text:
Standard in sizing. Our model is 175cm/5' 9'' tall and wears a size small, 8 or 26.
For more information please contact us.
Cold hand wash separately with mild soap. Do not bleach, rub, soak or wring. Gentle squeeze to remove excess water. Reshape whilst damp. Dry flat in shade. Do not spin. Do not tumble dry. Cool iron on reverse under cover cloth. Dry cleanable.
100% cotton.
Our Customer Care team are available to assist you with any enquiries you may have. We can be contact via phone on +612 9358 5177, via email at email@example.com or click here for more details.
Alternatively, you can visit one of the CAMILLA AND MARC boutiques. See their details here.


text:
Latest News
Karzai: U.S. should end night raids, close prisons in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — A four-day gathering of more than 2,000 influential Afghan elders began Wednesday to consider what framework should guide future relations with the United States, with President Hamid Karzai calling for a strong partnership "but with conditions" aimed at preserving Afghanistan's "national sovereignty."
Among the limits, Karzai told the opening session of the so-called "loya jirga," or grand assembly of elders, should be an end to night raids on Afghan homes, a tactic that U.S. officials say has been crucial to capturing Taliban and al Qaida operatives, and the elimination of American-operated prisons in the country.
Some Afghan parliamentarians have questioned the legitimacy of the assembly and called it unconstitutional, because it sidelines the Afghan parliament. But Karzai attempted to calm that criticism by stressing in his speech that the meeting would serve as an advisory gathering and that the verdict of the meeting would be sent to the Afghan parliament for approval. Karzai also tried to cut off concerns that the meeting was intended to lead to a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for a third term.
"This jirga is only for the partnership and peace, nothing else," Karzai said.
"I need your view and I need your advice," Karzai told the delegates. "In the light of your advice, we will take those important steps to reach our goals."
Included in the meetings were members of parliament, tribal elders, members of provincial councils and representatives of Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan. The delegates are to be divided into 40 committees to discuss the issues.
With the U.S.-led international security forces set to leave Afghanistan in 2014, the meeting underscores growing concern about what will happen afterward. The Afghan economy is heavily dependent on international aid, and the Karzai government is trying to keep that assistance flowing by signing agreements with other countries.
"In 2014 when the transition process is completed and the foreigners leave, it will only be us," Karzai said. "We will need international aid. We don't want to be left alone again, but their assistance should be based on some conditions."
Karzai also said that his government is in working on similar partnerships with France, Britain, Australia and the European Union.
In a statement, the Taliban denounced the meeting as a plot by foreigners to occupy Afghanistan and vowed to disrupt it.
"The United States wants to obtain documentation for a perpetual occupation of Afghanistan under the name of strategic partnership," the statement said.
The meeting started amid fears of Taliban insurgent attacks, and Afghan security forces were on high alert. At least half of the capital was in complete lockdown, and additional checkpoints were set up around the city.
Concerns about the security of the meeting and the delegates grew over the weekend after the Taliban leaked what it said was a 27-page Afghan government security plan for the meeting, which included troop deployments, telephone numbers and names of the Afghan security forces that were involved in providing security for the meeting.
The U.S.-led coalition denied the authenticity of the document.
(Zohori is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
Coalition says Taliban 'security plan' is forgery
Failed Afghan road project shows difficulties of U.S. rebuilding effort
Why George W. Bush is the Arab Spring's forgotten man
Follow McClatchy on Twitter

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Switch to a different drug
If Medicare doesn't cover your prescription drug(s), then you have the option to switch to a different drug performing similar functions.
Talk with a doctor
Talk with your doctor or other health care provider to decide what to do if or when your prescription runs out. Perhaps there is a different drug covered by the plan that might work just as well for you.
Call Customer Service
Call Customer Service at the number on your membership card for a list of covered drugs that treat the same medical condition. This list can help your doctor find a covered drug that might work for you.


text:
About 375
Language Resource Center is located in the 3rd floor of Olin Hall, in room number 375. This is one of the state of art labs in the University of Akron with a fine dash of technology in the form of computers and student friendly machines for enhanced learning of the various languages taught in the Modern Languages Department. It houses 35 Computers, 5 TV/DVD stations and Individual Audio ports in each machine for skill practice exercises and assignments given to students in class. Plus the lab has a good collections of Books, Audio Discs, Self learning language softwares and Video tapes/Discs.
Check Resources' section in the LRC page for a list of all the supplement material available.
This lab is a part of the Modern Language Department and it is exclusive for Modern Language Department students only.
Questions and feedback should be directed to the Modern Language Department.
Lab Hours: Currently there are no open lab hours
|Lab Director:
Matthew Wyszynski(email@example.com)
|Admin. in Charge:
|Dana Frase
Contact Number


text:
Morgan tries to run from the hitman, but he pulls a gun on the boy. Morgan says he is Sonny's son, thinking this will scare him, but the man can't believe his luck. Morgan learns the man is from Bensonhurst before he doubles over. Morgan realizes his assailant was shot and finds out Jason did it. Morgan says if Jason shot him then they are enemies, but the hitman thinks they can help each other.
Pants Optional.
Carly, Morgan and Michael face off with the hitman, Sonny interrupts Olivia and Johnny, Nikolas and Rebecca enjoy themselves, Robin finds something interesting in Brianna's file and Andrea reveals an interesting connection.
At Wyndemere, Nikolas and Rebecca passionately kiss and rip each other's clothes off before landing in bed and taking things further.
Sonny tells Claudia since Michael is staying with them now, he won't tolerate any acts of violence against him. He'll find out who ambushed Jason and Johnny and when he does, they will be eliminated. Claudia plays innocent, but Sonny questions her because he thinks Johnny should have been able to ID the attackers...unless he has a reason to protect them.
Sonny calls Johnny's phone, but he's busy making out with Olivia. Olivia answers and giggles that Johnny can't come to the phone. Sonny demands Johnny get on the phone, but she says he's off the clock. Sonny orders Olivia to tell Johnny he needs to come to his house with or without his pants on.
Carly frantically looks for Morgan and calls Michael's cell phone when she can't find him. She tells him Morgan may have climbed out the window to follow him. Michael thinks maybe Morgan took the shortcut to Sonny's house and Carly worries that he is alone in the woods. She wants to talk to Sonny, but Michael doesn't want to involve him, saying they can find him by themselves. He tells her to meet him in the woods and hangs up. Carly grabs a flashlight and leaves the house.
While they sleep, Rebecca has a dream that she sees Nikolas with Emily, who declares the prince will always be hers.
At their house, Robin and Patrick go through Brianna's autopsy report and learn there were no drugs in her system. Robin goes to put Emma to bed and leaves Patrick to pour over the report.
Over the phone at Ric's place, Andrea tells Garrett she is in no mood to see him because his affair could ruin both their lives. After she berates her husband some more, Ric walks in and Andrea tells him their plan is going south. They talk about the mayor and his mistress. Ric thinks she should cut and run, but Andrea thinks she can contain it and she needs his help. Andrea tells Ric they have to get rid of this lawsuit and asks Ric to approach Brianna's family. He thinks they deserve an explanation and he does too.
After Sonny gets off the phone with Olivia, he lashes out at Claudia, who thinks he is just upset Johnny is with Olivia.
Johnny stops things with Olivia so he can deal with Sonny. He says the job went south and she thinks Sonny sent him on the job because of her and worries he'll keep putting him in the line of fire. Olivia tells Johnny to come back when he's done no matter how late it is.
As Carly searches for Morgan in the woods, the hitman asks Morgan to find the GPS on his phone. As they talk about how to get back to the road, Carly comes upon them and the mystery man grabs Morgan and points the gun at Carly. As he lets Morgan go to Carly, Michael jumps out and tackles the man, but is quickly taken down. The hitman learns Michael is Sonny's kid too and tells him to stand with his mother. He lets them know he doesn't want a hostage, he just wants to leave with no hassles. Before he takes off, he asks them all to toss their cell phones in the woods and then instructs Carly to tell Sonny he could have shot them all, but he didn't, so Sonny owes him and he will collect.
Nikolas finds Rebecca outside and she tells him it feels like she's living Emily's dream. He assures her he didn't think about Emily once tonight and that it was all about her.
Patrick calls Maxie to come over and asks about Spinelli working on Brianna's case. Maxie notes Robin isn't there and he says she's with Emma, so who knows how long she'll be. Maxie points out Robin didn't even want to touch Emma, but now he can't pry the baby out of her hands.
At Sonny's Claudia tells Johnny to be careful with what he says and then Sonny comes out wondering who tipped the guys off at the meeting. Sonny wants to know if he can trust his brother-in-law and Johnny defends himself.
Robin returns to discuss Brianna's case with Maxie and Patrick. Maxie tells them Sam's information on Brianna was taken by the lead detective and they speculate over what could have happened. After Maxie leaves, Robin finds something in Brianna's file, which is that Brianna was hit twice in the head in the exact same spot, which means she was probably murdered.
Nikolas and Rebecca go back inside and she wants to leave, thinking they should work up to spending the night together. Nikolas, however, wants to wake up holding her, because you never know how quickly, or what, you may lose. He says it's up to her and she kisses him.
Johnny goes back to Olivia's and even though she looks sleepy, she pulls him inside. He tells her Claudia thinks she's only sleeping with him to get at Sonny and wonders if it's true. She responds that she's already been there and done that, she doesn't sleep with older men and if she wanted Sonny she would say so. Instead, she wants Johnny and they kiss.
Sonny and Claudia argue over Johnny and the baby's paternity. He says if the baby is his, it will be protected just like all his kids will be and will never be part of his business. Sonny goes upstairs and Claudia goes outside and finds her hitman who tells her he's been shot.
Carly asks her boys what they were thinking and Michael apologizes to his mother for all his wrong decisions. Carly agrees both Morgan and Michael blew it, but she loves them anyway and would do anything to keep them safe. She then hugs both her sons and gets teary.
Next on General Hospital:
Claudia hides Dominic.
Kristina is the next Corinthos in trouble.
Ric and Andrea continue to plot.
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text:
ESRL Physical Sciences Research Review
Boulder, Colorado — March 9-12, 2010
- Agenda
- Review Themes
- Reviewer's Guide
- Presentations
- Posters
- Indicators of Preeminence
- Supplemental Information
- Guiding Documents
Laboratory scientific reviews are conducted every four years to evaluate the quality, relevance, and performance of research conducted in OAR laboratories to both internal and external interests, and to help strategically position the laboratory in its planning of future science. These reviews are intended to ensure that OAR laboratory research is linked to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Strategic Plan, relevant to NOAA Research mission and priorities, and consistent with NOAA planning, programming, and budgeting.
Contact Sara Summers for questions regarding the review.


