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If you increase sales and generate $1 in new revenue, you may end up with $0.50 after overheads. But if you reduce a $1 overhead, it will give you the whole $1 free and clear. We'll get to the part on how you can generate 30 percent or more in administrative cost savings and a lot more in manufacturing overhead. But take a moment to review and understand all the overhead types, what resources you lose when you start cutting costs, and how to replace it without the costs.
What is Overhead?
Overhead refers to the ongoing cost of running your business which cannot be attributed to a specific product, service or business activity.
Examples include things such as rent and utilities, property taxes, insurance, accounting costs, depreciation, administrative salaries, etc. These things do not directly contribute to generation of profits in the way that direct materials and direct labor do, but they are still vital and necessary components of your organization. Or are they? We'll see.
Types of Overheads
As per generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), all such expenses can either be classifed as a manufacturing or nonmanufacturing overhead. The former refers to factory costs such rent, electricity, building and equipment depreciation, etc. Even though these costs are not directly related to production of a specific product, they must still be included in the unit cost.
As for the nonmanufacturing overhead, it includes selling, general and administrative (SG&A) and interest. Under GAAP, SG&A is not allocated to your product cost, and is reported simply as expenses in your income statement. This will include everything from rent, utilities and property tax for nonmanufacturing space to office supplies, marketing and advertising costs, interest on debt, sales amd administrative salaries, etc.
Tips for Reducing Your Overheads
This is actually about making a series of cost-cutting moves that save more money in sum than as individual measures. So you're required to do some comprehensive cost management and needs analysis.
Migrate – Initiate a review of what it would take to move your entire IT setup to the cloud. This migration to the cloud will eliminate the need to maintain IT hardware inhouse, and also the manpower required for it. You can cut IT costs and free up some nonmanufacturing space.
Teleconference – Push for virtual meetings instead of meeting clients in person and herding your entire staff into a meeting room. Video chats on Skype or other videoconferencing tools will save money and your staff's time spent on traveling and attending meetings.
So now you have even more space freed up, and you can add to this by reorganizing and cleaning out your factory, office and warehouse or storage rooms. You can now either move to a smaller facility or sub-lease the free space. Either way, you will see a reduction in your rent. But there's an even better way, explained further below.
Outsource – You can outsource everything that is not a part of your core expertise. Hand over your accounting to a CPA firm, and your marketing functions to a digital marketing agency. You can reduce overheads associated with lead generation and conversion by contracting with a sales acceleration service provider.
Whether you're the CEO of an established company or the founder of a new startup, you will have to seriously consider the advantages of outsourcing part or all of your manufacturing process. You can outsource manufacturing of the entire product, or get suppliers to manufacture the components, and just do the final assembly in your factory. You can even contract with suppliers to bring their machinery, equipment and labor to your factory to work collaboratively and produce your parts and/or product on-site.
Relocation as an Overhead Reduction Strategy
The idea is to relocate to take advantage of the lower costs, but without disrupting your business operations. For instance, many businesses in states with high taxes like California are relocating to locations in states like Florida and Texas that are more business-friendly.
By relocating to a place with an affordable cost of living and doing business, you can reduce a variety of overheads ranging from property taxes to rent and utilities.
In fact, state and local governments will be competing to offer you incentives to attract your business relocation. You can get tax breaks for a decade or more, along with free or low-cost land and buildings for your facility, affordable power, and government grants and loans too.
For example, fiber-optics company Xtellus, Inc., now a part of Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR), hired the Acclaim Group to represent them in negotiations for the renewal of the existing lease of their U.S. headquarters. Acclaim's process included identifying alternative locations to create a competitive bid process. The end result was that the existing landlord offered a reduction of $215,714 (15 percent) on the total occupancy costs of their 10,000-square-foot headquarters, but in the end Xtellus relocated to a facility in another location that offered them a $984,071 (68 percent) reduction in total costs over the 60-month lease period.
Many businesses relocate like this just to take advantage of incentives and lower costs in order to improve their bottomline. It's a much more appealing option compared to shutting down key business activities and downsizing just to reduce your overheads. If you want to find out more about the possible advantages of relocating, hire a site selection consultant to suggest and shortlist potential sites with lower costs, and then negotiate a nice incentives package for you.


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It's cute, yellow and cuddly — and now you can talk to it! One of the games that we were quite frankly afraid of at this year's E3 was the one that featured the cutest critter ever to grace Nintendo — Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. These game features a first in Nintendo gaming: a feature that lets players interact with Pokemon on a verbal level. And that's simply frightening.
Not necessarily in the "we're going to die" sense, but more in the "we're about to lose our lunch and get hooked on something mortifying" sense. Because, truth be told, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire rom are one of our heroes. And we're pretty excited to get a chance to talk to the electric rat. No, we're not wetting our pants in glee at the prospect — but it does look like it'll be pretty cool.
The game has been out in Japan for some time, and reportedly Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire really does react negatively when someone says "Nintendo" (or more accurately, "Nintend" — seriously, that's how you have to pronounce it to make Pika mad). The game really isn't a game at all — it's more of a toy. Those who wish to interact with the Pokemon simply hold down the trigger and speak into their Nintendo 3DS; when they let go a bubble of speech shoots out at Pokemon. Players can be nice or mean, and Pokemon will react differently. You can train the critter to perform tricks and even join in on the fun when Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire meets up with some buddies.
Ultimately, this isn't exactly the most awe-inspiring game coming down the line. But Nintendo definitely knows how to capitalize on a good thing, and the Pokemon franchise has been very good to the company. We expect this product to sell like hotcakes on Pokemon's looks alone — but we're also assuming that there will be some pretty innovative gameplay. At least we can hope. We'll find out when the title ships internationally. In the meantime, here are some pretty pictures of a 3D of the game.

subset: commoncrawl


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Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is a live-action web series, TV series and feature film in the martial arts film genre developed by director, fight choreographer, writer, actor and martial artist Joey Ansah; actor, writer and martial artist Christian Howard and Academy Award-nominated film producer, Jacqueline Quella. Based on the popular video game series by Capcom, Street Fighter, the story focuses on Ryu and Ken as they uncover the past of their master, Gouken, and learn the secrets of their dark art, Ansatsuken. The web series format was released on Machinima's YouTube channel on May 23, 2014.
Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist
[GVGT] Street Fighter Assassin's Fist web movie out liao!!!


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COLLEGE STATION – The Sam Houston State Bearkats got 10 kills from Brooke White, but Texas State hit .270 for the match and surged past the Kats in the final two sets for a 3-0 win in the opening match of the Texas A&M Invitational on Friday at Reed Arena.
The Bearkats (0-1) started off well, hitting .226 in the opening set and leading the majority of the way before the Bobcats (1-0) were able to mount a late rally and squeak out the win in the opener. From there Texas State hit .328 in the final two sets on their way to the sweep.
White led the way with 10 kills on 28 swings, while Jordyn Vaughn added nine and three digs. Taylor Cunningham put home seven kills and added a pairof blocks and Jaclyn Ward dished out 21 assists from her setter spot.
Vaughn delivered five of her kills in the opening set and the Kats played from out in front for the majority of the way, leading by as much as three at 19-16y after a pair of scores from Cunningham. But Texas State responded with a run of their own, tying it up a 22-22 before a Bearkat misfire gave the Bobcats a 23-22 late. Two more kills from Vaughn had it at 24-24. Ward found Cunningham for a kill that gave the Kats a set-point try, but from there Texas State managed to score the final three points of the set to take a 1-0 lead despite hitting just .111 in the frame.
The second set saw Texas State's Megan Porter score nine times on 16 swings as the Bobcats hit .341 in running their lead to 2-0. The teams traded points in the early going before a 5-1 Texas State run opened the lead up to 11-6. Vaughn got one of her three kills of the set in a Bearkat run that saw them draw back to within 14-12, but Texas State was able to stretch the lead back out and never led by less than two points the rest of the way in holding the Kats to just .179 hitting for the set.
White turned in half of her kill total in the second set, but the rest of the Bearkat roster did not fare as well. Texas State forced 11 attack errors in the set while only committing two of their own. Sam Houston opened up with a 5-2 spurt, but the Bobcats re-took the lead at 7-6 and never gave it up, closing out the set on a 10-3 run.
The Kats will wrap up Day 1 of the Texas A&M Invitational on Friday evening when they take on the host Aggies. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m. at Reed Arena and will be aired on SEC Network+ and the WatchESPN app.


