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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Treatment Options
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a well-known condition that affects many people. The two most common questions about carpal tunnel syndrome are what it is and how can it be treated?
What is carpal tunnel syndrome?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is characterized by unusual feelings, called paresthesias, in a fairly specific area of the hand. It results from an irritation of the median nerve in the wrist region, as the nerve passes through a bony "tunnel" created by the carpal bones of the wrist. Patients with CTS typically experience the following sensations in their thumb and fingers:
- numbness
- tingling
- burning
- "electric shocks"
- "pins and needles"
In addition, patients often have difficulty gripping and pinching objects. Many patients report dropping things and "fumbling" while trying to button, tie and manipulate small objects, like jewelry clasps.
How is carpal tunnel syndrome treated?
If a doctor/therapist suspects CTS, he or she will usually prescribe a simple wrist support, or splint, for up to six weeks. At Good Shepherd, we also recommend performing Tendon Gliding Exercises (TGEs) and Median Nerve Gliding Exercises (MNGEs), as studies have shown reduced symptoms with these simple wrist and finger exercises.
If splinting and range of motion exercises do not help resolve symptoms, the doctor may order a special nerve test, or EMG, to see how the nerve is functioning. This test is well tolerated and gives the doctors an excellent assessment of the function of the nerve.
If test results indicate impairment, an injection of anti-inflammatory steroid/pain medicine can often provide some relief. If the symptoms fade or improve with the injection, patients are usually advised to continue using caution as they resume heavier tasks. They should continue to use their splint to avoid awkward wrist postures, which could re-irritate the nerve.
In some cases, therapy may be recommended before or after EMG testing. During therapy sessions, we help patients learn proper wrist and finger postures, as well as teach wrist and finger exercises. Sometimes, therapeutic ultrasound can be effective to reduce symptoms by alleviating some of the inflammation and swelling in the wrist/nerve area.
If the splinting, therapy and injection fail and the patient feels he or she cannot live with the pain, carpal tunnel surgery, or carpal tunnel release, is often recommended. After surgery, patients are often "back to normal" after eight to ten weeks - sometimes a bit quicker with therapy.
If you think you may have carpal tunnel syndrome, talk with your doctor. Be ready to give a good history of your hand issues, so he or she can make the best, most accurate diagnosis.


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What your friends may be thinking
Your friends may have never had a friend with cancer, and some may not know how to react. Here are some ways your friends may change and why:
If they avoid you, they may not know what to say or worry about saying the wrong thing.
If they avoid mentioning your cancer, they may be afraid of upsetting you.
If they aren't calling you, it may be because they think you won't feel like talking.
If they aren't inviting you to be a part of activities, they may think you won't be able to go or they may feel guilty about having fun when you're sick.
If they aren't visiting you, they may think you don't want visitors or worry about any potential awkward moments during the visit.
Don't be afraid to take the lead and call your friends or invite them over. Plan activities that you feel comfortable doing, and your friends will probably have a better understanding of what you are able to do with them.
Talking with your friends
Because your friends probably don't know much about cancer, you can begin by explaining your cancer and treatment. First, decide what you want your friends to know. You may want to tell your good friends a lot, but just tell your casual friends or people at school something simple like, "I have cancer, but I'm getting treatment and will be okay." Your friends might not bring up your cancer, so discuss it when you feel ready. The more open you are with your friends, the more opportunities they have to be supportive and accepting.
If you're nervous about talking with your friends, decide ahead of time what you want to say. Remember that you are in charge of what you tell people. You don't have to tell anyone until you're ready or say more than you want. Answer your friends' questions with as much information as you are comfortable giving.
Ways your friends can help
Your friends may want to help you, but some may not know how. Be honest about what you need and what they can do to help.
Ask them to keep calling you, even if you don't always feel like talking.
Ask them to keep inviting you to things, even if you can't always go – you'll go to things when you can.
If you can't go out, ask some friends over to watch a movie or just hang out together.
Ask friends to visit you in the hospital – give them a heads up on what to expect, especially if you look a little different.
If you can't see your friends, ask them to keep in touch online, through texting, instant messaging, phone, or e-mail.
Tell your friends that sometimes all you need is for them to listen.
Remind them that even though you may look different on the outside, you're still the same on the inside.
Accepting changes
Your friendships are likely to change, but many changes will be positive. You may be closer to some of your friends and find it easier to talk about important things. You may also find that the experience of cancer changes you somewhat – you may become more serious about school or want to help other people. You may make new friends whose interests are more like yours. You may also make friends with other teens with cancer who are more likely to understand your experiences. Despite your best efforts, some friendships could fade. You may lose some friends but strengthen relationships with others or make new friends.

subset: commoncrawl


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With the web-based visualisation software PASvisu Pilz is launching a high-performance yet simple to use software package for operating and monitoring. The company has developed a platform-independent visualisation package based on the latest web technologies such as HTML 5, CSS3 and JavaScript PASvisu is operated intuitively and provides design freedom for projects: it gives users of Pilz control solutions a complete view of their plant. With PASvisu, Pilz is underlining its claim as a complete safe automation supplier.
Ostfildern, 11/11/2014
New web-based visualisation software PASvisu by Pilz - Your automation at a glance
The visualisation software enables visualisation projects to be created and configured simply using the PASvisu Builder.
Access to all the data in an automation project, including all process variables and OPC namespaces, means there is no need to enter and assign variables manually, a process that is prone to errors. Information such as the project's check sum or the firmware version of the controller head module can also be called up, for example.
Individual visualisation via tiles
Selectable styles via CSS3 provide a uniform, consistent image across the project at the click of a mouse.
Pre-defined graphic input and display elements, called tiles, already provide all the relevant properties, such as prefix, suffix and error status. There is no need to create and group individual elements manually. The tile is positioned on the configuration page simply via drag and drop and is then filled with the relevant data. Even as the variable name is typed in, the variable is automatically filtered out and simultaneously linked to the tile. That way projects can be handled quickly and without error.
Graphical block diagnostics and simulation
Other miscellaneous information needed in the visualisation project is also processed automatically. Also, changes in the automation project are synchronised automatically and displayed in the PASvisu Builder. Thanks to automatic synchronisation, users are always working with the latest project status.
Online simulation is not all: offline simulation can also be used: without access to the control system, configuration is simplified using a special offline variable editor, which can be used to set and display values.
Remote access via web
PASvisu uses the latest standardised Internet technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
JavaScript can be used to expand the functionality of the visualisation projects: pre-defined JavaScripts are available for calculations or scalings. As a result, users can shorten engineering time significantly and save costs.
As HTML5 is used, access is cross-platform and is possible via almost any end device such as PC, tablet or smartphone in the respective web browser. As an example, this facilitates remote maintenance that is based on genuine Client-Server functionality.
As a result, remote maintenance can be separated from on-site operation, helping to reduce downtimes.
Contact in the subsidiaries:
Don Gherashe
Telephone: +61 3 95446300
E-Mail: email@example.com
Great Britain:
Natasha Sephton-Pike
Telephone: +44 1536 460766
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Shivani Handoo
Telephone: +91 20 24213994/95
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Yvonne McNamara
Telephone: +353 21 4346535
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
USA and Canada:
Felicia Caponi
Telephone: +1 734 354-0211
E-Mail: email@example.com
Contact for the Pilz Group:
Martin Kurth
Corporate and Technical Press
Telephone: +49 711 3409-158
E-Mail: email@example.com
Sabine Karrer
Technical Press
Telephone: +49 711 3409-7009
E-Mail: email@example.com
Pilz New Zealand
Unit 4 12 Laidlaw Way East Tamaki
Auckland 2019
New Zealand
Telephone: +64 9 6345350
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Telephone: +64 9 6345350
E-Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Report shows EU imports more goods linked to deforestation than any other region
Brussels, Belgium: Disturbing new evidence has just been published by the European Commission showing that despite the EU's commitments to reducing gross tropical deforestation by 50% by 2020, the EU imports far more goods that are associated with tropical deforestation (crops and livestock) than expected.
Between 1990 and 2008 Europe imported and consumed about 9 million hectares (ha) of newly deforested land (roughly 3 times the size of Belgium). These figures are however a very conservative estimate and could be much higher in reality as the increasing demand for biomass over the last years is not reflected in the study.
The EU lies well ahead of other industrialized regions: Eastern Asia, including Japan and China imported 4.5 Million ha and North America 1.9 million ha during the same period.
The study "The impact of EU consumption on deforestation" shows that, while the majority of crops and livestock products that can be linked to tropical deforestation are consumed at local or regional level, almost 36% of those traded internationally go to the EU. Increases in consumption of oil crops such as soy, palm oil and related products as well as meat consumption are all major drivers of deforestation in tropical areas.
Quotes from Anke Schulmeister, Senior Forest Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office
"The EU Commission, Member States and the European Parliament need to act now and review all policies that are linked to the consumption of resources derived from tropical deforested areas if we really are serious about tackling our share of the global problem. It is not good enough for policy makers to play the game of "hear no evil, see no evil" when it comes to the destruction of forest areas outside the EU.
"It is a sad fact that large parts of the EU's agricultural supplies are based on the exploitation of newly acquired forest lands. Clearly our actual contribution to global warming and loss of biodiversity is much higher than we previously thought, when taking into account our indirect impacts." We need to reduce our environmental footprint by looking at how our resource consumption affects these countries. We also need to enforce standards necessary to ensure that crop and livestock, consumed in the EU are produced efficiently and sustainably."
"There is no silver bullet to the problem of deforestation. What the report does show is that policy coherence is needed in the fields of environmental, agricultural, trade and consumer policy which are all vital in tackling the EU's role in deforestation."
"The 7th European Action Plan for the Environment should give concrete guidance on how we can both reduce our impact on these threatened forests and help reduce the consumption of products linked to deforestation".
Editor's Note:
In the Council conclusions from 4th December 2008, the Council supported the aim proposed by the Commission to reduce gross tropical deforestation by 50% by 2020:
To increase the efficiency and sustainability of commodities like timber, palm oil and soy, WWF engages in the round tables on palm oil and soy and works with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The EU's footprint is way beyond the bio-capacity available within the EU. The world average available biocapacity per person was 1.8 gha in 2008 while the use of an average European was 4.72 gha.
To read the full report Comprehensive analysis of the impact of EU consumption of imported food and non-food commodities and manufactured goods on deforestation, 2013:
To get additional information on WWF's Policy on Forestry :
For further information:
Philippe Carr
WWF European Policy Office
Media & Communications
Tel: +32 476 25 68 79
Source of the article


