text:
Home/Current News
by Ron Sturgeon
Whenever you are wondering whether you should
continue to run an advertisement or whether your last mailer
was worth the cost, you need to consider customer acquisition
Customer acquisition cost is not hard to
understand, but few businesses do the math required to evaluate
their advertising efforts.
I first learned about calculating customer
acquisition costs while serving on the board of an Internet games
company. At this firm, revenue per employee was fairly low, but
the cost of acquiring a customer from certain kinds of promotional
efforts was very high.
The calculations go like this. If you mail
out 1,000 advertising fliers at a cost of 50 cents apiece, you
will spend $500. If you get 20 responses, it cost you $25 per
response. But you can't spend responses; you can only spend sales/profits.
Now, if you were able to convince 100 percent of the people who
responded to become customers, your customer acquisition cost
would be $25. But no one closes all their prospects.
In most businesses, closing 25 percent would
be a reasonable rate. So, from the 20 responses, with a 25 percent
close rate, you can expect to add 5 customers. Now your customer
acquisition cost is $125. WOW. That could still be great if your
average sale were $1,500, with a 50 percent gross margin. Simply
put, it would cost you $125 to bring in one customer that produces
$750 of gross margin.
Now, if your cost to mail those brochures
were $1.00 each, then your customer acquisition cost just doubled,
to $250.
Without considering the numbers and the lifetime
value of the customer in the case of repeat business, it's impossible
to make an intelligent decision about whether your advertising
is working.
In my small business consulting, I frequently
find businesses that run $1,000 print ads without ever doing
the customer acquisition math. Even if the advertisement only
resulted in one new customer per time it ran, it still could
be a good investment if the new customer contributes enough to
Don't forget to subscribe to Ron's
free monthly auto recycling e-newsletter, with news and tips,
register at www.autosalvageconsultant.com.
Remember, only you can make BUSINESS
Ron Sturgeon is past owner of AAA
Small Car World. In 1999, he sold his six Texas locations, with
140 employees, to Greenleaf. In 2001, he founded North Texas
Insurance Auction, which he sold to Copart in 2002. In 2002,
his book "Salvaging Millions" was published to help
small business owners achieve significant success, and was recently
reprinted. In June 2003, he joined the new ownership and management
team of GreenLeaf. He also manages his real estate holdings and
investments. You can learn more about him at WWW.autosalvageconsultant.com
He can be reached at 5940 Eden, Haltom City, TX 76117, email@example.com or
817-834-3625 ext 6#.


text: Jespah once the first lurok review is posted (which it is) for an episode you can say whatever you like about that episode. If someone hasn't watched it yet they should avoid the thread until they do. It's all the other episodes which shouldn't be referenced. There's actually a lot of backstory but it's subtle. When you've watched the whole thing the pilot is quite a different episode! As to the underaged, gah everyone seems like that to me these days. I guess it's a tv reality. She looks older than Simon who is a doctor.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
You are here
Issue 2012/2
© EXARC, 2012; ISSN: 2212-8956; Publishing date: May 15, 2012
Before you stands our first online issue of the EXARC Journal.
The EXARC Journal consists of Mixed Matters articles, which are open access. The other articles are peer-reviewed and the first two years after publishing date remain for members only.
From May 15th 2014, all articles in this issue are open access.
If you would like to see our most recent articles, please Become EXARC Member.
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The content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. Please check individual images for licensing details.
Please Support EXARC
The generous support of individuals or organizations like you makes it possible for our organization to continue in our mission and to keep the EXARC community successful. Thank you for your support!
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


text:
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The looming closure of the Fulton Science Academy High School has seen none of the drama created last year with the closing of its sister school, the FSA Middle School, as a public charter school.
Noticeably absent are the local politicians and community leaders who came out in force to try and stop the Fulton County School System from revoking last year the charter from the high performing middle school. One year later, few voices have come forward in support of keeping its sister high school open as a charter school.
Last week, the seven-member Fulton County Board of Education voted unanimously to begin termination proceedings against the charter high school at the end of June 2013. If successful, the high school will either close its doors completely in June, or convert to a private high school —the route taken by the FSA Middle School.
"[Recommending the closing of the school] is not a decision that we made lightly as a staff," said Fulton Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa. "We take our responsibility of oversight for all schools very seriously."
The recommendation to close the high school came after an extensive audit over the summer that examined the financial and operational processes of the school. The audit concluded significant deficiencies were apparent, and serious enough to warrant a closing of the school.
FSA HS has the right to ask for a hearing before the Fulton School Board, but has not decided its course of direction yet.
"The FSA High School Governing Board was very surprised and shocked by the FCSS's decision, and by the points of their report," said Randall Morgan, a member of the governing board at FSA HS. "We are giving the report due diligence and examining it point by point. We will have a full response late next week."
The governing board for FSA HS has until Dec. 14 to request a hearing.
Avossa said the recommendation to close FSA HS should not be seen as the system's stance on charter schools in general, despite the fact two charter schools will likely end their relationship with Fulton County in the two years of Avossa's tenure.
"The school board strongly supports charter schools as evidenced by the fact we have 12 charters that serve 10 percent of our students," said Avossa. "That makes Fulton County one of the most charter-friendly school systems in the state."
Charter schools are public schools that operate under a charter agreement with the local board of education. In exchange for some flexibility and waivers from local and state requirements, students are expected to perform as well, or better, than students in traditional schools.
This year, the Fulton County School System became the state's largest charter school system, which will allow all schools to seek waivers from the local school board and the state for increased flexibility.
In recommending the closing of the FSA HS, Avossa pointed to a number of issues at the school, centered on governance board activities, low enrollment and its practice of charging students hundreds of dollars to take core classes, which should be offered at no cost.
Avossa noted FSA High School has never connected with the community or lived up to its goal of being the feeder school for the FSA Middle School. Its current enrollment of just over 250 students is well below the projected enrollment of 450.
Recognizing the low enrollment as a concern, the Fulton School System made the unprecedented move a few years ago to include enrollment targets as part of the school's charter. The school opened in 2006 off Old Milton Parkway in Alpharetta. Despite some financial troubles during its first five years, the charter was renewed in 2011, with the stipulation the school could not fall below 80 percent of its target enrollment of 450 students.
That charter breach alone, noted school officials, is enough cause to close the school.
"We've had numerous issues with the school since 2007 and have given them many opportunities to try and improve their operations," said Avossa. "The governance board has had a long history of ineffective leadership and poor decision-making, which has led to many of the current issues."
He pointed to the default on a $19 million bond, which was taken out last year to finance the construction of a campus to eventually house the FSA elementary school (Fulton Sunshine Academy), FSA Middle and FSA High. After Fulton County revoked the charter for the middle school, plans for construction stopped and the loan went into default in June. How the remaining $10 million will be paid back is still in legal limbo.
FSA HS's Morgan acknowledged concerns at the school, but noted many of these were from past years with a different set of board members. The current board is relatively new, and committed to making positive changes.
"The current governing board has been working purposefully this year to implement improvements to the school in many areas that showed up in the FCSS report, including enrollment and governance," said Morgan. "We were excited and optimistic that our work would improve our enrollment and school in general. We are disappointed that the FCSS report does not reference this or anything beyond last July."
The termination process is beginning now to allow time for all seniors to graduate, and to allow underclassmen to make the transition to next year, said Avossa. Resources are being made available to support students with the closing of the high school.
Fulton School Board members were advised by Fulton legal staff to limit their comments regarding the FSA HS and its operations since they will be the "judge and jury" in the event the school asks for a hearing.


