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ARLINGTON, Va. — Bumpers on 2009 models of the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 6, and Nissan Maxima performed better than their 2007 predecessors in low-speed crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Bumpers on the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu and 2010 Ford Fusion did worse than earlier models. None of the 6 popular midsize sedans earns the top rating of good in a recent series of tests designed to assess and compare how well bumpers resist damage in everyday fender-benders. The Mazda 6 improves to acceptable from marginal, with an average repair cost of less than $900 after 4 tests at 3 and 6 mph. The Accord and Sonata improve to marginal from poor. The Fusion slips to poor from marginal, and the Maxima and Malibu remain poor.
"Consumers buy midsize cars for practical reasons. There's nothing practical about a $1,000-plus repair bill after a minor bump in commuter traffic," says Joe Nolan, Institute senior vice president.
This is the second group of vehicles the Institute has evaluated under a new bumper ratings protocol based on repair costs averaged and weighted to reflect real-world damage patterns and insurance claims frequency. The Institute rates bumpers good, acceptable, marginal, or poor based on performance in 4 tests — front and rear full-width impacts at 6 mph and front and rear corner impacts at 3 mph. Each vehicle is run into a steel barrier designed to mimic the design of a car bumper, with the barrier's plastic absorber and flexible cover simulating typical cars' energy absorbers and plastic bumper covers. These tests are designed to drive bumper improvements that lead to better damage resistance in a range of real-world crashes.
"Although midsize car bumpers still allow way too much damage in minor impacts, it's encouraging that some manufacturers are designing better ones," Nolan says. He points out that the front and rear bumpers of the 2009 Mazda 6 are wider, taller, and higher off the ground than the 2007 model. The Mazda 6 is only the fourth car tested under the new protocol to earn an acceptable rating for its bumpers. The others are the Ford Focus, Scion xB, and Smart Fortwo.
"Mazda is trying to protect buyers' pocketbooks while many other carmakers are letting them take a big hit in low-speed crashes," Nolan says.
Mazda, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai improved the bumpers on their 2009 midsize cars so the bumpers would better resist front underride, which exacerbates collision damage. Bumpers have to be tall enough to engage, and to stay engaged, with the bumpers on other vehicles in collisions, even during emergency braking, or they'll bypass each other when the vehicles collide. Preventing override and underride means crash energy is absorbed by bumpers instead of pricey vehicle parts such as hoods, grilles, and fenders, or safety gear such as headlights and taillights.
The 2009 Accord, for example, has sharply lower repair costs in the full front and full rear tests, compared with the 2007 model, because its bumpers are higher than the previous version, plus the front bumper's reinforcement bar now is bolstered with metal pieces that extend upward from the bar to prevent underride. The changes helped the Accord earn a marginal rating instead of poor, but another change held back the car's overall performance. The 2009 Accord's bumpers aren't as wide as the 2007 model's, resulting in higher repair costs in both the front and rear corner tests.
Ford and General Motors made design changes that increased repair costs for the 2010 Fusion and 2009 Malibu over repair estimates for 2007 models.
"Ford fit the Fusion's front and rear with weaker bumper beams, and this had a big effect on the test performance," Nolan explains. The difference is easy to see in the 6 mph full rear test, which simulates a common parking mishap like backing into another vehicle. The Fusion's bumper buckled, which caused it to underride the test barrier, resulting in twice as much damage as the 2007 model in the rear test. In the full front test, the Fusion had $2,529 in damage, more than any other vehicle.
GM raised the Malibu's rear bumper so it's higher than on the earlier model, but it's still the lowest among recently tested bumpers. In the full rear test, the bumper underrode the barrier, resulting in almost $3,500 in damage, the highest among the midsize cars evaluated. GM lowered the front bumper, which didn't help in the full front test. Damage totaled $2,092, partly because the Malibu's front grille overlays the center of the bumper. The result is that the grille, Chevy emblem, and decorative chromed plastic trim get hit before the bumper does in this test.
"Essentially you have to go through them to get to the bumper," Nolan says. "Replacing just the front grille and emblem cost more than $625."
Ford and GM, along with other automakers who sell the same vehicles in both the U.S. and Canadian markets, no longer have to meet a tougher Canadian bumper standard. The Canadian government last year weakened bumper rules to match U.S. regulations, which require only minimal protection. The previous Canadian standard required bumpers to prevent damage to vehicle safety equipment such as headlights in 5 mph impacts. Under the new rules, full front and rear tests are run at 2.5 mph and corner tests are run at 1.5 mph.
The designs of 10 other midsize cars haven't changed since their bumpers last were tested in the 2007 model year. Performance in those tests earns the Mitsubishi Galant and Toyota Camry marginal ratings. The Chrysler Sebring, Nissan Altima, Pontiac G6, Saturn AURA, Subaru Legacy, Volkswagen Jetta, Volkswagen Passat, and Volvo S40 earn poor ratings.
Besides the amount of damage sustained in a low-speed impact, repair costs are influenced by both the price of replacement parts and the complexity of repairs. The Volvo S40's poor rating reflects recent increases in parts and labor costs. At $335 the S40's rear reinforcement bar has nearly tripled in price since 2006, while the front bar now sells for $311, up from $195 in 2006.
Bumpers are evaluated under a ratings protocol based on repair costs averaged and weighted to reflect real-world damage patterns. These averaged and weighted repair costs determine each vehicle's overall rating of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor in 4 bumper tests representing full-width and corner crashes at low speeds. Weighted average repairs must be less than $500 for a good rating, less than $1,000 for acceptable, and less than $1,500 for marginal. Repairs of $1,500 or more earn bumpers a poor rating.
Both the full front and rear test results are given double the weight of the corner test results because in the real world full-width impacts occur roughly twice as often as corner impacts. The weighted average of the repair costs determines the overall rating. No vehicle can earn a good or acceptable rating if it's unsafe to drive afterward or can't be driven at all because of headlight or taillight damage, severely buckled hoods, or a compromised engine cooling system.
