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Given a tradition of tight relations between the military and the state (for now, the people), Egypt could be forgiven for expecting a promising and blossoming bond to prevail after Mubarak's ouster February 11, 2001. The first encounters between the armed forces and civilians were quite warm: and people celebrated together with an army they claimed was of and from them after all. Protesters jumped on tanks in joy and paused to take pictures with military forces in khaki uniforms.
Since Mubarak fell and handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), officially ending his 30-year political reign, the relationship has been tested. Egypt is under the rule of generals who have affirmed their commitment to the people's revolution and pledged to establish a civil democratic order overseeing the drafting of a consitution.
Yet, in recent weeks, this military-civilian honeymoon appeared to be souring, unleashing scrutiny over the SCAF's performance and bringing into doubt the familiar slogan "The military and the people are one hand." Nor has the army directed its roughened-hand and tough measures toward Mubarak and family who the people still wish to see brought to account.
A look in pictures at the romance between people and army, leding up to the latest CNN reports on women torture complete with 'virginity test' and military trials that may pronounce this 59 year- romance dead? And so close to celebrating their 60th anniversary!


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August 10, 2009
*SPOILER* Twilight wins Choice Movie
Via Getty Images
- Lorabell
18 comments:
i love the cullens. Cant wait to watch this tomorrow.ReplyDelete
Thx for posting this guys, what an awesome Sunday night!!!!
- Chau MaiAugust 10, 2009 at 4:18 AM
is there anyway to watch it on live streaming? i won't be able to watch it on tv tomorrow :( it's kind of killing me.ReplyDelete
ooh it comes on tomorrow?????ReplyDelete
(yes i'm totally outta the loop!)
I just pray to God he's not talken about stuff coming out of his pants. Classic Rob, I know, but still...ReplyDelete
LMAO Lynnes!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2009 at 4:50 AM
really, rob has this effect on women...they sort of become breathless just by loooking or listening at him. rob is just gorgeous :))ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2009 at 6:06 AM
It looks like they were enjoying themselves! I am excited to see what tidbits we will have coming soon, with the filming of eclipse.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2009 at 7:21 AM
Hey writing SPOILER followed by the spoiler in the headline defeats the purpose of warning us that it is a spoiler... just saying :) maybe some people don't want to know who wins yet, you know, build the suspense up?ReplyDelete
He looks like he's trying to see the future in the second picture.ReplyDelete
I agree. Thanks for the pix but that wasnt much a a spoiler heads up. I kinda wanted to wait until tomorrow to find out who won what. :-/ReplyDelete
*makes a little dance*
but hey, what else could've been expected?
It sucks that the TCA weren't live, but I'm not surprised that Twilight cleaned house!ReplyDelete
Rob is so damn lucsious!!! Rob and Kristen both look happy and well rested for a change, and my god they are both smiling!!!!
Kristen's outfit was great, she was defintily # 1 of the ladies from Twilight in style last night!!!!!
- Danish Twi-loverAugust 10, 2009 at 3:05 PM
YEAH! Twilight rules :-DReplyDelete
Congrats to everyone in the film. And hey, congrats to us as well, OUR film won :-)
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Did you guys seriously come to a Twilight site, expecting NOT to see who won??ReplyDelete
If you want it to be a surprise, read this site AFTER the awards air, come on, people!
I'm just sayin' . . .
- AnonymousAugust 10, 2009 at 3:24 PM
aaw ash and jackson<33ReplyDelete
congrats to twilight!
Oooooo coool! Love these pictures.ReplyDelete
- twilightislifeAugust 10, 2009 at 8:54 PM
the second picture down haha what is he doing?ReplyDelete
and vivian, i know what you mean ;) he has that kinda effect on me.
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 1:10 AM
"Did you guys seriously come to a Twilight site, expecting NOT to see who won??"ReplyDelete
True, I guess I already kind of knew they were going to win pretty much everything (YAY!!!) but it's still odd to warn us of a spoiler that is revealed in the same sentence, right after the word Spoiler lol

subset: commoncrawl


text: hello guys...I cant seem to find the thread for this comics anymore so I thought it was tome to start a new one. Has anybody read the recent issue - star trek ongoing 15? It has to do with the mirror universe, so am guessing it is going to be worth it. I have seen the previews and I gotta say....I am loving the artwork.


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A message from Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.
Steve's passing one year ago today was a sad and difficult time for all of us. I hope that today everyone will reflect on his extraordinary life and the many ways he made the world a better place.
One of the greatest gifts Steve gave to the world is Apple. No company has ever inspired such creativity or set such high standards for itself. Our values originated from Steve and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We share the great privilege and responsibility of carrying his legacy into the future.
I'm incredibly proud of the work we are doing, delivering products that our customers love and dreaming up new ones that will delight them down the road. It's a wonderful tribute to Steve's memory and everything he stood for.
"Taken as a whole, the transition seems to have been successful. Since Jobs' passing, Apple's shares have risen about 75 percent, from $378.25 on Oct. 5 last year to about $665 today. In the process, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world."
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text:
Is there a program like powertop (LessWatts.org - Saving Power on Intel systems with Linux) on Windows?
I have been trying to optimize the battery life of my laptop, and want to compare the power consumption to Windows (I still have the factory installed Vista).
The feature I am looking for is a simple power consumption (in Watts) reading. For powertop, it's averaged over the last 15 seconds. I am guessing it uses the battery charge level to calculate power consumption, since it only gives the reading when the laptop is running on battery power.
On my laptop (with a ULV Core 2 Solo and LED backlight), I am able to get down to ~9W (for the whole system!), with 50% brightness and wifi on, surfing, which I thought was pretty amazing. It's interesting to see how much or how little everything matters (turning on wifi power saving mode saves ~2W, turning off bluetooth doesn't change anything, 100% brightness to 0% brightness saves 2.7W, turning off wifi vs wifi in power saving mode doesn't matter, running a busy-loop increases power consumption by 1.1W, turning off the laptop LCD vs 0% brightness saves 1.6W). Some of the results are quite surprising to me. I didn't expect the wifi power save mode would matter that much, and I thought brightness and CPU load would affect the power consumption more. I didn't test anything to do with the harddrive since I have a SSD.
So yeah, anything that can give me this number in Windows?