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I keep hearing about fellow video professionals—especially those who specialize in weddings—lamenting the decreases in their business. Economic downturns do affect everyone, but all that is required to survive and even prosper is a willingness to do two things: diversify, and keep a keen eye out for opportunities.
Pay attention to the news reports beyond the doom and gloom, to what some are doing to weather the recession. With less money to spend, people are finding ways to stretch their money. For example, repairs are becoming more common than buying new.
Recently, I saw a news story about how the economy has revived some almost-extinct businesses. This particular story was about a cobbler who has seen a marked increase in his business repairing shoes. Seems that people are finding out that repairing those favorite shoes is much cheaper than buying a new pair (we of the silver set already knew this, but most of the good cobblers have retired or gone out of business). This particular gentleman went from a 5-day work week (about 6-8 hours a day) to a 6.5-day week of 8-10 hours a day and hired an additional person to help. Most of his newfound business is coming from 30-somethings that didn't even know that shoe repairs existed but have found that pounding the pavement looking for jobs has taken its toll on their shoe leather. They've found that repair is the viable alternative to replacing (at about 25%-35% the price of a new pair). A good cobbler is an artist able to a turn a 2-year-old pair of shoes into a pair that looks brand-new!
Auto repair facilities are also doing increased business these days, at the same time that new cars are just sitting on car lots. With the housing market turned on its ear and bank lending being almost nonexistent, home repair is also seeing an increase, though somewhat less noticeably.
Getting Repairs on the AirSo just what does this have to do with us? Producing promotions for these repair businesses is one way. These businesses now have the money to advertise. Local TV stations are hurting and have lowered rates for ad time, and there is always cable advertising. Produce an ad that promotes the advantage of repair over replacement. This can benefit not only the auto and shoe repair industry, but clothing repair (tailors), home repair, alternative heating (pellet/wood stoves), insulation/replacement window companies, or basically any business that will ultimately save their customers money. Build on the "repair is cheaper than replace" theme, and point out that "using this service will save you money in the long run."
If you have a talent for web design, creating or upgrading websites for these businesses is another way to increase your livelihood. There are hosting companies, such as HostGator.com, that have reseller programs that allow you to open accounts and resell website space to your clients at a profit. Even the basic programs will allow small websites at a reasonably low cost.
Conversions and TransfersOther income streams include tape-to-DVD conversions and transfers. Play the "obsolete" card-e.g., "DTV has made analog TV obsolete, and DVDs have made videotape a thing of the past." Plus, you can throw in something like "time will erase your videotapes."
Many people do not know that magnetic tape (including audiotape) will lose its content by just sitting. Have them dig out an old videotape and watch it. Chances are that the picture will be of lower quality than they remember. Offer packaged deals, such as 25% off quantities of 10 or more. Look into advertising in local/weekly newspapers (put in a coupon). Their advertising rates are inexpensive, and by advertising in a local paper, you are promoting the "neighborhood business" concept.
What should you charge for transfers? A national drugstore chain advertises a 2-hour DVD for $29.95 (with no quantity discount). I charge $20 for a single transfer (VHS-to-DVD for up to 2 hours of footage). Other formats are $5 more. This is because I have several VHS-to-DVD machines that will automatically perform the transfer without any intervention. Anything else requires "baby-sitting" and a system reconfiguration.
I get a couple of calls each week asking if I convert tape to DVD, even though my phone book ad and website lists that service. I'm also finding out that there are businesses that have libraries of VHS tapes that could/should be converted. (I was recently contacted by a statewide bar association inquiring about converting its entire library!)
Renew Contacts with Old ClientsReview your past client list or database. (Don't have one? Use that extra downtime to create one.) Consider a mailing (or emailing) to let everyone know that you're now providing transfer services or any other consumer services that you may offer. I've been surprised at how many regular customers and clients don't know what services I offer, even though I've been advertising them for years!
Traditional mailings can be expensive and will become more so. When corresponding with clients-past and current-make sure that you start requiring an email address as part of their contact information. Doing so can eliminate some of the expense of snail mail for contracts, notices, offers, sales, etc. If your ISP or host limits your email numbers (mine limits to 500 per hour), send your emails in batches, or try a service such as
Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) or VerticalResponse (www.verticalresponse.com). But keep in mind that these services will add another monthly expense and are only needed if you have several thousand names in your list.
Offer Budget Wedding ServicesAnother idea to increase your bottom line comes from several comments that I have noticed on a couple of forums. It's an idea that some may consider taboo, especially high-end wedding video producers who focus on artistry. Try offering wedding "mini" packages for reduced rates. Some people have been doing this for years and have been chastised for disservice to the professional wedding community. I say that desperate times call for desperate measures, and providing a simple, low-cost product to a market that wants it is no crime.
What I do take issue with is giving away everything on your list of services for less than your monthly electric bill. In other words, give the client exactly what he or she pays for, but eliminate the frills and high artistry.
There may still be a few couples that have the financial backing to enjoy all of your talents, but in these times, waiting for that type of clientele could force you to rethink your whole existence. By providing good-quality footage within a limited acquisition window and solid, quick-turn editing for a fee that reflects your efforts, you can probably get some of that much-needed added income and provide a respectable service for a different clientele.
Back in the days when I produced wedding videos, the biggest expense was the editing, which in some cases took 30-plus hours. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, so just bear with me. If you take the type of editing practices that are standard for events such as stage productions and use them in a "mini" wedding production, then you could actually make money by getting $600-$800 per wedding (depending on your locale).
If you charge $2,500 for a wedding and spent 8 hours shooting on the day of the wedding and 30 hours editing the footage, your income would be about $65 per hour. Downsizing it to a 4-hour shoot and a 4-hour edit at a price tag of $600 (don't laugh yet) would net you an hourly wage of $75 per hour. What's more, you can do more of this type of wedding (not to mention other projects) because you're not going to be locked in your editing suite poring over a single wedding.
If you don't think that you can edit a wedding in 4 hours, you should know that it is possible once you do a few and preplan your shots. This used to be called shooting-to-edit, and it only makes sense in this case. Most couples will be more receptive to a wedding video that is affordable to them than to something that you consider a piece of art that they can't afford.
Just remember to use high-quality practices (never cut corners there), as your name will be going on the DVD, and your reputation is at stake, no matter how you price your work on a given job.
Ed Wardyga (wardyga at kvimedia.com), owner of Keepsake Video and KVI Media in Rhode Island, has been producing event video since 1989, specializing in stage productions. He runs the website www.theGadgetBag.net and is the recipient of the WEVA Walter Bennett Service to Industry Award.


text:
Do you need more horsepower to complete a short-term project? Need to supplement your full-time workforce? Our student interns are responsible, enthusiastic and ready to make real contributions to your business. In addition, they are:
Career Point is the best place to start your search, whether you are a student or IUPUC graduate looking for an internship or a full-time or part-time position or an employer seeking potential employees.
We welcome part-time, full-time, and internship postings from local, regional, and national employers.
If you need assistance with registering, contact Carol Kostrzewsky at 812.375.7527 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Movie lovers will get a chance to score a piece of Hollywood's homo history Sunday at the Entertainment Memorabilia Including Animation Art auction, which is taking place in Los Angeles and online through the prestigious auction house Bonhams. This is your chance to own (or at least fondle) some of Hudson's personal items, including clothing, furniture, and gifts.
Martin Flaherty, a forrmer friend and one of the heirs to Hudson's estate, says many of Hudson's prized personal possessions are included, such as one of the sofas used in his film Pillow Talk and scripts, personal correspondence, even his birth certificate and passport.
"I know it would please him greatly if one of his beloved fans were able to take possession of and cherish just as much as he did, one of these last, unique, and rare reminders from his amazing life," says Flaherty, who adds that many of the items have a much lower starting point in this auction than their actual listed value.
The Hudson items are part of a larger collection of Hollywood memorabilia. For more information: Bonhams.com. Check out some of the goods on the following pages. All images courtesy of Bonhams.


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Shrek Forever After — The Shrek movies might be family films, but they've never exactly been wholesome (remember Pinocchio wearing a thong in Shrek the Third?). Which is why the appearance of a gay hustler in the fourth and final installment isn't exactly shocking. The film has been getting mixed reviews, but for those of you who get a kick out of wildly inappropriate humor that flies under the radar in kids' films, Shrek Forever After won't disappoint.
MacGruber — If the idea of watching Will Forte run around naked with a celery stalk clenched between his butt cheeks is your idea of fun, you'll likely get a kick out of the humor in MacGruber. But what's even more bothersome about this brand of humor is that when Ryan Phillippe's character is asked to run around nude, they cut to a body double. We get this is supposed to be a comedy — but when even the nicest critics say the humor in the film is "throwaway" and "crude," it would serve the audience well to at least give them a little eye candy.
The Family Jewels by Marina and the Diamonds — Welsh singer Marina Diamandis is beautiful, odd, and has a great ear for catchy songs. "I Am Not a Robot" is the wacky, wonderful tune that will endear her to America's bearded gay hipsters.Album out Tuesday.
Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook by Bettye LaVette — If you've forgotten, this Detroit soul singer found fame in 2005 with her cover album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise (a Fiona Apple lyric). Bettye's back with her take on songs from guys like George Harrison, John Lennon, and Pete Townshend. Out Tuesday.
"Dancing on My Own" by Robyn — It hasn't taken long for gays to fall in love with the Swedish pop star's new single, off of her June release, Body Talk Pt. 1. Like her classic "With Every Heartbeat," "Dancing" is electronica with soul, a song that makes you want to flail around and cry simultaneously. Keep up the good work, Robyn.
Robyn 'Dancing On My Own' (Official Video) from Robyn on Vimeo.
The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela — A street-smart Filipina transsexual prostitute (the riveting Raquela Rios) tries to adjust to life in Iceland and find her true love in this often-engaging documentary-fiction hybrid from Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson.
And Then Came Lola — In this time-bending lesbian riff on Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Lola (Ashleigh Sumner) must dash through the streets of San Francisco to deliver a set of photos to her new girlfriend (Jill Bennett) and she has three chances to make it right
Valentine's Day — A star-studded cast that includes Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, and Taylor Lautner couldn't save director Garry Marshall's latest rom-com about a variety of Los Angeles-based and romantically challenged couples from being labeled the date movie from hell. This pastiche plays like a sappy, watered-down version of the not great but infinitely superior Love Actually and in an effort to reach as broad a demographic as possible tosses a bone to gay audiences with the Bradley Cooper-Eric Dane story line.


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Difference between revisions of "Resources for Greek"
From ACL Wiki
m (Changed the phrasing of the POS tagger's description, to be consistent with the others.)
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* [http://
* [http://../setimes/ Southeast European Times] (aligned corpus, Albanian, Bulgarian, English, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish — words per language)
==Machine translation systems==
==Machine translation systems==
Revision as of 12:08, 25 March 2010
- Southeast European Times (sentence aligned corpus, Albanian, Bulgarian, English, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish — approximately 4.5 million words per language)
Machine translation systems
Free software
Named entity recognition
- Greek named entity recognizer (version 2) Currently identifies temporal expressions, person names, and organization names. See here for publications describing the recognizer. (GPL)
Natural language generation
- NaturalOWL (version 1.1) Generates Greek and English descriptions of entities and classes from OWL ontologies that have been annotated with linguistic and user modeling resources in RDF. It can also be used as a Protégé plug-in. See here for publications describing NaturalOWL. (GPL)
Part-of-speech (POS) tagging
- Greek POS tagger Attempts to automatically determine the part of speech (e.g., noun, adjective, verb, etc.) of each word occurrence in Greek texts. It can also tag (with lower accuracy) each word occurrence with additional information, such as the gender, number, and case of each noun, the voice, tense, and number of each verb etc. (GPL)
- D. Galanis and I. Androutsopoulos, "Generating Multilingual Descriptions from Linguistically Annotated OWL Ontologies: the NaturalOWL System". In Proceedings of the 11th European Workshop on Natural Language Generation (ENLG 2007), Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, pp. 143-146, 2007.
- G. Lucarelli and I. Androutsopoulos, "A Greek Named-Entity Recognizer that Uses Support Vector Machines and Active Learning". In Proceedings of the 4th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence (SETN 2006), Heraklion, Greece, 2006.
- G. Lucarelli, X. Vasilakos and I. Androutsopoulos, "Named Entity Recognition in Greek Texts with an Ensemble of SVMs and Active Learning". International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 16(6):1015-1045, World Scientific, 2007.
- G. Petasis, V. Karkaletsis, D. Farmakiotou, G. Samaritakis, I. Androutsopoulos, C. D. Spyropoulos, "A Greek Morphological Lexicon and its Exploitation by a Greek Controlled Language Checker". In Proceedings of the 8th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics, 8 - 10 November 2001, Nicosia, Cyprus.
- G. Petasis, G. Paliouras, V. Karkaletsis, C.D. Spyropoulos and I. Androutsopoulos, "Resolving Part-of-Speech Ambiguity in the Greek Language Using Learning Techniques". In Fakotakis, N. et al. (Eds.), Machine Learning in Human Language Technology (Proceedings of the ACAI Workshop), pp. 29-34, Chania, Greece, 1999.
External links
- Hellenic Language Technology List - Greek NLP and speech processing mailing list


