text:
Some consolidation afoot in the world of food and lifestyle properties. Gojee, a recipe aggregation site organised around big pictures, specific ingredients and themes, has quietly been acquired by XO Group, the umbrella group for women-focused sites like The Knot, The Bump, The Nest and Wedding Channel. The move comes after Gojee explored sales to several other companies, including Yahoo. There is no indication of the ownership change on the Gojee site; TechCrunch heard of the deal through a person close to the company, and has now confirmed it directly with XO Group.
As part of the acquisition, XO has hired five of Gojee's employees, including co-founders Mike LaValle and Tian He, and it intends to keep the site up and running as a complement to its other sites, targeting the same demographic of young couples with a heavy emphasis on women.
For us at XO Group Inc., particularly at The Bump and The Nest, we recognized this great moment to take the special sauce that Gojee has in collecting content that people are emotionally connected to, and present it to our users in compelling new ways," Josh Himwich, XO's VP of Product, said in an emailed statement. "Gojee's award-winning apps have been featured in Apple commercials and retail stores nationwide – the exact talent and forward product thinking we're excited to bring on."
We don't know the financial terms of the deal but are trying to find them out. Gojee had raised $4 million from Kapoor Capital and InterWest Partners.
From what we understand, the plan will be to get the Gojee team to work on refreshing all of XO's dated web properties, with a specific focus on updating the mobile experience. Overall, XO's sites had 4.7 million unique visitors in February, a decline of 18.6% on a year ago, according to comScore. Its biggest site, The Knot, had 2.2 million uniques in February, an increase of 2.7% over last year.
For Gojee, the sale is a mark of the challenges that smaller, independent sites have in breaking into a game that these days is dominated by a handful of very big players that base their business models around advertising and scale. comScore says that in the month of February in the U.S., food sites brought in nearly 110 million unique monthly visitors. With the biggest, AllRecipes.com, hitting nearly 30 million uniques in the U.S. in February, it's a sector with a very long tail of players:
But it is also a sector somewhat on the decline as more and more users turn away from food-specific sites and more to properties like Pinterest that aggregate recipes from everywhere. These figures also from comScore:
This is where Gojee comes in.
Like a Pinterest of sorts, Gojee wasn't a repository for original content created specifically for its own platform, but effectively a beautiful and effective search and recommendation engine and portal for consumers to find the recipe they need from everywhere else on the web. It matches well with the talent and IP that XO Group picked up in September 2013, when it acquired Hoppit, a search engine that let you find restaurants based on their ambience.
Going back to Gojee's other potential suitors, you can see how something like Gojee would appeal to Yahoo, which has been looking long and hard at ways of rejuvenating its search business and position itself as a player in that space once again. (Digression for another time: Will Pinterest eventually start trying to marshal some of its traffic around original content, too?)
On top of its search ambitions, Yahoo has been beefing up its content plays in specific verticals, launching a new portal dedicated specifically to Food in February.
Although Gojee had been speaking to Yahoo for a while, we understand that the discussions took place around the autumn/end of September 2013, when Yahoo had started to downshift its acquisition tear. This apparently had an effect on their talks with prospects, too.
In the meantime, Gojee also met with several others, including Buzz Feed, Yelp and The RealReal — a luxury goods e-commerce platform. The RealReal, which shares an investor with Gojee in the form of InterWest Partners, aligns with Gojee's short-lived pivot into fashion. In fact, some Gojee employees moved over to the RealReal regardless after the XO Group sale.
In the end, it appeared that XO Group was the most interested. Apart from the fact that it helps XO diversify into a new vertical, food, it gives the company a new approach to attracting audience via search algorithms and aggregation and fresh-looking design.
This is particularly important when you consider that XO Group, founded in 1996, is pushing 20, relatively speaking a senior citizen in the world of the Internet. "None of the other companies Gojee met with needed people to bring in new blood as much as XO," our source told us.


text:
Rear Window (1954)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Genres - Mystery, Drama, Thriller | Sub-Genres - Romantic Mystery, Psychological Thriller | Release Date - Sep 30, 1983 (USA) | Run Time - 112 min. | Countries - United States | MPAA Rating - PG
Share on
Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Laid up with a broken leg, photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to his tiny, sweltering courtyard apartment. To pass the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), the binocular-wielding Jeffries stares through the rear window of his apartment at the goings-on in the other apartments around his courtyard. As he watches his neighbors, he assigns them such roles and character names as "Miss Torso" (Georgine Darcy), a professional dancer with a healthy social life or "Miss Lonelyhearts" (Judith Evelyn), a middle-aged woman who entertains nonexistent gentlemen callers. Of particular interest is seemingly mild-mannered travelling salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), who is saddled with a nagging, invalid wife. One afternoon, Thorwald pulls down his window shade, and his wife's incessant bray comes to a sudden halt. Out of boredom, Jeffries casually concocts a scenario in which Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of the body in gruesome fashion. Trouble is, Jeffries' musings just might happen to be the truth. One of Alfred Hitchcock's very best efforts, Rear Window is a crackling suspense film that also ranks with Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960) as one of the movies' most trenchant dissections of voyeurism. As in most Hitchcock films, the protagonist is a seemingly ordinary man who gets himself in trouble for his secret desires.
witness, amateur-detective, camera, girlfriend, injury, invalid, murder, neighbor, photojournalist, voyeur, wheelchair, window
High Artistic Quality, High Historical Importance

