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Last month Mandriva announced its latest Spring edition. Despite a few minor glitches, after several weeks of testing the two Mandriva flavors, I have finally come across a distro that gives you the best of the GNU/Linux and proprietary worlds in terms of ease of use, range of software, and stability on hardware that ranges from old Celerons to newer multi-core machines.
I tested two Mandriva offerings. Mandriva's flasgship edition, Mandriva One, comprises a half dozen live CDs, three each for the KDE (version 3.5.9) and GNOME (2.22) desktops, each of the three distinguished only by different Internationalization support. There is no DVD available for the One version. I also tried is the commercial Mandriva Powerpack edition, which is available for a fee ($59 for the download version and $89 for a boxed set) that includes support as well. Powerpack is an install-only DVD version.
Software selection
Mandriva One's single-CD distro is a throwback to the days before we had so many free software options, 3-D desktop add-ons, and 3-D games, not to mention multi-core hardware and fat connections to the Internet that allow users to grab 3.3GB ISOs in a couple of hours. Nevertheless, despite their small size, the two Mandriva One flavors have the best collection of software I've ever seen on a single-CD distro. On machines on which I don't need to play shoot-em-ups, the default list of bundled software serves all my purposes, from browsing the Internet to typing documents to editing images and video. Both the Mandriva One and Powerpack editions run a modified Linux 126.96.36.199 kernel. Sound is handled by PulseAudio, video by Xorg 7.3, and 3-D effects by Compiz Fusion 0.7.2 and Mandriva's own Metisse.
Common software bundled in both Mandriva One live CDs includes OpenOffice.org 2.4.0, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, GIMP 2.4.5, and Totem 2.22.0. Each live CD has its desktop environment's own software for burning CDs and DVDs, managing photographs, instant messaging, reading email, playing music, and other tasks. The KDE live CD lacks a video editor, while the GNOME live CD bundles Kino. The KDE system in Powerpack bundles the Kdenlive video editor. None of the live CDs bundle any virtualization software, nor is any installed by the default package selection group in Powerpack. The biggest branch of software missing from the One live CDs is games.
On the bright side, you can download dozens of games and both Virtualbox and Xen virtualization software from the Mandriva repository, which also packs the latest KDE 4. Additionally, Mandriva Linux Spring's release notes page lists new software in the repository that includes Elisa media center, the Mac OS X-inspired task manager Avant Window Navigator, Conduit data synchronizer, and Miro for watching Internet TV.
Out of the box, the live CDs play MP3 music files and patent-free formats such as FLAC and Ogg. For all other types of formats, Mandriva pops up a message via Codeina that asks you to get a decoder by either paying Fluendo for it or using a reverse-engineered decoder from Mandriva's repository. To configure your Mandriva repository, run the software installation utility and select the option to update repositories when prompted.
In addition to the software on the live CD, the commercial Powerpack edition packs in games as well. Paying for the distro also gets you Cedega, for playing Windows games, and Fluendo codecs worth €28, in addition to support and online training.
Working with One and Powerpack
I like the fact that the GNOME and KDE live CDs have a consistent look and feel during bootup and after loading the desktop, with same wallpapers and same configuration tools. Before loading the desktop, both live CDs ask the same set of basic questions, giving you the option to set up your keyword, location, date, and time. You are also asked to select a 3-D desktop if Mandriva has determined that your computer has the resources to run one. On offer is Compiz Fusion and Mandriva's own Metisse.
When I tried to play music on a desktop box with a 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU and Intel DG965RY motherboard, the speakers (powered by an onboard Sigmatel sound card) oozed a continuous buzzing sound, while the audio was hardly audible. Mandriva Control Center, the distro's configuration tool, refused to display sound editing options. Even Powerpack couldn't do anything about the buzzing, though it did let me edit the sound options. No other machine had this issue.
Both live CDs ran flawlessly on a 2.0GHz E4400 dual-core desktop. Even after almost a day of using the distro to create documents, browse the Internet, and listen to music, the live CD environment didn't show any signs of stress. The live CDs exhibited the same sturdiness on a 1.3GHz Celeron laptop with 1GB RAM.
Installing the operating system to the hard drive from the live CDs is a quick walk in the park. Both live CDs use the same installer. The partitioning tool in the live CD installer can create, resize, and delete partitions. The only issue with the One live CD installer is that it doesn't add GRUB entries for any Windows partition you might already have on the machine.
By default Mandriva creates ext3 partitions. While installing from either the live CD or the Powerpack installer, if you wish to create Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partitions, you'll have to toggle Expert mode. The live CD installer will prompt you to install the lvm2 package before it can create LVM partitions, but the Powerpack installer is equipped with all the tools and packages to help you create LVM partitions.
Hardware support
Apart from the sound issue on one of the dual-core machines, Mandriva recognized, configured, and activated all the devices I have attached to my three test machines. It detected the Linksys Wireless USB adapter, which didn't seem to run properly with the built-in drivers but did so later when I installed its Windows drivers via Ndiswrapper. The Linksys Wireless PCMCIA card on the laptop didn't require any special treatment, nor did the wired Ethernet card on the desktop.
All Mandriva flavors correctly configured a 19-inch 1440x990 LCD monitor and 17-inch 1280x1024 LCD monitor on the desktops. The onboard graphics on both the Intel boards were also configured properly and powered the 3-D desktop and 3-D games like Torcs and Tremulous.
I had to install the GSPCA drivers for my Quantum QHM500LM webcam before I could get it working. But a Sony Handycam plugged in via the FireWire port worked right off the bat with both Kino and Kdenlive. A Canon 400D DSLR camera was also mounted automatically when connected via the USB port.
You can check the Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring Errata to see if there's a known issue with your hardware.
Things you can do
I really appreciate the fact that the only difference between the free (as in beer) Mandriva One editions and the paid-for Powerpack edition is the extra proprietary software and support you get with Powerpack. In terms of features and functionality both versions are identical.
Both versions bundle the same Mandriva Control Center (MCC), which features a few new tricks as compared to the last spring release. In addition to backing up the entire system, you can now setup Mandriva to periodically take snapshots of a particular folder, a bunch of folders, or even the entire system.
There are five preset security levels you can choose from in the MCC, depending on how paranoid you are about system break-ins. You can also set or review audit parameters and the level of authentication required for tasks such as network configuration and scheduling backups.
If you are a concerned parent, using the MCC you can set up parental controls to help you block sites (with the help of a white list and a black list) and restrict Internet access during time periods that you can set.
On the package installation front, there's a small utility that keeps track of the various packages on your system, along with stats like when was the last time you ran a particular package. This can help you identify packages that you can safely remove from the system.
Mandriva Linux Spring 2008 also has an improved software installation utility. Adding a repository is fairly quick now because the package manager downloads extra information about a package when you click on it. By default the package manager now lists only programs with a graphical user interface, in order to help new users who are baffled by the choice of software and libraries in the package manager. Experienced users can browse and search all packages by selecting the appropriate option in a prominently displayed pull-down menu within the software manager.
With the Powerpack edition you can use the DVD as a repository and save time by grabbing stuff off of it when you install new software. That would be a great option for users with the GNOME and KDE live CDs. For example, if I install Mandriva One from the GNOME live CD, the only way I can install KDE on this system is by installing it from the online repos, which is OK unless I have a Mandriva One KDE CD lying next to me.
I couldn't test two Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring additions because I lacked the necessary hardware. You can run this Mandriva release on an Asus Eee PC, and the distro can synchronize many types of mobile devices, including those running Windows Mobile 5 and 6, Blackberries, and most Nokia phones.
Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring comes pretty close to a perfect Linux distribution. It has a good selection of software in its various editions as well as in its repositories. To help new users, there's useful wiki-based online documentation and an active community on forum boards, IRC channel (#mandriva on Freenode), and several mailing lists, including one for beginners.
It's unfair to expect a distro to work with all sorts of hardware across multi-core and single-core platforms without any tweaking, yet apart from the sound issues on one dual-core machine, Mandriva work effortlessly with all my hardware devices. Never once did I felt the need to launch a terminal to manage the system. Mandriva detected and set up my wireless cards, FireWire and USB devices, graphics cards, and monitors. I could schedule backups, update repositories, install new packages, and tweak and enable a firewall, all within a graphical interface.
No matter whether you are a Linux newbie or power user, you can always use a stable desktop distribution, and they don't come any better than Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring.