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So I have been hiding in my sewing room to get back in the groove.
I found this heart block on Quilters Cache site and just had to try it. Now to decide how to quilt it. I think I want to stitch in the ditch to make the hearts puffier. Any suggestions?i


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Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by cooleddie74, Apr 7, 2012.
Ugh, don't remind me. It was one of the reasons I stopped buying them.
Ditto. I hit the high points and bought the characters I liked but I didn't get but about half of what was sold. I think right now I own around sixty figures? I am not sure what the count is at now. I also have some of the ships plus the E-D bridge and transporter playsets. (And those ships S-U-C-K-E-D.)
I believe the last Playmates Trek figure I ever bought might have been the TOS/Tribble Koloth, and that was around 1999 at a discount store. After that I only sporadically saw Trek figures at retail and it wasn't until the magnificent Enterprise line debuted about three years later than any Trek toys caught my attention.
With the original Playmates line, I stuck mainly to the regular cast members of the then four Trek shows, although I did pick up a few alien characters here and there. Their initial Enterprise-D and Deep Space Nine toys rocked as far details were concerned, and I definitely loved their role-play accessories, even if they were generally smaller (and in a few cases, bigger) than the ones used onscreen.
One thing about those original Playmates toys is that there were very few retail stores that didn't carry them. I even saw some at a local grocery store once.
I can vouch for that. I once saw Playmates Trek figures in the toy aisle of a Kroger supermarket, right next to some '90s Power of the Force 2 Star Wars characters. That was a long time ago but chains like Kroger are known for stocking those kinds of toys on their pegs and shelves. Until not too long ago you could find fairly recent SW figures and those Comic Book series 2-packs at Krogers.
Here is the review of the Enterprise-E that I mentioned before. This is part one. Part Two gets into the detail a bit. They also have a review of Enterprise-B.
Finally, the February Club Infinite Earths figure arrived on my doorstep. This month brings us the eternal watcher and wanderer, the Phantom Stranger:
For a figure that is almost entirely re-use, I have to say not bad.
Um...there was a pic in my post.
Okay, I'm seeing it now. It didn't show up at first.
Very cool.
I can't believe I'm debating about getting the Pandora figure. I don't think much of her as a character or plot device, but the sculpt is just brilliant looking IMO.
I think Playmates lost the license to do Star Trek before they could release an Ezri Dax. I wish they'd had her, Damar, and Weyoun...and Nog in his Starfleet uniform.
It would also have been nice to get Odo in his tuxedo from the finale scene where he returns to join the Great Link. Also, Kira in a Starfleet commander's uniform.
Sideshow's Darth Vader Mythos Statue
Merciful Zeus! Somebody buy me this! Buy me two so that I can display it both ways!
Yeah, I saw that over on one of the collecting sites. He's amazing!
An amusing revelation about Max Rebo after all these years that could very well affect how his next action figure or other collectibles are designed and produced.
So I guess he was the 1982 puppet version of the Dugs and Sebulba and just looked a certain way because nothing was ever seen from the torso down.
Huh. Time to start the campaign for a new "accurate" Max Rebo, then? We did see some more of Rebo's species in the original Clone Wars cartoon, though. They had four limbs there. So I guess the two limb thing just isn't canon.
Yeah, the Clone Wars thing came to my mind as well. If what we actually see on-screen trumps the unseen portion of a thirty-year-old puppet then this might not even be much of an issue (unless, of course, Lucasfilm decides there are two different kinds of Ortolans....the two-legged, two-armed variety and the one that has just two limbs, and as we know from some other species in sci-fi/fantasy that's at least somewhat possible).
Either way, I don't think a new Max Rebo Band is on Hasbro's to-do list anytime in the near future.
Wow, that's a fascinating article. I'd honestly never thought about the early figures and tie-in art that have been established as being inaccurate (unintentionally), since Max does look like we only really see the top half and his legs resemble arms. Interesting!
And, of course, Max's legs looked like arms and hands with fingers because the guy inside the puppet manipulated them with his arms and hands with fingers. You can see it in the original "Lapti Nek" musical sequence from the 1983 edition of Return of the Jedi. He points, sways and jabs the digits as though they were hands.
And let's face it, they look like hands!
Separate names with a comma.


