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"Day or Night" Contoured™ All In One Diaper (Plus Pocket!) "Mermaids"
"Day or Night" Contoured™ All In One Diaper (Plus Pocket!) "Mermaids"
HappyEndings "Day or Night" Contoured™ AIO (All in One) Diaper with an absorbent Sewn-in 5 Layer Soaker and a Pocket Option. Optional addition of a 4 layer organic hemp insert or a 13.5in. 5 layer charcoal bamboo insert for night/heavy wetter use.
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TRIM ONE SIZE BABY DESIGN: Trim All in One design with adjustable 3x3 rise snaps (X-Small, Small, Medium, Large) + hip snaps to avoid wing droop and crossover snaps for smaller babies; fits babies 8-30 lbs.
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Kindness on full display at Coors Field
Remember that bumper sticker that asks us to practice "random acts of kindness?"
That philosophy sprang to life Saturday night at Coors Field.
Howard Weese, the kind of man whose kindness is central to his life, rode his wheelchair out for the seventh-inning stretch. Then Howard recited part of Lou Gehrig's famous "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth speech." Then Weese added a few well-chosen words of his own.
It was 70 years ago that Gehrig, The Pride of the Yankees, knowing that he was dying of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) gave his tearful farewell address at Yankee Stadium.
Now Howard is dying of "Lou Gehrig's disease."
I didn't know that the last time I saw Howard. That was back in spring training in Tucson. For years he'd been the emissary to the media dining tent at Hi Corbett Field. This past spring, when the Rockies took the tent down, Howard worked in the press box.
He's the type of man who always remembered my name, always had a kind word and a flashed a big smile and frequently mentioned something about a story I had written.
I could tell Howard was struggling physically, but I had no idea he had been stricken by this terrible disease.
For years, Howard has been a familiar face at Coors Field, working as the supervisor for club-level seating. As he sat in his wheelchair Saturday night, Rockies fan serenaded him with cheers and a standing ovation.
That was an act of kindness. So too was Todd Helton's simple gesture of coming out of the dugout to embrace Howard and whisper some words of comfort and thanks.
I was glad to be there to see it.

subset: commoncrawl


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iMazing is a comprehensive OS X software solution that provides a clean and organized interface for browsing the contents of any device running iOS. Moreover, the iMazing app is able to detect any iOS device as soon you connect it to your Mac and will automatically load its contents for easy and simple browsing.iMazing (was DiskAid) is the ultimate iOS device manager with capabilities far beyond what iTunes offers. With iMazing and your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod), you can:
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My water is brown. What should I do?
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Before we can answer that question, you'll have to do some sleuthing. Why? Because water that looks brown many not actually be brown. Fortunately, there's a simple way to figure it out – and there are simple ways to clear up the issue – regardless how the test turns out.
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Get a clear glass from your kitchen cabinet.
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Filed under: Uncategorized |


text:
Keith Wright shot 8-of-11 from the floor at Monmouth (Kerzner International/Issac Baldizon).
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Keith Wright tallied a season-high with 18 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks to lead the No. 25 Harvard men's basketball team to a 70-61 win at Monmouth Tuesday evening. Laurent Rivard drained 4-of-10 3-pointers, finishing with 16 points for the Crimson in a winning effort.
Harvard improves to 14-2 overall on the season, while Monmouth sees its record slip to 3-14. The Crimson made 49.0 percent of its shots from the field (25-of-51), while Brandyn Curry dished out five assists. Oliver McNally handed out four helpers and was 8-of-8 from the foul line to finish with eight points. The Crimson outrebounded the Hawks, 41-31, and owned a 10-0 edge in rejections.
Wright, who recorded his third double-double of the year and shot 8-of-11 from the floor in the game, made Harvard's first two baskets after being fouled, as the Crimson led, 5-2, early. Rivard knocked down a triple on Harvard's nest possession to open a six-point edge, 8-2. Rivard drilled another trey off a pass from McNally, putting Harvard up, 13-6, after the first six minutes of play. With 12 minutes to go in the half, Rivard made his third 3-pointer, as the Crimson went up by eight, 16-8.
The Hawks, who went over the foul limit with 11:36 left in the stanza, responded with a 9-1 run to tie the game, 17-17, with 8:05 remaining. Wright ended Monmouth's run with an offensive board and a bucket from under the hoop, putting Harvard up by two, 19-17. Steve Moundou-Missi added an offensive rebound and a basket to double the Crimson lead, 21-17. Moundou-Missi netted Harvard's next four points, including two from the line, as the Crimson went back up by six, 25-19.
With two minutes left, Rivard made a jumper in the lane and Wright followed with a layup to push Harvard's lead to 34-23. In the final seconds, Wesley Saunders hit a reverse layup, giving the Crimson an 11-point advantage, 36-25, heading into halftime. Wright led Harvard with 12 points, while Rivard tallied 11 points in the first 20 minutes of action. The Crimson shot 51.9 percent from the floor (14-of-27) in the first half and outrebounded the Hawks, 23-15, in the frame.
The Hawks cut the deficit to eight, 38-30, to open the half, but Rivard nailed another triple and Wright netted another baskets in the paint, putting Harvard up by 13, 43-30. Monmouth went on another min-run, outscoring Harvard 12-3 to get within four points, 46-42, with 15:27 to play in the second. After the Hawks came all the way back to tie the game, 48-48, Wright grabbed an offensive board and found Saunders for a layup, as the Crimson reclaimed the lead.
With 10:46 to play, Casey made a basket in the lane after being fouled and drilled the ensuing free throw, putting Harvard up three, 53-50. With the Crimson up by one, Curry made a tough jumper in the lane giving Harvard a 55-52 advantage. The Crimson remained up by three, 57-54, with a layup on the break with just under seven minutes to play. With 4:50 left to go, Curry stepped up and buried a triple to double Harvard's lead to six, 62-56.
Down the stretch, McNally went to the line twice, making all four free throws to expand Harvard's advantage to 10, 66-56. With 49.4 ticks left on the clock, McNally hit two more foul shots to put the game out of reach, 68-59.
The Crimson will conclude its non-conference schedule by hosting George Washington Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m.


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Tombstone on grave of Hitler's parents removed
Issued on: Modified:
Authorities in Austria have taken away the tombstone marking the grave of Adolf Hitler's parents, officials said on Friday. The headstone was removed at the request of a descendant after it became a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.
AP - The tombstone marking the grave of Adolf Hitler's parents, a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, has been removed from an upper Austrian village cemetery at the request of a descendant, and the grave is ready for a new burial, officials said Friday.
Walter Brunner, mayor of Leonding village, said the stone with the faded black and white portrait photos of Alois and Klara Hitler was taken down Wednesday. Village priest Kurt Pitterschatscher said the rented grave was available for a new lease.
Austrian graves are usually leased for periods of 10 years. The lease is renewable and can be willed to friends or relatives.
Asked whether he would have trouble persuading people to let their loved ones share a grave with the parents of a man whose name is a universal epitome of evil, Pitterschatscher said, "I really haven't thought about it."
Pitterschatscher said the stone and black marble marker, topped by a granite cross, was removed without ceremony by a stonemason hired by the relative, described as an elderly female descendant of Alois Hitler's first wife, Anna. What's left at the site is a white gravel square and a tree.
He said he did not know the woman personally and did not identify her by name but cited her request for termination of the grave lease as saying she was too old to care for it and tired of it "being used for manifestations of sympathy" for Hitler.
Hitler's roots are in Braunau, near Leonding, which is commonly identified as his hometown after the village that he was born in was incorporated into Braunau in 1938. But he and his family moved to Leonding in 1898 when he was 9 and lived there until Hitler was age 15.
Leonding itself first assumed cult status for his followers after Hitler visited his parents' grave and the nearby family house following the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.
The family's Leonding house now warehouses coffins for the cemetery, and Brunner said in a telephone interview that - unlike the more than 100-year-old grave - it did not draw Hitler fans.
Anti-extremist groups say neo-Nazis, sometimes coming in groups, placed flowers and Nazi symbols on the grave.
Robert Eiter, with the Upper Austrian Network Against Racism and Right-Extremism, said the latest incident was on All Saints day, Nov. 1, when an urn was left with the inscription
"UnvergeSSlich" - German for "unforgettable" and alluding to Hitler's SS shock troops.
"A lot of flowers and wreaths were deposited there from people who clearly were admirers," he said. "It had to do with the son and not the parents."
Brunner, the mayor, said he was "happy with the decision," to remove the tombstone and Eiter said most Leonding residents also supported it.
Hitler himself committed suicide in his Berlin bunker in 1945. Attempts to burn his body were only partially successful, and his remains were recovered by the Soviets. The find was kept secret, allowing Stalin to perpetuate a Cold War myth that Hitler survived and was hidden in the West.
After decades of uncertainty and disinformation, the demise of the Soviet Union has allowed researchers to establish what they believe is the truth about what happened to the body.
Hitler's jaws and skull were later rediscovered in secret archives in Moscow and went on display in Russia's Federal Archives Service in 2000. The rest of him turned out to have been buried beneath a Soviet army parade ground in the former East German city of Magdeburg.
His remains were exhumed in the 1970s and incinerated. The ashes were flushed into the city's sewage system.
Austria has moved from its postwar portrayal of being Nazi Germany's first victim to acknowledging that it was Hitler's willing partner. Most young Austrians reject Nazi ideology and condemn the part their parents might have played in the Holocaust.
At the same time, the rightist-populist Freedom Party - whose supporters range from those disillusioned with more traditional parties to Islamophobes and Holocaust-deniers - has become Austria's second-strongest political force.
An Anti-Defamation League survey taken this year and published last week said that - while remaining high - anti-Semitic attitudes decreased from 30 percent to 28 percent in Austria compared to 2009.