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Viewpoints: Experts comment on EU's Nobel award
The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union for its work in promoting peace and stability in Europe. The award recognised the success of Franco-German reconciliation, the EU's eastward enlargement and peace efforts in the Balkans.
Here several experts on European affairs give their opinions on the award, which comes at a time of tension amid the eurozone debt crisis.
Heather Grabbe, Open Society Institute, Brussels
This is a big confidence boost for the EU at a moment when confidence is at a very low ebb because of the euro crisis. It's an important reminder that European integration is a peace project.
In the Balkans reconciliation is all under the EU's auspices - were it not for the EU they wouldn't be where they are today. The EU is the only body able to bring a whole range of peace-building measures to such a troubled region - the US couldn't do that.
France and Germany no longer go to war to resolve economic difficulties. In previous centuries they did, but now they negotiate through the European Council - much better.
Reconciliation is about exorcising the ghosts of history. It's easy to forget that now, we take peace for granted.
Nato is a different thing, it's a military alliance and doesn't do institution-building.
There are still huge challenges - ensuring reconciliation and co-operation in the Balkans, having a much more constructive, integrated relationship with Turkey. In the EU's neighbourhood there are still major problems with democracy, incomplete transitions and economic nationalism.
The EU needs to get back to its core business - trade and promoting reconciliation. It's important to move out of this crisis mode.
Franco-German relations have had ups and downs - at the moment they're not as close as they used to be on economic policy, or the EU's future. But the populations are much closer now, there are many school exchanges and their trade is huge.
Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minister
I think the award was highly deserved and I think we should congratulate 500 million Europeans who, in different ways, have all benefited from the integration, the stability, peace and also the prosperity that the European Union has given.
We have not sorted out all of the problems, history has not come to its end, but great progress has been made.
I think it was particularly important that the Nobel committee mentioned enlargement. They mentioned Turkey where we see, most concretely, how the integration process is making its contribution to peace.
In Greece, Portugal and Spain, we should not forget the important role the EU played in stabilising democracy after the fall of the military dictatorships, as well as the hand it is now giving them with some significant economic problems.
The progress that has been made through integration in the past few decades is mind-bogglingly successful.
I am in the north of Europe, looking out at the Baltic states. Just a couple of decades ago, a hundred million people in the eastern and central parts of Europe were living under dictatorship and in despair.
The contribution that European integration has made there to the rule of law, democracy and an element of prosperity is easily forgotten.
When we are dealing with the problems of today, I think we all agree that it would be far more difficult to deal with them without the integration, the co-operation, the leaders sitting around a table and trying to find common solutions.
Carl Bildt can be followed on Twitter
Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party
I think that the whole thing is a nonsense.
If anyone is suggesting that a democratic, stable, post-war Germany would have invaded France again with the intention of smashing it to smithereens, I would suggest they are misreading history.
I do not believe there was any prospect of war happening in Western Europe after 1945. Arguably, projects that take different nation states, force them together under a new identity, a new flag and a new anthem, doing so without the consent of the peoples - such projects can actually create war, as Yugoslavia has shown us.
This prize baffles me because only recently we saw Angela Merkel going to Athens and there we saw swastikas being flown and Europe now being dominated by grief, violence and division.
The Cold War was about Nato and the nuclear deterrent. The fact the Russians did not invade us had absolutely nothing to do with the EU which, after all, was not fully created until 1992.
The EU today is about the destruction of nation-state democracy. Far from making the peoples of Europe love each other, the eurozone has divided Europe north to south and there are increasing enmities, violence in the streets.
We are headed, I think, in a very dangerous direction. Just look at the lessons of the Balkans. Look at this crackpot idea that we had in 1920 of abolishing individual nations and putting them together under a Yugoslav flag. It led to disaster and the EU, sadly, is making the same tragic mistake.
Nigel Farage can be followed on Twitter
Mats Persson, Open Europe think tank
It's good for the EU to have a bit of encouragement. But at the same time some people would consider it a bit strange that the EU gets this award at a time when the euro crisis is causing social unrest in some parts of Europe.
The first people to be part of the big epic moments in European reconciliation were national politicans, not so much people in European institutions.
Of course the EU has done positive things, like enlargement, extending stability in post-communist eastern Europe.
With Franco-German relations you now have an institutionalised relationship between the two countries, designed to withstand crises and changes in governments - that's positive for Europe.
But Europe is more than the Franco-German axis. The irony is that the euro, because it was premature, driven by ideology, risks driving some countries further apart. The euro is now to some extent negating the positive impact the EU has had.
In Greece, Spain and Portugal the EU used to be seen as a counterweight to flaky domestic politics, but now the euro is associated with pain and outside interference, through the EU troika and European Commission.
The EU's External Action Service (EAS) is always restricted to the lowest common denominator in Europe - it can't cut across a specific country's foreign policy interests. It has to reconcile 27 different foreign policies, so it's not a swift actor.
The EAS has a mixed record - it has done some decent things, like the Iran sanctions, and in the Balkans. But in the Bosnia war the US had to step in, and in the Arab Spring the EU was initially on the wrong side.
Turkey will be a huge issue - it'll be a big problem if it turns east rather than towards Europe.
Charles Grant, Centre for European Reform
The EU merits the peace prize.
Its role in history is unique and positive, and much more important than the inability of the current bunch of leaders to resolve the eurozone's travails.
One only has to travel to Asia to understand the EU's value. In South and East Asia several territorial disputes could easily erupt into war.
Many Asians wish they had strong multilateral bodies like the EU, or Nato, that make war among their members inconceivable. If European states disagree they keep holding interminable summits until they find a compromise.
And we should not forget that the EU's eastward enlargement has spread peace, democracy and security across much of the continent.
True, the EU allowed the Balkan wars of the 1990s to fester for too long - but it learned the lesson and developed a peacekeeping capability that has done good work in the Balkans, parts of Africa and elsewhere.
Charles Grant can be followed on Twitter
Ulrike Guerot, European Council on Foreign Relations
This is very positive. It reminds us what we forget during the discussion on the eurozone crisis - that this was a peace project and a political project. And this project has transformed Europe from authoritarian dictatorship into democratic, prosperous countries.
Germany and France had very different reasons - Germany to overcome its dreadful history and France for protection from Germany - but still, they overcame a century of war through reconciliation.
More than 60 years later we are still struggling with this project - but do not forget that there has not been 60 years of peace in Europe since 1410.
When Barack Obama won the prize soon after his election there were the same sort of doubts.
But there is a symbolic component to the award, and also a promotional and supportive component. It means a lot of attention and debate, and it reminds people, in these difficult hours, about what is at stake, and about the historic challenge we face.
At the middle of its deepest crisis, are we going to destroy a 60-year-old project that is about the rule of law and human rights?
Ulrike Guerot can be followed onTwitter

subset: commoncrawl


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Jeremy Mayfield working on plea deal to avoid jail time in criminal charges
NEWTON, N.C. — After more than a year of legal maneuvering, Jeremy Mayfield is talking to prosecutors about possible plea agreements but said Monday that he would not accept any plea deal under which he would go to jail on drug and stolen goods charges.
The former NASCAR driver appeared at a hearing Monday in North Carolina Superior Court in Newton, N.C. The hearing took less than a minute and left the case potentially open for more hearings later this week.
Mayfield, who was suspended by NASCAR for a failed drug test in 2009, met with his attorney for about 40 minutes before leaving the courthouse.
"They are talking and hopefully we can get something worked out in the next couple of weeks and go from there," Mayfield said outside the courtroom. "It possibly could (happen this week). Communication is open.
"But I wouldn't be sitting here telling you I'm hoping … I go to jail. … I'm hoping we get it over. I will look at you right now and tell you no (to jail time)."
Mayfield attorney David Freedman said all possibilities are being discussed and that it is doubtful that something would happen this week. He said he would have a good feel for a direction in the case in the next month.
Mayfield faces 19 felony counts across three North Carolina counties that carry a maximum of 43 years in jail, although it is doubtful the sentence would be that long even if he were convicted on all counts.
In Catawba County, where the hearing was Monday, Mayfield faces one felony count of possession of methamphetamine, three felony counts of possession of stolen goods and one felony count of obtaining stolen goods by false pretenses.
Out on bond, Mayfield also faces four counts of felony larceny in Caldwell County, which has the same prosecutor as the charges in Catawba County. He faces 10 felony charges — seven charges of breaking and entering and three for larceny — in Iredell County.
Mayfield's next court dates are Jan. 14 in Caldwell County and Feb. 18 in Iredell County. It is possible that a plea agreement could cover the Catawba and Caldwell charges because of the shared prosecutor's office between the two counties.
The charges stem from a Nov. 1, 2011 search of Mayfield's home, which has since been foreclosed on. The Iredell and Catawba charges included items missing from two NASCAR teams — Red Bull Racing and Fitz Motorsports.
Mayfield, who has not raced since 2009 when he failed a NASCAR drug test that he challenged unsuccessfully in court, has called the charges "baseless" and has proclaimed his innocence. He indicated the goods belonged to he and his wife and that they had been cooperating with investigators since November 2011.
"For some reason, the district attorney's office simply ignored our offers to explain the sources of the items seized from my property and chose, instead, to indict," Mayfield said in a statement when indicted.
"We do not know if there is any connection between the NASCAR lawsuit and this investigation, but based upon the evidence disclosed to us already by the district attorney's office, it appears that the Catawba County authorities have been coordinating with NASCAR officials."
According to the search warrant, a confidential source told police that Mayfield was among a group of people that broke into Fitz Motorsports and stole two surface plates to sell as scrap metal and broke into Red Bull Racing and stole audio equipment and aluminum flooring. Those break-ins are among the charges that Mayfield faces.
Mayfield won five Sprint Cup races in 433 career starts and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2004-05.


