text:
Squamous cell carcinoma is a form of skin cancer. It is the second most common form of skin cancer.
The cancer develops in the uppermost layer of skin cells. Squamous cell carcinoma usually grows slowly. It is rarely fatal if treated early. However, the cancer can be lethal if it spreads beyond the skin.
Cancer occurs when cells in the body divide without control or order. Eventually these uncontrolled cells form a growth or tumor. The growths invade and take over nearby tissue. It is not clear exactly what causes these problems in the cells but it is probably a combination of genetics and the environment.
Risk Factors
Areas of skin that are damaged have a higher risk of cancer. Skin that is regularly exposed to the sun is more likely to develop skin cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma may also develop in skin that has scars, burns, or exposure to chemicals or radiation.
Factors that may increase your chance of developing squamous cell carcinoma include:
- History of radiation or ultraviolet light treatment
- Childhood sunburns , freckling, or long periods of sun exposure
- A personal history of skin cancer
- A family history of skin cancer
- Blonde or red hair
- Blue or green eyes
- Fair skin that rarely tans
- Treatments or medications that suppress the immune system
- Frequent use of tanning beds
- Exposure to cancer causing chemical such as arsenic, tar, or some insecticides
- Smoking
- Past infection with human papillomavirus (HPV)
Symptoms include:
- A raised red patch that is scaly or rough
- A raised patch of skin that may appear to have horn-like rough edges
- In color, the patch may be reddish, pink, flesh-colored, or reddish-brown
- A long-standing sore that will not heal with simple at-home treatment
The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done.
The skin growth will be examined. A sample of the growth will be taken and examined for cancer cells. This will help determine the stage and type of the cancer. The information will be used to guide treatment and make a prognosis.
Talk with your doctor about the best treatment plan for you. Options include:
- Mohs micrographic surgery—microscopic surgery that offers the best cure rate for squamous cell carcinoma
- Removing the growth with simple surgery
- Plastic surgery to repair any cosmetic problems that occur after treatment
For people who are not able to have surgery, other treatment options include:
- Freezing the growth off with liquid nitrogen
- Laser treatment
- Radiation therapy
- Photodynamic therapy—the cells absorb an acid that causes them to die when exposed to light
- Topical creams, especially fluorouracil or imiquimod
To help reduce the chance of squamous cell carcinoma:
- Avoid spending too much time in the sun.
- Avoid exposing your skin to the sun between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM standard time, or 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM daylight saving time.
- Protect your skin from the sun with clothing. Wear a shirt, sunglasses, and a hat with a broad brim.
- Use broad-spectrum (UVA and UVB) sunscreens with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or more on skin that will be exposed to the sun.
- Use a protective lip balm.
- Wear sunglasses with 99% to 100% UV absorption to protect your eyes.
- Do not use sun lamps or tanning booths.
- Get regular full-body skin exams by a dermatologist. The doctor will check for moles, freckles, and other growths.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board James Cornell, MD
- Review Date: 03/2017 -
- Update Date: 10/20/2014 -


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The foundation of the new platform is technological
innovation. The new global platform Ford Focus will receive the
company's EcoBoost
four-cylinder turbocharged direct injection (DI) engines.
European customers will have the option of getting either a 1.6-liter
EcoBoost gas engine or an improved Duratorq TDCi common-rail diesel
engine. U.S. customers won't get the diesel, but they will get
a 2.0-liter EcoBoost gas engine that features DI and Twin Independent
Variable Camshaft Timing (Ti-VCT). The new engines should
provide a bit more horsepower (the 2.0-liter North American engine
adds an extra 20 hp compared to its predecessor). They also
should provide 10 to 20 percent gains in fuel economy (a bit over 10
percent, in the North American engine's case).
The North
American Focus will also get Ford's new dual-clutch
six-speed Ford PowerShift automatic transmission. The new
transmission offers additional fuel economy savings of about 9
percent. It replaces the manual parts -- torque converters,
planetary gears and oil pumps -- found in standard automatics, with a
more efficient system that electrically controls the clutch.
new Focus also may be the first non-hybrid auto to get stop-start
technology in the U.S., according
to AutoBlog.
This technology allows the vehicle to shut off the engine when
stopped, saving fuel, particularly in urban settings. Ford is
targeting a 40+ mpg fuel economy with the stock variant, similar to
GM's Chevy Cruze, a key competitor.
A new Electric Power
Assist Steering (EPAS) system has also been added, which Ford says
will offer "pure and precise responses at high speed."
The new car also gets a new Dynamic Cornering Control system, which
Ford says will yield reduced understeer, improved traction and better
turn-in. Together, Ford says these technologies make a vehicle
that is both more fun to drive and safer.
Better materials
also make the new vehicle safer. The new vehicle uses steel for
55 percent of the body shell and ultra-high strength and Boron steels
in 26 percent of the vehicle's structure. Those improvements
pay off in cold hard numbers; the new Focus sports a 25 percent
greater rigidity than the current North American Focus.
new Focus will also get Ford's new MyFord Touch infotainment system.
The new system, which we extensively
covered at CES 2010, includes a WebKit browser, canned text
messaging, voice-commanded climate controls, improved voice commands,
smart phone application APIs (including for voice commands), and
Ford feels that its new Focus design is also very
stylish. It calls the vehicle's artistic direction "Kinetic
Design". Ford's press release brags, "With its
striking front end, sleek profile, dramatic rising beltline and
athletic stance, the new Focus clearly telegraphs the rewarding
driving experience that awaits customers when they take to the
The base variety of the new Focus will be offered
in hatchback and sedan forms. It will be accompanied by the
European C-Max and Grand C-Max which will be landing in the U.S.
sometime in 2011 and fall under the Focus global design
The next generation Ford Focus won't go on sale
until the 2012 model year (2011). Hybrid and battery electric
variants should be coming in the 2013 model year (2012) -- Ford has
not committed to hard time frames for their launch. The
electric variant is expected to get 80-100 miles on a charge.
At a recent press event, DailyTech
spoke with Ford executives, including
CEO Alan Mullaly on their upcoming EV and the company's desire to
avoid the temperature-related
problems of competitor GM's 2011 Chevy Volt EV.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Electronic Arts confirmed Will Wright, the man behind The Sims and Spore, is leaving EA to work at an entertainment studio he originally created in 2001.
Wright will be working full-time at Stupid Fun Club, a company designed to focus on new projects that could later be turned into video games, movies, toys, and other entertainment ventures -- EA also is serving as a sponsor of the company.
In 2001, the company was focused on robots, and drew a large amount of media attention because of Wright's involvement.
"The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change. Stupid Fan Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms," Wright said in a statement. "In my twelve years at EA, I've had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future."
Wright began talking about leaving EA for Stupid Fun Club -- located in Berkeley, California -- last year, and will lead a team of nine employees. Sim City -- and all of its expansion games -- has sold more than 100 million copies since the game's original launch in 1989.
Considering Wright's involvement has led to some of EA's biggest game titles, it should be interesting to see if this hurts the company's future projects. The company is currently reorganizing after announcing it will lay off around 1,100 employees and will publish a smaller number of video games.