subset: commoncrawl


text:
You are here
Ethiopians Who Survived the Famine: A Repatriation Success Story
Twenty years ago, a great famine swept across the Sahelian region of Africa. In Ethiopia, one of the worst affected countries, three years of drought combined with civil war resulted in the deaths of an estimated one million people and the out-migration to Sudan of more than 600,000 refugees.
Efforts are underway to capitalize on images of that famine for new charity fundraising. The 1980s hit song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was rerecorded at the end of 2004 to raise money for the victims of the emergency in Darfur, Sudan, and a variety of commemorative events are planned for 2005. Various retrospectives have considered the extent to which lessons have been learned over the last 20 years to help prevent famine from returning to the Horn of Africa.
But whatever happened to the survivors of the Great Ethiopian Famine? Few people realize that long after the television cameras grew weary of recording their plight and moved on to the next hotspot, most of those who had sought refuge in Sudan remained in the camps.
Only in 1991, after the fall of the Derg Government in Ethiopia at the hands of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, were people willing to consider returning to their country of origin. The majority of Ethiopians went home, although actual return did not begin until June 1993.
"The War Is Over, So We Can Go Home"
By the time the refugees returned to Ethiopia, most had lost their claims to land in their villages of origin in the central and eastern highlands of Tigray and Amhara Regions. Due to heavy population pressure in those areas, local governance councils had allocated to new households the land left vacant by the refugees.
Potential returnees were thus presented with the option of settling in lowland areas in the west of the country, close to the Sudan border, where they would receive small plots of land, or returning to the highlands where they would not have access to land. Not surprisingly, most chose to settle in the lowland areas of Tigray and Amhara regions.
In the area around the town of Humera in Tigray region, some 25,000 returnees were resettled between 1993 and 1995. They were given only minimal assistance from the Ethiopian government and the international community: nine months' food ration, some plastic sheeting for shelter, a box of kitchen utensils, and a few farm tools.
Each family received two hectares of land for farming and a plot of 16 x 20 meters on which to build their houses. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the government of Ethiopia expected that after the first harvest (i.e., within nine months) returnees would become self-sufficient. However, they did not spend adequate time investigating whether this actually happened.
In the months that followed, returnees set about transforming the unfamiliar place to which they had "returned" into a place that began to resemble a home. They first had to clear their farmland, which had not been farmed for at least 20 years and had become overgrown with bushes and trees.
Although many returnees had farming backgrounds, many had never grown sorghum and sesame, the main crops suitable for cultivation in their new environment. Female-headed households had to find people who were willing to clear and cultivate their land in exchange for half of the harvest. Many people received little or no harvest during the first year because they had not been able to plant on time or to adequately tend their fields.
Having been dependent upon humanitarian assistance for nearly a decade in the camps, the returnees had to adjust to the reality of living without non-governmental organization (NGO) assistance and where schools, health care services, and water supply were much more rudimentary than they had been accustomed to.
In post-war Ethiopia, the government could not afford to provide anything but the most basic level of services, and returnees were expected to adjust to living under the same conditions as those who had remained behind during the war.
Getting to Know the Place
The process of adjusting to life following repatriation was extremely difficult during the first year. Returnees sold whatever assets they had to buy enough food to survive, and lived on a precarious cliff-edge from one day to the next.
Infant and under-5 mortality rates were extremely high, and many women died in childbirth due to the lack of adequate medical facilities. People attributed the hardships to the fact that they were unfamiliar with this new place, and thus were unable to ward off the dangers they associated with "the wilderness."
In a public meeting held to discuss measures that should be taken to protect people from the threat of malaria, one man said, "We do not know this place; that is why we and our children are dying." The hazards that an unknown place presented included diseases endemic to the area (particularly malaria and leishmaniasis), possession by the Evil Eye or a host of other spirits, snake bites and attacks by wild animals, and severe food shortages that resulted from lack of familiarity with effective farming practices.
Over time and through constant interaction with their environment through daily labor, travel, and the forging of new social networks with neighbors, returnees came to "know the place" better. They located sources of medicinal herbs for fighting off disease, became more adept at growing and marketing their crops, and found the best sources of grazing land and water during the dry season.
Social networks within the community were strengthened; neighbors and kin helped each other to build their houses, plow their fields, and cut firewood. In some cases, fictive kinship relations were created between people who were either distantly or completely unrelated: a distant cousin might come to be thought of as a brother or uncle; a woman who had originated from the same village in Tigray could, because she shared the same geographic heritage and shared what little she had in the returnee settlement, come to be considered a sister.
These newly defined relationships helped people to share resources and to help each other out during times of difficulty.
Creating a New Code of Good Citizenship
In the process of creating a new community, all social rules and hierarchies were open to negotiation. Many returnees who were young adults had come of age while living in the refugee camps. They had been organized by refugee camp administrators and political cadres, and had never lived under a civilian administration. Redefining rules of social behavior involved developing a new code of good citizenship.
Good citizens were defined as those who participated in public works projects (digging water pipelines, constructing buildings for the local administrative offices, etc.), and served in the local militia or governing council (known as the baito). People creatively sought ways of demonstrating their worth as good citizens, serving the church or mosque and volunteering at the clinic or for the women's association.
The hope was that if they were considered to be citizens in good standing, they would be eligible to receive better plots of land in the next round of allocation, or to receive any food aid that might be distributed in the village.
During the 1995 elections, several individuals who were seriously ill and bed-ridden managed to get themselves to the polling stations to vote. They explained that if they did not, they were afraid that they might lose their land. Although it was not clear whether they had actually been threatened with loss of land, the perception was clearly strong enough to get them to cast their vote.
Are We Home Yet?
Twelve years after having repatriated to Ethiopia, do returnees consider themselves to be "home"? Over the years they have steadily become more secure in their new surroundings. Most people have been able to become self-sufficient through their farming and occasional waged labor on the large commercial farms in the area.
They have learned to exploit the trade opportunities made possible by Humera's advantageous position close to the borders of Sudan and Eritrea (the latter until 1998, when war broke out between Ethiopia and its northern neighbor; the Ethio-Eritrean border remains closed now). Yet they have done this on their own, with virtually no assistance from the government or the international community.
Whether the returnees consider themselves home depends on who one talks to. Elderly people tend to feel that they will remain displaced until they return to the place they were born; they hope to die and be buried among the relatives and friends they knew before they went to Sudan.
Younger adults have a more economically pragmatic attitude. They see Humera as offering economic potential that the degraded and overcrowded highlands cannot provide to their families, and are content to remain in this area for the rest of their lives. Children are perhaps the most flexible, having no memory of life in the Tigrayan highlands, or even of the refugee camps in Sudan where they were born.
Despite this, returnees' notion of home has come to take on a multi-sited nature. Rather than thinking of the returnee settlement or the birthplace as the one true home, many returnees consider themselves to belong to both places. Their identity is derived from their heritage in the highlands (many people continue to live amongst neighbors whose families come from the same part of Tigray) and from their adopted lowland residence.
Lessons Learned
Fate seems to have its own cruel way of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Great Ethiopian Famine. This year, an estimated 8.3 million people will need food aid. People are leaving their houses again, though they are moving to areas inside Ethiopia rather than departing the country.
To prevent "disordered" migration, the government of Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious program of resettlement within the country, moving people from the highlands to areas close to the returnee settlements discussed here. Their model of providing assistance closely resembles that used to resettle returning refugees.
Many of the same difficulties that returning refugees first experienced are now being encountered by those being resettled: high rates of mortality and morbidity, extreme food shortages, and increased destitution.
The longitudinal research described here that has been conducted in the returnee settlements around Humera over the past 12 years has yielded several lessons that can guide repatriation and resettlement operations not only in Ethiopia now, but in other places where these "migration solutions" are being promoted:
- Prior to undertaking repatriation or resettlement, a socio-economic assessment should be done of conditions in the area of potential return. The goal of integration should be to help returnees and settlers achieve the same standard of living as locals living in the area, without acting as a drain on resources that locals rely upon.
- Regular monitoring of the integration process should be carried out jointly by UNHCR (in cases of return movements), other members of the international community, and the government of the country of origin until the objectives of integration have been met.
- Resettling people in areas they have never lived before can be viable, but all people must be free to choose whether to live in the unfamiliar place or to return to their areas of origin, and they must be provided with adequate assistance to make integration possible.
- Social integration cannot realistically be expected to be achieved within only one year after arrival in a returnee or resettlement site. It usually takes two to three years for returnees' and settlers' lives to stabilize. Until this happens, they remain extremely vulnerable to such shocks as drought, crop failure, epidemics, and food price fluctuations. Governments and the international community must remain vigilant to these hazards and work to minimize their impact on returnee and settler communities.
- Returnees and settlers can be extremely creative and resilient in their responses to the challenges of post-repatriation life. However, it is essential not to take advantage of their vulnerability by exacting political allegiance or compelling them to devote more time to communal work projects than they can afford (given their other household obligations).
Standards for achieving integration following repatriation or resettlement are necessary for ensuring that people can realize sustainable and viable livelihoods.
It is equally important that governments and the international community adequately monitor and evaluate the experiences of returnees and settlers to guarantee they have the support they need to achieve social integration.
Taking responsibility for integration has not, so far, been a feature of return and resettlement programs, but it is necessary.
This article is based on Laura C. Hammond's new book This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation to Ethiopia, published by Cornell University Press (2004).


text:
Dry valleys, channels, and networks of gullies scar the arid Martian landscape. Along with other evidence, these physical vestiges of conditions on ancient Mars suggest a planet once saturated with liquid water. Where is this water now? Scientists have posited that a portion of it evaporated into the atmosphere, but that the rest lies beneath the surface. Findings announced today offer the strongest support yet to that hypothesis: according to new data, large deposits of water ice may in fact exist under just tens of centimeters of soil on the Red Planet.
Researchers used a gamma-ray spectrometer on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft to map the emissions of gamma rays and neutrons from the Martian surface. Interactions between elements and cosmic rays, which constantly bombard all planets, produce these gamma rays and neutrons. Specifically, when a cosmic ray strikes an element, neutrons are released. These neutrons may either escape the planets surface or excite the nuclei of surrounding elements, which respond by emitting gamma rays. Each element emits a unique combination of gamma rays and neutrons, and thus has a distinctive fingerprint. In three papers released yesterday by the journal Science, investigators reported having found evidence for a high concentration of the element hydrogen, an indicator of water. The results suggest that an immense quantity of water exists within the nooks and crannies of a rocky, porous layer of soil some 30 to 60 centimeters beneath Mars's surface. Stretching from the edges of the polar ice caps to the middle latitudes, the thickness of the ice layer is difficult to determineit may be anywhere from a few hundred centimeters to a kilometer deep.
If confirmed, the locations of such water ice deposits could determine future landing sites for rovers, locations of sample returns, and perhaps even placements of human settlements. "We have suspected for some time that Mars once had large amounts of water near the surface. The big questions we are trying to answer are, 'where did all that water go?' and 'what are the implications for life?'" remarks Jim Garvin, Mars Program Scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Measuring and mapping the icy soils in the polar regions of Mars as the Odyssey team has done is an important piece of this puzzle, but we need to continue searching, perhaps much deeper underground, for what happened to the rest of the water we think Mars once had."


