text:
Buddhist ascetics, mystic mountains and a way of life based on spiritual devotion, Bhutan's centuries-old tradition is far from forgotten.
Long shut off from the rest of the world, Bhutan has retained a culture and lifestyle that revolves around the sacred. Hundreds of monks live out their reverence in glorious monasteries, and nuns devote their lives to charity. With a capital city that forbids foreign architecture, the traditions of Bhutan are painted on every facade. Trouping through the mountains reveals mystical views of holy peaks and passes. It's no wonder these mountain ranges are said to house deities within.
What people say
Bhutan is a fantastic country. There were very few tourists, the leader did an outstanding job. We felt privileged to visit and see this hidden side to the Himayalas. Don't forget to try the Chilli cheese!
Bhutan travel highlights
Pay respect to the monks at Taktsang
Built into the cliff face and perching 900meters above the ground, this sparkling monastery known as Tiger's Nest is quite a sight to behold.
Trek over Chomolhari
The mountain is named as 'the bride of Kangchenjunga'. Its snowy summit towers over a fertile landscape rich with unique animal life.
Marvel at the Fortress of the Glorious Religion
This impressive Buddhist building is at once the seat of government and the religious centre of the country.
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See Bhutan now before it changes too much . It is close to shangra- la for it's natural beauty . Good food and lovely warm people
Review submitted 22 May 2017
Dragon Kingdom, April 2016
Lynnr Arnott
This was an amazing trip with a good balance of culture, temples, shopping, hiking and travelling time. Our bus driver was excellent and made us feel very safe. We learnt a lot about the history and culture of the country from our knowledgable guide. There were plenty of great photographic opportunities.
Review submitted 28 Apr 2016
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Bhutan travel FAQs
Entry and exit requirements for Bhutan are strict and tightly controlled. All nationalities except for Indian require visas to visit Bhutan. Visas must be obtained in advance and can't be issued at the airport or border.
Peregrine travellers will be issued a group visa which states that all travellers must arrive and depart according to the dates of the tour. Travellers are advised to arrive in and depart the country on the dates that the Peregrine tour begins and ends. We are unable to assist with booking additional accommodation outside of these dates, except for rare instances were there are no flights on those dates. In this situation, you'll need a special individual visa which will add significant costs to your tour.
Tipping isn't vital in Bhutan but many locals who work in the tourism industry are used to getting tips. You might like to give a small tip to show your appreciation towards drives, porters and restaurant staff.
Internet access is prevalent at large hotels and some internet cafes can be found in Thimphu and Paro. Internet access is hard to find outside of these areas.
Mobile phone coverage is available in major cities but is less common outside of there areas. Arrange to have global roaming activated with your provider if you wish to use your phone while travelling.
Flush toilets can be found at large hotels and some tourist areas, but for the most part, toilets in Bhutan are of the squat variety. Soap and toilet paper may not be provided so you may choose to carry some with you.
Due to the tourist regulations in Bhutan, meals are included in travel arrangements. You can use local currency to buy drinks and snacks or the US dollar to buy souvenirs.
- Prayer flags = US$1
- Hand made coin purse = US$5-10
- Gofur (wooden bowl) = US$10-15
- Ceremonial mask = US$20-40
Tap water in Bhutan is not potable. For environmental reasons, avoid buying bottled water and bring a bottle or canteen with you. Ask your leader where you can access filters to refill your supply, or carry your own purification tablets with you.
International credit cards are generally not accepted in Bhutan except for a few tourist shops. Arrange alternative payment methods before you leave and prepare to carry cash with you if you wish to make purchases.
ATMs are uncommon in Bhutan and are unlikely to be internationally connected or reliable.
ATMs are uncommon in Bhutan and are unlikely to be internationally connected or reliable.
Yes. All peregrine passengers are required to purchase travel insurance prior to their trip. Your insurance details will be recorded by your leader on the first day.
For more information on insurance, please go to: http://www.peregrineadventures.com/how-we-can-help/our-services
For a current list of public holidays go to: http://www.worldtravelguide.net/Bhutan/public-holidays


text:
The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. government illegally coerces Mexicans to agree to leave the United States and robs them of a chance to appear before an immigration judge.
The civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles that alleges immigrants are routinely told they face months in jail while their cases are decided and are falsely informed that they can easily arrange legal status once they're back in Mexico.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol offer so-called voluntary departures to some immigrants without criminal records, sparing them the possibility of stiffer penalties under formal deportation orders. Voluntary departures prohibit immigrants from re-entering the U.S. for up to 10 years.
The lawsuit by the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other department officials names seven Mexican men and women who allege they were misled, including Samuel Nava, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2003 but didn't leave.
Police pulled over Nava east of San Diego in 2011 for driving with a broken license-plate light and turned him over to the Border Patrol, which offered a voluntary departure. The ACLU said Nava could have asked a judge for legal status because he was married to a U.S. citizen, but he accepted the offer and now cannot return to the U.S. for 10 years.
"(The Border Patrol agents) told me the easiest thing to do was just sign the forms," Nava told a San Diego news conference through a video connection to La Paz, Mexico.
Peter Boogaard, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman, said he wouldn't comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, asks that authorities revamp their procedures to fully explain the consequences of agreeing to leave the country and to avoid trying to persuade immigrants to take the offers.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Portsmouth police DWI roadblock stops 179 motorists yielding 4 arrests
May 18. 2013 9:46AM
PORTSMOUTH - Police arrested four people during a sobriety checkpoint late Friday, police said.
Police screened 179 drivers on Middle Street near Middle Road between 10:30 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday.
Three people were arrested for driving while intoxicated: James Favara, 56, of 4 Gray Court, Rye Beach; Samantha Bloom, 21, of 551 Greenland Rd., Portsmouth; and Jaime Gray, 23, of 45 Cable Rd. Rye.
Rita Dennison, 29, of 42 Beechstone, Number 5, Portsmouth, was arrested for possession of a controlled drug and transporting a controlled drug in a motor vehicle.
All four were released on personal recognizance bail. Dennison will be arraigned June 17 while the others face court dates on June 3.


text:
Hello,I am thinking about buying an Hasselblad ImageBank to shoot with the back attached to a large format camera, but...For me the IB is quite far away from "state of the art" and this does not fit for me.It contains an 2,5" P-ATA harddisk - I believe that this will be a problem in the future as almost anyone produces S-ATA harddisks.I also do not like the idea to walk around with an rotating harddisk...So, were is the solution ?Could you change the harddisk to an SolidStateDisk (SSD) ?There are some with P-ATA interface.http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_IDE.htmlThe prices are quite OK compared to the rest of the equipment ;-)So, has anyone tried it ?Ideas ?Warnings ?Barkeeper
In *theory* it should work but as nobody has ever tried it then you are moving into unknown territory. There is no issue with walking around with the Image Bank (we have had a solution like this for years, and at one point it was the only solution!).The link you posted looks like it is ok spec-wise concerning the read write speeds.If you do try, then please let me know! ;-)David
Oooh... this is getting interesting real fast. When you do try it, remember to post pictures of your endeavor, y'all...BTW byarvin, I believe that Barkeeper is referring to the newer ImageBank II that has the Firewire 800 interface, it is smaller and uses a 2.5" laptop hard disk drive, not the original ImageBank for the Imacon Ixpress and Hasselblad Ixpress branded ImageBanks, which are larger and use a 3.5" desktop IDE hard disk drive. However, if you get a 2.5" mounting kit for 3.5" drive bays AND get a 40-pin to 44-pin adapter, you should be able to mount a 2.5" PATA SSD in the Ixpress ImageBank too.
Hi ShutayI'm almost certain that the original image bank used 2.5" drives NOT 3.5..Nick-T


text:
Post 24 came into Wednesday's second game of the Class A Zone 5 tournament with it's back to the wall.
Post 24 came into Wednesday's second game of the Class A Zone 5 tournament with it's back to the wall.
The McPherson American Legion Juniors had dropped their first game to Newton 5-3 and faced elimination as they took the field against Winfield.
You couldn't tell the pressure was on, however, as Marcus McDaniel went five innings on the mound, holding Winfield to two runs, while the offense poured in 10 runs off of eight hits to survive into today's action in Newton.
McDaniel gave up two runs, both earned, off of five hits in picking up the win, which ensures at least one more game for the Juniors (20-6), a 3 p.m. tilt today against the Salina Eagles.
Kolby Reed, Jacob Loecker and Grant Barrett all had two RBIs for McPherson, with Reed going 3-for-3 at the plate. Loecker's one hit was an RBI double. Cody Starkel and Timothy Rubel both had one RBI, each, in the 10-2 win.
In the early game, Newton jumped out to a 4-0 lead before McPherson could shake the cobwebs out and get on the board with a two-run fourth inning. They added one in the fifth, but stalled out in the rally.
Nelson Steinert went four innings and picked up the loss, striking out three and walking two. He gave up one run off of three hits. Starkel, Barrett and Jeremy Krehbiel all had one RBI, with Steinert picking up a stolen base.
With the loss to Post 24, Winfield was knocked out of the Zone Tournament. Salina eliminated Clearwater 9-5 in the first game of the afternoon.
Andover Central and Newton will meet about a half-hour after McPherson and Salina wraps up this afternoon. The McPherson/Salina winner will then meet the loser of Andover Central/Newton in the last game this evening.
The championship games will be held Friday at 6 p.m.