©1996-2018, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute | www.iihs.org
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I've noticed quite a bit of negativity, snapiness, insulting comments and bad feeling lately, mostly in the General Lego section, and frankly I'm disappointed; I expected a lot more from certain people. So let's just all calm down - this was a great and friendly website and I'd like to see it stay that way.
So can we all just get along?
- Matt

subset: commoncrawl


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Johannesburg, city, Gauteng province, South Africa. It is the country's chief industrial and financial metropolis.
One of the youngest of the world's major cities, Johannesburg was founded in 1886, following the discovery of gold. The city was initially part of the Transvaal, an independent Afrikaner, or Boer, republic that later became one of the four provinces of South Africa. Today the city is a part of Gauteng (a Sotho word meaning "Place of Gold"), one of the nine provinces of South Africa.
The geography of Johannesburg reflects nearly a century of racially driven social engineering that reached a climax under apartheid (literally "apartness"), the system of racial segregation that obtained in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The result is a city of extraordinary contrasts, of glass and steel skyscrapers and fetid shantytowns, of internationally recognized universities and widespread illiteracy, of glittering abundance and desperate poverty. Pop. (2005 est.) urban agglom., 3,288,000.
Physical and human geography
The landscape
The city site
Johannesburg is situated on the Highveld (see veld), the broad, grassy plateau that sweeps across the South African interior. The city bestrides the Witwatersrand, or Rand, a string of low, rocky ridges that constitutes the watershed between the drainages into the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The city's elevation ranges from 5,700 to 5,930 feet (1,740 to 1,810 metres).
Aside from a few small streams and artificial lakes, Johannesburg lacks water. The city owes its location to the presence of an even more precious resource: gold. The city grew on the edge of the Witwatersrand Main Reef, a subterranean stratum of gold-bearing quartz-silica conglomerate that arcs for hundreds of miles beneath the Highveld. Most of the gold mines in the city ceased operation in the 1970s, but in its day the Witwatersrand gold industry accounted for more than 40 percent of the world's annual gold production. Remnants of the industry—rusting headgear, towering yellow-white mine dumps, copses of dusty Australian bluegum trees imported for underground timbering—still litter the landscape.
Johannesburg has a temperate climate. Summertime temperatures average about 75 °F (24 °C); winter temperatures average about 55 °F (13 °C) and only occasionally dip below freezing. The city enjoys about eight hours of sunlight per day in both winter and summer. Rainfall averages about 28 inches (700 millimetres) per annum, but the total varies considerably from year to year. Droughts are common. What rain the city receives falls almost exclusively in the summer months, often in spectacular late-afternoon electrical storms. Air pollution poses a significant problem, especially in the winter months, when thermal inversions impede the westward flow of air from the Indian Ocean. Pollution is most severe in the densely settled black townships on the city's periphery, where many residents still rely on coal for fuel.
The city layout
Central Johannesburg, the commercial and financial heart of South Africa, is laid out in a rectangular grid pattern that is unchanged from the first city survey in 1886. Streets are narrow and cast into shadow by high-rise concrete blocks, creating an almost tunnellike effect. Architecturally, the city is a hodgepodge, reflecting decades of rapid growth and a singular indifference to historic preservation. The tents and clay huts of the original mining camp are gone, as are most of the ornate, gabled Victorian edifices that sprang up in the 1890s. (Markhams Building, on Pritchard Street, is a conspicuous exception.) The early 20th century brought a variety of architectural styles and movements. Monumental Beaux Arts structures such as the Supreme Court building and the Johannesburg Art Gallery bespoke the city's new status as an outpost of the British Empire, while massive, steel-reinforced concrete blocks such as Corner House, headquarters of one of South Africa's leading mining houses, reflected the growing importance of American architectural techniques and idioms. American influence was even more apparent in the 1930s "skyscraper" movement, most notably in the 1937 ESKOM Building, a 21-story Art Deco tower built to evoke the vigour of New York City. (The ESKOM Building was torn down in 1983, joining a distinguished line of vanished landmarks.) Whatever architectural distinction the city had was lost in the decades after World War II amidst a sea of nondescript high-rise blocks.
Greater Johannesburg, an area of more than 200 square miles, comprises more than 500 suburbs and townships. Under the terms of the 1950 Group Areas Act, the cornerstone of urban apartheid (see below), each was reserved for a single "race group." The act was repealed in 1991, but Johannesburg retains a high degree of racial segregation.
Black Africans can be found throughout the city, but the majority still live in "townships" on the urban periphery, essentially dormitory cities for blacks working in the city. Alexandra township, a 20-square-block enclave carved out of Johannesburg's white northern suburbs, houses a population of nearly half a million. At least three times that number live in Soweto (South-West Townships), a sprawling urban complex 10 miles southwest of the city. Johannesburg's small Coloured population (people of mixed race) clusters in townships west of the city, while the bulk of its Indian population (ethnic Asians: Indians, Malays, Filipinos, and Chinese) lives in Lenasia, a special "Asiatic" township built in the 1950s to accommodate Indians forcibly removed from the city centre. The balance of the city is occupied by whites.
Accommodation varies in character and quality. Soweto is notorious for its endless rows of municipally built, two-room matchbox homes, yet it also has a few prosperous enclaves as well as teeming squatter camps, where tens of thousands live without water, electricity, or sanitation facilities. Black migrant workers, long the backbone of South Africa's industrial labour force, are lodged in massive, single-sex hostels located close to the workplace or on the edge of black townships. White accommodation varies from suburb to suburb. In western suburbs such as Brixton and Melville, middle-class whites live in the modest tin-roofed bungalows and semidetached homes that once housed the city's white working class. Conditions are bleaker in neighbouring suburbs such as Cottesloe, Vrededorp, and Booysens Reserve, home to most of Johannesburg's white poor. More affluent whites live in the north, in leafy, established communities such as Houghton and Parktown, once the residence of South Africa's mining magnates, or in any of a dozen newer suburbs. Northern suburban homes typically include large, flowering gardens and swimming pools. Most are surrounded by high fences.
