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Facebook has partnered with security vendor Websense to protect its users from third-party malicious URLs spammed on the social networking website, the companies said on Monday.
Facebook has been plagued by malware distribution campaigns, survey scams and other types of threats for years now and despite the company's best efforts the attacks continue.
The site's blocking mechanisms have improved over time, but spammers are very determined to find ways around them since social media has become one of the primary malware propagation channels.
Most attacks involve users clicking on links that point to malicious web pages outside of Facebook's control, so to counter this, the company passes requests to external resources through its own URL redirector.
This allows it to check links against third party and self-maintained blocklists. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with Web of Trust (WOT), a provider of community-powered URL reputation services, in order to better detect spam links on the website.
But with attackers capable of switching malicious URLs very quickly it's hard to keep up using only a blacklist-based approach. That's why Facebook chose Websense, which brings to the table a cloud-based scanning engine capable of checking third-party pages in real-time before allowing users to visit them.
"Every day, Websense Security Labs works to discover, investigate, and report on advanced internet threats that are designed to circumvent antivirus products. By providing real-time protection from malware, spyware, inappropriate content, data leaks, and spam, we make it safe for people and businesses to use the web," said Websense's Chief Technology Officer Dan Hubbard in a statement.
When the Websense ThreatSeeker platform detects malicious content, users get notified that proceeding to the destination is potentially unsafe. Of course, to work around any false positive incidents that might occur, the option to ignore the alerts will also be available.
"Facebook cares deeply about protecting users from potentially malicious content on the internet. We are excited about our partnership with Websense to provide industry leading tools to help our users protect themselves," commented Dan Rubinstein, Facebook's product manager for site integrity, in a statement.
The partnership has yet to prove its effectiveness on the world's largest social networking website, but giving the current attack rate any form of additional protection is most probably a good thing. Bit.ly is also using Websense technology to block malicious URLs, but just like Facebook, it does it in conjunction with solutions from multiple providers.


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As in MU Stage 1, providers must conduct a security risk analysis. But now they must also "address" the encryption of data stored in their certified EHRs. That doesn't mean they have to encrypt the information on all end-user devices, but they must "implement security updates as necessary and correct identified security deficiencies," the Meaningful Use rule says. So if they don't use encryption, they must document their reasons and explain what alternative security methods they're using, according to the HIMSS paper.
Lisa Gallagher, senior director, privacy and security, for HIMSS, told InformationWeek Healthcare that the Meaningful Use Stage 2 rule's stance on this issue is similar to the requirement in the HIPAA Security Rule of 2003. "By and large, that [HIPAA] requirement has been ignored," she said, perhaps because some providers thought encryption was too difficult. But with the rise of mobile devices and the storage of PHI on many of these devices, she pointed out, it is no longer possible to ignore this regulation.
[ Practice management software keeps the medical office running smoothly. For a closer look at KLAS' top-ranked systems, see 10 Top Medical Practice Management Software Systems. ]
"HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] noticed that 35%-40% of the breaches being reported were a direct result of a lost or stolen portable or mobile device," Gallagher noted. "In HHS' view, because the data is not encrypted, that's a breach. If the data had been encrypted, that would mean that it wasn't a breach. So the action of encrypting data on a portable or mobile device is a 'safe harbor' from having to report lost data on a device to HHS."
If that isn't enough to spur hospitals and physician practices into action, she added, they must also attest that they have done a security review and have addressed encryption if they want to show Meaningful Use to obtain EHR incentives. "So HHS is using a policy lever to increase the use of encryption."
The HIMSS report notes that the average cost of a lost or stolen record to a healthcare organization is over $200. "So for a breach of 200 records, the impact to the organization of a single lost or stolen laptop is likely to be over $40,000." And that doesn't include legal and regulatory impacts, including potential fines.
Given the severity of the consequences, why don't more healthcare organizations encrypt all their data? "Anecdotally, it's the cost of encryption technology and also a lack of ability to implement it," Gallagher explained. "Many smaller physician offices and community hospitals don't have anyone on staff who knows how to load the software and encrypt data on the network and on portable devices. And until recently, there was no push for it. It was easy to say, 'it's too expensive or too hard.'"
The encryption that comes with Microsoft Windows operating systems is inadequate, partly because smartphones have three different operating platforms, Gallagher pointed out. Moreover, she said, "Two of the three [mobile phone] design centers don't make it especially easy for you."
The best solution would be to avoid having any PHI on end-user devices, she said. But the technical fixes that have been tried so far are far from perfect; for example, many clinicians have problems with virtualized desktop applications that are not well adapted to mobile devices. But Gallagher expressed confidence that vendors will find better solutions if providers demand it.
Meanwhile, encryption is better than the alternatives that are listed in the HIMSS report, such as physical controls, administrative controls, having staff members sign legal agreements, or educating them on the need to protect PHI. But electronic records are not the only data that needs to be safeguarded. Today, copiers, printers, fax machines, digital cameras, and medical devices all store data, too, and represent opportunities for security breaches, the report observes.
Gallagher acknowledges that there's a growing awareness of these chinks in the security armor and attempts to address them, although she notes that "we don't see a whole lot of breaches there." Medical devices, which are increasingly interconnected with EHRs, are an especially complex area. One reason is that medical devices are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is looking at the security issue from its own angle.
Clinical, patient engagement, and consumer apps promise to re-energize healthcare. Also in the new, all-digital Mobile Power issue of InformationWeek Healthcare: Comparative effectiveness research taps the IT toolbox to compare treatments to determine which ones are most effective. (Free registration required.)

subset: commoncrawl


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Mosi Tatupu, Patriots fan favorite and father of Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu, diesBy AP
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Patriots fan favorite Tatupu dies
BOSTON — Mosi Tatupu, one of the most popular players in New England Patriots history known for his inspired special teams play, has died.
Tatupu died Tuesday at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, hospital spokeswoman Ashley O'Brien said. He was 54. The hospital could not disclose a cause of death.
The Plainville Fire Department responded to Tatupu's home on Tuesday and took him to the hospital, Lt. Richard Ball said.
"I know that I share a heavy heart today with Patriots fans everywhere who have learned of Mosi Tatupu's passing," team owner Robert Kraft said in a statement.
"He was a dominant special teams player and a punishing rusher who loved the Patriots as much as the fans did," he said.
Tatupu was chosen by the Patriots in the eighth round of the 1978 draft out of Southern California and played 13 of his 14 NFL seasons with the team, wrapping up his career with the Los Angeles Rams in 1991.
The bruising 227-pound fullback rushed for 2,415 yards and 18 touchdowns, including a career best 578 yards in 1983. He thrived on snowy and icy fields, running for 128 yards on a snow-covered field in a win over New Orleans that season.
While never a superstar, Tatupu was beloved by Patriots fans for his play on kickoff and punt teams and even had his own cheering section known as "Mosi's Mooses." He was selected to the 1986 Pro Bowl as a special teams player.
"As a teammate, he was one of the best," former Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan said. "He was one of those guys that made life fun whether it was in the locker room or on the practice fields. He had a smile that radiated."
Tatupu was selected to New England's 50th anniversary team last season.
After his retirement as a player, Tatupu was the head coach at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, where he coached his son Lofa, now a linebacker with the Seattle Seahawks.
He also served as an assistant at Curry College in Milton from 2002-2007, coaching running backs and special teams.
"Mosi was a vital part of the success of our program," said Vinnie Eruzione, athletic director at the Division III school. "There was no better guy."
Tatupu was born in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and was a high school football star in Hawaii. His Hawaii high school career rushing record of 3,367 yards stood for 17 years, according to the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame Web site.
Tags: Attleboro, Boston, Geography, Hawaii, High School Sports, Massachusetts, Mosi tatupu, North America, Obituaries, Sports, Sports Names, Sports Topics, United States


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INTRODUCTION: There is still a deviation between in vivo and in vitro examination in cephalometric examination. To diminish these differences, patients were measured with a fixed head device, noXrayCeph, which is moveable. The fixation to the moving patient should not make any difference in an unmoving in vitro examination. Advantages of the direct scanning with noXrayCeph®:
Diagnosis of the right and left side (asymmetry), secure scanning of anatomical points with the ultra-light sensor stylus, scanning of relevant points with low pressure charge, freedom of movement of the head, which enables an orthodontic diagnosis of moving patients, rapid scan and immediate display of the result in graphics and values, multiple scans make it possible to check the treatment progress.
MATERIALS AND METHOD: To evaluate the accuracy of the noXrayCeph-Device, a patient and an anatomic skull were measured 10 times by different trained and untrained observers. The device from the noXrayCeph AG, CH-Meilen is a magnetic scanner with a carbon headcap, including three magnetic coils. The stylus is measures the x, y and z coordinates with a technical error of 0.22 mm.
RESULTS: The three-dimensional data produces a picture of the skull, reduced to the 76 points of orthodontic importance. The accuracy of the measurements from four different observers were calculated using the Wilcoxon-test. Intraobserver test was significant at p < 0.01 for the ANB, the position of MX 11 and 21 point to A-point and the incisors angulation. The interobserver test was significant at the 0.05 level.
CONCLUSIONS: The noXrayCeph device is a reproducible with a low intra- and inter- observer error. Reproducibility can be measured on one patient, because cephalometric diagnostics is possible without radiographs. Due to fast measurements the device seems to be useful in clinics, where different observers examine the patients. The low weight of the carbon head cap allows movements of the patient's head, because the coordinates move 1:1 with the patient.


