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The board of Web giant Yahoo Inc is set to discuss the company's future, and that of high-profile Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, when it meets this week, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Tuesday.
People familiar with the matter told the newspaper the board was expected to discuss during meetings from Wednesday through Friday whether to proceed with a plan to spin off more than $30 billion in shares of Alibaba Holding Group Ltd or find a buyer for its core business of web properties, or both.
The company's shares were up more than 6 percent in extended trading.
Yahoo's core business, which includes popular services like Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites, could attract private equity firms, media and telecom companies or firms like Softbank Group Corp (9984.T), analysts have said in the past.
Yahoo declined to comment on the report.
The news comes as Mayer faces growing pressure over the company's performance. Mayer came to Yahoo after a long stint at Google.
Her arrival kicked off heightened expectations of a quick turnaround at Yahoo, which had struggled to grow its advertising business to compete with market leaders Google and Facebook.
Hopes of a comeback crumbled as Yahoo's plan to push mobile, video, native and social media ads - a strategy Mayer introduced in 2014 under the acronym Mavens - failed to increase revenues as desktop search ads continued to decline.
A $1.1 billion deal in 2013 to acquire social blogging site Tumblr also hit snags, with investors arguing that Mayer overpaid for an unprofitable product. The deal lifted Yahoo's user base to about 1 billion but did not bring in advertisers.
In September, Yahoo's plans for the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba hit a roadblock when the U.S. Internal Revenue Service denied a request to bless the transaction as a tax-free deal.
Yahoo said it planned to proceed with the spinoff despite the IRS announcement, but has not yet done so.
In November, activist investor Starboard Value LP asked Yahoo to drop plans to spin off its stake in Alibaba and urged the company to sell its core search and display advertising businesses instead.
During Mayer's 13-year tenure at Google, she led the Google Earth, Gmail and Google News teams and is credited with helping create the company's celebrated search page.


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Courier-IMAP Maildir to zmmailbox
This script is a significant augmentation of NERvOus' script. The export data used and tested came from an H-Sphere mail server. This should work with other platforms but modifications may be needed due to inconsistent file arrangement among Maildir implementations.
A colleague of mine pointed out that the Courier IMAP server could be configured to use a delimiter other than "." for folder hierarchy. If this is the case in your instance, adjusting the code which sets the value of
folder should help deal with this. If subfolders are arranged into a real subdirectory tree on the filesystem, you might also have to change how
folderdir is determined.
This adds the following features not present in the previous versions of the script it was based on:
- Support for Courier-IMAP/vpopmail style Maildir folder structure
- Importation of all known message flags from the Maildir filenames as defined by DJB
- Importation of all Courier-specific "courierimapkeywords" flags
- Unknown flags are imported as tags so the user can deal with these messages manually.
- Automatic creation of subfolder heirarchy whenever needed, handling the possibility of "non-folders" which have children.
- Automatic migration of built-in folders to the top level if they exist as children of the Inbox.
- Automatic processing of a vpasswd list and support to specify a single user or user and folder name.
- To support tagging and flagging we process every message individually, but a speedier import is accomplished by queuing up the whole import to pass to zmmailbox in one shot. zmmailbox startup is by far the slowest part of importing messages.
- "Pretty" progress status output!
The script assumes your current working directory is named after the domain you want to work on. It also assumes the directory contains a vpasswd file containing a line-separated list of username definitions for Courier. If you wish, you can simply create a file named vpasswd with a line-separated list of users in the working directory to let the script do its work normally.
To just run a full domain import under the above conditions, you simply run:
If you wish to run a specific user only, you can run:
./import.sh username
You can also run an import for a specific folder only (specified by courier IMAP path name):
./import.sh username ".Sent"
The path name should be quoted if it contains spaces and should match the directory name Courier IMAP used. If the folder path is multiple levels deep, it might looks something like ".Archived Items.2009.Work"
The Script
#!/bin/bash # # courier/vpopmail Maildir to Zimbra Import # # This script can be stored anywhere, but you should run it while in the root # of the domain's users. It looks for the file vpasswd which contains a # line-separated list of users and uses that to import. You can also run the # script with a user name to process a single user. Additionally, you can # specify a folder name (courier format) to process a single folder for that # user. # We assume the folder structure is like this: # Inbox: <working directory>/<user>/Maildir/<cur|new> # Subfolder: <working directory>/<user>/Maildir/.Subfolder/<cur|new> # If this is not what your structure looks like, you need to change the # "folderpath" variable construction down further in this script. # This is the command to run to run mailbox commands. ZMCMD='/opt/zimbra/bin/zmmailbox -z' # This will be used for temporary/log files during the import process TEMP='/tmp/' # We assume the working directory's name is the domain. # Otherwise, override this with your actual domain name. domain=`basename ${PWD}` echo Process ID: $$ if [[ $1 != "" ]] ; then USERS=$1; else USERS=`cat vpasswd | cut -f1 -d:` fi for user in ${USERS}; do echo "Beginning User: $user..." if [[ $2 != "" ]] ; then FOLDERS="$user/Maildir/$2/cur"; else FOLDERS=`find $user -type d -name cur | sort` fi echo "$FOLDERS" | while read line; do folderdir=`echo ${line} | cut -f3 -d"/"` if [[ ${folderdir} == "cur" ]] ; then folderdir=""; fi folder=`echo ${folderdir} | sed 's/^\.//; s%\.%/%g; s%\&-%\&%g'` folderpath=${PWD}/${user}/Maildir/${folderdir}/ # If the folder name is blank, this is the top level folder, # Zimbra calls it "Inbox" (so do most clients/servers). if [[ $folder == "" ]] ; then folder="Inbox"; fi # In Courier IMAP, all folders must be children of the root # folder, which means Trash, Junk, Sent, Drafts are typically # under Inbox. This is not the case with Zimbra, so we will # slide these mailboxes to the top level so they behave properly, # For all "non-special" mailboxes, we will keep them as children # so they remain where the user had them before. if [[ $folder != "Trash" && $folder != "Junk" && $folder != "Sent" && $folder != "Drafts" && $folder != "Inbox" ]] ; then folder="Inbox/${folder}"; fi echo "* Working on Folder $folder..." # Courier allows heirarchy where non-folders (literally nothing) are # able to have children. Zimbra does not. It's also possible that # we will process the folders out of heirarchical order for some reason # Here we separate the path and make sure all the parent folders exist # before trying to create the folder we're working on. parts=(`echo $folder | sed 's% %\x1a%g; s%/% %g'`); hier=""; for i in "${parts[@]}"; do hier=`echo ${hier}/$i | sed 's%^/%%; s%\x1a% %g'`; ${ZMCMD} -m ${user}@${domain} getFolder "/${hier}" >/dev/null 2>&1 || ( echo -n " + Creating folder $hier... " && ${ZMCMD} -m ${user}@${domain} createFolder "/${hier}" ) done # Figure out how many messages we have count=`find "${folderpath}new/" "${folderpath}cur/" -type f | wc -l`; imported=0; echo " * $count messages to process..." # Define the temporary file names we will need importfn="${TEMP}/import-$domain-$user-$folderdir-$$" implogfn="${TEMP}/import-$domain-$user-$folderdir-$$-log" impflogfn="${TEMP}/import-$domain-$user-$folderdir-$$-flaglog" impflagfn="${TEMP}/import-$domain-$user-$folderdir-$$-flags" touch "$importfn" # Determine the courier extended flag identifiers ("keywords") flagid=0 if [[ -f "${folderpath}courierimapkeywords/:list" ]] ; then extflags="YES" cat "${folderpath}courierimapkeywords/:list" 2>/dev/null | while read line; do # A blank line indicates the end of the definitions. if [[ "${line}" == "" ]]; then break; fi # To avoid escape character madness, I'm swapping $ with % here. flag=`echo ${line} | sed 's/\\\$/%/'` echo courierflag[${flagid}]="'$flag'"; flagid=$(( flagid + 1 )); # Create the tag if it doesn't start with '%' if [[ `echo ${flag} | grep '%'` == "" ]] ; then echo -n " + Attemping to create tag ${flag}... " >&2 ${ZMCMD} -m ${user}@${domain} createTag "${flag}" >&2 fi done > "$impflagfn" source "$impflagfn" fi echo -n " * Queuing messages for import... " # Find all "cur" or "new" messages in this folder and import them. find "${folderpath}new/" "${folderpath}cur/" -type f | while read msg; do flags=""; tags=""; msgid=`echo $msg | cut -d: -f1 | sed s%.*/%%` # Determine the old maildir style flags oldflags=`echo $msg | cut -d: -f2` # Replied if [[ `echo ${oldflags} | grep 'R'` != "" ]] ; then flags="${flags}r"; fi # Seen if [[ `echo ${oldflags} | grep 'S'` == "" ]] ; then flags="${flags}u"; fi # Trashed if [[ `echo ${oldflags} | grep 'T'` != "" ]] ; then flags="${flags}x"; fi # Draft if [[ `echo ${oldflags} | grep 'D'` != "" ]] ; then flags="${flags}d"; fi # Flagged if [[ `echo ${oldflags} | grep 'F'` != "" ]] ; then flags="${flags}f"; fi # Determine the courier-imap extended flags for this message if [[ ${extflags} == "YES" ]] ; then oldflags2=`grep $msgid "${folderpath}courierimapkeywords/:list" 2>/dev/null | cut -d: -f2` for flag in ${oldflags2}; do # Forwarded if [[ ${courierflag[$flag]} == '%Forwarded' ]] ; then flags="${flags}w"; fi # Sent by me if [[ ${courierflag[$flag]} == '%MDNSent' ]] ; then flags="${flags}s"; fi # Convert non-system flags to Zimbra tags if [[ `echo ${courierflag[$flag]} | grep '%'` == "" ]] ; then tags="${tags},${courierflag[$flag]}" fi done # Clean up the tag list for the command line if [[ ${tags} != "" ]]; then tags=`echo ${tags} | sed "s/^,\?/--tags \'/; s/\$/\'/"`; fi fi # Log the result of flag processing for debugging if [[ $flags != "" || $tags != "" ]] ; then echo `date +%c` "$msg had flags $oldflags and $oldflags2, now $flags and $tags in folder $folder" >> "$impflogfn" fi # Add the command to the queue file to import this message echo "addMessage --flags \"${flags}\" ${tags} --noValidation \"/$folder\" \"${msg}\"" >> "$importfn" imported=$(( $imported + 1 )); printf "\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b%7d " $imported; done echo "...done"; # Since we redirect the queue file to the mailbox tool, we end with "quit" echo "quit" >> "$importfn" # We're counting "prompts" from the zmmailbox utility here. The first # one comes up before a message is imported, so we start at -1 to offset # its existence. imported=-1; # We do this redirect because running the command for each message is very # slow. We can't just pass the directory to the command, despite Zimbra's # support because we can't tag or flag the messages that way. echo -n " * Running import process... " ${ZMCMD} -m $user@$domain < "${importfn}" 2> "${implogfn}" | while read; do imported=$(( $imported + 1 )); printf "\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b%7d " $imported; done if [[ -s "${implogfn}" ]]; then echo "...some messages did not import correctly: check $importfn"; else echo "...done"; fi done done echo "Import Process Complete!"

