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The Hillock
Surrounded by a vast and seemingly empty veldt, the hillock is barely the height of a man. In the summer months after the rains, the high grass can easily obscure the hillock, as the grass itself can reach even the shoulder of a tall man. Recessed into the earth is a plain entrance, unadorned and unmarked. It is seemingly more like a den of a lion or a pack of wolves, or (insert suitable predator).
The Gallery
This portion of the ruin can be reached after trekking through roughly 100 or so feet of well worn and traveled cavern. Though much of it is now eroded, and in places deposited with sediment, there are obvious signs of primitively worked stone. No hidden doors or secret passages, but there are rough hewn steps, and niches hacked into the soft stone of the walls. Whatever might have once sat in these niches has since been looted, decayed, or otherwise fallen into disrepair.
Niche Contents: 1D6
1 - rotten parcel of cloth and crumbly dry bones
2 - mass of spiderwebs, a birds nest, a bat creche
3 - broken pot or urn
4 - flint arrow and spear heads, time worn and dull
5 - humanoid skull, assorted small bones
6 - horned animal skull, caked in brittle dry wax
Should the inquisitive PCs look up they will see something quite unexpected. The semi-sloping, semi-domed ceiling of the gallery has been painted by long since perished hands. The artwork is crude in its technical quality but there is a strong emotional factor to be found in the crude drawings and raw pigments. Ruddy brown handprints cover certain areas that have been washed in white. Other areas show animals, many of which have horns, such as antelope, goats, deer and the like. Blood, hunting, and death are common in the first few natural arches of the main gallery.
Hunting Gallery: 1D6
1 - Blood hands on white stone
2 - band of hunters and antelope
3 - lion stalking a hunter
4 - hunters fighting other hunters, other hunters different color
5 - hunters chasing bison/buffalo creature
6 - females dressing slain goat
The second, and central series of arches show a virile and hirsute people engaging in a stunning variety of sexual positions. Many of the features are drawn out of proportion, as one might expect. While the previous galleries evinced a feeling of a living and vital world of predators and prey, the second gallery evokes a feeling of almost frenzied reproduction. Central to the gallery is a massive and crudely drawn figure of a man with the head of a lion. Around him languish many women, and lionesses.
Fertility Gallery: 1D6
1 - Crude female icon
2 - man with physically bound woman
3 - woman on top of physically bound man
4 - man taking woman from behind
5 - woman lashing man with rod/whip
6 - crude male icon
The final gallery is best described as a warning and potentially a curse. The figures are doubled over in pain, many missing limbs or being rent apart by images of four legged beasts that have been smudged by the passage of a vigorous hand.
Cursed Gallery: 1D6
1 - hunters with severed limbs, heads
2 - smudge monster eating fallen hunter
3 - bleeding woman
4 - smudge monsters chasing band of hunters
5 - black hands on white
6 - female icon with vulture head
The area of the three galleries is large, easily the same size as a modest inn with the ceiling more than 20 feet overhead. Scattered around the floor are the remains of animals that have wandered into the ruin, or were dragged their by predators. Alternately, a still living predator, such as a lion, pack of wolves, or the like could still make its home in the front part of the galleries. Animals do not go past the central gallery.
The Gate
Beyond the vulture headed icon is a passageway barely large enough for a person to walk through without contorting themselves. The passage is perhaps 20 feet long, and is lined with the bones of a large animal. A competent horseman, taxidermist, or hunter would be able to recognize these as horse bones. An oddity since there are no horses in the previous galleries. Mixed in with the bones are a number of now rotten and decayed spears, stone axes, and arrowheads. With the flint on the floor of the passage, soft soled shoes will be quickly sliced, and feet quickly after for a minor and inconvenient amount of damage.
Temple of the Death Goddess
The chamber beyond is large, though not quite as vast as the galleries. There is much less refuse here, though there are a great number of bones. THe walls have been lined with thousands of skulls, empty eyesockets all facing towards the center of the chamber where a skeletal and gaunt figure sits. Another female icon, though this one has been carved out of soft white stone. Her arms are black with vulture feathers, and her breasts and belly are white and distended in the manner of a woman heavy with child. More gruesome still is the head, as it has been completely assembled out of bones to resemble a vulture.
The icon's spread legs are covered with the same brown stains that a canny adventurer might recognizes as spilt blood. Though to get such a stain, it would require not one or two applications, but enough blood spilt to sate even the gluttony of a demon. Closer examination of the altar will reveal a moderatly well hidden door and very steep staircase leading down.
Aisles of the Damned and the Blessed
Behind the vulture headed goddess there are a number of passages, each with an animal headed icon set above each entrance. The first is a nearly square passage large enough for two to pass side by side. Above it's lintel is the vulture headed goddess. To the right is a smaller passage, slightly larger than the Gate. Above it's entrance is a wolf headed male icon, it has pronounced claws on its hands. The third passage has a steep downward grade and the footing is treacherous, it is guarded by an antelope headed male icon, a spear has been thrust through his side and is bloody. The forth and final passage is the smallest, and to enter it the PCs will have to crawl on hands and knees beneath the icon of a rodent headed female.
Vulture Aisle
The first and largest aisle is the easiest to enter, but after a few minutes it is obvious that the passage is only the begining of a labyrinthine series of passages, small galleries. It is obvious that the passage was regularly used, their are decayed fixtures for holding torches, and the stone has been worn smooth by years of being touched.
Vulture Aisle: 1D6
1 - small gallery with arranged piles of bone, an ossuary
2 - shrine to pile of bones and vulture feathers
3 - steep grade, switchback, or treacherous passage
4 - day to day crude paintings, some farming, tanning etc
5 - large gallery with huge piles of human bones
6 - pit with evidence of rotted bridge, or rotted wooden bridge
Vulture Aisle Enocunters: 1D6
1 - shambling revenants, cursed zombies
2 - skeleton possessed by minor demon
3 - zombie that screams and gibbers in strange language
4 - shaman zombie, has access to low level magics
5 - medium lion shaped bone golem
6 - large undead with mutiple arms, vulture head
Wolf Aisle
The first few hundred feet of this aisle are deceptively smooth and well trod, but the truth of the aisle becomes quickly apparent. Where the Vulture aisle was home to shrines and the ornamental and somewhat respectful treatment of the dead, the Wolf Aisle is a killing place. There are great numbers of sharp stones, the floor has no level to it, and there are a great number of pits and simple traps. Scattered along the passage are the long since decays bodies of humans, their forms contorted by agony…
Wolf Aisle: 1D6
1 - ankle breaker pit trap
2 - pit trap with wooden spikes
3 - narrow gallery of sharp rocks
4 - skull breaker, low roof
5 - stone beam crossing passage
6 - small ossuary pit
Wolf Aisle Enocunters: 1D6
1 - crawling zombie, lurks and ambushes
2 - swarm of biting pit vermin
3 - wolf zombie that stalks and pounces
4 - warrior zombie, mad with rage, uses weapons
5 - large wolf shaped bone golem
6 - medium undead with wolf head and razor claws, cunning.
Antelope Aisle
The passage is steep, and as well worn as the Vulture passage. Paintings and glyphs adorn the walls, as well as brackets for long since rotted torches. Danger comes from posibly stumbling and falling/rolling to the bottom of the grade, a serious chance to be injured. The galleries are shaped, and there are more paintings of hunters to be seen.
Antelope Aisle: 1D6
1 - round gallery with firepit, paintings
2 - shrine of animal bones
3 - piles of bone laid out with primitive weapons
4 - small and blood stained altar
5 - medium gallery with piles of animal bones
6 - winding passageway with paintings
Antelope Aisle Enocunters: 1D6
1 - striking skeletons set into wall
2 - skulking ghost
3 - antelope headed zombie
4 - hunter zombie, has spear and stalks
5 - medium lion zombie
6 - shapeless mass of undead animal flesh
Rodent Aisle
The smallest of the passages, and even still a foul smell blows from its mouth. To enter, the PCs will have to remove their packs and crawl on hands and knees. Weapons other than short swords or spears will be useless with no room to swing or wield them. The ground is covered with a thick layer of powdery material that with investigation cen be identified as dried skin and flesh.
Rodent Aisle: 1D6
1 - small gallery filled with leathery corpses
2 - passage blocked by piles of bone, corpses
3 - medium gallery with very crude paintings of despair
4 - natural pit half full of bones
5 - empty gallery or passage
6 - pool of water, still teeming with lethal bacteria/virus
Rodent Aisle Enocunters: 1D6
1 - crawling corpse,hacks and sputters
2 - sickened animal, possibly rabid
3 - zombie that seems wracked with pain, still attacks
4 - plague zombie, gnaws bones
5 - small swarm of animated rat zombies
6 - humanoid female zombie with rat-styled head, poison touch
Roles of the Aisles
To bring an end to the head scratching, the Noil ruins were inhabited by a primitive and ancestor worshipping people. The vulture headed goddess is the prime deity that espouses the circular nature of life and dead, as the belief was that to die was to be born again. The Vulture Aisle was a crypt and catacomb for the plains dwelling people. The Wolf god was the punisher of enemies and criminals. Those who broke the law were flushed down the Wolf Aisle, often with tamed wolves in chase. Most died in pits, broke their skulls against the roof, etc. It was a death sentance, and only rarely were the bodies cleaned out. The Antelope god was the hunter and the hunted, and his aisle was the abode of the hunters. There, youths were taken and initiated into the circle of hunters by corporal mortification, often circumsion on an altar. The rodent god was the personification of disease, and those who were ridden with illness were forced into the aisle to protect the Noil people.
The Hidden Passage
The stairs are covered in the same blood stains, one can imagine how slick the stone might have been when that blood flowed freely. A canny observer might notice that there is a continuous groove in the stairs that would have funneled the blood to a place further below. The passage is short as the Hidden Passage has an end, rather than the potentially endless mazes and labyrinthes presented by the four aisles. At the feet of the stairs there is a gate that is closed by a number of rows of salt and alternating mold. Investigation reveals that the other substance might have been grain of some sort. Canny adventurers might know that lines of salt and germinated grain could be used as wards to keep something in. This is better realized after the PCs muck up a few of the lines, breaking their minor power.
Paintings line the walls of the central chamber, a female icon hunting and slaying hunters and animals, ignoring critical wounds and spears. Dozens of skulls and piles of bone litter the ground, and in the center of the chamber is a stone sarcophagus, its lid covered with dust, and under the dust an intricate layering of aboriginal style salt and sand painted glyphs and markings. Of course the typical PC reaction to 'dust off' the top is going to ruin these wardings unless the PCs are super observant and canny.
The Queen
Once the glyphs are removed, sometihng stirs within the sarcophagus and the lid is lifted with supernatural strength. From the coffin rises the last of the Noilian people, and she is a tall and dusky skinned woman. She has tribal tatoos on her arms and her belly, as well as wearing a good deal of gold and unshaped raw jewels. Her head is obscured by a vulture headed funeral mask which she removes fairly quickly. Beneath the mask she is a woman of middle years with an attractive face and bewitching eyes.
She has a very high charisma score, and if surrounded by a great number of warriors she will sue for peace rather than fight. Rather than speak, she will communicate through pantomime, if there is a Pc member with a low wisdom score, she will attempt to communicate through them via limited telepathy (good way would be to pass notes to said player). She will appear noble, gracious, and generous, willing to share the location of her noble treasure trove for securing her freedom.
Fighting the Queen
If the PCs decide to attack the obviously evil vampiress, she has a number of powers at her command. She is supernaturally strong, but has no supernatural resistance to weaponry. Mortal wounds are rare as only cutting off her head, spearing her through the heart with a wooden weapon, or fire/magic can cause any lasting harm. She can lock eyes with a PC and attempt to dominate them into not fighting, PC can resist with willpower or wisdom. She was also a huntress, and is capable of using most weapons with a good deal of skill. PCs beware, and she goes for clerics first, then wizards, and will then try to negotiate with warriors and thieves that survive.
If the PCs destroy the queen, which should be rather difficult but not impossible, they can loot her remains for her uncut jewels and gold. She also has a trove of more jewels and gold that were offered to her when she ruled the Noil people. There can also be some necromantic paraphenalia, scrolls and enchanted non-metal objects.
If the PCs loose, the Queen reveals that she is indeed a vampire, though the term is alien to her. She considers herself blessed by the Vulture headed goddess and ruled the Noil people until a religious upheveal lead to her being trapped beneath the wards and the Noil adopting a less brutal faith. This change historically led to the downfall of the people and their eventual eradication/assimilation into the mainstream population.
If she is released, the PCs will be responcible for releasing an old and powerful vampire into the world at large. Even worse, this isnt and angsting and damned vampire, it is one that believes itself to be a hand picked avatar of the goddess of death, one that is going to be very unhappy with the new world of men…


