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by Barbara Ischinger
Director for Education
A school band played for us. It was the best school band I've ever heard—and I've heard many. It was the true image of hope, team spirit and positive attitudes. For the students, it was the welcome experience of normality.
A brass band playing in the midst of vast devastation; a landscape that reminded me of street scenes from my childhood in Germany after the war. But this was just one week ago, in Japan, during a visit to the area torn apart by the earthquake and tsunami a year ago today. I went there to participate in the launch of the Japan edition of our Strong Performers, Successful Reformers series and to discuss the OECD's Tohoku School project with local partners.
This is a project whereby students learn through doing. In this case, they are planning an international event, scheduled to be held in 2014 in Paris, to attract visitors to the devastated Tohoku region of Japan. To do this, they will need to acquire and use very specific skills, but ones that still aren't commonly taught in classrooms: critical thinking, creativity, teamwork. They will have to think and act like entrepreneurs: create a plan, develop it and see it through.
PISA results show that students who are motivated perform better in school than students who aren't; and project-based learning is a great motivator. The students participating in this project are given real-life tasks to perform to accomplish their goals and they learn while doing those tasks.
These children are learning these skills in dramatic circumstances; but these are skills that all children, everywhere, need to learn to participate fully in 21st-century societies. Students around the world need the confidence to not just accept what they have seen around them during their childhoods, but to be bold and courageous and try new things, consider professions for themselves that aren't customary in their families or even in their regions. Every child should have the confidence to think big—have big dreams, big ambitions—and both teachers and parents should help to instil this confidence in their children.
The responsibility for education does not only lie in the hands of government and enterprises, it also lies in the hands of individuals. To be committed to lifelong learning is the solution. We want to plant this seed in the Tohoku School and elsewhere, so that schools teach students the skills they need to become lifelong learners. Indeed, one of the main messages of the OECD's Skills Strategy, which will be unveiled in May, is that to thrive in the global knowledge-based economy, we all need to become lifelong learners.
The children and teachers I met in the Tohoku region understand the value of learning. I found evidence of that in an unlikely place: a non-descript building next to a temple that had been claimed by an enterprising local NGO as a study room. The room seemed to absorb the temple's spiritual atmosphere and comforting silence. It is where displaced students could go to prepare for their school entrance exams. These students are living with their families in one-room temporary housing; were it not for this space, they would have had no other quiet place in which they could concentrate on their studies. The teachers there were coaching the students, mentoring them. You see small gestures like this and you feel that something is coming back: flowers are blooming, spring is unfolding.
Photo: Japanese cherry – sakura flowers. Petals of cherry blossoms on the water surface as a sign of sorrow and sympathy to the Japan after by floods and earthquakes.
Photo credit: Repina Valeriya / Shutterstock


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Rhino poaching toll reaches new high
Posted on 10 January 2013
Rhino poaching statistics released today by the South African government reveal that a record 668 rhinos were killed across the country in 2012, an increase of nearly 50 per cent from the 448 rhinos lost to poachers in 2011. An additional five rhinos have been killed since the beginning of this year.Rhino poaching statistics released today by the South African government reveal that a record 668 rhinos were killed across the country in 2012, an increase of nearly 50 per cent from the 448 rhinos lost to poachers in 2011. An additional five rhinos have been killed since the beginning of this year.
A majority of the rhino deaths, 425, occurred in Kruger National Park, South Africa's premier safari destination. Poaching incidents in Kruger rose sharply from 252 in 2011.
Arrests of suspected poachers and smugglers also increased in 2012, with 267 people now facing rhino-related charges. In November, a Thai man was sentenced to a record 40 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle rhino horns to Asia.
A recent TRAFFIC report found that rhino horns are believed to have medicinal properties and are seen as highly desirable status symbols in some Asian countries, notably Viet Nam. The increased value of rhino horn has enticed well-organized, well-financed and highly-mobile criminal groups to become involved in rhino poaching.
"Viet Nam must curtail the nation's rhino horn habit, which is fuelling a poaching crisis in South Africa," said Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC's Director of Advocacy.
"Rhinos are being illegally killed, their horns hacked off and the animals left to bleed to death, all for the frivolous use of their horns as a hangover cure."
In December, Viet Nam and South Africa signed an agreement aimed at bolstering law enforcement and tackling illegal wildlife trade including rhino horn trafficking. The agreement paves the way for improved intelligence information sharing and joint efforts by the two nations to crack down on the criminal syndicates behind the smuggling networks.
"Whilst we commend South Africa and Viet Nam for signing a Memorandum of Understanding regarding biodiversity conservation, we now need to see a joint Rhino Plan of Action being implemented, leading to more of these rhino horn seizures," said Dr Jo Shaw, WWF-SA's Rhino Co-ordinator. "There is also an urgent need to work closely with countries which are transit routes for illicit rhino horn, specifically Mozambique."
Two Vietnamese men were detained in separate incidents earlier this month in Viet Nam and Thailand for smuggling rhino horns, which were believed to have been exported from Mozambique.
Both Mozambique and Viet Nam have been given failing grades by WWF's Wildlife Crime Scorecard for failing to enforce laws meant to protect rhinos. The study also outlines important actions needed by South Africa, such as ensuring those arrested for rhino crimes are prosecuted and punished.
For further information or to schedule an interview with a WWF or TRAFFIC expert contact:
WWF: Alona Rivord, email@example.com, +41 79 959 1963
TRAFFIC: Richard Thomas, firstname.lastname@example.com, +44 752 6646 216

subset: commoncrawl


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Planet Earth might be home sweet home, but is it really humanity's birthplace? We explore science fiction stories where humans come from everywhere but Earth, be it by colonization, alien experiments, or good old-fashioned panspermia.
Panspermia is the term for the most scientifically plausible version of this concept, but it isn't necessarily what science fiction usually presents. The panspermia hypothesis holds that the building blocks of life are not found exclusively on planetary bodies but are instead found scattered throughout the cosmos, and it is these spaceborne particles that are at least partly responsible for life on Earth. There's a little circumstantial evidence for the theory (although far, far more to support the reliable old "Life comes from Earth" hypothesis), and there is something undeniably fascinating about the subtext – the aliens are already here, and we are they. But science fiction barely ever depicts the actual theory of panspermia, mostly because it's just a physical process that takes billions of years to play out and is pretty boring unless you're willing to get really mystical.
What science fiction more properly deals with is exogenesis, which simply states that humanity or its genetic ancestors didn't always live on Earth. That generally means one of two things – either an ancient alien race introduced life to a previously dead Earth (sometimes as part of a larger directed panspermia project) or a bunch of humans from some other civilization colonized Earth, a fact that somehow slipped the minds of their descendants (you know…us). Plenty of science fiction deals with both, including two of the big science fictions works currently in the news. (The occasional spoiler may lie ahead.)
One of the most satisfying little details of everybody's favorite Vikings vs. aliens epic is its answer to why Jim Caviezel's character, the alien Kainan, looks exactly like the Norsemen and how he can possibly speak their language.Outlander solves both of these problems by revealing Earth is an "abandoned seed colony" of Kainan's spacefaring civilization. Unfortunately, the whole notion that Earth was colonized by an interstellar race really opens up a far bigger plot hole than the one it was meant to fill. After all, Kainan's people would have had to have "seeded" Earth eons ago. If they could pull off planetary engineering on that sort of scale way back then, you'd think they wouldn't have so much trouble with a bunch of bioluminescent dragons. In the end, it's probably best not to think too much about the logistics of the whole abandoned seed colony concept. Because, ultimately, the very inclusion of the idea in the first place is, like so much of Outlander, awesome.
Battlestar Galactica
In both the original and new versions of the series, humans originally came from Kobol, the legendary planet of the gods, and Earth is just the fabled lost colony. The new series is busy dealing with Earth, so it's entirely possible a couple "What the frak?" moments still lie ahead that will reveal humanity actually did come from Earth. The original series, however, left no doubt that Kobol was where we all came from, as the no-budget god-awfulness that is Galactica 1980 established contact between the Galactica and contemporary Earth. Flying motorcycle chases ensued.
Star Trek
The Next Generation episode "The Chase" sought to acknowledge and explain the genetic improbability of a galaxy full of nothing but humanoid aliens with rubber foreheads. The solution – ancient aliens who, upon finding themselves all alone in the galaxy, seeded various planets with their genetic codes – is surprisingly deft, and actually turns a three-decade failure of imaginations and budgets into something almost elegaic. As one would expect, Picard takes this existence-altering revelation in his usual stride, while the Cardassians look a bit grumpy.
Honestly, between all the genetic engineering, forced relocations of ancient humans, and universe-altering civil wars between godlike aliens it all gets a bit difficult to keep track of which species actually came from where. In short, a bunch of plague-decimated demigods maybe used this thing called the Dakara superweapon millions of year ago to shoot their genetic information throughout the Milky Way, which maybe had something to do with humanity's evolution. Or maybe not.
Babylon 5
Since we might as well finish off the sweep of nineties science fiction, the Centauri initially tried to dismiss Earth as one of their lost colonies. Sure, this probably wasn't true, but how else are you going to haze the new interstellar species?
Isaac Asimov
Most aliens seem to create life on Earth for slightly more practical (well, relatively speaking) reasons than the Star Trek aliens' "monument to our existence." Asimov imagined Earth as an eons-old alien experiment not once but twice – in "Jokester", the aliens did it to explore the concept of humor, while in "Breeds there a Man…?" the aliens are engaged in a more vague exercise in genetics. There's also "Death Sentence", where an anthropologist for the Galactic Federation discovers that a previous civilization created a planet of robots as part of a larger psychological experiment. Realizing the Federation will surely have to destroy the planet as a potential threat, he decides to take his dire warning to one of the robots' biggest cities: New York.
Wildstorm Comics
The Kherubim people sent their genetic seed throughout the universe in a bid to conquer the universe without their genetic descendants even knowing it, which they then followed up by actually conquering much of the universe.
Ringworld, by Larry Niven
It turns out we're all part of a larger plan by the Pak race to create a galaxy full of ultra-lethal, ultra-intelligent superhumans. Apparently, the plan failed because there wasn't enough of the right kind of fruit.
Mission to Mars
In this Brian de Palma stinker, a bunch of Martians that didn't flee their dying planet shot the neighboring Earth – then a barren chunk of rock – full of the building blocks of life because…um, because they wanted to take Gary Sinise on a tour of the universe? (And that was probably the least nonsensical part of that movie.)
Salvage Rites, by Eric Brown
One of the very few times when a race made from directed panspermia confronts their creators, this short story finds a group of Benedictine monks in a cathedral-shaped starship seeking out what is, for all intents and purposes, God.
South Park
In easily the most awesome use of the concept, the anniversary episode "Canceled" revealed Earth for what it really is – one giant reality show. At least in South Park, someone is actually bothering to watch.
Starliner, by David Drake
In this 1992 novel, the narrator explains that no one bats an eyelid at botanists cross-breeding plants from different worlds because panspermia is "no longer a hypothesis but simple observation." Not the most earth-shattering application of panspermia, but still.
Ej-es by Nancy Kress
A rather less mundane spin on that same idea, as members of an interstellar marine corps realize a deadly plague on one planet threatens all the intelligent species in the universe – because panspermia makes them all genetically related.
Doctor Who
The classic "City of Death" features a more accidental case of aliens creating life on Earth. In the midst of all the ridiculously complex art forgery, random acts of violence, Monty Python cameos, and endless location shots that prove the thing really was shot in Paris, writer Douglas Adams somehow squeezes in the origin of all life on Earth. As it turns out, an exploding Jaggaroth ship kickstarted the whole "life" thing. That was nice of them.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Speaking of Douglas Adams, his most famous work envisions the noblest version of the alien-built Earth. Indeed, the emphasis here is on "built", as Earth is not a planet at all but instead a ten million year old computer program supervised by hyper-dimensional mice designed to determine the question to life, the universe, and everything. Of course, as is so often the case, this wondrous philosophical pursuit was interrupted by a bunch of hairdressers, TV producers, and telephone sanitizers from the planet Golgafrincham, who obliviously managed to replace the native humans and almost wreck the entire program. All of which rather neatly leads us back to wandering, forgetful colonists.
The Hainish Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
In ancient times, colonizers from the planet Hain came to Earth and, for a time, coexisted with its native hominids. Whether the settlers ultimately killed the native Earthlings or simply bred them out of existence is anybody's guess, but the Hainish now consider modern humans their descendants.
Women of the Prehistoric Planet
This MST3K entry builds a whole parable of post-War American-Japanese relations around two rival alien races, time dilation, and giant iguanas, with plenty of sixties-era chauvinism left to go around. After a whole lot of silliness (as that previous sentence probably suggested) the marooned lovers Tang and Linda settle down on the titular prehistoric planet, which they decide to call…well, I think you can guess, but it rhymes with "Mirth."
The classic BBC radio series had one of the best twists on this idea, as the four teenaged survivors of the massive starship Challenger search for Earth-like planets to colonize. It's slowly revealed that the planet they call Earth has some rather unrecognizable geography, but that the Earth-like planet they finally do discover, with its saltwater oceans covering two-thirds of the planet, sounds very familiar.
The Twilight Zone
But stories don't get much more familiar than the 1963 episode "Probe 7, Over and Out." Astronaut Adam Cook finds himself stranded on a faraway planet just as nuclear war is breaking out back home. He encounters Eve Norda, an alien who cannot understand his language. The pair ultimately agrees to start a new life together on the planet that Eve keeps calling "Irth." Judging by their first names, I'm guessing they'll do just fine.


