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In the early 1980s, when I was heading up the automotive seating operations at Hoover Universal (later acquired by Johnson Controls), managers from a Japanese competitor that supplied parts to Toyota asked permission to visit our plant. We agreed, on the condition that they reciprocate and because we believed they would learn little from a brief tour. The visitors spent less than an hour in one of our best plants, taking no notes. Eventually, we got to read their tour report, and we were shocked at the detail with which they had described our plant and our technology, right down to an accurate estimate of our cost of sales. Meanwhile, our senior managers had visited their Japanese plants and learned next to nothing.
After that experience, I resolved to train our managers—and myself—to approach a plant tour with an educated eye, one that could discern a plant's strengths and weaknesses as accurately as the Japanese managers had read ours. The Rapid Plant Assessment (RPA) process, the tool I've developed over the years to accomplish this task, has been used in more than 400 tours of over 150 operations since 1998. The information this tool has given us has influenced activities and decisions ranging from benchmarking to competitor analysis to strategic acquisitions. And the results of a tour are available in a day or less, whereas most rating systems typically take weeks to complete.
Let me give you an example of how powerful the tool can be. When I was the CEO of Oshkosh Truck, we were engaged in a highly competitive auction for Pierce Manufacturing, a leading U.S. fire truck maker. Pierce's executives didn't favor Oshkosh as the acquirer, so they only permitted us one 30-minute tour, after hours, of each of their three plants. But we learned so much about their operations in those short tours that we were sure we could cut costs by a few million dollars per year—for example, by eliminating materials-handling bottlenecks, consolidating plants, reducing inventories, and running the paint shop on one shift instead of three. As a result, we offered a higher price than the company's financials would have indicated and won the auction.
To be sure, the RPA process is not a substitute for due diligence when you're making an acquisition, and likewise, you'll consider a wide range of factors when choosing a supplier. But managers all too often ignore visual information in favor of the numbers, and as a result, you might miss vital cues about an operation's strengths and weaknesses. This may cause you to miss out on a highly desirable opportunity or to enter into a relationship that sounds promising only to discover a performance problem later. You can also apply the tool to your own operations to learn what your plant is telling visitors and where you might find opportunities for improvement. Donnelly Electronics, Eaton Corporation's Aeroquip Group, Haworth's office furniture plants, a Lockheed Martin division, and Seagate Technology are just a few of the organizations I know of currently using the RPA process in their own lean transformation journeys. I'll lay out the tool below, along with two work sheets that will help you codify and analyze the results of the tour.
A Tool for the Tour
At the heart of the RPA process are two assessment tools for teams performing plant tours. The RPA rating sheet presents 11 categories for assessing the leanness of a plant, and the RPA questionnaire provides 20 associated yes-or-no questions to determine if the plant uses best practices in these categories. Following a tour, team members will capture their observations in work sheets like the two shown on the next pages. There are many quantifiable factors by which to assess performance in the rating sheet's 11 categories; an exhaustive list of elements to consider in conjunction with them is located on the Web at www.bus.umich.edu/rpa along with other advanced assessment tools mentioned in the last sidebar in this article.
During a tour, team members will be observing all aspects of a plant's environment, talking with the workforce and managers, and looking for evidence that the plant adheres to best practices. It's important that team members not take notes during a tour, because note taking detracts from picking up visual cues and impedes communication with employees on the plant floor. Instead, each member of the team is assigned primary responsibility for a few categories, and the team should meet immediately after the tour to share impressions and fill out the work sheets. We also recommend that everyone on the team answer the last question, "Would you buy the products this operation produces?" (See the sidebar "Team Composition and Training" for a discussion of who should be on the tour team and how to prepare for it.)
Team Composition and Training
Let's take a look at each of the categories in turn.
Category 1
Customer Satisfaction
Workers in the best plants clearly know who their customers are—both internal and external—and make customer satisfaction their primary goal. What's more, they understand that it's their job to make tours exceptional experiences so visitors leave with resoundingly positive feelings about the facility. Such care for customers, or lack thereof, is readily apparent in a brief plant tour. You should be welcomed to the plant and given an overview of its layout, work-force, customers, and products. Quality and customer satisfaction ratings should be prominently posted. And try asking an employee, "Where does your product go next?" If you hear, "Ford" or "John, over on line 6," you can rate the plant higher on this measure than if you hear, "I put it in this bucket and I don't know what happens to it after that." (Questions 1, 2, and 20 on the RPA questionnaire relate to this measure.)
Category 2
Safety, Environment Cleanliness, and Order
In a clean and orderly plant, parts are easy to find, inventory is easy to count or estimate, and products move safely and efficiently. The plant should be well lit, the air quality good, and noise levels low. A visual labeling system should clearly mark inventory, tools, processes, and flow. A short plant tour will readily reveal how successfully the company attends to all these factors.
All component parts should be treated with equal care. Many companies go to great lengths to keep expensive parts in order while giving short shrift to low-cost ones like labels or fasteners. That habit can be costly. Indeed, when we were making seats at Johnson Controls, we never lost a seat back or cushion, but occasionally the bolts that joined the recliner mechanisms to the back and cushions were left off or not available. We couldn't ship a seat that was missing a bolt (or collect payment on it, naturally), so a single bolt was essentially as valuable as a larger, more expensive part. (Questions 3–5 and 20)
Category 3
Visual Management System
Tools that provide visual cues and directions are readily apparent in well-functioning plants. Such signage, clearly guiding employees to appropriate locations and tasks, can greatly enhance productivity. Look for organizational tools such as kanban scheduling and color-coded production lines as well as plainly posted work instructions, quality and productivity charts, and maintenance records. Other indicators of good visual management include kiosks displaying information like the names of team members, productivity measures, and vacation schedules, as well as a central location such as a control room or status board from which you can see the current state of the overall operation. Chemical and other process-industry plants typically have strong visual management practices (as opposed to multiple, fragmented displays); even the largest plants tend to display product line flows, plant layouts, and other key information on a single display. (Questions 2, 4, 6–10, and 20)
The next three categories are intertwined. Rating a plant quickly on these three is straightforward from obvious visual clues.
Category 4
Scheduling System
The best plants rely on a single "pacing process" for each product line and its suppliers. This process, usually at the end of the line, controls speed and production for all the upstream activities, much as a pace car sets the speed at a racetrack. Demand for product at each work center is triggered by demand at the next. This keeps inventory from building up, improves quality, and reduces downtime because production lines aren't kept waiting for parts.
Plants that use a central scheduling system nearly always over- or under-produce some parts at some point in the process because instructions come to each line from a central computer, not from the production line that actually uses the part. I saw the downside of central scheduling in the extreme when I visited a tractor factory in the Soviet Union. The plant was diligently producing according to its centralized schedule, but the engine plant wasn't shipping enough engines, so each incomplete tractor was towed out to the yard. I counted a full six months' supply of lifeless tractors, each waiting for its final, all-important, part.
Rating Leanness
You can find out how the plant schedules its lines by asking workers but also by looking at inventory levels. If inventory piles up at one work center, then the scheduling systems are likely independent of each other or the process is inadequately paced. Also, if processes are scheduled from a central MRP system, you'll see computer screens or stacks of work orders at the line.
What's more, you can watch for visual and verbal communication between process operators on the same line: People should be close enough to speak to one another and to see another's inventory. Operators can and do override central scheduling and respond to visual cues; for example, they might slow production if they see inventory piling up down the line. (Questions 11 and 20)
Category 5
Use of Space, Movement of Materials, and Product Line Flow
The best plants use space efficiently. Ideally, materials are moved only once, over as short a distance as possible, in efficient containers. Production materials should be stored at line side, not in separate inventory storage areas. Tools and setup equipment should be kept near the machines. And the plant should be laid out in continuous product line flows rather than in "shops" dedicated to particular types of machines. On my first visit in the mid-1990s to Austria-based Rosenbauer, one of Europe's largest fire truck and equipment makers, I gave the plant excellent ratings except on its pump and truck assemblies, which were done in traditional cells. By the time I visited two years later, the company had converted pump and truck assemblies to lean product lines, and managers reported that both productivity and quality had improved.
Counting forklifts is an easy way to get a sense of a plant's use of space. Forklifts require wide aisles, are expensive to operate, increase pollution, and encourage unnecessary movement of materials. In the best plants, if materials need to be moved a short distance, employees use hand-propelled roll carts; if the materials are too heavy to move by hand, garden tractors pull the carts in linked trains.
Space is a valuable commodity in any plant, and some companies make generating new space a productivity objective. One of our plant managers elevated this concept to an art form. He would regularly free up manufacturing space, polish the floor, cordon it off with stanchions, and then challenge our sales group to find new business to fill the space. (Questions 7, 12, 13, and 20)
