text:
For years, ever since I started taking an interest in wine, I've been annoyed by the word "grainy." It's a word that mavens use in relation to red wines, and refers to certain types of tannin—the chemical that cures leather, is present in tea, and makes the mouth pucker. Tannin is a preservative and an important factor in the way wines age. Still, how could a liquid be "grainy"?
Then, a few nights ago, I opened a bottle of wine I'd been given, a Languedoc red called Le Pigeonnier, from the European heat-wave year of 2003, and, without concentrating very hard, took a sip, noticed something odd about the mouthfeel of the wine, and suddenly realized—bam!—that it was grainy. I'd found the famous grainy tannins, and the term actually made sense, because the wine definitely had a particulate, almost sandlike texture, not unpleasant, but distinctive. What's more, in tasting it I realized that I'd encountered versions of it—milder, more restrained versions—before. Now I knew what grainy tannins were.
Most taste experiences work like that. A taste or a smell can pass you by, unremarked or nearly so, in large part because you don't have a word for it; then you see the thing and grasp the meaning of a word at the same time, and both your palate and your vocabulary have expanded. One day, you catch the smell of gooseberries from a Sauvignon Blanc, or red currants from a Cabernet, or bubble gum from a Gamay, or horse manure from a Shiraz, and from that point on you know exactly what people mean when they say they detect these things. The smell of a "corked" bottle of wine, for instance, is something that, once it has been pointed out to you, you never forget.
The idea that your palate and your vocabulary expand simultaneously might sound felicitous, but there is a catch. The words and the references are really useful only to people who have had the same experiences and use the same vocabulary: those references are to a shared basis of sensory experience and a shared language. To people who haven't had those shared experiences, this way of talking can seem like horse manure, and not in a good way.
Consider product A, in which
layers of cedar and raspberry strike a sharp upfront note, while clove and creamy notes add body while contributing an exotic, sumptuous character that conveys luxury in its essence. Might there also be a trace of rubber, though? And then there's B, with
its aroma of underripe bananas, and the way the fruitiness opens up on my tongue with a flick of bitterness that quickly fades to reveal lush, grassy tones. Product C, on the other hand, is
fruity (with a high-profile role for the deliciously garbagey, overripe smell of guava) plus floral (powdery rosy) plus green (neroli and oakmoss).
These are descriptions of, respectively, a chocolate, an olive oil, and a perfume, but you couldn't possibly guess that. I've never caught traces of red fruit in a dark chocolate, I don't even know what neroli is, and, as for underripe bananas in olive oil, I'm more likely to catch the Sundance Kid in Bolivia. That doesn't mean that the people who can taste these things are bluffing; rather, they have a vocabulary of specific sense references that I haven't acquired. (To complicate matters, sometimes these people actually are bluffing.) There is a loss involved in learning about taste: as you gain a more detailed and precise vocabulary, you risk talking to fewer and fewer people—the people who know what these taste references mean. As your vocabulary becomes more specific, more useful, it also becomes less inclusive.
For that reason, imaginative writers tend to flee as far as possible from the too-specific nomenclatures of the expert and toward pure evocations of sensation. It is possible to feel envious of people who wrote about wine before the tyranny of expert descriptors. The classic text in this respect is the scene in "Brideshead Revisited" where the narrator, Charles Ryder, and his friend Sebastian Flyte make a serious run on the bottles in the latter's ancestral cellar, getting comprehensively blitzed and making tasting notes:
"It is a little, shy wine like a gazelle."
"Like a leprechaun."
"Dappled, in a tapestry meadow."
"Like a flute by still water."
". . . And this is a wise old wine."
"A prophet in a cave."
". . . And this is a necklace of pearls on a white neck."
"Like a swan."
"Like the last unicorn."
Here the unlikeliness is part of the fun. Paradoxically, the more deliberately over-the-top taste descriptions are, the more they can appeal to a general, untrained reader. Prose that is rich in similes and wild comparisons is making an effort to reach out. This is the sort of game that anyone can play—a wine can remind you of your first kiss, or of the smell of a new car, even if you don't know the difference between volatile phenolics and malolactic conversion.
In a seminal study of the subject, "Wines: Their Sensory Evaluation" (1976), Maynard A. Amerine and Edward B. Roessler called this the "Romantic" tradition in wine writing. They were against it. Both men were professors at the University of California at Davis, an important center for the study of wine, and they wanted to put some scientific backbone into the business of tasting—or, as they preferred to call it, "sensory evaluation," since all the senses were involved. (One of their senses is pain: "It is rare for a wine to be so acid as to give genuine pain. . . .") They sought to bring methodological rigor to what might have seemed an inherently subjective enterprise ("In a paired-sample preference test with 64 trials, how many agreeing judgments are required for significance at the 5% level?"), and the underlying plea for a rational scoring system to evaluate wines, combined with a pragmatic, debunking attitude toward fancy wine vocabulary, had a big effect. The two men had no use for taste words such as "flinty"—"We confess that this flavor (odor?) has never come our way"—or "musty": "Avoid it unless you know what it means. We don't." What they believed in was tasting wines and evaluating them according to verifiable, quantifiable criteria.
Point systems have been popular ever since. Part of their appeal is the way they create a bridge between the technical process of assessment and something the ordinary consumer can actually use. The most influential wine assessments in the world are those scores, out of a hundred, which appear in Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, followed by similar systems in such magazines as Wine Spectator. A system advocated by Amerine and Roessler had the now touching austerity of the nineteen-seventies, offering, instead, to give marks out of only twenty, but the basic idea is the same: break a wine down into color, appearance, odor, body, and so on, assign it marks in each category, and voilà!—you have a single number that sums up the wine. The reader doesn't need a fancy vocabulary of taste; he just needs to know the score.
Point systems aren't the only thing that this more scientific approach brings to the study of taste. It doesn't take long to discover that most of what we think of as taste is, in fact, smell. The tongue can detect only five tastes, salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and a taste whose receptors have only begun to be identified: umami—the savory, brothy sensation that is amply present in Parmesan, seaweed, and ripe tomatoes. All other taste sensations are really smells, as a very simple experiment will confirm: all you have to do to prove it is hold your nose while you taste something.
So taste is mainly smell, and smell is a profound mystery. Why is it that one molecule
smells of spearmint, while its mirror image
smells of caraway? No one knows. When scientists create new molecules in the laboratory, they may know every detail of a molecule's structure yet have no clue about what it will smell like. In 1991, scientists discovered the family of genes responsible for the nose's roughly three hundred and fifty olfactory receptors; these, in combination, are what detect the presence of molecules and allow the brain to translate them into sensory experiences—so H2S, hydrogen sulfide, hits the receptors and our brain tells us that we are in the presence of rotten eggs.
A trained nose can become very, very good at isolating these sensory experiences and matching them with the relevant molecules. Theoretically, every known odorant molecule could have an agreed descriptor. The descriptor wouldn't need to be in words: it could be a number, so that the wintergreen scent of methyl salicylate would be 172, say, and the garlicky odor of allicin would be 402. That would be the beginnings of a fully scientific language of taste—a joyless, inhuman prospect.
The language of taste has, therefore, reached something of an impasse. On the one hand, we have the Romantic route, in which you are free to compare a taste to the last unicorn or the sensation you had when you were told that you failed your driving test—and others are free to have no idea what you are talking about. On the other, we have the scientific route, which comes down to numbers, and risks missing the fundamental truth of all smells and tastes, which is that they are, by definition, experiences. One of the things that are so welcome about "Perfumes: The Guide" (Viking; $27.95), by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, is that, while the authors embrace point systems (they offer between one and five stars) and science, they also offer vivid, funny, evocative descriptions of the smells they write about. Here, for instance, is Turin's discussion of Antidote, by Viktor and Rolf:
There is a new chemical beast prowling the streets, a strange molecule with the feel of a light, volatile top note and the power and tenacity of the most powerful drydown materials. Smelling it at length gives the feeling of alarm one would get from trying to pick up a two-year-old child and finding that it weighed as much as a car. This strange creature is called sclarene, an intermediate in the synthesis of Ambrox from clary sage, and has a fresh-herbaceous dry smell that simply goes on forever.
Turin and Sanchez don't fear the science of their subject; far from it. Turin is a professional biophysicist and a principal in a company that develops new-smelling molecules; Sanchez is that happy thing, a perfume critic. To enjoy "Perfumes," you don't need to know, or even to like, perfumes, such is the brio of Turin's and Sanchez's prose. Their book has a series of introductory chapters about scent in general, and reviews of more than twelve hundred perfumes, initialled by T.S. or L.T.
To understand perfume, science is a good place to start, since it's with the nineteenth-century discovery of synthetic fragrances that modern perfumes began. Synthetics are molecules that are made in the laboratory, and they are crucial to perfumery: they supply fragrances that can't be created through natural processes. Take the smell of a rose, for example. It is instantly recognizable in nature, but it can't be chemically extracted from the flower. (It's possible to extract rose oil, but rose oil doesn't quite smell like a rose.) To create the fragrance of a rose, you must synthesize it from other molecules; the route to the illusion of nature travels straight through the lab. Synthetics can also be "abstract," in that they don't smell like anything else at all—they aren't surrogates for natural smells. In an earlier book, "The Secret of Scent," Turin cites Coca-Cola as a brilliant example of an abstract taste, one that resembles nothing in nature.
The history of perfumery is, in large part, the history of synthetics. The first important family was the fougères. These came into use in the early eighteen-eighties and, as the word suggests, are said to be fernlike—which is one of those scent referents that I simply don't get. Let's just say that cheap and cheerful versions of fougère are present in Blue Stratos and the great smell of Brut. Soon vanillin, which was synthesized from pinewood sap, became a crucial ingredient in perfume (it's a dominant note in Guerlain's Jicky), and then, in 1888, a chemist accidentally invented synthetic musks while fooling around with TNT. (Turin describes the role of musks in perfume as "something akin to the transparent varnish on a painting that gives all colors depth and saturation.") Natural musk comes from the glands of certain deer that live in the Himalayas, so the laboratory version had the significant advantage of being much cheaper. The typical cost of synthetics is fifty dollars a kilogram; naturals can be hundreds of times as much.
In subsequent decades, as the inventions continued, the perfumer's palette of scents steadily increased. Turin writes, "The enormous artistic edge that chemistry gives perfumers is the ability, familiar to the gods of Olympus and to fairy godmothers when putting together a titanically gifted baby, to compose a personage from disparate inherited virtues: the rosy, grassy freshness of lily of the valley, the rasp of lily proper, the mushroom note of gardenia, the lemon of magnolia, the banana of ylang ylang, the deep woody velvet of violets, the boozy sweetness of rose, the soapy edge of cyclamen, etc. Marshalling all these molecular genes into producing something viable, even beautiful, is far from easy." It is as if the history of painting had proceeded via the invention of new colors. There are fashions in smell, too, and the heavy-duty perfumes of the nineteen-eighties, in particular, come in for a hard time from Turin and Sanchez. They give some of these perfumes a rating of five out of five, while at the same time more or less begging the reader not to buy them. Opium is "unquestionably one of the greatest fragrances of all time," Turin writes. "Yet I would hate it if anyone wore it near me today."
That, it turns out, is relatively mild, as their criticisms go. Consider 212, from Carolina Herrera: "Like getting lemon juice in a paper cut." Amarige, from Givenchy? "If you are reading this because it is your darling fragrance, please wear it at home exclusively, and tape the windows shut." Heiress? "Hilariously vile 50/50 mix of cheap shampoo and canned peaches." Princess? "Stupid name, pink perfume, heart shaped bottle, little crown on top. I half expected it to be really great just to spite me. But no, it's probably the most repulsively cloying thing on the market today." Hugo, the men's cologne from Hugo Boss? "Dull but competent lavender-oakmoss thing, suggestive of a day filled with strategy meetings." Love in White? "A chemical white floral so disastrously vile words nearly desert me. If this were a shampoo offered with your first shower after sleeping rough for two months in Nouakchott, you'd opt to keep the lice." Lanvin's Rumeur gets a one-word review: "Baseless."
This is fun to read—and a rare pleasure, too, since the importance of perfume advertising means that one doesn't often get to read strong criticism of multimillion-dollar-earning fragrances. The joy of Turin and Sanchez's book, however, is their ability to write about smell in a way that manages to combine the science of the subject with the vocabulary of scent in witty, vivid descriptions of what these smells are like. Their work is, quite simply, ravishingly entertaining, and it passes the high test that their praise is even more compelling than their criticism. Here, in full, is Turin's review of Lancôme's Trésor:
I once sat in the London Tube across a young woman wearing a t-shirt printed with headline-size words ALL THIS across her large breasts, and in small type underneath "and brains too." That vulgar-but-wily combination seems to me to sum up Trésor. Up close, when you can read the small print, Trésor is a superbly clever accord between powdery rose and vetiver, reminiscent of the structure of Habanita. From a distance, it's the trashiest, most good-humored pink mohair sweater and bleached hair thing imaginable. When you manage to appeal to both the reptilian brain and the neocortex of menfolk, what happens is what befell Trésor: a huge success.
You don't have to like perfume to like "Perfumes: The Guide." Its blend of technical knowledge and evocative writing is exemplary in the strict sense: people who write about smell and taste in any context should use it as an example. Turin may be wrong about what appeals to the male neocortex, however. As Sanchez says, "The question that women casually shopping for perfume ask more than any other is this: 'What scent drives men wild?' After years of intense research, we know the definitive answer. It is bacon." ♦