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text:
|Alicia Spinnet
|Biographical information
|Blood status
Pure-blood or half-blood (possibly)[1]
|Physical information
|Hair colour
|Eye colour
|Skin colour
- Draco Malfoy: "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!"
- Alicia Spinnet: "HOW DARE YOU!"
- — Alicia's reaction to Draco Malfoy insulting Hermione Granger[src]
Alicia Spinnet was a witch and a Gryffindor student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1989 to 1996. She played as a reserve Chaser and later Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. During her Hogwarts years, she became close friends with Hermione Granger, Cho Chang , Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson. In her seventh year, she joined Dumbledore's Army, an organisation founded and led by Harry Potter. In 1998, she returned at Hogwarts in order to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Her life after the Second Wizarding War is unknown.
Education at HogwartsEdit
Early yearsEdit
Alicia Spinnet attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1989 to 1996, and was sorted into Gryffindor house. There, she became best friends with fellow Gryffindors Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood and the twins Fred and George Weasley who all shared an interest in Quidditch.
Alicia tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and made reserve position; according to a comment by Lee Jordan, she was a good pick by Oliver, meaning she had an impressive skill at Quidditch but still only made reserve.
Third yearEdit
Alicia was only a reserve on the Gryffindor Quidditch team until 1991, during her third year, when she would become a Chaser. Alicia was most often the Chaser who attempts penalty shots for Gryffindor when the other team commits a foul. In 1991, a new Seeker, Harry Potter, joined the team. Alicia became friendly with Harry, too. The Gryffindor Quidditch team won two times during this year, but was defeated by Ravenclaw, costing them their chance at the title. However, the Gryffindor house would have had the most points by the end of the year, due to Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom.
Fourth yearEdit
Alicia found prejudice based on blood purity extremely offensive, screaming "how dare you" when Draco Malfoy called Hermione Granger a "Mudblood" in 1992.[2] The Quidditch matches were cancelled in 1992 due to the attacks on the muggle-born students by the Basilisk.
- "Oliver, this is mad, you can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry-"
- —Alicia suggest they stop the game[src]
However, the team had time to play against Slytherin; during the game, a charmed Bludger chased Harry in an unusual way. Alicia was afraid that the Bludger would kill Harry, and told Oliver Wood, the Captain, that they should ask to forfeit the match.
Fifth yearEdit
In her fifth year, this was the first time that the Gryffindor Quidditch team had won the cup, since Charlie Weasley played as a Seeker. This was also the last time that Oliver Wood captained the team.
Sixth yearEdit
During her sixth year, the Quidditch matches were cancelled again, due to the Triwizard Tournament. Despite being in the sixth year, it is unknown whether Alicia was old enough to enter her name into the Goblet of Fire. However, the year ended with the death of champion Cedric Diggory and the return of Lord Voldemort.
Seventh yearEdit
- "Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper. Neither of them are brilliant, but compared to the rest of the idiots who turned up..."
- —Alicia to Harry Potter regarding replacements.[src]
During her seventh and final year Alicia would now be captained under Angelina Johnson, who replaced Oliver Wood when he left. The team's first Quidditch practise doesn't go too well and results in Katie Bell suffering great blood loss. When High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge inspected Filius Flitwick she asked Alicia how she thought he was as a teacher and Alicia responded only positive comments. Disliking Umbridge, Alicia and her friends met up for the meeting at Hog's Head and would then join Dumbledore's Army, an organisation founded by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and led by Harry, in order to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts to the students, something that Umbridge did not.
Alicia attended as many meetings as she could make without being caught by Umbridge and risking being in detention as the meetings themselves were cutting into what little Quidditch practise she had and she couldn't afford to lose her spare time. At the last meeting before Christmas break, Alicia informed Harry that she and Angelina had found replacements for the team once they had left, Ginny Weasley, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, she remarks they are not good but will do.
After HogwartsEdit
Battle of HogwartsEdit
- "Kingsley and Lupin were looking up at him, as were Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, Mr and Mrs Weasley."
- —Arrival of past students and Order members.[src]
After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry it is unknown what Alicia went on to do, furthering her career in Quidditch is a possibility. But as the Second Wizarding War was at its height she carried her Dumbledore's Army coin around with her, and when the time came in 1998, Neville Longbottom summoned all past and present D.A. members to return to Hogwarts to join the forces in the Battle of Hogwarts fighting against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Alicia returned to Hogwarts with her friends, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson and Order of the Phoenix members they informed, Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour .
Later lifeEdit
It is possible she survived the battle as she was not listed amongst the dead that Harry recognised. Her life after the war is unknown.
Physical descriptionEdit
Alicia has dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes.
Personality and traitsEdit
Alicia is a good, friendly person who is very interested in Quidditch. She does also care about her friends, as she was afraid of Harry Potter's life while a bludger was chasing him. Furthermore, she strongly dislikes those who have a pure-blood obsession, such as Draco Malfoy, and believes that there are no differences between pure-bloods and muggle-borns, as she screamed to Malfoy "How dare you!", when he called Hermione Granger a "mudblood". She was also brave, as she was sorted at Gryffindor house, and was a member of Dumbledore's Army in order to oppose Dolores Umbridge. Also, she fought at the Battle of Hogwarts in order to help defeat the Death Eaters and win the final battle.
Magical abilities and skillsEdit
- Quidditch: Alicia played the position of Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, indicating that she is a skilled flyer and Quidditch player. She often took the penalty shots for the team.
- Duellist: Alicia learned how to duel at the Duelling Club in her fourth year, and was taught duelling, both defensive and attacking spells at the meetings of Dumbledore's Army by Harry Potter.
- Charms: Alicia was apparently good with Charms, as she took the subject on N.E.W.T. level.
Gryffindor Quidditch teamEdit
- "Oliver, this is mad, you can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry-"
- —Alicia to Oliver Wood while a bludger is chasing Harry Potter.[src]
Alicia was a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, during her years at Hogwarts. There, she became best friends with fellow members Angelina Johnson, with whom she possibly shared a dormitory, and Katie Bell, who was a year younger than her. Alicia, Angelina and Katie were also the only girls at the team.
She was also a good friend of the twins Fred and George Weasley. Fred and George liked doing pranks and teasing the others, but defended their friends. When Fred and George were kicked off from the team by Dolores Umbridge, Alicia was very angry with them, as their loss at the team would cost them the Quidditch cup.
Another friend of hers was Lee Jordan. Although he wasn't a member of the team, he was the Quidditch matches commentator, and strongly supported the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Lee liked doing pranks, too.
Alicia was also a close friend of Oliver Wood, the Captain of the team. However, they argued several times, as in 1992; Alicia shouted at Oliver, when he wanted Harry to keep on playing, while a bludger was chasing him. Oliver had been very proud of the team by the end of the year; the year that they eventually won the Quidditch cup.
Other members of the team were Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Harry, the Seeker, was extremely good, but Ron had a lack of confidence, due to the Slytherins making fun of him. Eventually, Ron was proved to be very good, as the members of the team, including Alicia, supported him and advised him not to be bothered by the Slytherins.
Alicia seemed to care about Harry, as he was her friend, and she thought he shouldn't keep on playing in 1992, while a bludger was chasing him. She also went as far as to kiss Harry after he won them a match against Ravenclaw (along with Angelina and Katie). Alicia also became a member of Dumbledore's Army, in order to be taught Defence Against the Dark Arts by Harry, and she later fought at the Battle of Hogwarts, alongside Harry and the other members of the team.
Dumbledore's ArmyEdit
Alicia became a member of Dumbledore's Army in her seventh year. It was an organisation founded by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and led by Harry, in order to teach the members Defence Against the Dark Arts, something that professor Dolores Umbridge did not. Furthermore, they wanted to oppose Umbridge. Alicia was rather friendly with the most of them.
She appeared to be a close friend of Hermione Granger, a Gryffindor girl two years younger than her. Alicia defended Hermione when Draco Malfoy insulted her. When Malfoy called Hermione a "mudblood", Alicia screamed "HOW DARE YOU!" to Malfoy. Alicia and Hermione fought together at the Battle of Hogwarts.
Alicia may have been friendly with fellow Gryffindors Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Colin and Dennis Creevey. Other members of the army were Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Zacharias Smith, Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Cho Chang, Padma Patil, Marietta Edgecombe and Luna Lovegood. Alicia possibly disliked Marietta Edgecombe, who betrayed the army to Umbridge, and Zacharias Smith, who abandoned the army during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Behind the scenesEdit
- Alicia Spinnet was portrayed by Leilah Sutherland in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and was later replaced by actress Rochelle Douglas for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. An uncredited actress plays Alicia in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where she is seen briefly in the Hospital wing with Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell.
- None of the actresses who previously portrayed Alicia have been asked to reprise the role for any of the other films, nor have any new ones been recast. She did not appear in the Battle of Hogwarts scene in the Deathly Hallows film.
- Out of the three Chasers who played for Gryffindor during Harry's first five years at Hogwarts, Alicia is the only one to not be injured during a Quidditch match in any of the films (Angelina crashed into the stands in Philosopher's Stone and Katie's broom caught fire in Prisoner of Azkaban)
Alicia is related to Alice and ultimately the German Adalheid, meaning "noble type (of person) also kind and beauty." The last name really exists and is often spelled Spinnett. A spinet a small upright piano. Alicia's name also may be a variation of spinner or spinney, a small grove of trees.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) [3]
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (Possible appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Signature appears on parchment)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Notes and referencesEdit
- ↑ As Alicia wasn't imprisoned in Azkaban by the Muggle-Born Registration Commission in 1998, it is likely that she wasn't muggle-born.
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- ↑ Although Alicia is never identified, the complete Gryffindor Quidditch tam appeared in the game adaptation.
Harry Potter | Hermione Granger | Ronald Weasley
Harry Potter | Neville Longbottom | Luna Lovegood | Ginny Weasley
Katie Bell | Lavender Brown | Colin Creevey | Dennis Creevey | Seamus Finnigan | Angelina Johnson | Lee Jordan | Parvati Patil | Alicia Spinnet | Dean Thomas | Fred Weasley | George Weasley | Nigel Wolpert
Terry Boot | Cho Chang | Michael Corner | Marietta Edgecombe | Anthony Goldstein | Padma Patil
Hannah Abbott | Susan Bones | Justin Finch-Fletchley | Ernie Macmillan | Zacharias Smith | Unidentified Hufflepuff girl
Luca Caruso | Alice Tolipan