text:
Top Tips
Don't siphon gasoline from a container by using your mouth. You could accidently ingest the fuel, causing damage to the esophagus or stomach. Gasoline fumes can damage your lungs.
To remove gasoline from a car, lawn mower or boat, use a siphon pump. Many home improvement and marine supply stores will sell hand pumps that can do the job.
Updated May 2017


text:
THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
Let's say you have a big table with a clustered primary key, and an application that inserts batches of rows into it. The nature of the business is that the batch will inevitably sometimes contain rows that already exist in the table.
The default SQL Server INSERT behaviour for such a batch is to throw error 2627 (primary key violation), terminate the statement, roll back all the inserts (not just the rows that conflicted) and keep any active transaction open:
CREATE TABLE #Big (pk int NOT NULL CONSTRAINT PK_Big PRIMARY KEY);
-- Start with values 1 & 5 in the table
INSERT #Big (pk) VALUES (1), (5);
-- Our batch transaction
-- Insert a batch containing some pre-existing rows
INSERT #Big (pk) VALUES (1), (2), (3), (4), (5);
-- Show the contents of the table after the insert statement
SELECT pk FROM #Big;
-- Show the transaction count
SELECT tran_count = @@TRANCOUNT;
-- Rollback
-- Final table contents
SELECT pk FROM #Big;
-- Tidy up
DROP TABLE #Big;
The output is:
Let us further imagine that the desired behaviour is that new rows in a batch should be inserted, and any duplicates silently rejected. Most importantly, no error messages should be returned to the client. Ideally, this would be achieved without immediate application changes, and without impacting concurrent users of the table (the instance is Enterprise Edition, so online operations are available).
This seems like an ideal use for the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option:
CREATE TABLE dbo.Big
pk int NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT PK_Big
PRIMARY KEY (pk)
-- Unique values
INSERT dbo.Big (pk)
-- key 3 already exists
That script executes successfully with just a warning (not an error!) about the duplicate key:
We would like to add the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option to the existing primary key constraint, but the ALTER TABLE command does not have an ALTER CONSTRAINT clause. We do not want to drop the existing primary key and recreate it with the new option, because the table is large and we want to avoid disrupting concurrent users. Dropping and recreating would result in rebuilding the entire table first as a heap and then as a clustered table again.
Although there is no ALTER CONSTRAINT syntax, we do know that certain constraint modifications can be performed using ALTER INDEX REBUILD on the index used to enforce the constraint. We can, for example, change the type of compression used, the index fill factor, and whether row locking is enabled:
CREATE TABLE dbo.Big (pk int NOT NULL CONSTRAINT PK_Big PRIMARY KEY);
ALTER INDEX PK_Big ON dbo.Big
DROP TABLE dbo.Big;
Unfortunately, we cannot use the same trick to add the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option to the underlying index for the primary key:
The same error message results even if the ONLINE = ON option is not specified. There will be a range of views about how accurate the error message text is here, but we cannot avoid the fact that the operation we want to perform is not supported by SQL Server.
One idea is to add a new UNIQUE constraint (or index) on the same columns as the primary key, but with the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option added. This operation can be performed ONLINE:
-- Existing table
-- Existing data
INSERT dbo.Big (pk) VALUES (1), (2), (3);
-- New constraint (or index) with IGNORE_DUP_KEY, added ONLINE
ALTER TABLE dbo.Big
ADD CONSTRAINT UQ_idk
UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED (pk)
--CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX UQ_idk
--ON dbo.Big (pk)
-- Key 3 is a duplicate, just a warning now
INSERT dbo.Big (pk) VALUES (3), (4), (5);
SELECT pk FROM dbo.Big;
The new arrangement results in the correct final state of the database, without throwing an error. The effect is the same as if we had been able to modify the existing primary key constraint to add IGNORE_DUP_KEY:
There are some drawbacks to this idea, which we will explore in some detail. The drawbacks are significant, so adding the extra index with IGNORE_DUP_KEY is only really suitable as a temporary solution, as we will see. The first INSERT in the previous script (without the extra constraint or index with IGNORE_DUP_KEY) is pretty trivial; it just shows the constants from the VALUES clause being inserted to the clustered index:
The second INSERT (with the IGNORE_DUP_KEY index) is rather more complex (click to enlarge):
One fairly obvious consequence of adding the new index is that the Clustered Index Insert operator now has to maintain the new nonclustered index too. I used Plan Explorer above because it shows the per-row nonclustered index insert more explicitly than SSMS, where you have to dig into the Object node in the Properties window with the relevant graphical operator selected:
Another way to see the nonclustered index maintenance explicitly is to run the query again with undocumented trace flag 8790 to produce a wide update plan:
Besides maintaining the extra index, the IGNORE_DUP_KEY plans seem to be doing a lot of extra work: there are lots of new operators compared with the simple insert. As you would expect, all the new operators are associated with ignoring duplicate keys, and there are two distinct cases to consider.
The first case relates to checking for INSERT rows that already exist in the base table. This checking is implemented in the execution plan by the Left Semi Join, Index Seek, and Assert operators:
The Index Seek looks for the key value of the current row we are looking to insert. The Semi Join cannot be an Inner Join because that would reject rows where a match was not found (and we need to insert a row in that case). Nevertheless, the query processor needs to know if an existing row was found with the same key value. The Semi Join sets a value to indicate this, which is stored in the Probe Column:
The Assert operator (known internally as a Stream Check) tests a condition and raises an error if the test fails. Assert operators are often seen in plans that affect columns with CHECK constraints, for example. In this case, however, the Assert does not raise an error, it emits the 'Duplicate key was ignored.' message instead, and only passes a row on to its parent (the Sort operator) if the condition passes. The check performed by the Assert is based on the Probe value stored in the expression labelled [Expr1013] above:
The Asset passes rows where the predicate evaluates to anything other than NULL. If a match was found by the Index Seek (so the Probe Column, Expr1013 is not NULL) the Assert does not pass on the row and raises a warning instead. The following TF 8607 output fragment for the INSERT statement shows the option (there is nothing equivalent in regular show plan output unfortunately):
The first check only looks for rows from the insert set that already exist in the base table. The query processor also needs to check for duplicates within the set of values we are inserting. The Segment and Top operators in the plan combine to meet this requirement:
The Segment requires a stream ordered by the index keys, and adds a flag to indicate the start of a new group of key values. The Top operator returns only one row from each group. The overall effect is to remove rows with duplicate index key values.
The Top and Segment execution operators together implement a single physical query processor operator called a "Group-By Top". I mention this detail because we need to be familiar with the internal name to understand the TF 8607 output, which indicates that this operator also emits a `Duplicate key was ignored.' warning when it encounters a group with more than one key value:
Adding the new index means that locks will now be taken on the nonclustered index when checking for existing rows:
It might surprise you to learn that the index seek acquires Range S-U locks on the nonclustered index (extract from the Books Online link below):
Key-range locks like this are only taken under the SERIALIZABLE isolation level, but our INSERT statement uses them whatever isolation level the user runs the query under (for example, range locks are still taken if the session is running under the default READ COMMITTED isolation level).
SQL Server raises the effective isolation level to SERIALIZABLE for the Index Seek (and just that operator) because it needs to be sure that if it does not find a match in the index, that situation remains the same until it inserts the new row. The Index Seek is looking for a key value that does not exist, so a range lock is necessary to prevent a concurrent transaction inserting a row with that key value before we do. There is no existing key in the index to lock (because the row does not exist) so a range lock is the only option. If SQL Server did not do this, our INSERT query might fail with a duplicate key error despite the IGNORE_DUP_KEY setting (we check for a row, don't find it, someone else inserts it, then we try to).
The optimizer adds a SERIALIZABLE hint for the Index Seek operator (internally, a physical Range operator) as we can see using another extract from the TF 8607 output:
The execution plan is also forced to use the nonclustered index with the IGNORE_DUP_KEY setting for this seek (FORCEDINDEX) and an update lock (UPDLOCK) hint is also given to help prevent conversion deadlocks. Nevertheless, you may find increased deadlocking if you choose to add an extra IGNORE_DUP_KEY index like this.
Adding a nonclustered unique index with the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option and the same key as the clustered primary key allowed us to solve an immediate problem without code changes, while keeping the table online, but it does come at a price. The execution plan is much more complex (and expensive) than the original INSERT, and there is a chance of deadlocks. The biggest performance impact of adding the extra index is of course the cost of maintaining it, meaning we need to look at a more permanent solution via a code change.
The (trivial) test I am going to run inserts 5000 unique rows from my table of numbers into the table we have been using so far. To establish a baseline, we will first look at the execution plan for an INSERT to the table with a nonclustered IGNORE_DUP_KEY index:
SELECT n FROM dbo.Numbers
WHERE n BETWEEN 1 AND 5000;
This plan is very similar to the one we analysed earlier, though a Merge is used to perform the Left Semi Join, and a wide update plan has been chosen, making the nonclustered index insert easier to see. The other main feature is an Eager Table Spool, required for Halloween Protection. The estimated cost of this execution plan is 0.363269 cost units on my installation.
The first code alternative to the extra index is to modify the INSERT statement to check that rows do not already exist in the destination. There are a number of SQL syntaxes for this, each with different characteristics and performance in different circumstances. To keep things simple, and because I only want to make a couple of specific points here, I have chosen my simple example to produce the same execution plans for all the common syntax variants. The first thing to do is to drop our extra constraint:
DROP CONSTRAINT UQ_idk;
Now we can evaluate the modified INSERT statement:
-- I prefer this syntax
WHERE n BETWEEN 1 AND 5000
AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.Big WHERE pk = n);
-- With EXCEPT
-- Not recommended
AND n NOT IN (SELECT pk FROM dbo.Big);
All three produce this execution plan:
This has an estimated cost of 0.0981188 units – much cheaper than the 0.363269 cost seen previously. The Halloween Protection spool still features in the plan, but there is a weakness in our queries that you might have already spotted. We are not doing anything to protect against duplicate key violation errors in case someone else inserts a row after we have checked to see if it exists, but before we insert it. The query optimizer added a SERIALIZABLE hint when it added an existence check, so if avoiding errors is important to us, we need to do the same:
AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.Big WITH (SERIALIZABLE) WHERE pk = n);
We do not need the UPDLOCK hint for two reasons. First, the engine automatically takes update locks for us when reading the source table. Second, we are reading from the same index we are inserting to (not reading from a nonclustered index and inserting to the clustered index) so the previous deadlock scenario is not applicable.
Another option is to use the WHEN NOT MATCHED feature of the Merge statement. This time we will add the necessary SERIALIZABLE hint up front:
MERGE dbo.Big WITH (SERIALIZABLE) AS b
USING (SELECT n FROM dbo.Numbers WHERE n BETWEEN 1 AND 5000) AS s
ON s.n = b.pk
INSERT (pk) VALUES (s.n);
This plan has an estimated cost of 0.0950127 units – slightly less than the 0.0981188 units for the modified INSERT plans. Some of this improvement is due to the lack of a Halloween Protection spool, for interesting reasons I cover in depth in a short series of articles to be published shortly (update: part one is out).
These are not meant to be performance tests by any stretch of the imagination. There are any number of subtle factors that will affect the execution plans and run times for different numbers of rows, different distributions, and so on. I should stress that I normally find MERGE plans perform less well than separate INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE more often than not. Anyway, in case you are interested, typical performance results on my machine for this specific test are (INSERT first, then MERGE), timings in milliseconds:
When IGNORE_DUP_KEY is specified for a unique clustered index (primary key or otherwise), duplicates are handled by the storage engine rather than the query processor. For example:
CREATE TABLE dbo.T (pk int CONSTRAINT PK_idk PRIMARY KEY WITH (IGNORE_DUP_KEY = ON));
The execution plan shows none of the complexity of the nonclustered index case:
The TF 8607 output contains none of the query processor hints to ignore duplicates and raise warnings:
The IGNORE_DUP_KEY side of things is handled entirely by the storage engine – if it finds a row in the unique index where it was going to insert one, it flags a warning but does not try to insert (which would cause an error). The estimated cost of this query plan is identical whether the unique clustered index has IGNORE_DUP_KEY or not – there is no extra work for the query processor.
If you are wondering why the same mechanism is not used for a nonclustered unique index with the IGNORE_DUP_KEY option, my understanding is it is because the Clustered Index is always updated before the nonclustered ones (even in a narrow plan). By the time the storage engine detected a duplicate in the nonclustered index, it would have already added the row to the base table. So, the query processor handles IGNORE_DUP_KEY for nonclustered indexes.
This is my understanding of the mechanics of IGNORE_DUP_KEY, I don't know for sure and will happily correct any details I may have wrong. Any storage engine experts reading this please contact me if so.
This post was inspired by a post by Daniel Adeniji and our subsequent discussion of it. My thanks to him for permission to analyse the issue further here, and for allowing me to reference his original. The issue described here may not accurately reflect Daniel's original problem – I used a certain amount of artistic licence. Even if the specific issue is not particularly interesting to you, I hope you enjoyed some aspects of the analysis and maybe picked up some new information along the way.
© 2013 Paul White – All rights reserved
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Amazing post, also looking forward to the post about Merge and Halloween Protection.
Another alternative to the "duplicate" UNIQUE index might be a trigger. It might be slower for DML but does not require storage space.
Warning on IGNORE_DUP_KEY was raised as an *error* by current SQLOLEDB/ODBC drivers so it is impossible to use it in client applications. Never tested recent NCLI/.Net Providers but possibly the issue is fixed.
@tobi An INSTEAD OF trigger? I guess so, though the overheads are even worse than the extra operators in the plans I show here. Both INSTEAD OF and AFTER triggers require storage for the inserted and deleted tables.
@wqw Thanks, good to know.
The first part of the series on the Halloween Problem is now out:
FYI, on SQL Azure database `WITH IGNORE_DUP_KEY` option raises "Deprecated feature 'INDEX_OPTION' is not supported in this version of SQL Server."
Interesting. Another thing: MERGE ignores IGNORE_DUP_KEY for insert operations too. Thanks for the Azure information.
Neat article, I had to stuff 5 databases into 1 ofcourse for a "special" reporting db and got that same error years ago. Funny no one could get it to work for a long time I was told, I found the INGORE_DUP_KEY option and blingo....everyone in the pool...problem solved
great article! i've had some interesting adventures with IGNORE_DUP_KEY recently and would like to share the following observations (SQL 2008 R2):
1.) as far as i can tell, the only time you can get IGNORE_DUP_KEY=ON going for a clustered index is during initial PK creation (using the syntax you have above); specifying the IGNORE_DUP_KEY options WITH (DROP_EXISTING=ON,IGNORE_DUP_KEY=ON) will always fail, even if the PK/Clustered Index was created with IGNORE_DUP_KEY=ON in the first place.
2.) the above is aggravating because if you use DROP_EXISTING=ON to move your clustered index to a new filegroup/scheme/whatever you will lose the IGNORE_DUP_KEY setting and cannot get it back with dropping to heap and recreating.
3.) however, if you create an empty, identical table with IGNORE_DUP_KEY=ON for your primary key and ALTER TABLE...SWITCH to it, the setting from the new table will take effect. so as a workaround for huge tables, under the right circumstances you can ALTER TABLE SWITCH to an identical (empty) shell, drop and recreate your original table with IGNORE_DUP_KEY=ON, and then switch back, and in effect the IGNORE_DUP_KEY = ON will now be in force on the original huge table.
Interesting how many absurd gyrations this requires with MSSQL, when the much used low end database engine "MySQL" can do this with a simple option to the INSERT query itself, in the form of an IGNORE keyword, which instructs the engine to ignore any insert related errors without race conditions or explicit extra locks (and without global database changes affecting regular INSERT statements by any other (or the same) client).
The resulting MySQL statement becomes simply:
INSERT IGNORE dbo.Big (pk)
(I actually encountered this difference when using a Microsoft sponsored script that translates MySQL statements to MSSQL statements on the fly, but fails to handle the occasional "INSERT IGNORE" statements. The actual queries originate in a 3rd party application, so I have no control over that).
While you can't ALTER INDEX PK_Big ON dbo.Big REBUILD WITH (IGNORE_DUP_KEY = ON) to set the value after-the-fact on a clustered index you can do it using ALTER TABLE dbo.Big REBUILD WITH (IGNORE_DUP_KEY = ON).
Cody, yes that might be a good alternative for a unique clustered index. It can be online as well, more so in later versions that don't have as many restrictions. There might still be good reasons to employ the workaround though. And of course the whole post is just an excuse to talk about some internals.