text:
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says a state trooper arrested a driver after clocking his speed at more than 200 mph.
The patrol says Trooper Ryan Smith pulled over the man Saturday on the Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City. Authorities say the man was driving a Ford Mustang and the trooper's radar clocked the car at 176 mph and then 208 mph.
Authorities say the driver attempted to elude the state trooper — turning off his headlights and brake lights at one point — but he was eventually pulled over at a red light. The highway patrol says the driver stopped his car and dropped his keys out of the window.
The highway patrol says the driver was arrested on complaints of reckless driving and felony eluding.


text:
The Enter button will open a new browser window
allowing you to freely access the Digital Quaker Collection.
DQC is a digital library containing full text and page
images of over 500 individual Quaker works from the 17th
and 18th centuries. The proprietary software developed for
Earlham School of Religion provides multiple search functions
and an interface for viewing pages.
Cape Coral, FL, August 4, 2011 — Unlimited Priorities Corporation® has developed a new, more robust website to support a key primary source collection at the Earlham School of Religion (ESR). The project involved updates for a UNIX/LINUX server, improvements to the search engine for proximity ranges, a reload of data to support updated versions of eXist and Lucene, and software updates for Tomcat, Java, and Saxon XSLT processing.
ESR's Digital Quaker Collection contains full text and page images of over 500 individual Quaker works from the 17th and 18th centuries. Built about 8 years ago, the site gives distance learners access to the same type of quality information as students have on campus at the Lilly Library. The proprietary software developed for ESR provides multiple search functions and an interface for viewing pages.
In 2011, Jay Marshall, Dean of ESR, who had the original vision for the digital library, turned once again to the experts at Unlimited Priorities Corporation to do some much-needed maintenance. In addition to updating the search engine, they also wanted to upgrade the server environment.
Tim Seid, ESR's Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies, is the school's liaison for distance learning. Besides his education in theology, he also has a technology avocation. Assoc. Dean Seid said, "Since Joe Paulsen and Iris Hanney were instrumental in building the initial site, including the content conversion, we naturally wanted them to handle this upgrade to the primary source repository. We knew we could count on Unlimited Priorities to execute the project within our budgetary framework and with a high level of expertise."
Iris Hanney, founder and President of Unlimited Priorities, replied, "We designed the website, the environment in which it would reside, developed the XML, and coordinated the imaging and conversion of this rare full-text material. The Archival Initiatives Division of Unlimited Priorities is geared towards the appropriate archiving and management of rare collections. As we remain on the cutting edge of technology we applaud the team at Earlham for recognizing the need for an overhaul so the site would continue to operate well into the future. It is a pleasure having long-standing customers to grow with."
Earlham School of Religion is a Christian graduate school located in Richmond, Indiana.
About Unlimited Priorities Corporation
Unlimited Priorities serves clients throughout the information industry. Our Archival Initiatives Division provides advice to libraries, historical societies, and associations in selecting, distributing, and monetizing their valuable archival content. Our goal is to enhance our clients' abilities to succeed, offering realistic and affordable solutions.
Iris L. Hanney, President
Unlimited Priorities Corporation
Phone: 239-549-2384
Email: email@example.com
Visit Website
Copyright (c) 1999, 2000 The Apache Software Foundation.
All rights reserved.


text:
Undergraduate Degrees, Majors and Concentrations
PSYC3880 - Exercise and Health Psychology
Summer 2019
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the psychological and motivational factors associated with exercise participation and health behavior changes. This course offers an overview of the major topics in health and exercise psychology and explores individual, social, and environmental influences on physical and mental health. Topics of interest include exercise adherence, health behavior changes such as increasing physical activity and improving diet, the influence of stress on health, and the treatment of chronic disease and mental illness through physical activity and exercise.
Prerequisite: PSYC1010
3 Credits
Schedule Book for All Active and Available Future Terms, Course starting with PSYC3880
No Courses Found


text:
Middlesex Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian recognized members of the Middlesex Sheriff�s Office for sustained excellence and outstanding acts during the 2017 Employee Recognition & Award Ceremony held May 10.
The ceremony is held annually during National Correctional Officers and Employees Week. As he did last year, Gov. Charlie Baker also proclaimed May 7-13 as Correction Officer Employee Week in the Commonwealth.
This year�s ceremony and reception included recognition of uniform and civilian staff for longevity, as well as individual acts of excellence over the previous 16 months.
This year�s Administrator and Officer of the Year Awards were presented to Deputy Superintendent Richard Vivier, Jr. and Sergeant Stephen Hall.
Vivier is a 22-year veteran of the MSO. He was recognized as Administrator of the Year for his leadership, dedication to the mission of the MSO and efforts to make the Middlesex Jail & House of Correction a national model for excellence in corrections.
Hall is a 19-year veteran of the MSO, currently assigned to the Middlesex Jail & House of Correction. He was presented with the Office of the Year Award for his sustained excellence and the leadership demonstrated on daily basis.
Recognized with the Deputy Sheriff of the Year Award were members of the Middlesex Sheriff�s Office Warrant Apprehension Unit, comprised of MSO deputies, as well as one member each from the Lowell and Bentley University Police Departments. In 2016, the unit arrested 347 individuals wanted by more than 80 different agencies, inside and outside of Massachusetts.
Also among those recognized, were six officers who intervened in suicide attempts, saving the lives of three men; two transportation officers who helped safely subdue a man who confronted Billerica and MSO officers on Boston Road last June; one transportation officer who moved a woman from train tracks just as a train approached in Framingham last year; and an off-duty deputy who performed CPR on a man after the man collapsed at a bowling alley.
This year�s ceremony and reception also included an appearance for the fifth consecutive year by Rene Rancourt to perform the �Star-Spangled Banner.� The Boston Red Sox also generously made available the 2004 World Series Trophy for employees and the families to have their photos taken with.


text:
Tagged: Ron Roenicke
Phillies Weird Week
The Phillies finally squeaked out a win against the Braves yesterday. Whew! But that 1-0 win was not the only oddity of the week.
For starters, the Phillies lost by the exact same score the night before. Cliff Lee pitched a gem and the Phils could not bother to score a single run. Ugh. Here are a few other weird notes from the week:
– A.J. Burnett, Thursday's winning pitcher, claims that his newly formed hernia is helping him pitch better. Maybe the offense should start straining themselves to achieve a similar injury and then they can score more than 1 run per game? Genius!
– Speaking of genius, Jonathan Papelbon does not see pitch velocity as an issue. Granted, he has been much better of late. But really? Can I pitch then? I can probably hit around 60mph on the gun and since speed does not matter, I should do just fine against major league hitters. Put me in, coach!
– In other Pap news, Crossing Broad had reported that the Phillies closer not only went off verbally on the media about his velocity, but that he actually aimed a fart in their direction. Monty Python, Holy Grail fans are loving this ("I fart in your general direction!") If you have never seen this move, I highly recommend it.
– In the same article, Crossing Broad also claims that Cliff Lee belched at the media. It seems there is a lot of hot air in the Phillies locker room.
– It looks like whoever yells the loudest really does win. Because after Brewers manager Ron Roenicke complained that Logan Schafer's 8th inning at-bat on 4/9/14 was not scored a hit, MLB overturned the error originally given to Ryan Howard. Wow.
– And while this is not Phillies news, I am sure all Phillies fans will enjoy it. The new book, Yes, It's Hot in Here: Adventures in the Weird, Woolly World of Sports Mascots, reveals that the Secret Service actually threatened to kill Mr. Met, the Mets bulbous-headed mascot. Seriously. That may be the best story ever in the history of baseball. You will have to read the excerpt to believe it.
The Phillies start a 10 game West Coast road trip tonight against the Rockies. Game time is 8:40pm.
"LIKE" us on Facebook for more updates & photos!
Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography