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Pushing the Button by Jude Hardin
I'm sitting here with my finger on the button. I've been sitting here for a while.
I wrote the email days ago, saved it as a draft. I printed it out, and I've read it a hundred times. I've memorized it. I know it by heart. It speaks to me in my dreams.
My letter of resignation.
I've been with the same company for fifteen years. It's a good company. They treat me well. I am comfortable there, and I earn a good living. New house, new car. I'm paying my bills on time every month, and I'm even managing to save some. I'm living the American dream, and I am very, very unhappy.
Because it isn't what I want to do. It isn't what I was put here to do.
I was put here to write fiction.
Really, Jude? What makes you so special? What makes you think you can actually make a living writing novels? Do you realize how many people have tried and failed? People way more talented than you? Are you delusional?
Maybe. But when you know, you know.
I know.
I'm sitting here with my finger on the mouse, just a click away from freedom.
But freedom comes with a price. Always.
I know I was put here to create stories. I know I have some game. I know I have a much better chance of making it if I can commit to writing full time.
Still, it's a scary thing.
Not pushing the button means security. A steady paycheck, full benefits, paid vacations. How can I just quit a good job like that, with so many folks desperate for work these days?
I get up from my desk and walk away. No, I can't do it. It's too risky. I'll just wait a while and see what happens, I tell myself.
And then I sit back down and put my finger on the button again.
Last year I signed a multi-book contract with Amazon's Thomas and Mercer imprint for my Nicholas Colt thriller series. My wonderful agent Jane Dystel negotiated the deal, and I'm very happy with it. CROSSCUT goes on sale today. It's my first book with Amazon, and the second in the series. I'm looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Thomas and Mercer.
But does a deal like that guarantee my success as an author?
Of course not. If my books don't sell, I don't make money. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of my contract, but that's basically what it boils down to. That's basically what every book deal boils down to, unless there's a life-changing advance involved.
Amazon's terms are way better than any other publisher I know of, but you still have to move product to collect coin.
So how in the hell can I even think about pushing that button? Why not just wait and see how the books do?
That would be the safe thing to do. Some people might even say it would be the sane thing to do.
But is it the right thing for me to do? Today?
I'm sitting here thinking about it, and it's absolutely gut-wrenching.
From a very young age, I knew that someday I would write a novel. I kept putting it off, and life happened, and then one day I was forty-something. I decided it was time. Three novels and multiple rejections later, I finally landed an agent for an early version of POCKET-47, the first Nicholas Colt book. I was on my way!
After the book was pitched around
New York, after it was read and praised by—and
ultimately rejected by—multiple heavyweight editors at multiple big houses, the
agent and I parted ways and I sold the book myself to a small press.
It launched to some very nice reviews, most notably a starred review in PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, and suddenly literary agents and film production companies were querying me.
Which was nice.
But I knew the agent I wanted, and Mr. Joe Konrath was kind enough to give me a referral, and one thing led to another, and the rest is history.
And here we are.
And here I am, with my finger on the button, knowing that if I push it my life will be, for better or for worse, irrevocably changed.
Just do it, I tell myself. What's the worst that could happen?
Destitution comes to mind.
But to get anywhere in life, you have to believe in yourself. And once you believe in yourself, you have to be willing to take a risk. You have to dance like nobody's watching. You have to be willing to bet the house on a roll of the dice.
Once you know who you are, and know your purpose, you have to invest heavily, against all odds, in the one thing you have some degree of control over.
And that one thing is you.
I'm sitting here with my finger on the button, tears rolling down my cheeks, every nerve ending in my body on fire, and a booming guttural primordial yawp erupts from somewhere deep in my chest, and I push that motherfucker, I push it and watch it fly.
And now it is done.
And I feel better about it than I've ever felt about anything.
Joe sez: No guts, no glory. We've all heard that expression. But few people get to actually test it.
Are you ready to quit your job and write full time? I was lucky enough to have that happen ten years ago, with my first book deal. These days, writers have more opportunity for sales via self-publishing, but we don't have the big advance money upfront that could make the decision easier.
Every writer needs to figure out what their goals are, and decide upon the best ways to reach those goals. Quitting your job to write full time is a big risk, with no guarantees. Remember that luck is extremely important. You can write a great book and it could take years to find an audience. It might not find an audience within your lifetime. Betting your entire future on luck may not be a wise way to approach life.
If you are thinking about writing full time, here are some questions you might ask yourself before telling your boss to go to hell.
Do I Write Quickly? The faster you can write, the better chance you have at making a living. I can comfortably write four novels a year, plus a handful of shorts.
What Is My Financial Situation? You need to understand how much money is required to stay afloat, and when you guess how much your book income will bring in, guess low. Ebooks aren't a steady paycheck. Sales fluctuate.
Do I Have A Back-Up Plan? Do you have money put aside if things get rough? Would your job take you back six months from now? Do you have an alternate stream of income (spouse, investments)?
What About Insurance? I couldn't afford health insurance the first seven years I was writing full time. I got really lucky my family had no serious health issues.
Can I Write? Every writer thinks they can write good books. But not every writer actually writes good books. Obviously, some people are deluding themselves. Are you one of them? How do you know for sure?
We all have different goals, and there are many ways to reach those goals. There are no right ways and wrong ways. The best plans can be derailed by bad luck. The worst plans sometimes succeed. But the more informed we are, the more we understand, the likelier we are to make smart choices.


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|High School:
|Raffles Institution
|Human Evolutionary Biology
|House Affiliation:
Junior 2010-11
Won the 200-yard butterfly in 1:53.40 and the 100-yard butterfly in 53.50 against Penn Jan. 23 ... Part of a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, posting a time of 1:20.64, and a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay at 1:29.99 at the 2011 Ivy League Championship. Took third in the 200 butterfly in 1:48.84 and also finished sixth in the 100 butterfly at the meet.
Sophomore 2009-10
Placed fifth in the 200 fly with a time of 1:49.98 at Ivy League Championships … Finished 10th in the 100 butterfly at Ivy Championships … Helped 200 free relay team to second place finish at HYP meet … Took second in the 200 butterfly at HYP meet with a time of 1:50.09 … Helped 200 and 400 medley relay teams to second-place finishes at HYP meet … Placed fourth in the 100 butterfly at HYP meet with a time of 49.58 ... Member of the 400-yard medley relay team that finished first against BU on Dec. 3 ... Captured the 100 and 200 butterfly against UConn.
Freshman 2008-09
Won 200 butterfly in 1:51.27 in first collegiate meet against Cornell and Dartmouth ... Part of 200 medley relay that placed third against Columbia with 1:35.12 clip ... Finished fifth in 400 freestyle relay in 3:06.39 in 400 freestyle relay, sixth in 1:24.97 in 200 freestyle relay, sixth in 200 butterfly (1:49.50) and ninth in 100 butterfly (49.21) at Georgia Invitational ... Was second in 100 butterfly (50.50) and third in 200 butterfly with a mark of 1:51.31 against Navy ... Took second in 200 butterfly (1:52.91) against Penn ... Was second in 100 freestyle with a time of 47.06 against Brown .. Swam third in 200 butterfly (1:47.56) and eighth in 48.88 in 100 butterfly at HYP meet ... Placed 10th in 100 butterfly (48.70) at Ivy League Championships.
Swam the butterfly and freestyle at Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College ... Captain of the Raffles Junior College national schools championship team and the Navy Swim team inter-formation championship team ... Singapore Open national record holder in the 100 butterfly, 50 butterfly and 400 free relay ... Record holder in the 800 free relay for the Singapore U-17 team ... Competed at the World Swimming Championships and the World Cup in 2007 ... Participated in the 2008 Charity Swim for Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund Giving is Winning campaign by the IOC ... Was also in the 2008 UN High Commissioner for Refugees 24-hour charity swimathon for Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore ... Nominated for the Best Paper Award at the World Congress on Engineering conference in 2007 ... Won the Gold Award, Best Report and Best Oral Presentation awards at the Singapore Science Fair in 2006 ... Also played on the secondary school tennis team ... Enjoys skiing, tennis and table tennis.