Category 6
Levels of Inventory and Work in Process
Internal operations seldom require high inventories, so the observable number of any component part is a good measure of a plant's leanness. You can get a quick read on inventory by watching a production line and counting the inventory at each work center. For example, if one widget comes off the line per minute, you know the line produces 60 per hour. If you count approximately 500 widgets by the work center, then you know that over eight hours of output is just sitting there. In most cases, you want no more than a few minutes' worth of inventory by a work center at one time; each part should go directly to the next process to be used fairly quickly. (Questions 7, 11, and 20)
Category 7
Teamwork and Motivation
In the best plants, people consistently focus on the plant's goals for productivity and quality, know their jobs well, and are eager to share their knowledge with customers and visitors. Motivated employees are easily discerned during a brief tour, as are surly, unkempt, or indifferent ones; even a short talk with an operator tells you a lot.
See if there are clearly posted safety and environmental measures, pictures of the plant's softball team, posters boasting of quality and productivity improvements, charts showing contributions to charitable organizations. You might also look for posters or charts that describe problem-solving and employee empowerment procedures. These are visible indicators of teamwork—and if you can't spot such signs, chances are the plant hasn't truly embraced team-work. But you can supplement your observations with questions to the manager and plant staff about these activities as you tour. (Questions 6, 9, 14, 15, and 20)
Category 8
Condition and Maintenance of Equipment and Tools
In the best plants, equipment is clean and well maintained. The purchase dates and costs are stenciled prominently on the side of machinery, and maintenance records are posted. Such details ensure that workers know as much as possible about the machines and can plan for preventive maintenance. But perhaps more important, by posting cost and maintenance records, the company signals to employees that management cares about the product, that they've invested in keeping the plant running smoothly, and that they care about the work people do. Those are important factors in maintaining morale.
You can also learn a great deal by asking people on the factory floor how things are working. When some of my students toured a new production line at an automotive supplier, one of them asked a worker how things were going. "Pretty well," he said but pointed to one critical sensor that wasn't performing consistently or accurately so that manual, not automatic, inspection of a part was required. Thus, a significant investment in technology was undermined by an increase in person-hours to perform this task by hand when the sensor malfunctioned—a source of waste uncovered by a simple question.
Another question to ask employees is whether operators and product development personnel are involved in purchasing tools and equipment. People on the factory floor and others directly involved with the product are in the best positions to understand the strengths and weaknesses of new equipment and the needs of the line.
Finally, look at the equipment yourself. Machines don't have to be new, but a recently purchased machine that's dirty and falling out of repair is a signal of poor preventive maintenance. Conversely, if a machine looks new but was purchased long ago, you know the plant's taking care of its investments. And many problems are easily visible to the naked eye—if you know to look. When I visited a petroleum refinery in Haifa, Israel, in 1970, plant managers told me about a problem with two of four temperature charts, one at each end of two pipes carrying raw petroleum. The two "problem" charts displayed significant temperature variations while the other two were flat, leading managers to assume the latter were under control. I asked to climb to the top of the furnace to take a look and discovered that only two of the temperature sensor cables were connected—the two with significant variations. The other two charts were flat because the sensors that led to those charts had been cut. (Questions 16 and 20)
Category 9
Management of Complexity and Variability
This category judges how the operation manages, controls, and reduces the complexity and variability it faces in its industry. It can be difficult during a tour to judge how a plant performs in this category, but you can watch for certain indicators. For instance, many companies collect (and then must process) much more data about their operations than they need; if you observe many people manually recording data and a large number of keyboards for data entry, the company may be doing a poor job of handling complexity, especially if the data collection is done by hand.
In addition, since the product in lean plants flows through quickly and inventory is kept to a minimum, workers don't need to keep track of a lot of parts. Furthermore, the best plants are able to use the same types of parts in the manufacture of different products. And finally, some companies—Toyota and Dell, to name two—build complexity handling into their production processes, designing systems that aid operators in picking the right parts out of a broad selection. If a worker reaches for the wrong valve, for instance, he or she might break an electronic beam, which would turn on red lights and possibly trigger an audible signal. Ask workers if such systems are in place. (Questions 8, 17, and 20)
RPA Data for Plants with at Least 10 Tour Reports Each
Category 10
Supply Chain Integration
The best operations keep costs low and quality high by working closely with a relatively small number of dedicated and supportive suppliers. You can get a rough estimate of the number of suppliers by looking at container labels: Which supplier names appear on containers? Do the containers appear to be designed and labeled specifically for customized parts shipped to this plant? If a company uses multiple suppliers for the same part or family of parts, it's unlikely that the suppliers were directly involved in the development process.
A best practice for plants is to pay suppliers based on completed, shippable product: Payment is made automatically when the product comes off the line. This cuts down on paperwork and reduces the number of people involved in settling accounts. Ask plant personnel how suppliers are paid; it seems like an innocuous question, so people are often forthcoming with the answer. The presence of lots of paperwork on the receiving dock is another indication of high costs in the supply chain. The best plants pull the materials from their suppliers as just another link in the pull system for each product line. (Questions 18 and 20)
Category 11
Commitment to Quality
The best plants are always striving to improve quality and productivity, and it shows. Remember that initial tour of the Hoover Universal plant by Japanese executives in the early 1980s? After we received the report from that tour, our managers came to clearly understand what Toyota expected from its suppliers and began to make changes accordingly. In 1985, Hoover Universal won the contract to supply Camry seats for Toyota's new Georgetown plant, based not on the quality or productivity in Hoover's plants but on our highly visible commitment to continuous improvement.
Attention to quality is usually easy to spot. If employees are proud of their quality program, they usually give it a name and post banners displaying the plant's vision or mission statement, business objectives, and metrics showing achievements to date. Both short- and long-term goals for the plant and team—as well as statements about internal and external customer requirements, production schedules, work instructions, productivity levels, incoming and outgoing quality, scrap and rework levels, attendance, vacation schedules, safety, and levels of employee training—should be displayed at each work center. (This overlaps with category 3.)
You should also find out what the plant does with scrap. Better plants call attention to scrap rather than hide it—by shining a light on it, for example, or marking it with red tape—because they want to know right away if scrap is building up or if a portion of the process is producing defective parts. One way to find out: Ask people what they do when a faulty part comes off the line. Discarding it or discreetly putting it out of the way is a sign of inefficiency. Finally, ask about product development. Are cost and timing goals set during development? Are start-ups well managed and low in cost? (Questions 15, 17, 19, and 20)
Rating the Plant
Immediately following the tour, team members should meet to share their observations and impressions and to develop a report assessing the plant's leanness and estimating its cost of sales. This meeting should happen right away, since visual data leave a vivid, but fleeting, impression.
The team should use both the RPA rating sheet and the RPA questionnaire to rate leanness. Rate each of the 11 categories on a scale from "poor" (1) to "excellent" (9) to "best in class" (11). "Best in class" is meant literally: Only one plant in each industry, worldwide, deserves this rating. Then total the ratings; the sum will be between 11 and 121, with an average plant scoring 55. The questionnaire is completed at the same time. (The sidebar "The RPA Process Database" explains the scores for some of the plants toured by my students.)
The RPA Process Database
The plant's total score on the rating sheet and the number of yeses on the questionnaire give you a fairly accurate assessment of a plant's efficiency: It's almost impossible to fake a lean operation. Scores in six of the 11 categories and 16 of the 20 associated questions are based almost solely on highly visible elements in a plant's environment. The assessments on the rating sheet may be particularly useful because the 11 categories highlight broad areas of strength and weakness. Categories with low ratings are instantly visible opportunities for improvement and should be the first steps on a company's journey to leanness.
By the way, the RPA tool also includes a template for gauging a plant's cost of sales (COS), as well as a set of typical operations measures ranging from yearly sales per employee to overhead to the number of hours needed to assemble a personal computer. However, measuring COS generally requires more experience than judging leanness, so I have omitted this computation in this article. For an overview of this aspect of the tool, please see the sidebar "Estimating Cost of Sales."
Estimating Cost of Sales
• • •
The fact is, if an operation looks good to the trained eye, it usually is. I've used this tool many times in conjunction with due diligence when evaluating an acquisition target. I've often made substantial improvements to my own operations after brief tours of my competitors' plants. And I've taught the RPA process to several hundred students and managers, who have in turn looked anew at their own operations and those of their competitors. The tool is pretty simple—easy to learn, quick to put into practice—but it's proved very powerful in application.