text:
Pain at pump is expected to increase through March
Rising fuel prices let off the gas a little bit.
A gallon of regular in the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice market was selling for an average of $3.90 on Monday, down only tenths of a penny from the previous day -- but still down.
That is still 6 cents higher than it was a week ago and up 47 cents from where prices were a month ago.
Pump prices also leveled off during the weekend nationally, breaking a monthlong string of daily increases that boosted the cost of driving.
On Monday the national average stood at $3.777 per gallon, down fractionally from $3.781 on Friday. Last week's 3 percent drop in oil prices helped slow the rise in gas prices, but the relief may be short-lived.
Though the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted 2013 gas prices would not surpass those of 2012, motorists already are paying more for a gallon of gas than they ever have for the month of February, AAA reported.
Four states already have an average price for a gallon of regular that is more than $4. Two others are only a few cents shy of reaching the $4 mark, AAA said.
Prices are expected to increase throughout the end of February and continue that trend in March.
That could mean some states in the Southeast reach $4 per gallon. Some metro markets in that region already have surpassed that mark.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be much relief at the pump in the next couple of weeks," AAA spokeswoman Jessica Brady said on Monday.
"U.S. refinery maintenance typically peaks in March, meaning we could see more cuts in refinery output, leading to higher gas prices.
"Although gas prices were forecast to peak in April, it's unclear whether or not this will be the case, since pump prices have already seen such dramatic increases," Brady said.
The average price for a gallon of regular in Florida was $3.78 on Monday, 7 cents more than last week. Florida's average of $3.87 increased 9 cents from last week, and Georgia's average of $3.77 rose 13 cents.
Oil finished little changed in New York, after being up more than $1 earlier in the day. Benchmark crude fell 2 cents to $93.11 per barrel.
Traders are keeping an eye on a new round of talks beginning Tuesday in Kazakhstan between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
Iran, nominally one of the world's top oil producers, has had to make substantial output cuts because U.S.-led sanctions are greatly limiting its crude exports.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.


text:
Three words give you the key to fulfilling your duty to God.
Helaman Ayala loves ninjitsu (a Japanese martial art). This priest in the Mexico City Tecamac Stake has spent a lot of time practicing what he has learned. Often his friends ask him to show them different techniques.
He also loves music and has taken some guitar lessons. "But I don't have a lot of time to practice," he says. "So I haven't progressed much. And I can't share it much."
Helaman understands the importance of practicing what you learn and then sharing it. "You can't just know. You must do," he says. "We can learn things, but if we don't put them into practice, they won't do us any good. And sharing is essential to help you make sure you've learned it."
That's what he likes about the new Duty to God. "I like the idea of 'learn, act, share,'" he says. "It has helped me a lot. Knowing more and applying what I've learned has helped my testimony."
He uses the plan of salvation as an example. It's a doctrine he has heard many times. "But studying it for myself, I saw the love Heavenly Father has for us. The Holy Ghost touched my heart, and I felt inside that it is true. I came to feel the love He has for me that He would send His Son."
As Helaman sets and works on his Duty to God goals, he appreciates the support he receives from his parents. "My parents encourage me, they remind me when I forget, and they ask me if I've set my goals," he says.
His father, who is the bishop of their ward, spends time helping him. "He helps me understand things I don't understand," Helaman says. "My father and mother both support me a lot in that respect."
Helaman says the goals Duty to God asks young men to set are for their good. Duty to God has strengthened his faith and helped him resist temptation. It has also helped prepare him for the future. "The book helps you to prepare to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and teaches you many of the things you'll need as a missionary."
Just as he has progressed in ninjitsu through setting goals to learn, acting upon what he has learned, and sharing with others, Helaman knows that "to progress in life, we need to set goals and look to the future."
Using Duty to God and with his parents' help, Helaman has made a good start.
Diligence and Trust
"The contents of [the Fulfilling My Duty to God] booklet are a physical representation of the Lord's trust in the rising generation. … And I have seen evidence that the trust is well placed.
"In visits I watched Aaronic Priesthood quorums in action. I have seen young men following patterns of learning, making plans to do what God wants of them, then moving out to do what they have committed to do and sharing with others how they were changed spiritually. And as I watched and listened, it became clear that fathers, mothers, leaders, friends, and even neighbors in a congregation were touched by the Spirit as they heard youth testify how they had been strengthened. The youth were lifted as they bore testimony, and so were those who were trying to help them rise" (Henry B. Eyring, "Help Them on Their Way Home," Liahona and Ensign, May 2010, 24).
Photographs by Adam C. Olson


text:
Design cool stuff. Collect orders. Raise money. Get your story out there…
Hundreds of Possibilities.
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Custom merchandise stores
Design and sell products to tell your story, rally crowd support, raise brand awareness, and beyond.
Fundraising campaigns
Sell cool stuff, accept donations - or both - to raise money and generate awareness for your cause, group, or team.
Team uniform design and sales
Design team uniforms and apparel, collect sizes and orders, and distribute all the items from one central place.
Pop-up shops
Graphic designer? Photographer? Art student? Sell your creations on t-shirts, sweatshirts, and more.
Online order forms
No more collecting ever-changing orders, sizes, and cash by hand, just to get gear for your people.
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Don't let collecting money take over your season of graduation - this is the perfect tool for orchestrating your class gift.
Traveling for state championships, speech and debate competitions, choir performances, mission trips? You name it, you can fund it.
Floor shirts
To all the RA's out there: need to boost some floor spirit? How about ordering cool swag to show off on campus?