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9 Responses to Events
Beth says:March 23, 2013 at 4:36 am
Do you still have the huge bun for the huge tenderloin like Tripps did?
Brian Blomquist says:March 23, 2013 at 1:23 pm
We have changed the bun to a slightly smaller one but with a great change in taste and freshness.Rudy says:April 19, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Are there any plans to bring Buzztime Trivia back?
Brian Blomquist says:April 20, 2013 at 12:03 pm
We do not currently have plans for buzztime.Jt says:April 20, 2013 at 8:01 pm
Do you allow smoking?Dale says:July 2, 2013 at 8:27 am
I'm trying to figure out the name of a duo I've watched at B squared twice. Both guys play guitar and the singer has a kind of Joe Cocker sound. I believe he did some Bob Seger also. I want to come back and see them again. Thanks.
B Squared ... Be There!© 2023 B Squared Bar & Grill | Developed by NuMedia Marketing, Inc.
Brian Blomquist says:July 10, 2013 at 1:27 pm
That would be X2 (Times Two). They will be playing again this Saturday, 7-14-13, at 9:00 PM. They also host or weekly Monday night Open Mic night.Laura says:March 24, 2017 at 9:49 am
Do you have a euchre club? Thank you!
Brian Blomquist says:May 9, 2017 at 12:26 pm
I'm sorry, no
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ELC Europe 2009 has completed, and was a great success! We are grateful for all the speakers and attendees who came together to participate in the event.
Presentations for the event are currently being gathered here
Location: Grenoble, France
Dates: October 15 and 16 (Thursday, Friday), 2009
Venue: World Trade Center
Price: Professional - 350 Euros, Hobbyist - 80 Euros
For announcements regarding ELC Europe 2009, please subscribe to the elc-announce mailing list.
Co-located Events
Grenoble, France will be the location of two other embedded systems events in October:
ELC-Europe 2009 (ELC-E) is being held in conjunction with Embedded Systems Week (October 11 - 16).
Minalogic will also be hosting the 1st edition of the Embedded Systems Exhibition (October 14-15).
Conference Highlights
Keynote speakers Jon Masters and Philippe Gerum will talk about recent trends in Linux development including the state of real-time Linux - from two isolated kernels to a single pervasive real-time system. Also Gilad Ben-Yossef will present a talk, completing the main writers of the well-known book "Building Embedded Linux Systems". Another famous Linux author, Alessandro Rubini, will talk about the use of the fast IRQ in ARM-Linux, and many more topics will be addressed ranging from embedded Linux distributions and build systems to application frameworks for rich UI. Please see the session list for a complete overview.
Come and Join Us!
ELC-E is a meeting point of the international open source software developers for embedded systems together with other community people. It will be held during ESWEEK in the World Trade Center (Grenoble, France) on October 15th and 16th. 2009. Through the variety of sessions, Bofs, tutorials, technical showcases and evening reception we will exchange knowledge of open source software technologies. Come join us and be inspired by technical ideas on the evolution of Linux and related software for embedded systems, and at the same time be connected with your counterparts in this industry.
ELC-E is unique in that it draws many core developers from around the world who are enthusiastic about building Linux-based software systems for small footprint environments. Most of these developers are engaged in development projects of Linux embedded products. At the ELC-E you will experience the cutting edge of the Linux evolution.
Who Should Join?
Anyone interested in embedded system software technologies are encouraged to join us at the ELC-E. Not only the actual developers but also the managers and media will find many advancements being discussed fur the future of the software design.


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Posted on January 18, 2015 by: Metro MD
This health care practitioner performs one or more stem cell therapies that have not yet been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. You are encouraged to consult with your primary care physician prior to undergoing a stem cell therapy."
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 9:00 - 4:00
Wednesday: 9:00 - 4:00
Thursday: Closed
Friday: 9:00 - 4:00


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And like in many risky endeavors like this one, it works or it doesn't, Some pieces are fantastic (in the sense that I like them a lot): uncanny, dark, bizarre, attractive, scary, others are rather bland (in the sense that I do not like them at all): and these are mostly the pieces in which electronics and synth play a leading role.
Luckily, the "fantastic pieces" ("Breakthrough/Zhu", "Fade to Frenzy", "Landfill/Sharks", "Lost in the Field", "Again, and Sweetly", "Local Motive") are in the majority, with the not so fantastic being the shortest and in the minority ("See Saw", "Vger","Wrenchwork"). But then you listen again, and again, and you come to realise you need it all to experience the music's real power.
Be ready to be thrown out off kilter : this is different, but strangely inviting, and fascinating throughout.
Listen and download from ESP disks.
Watch "Missing Limbs" - a piece from one of their previous album "This Musicianship".
© stef


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Gerald G. 'Jerry' Gabrielse
Jerry Gabrielse, age 63, of rural Cazenovia, died suddenly at his home on Friday, March 1, 2013. He was born March 12, 1949 in Oostburg, WI the son of Bill and Agnes (Leyes) Gabrielse.
Jerry is survived by his wife and best friend of 30 years: Renee Gabrielse. His son Brandon of Phoenix, AZ. His sister: Rogean Gartman of Oostburg. Sister in law: Audrey Gabrielse of Oostburg. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Donald Gabrielse.
Jerry loved the mountains of Colorado and the shores of Lake Michigan. Jerry and Renee moved from Colorado in 2003 to their small farm where they lovingly restored the 1896 Simpson farmstead. Jerry was an avid gardener and woodworker. His photographs were featured in numerous issues of Wisconsin Trails and other publications. Jerry and Renee' loved hiking, biking, cooking, kayaking and just being together.
A time of remembrance will be held at the PRATT COMMUNITY HALL , 140 North Park Street, Richland Center, on Saturday, March 9, 2013 from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM. A prayer service will begin at 3:45. Memorials may be directed to the family of Jerry Gabrielse. The Pratt Funeral and Cremation Service is assisting the Gabrielse family.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
View All Calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar. Subscribe to calendar notifications by clicking on the Notify Me® button, and you will automatically be alerted about the latest events in our community.
This is the regularly scheduled Board Meeting for Huntersville Commissioners. Meetings are held the first and third Monday of each month, with occasional cancellation/rescheduling due to holidays. You can view meeting agendas and minutes online at: http://nc-huntersville.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter


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Little Murders:From Defenders and Offenders:
"This individual was convicted in Chicago, Ills., of murder in the first degree, he having beaten his little step-son to death. He was always most cruel to the child and on every opportunity treated him in an inhuman manner. The child's suffering only seemed more to anger this brute, until at last he beat him to death. The case caused a great deal of excitement at the time in Chicago."
Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.


