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Many people love to read the juicy stories from tabloids and online gossip sites; however, yesterday a jury in Kentucky held one online site liable for defamation. CBSSports.com reported a jury awarded Sarah Jones over $300,000.00 in her defamation lawsuit against thedirty.com. The CBS story gives some background and facts about the case, but lawyers often want to know the details that can only be found in the court record.
To find the complaint, answer, motions, and other filings for this case, simply go to the government's federal court website called PACER, which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Using PACER you can search the case and docket information for federal district and appellate court cases, as well as, bankruptcy cases. There is a small fee for viewing documents that is capped at $3.00 per document. Currently, if you do not view more than $15.00 worth of documents in a quarter your fee is waived.


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There are two finfoots in the Old World: the African Finfoot Podica senegalensis, which ranges widely throughout tropical and southern Africa but is nowhere common, and the endangered Masked Finfoot Heliopais personata of southeast Asia. All species are primarily resident, but the Masked Finfoot has an odd distribution of records in Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra that suggests migratory movement. The latter bird is especially poorly known. [I have spent time in Kruger Nat'l Park, South Africa, waiting at a known finfoot site for the African bird -- which is sometimes known as "Peter's Finfoot" -- to appear, but without success.]
This lack of much basic information extends to all members in the group. In writing about this family, Bertrand (1996) says that "rather few bird families are as poorly known and as infrequently observed as the Heliornithidae." In my brief experience the birds were very shy and seen for only a brief time.
Young African Finfoots are born precocial and ready to swim, but baby Sungrebes are born blink, almost naked, and helpless. The Sungrebe is already very strange in having a very short incubation period (10-11 days, matching some small passerines) but has an astonishing behavior entirely unique in the bird world: the male Sungrebe is able to transport these helpless offspring, even in flight! Bertrand (1996) explains:
"M. Alvarez del Toro, who observed a nesting pair in Mexico, discovered that the male has a shallow pocket under each wing into which the two young can fit. The pocket is formed by a pleat of skin, and made more secure by the feathers on the side of the body just below. The heads of the chicks could be seen from below as the bird flew. Alvarez del Toro collected the bird in order to examine it and confirm the unlikely discovery. Subsequently, he found it confirmed also by a report published by Prince Maximilian of Wied 138 years earlier but apparently ignored, forgotten or not believed.Yes, the Sungrebe and the finfoots are mystery birds indeed.
This adaptation is unique among birds: in no other species is there any mechanism whereby altricial young can be transported. Of course, the precocial young of some swans and grebes may hitch rides on their swimming parents' backs, and a male jaçana can transport his chicks about holding them between his wings and body, but neither of these cases applies when the adults are in flight....
The transport system of the Sungrebe raises numerous further questions. How do the chicks get into the pocket? Are they put in by the male? Does he feed them in there? Do they stay inside, or get in and out? Why does the female not have similar pockets? ...
Photos: Marc Fenner photographed the swimming Sungrebe Heliornis fulica at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, in March 1991. Photo © 2000 Marc Fenner, used by permission; all rights reserved.
Other excellent photos of Costa Rican birds can be found on Marc Fenner's Costa Rican web site.
Bibliographic note:
There is no "family book" per se of which I'm aware, but an good introduction to the family (with photos of all species in the wild) is in Bertrand (1996).
Literature cited:
Bertrand, B. C. R. 1996. Family Heliornithidae (Finfoots) in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J., eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 3. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.TOP
Page created 5 Apr 2000

subset: commoncrawl


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This instructional video demonstrates the following flair bartending trick: flip the bottle behind the back.
Flair bartending is the practice of entertainment bartending: fun & dazzling bar tricks with cocktail shakers, bottles and other bar tools. Flair bartending is intended for more advanced bartenders and mixologists. Practice makes perfect. Watch this flair bartending tutorial to finesse your skills.


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TexShare Databases
Tex-Share Databases
What you need for research.
Video: TexShare Databases: Online Resources for Academic Libraries
2 minutes
The commercial databases licensed by TexShare offer authoritative, full-text articles from verifiable, subscription-only sources. Every search yields results you won't see anywhere else.
TexShare is surprisingly easy to use and is so much more efficient than sifting through unreliable information you finding using Google. Wikipedia is often a great jumping off point. With TexShare, you can go much further and impress the heck out of your teacher, or learn as deeply into a subject as you care to. Because of very strict licensing agreements, however, only residents of Texas can use it.
Great! How do I use it?
Using your library card number and primary telephone number (only use your area code if you are outside 512) without the dash, log into your user account.


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Today, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto has unveiled a provincial plaque to commemorate The Armenian Boys' Farm Home, Georgetown.
"The arrival of Armenian child refugees at Cedarvale Farm in Georgetown helped to lay the groundwork for this country's international humanitarian efforts throughout the 20th century," said Dr. Thomas H.B. Symons, Chairman of the Ontario Heritage Trust. "We are proud to honour this significant event in our history with this provincial plaque."
In part the plaque reads as follows:
On July 1, 1923, a group of 50 Armenian boys arrived at this farm site from an orphanage in Corfu, Greece. The 'Georgetown Boys,' as they came to be known, arrived in Canada between 1923 and 1927 - 109 boys in all. The orphans were survivors of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923). Their plight touched the hearts of thousands of Canadians, who raised significant funds and lobbied the Canadian government to bring them here. Under the care and supervision of the Armenian Canadian Relief Fund's Farm and Home Committee, the children lived at Cedarvale Farm located on this property and were taught English and farming skills. By 1928, the orphans were placed with farm families in Southwestern Ontario. As adults, most of the Armenians became Canadian citizens and chose to remain in this country. By providing assistance to non-British Commonwealth refugees, the Armenian Boys' Farm Home was the first humanitarian effort of its kind in Canada.
The unveiling ceremony took place at the Armenian Youth Centre - Hamazkayin Theatre in Toronto. The plaque will be permanently installed at Cedarvale Park in Georgetown, the site of the Armenian Boys' Farm Home.
"Canada's humanitarian efforts in aiding the 109 orphaned Armenian children who survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 must be remembered and commended," said Armenian Community Centre President Vatche Kelebozian. "This provincial plaque will immortalize the memory of the Georgetown Boys and act as a permanent reminder of Canada's proud humanitarian tradition and its unyielding commitment in aiding Armenians."
A book has been written on the Georgetown Boys by Jack Apramian, and is featured in a 1976 article in "The Georgetown Independent" on http://www.creditvalleyartisans.ca/history.html


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Affidavit: Charlie Sheen's wife claims he threatened to kill her
Associated Press Writer
ASPEN (AP) – Charlie Sheen's wife told police the actor pinned her on a bed, put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her in a Christmas Day fight in Aspen that began when she said she wanted a divorce.
An arrest warrant affidavit released Monday quotes Brooke Mueller Sheen as saying that the actor straddled her on a bed with one hand grasping her neck and the other holding the knife. She said Sheen told her: "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you."
He also told her, "Your mother's money means nothing, I have ex-police I can hire who know how to get the job done and they won't leave any trace," according to the affidavit.
The 44-year-old Sheen denied threatening his wife with a knife or choking her, and told officers they had slapped each other on the arms and that he had snapped two pairs of her eyeglasses in front of her, according to the affidavit. An ambulance was sent to the house in Aspen, but police say no one was taken to the hospital.
Charlie Sheen, who is listed in the affidavit as Carlos Irwin Estevez, told police he and his wife have been having marital problems and that she abuses alcohol.
No phone listing could be found for Brooke Sheen, and it wasn't clear whether she has an attorney. The affidavit refers to her as Brooke Mueller.
Sheen was arrested on suspicion of menacing, second-degree assault and criminal mischief. The affidavit also lists a charge of domestic violence, which authorities had not previously mentioned. Sheen is free on $8,500 bond. His lawyer and his agent didn't immediately return calls on Monday.
The couple began arguing around 3:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, the affidavit said. Brooke Sheen told her husband she wanted a divorce and would get custody of their children, according to the affidavit. The couple have twin boys born in March.
Charlie Sheen told police he "became very upset with this threat (of divorce) because of prior experiences." He went through a bitter divorce and custody battle with his previous wife, actress Denise Richards.
A woman who identified herself as "Brooke" and said she was Sheen's wife called 911 around 8:30 a.m.
In an audio recording of the call released Monday, the woman can be heard weeping and sometimes her words are inaudible. At one point she said: "My husband had me (inaudible) with um, with a knife, and (inaudible) he threatened me." Later, she said, "I thought I was gonna die for one hour."
Police say Charlie Sheen surrendered a folding knife with a 4-inch blade.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin said Monday the menacing charge is the most serious, usually carrying a sentence of two to eight years in prison and a fine of $2,000 to $500,000. Mordkin said Sheen's next court appearance is Feb. 8, and no decision on whether to prosecute him is expected until shortly before that.
Charlie Sheen stars in CBS' "Two and a Half Men" and Brooke Mueller Sheen is a real estate investor. The couple married in May 2008.
Start a dialogue, stay on topic and be civil.
If you don't follow the rules, your comment may be deleted.