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WASHINGTON. D.C. (AP) — A military appeals court won't stop the court-martial of a U.S. Army general facing trial on sexual assault charges in North Carolina.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces denied a petition filed by lawyers for Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair. The August filing sought to halt the case based on their claim that top Pentagon officials exerted improper pressure to criminally prosecute him.
Sinclair pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts and violating orders. Most of the charges stem from a three-year affair with a female captain who says the married general twice forced her to perform oral sex while she served under his command in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After several delays, Sinclair's trial is set to begin Jan. 7 at Fort Bragg, N.C.-


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There are times I hear concerns that organizing is so expensive. Sure it is, if you let it be. And I have been a sucker for expensive storage from time to time, but the act of organizing is FREE and storage can be crafted and made by hand to save boatloads of dollars! Sweetness right?
So, I thought I would pop some inspiration your way, of great yet PRETTY storage that has been or could be DIY'd.
Let's start out easy shall we? Got a box? How about some decorative scrapbook or wrapping paper? Even fabric will do. Pair your paper or fabric with some spray adhesive and you have custom storage that will blow your mind!
Shoe boxes are given new life with some simple maps:
Dress up inexpensive cardboard magazine files with pretty paper and a label and you have saved yourself over $10 each!
Diaper boxes are known for durability and are always in abundance {not for you? ask a friend}. Paired with pretty wrapping paper, you have delightful storage for all sorts of goodies!
Here are a couple of fabric options for you, which provide a little added durability over the paper boxes.
Jars are another item that are a dime a dozen. Baby food and mason jars are amongst the most popular, so it should be no surprise that they have been turned into fantastic, inexpensive storage all over the blogosphere.
Paint always makes a room look fresh and new, so imagine what it does to jars!
Or, just paint the lid so you can see the contents! Baby food jars are especially perfect for craft spaces to hold all those small bits and pieces!
Just because it comes as a jar, doesn't mean you can't make it more fun and decorative! I love when folks add fun toppers like drawer pulls and animals to give the jars some extra flair!
I am always amazed when I see PVC in organizing projects! It makes so much sense, yet isn't often the first thing you think of when searching for storage solutions!
It can be used as drawer dividers!
Or as fabulous workshop storage!
The great crate is one of my favorites. Wood can be finished with paint or stain and always looks classic. And it is oh so durable and will give you sturdy results.
I used a craft crate cut in half and mounted on the wall for books, but think of all the other goodies these could be filled with! And for only $7!
The incredible DIY friends over at The House of Smiths built some of the prettiest crates I have ever laid eyes on!
Looking to maximize the space under the bed and save some money while doing it? Build some rolling crates and you have conquered bedroom clutter!
Got a spare frame laying around? No? Head over to Goodwill, they have hundreds. Then, turn one into a lovely and organized jewelry display!
Or use some chicken wire to make a beautiful memo board!
Speaking of memos... One of the most inexpensive yet also one of my favorite ways to display cards, memos, artwork, photos, etc... is simply with a piece of string and some mini-clothespins.
And never forget to reuse awesome containers. When you purchase something and it runs out, always look at the container it came in as a potential piece of free storage! Sometimes some simple paper will dress it up, sometimes, you don't need to do anything at all...
Pretty inspiring little roundup right? So much to love! I adore when storage can look amazing with a little creativeness, a low budget and some great DIY spirit!
What storage have you been making by hand?
Like this post? Here are a few other budget friendly DIY storage roundups for you here, here and here.


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Facebook just disclosed that the number of people logging into its website on personal computers declined "modestly" in the last three months of 2012, compared to the previous quarter. That's a huge deal because, despite Facebook's strong efforts to focus on mobile phone usage last year, it still makes much more money from its users on PCs.
It was already known that Facebook was growing more rapidly on phones. But the new disclosure, in its lengthy annual report, is significant because it wasn't previously clear that the company's PC user base was shrinking. Now, it's clear that Facebook hit "peak PC" in the third quarter of last year.
Here's what Facebook says in its annual report: "During the fourth quarter of 2012, the number of daily active users (DAUs) using personal computers declined modestly compared to the third quarter of 2012, including declines in key markets such as the United States, while mobile DAUs continued to increase."
The decline in PC usage among Americans is doubly significant because Facebook makes more money selling advertising targeted at that audience than any other. Last year, it made $13.58 in revenue per user in the US and Canada, compared to $5.32 per average user worldwide.
Facebook only began including advertising in its mobile products last year, and by the fourth quarter, mobile advertising had grown to 23% of the company's advertising revenue. It also saw a large increase in the number of people accessing Facebook exclusively from mobile phones and at least once a month: 157 million people did so in the fourth quarter of 2012. Another 523 million monthly users accessed Facebook on both phones and PCs.
That leaves 376 million monthly users who only used their PCs to log onto Facebook, down 6.7% from 403 million in the previous quarter. (Facebook doesn't make that figure explicit, but you can do the math from the data it does release. You can see my math here.) Overall, Facebook grew to 1.056 billion monthly users last quarter.
In one sense, Facebook's ability to transition into "a mobile company," as CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call yesterday, is encouraging news. And Facebook can't really do anything to stop the rapid shift of internet users to their mobile phones. But if that shift happens too rapidly, and Facebook isn't quickly able to figure out a way to make significant revenue from its mobile products, then expect to see that hit the company's bottom line in the next few quarters.
Or as Facebook explains in the "risk factors" section of its new annual report:
While we began showing ads in users' mobile News Feeds in early 2012, we have generated only a small portion of our revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products to date. In addition, we do not currently offer our Payments infrastructure to applications on mobile devices. If users increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to continue to grow mobile revenues, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected.


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SBDC Offers Counseling to Small Business Owners in Cherokee County
JACKSONVILLE -- January 23, 2002 --
The Jacksonville State University Small Business Development Center, the
SBA, and the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce will offer one-on-one
counseling for prospective and existing small business owners at no
charge on Wednesday, February 5, 2002, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at
the Chamber office. It is necessary that you make an appointment. For
more information, or your appointment, please call 927-8455.
|© Copyright 2002: Jacksonville State University


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Posts Tagged 'productivity tools'
3 Reasons I Use Toggl for Tracking Time
Virtual Assistants and freelancers need to know how to track time for projects and for clients.
Not only does tracking time provide accountability to clients for your billable hours, but it also ensures you are charging enough for the time you spend on projects!
Read more…Read More


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Warminster, PA 18974
Dr. David Valen at his Warminster area dental implants practice offers extensive experience restoring your dental implant crown.
Our dedicated team uses state-of-the-art materials and techniques for stability and longevity. You'll enjoy the comfort and confidence of natural-looking teeth.
David Valen, D.M.D. is proud to be a popular Warminster area Lumineers® dentist. If you have sensitive teeth and want pain-free dental veneers, we can help.
Our highly trained team has extensive experience with this quick and easy procedure. We'll help you transform from feeling self-conscious to feeling confident about your bright new smile.
Warminster area restorative dentistry at Signature Dental of Bucks County can produce natural-looking results. If you have a damaged or missing tooth, we can help.
Our highly skilled team will assess your need for a crown, bridge, implant or other procedure to restore or improve your smile. Our goal is to provide quality dental care for your life-long oral health.
Signature Dental of Bucks County is a trusted Warminster area provider of Invisalign® for teens provider. We know that as a parent, the oral health and happiness of your teenager is important.
We're here to serve your family's needs, and ensure that your teens get the best results from their Invisalign® clear braces. You'll be thrilled with your teenager's straight teeth and confident smile.
Signature Dental of Bucks County is a trusted Warminster area dental implants practice providing natural-looking, comfortable tooth replacement. We make it our mission to use a gentle touch during the process.
We hold ourselves to the highest standards to replace missing teeth and provide you with natural-looking results. Our goal is to restore your confidence and your bright, healthy smile.
Bruno, Frank J D.D.S.
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Kids Smiles
2821 Island Ave # 210
Philadelphia, PA, 19153-2300
Kenneth W Laudenbach Ltd
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(215) 985-4337
We'd like to offer one comforting and wonderful fact about today's dentistry: it's much less stressful than it used to be.
Technology, new procedures, and some very sophisticated approaches to dental anesthesia have all contributed to comfortable dentistry, from cleaning to cavity preparations to root canals.
But what if you didn't grow up with modern dentistry, and remember it differently?
If you have had difficult dental experiences, you may be among the 150 million Americans who white-knuckle their way through treatment, or avoid the dentist altogether. The fact is, about 80% of the fearful can overcome dental phobia, with a little help from conscious sedation.
Many dentists understand dental fear and where it comes from. And many are becoming trained in forming good working relationships with fearful patients. Your dentist should encourage you to voice your anxiety and discuss your problems with him or her, before he or she touches a tooth in your mouth.
They should listen to your needs, and agree on small things that help you maintain a sense of control - a hand signal works with some patients. But talking about fear with your dentist - being assertive and letting him or her know what bothers you - is the first step.
If you're moderately anxious, the dental team can provide distracting diversions to put those concerns to rest. If you're extremely anxious, they can virtually put anxiety to rest via oral sedation. This approach involves taking a mild sedative before you arrive for your appointment. You remain awake, but extremely relaxed - so relaxed that many patients have all their needed dental work completed in a single office visit. If dental anxiety has kept you from making an appointment you know is needed - a sedation dentist can help!
Patient comfort and care is a top priority for a sedation dentist. They recognize that dental anxiety or discomfort can be associated with some dentistry procedures. Fortunately, a variety of dental procedures using dental anesthetics are available to relieve both anxiety and discomfort. Talk with your dentist to find out which is right for you.
This is the most frequently used type of dental anesthetic for sedation dentistry procedures. Although often referred to as "Novocain," this once popular painkilling drug has actually been replaced by more effective anesthetics such as Lidocaine for a comfortable dental care treatment. It also works very well for temporary relief of a tooth ache.
However, the name has become so much a part of the American vocabulary, it's now used in generic terms. Prior to injecting the local anesthetic, the dentist often swabs a topical anesthetic over the injection site to prevent the patient from even feeling the needle.
Patients seeking comfortable dentistry can consult with their dentists to choose anti-anxiety agents either administered by mouth, inhalation or injection. Nitrous oxide, often referred to as laughing gas, helps to ease patient anxiety. The gas is inhaled by patients, inducing relaxation, so they can approach dental procedures with less stress.
This may be required for complex procedures or for dental patients with special needs. With the administration of general anesthesia, the patient is unconscious; with deep sedation dentistry or sleep dentistry, dental patients are deeply relaxed and not fully aware of their surroundings during their dental treatment.
Prior to treatment, your dentist will need to know a few things regarding your health history such as:
Some medicines may interfere with the efficiency of an anesthetic requiring an adjustment in your medication schedule. Your health history is very important information for the dentist. During the consultation, you can ask questions about any dental procedures that may be of concern during your dental procedure.
The drugs used as dental anesthetics are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and are safe. Anesthetic providers are professionals with a commitment to patient safety and comfort.
A dental anesthetic can be administered by a general dentist, a dental anesthesiologist or an M.D. Certification is required and is regulated on a state-by-state basis. Discuss sedation with your dentist at your next visit.
By Brian J. Gray, DDS, MAGD, FICO