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Welcome to the jOOQ Tuesdays series. In this series, we'll publish an article on the third Tuesday every other month where we interview someone we find exciting in our industry from a jOOQ perspective. This includes people who work with SQL, Java, Open Source, and a variety of other related topics.
I'm very excited to feature today Brett Wooldridge, creator of HikariCP, the fastest connection pool available for Java.
Brett, you've created one of the most popular connection pools for Java: HikariCP. What made your library so popular?
I'll provide some backstory on HikariCP before I answer that, but I'll tease the answer by saying "marketing".
A few years ago I was creating a product prototype for the company I work for, and I needed a connection pool. Like most developers I just wanted to drop in a pool and move on, so I took to the web to find the most popular and actively maintained library. Unfortunately, while load testing the prototype we started encountering deadlocks, and exceptions indicating connection state bleed over between threads.
Because the pool was open source, I thought I'd just pull down the code, find and fix the problems, and contribute back. But when I opened the code, I found thousands of lines more code than I was expecting. Added to the mix were many locks, nested, sometimes acquired in one method and released in some distant place. There was simply no way to reason about where potential deadlocks lurked, even if we found and fixed the ones we encountered.
I picked up another pool and inspected its code. The lock semantics were clearer, but the volume of code was still more than 2x what I expected, especially given that it was delegating the core pooling logic to a separate library.
In addition, all of the pools I studied violated JDBC contracts in multiple ways. In as much as it is possible, a pool should return a Connection that is indistinguishable from one received in the absence of the pool. But these pools didn't automatically close Statements when a connection was "closed" (returned), or clear warnings, or rollback uncommitted transactions, and they didn't reset properties altered by the user such as auto-commit or transaction isolation level, and more; resulting in the next consumer getting a "dirty" connection.
I thought, "Really? This is the state of connection pools in the ecosystem after 20 years of Java?" Out of necessity and frustration, I created HikariCP.
To be fair, since I started HikariCP some pools have made some of these "correctness" behaviors configurable, but none of them do so by default and I suspect most users are running with the safety off. At least two popular pools fail to complete our benchmark with OutOfMemory exceptions when they are enabled. Conversely, HikariCP doesn't support an unsafe mode of operation.
Returning to your question, as noted above there were many established pools available, so how did HikariCP become popular? "Correctness" and reliability are a tough sell, so I focused on promoting performance, and started with a simple tweet. One follower led to another. Some users tweeted about big performance gains, and improved reliability, and at some point in 2015 the Wix engineering team wrote a blog about switching to HikariCP.
In essence, simple word of mouth has led to HikariCP's rising popularity, with an initial "marketing" push based on performance. I do hope that over time more users will give equal weight to correctness and reliability, without which performance is meaningless, and for my part I plan to write more about those aspects of HikariCP.
You quoted Edsger Dijkstra: "Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability." – That reminds me of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away". How do you manage to keep things simple when this world only ever gets more complicated?
Resisting complexity through feature-creep can be challenging. I get a lot of requests for this or that feature, and while each may be simple in and of itself, if taken in totality would significantly increase complexity and code size. Of course, that is not to say that I don't add features.
For example, initial versions of HikariCP only supported a fixed size pool. HikariCP was designed for systems with fairly constant load, and in that environment pools tend to stay at their maximum size, so I saw little need to complicate the code to support dynamic sizing. Can you imagine a server at Google falling idle for several minutes? Additionally, I feel like the more axes of configuration there are, the more difficult it is for users to optimally configure a pool. However, eventually there were enough users who needed dynamic sizing, and its absence was a barrier to adoption, so support was added. Principally, I did not want lack of dynamic sizing support to deprive users of the reliability and correctness benefits of HikariCP.
Still, I probably reject the vast majority of feature requests. As the custodian of HikariCP keeping it simple and true to that core philosophy is in the best interest of the community. I always try to minimize the "surface area", both in terms of code and configuration. The larger the surface area of an API, the more difficult it is to comprehend. Our brains have a limit for the amount of contextual information that can be held "in view" at one time; this is true in a lot of contexts. For example, when reading code, methods larger than a certain size, or conditionals of more than a certain number of terms, are difficult to follow or reason about. Generally, for users of HikariCP, the "surface area" is manifest in the number of configuration parameters. While I can hardly say that "Perfection [has been] achieved", I do feel like there is not much left to take away without cutting into functionality.
Few libraries go to the byte code level to optimise their code. While this helps in benchmarks, did it also help your users in production? What were the biggest caveats you found while micro-optimising?
Definitely. Maybe some developers are dismissive of the potential gains, because in their minds they think, "What does it matter if connection acquisition takes 100ns or 100μs, the query is going to take 10ms anyway?" However, pools intercept dozens of methods, and the "close()" path is typically slower than acquisition, so it's not that simple. I often get reports from users providing confirmation of real world performance improvements. It's anecdotal but one user initially commented in a bug report, "We're testing HikariCP at the client and have had great initial success – an application loading 1 million records over multiple HTTP threads and putting them in the DB had its run time cut by 70% after moving from Tomcat CP to HikariCP!" The follow-up comment on the bug was, "This was a bug in our side, using some unrelated non-threadsafe code. No issue. After fixing the bug, the code runs about 2x faster using HikariCP than Tomcat CP." That's pretty good; and yet some reports surprise even me.
Regarding optimisation, and as long as we're quoting famous thinkers, I would be remiss if I didn't cite Knuth: "We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimisation is the root of all evil." I think the key word here is "premature". It is definitely better to write the code as it naturally comes and then, based on detailed profiling and benchmarking, perform "peephole optimisations" (to hijack a word from compiler theory). At the same time, I would estimate that half of the performance gains in HikariCP have come as the result of algorithmic changes, rather than low-level optimisations.
Regarding caveats to micro-optimising, it would be hard to convey how much I have learned, and am still learning. I'd like to give a shout-out to Aleksey Shipilëv for his excellent JMH micro-benchmark framework. Aleksey has become somewhat of a JVM performance oracle (no pun intended, he used to work for Oracle). The JVM performs an amazing array of optimisations, and if one is not careful then what appears to be a clever optimisation in the code simply confuses the JIT's pattern-based optimiser and the result is slower rather than faster.
In order to effectively optimise on the JVM you sometimes end up reading the JIT source code, and you must become familiar with concepts such as dead code elimination, loop invariant hoisting, constant propagation, virtual call inlining, and many more. Even with a good grip on these concepts I am sometimes surprised by the JVM in my attempts at optimisation. In addition to the JIT, you really must understand the Java Memory Model (JMM) and how it maps onto CPU architectures like x86.
Lastly, after the design of algorithms, contention for shared state is the source of most bottlenecks (see the aforementioned JMM), so recently the biggest gains (for example, in v2.6.0) have come from tricks that simply avoid it; the fastest code is code that is never executed.
If there is a main takeaway, it is "trust the benchmarks", your assumptions and intuitions are wrong more often than you imagine.
Your fellow jOOQ Tuesdays interviewee Vlad Mihalcea talked to us about queueing theory. How does this compare to what you wrote about connection pool sizing?
I have great respect for Vlad, I think we're both members of the Mutual Admiration Society. His FlexyPool is trying to solve a difficult problem; that being how to automatically tune optimal pool settings for varying loads. Ultimately, the upper-bound is constrained by the database's optimal concurrent query capacity, which is where my write-up on pool sizing comes into play. However, there is a large amount of configuration space in-between a minimally sized pool and that upper-bound, which is where FlexyPool is trying to add value, by ensuring that the pool is "right sized", dynamically, for the load it is servicing.
I say it is a difficult problem, because connection pools on modern multi-core servers likely present as a M/G/k queue in queueing theory; arrivals have a Markovian distribution, service times have a General distribution, and there are k servers (where "server" is defined as an abstract single-threaded processor). Quoting wikipedia, "Most performance metrics for this queueing system are not known and remain an open problem." Modeling connection pools as a M/M/c queue might provide a decent approximation for the purposes of predicting queue lengths, but service times are not likely to have a Markovian distribution. Of course, there are also non-Markovian stochastic models in queueing theory that could be applied. Complicating everything is the fact that queued waiters (threads) can abandon the queue before service, for example when a timeout is reached. That adds an additional twist when trying to predict queue lengths and wait times. Hats off to Vlad for taking on this problem!
Anyway, what I wrote about setting the upper-bound on pool sizing translates to pinning the k (or c) value in those respective Markovian queueing theory models.
You chose a Japanese word in your product: 光 (Hikari, "Light"). What's your connection to Japan?
I've lived and worked in Tokyo since 2008, though I think my Japanese is far behind where it should be given my time here. I chalk that up to preferring time at the keyboard to language study.
As you mentioned, Hikari (pronounced Hi-ka-lee) translates to "Light" (as in sunlight). In English, it is a double entendre in the context of HikariCP; though in Japanese it would not be. "Light" in the sense of "the speed of…", and "light" in the sense of being light in terms of code weight.


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A lot of web designers out there seem to think they are doing us a favor by using javascript in their web pages to focus form elements like search boxes. For the mouse-oriented web surfer it probably is a favor because it saves them a click, but for the keyboard-oriented surfer these tricks can be incredibly annoying. Let's be clear about one thing: Mozilla provides no perfect solution that can allow Conkeror to do the right thing about focus-stealing 100% of the time. In the absence of perfection, we have figured out two pretty good hacks to fight back against the annoying web designers of the world. One of them works imperfectly for every focus-stealing event, and the other works perfectly for most focus-stealing events. You can choose which you want to use. The best combination might be both.
Imperfect, 100% of the Time
Conkeror's block-content-focus-change module watches for focus events, and permits or blocks them based on how recently the user hit a key or clicked the mouse. If the focus event happened within 20 milliseconds (by default) of a keypress or mouse click, it is assumed that the event resulted from that input event, and allowed to happen. Otherwise the newly focused element is immediately unfocused. To enable this mode, put this in your rc:
I hinted that the 20 millisecond duration could be configured. Here is how you could change it if Conkeror seems to be blocking focuses from your clicks (happens on slower computers):
block_content_focus_change_duration = 40;
Perfect, Most of the Time
This is a snippet you can put in your rc. It brutally goes through web pages as they download and replaces the "focus" method of form elements with a dummy function that does nothing. It never results in a false positive, but the one kind of focus event that it cannot deal with is when the focus call comes from inline javascript in the web page right after the form element that it focuses.
function focusblock (buffer) { var s = Components.utils.Sandbox(buffer.top_frame); s.document = buffer.document.wrappedJSObject; Components.utils.evalInSandbox( "(function () {\ function nothing () {}\ if (! document.forms)\ return;\ for (var i = 0, nforms = document.forms.length; i < nforms; i++) {\ for (var j = 0, nels = document.forms[i].elements.length; j < nels; j++)\ document.forms[i].elements[j].focus = nothing;\ }\ })();", s); } add_hook('content_buffer_progress_change_hook', focusblock);