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McIntire safe: But girls still outside the fences
While softball-playing patrons of McIntire Park have hit a home run saving the park's two historic fields, an ever-growing population of users have yet to score with the park's survival. Area girls softball leagues have sought equal playing time and field access in the city and county for years– and despite making some waves, are still relegated to stand aside for the adult and boys baseball leagues.
"We have access to McIntire– sharing it with the travel teams– and the city and county gave us two nights at Darden," Robert Collins, Albemarle Fastpitch Softball league director says. "But that doesn't even come close to solving our rec league problems. I don't have enough fields to accommodate everybody."
For an increasingly popular girls sport, the minimal access to Darden and McIntire have served only to show the girls the quality they could be getting all the time– but don't. According to Collins, his recreational league has grown in leaps and bounds in only two years time, currently composed of 220 ambitious girls. While the girls he coaches are fresh-faced and motivated, the hassle of moving from field to borrowed field, along with limited access time, has left the league scrambling to accommodate the increasing interest.
"Probably 40% of our program are girls who are really dedicated," Collins says, "playing now because they want to make that high school team."
Each rec team– with girls from age eight to sixteen participating– practices twice a week at either Azalea Park, Tonsler Park (which has a grass infield and cannot be used for games), McIntire, Darden, or Albemarle High School. But once games start up, teams are relegated to once a week or no practice in order to accommodate game times– and make room for the travel league's tournaments and adult games.
While access to Darden and McIntire has allowed the rec league to expand its practice and game times, the strain of such a large league on limited resources continues to show. Many of the teams go on to compete in the post-season All Stars program, where they play against teams from Greene, Madison, Orange, and Shenandoah County– but is their talent lost on lack of playing time?
Travel league coordinator and softball mom Anne Powell insists the city and county have finally made room for girls softball amidst the area's growing softball crowd. The travel league has been able to bring in larger and more competitive tournaments to the area– yet it is only composed of around 40 girls, with far less field space needed than the rec league. The city and county have begun to slowly open their softball fields to a newer niche of players– but according to Collins, for a large percentage of girls, it is just not enough.
4 comments
There are fields being allowed to go to nothing at Walton Middle school and Cale Elementary.
Last I heard we were having a national obesity epidemic among our youth. One would think with all the money this town spends they could find some for more athletic facilities for our youth. I would have preferred to spend the 7.5 million building youth sports facilities and have kept the original mall design with European style maintenance.
amen BG. maybe they could replace a ball field at meade park now that disney world is almost complete.
The city has done more than there share to accomodate Girls softball seeing that only about 30 city kids play. The city has given them 2 really nice ball parks (Azalea and Tonsler) in addition to usage at Darden and McIntire. As for the travel teams, I don't see how the City has any responsibility to provide fields for teams that are not open to all players.
They should tell there story to the county.


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A couple of days ago I bought an Acer Aspire V3-571G laptop without a system installed on it. The only thing that was there was Linux Linpus. I created a bootable CD with Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit - I read that my processor was 64 bit and that it might be a good configuration for my gear (I'm not especially fluent with all the computer stuff, still trying to learn) and replaced Linpus with Ubuntu.
Everything seemed to work fine, but there're few exceptions to that which came pass my way.
My bluetooth doesn't work. It seems to be switched on, but when I check my system settings the button is actually off, and I can't drag it 'perminently' to the 'on' position. Tried a couple of commands I found on the net, none of them helped and there was no word whatsoever in my BIOS settings about enabling bluetooth.
My card reader has some serious problems with copying more than one file at a time. I tried to put some music on my phone through a MicroSD card adapter (because my bluetooth doesn't work) and it got stuck every single time I copied an album on it.
I'm not sure if all my drivers were properly installed, so I checked in the terminal if it could tell me sth about my graphics.
sudo lshw -c displayand what i got was:
*-display UNCLAIMED description: VGA compatible controller product: NVIDIA Corporation vendor: NVIDIA Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0 version: a1 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:b2000000-b2ffffff memory:a0000000-afffffff memory:b0000000-b1ffffff ioport:2000(size=128) *-display description: VGA compatible controller product: Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0 version: 09 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=i915 latency=0 resources: irq:44 memory:b3000000-b33fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:3000(size=64)
As I said I'm no expert and not english-speaking generally, but it doesn't seem to be right. I've got a NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M.


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I recently shopped with my nephews and sister-in-law in a large department store that boasted several escalators.
My nephew is a fan of all things mechanical, and the escalators (or "excavators" as he called them) were a big attraction. He asked if I would ride them with him, and away we went.
The initial thrill was deciding when to make the step onto the moving staircase. He watched as the steps opened out and descended. Finally, we counted together—"one, two, three, go!" and he took a giant step out, clutching my hand.
As we jumped away from the stairs at the bottom, he looked up with a big grin and asked if we could ride it again. So, we rode up the adjacent escalator, and down the next one—several times that busy afternoon. I balanced shopping bags and a coffee cup as he tightly held on. I hoped I would not drop items in the wake of our revelry.
The experience on the escalator brings to mind the various ups and downs in our economy. We are all on a bit of a wild ride—sometimes we are escalating, sometimes we are excavating!
Take a giant step into this week's data on housing trends to determine if we are ascending or descending in the realm of real estate.
'Well, real estate is always good, as far as I'm concerned.'–Donald Trump
"The real estate recovery will gain momentum in 2014," says "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2014" by the Urban Land Institute. This report "provides an outlook on real estate investment and development trends, real estate finance and capital markets, property sectors, metropolitan areas, and other real estate issues."
Here you will further learn, "All of a sudden, the banks are comfortable with real estate, which scared the daylights out of them from 2007 to 2009," and "financial organizations that are not traditional banks are starting to make loans again in a significant way."
Further insight: banks may increase competitiveness with tightening of loan spreads and will gain comfort in underwriting risk. Indeed, 43% of survey respondents expect that debt underwriting standards will be "less rigorous," and "banks may also undercut each other to refinance floating-rate loans to fixed rates."
Interestingly, however, "Investors Take a Step Back in More Markets," reports the National Association of Realtors.
"Rising home prices and limited inventories are prompting some investors to recede in housing markets where they once made up a big share of home buyers."
Foreclosures are on the decline, and housing prices are on the rise, thus challenging investors seeking bargains in multiple property acquisitions.
"Cautious Consumers Stalling Housing Momentum," say Fannie Mae findings in their November National Housing Survey. "Among those surveyed, nearly two-thirds believe the economy is on the wrong track while the share expecting their personal finances to worsen during the next year has increased during the past few months to 22%."
Additional survey findings:
Since 2013, "Home values have skyrocketed in many markets, mortgage rates have risen from their bottom, and most recently, negative equity fell at the fastest pace ever," says Zillow in a look at real estate predictions and 2014 housing market trends.
Zillow expects this upswing to continue, and identifies "four bold housing predictions for 2014:"
Boston College wonders how long homes will be affordable. "There was a silver lining in the recent housing market collapse: prices dropped to more affordable levels."
Home affordability varies by geography, and purchasing a home is more difficult for residents of Seattle and Dallas than in the early 2000s, for example, but easier to acquire in Chicago or Orlando.
'Home wasn't built in a day.'–Jane Sherwood Ace
Two last bits of research on housing and financial health for consumers…
"The foreclosure rate in the United States began to rise rapidly beginning around the middle of 2006 and has remained elevated ever since," notes "Preserving Homeownership: Foreclosure Prevention Initiatives."
This report by the Congressional Research Service indicates there is no consensus with regard to government's role in foreclosure prevention, nor what it might be.
Prevention initiatives bring challenges in implementation, considerations of likelihood that previous defaulters will have repeat issues, and the setting of precedent in mortgage lending practices.
Read this report to learn about foreclosure trends, loan workouts, current foreclosure prevention initiatives and proposals, and other government influences.
Lastly, read about "Gentrification and Financial Health," as discussed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
Gentrification, a form of neighborhood change, is affiliated with increased incomes, rising home prices--and occasionally "with changes in the occupational mix and educational level of neighborhood residents."
Although sometimes perceived a bad thing, gentrification "is actually beneficial to the financial health of the original residents… It is better to be a resident of a low-price neighborhood that is gentrifying than one that is not."
This article examines gentrification with regard to home values in neighborhoods and considers connections of this wealth status with credit score changes and debt delinquency. It summarizes that "positive change is present for mortgage holders, for nonmortgage holders, for those that stay in the neighborhood," and those who depart.
My nephew and I probably enjoyed the ups and downs of our escalator tour much more than consumers relish the turbulence of rebounds and step backs in housing economic conditions. But you are there to help your members balance their needs and wants as they consider taking the big step onto the housing escalator, and ensure the ride up is a smooth one.
"One, two, three—go!"


