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06 Jun, 2012, 05:17 ET
CANTON, Miss., June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nissan and its Canton employees are celebrating a milestone today as the first Canton-produced fifth-generation Altima rolled off the assembly line. The Canton Vehicle Assembly Facility began producing the award-winning Altima in 2004 and since has built more than 1.1 million of Nissan's best-selling vehicle.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120606/CL20498 )
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080506/NISSANBADGELOGO )
This Altima "Job 1" is the latest production achievement at Canton, which currently builds the Altima on three shifts. Canton also is a global center of excellence for Nissan's body-on-frame truck production. This fall, the Frontier midsize pick-up truck and the Xterra SUV will shift production to Canton, from Nissan's Smyrna, Tenn., plant where they are built today.
"Today's successful start of production of the Nissan Altima, our top-selling vehicle, only can happen because of the support of our dedicated workforce in Canton," said Bill Krueger, vice chairman, Nissan Americas. "The Canton team builds among the highest-quality vehicles in the industry, and we are looking forward to bringing their production expertise to the next generation of this award-winning car."
The most innovative Altima yet, the 2013 model builds on its strong reputation for quality and reliability and adds new levels of innovation, fuel efficiency, dynamic performance and premium style. The Altima, which has been certified with a best-in-segment fuel economy of 38 mpg highway, begins shipping to Nissan dealers this week. It goes on sale with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $21,500 at the end of June.
Nissan's Canton Assembly Plant, which opened in 2003, plays a central role to the growth of Mississippi's burgeoning automotive industry. Canton employs approximately 3,300 employees in its 3.5-million square-foot facility on 1,400 acres outside of Jackson, Miss. Besides the Altima, models produced at Canton include the Armada full-size SUV, Titan full-size pickup and NV commercial vehicles, with Frontier and Xterra production joining in the year's fourth quarter.
About the 2013 Nissan Altima
With the arrival in summer 2012 of the all-new fifth generation design – the most innovative Altima yet – Nissan promises to shake up the mid-size sedan segment again with the most engaging, innovative and stylish vehicle in its class. Among the 2013 Altima's many attributes are a certified best-in-segment fuel economy of 38 mpg highway (2.5-liter engine), new premium exterior styling with a strong presence and excellent aerodynamics, an upscale interior with premium materials, and an outstanding balance of ride comfort, stability and a fun-to-drive demeanor with projected best-level acceleration.
Building on Nissan's "Innovation for All" philosophy, the new Altima offers standard Bluetooth® Hands-Free Phone System with Streaming Audio via Bluetooth®. Also available are NissanConnect(SM) and NissanConnect(SM) Navigation with a suite of Bluetooth® phone connectivity features, including hands-free text message integration, Pandora® playback, real-time Google® POI search and more; along with Easy Fill Tire Alert, and next-generation Safety Shield Technologies, including Blind Spot Warning (BSW), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Moving Object Detection (MOD) systems.
The premium interior design looks and feels a class above, with new NASA-inspired "zero-gravity" front seats, available leather appointments, and a new standard Advanced Drive-Assist™ Display in the center of the instrument cluster that integrates key information – including available navigation, text messaging notification and audio data – right in front of the driver.
Dynamic performance is provided by a choice of a redesigned 182-horsepower (est.) 2.5-liter DOHC inline 4-cylinder engine or a 270-horsepower (est.) 3.5-liter V6, with both engines matched with standard Xtronic CVT® (Continuously Variable Transmission).
Altima's next-generation CVT reflects Nissan's more than 20 years of engineering and development leadership with its smooth, fuel-efficient design. Altima's redesigned 4-wheel independent suspension features segment-first Active Understeer Control for refined feel and responsive handling.
The 2013 Nissan Altima is offered in seven well-equipped models to meet a range of customer needs and budgets. MSRP for the 2013 Nissan Altima sedan include:
Altima Sedan 2.5 CVT
Altima Sedan 2.5 S CVT
Altima Sedan 2.5 SV CVT
Altima Sedan 2.5 SL CVT
Altima Sedan 3.5 S CVT
Altima Sedan 3.5 SV CVT
Altima Sedan 3.5 SL CVT
About Nissan North America
In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program and has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year in 2010, 2011, and 2012 by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.InfinitiUSA.com.
SOURCE Nissan North America


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Rene Marie Russo (born February 17, 1954) is an American film actress.
Russo, an Italian American, was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley (née Balocca), a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their single mother. She attended Burroughs High School (where her classmates included director Ron Howard), but eventually dropped out in the tenth grade. Due to financial constraints within the family, she began taking a variety of part-time jobs including working in an eyeglass factory, and as a movie cashier.
In 1972, the 17 year old was attending a Rolling Stones concert when she was approached by John Crosby, a scout and manager from International Creative Management. He told her she should be a model and had test photos made of her. Within a few months, Rene signed a contract with Ford Modeling Agency and within a year had become a successful print and photographers model. Soon her modeling breakthrough came when she graced the cover of Vogue. By 1975, she had appeared on numerous magazine covers, was one of the most successful models in America, and was also starting to be seen in several TV commercials through the 1980s. She would define what a top fashion model was for years to come.

subset: commoncrawl


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Eagle Vision is pleased to announce the release of Ián-Bú, the latest DVD offering from Taiwanese metal collective, CHTHONIC.
The first new video release from the eclectic ensemble in six years includes stunning live footage and extensive bonus features beginning with CHTHONIC's full performance at the 2013 Formoz Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, where they were joined by the Chai Feng Traditional Orchestra, as well as renowned Taiwanese opera singer Tang Mei-yun for a collaborative rendition of the track "Defenders Of Bú-Tik Palace." Additionally, the near-hour-long DVD offers up five spectacular music videos from their recently released Bú-tik full-length: "Defenders Of Bú-Tik Palace," "Supreme Pain For The Tyrant," "Sail Into The Sunset's Fire," "Set Fire To The Island," and "Next Republic." The music videos are an extraordinary blend of martial arts, combat fighting, dance, and drama. CHTHONIC members wire-fly through the air, bathe in water amid torrential downpours and travel through time to a party in the 1930s in an elaborate military alliance between Nazi Germany and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime. The production truly highlights CHTHONIC's irrefutable creativity both onstage and beyond. Other extras include behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoots as well as exclusive interviews with bassist Doris Yeh, director Vince Chuang and various backstage footage.
Full Ián-Bú Breakdown + Track Listing:
1. Intro: Arising Armament
2. Oceanquake
3. Supreme Pain For The Tyrant
4. Next Republic
5. Takao
6. Broken Jade
7. Southern Cross
8. Sail Into The Sunset's Fire
9. Defenders Of Bú-tik Palace
10. Outro: Undying Rearmament
Bonus Features
Formoz Afterwords
Chthonic Fashion
Music Videos
"Supreme Pain For The Tyrant"
"Sail Into Sunset's Fire"
"Next Republic"
"Set Fire To The Island"
"Defenders Of Bú-tik Palace"
"Supreme Pain For The Tyrant"
"Sail Into Sunset's Fire"
"Defenders Of Bú-tik Palace"
Interview w/ bassist Doris Yeh and Director Vince Chuang
CHTHONIC released their award winning, seventh studio recording, Bú-Tik, via Spinefarm Records last year. Called "a masterful and elegant tradition served underneath soaring thrash-influenced guitars, pummeling drums and a vocal performance that is absolutely stellar from an overlooked vocalist," by About.com, the critically adored Bú-Tik is centered around the story of the 228 Massacre, the Bú-Tik Palace and the Mirror Of Retribution, and emphasizes what bassist Doris Yeh describes as "righteous violence, justifiable defense, and the armed spirits." Formed in 1995, with the existing lineup having been together since 2005, CHTHONIC blends metal with traditional Taiwanese instrumentation, mythology, Taoist folklore and the country's labyrinthine history, each album bearing a deep, conceptual story. CHTHONIC is notorious for their elaborate costumes, stage makeup and highly visual stage shows as well as their outspoken political views on human rights and Taiwanese independence.
Ián-Bú will be available on DVD and Visual Digital Formats via Eagle Vision on February 25, 2014.


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Lanky boy Andy Murray has brought in a top Hollywood talent agency to help manage his Q rating as he tries to establish his place in the top five of men's tennis.
According to the AP, Andy and brother Jamie have signed on to be represented by CAA and also 19 Entertainment. The latter is the same outfit that manages David Beckham.
We can't wait to see what these agents'll do for Andy when they start working with him on March 1. Perhaps Jeff Gillooly some of his naysayers? Screen his Twittering? GET HIM BETTER-FITTING CLOTHES FROM FRED PERRY?


