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The post-summer driving season is usually a forgiving time at the pump. But this year there was a detour on the road to lower year-end gas prices, which instead hit a record average high of over $3 a gallon. On Nov. 15, just a few days before oil surged to almost $100 a barrel, the headline on a wire story read, "Gas hitting record highs for holiday travel." On that same day, another seemingly unrelated headline read, "Fed makes biggest temporary injection since '01." Coincidence?
As the price of oil has marched higher during the past few years, the media has latched on to various one-time or "temporary" explanations: unrest in Nigeria, refinery problems in Texas, weather in the North Sea, pipeline disruptions in Iraq. Just before tensions boiled over along the Turkish-Kurd border in mid-October, oil was trading at $80. News reports cited a potential military incursion by Turkey as the reason for oil's subsequent rise. That incursion still hadn't happened by early November, but oil was $96. "Strong demand" is another oft cited excuse, and this one has more merit. There's no doubt that global growth and its impact on the supply/ demand ratio is an important factor. But during the last few years, and with increasing velocity, the rise in price has far outpaced demand. Between January and November 2007, the price of oil surged 92 percent. Those storms in the North Sea must have been pretty bad.
It's only recently that another explanation has started to appear, albeit mostly as an afterthought near the bottom of news reports: the weak dollar. This is not an easy storyline for the mainstream media. Most people don't—and don't want to—understand the relationship between the price at the pump and the value of what's in their wallets.
The word "liquidity" entered public discourse this year when problems in the subprime housing market surfaced during the summer. Liquidity can mean different things. Essentially, it's the byproduct of daily Federal Reserve operations that maintain short-term interest rates. To prevent rates from rising above its announced target level, the Fed pumps money into the financial system.
So on a day-to-day basis, liquidity is the tool of a broader interest-rate policy. The two go hand in hand. But liquidity is powerful, and its effects don't stop there. Nor do the Fed's ambitions. One doesn't need indicators like oil, the dollar, or gold. Wallets tell the story best.
Assumptions about the natural business cycle are part of the dollar's intrinsic value. Ideally, investors expect that when the cycle slows, as the housing market has recently, the dollars accumulated during a strong economy will be worth at least as much, and likely more, when the economy weakens. This is the practical economic dynamic behind the folksy wisdom of "saving something for a rainy day." But it can work in reverse. An important part of inflation is expectations. If investors believe the Federal Reserve will fight economic softness too aggressively, and in the process debase the currency, then the dollar loses both face and intrinsic value.
When this happens, it's noticeable at the gas pump because oil is priced in dollars. But that's only one manifestation of Fed policy. The price of oil also shows up in food, clothing, building materials, highway tolls, and mass-transit fares—things everyone knows cost more these days. The government understates inflation in several ways, one of which is stripping out the cost of those daily necessities to arrive at a "core consumer price index." But it's impossible to strip out inflation's dangerous consequences.
There aren't many historical examples of advanced, industrialized nations relying on a combustible mix of debt and fiat money to the extent the U.S. does. Argentina is one, as well as Germany during the early 1920s.
As Germany struggled to pay war debts and boost its industrial sector, it churned out a deluge of paper money. It was a deliberate policy, openly supported by prominent German business leaders like Hugo Stinnes, who ran the equivalent of a Dow Jones-listed company. Rudolph Havenstein, head of Germany's central bank, boasted about the efficiency of his printing presses. German society felt the effects at every level. At the same time a pensioner needed a stack of paper money to buy a cup of coffee, the stock market and the economy soared. In his book When Money Dies, Adam Fergusson quotes from the letters of a private citizen:
Speculation on the stock exchange has spread to all ranks of the population and shares rise like air
balloons to limitless heights. My banker congratulates me on every new rise, but he does not dispel the secret uneasiness which my growing wealth arouses in me … it already amounts to millions.
And from a foreigner in the country on business:
The greatest fraudulent conspiracy in the history of the world is now being enacted in Germany with the full concurrence and active support of its 60 or 70 millions of people. Germany is teeming with wealth. She is humming like a beehive. The comfort and prosperity of her people absolutely astound me. Poverty is practically non-existent. And yet this is the country that is determined she will not pay her debts. … They are a nation of actors. … If it wasn't for the fact that the German is guiltless of humor, one might imagine the whole nation was bent on perpetrating an elaborately laborious practical joke.
Sound familiar? Inflation "worked." It was the fuel that created the veneer of prosperity. And it worked most of all for the banks and brokerages that sprouted on every corner, the 20-year-old stock traders, and those who had the savvy and means to protect themselves through hard assets—today's investment bankers, hedge-fund managers, and speculators. To be sure, Germany in the early '20s was an outlier, an extreme example of monetary policy gone awry. But some aspects of our current financial system have very few historical parallels, and that is one of them. It would be foolish to ignore it simply because so much about that era is easily dismissed for its madness.
Asset prices, then, can rise despite deadly underlying weakness. Part of the script for today's financial pundits is the claim that all is well because the equity markets, though bumpy, generally were at or near all-time or multiyear highs for most of 2007. After the Dow plunged 237 points on Nov. 26, CNBC reported, "Alert: Dow +2.3% year-to-date."
If that's the standard, then it appears all is well. And that's crucial. There's a lot at stake: the Bush fiscal policy must work—or at least appear to. If it doesn't, it will be discredited for a generation or longer, with obvious implications for elections and therefore income and capital-gains taxes.
Thus the pressure on policymakers to take extraordinary measures. After the late-'90s tech bubble burst, the Federal Reserve decided there was never a good time for economic weakness, much less recession. But a basic truism of the financial markets is that there's no free lunch. Periodic recessions cleanse malinvestment and overcapacity. When government believes it has the ability to repeal the natural business cycle, eventually bad things happen.
To keep up appearances, policymakers need to do whatever's necessary to avoid them. And that's what the Fed has done, first by lowering interest rates to a rock-bottom 1 percent and inducing a real-estate bubble in the process, then by responding to every bump in the road with either lower rates or stock market-friendly comments. The financial markets understand political expediency. On Nov. 6, the Fed funds futures suggested a 62 percent chance of a rate cut in December. One day later, after the Dow plunged 360 points, the futures implied that a cut was a near certainty.
The Dow is composed of only a handful of companies, but there's no more important barometer of public psychology. The behavior of that small group of stocks can paper over a lot of distress under the surface. So what happens if that barometer starts to fall and interest-rate policy, a blunt tool that works with a lag, isn't enough? The possibility of direct intervention in the stock market has been the subject of much debate in the financial community. Some believe that the government—either the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, or a proxy—has intervened in the past to prop up the stock market. If that's indeed the case, a national debate about it should take place. Government-sanctioned intervention in the stock market would have serious implications, including the use of public money to buy stocks while corporate insiders are selling, select Wall Street trading desks profiting from knowledge of the intervention, and the ability to boost the market prior to an election or other event. We know from the past few years that much can be justified when a nation is "at war."
The upshot? Moral hazard. Reckless risk-taking is encouraged because the public believes the government will act as a backstop. On Milton Friedman's 90th birthday in 2002, Ben Bernanke, then a Federal Reserve governor, honored the aged economist with a promise: "Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again." He's done his best to keep that promise.
To be sure, it's important that policymakers encourage risk to some degree. Risk is crucial to capitalism, and it's part of what makes our financial system great. And there are certainly times—post-9/11 being one—when a government backstop is appropriate. But there's a difference between policymakers getting out of the way and actively partnering with speculators.
Whatever one might call that, "conservative" it's not. If conservatism is the preservation of things that are intrinsically valuable, what is conservative about policies that destabilize and debase the dollar? One might argue that optimism and upward mobility are also intrinsically valuable and an integral part of America's national identity. So what does it mean to go down a road that deadends in mass foreclosures and bankruptcies, millions of unsold homes on the market, families uprooted, and legions of young, experience-hardened cynics?
On Dec. 6, President Bush announced a Treasury-led plan by the mortgage industry to freeze rates for some subprime borrowers. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton came out with a more ambitious proposal. As politicians trip over themselves in an election year to mitigate unpleasant consequences, the rest of the world will no doubt be watching nervously. It's ironic that a rediscovery of the intrinsically valuable might be forced on us by foreigners. As holders of dollar-denominated assets, they have a keen understanding of moral hazard and the role of the nanny state. That might not matter in a less interdependent world. But since U.S. dollars are the world's de facto reserve currency, foreigners have a vested interest in the dollar's value.
The rising tension is unmistakable. On Nov. 7, Xu Jian, a vice director of China's central bank, said the dollar is "losing its status as the world currency.'' On the same day, Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of China's national parliament, said, "We will favor stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will re-adjust accordingly." In fact, that readjustment has been underway for some time. In August, holdings of U.S. bonds by foreign governments at the Federal Reserve fell 3.8 percent, the largest decline since 1992.
Ominously, the largest oil producers have also made their feelings clear. In July, Iran demanded that Japan pay for oil in yen instead of dollars. At the OPEC summit in November, Hugo Chavez claimed, "the dollar has been in free-fall without a parachute." Venezuela began aggressively moving its foreign currency reserves into euros in 2006. Russia and Indonesia have been doing the same. Since these countries have the gall to question an arrangement in which they accept depreciating paper for their main (and finite) natural resource, they both complicate and profit from the Fed's efforts to stem economic weakness.
The relationship between oil and the dollar is paramount, for oil is our Achilles heel. Owning all the oil on the planet would free us of a major constraint on monetary policy. Unpleasant and politically inconvenient economic downturns could be avoided, interest rates could stay low longer, the stock and housing markets could rise unfettered, and the nanny state could respond to every inconvenient consequence with freshly printed handouts. But that's not the case, and policies that assume otherwise have put us up against some immutable economic and geopolitical realities. It wasn't a coincidence that those two headlines about gas prices and the Fed appeared on the same day in November. They were really about the same underlying story.
Assume everyone in your town requires an increasing number of widgets. You're in an enviable position: you have the town's only widget-making machine. But your machine is old and past its peak, and you're having trouble meeting the demand. You've had an informal arrangement with your neighbor for many years. He has a machine that produces pieces of paper embossed with the phrase "Good For One Widget." Unlike your machine, however, his never breaks down. This arrangement has generally been acceptable to the people who live in the town; they like the way the "Good For One Widget" pieces of paper look, and they get their widgets when they need them.
Over the past few years, your neighbor has married, started a family, remodeled his house, and grown fond of taking expensive vacations. To pay for all that and meet his own need for an ever increasing amount of widgets, he builds several more "Good For One Widget" machines and runs them nonstop, day and night. You've also started a family and have your own responsibilities. You wish your machine ran as well as his, and you're starting to worry about what will happen when yours stops running completely and you still have a family to support.
One day your neighbor calls you, complains that the unreliability of your widget machine is affecting him, and demands that you get it running better to meet the rapidly increasing production of his machine. You realize you have a decision to make: try to squeeze as many widgets as possible out of the remaining life of your machine and accept the same amount of paper in return, or let the price of your widgets rise to earn as much as you can while you still have the ability to produce them at all. If you're the widget maker, what's the best choice?
Now assume you own the "Good For One Widget" machine, and your name is Ben Bernanke. Your widget-producing neighbor's name is Abdullah. Does that change your answer?
This is where the rubber meets the road in the great game. It's where bridges to nowhere, Twilight Zone economic statistics, market intervention and bailouts, wars via national credit card, an open-ended occupation, and a Fed official's lofty promise to Milton Friedman are all called to account. Everything about Washington is the art of the possible: whatever can be done is done, until it can't be done any longer. But we cannot print oil. And to the extent we've entered an age in which most wars will be fought not over religion or ethnicity but over natural resources, that has dire implications, as much for those who happen to live above the oil, tragically, as for us.
Wilson Burman is the pen name for a New York City financial executive who writes The Cunning Realist blog.