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Dropping Law Firm Over DOMA Decision More Evidence Of NRA's Anti-Gay Bias
The National Rifle Association (NRA) dropped the law firm King & Spalding shortly after the firm announced their decision to not defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives. King & Spalding had previously represented the NRA on important cases, including the Supreme Court decision McDonald v. Chicago.
King & Spalding announced late last month that they would not defend DOMA after pressure from groups suggesting the firm's work on DOMA would be in violation of their own non-discrimination policies.
Conservatives were quick to punish King & Spalding, with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli promptly terminating his office's relationship with the firm.
What does DOMA or any LGBT issue have to do with guns? Nothing, but given that the NRA's board is packed with conservatives with long histories of being stridently anti-gay, this shouldn't come as a surprise.
Here are some lowlights from NRA board members on LGBT equality:
NRA board member Ted Nugent recently took to the Washington Times to complain about the NBA fining star player Kobe Bryant for using an anti-gay slur. From Nugent's column:
If the NBA had any true gay convictions, the NBA should host a Homosexual Night. During halftime, the homosexuals could come down on the court, hold hands and prance around the court to music by the Village People. The NBA could then give each homosexual a pink basketball as a symbol of solidarity [....]
Homosexuals are a protected class in America. If you think what happened to Mr. Bryant was a travesty, just wait until you see what homosexuals in the military do when they claim they have been mistreated because of their sexual orientation.
NRA board member Oliver North suggested that repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) would lead to members of NAMBLA, a group of pedophiles, being accepted into the military. North's comments, as documented by Think Progress:
Stunning assault on the all-volunteer military, the very best in the world. Barack Obama now intents to treat them like lab rats in a radical social experiment, and it can be very, very detrimental. ... In other words, this isn't about rights. This isn't about fairness. It's all about national security. And apparently, Mr. Obama has forgotten it. ... Now, here's what's next. NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Love Association] members, same-sex marriages. Are chaplains in the U.S. military going to be required to perform those kinds of rituals? Do they get government housing?
NRA board member Cleta Mitchell pressured the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to kick out the gay conservative group GOProud. According to other board members, she was "stridently opposed to allowing the gay group to participate," and "led the charge to kick them out of the event."
NRA board member Wayne Anthony Ross referred to gays as "degenerates" in a letter to the Alaska Bar Association. Ross also stated that a bill that sought to protect the civil rights of gays and lesbians would actually "give extra rights to a group whose lifestyle was a crime only a few years ago, and whose beliefs are certainly immoral in the eyes of anyone with some semblance of intelligence and moral character."
In 2002, a panel at the NRA's annual convention reportedly featured a series of anti-gay comments. NRA board member Susan Howard moderated and was joined by fellow board member Grover Norquist. According to an account by PlanetOut featured in Pink Pistols' newsletter:
American Spectator columnist Grover Norquist said liberals "don't want [men] to date girls" and gun owners don't get as much media coverage because "we don't have annual parades so that everyone can appreciate that gun ownership is an alternative lifestyle," the Web site reported.
NRA board member Matt Blunt lists among his accomplishments as Missouri governor:
Upholding Traditional Marriage. The Governor stood with the overwhelming majority of Missouri voters in his support for protecting traditional marriage from activist liberal judges. In August 2004, Blunt support[ed] Missouri's constitutional definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
NRA board member Larry Craig co-sponsored the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would have amended the Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. (Craig's political career ended after he was arrested for lewd conduct in a men's bathroom.)
NRA board member Dan Boren co-sponsored legislation to prevent the District of Columbia from performing same-sex marriages.
NRA incoming President David Keene actively opposed repealing DADT. Keene, who was the chairman of the group that puts on CPAC, broke with fellow NRA board member Cleta Mitchell over allowing GOProud to attend CPAC, but the group was not allowed to speak at the event. Keene also opposes gay marriage and declared the issue "not open to debate."
Former NRA President Charlton Heston gave a controversial speech to the Free Congress Foundation that was perceived as offensive by civil rights leaders of many backgrounds. Joan M. Garry, then executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said of the speech:
We find portions of Mr. Heston's very carefully-worded remarks to be both offensive and misleading. Mr. Heston's sentiments concerning lesbians and gay men no matter how carefully veiled are nonetheless transparent. Such disparaging remarks serve as fuel for those who fear difference and promote intolerance.
This post has been updated to remove references to former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who authored DOMA in 1996 but has since softened his positions on LGBT issues.


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Taipei joined a number of governments in the region yesterday in severely criticizing Beijing for the inclusion in newly revised passports of an outline of China that includes the entire South China Sea, hemmed in by dashes, as well as depictions of scenic spots in Taiwan — Nantou's Sun Moon Lake and Hualien's Chingshui Cliffs.
The change, which was first reported by the Financial Times on Wednesday, highlights China's longstanding claim to the South China Sea in its entirety, though parts of the waters are also claimed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia.
China's official maps have long included Taiwan and the South China Sea as Chinese territory, but the act of including those in its passports could be seen as a provocation since it would require other nations to tacitly endorse those claims by affixing their official seals to the documents.
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) hoped China would not take inappropriate action to break the hard-earned stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Fan Chiang said the two famous tourist destinations are "under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China [ROC] government and not under the control of China."
He said Ma had instructed the Mainland Affairs Council to issue a statement on the issue.
Fang Chiang said the government promotes cross-strait exchanges on the basis of "not recognizing each other's sovereignty and not denying each other's right to rule."
"At present, cross-strait relations are enjoying the most unprecedented peace and stability in six decades," Fang Chiang said.
In an unusually strongly worded statement, the council urged the Chinese government to address the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty pragmatically.
The council said the two top tourist sites are part of ROC territory and that China's move had damaged the mutual trust between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
"China has ignored the truth and sparked disputes by including pictures of our territory and landscape in its new Chinese passports. The ROC government will not accept its act," it said.
"It should put aside disputes and face up to the reality. We urge it to avoid giving the impression that it is trying to change the status quo unilaterally and creating obstacles in cross-strait development," it said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the matter. In accordance with the division of functions between government departments, China-related affairs are under the mandate of the council, ministry spokesperson Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said.
The pan-green camp said the unilateral move had "infringed on Taiwan's territorial sovereignty" and demanded that Ma protest the move.
"This is an obvious violation of Taiwan's territorial sovereignty and Ma and the council should immediately file protests against Beijing. If the council sits on the issue and does nothing about it, I will propose slashing the council's budget," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
"While Ma has always been hawkish in his dealings with Japan, he has been soft on China. The move is solid proof of Beijing's attempt to eliminate the ROC. I can't find a reason for Ma to stay mum on the issue," DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said that Vietnam and the Philippines had both lodged protests and he condemned Beijing for "taking every opportunity to take advantage of Taiwan."


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The Hooped Pro Football Socks in Black and White from Precision Training are popular with club and school players. Comfortable, durable football socks.
The cost of delivery is as follows:
3-5 Working Days - £3.95 (Mainland GB only)
Please note that Working Days are Monday-Friday. We do not currently offer any weekend deliveries. If you wish to have a delivery at a weekend, please call us to discuss a quote.
UK Delivery
Delivery times may vary according to availability. Any representations made as to delivery times are limited to England, Wales and Scotland. We will not assume responsibility for any delays due to reasons out of our control.
• We will accept full responsibility for items lost or damaged whilst in transit.
• In the unlikely event of a delay receiving your order please contact us within 21 days of placing the order to allow us to track this efficiently. For any lost orders to be replaced or refunded, please allow 15 working days from date the delivery was due for the courier to investigate, process the claim and declare as lost.
• Please note - British Forces Post Office/address (BFPO) orders can only be delivered on the standard delivery service. BFPO orders cannot be tracked.
• Next Working Day Delivery, Next Working Day Pre 12pm and Next Working Day Pre 10.30am are available until 2pm. Orders placed after 2pm on Friday or during the weekend will be dispatched the following Monday.
• Items to be returned undamaged and in a saleable condition.
• Include all labels and swing tags.
• Indicate reason for return.
• Only items purchased at the Tony Pryce Online Shop can be returned to us.
• Items bought from online can be returned to one of our stores.
• For hygiene reasons underwear is non-returnable. Swimwear can only be returned with the hygiene label intact.
• The cost of the item will be refunded to your card as soon as the returned items have been checked and found to be in order.
• We guarantee a 'no-quibble' refund for any items you may not be completely satisfied with. Just return your order within 28 days of the dispatch date.
• Items can be exchanged subject to availability. If an exchange is requested and stock is not available a refund will be processed.
Click and Collect Service
We offer a Click and Collect service which customers can select at point of purchase. After paying for the goods online you can select your preferred store to which you would like the goods delivered. When the goods are available in store you will be notified via email and the goods will be held in the specified store for 14 days. Upon collecting the goods you need to present a print out of the notification email containing your order reference number. If you forget this, a valid form of ID such as a passport or driving license can be used.
If goods are not collected within 14 days and we have not received notification as to why, we reserve the right to return products to stock without offering a refund.
If we are notified via email@example.com that the goods are no longer required within 14 days, we will refund the amount to the card with which the purchase was made.


text:
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text: Ok I see a lot of ride reports here. Some are unbelievable dream adventures. A lot of you however are hoteling it and eating at restaurants. That's cool but I want to see you roughing it. True motorcycle camping, out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah baby! I know you can beat that one. Post 'em up.


