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Decades of delays imperil rail safety
Part 1 of a 2-part Hearst investigation
On a Connecticut summer evening 45 years ago, Edward May was operating a northbound commuter train in Darien when the lights of another train suddenly appeared on the tracks, 600 feet away and closing fast.
It was Penn Central commuter train N-48. Its engineer, running late, disregarded a message to yield to May's train.
"He just kept coming at me," May, 82, of Waterford, recently recalled.
The two trains, each traveling 30 mph, collided with such force that N-48 telescoped halfway through May's locomotive. Three crew members and one passenger died and 43 passengers were injured.
Rescuers spent five hours cutting May from the wreckage.
The engineer who struck May's train had known about the order to pull onto a side track; a copy of it was found on his body. Investigators never learned why he failed to yield.
By rail-disaster standards, the Aug. 20, 1969 crash on the New Canaan Line wasn't the most tragic or horrific of the era. But it stands as a milepost in rail safety history: the beginning of the National Transportation Safety Board's drive to install technology to remove human error from railroad operation.
After investigating the Darien wreck, the NTSB issued its first formal recommendation to the Federal Railroad Administration to "study the feasibility of requiring a form of automatic train control at points where passenger trains are required to meet other trains."
Positive Train Control, as the technology would become known, monitors and controls train movements with a digital communications network that links locomotives with control centers. It is designed to prevent collisions by automatically slowing or even stopping trains that go too fast, miss a stop signal, enter a zone with maintenance workers on the track, or encounter other dangers.
Indisputably, PTC saves lives. "The equivalent of air traffic controllers," U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, said of PTC.
A Hearst Newspapers investigation found that the NTSB's push for PTC encountered a long and twisting road.
The rail industry resisted implementing the system to preserve profits and the FRA went along, backing the industry it regulated by arguing against the safety standard and ignoring repeated NTSB recommendations to mandate its implementation, the Hearst review found.
Over the decades, the NTSB classified 139 crashes on America's rails as PTC-preventable. Those wrecks resulted in 288 deaths, 6,500 injuries and nearly $300 million in property damages, federal safety records show.
Ridgefield resident and passenger Jay Eldon Paris, 55, died in the 1969 Darien collision, which also took the lives of Frank J. Bojarski, 43, of Stamford, the engineer of the northbound train, and Costas Vlahakis, also of Stamford, a conductor on the southbound train. Eugene A. Chain, 34, of West Haven, a flagman on the southbound train, was also killed.
Adding to the list of rail accidents was the Metro-North derailment last December in the Bronx that claimed four lives and injured 75 passengers after an inattentive engineer barreled through a corner at twice the posted speed.
Congress in 2008 finally mandated PTC be installed on the nation's trains by December 2015, but it's unlikely the deadline will be met and efforts are underway to extend it to 2020 and beyond.
Today only a tiny slice of America's rail network has the safety system -- portions of Amtrak's northeast corridor and on its Michigan tracks, and a section of the Metrolink passenger rail system in Los Angeles.
Cash-strapped commuter railroads have been victimized by broken promises from Congress. Metro-North Railroad and other passenger lines were promised a $250 million appropriation to help with PTC installation in 2008, but only one-fifth of that money came through.
The human factor
Human error is the cause of roughly 40 percent of train derailments, federal records show.
One of the worst happened in 1972 when the engineer of an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train backed up just enough after missing a station to give the train behind it a green light to proceed. The speeding train knifed into a double-decker car at the rear of the backing train, killing 45 and injuring 332.
After the crash, the NTSB challenged the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, and later its successor, the Federal Railroad Administration, "to justify or disprove" the need for a train control system.
That challenge was just the latest in a decades-long series of recommendations to adopt PTC.
A Hearst study of accident reports since 1969 shows the NTSB issued 75 PTC-related recommendations -- formal advice to the government and railroad industry -- and those recommendations took on increasing urgency.
The FRA responded defiantly to the NTSB's recommendations, a review of correspondence shows.
The frequency of accidents due to incapacitated engineers is "so very small that a requirement to install an expensive hardware system on the entire locomotive fleet is not required or necessary," the FRA wrote.
The NTSB declared the railroad agency's response "unacceptable," noting it was investigating still more accidents involving human error. The NTSB grew "frustrated," as the safety agency put it, at what members viewed as an effort to mischaracterize train control and inflate its cost.
"The FRA has overestimated the cost of (PTC) installation by taking the most expensive figure available and extrapolating it nationally to every single mile of track," according to a 1987 letter by the safety board.
After a 1993 PTC-preventable crash killed five in Washington state, the NTSB again turned up the heat, advising the FRA to establish a "firm timetable" for installing train control along America's railroad tracks.
But the opposite occurred and it would take several more decades and Congressional action to force implementation of PTC.
Grady Cothen, an FRA deputy associate administrator until he retired in 2010, said "The whole issue around us was that it was all about costs and benefits from the view of industry."
A PTC prototype
During the 1980s, railroads began looking at train control systems as a potential business benefit: trains could run faster if technology better regulated their spacing on tracks. U.S. railroads collaborated with Canadian companies in a research effort called Advanced Train Control Systems.
Burlington Northern, plagued by a series of fatal accidents, was the first to take significant steps to address an already two-decade-old NTSB safety recommendation to adopt PTC.
The railroad's Advanced Railroad Electronic System, which resembles modern PTC, plotted speed and real-time positions of trains within 30 feet. If an engineer didn't slow after warnings flashed on a locomotive computer screen, the system took over the train. For five years, Burlington Northern's system operated 17 locomotives on 300 miles of tracks on northern Minnesota's Iron Range while using the system.
"All of the components worked as expected," said Steven Ditmeyer, who was Burlington Northern's research director at the time, in a recent interview.
"We had acceptance by train crews, dispatchers and maintenance people. There was no fear of the system and people could see its benefits," Ditmeyer said.
Mergers and shifts
In 1993, the Association of American Railroads prepared a confidential study, obtained by Hearst Newspapers, which laid out a robust case for benefits of PTC technology beyond avoiding wrecks: savings in fuel and labor costs; better traffic control; a means to monitor the health of locomotives; and "a better-rested and safer workforce."
"With costs declining and benefits probably understated, it is time for the railroad industry in North America to make an investment in the future," the report asserted.
But rather than use the findings to rally its members, leaders of the railroad trade group ordered the study destroyed.
Charles Dettmann, the American Association of Railroads' former executive vice president for safety and operations, recalled that business benefits "were not concrete enough in the '90s, which made it very, very questionable about committing that much capital."
"Nobody was offering any money. It was all on our own hook," Dettmann said.
Ditmeyer, who headed the FRA's Office of Research and Development after being involved in the successful Burlington Northern PTC project, testified during a 1996 congressional hearing that technical issues still needed to be addressed.
In a recent interview, Ditmeyer recalled the testimony as "one of the things I regret most in my life. ... I was forced to say it was not ready to implement."
The 1990s was a period of upheaval in the industry, with mergers set in motion by deregulation. The freight rail industry shrank from more than two dozen in the early 1980s to the seven Class I railroads of today, and soon lost interest in train control.
Frank Wilner, assistant vice president of the Association of American Railroads during that period and author of the book "Railroad Mergers," said money and energy "were siphoned off" during the merger wave.
"Attitudes shifted and the whole project was shelved," he said.
The new "super railroads," expressing fear the government would force PTC on them, refused to even consider potential business benefits when costs and benefits of the technology were assessed.
George Gavalla, who headed the FRA's safety office from 1997 to 2004, said his agency needed political support from Congress to mandate the life-saving equipment.
"The industry has a very good sense of what is politically feasible and what is not. They are big players," he said.
Industry clout
Former U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, who watched the potential of PTC on the Iron Range in his Minnesota congressional district, used his leadership position on the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to make PTC the heart of rail safety legislation in the 1990s.
"They (the industry) bottled that bill up for 12 years," said Oberstar, who died in May, in one of his last interviews. "They had a very strong lobbying effort. Railroads are very effective on Capitol Hill."
Indeed, the industry has displayed legendary clout over the years.
Last year alone, the Association of American Railroads and the seven biggest railroad companies spent at least $35 million on Washington lobbying, a review of lobbying records shows.
The list of lobbyists railroads hired reads like a who's who in the Washington influence machine: former senators, John Breaux of Louisiana and Trent Lott of Mississippi; at least a half-dozen former U.S. House members; former National Republican Chairman Haley Barbour; and Jeff Loveng, who was chief of staff to Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Favoritism or not, the FRA was channeling railroads' concerns about the cost of PTC.
In a 2004 letter to Congress accompanying a cost-benefit study, Bette Monro, a deputy FRA administrator who headed the railroad agency in an acting capacity, wrote that PTC-preventable crashes amount to just 2 percent of train wrecks and "the direct safety benefits that would accrue to railroads are small relative to the costs."
Monro resigned her post after the Transportation Department's inspector general issued a report on her friendship with a Union Pacific lobbyist, which included sharing a vacation house.
Inside the FRA, PTC advocates grew frustrated at the lack of progress.
"We knew it would take a horrible accident for people to say enough is enough, and that Congress would have to make the judgment about PTC," said Grady Cothen, the FRA's former safety chief.
In fact, it would take two more horrible accidents to prompt action on PTC: a 2005 Graniteville, S.C., accident that claimed nine passengers and a Chatsworth, Calif. crash in 2008 that killed 25.
By the time the California disaster occurred, the House and Senate each had passed rail safety bills with PTC mandates. Within weeks, the differences were ironed out and President George W. Bush signed Positive Train Control into law.
Robert Sumwalt, an NTSB board member, said he and other members "were feeling good" after Congress ordered PTC six years ago, in 2008.
"And now we're finding that it's going to be delayed even further," Sumwalt said, referring to a GOP House plan to delay implementation. "It's frustrating to see accidents continue to happen that we know PTC would have prevented," Sumwalt said.
Bill Lambrecht is an investigative reporter for Hearst Newspapers.