The people
About three-fourths of Johannesburg's citizens are black, fewer than one-fifth are white, and most of the remainder are Coloured or Asian/Indian. Such figures, however, scarcely do justice to the city's polyglot population. At least a dozen different languages are in widespread daily use in Johannesburg. The majority of the white population is of English and Afrikaans descent, but the city also includes substantial Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Russian, Polish, and Lebanese communities. The black population includes representatives from every ethnic and linguistic group in southern Africa. All the world's major religions are represented, though the majority of the people, both white and black, are Christian. The most significant churches, in terms of numbers, are the "Zionist" churches—small, independent African sects that blend Pentecostal Christianity and indigenous ritual belief. Zionists, adorned in colourful robes, hold outdoor services all across the city on Sundays.
The economy
Commerce and industry
Johannesburg is a centre of mining, manufacturing, and finance. All the mining houses are headquartered in the city, as is the Chamber of Mines, which regulates the industry. Local factories in Johannesburg and on the East Rand produce a great variety of goods ranging from textiles to specialty steels. A substantial engineering sector serves the needs of the mining industry. Virtually all the country's banks, insurance companies, and building societies have their head offices in the city. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, founded in 1887 to raise capital for deep-level mining, lists more than 600 companies.
While Pretoria, the South African capital, is only 40 miles to the north, most state ministries have offices in Johannesburg. Many foreign countries retain consular facilities, largely to service the needs of overseas firms, hundreds of which operate in the city.
Johannesburg is a hub for local, national, and international travel. Railroads and multilane freeways crisscross the metropolitan area, carrying hundreds of thousands of daily commuters to and from outlying suburbs and townships. South Africa's first high-speed train, the Gautrain, links Johannesburg with Pretoria as well as stops along the way; another spur connects with nearby O.R. Tambo International Airport. A municipal bus system operates within the city, and a separate, private bus company operating under a state monopoly connects the city centre with Soweto and Alexandra. The inadequacies of the latter have fostered a burgeoning local taxi industry. O.R. Tambo International Airport, 14 miles northeast of the city centre, offers regularly scheduled service between Johannesburg and most cities in southern Africa, as well as direct flights to Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia.
Administration and social conditions
South Africa possesses a federal system of government, with authority divided between national, provincial, and local levels of government. Local authority for Johannesburg rests with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, which includes representatives from all across the metropolitan area. In extending the municipal borders to include previously disfranchised black townships such as Soweto and Alexandra, political leaders hope to facilitate some equalization of revenues and services between white and black areas.
Public services
Local bus service, fire fighting, and sanitation remain the province of the municipality, but other responsibilities—such as the provision of housing in black townships—have been assumed by the Gauteng regional legislature. Most electricity is provided through the Electricity Supply Commission (ESKOM), a national parastatal institution; privately owned power stations also provide some electricity to the city. Water is supplied by the Rand Water Board. Municipal police oversee traffic control; other policing is provided by the South African Police Services. The South African Broadcasting Corporation is headquartered in Auckland Park, west of the city centre.
Apartheid left perhaps its deepest imprint on public health. In black townships rates of child mortality are significantly higher and life spans far shorter than in white neighbourhoods. Tuberculosis, virtually eradicated among whites, remains endemic in townships and migrant hostels. Addressing such historical inequities is one of the chief challenges of the national government.
Johannesburg has numerous hospitals and clinics, designated under apartheid for use by specified race groups but now legally open to all. The best-equipped of these is Johannesburg General, a 2,000-bed formerly "white" hospital that opened on Parktown Ridge in 1978. The largest hospital in Johannesburg, and indeed in all Africa, is Baragwanath, a sprawling complex on the northern edge of Soweto; it serves more than 5,000 patients per day, placing a severe burden on limited facilities. With the end of segregation, an increasing number of whites have resorted to expensive "private clinics," where they receive treatment equivalent to that in a modern American hospital.
Primary and secondary schools range widely in character. Racial segregation, abolished in law, remains common in practice. Facilities of higher education include the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa's premier university. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines, "Wits" today confers degrees in commerce, arts, sciences, architecture, law, education, medicine, and dentistry. Also there is the University of Johannesburg, formed in 2005 when Rand Afrikaans University, Technikon Witwatersrand, and local campuses of Vista University merged.
Cultural life
Johannesburg boasts a rich, if strangely schizophrenic, cultural life. Patrons of the arts can take in a performance of the National Symphony Orchestra and then retire to one of the city's thriving jazz clubs to hear internationally acclaimed local performers, many of whom have returned to Johannesburg after long years in exile. The Johannesburg Art Gallery, established in the early years of the 20th century with donations from mining magnates, features Africa's finest collection of European Impressionists, while most of the city's dozen private galleries increasingly highlight the work of African artists. Theatre flourishes. While the 1,100-seat Civic Theatre stages European operas and American musicals, many smaller companies nurture the talents of local actors and playwrights, white and black. A visit to Johannesburg is incomplete without a trip to the world-renowned Market Theatre, a multitheatre complex housed in the city's old produce market.
The city has many museums and libraries. Johannesburg Public Library, first established in 1889, is the centre of an extensive network of branch libraries. Local museums specialize in geology, Africana, military history, archaeology, transport, banking, costume, and Judaica. Visitors interested in a taste of old Johannesburg can visit Gold Reef City, an amusement park located a few miles south of the city on the site of a defunct gold mine. Those interested in a less-sanitized version of the city's past can visit the nearby Apartheid Museum. Museum Africa and the Bensusan Museum of Photography are both at the old market.
Blessed as they are with a warm sunny climate, Johannesburgers spend a considerable amount of time outdoors. The northern suburbs feature broad swaths of open space for bird-watching and picnicking. Weekend cookouts—braaivleis, in local parlance—are a summertime ritual, especially among Afrikaners. Like other South Africans, Johannesburg residents tend to be avid sportsmen. In the years since South Africa's return from political isolation, the city has hosted international competitions in rugby, football (soccer), cricket, golf, and tennis.
The early period, 1853–1930
Johannesburg's early history is the story of gold. In 1853 Pieter Jacob Marais, a South African prospector, recovered alluvial gold from the Jukskei River, north of what would become Johannesburg. The years that followed brought several modest strikes, but the Witwatersrand Main Reef eluded searchers until 1886, when George Harrison, an Australian prospector, chanced upon an outcropping on a farm called Langlaagte. Ironically, Harrison failed to appreciate the significance of his find: he sold his claim for £10 and embarked for the goldfields of the eastern Transvaal region.