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Save Forest Facts:
As a non-partisan organisation, TOP collaborates with several orangutan conservation projects including care centres for orphaned and displaced orangutans, as well as providing forest protection through our own Save Forest program to deter wildlife poaching, illegal logging and land clearing in Indonesia.
The money goes directly to our Wildlife Protection Units and Orangutan Rescue Units and Wardens who physically patrol the safeguarded forest. These units are extremely proficient in stopping illegal loggers and poachers. The simple equation is, the more units we can financially support, the more forest and orangutans we can ensure is protected long term.
This initiative stops the problem at the source. If we can all unite and protect as much remaining rainforest as possible then there simply won't be the steady tragic influx of orphaned orangutans at our care centres, as their habitat and their existence will be safe.
The 'Save Forest' program raises money specifically for The Orangutan Project's Wildlife Protection Units, Orangutan Rescue Units and Wardens.
In terms of conservation value for your donation, this program is extremely effective. Not only are you protecting orangutans to live free in the wild as they should, your donation provides local employment for young men who otherwise have to work in the palm oil industry. The Save Forest program truly works toward stopping the problems facing orangutans at the source, rather than once the damage has been done, and the forest is gone.
100% of your donation goes directly towards the Wildlife Protection Units and Orangutan Rescue Units and Wardens projects, which includes the running costs for each unit including orangutan tracking and recue equipment, wages and uniforms. Every contribution is welcome and appreciated!
One ranger in our units protects an area the size of 10km2. Through our monitoring and patrol research we know that there are 1.5 to 2.0 orangutans per km2. Therefore, for one ranger employed, 20 orangutans are protected each year.


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USN-1565-1: OpenStack Horizon vulnerability
13 September 2012
horizon vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
OpenStack Horizon could help expose sensitive information.
Software Description
- horizon - Web interface for OpenStack cloud infrastructure
Thomas Biege discovered that the Horizon authentication mechanism did not validate the next parameter. An attacker could use this to construct a link to legitimate OpenStack web dashboard that redirected the user to a malicious website after authentication.
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- openstack-dashboard - 2012.1.3+stable~20120815-691dd2-0ubuntu1.1
- python-django-horizon - 2012.1.3+stable~20120815-691dd2-0ubuntu1.1
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.


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Freedom of the Press
You are here
2012 Scores
Press Status
Press Freedom Score (0 = best, 100 = worst)
Legal Environment(0 = best, 30 = worst)
Political Environment(0 = best, 40 = worst)
Economic Environment(0 = best, 30 = worst)
Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the 1993 constitution, but local and international media organizations continued to express concern about the harassment of reporters by both state and nonstate actors in 2011.
Politicians frequently react to criticism, particularly corruption allegations, by suing journalists, press outlets, and activists. Defamation remains a criminal offense that can result in imprisonment. In response to pressure from national and international media freedom organizations, Peru's Congress passed a bill in July 2011 that would eliminate jail terms for defamation and impose only fines and community service. While President Ollanta Humala expressed support for the decriminalization of libel before he was elected in June, he had yet to sign the bill into law at year's end.
According to the National Association of Peruvian Journalists (ANP), there were 25 defamation cases against journalists in 2011. Journalist Paul Garay Ramírez received a three-year sentence in April—reduced to 18 months in July—and a fine of nearly $7,500 for allegedly accusing prosecutor Agustín López of corruption on his radio program. However, in October, after Garay had served over six months in prison, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction due to faulty evidence, which included a tape recording of the radio broadcast in question that Garay had denied was his voice or his program. In July, a criminal court sentenced journalist Hans Francisco Andrade Chávez to a two-year prison term and monetary compensation for defaming a deputy mayor of Chepen; an appeals court overturned the verdict in October. In September, Gaston Medina, the owner of a television and radio station, received a suspended prison sentence and was required to pay fines for the defamation of a local congressman. In November, Teobaldo Meléndez Fachín, director of the news program Ribereña Noticias, received a three-year suspended sentence and an $11,000 fine for reports alleging that the mayor of Yurimaguas had misused a $2 million government loan. In December, journalist Luis Torres Montero received a sentence of two years in prison and a fine of about $55,000 for a political satire published in La Primera in 2010.
Despite the existence of access to information laws, adherence to transparency norms is inconsistent, particularly at the regional and local levels. There is no independent media regulatory body; under the 2004 Radio and Television Law, broadcast licensing is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The hostile climate for the press was evidenced in 2011 by numerous physical attacks and verbal threats against media workers. They were perpetrated by local officials, private actors, and the police, particularly in the run-up to the June 2011 presidential election. Topics like corruption, misuse of state resources, and drug trafficking are considered particularly dangerous to cover. Three journalists were murdered in Peru during the year. Julio Castillo Narváez, a host on the radio station Ollantay, was shot and killed in May at a restaurant in the northern city of Virú. Castillo was a strong critic of the conduct of municipal, provincial, and regional officials, and had reportedly received death threats for months. Pedro Alfonso Flores Silva, host of the Casma-based television news program Visión Agraria, was shot on September 6 on his way home and died two days later. He had allegedly been receiving death threats for two months before his murder. Flores had previously been sued for defamation by the mayor of the Comandante Noel district, Marco Rivero Huerta, but Rivero denied any involvement in Flores's death. Three suspects in the killing were arrested later in September. José Oquendo Reyes, host of the television news program Sin Fronteras, was shot and killed outside his home in the province of Chincha on September 14. Oquendo had been critical of the local government in his reporting and had accused the mayor of corruption; a suspect was arrested within days of the murder.
The National Association of Peruvian Journalists registered 189 cases of attacks on journalists in 2011, including physical and verbal attacks, threats and harassment, administrative and judicial pressures, and impediments to practicing journalism. In addition to tensions between the government and press outlets, there were numerous cases in which nonstate actors were accused of abusing journalists, including an incident in November in which the offices of the daily newspaper El Sol de los Andes in the city of Huancayo were vandalized by a mob of about 30 people who were upset over an article that linked local police with criminal gangs. Impunity for perpetrators of attacks on journalists has been a problem, and in November 2010 a special jurisdiction within the court system was created to hear cases involving serious crimes against journalists.
The government owns two television networks and one radio station, and operates the print news agency Andina. However, private outlets dominate the media industry, and the audience for state-run media is relatively small. Radio is an important news medium, especially in the countryside, and many incidents of harassment, intimidation, and censorship by media owners are related to coverage of local issues on the radio. The media corruption that was endemic during Alberto Fujimori's presidency in the 1990s continues to some extent, with journalists occasionally accepting bribes in exchange for slanted coverage, and owners using media outlets to promote their broader business interests.
The internet is not restricted by the government, and about 37 percent of the population has access.