text:
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses In Excess Of $100,000 Investing In Silvercorp Metals, Inc. To Contact The Firm
Jan 11, 2013, 09:15 EST
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at Silvercorp Metals, Inc. ("Silvercorp" or the "Company") (NYSE :SVM ).
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120119/MM38856LOGO )
The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that production levels of silver, lead and zinc from Silvercorp's Ying Mine, the Company's primary revenue-generating asset, were lower than had been represented.
On September 13, 2011, a short-selling analyst firm, Alfredlittle.com, issued a report that called into question the veracity of Silvercorp's claims regarding production at the Ying Mine. According to the report, Silvercorp's SEC filings overstated its actual production of silver by 306%, its production of lead by 306%, and its production of zinc by 18%. On this news, shares in Silvercorp fell almost 20%, closing at $6.30 per share on September 13, 2011, from a close of $7.84 per share on September 12, 2011, on volume of over 35 million shares.
Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/SVM. There is no cost or obligation to you.
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This is an excellent race panhard rod, and has many features unavailable anywhere else. Constructed of seamless 4130 Chrome Moly steel tubing, the Ground Control race panhard rod is 1.125 inches O.D, 0.120 wall. Aircraft quality rodendsare supplied, providing length and lateral adjustment.
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Cambridge Checkpoints VCE Text Guides are an invaluable digital resource for all students of senior English. This guide for Area of Study 1 will help you develop the confidence you need to write essays throughout the year, and to build your skills in reading and responding in readiness for the end of year exam. Cambridge Checkpoints VCE Text Guides for Area of Study 1 offer you: ac Detailed character analysis ac Discussion of themes, ideas and values ac A focus on the language features and conventions of your text ac Revision questions ac Sample topics ac Practice essays and essay writing tips ac Comprehensive reference lists8 Writing an essay: steps to success Essay-writing tips: organising yourself There are no magic formulas for writing effective ... knowledge of the text and that means a comprehension of characterisation and a writera#39;s thematic preoccupations.
|Cambridge Checkpoints VCE Text Guides: In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
|Nick Konstantatos
|Cambridge University Press - 2013-09-01
You must register with us as either a Registered User before you can Download this Book. You'll be greeted by a simple sign-up page.
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text:
From July 2016 published Report #S290.
Here are six key trends we see in the global market next in surgical sealants, glues, and hemostats:
- Aggressive development of products (including by universities, startups, established competitors), regulatory approvals, and new product introductions continues in the U.S., Europe, and Asia/Pacific (mostly Japan, Korea) to satisfy the growing volume of surgical procedures globally.
- Rapid adoption of sealants, glues, hemostats in China will drive much of the global market for these products, but other nations in the region are also big consumers, with more of the potential caseload already tapped than the rising economic China giant. Japan is a big developer and user of wound product consumer. Per capital demand is also higher in some countries like Japan.
- Flattening markets in the U.S. and Europe (where home-based manufacturers are looking more at emerging markets), with Europe in particular focused intently on lowering healthcare costs.
- The M&A, and deal-making that has taken place over the past few years (Bristol-Myers Squibb, The Medicines Company, Cohera Medical, Medafor, CR Bard, Tenaxis, Mallinckrodt, Xcede Technologies, etc.) will continue as market penetration turns to consolidation.
- Growing development on two fronts: (1) clinical specialty and/or application specific product formulation, and (2) all purpose products that provide faster sealing, hemostasis, or closure for general wound applications for internal and external use.
- Bioglues already hold the lead in global medical glue sales, and more are being developed, but there are also numerous biologically-inspired, though not -derived, glues in the starting blocks that will displace bioglue shares. Nanotech also has its tiny fingers in this pie, as well.
See Report #S290, "Worldwide Sealants, Glues, and Hemostats Markets, 2015-2022".