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Log in
Kalamazoo, MI –
At its October 27 monthly meeting, the Kalamazoo Public Library board of trustees approved a process for filling a trustee position that became vacant with the death of long-time board member, Loren Dykstra. Mr. Dykstra passed away on October 16, 2008. His current term would have ended in June 2009.
Persons interested in serving on the board of trustees are invited to send a letter of interest and a description of their qualifications to the board no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 21, 2008. Trustees must be registered voters within the Kalamazoo Public Library district, which encompasses the City of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Township, Oshtemo Township, and the Kalamazoo Public Schools district.
Letters may be mailed, hand delivered, faxed, or emailed to:
Board of Trustees
c/o Martha Coash
Kalamazoo Public Library
315 S. Rose St.
Kalamazoo MI 49007
Fax: 269-553-7999
Email: email@example.com
A committee comprised of board members Lisa Godfrey, trustee, Jim VanderRoest, treasurer, and Valerie Wright, board president, will review applicants' letters and credentials, then present a recommendation at the December 15, 2008, board meeting. The vacated seat will be appointed by a majority vote from the board.
To learn more about the board of trustees, to read minutes of past meetings, or to see a schedule of upcoming meetings, please visit the board of trustees pages on the library website. Please call Martha Coash, assistant to the library director, with any questions at 269-553-7826.
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subset: commoncrawl


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- Champions League
Martino: I almost celebrated Atletico's goal
Diego's opening goal for Atletico Madrid in Tuesday's Champions League match against Barcelona was so good it nearly drew applause from the opposing manager.
Atletico survived the loss of their top-scorer Diego Costa, who left the pitch when the game was just half an hour old with a hamstring injury, to take the lead 11 minutes into the second half when the forward's replacement Diego Ribas unleashed a rasping drive into the top corner.
"When I saw the ball go in I almost wanted to celebrate it, it was a tremendous goal," Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino said.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone also heaped praise on the substitute, who before the match had had an uneasy two months since returning to the club on loan in January.
"I was in a perfect position on the touchline and when he took the shot I knew it was going in. I felt pure joy," said Simeone. "The team needed Diego to demonstrate what he is worth and he did that, and he also needed to demonstrate his worth to everyone else.
"I'm delighted for him because he's been working so hard in silence and today was an example that hard work always pays off in football."
Neymar equalised for the Catalans in the 71st minute and from then on Atletico were hanging on, but Simeone said he was proud of his players after they battled to a 1-1 draw.
"I'm very happy with this team, this was the most decisive game of the two years I've been at the club and we are still going, showing enormous heart, and the way we fought makes me so proud, and I'm sure the fans are proud too," Simeone told the post-match news conference.
"I'm delighted we were able to compete with Barcelona, you don't earn the right to do that in a day, you earn it with hard work and today we showed we can compete with them."
The coach admitted Atleti were made to suffer in the final 20 minutes, but added: "This is the history of Atletico Madrid, always suffering, playing with their heart, never giving up, always keeping going.
"This group of players has huge heart. More than the result, here or in the return leg, this is what makes me proud."
Barcelona's Martino also insisted he was pleased with his team's performance.
"The way Barca played fills me with pride," he said. "Sometimes it paid off, other times it didn't, but if we keep playing this way we will have every chance of success.
"I'm very happy with how we played, we deserved to score another goal. We maintained intensity over the 90 minutes and we didn't allow Atleti to play in space, we created more chances and their only chances came from a bad pass and a goal from 35 metres."
Midfielder Xavi, though, was less optimistic, telling Television Espanola: "I think that we deserved more and created more chances but they also played well.
"We struggled to create chances and we will have to try and score goals there [in Madrid] but this is not a great result for us."
Simeone could not give details on the extent of Costa's injury, but defended the decision to play the forward, who retired from training the day before the game after just five minutes.
"The injury he received wasn't the one he had before, he received so many knocks it's difficult to know where it came from," he said.
While Atletico are likely to be without Costa for the return leg, Gerard Pique is certain to miss out, with Barcelona confirming that the defender will be out of action for a month after suffering a hairline hip fracture during the game.


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|Don't You (Forget About Me)
|All The Things She Said
|Sanctify Yourself
|Promised You A Miracle
|Glittering Prize
Nov 2018 • 1 song
Oct 2018 • 2 songs
Jun 2018 • 1 song
Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the film The Breakfast Club, Scotland's Simple Minds evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by Roxy Music into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of U2. The band grew out of a Glasgow punk group called Johnny and the Self-Abusers, which featured guitarist Charlie Burchill and lead singer Jim Kerr. The inaugural 1978 lineup of Simple Minds featured a rhythm section of T... Read more