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Saturday August 11 2012
In a heated double header between two of the better teams on the Eastern Seaboard, Essex Base Ball Club & The Atlantic Base Ball Club split a pair of games. Essex held off a fierce 9th inning charge to preserve the game 1 victory 8-7, while the Atlantics flipped the table in game 2 to win 5-4. Both games saw an uncountable number of fantastic defensive plays, and both teams had nothing left to give by the time hats were raised to salute the crowd. EBBA would like to thank the ABBC for traveling North to MA; we look forward to playing two more soon. We can only hope to have games this good for the rest of the season.
Bringing the perfect touch to the afternoon was Matthew Muise and his imagery. Please enjoy Matthew's shots and visit his website & blog


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AK_Brickster wrote:I think certain parts are still sought after in "rare" colors, like the dark green hood that's coming out, but the advent of Bricklink makes getting just about anything pretty easy, so maybe people just don't freak out about it like they used to anymore.
That is hilarous, i was just going to mention my excitement about the dark green hood! I like all of the elements in the set, but was there treasure in the chest?


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Charles Bradley's 'Victim of Love' is powerful
Charles Bradley, the archetypal late bloomer, surfaced a few years ago with one hell of a backstory. So good that he's the subject of a documentary, "Charles Bradley: Soul of America," which has been making the rounds at film festivals.
Bradley was a onetime James Brown impersonator whose hardships had taken him rambling across the country, working as a cook in Maine, living with his mother in Brooklyn, N.Y., and enduring the murder of his brother.
Then, in 2011 at the tender age of 62, Bradley released his debut album on Dunham Records, a subsidiary of the soul label Daptone. "No Time for Dreaming" explored the dark side of Bradley's journey and introduced him to an audience raised on Sharon Jones and the like.
The subject matter on his sophomore album is love, and you can guess just how lucky Bradley has been, from the song titles alone: "Love Bug Blues," "Crying in the Chapel," "Through the Storm."
Bradley is linked to Brown, his idol whom he first saw at the Apollo Theater in '62, but as a vocalist he's more aligned with Bettye LaVette. Each performance on "Victim of Love" is a musical exorcism from the gut, every note a wail through clenched teeth and closed eyes.
You hear him at the peak of his powers on the title track, whose acoustic soul reels in the band and lets Bradley tell his story, one wounded sentiment at a time. (Out Tuesday)
ESSENTIAL "Victim of Love"
Charles Bradley performs at Paradise Rock Club on May 18.


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Bolt Prospect of the Week: March 24, 2014
We continue our Bolt Prospect of the Week award, an honor (virtually) given to one Tampa Bay Lightning prospect for their recent contributions on and off the ice.
The Bolt Prospect of the Week for March 24, 2014 is … Andrey Vasilevskiy, G, Salavat Yulaev Ufa (KHL – Russia).
If playoff experience is instrumental in a prospect's development, Andrey Vasilevskiy is being subject to a symphony.
Ufa's teenage goaltender has been in net for all of the club's playoff games so far, including a pressure-packed Game 7 against Novgorod last Tuesday. Down 2-0 in the series, he turned in a triple-overtime gem in Game 3, and allowed just two goals in each of Games 4 and 5 before a Game 6 loss.
His team was outplayed in Game 7, being outshot 35-21, but Vasilevskiy turned aside all but one shot en route to a 2-1 win. Ufa had a 2-0 lead in the game and survived with Vasilevskiy under siege in the third period.
The win propelled Vasilevskiy and fourth-seeded Ufa to the conference semifinals against second-seeded Astana. Vasilevskiy kept up his strong play in Game 1, winning 3-2 in overtime. The Lightning's No. 20 overall pick from 2012 stopped 35 of 37 shots in the game. Astana got revenge in Game 2, winning 5-2, before Ufa won Game 3, 5-2 (Vasilevskiy 15/17).
Vasilevskiy's heroics throughout the playoffs – and especially Game 7 – earned him our Bolt Prospect of the Week award.
For the playoffs, the 6-3 'tender is 5-4 with a 2.27 GAA and .923 save percentage. He finished the regular season 14-8-5, with a 2.21 GAA and .923 save percentage. Vasilevskiy has never had a goals against average over 2.27 for any team he's ever backstopped for more than seven games. Similarly, he's never had a save percentage under .923.
Vasilevskiy projects as a franchise goaltender at the NHL level as he has the size, athleticism, and mental approach to dominate at the professional level. Goalies are the hardest to project, so whether or not he reaches his ceiling is a gamble, but one the Lightning will gladly take.
The emergence of Ben Bishop means the Bolts can take their time with Vasilevskiy, and all signs point to the Russian playing next season in Syracuse of the AHL. He's at least one more full year away from NHL split-time duty. How soon he can be Tampa Bay's No. 1 depends on Bishop's contract status after next year and which prospect – Gudlevskis or Vasilevskiy – emerges as the first NHL option.
And to think it wasn't too long ago when the goaltender cupboard was bare (and we haven't even mentioned Hobey Baker finalist Adam Wilcox).
Honorable Mention: Jonathan Drouin, C (Halifax, QMJHL); Luke Witkowski, D (Syracuse, AHL).
2013-2014 Prospect of the Week winners:
March 17: Jonathan Drouin, C, (Halifax Mooseheads, NCAA).
March 10: Jonathan Drouin, C, (Halifax Mooseheads, NCAA).
March 3: Matt Peca, C, (Quinnipiac Bobcats, NCAA).
February 25: Kristers Gudlevskis, G, (Team Latvia, IIHF).
February 17: Brian Hart, W, (Harvard Crimson, NCAA, USA).
February 10: Matt Peca, C, (Quinnipiac Bobcats, NCAA, USA).
February 3: Adam Wilcox, G, (Minnesota Golden Gophers, NCAA, USA).
January 27: Dylan Blujus, D, (North Bay Battalion, OHL, Canada).
January 20: Mark Barberio, D, (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, USA).
January 13: Kristers Gudlevskis, G, (Syracuse Crunch, AHL, USA).
January 6: Ondrej Palat, LW, (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, USA).
December 17: Tyler Johnson, C, (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, USA).
December 10: Ondrej Palat, W, (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, USA).
December 3: Cedric Paquette, C, (Syracuse Crunch, AHL, USA).
November 26: Tyler Johnson, C, (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, USA).
November 19: Jonathan Drouin, C/W, (Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL, Canada).
November 13: Jonathan Drouin, C/W, (Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL, Canada).
November 4: Nikita Kucherov, W, (Syracuse Crunch, AHL, USA).
October 29: Kristers Gudlevskis, G, (Syracuse Crunch, AHL, USA).
October 24: Henri Ikonen, W, (Kingston Frontenacs, OHL, Canada).
October 16: Nikita Kucherov, W, (Syracuse Crunch, AHL, USA).
October 9: Henri Ikonen, W, (Kingston Frontenacs, OHL, Canada).
October 1: Andrey Vasilevskiy, G, (Salavat Yulaev Ufa, KHL, Russia).
September 24: Adam Erne, W, Tampa Bay (NHL) and Quebec (QMJHL)
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Colorful Mosaic Tiles Bath Towel
Not your regular cotton looped bath towel! Uneekee towels are softer, lightweight, super absorbent and quick drying. Match colors to your bathroom tile and give your bath an updated look and fee. Made from a microfiber poly blend that is designed to never fade or pill, we are sure you'll love them.
- Decorative hand towel for the bath
- Size: 15.5" x 24.5"


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ATLANTA -- Duke's Mason Plumlee received the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year Award presented by Spalding Sunday at the AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show in Atlanta. Plumlee becomes the first player out of the ACC to claim the award in its 14 years of existence.
Plumlee, a second team All-America honoree from the USBWA, AP and NABC, closed his senior campaign averaging 17.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting 59.9 percent from the field. The Warsaw, Ind., native recorded 18 double-doubles en route to becoming just the second Blue Devil to average a double-double for the season under Coach K.
In addition to his on-court honors and accolades, Plumlee was also a Capital One first team Academic All-America selection. He is the fifth player in Duke history to earn All-America and Academic All-America in the same season.
Plumlee scored in double figures in 33 contests, including nine 20-point efforts and a pair of 30-point outings. He closed his Duke career ranked in the top 10 in rebounds, field goal percentage, blocks and dunks. He also became the 31st player in ACC history to record over 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career.