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BTW i wanted to say that i'm very suprised by JV's performance right now. i was the pessimistic one if anyone remembers. JV gonna do fine in NBA. it seems that NBA style fits him way better than EU. he will prolly make All-star team one day.
Give the man minutes! There's no excuse playing him 10 minutes. While he didn't do much on offense he was one of the only guys doing anything on defense. It's insane to me he isn't getting 25 a night MINIMUM.
Yeah, I don't really understand the foul trouble benchings either. If he fouls out, so be it. It's like Casey's saving Jonas for later in the game, then keeps him on the sidelines when that time comes.
It's hard to stay on the floor when the referees call 2 fouls per minute on this dude. On the slightest touch (and that's an exaggeration). Refs are fu.cking with this dude. Come on!
I dont create controversies. Theyre there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention.
-- Charles Barkley
Hibbert, Brook Lopez, Pek, Perkins and Kaman have all become stars (in the refs eyes) for a game each, getting to the free throw line all the time when JV was on the floor.
Especially Lopez... that was horrid.
Like I understand calling fouls when JV is out of position when rotating on help side D. But 1 on 1 post d, he just has his hands up & there's barely any contact, you can't call a foul on that. It would be different if they call a foul on the other team everytime it happens, but calling one action a foul on one end but not on another simply because we have a reputation of fouling does not make sense. How do they define a foul? If it says Raptors on the jersey? It's horrible officiating, to the point where you question their integrity. Are these f.ucktards owned by Vegas? Are they just stup!d? Are they simply biased? One thing I know is, JV does not foul nearly as much as he gets called for.
I dont create controversies. Theyre there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention.
-- Charles Barkley
What are everyone's thoughts on how Jonas was on defense vs the Magic? Vucevic abused him early with Davis dead quite. In the second half they switched him to Davis and then Davis started going off. Seems like teams are really targeting him as this wasn't the first time this year it was so glaringly obvious. I just hope the kids confidence doesn't drop as it looks like teams are gonna go after him. As he gets stronger this won't be an issue but I'm surprised I haven't seen more posts regarding his defense or lack there of individually.
Teams starters see him as the weak point, because he is a rookie.
He'll adjust, and start pounding those bigs to the ground
2nd half he turned it on, he was eating up boards and going for 2nd chance pts.
There was that nice putback with a few defenders around him as well
Last edited by theycallmeZZ; Mon Nov 19th, 2012 at 03:15 PM.
Strength is not very good for JV vs. Big men, but that's not something JV can adjust after 1 quarter, LOL.
Twitter: @ReubenJRD NBA, Raptors writer for Daily Hive Vancouver, Toronto.
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Credit Unions Share Common Global Problems
Representatives from credit unions in Australia, Canada and the United States recently came together discuss solutions to common industry challenges.
The 17 leaders from the Credit Union Central of Canada, CUNA, Australia's Customer Owned Banking Association and the World Council of Credit Unions met in Sydney, Australia last week to talk about credit union branding, payments and system evolution and regulatory burden and advocacy challenges.
Among the top advocacy challenges in each of the countries was anti-money laundering, Basel III, capital, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, member business lending and taxation, according to the World Council.
The delegation also visited Bank MECU and Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank in Melbourne, two of Australia's largest credit unions that changed their names to a mutual bank. A side-by-side operation of credit unions and mutual banks in the cooperative financial institution space was led by consumer attitudes and regulatory pressures in Australia, the World Council said.
Under the same legislative, taxation and regulatory framework and subject to decreasing consumer awareness, larger Australian credit unions have taken on the name mutual bank and share the common theme of customer-owned banking.
One of the top challenges faced by World Council members and credit unions around the world is the ability to provide payment solutions that respond to consumer demand, the council said. A workshop explored the work of Australian payments agent, Cuscal, to discuss strategies of collaboration or piloting to help position credit unions in payments services to credit unions.
Other areas that were examined included governance challenges and sustainability of small institutions influence the evolution of each system and non-traditional competitors.
Brian Branch, president/CEO of the World Council, said the weeklong meeting with the delegation will help the council with valuable lessons that it can share with the rest of the credit union world that face common branding, payment and regulatory challenges.


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Fiserv Touts 2012 Results: 27 Straight Years of Double-Digit EPS Growth
Fiserv Inc. reported this week that it had completed its 27th consecutive year of double-digit earnings per share growth.
The technology giant said it recorded $1.08 billion in adjusted revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 and $4.2 billion for the year, a 3% increase over 2011.
Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations in the fourth quarter increased 9% to $1.39 compared with $1.27 in the fourth quarter of 2011. Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the year grew 12% to $5.13 compared with $4.58 in 2011, the Brookfield, Wis., company said.
"Our 2012 results were highlighted by our 27th consecutive year of double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth and meaningful strategic progress. We capped off a strong sales year with exceptional performance in the fourth quarter," said President/CEO Jeffery Yabuki.
The company began 2013 with the acquisition of financial institutions account processor Open Solutions Inc. and its client list of 3,300 organizations worldwide.
Other highlights cited it its year-end report included signing 552 clients to its Mobiliti mobile banking solution during the year, including 134 in the fourth quarter. The company said it now has nearly 1,400 mobile banking clients.
Fiserv said it also extended by 10 years its deal with Bank of America for use of the CheckFree RXP electronic bill payment and presentment platform through online and mobile channels. For the year, 404 electronic bill pay and 165 debit clients were signed, the company said.
There also were 113 new Popmoney person-to-person payments clients signed in the fourth quarter, bringing to more than 1,800 the number of financial institutions in that network, Fiserv said.


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now outnumber desktops in sales and that trend is only set to broaden
in coming years. With the majority of customers now using
laptops, anything on an operating system level that affects laptop
users is becoming increasingly important. Thus, when reports
popped up that Windows 7 was erroneously telling users to replace
their batteries on perfectly healthy notebooks, many took
note.Microsoft's Windows President, Steven Sinofksy, has
fired back in a long post in which he defends how things currently
work, stating that his staff have found no bugs. He writes,
"One of the most obvious components of PC battery life (the
runtime you get on battery power) is the battery itself. PC batteries
inherently degrade in their ability to hold a charge and provide
power (as is the case for all rechargeable batteries). The cause of
this is complex and includes irreversible changes in battery
chemistry, and increased internal resistance among other things and
those in turn are dependent on the design and manufacturing of the
battery. This degradation translates into less battery life for the
user over the life of the battery in the PC. Ultimately,
batteries must be replaced to restore an acceptable battery
life."Mr. Sinofsky says that it warns users to change
their battery whenever it is operating at less than 60 percent of its
original capacity in watt hours. He explains how this works,
batteries expose information about battery capacity and health
through the system firmware (or BIOS). There is a detailed
specification for the firmware interface (ACPI), but at the most
basic level, the hardware platform and firmware provide a number
of read-only fields that describe the
battery and its status. The firmware provides information on
the battery including manufacturer, serial number, design
capacity and last full charge capacity. The last two
pieces of information—design capacity and last full charge
capacity—are the information Windows 7 uses to determine how much
the battery has naturally degraded. This information is
read-only and there is no way for Windows 7 or any other OS to write,
set or configure battery status information. In fact all of the
battery actions of charging and discharging are completely controlled
by the battery hardware. Windows only reports the battery
information it reads from the system firmware. Some reports
erroneously claimed Windows was modifying this information, which is
definitely not possible.
this assurance, though, many customers still say Windows 7 is saying
they need to replace their battery on new machines or machines with
little battery wear. The response section of the blog was
inundated with angry replies from users experiencing such
issues. Among the models that reportedly have had
this problem are the Asus
Eee PC and certain Acer Aspire models. Some users have
reported that Windows 7 is shutting down their computers when they
still have battery life remaining. And other users have noted
that they can take the "failed" battery and put it in a
non-Windows 7 machine and it will charge just fine.Given the
amount of complaints and uncertainty, Microsoft hopefully is
investigating this issue further, however, it clearly appears to
currently feel that there's no issue at all, despite its customers'


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Wow, ESPN and Bleacher Report (not saying they're good) just ranked us in the 20s. I am amazed. I have to ask, we're they even watching the games. Because even tho were 1-2, we coulda been just as easily 3-0. I'm not saying that we are title contenders, but it seems like other than Raptors fans, everybody is biased. They are seriously gonna be surprised if Bargs gets it going. The way I see it, is we have a top 15, arguably top 10 backcourt, if they stay this way.
And a rookie who may struggle this year but will be a BIG difference maker during the season.
All we need is a shooter on the wing. Not playing down on Fields' abilities, but he just doesn't fit. Whether we're getting JJ Redick or J-Rich, we need to upgrade the wing, and I think we'll be good. We may think we are stuck in mediocrity, or even lower, but we have a lot of upside. I think BC has done a very good job, he may have struck out early but it seems he's on the verge of hitting a home run.
We're close, everyone knows it, but can't grasp. It is an amazing feeling
We're almost there.


text: What the hell is wrong the Raps TV crews? these guys have an obsession of changing cameras mid dunk. It happened again tonight with Ross breakaway slam. I knew they were going to change to the baseline camera once Ross got the steal. It's very distracting and takes away the beauty of the dunk.


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Several weeks ago, reports were rampant about Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Company,
employees being severely underpaid but having to work just as hard as workers
in any other parts of the world. In fact, reports said that some of Foxconn's
employees that were part of manufacturing Apple products were being
paid a $50 per month.
Shortly after the reports began circulating, Foxconn said that its factory in
Longhua, China, does not put its workers at harm and does not sacrifice living
standards for cheap labor. The company further said that most of its employees
are given housing. There was no response from Apple for a few days but the
company did issue a statement that it would investigate the matter further.
According to Apple, the company is extremely strict about its manufacturing
partners and its code of conduct. Apple said that it will be interviewing
workers that work at Foxconn's factories and said that it will not
tolerate non-compliance to industry standards. Apple's own policy indicates:
Suppliers must pay wages, benefits, and overtime to workers in accordance with
applicable laws, including those related to minimum wages, overtime, hours, and
legally mandated benefits. Suppliers may not discriminate based on race,
colour, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation,
or marital status. The basis on which workers are being paid must be clearly
conveyed to them in a timely manner.
This is not uncommon for Chinese manufacturing facilities. At most of
these factories, workers are required to live "on-campus" and share a
dorm with several other employees of the same gender. Room and board are
taken out of the employee's salary and as such, the workers are typically left
with $50 to $100 per month. Whether or not this is substandard to foreign
eyes, it is the standard model in China -- every facility operates this way
whether the plant manufactures iPods, motherboards, cars or clothes.
Neither Apple nor Foxconn have issued any further statements. The Longhua
factory produces products for many manufacturers including Apple, and
makes things such as the iPod.