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CIO Perspectives
The troubled launch of HealthCare.gov pains me – as someone who has great passion for wanting to make government IT more effective, this public spectacle once again casts federal IT in a very negative light. As a federal IT community we appear unempowered, and worse, incompetent.
My observations here are based solely on public information I have gleaned through the media and listening to the various congressional hearings. I was never close to the planning or development of the HealthCare.gov website and supporting back-end systems. In full disclosure, however, I did participate in one HealthCare.gov planning session a couple of years ago when I was Department of Homeland Security CIO. The session was to ensure various agencies (including DHS) identified the individuals to work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the required data-sharing to support the enrollment process.
CIO Perspectives is a new FCW feature by former Department of Homeland Security CIO Richard Spires. The column originally intended as Spires' debut will appear mid-November both online and in print; this reaction to the HealthCare.gov rollout serves as a web-only preview.
A significant part of my 30-year career has been devoted to IT program management and oversight. For a system as complex as HealthCare.gov, best practice would have led to a plan that included:
1) Completion and testing of all subsystems six months prior to public launch.
2) Three months of end-to-end functional integration testing.
3) Concurrent performance testing that would have simulated loads up to 10 times greater than expected (especially since it was difficult to model expected peak loads).
4) A subsequent three-month pilot phase in which selected groups of users were using the system to work off problems not caught in testing.
While I do not know for certain, I would expect that CMS had original development plans that were close to best practice. Yet some of the contractors involved have admitted that there were only two weeks of end-to-end integration testing prior to launch. That means the American public is serving as the integration testers of this system – not a situation anyone would ever plan for or want.
So what happened? There is pattern recognition for those of us who have been involved in many large IT programs. First, it is difficult to accurately plan the level of effort and time to develop new systems that are composed of complex and interdependent subsystems. Hence, there should have been schedule management reserve built in up-front, at least three months and perhaps as much as six months.
Second, given that different contractors were responsible for different subsystems, there needed to be a strong and competent program management office (PMO) that oversaw the program and the integration of the subsystems into a coherent, functional system. The evidence suggests that the PMO was not nearly as effective as required.
Third, the launch date of Oct. 1 was deemed immovable. As development schedules slipped, as integration challenges mounted, there were clearly compromises made so as not to delay the launch. I suspect little functionality could be deferred (the site must enable the full enrollment process), so what was compromised is good practice. It is simply bad practice to launch a complex system with very little end-to-end testing. There is no excuse for this, and given the complexity of systems CMS operates, there are clearly individuals in CMS who knew this launch would not go well because of inadequate testing.
Finally, there is the biggest failure, and the one that dooms many IT projects: The correct roles and authorities were not assigned to the business and the IT organizations. (In this case the business organization would have included leaders from CMS, HHS and possibly the White House).
When I review an IT program, that role assignment and the authorities are one of the first things I look at to assess the health of that program. The evidence on the launch of HealthCare.gov shows clearly the balance was not correct. As reported by the media, a change in a requirement that disabled the ability for users to browse insurance policies without first enrolling was made just two weeks before launch. This was much too late -- requirements should have been locked down months before then. The business organization had the ability to make changes that led to bad program management practice.
In subsequent columns I plan to address a number of issues and recommendations regarding large IT program management. But for now, let's focus on how to address the proper partnership between the business and IT.
There must be a program governance model in place that recognizes the proper roles and authorities of the business organization and the IT organization for there to be success. The business organization must be intimately involved in helping define requirements, making hard functionality trade-offs, and being a champion for the program with stakeholders both inside and outside the agency. The IT organization must establish a solid PMO with appropriate use of best practices to deliver large IT programs. And there needs to be a regular forum in which the business organization and IT organization executives work together to help the PMO make the tough decisions in running a program.
A fundamental tenet, however, is that sound program management practice must always be followed. There are no shortcuts to delivering large, complex IT programs. Having been intimately involved in dozens of such programs, I can state with absolute certainty that executing with anything less than solid program management practice is very high risk and leads to failures. The administration would be well served to incorporate the proper governance model for all large, complex IT programs.
One last point: The team of government personnel and contractors correcting HealthCare.gov must be working tremendously long hours and are under tremendous pressure. I thank them for their efforts.
About the Author
Richard A. Spires has been in the IT field for more than 30 years, with eight years in federal government service. He served as the lead for the Business Systems Modernization program at the IRS, then served as CIO and deputy commissioner for operations support, before moving to the Department of Homeland Security to serve as CIO of that agency. He is now CEO of Learning Tree.
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Large parts of the federal government will shutter at least temporarily as Congress fails to enact a four-week stopgap spending bill. As agencies prepare to power down, officials say cybersecurity is being given a higher priority than it was in the 2013 shutdown.
An individual's walking gait will be the first biometric used to continuously authenticate mobile warfighters.
The former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the lead sponsor of the IT procurement bill FITARA is calling it quits.
Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord has been replaced as the chair of the group overseeing the massive cloud initiative known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure.
Government application of the ledger technology lags behind the hype, but expect more experiments to take off in the coming months.
After a 2017 filled with uncertainty and slipped deadlines, the Census Bureau faces a critical 2018 that could make or break the constitutionally mandated count.
These lessons are very basic fundamental objectives in a strategic sense but do not fundamentally address the issues around today's Application Development Lifecycle Management and its transition into a monitored Ops strategy. At the core of all this, the problems surround the complexities in developing Web strategies in today's cloud and the approach to addressing those complexities gear up what I call the 'siloed approach', or rather hiring experts in each area of technology and then compartmentalizing their efforts to lead to a finished project. This type of approach used to work for the traditional style of IT, but the paradigm is shifting obviously due to the increasingly evolving demands and expectations by end-users. The bottom line for the lesson here is that they could have found a vendor that had testing tools enable the development of the website to meet the strategic objectives and be able to seamlessly and rapidly deploy in heterogeneous IT environments (and even hybrid cloud). Perhaps this sounds forward thinking, but the technology and tools to do such already exists and many use cases and references are available. Perhaps the article is trying to point to a more apparent lesson would be to learn from is that the nature of politics itself drives IT in a fashion that is inefficient, but a cohesiveness process or function is necessary to achieve the objectives.
As someone else pointed out, these "lessons" are really first grade stuff - things you would know in software dev 101. Things this basic should not be a lesson we have to learn from a botched deployment that's causing so many problems for millions of Americans. It's my undertsanding that CMS was the systems integrator for the project. To me, that seems to be a fatal flaw for this project as well. Why was CMS serving as the systems integrator, if it did not have the extremely basic IT skills to know that testing and PMO support are important? The government would have been better off setting up the procurement for this project so that a commercial entity that specializes in IT and software development was in charge as the general contractor from the get go - which is where it has now ended up. The level of mismanagement and incompetence that led to collossal failure of this scale is simply hard to believe - this is one for the textbook.
For everyone in IT and BIG Systems. Please understand and correct one of the above posts which confused the role of DHS and HHS (the Contractor for Integration via CMS). DHS was only a data provider NOT the Contractor and/or the Integrator for the Web Site! That was clearly the responsibility of HHS (via CMS). Please don't confuse these major responsibilities. To do so creates" spreading the blame" to those within DHS which had NO responsibility for Integration plus end-to end testing. In the sense of being correct, transparent, plus fairness - Please correct your posting comments ASAP. Thank you for your timely response.
At some point they will find the person or persons who were genuinely concerned about the way the project was going and told their superiors only to be told "there, there everything is going to be just fine." Congress needs to find these people and talk to them. Then the guilty can be identified and encouraged to resign/retire.
To words: Byzantine and Balkanized. In general the government's approach is extremely hierarchical and compartmentalized (aka stovepipe). Its' my experience as the size and profile of a program or project grows so does the levels and dysfunction in the chain of command. Add to this every significant program becomes a means to accomplishing a personal agenda. Information is filtered for the purpose of self-aggrandizement not program performance. Many are not managing a program they are managing their way upward. In the end not only does program performance suffer it creates a culture that effects ongoing individual performance. Furthermore, it's often the case the most pandering of these sycophants is promoted up and out long before the proverbial stuff hits the fan. Often to criticize the efforts they were so negatively a part of. On the other side the way the government goes about procurement is a charade, to say the least. It's a fraternity of bidders who know how to play a game. It operates under the pretense of fairness and competitiveness but its primary purpose is to funnel tax dollars back into congressional districts through corporate hands. In many cases the legislature is more to blame then the executive branch. That's the business model. It can only be considered perforce based in that it rewards poor performance. DHS's implementation of HealthCare.gov is a microcosm, an epitome of an all too common case of how the government does business. This was not a risky R&D effort with a lot of unknowns, it would have benefited greatly from agile development. However, given the whole procurement system is one huge monolithic cathedral the results were sadly a forgone conclusion. How can other central governments in the world pull off similar efforts at a fraction of the cost so effectively? The argument that the size and scope of our systems is so much greater is vacuous. HealthCare.gov was an initial flop because it failed to meet its non-functional requirements. If DHS had managed these scaling the system would not have been the nightmare that it turned out to be. The problems here are not technical.
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PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Sept. 29, 2012) — SUNY Plattsburgh alumnus Dr. Haagen Klaus will return to campus to present "Tombs, Mummies and Treasures: A Retrospective on 15 Years of Archeological Adventures from SUNY Plattsburgh to South America" from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in Krinovitz Recital Hall, Hawkins Hall.
A 2000 graduate, Klaus is returning as part of the college's Distinguished Visiting Alumni program to speak to share his ideas and accomplishments in the field of archeology with students, faculty, staff and the community. His speech is part of festivities leading up to Homecoming 2012.
Currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Utah Valley University, Klaus's primary research interests include bioarchaeology, dental anthropology, mortuary analysis, forensic anthropology and taphonomy – a branch of archeology dealing with fossilization. Having conducted several research projects in South America, Klaus has studied prehistoric and historic Andean South America and the organization of complex societies, health, violence, identity and ethnogenesis.
Klaus has won a number of awards for his work, including the Utah Valley University Presidential Fellowship for Faculty Scholarship; an honorary diploma and degree at the Universidad de Señor de Sipán, Chiclayo, Peru; and the Utah Valley University Presidential Award for Student Engagement, which is that university's highest award, given for excellence in teaching.
Before earning his M.A. at Southern Illinois University and his Ph.D. at The Ohio State University, Klaus graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a B.A. in anthropology and a double minor in archeology and studio art.
Through the Distinguished Visiting Alumni Program, the Alumni Association invites Plattsburgh graduates who showcase the excellence of their alma mater to return to campus and share their knowledge with the campus and community.
For more information about Homecoming 2012 and to view a schedule of events, visit http://www.plattsburgh.edu/alumni/homecoming/.
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text: On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Donald Becker wrote: > On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Steffen Persvold wrote: > > On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Trent Piepho wrote: > > > On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Steffen Persvold wrote: > > > > The Intel e1000 (which is in the Linux kernel tree btw.) has a ping-pong/2 > > > > latency of about 25us on a decent Platform (Xeon, E7500 chipset). The > > > > Broadcom 5700 series (with the tg3 driver) has approx. 30us ping-pong/2 > > > > latency on a ServerWorks GC-LE chipset (also Xeon processors). _But_ if > > > > you try e1000 on a AMD 760 MPX chipset for instance, the latency increases > > > > to 65 us ping-pong/2. YMMV. > > > > > > Is that an interaction between the 760MPX and the e1000, or typical for the > > > 760MPX? ie. does the broadcom 5700 also have high latency with AMD chipsets? > > > > Unfortunately I haven't tested the Broadcom adapters on 760 MPX yet > > (actually the only reason I've tested Broadcom at all was that it was > > onboard on our Dell 2650s). However, I've tested e1000 on PentiumIII > > w/ServerWorks HE-SL chipset, and there the latency was 30us. Maybe > > there's something with the AMD IOAPICs ? From what I've seen it seem like > > most of the latency is produced in the receiving node IRQ processing. > > Yes, that's where a significant part of the increased latency is. > Compare this _difference_ to the quoted very low message latency of > cluster network adapters -- the numbers don't make sense. > > The reason is they are comparing different latencies. Those adapters > are quoting the time when the CPU is doing nothing but polling for the > arrival of a message, with the cache hot. The Gigabit Ethernet latency > is measured when the system is busy doing other work and is interrupted > to process an unexpected new message. Yep, I'm not saying Gigabit latencies are bad. It is a quite different message strategy compared to SCI for example (where the sender node CPU puts the message directly into the receive node buffer, no DMA startup, no interrupt = low latency). What I was making a point of, was that the latencies were different on the different kinds of chipsets (i.e AMD MPX has 2x times the latency of Intel E7500 with the same kernel, same ethernet chip, same driver and same parameters). > > Unlike the case of a global shared memory, low latency is not always a > good thing. Gigabit Ethernet adapters go to some effort to _increase_ > latency so that the CPU can process multiple messages during each > interrupt. This interrupt mitigation might even be clever enough to > look at the destination of the next incoming packet to decide if the > interrupt should be deferred. > Right, and at this point the tg3 and e1000 drivers are doing a quite good job at it (AFAIK you can use ethtool to control this interrupt behaviour). Regards, -- Steffen Persvold | Scali AS mailto:sp at scali.com | http://www.scali.com Tel: (+47) 2262 8950 | Olaf Helsets vei 6 Fax: (+47) 2262 8951 | N0621 Oslo, NORWAY