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Jihadist battle cry is called 'speculation'
One of the most sensational allegations stemming from last week's shooting spree at Fort Hood was a claim that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar!" before firing into scores of soldiers at a large post processing center.
FORT HOOD - One of the most sensational allegations stemming from last week's shooting spree at Fort Hood was a claim that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar!" before firing into scores of soldiers at a large post processing center.
A day after Army chief of staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. expressed concern over potential anti-Muslim reaction in the wake of the mass shooting, Fort Hood appeared to distance itself from the controversy.
A spokesman for the post, asked to clarify comments made last week by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander, who suggested that Hasan issued the jihadist battle cry, called it "speculation."
"The supposed shouted quote is still a matter of speculation and under investigation by CID," Bruce E. Zielsdorf said. "Lt. Gen. Cone is correct in saying he'd heard such reports, but without audiovisual documentation of the incident, it is still an issue to be addressed through the investigative process, and we will do nothing to jeopardize that effort."
The post has offered no hard evidence that Hasan uttered those words or shown that witnesses have confirmed it independently of each other before word spread around the post and in the media.
Cone told the CBS "Early Show" on Friday that "there are reports, unconfirmed, that he was saying 'Allahu Akbar.'"
In an interview Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Cone said there were "first-hand accounts here that are similar" to reports of Hasan using those words.
One of the wounded, Pfc. Joseph Foster, told CNN that he was doing paperwork for his deployment in January to Afghanistan when said he heard a cry and then nearby gunfire.
"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster told CNN's "American Morning"
In an interview that aired Monday, Foster, who refused to discuss the incident in a news conference Sunday, said he couldn't be certain the shooter said those exact words, explaining that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."
Americans across the country have reacted in anger, and media reports worldwide have drawn a tighter focus on Hasan's opposition to the war in Iraq and ties to a mosque used by two 9-11 hijackers.
One conservative Web site, Pajamas Media, ran a column Monday in which the writer, Ron Radosh, denounced efforts by the Army to play down religion as a factor in the attack. "Any objective observer would think it a tragedy if the Army swept the motivations of someone like Hasan under the rug," Radosh wrote.
But both Casey and Fort Hood's commander continued to express concerns that people were rushing to judgment. Casey worried in a Sunday television appearance of a backlash against Muslim soldiers, while Cone dismissed the notion that Hasan was waging a holy war on his fellow soldiers.
"I would say this in my view did not have to do with religion," Cone said in a "town hall" televised Monday night on a Killeen-area PBS affiliate.
He also alluded to concerns that the Army has long held about the toll that multiple deployments have taken on soldiers and their families.
"In many ways, it was for many of us one of our worst fears, that this would happen and it would be one of our own that is suspected of conducting this attack," he said.
Cone briefed viewers on today's memorial ceremony featuring President Barack Obama. Earlier in the day, he met with the media and promised that the Army would take a "hard look" at what, if anything, could have been done to prevent Thursday's shooting.
"We are going to take a very hard look at ourselves, and anything that might have been done," adding that the examination would be "a big look."
Hasan remained in Brooke Army Medical Center. The Associated Press reported that family members Monday had hired a former military judge, John P. Galligan, to act as Hasan's attorney.
The AP reported Monday night that Galligan met with Hasan briefly, and that the attorney said law enforcement would not be questioning Hasan at this time.
Earlier in the day, Galligan avoided specifics about the case, saying, "There's a lot of facts that still need to be developed, and the time for that will come in due course."
But he cautioned that the intense publicity surrounding his client had complicated efforts to try him at Fort Hood. The Army said Sunday that 328 media organizations from several nations were reporting the story from the post.
Typically, the trial would be here, with legal proceedings initiated by Hasan's commanders.
"You've got his commander-in-chief showing up tomorrow," Galligan told the AP. "That same kind of publicity naturally creates an issue as to whether you find a fair and impartial forum, whether that's in the military or even if it were in a federal forum."
Galligan oversaw a case 12 years ago in a small post courtroom on Fort Sam Houston that involved Robert Shapiro, the defense attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. As the judge, Galligan began court early, and it generally ran into the evening each day. He even brought the jury back on a Saturday night to hear additional testimony.
"I thought he was a very, very intelligent judge," Shapiro said. "I found that he paid very close attention to the evidence, that he researched the law and he actually made some very unprecedented rulings that allowed polygraph evidence to be entered in our case, so I found him to be a terrific judge, obviously very, very hard working and very dedicated."
One veteran military attorney said publicity in the case cuts another way - at witnesses who have claimed they heard Hasan cry "Allahu akbar!"
A decade ago Frank Spinner represented Marine Capt. Richard Ashby, accused of killing 20 people by flying his jet into an Italian gondola cable.
Ashby was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the 1988 incident.
One key to the defense was impeaching eyewitness testimony. Spinner raised questions about what the witnesses actually saw by showing that their minds might have been influenced by media reports after the tragedy.
In Italy, Spinner said, "we found there were a lot of witnesses that saw immediate reports about what was going on, and we were able to show that they incorporated into their memory what they saw on TV. So they might have seen the plane fly nearby, but we had testimony to show that they may have been contaminated or influenced by what they saw in media reports."
The issue is likely to come up, especially because there are hundreds of potential witnesses and little way to avoid publicity over the shooting, which has been the dominant news story since Thursday.
As of Monday evening, Foster, 21, of Ogden, Utah, and 26 other wounded troops had been discharged from area hospitals. Fifteen remained hospitalized, with six of those in intensive care units.
Express-News researcher Michael Knoop contributed to this report.
More Information
A special mySA report


text:
Four Stacks
after Martin Gardner
Place eight coins in a row as shown in the
illustration. The object is to make from all the coins four stacks of
two coins each and it should be done in four moves only.
Every move consists of jumping of a coin over any two coins (no matter
lying flat or in a stack) in one direction, and stopping on the top of
the next coin.
Step Through:


text:
The article "Lawmakers lament school tax hikes" (Addison Independent, March 13) made me concerned because the lawmakers didn't see the disconnect between the school budgets' changes and the state's school property tax rate.
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The Division is an interdisciplinary team of professionals working together to meet California's transportation needs while being sensitive to the needs of our customers and planning partners. Transportation planners, engineers, and support staff work cooperatively to meet our planning goals.
Please select from the menu to find a member of staff or current information regarding Planning or Local Assistance activities:
|Local Assistance
The District 3 Office of Local Assistance supports local and regional agencies in securing federal and state financing for transportation projects. Funds are used primarily for local capital projects off the state highway system, mass transit capital improvement projects, and bridge improvement projects.
|Office of Advance Planning
Caltrans Advance Planning provides a link between planning and programming (funding) a project. A project initiation documents (PID), such as a Project Study Report, is a key qualification for advancing a project from planning to programming to construction.
|Regional Planning
The primary goal of the regional transportation planning program is to work with our regional and local transportation partners to help guide, assist, and maintain the regional transportation planning process. Regional Planning Liaisons serve as the single point of contact within the District for all regional transportation planning activites.
|Community Planning
Community Planning encourages the integration of transportation and land use planning with community values through programs, policies, and projects that help create more livable communities. Community Planning encourages development that mixes land uses, increases land use density, provides travel choices, and promotes public participation and the building of partnerships.
|Local Development Review
The primary goal of the Local Development Review Program is to assist lead agencies with the identification of impacts and appropriate mitigation measures of local development activities on the State Highway System. District 3 planners review local, state, and federal programs, plans, and projects that have the potential to impact existing or proposed state transportation facilities.
|System and Freight Planning
System and Freight Planning is Caltrans long-range (20-years) transportation planning process to evaluate current and future operating conditions and deficiencies on the State transportation system. The process considers the entire transportation system, including highways and local arterials; transit services; railroads; airports; seaports; non-motorized modes of transportation (i.e. bicycles and walking); goods movement, Intelligent Transportation Systems, and local land use plans.
|Corridor System Management
Corridor System Management is a comprehensive, innovative way to efficiently manage existing transportation infrastructure and systems. It involves using advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) with targeted operational and capacity improvement projects to fully manage and optimize a transportation corridor .
|Travel Forecasting and Modeling
The Office of Travel Forecasting and Modeling is a functional unit under the Deputy District Director of Planning and Local Assistance. The primary function of the Office provides critical project travel analysis of past, present and future traffic volumes, turn movements as well as other operational characteristics.
|Mass Transportation/Transit Planning
Making transit a more practical travel option is one of the Department's six goals. While the Department is widely recognized as being responsible for the State's highways and freeways, not many people are aware of the Department's interest in helping to improve and expand transit service. We recognize that transit is a vital component of the State's transportation system.
|Native American Activities Caltrans has many transportation projects within reservations and tribal ancestral areas. There are 11 Federally recognized tribal governments within District 3. The District works with all Tribes on a government-to-government basis. We are currently developing memorandums of understanding with each Tribe to more formally define this relationship and operating procedures.


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An article from Housing Wire:
Real estate agents selling real-estate owned properties on behalf of Fannie Mae must work toward selling the home to owner occupants.
And the government-sponsored enterprise will now offer a cash incentive of $1,200 to agents selling REOs, according to high level staffers at Fannie Mae.
"Beginning [Tuesday] we will continue our current incentive of up to 3.5% off buyer closing cost per property," said a Fannie Mae panelist at the REO Expo conference in Fort Worth, Texas. "And we are adding an additional $1,200 incentive."
"The initial offer must include this incentive," he added. "And the buyer must be an owner occupant."
There are other stipulations to receiving the $1,200 incentive, all which will be made available tomorrow on the HomePath website.
Fannie will also be rolling out a more comprehensive utility programs, for agents who pay to maintain REO properties.
Fannie dearly wants owner occupants to gravitate to the REO market. Another program, it's First Look standard, mandates that for the first 15 days on the market, only owner occupants can bid on REO properties.
Fannie Mae admits that costs are rising for REO agents in the sector, even if it is related to issues that are industry-wide.
"We know that title has become a challenge, not just for Fannie Mae," another panelist said.