text:
Individual 4x6 photos - ShutterBooth Albuquerque
April 2018
4 24 18 ABQ Sol B2B Expo
Individual 4x6 photos
We had a great time working with the Albuquerque Sol at the B2B Expo event at Isleta Casino and Resort showing everyone how much the players are and how great the games will be! Support your local sports teams.
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text:
By John Foley
Oracle President Thomas Kurian explains three types of Oracle Cloud's infrastructure-as-a-service offerings.
Oracle introduced a range of new infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings in June 2015 as part of Oracle Cloud Platform, an integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services that let companies drive innovation and accelerate digital transformation.
Since that major launch event, Oracle has introduced additional IaaS, PaaS, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) capabilities as part of its expanding cloud portfolio, giving developers, IT professionals, and business users new options and increased flexibility in moving to the cloud.
Oracle President Thomas Kurian oversees development of Oracle Cloud, and he participated in the June launch of Oracle Cloud Platform, along with Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison. In September, in advance of Oracle OpenWorld 2015 in San Francisco, we asked Kurian for an update on Oracle's cloud offerings at each layer of the stack.
Q: Let's start with infrastructure. What is the range of IaaS offerings Oracle has introduced?
Thomas Kurian: We have compute, storage, and network. Together, these pieces give people the infrastructure they need to run business applications, databases, and other workloads in the cloud.
The focus of our effort with infrastructure as a service is really about three things. It's lowering customers' costs in getting infrastructure. Second, it's making it much easier to get infrastructure quickly and easily so that they can use infrastructure and not have to wait many months before they can provision new capability. And third is to make it flexible so we can run different kinds of workload and give those different kinds of workload the amazing performance, security, and reliability people have always expected from Oracle.
For more on Oracle Cloud Platform, attend Thomas Kurian's Oracle OpenWorld 2015 keynote.
Q: Storage tends to be a commodity. What is the value of Oracle's cloud storage services?
Thomas Kurian: We offer four kinds of storage capability in the cloud. One is for backups so you can put objects into the cloud. You can use whatever backup tool you're using today. Just point it to the cloud and it backs up objects to our cloud.
The second is archival, which is storing data in the cloud for long-term retention. And it's mirrored so that you don't lose any data, but it's also meant to be extremely cost-effective.
The third is file storage, where you can put data into our cloud, and you have the ability then to replicate data from, for example, your North American location to Europe. So it looks to your on-premises systems almost like the files just got copied across without you having to invest in redundant infrastructure to copy these files.
Lots of customers are using our storage services. They're using them for database backup, file backup, object storage, and archival. We protect your information—we help ensure it doesn't get compromised. So it's a lot of value for customers.
Q: What about Oracle's compute service and Oracle Engineered Systems in the cloud?
Thomas Kurian: Think of compute as saying: I need a certain amount of compute resource—a certain amount of memory, a certain amount of CPU—to run a workload, but I don't want to buy dedicated machines for that. You pay for it by the hour, or you can pay for it by the month. That gives you elasticity. It gives you the ability to get resources up and running. And it allows you to get much more economical hardware because you're not buying dedicated pools of machines that are just sitting around in your data center. So we give you raw compute.
If you're a large customer or if you're running a highly secure application, we also offer dedicated compute, where you get a rack of servers and rack of cores. You can buy them in different sizes, but on that rack, the only workload that's running is your workload, and it's fully isolated to just your company.
The third kind of compute service we offer is Engineered Systems. So if you're running a high-end data warehouse or mission-critical OLTP, like ERP, and you want to put that in the cloud, we offer that infrastructure.
We automate how you create the environments, all the networking and the physical infrastructure management. You simply deal with the database. It happens to run amazingly fast because it runs in Exadata, and we've automated all of the day-to-day activity that somebody needs to deal with. So the combination of multitenant compute, general-purpose compute, dedicated compute, and Engineered Systems gives people a great solution.
Q: Let's talk about Oracle PaaS offerings. How are they differentiated from those of competitors?
Thomas Kurian: If you look at the economics of running systems, the reality is that as hardware and facilities have gotten cheaper, a bigger part of the total cost of administering and running a system is tied to people. It's the labor associated with installing, configuring, administering, and monitoring the software.
So the most important thing we've done with platform as a service is, in addition to running it on our infrastructure as a service so it runs on extremely cost-effective and very automated infrastructure, we've taken all of that day-to-day work that human beings need to do and automated that through software.
Oracle President Thomas Kurian discusses the value proposition of Oracle's platform as a service.
When I say "automated through software," imagine you could configure a system in the following way: You tell us how much resource you need, how much CPU and memory. You tell us the version of our software you want to run, the configuration. And it looks like filling out a shopping cart in Amazon. You name the system. You tell us the night of the week you want a full backup, the hour of the day you want an incremental backup, and which weekend of the month patching is done. You press a button, and you never have to deal with that system anymore. We give you a URL to load your data, a URL to deploy your applications. But all of that infrastructure maintenance—creating, installing, configuring, patching, backup—all of that's automated.
So our biggest value proposition with the platform is the fact that we've taken all of that work human beings need to do and automated it through software. That's typically about 60 percent of the cost of operating Oracle software. Even if you say our automation cuts that cost in half, that's about 30 percent of the total cost to run and manage an Oracle system, which is a huge savings for our customers.
The second thing we've done is, because the infrastructure is so automated, we're opening this software up to all those people who would love to use Oracle but didn't have the resources to use Oracle. We take care of all the administration.
The third thing it does is drive agility. Imagine you're building an application. On premises, it typically takes six to nine months to get hardware, network, compute resource, storage, a DBA. With Oracle Cloud, you use a credit card for the resource you want, press a button. Thirty minutes later, you get access to our database, then to our middleware. You can build an application and run it on the cloud.
All you need to do analytics is be able to load your data using a spreadsheet and have a web browser. If you know how to do that, you can do analysis.
—Oracle President Thomas Kurian
Q: One of the major areas of PaaS capabilities is data management. Can you outline Oracle's database-as-a-service offerings?
Thomas Kurian: We have Oracle Database running on general-purpose compute, Oracle Database on Exadata, and there will be more.
With Oracle Database, the core value proposition is we've automated every task that people need to do to use it. We have a pharmaceutical company that's running its mobile medical ordering system, so if a patient wants to refill their prescription, they go to a mobile phone, press "submit." It fills out the order, that order is taken in the Oracle Database, and it runs on Oracle Cloud.
The customer didn't have to install that system, buy the hardware, or configure it. They don't have to patch it, back it up, or setup data encryption or disaster recovery. One hundred percent of that has been automated.
Q: Another big area of Oracle PaaS is application development. What kinds of application development solutions does Oracle offer in the cloud?
Thomas Kurian: We're focused on three audiences: developers, business users, and what I call semi-technical people.
For developers, we give you a range of programming languages that you can use to build applications in the cloud. You can build applications in Java EE, plain old Java, Node.js, JRuby, and you can run in .NET. The value proposition with our develop-oriented solutions is identical to what we're doing for data management. We take care of installing, configuring, patching, backing up, tuning, monitoring all of the runtimes you deploy code to, like the application servers or the Java virtual machines. You, as a developer, focus on writing the most amazing applications in the world.
The second audience we're focused on is the business user, and the third is semi-technical. Take mobility—it's a big new way of deploying applications. People say, I'd like to get applications built to run on iOS and Android devices, but our IT department is backed up. They're fine with exposing the applications, but somebody else must build the UIs.
So we've introduced a new solution called Oracle Mobile Cloud Service that lets anybody write applications to run in iOS and Android devices. They may not be programmers. Certainly programmers can do it, but they do not need to be technical. As long as they can script, they can get applications to these devices. Of course, business users and managers are also very interested in analytics.
Q: How does Oracle support big data in the cloud?
Thomas Kurian: There's Oracle Big Data Cloud Service. Think of it as a Hadoop environment. You can load data into it, then run your own bespoke MapReduce or any other kind of Hadoop application on top of it. It's basically a general-purpose environment, standard Hadoop 2.0 in the cloud.
On top of that we've built a bunch of services. When you're loading data into this big data environment, we offer a service called Oracle Big Data Preparation. It allows you to clean the data before it gets into what's called Hadoop's "data lake." The problem with putting bad data inside is it makes your lake very dirty. Think of Big Data Preparation as an ETL-like tool, an extract/transform/load tool built natively on top of Hadoop with sophisticated features to cleanse data.
Q: What does Oracle Cloud offer in the area of analytics? And how are customers using it?
Thomas Kurian: I'm really excited about two ways customers are using our business analytics offering. The first is people who are running data warehouses and data marts, and they said, I'd like to get out of operating that. I'd like to put that environment in the cloud. I'm simply going to back up my database and instantiate it on your Oracle Exadata service. And I'd like to use Oracle Business Intelligence, which is now available in the cloud, as a way to build my analytic dashboards and my key performance indicators.
There's another audience, as well. In a typical company, only 25 to 30 percent of the people have access to the data warehouse or data mart, and the reason is that there's so much data, companies are uncomfortable letting large numbers of users have access to it. Now, what about the 70 percent to 75 percent of people in these companies who don't have access to the data warehouse or data mart? They too would like to do an analysis.
So we are introducing a solution, and it has two basic principles: All you need to do analysis is be able to load your data using a spreadsheet like Excel and have a web browser. If you know how to do that, you can do analysis. You can build charts, build graphs, extrapolate data, trend it. You can look at various kinds of root-cause analysis, and you can slice and dice and do all of your data analysis in the cloud.
Oracle ERP Cloud gives customers more functionality with less customization.
Q: Going back a few years, ERP implementations in the corporate data center were a challenge for many companies. How does Oracle ERP Cloud make that easier?
Thomas Kurian: Let's start with the data. A typical company goes live with our financial planning, budgeting, and all of those processes within 12 weeks. A typical company goes live with Oracle ERP Cloud, which includes general ledger and accounting and procurement, in about six months.
We're able to do this because we've automated a lot more capability as part of the base product that you don't have to build yourself.
The second thing we've done is made reporting an order of magnitude easier. Many ERP systems were written to consolidate transactions. They were not designed to enable reporting. So you had to extract data from the ERP system, put it in a separate system, a warehouse. And then you had to custom build a set of reports on top of the warehouse to look at your monthly close, your quarterly financial position, what your income statement looked like, your balance sheet.
What we've done with the new system is integrate that directly into the ERP system. So you don't have to build separate reports, you don't have to maintain all of that. The benefit is not only that you save cost, but you also get more accurate information. And most importantly, you don't have to maintain customizations. So every time we upgrade, which we do two or three times a year, you get more capability without having to go through a massive retesting of everything you've got.
So that's why Oracle ERP Cloud has had such enormous uptake and why we're seeing such quick go-lives with customers. They get a lot more functionality in the box, and they have to customize a lot less. And reporting, which is one of their biggest needs, is delivered mostly out of the box, so they don't have to build a lot of custom stuff. And that helps you not only the first time, but on an ongoing basis and every time you do one of these upgrades.
Q: No cloud conversation would be complete without talking about the customer and how to better serve and support them. In which industries is Oracle seeing adoption of its CRM as a service offering, Oracle Customer Experience Cloud? And how does Oracle Data Cloud help with that?
Thomas Kurian: We've had great success in financial services, telecommunications, industrial manufacturing, automotive, engineering and construction, and retail. Our general view is that you want an integrated system through which you have a centralized representation of your customer. Who's the customer? What products or services of mine do they own? What customer segment do they belong to?
So we have a central customer master, and from that, we drive seven key business processes. You can market to customers. You can reach them in social media and listen to what they're saying and market to them on social media. If you're in B2C, you can bring them into e-commerce. If you're in B2B, after you've marketed to them and developed them as a lead, you can pass a highly qualified lead to your salesperson.
The customer can then buy things online in e-commerce, or they can call the sales rep and go through a configuration and pricing and quoting process. Hopefully you're wildly successful, so they order. Then you need to help them with customer service. We give you this entire breadth of CRM, all integrated. And we're seeing great success in all these different industries because they want a single integrated view of the customer. They want the customers to experience the company and all its different interface points with them as a single organization. And they find that happy customers mean greater success.
Oracle Data Cloud solves a very important problem. Imagine you're marketing to me. You send me information about a product or service, and I don't open your e-mail. You may be thinking Thomas doesn't really care about my products or service, but 20 minutes later, I search for information about your product or service from my mobile phone. I have eight or nine digital personas—a home address, office address, office phone, mobile phone, corporate e-mail, Gmail, Facebook account. If you can't tell that they all really do belong to Thomas Kurian, you just see a bunch of discrete personas and you can't effectively campaign to them.
What Oracle Data Cloud gives you is the ability to knit together all of a person's different digital identities across all the channels on the web. So our CRM portfolio is different not just because we integrate all these different business functions for CRM but also because we underpin it with the Oracle Data Cloud.
Sprechen Sie mit einem Vertriebsexperten
Testen Sie Oracle Cloud


text:
If the exhaustion you feel at the end of the work day wasn't evidence enough, the career experts at PayScale have analyzed the data and delivered the proof: Workers in the oil industry have the most grueling work weeks.
In an analysis of jobs in which most workers receive hourly wages, energy-related professions claimed six of the top 10 longest work weeks. Roustabouts take the top spot, with a median work week of 61 hours. Drillers are not far behind, with a median of 59 hours per week, according to PayScale.
Top dollar: Texas chemical engineers banking $140,000
But the oil industry compensates well for the long hours. Workers in the energy industry also were among the highest paid, with petroleum plant operators earning the highest median wage in the top 10 — $25.48.
PayScale is an online service that surveys workers with various job titles on wages, salaries and other career data.