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This article is more than 1 year old
Cray celebrates Opteron joy
Can the good feelings last?
SC05 Cray has earned the right to gloat. The supercomputer maker picked AMD's Opteron chip as its horse early on and can now revel in the market adoration for the product. But while interest in Cray's systems has shot up as a result of its new Opteron gear, huge questions remain as to whether or not Cray can turn around its business in a meaningful way.
"Last year at Supercomputing, we had just launched the XD1 and were talking about the XT3 and basically talking about our architecture," said Amar Shan, a product manager with Cray, in an interview at this year's Supercomputing conference. "This year we have the products going well and all the success stories to point to. Product managers get to sit back with a smile on their face."
Cray attributes much of its good fortune to taking the Opteron risk and betting on the chip when it was unproven in the wider server market. Backing up its commitment to Opteron, Cray this week said it will continue to use the chip through 2010. In addition, it will present AMD-based systems as the core of its proposal for DARPA's lucrative High Productivity Computing Systems contract, which will be awarded next year to either Cray, Sun Microsystems or IBM.
"At the moment, it is not any secret that Intel's Xeon has to play catch up," Shan said. "Intel does have a lot of resources, and we know that they will catch up, but we also know that AMD has a very compelling roadmap and a product well-suited to high-performance computing."
Cray's XT3 Opteron-based Red Storm cluster currently claims the number six spot on the Top500 supercomputer list. It boasts more than 10,880 processors and is the leading Opteron-based system in the supercomputer world. The company has also claimed recent wins with PING, the Korea Meteorological Administration and Rice University. Such wins outside of Cray's core US government business prove crucial to its overall viability.
In its most recent quarter (Q3), Cray posted revenue of $44.7m, which was flat year-over-year. Its net loss, however, shrank dramatically to $10.3 from $111m the previous year. In its second quarter, Cray reported revenue of $53.4m – a large surge over the $21.7m in the year earlier second quarter.
Still, Cray depends on US government contracts for the majority of its sales. The business model is restrictive, especially for a public company under huge pressure to grow.
Cray maintains that government organizations now need its class of supercomputers more than ever for jobs outside of the defense and intelligence domains. It points to weather modeling, bio-medical research and more general environmental modeling as key tasks.
"I do think the government funding will be there, and there are plenty of other opportunities as well," Shan said. "There are lots of friendly nations to sell to."
As for what's next at Cray, the company has moved from a spider-themed code-naming scheme for its systems to one centered around mountains. Adams, Baker and Hood are all future product names, although Shan declined to provide any details on the systems.
Overall, Cray has done a better job of late of keeping costs in line with its business, and it has a solid product lineup that makes use of commodity parts where possible and proprietary bits to boost total performance. Cray may even be profitable once again in the fourth quarter, a spokesman said. Still, one has the feeling at times that Cray, like SGI, will be stuck in a declining market, while Tier 1 server vendors and a fleet of upstarts try to eat away at parts of its business. It's tough times for the venerable computing crowd. ®


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Sixteen candidates – including former city councilors looking to return to city government – are vying to fill seven seats on the Biddeford City Council.
The race comes at a time when many candidates say they are concerned about taxes and want to help guide the future of the former mill town. Biddeford, the largest city in York County, has seen economic development activity in the downtown mill district in the last couple years and more is expected as the city prepares to market riverfront property that formerly housed the Maine Energy Recovery Co. trash incinerator.
Ward 3 Councilor Brad Cote is running unopposed for a second term. Councilor Michael Ready is running unopposed for the Ward 7 seat. Councilor Richard Rhames is not seeking reelection to his at-large seat, leaving more room for five candidates to run for two seats.
Ward 1
Councilor Michael Swanton is seeking a second term representing Biddeford's coastal neighborhoods. He is challenged by Ronald Peaker, a former city councilor and school committee member who frequently speaks at city meetings.
Swanton, a 61-year-old plumber, said he doesn't think he performed well during his first year on the council, but now that the "very steep learning curve" has flattened out, he is confident he can best represent the needs of his ward. Though he said he is embarrassed that he couldn't stop tax increases during his first term, Swanton would spend the next two years looking for ways to save money and avoid further tax hikes.
"We need to start cutting staff," he said. "Ten years ago we had 3,000 kids in school; this year we had 2,500. It seems to me we need to start thinking about consolidating and closing a school."
Swanton said he also wants to see the city hire a real estate broker to list the former MERC property to a larger market, "rather than wait for someone to stumble into the economic development office in Biddeford."
Peaker, who retired from a senior management position with an auto manufacturer, said he is looking to return to the council after a decade away because of the city's "constant spiral of runaway spending and tax increases."
City taxpayers have seen a 13 percent increase in the past two years.
"I've gone through this before and the majority of the old timers running this time have the same problem, that the council is spending too much money irresponsibly," he said.
Peaker said the city also needs to develop a comprehensive strategy for economic development.
"This city has absolutely no idea where it's going and that's the problem," he said.
Ward 2
Two-term Councilor David Bourque faces a challenge for the Ward 2 seat from political newcomer Andrew Russell and John A. McCurry Jr., who served on the City Council from 1999 to 2007.
Bourque, a 57-year-old bar owner, believes the city is headed in a good direction with more economic development activity, and wants to continue to help guide Biddeford as the MERC site is developed and plans for a downtown parking garage are discussed. But Bourque said he also is focused on getting the municipal budget under control to avoid further tax increases.
"I think we need to work to get the taxes down or at least keep them from expanding," Bourque said.
McCurry, 56, previously served eight years on the council, including two as council president. He said he decided to run for another term after he was asked by residents concerned about spending and taxes.
"Their biggest concern is that the spending is out of control," he said. "They don't see their paychecks going up. You see everyone else cutting, but the city keeps spending. We need to really dig into the budget and figure out where to save."
McCurry said he wants to make sure taxpayer money isn't used to fund a downtown parking garage, which is still in the conceptual phase. City officials have said parking meters could be installed downtown in the future, which McCurry sees as detrimental to the area.
Andrew Russell, who has not previously run for office in Biddeford, did not respond to interview requests.
Ward 4
Councilor Melissa Bednarowski is not seeking a second term, leaving the Ward 4 seat open for either Robert Quattrone Jr. or Dominic Deschambault, both Biddeford natives and political newcomers.
Quattrone, 41, said he is making his first run for political office to become more involved in his hometown and make sure residents of his ward have a voice in decisions about the city's future. A boiler operator and father of two, Quattrone began speaking out at council meetings last year when he opposed the purchase of the site of MERC, where he worked.
Quattrone said as a city councilor he would focus on bringing economic development to all areas of the city and addressing the tax rate.
"The issue that is most important to people I talk to is that taxes seem to be just running away," he said. "Taxes are outpacing our incomes in this town and things are getting to a breaking point."
Deschambault, a 29-year-old customer service representative for Time Warner, is making his first run for office, following in the footsteps of his mother, Susan Deschambault, a former city councilor.
"At this point, we're at a crossroads like a lot of mill towns in the Northeast. I think we have a lot of great opportunities to make the transition and enter into a new phase of the economy and the way in which the city should be operated," he said. "I understand the history of where we come from and what we've done to get here."
If elected, Deschambault said he would like to focus on job growth and take a closer look at the budget to see if there are excesses that could be eliminated to avoid tax increases.
Ward 5
Bob Mills, who since 2007 has represented the ward that encompasses much of downtown, this year faces a challenge from Carol Boisjoly.
Mills said he wants another term on the council to continue working on a variety of projects, including economic development and the future of the MERC property.
"I've seen in other communities how development and the economy held things back. In Biddeford we suffered that tremendously, but we're moving forward with new businesses and new ideas," Mills said.
Mills did not support the budget during the last cycle and wants to look for ways to streamline services and increase revenue.
Boisjoly, 57, a former nurse now on disability, ran unsuccessfully for Mills' seat two years ago. She said she is running again to give voice to many in the community who are overlooked, including those who are homeless.
She would like to see the city create a homeless shelter, find alternative ways to fund infrastructure improvements and ensure Biddeford is seen as a business-friendly community.
"I'm all for the future of Biddeford, but we also can't forget about the present," she said. "We need to take care of problems before we take that giant step into the future."
Ward 6
Council President Rick Laverriere, who has served four consecutive terms representing Ward 6, faces his first challenge since he was elected to the City Council. Roger Hurtubise, a former city councilor, said he is looking to unseat Laverriere and control spending through fiscal responsibility.
"People want a change in the administration. They are fed up with their taxes being raised the last two years," said Hurtubise, a 68-year-old retired customer service representative. "It's almost like an open credit card right now. The people are tired of the taxes and they're tired of what's going on in the city."
Laverriere, 57, said he wants to continue to move the city forward and is not afraid to make tough decisions.
He said he remains focused on making Biddeford a pro-business community and said the MERC property purchase was "huge" for the city.
"I think that was the biggest thing I've been involved in and feel the best about during all my years on the City Council," he said.
Laverriere said he would support a downtown parking garage only if it was not paid for in a way that would increase property taxes, and would prefer the project was voted on by all residents instead of just city councilors.
A group of experienced candidates is running for two at-large seats to represent the entire city on the Biddeford City Council.
Incumbents Roch Angers and Richard Rhames are joined in the race by political newcomer Daniel Parenteau and former City Councilors James "Jim" Emerson, Marc Lessard and Clement A. Fleurent.
Rhames, 68, said the current council has made important strides in repairing damage from neglect caused by lack of funding for infrastructure maintenance and improvements, but more needs to be done to fix roads and city buildings. The council also successfully got rid of the Maine Energy Recovery Co. trash incinerator, leading to redevelopment projects developers say they would not otherwise pursue, he said.
Rhames said his opponents' focus on cutting taxes is "magical thinking" that will not meet the current and future needs of the city. He believes the city needs to invest in infrastructure like a parking garage, as both Portland and Lewiston have done to spur economic development. Modest increases in the mil rate would not have been needed if previous councils had made small increases to cover increasing costs, he said.
"This is the best council I can remember and I've been paying attention for three decades," Rhames said. "We looked at where the city was and we tried to do the right thing as stewards of this stuff that we, the people of Biddeford, own together. We did the best we could under some very tough circumstances."
Angers, 60, who has served five non-consecutive terms, said he is passionate about his hometown and wants to continue to serve the city during a period of transition. He said he wants to find solutions to hold the line on taxes while ensuring Biddeford is sending out the right message about its future.
"(Biddeford) has so much vitality and so many good things that are going on," he said.
Jim Emerson, a current school committee member who served on the City Council from 2007 to 2011, said he has demonstrated a consistent dedication of time and energy to his adopted hometown, which he would like to continue.
He said the city needs to focus on retaining existing businesses and attracting new ones.
"We need to proactively market opportunities that have the potential to relieve the pressure on our residential taxpayers," Emerson, 59, said. "We also need to ensure we don't lose sight of what we have in the quest for development. Biddeford has a great existing and diverse economic portfolio that we must not neglect."
Fleurent, 78, previously served eight years on the City Council and two years on the Planning Board. He said he was asked to run for council by residents who are worried about taxes, a concern he shares. He believes the city is top heavy on salaries and would favor instituting a salary cap.
"I want to stay involved and represent those who are not capable or who are intimidated to speak before the council," Fleurent said.
Lessard, 50, previously served 10 years on the City Council, including six years as council president, before he left city government to focus on his family. His concern about the city's tax rate and whether Biddeford is being run efficiently enough prompted his run for office. He wants to ensure tax rates are competitive to spur business growth and job creation.
"We've slid and gone in the wrong direction. We need to make the city more efficient," Lessard said. "Our tax rate puts us at a disadvantage when companies come to the city to do their business. They can set up business across the river or in other places and the cost of their taxes is lower."
Parenteau, the only newcomer in the race for at-large seats, is a 50-year-old business strategist and consultant who wants to be "an advocate for moving Biddeford from good to great."
A fiscal conservative who wants to approach the budget with a long-term plan, Parenteau also is focused on the city's economic development activity.
"Historically, the City Council has not played a strong enough role in guiding economic development," he said. "Without question, (the council) should play an extremely active role in guiding and shaping the city's economic landscape. This is critical to how Biddeford controls growth and executes on creating things like tax stabilization and general economic prosperity."
Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:firstname.lastname@example.com
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Check out my latest interview with book blogger Rollie over at Blotted Pages: http://blottedpages.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/authorized-anthony-ryan.html
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Tower Lord – Pre-Order Pages
Pre-Order pages for Tower Lord are now up on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. No covers yet but have fun comparing the blurbs.
Tower Lord – Cover & Blurb Reveal
And here it is, release date 1st July 2014. Thanks to everyone at Ace for their work on this. Enjoy…
In Blood Song, Anthony Ryan introduced readers to "a fascinating world of conflicting religions and the wars fought in the name of those faiths" (Library Journal). Now Ryan's epic tale continues as Vaelin Al Sorna discovers that there is no escape from the call of destiny…
"The blood-song rose with an unexpected tune, a warm hum mingling recognition with an impression of safety. He had a sense it was welcoming him home."
Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus's vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more. Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus's grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm.
But those gifted with the blood-song are never destined to live a quiet life. Many died in King Janus's wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do. The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be. The new King is weak, but his sister is strong. The blood-song is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries. Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw a sword.


