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Why did I receive a certified notice of a public hearing? Am I required to attend the public hearing?
The Code of Virginia and the County Zoning Ordinance require that an applicant, as the agent of the County, send notice to all property owners abutting (touching) or across the street from a piece of property that is the subject of a potential land use change, insuring that a minimum of 25 different landowners are notified. When the abutting landowners are less than the required 25, notice is sent to enough nearby property owners to make up the difference. Therefore, you may receive a notice letter and your neighbor may not. Notice is also sent to applicable civic associations.
The notice does not require you to attend the public hearing; it is simply sent to make you aware of a potential land use change and offer you an opportunity to make your opinion known on the proposal at the scheduled Planning Commission hearing or in writing.
I want to speak to my District Planning Commissioner. How can I contact that person?
You may call the Planning Commission Office at 703-324-2865 and leave your name, day and evening telephone numbers, and email address with the staff, along with the topic you are interested in addressing, or send that information by email to: email@example.com. Since most of the Planning Commissioners hold full time jobs, in addition to their responsibilities on the Commission, messages or emails are taken by the Planning Commission staff and forwarded to the respective Commissioner. The Commission members will then return call(s) at their convenience.
How can I obtain a copy of the staff report for a pending land use application?
Staff reports on site-specific land use applications are generally available two (2) weeks prior to the scheduled public hearing. You can obtain a copy at the Zoning Evaluation Division of the Department of Planning and Zoning, Suite 801, 12055 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, Virginia 22035. These reports are also available online at either: DPZ: Public Hearings and Staff Reports or on the calendar page of the Planning Commission website, by selecting the month and date at: Meeting Calendar.
In addition, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services produces staff reports on proposed amendments to the Public Facilities Manual or other County Codes that have public hearings before the Planning Commission. These proposed amendments are also available online about two weeks prior to hearings at: DPZ: Comprehensive Plan Amendments.
About Planning Commission Meetings
When and where does the Planning Commission hold its meetings? What time do meetings begin?
The Planning Commission normally meets every Wednesday and Thursday night at 7:30 p.m., in the Board Auditorium of the Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, Virginia 22035, except for holidays and August recess, or as the schedule allows.
What is the order of the scheduled agenda items?
The Planning Commission Secretary sets the order of the Commission's agenda at the beginning of each meeting, taking into consideration the expected length of the hearing, the number of speakers on each application, the preferences of Commission members and staff availability.
How do I sign up to testify at a Planning Commission meeting and how long may I speak?
To testify on a specific matter scheduled for public hearing, you may:
1) fill out the on-line form before 3:00 p.m. on the day of the scheduled hearing;
2) call the Planning Commission Office at 703-324-2865 before 3:00 p.m. on the day of the scheduled hearing; or
3) sign up prior to the start of the public hearing with the Commission Clerk by writing your name and address on the notepad located at the left end of the dais in the Board Auditorium. After all previously listed speakers have finished their testimony, you will be called upon by the Commission Chairman in order of the evening registrations.
If you have signed up by 3:00 p.m. on the day of the scheduled hearing you are allotted five (5) minutes to speak when representing yourself and ten (10) minutes to speak when representing a registered association such as a civic, citizen's, or homeowner's association. If you have not signed up before 3:00 p.m. on the day of the scheduled hearing, you will be allowed three (3) minutes to speak.
After all names have been called, anyone not on the Speakers List will have an opportunity to address the Commission. To submit written copies of public hearing testimony, provide 13 copies to the Clerk. After questions and comments from the Commissioners, the Chairman will close the public hearing.
For additional information on Commission procedures, please see the website section entitled: "Meetings and Procedures".
If I want to bring copies of my testimony with me, how many do I need?
Please bring fifteen (15) copies of any handouts for the Commission's use: Twelve (12) for the individual Commission members and three (3) for the Commission Office's permanent record on the application.
If I want to deliver a PowerPoint presentation or show a video during my testimony at a Planning Commission meeting, what do I need to do?
Contact Cable Programming at 703-324-5930 no later than 4:00 p.m. on the scheduled meeting date.
How do I get to the Government Center?
Please refer to our Directions page to get detailed directions to the Fairfax County Government Center from varying locations.
Will I be notified if a public hearing is postponed?
If the Planning Commission Office has been notified in advance that a scheduled public hearing will be postponed, any speakers that have signed up to testify will be called and informed of the deferral, and the Commission's website will be updated to reflect the change. You may also call the Commission Office at 703-324-2865 to verify the scheduled hearing. Note: If you are an abutting property owner, you will receive written notice of the new public hearing date provided the rescheduled date is more than eight days after the initially-scheduled hearing date.
I cannot attend the planning commission meeting on a certain date, will the meeting be broadcast on television or available in some other form?
All Planning Commission meetings are broadcast live on Cable Channel 16, beginning at 7:30 pm on the scheduled meeting date. If you do not have access to Cable Channel 16, you can view the meeting live via video streaming at the Channel 16 live-stream site.
How can I view a DVD recording of a past Planning Commission meeting or request a copy of a DVD?
DVD recordings of Planning Commission meetings dating back to January 2002 are available in the Planning Commission Office, Suite 552, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, Virginia 22035. Please call the Planning Commission Office at 703-324-2865 to arrange a time to view the DVD.
You can also request a DVD recording of a Planning Commission meeting by contacting Cable Programming at 703-324-5930. Please note that a fee is associated with this service.
In addition, you can view archived Channel 16 videos of Planning Commission meetings held within the past year online at the Channel 16 Planning Commission Meeting Video Archive page.
How can I voice my opinion on an application if I am unable to attend the hearing?
If you are not able to testify in person, you may submit your written opinion on the pending application by mail to the Planning Commission Office, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 552, Fairfax, Virginia 22035, or by fax at 703-324-3948. Submissions may also be sent via email to: email@example.com. Comments must be in writing. Planning Commission staff is unable to relay verbal comments about an application to Commissioners.
Research & Archived Records
How far back do Planning Commission records go and can I access them?
The Planning Commission Office has sealed copies of Minutes of Planning Commission meetings beginning in 1941 available for review in Suite 552 of the Government Center. Planning Commission files, including all backup documentation, are also available in Suite 330 from 2005 to the present time. Files prior to 2005 are held in Archives and Records Management, at 6800-A Industrial Road, Springfield. Planning Commission staff can order files for you from Archives and they should be available for review within 2 to 3 working days. Please call the Planning Commission Office at 703-324-2865 to request archived files and provide as much information as possible, such as the applicant's name, the application number, the date of the hearing and the property location and staff will research your request.
About Planning Commission Members
What does the Planning Commission do?
The Planning Commission advises the Board of Supervisors on all matters related to the orderly growth and development of land in Fairfax County. This includes, among others, the location, character and extent of all public facilities in the County; amendments to the County's Comprehensive Plan; any amendments to the Zoning Ordinance, the Public Facilities Ordinance, and the Subdivision Ordinance; rezoning and special exception applications filed; approvals of final development plans; and, where deemed necessary, the Commission may also forward recommendations to the Board of Zoning Appeals on variances, special permits, and appeals filed before that body.
How are Commissioners appointed?
Planning Commissioners are appointed by the Board of Supervisors for four-year terms on a staggered basis. Each of the nine supervisory districts has a representative, and three members are appointed at-large.
Terms of office usually commence at the beginning of a calendar year and expire four years later at the end of the year. Commissioners may also be reappointed by the Board for additional terms. Members who resign or die during their term of office are replaced for the unexpired appointment term only.
How does one qualify to be a Planning Commission member?
According to the Code of Virginia, Planning Commission members must be "residents of the County, qualified by knowledge and experience to make decisions on questions of community growth and development." A District Commissioner must reside in the District represented; At-Large members may reside anywhere in the County.
Are Planning Commissioners paid?
Planning Commission salaries are established by resolution of the Board of Supervisors. Members currently receive a $23,000 stipend per year, but are not compensated for travel or mileage costs that may be incurred in the execution of their duties.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Intelligence community: U.S. out as sole superpower by 2030
A new report by the intelligence community projects that the United States will no longer be the world's only superpower by 2030.
"In terms of the indices of overall power – GDP, population size, military spending and technological investment – Asia will surpass North America and Europe combined," the report concludes.
"Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" — prepared by the office of the National Intelligence Council of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — projects that the "unipolar" world that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union will not continue.
"With the rapid rise of other countries, the 'unipolar moment' is over and no country – whether the U.S., China, or any other country – will be a hegemonic power," the report argues.
(PHOTOS: Obama's overseas trip)
"The United States' relative economic decline vis-a-vis the rising states is inevitable and already occurring,but its future role in the international system is much harder to assess," it argues.
"Global Trends" projects that the United States will retain a unique role in the international system — in part because of its history and past leadership.
"The U.S. most likely will remain 'first among equals' among the other great powers, due to the legacy of its leadership role in the world and the dominant role it has played in international politics across the board in both hard and soft power," it argues.
And the intelligence community does not believe the United States will be supplanted as the world's only superpower by another country.
"The replacement of the United States by another global power and erection of a new international order seems the least likely outcome in this time period," the report projects.
The report argues that rising powers like China, India and Brazil are not unified by any common ideology and are more focused on their regional role. And the report warns against the consequences of a U.S. withdrawal from the world's stage.
(Also on POLITICO: 'Made in USA' polishes Apple's image)
"A collapse or sudden retreat of US power would most likely result in an extended period of global anarchy," it argues.
CORRECTION: An earlier version misstated whether the U.S. would be supplanted by another country as a superpower.