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Most Popular Stories
The most popular Linux stories on AllTop right now
Over 275,000 redditors come together to share news and tips about all things Linux.
Slashdot Linux (linux.slashdot.org)
Slashdot compiles the latest news about Linux from all over the web.
Linux Journal (www.linuxjournal.com)
Linux Journal offers reviews, how-tos, and news about Linux.
Linux Magazine (www.linux-magazine.com)
Linux Magazine covers a variety of technical subjects, reviews new products, advice, and more.
The Riba Linux provides video tutorials on new Linux releases.
Linux Academy Blog (linuxacademy.com)
Linux Academy Blog offers in-depth how to articles for Linux software.
nixCraft is another online community dedicated to Linux users sharing tips and advice.
Tecmint offers tips and tutorials specific to Linux development.
Softpedia (linux.softpedia.com)
Find the latest free Linux software downloads here.
Linux Today (www.linuxtoday.com)
Linux Today compiles news from all around the web with impressive frequency.
Linux Insider (www.linuxinsider.com)
Linux Insider shares Linux news from around the web.


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Three panels of witnesses testified on the recent collapse and bankruptcy of MF Global during a lengthy, frequently testy House Agriculture Committee hearing on Thursday. No one's testimony was more anticipated than Jon Corzine's, the former investment firm's head (as well as being a former senator and governor of New Jersey).
In prepared testimony, Corzine – who'd been subpoenaed to appear before the committee -- acknowledged the impact of the firm's fall and subsequent problems faced by customers whose funds have been frozen in bankruptcy proceedings. Corzine approached the hearing "with great sadness. My sadness, of course, pales in comparison to the losses and hardships that customers, employees and investors have suffered as a result of MF Global's bankruptcy. Their plight weighs on my mind every day – every hour. And, as the chief executive officer of MF Global at the time of its bankruptcy, I apologize to all those affected."
However, Corzine did not shoulder full blame and said trades at MF Global were done without his full participation.
"Even when I was at MF Global, my involvement in the firm's clearing, settlement and payment mechanisms, and accounting was limited."
Corzine also said he was "stunned" to learn of "lost" customer funds. Further "I ultimately had overall responsibility for the firm. I did not, however, generally involve myself in the mechanics of the clearing and settlement of trades, or in the movement of cash and collateral. Nor was I an expert on the complicated rules and regulations governing the various different operating businesses that comprised MF Global. I had little expertise or experience in those operational aspects of the business…
"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. I do not know which accounts are unreconciled or whether the unreconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules."
For Corzine's full prepared testimony, see here.
Facing withering criticism and multiple investigations, Corzine also attempted to ameliorate his culpability by not invoking his right to remain silent.
"Considering the circumstances, many people in my situation would almost certainly invoke their constitutional right to remain silent – a fundamental right that exists for the purpose of protecting the innocent. Nonetheless, as a former United States Senator who recognizes the importance of congressional oversight, and recognizing my position as former chief executive officer in these terrible circumstances, I believe it is appropriate that I attempt to respond to your inquiries."
Corzine also claimed reports that say MF Global's risks and leverage (in the range of 40-to-one) during the lead-up to collapse are incorrect. "One of the recurrent themes in the media has been that MF Global took on too much riskduring my tenure, in particular the amount of leverage that MF Global bore at the time of itsbankruptcy. In fact, MF Global reduced leverage. In the quarter ended March 31, 2010, MFGlobal's leverage was 37.3. During my tenure, it was consistently around 30."
Editor's note: full coverage of the House hearing to follow.


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A Kiss is Just a Kiss
Grumpy Old Man's Coupons
What's New!
Faceless Obsessions
Life is a Masquerade
Ominous Adages
Myths, Fiction & Narratives
Masculinity and the Figure
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Photo Imagery
About the Artist
News, Shows, Events
Privacy Notice
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Inspired by Carnivale and Comic Books, these whimsical images are hand-painted linocuts.
All pieces are sold unframed. Edition size is limited to 100 prints of each image. Click on any image to see a larger version of the image.


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MarabuFineliner GraphixPen Sets
DiversifiedWoodcrafts Fab-LabWorkbenches
Blick ChelseaMetal GalleryFrames
BlickWater-SolubleBlock PrintingInks
BlickPencil Case
UtrechtColor WheelGuide
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Blick Artists' Soft Pastels are available in a variety of rich, vibrant colors and soft hues, ideal for all types of pastel painting and color sketching. Available by the individual stick or in sets.
Color Swatches created using heavy to light application and were applied on 100 lb (163 gsm) drawing paper material.
This Hansa Yellow ranges from reddish yellow to greenish yellow with temperature shifts from cool to warm hues. It has good tinting strength and average to slow drying time.
This Hansa Yellow has excellent lightfastness, particularly in the darker shades.
Hansa Yellow has no significant acute hazards, though its chronic hazards have not been well studied.
Hansa Yellows were first made in Germany just before WW1 from a series of synthetic dyestuffs called Pigment Yellow. They were intended to be a synthetic replacement for Cadmium Yellow.
Arylide, Arylide Yellow, Azo, Brilliant Yellow, Monoazo, Monolite Yellow, Permanent Yellow.
iron oxides
FeO or Fe2O3
Mars Black is an opaque black with a strong and cool masstone, a slightly warm tint, and a warm brown undertone. It is not as black as Ivory Black, but it dries more quickly and has three times the tinting strength. Mars Black is normally the only black available in acrylic form and that is safe to over paint. It can be used in all media without reservation and is widely used as an alternative to Lamp Black and Ivory Black.
Mars Black is very lightfast with excellent permanence.
Mars Black has no significant hazards and is the only major black pigment considered non-toxic.
The word Mars refers to the Roman god of iron and war. Mars Black was developed in the early 20th century from inorganic, synthetic iron oxide.
Black Iron Oxide, Iron Black, Magnetic Oxide, Mapico Black, Mineral Black. Sometimes labeled as Vine Black.
polychlorinated copper(II) phthalocyanine
C32H3Cl13CuN8 to C32HCl15CuN8 or C32H16CuN8Cl15 (PG7) or C32Br6Cl10CuN8 (PG36)
Phthalo Green is a transparent, cool, bright, high intensity color used in oil and acrylics. It comes from a Phthalocyanine Blue pigment where most of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced with chlorine, forming highly stable molecules. It has similar pigment properties and permanence to Phthalo Blue. It is slow drying and an excellent base color for mixing a range of bright greens. Phthalo Green is considered a very good alternative to Viridian because it is intense and mixes well and can be used to emphasize mineral colors in various tints. However, its tinting strength is very high, so it can overpower other colors. This pigment most closely resembles the discontinued and toxic Verdigris.
Phthalo Greens are completely lightfast and resistant to alkali, acids, solvents, heat, and ultraviolet radiation. They are currently used in inks, coatings, and many plastics due to their stability and are considered a standard pigment in printing ink and the packaging industry.
Phthalo Green has no significant hazards, but it contained PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) until 1982.
This bright blue-green was developed in 1935 and has been in use since 1938.
Bocour Green, Cyan Green, Intense Green, Monastral Green, Phthalocyanine Green, Rembrandt Green, Thalo Green, Winsor Green.
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Jeremy Cook has written up a new post showing you a method for normalizing the date and time information in your application (DateTime) with the help of Doctrine's own event listeners.
The solution we hit on was to leverage Doctrine's system of event listeners to help us do the work. Doctrine allows you to register listeners with the entity manager that are called whenever certain events occur. We created an event listener that is triggered on the onFlush event.
Code is included for the event listener they created - a simple "onFlush" event that grabs the current entities from the manager, sets the date/time property to allow it to be changed (via Reflection) and updating it with the new cleaned format.