Others were more farsighted. By mid-1886 an army of diggers had descended on the Witwatersrand, hacking away with picks and shovels along a line that soon stretched 40 miles west to east. In response to this influx, the government of the Transvaal, the small Boer republic under whose jurisdiction the Witwatersrand fell, dispatched two men, Vice President Christiaan Johannes Joubert and Deputy Surveyor-General Johann Rissik, to inspect the goldfields and identify a suitable city site. The new city was called Johannesburg, apparently in their honour.
As the scale of the gold deposits became apparent, Johannesburg became the 19th century's last great boomtown. Fortune hunters from as far afield as Australia and California joined skilled Cornish and Welsh miners, who brought to South Africa a strong trade-union tradition. Destitute Afrikaners, driven from their rural homes by debt and drought, clustered in slums such as Brickfields and Vrededorp. Blacks from every corner of the southern African subcontinent migrated to the city, often in large ethnic cohorts, adding a dozen more voices to the cultural and linguistic babel. Most blacks worked on the mines, completing six- and nine-month contracts before returning to their rural homes. Others settled permanently in the swelling city, carving out niches as rickshaw drivers, domestic workers, and washermen. By 1896 Johannesburg had become a city of 100,000 people.
Conceived in avarice, the young city nurtured every species of vice. Banks and boardinghouses jostled for space with more than 500 saloons. Criminal syndicates with roots in New York City and London found fertile soil in Johannesburg. The predominantly male population provided a robust market for prostitution. "Ancient Ninevah and Babylon have been revived," a visiting journalist wrote in 1913. "Johannesburg is their twentieth century prototype. It is a city of unbridled squalor and unfathomable squander."
Consolidation of the gold industry
The gold deposits of the Main Reef, for all their uncanny dependability, were also extremely low-grade. Tons of the pebbly conglomerate had to be mined, crushed, amalgamated with mercury (later cyanide), and retorted in order to produce even an ounce or two of gold. This fact, combined with gold's internationally fixed price, produced a perennial problem of profitability, which increased exponentially as the reef dipped away to the south to depths of hundreds, and ultimately thousands, of feet. (South African gold mines would eventually reach depths of over two miles, making them far and away the deepest mines in the world.)
All these factors promoted a rapid consolidation of the industry. By the mid-1890s control of the entire Witwatersrand gold industry rested in the hands of a half-dozen massive mining houses, each of which commanded thousands of workers and millions of dollars in capital, most of it raised from investors in Europe and the United States. Control of these companies lay with a small number of so-called "Randlords," men such as Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato, and J.B. Robinson, who had made their fortunes on the Kimberley diamond fields and well understood the exigencies of large-scale industrial mining. Working under the auspices of the newly formed Chamber of Mines, the Randlords strove to establish the profitability of their industry by rationalizing production and relentlessly squeezing down costs, especially the cost of labour.
The national and international context
As the Randlords' power waxed, so did their frustration with the Transvaal government, which they regarded as too corrupt and inefficient to meet the needs of a modern industrial economy. Boer officials extracted hefty bribes and handed out valuable concessions on supplies to political allies. Worse, the Transvaal government seemed unable to enact or enforce the kind of discriminatory taxes and rigorous master-servant laws that the Randlords regarded as essential to their campaign to reduce black labour costs. As one exasperated industry expert put it, Boers lacked the ability "to understand capitalism, industrialisation and progress."
Mineowners' frustrations were stoked by British officials, many of whom were eager to see the goldfields brought within the orbit of the British Empire. (In the political economy of the day, a nation's strength was a direct function of its hard currency reserves, and the reserves of the Bank of England had fallen to ominously low levels.) In 1895, British officials tacitly endorsed the Jameson Raid, a coup attempt against the Transvaal government conceived by the mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes. When that failed, they seized on the plight of the "uitlanders"—the foreign, mostly British, miners in Johannesburg, who were denied the right to vote under Transvaal law. In September 1899 the British government delivered an ultimatum to the Boers demanding the immediate enfranchisement of all (white) uitlanders. In October 1899 the South African War (also known as the Boer War) began. When the fighting ceased two and a half years later, the Transvaal and its sister republic, the Orange Free State, were colonies of the British Empire.
British troops entered Johannesburg unopposed in June 1900. The mines, left undamaged by retreating Boers, were back in operation by the end of 1901. As mineowners had hoped, the Transvaal's new imperial overlords were sensitive to the industry's needs, rescinding Boer tariffs and concessions and enacting onerous new taxes and a pass law explicitly designed to force blacks to accept employment at whatever wages whites were willing to pay. When these devices failed to produce a sufficient pool of cheap labour, imperial officials cooperated with the Chamber of Mines in the temporary importation of more than 60,000 Chinese indentured labourers. By the inauguration of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the gold industry rested on a firm financial footing.
The local level
Racist enactments
The first decades of the 20th century were a time of extensive social engineering as municipal authorities, influenced by new currents in eugenics and city planning, attacked what they took to be the sources of urban disorder. In 1904, blacks living near the city centre were forcibly relocated to Klipspruit, 10 miles southwest of town. As had happened in earlier removals in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, the move was preceded by a plague scare and accomplished in the name of "sanitation," though it is difficult to see how the interests of sanitation were served at Klipspruit, a municipal sewerage farm. Similarly strained justifications were used in ensuing decades to relocate not only blacks but Indians, Coloureds, and even poor whites. The process was facilitated by the ideology of segregation, which emerged in the first quarter of the 20th century as a kind of panacea for South Africa's "race problem." The 1923 Natives (Urban Areas) Act, for example, defined urban blacks as "temporary sojourners," welcome only insofar as they ministered "to the wants of the white population." While Johannesburg never availed itself of the full range of powers the law afforded, it took advantage of the act to relocate thousands of blacks from slums and backyards in the city to black townships such as Alexandra or Western Areas or to the new development at Orlando East, the first piece in the vast urban jigsaw that would become Soweto. Pass and liquor raids became regular features of township life, as police strove to root out those who were "idle," "disorderly," or simply superfluous to the white economy.