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This is the 48th Saturday in a row Park Run has been held in Fælledpark in Copenhagen. These free races are being held every Saturday in cities all over Europe.
Our route was on a loop of gravel path next the the central hospital in Denmark, Riget (The Kingdom) (- aside: you absolutely have to rent the old Danish tv mini series about this hospital directed by Lars Von Trier - it is called Riget/The Kingdom and is my favorite tv mini series, next to Anne of Green Gables!).
The race, at 9am, was prefect timing on the way to a brunch at SR's cousin's house at 10 am.
So the race and route were perfect. But I wasn't. When we arrived (only 30 minutes to the start), Natti decided she didn't want to watch Christian and Mattias so SR and I had to debate who would run with the baby jogger. Since I was the one going for the PR, he granted me the fast run,
20 minutes to warm up. I could tell immediately it was not going to be "my day". I had no spring in my step. The wind seemed fierce. All in all, I felt fat. But, I am not all that convinced that how one is feeling that day has much of an influence on time in any distance under a marathon. I mean, either you have it or you don't. Or am I wrong? I knew I had it in me to run a PR, but I also knew it would be close given my 1500 times on Thursday.
So SR ran with the jogger. He started out in the back, then passed me and stayed ahead for the remainder of the race. There were no km markers and I was not wearing a Garmin, yet I had a good idea of my pace given it was 3 loops + a little extra at the end (I was wearing a watch - and it was digital!). I ran the last loop the fastest (a sign I hadn't warmed up enough?).
I ran an official "road" 5k PR of 19:36 and won for the women and got the third fastest female time ever on the route. But I was still disappointed.
But not as disappointed as I am right now after breaking my toe! Mattias just pushed an enormous glass jar of jam off of the counter and it landed right on my third left toe.
In summary: 1. be thankful for what you have and .2 I knew it wasn't going to be "my day"...
But it was instead our day
|SR, Christian and Mattias collectively take 4th in 18:52.
|I wish I could pretend running a 19:36 5k was easy


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"When I was 15 I started working as a busser in an Olive Garden and worked my way to server. When I watched the bartenders, I thought it was the coolest job in the restaurant, making drinks and schmoozing with people."
"When I turned 21, I told the manager I wanted to be a bartender. He said, if I was the best salesman in the restaurant, he would make me a bartender."
"I became the best salesman in the restaurant, and got the job as a bartender. I was really good at the upsell."
Unclear what to make of this, coming from a Doctor while performing a, errrr, uh, sensitive operation. 6 years in an Olive Garden? Maybe I should ask to see his diploma?
Kidding, I was probably working in a Brat und Brau when I was 21, setting up the salad bar, filling condiments, and making popcorn.
This guy was already a bartender. I don't really understand it, but I admire people with drive. That's probably why he is a Doctor now and I just got around to being a bartender a few years ago.


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Royals' hot bats back up strong outing by Vargas
KANSAS CITY -- The Cleveland Indians had won nine of 10 games and 14 of 20. But, on Tuesday night, hot they were not.
The Royals, warming up themselves, slammed three home runs for the first time this season and dropped the Indians, 9-5, on a damp 67-degree evening with 25,540 fans at Kauffman Stadium.View Full Game Coverage
KANSAS CITY -- The Cleveland Indians had won nine of 10 games and 14 of 20. But, on Tuesday night, hot they were not.
The Royals, warming up themselves, slammed three home runs for the first time this season and dropped the Indians, 9-5, on a damp 67-degree evening with 25,540 fans at Kauffman Stadium.View Full Game Coverage
Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas hit home runs to support left-hander Jason Vargas' strong pitching. Their efforts gave Kansas City eight wins in the last 12 games and put the Royals back at .500 (32-32) for the first time in 17 days.
"We've been playing some great baseball of late, it's great to be back to .500 but we're not content," Moustakas said. "We want to get back to the baseball we're capable of playing."
The Royals managed to gang up on right-hander Corey Kluber, who had been one of the American League's hottest pitchers with four straight wins.
"Kluber's been on a real roll. He's been really tough, and to put a four-spot on him in the third inning was huge," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Hosmer made it 6-0 by crushing a two-run homer, his third this season, in the fifth inning. He was 2-for-20 against Kluber going into that at-bat.
"With a guy on first, I was basically just trying to get it out early and hit that hole with the guy holding him on and he just happened to throw a four-seamer and I put a good swing on it," Hosmer said. "It felt really good."
Vargas, 6-2, was purring along with seven shutout innings, utilizing a good changeup.
"Just kind of vintage Vargas," Yost said.
Vargas got good defensive support, including from himself. He coolly gloved a hot shot by Jason Kipnis in the sixth inning and started an inning-ending double play.
"The ball just hit my glove and I was able to turn around and make a good throw," Vargas said. "The defensive plays that were made tonight helped us keep the ballgame under control and keep the momentum moving in our favor. The boys did the rest and just put the runs on the board."
This hot Indians club was coming off a 17-7 victory at Texas, a fact of which Vargas was blissfully unaware.
"I guess I'm glad I didn't know they scored 17 runs last night," Vargas said. "They've got a tough offense, tough lineup, real balanced, they can do a lot of different things."
And they started to do things against him after he'd gotten two outs in the eighth. Asdrubal Cabrera singled, then Michael Brantley was hit by a pitch. Although Yost had Tim Collins heating up in the bullpen, he chose to have Vargas pitch to Kipnis.
"I had Timmy ready to come in but Kipnis has had some success against Timmy, he's like 5-for-11 off him, and Vargy had handled Kipnis all night long," Yost said. "With the luxury of a six-run lead, I gave him one more hitter."
Kipnis ripped a two-run double and Vargas' night was over. Collins came in, threw one pitch and Carlos Santana smacked an RBI single. Now it was 6-3. But Aaron Crow arrived to get the third out.
And the Royals swung back into action. Gordon opened the eighth with a home run off left-hander Nick Hagadone. Salvador Perez singled off right-hander Scott Atchison and, after an out, in came lefty Josh Outman to face Moustakas.
Moustakas sent a shot toward the right-field foul pole and the ball stayed fair for a two-run homer and a 9-3 lead.
"It was nice to get some runs and let Greg take a break," Gordon said.
That, of course, meant closer Greg Holland who had been up throwing in the eighth inning but now was resting comfortably in the bullpen. The thing was, he almost didn't get a break.
The Indians started chipping away at Crow with back-to-back singles and a double by David Murphy that right fielder Lorenzo Cain completely lost in the lights. Now Holland was up again.
"We were one hitter away from having to use Greg," Yost said.
But Crow got Michael Bourn to tap back to him. Cabrera got a fifth run home with a sacrifice fly to deep left field. Finally, Crow struck out Brantley to end the game.
The Royals now trail the first place Detroit Tigers by just three games in the American League Central.
"It's a good thing. We just keep pressing forward and playing our game," Yost said. "The bats have definitely heated up in the last 10 days, just keep it going."