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Natus Medical Incorporated has announced that it will create 25 jobs at its new distribution centre in Gort, Co. Galway. The new distribution centre, located in the IDA Business Park, is comprised of a 22,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, bringing the total reach of Natus' site in the park to over 66,000 square feet.
The new distribution centre is the result of a multi-million euro investment and, while there will initially be 25 new jobs at the facility, the company plans to add a further 50 roles over the next three years, which would bring the company's headcount in Gort to 200.
The new roles will be essential in supporting the facility's expansion over the next few months. The roles will range across a number of areas and will offer interdepartmental support within the business, from manufacturing and regulatory affairs to customer service and finance responsibilities.
CEO of Natus Medical Incorporated, Jonathan Kennedy, said that the advanced infrastructure and top-level talent that Gort offers will help the company to grow in the region. Minister of State for Natural Resources, Community Affairs and Digital Development, Sean Canney TD, expressed his enthusiasm for Natus' expansion and said that the new jobs in the area "will be of substantial benefit to the local economy." Mary Buckley, IDA Ireland Executive Director reaffirmed the potential for global companies to succeed in regional locations, with Natus' Gort facility being a prominent example.
Find out more about the Biomedical Technologies and Medtech sector HERE.
Find out more about the Engineering and Manufacturing sector HERE.