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Thanks for helping us sort this video!
Thanks for helping us associate the correct Pornstars to this video!
Hilf uns: Erscheint dieser Pornostar in diesem Video?
Pornstar Name:
Im agree with you guys, thats a nice way to kill the boring moments, having sex just for fun.
My bf doesn't mind being jerked off in front of my friend and she doesn't mind watching him come.
Jesus, poster, PLEASE share the whole story with us, plus the rest of the vid, if there's any more. How did this guy come to be seated stark naked between two fully dressed girls... PLUS a camera present... one of the best around, to be sure
Das ist ja mal richtig schön natürlich.
I like to cum in mouth when I jerk off
This is my ultimate fantasy - be completely naked with a couple of girls and they jerk me off - what a great night that would be. This dude is a lucky guy!
Of course... The girl with glasses must be so wet that she's wetting the sofa too...
I love pizza
I love you to
Why was the blond girl so selfish? Didn't she see that the girl with glasses was so horny??? If I were her, I would have taken her hand and wrapped it around the boy's penis... She wanted to touch it, you can see it from miles away...
I had two girls give me a handjob in the backseat in high school - it turned me on so much that I shot off all the way to my face and kept on cumming for awhile , it turned them on a lot also .
Exciting!!! One of my favourite videos "natural, spontaneous, amazing". A life-dream fro me. Wish I had situations like that. It would be great to see the whole video. Great stuff
Yeah. She is totally wet in her panties. But she's too shy to show. She really should get some "help"!
I just love her friends reaction when she brings him off
done this with my bf while my friend was watching
done this so often
the girl on the left is horny too... she laughes so much to hide that, not becuase of the cumshot on the face
wish my wife had friends like that!
one of the authentics and best porns very very good
While in college, I was at a party playing strip poker. Lost - sitting completely naked with my gf, half undressed, her gf friend sitting half naked along with her bf. I had a boner, she started stroking it, but stopped. We went into bedroom to finish things. I was ready to show my load to her gf!
I'd let my girlfriend jack me off in front of her friends; in fact I wish she would.
Anyone knows where I can fine this whole vid?
@ Kommentator Es war nicht der Typ selbst....
i'd like to be naked with a friend near me and don't be shy...
What a handsome guy... I would eat him up all night. Nice body, pretty face.
very funny she may do my dick
I want the girl on the left so bad, she's so hot. I'd love to fuck her, you know she wanted dick in this video too
Where the whole video? I love these clips tho.....sexy.
One of my favourite videos "natural, spontaneous, amazing". A life-dream fro me. Wish I had situations like that. It wouls be great to see the whole video. Great stuff.
best video ever!
You can tell the girl with the glasses is horny too, if only i could have been there...
is this an amateur video?
fun..love male orgasm..so aaaa
Einfach nur geil!!! Hoffe eines Tages sowas erleben zu dürfen. Die Linke ist damn hot.
I love to jerk HIM off in front of my friend.
lekker trekwerk
My now ex GF did this to me once with her best friend watching us....and the best friend didnt knmow what to do,,except watch
Al about Anna
Absolutely love this vid. I'd love to be this guy.
From the cards on the table, I kind of think this was the end of a session of strip poker, and maybe a little dare. Question: was he the winner or loser, or both?
The other girl looks like his sister.
I ask wife to do this in front of her or mine friend but she is way too shy and I think I would like it if it was one of her friends and really hot to blow my load in front of another woman be like a dream but don't think I like it in front of my friends and really kinda outwardly pleasurable but she says no 3 some at all not even some to watch her jack me off till I cum for who even she feels like make her made blow for someone and the weather can all kiss with my cum all over us all
Ficken ist lustiger
lovely job...
anchio voglio amiche cosiiiii
Wow ...so much fun to produce cum....
Spontaneous and natural thing to do with friends!
Dressed women jerking him off. Wow. Would love to experience this myself. I almost come while watching without even touching myself.
i think the girl at the end is this guy's sister they look alike.
Absolutely love this video. Love the concept. Lucky lucky lucky man!
what a whore... lol
I love this video, so natural, funny yet very erotic. Would love to be there...
En mexico y en el mundo la cerveza es ...CORONA
lets see the whole thing
irgendwie ein geiles video. ich kann gut zu dem video wichsen, fühlt sich sehr geil an. hab richtig geil gespritzt
wie auf der letzten geburtstagsparty
meine freundin soll das auch bei mir machen, aber sie traut sich nicht ihre freundinnen zu fragen, bzw denkt das wär peinlich... geile action... will ich auch ;-)
Yeah Jimmy... I think too!!! She would like to suck that dick!
geht noch besser
verdammt das ist meine freundin
ive done this once with my ex but it was with a blowjob instead. the other girl didnt touch me but she did my ex and just played around talking and telling me my dick looks perfect :D best night ever. better then a threesome!
just fab
da notare come la ragazza seduta accanto non smetta un'attimo di guardargli l'attrezzo,secondo me non vorrebbe altro che farlo anche lei...
elle au moins elle n'a pas de la jouissance de l'homme
very nice
Kinda cute.....and what did she expect?
wow was amazing
love the reaction of the watching girl
its possible to see all video?
Find ich geil! Ich stell es mir richtig geil vor, wenn meine Freundin mir einen wixxen wuerde, wenn eine Freundin von ihr zu besuch waere.
@ Kistenschlepper der Typ hat sich selbst ins Gesicht gewichst, darum leckt die Blonde auch in seinen Gesicht rum.
Love this video
jajajajajajaja autoblow jajajajaja
Never get bored of watching this clip! Great girls. Lucky guy!
Was ist daran jetzt so lustig? What's so funny about this...?
This clip is just awesome. I would like to meet that girl with the glasses and show her a few things, if she wouldn't mind.
He is adorable... I love that guy.
super-ultra-mega-giga-hyper - LOL ....or ROFL ^^
ho oui que c'est bon a poil devant 2 filles la bite bien raide, j'aimerai bien que cela m'arrive, mais pour le moment je le fais seul
This is my all time favourite youporn clip.
bitte nimm meinen mund du bist zum verlieben
that dude is my hero, lolz. where is the part2 of this. now way this was gonna be it. right...??
So ein tolles Lachen der beiden Girls.
great cock, why not invite friend to join in the fun?
jeezes, nice girls would they be laughing like that too, when they were fucker hard after this by a bunch of guys ?
This guy is an absolute legend! Lucky! Lucky! Lucky man!
@Dr. Fotze: und du haeltst auch am liebsten deine eigene Rosettenfotze hin, stimmts?
Ideal evening: - Invite few friends round - Have a few drinks - Talk about sex - Strip naked - Get jerked-off by tastey friend while others watch - Shoot your load infront of everyone What could be better!
Can only agree. Would love to know women that would happily jack me off in front of their friends.
i wish i had friends who would just jack me off when they were bored!
Joder coño!!!!!! me corrido maldita sea, ufff q lindas tias!
Ild dominate four eyes until she creams herself dry...
@der-gutaussehende Und was machst du dann hier? Wahrscheinlich verpasst dir deine (imaginäre) Freundlin gerade nen Blowjob, und du surfst noch nebenbei was?!^^
that "oh yeah" of his I totally love it, I do the same when my gf jacks me off. I wish my gf could jack me off in front of her friend I won't mind at all ^^
Das ist wirklich eine super Szene - macht viel Spaß beim Anschauen!
@ Der_dauergeile: Tja aber leider bietest du bei weitem nicht genuegend optische reize und so eine wird kein Interesse an dir haben. Spaekulatin ich weiss, aber das tolle daran ist, zu 80-90% lieg ich rchtig!
Kevin B.: You´re absolutely right! *****
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text:
Open Box (Blemished) Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass Natural 886830732492
Sku #423730005010034
4 String Electric Bass
- Write a Review
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Item Note:
This product has been discontinued but may be available as a Open Box item.
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Updated electronics, vintage bridge, and a rugged alder body enhance one of the best Fender Jazz basses yet.
The Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass delivers the modern features that bassists demand in a sleek, familiar electric bass. An updated preamp circuit puts out deeply exhilarating active and passive tone. Powerful-yet-quiet N3 Noiseless pickups present more clean headroom, extended EQ range, and plenty of sublime tonal options, thanks to the active/passive toggle switch and passive tone control. The classic Fender Jazz Bass block fretboard inlays and binding give the Deluxe Jazz Bass extra touches of class.
The Fender American Deluxe J-bass is built with an alder body-a hard wood that provides clear tone and lasting sustain. The maple neck with modern C-shape, Posiflex graphite neck support rods, 5-bolt neck plate, and contoured heel make the instrument extremely easy to play. The High-Mass Vintage bass bridge offers compressed and focused bass tone, with more mid range punch. It retains the Fender articulation and sparkle, combined with vintage-style saddles to maintain a classic vibe. The combination of a steel plate with brass saddles produces the best possible Fender Bass sound.
Pairing up these pickups with the Deluxe Jazz Bass' EQ and volume controls provides that notorious Fender Jazz bass sound that has mystified some of the world's most prominent bassists for decades.
Other Fender features include Stealth "A" string retainer, tinted neck, rolled fingerboard edges, highly detailed nut- and fretwork, genuine bone nut, flat-head screws on battery compartment (for easy changes with a coin or pick), gloss polyurethane neck finish, and a gloss urethane body finish to dress this bass in ultimate style and beauty.
- Body: Alder with contoured heel
- Finish: Gloss urethane
- Neck: Maple, modern "C" shape, tinted, gloss polyurethane finish
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Frets: 21, medium-jumbo
- Hardware: Chrome
- Tuning keys: Fender lightweight vintage-style tuners
- Bridge: High Mass Vintage (HMV)
- Pickguard: 3-ply black/white/black
- Pickups: N3 Noiseless Pickups
- Pickup switching: Pan pot/blend control
- Controls: Master volume, pan pot (pickup selector), treble boost/cut, midrange boost/cut, bass boost/cut, active/passive mini toggle
- Case: Fender/SKB high-tech molded case with TSA locks
Order today and enjoy a bass that is Fender at its best.
American Deluxe Jazz Bass Specifications:
- Radius: 9-1/2"
- Scale length: 34"
- Nut width: 1.875"
- Strings: Fender NPS .045 to 0.105
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®by PowerReviews
Reviewed by 2 customers
- Good Feel
- Good Pick Up
- Good Tone
- Solid Electronics
Best Uses
- Jamming
- Practicing
- Recording
- Rock Concerts
Comments about Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass:
I've recently re-equipped my home studio & although I am primarily a guitarist I have been testing every bass I could get my hands on. Tone is king for me when it comes to guitars & I wasn't content to buy a bass that I could put up with, but didn't love.
With it's Active/Passive on board options & the kind of tight bottom end Fenders are famous for I couldn't have picked a bass more suited to my Ampeg SVT rig.
The condition of this slightly used bass was also close to pristine.I couldn't be happier with the quality,feel & tone of this bass.
Comments about Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass:
I've owned several jazz basses in this series over the last ten years and find this new bass to have some of the best features I've ever seen from Fender. The fit and feel of this bass are outstanding. It has a compound radius on the neck making it consistent and easy to play all the way up the neck with great access on the upper frets. I think the compound makes it more curved at the nut and then it flattens out as you go up the neck. Works great! The block inlays and binding are beautiful and well crafted. They should have stayed with the Hipshot Ultralite tuners however, but these are nice, but look a little heavier. No major neck dive so its not too big of a deal except that the new body is bigger than the slightly undersized that they've used for a lot of years. Unfortunately, that results in a heavier bass, the former being in the low-mid 8 pound range and now it seems well into the nine pound and I played one that was over 10 pounds making some of them very beefy. These deluxe basses were always a niche and for me part of that was the reduced weight. For that reason I urge Fender to explore a chambered body. Okay, there are more compelling features to this bass I'd like to point out including the electronics and especially the Strong Arm string retainer. Finally, an answer to the A-string thing (that awful clanky sound) that caused many of us to drill holes and install aftermarket or additional string trees (they use one on the B string of the five string I believe as well). Great engineering and they should make that available as an aftermarket part btw. The newer bridge is also a huge upgrade and is now used on a lot of the American series. Now the electronics - third generation noiseless pickups, hence the N3 name. These sound great and I've played them all at least from 1996-2010 and together with the new electronics have a lot of headroom. Great job on these and they work well with the new redesigned preamp. This is also the best preamp I've ever seen from them, is 18 volts and has an easy to open door as well as an active-passive switch (don't really need the new door with the switch, but its friendly so its cool). The three bands of EQ were redesigned and just take the sound of the bass to a whole new level. With a newly designed neck, preamp and a resonant body, this is a well thought out bass with an incredible contemporary tone. Including the passive mode gives even more versatility and eliminates problems for battery outages making this an "only bass you need to bring" as this is a reliable Fender that you can trust. With all the new features working together in this Jazz format you truly have a redesigned instrument that brings a new palette of tonal possibilities to your fingertips. Because this bass is so close to being perfect I gave it a 9. If they do something with the weight I would give them a 10.


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Wednesday, 29 May 2013 13:32
Outdoor writer explores Mountain-To-Sea TrailWritten by Admin
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Danny Bernstein will discuss her third hiking book, Mountains-To-Sea: Trail Across North Carolina, at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 1, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.
Her talk about the trail will include slides of her hike. Stretching 1,000 miles from Clingmans Dome in the Smokies to Jockey's Ridge State Park in the Outer Banks, the trail is half on footpaths and half on back roads, offering experiences not only in nature but also in small towns, at historic monuments, in family cemeteries and in local shops.
828.456.6000 or www.blueridgenc.com.
Published in Archived Outdoors


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Emerald Home Furnishing Llc Battram Storage Bed Complete
The Battram storage bed is beauty and function for any bedroom. It's artful chocolate fabric is richly padded and beautifully upholstered. Special features include a tailored frame on the headboard special luggage stitching on the low profile footboard. Large, useful storage drawers effortlessly pull out of the bed for needed storage without adding space. Bed comes with a supported solid wood slat roll ready to take a mattress only. You can even use a new memory foam mattress with an optional ventilated deck.
- The arched silhouette make Battram a true classic
- Amply padded throughout
- Two large useful storage drawers in foot
- Full extension ball bearing glides on drawers
- Bed includes solid wood slats and supports
- Requires a mattress only
- Accented with framing inlay on the head and luggage stitching on the foot
- Dark Espresso finish on feet