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dog necessity stores are hard to come by, especially if you are living in a small town or a city. However that should not discourage you from owning a dog and this is thanks to online dog boutiques from where you can buy anything that you need for your dog and much more. You will be amazed at the variety of products that you can purchase from such online boutiques. These dog boutiques stock everything from dog food to dog clothes to dog accessories. You can easily find your way around the site as all these dog products are put up under main categories and further into sub categories.
Also these boutiques are a must visit for celebrities who also want to dress up their dogs in a similar way to theirs. For example, you can get trendy and fashionable clothes for dogs as well. There are some great designers like Ed Hardy who have ventured into dog clothes designing. The best part of dog stores is that you can purchase stuff at great prices. This is because an online store is not a regular brick and mortar store and hence there are lesser overheads. These online boutiques then pass in the benefit to the customer. The other reason why these dog boutiques sell at lower costs is because of competition. However you should try to opt for only authorized dog boutiques such as poshpuppyboutique.com. Here you will find only genuine dog products. Such boutiques are also authorized to stock dog dress collection by popular designers.
Also such boutiques always have a discount offer running on most of their products. Hence you can order for any accessories or necessities from the comforts of your home any time of the day or night. The boutiques also have a powerful search feature where you can simply type in the product that you want and you will get similar matches. All product details are mentioned on the webpage. If you have any queries you can simply email them. Also you can opt for customized items as well by giving them your specifications and within a few days your special order will be processed and the product delivered. You have the convenient option of paying online through your credit card. The inventory also gets updated on a regular basis on the website.
Jennifer Kirk
Dog Boutique, Dog Fashion, Dog Costume


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|Have no fear: bike swap is here, for all your parts needs
If there is one event during the year that gets me up earlier in the morning, or causes me to be giddier, I can't think of it. Christmas morning? My birthday? Nope, nothing compares with the GABA bike swap in Tucson. The weather was perfect, the drive down from PHX was unproblematic, the coffee from the Peddler on the Path van kicked it, and the Sonoran hot dogs somehow were better than last year. Fresher ingredients? Different recipe? Don't know, don't care, it was all very good indeed. And many, many parts and tools were bargained for and purchased at reduced to bargain prices. Here's what caught my eye this year.
|The coolest bicycle rack on this planet.
|Coffee and bike swap go together perfectly
|U should come dwn hr NOW!
|The bike is $299. I'll sell you the leftovers for six bucks.
|Drive thru.
|So very orange
|It hauls kids and has a special compartment for the sous-vide machine.
|Carbon bargain
|The beginning of an obsession?
|Swap booty, including my best bargain: Nitto B115 bars for $5. Also very happy with the XTR brake/shifters tho.
|So very green
|So very bent
|Updated with cleaned-up wrenches more suited to the start of an obsession


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Newton's Cradle Gadget
Some of you have probably already seen the Newton's Cradle gadget. Just figured I would announce it here for those who subscribe to the blog. It is currently available for iGoogle and Chumby. The Chumby version adds another dimension to the gadget, since it responds to tilting. I'll be making it available to other sites soon.


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In the basement of a house I found an old accordion with only the word Toriana on it. I recorded each of the white keys (the black ones didn't seem to work) and the sample name will tell you the note so that you can load it into a sampler. Because the accordion is old and falling apart each note sounds fairly different, and each sample includes first pulling the accordion apart and then pushing it back together. Sometimes those two actions create a slightly different sound.
This is by no means a pristine instrument, but it was recorded with a pair of AT4021 mics in XY stereo into a modified Marantz PMD661 and edited (simply each sample sliced) with Tracktion.
If you enjoy this sound, please consider donating to freesound.org or me.
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Akalei is Hawaiian for "bead reflections" which describes our unique necklace lei, hat bands, bracelets, and key chains handcrafted on Maui. We reinterpret traditional Hawaiian Lei using a vast assortment of glass and natural beads, Japanese silk and natural fibers using a wide array of braiding techniques and inspirations from across the globe.
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Embark on an adventure through the finest Minecraft servers hosted in Cape Verde. Whether you're in search of exhilarating competitive PvP encounters, cooperative gameplay, or boundless creative building opportunities, the servers featured on this page are based in Cape Verde, offering a reliable and immersive gaming experience tailored to your region.
Immerse yourself in a vast array of game modes and vibrant communities, ranging from survival and factions to minigames, roleplaying, and much more. With their dedicated operations situated in Cape Verde, these servers ensure low-latency connections and seamless gameplay for players within the region.
Uncover unparalleled gameplay features, custom plugins, and diligent server moderators who uphold fair play and ensure an enjoyable experience for all. Engage with fellow players, forge new friendships, and partake in thrilling events and competitions. Whether you're a seasoned Minecraft veteran or new to the game, these servers provide an immersive and captivating environment to unleash your Minecraft adventures.
Elevate your Minecraft journey by exploring the top-tier servers hosted in Cape Verde. Join the thriving community, encounter exceptional gameplay, and create unforgettable memories with your fellow players. Embark on your exploration today and unlock the boundless possibilities that await you in the realm of Cape Verde-based Minecraft servers.


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Until prostitutes have equal protection under the law and equal rights as human beings, there is no justice. – Robyn Few
Last Thursday, sex workers all over the world were saddened to hear of the death (after a long battle with cancer) of the charismatic and tireless Robyn Few, founder of the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA. When the day finally arrives on which sex work is recognized in the majority of the world as work like any other, hers will be one of the names remembered as instrumental in achieving it.
Robyn L. Spears was born in Paducah, Kentucky, on October 7th, 1958, to Virginia Owen Spears; she had an older brother and a younger sister and lived in the small community of Lone Oak, Kentucky. She attended Lone Oak Elementary and Lone Oak Middle School, but dropped out and ran away from home either during or after her 8th grade year, when she was 13 years old. The causes of her leaving are not clear, but whatever they were she later reconciled with her mother and in fact died while visiting at her home. Like so many runaways she soon turned to survival sex work, and though she later received vocational training to be a materials tester for concrete and tried a few "straight" jobs such as drafting, she was never satisfied with these and became a stripper soon after turning 18. As she says in the video below (recorded in Chicago in July of 2008), "I loved it so much; it was so empowering to be able to get up on the stage…I came alive, and for me being paid to dance and to show my body [that] I was so proud of anyway…it was just an amazing experience."
After stripping for a while she started working in a massage parlor, then later escort services and a clandestine brothel; in her late 20s she married one of her clients and had a daughter, but after her divorce in 1993 (after which she retained her married name, Few) she moved to California and began to take college classes with the intent of earning a degree in theater. She became interested in marijuana and AIDS activism, but the bills had to be paid so she returned to escorting in 1996 and soon became a madam. Like so many of us, she never told anybody about her sex work; her activism was directed toward other causes until fate decreed otherwise.
The events of September 11th, 2001 engendered a heightened climate of paranoia, and the enactment of the PATRIOT Act soon made an unprecedented level of funding available to any government agency which could make even a remote claim to "fighting terrorism". And though then-Attorney General Ashcroft had been strongly rebuked by Congress for devoting more FBI agents to the "Canal Street Brothel" case in New Orleans than to counterterrorist operations, he had learned his lesson and justified later whore persecutions with flimsy "anti-terrorism" excuses. Robyn's agency was accused of having "terrorist suspects" as clients and she was arrested in June of 2002, then convicted of "conspiracy to promote prostitution" and sentenced to six months house arrest (during which the trial judge allowed her to continue her activism). After her arrest, she was angry to discover that both neighbors and supposedly "enlightened" activists treated her differently once they knew she had been a prostitute; she threw herself even harder into medical marijuana activism, but began to think about how people's ignorant attitudes and the oppressive anti-sex work laws could be changed.
Her inspiration came a year after her arrest, in the form of the US Supreme Court decision Lawrence vs. Texas: Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out in his dissenting opinion that "state laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of [the overturned Bowers vs. Hardwick decision's] validation of laws based on moral choices," and though the other justices tried to pretend otherwise Robyn knew that Scalia was correct, and that the court had opened a door for sex workers' rights. So after a Berkeley, California high-school teacher named Shannon Williams was arrested for prostitution in August, Robyn gathered a group of sex workers to protest outside the courthouse at Williams' arraignment in September. Unfortunately (but understandably), Williams wanted the whole mess to go away as soon as possible and so had no desire to become the "poster child" for prostitutes' rights. Robyn of course backed down, but the fire had been lit; with the help of her partner Michael Foley and sex worker Stacey Swimme (whom she had met earlier that year at a medical marijuana protest), she founded SWOP-USA the following month.
The organization was modeled on SWOP Australia, and Rachel Wotton (who now specializes in sex work with the disabled) was instrumental in securing permission for the American group to use the name and helping to set things up. Within a few weeks the new organization was contacted by Dr. Annie Sprinkle for assistance in arranging the very first Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers, and for the next year Robyn worked furiously to contact politicians and get the attention of the media so as to let them know that sex workers were not going to quietly accept persecution any more, and were mobilizing like those in many other parts of the world to demand our rights. But after the failure of "Proposition Q", a ballot measure she wrote which would have established de facto decriminalization in Berkeley, Robyn and SWOP settled in for the long haul and committed themselves to the slow, arduous task of reversing centuries of stigma and decades of oppressive legislation.
Shortly after the two shorter videos were recorded at the International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harms in Warsaw, Poland (May of 2007), Robyn was diagnosed with cancer; she continued to work tirelessly for the cause all through her chemotherapy, and though the disease appeared to have gone into remission in January of 2010 it returned by July of 2011, and this time proved terminal. She died on September 13th, 2012 while visiting her mother, and there will be a memorial service on what would have been her 54th birthday (October 7th, 2012) at the Milner and Orr Funeral Home in Lone Oak . I never had the pleasure of meeting Robyn, but as you can see from the personal accounts on her website and the many expressions of grief all over the internet, those who did speak without exception of her warmth, her strength, her good humor, her courage and her plain human decency. And though it's an oft-used phrase, there is no other which sums up the way everyone in the sex worker rights community feels about her passing: she will be sorely missed.
(I am indebted to the Sin City Alternative Professionals' Association (formerly SWOP-LV) for information and links, and also to a group of Robyn's school friends from Lone Oak, who contacted me Sunday morning and filled in a number of vital details I could not find anywhere else. If anyone reading this can correct an error or omission, please email me with the info.)