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Macintosh Explorer
- Windows Explorer interface for quickly finding files
- Cut, copy and paste documents
- Tabbed interface lets you browse multiple folders in one windows
- Fast and easy to use!
When you use your Mac, file browsing options are important. That's why Macintosh Explorer offers the familiar hierarchal, two-pane file view known to Windows users with the superior Macintosh look and feel.
The first ever Mac file browser to offer tabbed file browsing, Macintosh Explorer provides Mac users with exciting new options and a totally new file browsing experience. Windows users feel right at home while you adapt to the Macintosh interface. With additions you won't find in MS Windows, the benefits of using the Mac platform are just one download away.
Check out some of the features Macintosh Explorer has to offer
Macintosh Explorer In Action!
The first ever tabbed file browser for the Mac. Complete with the favorites shelf for commonly used files and applications, fast file searching from within each Explorer window and contextual menus to quickly perform various actions on selected files.
Picture Previews as you Browse!
No more generic icons when what you really want to see is the actual picture file. Macintosh Explorer is the first Macintosh File Browser to offer Thumbnail file browsing. Quickly locate the pictures you are looking for in a large list of files.
Find Anything You Need!
With access to the same search capabilities as Sherlock right from within Macintosh Explorer's main window, you can locate exactly what you are looking for without relying on third party applications or cluttering your desktop with more windows. You won't even disturb your current file location.
Customized to the Way you Want!
Choose between FIVE different file views including icon view, list view, detailed list view,compact list view and even Thumbnail view. Flavors let you further customize Macintosh Explorer to match your desired tastes.
Treat Multiple Files as One with File Banks!
Move, copy and store multiple files as one with File Banks. File Banks will store a pile of files so that a drag and drop operation can be posed while you navigate to a destination directory or if you just want to conveniently move multiple files as one pile of files.
Change Info For Multiple Files At Once!
Batch change file info for multiple files at once with Macintosh Explorer's Batch File Info Changer. Just enter some new information for the selected files, or even all files or folders within the current folder, and Macintosh Explorer will update all the specified files with the new file info.
Price: FREE
File Size: 9.8MB
Latest Version: 5.1
Frequently Asked Questions
I have been a long time user of Macintosh Explorer since it came out. It is probably the best application I own and it's always opened. The built-in features have really helped me save lots of time."
- Jeremy Stern
I've been hoping for years that someone would develop a Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer, and you read my mind! The screen shots look awesome!
- download.com
Macintosh Explorer is a powerful utility that enables among many other things, fast and efficient file browsing and file manipulation. It provides a hierarchical overview of all connected hard drives, folders and files. It makes Finder navigation extremely convenient by allowing the user to view invisible files, preview, backup and delete unused files.
- torontoreviews.com


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The disturbing sight of a flock of dead Canada geese floating in a ditch in the Lower Mainland is being investigated by the BC Conservation Officers Service.
Numerous Pitt Meadows residents called to report the dead birds floating in the water alongside Rannie Road, near Pitt Lake.
City crews will remove the carcasses of the 30 birds, which is the maximum number a hunter can possess. All had their breasts removed. There was a hunting opening on Canada geese from Feb. 10 to March 10. A nearby marsh is a known place for hunting geese.
By law, a hunter need only harvest the breast meat, said Conservation Officer Marc Plamondon, so he speculates they may have been legally killed by a hunter over a period of time, but illegally dumped.
"He took the meat, didn't know what to do with these carcasses, and he dumped them," is Plamondon's theory.
It is an offence to unlawfully dump waste in the environment, and to dump carcasses beside the road because they will attract bears and other wildlife.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) line at 1-877-952-7277.


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Maintenance Technician I careers in Spectrum Coulee Dam, WA
Website Spectrum
This Jobsfunter Listing is about Spectrum in Coulee Dam, WA 2022
About the job
Job Summary
Under close supervision, primarily responsible for preventative maintenance and repair of the hybrid fiber coax network (HFC), including all of its associated equipment in accordance with the company's Engineering Standards and Network Protection Policy.
MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Read and accurately interpret system/network design maps. Verify as built documentation; compare findings in the field with existing documentation and report findings following local process
Install and replace HFC physical plant network components such as coax, actives, passives, grounding systems, pedestals, riser guards, conduit etc., according to technical specifications; splice coax
Monitor and report signal leakage and complete repairs as required; identify and repair upstream and downstream ingress
Read and interpret equipment schematics
As directed, complete end of line network testing to meet technical specifications; regularly test all HFC network components using test equipment including: signal level meters, volt-ohm meters, leakage detector, Time Domain Reflector (TDR) and other related test equipment
Perform routine maintenance, troubleshoot and update records of standby power supplies according to technical specifications
Troubleshoot and repair basic distribution problems associated with RF, AC and DC elements of the forward and reverse plant; report drop related problems
Perform basic telephony troubleshooting to support medical no dial tones
Communicate with TAC/Dispatch to update progress on escalated tickets
Resolve system outages as directed
Maintain accurate records including time worked, daily logs, gas sheets, as required; properly record all required information on data devices and/or work orders, surveys, referrals, etc.
Operate company vehicle in a safe and responsible manner. Clean, maintain stock and secure assigned vehicle and equipment, in accordance with company policies
Adhere to company, industry, local, state and federal regulations and standards, as applicable
Know, understand and follow company policy
Communicate with Inside Plant (ISP) personnel to optimize plant performance and confirm resolution of repairs
Under supervision, optimize HFC optical nodes
May collaborate with construction personnel on new build and plant modifications, as directed
Under supervision, set up amplifier (unity gain) and complete distribution sweep (frequency response)
Perform other duties as requested
Required Qualifications
Skills/Abilities and Knowledge
Ability to read, write and speak the English language to communicate with employees, customers, suppliers, in person, on the phone, and by written communications in a clear, straight-forward and professional manner
Ability to work independently
Ability to prioritize and organize effectively
Knowledge of basic mathematics and electronics
Ability to safely use weight-bearing equipment (such as gaffs, safety harness and ladders) within the maximum weight limitations of that equipment
Ability to accurately measure distances, using tapes or other measuring devices
Ability to carry, climb and operate extension ladder (approx. 32 ft high and 90 pounds)
Ability to climb poles using gaffs, hooks and climbing belt as needed
Ability to differentiate between different sizes and colors of wires
Ability to dig in all types of soil to bury cable
Ability to make cable connections in tight spaces by bending, reaching, twisting
Ability to operate appropriate computer or test equipment associated with position
Ability to perform job from high places (i.e. poles and roofs)
Ability to use hand tools, test tools and web based tools
Ability to walk over all types of terrain in all kinds of weather while carrying tools and equipment, including gaffs, ladders, and fully loaded tool belts
Ability to work while standing 50 – 70% of the time
Ability to work with small components and wires to make cable connections
High school diploma or equivalent work experience
Certifications and/or Licenses
Valid driver's license with satisfactory driving record within Company required standards
Preferred Qualifications
Skills/Abilities and Knowledge
Basic understanding of HFC networks
Basic understanding of RF, AC, DC
Basic understanding of customer premise network
Experience with splicing coax cable
Knowledge of company products and services
Broadband industry and vendor specific certifications and training (NCRI, SCTE)
Related Work Experience
Telecommunications Installation/Service
Coax and/or fiber network installation and maintenance
Work outdoors in all kinds of weather and at all times of the day or night
Work performed near power lines and electricity
Work performed at various heights above ground on telephone/power poles
Work and travel in inclement weather
Exposure to dust, dirt, noise, insects, rodents, pets, and cleaning solutions
Work indoors in confined and/or poorly ventilated areas such as basements, crawlspaces, utility closets etc.
Secondary on-call rotation may be required
Charter Communications is an Equal Opportunity Employer – Minority/Female/Veteran/Disability
Get to Know Us Charter Communications is known in the United States by our Spectrum brands, including: Spectrum Networks, Spectrum Enterprise and Spectrum Reach. When you join us, you're joining a strong community of more than 95,000 individuals working together to serve more than 31 million customers in 41 states. Watch this video to learn more.
Who You Are Matters Here We're committed to growing a workforce that reflects our communities, and providing equal opportunities for employment and advancement. Learn about our inclusive culture.
Company: Spectrum
Vacancy Type: Full-time · Entry level
Job Location: Coulee Dam, WA
Application Deadline: N/A


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Friday, January 16, 2009
Cheesy stuffed calzones...
That is one of the reasons I've really fallen for this homemade whole-wheat pizza dough we usually prepare for these pizza nights. Flour, salt, yeast, a tiny sprinkling of sugar, water and a few dribbles of olive oil (all pantry staples in this house and easy to remember!) are all you need to toss this swank dough together - you don't even need a food processor to make it as your hands would do just fine, but it does make it come together in a snap.
We used the pound version for this dough as the fillings will be quite generous - we first quartered the soft mass of dough, stretched each into a rough round and began piling on the goodies. Shredded fontina cheese was our first layer, follow by roasted red peppers, fresh basil, strips of salty prosciutto and to add a fun tang, crumbles of soft goat cheese. This mound is pretty high, so you'll need to gently stretch the dough over the top and match it to the other side - don't be tricked into thinking it won't all fit as the dough is pretty forgiving and will work with you, rather than against.
Be sure to crimp the edges tightly to ensure the fillings don't leak out - you could just use a fork and mash the two edges together, but since this is so full, pull the bottom edge of dough up and over the top and then just use your fingers to press the two together. To give some added color, we drizzled each calzone with a bit of olive oil and then massaged it in before sliding them onto the pizza stone to cook. By the time the crust is a rich golden brown, the insides will be all gooey, pipping hot and melted together.
Do I even need to say anymore? We thought these were excellent... especially with the use of the buttery fontina paired against the creamy goat cheese that went smashingly well together. The zing from the basil and the sweetness in the red pepper, dancing around the savory prosciutto, was simplistic in nature, yet complex enough in taste that made for a captivating minefield as we dug deeper into these individual pizza bundles.
8 comments:
Wow. Lemminged you through a friend's blog and now I'm sorry I didn't do pizza last night. Glad I found you!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1/17/2009 12:54:00 PM
Hi Joe,ReplyDelete
I'm planning on using your pizza crust recipe tonight for homemade pizza. How many pizzas does the 1 lb of dough make?? (normal size, around 12" round)
Thank you for your awesome recipes, I've tried quite a few over the last few months.
Linda in Long Beach, CA
Lisa - Thanks for checkin' us out!ReplyDelete
Linda - that depends on how thin or thick you stretch out the crust. Usually, with the 1 pound version, we stretch or roll the full pound out to a 13" or 14" circle. The 12 ounce version usually stretches out to a nice and thin 12" crust.
- Anonymous1/17/2009 04:57:00 PM
Thanks for your reply Joe. Sounds like a double recipe would work best for 2 large pizzas. My family is looking forward to dinner!ReplyDelete
Linda - Have fun with the pizza!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1/18/2009 11:01:00 AM
Those sound lovely! Nice work on putting together such an interesting combination.ReplyDelete
I've made this crust twice now and love it. I plan to blog about it as soon as I can!ReplyDelete
Jen - Thanks!ReplyDelete
Tracy - Cool! I'll be watchin' for the write up!