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MMK Collection Fashion Signature fashion Designer Purse~ Perfect & Women Satchel Purse(18-6857)Ma-02-2526w-gd Ma-02-2526w-gd -
☆ MMK COLLECTION QUALITY ASSURANC:USA Brand (Imported) ~ The Beautiful Ostrich-Like Vegan Leather Fall&Winter Women Satchel using high-quality PU leather, with all stitches in neat and orderly rows. We have always been strict with both the choosing of materials and processing of products, in other words, we are better at material selection and superior in product making, taking every detail into consideration for the dear customers to meet as much as possible their own styles.
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Order By Phone 1-877-777-2646
Shopping Cart 0 Items
Home > Accessories > Lapel Pins > Clean Game Lapel Pin
Price: $ 4.00 and above Remove This Filter
Age_Groups: Toddlers Remove This Filter
This beautiful "Clean Game" lapel pin will help you ensure you don't leave a single frame empty. Perfect lapel pin to add to your bowling accessories!
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Jose Alberto Miranda
July 23. 2014 10:16PM
The U.S. Marshals Service District of New Hampshire/Joint Fugitive Task Force has named Jose Alberto Miranda as New Hampshire's fugitive of the week.
Miranda, 25, is wanted by state and federal authorities for parole and supervised-release violations on original charges of distribution of cocaine and reckless conduct with a firearm. Authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous. Miranda is described as 5-feet-6, 136 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He has a scar near his right eye and "Alexander" tattooed on his left forearm. He was last known to be living in the Manchester area, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
The U.S. Marshals Service advises the public not to attempt to apprehend a fugitive, who should be considered armed and dangerous. Instead, report any information to the U.S. Marshals Service's Concord office at 225-1632 or call 1-877-WANTED-2 or text "NHTIP" with any information to TIP411.
For more information visit usmarshals.gov/district/nh


text: Splitting hares? Do hares paws all drive at the same time or are the intermittent? Kidding I hope there's no harm in a good discussion. I have been so impressed with the Christini drive that I thought I'd post my experiences for anyone interested. It is a leap forward in traction for me, from the pics you can see I'm in conditions that it is made for. Many riding applications aren't improved, just like 4X4 vehicles are a waste for many owners. For me my 4X4 pickup, 4X4 ATV, and Christini drive KX all get used front wheel drive and rear wheel drive.


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Veteran journalist and broadcaster Barbara Cochran remembered Mal Moore, the late athletics director for the University of Alabama, as a kind friend who was patient with her "dumb" questions about football and who shared her passion for literature and poetry. Her husband, John Cochran, a UA graduate and former senior correspondent for ABC News, recalled a friendship with Moore that began with a meeting on the practice field and conversations about football before evolving into a more personal relationship.
Veteran journalist and broadcaster Barbara Cochran remembered Mal Moore, the late athletics director for the University of Alabama, as a kind friend who was patient with her "dumb" questions about football and who shared her passion for literature and poetry.
Her husband, John Cochran, a UA graduate and former senior correspondent for ABC News, recalled a friendship with Moore that began with a meeting on the practice field and conversations about football before evolving into a more personal relationship.
"We talked about personal things ... I felt he gave good advice to me, and I hope I gave him good advice," John Cochran said.
The Cochrans, friends of Moore who spent careers covering national and international events and politics, were the featured speakers Monday at a luncheon to benefit Caring Days, a day care program for adults with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of memory loss. The program is a ministry of 23 local congregations and an agency of the United Way.
The fundraiser benefited Caring Days' new Mal and Charlotte Moore Center in Tuscaloosa, which provides services for adults suffering from memory loss and their caregivers.
The center, which opened in 2012, is named for Moore, who died March 30 at the age of 73, and his wife, Charlotte Moore, who battled Alzheimer's for 20 years before dying in January 2010 at the age of 71.
"We know Mal is with us now," Caring Days Executive Director Vicki Kerr said. "I think he truly loved what we are doing and wanted to help other families."
Heather Cook, Moore's daughter, called the program a "treasure" in the community, noting her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's and her father's devoted care for his wife for more than 20 years.
Cook teared up as she told the packed room at Indian Hills Country Club that UA and its athletics department were like a second family to her father.
"The reason my dad was able to do the things he did was because he loved the university," Cook said after the lunch.
John Cochran described Moore as modest and a true gentleman.
"He was just a wonderful man," he said.
In addition to the observations about Moore, the Cochrans shared stories from their long careers in journalism.
The two met covering the Cold War summit on ballistic missiles between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986.
John Cochran covered every U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower.
Cochran, who joined the Army for the GI benefits to complete his education at UA, said he was tapped by the Army to assist with audio recordings of Eisenhower because of the college courses he had completed and his experience working for a radio station in Tuscaloosa. Cochran said the Pentagon wanted a soldier with audio experience to help with recordings during the meeting between Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Paris in 1960.
John Cochran, who eventually left the post during the administration of President John F. Kennedy to complete his education, said the experience convinced him he wanted to be part of the White House press corps.
"It was really the University of Alabama that got me the White House," he said.
Responding to prepared questions, John Cochran observed presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush were among the nicest he covered as a correspondent.
"They were just wonderful people," he said.
Kennedy exuded charisma.
"Kennedy was special, really special," John Cochran said.
Barbara Cochran, the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in public Affairs Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism and former news executive for National Public Radio, CBS News and NBC, shared observations about the changing roles of women in journalism and the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the government.
She said when she started with The Washington Star newspaper, women were just beginning to break out of the pigeon hole of the society and lifestyles pages to regularly get chances to cover hard news.
"We were still enough of a rarity we were treated differently," she said.
Cochran also observed the press clubs in Washington tended to be all-male when she started. In contrast, she noted most of the students now in journalism and communications programs in colleges are women.
"We have come a long way," she said.
Noting recent revelations about government spying programs including the monitoring of communications of some members of the press, Barbara Cochran said Sept. 11, 2001, changed the government's relationship with the press.
"The kind of thing that would be unthinkable before that is now done in the name of national security," she said.
Reach Ed Enoch at email@example.com or 205-722-0209.


text:
If you want to check for rootkits in Mac OS X, check out rkhunter.nl (I think that's the site, or do a search for rootkit hunter) and chkrootkit.org. You'll need to install wget for rkhunter:
Instructions and a link are contained there. You need to do this as root, even if you have admin privileges. Do this in the bash shell:
passwd root
then give root a password. Then su and give the password you created.
Follow the directions for installing and running the rootkit checkers. Feel a little safer.