text:
An Oregon
Health & Science University (OHSU) Doernbecher Children's Hospital
pediatric cardiac team has made a successful breakthrough in the treatment of
heart disease/defects.
Dr. Grant
Burch, M.D., associate professor of pediatric cardiology at OHSU Doernbecher
Children's Hospital and director of the OHSU Pediatric and Adult Congenital
Cardiac Catheterization Lab, and Laurie Armsby, M.D., Burch's partner in the
OHSU Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Lab and associate
professor of pediatric cardiology at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, have
used a device to implant a pulmonary
heart valve without the use of open-heart surgery.
device is called the Medtronic Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve, and it is
used to replace a leaky or narrow pulmonary valve conduit in adults and
children that have already had surgery to fix a congenital heart defect. This
tool was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and does
not require open-heart surgery. It was first approved for commercial use in Europe
in 2006, and since then, over 1,700 patients have been implanted with the
pulmonary valve. Now, according to the FDA, 1,000 U.S. citizens with congenital heart disease will qualify for the Melody valve
each year.
born with blocked or leaky heart valves can undergo as many as four open-heart
surgeries before reaching adulthood to replace conduits that have worn out or
that they've outgrown, and each time the risk of surgery goes up," said
Burch. "The Melody extends the useful life of an implanted valve conduit
and is very likely to reduce the number of open-heart operations a patient
might require over a lifetime."
Melody is placed into a small opening in a patient's leg and is led by a
catheter through blood vessels into the heart. A balloon on the end of the
catheter is inflated once the valve is positioned in place, which delivers the
valve and corrects blood flow.
remarkable thing about this procedure is that the valve is placed into the beating heart through a vein in the patient's
leg," said Armsby. "After the procedure, patients spend a night on
the hospital ward and are discharged home the following morning. This device
brings us closer to the goal of providing children less invasive alternatives
to surgery for the treatment of congenital heart disease."
noted that the Melody valve cannot eliminate the need for open-heart surgery
entirely, but it can be used as a safe alternative for those with congenital
heart disease.


text:
INTERPOL workshop continues to advance police information exchange in West Africa
ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire – The INTERPOL West African Police Information System (WAPIS) Programme held the fifth in a series of workshops which focused on the technological infrastructure necessary for the sharing of police information in West Africa.
The three-day meeting (4-6 June) at the INTERPOL Regional Bureau in Abidjan brought together some 20 representatives from the five pilot countries – Benin, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – INTERPOL, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Civi.Pol, the consultancy agency of the French Ministry of the Interior.
Building on the outcomes of previous meetings in Belgium, Benin, Mauritania and Nigeria, participants focused their discussions on information and communications technologies and how they should be used to integrate each country into WAPIS. The delegates created a detailed map of each pilot country indicating the existing information and communications technology infrastructure at the local and national levels, and discussed the rules to be applied to the use of the WAPIS system.
The workshop was opened by Bredou M'Bia, Director General of the National Police of Côte d'Ivoire and President of the West African Police Chiefs Committee Organization (WAPCCO), who highlighted the need to increase awareness and cooperation to more effectively fight organized crime in the region.
Lieutenant Colonel Abdourahmane Dieng, Head of the Regional Security Division of ECOWAS, emphasized the value of the WAPIS system for law enforcement in the region.
"The programme is now entering its active phase in the pilot countries at a moment when transnational organized crime and international terrorism are starting to jeopardize our collective security," said Mr Dieng.
Funded by the European Union and supported by ECOWAS, the INTERPOL WAPIS Programme aims to establish a regional police information system to improve the collection, analysis and sharing of police information within West Africa.


text:
In response, it began to escalate
its legal campaign against the blogging community, which it feels is
undercutting its revenue by reposting article snippets without paying.
However, the AP's content has become
such a fixture in the internet world that this campaign may lead either to
dangerous campaign against major sites such as Wikipedia, or to a double
standard in which small blogs are attacked, but major sites are spared.
The blogging community is striking back at what they feel is an atrocious abuse
of fair use via Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns. They
have launched a campaign humorously entitled "FU AP". Leading
the campaign is the BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis. He
writes that he once hoped that the AP
would survive and overcome its challenges, but he's reconsidered and may want
to take that back.
He states, "The AP has filed
truly noxious takedown notices against Rogers Cadenhead's community-created
Drudge Retort, arguing copyright violations for quotes from 33 to 79 words
long. For shame, AP."
Jarvis says the AP "leaches off
original reporting and kills links and credit to the source of that
journalism." He says that while it is legally entitled to do so, in
that it pays members to reproduce their reporting, in doing so the AP is violating the ethic of linking
news, a guiding tenet of the online news culture. Jarvis suggests that news
aggregators such as Google News, Inform, Daylife, and Pro
Publica start linking only to original sources, skipping the AP entirely.
Google's deal with the AP is among
the items he objects to. He says that Google should be linking to
original content, not licensing to the AP,
though he acknowledges that the AP
deal significantly jump-started the site.
The call to arms is continued with a statement, "In its complaint against
Cadenhead, the AP is flouting fair
use and fair comment. It is ignoring the essential structure of the link architecture
of the web. It is declaring war on blogs and commenters. So let's fire back. I
urge bloggers everywhere to go to the AP
and reproduce a story at length in solidarity with Cadenhead and Drudge
Jarvis proceeded to repost a 146-word long section of an AP article as an example to his readers. He then provided
links to the original
article, a story from Gazette Online about the flooding in Illinois,
which he says is far better than the AP's
"homogenized version" of the story. He encourages other
bloggers to join him in fighting the AP's
revenue scheme by linking to the original source, putting the power back in the
hands of the writers and taking it from the redistributors.
Along with Jarvis's new campaign, the owner of the blog most recently attacked
by the AP, The Drudge Retort, posted
a response to the AP's
claims. Rogers Cadenhead, owner of The Drudge Retort, states that
the AP has used DMCA takedown notices
on 6 of his blogs which contained AP excerpts
between 33 and 79 words with links to the AP
article. Only one of the six took the AP
headline, the other five had user-created headlines. Cadenhead's site
encourages its over 8,500 users to post blogs. Of the blogs which the AP is demanding the site take down, two
of them were written by Cadenhead himself, while the rest were user created.
The AP also ordered a takedown of
another blog, for a user comment, which included two paragraphs from an AP article. The AP states that the blog excerpts and the
user-commented blog amount to "hot news' misappropriation under New York
state law."
Ironically, Cadenhead points out, the original content creators of the stories
encourage reuse in many cases. The original source of two of the disputed
articles was Yahoo News, which
encourages bloggers to use its items. Two more of the citations were
sourced from USA Today, which contains a tool to easily translate
articles to Digg or Mixx form. Attorney Wade Duchene, who
had previously assisted Cadenhead in a domain name dispute, is siding with the
blog owner, stating that the AP is
wrong and that The Drudge Retort's actions are the "absolute
definition of fair use."
Cadenhead acknowledges that the law forces him to take down the blogs in
question whether or not he thinks they're fair use. However, he
encourages users to file counter-notices to the AP asserting their own copyright. He also encourages AP's Intellectual Property Governance
Coordinator Irene Keselman, author of the letter sent to him, to explain the AP's position in more detail.
As the war of words between the AP
and blogger escalates, it brings two things into question -- one, the legality
of the bloggers' practice of linking to and posting small excerpts from
copyrighted texts, and secondly the legitimacy of the AP's underlying business model, which is accused of
disenfranchising both the writers and the citers. Ultimately, though, the
growing debate is proving, above all else, to be unfortunate distraction to the
real task at hand -- covering the news.