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See how professional garden lighting can accentuate the colors and textures that your garden has.
Outdoor Lighting Perspectives is here for all your outdoor lighting needs. During our Free Custom Design Plan, we will show you the optimum locations around your home and throughout your yard to achieve stunning outdoor lighting effects. If you already have a lighting system but need it serviced or upgraded, we are happy to help. Please fill out the form below to contact us.


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My name is Mikey Barnum. I'm 30 years young and I was first diagnosed as HIV+ in August of 2009. This is the story of a day that changed my life forever:
I had gotten sick. Very sick. I had a high fever, I had night sweats so bad that I woke up with soaked sheets, and even worse, no appetite. I wasn't stupid. I was well-read on the issues and knew what it meant and what it was like when someone contracted HIV. I prayed to God that I was wrong, but in my heart I knew what was happening: I was seroconverting in a bad way.
I made an appointment with my doctor and he told me I just had a bad flu and to rest and drink plenty of liquids. I decided to get a second opinion and this time the doctor, a girl my age and fresh out of med school, asked the pertinent questions and felt I should get the full (and expensive) panel of STD tests. Then came the days of waiting. Eventually, I was called and told to come to the doctor's office for the results. I steeled myself and mentally prepared for what I knew in my heart she would say.
She went down the list of STDs I didn't have. Syphilis -- no. Herpes -- no. Gonorrhea -- no. For moments that seemed like an eternity she was quiet and, with tears in her eyes, she looked at me and I knew. "I have HIV, don't I?" She nodded and said something that I didn't hear because the world stopped existing. Everything was blurred and muddled and I was alone with one thought: I need to ask questions.
I didn't cry because I knew I would do that later. I surprised my doctor and myself with how stoic I appeared to be. I asked what happened next and she explained the details of getting me set up with a specialist, running some more blood work, and then gave me some pamphlets. I hugged her and comforted her and let her know I would be OK (to this day I laugh at that moment).
I left the doctor's office and didn't know where to go or what to do, so I drove to work and went to my boss's office and I told her what just happened and broke down crying. Immediately, I was surrounded and being hugged by her and her two receptionists. They let me know I was loved and that they would support me and to take the day off. Five months later I was let go in an email because I had "been looking tired."
I didn't want to go home and face my parents. I couldn't. They had made it very clear that they didn't support my being gay and that I would be thrown out of the house if I were ever caught "being gay" -- whatever that means. I drove about a mile to my best straight guy friend's house and told him and his mom what the doctor had told me. He just sat there trying to process and she left the room. My friend asked what it meant to be HIV+ and as I was telling him his mom (also my old high school drama teacher) came back into the room with a bowl of blueberries and said, "You eat these because they make you healthy," and then cried and hugged me. The love in that house for me that day is something that I will always hold close to my heart, and as I'm writing this I'm crying because that love meant everything to me that day. I stayed at his house into the night and later explained to his girlfriend and future wife the situation. She too hugged and loved me and that family has ever since been a group of dear, dear friends to me.
That first day, my Diagnosis Day, could have been a very dark day for me. I was lucky enough that I had people who immediately encouraged, supported, and loved me. Diagnosis Day for me was a day that let me know how much people can care for each other. It's something I've kept with me and I've been trying to emulate that sentiment ever since.
From Mikey: I live in South Gate, Calif. I'm 30 years young and I've decided to make being HIV+ something positive in my life by educating and helping others know about what HIV is and what it means to be living with HIV.
Want to share your own "Day One With HIV" story of finding out your diagnosis? Write out your story (1,000 words or fewer, please!), or film a YouTube video, and email it to firstname.lastname@example.com. In the coming months, we'll be posting readers' "Day One" stories here in our HIV/AIDS Resource Center for the Newly Diagnosed. Read other stories in this series.


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YORKSHIRE suffered defeat inside three days at Headingley in their opening County Championship game, placing added importance on their trip to Edgbaston.
Gary Ballance's side will face a Warwickshire side led by another former England international in the shape of Ian Bell, who will – like his former England team-mate – be hoping to reverse their opening week fortunes after they lost out to Surrey in an innings loss.
Adil Rashid is expected to return to the fray for the White Rose while, as we hear from The Yorkshire Post's cricket correspondent Chris Waters, there is also better news on the injury front for Andrew Gale's troops.
To listen to the latest episode click on the link above.
To keep up to date with events at Edgbaston over the next few days, log on to our website HERE or follow us on Twitter HERE and HERE.
Get in touch with the show via Twitter HERE or email host Phil Harrison HERE.


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Macaroni and cheese occupies a special place in the American heart, as the ultimate comfort food.
To tell you the truth, when I moved here from Italy and found out that people were so crazy about this abomination in a box, I thought you guys were all a bit eccentric. Really – why would you want your (processed, powdered) cheese to be orange? Not that it was a big deal: I have my own issues with junk food – namely, digging into the Nutella jar when under pressure.
However, when my children started coming back from school demanding Mac & Cheese, I went from mildly entertained to outraged (after all, I spend hours canning made-from-scratch tomato sauce!). I did try to lecture them about the superiority of fresh ingredients, the importance of vegetables, blah blah blah, but they ignored me. I needed a better strategy. Here is how I gained back my cool factor.
Meet Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi, the Italian ancestor of Mac & Cheese. While it's probably terrible for you (I can't imagine another dish that packs in as much butterfat), at least this homemade recipe does not include any chemicals, plus it tastes infinitely better than Kraft's packaged version. You might still end up needing a bypass, but at least you'll have enjoyed getting there!
- 1 package (1 lb) rigatoni or penne pasta (I like Garofalo, De Cecco and Barilla)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream + 1/2 cup milk (if you feel too guilty, just 1 cup whole milk)
- 1/2 cup blue cheese (or a sharp and creamy cheese like Brie, Camembert) shredded or cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup taleggio (or Fontina, Asiago, Gouda), shredded or cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, Emmenthal or Gruyere, shredded or cubed
- 1/3 cup Parmigiano, Grana or Parmigianito, freshly grated, plus more for topping
- Black pepper
Bring water to a boil and add salt.
Heat the milk in a saucepan; add cream and the cheeses to the hot milk and stir continuously, until all the cheeses are melted together. If you like living dangerously, you can even add 1 tablespoon butter.
When the water boils, add some coarse salt, add the pasta and cook it until al dente, according to the directions on the box. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water and drain the pasta.
Toss the rigatoni and the cheese sauce together, adding a little of the cooking water (it acts as an emulsifier and thickener); sprinkle with black pepper and serve accompanied by extra parmigiano. Those of you who feel fancy can go with a touch of grated nutmeg, or even shaved truffle! You can also transfer into a baking dish and broil on high until golden and crisp on top (3 to 5 minutes).
(***if you keep strictly kosher, here are some imported kosher cheeses available in the US. The site specifies each cheese's kosher certification, since we often joke that "Two Jews, three opinions" and do not always share the same standards: http://www.kcheese.com/ )