text:
PASS SQLSaturday is a free training event for professionals who use the Microsoft data platform. These community events offer content across data management, cloud and hybrid architecture, analytics, business intelligence, AI, and more. This event will be held on Sep 24 2011 at Seminole State College of Florida, 100 Weldon Blvd Building UP, Sanford, Florida, 32773, United States
SQLSaturday is a free training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server.
Register Now
Herve Roggero
Daniel Taylor
Eddie Wuerch
Brian K McDonald
Michael Wells
William E Pearson III
Maximo Trinidad
James McAuliffe
Bradley Schacht
Mike Davis
See Full Schedule
#85? What is it? Why should you sacrifice a Saturday? When is it? Where is it? How do I get involved? Let me fill
you in.
What: This
is a one day training event for SQL Server DBAs and Developer
professionals and those wanting to get some intensive technical
learning on.
It is a great opportunity to learn from people who have been there and
to network with other professionals doing the same thing you are
doing. Free training that can set yourself apart from others!
When: Saturday, September 24, 2011. Register online
now to reserve your spot now. Attendee check-in will begin at 7:30am
until 8:15am with opening comments from 8:15am to 8:25am and the first
sessions beginning at 8:30am.
Where: Seminole State College, Main Campus, 100 Weldon Boulevard Bld UP, Sanford, FL 32773.How: All you have to do to get involved is Register online to reserve your spot. Show up and attend the sessions that you like.
So what are you waiting for? Register today to be a part of SQL Saturday! #85!
Call For Speakers is
now open.
* We do ask that you consider to OPT-IN for the Sponsors of this
event. Without their assistance, we cannot bring this FREE event to
you. You can always opt-out if and when they contact you! Thank you for
your consideration.
There are a lot of resources, products and features you can use to tune the performance of your SQL Server system. Many assume you're familiar with 400-level concepts, others don't consider the whole stack of the client, the network, the operating system, platform and the database server. Buck Woody, Microsoft's real-world DBA, will explain a simple, repeatable process you can follow to tune your entire application – from the client to the server. All of the tools we'll cover are included with Windows and SQL Server:
· Using Windows System Monitoring Tools
· The SQL Profiler and Server Trace
· Database Engine Tuning Advisor
· Management Data Warehouse / Data Collector
· Performance and Configuration Reports
· The new Activity Monitor
· Dynamic Management Views and System Views
· Query Plans
· Extended Events
· Resource Governor
In this pre-conference session you'll cover not only the process, but also review a real-world evaluation. You'll take home a system and a spreadsheet you can use to monitor and tune your applications, in a simple, easy-to-understand session.
Buck Woody
Buck Woody is a Senior Technical Specialist for Microsoft, working with enterprise-level clients to develop computing platform architecture solutions within their organizations. With over twenty-five years professional and practical experience in computer technology, he is also a popular speaker at TechEd, PASS and many other conferences; the author of over 500 articles and five books on databases; and teaches a Database Design course at the University of Washington
RSVP your spot in this all day Pre-Con session here!
In this full-day workshop, you'll learn from the author team of Jorge Segarra, Mike Davis, Brad Schacht, and Kyle Walker how to build a data warehouse for your company and support it with the Microsoft business intelligence platform. We'll start with how to design and data model a data warehouse including the system preparation. Then, we'll jump into loading a data warehouse with SSIS. After SSIS, you're ready to roll the data up and provide the slice and dice reporting with SSAS. The team will walk through cube development and data enrichment with things like key performance indicators, which are essential for your future dashboards. Lastly, we will cover how to report against the data warehouse with SSRS including a primer in how to write MDX queries against the SSAS cube.
Jorge Segarra Jorge is a BI Consultant for Pragmatic Works and a SQL Server MVP. In addition to being a member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG) he is also a PASS Regional Mentor for the U.S. Greater Southeast region. He has also co-authored the book from Apress "SQL 2008 Pro Policy-Based Management". Redgate Exceptional DBA of the Year 2010 Finalist.
Brad Schadcht
Bradley is a consultant at Pragmatic Works in Jacksonville, FL. He was an author on the book SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence 24-Hour Trainer. Bradley has experience on many part of the Microsoft BI platform. He has spoken at events like SQL Saturday, Code Camp, SQL Lunch and SQL Server User Groups. He is a contributor on sites such as BIDN.com and SQL Server Central as well as an active member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG).
Kyle Walker
Kyle is a Business Intelligence consultant for Pragmatic Works. His current and past work experience includes Integration Services, data warehousing concepts, Reporting Services, and Crystal Reports. He is active in the local and online community as a speaker for SQL Lunch, Jacksonville SQL Server Users Group, and past SQLSaturday events, as well as a blogger on BIDN.com.
Mike Davis, MCTS, MCITP, is a Senior BI consultant at Pragmatic Works. He is an author of a few Business intelligence books. Mike is an experienced speaker and has presented at many events such as several SQL Server User Groups, Code Camps, SQL Server Launches, SQL Rally, and SQL Saturday events. Mike is an active member at his local user group (JSSUG) in Jacksonville, FL.
See more news
Shawn McGehee
Send Message
Access event's XML feed
View Feed
PASS SQLSaturdays are local events organized by PASS community members around the world. PASS is a not-for-profit association for data professionals who leverage the Microsoft Data Platform, offering interactive learning built by community and guided by trusted data experts.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
#RSL Tweets of the Day (@RealSaltLake)
IT'S MATCHDAY! #RSL at CHI 6:30p MT on @cw30slc #BELIEVE #fantasticallyTogether #AsOne http://instagram.com/p/niPrGDMFUM/
Awesome view of my favorite non coastal city as we were flying in! Great to be back in the Chi this… http://instagram.com/p/ng2fpXFRto/
LISTEN (and learn) :: #RSL analyst @OriginalWinger breaks down tomorrow's match at Chicago on @espn700 … http://espn.kall700sports.com/brian-dunseth-rsl-color-analyst-5-2-14/ …
In today's Tribune: I tried to find out who Chris Schuler is. My profile on #RSL's unique 26-year-old center back. http://bit.ly/1lHz9Up
#RSL nearing a "full arsenal" of healthy players ahead of trip to Chicago //www.realsaltlake.com/news/2014/05/real-salt-lake-nearing-full-arsenal-healthy-players-ahead-trip-chicago …
RealSaltLake.com: Real Salt Lake at Chicago Fire - Match Preview
RealSaltLake.com: The Scouting Report: MLSsoccer.com previews #CHIvRSL
ESPN 700: Brian Dunseth on The Bill & Hans Show
KUTV: Interview with Bill Manning – Part 1
Real Salt Lake News & Notes
RealSaltLake.com: Preview: RSL at Chicago Fire
RealSaltLake.com: Real Salt Lake nearing a "full arsenal" of healthy players ahead of trip to Chicago
RealSaltLake.com: Storylines to Watch: #CHIvRSL
RealSaltLake.com: RSL-Arizona Academy Tryouts to be Held on May 31 and June 1
MLSsoccer.com: Chicago Fire vs. Real Salt Lake | MLS Match Preview
MLSsoccer.com: Chicago Fire turn back to DP striker Juan Luis Anangono to produce in Quincy Amarikwa's absence
The Salt Lake Tribune: Fire's firepower poses problems for RSL
Deseret News: Real Salt Lake, Chicago both anxious for a win this weekend
Goal.com: Meola's MLS GK Power Rankings: Rimando ascends to the top
For the Fans, By the Fans
RSL Soapbox: Three Questions with Hot Time in Old Town: Chicago Fire, Mike Magee, ties, and RSL
RSL Soapbox: Power Ranking Averages - Week 8 Seattle makes it to the top
MLS, Other News & Notes
MLSsoccer.com: Vancouver Whitecaps vs. San Jose Earthquakes | MLS Match Preview
MLSsoccer.com: With their back four finally healthy, San Jose Earthquakes aim to continue defensive lockdown
MLSsoccer.com: Sporting Kansas City vs. Columbus Crew | MLS Match Preview
MLSsoccer.com: Conceding late goals current focus for an otherwise strong Sporting Kansas City defense
MLSsoccer.com: Bernardo Anor back in Columbus Crew fold, but may have lost his starting spot
MLSsoccer.com: Chivas USA vs. Houston Dynamo | MLS Match Preview
MLSsoccer.com: Chivas USA look to turn around disappointing home record without Dan Kennedy, Mauro Rosales
MLSsoccer.com: 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formation? Houston Dynamo say they can "adjust" depending on situation
MLSsoccer.com: FC Dallas vs. New York Red Bulls | MLS Match Preview
MLSsoccer.com: Gerard Houllier attends New York Red Bulls workout, prompting talk of third Designated Player
MLSsoccer.com: Mauro Diaz day-to-day, but FC Dallas still holding their breath for news on playmaker's knee injury
MLSsoccer.com: Philadelphia Union's Maurice Edu on trip to red-hot Seattle: "This is going to show our character"
MLSsoccer.com: Injury in training leaves Marcelo Sarvas sidelined for several weeks ahead of key stretch for LA Galaxy
MLSsoccer.com: Not another tie: Portland Timbers trying to figure out how to attack teams at home
ESPN FC: MLS W2W4: Defoe's back, FC Dallas' injury bug, Gonzalez's stock ...
American Soccer Now: U.S. Winger Joe Gyau, 21, Discusses Bundesliga Debut