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Edgin says team will switch from passing to running game Michael Christopher Assistant Sports Editor
As the Arkansas River Valley and most of the southeastern United States continues to be under a heat advisory, Russellville Junior High School's West football team continues to go work every day.
Coach Josh Edgin said the heat hasn't really affected what his players can and can't do on the field. He said the team is encouraged to get as much water as it needs with the sweltering summer heat casting over practices.
"You worry about it a little bit more just for the simple fact, we don't see the kids as much during the summer as the high schools do," Edgin said.
The coach said the team has around 30 ninth-graders and 28 eighth-graders out. He said practices have been going great and things have been going well for the kids. The players have been able to grasp the system he's put in place and learn their individual responsibilities, but more importantly learn to have fun and enjoy the game.
"I think they've caught on to what we're trying to teach them, and they're really excited about doing it," he said. "Every kid has took to their role and is a part of this team. Every player has a role and we're trying to teach that to do it the best that they can."
At the junior high level, Edgin said he tries to get his players to understand that football can be fun, but he wants them to put forth their best effort.
"Not every kid can run the 100-meter dash in 10 seconds, but every kid can give all the effort they have, so to us, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for kids who give every bit of effort they have for every bit of time that they're out there with us."
Each junior high football team is individual, Edgin said. He said this year, the offense will switch its offensive strategy from the passing game to the run.
"I think to us, our line is really good and we have some kids who are real athletic," the coach said. "We can hand them the ball and let them do their jobs."
Right now both teams practice together, but once school starts eighth-graders will practice in the morning and ninth-graders will practice in the afternoon, Edgin said. He said the ninth-graders have stepped up and become leaders, who have shown the eighth-graders what is to be expected of them.
"It's really a great system we got going down here. With the two junior highs we're able to get all of the kids we need to be able to get out and give them playing time," Edgin said. "A lot of kids tend to not get the playing time they need and to keep them excited because we try to get as many ninth-graders as possible in a game and keep them excited about football, so they'll continue to get excited about football for high school."


text:
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- ProfessorsB
- LocationA
- DormsB+
- Campus FoodA-
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University of Louisiana - Lafayette is ...
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University of Louisiana - Lafayette Rankings
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Average cost after financial aid for students receiving grant or scholarship aid, as reported by the college.
Based on faculty accomplishments, salary, student reviews, and additional factors.
Student Faculty Ratio
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- 75%
- of students agree that professors put a lot of effort into teaching their classes.83 responses
- 53%
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- of students agree that the workload is easy to manage.88 responses
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University of Louisiana - Lafayette Reviews
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It's a beautiful place to attend school. There is a swamp in the middle of the campus with live alligators living in them. Everyone on campus is extremely nice. Southern hospitality is definitely not lacking. The city revolves around the school, so you are always the center of attention. The constant tuition increase is undesirable and so are all of the construction they have around campus. Most teachers are very helpful and willing to help you any way possible. The school's name doesn't hold a lot of weight outside of Louisiana yet, but we are a unique school. The only Ragin Cajuns in the world, Ayee!
UL allows its students to strive through academics while enjoying in many things the campus and surrounding community has to offer. Professors are always nice and care about each student, which is one thing that separates this university from any other. Well, that and our on-campus swamp!
Beautiful campus, everyone was friendly, I felt very safe on campus which is a very important aspect. This school is known for their partying but they also offer great classes with a student teacher ratio of around 17 to 1. It is a great size. The dorms and apartments on campus are newly renovated and very nice. There was a club for ANYTHING you can imagine! They also have many different food options on campus and it is very easy to pay for food (Your ID card acts as a credit card it is also the key to your dorm room!)


text:
- Ferrari
Haas to sponsor Ferrari
Haas Automation will sponsor Ferrari until the end of the 2015 season as talks about a technical partnership between the Italian team and Haas Formula for 2016 progress.
Haas Automation is Gene Haas's engineering company, which is the world's largest producer of computer numerical control machines in the USA. Haas will enter the sport with his own team in 2016 and has been in talks with Ferrari about a technical partnership, which appear to be progressing well, with the sponsorship deal set to begin at this weekend's British Grand Prix.
"We are pleased to welcome Haas Automation as our latest official supplier" Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci. "This agreement strengthens our existing links in the USA, an important market not only for our company, but also for Scuderia Ferrari, as it is one where the team already benefits from several important partnerships.
"Over the past few months, we have been exploring a number of potential areas of collaboration and this agreement is the first step. It will enable Haas Automation to reinforce its already strong brand awareness around the world, thanks to the global reach of Formula One. We are therefore delighted to make this announcement, which sees another premium brand join our portfolio of partners.
Mattiacci added: "In parallel, but as a separate project, Haas is committed to entering Formula One with its own team, a testimony to the growing appeal of our sport in the USA and on this front, technical discussions are ongoing between us."
The sponsorship will appear on the sidepods of the F14 T.


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Hi, I want to create a menu on a control. The user would access it by clicking on the control with the right mouse button.
Here's an example image: http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4...controldb6.jpg
I tried to search this forum and msdn, but couldn't find anything useful.
Would appreciate links to msdn (functions) for this.


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SC HOOPS - The Sheridan college Generals and Lady Generals play road games at Casper college tomorrow night and will be at home Saturday night hosting games with Gillette.
The Lady Generals are 17-2 overall coming off two conference wins last week and are on a nine game winning streak. Tomorrow night they play at Casper and another conference game with Gillette at home Saturday night Head coach Frank McCarthy says it's another big week of conference play.
And he says the Lady Generals are playing really good team basketball right now.
The Generals dropped another tight game at Miles City Saturday but Head coach Steve Smiley says they played well and had a chance to win it in the final minute but came up short.
They stand at 14-3 overall and will play at Casper tomorrow and Smiley says it should be a great game between two long time Region nine rivals.
And Smiley says this is the mid way point of the conference season and there are several teams in the hunt as they get ready to play the T-Birds tomorrow and at home with Gillette Saturday.
We will be broadcasting both games live at the Hoffman Dome Saturday night on 14-10 KWYO and 95.9 FM.
COWGIRL HOOPS - Former Sheridan high school basketball player and current Wyoming Cowgirl Kayla Woodward was named the Conference player of the week by the Mountain West conference for her performance in two games last week.
She averaged over 25 points in two games including a career high of 28 points in the Cowgirls win over the Air Force Academy.
Woodward backed that game up with another outstanding effort at Colorado state Saturday the Rams won the game 54-51.
Woodward and the Cowgirls get back into action tonight they play at San Diego state we will broadcast the game for you live it can be heard on 95.9 FM broadcast time will be at 8:00.
COWBOY HOOPS - The University of Wyoming Cowboys host another conference game tonight against San Diego state we will have it live for you on 14-10 KWYO broadcast time is at 6:00.
BRONC / LADY BRONC HOOPS - The Sheridan high school basketball teams play Cheyenne Central and East this weekend the Lady Broncs will play at home with the Broncs on the road.
TR / BH HOOPS - The basketball teams at Tongue River will play games with Wright and Greybull this week, the Big Horn Rams and Lady Rams have games with Riverside and Rocky Mountain.
WRESTLING - The Sheridan Bronc wrestlers have a dual tonight at Billings Senior then head to Cheyenne this weekend for conference duals with Cheyenne South and Laramie Friday night and Saturday they dual Cheyenne Central and East.
SWIMMING - The Broncs swimmers will be at home with week hosting duals with the Casper schools Friday evening.
INDOOR TRACK - The Bronc and Lady Bronc indoor track teams head back to Spearfish, South Dakota this week for another big invitational. The meet will be held Friday at Black Hills state University.