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The tale bearers: literary essays
Random House, Incorporated, 1980 - Literary Criticism - 223 pages
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5 Reasons Why You Should Backpack In New Zealand
New Zealand might be a heavenly destination for all comers but it extends an especially warm welcome to free-spirited backpackers.
This is a land with fun, adventure and opportunity written over every inch of its wonderfully varied terrain.
1. An infrastructure just made for backpackers.
It has.......
- hostels of every kind tucked into even the most far-flung corners
- a range of hop-on hop-off buses covering some incredible routes
- the well-developed 'Great Walks' and 'NZ Cycle Trails' networks offering multi-day wilderness escape
- a landscape as varied and stunning as it gets anywhere on the planet – puffing volcanoes, glaciers, soaring mountains, hushed lakes, plunging waterfalls, idyllic beaches, lush forests, natural hot pools and much more
- tours and experiences of every kind, for every budget
2. There is adventure and excitement around every corner
Adrenalin junkies rejoice - this is your ultimate playground covering land, air and water. From abseiling to zorbing NZ truly offers an astonishing A-Z of activities - of both the conventional and Kiwi-invented kinds - to get your heart thumping. If throwing yourself from a great height, racing along at incredible speeds or even catapulting yourself across a canyon appeals – this is the land for you.
3. As safe as it gets
Coming in the global top 5 of safest countries to live, NZ is also blissfully free of any poisonous creepy-crawlies, snakes and spiders. All of this equates ultimately to heaps of fun without any worries of this kind getting in the way.
4. A great place to combine work and play
With a working holiday visa scheme offered to a whopping 41 countries, NZ is a great place to head if you want to keep the fun coming while topping up the travel funds as well. You might find yourself mixing cocktails in a Christchurch bar, harvesting apples in Hawke's Bay or helping shear sheep in the Southland.
5. Meet tons of like-minded souls
No worries heading out solo here. NZ is full of travellers – many of the flying solo variety - so meeting each other in hostels and on tours, exchanging stories and advice along with forming life-long friendships is the norm. You can't be lonely for long here.
Article by
backpackerboard NZ
backpackerboard is the largest online portal devoted to backpacking in New Zealand. As well as plenty of travel information, we also offer live job listings and special deals for backpackers. All of this is free of charge.


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A client of mine, a family-run company is currently seeking for an experienced Senior Java Developer to join their company. The business is an excellent blend of start-up environment but have the experience of a well-established company having been in the finance sector for over 20 years. It currently operates in a number of continents around the world.
We are enhancing our product development team to reduce time to market for an extensive range of new product capabilities and remove reliance on external providers.
Skills and experience:
·Qualifications: Degree-level education at 2:1 level or above is preferable. Technology related subject or demonstrable IT relevance is also desired.
oGood GCSE and A-levels desirable.
·Experience: We are looking for an experienced developer so we expect no less than 7 years working experience in web platform and front-end development. It would be desirable if you have worked on FinTech companies or have experience with financial systems in general - but this is not essential.
·Essential Skills:
oJava / JSP
oJavaScript (JQuery and JQuery Mobile)
oHTML 5
oREST/SOAP Web Services
oVersion management & unit testing
oExperience with Linux (UBUNTU preferably), incl. Linux server virtualisation
·Desirable Skills:
oAgile development
oJavaScript component libraries such as ExtJs/Dojo
oLarge scale SQL DB experience
oExperience with high volume transactional web applications
·Personal Skills:
oGood verbal and written communication skills
oAble to self-motivate and coordinate independent work effectively
oGood problem solving skills both independently and via collaboration
oHappy with working in a small multi-skilled team
oMentoring and Skills Transfer
This is a permanent position where you will be working in the company's Bath office. Roughly 15 minutes from Bath Spa Station.
If you are interested in the above role, please apply. Alternatively, if you would like to hear more about the role, get in touch with Inness Law via or 0117 332 8100.


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- A skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft.
- Hand made by a skilled worker (an artisan).
On January 26, 2011 I wrote a brief editorial whining about the sickening overuse of the words artisan and artisanal in today's world.
When I did that, I figured I'd get it off my chest, and I'd be done with it.
What I HAD NOT counted on was how my totally awesome readers out there would handle it: As a challenge to find continuing examples of this irritating buzzword, and sending them to me.
So pictures began coming in, and soon I began putting them up. So here, collected in one place, are my posts featuring your pictures of stuff with this irritating buzzword.
Even the menu at Local Theater's Friday Night Kids Show isn't safe.
(click to enlarge)
Although personally I think charging $13 for a freakin' turkey sandwich and bag of Doritos is a bigger atrocity than overuse of the word.
This was at Starbucks (assumedly not made by kosher artisans) and gets bonus irritation points for also having the word "handcrafted" in it:
From the grocery store:
Ok, it's time for more of your submissions showing the insane overuse of the word "artisan" and it's derivatives these days.
Before we get started, I should note that many of you have recently sent in excerpts from the J. Crew catalog using the words to describe their clothing, fabrics, and (for all I know) toilet paper. There were just too many of those to choose from.
For those of you who find your nose is easily offended by generic pseudo-pheromone smells, there's now artisan cologne:
Need something artisanal for your artisanal home? Maybe you should visit:
If you can't afford the premium charged by companies for using the word "artisan" (usually it seems to be a 50% or more mark-up) you can get discounted artisanal products with on-line coupons.
After the cheese, maybe you'd like some chocolate.
If you've had too much cheese and chocolate, you might need to see a dentist.
And while YOU may get to enjoy artisanal products, let's not forget about your best friend.
At this point, I think it's time for all this artisanal overuse to STOP!
One of you wrote that you have a free GPS service, which occasionally posts screen ads. And when you drove by an Olive Garden restaurant, you got this:
Artisanal, by definition, means "hand made by a skilled craftsman". As much as I like Costco, somehow I don't think their mass-produced pizza fits that category.
Even fast-food giant Wendy's is doing it. They also get bonus points for putting another overused annoyance, "panini" onto the same menu page.
With your artisanal breakfast you'll want coffee...
Some of you, however, may prefer to stay home and prepare meals with artisanal kitchen appliances (in great colors, too!)
But don't eat TOO much or you won't fit into your swimsuit!
And if all this artisanal crap makes you want to vomit, maybe it's time to head for the toilet.
We now take you to Victoria, British Columbia to answer this age-old question:
"Where do I put the artisanal wine and beer after I've run it through my kidneys?"
Victoria has taken the lead on other cities in North America by introducing...
(drumroll, please)
(at a cost of $60,000 to build I suppose I could put processed Diet Coke in it at my next visit, just for the experience).
It's not artisanal, but I really don't understand how a tomato can be a "Limited Edition" item.
Thank you, Cal!
A fine example of corporate overuse is from April, 2011.
The New York Times interviewed James Goldman, the CEO of Godiva Chocolate. He felt the need to use the word 3 times (!!!) in 2 paragraphs.
click to enlarge
Santa Claus is (roughly) 1700 years old. He's changed dramatically over time, from his original name of St. Nikolaos of Myra to the guy we see in department stores and selling Coke on TV.
So it was only a matter of time before the A-word caught up with him, too.
(click to enlarge)
Oh, for fuck's sake.
This one is thoroughly annoying:
Let's look at this:
1. It uses the word "artisan" twice. Once to make you nauseous, and once to make you puke.
2. It's a FREAKIN' JAR OF HONEY PEOPLE! Humans can't even make it.
3. The "Artisan honey keepers" are BEES! I'm pretty sure they aren't making this claim, any more than my dog claims to be an "artisan shitpile keeper."
4. If you're going to say "crafted from honey keepers" doesn't that mean it's made from bees or humans (or both)?
5. If you're going to put a "gluten free" label on honey, maybe it's time we started putting "fat free" stickers on water.
First up, from the land down under, (proving the insanity isn't confined to one hemisphere or continent) we have this company:
I can only assume that artisanal air is composed from handcrafted Australian atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, rather than, say, made 13.7 billion years ago during the big bang.
Next is this, which came up as the error message when the page crashed. So the IT guys are now officially artisans.
Now we have this picture from Las Vegas, advertising a local strip bar.
I suppose in some way the strippers are artisanal, as their chests were handcrafted by some of the finest plastic surgeons in Tijuana.
By the way, your cab driver is asleep.
These are glorified RUBBER BANDS! Yet, somehow, they got labeled as both "limited edition" and "artisan."
What the hell?
Here we have perfume, which is likely handmade in some 3rd world chemical plant. The ad gets bonus irritant points for using handcrafted and artisan in the same sentence:
|"We could fill these bottles with donkey piss, and people would still buy them. So let's do it."
This picture was sent by a reader living in China, to show that the word is now planet-wide, regardless of economic system.
|"It sounds better if you use the word twice. As least that's what I think the English-as-a-2nd-language teacher said"
Next, from the United Kingdom, we have this place:
|Is the trench digger artisanal? Or the power generator? Or the guy who takes your credit card when you order one?
Of course, no artisanal posting would be complete without something that grows in the dirt, was picked by someone making minimum wage, packaged by a machine, and had a label slapped on it.
Here in the U.S even a piece of paper is now artisanal:
If you're going to buy artisanal paper, you probably want a printer equal to the task:
|"Handcrafted by mass-production assembly line machines in a Chinese sweatshop"
Lastly, it's important to remember that artisanal things can boldly go where no one has gone before:
|"We canna go any faster, Captain! We're all out of handcrafted anti-matter!"
All right, it's again time to hit the artisanal mailbag.
First we have one of many (and you guys send in a lot of similar stuff, so I guess it's everywhere) containers of edible weeds, which were grown from dirt using sunlight, water, and photosynthesis, only to have some clown claim it to be artisanal:
Next, apparently any idiot driving a car is, at least to Geico insurance, a "skilled artisan."
|"I shwear, offisher, I'm a skilled artisan."
What do you with stale bread? These days you label it as "artisanal stuffing" and sell it in the discount bin:
Likewise, when those artisanal diet foods don't sell like hotcakes, you mark them down and hope some sucker takes them home.
Now even TV listings are artisanal, I guess
Apparently WAY too many people are answering "strongly agree" on surveys like this, or we wouldn't have to deal with this crap:
And, lastly, it's good to see at least some of these products are going bye bye.