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The Beatles final concert — discounting their spontaneous January 1969 concert on the roof of Apple Records in London — took place at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, then-home to baseball's Giants and football's 49ers, on August 29, 1966. Now the venerable old 69,732-capacity park that opened in 1960 is set for demolition some time after the final 49ers game next season.
Nearly half-a-century later, the rumor mill is rampant with speculation that the 'Stick will have one great final moment in the sun: Paul McCartney will perform there one last time.
The San Jose Mercury News says that Candlestick Park officials "remained hopeful" that The Beatle would "sing the 'Stick's swan song before the wrecking ball strikes the place down."
Phil Ginsberg, general manager for San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department says, "Keep your fingers crossed. It's a possibility."
Art Garfunkel's big comeback
After spending most of the past four years healing his damaged vocal chords, Art Garfunkel is ready to come back — and in a big way. His website notes that "he has recovered and he plans to perform (his) live show throughout 2014." So far, he's got nine shows set in January and February, all in the South.
The 72-year-old singer, who scored his first hit with Paul Simon in 1957 with "Hey, Schoolgirl" when they were billed as Tom & Jerry (it hit No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart), was on a reunion tour with Simon in January 2010 when their world tour came to a halt when Garfunkel was diagnosed with "debilitating vocal-chord Paresis."
In the last 12-18 months Garfunkel has performed a few one-off shows to test his vocal chords. Apparently, he was happy with the results, but there is no word on whether that Simon and Garfunkel world tour will resume.
Stones Glastonbury gig tops poll
The Rolling Stones first headlining gig at England's huge Glastonbury festival last summer during the band's "50 & Counting" golden anniversary tour was named the music story of the year in a poll of users by the British free music streaming service blinkbox music. The Stones drew 25 percent of all votes in the poll and drew eight times more votes than current U.K. superstars, One Direction.
Coming in second was the passing of former Velvet Underground leader Lou Reed in October. Third place went to David Bowie's emergence from a decade-long retirement to release his album, "The Next Day" that hit No. 1 there and through most of Europe (it reached No. 2 in the United States).
Cheap Trick, Martina McBride, REO Speedwagon, other pull out of SeaWorld fest
Cheap Trick, Martina McBride, REO Speedwagon, Trisha Yearwood and .38 Special have pulled out of SeaWorld's Bands, Blues and BBQ festival in March, according to CNN. The action is in response to the CNN documentary, "Blackfish," which detailed the problems the staff at the Orlando aquarium is having caring for its underwater residents. The acts join Willie Nelson, Heart and The Barenaked Ladies, who cancelled earlier.
"Blackfish" looks at the 2010 killing by an orca of a SeaWorld trainer. The documentary premiered in October and raised questions about humaneness and safety of keeping killer whales in captivity.
Mott the Hoople reunites
English glam rockers Mott the Hoople reunited for a series of gigs throughout Britain, from Manchester to Newcastle, Birmingham to England as well as Glasgow and Scotland. The jaunt ended at the 20,000-seat O2 Arena in London.
A portion of the proceeds from the shows benefitted the Alzheimer's Society as a tribute to founding drummer Dale "Buffin" Griffin, who is suffering from dementia (he was replaced as he was on the band's 2010 reunion gigs by Martin Chambers of The Pretenders).
Led by Mott's 74-year-old frontman Ian Hunter, the band included founding guitarist Mick Ralphs, formerly of Bad Company. Reviews of the O2 gig noted that Hunter still has plenty of rock and roll swagger to go with his trademark bush of blond hair.
The two-hour set included all the band's hits, including their 1972 smash take on David Bowie's "Al the Young Dudes" that saw them joined by Def Leppard's singer Joe Elliot, 1973's "All the Way From Memphis" and 1974's "Roll Away the Stone" as well as 1969's glam rock classic, "Rock and Roll Queen."
Faces Ian McLagan doesn't want reunion with Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart recently said that he has penciled in a major reunion with his old band, The Faces, in 2015. But, Ian McLagan, the original keyboardist with both The Small Faces and the band it morphed into, The Faces, in 1969, tells Britain's Uncut magazine that he already has other plans.
McLagan says that he and drummer Kenny Jones, who was also a founding member of both bands, are already set to spend 2015 working The Small Faces 50th anniversary. So, he says, if Stewart wants a Faces reunion, he'll have to wait until at least 2016.
McLagan was already mad at Stewart for missing a few Faces reunions in recent years, including when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year (Stewart said he was sick), as well as passing on a couple Faces one-off gigs and tours starting in 2009 (former Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall filled in).
So, when Stewart announced that he was working on the 2105 reunion only with Faces founding guitarist Ron Wood (who will be busy with The Rolling Stones next year), McLagan only grew more frustrated.
"It's interesting that Rod announces these things without talking to me or Kenny. Why would we (expletive) around with The Faces when we've got bigger fish to fry? We've done The Faces and he didn't turn up. Rod says he's keen to do it (reunite with The Faces) now, and I believe him. But he'll have to wait until 2016 because 2016 is The Small Faces' year."
Note from the Editor: Steve Smith's music columns will now post online in two parts each week on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. Contact him by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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LOS ANGELES – September 19, 2014 – TCW Strategic Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE: TSI) today announced a quarterly distribution of $0.0644 per share payable to shareholders of record on September 30, 2014. The payable date will be October 10, 2014.
The distribution is based on a policy that was approved by the Board of Directors in December 2013 which was to pay quarterly distributions out of the Fund's accumulated net investment income and/or other sources. The Directors will regularly monitor conditions and circumstances relating to the quarterly distribution of dividends and make such changes as they, in consultation with the Fund's portfolio managers, deem appropriate. Distribution policies are a matter of Board discretion and may be modified or terminated at any time without prior notice.
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Test and fix bad strings of holiday lights
Photo 1: Fix a bad Christmas light string
Remove a bulb from an unlit section, plug the empty socket into the connector, plug the string into an electric outlet, then squeeze the trigger until the lights turn on.
Photo 2: How to find a bad bulb in Christmas lights
Press down the black button, hold the tip about 1/2 in. from the string, and move it along the cord until it stops beeping (at the defective bulb).
There's a way to test (and fix) the entire string of miniature lights without testing each bulb individually. Try the LightKeeper Pro (www.lightkeeperpro.com). It'll identify and oftentimes fix most problems in miniature and icicle light sets (but not the sets of larger lights or LED lights) with a few squeezes of the trigger (Photo 1).
The trigger sends an electric charge through the circuit to repair internal bulb failures. (The "shunt" in the bulb is supposed to act as a bypass if a filament fails to complete the circuit. If the shunt fails, it knocks out the lights in the section. The electricity sent by pulling the trigger locates and fixes the defective shunt.)
If that doesn't work, hold down the black button on top of the tester and move the tip along the string so it beeps (Photo 2). Note where the beeping stops, then replace the previous bulb.
The tester is available at home centers and some hardware stores for about $20 (find retailers on the company's website).