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Story highlights
- Colleen Whiteaker weighed more than 230 pounds at her heaviest
- She went from a size 20 to a size 2/4 by exercising six days a week
- Whiteaker is ready to take on the world now, one of her daughters says
Colleen Whiteaker's three eldest daughters looked at her with concern.
They were beautiful, she thought, with their slim, athletic builds and porcelain skin. She hadn't wanted them to deal with the pain of being overweight, so she had taught them to eat nutritious foods and stay active.
Now they were throwing those lessons back in her face.
Miriam, Candace and Chloe tried to pitch their "intervention" like a fun plan. They bought their mom a gym membership and some new workout clothes. They tried to avoid talking about her weight problem directly, but eventually the truth came out.
"It was terrible," Candace remembers. "It's never something you want to bring up, especially to your mom. But really it was just hurting us to see her like that. We didn't want to have to worry about her dying."
Their mother was 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed more than 200 pounds. She had become isolated and never wanted to participate in family get-togethers. The older girls were worried their youngest sister Celeste, 5 at the time, wouldn't get to know the wonderful, energetic mom with whom they had grown up.
"They were crying. I was crying," Colleen says. "It really hurt my feelings. ... I was like, 'I know I'm heavy. I know that, but I'm not unhealthy. I'm just supposed to be that weight.'
"They were like, 'Mom, I don't think that's true.' "
'I was trying to lose weight'
Colleen isn't sure how she put on so much weight. She was chubby as a child, and her weight fluctuated throughout adulthood. She didn't eat a lot of bad foods, staying away from fast food and fried fare. But she rarely exercised and says she has a slow metabolism.
Shortly after Celeste's birth, Colleen and her husband divorced. Stress, combined with an unusual work schedule and a new baby, kept the pounds on despite multiple attempts at dieting.
"It was discouraging because I wasn't just pretending like I didn't know I needed to lose weight," she says. "I was trying to lose weight. I wanted something to change."
Unfortunately, her daughters' intervention didn't work. It wasn't until Chloe and Candace's college graduation nearly six years later that she really took a good look in the mirror.
She was thrilled for her daughters and proud to be their mother, but she wasn't proud of the way she looked. She weighed close to 230 pounds. She dreaded meeting their college friends and taking a million photos.
On the way home -- embarrassed and miserable -- Colleen thought about what she could do. A few years earlier, her new husband had bought a Bowflex TreadClimber. It was sitting in their North Carolina house, practically unused. She promised herself she would start walking on it three times a week, for 20 minutes.
And that's what she did.
At the end of September 2011, she met her daughters at Kings Dominion, an amusement park in Virginia, for an annual trip. The girls noticed she had lost a bit of weight and complimented her.
"I was excited, but I didn't really want to ... make a huge deal of it because I didn't want her to feel like we were adding pressure," Candace says.
The girls' comments encouraged Colleen. She added another day to her routine, then another. Soon she was walking for 45 minutes, six days a week. The more she exercised, the more she was conscious of what she was eating. She started writing down her meals in a journal to get an idea of how much she was consuming each day.
Her goal was to go from a size 20 to a size 12. By May 2012, she was a size 2/4.
She had lost more than 110 pounds in about 10 months.
"She was ready to take on the world," Candace says. "She wanted to go out and do all these things. ... It was like having our old mom back."
Raiding daughters' closets fun
When she was overweight, Colleen says she never felt bad physically. "I did whatever I wanted to do, but I didn't want to do that much," she says with a laugh.
Today she says she feels "100% better."
"She has more energy than we do now," Candace says. "She's just very inspiring, and she just keeps going, and I love her for that."
Colleen was laid off before she jumped on the TreadClimber. She went on multiple job interviews that amounted to nothing. But her first interview after losing the weight resulted in a job offer.
She's not sure if it was her new body or her newfound confidence, but she knows people treat her differently now that she's slim.
"They see you as maybe having something to offer," she says.
Perhaps her favorite part of losing weight is borrowing her daughters' clothes. Before, she hated to go shopping to buy new clothes. Now when she visits, she doesn't even bother to pack -- instead preferring to raid their closets.
Celeste just turned 13, and Candace is happy her youngest sister will get to experience Colleen as the mom she remembers.
"She's very free-spirited and encouraging and happy," Candace says of her mother. "And that was being covered up by all that extra weight she was carrying around."
Follow Jacque Wilson on Twitter @jdwilson2 or Google+


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HST ACS WFC3 Image without SN
SN Mikulski
7.4 billion light-years (2.3 billion parsecs)
The image was created from Hubble data from proposal 12440: S. Faber (University of California, Santa Cruz) and H. Ferguson (STScI) et al.
WFC3/IR F125W (J), ACS/WFC F606W (V), and F814W (I)
This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 and ACS instruments on HST. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:
Red: F125W (J)
Blue: F606W (V)
Green: F814W (I)
NASA, ESA, S. Faber (UCSC), A. Riess (JHU/STScI), S. Rodney (JHU), and the CANDELS team


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ALBANY — A Linn County judge has ruled that the religious beliefs and practices of an Albany couple can be used as evidence when they are tried on manslaughter charges in the death of their 12-year-old daughter.
Travis and Wenona Rossiter are accused of depriving their daughter of life-saving medical care for diabetes. Syble Rossiter died in 2013.
The Rossiters are members of the Church of the First Born, whose members believe traditional medical treatment is sinful.
Their lawyers argued their beliefs should be excluded as prejudicial — that they should be tried for their actions rather than their beliefs.
Judge Daniel Murphy ruled last week that if their beliefs compelled their actions, that's a form of motive evidence.
Murphy called the lawyers' argument unusual and wrote that without the information about their religious convictions, the Rossiters' actions appear "wanton and grossly reckless."
"The court cannot find that evidence of a religious motive is more prejudicial in this case than the absence of such evidence," Murphy wrote.
The Rossiters are scheduled for separate two-week trials, his in August, hers in November.
Murphy previously ruled in favor of a defense motion to exclude information about the death of Wenona Rossiter's brother.
Anthony Hays, 7, died of leukemia in 1994, and his parents were accused of failing to provide medical care for him. They were the first people in Oregon to be prosecuted in such a case.
In 1996, a Linn County jury convicted his father, Loyd Hays of Brownsville, on charges of criminally negligent homicide. He was sentenced to five years' probation.
Hays' wife, Christina Hays, was acquitted.


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Brooks Construction Concrete Homes
Not everyone knows that HOMES can be concrete.
Talk about energy efficient and tough! And the costs of building a concrete home are similar to that of a traditionally-built home. Typical energy savings on heating and cooling costs are 50% to 80%! And think of the possibilities of your curb appeal with all the ways Brooks Construction makes concrete beautiful.


text: On September 13, 1916, children's author Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales. Although his career was focused mainly in print, Dahl's career has made a significant contribution to popular film. The author is behind such classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, all which have seen big-screen adaptations. His career in the film industry includes several screenwriting endeavors. He wrote an early script for the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, and another for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, although both of these scripts were later reworked by other screenwriters. As if his scripts being thrown out and reworked wasn't enough to make him steer clear of the film business, Dahl also wrote the initial script for the film adaptation of his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Paramount Pictures, however, brought in a second screenwriter, David Seltzer, to write another version with the character focus falling on the magical chocolatier Willy Wonka instead of the young boy Charlie in Dahl's novel. The title of the film was also changed to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to reflect the importance of the character. Continue reading