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We begin the journey back into high resolution planetary imaging! This is a much different challenge. I have done some planetary work in the past with mixed results. The most important variable is seeing. To really get the details you want the atmosphere has to be like the "glass ocean" or like the ocean that is completely calm with no waves. I don't know if that ever happens! The guys who are expert with this actually live near large bodies of water. Maybe that's not a coincidence. The other problem is that planets are usually low in the sky for us here in mid northern latittudes so at these altitudes, usually less than 60 degrees the atmosphere is more dense. So tonight we are going to be at the telescope in the TSH (short for Talavera Space Hut) and let's see what happens! Certainly we have the equipment to do it. I understand most folks are using SCTs for this but RC optics should work great I would think. After all that's what the Hubble is using! We also have a great permanent mount, high frame rate USB 3 camera so no excuses there!
This video demonstrates the equipment we will be using for planetary imaging: AT12RTC scope, Celestron Skyris 132M usb 3 camera, Moonlite stepper focuser and of course our trusty Paramount ME mount!
In this video segment, the telescope is turned on, initialized and we are waiting for Jupiter to come up over the mountains!
In this video some of the basic functions of the program Firecapture are demonstrated. Use of ROI (region of interest) is explained. Live video of Jupiter as we begin the session.As it is for deep space imaging, video also should be calibrated for dust but the ROI function can also help.
In this segment we point out some additional features found in the Firecapture program. The image details are somewhat improved as Jupiter climbs a little higher in the sky
In this final sequence we are capturing an R-G-B sequence of Jupiter


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I finished my two Warmaster units of EIR archers that will also be used for other systems such as DBA BB. I should have painted their tunics in blue or green to make contrast with their bows and the flesh tone.
All pics clickable.
Here you can see a comparative among my Pendraken archers, the ones from Baccus and one base of Heroic & Ros Classic Indian archers that I painted eons ago. I wish the Baccus archers had a shooting pose instead.
Hellfire: Hell on Dodgson's World
8 hours ago


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SOCI6047 International Social Welfare
Module Overview
Debates in this area have in recent decades seen a marked broadening. Dominant economic approaches have been challenged not just by researchers interested in basic needs and poverty (eg Streeten and Gough) but also on the basis of more philosophical and psycho-sociological arguments, for example Sen and Nussbaum's work on capabilities, Layard's on happiness and Wilkinson's on inequality and health. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with these debates, assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches and evaluate attempts to operationalise them in comparative social welfare research, such as in the UN Human Development Index, the World Values Survey etc. Students will also be encouraged to use the different approaches and the data sources they have generated to assess the performance on human welfare of selected societies using a case study approach.
Aims and Objectives
Module Aims
This module seeks to explore international debates about the conceptualisation and measurement of social welfare.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- Knowledge of the range of approaches to understanding social welfare.
- Ability to critically analyse the debates surrounding the conceptualistion and measurement of social welfare
- Ability to explain the comparative successes and failures of different societies in promoting social welfare
- Ability to evaluate the comparative success of societies in promoting human welfare.
- Skill in the identification and use of data as a means to assess the performance of countries with regard to human welfare
1. Introduction - conceptualising and measuring social welfare 1. Welfare economics and national income 1. Basic needs and international poverty 1. Human development and the capability approach 1. Population health 1. Subjective well-being and happiness 1. Inequality 1. Sustainability 1. Researching international social welfare - data sources and their limitatons 1. Social policy and social welfare 1. Case study presentations 1. Case study presentations
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching will take place in one two-hour session per week. The format will be seminar-based, with students provided with guided readings in advance of the session, and encouraged to engage in discussion by the seminar tutor. On some occasions student might be asked to present material at the start of sessions. There will be a total of 20 seminar-based contact hours and up to 20 contact hours of tutorial support.
|Independent Study
|Total study time
Resources & Reading list
Ackerman, F. et al (1999). Human Well-being and Economic Goals.
Deaton, A. (2013). The Great Escape: health, wealth and the origins of inequality.
Nussbaum, M. and Sen. A. (1993). The Quality of Life.
Hall, P. and Lamont, M. (2009). Introduction in P. A. Hall and M. Lamont (eds.) Successful Societies. How Institutions and Culture Affect Health.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom.
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level : why more equal societies almost always do better.
Stiglitz, J.E., Sen, A. & Fitoussi, J.-P., (2011). Mis-Measuring Our Lives.
Layard, R. (2005). Happiness : lessons from a new science.
Journals. • International Journal of Social Welfare • Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
|Percentage contribution
|Coursework plan (500 words)
|Report (3500 words)
|Percentage contribution
|Coursework assignment(s) ( words)
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External


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Enquire Contact form
- Description
B&W CM Centre 2 speaker
If you want to get the most from your movies, the B&W CM Centre 2 is an ideal match for a pair of floorstanding CM9s or CM8s in larger home theatre set-ups.
The three-way centre channel speaker features a similar driver line-up to the CM9, including two 165mm paper/Kevlar cone bass drive units and a Nautilus tube-loaded aluminium dome tweeter. In order to keep cabinet height to a minimum, this speaker uses a slightly smaller 100mm Kevlar FST midrange driver.
The quality of CM Series drive units has made it possible to use minimalist crossovers throughout the whole range. The resulting gentle transition between drivers avoids the unnaturally rapid changes in dispersion that bedevil more complex designs, while the high quality components, carefully chosen after exhaustive listening tests, ensure that as little as possible gets between you and the sound of the original recording.
All CM Series speakers come with aluminium driver trims. Grilles attach magnetically, so there are no unsightly grille-mounting features to spoil the clean lines of the speaker's facade. Finish: Wenge
- Specification
Woven Kevlar Yes
Crossover Tuning Yes
Nautilus Tapering Tube Yes
Flowport Yes
FST yes
Technical features Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter
Kevlar® brand fibre cone FST midrange Flowport™
Description 3-way vented-box system
Drive units 1x ø25mm (1 in) aluminium dome high-frequency
1x ø100mm (4 in) woven Kevlar® cone FST midrange
2x ø165mm (6.5 in) paper/Kevlar® cone bass
Frequency range -6dB at 40Hz and 50kHz
Frequency response 56Hz - 22kHz ±3dB on reference axis
Dispersion Within 2dB of reference response
Horizontal: over 60º arc
Vertical: over 10º arc
Sensitivity 89dB spl (2.83V, 1m)
<1% 90Hz - 22kHz
<0.5% 120Hz - 20kHz
Nominal impedance 8Ω (minimum 3Ω)
Crossover frequencies 350Hz, 4kHz
Recommended amplifier power 30W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme
Max. recommended cable impedance 0.1Ω
Height: 218mm (8.6 in)
Width: 590mm (23.2 in)
Depth: 280mm (11 in) (cabinet only)
301mm (11.9 in) (including grille and terminals)
Net weight 18.7kg (41.1 lb)
Cabinet - Real Wood Veneers
- Reviews
- Delivery
Providing your item is in stock, the order is usually dispatched within 24 hours. Please remember that postage and packing is completely free for orders over £50*. Out of stock items will be dispatched as soon as they become available, out of stock items can take between 4 to 21 days for dispatch.
Deliveries usually take 1-3 working days. The majority of orders are sent via our couriers'; Interlink Express on a next-day-delivery service. Smaller, low value or light-weight items are normally posted using Royal Mail Recorded or Royal Mail Special Delivery.
Once your product has been dispatched, you will be notified via email and sent a unique consignment number, you can use this number at http://www.interlinkexpress.com to check the status of your delivery. If you have provided a mobile telephone number, Interlink's Predict service will notify you by text (and email) of a one-hour delivery window. If the window they suggest is inconvenient, you can change the date of delivery to a later one via text or email.
*We ship free of charge to mainland UK addresses, excluding the Scottish Highlands or 'Out-Of-Reach' Scottish locations. Please consult the post-codes below to see if your location falls within this category. If you are still unsure, please contact us on 01432 354921. We also ship to Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Scilly Isles, Scottish Isles and Scottish Highlands, however delivery to these locations will incur a charge and can only be sent via a 2-day service.
Shipping Costs Mainland UK (Next-Day) Offshore/Out-of-reach (2-day)Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Scottish Islands, Scilly Islands Republic of Ireland (2-day) Under £50 Orders £7.50 £12.50 £15.00 Over £50 Orders FREE £19.99 £29.99 Surcharge Orders £50.00 £69.99 £79.99 Saturday Delivery £12.99 N/A N/A Sunday Delivery £12.99 N/A N/A
Post codes exempt from the free delivery service include:
Scottish Highlands Post Codes: AB30-38, AB41-42, AB44-56, FK17-99, G83, IV1-28, IV30-39, IV52-54, IV63, KW1-14, PA21-33, PA34-40, PH15-26, PH31-41, PH49-50
Islands Post Codes: HS1-9, IV40-51, IV55-56, KA27-28, KW15-17, PA20, PA41-49, PA60-78, PH42-44, ZE1-3
Northern Ireland: All BT postcodes
Channel Islands Post Codes: JE, GY
Scilly Isles Post Codes: TR21, TR22, TR23, TR24, TR25
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The aim of Liberty Malaysia's Casualty Division is to provide superior Casualty protection to Malaysian and other South Asian businesses.
Our experienced staff have broad regional authority and access to significant global capacity. As a result, we can cover a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, construction, transport, wholesale/retail, financial services and more. We provide cover for USA/Canada-domiciled operations and for exports into those countries.
Liberty's integrated approach means that underwriters work closely with claims professionals and risk engineers to understand both the risk and the client's needs. All risk management assessments are based on a structured and objective analysis of each client's operations. Our risk engineers work with underwriters and clients to understand exposures, assess all potential risks and provide recommendations for loss prevention and control.
Claims management is equally critical. By working closely with underwriters, brokers and clients, Liberty's claims team delivers well-informed decisions, loss mitigation, high quality defences and reasonable settlements.