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The Worst Weather, the Best Place
by Laurie Ann Toupin
As she carefully climbs the icy metal ladder of the weather tower atop Mt. Washington in Sargent's Purchase, NH, 190-kph (120-mph) winds whip around her. The air temperature rises to a balmy minus 15 degrees C (5 degrees F), but the wind-chill makes it feel like 36 degrees C (33 degrees F) below zero.
When she reaches the last step, Nicole ducks her head to shield it from the wind. She grabs onto thick steel cables, and fights the wind as she crawls onto the platform. She is surrounded by a barren, white landscape of drifting snow and raw, rime ice. These cables are the only barrier between her and the rocky ledge below.
Once she feels steady, Plette turns and "sits" in the wind. The gusts that would have blown her over the side just a moment ago now hold her in place while she clears the ice and snow from the wind vane and pitot anemometer. Once free, these instruments will tell her the exact wind direction and wind speed.
"That is my favorite part of my job," the twenty-five-year-old says with a smile when she gets safely back inside and starts to shed layers of winter gear.
Every other Wednesday, staff meteorologist Plette and a crew of three to nine observers, interns, researchers, and volunteers ascend the mountain in a Bombardier snow tractor. In summer, the drive takes only 25 minutes, but in winter—with drifting snow up to 9 meters (30 feet) deep and average winds of 130 kph (80 mph), it could take as long as six hours.
For the next eight days, the Mt. Washington Observatory will be Plette's home. As one of two staff meteorologists (who alternate eight-day shifts) at the weather station, she will observe weather conditions every hour.
Her shift runs from 4:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. At exactly a quarter before the hour, Plette climbs outside the observatory to record dew point temperature, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, cloud height and type, visibility, and type of precipitation.
First, she dons her bib overalls, coat, glove liners, overmitts, boots and overboots, facemask, goggles, and hat. The only part of Plette's skin exposed to the elements is the underside of her nose—so that she can breathe. "When we go outside, we have to be completely covered from head to toe, because with the wind-chill factor, frostbite can occur in minutes," she says.
If the mountaintop isn't in the fog, which it is almost 60 percent of the time, Plette uses a sling psychrometer to measure the dew point. This instrument has two identical thermometers, except that one is a wet bulb thermometer and one is dry. The wet one has a little piece of cloth that has been soaked in water and taped to the bulb. "We swing the wet thermometer psychrometer around until all the water evaporates off the bulb," Plette says. She knows when the moisture is gone by keeping track of the temperature. The temperature will continue to drop as long as there is water, because as the water evaporates, it takes heat away from the bulb. (Energy is lost to the phase change of water to water vapor in the form of heat.) Once the temperature begins to go back up, Plette knows all the water has evaporated. "At that point, we measure both temperatures and can calculate the dew point and the relative humidity in the air using a psychrometric calculator that looks like a circular slide rule."
Relative humidity tells the meteorologists how much water is in the air compared to how much it can hold. Cold air can hold a lot less water than warm air, which is why it feels so dry in the winter.
Every three hours, Plette adds atmospheric pressure to her list of observations. Weather stations worldwide report pressure to determine current weather patterns such as high/low pressure system movements. This helps meteorologists forecast sunshine or rain.
Every six hours, she goes into the thermo-shack, a small, white, wooden box on a pole, to read the maximum and minimum thermometers. The minimum one is an alcohol thermometer. When the temperature decreases, it pushes a small plastic marker to the exact temperature. When the temperature increases, the marker stays put. The maximum thermometer contains mercury, which expands with temperature. If the temperature decreases, the mercury stays at the highest point. After taking a reading, Plette tilts both thermometers to reset them. The lowest temperature ever recorded was minus 44 degrees C (minus 47 degrees F)!
After Plette finishes each observation, she sends this information to the National Weather Service, where meteorologists use the data to compute national weather patterns.
Why Mt. Washington?
The Mt. Washington Observatory traces its roots to a scientific expedition in 1870–71. The station was the first high-elevation, severe-weather station of its kind in the world to take continuous observations. This effort was short-lived, however, as difficult winter conditions caused the observatory to be shut down.
Four scientists tried again in 1932—this time, chaining all the buildings to the ground. Since then, observers there have continuously monitored weather conditions and conducted landmark research in snow and ice physics and the constitution of clouds.
Meteorologists love to study winter weather on the top of Mt. Washington. This winter wasteland sits at a mere 1,886 meters (6,288 feet) above sea level. This is nothing compared to the 4,200-meter (14,000-foot) mountains of the Rockies, or the 8,700-meter (29,000-foot) Himalayan peaks. But Mt. Washington carries the proud distinction of being home to the "worst weather in the world."
In 1934, observatory researchers clocked a wind gust at 370 kph (231 mph)—the fastest surface wind ever measured.
"The weather is so bad up here because we lie in the path of three different storm tracks," says Plette. "Our chance of getting a severe storm is usually three times greater than anywhere else, which probably lies in only one storm path." Storm tracks are defined by the upper airflow, which usually moves from west to east or up the coast. Mt. Washington's storms blow in from the Ohio River Valley, St. Lawrence Seaway, and coastline.
The winds are so extreme because of the mountain's elevation compared to local topography and its relationship to the atmosphere.
The atmosphere has a cap or lid on it called a tropopause, says Plette. This means the winds are squeezed into a smaller vertical distance to go over Mt. Washington than they are when they blow over the valley. "It is just like putting your finger in front of a garden hose," she continues. "When the hole that the water has to pass through gets smaller, the water comes out with more force. So the winds speed up when the distance they have to pass through gets smaller."
Winter Projects
High wind speeds and arctic-like conditions make this a perfect place for hearty meteorologists to study winter weather.
Scientists from the University of New Hampshire, for example, wanted to find out what kinds of aerosols were in the air. So, on foggy days, Plette placed icing rods outside in the fog. When it was below freezing, rime ice accumulated on the rods. Both ice and rods were sent to UNH to determine the types of aerosols found in the ice. By analyzing the ice, researchers know what kinds of chemicals are in the air, because they know what kinds of chemicals are bound up in the ice.
Lots of Work
If it sounds like a lot of hard work staying up there, it is. "It takes a lot of physical strength to deice all the instruments and keep all the doors free of snow," Plette says. "We have to be self-reliant."
You can never underestimate the power of the wind. One night last December, Plette couldn't feel any wind. So, thinking that it must not be that strong, she moved out of the protection of the tower and stood straight up. "As I turned east to make my observation, the wind picked me up a foot into the air and pushed me about 10 meters [30 feet]," she remembers. "It was really cool and the most exciting thing that has happened to me up here so far, but I will never make that mistake again!"
But she has fun, too. A small, red, plastic slide sits beside the stairs leading outside. "We go deck sliding," Plette says. "We sit on that little sled and let the wind push us across the observation deck. It is so fun!"
Plette hates to see the winter end. "I love it up here in the winter," she says, "which is odd for me, because I'm a summer person. I've always loved nice hot, humid, sunny weather. But it is like a different planet here."
"And I have the best view in the world," she says, as she scans the peaks on the jagged horizon of New Hampshire's famous White Mountain range. "Beats any view in the city."
Plette got this unusual position because she loved weather, math, and physics. "I asked myself one day, What am I going to do with all of these? I decided to do a joint major in physics and atmospheric science." She interned at the observatory at the end of her senior year in college, and she's been here ever since.
In addition to observing the mountain's weather conditions, Plette also gives a daily weekday weather forecast on New Hampshire Public Radio.
You could visit this winter planet and Plette. Groups are welcome to come up for a tour or an overnight stay. If you are interested, call the Mt. Washington Weather Discovery Center at (603) 356-2137. And don't worry if you can't come in the winter. You won't have missed the snow! Even in the middle of July on a good year, visitors start climbing from the base in shorts and T-shirts, and by the time they reach the top, they will have passed many patches of snow and ice where drifts have been so deep, they sometimes never completely melt.
- aerosol:
- A gaseous suspension of fine solid or liquid particles.
- dew point:
- The temperature at which air becomes saturated and produces dew (water droplets that form on cool surfaces) usually at night.
- tropopause:
- The boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere (about 8 km in polar regions and about 15 km in tropical regions). The regions above the troposphere have more atmospheric stability than those below. The tropopause marks the vertical limit of most clouds and storms.
- wind-chill factor:
- The temperature of windless air that would have the same effect on exposed skin as a combination of wind speed and air temperature.
- In what kind of a climate zone is the Mt. Washington Observatory located? How do you know this? Write a few sentences to explain your answer.
Answer: The Mt. Washington Observatory is located in a temperate climate zone. The winters on Mt. Washington are cold and snowy. In the summer, the roads leading up to the top of the mountain are not covered in snow. There may still be patches of snow on the ground, but the air is much warmer.
- What kind of climate data would the Mt. Washington Observatory probably not collect?
Answer: Answers will vary but could include that the observatory probably does not collect information related to very hot climate patterns, such as those found in desert areas.
- People have been monitoring the weather at the top of Mt. Washington since 1932. What might be some of the benefits of continuously studying the weather in one place over such a long period of time? Write a sentence or two to explain your answer.
Answer: Answers will vary but could include that monitoring weather in one place over a long period of time allows scientists to understand changing patterns that may be occurring in weather patterns.
- In what kind of a climate zone is the Mt. Washington Observatory located? How do you know this? Write a few sentences to explain your answer.
Answer: The Mt. Washington Observatory is located in a temperate climate zone. The winters on Mt. Washington are cold and snowy. In the summer, the roads leading up to the top of the mountain are not covered in snow. There may still be patches of snow on the ground, but the air is much warmer.
- What kind of climate data would the Mt. Washington Observatory probably not collect?
Answer: Answers will vary but could include that the observatory probably does not collect information related to very hot climate patterns, such as those found in desert areas.
- People have been monitoring the weather at the top of Mt. Washington since 1932. What might be some of the benefits of continuously studying the weather in one place over such a long period of time? Write a sentence or two to explain your answer.
Answer: Answers will vary but could include that monitoring weather in one place over a long period of time allows scientists to understand changing patterns that may be occurring in weather patterns.