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Under new rules signed into law in June, California colleges must have a student loan default rate of 15.5 percent or less and a graduation rate of 30 percent or higher for students to qualify for Cal Grants, which do not have to be repaid. The law exempts colleges where less than 40 percent of students borrow federal student loans, such as community colleges.
The goal of the new eligibility rules was to focus the state's limited financial aid dollars on colleges that provide a significant return on taxpayers' and students' investments in terms of jobs and degrees. The Academy of Art was one of 154 institutions [PDF] kicked out of the program this fall – most of which are for-profit colleges.
The Academy of Art serves more than 18,000 students, providing associate, bachelor's and master's degrees in the arts, as well as certificate programs.
According to figures from the college, about 100 new Academy of Art students who would have been eligible for Cal Grants worth up to $1,473 this fall will not receive them, and 350 returning students who would have been eligible for up to $9,223 will see their Cal Grants reduced by 20 percent.
The university has promised these students they will not feel the impact, however, because the academy will provide scholarships to make up the difference. In all, the academy estimates its students will forgo up to $1.2 million in Cal Grant aid, said Kirke Hasson, an attorney representing the university.
In its lawsuit, filed Aug. 30 in San Francisco Superior Court, the university's lawyers argue the student aid commission erred in using the college's 2010 graduation rate to determine eligibility. They say the commission should have used the preliminary 2011 rate posted by the U.S. Department of Education on its College Navigator website. That rate is 34 percent and would put the academy in the clear.
The suit points to a part of the California Education Code that says the commission must certify each college's most "recently reported" default rate and graduation rate.
The commission says those rates are preliminary and that the Department of Education has not yet released official 2011 graduation rates.
Diana Fuentes-Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, wrote an Aug. 15 letter to Academy of Art Vice President Joe Vollaro, stating that the Department of Education's provisional graduation rates have not yet been fully evaluated by the National Center for Education Statistics. She said those rates could change and should not be used to create national, state or other aggregate estimates.
"We can't make official an unofficial rate," Fuentes-Michel said.
Hasson said Education Code has a provision that indicates there will be situations where the commission acts upon Department of Education data that is later revised.
"There's no question that the higher and satisfactory rate was publicly available and any concerns about how to aggregate data for the state are beside the point," he said.
The Academy of Art's petition also contended that if an institution misses state standards for one year, it should only sit out of the Cal Grant program for one year, rather than two. But that part of the suit is no longer an issue because lawmakers approved an education trailer bill last month that defined the penalty period as one year long.
The university lawyers asked for a stay, which would have immediately prohibited the commission from enforcing the Cal Grant restrictions this fall on the Academy of Art, but Superior Court Judge Harold E. Kahn denied the request. The first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31.
View this story on California Watch
Story courtesy of our media partners at California Watch (A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting)


