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"I honestly don't think we're bad people," says Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. *
Photo: Rainer Hosch * Robb Topolski couldn't stay awake. All he could manage was three hours at a stretch before passing out. At first, his doctors were baffled, though they would eventually diagnose his condition as a severe form of anemia. But for the time being, no one knew anything except that it was dangerous for Topolski to venture too far from his bed.
Topolski was a quality assurance engineer at Intel before going on disability, and he loved playing with new gadgets and software. So in late February 2007, he dragged himself out of the queen-size bed in his Hillsboro, Oregon, home, sat down at one of the three PCs a few feet away, and opened his latest toy, the file-sharing program Shareaza. He was a big barbershop-harmony fan—he'd sung baritone in Intel's One Bit Parody quartet—and he wanted to test the software by searching for some new tracks and sharing the ones on his hard drive: tunes like the Civil War-era hit "The Vacant Chair," and a Tin Pan Alley ode to prostitution, "She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured."
Topolski pointed Shareaza to his music folder. Then he fell asleep. And that's when something strange happened—or rather, that's when nothing happened. Each time he woke up and checked his PC, he discovered there had been no activity at all. Topolski knew that his music tastes weren't exactly mainstream; but still, among the millions of BitTorrent, Gnutella, and eDonkey users out there who could see his files, no one wanted even one of his tunes? He'd search some forums for help, then fall asleep again.
After more failed file-sharing attempts, Topolski installed a packet-sniffing application so he could log and review everything coming over his network. He set up an online tunnel with a system administrator he knew in Brazil. Topolski's computer would appear to be surfing from South America, not the suburbs of Portland. That would tell him whether the problem was local.
It took him six weeks of short-burst sleuthing to reach his conclusion. In a detailed post on DSL Reports—a site for broadband enthusiasts—under his online name, funchords, Topolski laid out a case against his Internet service provider. Comcast appeared to be blocking file-sharing applications by creating fake data packets that interfered with trading sessions. The packets were cleverly disguised to look as if they were coming from the user, not the ISP. It was as if, in the middle of a phone call to a friend, Comcast got on the line and in the caller's own voice told the friend he was hanging up, while the caller simultaneously heard the same message in the friend's voice. The post generated some discussion but no response from Comcast. It did, however, catch the attention of an Associated Press reporter, who called Topolski to ask about duplicating the tests. Topolski was happy to help and tried to provide all the assistance he could, but he lost touch with the reporter after doctors told him that, in addition to anemia, he had a massive malignant tumor in his colon.
Months later, as he recuperated in the hospital after the tumor was removed, Topolski heard again from the AP reporter. The wire service had conducted its own tests on Comcast's network and the results had been equally damning. The resulting story about Comcast's misdeeds had gone viral. "Oh yeah, I think I kind of heard about that," Topolski said, the sedatives still surging through him.
"It was a pretty big deal," the reporter reminded him.
"Pretty surprising," Topolski mumbled.
"I don't think you understand," the reporter insisted. "This is a really big deal."
For Brian Roberts, 2008 was supposed to be the year Silicon Valley crowned him the most important person in its world. In five years as CEO of Comcast, the 49-year-old had turned his father's middling cable TV company into a media behemoth with $31 billion in annual revenue.
Robb Topolski caught Comcast blocking Internet traffic, which prompted an FCC investigation.
Photo: Robbie McClaranComcast's cable infrastructure made the Internet possible. Sure, the tech metaphor of the moment was the cloud, but—metaphor be damned—Roberts knew that nothing could happen without the pipes. You needed big, fat cables to get all those petabytes of data there and back. And increasingly, those pipes belonged to Comcast.
He didn't seek this kind of power. He spent the early part of the decade scooping up cable operations, but that was just to increase Comcast's customer base. Roberts provided packages that bundled TV, phone, and Internet, offering faster and faster speeds and luring away more and more customers from the phone companies, who couldn't keep up. (Comcast is now the third-largest telephone company in the US as a result.) As callers ditched their landlines, they tended also to abandon DSL, which the phone companies made difficult to buy as a stand-alone product. "DSL," Roberts told investors recently, "is the new dialup." Today, the company has 14.7 million broadband Internet customers, making Roberts the largest provider of high-speed access to the home, and sometime early this year he is set to wrest the title of largest broadband provider, period—to homes or businesses—from AT&T.
Sure, new technologies are constantly being touted as potential rivals: 4G wireless, municipal Wi-Fi, fiber. But none of them really have a chance. By the end of 2007, 22 cents of every dollar spent on broadband in the US went directly to Comcast. And that figure looks like it's only going to increase; the number of ways to connect to the Internet reliably and at high speed is shrinking, not growing. "There's this magical thinking, both in the tech community and the regulatory community, that competition will solve all problems," says Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. "Well, get over it. The evidence says we're not going from two pipes to three but from two pipes to one."
If Comcast is the one pipe that dominates, that's because its main rivals are coming up short. Verizon has spent the past few years trying to steal Roberts' Internet and TV subscribers with a $20 billion fiber-optic project called FiOS, while AT&T has its own $8 billion fiber product called U-verse. But together they cover only about 20 percent of the country, and analysts project that because of costs, they will stall at 40 percent. And reach is only one of their handicaps. In 2008, Roberts launched upgrades that made AT&T's 18-Mbps U-verse seem like a throwback to acoustically coupled modems. Verizon's problem is economics. It costs the company $4,000 to hook up each customer to FiOS, which now offers speeds as fast as 50 Mbps; Roberts spends less than $50 to give one of his customers the equivalent upgrade. As for wireless—supposedly the biggest threat to fat cable wires buried underground—no one really believes it can offer the bandwidth that consumers want at a reasonable price.
Still, Roberts doesn't want to be thought of as merely the lord of the world's dumb pipes. He wants to be known as an innovator, a reputation he planned to burnish in 2008. Early last year, Roberts was ready to debut a reborn Comcast, a company that would turn those pipes into magical delivery systems. At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in early January, he delivered the first keynote ever given by a cable CEO.
"We must be the technology leader," he said from the stage, reeling off a list of new initiatives, like a Hulu-style video-streaming feature called Fancast (which debuted about the same time as Hulu) and a new open software platform called tru2way, designed to allow small, third-party iPhone-like apps to be added to any Comcast-connected TV. He promised incredible customer support and the rollout of Docsis 3.0—a new Internet service with speeds that will eventually exceed 100 Mbps. "I believe Comcast is the company you will want to partner with to give consumers what they really want." He ended with a declaration that Comcast was a different company now. "It's a whole new year for Comcast," Roberts said, his eyes darting around the room. "A whole new attitude. It's Comcast 3.0."
Roberts truly believed Comcast was ready for tech stardom as the Facebook or Google of 2008. Instead, he got Topolskied. On October 19, 2007, the AP story broke with the headline "Comcast Actively Hinders Subscribers' File-Sharing Traffic, AP Testing Shows." Bloggers called for protests and boycotts; the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Comcast was using tricks formerly used by "malicious hackers." A coalition of Internet law scholars and consumer groups petitioned the FCC to step in. Instead of basking in glory, Roberts found himself at the center of the fight over network neutrality—the attempt to keep ISPs from discriminating between different kinds of traffic and, say, favoring their own video or VoIP services over another company's.
It's Good to Be the King:
Comcast's Path to Power
New residential broadband subscribers are opting for cable instead of DSL ...... which has given cable a big share of the broadband market ...... cementing Comcast's position as the undisputed ruler of cable and broadband. Sources: Bernstein Research, Comcast, Leichtman Research Group, Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development, Time Warner
By blocking BitTorrent—in effect discriminating against those packets—Roberts had opened himself up to accusations that he was a censor and a monopolist who wanted to limit citizens' access to the Internet. He was painted as power-mad, unable to restrain himself. "Comcast will say, 'We're not blocking.' But they're degrading, prioritizing, and filtering, without telling users. And they're planning to do much more of this," blogged Susan Crawford, an Internet law professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
Roberts hadn't anticipated the backlash. Subscribers accepted that cable TV was just entertainment, but the Internet felt more essential, like water or electricity, and consumers were starting to think of broadband as a constitutional right. Back in the days of basic cable, consumer complaints were always local and easily contained. But the Internet, as it turned out, was different. This was becoming a nationwide battle over who the pipes belonged to. Comcast had invested billions to build its network. Now its heaviest users were demanding that Roberts effectively hand over control to them.
The new Comcast center is the tallest building in Pennsylvania, a 58-story reflective-glass beauty. When it opened last summer, its towering height sent a clear signal that Comcast had arrived. On the 45th floor, Brian Roberts can squint out over all of western Philadelphia, though today it gives him no pleasure. He's still plagued by thoughts of Robb Topolski.
"I honestly don't think we're bad people, and we have no evil intentions," he says. "We helped invent broadband."
Roberts is 6'2". He is so lanky, his gray suit jacket drapes off his shoulders as if it's still on the hanger, never touching his body. The entire company dresses the same way: formal and dated, like midwestern bankers. His speech is reassuringly calm, a nasal monotone he keeps in check regardless of his mood. Roberts could be a partner at a mid-tier law firm or a senior actuary who shoots hoops on the weekend.
Inside the boardroom, his no-style style has made him a favorite of fellow media chiefs. No jockeying for headlines, no flash, no grand competitive vision to match a grander ego. "Comcast has become our top partner, or close to it," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who says he trusts Roberts' intuition and dealmaking skill. When Roberts approached Schmidt about investing in Clearwire, the WiMax company started by Craig McCaw, Schmidt quickly agreed. When Roberts then threatened to pull out during the final stages of negotiations, Schmidt dutifully followed suit. A few days later, Roberts called to say Comcast was back in. Google went back in, too, investing $500 million in 2008. "He works very hard," Schmidt says. "I think many people don't understand how he operates." Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, contrasts Comcast's style with Microsoft's approach. "If I do business with Comcast and then with a Comcast competitor, I don't wake up with a horse's head in my bed," Glaser says. "Even though Brian is in a position of a lot of power, there has never been a time when he approached that in a venal or reckless way."
Yet there's a stunning disconnect between how fellow chief executives view him and what customers think. They see Comcast as arrogant, unresponsive, and overpriced. The company has managed to place last or close to last in just about every survey of customer service. In its annual ISP report, J. D. Power and Associates regularly rates Comcast in the cellar. Harris Interactive, in its annual brand reputation survey, ranked Comcast just ahead of ExxonMobil and Halliburton. Readers of the Consumerist, a shoppers'-rights blog, voted Comcast the second-worst company in the US—after only Countrywide Financial, of subprime mortgage infamy.
Roberts remains philosophical about Comcast's poor rankings. Because Comcast is the biggest cable company, he argues, naturally it gets a high number of complaints.
The Topolski affair, as far as Roberts is concerned, is all based on a misunderstanding. Every company "manages" its network by restricting and opening access to maintain speeds. Providers have little choice, especially when it comes to P2P, the kudzu of cable. File-sharing eats up a half to two-thirds of his upstream capacity in some places. And because cable is a shared network—with some 300 homes downloading from any one pipe—a few BitTorrent devotees could make everyone's surfing experience feel more like swimming against a riptide. "We manage our network so 99 percent of the people have a great high-speed experience," he says. "You've always had Ma Bell managing its network for things like how you handle voice traffic on Mother's Day. You get a busy signal occasionally."