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- Most are not holding Joe Torre responsible for the Yankee decline
- Most believe this slump to be a) temporary and b) related to injuries
- Some do wonder if Mariano Rivera could, in fact, experience an age-related decline
- While most respect A-Rod's meteoric start, they don't necessarily embrace him in the Yankee tradition
Kevin Youkilis wondered whether Sox fans were too quick to judgment. At this point in the season, we have a larger sample size and we can note some observations.
- The reformation of the pitching staff has been the greatest contribution to the team's success
- The bullpen breadth and depth has improved via the return of Papelbon to closer (and his judicious use), and surprising effectiveness of Okajima, Donnelly, and Pineiro in particular. Timlin and Snyder haven't had enough opportunities to make any sweeping assessment and Romero has been shaky.
- Alex Cora's strong play has compensated for Pedroia's struggles.
- Ortiz and Lowell's production has compensated for Manny's sluggish (but improving) start.
- Terry Francona's steady management, and use of the entire roster gets overlooked and his 'control' of the complex personalities on a high payroll, high maintenance roster is admirable.


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Dazzling Metallics
by DecoArt
Dazzling Metallics are acrylic paints made from finely ground metal flakes. These flakes make Dazzling Metallics the brightest, best covering paint for adding metallic accents to most projects.
Dazzling Metallics are available in a palette of bright, glistening colors, from delicate translucent pastels to deep rich, shades. Dazzling Metallics can be used on virtually any craft surface, like frames, lamps, vases, figurines, candles and candle holders, and fabric.
Dazzling Metallics are perfect for painting, sponging, faux finishing and adding metallic accents to home decor projects. They are non-toxic and clean up with soap and water.
The paints come in 2-ounce (59 ml) squeeze bottles.
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Average User Rating: Based on (15 Reviews)
Joy P. from Raleigh, NC says:
I paint statues for both inside and outside and find that these metallics show up better and keep their finish longer than the non metallics. I love them!
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Are these metallic or glitter?- Asked by Sharon D on 29-Apr-14
The Dazzling Metallics are rich metallic colors, but not glitter.- Answered by MisterArt on 30-Apr-14
Which gold paint most looks like real gold?- Asked by mr nick on 23-Oct-13
I think champagne gold looks the most real, but of course this really depends on what you think is "real" gold.- Answered by MisterArt on 23-Oct-13
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No they won't.- Answered by MisterArt on 09-Aug-13
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On fabric, prewash, then apply generously with soft brush. Apply shading, highlights, and second coat before basecoat dries. Dry 48 hours before washing gently in warm water using unscented, mild detergent. Hang to dry. Pearl colors may require second coat. Clean up with soap and water. If used on fabric with other acrylic paints that require heat setting, Dazzling Metallics will not be damaged by heat setting. The garment can be placed in a dryer briefly to remove wrinkles. Do not leave until garment is completely dried as the heat will dull the metallic finish.- Answered by MisterArt on 09-Aug-13
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Travelers on a budget will find the cheapest hotels in Boston outside the city center. From chain hotels such as the Econo Lodge in Malden to the charming Harrington House Bed & Breakfast just east of the city, there is a hotel for every style and budget. Business travelers will appreciate hotels like the Four Points by Sheraton, thanks to its excellent client service.
Visitors looking for a more personalized luxury experience will enjoy the Copley House in Back Bay, right in the city. For cheap accommodation in the downtown area, options range from the Chandler Inn boutique hotel to the hostel-style private rooms of 40Berkeley. Rooms start at $189 and $124 per night, respectively.
When you want a chic hotel in downtown Boston, head to the Boxer: a trendy and modern hotel just at the foot of Beacon Hill and walking distance to Faneuil Hall. Get a west-facing window for panoramic views over Boston's parks and monuments. The Fifteen Beacon, or XV, is a luxurious boutique hotel in central Boston. When politicians, celebrities, and businesspeople are looking for understated class they head to this 1903 Beaux Arts building for their stays. Be sure to take advantage of the Lexus chauffeur service that is offered to guests for trips around the city. Guests looking for a place to stay in the swanky Back Bay neighborhood, the Loews Boston Hotel is the perfect place to go. Located nearby the upscale shops and restaurants of Back Bay, the Loews' rooms are spacious and bar keeps busy with guests and locals who work nearby.
Staying in homes and apartments through Airbnb is an excellent way to experience the city thanks to the diversity of options in terms of location and pricing. Private rooms on Airbnb start at $70 for a stay in a 1800s carriage house and go up to $95 per night for a room in a historical penthouse apartment near Quincy Market and the Boston Common. Red Sox fans will love the apartments available in the vibrant neighborhood near Fenway Park. For just $184 per night, visitors will be close to excellent restaurants, nightlife, good transport links, and the Boston Red Sox playing right on their doorstep. The cost of a whole apartment in downtown Boston is comparable to a private room in a budget hotel, though extra savings can be had through Airbnb accommodations by self-catering.
One of the most special boutique hotels in Boston is the Nine Zero, which bills itself as a modern design hotel. There are several suites, each with a different décor to suit different personalities. King rooms offer a great view over Boston common, the oldest public park in the U.S. Their Highball Lounge is full of life and free wine during happy hour.
The Lenox Hotel in Copley Square is designed around the small details: rooms are cozy and have their own authentic fireplaces. The Lenox is elegant and upscale, offering speedy room service and l'Occitane toiletries for guests. The 148-room Commonwealth has a quintessential Boston aristocratic feel: red carpets, vintage high-back lounge chairs, and gilded chandeliers make you feel like you've stepped into a piece of history. Staff go the extra mile to make guests feel comfortable and provide the attentive, personal service expected from a boutique hotel.
Hostels in the United States aren't cheap but they do offer great value, especially if you're traveling to Boston alone. The opportunity to meet new friends and travel companions is great for solo travelers and groups alike. Travelers looking to keep their carbon footprint low will appreciate the eco-friendly Hostelling International Boston location. The 480-bed hostel is in the 19th-centry Dill Building, which has been LEED certified thanks to energy-efficient elevators and lighting, low-flow water amenities, and tables and chairs made from recycled materials. Dorm beds at cheap hostels in Boston start at $30 per night. Visitors to Boston can cut their expenses by staying at hostels that serve complimentary breakfasts and taking advantage of kitchen facilities to cook their own meals.
Two of the cheapest hotels in Boston are located near the airport, which makes it perfect for business travelers or short-term stayers. If you want to stay near the Logan International Airport in Boston, one of your best options if the Rodeway Inn in the heart of Revere. The Rodeway is conveniently located near the Revere Beach and Belle Isle Marsh Reservation and offers a complimentary airport shuttle. For something quainter, the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel is an obvious choice. The Suburban is just a block away from the Winthrop Beach and provides easy access to downtown Boston through the subway.
The best time to visit Boston is the next time you have the opportunity! If you really must choose, the city really comes into its own in the summer when the harbor, parks, and beaches are buzzing with activity. Locals take advantage of the sunshine to enjoy the Esplanade, a green space along the Charles River where you'll find joggers, picnickers, and moviegoers.
Fall is also an immensely enjoyable season for those who want to see New England's famous fall foliage, when the green of the city's parks and trees turns to orange, red, and gold. Boston is a four season destination, but if you're looking for a deal on cheap hotels in the city then the best months to visit are January and February.
The winters can be long and cold, which means hotels tend to slash prices around this time. Hotels get especially busy during the Boston Marathon (mid-April), graduation time (May and June) and major holidays (the Fourth of July in particular) so avoid these times if you're looking for a bargain or book well in advance if you're coming for those events.
Boston is a place with so many options that it's hard to know where to get started. Whether you want to enjoy the city's impressive artistic and historical culture or partake in Bostonians' passion for sport, you can plan your trip accordingly. If you want to see everything, you're in luck: Boston is compact and easy to navigate on foot or by using the public transportation system known as the "T". Save time and money by buying a CharlieTicket at subway station and loading it with a 7-day LinkPass. The travel card costs $19 for 7 days of unlimited travel on the subway, buses, ferries, and commuter rail trains.
History buffs will love exploring the Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile path that allows visitors to explore 16 sites related to the Revolutionary War. Among them are the Old North church (does "The British are coming!" ring a bell?), the home of Paul Revere, and the Bunker Hill Monument. The route is full of historical information so put on comfortable shoes and prepare to spend the day outdoors.
The Esplanade is Boston's three-mile long green space where locals come together throughout the summer. The park is filled with marshes and playgrounds, which makes a walk along the Esplanade a great place to start your day. Check out the Museum of Science, the Boston University Bridge, take in a concert or film at the Hatch Shell, or rent a sailboat to see the city from a different vantage point.
Back Bay is Boston's ritzy neighborhood, renowned for its Victorian brown stones, fancy Boston hotels, and high-class shopping. The houses and churches started development in the mid-1800s and this neighborhood has become one of Boston's most desirable and expensive places to live. Wander around, window-shop (or actually shop!) and appreciate the architecture of a bygone era.
Just south of Back Bay you'll find rows of brown stones and a chic vibe in the South End neighborhood that has had its comeuppance. Now a bastion of hip middle-class families and the center of alternative lifestyle culture, this area was once considered a daring place to live. Take in the architecture, enjoy a coffee at Flour, one of Boston's most beloved bakeries, or try the fresh seafood at B&G Oysters. In the spring, locals and visitors alike take part in the SoWa Art Walk to support contemporary art galleries and artists in the area.
Jamaica Plain, more commonly known as JP, is known to most visitors because it's home to the Samuel Adams Brewery, but locals know that there's a lot more to JP than that. The neighborhood has a freshwater pond and park that never feels crowded. Taking a rowboat out on the water and relaxing at one of the local bars or restaurants is the perfect day out away from the busy city.
Baseball fan or not, no visit to Boston is complete without getting to know a bit more about the city's beloved Red Sox. Fenway Park was built in 1912, making it one of the oldest major league stadiums — and it still has real grass. Fenway Park is in the middle of the city so even if you aren't going to catch a game, it's easy to drop by for a tour of the stadium to see the Green Monster and sip a beer at the Bleacher Bar. If you do get a chance to see the Red Sox play, be sure to warm up your vocal cords to sing the traditional seventh-inning stretch song, "Sweet Caroline."
The MBTA, always called the "T", is a cheap and efficient way to get around. The subway system covers all of Boston's neighborhoods and has a simple, straightforward map. The lines are organized by color: green, red, orange, blue, and silver. The green line connects all the city's popular destinations, while the silver line will take you to the financial district and harbor area. The red and orange lines connect the suburbs to Boston, and the blue line will take you to the airport. T-rides are $2 per journey but a 7-day LinkPass will save you money on multiple journeys.
You can find taxis throughout Boston but they are considered one of the most expensive of America's major cities. The initial fare is $2.60 with bridge tolls and tips added to the final price.
It's best to avoid driving in Boston. The roads are often small, one-way streets with complicated signage, making navigation difficult for drivers unfamiliar with the area. Boston has a lot of traffic congestion and few parking options, so it's best to leave the car in the garage while exploring the city.
Boston has a regular bus service that can be used to get closer to your intended destination or to places not covered by the subway system. It is certainly slower than the subway but can be cheaper on a per journey basis. The MBTA offers express bus services to certain locations that cost $4.50 for Inner Express and $6.50 for Outer Express buses.
© 2020 Hipmunk® and Concur® Hipmunk® are trademarks of Hipmunk, Inc. and Concur Technologies, Inc.
© 2020 Hipmunk® and Concur® Hipmunk® are trademarks of Hipmunk, Inc. and Concur Technologies, Inc.