text: Why stop to change your tires when you can keep driving on two wheels and have your passengers go out the car to change them as you keep driving? Sploid reader Officer Mike posted a video similar to this on the comments. Apparently, this is something common in arab countries: It's called hagwalah.


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What Would Buck Yeager Do indeed…
Buck Yeager talks to the good reverend. I've got to wonder what a religious man like that thinks about Buck Yeager's threat to murder anyone who called him a coward? I seem to recall a commandment "Thou shalt not kill"… which I'm assuming most people would say relates specifically to unjustifiable homicide. Maybe the reverend didn't see the Yeager threat vid?
5:02 – "God's law supersedes man's law" – Excuse me while I scour the bible for talk about suppressors, short barreled rifles, and destructive devices.


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See how the game was originally played June 18,19 at Hartwick Pines State Park
Hartwick Pines State Park will host the inaugural "Hartwick Pines-ALS Classic" Vintage Base Ball Tournament on June 18-19 to benefit the ALS of Michigan Foundation. Four vintage baseball teams from across the Lower Peninsula will compete to help raise money and awareness about the disease commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Teams participating include the host Hartwick Pines Swampers, the Petoskey Mossbacks, the Saginaw Old Golds and the Walker Tavern Wheels.
There will be two games on Saturday, June 18, with the first game beginning at noon between the Petoskey Mossbacks and the Walker Tavern Wheels. The second game pitting the Saginaw Old Golds and the Hartwick Pines Swampers will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. On Sunday, June 19, the consolation game will take place at noon and the championship match will follow the first game. All games will be played on the field at the park picnic area.
"The inspiration for holding this tournament came when a friend of the Hartwick Pines Swampers and former Walker Tavern Wheels player, Don 'Skeeter' Barnowski, was diagnosed with ALS in 2010," said Hartwick Pines Swamper manager and park historian Rob Burg. "We felt this would be a fitting tribute to Don and help him spread the word and help find a cure for ALS."
The "vintage base ball" will be played by the rules of 1860 and feature the players fielding the ball without the use of gloves and being able to catch the ball on one bounce for a "fly" out. This is how baseball was played in the early days of the game at community picnics and other events.
In addition to the games, there will be food, a silent auction, sales of merchandise, and other activities. The ALS of Michigan Foundation will have a tent to provide more information. All proceeds from the event will go to help find a cure for ALS. On Saturday evening, a special "Music at the Museum" program at the Logging Museum at 7 p.m. will feature musician and educator Michael Deren presenting his "Past in Person: Lumberjack" program.
Hartwick Pines State Park is located at 4216 Ranger Rd., Grayling, MI 49738. There is no charge for the tournament, but donations to the ALS of Michigan Foundation are encouraged, and a Recreation Passport is required for vehicles entering the park.
Hartwick Pines Logging Museum is part of the Michigan Historical Museum Family. For more information please call (989) 348-2537 or visit www.michigan.gov/loggingmuseum
Michigan residents can purchase the Recreation Passport ($10 for motor vehicles; $5 for motorcycles) by checking "YES" on their license plate renewal forms, or at any state park or recreation area.


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Faculty and Administrators on Global Assignments
Below is a list of contents of this policy. Please view the entirity of this policy by clicking on the above PDF link.
1. Policy Interpretation and Revision
2. Assignment Letter
3. Objectives
4. Base Compensation
5. Employee Benefit Plans
6. Pre-Assignment Orientation
7. Medical Examination/Immunization
8. Travel/Visa Documents
9. Tax Orientations
10. Cultural Orientation
11. Shipment of Household Goods
12. Home-Country Housing
13. Temporary Living
14. Miscellaneous Relocation Allowance
15. Travel to/from the Assignment
16. Destination services
17. Spousal Assistance
18. Global Assignment Cost-of-Living Allowance ("COLA")
19. Host-Country Housing
20. Host-Country Transportation
21. Children's Educational Assistance
22. Home Leave
23. Tax Return Preparation Assistance / Tax Protection Policy
24. Administrator Vacation, Public Holidays, & Working Schedules
25. Repatriation
26. Localization
27. Sequential Assignment
28. Resignation and Termination
NYU is a Global Network University that operates in an expanding global environment. The purpose of this policy is to define the principles, procedures, compensation and other benefits applicable to Faculty and Administrators who accept global assignments.
This policy applies to all Faculty and Administrators who accept assignments away from their home country to work at an NYU degree granting campus for a period of 12 months or longer. For purposes of this Policy, home country refers to the point of work origin of the Faculty Member or Administrator and not to their country of citizenship or nationality.
- Dates of official enactment and amendments: Aug 1, 2011
- History: Scope of this Policy updated on 5/11/12
- Cross References: N/A
About This Policy
Effective Date Supersedes N/A Issuing Authority Executive Vice President, Operations Responsible Officer Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Global Support
Assignment-Related Benefits: A general term covering all elements of remuneration provided in connection with a temporary transfer across national borders.
Cost-of-Living Index: A ratio of costs of goods and services in the home country compared to the host country (generally provided by outside vendors) used in calculating the cost-of-living allowance. It incorporates differences among nationalities with regard to spending and purchasing patterns.
Cost-of-Living: The aggregate of goods and services prices for a specific "market basket" of items that enables comparisons among locations.
Cost-of-Living-Allowance (COLA): A differential payment to the expatriate to address differences in purchasing power between home and host countries. It is usually derived by applying a cost-of-living index to a Faculty Member or Administrator's home country Spendable Income.
Cultural Orientation: Education in the customs, practices and/or languages of the host country for the expatriate and/or accompanying qualifying family to familiarize them with the new environment in which they will live and work during the global assignment most often provided by a third-party vendor.
Destination Services: Assistance provided to the expatriate and qualifying family upon arrival in the host country to help them settle into their new surroundings. Usually includes assistance in finding a residence, arranging schooling for dependent children, and guidance regarding shopping, transportation and drivers' licenses. Most often provided by a third-party vendor.
Home Country: The location where the expatriate worked prior to the global assignment, and to where it is intended he/she will repatriate at the end of the assignment(s). The home country may or may not be the expatriate's country of citizenship or residence.
Home Leave: A benefit provided to the expatriate and qualifying family to enable them to travel to the home country in order for them to maintain ties with colleagues, friends, and family at home.
Host Country: Location across national borders to which the expatriate is temporarily sent to work from the home country.
Local Hire / Employee: A person directly hired and working for the organization in their home country without any assignment-related benefits and is, therefore, not categorized as an expatriate.
Localization/Localizing: The transitioning of an expatriate to an employment status/package in the host country equivalent to that of host country nationals. The length of transition may vary among different organizations and industries.
Long-Term Assignment: A temporary transfer across national borders (e.g., from one portal campus to another), normally lasting between one and five years, though it may be extended.
Per Diem: A cash payment to an employee to cover certain temporary living expenses, usually meals, hotel, and incidental expenses, expressed as a daily rate. When delivered at a government-determined rate to cover business travel expense, can often be tax-free.
Permanent Transfer: A one-way transfer across national borders. The individual is normally considered to be an employee of the host country entity, severing ties with the home country entity, and is often only provided relocation and limited transition benefits
Pre-Assignment Visit/Trip: A trip to the host country for the expatriate (and possibly other accompanying qualifying family members) prior to the start of the assignment, to make certain arrangements and view the possible new surroundings.
Pre-Assignment/Pre-Departure: The period of time after a candidate for assignment has been identified, but prior to his/her departure from the home country.
Miscellaneous Relocation Allowance: A lump sum cash payment to the expatriate to cover the cost of incidental expenses not specifically covered by other aspects of the University's global assignment policy.
Repatriation: The return of the expatriate to the home country at the completion of the assignment.
Salary Cap: An upper limit or ceiling, usually expressed in terms of annual base salary to be used in the determination of allowances, or a limitation on the maximum value of an allowance.
Short-Term Assignment: A temporary transfer across national borders that generally lasts more than three months and less than a year (e.g., an academic semester).
Spendable Income: The portion of base salary that normally is devoted to the purchase of goods and services (e.g., food, clothing, entertainment, medical care). This amount is not a fixed percentage of base salary; rather, it varies according to nationality, income level, and qualifying family size.
Spouse / Domestic Partner Assistance: Assistance to recognize that spouses who accompany employees on global assignments may experience a disruption in their careers or self-improvement pursuits. May include job search, personal development or other assistance.
Tax Orientations: A meeting or discussion between the expatriate and a tax service professional to discuss the income and social tax implications of the assignment for both the home county and the host country.
Tax Gross-Up: A mathematical calculation to determine the final obligation to the taxing authorities when the company pays a tax liability on behalf of the expatriate.
Related Policies