text:
A cap on the fees and interest charged by payday lending firms is to be introduced in a bid to protect borrowers from escalating debts.
The proposals, which include default fees capped at £15 and a limit of 0.8% per day on interest on unpaid balances, should mean those who cannot repay on time will never have to pay back more in charges than the amount borrowed.
The latest clampdown on the industry by the Financial Conduct Authority is due to come into force in January, subject to a consultation period.
The watchdog is also planning a price cap on new loans - including those rolled over - under which interest and charges must not top 0.8% per day of the amount borrowed.
That means those who borrow £100 for 30 days and pay back on time will not pay more than £24 in fees and charges and someone taking the same loan for 14 days will pay no more than £11.20.
The FCA estimates that consumers will save on average £193 per year through the measures, translating into £250 million annual savings overall. The price cap is set to cost the industry about £420 million in lost revenues.
The moves have been welcomed by consumer groups, although the industry is concerned that the crackdown will limit choice for borrowers who will be forced to turn to loan sharks or lenders operating outside the UK.
The £2.8 billion sector has come under intense scrutiny amid outrage over the way that some consumers have been treated. Many of the problems found by regulators have revolved around people taking on payday debt they cannot afford, meaning the loan is then rolled over and the original cost balloons.
Charity StepChange recently said it received nearly 14,000 cries for help last year from people who were struggling with five payday loans or more.
FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley said: "There have been many strong and competing views to take into account, but I am confident we have found the right balance.
"Alongside our other new rules for payday firms - affordability tests and limits on rollovers and continuous payment authorities - the cap will help drive up standards in a sector that badly needs to improve how it treats its customers."
Last year, 1.6 million consumers took out 10 million loans, with a total value of £2.5 billion. The average loan has a principal of around £260 lent over an initial duration of 30 days. The average number of payday loans taken out by a customer last year was six.
Payday lenders are already prevented from rolling over loans more than twice and have been restricted in their ability to drain money from bank accounts. From July 1, firms operating in the industry have also had to place risk warnings on television adverts.
Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents the industry, said: "Anyone who thinks that a price cap is good news for borrowers should have a thought for those many people who will be turned down for loans because the best lenders will have to reject those with the worst credit records.
"We support a cap that allows the industry to operate profitably with the right protection in place for vulnerable people. With new regulations and tighter affordability checks, critics must now face up to the fact that most people use, need and like short-term credit and the measures in place are more stringent than for any other form of consumer credit."
Stella Creasy, Labour's minister for Competition and Consumers Affairs, said the new rules were a step in the right direction but did not go far enough.
She said the cap worked out at only one pound less than the companies are currently charging, while the total cost cap of 100% of the borrowed amount will leave British consumers less well protected than their counterparts in Japan and most of Canada and the United States.
Ms Creasy said: "FCA must commit to continually reviewing and reducing this cap and as well as ensuring it covers the whole of the industry to make sure none of these legal loan sharks slip through their net."
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.


text:
LAURA SAYS: Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth Were Never Going To Work As A Couple — Here's Why!
I've seen Miley & Liam interact firsthand, and I predicted back in March that these two young stars were NOT MFEO!
For all of you that thought Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth would last, sorry — but I'm a realist, and I knew these two had nothing more binding than a mutual attraction!
That's right, from the very first time The Last Song co-stars stepped out as a couple — on March 7 at Elton John's Oscar party, to be exact — they seemed as different as chalk and cheese. Miley, 17, was the life of the party. She ran around the room like a little monkey, making friends and chatting to everyone, including Nicole Richie and her fiancé, Joel Madden. She shook her booty to Grace Jones like she was performing a raunchy striptease, hinting at the sexy "Can't Be Tamed" Miley she was about to become this year.
But Liam, 20, just seemed awkward at the star-studded event. Not to say this is a bad thing — I'm much more on board with Liam's party behavior (light mingling, drinking, chatting with friends) than Miley's over-the-top center-of-attention style. When she tried to get him to dance, he refrained, looking embarrassed to be in the spotlight.
The Hannah Montana starlet even tried to engage in some PDA with her then-BF, hugging and cuddling up to him. He only seemed immune, only reciprocating her affection when she literally sat on his lap and forced him to kiss her. How normal is THAT for a strapping, young hormone-ridden boy?
Now that Liam has announced the couple's split, Miley has moved on to someone even less compatible — her already attached co-star Douglas Booth. Liam has also reportedly found someone new — an older surfer chick named Katy. My next prediction: nothing is going to come of either of these new crushes, either.
Back in March I asked the question, "How long can these two make their love last?" — and it appears I've got my answer: precisely one year.


text:
Elmo I Surmuleland is the Danish title for The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Elmer i Gnavpotland have been used as an alternative title on some TV listings and libraries.
The movie was a direct-to-video release in Denmark, distributed on both VHS and DVD July 7, 2000. Only the VHS was dubbed in Danish, while the DVD came with the English and German soundtrack. Since Sesame Street doesn't have the same popularity as in other countries, the character names are not consistent in the various releases in Denmark. That explains why Elmo is not named Elmer in the movie, like he was when Elmo's World (Elmers Verden) later was dubbed into Danish.
Character Translations and Voices
|English Character Name
|Danish Character Name
|Danish Voice Actor
|Troels Walther
Additional Voice Actors
- Jan Tellefsen
- Lars Thiesgaard
- Michael Elo
- Susanne Breuning
- Tom Jensen
- Amin Jensen
- Jesper Mayland
- Chresten S. Simonsen


text:
Phillies Oppponent In NLDS Still A Mystery
The Phillies must wait to see who they will face in the NLDS round until the Giants vs. Padres series is wrapped up. The Giants only need to win one game against the Padres, and they will win the divison in the NL West. The Phillies team got to pick which NLDS playoff schedule it was going to play by virtue of having the best record, and Charlie Manuel opted for the longer series of the two possible choices, which is an 8 day total NLDS, if it goes all five games.
If the Reds continue to win, they won't be the team that the Phillies have to face in the first round, and the Reds have been one of the hottest teams in baseball this year. They remind me of the 2008 Phillies, the team doesn't have a lot of million dollar ball players, but they all play well together and have done so well all year. One thing is for sure, Game 1 and 2 of the series with the Phillies will be in Philadelphia on October 6th and 8th. All the games for the Division Series will be on television and broadcast by TBS. A Game 5 in this Division Series would return to be played in Philadelphia.
NLDS Opponents Schedule
The two division winners with the best records will host Games 1, 2 and 5. The wildcard team and the lowest division winner will host Games 3 and 4. The matchups for the series will be the NL team with the best record vs. the NL wildcard team and The NL division winner with the 2nd best record vs. The NL division winner with the third best record. If, however the NL team with the best record is from the same division as the wildcard team, the matchup will be the most winning division champion vs. least winning division champion in one series and the wildcard team facing the 2nd most winning division champion in the other series.
Source: wikipedia
Who is on the NLDS Phillies roster?
Spirited debate is starting on who the Phillies should carry for the first round of the playoffs. At Todd Zolecki's MLB blog - he favors 11 pitchers and a toss up for the bench spot with Greg Dobbs or Domonic Brown. This weekend's series in Atlanta will give the Phillies plenty of time to decide who is in and who isn't. I think Dobbs will be the odd man out, due to his horrible year, but you never know. Dobbs did come through for the Phillies before, so we still may see him on the roster.
Fox Sports will use 'flying cameras' for coverage during the playoffs and World Series as reported by the Yahoo Sports blog Big League Stew. This doesn't sound like that great of an idea. Especially since these items tend to get in the path of flying baseballs. Nonetheless, the Fox Sports crew will be testing the cams this weekend in Atlanta for the Phillies vs. Atlanta series. It's been said that the series in Atlanta is not all that meaningful to the Phillies, but it really is. The Phillies would like to sweep the Braves out of the Wild Card spot if they can, and take them out of the playoff picture, of course the Padres would have to win also. So it will still be an interesting watch this weekend to see what happens with the Braves and the Padres.
Earlier start to Game 3 of the World Series announced by Fox and MLB
The MLB announced that Game 3 of this year's World Series will start earlier to allow the game to be viewed in prime time and that it would end earlier, allowing a younger fan base to stay up to watch it. The game time is moved up to 6:57 PM for the scheduled Saturday, October 30th game.