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Course Details
EQU210 Survey of the Equine Profession
This course is a survey of the people, organization and objectives of breed and horseman's organizations on the national and international level. Specific areas reviewed include the role of the horse in American society, the economic impact of horses in the U.S., the utilization of horses in recreation, horse performance events, and horse enterprises.
Credit Hours: 2


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Garth Brooks Sells Out Fourth and Fifth Comeback Shows at Croke Park
Garth Brooks' special comeback event proves that this country superstar definitely has a powerful international standing -- he just sold out all five dates!
The singer added a fourth date just a few days ago. It went on sale Thursday morning (Feb. 6) and sold out in a hurry, so to keep up with the demand, a fifth date was added -- and every single one of those tickets was scooped up, too.
Fans who nabbed the tickets definitely put in the effort. Some eager ticket buyers braved the awful weather conditions, sleeping outside of Ticketmaster locations for three whole nights. Talk about commitment!
All 400,000 tickets for Brooks' event taking place at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland have been spoken for now. This summer will be the first time any artist will play five consecutive shows there.
In addition to selling out Croke Park five times, concert promoter Peter Aiken admits, "In 52 years of business, this is the fastest selling concert Aiken Promotions have ever been involved in."
The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event will take place on July 25-29, 2014. After that, the country icon will be embarking on a world tour, which he announced earlier this winter on 'Good Morning America.'


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It's six days since my crash, and I'm still a long way from recovered, X-rays showed no fracture, but bruising and muscle damage resulted in substantial disability. Only yesterday was I able to start walking again, and only barely and painfully. Today the pain is less, but I still prefer using crutches to get around. I can't lay on my preferred right side, the side on which I crashed, and laying on my left side becomes uncomfortable due to my right leg not being sufficiently stable in that position. I tried acupuncture on Tuesday, and will return on Friday, but while that was a nice sensation when it was being done, I'm not sure it had lasting benefit. Yet I continue to improve day-by-day, so it's likely a matter of patience. I continue to apply heat and ice to afflicted areas, and use tumeric for its anti-inflammatory effects (at the suggestion of the acupuncturist, although there's questions about the absorptivity of tumeric).
The thing about the crash was my low perception of risk at the time. While the ride I was on was planning on doing both the San Andreas and Sawyer Camp sections of the Crystal Springs Regional Trail, I was going to skip the Sawyer Camp section due to its blind corners and heavy pedestrian traffic, most notably women pushing baby strollers.
The San Andreas Trail, on the other hand, has less foot traffic and superior sight lines. Then when I overtook the 3-abreast walkers, while I found it notable they were taking up the 75% rightmost portion of a bidirectional mixed-use trail, something I viewed as irresponsible and dangerous, given that I could see by them and that there was a clear line for me to pass I viewed it as very low risk.
This situation was unlike, for example, where a single walker is in the middle of the trail, with passing options to the left and right: such a user may move either left or right when you attempt to pass. But in this case it was unambiguous, the only rational response was for them to converge to the right of the trail (where they should have been in the first place), expanding the gap to the left where I was passing. Moving left would make absolutely no sense unless they perceived I was aiming to hit them or else unless they wanted to hit me. I felt only my usual level of alertness when passing them, which is considerable, but no sense of exceptional risk.
Yet move left is exactly what the women on the left did, and without warning. My amazement at this irrational behavior was tempered only by my desire to not slam into her with my front tire. And while I avoided doing so, bumping her with my hip but missing her with my bike, I ended up hitting the pavement hard. I didn't even skid. Just whack -- into the pavement. Fortunately she was fine: she didn't even lose her balance.
So I'm left to look back upon this incident to ask what did I do wrong? And the only response from a self-preservation view is that pedestrians simply cannot be trusted to act in a rational, self-preserving manner. I simply must assume they are going to do the stupidest, least predictable thing possible. At least until I have their full attention. Which is why I'm going to install a bell on my Ritchey Breakaway, my commuting rig of choice.
This isn't a matter of "blame". I may as well blame a squirrel for darting under my front tire at the last moment. It's not about who's at fault: legally I'm certainly not at fault: the California Vehicle code says a pedestrian has "the duty of using due care for his or her safety. No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard", yet this is almost exactly what she did. Instead it's about pragmatically avoiding this situation occurring again. It would have taken me 10 extra seconds to slow down behind them, request they move to the right, wait for them to do so, then proceed. If I had to do that once per commute, and I commute 50 times per year, then that's 500 seconds lost. Sure, I'd prefer not to lose 500 seconds, but it's now been a week since the crash, and there's 0.6 million seconds in a week, so 500 seconds per year for insurance against slamming into the pavement is pretty damn cheap, no matter what the vehicle code says.


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I mentioned last night that intuitively, the momentum in Minnesota's Senate race seems to be shifting toward Norm Coleman. As well it should–Norm is one of the ablest members of the Senate, and his opponent, Al Franken, is a bitter former comedian with a violent temper who moved from New York to Minnesota to enter the Senate race. In a normal year, it wouldn't even be a contest. But this year, with voters feeling insecure and the Democratic Party awash in cash, Franken has been able to make a race of it. Coleman has campaigned non-stop, lately with the help of Governor Tim Pawlenty, and has gained from simultaneous endorsements by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The polls have been all over the lot, but Scott Rasmussen has found Franken in the lead through the month of October. In a survey released today, however, Rasmussen has Coleman surging to a four point lead.
I'm pretty confident that Coleman will continue to pull away as voters get serious about the idea of sending a vulgar, hateful former comedian to the Senate. But let's not take any chances. Please go here and contribute what you can to Norm's campaign.
To comment on this post, go here.


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|Frequently Asked Questions
We answer e-mails almost every day, and answer many questions time and time again. Please see most of the common questions that we answer in the faq. If your question is not answered here, please contact us!
When I juice some fruits and vegetables, how long before it starts to lose its potency in my fridge?
I always recommend drinking juice as soon as its made for highest nutritional value. It starts to "degrate" immediately after its made, much like an apple turns brown, once cut open.
Home | Juicers | Wheatgrass Juicers | Citrus Juicers | Blenders | Water Purifiers


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Ever wonder what all of the letters and numbers mean on the sidewall of your tires? There may be much more information on your tires than you realize. Aside from the brand, model and size of the tire there are also U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and safety standard markings. These indicate that the tire meets the safety requirements as determined by the DOT. Along with these markings, there is the Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) code as well as load, speed and maximum inflation pressure specifications – just to name a few. Let's take a closer look.
Tire Size Markings
P =Passenger Car Tire
The first letter on a tire indicates the tire's class. P designates this tire as a passenger car tire, an LT before the tire size would mean the tire is a light truck tire, and a European metric tire would have no letter before the tire size.
245 =Section Width
Tread (mm)
The section width is the width of the tire from one sidewall to the other measured in millimeters. In this example, the tire is 245 millimeters wide.
45 =Aspect Ratio
(Ratio of Sidewall height to width)
The aspect ratio refers to the height of the sidewall, and it is a percentage of the section width. In this example, the sidewall height is 45% of the 245 section width which equals 110.25.
Z =Speed Rating
S = 112mph
T = 118mph
The speed rating designates the maximum speed at which a properly installed and inflated tire can be driven on. In this example, the speed rating is Z which means it has the highest speed rating. Z rated tires will also have a W or Y speed rating indication after the load index which denotes the actual mph the tire is rated for.
R =Radial
In this example, the R designates this tire as a radial tire. Radial tires have layers of fabric whose cords run at right angles to the circumference of the tire and whose tread is strengthened by additional layers around the circumference making it the most common type of automotive tire.
19 =Wheel
Wheel Diameter specifies the size, in inches, of the wheel that a tire fits. In this example, the tire will fit a 19 inch wheel.
98 =Load
Load Index indicates the maximum load carrying capacity of the tire. It is very important to only install tires with a load index that meets or exceeds your vehicle manufacturer's specification.
W =Speed
The speed rating designates the maximum speed at which a properly installed and inflated tire can be driven on. In this example, the speed rating is W which means it can be driven at speeds up to 168 mph.
U.S. Department of Transportation Markings
All tires must have a DOT, or Department of Transportation number, which indicates the tire has passed all minimum DOT standards for sale in the U.S. This code represents the manufacturer and the plant it was manufactured at (R8) and the size (LN). Also, an optional code for manufacturing (LMJR) which specifies the construction, tread pattern and category of the tire. The week (46) and year (10) the tire was produced are at the end of the code.
Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) Marking
The Department of Transportation requires each manufacturer to grade its tires under the Uniform Tire Quality Grade (UTQG) system which establishes ratings for treadwear, traction, and temperature resistance. It is important to note that these tests are conducted independently by each manufacturer and not by the Department of Transportation.
The treadwear rating (440) refers to the durability of the tire, not necessarily the projected life of the tire. Since the test is conducted by each manufacturer, and the grade is assigned after the tire has only experienced a small amount of treadwear, there is room for interpretation. While it may be helpful to compare treadwear grades within the same manufacturer, it might not be as helpful to compare the grades across multiple brands or manufacturers.
The traction rating (A) refers to the tire's ability to stop in a straight line on wet asphalt and concrete under the controlled conditions of the test track. The test does not measure the tire's cornering ability or hydroplaning resistance in wet conditions or braking and handling in dry conditions. The traction grades consist of AA, A, B or C, with AA being the highest.
The temperature rating (A) refers to the tire's resistance to the generation of heat when driven at high speeds. The grades range from A through C with A being the highest, making tires with an A grade most effective at dissipating heat.
Maximum Inflation Pressure and Load
This maximum inflation pressure number, (51 PSI) indicates the maximum air pressure the tire can hold while in operation. This does not represent the recommended inflation pressure for the vehicle it is installed on. You should always set your air pressure to your vehicle manufacturer's specifications as stated in your owner's manual or on the tire information placard inside the vehicle.
The maximum load number, (1653 LBS) is the load carrying capacity of the tire when it is inflated to the maximum inflation pressure. Similar to inflation pressure, this is not the recommended load carrying capacity for the vehicle it is installed on. You should always match the load index or load range of the tire to the specifications in your owner's manual.