text:
Test build 20130725 for Android-x86 4.3 (JB-x86).
The Android-x86 project is glad to announce a new test build 20130725 for public testing. This is a test release for Android-x86 4.3. The live CD iso is available as usual
Key FeaturesThe test build 20130725 is based on the latest Android 4.3 release (Jelly Bean-MR2 branch). We have fixed and added x86 specified code to let the system runs smoothly on most x86 platforms, especially for tablets and netbooks. The key features in this release are
Released FileSince the jb-x86 branch we try to create a universal image for most x86 platforms. The plan is still in an early stage. Please report bugs to the android-x86 forum with detailed specs of your machine and error logs.
The iso file is hybrid format. That means you can dump the iso into a usb drive and get a bootable usb stick, like
$ dd if=android-x86-4.3-20130725.iso of=/dev/sdX
where /dev/sdX is the device name of your usb drive.
Known issues
Source code
The source code is available in the main git server,
$ repo init -u git://gitscm.sf.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest -b jb-x86
$ repo sync
Read this page for how to compile the source code.
Releases >


text:
Most LED tubes, although they have the same size, lamp base as a linear fluorescent, and possibly a similar lumen output, do not have the same omni directional light distribution. Many luminaires emit 20%-30% less light output with narrower beam spreads when fitted with LEDs. This is especially true of troffers with reflectors that offer batwing (wide-spread) light distribution with fluorescents. This needs to be taken into account when considering the overall 30-50% less power usage by LEDs with increased system efficiencies.
It is likely that the luminaire will need some rewiring and this should be done in conformance with the local electrical installation standards.


text:
12mm x 1.75 Metric Hex Rethreading Die - Carbon Steel
Model #: HDM-12-1.75
Price: $7.75
Description: 12mm x 1.75 Carbon Steel Hex Die 0499-0085
- Thread Diameter: 12 mm
- Thread Pitch: 1.75 mm
- For cleaning and repairing existing metric threads.
- The dimension across the flats is not designed for any specific holder.
Carbon Steel.
Used primarily for repairing existing threads.
Hex shape allows use in tight places.
Can be used with a common adjustable wrench.


text:
Single Women Near Me on Facebook -Single Near Me Women On Facebook – Single Ladies Near Me – Facebook is one of the best places you can get to meet with single women near you. On FB you can meet the most gorgeous women from every part of the world. One thing to bring to mind is that women make a large percentage of the world. Looking at Facebook, it isn't new that it is the number one social media platform in the world.
This is to show you that you can find a lot of single ladies from every continent of the world. There are different people who live in an environment and I can assure you Facebook is almost in all environments and this is the reason you can meet with beautiful single ladies of different age grades on FB. A lot of times, people have their own opinions on the reason they choose to meet singles on Facebook. It could be for a relationship, business, ideas, networking, marketing, etc. FB is a global community where your needs can be met no matter the area you need help. Although dating is very common when it comes to meeting single women or ladies.
Single Near Me Women On Facebook
However, the easiest way to meet with these very amazing singles is through groups on FB. Now, the idea here is to get in touch with the ones around your sphere of contact. Have you ever wondered why you have groups associated with several countries, towns, continents, etc. It is to enable people to easily contact each other from FB and beyond. For instant, if you reside in New York you can find single ladies near you by following these processes:
- Sign In your FB account
- Search "Single Women in New York" on your search bar
- Click "Groups"
It is very simple. Aside from that, you can find singles women in dating groups and mixed groups of other types.
Hope this post is helpful? If yes use the comment box below for more inquires. And also ensure you share this post to others on Facebook. Thanks


text:
April 8, 2007
Batch Upload Files to Google Docs
Fortunately, the latest version of Google Toolbar for Firefox has a feature that lets you drag and drop files to your browser and they are automatically uploaded to Google Docs. To upload more files at a time, go to Windows Explorer or other file manager, select your files and drag them in Firefox.
To activate the feature, to go to Google Docs & Spreadsheets after installing the toolbar. You'll get a prompt that asks you if you want to enable the feature. Alternatively, click on Settings / Options and enable "Docs & Spreadsheets".
Upload files using drag and drop in Firefox
24 comments:
Is this a brand new feature? I remember trying this a couple weeks ago, to ill results:ReplyDelete
I tried to batch-upload by dragging-and-dropping files into firefox, which (through the google toolbar) should upload them to Google DS. No luck, though. Only about 50% of files seem to get through, making the toolbar worthless for batch uploading.
It's not technically a feature of Google Toolbar, but you can use it this way if you want.ReplyDelete
I tested this with 5 files from a folder: 2 .doc, 2 .xls, 1 .ods. I dragged them to Firefox and each one opened a new tab where it was uploaded and then opened for editing.
It's weird that when I tried this with identical copies of a file, only one copy was uploaded. I tried to upload 2 copies of the file A and 3 copies of the file B. The toolbar opened 5 tabs: 2 of them contained the files A and B, two redirected to the "Upload a file" page and the other tab gave an error: "we were unable to upload this document".
Thanks for the experiment.ReplyDelete
Hopefully this will be solved eventually. (As good or better would be an api, that would allow file manipulations through a program...)
- AnonymousApril 10, 2007 at 1:30 AM
Re. Batch Upload to Google Docs & Spreadsheets . . .ReplyDelete
unfortunatly this seems to be another example of how Google with all it's might doesn't seem to understand the difference between alpha and beta testing. . . .
here again Google is using its prime users as crash test dummies instead of its employees . . .
that's right, alpha testing (where these and other bugs are usually ironed-out) is internal testing of an app using emplyees and other named testors . . .
following a whole bunch of that sort of testing, usually done completed systematically in a series of iteratives steps . . .
a good dev company will give fair warning and put out the immature code and app to a core group of it's users . . .
lastly, these last tests, or beta tests go thru a series of test iterations, where commercial code is developed and eventually released to its broad user community . . .
this is beta testing. All of this can and should be compressed and the release cycles can certainly overlap to obtain faster maturity in the target code . . .
but that's not the sort of thing I've noticed with the Google squirt-gun teams.
ciao dog food is good - try it.
I have just uploaded about 180 documents and it seemed to work great. Thanks I have been looking for this feature for a while. You can upload pics to sites by the folder that take a lot of space but somehow a documents are different.ReplyDelete
This might only work for us old-time Writely users, but I'm able to upload documents just by sending them to a special email address. In my case the address is email@example.com (some random characters that I've replaced with x-es).ReplyDelete
Also the problem of mass-exporting documents is yet unresolved. To me /any/ service without a decent exporter is an attempt of lock-in. This is why I like gmail (export mail and contacts), but I'm sceptical to google talk (no export of conversations).
I think google docs doesn't have the elementary usability features that requires wide acceptance.ReplyDelete
I can't do batch upload, download in an easy way. I don't want to be locked to google toolbar to use these features.
I can't store my source codes in google docs. Maybe it is not specifically designed for this, but it would handle it as well.
- AnonymousDecember 3, 2007 at 10:55 AM
so i guess it doesn't work for powerpoint files?ReplyDelete
I just tried it with xls and doc. Still not working. March 7, 2008ReplyDelete
Still NOT working April 14th.ReplyDelete
So when I try this, I get a yellow bar at the top of firefox that says "Loading (doc name) in Google Docs and Spreadsheets." But then, that's it. Nothing happens. I return to my google docs page, and the new doc isn't there. What am I doing wrong?ReplyDelete
It would be better if you provide facility to upload Docs with huge size(Around 1Gb).ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 1, 2008 at 5:16 PM
Works like a charm! I have a firefox 3.0.3, installed google toolbar. enabled google docs and spreadsheets in the google toolbar settings, drag a sample file to firefox and presto! google opened the document.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 8, 2008 at 8:59 PM
@vidyadhar: Who the hell has documents 1G in size? What could possibly create a text file that large. Christ, my Windows page file isn't even that big.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 13, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Will this be available for mac users in the future?ReplyDelete
Wow it is worth trying and cool to use.. thanks goes to all who created it..ReplyDelete
Kagoye Geofrey.. Uganda, East Africa
I am wondering if there is a Google Toolbar available for Chrome, would be ironic if Google doesn't support its own browser.ReplyDelete
No, it wouldn't be ironic, since Chrome doesn't have support for add-ons yet. Don't worry, Google is working on this and Chrome will add support for add-ons in a few weeks.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 2, 2009 at 6:39 AM
not a big fan of toolbars... need a better wayReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 2, 2009 at 6:40 AM
upload ZIP/RAR set of documents? to be extracted google sideReplyDelete
You can send files by email.ReplyDelete
I'm on Firefox 3.5.1 in Vista and I tried .docx and .odt and so far only .odt works. When I try to open up the .docx the box opens up asking me to a select a program to open the file, my only choice is MS Word 07. Anyone know how to fix that?ReplyDelete
hi.. chech this link..ReplyDelete
thr is a software for batch upload..
I made a tool for batch upload any types of documents including PDF:ReplyDelete