In his heart of hearts, Brian Roberts is still just a cable guy, exactly like his father before him. And there's something about the business that makes executives a little blasè9 about consumer complaints. They've been lambasted for so long, they just don't hear it anymore. Brian's father, perpetually bow-tied 88-year-old Ralph, started Comcast in the early 1960s. Programming cost nothing—he simply took broadcast signals and piped them to homes. Government regulation (unlike for broadcast television) was nonexistent. And expansion was just a matter of finding more towns to wire. Customers complained about price and service—but they never cut the cord. "It's the greatest thing since stealing," one of Ralph's first employees told his friends.
Roberts joined the family business in 1981, right out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He carefully studied how top cable execs worked, then carved out a new role for himself. While others were brash and self-confident, Roberts sought to be quietly persuasive. In 1997, for example, he convinced Bill Gates to sink $1 billion into Comcast, arguing that it would help spread the Internet. It was an amazing deal for Comcast. In return for his investment, Gates got nothing, not even a promise that Roberts—then Comcast's president—would deploy Microsoft's set-top-box software. Nor, for all his cash, did Gates get voting power; Roberts controls his business through supervoting shares (today he owns less than 1 percent of the stock yet commands 33 percent of the votes). "You never hear stories about how someone got the best of Microsoft," says one awed consumer-electronics executive. "Brian Roberts did. And how did he do it? With a velvet glove. He's the Bill Clinton of cable. He charms everybody."
Roberts made his biggest move in 2002. AT&T was the dominant player in cable at the time, but after the dotcom bust Roberts sensed weakness and launched a successful $51 billion hostile bid for AT&T's cable unit. Comcast had been a regional player; suddenly it doubled in size, serving 21 million subscribers. It's now the local cable monopoly in 40 of the country's 50 largest markets.
"They were just this little Philly company. Now they're like someone who, in a year, shot up from 5'8" to 6'2"," says Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights lobby Public Knowledge. "They've had to try on a whole new wardrobe and haven't found the right fit yet. They haven't done a good job of handling tremendous growth." PR disasters mounted. One Comcast cable guy fell asleep on a customer's couch; the customer filmed it and put it on YouTube. In Virginia, a 75-year-old woman got so fed up with the company's rude service and unreliable house calls that she smashed up a local Comcast office with a hammer. In the past two years, Roberts has implemented what he calls the Comcast Marshall Plan, hiring 15,000 new frontline technicians and customer service reps. By the end of 2007, Roberts assumed that his consumer-complaint issues were behind him. They weren't. In the old days, cable users might have been mollified, but Internet users were an entirely different breed.
The Ames courtroom at Harvard Law School is typically reserved for mock trials. Its 290 seats face a massive desk on a raised dais, where real Supreme Court justices occasionally sit to determine the fate of fake cases. The FCC decided to hold its hearing on Comcast's actions against file-sharing in Cambridge, and on this February day in 2008, the five commissioners took their seats in the courtroom. At a long witness table, one place was set for Comcast, the rest for its critics.
Earlier in the day, students, professors, activists, and customers gathered on the front steps of Austin Hall. Some carried signs blasting the cable giant—"No One Owns the Internet," read one—other protestors made impromptu speeches about neutrality. Before the hearing even started, campus cops had to turn people away. An overflow crowd gathered in the basement, where a computer showed a webcast of the proceedings upstairs. "It felt like the days before the Vietnam War," says David Clark, an MIT scientist who is considered one of the fathers of the Internet.
Roberts didn't come. Instead, he sent his consiglieri, executive vice president David Cohen. A longtime Pennsylvania political operative, Cohen is stocky and pugnacious, the complete opposite of his boss. Cohen gave an impassioned and unequivocal defense of the ISP's actions. "I'm going to say, on the record, in front of this commission: Comcast does not block any Web site, application, or Web protocol, including peer-to-peer services. Period. Doesn't happen," he said. "What we are doing is a limited form of network management," he added, "during limited periods of network congestion."
The response was just as unyielding. One by one, assorted Internet guardians and programmers leaned into their microphones and pointed out the inconsistencies in Cohen's statements. They noted the harm that Comcast was doing, calling it discriminatory and dangerous to capitalism, to America, to the Internet. "If Comcast gains the FCC's permission to block BitTorrent, you can bet that BitTorrent will be the tip of the iceberg," said Timothy Wu, a Columbia Law School professor. Nevertheless, Cohen seemed to really thrill the audience. He wasn't the most exciting speaker, but several times he was greeted with surprisingly enthusiastic applause.
Later, it came out that Comcast had hired shills: seat-fillers, who the company claimed were there to save places for Comcast employees. But for some reason those employees never showed up.
Comcast needed some other way to defuse the situation, so it put together a partnership with BitTorrent—"in the spirit of openness and fostering innovative solutions," as BitTorrent's president at the time put it—to find ways for the technology to travel in peace with the other packets on Comcast's network. It sounded like reconciliation, but it was only PR. While BitTorrent the company was cofounded by the same programmer who created BitTorrent the technology, it had no actual control over the standard or its users. BitTorrent fans dismissed Comcast's move as just another cynical attempt to fool the government.
At the urging of Comcast's foes, the FCC called a second public hearing, this one at Stanford University, where the man who started it all, Robb Topolski, presented his side of the story. Nobody clapped for Comcast this time, because no one from the company came.
The public beatings were beginning to hurt. In early fall, the company decided to measure just how bad the damage was by holding a series of subscriber focus groups. Most of the people, it turned out, had never even heard of P2P. In one session, a young man mentioned that he was using BitTorrent to assemble a library of every anime movie ever created. The rest of the group quickly turned on him, accusing him of stealing their broadband. "They didn't bash us; they didn't talk about poor customer service. It was actually pretty uplifting," says one employee who attended. "If you read the blogs on the P2P stuff, you'd think we were Satan."
It drove Roberts crazy to see Comcast getting trashed, to have his family's business maligned. Roberts had told the crowd at CES that he wanted to lead the technology industry, to be a senior statesperson. Now self-proclaimed defenders of the Internet were casting him as a heel. "Comcast leadership has an attitude of 'Damn the torpedoes, we're not doing anything wrong,'" Public Knowledge's Sohn says. "Well, the apple rots from the top, from Brian Roberts."
In August, the FCC issued a 67-page report that read as if Comcast was the worst company the FCC had ever regulated. Comcast lied about its actions, schemed to prevent oversight, confused customers, and put the future of Net-based innovation at risk. The commissioners doubted Comcast's contention that blocking BitTorrent helped its network. If that were the case, the report asked, why was the company doing it during times of light traffic and in areas where there were few bandwidth-sucking households? Wasn't it possible that Comcast was trying to stop a technology that was a threat to its own video-on-demand cable services? The final verdict was devastating: "In laymen's terms, Comcast opens its customers' mail because it wants to deliver mail not based on the address or type of stamp on the envelope but on the type of letter contained therein," the FCC wrote. "This practice is not 'minimally intrusive' but invasive and outright discriminatory."
The FCC didn't levy a fine. In fact, it's still not even clear whether the commission has the regulatory right to punish such behavior. But Comcast couldn't ignore the public spanking (though it's currently appealing the decision). It submitted a report to the FCC detailing exactly how its network operated, from how many homes share an upstream connection (about 100) to the equipment it used to fight P2P traffic (the Sandvine PTS 8210). Comcast swore off discrimination based on any particular technology. And it disclosed a policy that had secretly been on the books for a while but which it now intended to enforce: It would cap subscriber bandwidth at 250 GB per month, enough for a user to download 125 movies in standard definition or to watch 1,750 hours of YouTube.
"Was it handled perfectly? You know, it's like anything. I wish we could've done some things differently," Roberts says. "We hit a very raw nerve."
In the end, the geeks won. But they may have unwittingly hurt their own cause. Roberts' "concession"—putting uniform, nondiscriminatory caps on usage—will likely mark the demise of the all-you-can-eat Internet buffet. ISPs like Time Warner Cable and AT&T have begun running limited tests of capped service, penalizing consumers for going over arbitrary limits (ranging from 5 to 150 GB). Countries where low caps are already common have found themselves trailing the world in how they use broadband; in Australia, where the average cap is 15 GB, 70 percent of Internet users say they never download or watch video online.
When broadband is turned into a scarce commodity, surfing suddenly becomes a domestic negotiation: Is it worth it to watch one more Family Guy episode on Hulu, to run BitTorrent, or to download a movie from Netflix? A recent IDC study found that the vast majority of Internet users have no idea how much data they consume or even how to measure it. It's possible that Comcast's FCC-approved cure, if adopted by all ISPs, will strangle online video and drive consumers back to channel-surfing on cable TV, which would suit Comcast just fine.
To be fair, Comcast's 250-GB cap is far above current global standards, and Roberts still may turn out to be an ideal steward of Internet access, but not everyone is willing to wait around to see if he remains so generous. In November, President-elect Barack Obama picked Susan Crawford as an adviser on recasting the FCC. As a Comcast-blasting law professor, Crawford had equated Comcast's actions against peer-to-peer file-sharing with those carried out by the Net censors in China. She called the company's moves "obviously deceitful" and argued for the Feds to break it up. If Roberts thought 2008 was bad, 2009 may be shaping up to be truly horrible.
Brian Roberts is learning. And part of his education has come from an employee nicknamed Famous Frank. Last spring, a middle management customer-support executive named Frank Eliason, 36, started Twittering in his free time. Eliason is relentlessly upbeat and hated searching for "Comcast" on Twitter and seeing only slams. He asked for permission not just to defend the company but to actually try to fix the problems. If someone on Twitter complained about, say, an Internet outage, he'd start troubleshooting for them.
Eliason—who goes by the online handle comcastcares—had already been gaining attention, and accolades, when one of Comcast's senior executives realized that maybe Roberts should be clued in. She left Roberts a voicemail—voicemail, not email, is the preferred form of communication among Comcast executives. "You're doing what?" he responded in his own voice message. "We're just letting him go at it?" Nevertheless, he did nothing to stop it.
Eliason was actively trying to prevent customer complaints from spiraling into angry vendettas. These weren't just regular users, either, but Twitter users, many of whom were likely the same early adopters who love BitTorrent, who complain to the FCC, who might even enjoy building an anti-Comcast blog. Roberts began following the Twitter feed, and he realized that this was ... good. He OK'd adding people to Eliason's special forces team, overruling Eliason's direct boss.
Soon, Eliason became a minor Internet celebrity, hence his new nickname inside the company. He was asked to speak at conferences as well as to other companies struggling with similar problems.
Thanks to Famous Frank, Comcast began thinking about going even further. The weekend that the company published its response to the FCC—outlining how it managed its network and how it planned to change—one of Roberts' lieutenants suggested something even more radical: having ordinary company engineers go on message boards to answer questions. It was the kind of proposal that violated every tenet of the old cable code of business, and the matter could be settled only at an executive board meeting on the 52nd floor.
Roberts, sitting with his back to the window, listened to both sides. Then he declared it was time to be a bit more transparent. He finally got it. He was turning a page. "I think we should do this, but we all have to have thick skins," he said. "People are going to vent. But that's all right."
Senior writer Daniel Roth (email@example.com) profiled renegade Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget in issue 16.12.
Comcast Broadband Promises 5-Minute Movie Downloads
Comcast Discloses Throttling Practices — BitTorrent Targeted