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Behind the Burger
Since Johnnie Haynes opened his first Charcoal Broiler in 1971, Oklahoma City has savored the taste of his charbroiled burgers, whether served with hand-grated cheese, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, or soaked in our own original Johnnie's Sauce.
Buy Johnnie's Hickory Sauce
Now you can bring a bottle of Johnnie's Original Mild Hickory Sauce home with you! Order securely online here.
Cater Your Own Burger Bar!
Have a large gathering coming up?
Fundraising for Your School or Group?
Did you know that Johnnie's Charcoal Broiler makes sure that it gives back to the communities that support it? See how you can sign up for or take part in a "Johnnie's Night" to support our community!
Best Burger Restaurants in OKC
Since 1971 Johnnie's Charcoal Broiler has been the perfect place to get the best burgers in OKC. Johnnie's has been an Oklahoma staple for over forty years and currently has seven locations spanning Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Norman, Oklahoma.
Johnnie's Express restaurants are open Sun-Wed 7-9 Thurs-Sat 7-9. Johnnie's Express, which is slightly smaller than Johnnie's Charcoal Broilers, offer breakfast, lunch and dinner with an adjusted menu to meet the customers' needs morning, noon and night! The other four Johnnie's Charcoal Broilers, which offer lunch and dinner, are open Sun-Wed 11-9 Thurs-Sat 11-9.
NOTICE! - Effective immediately, all Johnnie's and Johnnie's Express locations will close at 9 p.m. Monday-Sunday.
Whether you are looking for takeout, catering, or a night out, Johnnie's has a wide variety of items on the menu. Most known by Oklahoma City residents for having the best hamburgers in OKC, the "Johnnie's sauce" is a secret ingredient that will have you coming back for more! Plus the Johnnie's menu also includes some of the best frankfurters, deli sandwiches, soups and salads in the Oklahoma City area. And don't forget to save room for dessert as Johnnie's also has an assortment of desserts from homemade pies, to blackberry cobbler and cheesecake!
But we do more than just make some of the best hamburgers in Oklahoma City. Johnnie's gives back to the very community that helped make us a household name by helping with fundraising to support local clubs, charities and non-profits. Johnnie's makes fundraising deliciously easy by allowing non-profit organizations the ability to fundraise at any Johnnie's location. Johnnie's mixes food and fun to give back to the community that has cherished it for forty years.


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This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.
Civil Strife Events, 1955-1970 (ICPSR 7531)
Principal Investigator(s): Gurr, Ted Robert
This study contains information about instances of internal conflict or violence that occurred in various countries or political entities between 1955-1970. Data were collected from serial publications on any overt collective confrontation between private and/or public groups that took place within the boundaries of a political system. Events in over 100 countries were recorded for the period 1961-1965. From the original group of countries, 87 were also coded for civil strife events occurring between 1966-1970, and a stratified sample of 10 political entities designed to represent countries at different levels of economic development was further investigated for the period 1955-1960. Each event was coded for approximately 90 characteristics, including date and duration of event, type and number of participants, location, type of event, motives of actors, and amounts of violence. Related studies CIVIL STRIFE CONFLICT MAGNITUDES, 1955-1970 (ICPSR 7485) and CONFLICT AND SOCIETY (ICPSR 7452) contain, respectively, measures of the magnitude and intensity of the events covered in the present study and indicators for the independent variables selected to test causal relationships with these events.
Access Notes
Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Please log in so we can determine if you are with a member institution and have access to these data files.
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Study Description
Gurr, Ted Robert. CIVIL STRIFE EVENTS, 1955-1970. ICPSR07531-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1999. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07531.v1
Persistent URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07531.v1
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Scope of Study
Subject Terms: aggression, civil disorders, civil wars, coup d'etat, internal political conflict, political protests, political violence, revolutions, riots, social conflict, social protest, violence
Geographic Coverage: Global
- 1955--1970
Universe: Events relating to internal conflicts that occurred between 1955-1970 in up to 115 polities worldwide.
Sample: All major events, like coups d'etat and major guerrilla wars, were captured in this study, while a number of minor events may have been missed due to lack of coverage in the utilized sources.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES INDEX, ANNUAL REGISTER OF WORLD EVENTS, FACTS ON FILE, HISPANIC-AMERICAN REPORT, AFRICAN RESEARCH BULLETIN, AFRICAN DIGEST, ASIAN RECORDER, EAST EUROPE: A MONTHLY REVIEW OF EAST EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, EASTERN EUROPE, and others
Original ICPSR Release: 1984-05-03
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WINCHESTER AMMUNITION Power Core 95/5 Lead Free
Winchester start with a 95/5 in copper alloy, integrate a highly engineered contoured cavity and you have a benchmark in lead-free big game cartridges. Featuring a devastatingly effective bullet with massive initial impact shock plus deep penetration and virtually 100% retained weight, to assure maximum trauma to bone and vitals.
SPECIFICATIONS:Mfg Item Num: X3030WLF Category: AMMO CENTERFIRE Caliber :30-30Bullet Type :Power Core 95/5Bullet Weight :150 GRMuzzle Energy :1902 ft lbsMuzzle Velocity :2390 fpsRounds-box :20 Rounds Per Box, 10 Boxes Per CaseGame Category :Medium-Big GameFragmentation :Casing Material :Penetration Factor :


text: I have a question as to the different brands of stringing machines. I use to use a stringer for about 15 years. He used a Babolat 3 or 4 Star machine. From what I remember seeing a couple of times. I use to just mostly drop them off to him at his home. On occasion I'd be in his stringing room so that's why I can't remember the exact machine. He retired because of early Alzheimers disease. He moved out of the area into a smaller one story house so I really can't call him to ask him what machine he truly had. Long story but why I ask this is I can't find a stringer that makes my racquet feel like he did after restringing it. I've tried about 5-6 stringers and they all have different machines. Each time I use the same racquets, same strings same tensions and string set ups. Each time the racquet never feels as good as when my old stinger did them. I've wasted so much string and so much money not being happy with the way the racquet feels and plays. Now I've had to start messing around with the tensions to try and get the same feel and playability. Would the machine he used and the different machine brands others use make that big of a difference? Thanks for your input.