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Face facts: children's activity
Leonardo da Vinci used and recorded a number of rules to help him when drawing the head and face.
Many of these rules involved the observation of certain features of the face and their measurements between each other.
These observations now provide artists with a method of accurately drawing the head and face.
Find out more about this process with this interactive game.
Click on Face Facts to open up this resource in a new window.


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USC's Matt Barkley, West Virginia's Geno Smith and Notre Dame's Manti Te'o Among 12 NFL Draft Prospects Who Will Participate in 2013 ESPN Series
For top college quarterbacks moving onto the National Football League, visiting Jon Gruden's QB Camp has become an annual rite of spring.
The Monday Night Football analyst and Super Bowl-winning coach personally prepares detailed lesson plans for every player.
Last year, Gruden mentored Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill and others, arguably the most successful class of rookie quarterbacks in NFL history.
He helped prep each of them for the jump to the NFL.
To the delight of fans, Gruden also introduced "Spider 2 Y Banana" into the lexicon.
Gruden's QB Camp series presented by Corona Extra is back for a fourth year this spring, beginning Thursday, April 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2) and continuing throughout the month with segments on SportsCenter and NFL studio shows across multiple ESPN networks.
The SportsCenter specials will offer a first-hand look at some of this year's top prospects leading up to the 2013 NFL Draft, which ESPN will again televise April 25-27.
Nine of the top quarterbacks in the draft are scheduled to participate in Gruden's QB Camp:
- Matt Barkley (USC)
- Tyler Bray (Tennessee)
- Zac Dysert (Miami, OH)
- Mike Glennon (N.C. State)
- Landry Jones (Oklahoma)
- EJ Manuel (Florida State)
- Ryan Nassib (Syracuse)
- Geno Smith (West Virginia)
- Tyler Wilson (Arkansas)
The series will also include a trio of non-quarterbacks:
- Luke Joeckel (Texas A&M), the 2012 Outland Trophy winner and top-five prospect at offensive tackle;
- Marcus Lattimore(South Carolina), the heralded Gamecocks running back who suffered a severe knee injury in October but is hopeful of playing in the NFL in 2013.
- Manti Te'o(Notre Dame), the highly-touted linebacker and Heisman Trophy runner-up who led the Fighting Irish to the BCS Championship game.
Each prospect will visit Gruden's office in Tampa – affectionately dubbed the Fired Football Coaches Association (FFCA) – for a film session. Most of the players will also participate in an on-field workout.
Air dates and times for the entire series will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Gruden's QB Camp alumni:
2010: Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame), Colt McCoy (Texas) and Tim Tebow (Florida).
2011: Blaine Gabbert (Missouri), Andy Dalton (TCU), Jake Locker (Washington), Cam Newton (Auburn), Ryan Mallett (Arkansas), and, prior to supplemental draft, Terrelle Pryor (Ohio State).
2012: Kirk Cousins (Michigan State), Nick Foles (Arizona), Robert Griffin III (Baylor), Case Keenum (Houston), Andrew Luck (Stanford), Kellen Moore (Boise State), Brock Osweiler (Arizona State), Ryan Tannehill (Texas A&M), Brandon Weeden (Oklahoma State) and Russell Wilson (Wisconsin).


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Both the old and new media agree on is this: If you need a story that's guaranteed to be popular, go with animals. Cute kittens, puppies, porpoises, penguins, and polar bears are all a good bet.
Now, corporate shills are tapping this animal ploy to push some of their ugliest profiteering schemes. Including the Keystone XL pipeline. A cabal of TransCanada Corporation and oil giants, such as ExxonMobil, wants to shove this massively polluting, ozone-depleting, wildlife-threatening pipeline from Alberta, Canada, right through the center of America, carrying tar sands oil all the way to the Gulf Coast.
It's not exactly a popular idea, and it was made less popular by a couple of recent, very nasty spills of toxic tar from existing pipelines — one in Michigan and the other in Arkansas. So, cue the animals!
Larry Kudlow, a shameless, corporate-hugging host of a TV show on CNBC, proclaimed in August that — by gollies — the Keystone pipeline would be terrific for wildlife. Why? Because, explained this noted expert on beastly habits, the loveable bears, deer, and such would "like to snuggle under the pipeline [for] warmth."
Rayola Dougher, an economist at the American Petroleum Institute — Big Oil's chief lobbying group – immediately agreed with Kudlow. She piped in that "animals like the Alaskan crude oil pipeline quite a bit."
How darling! And how wrong.
What we have here are a couple of sycophants mouthing a right-wing myth that's been promoted on the political circuit for a while. Actual animal experts, however, note that Canadian caribou are now listed as "threatened," largely because of the tar sands rush.
Independent scientists studying the Keystone project say it will wreak havoc on animals all along its nature-destroying path. Even the Interior Department is calling on the government to pay more attention to the pipeline's potential damage to wildlife and water quality.
How cute is that?


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Service and learning took center stage for Eastern Mennonite University's expanded observance of Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 21. Some 200 students, faculty and staff participated in service opportunities and cultural learning tours.
Photo gallery of day's events (please be patient while it loads).
A tour of historic Newtown in northeastern Harrisonburg introduced participants to the city's original African-American community that was first settled by newly freed slaves. The tour included stops at the segregation-era Lucy Simms School, Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, Newtown Cemetery and Our Community Place, an anti-poverty organization.
Students packed a black-owned barbershop in downtown Harrisonburg to interact with longtime barber Tyrone Sprague, who likes to mix his haircuts with lively conversation. Several students got a haircut.
Other learning tours took students to Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic, Blue Ridge Legal Services, and the Center for Marriage and Family Counseling.
A group of students cleaned a stretch of Black's Run, a stream that starts near the EMU campus and winds through Harrisonburg. They concentrated on the stretch through the northeast neighborhood.
Other students helped prepare the weekly "community meal for everyone" at Our Community Place. One of the organization's many ministries is a Monday meal for anyone who comes—homeless as well as non-homeless people. There is no distinction between the servers and those being served.
The observance of King Day, a national holiday named for the legendary civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968, coincided this year with President Barack Obama's second inauguration. Obama, by personal example, has popularized service projects on King Day.
"We made an intentional decision to broaden the ownership of Martin Luther King Day from the multicultural services office to the entire university and the greater EMU neighborhood," said Brian Martin Burkholder, director of campus ministries, "because the legacy of Dr. King connects widely with the mission and vision of EMU as a learning community."
Collaborating in the planning were EMU staff and student organizations as well as the Northeast Neighborhood Association and United Way of Harrisonburg-Rockingham County.
EMU's keynote speaker this year was Shane Claiborne, a nationally known Christian activist and best-selling author from Philadelphia. He spoke in chapel and led two forums, all three of which drew large crowds.
"Dr. King kept believing his dream of equality even when it was unpopular and when it got him jailed," said Claiborne. "And now we must build the better world that Jesus dreamed of."
"Building that better world is much more than giving charity and performing service," he said. "It is working for justice in a world where the rich continue to get richer while the poor are getting poorer."
In their fight for justice, though, Claiborne warned his listeners not to fight the people who disagree with them. Jesus interacted positively with all kinds of people on all sides of the issues, he said.
"The revolution of God sets the poor and oppressed free while also setting the rich and powerful free," he added.
Claiborne is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical Christian communities around the world. His books include The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. He travels extensively, speaking over 100 times a year about peacemaking, social justice and Jesus.
Other King Day events at EMU:
- Readings of King's letter from the Birmingham jail that he wrote 50 years ago this spring after his arrest for anti-segregation activities—followed by discussion.
- "Mix-it-up" lunch with guided conversation in the EMU cafeteria with a mixture of people from the campus and community.
- Collection of items for flu prevention for Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic.
- Collection of health kit items and sturdy shoes for Our Community Place.
- Art exhibit on the civil rights movement, titled And Freedom for All.
- Coffeehouse conversation with a panel of Harrisonburg residents who remember King first-hand.
[Editor's note: The Daily News Record also ran a piece on Shane Claiborne and MLK Day of Service and Learning which can be found on the EMU website.]


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Price $88.00
Jewish Jewelry
Whether you buy for yourself, or a Gift for any occasion: Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Hanukkah, Conversion, or any Rite of Passage, Jewish Jewelry is available in endless designs. Judaica Jewellery Designs that are always popular include the Hamsa, Chai, and the Star of David or Magen David necklace pendants. Jewish Jewelry is most popular as Bar and Bat Mitzvah Gifts. Spiritually, the Kabbalah Jewelry has filled a void for those searching to connect with their heritage.
Wearing Jewish Jewelry is a way for Jewish people to connect and assimilate with little introduction.