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One of my previously marked recipes in this book was Simply Sophisticated Seared Tuna. Oh...what a hit!
Are you ever in a hurry to get dinner on the table? Need something that isn't fast food and looks and tastes like you labored long and hard? This is it. Lets get right to the easy recipe, shall we?
Simply Sophisticated Seared Tuna:
Tuna Steaks Seared with Ginger, Soy and Brown Sugar
1 TB peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
2 TB brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
2 TB fresh lemon juice
Two 6-ounce tuna steaks, about ¾ inch thick
Salt and pepper
1 TB olive oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
In deep dish or pie plate, mix ginger, garlic, brown sugar, soy and lemon juice.
Season tuna generously with salt and pepper, both sides. Place tuna in dish to marinate for 1 hour. Try and turn the tuna over at least once.
The book calls for you to use a cast iron skillet, heating 1 tablespoon olive oil. (Our first inclination for fish is to fire up the grill but the cast iron fry pan actually works best for this recipe)
Pat tuna dry and add steaks to skillet. Cook to desired time. In the pan you may need 8 minutes total. If you do use the grill, about 3 minutes each side. We like it pink, sorta medium rare.
Transfer to plate and sprinkle with scallions.
The perfect side (recommended in the book) for this is
Beyond Basic Broccoli
So I will tack this recipe on as well.
Trim broccoli so you have the florets. Bring a pan of water to the boil, meanwhile fill a bowl with ice water. Add broccoli to boiling water, cook uncovered until tender (when you can pierce with a fork.) Using tongs transfer broccoli to ice water the drain in colander. Wipe out the pot.
Add 3 TB olive oil and 4 thinly sliced cloves of garlic and cook, stirring occasionally until golden, about 1 minute. Add the broccoli and cook, stir frequently, for 2 minutes and heated through. Add salt, pepper and a ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes for oomph.
Now......I will confess to steaming the broccoli and tossing some shredded mozzarella over the green mess. Yes, I did attempt to prepare the broccoli in the prescribed method for an earlier meal. Ok, almost.......
Truth is, that step about placing the boiled broccoli into icy water...I screwed that step up and let it sit too long in the water....so the end result was soggy broccoli.
|From Sushi
For you broccoli lovers, hey...no offense. But covering it with cheese (at least it was low fat mozzarella) is the only way I can stomach this veggie. Just not a big fan.
Anyhoo....here's the book. Check it out, I think you will enjoy it as much as I do. Also, check out Sue's site Couscous & Consciousness for her Cookbook Sunday Series!


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We are delighted that Deeyah Khan's TEDxExeter 2016 talk has been chosen to feature on TED.com – an honour less than 1 per cent of TEDx talks achieve. It is the 7th talk from Exeter to be selected.
Building relationships is key to stopping the cycle of violence, says Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director, Deeyah Khan. Born in Norway to immigrant parents of Pashtun and Punjabi ancestry, she experienced many of the difficulties Muslim children growing up in European countries can face. Aged 17, she fled from Norway confused, lost and torn between cultures. She chose film and music as the language for her social activism, not a gun.
Deeyah's first, award-winning film, Banaz, explored a so-called 'honour killing' in the UK. Her second film, the Bafta-nominated Jihad involved two years of interviews and filming with Islamic extremists, convicted terrorists and former jihadis. In her TEDxExeter talk "What we don't know about Europe's Muslim kids" she tells some of their stories and sheds light on the clash of cultures between Muslim parents who prioritise honour and their children's desire for freedom. She argues that we need to understand what is happening to fight the pull to extremism.
Deeyah Khan's talk will reach a much larger audience on TED.com. 64,000 people have already watched the talk. Now it will attract a potential audience of millions around the world.
"I'm both delighted and honoured that my talk has been one of those selected to appear on TED.com," says Deeyah Khan. "Radicalisation is the most pressing problem of our age. Each violent act by extremists creates an increasing cycle of hatred which tears our communities apart.
"Through the research and interviews I carried out in the development of my documentary Jihad, I believe that one of the most effective means of stopping the cycle of violence is through building relationships. This can be difficult when young people feel themselves to be growing up between cultures, and belonging in neither.
"I am pleased that TED has given me this opportunity to share some simple ideas of how we can all work together to stop the cycle of violence and bring our communities back together."


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15 Year-Old Lifts Car, Saves Grandpa's Life [Video]
You hear stories all the time about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, but you never think that you will become one of those people. That's exactly how 15 year old Austin Smith felt about two weeks ago when he lifted a 2000+ lb car off of his 74 year old grandfather.
There are a lot of grown men who cant even lift a car off the ground by themselves. After realizing that the car had come off the cinder blocks and fallen on his grandfather, Austin lifted the front end of the car off the ground and pushed it back, freeing his grandfather. Check out the touching story and the duos interview on CNN.


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All eyes on new transportation chair
A mountain of expectations await incoming House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, who's taking the gavel from John Mica after two years of legislative success and partisan sniping.
Conservatives want to be sure the Pennsylvania Republican holds the line on taxes and spending. Democrats want to see a return to the bipartisan legacy of his father, Bud, who chaired the committee until 2001. And everyone expects Shuster to come up with a solution to the country's struggling federal infrastructure funding stream.
Story Continued Below
Shuster says he's up to the tough task and is already separating himself from Mica (R-Fla.), whose hard-line stance on not raising the federal gas tax contrasts with Shuster's openness. Shuster wants to explore — but not necessarily enact — a bevy of funding opportunities, including the gas tax, more tolling, a miles-traveled fee for vehicles and tying energy production to infrastructure.
He's also ready for the House to take the mantle of chief transportation-writing chamber of Congress. The House's reputation took a dive this year when the Senate's bipartisan maneuvering outpaced Mica's transportation bill, which Democrats boycotted and failed to attract 218 Republican votes. Shuster said in an interview he has good relationships with both liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and House conservatives, which will help navigate the rocky politics that billion-dollar bills like those he will write are sure to elicit.
"Transportation is not inherently a partisan issue," Shuster said.
With the White House, however, Shuster may continue Mica's adversarial posture. Asked if he believes President Barack Obama needs to give formal direction to Congress on long-term legislation, which the White House has yet to do, Shuster said: "They haven't taken the lead on much of anything around here in this town. So I'm not sure."
Still, Shuster's generally been a hit with Democrats. Boxer, in charge of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee that handles the most significant parts of the upper chamber's transportation legislation, had nothing but praise for the new chairman. Boxer said they have a "very nice working relationship" and have already talked about sitting down to lay groundwork for the next bill, which both lawmakers hope will be longer than the 27-month law signed by Obama this summer.
"It seems like he thinks everything should be on the table, which is good. Because we really have to open our mind to various ways to do this," Boxer said in an interview.
And while Democrats like Boxer and top House transportation Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) laud Shuster's flexibility, Republicans in the House believe the new chairman is also a friend of fiscal conservatism. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), a vocal negotiator on the most recent transportation law, said Shuster is no squishy Republican.


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Drive to the end of Gas Works Road, dodge around the back of the Birds Eye processing plant and park by the concrete sea defences. Get out of the car, nod at the two council workers up to not much at all in their Transit and glance up and down one of the sorriest seafront stretches in the whole of the UK. You don't come to an industrial port for the views. You come here for the plinth, the one that states this place at the arse end of a Lowestoft industrial estate is Britain's most easterly point. It's somehow fitting that the flat, concrete disc was placed there by an oil company.
For us, this is the start of a quest to drive across the breadth of the UK solely on B-roads, from here (52.48N, 01.76E) to Aberystwyth way over on the far side of Wales and handily just 0.07 of a degree more northerly in latitude. Between these two coastal points lie the Broads, the Fens, the Midlands, the borders and the hills and valleys of Wales – a geographical cross section through Great Britain, replete with a fat catalogue of B-roads of every size, shape, width, surface, angle, camber and lumpiness.
Pictures: Howard Simmons
This article originally appeared in the April 2014 issue of Top Gear magazine