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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I think maybe you have it backwards?If this info is correct, then he is able to compete in the race because TAR's airing has been planned for early 2008, and not the other way around.We have been hearing for quite awhile that TAR might not air until then--this is just one more piece of evidence.I don't think Phil has much control over the air dates, and I expect his schedule is planned out around TAR far in advance.
We were told that TAR would be a mid season replacement which started a lot of speculation that TAR could be slipped into the schedule this fall to take the place of the first cancelled CBS show.
lol...I'd love to see Phil in a kilt!
NOW site with some Phil
Here you go Rudy:http://cbc.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/cbc-factualentertainmentcbc-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=nowfullscreenplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=753078584d261b4fba85d010ad89bdecfe1e7f05&maven_referralObject=542992033&maven_dartZone=undefined&maven_dartSite=undefined It opened right away for me in IE...
RudyRulesJust a reminder as previously posted by SlowHatch on Reply #20 on: September 21, 2007, 02:53:54 AM ...........and my personal comment that I wish I was there.
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With all this sunshine, and 90 degree days it's hard to believe that summer is on its way out. But alas, before we know it August will fly by and we'll be seeing frost on our pumpkins.
I feel a bit cheated since July's hailstorms set my garden back and our harvest so far has been less than the usual bounty of deliciousness that we normally have by this time, but, I've found this just makes me appreciate each and every bean or tomato that much more.
Despite our garden's meager offerings, I have made the most of it and had some pretty tasty culinary successes so far and here I would like to share some of them with you.
I have decided that potatoes will forever be a staple in my garden. They are easy to grow, fun to harvest and can be a base for so many meals. Not to mention that you have never tasted a potato until you've had one freshly dug and prepared.