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It may be just a concept for now, but the new SGI Molecule blows our minds with its potential power: Imagine 5,000 Atom N330 chips in just one 3U rack computer, the size of your average PC desktop. That's 10,000 cores in one single computer, or 40 more times the processing power of your typical 1U x86 cluster node. Is this possible? How do they expect to do this without actually creating a hole full of molten metal and plastic? According to SGI, the key to make this system work is their proprietary Kelvin cooling technology, which we can only imagine works by pouring buckets of liquid nitrogen over the CPUs. According to them, all this vaporware may result in a computer that can sustain 20,000 threads of execution, with a 15TB/sec memory bandwidth per rack.
• High concurrency with 20,000 threads of execution — 40 times more than a single rack x86 cluster system • High throughput with 15TB/sec of memory bandwidth per rack — over 20 times faster than a single rack x86 cluster system • Greater balance with up to three times the memory bandwidth/OPS compared to current x86 CPUs • High performance with approximately 3.5 times the computational performance per rack • Greener with low-watt consumer CPUs and low-power memory that deliver 7 times better memory bandwidth/watt • Innovative Silicon Graphics Kelvin cooling technology, which enables denser packaging by stabilizing thermal operations in densely configured solutions • Operating environment flexibility, capable of running industry-standard Linux(R) implementations, with Microsoft(R) Windows(R) variants on some configurations
[SGI via Gadget Lab]


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Online Payment (ePay) Help & Support
Pay your utility bill online using our improved Bill Pay Customer Portal. New and existing customers will be required to register when using this new portal for the first time.
By entering your account number during the call, you can instantly determine the status of your account and retrieve information such as account balance, the date of your last payment, billing history, and other general information.
Visit an authorized pay station near you.
Pay your utility bill in office or drop in one of our conveniently located drop boxes.


text:
Dozens of Broadway stars horrified by the Orlando nightclub shooting will lend their voices to recording a version of the iconic 1965 song "What the World Needs Now is Love," with all proceeds going to help the LGBT Center of Central Florida.
The project is inspired by the 1985 "We Are the World" benefit for Africa. It will include Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Wayne Brady, Sara Bareilles, Kristen Bell, Gloria Estefan, Megan Hilty, Rosie O'Donnell, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sutton Foster, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bernadette Peters and Whoopi Goldberg.
The digital download of the Burt Bacharach song will be sold for $1.99 and be available Monday at Broadway Records' website and on iTunes thereafter.
The effort was dreamed up by SiriusXM radio host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley.


text:
Policy and Procedures Manual
Over the past two years, State Regents' staff and advisory committees have reviewed and revised policies to incorporate current APA rules and to increase readability and clarity. Some policies have been added or substantively revised as recommended by advisory committees or as needed to reflect current practice. The proposed revised manual is organized into five chapters corresponding to major functions of the State Regents (Governance, Administrative Operations, Academic, Budget and Fiscal, and Student Financial Aid and Scholarships).
Every policy in the manual follows a standard format and numbering system to allow staff, institutions and the public to more easily find information and locate citations.
You must have Acrobat Reader 5.0 or above to view the Policy and Procedures Manual. The manual is provided as PDF files and is better viewed printed. Note that some chapters will take longer to download. For more information, email firstname.lastname@example.com. Hard copies are available of specific policies only.


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(CNET) -- Facebook stopped a phishing attack on Thursday, its second day in a row of dealing with a worm on the site that lures people to a fake Facebook page and prompts them to log in.
Facebook has faced two phishing attacks in the past two days but officials aren't sure whether they are related.
Unsuspecting Facebook users get a message from a friend urging them to "check this out" and including a link to a Web page that appears to be a Facebook log-in page, but it is a fake site that steals their information when they type in their username and password. The worm also sends a copy of the message to the infected Facebook member's contacts.
In the latest attack, the Web address was "FBStarter.com." In Wednesday's attack, the address was "BAction.net."
The attacks were stopped within a few hours in each case, said Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt. He said it was too early to say whether the two phishing attacks are related. "We are investigating," Schnitt said.
Once Facebook learns of a phishing attack, either by members notifying the company or employees noticing that a URL is being distributed to a lot of people, the company deletes the URL from members' pages, blocks fresh postings, and removes the redirect to the URL that appears in e-mail messages, Schnitt said.
Facebook also goes in and resets the passwords of member accounts that had been used to distribute the spam, he said.
The company also alerts anti-fraud partner MarkMonitor, which passes the phishing URL on to the major browsers to block it and contacts ISPs to take the site down, according to Schnitt.
To protect against phishing scams, Facebook users should make sure that the URL they are visiting says "www.facebook.com." If it doesn't use that domain it's likely to be spam. Also, members that are already logged in to Facebook will not be asked to log in again.
"People should have a healthy dose of suspicion, and ask themselves 'why did I get logged out?'" Schnitt said. "If something looks a little strange you should check the address bar."
Facebook users who think they have been affected by the scam should change their passwords and review their Facebook stream for any unauthorized changes. If they use their Facebook password for other sites, they should change those passwords as well.
And if they are using their Facebook authentication to log in to any other sites, they should check for any unauthorized changes on those sites.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.


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|Home ▸ Catalog ▸ |Themes & Provenance| ▸ |Denominations| ▸ |Cistophori||View Options: | | |
The cistophorus was introduced at Pergamon sometime between 200 and 160 B.C. to provide the Attalid kingdom with a substitute for Seleucid coins and the tetradrachms of Philetairos. The denomination was also struck by other cities under Attalid control. The denomination owes its name to cista mystica, the sacred chest of Dionysus, on the obverse. It was valued at four drachms but weighed only 12.75 grams, as much as three Attic drachms (the most important weight standard of the time). Hoard evidence suggests that they did not travel outside the area which Pergamon controlled, indicating they were valued higher within that area. Cistophori continued to be minted and circulated down to the time of Hadrian, long after the kingdom was bequeathed to Rome in 133 B.C. The portrait of Augustus and later emperors replaced the cista on the obverse.


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Earlier this week, Presidential candidate/inscrutable jokemaker Herman Cain claimed during an interview with Piers Morgan that being gay is a choice because there is no evidence that exists that it is not a choice. Columnist Dan Savage caught wind of what Cain said, and disagrees. Very strongly.
The verbal scuffle started when Herman Cain briefly traded words with CNN's Piers Morgan on Wednesday. When the GOP hopeful was pressed for his views on homosexuality, the following exchange occurred,
MORGAN: First of all, let's talk about homosexuality because — and is that wrong? Do you think it's a sin?
CAIN: I think it's a sin because of my biblical beliefs and although people don't agree with me, I happen to think that it is a choice.
MORGAN: You believe that?
CAIN: I believe that.
MORGAN: You believe people — seriously, you think people get to a certain age and go, I think I want to be homosexual?
CAIN: Let me turn it around to you. What does science show? You show me evidence other than opinion and you might cause me to reconsider that.
Apparently unbeknownst to Cain, there's plenty of science that shows that homosexuality is a naturally occurring behavior.
Columnist Dan Savage, like many people who know about science and don't much care for Herman Cain, responded to Cain's statements with a letter he posted on his blog. Savage wrote,
Dear Herman,
If being gay is a choice, show us the proof. Choose it. Choose to be gay yourself. Show America how that's done, Herman, show us how a man can choose to be gay. Suck my dick, Herman. Name the time and the place and I'll bring my dick and a camera crew and you can suck me off and win the argument.
Very sincerely yours,
Dan Savage
As someone wise once said: That was way harsh, Tai.
Cain should have known better than to trifle with an issue close to Dan Savage if he didn't expect recourse to be swift and to the jugular. After all, Savage is the man behind Rick Santorum's "Google problem" (that sounds filthy). He taught half of America how to have anal sex properly. He started a national discussion on monogamy earlier this year, and he's one of the driving forces behind the "It Gets Better" project. His reach is far and his aim is true.
We'll see if Cain responds, if at all. In the meantime, he'll most likely continue choosing to be inane.
Dan Savage to Herman Cain: Prove that Being Gay is a Choice [The Advocate]