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Seems hackers have broken into Lockheed Martin and other weapons manufacturers and may now know about existing and future U.S. weapon systems. Uh, quick, hide the JDAMs?
At the moment, it's unclear what information, if any, was exposed during the breach. Allegedly, the hackers were able to access Lockheed's secure systems as a result of a resent breach of RSA's SecurID token authentication tech, which uses electronic key fobs to access protected networks. As of today, all 90,000 fobs have been replaced and Lockheed has since mandated all employees change their passwords.
If there's a silver lining in all this, it's that reporting in the Times and WSJ indicate that the really sensitive weapons programs would not have been stored on networks that were accessible remotely. Whew!
Nevertheless, other military contractors like Raytheon, Boeing and General Dynamics have all taken immediate security action in the wake of today's development, although none of those companies have reported any breach at this time. [CNET]


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Our Company History
Leonard J. Elter Jr was a farm boy from western Pennsylvania. During the depression and post depression era at age 18 he went into the army. After basic training he was sent to Korea. After 4 years in the military he worked his way through college, with the help of a GI bill and door to door sales of Encyclopedias, he became a high school teacher at Calvert High. Mr. Elter loved the Gravely tractor so much that he decided to go into business selling them, as a result during his time of teaching Mr. Elter opened doors to L.J. Elter and Son in Huntingtown, MD in 1978. Many years later he retired from his teaching career in 1991 and went full time into building his outdoor power equipment center.
In 1999 he purchased Annapolis Lawn and Garden in Annapolis, MD and in 2003 he purchased Kensington Lawn and Garden in Kensington, MD. Today our business has grown to over 50 different product lines, several awards, and thousands and thousands of happy customers. Stop by today to see why our local business is the one for you.
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HARRISBURG (AP) - A central Pennsylvania man has been charged with in the beating death of a man authorities said was killed with a hammer last week.
Fifty-five-year-old Jonathan Cornish of Harrisburg is charged with criminal homicide and attempted homicide in the death of 60-year-old Jose Vazquez.
Police in Dauphin County said Cornish was charged after he was released from a hospital, where he had been under guard while being treated for stab wounds.
Coroner Graham Hetrick said Vazquez died Wednesday after he was hit at least five times in the head with a mallet-like hammer.
Police said the victim's brother was also attacked at the Allison Hill home.
Cornish remained in custody; a listed number for him could not be found Sunday and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.


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Gov. M. Jodi Rell is considering a proposed law that would ban the production of fetal "keepsake" photos and videos.
If signed, the bill would ban ultrasounds unless they are approved by a doctor for medical or diagnostic purposes.
Laboratory studies have shown that when ultrasonic devices are used in excess, there is a potential risk of physical effects in tissue, such as mechanical vibrations and rise in temperature.
Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes came under fire in 2005 when the American College of Radiology released a statement saying that they were not only subjecting their unborn child to potential harm, but also that the use of the medical equipment by unlicensed individuals might also be a violation of federal law.
In response to Cruise's 2005 purchase, Carol M. Rumack, MD, chair of the ACR Ultrasound Commission issued a statement saying: "This is a patient safety issue.
Untrained people, even if they have the financial means, should not buy, or be allowed to buy and operate, ultrasound machines which are, in fact, medical devices and should not be used without a medical indication."
Rell has until Thursday to decide if she will sign the bill that passed through the state's General Assembly.


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On McCarthy's Blacklist: Celebrating AAUW and Women's History
Each year for Women's History Month, the National Women's History Project identifies a theme and selects several honorees to celebrate. This year's theme is "celebrating women of character, courage, and commitment." In years past, we have been able to highlight some AAUW connections to the project's list of honorees. They were AAUW members, fellows, or awardees. We take pride in those connections. However, this year we have also created our own list of honorees that is uniquely AAUW. Every Friday in March, we will publish a blog post to celebrate AAUW's very own women of character, courage, and commitment.
We start with a woman whose work with AAUW got her on the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy's blacklist.
Esther Brunauer wore many hats within AAUW. Not only was she part of the staff, but she also was an AAUW member and a fellow. Her first contact with AAUW was as a recipient of a Margaret Maltby Fellowship in 1926 while she was pursuing her doctorate at Stanford University. She had also served as associate of the AAUW International Relations program from 1927 to 1944. So to say that AAUW was a big part of Brunauer's life would be a huge understatement.
In 1944, Brunauer resigned from her job at AAUW to accept a position with the State Department. In his notorious five-hour speech in 1950, Sen. Joseph McCarthy accused Brunauer (or "Case No. 47," as she was called) of being "instrumental in committing this organization to the support of various [communist] front enterprises." Another AAUW member was also on McCarthy's list, Judge Dorothy Kenyon, a well-known activist and attorney. Kenyon was second vice president of AAUW and also served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1930.
Following the accusations, AAUW General Director Kathryn McHale and the board of directors rose to Brunauer and Kenyon's defense, both personally and as AAUW associates. In a letter of support, McHale wrote, "Mrs. Brunauer's record with AAUW was marked by personal and professional integrity, devotion to the public good, and loyalty to the government of the United States." In a subsequent 1950 New Year's Eve statement to the members of AAUW, the board issued a call to members to continue their important work despite the crisis and reminded members that it was only through their "practical work in education" that the nation "produce and maintain citizens who are sensitive to human values and who will strive to protect them."
Both women vigorously defended themselves and refuted the accusations that they were tied to communist front organizations or that AAUW operated in such a manner. The charges against Kenyon were dismissed. Unfortunately, the defenses were not strong enough to exonerate Brunauer, who along with her husband, Stephen, a chemist for the Navy, were named as security risks and subsequently dismissed from their positions — a fate that was not uncommon at the time. Brunauer's life was forever changed by the accusations.
The attacks against AAUW continued into the mid-1950s. The AAUW archives contain records relating to this battle. The records include AAUW responses to the allegations and copies of articles from the National Republic with titles such as "The Pink Ladies of AAUW," written by pro-McCarthy journalists who combed through the pages of the AAUW Journal and other publications for evidence of our supposed communist and socialist leanings.
Honoring Women in STEM History
AAUW Achievement Award winners Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopperand Katharine Burr Blodgett broke barriers to succeed in STEM.
Virginia Gildersleeve and the Formation of the United Nations
When President Franklin Roosevelt chose Virginia Gildersleeve as an official U.S. delegate to the U.N. it officially included women in the world's post-war negotiations.
Six Women to Inspire You on International Women's Day
For these AAUW fellowship recipients, professional success has translated directly into social progress and innovation.
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A passing jogger helped rescue a man who attempted to save his pet poodle from icy Lake Michigan Tuesday, just south of Montrose Harbor.
The man was walking with three poodles at about 5:15 p.m. when one of the dogs ran around a retaining wall onto the ice and fell in. The owner went after him and fell in the water as well.
Adam Dominik was jogging near the bird sanctuary when he heard dogs barking and ran to the scene.
A cross-country skier named Lynn Gerhard was already there, and was in the process of calling 911.
"His face was peering out. He was completely submerged, except for his face," Dominik said. "I knew I had about two or three minutes before hypothermia set in and he went under, so I had Lynn keep talking to him and keep his spirits up."
Dominik says he found a yellow twine rope near the bird sanctuary and attempted to pull the man out, who was 10 feet away, below the ice-encased retaining wall.
"At first I threw the rope over him but the dog was kind of pulling on him with his weight pushing him under the water," Dominik said. "He kept saying, 'Save the dog first,' I kept saying, 'No, we're going to save your life first and then the dog, your life is more important,' but he insisted on pulling up the dog first."
Dominik (pictured, right) managed to pull the man and the dog closer to the shoreline, and that's when members of the Chicago Police Department Marine Unit and the fire department arrived and finished the job.
"He's responsible for a rescue here today," Officer Kevin Kelly said. "He did a great job. He was able to pull that victim close to the shoreline, and that allowed us to get our rescue sling down to him and work as a group to get that person up, and then it was a long trek from that shoreline up to the ambulance here."
The victim was transferred to a local hospital where he was listed in stable condition. The dog is also reportedly expected to survive.
But just getting to the scene proved difficult for the emergency responders. It was about a quarter mile from the nearest parking lot, and they didn't have an exact location.
"Running in about 12 inches of snow as fast as you can to get to somebody who's fighting for their life ... it was a desperate situation," Officer Jean McCarthy said.
Officials say the incident should serve as a warning for dog owners to keep their dogs on leashes, because at this time of year, it's not clear where the shoreline ends and the water begins.
"If a dog goes in the water, call 911 and we'll come and get you, don't go in yourself," said Ron Dornecker of the Chicago Fire Department.