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Now all your Facebook friends can see what you watch on the video-streaming service Netflix thanks to a new app.
Netflix released the app on Facebook Tuesday, and if users link Netflix to their Facebook accounts, they can share their viewing habits to the world, according to CNN. That could mean letting people know that someone is binge-watching the entirety of "Breaking Bad" or "Ouran Host Club" in one weekend. Friends can also see what others have rated programs so they might watch them, too.
U.S. & World
Good news is that you can opt-out of sharing the information on your News Feed (or by not signing up with a Facebook account.) If not, the sharing and connection features start by the end of this week.
The sharing app was created after Netflix spent a year and untold millions trying to get Congress to amend the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act that disallowed sharing of video watching habits. Netflix eventually got the service OK'd and signed into law in January.
At least users can opt-out of the video-sharing, but it may be a better idea not to log into third-parties with your Facebook account if you don't want your behavior to be tracked.


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Hey guys, Dawn here with another drawing tutorial yet again, and in this next installment, we'll be learning "how to draw zombie Patrick Star, step by step". Now, I had TOO much fun with this tutorial because of the background, the ripped – torn skin and the shear expression on his face, ready to plague the rest of Bikinibottom. It should be easy to draw Patrick, mainly because of the simple guidelines that build up the core of his body frame. Take your time with this tutorial since there is so many details to sketch up, including the ripped skin with the muscles revealed. There was just so much fun stuff included with this lesson, and for all you gory zombie fans, this is definitely going to be a treat for Halloween to post on your refridgerator or wall. I so CANNOT wait for Halloween this year! I'm going to carve a cool pumpkin after 8 years. Anyways, have fun with this tutorial, I hope you'll have intense fun as much as I did. Remember to take your time, folks!
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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BACKGROUND IMAGE: iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
- FeatureThe new shape of SRM
- FeatureNAS news: Boom continues
- FeatureSAS--Hurry up and wait
- FeatureDisk finally outruns tape
- FeatureClustering storage
- TipPros and cons of VTLs
- FeatureFirst Look: Crossroads Systems' DataMover 240f
- FeatureAre SATA drives ready for the enterprise?
- FeatureShould you archive spam?
- TipChart a course for consolidation
- FeatureSNIA + CDP = SIG
- FeatureKeep track of backups
- FeatureTap into Windows' hidden resources to make it enterprise-worthy
- FeatureStorage Bin: The devil is in the details
- FeatureStorage security policies for data backups and tape
iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Are SATA drives ready for the enterprise?
SATA drives are great low-cost alternatives to pricey Fibre Channel and SCSI drives, but they lack the reliability and performance that mission-critical applications demand. But new technologies are bringing SATA up to enterprise-class standards.
|SATA pros and cons
SATA drives deliver storage capacities equivalent to FC/SCSI drives, but for as little as a quarter of the price per gigabyte. SATA drives are also available with much larger capacities than FC or SCSI disks. The major question is whether SATA drives can satisfy enterprise-class availability, data integrity and performance requirements.
Parallel ATA
SATA evolved from the parallel ATA interface, which has been used mainly in desktop and entry-level server systems. However, the performance and reliability characteristics of ATA drives were simply not engineered for enterprise storage. The initial serial version of ATA (SATA) was developed to overcome some of the limitations of parallel ATA drives. SATA 1.0 delivered improvements in performance (1.5Gb/sec dedicated bandwidth), cabling and reliability (hot plug/ swap). SATA 1.0 drives support speeds up to 10,000 rpm and mean time between failure (MTBF) levels up to 1 million hours under an eight-hour, low-duty cycle. FC drives support up to 15,000 rpm and an MTBF of 1.4 million hours under a 24-hour duty cycle. But SATA's impressive cost advantage over FC has compelled many companies to deploy SATA in secondary and primary storage platforms, even in places where SATA may not yet be appropriate.
Four trends are driving the need for low-cost, high-capacity disk drives:
- Tiered storage
- Shift to disk-based backup
- Regulatory compliance
- Small- and medium-sized business (SMB) requirements
Enterprises are abandoning a one-size-fits-all approach to storage and moving toward tiered storage, where data is migrated to lower classes of storage as its business value depreciates. Many companies have introduced disk into their backup environments in an effort to hit tight backup windows and stringent recovery time/point objectives. Because the ratio of primary to secondary (backup) data in many environments is 1:10, the introduction of disk presents a number of economic challenges requiring a low-cost, high-capacity disk solution.
New regulatory compliance requirements mandate that businesses preserve electronic records for many years. Moreover, some of these regulations define specific recovery time objectives for data, which often means the data must be retained online. The explosive growth of online archive data sets, often into petabytes, is another driver for less-expensive disk drives.
Single point of failure
Enterprise-class data requires two independent, end-to-end data paths from the client application to the back-end disk drives. A single point of failure along the data path will compromise the entire storage architecture. While FC-based configurations ensure high availability with dual-ported drives and pairs of redundant FC loops with access to all of the drives, SATA provides only a single-ported drive.
In block-based storage, user data is stored in 512-byte blocks with disk drives typically formatted to fit one block into each drive sector. For additional data integrity, block size can be expanded to 520 bytes, with the additional 8 bytes used to protect the data in the 512-byte block. Some FC apps require drives to be formatted with a media sector size of 520 bytes. SATA drives can only be formatted with a media sector size of 512 bytes.
To overcome deficiencies in Port Bypass Circuits--rudimentary components that enable FC Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) traffic to bypass a failed drive and continue operations--FC-AL switch devices have been enhanced with component-level diagnostics that can effectively diagnose and isolate the activity of individual FC drives. SATA-based architectures require similar or higher levels of diagnostics, particularly given their lower MTBF characteristics; SATA on its own lacks this capability.
|When to use SATA
- NL35 (Seagate Technology Inc.). Seagate's NL35 drive family is a high-capacity, hybrid drive design that comes in two flavors: a single-ported SATA interface and a dual-ported FC interface. The NL35 family overcomes the limitations of SATA, such as port redundancy, but has a number of drawbacks. For example, the NL35 is a niche drive technology developed by a single disk drive manufacturer, Seagate, for Hewlett-Packard Co. The NL35 is also very pricey vs. other SATA drives; a 250GB SATA drive is approximately $262, while an NL35 drive with an FC interface and equivalent capacity is $695.
- SAS/SATA combination. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a serial replacement for parallel SCSI. The SAS interface delivers the benefits of SCSI, most notably better data rates than SATA. Like its parallel predecessor, SAS can be used as the interface to the storage controller and high-performing disk drives. Although this type of architecture addresses some of the scalability limitations of SATA, given its improved performance, it doesn't fully resolve a number of key issues required to make SATA enterprise-ready. First, an architecture combining SAS/SATA will still have a single point of failure at the drive level because the SATA drives remain single ported. Second, SAS technologies don't seamlessly integrate with users' existing investments in FC array and SAN technologies, although SAS-FC bridging products will become available.
- Board-based FC-SATA. A number of storage arrays, such as EMC Corp.'s Clariion and Hitachi Data Systems Inc.'s Thunder, used OEM-supplied, board-based solutions to allow the intermixing of FC and SATA drives within the same system. This is a classic first-generation approach to enable interoperability between heterogeneous interface standards. These solutions address the single-ported drive issue using port selectors. A port selector is a 2:1 multiplexer chip placed on a small interposer card that fits inside the disk canister and becomes part of the SATA disk drive field-replaceable unit. Typically, the card has a SATA connector on one side and an SCA-2 connector on the other, and provides dual-port capability. While this architecture gives users flexibility in the choice of a back-end drive interface, board-level solutions add significant cost to the array, aren't optimized for performance and create cooling challenges.
Standard SATA, coupled with low-cost, chip-based FC-SATA bridging technology, is another way to kick SATA up to the enterprise-class level. The bridging technology allows SATA drives to emulate FC drives, and to plug seamlessly into FC-based storage systems consisting of FC controllers and FC-AL loops to the JBOD. This configuration dual ports the SATA drives and delivers end-to-end redundant data paths.
By distinguishing and translating between user sectors (520 bytes) and media sectors (512 bytes), bridging technology lets SATA drives exhibit the data integrity features of performance-optimized FC drives. Bridging chips can also improve the fault tolerance of SATA drives by providing drive diagnostics and failure identification.
The combination of SATA and low-cost, chip-based bridging technology has significant merit. It addresses the inherent technology limitations of the standard SATA interface and makes SATA technology applicable for a variety of primary and secondary storage apps. Moreover, it protects enterprise investments in FC platforms and provides a seamless path for the introduction of SATA without massive capital outlays and forklift upgrades. Finally, because the technology emulates FC using SATA drives from any vendor, it delivers significant flexibility.
|A sampling of SATA products
For secondary storage, SATA drives are ideal repositories for disk-based backups and online archives. In each case, users must grapple with massive data sets on the order of petabytes and data growth at or above 100% per year. Disk media performance, though not negligible, isn't as critical as it would be in many production application environments.
Data for critical applications, particularly those sensitive to I/O latency, is best stored on performance-optimized SCSI or FC drives. For other categories of application data that are business- rather than mission-critical and aren't performance-sensitive, SATA with enterprise-class extensions is a natural fit. Examples of these applications may include data mining/warehousing, unstructured content repositories, e-mail in certain environments and aged mission-critical data.
Because the cost advantages of SATA are huge compared to FC drives, a storage admin may be tempted to deploy SATA in environments where the technology may not yet be appropriate. Look for solutions, albeit more costly than plain SATA, that add an extra measure of reliability and protection. Companies should favor SATA solutions that incorporate low-cost, chip-based bridging technologies and preserve existing investments and expertise with FC-based products. While chip-based bridging technology narrows the price gap between SATA and FC drives, the improvements in reliability, performance and data integrity put all of the pieces in place for successful enterprise SATA deployments.