text:
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News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, email@example.com, 512-389-8030
Oct. 1, 2012
Texas State Parks Geocache Challenge Starts Today
AUSTIN – Grab the Global Positioning System device of your choice and head to a Texas State Park to try to locate hidden "caches" of weatherproof containers in the latest Texas State Park Geocache Challenge. The family friendly challenge kicks off today at almost 90 state parks, historic sites and other TPWD properties.
Geocaching (pronounced GEE-oh-cash-ing) is attracting a growing legion of millions of modern-day scavenger hunters who comb the outdoors for locations of intentionally hidden film canisters or boxes containing a variety of items ranging from a logbook where you can sign your name to token trinkets. Participants use hand-held GPS gadgets, vehicle units and mobile phone apps on this high-tech treasure hunt to locate caches using GPS coordinates. Geocaching today attracts more than four million people to the great outdoors for fun, adventure and exercise.
"Besides being just plain fun, geocaching serves as a bridge to fitness, getting children out from behind their computers to explore the outdoors," says Ky Harkey, Texas State Parks outdoor education Instructor, "It also builds self-esteem and confidence in youngsters and promotes problem-solving skills."
To join in this fall's Geocache Challenge, download a Texas Geocache Passport and cache coordinates, by visiting the Texas State Parks geocaching web site: (www.texasstateparks.org/geocache). You can locate nearby state parks, find the individual park's cache coordinates, and let the adventure begin.
If you don't know how to geocache, sign up for one of the upcoming, hands-on fall Geocaching 101 workshops, starting Oct. 13 at Mission Tejas State Park and Guadalupe River State Park. Park staff will provide a GPS unit and instructions on how to get started in what is a wonderful individual or family activity. To view a complete list of fall workshops, visit: http://tpwd.texas.gov/calendar/geocaching. Instructional videos are also found at HTTP://www.TexasStateParks.org/Geocache.
Starting at finding just 10 geocaches, participants will be able to collect special challenge "pathtags," or coins, with the completion of each of five challenge levels. In addition, all completed and returned passports will receive a waterproof TPWD challenge sticker.
Children 12 and younger get in free to Texas state parks, but adults, who pay entry fees, should consider purchasing a Texas State Park Pass. For $70, the pass will get you, and all of the occupants of your vehicle, into every state park without having to pay an entrance fee.
The Texas State Park Pass can be purchased at most state parks or by calling the State Park Customer Service Center (512) 389-8900. Purchases made through the Customer Service Center will be charged an additional shipping and handling fee.
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April 2004
Prerequisite courses are essential tools in many university curricula. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Prerequisite courses are essential tools in many university curricula, but some educators have suggested that they may be detrimental if applied overzealously to exclude students from courses.1 A true measure of the value of prerequisites is whether or not they promote student success.
The strongest way to test the value of prerequisites is to compare the success rate of students with and without prerequisites in higher-level courses. Although such comparisons can be based on instructor assessment of preparedness or even on student self-assessment,1 the most meaningful comparisons of student success are grades and withdrawal rates of students with and without prerequisites.
Here, we present the results of a comparison of the success rates of students with and without prerequisites in higher-level biology courses at the University of South Florida.
- The University of South Florida (USF) is a large metropolitan research university, with a total enrollment exceeding 40,000 students.
- The Department of Biology has about 1,700 majors in two undergraduate degree programs, biology and microbiology.
- The department also contributes significant instructional effort to various preprofessional programs, as well as to the general education component of other majors.
- Overall, the department generates about 25,000 student credit hours per year.
Although most departmental courses have always had one or more other courses listed as prerequisites, the USF registration system did not prevent students from enrolling in courses for which they lacked the prerequisites. In effect, the university relied on the students' personal assessments of the need for prerequisites; so, many students simply ignored them.
Faculty members within the Department of Biology have long suspected that allowing students to ignore prerequisites is not desirable. Their concerns are that unprepared students contribute to
- some combination of high drop rates and high failure rates in courses
- low retention rates and slow progression rates in majors
- a general dumbing down of the curriculum
No doubt, many factors other than failure of the university to enforce prerequisites could contribute to the academic malaise that Department of Biology faculty members perceived in the students in their courses. Prerequisite enforcement seemed to the departmental administration to be a good place to start making improvements. The departmental administration decided to switch from a no-enforcement policy to strict enforcement of prerequisites. This switch presented the department with an opportunity to assess the relative merits of two models of the function of prerequisites:
student-driven model in which prerequisites are suggestions that help students make informed decisions
faculty-driven model in which prerequisites are requirements that channel students along predetermined routes
Because recognition software had not been installed by USF to check for prerequisites, the Department of Biology, with the support of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, assumed the burden of manually checking student records for prerequisites during registration for the fall semester of 2002.
- The department advertised the switch from no enforcement to strict enforcement of prerequisites in the spring of 2002, before preregistration began, on bulletin boards, in classes and teaching laboratories—verbally and by way of handouts—and as a pop-up notice on the departmental web page.
The department allowed students to register ad libitum as usual for its courses until the end of July 2002, at which time no further registrations were allowed without specific permits from the department.
In the meantime, because the computer registration system used by the University was incapable of screening student records, the department staff manually checked the records of every student enrolled in every course for prerequisites.
A list of students without appropriate prerequisites was prepared, and with the help of the registrar, these students were dropped from the courses. The registrar assisted the department in sending letters to the students informing them of the action that had been taken.
A second round of manual checking, followed by dropping of students without prerequisites, was undertaken in August 2002, at the end of the registration period, to ensure that no students had managed to find a breach in the prerequisite checking system.
The number of students enrolled in courses for which they did not have the appropriate prerequisites came as a shock to administrators and faculty members.
- At the end of July, the cumulative total of students enrolled in the relevant undergraduate courses in the Department of Biology was 2001, of which 623 (31%) lacked prerequisites.
- In some courses, unprepared students comprised more than 40% of the total number enrolled. The level of unprepared students stretched from freshman to post-baccalaureate, and although most of these students were biology and various preprofessional majors, 41 different majors were represented.
All students who wished to contest being dropped were interviewed. They were required to show some proof—usually a transcript—showing they had successfully completed the prerequisites. A total of 127 of the dropped students were able to show such proof and were reinstated. Virtually all of these students suffered from missing records, so the error rate for the manual prerequisites checking was near zero. The department was able to place 253 of the dropped students into the prerequisite courses that they needed. Another 340 students who had appropriate prerequisites, but were blocked from enrolling in courses by the presence of students who lacked the prerequisites, were able to enroll when the unprepared students were dropped.
What would have happened if unprepared students had been allowed to continue in the courses for which they lacked the prerequisites? We answered this question by comparing the overall distribution of grades in junior-level courses for the 2001-2002 academic year with the distribution of grades received by students in the same courses who did not have the prerequisites. Many of the unprepared students who were dropped from courses during manual prerequisites checking were chronic offenders, so their grade reports were used to generate the latter distribution.
- Overall, students had almost an 80% chance of making a grade of C or higher.
- Unprepared students had only a 53% chance of making a grade of C or higher in the same courses (chi2 = 47.4, p < 0.01; see Figure 1).
- The situation is even worse than it appears, however, because many of the grades of C or higher obtained by unprepared students were done so only upon a second or third attempt.
- If senior-level courses are included in the analysis (data not shown), the chance of unprepared students making a grade of C or higher in a course for which they did not have the prerequisites improves only marginally.
Figure 1.
Cumulative grade distributions of students without prerequisites in junior-level biology courses (black bars, n = 202) and for all students in the same courses (yellow bars, n = 823). The grade distributions of all undergraduate courses offered at USF in spring 2001 (green bars, n is unknown) is included to illustrate that the grade distribution for all students in junior-level biology courses was not unusual.
Did improvement in student performance warrant all of the effort that went into prerequisites checking? We answered this question by comparing grade distributions from two semesters in which prerequisites were not enforced, fall 2001 and spring 2002, with grade distributions from the first two semesters in which they were enforced, fall 2002 and spring 2003.
- The failure (D + F) rate declined by 18% in the fall semester (chi2 = 4.6, p = 0.03) and 15% in the spring semester (chi2 = 3.0, p = 0.08).
- The withdrawal rate declined by 21% in the fall semester (chi2 = 4.6, p = 0.03) and 31% in the spring semester (chi2 = 13.3, p < 0.01).
These declines in failure and withdrawal rates followed modest increases over the previous several years. Improvements were more pronounced for junior-level courses than for senior-level courses. Anecdotal feedback from faculty members indicates that the atmosphere in the classroom also improved with prerequisites enforcement: faculty members said that both attendance and participation in their courses were greater than they had been in the recent past.
The design of this study allows only assessment of overall improvement in grades and retention rates brought about by prerequisites enforcement. The design does not allow assessment of individual improvement, that is, whether or not student preparation for upper-level courses improved. The latter assessment would require the study to continue, to track the success of students who had high versus low grades in the prerequisite courses. The department lacks the resources to continue the study, but a previous analysis (unpublished data) bears on this issue:
- Students who received a grade of C, the minimum passing grade for biology and microbiology majors, in both of the prerequisite introductory biology courses had a substantially lower chance of passing the subsequent upper-level biology course than did students who received at least one grade of A or B.
- The difference in chance of success was similar in magnitude for students whether the introductory biology courses were taken at USF or at a community college.
In response to this analysis, the department has increased the GPA requirement in the introductory biology courses—and in the introductory chemistry and mathematics courses, as well—for admission into the biology and microbiology majors.
The faculty-driven model of the function of prerequisites yields better course performance than the student-driven model. Both failure and withdrawal rates of students in Department of Biology courses at USF dropped markedly when prerequisites were enforced. In response to this success, the provost provided funding for software improvement, and USF now can check student records for prerequisites by computer when students attempt to register. Departments and programs at USF still have the option not to check for prerequisites at all or merely to warn students that they are enrolling in courses for which they lack prerequisites.
Should other departments follow our lead and enforce prerequisites? We think so, but we do not categorically suggest that the faculty-driven model necessarily is better for every department at USF or for biology departments at other universities. The results of this study indicate that the student-driven model is a recipe for failure for many biology students at USF. Department and program personnel need to decide for themselves whether or not the apparent student-friendliness of the student-driven model actually is a façade masking a greater chance of failure for unprepared students. Worse still is the possibility that the student-driven model may affect the quantity and quality of instruction for prepared students, if courses have indeed been dumbed down to accommodate unprepared students, but our analysis does not address this possibility.
An intermediate model, the adviser-driven model, in which prerequisites are suggestions that, in conjunction with rigorous advising, help students make informed decisions, can substitute for the faculty-driven model. The adviser-driven model is an acceptable substitute only when student advising is mandatory and binding, however. Advising at USF is not mandatory after an initial orientation and never is binding. For the adviser-driven model to succeed, advisers need to adhere tightly to the minimum set of guidelines that prerequisites provide for the way in which faculty members think that students should progress through the curriculum. Substantial deviation from these guidelines does not appear to provide the best chance of success for many students; indeed, it may have a negative impact.
The results obtained in this study mirror other tests of the general value of prerequisites. For example, studies of the consequences of strict enforcement (lock-out mode) of prerequisites at some community colleges in California showed the following:2-6
- percentages of students lacking prerequisites often were high before strict enforcement
- efficient screening reduces the number of students that enroll in courses for which they are unprepared
- strict enforcement of prerequisites does not permanently affect enrollments
- strict enforcement improves student performance
Although tests of the general value of prerequisites tend to produce results like these, the specific value of poorly chosen or poor quality prerequisites may be negligible for particular courses,1 particular disciplines,6 or even particular institutions. Tests of the value of prerequisites for individual courses,7 therefore, appear to be warranted, but such tests can be prone to small sample sizes and other methodological problems,8 and, of course, are difficult to conduct once strict enforcement of prerequisites is in place. We suggest that, because the sciences build on principles and facts that must be learned hierarchically, validation of prerequisites on a course-by-course basis may be less important in the sciences than in some other disciplines, provided that prerequisites are re-evaluated periodically by the faculty in light of advances in the discipline, turnover of instructors, and other changes that might affect course content.
© 2004, American Institute of Biological Sciences. Educators have permission to reprint articles for classroom use; other users, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com for reprint permission. See reprint policy.