text: I'll Be Back song You know if you break my heart I'll go, But I'll be back again. 'Cause I told you once before goodbye, But I came back again. I love you so oh, I'm the one who wants you, Yes, I'm the one who wants you, oh ho, oh ho, Oh, you could find better things to do Than to break my heart again. This time I will try to show that I'm Not trying to pretend. I thought that you would realize That if I ran away from you, That you would want me to, But I got a big surprise, oh ho, oh ho. Oh, you could find better things to do, Than to break my heart again. This time I will try to show that I'm Not trying to pretend. I wanna go, but I hate to leave you, You know I hate to leave you, oh ho, oh ho, oh, "I'll Be Back" Song by the Beatles from the album A Hard Day's Night Released 10 June 1964 (mono) 10 July 1964 (stereo) Recorded 1 June 1964,EMI Studios, London Genre Rock and roll Length 2:20 Label Apple Records Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin A Hard Day's Night track listing 13 tracks Side one "A Hard Day's Night" "I Should Have Known Better" "If I Fell" "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" "And I Love Her" "Tell Me Why" "Can't Buy Me Love" Side two "Any Time at All" "I'll Cry Instead" "Things We Said Today" "When I Get Home" "You Can't Do That" "I'll Be Back" "I'll Be Back" is primarily a John Lennon composition credited to Lennon–McCartney, and recorded by the Beatles for the soundtrack LP to their film "A Hard Day's Night". This song was not released in the US until Beatles '65 some five months on. Please note the text from Wikipedia is imported without editing or authentication. I'll Be Back (AHDN) I'll Be Back (Demo) (Anthology 1) I'll Be Back (Complete) (Anthology 1) ©1964 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.


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8 Fabulous Ebay Mens Ring
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When it comes to the manner jewelry or 8 Fabulous Ebay Mens Ring to fit your winter needs, there are a large amount of trendy options available. Several girls realize the importance of wearing the correct jewelry together with the costumes they wear to go to function, social events, and even formal events that they can be attending. The style earth is stuffed with trends for every single year, and those trends are always-changing based on the designs that companies come out with and what celebrities contemplate to become warm. If you want to know which varieties of jewelry you should be contemplating for the cold year, then here are afew pieces that you should contemplate.
In case you are contemplating rings for the manner jewelry you will be wearing this winter, then there are a few items you should know. One of the hottest trends of the year is for girls to wear layers of rings. This can be a mixture of gold and silver rings that will contrast with each other, or it can be layers of the single-color with a ring that features a colourful gemstone placed into the mixture. This is a very trendy search you will see many girls carrying this winter.
Not simply are girls carrying layers of rings for the manner jewelry they're buying, but they can also be wearing layers of bracelets also. This slip you'll notice many girls walking around with many different varieties of bracelets going down their arms. These will be a mixture of the big high bracelets together with cuff bracelets and others. Who says you're only limited to wearing one sort of diamond? If you visit this winter style development you'll be able to wear as many as you desire!
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Latest News
No plans to remove Cuba from terror list, according to U.S. officials
A newspaper report that top State Department officials believe Cuba should be removed from the U.S. list of countries that support terrorism drew denials Thursday from the department and the White House.
The Boston Globe had reported that "high-level U.S. diplomats" have concluded Cuba should be taken off the terror list, which would allow Secretary of State John Kerry to "remove a major obstacle to restoring relations" with the island. Interviews with "top administration officials and members of Congress indicate there is a growing consensus in policy and intelligence circles that Cuba's support for terrorist groups has been terminated," the Globe added.
The report also noted that Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has long favored improving relations with Havana, met in recent days "with officials to review the Cuba policy."
But the report carefully added that U.S officials "emphasized that there has not been a formal assessment concluding that Cuba should be removed from the terrorism list.
On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland responded: "I saw that report. Let me say firmly here it is incorrect. This department has no current plans to remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list."
"We review this every year, and at the current moment we — when the last review was done in 2012 — didn't see cause to remove them. We'll obviously look at it again this year, but as I said, we don't have any plans at the moment," she added.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "We have no changes in our approach or policy to Cuba to announce or under consideration that I'm aware of."
Policy makers in Washington are not currently discussing Cuba and the terror list, but that does not mean that down the road the situation will not change, a knowledgeable government official told El Nuevo Herald.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the U.S. Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee in Washington, said removing the island from the list would amount to a "scandalous" concession to the communist government.
Claver-Carone wrote in his blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, that the Globe story notes the George W. Bush administration delisted North Korea in 2008, an irony "because apparently that has worked wonders in tempering the North Korean regime's criminal behavior."
The newspaper quotes one unidentified "senior administration official with direct knowledge of Cuba policy" as saying "there is a pretty clear case" that the island doesn't meet the standard for the terror list anymore.
The State Department's 2012 terrorism report listed Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan. For Cuba, it noted the government's links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Spain's Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA).
There was no indication that Cuba "provided weapons or paramilitary training" to ETA or FARC, the report said. But it said "current and former members'' of ETA lived in Cuba. "One of them, José Ignacio Echarte, is a fugitive from Spanish law and was also believed to have ties to the [FARC],'' the report said.
"Reports suggested that the Cuban government was trying to distance itself from ETA members living on the island by employing tactics such as not providing services including travel documents to some of them," it added. "Press reporting indicated that the Cuban government provided medical care and political assistance to the FARC."
Havana authorities also "continued to permit fugitives wanted in the United States to reside in Cuba and also provided support such as housing, food ration books, and medical care for these individuals," according to the 2012 report.
Cuba also has "strategic deficiencies" when it comes to efforts to crack down on terrorism financing and other money laundering, the State Department added.
The Castro government has been on the terror list since it was created in 1982, largely because Cuba trained and armed guerrilla movements from virtually every Latin American nation in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Globe report came after a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation that included Massachusetts Rep. James P. McGovern, a Democrat, returned from Cuba Wednesday following talks with President Raúl Castro on how to improve relations. McGovern said Cuban officials are "agitated" by their inclusion on the terror list and raised the issue during the talks, according to The Globe.
The key stumbling block to Obama administration gestures toward Havana currently is the detention of Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen serving a 15- year prison sentence in Cuba for delivering illegal communications equipment to Cuban Jews under a U.S. government pro-democracy program.
Cuba has all but openly offered to free Gross in exchange for five Cuban intelligence agents convicted in a Miami trial. Four are serving long sentences in U.S. prisons and one has been released on probation, which must be served in the United States.