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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
It Takes a Police State to Raise a Child
In the aftermath of Wednesday's hostage taking and murder-suicide at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, I can just hear all the gun grabbers proclaiming that it only goes to show that we cannot tolerate guns in -- or anywhere near -- schools. Well, one of their dream bills has just been passed by Congress.
On September 23, World Net Daily reported that the House of Representatives has passed an anti-drug and anti-weapon bill ' HR 5295 -- that 'would require local districts to develop search policies ' including strip searches ' with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff.'
HR 5295 reads in part as follows:
"A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any reasonable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, school property and students remain free from the threat of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics. The measures used to conduct any search must be reasonably related to the search's objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light of the student's age, sex, and the nature of the offense."
Five things came to mind immediately.
-First, the requirement of 'reasonable suspicion' of a teacher or school staffer is not nearly as strong as the Fourth Amendment's requirement of a judge's warrant that shall not be issued 'but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation.' In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the Supreme Court stated that students do not "shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door". These rights also include the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
- Second, student-teacher sex is happening more and more frequently across America. Moreover, there is a new trend of female teachers having sex with male students.
- Third, while schools have been gun-free zones for years, this do-gooderism did not prevent the orgy of blood at Columbine. The Harrises and Klebolds of the world do not give one flying rip about anyone's little pantywaist gun laws. On that horrible morning in 1999, the students, faculty and staff were absolutely defenseless as those two little pukes sprayed bullets all over the school.
- Fourth, the War on Drugs has been a monumental failure. There is now one drug arrest every 40 seconds in America. Largely because of the War on Drugs, America ' the land of the free ' has the world's highest incarceration rate. America has more drugs than ever and more dangerous drugs than ever. Drug prohibition has not solved anything and has created a whole new host of problems that did not exist when we started down this road decades ago.
- Fifth, there is no constitutional authority whatsoever for federal intrusion in education. Article 1, Section 8, which spells out the 18 duties of the federal government, does not even mention the word "education". The Tenth Amendment forbids Uncle Sam from intruding in any area not authorized by the Constitution. (The Constitution thereby forbids the drug war as well.)
The same folks who laughed convulsively when Hillary Clinton stated that 'It Takes a Village to Raise a Child' evidently have no problem with the idea that it takes a police state to raise a child.
Well, I have some news for police state groupies: disarming students did not stop Columbine and it did not stop Wednesday's bloodshed 38 miles southwest of Columbine. Duane Morrison, 53 -- totally undeterred by everyone's stupid gun laws -- entered a classroom, fired a warning shot and ordered all the students out of the room, except for six girls. Over the next four hours he sexually assaulted several of the girls and killed one -- 16-year-old junior Emily Keyes -- before killing himself.
I can hear people saying: I basically support the Second Amendment, but do we really neeeeed guns in schools?
Let me give you a little thought experiment.
Let's say that one of the students ordered to leave the room on Wednesday at Platte Canyon High had a gun in his book bag. And let us say that, fearing for his life and the lives of those around him, he shot Morrison. The innocent life of Emily Keyes would have been saved and no girls would have been sexually assaulted and traumatized.
Let me give you two more little thought experiments.
Let's say that students were not forced to "shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door". Let us say that Eric Harris and Dyaln Klebold would have been deterred by the mere possibility that someone somewhere on the Columbine campus could have busted a cap on them on that horrible morning in 1999.
Let's say that the mere thought that someone somewhere on the Platte Canyon campus could be packing heat could have been enough to deter psycho sicko Duane Morrison from doing what he did on Wednesday.
When you disarm innocent people, bad things happen.
Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In the seven-plus years since Columbine, nothing has changed. We throw more and more money at schools, and they just get worse. We lock up more and more druggies, and things just get worse. We continue to disarm students and we get more school shootings. We continue to beg for our government to "do something" after every crisis, and things get worse.
It takes neither a village nor a police state to raise a child. It takes loving, dedicated, involved parents. Nothing will change in America until enough people realize this and starting acting accordingly. No law or "policy" can bring about this change. The needed change has to come in the hearts and minds of the American people.


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Enough of the ghoulish, sordid facts are known about the Penn State University child sex scandal to say this. The alleged child rapes were known by some athletic department members, up to and including the football program boss, JoePa, Joe Paterno. The rumors, or worse, knowledge of the rapes may have been known by or at least heard of by others still unnamed that could eventually be a winding tangle through university staff, faculty, administrators, trustees, and corporate donors, and politicians.
The two prime offenders charged with the crimes were not some causal locker room jocks and hangers on, but long term, respected, and highly positioned athletic department mainstays. The Second Mile Foundation that served as a cover for the alleged rapes by its founder, the disgraced and accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky was not some fly-by-night, drive by, fast buck operation, but a well-established foundation that had been in business for more than three decades. Sandusky was with the Foundation from the start in 1977 until just last year. Even as the scandal unfolds, it is still in business. It has a big, impressive, full bodied website that boasts of its accomplishments, has three offices, and is actively soliciting donations. The reporters that have tried to get a comment from foundation officials have been summarily hung up on.
There will be more sordid facts and cases to emerge in the coming days and almost certainly more alleged victims will come forth and tell their stories. This poses the question that's bantered about, agonized over, and reams of opinion written, and that's why those who knew didn't blow the whistle on and insure that the cuffs were slapped on the offenders years ago? The stock answer is that it was a case of fear, protectiveness, ego (Paterno's), football deification and prestige, decades of institutional sports cronyism and the bushels of money that Penn State and other big time Division 1 schools haul in every year from their flagship football programs. This is all true.
But with the strong hints and now the public finger point by a parent of one of the victims that the victims were in her words " Blacks about 10-12 and had a tall slim muscular build." The Second Mile Foundation's founder and accused Jerry Sandusky openly bragged that it was in the business of helping "underprivileged" youth, always the polite code word for poor, at risk, young blacks and Hispanics, it's hardly a stretch to connect the dots to race.
Put bluntly, if Penn State officials kept their yaps shut for years in the face of open knowledge of and strong suspicions of the child rapes and the victims were young black males, than the last dot connected is the charge that black lives are routinely devalued when it comes to officials taking action to protect them. This charge has repeatedly been leveled in serial murders, inner city gang carnage, and against child service agencies that ignore or downplay repeated reports of abuse when the victims and the abused are black. That's only part of the problem. Race can't be separated from poverty or "underprivileged" in the parlance of Sandusky's The Second Mile Foundation. A study in the March issue of the Journal Pediatrics, "Racial Bias in Child Protection? A Comparison of Competing Explanations Using National Data," found that poverty was a huge determinant not only of levels of abuse. The study predictably found that a disproportionate number of the reported child abuse cases in 2009 which spanned the gamut from neglect to child rape were African-American children. The study directly linked the abuse to poverty. Parents and caregivers that are desperate to provide their children with a pathway out of harm's way from any and every type of abuse that comes with poverty latch on to organizations that promise to provide resources, mentoring, nurturing, and a protective environment for at risk black children.
The Second Mile Foundation that so persuasively and passionately marketed itself under its accused founder Jerry Sandusky, and with the resources, clout and national name recognition of Penn State University's premier football majordomo Joe Paterno to boot, as just such an organization would be hungrily grabbed at as the ticket out of the ghetto for the kids. Given the name and the prestige of those behind this Foundation, why would anyone in their wildest nightmares ever think or suspect that colossal evil lurked underneath the faà �ade of its alleged unadulterated philanthropic and do good aims?
In the days to come as more details unfold about how the Foundation under Sandusky used its good name to commit alleged serial heinous crimes, all with the tacit blessing of Paterno and university officials, the hard suspicions and hints that the target of the crimes were young black males may well be confirmed. If that's the case, then the deep soul search that university and others everywhere that turn a blind eye to child abuse must undergo will be rudely forced to confront one more horrifying possibility. And that's that race was one more reason for that blind eye.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson


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Def Leppard Broken Glass throwback retro Rock N Roll concert zipper mens hoodie
Adult full zip hoodie made from poly/cotton blend
Every item we sell is original brand new and fully licensed.
If an item is designated as "distressed", the design contains intentional skips and voids which give the item a worn-in or vintage look. These are part of the actual design and do not reflect poor printing.


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Make is a fully responsive and retina ready for corporate, agency, nonprofit, freelancer or general business. It's built with Bootstrap and well coded so very easy to edit and change things.
Don't forget vote
- Retina Ready
- Fully Responsive
- Parallax Effects
- Ajax Portfollio – Isotope
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- Twitter script
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- Content Carousel
- 10 color skins
- 400+ Icons
- 4 PSD Files
- Excellent Support
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- Video, slider, image in Blog & Portfolio
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Demo images (NOT included in the package)
Live preview images are from Flickr. We are not distributing these images via download pack. We have placeholder images for each instance.
Video header by http://www.beachfrontbroll.com/. The movie is not in the package.
Version 1.3
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-Update Contact Form -Update Twitter Plugin -Update Documentation -New Preloader
Version 1.2
-Add Lightbox -Add Video Header -Fix Top Menu -Update Contact Form -Update black style layout (button mobile menu) -Update documentation
Version 1.1
-Add new mobile menu -Add black and white style -Fix header -Top menu -Off sticky menu for mobile devices -Update documentation