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NBK Capital was established in July 2005 as a subsidiary of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK),one of the region's oldest and highest rated banks. NBK Capital focuses on four principal lines of business: Alternative Investments, Asset Management, Brokerage & Research and Investment Banking.
Contact Information:
P.O. Box 4950
Safat 3050


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Consistent Ramirez flying under radar
Cubs third baseman keeping a low profile while producing
Quietly, Aramis Ramirez has proven his value to the Cubs over and over again.
The power-hitting third baseman topped 100 RBIs for the sixth time in eight seasons and established career highs with 44 doubles, a .380 on-base percentage and 74 walks in 2008.
"Every game-winning hit -- it's a joke," Chicago's Ryan Theriot told MLB.com. "This guy is always coming through when you need him. He stays under the radar, and I don't know why he's stayed under the radar. The last six years, he's driven in 100 runs and played great third base and hit a bunch of homers and hit for average."
As it turns out, Ramirez likes to keep a low profile.
"That's perfect, actually," said Ramirez, who finished the regular season with 37 home runs and 121 RBIs. "That's the way I like it to be. I don't like the attention. I just come here and play the game and do my job."
Lowell, Drew take their cuts in hopes of a return: The Boston Red Sox may have two key players back in the lineup for their first game in the ALDS against the Angels. Mike Lowell, who is recovering from a right hip injury, and J.D. Drew, slowed by a lower back strain, looked good during batting practice on Monday at Fenway Park.
Neither player worked out in the field, however. Instead, they waited to do so when the team practiced in Anaheim on Tuesday.
"[Lowell] came out today and actually did pretty well," manager Terry Francona told the Boston Herald. "Hitting is not really the problem -- it's some of the lateral movement, and I don't know if it's starting or stopping."
"J.D. did OK," Francona said of yesterday's session. "He felt good enough to be able to participate in BP, which was a really good sign."
Hamels to rely on playoff experience: Cole Hamels, who is scheduled to pitch Game 1 of the NLDS, believes that he's much better prepared for the 2008 postseason than he was for the 2007 playoffs.
"No. 1, I have playoff experience checked off next to my name," Hamels told MLB.com. "I don't know, for some odd reason, being able to experience something for the very first time, there's a lot of nerves, just because of the unexpected. And so you just have to really go out there and treat it as something that's not as foreign as last year."
Thome just needs one swing for title: Jim Thome has hit 541 career home runs and another 17 in postseason play, so he's had a little experience in that department before launching a game-deciding home run to help the White Sox win their one-game playoff for the AL Central crown.
"There's no better feeling," Thome told the Chicago Tribune. "This is what you live for."
Gallardo gets early jump on role as ace: Despite missing most of the season with a knee injury, Yovani Gallardo was named the Game 1 starter for Milwaukee in its NLDS against Philadelphia.
"I'm going to try my hardest [to stay calm]," Gallardo told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Of course, there's going to be a lot of excitement going through the ballpark, things like that, so the only thing I can do is limit it. We'll see how it goes."
Manny-mania: In just two months in Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez made a huge impact.
He batted .396 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs in 53 games with Los Angeles, which was a game under .500 in 109 games without Ramirez and 30-23 with him in the lineup.
"I never thought I was going to come here and have a big impact in L.A.," Ramirez told the Los Angeles Times.
"I used to think that one hitter couldn't make such a profound impact on a team," closer Takashi Saito said. "But watching him, I've changed my opinion. He's changed the way I think about baseball."
Maddux to get postseason relief duty: Greg Maddux, who was acquired in August, made the Dodgers' postseason roster as a reliever. Maddux started the season with the Padres but was acquired after the trade deadline in a waiver deal.
"I'm glad they traded for me," Maddux told the Los Angeles Times. "It's a lot better sitting in Chicago doing a crossword puzzle in the locker room than it is to be sitting in Vegas doing nothing."
Vladimir Guerrero has power surrounding him this time: The Angels hope that having big bats surrounding Vladimir Guerrero in the lineup will help him compile big numbers in the postseason. With Mark Teixeira and Torii Hunter in the lineup, opponents won't find it so easy to avoid Guerrero.
"Vlad was our guy, and we knew he wasn't going to get anything to hit because they're focused on not letting the guys who are supposed to beat you beat you," hitting coach Mickey Hatcher told the Los Angeles Times. "I think the difference this year is we've got a bunch of guys who can beat you, and that's going to help Vlad."
Coffey got the job done in stretch run: Todd Coffey did all he could to help lift the Milwaukee Brewers to the postseason for the first time since 1982, but the reliever will now have to watch the games because he joined the club too late to make postseason roster.
Coffey, who did not allow a run in 7 1/3 innings covering nine appearances, was claimed off waivers from the Reds on Sept. 10. To be eligible for the postseason, a player must be on that team's 40-man roster by Sept. 1.
"He has done an awesome job for us," interim manager Dale Sveum told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I told [general manager] Doug [Melvin] that's one of the best late-season acquisitions we've ever had."
Moose wins 20 games in perhaps his final season: Mike Mussina notched his 20th win on the final day of his 18th season. It is the first time Mussina has won 20 games and it came in what may have been his final season.
"Having waited to my last year, of all these years in New York," Mussina told Newsday, "and I'm 39 years old, and I've been close and I've been close to other things -- I guess it's worth being close all those times to be able to do it this late in your career."
Mussina hasn't made a final decision about retiring.
"As of right now, it's my last game in my last year, and I don't know what the future holds," he said.
Josh Anderson's power surge proves timely: Josh Anderson, acquired from the Astros in exchange for pitcher Oscar Villareal, spent most of the year in Triple-A, but reached Atlanta in September and hit two home runs to help the Braves win on Saturday.
"I had fun, man," Anderson, who had just one home run in 194 at-bats in the Major Leagues before hitting two Saturday, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Any time a team trades you, you want to make an impression. Obviously, it's fun to prove somebody wrong."
"He's not a power hitter -- we know that," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "But he can run, and he can put the bat on the ball."
Lohse finds comfort in new four-year deal: After posting a 15-6 record and a 3.78 ERA this season, Kyle Lohse has signed a new deal that will keep him in St. Louis for four more seasons. For Lohse, staying where he's comfortable was more important than testing the free-agent waters.
"Peace of mind is worth something to me," Lohse told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Obviously, if it wasn't working out, I wasn't going to go ahead with something I wasn't comfortable doing. But the way it worked out makes sense for me to do it."
Peralta could be called upon at hot corner: After playing third base at season's end, Jhonny Peralta knows he might be back at the hot corner in 2009. While he'd like to stay at shortstop, Peralta says he will be happy to do whatever the team asks of him.
"I feel fine with whatever decision they make," Peralta told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I feel better at shortstop. I'm more comfortable there, but if I move to third, I'll do it. It's their decision."
"It felt a little strange at third base Friday -- a little different. The ball gets to you fast at a different angle. They hit two line drives at me that I didn't see too well."
Guillen plans to return in top shape: Jose Guillen plans to take a brief respite then begin a training program in order to return in the best shape possible in 2009.
"I'm going to take a month off and then start working out," Guillen told the Kansas City Star.
He also concedes that the upcoming World Baseball Classic, in which he hopes to play for his native Dominican Republic, is an additional inspiration to make sure he's in top form come the spring.
"I'm excited," he said. "The type of players we have in the Dominican, there's always a pretty good chance that we can win."
Upton has offseason plan in store: Justin Upton ended the season with a flourish, hitting .295 in his 61 September at-bats. Now he hopes to build on that success this offseason and into next year. Upton finished the year with a .259 average to go along with 15 home runs and 42 RBIs.