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Local Programs
Included in this list are shelters and local programs that provide support, counseling, safety planning, and other services to victims of abuse. If you cannot get help from the organization nearest you, you might want to try calling one in a neighboring county. (Have a suggestion or correction? Contact us!)
Please note that we list the organizations by the town, city or county where the office is located – however, many offices serve multiple towns or counties. You can click the "View All" to look through the complete list of organizations. If you are looking for an attorney to represent you in court or to give you legal advice about your situation, go to our Finding a Lawyer page instead.


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Radio Rewind: season preview II
Segments have been UPDATED as of 3/29… If you missed any of the second Bisons 2011 Preview Show, we've got you covered.
- Bisons include Dillon Gee (RHP), Fernando Martinez (OF), Jesus Feliciano (OF) and Mets manager Terry Collins.
- Bisons Tobi Stoner (RHP), Jason Pridie (OF), Kirk Nieuwenhuis (OF) and former manager, now Mets bench coach Ken Oberkfell.
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In the founding principles of this blog, I wrote that I want to help build a world where gender is rarely a burden, never a prison and always a blessing. While that is undoubtedly easier said than done, it always struck me as a rather uncontroversial ambition. Who could disagree?
I appreciate that the debates around the nature of gender vis-a-vis sex, essentialism, binaries and spectrums are immensely difficult and opaque. Alex Gabriel ran an excellent blog this week spelling out why even the simplistic separations of male against female or biology against social construction are often inadequate or misleading. I don't intend to delve into any of that, when others can explain it much better than I could.
One thing that has become apparent from recent ideological wrangles within feminism is that there is a significant bloc for whom the problem is not gender discrimination, gender inequality or gender-based oppression, but gender itself. It's an argument that was laid out with unusual clarity by the feminist blogger Marina S this week. It seemed worth exploring just why I disagree with her so strongly. Her piece, entitled 'What gender is and what gender isn't' begins with a claim that had me screaming NO!
Gender is not the straightforward assertion that some people play with dolls while others play with trucks; it is the assertion that playing with dolls is an inferior pastime to playing deviant, and vice versa, and that this deviance must be punished with social sanction. In this way it creates a hierarchy between doll playing people and truck playing people.
She expands on the point with respect to sexual libido and career choices, but the premise is the same. Gender, she argues, is not a politically neutral identity or psychological and social trait that has been exploited to create arbitrary and artificial divisions.Gender is inherently hierarchical and oppressive, and is an assignation from which violence and economic exploitation inevitably flows. The goal of feminism, then, must not be just the elimination of gender inequality or gender oppression, but that abolition of gender itself.
The consequences of this thinking are profound. The most obvious victims are trans people whose very existence is of course denied by this logic. I don't think it is a very subtle political model either. It would preclude hegemonic power dynamics that oppress men and boys in parallel to those oppressing women and girls. At a more trivial and superficial level, it doesn't strike me as a particularly desirable utopia. I like living in a world of diversity and a society with a broad spectrum of gender, like a spectrum of sexuality, ideology, physicality, psychology and ideology feels healthier to me than a monoculture. I don't want to live in a world of the gender equivalent of the Mao suit.
For all that, if Marina is right that gender is inherently and inevitably oppressive, it would be something that should profoundly influence our gender politics. So while I don't want it to be true, could she be right?
At the heart of her blog is a long analogy to slavery. She is saying that just as skin colour was arbitrarily made into a delineator between slave-class and slave-owning class; so was binary biological sex made into a delineator between dominant class and subordinate class.
It seems to me that this analogy already contains a significant counter-argument. While she is entirely right to say that social divisions of oppression are arbitrary, they invariably have some sort of rationale. So while there might have been a brief period of Greek history where (literally) anyone could be a slave and anyone a slave-owner, for the vast bulk of human history, there have been other arbitrary divisions as to who could or could not be a slave – a conquered enemy, a criminal, a member of another tribe, another religion, another race. All those distinctions are arbitrary. All are (at least partially) socially constructed. All are reified and made real within the social and political realm. If our culture has shed the assumption that it is reasonable to make someone a slave if they were born on the other side of the river or practice a different type of prayer, could we not similarly shed the assumptions of hierarchical power we attach to gender?
The real meat of the argument comes later. I can only address it by quoting it at length. It begins here:
To say that the physical reality of women or of black individuals offers no humanly imaginable justification for their oppression is to make a clear and ethically cogent statement of fact.
(I agree)
The true roots of women's oppression is located in a pursuit of power by small elites through the division of humanity into classes with opposed interests, one of which is constructed as inferior to the other.
(I agree)
However, to take a further step into saying that this disconnect between the real and the purported cause of our oppression means that the fact that served as the purported cause does not exist, or is not meaningfully consistent, or is "a social construct" and therefore somehow "not really real", is the most craven of attempts to smuggle good old fashioned misogyny by the back door of linguistically obtuse progressive theorising.
WOAH, no, stop right there!
Who is saying that physical sex is not really real? Is anyone making that argument? From my understanding of post-Butler, post-structural feminism, the argument is 1/ That the absolute binary of sex is not really real – the idea that all the world's population can be easily and accurately divided (by anyone) into 'male' and 'female' is a myth, and 2/ That people are oppressed on the basis of gender and that many (not all) of the dynamics of patriarchal oppression relate to gender (the collective social), not sex (the individual physicality).
Even those intellectually dishonest racists who claim to "not see colour" don't go as far as insisting that therefore differences in colour don't exist. Race, nationality, religion, and other social constructs such as class and education, all profoundly shape gradients of power, domination and exploitation. So far, the only 'social construct' that is being theorised out of existence by the Left rather than the Right is the oldest and largest (in terms of population size) of them all.
Is this true? I don't see it. To take her analogy literally, I would aver that even those who claim not to see a binary of biological sex don't go so far as insisting that therefore differences in sex don't exist.
Sex exists. Gender – a hierarchy of the fully human and the merely animalistic, the properly intellectual and the merely emotional, the realised individual and the objectified Other – instrumentalises it. It does not depend on it. It is not directly – ontologically or otherwise – driven by it. But it is an inescapable fact of gender that its organising principle, its plausible cause of oppression, its fig leaf of necessity, is sex.
(I agree)
To theorise sex out of existence is to deny that sexism can exist. It is to refuse to accept that a class of human beings exist who have been economically exploited, raped, murdered, forcibly impregnated, exchanged as chattel, denied a history, a language and a right to their bodies since (literally) time immemorial. If we deny these people an identity based on the root of their oppression we are saying they, as a class, do not exist. Have no shared history. No conceivable political mission. No right to recourse. No community. No grievance. No hope.
Here's my huge problem. I don't think anyone is trying to theorise sex out of existence. However I do see people attempting to theorise gender out of existence, right here in front of me, and to theorise gender out of existence is to deny that gender oppression, including transphobia, can exist. It is to refuse to accept that trans people exist. It is to refuse to accept that a class of human beings exist who have been economically exploited, raped, murdered, forcibly surgically transformed, exchanged as chattel, denied a history, a language and a right to their bodies since (literally) time immemorial. And all the rest of it.
A more obscene act of woman hatred than to simply refuse to admit that women exist is hard to imagine. Tidier and cheaper than wholesale extermination, more economically self serving than foregoing the reproductive labour extracted from, the profound hatred of women qua women such an argument betrays is breath-taking. That it is an attitude espoused sometimes women themselves is no counter-argument, but a – relatively minor – entry in the ledger of the brutalising effects of patriarchal oppression.
I ask again, who is saying women do not exist? I've never seen it. I have, however, seen many people deny that trans people exist, who insist they are delusional, insane or sexual fetishists. Those hateful charges do not spring from thin air, but from an ideological well in which gender has been wished away and we are defined purely by the categorisation of our bodies.
After all this, I am still genuinely trying to understand why it should be that gender is inherently oppressive. I don't see it. Marina argues well that to deny the existence of womanhood would be oppressive, but nobody is denying the existence of womanhood. At most, they are claiming that womanhood is not necessarily restricted to biological essentialism. Is womanhood somehow degraded or nullified by the inclusion of trans women? I've seen that argument made in its bigoted glory elsewhere, but I don't think it is the case being made here and nor, I think, is it especially compelling.
For what it is worth, my hunch remains that gender, sex and sexuality continue to circle around each other like the rings of a gyroscope – related, independent, often overlapping, sometimes far removed. The only time any of them becomes oppressive in itself is when we insist they must all align.