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Rise of 'Saudi America' will alter globe, prolong U.S. superpower role
For the past 40 years, U.S. presidents have launched distant wars, allied with autocratic sheikhs and dispatched naval fleets to protect sea lanes, all for the imperative of keeping foreign oil spigots flowing.
That imperative has now subsided. Rather suddenly, the center of gravity of global energy production has swung toward the Americas as shale oil and gas fields in North Dakota and Texas hum with activity. America is moving to the fore as the world's largest producer of petroleum and natural gas.
That change will reorder the globe in ways large and small.
U.S. experts say it will prolong the United States' position as the predominant global superpower. Arab nations that shook the world with the 1973 oil embargo almost certainly will be weakened. Russia will find its power ebb as European nations find alternate suppliers for natural gas. New energy technologies will reorder the scales of global winners and losers.
"There are not many times in history where you can see the balance of power shift," said David L. Goldwyn, founder of Goldwyn Global Strategies, an energy intelligence consultancy in Washington. "We are going to see that."
Coinciding with America's shale oil boom, Goldwyn said, are cutting-edge technologies that allow new parts of the globe to tap into unconventional energy resources, including deep offshore natural gas beds. Places like Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, Mozambique in Africa and Colombia in South America hold promise with energy reserves.
"We're really seeing the small 'd' democratization of access to energy in more countries and more places," Goldwyn said.
There are skeptics, of course, whose doubts range from distrust of the geological forecasts to analysts who say an environmental disaster could derail the shale oil and gas boom, just as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan sapped global enthusiasm for nuclear energy.
"The implications of the U.S. shale revolution are so great for its economy and security that you don't want to kill it with stupidity," said Robert A. Manning, an energy expert at the Atlantic Council, a public policy think tank on trans-Atlantic issues. He advocates more federal regulation on the process of extracting energy from hydraulically fractured shale formations, a process known as "fracking," to ensure that environmental or other setbacks do not occur.
"If we find out that it's causing earthquakes, or something else bad happens, you want to prevent that stuff," he said.
Even doubters, however, are beginning to think the fracking boom may have long-range implications.
Chief among them is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the energy cartel that for four decades was the arbiter of world energy supplies and prices. Just this month, OPEC reversed its previous view of the "marginal" nature of the U.S. fracking boom, acknowledging that energy supplies created by new technologies could cut sharply into the cartel's market.
Throughout Africa, oil-producing states express alarm about the drop-off in their exports to the United States. The flow of Nigerian crude to U.S. shores hit 1.3 million barrels per day in 2007, but by August it had fallen to 77,000 barrels daily. African oil producers now ship more oil to Europe and China, but many there are concerned by the loss of a dependable customer.
Iraq, whose oil deposits were once thought likely to benefit U.S. oil companies, has found that Chinese, not U.S., companies are the ones interested in its oil bounty. American oil companies would rather drill at home.
Perhaps what is most alarming to some is that the shale revolution is likely to perpetuate U.S. dominance, not just in geopolitics but in the energy industry itself. While many countries also have massive shale reserves – China is the most notable, but Algeria, Argentina and Mexico are others – none is thought likely to be able to take advantage of those deposits easily, certainly not with the explosive growth seen in the United States.
Many factors give the United States a head start in exploiting energy locked in shale, including its access to cutting-edge technology and risk capital, clear private resource ownership and huge numbers of drilling rigs, most of them capable of the difficult horizontal drilling required in fracking.
"I'm very skeptical about the ability of any other country to replicate the drilling intensity" of the United States, said Leonardo Maugeri, a former executive at the world's sixth largest oil company, Italy-based Eni, who is at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Companies in the United States own nearly 60 percent of all active drilling rigs in the world, Maugeri said, a key condition for the continuous drilling needed for fracking.
"Texas is the most drilled state in the world," Maugeri said. "To give you an order of magnitude, the number of wells drilled in Texas compared to Saudi Arabia is 1,000 to one."
The ability of the United States to dominate the extraction of shale deposits at home raises another question, troubling to some: Will the United States become less interested in the global military role it plays now?
"One thing this may do is untangle the obsessiveness about Middle East oil, this whole idea that we have to somehow protect these sea routes at all costs," said Mark Clinton Thurber, associate director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University.
Forty years ago, supertankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf carried more than half the world's crude. U.S.-allied petro states there grew rich, buying U.S. armaments and fighter jet squadrons. U.S. strategic interests led it to launch Gulf wars in 1991 and 2003.
The greatest symbol of U.S. presence and power in the region is the Navy's 5th Fleet, docked in the tiny sheikdom of Bahrain. Comprising some 30 ships and 20,000 personnel, the fleet protects the Persian Gulf and the Red and Arabian seas.
Today, U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for Navy ships that largely protect supertankers headed to Asia. China overtook the United States as the largest importer of Persian Gulf oil two years ago.
That trend will surge, and "it's going to raise all new questions," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an expert on global energy production at the University of California, Davis.
"You have the Chinese and other Asians free riding on a U.S. security presence, and I'm not sure that's sustainable," said Manning of the Atlantic Council.
As Asian populations rise and economies grow, nations there should be recruited to help patrol sea lanes, said Charles K. Ebinger, director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"I can envisage that as both India and China become maritime powers, that we have joint operations," Ebinger said. "Let's say that we are even thrown out of our base in Bahrain; I could see a rotational basis between the three great powers, China, India and the U.S."
Some experts argue that the United States should not disengage from the Persian Gulf because U.S. interests there go far beyond energy supplies. The region is vital to efforts to contain nuclear proliferation and religious extremism, the protection of Israel remains a central U.S. interest, and while the importance of Middle East oil may be on the decline for the United States, any disruption there would send world prices skyrocketing – harming economies in Asia that are vital U.S. markets.
"The United States is so woven into the world economy that we need that energy flowing to Asia," said Rachel Bronson, vice president of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and an expert on U.S.-Saudi relations.
Saudi Arabia, Washington's most important strategic Arab partner, has sharply diverged from the Obama administration this year over whether to arm Syrian rebels and how to confront Iran's nuclear program.
The Saudis still share strategic interests with the United States and continue to play a large global energy role for their ability to increase oil production so prices do not spike even as OPEC, the once-formidable cartel, has seen its production remain stagnant for 40 years. The 12-nation cartel now supplies 39.8 percent of world crude and liquid fuels production, down from 54 percent in 1973, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistics branch of the U.S. Energy Department.
"OPEC's going to be on the defensive," said Jaffe of UC-Davis.
For the short and medium term, oil giants like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait may survive unscathed as they look to Asia, sending as much as 70 percent of their oil there. Smaller oil producers in North Africa and the Middle East, however, may encounter "power struggles or upheaval" as they face declining revenue, according to a report in February from Citigroup, the global financial concern.
Over the longer term, the outlook may be brighter. The Paris-based International Energy Agency forecast in a report this month that rising global demand would allow the Middle East to recapture its role as a key source of oil by the mid-2020s, primarily to meet surging demand in Asia while Europe and the United States reap benefits of improved energy efficiency.
Most U.S. experts concur that a big loser from the growth of the U.S. shale industry will be Russia, which has locked in Eastern and Western Europe as clients for its natural gas, leveraging the reliance on its supplies for political gain.
The Russian share of the European Union's natural gas imports is expected to drop, however, from the current 34 percent to below 15 percent over the next 10 to 15 years, according to some analyses, replaced by supplies of liquefied natural gas from the United States.
"Russia is in big, big trouble," said Ebinger of Brookings, noting that Moscow is losing revenue by subsidizing domestic consumption even as natural gas prices are under assault, slowly decoupling from decades of linkage to crude oil prices.
China, with its massive appetite for energy and pressing need to cut down on coal-fired power generation that contributes to pollution, has compelling reasons to extract more energy – if only it can corral the know-how and drilling muscle to do so.
According to a June estimate by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China has the world's largest recoverable shale gas reserves, nearly double of those in the United States. Its shale oil reserves are the world's third largest after Russia and the United States, the EIA said.
But whether China will exploit those finds is uncertain. The country's three major oil companies currently see greater profits for themselves working overseas rather than at home. And foreign companies are reluctant to work in China because of restrictive contracts and other conditions.
Chinese analysts have wrung their hands over the impact of the U.S. shale revolution, with one heavyweight pundit declaring that it will remold the world.
"This writer, as a diplomat who has over 40 years of experience in the Middle East, believes that the U.S.-initiated shale gas revolution will not only change the global landscape of energy distribution but will also change the world's geopolitical layout. The United States will take a more dominant position in global energy distribution," wrote Wu Sike, a senior statesman who used to be China's envoy to the Middle East and is now member of a key foreign affairs committee.
Middle East turmoil, however, won't end, and eventually, Wu writes, "The United States will become less and less reliant on Middle Eastern oil, until this reliance finally ends."
Wu sees fracking as having "an insurmountable impact on the Middle East, the global economy and the world's geopolitical map."
Some U.S. analysts generally agree, and say the result of the U.S. shale revolution will be a strengthened economy and a turn-around morale in a nation that some felt was on the decline.
"As the United States' imports shrink, and we are exporting less dollars abroad to pay for oil and gas, then our trade deficit will narrow," said Jaffe. "We won't be as badly disadvantaged compared to China anymore. And their economy is going to shrink some because they're not going to be leading in petrochemicals anymore because some of the industry . . . is coming back to the United States."
The February Citigroup report, titled "Energy 2020: Independence Day," put it more simply.
"The United States should see its role in the world as a singular superpower enhanced and prolonged," the report says.