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Uber Technologies is offering data from trips on its ride-hailing platform to city officials, planners and policymakers to help them better understand traffic patterns and improve investments in infrastructure.
The move will likely win Uber goodwill with city officials, even as the company has resisted other bids for data by some cities. New York, for example, wants to collect trip records from vehicles on hire to monitor adherence to driver fatigue regulations, which Uber has rejected citing individual privacy issues.
Some of the data collected by Uber over 2 billion trips across 450 cities will be provided under the new program, called Movement. However, the data will be "anonymized and aggregated into the same types of geographic zones that transportation planners use to evaluate which parts of cities need expanded infrastructure, like Census Tracts and Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs)," Jordan Gilbertson, Uber's product manager and Andrew Salzberg, head of transportation policy, wrote in a blog post Sunday.
Other ride-hailing companies have also offered data to planners. Cooperation with city planners could ensure that the ride-hailing concept gets more firmly entrenched in urban transport planning.
Easy Taxi, which started operations in Latin America, Grab in Southeast Asia and French operator Le.Taxi in December joined a partnership with the World Bank and other organizations to make traffic data derived from their drivers' GPS streams available under an open data license.
Uber has set up a website for providing the information. Access to the data on the website will be on invitation initially, though the company promises to make it available freely to the public soon. The insights on the Movement website are available under the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial license, which would restrict the use of the data for commercial purposes.
"Since Uber is available 24/7, we can compare travel conditions across different times of day, days of the week, or months of the year—and how travel times are impacted by big events, road closures or other things happening in a city," the executives wrote.
The concept of sharing aggregated data with cities is already being tried by Uber in Australia, where it has tied with Infrastructure Partnerships Australia to measure the performance of transport systems. Data from Uber was also used to analyse the impact of the Metrorail outage in Washington, D.C., on March 16 last year on congestion citywide during the evening commute hours, and was used to analyze travel conditions during the 2015 holiday season in Manila.
Uber's provision of data to local authorities is likely to come under close scrutiny by consumer groups who have in the past complained about the company's collection of user data. In December last year, the company said it would collect location data "from the time you request a trip until . . . up to five minutes after the driver ends a trip, even if the Uber app is in the background." Users can, however, opt out from the monitoring.
In a privacy policy change from July 2015, the company said it would be tracking the location of its users' devices even when they are not using its service and the app is running in the background.


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Nick 365
Nick 365Read More
With the start of the new year, I have decided to make an attempt at my own Project 365. This gallery will exhibit a photograph per day for the next year. The photos will be randomly inspired with varying techniques. My hopes are this will be a fun experience that will broaden my creativity and allow me to learn more to help enhance my photography skills. Hope you enjoy!