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Marinepits wrote:Thanks for the link! We ended up re-arranging the dogs' room and putting 2x4s under the crates -- couldn't get enough smaller pallets and our neighbor was doing some remodelling, so we got the 2x4s for free! Problem fixed.
Marinepits wrote:Done! See you in a couple of weeks!
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2013 NFL Week 8 Preview — 5 Intriguing Storylines to Watch
Teams are beginning to jockey for playoff position as the 2013 NFL season reaches its eighth week. Here are five storylines we'll be watching this week:
Calvin Johnson vs. Dez Bryant
Ford Field, Detroit — Sun., Oct. 27, at 1 p.m. (ET)
While they obviously won't face each other on the field, wide receivers Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant are crucial to the success of the Lions (4-3) and Cowboys (4-3), respectively. The two pass-catchers are among the most physically gifted players at their position, and each is sure to create matchup headaches for the opposing defense in this week's game between NFC playoff contenders. Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford of Detroit and Tony Romo of Dallas are the chief benefactors of Johnson's and Bryant's talents.
AFC Showdown: Jets-Bengals
Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati — Sun., Oct. 27, at 4:25 p.m. (ET)
The Cincinnati Bengals (5-2) host the New York Jets (4-3) in a battle of AFC playoff contenders? Yes. Why are you surprised? While the Bengals have beaten perennial powers like New England and Green Bay, the Jets have recorded all four of their wins in the fourth quarter or later thanks to the heroics of rookie quarterback Geno Smith. Cincinnati seems like the more talented team, but if Rex Ryan's defense can cause problems for the Bengals' Andy Dalton and A.J. Green, they could take another step toward an improbable playoff berth.
Kaepernick-ing Goes Global
Wembley Stadium, London, England — Sun,. Oct. 27, at 1 p.m. (ET)
When the San Francisco 49ers (5-2) landed in London this week, it marked the first time this season that the Brits were exposed to a winning NFL team on their own soil. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick is the most charismatic star in Sunday's game between his 49ers and the pathetic Jacksonville Jaguars (0-7), who are well on their way to selecting first in the 2014 NFL Draft. Kaepernick—and his trademark touchdown celebration during which he "kisses" his bicep—is the NFL's best hope of a memorable experience for the international audience. Of course, the Jags horrific two-toned helmets are reminiscent of the old World League and NFL Europe color schemes, so that could help too.
Will Peyton Manning Play?
Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver — Sun., Oct. 27, at 4:25 p.m. (ET)
After an ankle injury forced quarterback Peyton Manning to miss his first practice as a Bronco on Wednesday, his status for Sunday's game against the Redskins is slightly in doubt. After Denver (6-1) suffered their first loss of the season to the Colts last Sunday night, Manning is probably desperate to start a new win streak, especially against a defense that is giving up an average of 30.7 points per game. If Manning does sit, backup Brock Osweiler is likely to get the nod. Robert Griffin III is expected to play for Washington (2-4).
The Rams Are a Mess
Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis — Mon., Oct. 28, at 8:40 p.m. (ET)
When you are making phone calls to a retired grandfather asking him to play quarterback, your football team isn't in great shape. The St. Louis Rams (3-4) called former NFL All-Pro quarterback Brett Favre, 44, and asked if he'd consider filling the vacancy left when Sam Bradford suffered a torn ACL last week. The desperation move shows how little confidence St. Louis has in backup Kellen Clemens. Favre's resistance might indicate how dangerous the Seattle (6-1) defense is. This one could turn into a Monday-night laugher.


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The mandate to offer health insurance doesn't take effect until 2014, but the "measurement period" used to determine a whether an employer has enough full-time employees to be required to offer health insurance commenced last month. Thus, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the perverse effects of Obamacare are starting to kick in.
Under Obamacare, firms with 50 or more "full-time equivalent workers" must offer health plans to employees who work more than 30 hours a week. (The law says "equivalent" because two 15 hour a week workers equal one full-time worker.) Employers that meet the 50-employee threshold and don't offer insurance face a $2,000 penalty for each uncovered worker beyond 30 employees. So by hiring the 50th worker, the firm pays a penalty on the previous 20 as well.
Accordingly, employers are beginning to cut back on full-time employment. Franchises, with their low profit margins, are leading the charge to cut the hours of their employees. The Journal cites Burger King, McDonalds, Red Lobster, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts and Taco Bell.
But franchises aren't the only ones. A 2012 survey of employers by the Mercer consulting firm found that 67% of retail and wholesale firms that don't offer insurance coverage today "are more inclined to change their workforce strategy so that fewer employees meet that [30 hour a week] threshold."
"Changes in workforce strategy" are not limited to resorting to part-timers. Some employers will avoid the 50 employee threshold by not engaging in additional hiring or by discharging full-time workers.
There would never be a good time to witness this trend, but the present timing could hardly be worse. As the Journal reminds us:
Involuntary part-time U.S. employment is already near a record high. The latest Department of Labor employment survey counts roughly eight million Americans who want a full-time job but are stuck in a part-time holding pattern. That number is down only 520,000 since January 2010 and it is 309,000 higher than last March. And now comes ObamaCare to increase the incentive for employers to hire only part-time workers.
Under Obamacare those who lose hours or jobs due to the mandate will be able to obtain health insurance. But they will be increasingly hard-pressed to take care of the rest of their needs.


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Home / NEWS & MEDIA / First U.S. liaison to attend Nuffield International 2012 Contemporary Scholars Conference
First U.S. liaison to attend Nuffield International 2012 Contemporary Scholars Conference
The Nuffield International 2012 Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC), held in Amsterdam and London from Feb. 25 to March 4, will have its first United States guest delegate. Jean Lonie, marketing communications manager, Pfizer Animal Health, will attend the event representing U.S. agriculture and Pfizer Animal Health.
Each year, more than 50 Nuffield International Farming Scholars, a group of agriculturalists from seven participating nations, gather at the CSC, providing the opportunity to better understand agriculture in the host nation and build a network with other participating scholars. The CSC also welcomes delegates from programs with similar objectives from non-Nuffield countries. In 2012, the United Kingdom is the host nation, but part of the conference will be in the Netherlands in recognition of this country joining as Nuffield International's eighth member in 2013.
For representatives from the participating nations — United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Canada and the Netherlands — and several delegates from other countries, the 2012 CSC will provide a forum for the next generation of agriculture leaders to discuss topics specifically focused on:
- Challenges facing agriculture
- Global trade
- Leadership development in agriculture
Nuffield International leaders realized that no program could be truly global without fully engaging the United States, so the Australian leadership team worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and key Washington, D.C., partners to host the CSC in 2010. It was through this relationship that they met Lonie, and she was asked by Nuffield Australia to participate as a delegate to the 2012 CSC.
As a guest delegate, Lonie will be looking for new ways to bring U.S. agricultural producers together with programs like Nuffield and the individual scholars throughout the world. Specifically, she will look for opportunities for the agribusiness community to expand and enhance relations between U.S. agriculture and the Nuffield International Farming Scholars program.
Lonie and Pfizer Animal Health will provide updates on Facebook (Pfizer Animal Health- U.S. Livestock) and Twitter (@Pfizer_Beef and @Pfizer_Dairy) during the CSC, as well as more detailed information and photographs following the conference.
About the Nuffield International Farming Scholars
The Nuffield International Farming Scholars program traces its roots back to the aftermath of World War II. In an effort to recognize British and Empire farmers for their contribution to feeding the nation through the war and in an effort to advance the best agriculturalist practices around the world, Lord Nuffield, an industrialist and philanthropist, initiated a traveling scholarship. From two scholars in 1947 to more than 1,000 scholars from eight nations today, the Nuffield International Farming Scholars program is an unrivaled network of agriculturalists who are at the leading edge of their profession. Each year, the participating nations provide scholarships of varying amounts to more than 50 agriculturalists to help fund their international travels. For more information, visit http://nuffieldinternational.org.
About the Contemporary Scholars Conference
The Nuffield International Farming Scholars' first engagement each year is the Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC), which provides an opportunity for the scholars to meet and gain an understanding of agriculture of the host nation. The CSC was established by Nuffield International to "consider agriculture and trade in a global context, farming in 2015 and 2050, and understanding consumer issues, world trade/agri-politics and discuss leadership issues." In 2012, the United Kingdom is the host nation, but part of the conference will be held in the Netherlands in recognition of this country joining as Nuffield International's eighth member.
About Pfizer Animal Health
Pfizer Animal Health, a business of Pfizer Inc., is a world leader in discovering and developing innovative animal vaccines and prescription medicines, investing an estimated $300 million annually in animal health product research and development. For more information about how Pfizer Animal Health works to ensure a safe, sustainable global food supply from healthy livestock and poultry; or helps companion animals and horses to live longer, healthier lives, visit www.PfizerAH.com.
For more information, contact:
Jean Lonie
Pfizer Animal Health
Lindsey Langemeier
Bader Rutter
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text:
About AmmanAmman is the capital of Jordan, An amazing city of contrasts. Within a short walk, see ancient ruins and lifestyles, and experience the vibrant culture of contemporary Middle Eastern life.
Amman airports include the following:
•Queen Alia International Airport - Amman
•Marka International Airport - East Amman
Amman conservation is focused on preserving the natural heritage, as well as ensuring that water supplies to human settlements are maintained and do not impact negatively on the uninhabited areas. Overhunting and other forms of poor resource-management are counteracted by local legislation, and constant academic studies analyse causes of resource depletion and provide innovative solutions.
Amman culture includes the following aspects:
•Cuisine includes a diverse range of influences
•Sports is a popular past time, with many Jordanians enjoying watching and playing sports
•Traditional culture is also evident in the older parts of Amman
•Music takes its influence from Arabic and Western styles
•Pop culture is popular with the youth and progressive Jordanians
Amman health info for travellers includes the following:
•The most common health risk is travellers tummy from rich foods or tap water
•Health facilities are advanced in the major cities, but not in rural areas
•Pack a basic first aid kit with medication for upset stomachs, nausea and other minor ailments
•Check with your doctor about any health risks or disease outbreaks that may have occurred recently before leaving for your trip
Amman languages include the following:
•Modern Standard Arabic
•Jordanian Levantine
While malaria in Amman is not a risk, there may be a malaria risk within Asia in general. Travellers who are visiting malaria-risk countries before or after travelling to Amman should consider malaria medication.
Amman money and banking info is as follows:
•Most establishments accept payment in US dollars
•Credit cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops
•Traveller's cheques are not widely accepted and may not be exchanged even in banks
•Cash machines are found in most supermarkets, banks and other commercial buildings
Amman people include the following ethnic groups:
•Jordanian 93%
Jordan local phrases include the following:
•Hello: Marhaba
•Good morning: S-bahh Al-khair
•Good evening: Masa Al-khair
•Please: Men-fadllaak (m)
•Please: Men-fadllake (f)
•How much: Gha-daish?
Amman plants are relatively fertile in comparison with the rest of the country, with the Jordan River nearby. There are scattered forests and many local wildflowers these being popular within the city as garden plants. In addition to flowering plants, a local beekeeping industry supplies the rest of the country with honey.
Amman religion includes the following:
•Sunni Muslim 92%
•Christian 7%
•No religion 1%
Safety Tips
Amman safety tips include the following:
•There is a high risk of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, including Amman
•Avoid large crowds and demonstrations that may become violent
•The situation in Iraq has had an impact on local opinion, as has the violence between the neighbouring Israelis and Palestinians
•Crime is not a huge issue, however petty crime such as bag snatching may occur
•Keep valuables safe and out of sight, especially in the busier cities
Amman local transport includes:
Travel Books
Amman travel books include the following:
•Jordan (Lonely Planet Country Guides) by Jenny Walker
•The Rough Guide to Jordan by Matthew Teller and Rough Guides
•Travels in Syria and the Holy Land by Johan Lewis Burckhardt
•Kingdom of the Film Stars: Journey into Jordan by Annie Caulfield
•Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
•A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
What To Buy
What to buy for holidays in Amman:
•Spare batteries for torches and camera
•Guide books and Arabic phrase books
•Thick socks for hiking boots
•First aid kit for travel purposes
•Large refillable water bottle, or plenty of bottled water
What To Pack
What to pack for safari in Amman:
•Sunscreen, sunhat and sunglasses
•Bathing suit and towels
•Headscarves for women, plus long skirts and t-shirts that cover shoulders
•Comfortable walking shoes plus sandals
•Camera with spare batteries and memory card/film
•Guide book and phrase book
•Basic first aid kit
When To Go
The best time to visit Amman:
•The best time to visit climate-wise is in Spring (March-May) and Autumn (September-November)
•April offers warm temperatures and wildflowers are in bloom during this month
•Winter (December-February) can be extremely cold, with snow in some parts
•Summer (June-August) can be unbearably hot, with temperatures near the desert hitting extreme levels
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The highlight of my trip had to be Gweru in Zimbabwe, it was my idea of paradise. So much to do there with the animals and the location of it was just beautiful!
— Anne B (27) from Ireland
The trip was great! A very relaxed ride in a mokoro, followed by camping in the Okavango Delta and watching the animals on the islands was awesome!
— Michael & Silke from Germany
I loved every millisecond of the entire trip... Guess what I did in Swakopmund? I skydived out of a plane - woohoo was that AWESOME :-)
— JoJo E (61) from Switzerland
Finally home and had a great time…. I loved the shark diving, Sossusvlei and Himba people. Saw Lions, a Leopard, Elephants, Giraffes, everything really! Thanks for…
— John E from Canada
I did not believe in god till i visited Chobe National Park.
— Juca from Uruguay
Do this on the Cape Town to Nairobi with Gorilla Trek.Tours with Gorilla Trekking in Uganda
Do this on the 14-day Kruger and Mozambique Safari.Tours with Kruger National Park Game Drive
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Do this on the Best of South West Africa.Tours with Victoria Falls Flight of Angels
Do this on the Best of South West Africa.Tours with White Water Rafting on the Zambezi River
Visit Etosha National Park on the Best of NamibiaTours through Etosha National Park
Visit Okavango Delta on the Best of South West AfricaTours through Okavango Delta
Visit Serengeti National Park on the Best of East AfricaTours through Serengeti National Park
Visit Victoria Falls on the Best of South West AfricaTours through Victoria Falls
Visit Zanzibar Island on the cape town to darTours through Zanzibar Island