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Kyocera Revolution Ceramic Paring Knife
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- Summary
Made in Japan of an advanced ceramic, the blade of this paring knife holds its exceptionally sharp edge up to ten times longer than steel and won't react with foods. The knife's remarkably lightweight, ergonomic design reduces fatigue during repetitive cutting chores. Its compact size and sharp point make it perfect for smaller tasks, such as peeling fruits and mincing vegetables.
- Blade is made from zirconium oxide, a state-of-the-art ceramic that holds a razor-sharp edge far longer than traditional steel.
- Cuts through fresh produce and boneless meats with remarkable ease and precision.
- Weighing less than a comparable steel knife, this ceramic knife is very nimble and easy to maneuver.
- Nonreactive blade won't discolor foods or affect flavors.
- Resin handle is contoured for a comfortable grip.
- 3" blade.
- Made in China (blade manufactured in Japan).
- Use & Care
- Always use caution when handling sharp objects.
- Ideal for cutting fruits, vegetables and boneless meats. Do not use to cut through joints or bone.
- Due to the inflexibility of ceramic blades, do not attempt cuts that require twisting or bending the blade, such as filleting.
- Do not apply force to the side of the knife blade, as you would to crush garlic.
- Always use with a plastic or wood cutting board. Avoid cutting on marble, stone, glass, ceramic or tile.
- Avoid dropping or scraping knife on hard surface.
- Hand wash.
- To remove stubborn discolorations, wash the blade (avoiding the handle) in a mild solution of bleach and water.
- Do not leave knife in sink. Always store knife in a block or tray to prevent accidents.
- Knives may be sharpened using our Kyocera Electric Ceramic Knife Sharpener or Kyocera will sharpen them for you. For more information, call 1-888-700-7371.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
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For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
Orders received by 9:00 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday will arrive the next business day; orders placed Friday through Sunday will arrive on the following Tuesday.
Return Policy
At Williams Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and knife storage), please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Returns Policy.
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Working with a sharp knife is safer, more effective and much less tiring than trying to cut and slice with a dull one. To ensure top performance, bring your favorite knife into your local store and one of our cutlery experts will give it a fresh, new edge using our precision equipment. The first knife is free; each additional knife is just $5.
Our stores also offer knife demonstrations to teach you the correct grip, positioning and basic knife techniques and can help you find the perfect cutlery for your needs – just ask a store associate for assistance.
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Rated 5 out of 5 by Winesipper from Super sharp knife This is my first trial with ceramic knives. Super sharp. Makes easy work of cutting tomatoes for a salad.Date published: 2016-11-17Rated 5 out of 5 by dvious from Powerful Little Knife It's funny how much action this little knife gets in our kitchen. We have all these expensive Shun and Wusthof knives (which we love of course) but we end up using THIS ceramic paring knife all the time for quick jobs - especially cutting fruit and veggies. It's lightweight, super sharp, and easy to handle. We've had this one knife for almost two years now and it's still just as good as new. Note: I always have to warn guests (or my nieces and nephews) to be careful when they use this knife. Looks can be deceiving! For some reason, everyone that sees it assumes it's a cute-looking, dull, plastic toy knife. Then they cut into their first item and realize just how sharp it is!Date published: 2014-07-20Rated 4 out of 5 by norskecook from love these knives these are now my knives, really sharp. easy to cleanDate published: 2013-06-24Rated 4 out of 5 by zandrala from Very sharp - not sure of sturdiness . . . . I received a set of the paring knife and a Santoku knife for Christmas from a friend who never thought my knives were sharp enough. And was he ever right - although I wasn't aware until I had these to compare with my old ones and even initially cut my fingers several times.. On New Years Eve, friends were doing the dishes and the garbage disposal got turned on with the pairing knife in it, so the blade was decimated. I bought this one to replace it. Then I dropped the sankoka knife off of my countertop, and the very tip of the blade broke off, I'm still using it though. I love the way they feel in my hand and how very sharp they are, now that I've gotten over cutting myself. I'm even doing new recipes cause it's easy and actually a pleasure to cut and chop. Not sure if I can say they are sturdy or not - or it is just the cruel and unusual treatment they have received in my household. I still love them and have vowed to be more attentive.Date published: 2013-01-29


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Ms. Pisces: "Hi, I need to get in to see Dr. Grumpy right away!"
Mary: "Well, you're in luck. We just had a cancellation, and he can see you this afternoon..."
Ms. Pisces: "Oh, no. It will have to be next week. My astrologer says the horoscope doesn't favor an appointment this week."