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Choose your path
The Appraisal Institute's Washington Report and State Newsquarterly e-newsletter is intended to summarize AI's recent federal and state legislative, regulatory and related activities in representing the interests of Designated members, Candidates for Designation, Practicing Affiliates and Affiliates.
In This Issue
GSE Rural Appraisal Guidance Tackles Recent Congressional Inquiries
AI Wary of Appraisal Provision in GSE Reform Proposal
Senate Considers Tax Credit Extensions
SBA Mulls Update on Going Concern Appraisals
AI Addresses 'Green' Issues at White House Appraisal Roundtable
Regulators Propose Supervision Requirements for AMCs
IRS Examines Façade Easements; Sanction Appraisers
Borges Named to Appraisal Subcommittee Advisory Post
Gov. Christie Vetoes BPO Legislation … Again
NJ Bill Proposes to Eliminate State Appraisal Board
AI Supports Less Burdensome Background Check System
Maryland Removes References to USPAP Advisory Opinions
AI Compiling Appraisal Review Credentialing Requirements
Use of Appraisal Firms Questioned, Restricted
2014 Meetings in Review
Coyle Talks Fundamental Values, Market Analysis and Strategic Initiatives
'Green' Valuation Addressed at Environmental Bankers Association Conference
AI, OCC Focus on Appraisal Reviews at American Bankers Association Conference
Public Policy Sessions at AI 2014 Annual Meeting
Notes Available for Conservation Valuation Stakeholders Forum
Use of AI Green Addendum on the Rise
Share Your Issues
On March 25, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released guidance for lenders relating to rural appraisal issues. The timing, tone and tenor of the document leads the Appraisal Institute to believe that proponents seeking to pursue appraisal exemptions may be targeting government-sponsored enterprise reform legislation as a way to address rural appraisal requirements relating to loans sold to the GSEs.
If that is the case, it would address issues well beyond those related to loans held in bank portfolios.
As AI noted earlier this year, several members of Congress, particularly in the Senate, expressed concern about rural appraisal issues and were likely to introduce legislation that addressed bank and credit union concerns. Their concerns centered on appraisal requirements that were imposed on lenders and how that affected the loans banks held in their portfolios. There also was concern that an appraisal exemption would be proposed.
A GSE reform bill has been introduced in the Senate and may come up for a vote before the Senate Committee on Banking later this year. That bill still faces a complicated road to enactment in Congress, but it is one that appraisal professionals should pay close attention to for both its overall importance and its potential impact on risk management and real estate.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced her view of what an overhauled housing finance market should look like when she released a proposal March 27 to unwind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Unlike competing proposals floating around the House and the Senate, the one from Waters would replace the government-sponsored enterprises with a new lender cooperative that would issue government-backed securities and establish a new regulator, the National Mortgage Finance Administration, to oversee both the cooperative and the Federal Home Loan Banks. It also would eliminate the GSEs' affordable housing goals and capitalize several housing trust funds with a user fee of 10 basis points. On top of the trust funds, the legislation includes a broad mandate to serve rural and other underserved communities.
However, the Waters' plan calls for the creation of a database for the collection, public use and dissemination of uniform loan-level information on eligible mortgages relating to loan characteristics, borrower information, loan data and the quality and consistency of appraisal and collateral data on eligible mortgages.
AI believes that if enacted, the legislation could have a profound effect on real estate appraisals and could result in a new wave of mortgage fraud. The level of influence that the information could have on the integrity of the appraisal process is another area in which AI has expressed concern and will continue to monitor.
The Waters' plan has to compete with the GSE Reform plan introduced by Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, earlier this year.
The Senate Finance Committee met April 3 to amend the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act. The markup, which is expected to take several weeks to complete, will allow the committee to vote for amendments and then send the legislation to the full Senate for a vote. The bill would address both retroactive implementation of major tax extenders that expired last year and the temporary provisions that are set to expire at the end of this year.
The list of amendments includes a two-year extension of incentives to make charitable contributions of conservation easements and several real estate-related amendments that extend tax credits for empowerment zones, low-income housing tax credits and a tax credit for solar projects.
The U.S. Small Business Administration, responding to Congressional inquiries related to going concern appraisal requirements found in the Jan. 1 version of Standard Operating Procedure 50-10F, said it was reviewing the issue with other agencies and stakeholders and would provide additional guidance and possibly an update to the SOP, as appropriate. No timetable was given. View the SBA response to members of the House Committees on Small Business and Financial Services here.
This issue remains a top-level concern for the Appraisal Institute. Contact Bill Garber, the Appraisal Institute's director of government and external relations, at firstname.lastname@example.com for more information.
On March 11, the Appraisal Institute participated in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Green Mortgage Appraisal Roundtable at the White House to help identify ways in which the mortgage appraisal process can be improved.
The Appraisal Institute was represented by 2014 President Ken P. Wilson, MAI, SRA, and representatives from AI's Washington office.
Meeting attendees also heard from Sandra Adomatis, SRA, who discussed ways in which the valuation profession has advanced relative to the appraisal of high-performance homes. She also talked about key issues that still require attention by policymakers, lenders and real estate agents, including limited data, inadequate populating of energy-efficiency fields in data systems, a lack of standardized reporting of energy ratings and information, a lack of mortgage industry knowledge and weaknesses within the appraisal ordering process.
Meeting participants generally agreed that more attention should be paid to bridging the gap in green
and energy-efficiency information, and that more education for all parties involved in these transactions would address many issues relating to the mortgage process.
This roundtable followed a similar one that the Appraisal Institute attended last July.
View Adomatis' presentation at the Green Mortgage Appraisal Roundtable.
Six federal agencies jointly issued a proposed rule March 24 that would implement minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of residential appraisal management companies.
Under the proposed rule, participating states would require that an AMC:
The proposed rule also would require that a state's certifying and licensing agency have certain authorities, including the authority to:
The proposed rule would allow participating states 36 months to implement the minimum requirements after the rule takes effect. An AMC that is a subsidiary of a financial institution and regulated by a federal financial institution regulatory agency is required to meet the same minimum requirements as other AMCs but it would not have to register with the state.
The Appraisal Institute's Government Relations Committee is reviewing the proposed rule and will respond to the agencies' request for comment. An initial review indicates the proposing agencies did a good job in identifying a strong definition of AMCs that clearly differentiates them from appraisal firms. Other issues under review relate to specific authorities granted to state appraiser regulatory agencies, including the extent that boards can enforce appraisal independence requirements, including issues relating to customary and reasonable fees.
Read a copy of the proposed AMC rule.
The IRS announced March 19 that its Office of Professional Responsibility had entered into a settlement agreement with a group of appraisers from the same firm accused of aiding in the understatement of federal tax liabilities by overvaluing façade easements for charitable donation purposes. Under the settlement agreement, the appraisers admitted to violating relevant sections of Circular 230 related to due diligence and submitting accurate documents to the government.
The Appraisal Institute believes this is the first use of Circular 230 penalties against appraisers.
The appraisal firm was not named, but terms of the settlement agreement allowed the IRS to issue its announcement.
The appraisers agreed to a five-year suspension from valuing façade easements and undertaking any appraisal services that could subject them to penalties under the Internal Revenue Code. The appraisers also agreed to abide by all applicable provisions of Circular 230.
Failure to comply with terms of the settlement would result in the appraiser's disqualification, which would include a ban from presenting any evidence or testimony in administrative proceedings before the U.S. Department of the Treasury and renders any appraisal given after disqualification without probative effect.
On March 25, Richard L. Borges, II, MAI, SRA, immediate past president of the Appraisal Institute, was named to an advisory committee of the Appraisal Subcommittee. Borges will participate in the agency's exploration of new rulemaking powers granted to it under the Dodd-Frank Act in specific areas, such as state enforcement and reciprocity. The first meeting of the advisory committee is scheduled for this month. See a list of advisory committee members.
Legislation that would have significantly expanded the ability of New Jersey real estate brokers and salespersons to offer broker price opinion services did not become law because of a Jan. 21 "pocket veto" by Gov. Chris Christie. This is the second time Christie has vetoed BPO legislation.
In his first veto message in August, 2013, Christie noted his concerns about "consumer confusion," and the impact on "sellers struggling to determine when and why to use broker price opinions, comparative market analyses or appraisals." Because the 2nd veto of this bill was a "pocket veto", the governor provided no rationale for his decision.
Current New Jersey law allows brokers, broker-salespersons and salespersons to prepare BPOs only as part of the real estate sales process. Additionally, brokers, broker-salespersons and salespersons may offer limited real estate valuation services to state or federally regulated financial institutions when an appraisal by a certified or licensed appraiser is not required by federal law.
The provisions of S. 3058 would have allowed brokers, broker-salespersons and salespersons to offer BPO services for virtually any purpose, including property tax appeals, litigation support, financial institution portfolio valuation and distressed loan workouts, among other things.
View a copy of S. 3058.
A bill pending in the New Jersey state legislature would abolish the State Real Estate Appraisers Board and transfer regulation of appraisers to the state's Real Estate Commission. Bill A2387 was unanimously passed by the Regulated Professions Committee March 13.
The Appraisal Institute's New Jersey chapters testified in opposition to the bill at a hearing before the Assembly Regulated Professions Committee. Previously, AI had strongly expressed its concerns over the bill in a March 6 letter to the committee.
In its letter, AI stated that "placing the responsibilities for regulating real estate appraisers with the same commission members and agency staff that are charged with regulating sales and financing-related activities will undoubtedly create conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts."
The federal Appraisal Subcommittee also submitted written comments to the bill's sponsors and stated that there would be "significant concerns about compliance with Title XI" if A2387 becomes law.
Echoing the ASC's comment in relation to Title XI, the Appraisal Institute's letter warned that, "There is a significant risk that the New Jersey appraiser regulatory program could be determined by the ASC to not be in compliance with Title XI" and that significant sanctions could be imposed upon the state's appraiser regulatory program.
The bill's sponsor has agreed to meet with the Appraisal Institute and other interested stakeholders to attempt to work out a mutually acceptable compromise prior to bringing the bill to the floor for a vote.
View a copy of A2387.
The Appraisal Institute twice testified in March before committees of the Maryland General Assembly in favor of SB 1106, a bill that would require new applicants for an appraiser's license to undergo a reasonable criminal background check.
The first testimony was offered before the Senate Finance Committee March 13, and was provided by Thomas Weigand, SRA, a member of AI's Maryland Chapter. The second testimony was provided March 27 by AI staff before the House Economic Matters Committee.
In its testimony, the Appraisal Institute stated, "Not only is this bill good public policy, but it also is included in the 'Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria' issued by the Appraiser Qualifications Board that will become effective Jan. 1, 2015." AI warned that, "If the provisions of SB 1106 are not enacted into law prior to Jan. 1, 2015, any person who is issued a new real estate appraiser credential after that date will be ineligible to perform appraisals for federally related transactions. In addition, the Commission risks the imposition of sanctions by the federal Appraisal Subcommittee for having appraiser licensing and certification requirements that are less stringent than those issued by the AQB." (Note: The AQB has proposed extending the date by which a state must have a background check requirement in place until Jan. 1, 2017. That decision is still pending).
AI also called upon the Maryland legislature and Commission of Real Estate Appraisers, Appraisal Management Companies and Home Inspectors, as well as state legislatures and appraiser regulators nationwide, to adopt a streamlined background check system that is similar to the National Mortgage Licensing System. Existing appraiser credential holders have expressed concern that they could be subject to numerous, costly and time-consuming background checks when applying for licenses by reciprocity or temporary practice permits. A system similar to NMLS would allow new and existing credential holders to simultaneously satisfy multiple state background check requirements using a single comprehensive fingerprint-based background check.
The legislature concurred with AI's position on the underlying bill, and it was passed unanimously by the full Maryland Senate March 17 and the House of Delegates April 1. It currently is awaiting the governor's consideration.
Hear the testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, see a video of the testimony before the House Economic Matters Committee and read a copy of SB 1106.
On April 8, the Maryland Commission of Real Estate Appraisers, Appraisal Management Companies and Home Inspectors completed action on rulemaking that removed the Advisory Opinions and Frequently Asked Questions of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice from being incorporated by reference into the state's appraiser licensing and certification laws. The move addresses the Appraisal Institute's long-standing concerns about increased regulatory burdens placed on professional appraisers.
Prior to this rule change, the AOs and FAQs were considered by the Commission to be part of USPAP. As such, the contents of the AOs and FAQs potentially could have been used by the Commission as the basis for disciplinary action against an appraiser. This was true even though USPAP specifically states that the AOs and FAQs are a "form of guidance issued by the ASB" and are not part of USPAP.
Maryland was one of a handful of states that incorporated the AOs and FAQs into its regulations that adopted the provisions of USPAP by reference. The Appraisal Institute had pointed out this anomaly in testimony before the Commission in 2012 and at that time requested the removal of the references to the AOs and FAQs from the Commission's regulations.
The Appraisal Institute has nearly completed its compilation of state laws relating to when an appraiser who performs an appraisal review for a property in another state must be credentialed in the state where the property is located.
The document is being prepared as a result of a 2013 policy change by the Appraisal Subcommittee that, for the first time, allowed state appraiser regulators to require out-of-state reviewers to be credentialed in their state when reviewing appraisals for federally related transactions.
Prior to the change, ASC Policy Statement 5 was clear that, "For federally related transactions, the review appraiser need not register for temporary practice or otherwise be subjected to the regulatory jurisdiction in which the appraisal was performed, so long as the review appraiser does not perform the technical review in the State within which the property is located." This language was included in the policy statement after some state agencies sought to require appraisers to register for temporary practice if the appraiser was certified or licensed in another State and was authorized to change a value in the appraisal.
This language was removed from the policy statement last June, and the policy change has had the effect of granting states the ability to require out-of-state appraisers to obtain a credential in the state where the property is located if reviewers provide their own opinion of value for a subject property, including concurring with or dissenting from the original appraiser's value opinion.
This policy change has caused great confusion in the marketplace as there currently is very little information available to review appraisers that states definitively when a credential issued by the state where the subject property is located is required. Additionally, an increasing number of states already require or are considering requiring reviewers of appraisals for non-federally related purposes to obtain a credential in the state where the property is located.
Look for more information about this new AI document in a future edition of the Washington Report and State News quarterly e-newsletter.
The Appraisal Institute has heard from several Designated members that at least one large national residential mortgage lender recently modified its policy to restrict contract appraisal management companies from using appraisal firms of a certain size. The lender allegedly feared its primary bank regulator might raise questions about individual appraiser engagements and payment of customary and reasonable fees.
AI is unaware of any issues that would warrant such a move from a financial institution
New guidance was released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency relating to third-party relationships, but the guidance established broad expectations relating to oversight that can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Payment of customary and reasonable fees by AMCs to appraisal firms also is not an issue under the plain language definition of "Fee Appraiser" in the Dodd-Frank Act — a fact that was affirmed in a newly proposed rule on minimum requirements for AMCs, which is out for comment until June 9 and clearly distinguishes between AMCs and appraisal firms.
AI appreciates hearing from valuation professionals on issues of this nature. Please contact the Washington office (contacts are included in the "TIP LINE" section below) to share any legislative- or regulatory-related business concern.
The Appraisal Institute continued its extensive industry and stakeholder outreach during the past quarter with leadership participation at the Mortgage Bankers Association Commercial Real Estate Finance meeting in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 2-5; the Pension Real Estate Association meeting in Boston March 19-20; the International Valuation Standards Committee meeting in London March 27-28; and the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials meeting in San Francisco April 11-13.
Appraisal Institute President-Elect, M. Lance Coyle, MAI, SRA, addressed the Collateral Risk Network's meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in early February, talking about fundamental value and market analysis issues. Coyle also spoke at the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Valuation Committee meeting in March where he discussed AI's new strategic initiatives.
Bill Garber, the Appraisal Institute's director of government and external relations, spoke to the Environmental Bankers Association conference in Orlando, Fla., in February; he addressed the overlap between appraisal and environmental issues. Also at the conference, Dr. Tom Jackson, MAI, and Mitch Kreeger, MAI, presented on measuring environmental impacts while Brian Ginter, Candidate for Designation, addressed the issue of integrating appraisal and environmental functions within banks.
Garber also presented a March webinar on green and energy-efficiency valuation issues for a network of Habitat for Humanity program participants.
AI President Ken P. Wilson, MAI, SRA, along with Bill Garber and officials from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, addressed the American Bankers Association Real Estate Conference in Charleston, S.C., April 7 with their presentation on the importance of appraisal reviews in community banks. View their presentation.
There will be a number of sessions at the 2014 Appraisal Institute Annual Meeting related to federal and state public policy issues. The Annual Meeting will be held Aug. 4-6 in Austin, Texas.
The following public policy-related sessions currently are scheduled:
More information on the AI Annual Meeting, including keynote speakers and general sessions, and the registration form is available here.
The meeting notes from the Appraisal Institute's Conservation Valuation Stakeholders Forum, held last December in Washington, D.C., are available here. The notes may be of interest to appraisal professionals involved with conservation issues. For more information, contact AI's Washington office at 202-298-6449.
Use of the Appraisal Institute's Residential Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum is growing thanks in part to recent licensing agreements between AI and RESNET, an industry group that developed the Home Energy Rating System, known as HERS, and that trains energy raters. This licensing agreement enables energy raters to complete fields within the Green Addendum using information from a HERS report. Such information may be helpful to appraisers in the analysis of green and energy-efficiency market issues.
AI has heard that many home builders are completing the Green Addendum once they finish a home, and that some local energy-rating organizations are making use of a new writable PDF version available here
AI also has noticed that recognition for the Green Addendum has dramatically increased within federal and state agencies based on how often staff has fielded questions related to it.
Do you have relationships with critical policymakers, or are you aware of a burgeoning issue of opportunity or concern? Please contact any member of the AI Washington office staff with more information.
Pop up content here.