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How to Breed a Tin Woodman Dragon
Breeding Time: 50:00:00
Get a Tin Woodman Dragon Quickest by Combining:
If you think there's a result missing that should be included, please use the breeding calculator to "try" the result, and then see if it shows up here as a possible breeding combination.
If you notice a result that shouldn't be in the calculator, please let us know in the comments below. Thank you!


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ABSTRAL® (fentanyl) Sublingual Tablets CII, First-in-class, Sublingual, Immediate Release Opioid for Managing Breakthrough Cancer Pain, Now Available in the U.S.
Only Available Through F.D.A.-Approved ABSTRAL Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Program; Offering Wide Pharmacy Distribution and Patient Access While Minimizing Risk of Misuse and Abuse
04 Apr, 2011, 08:15 ET
BEDMINSTER, N.J., April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ProStrakan Group plc (LSE: PSK) today announced the availability of ABSTRAL® (fentanyl) sublingual tablets as the first rapidly-disintegrating tablet placed under the tongue for breakthrough cancer pain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) approved ABSTRAL, an opioid analgesic, in January 2011 specifically for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients, 18 years of age or older, who are already receiving, and who are tolerant to, opioid therapy for their underlying persistent cancer pain. ABSTRAL is available only through an F.D.A mandated program, ABSTRAL REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy).
Breakthrough cancer pain, common in one-half to two-thirds of people with cancer-related pain, affects a patient's quality of life including physical and emotional health, interpersonal relationships and ability to engage in certain activities. Breakthrough pain (BTP) is described as severe pain that "breaks through" regular pain medicine.(1) Opioids are among the most potent and effective analgesics, or medicines given to reduce pain, but unfortunately are also some of the most misused and abused medicines.
"Breakthrough pain in cancer patients is very serious and debilitating. As we aim to manage our patients' level of pain, there are often barriers that limit the effectiveness of opioid treatments, including route of administration and poor access to currently available treatments," said Srinivas Nalamachu, M.D., ABSTRAL Principal Investigator, International Clinical Research Institute, Inc., and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. "With ABSTRAL and the ABSTRAL REMS program, we have the ability to offer patients a proven opioid pain management therapy that is fast acting and easy to use, while also minimizing risks for abuse, addiction, overdose or diversion through a stringent F.D.A.-Approved REMS."
ABSTRAL is the only available analgesic that disintegrates quickly under the tongue. It offers an alternative therapeutic choice to patients and clinicians with a simple, patient-friendly and predictable way of delivering fentanyl transmucosally, while retaining the individualized dose titration aspects required for optimal treatment of breakthrough pain.
ABSTRAL REMS Program
ABSTRAL is the first and only sublingual, transmucosal, immediate release fentanyl product to be available through a class-wide Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program mandated and approved by the F.D.A., which requires health care professionals and pharmacies that prescribe or distribute ABSTRAL to patients in the community setting to enroll in the program. Starting in April, ABSTRAL will be available in those chain and independent pharmacies that have enrolled in the ABSTRAL REMS program.
"The improper use of opioid medications is a serious issue with potentially devastating consequences for patients and the broader community. Through the ABSTRAL REMS program, ProStrakan has committed to providing necessary education around the benefits and risks of opioid pain management," said Abid Karim, President of Global Commercial Operations. "ProStrakan strives to provide access to safe and effective treatment options to address the unmet needs of cancer patients and the healthcare community."
The goal of the ABSTRAL REMS program is to provide effective access to ABSTRAL while mitigating the risk of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and serious complications due to medication errors by:
- Prescribing and dispensing ABSTRAL only to appropriate patients, which includes use only in opioid-tolerant patients.
- Preventing inappropriate conversion between fentanyl products.
- Preventing accidental exposure to children and others for whom it was not prescribed.
- Educating prescribers, pharmacists, and patients on the potential for misuse, abuse, addiction, and overdose.
For more information on ABSTRAL and the ABSTRAL REMS program, please visit www.ABSTRAL.com and www.ABSTRALREMS.com or call 1-888-ABSTRAL (1-888-227-8725).
ABSTRAL Clinical Data
A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study evaluated the clinical efficacy of ABSTRAL versus placebo in the treatment of opioid tolerant, adult cancer patients with BTP.
Open-label titration identified a dose of ABSTRAL in which a patient obtained adequate pain relief with tolerable side effects, within the range of 100 mcg to 800 mcg. In the double-blind efficacy study, patients who identified a successful dose were randomized to a sequence of 10 treatments; seven with ABSTRAL and three with placebo.
Of the 131 patients who entered the titration phase of the study, 78 (60 percent) achieved a successful dose during the titration phase. Sixty-six patients entered the double-blind phase and 60 completed the study. The dose of ABSTRAL was determined by titration starting at 100 mcg. The final titrated dose of ABSTRAL for breakthrough cancer pain was not predicted from the daily maintenance dose of opioid used to manage the persistent cancer pain. In a second open-label safety study using an identical titration regimen, 96 of 139 patients (69 percent) who entered the study titrated to a dose in which the patient obtained adequate pain relief with tolerable side effects during the titration phase.
Common adverse reactions associated with ABSTRAL include nausea, constipation, drowsiness and headache.
About ABSTRAL®
ABSTRAL® (fentanyl) sublingual tablets, a rapidly disintegrating sublingual tablet formulation of fentanyl citrate designed for oral transmucosal delivery, is approved in the U.S. for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients, 18 years of age or older, who are already receiving, and who are tolerant to, opioid therapy for their underlying persistent cancer pain. ABSTRAL is available in strengths of 100 mcg, 200 mcg, 300 mcg, 400 mcg, 600 mcg and 800 mcg.
ABSTRAL is in-licensed by ProStrakan for Europe, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico from Sweden-based Orexo AB.
Important ABSTRAL® Safety Information
Do not use ABSTRAL unless you are regularly using another opioid pain medicine around-the-clock for your cancer pain and your body is used to these medicines (this means that you are opioid tolerant).
Keep ABSTRAL in a safe place away from children. ABSTRAL can cause an overdose and death in any child who takes it. Get emergency help right away if a child takes ABSTRAL. If possible, try to remove ABSTRAL from the mouth.
ABSTRAL can cause life-threatening breathing problems that can lead to death. Breathing problems are more likely to occur in patients with underlying breathing problems, elderly patients, or impaired or weak patients. These problems usually occur after large initial doses in patients who are not opioid tolerant or when opioids are given with other medicines that slow breathing.
ABSTRAL is made with the prescription medicine fentanyl. Your healthcare provider will prescribe a starting dose of ABSTRAL that may be different than other fentanyl-containing medicines you may have been taking. Do not switch from ABSTRAL to other medicines that contain fentanyl without talking with your healthcare provider.
ABSTRAL is a federally controlled substance (CII) because it is a strong opioid (narcotic) pain medicine that can be misused by people who abuse prescription medicines or street drugs.
Never give ABSTRAL to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms you have. It may harm them or cause death.
Do not take ABSTRAL for short-term pain that you would expect to go away in a few days, such as pain after surgery, headache, migraine, or dental pain.
Do not take ABSTRAL if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in ABSTRAL.
Tell your doctor about all of your medical and mental health problems. If you have trouble breathing or lung problems such as asthma, wheezing, or shortness of breath, ABSTRAL may cause more serious breathing problems.
Do not take any medicine while using ABSTRAL until you have talked to your healthcare provider. Be very careful about taking other medicines that may make you sleepy, such as other pain medicines, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medicines, antihistamines, or tranquilizers. Also, do not drink alcohol while using ABSTRAL.
Do not drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ABSTRAL affects you. ABSTRAL can make you sleepy. Ask your healthcare provider when it is ok to do these activities.
ABSTRAL is only available through a program called the ABSTRAL REMS program. To receive ABSTRAL, you must talk to your healthcare provider, understand the benefits and risks of ABSTRAL, agree to all of the instructions, and sign the Patient-Prescriber Agreement form.
You or a family member should call your healthcare provider or get emergency medical help right away if you:
- Have trouble breathing
- Have drowsiness with slowed breathing
- Have shallow breathing (little chest movement with breathing)
- Feel faint, very dizzy, confused, or have other unusual symptoms
These symptoms can be a sign that you have taken too much ABSTRAL or the dose is too high for you. These symptoms may lead to serious problems or death if not treated right away. If you have any of these symptoms, do not take any more ABSTRAL until you have talked to your healthcare provider.
ABSTRAL can cause your blood pressure to drop. This can make you feel dizzy or lightheaded if you get up too fast from sitting or lying down.
The most common side effects of ABSTRAL are nausea, sleepiness, and headache.
Constipation (not often enough or hard bowel movements) is a very common side effect of pain medicines (opioids) including ABSTRAL. Talk to your healthcare provider about dietary changes, and the use of laxatives (medicines to treat constipation) while you are taking ABSTRAL.
Please see full Prescribing Information, including Boxed Warning.
About ProStrakan
ProStrakan Group plc is a rapidly growing specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of prescription medicines for the treatment of unmet therapeutic needs in major markets.
ProStrakan's head office is located in Galashiels, Scotland. The company's development capabilities are centered in Galashiels and Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S. Sales and marketing of ProStrakan's portfolio of products are handled by commercial subsidiaries in the UK, U.S., France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other EU countries.
You can learn more about the business at: www.prostrakan.com.
About Orexo
Orexo AB is a pharmaceutical company, focusing on development of new, patented drugs by combining well-documented substances with innovative technologies, and the development of new treatments for respiratory and inflammatory diseases.
Orexo has a broad and competitive late-stage product portfolio, including two marketed products, five products in clinical phase and two undergoing registration.
To date, Orexo has out-licensed the market rights for ABSTRAL for the U.S., the EU and Japan markets, the world-wide market rights for Sublinox (OX22) and OX-NLA, and launched an out-license and research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim regarding the development of a new class of drugs to treat pain and inflammation. Also, Orexo has established a Nordic sales force by entering into a joint venture with ProStrakan.
Orexo has its head office in Uppsala, Sweden, and is listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm, Small Cap (ticker: ORX). Visit www.orexo.com.
(1) Portenoy RK, Hagen NA. Breakthrough pain: definition, prevalence and characteristics. Pain. 1990;41: 273-281.
SOURCE ProStrakan Group plc