text:
Black notes, across staves, making their waltzes.
Attempting, as do coopers
with their plied and blackened staves,
to surround immortal soul
with resolution.
What is the sound of drinking red wine?
What is the melody of pleasure?
In that faultless gasp of gaiety
where swindlers swindle swindlers
with their smiles and wet decanters
is the sound of sweetest life,
is the taste of finest wine,
is the kiss of warmest lips,
is the song of Nino Rota.
It's December 3rd tonight,
and we remember Nino Rota;
he, who gave us, with his song,
the sound of heaven
as the flawed with hearts of faith
might well imagine it.
Your birthday, Nino Rota;
and we're remembering the road,
grateful to have found your footprints there.
Like notes upon a stave,
waltzing onwards
towards the singing
of the angels.
Categories: Wine & Music, Wine & Poetry


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Whoa, slow down there! We don't have any vehicles that match. Dial back the selections you've made, and let's see what we can find for you.
Serving the SHERWOOD PARK area, Sherwood Buick GMC, located at 10 Auto Mall in SHERWOOD PARK, AB, is your premier retailer of new and used Buick and GMC vehicles. Our dedicated sales staff and top-trained technicians are here to make your auto shopping experience fun, easy and financially advantageous. Please utilize our various online resources and allow our excellent network of people to put you in your ideal car, truck or SUV today!