subset: commoncrawl


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Qore is no more, April issue is its last hurrah
Sony has announced via the US PS Blog that the April issue of its digital magazine Qore will be the last. In the latest issue, it takes a look back at the four or so years on PSN as "the first interactive digital magazine on a game console: in which it covered over 160 new […]
Qore headlines
US PS Store Update, January 10 - Choplifter HD, FFXIII-2 demo, more
This week's US PlayStation Store update brings with it a couple of new sports applications, a revived classic, another two classics in bundled form and some interesting demos.
Qore episode 32 includes Killzone 3, Mass Effect 2 goodies
Qore episode 32 splashes across the North American PlayStation Network tomorrow, bringing with it many and varied delights, including a scintillating romp across the year that was, a gleeful flick through DC Universe Online, and most interestingly, bonus goodies in the form of a Qore subscribers-exclusive Killzone 3 desktop theme and Mass Effect 2 artworks.
LittleBigPlanet 2 Qore gameplay rocks socks
You want more LBP2 stuff? You can never be too full of LBP2 stuff. After the break, there's gameplay footage of the game from the latest episode of Qore.
Sony responds to comments over lack of content with Qore
Kevin Furuichi, executive producer for PSN has responded to customer complaints over the PS3 interactive magazine, Qore.
This month's Qore features BioShock 2, Dante's Inferno, more
The US PS Blog has detail on what you'll be getting for your $5 this month in Qore.
Qore Episode 13 bonuses include Spyro the Dragon
Qore Episode 13 will be released this Thursday on PSN. Free bonuses this month include an inFamous Bad Karma theme, a Qore T-shirt for Home, and Spyro for both PS3 and PSP. The one year anniversary issue also includes features on Fight Night Round 4, inFamous, and the Frag Dolls. It looks as though the […]
Qore ep 13 delayed to include "full feature story on PSP Go"
Remember Qore episode 13? The one that leaked the week before E3 with all the PSP Go info? It's been delayed to include some… PSP Go info. The following was sent out to Qore subs yesterday: Dear Qore Subscriber, As mentioned on the PlayStation blog on Friday, we are experiencing a delay in the release […]
Today's Qore episode is free, has Red Faction: Guerrilla
According to the PS Blog, today's Qore episode is going to cost precisely nothing. Great if you're American. There's stuff in the downloadable mag on Red Faction: Guerrilla, Fat Princess and inFamous. All good. Video about it all after the break.
inFamous soundtrack hitting the PlayStation Store in May
The inFamous soundtrack will be available for download via the PlayStation Store on May 21 for $9.99. The score was created by electronic musician Amon Tobin, composers James Dooley and Mel Wesson, and electric cellist Martin Tillman. The April issue of Qore will feature a look into the game's music. Read on for the press […]
Sony starts handing out High Velocity Bowling vouchers
Sony's started handing out vouchers for free High Velocity Bowling. If you are a Qore subscriber, check your email to see if you got one. The game uses the Sixaxis controller to simulate bowling swings, and includes eight characters and eight themed alleys. Multiplayer for 1-4 players is enabled, as is a Trophy room to […]
Qore Episode 10: Burnout, Riddick, LittleBigPlanet, more
Qore Episode 10 is now up on PSN, and a preview of what you'll get is posted after the break. This week, the Sony folks get some hands-on time with the upcoming Big Surf Island expansion pack for Burnout Paradise, travel to Sweden to visit Dark Athena creator Starbreeze, and talk Alpha Protocol with Obsidian. […]
Qore episode 8 to feature F.E.A.R. 2, Killzone 2 and Heavy Rain
Kevin Furuichi, executive producer, PlayStation Network has updated the PSBlog to reveal that the next episode of Qore will feature F.E.A.R. 2, Killzone 2 and Heavy Rain. They talk to Quantic's Veronica Bellmont about motion capture, Monolith about sound and Guerilla about Killzone 2. Don't believe us? See for yourself after the break. By Mike […]
SCEA launches new PlayStation show, PULSE
SCEA's announced PULSE, a free-to-all video PlayStation round-up presented by an extremely wobbly Christina Lee. Watch the first episode here. It's a bi-weekly affair, apparently, and features slots on topical games, such as Prince of Persia, Street Fighter II HD, and so on. PULSE and QORE are to be joined by TITS early next year.
Qore issue seven to be free
According to this US PS Blog post, the seventh issue of US PSN mag Qore will be free. We have good news for you this month. As our way of saying "Happy Holidays," the PlayStation Network is offering the Single Episode version of Qore Episode 07 (December '08) for FREE* in the PlayStation Store. So, […]
Home beta invites sent out to Qore subs, v1.0 released onto test servers
Here we go. PS3-Sense brings word that Home beta invites have been sent out to Qore subscribers. The piece also says that, as expected, version 1.0 of the app's client has been put live on the beta servers. As reported earlier this week, Sony will now bring large amounts of people into the beta in […]
US Home beta only available to annual Qore subs
Sony's confirmed that only those with an annual Qore subscription will be allowed to get on the Home beta through the downloadable US mag. "As an update to the PLAYSTATION(R)3 News email sent on Friday, October 24th, the special invitation to PlayStation(R)Home's closed beta is available only to Qore annual subscribers who purchased subscriptions by […]
November Qore to contain Home beta invites
Finally. PS3F's reporting that the November edition of Qore is to contain beta invites to Home. While this means you have to be both in America and willing to pay to get involved in Sony's online social "thing," the emergence of public invites surely indicates that wider access will happen this year, as Sony has […]
Qore entrance to Home beta? "More news in about two weeks"
Looks as though Qore subs in the US are going to be able to gain access to the Home beta before it's opened up to the general public. When asked if a subscription to the PSN show was going get people in, SCEA's Kevin Furuichi replied on the US PS Blog: "We're working on this […]
US SOCOM beta launches today
The US PS Blog's posted that the American beta for SOCOM: Confrontation will go live in America at 5.00pm PST today. You need to be a Qore subscriber to get involved, apparently, and you need to have been so from the first episode of the Future US PSN show. More through the link.
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Qore latest
US PS Store Update, January 10 – Choplifter HD, FFXIII-2 demo, more
This month's Qore features BioShock 2, Dante's Inferno, more
Qore ep 13 delayed to include "full feature story on PSP Go"
Qore episode 8 to feature F.E.A.R. 2, Killzone 2 and Heavy Rain
Home beta invites sent out to Qore subs, v1.0 released onto test servers
Motorstorm Pacific Rift demo due out on QORE in early September
Qore episode three includes invite to Resistance 2 September beta


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Turn on (start up) your Mac
To turn on your Mac, press its power button, which is usually marked . Some Mac notebooks also turn on when you open them, connect them to power, press any key, or press the trackpad.
Learn more about turning on different Mac models below.
Mac notebooks
On MacBook Pro models from 2016 and newer, Touch ID (power button) is on the right side of the Touch Bar at the top of the keyboard.
On MacBook Air models from 2018, Touch ID (power button) is on the right side of the function keys at the top of the keyboard.
On Mac notebooks with physical function (F1–F12) keys and power button, the power button is a key in the top-right corner of the keyboard.1
Newer Mac notebooks also turn on when you do these things:
- Open the lid of your Mac, even if it's not connected to power.
- Connect your Mac to a power adapter while its lid is open.2
Additionally, MacBook Pro (2018) and MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) turn on when you press any key on the keyboard or press the trackpad.
Mac desktops
Mac mini
The power button is a circular button on the back of the computer. With the back of the Mac mini facing you, the power button is on the far-left side.
iMac and iMac Pro
The power button is a circular button on the back of the computer. With the back of the computer facing you, the power button is in the lower-right corner.
Mac Pro
On Mac Pro (2013), the power button is a circular button on the back of the computer, just above the port where you plug in the Mac Pro power cord.3
Turn off (shut down) your Mac
The best way to shut down your Mac is to choose Shut Down from the Apple menu .
Just as your Mac follows a startup process after it turns on, it follows a shutdown process before it turns off. That process includes automatically quitting all open apps and logging out of your macOS user account.
If your Mac doesn't shut down, try Force Quit to close any apps that aren't responding. If that doesn't work, press and hold the power button until the Mac turns off.
Press and hold the power button to turn off your Mac only if it isn't responding. You'll lose unsaved changes to any documents that you have open.
If your Mac doesn't turn on
If your Mac doesn't turn on, check your power connection, and if you're using a Mac notebook, make sure that its battery has some charge. You can also try holding down the power button for ten seconds, then pressing the power button again to see if the Mac turns on. Learn more about what to do if your Mac doesn't turn on.
If your Mac turns on but doesn't start up completely, you can use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.
Learn more
- You can also put your Mac to sleep, which is different than shutting down. Learn more about sleep and the other Energy Saver settings on your Mac.
- Learn keyboard shortcuts for sleep, log out, and shut down.
1. On earlier Mac notebook models, the power button is a circular button next to the keyboard.
2. To start up your MacBook Pro or MacBook by plugging it in, make sure to use an AC adapter that provides sufficient power, like the one that came with the computer. Your Mac notebook's battery must have some charge to start up when you connect it to power.
3. On earlier Mac Pro models, the power button is a circular button on the front of the computer, above the headphone jack.


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There's lots to see but even more to do when you visit Elkhart County, Indiana
Upcoming Events!
You'll always find something fun for the whole family to do, see and explore in the cities and towns along the Heritage Trail. Take in a vibrant contemporary quilt exhibit, breathtaking Quilt Gardens or take advantage of the Midwest Museum of American Art's Free Family Sunday. Catch a music performance or attend a live music festival. There are fun times and great entertainment along the Heritage Trail in Elkhart County, Indiana.