text:
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9e15e4/the_20092014_outl) has announced the addition of the "The 2009-2014 Outlook for Children's Microscopes in the United States" report to their offering.
The concept of latent demand is rather subtle. The term latent typically refers to something that is dormant, not observable, or not yet realized. Demand is the notion of an economic quantity that a target population or market requires under different assumptions of price, quality, and distribution, among other factors. Latent demand, therefore, is commonly defined by economists as the industry earnings of a market when that market becomes accessible and attractive to serve by competing firms. It is a measure, therefore, of potential industry earnings (P.I.E.) or total revenues (not profit) if the United States is served in an efficient manner. It is typically expressed as the total revenues potentially extracted by firms. The market is defined at a given level in the value chain. There can be latent demand at the retail level, at the wholesale level, the manufacturing level, and the raw materials level (the P.I.E. of higher levels of the value chain being always smaller than the P.I.E. of levels at lower levels of the same value chain, assuming all levels maintain minimum profitability).
The latent demand for children's microscopes in the United States is not actual or historic sales. Nor is latent demand future sales. In fact, latent demand can be either lower or higher than actual sales if a market is inefficient (i.e., not representative of relatively competitive levels). Inefficiencies arise from a number of factors, including the lack of international openness, cultural barriers to consumption, regulations, and cartel-like behavior on the part of firms. In general, however, latent demand is typically larger than actual sales in a market.
For reasons discussed later, this report does not consider the notion of unit quantities, only total latent revenues (i.e., a calculation of price times quantity is never made, though one is implied). The units used in this report are U.S. dollars not adjusted for inflation (i.e., the figures incorporate inflationary trends). If inflation rates vary in a substantial way compared to recent experience, actually sales can also exceed latent demand (not adjusted for inflation). On the other hand, latent demand can be typically higher than actual sales as there are often distribution inefficiencies that reduce actual sales below the level of latent demand.
As mentioned in the introduction, this study is strategic in nature, taking an aggregate and long-run view, irrespective of the players or products involved. In fact, all the current products or services on the market can cease to exist in their present form (i.e., at a brand-, R&D specification, or corporate-image level) and all the players can be replaced by other firms (i.e., via exits, entries, mergers, bankruptcies, etc.), and there will still be latent demand for children's microscopes at the aggregate level. Product and service offerings, and the actual identity of the players involved, while important for certain issues, are relatively unimportant for estimates of latent demand.
In order to estimate the latent demand for children's microscopes across the states and cites of the United States, I used a multi-stage approach. Before applying the approach, one needs a basic theory from which such estimates are created. In this case, I heavily rely on the use of certain basic economic assumptions. In particular, there is an assumption governing the shape and type of aggregate latent demand functions. Latent demand functions relate the income of a state, city, household, or individual to realized consumption. Latent demand (often realized as consumption when an industry is efficient), at any level of the value chain, takes place if an equilibrium is realized. For firms to serve a market, they must perceive a latent demand and be able to serve that demand at a minimal return. The single most important variable determining consumption, assuming latent demand exists, is income (or other financial resources at higher levels of the value chain). Other factors that can pivot or shape demand curves include external or exogenous shocks (i.e., business cycles), and or changes in utility for the product in question.
Ignoring, for the moment, exogenous shocks and variations in utility across geographies, the aggregate relation between income and consumption has been a central theme in economics. The figure below concisely summarizes one aspect of problem. In the 1930s, John Meynard Keynes conjectured that as incomes rise, the average propensity to consume would fall. The average propensity to consume is the level of consumption divided by the level of income, or the slope of the line from the origin to the consumption function. He estimated this relationship empirically and found it to be true in the short-run (mostly based on cross-sectional data). The higher the income, the lower the average propensity to consume. This type of consumption function is labeled "A" in the figure below (note the rather flat slope of the curve). In the 1940s, another macroeconomist, Simon Kuznets, estimated long-run consumption functions which indicated that the marginal propensity to consume was rather constant (using time series data). This type of consumption function is shown as "B" in the figure below (note the higher slope and zero-zero intercept). The average propensity to consume is constant.
Is it declining or is it constant? A number of other economists, notably Franco Modigliani and Milton Friedman, in the 1950s (and Irving Fisher earlier), explained why the two functions were different using various assumptions on intertemporal budget constraints, savings, and wealth. The shorter the time horizon, the more consumption can depend on wealth (earned in previous years) and business cycles. In the long-run, however, the propensity to consume is more constant. Similarly, in the long run, households with no income eventually have no consumption (wealth is depleted). While the debate surrounding beliefs about how income and consumption are related is interesting, in this study a very particular school of thought is adopted. In particular, we are considering the latent demand for children's microscopes across the states and cities of the United States. The smallest cities have few inhabitants. I assume that all of these cities fall along a "long-run" aggregate consumption function. This long-run function applies despite some of these states having wealth; current income dominates the latent demand for children's microscopes. So, latent demand in the long-run has a zero intercept. However, I allow different propensities to consume (including being on consumption functions with differing slopes, which can account for differences in industrial organization, and end-user preferences).
Given this overriding philosophy, I will now describe the methodology used to create the latent demand estimates for children's microscopes in the United States. Since ICON Group has asked me to apply this methodology to a large number of categories, the rather academic discussion below is general and can be applied to a wide variety of categories and geographic locations, not just children's microscopes in the United States.
Step 1. Product Definition and Data Collection
Any study of latent demand requires that some standard be established to define efficiently served. Having implemented various alternatives and matched these with market outcomes, I have found that the optimal approach is to assume that certain key indicators are more likely to reflect efficiency than others. These indicators are given greater weight than others in the estimation of latent demand compared to others for which no known data are available. Of the many alternatives, I have found the assumption that the highest aggregate income and highest income-per-capita markets reflect the best standards for efficiency. High aggregate income alone is not sufficient (i.e. some cities have high aggregate income, but low income per capita and can not assumed to be efficient). Aggregate income can be operationalized in a number of ways, including gross domestic product (for industrial categories), or total disposable income (for household categories; population times average income per capita, or number of households times average household income).
Latent demand is therefore estimated using data collected for relatively efficient markets from independent data sources (e.g. Official Chinese Agencies, the World Resources Institute, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, various agencies from the United Nations, industry trade associations, the International Monetary Fund, Euromonitor, Mintel, Thomson Financial Services, the U.S. Industrial Outlook, and the World Bank). Depending on original data sources used, the definition of children's microscopes is established. In the case of this report, the data were reported at the aggregate level, with no further breakdown or definition. In other words, any potential product or service that might be incorporated within children's microscopes falls under this category. Public sources rarely report data at the disaggregated level in order to protect private information from individual firms that might dominate a specific product-market. These sources will therefore aggregate across components of a category and report only the aggregate to the public. While private data are certainly available, this report only relies on public data at the aggregate level without reliance on the summation of various category components. In other words, this report does not aggregate a number of components to arrive at the whole. Rather, it starts with the whole, and estimates the whole for all states and cities in the United States (without needing to know the specific parts that went into the whole in the first place).
The children's microscope industry includes magnifying devices which are designed to be used by children. Companies participating in this industry include National Geographic Society and Meade Instruments Corporation. All figures are in a common currency (U.S. dollars, millions) and are not adjusted for inflation (i.e., they are current values). Exchange rates used to convert to U.S. dollars are averages for the year in question. Future exchange rates are assumed to be constant in the future at the current level (the average of the year of this publications release in 2008).
Step 2. Filtering and Smoothing
Based on the aggregate view of children's microscopes as defined above, data were then collected for as many geographic locations as possible for that same definition, at the same level of the value chain. This generates a convenience sample of indicators from which comparable figures are available. If the series in question do not reflect the same accounting period, then adjustments are made. In order to eliminate short-term effects of business cycles, the series are smoothed using an 2 year moving average weighting scheme (longer weighting schemes do not substantially change the results). If data are available for a geographic region, but these reflect short-run aberrations due to exogenous shocks (such as would be the case of beef sales in a state or city stricken with foot and mouth disease), these observations were dropped or "filtered" from the analysis.
Step 3. Filling in Missing Values
In some cases, data are available on a sporadic basis. In other cases, data may be available for only one year. From a Bayesian perspective, these observations should be given greatest weight in estimating missing years. Assuming that other factors are held constant, the missing years are extrapolated using changes and growth in aggregate national, state and city-level income. Based on the overriding philosophy of a long-run consumption function (defined earlier), states and cities which have missing data for any given year, are estimated based on historical dynamics of aggregate income for that geographic entity.
Step 4. Varying Parameter, Non-linear Estimation
Given the data available from the first three steps, the latent demand is estimated using a varying-parameter cross-sectionally pooled time series model. Simply stated, the effect of income on latent demand is assumed to be constant unless there is empirical evidence to suggest that this effect varies (i.e., the slope of the income effect is not necessarily same for all states or cities). This assumption applies along the aggregate consumption function, but also over time (i.e., not all states or cities in the United States are perceived to have the same income growth prospects over time). Another way of looking at this is to say that latent demand for children's microscopes is more likely to be similar across states or cities that have similar characteristics in terms of economic development.
This approach is useful across geographic regions for which some notion of non-linearity exists in the aggregate cross-region consumption function. For some categories, however, the reader must realize that the numbers will reflect a state's or city's contribution to latent demand in the United States and may never be realized in the form of local sales.
Step 5. Fixed-Parameter Linear Estimation
Nonlinearities are assumed in cases where filtered data exist along the aggregate consumption function. Because the United States consists of more than 15,000 cities, there will always be those cities, especially toward the bottom of the consumption function, where non-linear estimation is simply not possible. For these cities, equilibrium latent demand is assumed to be perfectly parametric and not a function of wealth (i.e., a city's stock of income), but a function of current income (a city's flow of income). In the long run, if a state has no current income, the latent demand for children's microscopes is assumed to approach zero. The assumption is that wealth stocks fall rapidly to zero if flow income falls to zero (i.e., cities which earn low levels of income will not use their savings, in the long run, to demand children's microscopes). In a graphical sense, for low income cities, latent demand approaches zero in a parametric linear fashion with a zero-zero intercept. In this stage of the estimation procedure, a low-income city is assumed to have a latent demand proportional to its income, based on the cities closest to it on the aggregate consumption function.
Step 6. Aggregation and Benchmarking
Based on the models described above, latent demand figures are estimated for all major cities in the United States. These are then aggregated to get state totals. This report considers a city as a part of the regional and national market. The purpose is to understand the density of demand within a state and the extent to which a city might be used as a point of distribution within its state. From an economic perspective, however, a city does not represent a population within rigid geographical boundaries. To an economist or strategic planner, a city represents an area of dominant influence over markets in adjacent areas. This influence varies from one industry to another, but also from one period of time to another. I allocate latent demand across areas of dominant influence based on the relative economic importance of cities within its state. Not all cities (e.g. the smaller towns) are estimated within each state as demand may be allocated to adjacent areas of influence. Since some cities have higher economic wealth than others within the same state, a city's population is not generally used to allocate latent demand. Rather, the level of economic activity of the city vis-a-vis others is used. Figures are rounded, so minor inconsistencies may exist across tables.
Key Topics Covered:
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9e15e4/the_20092014_outl