"I missed 43 games this year because of an injury, so I want to make sure that I'm 100 percent going into next year," Upton told the Arizona Republic. "And there are some little things mechanically that I can work on hitting-wise and in the outfield. I'm going to push to make myself better."
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Lacourte Wood Swatch, Ivory
This swatch provides a good representation of what the finish will look like on the furniture you're considering.
- Due to natural variances in the wood grain, you may notice slight differences in the final product.
- Return swatch in original packaging within 30 days for a full refund against merchandise purchase price.
Shipping Information
This item is shipped from our warehouse by UPS to arrive within five business days of our receiving your order.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Return Policy
Our products are designed with your comfort and style in mind.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable, and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
Monogrammed orders cannot be cancelled or returned.
Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Should your item arrive damaged or with a defect, please contact us at 888.922.4108 within 7 days so that we may arrange for a replacement. Frames and springs are warranted to be free of manufacturing defects for the product's life, subject to the following conditions: warranty applies only to original owner and normal residential use. Defects resulting from negligence, abuse or use in a commercial, hospitality or other non-residential setting are not covered. For warranty service, call 888.922.4108.
All other items (with the exception of those marked as Final Sale) may be returned within 30 days of receipt for a refund of merchandise only. View Full Returns Policy.
Lacourte Wood Swatch, Ivory
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July 23, 2009
Preview Night @ Comic-Con
RobPattzNews shares this Twitpic from Comic-con! I love how Edward looks - he *dazzles* this time around. :-)
6 comments:
- AnonymousJuly 23, 2009 at 4:30 AM
I hope the fans only scream in the beginning and not scream when people are trying to answer questions and talk! Please make us other fellow twilighters proud and not ashamed.ReplyDelete
Ooooh!Me likey!ReplyDelete
Me likey, too, Renesmee. LOL!ReplyDelete
I agree, Anonymous. Last time us unfortunate fans who couldn't be there had to strain to hear whatthe actors said because people couldn't hold in their inner SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Edward looks SO much better! It's how I envisioned him. Beautiful, simply beautiful.
- AnonymousJuly 23, 2009 at 6:59 AM
Oh be still my heart! *Thud*ReplyDelete
Honestly I am on two overload after months of deprivation and pap photos I am losing it.......ReplyDelete
wow wow wow!ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Santa Clara County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Scott Tsui said the suspect is Kariem McFarlin, 35, of Alameda. McFarlin was arrested after Palo Alto officers and investigators from the regional Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force used data obtained from Apple and AT&T to track the stolen computers, which were connecting to the Internet and Apple servers from McFarlin's home in Alameda, according to a report from REACT investigator Marshall Norton.
According to the report, McFarlin — a former San Jose State University cornerback — had admitted to burglarizing the Jobs residence and to being involved in several other burglaries of private residences in San Francisco.
Jobs' two-story home was undergoing construction and was unoccupied at the time of the burglary, according to the police. Jobs' widow, Laureen Powell Jobs, had told the police that the home has been uninhabitable because of major renovations since mid-June. The general contractor for the renovation discovered the burglary on the morning of July 18.
While police had confirmed that two Apple computers and an iPad tablet were among the items stolen, they are still working to ascertain what other Apple products were taken during the burglary. Other items that were reported stolen included a wallet with credit cards, various iPods and remotes, a Ninja Blender, a Sodastream Soda Maker and "Monster Beats by Dr. Dre" headphones, a Tiffany platinum and aquamarine necklace valued at $33,000, another Tiffany necklace with diamonds valued at $28,500 and a pair of earrings valued at about $3,000.
Investigators relied on search records, serial numbers, IP addresses and social-media sites to track down the suspect. They learned after contacting Apple that the operator of the iPad in question was trying to re-install the operating system the morning after the burglary and was connecting to Apple servers through a wireless AT&T connection. They then used the IP address in this connection to link the equipment to two Apple iTunes accounts, one of which belonged to McFarlin.
Between July 24 and 26, investigators tracked down more evidence linking the stolen computers to other IP addresses associated with McFarlin's iTunes accounts. They received search warrants related to his customer accounts and learned from Apple's investigators that McFarlin used the iPad to log on to his iTunes account, according to investigator Marshall Norton's report.
Investigators made further headway on July 29, when they tracked the same iPad to a Comcast IP address associated with a woman living in Alameda County. They then learned that the woman, Jacqueline Richard, was one of McFarlin's "friends" on Facebook. Officers and REACT investigators used this evidence to get a search warrant for McFarlin's Alameda home. They raided the house on Aug. 2 and arrested McFarlin without incident. Norton wrote in the report that while at the house, he observed an iMac on a desk in the kitchen area. The computer's serial number was the same as on the computer that was taken during a burglary.
During his interview with REACT Task Force Agent Tim Crowley, McFarlin allegedly admitted that he stole two iMacs, three iPads, three iPods, an Apple TV, a diamond necklace and earrings and "several other items" found in his house, including a wallet with $1 inside it. According to the report, McFarlin told investigators that he threw several furniture cushions over the cyclone fence installed around the house because of renovations and dropped the stolen property on to the cushions to protect the items from breaking.
McFarlin also allegedly told the investigators that he had shipped the jewelry from the Waverley home to a seller in Pennsylvania (Palo Alto officers have since identified this seller, who agreed to return the jewelry). He also said he put the stolen items into his storage locker in Alameda. He consented to have the agents search the locker. Inside, they found a wallet containing Steve Jobs' driver's license, credit cards and "other personal items."
McFarlin explained during the interview that he had been homeless and was living on the streets in his car, according to the report. He said he targeted the house because it appeared to be under construction and unoccupied. He allegedly told investigators that he was alone and that he did not realize whose house he was in until he was inside and he saw a letter addressed to Jobs.
Once inside, McFarlin "rummaged through all of the rooms, removing various computers and camera equipment," according to a report from Palo Alto Detective Sgt. James Reifschneider. He also allegedly told the police that he had given away two of the iPads he had stolen, one to his juvenile daughter and another to his friend, Kenneth Kahn. Both Kahn and McFarlin's daughter said during the investigation that they didn't know the items had been stolen and handed them over to the REACT agents.
Tsui said it did not appear from the investigation that the home was targeted because of its association with one of Silicon Valley's leading pioneers.
"As far as we know, it seems like it was random," Tsui said.
McFarlin was arraigned on Aug. 7 and is next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 20, at which time he is expected to enter a plea. He is facing charges of burglary and selling of stolen property, Tsui said. The maximum sentence he can receive is seven years and eight months.
He is currently being held on $500,000 bail.
The incident is the latest in a long string of burglaries that has hit Palo Alto and other Bay Area cities in recent months. By early May, the city had reported 81 residential burglaries in the first four months of the year, compared to 34 in 2010 and 43 in 2011. The trend seemed to have eased off in April, when the number of reported burglaries dropped to seven. However, three more Palo Alto home burglaries were reported this past weekend, according to a police report.
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In summer immersion programs, Hannah Hwang '18 will study Korean in South Korea; Emily Howe '16 will study Swahili in Tanzania.
East Asian Studies
In this concentration, you study Chinese and Japanese language and East Asian literature, history, music, philosophy, political science, and religion. You take classes in other disciplines, do an interdisciplinary research project during your senior year, and participate, if you wish, in off-campus study in China, Japan, or Taiwan. As an East Asian studies concentrator, you may go on to graduate school or a career in in business, public service, law, teaching, research, and more.