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Tony is a Cuban American painter that creates colorful and vibrant works of art, inspired by his childhood in the Little Havana section of Miami.
His art reflects an optimistic, joyful and whimsical view of society and the clever use of his surroundings as a source of inspiration has catapulted him on to the South Florida Art Scene as one of its most innovative artists. Mendoza captures brilliant Miami landscapes and the essence of South Florida's distinctive melting pot of beautiful people with talent and charm. ENJOY!...... STUDIO: 4225 B SW 75 Avenue - Bird Road Art District - Miami Florida
STUDIO: 4225 B SW 75 Avenue - Bird Road Art District - Miami Florida


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Exclusively commissioned by TripAdvisor
About Chris O
Lives in London
Since Aug. 2007
Hi. I'm Chris, an American freelance creative living in London. I keep busy working as a blogger, photojournalist, community manager, consultant, curator and more. The opportunities and challenges keep getting bigger, better and more meaningful for me every year! I'm having so much fun. Favorite destinations are many and my list of must-see places to visit seems to get longer the more I travel! I'm a huge fan of Lisbon, Istanbul and Queenstown – to name but a few preferred repeat locations. I also love heading back to the States every chance I find and cannot get enough of the Deep South – Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas – and Hawaii holds a particularly special place in my heart as well. And even though I've been based in London for years, it and the whole of Britain still yield myriad wonders for me.
The top sights to see on your first time in Istanbul!
16 Places
3 City Tips
16 Places
Sacred & Religious Sites
Architectural Buildings, Sacred & Religious Sites, History Museums, Historic Sites
Architectural Buildings, Historic Sites, Ancient Ruins
History Museums
Sacred & Religious Sites, Points of Interest & Landmarks
Flea & Street Markets
Hammams & Turkish Baths
Gift & Speciality Shops
Historic Sites, Observation Decks & Towers
Points of Interest & Landmarks
Boat Tours
Dating from the early 1600s, the historic Sultan Ahmed Mosque is more commonly know as the Blue Mosque for the many blue tiles adorning its walls, as well as its giant blue stained glass windows and blue painted ceilings. You might want to do some neck limbering exercises before entering because you'll be looking up in awe the whole time you're here!
One time Greek Orthodox basilica, one time imperial mosque, this architectural marvel and cultural landmark is now a museum. When you go, keep an eye out for the "Viking graffiti" that was carved into the wooden rails of the top floor.
The largest of the many hundred ancient cisterns lying beneath the streets of modern Istanbul, the Basilica Cistern is one of the city's top historical attractions. While it's just as amazing to visit as any of the others, it's usually not nearly as crowded.
Get ready to be dazzled and amazed – not only by the array of jewels and artefacts from Topkapi's collection, but also by the panoramic views of the Bosphorus. The lavish seat of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, Topkapi Palace is a must for any first-time visitor to Istanbul!
Whether or not you want to partake in smoking some flavoured tobacco from the hubbly bubbly shisha pipes, you'll love the traditional tea and Turkish coffee here. Corlulu Ali Pasa Medresesi is an evocative spot to relax and unwind - popular with tourists and locals alike. Even walking down the covered passage from the bustling street into Corlulu's courtyard - with its myriad rooms decked out with all sorts of antiques and age old décor - is a delight for the senses.
Don't worry if you get a little lost while exploring the Grand Bazaar - with its dozens of covered streets, thousands of shops and hundreds of thousands of daily visitors, it can be a little overwhelming! The bazaar, also known as Kapali Caris, is really something to see though, offering an unparalled shopping experience brimming with vibrant culture and living history. So enjoy it; just be sure to keep an eye on your belongings and pay attention to the signage pointing to the different exits.
Affordable luxury is offered at this historic hamam situated next to the Grand Bazaar. Dating back to 1584, Cemberlitas Hamami is a truly authentic Turkish Bath. Booking an appointment here is a squeaky clean way to soak up ancient culture.
Istanbul's Spice Bazaar is a centuries-old foodie wonderland that's as exciting to visit as it is budget friendly and delectable! Whether you're foraging your way through this aromatic labyrinth of yum, shopping for gifts, or just taking it all in, it's without doubt a sight to behold (and to smell)!
You can't miss these gawdy boats rocking alongside the Eminonu Pier at the "Old City" side of Galata Bridge, and nor should you. And why exactly are the boats bobbing back and forth in steady rhythm? The cooks working in their kitchens are tossing Istanbul's favorite street food to the waiters working the tables on land, that's why! For a cheap and fun snack served in singular style, Eminonu's swinging boat restaurants are ace!
There's been some sort of bridge spanning the Golden Horn from "old" Eminonu to "new" Beyoglu since at least the 6th century, and today's pedestrian-friendly Galata Bridge is as much a link between ancient and modern as ever. It's still a hot spot for local fishermen too and a great vantage point for admiring the sunsets for which Istanbul is famous. Shutterbugs, this location is for you!
The 1,500-year-old Galata Tower is an enduring and iconic landmark of Istanbul, and despite the many modern towers and rooftop bars and restaurants, this medieval stone tower still offers some of the best views of the city, the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.
Take the Beyoğlu Tünel funicular to spare your legs from the steep climb to Beyoğlu Square and then make time to explore this beautiful neighborhood, renowned for its many restaurants and a buzzing nightlife.
Located atop the roof of the Marmara Pera Hotel, Mikla Restaurant offers upscale and stylish dining with a menu of contempory dishes based on traditional Turkish cuisine. Mikla is also home to an excellent al fresco bar where, come evening, guests get to enjoy one of the most spectacular shows in town: sunset over the Golden Horn.
There's no better place to get a sense of this massive city's diverse and cosmopolitan makeup than this short cobblestoned and pedestrianized street. It's hardly a bad option either for a quick bite, spot of shopping and top quality people watching (by the throngs)!
The cultural and social heart of Istanbul, Taksim Square is the place to go for any variety of local action. From major festivities such as New Year's Eve celebrations to some of the city's most popular restaurants, shops and nightspots, Taksim Square is the go-to hub for many an Istanbul native … and probably the easiest place in town from which to hail a cab!
At some point during your stay in Istanbul you must hit the water for some sort of cruise on the Bosphorus. Sehir Hatlari's cruises are an especially picturesque and affordable way to begin getting a sense of just how gorgeous (and expansive) this age-old city is. The "Full Bosphorus Cruise" from Eminonu to Anadolu Kavagi is ideal for seeing a good stretch of Istanbul as well as much of the Bosphorus, and includes time to explore the 15th-century Yoros Castle (an uphill but easy hike) on the Asian side of town; to admire the views of the Black Sea from there; and to have a seafood lunch near the base of the castle or on the waterfront.