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Joseph Mazella, the founder and president of the Great Atlantic Group Inc., Staten Island, New York, a real estate and financial consulting company, was found guilty by a jury in Brooklyn, NewYork, following two weeks of trial. The defendant was convicted on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, which arose out of the his operation of a Ponzi scheme that led to more than $14 million in losses.
When sentenced by U.S. District Judge Carol B. Amon, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the most serious charge.
The evidence at trial proved that Mazella solicited money from prospective investors by telling them that he would invest their money in real estate projects, including projects in Trenton, N.J., a warehouse in Utica, N.Y., and a golf course in Greene County, N.Y. Mazella told his victims that their money would be safe and that he would pay them a fixed rate of return. Mazella encouraged several investors, typically senior citizens, to apply for reverse mortgages on their residences and to invest the proceeds with him.
From approximately January 2007 until approximately December 2010, investors gave Mazella more than $14 million. By January 2007, though, the evidence showed that Mazella was operating Great Atlantic as a Ponzi scheme in which he paid returns to investors from existing investors' deposits or money paid by new investors. Mazella also used investors' money to pay his personal expenses, including payments for a Porsche, a mortgage on his personal residence and family expenses.
The verdicts were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI, which led the government's criminal investigation.
"The evidence at trial showed that the defendant callously and systematically defrauded his victims of their lives' savings. Mazella's victims, many of whom are senior citizens on a fixed income, turned to him to ensure their security in their golden years. Instead, their security was raided to fund his fraud, and they will feel the impact of Mazella's crimes for the rest of their lives," said U.S. Attorney Lynch.
The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Nowak, Winston Paes and Mary M. Dickman.
This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The Task Force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.


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FIA Formula E Championship
Combining the dash and panache of motorsports with ground-breaking green credentials, the FIA Formula E Championship is the world's first fully electric car-racing series. Launched in 2014, this riveting race series sees drivers compete in innovative, single-seater, open-wheel cars which are exclusively battery-powered.
As a Founding Partner and Official Logistics Partner, DHL instinctively understood Formula E's vision from the start. Both Formula E and DHL are committed to driving progress in sustainability and e-mobility and both share a pioneering spirit - something deeply ingrained in DHL's DNA.
Just as Formula E breaks new ground on the race track by running environmentally sustainable vehicles, DHL was the first global logistics company to set an ambitious climate protection goal: to optimize its carbon efficiency by 30% by the year 2020.
As Official Logistics Partner, DHL is responsible for all logistical moves for the 10 competing teams and Formula E's travelling infrastructure. To deliver Formula E around the world as efficiently as possible, whilst also minimizing the Championship's carbon footprint, DHL has designed a specially tailored multi-modal approach, complementing air transport with rail, road and sea routes.
The 2016/17 Championship includes 12 races on five continents, showcasing the thrills of electric motorsport in some of the world's most spectacular cities. Visiting several major cities for the first time, this will be the biggest season yet, covering ever further ground. From the streets of Hong Kong and New York with their cloud-skimming skyscrapers to the historic cityscapes of Brussels and Marrakech, providing logistics for these races is no mean feat. Often working within severe time constraints with limited space for manoeuvre, the unparalleled experience of the DHL Motorsports team is crucial when it comes to delivering cars to downtown locations.
To highlight awareness of environmental responsibility, DHL has launched its own eChampions program. eChampions celebrates and rewards the behind-the-scenes heroes of Formula E, who, through forward-thinking ideas are helping to build a more sustainable future for everyone.
Formula E provides a vision for inner city mobility and is inspiring global audiences to address energy conservation and sustainability, through its use of ground-breaking technology. By partnering with DHL, Formula E have proved themselves as innovative in transportation and logistics as in their use of electric-powered cars. If further proof were needed, the partnership was recognized with the International Sponsoring Award 2016 in the 'Innovation' category.
As a Founding Partner, DHL helped bring this innovative and thrilling urban spectacle to life, and we are immensely proud to be part of Formula E's extraordinary journey.


text: Michelin Ultraflex Technology Used on John Deere Tractors December 14, 2009 05:59 AM Tweet TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By MyMachinery.com Editors Email John Deere customers now have the option to equip their new 7030 Series large-frame, 8R Series and 9030 Series tractors with the latest technology in agricultural radial tires, giving farmers the ability to capture the benefits of heavier, high-horsepower tractors while also keeping soil compaction in check. Farmers can select Michelin Axiobib radials with Ultraflex Technology as a factory-installed option. Today's high-horsepower tractors pack more weight, which can prove problematic for farmers concerned about soil compaction. The Michelin Axiobib radial tires use the Ultraflex Technology, which has been engineered to address this weight issue head on. Tires with Ultraflex Technology can operate at inflation pressures as much as 20 percent lower than standard radials, or carry up to 20 percent more load at the same inflation pressures as standard radials. A characteristic of an agricultural tire is its ability to flex. A tire under load needs to be able to flex to maximize the contact patch and minimize soil compaction. The deflection zone, which determines how much a tire can flex, is the vertical space that runs roughly from the bead of the tire to the point where the sidewall joins the crown. The deflection zone in a Michelin Axiobib radial tire with Ultraflex Technology is greater than the deflection zone of a standard radial tire. The Michelin Axiobib radial tire is now available as a factory-installed option on AGCO brand, Case IH, Challenger, Massey Ferguson and New Holland high-horsepower tractors in addition to John Deere. It's also available in the replacement market through Michelin Agricultural tire dealers. For More: Michelin Back to news


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Sous Chef
King&Spalding LLP
Bar /Kitchen Manager
BASF Corporation
It is all about creating a CV with Gelver.com. That might stop here, but what ensues is that the AI starts searching jobs for you that correspond to the type of skills that you have entered. You can filter those results by location and title.


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Britain reports rise in cosmetic genital surgeries
British gynaecologists warned on Friday that increasing numbers of teenage girls and women are undergoing genital cosmetic surgery, driven in part by unrealistic images of how they should look based on pornography.
The state-funded National Health Service (NHS) performed more than 2,000 labial reduction procedures — labiaplasties — in 2010, a five-fold increase in ten years, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).
This is "probably the tip of the iceberg compared to the number of procedures that are done in the private sector" where the data is not routinely collected, said Professor Sarah Creighton, a member of RCOG's ethics committee.
She said there had been no similar increase in labial disease in the last decade to explain the trend, suggesting instead a confusion about what represents 'normal' genitalia.
"The misapprehension arises from the prominence of just one type of 'neat' genital appearance, the type to be found prominently depicted in pornography," said Thomas Baldwin, a philosopher who sits on RCOG's ethics committee.
In a new paper, the committee expresses particular concern that teenage girls are undergoing unnecessary surgery, which is often anatomically similar to female genital mutilation — a crime in Britain.
There is very little data about the long-term risks of labiaplasty, particularly the effect it has on sensitivity and sexual function.
As a result, the committee recommends that genital cosmetic surgery not be carried out on girls under the age of 18, until their external genitalia are fully formed.
"The younger a girl begins her labiaplasty trajectory, the higher the number of operations over her lifetime and the greater the risk of scarring and sensitivity loss," warned the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology.
The experts also recommend that surgery should not be conducted on the NHS unless it is a medical requirement.
"I hope that when applied, our recommendations will help to reassure many women and girls that they are perfectly normal, they don't need surgery," said Suzi Leather, chairwoman of the RCOG ethics committee.
[Image: "Young Tired Surgeon Wearing Scrubs And Looking Stressed" via Shutterstock]


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Dec. 4, 2006
Nick Perera scored a goal and assisted on another as the men's soccer team won its first national championship Sunday with a 2-1 victory over UCLA in St. Louis.
The sophomore forward from Madrid, Spain wasted no time getting the Gauchos on the board as he tallied the first goal of the match at the 2:12 mark of the opening half.
Perera, along with Bryan Byrne, then assisted on the eventual game-winning goal as he fed Eric Avila to put UCSB up 2-0 at 60:01.
Perera was named the College Cup Most Outstanding Offensive Player.
For the season, Perera totaled seven goals and four assists for 18 points, second on the team.
It was the second time in three seasons that UCSB advanced to the NCAA National Championship match. In 2004, the Gauchos lost to Indiana on penalty kicks in the title game.
The national crown was the second in UCSB's NCAA Division I history as the men's water polo squad won in 1979.