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A $10-million mixed-use development is planned on 1.07 acres of vacant land at the southwest corner of Auburn and Squirrel roads in Auburn Hills.
Construction on the 53,000-square-foot Rivers Edge of Auburn Hills development is expected to begin this summer and be complete by the end of summer 2015.
The four-story building will have 9,300 square feet of retail space on the first floor and 31 one- and two-bedroom apartments on the second, third and fourth floors.
Bingham Farms-based Burton Katzman LLC is the developer of the project, which received city council approval on Monday night.
"We are pleased that Burton-Katzman is bringing this type of popular mixed use/urban loft project to downtown Auburn Hills," Steve Cohen, director of community development for Auburn Hills, said in a news release.
Detroit-based Albert Kahn Associates Inc. is the architecture firm on the project.
Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, [email protected] Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB


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DOD civs recalled
Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON — Only those Defense Department civilians recalled from furlough under the Pay Our Military Act may take annual and sick leave, a Pentagon spokesman said here, Monday.
"Employees who remain on furlough are in a non-pay, non-duty status, so there is no leave to take," explained Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen.
So, a civilian employee who had leave planned and is now furloughed can still take that vacation. It will not count as leave as long as the furlough lasts.
Once the president signs an appropriation or Congress passes a continuing resolution, furloughed employees will report back to work.
Further legislation is necessary for employees to receive retroactive pay for days lost to the shutdown. If that happens, employees will be paid for the furlough time, and will not be charged for any leave that had been approved for days that became furlough days.
On DOD civilian pay, the situation is a bit different. The next civilian pay date is Oct. 11, and under the Pay Our Military Act, Defense Department civilians will receive paychecks.
Excepted employees – those who continued to work – will receive the full 80 hours of pay. Those furloughed will receive 48 hours of pay for the pay period covered by that payday, up and to and including Sept. 30.
Furloughed employees will receive pay for the four hours they worked Oct. 1 to implement the orderly shutdown once there is a new appropriation or continuing resolution in effect.
DOD civilian employees called back to work Oct. 7 will receive their paychecks for the current pay period Oct. 25.
(Editor's note: This release was the latest current at press time.)
Category: News


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Monsanto's annual research and development update highlighted record project advancement across the company's breeding, biotechnology and improved agronomics platforms, all aimed at sustainably maximizing farmer productivity while conserving resources like water and land.
Through integrated research in breeding, biotechnology and new technology areas such as Integrated Farming Systems and agricultural biologicals, Monsanto is focused on offering farmers the best possible system of products to optimize the performance of their crops each growing season. This systems approach focuses on delivering multiple solutions for farmers to combat the challenges they face, using fewer inputs, while ensuring the solutions work together to maximize total yield potential.
"In this record year for our pipeline, we added next-generation agronomic trait solutions, advanced our work in the unique space of yield and stress with the launch of Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids, advanced breeding projects that combat yield-reducing pests and diseases, and also added projects in our newest area, agricultural biologicals," said Robb Fraley, Ph.D., Monsanto chief technology officer. "With our diverse and expanding pipeline of solutions, we'll be able to deliver additional innovations to meet the needs of our customers in a sustainable way."
In addition to the 18 project advancements, Monsanto has three projects in its Ground Breakers on-farm testing program. Ground Breakers, a testing program that informs the company's commercial decisions and gives farmers a firsthand look at future products in their fields, continues Intacta RR2 PRO in Brazil, and added Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans (field trials under permit) and FieldScripts under Integrated Farming Systems in the United States.
Biotechnology Platform
Monsanto has a pipeline of exciting products in development, including yield and stress work in collaboration with BASF Plant Science, as well as next-generation insect control, designed to minimize yield risk and take production to a whole new level. This year's advancements are comprised of eight projects, including the launch of Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids, developed in collaboration with BASF. This drought-tolerant corn system is designed to enhance yield stability when water is limited, providing farmers in tough environmental conditions with an opportunity to improve yield and consistency.
Breeding Platform
Monsanto's breeding program draws from a diverse genetic germplasm collection that is unparalleled in the industry. Combined with an extensive global testing program, an understanding of biotechnology traits and advanced breeding tools like molecular markers and seed chippers, these components help plant breeders deliver new and improved hybrids and varieties faster and with higher yield potential than ever before. In addition to annual germplasm improvements, this year's breeding pipeline advanced four projects, including the launch of phytophthora root rot resistant soybeans which targets the second most significant soybean disease in the United States, with an average yield loss of 44 million bushels per year.
Agricultural Biologicals Platform
Within Monsanto's agricultural biologicals platform, researchers are working on targeted and effective products for weed, insect and virus control that could maximize growers' yield potential. Monsanto's first technology under agricultural biologicals is BioDirect. The company's two BioDirect projects in virus control and insect control would offer farmers protection from virus and insects across a wide variety of crops. Monsanto's BioDirect technology glyphosate-resistant weed control would target glyphosate-resistant weeds and provide a broader spectrum of control.
Agronomic Solutions Platform
Monsanto featured two advancements in its agronomic solutions platform that are designed to provide farmers with multiple solutions to combating weeds and multiple nematode species that impair productivity. Nematicide chemistry would provide farmers with control against nematode species in a wide variety of crops. The company also advanced its improved dicamba formulation, which would provide farmers with an additional tool for weed management, to the final phase before commercialization.
The following is a complete list of the 18 projects advancing phases in 2013.
Biotechnology Platform
Next-Generation Corn Rootworm (Advanced to Phase 1)
Next-Generation Corn Rootworm would provide farmers with multiple modes of action against corn rootworm. This project would build upon current corn rootworm technology, with multiple, new modes of action that would offer the opportunity for greater control and durability against corn rootworm.
Next-Generation Above-Ground Insect Protection for Corn (Advanced to Phase 1)
Next-Generation Above-Ground Insect Protection is designed to offer increased control and durability against key lepidopteran pests. This next-generation project would provide multiple modes of action against above-ground insects, providing a broad spectrum of efficacy on farmer's fields.
Next-Generation Insect-Protected Soybeans (Advanced to Phase 1)
Next-Generation Insect-Protected Soybeans add additional modes of action, improving current yield protection and trait durability from previous generation products. This product is designed to provide multiple modes of action to primary and secondary insect pests with a broad spectrum of insect protection.
Next-Generation Genuity Bollgard Cotton (Advanced to Phase 1)
Next-Generation Genuity Bollgard Cotton is designed to enhance the insect protection in earlier Bollgard products. This next-generation technology would provide season-long protection with multiple modes of action against key lepidopteran pests in cotton fields worldwide.
Herbicide-Tolerant Wheat (Advanced to Phase 2)
Herbicide-Tolerant wheat is designed to incorporate tolerance to multiple herbicide modes of action, giving growers multiple options for weed management. Early field trials showed excellent tolerance to dicamba and glufosinate.
Insect Protected + Roundup Ready Sugarcane (Advanced to Phase 2)
Insect-protected + Roundup Ready Sugarcane is designed to use the Bt technology widely adopted in corn and cotton to control economically damaging pests in Brazil, including sugarcane borer. The insect protection is combined with the Roundup Ready gene for more flexible weed control.
Dicamba-, Glufosinate- and Glyphosate-Tolerant Corn (Advanced to Phase 3)
Dicamba-, Glufosinate– and Glyphosate-Tolerant Corn is designed to build on the Roundup Ready Xtend crop system and provide farmers with additional herbicide-tolerance options. This product would contain multiple herbicide tolerance traits enabling use of herbicides with different modes of action, expanding growers' options to protect their corn crop from weed infestations.
Dicamba- and Glufosinate-Tolerant Cotton (Advanced to Phase 4)
Dicamba-and Glufosinate-Tolerant Cotton would represent Monsanto's first stack of herbicide-tolerant technologies in cotton, containing Genuity Roundup Ready Flex stacked with Dicamba-and Glufosinate-tolerance for three unique modes of action. Part of the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System, this would provide cotton growers with the most effective weed management system available.
Drought-Tolerant Corn (Launched) – Collaboration between Monsanto and BASF
Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids is Monsanto's drought-tolerant corn system developed as part of a joint R&D collaboration with BASF on yield and stress. Monsanto will introduce Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids in the Western Great Plains for the 2013 growing season under stewardship requirements pending import approvals in key export markets. Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids combine germplasm selected for its drought-tolerant characteristics through breeding, the drought-tolerant biotechnology trait and agronomic recommendations. In the 2012 growing season, Genuity DroughtGard Hybrids experienced strong performance in trials, with commercially projected products showing a yield advantage of more than 5 bushels per acre over competitor hybrids.
Breeding Platform
Goss's Wilt Resistance in Corn (Advanced to Phase 3)
Goss's Wilt, caused by a bacterium that reduces yields in the Western Great Plains and expanding areas, affects approximately 30% of U.S. corn acres and can impair yields greater than 60 bushels per acre. The Goss's Wilt Resistance project would enhance disease resistance against Goss's Wilt in corn crops.
Root Knot Nematode Resistance in Cotton (Advanced to Phase 4)
Root Knot Nematode Resistance technology in cotton can reduce root knot nematode populations by 60%. When combined with seed treatments, the system can provide enhanced seedling vigor, resistance management and season-long protection against root knot nematodes. These new cotton varieties would offer more uniform, stable growing performance than is currently available.
Phytophthora Root Rot Resistance in Soybeans (Launched)
In field-testing, Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield Phytophthora Root Rot soybean varieties with double gene stack showed a significant yield advantage over the competition, providing enhanced season-long protection against the diverse pathogen strains of the second-most impactful soybean disease in the U.S.
Performance Series Broccoli (Launched)
Unlike ordinary broccoli, the crown in Performance Series Broccoli extends even with the leaf canopy. The stem is clean without large leaves to remove. The crowns mature uniformly, requiring fewer passes through the fields at harvest which makes them easier for farmers to harvest.
Agricultural Biologicals Platform
BioDirect Technology Virus Control (Advanced to Discovery)
Leveraging Monsanto's core capabilities in genomics, BioDirect Technology Virus Control could significantly reduce the impact of viruses across a broad range of crops.
BioDirect Technology Insect Control (Advanced to Discovery)
Early testing indicates BioDirect Technology Insect Control could provide specific and precise protection against insect pests that significantly impact the health of a farmer's crop.
BioDirect Technology Glyphosate-Resistant Weed Control (Advanced to Phase 1)
BioDirect Technology Glyphosate-Resistant Weed Control has the potential to be a game changer for managing weeds that have developed glyphosate resistance. Early testing indicates that BioDirect technology can be used with glyphosate to target weeds and provide a broader spectrum of control on problem weeds.
Agronomic Solutions Platform
Nematicide Chemistry (Advanced to Phase 3)
Monsanto's nematicide chemistry would provide farmers with an additional tool to control pressure from multiple nematode species, one of the largest pest problems in agriculture.
Improved Dicamba Formulation (Advanced to Phase 4)
The Improved Dicamba Formulation, a complementary component of the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System, would control resistant and tough to control weeds with a dual-mode-of-action herbicide. The new low-volatility dicamba/glyphosate premix candidates could be used before, during and after planting with Roundup Ready Xtend Crops.