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Winner: Sinta Borland's Blogger's Choice
Last week, Sinta Borland of
Pink Pincushion
stopped by to chat about her
Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle
Today we get to see who won her blogger approved bundle! The winner of Sinta Borland's fabric favorites is:
MC said...
1. layer cake
2. planned
3. prints
Congratulations, MC! Please send your full shipping address to chelsey[at]fatquartershop[dot]com. Thanks for playing, everyone. Remember, you can grab your own blogger approved bundle right
Blogger's Choice


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|Free Republic 2nd Quarter Fundraising Target: $88,000
|Receipts & Pledges to-date: $57,023
|Woo hoo!! And we;re now over 64%!! Go, FReepers, GO!! Thank you all very much!!
Posted on 10/05/2012 7:18:15 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Howdy everyone!!
Reporting in from the 7th Annual TexasCowboy Memorial Shoot, this year being held at Aransas Pass, Texas!! We're currently at the Pelican Bay Resort in Rockport, Texas where we met up with about a dozen FReepers and families last night and enjoyed some of TheMom's kick ass enchiladas!! We have several activities planned for today and we go to the range tomorrow. It's great seeing old FRiends again and meeting new ones.
Woo hoo!!
Only one month to go before Obama is voted OUT!! The 2010 Tea Party Sweeps continue into 2012!! We'll be voting out Obama and as many rats as possible from as many elected offices as possible all across this great land. Let freedom ring!!
And our fourth quarter FReepathon is well underway!!
If you enjoy reading and participating on FR, if you think it's a worthwhile endeavor and would like to help us keep it going, please click the link above and donate via secure server. Make it a monthly if you can.
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Free Republic is funded solely by contributions made by liberty loving people who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of Liberty and wish to continue doing so.
Thank you all very much for making FR the number one grassroots conservative site on the Net!! Obama did not build this. You did!!
Prayers up for our nation.
God bless.
Bumping that new FReepathon thread!
"Known for their generosity, hospitality, unusual accent, and penchant for the larger-than-life, Texans are wonderful people to meet, and the variety of cultural experiences, from feasting on bratwurst with the Germans of the Hill Country to watching Flamenco dancers with the Tejanos of the Rio Grande valley, is seemingly unlimited.
"Nebraska (i/nəˈbræskə/) is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. Its state capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.
The state is crossed by many historic trails, but it was the California Gold Rush that first brought large numbers here. Nebraska became a state in 1867. There are wide variations between winter and summer temperatures, and violent thunderstorms and tornadoes are common. The state is characterized by treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing, and it is a major producer of beef, as well as pork, corn and soybeans. Nebraska is overwhelmingly rural, as the 8th least-densely populated state of the United States.
Ethnically, the largest group are German-Americans, and the state has the biggest Czech-American population per head. During the Great Migration, many African Americans came to Omaha. "
source: Wikipedia
Thank you very much, humblegunner!!
Woo hoo!!
And this just in:
$50.00 from Maryland
$10.00 monthly from Florida
$20.00 from North Carolina
$50.00 from California
Thank you all very much!!
FReepers are the greatest!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Jun 23, 2011
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara swimmers Chris Peterson, Tim Freeman and Sophia Yamauchi have each qualified for the 2012 USA Swimming Olympic Trials, which will be held in Omaha, Nebraska next June.
Peterson, who recently represented UCSB at the NCAA Championships this spring, has qualified in the 50 meter freestyle after swimming the event in 23.42 seconds at the Santa Clara International Grand Prix last weekend.
Freeman has qualified in the 100 and 200 meter breaststrokes, posting times of 1:03.91 and 2:20.69, respectively, at the same event.
Yamauchi, meanwhile, qualified in the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 1:11.78.
Additionally, former UCSB swimmer, Katy Freeman, has qualified in both the100 breast (1:09.77) and the 200 breast (2:29.49).
Each of these swimmers is expected to qualify for more events at the Olympic Trials as the summer progresses. Additional Gauchos are also expected to join the ranks of qualifiers in the next year leading up to the trials.
During the last Olympic Trials in 2008, UCSB had 13 swimmers compete, the most since 1988.


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Carl Irace, the deputy attorney for East Hampton Town, has completed the renewal of his New York State license as a practicing attorney, after a lapse.
According to New York State Unified Court System's online records, Mr. Irace, who was admitted to the New York bar in 2002, is currently registered.
Renewal is required every two years, and Mr. Irace said that because of several changes of address, including a move from New York City to the East End, where he began working for the town at the start of last year, he had not received a renewal reminder and had overlooked the previous registration renewal date in May 2010. He immediately rectified the situation when it came to his attention several weeks ago.
Mr. Irace, who worked formerly with the Bronx County District Attorney's office, has also recently gained admittance to the federal bar. J.P.


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The Merseysiders have ousted several clubs with arguably stronger squads on their way to the final in Athens and Lippi, who quit the Azzurri post after leading them to glory in Germany last summer, believes their success is largely due to the Spaniard.
"Benitez has the rare characteristics of a great tactician," said Lippi. "He gets the best out of his players, especially at a crucial time in a competition, even if his team´s quality may be inferior to that of their opponents. He is practical and precise."
© Copyright PA Sport Ltd 2007, All Rights Reserved.