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Patchy, lopsided, itchy or epic – whatever Mo you grow this Movember, your face will raise funds and awareness for men's health.
Sign up in just minutes and join the Movember community in having fun doing good!
Move for Movember
Run or walk 60km over the month, for the 60 men lost to suicide every hour globally.
Host a Mo-ment
Rally a crew and do something fun and easy. Have fun, doin' good.
Mo Your Own Way
Whether it's a gruelling test of physical endurance or some other wildcard idea.
Mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer – we're taking them all on.
Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men's health projects around the world, challenging the status quo, shaking up research and motivating men to take action for their health.


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I see your five pocket cords and raise you. Moleskin trousers already popped up on Sart Inc as a great F/W alternative so I figured I would muse a little on moleskin jeans as well. Polo put their killer moleskin jeans on sale and, as someone who owns an earlier version of this pant, I offer my full endorsement. If you had passed on moleskin trousers up until this point because they were a little out of your comfort zone, this is probably a better starting point. The 5 pocket silhouette is extremely familiar to everyone who reads this blog, but when done in moleskin the style gets a wonderful upgrade - don't be afraid of juxtaposition. I really can't say enough good things about Polo's moleskin jean. The cut is great (if you've never tried on their slim-fit), the fabric is luxurious and they look badass. The thing I like most about these is how you can beat the shit out of them. A 5 pocket style pant is an everyday pant and the moleskin ages in a really unique way. You can wear them a lot this time of year and they are machine washable. After one season you are going to have a non-denim pair of jeans that are truly all your own. For $105 that's one of the best deals around.
Friday, December 17, 2010
8 comments:
- AnonymousDecember 17, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Way too slim in the leg.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 17, 2010 at 1:56 PM
How slim are they? compared to, say, 501s?ReplyDelete
these seem awesome but I have pretty big legs...
Hey Lawrence,ReplyDelete
Congrats on the new gig! Which J. Crew are you managing now?
Tommy- Zing!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 17, 2010 at 4:42 PM
why no 30x32 ralph, why?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 18, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Moleskin, the lumberjack's velvet.ReplyDelete
Moleskin trousers.ReplyDelete
A British winter staple. Usually too hot for London but anywhere with a bit of wind and cold - they can't be beaten.
These pants are an additional 25% off for the moment. I just picked up a pair for $78 + tax. Run, don't walk, etc.ReplyDelete
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Export 2 results:Author Title [ Type] Year
Filters: Author is M. Sorg [Clear All Filters]
Conference Paper
"Visual grasp determination and tracking in 2D dynamic scenarios", in Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2002.,
Journal Article
"Automatic Reconstruction of Silhouettes Using B-Splines", Image Analysis. 13th Scandinavian Conference, SCIA 2003. Proceedings, no. 2749, pp. 239–246, 2003.,


text: Brooklyn Vintage Auto Ads 4 -If you are into vintage cars, this is the book for you! If you are into vintage car advertising, this is definitely the book for you. The Vintage Car Show releases a 4-volume series, Vintage Brooklyn Auto Ads. These ads are from the "heydays" of Brooklyn and the automotive industry. The books are a mother load of vintage automotive advertisements


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This blog discusses current weather, weather prediction, climate issues, and current events
January 18, 2009
Ascent of Tiger Mountain and Warm Temps
The pressure difference across the Cascades increased to 14 mb...higher to the east. This large pressure gradient helped to drive strong easterly winds. Some of these winds reached the surface over the eastern lowlands...from North Bend to Samamish..and when they did, the cold air was scoured out the temps jumped to near 60F. But nearly regions which remained in the cool air, below the inversion, were 10F or more colder.
The Seattle profiler showed the strong easterlies (actually southeasterlies aloft) and the profound change in the inversion and temperature structure aloft (see figure from 7 PM Sat to 7 PM Sunday). Last evening we had inversions galore... the old inversion aloft and a new radiation inversion at the surface (produced by radiational cooling at the surface). During the afternoon, the surface warmed up and the warm air above mixed down and the inversion become greatly weakened. With dry warm air mixing down, visibilities (from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency webcams) soared....take a look at the difference between the visibility today at 3 PM and two days ago...pretty dramatic. You can see some of those residual low clouds in today's image.
As many of you have done, I hiked up Tiger Mt. today...from 500ft in the parking lot to 2522 ft at the West Tiger 3 summit...referring to a high-accuracy thermometer and an aneroid altimeter on the way up. We started at 9:10 AM--36F. There was a large temperature changed in the first 500 ft (to around 46F at 1000 ft). This was the surface-based radiation inversion. Then between rougly 1200 and 1900 ft the temp climbed into the mid 50s (the second inversion) and we entered the realm of the strong easterlies. At the top, the temps reached around 60F (high was 61.4). Excellent visibility in all directions. There was some snow on the shaded slopes in the last few hundred ft. I was impressed how much the snow level had risen on the Cascades...looked like 3000-3500 ft on the western slopes.
Looking at the computer models tonight...stuck by the lack of precipitation for the next week....nothing there really.
16 comments:
- AnonymousJanuary 18, 2009 at 9:35 PM
Even now the temperature spreads are wacky. 48dF at Paine and 36dF at Boeing Field...first time I can remember PAE being 12 degrees warmer than BFI.ReplyDelete
Driving around on I-405 this afternoon, our car's temp gauge changed more than the speedometer: 59 in Totem Lake and 53 at Factoria...a 1-mile stretch of Lakemont Blvd had a 5 degree temp spread!
One thing I don't like about these temperature inversions is the increased freeway noise from nearby I-405. We're about half a mile from it and normally the sound isn't really an issue, but today it was particularly noticable. (Thank you, Scott Sistek for your explanation on why: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/34608154.html)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 18, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Experienced at least 60 degree temps today during a hike at Hurricane Ridge. Amazing stuff...felt like a nice day in May.ReplyDelete
Out here in Sammamish... went for a walk around 3PM... It started out a little brisk, but with every breeze you would get this gorgeous warm air blowing across the park!ReplyDelete
The UW 00z WRF-GFS is just now coming out and it shows light southerly winds tomorrow at 850mb with temps at around +12c. So with the 2m temp/wind profiler chart showing the inversion being less than 1000ft tomorrow and light SELY surface winds, perhaps the eastside Puget sound folks could see another day of upper 50`s to low 60`s.ReplyDelete
Currently 36 with clear skies ata bout 1145pm here in Woodinville.
Here on the north end of the Sammamish Plateau we had a high Sunday of 64.3F, breezy all day and east wind gusts at 17.1 mph. The sky was so clear and so blue!ReplyDelete
Around 2-3pm we were on the Issaquah Highlands which was equally as warm with absolutly no wind at all. Protected from the backside I suppose.
This morning it is 44.6F here and breezy. I see the lowlands very nearby are in the low 30's and upper 20's.
I love the east wind. I lived in North Bend for years and always enjoyed those days we were so much warmer than anywhere else. The loggers didn't much appreciate it in the Summer because Weyerhauser would shut down the woods due to fire danger.
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 7:41 AM
This morning in Sammamish, it's about 7 degrees cooler than it is in Seattle....our Wunderground instruments read 29.3 degFReplyDelete
Another clear morning here in Woodinville with my temp reading 29 degrees and dew point of 25 here nearly 8am. Perhaps another mild day like yesterday? We`ll see. :o)ReplyDelete
28.4 over by the Beaver Lake ballfields!ReplyDelete
Ignore the 3 hour flatline yesterday... software glitch!
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Liembo, Saturday evening I was walking home, just west of Aurora Ave (99), and was amazed at how loud I-5 was. It made me think that I must have been really drunk, but I only had my normal weekly dosing of 3.5 pints. I-5 is about 1 mile to the east, but it sounded like it was only 3 blocks away. I wonder if the Green Lake has any effect. Some days I can never hear I-5 in my neighborhood, and other days it sounds like it is next door.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 8:53 AM
Liembo, I was driving north on I-5 through Snohomish county at about 9am Sunday morning. Near Lynnwood's 44th Avenue exist, the mountains looked huge and close. About 4 minutes up the road, they looked small and distant. I enjoy that phenomenon(?) when driving west on 520 across Lake Washington. The change in appearance of the Olympics is fascinating.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 8:53 AM
I want Winter back. :(ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 11:12 AM
With reference to your observation of surprisingly high snopack, the NASA Aqua images shows the same thing. It looks like late spring.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 11:25 AM
I agree SnowLover!!!!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 12:07 PM
It has been amazing here east of North Bend. The winds were very strong yesterday--I wouldn't call it breezy, but the temps were about 60 in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie valley where we are...behind Mt. Si from North Bend. It's still windy today, but more on the breezy side and not quite as warm so far. It's a little unnerving watching 100' pine trees waving in the wind.....just as long as they fall thatta way, as opposed to thissa way!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 4:33 PM
Went for a hike from Alpental to Snow Lake on Sunday (low avalanche risk according to NWAC site). As pointed out here, pass was in a cloud and this remained so up to just below the ridge above the lake (about 4000 ft); then brilliant sun. Temps were quite cold (below freezing) but at the ridge there was a strong wind mixing things up so it wasn't warm. I did hit a few pockets of surprisingly warm air on the ridge, however. Interesting to watch how the cloud layer from eastern WA melted just as it was about to cross the mountain crest.ReplyDelete
The Implications of El Nino for Northwest Autumn and Winter
There has been a lot of speculative talk about the implications of El Nino for our winter, with some claiming a certainty of drought and oth...
I have to tell you about this, even though some of the forecasts are crazy extreme. For several forecast cycles, the models have suggested t...
What has happened and is happening in California is extraordinary....one of the coolest/wettest ends of spring in Golden State history. Th...