text:
EDC board raises no objections to possible chamber partnership
The Haywood County Economic Development Commission last week listened to a summary of task force reports on how it and the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce could work under the same roof to promote economic development.
"Keep in mind this is only research, and going forward we don't have all the answers, but the bottom line is there's a lot to be worked out still," CeCe Hipps, president of the chamber, said to EDC members.
Chamber leaders have spent months studying models of other private/public partnerships. Bringing the county-run EDC under the chamber's umbrella would make the economic development process more streamlined and efficient.
"The same folks are sitting around the table trying to do the same thing, and I think this is a great opportunity for the community for us to get together and work together," said Ron Leatherwood, former county commissioner and former chairman of the board at the chamber. "But, we still have to have the county municipalities behind us."
In a recent meeting, the county commissioners unanimously supported the plan in concept. Although this was the first time the EDC officially heard a presentation on the chamber's final task force report, some EDC board members and EDC Executive Director Mark Clasby have been a part of the process since the idea of combining the two entities was first brought up about a year ago.
Related Items
The concept is now moving into stage two, which involves inviting other community stakeholders to the table in hopes of finding out which model fits Haywood best.
"I think this is a great idea, and maybe this will be a way of growing and moving forward. But, let's make sure we don't repeat the mistakes of the past," cautioned Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown, referring to previous efforts to reform economic development in Haywood.
If the partnership is approved by county commissioners, the county's existing EDC board would be dissolved and a new board formed as a part of the chamber. Estimates are that working together could save up to $50,000 in salaries, benefits, overhead and facility costs — monies that could be used for future marketing and job growth initiatives.
The target date for the transition is July 1, which is when the county's new fiscal year begins.
"If you're looking around the area, to Buncombe County, to Greenville, they're bringing their economic development commissions along with their chambers," said Mike Sorrells, a county commissioner and chairman of the EDC. "It's got a lot of potential. I think it will help us with a limited budget, and potentially bring extra resources in and expand what we're trying to do."


text:
PG-13 | 1h 45m | Drama
The true story of a gifted Australian piano prodigy, this biographical drama was nominated for seven Oscars, with actor Geoffrey Rush winning for Best Actor. Rush stars as David Helfgott, a pianist with a history of mental problems.
As a fragile boy genius at math, chess, and piano, David is driven hard by his overbearing father (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a tyrant who forbids him to accept a scholarship offered by the great violinist Isaac Stern.
Although he studies briefly in London under tutor Cecil Parks (John Gielgud), David has a nervous breakdown after performing Rachmaninoff's daunting Piano Concerto No. 3 (known as the Rach 3). Years later, the adult David keeps up a steady patter of nervous stammering at all times and has been reduced to playing in a bar.
Through a friend, he meets astrologer Gillian (Lynn Redgrave), and falls in love with her.
With Gillian's help, David embarks down the road to regained fame and mastery of the Rach 3. The international popularity of Shine caused a sensation leading to a musical tour for Helfgott, whose performances were less adroit than many audiences expected, sparking criticism that writer-director Scott Hicks had exaggerated his subject's talent for dramatic purposes.
|Scott Hicks
|Alliance Atlantis
|Jane Scott
|Sir John Gielgud, Geoffrey Rush, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd, Chris Haywood, Nicholas Bell, Randall Berger
|Scott Hicks, Jan Sardi
|Official Site:


text:
MoDiP has the kind of collection that you may think you are very familiar with. We have objects which we all use every day, and some pieces which are more unusual.
By looking at this distorted image are you able to guess what the object is? What do you think it could be used for?
Post your answer in the comments below or find out more about the object have a look at the MoDiP catalogue.
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)


text:
The following conversation, which took place between the two friends in the pump-room one morning, after an acquaintance of eight or nine days, is given as a specimen of their very warm attachment, and of the delicacy, discretion, originality of thought, and literary taste which marked the reasonableness of that attachment.
They met by appointment; and as Isabella had arrived nearly five minutes before her friend, her first address naturally was, "My dearest creature, what can have made you so late? I have been waiting for you at least this age!"
"Have you, indeed! I am very sorry for it; but really I thought I was in very good time. It is but just one. I hope you have not been here long?"
"Oh! These ten ages at least. I am sure I have been here this half hour. But now, let us go and sit down at the other end of the room, and enjoy ourselves. I have an hundred things to say to you. In the first place, I was so afraid it would rain this morning, just as I wanted to set off; it looked very showery, and that would have thrown me into agonies! Do you know, I saw the prettiest hat you can imagine, in a shop window in Milsom Street just now—very like yours, only with coquelicot ribbons instead of green; I quite longed for it. But, my dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all this morning? Have you gone on with Udolpho?"
"Yes, I have been reading it ever since I woke; and I am got to the black veil."
"Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh! I would not tell you what is behind the black veil for the world! Are not you wild to know?"
"Oh! Yes, quite; what can it be? But do not tell me—I would not be told upon any account. I know it must be a skeleton, I am sure it is Laurentina's skeleton. Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it. I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world."
"Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you."
"Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?"
"I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time."
"Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?"
"Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them. I wish you knew Miss Andrews, you would be delighted with her. She is netting herself the sweetest cloak you can conceive. I think her as beautiful as an angel, and I am so vexed with the men for not admiring her! I scold them all amazingly about it."
"Scold them! Do you scold them for not admiring her?"
"Yes, that I do. There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong. I told Captain Hunt at one of our assemblies this winter that if he was to tease me all night, I would not dance with him, unless he would allow Miss Andrews to be as beautiful as an angel. The men think us incapable of real friendship, you know, and I am determined to show them the difference. Now, if I were to hear anybody speak slightingly of you, I should fire up in a moment: but that is not at all likely, for you are just the kind of girl to be a great favourite with the men."
"Oh, dear!" cried Catherine, colouring. "How can you say so?"
"I know you very well; you have so much animation, which is exactly what Miss Andrews wants, for I must confess there is something amazingly insipid about her. Oh! I must tell you, that just after we parted yesterday, I saw a young man looking at you so earnestly—I am sure he is in love with you." Catherine coloured, and disclaimed again. Isabella laughed. "It is very true, upon my honour, but I see how it is; you are indifferent to everybody's admiration, except that of one gentleman, who shall be nameless. Nay, I cannot blame you"—speaking more seriously—"your feelings are easily understood. Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of anybody else. Everything is so insipid, so uninteresting, that does not relate to the beloved object! I can perfectly comprehend your feelings."
"But you should not persuade me that I think so very much about Mr. Tilney, for perhaps I may never see him again."
"Not see him again! My dearest creature, do not talk of it. I am sure you would be miserable if you thought so!"
"No, indeed, I should not. I do not pretend to say that I was not very much pleased with him; but while I have Udolpho to read, I feel as if nobody could make me miserable. Oh! The dreadful black veil! My dear Isabella, I am sure there must be Laurentina's skeleton behind it."
"It is so odd to me, that you should never have read Udolpho before; but I suppose Mrs. Morland objects to novels."
"No, she does not. She very often reads Sir Charles Grandison herself; but new books do not fall in our way."
"Sir Charles Grandison! That is an amazing horrid book, is it not? I remember Miss Andrews could not get through the first volume."
"It is not like Udolpho at all; but yet I think it is very entertaining."
"Do you indeed! You surprise me; I thought it had not been readable. But, my dearest Catherine, have you settled what to wear on your head tonight? I am determined at all events to be dressed exactly like you. The men take notice of that sometimes, you know."
"But it does not signify if they do," said Catherine, very innocently.
"Signify! Oh, heavens! I make it a rule never to mind what they say. They are very often amazingly impertinent if you do not treat them with spirit, and make them keep their distance."
"Are they? Well, I never observed that. They always behave very well to me."
"Oh! They give themselves such airs. They are the most conceited creatures in the world, and think themselves of so much importance! By the by, though I have thought of it a hundred times, I have always forgot to ask you what is your favourite complexion in a man. Do you like them best dark or fair?"
"I hardly know. I never much thought about it. Something between both, I think. Brown—not fair, and—and not very dark."
"Very well, Catherine. That is exactly he. I have not forgot your description of Mr. Tilney—'a brown skin, with dark eyes, and rather dark hair.' Well, my taste is different. I prefer light eyes, and as to complexion—do you know—I like a sallow better than any other. You must not betray me, if you should ever meet with one of your acquaintance answering that description."
"Betray you! What do you mean?"
"Nay, do not distress me. I believe I have said too much. Let us drop the subject."
Catherine, in some amazement, complied, and after remaining a few moments silent, was on the point of reverting to what interested her at that time rather more than anything else in the world, Laurentina's skeleton, when her friend prevented her, by saying, "For heaven's sake! Let us move away from this end of the room. Do you know, there are two odious young men who have been staring at me this half hour. They really put me quite out of countenance. Let us go and look at the arrivals. They will hardly follow us there."
Away they walked to the book; and while Isabella examined the names, it was Catherine's employment to watch the proceedings of these alarming young men.
"They are not coming this way, are they? I hope they are not so impertinent as to follow us. Pray let me know if they are coming. I am determined I will not look up."
In a few moments Catherine, with unaffected pleasure, assured her that she need not be longer uneasy, as the gentlemen had just left the pump-room.
"And which way are they gone?" said Isabella, turning hastily round. "One was a very good-looking young man."
"They went towards the church-yard."
"Well, I am amazingly glad I have got rid of them! And now, what say you to going to Edgar's Buildings with me, and looking at my new hat? You said you should like to see it."
Catherine readily agreed. "Only," she added, "perhaps we may overtake the two young men."
"Oh! Never mind that. If we make haste, we shall pass by them presently, and I am dying to show you my hat."
"But if we only wait a few minutes, there will be no danger of our seeing them at all."
"I shall not pay them any such compliment, I assure you. I have no notion of treating men with such respect. That is the way to spoil them."
Catherine had nothing to oppose against such reasoning; and therefore, to show the independence of Miss Thorpe, and her resolution of humbling the sex, they set off immediately as fast as they could walk, in pursuit of the two young men.