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Doberman Pinscher Puppies For Sale in Foster, Oklahoma - Find More Info About Taking Home a Doberman Pinscher Puppy Right Here
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Description:Sun 73GB 10K 1 Ultra320 SCSI Hard DrivePart Number(s)
Sun Part# 540-6600
Sun Part# X5263A
This Sun part number consists of a Fujitsu 73GB 10K Ultra320 SCSI Drive in a Sun hot-plug tray (Spud)
Fujitsu Part# MAW3073NC
Overview:Sun Microsystems' hard disk drives provide the performance reliability and overall high quality required in today's computing environment at competitive prices. Sun invests significant resources into qualifying and integrating these devices into Sun workstations servers and disk arrays. This means that Sun customers get the very best mass storage value and an opportunity to add larger capacity drives or incorporate the latest technology.


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NEW YORK—Americans deeply dislike Congress, but they are unlikely to change its makeup in Tuesday's election, which is expected to leave Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and Democrats keeping their majority in the Senate.
No matter who wins the razor-thin race for the White House — President Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney — the next chief executive will likely face a divided Congress that shows no inclination to end its dysfunction and bridge its ideological chasm. That will make passing any major pieces of legislation difficult.
Republicans face historic dead end
More than $2 billion has been spent on a barrage of negative ads in the fight for Congress, where the entire 435-seat House and 33 of the 100 Senate seats are at stake. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican House Speaker John Boehner are likely to retain their posts.
Congress consistently rates low in public opinion surveys, but incumbents still tend to get re-elected. That's because voters tend to favour their own lawmakers even if they dislike Congress overall. Incumbents also enjoy huge financial advantages in their re-election bids. In the House, another boost for many incumbents is the once-a-decade redrawing of district boundaries, which has just been completed.
Republicans had hoped to wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats, who were defending 23 seats and losing several retiring veterans. But the Republicans' quest was marred by the explosive comments their candidates in Indiana and Missouri made about abortion, rape and pregnancy. Solid candidates also boosted the prospects of the Democrats, who are poised to retain their 53-47 advantage or in their best-case scenario even increase it by one. Still, Senate Democrats would remain nowhere near the 60-vote supermajority needed to easily pass legislation under Senate rules.
Democratic strategist Steve McMahon said he worries that with a divided Congress "we can probably expect hyper partisanship and gridlock everywhere. It seems like Americans can expect more of the same."
When the Senate votes are counted, retiring moderates in Maine, Connecticut, Nebraska, North Dakota and Indiana will be replaced, while moderates on the ballot in Montana and Massachusetts could also be gone.
Two of the few remaining Republican-held Senate seats in the Northeast could fall. Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts is now an underdog against liberal Democrat Elizabeth Warren in a race for the seat once held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a liberal icon. Republicans also are not expected to hold the seat being vacated by Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who decided to retire earlier this year, frustrated with the gridlocked Congress.
The dozen competitive races in the Senate could produce a few new moderates. In Maine, an independent former governor, Angus King, is expected to win and align with Democrats, though he promises to be a bridge between the parties.
In Indiana, moderate veteran senator Dick Lugar had been expected to easily win re-election, but he lost a Republican primary to state treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by the anti-tax, limited government tea party movement. Mourdock has come under withering criticism after saying in a debate that when pregnancy results from rape, it is "something God intended." That opened the way for moderate Democratic congressman Joe Donnelly, who has pulled ahead in recent polls.
In Missouri, Sen. Claire McCaskill had been considered the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent. But another tea party-backed candidate, congressman Todd Akin, won the Republican primary. Akin was disowned by Republican leaders, including Romney, after he remarked in August that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." McCaskill has since pulled ahead in the polls.
"That's extremely frustrating for what everyone thought was a Republican advantage," Ron Bonjean, a Republican consultant and former top congressional aide, said of the races in Indiana and Missouri.
Some tea party favourites are expected to win Senate races, however, including Republicans Deb Fischer in Nebraska and Ted Cruz in Texas. Former Nebraska governor and senator Bob Kerrey has been gaining ground, but Fischer still leads in the race to replace moderate Democratic senator Ben Nelson, who decided to retire.
The closest Senate races could be in the conservative western states of Montana and North Dakota. Republicans hope congressman Denny Rehberg will defeat Sen. Jon Tester, who won a close race during the Democratic wave election of 2008. In North Dakota, Republican congressman Rick Berg is the slight favourite to defeat former state attorney general Heidi Heitkamp for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad.
If Democrats retain control of the Senate, it would give them a firewall against Republican attempts to overturn Obama's signature legislative achievement, his health care reform law, before it is fully implemented in 2014. If Republicans manage to gain control of the Senate, they have promised to repeal the law.
No matter who gets elected, expectations for the next Congress will be low. A Bloomberg poll in September found that 55 per cent of Americans said Congress will continue to be an impediment no matter who is elected president. Just 32 per cent said Congress would get the message that lawmakers need to work together on a bipartisan basis.
In the House, where incumbents tend to get re-elected, Democrats could make some gains, but seem unlikely to pick up the 25 seats they need to take control. While some prominent tea party-backed Republicans could fall, they are expected to remain a force that won't be easy for Boehner, the speaker of the House.
Among the House races getting attention is a close one in Utah, where Mia Love is vying to become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress.
Another first could be achieved in the tight Senate race in Wisconsin, where congresswoman Tammy Baldwin could become the first openly gay U.S. senator.
While the next Congress will be bitterly divided, Republican strategist Terry Holt said that if the next president is brave enough, he might still be able to overcome the partisan rancour and leave some kind of legislative legacy.
"But there is so much ideological division that you will have to risk your political life to get something done in the next Congress," Holt said.


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FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Texas marijuana advocates say they are optimistic after voters in two other states approved the legalization of small amounts for personal use.
"We're encouraged and more convinced than ever we will eventually prevail," David Sloane, spokesman for the Dallas-Forth Worth branch of the advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said of the Nov. 6 votes in Washington and Colorado. "Prohibition is far more harmful to our communities than marijuana ever will be, and taxpayers are sick of their money being used to support failed drug policy."
Howard Wooldridge, who helped found Law Enforcement Against Prohibition in 2003, noted there is still stiff opposition to changing marijuana laws, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Sunday.
A former police officer, Wooldridge said continuing marijuana prohibition takes resources away from more crucial police work and helps fuel a drug war south of the American border, but added few officers are willing to put their careers at risk by saying it on the record.
"You have powerful money trying to keep things the way they are. The strongest opponents [to legalization] are in the police and criminal justice industry," he said.
The risks of marijuana usage are outweighed by legalization's benefits, said Betty Aldworth of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, noting Colorado's expected $48 million annual income from taxing marijuana sales, and the creation of 6,000 new jobs from its medical marijuana industry.


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FRISCO & c.
Here I am once again in San Francisco. I have not eaten any rice-a-roni yet. But they tell me it is delicious.
Those of you in the Bay Area will have loads of opportunities to hear my words of Deep Cosmic Wisdom™. Or at least a few bad jokes. And I will draw stegosauruses on your books for you.
The dates are over on the link to your left. Or, if you can't be bothered with that much dragging of a heavy mouse and clicking with your sore, tired, old finger, here they are:
•TODAY March 18, 2009 (Wed), 7 pm - Diesel Bookstore 5433 College Avenue Oakland, CA 94618 firstname.lastname@example.com
•March 20, 2009 (Fri), 6:30-9 pm - San Francisco Zen Center Dinner & Talk - 300 Page St. San Francisco, CA 94102
•March 21, 2009 (Sat), 4 pm - Green Apple Books 506 Clement St. at 6th Ave. San Francisco, CA 94118 email@example.com
•March 22, 2009 (Sun), 1:30 pm Copperfield's Books 140 Kentucky Street Petaluma, CA firstname.lastname@example.com
(note that the scheduled gig in Petaluma on Thursday night has been canceled)
I'll also be on Pirate Cat Radio 87.9 on your FM dial (I hear FM radio is in stereo!) at around 2 PM on Thursday March 19th.
Also, Uku Leitinen has put up a whole bunch of very new audio files of his talks with Nishijima roshi on his blog. These were recorded just a couple weeks ago. Listen while they're hot!
Also, also, the folks at the Interdependence Project in New York City wanted me to remind you that I'll be speaking there on Wednesday March 25th at 7 PM. Last time I was there it was a sell-out crowd. So they wanted me to mention here that if you're planning to go, please reserve yourself a spot now before they're gone. That's at 302 Bowery (Buzzer #2), New York, NY 10012.
I've been thinking a lot about institutional Zen and its position in the world of Buddhist practice. I do this every time I'm at San Francisco Zen Center. I'm not a member of the place, nor is it my lineage. But I have a lot of friends here.
If institutional Zen were the only type of Zen there was I would never have bothered with Zen at all. Yet I'm not against it, really. I'm happy that places like SFZC and even the dreaded Soto-shu exist. But it's hard for real practice to survive at a place like this. Hard, but not impossible.
Of course, it's hard anywhere (that's what she said!). What may make it worse at a Zen institution is the illusion that it's not hard there, that it is provided for you at a place like that. Practice is never provided for you. No matter where you are, you gotta do it. Just because a pretty space is offered and there's a schedule with the requisite mean looking people to enforce it doesn't mean you don't have to put just as much into it.
Nor are the big institutions the only place where practice can happen. I get a sense from some of the mail I've received that some people may think so. But that's like thinking you can only be a good Catholic at the Vatican.
My computer is being a little poopy to me today, which is making it rather difficult to type this out. So I'll take that as a sign from God (or whoever) that I've said enough.
Maybe more later...