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Planning for MLR Rebates to Group Health Plans
By Jason P. Lacey, Foulston Siefkin LLP, Wichita, Kansas
Under Section 2718 of the Public Health Service Act,1 health insurers are required to spend a minimum percentage of insurance premiums (generally 85 percent in the large-group market and 80 percent in the small-group market) on medical care and quality improvement. This percentage is often referred to as the "medical loss ratio" or "MLR." If the MLR minimum is not satisfied, premiums must be returned to the extent necessary to reach the required percentage.
The MLR rule applies for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2011,2 and rebates relating to 2011 plan years are due out soon. A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation3 estimates that insurance carriers nationwide will be rebating as much as $1.3 billion in total premiums collected during 2011. Of that, employer-sponsored plans are expected to receive approximately $900 million, and rebates are expected in nearly every state. So rebates are likely to be floating through a number of fully insured group health plans in the near future.
But determining whether an MLR rebate must be paid is only part of the analysis. When a rebate is paid to a group health plan, additional issues must be addressed, such as what may or must be done with the rebate and whether there are tax consequences associated with the receipt and further disposition of the rebate.
MLR Rebates as "Plan Assets"
MLR rebates are paid to the policyholder. In the case of an individual insurance policy, this is simple enough to do. But if the policy is a group policy, the analysis is more complicated. Specifically, when a rebate is received with respect to a group policy that is part of an ERISA-covered plan, consideration must be given to whether some portion of the rebate is a "plan asset" and so must be used for the benefit of the plan participants and otherwise treated in a manner that complies with the ERISA fiduciary obligations applicable to handling plan assets.
The Department of Labor ("DOL") provided some specific guidance on this issue in Technical Release 2011-04.4 As a threshold matter, policy ownership must be considered. If the policy is owned by the plan, then any MLR rebate is generally a plan asset. But if, as is more commonly the case, the policy is owned by the employer, then the terms of the plan (and any other relevant facts and circumstances) must be reviewed to see if there is some understanding about how premium rebates are to be allocated between the employer and the plan participants. The portion allocable to the participants generally is a plan asset and must either be returned to the participants or used exclusively for their benefit.
Many plans, of course, will be silent on this issue. Premium allocations are rarely addressed by the plan document. And when they are, the plan would typically describe only how the employer and the participants share the contributions to the premium, not how they would share any return of the premium, by rebate or otherwise.
Technical Release 2011-04 says that in the absence of more direct evidence (e.g., specific plan language),a rebate generally is to be allocated between the employer and the plan participants based on their relative contributions to the premiums paid. So, for example, if the employer paid 60 percent of the premium and the participants paid 40 percent, the rebate would be allocated between the employer and participants in those same percentages.
The DOL also has said that some rules of reason may be applied in allocating a rebate. For example, if the cost of distributing a rebate to former participants is not justified by the amount of the rebate, allocations may be limited to current participants, using any "reasonable, fair and objective allocation method."5 And it is not necessary to distribute a rebate in cash if a plan fiduciary determines that the rebate is better used for other permissible plan purposes, such as reducing future premium payments or enhancing benefits.
In short, some latitude is available in determining what to do with an MLR rebate, so long as any portion of the rebate that is allocable to participants is used in a reasonable manner to benefit current or former participants.
Sponsors of church and governmental plans are effectively subject to similar requirements, even though they are not subject to ERISA. Regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services indirectly require church and governmental employers to use MLR rebates to benefit employees, to the extent the rebates are allocable to premiums paid by employees.6 Similar to ERISA plans, the regulations provide church and governmental plans with some latitude in deciding how the MLR rebates will be used to benefit employees.7
Timing of Disbursement and the ERISA Trust Requirement
In deciding what to do with an MLR rebate, employers should remember that, under ERISA, plan assets generally must be held in trust. But many employers do not utilize trusts in connection with their group health plans, relying instead on the non-enforcement policy described in DOL Technical Release 92-01.8 So what happens when a portion of an MLR rebate is determined to be a plan asset? Will the employer be required to establish a trust for that portion of the rebate?
The DOL provides at least a partial solution to this conundrum in Technical Release 2011-04. Employers that rely on Technical Release 92-01 may rely on the same non-enforcement policy for MLR rebates that are plan assets, so long as the MLR rebates are used within three months to either pay premiums or make refunds to participants. So it may not be necessary to establish a trust for the rebates, but it may be necessary to act quickly to use the rebates for the benefit of the participants.
Tax Considerations
Once it has been determined how an MLR rebate will be utilized, consideration should be given to the tax consequences associated with the rebate, which may affect an employer's reporting and withholding obligations. Recent guidance from the IRS, in the form of FAQs posted to its website,9 illustrates these tax considerations through a series of examples. In general terms, whether a participant's share of an MLR rebate is taxable depends on the tax character of the premium associated with the rebate. If the rebate relates to a premium that was paid on a pre-tax basis, the rebate generally is taxable. And if the rebate relates to a premium that was paid on an after-tax basis, the rebate generally is tax-free.
Although these general rules cover many common situations, the IRS's guidance provides a more detailed framework for analysis. Relevant considerations include whether the rebate is treated as allocable to prior-year or current-year premiums; whether any tax benefit (e.g., deduction or exclusion) was received with respect to the premium to which the rebate relates; and whether the rebate will be used to reduce premiums or make cash payments.
After-Tax; Prior Year. In situations where the rebate relates to premiums paid on an after-tax basis and the rebate is only provided to participants who also were covered under the plan during the prior year, the rebate is treated as a purchase-price adjustment for the premium paid in the prior year, and the rebate will be tax-free, regardless of whether it is provided in cash or in the form of a premium reduction, unless the participant deducted the premium on the participant's individual tax return.10 To the extent the participant claimed a tax deduction for the prior-year premium, the rebate will be taxable for income-tax purposes, but will not be subject to employment taxes, because the prior-year premium was paid out of after-tax income.11
After-Tax; Current Year. The result is largely the same in situations where a rebate relating to after-tax premiums is provided to all current-year participants, regardless of whether the participants also were covered during the prior year. Analytically, the rebate is treated as a purchase-price adjustment for the current-year premium, with the effect that the rebate is tax-free, whether provided in cash or in the form of a current-year premium reduction. The rebate also is not subject to employment taxes because the current-year premium is otherwise paid on an after-tax basis.12 But if the participant claims a deduction for current-year premiums on the participant's individual tax return, the deduction must be reduced by the amount of any cash rebate received with respect to the current-year premium.13
Pre-Tax; Rebate Used to Reduce Premiums. In the case of participants who pay premiums on a pre-tax basis through a cafeteria plan, if the MLR rebate is used to reduce current-year premiums, the rebate is effectively taxable in the current year as additional wages.14 By reducing the pre-tax premium amount, the rebate increases the taxable wages paid to the participants and so is indirectly subject to both income and employment taxes in the current year.
Pre-Tax; Cash Rebate. Similarly, if participants are paying premiums on a pre-tax basis through a cafeteria plan and receive a cash rebate, the rebate is treated as an indirect return of a portion of the current-year amounts being withheld through the cafeteria plan. Thus, the rebate is treated as additional taxable wages for the current year and is subject to both income and employment taxes.15
Cafeteria Plan Election Changes
MLR rebates are likely to arrive in the middle of a plan year, and, for reasons described above, it may be necessary to quickly return them to participants, rather than holding them until the beginning of the next plan year. For example, an employer may decide to use the rebate to implement an immediate premium reduction. This raises the question whether a mid-year change may be made in a participant's cafeteria-plan election to accommodate the reduced premium.
The IRS FAQs implicitly accept this, stating as a fact in several situations that participant cafeteria-plan elections are reduced by the amount of the premium reduction.16 And although the FAQs do not cite the legal basis for this, most election changes of this nature would be supported by the regulations allowing for mid-year changes that correspond to changes in the cost of coverage.17
Depending on the magnitude of a premium reduction, an employer may need to consider whether the change in cost is insignificant, thereby supporting an automatic change in the election,18 or whether the change is significant and may support re-opening participant elections on a broader basis.19 But in most cases it would seem unfavorable from the employer's perspective to allow for broad-scale election changes in the middle of the plan year. So the preferred approach may be to either design any premium reductions to be insignificant or avoid the issue altogether by distributing the refunds in cash, rather than through premium reductions.
The receipt of an MLR rebate may be just the beginning of a series of important steps. Group health plans and their sponsors and advisors must carefully consider how the rebates will be handled to ensure compliance with these related obligations under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.
42 U.S.C.§ 300gg-18, as added by Sections 1001 and 10101 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Pub. L. 111-148.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Insurer Rebates under the Medical Loss Ratio: 2012 Estimates(Apr. 2012), http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8305.pdf; see also News Release, Kaiser Analysis: Estimated Health Insurance Rebates Under The Health Reform Law Total $1.3 Billion Dollars In 2012 (Apr. 26, 2012), http://www.kff.org/healthreform/hr042612nr.cfm.
DOL Tech. Rel. 2011-04 (Dec. 2, 2011), available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/tr11-04.pdf.
Id. at p.3.
As to governmental plans, see 45 CFR § 158.242(b)(1) (interim final rule), 76 Fed. Reg. 76596, 76599 (Dec. 7, 2011), available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-07/pdf/2011-31291.pdf ("the policyholder must use the amount of the rebate that is proportionate to the total amount of premium paid by all subscribers under the policy, for the benefit of subscribers"). As to church plans, see45 CFR § 158.242(b)(3) (interim final rule), 76 Fed. Reg. 76596, 76600 (Dec. 7, 2011), available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-07/pdf/2011-31291.pdf(insurance carrier must obtain "a written assurance" from the policyholder that the rebates will be used in a manner similar to that required for governmental plans).
See, e.g., 45 CFR § 158.242(b)(1) (interim final rule), 76 Fed. Reg. 76596, 76599-76600 (Dec. 7, 2011), available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-07/pdf/2011-31291.pdf (allowing the rebate either to be distributed in cash or used to reduce future premiums and allowing allocation of the rebate among employees on either a per capita or pro rata basis).
DOL Tech. Rel. 92-01 (May 28, 1992), available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/tr92-01.html; see also DOL Tech. Rel. 88-1 (Aug. 12, 1988). Under Technical Release 92-01, employers that withhold participant contributions through a cafeteria plan governed by Internal Revenue Code Section 125 are effectively exempt from the requirement to hold those amounts in trust. The DOL "will not assert a violation [of the ERISA trust requirement] in any enforcement proceeding solely because of a failure to hold participant contributions in trust." DOL Tech. Rel. 92-01.In practice, this non-enforcement policy has been widely relied on to forego establishing a trust in connection with a group health plan funded in whole or in part by participant contributions, even though those amounts mightotherwise be characterized as "plan assets" once they have been withheld from participant wages.
IRS, Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) FAQs, http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=256167,00.html [hereinafter "IRS MLR FAQs"]. Although not discussed specifically in this article, these FAQs also address 1099-reporting requirements for insurance companies and the tax consequences of rebates paid in the individual market.
See IRS MLR FAQs, Q/A-5, Q/A-6, and Q/A-7.
See IRS MLR FAQs, Q/A-8 and Q/A-9.
See IRS MLR FAQs, Q/A-8.
See IRS MLR FAQs, Q/A-11, Q/A-13 and Q/A-14. In these cases too it does not matter whether the rebate is allocated to all current-year participants or only those participants who were covered during the prior year.
See Treas. Reg. § 1.125-4(f)(2).
See Treas. Reg. § 1.125-4(f)(2)(i).
See Treas. Reg. § 1.125-4(f)(2)(ii).
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Uses Of Ayurvedic Medicine
How Can I to Improve My Health & Wellbeing?
The ways in which people use Ayurvedic medicine are as varied as the users. Many people use it to complement or supplement their conventional Western treatments. For example, some adherents find that Ayurvedic therapies minimize the side effects of chemotherapy. Other people use rejuvenation regimens to "recharge" during the course of a chronic illness. And some follow Ayurvedic diets with the goals of eating more nutritiously, gaining energy, and maintaining a healthy weight.
Still others employ Ayurveda, especially non-medical practices, to simply build and maintain greater overall physical, mental, and spiritual health. Ayurveda provides many techniques that are easily adapted into daily life, including massage, meditation, and herbal therapies.
Using Ayurveda to complement western care: A case study
Denise was a 58-year old female diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was undergoing chemotherapy, and her oncologist recommended seeking Ayurvedic advice on effective ways to deal with her side effects. After an exhaustive examination, Denise's Ayurvedic practitioner created a tailored diet and herbal treatment for her.
After following this regimen, Denise's nausea abated and her energy increased, giving her the ability to once again enjoy her everyday routines and responsibilities.…


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Interlibrary Loan
Need an item. You have the ability to request books not only from libraries in the Merrimack Valley, but throughout Massachusetts and the United States.
You may contact us by phone or email with item's title and other helpful details. (Most requests beyond the local library system take 2-4 weeks at minimal.)


text: GFSDishes 0 Report post Posted January 21, 2013 Hi, I need to add text to the rim of a white dinner plate. The plate will be sold to be used for food, so I need the final product to be safe for food, dishwasher, microwave, etc., and extremely durable. I plan on buying dishes that have already been glaze fired, then adding my text to them. What would be the best & easiest approach to insure that the text comes out clear without any bleeding? I'm open to anything! I was thinking of maybe stenciling the text on, or using a vinyl decal. I need something that will be easy because I'm planning on doing hundreds of plates. Please help! I've searched the web and this forum for hours and haven't been able to find the answer, and as you can tell I need all the help I can get. Thanks, anything is MUCH appreciated! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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I have Zone Alarm Pro running on XP.
My problem is when one of those alerts came up on a banking website I check frequently I accidentally pressed deny.
Now when I try to access that site it will
go to it and then shut down
I have looked in program control and cannot find the actual site or program so I can try to allow access again. How do
I reverse this
or how do I find out which program it is?
Operating System:Windows XP Home Edition
Product Name:ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite
Software Version:6.5


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Actress Jane Levy has filed for divorce after a seven-month marriage to actor Jaime Freitas.
Levy -- who had never spoken publicly about the marriage -- filed for divorce on April 16 citing "irreconcilable differences," according to court papers obtained by ET.
The papers stated that the couple married on March 3, 2011 and separated in October 2011.
The 23-year-old actress plays a teenage girl who moves with her father (Jeremy Sisto) from the city to the suburbs on the ABC comedy Suburgatory.
RELATED: Suburgatory Exclusive Photos Michael Voltaggio
Star Sightings: Celebrity Candids
Are These Celebs Too Tan?! Cast Your Vote!