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This guide gives students a complete learning resource. It includes solutions to all Practice Problems and Challenge Problems from the text, an introduction to each chapter, key concepts, examples, chapter summaries, and chapter exercises with solutions.This guide gives students a complete learning resource.
|Study guide to accompany Brealey and Myers Principles of corporate finance, fifth edition
|Stewart D. Hodges, Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, Charles A. D'Ambrosio
|McGraw-Hill Companies - 1996-09
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John DiStaso's Granite Status: New Democratic poll shows Hassan, Lamontagne in statistical dead heatJOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter
September 26. 2012 11:00AM
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26, UPDATE: RAZOR CLOSE. A new internal poll commissioned by the state Democratic Party shows Democrat Maggie Hassan and Republican Ovide Lamontagne in a statistical dead heat in the race for the open governor's seat but Hassan in a 'good position to win.'
Hassan holds a 48 to 46 percent edge in the Sept. 15 to 19 poll of 600 likely voters conducted by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. The poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.
The sample breakdown is 31 percent Democrats, 30 percent Republicans and 39 percent independents.
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner says in a memo obtained by the Granite Status that Hassan 'enjoys stronger standing' than Lamontagne and 'is in a good position to win this race with an aggressive campaign and the resources necessary to communicate and define the choice in this election.'
The poll memo says Hassan 'is currently known to three-quarters of likely voters and gets very solid ratings, with a 37-24 percent favorable-unfavorable ratio.'
The pollster says Lamontagne 'has 82 percent name recognition but gets much more negative ratings from voters than Hassan, with a 34-34 percent favorable-unfavorable.'
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner says Hassan is running in a 'good political environment.'
The Washington-based firm says says its polling showed President Barack Obama leading Republican challenger Mitt Romney, 52 to 45 percent, in New Hampshire and outgoing Gov. John Lynch with a 'very impressive 57-17 favorable-unfavorable ratio.'
'Hassan is in a good position to win the gubernatorial race in November and keep the corner office in Democratic hands, but the race is close and will require significant effort to ensure victory for Hassan in November,' the Democratic pollster says.
(Earlier updates and the full Sept. 20 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26, UPDATE: BREAKING A 'PLEDGE?' Republican Rep. Frank Guinta's campaign manager says Democrat Carol Shea-Porter is breaking a pledge she made in May by coordinating a 'massive' television ad buy with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Shea-Porter's campaign had used its own funds to pay for its ad accusing Guinta of voting against veterans. But Tuesday, the DCCC began picking up the tab through coordinated funds.
Guinta campaign manager Ethan Zorfas recalled that last May, Shea-Porter proposed she and Guinta jointly call on Super PACs to refrain from advertising in their race. She said it was OK with her if Super PACs engaged in grassroots organizing, however.
Guinta's camp refused, calling her hypocritical since a Super PAC called CREDO was involved in (and is still involved in) organizing against and protesting against Guinta.
Zorfas this week called that call by Shea-Porter last May a 'pledge,' and he said she broke it by allowing the DCCC to now pick up the payment for her ads.
He acknowledged that the DCCC is not a Super PAC, but said, 'Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter went against her own campaign pledge when she began coordinating a massive TV ad buy with one of Washington's largest special interests (the DCCC).'
'This is just more politics as usual from her; she tells Granite Staters one thing and then does something different to benefit her own election.'
But Shea-Porter campaign manager Naomi Andrews said there was no pledge in May, just a jilted call for a joint statement with Guinta, and so no pledge was broken.
'We always said we would work with our team, and obviously the DCCC is our team,' she said.
Andrews pointed out the Guinta camp on Tuesday put up a response ad defending Guinta's votes on behalf of veterans, accusing Shea-Porter of 'false attacks' and criticizing her for voting in favor of the Obama stimulus, which, the Guinta ad says, 'provided tax breaks for companies that created jobs in countries like China' when she was in Congress.
It turns out the Guinta ad was paid for by both the Guinta campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee -- a similar payment arrangement to the Shea-Porter/DCCC partnership that the Guinta campaign is complaining about. And if the DCCC is a 'one of Washington's largest special interests,' wouldn't the NRCC be considered the same?
Zorfas said, 'But the difference is that my boss hasn't been writing columns for the past year saying how disgusting it is that outside groups are getting involved in the campaign.'
In a recent post on BlueHampshire.com, Shea-Porter wrote, 'While I abhor the amount of money being spent by outside groups, and wish that Congressman Frank Guinta had agreed to sign a statement with me asking that outside groups stay out of our race, I am more concerned about the inaccurate messages that their money might spread across our state's television sets.'
Andrews, meanwhile, said Guinta's ad brags about 'the fact that he re-introduced Carol Shea-Porter's bill, the Veterans Health Equity Act.
'Congressman Guinta is desperate to distract from his vote for the Ryan budget, so he has chosen to attack Carol's strong record of standing up for veterans and the middle class,' she said.
(Earlier updates and the full Sept. 20 Granite Status follow.)
TUESDAY, SEPT. 25, UPDATE: AFT-NH BACKS HASSAN. Organized labor is responding to the visits this week by two of what it describes as 'anti-labor' governors coming to the state for the state Republican Party and Republican candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne.
As New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has battled with teachers unions in his home state, campaigns with Lamontagne today, the American Federation of Teachers-NH announced an endorsement of Democrat Maggie Hassan for governor.
AFL-CIO state president Mark MacKenzie said his union will canvass Nashua on Saturday, the same day that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will be in the state to speak to the NHGOP state convention.
Also Tuesday, the New Hampshire Democratic Party put out a new web ad, entitled 'Friends of Ovide,' accusing Christie of cutting education funding by $1 billion during his first year in office and Walker of cutting education by $1.85 billion during his first year on the job.
'What does 'Scott Walker on steroids'' -- Lamontagne's phrase describing how he would govern -- 'mean for education in New Hampshire?' the ad asks.
It notes his support for a voucher school choice plan and his opposition to mandatory statewide kindergarten.
MacKenzie said about 150 union members 'will distribute comparison leaflets on Maggie Hassan and Ovide Lamontagne as well as literature on the presidential, congressional and state Senate races.'
'What kind of governor would Ovide Lamontagne be?' asked MacKenzie. 'Just look at his role models. Both Scott Walker and Chris Christie made names for themselves dismantling basic rights for working people.'
AFT-NH president Laura Hainey said Hassan 'is a tireless advocate for the middle class and will continue to be as governor. Ovide Lamontagne positions are too extreme.'
AFT-NH says it has about 4,000 members in New Hampshire. NEA-NH, the largest teachers union, endorsed Hassan in August.
(Earlier updates and the full Granite Status follow.)
MONDAY, SEPT. 24, UPDATE: TALKING GROUND GAME. Republican National Committee Political Director Rick Wiley will be in New Hampshire tomorrow (Sept. 25) to meet with local 'Victory' operations staff and volunteers about the party's get-out-the-vote effort on behalf of Mitt Romney's campaign.
Wiley wrote in an update today that six weeks before the election, 'the Romney Victory program has already identified over 2.2 million swing voters (nationally), has started our Absentee Ballot program and will soon begin focusing on Early Vote Turnout.
'In New Hampshire,' Wiley wrote, 'we've made 3 times more phone calls and 8 times more door knocks than this time in '08.'
Wiley wrote that nationally, the campaign has made 'more than 26 million voter contacts, thanks to the efforts of our 73,000 volunteers. This week, we expect to make our 30 millionth voter contact. By mid-September, we had already surpassed the 2008 operation in total volunteer voter contacts.
(Earlier updates and the full Sept. 20 Granite Status follow.)
MONDAY, SEPT. 24, UPDATE: WALKER TO KEYNOTE FOR NHGOP. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will keynote the New Hampshire Republican Party's state convention on Saturday, Sept. 29, the party confirmed this morning.
Walker will follow another outspoken Republican governor to the state. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be in the state tomorrow, Sept. 25, to campaign for GOP candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne.
The convention with Walker will be held at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry beginning at 9 a.m.
Christie will be featured tomorrow at a private fund-raiser for Lamontagne at the Bedford Village Inn (see items below).
He will also tour and participate in a roundtable discussion at the Atrium Medical Corp. in Hudson at 1:30 p.m. Christie will then attend a Lamontagne campaign rally at 3 p.m. hosted by state Sen. Chuck Morse at Morse's Freshwater Farms in Atkinson.
The appearances by the two governors illustrate the intense focus the Republican Governors Association is placing on the New Hampshire race between Lamontagne and Democrat Maggie Hassan.
Lamontagne has said during his campaign that he would govern like 'Scott Walker on steroids.'
The two governors are also mentioned as potential contenders for future GOP presidential nominations, perhaps in 2016 if Mitt Romney loses to Barack Obama in November.
(Earlier updates and the full Sept. 20 Granite Status follow.)
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, UPDATE: CHRISTIE FOR OVIDE. Outspoken and often controverisal (but never dull) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be in New Hampshire on Tuesday to help raise money for Republican candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne. (See details below.)
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, UPDATE: BLAMING BARACK AND BIDEN. Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are in New Hampshire for campaign stops today and tomorrow. Mitt Romney's campaign chided him on the rise in the state's unemployment rate.
The Department of Employment announced this week that the state's unemployment rate crept up from 5.4 to 5.7 percent in August, with the number of unemployed residents increasing by 1,700 to 41,870.
The national unemployment rate for August was 8.1 percent, a decrease from 8.3 percent in July.
Romney spokesman Michael Levoff said, 'Today, we received more bad news from the Obama economy --more and more Granite Staters are finding themselves unemployed. Vice President Biden is in New Hampshire today and Granite Staters should receive an answer for why the state has continued to bleed hundreds of jobs despite the promise of a recovery.
'President Obama has changed his tune from 'yes we can' to 'no we can't,' claiming it's impossible for him to change Washington from the inside. His failure is clearly on display with today's disappointing job numbers,' Levoff said.
The Bidens went to Dartmouth College Friday afternoon and were scheduled to appear at the State House Friday evening.
Saturday, the Jill Biden will be at the Obama campaign office on Maple Street in Manchester and then join her husband for an event at the Merrimack Middle School.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, UPDATE: SENIORS FOR BASS. U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass, accused by Democratic congressional challenger Ann Kuster of supporting the privatization of Social Security, on Friday released a 'Seniors Steering Committee.'
The panel includes former Federal Emergency Management Administrator and former state transportation commissioner Wally Stickney of Salem, former state Rep. Terry Dudley of Lebanon and Coos County Commissioner Bing Judd.
The Cook Political Report this week changed the outlook for the District 2 race from 'toss-up' to 'lean Democratic.'
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, UPDATE: CHRIS'S COUNCIL. Democratic District 4 Executive Council candidate Chris Pappas has announced a 137-member Leadership Council comprising a cross section of party activists.
Included are Alderman Patrick Arnold, former Ambassador George Bruno, Dr. Sylvio Dupuis and state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro.
(More on the Lamontagne fund-raiser featuring Christie and earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, UPDATE: THE OVIDE-CHRISTIE EVENT. The Ovide Lamontagne fund-raiser featuring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is slated for Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 11:30 a.m. at The Bedford Village Inn, according to an invitation obtained by the Granite Status.
Suggested contributions are $250 per person although a $1,000-a-couple VIP reception will also be held.
Other Lamontagne campaign events featuring Christie are planned for Tuesday and will be announced.
Hosting the fund-raiser will be U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who defeated Lamontagne in the 2010 U.S. Senate primary, and former Gov. Steve Merrill. Lamontagne served as chairman of the state Board of Education when Merrill was governor in the early 1990s.
Christie, an early supporter of Mitt Romney for President and a key surrogate, was the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention last month in Tampa.
Tomorrow, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett will be in New Hampshire for a Lamontagne fund-raiser at the Hanover Street Chophouse in Manchester.
The joint appearance by Corbett and Lamontagne drew criticism from the Planned Parenthood of North New England Action Fund.
"Lamontagne has chosen one of the most extreme anti-women's health governors in the country as an ally," said Jennifer Frizzell, a Planned Parenthood fund senior advisor.
For the most recent fund-raising and cash-on-hand totals for Lamontagne and Democratic candidate for governor Maggie Hassan, see our item below.
(An earlier update and the full Sept. 20 Granite Status follow.)
THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, UPDATE: INTO THE GENERAL. Although they won in landslides, Maggie Hassan and Ovide Lamontagne spent campaign funds during their primaries as though they were in razor close elections.
In the end, maybe they didn't have to spend more than a $1 million each. It was about more than the primaries, however.
Hassan, who had been virtually unknown to all but political insiders earlier this year, had to spend big to gain name recognition moving into the general election..
And even Lamontagne, despite being in his fourth major campaign, wasn't exactly a household name statewide.
According to Hassan's post-primary finance report, filed on Wednesday, she raised $1.072 million during the primary, spent $1.05 million and had only $16,395 in cash on hand as she moved into the general election.
Lamontagne spent almost as much in his primary campaign. While raising $1.27 million, he spent $1.01 million.
But Lamontagne's campaign opened the general election with $258,000 on hand, about 16 times more than Hassan.
Hassan's campaign says there is no reason for concern about the huge cash gap.
'We're raising the money we need and we're confident that we're going to have the resources to win,' said spokesman Will Craig.
What they're not saying is that Hassan will also receive plenty of help from outside groups making independent expenditures, such as EMILY's List and the Democratic Governors Association.
Lamontagne will also receive help, as he already has, from the Republican Governors Association.
Lamontagne, by the way, raised $48,000 and spent $289,000 in the final week or so of his primary campaign, while Hassan raised $63,000 and spent $81,000 during the same period.
In other closely watched state races, Democratic District 4 Executive Council candidate Chris Pappas had no primary opposition and opens his general election campaign against Republican Bob Burns with more than $82,000 on hand. Burns did not file a Sept. 19 report, but in his Sept. 5 report, he had $1,200 on hand.
In the District 9 state Senate race, Democrat Lee Nyquist, who had no primary, enters the general election with $70,000 on hand compared to nearly $46,000 for Republican Andy Sanborn, who won a hotly contested primary.
And District 18 state Senate Democratic candidate Donna Soucy reported $64,000 on hand, while her GOP opponent, J. Gail Barry, does not yet have a Sept. 19 report on file.
(The full Sept. 20 Granite Status follows.)
THURSDAY, SEPT. 20: 'MOMENTS' FOR MAGGIE, OVIDE. Each candidate in Wednesday's interesting, informative and sometimes spicy gubernatorial debate had moments to explain afterward.
Democrat Hassan sure seemed to be blaming the Department of Health and Human Services' response to the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital on funding cuts enacted by a GOP-dominated Legislature.
When Republican Lamontagne called that 'irresponsible' and 'reckless,' Hassan responded, 'It is reckless for anyone to suggest that you can just keep cutting with no consequences to our entire health care system. We have people in this state who aren't getting care because of the cuts this Legislature has made.'
It certainly appeared she 'connected the dots' from funding cuts to the outbreak.
But afterward, Hassan said she was 'just trying to make the point generally that we have to make sure that we have the resources we need to provide health care, and that's the broader point.'
Was she saying that the state's response was connected to cuts?
'No, I'm not,' she said.
Lamontagne said she 'absolutely linked' the two.
'It's irresponsible to say that, and there is no evidence to suggest a lack of funding even contributed to this whole issue.'
Lamontagne said candidates 'should not try to politicize important public health issues like this.'
Hassan again took the anti-broad-based tax pledge, but Lamontagne and his campaign insisted it's not genuine.
It wasn't backed up by her record, they said. She was open to an income tax while running for the state Senate in 2002, although she did oppose income and sales taxes in subsequent years.
While Lamontagne also promised to oppose any hike in gasoline taxes or tolls, Hassan would not, saying these items needed to remain on the table as a possible way of funding infrastructure.
'For someone who has taken the 'Pledge,' Hassan is chronically unable to say whether or not she'll raise any other tax in the state,' tweeted Lamontagne adviser Jim Merrill.
'This is what they say about every Democrat running for office,' Hassan said. 'They made similar accusations against John Lynch.'
She said there is a $90 million hole in the transportation/infrastructure budget 'and we have to find a way to come together to fund that.'
Lamontagne said it's hard to believe Hassan because of her support for a tax on Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs), 'which is an income tax on small business, and the fact that she started her career in favor of an income tax.'
Hassan said the highly unpopular and since-repealed LLC tax was passed by the Legislature in which she served as Senate Majority Leader with the support of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire, which happened to be a cosponsor of the debate.
But the BIA said no way; it didn't support the tax. It did acknowledge it supported the budget that included the tax.
But Lamontagne had a bit of explaining to do, too.
Hassan said he signed a pledge put forward by the conservative Cornerstone Research advocacy group, which, she said, promotes 'some of the social issues he said he wasn't going to pay any attention to as governor.
'But part of that pledge also says he will work to completely deregulate private health insurance in the state of New Hampshire,' she said.
Lamontagne said he didn't know what she was talking about. He said the pledge he signed weeks ago had no such call and was a general statement of conservative principles.
What he did not know was that Cornerstone this week issued a '2013-2014 Families First Legislative Agenda' calling for health care deregulation.
Cornerstone said it was 'based on the goals identified earlier this year by Cornerstone's Families First Pledge for candidates.'
Cornerstone's Shannon McGinley said, 'We fully expect our pledge signers to introduce the bills identified in our agenda.'
'I haven't even read (the agenda),' Lamontagne said.
Hassan said it doesn't matter what came first.
The pledge he signed 'is from Cornerstone Research, which has an agenda which includes deregulating insurance companies, which Ovide has also talked about.'
=- - - - - - - -
SCHOOL CHOICE VS. PUBLIC EDUCATION. Hassan and Lamontagne each made their cases on school choice.
She said Lamontagne's choice plan, including a voucher system, would 'divert millions of dollars from our public education system, which in Manchester has as many as 40 kids in a classroom, to private and religious schools.
'That doesn't help our middle-class families.'
Lamontagne replied by noting that Hassan lives at Phillips Exeter Academy, where her husband is principal.
'Your family is fortunate,' Lamontagne said. 'You've had the experience of the Phillips Exeter Academy. That's a wonderful school. But it's not a public school and I want every child to experience what I did when I went to St. Paul's School advance studies program.
'They took high school students from the public schools and Catholic schools and gave us the experience of what a boarding school was like in the summertime.
'I want that for every child. That's why I support choice. That will empower our children to realize the things that they can only aspire to.'
=- - - - - - - -
THAT '47 PERCENT' THING. Lamontagne distanced himself from Mitt Romney's comment in a May video that he will never get the vote of 47 percent of Americans who pay no taxes, view themselves as 'victims' and are 'dependent on government.'
'There's no 47 percent in New Hampshire as far as I'm concerned,' Lamontagne said. 'Every citizen deserves to have a responsible government.'
Hassan turned the question to abortion, saying, 'You can't be the governor of everyone in New Hampshire if you deny the right of a woman to make her own health care decisions.'
Lamontagne said he would be 'duty-bound to enforce the law of the land,' under Roe v. Wade.
'And if a bill comes to your desk to ban abortion, you won't sign it?' asked Hassan.
'It's not coming to my desk,' he said. 'The law of the land provides for abortion and that's not changing.'
=- - - - - - - -
APPEARANCE OF THE WEEK: It was great to see longtime Democratic activist/strategist Judy Reardon at the debate. She has been battling major health issues. Asked if she was playing a role in the Hassan campaign, she smiled and said, 'unpaid advice.'
=- - - - - - - -
AD OF THE WEEK: Charlie Bass' new ad charging that 2nd District U.S. House foe Annie Kuster is running from her liberal record includes a woman who is a spitting image of the Democratic challenger.
=- - - - - - - -
TWEET OF THE WEEK: Chris Cizilla, political reporter of the Washington Post and author of The Fix column:
'Proposed new cable show: 'John (H.) Sununu On....'
'Format: Sununu in single leather chair. Off cam people throw subjects out. He riffs.
- - - - - - - -
John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Twitter: @jdistaso.