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JDJC & FUZZYEYES LIMITED revealed today that "Edge of Twilight," the steampunk action/adventure game will be available on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in the summer of 2013. The game is to be released by a new partnership between JDJC & Fuzzyeyes and Fuzzyeyes Entertainment Limited, who took up the project in late 2011.
The team at Fuzzyeyes has also announced a new game titled "Edge of Twilight – Horizon," which will be a available on the Apple App Store. Players will take the role of Night Lex as he attempts to use his speed and wits to outsmart an important enemy who will later appear in the console versions of "Edge of Twilight."
In bringing back the once-thought-dead "Edge of Twilight," Fuzzyeyes has garnered a remarkably supportive reaction from fans of the project. To give back to the fans, Fuzzyeyes is designating "Edge of Twilight – Horizon" a free game in the App Store. Players of "Edge of Twilight – Horizon" will gain access to production news about and new screenshots of "Edge of Twilight" for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. New announcements and trailers regarding "Edge of Twilight" will also flow through the "Edge of Twilight – Horizon" app to keep fans up-to-date.
The release of "Edge of Twilight – Horizon" solidifies Fuzzyeye's promise to expand the "Edge of Twilight" game into a multiplatform series. It is currently waiting for release approval.
About EDGE OF TWILIGHT
The Edge of Twilight series is a multiplatform, diverse-genre series of steampunk titles, all taking place in the same world, one in which night and day exist as separate realms. The series will not commit to a set genre, but instead focus on a set world, flushing out the characters, world, and story throughout the series. The first title, which is set for release in late 2012, will carry the name of the series itself, EDGE OF TWILIGHT, and will focus around Lex, a half-breed who can bridge the gap between the realms of darkness and light. This forthcoming title will be an action/adventure game with heavy focus on gameplay, story, and puzzles.
For more information, go to www.edge-of-twilight.com or http:// www.facebook.com/ironhorizon.
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As a long time supporter of Creative Commons, I was thrilled to get an invitation to the Creative Commons reception last week celebrating Jimmy Wales' joining the board of Creative Commons International.
It was only after a couple years of teaching copyright law to business school students that I fully appreciated the power of what they are doing over at Creative Commons. Since the media lobbyists appear to have a solid hold on Capital Hill, thus making copyright reform pretty unlikely, Creative Commons empowers content creators to very simply make their own content freely available for use by others (in such ways as the content owners see fit). Thus, for example, I am able to make all of the content on VentureBlog available to be copied so long as I am appropriately credited as the source by easily adopting a Creative Commons License.
On the way up to the Creative Commons party I recorded the preamble to this, my most recent VentureCast. I then caught up with a number of interesting folks -- people like Joi Ito, JD Lasica, Mitch Kapor -- and asked them why they supported Creative Commons. I got a number of interesting answers, some of which I have included in this installment of VentureCast. Give it a listen and see if you find the zealots at the Creative Commons party convincing. I certainly did.


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Harnessing Asia's growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests. Hillary Clinton
France's military intervention into Mali may at first glance appear to have little to do with the U.S. "pivot" to Asia. But as a French mission supposedly meant to bolster a U.N. sanctioned and African-led intervention has gone from "a question of weeks" to"the total re-conquest of Mali," what may have begun as a French affair has now become a Western intervention.
And this in turn has drawn wider strategic interests into the conflict. Strategic interests, it is becoming clearer, shaped by the imperatives of the U.S. Asia pivot.
Widening Intervention
The geopolitical posturing over the crisis in Mali, coming as France's intervention fans out across the region, is no more evident than in the public statements coming from both London and Washington.
As British Prime Minister David Cameron declared, the crisis in Mali "will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months." Backing up such bluster, Britain has reportedly joined France in dispatching special commando teams to Mali, in addition to surveillance drones.
In Washington, the talk of a long war to be waged across the entire Sahel region of Africa has also begun. As one U.S. official speaking on the Western intervention into Mali warned Monday, "It is going to take a long time and time means that it could take several years."
Such remarks mirror those made by outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"This is going to be a very serious, ongoing threat because if you look at the size of northern Mali, if you look at the topography — it's not only desert, it's caves," Clintonremarked. "Sounds reminiscent. We are in for a struggle. But it is a necessary struggle. We cannot permit northern Mali to become a safe haven."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the safe haven refrain is also pulsating through the corridors of the Pentagon.
"Some top Pentagon officials and military officers warn that without more aggressive U.S. action," the Times reports, "Mali could become a haven for extremists, akin to Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
And as the American public is prepped for the opening of a new front in the unending "war on terror," U.S. intervention accelerates.
As the Washington Post reports, the U.S. is now offering "aerial refueling" to French warplanes, along with "planes to transport soldiers from other African nations."
U.S. intelligence officials, meanwhile, have reportedly begun drawing up plans to provide "data to help French warplanes locate and attack militant targets." This, as Pentagon hawks continue to push for the use of drone strikes.
In fact, the New York Times reports the U.S. has begun "preparing plans to establish a drone base in northwest Africa to increase unarmed surveillance missions on the local affiliate of Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups."
The paper, which notes the base's likely location to be in Niger, reports the Pentagon has "not ruled out conducting missile strikes at some point if the threat worsens."
As one American official told the Times, the decision to establish a permanent drone base in northern Africa "is directly related to the Mali mission, but it could also give Africom [the U.S. Military's Africa Command] a more enduring presence."
The very notion, though, of an al-Qaeda threat in northern Mali so dire as to require Western intervention and a permanent U.S. presence is anything but well-defined. As Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy, notes: "it's by no means clear what threat al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb…poses to the United States."
Indeed, the very notion of al-Qaeda in Mali posing a threat to the West is predicated on the oft-repeated safe haven refrain. That is, the belief that without foreign intervention al-Qaeda will use northern Mali as a staging ground to launch attacks within Western countries.
"But," as Stephen Walt questions, "is there any real evidence that the extremists in Mali are plotting to attack France, the United States, or anyone else? Even if they were, is there good evidence that they have the will and the skill to carry out such activities, or that the consequences of a successful attack would be greater than the costs of French (and other) efforts to root them out? And is it possible that intervention in Mali might actually focus the extremists' attention on the intervenors, instead of the central government?"
The answer to the latter question appears quite clear in the wake of the bloody hostage crisis in neighboring Algeria. Although, as French President François Hollande claimed, the retaliation for the French intervention merely provided "further evidence that my decision to intervene in Mali was justified."
Interventions, we see, are predicated upon a rather self-fulfilling logic. For in a seemingly endless loop, interventions inevitably seem to create additional problems and crises that are then posited as both justifying the initial intervention, as well yet further interventions. In short, intervention begets intervention.
The Useful Menace
But while Western leaders dig deep to reassure themselves of the justness of their latest intervention, doubts are nonetheless increasing over the competence of the Malian army. As the New York Times reports, despite extensive U.S. training, the Malian army has proven to be "a weak, dysfunctional force that is as much a cause of Mali's crisis as a potential part of the solution."
The Western "hope" in Mali, then, as the Economist argues, "is to kill as many as possible of the most fanatical jihadists, and to garrison the northern towns with soldiers from Mali and its neighbours, before the insurgents can regroup or bring in recruits."
With such "hope" one understands the talk of a struggle to be measured in decades.
Indeed, even the head of the U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, has acknowledged the limitations the West faces in Mali.
"Realistically," Ham recently remarked, "probably the best you can get is containment and disruption, so that al-Qaida is no longer able to control territory [there] as they do today."
But as U.S. officials talk up the al-Qaeda threat in Mali, one can't help but recall the assertion made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta back in 2011. As Panetta then declared, the U.S. was "within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda." Yet, after the West's support of Islamists fighters in Libya and Syria, that handy al-Qaeda specter has evidently been roused sufficiently to haunt the Western mind once more.
Of course, despite all the public claims to the contrary, defeating al-Qaeda has never really been a genuine pursuit of the U.S. anyway. After all, a vanquished al-Qaeda would really denote something of a strategic setback for Washington. It would deprive the U.S. a source of proxy war foot soldiers, while also leaving Washington struggling to justify its global garrisoning. In the end then, the al-Qaeda menace — that gift that keeps on giving — is simply too useful to defeat.
Containing China
One needs look no further than the intervention into Mali to see the al-Qaeda threat bearing fruit for the West. All the attention on combating al-Qaeda in northern Mali has provided the perfect cover for the U.S. and its junior Western partners to pursue their grand strategy of containment against China. And with China increasingly out competing Western interests throughout Africa, one understands the sudden neo-colonial urge in the West.
According to Razia Khan, the regional head of research for Africa at Standard Chartered Bank, bilateral trade between Africa and China is nearing $200 billion annually, having grown at an average rate of 33.6 percent per year over the past decade. What's more, in the coming years Africa stands to become China's largest trade partner, surpassing both the EU and the U.S.
None of this has been lost on Washington. As the presumptive next U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, noted during his Senate confirmation hearing, the U.S. is knowingly playing from behind.
"Now with respect to China and Africa, China is all over Africa — I mean, all over Africa. And they're buying up long-term contracts on minerals, on … you name it," Kerry commented. "And there're some places where we're not in the game, folks. And I hate to say it. And we got to get in."
In a 2010 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Johnnie Carson, U.S. assistant secretary for African Affairs, echoed Kerry's concerns. In fact, Carson went so far as to classify China as a "very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals."
Such U.S. sneering over growing Chinese investments in Africa were aired publicly during Secretary of State Clinton's visit through African back in August. As Clinton, in a clear jab at China declared on her trip, "Unlike other countries, 'America will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing.'"
(The rights violations of the U.S.-trained Malian army puts just the latest lie to such righteous declarations.)
In response to Clinton's jab, China's state-run Xinhua news agency shot back that Clinton's trip was "aimed at least partly at discrediting China's engagement with the continent and curbing China's influence there."
And it is with such a fear of U.S. containment in mind that Beijing has come to interpret France's intervention into Mali as a gateway for further Western interventions. As He Wenping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warns, "French forces' involvement in Mali will provide the case for legalization of a new interventionism in Africa."
And indeed it will, just as the West's Libyan romp, costing China $20 billion in investments, helped set the stage for the current intervention into Mali. For in order for the U.S. to harness Asia's (read China's) growth and dynamism — and thus cement America's Pacific Century — the U.S. must come to also harness the growth and dynamism of Africa.
The U.S. containment of China, then, requires a pivot of sorts to Africa. Only the African pivot appears set to fall under the banner of that ever-malleable "war on terror."
Ben Schreiner is a freelance writer based in Wisconsin. He may be reached email@example.com or via his website.