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WASHINGTON - Gov. John Hickenlooper testified in favor of an "all of the above" approach to energy before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
The Senate committee heard from several witnesses, including Hickenlooper, on the opportunities and challenges associated with natural gas. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., introduced the governor.
Hickenlooper told the senators that three major, inter-connected issues for the United States - the economy, national security and climate change - are all affected by energy.
A domestic-energy strategy creates jobs, protects national security and makes the planet cleaner, Hickenlooper testified.
Renewable energy and natural gas are both parts of such a strategy, he said. Colorado is trying to create a national model for gas extraction, Hickenlooper said, with robust groundwater and air-quality testing as drilling sites get closer to communities.
"We're showing Washington how we do it," he said in an interview on his way to the hearing. "What cutting-edge regulation looks like."
Colorado is the seventh largest natural-gas producer, according to the Colorado Geological Survey. Fifty-nine percent of the state's natural-gas protection is exported to the rest of the country.
States should take the lead in writing reasonable and comprehensive regulations, Hickenlooper said, and the federal government should then work with states to cut red tape.
"States are the laboratory of democracy," he said.
Hickenlooper also called himself a "recovering geologist" and said he once drank fracking fluid.
Stefanie Dazio is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald. Reach her at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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While solid-state drives (SSDs) aren't the most popular storage medium in
notebook computers right now, they are expected to grow significantly in the
near future. Toshiba Semiconductor is betting that SSD drives grow
significantly over the next three years and is enhancing capacity and reducing
costs to grab that growing market.
Toshiba Semiconductor President Shozo Saito said at a seminar that he
expects a full quarter
of all notebooks shipped to be equipped with SSDs by 2011. Toshiba expects
the SSD market to grow 133% every year on average through 2010 and Toshiba says
its building capacity faster than that.
Toshiba plans to address several issues currently keeping SSDs from becoming
more widely used. Toshiba is also addressing the concerns with regards to the
rewrite limit for multi-level cells used in today's SSDs. Saito said at the
conference that, "If data is efficiently concentrated and stored in caches in
an effort to reduce the frequency of rewrites, rewrites on SSDs can be reduced
to a number far below 10,000 times in five years, even for heavy PC
Other major hurdles for the widespread adoption of SSD drives are the price
and capacity current drives offer. Toshiba s addressing the capacity issue by
working on miniaturizing the production process it uses from the current 43nm
process it introduced in March 2008 to 30nm which it expects to introduce in
Toshiba will also improve multi-valuing by moving from its current
3-bit-per-cell product to a 4-bit-per-cell product. SanDisk beat Toshiba to
market by a month with its 40nm
3-bit-per-cell process in February of 2008.
The price premium for SSDs compared to 2.5-inch Hard drives is expected to
drop to a 3.2 times premium, roughly half of what it is now according to


text:
tech bionics may one day provide
vision to the blind and hearing to the deaf. But among the
most exciting prosthetics is the possibility of fully functional
prosthetic limbs.In his visionary science fiction epic Star
director George Lucas showed protagonist Luke Skywalker getting his
hand chopped off by his villainous father, Darth Vader, only to have
it replaced by a prosthetic that offered the complete functionality
of his old hand. Today, modern science hasn't quite caught up
to Star
but it's getting awfully close.A UK-based firm called
BeBionic has unveiled its completed myo-electric bionic
hand masterpiece. The company bills the device as the
"next generation of fully articulated myo-electric
hands." Myo-electric means
that the limb is controlled by muscle contractions the surface of the
residual limb. A computer translate the inputs (muscle
contractions) into outputs (hand movement) given its configured
action profiles.Past mechanical hands have featured
flexion/extension, but the new hand will be the world's first to
offer rotational articulation. Plus the device offers wireless
communication with a control computer, versus the USB cables that
many previous models have featured.The true key to the device
though is the ability for users to customize exact commands in terms
of speed, force, and grip patterns, for common tasks. That
should great simplify everyday chores like picking up objects or
typing.BeBionic is showing off the electronic appendage at
the ISPO World Congress in Leipzig and offers a demo video here.The
device will be available for worldwide distribution in June in 19
different realistic silicone skin tones, for a true sci-fi feel.
if the scientists can just get to work on lightsabers, we'll be all


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Billionaires Club: High Employee-to-Member Ratio Pays Off for Hanscom FCU
Wall Street generally applauds the idea of shedding employees, and credit unions often worry when their employee-to-member ratio climbs.
But that isn't an issue at Hanscom Federal Credit Union, which just joined the Billionaires Club. President/CEO David Sprague points out assets per member are also high at the credit union, headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
Because the credit union serves a lot of people whose paychecks come from the federal government, there has been concern about the impact of sequestration budget cuts. So even as Congress quarreled over a solution, HFCU announced that members who are federal employees and their paychecks are affected will have access to a 0% APR interest line of credit for 30 days.
Dubbed the Life Line Loan, the funds will be attached to the member's checking accounts, providing additional money to cover checks, ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases. Hanscom FCU will also waive penalties for premature withdrawals on term share certificates held by affected members.
"Actually, members won't be directly impacted until later in April," Sprague noted. "The federal government has to give employees 30 days notice. That went a few days into March. Most of them get paid twice a month, so given normal payroll cycles that works out to about April 20. I suspect April 15 is about when they'll have to start not working one day a week."
The credit union has tried to be proactive, according to Sprague, because there's a lot of anxiety. The credit union has faced this scenario before and has offered similar programs several times. Sprague believes it's important to let members know their credit union can help them. The program will only be available for a short duration, but it gives members time to sit down with HFCU and work out a longer-term solution.
"We've gotten some very nice feedback from members," Sprague said.
In February 2012 the credit union launched an insurance agency selling car, homeowners and life insurance, business insurance, renters insurance, and even specialty products such as wedding and pet insurance.
The credit union had previously offered auto and homeowners insurance through CUNA Mutual. Those were successful enough that HFCU decided to expand into an area where the credit union could be more active and retain a larger portion of the commission income.
The credit union has also won recognition for its online membership application. That apply-from-wherever-you-are approach is important to HFCU.
"Our membership is very mobile," Sprague explained. "We don't really have a lot of branches, so we constantly look at options to offer convenience in other ways, whether it's online access, shared branching or surcharge-free ATM networks. Our members are transferred around the country and even around the world, so we want to make it easy for them to interact with us.
"Even though we've grown to this $1 billion range, which is gratifying, we really work very hard to continue to operate like a small credit union and provide a very high level of personal service."
He carries that idea into his own office.
"If a member does write me a letter or call me, usually the very fact I'm interested in talking to them resolves the problem. They're often surprised I'll pick up the phone and talk to them. We really do care," Sprague said.
For example, a member who joins online receives a series of phone calls welcoming them and making sure they are getting the full benefit of their membership. They're alerted to what they can expect over the coming months.
Yes, he continued, the ratio of employees to members is high. But measuring assets per employee, HFCU compares very favorably with its peers. Members do more business with the credit union than most members at other credit unions, and that drives profitability.
"The more they benefit from the credit union the more we benefit. That keeps our costs down, which allows us to provide better pricing," Sprague said.
Another plus for HFCU has been that the Great Recession didn't clobber the credit union's military and government employees the way it hammered other sectors of the economy. Although the credit union got its start serving military personnel, it has expanded to nearly all federal employees in Massachusetts.
Even on the mortgage front there was some good news. Property values in the Northeast hadn't soared as high as they did in some other regions and didn't plummet as deeply as they did elsewhere. Delinquencies rose substantially, but they started out at extremely low levels.
Sprague does echo the concerns of other credit union CEOs about heavy regulatory burdens.
"The growth in regulations is obviously a big challenge," he indicated. "There's also the low interest rate environment and the need for loans. That's not unique to us."
As for the career path that brought him to HFCU, Sprague describes himself as a reformed banker. While attending Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., he needed a part-time job. Through the college's part-time placement office he was hired as a collector for a division of a regional bank.
After he graduated with a major in accounting, he was offered a job as an internal auditor. He advanced through other assignments, but over the years growing pressure to provide a return for stockholders began changing the culture.
Sprague started looking around, and ended up at Rockland Federal Credit Union as it worked its way through conservatorship. Then, in December 1996, he was hired as CEO for HFCU.
As a CEO, "Probably the best decision I made is I stopped hiring people myself," he said. "The senior management staff hires any new member of the team. That team is extremely cohesive, they support one another and they enjoy working together."
Off the job he enjoys walking, reading and skiing. He quit skiing for about 25 years because, he admits, he wasn't very good at it. Then his wife and two children – one a college graduate and the other a junior in college – persuaded him to try it again, and he discovered today's equipment made it much easier.