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Gardening - Flowery pot 4
Approximately 2x2,5cm
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Dimensions: approximately 2cm wide x 2,5cm high
Material: Polymer clay
Flowers and more flowers in this lovely terracotta pot!
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The front and the back of this button are identical.
Handmade in France by the designer Butterfly Couture. Limited edition.
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Registration is free and easy!
Nowadays, people choose to live in condominiums and studio-type apartments because it's more convenient especially living in big cities. Living in a small space requires having small appliances too. Small appliances are portable machines which are good to put on your tabletops or countertops. Purchase small appliances that will put an edge in your home and improve your lifestyle. Small appliances are easy to move and clean. These are good for those who are living alone or with a small number of people. One of the examples of small appliances is the microwave oven. This kitchen appliance is popular for reheating previously cooked foods and cooking a variety of foods. There are other useful small kitchen appliances that will improve your lifestyle and convenience while living in small spaces.
A while ago, we were talking about small appliances which are all good and useful for those living in small spaces. But for people who got their self a big house, it is better to purchase large appliances for your casa. The usefulness of large appliances cannot be questioned because they are effective and essential for routine housekeeping tasks. Large appliances may not be as portable as small appliances but they are more effective for your home improvement. It is no doubt that your large home will look stunning with large appliances. Large appliances are durable and provide ease for our household chores.


text: Oh goody, I get to play devil's advocate. Wait, did I just say RH is the devil? ;) No, I don't work with them, just have been a RHL, FC, and now RHEL admin for a few years, and have been reading mailing lists for a couple of years. Guy Coates wrote on Friday 01 April 2005 04:16: > On Thu, 31 Mar 2005, David Kewley wrote: > > If customers show RH that there are real-life needs for xfs that are not > > satisfied by ext3, then RH may well be willing to invest in in-house xfs > > expertise. > > XFS has dump/restore programs that actually work, What exactly does this mean? > and allows for online filesystem expansion; ext3 now has online expansion as well. > It is also faster than ext3 (google for the benchmarks). They've now added htrees for faster lookups in large directories, and have implemented reservations (no, I don't understand this latter, but I'd guess it speeds up filespace allocation?). Joe Landman wrote on Friday 01 April 2005 05:49: > In real world applications (large data set analysis codes, and related) > it is reasonably well known that you get better performance out of ext3 > by turning off journaling, effectively making it ext2. Ext3 has a > number of serialization and blocking issues associate with its > journaliing code, not to mention other issues (directories with many > files comes to mind). I think ext3 doesn't lose much to ext2 in some benchmark types, in fact, I think it may be faster in a few. But whatever. And again, they've now added htrees. > The I/O dominated/intensive applications that I have seen or worked with > using xfs vs ext3 have demonstrated significant performance advantages > to xfs. Due to NDA's I cannot talk about specific details though the > performance differences were significant. OK. Have any of these taken place within the last 2-3 months with RHEL4? :) I suspect you'll see speedups on some applications now. > > My understanding is that RH choose to support ext3 but not xfs because: > > 1) they have in-house expertise for ext3 but not for xfs, and 2) they > > believe that xfs has no real advantages over ext3. > > They have many customers that disagree with 2, Yes. > and 1 is a tautology, as they have invested heavily in ext3, and thus they > have people to work on it. It is not meant as a tautology, but as a practical acknowledgement that if they are to support customers' problems with xfs at the level they'd wish, then they'd have to hire several people, or spend extensive time to train several people. As I recall, the remark about difficulty supporting xfs came from Arjan van ee Ven, one of their kernel developers. > Some inherent disadvantages of ext3 show up when you start looking at > large file systems and large files. Xfs has much higher limits. If you > want to build a 30TB file system across a huge disk array attached to a > sizeable SMP machine, can you do it with ext3? (no as of RHEL3). If > you want to work with a 2.5 TB file (part of a recent benchmark we ran), > can you do it with ext3? (no as of RHEL3). Xfs doesn't have a problem > with either of these. I don't know what the current limits are, but I'd bet they're relieved. > > If customers show RH that there are real-life needs for xfs that are not > > satisfied by ext3, then RH may well be willing to invest in in-house xfs > > expertise. > > Unlikely. Customers have been showing a clear need for this for a while > (Sloan sky survey, and many others with huge and high speed data > requirements). Redhat prefers to use the excuse that it is a large and > complex package. Hmmm. So are Xorg, Openoffice, .... > > I do not expect Redhat to do this. SuSE has, as have most of the rest > of the major distributions (including the 1 man distribution shops), so > the excuses that one hears are ... well ... probably not the real > reasons. Redhat does not want to promote a competitor to technology it > supports. That seems to be a simpler explanation, and I believe is > better supported by observing their actions. That may well be the case; certainly RH has market self-interests to look after. And I know that folks have voiced similar suspicions about RH many times regarding many details of technology choices they've made. May be, may not be, we'll see. > Note: FC-x has xfs enabled, one only needs to use "linux xfs" on the > boot line during installation. Yup. They don't have to support it, which is likely why they don't bother disabling it. :) David


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Message Board
Dorothy West Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that West has written!
Author West's Book Reviews
The Wedding
Shelby Cole is the youngest daughter of the prominent African American Cole family. The Cole family and their affluent friends are gathering for Shelby's summer wedding to a white jazz musician named Meade Wyler. The Cole family (and their friends) are shocked by the upcoming wedding because they are of the belief that Meade is beneath Shelby. In fact, they feel that Shelby could've married anyone she chose. Why, they ask themselves, has she settled...