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Hope to have my first BMW in the Spring. I've had Yamaha's and Honda's but now I want to upgrade to a R1200RT.
Since I work second shift, half of my riding will be at night and I am concerned with how good are the lights on the RT because I have a 50 minute commute through deer country.
Are lighting upgrades necessary?
Thank you in advance.


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Gwen Stefani and son Kingston Rossdale
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
The Week In Music: Gwen Stefani's Hella Good Threads For Kids
She was just a girl…who became a fashion designer. And now Gwen Stefani is taking her creativity to an entirely different level — threads for kids. In collaboration with Target, Stefani is launching Harajuku Mini, an affordable "Japanese anime-inspired" clothing line for babies, children and tweens. The line will debut Nov. 13, just in time for a hip Thanksgiving Day outfit for that special little one in your life. "Harajuku Mini is a dream come true," said Stefani. "I've always wanted to do a cool children's fashion line inspired by the super cute and playful kids' clothing you find in Japan. The whole idea is about being creative, expressing your own individuality and having fun getting dressed." No stranger to the runway, Stefani has also launched successful fashion lines in stores with L.A.M.B. and the Harajuku Lovers collection. Whatever her threads for the tots look like, we're sure they'll be hella good.
In the latest example of an unlikely musical mix, a mashup of TWIM heartthrob Justin Bieber and hardcore metal band Slipknot, titled "Psychosocial Baby," has gone viral in racking up more than 6.5 million views on YouTube. Despite fan comments such as, "This is a disgrace to Slipknot," frontman Corey Taylor described the mashup as "f***ing amazing." "I was sitting in my kitchen and my manager sent it to me," said Taylor. "And me, my wife and a bunch of friends, we just clicked on it and we were like, 'What the f*** am I seeing?' It was genius." While it's unlikely that the Bieb will go metal anytime soon, Taylor is in his corner. "The thing that really bothers me [is] so many people talk s*** about Justin Bieber — and I'm not saying I'm a fan — but the kid's got talent."
In medical news, a Swedish heavy metal fan is battling an unusual form of addiction. Roger Tullgren, 42, has been medically diagnosed as being addicted to heavy metal, a non-substance compulsive disorder that impacts his social and working life. A team of psychologists officially diagnosed the condition, which means Tullgren will receive state benefits such as income support so that he can attend concerts and indulge other parts of the addiction. "I spoke to three psychologists and they finally agreed that I needed this to avoid being discriminated against," said Tullgren. Not all medical professionals are sold on the decision to feed Tullgren's addiction, however. "If somebody has a gambling addiction, we don't send them down to the racetrack," said an anonymous local psychologist. It would seem a healthy regular dosage of avant-garde jazz, disco, pop, and classical music would be the perfect prescription for any metal addiction. But Tullgren will not be buying into a 12-step program anytime soon. "Some might say that I should grow up and learn to listen to other types of music but I can't," he said. "Heavy metal is my lifestyle."
Though she really hasn't gone anywhere, Rebecca Black is back and she has a message for her critics. The Internet sensation who burst on the scene with "Friday," which gobbled up more than 160 million views on YouTube before being removed, has released her second video, "My Moment." While the new video has passed 10 million views in less than a week, Black definitely feels the pressure in trying to follow up her first hit. "'Friday' was such a hit," said Black. "[But 'My Moment' is] the perfect song that kind of tells off the haters a little bit [and] still shows that [I'm] a serious artist." Speaking of the "haters," Black's message to those who don't like her music is simple: "They can turn it off if they want," she said. "They don't have to hate." Sounds like Black's simple solution would help metal addict Roger Tullgren. In the meantime, will Black's new song blow up? It's hard to tell, but it seems her moment will at least last a bit longer.
Are you a female and do you work hard for your money? If so, Pharrell Williams knows just how to treat you right. The rapper has developed his own vodka-infused liquor specifically designed for the working woman. Titled Qream, the beverage was designed for "contemporary women who work hard and want to relax with friends at the end of the day," Williams told AllHipHop.com. "I want them to reward themselves deliciously. Women make up half the population, and Qream is about celebrating that power." Set to launch later this month, the beverage will be available in fruity flavors including peach and strawberry, and will reportedly have fewer calories than a glass of red wine. Does this mean hard-working females across the country will no longer be singing UB40's "Red Red Wine" at the end of a long day?
Lady Gaga is known for pushing the limits of fashion and performance, but has she finally crossed the line? During a concert in Sydney on July 13 Gaga rolled onstage in a wheelchair dressed as a mermaid. While the controversial act created quite the online ruckus, it really took the wind out beneath Bette Midler's wings. On July 16 the Broadway beauty tweeted, "Dear @ladygaga I've been doing singing mermaid in a wheelchair since 1980 — you can keep the meat dress and the firecrack t***— mermaid's mine." An offline conversation must have taken place between Midler and the Fame Monster because the next day Bette tweeted, "@ladygaga, let's drink this over at the Emmys in September. Fabulous mermaids can coexist!" Sounds like everything is copasetic above sea level — at least for the moment.
LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock is tops on the Billboard Hot 100 and iTunes singles chart.
Any news we've missed? Comment below.
For the latest GRAMMY news, visit us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


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The debate over whether Lakewood Ranch should incorporate into a city has had one great benefit for the rest of the region: highlighting the value of outsourcing for everyone.
As part of a summer-long series of reports on the consequences of becoming a city or remaining unincorporated, the East County Observer reported on three other Florida cities that had incorporated, outlining their experiences.
Wellington was the most traditional, doing everything in-house except law enforcement, which it outsourced to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office. Bonita Springs outsources about half of its city operations and has a tax rate lower than unincorporated Lee County.
But the most illustrative city was Weston, a city of 62,000 residents in Broward County. Weston operates on a $100 million budget. It has 14 city parks, a nice, new City Hall building, the full range of law enforcement, fire and rescue, zoning and community services common to any city.
But it has a grand total of nine employees. Nine. Cities such as Sarasota, struggling with huge pension costs and ballooning employee benefits, dealing with difficult unions and so on — plus all the spine operations to handle those issues — should be envious of Weston's arrangement. Those headaches and cost containment responsibilities belong to the private-sector companies to which Weston outsources.
All nine employees are directors of a city department. But in reality, they are contract control agents overseeing 30 major private contractors that handle everything in the city down to the receptionist at City Hall.
The result of this outsourcing is that Weston has the lowest tax rate of any municipality in Broward County. Further, a recent study for Broward County found that when all taxes, fees and other governmental assessments on citizens are combined, Weston is the least expensive place in the county to live — as far as paying for government expenses go.
And Money magazine named it "One of America's Best Small Cities" in 2008, one of only three Florida cities.
While Weston is a wealthy city with no inner-city issues and no legacy costs, the outsourcing principles remain true for many operations in any city, and more are finding it to be true.
Local governments are privatizing public parking, golf courses, zoos, libraries, roads, custodial services, judicial security, solid-waste collection, recycling, convention centers and park maintenance, to name a few. Hard-core union city Detroit has re-written its anti-privatization charter to start outsourcing that city's services.
Even the slow-moving Leviathan federal government doubled its outsourcing activities between 2001-2008 to more than $500 billion. Union-backed politicians in D.C. have unsuccessfully tried to undo that trend. Privatizing more government functions is the future.
And it is certainly the future for forward-looking governments intent on providing an affordable, high quality of life for all their citizens, not just unions and government employees.
The debate over whether Lakewood Ranch should incorporate into a city has had one great benefit for the rest of the region: highlighting the value of outsourcing for everyone.


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A 46-year-old town man who appeared in the reality show "Hotel Hell" was arrested early Tuesday after State Police accused him of setting fire to his Wright Road home.
The Cambridge Volunteer Fire Department was called to the home of Richard T. Wilson, 46, at about 12:10 a.m. Monday to find smoke in the air and a bedroom ablaze.
Firefighters stopped the fire from spreading and investigators began to interview Wilson, who troopers said was the Cambridge Hotel's executive chef when the hotel was profiled on the reality television show featuring the critical chef Gordon Ramsay.
Wilson was married to the daughter of the hotel's owner.
Troopers said his version of events conflicted with the evidence found at the scene.
Wilson was charged with arson. He pleaded not guilty in Cambridge Town Court and was sent to Washington County Jail to await further court action, troopers said.
There were no injuries.
The episode in the sixth season of the show featuring Ramsay appeared in early 2013, although the hotel had closed due to financial problems just before that in 2012.
Wilson was called 'Chef Rich' on the show and did not take the withering criticism regularly dished out by Ramsey well, at one point in the episode saying he would like to "send him back to Britain in a body bag."


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Immigration debate needs more common ground
4 comments post a comment
Engineers and management agree we should give green cards to foreign-born STEM grads, but we could use more common ground as the debate ramps up.
SAN JOSE, Calif. As the debate over immigration gets moved to the front burner, Washington appears to be uniting, but the tech industry remains as polarized as ever.
I am glad to see Republicans and Democrats coming together on immigration reform as they scramble for the growing Hispanic vote. There are plenty of wrongs to right.
Unfortunately, there are no uniting forces in the tech community. Rank-and-file US engineers remain viscerally concerned about technical jobs getting sent overseas while management sees top talent nurtured and attracted to growing markets in China and India.
In a recent press release, the IEEE-USA cited data (below) from the US Department of Labor showing that the top 10 companies applying for H-1B visas in the first three months of FY 2013 were offshore outsourcing companies.
Click on image to enlarge.
Click on image to enlarge.
Some members of Congress are considering increasing the H-1B cap significantly beyond 65,000 as part of comprehensive immigration reform, the IEEE release said. But that would only benefit those outsourcing companies, it claimed.
Its worth noting the IEEE-USA supports legislation providing employment-based green cards for skilled immigrants earning advanced STEM degrees from US colleges and universities, and their dependents. Green cards, unlike H-1B visas, allow immigrants to start their own companies, many of which will create jobs in the United States, it said.
Thats a small but important piece of common ground where the IEEE stands beside high tech managers who are calling for green cards both for foreign-born STEM grads but for entrepreneurs as well. Why let that brilliant engineer start a hot new company in Shanghai when she could start it in San Francisco, they ask.
Even if the tech lobby can learn to speak with one voice, it is a tiny squeal amid the immigration roar. Huge lobbies are at play, some pressing for stronger enforcement along the Mexican border, others demanding a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
In the end the US immigration debate is more about how we regard Mexico than China and India. In my opinion, there is plenty of room for useful reforms in both directions.
Its also clear to me that we need as much unity as we can get in US politics these days if we are going to move the ball forward. So heres to the hope we can all find a little more common ground on which to stand.
Related stories:
Time for engineers to weigh in on immigration
Silicon Valley Nation: Immigration do-over?
Patent office to open in Silicon Valley