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Search This Blog
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I would say the Shirred Shirt Dress. It's cute.ReplyDelete
I have yet to try your tutorial, but I LOVE the burberry inspired ruffle coasters. A little bit feminine, a little bit masculine. Perfect!ReplyDelete
The leatherette bow headband.ReplyDelete
you jewelry tutorials are my all time favorite..so I will like jewelry DIY..ReplyDelete
keep sharing :)
I like the no-sew fleece capelet. It is so adorable.ReplyDelete
A jewelry blog.
The ideas for using lace applique. I'm a new reader and was just browsing through your tutorials and that's definitely one I'm going to try soon!ReplyDelete
The shirring one in sewing basics. Use your method all the time now. Thank you! ;)ReplyDelete
This one probably is my ultimate favorite out of all my favorites. :)ReplyDelete
The head band and jewellery tutorials!ReplyDelete
Hmmm... Chanel Inspired Ruffle Cuffs and Collar :)ReplyDelete
My Favorite and most memorable tutorial is the Winter Wonderland Dress, its so adorable!ReplyDelete
My favorite is the bubble skirt :) I already made it ;)ReplyDelete
The other one is the simple bow in hair.
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 11:34 AM
Fancy Pants Frames!!! SOOOO CUTE!!!ReplyDelete
Definitely the Chanel ruffle cuffs!ReplyDelete
The Bouquet Tee is super pretty :) I can't wait until I finally have a chance to make one of my own.ReplyDelete
Pom-pom lamp. It's on my project list :)ReplyDelete
Either the message board or the ruffle lampshade! Definitely my favsReplyDelete
The book clock! I made one, and I just love it. (:ReplyDelete
I love them all, but my favorite is the "Pocket Full of Posies" dress! It is beautiful!ReplyDelete
I love the pleated shoulder bag, I have yet to make it but I did get fabric for one, so it's on my list of pretties to makeReplyDelete
It's really hard just to choose one!!!!! But the "She's a Lady" Cardigan Tutorial! is the best! Easy and really pretty!!ReplyDelete
All of your tutorials are awesome, and I love that you do so many refashions. I love the petal tee tutorial. I used it to make my daughter's Halloween costume (she was a fairy).ReplyDelete
I love the ruffled unbrella. I did it on my green and white pockadot unbrella. I also love the clothes you make.ReplyDelete
I really loved the 'making her clothes last' posts. It actually was the inspiration for me to take up sewing! Oh, and also the ladylike skirt tutorial. So cute!ReplyDelete
I like the "Gardens at Dusk" Tank TutorialReplyDelete
I like the sweater headband.ReplyDelete
I started following after seeing the Chuck Norris T-Shirt Pillow Tutorial. I liked the simple directions!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 12:16 PM
I really like the dress refashion tutorial, mainly because it is so inspiring! since you posted it, I look at every dress/sweater/pants with a pretty fabric and think of how I could make them work for me.ReplyDelete
Ruffly Umbrella...so cute and easy :)ReplyDelete
make her clothes lastReplyDelete
I got started making skirts with the 20 minute skirt tutorial. Great step by steps that made it a lot easier to follow. And maybe it takes a person with some sewing history to make it in 20, but I struggled through and finished in an hour. :) let's just say i'm better now. thanks!ReplyDelete
My fav is the No-Sew Fleece Capelet, made one for my little girl, she loves it!!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Ruffle Lampshade!ReplyDelete
- GirlTriingFebruary 8, 2012 at 12:33 PM
Pleated cardigan!ReplyDelete
Disney, I have always loved your Isotoner slippers. They are lovely.ReplyDelete
Adults - 3 way skirt/dress and for the kids - Beachcomber dress. Love the no sew fleece caplet also. Ahh.. who am I kidding - too hard to pick just 1, but if I have to.. would be 3 way skirt I guess :)ReplyDelete
the slippers with flowers - my granmother-in-law raves about them every time i see her :) plus i've used that flower tutorial over and overReplyDelete
You have done so many lovely tutorials it is very difficult to say, my favourite is probably the chanel style cuffs and colour, or maybe the lemonade dressReplyDelete
The petal tee.ReplyDelete
I loved the J Crew-inspired pearl necklace- Made a great and easy gift.ReplyDelete
Close second would be the beachcomber dress!
I love all of the headband/headwrap ideas you have, but the Lauren headband tutorial is my favorite.ReplyDelete
the sweater turned into a hat, SOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!! It may be an old one but it's still my favorite.ReplyDelete
I love the "She's a Lady" cardigan refashion. So cute :)ReplyDelete
If I have to choose one it would be the eyeglass case made from a potholder.ReplyDelete
- ClaudiaFebruary 8, 2012 at 1:21 PM
honestly, all of them most especially any of the ones related to necklaces and earrings.. but my absolute favourite woudld be the 'No-Sew Fabric Flower Tutorial'. So easy and beautiful!ReplyDelete
the Chanel Inspired Ruffle Cuffs and CollarReplyDelete
The She's a Lady cardigan, it looks so lovely!ReplyDelete
I loved your tutorial on how you made that little book for your daughter. I'm in the process of making one for my baby girl right now, and your directions are ever so helpful - i'm following them to a T! Not only did that story make me tear up a bit at how sweet a mother/daughter relationship is, it inspired me to do the same thing for my child.ReplyDelete
I love your earring DIY! I have already made four pairs for myself and 2 for each of my sister-in-laws. Its like a whole new world and a great way to have awesome, unique earrings (I get pretty tired of looking in store after store....)ReplyDelete
I love the skort tutorial. But I find myself coming back to the shirring tute over and over again. I will shirr a lot for a few weeks, then not pick it up again for months, so I come back to that tutorial to help remind me! =)ReplyDelete
my fave and the one that stands out is that pretty plaid capelet you made paige..so pretty!ReplyDelete
Now this is a hard question b/c you have so many amazing tutorials. But my top three would have to be:ReplyDelete
1. Pleated Bag (It was the first real bag I ever successfully made)
2. Three Way Skirt Dress
3. Pleated Cardigan
Mine would have to be your ruffle waisted skirt. I'm still in the process of trying to concoct my own :)ReplyDelete
Either the petal tee or plaid capelet. Both are awesome, like their designer. :)ReplyDelete
I love your simple bow tutorial! they're so easy to make!ReplyDelete
which tutorial? i love all of them...ReplyDelete
but. if i had to choose one of them : bouquet tee
THis one, http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/07/gardens-at-dusk-tank-tutorial.htmlReplyDelete
Oh man! That is a tough question. I love them all! I do think the most unique was the ruffeled umbrella! Yours is the only one I have seen!!ReplyDelete
Without hesitatio, the Lauren headband tutorial:ReplyDelete
It is with it that I discovered your great blog.
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 3:13 PM
The 20-minute dress. Already have 6 of them :)ReplyDelete
PS : thanks a lot for sharing you DIY, they're wonderful !
All of your ideas are incredible but today I like your tree stump pillow.ReplyDelete
Disney I can't seem to access your envelope templates for printing and I could really use them right now for some Valentine cards I am making. Can you help me with this. Thank you. Frances
The layered skirt: http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/04/murpheys-layered-skirt.htmlReplyDelete
Your paper bag skirt!ReplyDelete
Frances: Oh, I forgot that silly Blogger changed it's photo display thingy. I'll try to fix it tonight, but in the mean time, you should be able to right-click the templates and open in a new window, then print. :o)ReplyDelete
It's so hard to choose. You are very creative, but I think my favorite is the scarf and gloves out of old socks tutorial. Best wishes on whatever this is for. :)ReplyDelete
My favorite is the dress refashion. I haven't tried yet, but it looks super fun for summer. :0)ReplyDelete
I dont know if this even counts, but your tute on sewing ruffles! I am brand-new to sewing and that was AWESOME in helping me get started!!ReplyDelete
Second to that would be the new-sew capelet! =)
Hat and scarf from sweater. :)ReplyDelete
bubble skirt.ReplyDelete
The bubble skirtReplyDelete
Any of the tutorials where you showed us how to make kids clothes grow with them! Love those!ReplyDelete
That's tough because I love so many of them!ReplyDelete
Of all that I've used, I have used the TShirt Ruffled Scarf one the most. I love it.
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 5:57 PM
she's a lady cardigan! such a cute ideaReplyDelete
The Winter Wonderland Dress! It's how I found you!ReplyDelete
The pleated shoulder bag! I love mine.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 8, 2012 at 7:46 PM
Disney! Really thats like asking us how far is a piece of string :) How to choose but 1 tutorial thats a favourite... Well it was a painful task as I so do love them all, but my 2 year old daughter just LURVES her lollypop shirts that I made from that tute, and of course I get a choice too, so Though I havent made the ruffle skirt, I love that its 3 looks in one, an oh so super sweet, cute and ruffley pretty. Very feminine. Oh and my 7 year old son just said he loves the book clock an wants me to make him one with one of the vintage childrens books we collect from op shopping (you call them thrift shore in the US?)ReplyDelete
With love from Australia, Emma.
Love love Love (all of them) but mostly the "gardens at dusk" tank. Beautiful!ReplyDelete
Disney, I LOVE your boquet t-shirt tutorial.ReplyDelete
Thanks for asking!
The fancy dress from a skirt one. It's the whole reason I started following you!ReplyDelete
I love the "field of flowers" vase, I think its gorgeous and smart. I made one for my mother's birthday, it was fun to make :)ReplyDelete
"Gardens at Dusk" tank, I haven't gotten around to making it just yet but it is gorgeous.ReplyDelete
the 30 minute skirt. i've made 7 of themReplyDelete
The pleated shoulder bag. Made it and love it. Thank you Disney. Such a welcoming blog with simple instructions.ReplyDelete
What a tricky question. You have made so many beautiful things!ReplyDelete
I'd then say my favourite is the Bouquet Tee as I made one and it is my favorite thsirt ;-)
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
The button earrings tutorial and the book clock love them!♥ReplyDelete
Hi, I liked the ones, which I also tried: the knee-highs, ruffled t-shirt scarf!, pink shirred dress, sweater hat, necklace, cupcake felt-art, ruffle on the vest with a stain and other refashion ideas. I really liked the ruffled scarf and the ruffle on the vest though. My girls were stars with those. :)ReplyDelete
pocket full of posies!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 4:59 AM
The umbrella make-over you did for Dollar Store Crafts!ReplyDelete
Love, MaVee
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 5:43 AM
The layered skirt from the simple projects week last September. That was an AWESOME! project. The pictures of Paige are so adorable. She couldn't be any cuter then.ReplyDelete
I love the pleated cardigan re-fashion and the Ann Taylor-inspired ruffle tank. too cute!ReplyDelete
refashions in general. my favs are the womens, just bc i feel like its harder to refashion something for an adult that doesnt look too homemade. kids are easierReplyDelete
are you serious woman?! asking us to pick our favorite, is soooo hard! I guess I would have to pick the handkerchief rosette. : )ReplyDelete
Definitely the book clock. So beautiful! After coming across your tutorial, I made book clocks for everyone in my family for Christmas.ReplyDelete
I love the layered ruffle skirt tutorial! Easy and quick!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 7:29 AM
There are toooooo many to pick one. Jcrew inspired necklace, t-shirt apron, pleated shoulder bag, and button earings. <3ReplyDelete
I love the tight to knee high socks. Also the Cowl Sweater scarf!ReplyDelete
Actually thay are all awesome! I wish I had more time to do them all! :)
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 8:01 AM
No-sew capelet.ReplyDelete
The Murphy skirt...so cute!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 9:25 AM
The pleated shoulder bag? And the simple bows? And everything else? They're all so lovely.ReplyDelete
The shirring tutorialReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 9:39 AM
I liked the 20 minute skirt. It looked so easy I ACTUALLY attempted itReplyDelete
- lehman1971February 9, 2012 at 10:22 AM
The 30-minute skirt!!ReplyDelete
Very hard to pick just one; so here are my all time favorites/can't do without:ReplyDelete
Ruffle Necklace Waffle-Knit Tee
Bubble Skirt from Tights Tops
Flower Bath Puff from an Old Towel
Ruffled Shower Curtain Umbrella for Dollar Store Crafts
$5 Pom-pom Lamp
Chanel Inspired Ruffle Cuffs and Collar
Blair Waldorf Capelet
(A Cheater's Guide to a) Bib Necklace
There they are! Hope this helps somehow.
I like the Monster pillow tutorial and also all your jewelry tutorials. I do a lot of sewing, but jewelry is something I've always been scared to try, and your tutorials make it look so easy!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 12:09 PM
I haven't tried it yet, but I am dying to use your Chanel inspired ruffle collar and cuffs! I have three shirts my boyfriend discarded from his closet I rescued for that very purpose :)ReplyDelete
I loved you Braided Headband tutorial! Simple and gorgeous!ReplyDelete
I love your blog in general, I check it everyday to see if you have a new post. It is very hard to pick a favorite tutorial, but I think I will choose the sweater headwrap just because it was what came to my mind the quickest when you asked for our favorite.ReplyDelete
- marketaFebruary 9, 2012 at 3:31 PM
I*heart* scarves... so my #1 is Easy Ruffled T-shirt Scarf !ReplyDelete
the simple bows tutorial is my favorite. : )ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 4:33 PM
The leatherette headband but actually like all of your tutorials. So much fun!!ReplyDelete
I love all your ideas, but I think this one is my favorite - so easy and so cute! It's brilliant!ReplyDelete
This is the one I most love, the rose cuff bracelet.ReplyDelete
That's a hard question! Imma go with the sleeping bag tutorial. :)ReplyDelete
I really love the Paper Bag Skirt Refashion of yours! But really, there can never be just one favorite.ReplyDelete
I love the J Crew inspired pearl necklace, elastic scrunch belt, Chanel inspired Ruffle Cuffs and collar...
I am going to click on another set of tutorials and letting you know my favorites there, in a while :) that is
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2012 at 10:40 PM
The fleece capelet for little girls. :) I couldn't believe that something so adorable could be so achievable, even for a novice crafter like me. Love it.ReplyDelete
Hi, Disney, I've been following your blog for a while and even though it is so difficult to single out just one tute, I'd say "The lace trimmings scarf" that I hope to reproduce some day :) http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/12/all-trimmings-scarf.html. Thank you for generously sharing all your crafty ideas with us!ReplyDelete
This is tough. There is a lot that I really like but I have actually made the flower t-shirt. The one with the knit that are ruffled into a flower. (Yours is a peachy/pink)ReplyDelete
Yours is cuter but mine is ok too! :)
Your yellow cardigan with the pleated satin and bow took my breath away the first time I saw it. Sheer genius!ReplyDelete
Oh and I love your little stuffed animals, the fox and raccoon. Adorable!
I think I like the lemonade dress tutorial the most, but your tutorials are always very cute so it`s a little bit hard to choose ^^ReplyDelete
Have a nice day
I also have to say your "All the Trimmings scarf" is my favorite. I made myself one to wear in the evening of my wedding day! Although I love everything you make, I think this was the only thing I've copied for myself. It's just beautiful!ReplyDelete
Thank you for asking, Disney! I love your tutorials but my first and number one is The Bouquet Tree. I follow it and my shirt became great. Everybody that see it love it in a minute! Thank you for being such an inspiration for me! You are amazing!ReplyDelete
The Lauren Bow headband is my favorite.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 11, 2012 at 4:37 AM
Dear DisneyReplyDelete
This is so hard to say. I love so many of your tutorials. So I decided for 3 of them:
1."She's a Lady" Cardigan Tutorial!
2.Chanel Inspired Ruffle Collar and Cuffs
3.Pippa and Rascal Pattern Download
Thank you for sharing your ideas. I love you blog.
Greetings from Switzerland
The dress refashion tutorial is my favorite. I'm dying to try it!ReplyDelete
Thanks for all the fun ideas!
Pom Pom Lamp! I made a pink one but since I live in a house full of boys, I'm searching for a place to use it :)ReplyDelete
I just LOVE my pom pom lamp though, and I never would have thought to do it without you!
new follower here! i've stopped by before and don't know what i wasn't following before! my favorite tutorial is your long necklace refashion. so simple yet so beautiful!ReplyDelete
Pinwheels and Peonies
Practically Free Pom-Pom Lamp!:-) Love it!!!ReplyDelete
- HoosiermeemaFebruary 13, 2012 at 7:58 PM
I like the pleated shoulder bag.ReplyDelete
My favorite tutorial is the little girl's bubble skirt using old tights! Fabulous!ReplyDelete
My favorite is the Winter Wonderland Dress. :)ReplyDelete
I love them all! But I think my favorite one are the refasshion tutorials.ReplyDelete
Can`t wait to see what this is about!
The no-sew fabric flowers!!!ReplyDelete
- Lisa O.February 22, 2012 at 3:17 PM
I really love all of your sewing turorials. But, the most influential was the Family Tree Brooch or Pendant. That was the beginning of jewelry making for me. My mom (who has since passed) loved that brooch and wore it often.ReplyDelete
I love the pleated scarf. I was due with my baby when you posted it. I literally- promptly ran out to get fabric and whipped it out while I was in labor, before leaving for the hospital! I later made one for my older daughter too after she wouldn't stop wearing mine around!ReplyDelete
The peonies! I use them for/on everything!!!ReplyDelete