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About Writing
Sep 24 2009
I'm sure many of you have noticed that I'm not writing as frequently as I have in the past on my blog. This is due to a variety of things being led by lack of time and inspiration as well as logistics. I have also been doing some personal hand written journaling so some of my writing needs have been met through that avenue. The thing about writing, at least for me, is that I often have to have a spark of inspiration to start something and then it usually flows.
When I started this blog over 2 years ago now, I felt like I was forced to write because I started it as a tool to promote and build awareness of my business, Babble Soft. So I dutifully wrote. Somewhere along the way, the duty wore off and I started to enjoy it. The comments helped but even when the comments weren't numerous, I knew hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people were reading (thanks to feedburner, google analytics, and wordpress stats tools), and I was getting something out of it too.
It has became a vehicle for me to sort through and share insights in business, parenting, and life in a somewhat thoughtful, crafted, connect the dots sort of way. For some of my posts I take all the swirling raw thoughts and attempt to distill them down into something usually coherent and sometimes imbibed with meaning that only myself or those close to me can sometimes fully understand. Yet hopefully most people take something away that helps them in business or life…or if not maybe it's sometimes entertaining?
Since I've started blogging, I have come to better appreciate the nuances of writers whose works we analyzed in depth in high school or college English classes. As much as we try to infer from their writing what they were experiencing or trying to convey, we will miss much of it. We probably made up stuff that actually never crossed the writer's mind at all and did not pay attention to certain words and phrases that were full of meaning to the writer herself, but to other than maybe a few people who shared her space in time would be summarily dismissed. As a woman writer, I'm particularly aware of how women writer's even 50+ years ago had to make sure their writing not only lived up to their image as the fairer, weaker, well mannered, and sublime sex but also didn't offend those who could not fathom the depth of a woman's knowledge, insight, and passion.
As a South Asian, naturalized American, woman writer writing on the topic of entrepreneurship, leadership, management, (the aforementioned still typically a man's world) and parenting, whose family sometimes reads her blog, I choose my words as carefully as I can. Outside the blog, the words sometimes come out a lot messier, less filtered, and a bit more humorous for some reason. The constraints and richness those life experiences and labels give me have added greatly to what moderate success I have achieved as well as sometimes to my self imposed dramatic misery. 🙂
I have made two attempts to write a larger body of work to publish. One was a fiction novel I started back in 2001 after leaving my first company about a devastatingly handsome, blue-eyed, Jewish male CEO, an Asian female CEO, their relationship, and their different experiences starting technology companies. I created an outline, table of contents, and generated probably about 16 pages and then soon after got pregnant. My first readers (my sister and cousin) seemed to like it, but because life with kids started I left it sitting idly in my computer. Fortunately I printed it out because in one of our upgrades, the soft copy disappeared. I've since scanned it back in and one day hope to do something with it.
The second attempt was to write a book on the meaning of life which I discovered most people were uncomfortable talking about so I morphed it to the meaning of success. I got many more people to speak with me but couldn't really find the right way to pull it together or an interested publisher, so I morphed that project into the university alumni magazine articles on the Success Profiles page of this blog. The great thing was that I actually got paid for those articles!
I sometimes get frustrated at not having the time or energy to finish that fiction novel, but I keep recalling something that one of the wives of the people I interviewed for the Meaning of Success book said. She was a writer and interestingly she wrote about being a vegetarian and hating people who eat meat I think, but she said 'let the writing marinate in the juices of your life.' Which thinking about that statement right now is ironic considering you probably marinate meat more than you marinate vegetables. But anyway, she said writing can't be rushed and it will happen when the time is right. Whenever I say this on my email club of college friends, my screen writer by night and document proofer friend by day, Robb Lanum, who lives in Los Angeles, gives me a hard time and tells me what he pictures when I say that. A description of his vision is not suitable for this blog but it has something to do with the word 'juices,' and he's a guy so you can probably infer the rest!
On an unrelated note, Robb finally finished a script based on a challenge I gave him two years ago to write a main stream script. He completed it a few weeks ago and I, The Annoying Challenger, still have not had the time to read it and others on our email club have already read it. It pains me actually.
So I keep wondering when all this marinating will be done and when the juices of life will be more manageable so I can write a book that might get published some day…
Oh and by the way, stay tuned for some interesting news about Babble Soft in the next few weeks! 😎Author: Aruni | Filed under: blogging | Tags: babble soft, blogging, robb lanum, script writing, writing | 8 Comments »


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Duoproof / <DUOPRF 4X28W T16 HF E3T IP65
▼ Data Sheet
Recessed sealed luminaire with emergency lighting function. IP65. For 4 x 28W T16 lamp, electronic - fixed output ballast. Electronic control module and battery to provide 3 hour duration emergency lighting. Body fabricated from sheet steel with white powder coated finish. Frame fabricated from mild steel, with welded corners, finished white powder coated. Gasket: silicone. Diffuser panel clear prismatic PET/G, impact resistant and flame retardant (UK Building Regs Part B2 classification TP[a]). Lamps to be ordered separately.
Dimensions: 1192 x 590 x 90 mm
Total power: 122 W
Weight: 12.5 kg


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Atul Jalan's Book 'Where will Man Take Us? - A Bold Story of the Man Technology is Creating' Hits the Stands
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AA Meeting
Posted in Wellness Program
Red Rock
Noble, OK
Noble, OK
Date and Time:From 12/15/2018 12:00 PM CST to 04/06/2019 01:00 PM CST.
Information:The OM Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse program offers several Alcohol Anonymous meetings or transportation to outside meetings each week. Friday noon Discussion and 12/12 meeting at OM Wellness Building. Friday 8 p.m. off campus meeting in Ponca City. Saturday noon off campus meeting in Ponca City. Saturday 8 p.m. off campus meeting in Stillwater. Transportation provided with half hour notification before meeting.
Contact Person:Clifford Springwater


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Hunting group awards trophies; KHA shows Trianon St. duplex; Fairfield bridge names winners
Hunting group has trophy night
The Lenoir County Hunting Association presented the 2012 hunting trophies at its February monthly meeting.
Leo Jones, scorer, presented recipients with their awards. Brothers Will Moore and Joel Moore won first place and second place, respectively, for the Buck/Deer youth division. For the Buck/Deer adult division, Ray Tyndall won first place, Steve Croom took second and third place, and Sonny Wade won fourth place.
Wade took first place and Roger Johnson took second for the Buck/Deer black powder division. The Bear Award went to Jim Bo Tyndall, which was accepted by his son, Cody.
Ribbon cutting set for new duplex
Kinston Housing Authority has built a duplex with one-bedroom units at 103 N. Trianon St. A ribbon cutting is planned for 4:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the site.
The duplex was built by FASCO, Inc. of Kinston. The architect was Stogner Architecture, PA of Rockingham. The construction is the first of several duplexes KHA plans to build over the next few years to address future housing needs. The duplex was constructed with Capital Funds and Replacement Housing Factor Funds provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Residents will be selected based on satisfying conditions detailed in the housing authority�s policy, which includes a good payment history and a good housekeeping record. Kinston Housing Authority�s mission is to provide affordable housing to eligible people within the community while creating and promoting opportunities for independence, self-sufficiency and an improved quality of life.
For more information, call 252-527-1131.
Bridge club names winners
The Fairfield Duplicate Bridge Club played the first session of a club championship March 5.
The winners were: Joe Goldwasser and Pearl Schechter, first place; Edith Cahn and Nancy Barwick, second; Tempie Pierce and Emily Exum, third; and Barbara Sebald and Jane Hood, fourth.
The second session of the championship will be played at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday at Fairfield Center. The club welcomes and encourages all bridge players.
For more club information, call 252-523-6791.