text:
To achieve the best performance from any installation, the delicate balance and interaction between lamp and driver needs to be optimized.
Every government aims to provide its citizens with safe drinking water. UV lamp systems can de-activate the microorganisms in water cost-effectively by avoiding or reducing the use of chlorine.
Philips DynaPower is the only amalgam lamp and driver system that gives you guaranteed peace of mind. To demonstrate just how reliable the system is, we are offering test installations for a specially reduced price.
Hospital acquired infections affect around 10% of patients during their stay. There is increasing evidence that up to 20% of these infections are transmitted via the air. UV disinfection lamps deactivate microorganisms, contributing to a safer indoor working environment.
Reliable protection is paramount
Airborne viruses and bacteria contaminate the air trapped indoors and can pose a real health threat in hospitals, both to patients and staff. That is why maximum protection against airborne bacteria and viruses is paramount. Philips TUV TL-D lamps offer the best reliability and lowest percentage of lamps that fail prematurely in the market. As a result you can be sure to comply with the health and safety regulations. So you can concentrate on what matters most – your patients.
Philips TUV TL-D lamps are based on proven technology that has allowed a breakthrough in lamp life reliability. In contrast to other TUV lamps on the market, Philips TUV lamps contain two different electrodes. Because only one electrode determines the lifetime of the lamp, the causes for the spread in lifetime are effectively halved and an inherently better control of the lifetime spread is realized. As a result, the Philips TUV TL-D lamps outperform any other TUV lamp in their category on lifetime reliability.
Philips has a unique fully automated manufacturing process in place for electrode processing and emitter dosing. This process matches exactly the patented electrode technology. The vision system performs an optical check on the positioning of the electrode. All lamps that do not fulfill the exact requirements are automatically rejected during the manufacturing process. As a result, we can guarantee the quality of our lamps.
Philips TUV TL-D lamps contain a unique pre-coat that ensures that the UV output is constant over the complete lifetime of the lamp and never drops beneath 85% of its initial output.
Philips has always taken the lead in reducing the amount of mercury required to operate fluorescent lamps. In addition, we developed a unique mercury dosing capsule that allows for:
Our unique dosing capsule allows for minimum mercury content while providing optimum product performance and contributing to a better environment for all.
The air we breathe in at the office is often anything but clean. It is frequently re-circulated along with bacteria, viruses, pollen and toxic gases. By installing UV lamp systems in in-duct air units, you can contribute to a healthier indoor environment.
Until recently the only way to 'clean' water was by adding high doses of chlorine or other chemicals to it. All these have major disadvantages. UVC disinfection has none of these negative side effects and has major benefits over the traditional methods.
Fish pond owners are often troubled by phototrophic micro-organisms that appear as dense suspension. Seasonal effects may lead to massive growth. A Philips UV lamp in combination with a filter can keep a 4.5K liter pond water clear.
Algae can upset the natural balance in your fish pond, spoiling its visual appeal and spreading harmful diseases to the fish. UVC lamps are the engine behind your UV device, providing the power that keeps the water clear of algae and bacteria. Not enough UVC power and your device can't keep your pond crystal clear. So it's vital that the lamps and UVC device are designed to work together to maximise performance.
Only by choosing a high quality lamp with the right wattage for your UVC device, can you protect the delicate balance between the components in your filtration system, optimising performance and efficiency. So it pays to know exactly what kind of engine you need to power your pond.
Philips has the right UVC lamp for every size of pond UVC device. Not only do our lamps provide a constant, best in class UVC performance; after one full year of operation (9000 hours), they still provide >80% UVC output. So with Philips in your system, you can be sure the lamp is up to the job. Which means you can maintain the clean, clear and healthy water that shows your pond off at its best, right throughout the season.
Philips UVC lamps for fish ponds are a green choice too. Designed with world-leading low levels of mercury, long life and high efficacy, they also offer the best environmental performance. So taking care of your fish pond can take care of the planet too.
Maritime traffic consumes enormous amounts of ballast water. Organisms are transported with this water, multiply and risk disrupting the natural ecosystem. The transfer of ballast water between the world's oceans has become an enormous environmental threat.
No more worries about your waste water plant operation


text:
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
The Big Catch
33 comments:
Shiner this photo is wonderful , just like a modelReplyDelete
Fantastic photo of Shiner - thanks for sharing this! Love the fish!ReplyDelete
Happy New Year - WOOF WOOF!
And it certainly is a big fish!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 15, 2014 at 4:48 AM
what a wonderful photo. Will you have a big BBQ, Shiner<?ReplyDelete
No need to make up a fish tale...you can show everyone your catch. Sweet Shiner!ReplyDelete
LOL. Love the photo and that toy!ReplyDelete
Shiner, you're too precious! :) That fish on the other hand... XDReplyDelete
Those Tabbies are sure gonna love that :) xxooxxxReplyDelete
Mollie and Alfie
Great catch Shiner! Did you know you're a model in two Wordless Wednesday posts? Is that a record?ReplyDelete
Oh Shiner, you are too sweet. You look adorable in this photo, with that big fish snuggled up beside you.ReplyDelete
Happy WW,
- AnonymousJanuary 15, 2014 at 11:24 AM
LOL So adorable!ReplyDelete
Sweet catch, Shiner. You will be blessed with many kitty friends forever!!ReplyDelete
That's the one that didn't get away!! MOLReplyDelete
What ya gonna do with that BIG fish??? Daisy wants to know if there's enough to share! LOLReplyDelete
SHINER !!!!!!!!!!! manee thanx two ewe for this :) we loves it !!! seer that fish over sum open flame at round 455 for 18 minits, ada steak N sum burgerz for yur self N we iz all talkin feast time !!! we appreciates ewe thinkin oh uz... N if we happen ta catch a dawg fish thiz yeer, we promise to put him bak two sea !!! thanx :) XXXXXXXXXXXXXReplyDelete
I think there's something fishy with that photo. ;-)ReplyDelete
-Woofs (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats.
Nice one, Shiner! Now that's a keeper! :)ReplyDelete
LOL that sure is a big fish!!ReplyDelete
Great picture. Happy WW!ReplyDelete
Rita loves fish! She's jealous of your catch, Shiner!ReplyDelete
Such a cool pillow, Shiner! Chuy would have a blast with that!ReplyDelete
Nice catch Shiner!!!ReplyDelete
So cute! Lee and PhodReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 15, 2014 at 8:40 PM
Lookin' good Shiner! Cinco and Manna would love a piece of your great big fishy :)ReplyDelete
Whoa! That's one big fish!ReplyDelete
You are right that's a big fish! Love DollyReplyDelete
So who caught who? 'Cause Shiner's quite the catch. ;)ReplyDelete
great catch Shiner,xx SpeedyReplyDelete