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Based on the pseudo-memoir of the same name by Ned Vizzini, "It's Kind of a Funny Story" follows a high school student named Craig (newcomer Kier Gilchrist) from his hasty decision to have himself committed for fear he'll commit suicide to his realization that maybe things aren't so bad. What could have been treacly and/or self-pitying is instead an amusing tale of young man going through growing pains.
The film was adapted and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, a filmmaking duo who have made three very different films in four years. Their debut, "Half Nelson," about a drug-addicted teacher, helped establish Ryan Gosling as a force. Their sophomore effort, "Sugar," was a tragic tale--told mostly in Spanish--about a Dominican baseball player trying to make it to the major leagues. Though it's about a suicidal teen, "Funny Story" is decidedly lighter fare.
The child of a successful father (Jim Gaffigan doing the distracted, type-A dad thing surprisingly well) and loving mother (Lauren Graham, apparently having accepted her lot in life as the hot mom), Craig buckles under the pressure of getting into Manhattan's best high school, an endless buffet of extracurricular and the major jones he feels for his best friend's girlfriend.
Gilchrist, best known for his work on "The United States of Tara," meets the primary qualification for playing a tortured teen: he's an actual teen, which goes a long way toward making him believable. Rather than wasting his talents trying to act 16, he's playing the part: confused and sad and tortured and horny.
Strangely, it is during his week in a psyche ward that Craig, at the age of 16, first discovers he can draw and sing pretty damn well. Which is ridiculous of course, these are not the kinds of gifts that spring forth fully formed. But these clumsy attempts at character development are made forgivable by the fact that they inspired some inventive filmmaking from Boden and Fleck.
This history of cinema is littered with awkward performances from comedians trying to do drama (see: Carrey, Jim; Williams, Robin), so it's with great trepidation that one welcomes Zach Galifianakis to the proceedings. Arguably the funniest guy working in film and television right now, Galifinakis is the rare comedian who can play both broad and subtle successfully. He brings that same range to bear here, a man whose depression has repeatedly driven him to the brink. But Galifianakis never goes maudlin, staring into the camera begging for your empathy, instead keeping his sorrow measured and real.
Boden and Fleck are two of the bolder young filmmakers working today, and if this "It's Kind of a Funny Story" is their misstep, they've got a great future. With all its faults, "It's Kind of a Funny Story" plays out like a good John Hughes film if it were covered by an indie rock band.


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Harper drives in four to back Young's strong start
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Washington Nationals sent their primary roster to Roger Dean Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. They also delivered a message of what their formidable lineup can do when assembled together.
Bryce Harper had two hits and drove in four runs in the Nationals' 7-5 victory over the Marlins.
Harper, the 2012 National League Rookie of the Year, had a two-run double in the third inning and added a two-run single in the fifth off Marlins starter Wade LeBlanc.
Nationals right-hander Chris Young kept Miami off-stride for five innings, yielding two hits and no runs. The right-hander, throwing in the mid-80s, struck out two. He threw 64 pitches, with 42 strikes.
"There's still work to be done, progress to be made, but it's an improvement," Young said. "That's the way spring's supposed to go. You're supposed to get a little bit better each time. I feel like I've made strides. Not where I want to be yet, but getting closer and feeling good. That's the most important part."
LeBlanc, a frontrunner to be Miami's fourth starter, entered Wednesday without allowing a run in nine Grapefruit League innings. The string reached 11 innings before Washington pushed three runs across in the third inning.
In five innings, LeBlanc, who also was throwing in the mid-to-upper 80s, gave up six runs on seven hits in five innings. Exiting after 84 pitches, LeBlanc finished up with some more pitches in the bullpen.
Washington moved on top in the third inning.
Kurt Suzuki started a string of three-straight singles to open the inning. Young reached on a bunt single on a play LeBlanc attempted to make with a diving catch. Denard Span bounced a single into right field, filling the bases. Jayson Werth lifted a sacrifice fly to right, and Harper drove in two with a double to left-center.
Before Wednesday, LeBlanc did give up three runs (two earned) in 2 2/3 innings in an exhibition against Team Venezuela, which was preparing for the World Baseball Classic.
In the fifth inning, the Nationals did more damage with another three-run frame. Again, Harper had the big hit, a two-run single. Ryan Zimmerman's sacrifice fly to right padded the lead to 6-0.
A couple of walks to open the fifth -- including a leadoff walk to Young -- set up the big inning.
In the sixth inning, Miami got back into the game, stringing together five-straight two-out hits off Zach Duke.
Giancarlo Stanton had an RBI double, and Greg Dobbs chipped in with a run-scoring single. Rob Brantly had a two-run double.
Up next: Washington stays out on the road Thursday, with a game against the Braves under the lights in Orlando at 6:05 p.m. ET. Roger Bernadina will be back after nearly a month at the World Baseball Classic, and right-hander Dan Haren will be on the hill after a rough outing during his last start. The game can be seen online on MLB.TV.