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Pointless brings the heat this summer with a lineup of playful improv games!
Each show opens with a guest improv group, followed by the wacky fun of Summer Games, starring the League of Pointless Improvisers. These games will keep our League on their toes as they use your suggestions in such favorites as "Oscar Winning Moment," "Steal-A-Line," "Take That Back" and more.
The evening closes with the League performing their scenic long form improv, the Water Form. This original style, developed at Pointless specifically for the League, draws inspiration from the classic forms (the Harold, Deconstruction, La Ronde, and others), then reforms it into its own fluid, powerful force. No two shows are the same!
Guest Group: TBD
Tickets are $12 ($16.52 w/service fee)


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Now more than ever you and your employees need access to the people, information and resources that can help grow your business. Chamber programs provide a platform for our members to gain valuable insight from prominent business and government leaders, expose members to pertinent issues affecting the region's leading industries and the opportunity to build a valuable network of peers! No matter what your industry or job function, Chamber programs offer something for everyone. In addition to high-level guest speaker events Chamber members can participate in issues-based roundtables, open networking sessions and formal awards and recognition ceremonies.
The Chamber provides business development connections. Specifically, our offering of programs and events help you meet potential customers, increase your visibility, strengthen executive and managerial skills and have a voice.
The Chamber holds more than 125 networking opportunities each year that connect you to over 13,000 business leaders. You can mingle at the monthly Business After Hours or cast a wider net at the annual Beach Bash and State of the City Series.
Learn from the pros at a fraction of the cost! The Hampton Roads Chamber is committed to supporting member business development by offering low or no cost educational opportunities on topics of interest to the business community.
LEAD Hampton Roads
LEAD Hampton Roads, a program of the Hampton Roads Chamber, is a leadership development program which serves the 17 communities that comprise the greater Hampton Roads area. The program has more than 1,250 graduates who actively provide bold leadership to more than 800 regional businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Created in 1988, LEAD Hampton Roads is the oldest and largest community leadership program.
Sustainable Resources Campaign (SRC)
The Sustainable Resources Campaign (SRC) is an annual, time limited, resource drive utilizing corporate volunteers to involve members and the community in the Chamber through membership, sponsorship and advertising sales.


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Nation & World
U.S. cancels military operation with Egypt, but not aid
The United States on Thursday advised Americans to leave Egypt and canceled a joint military training exercise, but stopped short off cutting off aid, reflecting the Obama administration's attempt to retain some influence as the situation continued to deteriorate following a lethal crackdown on supporters of the country's deposed president.
President Barack Obama interrupted a vacation on Martha's Vineyard to issue the administration's sharpest criticism yet of the escalating conflict, condemning the violence and calling for the military to lift martial law.
"While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back," Obama said, announcing the suspension of Bright Star, a September training exercise.
"The Egyptian people deserve better than what we've seen over the last several days," Obama said. "And to the Egyptian people, let me say, the cycle of violence and escalation needs to stop."
Obama didn't mention the $1.3 billion in military assistance that the U.S. provides the country, but said he's asked his national security team to "assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship."
The military crackdown and ouster last month of President Mohammad Morsi have posed a vexing problem for Obama and some in Congress who have considered aid to Egypt's military key to U.S. interests in the Middle East. The U.S. has provided military and economic assistance to Egypt since the late 1970s aimed at sustaining the 1979 Camp David Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
Although U.S. law calls for foreign aid to be suspended following coups, the White House and State Department have gone to great lengths to avoid using the word. Obama on Thursday insisted that "after the military's intervention several weeks ago, there remained a chance for reconciliation and an opportunity to pursue a democratic path."
Some lawmakers renewed a call for cutting off aid in the wake of the attacks, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who accused Obama of "skirting the issue."
And Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called the cancelling of the war games an "important step," but added, "our law is clear: aid to the Egyptian military should cease unless they restore democracy."
Obama's muted rebuke of the military drew criticism from Middle East analysts who've monitored the U.S. response to Egypt's upheaval, and say the administration has been a step behind.
They said the administration was slow to condemn Morsi's authoritarian tendencies, looked absurd in refusing to declare a coup, and then refused to go much further than expressing "deep concern" over the fact that Egypt's first democratically elected president was held without charges for weeks.
While Obama's remarks Thursday included direct criticism of the Egyptian military, analysts said it still sounded like too little, too late.
"Obama's Egypt policy is always at least two crackdowns behind where it should be," Joshua Stacher, an Egypt specialist at Kent State University and author of, "Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria," said on Twitter.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended the administration.
In addition to dispatching State Department No. 2 William Burns to Cairo for crisis talks, Psaki said, the U.S. stopped the delivery of four F-16 fighter planes, canceled the military exercises and was reviewing the aid issue.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he told Egypt's defense minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in a telephone call that although the department would maintain a relationship with Egypt's military, "the violence and inadequate steps towards reconciliation are putting important elements of our longstanding defense cooperation at risk."
But until real action is taken on the aid, analysts said Obama's steps aren't enough to send a serious message to Cairo.
"It's more, he had to do something," said Samer Shehata, a specialist on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood who teaches at the University of Oklahoma. "The real question is the military aid and what kind of diplomatic cover and support the United States gives Egypt in the future."
U.S. standing in Egypt has suffered greatly in recent months. However, Shehata said the U.S. was not starting from neutral, as Egyptians remember the U.S. aiding Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime and calling for his resignation only after protests in 2011 gathered steam.
American diplomats grumble privately that they're "damned if we do, damned if we don't" in post-Mubarak Egypt. But analysts said that some of the tension was exacerbated by an activist American ambassador, a failure to stress civil liberties and human rights during the post-Mubarak transition, and other missteps as the U.S. struggled to revamp a policy that had been frozen for decades.
Repairing relations would take time, analysts said, but there's fresh opportunity now that the unpopular U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson, is returning to the State Department in Washington. Her replacement hasn't yet been named, though news reports have suggested a likely nominee is Robert Ford, a veteran diplomat who served in wartime Iraq and as ambassador to Syria.
Other analysts said that by not canceling aid, the U.S. hasn't closed itself off.
"Had he suspended aid, the president would not have fundamentally changed the dynamics of the conflict between the military and the Brotherhood," said Eric Trager, a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "He would have wasted an opportunity to use that card when it might actually make a difference. You'd want to believe that if we suspend the aid, the violence would stop, but that's highly unlikely."
Manal Omar, associate vice president of Middle East and North Africa programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington think tank, said that the U.S. still wields influence in Egypt, though the days of "calling and saying, 'We need this to happen,'" are over."
Omar, who returned this week from a research trip to Egypt, said Egyptian political actors who still hope for a U.S. rescue wouldn't dare express that before a seething and polarized public.
"Whereas people may want U.S. intervention, whereas they may want the U.S. to be involved, it would be very difficult for them to say that out in public and to have legitimacy within the streets," Omar said.
Obama acknowledged U.S. distrust – and perhaps limited U.S. influence – in his remarks, insisting that the U.S. is a neutral party, despite accusations of taking sides. He called on the military to cease violence – and called on protestors to protest peacefully.
"We've been blamed by supporters of Morsi. We've been blamed by the other side as if we are supporters of Morsi," Obama said. "We want Egypt to succeed. We want a peaceful, democratic, prosperous Egypt. That's our interest. But to achieve that, the Egyptians are going to have to do the work."
Matthew Schofield contributed to this report.