text:
shannim wrote:
Cranioclast wrote:
Jehos wrote:
Yamaha Street What?
People keep comparing it to the Street Triple, but the descriptions say that it's been intentionally made roomier and more upright than the FZ8, which was already a good bit bigger than the Triumph.
As for the fuel capacity, I would hope that, since this is a new, ground-up, world-model engine, that they've put some work into fuel economy and it can get at least mid-fifties. Just 54 mpg would be enough for a 200 mile range from that tank.
I would certainly hope so. Although 54mpg is enough to get 200 miles when you run the tank completely empty. It'd be nice to get 200 miles before you hit the reserve. This is my expectation since I can hit anywhere between 180 and 200 miles before I hit my reserve. Let's say it has 0.7 gallons for reserve (mine currently has 1 gallon, I think) to make the math easy. You'd then need 67mpg to hit 200 miles after expending only 3 gallons.
I don't know of any 900cc bike that gets 54mpg (23 km/liter) unless you're riding to optimize fuel economy above all else (say, steady 45mph, no accelerating).
The closest is the TDM900, which gets ~20km/liter for a sport-touring mileage mix (for the US Arsians who aren't familiar with it, it's a jack-of-all trades Yamaha vertical twin, and weighs 192kg/422lbs dry, so it's a reasonable comparison)... but it has a 20-liter tank.
At significant speeds, the dominant issue w.r.t. fuel economy is wind resistance (goes up with 3d power of speed), not the engine. That's why once you normalize to weight, motorcycles in general have really bad fuel economy compared to cars. You need to fully enclose a motorcycle (incl. the rider) to do well.
Since the FZ-09 is completely unfaired, I doubt it'll be able to do well at cruising speeds.
I'd like a bike to be able to do 300mi (incl. reserve) under realistic conditions (cruising at 120-130km/h), or 250mi under more aggressive ones: Faster sprints, urban riding, temporary engine problem, 2-up touring load...
A cross-wind alone can reduce mileage by 20-30% (causing me to run out of gas on the Texas-New Mexico border once on a cross-US trip. The location that supposedly had a gas station did, but it had closed sometime in the 1930s, going by the glass pumps and prices of 30 cents/gal posted. Looked just like the movie Café Bagdad).


text:
If you would like to enter simplyprimshoppes without voting for the site that sent you Click Here
This page is the entry page to simplyprimshoppes. It exists to prevent members from artificially inflating their rankings. To visit the site you must click one of the enter buttons at the top of the page.
Below you can find a preview of the current top 5 sites on


text:
Amnestying Bargnani puts the Raptors at approx 62 mil for the 2013/14 season with all options picked up, and at 49.5 mil for the 2014/15 season with all options picked up.
Amnestying Kleiza puts the Raptors at approx 68.3 mil for the 2013/14 season and 61 mil for the 2014/15 season.
So, as I stated before, using the amnety on Bargnani leaves them more wiggle room under the tax to make moves this year without exceeding the tax. This doesn't mean its easily done, but it does give them more room. Staying under the tax this year (with a little more room to make a move) means potential future years of exceeding the tax with a smaller tax hit. It also leaves Kleiza's expiring contract to make a deal.
For the 2014/15 season (depending on an additional increase of the cap), amnestying Kleiza leaves them above the salary cap, amnestying Bargnani leaves them well below the cap before considering other moves.
Toronto is offered more flexibility than they currently have by amnestying Kleiza, but not as much as they do by amnestying Bargnani both this season, and more so going forward.
As for Bargnani being traded for an expiring, that would be great and more benificial than amnestying him - but that is also far from a sure thing.
While amnestying Bargnani is not necessarily the best or ideal option (clearly getting something 'good' for him would be the ideal option) it is still an option, and it does offer more flexibility for the team (even if its small) than not amnestying him and/or amnestying Kleiza instead. Things do still change in Toronto's salary cap favor, just not as much as we may like them to.


text:
This is my Brand-new Biography shop, where you can post biography requests and get biography's you want!! You can have help on making bio's or letting us create them for you!! Lame bio's are always PIMPED!We don't write personalities, looks and histories for your biography. You are supposed to do that. After you make that using the basic template you sign up in this thread with your basic bio and the stuff you wan't us to put in it, and other requests
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text:
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text:
Malingering is a person intentionally exaggerating or making up a physical or psychological illness or injury for personal gain. This includes paid sick leave, work avoidance, financial compensation, sympathy, or drugs. It is a voluntary behavior that is not considered a mental illness.
There is no physical or mental cause for malingering. It is solely caused by external motivating factors (personal gains) that varies from person to person.
Risk Factors
Malingering is most common in the school or work environment. It tends to occurs when there are legal disputes that involve money and medical issues.
People with certain mental illnesses, such as antisocial personality disorder, may be more likely to participate in malingering.
Patient-reported symptoms will vary among people since they are based on the personal gain goals. The reported symptoms may seem inconsistent with general behavior.
There is no way to definitively diagnose malingering. Careful questions may lead doctors to suspect malingering. They will look for suspicious behaviors such as:
- Inconsistency between reported symptoms and physical findings on a medical exam
- Unwillingness to have recommended tests
- Failure to comply with prescribed treatments
The doctor may also rule out true physical or mental causes of reported symptoms to make sure a medical condition is not present. Psychological assessments can also help rule out other disorders, such as Munchausen's syndrome .
Since it is not a true illness, there is no real treatment for malingering. When malingering is suspected, the doctor may:
- Discuss the findings—if malingering is suspected, the doctor may confront the patient
- Psychiatric consultation—a referral to a mental health professional may be given if a psychiatric disorder is suspected
Malingering is not a mental disorder. It can be prevented by making the decision not to exaggerate or make up symptoms for personal gain.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 06/2015 -
- Update Date: 05/23/2014 -


text:
Storage in the computer market currently revolves around two types of products -- the HDD and the SSD. The SSD is faster and requires less power to operate leading to better battery life in portable computers. The HDD offers lower cost and more storage capacity than the current SSDs.
A company called Fusion-io is offering a new product called the ioDrive Duo, which it claims to be the world's fastest and most innovative SSD. The company says that the product doubles the slot capacity of its PCI Express ioDrive storage solution.
The new ioDrive Duo offers what the company claims is previously unheard of levels of performance, capacity, and protection for a single server. The product claims to be able to scale from 6Gb/sec of read bandwidth and offer over 500,000 read IOPS when using four ioDrive Duos.
David Flynn from Fusion-io said in a statement, "Many database and system administrators are finding that SANs are too expensive and don't meet performance, protection and capacity utilization expectations. This is why more and more application vendors are moving toward application-centric solid-state storage. The ioDrive Duo offers the enterprise the advantages of application-centric storage without application-specific programming."
The ioDrive Duo fits into PCI Express x8 or x16 slots and can sustain up to 20Gb/sec of raw throughput. The company also says that it can easily sustain 1.5Gb/sec of read bandwidth and nearly 200,000 read IOPS. Sustained read bandwidth is 1500 MB/sec, sustained write bandwidth is 1400 MB/sec, Read IOPS is 186,000, and write IOPS is 167,000.
The ioDrive Duo offers multi-bit error detection, correction and flash back protection offering chip level N+1 redundancy and on-board self-healing. The product can also be configured for RAID-1 mirroring between two ioMemory modules on the same ioDrive Duo PCIe card.
The new cards will be available in April 2009 with 160GB, 320GB, and 640GB. A 1.28TB version isn't coming until the second half of 2009. The typical SSD, like the SSD offerings from Intel, are sized like normal hard drives and connect via SATA and other enterprise connection standards.