Black protests
Blacks did not simply accede to racist enactments. They organized innumerable petitions and deputations in the early years of the 20th century, protesting what they regarded as a betrayal of the British tradition of equality before the law. Protest exploded into outright resistance in the last years of World War I. Ground between low wages and murderous wartime inflation, African railway and municipal workers in Johannesburg staged bitter strikes. An emboldened Transvaal Native Congress, the local affiliate of the South African Native National Congress (renamed African National Congress [ANC] in 1923), launched a major antipass campaign, leading to several violent clashes with police. In 1920, 70,000 black mineworkers struck for better wages and working conditions. Eventually the army was called out to march the strikers underground at bayonet point.
Challenge by white workers
As significant as such resistance was, the chief challenge to South Africa's political order in the early decades of the 20th century came from Johannesburg's white workers. By custom, whites performed all skilled labour in the mines (a practice enshrined in the "job colour bar" provisions of the 1911 Mines and Works Act), commanding in return wages 5 to 10 times higher than those earned by blacks. Mineowners, ever on the lookout for ways to reduce costs, challenged white workers on three separate occasions—in 1907, 1913, and 1922—encountering violent resistance each time. In the last case, a plan to reduce the proportion of whites in the mine labour force touched off a general strike, which quickly escalated into a full-scale armed insurrection. White workers, marching under banners that proclaimed "Workers of the World Fight and Unite for a White South Africa," seized control of the entire city, surrendering only after the arrival of 20,000 troops and a sustained air and artillery bombardment. More than 200 people died in the "Rand Revolt," including 30 blacks murdered by strikers.
The transformations of the 1930s and '40s
In the 1930s and '40s Johannesburg was transformed by a massive in-migration of blacks from the countryside. Primarily a consequence of deteriorating conditions in rural reserves, black urbanization also reflected the increasing availability of employment in the Witwatersrand's rapidly growing secondary industries. Born of the exigencies of war and sustained through the 1920s by government tariffs, South African manufacturing industry exploded in the 1930s, especially in the boom years that followed the country's departure from the gold standard in 1933. By the early 1940s manufacturing had outstripped both mining and agriculture in terms of its contribution to the gross national product. Most of this development was focused in Johannesburg and in old East Rand mining communities such as Benoni, Boksburg, and Germiston, where the number of blacks employed in secondary industry soon exceeded the number working in the mines. Ominously for segregationists, a growing percentage of these workers were not migrants but permanently urbanized proletarians, living with wives and children.
The conflict between the imperatives of segregation and industrialization came to a head during World War II. With white workers off to the front and booming factories desperate for labour, the government of Prime Minister Jan Smuts suspended the operation of influx control on the Witwatersrand, unleashing a cataract of urbanization. Johannesburg's black population virtually doubled, to more than 400,000. With housing construction at a standstill, new arrivals were crammed into already overcrowded townships or into informal squatter camps thrown up wherever there was open space. Squalid, overcrowded conditions bred disease and vice, but they also spawned new forms of political consciousness and action, evident in bus boycotts in Alexandra, defiant squatter movements, and the rise of the militant African National Congress Youth League. (Among the founders of the league was a young Johannesburg apprentice attorney named Nelson Mandela.) A new wave of trade unionism spread among workers, culminating in the 1946 black mineworkers' strike.
Enforcing the system
These transformations were not lost on white political leaders. On the contrary, the future of Johannesburg and other South African cities became the central issue in the 1948 national election. Jan Smuts' United Party, while defending its commitment to white supremacy, argued that complete segregation was chimerical and that some permanent black urbanization was an inevitable consequence of economic development. The National Party of Daniel F. Malan, in contrast, warned that whites were being "swamped" and called for a forceful restoration of the old order. Malan dubbed his policy "apartheid." Buoyed by a massive turnout of Afrikaner voters, the Nationalists secured a parliamentary majority, which they retained for the next 46 years. In that time they enacted a panoply of laws that specified where one could live, work, or attend school, all on the basis of race. The squatter camps that had sprung up around Johannesburg in the mid-1940s were bulldozed, as were established settlements that fell within areas now designated as "White." Sophiatown, home to many of South Africa's most celebrated writers and musicians, was removed starting in 1955. In its place rose a new white working-class suburb, which authorities dubbed Triomf—Afrikaans for "triumph."
The 1960s in Johannesburg were, depending on one's point of view, the best of times or the worst of times. With oppositional movements banned, the National Party had a free hand to elaborate its vision of "grand apartheid." Between 1960 and 1980 close to four million blacks were forcibly relocated, including several hundred thousand from Johannesburg, to remote, desiccated Bantustans (ethnic "homelands"). While careful not to impede the flow of labour to industry, state officials enforced pass laws with unprecedented rigour: in the quarter-century preceding the final repeal of influx control in 1986 the state prosecuted nearly 10 million pass offenses, an average of more than 1,000 per day. For whites, on the other hand, these years brought unimagined prosperity. Over the course of the 1960s the South African economy grew nearly 6 percent per annum, a rate exceeded only by Japan. Needless to say, most of the benefits accrued to whites, who rewarded the National Party with ever greater parliamentary majorities.
Apartheid's demise
Beneath apartheid's placid surface, however, lay seething discontent—discontent that exploded, inevitably, in Johannesburg. On June 16, 1976, South African police fired on a group of Soweto students who were marching in protest against state plans to impose Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools. The shooting ignited a massive popular uprising that raged for months and eventually spread to more than 80 cities across South Africa. Townships around Johannesburg exploded again in 1984, in response to the National Party's introduction of a new constitution that conceded limited franchise rights to Indians and Coloureds while excluding the black majority. Unrest continued to rage throughout the 1980s, despite the declaration of a state of emergency and the deployment of units of the South African Defence Force. These years also witnessed the revival of black trade union activity, registered in a wave of strikes and stayaways that periodically brought the economy of the Witwatersrand to a halt. This growing militancy, coupled with tightening international economic sanctions, helped propel South Africa's white rulers to the negotiating table, paving the way for the country's first democratic elections in 1994, in which the ANC was victorious.