text:
LG Electronics has announced four new smartphones, including the Magna. The device has a spec that gives Motorola Mobility's Moto G a run for its money, assuming LG doesn't screw up the pricing too much.
Motorola has had the market for unlocked smartphones costing US$200 or less largely to itself in the U.S. and Europe, helping it regain its footing with the Moto G and the Moto E. But it seems the now Lenovo-owned company will face some tougher competition this year from products like the LG Magna.
The Lollipop-based smartphone has a 5-inch, 720 x 1280-pixel screen and an unspecified 1.2GHz or 1.3GHz quad-core processor. The Magna also has an 8-megapixel front camera and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. There's 1GB of RAM and 8GB of integrated storage backed up by a microSD card slot.
+ See our full coverage of MWC 2015 +
With the exception of the high-resolution camera on the back, the specification mimics what you get when you buy the second generation Moto G, which Motorola launched last year. However, the Magna also has a larger battery (2,540 mAh versus the Moto G's 2,070 mAh) and LTE, features that Motorola offers on a $300, 16GB second-generation Moto G sold in Brazil.
How competitive the Magna really is comes down to its price, which LG didn't want to specify. A company spokesman only said it will be announced at the time of shipping. If it costs more than $250, though, it will struggle against the Moto G.
On Monday, LG also announced the Spirit, the Leon and the Joy, which have screens that measure 4.7, 4.5 and 4.0 inches. The Spirit also has an HD screen, while people who buy one of the other models have to make do with low resolution versions.
All three models are based on Android Lollipop and have LTE, highlighting how the network technology is becoming available on increasingly cheaper products this year.
They also have either an 8-megapixel or a 5-megapixel camera on the back combined with a 1-megapixel front camera on the Spirit—but only a VGA model on the Leon and the Joy. Including such a poor front camera is a curious choice since LG has also added a feature called Gesture Shot, which makes it easier to take selfies.
The new smartphone quartet will begin its global rollout this week, LG said without revealing were they would first go on sale. They will all be on display at Mobile World Congress next week, so expect a hands-on with the Magna to arrive shortly.


text:
Body and Brain Connection
The Games on Demand version supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Chinese. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting "See Game Manual". This game requires a Kinect™ Sensor. Introducing a new way to work your brain by using your body! Recent studies have shown that moving your body works your brain, more than regular brain exercises alone! The collection of exercises found in this game have all been supervised and approved by the renowned Dr. Kawashima, and require simple movements so that everyone can participate! Have friends and family watch, laugh, and join in on the fun to have a blast during your training!
System requirements
Download Now
What's Your Reaction?
In Love0
Not Sure0


text:
Flyers name Giroux captain
The Philadelphia Flyers have named Claude Giroux the 19th captain in team history.
General manager Paul Holmgren made the announcement Tuesday night. The Flyers say Kimmo Timonen will serve as associate captain, and Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere will serve as alternate captains.
Giroux takes over for defenseman Chris Pronger. Pronger has not played for the Flyers since Nov. 19, 2011 and still suffers from lingering effects of multiple concussions.
Giroux enters his fifth full season with the Flyers. He had 28 goals and 93 points last season, the most points by a Flyer since Eric Lindros had 93 in 1998-99. He was selected by the Flyers in the first round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Giroux has 78 goals and 165 assists for 243 points in In 285 career games.


text: what is causing this error? When i do the install it creates the mysql db but it is blank. I have tried to reinstall. I deleted the db and the isp file in the root before the reinstall. As per your instructions on another thread i did not put in the www and used the ip address for the rest of the domain name. ########## INSTALLATION ########## Preparing files. Please wait a moment... All prerequisites are fulfilled. Here we go... Please enter your MySQL server:localhost Please enter your MySQL user:root Please enter your MySQL password: OK Please enter a name for the ISPConfig database (e.g. db_ispconfig): db_ispconfig Please enter the IP address of the ISPConfig web (e.g. 192.168.0.1):xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx OK Please enter the host name (e.g. www): Please enter the domain (e.g. xyz.de):xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx OK Please select the protocol (http or https (SSL encryption)) to use to access the ISPConfig system: 1) HTTPS 2) HTTP Your Choice: 2 Connected successfully to MySQL server ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES) Restarting some services... Shutting down postfix: [ OK ] Starting postfix: [ OK ] Shutting down proftpd: [ OK ] Starting proftpd: [ OK ] Starting ISPConfig system... /root/ispconfig/httpd/bin/apachectl startssl: httpd started Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /root/ispconfig/scripts/lib/config.inc.php on line 47 No results found!FreshClam is already running! ISPConfig system is now up and running! Congratulations! Your ISPConfig system is now installed. If you had to install quota, please take the steps described in the installation manual. Otherwise your system is now available without reboot. [root@ns1 install_ispconfig]#


text:
Last weekend, I got some really interesting responses when I asked you what cars you thought were completely overrated. I say it's interesting because a lot of you have no love for some cars that are typically held in pretty high regard here on Jalopnik, like the E30 3-series, the Miata and even the NSX. To each his own, I guess.
But now I want to shift gears a bit and ask you what cars don't get the respect they deserve. What do you consider to be the most underrated car ever made?
I can think of a few unloved and ignored gems right off the bat, like the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16, the Mitsubishi Starion, or the Volkswagen Phaeton. But my favorite underrated car has to be this guy: the 2004-2006 Pontiac GTO.
In theory, who wouldn't want this car? Let's look at the specs: a choice of LS V8 engines with either 350 or 400 horsepower, a six-speed manual, rear-wheel-drive, and an independent rear suspension. Sounds like a great recipe for hoonage to me.
But the GTO never sold well, in part because of its name and its face. Nostalgia appeal is a huge reason why the contemporary set of muscle cars sell so well, especially among the dad demographic: the Mustang, Challenger and Camaro all look like the cars these guys used to drag race in the 60s and 70s.
The GTO… um, doesn't. It's unapologetically a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia, and with its Pontiac nose job, it looks like a Grand Am or something. When a Camry Solara is more interesting to look at, you've got a real problem on your hands.
Pontiac unceremoniously killed the GTO after only three years, and the brand itself would be dead by 2010. (They left behind another fantastic but unloved machine, the G8, which also deserves a spot on a list of underrated cars.)
I believe the way a car looks is irrelevant compared to how it drives and how it makes you feel. That's why I always smile when I see people driving around in these GTOs. If you can get past the boring looks, you have a fantastic performance bargain on your hands. It may not the greatest car ever made or anything, but this Goat deserves some respect.
What say you, ladies and gentlemen? What car do you consider underrated?
Photo credit jasonb42882


text:
Franz, Jacob Herman (1913-1978)
Jacob Herman Franz: minister and missionary; born on 26 July 1913 in Ebenfeld, Crimea, Russia to Hermann and Susanna (Wall) Franz. He was one of four children in the family. On 8 July 1942, Jacob married Helene Janzen (13 August 1919, Halbstadt, Sagradovka, Ukraine - 26 November 2021, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada). The couple had three daughters and three sons, all of whom survived childhood. Jacob died of a heart condition on 25 November 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jacob grew up in the Crimea during the turbulent years surrounding the Russian Revolution and Civil War. He likely began his basic education in the village where he grew up, although circumstances delayed the completion of his schooling for some years. Jacob's parents died while he was still young, and he and his sister Agatha were taken in by family friends, Franz and Maria Koop. Agatha died three months later.
In 1929, when Jacob was 16 years old, the family immigrated to Canada, settling in Coaldale, Alberta. Jacob continued his education, studying at the Coaldale Bible School for three years. While there he was baptized by B. B. Janz on 9 August 1936 and joined the Coaldale Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church. He then attended Three Hills Bible School and after graduating at the age of 28, was asked to join his former teacher, A. J. Schierling, to teach at the La Glace Bible School in 1941-42. Here Jacob met Helene, a cook at the Bible school, and they were married the summer after his first year of teaching.
After getting married Jacob and Helene moved to Coaldale in 1942 where he taught in the local Bible school for two years. He was ordained by B. B. Janz in his home church two years later in 1944. After returning to La Glace to teach during the 1944-45 school year, Jacob and Helene were called by the Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions to work in Paraguay as the first missionaries to the Chulupi (Nivacle), a nomadic tribe with no written language, living in the Chaco. Along with another couple, Bernhard P. and Susie Epp, Jacob and Helene Franz moved to Paraguay in March 1946. Several schools and churches resulted from this work.
In 1955 the Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions asked Jacob to become missions secretary for Paraguay. In 1961 he was assigned as missions secretary for South America and moved his family to Asunción, the Paraguayan capital. Here he was instrumental in organizing the German Mennonite Brethren Church, which started in the Franz home with just over 20 members. Shortly after he ministered in the joint General Conference - Mennonite Brethren German Church venture in Asuncion. While in Asuncion he also assisted in the organization of the Mennonite Brethren Spanish Church and was instrumental in founding the first Mennonite Brethren Spanish school, and in time, also a theological school -- work that gave him great joy until returning to Canada in 1969. During those 23 years the family returned to Canada on furlough three times, serving the mission board in deputation and pastoring in Abbotsford and Greendale.
The return to Canada in 1969 was in part due to the needs of his growing family. Back home Jacob served the mission board in traveling to the various churches throughout Canada as an MB missions representative until the end of 1970. After serving Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services for 24 years Jacob took on a new role as pastor of the King Road Mennonite Brethren Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in 1971. Here he was instrumental in bringing an independent church into the provincial and national MB conferences. He served the church until 1978 when he died of a heart condition on November 25. Because of space considerations the funeral was held at the Central Heights Mennonite Brethren Church in Abbotsford on 2 December 1978.
Jacob Hermann Franz was a dedicated minister and missionary with a deep commitment to his church and to the various communities where he lived. Through all of his work in Paraguay and Canada, he was an example of service to his family, the people in the community, and to everyone whose life he touched.
Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. "Franz, Jacob Herman." Web. 20 January 2010. http://www.mbconf.ca/home/products_and_services/resources/published_genealogies/personal_papers/franz_jacob_herman/.
Franz, Ken. Personal e-mail (13 April 2010).
Mennonite Brethren Herald (19 January 1979): 30.
Mennonitische Rundschau (31 January 1979): 3.
|Helmut T. Huebert
|Susan Huebert
|Helene Franz
|Date Published
|June 2013
Cite This Article
MLA style
Huebert, Helmut T., Susan Huebert and Helene Franz. "Franz, Jacob Herman (1913-1978)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2013. Web. 30 Sep 2023. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Franz,_Jacob_Herman_(1913-1978)&oldid=174651.
APA style
Huebert, Helmut T., Susan Huebert and Helene Franz. (June 2013). Franz, Jacob Herman (1913-1978). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 September 2023, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Franz,_Jacob_Herman_(1913-1978)&oldid=174651.
©1996-2023 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