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Young adults (from left to right) Ivan Abrego, Amecia Harrelson, Erik Albano, and Leo Lopez clear some brush in Moore, Oklahoma. The Young Adult Ministry Office hosted the FIAT (Faith in Action Together) Mission in Moore, the site of last year's massive tornado which killed 25 people and carved a 17-mile path of destruction. Twelve young adults from the diocese took part in helping the volunteer organization, Serve Moore, continue restoration efforts in the community from May 12-17.
When Celi Acosta heard about the Diocese of Fort Worth's first Faith in Action Together (FIAT) mission trip, she hesitated about signing up. It's not that she didn't want to go; she, like many other young adults, just had a busy, stressful schedule ahead of her.
But in the end, the University of Texas at Arlington math student didn't let that keep her from joining 12 other young adults on the diocese's first FIAT mission trip to Moore, Oklahoma, from May 12-17.
"It was all starting to be too much and getting really stressful," Acosta, 21, said of her routine. "So I thought going away somewhere I could just think about God and helping people would help me out. And it really did. I'm really glad I [went]. It helped me get my head straight and remember that God is always there to help in the chaos."
Sponsored by the diocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry and the University Catholic Community at UTA, the trip provided the group with an opportunity to help Moore, Oklahoma residents continue their recovery efforts from the devastating F5 tornado that took 25 lives and flattened 1,100 homes in May of last year.
During the week, the small group took on a handful of building and renovation projects. But it wasn't all work, explained diocesan Young Adult Ministry Associate Director Jeff Hedglen, who led the trip. Daily Masses, Night Prayer, Adoration, group reflections on Pope Francis' encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, a trip to the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague, Theology on Tap in Oklahoma City, and social time (including a trip to Turner Falls) bookended the seven-hour workdays.
Hedglen said he modeled the jam-packed and diverse schedule upon his popular Camp Fort Worth (CFW) program, a week-long event for teens. Like CFW, FIAT focuses on the elements of deepening faith, putting it into action, and experiencing togetherness, but brings it to the young adult audience in the form of an affordable and accessible mission trip experience.
Matthew Moreno mixes concrete at one of the FIAT team's work sites on May 13.
"Our faith really comes alive when we put it into action," Hedglen said of his mission trip. "And we put it into action by many ways: By going to Mass, by praying together, by serving together."
The young adults certainly put their faith into action by helping five different families affected by last year's tornado. Over the course of four consecutive workdays, they put up two fences, dug all the post holes for a third fence, mowed lawns, and picked up several pounds worth of tornado debris from one older couple's yard.
But the mission work benefited more than just the affected families, who expressed deep gratitude to the FIAT team, Hedglen said.
"We're in a world where we're focused in on ourselves so much," Hedglen explained. "So taking some time away from our normal environments to focus on some other people, and put our hearts, efforts, and energy into somebody else's life, enriches our own lives."
Acosta agrees.
"I was able to feel like I was kind of on a retreat and focus only on God, only on helping people," she said. "It just really helps calm your mind, calm your soul. It's a great experience to give yourself to somebody else and be completely there to help somebody else."
Working hard to help others, praying, and having fun together brought the young adults closer to God but also closer to each other, Hedglen and Acosta said.
UTA student Celi Acosta carries a fencepost during a project to rebuild a fence in Moore.
That was certainly the case for Will Gough, 19, an accounting major at UTA. Although he'd attended Masses sponsored by the University Catholic Commuity on campus all semester, he had never participated in other campus ministry events and didn't know anybody going on the trip.
"I really enjoyed it. I really liked the people there," Gough said. "I've only been going to Sunday Mass but because of the people who went, I plan on being more involved with the campus ministry. This whole experience has made me want to be more involved in my faith.
"Going out and praying together with a group who all share the same faith — I haven't done that before," he continued.
As for Acosta, who had never been on a mission trip before, she couldn't stop talking about her experience when she got home to her family. Asked if she will go next year, she answers quickly this time.
"I already know right now, I'm definitely going next year," she said. "I would love to keep doing this."
For a moment during the second day of our mission trip to Moore, Oklahoma it felt like we were in the novel, Holes, by Louis Sachar, in which the protagonists, Stanley Yelnats and Zero, are forced to dig holes at camp in order to build "character."
When Celi Acosta heard about the Diocese of Fort Worth's first Faith in Action Together (FIAT) mission trip, she hesitated about signing up. It's not that she didn't want to go; she, like many other young adults, just had a busy, stressful schedule ahead of her. But in the end, the University of Texas at Arlington math student didn't let that keep her from joining 12 other young adults on the diocese's first FIAT mission trip to Moore, Oklahoma, from May 12-17.


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I've read numerous times that Amir Johnson is now redundant, so he should be traded. Quite frankly, I don't understand this. While Davis and Amir play the same position, I'm not sure how that makes one of them redundant. You still need, at least, three quality big men if you hope to be a decent team. And neither Amir nor Davis have the type of games that will get in the way of one another. This isn't Jermaine O'Neal and Bosh, or Calderon and Turkoglu. We've seen both Amir and Davis work well when they're on the floor together. Because he can hit the 15 footer and play the high pick and roll, Amir has done very well in the high post, while Davis seems best suited for the low post.
To me, the whole point of rebuilding is to acquire as many assets as you can and keep the ones that will help your team win, if you can, and trade the rest. Now, I'm not against trading Amir if it really makes the team better, but I certainly wouldn't go out and TRY and trade him.
The way I see it, Amir is optimally a bench player. It's not that I don't think he should be a starter, but he's got the type of high energy game that is probably best coming off the bench. And a player like Amir is rarer than I think many people realize. I think if Amir is traded, the Raptors will end up regretting it because they'll struggle to find a backup big that is as good and helps the team as much as Amir does.
A front line of whatever center is acquired, Davis and Amir has 96 minutes between them, which means each player could end up playing 32 mpg. More than enough minutes between the three of them.


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Augustine Jumps Ship at Northwest League
The Tacoma, Wash.-based grant writing firm CU Strategic Planning has named Northwest Credit Union Association Senior Vice President and General Counsel Stacy Augustine to the position of president.
Augustine, who once managed CUSP founder Jamie Chase when the two worked at the Washington Credit Union League, will oversee daily operations, implement new products and pursue new prospects. Additionally, Augustine will add CEO to her title in 2014, CUSP said.
"Ask anyone, I'm a hard-to-manage visionary," Chase said in a release. "(Augustine is) strategic, tactical and manages people to gets things done. Just like I've experienced over the years, our staff, clients and company will be empowered to grow as a direct result of Stacy's great leadership. She knows our operations inside and out, and our credit unions already love her."
Augustine managed the NWCUA's government relations, compliance, communications, public relations, and strategic planning functions for nearly 20 years. Her career in credit unions began with the $947 million Unitus Community Credit Union, headquartered in Portland, Ore. Augustine's father, Tom, served as the president/CEO of the Oregon Credit Union League for 20 years.
"CU Strategic Planning has undergone tremendous growth over the past five years as it has developed depth and expertise in several core areas," Augustine said. "Going forward we'll make sure that we can sustain growth while retaining our rock-star team of achievers."
Augustine received her bachelor's degree from Pacific Lutheran University and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame.


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He was on PTS with Bob McCown today. All i can say, i could listen to this guy talk about basketball all day. He knows the game.
They also talk about the Raps. He pretty much said everything's that's been said here. He mentioned that he thinks the Raps should move Bargnani. He praised how much DD has improved his game. And he thinks one of the reason the Raps struggle early in the season specially in the 4th is the substitution pattern.


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video game market is very robust and has been doing well compared to
other markets during the poor global economy. When the Nintendo Wii
debuted years ago, it quickly became the most popular console due in
large part to its innovative motion control. Despite
Nintendo's early success and exceptional demand for its Wii console,
recently sales of the Wii have started to slump significantly.
Nintendo profits
slumped 23% in Q3 in part due to softening demand for the
Wii. Sony tried with the initial launch of the PS3 console to offer
its own motion control via its standard game controllers, but the
feature was ignored by many gamers and developers. Sony has been
talking about its upcoming motion controller that was initially
expected to hit store shelves this spring and was delayed
until the fall for a while now. The reason for the delay
according to reports at the time was to give game developers a chance
to ready more software that would work with the new motion
controller.Sony has now gone official with its motion
controller called PlayStation Move. The Move system includes three
pieces counting the motion controller, the sub-controller, and the
PlayStation Eye camera. The combination of the three devices allows
the PS3 to detect the precise movement, angle, and absolute 3D
position of the move controller when players are playing a
game.Sony says the Move controller has unmatched accuracy
with a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a
terrestrial magnetic field sensor along with the color changing ball
that the PlayStation Eye camera follows. The system lets the gamer
provide input to the game with action buttons and an analog trigger
and be rewarded with rumble feedback and different colors from the
sphere attached to the Move controller.The Move
sub-controller device is designed for one hand use and has a
curved design with an analog stick and directional buttons for
controlling a game character. The Move controller and the associated
sub-controller are more than a little reminiscent of the Wii Remote
and Nunchuk. Power for the devices comes from a lithium-ion battery
like the one used on other wireless controllers for the PS3. Sony
reports that Move is to be supported by 36 game developers and more
than 20 games will be launched this year dedicated to the Move
platform or at least supporting it. The Move sub-controller can be
replaced with a Dualshock or Sixaxis controller, but the camera and
Move controller are required.Sony has tagged the Move
controller with product code CECH-ZCM1 and confirmed the fall 2010
release date. The retail price of the controller has not been set at
this time and it will come in black only. Move controllers will weigh
about 145g and measure 200mm x 46mm. The Move sub-controller is
produce code CECH-ZCS1 and will debut this fall. No MSRP has been set
for the sub-controller, which measures 138mm x 42mm. Among the third
party companies supporting the Move system are Activision, Capcom,
Disney Interactive, Konomi, Majesco, EA and many more.