Under the new ANC government, the Municipal Structures Act was passed into law in 1998, further integrating and regulating local government in Johannesburg and throughout the country. Crime, chronically a problem in Johannesburg, became particularly acute in the 1990s and early 2000s, as violence drove businesses from the city centre into its safer suburbs.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
South Africa: Urban settlement…turn of the 20th century, Johannesburg, which was established in 1886, had already surpassed it in size. Continued rapid growth since the early 20th century has created four major urban concentrations. Of these, by far the largest is the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging complex; centred on Johannesburg, it radiates about 45 miles (70…
Paul Kruger: Gold rush in the Transvaal.…area, where a new metropolis, Johannesburg, arose, some 40 miles (64 km) south of the tiny republican capital, Pretoria. Large numbers of "outlanders" flocked to the Transvaal and established a cosmopolitan, mainly English community in the midst of a rural Boer society. Kruger saw this as a threat to the…
GautengJohannesburg is one of South Africa's largest metropolitan areas and its leading industrial, financial, and commercial centre. O.R. Tambo International Airport is the country's main international airport. Four universities—those of South Africa, Pretoria, Witwatersrand, and Johannesburg—are located in the province. The fossil hominid sites of…
South Africa
South Africa, the southernmost country on the African continent, renowned for its varied topography, great natural beauty, and cultural diversity, all of which have made the country a favoured destination for travelers since the legal ending of apartheid (Afrikaans: "apartness," or racial separation) in 1994.…
Transvaal, former province of South Africa. It occupied the northeastern part of the country. The Limpopo River marked its border with Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north, while the Vaal River marked its boundary with Orange Free State province to the south. It was bounded by Mozambique and Swaziland to…
More About Johannesburg3 references found in Britannica articles
Assorted References
- capital of Gauteng
- In Gauteng
- role of Kruger
- urbanization in South Africa


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Bio, photos, Q&A, and more.
Want to know how Judy came to write each of her books? It's all here. A comprehensive list, annotated.
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Autobiographical Essays
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Precision needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 38 designs submitted by 10 freelance designers.
We are starting a new site called prankpad.com. It will be the sister site to prankdial.com. Prankpad will just be another prank calling type website.
Also, there will be a lot more work for the winning designer!
Pretty much anyone that likes pranking (which is practically all age groups).
This is for a completely new site we're developing. There is not logo, so you guys can implement a rudimentary one for now.
The page should be easy to navigate around for all ages. We are looking for larger input fields, so all text entered is easily visible.
Colorful is good but lets not go crayola here. This is a playful website for pranking, so go with that!
Look at our mockup if you need inspiration. It has all the elements we require for the front page. You DO NOT have to make your designs exactly like the mock ups!
Home Page - all page elements included in mockup


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Marketinguru needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 67 designs submitted by 10 freelance designers.
We're an Italian family-owned retail store, specialized in high quality mattresses and everything needed to get a good night's sleep (pillows, beds, duvets, ect). We want to stand out from the competitors, that's way we've invested a lot of money to get a computerized tools that help people to choose the right mattress for everyone. We want to communicate this high-specialization with a modern/professional logo.
Plain and simple a quality mattress can help anyone; so everyone in reality are my target audience. If I had to specify a target audience it would include active adults that are experiencing discomforts with their mattress, don't sleep well, have back pain, want to stay healthy and active. My current customer demographics are mostly between 30-60 years old.
I am looking for a logo to represent and re-brand our store "SOGNI D'ORO" (approx. english translation: "GOLDEN DREAMS", "SWEET DREAMS"). Obviously, the main part must be the word SOGNI D'ORO, the tag line must be I PROFESSIONISTI DEL RIPOSO (approx. english translation: THE SLEEP PROFESSIONALS), plus I would like to see a "body that sleeping" stilized, sophisticated image, incorporated somehow. I don't know if it looks good to put something related to the "night" (stars, moon), to the mattress and to the spine-column. I would like a clear professional logo. Colors can be variable, but I think it's preferable something in the blue tone, with a contrast color (but variations are welcomed). You could look to some sample logos I've attached. Inside the attachment you find my actual logo.
I am looking for a unique logo that stands out and says that I sell "better night's sleep", not just simply mattresses.
The type face should be clear, bold and easily readable, not capital letter.
I am anticipating using this logo for my print ads, brochure, on my delivery truck, as an upload for my website, facebook and other social media websites as well as for my new cards and stationary. I would like a format I can easily upload and that has the ability to be adjusted in size depending on where I place the logo.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Hi all, I'm looking for some kind of tool that allow me to see live stats in my web server, I mean, to see how many users, what are they consulting, etc.. My goal is to see the amount of process everey page generate (ASP, ASP.net, xsl, ...) in the server.
Any help will be appreciated!
Thank you.


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Jay-Z & Rihanna Performing "Run This Town" + Kanye West Performs Can't Tell Me Nothing At Jay-Z's Live From Madison Square Garden Concert!
Jay-Z Live From Madison Square Garden
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Foiled again! Tennessee fencing coach stops robbery
A Tennessee fencing teacher put his sword to good use, foiling a robbery he stumbled upon during a trip to the local shopping center.
Franco Scaramuzza was pulling into the shopping center's parking lot when he saw two men attack a couple with pepper spray and take a purse, WSMV.com reported.
"The first thing that went through my head is somebody should do something, and that's when I got really upset and disappointed with myself, because I realized I had the opportunity to do something. And I didn't want to be a hypocrite who just tweeted about it," Scaramuzza told the station.
The instructor grabbed his épée, jumped out of the car and charged the suspects.
According to WSMV.com, Scaramuzza had just finished practice, so he was still wearing his full fencing attire.
"I charged toward them, holding my épée up high, and, you know, yelling at them," he said. "I kept yelling throughout the entire thing. They completely panicked and dropped everything they stole and really took off."
Police showed up and caught suspects Michael Butt and Zachary Johnson, who are charged with robbery, WSMV.com reported. They remain in jail on $50,000 bond each.