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Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy, otherwise known as Hurricane Sandy, made landfall just south of Atlantic City, N.J., in late October 2012. The storm caused billions of dollars in damages and left millions without power. By the time this article goes to press, nearly all damaged facilities will be back up and running and performing at full operational capacity. Most flooded electrical assemblies and components will have been replaced or field reconditioned. But just because the lights are on doesn't mean there aren't underlying issues that linger behind the scenes. The reality is hidden flaws may have developed as a result of this natural disaster that — if left undetected — could lead to future failures.
Other than NEMA's free guide to "Evaluating Water-Damaged Electrical Equipment," available for download on the organization's website, there isn't a great deal of information that addresses remedial measures related to flood-damaged electrical equipment. There's even less, if any, information related to potential ongoing damage that can reduce equipment life and cause unexpected failures.
This article will examine the consequences of flood damage in regard to the development of short- and long-term flaws based upon observations obtained from previous experience as well as take a look at appropriate test methods that can ensure long-term reliability of electrical equipment.
General considerations
Water alone can be extremely harmful to electrical equipment, but flood water can be even more detrimental, because it contains debris, salts, metals, acids, silt, and many other items in solution or suspension. After a flooding event, components require immediate detailed cleaning followed by a dry-out period. The sooner you can do this, the better. Otherwise, the damage will worsen. Not only is it necessary to dry out the components themselves, but it's also critical to thoroughly dry out the room where the equipment is located — otherwise the high humidity conditions can cause the dry components to reabsorb unwanted moisture. Getting the room dry and keeping a low humidity atmosphere in any electrical room is essential.
Let's consider electrical equipment in a simple manner to address the general considerations for remedial actions following flood damage. Electrical equipment consists of components that serve simply as conductors or insulators, designed to assist or thwart the flow of electrical current. Then there are structural components, which exist strictly to support the conductors and insulators — or the insulators themselves can act as structural components. Finally, there are devices that primarily allow mechanical actions to occur. Consider each of these groups separately and then move on to individual types of equipment, depending on their specific nuances.
You can address this group of components in a fairly simple manner by thoroughly cleaning their surfaces and then drying them before any corrosion can take place. Minor surface corrosion can also be carefully removed as long as it's not too deep — just make sure not to remove any plating. Remember to keep the room dry, or the corrosion could come back. Deeper damage will require disassembly and replating.
Interfaces where conductors meet insulators can present greater challenges. These interfaces can hold contaminants in films or sediment deposits that can cause future corrosion or insulation damage. Greater voltage gradients exist at these interfaces. For medium-voltage equipment, you'll often find these high stress locations are where partial discharge (PD) activity originates (see Putting Partial Discharge into Perspective). Clean these areas thoroughly, and realize that disassembly may be necessary.
Separable connectors used in medium-voltage cable system applications are designed to exclude water, so the termination and splice connections should not be damaged. Dismantle all cable plugs and sockets, and inspect them to confirm no contamination has occurred within the interface. If you don't see any issues, reassemble these components with fresh grease. If you do uncover problems, replace those components immediately.
Cable and wire require closer consideration
The open ends of the cables can allow moisture to enter that wick throughout the entire length of the cable. In some instances, the cable can dry out over time. In more severe cases, however, purging the cables with nitrogen has been successful, especially for medium-voltage cables where insulation moisture levels are much more critical. Another alternative for medium-voltage cables may be to consider using a process that injects the cables with a silicon-based fluid. This approach holds the additional advantage of also potentially improving pre-flood cable insulation defects and extending life. The concern for all cables is the potential long-term damage due to corrosion from the residue left behind, since cleaning the internal portion of the cable is difficult if not impossible. In many cases, cable replacement may be the best solution.
Switchgear secondary wiring also requires special examination. Experience has shown that low-voltage connection terminals that have been immersed in flood water will continue to corrode even after cleaning, especially those with positive polarity. This has been attributed to the effect on the metal by deposits of acidic materials that were not removed during washing. The reaction between the acid, metal, and air — with electrolytic action — produces corrosive salts, which can lead to future problems. Contaminants from flood water will likely propagate throughout stranded copper control wiring by capillary action, which can lead to long-term copper corrosion and insulation breakdown. Speaking of corrosion, make sure you clean all grounding connections to prevent future problems.
Because flood water is conductive, it can have a negative effect on insulation. Certain types of insulation, such as porcelain, do not absorb water. Therefore, simple cleaning to remove residue is all that is needed to get these components back in service. Other types of insulation, such as epoxy, may have a natural glossy finish — or may be coated with an anti-tracking film — to inhibit moisture entrance.
Oftentimes, a simple visual inspection can provide a good indication of whether or not the insulation likely absorbed water, and a basic insulation resistance test works well to recognize wet insulation. Using warm dry circulating air to remove insulation moisture while monitoring insulation resistance improvement has been successful in many situations. Refer to NETA standards, such as ANSI/NETA MTS "Standard for Maintenance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment and Systems," to ensure minimum acceptable test results are reached before energizing.
Cellulose insulation is found in dry-type transformers as well as many control power transformers and coils. It absorbs moisture readily, but can also be dried out in the same manner as other insulation types. However, the contaminants, which are likely to be left behind, can create PD activity that ultimately reduces operating lifetime.
These components are the heart of all circuit breakers, and optimum mechanism performance is essential for safety and system protection. Mechanisms consist of many moving parts, including bearings, pins, rings, cylinders, and latches — all of which operate in concert to provide quick
acceleration of the moving contacts.
If mechanisms have not been immersed in flood water, then they should be thoroughly inspected, keeping in mind that a damp room will be very humid and can lead to corrosion problems later on. Those mechanisms that have been immersed in water must be thoroughly cleaned. Although this process may remove the obvious contamination, it is difficult to remove all residue. In addition, there is a strong possibility that the lubrication, which is so critical to proper operation, will be left with traces of silt or sediment. Even small amounts of these contaminants can lead to problems in the long term. As such, complete teardown and reassembly will likely be the only viable solution. In fact, in the long run, it will probably be necessary to replace the mechanism or the complete apparatus.
Whether electronic or electromechanical, protective and control relays will very likely be damaged by flood water and need to be replaced. It's also important to examine equipment enclosures. Metal-clad equipment is designed with protective paint coatings for normal environmental conditions; however, it is not made to withstand the corrosive nature of flood water. Clean any structural metals that are part of the electrical equipment assembly (both internal and external surfaces), and repaint them when necessary.
After energizing
Power restoration is a significant accomplishment in the tedious flood recovery process, but the next step should be to employ testing strategies to ensure the lights remain on.
Immediately after energizing, check all medium-voltage equipment for the presence of PD activity using ultrasonic sensors to detect surface problems and TEV sensors to detect internal component or apparatus flaws. Conduct a PD survey weekly for the first month and quarterly for the first year. For more critical assets, consider installing permanent monitoring equipment.
Although PD testing will go a long way toward ensuring insulation integrity, infrared surveys should also be conducted to ensure no conductor-related problems are occurring. Ideally, the flood restoration crew would have the opportunity to install infrared viewing ports on enclosure panels to allow regular thermography inspections to be performed more efficiently and safely. In addition, check circuit breakers regularly using first trip timing instruments and other technologies to ensure proper operation and to exercise the mechanisms.
An experienced technician has a trained eye to quickly spot signs of early anomalies, and regular visual inspections should be introduced to determine if ongoing corrosion is taking place on all equipment, including secondary wiring, conductors, structural components, and enclosures.
One major consequence of electrical equipment flood damage is that the long-term asset lifetime will likely be reduced. This factor will require the owner to accelerate his rebuild or replacement investment planning strategy. In some cases, the remaining asset life after flooding has been decreased by as much as 50%.
Genutis serves as president of EA Technology, located near Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at [email protected].
SIDEBAR: Putting Partial Discharge into Perspective
According to industry estimates, 85% of medium-voltage equipment failures are caused by partial discharge (PD) activity. PD is defined as a breakdown that does not completely bridge the gap between two electrodes. It is a partial failure of the insulation that occurs because of contamination, flaws, voids, or irregularities inside or on the surface of the insulation. Common causes include poor manufacturing processes, improper design, poor workmanship, and adverse environmental conditions. These imperfections cause local stresses that exceed the capability of the insulation and generate small sparking events that produce signals with unique characteristics that can be detected non-intrusively while the equipment remains in normal operation.
Experience has shown that internal insulation defects, such as those within cable terminations, instrument transformers, or insulators, can only be detected using Transient Earth Voltage (TEV) sensors that pick up the radiated electromagnetic signals from the flaw while ultrasonic sensors work best for detecting surface problems. This is because they generate small airborne pressure waves that can be "heard" through air vents or equipment enclosure openings.
Partial discharges are rarely present on low-voltage equipment. They are much more likely to occur on medium-voltage equipment where the voltage stress on the insulation is much greater. Once PD is initiated, it will progress until complete failure occurs.