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Volume 6 Number 2 January 09, 2009
This week marked the first week of a special session called by the Legislature to fix the state's budget deficit of $2.4 billion for the current fiscal year. It is estimated Florida could be facing a $4 to $5 billion budget shortfall next fiscal year.
Concerned with lawmakers' desire to raid the state's Budget Stabilization Fund and Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink advocated for a smarter approach to resolving Florida's $2.4 billion deficit. In a letter addressed to House Speaker Ray Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater, CFO Sink urged the Legislature to reconsider the proposal to empty the state's savings account. Only $72 million would remain, which is not a sufficient cushion to ensure the state has enough resources to pay bills at the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, raiding the Chiles Fund risks future funding for children's health care programs at a time when the faltering economy means Floridians will depend on them more than ever. While recognizing that budget cuts are never easy, CFO Sink promotes reducing non-essential programs while still preserving our government's core services. You can read CFO Sink's letter here.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink met with several senior victims of financial fraud on Friday, January 9, 2009, at the State Attorney's Office in West Palm Beach. These senior investors shared their stories with CFO Sink and discussed possible solutions to better protect other seniors against financial fraud. CFO Sink also convened a meeting of the Safeguard our Seniors Task Force. The Task Force discussed annuities and began examining other products, such as stranger-originated life insurance policies and reverse mortgages.
Nearly 200 homeowners have pre-registered for Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's free Florida Housing Help Workshop being held this Saturday in Cape Coral to help area homeowners struggling with foreclosure.
The free workshop, to be held 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Cape Coral City Hall Complex located at 1015 Cultural Park Blvd, Cape Coral, offers one-on-one meetings with lenders and HUD-certified counselors as well as job and financial counselors. Counseling services will also be available for small business owners facing financial challenges.
"I deeply regret that there is a need for this workshop, but I am proud of the response we have received from lenders and counselors willing to work together to provide alternatives and hands-on assistance," said CFO Sink. "Recent reports show that the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area leads the nation in foreclosures – as many as one in 59 homes in the area are in foreclosure. We must turn those numbers around."
Sink oversees the Department of Financial Services, which is producing the workshop on behalf of the CFO's Financial Action Team (FACT). Sink created the FACT Team last year to ensure Floridians get all of the federal benefits they may be entitled to under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA).
Pre-registration is encouraged for those wanting to meet individually with a lender or counselor. To register, call the CFO's toll-free consumer helpline at 1-877-My-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236).
In addition to private meetings with lenders and counselors, the workshop will offer free seminars throughout the day on a variety of programs on subjects including what to expect when meeting with a housing counselor, why and how to create a family financial plan, local services available to homeowners, affordable housing opportunities, foreclosure prevention measures and legal options, short sales and real estate options, and how to avoid foreclosure scams. Speakers represent a variety of non-profit agencies.
Cape Coral Mayor Jim Burch will help kick off the workshop.
The FACT Team members represent a broad coalition of financial and housing stakeholders and are continuing to study ways to help Floridians through the foreclosure crisis.
For more information on the Florida Housing Help Workshop and the FACT Team, please visit http://www.myfloridacfo.com/FloridaHousingHelp/.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's 2008 legislative push to target agents using predatory annuity practices against seniors now results in tougher penalties for fraudsters in Florida. Effective January 1, 2009, SB 2082 strengthens the fines against agents who target Floridians using fraudulent annuities sales practices. The legislation also makes it a third degree felony to submit a fraudulent signature, prohibits agents from using fake designations to falsely imply financial expertise, and clarifies and strengthens suitability requirements that agents must meet when selling an annuity to a consumer.
"This legislation represents a good first step," CFO Sink said. "We were able to increase protections for seniors and punish agents who commit financially devastating crimes. That said, I will continue to push for it to be a felony to intentionally deceive a senior into an inappropriate annuity product. And I'm not going to rest until we're able to put unscrupulous agents that prey on our seniors behind bars."
Highlights of amendments to F.S. 627.4554 – Annuity Investments by Seniors (effective 1/01/09):
Every day, hundreds of Floridians fall victim to financial fraud. Many of these victims are trusting seniors who were misled into making risky or inappropriate financial investments, including annuities and reverse mortgages, by unscrupulous agents and scam artists. In response, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has created the Safeguard our Seniors (SOS) Task Force to develop solutions to better protect Florida seniors from falling victim to financial fraud. For more information visit www.flseniors.net.
Floridians who believe they may have been victims of annuity fraud should call 1-877-MY-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236) or log on to www.MyFloridaCFO.com to file a complaint.
A new tax law will allow retirees to skip required withdrawals from individual retirement accounts and related accounts this year. The change -- signed into law by President Bush last month -- is intended to give IRAs time to rebound from the recent difficult market.
Normally, IRA owners over age 70½ must withdraw money each year. For your first withdrawal, however, the deadline is extended until April 1 of the year after you turn 70½. People who turned 70½ in 2007, for example, had until April 1, 2008, to take their first required distribution.
In a typical year, to calculate how much to withdraw, you look at your account balance as of the previous Dec. 31 -- and then divide that figure by your remaining life expectancy. (Life-expectancy tables can be found in Internal Revenue Service Publication 590.) Most people who inherit IRAs or 401(k)s can spread withdrawals over their own life expectancies.
These requirements also apply to 401(k)s and some other employer-sponsored plans, but not to defined-benefit pension plans or Roth IRAs. (If you are still working, you aren't required to take distributions from your current employer's retirement plan.)
The new law suspends required distributions in 2009. This gives those who can afford to leave their nest eggs alone a better chance of recovering some of the investment losses they sustained last year.
If you don't need to pull money out of retirement accounts for living expenses, the new law will also delay the tax you would have owed on your 2009 distribution.
Unless Congress decides to extend the moratorium, those over age 70½ -- along with those who have inherited IRAs or 401(k)s -- will be forced to resume taking withdrawals in 2010. (Note: Neither Congress nor the Treasury Department took any action involving withdrawals, or taxes on withdrawals, for 2008.)
For additional information, visit AARP.org.
Making a plan will help ensure a successful financial future. Following that plan will be the most important part of your financial life journey.
Look carefully at your financial needs. Differentiate between what you want and what you need - why do you want it; what will it change to have it; is it important to have; and does it match your established values? Discard the wants for now and concentrate on the needs.
Set goals based on your values and your needs. A goal is a specific result, long- or short-term, that you intend to achieve. Thinking about your goals in practical terms will help you learn how to meet them. For example, if you want to pay off a credit card increase your monthly payment and get your interest rate reduced. Our values are what we use to judge things as important or unimportant and are at the core of a good financial management plan. You need to really understand your own values as you develop your goals - for financial management and for life.
Evaluate your goals to develop a life plan. It is important to begin to develop a financial plan for your life. The end goal may be retirement, but five-, ten- and twenty-year plans will help along the way. Think of the actions and steps needed to achieve success with your plan. The more steps you can visualize, the more successful you will be in reaching your goals. Visualize the order of importance for the steps - what will you do first, second, ... last?
Take the first step. Having a plan doesn't mean you will reach your goals - you must actually do the things listed in your plan. An important part of taking action is affirming your goals, especially by reviewing them regularly. It is important to write them down. In fact, experts will tell you to post your goals where you will notice them. Seeing them in writing helps them become a reality.
Good dishwasher habits can save energy and money.
About 60 percent of the energy used by a dishwasher goes towards heating the water, so models that use less water also use less energy. Thanks to national efficiency standards, new models use less than half the water that old models used.
Use energy-saving cycles whenever possible. If you stop your dishwasher just before the dry cycle, you can cut its energy usage in half. Most newer dishwashers have an energy-saving feature called air dry which will stop it for you automatically.
Washing and rinsing dishes by hand uses more energy than one dishwasher cycle. Studies are showing more and more that, when used to maximize energy-saving features, modern dishwashers can outperform all but the most water-frugal hand washers.
Scrape, don't rinse dishes before loading the dishwasher. Pre-rinsing can use up to 20 gallons of water. Studies show that most people pre-rinse dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, even though dishwashers purchased within the last 5–10 years do a superb job of cleaning even heavily soiled dishes. If you find you must rinse dishes first, get in the habit of using cold water. Avoid using the rinse and hold cycles.
Wait until your dishwasher is completely full before you run it. Wash only full loads. The dishwasher uses the same amount of water whether it is half-full or completely full. Putting dishes in the dishwasher throughout the day and running it once in the evening will use less water and energy than washing the dishes by hand throughout the day.
Turn down the water heater temperature. Since the early 1990s, most dishwashers in the U.S. have been sold with built-in heaters to boost water temperature to 140–145°F, the temperature recommended by manufacturers for optimum dishwashing performance. The advantage to the booster heater is that you can turn down your water heater thermostat to 120°F (typically half-way between the "medium" and "low" settings).
When loading, make sure you don't block the dispenser and spray arms. Load dishes according to manufacturer's instructions. Completely fill the racks to optimize water and energy use, but allow proper water circulation for adequate cleaning.


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Teachers to withdraw from extra curricular activities Dec. 10
The Canadian Press
Published Monday, December 3, 2012 5:04AM EST
Last Updated Monday, December 3, 2012 6:14PM EST
TORONTO -- Public high school teachers and support staff in Ontario will not take part in one-day rotating strikes planned by their colleagues in elementary schools, but they will withdraw from extra curricular activities starting next week.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation said Monday that its 60,000 members will step up their protest against legislation that freezes most of their wages by showing up for work 15 minutes before classes and leaving immediately after their scheduled duties at the end of the day.
"OSSTF at this point is not prepared to take any full withdrawal of services, so we will not be participating in any of these rotating strikes," union president Ken Coran said after meeting with 300 members of local bargaining units from across Ontario.
"They will be in the classrooms every day fulfilling their duties...and making sure that the students are safe."
The union has always said it would accept a wage freeze, but feels Bill 115 erodes the teachers' democratic rights for collective bargaining, added Coran.
"Our members are fed up, we're tired of playing games," he said.
"It would be nice if the government would just listen to what we said: 'We are accepting of a wage freeze.' Let's repeal Bill 115 and this problem will go away."
Later on Monday evening, a crowd of teachers and their supporters gathered for a rally outside Toronto District School Board headquarters.
Earlier Monday, Education Minister Laurel Broten lashed out at teachers' union leaders, saying they seemed set on strike action and are determined not to allow local contract agreements with a real wage freeze.
"It's the union leaders -- not our teachers -- who refuse to accept our fiscal realities," said Broten.
"We would like to see our union leaders climb down from the precipice on which they are now standing and re-engage in local conversations. I am asking the union leadership to choose improvements for the kids over improvements for themselves."
Under Bill 115, the unions and school boards have until Dec. 31 to reach locally negotiated contracts, which must be approved by Broten, but the government can simply impose its own contracts on teachers starting in the new year.
The OSSTF cut off talks last week after teachers rejected local agreements with two school boards, and cancelled future ratification votes.
"The OSSTF leadership is determined to undermine any local bargaining and is now focused exclusively on strike action," charged Broten.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is promising to give 72-hours notice before it takes strike action, but Broten said they walked out of contract talks with the province nine months ago.
The actions by the teachers' union bosses show the fight "was never about bargaining locally," but is about their refusal to accept a real pay freeze, added Broten.
The unions have gone to court to challenge Bill 115, which freezes the wages for most teachers while allowing younger ones to still move up the salary grid.
The bill is modelled on an agreement the province reached with unions representing Catholic teachers, which was also accepted by Francophone teachers.
The government wants teachers, nurses, civil servants and all workers in the broader public sector to accept a two-year wage freeze to help trim a deficit of nearly $15 billion, but so far has only passed legislation affecting teachers.
The legislation also gives Broten the power to impose a contract and stop the strikes, something she guaranteed parents will happen if necessary.
"We will do that if and when the circumstance presents itself where that is a reality," she said.
"At this point it is a threat."
The Progressive Conservatives said the teachers were clearly ignoring the almost daily threats from Broten because the minister won't use the powers she has now to prevent strikes and put parents' minds at ease.
"Why should parents have to wait 72 hours," asked PC education critic Lisa MacLeod.
"The minister of education can stop this in its tracks today, start fining union leaders and unions who violate the act immediately, and we could have all this behind us."
The New Democrats have called Bill 115 "wrong-headed" and warned it would lead to expensive court challenges that will cost taxpayers even more in the long run if the government loses.
"The McGuinty Liberals promised parents that Bill 115 would bring stability to our schools," said NDP education critic Peter Tabuns.
"Instead, it's created turmoil in classrooms across Ontario and an expensive court battle that will cost Ontario millions."