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As the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster approaches, recent developments in the nuclear power world at locales thousands of miles apart once again teach us the high prices societies pay for depending on atomic power to generate their electricity.
Nearly a year after a devastating earthquake and catastrophic tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, tens of thousands are still unable to return to their homes.
Children in the city of Fukushima were largely prohibited from going outside last summer.
Radioactive contamination has been found in local beef, rice, milk, vegetables and tea.
Most recently, the January 28 Mainichi Daily News reported, "Radioactive testing facilities have been inundated with requests to check gravel after it was revealed on January 15 that high radioactive levels were detected in gravel quarried near Fukushima Unit 1 and used in construction projects across [Fukushima] prefecture."
Last September, on the 6 month anniversary of the calamity, 60,000 marched in Tokyo to "end Japan's addiction to nuclear power,' ABC radio Australia reported on September 12.
But now the Japanese government wants to extend the operating life of its nuclear reactors by an extra 20 years.
On January 19, Reuters reported, the Japanese government announced it will introduce a bill into parliament to allow a "60 year lifespan" for nuclear reactors.
The report explained that Japan is "keen on bringing existing nuclear plants back into operation to avert a power crunch and ease the impact on the economy" and "has to import more fossil fuels to bridge the gap."
Most of Japan's nuclear reactors are currently shut down and undergoing "stress tests" to assure the public they are safe. Only 5 of the nation's 54 reactors are operating. Protests broke out when the government announced it wants to restart the two Ohi rectors in Fukui prefecture.
In Japan the life of a nuclear power rector has been considered 40 years, but the new law would "allow plant operators to apply for one extension of up to 20 years per reactor in keeping with US standards," Reuters reported.
Almost 20 of Japan's 54 reactors date back to the 1970s, including all 6 at the Fukushima Daiichi.
At the end of January the Japanese Environment Ministry announced a plan to decontaminate areas of Fukushima prefecture contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, in less contaminated areas, those "where the annual level of radiation exposure is 20 millisieverts or less, decontamination "work will begin this spring" and residents perhaps will be allowed to return sometime next year.
For zones with "restricted residency", where annual exposure is 20 -50 milliesiverts, "residents are expected to be able to return in a few years."
But for "zones of where residency is prohibited for an extended period," areas where the yearly exposure is 50 millisieverts or more, "the ministry did not present a concrete plan," other than to term the return time "more than 5 years."
In reality, this plan will be using the population in one gigantic ghastly experiment. Established scientific organizations such as the US Academy of Sciences have concluded that there is no risk free dose of ionizing radiation (the type released by nuclear weapons detonations and nuclear power operations). And the more exposure over a lifetime, the greater the risk.
Vermont Yankee
In the US, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has thus far granted 20 year license extensions to 72 of the nation's 104 nuclear power reactors. It has denied none.
The 20 year license extensions are one of the key strategies the US nuclear industry is using to keep itself alive, even as it potentially jeopardizes many thousands of our lives.
The industry's much hyped "Nuclear Renaissance" to build new nukes has gone back to the Dark Ages, due to its inability to attract financing, or to get the federal government to hand over taxpayer guaranteed loans into the billions to pay for them. Only one new nuclear plant has been funded by Congress, and has yet to break ground.
At the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in New England, a battle over that plant's aging reactor is coming to a head. Incredibly but typically, the NRC granted its license extension within days after Fukushima's multiple meltdowns last year.
But, alone among the states, Vermont has a provision providing that a license extension for the nuclear plant must be approved by the state legislature. That approval was not forthcoming after the NRC's rubberstamp.
However, Vermont Yankee's owner and operator, New Orleans-based Entergy, filed suit in federal court, challenging Vermont's authority to deny the license extension. Entergy bought up Vermont Yankee on the cheap, as nuclear plants go, and has been pushing it as hard as it can ever since.
Entergy infamously let its New Orleans subsidiary go broke after the Katrina disaster. More recently, in Vermont, after a radioactive lake was discovered under Vermont Yankee (which sits on the Connecticut River), Entergy claimed that underground pipes carrying such radioactive substances did not exist. But it emerged they did. Entergy also refused to shut down the plant while the radioactive leaks were searched for and subsequently fixed.
Nevertheless, on January 19 Judge J. Garvin Murtha of US District Court ruled that the Vermont law 'violated an earlier federal law," according to the January 24 Associated Press.
Entergy lawyers argued that public safety was the "primary concern" Vermont legislative officials had in acting to deny Vermont Yankee's license extension, the AP reported. According to Entergy's Orwellian logic, only the federal government, through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has the authority to decide matters of public safety in nuclear power matters. Thus the NRC's decision to allow Vermont Yankee to operate for another 20 years, issued in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, should stand. And Judge Murtha agreed.
Vermont had 30 days from that decision to appeal.
Vermont's Public Safety Board still has to give final approval to the license extension. But "Entergy's lawyers sought in court to sharply narrow grounds on which the board could prevail," the AP reported.
Vermont Yankee's current operating license will expire on March 21 of this year.
In another slap in the face to Vermont, if the plant continues to operate, Entergy will sell all its electricity out of state, according to the AP.
Vermont Yankee has been operating since 1972. Its reactor design is the same as those that melted down at Fukushima.
San Onofre
Vermont is not alone among US nuclear plants that have leaked tritium.
A recent report by the California Public Interest Group stated ,"75% of US nuclear plants have leaked tritium." Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that can persist in the human body and cause cancer and genetic damage.
Calpirg's report, "Too Close to Home: Nuclear Power and the Threat to Drinking Water,' came out in January.
The San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California is another one of those tritium leakers.
The report found "for nearly 2.3 million people in Southern California, drinking supplies are located within 50 miles of San Onofre."
"That's a concern because, as we learned from last year in Fukushima, drinking water sources can be contaminated in the event of an accident or underground leak," said Emily Rusch, Calpirg's Education Fund State Director.
San Onofrre was Number 6 among the top 10 nuclear plants for size of population with water intakes within 50 miles of a plant, the report found.
In addition, the report found that the City of San Diego, with a population of 1.26 million, was Number 5 among the 10 largest water systems within 50 miles of a nuclear plant.
Like the Fukushima plant, San Onofre is located on an ocean coastline where earthquakes and tsunamis are possible.
Unit One at San Onofre permanently shut down is 1992. But Units 2 and 3 are still operating. Both units current operating licenses run out in 2022.
San Onofre's majority owner, Southern California Edison, has not yet said whether it will apply for license extensions for 2 and 3.
If it does, and if the NRC grants them, both would be licensed to operate until 2042.
This of course would make the possibility of serious problems at the aging nukes all the greater. For example, as metal parts age, fatigue sets in and they become more liable to malfunction.
Nationwide, according to the Calpirg report, "12 million draw drinking water within 12.4 miles (20 kilometers, the radius of a nuclear power plant evacuation zone in Japan)" and "49 million receive drinking water from surface sources located within 50 miles of a nuclear plant."
I was just about to wrap up this report, and checked for possible updates. This proved that the nuclear follies just keep on coming.
As for Fukushima, two months after authorities there declared the plant stable, "it emerged that radioactive water is continuing to leak," Mail.Online reported in early February. Workers spotted the leak, and it proved to contain "enough beta rays" to "lead to radiation sickness."
But that wasn't all. "Earlier in the week"…"8.5 tons of radioactive water leaked after a pipe was detached at Unit 4…The company (Tokyo Electric, owner and operator) had estimated only a few gallons leaked."
The report added, "The structural integrity of the Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because the collapse of its spent fuel (which caught fire after the disaster) could cause a disaster greater than the three disaster meltdowns."
Officials also admitted "cold weather caused pipes to freeze elsewhere in the plant causing leaks in at least 30 locations, CBS reported.
Meanwhile, in Vermont, Entergy was pushing the Public Service Board to hurry up and give final approval to the 20 year license extension for its Vermont Yankee nuke, by issuing a "state certification of public good."
However, anti-nuke group The New England Coalition on February 3 urged the board to restart the process, which was suspended in 2009 pending resolution of the federal lawsuit brought by Entergy.
The Coalition pointed out that since that time a few very significant things have occurred, including the revelation that Entergy lied about the radioactive pipes under the plant that caused a tritium lake to form underneath it; and the Fukushima disaster, which involved reactors with "a similar design and age as Vermont Yankee's."
The Coalition also pointed out that Entergy's lead attorney during the federal case said," We think we would have to go back to the Public Service Board with a fresh docket and a fresh start."
Back in Southern California, Unit 3 at the San Onofre nuke was shut down on January 31 after it likely released radioactive gas from the reactor building into the adjacent turbine building. The cause was said to be a defective steam generator tube. KPBS reported that the leak might have spread to the atmosphere, according to the NRC. Owner SoCal Edison said more than one tube might be damaged. The cost of the shutdown was put at $600,000 to $1 million per day, and as of February 3 the unit was still shut down.
On February 3 the Los Angeles Times reported that San Onofre Unit 2 had "dozens of relatively new" steam generator tubes that carry radioactive water in its steam generator" that "showed 'many, many' years' of wear," according to an NRC spokesperson.
The Orange County Register reported that "more than 8000 tubes are old and thinning," in Unit 2, despite the fact that four new steam generators were installed in Units 2 and 3 by Mitsubichi just in 2010, at a cost of $674 million. Each reactor has 9700 such tubes, the Register reported.
The steam generators are supposed to last 30-40 years.
Bernaddo Del Chiaros of Environment California remarked, "This is further evidence that California should move beyond nuclear power. California should plan for the orderly phase out of aging nuclear plants, including San Onofre, and shift to clean energy, efficiency and renewable power."
Also at Unit 2, which is shut down to replace part of its nuclear fuel and for other maintenance, a "contract worker slipped into a pool to retrieve a flashlight," the Register reported. That would be the unit's spent fuel pool where the commercially spent but highly radioactive fuel rods are stored for lack of any other place to put them.
The paper also reported his bosses said he "might have ingested mildly radioactive water, but no internal contamination was found."
Everybody into the pool!