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Thursday January 22, 2009 12:50 pm
Segatoys CountDown Clock
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Household, Misc. Tech
Need to keep track of your next anniversary, vacation, finals or other important occasion? Segatoys' CountDown clock will keep track for you. Order a few of the cubic-shaped clocks, stack them up and never worry about your mother-in-law's holiday feast again. Or what a good gift idea for that spouse/partner that never remembers said dates, although you are notorious for doing so. Available in black, white, or pink, the timepiece is available for $35.00.
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SANTA FE — The good news for Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez is that she out-raised her Democratic opponent, Diane Denish, $611,000 to $188,000 last month.
The bad news is that Denish has $2.2 million in the bank and Martinez has $300,000. A big chunk of that was a $250,000 contribution from the National Republican Governors Association. In May, Martinez got $450,000 from Texas developer Robert Perry. Before that, much of her money was coming from oil interests.
Those sources will continue to help Martinez but there is only so much they can do. New Mexico's economy is not sufficient for Martinez to close her fundraising gap with Denish.
That means Martinez will have to continue hitting up large out-of-state donors. And as she does, her claims of cleaning up Democratic pay-to-play lose some of their impact.
You can bet Denish is not going to give Martinez the rest of the summer to fatten her checkbook. Many were surprised and disappointed to see Denish begin negative ads the day after the primary election
But Denish's action forced Martinez to immediately start spending down her bank balance in order to fire back. Martinez still has momentum remaining from her impressive primary election victory but she may be hard pressed to keep it while spending large amounts of her time on the phone raising money.
Reports indicate that Martinez is getting on conservative national talk radio shows where she can energize the faithful. That can help but to keep them, she will have to remain as conservative as she was during the primary.
Steve Pearce tried that against Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman two years ago and lost badly. Republicans and Democrats both tend to run toward the middle in general elections in order to appeal to a wider segment of voters.
Blogger Joe Monahan speculates that Martinez may have to cede the TV field to Denish for awhile to build up money for the fall. If she has to do that, Denish can go positive during that period and perhaps pick up some of the support lost because of going negative so quickly.
The National Republican Governors Association will continue its financial support of Martinez to the extent it can. New Mexico is a target because winning the gubernatorial race is the only way to prevent Democrats from controlling the redistricting of our state Legislature and Congress.
Continued financial support from Rob Perry over in Texas will come with another cost to Martinez. With the revelation she was born in Texas and is getting significant money from there, some New Mexico prejudices may come into play.
Some hard feelings about Texas have continued ever since our neighbor to the east twice invaded us unsuccessfully and then used its power in Congress to grab over a half million acres along our shared border.
The Associated Press ran a national story in March, which said that New Mexico is one of the states that will pick up another congressional seat from the 2010 reapportionment.
That is not true. Our neighbors will pick up some seats but there is no more time for Arizona to send us enough of its illegal immigrants to affect the census count.
One place Martinez won't get any financial help is from prominent Republican attorney Turner Branch of Albuquerque. Branch was state liquor director during Republican Dave Cargo's administration.
Since then Branch has become an extremely successful trial lawyer and a big donor to both Republicans and Democrats. Branch was a major supporter of Allen Weh in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Branch and Weh served together in the Marines.
But Branch said he can't support Martinez and will support Denish. He said over the past 40 years, he has given more to Republicans than Democrats. Some Republicans report that hasn't been the case recently.
The Martinez and Weh camps don't appear to have healed many rifts since the primary election.
Jay Miller is a syndicated columnist. E-mail him at email@example.com.
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Black hair
Jun 26, 2009 at 7:07 p.m. ET
This cut features long, side-swept bangs. Long layers are cut throughout to create movement and texture. To achieve this "just out of bed" style, apply gel to towel-dried hair and then blow-dry with a round brush. A wax is applied to the ends to create a textured look.