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|Home > Individuals & Groups > Ethnic Groups, Minorities & Indigenous Peoples
|This section of the EISIL database includes sources and materials relating to the rights of indigenous, racial, and ethnic groups, especially where such groups comprise a minority of the population of the state in which they reside.
Primary Documents
Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (ILO No. 169)
More Information
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities
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Convention concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries (ILO No. 107)
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United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
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International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
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Jehovahs Witnesses to meet in Farmington
Members of the local Durango-English Congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses, as well as members of Aztec, Bloomfield, Chama, Cortez, Farmington, Ignacio and Pagosa Springs congregations, will attend a Special Assembly Day at 9:40 a.m. April 6 at the Farmington Civic Center, 200 W. Arrington in Farmington.
The theme of the assembly will be Safeguard Your Conscience, based on 1 Timothy 1:19, which will be highlighted through Bible-based talks, discussions and experiences. The highlight will be the talk Is Your Conscience Truly Guided by Bible Principles? given by a representative of the Christian Congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses in Patterson, N.Y. The concluding talk will be Follow Your Spirit-Directed Conscience.
The public is invited to hear this and other Bible discourses prepared for youths, families and older people. Admission and parking will be free. No collections will be taken.
Montana parents sue over school assistance
HELENA, Mont. Two Montana parents are suing the state schools superintendent over the agencys refusal to provide tuition assistance for their daughter to attend a Christian preschool.
Eric and Kelsi Wilson filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court Thursday after an administrative hearing officer dismissed their complaint with the Office of Public Instruction.
Agency officials have cited federal regulations and a Montana Constitution clause that say education funds cant be used for religious instruction or to aid church-run schools.
The Wilsons, backed by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, say refusing to provide tuition assistance to attend a religious school is unconstitutional.
Herald Staff and Associated Press


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Friday, March 29, 2013
Photo Friday ~ A Bridge in New York City
This photo is dated 1963, so my husband must have been about two and half years old in this photo! The woman is his great aunt, "Tia Chon". Her real name was Maria Ascension Garcia, sister of my husband's grandfather. When his parents married in January 1960 and came to New York City from Spain, my husband was born in November of the same year. In Spain the extended family would have taken care of any children, but they were newly arrived immigrants to the USA. So they arranged for Tia Chon to come be the babysitter, since she had never married and wanted to see America. Tia Chon came from the tiny village of Puerto Seguro in Salamanca, so New York City must have been a great experience for her. My father-in-law worked at the United Nations, and my mother-in-law worked for a New York publisher.
I'm told that the bridge in the background is the George Washington Bridge, and that this was photographed at the Cloisters Museum. If anyone from New York City can help identify the setting, that would be very helpful!
How do you like the hat? My husband is still a big fan of hats. He has a hat in his current wardrobe just like this one, and a fez, a Mexican sombrero, a Stetson, several Panamas, berets, baseball hats, fedoras, a colonial tricorn, and a collection of wild winter polar fleece hats that are pretty unbelievable.
This photo was taken at Bear Mountain State Park in New York. The background shows the Hudson River and some buildings or a bridge. It probably dates from about the same time as the photo above. Starting at the right is my mother-in-law with my husband on her lap. Next to her in the dark clothing is Tia Chon. The young girl in the foreground is, Julia, a friend of the family, and to the left is a young woman named Amparo. Amparo was another relative from Puerto Seguro, Spain who also came to New York to babysit my husband. She later became a nun in Peru.
UPDATE- Reader Wendy Walter has identified the bridge in the first photo as the Queensboro Bridge. We checked on Google Maps and Google Streetview and from the angle of the photo we think it was possibly photographed at the United Nations Plaza. This makes sense, because that is where my father-in-law was employed at this time! Thanks, Wendy!
Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
4 comments:
I love the custom of family members helping out. We don't see that as often, now that everyone works. My children stayed with my father-in-law during the summers after he retired. It was ideal, their grandparents lived on the other side of a 40 acre field. The kids slept in, ate breakfast and walked down. In those days, we didn't have to worry whether or not the house was locked!ReplyDelete
Very cool. Now I understand your last name, because your husband comes from Spain. He had some good babysitters with both his great aunt and Amparo . . . sounds as if he had a great childhood with lots of loving people around.ReplyDelete
Yes, it certainly looks like the George Washington Bridge to me, and the Cloisters is a well-groomed place, just like the landscape in the background. I love the way your husband, as a little boy, is dressed in a cute suit and hat, and especially the way he is looking up at Tia Chon.
That bridge does not appear to be the George Washington Bridge but I think it may be the Queensboro Bridge, linking Manhattan to Queens and passing over Roosevelt Island. I am not familiar with the neighborhoods around the bridge so I don't know exactly where the photo was taken. Here is a photo of it on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensboro_BridgeReplyDelete
Great photos!Replies
I think you are correct now that I see photos. It definitely isn't the GWB. We think it might have even been photographed from the United Nations, which would make a lot of sense! The angle of the bridge from the UN grounds is perfect. Thanks!Delete


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Our View
It's been almost three years since retired Purdue University professor Don Huber first publicly claimed a previously unknown organism that thrives in fields treated with glyphosate herbicide is causing spontaneous abortions and infertility in livestock and causing an increase in plant diseases.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Huber urged the USDA to stop approving crops genetically modified to be glyphosate tolerant until his claim could be investigated.
Huber said the microscopic organism could lead to a "general collapse of our critical agriculture infrastructure."
It was an alarming claim that quickly caught the attention of the media. If substantiated, Huber's research would have huge implications for farmers across the country who rely on glyphosate-resistant, Roundup Ready crops developed by Monsanto for their livelihoods.
In several interviews with the Capital Press over the years, Huber has refused to offer any proof to back up his claim. We are not alone in wondering if proof exists.
Huber is a serious scientist with an impressive resume. He is well regarded by peers who hold equally impressive credentials. They too are skeptical because they can't see Huber's data.
Huber says he has a team of researchers working on the problem, but he won't identify his collaborators out of fear they will be persecuted. He refuses to identify laboratories that he says have declined to perform the DNA sequencing of the micro organism necessary to continue his research.
"It's very difficult to even look for it in this country without being threatened to have your lab shut down because you're a heretic," he said.
The unsubstantiated implication is that some cabal — presumably involving Monsanto — is preventing the inquiry from moving forward.
But there are so many opponents of GMOs in general, and Monsanto in particular, that it stretches credibility that no allies could be found to aid in the investigation, or a laboratory found willing and able to do the work.
Indeed, scientists we've talked to are clamoring to review Huber's data and give it the rigorous peer review required to substantiate the claim. Assuming they could substantiate the claim, that review in itself would propel the inquiry forward.
Huber continues to decline to make that data public.
Huber recently told the Capital Press that since he sent the letter to Vilsack, the microscopic organism has proliferated and the occurrences of plant diseases and animal abortions are increasing.
If this is true, farmers would be the first to seek alternatives to glyphosate and Roundup Ready crops. But Huber bears the burden of proof.
All of his claims may be legitimate. We can't prove they are false, but it seems Huber can't, or won't, prove that they are true.
Huber says the very future of modern civilization is at stake. If so, he must make his case to his peers, let them see what he has found, and let them judge his data by the rigorous scientific standards he has employed throughout his career.