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Trend: Denim Shirts6:30 PM
16 comments
One of my faves! I have several in the closet and wear them till they are thread bare. I find I always buy them because I can't find the right weight denim to make my own. Any suggestions?ReplyDelete
No Bunny, I haven't found any fabric either. That had been a problem. I bought some shirt weight chambray but it was lighter than what I wanted. But if I find any, I'll post.ReplyDelete
I might have a solution-purchase 1/8 of a yard of the lightest weight denim you can find and wash it. There is often so much sizing/starch/whatever in denim that what you feel on the roll is very often a much lighter weight than it seems at first touch.ReplyDelete
ooops-didn't finish that one! LOL!ReplyDelete
Anyway, once you've found a good weight you can go back and purchase your yardage.
Loving this look! The red pants are gorgeous and if you can find a shirt that fits you so well and for such a fabulous price then that is a great day!ReplyDelete
I love the red pants. Went to our favorite store (Gail K) purchased some cotton rayon spandex to make a pair. They didnt have red. I selected royal blue. BTW don't you love your hair?ReplyDelete
I'm also going to make a pair of skinny pants in royal blue. And I want a pair in bright yellow too. And possible a nice wool skinny trouser in fucshia as well. I'm all about the brights this season.ReplyDelete
Yes! I'm loving my hair so much!
Gorgeous Fabrics had a lovely 3 oz, no lycra, dark denim by a Japanese manufacturer that was "to die for". I only bought 3 yards and wish I'd bought 12. Maybe Ann can get more.ReplyDelete
Love your red pants!
Karen in Houston
- Anonymous9:41 AM
Thanks for the post. I have a cute denim shirt that I adore from a few years ago but I seem to struggle with wearing it. This gave me some ideas for an old favourite.ReplyDelete
I absolutely love denim shirts. They don't every go out of style. I had a poet style denim shirt years ago and if it hadn't gotten a stain on it, I'd probably still be wearing it. Thanks for the birthday wishes.ReplyDelete
OMG! You are truly DIVINE!!ReplyDelete
I love that color combo! You look great!ReplyDelete
I have been planning to make a denim shirt.Thanks for the pattern suggestions. You are right on time.ReplyDelete
You look great.I love the red pants.


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EVERETT — Residents of Everett will pay higher utility taxes starting Jan. 1.
That increase is among measures the City Council enacted Wednesday night to help erase a $13 million deficit in 2015.
The utility tax hikes and other revenue measures approved Wednesday will be paired with cuts to city services, which Mayor Ray Stephanson can make without council authority.
The city expects that the tax and fee increases will raise revenue by about $6.5 million. Cuts will reduce the deficit by about another $3 million.
Another $3.7 million in unspent money from 2013 will bring the 2015 budget into balance.
The proposals have met with some resistance among council members and the public. Among others raising objections were Judy Tuohy, director of the Schack Art Center, who is hoping to unseat Councilman Rich Anderson in November's election.
With Everett's low average income compared with other Snohomish County cities, Tuohy said, the tax increases would be felt acutely, especially among the city's poorest residents.
Councilwoman Brenda Stonecipher, who has questioned the openness of the budget- balancing process, said the city should cut spending more before raising taxes.
"A utility tax is about the most regressive tax you could choose," Stonecipher said. "It impacts poor people more than it impacts people on this dais."
Council President Jeff Moore agreed with her in principle but asked Stonecipher for examples of less-regressive taxes the council could act on.
"I'd love to have non-regressive taxes, but I don't know how to get there," Moore said.
The utility tax measure passed on a 4-3 vote, with Stonecipher and Councilmen Ron Gipson and Paul Roberts voting against it.
Stonecipher was the lone vote against raising business license fees, saying it would be too great a burden for small businesses.
Other tax and fee-raising measures passed the council unanimously, although some of them will not go into effect until next year.
The largest source of new revenue for the city is going to come from higher taxes on electricity, telephone service and natural gas, with rates rising to 6 percent from 4.5 percent. That is expected to bring in $3.2 million in 2015.
New taxes for cable and garbage service — starting at 2 percent in 2015 and increasing to 4 percent in 2016 and 6 percent in 2017 — will bring in another $877,000.
The new rates for all utilities will go into effect Jan. 1.
Other measures enacted Wednesday night include:
*Creation of a taxing district to impose a $20 car license fee, which will bring in $1.5 million.
*Raising business license fees to $75 from $10 and adding annual renewal fees of up to $75 ($465,000).
*Increasing traffic mitigation fees for development to $2,400 from $900 ($333,000) — effective Jan. 1.
*Requiring parking tickets be paid before vehicles are released from impound ($50,000).
*And raising land use permitting and review fees ($45,000) — effective Jan. 1.
On the expense side, Stephanson's administration is proposing to cut 15 employee positions, eliminate the Library Outreach Program (including the Bookmobile) and eliminate lifeguards at Silver Lake Beach. Those and other measures will save about $3 million.
Stephanson also announced at the start of the meeting that he has decided not to extend the date by which the city would completely fund pensions for retired firefighters and police officers.
Everett will continue to wrestle with revenue shortages in coming years, with future fiscal year deficits reaching $21 million by 2018. The city plans to looks for savings in several departments, starting with the Fire Department. Changes to pay or benefits, though, would require negotiating with labor unions. And it is unclear what savings might ultimately result.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; firstname.lastname@example.com.
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University of Georgia
School of Law
Athens, GA 30602
United States
B.S., Eastern Illinois University
J.D., University of Illinois
M.S.L.S., University of Illinois at Urbana
E. Ann Puckett, former professor and director of the University of Georgia School of Law Alexander Campbell King Law Library retired July 2010 after nearly 16 years of service at the law school.
Puckett joined the UGA law faculty in 1994. In addition to her expertise in library management, she also offered a seminar to students on law and disability.
She maintained a national survey of law school computing services staffing (in which 159 law schools participated) and updated the results on the Web monthly. She published "Space and Cyberspace in Large Law Libraries" in Trends in Law Library Management and Technology (1996). In addition, she is the author of Uniform Commercial Code: Confidential Drafts (with Elizabeth S. Kelly, 10v., 1995), which was selected in 2006 to be included in Hein Online.
A nationally recognized leader in law library management, Puckett has served as an executive board member of the American Association of Law Libraries. She has also made numerous presentations on library management, legal research methodology, trends in research technology, and law and disability. In 2009, Puckett was named the recipient of the most prestigious award presented by the AALL, the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, which is given annually by the association in recognition of outstanding, extended and sustained service to law librarianship and to the AALL.
She has been a faculty fellow in UGA's Institute on Human Development and Disability. Puckett helped research the briefs for the plaintiffs and amici in Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), in which the U.S. Supreme Court determined that mentally disabled persons are entitled to treatment in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. She also served on the governing board of Georgia Options in Community Living.
Puckett earned a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University and her law degree and master's degree in library science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She taught English in high schools in Illinois and Colorado for nearly a decade before determining that her niche was law. She served as a law librarian at the University of Kansas from 1977 to 1978, at Southern Illinois University from 1978 to 1983 and at Northwestern University from 1983 to 1987. In 1987, she became director of the law library and professor at South Texas College of Law, where she remained until joining the UGA faculty in 1994.
Academic Law Library Directors' Law School Courses (May 2004)
Bibliography of Law Review Articles on Disability Law
Staffing for Law School Computing Services (July 2006)
One of the Perfect People, 107 L. Libr. J. 156 (2015).
How Potential Employers Approach Disability: A Survey of Law Students in Georgia, 69 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 509 (2008).
"Shortcuts: Print Resources That Save Time," in Cost Effective Legal Research. (Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, 1997).
Space and Cyberspace in Large Law Libraries, Trends L. Libr. Mgmt. & Tech., Mar. 1996, at 1.
Managing as Leader, 1992 Trends L. Libr. Mgmt. & Tech. 1.
Lexis and Westlaw Pricing: Survey of Academic Law Library Directors, II ALL-SIS Newsl., Winter 1990, at 2.
Commentary: The Egalitarian Fallacy, 81 L. Libr. J. 343 (1989).
The Process of Legal Research, Reasoning & Res. Newl. (AALS Section on Legal Writing), October 1986, at 12.
How to Find the Law: 8th ed., 12 Int'l J. Leg. Info. 141 (1984) (with Irene Berkey and George S. Grossman).
How to Register a Copyright and Protect Your Creative Work, VIII L. Books in Rev., No. 3 1981, at 13.
Legal Thesaurus, Choice, May 1981, at 1230.
Uniform Commercial Code: Confidential Drafts. (Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1993) (with Elizabeth Slusser Kelly).
Uniform Commercial Code: General Bibliography, 1977-1991: Derived with Permission from Bibliographies published in the Commercial Law Journal. (Ann Puckett, 1992).
Union List: State Administrative Codes and Registers in Texas Law Libraries. (1988) (compiled for Texas Association of Law Libraries; copy available from compiler).
Southern Illinois University School of Law Library Guide, (Southern Illinois University School of Law, 1982).
Comparative Negligence: A Compilation of State Laws and Ten-Year Bibliography (Southern Illinois University School of Law Library, 1981) (originally available for Illinois State Bar Association; copy now available from compiler).
Legal and Law-Related Service Agencies in Southern Illinois: March 1980, (Southern Illinois University School of Law Library, 1980) (copy now available from compiler).
"General Comments and Recommendations on the Law Libraries" in An Evaluation of System-Provided Library Services to State Correctional Centers in Illinois. (Illinois State Library, 1983).
"The Legal Framework for Prison Libraries" in An Evaluation of System-Provided Library Services to State Correctional Centers in Illinois. (Illinois State Library, 1983).