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We use 'dreamy' so much as an adjective that we forget how genuinely dreamy things can actually be. With a bunch of charming Bandcamp releases already up his sleeve, singer-songwriter Jordan Lee was more than ready to release his first 'proper' album as Mutual Benefit, a project started back in 2009 with a multitude of collaborators. Love's Crushing Diamond is Mutual Benefit at its best, a blend of rarefied folk and experimental pop consecrated to warmth, cosiness and optimistic feelings.
Usually preceded by levitating, half-improvised percussion, Lee's melodies are smooth and evocative, whether punctuated by a distant piano or carried away by sweet choirs. These seven songs find their strength in quietness and refinement, they gently weave together, avoiding abrupt twists as in the presence of a half-sleep, vulnerable listener.
Opener 'Strong River' builds gradually like an awakening, setting the mood for the stunning 'Golden Wake', where Lee's "quiet thoughts get louder" and speak of rebellion in the most delicate and mitigating way. When the verses "sometimes my heart and brain conspire / to set everything on fire" are accompanied by the sublime sound of a violin, the result is blissful and captivating, as if a series of contrasting feelings found resolution in the lushness of the sound. Strings return to adorn the love ballad 'Advanced Falconry', a pop song for galloping banjo and acoustic guitar, without doubt one of the peaks on the album. As Lee describes his beautiful and graceful beloved, it is not hard to imagine romantic escapes in surreal, cotton-cloud, Gondry-inspired dream sequences.
Lee's vocals, often aided by the vocals of friends Virginia de la Pozas, Julie Byrne and Cory Siegler, are poised and sweet as one expects, in line with the refined atmosphere of the album. There's no struggle to sound keening, no affectation whatsoever. On occasion feelings become a bit more melancholic: 'That Light that's Blinding', which perhaps more than the other cuts on the album maintains an impromptu-live-session vibe to it, is haunted by a wandering piano and the scaring thought of going "a year without dreaming / until it seems that there's nothing new"; the violin led 'C. L. Rosarian' (C. L. standing for 'Careless Love'), deals with the impermanence of love, merging a sense of baffling disappointment and inevitable surrender ("I didn't fall in love with you / but it seems that there is nothing I can do").
Love's Crushing Diamond is not 'dreamy' for the sake of it. It is refreshing music, which sneaks quietly into your head and demands to be played on and on. If being 'freak' and 'folk' was not long ago part of the hip agenda, Mutual Benefit's quirkiest 'folk substance' is the way it manages to be absolutely stunning without any particular stress on theatricality. It is surreal and captivating as a lucid dream – you really feel motivated to stay tuned to find out what Lee's nurturing with so much care.
8Giuseppe Zevolli's Score
6User Score


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Sherry at the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia + fountains
Blue Mosque through archway
Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque at night
Topkapı Palace
Sherry + guard
Circumcision room!
Matt reenacting http://www.mattmayer.com/photos/istanbul/palace_08.jpg from 5 years earlier
Topkapı Palace - tourists looking at the Bosphorus
Matt at Topkapı Palace
Wall decoration at Topkapı Palace
Inside the Harem
Matt in Ataturk's lap
View across Golden Horn
Fishermen near Galata Bridge
Basilica Cistern
Medusa in Basilica Cistern
Matt + Sherry in Basilica Cistern
Matt in the Pudding Shop
Grand Bazaar - Lamps
Grand Bazaar - Cloth
Grand Bazaar - More lamps
Mosaic museum bear
Mosaic museum elephant
Mosaic museum tiger
Golden horn in lovely weather
Sherry on ferry
Ferry station
Sherry + Sarah (long time no see)
New Mosque by night
Houses along Bosphorus
Mosque + bridge
Fishing boat
Colourful houses on Bosphorus
Towards the Black Sea
To the castle!
Overlooking a great view
Bosphorus cruise - Anadolu Kavagi - Matt
Bosphorus cruise - Anadolu Kavagi - Matt and Sherry
Bosphorus cruise - Anadolu Kavagi - Sherry at the castle
Big bread!
Sherry at Buhara
Matt at Buhara
Michal Jackson plate
Blue mosque