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Discover new ways to highlight your family's favorite pasta with these easy, cheesy recipes.
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Side dish or main dish, these tasty potato recipes make it easy to share— not that you'll want to.
Loaded Mashed Potato Soup
Mashed Potato Bar
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HORMEL® Cinnamon Apples


text:
The Commencement Exercises of the Class of 1909 of the Paynesville High School will be held in Carlock's Hall, Monday, June the Seventh, at eight o'clock. Paynesville, Minn.
Names in this online transcription include Andrews, Chilson, Clarke, Drakenberg, Hansen, Heimerding, Holtz, Latterell, Lindquist, Lockerby, Merriman, Parks, Pemble, Phillips, Putney, Ryff, Stafford.
Labels: Minnesota, Graduation Lists
This page features a historical book or original document that was transcribed during 2006 as part of the Genealogy Today Subscription Data collection -- a project focused on capturing details about the lives of your ancestors, from their early years in school, through college and then into their careers, hobbies and group activities. The list of family names above represents unique last names of individuals found in these Paynesville High School records.
While an annual subscription costs less than ten cents per day, there is nothing wrong with being cautious about spending your research budget. That's why we have made this resource searchable -- you can discover possible matches before you subscribe. In records of this type, researchers may discover the level of education completed by their ancestors.
Libraries (and genealogical societies) may subscribe to this Subscription Data service and provide their patrons (or members) with unlimited access from shared computers. For details, please visit the On-Premise Access page.
The Genealogy Today catalog number for this item is 12405. When inquiring about the information in this resource, please mention the catalog number.


text:
The HEATKILLER® SW-X is a modular cooling system for mainboard voltage regulators. If combined with the modular HEATKILLER® NSB 3.0, it allows complete water-cooling of mainboards.
Stock heat-sinks often work at their performance limits and lack sufficient reserves. Removal of the CPU-Fan in water-cooled systems further increases thermal problems. Therefore, temperature sensitive components should be integrated into the cooling loop, especially on high-end mainboards. The increased cooling performance will guarantee stable operation even at maximum loads.
All cooler parts are CNC-machined and completely made from copper (LT versions have tops made of black POM). The large cross section of internal structures keeps flow resistance low.
The HEATKILLER® SW-X is modular and can be converted for use on different mainboards by simply swapping the baseplate. Separately sold kits allow the re-use of cooler tops on new hardware.
For easy selection of coolers, please look up your mainboard or one of similar design in the following compatibility list.
For some mainboards complete sets with coolers for northbridge, southbridge, and voltage regulators are on offer.
Dimensions (L x W x H): 76.0 x 14.5 (16.5) x 17.5 mm
Material: Electrolytic copper (top coated with a special clear varnish to prevent staining)
Weight: approx. 120 g
Pressure tested: 5 bar
Sealing: NBR 70 (max. 120°C)
Threads: 2x G ¼" (DIN ISO 228-1)
1x HEATKILLER® SW-X G1
1x Installation material/manual
|Shipping weight:
|0,25 Kg
|Product weight:
|0,25 Kg


text:
Welcome to Broadway 101. What you will find here is the history of The Great White Way, sectioned off by decades. The first installment tells the history of Broadway and the theatre prior to 1900. Then we begin with the period of 1900 to 1910. You can read about any decade individually or you can start at the beginning. We're currently working on the next installment.
Also in this section we have a photo gallery which traces the history of the street called Broadway. The New York Daily News called it "a site to behold." In the gallery you'll find photos and prints dating from 1650 to 1905, many of which have not been seen for many years.
- Robert Rusie
[ © 1997 - 2016 www.TalkinBroadway.com, Inc. ]


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Table lamp providing diffused light.
Clear glass cylindrical lamp body. White opaline glass diffuser and reflector.
He was born in Milan in 1918.
As early as 1940 he dedicated himself to testing industrial production with brothers Livio (1911-1979) and Pier Giacomo (1913-1968). After graduating in architecture in 1944, he began research into shapes, techniques and new materials, aimed at developing an integral design process.
He was one of the founders of ADI in 1956. In 1969, he was authorized by the Ministry of Education to teach "Artistic Design for Industry" and was a professor at Turin´s Faculty of Architecture until 1980 and then professor of "Industrial Design " in Milan until 1993.
Since 1950 he has worked in the area of testing and research into outfittings and presentations for exhibitions (Triennale di Milano, Montecatini, Agip, Rai). MoMA in New York features 14 of his works. Other works can be found at:Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Kunstgewerbe Museum (Zurich), Staatliches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (Munich), Museo del Design (Prato), Uneleckoprumyslove Prague Museum, Israel Museum (Jerusalem), The Denver Art Museum, Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein), Angewandte Kunst Museum (Hamburg and Cologne).
He staged a one-man show between 1984 and 1986 organized by the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (Vienna), then at Akademie der Kunst (Berlin), Triennale di Milano (Milan), Kunstgewerbe Museum (Zurich), Haags Gemeentemuseum (the Hague), Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid) and at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris).
For over fifty years we have been crafting objects of light and spreading brightness on generations of dreams


text:
- Posts: 1
We offer a consultation with experienced family solicitor for a low fixed fee. You will receive legal advice and a written report outlining your legal position and setting out what a fair settlement would look like based on your individual circumstances.
We provide the UK's lowest cost no-fault divorce service, managed by a well respected firm of solicitors.
Online mediation is a convenient and inexpensive way to agree on a fair financial settlement.
This legally binding agreement defines how assets (e.g. properties and pensions) are to be divided.
Support for people who have to go to court to get a fair divorce financial settlement without a solicitor.


text:
"Nokia Siemens Networks is hoping more operators will start using QoS to offer differentiated mobile broadband services. But the technology will be a hard sell, because proving users are getting their money's worth will be difficult," said Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics.
Today, operators are looking for new ways to charge for mobile data, and using QoS is one alternative. Nokia Siemens sees the technology mainly being used when mobile networks are congested, it said today.
In Finland, telecom operator Elisa is already using QoS to give subscribers who are willing to pay for more bandwidth when the radio path is congested, it said on Nokia Siemens' website.
QoS can also be used to provide a more fine grained bandwidth throttling when a user has surpassed the monthly data quota. When that happens the user's priority is dropped to a lower class, resulting in a slower connection when the network is overloaded, rather than throttling the traffic all the time, Nokia Siemens said.
At the same time, Nokia Siemens underlines that QoS does not replace the need for having good capacity and coverage.
More operators are now looking at using QoS to differentiate their offerings. Egyptian operator Etisalat Misr has successfully tested products from Huawei and Ericsson over HSDPA (High-Speed Download Packet Access), industry organisation GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) said on Sunday. During the test users were divided into three types: gold, silver and bronze.
But, in general, operators seem to be moving forward with caution when it comes to packaging these features as services.
"I would think its because so few have really figured what their long-term data strategy is. It doesn't seem so clear when you speak to [operators] about it," said Webb.
If the operators go down the QoS route, the challenge will be to justify and explain premium price plans, and then deliver on what they have promised, according to Webb. It is difficult for operators to benchmark the differences, because the speed in a mobile network depends on so many factors, he said.
"You also run the risk of losing the casual subscriber that doesn't want to understand all that stuff," said Webb.
Getting it right is important, because as operators gradually move to 4G they have to be able to position those networks as an improvement over their 3G counterparts, according to Webb.