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The wintertime is coming… it bears repeating it if only because it gives us a simple intro to segue onto the product above. It's a sled called Snolo Stealth-X, and is ostensibly made from carbon fiber. That makes it light, probably very stiff and we assume pretty freaking awesome at getting you from the top to the bottom of a snow-covered hill. It's so light apparently, that you can pack it up and carry it in a backpack.
We're short of details, aside from being able to tell you that their full website will launch in 37 days, and the sled itself will reportedly cost around $3,000 when it does become available. What? You didn't think it'd be affordable, did you? It's also reportedly being made by a team in New Zealand after 6 years of testing and prototyping.
And while the above picture does look like a render, the ones after the jump, not so much.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ Werd ]


text:
Pressure Mounting on Obama for Pipeline Decision
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama faces mounting pressure to decide whether to approve Keystone XL, a $7 billion proposed oil pipeline between the U.S. and Canada.
Environmental activists and oil producers have fought for years over the potential environmental impact in states the pipeline will cross. But it's really a proxy battle over broader issues, like climate change and energy consumption.
Both sides consider Obama's decision a sign of what approach he'll take to energy and the environment in his second term.
Opponents have been protesting in Washington and Texas. On Capitol Hill, support appears to be building. A bipartisan group of senators is urging Obama to approve the pipeline quickly.
After Obama rejected the initial proposal in January, the pipeline's route was adjusted to satisfy some environmental concerns.


text:
Garett C necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 159 diseños de 51 diseñadores freelance.
Need new logo for Website, Business cards, and Polo Shirt.
Our main colors are blue and white, and gray.
Something simple and Clean, but no bells and whistles/flashy look, but something evokes solid, reliable professionalism.
Our Company name is: TVG Consulting
current site and logo: http://www.tvgconsulting.com
Read Brief for more.
*** Extending Contest for 1 day ONLY for designers to make adjustments. Great job everyone!!!
We are a IT Managed Services Provider company. 24/7 support for clients, remote support and on-site. We are a SMB's company's whole IT department.
We are changing our website too, but this contest if for the logo.
Need for:Website
Business Card
Polo shirts
Clean, can play with the TVG, but simple.
- Clean and simple, can put on Polo shirt, or Business card or website
- Can play with TVG as long as it's clear. Can be different than Consulting part. TVG can sit on top, be an image or on the side of Consulting.
- Some tag line:
"IT Managed Services"
"Ensuring reliable and stable networking"
"Stable Business Networking"
- No pictures like a high res spinning globe next to it. Nothing to complex for a shirt.
- if you use lines or dots not so many because of needing to use on Shirts
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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4901 Keller Springs Road #103
Addison, TX 75001
Ananda Yoga is a gentle and meditative approach to Hatha Yoga with emphasis on the physical, mental and spiritual benefits. Learn more about Ananda Yoga here.
Our approach emphasizes dynamic relaxation through the various postures, combined with breathing techniques, affirmations and mental focus. Postures are adapted for individual needs and abilities and we encourage awareness and relaxation rather than physical strain. The result is physical rejuvenation, mental clarity and a deeper sense of inner peace.
Classes are suitable for all levels. Wear comfortable clothing. Please come a bit early for your first class, to meet the instructor and answer questions. Mats and blankets are provided, but you may bring your own gear.
*No class Nov 14
*Preregistration is encouraged, but not required. Drop-ins are welcome.


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Each summer I catch up with all nine Division I basketball coaches in Maryland to talk about their incoming recruiting classes. Then comes my take, based on those interviews, of how those new additions will do in college. Here's a look at how I fared in those predictions:
What I wrote – Headliner: "It's probably a safe bet that [Nick] Faust -- a consensus four-star prospect -- sees serious minutes on the wing for the Terps early on in his freshman year."
What he did: Faust was Maryland's third-leading scorer at 8.9 points per game. The City grad, who also averaged four rebounds, appeared in all 32 games for the Terps, starting 21. He also filled in admirably at the point when Pe'Shon Howard went down.
Who it should have been: Faust
What I wrote – Sleeper: "With an unproven trio of post players in James Padgett, Ashton Pankey and Berend Weijs, [Alex] Len will have ample opportunities for playing time."
What he did: After serving a 10-game suspension to start the season because of NCAA questions about his amateurism, Len averaged 6 points and 5.4 rebounds in 22 games (11 starts).
Who it should have been: Len
What I wrote – Headliner: "... Marcus Damas, [is] a JUCO transfer from Westchester (N.Y.) Community College who will have three years of eligibility. The 6-foot-7, 200-pound forward averaged 14 points and nine rebounds last season, and could be a factor at the 3 or the 4 right away."
What he did: Damas was one of just a few bright spots on a historically bad Tigers team. The sophomore tied with Robert Nwankwo for the team lead in scoring at 12.5 points per game. Damas, who started 31 of Towson's 32 games, also averaged 5.3 rebounds.
Who it should have been: Damas
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Will Adams signed with Towson in 2009, but was diagnosed with leukemia just a few months later. Now the 6-foot-4, 190-pound shooting guard from Philadelphia is cancer-free and ready to compete."
What he did: Adams averaged 1.9 points in 27 games.
Who it should have been: Point guard Kris Walden was a Pat Kennedy recruit who decided to stick with Pat Skerry's Tigers. The freshman from Richmond, Va., ended up starting all 32 games and averaging 6.6 points and 3.2 assists.
What I wrote – Headliner: Greyhounds coach Jimmy "Patsos said that if [R.J.] Williams didn't start, he would 'probably be the first guy off the bench.'"
What he did: Patsos stuck with his preseason plans for Williams. The St. Frances grad started 29 of Loyola's 33 games, providing a steady, play-making presence for the MAAC champions. Williams averaged four points and a team-high 2.6 assists.
Who it should have been: Williams
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Tyler Hubbard was the designated outside shooter for national powerhouse Montrose Christian last season. For the Greyhounds, Hubbard could be called on to fill that very same role."
What he did: Hubbard redshirted.
Who it should have been: The only other newcomer for Loyola during the 2011-12 season was Jordan Latham, who transferred from Xavier and got a waiver from the NCAA to play right away. The City grad appeared in 26 games, averaging 1.8 points and 1.9 rebounds. With Shane Walker's graduation, Latham should play a much bigger role at the 5 for the Greyhounds as a junior.
What I wrote – Headliner: "Joey Getz capped his career at Archbishop Wood by leading the Philadelphia Catholic League in scoring at 21 points per game. The 6-footer is more than just a prolific scorer – he also was one of his squad's top distributors."
What he did: Getz averaged 5 points and 2.6 rebounds in 18 games (four starts). He missed 12 games with a leg injury.
Who it should have been: Ryan Cook was a Pallotti grad who transferred to UMBC from Division II Chestnut Hill. He tried out for the team, made it as a walk-on and eventually became a regular starter for the Retrievers and their second-leading scorer (12.5 points per game). UMBC coach Randy Monroe said it "wouldn't surprise me a bit" if Cook saw minutes, but it's probably safe to say that this non-scholarship player's headliner status was an unexpected bonus for the Retrievers.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Monroe traveled to Indianapolis to sign Chandler Thomas, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound forward who was named to the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association 2011 All-State team. The final recruit in the Retrievers' class is well-versed in the fundamentals of the game."
What he did: Thomas averaged 6 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game. He saw action in all 30 games, making 10 starts.
Who it should have been: Thomas
What I wrote – Headliner: Donya Jackson. "The versatile 6-foot-3, 212-pound wing stayed committed to the Mids throughout his prep year despite interest from several mid-major programs. 'He loves to play,' said first-year Navy coach Ed DeChellis. 'I think he's going to be a very, very good player here and hopefully in the Patriot League.'"
What he did: The Calvert Hall grad averaged 3.3 points and 1.5 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game.
Who it should have been: Worth Smith, a 6-foot-6 forward from Charlotte who averaged 6.8 points and five rebounds as a freshman. Smith was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie team. He was the conference's leading rookie rebounder and third-leading scorer.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Jared Smoot's senior statistics at Crown Point (Ind.) High were modest -- 9.6 points, 7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game – but he does bring one important factor to the table that none of his Navy teammates possess: the size of a true center."
What he did: Smoot appeared in 18 games, averaging 1.7 rebounds in 8.2 minutes per game.
Who it should have been: Jordan Brickman didn't play basketball during his first two years at the Academy, but the San Antonio native joined the Mids for his junior season and earned a spot in the rotation almost immediately. The guard averaged 4.1 points and suited up in 29 games, making 20 starts.
Morgan State
What I wrote – Headliner: "It wouldn't be crazy to pencil [Anthony] Hubbard into the Bears' starting lineup – at least at some point in the season."
What he did: Hubbard, a JUCO transfer who spent one month at Iowa before heading to Morgan State, was never cleared by the NCAA. He redshirted this season.
Who it should have been: Blake Bozeman, son of Bears coach Todd Bozeman, put up 4..6 points per game in 28 appearances (six starts). He'll enter the 2012-13 season as the favorite to start at the point.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Thair Heath comes from San Bernardino (Calif.) Valley College with three years of eligibility remaining. The 6-foot-9 forward was a first-team all-conference selection last season. And that's about the extent of what we know about Heath."
What he did: Heath averaged 1.1 points and 1.1 rebounds in 18 games (two starts).
Who it should have been: Shaquille Duncan, a 6-foot-9 freshman from Philadelphia, averaged 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds, appearing in 28 games and making seven starts. The graduations of Kevin Thompson and Ameer Ali should open up more minutes for Duncan next season.
Coppin State
What I wrote – Headliner: "None. Thanks to an Academic Progress Rate score below the NCAA-mandated minimum, Coppin was prevented from adding any new players to its roster because of scholarship loss."
What he did: N/A
Who it should have been: Coppin ended up finding room for Taariq Cephas, a 5-foot-9 guard from Bear, Del. He contributed 5.7 points per game and started 12 out of 29 games as a freshman.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "We'll go with the same player that occupied this spot last year: Logan Wiens. The 6-foot-8 forward redshirted last season after transferring from Merced (Calif.) College. Eagles coach Fang Mitchell expects Wiens to be part of his playing rotation."
What he did: Wiens averaged 10.1 points (11.8 in MEAC play) and shot better than 40 percent from 3-point range.
Who it should have been: Wiens
What I wrote – Headliner: "Pina Guillaume appeared in 25 games – starting nine – for Binghamton during the 2009-10 season. When things didn't work out with the Bearcats, Guillaume headed to Blinn College in Texas. The 6-foot-9 power forward should be an instant-impact player for the Hawks this season."
What he did: Guillaume averaged 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 24 games (seven starts).
Who it should have been: Percy Woods, a JUCO guard transfer, ended up starting 28 games for the Hawks. He tied Hillary Haley for the team lead in scoring with 10.9 points per game.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Gregory Womack is a 6-foot-5 shooting guard that was recruited by the Hawks for one main purpose: 3-point shooting. "
What he did: Womack averaged 3.2 points and shot 29 percent from 3-point range.
Who it should have been: Ishaq Pitt, a 6-foot-3 freshman guard, averaged seven points and 3.7 rebounds.
Mount St. Mary's
What I wrote – Headliner: "Xavier Owens could be just the type of do-it-all player Robert Burke needs in Emmitsburg. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound wing was a versatile scoring threat for Wharton High in Wesley Chapel, Fla."
What he did: Owens averaged 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in 24 games. Burke, meanwhile, didn't last through the end of his second season with the Mount.
Who it should have been: Kelvin Parker, a 6-foot-4 walk-on forward from York, Pa., quickly proved to be an indispensable member of the Mountaineers, averaging nine points and starting 26 of 29 games. Parker also averaged 4.6 rebounds and shot 42 percent from the field.
What I wrote – Sleeper: "Taylor Danaher, a 6-foot-10 center, was home-schooled before playing for Fredericksburg (Va.) Christian last season. He's a developmental prospect that intrigued Burke enough to offer him a scholarship before last fall's signing period."
What he did: Danaher redshirted.
Who it should have been: Parker was the ultimate sleeper. Besides him, Chad Holley, a 6-foot point guard from New York City, put up 3.3 points per game and saw action in 28 contests.