text: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks eased their drop on Monday after Bloomberg News reported the European Central Bank was receptive to the idea of giving up its profits on Greek debt. The reported move is "a likely step closer to getting a deal amongst the troika on Greece," emailed Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. After an 109-point drop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.37% was down 71.29 points, or 0.6%, at 12,938.39. The S&P 500 index SPX, -2.59% was off 6.57 points, or 0.5%, at 1,402.58. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -3.00% briefly turned green, and was lately off a fraction at 2,966.36.


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Etihad Airways has designated 2011 as "the year of Abu Dhabi" with the launch of its "essential abu dhabi" destination marketing campaign. Designed to enhance Abu Dhabi's place as a top tourist and MICE destination, the campaign will see Etihad unveil a number of exciting promotional activities across the globe.
For the first time, all the major tourism operators in the emirate of Abu Dhabi have come together under one showcase umbrella to promote the very best UAE's capital has to offer.
Hotels, tour operators, dining outlets, shops, adventure parks, cultural attractions and sports facilties are providing a range of offers, to entice tourists and business travellers alike, to spend time in Abu Dhabi with a wide range of fantastic discount offers and deals.
All are accessible with the Etihad Airways Boarding Pass, using the tagline "the pass to the magic". Visitors flying into Abu Dhabi on Etihad simply present their Etihad boarding card at participating outlets to redeem the offers within seven days of arriving in Abu Dhabi.
Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways' Chief Commercial Officer, said: "Etihad plays a hugely important role in bringing visitors to Abu Dhabi, and essential abu dhabi will give extra momentum to our efforts to promote the capital as one of the world's best destinations.
"We have had a fantastic response from Abu Dhabi's hotels and attractions, and are excited to be working in tandem with people who are as passionate about promoting our home base as we are.
"We will be promoting essential Abu Dhabi in all of our overseas destinations, as well as online and in-flight, and refreshing the program's special offers regularly so that frequent visitors will always have something new to look forward to."
A dedicated website, essentialabudahbi.com, launches, backed with brochures on board all Etihad aircraft featuring the exclusive offers. The program will be also supported with an international marketing campaign co-funded by all the partners; as well as being promoted through all partner outlets and sales channels.
In addition, a new Etihad Airbus A330 aircraft will be painted in a striking "Visit Abu Dhabi in 2011" livery, which will carry the message to many international destinations around the world.
The campaign is being supported by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority as a major partner and demonstrates the commitment of the entire local tourism industry to work effectively together to promote Abu Dhabi as a major global destination.
As well as appealing to visitors planning a trip to the UAE, the programme is also targeting the millions of passengers transiting through the Abu Dhabi hub, to entice them to stopover in the city for a few nights. Free stopover room nights will be made available to such passengers in the near future.
Offers will be updated every two to three months, and the number of participating outlets is expected to grow from the initial 36 to over 100 by the end of the year. Anyone considering visiting the UAE will want to make essentialabudhabi.com an essential read before they travel.
Etihad launches "Essential Abu Dhabi" campaign
Source = Etihad Airways


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well.. it seems to be a hot topic of conversation and AD is littering every thread with it, so I figured I'd just start it's own thread..
why is tommorow supposedly the day of the rapture? who decided this?
on a related note: I like that song Rapture by Blondie. i suppose I like blondie in general now that I think about it..