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abortion pills in AustinABORTION CLINICS 0637926556 SAFE TERMINATION PILLS WOMENS CLINICS AROUND JOHANNESBURG ABORTION PILLS FOR SALE ABORTION DOCTORS
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Medical abortion/Abortion pill is provided in our facility and no surgery is required, We allow a woman to have it at our Medical facility's or in Comfort of their own homes. Medical abortions is done from (1 -12)Weeks. In this method known as abortion pill, that blocks the action of Progesterone; a hormone needed to maintain pregnancy. It alters the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, causing an early pregnancy to detach from the uterine wall with no Side effect between 20-45min you will be back in your periods.
The doctor will perform a pregnancy test to confirm the weeks and also explain to you in detailed how the safe abortion procedure will done and how to take care of yourself after the abortion.
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We provide surgical abortions starting from the very earliest the pregnancy can be seen by ultrasound. A surgical abortion can be done safely only if the pregnancy can be definitely seen inside the uterus on careful ultrasound exam. The lower limit of visualization of a pregnancy by ultrasound is 5 weeks by menstrual age (approximately 3 weeks after conception). The surgical abortion method used for first trimester abortions is known as suction dilatation and curettage (D&C). During the procedure, the cervical canal is very gently dilated with sterile dilators, and the uterine contents are gently suctioned out with sterile, one-use-only, disposable plastic uterine curettes.
The womb is the center of a woman's power, creativity and life force. Not only does the womb create babies, it also energetically holds the space of the life force. Therefore after every abortion procedure we shall provide you with pain tablets and antibiotics that will prevent you from getting any infections during the healing process.NB:- Please do not take any medication or herbs promising to abort the pregnancy or clean your womb. Also never put any herbs or chemicals up your vagina. This does not clean your womb and is dangerous.NOTE:
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ST. PETERSBURG — Even before Rick Kriseman arrived in the Florida House in 2007, the freshman lawmaker knew he faced an uphill battle to pass laws bearing his name.
With the Democrat being in the minority party, only two of the 46 bills he proposed became law. Many were never considered by a House committee, while several other of his ideas became law only after Senate Republicans backed similar legislation.
But that's fine for Kriseman.
He frequently tells voters he spent six years in Tallahassee making bad legislation better for Floridians — not just for special interests.
"I wanted the best legislation that didn't have unintended consequences," he said. "I slept very well at night. I wasn't willing to sell out my constituents."
The former City Council member proposed laws banning oil drilling in Florida waters, increasing term limits for Florida House and Senate members, creating a recall provision for the governor and Cabinet offices, and limiting deductions and other benefits for businesses that pay the state's corporate income tax.
Mayor Bill Foster's biggest attack against Kriseman, 51, in the race to Nov. 5 has been that Kriseman was an ineffective lawmaker.
Mike Fasano, a former Republican senator from New Port Richey who served with Kriseman, called the criticism unfair.
"Being effective doesn't mean you pass 100 bills and bring home $100 million," said Fasano, now the Pasco County Tax Collector. "He was an advocate for everyone."
Fasano said he isn't taking sides in the race, but stressed that it is difficult for Democrats to pass legislation in Tallahassee. He lauded Kriseman for his debating skills on the House floor.
"Some Republicans were happy to see Rick leave the House," Fasano added.
At mayoral forums, Kriseman often touts how well he worked with Republican Mayor Rick Baker to improve the city.
Jim Frishe said he didn't see any sign of that bipartisanship in Tallahassee. The former St. Petersburg lawmaker and majority whip said Kriseman frequently voted against legislation to create jobs. His record shows he didn't help constituents, Frishe added.
"Rick was a true liberal Democrat," he said. "He was for big government spending.
Kriseman scoffed.
"He's quoting the party line," Kriseman said. "I'm proud of my record in the Florida House."
In the Florida Legislature, Democrats are the minority party and cannot bring legislation for a full vote. House rules limit lawmakers to filing or sponsoring six substantive bills each year.
Here is a look at bills that Kriseman was involved in:
Legislation passed
• In 2007 and 2008, Kriseman introduced proposals to require drivers to stop for pedestrians in or entering crosswalks. The 2008 bill passed unanimously, but Kriseman wasn't attached to the legislation.
Fasano, the bill's Senate sponsor, received credit. But he said Kriseman initiated the proposal and asked him to sponsor it, otherwise, it had "no chance of getting passed."
• Kriseman led the charge on a 2007 law that required people convicted of DUI to carry 10 times the liability insurance of other drivers, or $100,000 for one injured person. Former Pinellas Republican Dennis Jones sponsored the Senate version.
Jones said Kriseman had a record of working well to build coalitions to either pass or defeat legislation. "The goal is to find the best policy solution," said Jones, now a Marion County resident. "Rick was effective. He did a good job."
• Two years later, a Kriseman-sponsored measure that encouraged service-learning courses in schools ended up in a Republican-sponsored Senate bill that became law.
Sponsored legislation
• An 8-year-old St. Petersburg student, Brooke Ingoldsby, was struck and killed in 2005 when a substitute school bus driver dropped her off on the wrong side of the road. Kriseman co-sponsored a bill in 2007 to pay her family. The effort succeeded after the Senate passed a bill to award the family $1.3 million.
• In 2008, Kriseman co-sponsored legislation to ban bullying in schools. The bill became law in June 2008. He also filed a bill in 2010 urging the U.S. Congress to repeal the prohibition against gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military. The effort failed, though it did win him praise from Equality Florida.
• In 2009, another Kriseman co-sponsored measure became part of a Senate bill that paid a South Florida man $200,000 for injuries he suffered as result of negligence at Memorial Regional Hospital.
Bills Kriseman opposed
• In 2009, Kriseman fought to stop oil companies from leasing in the Gulf of Mexico less than 10 miles from the coast. He railed against House leadership and lobbyists. The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the legislation.
As a result of his opposition, House leadership removed Kriseman as the ranking Democrat on an energy committee.
• The same year, telecommunications giants lobbied heavily for a bill to remove regulations for all but the most basic land line phone services. Kriseman voted no, but a House committee passed the legislation backed by Wesley Chapel Republican Will Weatherford.
The Senate eventually passed a watered down version once consumer-friendly provisions were added to expand the Lifeline phone program for 500,000 poor Floridians. The bill left basic phone rates alone and capped annual hikes at 10 percent. The old law was 20 percent.
Kriseman said he pushed Weatherford and lobbyists to make changes. Weatherford, now the House speaker, didn't return multiple calls for comment.
• In 2011, Kriseman battled against a bill that allowed firms to pass on reinsurance costs to policyholders, shorten the window for filing sinkhole and storm-related damage claims, and limit claims for damage caused by sinkholes to primary structures. He called the legislation the "holy grail" for the insurance industry, but his efforts were for naught. The bill became law.
That same year he opposed a bill to shield online travel companies from paying taxes on the retail price of hotel rooms they sell and instead allow them to continue to pay taxes based on wholesale costs. For years, counties had asked lawmakers to tax online firms at the rate equal to what Florida hotels pay. Business interests prevailed in 2012 when a judge said he couldn't require Internet travel firms to pay the taxes.
• Kriseman sponsored legislation in 2012 to overturn a law that banned doctors from asking patients questions about gun ownership. His effort failed, but a federal judge later struck down what is known as the "Docs-vs.-Glocks" law. The state appealed the ruling.
Contact Mark Puente at firstname.lastname@example.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow on Twitter @ markpuente.


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Every week -- often with your help -- Food52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius.
Today: You didn't think croissants could get better, did you? They can.
A croissant -- a good one, in its prime -- is a perfect bundle of food.
Not a balanced or complete food, mind you, like quinoa or goji berries or the symbiosis of beans and rice -- don't be silly! But a flawless spiral of textures and warm scents and good butter. That sort of perfect. It doesn't need to be threaded with chocolate or ham and gruyere, but those give us excuses to eat more croissants, so that's fine.
But even within a few hours, they lose their luster, and become the thing you seek in desperation, when you've missed lunch, or you're running with bag in hand to catch a train, or a barista is staring you down and you're feeling weak. You resort to the lonely croissant by the register, even though you know it will be a faded shell of what it once was.
So it might surprise you to hear chef Alex Raij of La Vara, Txikito, and El Quinto Pino say this: "Buy all the day old croissants you can."
Why? Sure, they make a mean French toast, but there's an even simpler way, as Raij explains it, "to revive a dead croissant and make it even better than on day one."
More: Turn that croissant into French toast with orange zest and mascarpone.
It's called Croissants a la Plancha (or Plantxa) and you'll find it in bars and cafés across Spain. It's essentially yesterday's abandoned croissant, split, griddled in butter, and served for breakfast with marmalade and a cortado (which is like a baby latte).
When you expose the once-spongy, breathing middles of a croissant, you get a delicate web of pastry that takes very well to toasting on a hot surface. The spindly edges and corners get crackly, like a sfogliatelle just out of the oven, while everything below the surface warms and softens.
"I first had it at a coffee shop in Bilbao," Raij told me. "And thought it was so vainglorious to add even more butter to a croissant and then grill it and serve it with marmalade." Her version steps it up even more with the addition of a honey butter speckled with vanilla seeds (or vanilla caviar, as Raij calls it) -- smoothing the bitter edge of marmalade with sweet, floral vibes.
So yes, more butter. But I first heard about this breakfast of champions from our Assistant Editor Marian Bull, who also spent a month in India last year doing yoga. So I don't want to hear any excuses about this not being part of a healthy lifestyle. You can have it all.
Alex Raij's Croissants a la Plancha
Serves 1
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pan1 tablespoon local honey1/2 vanilla beanSalt1 croissant, split (day old is fine)Orange marmalade, for servingPowdered sugar, for serving
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
Got a genius recipe to share -- from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at [email protected].
Photos by James Ransom, except Alex Raij by George Billard via Glutton for Life
Read More:9 (Mostly) Make-Ahead Mother's Day Brunch IdeasHow to Brew Better Coffee7 Ways to Start Your Day with French Toast
The Genius Desserts cookbook is here! With more than 100 of the most beloved and talked-about desserts of our time (and the hidden gems soon to join their ranks) this book will make you a local legend, and a smarter baker to boot.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.