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Issue Brief - New Approaches in Renewable Energy Finance
October 24, 2012
Table Of Contents
To incentivize renewable energy generation at the federal level, the United States has focused largely on tax credits (e.g., the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit and the Business Energy Investment Tax Credit), low-interest loans (e.g., Section 1703 and 1705 loan guarantee programs), Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) for tax-exempt rural electric cooperatives and municipally-owned utilities, and the accelerated depreciation of assets (e.g., bonus depreciation and Modified Acceleration Cost Recovery System). However, typically only companies with significant and predictable tax liabilities can benefit from these federal tax incentives, which in practice means that renewable energy developers must enter into complicated financial arrangements with outside investors to make use of the incentives. The outside investors provide capital for the project and in return benefit from the tax incentives, a system known as tax-equity financing. This limits the amount of capital available for renewable energy projects and bars many investors and companies from participating directly in this market.
Indeed, capital was so scarce in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis that, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. government allowed qualifying renewable energy projects to substitute federal tax credits with a Treasury grant worth about 30 percent of the project's upfront costs. The Section 1603 cash grant, as the program is commonly referred to, was very successful but expired at the end of 2011. While the economic landscape for renewable energy projects has improved since 2009, access to capital remains a challenge for the industry.
According to the U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance, the available tax equity finance for renewable energy projects in 2012 could be as low as $3.6 billion, while Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates the 2012 tax equity demand to be $7 billion. Under the Section 1603 cash grant, an estimated $7.5 billion was accessible in 2011. The limited access to capital drives up the cost of developing renewable energy projects and restricts the number of projects that can be installed. Three policy options that could help address these problems – Master Limited Partnerships, Real Estate Investment Trusts, and Crowdfunding – are introduced below.
Master Limited Partnerships
Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) are a corporate structure defined in Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). MLPs, in their current state, were permanently codified in the IRC by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Revenue Act of 1987 as an opportunity for small investors to invest in companies which benefit from tax privileges and for companies to raise new capital. MLPs are taxed as partnerships but are traded on stock exchanges and can sell shares similarly to C-corporations. MLPs pass the majority of their income down to their shareholders. In practice, this provides tax benefits because MLPs are not taxed at the corporate level, only at the shareholder level, avoiding the 'double-taxing' of profits that occurs in C-corporations. Additionally, individual investors can purchase stock in MLPs, freeing up significant capital and decreasing the cost of borrowing for companies. Indeed, according to Felix Morgan and Dan Reicher of Stanford University's Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, the current market capitalization of MLPs is more than $350 billion and the average returns are 6 percent, which is a marked decrease from the current cost of equity for renewable energy projects.
MLPs have proven very successful at attracting investment for energy projects – indeed, such projects represent 83 percent of current MLP market capitalization. However, at the moment, the benefits of energy-related MLPs are only available to fossil fuel projects. Section 613 of the IRC requires that MLPs receive 90 percent of their income from a qualified 'depletable' resource such as coal, oil, or natural gas extraction or pipelines. In June 2012, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced the bipartisan Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act (MLP Parity Act, S.3275) which modifies the tax code to include renewable energy as a qualified resource. By amending Section 613 to include renewable energy generation or transportation fuels, as defined by Section 45c(1) and 48 of the IRC, MLPs would be able to finance and own clean energy projects. A study conducted by researchers at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business estimates that extending the MLP structure to clean energy could make an additional $3.2 billion to $5.6 billion in capital available over the next decade. An additional benefit is that, unlike the temporary Production Tax Credit, MLPs are permanent in the tax code, which provides the industry with investment certainty. Original cosponsors include Senators Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Jon Tester (D-MT). A House companion bill in was introduced on September 20 by Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Ted Poe (R-TX).
Real Estate Investment Trusts
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are companies that own, and often manage, income-producing properties and are publicly traded as liquid stocks on major exchanges. REITs were originally established under the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 1960 (H.R. Rep. No. 86-2020) to allow investors to pool assets and participate in the real estate market, which would otherwise only be accessible to large private corporations or wealthy individuals. Like MLPs, REITs pass profits directly through to its investors and are thus not taxed at a corporate level, only at the shareholder level. Avoiding double-taxation provides tax benefits for investors who receive average dividends of less than 10 percent. According to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, the market capitalization of REITs was over $450 billion at the end of 2011.
Under Section 856 of the U.S. IRC, the REIT structure only applies to companies that derive 75 percent of their revenue through real estate rent. Currently, renewable energy generation does not meet this requirement. It is possible that in the case of renewable energy, payment for electricity could qualify as rent and, therefore, be eligible for the REIT structure. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been asked to clarify if payment for electricity qualifies as rent under IRC Section 856.
For community-scale solar projects or small wind turbines, crowdfunding represents another method for investors to pool their resources to support renewable energy. Crowdfunding describes the collaboration between individuals to fund various projects or initiatives through websites (such as Kickstarter). The U.S. market capitalization of crowdfunding projects was $1.5 billion in 2011. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that the market could grow to $90 billion, and Fred Wilson, a managing partner at the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, suggests that it could be $300 billion.- Because of the high capital costs of renewable energy projects and highly regulated nature of crowdsourcing, the latter is not normally considered a potential source of equity. However, in April 2012, President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (JOBS Act of 2012, P.L. 112-106) which could have some bearing for small projects.
The JOBS Act of 2012 includes provisions to allow businesses to seek equity through crowdfunding and provide a return on investment for projects of less than $1 million. The $1 million crowdfunding cap removes many regulatory barriers, allowing community-scale solar photovoltaic or individual small wind turbines of up to about 200-kilowatts. By providing returns of between 5 to 10 percent, outside investors could also be tempted to participate in such small-scale projects.
Additionally, the JOBS Act of 2012 modifies Section 3(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 to increase the annual limit from $5 million to $50 million for public offerings which qualify for a registration exemption with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Regulation A. Under the modification to Regulation A (entitled Regulation A+), companies are allowed to solicit investor interest in freely tradable Regulation A securities (similar to traditional stocks and securities) before having to file with the SEC, which removes some costs and barriers for small businesses to attract equity. After filing with the SEC, companies can then return and offer securities to investors. Regulation A+ could help companies raise up to $50 million in equity annually – enough for a 20-megwatt wind project. The SEC must finalize and implement the revised Regulation A before February 2013, and depending on how the agency decides to proceed, it could become a useful instrument for small renewable energy projects.
Both MLPs and REITs promise to reduce the cost of capital for – and, therefore, the cost of electricity from – renewable energy generation. Presently, neither of them are options for developers and owner-operators. However, this could change with MLP Parity Act's adoption and a clarification by the IRS, allowing entry for regular investors and freeing up a significant amount of new, low-cost capital for renewable energy development. The JOBS Act of 2012 already provides renewable energy companies such as Solar Mosaic and SunFunder the ability to attract investment for small-scale projects through crowdfunding. Legislation such as the JOBS Act of 2012 and the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act demonstrate the importance of Congressional leadership in expanding the accessibility of renewable energy financing.
Author: Blaise Sheridan - climate [at] eesi.org


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Solid Technology Advice For Somebody Who Runs Your Blog
You may be forgiven for believing that blogging is easy, considering the volume of people that participate. It almost appears like everybody has a blog nowadays. But you will find decisions to become made and intends to create if you need your site to have success. Take advantage of the techniques and strategies presented on this page to generate the blog that is perfect for you.
Make sure you have frequent updates. If you want to grow your readership, it is needed to inject fresh content regularly. Without more content, visitors will stop coming over to your site. Write one or more post per day.
Remember which you have a life beyond blogging. You may not desire to burn yourself out, so anticipate staying away from your website at some stage in the morning. Go for a walk with friends, or have a long bath. This enables you time to return to the blog to create some quality content.
Help make your blogs short and snappy. While you still need to supply enough detail to inform your potential customers, overly long and wordy posts will bore readers and drive them. Blog readers typically aren't thinking about reading an issue that gets caught up in details. They would like to reach the heart from the matter!
Create your blog's email list as soon as possible. Should you make the list early enough, it is going to have ample time to grow. Later on, this can be used list to produce more income. Not starting your subscriber list immediately is actually a mistake.
It is very important that you blog about something which interests you. By blogging about topics for which you have got a real interest, you will convey greater believability and authority. This will translate well to your readers, increasing their persistence for return.
Write more informally to get a blog than you will to have an article or business report. Your blog is supposed to be fun and engage your readers, not preach in their mind about something. Ensure your site content reflect that. For those who have fun and treat readers as equals instead of writing formally, readers will feel a connection to you and go back to your blog site.
Whenever possible, make lists of segments including your niche and keywords. Doing this will help make your content easier both for search engines like yahoo and your readers to digest, and can give your traffic an enhancement. This can be a simple yet powerful tip.
Ensure you do not approach blogging on simple terms. It really is wise to always do your research and look at it as being your company. It is possible to pick-up valuable tips from seasoned bloggers, implementing a number of techniques and strategies in your blogging approach. Maintain your momentum by continuously learning blogging methods and increasing your style.
As was mentioned earlier, blogging seems much simpler than it actually is. Most of us have opinions they would like to convey to others. Soon, though, the truth is you need to make some decisions and establish a real plan. The suggestions you possess just read will help you inside your plans.