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A Dissertation on the Prophecies, that Have Been Fulfilled, are Now Fulfilling, Or Will Hereafter be Fulfilled: Relative to the Great Period of 1260 Years; the Papal and Mohammedan Apostacies: the Tyrannical Reign of Antichrist, Or the Infidel Power; and the Restoration of the Jews. To which is Added, an Appendix, Volumes 1-2
Andrews and Cummings, Greenough and Stebbins, printers, 1808 - Bible
From inside the book
Page 238
... but the Lord will be the hope of his people , and the strength of the children of Israel . So shall ye know , that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy , and there shall no strangers ...
... but the Lord will be the hope of his people , and the strength of the children of Israel . So shall ye know , that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy , and there shall no strangers ...
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Common terms and phrases
according already angel Antichrist apocalyptic Apostacy appears authority beast begin Bishop born chapter character Christ Christian Church commencement completely consequently considered continue Daniel death described divided dragon earth East Emperor equally existence expression fall false four fourth France given half hand head heaven Hence holy infidel interpretation Italy Jews John king kingdom language latter likewise little horn Lord manner mean Mede mentioned natural never Newton objection observed once opinion original Papacy papal particular period persecution Pope predicted present prophecy prophet reason reign relate religion represented respecting restoration rise Roman empire Rome saints secular seven seventh sixth speak spiritual supposes symbol temporal things third tion trumpet unto vial vision whole witnesses wonders worship
Popular passages
Page 49 - And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
Page 257 - And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people : and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
Page 65 - Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Page 202 - And the First went, and poured out his vial upon the earth ; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
Page 63 - And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Page 38 - I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
Page 209 - For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Page 188 - And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him ; for the hour of his judgment is come : and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Page 39 - And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Page 280 - And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of the star is called Wormwood ; and the third part of the waters became wormwood ; and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.


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Jul 11th 2022
Jul 11th 2022
|1320th International Conference on Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (ICCBE)
|Event Serial - 564436
|Website - http://researchworld.org/Conference2022/Bulgaria/1/ICCBE/
|Contact Person - Conference coordinator
|Event enquiries email address - firstname.lastname@example.com
|Deadline for abstracts/proposals - 2022-06-24
|Organized by - Researchworld
|Venue - Plovdiv , , Bulgaria
|Event Status - Active
About Event
The key intention of ICCBE is to provide opportunity for the global participants to share their ideas and experience in person with their peers expected to join from different parts on the world. In addition this gathering will help the delegates to establish research or business relations as well as to find international linkage for future collaborations in their career path. We hope that ICCBE outcome will lead to significant contributions to the knowledge base in these up-to-date scientific fields in scope.


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Made from European approved food safe, high-grade silicone (higher than FDA standards). Will not leach chemicals, non-toxic, PVC and phthalate FREE! Award Winning colourful 9oz bowls. No more chips, breaks or loud noises when these bowls go whoops-a-daisy. BPA free, BPS free, no harsh chemicals and easy to clean. Dishwasher safe, microwave safe, freezer safe, and oven safe.
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- Silicone is odorless and tasteless
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Cleaning and care
- Safe for dishwasher, microwave & oven (bowl only), freezer & electric sterilizers SPOONS ARE NOT MICROWAVE SAFE
- If your silicone smells of food or takes on the taste of soap, your silicone has oil build up. To remove use a fresh lime and rub it all over the silicone. Let sit for 20mins. Rinse with hot water. Avoid soaps with essential oils.
- Stains may be removed by washing with hot soapy water or by using the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Stains may be removed by washing with hot soapy water
- Dry products with a towel to avoid water-marks
- Store products in a dry place
- Do not store the products in direct sunlight
|4 month and more
|16,8 x 2,5 x 12,7 (base) cm