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Pictured: Joshua Tchan picked up a win in singles and
Photo courtesy: DSPics.com
NEW YORK- The Harvard men's tennis team
fell in its opening Ivy League contest, 5-2, to Columbia. The
Crimson dips to 9-9 and 0-1 in the Ancient Eight while the Lions
improve to 12-3 on the season and 2-0 in the conference.
Facing a 1-0 deficit in doubles action, Harvard evened the score at a match apiece as Alexei Chijoff-Evans and Joshua Tchan picked up an 8-4 at the No. 3 doubles slot. Columbia secured the doubles point with a win at the top slot.
Freshman Christo Schultz put the Crimson on the scoreboard with a win at the No. 5 singles position. Schultz defeated Columbia's Rajeev Deb-Sen in straight sets. Tchan followed suit, claiming a victory at the No. 4 spot over Cyril Bucher. The rookie took the first set 7-5 but dropped the second set 6-0. Tchan regrouped to reel in the tiebreaker, 10-3.
Harvard remains on the road as it travels to take on Cornell, April 3, in the second leg of the trip to New York.
No. 1 Wong/Nichifor (COL) def. Omodele-Lucien/Schultz (HAR), 8-6
No. 2 Gery/Schneiderman (COL) def. Felton/Nguyen (HAR), 9-7
No. 3 Chijoff-Evans/Tchan (HAR) def. Deb-Sen/Kevin Kung (COL), 8-4
No. 1 Jonathan Wong (COL) def. Alexei Chijoff-Evans (HAR), 6-4, 2-6, 12-10
No. 2 Mihai Nichifor (COL) def. Aba Omodele-Lucien (HAR), 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 Haig Schneiderman (COL) def. Alistair Felton (HAR), 6-4, 6-0
No. 4 Joshua Tchan (HAR) def. Cyril Bucher (COL), 7-5, 0-6, 10-3
No. 5 Christo Schultz (HAR) def. Rajeev Deb-Sen (COL), 6-2, 6-4
No. 6 Nathaniel Gery (COL) def. Michael Hayes (HAR), 6-2, 6-2


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New 2019 Chevrolet Impala Premier
One Simple Price $32,991
2019 Chevrolet Impala Premier Go ahead and get comfortable with the 2019 Chevrolet Impala. Thoroughly modern with a nod to classic lines, the Impala was designed to impress. That impression continues inside the spacious cockpit that seats five adults comfortably and features premium chrome and woodgrain accents that make driving together an actual experience. Efficiency meets performance with technologies like Direct Injection and available stop/start technology, plus 2 choices of engines â available 3.6L V6 and 2.5L 4-cylinder. The Impala offers a range of convenient features for staying connected on the road, including bult-in Wi-Fi, 8in touchscreen infotainment system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, wireless charging, optional 6 USB ports and myChevrolet app access. Youâll also find a comprehensive suite of safety features such as lane departure warning, forward collision alert, forward automatic braking, advanced adaptive cruise control, rear vision camera, rear cross traffic alert and lane change alert with side blind zone alert. The 2019 Chevrolet Impala is the full-sized car that announces your arrival without you having to say a word.


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Tournament Note
Remember, we are at the Walla Walla Community College, 500 Tausick Way! Pick up packets there from 3-8 PM on Friday and before 9 AM on Saturday.
Install the mobile app for this event at:
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SEC524: Cloud Security Fundamentals
Thu, May 8 - Fri, May 9, 2014
I believe this is the best cloud security out there that is extremey well balanced with relevant labs and provides a solid understanding of cloud security risks as more organizations are moving towards cloud.
Great outline for cloud security checks & risk assesment.
Many organizations today are feeling pressure to reduce IT costs and optimize IT operations. Cloud computing is rapidly emerging as a viable means to create dynamic, rapidly provisioned resources for operating platforms, applications, development environments, storage and backup capabilities, and many more IT functions. A staggering number of security considerations exist that information security professionals need to consider when evaluating the risks of cloud computing.
The first fundamental issue is the loss of hands-on control of system, application, and data security. Many of the existing best practice security controls that infosec professionals have come to rely on are not available in cloud environments, stripped down in many ways, or not able to be controlled by security teams. Security professionals must become heavily involved in the development of contract language and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) when doing business with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Compliance and auditing concerns are compounded. Control verification and audit reporting within CSP environments may be less in-depth and frequent as audit and security teams require.
The SANS Cloud Security Fundamentals course starts out with a detailed introduction to the various delivery models of cloud computing ranging from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and everything in between. Each of these delivery models represents an entirely separate set of security conditions to consider, especially when coupled with various cloud types including: public, private, and hybrid. An overview of security issues within each of these models will be covered with in-depth discussions of risks to consider. Attendees will go in-depth on architecture and infrastructure fundamentals for private, public, and hybrid clouds. A wide range of topics will be covered including: patch and configuration management, virtualization security, application security, and change management. Policy, risk assessment, and governance within cloud environments will be covered with recommendations for both internal policies and contract provisions to consider. This path leads to a discussion of compliance and legal concerns. The first day will wrap-up with several fundamental scenarios for students to evaluate.
Attendees will start off the second day with coverage of audits and assessments for cloud environments. The day will include hands-on exercises for students to learn about new models and approaches for performing assessments, as well as evaluating audit and monitoring controls. Next the class will turn to protecting the data itself! New approaches for data encryption, network encryption, key management, and data lifecycle concerns will be covered in-depth. The challenges of identity and access management in cloud environments will be covered. The course will move into disaster recovery and business continuity planning using cloud models and architecture. Intrusion detection and incident response in cloud environments will be covered along with how best to manage these critical security processes and technologies that support them given that most controls are managed by the CSP.
Course Syllabus
SEC524.1: Day 1
Paul A. Henry
Thu May 8th, 2014
CPE/CMU Credits: 6
Cloud computing introduction
- Delivery Models: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)
- Cloud types (public, private, hybrid)
- Explaining the Jericho Cloud Cube Model
Security challenges in the cloud
- Introduction to the topic - Why is this hard?
- Virtualization and multi-tenancy
- Risk assessment for cloud migration
Infrastructure security in the cloud
- Patch and configuration management
- Change management
- Network and virtualization security
- Application security for SaaS, PaaS, IaaS
Policy, risk, and governance for cloud computing
- Internal policy needs
- Contract requirements for security
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Governance models for the cloud
- Risk management
Compliance and legal considerations
- Compliance challenges for the cloud
- Legal and geographic jurisdiction
- Privacy concerns
SEC524.2: Day 2
Paul A. Henry
Fri May 9th, 2014
CPE/CMU Credits: 6
Audit and assessment for the cloud
- Auditing the cloud
- Remote
- Onsite
- CloudAudit A6
- Assessments for the cloud
- Pen testing the cloud
- Internal assessments
Data security in the cloud
- Encryption types and availability
- Key management and encryption architectures
- Data/Information lifecycle
- Retention
- Disposal
- Classification
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- IAM Architecture and relevance to cloud
- Authentication and authorization standards
- Account management and provisioning
- Federation
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning (DR/BCP) in the cloud
Intrusion detection and incident response
- Incident detection for different cloud models
- Managing Intrusion Detection System/ Intrusion Prevention System (IDS/IPS) and alerting
- The event management feedback loop
Additional Information
Laptop Required
Security 524 requires a Windows computer with the following minimum hardware requirements:
- 1.5GHz 64-bit processor (higher is recommended) 4GB RAM (More memory is highly recommended)
- 25 GB free hard disk space
- DVD ROM drive
- VMware Workstation or Player
- Wireless network adapter
- Microsoft Office or OpenOffice and a PDF reader application
If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact email@example.com.
Who Should Attend
- Security personnel who are currently tasked with assessing the technical risks of cloud computing
- Network and systems administrators who currently manage private clouds or need to leverage hybrid and/or public cloud services
- Technical auditors and consultants who need to gain a deeper understanding of cloud computing and security concerns
- Security and IT managers who need to understand the risks of cloud computing and advise business management of the risks and various approaches to cloud computing
Author Statement
The cloud is everywhere! Well, that's what the marketing folks would have us believe, anyway. For security professionals, migrating systems, applications, and data to the cloud presents a new set of challenges to tackle. What kind of policies do we need, and how can we work with legal teams to incorporate language into contracts? How can we protect sensitive data with encryption, intrusion detection and prevention, and host and network access controls? Can we extend identity and access management tools and processes into the cloud?
Fundamentally, the cloud represents a move into environments where security teams are giving up some measure of control over how data and applications are protected. Due to capital and operational cost savings, cloud-based services are becoming more attractive to business and organization leaders, and security teams will need to understand their options when presenting the risks to management. In Cloud Security Fundamentals, our goal is to arm security teams with the knowledge they need to assess risks in moving to the cloud. Managers, auditors, and systems and network administrators will also benefit, as we'll delve into the technologies available for securing cloud-based assets while covering all the policies, processes, and compliance considerations that go along with this major technology shift, as well.
- Dave Shackleford