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When it comes to evading hungry predators, prey animals have no shortage of tricks — things like like camouflage, prickly defenses — and a hell of a lot of speed. But they've also evolved some lesser known strategies as well. Here are some ingenious ways prey animals avoid becoming a delicious meal.
Predators tend to get all the hype when it comes to their daily routines. They tend to be seen as highly intelligent, single-minded in purpose, strong, and fearless. As predators ourselves, we're somewhat sympathetic towards them; we see their efforts as being somehow more nobler than that of the prey animal — creatures with the apparent evolutionary purpose of breeding in quantity to provide a seemingly endless supply of sustenance for those "higher up" in the food chain.
This is nonsense, of course. Prey animals are no more or no less nobler than predators. And in fact, given the stakes involved, they've had to evolve some remarkable and ingenious countermeasures — adaptations that counter the four primary stages of predation: detection, attack, capture, and consumption.
Don't get noticed
No doubt — the first trick to not getting caught is to not get noticed in the first place. To avoid detection, prey animals have acquired a number of strategies, camouflage being the most effective; blending into the environment makes it much tougher for predators to locate targets.
The exact camo a prey animal will use depends on its physiology and behavior. An animal with scales, for example, will develop a different camouflage technique than a furry or feathered animal. They often blend into their environment, which is why polar animals are white, and why forest creatures, like squirrels, tend to have earth tone colors. Animals can also change color depending on the seasons.
Specific blending methods include crypsis, which makes animals hard to see — like background matching, countershading, and disruptive coloration — and masquerading, which makes an animal look like an object or another undesirable animal (e.g. stick insects).
And the octopus, along with its wily intelligence, uses its complex skin structure to become a veritable shape-shifter:
Of course, predators also like to blend into their surroundings; prey animals don't have a monopoly on this tactic. What's more, new research shows that predators can learn to read camouflage.
Another way prey animals avoid being noticed is by detecting predators before they detect them, allowing them to either freeze in place or slowly move away. These animals need to be acutely aware of their surroundings. As a result, they have highly evolved senses, including powerful vision, hearing, and smell. In essence, they're equipped with a highly accurate surveillance system.
Take a look at this European Roe Deer. Its giant ears essentially serve as an acoustic antenna. The deer's two very large eyes, which are positioned on either side of its head, allow it to scan a wide area to its immediate left and right — a wide swath that's nearly 360 degrees across. Its big, sensitive nose can pick up the scent of a predator. And it's all set atop a tall, agile neck that dramatically increases the distance of its visual range. Many prey animals have similar features, including rabbits. (Image: Eric Isselee/Shutterstock)
Predators have similar adaptations, of course. Cats, for example, have evolved incredibly accurate vision that allows them to see in dim lighting.
Don't get into a fight
The first thing they teach you in martial arts is that the best way to "win" a fight is to avoid getting into one in the first place. Prey animals know this, which is why many of them practice a kind of conflict avoidance — even after being detected. To do so, they need to signal to an unwelcome suitor that they're simply not worth the effort. Biologists call these aposematic signals, and they can include such things as warning colors, sounds, or smells.
Bright, conspicuous colors often tell predators that the meal they're about to eat is poisonous, like certain lizards. For some reason, red or yellow, in conjuction with black, has become a commonly understood code in the animal kingdom (which is why many bees have adopted the yellow/black combination). Some animals like to pretend to be undesirable ones, like the wasp-mimicking hoverfly.
And then there's the Eastern Hognose Snake, a bizarre reptile that has developed an entire arsenal of defenses. Dubbed the King of the Bluff, this thing is all bark — and all drama — but no bite. The first thing it does when threatened is strike a cobra-like pose and hiss ominously. Should things get worse, it makes fake striking attacks. If that fails, it starts to play dead by turning its belly up, going limp, and sticking its tongue out of its gaping mouth — a tactic called thanatosis (many predators avoid dead animals, preferring live ones instead). To make its death scene seem all the more real, it emits a musky odor that smells like rotting meat.
Technically speaking, the hognose snake is not a prey animal (it eats tiny amphibians), but its survival tactics are fascinating nonetheless.
Don't get captured
Of course, it's not always possible for a prey animal to avoid detection, sneak away, or fool the enemy. In those cases where an attack seems imminent, the best thing to do is run like hell. In the cutthroat world of the animal kingdom, there's no shame in fleeing. And in fact, flight is one of the most crucial countermeasures an animal can take during an attack. This can take the form of running away, flying away, or taking refuge in an environment unsuitable to the predator, like water, up a tree, or in a thick, prickly bush.
Inevitably, however, this leads to arms races. One of the most extreme forms of this is the evolutionary relationship between the cheetah and its prey, namely gazelles, deer, and impala. The Thomson's Gazelle, for example, can run upwards of 50 miles per hour (80 km/hr) while using its agile frame to perform quick evasion tactics.
Watch as this gazelle outruns a cheetah:
Speaking of evasive manoeuvres, some prey animals, like white tailed deer and white tailed jack rabbits, feature flashy white tails that are prominently displayed when they're being chased down by predators. Zoologists used to think that these tails were used for sexual selection, or as some kind of sign to the predator that it has been spotted (which never really made a whole lot of sense).
Rather, it's a way to confuse predators during a chase. Predators focus on these bright spots during the chase, but at the expense of focusing on the larger animal. When a rabbit or deer executes an evasive manoeuvre — like a sharp turn — the spot disappears for the briefest of moments, giving it some precious added time to escape or prolong the chase such that the predator eventually gives up.
Another good evasion tactic are ink clouds spurted by squids and octopi.
Other strategies include conspicuous signs of fitness. Gazelles will often jump high with stiff legs, as if to tell a would-be predator that they're a particularly badass specimen and not worth the effort — particularly if there are weaker, more vulnerable individuals in the vicinity.
Prey animals can also fight back by using an assortment of defences, including horns, claws, and teeth. They can also inject venom and toxins to deter attackers.
There's also safety — and strength — in numbers. Some birds practice mobbing, in which large numbers of birds converge on a single enemy. Muskoxen cling together, making it difficult for a predator to single out an individual. Herds, because they work together, employ a kind of crowd-sourcing to detect a threatening predator.
And as this dramatic video (above) of a lion attacking a baby water buffalo shows — along with a cameo from a crocodile — prey animals can also stick up for each other. And yes, this video is over eight minutes long, but it's totally worth it; go ahead and start the action at the 1:55 mark; the water buffalos come to the rescue at the 4:35 mark.
Don't get eaten
If all else fails, prey animals can make themselves rather unpleasant to eat. Things like armour and spines. Some animals can afford to shed a vital body part, like tails or legs (called autotomy). The gecko is a good example.
When attacked, sea cucumbers eject parts of their digestive tract. And some prey animals use distraction techniques which direct the predator's attention away from crucial body parts, like the head or neck. Examples include misdirecting eyespots, and a mother-bird protecting her chicks by feigning a wing injury.
There are so many, many more tactics that prey animals can use, and I'm sure I missed many of them. Please add some of your favorites to comments.