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The Tax Management Transfer Pricing Report ™ provides news and analysis on U.S. and international governments' tax policies regarding intercompany transfer pricing.
By Andrew L. Oringer and Susan M. Camillo
Dechert LLP, New York, NY and Boston, MA, respectively
The United States Department of Labor (the "DOL") announced on March 18, 2015, a "direct" final rule (the "Final Rule") extending the time in which annual disclosures must be provided by fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans to its participants and beneficiaries by two months to disclose certain plan and investment-related information.
Under the 2010 DOL regulation governing participant-level disclosure1, fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans, such as 401(k) plans, are required to provide, among other things, disclosure relating to plan fees and investment options "at least annually," for each 12-month period, after a participant could first direct investments.2 The DOL, in Field Assistance Bulletin 2013-02 ("FAB 2013-02"), subsequently made it clear that the disclosure must be given at least once in any 12-month period, without regard to whether a plan operates on a calendar- or fiscal-year basis.
At the same time, the DOL recognized the concern that such a rigid disclosure requirement may impose undue administrative burdens on plan fiduciaries. The DOL in FAB 2013-02 solicited comments on whether more flexibility was needed in respect to the annual disclosures.
In response to comments advocating for added flexibility, the DOL has now revised the definition to require annual disclosures "at least once in any 14-month period" rather than any 12-month period. According to the DOL, this revision "achieves the correct balance by ensuring that participants and beneficiaries will receive annual disclosures on a consistent and regular basis, and without unwarranted delays in-between disclosures, while at the same time offering plan administrators some flexibility."
The Final Rule will become effective on June 17, 2015, unless significant adverse comments are submitted by April 20, 2015. However, the DOL stated in the Final Rule that, for the period during which this rule change is being considered, it will as an enforcement matter treat a plan administrator as satisfying the timing requirement for annual disclosures if the necessary disclosure is made within the new two-month grace period, provided that the administrator reasonably determines that doing so will benefit participants and beneficiaries. Therefore, plan fiduciaries preparing for 2015 disclosures prior to the effective date will satisfy the Final Rule if the disclosures comply with the new 14-month requirement (provided that the fiduciaries reasonably determine that doing so will benefit participants and beneficiaries). The temporary enforcement policy would expire upon the effective date of the Final Rule.
If you have any questions about the Final Rule or participant-level disclosure generally, please contact one of the Dechert attorneys listed above or any Dechert attorney with whom you regularly work.
Thank you to Aaron S. Cha for his assistance with this publication.
For more information, in the Tax Management Portfolios, see Kushner, 361 T.M., Reporting and Disclosure Under ERISA, Horahan and Hennessy, 365 T.M., ERISA — Fiduciary Responsibility and Prohibited Transactions, and in Tax Practice Series, see ¶5530, Fiduciary Duties and Prohibited Transactions, ¶5570, Reporting and Disclosure Requirements for Benefit Plans.
Copyright©2015 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
2 29 C.F.R. §2550.404a-5(h)(1). For a general discussion of the 2010 DOL regulation, please see our previous OnPoint, DOL Issues Final Regulation on Participant-Directed Individual Account Plan Disclosure Obligations
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text:
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Carrot Tomato soup
12 comments:
- Priti said...
Soup looking very nice dear....Congrats on your first award...
- January 18, 2009 at 5:54 AM
- sowmya said...
yummy soup..nice colour...
- January 18, 2009 at 6:10 AM
- Preety said...
i agree, soups and so healthy and we sould include them in our regular diet..thanks for sharing the recipe..sounds healthy to me &congrats for the award
- January 18, 2009 at 9:53 AM
- Sudeshna said...
Hi dear,
Thank you so much for the award.
- January 20, 2009 at 3:10 AM
- Poonam said...
Thanks a lot for the wonderful award!!
- January 20, 2009 at 4:05 AM
- Usha said...
Very nutritious soup, loved the combination of carrots and tomatoes...Congrats on your award...and thanks so much for passing it on to me :-)
- January 20, 2009 at 5:25 AM
- sowmya said...
congrats and thanks for mine..
- January 20, 2009 at 6:29 AM
- Neha said...
Congrats for ur's 1st award n thanx for passing it to me.
I too make tomato soup similarly ,just i add onions too to it..,nice color of soup..
- January 20, 2009 at 6:33 AM
- SriLekha said...
congrats on ur deserved award and thanks for passing it to me!
- January 20, 2009 at 6:42 AM
- Curry Leaf said...
Lovely and one of my favourite soups.I love tomatoes and this with the addition of carrots it has become more flavourful and healthy.
CONGRATS on your award and very happy that you thought of sharing it with me.THANKS
- January 20, 2009 at 8:51 AM
- Chitra said...
congrats on ur award:)i luv tomato soup.this carrot combination is really a healthy treat!!will try this..Make a visit to my blog at ur free time and leave ur sugggestion.will feel happy:)
- January 29, 2009 at 12:11 AM
Thanks for the recipe. It is hard to feed soups to my kids. But they liked this very much and I am happy as at the same time its nutritious.
- December 13, 2009 at 11:40 AM


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A equipe, que durante nove anos consecutivos dedicou-se ao projeto e ao gerenciamento das obras, estabeleceu contato com as principais empresas do mundo, trazendo a São Paulo um ilimitado número de elementos decorativos, ainda hoje presentes em sua arquitetura.
Apresentaram-se neste século nomes como Caruso, Callas, Ruffo, Schipa, Bidu Saião, Olenewa, Nijinski, Toscanini, Alonso, Pavlowa, Rubisntein, Gigli, Guiomar Novaes, Duncan, Tagliaferro, Fonteyn, e as personalidades que organizaram, em 1922, a Semana de Arte Moderna. Em 1951 o Teatro sofreu radical modernização, coordenada pelo arquiteto Tito Raucht. Novos pavimentos foram criados na área dos camarins, ampliando sua capacidade de acomodação. Na sala de espetáculos suprimiram-se os camarotes em todas as ordens, apenas 11 foram mantidos. Toda a área restante foi transformada em balcões.
São Paulo's cultural life entered a new period with the opening, on September 12, 1911, of Teatro Municipal, whose first attraction was the opera "Hamlet", by Ambrósio Thomas. The firm Francisco Ramos de Azevedo was responsible for building its facilities, which were designed by the Italian architects Cláudio Rossi and Domiziano Rossi.
The project took nine years to be completed, and the team responsible for it got in contact with companies from all over the world, making use of an endless number of decorative elements which today are still part of the theater's architecture.
The theater has already been home to several artists: Caruso, Calllas, Ruffo, Shifa, Bidu Saião, Olenewa, Nijinski, Toscanini, Alonso, Pavlowa, Rubisntein, Gigli, Guiomar Novaes, Duncan, Tagliaferro, Fonteyn, in addition to the organizers of Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week), in 1922. In 1951, Teatro Municipal went through a radical modernization coordinated by the architect Tito Raucht: he built new floors in the areas previously occupied by the dressing rooms - now it has 11 dressing rooms - and the remaining area was transformed into balconies.
Overview and HistorySao Paulo is the biggest city both in Brazil and the southern hemisphere, even bigger than Rio. It's mega-sprawling like Los Angeles. By some estimates Sao Paulo has 27 million people, surpassed only by Tokyo. If Godzilla would only win for once, Sao Paulo might become THE biggest city. Whoa!Sao Paulo is the financial center of South America, and in turn its center is the stock exchange downtown on Paulista Avenue. Here's the 1892 viaduct linking the old downtown with what later became the new downtown.Sao Paulo was founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1554. The economy here began with coffee exports from plantations worked first by slaves and then by European immigrants. The Mansion of Rosas, from 1930, is one of the last big ones built during the wealthy coffee period.Brazil is part of the "Mercosul" business community,which is the Common Market of the South. This is a trade zone roughly equivalent in purpose to the EU, African Union, Asia-Paficic Economic Cooperation, or the Security and Prosperity Partnership in North America.It snowed once, in 1918.The city government of Sao Paulo is located inside the Palace of the Bandeirantes. The Palace is named after the legendary Bandits who fought deep into the middle of South America, to expand the territory of Brazil in the eighteenth century. Here's a look at the interior, too.With all this commerce and activity flying around, it's natural that Sao Paulo is a huge center for business tourism. The city has the capacity to host hundreds of conventions PER DAY at any of the hotels, conference centers, sports arenas, etc. Here's an auto exhibition in the Anhembi Park Pavillion.But there is still a lot of history to explore here, even in the middle of the high-tech world around you. Anchieta Museum was originally a school for teaching religious subjects to native Brazillians, built 1554.The University of Sao Paulo's College of Law was founded in 1827 and is the oldest law school in Brazil. Twelve Brazillian presidents and countless other administrators have attended.Getting ThereSao Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport is a small city all by itself. It's got 53,000 employees and the only bigger cargo hub nearby is in Mexico City, man!Travel to the airport by bus takes about 45 minutes, you can rent a car there or park in the long term parking lots, as usual for any large airport city with 53,000 employees.Traffic can get gnarly so allow plenty of extra time to get to the airport when it's time to leave. Remember, 53,000 people can make a decent little rush hour all by themselves.TransportationFirst, some scenery with style: here's the Julio Prestes railway station now converted into a concert hall. The Station of Light or Estacao de Luz connecting with the metro system and also housing the Museum of the Portugese language. The Boiler House, a recovered industrial space now used for cultural events.There is a metro system here but it is not as comprehensive as in a place like Tokyo. Buses are the main way to get around, along with street taxis and radio-dispatch taxis. The latter are more reliable if you're not fluent in Portugese yet.People and CultureOverall, Sao Paulo is the most ethnically diverse city in Brazil, and it has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan (Liberdade neighborhood).And what do these diverse people do to celebrate? They have Carnaval!Brazil has the best Carnavale in the world. There's no way in hell we can come anywhere close to describing it, not even with panoramas and thousands of words plane tickets caiparinhas and a jar of tiger sweat. Preparations alone go on for weeks.It happens for 4 days before Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent, when people must give up the pleasures of the flesh.There are lots of other major events happening here throughout the course of the year.The annual Sao Paulo gay parade attracts upwards of 1.5 million people, and it's not just a little afternoon thing. The events surrounding the parade take up an entire month with street fairs, film festivals and crazy parties. This is the world's largest LGBT event! WORLD's LARGEST!Sao Paulo fashion week attracts designers from all over the globe, and the Festival of Electronic Art invites digital media-makers to assemble en masse and tweak parameters together.Sports fans pay attention! The Brazillian F1 Grand Prix is on a level with the Tour de France or the Kentucky Derby in world sporting. Drivers don't love the bumpy streets but fans come out in droves to watch, and 99% of them survive.Things to do & RecommendationsWell, you've got twelve thousand restaurants, seventy museums, two hundred cinemas, and fifty theaters to choose from.The Municipal Theater has the distinction of being the place where Hamlet was first performed, bringing Shakespeare to Sao Paulo as of 1911.Shopping? Check out Oscar Friere street for Godiva, Versace, Armani and all of Louis Vuitton's other friends.After you get thirsty from carrying all those bags, dip into Campos do Jordao for a cold beer. They brew their own.A few gallery pointers -- State Art Gallery with modern exhibits from the 19th century until now, MASP Museum of Art Sao Paulo, Tomie Ohtake Institute for gooey plastic hyper-modern stuff.For Nature and wildlife... well I guess the rainforest pretty much wins in this category, but on your way into the jungle you can poke your head into the Sao Paulo Aquarium.Right within the city there's some nice green space in Ibirapuera Park. Two square kilometers and it's still only the second biggest park in the city! Get ready for this list of what it contains: a planetarium, Astrophysics School, Villa de Osos Bacalao (a building shaped like a horse!!), five convention-center pavillions, Air Force Museum, Agricultural Palace, Gymnasium, running tracks, Obelisk and fourteen million blades of grass.Cool local favorite pub: "Jazz in the Deep Ones" where you can find live music and no liquor laws.Lastly, how many times do I have to tell you? Go up to the top of the tallest thing you can find and look around. It'll be worth more than anything you can buy.Text by Steve Smith.