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The Sure-Lites UEL emergency light housing is constructed of die-cast aluminum with a clear polycarbonate shield that protect against rain, moisture, cold, corrosion, dust, and vandalism. The light includes a nickel-cadmium battery, self-diagnostics, a photocell laser test, and four torx head tamperproof screws with a center pin reject. Two adjustable 12-WMR16 lamps provide egress coverage for light during a power outage. The lamp is UL-Listed for -35°C to 50°C ambient environments.
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By Sabina Clarke
Editor's Note: The following is the conclusion of the two part series about renowned attorney Morris Wolff's crusade to rescue his client, Holocaust Hero Raoul Wallenberg, from a Soviet gulag. Wolff lived on Mermaid Lane in Chestnut Hill from 1975 to 1985. His daughter Lesley graduated from Springside School in Chestnut Hill in 1993, where she was class valedictorian and the University of Pennsylvania. Another daughter, Michelle, attended Springside School and graduated from Harcum Junior College in Bryn Mawr.
I read with fascination Morris Wolff's spellbinding book, "Whatever Happened to Raoul Wallenberg?" chronicling his 28- year quest representing his client, Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg. This true story, packed with intrigue, suspense and high drama, trumps a James Bond thriller.
It involves encrypted cables between Wallenberg and the U.S. State Department, hidden KGB files, White House memos, secret documents, cloak and dagger meetings, daring rescue attempts, bold disguises, cryptic messages, anonymous phone calls and mysterious deaths under suspect circumstances.
It also involves former Russian Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who in 1945 was the Red Army's arresting officer, and after arresting Wallenberg, he stole the 'Wallenberg Diamonds' from the safe in Wallenberg's office. The jewels had been entrusted to Wallenberg by many Jews on their way to the death camps. This fact was later confirmed to Wolff by several reliable sources including John Erlichman, former President Nixon's Chief Counsel.
Through it all, pointed warnings were given to Morris Wolff from powerful people in high places suggesting that he abandon his lawsuit on behalf of Wallenberg. Yet, Wolff pushed on, ignoring all warnings while taking on the U.S. State Department, the White House, the U.S.S.R. and prestigious law firms who all tried to squash his efforts to secure Wallenberg's release.
Aided, at times, by a few brave individuals who also took considerable personal risks, Wolff uncovered concrete information revealing behind-the-scenes machinations aimed at stopping his investigation into the disappearance and whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg. He recalls his friend Earl Silbert, a former Watergate prosecutor, saying to him, "I think you may want to back off this case. This is not a game of tennis. There are some pretty strong forces working against you —including the FBI, the CIA and other forces at high levels of government."
When warned by President Reagan's former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Fairbanks that the Russians might try to kill him and that he was "interfering with the conduct of foreign affairs" Wolff replied, "Only a bullet will stop me, and you are not about to order that; are you?"
This is a tale of heroes and villains and a fascinating glimpse into our legal system and its shameful derailment precipitated by the interference of the State Department and the White House as well as Russia and Sweden and their Wall Street and Washington, D.C., law firms acting as hired guns for the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York and the Enskilda Bank of Sweden. All were in bed together. All conspired to squash Wolff's case, and in the end, they almost did.
Wolff's quest for justice for Wallenberg has taken him all over the world collecting first-person recollections from Wallenberg's friends and associates and those who were rescued by Wallenberg. With some, Wolff has forged close and lasting friendships.
Now with his new book and some heavyweight book blurb endorsements from former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Anatole Scharansky and others, the Wallenberg story should wind up on the world stage once again, thanks to a May 10, 2011, letter to Wolff from President Obama stating, "Morris Wolff in 1989 went to Israel and enlisted the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, in a daring raid to rescue Raoul Wallenberg. On April 30, 2011, we copied that strategy and took out Osama Bin Laden. The use of a carefully planned and wisely implemented strategy is a hallmark of Morris Wolff's legal work in the U.S. Federal Court in achieving a great victory for his client, a hero whom we all celebrate….."
Encouraged by his friend and associate, retired Federal Judge Arlin M. Adams, who has reviewed the procedural facts of the case, Wolff plans to go back to court and seek a reversal of Judge Aubrey Robinson's decision. (In 1989, Judge Aubrey Robinson dismissed the case and overturned Judge Barrington Parker's legal verdict on behalf of Wallenberg; in 1984, Judge Barrington Parker, who presided over the case initially, ordered the Russians to release Wallenberg immediately and pay $39 million to the Wallenberg family.)
In essence, says Wolff, Judge Parker's decision was ignored. The case was moved, four years later, from the closed docket of Judge Parker to the open docket of Judge Robinson — a judge of equal jurisdiction. This, according to Judge Arlin M. Adams, retired federal appellate judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, was an "extreme example of judicial misbehavior" and something that had never been done before. Simply put, the Executive Branch of our government interfered with the Judicial Branch of our government, violating the separation of powers clause in the U.S. Constitution.
Wolff plans to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a reinstatement of the Parker decision, the collection of the $39 million with compounded interest and the immediate release of Wallenberg — realizing that Wallenberg is almost certainly not still alive. (If he is, he would be 99.) Wolff estimates the current value of the case at $142 million. But for Wolff, who has worked pro bono all these years, the case has never been about money; it is about getting justice for Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved more than 1000 Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.
If Wolff succeeds in getting the Wallenberg case heard before the Supreme Court, any monetary award would go towards the creation of the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Altruistic Studies —which was agreed upon by both Wolff and Wallenberg's family from the outset.
Wolff hopes to have the case heard before the Supreme Court, citing Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states, "Cases involving ambassadors, public ministers and consuls can be brought directly to the United States Supreme Court which shall have original jurisdiction over such matters."
Since Wallenberg qualifies as an ambassador or public minister, his case can be heard directly by the Supreme Court, via petition, with Chief Justice John C. Roberts presiding. "This", said Wolff, "will provide Chief Justice Roberts with an opportunity to correct his earlier error."
Editor's Note: In 1983, Chief Justice John Roberts, then Assistant Counsel to President Ronald Reagan, advised Reagan in a memo to ignore Wolff's letter seeking Reagan's help in freeing Wallenberg and to "dodge the Wallenberg issue" —despite Reagan's initial directive to act to free Wallenberg.