text:
Sprint-car racing has drawn a flood of attention since the tragic incident last weekend in which NASCAR ace Tony Stewart fatally struck driver Kevin Ward. For the casual observer, the footage of the collision was probably their first exposure to this semi-obscure form of motorsports.
How might the particulars of sprint car racing play into the untimely demise of a rookie driver? To understand, you need to look at the cars, people, and science behind this singular sect of motorsports.
READ MORE: On Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward, Jr., everyone's an expert and no one's an expert
The Cars
Sprint-car racing combines two quintessentially American traditions: dirt tracks and high-horsepower engines. Though it hasn't garnered the widespread attention enjoyed by big-money outfits like NASCAR, sprint cars have a fan base strong enough to support numerous sanctioning bodies, including World of Outlaws (WoO) and the USAC (United States Automobile Club).
Purpose-built, dirt-focused race vehicles, sprint cars are typically powered by naturally aspirated small block V8s mated to single-speed gearboxes. The cars driven by Stewart and Ward were powered by 360-cubic-inch, iron-block V8s, which typically produce between 700 and 800 horsepower. Top-tier cars run massive 410-cubic-inch alloy-block V8s that can exceed 900 horsepower. Consider as well that these minimalist vehicles typically weigh no more than 1,475 pounds.
That means that the outrageous power-to-weight ratios of sprint cars can exceed that of Formula 1 cars. Because they run on considerably shorter wheelbases, they're even more difficult to control. And because these cars are designed to only turn left, they have staggered wheels—that is, larger wheels and tires on the right to help with cornering and traction. Wheel circumferences can differ by as much as 18 inches between left and right.
Sprint cars fall into two categories: winged and non-winged. The driving dynamics are markedly different. "A non-wing car is a lot harder to drive because you don't have downforce," explains four-time champion and racing instructor Wally Pankratz. "With a wing, you can just flat-foot it around the track."
Stewart and Ward were driving winged cars at Canandaigua Speedway in upstate New York. Driving them below speeds at which downforce occurs requires fortitude and faith; the lack of surface grip can be unnerving when so much power is delivered to the wheels. Because the race had gone under caution following Ward's wreck, Stewart was driving only about 40 mph when he struck the 20-year-old, who had climbed out of his car, presumably to confront Stewart.
"Having driven a 410 Sprint Car, it was one of the hardest cars to drive at 40 or 50 miles an hour," says Motorsport.com editor-in-chief Steven Cole Smith, who races a street stock car. "I thought it was way beyond my capability, but the faster I went, the more downforce comes in. They're not made to go 40. They're made to go 100."
READ MORE: Tony Stewart, Kevin Ward, Jr., and the senseless rush to judgement
Traction Wars
Racing on dirt requires a deceptive amount of car control, finesse, and strategy to drive with so much power on such a slippery surface.
Tires play a critical role in laying that power down to the dirt, and sprint-car rubber compounds tend to be extremely soft. "They're almost like pencil eraser rubber," says Jack Crone, owner of Jack Crone Racing.
"Before [a rule limiting the number of tires available for drivers] was in place," Smith says, "[racer] Scott Bloomquist used to bring 100 different tires in his trailer because he was so good at reading a dirt surface, which changes with every lap... Not to take anything away from asphalt racing, but one element you don't have to worry about on asphalt is traction. On a dirt track, it changes with every damn lap."
Visibility and Throttle Steering
Grasping for an explanation for this tragedy, some have suggested poor visibility: Ward wore a dark suit and dark helmet at a notoriously dim track. In addition, forward visibility in sprint cars is diminished because the engine's tall velocity stacks obscure the view—a symptom of the fact that sprint cars are primarily intended to be driven sideways as they veer around the oval. "You're likelier to be looking over the right wheel [at speed]," Crone says.
Another hypothesis: That Stewart might have clipped Ward accidentally because he was throttle steering, a technique in which abrupt throttle inputs pitch the car sideways, turning it. Although not everyone agrees with this assessment, Smith says that the staggered wheel setup of these Sprint Cars demands throttle steering, even at low speeds.
"In order to go straight," Smith says, "you've got to steer really hard right. If you take your hands off the steering wheel, it goes left. That's why if you want to steer right or steer left, you've got to use the throttle at a low speed." He adds: "The front tires just don't do much because you've got so much rear tire pushing you forward that it's like steering an 18-wheeler in the rain from the front tires."
READ MORE: Small ovals represent a disproportionate number of racing-related fatalities
Why Tony Stewart?
Tony Stewart is a NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. So why would he bother driving sprint cars on small-town dirt tracks, especially when doing so can lead to serious injuries, as it did when he broke his leg last year in a sprint car race?
While trying to put the tragedy in context, some news outlets have cited Stewart's hyper-competitive nature—"Smoke" just loves to race, anytime, anywhere, they say. But to Pankratz there's more to it than that.
"It's more intense," he says, "and it's more fun. That's one of the reasons that Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart want to run Sprint Cars or midgets. It's actually more fun than what makes the big money. They also teach you more about really good car control because of the horsepower-to-weight ratio."
Smith says that Stewart's background in non-winged sprint cars drew him towards the winged versions, because if he could compete in the winged class, he could compete against anyone.
About That Night
The horrific incident that killed Kevin Ward, Jr. has now been replayed countless times on YouTube and debated endlessly on social media, where everyone has an opinion they feel compelled to share. But the evidence isn't so black and white.
First and foremost, Kevin Ward's decision to exit his vehicle on a hot track was hardly uncommon in the world of racing, but it was unquestionably dangerous—and ultimately lethal.
"The real problem was the driver climbing out of the car," Crone says—a sentiment that's been echoed in the motorsports world over the last several days. "I can't get beyond that, because that was the main problem."
Stewart's reputation for hot-headedness has also fueled speculation that either he meant to run over Ward, or that he merely intended to scare him by blipping the throttle as he passed.
"I don't think Tony intended to hurt the guy," says journalist Mike Guy, "Tony does have a sort of famous temper, and he lets it go sometimes... that speculation kind of makes sense, like maybe he hit the throttle just to scare the kid a little bit. The kid was sort of lunging at the car. It would not surprise me if, in that moment, Tony made the bad decision of saying, 'Hey, I'm just gonna scare the kid a little bit.' But fundamentally, the kid should've stayed in the car."
Pankratz says: "[Tony] had nothing to be mad about. He wasn't the guy that got put into the fence. I'd stake my life on it that he wouldn't say, 'Well, I think I'll try to run this guy down or I'll try to scare him that way.' He's smarter than that."
Smith agrees: "There are people that are convinced that Tony did it on purpose, which is just astounding to me. I cannot imagine that."
READ MORE: Sheriff says Stewart/Ward crash investigation will take at least two more weeks
We will never know what was running through Tony Stewart's mind moments before his car struck the young driver. Whatever the outcome of the investigation surrounding the incident, the events at Canandaigua Speedway on August 9, 2014 will have a reach far beyond the world of sprint-car racing.
From: Popular Mechanics


text:
L'Auberge Del Mar: The Green Mary
L'Auberge Del Mar: Sand in the Street
L'Auberge Del Mar: Local Grouper Special
Weekly Update: Apr. 30 - May 6, 2018
The options are many and the food is always fresh. Whether you take in the fresh ocean breezes on Coastline, kick back poolside at Bleu Bar, or stay cozied up in your guest room, our culinary team will deliver a fresh and authentic experience showcasing local produce and sustainable seafood.Learn More
Spa L'Auberge is the perfect combination of relaxation and renewal with a focus on the healing powers of the ocean. Named in Condé Nast Traveler's "Top 25 Spas in the US", our ocean inspired Southern California spa resort near San Diego welcomes you to a variety of personalized treatments and luxurious services provided by highly trained professionals and guaranteed to make you feel pampered from head to toe.Book an Appointment
Important Cookies Information: This message will appear only once. To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies and by continuing to use this site, you agree that we can save them on your devices. Our cookies do not collect personally identifiable information.


text:
Mission Statement
"Improving the lives of those living with lupus through awareness, education, support services and research"
The Lupus Alliance of Long Island/Queens was started out of the kitchens of dedicated volunteers whose lives were touched by lupus. We have been helping those with lupus and their families since 1955. Located in Wantagh, New York, our goal is simple; to serve, educate and find the cause and cure for lupus, while helping those with lupus live better lives.
Our members range in age from 10-80 years old, some who have lupus, some who have lupus in their families and others who have a friend or even an acquaintance who has lupus. Yearly, we receive over 200 volunteers who help us with mailings, events and more. Our relationship with many local businesses and schools has been strong over the years, and the numbers continue to grow, although the need for more corporate help from Long Island based businesses is always needed.
The Board of Directors and Staff of the Lupus Alliance of LIQ strive to provide information, education and support by way of our many programs, many offered, free of charge. We also provide public awareness about lupus through our presence at schools, local organizations and health fairs. The Lupus Alliance of LIQ does not accept clothing donations.
The Lupus Alliance of LI/Q is working to build a brighter future for all lupus patients and their families.
For questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at: 516-783-3370
For questions or comments about our website, please E-mail


text:
This event has passed.
2-Hour Infant/Child CPR @ Community Birth Program (Surrey)
December 7 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm| $45
$45 + GST per participant
This 2-hour course focuses on CPR and choking for infants and children, as well as accident prevention for once babies become mobile. It is breastfeeding friendly, and pre-mobile infants are welcome to come along.
This course is for knowledge only and no certification will be awarded. If you are needing certification, please refer to the 5-hour course listed on our Courses page.