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Ubuntu Linux provisioning automation with Cobbler
Sponsored Link
With a simple series of commands, network installs can be configured for PXE, reinstallations, media-based net-installs, and virtualized installs (supporting Xen, qemu, KVM, and some variants of VMware). Cobbler uses a helper program called 'koan' (which interacts with Cobbler) for reinstallation and virtualization support.
Cobbler is a small and lightweight application (about 15k lines of Python code). It tries to be extremely simple to use both for very small and very large installations --- as well as easy to work on, extend, and hack. It avoids being "enterprisey" (as in complicated) whenever possible, but is highly useful in all sorts of enterprises by having a lot of advanced features and doing small things to save a large amount of time in repeated tasks.
Cobbler can also optionally help with managing DHCP, DNS, and yum package mirroring infrastructure --- in this regard, it is a more generalized automation app, rather than just dealing specifically with installations. There is also a lightweight built-in configuration management system, as well as support for integrating with configuration management systems like Puppet. Cobbler has a command line interface, a web interface , and also several API access options. That sounds like a lot, but it's really pretty simple. New users may like to start with the web app after doing the initial setup steps on the command line (cobbler check; cobbler import) as it will give them a good idea of all of the features available. Advanced features don't have to be understood all at once, they can be incorporated over time as the need for them arises.
Install cobbler in ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)
Preparing your system
Open the terminal and run the following commands
sudo apt-get install python-yaml python-cheetah python-netaddr python-urlgrabber
Get the source code from git tree
sudo git clone git://github.com/proffalken/cobbler.git
change to the new directory and run the setup as root
cd cobbler
sudo python setup.py install
and there we are, Cobbler should now be running on your server
Configuring cobbler
If you want to configure cobbler in ubuntu check here


text:
Meteor is a multichrome polish that shifts from purple to pink to red to copper and back again. Opaque in 2 to 3 coats.
ALL polishes contain a 3-Free (Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene), cruelty free, uncut nail polish suspension base and stainless steel mixing balls. Some may contain glitter and other pigments. Some pigments may settle over time, it's best to give your polish a good shake or roll to redistribute the pigments evenly. Everything is hand blended in large batches so slight differences may occur from batch to batch.
*Please note that we try to show the polishes true colors to the best of our abilities but it may appear different in person due to monitor differences, screen resolution, etc...
Ingredients: Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Isopropyl Alcohol, N-Butyl Alcohol, Camphor, Acrylates Copolymer, +/- Polyethylene Terephthalate, Aluminum, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxide, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Red 28, Red 22, Orange 5, Yellow 11, Violet 2 ext, Red 6, Red 7, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Ultramarines, Bismuth Oxychloride