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Apple's more expensive iPhone 5S has been outselling its cheaper counterpart, the iPhone 5C two to one, leaving many to speculate that maybe users want the higher-end, expensive electronics made famous by Apple's late founder Steve Jobs.
Several reports have said the cheaper iPhone hasn't lived up to expectations and Apple has cut orders for the $99 device, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that 64 percent of U.S. iPhone customers were buying the iPhone 5S, compared to just 27 percent buying the iPhone 5C. The $99 phone was created to compete with cheaper Android phones, especially those in the developing world.
Part of the reason for the lack of interest may be that Apple customers want "premium products from a premium brand," Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research in Fox Island, Washington told Bloomberg Businessweek. "If anything, the 5c is a failed experiment in trying to please the masses. Apple should stay focused on the premium and let Samsung take the lower end of the market."
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe


text:
- home
- news
- blogs
- calendar
- enewsletters
- people on the move
Contractor moves into $4.7M Grand Rapids HQ
A sleek and stylish $4.7-million structure will make its debut next week in Grand Rapids.
Rockford Construction Co. will officially unveil its new headquarters, at 601 First Street NW, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Sustainable HQ
The 38,000 square foot, multi-level building the company built reflects its environmental conscience.
Rockford used the remnants of recycled ash trees for a portion of the work.
The firm installed a raised floor system that allows for a simpler re-design of office spaces, and it makes technology upgrades easier to perform.
Rockford also topped the building with a green roof. The roof covers 3,300 square feet and contains a variety of sedum plants, perennials and ornamental grasses.
Grand Rapids-based Advanced Green Architecture installed it in July, and the soil depth ranges from three to six inches. The grasses were planted in the deeper soil.
The roof will cut the firm's cost to heat and cool the building and will divert rainwater from the city's sewer system.
The Business Journal has rated Rockford Construction as the top green contractor in West Michigan.
Integrated Architecture in Grand Rapids designed the building, which is a mixture of new construction and renovation work.
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Home base
All 225 of the builder's employees will be stationed there, and Rockford expects that its staff will grow by another five percent in the next two years.
Northwest Grand Rapids
The decision by Rockford to locate its headquarters at First Street and Seward Avenue NW has been welcomed by many on the city's near northwest side and is seen by business owners located there as a vital first step in a redevelopment of the neighborhood.
Rockford is getting ready to build a new residential development at Douglas Street and Seward Avenue NW, just two blocks south of its building.
The project will offer market-rate rental apartments in four new structures.
Rockford Construction invested $4.7 million into its new headquarters, which sits on the former site of the Miller Products Co.
Rockford bought the manufacturer's two buildings and parking lots last year and spent $1.1 million of its total investment to remediate the property.


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IUCN Director General, Julia Marton-Lefevre, has accepted the role of ambassador for a major art installation called "Ghost Forest", by British artist Angela Palmer.
Ghost Forest consists of 10 primary rainforest tree stumps which were brought to Europe from a commercially logged forest in Western Africa. The work is intended "…to highlight the alarming depletion of the world's natural resources, and in particular the continued rate of deforestation, …which impacts upon climate, biodiversity and the livelihoods of indigenous people", Palmer explains.
According to the artist, the trees in Ghost Forest – most of which fell naturally in storms – represent rainforest trees worldwide; the absence of their trunks is presented as a metaphor for the removal of the world's lungs caused through the loss of our forests.
The tree stumps were exhibited as a "ghost forest" in Trafalgar Square in London last November, and then in Copenhagen in December during the UN's Climate Change Conference. In July this year Ghost Forest will be exhibited for a year on the lawn of Oxford University's Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum. The exhibition will coincide with the Museum of Natural History's 150th anniversary this year, and the UN's International Year of Biodiversity.
In 2011 it is the UN's International Year of Forests.
Julia Morton-Lefevre commended the project for its raising of awareness on the plight and roles of the rainforests:
"The Ghost Forest is excellent in sensitising the public on the vulnerability of our environment. Even for those who have never been to a tropical forest, just seeing those tree ghosts touches hearts and minds and hopefully encourages positive action. We all need those forests to be strong and healthy, and the inspiration of this project should move us to think about the consequences of our lifestyles and our political actions."
Ghost Forest is a carbon neutral project, offset by an environmental initiative through Climate Care.
For more information and to view pictures and videos on ghost forest, go to www.ghostforest.org .
To learn more about IUCN's work on forest conservation, go to www.iucn.org/forest .


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State of Minds: Air Quality, Stem Cells, Peace Corps, Neanderthal Genome -- Winter 2011 UC Riverside
Date: 2/28/2011; 28 minutes
UC Riverside plays host to this edition of UCTV's systemwide magazine program. Segments include a look at UCR's seminal research on air quality, stem cell treatments at UC Davis, Peace Corps volunteers from UC Berkeley and from UC Santa Cruz, new insights into human evolution from the bones of Neanderthals. (#20692)
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LACK OF LIQUIDITY: THE EARLY WARNING SIGNALS by LAURENCE N. GARTER, Partner, New York and FRANK J. ZOLFO, Partner, New York In recent years, many companies have expanded at a mercurial rate, only to be hurled on the rocks by the rough seas of an economic climate. Many of these companies drag down not only them-selves, but their stockholders and creditors, and affect even the financial institutions which support them. In most cases, the obvious cause of disaster is the company's loss of liquidity. The scenario in each case follows the same pattern. Operational problems cause an increase in current assets, which forces the need for increased debt. The financial institution reviews the financial statements and, based on traditional financial ratio analyses (tests of liquidity), furnishes the debt. Operational problems continue, current assets become no longer current, and the company defaults in debt payments. The financial institution again reviews the financial statements and determines that the company is no longer financially viable. There is a change in management, consultants are called in, turnaround plans are hurriedly prepared, and . . , the company fails. Over and over, the final scene is the same. The real problems surface too late to be solved. What are the early warning signs of a lack of liquidity? We suggest they are based on three premises: First, liquidity, in a real and pragmatic sense, can no longer be viewed as a series of historical financial ratios; it must be viewed in a "forward looking" perspective. Second, the traditional financial statement, viewed apart from operational analysis, is not an accurate and timely indicator of future viability. It merely reports the results of problems—too often after the problems have become too ingrained and difficult to correct. Third, proper management and operational reviews, combined with astute information analysis, can do much to avoid disaster. How To Define Liquidity A general purpose of the balance sheet—in addition to showing how the business has invested its money in various assets, and the sources of such funds—is to indicate probable liquidity. In this traditional context, liquidity refers to the convertibility of assets into cash and the ability to meet creditor obligations as they mature. The definition of liquidity, however, includes more than just the ability to convert assets into cash. We define liquidity as the ability: — To maintain effective management control — To sell the product in the future — To convert future sales into cash Sales to profits (P&L) Profit to cash (B/S) — To maintain the financial strength and credibility to ride out temporary problems that will occur. Thus defined, one cannot wait for the traditional annua! report to diagnose the financial health (liquidity) of the company. By the time such statements have indicated that a cancerous condition exists, the fatal disease can be too far advanced. Financial institutions as well as management, must rethink their traditional approach of measuring performance from only financial statement analyses. Mature companies should never find themselves in the midst of a liquidity problem. Enough options are available to provide management with the opportunity either to fix the problem in its early stages or, if necessary, to liquidate or sell all or part of the company before its market value decreases significantly. What safeguards are needed: — Timely, accurate management reporting to identify problems early. (This assumes more than a set of financial statements. Key non-financial operating data is a must.) — Astute management to respond to the warning signals revealed by proper management reporting, and to monitor progress against their plans, — Adequate financial strength to withstand non-growth. — Ongoing communication with financial institutions and suppliers, so that "they" can counsel management with the problems rather than be part of the problem. Why do some companies find themselves in irreversible hard times? Because some miss the early warning signs, and so fail to achieve a turnaround. While others correctly read the signals, but are frozen into inaction by the enormity of the problems. Still others react impulsively to the warning signals, slashing away at every expense. As a result, profitable and efficient programs are sacrificed, without identifying the real problems. Thus, a retailer who slashes payroll, merely buys time, because his real problem may be poor inventory control, poor site location, or a cash shortage stimulated by 49
Object Description
Lack of liquidity: The Early warning signals
Garter, Laurence N.
Zolfo, Frank J.
Liquidity (Economics)
|Illustration not included in Web version
Tempo, Vol. 23, no. 1 (1977), p. 49-51
|Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co.
|Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte
|PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi
|Deloitte Digital Collection
|Digital Publisher
|University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection
|Date-Digitally Created


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Inside Look: American Spring LIVE
Clip: Season 37 Episode 13 | 2m 18s
Executive Producers, Fred Kaufman and Al Berman, along with host Juju Chang and science correspondent Thor Hanson share a bit of insight into the upcoming NATURE three-night live broadcast event, American Spring LIVE.
Aired: 04/29/19Video has closed captioning.
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Major support for NATURE is provided by the Arnhold Family in memory of Henry and Clarisse Arnhold, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, Kathy Chiao and Ken Hao, the Anderson Family Fund, the Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, Rosalind P. Walter, the Halmi Family in memory of Robert Halmi, Sr., Sandra Atlas Bass, Doris R. and Robert J. Thomas, the Hite Foundation, Charles Rosenblum, the Arlene and Milton D. Berkman Philanthropic Fund, the Sun Hill Family Foundation, the M. & H. Sommer Foundation, Ron Hull, the Bradley L. Goldberg Family Foundation, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by PBS, and by Viewers Like You.