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2004 Lotus Elise:
A different and convincing proposition for the U.S. Market
by Alistair Weaver
photos by Barry Hayden
It would be inaccurate to describe life at Lotus as being a rollercoaster ride. The Lotus business cycle doesn't leave room for gradients; everything is just a peak or a trough. Last time I visited the HQ at Hethel in Norfolk, I was banned from talking to the production staff because 15% of them were about to lose their jobs. Today, scarcely 6 months later, the place is buzzing again as Lotus prepares to introduce the Elise into the U.S. market.
The importance of the Federal Elise project, code name "Croft," shouldn't be underestimated. The Esprit will be dead by the end of the year, so the new model is crucial to Lotus maintaining a U.S. presence and its 38 dealers. The volume implications are also crucial to its longterm survival.
At present, Lotus builds around 2,200 of its own cars each year, of which 1,300 are sold in the UK. The company is confident of selling 2,200 Federal Elises in the first year, which would double annual production. Solid sales of its homegrown products should also help diminish the company's reliance on consultancy work, which is notoriously reactive to the prevailing economic conditions. Every one at Hethel is aware that the company must remain viable-parent company Proton will not prop it up ad infinitum.
I'm led through reception and into a conference room, where I'm introduced to Nick Adams, the vehicle development manager, and Malcolm Powell, Lotus' chief engineer for manufacturing projects. This pairing has been responsible for federalizing the Elise concept and preparing it for the U.S. market. To some extent, at least, the success or failure of the project rests on their shoulders.
"The Elise was never conceived as a U.S. car," explained Adams, "so we had to establish new objectives. These were to enhance the performance, while adding safety and comfort." The most obvious problem facing the engineering team was the choice of engine. The Rover K-series used in the existing Elise is belt driven and would therefore be outlawed under 2006 U.S. emissions legislation. It's also not sold in any capacity in the U.S. so parts and expertise would be difficult to source. Clearly, an alternative had to be found.
After the death of Lotus founder and lifeblood Colin Chapman, Toyota bought a 20% stake in Lotus. The shares were sold in 1986 but a good relationship was retained, and the strength of Toyota in the U.S. made it an obvious source for an alternative powerplant. The Lotus team focused its attention on the 1795cc VVTL-i engine used in the flagship Celica coupe and the European Corolla. Developing 189 bhp at 7800 rpm and 133 lb-ft of torque at 6800 rpm, it promised to complement the Elise's track -inspired character. As a bonus, this engine also comes with Toyota's excellent C64 sixspeed gearbox, whereas the K-series car makes do with a notchy five-speeder.
Powell explained the benefits: "Compared with the 118-bhp K-series car, the Toyota engine provides a 40% increase in power with a weight increase of just 14%." This differential is doubly important given that the Croft must also carry hefty safety and luxury equipment, which has not traditionally been part of the Elise armory. Twin airbags are a Federal requirement and so is ABS, neither of which have featured on an Elise before. In addition, all U.S. cars will be specified with electric windows, an alarm, central locking, air conditioning and part leather trim as standard. A twin oil cooler system has also been introduced to cope with the hotter U.S. climate.
To accommodate the changes, the fascia styling has been revised, and the structure is now injection molded to improve quality. Air vents and a centralized stereo, not to mention electric window switches, are a far cry from the simplicity of the standard Elise, and I expressed my concern that the car's character has been diluted. "The original Elise was designed as a stripped-out track-day car," explained Adams, "but the high-spec versions sold the most. The Federal car is a step forward from the European car. It's not woolly or detuned, and we haven't changed its character." He claimed, for example, that the electric windows actually weigh less than the manual alternative.
U.S. customers will also be able to tune their cars to taste. The base model will cost around $40,000, but Arnie Johnson, the CEO of Lotus Cars USA, reckons that the majority of customers will opt for the $1,000 Touring pack. This comprises full leather, carpet, an insulated soft-top and additional sound-deadening material. A clip-on hardtop is also on offer for $1,500. At the other end of the spectrum is the Sports pack. This features forged alloys fitted with track-biased Yokohama A048 tires and sports suspension. The latter reduces the gyroscopic loading and allows track-day enthusiasts to alter the spring height for circuit use.
So much for the theory-few things in life are more frustrating than sitting in a conference center at Hethel while the company's products await outside. I had been promised an exclusive drive in a Federal prototype, and word reached us that the car was ready. The test car was mechanically complete, except that it was running on European-spec Bridgestone Potenzas rather than the bespoke Yoko AD07s that are currently being developed for the U.S. market. The interior, though, was a hybrid of European and U.S. parts and bore the scars that characterize any hard-working, hand-built prototype.
Externally the Croft is identical to the European car with the exception of modified lights and the twin rear exhaust pipes that emerge centrally from a modified diffuser. It remains a fine-looking car. While the original had cutesy retro appeal, the latest version has a more grown-up, contemporary feel. It's not difficult to imagine it seducing the occupants of Ocean Drive, Miami Beach.
Our test drive begins on the quiet country lanes that surround the Lotus factory. It's on these roads that every car since the original Lotus Six of 1953 has been analyzed and refined. The scene is quintessentially English, but Adams is quick to point out that the car has also been tested in Phoenix and L.A. to ensure that it's suited to U.S. conditions. The springs and dampers are different to those fitted to European models, but Lotus has worked hard to maintain the "feel" of the Elise.
One of the marvels of the original was the ride quality. Its minor bump absorption and compliance was nothing short of extraordinary for such a focused car, but the Croft takes this to a new extreme. This car's ride is much quieter than the European models, which adds to driver confidence. It deals with an undulating road surface quite brilliantly, which bodes well for America's less than perfect blacktop. The steering, which is lightweight at the straight ahead, still jiggles a little, but it's no longer necessary to make constant, corrective inputs.
My preconceptions about the engine are also being challenged. When fitted to the Celica, this engine feels disappointingly breathless and needs to be worked hard to deliver its best. The Croft is 419 lb heavier than a strippc out, base Elise, but with a curb weight 1,984 lb, it still weighs 2 5 % less than the Celica. With less mass to haul around, the engine's torque deficiencies cease to be of major concern, and what you notice most is the welcome improvement in refinement when compared to Rover-engined car. The six-speed gearbox also swaps ratios with a more satisfying, mechanical clunk.
I return to the factory to be presented with an empty test track and a permit to play. The prototype was on the standard suspension, but it would be ridiculous to describe it as too soft for circuit use. The Series 111 Elise is easier to drive hard than the original-which boasted hyperactive lift-off oversteer-but it still demands to be driven well. The correct gear ratio and considered inputs are crucial if corrct progress is to be made.
Its natural balance is neutral and power oversteer is almost impossible to achieve in the dry, but its stance can be adjusted on the throttle, and the skilled can tempt an Elise into a glorious four-wheel drift. Such tasks are made easier by the wonderful linearity of response that's a feature of every great Lotus. The brakes are equally terrific. The ABS has been tuned to engage only in extremis, and its operation is much softer than that of a standard car. It's fair to say that the system is an aid to enthusiastic driving rather than a necessary evil that detracts from the pedal feel, which is some achievement.
The test track also draws the best out of the engine. The gear ratios have been well chosen so that it's possible to keep the motor spinning on the higher cam between 6000 and the 8200-rpm redline. At these speeds, the engine's four-cylinder thrum takes on a more strident, engaging beat, which suits the car's character. It also produces performance that makes the European Elise feel pedestrian.
Lotus claims 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 sec. for the Federal car, compared with 5.6 sec. for the standard 118-bhp Elise and 5.1 sec. for the 156-bhp 111S. By the time 100 mph arrives after 12.6 sec., the Federal car is well ahead of the 111 S, which takes 2 sec. longer to achieve the ton. Importantly, the U.S. car also feels much faster, which has much to do with the improved soundtrack, the slick gearchange and the high-revving nature of this engine. Lotus's biggest problem may be convincing European and Japanese buyers that they still want to buy a car equipped with a Rover powerplant.
Convincing U.S. buyers to part with $40,000 for an Elise should prove to be less of a problem, at least in the short tenn. Johnson expects the Elise market to be similar to the MINI's. In other words, it's likely to be chosen by both the ultrawealthy and by those who have scrimped and saved to buy the base model. The latter are likely to be enthusiastic diehards who chose the Lotus as an only car. The U.S. version is massively more refined than the Series I and the quality is good, but the boot is still small, the roof is fiddly, and gaining access to the cabin with the hood up still requires considerable manual dexterity. Living with one on a daily basis will require commitment, and Johnson figures, "Most people will buy the Elise as a third car."
The CEO has 1,200 orders in the bank, and the first cars arrive this May. "The dealers will get a car each, and I want them to hold on to them for at least 90 days so people can have a chance to have a look. Some of our customers have had cars on order for 5 years," he continued. The big test for Johnson and Lotus will be when the hardcore Lotus aficionados have had their tastebuds satiated. Will the brand then be able to attract enough customers out of their Porsche Boxsters and BMW Z4s and into the charismatic Brit?
Only time will tell for certain, but there's no doubt that the Elise is a different and convincing proposition. There's a purity about its driving experience that even the seminal Porsche cannot match, and this, coupled with its style, exclusivity and the enduring kudos of the Lotus badge, should ensure its long-term appeal. The Federal Elise has been a long time coming, but it's been worth the wait. This is a genuine Lotus and a fabulous sports car.


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29 CFR § 1607.13 - Affirmative action.
A. Affirmative action obligations. The use of selection procedures which have been validated pursuant to these guidelines does not relieve users of any obligations they may have to undertake affirmative action to assure equal employment opportunity. Nothing in these guidelines is intended to preclude the use of lawful selection procedures which assist in remedying the effects of prior discriminatory practices, or the achievement of affirmative action objectives.
B. Encouragement of voluntary affirmative action programs. These guidelines are also intended to encourage the adoption and implementation of voluntary affirmative action programs by users who have no obligation under Federal law to adopt them; but are not intended to impose any new obligations in that regard. The agencies issuing and endorsing these guidelines endorse for all private employers and reaffirm for all governmental employers the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinating Council's "Policy Statement on Affirmative Action Programs for State and Local Government Agencies" (41 FR 38814, September 13, 1976). That policy statement is attached hereto as appendix, section 17.


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Every Thanksgiving when we all think about what we're thankful for, we usually focus on the biggies: our health, our families, our jobs. I'm thankful for all of those things, but let's not overlook the little stuff. As a mom, I am ever so grateful for anything that makes life easier. Here are four:
People who know when to stay mum. When I was pregnant, I was thankful to all those women who didn't tell me their labor horror stories. There weren't many. Now that I've given birth twice, I understand how difficult it is to overcome the powerful impulse to share your birth stories with anyone who will listen, especially a pregnant woman. But as an already anxious mom-to-be, I was grateful when strangers, especially, kept the gory details to themselves.
Thoughtful new-mom gifts. Once I got home from the hospital, I was so thankful to people who showed up with food. Baby clothes are cute and all, but what a new mom really wants is to not have to worry about dinner. One woman I didn't even know that well showed up with an entire meal including salad and dessert, in disposable dishes I didn't have to wash or return. Also, she made me promise I wouldn't even think about writing her a thank-you note. That was awesome.
Babysitters. I love the heck out of my kids, but every mom needs a break now and then. There is no greater gift than a patient, loving caregiver — paid or unpaid, related to you or not — who will happily rock your colicky baby, cut up your toddler's food the exact right way, or play endless games of Candyland with your preschooler. I am always refreshed and grateful after a few hours away.
Sleep. It took both of my babies close to a year before they slept through the night. Brutal. Even now, they don't do it consistently. So for every morning that I wake up on my own, and well-rested, I am thankful. It still feels like a miracle every time.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of laughter, food, family and friends, followed by a good night's sleep!
What little things are you thankful for this year?