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Thomas Sowell isn't just a great economist, or a great scholar, or a great pundit. He is something rarer: a great man. At IBD, Sowell writes on race relations in 21st century America. He begins:
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
Those were, for a lot of people, the good old days. Since then, things have gotten more complicated:
Apparently other Americans also recognize that the sources of racism are different today from what they were in the past. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 31% of blacks think that most blacks are racists, while 24% of blacks think that most whites are racist. …
Among whites, according to the same Rasmussen poll, 38% consider most blacks racist and 10% consider most whites racist. …
The moral claims advanced by generations of black leaders — claims that eventually touched the conscience of the nation and turned the tide toward civil rights for all — have now been cheapened by today's generation of black "leaders," who act as if it is all just a matter of whose ox is gored.
We have seen that in the George Zimmerman case, where it is obvious that if the races of the protagonists were reversed, black "leaders" would be on the other side. Sowell concludes with this perceptive observation:
Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having racial or ethnic leaders. While most Americans can easily name a number of black leaders, current or past, how many can name Asian American ethnic leaders or Jewish ethnic leaders?
The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.


text:
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GSDHJA Information
December 5, 2019
Click here to purchase banquet tickets (and maybe renew your membership while you're at it!). Read more…
September 23, 2019
The 2019 Champ Show Premium is available for download here. We doubled the size of the premium this year since… Read more…
August 22, 2019
This year is the GSDHJA 20th Anniversary Championship Show! We are striving to make this a very special, very memorable… Read more…
April 7, 2019
Click here for a new document that explains under what conditions you can ride as an amateur. Read more…
February 28, 2019
The annual GSDHJA General Meeting has been postponed and will now be tentatively held on Friday April 12 at 5:30pm… Read more…
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The end of year 2018 banquet will take place January 12, 2019 at the Bahia Hotel. Click here to download… Read more…
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Stepping Up a Gear with Formula One Team Spirit - DDB
12 March 2014
Preparation & Planning
The teambuilding began with each team receiving a briefing booklet with plans on how to mark, label and cut various parts of their Formula One car, from flat cardboard. Teams excitedly got working on building parts such as the Cockpit, Engine Box, left and right Panel and Sills, the bonnet, nose cone and front and rear aerofoils.
Construction - Developing Team Spirit
Once the parts had been constructed, teams attached the cardboard wheels to the axels on the main body chassis. Then the steering parts attached to the front axels were tested and the car required just one more element – pimping! Various racing paraphernalia along with balloons and DDB logos were used to decorate each of the teams' cars. This created a sense of belonging, team spirit and a sense of accomplishment to ensure teams were suitably fired up for the ensuring races.
Racing - The Teams Compete!
After a parade and debriefing of the team experience came a series of heat races. On arrival at the Pit Stop, the driver was swapped and the whole team turned the car 180 degrees to leave the pit stop and continue the race. This is where gains in time were made or lost, depending on time management, efficient teamwork and a drive for success. Performance in the heat races means only two teams make it to the final, with one overall team succeeding to the champagne podium finish!
Happy Client
Flat Out Formula One is a unique and innovative team building event, where everyone is involved and focused on winning. From the construction through to the decoration, debriefing and heat races you can sense the feeling of team spirit coming alive and the final race creates a memorable event for all involved."Geok Pin Tan, Finance Director, DDB Worldwide Ltd.


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1. Including the new capstone course requirement, how many total contact hours will be required for each Registered Program?
270 contact hours.
2. How should we begin this new capstone course?
Beginning the financial plan development course with an initial review of program content at the theoretical level is a great opportunity to assess student achievement relative to content across the curriculum and to bridge any gaps between students' initial introduction to content and their participation in this capstone experience. This type of review is also a great opportunity to assess the quality of instruction at your Registered Program before moving into the development of a comprehensive financial plan.
3. Can students present their comprehensive financial plan in groups of two if class sizes are extremely large?
Yes. It is important that students have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to develop and present a comprehensive financial plan. The instructor of the capstone course needs to ensure that each student is receiving a thorough assessment during all components of this capstone experience. Therefore, the exact format of the assessment is at the discretion of the instructor.
4. Does the students' presentation of the comprehensive financial plan have to be live?
No. Students can be asked to record their presentation if that is the most effective format. Instructors are encouraged, however, to ensure that there are no issues with regard to academic integrity (learner identity, timeliness of presentation, etc.) throughout this assessment.
5. Can I get help from professionals to assess students' presentation of the comprehensive financial plan?
Yes. Registered Programs are encouraged to engage CFP® professionals in assisting with student assessment. This is a great opportunity to not only get help with assessment, but also showcase the skill-level of your students, which could lead to future employment opportunities for alumni. CFP Board recommends that any non-faculty CFP® professionals involved in the assessment be provided a thorough orientation to ensure that the assessments are valid.
6. In general, what is the biggest change to our programs beyond the capstone course?
The content requirements for CFP Board-Registered Programs are relatively unchanged, even with the introduction of the financial plan development course requirement and the recent changes to the CFP® Examination blueprint. CFP Board continues to encourage instructors to invent avenues for students to experience the required content, moving beyond a theoretical understanding to application, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.
The Center is creating an academic home for the financial planning profession.
Learn More
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I had the upgrade done on our 2013 Leaf, mid December(in Raleigh NC area). As I remember, you need to generate carwings id and password on Nissan Connect web site. Btw, you would use Nissan ConnectEV app to connect back to the car from phone. It took a while for me to figure all of this out. As we bought the car used and had to jump through some more hoops in proving to Nissan that I am the actual owner!
2013 Nissan Leaf SV. Added MobileEye and backup cam(first car for the teenager!)


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Pan1da7's gone poaching at the end of the week and carves another TAYpic notch on his belt. Good morning and welcome to Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves.
Feel free to discuss anything on the subject of video games in our comments below. If you've got a good idea and the skills, tomorrow represents your last shot at this month's #TAYpic. Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16:9 ratio, and add liberal amounts of funny. Get the base image here. Don't add the Talk Amongst Yourselves badge to it, either. We'll take care of that, as it goes in the upper right corner. Most of the time.