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The Hotel de Russie Roma is located in the heart of the city between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. All the key tourists' sights and fashion houses are within easy walking distance of the hotel. The hotel offers fine food and excellent facilities dispensed with utmost dedication to the highest levels of service.
The extensive terraced gardens provide a tranquil oasis amidst the bustle of central Rome. Large photographs of flowers by the famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe adorn the walls, which, along with the upholstery, are done in very delicate pastel shades. Some of the facilities include a health club and spa with hydro pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, Turkish steam bath, beauty treatments and gym.
Via del Babuino 9
00187 Rome, Italy
Phone:+39 06 6328881
Website: www.hotelderussie.it


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The Volcano Road leading to the crater rim is approximately two miles. Trailers and towed vehicles are prohibited.
Because the road has no shoulders, bicycles and pedestrians are only permitted when the road is closed to vehicles after park hours.
Snow, ice, and/or severe thunderstorms can also close the Volcano Road.
Current road conditions are available by calling the monument at 575-278-2201 ext. 302.


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42 (2013)
This biopic focuses on the relationship between baseball icon Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, who signed Robinson and in 1947 made him the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era.
Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000)
This enduring animated series for kids stars supersized pooch Clifford and his owner, Emily Elizabeth, who convey valuable lessons to young viewers. Clifford's canine pals Cleo and T-Bone are on hand to add to the fun.


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New-Model History
Valerie Pearl
- The City and the Court 1603-1643 by Robert Ashton
Cambridge, 247 pp, £10.50, September 1980, ISBN 0 521 22419 5
The 'major reinterpretation' of City and Crown politics, promised by Professor Ashton in his book on the English Civil Wars, and long awaited, has now been published in a slim volume covering the years from 1603 to the outbreak of the Civil War. Put briefly, his theme runs thus.
The city fathers, defenders of monarchy, not Parliament, under James I, and again allied to the Crown from the autumn of 1641, were nevertheless temporarily 'alienated' from their natural ally during the 1630s. The City was estranged as a result of Royal attacks on municipal and corporate privileges which have long featured in our histories. As Clarendon, the first and greatest historian of the time, wrote of Charles's relations with London: 'the city was looked upon by the crown as a "common stock" not easily to be exhausted and as a body not to be grieved by ordinary acts of injustice.' The city's later Royalism, Ashton tells us, should be attributed to the radical events of 1640 and 1641, and not to a long-standing and continuing alignment. By the end of the 1630s, the city fathers were 'as alienated from royal policies as was the vast majority of the political nation'.
According to the author, this 'new model' does not rest on fresh evidence. It is another way of looking at events which were treated briefly in my book on London and the Outbreak of the Puritan Revolution (1961), but which have been familiar to historians since the days of S.R. Gardiner and W.R. Scott. While the incidents do not themselves amount to 'irrefutable proof', the author tells us, they do suggest that such incessant attacks 'alienated' the city fathers and caused them to enter into an alliance with the Parliamentary leaders. Since the force of Ashton's case for a political realignment rests on the piling up of unconnected incidents, it is important that each of them should be placed in context and studied from the original documents. It is also important that each episode should be solid enough to sustain the construction placed upon it by the author. Let us look at a few of these episodes.
One of the most significant organisational changes in the gilds in the Early Modern period was the rise of the yeomanry, of which a scholarly study is badly needed: such a work would greatly enhance our understanding of the position of the small master and artisan in London society. The context of events in which the yeomanry wrested their not inconsiderable concessions from the liveries is not touched upon in this book. A dispute in the Goldsmiths' Company in 1529 relating to that change is wrongly described by Ashton as a dispute within the Livery over the powers exercised by the Court of Assistants. In fact, the Livery was not divided and the dispute was not about the Court of Assistants. The conflict concerned the struggle of the 'young men' outside the Livery for constitutional and financial benefits, and culminated in the creation of the yeomanry. The Goldsmith Court Minute Book leaves no doubt as to the true nature of the episode.
I suggested in my book that in the 1630s the City was more favourable to the Royal plan for rebuilding St Paul's than to the radical Puritan Feoffees of Impropriation. Ashton throws doubt on this. It should not be thought, he tells us, that the City's contribution to St Paul's was eagerly donated, or that it raised any considerable sum: the Royal expectation of generous contributions was sadly disappointed. The reader is left to conclude that in this important matter, so dear to the heart of Archbishop Laud, the City failed to raise the necessary cash. But this was not so. The City responded with enormous generosity. By 1636, the national fund amounted to nearly £56,000, most of it raised in London. The money enabled Inigo Jones to rebuild the west front of the cathedral and to restore the choir – work which was not pulled down until 1687, having been weakened by the Great Fire. By contrast, the Puritan Feoffees of Impropriation, which Ashton hints were not necessarily distrusted by the City, raised little more than a paltry £6,000 in citizen contributions over the eight years of their existence – a sum which hardly suggests that rich merchants preferred that radical organisation to the rebuilding of St Paul's.
There is evidence on other policy matters contained in the City Lands Committee records, company records and repertories and journals indicating that the Crown and City were not so far apart on municipal policies as Ashton implies. Take the City's attitude to new building. One supposed clash, on compounding with offenders by fine, was not unknown in the practice of the City Lands Committee, which made the same kind of distinction as did the Crown between 'rich' and 'poor' developers, permitting the former to fine while demolishing the buildings of the 'poorer sort'. It was not the City, as a quick reading of Ashton might suggest, but Parliament which complained of 'the sale of pretended nuisances' in the Grand Remonstrance of 1641.
The most disappointing feature of the book is the failure to ask questions prompted by recent and current thinking. Can we assume, as Ashton does, that political choice or stance, in a time of crisis, can be explained by individual clashes of interest? Before the 19th century, and even after, perhaps, there are surely few important conflicts in political life which were not mainly determined by more general cultural considerations. Notions of social cohesion, loyalty to the Crown or to other institutions, traditional allegiances, attitudes to social inferiors, competition for privilege and power, and so on, were more likely to be crucial than consideration of economic benefit or profit by itself. Even in our age of economic man, individual clashes of interest rarely by themselves dictate political allegiance.
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Vol. 2 No. 2 · 7 February 1980 » Valerie Pearl » New-Model History
pages 8-9 | 4044 words


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OK, it may not be spring but there's something about a new season that gets us in the mood to purge. Whether it's a dig through the legendary kitchen junk drawer or a wardrobe cull, we're on board with a little Kondo-ing. Our new favourite thing, though? Taking a broom to our everyday life. We're not just talking about finally resolving to make your bed on the regular or finding the fire to make yourself a green smoothie every morning: we're talking about a deep cleanse of your day to day.
Here are our favourite ways to streamline our daily lives:
Write an irritation list
Are you more likely to write a complaint letter than a thank you note? Somehow, less avocado on your brunch plate is a stronger motivator to speak to café staff than an exceptionally good cappuccino – but don't deny this silent motivator, use it.
Write yourself an 'irritation list': a place where you can freely complain and evaluate the things in your life that you don't like and wish to change, then work on reversing it.
Notice how you talk to yourself
We all know the unwanted power of self-sabotage, so isn't it time you start being a little nicer to yourself? While negativity might work for your irritation list, it doesn't work as well when you turn it on yourself. Self-focused negativity never helped anyone – try these techniques to turn it around.
Don't flit, focus
There's no bigger enemy to a job well done than an inability to focus. At work, try and develop some every day methods for tackling deep focus tasks rather than keeping up the illusion that you're successfully 'multi-tasking' (it's a myth, by the way). Block out a few hours per week to get deep into the work you actually need to do and tip your colleagues off in advance, so they know not to bother you during that time.
Rethink your routine
Small tweaks and changes to your daily routine can equal huge improvements. It's not about 'saving time', it's about prioritising what you consider important. (This Ted talk will completely change your idea of how to find time for your favourite things in life). Getting your daily routine right starts with a great evening routine to prepare you for the next day, as well as making the most of your mornings before your work day even starts. Stick to it and you'll soon reap the rewards.