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The driving principles behind modern technology are running out of steam: It is becoming prohibitively costly to continue to shrink technology, while Moore's Law, which postulates the doubling of computer power every 18 months, is reaching its physical limits under current processes. By 2015 we will be hard pressed to use today's techniques to make devices increasingly smaller and more powerful. But research that is underway today is expected to usher in a new technological era. Dubbed 'embedded connectivity' by Bob Hayward, vice-president and research fellow at Gartner, it will draw strength from nanotechnology, sensors and wireless technology.
The embedded world of the future will harness the power of billions of microprocessors on a single device, wirelessly connected to others, that can read the environment and react accordingly. Scientists portray a future in which we attach these devices to our bodies to communicate, set them loose on our streets to do menial tasks, and embed them in the commonplace objects of our lives to address our daily requirements.
The underlying foundation for this new era of embedded connectivity is nanotechnology, which is based on the manipulation of molecules less than 100 nanometres in size. At one millionth the size of a millimetre or 1/100,000th the diameter of a human hair, and roughly five times the size of an atom, a nanometre (nm) is the measuring unit for the basic building block of the future. "Nanotechnology means that rather than taking a chunk of silicon and carving it down to size, we build from the bottom up by assembling single molecules and atoms," says Dr Terry Turney, director of CSIRO's nanotechnology centre.
Manipulating molecules in this way opens up such extraordinary possibilities that the US government predicts nano-technology will generate US$1 trillion in products worldwide by 2015.
Electronic circuitry
Research into these nanoscaled technologies is in progress now. Take the field of electronic circuitry, for example. Today, cutting-edge integrated circuits have been shrunk to 65nm in size to make space for more transistors and so increase performance.
In molecular computing, however, computer scientists are building circuits at the atomic level so they can harness the lightning-speed reactions or vast storage reserves that can be elicited from infinitesimal components.
IBM is experimenting with molecular self-assembly to build microchips using nanoparticles to improve circuit performance, and expects to be in pilot phase three to five years from now. Two years ago, it achieved terabyte storage on a single chip.
With similar visions for the future, Hewlett-Packard is building molecular-sized Atomic Resolution Storage products, which would encode one bit per atom and deliver 100 million times the information density of current hard disks.
By 2015, these advances will likely disrupt the entire semiconductor fabrication industry. By introducing new types of basic components to electronic computer circuitry, which measure no more than a few tens of nanometres across, these advances will deliver the potential to run massive parallel computing on devices the size of a 50 cent coin.
Even further out, quantum information processing (QIP) will dramatically improve the acquisition, transmission and processing of information to enable hugely complex functions, which will include factoring vast numbers in cryptographic applications or pattern matching.
The technology involves tapping into the processes by which atoms interact to create the properties of quantum computing.
"It will give us an order-of-magnitude jump from the fastest computer of that time - it will not be an evolutionary increase," says Gartner's Hayward.
But these developments will also expose us to unimagined privacy, security and ethical challenges.
"By the time we comprehend the privacy risks, the horse will have bolted," says Hayward. "As for security, whereas it takes a month for a supercomputer to crunch a DES encrypted code today, it would take just a couple seconds [using QIP]. But maybe we'll also get a corresponding advance in security algorithms."
Nanotechnology research is still in its early stages but the results are already filtering into our lives. Nanoparticles are the constituent components of advanced sunscreens today, while trials of Ambri biomedical testers that mimic cellular sensors are underway at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
Advanced materials
Over the next five years, the development of nanoscaled sensors will allow intelligence to be built into many materials for multiple applications.
Take the field of advanced materials, in which structures are systematically synthesised to provide a precisely tailored set of properties. CSIRO's Dr Turney says this work will give rise to applications such as intelligent textiles using nanoparticles, which will expand their weave on a hot summer's day, or construction materials that change into ceramics in the presence of fire.
He describes a world that is five to 10 years away, which will be minutely responsive to our needs. Combined with sensors, advanced materials will be able to react to their environment in new ways. For example, advanced materials will allow food producers to embed intelligence into packaging on products by implanting biosensors that respond to changes in the contents, says Turney.
"Within 10 years you'll be able to walk into a supermarket and pick up a salami and look at a biosensor display unit on the package to get data such as whether it contains gluten or if it's developed salmonella."
Sensors will be pervasive in the embedded environment of the future, says Turney. A key to this advance is that the next generation of miniaturised sensors will have very low power requirements.
Power scavengers
Now the size of a match head, sensors are being scaled down even further to hold more power. These sensors could be fuelled by 'power scavengers' that harvest energy from everyday forms of energy, such as the simple act of walking, and convert them into voltage.
Once harvested, the energy may be stored in micro-supercapacitors, which are being engineered to provide thousands of times the volume of electricity of standard capacitors. Industry specialists say once these elements become workable, organisations will rapidly set up complex webs of wireless networks.
IBM's business consulting services wireless leader, Will Duckworth, says in the next 10 years, wireless machine-to-machine networks will generate 'sense and respond' ecosystems using WiMAX as their backbone and radio frequency identification (RFID) and other methods of surveillance for remote tracking.
"These systems typically produce a lot more data than a human," he says, citing business drivers such as pollution monitoring, inventory management and container tracking.
John Murray, director of venture capital firm Australian Technology Group, anticipates webs of intelligent wireless networks "powered by very cheap devices that run on low power and capture data as it's happening, and feed that back into information systems."
"They will allow companies to respond in real time and to automate their responses in the supply chain and in their business ecosystems.
It's all about connecting the sensory organs of the business to the outside world and feeding back intelligence to automatically respond in real time without human intervention," says Murray.
Further automation will come by adding robotics to this equation.
RoboticsIt will be at least 20 years before we see microscopic 'nanobots', the much-hyped molecular manufacturing systems that have generated sci-fi like fears of mutating swarms running amok. But miniature robots are in fact under serious investigation.
In 2000, for example, MIT's Bioinstrumentation Laboratory unveiled the Nanowalker, a sugar-cube sized prototype of the first autonomous nanorobot. The Nanowalker is able to move with great precision at a speed of about 4,000 steps a second and communicate wirelessly to a central computer.
Nanorobots will eventually construct materials atom by atom to create products that do anything from surveillance to in vitro navigation. Larger robots will be with us sooner than that.
"Robots will be fairly prevalent 10 years from now. We'll see them in offices and hospitals and shopping centres," says Dr Peter Corke, autonomous systems team leader at CSIRO.
Currently robots operate in controlled environments designed around them, such as car assembly plants, but the next generation of machines will be designed to function in a less structured world and to cope with unexpected changes to their environment.
Robotics research today centres around embedding these devices with fuzzy logic skills using sensors that will allow them to perceive and respond.
Corke says we could expect to see this class of machine delivering mail or medication or stacking store shelves at low cost to replace human labour in five to 10 years.
Larger versions could be used down mines; and indeed this research is principally funded by the mining industry, along with organisations interested in flying robots that can inspect assets such as power lines.
Transportation technologies
On an even larger scale, a number of organisations globally are working both separately and collaboratively to develop the next set of transportation technologies.
Among them, NASA, Boeing and small companies such as Moller International, are working on developing skycars for personal use.
These will let us travel "when and where but especially how we wish", according to Mark Moore, personal air vehicle sector manager for NASA's Vehicle Systems Program. "We're working to assist in making easy-to-operate, quiet, and affordable small aircraft a mobility choice for future transportation."
Moore says there are currently many diverse research efforts ongoing across the world. "Each organisation is taking on portions of the technology set that they think are important."
NASA's area of focus is a skycar (or personal air vehicle - PAV) designed not for getting about the city, but for travelling at high speeds for distances of between 160 to 800 kilometres. That would allow people to live in regional areas and commute into urban airfields for work.
Over the next decade, Moore expects to see flying cars priced at less than US$100,000 using automated functionality based on NASA's EquiPT (Easy-to-use, quiet Personal Transportation) technology set.
Moore says an obstacle to PAVs has been the intensity of training required to fly them, so automation is critical. The goal is to have the vehicle controlled by a computerised brain that senses and responds to weather conditions or other crafts in the vicinity, and compensates for technical failures.
NASA is also developing a network of highways in the sky under its Small Aircraft Transportation System that controls air traffic using global positioning system (GPS) and a phalanx of broadband satellites to monitor the exact location of every vehicle in flight.
Although a single vehicle for all transport purposes is more than 25 years away, prototype skycars are already with us. Moller is accepting deposits to secure one of its M400 Skycars, which is designed for vertical takeoff and landing. Delivery is promised after a full test flight, which is expected to take place early in 2005. First owners will pay US$995,000 for a four-passenger skycar, which will run on a fuel such as alcohol, petrol or recycled cooking oil.
But physically moving from one place to another may become needless with the next generation of videoconferencing tools.
The synergy of vastly increased bandwidth, three-dimensional video projection and interactive holography systems is expected to change the way we collectively communicate, according to James Anderson, country manager of Polycom.
Videophones as a standard business tool are a decade away but it will be more like 20 years before research from bodies such as MIT's Spatial Imaging Group or 3D visualisation company, Actuality Systems, yields practicable holographic videoconferencing.
By then, however, "We'll be looking at life-size holograms in 3D that can move around the room in full motion," says Anderson. "You will have business managers dispersed globally talking as if they are face to face."
But in half that time, people will be able to dial into conferences from mobile phones and project holograms of themselves or use headgear as visualisation tools for collaborative work, says Anderson.
Venture capitalists such as Michael Panaccio, a founder of Starfish Ventures, points out many of these future scenarios are not based on disruptive technologies but on incremental advances in existing systems.
"They will be mind-boggling from today's perspective but they will be based on the convergence of technologies that have their roots in today."
Business technology on the move
Below are outlined the top five expected changes in business technology in next five to 10 years.
Service oriented architecture: Software will become a service. Web services applications will automatically be directed to other application services through standard interfaces, creating system-to-system communication.
Utility computing: Enterprises will increasingly opt for a pay-as-you-go model of technology. They will pay fees on a transaction basis for functions such as storage, processing and managed security.
Virtualisation: Advances in virtualisation and policy based management tools will help organisations manage multiple devices from a single product. These tools will be policy based so that management can be automated.
Wireless mobility:Between 10 and 15 per cent of enterprises use wireless technology today but that figure will be closer to 75 per cent in three years, says Gartner's Bob Hayward.
Wireless devices will become cheaper, handle greater bandwidth and consume less battery power, especially because of advances in screen technology.
Metadata tools: The average enterprise captures 30 per cent more data every year from wired and wireless activities, says Hayward. Enterprises will be leveraging this surge with business intelligence tools that probe and analyse these vast repositories to extract more information about the data.
Join the CIO New Zealand group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.