text:
Update: here is the link to listen now: http://prn.fm/lifeboat-hour-carolyn-baker-hosts-012614/
- BASIC PREMISE + Research Links about Dying Trees
- Five Radio Interviews, Video of Fall Foliage + Contact Information
- More Links to Recent Research
- Visit the Apocalypsi Library at the End of the World
- Pillage, Plunder & Pollute, LLC - free download AND watch the movie - The Silent War on Trees
- Whispers From the Ghosting Trees - Guest Post at Greg Laden's Science Blog
Sunday, January 26, 2014
The Lifeboat Hour
Carolyn Baker will be hosting Michael Ruppert's weekly radio show, the Lifeboat Hour, tonight (Sunday the 26th) - and she has very kindly invited me to be her guest. Please tune in at 9 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, to www.prn.fm. We'll be taking questions during the last segment, so be ready to phone in!
Update: here is the link to listen now: http://prn.fm/lifeboat-hour-carolyn-baker-hosts-012614/
Update: here is the link to listen now: http://prn.fm/lifeboat-hour-carolyn-baker-hosts-012614/
Sunday, January 19, 2014
A World of Wounds
"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."
~ Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
After a trip back north for Christmas with the family, I returned to Palm Beach in good time to escape the Polar Vortex and consequently - despite the intense cognitive dissonance of living within sight of yachts several times larger than my home back in Oldwick - I am in no rush to leave.
This is as good a place as any to wait out the Ecopocalypse.
On a fine sunny afternoon, I finally got around to a promenade along Worth Avenue, which is sort of a Rodeo Drive East.
From the intercoastal approach the water's edge of the Everglades Club is visible, but it is less than obvious how to get there without swimming. Apparently it is so exclusive there is not a single sign for an entrance on the road.
After a trip back north for Christmas with the family, I returned to Palm Beach in good time to escape the Polar Vortex and consequently - despite the intense cognitive dissonance of living within sight of yachts several times larger than my home back in Oldwick - I am in no rush to leave.
This is as good a place as any to wait out the Ecopocalypse.
On a fine sunny afternoon, I finally got around to a promenade along Worth Avenue, which is sort of a Rodeo Drive East.
From the intercoastal approach the water's edge of the Everglades Club is visible, but it is less than obvious how to get there without swimming. Apparently it is so exclusive there is not a single sign for an entrance on the road.
...other than this terse plaque, which says sternly, "Private".
At the other end of Worth Avenue is the Atlantic Ocean.
In between are the elegant boutiques, punctuated by cool dark charming passageways that lead to sunlit courtyards with yet more opulent shops.
Even if you were unable to see the ladies' beaded and embroidered gowns, the gentlemen's crocodile belts and jeweled cuff links, the cashmere blankets in the linen shops, the plasticized faces and pedigreed dogs, to be cognizant that you are in the playground of the obscenely pampered rich you could determine as much just by smell - as you meander down the bougainvillea strewn shell-paved sidewalks a promiscuously mingled miasma of expensive perfumes and colognes will assault your nostrils.
If you close your eyes and only listen, you might think you were in Venice or Baden Baden or any other haven of the international ultra-wealthy, because you will overhear a panoply of conversations in Italian, French, German and Russian.
If you close your eyes and only listen, you might think you were in Venice or Baden Baden or any other haven of the international ultra-wealthy, because you will overhear a panoply of conversations in Italian, French, German and Russian.
This gleaming Bentley was reflected in the window of an art gallery.
A vintage photograph of a model on the beach was displayed in one window.
In the other window two photos taken by Harry Benson at The Factory alternately focus first, on Andy Warhol and then Bianca Jagger. It is listed for a mere $20,000, but I like my version even better, with the double exposure, and the balcony and cars across the street reflected in the glass; feel free to take a screen grab and print it...You're welcome!
One of the more peculiar aspects I notice here is that the mansions are mostly deserted.
There's nobody home in estates worth tens of millions of dollars, and this is exceedingly distressing because it is indicative of the fact that the owners have at least two and often several domiciles in other enclaves.
It seems they can't use ordinary clippers, rakes and brooms however, so the racket from blowers and mowers is an incessant harangue. Early in the morning, discretely as an undertaker, a truck comes by to suck up the piles of detritus they leave piled on the side of the street. On top of the relentless drone of air conditioners, I hate it. I long for a silence broken by nothing but the song of birds.
There's nobody home in estates worth tens of millions of dollars, and this is exceedingly distressing because it is indicative of the fact that the owners have at least two and often several domiciles in other enclaves.
I have noticed a few forbidding dowagers but for the most part, people here are extraordinarily friendly towards strangers. It is, I think, because they are not afraid. They are safe, here. Nothing bad ever happens or will happen.Meanwhile the gardeners ride their bicycles in the morning, sullen and implacable with their heads swathed in cloth, over the draw bridge that separates the island like a medieval city, where they swarm over the estates, pruning and hacking back the vegetation, trying to encourage new growth as they remove the old damaged leaves. You know there is an intractable problem when even Cartier can not maintain healthy topiaries.
It seems they can't use ordinary clippers, rakes and brooms however, so the racket from blowers and mowers is an incessant harangue. Early in the morning, discretely as an undertaker, a truck comes by to suck up the piles of detritus they leave piled on the side of the street. On top of the relentless drone of air conditioners, I hate it. I long for a silence broken by nothing but the song of birds.
Leaves are nearly uniformly injured, seared and burnt from absorbing toxic pollution.
I have been spending more time on Facebook, where it is at least possible to find people who understand precisely how dire circumstances have become, where I posted this, about human beings: I used to think that the wonderful outweighed the horrible, because I believed in this thing called "progress".
I thought that, over time, we improved by doing things like banning slavery, passing environmental protection laws, instituting the UN where disputes could be resolved without war...and that consequently our children would raise their children in a better world. Now I realize that we just got ever more clever - aided by cheap fuel - at hiding the slavery and the pollution...sending it overseas, for instance - and when the cheap fuel is gone, and the climate we have ruined goes off the rails, the veneer of civilization will evaporate and we are going to go straight back to total barbarity.
Apparently, the damage ozone does to crops is causing concern, because the annual Siemens Competition awarded a $100,000 prize to three young high school students for their research detecting a gene that confers resistance to the pollutant. Here is the announcement in LiveScience:
Priyanka Wadgaonkar, Zainab Mahmood and JiaWen Pei from George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett, N.Y., shared the $100,000 prize in the group category for their work on ozone resistance in plants.
The winning team, from Hewlett, N.Y., characterized the gene for a protein (a building block of cells) that confers resistance against ozone pollution, in ferns. Ground-level ozone causes more damage to plants than all other air pollutants combined, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The resistance gene, which evolved early on in plants, could be used to protect important crops from ozone, drought and soil salinity, which cost billions of dollars in damage each year.
…The Siemens Competition, a leading science research competition for high-school students administered by the College Board, was launched in 1998. More than 2,400 students, a record number, registered for the competition this year, submitting 1,599 projects. The foundation selected 331 semifinalists, 100 regional finalists and 20 national finalists.
I was very hopeful that I could read their paper so I wrote to the teacher at their school, but he answered they are trying to edit it for publication. Instead it is possible to watch the three give their winning presentation by following this link and clicking on the words "Team Five". I can pretty much guarantee that for anyone without an advanced degree in chemistry or physics, these young ladies will make you feel very stupid.
Falling trees are making news and yet, no one questions why the tree above that crushed the car has no roots! These are reader-submitted photos, where the amount of lichen on the bark is astonishing, insides are rotting, and evergreens have hardly any needles.
I have posted too many stories already about people dying from trees. This was once almost unheard of, but is becoming horribly frequent. The most recent is from the Southeast:
These pictures are from Nova Scotia:
I have posted too many stories already about people dying from trees. This was once almost unheard of, but is becoming horribly frequent. The most recent is from the Southeast:
"Raleigh police said Sunday that Cheryl Harrison of Raleigh died after high winds broke the top off a tree that then fell onto the hiking trail she was walking with two men on Saturday afternoon."
"In metro Atlanta, fire crews freed a 14-year-old child from a mobile home Saturday morning after a tree crashed into a back bedroom of the Cherokee County residence. Fire officials said the girl, who was alert and conscious and was talking to paramedics during the rescue operation, was in serious condition."
Following are screenshots from video taken right here in Florida:
The tree above is obviously rotted, and others are solid green from lichen.
Wildfires are, as might be expected, becoming more frequent all around the world. While I was visiting my parents this weekend, who are staying in Jensen Beach for the winter, I went for a walk at Savannahs Preserve.
The park ranger told me that last summer they had conducted a prescribed burn, and recited a lot of nonsense about why that was necessary...nothing along the lines that the vegetation is dying off from poisonous invisible gases and turning into dangerous tinder, of course. New foliage has already gone from chlorotic to necrotic lesions, and trees left standing have been in decline for a while, as this set of photographs shows. If it had not been such a lovely day, walking through that dismal landscape, the air still acrid from burnt wood, might have been depressing. But, hey!! Compare pictures of it to the wonders of Worth Avenue, and perhaps the degree of lunacy the marks Florida will glimmer through.
Research linking wildfires with pollution has begun in California, FINALLY. It's not specifically targeted towards ozone, but it is about atmospheric reactive nitrogen, an ozone precursor.
Preliminary findings released Tuesday from a study in the Santa Monica Mountains show that air pollution may be increasing fire danger in the mountain range.
Researchers from the National Park Service, University of California Riverside and the U.S. Forest Service have been monitoring atmospheric nitrogen at 10 sites in the Santa Monica Mountains for two years. Nitrogen is a byproduct of gas combustion and a major component of smog. Researchers attribute nitrogen depositing out of the air in the area to vehicle emissions.
Data that was analyzed after the first year of a three-year study show that a gradient of nitrogen levels exist across the test area, increasing from west to east. Atmospheric nitrous oxide levels at the eastern edge of the study range are at levels more than three times higher than those found at places along the western edge.
"Nitrogen enrichment into ecosystems is probably the third largest global change driver and driver of loss of biodiversity that we face on the planet," said Irina Irvine, a wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
Two locations identified as having lower levels of atmospheric nitrogen were experimentally given added levels of nitrogen and monitored. Keystone native plants declined at higher nitrogen levels, while invasive grasses thrived.
As exotic species out-compete native plants, that could increase potential fire danger, as native species are more fire resistant.
"If your cigarette butt or your backfire hit a coastal sage scrub plant or a chaparral plant, it's probably got more moisture involved in its tissues. It's going to be a little bit harder to ignite," Irvine said. "But if you've got a bunch of grasses there, then off you go to the races."
Irvine said that further research will be done to try to quantify the increase in fire danger as a result of high nitrogen pollution. The three-year, $100,000 study is intended to allow scientists to understand the "critical load" point at which pollution causes harmful changes to the range's ecosystem. Nitrogen is a key component in fertilizer, but Irvine said not all plants benefit from it.
"It was wonderful for the people of earth to have all of this nitrogen available for their farms and to increase productivity," Irvine said. "The downside is that nitrogen enrichment in pretty much every ecosystem that it's been tested in results in a dramatic loss in biodiversity."
a radio interview in which she discusses the link between excess nitrogen from car exhaust and the increased growth of grassy invasives. She mentions the Joshua Tree National Park and explains that the Joshua Trees are not adapted to wildfires there, which result from the invasive grasses. However, when I went to the Park I photographed trees that are simply rotting to death, with comparisons to healthy trees from years past - nothing to do with wildfires! It is really unfortunate that ecologists study biodiversity loss from nitrogen without factoring in the death of keystone species from ozone, for which the reactive form of nitrogen is a major precursor, especially considering that the map shows the spread of nitrogen oxides.
ScienceDaily posted an article that I found intriguing for a number of reasons, not least because since it looks like a four degree rise is inevitable, this would seem to spell certain doom:
Global Warming: Four Degree Rise Will End Vegetation 'Carbon Sink', Research Suggests
Dec. 16, 2013 — Latest climate and biosphere modelling suggests that the length of time carbon remains in vegetation during the global carbon cycle -- known as 'residence time' -- is the key "uncertainty" in predicting how Earth's terrestrial plant life -- and consequently almost all life -- will respond to higher CO2 levels and global warming, say researchers.
Carbon will spend increasingly less time in vegetation as the negative impacts of climate change take their toll through factors such as increased drought levels -- with carbon rapidly released back into the atmosphere where it will continue to add to global warming.
Researchers say that extensive modelling shows a four degree temperature rise will be the threshold beyond which CO2 will start to increase more rapidly, as natural carbon 'sinks' of global vegetation become "saturated" and unable to sequester any more CO2 from the Earth's atmosphere.
They call for a "change in research priorities" away from the broad-stroke production of plants and towards carbon 'residence time' -- which is little understood -- and the interaction of different kinds of vegetation in ecosystems such as carbon sinks.
Carbon sinks are natural systems that drain and store CO2from the atmosphere, with vegetation providing many of the key sinks that help chemically balance the world -- such as the Amazon rainforest and the vast, circumpolar Boreal forest.
As the world continues to warm, consequent events such as Boreal forest fires and mid-latitude droughts will release increasing amounts of carbon into the atmosphere -- pushing temperatures ever higher.
Initially, higher atmospheric CO2 will encourage plant growth as more CO2 stimulates photosynthesis, say researchers. But the impact of a warmer world through drought will start to negate this natural balance until it reaches a saturation point.
The modelling shows that global warming of four degrees will result in Earth's vegetation becoming "dominated" by negative impacts -- such as 'moisture stress', when plant cells have too little water -- on a global scale.
Carbon-filled vegetation 'sinks' will likely become saturated at this point, they say, flat-lining further absorption of atmospheric CO2. Without such major natural CO2 drains, atmospheric carbon will start to increase more rapidly -- driving further climate change.
The researchers say that, in light of the new evidence, scientific focus must shift away from productivity outputs -- the generation of biological material -- and towards the "mechanistic levels" of vegetation function, such as how plant populations interact and how different types of photosyntheses will react to temperature escalation.
Particular attention needs to be paid to the varying rates of carbon 'residence time' across the spectrum of flora in major carbon sinks -- and how this impacts the "carbon turnover," they say.
The Cambridge research, led by Dr Andrew Friend from the University's Department of Geography, is part of the 'Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project' (ISI-MIP) -- a unique community-driven effort to bring research on climate change impacts to a new level, with the first wave of research published today in a special issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Global vegetation contains large carbon reserves that are vulnerable to climate change, and so will determine future atmospheric CO2," said Friend, lead author of this paper. "The impacts of climate on vegetation will affect biodiversity and ecosystem status around the world."
"This work pulls together all the latest understanding of climate change and its impacts on global vegetation -- it really captures our understanding at the global level."
The ISI-MIP team used seven global vegetation models, including Hybrid -- the model that Friend has been honing for fifteen years -- and the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) modelling. These were run exhaustively using supercomputers -- including Cambridge's own Darwin computer, which can easily accomplish overnight what would take a PC months -- to create simulations of future scenarios:
"We use data to work out the mathematics of how the plant grows -- how it photosynthesises, takes-up carbon and nitrogen, competes with other plants, and is affected by soil nutrients and water -- and we do this for different vegetation types," explained Friend.
"The whole of the land surface is understood in 2,500 km2portions. We then input real climate data up to the present and look at what might happen every 30 minutes right up until 2099."
While there are differences in the outcomes of some of the models, most concur that the amount of time carbon lingers in vegetation is the key issue, and that global warming of four degrees or more -- currently predicted by the end of this century -- marks the point at which carbon in vegetation reaches capacity.
"In heatwaves, ecosystems can emit more CO2 than they absorb from the atmosphere," said Friend. "We saw this in the 2003 European heatwave when temperatures rose six degrees above average -- and the amount of CO2 produced was sufficient to reverse the effect of four years of net ecosystem carbon sequestration."
For Friend, this research should feed into policy: "To make policy you need to understand the impact of decisions.
"The idea here is to understand at what point the increase in global temperature starts to have serious effects across all the sectors, so that policy makers can weigh up impacts of allowing emissions to go above a certain level, and what mitigation strategies are necessary."
Despite the fact that Dr. Friend appears to believe this can somehow be mitigated, I was encouraged by his stance that scientific research should influence policy, a rare stance (that with Michael Mann's essay in the New York Times is becoming rarer), so I decided to send him my usual letter with a bit of a twist:
On 18/12/2013 19:30, Wit's End wrote:
Dear Dr. Friend,
I read a description of your recently published research at ScienceDaily. I wonder if it would be possible for you to run a model on your fast super-computer that accounts for the decline in plantlife to due tropospheric ozone pollution.
Hundreds of studies documenting field observations and fumigation experiments have proven that ozone is highly toxic to vegetation. Because the damage is cumulative, it is especially injurious to longer lived species such as trees, shrubs and perennials. Even so, agronomists recognize there is extensive loss of annual crop yield and quality worldwide from the increasing background level of ozone, and they have been trying to genetically engineer resistant strains to no avail.
Perhaps the worst effect of ozone, after increasing susceptibility to drought, is the reduction of natural immunities towards insects, disease and fungus. There can be no doubt that various biotic pathogens have reached epidemic proportions all around the globe placing many species in jeopardy. In fact it is nearly impossible to find a species that isn't being overwhelmed by opportunistic attacks of one sort or another.
Much of this trend was documented earlier in a book published in 1999, called An Appalachian Tragedy, which focused on the forests in the mountainous region that runs from Georgia to Maine in the US. Many other studies have been done in Europe and Asia, as well. I wrote a summary of the research which can be accessed online for free (Pillage, Plunder & Pollute LLC) with an updated guest post at Greg Laden's ScienceBlog, Whispers of the Ghosting Trees. I also write on the topic of ecosystem collapse at Wit's End.
This danger from nitrous oxide emissions and ozone pollution, which is generally forgotten, overlooked and downplayed, is a major threat to forests and their capacity to absorb CO2. It will drastically alter predictions of climate change when it is finally recognized and taken into account.
I hope you are inclined to consider this issue because the implications for climate and ultimately the survival of the human race and much of the biosphere cannot be overstated. If you have any questions or thoughts, they would be most welcome.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Gail Zawacki
- Andrew Friend
- Dec 30, 2013
- Wit's End
Dear Gail,
Many thanks for your e-mail and interest in your work. I agree completely that ozone does and will significantly affect plant growth. The simulation results reported in our article did not include this effect, but other model simulations have done so. One in particular is attached. Our future work will include this important influence.
's while I mulled over his reply, particularly this: "I agree completely that ozone does and will significantly affect plant growth." I wanted to be doubly sure he really meant that so I wrote again:
On 04/01/2014 21:22, Wit's End wrote:
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your reply. The paper you attached is actually near the top of the links to research on Wit's End: http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/p/more-links-to-research.html.
Copied below is an exchange of letters with Peter Cox, John Reilly and others who have researched the impact of ozone on plants, and in reviewing it three years on, I am reminded of why I am so concerned. I understand scientific reticence however, the complacency and unwillingness to be an advocate is allowing emissions to not only continue, but increase. As the EPA has determined that ozone damage is cumulative, this is especially detrimental to trees.
Do you mind if I quote your letter on my blog? I can promise, almost nobody will read it. Virtually nobody cares.
Nearly a week went by and I thought, either he didn't really mean it and was perhaps just humoring me, or he did, but he doesn't want it to be known. Then, I received a reply - and respect for his courage is why I have come out of hibernation to post here at Wit's End:
Nearly a week went by and I thought, either he didn't really mean it and was perhaps just humoring me, or he did, but he doesn't want it to be known. Then, I received a reply - and respect for his courage is why I have come out of hibernation to post here at Wit's End:
- Andrew Friend
- Jan 10 at 4:36 PM
- Wit's End
Dear Gail,
Please feel free to quote my message in your blog.
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text:
A Short History of Hollywood
When Spanish explorers first entered the area now known as Hollywood, Native Americans were living in the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains. Before long, the Indians had been moved to missions and the land which Hollywood now occupies was divided in two by the Spanish Government. Acreage to the west became part of Rancho La Brea and settlements to the East became Rancho Los Feliz.
By the 1870s an agricultural community flourished in the area and crops ranging from hay and grain to subtropical bananas and pineapples were thriving. During the 1880s, the Ranchos were sub-divided. In 1886, H. H. Wilcox bought an area of Rancho La Brea that his wife then christened "Hollywood." Within a few years, Wilcox had devised a grid plan for his new community, paved Prospect Avenue (now Hollywood Boulevard) for his main street and was selling large residential lots to wealthy Midwesterners looking to build homes so they could "winter in California."
Prospect Avenue soon became a prestigious residential street populated with large Queen Anne, Victorian, and Mission Revival houses. Mrs. Daeida Wilcox raised funds to build churches, schools and a libraryand Hollywood quickly became a complete and prosperous community. The community incorporated in 1903, but its independence was short-lived, as the lack of water forced annexation in 1910 to the city of Los Angeles, which had a surplus supply of water.
In 1911, the Nestor Company opened Hollywood's first film studio in an old tavern on the corner of Sunset and Gower. Not long thereafter Cecil B. DeMille and D. W. Griffith began making movies in the areadrawn to the community for its open space and moderate climate.
The needs of this thriving new industry created radical changes in the communitycausing a clash between older and newer residents. Acres of agricultural land south of what-is-now Hollywood Boulevard were subdivided and developed as housing for the enormous numbers of workers that movie-making required.
High-rise commercial buildings began to spring up along Hollywood Boulevardthree competing real-estate interests caused concentrations of development at Highland, Cahuenga, and at Vine. It wasn't long before nearly all the homes along the Boulevard were replaced by commercial buildings linking the three corners.
Banks, restaurants, clubs and movie palaces sprang up, catering to the demands of the burgeoning film industry during the 1920s and 1930s. The architectural styles of the buildings were representative of those most popular between the World Wars. Banks were typically designed in the more formal Beaux Arts styles, but other buildings in the community took on more playful personalities.
The ornamental Spanish Colonial Revival style reflected Hollywood's self-conscious extravagance while the new Art Deco and Moderne styles fit the community's aspirations for glamour and sophistication.
Hollywood has been anything but static, however, and after a few decades as the capital of film glamour, the neighborhood changed again. Although much of the studio work remained in Hollywood, many stars moved to Beverly Hills, and the elegant shops and restaurants left with them.
In the 1960s, music recording studios and offices began moving to Hollywoodan offshoot of the nightclubs further west on Sunset Boulevard. Other businesses, however, continued to migrate to different parts of the city. Hollywood today is a diverse, vital, and active community striving to preserve the elegant buildings from its past. Much of the movie industry remains in the area, although the neighborhood's outward appearance has changed.
In 1985, the Hollywood Boulevard commercial and entertainment district was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places protecting the neighborhood's important buildings and seeing to it that the significance of Hollywood's past would always be a part of its future.
Source: http://www.historicla.com
Kendra Wilkinson won't have to worry if her husband Hank Baskett gets dropped because she is going to be bringing in enough money for both of them.
Her now famous sex tape that she made when she was eighteen years old with boyfriend Justin Frye has already beat Kim Kardashian in pre-sales and is expected to continue to sky-rocket.
Kendra is supposed to get 50% of the sales from the video, and sources close to the tape say that she's going to be receiving her first check for $680,000 this week, reports Radar Online. The tape is scheduled to be released on DVD this week.
Do you think Hank really wants to leave Kendra now?
Source: HollywoodNews.com:


text:
Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BALTIMORE (AP) - Together, the four men sitting handcuffed in a Baltimore courtroom had spent 151 years in prison.
Nicholas Marshall-Bey: 34 years on a murder conviction. Salim Sadiki: 37 years after being found guilty of rape. Michael Person: 39 years in the slaying of a bartender. Hercules Williams: 41 years in the death of a man in his living room. Yet, after a short hearing earlier this month, the men did something that once would have seemed impossible. They walked out of the courthouse as free men and stood on a city street, hugging family and wiping away tears.
The men were released after Maryland's highest court decided that judges had given improper instructions to juries that heard the men's cases decades ago, making them fundamentally flawed. The same faulty instructions have now freed approximately 50 people statewide, and some 200 prisoners could ultimately be released from Maryland prisons as a result.
"I'm not going to let you down," Person told his attorney, Brian Saccenti of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, moments after walking out of the courthouse. "I just want to do the right thing."
The state's highest court ruled last year that before 1980 judges around the state gave juries instructions that failed to clearly explain in part that prosecutors have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that defendants are innocent until proven guilty. As a result of the court's so-called Unger decision, anyone who was tried by a jury before 1980 could get a new trial.
But given the length of time that's passed, that's tough. Witnesses have moved or died. Evidence has been destroyed. As a result, some counties have agreed to forgo new trials and grant some prisoners freedom in exchange for the commitment to be on probation.
"I've been billing this as the largest and most important case in the history of Maryland post-conviction law," said Becky Feldman, an attorney with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, which is helping prisoners affected by the decision statewide.
The majority of the cases the office is handling are in Baltimore, which has about 100 cases and has so far freed close to 40 prisoners, most of them serving time on murder convictions. The ruling doesn't impact Maryland's five death row inmates because they were convicted after 1980.
The city's head prosecutor, State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, said his office is reviewing the cases individually as part of a "deliberate, thoughtful, comprehensive" process that weighs whether they can be retried along with what threat the prisoner might pose to public safety.
Prisoners who have been let go said they appreciate the second chance and that they've changed since being imprisoned decades ago. Kareem Hasan, who went to prison at 17 in the fatal shooting a man during a robbery, was one of the first prisoners to be released in May. Hasan, 55, has since gotten a job working at a wastewater treatment plant and is saving money to buy a car. He says he and others want a "chance to show we're not animals" and "prove our worth."
Karriem Saleem El-Amin, who was 18 when he went to prison for his role in a grocery store robbery in which two people died, including one of his accomplices, was released in July and now works at a bakery. El-Amin, 60, said he hopes the victims of his crime and others can forgive. "I want them to know that I'm not that guy that I was," he said during an interview at the University of Maryland's law school, which has been helping many of the people affected by the decision with their transition back to society.
Not everyone supports the prisoners' release, however, including some victims' families. Kevin Magrogan, a retired policeman whose older brother was killed in 1971, said he wanted prosecutors to retry the case but felt they didn't because of the expense. And Karen Wilson, whose father was murdered in 1969 by a tenant who lived above his Baltimore restaurant, said she felt sick when she learned earlier this year that he would be freed.
"I felt like I lost my father all over again," said Wilson, who was 13 when her father was murdered and asked to be referred to by her maiden name.
Many of the prisoners being released once had hopes of getting out sooner. When they were given life sentences, the practice was to grant parole after about 20 years, said University of Maryland law professor Michael Millemann, who has been representing some of the defendants. But in 1993 a life-sentenced prisoner on work release killed his estranged girlfriend and then himself, and Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening later announced that anyone with a life sentence would die in prison.
Now, Millemann said, many of the people affected by the Unger ruling are elderly and have health problems. At least two defendants were brought to court in wheelchairs, another on a gurney. Others are struggling with diabetes, arthritis and Hepatitis C.
A person's health, family support and record in prison are among the things prosecutors are considering when they decide how to handle a case affected by the Unger ruling. In some cases, prosecutors will work to block prisoners from getting a second trial or retry old cases.
In Anne Arundel County, home of the state's capitol, Annapolis, the county's top prosecutor, Anne Colt Leitess, said she has a handful of cases affected by the decision, but she doesn't plan on making any agreements.
"We are not willing to allow people convicted of murder to simply walk out the door without a fight," she said.
Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)