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Looking to join the Barry's team?
In this industry, personality is everything and skills are teachable. This 2017 Gameday season was the best yet and we anticipate 2018 will be even better with Frost as the new head coach. With us you'll find a tight knit family, flexibility in scheduling, an awesome work environment, half off food, drink perks and more! We're always hiring for servers, kitchen and security. Show us you're committed and you might move up to bartender!
Apply Now for 2018 Positions
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KX Matrikx CTO 32-425-125-975 BB 10 inch Filter
Brand: KX Matrikx
Price: $28.99
Dimensions: 10 x 5
Weight: 3 lb
Quantity discounts:
In stock
KX Matrikx CTO Carbon Block water filter # 32-425-125-975 is KX Matrikx Big Blue water filter, a 10 x 5 inch 5 micron cartridge designed to reduce chlorine, taste, odor and sediment. Water Filter Cartridge fits most standard 10"x5" filter housings.
KX Matrikx +CTO Filter 32-425-125-975 Features:
The KX Matrikx CTO water filter for Big Blue housings, part number 32-425-125-975 , uses extruded activated carbon to remove chlorine, taste and odor, sediment and organic chemicals that contribute to bad taste and odor. Filter also provides a dirt holding capacity of a 5-micron sediment filter (10 micron absolute). Flow rate 6 GPM, change cartridge every 6-10 months.
KX Matrikx CTO filters are made of an extruded activated carbon with ion exchange filter medium used to reduce soluble lead. Offers exceptional cost to performance value. The carbon extrusion manufacturing process allows the production of carbon block with more carbon, and lower pressure drop.
KX Matrikx CTO Carbon Filter is manufactured from high purity acid washed activated carbon. It is ideal for use in residential and commercial water purification systems, food service.
KX Matrikx CTO BB Water Filter Properties
Micron Rating: 5 micron nominal
Flow rate: 6 GPM ( gallons per minute ) at 6.5 PSI drop
KX CTO 10x5 Filter Cartridge Features
The KX MATRIKX CTO BB WATER FILTER is Tested and Certified by NSF International under NSF/ANSI Standard 53 Turbidity and Cyst reduction.
Replacement Filter will fit into Pentek, Ametek, US Filter, Kleen Plus, American Plumber, Crystal Quest and other filter housings that take a standard size 10"x4.5" cartridge.
Filter should be changed every 6 to 10 months.
Manufacturer's Product Number: KX Industries Inc. 32-425-125-975 , 32-450-10-GREEN, KXM10
|KX Matrikx CTO Carbon Block Data Sheet (pdf)


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Professor arrested for drugs, arms possession in Peshawar
PESHAWAR: Police on Tuesday arrested an assistant professor of a university in Peshawar for allegedly possessing drugs and recovered weapons from his vehicle, ARY News reported.
Bashir, a professor at Islamia College Peshawar, was told to pull over at the Regi Model Town check post. Police searched his vehicle and reportedly recovered 20 grams of 'ice' (crystal meth) and another 150g of hash.
Police said that Bashir tried to prevent himself from being arrested. They also recovered two pistols from his vehicle. Bashir was arrested after a First Information Report was launched against him. Police had cordoned the entire area to arrest him.


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"Patresa Hartman has been a breath of fresh air in the Des Moines musical landscape. Someone who's so humble and dismissive of her own talents would ordinarily make one weary and on the lookout for signs of disingenuousness. But Hartman is as earnest as the day is long, and that's the trait that shines through the strongest in her singing. Whether she's singing about relationships, aging or the longing for a simpler time, Hartman believes every iota of what she's selling you, and that makes you believe it, too... It's just a woman and her guitar, over and over again, and you never want it to stop. Hartman's a clever writer, an honest story teller and a beautiful singer."
- from Chad Taylor in a Cityview Magazine review
"Hartman is proudly carrying the torch of the Iowa Sound that dates back decades. Artists like Greg Brown, Dave Moore and Bonnie Koloc should be happy to know that Hartman is continuing the roots tradition they established while cutting her own distinctive groove into the Iowa landscape."
- from Joe Lawler in a Cityview review
"Patresa Hartman brings the mature and soulful voice of a woman who has something to say.
"Performances are driven by a dynamic set of original songs in what Hartman calls "soul-folk" style. Taking turns behind the guitar and the piano, Hartman's compositions and delivery meld musical flavors of soul, blues, folk, and even contemporary country. Listeners have compared her to Adele, Ingrid Michaelson, Ani Difranco, and Bonnie Raitt. Confessional lyrics and heart-opening melodies weave together with relatable storytelling to make every performance an intimate one and every audience a gathering of friends."
- from Kyli Selburn on the DMMC (Des Moines Music Coalition) website
Patresa - Acoustic Guitar, All vocals
Jenny Kohls - Electric Guitar
Renee Potts Flanagan - Drums
Gavin Moore - Bass
Rachel Gulick - Trumpet
|Photo by Melissa Stukenholtz
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Labels: 2010s, 2016, Des Moines, Des Moines area, Ep 042, folk music, Gavin Moore, Iowa Music Showcase Live, Jenny Kohls, Patresa Hartman, progressive soul, Queen of Everything (song), Rachel Gulick, Renee Potts Flanagan


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So here is my next project
I hear its really fast and easy- can't wait to get started.
So here's the fabric I'll be using for M6844. I'm so bad with the names of fabric.
I do know that it's stretchy, draps well, and think it will be perfect for this project.
It reminds me of a thinner version of the ponte knit fabric- not as thick and it has little specs of glitter.
I'm thinking I should have bought enough fabric to make a coordinating skirt, but IDK, we shall see.


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Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is a playable technology showcase that introduces High Dynamic Range lighting to the Source engine. It is included with Half-Life 2, purchased on Steam. Originally planned as a section of the Highway 17 chapter of Half-Life 2, Lost Coast follows Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman as he travels up a coastal cliff to destroy a Combine artillery launcher in a monastery, which is firing on a nearby town.
So u liek totul gaingsta ho is new 2 city 2 bcuz cumbeans transfered u, but blak nigerians distroid train so u mst survaive city 2 n escaipd it
da kool kidz of city 2 education
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- Tom Johnston at the Official Opening of Nostie Bridge Power Station
- Nostie Bridge
- South West Ross
- ROSS: Lochalsh
- 21 December 1948
- 1940s
- Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre
- 8439
- hydro-electric
Nostie Bridge
Tom Johnston
Miss Dorothy MacRae
generating station
Backed by local dignitaries and members of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, Tom Johnston makes a speech to mark the official opening of the hydro-electric power station at Nostie Bridge. Earlier that same day, Johnston and Hydro-Board members performed a similar ceremony at the power station in Morar, Inverness-shire then travelled by steamer from Mallaig to Kyle of Lochalsh and on to Nostie Bridge.
Seeing these two stations energized was the fulfilment of Johnston's ambition and vision to bring cheap electricity to the Highlands. The Inverness Courier reported that Johnston said 'for the first time in a hundred years they were developing and marketing the economic resources of the Highlands in such a way as to provide amenity, economic profit and hope for the local population'. Johnston said that the number of households that wanted electricity was very high, with 85% in Morar, and 90% in Lochalsh of potential customers being connected. Johnston pointed out that the idea that the Highlanders didn't want electricity and were happy with the oil lamps of generations past, was refuted by the demand for electricity in these areas. Not even in the large cities was the demand for electricity proportionately so high as in these two Highland schemes.
The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric project for the Lochalsh area was situated at Nostie Bridge, six miles from Kyle of Lochalsh. Work began in 1946 after an official pole raising ceremony that May, and the station was energized in December 1948. Original plans showed two dams, but the terrain proved unsuitable, and one dam was built across Allt Gleann Udalain. The reservoir, dam and power station were constructed at the same time as progress was going ahead with the distribution network, and in laying underwater cables across Loch Duich, Loch Long, Loch Carron and Loch Alsh.
The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was established under the Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act 1943. Thomas Johnston presented the Act in the House of Commons, declaring that by harnessing 'the great latent power of the region' it would assist in remedying the ills that affected the Highlands. Johnston told the Commons that 'industries, whether owned nationally or privately, will be and ought to be, attracted to locations in the Highlands, as a result of this measure'.
Ordinary consumers would have priority, then the anticipated large power users, and any surplus energy would be sold to the national grid. Profits from these sales would help reduce distribution costs to more remote areas, and assist in carrying out measures for the economic development and social improvement of the Highlands. This famous social clause gave recognition that the Hydro Board was envisaged as an instrument for the rehabilitation of northern Scotland, not just an organization to provide electricity.
The output from the power station at Loch Sloy, west of Loch Lomond, was intended to meet the demand for central and western Scotland. The surplus energy produced here would be used to subsidise the Morar and Lochalsh projects, it being unlikely these smaller schemes could pay their way. The cost of construction of these three projects was estimated at £4,600,000
This image can be purchased.
For further information about purchasing and prices please email
Skye and Lochalsh Archives


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Remember back in 2013 when I challenged myself to be vegan for a week during Wanderlust: Squaw Valley? Surprise: I'm vegan now.
So what did I think of being (almost completely…) vegan for one week?
Overall, I really enjoyed it. I did. I didn't miss the things I thought I'd miss as much as I anticipated. I didn't even think about it. Here are some things I loved most:
- Being thoughtful about my eating choices.
- Cutting back on sneaky empty calories.
- Feeling like a solution to the problem.
- Feeling good.
- Getting creative.
Is this it? Am I going to stick to veganism now?
God I wish I had a more solid answer. I'd like to think so. I mostly want to say yes, but part of me struggles with giving up the farm culture I was raised with.
(From my final thoughts on the Vegan for a Week challenge)
It's funny looking back because I honestly really enjoyed it. I remember being at Wanderlust and certainly not feeling left out when it came to food… And that was at a small festival! Not home where I have complete control.
What changed? Well, I went to Bali for my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. This was the seed. I wanted to be vegetarian while there. At the time it wasn't really for animals, but 1) just to see if I could do it, and 2) because I wasn't about to get some weird food poisoning from bad meat in a very poor part of country (we were not in the main cities… we were waaaaay off the grid). My month of veg-munching went really well. Granted, I ate a shit load of eggs, but I was also one of the only few people who didn't get raging e. Coli poisoning. I also felt great and got fit af. But that was probably from the 3+ hours of insanity-level yoga we did everyday…
After returning from Bali I knew I wasn't going to remain vegetarian. It was a world-wind of restaurants, as my return from Bali wasn't back to normal life. I flew home, and the next morning we drove 10 hours to San Diego for my big graduation ceremony, YTT celebration, and birthday weekend. We ate and ate and ate.
I wish I could remember when, but a few weeks later I began to feel a tugging on my heart. Maybe it was because I really missed Bali, or because my connection to Earth and overall sensitivity seemed to sky rocket after my teacher training – but I felt moved to go back to eating vegetarian. During this period I never ate meat, but occasionally ate fish. I felt really good and began to have more of an ethical connection to being vegetarian.
Soon after we moved to Seattle. Our first few months here were exciting and full of an adventurous state-of-mind. As winter came things got worse. We lived in a shoebox: the three of us in a 400 square foot studio. I worked mornings and Marcus worked nights. We never saw each other. Our jobs, which we initially both liked, gradually became nightmares. Both of us became depressed. Our relationship struggled and when we did see each other it was typically him playing video games and me watching Netflix with headphones on.
I toyed with the idea of making a huge change in my life and going vegan as a resolution in order to possibly kick-start a new challenge, or happiness, in my life. The New Year came and went.
But on January 10th, I woke up on my day off feeling different. Calm. Peaceful. Reflective. The night before I had watched a video on the dairy industry and felt a tug on my heart. I began to journal about changes I wanted to make in my life, one of which was going vegan. Later I noticed the strong sense of reflection and decided to Google and see what was going on – It was a New Moon, and one that called for a lots of reflection and changes. I took it as a sign and committed.
That's how I became vegan. It was definitely not overnight like some do. It was gradual and took lots of research and education. But I swear, it was the best decision I ever made.
This is just my vegan story. I plan on writing posts on how I made the transition into veganism (with tips!) and then another on the benefits I've experience since going vegan. So look out for those!
xo Kale