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Few convicted killers in the long, violent annals of American crime come close to Ed Gein for depravity and -- it should be said -- for pop-culture influence. Arrested in 1957 and tried and convicted of one murder a decade later, Gein has been cited as the inspiration for big-screen mass murderers as varied as Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, Norman Bates in Psycho and -- perhaps especially -- Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
Virtually every messy, creepy, isolated killer's home one sees today on TV and in the movies takes as its model the run-down, detritus-filled Wisconsin farmhouse where, in November 1957, authorities encountered the sort of scene that would reliably make moviegoers' flesh crawl for decades to come. While Ed Gein was only convicted of one murder, he was suspected in several more; confessed to at least two; and had evidently dug up the remains of scores of people through the years, in effect making use of the bodies to satisfy his own urges.
Gein's home was reportedly filled with his grisly handiwork. Upon his arrest cops searching his house found noses, human bones, bowls made from human skulls, human skin used as chair seats, human heads in paper bags and burlaps sacks, a lampshade fashioned from the skin of a human face and countless other horrors.
Gein was convicted of killing just one person, a judge named Robert H. Gollmar, but also confessed to killing two women -- a bar owner named Mary Hogan and a hardware store owner in his hometown of Plainfield, Bernice Worden. He spent the last years of his life in mental institutions in Wisconsin, rather than in prison, having been found legally insane. He died in 1984 at the age of 77 in Madison.


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Veteran defender Gareth McAuley has expressed his pride at seeing Northern Ireland progress to the last 16 of Euro 2016 on Tuesday night.
A 1-0 defeat to Germany in Paris did not prevent Michael O'Neill's men from making it out of the group as Turkey beat the Czech Republic 2-0 later that evening to ensure Northern Ireland went through as a third-placed team by virtue of a better goal difference than the Turks and Albania.
Northern Ireland were the first team from pot five to top a European CHampionship qualifying group and many pundits gave them little chance of making it out of the group at the tournament, yet O'Neill's side have extended their French sojourn and will meet either the hosts or Wales this weekend.
"It's an absolutely incredible achievement by everyone involved," McAuley said after learning of his country's progress.
"Not just the players involved but everyone included. It's made it a fantastic tournament for us to be involved in.
"We're just pleased that everyone can come back again and have a party at the weekend. It's just pride because we weren't given a chance when the draw was made. All these experts (said we would get) no points, wouldn't get out of the group. We've managed to do that, through the back door albeit, but I'm still incredibly proud."
McAuley and his team-mates were unable to seal their progress themselves at the Parc des Princes following a 1-0 loss to Germany when Joachim Low's men produced a performance befitting of their world-champion status.
That it was only 1-0 was largely down to goalkeeper Michael McGovern and his string of saves which included terrific stops to deny Thomas Muller, Mario Gotze and goalscorer Mario Gomez.
"We've taken on the world champions there," McAuley added.
"We rode our luck and McGovern was fantastic. Even though we lost 1-0 it feels like we got something, like a win or a point from that game.
"We need to sleep on it to hit home. We're travelling back and have another game, we don't know who that game is but we're looking forward to it.
"The boys are running on empty here but they'll find the heart, the legs to go again. That's what we're about and hopefully we can produce another result."
The performance of McGovern, who is out of contract with Scottish side Hamilton at the end of this month, was brighter than any of the German stars could produce.
Germany boss Joachim Low claimed he was aware of a keeper that may have been unknown to the rest of the continent and highlighted his role in thwarting his team.
"Of course I have heard of him before, we have analysed the opponent," Low said.
"I have to compliment him. He has kept goal brilliantly and shown great reflexes.
"Three of four times he was completely alone in his goal, he put in a great effort."


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I never knew what cancer looked like, just understood that my two sisters survived breast cancer and a couple of other friends won battles against prostate cancer.
Then again, a couple of friends perished from breast cancer and recently a couple of other friends lost fights with cancer.
If war is hell, then cancer is war.
Brandon Sincak? His is a cancer in progress, tumor piled atop a mass of other tumors in a mess of blood vessels and polyp colonies.
Diagnosed a year ago, his cancer story showed up Tuesday on a video that exposed an unsightly view of a rare sarcoma cancer.
'You gotta see this video,' a coworker/friend said.
I followed her lead into a video post (search for 'running for my life') for a severe kick to the solar plexis, an invasion of privacy, a first face-to-face meeting with cancer.
Breakfast prepared for an upheaved comeback, dinner appeared as an appointment that could never again happen.
An insidious disease finally showed in a 26-year-old Trenton man now living in Mt. Laurel.
Brandon sounded more like a fugitive in his 'Running For My Life' admission.
The video is a voyeuristic violation but the reality of Brandon's condition activated an enormous outpouring of love in the city of Trenton.
Trenton, a capital city consumed by corruption, awash in gang-blooded murder, trapped between irrelevance and irrational behavior, breathed life into a young man in need of money for a trip for alternative treatment at a Mexico medical clinic.
Poor Trenton - often called an incorrigible place, a city pressed into a social deathbed, where dreams die from gunshot, knife or cancer - contributed more than $29,000 in less than 24 hours.
At this posting, friends, family members and others had donated more than $36,771 for Brandon to visit a Gerson Therapy clinic that charges $5,500 per week.
'The phone never stopped ringing while people kept making contributions to the website. It was all day and all night,' said Tammy Wright, Brandon's mother.
'People called me crying. Yeah, some of them could not watch the entire video. I understand. We are amazed by the people of Trenton. In this city where murder and crime are talked about all the time, people seemed to stop all the madness to help us.'
Wright said her son's insurance coverage is minimal, barely covers some medicines while several doctors say there's little modern medicine can do to save him.
Brandon, a father of two, has experienced three surgeries while his body has rejected chemotherapy treatment.
The 1:33 minute Sincak video starts with a face view of Brandon speaking about his cancer. However, the camera eventually pans to an inner thigh area, gruesomely corrupted by tumors.
Wright, and Kamei Caver, who shares a child with Brandon, serve as caregivers. They change Brandon's dressings almost every half hour, every day. Night and day.
'I had to gather myself the first time I changed his dressing. It takes guts and grit, especially when Brandon's in pain. It's not easy. I thank God for the strength. Thank God for Kamei,' Wright said.
Sincak expects to head to the coastal town of Playas de Tijuana sometime around his birthday of March 4.
Gerson Therapy depends on the body's natural ability to heal itself, supported by an organic diet supported by a vegetarian diet, raw juices, coffee enemas and natural supplements.
Jen called herself a Gerson Therapy educational specialist.
'Our efforts here are acknowledged in the alternative therapy realm,' she said.
The Gerson employee explained difficulties in opening such clinics in the U.S., saying that people generally opt for conventional medical practices.
While money matters in medical emergencies, frequently prayers get answered.
Today, tonight, tomorrow, take a minute to pray for Brandon and all others who face difficult emotional, physical and mental challenges.
Wright disavowed a scam. 'we're tying to save my son here. We are thankful for everyone that's trying to help,' she said.
'If people need to come over and see his cancer then the door's open. I know what's being talked about on websites, stuff like 'if (Brandon's) so ill why does he look so good?'
Maybe looking good in the face but down there, below the waist?
Meet cancer. Donate at www.gofundme.com/1rnt5k and find out more about Brandon's fight with cancer on his Facebook page Brandon's Song.
- L.A. Parker is a columnist for The Trentonian. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Brandon Sincak's mother Tammy Wright and a group of his supporters appeared on Darren 'Freedom' Green's show on Trentonian TV in January. See that interview, where the mother describes the trials she, her son and their family and friends have gone through in this video on our YouTube channel.


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James Carlson wrote:IRT: "Figel's tendency to talk out of both sides of his mouth is one of the reasons he was not initially invited to participate in my press conference—where seven USAF veterans *with backbone* stuck to their stories and talked in detail about multiple UFO encounters at ICBM sites, including the Echo and Oscar shutdowns. The press conference video—streamed live by CNN—may be viewed at: [Blah, blah, blah].
"With this caliber of witness (seven of them, actually) at the press conference, why would I include Figel, who told me on tape that he didn't want to get caught up in the debate between you and me and fan the controversy further? That kind of wishy-washy attitude didn't make the cut."
And this was Robert's star witness. Funny, that Robert never mentioned the above personal thoughts as I tried to press him on The UFO Chronicles as to why Figel never attended the press conference or provide an affidavit. Robert told me that Figel "chose" not to participate. So now it appears that Robert chose for him.