text: According to a set of intelligent humans interviewed for this story, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to help drive the tech economy in 2017.\r\nWhen CIO.com posted a query on\u00a0Help a Reporter Out, a site designed to help journalists connect with sources, asking about startup trends to watch in 2017, the overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to AI. This coming year and beyond, AI will help companies "disrupt sectors that haven't been fully disrupted," says Anthony Glomski, principal of\u00a0AG Asset Advisory, a financial advisory firm.\u00a0"AI is in its beginning stages with massive potential impact."\r\nHere are eight startup categories and trends experts believe will be big in 2017.\n\t\t\tAccording to a set of intelligent humans interviewed for this story, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to help drive the tech economy in 2017.\nWhen CIO.com posted a query on Help a Reporter Out, a site designed to help journalists connect with sources, asking about startup trends to watch in 2017, the overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to AI. This coming year and beyond, AI will help companies "disrupt sectors that haven't been fully disrupted," says Anthony Glomski, principal of AG Asset Advisory, a financial advisory firm.\u00a0"AI is in its beginning stages with massive potential impact."\nHere are eight startup categories and trends experts believe will be big in 2017.\n1. AI and machine learning startups\nIn 2016, large companies invested resources in making tech smarter and better at predicting things using AI, according to Ludo Ulrich, head of startup relations at cloud CRM provider Salesforce. Technology simultaneously advanced enough to let smaller companies take part in the AI revolution, he says, and universities started to offer classes meant to educate students about AI's possibilities. These developments are "creating a larger talent pool" of AI-savvy workers, which will help foster innovation at a much quicker pace in 2017, according to Ulrich.\n"Now that the true importance and impact of AI has been discovered and has become more accessible than ever before, 2017 will be the year where the knowledge that used to be possessed by a select few will now become imbued throughout the tech landscape \u2014 allowing for younger startups to truly innovate in the space," Ulrich says.\nIn the past, only a few companies had data scientists on staff and access to machine learning resources, according to Ulrich. Today both are "basically expected," he says.\nAt its fall 2016 Symposium\/ITxpo, research firm Gartner identified AI and machine learning as one of its top 10 strategic tech trends for 2017. "Applied AI and advanced machine learning give rise to a spectrum of intelligent implementations, including physical devices (robots, autonomous vehicles, consumer electronics), as well as apps and services (virtual personal assistants and smart advisors)," according to David Cearley a Gartner vice president and fellow. "These implementations will be delivered as a new class of obviously intelligent apps and things as well as provide embedded intelligence for a wide range of mesh devices and existing software and service solutions."\nWells Fargo is among the many enterprises that are testing AI technology, according to Braden More, the bank and financial services company's head of payment strategy. "We're exploring how AI technology can enable customers to conduct a banking transaction while on social media," he says. "We're also exploring AI virtual assistants that can proactively support customers through alerts, reminders and contextual suggestions." And AI can be used to detect bank fraud, Braden says.\nAI is expected to play a growing role in cybersecurity in 2017, as well. One reason why is that not enough people with cybersecurity skills exist to fill the available jobs. An estimated 1 million cybersecurity jobs are unfilled worldwide, according to Cisco. At the same time, the number of cybersecurity job openings is expected to increase to 6 million worldwide by 2019, Symantec reports.\u00a0\n"The reality is that cybersecurity knowledge needs to be automated in some way," says John Shearer, CEO and cofounder of DarkLight, a cybersecurity analytics and automation provider. "Startups will emerge that recognize this huge market need for blending human expertise with AI. AI systems that can be taught by human experts, and human experts that can be taught by AI systems, is what the hottest startups will focus on."\nBig data \u2014 and the sheer volume of data the world currently accumulates \u2014 is another driving force behind AI's rise. Every day, the world generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, with 90 percent of data in the world created in the last two years, according to IBM estimates. Enterprises need AI to learn from their customers' trends and patterns, build automation for greater efficiency, and help employees be more intelligent in their work, says Steve Goodman, a partner at VC firm Toba Capital.\n2. Chatbot startups\nChatbots\u00a0are automated services that interact with and offer information to humans, especially consumers, through a chat interface. And AI is one of the technologies that's helping to make chatbots mainstream. \u00a0"Thanks to AI, we've seen chatbots take center stage in 2016, and as we break into 2017, we expect this trend to spur even more innovation, specifically in the enterprise," says Ashu Garg, general partner at\u00a0Foundation Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.\u00a0\nBusinesses will increasingly look to chatbots to help reduce spending on customer service, and insurance and financial services representatives, "fields that are ripe for disruption," Garg says. "Chatbots will be 'hot' simply because there is much to gain."\nMore than 85 percent of customer interactions will not include a human being by 2020, and chatbots will be the No. 1 consumer application of AI during the next five years, according to research from Gartner and TechEmergence, as reported by Business Insider.\nIn 2017, expect "a flurry of messaging platforms to open their platforms for chatbot integration," Garg says. "While Facebook is still the dominant messaging platform, WhatsApp, Kik, WeChat and other globally relevant messaging platforms will fuel chatbot innovation and healthy competition. As the technology gains traction and AI technologies continue to advance, we'll begin to see chatbots become increasingly integrated with companies' backend systems, changing the way people communicate with businesses."\n3. Cybersecurity startups\nCybersecurity was frequently in the news in 2016, thanks partly to Apple's iOS encryption skirmish with the FBI and other tales of ransomware attacks against businesses. Many experts expect continued growth in the cybersecurity space in 2017.\nWith every new attack vector or vulnerability exposed in 2016, "a cybersecurity company emerged to fill the space," says Nate Locke, partner at investment management firm\u00a0Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. "Companies looking to beef up their security defenses invested in software and other appliances. We anticipate businesses will start investing less in endpoint solutions and more in managed services that help them make sense of their existing infrastructure."\nSecurity is complex and hard to manage, according to Locke, "and while enterprises have invested heavily in security products, many are not getting enough value from these technologies. In 2017 and beyond, we see the role of managed security service providers as increasingly important in helping organizations reduce the risk of a security breach."\n4. Digital transformation and the cloud\nIn 2017 and beyond, enterprises will undergo a digital transformation "on a massive scale," according to research firm IDC (a CIO.com sibling company), enabled by the so-called "Third Platform" of cloud, mobile, big data and analytics, and social technologies.\n"We are at an inflection point as digital transformation efforts shift from 'project' or 'initiative' status to strategic business imperative," said\u00a0Frank Gens, IDC senior vice president and chief analyst, in a November press statement. "Every (growing) enterprise, regardless of age or industry, must become 'digital native' in the way its executives and employees think, what they produce, and how they operate. At the same time, Third Platform technology adoption and digital transformation is happening much faster than most expected and early competitive advantages will go to those enterprises that can keep pace with the emerging DX (digital transformation) economy."\u00a0\nIDC believes the cloud will be a prime enabler of digital transformation, and it predicts that by 2020, 67 percent of enterprise IT infrastructure and software spending will be related to cloud-based technologies. During this transition, nearly every enterprise will be a cloud service provider of services to its own marketplace, making cloud capabilities an IT concern as well as a core business operations issue.\n5. AR and VR startups\nIn the aftermath of the Pok\u00e9mon Go phenomenon, augmented reality (AR) is on many people's radar. AR's big sibling, virtual reality (VR), also offers exciting potential for enterprises in 2017 and after.\u00a0\nDuring the coming year, 30 percent of consumer-oriented Global 2000 companies are expected to experiment with AR and VR in their marketing initiatives, IDC predicts. "Interfaces are the essential gateway to customer engagement and they are evolving much faster than many have anticipated," the research firm says. "IDC expects AR\/VR to reach mass adoption levels by 2021, when more than a billion people worldwide will regularly access apps, content, and data through an AR\/VR platform."\nBut VR won't simply be a technology for entertainment. "In 2017, VR is going to be adopted by a lot more startups to collaborate with in-office employees and remote or gig workers," predicts Zach Holmquist, CTO and cofounder of Teem, a cloud-based service for managing workspaces. "VR will be used to accommodate the evolving definition of 'employee' to include both in-office and gig workers contributing remotely. The gig economy will continue to grow, forcing companies to use all available resources to accommodate this emerging category of employee, and VR technology is going to help them meet that goal."\n6. Marijuana startups\nAfter the fall 2016 presidential election, California, Massachusetts and Nevada joined the growing ranks of states that have legalized recreational marijuana. A total of 26 states and the District of Columbia now have laws that permit recreational or medical marijuana use. Consequently, startups focused on marijuana are expected to proliferate in 2017, leading to "innovation on the technology side of the cannabis industry," according to Chris Walsh, editorial director of Marijuana Business Daily, as quoted in the Daily Democrat in Denver.\n7. Innovative wearables\nThe breakout hit Spectacles from Snap, the company behind Snapchat, which let people record and share up to 10 seconds of video, are "breathing new life" into the wearables category, according to Gregory Kennedy, cofounder and president of Uncharted Minds,\u00a0an organization that hosts events and conferences. "It appears that Snap's fun, quirky and inexpensive approach has the winning combination of features and pricing that all the other players missed in the first wave of wearables." \u00a0\n8. Intelligent things\n"Intelligent things" are at the intersection of AI and IoT and are among Gartner's top 10 strategic trends for 2017. The internet of intelligent things goes "beyond the execution of rigid programing models," exploiting AI and machine learning "to deliver advanced behaviors and interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people," Gartner says. "As intelligent things, such as drones, autonomous vehicles and smart appliances, permeate the environment, Gartner anticipates a shift from stand-alone intelligent things to a collaborative intelligent things model."