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Richard Newhart |Team Lead
Shales Moving Forward….. Conference
Norman, Oklahoma | July 21 | 2011
"Haynesville Play Next Steps-One Operator's Perspective"21 Rigs Drilling
3 Completion Crews
Transition to Resource Play Hub (RPH) Development
Remember the days when a TCF was a lot of Gas?
So we found a few TCF of gas.
Now what do we do?0
Peak Rate (%)
Harvest AssetsCommercial Assets
New Plays
Horn RiverHaynesville
Liquid Rich
Dry Gas
What Inning are we in?
Haynesville has grown at an alarming rate in the last 3 years
Play has evolved quickly and progressively as new techniques and new areas of commercial development have been identified
We are data rich!......But, many challenges and learnings lie ahead2nd02468101214161820050100150200250300350Producing DaysGas (MMcfd)05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,500Cum Gas (MMcf)What We Know…….
Pay Identification OGIP
TOC Distribution Porosity
Flow Potential
In Short, Basic Drivers to Well PerformanceClayTOC
Typical Haynesville Well Population
Log Derived Proxy for TOC
Petrophysical WorkflowWhat Drives Haynesville Well PerformanceEarly Knowledge
Well Performance is driven by connecting reservoir quality rocks to fracture surface area from the stimulation.
You Get what You Frac…
01020304050607080901001101202.02.53.03.54.04.55.05.56.06.57.07.5MM GalPeak Day Rate Potential (MMCFPD)ECAHKBOLAN 27H-1BLACKSTONE 12INDIGO 10-1BUNDRICK 35H-1ADCOCK 3HBLACKSTONE 13ADCOCK 29BOLAN 26H-1SMITH CARROL SHELTON 9H-1HARRIS CONWAY 22H-1DILL JOSEPH 33H-1ELMWOOD 33-1BOLAN 34H-1MESSENGER01020304050607080901001100.511.522.533.5Milion Pounds of PropantPeak Day Rate Potential (MMCFPD)ECAHKBOLAN 27H-1BLACKSTONE 12INDIGO 10-1BUNDRICK 35H-1ADCOCK 3HBLACKSTONE 13ADCOCK 29BOLAN 26H-1SMITH CARROL SHELTON 9H-1HARRIS CONWAY 22H-1DILL JOSEPH 33H-1ELMWOOD 33-1BOLAN 34H-1MESSENGER
Rate Potential vs. Total Fluid VolumeRate Potential vs. Proppant VolumeWhat we are working on…….
How does the rock fail and what are actual fracture network geometries being created by the stimulation?
How is the proppant transport determined and mapped?
How is fracture conductivity distributed around the well bore and does it change with production drawdown?
What drives fracture conductivity change? Stress…fines or both?
What is effect of zonal targeting to well performance?
Is well performance scalable to frac job size and lateral length?
Does the introduced frac fluid interact with the rock matrix?
How does the rock matrix behave with production drawdown?Reservoir Properties-Continue Matrix InvestigationsStress Sensitivity of Permeability SystemsWater Imbibition Propensity and its Effects
Multiple Porosity Systems
Skeletal, Intergranular & TOC
Wettability and Stress Sensitivity the same for both?
Degree of Connection the same for both?
Skeletal Porosity in a Fecal Pellet
Porosity Associated with Mature Organic Matter
Where does our frac water go?
Running plug analysis to determine propensity of water to imbibe into matrix.
Evaluating whether reservoir parameters are altered from frac fluid imbibition
What do production trends tells us?
Are permeability systems sensitive to pressure depletion of reservoir pressureFracture Propagation GeometryUnderstanding Actual Geometry is Difficult
Multiple or branching fracs?
Horizontal bedding plane slippage?
Frac Height contained by Lower Bossier Shale Above and Smackover BelowFracture Rugosity
Complexity of fracture network is difficult to predict
Degree of complexity will have some effect on proppant settling
Transport models suggest proppant bottom-loading in Slickwater fluids
Fracture Conductivity is directly linked proppant loading
Un-propped fractures likely close and maintain little conductivity
Proppant ConcentrationZonal Targeting Yields Differing Proppant DistributionLower Target provides better contact to proppant packHigher targeting covers more vertical pay
Low Target Best NWB conductivity
H ~ 70, Xf ~ 215Mid Target "Dominate Target "H ~ 90, Xf ~ 175
High Target Lower NWB conductivity
H ~ 115, Xf ~ 100Reservoir Simulation ModelingMatching Outcomes to Reservoir Physics -Set Up
Initial Permeability/Conductivity
–Red=Propped Fracture
–Green/Blues=Un-propped Fracture
Apply Pressure dependent conductivity and permeability factors over model lifePlan View Near Wellbore-Planar 2D Geometry
Cross-Sectional View-4 Layers to vary frac influence
Detail Cross Sectional View Along Wellbore
Propped fracture half length varies by layer
LHVSymmetry Element ModelingPressure at 30 YearsLHVLB
Propped Fracture Areas achieve greatest drawdown but all intervals contributeScaling Well Performance to Lateral Length and Completion Stage Count
Cross Unit Permits Granted in LA
–7500' laterals planned
–1st wells spud this year
–13% additional recovery from undeveloped setback area
–Positive Surface Use Impact
–Examine and model physical and reservoir constraintsPreviously undeveloped setback area
Current Pattern
640 ac, 4600' lateralNew Planned Pattern1920 ac, 7500' lateral
Planned RPH WellInitial Well
Development EvolutionLong Laterals-Maximizing Parent Wellbores to Fullest ExtentWe have come a long way but……We have a lot to learn.
Continued Completion Trials
Well Density Pilots Around the Play by All Operators
Additional Knowledge Around Matrix Behavior
Frac Understanding….Frac Understanding….and More Frac Understanding
ConclusionsEntire Encana Haynesville Asset Team
This represents the work of hundreds of staff and consultants
Images from Consulting Company Studies
–Schlumberger DCS
–Schlumberger TerraTek
Offset Operators
–Data sharing and trades have made rapid learning possible for all involved in the Haynesville Play
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.


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The Federal Reserve's Inspector General revealed the findings of a 16-month investigation into two big Ron Paul conspiracy theories this week, publishing a new report that claims to disprove Paul's allegations that the central bank played a role in the Watergate scandal and helped facilitate weapons loans to Iraq in the 1980s.
The watchdog investigation was requested in 2010 by then-House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank, after Paul questioned Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke about the charges during a Congressional hearing. The resulting report examines whether:
- The cash used by the Watergate burglars "came through the Federal Reserve."
- Federal Reserve officials "stonewalled" Congressional inquires about the investigations into the 1970s scandal.
- The Federal Reserve "facilitated a $5.5 billion loan to Saddam Hussein" to help the Iraqi leader buy U.S. weapons in the 1980s.
After more than a year of surprisingly extensive fieldwork, the federal watchdog "did not find any evidence of undue political influence with Federal Reserve officials related to the 1972 Water gate burglary or Iraq weapons purchases during the 1980s," according to a letter from the Fed's inspector general to Bernanke included in the report.
It is actually pretty fascinating to see how the federal watchdog went about debunking the obscure conspiracy theories. Here are the highlights from the report:
- When the Watergate burglars were arrested, police found 44 new $100 bills in their possession, some of which were sequentially numbered. The OIG's investigation found no evidence that Fed officials could have provided the burglars with the cash.
- Right before the Watergate burglary, there was a well-publicized theft at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, one of the banks that distributed some of the $100 bills found on the Watergate burglars. The OIG analyzed the theft but did not find any connection between the cash stolen and the cash found on the burglars, because the theft involved only "unfit" bills that had been taken out of circulation.
- With regards to Paul's allegation that the Fed "stonewalled" Congressional investigations, the OIG found that "the Board's decision not to provide information [about the source of the money] requested by congressional members and staff was consistent with the U.S. Attorney's Office advising the Board at the time to not disclose the information because such disclosure may impede the investigation and jeopardize the subsequent prosecution." This finding is actually a little suspect, given that Nixon's revolving Attorneys General were at the center of the Watergate scandal. According to the report's timeline, Richard Kleindienst would have been the Attorney General in charge when the Board was asked to withhold information from Congress. Although he was never charged with anything, Kleindienst was intimately involved in the Watergate coverup and resigned amid the scandal. So while there may not have been any inappropriate political interference between the AG and the Fed, it is tough to accept the claim without more evidence.
- To address the allegations about Iraq weapons loan, the OIG looked at the relationship between Federal Reserve officials and BNL-Atlanta, a branch of the Italian bank Banca Nazionale that was involved in extending $5.5 billion in unauthorized loans to Iraq in the 1980s. A 1989 FBI investigation into BNL-Atlanta found that the Iraq loan transactions weren't recorded or reported to banking regulators, and were concealed in a secret set of books that were moved back and forth between employees' homes and cars. Several BNL-Atlanta employees were eventually charged in the case.
- Some of of BNL-Atlanta's credit arrangements to Iraq were financed through a USDA export guarantee program. After the unauthorized transactions were discovered there was speculation that Iraq had misused funds from the programs, possibly by bartering U.S. agricultural commodities for weapons.
- The Federal Reserve Board, along with other federal agencies, participated in USDA's export guarantee programs through its advisory body, the National Advisory Council On Monetary and Financial Policies. According to the OIG report, the Board repeatedly raised concerns about Iraq's creditworthiness" and the amount of the propose guarantees to other members of the NAC. The OIG's investigation didn't find any evidence of undue political interference with Fed officials familiar with the NAC or any indication that the Board used its NAC role to facilitate BNL-Atlanta's loans to Iraq.
It is not clear if Ron Paul, a longtime Fed critic, will be satisfied with the inspector general's version of events, and it's doubtful that the new report will curb his calls to abolish the central bank. We've emailed Paul's press secretary to see what he thinks about the report, and will update when we hear back.


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I can't begin to tell you how many letters of regret our Customer Service department has had to write to people requesting back issues of our Women of Wrestling specials. Unfortunately, all of these issues sold out years ago.
Well, the rule of magazine publishing is you never go back for a second printing, but now, our new digital capabilities have enabled us to make the Fall 2004 issue available once again. For $4.99 the issue featuring 160 pages and more than 300 color photos of stars, from Stacy Keibler to Trish Stratus, is available by clicking here. Sample a few pages for free and see if you can resist!
Another in-house note: If print magazines is your thing, I urge you to take advantage of the sale we're running at www.pwi-online.com. Current issues that would cost $9.95 at the newsstand are on sale for $5.95 plus $2 for postage and handling in the U.S.
Stu Saks
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Women Of Wrestling Lives Digitally!
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