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2012 Hospice du Rhone Seminar – The Bionic Frog Returns
This is the second in our series of seminars from the 2012 Hospice du Rhone. This time, we're re-visiting an old friend from the Walla Walla Valley in the Pacific Northwest – Christophe Baron, from Cayuse Vineyards. Christophe is always at HdR, but the last time he did a seminar was 2004. At the time, his wines were somewhat difficult to get. Since that time, his wines have become impossible to get – unless you're on the list to get on the mailing list!
Christophe's excitement over the field of rocks he discovered on a cold April morning in 1996 was for good reason. He had seen similar terroir in the Marlborough region of New Zealand, and in the "galets roules" [rolled stone] vineyards in southern France. The area has even been dubbed "Oregon's Châteuneuf-du-Pape," home to some of the finest grapes grown in the northwestern United States. Christophe believes great wines must deliver a mineral quality—something this rocky ground offers in abundance.
Join us as we hear from Christophe and John Alban about the unique geography and climate of Walla Walla, and why it produces such compelling Rhone wines.
For more info:
Hospice du Rhone: www.hospicedurhone.org/
Cayuse Vineyards: www.cayusevineyards.com
GrapeRadio Video – Among the Stones – The Wines of Cayuse: www.graperadio.com/archives/2008/04/14/among-the-stones-the-wines-of-cayuse/
Sponsor: Pinpoint Technologies – Your Business List Source: www.pinpoint-tech.com
Click Below to Play the Show:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download


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Number 32 Autumn 1978
A research quarterly published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
Editor: Professor R. H. Parker, University of Exeter CONTENTS
'Profit Centre': a Satisfaction Generating Concept
Company Risk Relationships over Con-secutive Periods
The Impact of Inflation on the Profits of Listed Firms in Israel
Conceptualising the Liability
The Axioms of Accounting Measurement
Annual Reports in the United States: a Historical Perspective
Book Reviews
Notes on Contributors
Subscriptions should be sent to City House, 56-66 Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AB, England. Subscription rates are: U.K. £12, Overseas £15 (U.S. $29), Airmail Overseas £18 (U.S. $35). (Student rates: U.K. £6, Overseas £7.50 (U.S. $15).)
David A. Dittman Kenneth R. Ferris
Haim Falk James A. Heintz
Solomon J. Flink Assa Birati Meyer Ungar
Ronald Ma Malcolm C. Miller
Mark Tippett
Allen Schiff


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The Antares, carrying an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft from Orbital Sciences was to tote some provisions up to the International Space Station, but you get the idea how that's turned out. I'll stop paraphrasing. Fortunately, no loss of life. Just a bruised ego. A very, very expensive ego. See the details with video here. Tweet
Posts Tagged 'Cygnus'
I eagerly await The Repeater's assesment of this turn of events.
October 29th, 2014 Daggor


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Summer Chalkboard Art
I've been kind of obsessed with chalk board signs lately (check out my Pinterest board). While creating a gallery wall in my entry, I decided to add a large chalkboard that I have. I wanted to create a temporary piece of art for the summer in black and white to match the gallery (I posted about the gallery wall HERE). First I gathered the necessary supplies: paper towels, chalk, Q Tips, and Aqua Net (also needed but not pictured: ruler, tape measure, and level). Then I measured the board and created a layout that I liked. About the beachy layout: I love the art (by Katie Daisy) with the quote "I long for Salt Air in my hair", we take a road trip from UT to Laguna Beach every summer, and we love to sit on the sand or surf in the ocean as a family.
I added an orange grid and printed off the template.
With a damp paper towel, I wiped down the chalkboard and let it dry. The surface wasn't perfect, but that doesn't matter in the end.
I copied the grid onto the chalkboard using a ruler, tape measure and level.
Then it was time to start adding the large elements. I started with the brackets at the top.
Then the crest.
Then one at a time the stripes, year, whale, words and star fish.
One of my favorite things on the chalkboards that I liked were diagonal words. These were complicated for me, but the template and grid helped a lot. Darken the lettering once you are happy with it.
In my origional drawing, I had 3D lettering. I realized it is much simpler to draw the letters flat and add the 3D effect later on your own.
I love the graphic whale that I printed off, but I knew I would never be able to replicate it. Instead I just used the outline. In the Road Trip photo you can see you can "sketch" in chalk and fill in once you get the shapes right.
Here is the layout with all of the major elements layout out and filled in.
At this point I was ready to clean up the excess chalk, sketch lines, and grid. Take a damp paper towel and wrap it around your finger. Clean right up to the edge of the chalk lines. You can always add chalk back where you erased too much.
For the final product, I opted for an octopus instead of the star fish, still not sure if this was the right decision, but it is all temporary anyway! The Road Trip crest has a chevron design what I chalked on and rubbed in with my finger. It's subtle, but I like the texture.
The Salt Air was turned into 3D and shaded with stripes and finger rubbed chalk. If you need to make a perfectly spaced stripe just dip a Q Tip in water, squeeze it out, and "paint" a clean stripe. the Q Tips work great for cleaning up any tight areas.
And voila, the finished chalkboard, at least for this season. If you don't want little fingers rubbing off your hard work, give the entire board a light spray of Aqua Net hair spray (I purchased "Unscented" but believe me, it still stinks). When it is time to change it I'll just wipe the entire surface with a warm damp cloth and start over.
Happy Chalking!
{note: to see the gallery wall where this is featured click HERE}
For more chalk tutorial from Burlap & Denim click the links below:
Linked Up: FunkyJunk Initeriors, Rooster & Hen, Tatertots & Jello, Home Stories A2Z