text:
Giant-sized surfboards line this sprawling pool area perfect for catching some rays or taking a dip. For the little ones, a kiddie pool is located nearby.
Grand Slam Pool, an additional pool shaped like a baseball diamond, features a Goofy fountain that squirts water at swimmers.
Learn more about recreation at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort.
Blitz your appetite with an all-star line-up of fan favorites, including pizza, pasta, nachos, burgers, desserts and more.
Watch complimentary screenings of Disney films on select nights by the Surfboard Bay Pool.
(407) 939-5000


text:
Hillary Clinton's campaign circulated an initial list of nearly 40 elected officials, military leaders and corporate CEOs to be considered for vice president last spring. The list was included among hacked emails from Clinton's campaign chairman disclosed Tuesday by WikiLeaks.
The list emailed from John Podesta to Hillary Clinton last March included several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was eventually picked by Clinton.
Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton's opponent in the hotly contested Democratic primary, also made the list – at the very bottom.
Podesta organized the list into "rough food groups" including blacks, women, and Hispanics such as Obama administration Cabinet members Julian Castro of Housing and Urban Development and Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
African-Americans who made the list included Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., former Attorney General Eric Holder, and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Besides Warren, women on the list of possibilities included Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who is openly gay.
Another group of possibilities that appeared to represent "outside-the-box" options included former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Tim Cook of Apple, philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, Howard Schultz of Starbucks and retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen.
Republished with permission of the Associated Press.


text:
Newton The Collection That Defies The Laws Of Physics
Defying the laws of physics, this futuristic collection represents an outstanding moment of inspiration. The black and golden spheres resemble a cluster of bubbles floating in a soaking bath. It's the perfect choice to get an intense and beautiful bathroom look!