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I think I should make an introductory post before continuing this project. Sometime during January; I started a let's play of Pokemon Red. It was a rather fun project as I could post my thoughts on the game while making a few corny jokes. During this last month though, my interest started to decline. Not because I was getting bored of the project, it was because of the webpage I used to upload each part. Blogger has a rather unreliable interface and it will lag like no tomorrow.
I decided to seek help through various sites on the internet, and it turns out that guide-based let's plays are actually meant to be posted on forum boards. And because I've annoyed people on the Fire Monkey Technology board here, why not start posting here?
I'll post a link to the old Blogspot as it will just be too time consuming to upload each part onto this new forum. If you've watched Slowflake's Pokemon Red LP, you won't be too impressed by the team I've chosen to use. I plan on using different teams later on, but the Pokemon selection here just doesn't appeal to me, even Moltres barely made it to the cut.
Here is the link to the first 20 parts:
I'll be sure to have a new part out on Monday at the latest. Just sit back and roll your eyes at those old parts.


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Police Scotland is urging people in the North East to continue to watch out for bogus callers and workmen at their doors offering their services for excessive amounts of money.
With the Summer months still here opportunistic doorstep criminals will be using this prime time to offer their services, and officers are particularly warning of people offering to do unnecessary roofing work.
In recent months officers have been alerted to several incidents in both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire where vulnerable people have been targeted.
As part of proactive Operation Monarda officers are continuing to urge family and friends of potential victims to be aware of the warning signs such as suspicious activity at their loved ones homes, excessive attention from workmen or unusual amounts of money disappearing.
They are also reminding people to continue to tell Police about suspicious callers at their doors or if they think they have been a victim of a bogus caller.
Chief Inspector, Partnerships, Kevin Wallace said: "Doorstep crime often affects the most vulnerable members of our society, with the victims of bogus callers and doorstep crime often unaware a crime has been, or is being, committed. Doorstep crime can affect anyone but we know that the elderly can be particularly vulnerable. Bogus callers and rogue traders can be extremely convincing in their methods in securing the confidence of potential victims and, sadly, many people are convinced by their lies.
"When victims realise that they have been scammed they often feel embarrassed by what has happened, and feel they are unable to go to the Police. I cannot begin to explain the devastation caused and the massive impact it can have on their financial circumstances.
"I must urge the public to be extra cautious when it comes to suspicious callers at their door and would also send out a strong message to those who choose to target victims that it will not be tolerated. Ask for identification and don't be afraid of asking questions.
"We are committed to working with our partners to put an end to this type of crime and I would urge anyone who has close contact with potential victims to watch out for suspicious callers or people at their doors, or any suspicious amounts of money disappearing. It is important to pass on advice to friends, neighbours or family members who may be more likely to be targeted and provide them with the information and confidence to say no.
"Operation Monarda drives home the message 'If In Doubt, Keep Them Out', and I could not agree more. People have the right to feel safe in their own homes."


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Established in... Personalized Doormat
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States Open to Drug Options
Expanding Experimental Therapies to the Dying Gains Traction Among Lawmakers
A push to widen access to experimental drugs for people with terminal illness is gaining traction among lawmakers in several states, highlighting a growing clamor from patients for promising therapies that haven't been approved for sale.
The so-called right-to-try bills, the first of which was signed into law in Colorado on Saturday by Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, may not make a big difference in practice because they generally don't require companies to provide access to the unapproved drugs outside of clinical trials....


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How The Government Blocked An Expert From Attending Its Own Cryptology Symposium
from the government-induced-xenophobia dept
One of the three crafters of the RSA algorithm, Adi Shamir (who is Israeli), has been effectively locked out of attending the NSA-sponsored Cryptologic History Symposium, thanks to a combination of bureaucratic inefficiency and the US government's ongoing paranoia about all things terrorism.
Shamir has written a long apology for his inability to attend which details the multiple events that led to his unavailability despite having a paper of his formally accepted by the Symposium. It begins with a series of delays centered around acquiring a visa for his visit to the US.
I needed a new J1 visa, and I filed the visa application at the beginning of June, two and a half months before my planned departure to the Crypto conference in mid August. I applied so early since it was really important for me to attend the Crypto conference – I was one of the founders of this flagship annual academic event (I actually gave the opening talk in the first session of the first meeting of this conference in 1981) and I did my best to attend all its meetings in the last 32 years.Despite this early start, it took four months before his visa was finally stamped on his passport -- September 30th, to be exact, narrowly avoiding the government shutdown that would have likely prevented his visit entirely.
And it wasn't just Shamir who had difficulty securing a visa. It appears the US government's reticence and reluctance to approve visas for certain people has had a deleterious effect on other foreign scientists. Shamir quotes a letter from the head of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science stating that more scientists are choosing to "opt out" rather than deal with the laborious approval process.
"I'm allowing myself to write you again, on the same topic, and related to the major difficulties the scientists of the Weizmann Institute of Science are experiencing in order to get Visa to the US. In my humble opinion, we are heading toward a disaster, and I have heard many people, among them our top scientists, saying that they are not willing anymore to visit the US, and collaborate with American scientists, because of the difficulties. It is clear that scientists have been singled out, since I hear that other 'simple citizen', do get their visa in a short time."After Shamir's paper was accepted by the symposium, he contacted the NSA, hoping that it could intervene to get his visa approved in time to make the conference.
In July 2013 I told the NSA-affiliated conference organizers that I was having some problems in getting my visa, and gently asked whether they could do something about it. Always eager to help, the NSA people leaped into action, and immediately sent me a short email written with a lot of tact:Such helpful folks at the NSA. "That sucks for you. We'll just cross your name off the list." Shamir says he's never seen one of his accepted papers treated so cavalierly in his 35 years of attending conferences. (I would imagine he himself hasn't been treated that cavalierly either.) Perceiving this to be a dead end (and not feeling like attending an event where it seemed he "wasn't wanted"), Shamir scheduled an appearance at MIT -- only to be contacted far too late to change plans with a "reinvitation" to the NSA-sponsored event.
"The trouble you are having is regrettable…Sorry you won't be able to come to our conference. We have submitted our program and did not include you on it."
Shamir is clearly irritated by this lumbering bureaucracy and a visa process that has succumbed to intelligence agency/administration paranoia that clearly perceives foreigners, especially those in scientific fields, to be a "threat," rather than the non-harmful, non-dangerous human beings they are. If active terrorists only make up a very slim percentage of the world's population, why does the government continue to treat a large percentage of certain non-US citizens as potential threats?
Shamir's final paragraph takes aim at the painful visa process and adds a hilarious slam against the "dangerous foreigners" mentality that overrides logic and common sense in certain government agencies.
Clearly, no one in the US is trying to see the big picture, and the heavy handed visa bureaucracy you have created seems to be collapsing under its own weight. This is not a security issue – I have been to the US close to a hundred times so far (including some multi-year visits), and had never overstayed my visas. In addition, the number of terrorists among the members of the US National Academy of Science is rather small. As a friend of the US I am deeply worried that if you continue to delay visas in such a way, the only thing you will achieve is to alienate many world-famous foreign scientists, forcing them to increase their cooperation with European or Chinese scientists whose countries roll the red carpet for such visits. Is this really in the US best interest?Shamir's criticism is dead-on. The overriding mentality post-9/11 throws everything out and starts at square one, even if it's someone like Shamir, who has visited the country hundreds of times. Apparently, every time someone visiting on a visa exits the country and returns to their homeland, they're opening themselves up to radicalization by our nation's unquantifiable and unverifiable "enemies." The post-9/11 climate of fear doesn't allow anyone to build up a track record of successful, peaceful, non-terrorist-related visits to the US. It's a blank slate every time.
As Shamir points out, the long-term repercussions of this mindset will be a reduction in cooperation and shared knowledge which will likely result in the US falling behind other countries in terms of technological and scientific advancement. Just as certainly as we view certain bigot-heavy areas of our country as "backwards," our country's xenophobic, supposedly "anti-terrorist" policies will soon see our country viewed as the world's Birmingham, Alabama.
Filed Under: adi shamir, cryptology, immigration, nsa, rsa, visa