text:
1.(slang) a combination of two words: Unit, and Genitalia; Used in reference to the male organ, or the Penis.
While i was sleeping that sneaky bitch shaved my unitalia, and when i woke up this morning my junk was as bald as ya baby sister's box.
by Adolf Hitler jr. April 04, 2003


text:
The Okomeya Rice Shop is a low-cost, one-person storefront in Tokyo with a goal of bringing life and business back to the shopping strip it resides on. The design of the tiny shop is sleek and contemporary and functions not to make a huge profit, but to simply breathe life back into the area.
Built in a space that formerly hosted a grocer close to Tokyo's Togoshi Koen station, the Okomeya Rice Shop was designed by Schemata Architects for Owan Ltd., a local initiative hoping to invest in low-cost businesses along the shopping strip to prevent it from becoming a "shutter street" of closed shops.
The Okomeya Rice Shop is a clever urban development project, inspiring community in many ways, especially cooperation between it and other small neighboring shops.
Urban Development Pop-Ups
More Stats +/-
Art Gallery Eateries
Understated Restaurant Boutiques
Surreal Poolside Pop-Ups
Bank Branch Pop-Ups
Streetwear Archive Pop-Ups
The Okomeya Rice Shop is Aiming to Revitalize This Shopping Street
- By: Rebecca ByersMar 9, 2015
References: schemata.jp & popupcity.net
References: schemata.jp & popupcity.net


text:
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text:
Working full time while depressed can be a real challenge. It's even more difficult when you're stuck in a corporate office. That's where I'm at right now. I've always imagined myself being self-employed but just never knew what to do. Because of that I've been stuck working in corporate hell until I figure something out. Corporate life already sucks for some of us but when you're depressed AND have dreams of getting out of the 9-5 life it can be crushing.
Sure, a full-time job isn't all bad. Steady income, plenty of people to talk to, growing opportunities, blah blah blah. The problem is that while you're guided to think you're doing it for yourself you're really doing it for someone else. Yeah, you're busting your ass so someone else can grow THEIR company, not yours. Not all of us are okay with that, and it is certainly okay if you are, but for those of us who let our own minds defeat us all day the office life is like living in mud.
I live for Saturdays. All week I'm just dying to get there. I don't get excited about much else. (That hurt just to type out.) I'm in school for what I used to think would be a great career but really, unless I find a way to do it independently, I'm just training for another corporate job. A life of servitude. I dwell on what I could be doing. Maybe I could use my degree to find a way to be self-employed. Maybe I can find other means. The problem is that I'm in a rush to find whatever that thing is so I never stop to really think about what I would enjoy doing. If I force myself into something I could still be unhappy.
I've been trying to make myself relax and just think about ideas and work slowly on improving myself instead of rushing into the first thing I think of. I'm trying to get myself to come to terms with the fact that it will take some time before I reached my ultimate goals. With that being said I'm actually a little calmer and I'm starting to look at all of my options more realistically. I have been able to narrow things down and see what are plausible opportunities. I'm also finding out what my true passions are. That feels like progress.
If you're feeling stuck right now and want something new, I know this sounds counter-intuitive but slow down and just let yourself think about where you're at and where you want to be. The rat race of normal life can be overwhelming for people like us and you're probably dying to get out. You can, you just have to take little steps. If you see little bits of progress let that be your motivation to keep going. A strong word of caution: do NOT get stuck in the habit of wishing for overnight change. That puts the pressure of the entire plan on you and you will get overwhelmed and quit. Just take little steps. Even if you only work toward your goal for 1 minute a day. You'll see little bits of progress and not only will you feel good about the work you've done, you'll also feel more hopeful about your future.


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When I was in graduate school, I went to a local restaurant for a sub sandwich, and saw someone that I knew. Well, I really didn't know him, but I had heard him perform as a musician.
As a matter of fact, he was a Christian, and his music performing was centered on Christ. I attended and enjoyed many of his concerts, owned some of his recordings, and was interested to see him outside of his performing venues.
I had completed most of my meal when he arrived, but I watched him as he came through the line and made his choice of meats and vegetables for his sub sandwich. Would he have the whole wheat? Mayo? Cucumbers? Would it be with cheese and oregano?
He took a seat across the restaurant from me. I thought I might walk over and talk with him for a while. I knew some of his friends and family. We had common interests in music and ministry. But before I could move, he bowed his head and prayed for a minute before eating his meal.
He discreetly took a few moments; moments that I'm sure had become a regular, daily custom in his life. This wasn't for show. He was alone. He didn't even know that I was there, watching.
He wouldn't recognize me anyway, but his silent testimony for a relationship with the Lord ministered to me that day. His actions spoke volumes of who he was. He was living out his faith. He bowed is head in a public place and thanked God for the gift of a meal, for the gift of money to pay for his daily needs.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." That day, I saw a Christian who wanted to acknowledge His need for the Lord, and thank God for the provision given him. He was practicing the presence of God, and living out the principle of "praying without ceasing."
I could sense that his faith was real and genuine; his music, and the songs that he sang were from his heart. He trusted in Jesus.
I never talked to him that day, but I was encouraged in my faith by his example. I began to ask myself if my life would speak strongly to anyone. What would my life tell others about my relationship with Jesus?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and love Him. Be real, even in the times that you are seemingly alone. If you trust in the Lord and love the Lord, people will see Jesus in you.


text: We are now happy to announce that you can get your ScrappyBot kit in more than just gray. The kit is still $30 (or $40 to include a servo). The kit comes with everything you need to build a basic robot that can be controlled with your Smartphone. It is easy to extend your robot wherever your imagination takes you!


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I'm really into my businesses. I have vision, and am articulate, and am passionate.
I interview a few people each day for new positions, and instead of probing their personalities and talents, I go on and on about my business.
It hypnotizes people. I may as well admit that I have a talent for sucking people into my world. I have a vast and detailed visualization about what my world is, and what it could be. It's seductive. It's a great world. I want to be a part of it. You would want to be a part of it. Everybody wants to be a part of it. Give me a few moments, and you will ask for more moments, until we will be dreaming about our certain future.
I can convince you, because I am convinced. My dreams are crystal solid. You will love my dreams. Around me you will start to smell and touch my dreams. You will want to be a part of making them happen.
This isn't a talent I tried to develop. It's an offshoot of optimism and belief in my own projects. I'm not manipulative. It's totally genuine. But back off a bit, and it's way manipulative. I'm really, really good at inspiring people.
It's got to be unconscious skill. When I interview applicants, they wind up wired and inspired. Geared up and pumped up. They want to work here, and they want to work for me. Over the next few months they want my feedback. They want performance reviews. They want interviews. I'm the big pappa, and they want my time.
Surely I'm doing the inteviews all wrong. I'm not asking enough questions. I'm not filtering well.
I am so personally inspired, I can't stop myself from talking about how inspired I am. In every little detail. It rubs off. I could go on for hours, but it's really interesting stuff, and people don't get bored. They get more and more interested.
This is an obvious humble-brag. It's a good talent. But I wind up having to fire people that were not properly screened.
As my team grows, it gives me momentum and credibility and resources. A business is a chicken and new hires are an egg; you can't hire good talent without an established business chicken. And you can't afford to pay salaries without a chicken. And if you are growing from cash flow, all business chickens are carefully grown from eggs.
So I have to hire crappy people to attract mediocre people to attract good people, all the while earning an overall profit while dragging around dead weight.
My idea at this point is to have my current mediocre talent help me screen the new hires. I can't help but blab on and on inspirational messages to the interiewees I mesh with. They get all pumped up and therefore I attract talent out of my league. My staff may be able to then screen on the second and third interviews, before the 3 month trial. After which I'll be happy to fire.