text:
Medical Lab Technologist Chemistry – – Casual – Burnaby, BC
City : Burnaby, BC, CA
Category : Laboratory Services
Industry : Healthcare
Employer : LifeLabs
Improve lives. Love your job. Grow your career.
LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services is seeking a Medical Lab Technologist to join our Mid Low Chemistry team in Burnaby, BC (3680 Gilmore Way) working Monday-Friday evenings, no weeekend shifts.
Our Medical Lab Technologists provide accurate and timely interpretive and diagnostic specimen testing and reporting. Through accuracy, quality, efficiency and expediting test results, you will contribute to patient well-being and the achievement of better health outcomes. This is a great role for a hands-on, detail-oriented individual who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Conducting a wide range of diagnostic and interpretive specimen testing.
- Performing, interpreting and releasing results, while ensuring the confidentiality of patient information.
- Identifying incidents and non-conformities, participating in the development of effective corrective action plans, escalating as appropriate and driving continuous improvement.
- Assisting with the evaluation and implementation of new technology.
- Participating in problem solving in work organization and workflow.
Are You a Good Fit?
LifeLabs is seeking a Registered Technologist with CSMLS who can work collaboratively in a fast-paced team environment, while adhering to LifeLabs standards of safety, accuracy and efficiency. Do you have:
- College diploma or University degree in Medical Laboratory Science, or equivalent education and/or experience.
- Excellent communication skills to enable you to relate with a wide variety of people.
- Good computer skills and knowledge.
- Problem solving skills, including the ability to identify and follow-up on issues.
- Ability to maintain the strictest standards of safety, patient privacy and confidentiality.
At LifeLabs, great employees are at the heart of everything we do. That's why LifeLabs provides more than just competitive compensation and benefits as our employees receive coaching and training in an environment that fosters open communication, education opportunities with tuition reimbursement, and opportunities for advancement and changes in career direction. We especially encourage applications from new graduates and individuals looking to advance their careers.
Does this sound like the job for you? We'd love to discuss your qualifications. Apply online today!
As a caring and customer driven organization, LifeLabs is committed to providing inclusive, barrier free services and workplaces. We will accommodate the accessibility needs of individuals with disabilities during the recruitment process. Should you require accommodation, please advise the Recruiter who contacts you and we will work with you to meet your needs.
About LifeLabs
LifeLabs has operated in Canada for more than 50 years. It is a leading provider of laboratory testing and management services, contributing to the treatment and prevention of disease by enabling healthcare providers to operate more efficiently and effectively. LifeLabs provides more than 100 million diagnostic tests for approximately 19 million patients visits annually. Information from these tests plays a vital role in predicting, diagnosing, treating and monitoring disease. LifeLabs operates the largest community medical laboratory network in Canada, together with our hospital and healthcare partners. LifeLabs also partners with healthcare providers to build a healthier Canada by transforming and managing laboratory organizations to better meet the complex healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow.


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NEW YORK – The NFL is investigating a New York Jets coach who purposely tripped a Miami Dolphins player.
The NFL is investigating an incident that occurred during the Miami Dolphins-New York Jets game yesterday. One of the Jets coaching staff tripped a Dolphins return man as he was running along the sideline.
Miami's Nolan Carroll was running out-of-bounds during a special teams play in the third quarter when Jets coach, Sal Alosi, stuck his knee out causing Carroll to do a face plant. Carroll proceeded to act like a world cup soccer player and roll around on the ground until he received some attention.
The trip was played on national television several times and a CBS sports commentator said, "This is just uncalled for in the NFL … that has no place in any athletic event. I mean can't he just walk it off without all of the dramatics?"
Rumors that the coach was also holding a billy club are false – though they may be true.
The league and the Jets told WWN that they are conducting a comprehensive investigation that could take several months to complete.
Alosi admits that he was responsible for the trip after the game and apologized personally to Carroll. Sources say that Carroll simply held up his hand and exclaimed, "Talk to the hand 'cause the ears ain't listin'", snapped his fingers in a "Z" motion, turned around and walked away.
"He was out-of-bounds so I figured he was fair game," Alosi said. "I just get so mad sometimes that those guys make so much money for running around a field in tight pants. " he continued, "I guess it just got the best of me this time."
If the investigation shows that Alosi was overtly negligent he will be required to do 5,000 push ups and 2,000 laps around the field OR receive a fine of up to $1,00,000.
Story filed by ace WWN reporter, Boy Mack.


text:
Theodore William Richards
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- Born:
- January 31, 1868 Germantown Pennsylvania
- Died:
- April 2, 1928 (aged 60) Cambridge Massachusetts
- Awards And Honors:
- Nobel Prize (1914)
- Subjects Of Study:
- atomic weight isotope
Theodore William Richards, (born Jan. 31, 1868, Germantown, Pa., U.S.—died April 2, 1928, Cambridge, Mass.), American chemist whose accurate determination of the atomic weights of approximately 25 elements indicated the existence of isotopes and earned him the 1914 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Richards graduated from Haverford College, Pa., in 1885 and took advanced degrees at Harvard University, where he became instructor in chemistry in 1891 and full professor in 1901.
Richards greatly improved the technique of gravimetric atomic weight determinations, introducing quartz apparatus, the bottling device, and the nephelometer (an instrument for measuring turbidity). Although the atomic weight values of Jean Servais Stas had been regarded as standard, about 1903 physicochemical measurements showed that some were not accurate. Richards and his students revised these figures, lowering, for instance, Stas's value for silver from 107.93 to 107.88. Richards' investigations of the atomic weight of lead from different sources helped to confirm the existence of isotopes. His later researches were concerned mainly with the physical properties of the solid elements and included much original work on atomic volumes and compressibilities.


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NVIDIA GeForce 326.19 Beta Drivers Availableby Ryan Smith on July 18, 2013 10:15 AM EST
Following the release of the WHQL 320.49 drivers earlier this month, NVIDIA has moved on to their next driver branch, R325. The first release of these drivers, 326.01, was published in a limited form as part of the Windows 8.1 preview, and today NVIDIA is following that up by releasing the first full beta of R325 with the 326.19 beta drivers.
As is usually the case NVIDIA's release notes mostly focus on the performance of these drivers. Among other things, NVIDIA notes that 326.19 "Increases performance by up to 19% […] in several PC games vs. GeForce 320.49", calling out Tomb Raider and Codemasters' racing games in particular.
Meanwhile users on the cutting edge of display hardware will want to pay attention to the fact that this is the first full GeForce driver to support "tiled" 4K displays such as the Asus PQ321Q, which requires support for 2 device "mosaic" mode to properly drive the display at 3840x2160@60Hz. Outside of 3 display Surround modes, this functionality was previously limited to NVIDIA's Quadro cards as a product differentiator.
As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA's driver download page. And thanks to reader SH SOTN for the heads up.
Source: NVIDIA
18 Comments
View All Comments
Gunbuster - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkHope the Korean monitor companies see this. Cheap 39" 4K glass plus display port please!!!
Onslaught2k3 - Sunday, July 21, 2013 - linkGood luck. Most of the Korean companies source LG panels for their current lineups. It will be a while before you see prices going down. One 4k display is equivalent in real estate to 4x 1080p panels...
Hrel - Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - linkWHY do you want display port? I do not understand people's obsession with this redundant port. HDMI works fine, it works more than fine, it works with massive amounts of free overhead. I'm personally sick of having multiple ports to muck with; I want one standard. HDMI is already ubiquitous. Let's stick with it.
Kevin G - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkI'm not a fan of artificial driver limitations. I hope nVidia sees the light and lets all users enable two monitor surround setups, not just MST tiles for 4k displays.
lucas1024 - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkThe issues with GTX 560 Ti are still unresolved, last stable version is 314.22.
theadder - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkI'm having an issue with a GTX 550 Ti that seemingly disappears with an older driver. I'm running the 296.xx version currently, as I picked one to try largely at random.
With the newer drivers the screen freezes, the mouse sometimes has artifacts and the video sometimes switched off; the latter necessitated rebooting with the power switch.
Are these the sort of issues you are describing?
lucas1024 - Friday, July 19, 2013 - linkSounds similar. For me (and others) all 32x.xx drivers cause complete system freezes soon after a boot.
Zaitsev - Friday, July 19, 2013 - linkI have the same freezing problem after boot. It's terrible frustrating. Has nvidia even acknowledged the issue exists?
MadMan007 - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkYup, NVs driver quality is getting worse when for quite a while I've considered them better than AMD/ATI. I have a GTX 660 and recently did a new Windows 8 install due to motherboard swap - I know it might not have been necessary but I like to.
So after installing all updates and drivers I wanted to create a Custom Refresh image in case I ever use Win 8 Refresh. It failed with some kind of stupid error. I wiped it and reinstalled everything - nope, still an error. So I tried a third time - installed all updates, recimg.exe for a custom refresh worked. I installed drivers one by one trying recimg.exe each time, very tedious process. Finally all that was left was the NV drivers...installed 320.18 WHQL and wouldn't you know, now recimg.exe failed. So I installed 314.22 WHQL instead and it worked fine. How can a freaking WHQL driver break a built-in Windows function? With 320.18 installed even a 'normal' system refresh didn't work correctly. It makes me very very hesitant to bother with any new NV drivers because I don't know what else might break.
godrilla - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - linkNow for some affordable low latency 4k monitors.


text:
Badass Hockey Art Turns The Game Into a Twisted Fantasy
What happens when an uber-talented European illustrator is raised in Canada? You get tons of badass graphic art about hockey, apparently.
That's what happened with artist Peter Diamond, who grew up loving the icy sport and has started blending the game with fantastical mythical images in a new series of highly stylized works.
Hockey is a sport that perhaps doesn't get as much love and attention as it should in the states, but if the game looked like it does in Diamond's fertile imagination -- with players sprouting wings and battling giant tentacle monsters -- we're pretty sure it would kill football in the ratings.