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National Ministry Survey
A Collaboration between DTS and Regent University
Dallas Theological Seminary is committed to training students effectively by staying current with contemporary pastoral care needs and relevant ministry preparation. Therefore, DTS and Regent University are teaming together in the collection and analysis of data in order to acquire a snapshot of the experiences of ministry staff in the evangelical church in 2014. This information includes (a) the general needs of individuals, couples and families in their congregations and (b) the specific needs expressed by congregations in the area of sexuality in light of the significant cultural changes over the last two decades.
Dr. Gary Barnes, DTS faculty member in the Biblical Counseling Department, and Dr. Mark Yarhouse, Professor and Rosemarie Scotti Hughes Endowed Chair of Christian Thought in Mental Health Practice at Regent University, are coordinating the study. They desire input from Christian organizations and churches throughout the country, including alumni pastors from DTS. Dr. Yarhouse recently spoke in chapel at DTS, and we have a Table podcast on sexuality with Dr. Gary Barnes and Dr. Darrell Bock.
This anonymous voluntary survey will provide essential information regarding the current challenges in the church today. We would like to invite all alums who are "church ministry leaders," not just paid staff or individuals with a title of "pastor." This includes grads serving as elders, deacons, board members, volunteer teaching pastors, or ministry leaders who have the training and the church ministry experience to significantly contribute to the survey. If at this time you are not serving in a leadership position in your church, we hope you would invite your church ministry leader to participate in the survey.
To complete the anonymous web-based questionnaire use this link:
If you are in Youth ministry, or have a youth minister who could fill out a survey tailored to youth ministry, please use this link:
The information about the challenges you face in your frontline church ministries in pastoral care will be valuable in developing areas of ministry training. Your participation in this study will be greatly appreciated.
Many of you work with or know graduates from seminaries other than DTS. We would also love for them to participate in the survey. In order for them to do this, please ask them to email Dr. Gary Barnes directly at firstname.lastname@example.com including their seminary and degree so they can receive their link for the survey.
Thank you!
In His service,
Greg Hatteberg
Director of Alumni
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Unlike last year, Nats may be Deadline players
By Bill Ladson / MLB.com
PHILADELPHIA -- Last year at this time, manager Davey Johnson said the Nationals didn't need to make a move before the non-waiver Trade Deadline on July 31. At the time, the Nationals had one of the best records in baseball, thanks to their timely hitting and stalwart pitching staff.
The Nationals didn't make a move before the Deadline, but they did acquire catcher Kurt Suzuki from the Athletics on Aug. 3.
This year, the Nationals may have to make some moves. Entering Wednesday's action, the team was tied for second place with a 34-36 record, seven games behind the Braves.
As one baseball source put it, the team may need to go out and get a veteran right-handed hitter for the bench. The Nationals started the season hoping that Tyler Moore could provide power off the bench, but he was recently sent down to Triple-A Syracuse to find his swing. There is a chance Moore could be back to help the Major League team. In eight games for Syracuse, Moore is 8-for-32 (.250) with two home runs and eight RBIs.
But the source said the biggest boost to the team would be getting outfielder Bryce Harper and catcher Wilson Ramos back in the lineup. Both players are on the disabled list because of knee and hamstring issues, respectively.
"Those were the biggest blows," the source said.
Before he got hurt, Harper was clearly the best player on the Nationals. He was leading the team in almost every offensive category. He is currently working on strengthening his left knee, which he hurt after crashing into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium in May.
Ramos hasn't played a Major League game since mid-May, but he is performing baseball activities in Florida.
While no timetable has been set, the Nationals are hoping that Harper and Ramos will be back in a couple of weeks.
Another question is whether the Nationals need a fifth starter.Thus far, right-hander Dan Haren has been inconsistent, going 4-8 with a 5.72 ERA. But the source doesn't think the Nationals are looking for a starter.
The Nationals are paying Haren $13 million this year and they are going to give him every chance to get his act together.
Johnson, Zimmerman back Eckstein's work
PHILADELPHIA -- General manager Mike Rizzo told a radio station Wednesday that he has dismissed hitting coaches in the past, but he is not thinking of relieving Rick Eckstein of his duties as hitting coach -- yet.
But manager Davey Johnson reiterated that he supports Eckstein and said if the Nationals let Eckstein go, the team will have to dismiss Johnson as well. Johnson said he and Eckstein have the same hitting philosophy -- hit the ball where it is pitched.
"He is one of the most outstanding hitting instructors I've ever been around. He is conscientious, hard working," Johnson said. "If anything, he works too hard. But if you want to fire the hitting coach, you might as well fire me, because he has the same philosophy that I do."
The Nationals are near the bottom of almost every offensive category and, according to Ryan Zimmerman, Eckstein is taking it hard. But it's not Eckstein's fault that the team is not hitting.
"Rick doesn't hit. He gives us the best chance," Zimmerman said. "He is here every day doing what he is supposed to do. It's not his fault, Davey's fault or anyone's fault but the guys who go up there and hit. Rick obviously takes it harder, but we are the ones who get paid to hit, drive in runs. It's nobody's fault but ours."
Worth noting
• Roger Bernadina was scratched from Wednesday's lineup because he couldn't see out of his left eye. He is expected to see an eye doctor Thursday and get it checked out. Steve Lombardozzi replaced Bernadina in left field.
• Chad Tracy had muscle spasms in his back and couldn't take batting practice on Wednesday. He hurt the back while long tossing before the game. He spent most of Wednesday's game in the trainer's room. He started to feel better before he was announced as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning of the Nationals' 6-2 victory. Tracy's injury is not considered serious.
"Something got out of whack. Not sure," Tracy said. "But I was ready to hit [in the eighth inning]. A couple of days of treatment will be fine."
Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, All Nats All the time. He also could be found on Twitter @WashingNats. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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We didn't need the Maxwell Award watch list to inform us that USC has some pretty good players.
But on Monday, the annual award given to the nation's best player provided further confirmation that the Trojans are going to be a force in the Pac-12 and nationally.
USC QB Matt Barkley, his two top targets in receivers Robert Woods and Marqise Lee, as well as RB Curtis McNeal made the watch list.
Arkansas, Clemson and Oklahoma placed three players apiece on the list.
Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck won the award last season.
Barkley, Woods, Clemson QB Tajh Boyd and Oklahoma QB Landry Jones return to the watch list after being semifinalists last season.
Semifinalists will be announced Oct. 29 and three finalists will be named Nov. 19. The winner will be named at the Dec. 6 Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards Show.
Here's the complete watch list:
Alabama: QB AJ McCarron, RB Eddie Lacy
Arizona State: RB Cameron Marshall
Arkansas: QB Tyler Wilson, RB Knile Davis, WR Cobi Hamilton
Auburn: RB Onterio McCalebb
Baylor: WR Terrance Williams
Buffalo: RB Branden Oliver
BYU: QB Riley Nelson
Cal: WR Keenan Allen, RB Isi Sofele
Clemson: QB Tajh Boyd, WR Sammy Watkins, RB Andre Ellington
Connecticut: RB Lyle McCombs
FSU: QB EJ Manuel
Fresno State: QB Derek Carr, RB Robbie Rouse
Georgia: QB Aaron Murray
Houston: RB Charles Sims
Iowa: QB James Vandenberg
Kansas State: QB Collin Klein
Louisville: QB Teddy Bridgewater
Michigan: QB Denard Robinson, RB Fitzgerald Toussaint
Michigan State: RB Le'Veon Bell
Missouri: QB James Franklin
N.C. State: QB Mike Glennon
Nebraska: RB Rex Burkhead
North Carolina: RB Giovani Bernard, QB Bryn Renner
Notre Dame: RB Cierre Wood, TE Tyler Eifert
Ohio State: QB Braxton Miller
Oklahoma: QB Landry Jones, WR Kenny Stills, RB Dominique Whaley
Oklahoma State: RB Joseph Randle
Oregon: RB Kenjon Barner, WR De' Anthony Thomas
Penn State: RB Silas Redd
Pittsburgh: RB Ray Graham
SMU: RB Zach Line
South Carolina: RB Marcus Lattimore
Stanford: RB Stepfan Taylor
TCU: QB Casey Pachall
Tennessee: QB Tyler Bray, WR Da'Rick Rogers
Texas: RB Malcolm Brown
Texas A&M: RB Christine Michael
Texas Tech: QB Seth Doege
UCLA: RB Johnathan Franklin
USC: QB Matt Barkley, WR Robert Woods, WR Marqise Lee, RB Curtis McNeal
Utah: RB John White IV
Vanderbilt: RB Zac Stacy
Virginia Tech: QB Logan Thomas
Washington: QB Keith Price
Washington State: WR Marquess Wilson
West Virginia: QB Geno Smith, WR Tavon Austin
Wisconsin: RB Montee Ball
Bednarik Award (best defensive player)
Lou Groza Award (top kicker)
Ray Guy Award (top punter)
Jet Award (top return specialist)
Mackey Award (top tight end)
Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player)
Outland Trophy (top lineman)
Rimington Trophy (best center)
Thorpe Award (top defensive back)