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I had a look at implementing MS IT Site Life Cycle Management as an alternative to AvePoint products, or the previously blogged-about MS IT Site Delete Capture utility:
Unfortunately, this product just is not going to work for us. It is possible that we could wrangle it into shape with enough time, and an ability/desire to check the code out of codeplex and patch it up. However, I just can't bring myself to deal with it. Here are some problems that I encountered:
- The utility has not been tested or developed to work on the Server 2008 platform. The directions are written with Server 2003 as a reference platform, and tell you do do things like "create a virtual directory" when what they really want you to do is to create an application in your IIS App Pool. I could live with this but…
- The tool does not work on Server 2003 either, at least, not when using WSS 3.0 Service Pack 2. The web.config file in the LCMWeb directory references an assembly in the GAC named "Microsoft.Internal.MIME", with the version 22.214.171.124. Guess what? That assembly was upgraded with Service Pack to to version 8.0.681.0. But even after updating the web.config file to the new version, I still get errors when attempting to load the LCMWebConfig.aspx page. humph.
Essentially, this tool is not supported, and ,to make matters worse, it is not being maintained. I really would hate to spend time beating it into shape only to have the damn thing break when the next service pack or release of WSS comes out.


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Shale oil extracted from the Green River Basin in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming may one day be an important part of this nation's energy portfolio. But it's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
And given concerns about the impact on Colorado communities and the environment as well as uncertainty surrounding the water and energy required to extract shale oil from the earth, we have long urged a pragmatic approach to shale development in western Colorado.
That is why we were pleased when the Bureau of Land Management earlier this month announced they had scaled back Bush-era plans that would have expanded leasing of public land for shale and and tar sands development.
The area has long been looked at as a potential "Saudi Arabia" of untapped oil. Unfortunately, as Coloradans know all too well, the potential for shale development has always outweighed the reality.
Oil shale may be an important part of the energy future for a country that is becoming less reliant upon foreign oil, but it's a long way off.
The good news is that, even without large-scale commercial shale leasing, the United Sates is headed in the direction of energy independence anyway.
Largely as a result of hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. is poised to pass Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency said last week.
So the need to throw open public land in the Rocky Mountain West for leasing before anyone has developed a method to extract shale oil in a manner that is both economically and environmentally feasible is diminished.
In 2009, the Department of the Interior — with former Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar newly installed at the helm — halted the Bush administration's midnight lease offerings for shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Critics contended — and Salazar agreed — that the leases were too large and offered to energy companies with royalty rates that were far too low.
Recently, the BLM announced that it was reducing from more than 2 million acres to roughly 677,000 acres the amount of federal land in the three states that is available for development. Wilderness quality lands were put off-limits.
While there were some predictable complaints about job-killing and energy security, the reality on the ground in Colorado is that large-scale shale development is nowhere near being practical from an economic standpoint.
But that doesn't mean the effort should be abandoned, and the new BLM rules allow for continued leasing of smaller, 160-acre research plots. In fact, on the same day the new rules were announced, ExxonMobil and Natural Soda Holdings had their permits for in-ground research leases approved.
We're pleased to see the measured plan that's been put forward.
Throwing open the doors to large-scale development before there is either supply or demand would be a regrettable and unnecessary endeavor given recent advances in the nation's energy markets.


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Los Angeles, CA
"The people at Arts Earth Partnership understand the cultural sector and have been invaluable in helping to chart a course of cost savings and sustainability at all of our cultural facilities, even in these difficult economic times. I encourage all municipalities and arts organizations to get involved." Olga Garay, LA DCA Director 2007-2014
"We learned so much from AEP in the process of becoming certified. Knowing how to become environmentally responsible is extremely motivating." Suzzane Isken, Executive Director, Craft and Folk Art Museum
"AEP has been an indispensable partner to the Historic Lankershim Arts Center. The certification process revealed wasteful tendencies we were not even aware of. Many of the changes required to qualify for the partnership were quite easy to make. Thanks to AEP, we are now on a path to a sustainable future." Joe Calarco, Managing Director, Lankershim Arts Center


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So basically this is a game that you have to hit targets on a grid. every time there's a "hit" the hitCounter is ++ .
in the end of the game it display a message according to your results. (e.g if you hit 4 out of four - 100% the message is "perfect game", if you hit 3 out of four the message is "very good" .... etc.)
well, that's my plan... but the code seems to take me every time to one place.
Assume that in the end hitCounter is 1, NUMBER_OF_TARGETS is always 2 and FIFTY_PERCENT is always 0.5 it will go here:
else if ((hitCounter/NUMBER_OF_TARGETS) < FIFTY_PERCENT) { System.out.println("\nSorry, you only hit "+hitCounter+" target(s) out of " + NUMBER_OF_TARGETS); }
I tested it many times with different numbers. there were times when I hit nothing and it was ok because if(hitCounter== 0) works.
But even if I have perfect game and more than 50% hits it will take me to the same place.
it's probably something in the division, maybe i'm implementing it wrong.
I hope i describe the problem good enough.
Thanks ahead for your help


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HSE implemented CCH Tagetik's software solution for Statutory and Management Consolidation, Management Reporting
Despite the complexity of the project and a few unexpected complications, we were still able to roll out the software within our allotted six-month time frame. All in all, we are very satisfied with the capabilities of CCH Tagetik, the expertise of CRMT and the results of this project.
Romana Meglen, Head of Accounting
Download the complete case study
The Challenge
Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE) is the largest Slovenian organization that generates and sells electricity on the national wholesale market. Due to the growing complexity of collecting, consolidating and reporting data from the group's 16 subsidiaries, HSE decided to replace its aging Excel-based tools with a new, integrated solution.
Primarily due to the increased efficiency and automation in consolidating data from the different companies in the group
Significant time savings in consolidating investments and capital as well as in preparing statements for financial disclosures
Users now have fast, easy access to 100% reliable data
A common data entry system which has significantly reduced the number of multiple entries and the overall risk of error
HSE has improved the quality and speed of producing data for statutory and management reporting
The individual subsidiaries can manage their local assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses on their own
The Solution
One of HSE's main objectives was to accelerate the process of collecting and processing data for its annual and quarterly financial statements. The group wanted to increase the transparency in each consolidation phase as well as improve the collaboration with its 16 subsidiaries, prepare higher-quality reports, and increase reporting credibility while reducing costs in the process.
- Consolidation of 16 companies
- Common database
- Process integration
Yes, I'd like to know more about Tagetik
For more information, please complete the below form and a member of our team will reach out to you shortly!


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Job Analysis and Classification
Positions are classified or reclassified on the basis of duties and responsibilities, as described in the job description. It is important that supervisors maintain current job descriptions all positions, to ensure that positions are properly classified and paid. The first step in classifying a position is to ensure that the job description is current and accurate. For information on writing job descriptions and the USD job description form, please see: Job Descriptions
The university classifies positions into salary range/pay grades using a point factor system. For staff positions, a Position Audit Committee comprised of representatives from each division meets as needed to review positions submitted for classification or reclassification. For administrative positions, a Human Resources committee meets as needed to evaluate and classify positions.
Exempt v. Non-Exempt
Positions that are determined to be non-exempt are subject to the wage and hour laws that regulate how we pay our employees. The key wage and hour laws require that non-exempt employees:
- Are paid at least two times per month
- Must maintain a written time record of hours worked (time card or other time record)
- Must be paid overtime compensation of 1.5 times the employee's regular rate of pay for any hours worked in excess of 8 hours in the work day or 40 hours in the work week.
Exempt positions are those positions that are not subject to the wage and hour regulations described above. The determination of whether a position is exempt or non-exempt is made by Human Resources based on a careful review of the job description, in accordance with state and federal regulations. Exemptions may be made for Executive, Administrative or Professional positions that meet certain criteria regarding salary and position responsibilities. For a more information on the exemptions available under wage and hour regulations, please see: exemption information


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Quip heard 'round the court: Thomas breaks silence
WASHINGTON -- It was just a quick quip, delivered during an hour-long argument over a defendant's right to a speedy trial, but it sent legal scribes racing to the history books.
Shortly before noon Monday, during oral arguments inside the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas spoke.
He had not spoken in open court for nearly seven years. While the eight other justices usually wait just split seconds before peppering lawyers with non-stop questions, Thomas hasn't asked a question since Feb. 22, 2006.
He didn't ask one Monday, either -- but he did pipe up with a quip, apparently about Yale Law School, his alma mater, and its rival Harvard as well.
The discussion focused on the adequacy of the lawyers provided by the state of Louisiana to a defendant later convicted of second-degree murder. Thomas whispered something to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, seated on his left, who then pointed out that one member of the legal team graduated from Yale, another from Harvard.
At that point, Thomas leaned into his microphone and appeared to joke about the value of that education. The unofficial transcript only caught him saying "Well, he did not...." But his colleagues on the bench burst into laughter, and the state's assistant district attorney, Carla Sigler, said, "I would refute that, Justice Thomas."
It wasn't the first time Thomas has denigrated the value of an Ivy League education. A Yale Law School graduate himself, he wrote in his 2007 book, My Grandfather's Son, that his degree "bore the taint of racial preference" because he had been admitted under the school's affirmative action program.