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Is it possible to disable the jboss(server.log) logging?
JBoss log files (request.log and server.log) grow large in size which is a concern.
These log files are getting as big as 800 mb in size, and end up consuming all the disk space and i need to delete these files every time so i need a permanent solution to disable this logging files.
I am running JBoss 4.2.0 on linux.
Retrieving data ...


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Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies
Programme Description
Nanoscience is an emerging field, which researches the nature and the use of systems by using components of nanometre size. It comprises an assortment of scientific areas with potential applications in almost all branches of industry. The basic goal of nanoscience is to understand the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic and molecular level on which their macroscopic properties are based. By understanding how to micromanipulate atoms and molecules it is possible to create new molecules, devices and machines with completely unique properties and applications. As examples, we can cite projects for building atomic size computer components on silicon chips, constructing new molecules that can sense particular viruses and bacteria, magnets at the level of molecules, micromotors, and molecules that can use sunlight to control environmental pollutants.
Basic Objectives of the Programme
The basic objective of this programme is to qualify the candidate for:
A) General competences
- ability to research, select and organize information, as well as synthesize solution and anticipate their consequences,
- mastering of research methods, procedures and processes, development of critical and self-critical assessment,
- ability to use knowledge in practice,
- autonomy in professional work, as well as responsible and creative performance of activities,
- development of communication abilities and skills, particularly for communication in international environment,
- ethical reflection and commitment to professional ethics and regulations,
- cooperativeness, work on joint assignments and problems within a group and in international environment.
B) Subject-specific competences
- knowing the basic laboratory and spectroscopic techniques in nanoscience and nanotechnology,
- understanding the systems at atomic and molecular scale,
- ability to combine various skills and knowledge to identify and analyze nanotechnological issues,
- ability to analyze ethical aspects of practices, institutions and valuations associated with nanotechnology,
- continuing research & development work in the field of nanotechnology,
- knowing the concepts of nanotechnology,
- obtaining the basic natural-science and technical knowledge in the field of nanotechnology in the form of combining the existing solution.
Research Areas
The Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Programme is a cross-disciplinary postgraduate study programme comprising the following research areas:
- Nanomaterials and nanochemistry,
- Nanophysics (including the physics of ultrathin layers, physics of nanotubes, physics of lateral nanostructures, physics of quantum dots, and methods for the analysis of nanostructures and the nanomanipulation of atoms and molecules),
- Structural and molecular biology and nanobiotechnology,
- Nanomechanics (including the mechanics of time dependent materials).
All the courses include the provision of basic skills for successful communication with experts in the areas of economic and civil law, corporate microeconomics and project management, and the basics of sustainable development.
Special emphasis will be placed on research into:
- Nanocomposites and hybrid materials,
- "Smart" ceramic materials and thin films,
- Submicron fibres,
- Nanochemistry involving the synthesis of new molecules through the manipulation of individual atoms,
- Structural and molecular biology as prerequisites for utilizing knowledge of the human genome, understanding biological functions of particular proteins and the processes involving them,
- Biomaterials, particularly new types of agents and direct delivery of agents to the target sites,
- Molecular motors,
- "Smart" ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics,
- Organic and inorganic nanotubes, nanowires and quantum dots,
- "Smart" gels,
- Materials potentially usable for miniaturizing electronic components and elements for quantum computers,
- Materials usable for "spintronics" where spins are used instead of electrons to perform logic and other operations, and where a new degree of miniaturization is expected,
- New research techniques and methods to study the structure and dynamics of nanomaterials.
Similarly, there is a possibility for developing new areas in chemistry and pharmacy where new compounds are synthesized at the molecular level. The programme thus integrates a number of natural science and technical disciplines. Special emphasis is placed on the project-based research work of students, mentors and professors as an integral part of the study programme. Target knowledge and skills, which will be obtained by students in the areas of civil and commercial law, microeconomics, patent and intellectual property law, and the methods of raising "venture" capital, should enable the students, upon the completion of their studies, to better communicate with experts in these areas in order to develop and commercialize the results of nanotechnological research.
Credit Framework
|All credits for the second-level study programme (1st and 2nd year together)
|Lecture credits
|70 credits
|Individual research work
|50 credits
|120 credits
The student selects:
1st YEAR
Seminar I (10 ECTS)
Selected Chapters from Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies I (10 ECTS)
Project 1: Individual Research/Project Work (10 ECTS)
2nd YEAR
Seminar II (10 ECTS)
Selected Chapters from Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies II (10 ECTS)
Project 2: Individual Research/Project Work (20 ECTS)
Master Thesis (20 ECTS)
Student can select 6 credits from the following courses:
- Corporate Law and Dispute Settlement (3 ECTS)
- Concept of Sustainable Development (3 ECTS)
- Economics for Researchers (3 ECTS)
- Preparation of patent application (3 ECTS)
- Science Communication Module 1: Popular science communication Module 2: Scientific publications and project proposals (5 ECTS)
- Innovation Management (3 ECTS)
- Industrial Expert Knowledge and Project Work (3 ECTS)
- Commercialization of Technology (5 ECTS)
|Economics for Researchers, 3 ECTS
|Physics in Biology, 10 ECTS
|Industrial Expert Knowledge and Project Work, 3 ECTS
|Innovation Management, 3 ECTS
|Selected Chapters from Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies I, 10 ECTS
|Selected Chapters from Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies II, 10 ECTS
|Concept of Sustainable Development, 3 ECTS
|Master Thesis, 20 ECTS
|Master Thesis, 30 ECTS
|Fundamentals of Physics of Materials, 10 ECTS
|Fundamentals of Physics of Nanomaterials, 10 ECTS
|Fundamentals of Materials Chemistry, 10 ECTS
|Fundamentals of Synthesis of Nanomaterials, 10 ECTS
|Corporate Law and Dispute Settlement, 3 ECTS
|Project 1: Individual Research/Project Work, 10 ECTS
|Project 2: Individual Research/Project Work, 20 ECTS
|Project: Individual Research/Project Work, 20 ECTS
|Seminar I, 10 ECTS
|Seminar II, 10 ECTS
|Spectroscopy and Microscopy, 10 ECTS
|Condensed Matter Theory, 10 ECTS
|Introduction to Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies, 10 ECTS


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A project Christian Activities publisher Kathryn Darden undertook in 2001 is about to come to fruition when the Mt. Airy Coca Cola sign is finally restored
October 31, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Dale Evans' birth
Carl Mays on snakes, Arlo and Janis, Ross Perot, Barney Fife, and the upcoming election
Beloved actor, singer and story teller Andy Griffith passed away today at 86.
Actor George Lindsey, 83, who played Goober Pyle on "The Andy Griffith Show," died today after a long illness.
A collection of limericks and verses about romance in Mayberry
Cast members with January birthdays
'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the courthouse
Not a creechsture was stirring, not even a loaded goat...or mouse,
It's Christmas in Mayberry, the mountains are white
Opie and his friends are all filled with delight.
The Mayberry Poem - A Tribute to Mayberry is a compilation of poetry about "The Andy Griffith Show" that celebrates the characters and the show that made millions of viewers laugh during the turbulent 60s
Find Christian Movies on Amazon
Find Christian Music on Amazon
Find Christian Books on Amazon


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MEXICO CITY – Mexican anti-violence activists have released a blimp as part of a campaign to urge President Barack Obama to stop arms trafficking into Mexico.
Peace activist Javier Sicilia and the Mexico chapter of Amnesty International say the blimp is part of a "virtual" campaign to put attention on the problem of guns ahead of Obama's visit to Mexico on Thursday.
Sicilia and other activists are urging Mexicans to tweet with the hashtag "Goodbye to weapons." The slogan is printed on the blimp, which traveled from outside the Museum of Memory and Tolerance to the U.S. Embassy.
Sicilia said Monday that activists hope to collect 1 million signatures urging Obama and Mexican President Pena Nieto to discuss halting the flow of weapons into Mexico.