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Iverson's greatest basketball ability is scoring. Which is one of the most common 'talent's in the NBA. He did it with quantity over quality.... but every shot he took is a shot some else could have taken aswell. Statistically speaking, if someone else (or combination of others) took the shots Iverson did the team had a better chance of scoring as his FG% was very low. Thats why his WP number is low. You can tell me he was a better scorer than his teammates but he still shot 42%on 25.5 sots. You can tell me he was quick and talented and hit amazing shots, but he still shot 42% on 25.5 shots. You can tell me he scored 30 pts a game, won an mvp and made it to the finals, but he still shot 42% of 25.5 shots.
I have not forgotten the last 5 years and one solid game of effort does not change anything in the big picture.
It was also the first preseason game of the year and if we want to get critical, there were a number of other players who made a number of bonehead plays on offense too.
Now if you are simply asking if he showed the same effort like he did in the one game, would I want him? My answer to that would still be no. For me it's not simply about effort. That does play a big factor, but mixing effort with bad IQ still means bad IQ. He may not be as bad a liability which is great, but he is still getting paid a ton of money and is taking development time away from both Davis and Amir.
If you throw the assumption in there that Casey will improve Bargnani's IQ, I would counter that with I would have to see it to believe it. That is too big of an assumption for me.
If Bargs can average a double double this season, I predict he will be the Raptors GOAT.
he played pretty good. but, the second quarter i was like meh. then again the whole team kind of lost touch in the second.but, regained it.
If Your Uncle Jack Helped You Off An Elephant, Would You Help Your Uncle Jack Off An Elephant?
Sometimes, I like to buy a book on CD and listen to it, while reading music.
Brook Lopez scored 15pts and had 11rbs in his first preseason game. Dwight Howard on the other hand had 5pts and 6rbs in his first game. I think if NJ is planning to trade Lopez for Howard it would be a horrible lop sided trade in NJ's favour. We off course have to take the previous years out of the equation since that only makes sense.
Thats the thing with Bargs. Even if he manages to hit 20/10 every night, he could just be the same as pre-Griz Zach Randolph. The numbers are there but it doesn't mean anything and the team is a loser. He really does have to shock and awe, otherwise I want to get more draft picks for 2012.
Obviously it's a huge "IF", but yesterday's game showed that the potential is there and that Bargnani is capable of 'bringing it' at both ends of the court... the real question is whether or not Casey can keep Bargnani motivated and passionate enough to bring it consistently every game for an entire season. IF he can, then his play would essentially make the last 5 years meaningless, in terms of evaluating his contribution and value to the Raptors, going forward.
IF Bargnani can consistently be a 20+/10 type player, with the hustle and passion he played with yesterday, then his $10-12M per season would seem like a bargain. Also, if you were to trade that new and improved 20+/10 Bargnani for a top-10 draft pick, there's no guarantee that the draft pick would be a 20+/10 player either. Nothing is ever for sure; yes you have to remember the past, but players are capable to having everything finally just 'click'...
Last edited by CalgaryRapsFan; Mon Dec 19th, 2011 at 12:44 PM.
But to be honest, I've stopped imagining a life where Bargnani actually gets it. I want the Raptors to win a championship, not just make into the playoffs. I don't see Bargnani as championship material.
You indicated in your last paragraph that players are capable of having everything finally click. Can you please site an example of say 3 or 5 guys where they finally 'clicked' after playing a significant amount of time in the NBA. This notion that Bargnani will finally click seems like an exception. I'd rather gamble on a top-10 draft pick personally. The odds will be in my favour.
And to answer your question, a 20+/10 player making $10-12 million a season may be a relative bargain, but if that player still plays below average defense, then who cares whether he's a relative bargain.
WHat we saw from Bargnani was encouraging, but that's it. He's still got a long way to go.
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Chauncey Billups comes to mind, as a player that two teams passed along (including the Raps) as nothing more than a backup PG, who took a couple more seasons at Detroit, before becoming an all-world PG who is considered one of the best floor-generals of the past decade.
Heck, even MJ came into the league as a flashy dunker initially, who took years (and playoff losses to Bird's Celtics and Isaih's Pistons) to realize that he needed to be more to win a championship... he worked his ass off to become a good outside shooter, a good post-up player and to make the league's all-defense team.
Bargnani is a scorer with potential to be a good defender and good rebounder, he just needs to stay committed and play with effort and passion. Yes it is certainly a huge "IF", that is agreed upon by even his biggest supporter... but that "IF" was the basis for this thread.
It will be very interesting to see what happens during or after a game where Bargnani has only a couple of rebounds and rebounds attempted. How will Casey react and what will be Bargnani's reaction in the game after.
I voted no because it won't last. How do I know? If we saw a glimpse like this in his 2nd year, then maybe. But I've seen 5 years of the OTHER guy.
This poll is like asking if I wanted to keep the hare if he ran fast all the time instead of taking a break and allowing the turtle to win the race. The answer is obviously yes, but the reality is that it's not gonna happen.
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"The Cool Crooners, a group of 50- to 70-somethings, open the 12-track disc.... Except for the language and possibly the political topicthe early years of Zimbabwe's independence'The Big Van' sounds just like what the folks snapped their fingers to in clubs in the 1930s and '40s. And you can almost sing along with Eric Triton's 'Mari Nica Swing' ('The Pleasure of Swing') even if you can't speak Mauritian Creole. A high point is the Crater Boys' 'Opihi Man,' which employs the guitar and ukulele to celebrate the joys of surfing with a swing beat."Oakland Tribune
"If a single message rises from these songs, it is that swing is a resilient, ever-adapting music form, changing colors like a chameleon.... Django Reinhardt's sinuous melodies, moving from silken to haunted, register a deep influence on Children of the Revolution, a Seattle-based world-fusion band.... Backed by a driving beat and roaming solos
[the Jazz Vipers are] packing heat, courtesy of Joe Braun on sax and Genevieve Duvaland on trombone.... A strong boogieR&B pulse races through Jambalaya's stomp-down swamp pop. If you can't dance to this stuff, baby, you better sell the shoes."New Orleans Magazine


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With the election settled and a decisive answer given as to whether the Affordable Care Act will be implemented, the question remains as to how division about the measure's contraception provisions will be resolved. From the fairness and access perspective, the answer is obvious. From the religious-freedom point of view, it is less so.
The question over which employers must provide, through their health-care plans, FDA-approved contraception at no cost to employees is somewhat murky because the Obama administration rightly included exemptions to churches and some religious organizations. That exemption, though, prompted some religiously affiliated organizations - such as hospitals and universities - to object to the provision, as well, claiming that contraception ran afoul of the religious beliefs of the organization, which employees may not share.
In August, the Obama administration punted, giving itself one year to refine the rules. That murkiness opened the door to push-back even farther, though. Several for-profit, privately owned businesses now have taken umbrage at the contraception provision and have sued to exempt themselves, claiming the owners' religious rights are being infringed.
Equal protection under the law is running full tilt into religious freedom - both of which are constitutionally granted rights. There is some precedent for extending First Amendment protection to corporations. Under that argument, who is the Obama administration to tell a corporation that "its" religious beliefs must be set aside?
The answer, it seems, is found with consistency. While Citizens United did grant corporations the right to "express" themselves through unlimited campaign contributions, that decision did not, on its face, deny anyone else the right to express himself as a result. By extending religious freedom to corporations at the expense of the religious beliefs of that company's employees, religion turns into a zero sum game where the values of those in power supersede those of individuals whose livelihood - and health-care coverage - depends on their employers. Such a system undermines freedom of religion in dangerous ways.
As the Center for American Progress and more than one judge has pointed out, the exemptions and resultant gray area that the Obama administration is creating serve to bolster claims that there is a religious-freedom argument to be made. "By not applying the contraception policy across the board - "grandfathering" some health plans out of it, exempting some religious groups, giving others a reprieve for a year - the government is actually hurting its own legal arguments, and all those exceptions do on some level acknowledge the legitimacy of the religious argument," said a recent CAP report on the issue.
It is a topic of great concern to women, employers and religious organizations.. It seems, though, that personal religious beliefs should be kept separate from the health-care offerings made to others, especially when the health-care in question is so central to quality of life.