text:
major macro economic indicators
|2022 (e)
|2023 (f)
|GDP growth (%)
|Inflation (yearly average, %)
|Budget balance (% GDP)
|Current account balance (% GDP)
|Public debt (% GDP)
(e): Estimate (f): Forecast
- Fourth largest natural gas reserves in the world (nearly 10% of the total)
- Strategic position in Central Asia and between China on the one hand, and Russia and Europe, via the Caspian Sea, on the other
- Healthy public accounts and a low level of debt
- Obtained observer status at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in July 2020, with the intention of commencing accession negotiations by 2025
- High dependence on hydrocarbons (60% of exports, 33% for gas alone, in 2021)
- Strong dependence on China (which receives nearly 75% of gas exports)
- Low share of private sector, anticompetitive market structures (State monopolies dominating the economy, credit and investment management)
- Very difficult business climate, tight trade, price and foreign exchange restrictions and controls that hamper FDI
- Poor infrastructures (especially transport and health) and underdeveloped regional connectivity
- Weak governance (corruption, authoritarianism, repression, politicization of the judiciary, opacity of the statistics system)
- Porous border with Afghanistan (presence of the Taliban) and weak military resources
Economic growth is supported by gas sales
In 2022, economic growth will slow modestly due to the war in Ukraine and its impact on Turkmenistan's main imports (iron, steel, machinery, vehicles). The main driver of the economy will be natural gas exports. Despite the slowdown caused by strict containment measures in China, its main trading partner, higher energy prices will support the value of exports. However, the plan to increase gas exports to China through the delivery of the fourth leg ("Line D") of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline will be difficult to achieve in 2022. However, it could be accelerated after China expressed interest in increasing Turkmen gas imports to compensate for the loss of fuel from Australia. On 20 May 2022, an agreement on the supply of Turkmen gas to Kazakhstan was signed. Concomitantly, Azerbaijan and Armenia have announced their interest in increasing their Turkmen gas imports via Iran. These agreements could either increase the country's gas production or compensate for potential losses in the event of a drop in Chinese demand (due to the zero-COVID policy). In the first few months of 2022, most commodities would have experienced deflation, likely due to very high base effects in 2021, when the country experienced a spike in prices of imported goods due to COVID-related logistical hurdles. However, higher global food prices will support price growth, which will be positive for the year, but limited by price controls. The Central Bank (CBT) does not publish an updated official interest rate and, given the underdeveloped banking sector, monetary policy has little impact on the economy. The authorities apply an official parity of Manat3.5:USD1, but access to foreign currency at this rate is restricted, resulting in a black market rate of Manat29.9:USD1 in 2021. In May 2020, the president ordered that 100% (previously 50%) of foreign currency entering Turkmenistan be transferred to the Stabilization Fund, the sovereign wealth fund, exchanged at the official rate. There is no verifiable data on international reserves, but they should be able to support the currency because of their abundance from natural gas sales and limited government spending.
Balanced fiscal and external accounts
The government's main priorities in 2022 will be to maintain price stability, ensure food security, and stimulate exports. In early June, President Serdar Berdymukhamedov announced that the government would allocate USD 300 million to food security, half of which would be used to support domestic producers. The government also wants to further reduce the volume of imported food. While this may alleviate inflationary pressures, it could lead to shortages due to inefficient domestic agricultural planning and adverse weather conditions. Thus, spending will increase, but the budget deficit will narrow slightly as the government expects more revenue from export taxes and excise duties. Moving to a balanced budget will be a policy priority from 2022-23, as the government seeks to limit the extremely low external debt (20% of GDP in 2021, about 5% of GDP for its public share). Although the trade surplus will decline slightly in 2022, the large natural gas exports and import substitution policy will almost bring the current account into balance.
Country emerges from autarky: bilateral agreements signed
After incumbent President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow resigned, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, his son, won the early presidential election on 12 March 2022, with 72.97% of the vote and no significant opposition. The president visited Iran on 14 June, where several agreements were signed to diversify energy buyers and boost joint production of natural gas and oil in the Caspian Sea. In recent months, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) has been high on the foreign policy agenda. The project has received renewed interest following bilateral meetings between Turkmen officials and their Indian and Pakistani counterparts. However, the project is not expected to make significant progress in 2022 due to a lack of funding and uncertainty about the Afghan security situation. The country is looking to strengthen its cooperation with Turkey, which wants to increase its investment in Turkmenistan and exploit its vast natural resources. With Uzbekistan, several agreements have recently been signed; an agreement on the management, protection and rational use of the waters of the Amu Darya river, as well as trade agreements (worth USD 450 million) in the automotive, electronics and textile sectors, with the aim of increasing bilateral trade to USD 2 billion a year (from USD 880 million in 2021). Finally, the country has finalized the construction of the Aqineh-Andkhoy railway line in Afghan territory, which was interrupted during the pandemic. This 30-km segment will connect the Chinese railway network to the port of Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea. However, regional cooperation was shaken up on 21 July, when Tajikistan and Turkmenistan refused to sign a treaty committing all Central Asian countries to "friendship, good neighbouring and cooperation". The only reason given: the two countries wish, beforehand, "(to have) completed all internal procedures".
Last updated: August 2022


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A Parijat Tree located at
Kintur Village in Barabanki District in Uttar Pradesh in is believed to belong to the age of the Mahabharata. It is mentioned in the Mahabharat that Sri Krishna uprooted the Parijata Tree from the India , the god of Devas, and presented it to his wife Rukimini. Another legend in the Puranas suggests that Arjuna of Mahabarat brought the Parijata Tree for his mother Kunti, who offered to Shiva. kingdom of Indira
It is believed by many people that the Parijat Tree mentioned in the Mahabharata is the one found at
in Barabanki District. Kintur Village is named after Kunti, the mother of Pandavas. The village is located around 40 km east of Kintur Village . Barabanki Town
But sadly now experts have raised concern about the survival of the tree.
After concerns being raised over its survival from different quarters, a 5-member panel of experts from the Narendra Deo University of Agriculture and Technology (NDUAT), Faizabad, surveyed the tree on Monday. Leading the panel, head of department of crop physiology, NDUAT, Akhtar Hussain Khan, said: "We travelled to Barabanki to assess the tree and the extent of damage it has suffered due to various reasons. Now we will compile a report citing the problems that plague the tree and ways to protect and preserve the plant variety.''
Khan added: "It is believed that this is the only tree of this variety that exists. We will also try to see whether saplings of the tree can be planted elsewhere.''More Information about the Parijata Tree at Barabanki
It is mentioned in the Harivansh Purana that Parijat is a type of Kalpvraksh and whosoever makes a wish under this tree gets it fulfilled.
Parijat Tree at
in Barabanki District is the only tree of this variety that exists. The tree has been kept in a special category because it does not produce fruits and neither does it reproduce from branch cuttings. Some experts are of the view that it is a unisex male tree and that there is no other such tree in the world. Kintur Village
The leaves of this tree in the lower portion have five tips like the fingers of a hand, while at the upper reaches it has seven. Its flower is very beautiful and white in color, on drying out it gets a golden tinge. The flower has five petals. The tree blossoms very occasionally, with very few flowers, but when it does in June/ July, it spreads its fragrance far and wide.
The age of this tree is said to be 1000 to 5000 years. The perimeter of the trunk of this tree is around 50 feet and height of around 45 feet. There is another popular saying that, its branches do not break or dry out but shrink and disappear into the original trunk.
It must be noted that different varieties of the Parijat Tree are found in different parts of
. But none of them have the characteristics of the one found at Barabanki. India