text:
Horatio G. Spafford to Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1815
From Horatio G. Spafford
Albany, 2 Mo. 15, 1815.
If my Hond & Esteemed Friend
Could be apprized how often the enquiry is made, "what does Mr Jefferson think of your improvement in Wheel Carriages;?" & did he know my own anxiety to learn, his goodness would certainly excuse my impatience. For myself, I am perfectly satisfied; but the public thinks little of my opinion, & much of thine. Thy bitterest foes allow thee the highest rank in science, & philosophy. I therefore want to know thy opinion, that I may anticipate the public opinion; & I pray thee to favor me with it, as soon as may be convenient to thyself. Did I not feel a far greater anxiety than could be supposed for this little thing, I would hardly have troubled thee about it. But, I have, in reserve, a grand disclosure relative to the laws of mechanics, for which this is merely preparatory.
I should esteem it an honor to present to thee my Certificate No. 1, for a Right to use my improvement; & if it will be accepted for use, I will gladly send it. The advertisement on the back of my pamphlet, is designed to extend a knowledge of my invention, & to announce my intention to defend my Right. Have the principles of my Patent ever been applied in this way before, in any age or Country? I write in haste, from a sick Room, devoted to the care of a most excellent Wife, & rely on thy indulgence. With gratitude & esteem, thy obliged friend,
H. G. Spafford.
Permit me to congratulate thee on the news of peace. Although we do not know the conditions of the treaty; yet my confidence in our Ministers & our Government, assure my hopes.
RC (DLC); postscript written perpendicularly in left margin; addressed: "Hon. Thomas Jefferson, LL.D. Monticello, Virginia"; endorsed by TJ as received 23 Feb. 1815 and so recorded in SJL; written on a sheet folded to form four pages, with letter on p. 1, address on p. 2, canceled Spafford circular of 15 Apr. 1813 (see note to Spafford to TJ, 2 Aug. 1813) on p. 3, and endorsement on p. 4, which also has a copy of the enclosure to Spafford to TJ, 23 Jan. 1815.
At the back of Spafford, Wheel-Carriages, was an unpaginated advertisement dated Albany, 8 Feb. 1815, announcing that Spafford had received a United States patent for his improved carriage; naming the terms for obtaining the right to use the invention, including a base price of $5 per patent right, the granting of special privileges to "The first applicants in every considerable City or Town," and discounts to cartmen; and asserting that he would "vigilantly … protect and guard it against every infringement."
Index Entries
- carriages; H. G. Spafford's improvement to search
- Ghent, Treaty of (1814); support for search
- inventions; of H. G. Spafford search
- patents; of H. G. Spafford search
- Some Cursory Observations on the Ordinary Construction of Wheel-Carriages (H. G. Spafford) search
- Spafford, Elizabeth Clark Hewitt (Horatio G. Spafford's wife); health of search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; and patents and patent system search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; and War of1812 search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; family of search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; inventions of search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; letters from search
- Spafford, Horatio Gates; Some Cursory Observations on the Ordinary Construction of Wheel-Carriages search


text:
Eddie Izzard eyes 'Munsters' role as Grandpa
Eddie Izzard is in final negotiations to co-star in NBC's Munsters reboot.
The comic actor will costar and have a producer's credit on writer-producer Bryan Fuller's dramatic revamp of the campy classic sitcom, which is now titled Mockingbird Lane. Izzard, who's been circling the role for weeks, will play the ancient vampire and shape-shifter Grandpa in the show. Bryan Singer will direct.
The pilot project was pushed back from spring to summer as production partners focused on improving the show's creative aspects. Fuller's other NBC drama pilot Hannibal, a small-screen take on the Hannibal Lecter films, has been going full steam ahead.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL


text:
Library Search
The NRFC Library is a collection of materials to build a knowledge base around fathers, fatherhood, and operating a Responsible Fatherhood program. It also houses all resources created by the NRFC, including fact sheets, PSAs, and past webinars.
Use the search options provided below to find resources that you are interested in.
Past research typically has used questionnaires and structured laboratory studies to understand children's emotion expressions, parent behavioral responses to their negative emotions, and children's subsequent emotional reactions. This study was designed to investigate how these behaviors unfold…


text: DOVE FRENCH DART FBA TUTORIAL DIAGRAMS_UPDATED BRANDING-03 July 25, 2022 Written by Naomi 0 About Author Naomi Naomi is the Design Assistant here at Megan Nielsen Patterns, and our resident helping hand. She stays busy assisting Meg with pattern development leg work, getting super excited about good instructional diagrams and making green coloured fabric suggestions for every sample we make. She's a problem solver, a fabric addict, a serial tea-forgetter and a passionate maker. Subscribe Notify of new replies to my comments Label {} [+] Name* Email* Website Δ Label {} [+] Name* Email* Website Δ 0 Comments Inline Feedbacks View all comments


text:
Komperdell Carbon Airshock Women
Lighter than many carbon-fiber models and extremely collapsible, these poles are perfect for all hikers and ultralighters.
Brand: Komperdell
Model: Carbon Airshock Women
These four-section aluminum poles were perfect for my Long Trail thru-hike, because they're lighter than many carbon-fiber models and collapse to a mere 20.5 inches. The adjustments are rock-solid, with a push-button on the bottom section and twist-locks on top. The long foam grip let me adjust my hand position during steep traverses. Pros: bomber, ultralight, and green, thanks to DAC Featherlight aluminum. Cons: The push-button is tough to operate with cold fingers. outdoorresearch.com.
Best For
Taller hikers, ultralighters
Tester Data
> Berne Broudy
> Other Testers Aaron Loomis, Emily Steers
> Duration May to Nov.
> Locales/conditions VT, Alps, on and off trail
> "They come with wide winter baskets, so I get more for my money come ski season."
> $125
> 15 oz.
> adjusts from 20.5 to 51 incheshighest quality 100% Carbon tube- expecially developed for trekking. extremely light and robust.
EVA-Full Foamgrip with Neoprenestrap. G´Reptile gripzone on the upper part of the pole provides an extra firm lower grip.
integrated extra light AIRSHOCK absorption system
DUOLOCK adjusting mechanism
STOP LOCK Blocking System: the 3 sections of the pole stay one unit – optimizes safety and stability


text: 4-Port, USB, RS232 Serial Interface Device—The USB‑232/4 interface transforms your USB port into a single asynchronous serial port for communication with RS232 devices. You can use a USB‑232/4 port as a standard serial port from your application, including RTS/CTS hardware handshake lines. NI serial interfaces also appear as standard COM ports for compatibility with programs that use serial communications.