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During its May meeting, the Board of Directors of the Hope College Alumni Association chose its officers for 2007-08 and appointed five new members.
Karen Navis of Grandville is continuing her two-year term as president and Mark VanGenderen of Cedarburg, Wis., is continuing as vice president. Sara Van Anrooy of Castle Park, Colo., has been appointed secretary, succeeding the late Dr. John Witte of Vero Beach, Fla. Witte died in early May shortly after marking the conclusion of his six-year term on the board, having served the last two years as secretary.
The board's new members are Anita Bateman, a 1998 graduate from Austin, Texas; Lisa Bos, a 1997 graduate from Washington, D.C.; Lori Droppers, a 1983 graduate from Maitland, Fla.; Brett Kingma, a Hope junior from Grand Rapids; and Elias Sanchez, a 1978 graduate from Hinsdale, Ill.
Jason Cash, formerly Senior Class Representative, was appointed representative of the most recent graduating class. Sarah Oosterink, formerly Junior Class Representative, was appointed Senior Class Representative.
In addition to Witte, the board members who have concluded their service to the board are: Leah Haugneland of Katy, Texas; Kristin Tichy Pagenkopf of Glenville, Ill.; Allison Pawlowski of Pinckney; and Beth Snyder of Arlington, Va.
Bateman is an IT software architect with IBM, where she has been employed for the last nine years. She received her first patent in 2006, and received IT Architect certification from IBM and the Open Group earlier this year.
Her community and volunteer involvement include providing IT administration and webmaster services for the Latin American Leadership Development Program; Bethany United Methodist Church; membership in Impact Austin; and IBM's community partnership eMentoring program.
She and her husband, John Bateman '97, who met at Hope, live in Austin, Texas, but continue to be involved with Hope in various ways.
She majored in computer science at Hope and minored in Spanish and mathematics. She also holds a Master of Science in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.
Her activities as a student included the Nykerk Cup competition, of which she was general chair her senior year; summer research in computer science; serving as a resident assistant; the Summer of Service program; spring break mission trips; Fellowship of Christian Students; Mortar Board; I.VE League; and intramurals.
She was a second-generation student, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Charles '70 and Jean Taylor '70 Van Engen, and has many other family members who have attended Hope.
Bos is a lobbyist and vice president with Cassidy and Associates, a Washington, D.C., government relations firm, where she has been employed for two-and-a-half years. She had previously been policy director with the House Republican Study Committee and a legislative assistant with U.S. Congressman Pete Hoekstra '75.
Her involvement in her community includes serving as a Sunday school teacher, as a member of the Capitol Square condo board, and being active in political fundraising and campaigns.
Since graduation Bos has been involved in Hope events, including coordinating a Hope-Calvin basketball satellite party. She has also spoken with students participating in the college's Washington Honors Semester and has represented Hope at area college fairs.
She majored in political science and minored in history at Hope. Her activities included participating in the Washington Honors Semester, Student Congress, Hope Republicans, Model United Nations and the Nykerk Cup competition, and serving as a resident assistant. She was a second-generation student, the granddaughter of Marie Blauwkamp '62.
Droppers has been a school physical therapist in the Orange County Public Schools for the past two-and-a-half years. She previously held a variety of full- and part-time positions in physical therapy from 1984 to 1990 before taking additional time to spend with her family.
Her involvement in her community includes serving as a Bible study fellowship leader, leading middle-school mission trips and serving as president of the parent-teacher association.
She attended Hope as a second-generation student, the daughter of Dr. Harrison '51 and Mary Zweizig '52 Visscher. Her involvement with Hope since graduation has included attending class reunions, attending and organizing regional events, and recommending students to admissions. In addition, her son Neil is entering his second year at the college.
Droppers majored in biology and minored in physical education at Hope. Her activities as a student included the Delta Phi Sorority, Pull tug-of-war and the Nykerk Cup competition.
She and her husband, Karl Droppers '82 have four children: Neil, Jack, Nina and Mara.
Kingma has a pre-dental focus at Hope, majoring in psychology with minors in business management and biochemistry.
He is a member of the Fraternal Society, of which he will serve as treasurer during 2007-08. His activities at Hope have also included volunteering with the Children's After School Achievement (CASA) program, serving as a Judicial Board representative for Greek Life judicial affairs, participating in a mission trip to aid in hurricane relief in Gulfport, Miss., in the fall of 2005, and competing in Hope baseball in 2006.
Since the fall of 2006 he has worked with the department of chemistry, assisting in weekly laboratory sessions for area home-school children, and he has also been gaining professional experience as a student assistant in a local dentist's office. He also works in his family's business, Kingma's Market, and at the New Holland Brewing Co.
Kingma is a 2005 graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School. Among other honors, he was named a Congressional Medal of Merit recipient in May 2005, receiving his award from Congressman Vern Ehlers. He received a Presidential Scholarship from Hope.
Sanchez is a financial advisor. He has been with Merrill Lynch since 2005, and was previously with Morgan Stanley. Since graduation he has also been president of his own company, Market Segment Services; held advertising sales positions with USA Weekend, Buena Salud and Time; and worked in marketing with Herman Miller Inc.
Sanchez's community involvement has included serving as an associate board member with Scholarship Chicago, working with the Special Olympics in soccer and serving as a "Principal for a Day" with the Chicago Schools.
He has been active in Hope regional events in the Chicago area, where he has also assisted with student recruitment. He has also returned to campus for Hope activities, including Homecoming events and the college's annual Bob DeYoung Hope Classic Golf Outing.
He majored in economics and minored in business administration at Hope. His activities as a student included the Baker Scholars, track, soccer, intramural football and the lacrosse club.
He and his wife, Lynne Schack '80 Sanchez, have two children, Angela and Eric.


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by Amanda Laugesen
November 11th marked the 132nd anniversary of the execution of famous Irish-Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly. He was hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in 1880. The anniversary prompts us to consider the contributions that Ned Kelly has made to the Australian lexicon.
Ned Kelly was born in 1855 in Victoria, and by the 1870s was notorious for being involved in criminal activities. He and his gang were responsible not only for a number of robberies, but also for killing several policemen. This led to a final confrontation at Glenrowan, Victoria, in 1880, his subsequent capture, and execution.
Ned Kelly has been an important figure in Australian folklore and mythology. Graham Seal argues in his book Tell 'em I died game: the Legend of Ned Kelly (1980) that part of Kelly's appeal is that he is seen to embody characteristics considered typically Australian. These characteristics include defiance towards authority, independence, and an affinity with the bush. Continue reading


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USA Trip 09 - Days 9 Through Whatever ...
New York
So after Coffeelab I didn't do too much coffee stuff in New York. Apparently there's stuff there that you can do other than coffee.
I did make it down to Cafe Grumpy and 9th St Espresso. Grumpy delivered service true to its name and coffee true to its reputation. Everything seemed to be very driven by Ethiopian coffees; more stuff of the IMV Ilk. The espresso and clovers were pretty good, but I have to say that I found their in-your-face IMV type flavour to be rather unsatisfying after the balance of the espresso that Mane busted out on our last day at Coffeelab. Fantastic cappuccino at both Grumpy and 9th St, with Grumpy pulling off a rather amazing transmogrification as the berry flavour of their coffee gave way to dark choc in the last few sips. But what's with the milk? Coarse bubbles at both places.
SCAA + Atlanta
The Specialty Coffee Association of America Expo was always going to be jam packed ... add the World Barista Championships and it was a very, very, very packed few days ...
Team Australia in their run through time; Tim, Wolffy and JP. I really wanted to spend more time with team Aussie and more time watching the WBC, but had too much stuff to try to squeeze in at the expo. In fact, I only ended up watching one performance - Mike Philips from the USA (who I thought definitely had a winning performance). Tim's run through went well; his espresso tasted really sweet and I can't wait to stream his performance, already knowing full well that he will have done us proud.
Grinders provided by Espresso Parts. Tshirts provided by latteart.net.au.
The WBC espresso bar; fancy being able to get great coffee at a barista competition!
OK, so in a nutshell, I did four labs - two brewing labs and two farming labs. The farming labs were absolutely awesome, with some guys at the cutting edge taking us through all of the various processes and correlating the many goings on at the farm with the result in the cup. Money well spent.
Show Floor
Me using the new time machine. At least I think it was a time machine; every time I came near it I lost half an hour!
The machine that everyone was talking about. Utterly amazing. Brew pressure profiling via a new lever group. Critics correctly point out that brew pressure profiling via a lever is impractical in a busy bar operation. Except when you can record the pressure profile and play it back! There were also a bunch of other cool things, including SS portafilters and teflon coated steam wands. I'll go out on a limb and say that I reckon this prototype is the best machine on the planet at the moment.
You can get an idea of the front of the machine from the photos above.
LM are popular dudes. Every man and his dog gave them coffee.
So how did the coffee taste? Pretty amazing.