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Sergeant Sebastian Gallegos is standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring at a carton of eggs on the counter. "You can do this," his occupational therapist, Lisa Smurr, tells him. "It's too easy." He exhales and reaches toward the carton with his robotic right arm, which beeps three times before the pincer at the end of it closes around an egg. As he carries the egg toward a mixing bowl, the pincer tightens, cracking the shell. Gallegos's sense of humor, however, is still intact. "At least I didn't get my hands dirty," he says.
On the second try, the broad-shouldered Marine picks up an egg with his prosthetic and breaks it cleanly into the bowl. After whisking it, he slowly, but flawlessly, cooks it in a pan. The exercise is part confidence builder, part rehabilitation, as Gallegos learns to use the complicated prosthetic he received only two weeks before.
The kitchen sits on the top floor of the Center for the Intrepid, a state-of-the-art, $50 million rehabilitation facility for amputees and patients with salvaged limbs, at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) outside San Antonio. For wounded soldiers like Gallegos, who had his arm blown off by a roadside bomb in Sanguin, Afghanistan, making eggs counts as one of the many small victories being won as they return to America and fight a third war, which is likely to last longer and cost as much as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Treating the troops who were injured there is expected to cost as much as $867 billion in the coming decades as the focus shifts from critical injuries to long-term treatment for traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. Seriously injured troops, including those with severe burns and mangled limbs, are coming to bases like this one where teams of doctors, physical therapists and prosthetic engineers push the warriors, as they call them, to be as active as they were before their injuries. Many of the patients with missing limbs are training for triathlons; others work out on climbing walls and in an indoor surfing tank. They spur each other on during training sessions and engage in a makeshift form of group therapy as they go about putting their lives back together.
Behind the security walls separating the post from San Antonio, BAMC (pronounced bam-see) looks like a college campus. Palm trees line walkways through the green spaces, and the barracks even look a bit like freshman dorms. But stand in one place and you'll see young men there are very few female patients here walk or jog by with metal devices where one or both legs should be. Some push themselves in wheel chairs; others have braces on their lower legs. At any given time, there are about 600 wounded warriors at various levels of treatment, and many of them are headed to the Center for the Intrepid for an appointment or a grueling therapy session.
The center, which opened in 2007, is a one-stop shop for amputees, who start rebuilding their strength before their surgical incisions have fully healed. A team of on-site prosthetists makes everything from simple carbon fiber arms and legs to complex robotic devices like the one Gallegos is trying to master. Physical therapists use infrared sensors to evaluate how patients are walking on their new legs, then adjust the prosthetics accordingly. Amputees also get on boogie boards in the Flow Rider, an indoor surfing tank like the kind found on cruise ships, to help learn to balance and work on core strength.
The fourth-floor therapy apartment where Gallegos is scrambling eggs looks like a page from an Ikea catalogue. There's a bedroom, living room, kitchen and washer and dryer, and occupational therapists use everyday chores like cooking or making a bed to teach wounded troops to use their prosthetic limbs. For Gallegos, learning to make a simple meal has a special significance. "My wife does a lot for me, so I tried to make eggs for her," he says of a breakfast he attempted before he got his fancy new prosthetic. "I tried to scramble them in the pan and I couldn't hold it, so I got eggs all over the kitchen. I got shells in the eggs and I was trying to pick them out, but they were already cooking." After being fitted with the robotic arm, he decided to try again.


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Perhaps the supposition is that consciousness can influence quantum level results.
Quantum Will.
(I hope everyone knows I'm kidding.)
There is this constant repeated aspect to nature of dualities. One of them, in Chaos theory, is nonlinear order. The blending of order and its opposite. It is the reason that seemingly identical things like blades of grass or even fire engine red 2012 Mustangs are never actually identical if examined closely enough. It also presents itself in the concept of infinite variability. We create our linear achievements through a process designed as linear approximation. The second word there is key. The linear, and the predictable, and the even theoretically deterministic is approximate. From this we also get the undivided duality known as individuality, which is the basis for all variation and the fact that stars at some point cease to be stars and facilitate the existence of such lovely planets as earth, and why there is not one interchangeable form of life, but all the varied example of species and of individuals within species, no 2 ever identical. That's why randomness matters and why the deterministic universe is at best a thing of likelihoods and probabilities. And individuality begets unpredictable autonomy and free will.
Just google "deepak quantum" to see how Chopra has certainly profited from the current lack of understanding of quantum theory. It's the new explanation for anything.
Anyone here remember the early 80's plastic balls that were added to the wash, because of their 'quantum effects' could help remove dirt from the wash?
Or the little shield, that could added to the back side of a cell phone to prevent brain cancer?
Or a device used, about 2003, that was connected to the body to read the 'frequencies' of disease. I went to a local business resourceing meeting to see the device. The trainer even suggested that the device could be used remotely because of quantum entanglement! I was amazed how many people get all soft and squishy around hardware. I think the device was just a modification of the Scientogist's engrams machine.
It used to be "fuzzy logic" or "chaos theory." Some members are invoking chaos theory here as though chaos gives one free will somehow. The only thing that really gives one something like free will (as the word is commonly used) is a belief in a parallel (and yet connected) spirit world, populated by spirits who can do whatever they wish, causing miraculous exceptions to physical law in so doing.
Here's the way woo-ites (woobies?) might describe it, in order to support their endeavor of Dualism. Free Will exists (as does soul or spirit) independently of the brain, as a supernatural gift. The body is just an earthly temple in which we're temporarily stuck. Our souls/spirits live on after brain death.
if the conscious human mind can be shown to affect even one synaptic connection then it would be difficult to accept Determinism
Woobies might define Determinism as an atheistic idea that no one has choice, free will, soul, spirit, and so on. This is why I don't like accepting some of the prevailing definitions of words. I'd rather meet halfway, and just agree that we have choice, responsibility, and we can each be held accountable for our choices (while considering circumstances in context).
Choice feels like free will to most of us, and I'm ok with that feeling, even if we know intellectually that it's an illusion without supernatural cause.
Meanwhile, even if human consciousness is merely a product or emergent property of synaptic activity, we still have choice in the context of our worldly circumstances. We are not "just" products of our own neural activity or some kind of external spirit: we must also realize our ability to adapt and interact with the reality that feels external to us.
I would say that the vast majority of atheists don't believe in ghosts, spirits, souls, or any of their otherworldly occult kin. I'm not invoking any sort of populist fallacy in saying so. I'm simply saying that that puts the burden on the ghost believer.
Of course we have choices. When I go to pick out socks, knowing I can only buy one package, I'm presented with perhaps 20 or more choices of color and design. I feel free as I make my choice. But feeling free isn't being free. As you seem to concede, we are free as long as we don't really ask very probing questions. Or, as Confucius is reputed to have said, "Man with weak stomach shouldn't disturb beach rubble."
Feeling free confronted with choices isn't actual freedom any more than deja vu is an actual memory, as vivid as it may seem.
Hi. This may or may not matter to you but one thing I think about in terms of that view of the subconscious as a kind of decision machine, is what about moments of indecision, and then there is of course changing your mind. Deciding you might have been happier with a different pair of socks.
What are you suggesting? that indecision proves a lack of causality and thus no free will? What would changing one's mind prove that is evidence for free will. Of course processes are going on in the subconscious whereby it reacts to new information of information it just remembered.
I don't get where you think there's a problem.
Hi all. I became an atheist at ten. When I was a teenager, (Which was, like, 30 years ago!), I came to feel as many on here do that every thought, feeling and perception we have could be quantified and thus in a sense dismissed as an illusion. I understand that point of view, certainly. I think it may be worth pointing out that none of us have empirical evidence of our various positions, and one thing I would say is that to myself at least it is conceivable that the ultimate truth in the matter may actually be beyond human comprehension, regardless of what position we take. The thing I keep bringing up about the chaotic element in nature, as I think it applies to consciousness and the question of free will, is that I think the chaotic is not readily quantified, cause and affect, from point A to point B in a linear sense. In this my personal sense is that I think it allows us far more gray area and more, in the sense of a hinge or a tool, more "play," in terms of thoughts, feelings, and decisions. That's how I feel that the chaotic element makes the reality of free will possible, because our consciousness is not a fully linear easily quantified mechanism, even as an incredibly complex mechanism. Is there reason to question the reductionist take on the nature of consciousness? One example I would give is the connection between so called anti-depressants and suicide. I don't think that we are vending machines meant to produce socially agreeable satisfaction, and that if the machine is not giving what you want you just rock it against the wall with medication, but it seems that that is what our reductionist culture does to excess. As for the subconscious making our decisions for us, I have my doubts that it is that simple and I believe that there is interplay between the subconscious and the conscious, both ways. To the extent that the subconscious facilitates conscious experience, I think of someone driving a car. The car has a motor and a transmission and axles and wheels and so on. The steering wheel and the shifter and the gas pedal and brakes make it a comparatively easy way to travel, even though, like the subconscious, the driver is not manually reaching in to adjust the transmission or apply the brakes or turn the front wheels to change direction. Even so, the person driving decides whether to go to a movie theater or a mall or the grocery store or work or school or to head back home, aided by the controls of the car in doing so. I don't think the person has to walk to have actually traveled or to have decided where to go. Anyway that is how I see it.~Mike.
One word: paragraphing.
Paragraphing is evidence of an organized mind.
As I've said before several times, we don't NEED proof of determinism since it's necessary to assume it. I just find it strange that while people assume determinism (that everything happens as the result of some thing or things preceding it) they then want to pretend it isn't there.
Of course there's interplay between the subconscious and conscious levels of the mind, because the subconscious can't possibly tell the consciousness level what to do without any basis at all. That basis is the world of sensory perception, which is the conscious world. But what are you asserting? that somehow there's no causality involvedl in this interplay? that this fact salvage free will in some way?
BTW, yet again, please define free will so that I can criticize that, if I can, or so that we at least understand what we are talking about. I maintain the entire notion is nonsense and your inability to define it satisfactory will be a major piece of evidence.
Many mental processes are automatic and involve no actual decision-making at all. They obviously HAVE to be beyond one's conscious control. Reflexes are just one example. Yet another nail in the coffin of free will.