text:
Today was spent, cleaning and cooking and a bit of thumb mutilation with a chopping knife, lol.
I think I over did it and just got tired and wasn't paying attention, but it was a side slice, so no real damage.
We have a bunch of daffodils that started growing under the briar bushes, so today I went out and took what was on it, so I could enjoy them. They are a beautiful pale yellow.
And since I had the windows open to air out the house, the kitties enjoyed sitting in the windows. The problem is, they always want the window that the other one has. Here Moki is giving Izzy the look, and she is keeping her head under the window to keep him from pouncing on her. She decided it wasn't worth the stress and left, and he jumped into her spot;) I hope every one has a wonderful and Blessed Easter.
For tonight's link, Kyra's blog has wonderful postings about african american quilting and Harriet Powers patterns. Tonight she has a free pattern for her visitors.


text:
Through A Soldiers Eyes
Through A Soldiers Eyes Through a soldiers eyes, We don't see the pain, We can't see the hurt that lies in there way. The fog and the smoke that they smell through their nose, The sounds in the night from bombs going off the course. The bodies and blood that lies at there doors, I can't imagine seeing this, Capturing it all in your mind, As you close your eyes, You see the death, Living a life of war at your best. This is their lives, There hearts are real sad, But they hide it away in the back of there rack. Pretending everything's okay, so they don't seem to fall. Living each day fighting for us all. They have to hold on, To live each day that comes, Fighting for there country, A battle still not won. Loosing friends, Watching them die, This can't be easy watching through ones eyes, The pain will remain, Haunted by their dreams, Waking up in sweats, Wishing it was all a dream. But reality hits, As they walk out the door, Another day living, Breathing, seeing war. Through a soldiers eyes, You can see, All the hurt and pain that lies in there way. Living each day in a world we can not take. Through a soldiers eyes.... Written by: Kristin Nicole Kristy Quintas San Diego


text:
Posts TaggedmicroSD
SSDs are amazing. They're so fast, once you're using to using one in your day-to-day work, switching back to working from a traditional hard drive is painful. You'll get so used to apps opening nearly instantly that everything will feel slow. It's no wonder Apple's switched its most popular laptops – the MacBook Air and the new MacBook Pro Retina Display – to SSD.
There's only one problem: SSDs cost more per gigabyte than traditional hard drives, so instead of the roomy 500Gb hard drives you might be used to in other computers, a MacBook with an SSD will likely only have 128-256Gb of storage. With HD video downloads and retina display ready apps, it's rather easy to fill that up.
If you've got a 13″ Air or a Retina Display MacBook, though, you've got an SD card slot. Now what if that could be used to add extra storage that felt integrated fully with your Mac? That's exactly what the Nifty MiniDrive – a tiny microSD card adaptor that sits flush with the exterior of your MacBook – sets out to do.


text:
Sponsored by:
Investment Center
Something new in your
Click here to
submit your business press release
Chamber Corner
Main Street News
Job Hunt |
| Calendar |
Illinois Lottery
trustee cannot void Merkin, Fairfield settlements: court
Send a link to a friend
[August 09, 2014]
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a
setback for the trustee seeking money for former
customers of fraudster Bernard Madoff, a U.S. appeals
court refused to void two settlements benefiting
investors who sued "feeder funds" that sent their money
to Madoff.
Friday's unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in New York leaves intact a $410 million
settlement with J. Ezra Merkin, a Wall Street hedge fund manager who
oversaw the Ariel Fund Ltd and Gabriel Capital LP, and an $80
million settlement with Fairfield Greenwich Ltd.
The Merkin settlement had been negotiated by New York Attorney
General Eric Schneiderman and also resolved claims by Bart Schwartz,
the receiver of the Ariel and Gabriel funds.
Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment
Securities LLC, claimed the settlements impeded his ability to
recoup fraudulent transfers that Madoff made to Merkin and
Fairfield, and which belong to the firm's estate.
Writing for the appeals court, however, Circuit Judge Robert Sack
said Picard "is incapable of establishing either that the
settlements would in fact have an immediate adverse economic
consequence for the BLMIS estate, or that the estate is likely to
suffer irreparable harm" if the settlements go ahead.
Amanda Remus, a spokeswoman for Picard, said the trustee is
reviewing the decision, and will keep pursuing his own cases related
to Merkin and Fairfield in Manhattan bankruptcy court.
The decision upheld rulings last year by U.S. District Judges Jed
Rakoff and Victor Marrero allowing the respective Merkin and
Fairfield settlements.
"This ruling is a victory for justice and accountability,"
Schneiderman said in a statement.
Merkin's lawyer Andrew Levander said he is pleased with the
decision, and that his client's former investors, which include
charities, "should now be able to participate in the settlement in
the near future."
Picard has recovered $9.83 billion for Madoff customers who lost
roughly $17.5 billion of principal in a decades-long scheme that
collapsed in 2008.
[to top of second column]
Madoff, 76, is serving a 150-year prison term.
Picard had argued that he could block the Merkin and Fairfield
settlements under an "automatic stay" provision in federal
bankruptcy law, and a separate federal law protecting investors of
failed brokerages.
But Sack said Picard had no legal right to any Merkin or Fairfield
assets, and that the stay did not cover disputes over whether the
feeder funds breached duties to their own investors.
Sack also said it was only "factually likely, as opposed to legally
certain," that the settlements affected the Madoff firm's estate at
"The decision makes clear that a trustee like Irving Picard doesn't
have the ability to block litigation or settlements of separate
claims brought by investors that arise from a complex fraud," said
Stuart Singer, a lawyer representing Fairfield investors.
In March, the 2nd Circuit heard arguments on how much of the
"fictitious profits" that Madoff sent to selected customers may be
clawed back by Picard. It has yet to rule.
The cases are Picard v. Fairfield Greenwich Ltd et al, 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 13-1289; and Picard v. Schneiderman et
al in the same court, No. 13-1785.
(Editing by Grant McCool)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Recent articles
Back to top


text:
I am driving down to the Moab Five Mile Race and I ask my too kind and loving wife if she brought my breakfast burrito.
The incongruous nature of my actions; eating a breakfast burrito and running, seems odd and I don't know if it is because I have matured as a human being or if I have lowered my standards as an athlete.
When did it become a good idea to think that a burrito with Tabasco sauce is a perfectly good pre-race meal? Sorta like thinking that beer is a good source of grains.
I have read hundreds of books about running, optimizing performance, pounding pasta for the perfect pre-race primer, keeping hydrated and 10 reasons why Goo, which has the texture of Vaseline and tastes like lard, is your friend during long runs.
So, I am a little hesitant when I splash Tabasco Sauce on my breakfast burrito and start eating it half an hour before my race starts.
Don't get me wrong. I love breakfast burritos. Besides eating breakfast at my mom's, a breakfast burrito with Tabasco sauce is pretty much at the base of my food pyramid, next to Almond M&Ms and Pepsi.
As Billy-Bob says, on one hand you need food to run, and on the other hand…well, nothing…there can't be any good reason that one would think that a breakfast burrito is a good pre-race meal.
Sure, a breakfast burrito is great when you work in the oil field or if you are cutting trees for the Forest Service. Nothing tastes better than a toasty warm burrito pulled off the old engine manifold when you arrive at the work site. But, last time I read Runner's Guide to Eating, I can't recall breakfast burritos ever mentioned.
We, Daniel and I, hop on the bus for the ride to the start line and it sure seems like we have been driving for a long time. I wonder who the idiot was that paid $75 to be driven out of town, dropped off on the side of the road and told to run back.
Oh yah, it was me. Most taxi rides, plane rides, and bus rides go somewhere; this ride ends in the middle of the road halfway up the canyon along the Colorado River, a beautiful place, but nothing except a mile marker.
My stomach, or what's left of it gurgles; hmmmm…that doesn't sound like a good pre-race noise. Maybe I should do a few stretches; but I haven't done stretches in 30 years so it seems like too little too late. I used to be six foot two inches tall. Let that be a warning to all you non-stretchers.
Daniel is sitting beside me on the bus and I am trying to elucidate his mind with all of my running experience and giving him little tips that will help with his race performance. He is trying to listen to his iPod and ignore me. It doesn't stop me from talking. Oh my, I think the burrito is starting to heat up like a Japanese nuclear reactor. I coyly adjust myself on my seat.
The race starts and for the first half mile, I am all smiles and chatty as a Relief Society meeting. I am running down the road with 763 other people and now starting to think that maybe I am the only one that ate a breakfast burrito with Tabasco sauce as a pre-race meal.
It seems that my performance is starting to sputter as much as I am and I am wondering whether a breakfast burrito is really the breakfast of champions. I remember Bruce Jenner on the Wheaties box, but I can't really remember anyone endorsing the Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell for enhanced physical performance except perhaps Rulon Gardner (Greco-Roman wrestler from Idaho now on The Biggest Loser).
I can't breathe, I run slow, I can't stretch, everyone is passing me by and offering words of encouragement like "Are you okay?" "Should we call someone?". "No I grunt, must have been something I ate." I finished the race without stopping or being checked by a paramedic; another successful race.
Daniel took third overall, Jeff Hunt got an age group medal, Pat Garcia finished and was his usual happy self. The biggest hero is 69 year young Margaret Garcia of La Sal, who ran the race and deserves a CaveMan Award for her efforts. I hope someday I grow up and if I do I want to be like Margaret; not like Rulon.


text:
Lanarte is a manufacturer of high-quality counted cross-stitch kits and is renowned for its choice of design and the method by which original paintings are translated beautifully into cross-stitch. The cross-stitch kits are available worldwide.
Platinum Needlecraft is a series of embroidery kits by Lanarte in an American designing style. This means dramatic, more exuberant and classic.