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This course is an intensive two-day session targeting developers that will allow students to leave with unparalleled skills in developing financial grade distributed applications. Students will leave with the ability to develop CorDapps as well as understand the security, network design and other aspects of the architecture of these distributed 'smart contracts'. Learn directly from the team that is building the Corda platform.
Course Agenda
Learn the background of blockchain and the technologies it inspired as well as the enabling technologies.
Corda overview
Learn the overall architecture, key concepts and components of Corda.
Corda Contracts
Understand the various components of a Corda smart contract and how they interact with each other; States, contract code and legal prose.
Corda transactions
Learn how information flows between parties to a contract in a trustless environment and executes a complex protocol that results in a trusted state transition.
The Corda Node
Know how the node is designed, what it can do, what it can't do Know what services/APIs the node offers.
The Corda network
Understand how a Corda network is structured and how data flows between nodes on the network.
Understand the Corda plugin framework and how to develop CorDapps.


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My middle son is no stranger to being bullied, and if I was a better blogger, I'd have tagged and SEO'd the three or four posts on this blog about various incidents with "bully" or "stupid little a$$h*les who messed with the wrong mama bear" but no. No tags, so I can't find any of those posts to link back to anything.
Things I can link back to aside: This is why I will never succeed as a mommy blogger. That and the fact that I hate both cupcakes and bacon - but to my credit, I've got the xanax thing daaaaoown, yo.
Better blogging through $ymbols aside: I'm trying to swear less on my blog, partly because I have a job that inspires me to play a professional adult on the internet now, but also because swearing on your blog screws up your SEO, did you know that? It's true. Google is not afraid to wash your potty mouth out with a bar of Lowered Page Rank.
All of these confounded asides aside: My anti-anxiety meds are working really well. (confounded: excellent substitute for bull$h*t; totally SEO friendly.) Maybe too well.
So my teency tiny little snack sized blue eyed precious little munchkin-butt came home from school yesterday in tears. Tears, friends. By the time they hit 6th grade, I expect them to come home weepy because the girl they like is into some other boy, or because they accidentally smelled themselves in PE class, but what I do not expect is for them to come home crying because some kid decided to choke them in 4th period over a Pikachu origami.
Choked my child. That happened.
This came after a bunch of kids called him an over-sensitive bee eye tee see aych in 3rd period, and was followed by the kids from 5th - 7th period laughing at him because he cried, which made him cry more, which made them laugh more, and this is why the poor bugger begged me to let him stay home from school today.
Which I didn't.
Because I suck. But also because if I let him stay home, the terrorists win.
We talked about my thoughts on why people were calling him names - that it was just his turn in the Junior High School crappy day rotation and that tomorrow, they'd probably move on to fresher meat. We talked about the kid grabbing his throat and I reminded him that he's trained to fight, and that kid probably isn't, so if push came to shove he could most likely lay that kid flat f*ing out with very little effort.
Bad Language for Good Aside: I find a well-placed f*bomb in the middle of an inspirational speech to be a more effective morale boost than all the homemade cookies and glasses of cold milk in all of the whole world.
So my point was merely that the worst thing that could happen is that people could say more words, and maybe he'd have to knock a fool out - and sure, he'd get suspended for that but, you know, bygones. I told him that the sad fact of life is that the world is full of a whole lot of raging a$$holes and the best you can do is stick by the people who aren't and stand tall. Going to school is standing tall.
So he went to school, white-knuckled and trembling. Sometimes I hate being the one in charge of making adult decisions.
But he came home sunshine and roses and I found out that the counselor who'd spotted him crying at lunch yesterday pulled him into the office and had a long talk with him about how awesome he is in general, and the kid who choked him yesterday forgot he existed today, and the kids who thought he was an over-sensitive bee eye tee see aych yesterday didn't think anything of him today at all.
And he learned that sometimes, his dumb old mom is right, but more importantly he learned that we never, ever have to let the terrorists win. At least not without a fight.


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A Bluetooth Headset for Athletic Teens
Are you sending an athlete back to school? Me too. My son's not star of the track team or anything but he runs. Like most teens, he likes to listen to music (or a podcast) 24 hours a day. I asked him to try out the Jabra Sport Bluetooth headset for me and he leapt out of his chair and grabbed at them. Apparently, he had been wishing for just such an item to keep him constantly connected to his tunes.
"Are these waterproof?" He instantly wanted to know. I told him they were splash proof, which means he could sweat on them or get caught in a rainstorm and they would be fine. He put them on and jumped up and down to test if they fell off. Then he went and put on some running short and sneakers. He came back a few minutes later wearing them.
"These make phone calls too!" He declared, thrilled. Yes, that's the idea. They play your music or podcast through your Bluetooth smart phone and if your phone rings, they pause the music and announce your caller. And you can take that call using the headphones.
He held up a hand to silence me. "Read it!" He announced to no one. I use a Bluetooth headset myself. So I knew this meant he had received a text message. The grin on his face told me he was having fun having his text messages read aloud into his ear.
He'd apparently studied himself in the mirror because his next statement was, "You can't even tell I'm wearing them! They look like they would show. But when you have them on, they are invisible. And they are completely comfortable. I could forget these are even there." That was a lot of commentary from my laconic teen. I guess he likes them.
He went for his run and I went back to work. Thirty minutes later he was back, looking happy. "They don't move at all when I'm running. There are no wires connected to my phone. These are awesome!"
I think he may have even worn them into the shower. In fact, he is never not wearing them. So I guess these headphones are the right gadget to get an athletic teen.
Christina Tynan-Wood writes the Family Tech column for Family Circle, and is the author of "How to Be a Geek Goddess."You can find her at GeekGirlfriends.com.


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Struck poodle goes on 11-mile ride in car's grille
A white female poodle that was hit by a Toyota sedan on a Massachusetts highway went on a wild 11-mile ride inside the car's grille until a passing motorist pointed out the "passenger" to the unwitting driver, the Taunton Daily Gazette reports.
The East Providence Animal Control Center in Rhode Island is looking for the dog's owner.
William Muggle, the center's animal control supervisor, tells the newspaper that the car was traveling about 50 mph near Taunton, Mass., two weeks ago when the dog ran into the road.
The driver says he hit the brakes but didn't see the dog anywhere and drove on.
It wasn't until the driver stopped at a light in East Providence that another driver spotted the poodle and alerted him.
Muggle tells TheGazette that the dog suffered a concussion and possibly a minor rupture of the bladder, which has healed, but is "actually doing fine, crazy enough."


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The angelic theme is in vogue on the eve of Valentine's Day. Of course Valentines and hearts are also in fashion due this time. This pleasant and romantic holiday is good time to reveal your feelings. Carrera Y Carrera offers a dive into the world of angelic luxury. This collection of masterpieces is not new but appropriate to the subject matter of the holiday.
Angelitos collection consists of rings, earrings, pendants and necklaces made of yellow and white gold. Some of them are decorated with diamonds and other precious stones. "The Angel, symbol of goodness, beauty and love, has throughout history served as a central theme in all forms of artistic expression."
VIA: Carrera Y Carrera.
Filed under: Carrera Y Carrera, Earrings, Fine Jewelry, Gold, Necklaces, Pendants, Quartz, Rings, Topaz Valentine's Day