text:
Associated Press writer
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) - Arkansas practiced for the first time this year in a Monday session that resembled an orientation, with 34 newcomers mixing with veterans.
Working out in jerseys and shorts, the players participated in one-on-one drills before splitting up into offensive and defensive units and competing against each other in preconceived plays.
For Hou-ston Nutt, who is entering his seventh season as Razor-backs' coach, the opening week of the preseason will be as much about getting to know the players as it is teaching them the system.
"There is a lot of learning involved," he said. "When you have this many younger people, this many positions open, it's a learning process."
Yet, for many of the newcomers, the first day did not surprise them. Since 90 percent of the incoming class worked out during the summer months in Fayetteville, according to Nutt, getting acclimated to their surroundings was not an issue.
"I had the opportunity to be here a lot during the spring, so I kind of got a feel of how it was going to be just by observation," said Alex Mortensen, a quarterback from Fairburn, Ga. "Being up here in the summer has helped a lot."
The first practice of the season attracted gawkers on nearback Razorback Road, and contributed to a three-car pileup. Practice continued without stopping.
For DeCori Birmingham, who will likely start at running back, the sight of younger guys making plays was a new experence.
"It's a little strange being out here without the Tony Buas, George (Wilsons) and Jimmy (Beasleys)," he said. "But it's a part of life."
As one of nine seniors, Birmingham said that this year the upperclassmen are more intently focused on placing the newest Razorbacks on the right track.
"It's never been like joking around and playing," he said. "But it's way more serious now. We've got a lot of guys we're trying to get ready for this year as well as for the future. Right now, all the seniors are trying to be real focused and lead the team in the right direction."
And for Nutt, that is important because he said a lot of young players will be seeing the field early this season.
"You know by depth that they're going to have to play," he said. You're not going to be able to put the redshirt on. You can forget about that, whereas in years past they would be great candidates for red-shirting. But right now, the last thing on my mind is redshirting. That is the last thing on my mind."
Wide receiver Cedric Logan of Fayetteville and strong safety Randy Kelly of Palmetto, Fla., sat out the practice because their academic status is still being evaluated.


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A jury of 12 Quebec citizens, after several days of deliberations that came very close to impasse, declined Jan. 19 to accept prosecutors' contention that three Montreal, Maine & Atlantic…
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CP ordered to interchange trains with MM&A
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text:
Dateline: December 28, 2000
AALL's 2001 Legislative Agenda
Included among our legislative priorities for the coming year are several important issues that will resurface as early as January: legislation to protect databases; digital copyright issues in the wake of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. In addition, we're certain to face another battle for adequate FY 2002 funding for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and Congress may hold hearings on a sweeping reorganization plan, developed by the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, for a new federal "Public Information Resource Agency". With your continued support for our legislative efforts through our strong grassroots program, together we can look forward to another challenging year in which the following will be priorities of our legislative agenda.
1. Renewed Battle Over Database Legislation.
While House term limit rules require Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) to step down, it is certain that committee members Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) will once again attempt to garner support for legislation to protect databases outside of federal copyright law. Coble in fact threw out the gauntlet in a statement published in the Congressional Record of October 12th that "this will now be the third Congress in which legislation protecting databases has failed to become law. Over the past years, the opponents of such legislation have done all they can to prevent legislation from moving forward and maintain the status quo so they may pirate the work of others due to the current gap in protection."
Thwarting passage of the Coble bill during the 106th Congress was H.R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act approved by the House Commerce Committee under the leadership of newly-retired Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA). AALL, our sister library associations and the Digital Future Coalition (DFC) strongly endorsed H.R. 1858, which included AALL's language excluding primary legal material from any new database protection scheme. This balanced legislation has been endorsed as well by many strong voices in the high-tech industry who believe the Coble bill would hinder the growth of electronic commerce. Beginning early next year, we will be facing another jurisdictional battle over database legislation between these two committees that will require a strong AALL grassroots response.
2. Library Strategy to Restore Balance in the Copyright Act, post DMCA.
The adverse ruling on anticircumvention by Librarian of Congress James Billington in late October (reported here in the December issue) has prompted the Shared Legal Capability (AALL, ALA, ARL, MLA and SLA) to assess several options to deal with the negative impact on library services of that rulemaking and other provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The Copyright Office held a hearing on November 29, 2000 regarding the effect of the DMCA prohibitions on the First Sale doctrine. It was apparent from the testimony of witnesses on behalf of the content community that, in their view, the first sale exception does not apply to digital distribution and that they will oppose any legislative effort to update the first sale language of Section 109 of the Copyright Act for the digital age. Other areas within copyright law that we believe should be addressed by Congress in the coming session are distance education, interlibrary loan and the preservation of Internet resources.
3. UCITA on a Fast-track in 2001.
Last year, despite our best efforts, we saw the enactment of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) in two states, Maryland (effective date: October 1, 2000) and Virginia (effective date: July 1, 2001). UCITA was also tabled in a handful of other states, including Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, and Iowa--where "bombshelter" legislation was adopted to exempt Iowa residents from provisions of UCITA through July 2001. In addition, the New Jersey Law Revision Commission thoroughly studied UCITA during the past year and drafted an amendment that would exclude libraries from this legislation.
4CITE, the broad-based coalition of users and developers of computer information that was initiated by the library community a year ago, has changed its name to AFFECT--Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions. The new coalition web site is content rich and includes the basics of UCITA, a helpful list of UCITA opponents, sample letters and a state-by-state tracking so that you can monitor activity in your own state (http://www.4cite.org/states.html). We expect to see UCITA introduced in as many as twenty states early in the New Year, and AALL members are already at the forefront in state efforts to oppose UCITA in California, Louisiana, Oregon, New Hampshire, Texas and Washington.
4. NCLIS Draft Report and Legislative Proposal.
The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science issued its draft Final Report on "A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination" in late November and at the same time released a legislative proposal, the Public Information Resources Reform Act of 2001.
The proposal includes 11 recommendations based on the establishment of a new independent agency in the executive branch, the Public Information Resources Administration (PIRA) that would incorporate the Superintendent of Documents and the Federal Depository Library Program, renaming it the PIRA Program. The Government Printing Office would remain in the legislative branch and would become a new Legislative Information Resources Office and there would be a newly-created Judicial Information Resources Office within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. For more information on the report and proposal, see http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.html.
At a public meeting on December 4, 2000, I submitted formal comments to the Commission, expressing agreement with many of the findings and purposes of the new legislative proposal and affirming the five principles of public access developed during the 1996 GPO Study and incorporated into the Advisory Panel 4 Report on Public-Private Sector Partnerships of which I was a member :
Secondly, I expressed concern that stakeholders, including the library community, had no opportunity to review or comment on the dramatic organizational changes proposed by NCLIS. Further, that in the climate of smaller, more efficient government, it might be very difficult--if not impossible--to get support from the new Administration or Congress for such a heavily bureaucratic new agency. In the meantime, I strongly urged NCLIS to recommend specific and immediate remedies to the NTIS situation that will ensure its future stability and growth.
Lastly, I suggested that a legislative remedy to ensure the permanent public access and preservation of the ever-increasing amounts of valuable government publications that are accessible only through agency web sites should be a priority. We believe that the solution should be a coordinated, collaborative approach involving government entities and library partners across all three branches of government. I once again urged NCLIS to review the statutory language drafted by the library community during the 105th Congress as part of S. 2288. It is a thoughtful, incremental approach to strengthening the FDLP by affirming that electronic government information must be permanently available to the public and by creating a permanent public access council.
Final Thoughts on Our 2001 Legislative Agenda.
These four important policy issues carrying over from last year will keep the Washington Affairs Office, the Government Relations Committee and the Copyright Committee fully occupied next year. In addition, we will be playing an active role in the Reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act and in monitoring the Open Secrets Act, vetoed by President Clinton in November, that would have criminalized leaks of classified information. We are also preparing AALL's formal comments to the Judicial Conference, due January 26th, regarding policies under consideration to address privacy and security concerns related to the electronic availability of court case files. So stay tuned for a busy year ahead in which we will be calling upon you for grassroots support that will be critical to our efforts. If you haven't yet joined the AALL Advocacy Listserv, please subscribe today at aalladvocsubscribe.asp. Thanks!
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