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This is the fourth post in a continuing series of Bike Trail posts. Like the back roads of America, the recent interest in bike paths and rails-to-trails paths provides a new insight on "back roads". Each Bike Path post will include surrounding information, vehicle support info and trail ratings as provided by my wife Julianne. One bike pump equals a "poor" rating while five pumps equals an "excellent" rating. We'll also provide links to the RTC TrailLinks overview of the trail. Complete Trails Overview Post is HERE
Dawkins Line Rail Trail – Swamp Branch, KY (Click here for Trail Post with photos)
Click here for RTC TrailLink Details
Kentucky's longest and best Rails to Trail Bike Trail is the Dawkins Line Rail Trail which runs 18 miles from Royalton, KY (near Salyersville) to Hagerhill, KY (near Paintsville). The trail also has another 18 mile extension currently under construction.
This was the first trail that Julianne rode on her own. We ventured out ot this trail on a weekend in early June 2016. It was kind of scary as it is in an area that, in many places, is void of cell service. The roads for a support driver really meander away from the trail as well. But, according to Julianne, it is a beautiful trail to ride on.
Our drive from Lexington took us southeast down the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway from Winchester through Stanton and Campton and then into Royalton, just a few miles south of Salyersville, KY. This is a beautiful drive through the mountains of Southeast Kentucky. Royalton is on Kentucky Highway 7 which runs south from Salyersville.
Royalton is the main trailhead for this 18 mile trail. It is also home to the Rail Trail Festival, which we just missed the day before. There were still remnants of the event remaining in the main park area in Royalton. These included the "Got Muchies" Food Truck. I got a kick out of it and asked the owner of the truck if he knew it was misspelled and he said yes. He also said it was the painters' mistake, but he was in a hurry and needed the truck and so decided to keep it as is. Too dang funny!
The main trailhead, as noted above, is in Royalton. The route has three or four places along the way with parking lots and trail information.
The trail is predominantly crushed limestone but smooth to ride on according to Julianne.
The trail has a number of nice trestles and bridges and the first one is only about 6 miles down the road for a driver. Basically, I had to leave Royalton and take KY 1635 west and up a hill to KY 867 which follows the Licking River. I traveled east on KY 867 to SE Licking River Road (KY 7/KY 867) and turned right toward Ivyton, where it turns into Gun Creek Road. A couple of miles down the road, Gun Creek heads northeast and there is a point where the Dawkins Trail crosses over the road.
KY 867 after Ivyton eventually meets KY 1888 (Burning Fork Rd.) and I headed north on that road. I then made my way to Riceville, KY(via KY 1867) until I got to KY 825. From there, KY 825 follows Dawkins northbound for quite a way eventually getting to Swamp Branch, Leander, Old Ratliff Rd. and then into Denver.
At one point 825 crosses under US 460/US 23 near Paintsville, near the Lower Greasy Post Office and into Collista. The trail ends just past Collista where KY 825 intersects with KY , near Hager Hill.
If you live in Lexington, make sure to visit our favorite bike shop "Bicycle Face." (Not a paid promotion – we just like these guys!!)


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1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2003
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2003
|Page tools: Print Page
Transport infrastructure comprises three elements, all of which are required to perform the transport task:
Physical infrastructure
The costs in constructing and maintaining the physical infrastructure Australia requires for its vast transport network are very high. The value of public and private sector engineering construction done during 2001 was $5,322m on roads, highways and subdivisions; $327m on bridges; $635m on railways; $292m on harbours; and $242m on pipelines.
Length of the road system
Table 23.28 shows the map lengths of Australian roads while map 23.31 displays the National Highway System. Of all the states and territories, New South Wales has the greatest length of bitumen or concrete roads (91,344 km) representing just over half of all roads in that state. The Australian Capital Territory has the highest percentage of total road surface consisting of bitumen or concrete (95.2%) while South Australia has the lowest percentage of bitumen or concrete roads to total roads at 28.9%.
Rail network
Australia's rail systems comprise nearly 40,000 km of private and government broad, standard and narrow gauge track. Table 23.29 and map 23.30 show the diversity of track gauge in Australia, reflecting the historical development of state infrastructure. It also reflects private development, such as the 4,150 route-kilometres of narrow gauge associated with the Queensland sugar industry. The mainline rail system includes the 8,000 km standard gauge interstate network plus the 1,680 km narrow gauge link between Brisbane and Cairns. The rail system also includes the 240 km tram network in Melbourne, the 11 km tram line in Adelaide, the 6.6 km tram line in Sydney, the 8.5 km skitube from Jindabyne to Mt Kosciuszko in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains and the 3.6 km Sydney monorail. Competition reform and government policy to allow open access have resulted in private companies offering freight and passenger services over government-owned track.
Sea ports
Map 23.30 shows Australia's major sea ports. Under Section 15 of the Customs Act, Australia has 97 appointed ports. Western Australia has the greatest number of such ports (22), while the Northern Territory has the fewest (3). Of the remaining states, Queensland has 20 ports, South Australia 18, Tasmania 15, New South Wales 14, and Victoria 5 ports.
Source: Australasian Railway Association, 2000 ARA Yearbook.
At 6 August 2002, there were 261 licensed airports in Australia and its external territories. Of these, 12 were operating as international airports servicing scheduled international airlines. Map 23.31 shows Australia's international airports. The majority of licensed airports are owned and operated by local councils, state government departments and private companies. The remaining airports are owned and operated by the Department of Defence or leased by the Commonwealth to private sector companies or government corporations.
23.31 NATIONAL HIGHWAYS(a) AND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS - 2000
(a) The national highway system excludes state highways such as the Princes and Great Western highways.
Source: Bureau of Transport Regional Economics.


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Recent data show that poverty is falling around the world. Today, 43 percent of people are considered to be living in "poverty" (on less than $2 per day), compared to 30 years ago when almost three-fourths of the developing world's population was doing so. Yet, while poverty is declining, the world is not becoming a more equal place, as a preponderance of income and wealth remain concentrated in the richest segments of populations. Indeed, as the adage goes, "rising tides raise all ships." But as reality shows, these tides have differentiated effects on equality across income groups.
Interestingly, this phenomenon -- mobility out of poverty accompanied by higher income concentrations and persistent inequality -- is evident in all regions of the world, with the exception of one: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Bucking the global trend, the LAC region has managed to reduce both poverty and inequality (on the aggregate) over the past decade, even as countries dealt with the worst of the global economic crisis. So how did they do it?
As I highlighted in a recent presentation at the Inter-American Development Bank, there are several reasons why the region was able to reduce poverty and inequality simultaneously. First, as compared with other regions, a stronger labor market has increased employment and raised wages for unskilled workers, especially those in the lowest deciles of the income distribution. Second, demographic shifts have allowed for greater female labor market participation in the region, growing from 35 percent in the 1980's to more than 55 percent today. Third, progressive fiscal policy especially in the form of redistributive transfer programs -- such as Oportunidades, Bolsa Familia, and the like -- have greatly improved the opportunities of the poor. And last, governments in the region have taken a more pro-union stance which has raised minimum wages and increased pensions.
An especially impressive example in the LAC region is my home country, Brazil. A happy outlier among its fellow BRICS countries, Brazil managed to turn the corner on inequality between 2002 and 2009, as those in the bottom 50 percent were able to increase their share of total income by more than 15 percent. In fact, according to a recent issue of Inequality in Focus, "Inequality in Brazil declined at a faster pace than elsewhere in Latin America: After 1997, inequality declined by 0.8 percent per year; from 2001 on, the rate of decline accelerated to 1.07 percent per year, well above the regional pace of 0.63 percent."
Although progress is admirable in Brazil and the rest of the region, inequality in outcomes and opportunities remains high. Thus, I agree with Latin American governments that support policies to maintain macro-economic stability, expand access to education and health services, and strengthen social protections and safety nets. Only by doing so can the region sustain reductions in both poverty and inequality without compromising growth in the future.