio said the price disparity between Macs and Windows computers has shrunk in the last few years, but a disparity still exists.
A recent scan through the General Services Administration's GSA Advantage finds that a MacBook could be acquired for as little as $1,900. This model, from reseller Portable One, has a 2.16 GHz processor, a 13.3-inch screen, 1G of working memory, a 120G hard drive, and a DVD read-and-write drive. A Windows laptop with a roughly similar set of attributes, an Acer Aspire 5315, could be acquired for $738.
Can this additional cost be justified? Some think so.
Mobile County's Tyson said Macs establish an environment in which employees can think more creatively. "There are few people as creative as lawyers preparing their cases for trial and assembling their facts and various bits of evidence for their arguments," Tyson said. Having an operating system that supports a creative environment helps the agency tackle novel problems with greater ingenuity, the argument goes.
Apple Macs and their software have long been loved by creative types — a factor that is perhaps hard to quantify but easy to recognize by the degree of enthusiasm expressed by their users.
At the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston last fall, influential software developer Joel Spolsky talked about many of the intangibles that come with IT products.
For instance, he looked at the iPhone and the MacBook Air, both of which look totally seamless. "From an engineering perspective, you get the feeling if you accidentally swallowed [an iPhone] it'd go right down," he said. It wasn't an engineering necessity to remove all the protrusions that break the lines of other laptops and phones, but the psychological effect does translate into greater sales and greater perceived satisfaction among users.
Can such psychological effects lead to real performance improvement?
"In order to marshal the resources necessary to [take on our] fights, we have to reach well beyond the limitations of our agency," Tyson said. "You can immediately see the advantages of having a robust and clever technology that allows successful communication across the board."
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This is a nicely balanced article that should help in further demystifying Macs in the enterprise. Unfortunately, you missed the #1 reason to introduce Macs in the workplace: security. I know, some of your sponsors may not like to be reminded again of the constant security threat Windows represents. Talking about cost, the time my staff spends guarding against and fixing Windows virus, worms, and other critters easily triples the TCO of Windows systems. Yes, Apple is behind on FDCC. Why wouldn't they be? FDCC was created specifically and exclusively to mitigate the impact of vulnerabilities in the Windows OS! All my Mac users have access to a local admin account on their machine and they haven't gotten me in trouble yet.
For more than 20 years I've helped build IT solutions in the federal space, with Macs. Three companies, tens of millions in contracts, and most of the time, I just haven't mentioned that the solution has been built with or runs on Apple technology. All my customers know is, it works.
I've been doing INFOSEC / IA for the government for about 10 years. After a lot research and years of frustration, I bought an Intel-based 17inch MacBook Pro with 2GB. It wasn't cheap, but from the time I booted it the first time to now more than 2.5yrs later, I haven't any issues that I didn't cause myself! (loaded OpenOffice vs. NeoOffice... oops?) I've recruited a few people that I know, including my 70 year old father in law. That alone has saved me hours upon hours of trying fix their windows machines. If I had it my way, we'd all be using them at work too...
This article is short-sighted and incomplete. The prices & specs for the Acer vs. MacBook are wrong. The model described by the article would go for $909 for institutional purchases, based on my sales sheet. Also, you don't factor the virus, malware and spyware factor. Routine virus maintenance is about 1 hour a week in enterprise. Even at $20 an hour that is a $1000 productivity loss (and that bars drastic maladies) whereas a Mac averages about 1 hour a month. Macs have far less maintenece issues than PCs as a rule - Macs are more cohesively built and designed, whereas every PC is built by the 30 lowest bidding contractors that week. If you lose your PC for just one hour a month for conflict issues, drivers, viruses... the Mac comes out way ahead on TCO.
Also, the comparison of the Acer Aspire 5315 to the Macbook isn't really a fair comparison. The Acer is a very basic laptop with a Celeron processor (vs. the Macbooks C2D chip). The C2D based Acer laptops are very close in price to the Macbook line. That would have been a better comparison.
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