text:
The memo on display at the Yeshiva University Museum exhibit Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter with Modern Medicine, 1860 - 1960 is short and to the point: "Never admit more than five Jews, take only two Italian Catholics, and no blacks at all." The document was signed by Milton Charles Winternitz, dean of Yale Medical School from 1920 to 1935.
The College of Medicine's namesake, Albert Einstein, with a model of the institution that proudly bears his name.Having fled the growing anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe in the years preceding World War II, multitudes of Jews that emigrated to the United Sates were met with such informal yet widely enforced quotas, used at the time to limit the number of Jews, African Americans, and other ethnic groups admitted to medical schools and other fields.
In response to this, Yeshiva University President Dr. Samuel Belkin began to advocate and plan for a medical school under Jewish auspices that would be run without quotas based on racial or religious prejudices. That medical school would come to bear the name of the famous Jewish scientist and philanthropist Albert Einstein, whose primary wish was that the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University would support and welcome all creeds and races. The history and motivation behind the establishment of the College of Medicine is detailed as part of the museum's multi-media exhibit.
"The exhibition is fabulous," remarked Dr. Edward Burns, executive dean at Einstein, during the opening night event. "While medicine was initially considered a religious calling for Jewish physicians, they also distinguished themselves by trying to find the scientific underpinnings of disease. In doing so, they became well-versed in secular knowledge. And when others realized that the Jews' approach was scientific rather than religious, they sought them out."
Trail of the Magic Bullet, which is curated by Josh Feinberg, explores the Jewish relationship with modern medicine by presenting both major scientific and medical contributions by Jewish doctors, and by exploring the influence of the Jewish faith on the ethics of how medicine is practiced.
The practice of quotas for certain ethnicities led to the establishment of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University – a medical school where all races and creeds would be welcome.The exhibit takes its name from the famous Jewish scientist and Nobel Laureate Paul Ehrlich, widely regarded as the father of chemotherapy, who popularized the concept of selectively targeting disease-causing agents that he called the "magic bullet." One such "magic bullet" - the drug Arsphenamine, which was the first effective medical treatment for syphilis - was discovered in his laboratory.
Beginning with the story of Dr. Ehrlich, Trial of the Magic Bullet details the many other Jews that are considered giants in their fields and whose contributions between 1860 and 1960 resulted in significant medical and scientific discoveries and theories. During that time period, Jews were so predominant in fields such as dermatology and psychoanalysis, the areas were considered "Jewish Sciences."
The medical advances made by individual doctors eventually affected and contributed to public health, and the exhibit continues by examining medical philanthropy within and by the Jewish community through specific groups and hospitals, and how the Jewish faith influenced such efforts.
Following the display relating the history of the College of Medicine, the exhibit addresses various contemporary issues in Jewish bioethics. These include complex issues, such as how to deal with genetic testing that may reveal debilitating illness in an unborn child or what the most ethical approach to end-of-life issues might be in the severely ill. Perspectives of these uniquely contemporary issues are discussed by several Jewish scientists and religious leaders in a film by Ilana Trachtman, Heal, You Shall Heal.
The history of Jewish medicine on display at the Trail of the Magic Bullet demonstrates the impact of these efforts on the health and scientific understanding of the entire global community. The beautifully curated and educational exhibit remains on display at the Yeshiva University Museum until August 12, 2012. The museum is located at 15 West 16th Street, in Manhattan, and admission is free for Yeshiva University (including Einstein) students, faculty, and administration with a valid ID.
Posted on: Friday, July 27, 2012


text:
got Coop?
COOP self help
Data disaster: When COOP is not enough
Disaster procurement rules are clear, but agencies are not always prepared
DISA sustains DOD's communications when disaster strikes
NFC's preparation paid off when Katrina hit New Orleans
The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued Federal Preparedness Circular 65 in June 2004 to give agencies a road map to creating effective continuity-of-operations plans.From FPD-65, the Judiciary Emergency Preparedness Office identified six critical elements that a COOP plan must address:Essential functions. Identify the core functions and activities of an agency, agency interdependencies and the resources needed to carry them out.Orders of succession. For all key COOP positions, identify who is in charge and who takes that slot if the key person is unavailable.Delegation of authority. Designate who has authority to carry out all the aspects of the COOP plan.Alternate facilities. Identify facility requirements and possible alternate locations, both nearby and farther away, including notifying and relocating COOP personnel, as needed.Interoperable communications. Identify key lines of communications that are needed, and alternative ways of maintaining contact if cell phones don't work, for instance, or computer networks are down.Vital records and databases. Identify which information is critical to supporting essential functions, and ways and means of maintaining access to them, whether through the use of backups, relocation of IT resources, replication of records or other means.
William Lehman heads the Judiciary Emergency Preparedness Office, which was established to handle continuity-of-operations planning.
Zaid Hamid
E-Mail this page
Printable Format
Advanced Search
Sign up for our newsletter.
I agree to this site's Privacy Policy.


text:
While Phelps's un-retirement did indeed create a flurry of excitement in social media, those who know him best were not shocked by Monday's announcement.
"I wasn't surprised," 17-year-old Olympic champion Katie Ledecky told Reuters in a telephone call after a workout at her swim club in Bethesda, Maryland.
"The swimming world has known for a while that he's been training the past year so it wasn't too big of a surprise. I'm definitely excited that he's going to swimming in Mesa."
Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all-time with a total of 22 medals, has not competed since the 2012 London Games. The Baltimore native will headline an April 24-26 meet in Mesa, Arizona, with fellow Olympians Ledecky and Ryan Lochte.
The 28-year-old, 18-time gold medalist returned to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency registry over nine months ago and has been subject to out-of-competition testing.
Dara Torres, a winner of 12 Olympic medals, said she knew all along that Phelps would return to the pool.
"I just kind of giggled when I heard the news," she told Reuters on Tuesday via telephone from her Boston home. "I knew it. I just knew that was going to happen."
Phelps is entered in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and the 50m butterfly at the Mesa event, the fourth stop of USA Swimming's 2013-14 Arena Grand Prix Series.
Torres, who won her medals over five Olympics and missed out on a ticket to the 2012 London Games by nine one-hundreths of a second in the U.S. trials, is convinced Phelps misses competing.
"I have never seen anyone as competitive as me except for Michael Phelps," said the 47-year-old Torres. "I am so competitive it's ridiculous. You have someone like Michael and now he's in the real life. He's playing golf, he's doing things here and there.
"But it's not the same as something you've been doing your whole life. For me personally, I missed the sport. I love the sport. But most of all I missed competing.
"If you're a very competitive person, it's very tough to let that go."
Torres, who competed against swimmers half her age as her career wound down, believes Phelps will have to adjust his training on the road to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"All the years he never took a break, it's going to be different for Michael," she said. "As far as recovery goes, it's going to be different but as far as him doing his best times, I don't think his age will be a factor.
"It's human nature, that your body is used to doing something at a certain level when you're younger. The biggest thing for me, mentally, was understanding that I can't do what I used to do training-wise.
"The hard part is knowing you can't do what the young kids are doing. You're older, you don't recover like you used to."
Ledecky is convinced Phelps will be "focused and give it all he's got."
"It should be fun to see what he can do," she said. "No matter what he does, he's already accomplished so much anything extra will be amazing to see."
(Editing by Gene Cherry)


text:
We Show You How To Remove The Body Side Moldings For A Clean, Sleek Look.
Some items just don't belong on a serious muscle car, and in fact it is these very same items that differentiate factory "muscle" from their more mundane "grandma" counterparts. It's no secret that the very same body line was used by the manufacturer for a wide range of model series, and it is often simply the way the vehicle is trimmed-out that denotes whether a particular machine was intended for performance. Our Satellite shares the exact body platform as the heroic Road Runner, but being a Satellite (Sebring) it left the factory sans the tell-tale performance cues such as a ralley instrument cluster, blacked-out grille, hood pins, strobe stripe, sport hood, etc. Instead, our plain Satellite came with the basic dress, and was wearing perhaps the biggest tell-tail of them all–the body side molding.
Functionally, these thin impact strips offered protection from parking lot door dings that practical buyers found irresistible, and many a grandma would nary consider a vehicle unless so equipped. Performance buyers, however, put clean, uninterrupted body lines at a higher priority, and were more than ready to forego those useful protective moldings for a sleek and smooth profile. Being of that basic mindset, we were more than a little eager to remove the offending trim to give our machine a more performance-orientated silhouette.
Unfortunately, unlike vehicles manufactured in recent years where a variety of obtuse moldings are simply bonded or taped to the vehicle's skin, back in the era of real metal, automakers seemed intent on the generous use of mechanical fasteners. In detaching the trim, an enthusiast will find all manner of studs, rivets, posts, clips, and/or screws retaining these types of moldings. While the variety of factory fasteners runs the gamut of a wide range of engineering theories, a common theme seems to be that whatever was used needed to be securely through-bolted to the panel. Naturally, such an arrangement complicates the removal of these protuberances, with the necessity of filling holes. There are a number of acceptable methods of filling trim holes, but MIG welding is generally accepted today as the best technique, while simply burying the hole with bondo is typically the lowest-rated repair.
Our Satellite moldings were retained with rivets, which makes for a fairly simple trim removal process of simply drilling out the rivets. The remaining holes were fairly diminutive as trim holes go, requiring a quick zap of the MIG to be filled permanently and invisibly. We tackled the trim removal as a weekend project, and as we are well away from out ultimate goal of a complete re-paint, we finished the job with a protective coat of black epoxy primer. Even as it stands, our multi-colored Mopar project suits our aesthetic far better with the moldings removed.


text:
Sign Up
East Bay Concerts Tonight
No shows found based on your search criteria. However, you may be interested in these popular shows in SF Bay Area: Wakey, Wakey is the best deal at 62 percent off. A Christmas Carol is selling for as low as $20.
No shows found based on your search criteria
However, you may be interested in these popular shows in SF Bay Area:
Emmy Award-winner Tony Hale stars in this intimate comedy about love, life and what it means to be human at A.C.T.
Light up your holiday season with Smuin's dazzling collection of ballet, tap, and jazz at "The Christmas Ballet!"
This holiday season, join Berkeley Playhouse for a nostalgic romp full of joyful spirit at "A Christmas Story the Musical."
The beloved Bay Area holiday tradition returns to A.C.T., featuring all your favorite characters from Charles Dickens's classic tale.
Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, "Hamilton" is the story of America then, as told by America now.
PigPen Theatre Co. brings Kate DiCamillo's inventive and imaginative adventure to life in this dazzling new musical at Berkeley Rep.
This witty new musical by Tim Minchin and Danny Rubin, based on the hit film by Harold Ramis, comes to San Francisco Playhouse.
East Bay Concerts Tonight per Ticket Price
Average discount for East Bay Concerts Tonight is 40%. Some shows offer lotteries and rush tickets. Rush tickets can be accessed via the TodayTix app.