text:
Williamsburg Zinc Dining Table
- Product care guide
- All zinc tops are available in custom sizes, thickness, and shapes
- Handcrafted in Rhode Island using superior craftsmanship
- Real pure zinc sheet laminated over a substrate core
- Artisan zinc patina applied and sealed to protect against ring marks and staining
- Standard thickness is 1.5", custom thickness is available.
- Standard edge profile is eased, custom cut outs and edging available.
- Contact our design team to request a custom estimate today.
- Finish sample available here.
- Made in USA using high quality authentically pure materials and real hardwood.
- From our Rhode Island factory to your door step, allowing for fair and competitive prices.
- Hand crafted to order, allowing for limitless customization so you receive exactly what you need and want.
- One-on-One free design advice from an actual person.
- Design driven and quality focused - We want you to have nothing but the best!
- 30 day returns on standard sized tables and designs*
- Unlimited furniture delivery*- restrictions may apply.


text:
It's one thing to dislike your job, but it's another to feel physically ill walking in to work. If your job just doesn't have redeeming qualities, your work environment may be toxic in more ways than one. Here's how to handle it, especially if you can't just quit.
In short, a toxic work environment is any job where the work, the atmosphere, the people, or any combination of those things make you so dismayed it causes serious disruptions in the rest of your life. Make no mistake, every job sucks sometimes, but you know a job is toxic when you can't find joy in anything there. Some of your coworkers may be great, but others drag you down. The policies are stifling and the managers nitpick and micromanage. The only good thing about your job is the end of the day. If any of those things sound familiar, it's time to do something. Let's start with the obvious, and then talk about what else you can do to get a little relief—or at least protect yourself.
First, Know When to Fold and Avoid Putting Energy Into the Untenable
Frankly, too many people stick it out in toxic environments when they don't have to. Sometimes a toxic environment is really just a manageable one that's gone south and is beyond saving. Either way, if your job is causing you serious emotional or physical stress, you should get out as soon as possible. I've seen people quit toxic jobs without anything lined up because they simply couldn't bear the notion of going back another day. If you can, get a new job first or prep your safety net—but do leave.
If you decide to stay, there are some things you can do to protect yourself, but unless the root cause changes, it won't get much better. If you think the root cause may change soon—like a horrible manager on his or her way out, or the potential for a transfer to a new group—then it makes sense to hang tough. Just make sure you're not sticking in a situation that promises to change but never does. Similarly, don't let your job's toxicity drain your willpower so much you're too wiped to look for something better. Of course, don't just take anything that comes along as a way out, either. Make sure your next move is to something that's a step forward, or you may find yourself back in the same pit, just with different walls.
Circle the Wagons and Rally Like-Minded Colleagues
If you're in no position to quit, or you don't have the luxury of just walking off a job because it's making you crazy, there are a few things you can do, at least in the short term. First and foremost, make sure you have coworkers who'll watch your back. This can be difficult if your coworkers are guilty of chronic backstabbing or under-bus-throwing, but if you can rally a few to the cause, it's a good idea. When one of you hears something that'll impact everyone, like some micromanagerial change that's about to sweep the department or new policy everyone will be held to before they're actually told about it, you guys can share that information and protect yourselves.
The idea has its roots in high-school lunch room logic: you hang out with the people who are most like you and most willing to watch your back—or at least those with whom you're in the same boat. Toxic work environments are eerily similar to those days, so you have to treat them the same way. Frankly, the fact that cliques form at all in your office is a sign of a bad work environment, but if you have to stay in it, you're better off finding a group you can ally with than staying on your own. Sometimes the best thing to do is to make sure you know who your friends are and keep your head down as much as possible.
Document Everything. Seriously, Everything
Even if your job isn't exactly "toxic," you should consider documenting everything. Documentation isn't foolproof protection from overbearing managers or coworkers determined to throw you under the bus for their mistakes, but it can offer some defense. We've mentioned that it can be useful to keep a work diary for your own growth, but it can come in handy here too. For those of us in office environments, this means saving and organizing every email related to every project you work on, making sure you take notes in meetings and on phone calls, and never trusting someone to recall and agree when you remind them of something they said or did. It's tiring, but it's a solid way to make sure your ass is covered.
Good work relationships are built on trust, and if there's no trust where you work, the only person you can depend on is yourself. Embrace tools like Evernote to keep all of your various documents and projects organized neatly, and treat your inbox like a filing cabinet—there should be folders and labels for everything you work on, or even for every person you interact with. That way anytime anyone tries to go back on their word, you can drag out an email or document where they said otherwise, or if a manager tries to pretend their policy says one thing when it really doesn't, you can pull out the policy document.
Like we said, it's not foolproof—some managers will take that level of documentation as a threat, while others will back down and leave you alone. However, this technique is especially useful if your HR department is the root of the problem, or the tension at work is because of poor relationships between groups, as opposed to within your own team. Tread carefully, but it's better to have the documentation and then pick your battles than not have it at all.
It May Be Personal, but It's Not You (or Your Fault)
As much as we'd like to say "toxic work environments aren't personal," in many cases, they really are. Sometimes a manager may have it out for you, or just want to make you a convenient scapegoat for their own incompetence. Maybe it's another colleague who wants to boost their career by currying favor with managers, and you're today's target. Whatever it is, it can be very personal—maybe you're new to the company, or that person has it out for you because of the way you look, dress, or the career threat you potentially pose to them. Whatever it is, remember that it may be personal, but it's not your fault. Don't let yourself get caught up in the swirl of negativity that likely surrounds the whole affair.
Steer clear of office gossip as much as possible (aside from the fair warnings of the people you know have your interests at heart) and keep your head down. Remember, the goal is to get your work done so you can leave at the end of the day, so you don't want to go looking for confrontation. However, if it finds you, don't back down or roll over. You don't want others to get the message that they can regularly pick on you, make you a scapegoat, and blame their mistakes on you without you being willing to stand up for yourself, at least tactically. Pick your battles wisely, but don't let personal slights and workplace bullying go unchallenged. Be assertive, and put a stop to their behavior early on.
I've seen many people stick it out in bad environments because early on in their jobs they were too frightened to stand up for themselves. They assumed they were lucky to have the job, and were intimidated by their manager's or colleagues seniority, so they didn't stand up for themselves. Remember, every job is a two way street: The team should need you as much as you need them, and if you get the feeling you need them more than they need you, it's time to move on. There's no reason to keep going to work every day to an office or group of people who don't respect or appreciate you, or worse, behave like they don't.
Stick to Your Guns and Keep Your Options Open
Whatever you choose to do, make sure to keep your options open. Sometimes toxic work environments only seem that way because we're sensitive to a specific trigger. There are ways to shore up your defenses if you think that might be the case. However, if the environment is truly toxic—and mind you, sometimes all it takes is a spectacularly bad boss—and there's no way you can save it yourself, it may be time to look for something new.
Finally, even if you can't turn the situation around, try to make it as much of a learning experience as possible—without taking responsibility for it, of course. Author and entrepreneur Amy Rees Anderson, writing for Forbes, explains:
Another important coping step is to realize that you cannot control what other people say and do, you can only control your own actions and reactions. The sooner you accept that the better for your own mental well-being. This realization allows you to let go of owning other people's negative behavior and it empowers you to focus on improving yourself. The more you can focus on improving yourself in a negative environment the better, because when you finally get the opportunity to escape the situation you are in, you will get to take all the personal growth you have made along with you. No doubt that growth will help you to be even more successful as you move forward.
Finally, try to focus on turning your bad situation into a good learning experience. Most often our strongest personal growth comes from living through our most difficult situations. When you are working in a toxic environment, try to pay close attention to the lessons you can take away from the experience. Perhaps you can learn the qualities in a leader that you never want to emulate. Perhaps you can learn the management mistakes that you would not want to repeat if the opportunity for management ever comes your way. In every bad situation there is something you can learn that will help you become a better person, so focus on each lesson you are learning.
She also advocates that you take the high road and never sacrifice your personal integrity in an attempt to get revenge or "fight fire with fire," which we wholeheartedly agree with. She suggests you stay engaged at work too—noting that as long as you draw a paycheck you have an obligation to bring your best to your job every day. We'd temper that point a bit—if your work environment is toxic to the point where you feel awful every day, you're already not bringing your A-game. Do what's required, but don't dump energy into a job that doesn't appreciate your effort. Disengage a bit and spend that extra time and energy looking for something better, whether it's a transfer to a new department or a new job entirely.
In any case, remember, it's just a job, and you're working to live, not living to work. You're not shackled to your desk, even if you need the paycheck. Don't sacrifice your personal integrity in anger, but don't let others walk on you. Toxic work environments come and go, and if you can learn something from it, great—but as long as you're in it, watch your back, cover your ass, and keep your head down until the smoke clears or you can get out.
Title photo by hxdbzxy (Shutterstock) and Ollyy (Shutterstock). Additional photos by R/DV/RS, Hugh Millward, Eric James Sarmiento, Ingrid Taylar, and Martin Fisch.