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Leaf raking is an autumn chore that only children enjoy because they get to undo it in one fowl swoop. We rake and pile and they jump. I propose a new approach that just may make us all happy: adults can still rake a little, children can still play and trees will benefit from some mulch and fertilizer. At the farm, raking leaves is passé; we let them stay where they fall (with reason, of course) which is usually beneath their canopy.
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Santa Barbara–It's film in a land of high contrast. Santa Barbara, ninety miles north of Los Angeles, is made up today of students and retirees, soul surfers and weekender movie biz folk, social dowagers and former rock stars. And as such the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, in its majority year of 21, and third year under the guidance of flamboyant impresario and self-proclaimed self-made man Roger Durling, has hit a fine balance of imbalancing contrasts, too.
Take the featured documentary presented on the third night of the fest at the "Historic Lobero" a courtly 70-something sometime opera house where Mozart and the Whale had just screened and where former Monkee Mickey Dolenz stood introducing the great but awfully-titled documentary "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)." "In honor of Harry I dropped a tab of acid. In a couple of minutes this ought to be really great," he quipped to an audience that included many friends and family of the late great pop sing singer songwriter and legendary carouser, but also to his majesty the reclusive Brian Wilson, former Beach Boy current tortured genius, who was whisked in and then out of the theater as the film ended. Many a boomer in the crowd was seen mopping a tear during the lovely Nilsson music cavalcade alongside kids who knew him from videos of The Point.
Contrasts were built into the opening and closing nights, as 100,000 people, about half from out of town, attended a fest that stretched between old and new guard. Kicked off with a film by old Hollywood master Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), who in "Ask the Dust" made a rather predictable but sweet meditation on old Los Angeles featuring a frequently naked Selma Hayek. "We could have ended this with a whimper or a bang," said Durling, perhaps coyly unconscious for a moment of the controversy surrounding "Thank You for Smoking." "We decided to end it with a bang," he said. The film made by Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) based on the novel by Christopher Buckley (son of William F.) was buzz worthy on its own until a mini brouhaha kicked up over sex scenes featuring Tom Cruise squeeze Katie Holmes, scenes that were allegedly yanked from a Toronto screening, after a call from Cruise to Reitman. For the record, the sex scenes were present, though a lot of controversy swirled wondering if they had been tamed down. (Durling says no.) And if you're keeping score it's Hayek half-naked and Holmes seen doing it clothed.
You might build a case that the fest has become a hub of the Pacific Rim. Its two strongest sidebars were Latino Cinema curated by UCSB film professor Christina Venegas and the Cult Asian entries culled by fest programmer Cevin Cathell. The former yielded works of surprising and incisively radical vision. "Battle in Heaven" ("Battalla en el Cielo") by Carlos Reygados shocked and awed as did Manuel Martin Cuenca's "Malas Temporada." Yet the film everybody talked longingly about was "Duck Season," a tender, relatively simple Argentinian film. The Asian films, so down with the kids fared well, though the hands down fave "Sympathy for Mrs. Vengeance" showed only once and that was on Super Bowl Sunday. Another Korean film that showed promise was "R Point" ("Gong Su-Chang"), a horror film set in Vietnam.
But the lands bordering the Atlantic produced the most juice and joy, according to me. "Joyeux Noel," a French film nominated for Oscar, took the Audience Award. A French Canadian film entitled "C.R.A.Z.Y." seemed on everybody's lips. But the Old World in its entirety seemed represented, in fact most of the Academy's nominated best foreign films were there: "Bestia nel Cuore," "Paradise Now," and "Sophie Scholl." The biggest box office hit in France last year, "Brice De Nice" drew large crowds of young to its dumb and dumber premise. And from Africa, Tsotsi and a short doc entitled "Sisters in Law" took fest honors.
Lest its indie cred be undervalued, though, a number of the chief selections to the SBIFF fest were films made outside the studio system. Films like "Piano Tuner of the Earthquakes," Hard Candy, "Half Empty," "The Hamiltons and The Legend of Lucy Keyes" mixed high hopes and film accomplishment searching for notoriety, attention or just distribution.
There is no denying the fest's proximity to Hollywood, though, nor its willingness to court there hard. Since Durling first lured Peter Jackson here, more and more of the biggest names approaching Oscarhood have been willing to be honored, interviewed publicly and feted here. The man of the hour was George Clooney this year earning the Modern master appellation for his direction of Good Night and Good Luck and his role in the important film Syriana. Clooney was grilled by Leonard Maltin for over two hours inside the Arlington movie palace, and then, rumor has it, ditched his party and got drunk alone at the nearby stolid Upham Hotel. Naomi Watt, who went nominationless, talked about her great luck. Two very likely to win male nominees, Heath Ledger and Phillip Seymour Hoffman also spoke, the former nervously, making his Brokeback character seem less a stretch, the latter in winning ingenuousness. Both returned frequently to a theme about how important it is to want to learn the craft all the time.
The twelve day schedule rattled by rather fast. Panels met, as they do. A woman's panel, rather poorly attended, furnished the most heat and ideas, though the most entertaining was the directors, who this year included Paul Haggis ("Crash"), "Mike Binder" (Upside of Anger) and Duncan Tucker ("Transamerica") spoke of the need for festivals to promote films like theirs. A writer's panel delved into the need for obsession and the inevitability of even self-censorship but froze in time when screenwriter Gill Dennis ("Walk the Line") told the crowd that in his research he found out that Johnny Cash's father had served in a semi-routine fashion of taking black prisoners out of the local jail and killing them. It's sometimes painful when film people talk about film expressing truth, to learn what feel good biopics can sometimes hide.
There were a few gaffes. George Clooney's award trophy fell apart in his hands. The writer's panel failed to provide Larry McMurtry as advertised or to apologize in any fashion for his absence. A few cancellations. "I want to apologize for any mistakes we made," said Durling on closing night, adding that no malice was intended, only a passion to please and human error.
Because the major contrast is the sophistication this small town film festival musters. At the end of his tribute Phillip Seymour Hoffman poured lavish praise on the montage of Hoffman clips Paul Fagan assembled. He seemed genuinely to marvel at the pleasure he had sitting down talking to Leonard Maltin, as he put it, "Talking about things I enjoy talking about." "Will you come back?" said someone in the audience. "Yeah," said Hoffman.
(D.J. Palladino is an arts writer and contributing editor to Santa Barbara Magazine and the Santa Barbara Independent where he has been a film and theater reviewer for the last 20 years.)
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Atlantic 10 Adds Saint Francis as Affiliate Member in Field Hockey
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NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The Atlantic 10 Conference has added Saint Francis University (Pa.) as an affiliate member in the sport of field hockey the league announced Thursday. The Red Flash will begin play in the A-10 this fall.
The Red Flash are the second affiliate member in field hockey, joining Lock Haven, which joined the league as an affiliate member in 2010. The addition of Saint Francis brings the total number of field hockey-playing institutions in the A-10 to eight. That number will reach nine in 2014 with the addition of Davidson College, which is joining the Atlantic 10 in all sports.
"We are pleased to add Saint Francis as an affiliate member in field hockey," stated Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. "Their addition brings in a strong program that fits well within our footprint and they will be an asset and will further enhance A-10 field hockey."
Massachusetts and Richmond have traded the Atlantic 10 field hockey title for the past four years, with each team winning two. The A-10 has won each of its NCAA Play-in games over the past three years as well.
SFU coach Stacey Bean, earned conference coach of the year honors last season and will enter her sixth year with the Red Flash this fall. Bean coached at Rhode Island from 2002 to 2006 and was named the A-10 Coach of the Year in 2006. Saint Francis had the best season in program history last year, earning a 12-6 record to claim a share of the conference regular season championship. It will return 16 letterwinners and eight starters from the 2012 team.
Saint Francis, which will be the fourth Pennsylvania-based A-10 field hockey team (La Salle, Lock Haven, Saint Joseph's), was 1-1 against A-10 teams last year, winning a 3-1 contest at Lock Haven and dropping a tight 1-0 decision at La Salle.