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A male complainant told Russellville Police Officer Kevin Burnham on Monday a 40-foot Big Tex black gooseneck trailer was allegedly stolen from 3204 East Main St. sometime between Nov. 30 and Dec. 19.
According to a report, the license plate number of the trailer was ST8166656. Its value was estimated at $8,500.
-- The president of Simmons First Bank on North Arkansas reported to Cpl. David Kemp last Thursday approximately $162 in cash, collected from employees for the bank's Adopt A Family program, was allegedly stolen from an envelope inside an employee drawer.
A report indicated a witness stated the cash was in an envelope on Dec. 11, and the money was found to be missing on Dec. 15. The witness stated a number of persons could have taken the money. The envelope where the cash was placed was taken into evidence for latent prints.
-- A man who had rented a storage unit from a business on East 16th Street reported Monday that approximately $1,000 in miscellaneous items were allegedly stolen during the week of Dec. 8.
According to a report, the complainant stated he was notified from the business owner about the missing items, which included a pool table, home stereo, Playstation 2 and handheld Playstation 2, pocket watches, diamond ring, train sets, antique earrings and necklace, several coins, two boxes of Hot Wheels cars, Pioneer car CD stereo, compact discs and several games.
-- A man reported to Russellville police on Saturday he found a customer's storage unit unsecure at a business on East Second Street, according to a report.
The victim stated at the time of the report that a RCA 52-inch TV, valued at $3,000; Compaq Presario computer ($2,000), Playstation 2 ($300) and DVD player ($500) were missing from the storage unit. The complainant stated the locks on the storage unit were completely removed.
The total amount of damages and loss was valued at $5,815.
Commercial burglaries
A female complainant reported to Officer Lee Goemmer last Thursday that she discovered a hole had been cut into the back wall of S&L Pawn at the intersection of East Main Street and Knoxville Avenue.
According to a report, the complainant stated the incident had to have occurred between 6 p.m. Dec. 18 and 7:30 a.m. the next day. At the time of the report, there didn't appear to be anything allegedly stolen from the business. Damage was estimated at $600.
-- The manager of Pizza Meister at 1400 North Arkansas Ave. reported to Russellville police Saturday that upon arrival that morning, it was discovered that the front door of the business was unlocked.
According to a report, it was later discovered that the company safe was missing. No signs of forced entry were found. The complainant advised a former female employee still had a key to the business, and stated the employee had been suspected of allegedly stealing money from the restaurant while she was employed.
The total estimated value of the stolen property was $2,995, including $1,808 cash, $636 in checks, a $350 Samsung 960-hour videocassette recorder and the $200 safe.
A 25-year-old Hispanic man was arrested by Russellville police Sunday and cited for DWI, no driver's license, leaving the scene of an accident and no automobile insurance.
According to a report, officers were dispatched to a residence on East 10th Street on an alleged hit and run accident. They spoke to the man's wife, who stated the alleged suspect was the driver of the 1994 Pontiac Grand Am involved in the incident.
The man, who police reported had an odor of intoxicants and was visibly staggering during an interview, vehemently stated the vehicle belonged to his wife. After failing field sobriety tests, he was transported to the Pope County Detention Center where Deputy Bill McGlothlin administered a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) test, which had a result of .245. The man was then incarcerated.
-- A 20-year-old Clarksville male was arrested Saturday and cited for DWI, possession of a controlled substance, stop sign violation and no proof of vehicle insurance during a traffic stop at Eighth Street and Independence Avenue, according to a report.
The arresting officer witnessed a white 4-door passenger car allegedly run a stop sign at Fourth Street and Independence. After the subject failed field sobriety tests, a cigarette believed to contain marijuana was discovered under a seat. After the subject began vomiting in the patrol car, a BAC test conducted at the police station gave a result of .09 percent. He was then transported to the detention center.
Alleged battery
A 28-year-old Russellville man was arrested Saturday for allegedly committing third-degree battery on two women, ages 40 and 47, according to a report.
Upon officers' arrival to a residence on South Independence Avenue, the 40-year-old woman was at James Park and stated she and her friend attended at a party at the alleged suspect's residence when the man got mad, started dragging the older woman around, told her to get out and threw her out.
The complainant stated she was trying to get out of the kitchen when the suspect allegedly hit her with a piece of firewood. Pope County EMS was contacted and arrived at James Park to treat the woman, who was later taken to a local hospital.
The report indicated as officers were walking up the driveway of the residence, they heard a woman scream, "Help! Don't hurt me!" The officers made entry through a kitchen door and found the suspect sitting on a couch holding the older woman in a submissive kneeling position. EMS paramedics were also called to treat the woman, who suffered abrasions around her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She refused hospital transport after telling officers the man just went crazy, according to the report.
The suspect was placed into custody and transported to the detention center where he was placed in an isolation cell due to his behavior.


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Examples of Kanzi's behavior:
In an outing in the Georgia woods, Kanzi touched the symbols for "marshmallows" and "fire." Susan Savage-Rumbaugh said in an interview that, "Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick."
Paul Raffaele, at Savage-Rumbaugh's request, performed a Maori War Dance for the Bonobos. This dance includes thigh-slapping, chest-thumping, and hollering. Almost all the bonobos present interpreted this as an aggressive display, and reacted with loud screams, tooth-baring, and pounding the walls and floor. All but Kanzi, who remained perfectly calm; he then communicated with Savage-Rumbaugh using bonobo vocalizations; Savage-Rumbaugh understood these vocalizations, and said to Raffaele "he'd like you to do it again just for him, in a room out back, so the others won't get upset. So a private performance in another room was successfully, peacefully and happily carried out.
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has observed Kanzi in communication to his sister. In this experiment, Kanzi was kept in a separate room of the Great Ape Project and shown some yogurt. Kanzi started vocalizing the word "yogurt" in an unknown "language"; his sister, who could not see the yogurt, then pointed to the lexigram for yogurt.
Kanzi's accomplishments also include tool use and tool crafting. Kanzi is an accomplished stone tool maker and is quite proud of his ability to flake Oldowan style cutting knives. He learned this skill from Dr. Nick Toth, who is an anthropologist with the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. The stone knives Kanzi creates are very sharp and can cut animal hide and thick ropes. * In one demonstration shown on the television show Champions of the Wild, Kanzi was shown playing the arcade game Pac-Man and understanding how to beat it.


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2.1018 Violation—Penalty.Cite as [A.S.C.A. § 2.1018 ]
(a) A person quilty of contempt under the provisions of this chapter shall be sentenced as for a D felony.
(b) If an investigating committee fails in any material respect to comply with the requirements of this chapter, any person subject to a subpoena who is substantially prejudiced by such failure shall be relieved of any requirements of compliance. Such failure and prejudice shall be a complete defense in any proceeding against such person for contempt or other punishment.
(c) Either or both Houses may discipline a member or employee of the committee or Legislature and impose a penalty upon such member or employee who causes any unauthorized disclosure of testimony or evidence.History: 1988, PL 20-78.


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Hi gerbils. I was playing around with my PC for the past few days trying to troubleshoot choppy gameplay. While I was at it I've realized that my PC was running slower when only 2 of the 4 DIMM slots were populated. This was also chronicled in my recent post about this problem (General Hardware > PC Becoming Slow). Since I believe this deserves a separate thread under RAM, here I am with this new thread.
My specs are as follows: AMD Phenom II X3 720 (unlocked to X4, no OC), MSI 785GM-E65, 4GB or 8GB of Apacer DDR3-1333, AMD HD4670 512MB, 1TB Hitachi HDD, 2 x LG ODDs, ACBel 600+W PSU.
I'm using Passmark (Memory Mark) to test the RAM's performance. When only 2 DIMMs are filled, I get a score of around 800 (Dual Channel mode, as reported by CPU-Z and also following the manual's recommendation for Dual Channel operation). With all 4 DIMM slots filled, the score jumps to about 1,200. I'd hate to think that memory performance is actually lower with fewer DIMMs installed.
I also tested 2 x 4GB DDR3-1333 (instead of 2 x 2GB DDR3-1333) from another PC and I still got low scores of ~800 in Passmark.


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Sandy Hook? It's the NRA calling
NEWTOWN, Connecticut: Residents of the Connecticut town devastated by December's school shooting say they are outraged at receiving automated phone calls from the National Rifle Association only three months after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six staff members.
Newtown residents said the automated calls from the NRA began last week and urge people to tell their state legislators to oppose gun control proposals, which are being debated in Connecticut and other states following the shooting. Some also said they received postcards from the NRA supporting gun owners' rights.
"It's ridiculous and insensitive," Newtown resident Dan O'Donnell told local television. "I can't believe an organisation would be so focused on the rights of gun owners with no consideration for the losses this town suffered."
Another Newtown resident, Christopher Wenis, told The Huffington Post he received three of the NRA's robocalls last week.
"I've got a five-year-old son who went to preschool on the Sandy Hook Elementary School campus," Mr Wenis said. "And this was a really hard week for me on a lot of levels. These calls were the very last thing I needed."
Like Congress and other state legislatures, Connecticut's General Assembly has been considering gun control measures following a string of mass shootings, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
The NRA strongly opposes many gun control proposals including an assault weapons ban, saying government officials should better enforce existing gun laws and not impede constitutional rights.
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The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a measure that would level-fund the salaries of officials in the executive and judicial branches of government in the coming fiscal year.
Last week a legislative committee decided against providing prosecutors and judges with a 2-percent cost-of-living adjustment. Legislative leaders have said they are open to revisiting that salary increase later this session.
The Legislature is returning to the Capitol Tuesday after a four-day break. Other budgetary issues facing lawmakers include a resolving a projected shortfall in the state's Medicaid program and deciding whether all state employees should receive a cost-of-living adjustment this year.