text:
We will be updating this section soon.
Providing a Spring Ball Hockey League for youth in the City of Surrey (including the City of White Rock), British Columbia, Canada for over 20 years.
PO Box 34153, RPO Cloversquare, Surrey, BC, V3S 8C4
Do you want to reach thousands of users across hundreds of Minor Sports Association websites? Advertising with RAMP has never been easier! Get in touch with us now to discuss your needs.
RAMP InterActive - Terms of Use - Privacy Policy
Admin Login


text:
Purchase includes:
- Up to 5 pages of the selected demo site.
- One-time website setup and configuration. Initial setup will look exactly like the demo.
- One-time site content update. All contents should be provided by the client – this includes the logo, images, and write-ups. We'll update the contents and the color scheme to fit your brand.
- One month site support and maintenance.
$29value FREE!
Benefits of using our pre-made sites:
Our pre-made WordPress websites allow you to have a modern, fresh-looking website at a price you can afford. All our pre-made websites are built upon handpicked, top themes in the market today. "Be Cleaner" uses BeTheme and designed by the wonderful team from Muffin Group. *
- Save Time & Money – A typical custom website takes 4-6 weeks to finish which costs from $800 to thousands. With our pre-made WordPress websites, we can have your website up and running in 2-3 days at a very affordable price without compromise on the overall design. Other cheap WordPress website design alternatives doesn't look as premium as you'd like it to be.
- Business Niche Design – Our pre-made sites are designed to be not only beautiful but effective for specific business niches. Each layout is designed to work for your business.
- Built on WordPress – Our pre-made sites are built on the number 1 content management system in the world making contents easier to manage and maintain.
- Mobile-friendly – All our pre-made WordPress websites are designed with mobile devices in the mind. This means, your site will be easy to use on all platforms.
- Premium Support – We setup & fully support our products, so if something does not work as advertised, we have your back.
What's not included:
- Advance features like social media integration, on-page SEO, shopping cart, chat online feature, help desk and client support system, etc. If you wish to get these features, order our custom website design below.
- Domain and website hosting. For a blazing-fast, secure, reliable and fully-managed WORDPRESS HOSTING.
- No additional customization work.
- Ongoing site support and maintenance after the one-month support inclusive of the package. For a world-class on-going WordPress maintenance and support, please subscribe to our WORDPRESS CARE PLANS.
Is Be Cleaner WordPress website design not for you?
Our custom WordPress website includes everything you need to succeed:
- Custom website design and development for your business
- Modern and specifically designed for your brand's look and feel
- Mobile friendly design to fit on all devices
- Designed to be effective for your business


text:
For the first time ever, Oklahoma State heads into the 2012 season with the distinction of being the reigning Big 12 champion.
Even after losing record-setting stars Justin Blackmon and Brandon Weeden to the NFL, the Cowboys aren't about to lower expectations for a program that has been on the rise since Mike Gundy took over as coach seven years ago.
Oklahoma State was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 this season. But don't let that fool you. The Cowboys have finished each of the last three seasons higher than they were picked in the preseason poll, and their 20-5 record during that span is the best in league play.
Oklahoma State opens its title defense Sept. 1 against Savannah State.


text:
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. provides a range of products, services and solutions to support the government and commercial markets. We primarily deliver mission critical engineering, IT services and technical solutions for the Department of Defense, and we perform a variety of work for state and local agencies and commercial customers. Our team includes engineers, technicians and other industry professionals. We have locations throughout the United States at various customer sites and key military locations. Together, our employees solve complex technical challenges requiring innovative solutions for our customers' mission critical operations.
Kratos offers a competitive Benefits package including a 401(k) plan with an employer match and an employee stock purchase program.
Kratos is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer.
EOE, Minorities, Females, Vet, Disabled, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or any other protected class.
All qualified job seekers are encouraged to apply. Kratos is committed to America's veterans by providing opportunities for them to continue contributing after service to our nation. We also work to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities.
EEO Is The Law
The company will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.
If you have a disability and require assistance with our online application process, please tell us how we can help. Send us a message or call 858-964-2916.
Note: These accessibility avenues are for individuals requiring accommodation and should not be used to check the status of your job application. Inquires not specific to requesting an accommodation will be discarded.


text:
Day five of the Mondial Du Vent saw the continuation of the double elimination in Leucate, France, in winds that built throughout the day.
It was another beautiful day in France set against the backdrop of the village of La Franqui, and riders were hungry for the chance to advance. As hopeful competitors entered the water at 1pm, the wind was registered at 20-28 knots and riders starting on 7-9m kites.
Resuming in the men's first round, the action continued - landing three French riders in the second round, much to the delight of the fans on the beach cheering for their home countrymen. In the fifth heat of the day, Frenchman Paul Serin rode against Sergie Borisov. In a close battle the fight came down to the final minute, when Borisov landed a Front Blind, which put him shy of the win by .22 points.
Fellow French rider Valentin Garat made it to the third round but faltered in his heat against Alexander Neto, putting the Brazilian up against Stefen Speissberger in round three and Neto taking the win. As the day went on, the wind continued to build to 30 knots with higher gusts demanding that riders use all their skills to land their tricks on their smallest kites.
The strong conditions proved challenging for all riders including big wind enthusiast Youri Zoon. However, Zoon was able to come out on top and advanced past Robinson Hilario, Eudazio Da Silva and later, Mario Rodwald in the last men's heat of the day. Although Rodwald had a strong start to his heat with a nice Front Blind and Back Mobe, he faltered in the strong winds and Zoon advanced.
The women's ladder saw a big upset for Bruna Kajiya who did not ride to form in her heat against Kristiin Oja. Kajiya's Blind Judge and 313 scored well, but she was unable to land any other big tricks. In the end, a big S1 and Mobe from Oja, amongst others, put her in the lead for the win. Also notable, was Annabel Van Westerop who edged out Switala and Vieira in the first two rounds respectively.
Tomorrow is the last day of the competition in Leucate, France. Final rounds will be run tomorrow as a promising forecast continues. Riders will meet a 12:30 pm with a first possible start at 1pm. The Mondial Du Vent PKRA Awards ceremony will commence at 4:30 pm. Stay tuned to the Facebook and Twitter feeds for start times, updates, and all the latest info from the PKRA World Tour. Watch the livestream of the Mondial Du Vent.
Read original article: PKRA News:Day 5 – The Double Elimination Continues


text:
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A Swedish man who was apparently drunk was arrested for allegedly urinating on fruit in a grocery store, police said.
Police said the suspect entered a supermarket in Gothenburg in western Sweden and stumbled into the produce section -- where he began peeing on a pile of apples and oranges.
Store employees said the fruit was worth 700 kroner ($110) and had to be thrown away, TheLocal.se said Saturday.
Store security held the man down while police responded to the scene.
Officers charged the man with vandalism.


text:
San Diego artists' work now showing at Scott White Contemporary Art
To enter Gail Roberts' domain is to enter a world of collections.
Her work space is full of accumulations of dirt, animal bones, seed pods, feathers, leaves and bird nests, to name a few of her fascinations (some might call them obsessions).
"I like to gather things," Roberts said in her La Mesa studio. "I gather all kinds of organic materials, and at some point these materials make their way into the paintings."
"Spiral: New work by Gail Roberts"
Where: Scott White Contemporary Art, 7655 Girard Ave., La Jolla
When: Through July 27
Admission: Free
Phone: (858) 255-8574
For her newest work in an engaging solo show that recently opened at Scott White Contemporary Art, her collection of nests and feathers has made it onto the canvas.
Just the material aspect of Roberts' treatment of these nests, each different, each revealing uncommon complexity and ingenuity, is visually appealing.
But to say these are merely paintings of bird nests would be to miss the point entirely.
"I find them so powerful in terms of having a sense of metaphor," Roberts said. "I use them because they are symbolic of so many different aspects of our own lives."
The nests can represent a sense of protection and safety, a place for nurturing.
"But when the birds leave the nest, it seems like (the nests) also represent a sense of death and decay," she said. "There's a sense of emptying and absence, so that dichotomy is really quite beautiful."
Roberts, who has been on the San Diego State University faculty since the 1970s and whose work has been widely exhibited (including a piece currently on view in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's "A Very Large Array"), has been working with nests for about four years. But only her most recent work concerns itself with the idea of a nest as a "spiral" — the title of her show at Scott White.
"The term 'spiral' seems to have a sense of movement," Roberts said. "Like spiraling out of control, or spiraling down or spiraling up; in the newest ones I'm trying to create more movement."
While most of the canvases in the exhibit have a nest as the central element, one set of paintings of feathers on marble dispenses with the nests and refers to the spiral only in the most abstract sense. If depicted in mathematical terms, a spiral follows the Fibonacci series (a sequence where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers).
In a tour de force of 12 separate panels, each representing a number in the series (starting with a depiction of a single hawk feather and ending with 233 turkey feathers), Roberts draws on much of her feather collection.
She won't hazard a guess as to what will jump onto her canvas next, but she's in no hurry. There's still more to be done on the nests. Several are still waiting on her work table.