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Remote Telescope Requests: Difference between revisions
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With the scientific cameras on the CDK20 telescopes each image is taken through a filter that isolates a narrow band of the spectrum. If you looked through one of them, you would see a blue, green, or red scene. Here's how we designate the filters that are
With the scientific cameras on the CDK20 telescopes each image is taken through a filter that isolates a narrow band of the spectrum. If you looked through one of them, you would see a blue, green, or red scene. Here's how we designate the filters that are available:
* Blue-Green: g' (400 to 530 nm)
* Blue-Green: g' (400 to 530 nm)
Revision as of 08:36, 8 March 2012
Remote Telescope Use
Today's computer technology, modern optics, and electronics offer an opportunity to provide you with access to research quality telescopes in both the northern and southern hemispheres. The University of Louisville and the University of Southern Queensland operate remotely controlled telescopes at Moore Observatory near Brownsboro, Kentucky, and at Mount Kent Observatory near Toowoomba, Australia. We are developing the capability to allow students to control these telescopes from home, taking advantage of the fact that it is nighttime at one site when it is daytime at another.
This semester one telescope at Moore Observatory in Kentucky is available with full remote control, and others are operating robotically under the supervision of a professional astronomer acquiring images to meet your requests. This is actually the way that most research astronomy is done today: astronomers pose a problem they want to solve, identify new data that would help them understand the issues, request time on a telescope and specify how that time would be used, get the data back from the telescope, analyze their results, and come to conclusions about the problem they had set out to study. Our goal in this experiment is to offer you an experience like this, and to help you work through the steps to learn by "discovery"
Available Resources
The observatories are described on our website at
and you are encouraged to explore it to see about the observatories and their telescopes. The content is currently under development, and may change during the semester.
The facilities you have access to include:
- Moore Observatory in the northern hemisphere near Brownsboro, Kentucky
- Mt. Kent Observatory in the southern hemisphere near Toowoomba, Australia
At both observatories we have identical 0.5 meter (20 inch) diameter "CDK20" research telescopes operating with a CCD camera and a selection of filters. These are the primary telescopes for this program. We offer other instruments too
- A 0.36 meter (14 inch) "C14" - the Shared Skies Live telescope at Moore Observatory takes full color images of planets and offers a web interface for real time control
- Wide field color cameras for imaging the entire sky, constellations, or comets that may span many degrees
- A 0.6 meter (24 inch) "RC24" research telescope at Moore Observatory used primarily to study planets around other stars
We also have a growing archive of images acquired over the past few years that we provide if a request for a current image cannot be accomodated or we have something already done that we can offer quickly.
What the Telescopes Can Show
Except the color cameras, the CCD cameras on the telescopes return scientific images as digital files in "FITS" format. These images may be viewed with ImageJ, Aladin, or other software you load on your own computer. The JPG images color pictures are the same type as you would usually have from your own digital camera. They may be useful if you are interested in seeing form or structure, watching craters or shadows on the Moon, following the rotation of Jupiter or Mars, or looking for the colors of stars.
Also except for the special wide field cameras, these telescopes cover a field about half a degree across, the apparent size of the Moon. Each pixel resolves about 0.5 arcsecond (there are 3600 arcseconds in a degree), and measures how much light arrived at that spot in the image for the duration of the exposure. By comparing one pixel with another, you can tell how much brighter or fainter one feature of the image is compared to another. The image that you see, while visually exciting, is also a tool to measure how much light there is and where it is.
Some images may be returned to you with a calibration for the position in the sky, and as you explore them you can measure the celestial coordinates of any point in the image. In this way, you can identify individual stars, clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in the images. You can follow the changing positions of asteroids and satellites of planets. You can spot a new supernova, watch variable stars, measure the separation of double stars, measure the diameter of a distant galaxy, or identify a new comet. However, most images are returned without calibrated positions, and you will have to compare them to web-based resources to understand what you have recorded.
With the scientific cameras on the CDK20 telescopes each image is taken through a filter that isolates a narrow band of the spectrum. If you looked through one of them, you would see a blue, green, or red scene. Here's how we designate the filters that are usually available:
- Blue-Green: g' (400 to 530 nm)
- Yellow-Red: r'(530 to 700 nm)
- Hydrogen: H-alpha (656 nm)
- Red-Near Infrared: i' (700 to 825 nm)
- Infrared: z' (825 1100 nm)
The numbers are the wavelength of light in the spectrum, from blue light at 450 nanometers (nm) to red light at 650 nm (nm). Infrared has a longer wavelenth than red, and ultraviolet has a shorter wavelength than blue. Our telescopes respond well to "near" infrared light, out to 1100 nm, but not well to ultraviolet light.
A measurement with different filters allows us to determine the "color" of a star, or we can put images from blue, green, and red together to make a color image that will resemble what you would see if your eyes could detect this faint light. Images through a filter that isolates light emitted by hydrogen gas would show few stars, and if you could "see" through this filter the scene would look dark red and show only the gas. You read about all the filters that are available here.
The special "live" C14 telescope uses a very high quality color CCD camera and provides images immediately in full color, much as you would do with your own digital camera or cell-phone camera. This color camera is excellent for comparing light in different filter bands. Short exposures with this camera show hints of color on the Moon, fine detail in the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn, and hints of features on Mars.
The faintest stars you will find are about 18th magnitude. These stars are more than 10,000,000 times fainter that the brightest stars in the night sky. If the air is steady, the smallest detail you will see is about 1 arcsecond across. For comparison, Jupiter appears about 40 arcseconds across in our sky, and the Andromeda galaxy extends thousands of arcseconds. Due to a limitation on the shortest exposure we can take, stars brighter than about 3rd or 4th magnitude are too bright to record except with the full color camera on the CDK125 telescope.
Within our solar system you could expect to see
- changing phases of the Moon, and its libration
- craters on the Moon and shadows that move during the night
- "earthshine", the light on the dark side of the Moon reflected from Earth
- Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune moving nightly across the sky with respect to stars
- polar caps and large features on Mars
- satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune moving nightly
- changing atmospheric features on Jupiter and Saturn
- rings of Saturn
- asteroids
- the brighter dwarf planets
Within our Milky Way galaxy you could see
- star birth nebulae
- open clusters of young stars
- active stars that erupt and change brightness
- double stars in orbit around one another (but not so fast that you would see the motion) unless you come back several years later
- planetary nebulae surrounding dying stars
- globular clusters of very old stars
Beyond our galaxy there are
- nearby companion galaxies like the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
- clusters of galaxies like those in Virgo and Coma
- active galaxies with blackholes in their nuclei
- other fainter galaxies out to distances of over 100 million light years
- quasars out to distances of billions of light years
- the occasional new supernova in a distant galaxy
However, what is available to see depends on the time of year (where Earth is in its orbit), where the planets are in their orbits, and whether you are using a telescope in the northern or southern hemisphere.
How to Proceed
If you are in the astronomy lab on campus and working in a small group (usually 3 students), you may make a decision as a group about what to request. This is easiest for us too, since we have fewer requests to handle that way. However, if you prefer you may work on your own too.
You will have until the end of the semester to complete this exercise. However, it has two graded parts, and the first part you need to do immediately: define a problem and propose an observation. After that, we will help you to use data with our telescopes, and assist you with understanding what it has to offer.
Begin by asking yourself
With that in mind satisfy your curiosity by selecting an object and the sort of data you would like to have on it. Check that the objects of interest are visible to us now, and complete the simple form at this website:
Answer the questions on this form as best you can. There is no correct answer, but if needed we will ask for additional information to be sure we can supply data that are interesting and useful. The form asks for a contact email, and you may supply one or more names. You do not have to submit a request for each person in the group, just for the group as a whole.
After you have done that, then each student should answer these questions in the lab and give them to the lab assistant. He may have an immediate suggestion. Remember that we need both the answers from you on the usual lab sheet, and the completed group web form while you are in class today.
1. What is the name of the object you have selected?
2. What sort of object is it? Simple answers are a planet, a dwarf planet, an asteroid, Earth's Moon, a star ...
3. How bright is it? Give its magnitude if that is relevant. You can find this usually on the web (Wikipedia is quite reliable for this), or in Stellarium (or XEphem on the computers in the astronomy lab room). Just to remind you, the brightest stars are 0th magnitude, the faintest you can see without a telescope is about 6th magnitude, and the faintest our telescopes can see is about 18th magnitude. The Moon and nearby planets are of course much brighter than the brightest stars.
4. How large is it in degrees, arcminutes, or arcseconds (as appropriate)? The smallest detail our telescopes can record is about 1 arcsecond, and the field of view is about 1/2 degree.
5. What is its declination (north is +, south is -) of the object?
6. Do you need a southern telescope to see it? If it is below -10 degrees we cannot do it well from our northern telescopes. The absolute limit for us is -52 degrees but that puts the object on the southern horizon for a few seconds! We have limited time this semester for new data from Mt. Kent and planetary imaging will be done from Moore Observatory.
7. What is its right ascension (in hours from 0 to 24, with minuts and seconds)? We can see objects between 3 and 20 hours this month because the Sun blocks out part of the sky.
8. At what time in late March or April will this object be will above the horizon seen from the observatory you have chosen?
9. What would you like to know more about that you could expect to "see" with the images from a telescope? This is the hard part!
10. What last name and email address do you want us to use to provide you with instructions on where to find your data?
The one necessary part of this request is that you have to select an object that is observable with our telescopes. You might use Stellarium, for example, to see what is currently visible, and Sky-Map to explore images and data on the web. You could also use Google simply to search for more information about your proposed target. If your request is inappropriate, we will work with you to help refine your selection. However, once you have data, one of the questions you will have to answer is why you made this choice, and what you expect to learn from it.
This fall from Moore Observatory we are able to observe the entire sky north of -10 degrees Declination and from Right Ascension 4 hours to 20 hours, between March 20 and April 20. This includes Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, and Venus:
- New Moon on March 22
- First quarter on March 29
- Full Moon on April 6
- Last quarter on April 13
- New Moon on April 21
Our opportunities to see the southern sky from Mt. Kent Observatory are more limited because of technical improvements being installed on our telecopes, but we may be able to provide new images of parts of the Milky Way not seen from the northern hemisphere, and the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. From Mt. Kent we can observe declinations below +20 all the way to the south celestial pole.
Once your data are available we will provide a link from which you can download images and there will be another unit posted for you to use in completing the work. This is the simplest process since it does not depend on coordinating your schedule with the telescope and weather. It is available for any of the telescopes we have in operation this semester.
If you would like an opportunity to operate the "live" telescope at Moore Observatory and take images of your own, please note that. We may offer this for planets in the northern sky, but we have to schedule the use and coordinate with you so that you can be at your computer when it is dark and clear at the observatory. Usually we would assist you at the same time by a Skype session, email chat, or a phone call.


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DEKALB COUNTY, Ind. – A group of more than 50 bikers in northeastern Indiana stepped in to help when they found out a local sixth grade student was having trouble with bullying, according to WXIN.
Tammy Mick, the mother of Dekalb Middle School Student Phil Mick, said it got so bad he told her he contemplated suicide. She spoke with Brent Warfield of KDZ Motorcycle Sales & Service about it, and Warfield immediately stepped in to help.
Warfield is the director of United Motorcycle Enthusiasts, and he told WXIN he's been hosting charity rides for years. He's been working to raise awareness about bullying and teen suicide, so he decided to organize a special ride for Phil on his first day of middle school.
He posted the information on Facebook just a few days beforehand, and he got an incredible response.
More than 50 bikers met with Phil and his family for breakfast before his first day of school. Some bikers even traveled from over an hour away. They prayed with Phil before they all escorted him to school. Warfield said the school was very welcoming of the idea, and Phil was very excited about a fresh new start.
Warfield said this wouldn't have been possible without the help from all the big-hearted bikers in the area who are working to raise awareness about bullying and teen suicide.
United Motorcycle Enthusiasts is having a ride for suicide awareness and teen bullying on September 23. "We want to get our message out there that we are here for our youth. They are not alone," Warfield told FOX59.
If you or anyone you know are looking for resources with bullying or suicide, visit StopBullying.org or The National Suicide Prevention Hotline.