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Robert Duvall is outstanding and so is Robert Downey Jr. in the movie The Judge.
Little outbursts and disagreements of the duo have been executed brilliantly and framed exceptionally well by Dobkin. The bit where Duvall rushes up in high squall carrying a temper whilst Downey follows for war is one of the most dramatic scenes that shows how puny nature is against human commotion! Humour is strewn in the movie and when you have Downey with the bat, it always makes home runs.
Drenched with drama the movie has an apt theme that runs around the convicted irony – the Judge who isn't willing to let his guard down and who hates his middle son Downey for so many irreparable reasons that he can't just give in. Whilst Downey, the forlorn child who never returned to his parents owing to the long born and bred abomination he burnt in, tries to save him from the clouded murder of a foul-mouthed obnoxious hill-billy.
The score is apt and the screenplay is intense. Loved how Dobkin carried it all. The amount of focus he put in, in every frame is worth commending. A must watch for Downey's wit lovers and also for dramaholics.


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(I'm Gordon Good, one of the team mentors/parents for Silicon Valley Young Makers/Team Saphira)
My son James and I got involved with the Silicon Valley Young Makers team back in March 2013 with encouragement from team member Malik and his dad Jean (James and Malik have been buddies practically since birth). It's so impressive what the team has accomplished in the last few months. I'm sure we'll be posting more about all the work that lead up to where we are today, but in this post I'll give my perspective as a mentor on how the Maker Faire Weekend of May 18/19 2013 went.
Friday: Packing, Driving, and… oops!
On Friday morning we gathered at Jeff's house to wrap up last-minute things and get packed. There were actually quite a few loose ends to take care of, and as a result we never had a chance to do a full system test. That turned out to be a bit of a problem (more on that later). Of course, all the young makers were at school, so we didn't have any help.
In the late afternoon, we were finally ready to load up and go. Getting Saphira into Jeff's truck is quite an operation, but we got her in, along with the robotic base and the big particle board castle wall, which just barely fit, resting on top of Saphira. We set the castle wall on top of Saphira, closed the truck tailgate and rear window, and the caravan (Jeff's truck, Sue's SUV, and Jean and Gordon's cars) headed north on I-280 to San Mateo.
Arriving at the San Mateo County Event Center, we drove the truck in the gate, found our site, parked, and tried to open the rear window of the truck and… it wouldn't open! The castle wall had slid backwards and had jammed the left latch for the rear window. Try as we might, the latch would not open. It would have been a real bummer if Saphira stayed locked in the truck all weekend. Fortunately, Jeff managed to wrestle the latch open and Saphira was free.
Setup Time: Paella, Melted Powerpoles, and Trashed ext4 Filesystems
Maker Faire is a very well-oiled machine, and we had lots of help getting our site ready. Electrical power was all ready to go, and a temporary shortage of safety barricades was resolved immediately by staff. While we were setting up, the Makers-only party was ramping up (and was right next door, conveniently). Free Paella for everyone, and Jean, Malik and I were served our dinner by none other than Dale Dougherty! It was also great to get a visit from Team Viper (Saphira's original Makers) while we were setting up. Their support over the months leading up to Maker Faire was very much appreciated!
After dinner, Malik hooked up Saphira's motor controller and drove her around to show her off. After a few minutes, he came running back to me, saying "I smell burning plastic!" Uh-oh. Here's what he smelled:
As it turns out, when I assembled the Powerpoles, I didn't push the crimp-on part far enough through the plastic body, so the connectors were only engaging the metal clips that are intended to provide pressure on the crimp-ons. I've only used the smaller 15 amp versions, and these monster 50 amp versions require a lot of force to seat the crimp-on correctly. As a result, the connection was loose, and one terminal was arcing, which created the heat that melted the plastic. Moral of the story? Read The Fine Manual!
Then, when we did our pneumatics test, nothing moved. We attached a monitor and rebooted the Pi, and discovered that it wouldn't boot, complaining that the root filesystem was corrupt and couldn't be mounted. Less than 15 hours to go, and we were dead in the water!
Late Night Plan B
We decided to take a two-pronged approach to rescuing Saphira. Plan A was to reinstall the Raspbian OS on the SD card, the reinstall the motion control software team member Jasper had written. Plan B was to revert to using the Arduino-based motion controller originally built in 2010. However, since all our solenoids were now hardwired to our new driver circuitry, we needed some way to drive that from the Arduino. I grabbed all of the wire connectors, IDC headers, and DB-25 connectors I could find and stuffed them into my backpack so we could try to wire the things together, but I was hopeful we wouldn't need to do that. I also rebuilt all of the 50 amp Powerpole connectors (properly, finally). I got to sleep at 1am, worried about having to get everything working on-site.
Jasper to the Rescue
Saturday morning at 7:30 I headed over to Jeff's house to drop off the rebuilt power connectors, and found our young maker Jasper hard at work reloading Raspbian and installing WiringPi (which we need to drive the GPIO pins). We still didn't understand why the Pi had failed so badly, and I was worried that we'd have more problems during the day. I headed home to get myself and James ready for the day.
James and I arrived at Maker Faire at opening time (10 am). I learned that Jasper had gotten the Pi's OS and all the needed extra software reinstalled, had gotten the wireless game controller working, and had figured out how to get WiFi access from our site, which was a huge relief. We didn't get the Pi to automatically run the motion control script, which meant that it had to stay hooked up to a monitor and keyboard, and, in turn, that meant that we had to move the driver circuitry off of Saphira and onto a table away from the flame. After everything was reconfigured and plugged in, Jasper pushed the joystick on the game controller forward and… Saphira rose up! Cheers and applause…. and we were ready to show. Here's what her fire looked like:
And here is one of her performances:
Working The Crowd
Apart from being proud of our young makers for pulling off Saphira in the first place, we were really impressed with how they worked with our crowds, especially the young kids, and explained how Saphira worked during a "behind the scenes" session after each show. They explained how the body motion worked, how the sound worked, and, of course, how Saphira breathes fire. Here's Malik explaining the pneumatics.
And here's Megan helping a very young maker be the voice of Saphira during a show:
She had such a great time, she went and got a Saphira tattoo somewhere!
And this wasn't our only very young maker to operate Saphira's voice during our shows. This little girl Poppy did a great job making Saphira roar and speak, and look at that big thumbs-up!
Last Thoughts
This is the third Maker Faire I've been to, but my first as a maker, and in the three years I've been there, I really can't recall ever hearing any serious complaints. Oh, sure, there may have been some occasional grumbling about long lines, but overall, the atmosphere was just incredibly positive. I think that's no accident – makers tend to dwell on what's wrong with something only as long as necessary to make it right.
I am looking forward to mentoring our team over the next year. Saphira will be even more awesome in 2014.


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The optic nerve is the nerve at the back of the eye that carries
visual information from the eye to the brain.
Last Revised:
January 25, 2013
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & Martin J. Gabica, MD - Family Medicine & Christopher J. Rudnisky, MD, MPH, FRCSC - Ophthalmology
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Aug. 1, 2007 - In a new trend, labels on the clot-fighting drug warfarin will now warn that people with certain genevariationsmay need lower doses of the drug.
It's the first time that the FDA has asked doctors to consider a patient's genetic makeup when prescribing a widely used drug, says Larry Lesko, PhD, director of clinical pharmacology at the FDA.
"Today is a significant event for those who see the day when medicine is tailored to the genetic makeup of each one of its users," Lesko said at a news conference.
"We are continuing to engage in various projects that will further evaluate the relationship between genetic variability and treatment outcomes in patients," FDA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer Janet Woodcock, MD, said at the news conference.
The change in the label for warfarin (originally sold under the brand name Coumadin) does not require that patients get genetic tests. But the new label suggests that genetic testing can help doctors find the correct dosage of the drug.
Each year, about 2 million Americans start taking warfarin to prevent blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes. It is notoriously difficult to find the right warfarin dosage for an individual patient. Factors such as age, diet, use of other medications, and use of vitamins and supplements affect the dosage.
Because of this, warfarin is the second most common drug (after insulin) that sends patients to the emergency room.
Researchers have noticed that about a third of patients who start warfarin need much lower doses than expected. This difference appears to be due to variations in two genes. One of the genes, VKORC1, affects a patient's sensitivity to warfarin. The other gene, CYP2C9, affects how quickly a person clears warfarin from the body.
The new warfarin label suggests that doctors starting a patient on warfarin might want to have that patient tested for variations in these genes. Most major laboratories already offer the test. Lesko says the cost of testing ranges from $125 to $500; a patient would need to be tested only once.
Patients already taking warfarin probably will not need genetic testing if they already have found the warfarin dosage that works best for them.