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Silly Bunt
Funny jokes, insults, puns, pictures, memes, cartoons and gifs.
A Snail's Pace
Say Cheese!
Funny train photo fail picture
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Same Outfit As You
When you go out and someone's wearing the same outfit as you - funny dog meme
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text:
Honestly, I am willing to believe you despite my stubborn cinematic Francophobia, but in this day and age, when every piece of genre trash and gold is being dug up and restored by so many companies like Arrow, Blue Underground, Severin, 88 Films, Criterion, Mondo Macabre, Kosch Media, Something Weird, Retromedia, Eureka, Synapse, Raro, Shameless...how have these been ignored? Spain has had the treatment, even Turkey, the Philippines, South America...
i would follow kinski, delon and pal maurice ronet for a romp through the best stuff. not sure how this fits the eurocult cannon, but in spirit this is all curious and (mostly) gallic, the obsession with state/secrecy/power being a hallmark.
some faves:
l'attentat (1972)
political assassination thriller with an all-star cast (trintignant, seberg, volonté etc.). the fate of one man against dark factions in french politics, very bleak and not the kind of thing that will ever be picked up by criterion.
le dossier 51 (1978)
weird, electronic spy film film sees up-and-coming politician targeted by a shadow intelligence outfit, setting him up for ruin via a very french dark art: psychology.
brigade mondaine (1978)
a wonderful, trashy view into the world of the vice squad as immortalised by gerard de villiers, the brilliant (dead) writer of french pulp crime. also great soundtrack by french disco master cerrone.
mort d'un pourri (1977)
perfectly cast film (delon, ronet, kinski as baddie, ornella muti) laying bare the sinsiter world of french politics with its corporate masters; dark and ever relevant in my view.
there is other stuff (la chair de l'orchidée, killer truck/haine) that does not fit the canon but shows the other france in a way that may be of interest to eurocult watchers.
also out of the canon but a personal favourite is the day of the jackal (1973). not french, but french in spirit (and set in france), this follows a brit hired by the oas to assassinate de gaulle. all the minutae of preparation, deception and political high stakes are as french as it gets, embodied in a perfectly dressed killer and his very french detective arch nemesis. terrific.
Last edited by bruno; 21-01-2017 at 08:29 PM. Reason: removed instance of dark
la sonrisa es divina, la risa humana, la carcajada animal
RIP the great Tomas Milian
where are the merlis, kinskis, delons and all that brilliant/mad stream of actors and films? they have disappeared along with everything else into a timid, safe shadow of itself. rip europe.
la sonrisa es divina, la risa humana, la carcajada animal
I watched Caltiki - The Immortal Monster - an effective old school monster movie (a rip-off of The Blob I guess) with some enjoyably nasty special effects. As good as can be expected, but probably for hardcore Bava fans only. (Arrow are treating us very well indeed, with Erik the Conqueror and Kill, Baby, Kill! both scheduled for release on blu-ray. Planet of the Vampires and Hercules in the Haunted World only a matter of time now, surely.)
I also recommend 88's blu-ray versions of Amuck and The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist, essential Euro-schlock gear.
This is a very bad, but very entertaining, made-for-TV film from the fag end of Fernando di Leo's career (1985). Has a really catchy synth score.
RIP Umberto Lenzi
Following yesterday's news of the sad but possibly not untimely death of Umberto Lenzi, I decided to watch his 1965 Eurospy junket/film Superseven Calling Cairo. Eagle-eyed fans of the Eurocult film thread may recall my deep discourse on the Lenzi film preceding this, 008: Operation Extermination. But don't get excited, this one has none of the vim, spice or unhinged delirium of that entry. Perhaps it has one edge on it, though: the 'Bond' ('Superseven', like 007 yet super) is uniquely repellent. Roger Browne is like Roger Moore spawned from a lizard, exceeding both the misogynistic brutality and the unctuous smarm of Bond without any of the camp quips. In fact, the opening smirk he oozes after despatching a post-coital blonde assassin is more revolting than anything displayed by his horrendous British model. However, this piece of shit flick has one more, and very extreme, redeeming feature: Rosalba Neri.
A word about Rosalba. She is probably my favourite actress. This is a ridiculous thing to say, because I don't really rate any of her films, which all rot in the lower-echelons of Euro-trash. Her appearances are usually brief, ranging from bit parts to supporting roles, with some very rare top billings. But she was invariably a presence of almost supernatural screen charisma: a slippage between Sphinx-like inscrutability (check the visage) and raw physical sexuality (not one of the top Euro-starlets, including Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet, ever looked like they were as invested in their roles, or enjoying them as much, as Rosalba). There was her very early, slightly secretive, vicious little cameo in the Bava-lensed peplum Esther and the King. Her explosive entry as an Exploitation phenomenon in Ottavio Alessi's unrepeatable minor classic Top Sensation and Jess Franco's half-intelligent, half-despicable proto-WIP absurdity 99 Women. There was her strange and noble redemption of Fernando de Leo's horrible, knuckleheaded Slaughter Hotel and her furious exotic, erotic rip through the appalling sub-giallo French Sex Murders which left the rest of the movie for dead. There was her intelligent and melancholy control of the otherwise unfathomably stupid Lady Frankenstein (in which she went toe-to-toe with Joseph Cotton). Her sultry, scabrous and decadent turn in Silvio Amadio's startling giallo Amuck. Every one of these films she raised from their various pits of despond and somehow illuminated, making them not just watchable but almost essential. What does she do here, opposite the slimy, psychologically toxic Superseven? Hardly anything, but she never really needs to. I would literally watch anything in which she appears.
Apart from that enormous fact, what is left to say about this film? Not a lot. There are more gripping shots of old Cairo, the old Middle East, which cast a very sad and melancholy hue all these horrendous decades later, but are somehow also inspiring and uplifting to see. The music is not what I hoped for, rather desultory and lame and not the fruity 60s Italian balladry I was expecting from the Upperseven Bruno Nicolai soundtrack from the fantastic 1999 compilation Our Man from R.O.M.E (sadly from a separate film I have yet to find).
These days, obviously, you can't just walk up to a girl wearing a patterned print skirt in an Egyptian city and enquire, "Excuse me, but just what kind of sunglasses do you suggest I wear for seeing Cairo by night?" like Superseven does. And, in lots of ways, even if he is a rotten little pseudo-spy bastard, that doesn't necessarily seem like progress to me.
Should you watch this crap? Yes, obviously. There's a sort of magic, there, which even Mike Meyers couldn't really ruin or even touch.
Last edited by craner; 20-10-2017 at 08:54 PM.
The song:
Actually just found the film, too. Will report back next week.
The Lure
It's a Polish mermaid horror musical you'll be surprised to find you watch until the end.
craners been raving to me about these films which he says are erotic and subversive
theyre italian needless to say