text:
Is Your Child Sick?
Medical Library
Q: I thought breast milk was supposed to be best for babies. My pediatrician wants me to put the baby on formula because she says breast milk is causing my newborn's jaundice. How can my breast milk be bad for my baby?
A: There is a condition called breast milk jaundice, but nobody knows exactly what causes it. Breast milk jaundice occurs in 1 in 250 babies. Usually, jaundice is diagnosed in a baby between 5 and 7 days old. It's a common condition-40 percent of babies are diagnosed with some form of jaundice.
Jaundice is caused by a buildup of bilirubin in the baby's blood as the newborn's liver-whose job during pregnancy was handled by the mother-starts functioning on its own. Jaundice usually is resolved within a few days, with phototherapy.
Breast milk jaundice peaks between 10 and 21 days after birth and can last until 4 to 6 weeks after birth.
One way to diagnose breast milk jaundice is to temporarily wean the baby. If the condition is indeed breast milk jaundice, the bilirubin levels will drop in 12 to 24 hours. The levels rise again when the baby resumes nursing, although that's not really a problem-breast milk jaundice does not endanger the baby. Many pediatricians are recommending against temporary weaning as a diagnostic tool for breast milk jaundice, because it can lead to nipple confusion and to formula use by mothers who are groundlessly afraid that their babies will be harmed somehow if they continue nursing.
It is rarely necessary to stop breastfeeding a baby with breast milk jaundice. The jaundice resolves itself, even if you continue to breastfeed. Nipple confusion at this age is a real possibility. You may want to ask another pediatrician for a second opinion.
There are only two known medical conditions that may require weaning a baby from breast milk. In the first, the baby cannot process the amino acid phenylalinine. The phenylalinine builds up in the baby's body and can lead to serious developmental disabilities. However, the amount of phenylalinine can be calculated, and the baby's blood levels monitored, if you wish to continue breastfeeding. (It means extra work, but if you're determined, you can continue nursing.)
The other condition, which at this point does require weaning, is galactosemia, wherein the baby cannot process galactose, one of the components in lactose.
Newborns are tested for both conditions during the first few days after birth.
About the Author
Claire Martin is a parenting writer at the Denver Post. Her writing has won national and regional awards, and has appeared in publications such as the St. Petersburg Times, Good Housekeeping, and Sunset magazine. She lives in Denver with her husband and two daughters, both of whom were breastfed.
From THE NURSING MOTHER'S PROBLEM SOLVER by Claire Martin. Copyright © 2000 by Claire Martin. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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text: 2010 was a landmark year celebrating the 30th Anniversary of what many consider to be the best Star Wars film made, The Empire Strikes Back. For Hasbro action figure collectors, it presented a mixed bag of peaks and valleys as the year progressed. Toy Fair got things started with this year's BMF, the AT-AT, and the announcement of the new Vintage Collection and its fantastic retro style Kenner packaging.


text:
Current highest bidder:
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...9280 from Linthicum Heights, MD
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This is a Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth The Sporting News customized advertising promo card that has been graded a Gem Mint 10 in an unbranded holder. This is a sharp item featuring this pair of legendary hall of famers without the high price of original vintage pieces.
*There are a variety of sports memorabilia grading/authentication companies that have different standards of grading based on individual third party condition requirements. The graded cards we list are all very high grade cards unless a flaw is noticed that we will mention in the description of the item. In the event that we have more than one of the same card in the same grade by the same grading company a stock photo may be used on items that look identical.
PropertyRoom.com's trusted merchant, Sports Collectibles, presents this online auction for the above Graded Gem Mint 10 Babe Ruth + Lou Gehrig The Sporting News Advertising Promo Card.
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- Irwin Auger Drill Bit / 5mm x 150mm
Irwin Auger Drill Bit
Barcode: 5709131135579
Product Code: IRW10502738
£12.19(£10.16 exVAT)
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The Irwin Auger Drill Bit from Irwin.
The Irwin auger wood drill bit has been designed for all general wood boring and offers a superior performance. The single spur cutting edge scribes the circumference of the hole for a smoother quality finish. The hexagon shank prevents slipping in a drill chuck or bit extension.
The solid centre provides extra rigidity whilst boring, the self-feeding screw point provides faster boring in both soft and hard woods and the fully hardened body from tip to shank provides extra durability.
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Bill Gertz
Washington Free Beacon
April 5, 2013
A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow's goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks.
According to U.S. officials, a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber on Feb. 26 simulated firing air-launched cruise missiles at an Aegis ship deployed near Japan as part of U.S. missile defenses.
A second mock attack was conducted Feb. 27 against a ground-based missile defense site in Japan that officials did not identify further.
The Pentagon operates an X-band missile defense radar on the northern tip of Japan that is designed to monitor North Korean missile launches and transmit the data to missile-firing ships.
By the way, the ultimate turmeric and inflammatory support Bodease is back in stock at 40% off!


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Herbed Veggie Platter
This eye-appealing combination is an interesting twist on mixed vegetables. Topped with herb butter and Parmesan cheese, the crowd-pleaser is an ideal addition to buffets. Divide the ingredients between two plates if your microwave can't accommodate one large platter. -Patricia Vandiver, Tucson, Arizona
Total TimePrep/Total Time: 25 min.
Makes8-10 servings
- 1 small head cauliflower, broken into florets
- 1 medium bunch broccoli, cut into florets
- 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1/2 cup butter, cubed
- 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon onion salt
- 2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- On a large round microwave-safe platter, arrange the cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini. Cover and microwave on high for 5-1/2 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally; drain.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter, thyme, parsley and onion salt. Cover and microwave on high for 45 seconds or until the butter is melted.
- Arrange tomatoes on platter. Drizzle butter mixture over vegetables; sprinkle with cheese. Cook, uncovered, on high for 1-2 minutes or until heated through.
Editor's NoteThis recipe was tested in a 1,100-watt microwave.
Nutrition Facts1 each: 128 calories, 10g fat (6g saturated fat), 27mg cholesterol, 261mg sodium, 7g carbohydrate (3g sugars, 3g fiber), 4g protein.
Recommended Video
May 9, 2011
This is one of my families favorite recipes!!! We have made it for several occasions. I like to bake it at 400 for about 30 mins, it turns out so yummy!!!


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LEE — Work began on the future site of housing for homeless veterans on Stepping Stones Road where Foster's found property owner Peter MacDonald working Tuesday, along with volunteers eager to help those in need who have served in uniform.
"It's been slow getting started, but we've started," MacDonald said.
On Nov. 30, a driveway permit was issued by the town to MacDonald, an official sign things are under way.
A veteran himself, MacDonald said creating a space where returning veterans can find a roof over their heads and a place to call home has always been his dream.
"This property is going to be dedicated to veterans coming back from combat," he said.
The 11-acre spread of land reaches to the border of Wheelwright Pond where 572 feet abut the water. MacDonald and his wife, he said, have spent a majority of their life savings on the project where he envisions 11 cabins, a chapel and walking trails to eventually take over the landscape. The couple purchased the land last August.
To start, a single 24-foot by 24-foot cabin will be constructed where there will be two 10- by 24-foot rooms making up the basement and upstairs. The one-bedroom unit will be offered to a veteran attending school and for which MacDonald will contribute $500 toward utilities.
The project requires approval for a septic system being put in place before MacDonald can go before the Planning Board with his project. He said the septic system is one of the requirements that's held up progress on the project as it was his intent to install composting toilets for each of the cabins.
Once he's built one cabin with the required septic system, he said he'll continue with construction of the other 10 cabins on the property with composting toilets instead.
MacDonald has gained some extra hands to work on the project from resident Ricky Stevens, who was also out working on the property clearing the site on Tuesday.
"He's not doing it for me, he's doing it for the veterans," MacDonald, who is welcoming any additional support or donations from the community, said.
"The more help I can get, the better," he said.
MacDonald said he expects the first cabin, once started, to be constructed fairly quickly. He said the foundation will be in place in April 2013 and he anticipates the first veteran to move in a couple months later in June.
Though he suffers from various health issues as a result of his own time in combat, including PTSD and its effects, MacDonald, who was seen with a chain saw in hand on Tuesday, said he couldn't let someone else help him out so much without contributing to the work himself.
"I've volunteered all my life since I came back from the Vietnam conflict," he said, adding that he tries to do something everyday to help someone else.
Though his health issues limit some of what he can do, he said that for this project, as with any struggle, pain is with it.
"I didn't come back from the conflict to sit around, take pills and do nothing," he said. "If I'm going to die, I'm going to die doing something."