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On this side of the pond, the revelation of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor as the name of Prince Harry and Meghan's newborn son immediately sparked questions about his "real" first name — Is it Archibald? Could he be Archer?
Nope. Last week's royal announcement revealed this kid is simply Archie, an apparent statement by his parents that they hope to give him as normal a life as possible.
The name is "a quintessentially English choice," declares Boston naming expert Laura Wattenberg, but it notably bucks convention in North America, where many parents eschew such cutesy, short monikers.
"Archie is a Top 20 given name in England and it's not alone. Charlie and Alfie and Freddie and Reggie are all big hit names in England. It's one of the biggest differences as you cross the Atlantic in baby name style," says Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard."
"Cute just plays differently in England versus here, and particularly for boys and girls. We're much more willing to give diminutives to girls…. You wouldn't be surprised to meet a Gracie or an Emmy but you would be surprised to meet even a Billy."
In general, handles ending in "-ie" and "-y" have largely faded over the last century in Canada and the United States, agrees L.A.-based Linda Rosenkrantz of the website nameberry.com
It's one of the biggest differences in naming trends between the two continents. Archie's dad, notably goes by the nickname Harry, instead of his given name Henry.
If anything, many North American parents are more likely to bestow an invented name that's so new it can't be truncated into something casual, say the experts.
"What I hear today is not, 'Well, of course we'll name Billy 'William.' I hear, 'How do I keep people from calling William, "Bill"?'" says Wattenberg.
Consider the myriad short names that have been lengthened to seem formal, like Trenton and Jackson.
"The parents look for ways to add something formal, even when a name was a perfectly full name to begin with," says Wattenberg. "It's purely a parent's sense of the name not feeling like it's enough."
Professor Cleveland Evans, an onomastics expert at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Neb., says preferred boys' names tend to be two or three syllables in length, which can be cut to one syllable in everyday conversation.
"By far, the most popular sound pattern in the U.S. and I would guess probably Canada, too, for boys' names, especially newly popular boys' names, is two syllables ending in 'n' — so you have Jackson and Jayden and all the things that rhyme with Aiden and Mason," says Evans, author of "The Great Big Book of Baby Names."
Some parents do choose Ben and Mike for birth certificates instead of Benjamin and Michael, but most still favour a formal name for official identification, no matter the social class, he adds.
"The image American parents have is any child can grow up to be anything and so no matter what their own circumstances are, they want to give their child a name that will fit into the executive suite," says Evans.
"Meanwhile, I think a lot of working class people in Britain are proud to be working class and are not thinking in that way."
Gender plays a role, too, with "-ie" nicknames growing in popularity among girls, even if they started out as primarily boys' names — think Frankie, Billie, Charlie and Teddie.
That trend has pushed some boys' parents to look for masculine alternatives, says Wattenberg, who studied names that were made out of words and found "boys are being given new names that literally mean weapons and violence."
"Riot. Rage. Cannon. I think that's why I think it will take a lot for the cute British nicknames to catch on," she says.
"Even as gender roles have changed, what hasn't changed is that parents want boys to be strong above all."
Top baby names registered with U.S. Social Security in 2018 were Emma and Liam, the agency revealed Friday.
They did not include Riot, Rage or Cannon, but Ruger — also known as a brand of firearms — was used 134 times.
There were only 207 Archies, barely enough to crack the Top 1,000 at 992.
Archie's middle name Harrison is far more popular in Canada, says Toronto kindergarten teacher Melissa King-Ferman, who says the name was especially popular in her class about five years ago.
In contrast, she's only met one child named Archie.
"I know more people that have an Archie dog than an Archie kid," says King-Ferman, a self-proclaimed royalist.
Wattenberg says parents who give a long formal name thinking that they can keep nicknames away are kidding themselves.
"At some point in childhood there's a change in ownership and the name no longer belongs to the parents, it belongs to the child," she says.
"I've talked to so many parents who thought that they've successfully called their son only Christopher, until he was 14 and they suddenly learned he'd been going by Chris at school for years."
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
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text:
Ronald Reagan was born FEBRUARY 6, 1911.
A graduate of Eureka College, IL, 1932, he worked as a life guard and then announced for radio stations in Iowa.
He became a sports announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games and traveled with the team.
While with the Cubs in California, Ronald Reagan auditioned with Warner Brothers, landing a contract doing "B films."
He was a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.
During his career as an actor he appeared in over 50 films, including Dark Victory; Knute Rockne, All American; Kings Row; and This is the Army. He was nominated for Academy Award in 1942.
He married Jane Wyman and had children Maureen, Christine (died a day old) and Michael (adopted).
Ronald Reagan was elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, switched from Democrat to Republican, and eventually became Governor of California.
His second marriage, to Nancy Davis, 1952, gave them children Patti and Ron.
At age sixty-nine, he was the oldest person elected U.S. President, and sixty-nine days after his inauguration, he survived an assassination attempt.
Ronald Reagan stated at St. John?s University in New York, March 28, 1985:
?Government that is big enough to give you everything you want is more likely to simply take everything you?ve got.?
Ronald Reagan remarked to the Heritage Council, Warren, Michigan, October 10, 1984:
"Henry David Thoreau was right: that government is best which governs least."
In his 1964 speech, A Time for Choosing, Ronald Reagan stated:
"I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism;
and regardless of their humanitarian purpose, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path."
Ronald Reagan stated in Beijing, China, April 27, 1984:
"I have seen the rise of fascism and communism. Both philosophies glorify the arbitrary power of the state … But both theories fail.
Both deny those God-given liberties that are the inalienable right of each person on this planet, indeed, they deny the existence of God."
On March 20, 1981, at the Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC, Ronald Reagan stated:
"Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid. That's why the Marxist vision of man without God must eventually be seen as an empty and a false faith — the second oldest in the world — first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with whispered words … 'Ye shall be as gods.'
The crisis of the Western world … exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God."
On May 17, 1982, in a proposed Constitutional Amendment on Prayer in Schools, President Ronald Reagan stated:
"Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God."
President Reagan proclaimed:
"Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in recognition of the contributions and influence of the Bible on our Republic and our people, do hereby proclaim 1983 the 'Year of the Bible' in the United States.
I encourage all citizens, each in his or her own way, to reexamine and rediscover its priceless and timeless message."
Ronald Reagan wrote in his article, ?Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,? The Human Life Review, 1983:
"Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should be slaves …
Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion."
At the Alfred M. Landon Lecture Series, 1982, Ronald Reagan stated:
"We can't have it both ways. We can't expect God to protect us in a crisis and just leave Him over there on the shelf in our day-to-day living. I wonder if sometimes He isn't waiting for us to wake up, He isn't maybe running out of patience."
At Reunion Arena in Dallas, 1984, Ronald Reagan stated:
"Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience … without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure …
America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."
In 1961, Ronald Reagan stated:
"One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project …
James Madison in 1788 … said … 'There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations' …
What can we do about this? … We can write to our congressmen and our senators … Say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms … We do not want socialized medicine …
If you don't, this program I promise you will pass … and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known … until, one day … we will awake to find that we have socialism.
And … you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."
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text:
Vacancies for our positions are posted on the Office of Personnel Management's USA JOBS site. The qualifications and promotion potential for each position will be included in the announcement. Since the Boston Region covers an extensive geographic area, please specify your preference by State or general areas of interest.
There are four special hiring opportunities which may streamline the hiring of qualified individuals which we have outlined below. If you qualify for one of these programs, your application materials should be sent to:
|Social Security Administration
Recruitment Coordinator
JFK Federal Building Room 2175
Boston, MA 02203
We can be reached by telephone at 617-565-9241, by fax at 617-565-1401, or by E-Mail. Please call or write us if you have any questions about applying for jobs with Social Security.
If you have bilingual ability, please specify this in your cover letter.
Since the Boston Region covers an extensive geographic area, please specify your preference by State and/or general areas of interest. For a complete listing of offices in the New England area:
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island
People with disabilities may be considered for employment with the Social Security Administration through the competitive process or the Selective Placement Program. The Selective Placement Program is a special employment program that is designed to assist qualified individuals with disabilities to obtain employment consistent with their level of skills and abilities. If you meet the knowledge, skills and abilities requirements of the position for which you are considered, you may be offered a direct appointment by us without having to go through the normal competitive hiring procedures.
To qualify for this program, you must have a severe physical or mental disability and be certified by either a State Rehabilitation Agency or the Department of Veterans Affairs for Federal employment. The Social Security Administration will provide necessary, reasonable accommodations to ensure that people with disabilities may successfully perform the duties of the position for which hired.
You may send in a resume or an OF-612, Application for Federal Employment, and your certification for Federal employment from the State Rehabilitation Agency or the Department of Veterans Affairs..
VETERANS: There are two programs pertaining to the hiring of veterans.
The Veterans' Readjustment Appointments (VRA) is a special authority by which agencies can appoint an eligible veteran without competition to positions through the GS-11 level. You must meet the military service and basic qualification requirements for the position being filled. The military service requirements are as follows: A candidate must have served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days all or part of which occurred after August 4, 1964, (February 28, 1961, for those who served in Vietnam) AND received a discharge other than a dishonorable one.
You must send in a resume or an Application for Federal Employment, OF-612, and form DD-214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, or other proof of eligibility.
The second veterans program is for veterans who have a service-connected disability of 30 percent or more. Applicants must meet all qualification requirements for the position to which appointed. To apply for a position under this authority, you will need to provide a copy of a letter dated within the past 12 months from the Department of Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense certifying receipt of compensation for a service-connected disability of 30 percent or more and a copy of your DD-214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. You may send the above documents and a resume or form OF-612, Application for Federal Employment.


text:
Regenstrief Vice President for Data and Analytics Shaun Grannis, M.D., M.S., spoke about changes to the way the Indiana Department of Health is displaying COVID-19 data.
- Experts
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Regenstrief envisions a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health.
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VideoDr. Williams-Farrelly: Childhood experiences affect later-life health. Supportive relationships can help.
NewsSupportive later-life social relationships mediate the risk of severe frailty in adults who had negative childhood experiences
NewsCOVID-infected adults with 4 or more underlying diseases or advanced age face higher risk of ICU stay, death
- Experts
March 31, 2022


text:
A beloved historical Lido in Newbury…
(to Alessandro Fochi, Export Manager Myrtha Pools for Australia)
Dear Alessandro,
We would like to thank you for your support of Australia's presence at the 2016 Venice International Architecture Biennale. It is only with the generosity of the industry and individuals that we can participate in this significant event.
Our congratulations and thanks are extended to The Pool creative team, Aileen Sage and Michelle Tabet for conceiving what was an outstanding and exciting exhibition in Venice. With the opening of Australia's new pavilion in Venice, the spotlight was firmly on Australia. We hope you enjoyed the Vernissage opening of the Venice Architecture Biennale and the celebrations poolside.
The Institute highly values your support and it was a pleasure working with you on this spectacular event. I am sure you'll agree that our representation interested, provoked and excited the international audience.
Once again, thank you for your generous support.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs Janet Holmes à Court AC Commissioner Australian exhibition Venice Architecture Biennale
Paul Berkemeier
Venice Biennale Committee Chair Australian Institute of Architects
A beloved historical Lido in Newbury…
The races in Fukuoka have concluded, with a remarkable achievement of 10 World Records being set in the Myrtha pools specially…
Just over 24 hours after the start of the swimming leg of the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, a few…