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It hardly ever rains on Seahawks' 12th Man -- except when the 49ers are here
With the Seattle Seahawks square in the national spotlight this year amid dreams of a Super Bowl season, those who have been watching the games here and around the nation have been treated to not just our dominating defense, our powerful offense and our ear-shattering 12th Man but also a solid reinforcement of Seattle's rainy reputation.
The thought really came to me after watching the weather debacle of this year's home opener against San Francisco that fateful Sunday night on national TV which featured soaking rains and an hour-long thunderstorm delay -- which came on the heels of a soaking rainstorm against those same 49ers during a Sunday night game late last season.
I'm sure many thought whoever had the bright idea to move the team and fans out of the comfy, climate-controlled confines of the Kingdome years ago and build an open air stadium for the heart of Seattle's stormy season must have been "a few yards short of a first down" in the brain department.
But should playing a game in Seattle automatically be linked to a drenching rain as Lambeau and Soldier Fields often mean playing in -15 wind chills?
Before these past few games, I didn't really remember too many rainy or cold games there, so I decided to go back and check the weather over every regular season home game that has been played at Seahawks Stadium/Qwest Field/CenturyLink Field since it opened in 2002.
The goal: To see just how many times it's rained on the 12th Man, how many times it's been chilly or hot, and how windy it's ever been. The answer was surprising to me: Despite playing in the heart of the worst weather on Seattle's meteorological calendar, Mother Nature has gone relatively easy on us.
Just don't tell that to the San Francisco 49ers, who seem to bring out the worst in Seattle weather.
The Data:
The source of the data is from nearby Boeing Field, which is just 4 miles south of the stadium. I went and calculated the highest and lowest temperature felt, amount of rain that fell, and the strongest wind gusts between game times of 1-4 p.m. for day games and 5-8 p.m. for night games (which vary in start time between 5:30 and 6:00).
Seahawks games: Drier than Mariners games?!?
This might surprise anyone who has season tickets this year but a vast majority of Seahawks home games through the years have been dry. Of the 91 home games from the stadium opener in 2002 through the Tennessee game on Oct. 13, there has been measurable rain on just 18 of them -- or just under 20%. That averages out to about 4 out of every 5 home games dry. (Seven additional games had a trace of rain, meaning it sprinkled but didn't really get anyone wet.)
So how lucky have Seahawks fans been? Believe it or not -- and I couldn't believe this myself -- rainy days during Seahawks games are on par or even less frequent than Seattle Mariners' home games! (Stump your friends with that little tidbit!)
On average since the stadium opened in 1999, the Safeco Field roof is closed for 23% of the games during their season, according to team spokeswoman Rebecca Hale. The Mariners have a rather low threshold for closing the roof so a trace of rain might be enough to have counted as a closed roof day that wouldn't have counted in my wet Seahawks home game tally, but suffice to say, the ratio of wet to dry home games have ended up pretty close so far -- and the Mariners play during the dry season!
As for the times it has rained during a Seahawks game: The wettest game on record is a tie between the game against New England on Oct. 14, 2012 and... the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 22 this year. During both games, 0.19" of rain fell (remember this is just for the game's ~3-hour period, not the day's rainfall).
Next on the list? The Sunday night game last year against arch rival San Francisco on Dec. 23 at 0.18 inches when we beat them 42-13. No. 4? The infamous thunderstormy season opener against San Francisco on Sept. 15 at 0.17." (See a pattern here? Schedule San Francisco on a Sunday night and prepare to get soaked but see a blowout win by the 'Hawks.)
Top 10 Rainiest Seahawks Home Games:
1) 0.19" -- Sept. 22, 2013 against Jacksonville (win)
1) 0.19" -- Oct. 14, 2012 against New England (win)
3) 0.18" -- Dec. 23, 2012 against San Francisco (win)
4) 0.17" -- Sept. 15, 2013 against San Francisco (win)
5) 0.15" -- Dec. 14, 2006 against (guess who?) San Francisco (loss)
6) 0.13" -- Dec. 24, 2006 against San Diego (loss)
7) 0.11" -- Nov. 12, 2006 against St. Louis (win)
8) 0.10" -- Oct. 23, 2005 against Dallas (win)
9) 0.09" -- Nov. 13, 2005 against St. Louis (win)
10) 0.06" -- Nov. 6, 2006 against Oakland (win)
So that means two of the three home games this year -- and three of the last five home games have been the wettest games ever there, and three of the top 5 wettest games have been against the 49ers!
November 2006 was among the stormiest month on record, and that entire autumn was quite wet, so that was by far the worst year to be a season ticket holder (5 of 8 home games that season had rain). Take out the 2006 and 2013 seasons and it's only rained on 11 of 80 games (14%.)
I was surprised that the thunderstorm game against the 49ers wasn't the wettest overall but it does have the distinction of having quite the heavy burst of rain -- all 0.17" of that rain fell within one hour while most of the other dates on that list were spread out over 2-3 hours.
By the way, of those 18 games with measurable rain? The Seahawks won 14 of them.
Let it snow: The Seahawks are 2 and 0!
There have been only two times that it has snowed during a Seahawks game and they've won both of them.
The first was the infamous Monday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 27, 2006. (No, not that infamous "Golden Tate mircale catch" Monday night Packers game.) An arctic front passed through during the game and temperatures plummeted from a game time start temperature of 36 degrees to 30 degrees by the time the game ended (temperatures would continue to drop into the 20s). It caused a flash-freeze on the freeways literally stranding thousands of drivers on the roads. Some fans who drove in from Oregon said it took over 10 hours to get back to Portland.
The other snow game came during our big 2-week arctic outbreak in Dec. 2008 against the New York Jets. That game on Dec. 21 was the coldest game since the Seahawks have played outdoors in SoDo, dropping to 29 degrees near the end with a wind chill of 17.7.
This ain't Lambeau Field
Overall for temperatures, Seahawks fans have benefited form our relatively mild marine climate. Only four day games and four night games out of 91 total have been played with temperatures in the 30s and that aforementioned Jets game was the only game to reach the 20s.
Top 5 Coldest Day Seahawks Games (average temperature over 3-hour period):
1) 30.5 -- Dec. 21, 2008 against New York Jets (Lowest temp: 29. Wind Chill: 17.7.)
2) 34.0 -- Dec. 6, 2009 against San Francisco (Wind Chill: 24.6)
3) 36.5 -- Dec. 9, 2007 against Arizona (Wind Chill: 36)
4) 38.0 -- Dec. 11, 2005 against San Francisco (Wind Chill: 30.4)
5) 41.5 -- Dec. 30, 2012 against St. Louis
Top 5 Coldest Night Seahawks Games (average temperature over 3-hour period)
1) 33.0 -- Nov. 27, 2006 against Green Bay (Wind Chill 21.9)
1) 33.0 -- Dec. 12, 2011 against St. Louis (Wind Chill 30.0)
3) 33.5 -- Jan. 2, 2010 against St. Louis (Wind Chill: 23.4)
4) 38.5 -- Dec. 1, 2011 against Philadelphia
5) 42.5 -- Dec. 23, 2012 against San Francisco
It's not San Diego either...
On the other hand, it hasn't been all that hot at Seahawks games either, even though September can still give us a late blast of summer. Only one game has ever reached 80 degrees -- a Sept. 13, 2009 tussle with St. Louis -- and only two others have had temperatures at or above 70 through the entire game. (Would it surprise you to know San Francisco was one of the games?) Overall, just 8 games out of 91 -- not even 10 percent! -- have had a temperature reach 70 at some point during the contest.
Top 5 Warmest Seahawks Games (average temperature over 3-hour period):
1) 78.0 -- Sept. 13, 2009 against St. Louis (80 peak temp)
2) 73.5 -- Sept. 9, 2007 against Tampa Bay (77 peak temp)
3) 72.0 -- Sept. 14, 2008 against San Francisco (74 peak temp)
4) 71.0 -- Sept. 24, 2006 against New York Giants (74 peak temp)
4) 71.0 -- Sept. 16, 2012 against Dallas (74 peak temp)
Of the 91 home games:
Games played in the 80s: 1 (1.0%)
Games played in the 70s: 7 (7.7%)
Games played in the 60s: 24 (26.3%)
Games played in the 50s: 29 (31.9%)
Games played in the 40s: 22 (24.2%)
Games played in the 30s: 8 (8.8%)
Hang on to your hats!
While it doesn't rain all that often, it can get windy. The peak wind gust ever recorded during a game was 44 mph on Dec. 14, 2006 and I'll give you three guesses as to the opponent (although if you've been paying attention, the answer's been already given): San Francisco. That Thursday night game was during the initial hours of the great Hanukah Eve Windstorm and also featured a weather delay. Second windiest day was 33 mph on Oct. 12, 2003 against... good grief, San Francisco?
In all, 18 games of 91 have had peak gusts of 20 mph or greater with an average overall peak wind speed of 11 mph.
Do you need to squeeze sunglasses into your small, clear, stadium-approved bags?
Now here is where the data really did match what we would expect for Seattle: A clear lack of sunshine. Of the 91 home games, 36 were played under overcast skies (40%) and 24 more were under mostly cloudy skies, meaning 70 percent of our home games didn't feature much, if any sunshine. Just 16 games were considered totally sunny (18%) -- seven of those in September games -- while the rest were partly cloudy.
What's your deal, San Francisco, with the bad weather?
I didn't really realize it until typing all this out how crummy many of the games against the 49ers have been. Granted, being a division rival, the Seahawks play them every year so there have been 12 home games against the 49ers -- more than any other opponent right now (until St. Louis and Arizona play their 12th game in Seattle later this year.)
Of those 12, it's poured on three of them, including one that had an hour-long thunderstorm delay and another during what stands as the greatest Puget Sound wind storm of the 21st Century thus far. A fifth and sixth game had temperatures stuck in the 30s all game long.
It wasn't always like that though -- six games had sunny or partly cloudy skies (including one of the 30s game). But before you think it's just law of averages, other division mates Arizona and St. Louis don't have nearly the weather drama in their history that the 49ers have brought. Then again, Seattle is 8-4 against San Francisco through this year at home since joining the NFC West so it certainly hasn't been an issue.
So, what to really expect, America, when watching a Seahawks game in Seattle?
Most times you'll find a cloudy but dry day, a bit breezy, with temperatures in the 50s or 60s.
Unless it's against the 49ers...
Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottSKOMO and on Facebook for frequent updates on Seattle and Puget Sound area weather.