text: RAV Online Scanning ActiveX Buffer Overflow ================================================= PROGRAM: RAV ONLINE SCANNING ACTIVEX HOMEPAGE: www.ravantivirus.com VULNERABLE VERSIONS: Online Version Only DESCRIPTION ================================================= RAV Online Scanning is a free antivirus scanner for internet users. It is run on the user's browsers as an ActiveX. DETAILS ================================================= The ActiveX file called ravonline.dll has a function named browseForFolder() that can be overflowed by passing a very long string as an argument. Since the function browseForFolder() is imported from Shell32.dll, so it looks like the problem maybe lay in the Shell32.dll but not in the ActiveX itself (I am still working on that) however users that use RAV Online Scanning are still vulnerable to the overflow. WORKAROUND ================================================= Delete the old ActiveX(ravonline.dll) in the "Downloaded Program Files" in your Windows Directory. Vendor already got noticed but no response yet. CREDITS ================================================= Discovered by Tri Huynh from Sentry Union DISLAIMER ================================================= The information within this paper may change without notice. Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO warranties with regard to this information. In no event shall the author be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the use or spread of this information. Any use of this information is at the user's own risk. FEEDBACK ================================================= Please send suggestions, updates, and comments to: email@example.com


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This release is an combination of new features, porting to gtk-2.4 and bug fixing. Emmanuel, Jean and the new addition Michael Devine have added single point formatting, bubble plots, error bars, and radar plots to the charting engine. They're not quite feature complete, but it's moving in the right direction. I did a fair amount of cleanup porting to GtkAction in gtk-2.4. That made it possible to start work on rich text editing for cells. It doesn't persist yet, but the editing should work smoothly. Morten did a nice job of jumping us over to the new file selector. It looks alot nicer than the old one. He also threw in a bone for Eugenia and made the autoscroll speed a continuous function. Throw in the usual pile of patches and this release looks very usable for something so early in the development cycle.
The win32 port is almost complete. The gconf depend is getting compartmentalized and should be ready to drop out for the next release.
NOTE : This is a DEVELOPMENT RELEASE it is not supposed to be stable. May cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or severe eye strain.


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AD FS 2.0 offers institutions who are deploying Office 365 for education a really rich and effective way to provide a single sign-on experience to users. With just one set of credentials teachers and pupils can access the full range of resources that Office 365 for education has to offer.
For some institutions there are certain situations where SSO isn't fully consistent across users and devices. Helpfully, the good folks at the University of Newcastle here in the UK have come up with a workaround.
The following post represents a solution that is not supported by Microsoft.
The ADFS Farm + ADFS Proxy Farm model that we are using for Office 365 requires that the CNAME of the ADFS service has to be the same for both the ADFS proxy server farm and the internal ADFS farm (in our case adfs.ncl.ac.uk). Users 'inside' our network need to be directed to the internal farm and external users to the proxy farm.
ADFS supports multiple authentication mechanisms including the ones we are interested in, Windows Integrated Authentication (WIA) and Forms Based Authentication (FBA). It seems however that there is no way to dynamically select which one is used when a request hits the farm based on client properties. Where Office 365 is concerned a farm uses WIA or FBA
The way our network is configured means that we do not have the network model of Internal/DMZ/Internet with the split-brain DNS that the Microsoft documentation seems to expect. Our systems point at a single zone (running on BIND) which resolves both internal and external requests. As such, private IP addresses such as that of the internal ADFS Farm can be resolved (but obviously not connected to) from the Internet.
Working with our Network team we were able to get around this by creating a work around in BIND so that anyone on the Internet receives the address of the proxy farm and anyone coming from one of our internal IP ranges receives the address of the ADFS farm.
The problem for us is that only around 70% of our internal clients are domain joined and as such able to take part in SSO using WIA. The other devices may be non-Windows machines, non-domain joined Windows machines and mobile devices. Because they are coming from one of our internal address ranges they are directed to the internal WIA enabled ADFS farm and get a non-user friendly ugly pop-up box requesting authentication.
We do not think that this is a good user experience so we sought a solution which would let us provide both authentication methods to internal clients.
Possible Solutions
After discussions internally and with Microsoft we were presented with 3 possible ways to deal with this problem.
- Our Network team could define every IP range we have and point them at the relevant BIND DNS view. This is obviously an inelegant solution and would not cover all scenarios as many ranges in our environment contain both domain joined and non-domain joined clients. It would however work for wireless guests as they are on specific ranges.
- Microsoft proposed pushing out a HOSTS file to all domain joined clients pointing them at the internal farm. This not a scalable or suitable option in our environment as we have development work going on all over the University and this would essentially remove people's ability to use the HOSTS file due to it being overwritten by whatever mechanism we would put in place to the job
- The third option was suggested by a Microsoft representative on the Office 365 community forums. The ADFS Farm could be configured to read a custom attribute from the browsers User agent string. This value would be parsed server-side and if present the request would be authenticated by WIA. Other requests would be forwarded on to FBA. This was particularly attractive to us as we already use a custom user agent string value for Shibboleth authentication.
What we lacked was the expertise to implement this solution but thanks to collaboration with our colleagues as well as working with members of the Microsoft TechNet community we were able to implement something that seems to do the job for us. We thought we would share this in the event others are running in to the same problem!
Out Of The Box Authentication With AD FS 2.0
The mechanism that is used by default on an ADFS farm or proxy Farm can be toggled in the <localAuthenticationTypes> element of the ADFS web.config:
1: <microsoft.identityServer.web>
2: <localAuthenticationTypes>3: <add name="Forms" page="FormsSignIn.aspx" />4: <add name="Integrated" page="auth/integrated/" />
5: </localAuthenticationTypes>
For WIA 'Integrated' is at the top of the list:
1: <microsoft.identityServer.web>
2: <localAuthenticationTypes>3: <add name="Integrated" page="auth/integrated/" />4: <add name="Forms" page="FormsSignIn.aspx" />
5: </localAuthenticationTypes>
Implementing Selective Authentication using the User Agent String
Manipulation of the User Agent string on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome
The first thing required is to append the user agent string to browsers. This can be done in Internet explorer using Group Policy:
- Under User Configuration expand Windows Settings/Internet Explorer Maintenance
- Select 'Connection'
- In the right-hand pane, double-click User Agent String.
- On the User Agent String tab, select the 'Customize String To be Appended To User Agent String check box
- Type in the string (in our case campus-ncl).
We have this value set in the 'Default Domain Policy' though it could be set lower down.
For Firefox and Chrome things have to be done in the application deployment package. Obviously people will have to use a managed version of the product as it's not exactly a user friendly setup!
In Firefox the prefs.js file requires to extra lines:
user_pref("network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris", "");
user_pref("general.useragent.override", ", ")
So in our environment:
user_pref("network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris", "adfs.ncl.ac.uk");
user_pref("general.useragent.override", ", campus-ncl")
Chrome needs to be run with some extra switches:
--auth-server-whitelist="ADFS FQDN" --user-agent=" <actual agent string> + <customstring>
So in our environment:
--auth-server-whitelist="adfs.ncl.ac.uk" --user-agent=" <actual agent string> + campus-ncl"
Disable Extended Protection must be disabled on the ADFS Farm in IIS (for Firefox and Chrome only)
In order to get SSO working with Firefox and Chrome Extended Protection must be disabled on the ADFS Farm in IIS. Lots of information on this feature and the consequences of disabling it can be found with a simple search on the Internet.
AD FS Farm Modifications
There are 2 steps required on the ADFS farm.
- Enable Forms Based Authentication as the default method.
- Modify the FormsSignIn.aspx.cs source code file
To turn on FBA edit the <localAuthenticationTypes> element of the ADFS web.config file and make sure FBA 'Forms' is at the top of the list:
1: <microsoft.identityServer.web>
2: <localAuthenticationTypes>
3: <add name="Forms" page="FormsSignIn.aspx" />
4: <add name="Integrated" page="auth/integrated/" />
5: </localAuthenticationTypes>
Next open the FormsSignIn.aspx.cs Source Code File.
The default out of the box, the code looks like this:
1: using System;
2:3: using Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web;4: using Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web.UI;
5:6: public partial class FormsSignIn : FormsLoginPage
7: {8: protected void Page_Load( object sender, EventArgs e )
9: {
10: }
11: …
We need to add some code to the Page_Load event which will forward the request to integrated authentication if the campus-ncl user agent string is present. In order to do this we had to add System.Web to the namespace list.
1: using System;2: using System.Web;3: using Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web;4: using Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web.UI;
System.Web supplies the classes that enable browser-server communication which are needed to get the user agent string and the query string generated by Microsoft Online Services.
1: protected void Page_Load( object sender, EventArgs e )
2: {3: //Get the raw query String generated by Office 3654: int pos = Request.RawUrl.IndexOf('?');5: int len = Request.RawUrl.Length;6: string rawq = Request.RawUrl.Substring(pos + 1, len - pos - 1);
7:8: //Convert query string (qs) to a string9: string qs = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(rawq).ToString();
10:11: //Get the user agent value12: string uagent = Request.UserAgent;
13:14: //Check if the string campus-ncl appears in the User Agent15: //If it is there forward to WIA along with the Query String
16:17: if(uagent.IndexOf("campus-ncl") > -1)
18: {19: Response.Redirect("/adfs/ls/auth/integrated/?" + qs, true);
20: }21: else
22: {23: //Carry on and do Forms Based Authentication
24: }
25: }
And that's it! Anyone using a managed browser with the custom string will be forwarded for WIA and get the SSO experience and all others will get FBA.
Things to note:
- This method is not officially supported by Microsoft and there are potential issues around future ADFS upgrades (there is no guarantee that the same configuration will be in future versions of ADFS). We are also developing the fall back plan of pointing different clients and the different farms in DNS in case it is needed.
- There may very well be a better way to do this! If you find one please let us know
Special mention
Although we knew what we wanted to do we were having trouble getting the query string and putting it in a usable form (I'm not a programmer!) This information was provided by another TechNet forum member.
Are you using AD FS 2.0 for SSO?
What tips would you give any institutions looking to deploy Office 365 for education summer? Do you have a story like that you'd like to share on our blog? Let us know in the comments!