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The apparent explosion of a small meteor over Siberia early on Friday was not the first time that that part of the world has had a too-close encounter with a space rock. The region was the scene of what is believed to be the largest space-related explosion in human history, 105 years ago.
The Tunguska Event, as it is known, occurred the morning of June 30, 1908, in a largely uninhabited forested area near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia. The site is about 1,200 miles northeast of Chelyabinsk, the Siberian city where some of the damage and injuries occurred Friday.
Scientists believe that an asteroid was the culprit, traveling in a northwesterly direction and exploding at the altitude of a jetliner, about five miles. Various estimates of the size of the object have been calculated over the years; recent calculations suggest it was relatively small, perhaps less than 100 feet in diameter. It's been estimated that the explosion was as powerful as a medium-sized hydrogen bomb, and at least several hundred times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
The airburst flattened tens of millions of trees over an area of about 800 square miles. Among the few eyewitness accounts there were reports of windows breaking and trees snapping 40 miles away. There are no accounts of injuries.
Field expeditions in the remote area in the 1950s and '60s determined from the direction of tree falls the precise location of the blast. The pattern of destruction on the ground was irregular, with fewer trees flattened in front of the blast site and more to the sides. Experiments in the 1960s showed that this was due to the interaction of two shock waves: one caused by the flight of the object, the other by the explosion itself.
The event also produced a nighttime glow in the sky that persisted for several days and could be seen across Europe and in Britain, about 3,000 miles from the site. Later experiments, including some conducted aboard the space shuttle in the last decade, suggest that this glow was due to clouds created as water from the object entered the upper atmosphere. Those findings, in turn, point to the object being a fragment of an icy comet rather than a meteor, but the issue is still the subject of much debate.


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Earlier this month Nina Strochlic shared tips from "professional traveler" Andrew Evans of National Geographic. "He's sailed across the Atlantic twice, summited Kilimanjaro, and (literally) run the length of Liechtenstein." My travels are neither as exotic nor as taxing as Andrew's, but since I am on the road often and have been taking mental notes on how to maximize my travel efficiency.
Scheduling. I take a lot of early (I had a 5:30 am this week) and late evening (I had a 9:30 pm) flights, allowing me to restrict most trips to only one night away. (The downsides of this is approach is that I woke up at 3:45 am one day and returned home after midnight the other.)
Packing. Mobility is my priority. When I land, I want to get straight to work and not mess around with baggage claim or dropping bags at a hotel. This week I inaugurated my new Square bag from Defy and, though a tight fit, it worked. For one night away I carry my always-packed bathroom ziplock, one change of clothes, a Field Notes book, two pens, a magazine, gum and an eyeshade, along with a Macbook Air, iPad and chargers. When I'm traveling to a place with a pool, I save space by bringing a bathing suit instead of gym clothes and shoes. (Swimming has the advantage of giving me a workout in about half the time I'd put in at the gym.) I try to avoid the added burden of a winter coat. If I'm worried about getting stuck in a frigid O'Hare cab line or El train I'll bring a scarf or a hat, which I can tuck into my bag once I reach the cab.
Content. I try to pick my gear the night before, so the day before a trip, I'm extra-conscious to ABC, Always Be Charging. I update my digital content: Pocket, iTunes for TV, podcasts, email and the 2-3 Google Docs that are most pressing. By adding the boarding pass to my phone early I remove one task that I need to remember on the day of travel.
Provider role. One of my favorite things to do the day before leaving, particularly if I'm traveling on a weekend, is to make a grocery store run or cook a meal. I walk out the door know that the family is supplied, satisfying some Neanderthal urge.
The cab ride
I rarely journey to, or from, the airport during rush hour so I head for the airport 80- 90 minutes before a flight. (Tripit Pro warns me of delays.) Once I get on the road, I tuck my keys and my wallet away in my bag, keeping only my ID and phone in my pocket. If the hour is decent, and if I have no other calls scheduled, I may pop open Brewster, which lists the contacts with whom I've gone the longest without talking, and check in with some work contacts. If it's late, I may open my iPad for some TV or check in with friends on the West Coast. My road warrior Kryptonite is that I cannot read in a moving car, which motivate me to take public transit when feasible.
The airport
TSA: I have TSA Pre which is the greatest thing ever– if I get a green light, I can go through a pre-9/11 style security walkthrough in under a minute. Recently, as more passengers have become approved for the program, morning lines can be long and I may slide into the standard lines when they're shortest.The TSA does not require you to take small computers out of your bag, so I don't. (It's easiest for the screener if you lay your bag flat.) I don't put my shoes in a bin– the fact that so many other people do so is gross.
Vigilance. Once screened by The Man, I check the airport monitors to confirm my gate number. I also look for earlier flights that might have become delayed– a couple of times a year, I'm able to make hop one. When it happens, it's a bonus of a couple of free hours.
Coffee. If it's morning and I have time, my next decision is whether to caffeinify or not. Boarding with a hot beverage can complicate things, but more often than not I am the better for it. If I have extra time I browse the newsstand.
Anticipating the call to board. This is the most inexact part of my regimen. I travel enough that I'm usually in one of the early boarding groups. However, I haven't found a way to divine when the call to get on will be made. When I'm not in a meeting or working on something urgent, I aim to be at the gate between 30-40 minutes before the flight time, but more often than not I end up hanging around the gate along with everyone else anticipating a signal from the gods. If you have tips on how to game this better, I'd love to hear them.
The plane
If I board early, I'll break out my laptop and churn through some email– I can often get in 15-20 minutes of work while waiting for the plane to load. Or, increasingly, I'll use Mailbox on my phone.
Once the superstitious call to turn off our phones comes, I'll put on eye shades and zone out until we're in the air and cleared to use electronics. (I'd give most of my naps if Sen. McCaskill comes through.)
I usually don't buy wifi access– it's expensive and I can usually manage to be offline for a few hours without anything breaking. So, while I'm in the clouds I can't access anything from the cloud. If I forget to download that draft memo, I can sketch out a new project or do email. If I'm doing email, I'll usually double up with TV on an iPad.
Seven concluding tips:
Every second can count. I've had the door closed in my face– and then cursed myself for buying that coffee or for not evading the family walking four-abreast in the terminal.
Don't be that guy. Air travel is generally not fun, but we're all in this together. On about every third trip there's one traveler who rushes to be the first one off the plane on or complains loudly to the flight staff about something trivial. You don't want to be that guy– though we all have our moments. (This can conflict with #1, above.)
Perspective. Your main goal is to get to where you're going safely, and the workers at the TSA, the airports and on the airlines succeed at that 99.999% of the time. They deserve more thanks and less grief.
Release your inner mysophobe. I avoid touching anything in the bathrooms, make detours to hit every hand sanitizer and wash my hands every chance I get.
Hydrate. Lotion (see #4), water and nasal spray are great friends.
Snacks. You don't need a lot, but bring enough to get by.
Don't get stuck without a place to sleep. If a late flight gets canceled, Hotel Tonight has good deals, and a great sign-in process.
Traveling with a child is a whole other thing– none of the above may apply. It deserves a separate post.
(Also, check out these travel tips from Elise Hu and Ben Huh.)
[fixed a couple of tyops– thanks @divideby0!


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Journal Article
© Mar 2011 Volume 9 Issue 1, ECKM Special Issue, Editor: Eduardo Tome, pp1 - 84
Look inside Download PDF (free)
In this study, we sketch a problem‑based perspective of the service business, following the latest theoretical developments in the field of the knowledge‑based view of the firm and the related problem‑solving perspective. In particular, we approach services as problems to be solved for and with the customer. Our paper outlines a framework in which the knowledge processes regarding service delivery are conceptualized on two axes: 1) the intensity of knowledge sharing and co‑creation of services between the provider and the customer and 2) the nature of the problem‑solving process regarding the service delivery. Based on the developed conceptual framework, we provide implications concerning the organizing of various types of services in terms of the different problem‑solving processes they require. Furthermore, after identifying the distinctive problem‑solving processes with the help of the typology, theoretical and practical implications for service and knowledge management are discussed.
Keywords: services, service business, knowledge, co creation, problem solving, typology
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