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Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002
This article needs to be updated.January 2012)(
|European Union directive
|Directive concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector
|Made by
|European Parliament & Council
|Made under
|Art. 95
|Journal reference
|L201, 2002-07-31, pp. 37 – 47
|Date made
|Came into force
|Implementation date
|Preparative texts
|EESC opinion
|C123, 2001-01-24, p. 53
|EP opinion
|C187, 2002-05-30, p. 103
|Other legislation
|Amended by
|Directive 2006/24/EC, Directive 2009/136/EC
|Replaced by
|Current legislation
Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002/58/EC on Privacy and Electronic Communications, otherwise known as ePrivacy Directive (ePD), is an EU directive on data protection and privacy in the digital age.[1] It presents a continuation of earlier efforts, most directly the Data Protection Directive. It deals with the regulation of a number of important issues such as confidentiality of information, treatment of traffic data, spam and cookies. This Directive has been amended by Directive 2009/136, which introduces several changes, especially in what concerns cookies, that are now subject to prior consent.
The ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) is estimated to come in effect somewhere in 2019[needs update] and will repeal the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC and accompany the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and regulate the requirements for consent to the use of cookies and opt-out options.[1][2][3]
Subject-matter and Scope[edit]
The Electronic Privacy Directive has been drafted specifically to address the requirements of new digital technologies and ease the advance of electronic communications services.[4] The Directive complements the Data Protection Directive and applies to all matters which are not specifically covered by that Directive.[5] In particular, the subject of the Directive is the "right to privacy in the electronic communication sector" and free movement of data, communication equipment and services.
The Directive does not apply to Titles V and VI (Second and Third Pillars constituting the European Union). Likewise, it does not apply to issues concerning public security and defence, state security and criminal law.[6] The interception of data was however covered by the EU Data Retention Directive, prior to its annulment by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Contrary to the Data Protection Directive, which specifically addresses only individuals, Article 1(2) makes it clear that ePrivacy Directive also applies to legal persons.
Main provisions[edit]
The first general obligation in the Directive is to provide security of services.[7] The addressees are providers of electronic communications services. This obligation also includes the duty to inform the subscribers whenever there is a particular risk, such as a virus or other malware attack.[8]
The second general obligation is for the confidentiality of information to be maintained.[9] The addressees are Member States, who should prohibit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communication and "related traffic", unless the users have given their consent or conditions of Article 15(1) have been fulfilled.
Data retention and other issues[edit]
The directive obliges the providers of services to erase or anonymise the traffic data processed when no longer needed, unless the conditions from Article 15 have been fulfilled.[10] Retention is allowed for billing purposes but only as long as the statute of limitations allows the payment to be lawfully pursued. Data may be retained upon a user's consent for marketing and value-added services. For both previous uses, the data subject must be informed why and for how long the data is being processed.
Subscribers have the right to non-itemised billing.[11] Likewise, the users must be able to opt out of calling-line identification.[12]
Where data relating to location of users or other traffic can be processed, Article 9 provides that this will only be permitted if such data is anonymised, where users have given consent, or for provision of value-added services. Like in the previous case, users must be informed beforehand of the character of information collected and have the option to opt out.[13]
Unsolicited e-mail and other messages[edit]
Article 13 prohibits the use of email addresses for marketing purposes. The Directive establishes the opt-in regime, where unsolicited emails may be sent only with prior agreement of the recipient. A natural or legal person who initially collects address data in the context of the sale of a product or service, has the right to use it for commercial purposes provided the customers have a prior opportunity to reject such communication where it was initially collected and subsequently. Member States have the obligation to ensure that unsolicited communication will be prohibited, except in circumstances given in Article 13.
Two categories of emails (or communication in general) will also be excluded from the scope of the prohibition. The first is the exception for existing customer relationships and the second for marketing of similar products and services.[14] The sending of unsolicited text messages, either in the form of SMS messages, push mail messages or any similar format designed for consumer portable devices (mobile phones, PDAs) also falls under the prohibition of Article 13.[15]
The Directive provision applicable to cookies is Article 5(3). Recital 25 of the Preamble recognises the importance and usefulness of cookies for the functioning of modern Internet and directly relates Article 5(3) to them but Recital 24 also warns of the danger that such instruments may present to privacy. The change in the law does not affect all types of cookies; those that are deemed to be "strictly necessary for the delivery of a service requested by the user", such as for example, cookies that track the contents of a user's shopping cart on an online shopping service, are exempted.
The article is technology neutral, not naming any specific technological means which may be used to store data, but applies to any information that a website causes to be stored in a user's browser. This reflects the EU legislator's desire to leave the regime of the directive open to future technological developments.
The addressees of the obligation are Member States, who must ensure that the use of electronic communications networks to store information in a visitor's browser is only allowed if the user is provided with "clear and comprehensive information", in accordance with the Data Protection Directive, about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and has given his or her consent.
The regime so set-up can be described as opt-in, effectively meaning that the consumer must give his or her consent before cookies or any other form of data is stored in their browser. The UK Regulations allow for consent to be signified by future browser settings, which have yet to be introduced but which must be capable of presenting enough information so that a user can give their informed consent and indicating to a target website that consent has been obtained. Initial consent can be carried over into repeated content requests to a website. The Directive does not give any guidelines as to what may constitute an opt-out, but requires that cookies, other than those "strictly necessary for the delivery of a service requested by the user" are not to be placed without user consent.
The directive has been criticised by the software firm Silktide who initially produced a range of tools for web developers who wanted to make sure they were not falling foul of the law, but the company now describes the efforts as "a tragic waste of time". Oliver Emberton, who owns Silktide, told the BBC that users who had tried to comply with the law were being penalised more than those who had opted to ignore it.[16]
Silktide created a protest website to highlight the "ineffective" rules with a message to the Information Commissioner's Office (the UK body tasked with enforcing the directive) "EU Cookie Law - Dear ICO, sue us".[17][18]
Emberton, quoted on the BBC news website said "The ICO has the impossible job of policing an unworkable law. [...] The most frustrating thing for website owners has been trying to second guess what the law means, as it changes constantly. A lot of time and money has been wasted accomplishing very little. [...] The idea of this law is a noble one, it's just a shame it was drafted by a team of technically illiterate octogenarians who couldn't find a button on a mouse."[19]
Finally, it is worthwhile to consider that for any privacy regulation to make a meaningful difference in the amount of data that is collected by any one entity, the transparency imposed by regulation has to be followed by the availability of adequate alternatives. Regulation can promote transparency that can fix market failures, but cannot in itself create effective markets. This can be accomplished by a combination of legislation and standardization.[20]
- Full text of Directive
- Guidance from the UK's ICO
- Guidance from the French DPA CNIL (Translated into English)
- Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Opinion 2/2010
- Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Opinion 16/2011
- History of the decision making
- On spam: Asscher, L, Hoogcarspel, S.A, Regulating Spam: A European Perspective after the Adoption of the ePrivacy Directive (T.M.C. Asser Press 2006)
- Edwards, L, "Articles 6 – 7, ECD; Privacy and Electronics Communications Directive 2002" in Edwards, L. (ed.) The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe (Hart 2005)
- Cookies audit tool
- ^ a b ePrivacy Regulation on Europa.eu
- ^ ePrivacy Regulation and the GDPR on eprivacy.eu
- ^ Highlights ePrivacy Regulation on fieldfisher.com
- ^ See Preamble of the Directive
- ^ see Article 1
- ^ Article 1(3)
- ^ Article 4
- ^ Article 4(2)
- ^ Article 5
- ^ Article 6
- ^ Article 7
- ^ Article 8
- ^ Article 9(2)
- ^ Article 13(2)
- ^ Recital 40, Preamble
- ^ "Web software firm taunts UK data regulator over cookies". BBC Media Centre. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
- ^ "EU Cookie Law - Dear ICO, Sue Us". Silktide. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
- ^ "Company taunts ICO: sue us over cookie law". Econsultancy.
- ^ "Internet cookie law catches out MPs including justice secretary". BBC News. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
- ^ "Time to reclaim the Internet". Hagai Bar-El on Security. Retrieved 1 January 2020.


text:
At the April 25, 2013 City Council meeting, the City will hold the second of two public hearings regarding the annexation of approximately 25 acres of land, described as University Boulevard right-of-way between Sunrise Road and Seton Parkway. The first public hearing was held at the April 11 City Council meeting.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, 2013, in City Council Chambers at City Hall, 221 E. Main Street. Those who wish to speak regarding the annexation are advised to arrive 15 minutes before the meeting.
Additional information, including a map, is privided in the public notice:
Notice of second public hearing: University Boulevard, April 25, 2013
For more information please contact Senior Planner Steve Hopkins at 512-671-2727.


text:
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Computers for Learning Program
|Computers for Learning
US General Services Administration
Phone: 866.333.7472 opt. 2
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
|The Computers for Learning (CFL) program evolved as a guide for implementing Executive Order 12999, Educational Technology: Ensuring Opportunity for all Children in the Next Century. The executive order encourages agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to transfer excess computers and related peripheral equipment directly to schools and some educational nonprofit organizations. The CFL program specifically matches the computer needs of schools and educational nonprofit organizations with excess equipment in Federal agencies. The CFL program's ambitious goal is to make modern computer technology an integral part of every classroom so that every child has the opportunity to be educated to his or her full potential.
A school is eligible to receive donations through the Computers for Learning program if it is public, private, or parochial serving prekindergarten through grade 12 students. Day care centers must provide a state-approved preschool curriculum.
Registration forms are provided on the website for requesting excess computer equipment. Agencies report excess computer equipment to US General Services Administration (GSA) as it becomes available. Then, using the new CFL module in the GSAXcess system, schools and nonprofits are able to search and select available equipment in their geographical area. Detailed information about online registration and selecting equipment is available on the website.
Schools and educational nonprofit organizations do not pay for excess computer equipment they receive through the CFL program. However, the recipient is responsible for the shipping and handling costs, as well as refurbishing costs.
|Public, Private, Other (including homeschool, 501 (c)(3) organizations), Charter
|Various computer equipment is awarded, including computers, laptops, desktops, printers, scanners, peripheral devices, and computer components (e.g. monitors, keyboards, mouse).
|Registration and requests are accepted year-round.
|Facilities/Maintenance, Technology
|Grade Level(s):
|9-12, 6-8, 3-5, K-2, PreK
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text:
MARK BITTMAN is one of the country's best-known and most widely respected food writers. His How to Cook Everything books, with well over one million copies in print, are mainstays of the modern kitchen. His most recent book, VB6, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Bittman writes on food policy and cooking for the New York Times Magazine and the newspaper's Opinion and Dining sections, where his "Flexitarian" column appears regularly. He's hosted four food and cooking shows, and he is currently a correspondent in Years of Living Dangerously, a groundbreaking documentary event series exploring the human impact of climate change.
Q: Tell us about the VB6 philosophy, in a nutshell. How has it changed your life? Has it changed the way you think about food?
A: It's simple: VB6 is just a set of rules for changing the proportions of foods in my (or your) diet, to emphasize plants and de-emphasize everything else. I eat only minimally processed plants from dawn until dusk, and then whatever I want at night – within reason, of course. (Of course, I "cheat," too; that's part of the plan.) The results have been amazing, and I still get to eat anything I want for part of every day.