text:
by William Teach | April 18, 2013 8:39 am
Welcome to democracy, pal! (yes, yes, I know we have a Republic, but it's part of the Democratic model where people take votes)
Gun control: President Obama's biggest loss[2]
Never before had President Barack Obama put the moral force and political muscle of his presidency behind an issue quite this big – and lost quite this badly.
The president, shaken to the core by the massacre of 26 innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, broke his own informal "Obama Rule" – of never leaning into an issue without a clear path to victory – first by pushing for a massive gun control package no one expected to pass, and then sticking through it even as he retrenched to a relatively modest bipartisan bill mandating national background checks on gun purchases.
I guess the Politico thinks that Obama's push for Obamacare wasn't a big issue. Furthermore, they forget that it was never a certain pass, requiring quite a few bribes (which would have been illegal in the private sector) to get it passed through the Democrat controlled House and Senate. Nor were the (failed in practice) Stimulus and (mostly failed in practice) Dodd-Frank easy, yet he put his weight behind them. And one has to ask why the POTUS would push to violate his oath of office by infringing on Constitutional Rights so heavily, particularly when the legislative pieces wouldn't have stopped any of these mass shooting.
It was a bitter defeat for a president accustomed to winning, a second-term downer that may – or may not – foreshadow the slow decline suffered by so many of his predecessors. Obama seems to have the public behind him, but it illustrated his less-than-Johnsonian powers of personal persuasion, the possible shortcomings of his decision to wait a month after the killings to present a plan and above all the limits of his go-to "outside" strategy of taking his case directly to the American people.
He spent his time demonizing and insulting 2nd Amendment supporters and never told the American people exactly how his gun law prescriptions would have stopped the shooters. He brought the argument to his far left base which is anti-gun and want guns taken out of the hands of (Other) law abiding citizens.
In a break from protocol – Obama seldom talks publicly about what other politicians say to him privately – the president called out the Senate, including members of his own party, for succumbing to bullying of the National Rifle Association in the Rose Garden about an hour after the vote.
"Most of these senators couldn't offer any good reasons… there were no coherent arguments about why we couldn't do this… it came down to politics," a visibly agitated Obama said, flanked by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a clearly shaken Vice President Joe Biden and family members of Sandy Hook victims.
He threw a major league tantrum[3]. If only he'd get as pissed off that his economic policies have been such failures.
What you see is the angry Obama who always lurks just below the surface, the man who cannot tolerate dissent & opposition. #tcot[4] #p2[5] #tlot[6]
— Sister Toldjah (@sistertoldjah) April 17, 2013[7]
Anyway, he forgets the other part: why we should enact these laws. Emotionalism is not an excuse to infringe on the Rights of Americans, especially when, as has been written and said multiple times (including this post), the legislation would not have stopped any of these mass shootings. Plus, they would infringe on the privacy rights of those with "mental illness", which was poorly defined, and would have infringed on their right to own a firearm without benefit of a trial. As to a good reason, well, just like I tell any anti-gun Progressive I talk to: "because I can own one. My Right."
Within an hour of Obama's Rose Garden remarks his political arm, Organizing for Action, announced it is launching a "day of action" Saturday. Supporters in states with what OFA believes are persuadable senators will hold events and be urged to contact their senators.
Yeah, that's the group which is supposedly separate from Obama, pushing his agenda seemingly at his direction.
Plenty of other Progressives had stompy foot fits, including Gabby Giffords[8] in a NY Times editorial. She failed to note that none of these laws would have really stopped her shooter.
Crossed at Pirate's Cove[9]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[10].
Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/barack-obama/gun-control-president-stompy-foots-biggest-los/
Copyright ©2023 John Hawkins' Right Wing News unless otherwise noted.


text:
Probably one of the more difficult birds I have photographed. This pair of Tufted Flycatchers are nesting in Upper Ramsey Canyon – which means it is a 2.5 mile hike uphill from the Ramsey Canyon Visitor center, or a milder 3.5 mile hike from Carr Canyon. I chose to hit it head-on and hike up Ramsey Canyon.
Now I am in pretty good shape, but carrying my camera gear, 2 liters of water, rain gear and food makes it a bit more challenging. Additionally, the location of the birds was around 6,500′ elevation and my body is accustomed to sea level. Temperatures were also around 85F, even at that elevation!
But I made it, and I got great photos and video of both the male and female Flycatcher on the nest!
House Wren
So I decided to participate in the Santa Barbara Christmas Bird Count this year. Normally being out of town during this time of year, I thought it would be fun to drive up to Santa Barbara and participate with some friends. We started the day off with a Western Screech Owl just before sunrise in the foothills about Santa Barbara. I also got some great opportunities to work on photos of chaparral species like Wrentits, California Thrashers and some nice shots of a well displaying Anna's Hummingbird.
Western Screech-Owl
Anna's Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Hutton's Vireo
California Thrasher


text: Artist: Kane & Abel f/ Soulja Slim, Mac, Big Ed, Fiend, Mia X, and Mystikal Album: Am I My Brothers Keeper Song: Let's Go Get Em' Typed by: firstname.lastname@example.com Chorus Let's go get em' let's go get em' Let's go get em' let's go get em' dawg x2 [Kane & Abel] My click is killers In the line of fire in a pack of stuff affiliated mob figures Down with mortal combat camouflage soldier rags 44 mag And you wants to die when we ship bags and hold tags We rolling up and we holding up Boot up or shoot up and get that jaw swollen up Killer please give me some gangsta shit know the click cock it back Kane & Abel bout that combat bitch [Soulja Slim] Go get em' with split em' don't bullshit em' Hit em' with a round now the tank split em' split em' Don't let a nigga catch you slipping we camouflage Killer connection committed armed surprise Duck and die for the buster but I'm straight as a crease Heat seek don't sleep when my trigger finger tweak Bloody bodies in the streets somebody call brand nino Cause seeing dead gifts make my day card [Mac] Now what y'all know about Mac cause I'm murder murder Flip em' like Burger King workers be flipping burgers And I'm finger fucking till them niggas bust back With the hollows it's been more dead then the others around follow Now bite the bullet and swallow I was tattooed with a broken wine bottle Never die that's been my motto since 14 lottos Got to get em' before they get em' cause if they hit me I'm gone Skinny niggas don't love long with a bullet in their bones Chorus x2 [Big Ed] Now when I say Big Ed you say assassin Big Ed assassin What's up what's happening I keep my trigger finger blasted tank ready to roll Picking up soldiers from rich now bringing them to the N.O. Nigga I'm bout mine I got nines wiser up Swolled up tagged up tagged up not giving a fuck Nigga I'm wit' it to bring the ruckus Busting if you touch this a No Limit soldier still got more dick than busters [Fiend] It's a disaster blast em' specialization retaliation Fuck who I'm facing boy bring the caroltation Consultation begins to happen when I'm rapping We gon' see who really asking when my hammer gets to smacking Attacking and lacking my every vocal creates a checking I should have been got that high control before lyrical seconds I'm the insider probably the baddest Greens cornbread and cabbage Mr. watch me hit em' lit em' about to go get em' [Mia X] Here comes the biggest mamma baby what you wanna do Tank full of riders military minded soldiers Hitting you with that hater ain't gon' get up now mo' for sho' Combat where they at alright alright lets go Now you gon' start it when your click is weak When it's on we gon' give that ass a chance to retreat Verbal heart but we could take it to the streets Get em' up pull the thangs shoot em' up see yo people root em' up What what run on up and as a matter of fact Watch me put that ass down like a flag Call the colonel yeah cause we some warriors Dropping and stopping hollering lets go get em' nigga fuck we got em' [Mystikal] When it's gon' go down it's gon' go down What's gon' happen gon' happen Cause y'all know these T.R.U. niggas capping and slapping We packing and macking Y'all niggas be slacking and lacking We smacking and stacking Uh oh we blasted and laughing Where my fucking money at is what we be asking Busting on backstabers is how we be acting If I catch you ass down is one way to put it When we get it's gon' be banned from TV footage Chorus x1


text:
I'm looking for a simple way to determine the rough amount of time per day I spend on a computer. This can be a difficult task if you try to monitor processes, key presses, mouse clicks and the like, because one can be doing anything from thinking about a coding problem, reading a web article, talking on the phone, or gone off walking the dog. The computer cannot read my mind. Since I leave computers on 24/7 monitoring log-ins won't work.
I hit on the idea of logging how much time the computer spends in screensaver mode. My error would then be no greater than the product of the idle-time-to-screensaver with the number of times it goes into screensaver mode. Subtracting this from 24 hours would give me an estimate which would be reasonable for my purposes.
The problem is: I don't know how to log when the screensaver turns on and off. I am running Ubuntu 10.10 at the moment on most machines, about to start upgrading to 11.04 on some of them.
Any ideas?
[edit] After more googling I hit upon the dbus-monitor which looked like it might work, but is missing an important ingredient. Here's the script I am running which launches the monitor as a daemon:
RUNNING=`ps -A | grep "dbus-monitor"`
if [ ! $RUNNING ]; then
echo "(Re)starting dbus-monitor daemon"
nohup dbus-monitor "--profile" "type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver'" >> ${HOME}/sc.log &
Here is the output it produces after locking and unlocking the screen a couple times:
sig 1304860712 153829 2 /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus NameAcquired
sig 1304860717 318732 462 /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver ActiveChanged
sig 1304860725 547928 463 /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver ActiveChanged
sig 1304861018 17 464 /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver ActiveChanged
sig 1304862919 403523 466 /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver ActiveChanged
The second column is obviously unix UTC in seconds. The missing ingredient is it doesn't identify whether the screensaver is on or off! I suppose I could assume they toggle from the time NameAcquired happens, but it makes me queasy that there might be a missing or extra event I can't anticipate which would throw everything out of sync.
Much obliged for ideas.