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Which Actor Will Put In the Ol' Blue Contacts?
Yesterday we learned that Marty Scorsese is directing a Frank Sinatra biopic and all of New Jersey fell over dead with joy. Today we wonder: Who's gonna be in the damn thing?
The good people over at Vulture (butNikki Finke told us first!!!!) tell us that Universal wants to cast Johnny Depp, though Scorsese would rather go with his beautiful blonde boyfriend who he kisses all the time, Leonardo DiCaprio. If this is an origin story, though, then isn't Depp a little too old?
Meanwhile the Observer suggests four actors: James Franco, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Simon Baker, and Jon Hamm. Any of those could work, we guess, though probably the best course of action is to find some unknown, like from the world of theater or something. The actor doesn't have to sing—Universal got the song rights and will use the original tracks in the film—but he does have to look like he knows how to perform on a musical stage.
But, all things considered, we think it should go to the reigning king of music biopics. Jamie Foxx, whaddaya say?
Who do you think would be good?


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Florida motorists may get a big break if the House and Gov. Rick Scott go along with a Senate plan to dramatically cut fees for vehicle registrations and driver's licenses that took effect in 2009.
Florida motorists may get a big break if the House and Gov. Rick Scott go along with a Senate plan to dramatically cut fees for vehicle registrations and driver's licenses that took effect in 2009.
Under a proposal outlined by Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, the Senate would cut those fees by $220 million and offset the revenue loss by eliminating a tax credit for insurance companies.
"My priority is to get money to our constituents and not subsidize an industry that is doing very well," Negron said.
Negron said he hoped to cut in half the 2009 fees, which were raised by the state to help close a budget gap during the Great Recession. The reductions could be dramatic for many Floridians. Here are some examples of the changes made in 2009:
• The initial vehicle registration fee jumped from $100 to $225.
• The renewal fee for a compact car, like a Honda Civic, jumped from $28.10 to $46.65. For mid-size vehicles, like an Accord, $36.10 to $57.65. For full-size vehicles, like a Ford F150, $46.10 to $71.15.
• Motorcycle renewal fees jumped 70 percent from $24.60 to $41.65.
• The initial fee for a driver's license went up from $27 to $48, with a renewal from $20 to $48.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, backs the proposal.
"During a difficult budget year, the Legislature made the hard choice to increase certain fees associated with driving a vehicle in lieu of raising taxes, or taking draconian cuts to critical state services," Gaetz said in a statement. "However, times have changed and it is time that we reprioritize and evaluate ways to keep more money in the pockets of hard-working Floridians."
While saying he wants to study the proposal further, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, called it "an interesting idea."
"I'm not a big fan of those tag and title fees either," he said. "We'll have to take a look at it."
This marks the second tax break that the Senate has targeted for potential elimination. Insurance companies pay a state tax on insurance premiums, but they also get a credit equal to 15 percent of the salary paid to company employees. That tax break is worth $237 million a year, according to state economists.
The Senate is also proposing eliminating a tax break for banks to help pay for economic incentives that would be used to renovate Sun Life Stadium in South Florida.
Negron has defended the potential elimination of incentives or tax breaks, saying the Legislature needs to eliminate outdated incentives before adopting new ones. The problem for Republicans is any vote to eliminate a tax break could bring criticism that they are actually raising taxes.
The proposal could get a hearing as early as next week.
Marion County Tax Collector George Albright said when state lawmakers decided to plug a budget hole with the fee hikes, they created "a huge burden on Marion County residents," and especially retirees.
"It would be a very welcome change to our constituents and I welcome it," Albright said of the proposed cuts.
Along State Road 200, known for its retirement communities, one retiree said she would welcome some good financial news.
Jeanne Allen, 73, a past treasurer of the Pine Run Residents Association, said retirees on fixed incomes have struggled because of rising costs of health insurance, a slowdown in Social Security raises, and increased expenses.
"We have already been taking a hit," Allen said. "This would be good news."
The proposed lower registration fee was also popular with area automobile dealers. Cecil Ubide, the AutoMax sales manager, said the higher fees have affected his sales in recent years.
He said registration and a new tag runs $425 — a cost so high it inspires some consumers to reconsider buying a vehicle.
"It (the proposed cut) would be great for us because the fees can make or break a deal," Ubide said.
This report includes material from the Associated Press.


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Twilight star's mother unveils film
It is a family affair for Twilight actress Kristen Stewart in Cannes this year as her mother is in town supporting her own film which also stars the young star's brother.
Jules Stewart flew to the French Riviera resort to support the market debut of her first directorial piece K-11.
She has spent more than 30 years working in Hollywood as a script supervisor and editor and her first role as director introduces her son Cameron as an actor.
Kristen Stewart is due in town later this week to support Walter Salles' On The Road, which is in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or.
Her mother told The Hollywood Reporter that after years of working on the movie and being immersed in the craft she is ready to build a directing career.
"Doing that at 50 is not the easiest thing to do," she told the magazine.
Along with partner Tom Wright, Stewart and casting director Pam Dixon put together a cast including Goran Visnjic, who starred in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, to star in K-11.
It tells the story of a secure unit of the Los Angeles jail where transgender, homosexual and transsexual inmates are placed to isolate them from the danger they would face in the normal prison population.
The film made its world debut during the Marche du Film in Cannes via London-based Intandem which is selling the project worldwide.
The film took 25 days to shoot in LA. Stewart added: "The whole point for me is to tell stories that are different and unique, hence K-11."
Press Association


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Do you have unknown birth and death dates in your Reunion 9 family file(s)? If you do, then you understand how those holes can impede your family history research. It's easier to find information when the date range is constrained. When a death date is not known, it is helpful to use the burial date as the upper date limit. Similarly, the christening date (give or take a year) can be substituted for the birth date. Sure, you could try to remember to check for a burial date when the death date is unknown, but why bother when the software will remember for you?
Reunion for Mac 9 has a feature appropriately called "substitute events." It will automatically substitute one event for another if the later is not populated. The substitution can be displayed where short dates are used, such as the family card and pedigree chart. Don't worry. The substituted date is prefixed by an abbreviation, so it won't be mistaken for the birth or death date.
Please launch Reunion 9 and play this video from the MacGenealogist Archives: Substitute Events in Macintosh Genealogy Software Reunion 9 for Mac. In it, I'll show you how to make the necessary changes and how the substitute events display.


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The ClojureScript analyzer delivers a lot of critical information that is often handled via vars and namespaces and the metadata attached to them. The ClojureScript compiler during the analysis phase puts this information into an atom - cljs.compiler/namespaces. In order to build robust analysis tools, i.e. a ClojureScript debugger, it would beneficial to put the missing information on the symbols stored in cljs.compiler/namespaces. Then tools can easily call functions like cljs.compiler/analyze-file and have cljs.compiler/namespace populated with data.
Currently useful information like :line, :file, :arglists are missing. We could put this information on the symbols stored in :defs for a namespace but that would be a bit too opaque. It would easier for human readability to put what is traditionally var metadata into the clj.compiler/namespaces atom directly.


text: Senior American Special WEBSITE ADD TO Trip Planner Experience the scenic beauty of Petit Jean State Park while enjoying the hospitality of the friendly park staff! Join us for free guided walks, talks, demonstrations and entertainment. Although designed for senior citizens, all ages are welcome to join in on the fun. Contact the park for a schedule or to inquire about lodging and camping options. Get Directions Gas Calculator Details Dates: October 15, 2013 - October 17, 2013 Address: Morrilton, AR 72110 Admission: Free Website: http://www.petitjeanstatepark.com Phone: 501-727-5441 Contact: Park Superintendent Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Paula LaPierre is thrilled with the steadily increasing international presence at the international level being afforded the once thought extinct Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation. LaPierre, Principal Sachem for the Indigenous Peoples, claims that such United Nations opportunities affirm the international communities' commitment to the Rule of Law when regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation have experienced a long and complex history negatively affected by "Canada's" British colonial administration and quasi claims to jurisdiction.
The Kichesipirini claim a documented record proving the Indigenous Peoples as being the legal founders of the polity known as Canada, but being wrongfully denied their rightful recognition. LaPierre claims that such illegal denial has very serious negative effects for all Canadian citizens, and that all Canadians are being denied access to very important information regarding their political, social and economic status.
Besides gaining support through the United Nations the Kichesipirini is also relentlessly pursuing justice through the independent International Criminal Court and hope to soon set important precedents for all Indigenous Peoples.
LaPierre, on behalf of the Kichesipirini members, is also very appreciative of the support received by so many persons interested in establishing legitimacy and historical accuracy regarding Canada and our geniune participation in the international community. Because of the severity of omitting to ensure such legitimacy LaPierre expresses serious reserves regarding the possible liabilities that can be incrued by those entities still attempting to maintain an old regime destined to collapse without genuine reversal.
» continue reading "Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation now registered as non-administering State NGO status at UN"
The Dominion is a monthly paper published by an incipient network of independent journalists in Canada. It aims to provide accurate, critical coverage that is accountable to its readers and the subjects it tackles. Taking its name from Canada's official status as both a colony and a colonial force, the Dominion examines politics, culture and daily life with a view to understanding the exercise of power.