text:
Charlie Hunnam
STARmeterTop 500
Up 50 this week
Charles Matthew Hunnam was born in Newcastle, England on April 10, 1980, to Jane (Bell), a business owner, and William Hunnam, a scrap metal merchant. At 18 years of age, he made a guest appearances in the popular TV series Byker Grove (1989). He gained fame in Britain thanks to his television role as the love-smitten Nathan Maloney in Queer as Folk... See full bio »
More at IMDbPro » Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro


text:
Tigers Steal #1 prospect in MLB draft. Great article by Jason Beck of MLB.com
Hondo S. Carpenter
Tigers nab Tar Heels lefty in first round
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
DETROIT -- As odd as it sounds for the Tigers, the rich just got richer.For the second year in a row, the Tigers benefited from a highly-rated prospect who fell out of the top handful of spots. Unlike Cameron Maybin, however, Andrew Miller was expected to be the top overall pick.
With the sixth overall pick in Tuesday's First-Year Player Draft, the Tigers changed course and went with Miller, the University of North Carolina left-hander who as recently as Monday was predicted to go to the Royals at No. 1. In so doing, Detroit proved out scouting director David Chadd's prediction that what the Tigers would do with their selection depended on what happened with the five picks before theirs.
Chadd said he didn't know until this morning that Miller would slide that far. When he did, the best pitching staff in the Major Leagues so far this season drafted the young man who was almost universally regarded as the best pitcher available. Assuming they can sign him, and that's not a given, they could have the makings of an even nastier rotation for 2008 than they expected they would have -- maybe even sooner.
"I knew they're about the best young team in baseball," Miller said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon arranged by the university. "They're known for their young pitching. It'll be a tough place for me to find a spot down the road, but it'll be a good challenge."
Miller has been widely regarded as the best combination of ability and polish in what was regarded as a pitcher-heavy draft. Both MLB.com and Baseball America rated the 21-year-old left-hander as the top prospect available, a lofty status that had basically remained unchanged since the college season began. He's a power lefty in both stature -- he's listed at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds -- and stuff.
With a mid-90s fastball that occasionally tops out higher, along with a quality slider, Miller was already on watch coming off two unbeaten seasons in the Cape Cod Summer League. He began his junior season by going 10-0 before finally taking a loss last month. He went 12-2 with a 2.26 ERA in 15 starts, striking out 108 batters over 103 2/3 innings and holding opponents to a .217 batting average.
His next step to becoming a Major Leaguer is to develop his changeup into an effective pitch. Chadd said he already shows the feel for one, and UNC coach Mike Fox said Miller hasn't honed it only because he hasn't had to throw it regularly in college.
The repertoire and the size made him a likely selection for the Royals with the first overall selection. However, contract demands reportedly helped turn Kansas City's attention elsewhere. Once it became clear Monday morning that the Royals wouldn't take Miller, with the next four teams pretty much set with their wish lists, Miller went on a relative free fall.
"It was shocking when we found out there was a chance he was going to get to our pick," Chadd said.
It wasn't necessarily a shock to Miller. Had the Tigers not plucked him, projections had him falling out of the top 10 and potentially into the second half of the first round, where teams in more competitive situations and with more financial room could take on the challenge of signing him. Potential asking prices, including a Major League contract and a hefty bonus, were circulating around teams.
"We certainly started to be able to list teams side by side as far as who was interested and who might not be interested," he said. "Detroit never really entered the conversation about it, and I think that might be because they knew what was going on and didn't feel they had to."
Chadd confirmed he has not talked with Miller's advisors, Mark Rodgers and Darek Braunecker, and he hadn't talked with Miller until after they drafted him. But he was certainly aware of the risk going in.
"My perspective of the draft for this organization," Chadd said, "is if you're in the position to pick that high, you have to pick the best player on the board. As a group, we felt that without a doubt he was the best player on the board."
Miller does not want to discuss or think about contract talks until he's finished with his college season. The Tar Heels travel to Alabama for an NCAA Super Regional meeting with the Crimson Tide this weekend. Until they're eliminated, he can't formally name an agent.
Once Miller's college career is over, the tough part of Chadd's job begins. Like Justin Verlander two years ago, it could take a big-league deal to sign Miller. However, the potential of adding Miller to Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman as part of Detroit's rotation of the future was enticing enough to be worth the risk.
"I'll take on those challenges," Chadd said. "Bottom line is I know Andrew Miller wants to play and wants to play for the Tigers, and it's up to me to get it done. I'm optimistic at some point we'll make this happen."


text: Vincent Albert "Buddy" Cianci, Jr. has served as the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island twice, each stint in office ending in a prison term. Now he has announced plans to run again, which made reporters curious about one of his projects to do good for humanity: his "Mayor's Own" pasta sauce, which costs about $6 per jar and brags about "Benefiting Providence School Children" on the front. Does it? Benefit school children, that is? It might if it made any money. [More]


text:
How Diet Can Prevent Heart Attacks
A study of 32,000 people shows that a heart-healthy diet is a big factor in reducing the risk of a second heart attack, not just medication. Jennifer Corbett Dooren has details on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... he is not only is enough to prevent heart disease patients ... we left the secret well ... it may actually be in the region for Corbett Dorren joined us right now ... from Washington DC namely search out this week Jennifer talking about this now most people ... I know that diet can help prevent heart disease ... we were less sure about is what it did for people Ardi had heart disease ... what are they finding ... exactly um well really what they're finding is not ... the same thing at work ... that's that's been shown to help prevent heart disease is that a healthy diet ... helps prevent second heart attacks or second strokes in people who already have heart disease ... and in terms of how old how much it helps to meet with many staff any figures on that ... well ... what the researchers did this is a big study involved thirty two thousand people who were already on medications to treat heart disease there I'm on ... high blood pressure medication ... vacation brings out here cluster also all the stuff he should be on it yet have ... heart disease ... and then they looked at the impact of diet ... and the Brentel these folks be gave them a couple different questionnaires and they bring tell these folks come ... from for the best I it's the worst diet ... and the best I it's ... no surprise and they are the ones that had a lot of pre expects the polls fish nuts whole grains ... that that that it reinstalled I ... and those people have the lowest rates of then having a second heart attack or stroke ... and silver over five-year Perry over a five-year period in some cases then look recommended at a hearing in people with thirty five percent ... less likely to die from a repeat heart attack and that's a pretty powerful number if you are you thinking that maybe your medications Dart just doing everything you need me that's enough incentive to perhaps change your diet ... I wonder I you know how it did this study looked at how many people ... actually do ... worry about their diet when they're on meds are too many people just assume I mean on taking the time my doctor told me till I can eat whatever I want ... write this to the study didn't look about what the study research but talked to said that yes there certainly are some the people who think that what I'm taking medication of data I don't need to ... worry as much about lifestyle changes ... and is the really suggests that it's just never too late to start eating healthy ... I was so many studies don't know if there's ever so much to turn a fatal flaw on them and that people who ... might tinted ... eat better Juniper just in general take care of themselves better so it sort of hard to know we were there any critics of some of these findings ... yes I mean I can be hard to tease out what the doctors I talked to did say that ... even though the research is that in this study did all these different statistical calculations to try to control for the effects of weight or ... smoking or whether people exercise think generally people who eat better also tend to have other healthy habits they ... tend to exercise their dogs they don't smoke ... so it can be hard to tease the song last ... night yet one more piece of proof that what you he does matter Jennifer think semester being with a tray ...


text:
|Biosequences .. Software .. Molbio soft .. Network News .. FTP
Starting in Fall 2003, an 18 months-lasting Masters program in bioinformatics will be offered by the Center for Bioinformatics as a specialisation of the 3-year long Bachelor study program offered since fall 2001. Meanwhile, study programs for bioinformatics have been introduced at a number of german universities. At the Center for Bioinformatics in Saarbrücken, research is strongly focussed on all aspects of drug design. This focus of course also affects the areas of teaching of the Bachelor and Master studies, making the graduates very attractive for the pharmaceutical industry. Saarland University has a world-wide reputation for its excellent education in computer science. Therefore, a solid foundation in computer science is the basis during the Bachelor studies in bioinformatics besides introductory lectures in natural sciences. During the first two semesters of the Masters study program, this education in computer science, bioinformatics and biotechnology will be deepened by specialized lecture courses and seminars bringing the students to the forefront of today's research in computational biology. All courses will be taught in English. In the third Semester, the students will complete a Master thesis in a current research area. Having completed their Masters degree, the graduates are well-positioned for taking up careers in companies. Alternatively, they qualify for PhD studies. Admission to the Masters Studies is open to holders of a bachelor degree in bioinformatics or of an equivalent degree in a related subject. The maximum number of Masters students admitted is limited to 25 per year. Deadline for applications for the fall semester of 2003 is July 15, 2003. In case of questions Please consult our website www.zbi.uni-saarland.de or contact us: Mrs. Scherer-Geiss (Adminstrative head of Center for Bioinformatics) Phone +49 (681) 302 64705, E-mail: psg at bioinf.uni-sb.de, or Prof. Hans-Peter Lenhof (Dean of Studies for Bioinformatics), Phone +49 (681) 302 647 01, E-Mail: len at bioinf.uni-sb.de, or Prof. Volkhard Helms (Professor of Bioinformatics) Phone +49 (681) 302 64165, E-mail: volkhard.helms at bioinformatik.uni-saarland.de ---