text:
TORONTO — Peter Munk has long driven the agenda for Barrick Gold Corp, the company he formed in 1983 and built into the world's largest gold producer, but recent missteps have raised questions about the leadership of a man once seen as a visionary in the industry.
[np_storybar title="Barrick Gold to sell off three Australian mines for $300M" link="https://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/22/barrick-gold-corp-agrees-to-sell-off-three-australian-mines-for-300m/"%5DThe Canadian-based gold mining giant has agreed to sell off three mines in Western Australia known as the Yilgarn South assets to South Africa-based miner Gold Fields Ltd. Read more.
Munk, who owns a stake of less than a quarter of a percent in the company, still steers Barrick's strategy from his position as chairman, and he is now attempting to shore up the miner's position. But some investors, seizing on what they view as misguided decisions and problems at several mines, are questioning both the company's direction, and Munk's role.
In the last two years, gold miners across the globe have been stung by falling bullion prices and a surge in costs. Barrick has fared worse than its rivals, outlining about $13 billion in writedowns this year alone.
Its share price is down nearly 65% in two years, outpacing a 50% drop in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index , and a 26% drop in the price of spot gold.
While environmental woes at its Pascua-Lama gold-mining project, high in the Andes, have been the biggest drag on Barrick's share price, investors have taken the most issue with its disappointing push into copper and with a proposal to give Munk's heir apparent, co-chairman John Thornton, an unusually large, $11.9 million signing bonus.
There is a feeling, I think, that we are dealing with a little bit of a fiefdom
In interviews with Reuters, five Barrick insiders said Munk himself played a pivotal role in both these decisions.
Neither Munk nor Thornton would comment for this story, and Barrick declined to comment on Munk's role in the decisions.
But the high-level insiders, who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to discuss such matters with media, describe a company where Munk – an entrepreneur, real estate mogul and avid skier – has a powerful influence in every major board decision.
"The level of deference shown to Peter Munk within Barrick and its boardroom is surprising," said one source familiar with Barrick's boardroom discussions.
Only seven of Barrick's 13 directors are independent, a ratio that Barrick says meets New York Stock Exchange rules. But proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis says the board lacks two-thirds independence – a best practice for big, widely held companies.
"It would be nice if we could get a feeling that the board of directors is acting for all shareholders, because there is a feeling, I think, that we are dealing with a little bit of a fiefdom," said Caesar Bryan, a portfolio manager at Gabelli, which owns some 2.9 million shares in Barrick Gold. "The whole corporate governance and board situation is a little disconcerting."
The insiders all praised Munk, who was born in Hungary and escaped the Nazis as a teenager, for his achievement in building Barrick and the tens of millions of dollars he has donated for healthcare and education in Toronto, where the company is based.
However, they criticized some of his more recent decisions, especially Barrick's $7.3 billion takeover of Africa-focused copper miner Equinox in 2011.
Three of the sources said that deal stretched Barrick just as it was developing the huge Pascua-Lama project on the border of Argentina and Chile, and the Pueblo Viejo gold-mining project in the Dominican Republic.
The Equinox takeover triggered the initial slide in Barrick's share price. Many investors were disenchanted: Stocks of gold miners typically attract higher multiples than those of base metal miners, and Barrick has for years marketed itself as the ideal vehicle for gold bugs.
But three of the sources said Munk's push for Equinox came as no surprise, given that the he had long sought to transform Barrick into a big diversified miner in the mold of Rio Tinto Ltd or BHP Billiton Ltd.
In particular, Munk has wanted to boost Barrick's exposure to copper, said the insiders, adding that his itch for copper dated back to the late 1990s, when he pushed management several times to look at U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc – an initiative code-named Project Orange.
But successive management teams repeatedly steered Munk away from a bid and Freeport became too big a target after it bought Phelps Dodge for $25.9 billion in 2007.
Refocusing on gold, Barrick then twice reached deals to buy No. 2 gold miner, Newmont Mining, first in 2008 and later in 2010, the sources said. Each time Munk scrapped the deal late in the game, largely due to differences around how the combined entity would be led.
At other times, the sources said, Munk pushed management to look at the likes of Canadian diversified miner Teck Resources , and Potash Corp, the world's top fertilizer maker. Neither deal panned out.
Barrick declined to comment on the deals it has explored, as did spokesmen for Freeport, Newmont, Teck and Potash Corp.
When Equinox came on the block, four insiders said Munk seized on the deal as a step toward his goal of diversification. At a time when several copper miners were up for sale, Barrick outbid a Chinese state-backed entity to take over Equinox.
Barrick's management team attempted to warn Munk against buying Equinox, noting that Barrick had spent months trying to reduce risk in Africa by spinning its mines there into a separate operation called African Barrick Gold PLC, the sources said. The board approval of the deal is illustrative of Munk's sway in the boardroom, they said.
Two sources said the final board approval came during a 20-minute conference call with minimal discussion. Asked for comment, Barrick said its board discussed the deal extensively in the weeks before the decision.
Yet the deal quickly raised concerns among investors, starting with the price Barrick shelled out for Equinox.
"Outbidding the Chinese on a copper asset in Africa is your first sign that you've struck a bad deal," said one insider, who noted that Chinese companies are very comfortable operating in Africa and own a wide array of projects across the continent.
The price of copper has fallen 23% since the deal, and the transaction has not lived up to its billing. Barrick has halted an expansion at the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia – the crown jewel of the Equinox portfolio – and delayed the Saudi Arabia Jabal Sayid copper project, also acquired via the deal.
To be sure, Munk's gamble may still pay off in the long run, given looming supply issues as China's and other emerging economies develop.
"The Earth's endowment with high grade copper deposits is finite," says Bernstein Research analyst Paul Gait. "It is only a question of when, not if, that limitation leads to higher real copper prices."
Aaron Regent, Barrick's chief executive at the time of the Equinox deal, was replaced by Jamie Sokalsky in June 2012.
Regent declined an interview request.
Barrick has lately begun to right the ship, say two sources, noting that Thornton, formerly a well-regarded Goldman Sachs executive, is taking a more hands-on role as Barrick's co-chairman. Recently he traveled with management to Argentina before Barrick outlined a decision to slow work at the expensive Pascua-Lama project, a move that will help the company preserve capital over the next few years.
Ahead of Barrick's annual meeting in April, proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis told investors not to vote for three directors: Anthony Munk, Peter Munk's son and a board member for 17 years; William Birchall, a member for 29 years; and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who has been a board member since 1993.
The firm advised against Anthony Munk and Birchall, saying it was concerned about the level of board independence, and it argued that Mulroney currently sits on too many boards. All three were elected, but shareholders voted against Barrick's non-binding proposal on executive compensation, in particular an $11.9 million signing bonus that was paid to Thornton.
That revolt was led by some of Canada's top pension funds, a group that rarely goes public with their disapproval, and 85% of the vote was cast against Barrick on the proposal. Representatives of the pension funds declined to comment.
But a source at one of the funds said Barrick has since vowed to add three new independent members to its board. The new nominees are likely to have experience in the mining sector to tackle a lack of sector expertise on its board, said the source.
Barrick declined to comment on any plans to add independent board members.
© Thomson Reuters 2013


text: Murtonda Durant was a model of consistency and success, earning All-America status 15 times in a four-year career, while being a major factor in UMass Boston's dominance of women's track and field. She helped the Beacons to four NCAA team championships, including three consecutive indoor titles and was part of UMass Boston's incredible feat of becoming the first school in NCAA history to capture both indoor and outdoor team championships during the same year. UMB finished as the national runner-up three times and placed fourth in the outdoor championships during Durant's freshman season. A 1989 graduate of UMass Boston, she specialized in the 400 meters, qualifying as an All-American in all four indoor and all four outdoor races she competed in at the NCAA Championships and won the indoor title in 1985 and 1987 when she ran a 56.66 to set an NCAA record, which stood for 10 years. Durant was also a part of the Beacons' unstoppable 4X400 relay team that took four straight NCAA outdoor crowns, while establishing an NCAA record time of 3:40.76 in 1988 that still stands, and a pair of indoor titles. She currently holds indoor school records for the 55-meter dash and the 600-yard dash. Her success wasn't limited to the NCAAs either, earning All-ECAC and All-New England honors for both indoor and outdoor in all four years of competition.


text:
Tom Brown thrives on the variety of work he handles every day as a legal assistant in British Columbia's Ministry of Justice in Victoria.
"One of my files might be about a motor vehicle accident, where someone is suing the government about road maintenance," Brown says, "or suing the Ministry of Forests about damage from a forest fire. It's always interesting."
Brown is a graduate of Camosun College's legal office assistant certificate program, a one-year full-time program that prepares students to provide office support to legal professionals in law offices, government and business.
At Camosun, Brown took classes in business communications, records management, keyboarding and computer programming, as well as courses with a legal focus including civil litigation, wills and estates, and real estate, corporate, family and criminal law.
Now he's considering returning to school to become a lawyer. "My involvement with the legal community in this job has been a real help in deciding whether to continue my education and pursue law."
In the course of a day, Brown will log in and record correspondence from lawyers; draft pleadings (consent forms); schedule travel and meetings for the lawyers in his office; and maintain physical and electronic files related to the civil litigation cases in B.C.'s Provincial and Supreme Court that his office specializes in.
Legal assistant Sangeetha Rajan thrives on her on-the-job opportunities to learn about legal matters and terminology. She found her job in a private law firm, Pallett Valo LLP, after graduating from the law clerk program at triOS College, both in Mississauga, Ont. She likes working in the wills and estates department "because I use a lot of the legal material I studied in school," says Rajan.
The classes she took during the 64-week program at triOS were similar to Brown's, but also included legal ethics, legal research and writing, tort and contract law and debtor and creditor law.
The job responsibilities of a legal assistant depend on the needs of the employer, whether it be for a small law firm, corporate firm or government agency, but they usually involve handling case files and providing office support. When hiring legal assistants, Rajan says, employers want people who are organized and can provide a high attention to detail. "They must be responsible, too," says Rajan. "Lawyers are trusting you."
Denise De Paola, a legal assistant for over 20 years at Cassels Brock & Blackwell in Toronto, works primarily in business law. "I look after people and acknowledge their needs as quickly as I can. I try to do whatever it takes to make them happy, pay their bill and be satisfied."
There is no standardized training, qualifications or even title for people like Brown, Rajan and De Paola - all designated as legal assistants - who provide administrative and office support. "In our firm, legal secretaries are called legal assistants," says De Paola.
Brown and Rajan found jobs immediately after finishing school and say the market is good for people seeking this kind of work. "But the choice of school is really important," says Brown, who believes his school's reputation played a role in his getting a job so quickly. Rajan agrees. "I know people who graduated from another school who couldn't find jobs. The program wasn't considered good enough."


text:
I am a freelance designer/web developer based in Cornwall with a passion for creating innovative solutions for web and print. Over the past 16+ years, I have worked with some of the region's largest design agencies and have enjoyed creating work for clients, from small start-ups to large nationals.
My work to date has included projects for Ray Ban, National Trust, and Cornwall Council. I regularly work for small and large independent businesses and organisations, helping to build their own unique and individual brands.
As an experienced design and web professional, I have both the technical and creative expertise to deliver your project, whether you require a small micro website or full branding scheme.
If you would like to discuss your plans please send me a message via the below form or alternatively call me on 07907 262299.