It was not until 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice Roberts that Wolff was contacted by E.J. Kessler, investigative reporter for The Jewish Forward, that he learned why he did not get a response from Reagan and why President Reagan did not use the law Wolff laid before him, citing the U.S. Hostages Act, to free Wallenberg. Until 2005, the Roberts memo had been buried in the Reagan Library.
("Whatever Happened to Raoul Wallenberg?" is published by The Educational Publisher, of Columbus, Ohio. To order the book online for $24.95, visit Wallenberg.EduPublisher.com. Wolff can be reached at email@example.com.)


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At Pajamas Media, Roger Simon has a wonderful account of the time he worked with Richard Pryor as a screenwriter. The "times," actually, since Roger was hired three times and fired twice on the project that eventually became Bustin' Loose.
It's a little hard for me to understand how anyone could spend his adult life amid the madness of Hollywood, and still emerge as sensible as Roger Simon is. If you ever have the opportunity to spend an evening listening to Roger tell stories, don't pass it up!


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text: Bring on the BMR May 6, 2013 10:18 PM Tweet John Mendonca pre-irrigates his land in April for planting BMR corn silage in May. His dairy sits in the background, near Tulare, Calif. © Catherine Merlo TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By Catherine Merlo Farm Journal's Milk Western and Online Editor Email **Extended comments are highlighted in blue. The rewards are feed-cost savings and higher milk production John Mendonca is marking a milestone this month on his dairy farm near Tulare, Calif. For the first time, Mendonca will be planting 100% of his corn silage acreage to brown midrib (BMR) varieties. Bonus Content Web resources Tips for harvesting and storing BMR corn silage Wisconsin yield trials: Hybrid Trial 2011 Hybrid Trial 2012 2012 Growing Season Inspired by the results that he has seen from limited BMR plantings on his farm for the past three years, Mendonca has high hopes for his dairy's bottom line. He anticipates that there will be significant feed-cost savings and higher production out of his 600 milking cows—all benefits of feeding BMR corn silage. "I don't see any reason to plant anything but BMR because I want to plant what's going to make us the most milk," Mendonca says. BMR corn is not a genetically modified organism (GMO) but the result of a naturally occurring gene mutation. It features less lignin in the cornstalk, which results in higher fiber digestibility. That, in turn, leads to greater dry matter intake and more milk. "When I started feeding BMR corn three years ago, I saw 3 lb. to 4 lb. or more in increased milk production per cow per day," Mendonca says "When I ran out of BMR corn, I definitely noticed the reduction in production." Last year, Mendonca increased his BMR planting to 75% of his corn silage acreage. With the greater feed supply of the corn hybrid, he saw his herd's milk production rise even higher. "I was seeing increases of 5 lb. to 6 lb. per cow, and that was after cutting back 4 lb. on grain in my rations," Mendonca says. That reduction saved his operation almost $15,000 per month in grain costs. "The BMR corn was much more affordable than the rolled corn we replaced in the ration," he says. Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) digestibility rates for BMR corn silage with the bm3 gene are generally 10% to 14% higher than conventional corn silage, says Chris Dschaak, forage nutrition specialist with Mycogen Seeds. The greater corn silage intake from BMR varieties means producers can reduce grain in their ration formulation. Most dairy producers can feed 2 lb. to 4 lb. less grain per cow per day when feeding BMR corn silage. Those BMR feed-cost savings can reach $100,000 to nearly $600,000, depending on the size of the dairy, Dschaak says. For example, a dairy feeding 500 cows, based on a 3-lb. ration reduction of rolled corn at the current price of $350 per ton, would save $96,725 a year or 53¢ per cow per day by feeding BMR corn silage instead of conventional corn silage. The savings for a 2,000-cow dairy could potentially reach $386,900. "And that's just the feed-cost savings," Dschaak says. "If a 2,000-cow dairy added the increased milk benefit of 4 lb. more milk per cow, that would be another $525,600, at $18 per cwt. In all, the BMR corn benefit would be close to $1 million a year." Mendonca has seen milk production climb by as much as 6 lb. per cow per day by feeding his herd BMR corn silage. When he first considered growing BMR corn, Mendonca worried about reports of lodging, meaning the corn stalks would fall over in the field. He also was concerned about yield drag, or reduced tonnage. "We were typically getting a yield of 28 tons to 32 tons per acre with conventional corn silage," Mendonca says. "With early BMR varieties, we were seeing only 24 tons to 25 tons per acre." Last year, Mendonca heard about new BMR varieties that offered improved yields and standability compared to first-generation BMR hybrids. So, he increased his BMR plantings to 75% of his corn acreage. Not only did he see better production in the field but higher output in the milk barn. This month, Mendonca is planting BMR corn on 230 of his 450 acres—alfalfa, wheat and oats make up the rest. BMR corn silage will account for 50% to 55% of his herd's ration. Dschaak recommends feeding a minimum of 40 lb. of BMR corn silage per cow per day (on an as-fed basis). Through the summer, Mendonca will grow his BMR crop exactly like regular corn silage varieties. "Same soil prep, same nitrogen and same irrigation," he says. Vernal Gomes, the Mycogen sales representative who works with Mendonca, recommends planting BMR corn on your best ground. "It's a crop that needs to be well-managed," Gomes says. "The root system isn't always as robust as conventional corn. In California, you don't want to stress the crop without enough water." When Mendonca harvests his BMR crop in August, he'll likely go for a longer chop length of 5⁄8" to 3⁄4" length. Dschaak recommends an even longer chop length of 1" and a moisture level of 68%. The results of that harvest bode well for Mendonca. "If you're a grower who's going to sell corn silage to a dairyman, BMR won't work because you'll pay too much for the seed," he says. "You won't get the benefits that dairymen will. BMR corn is a no-brainer for dairies. We'll get the reward in our milk checks." BMR Yield Drag AN Issue Despite the fact that brown midrib (BMR) corn hybrids are now in their fourth generation, grain yield is still an issue, says Joe Lauer, a corn agronomist with the University of Wisconsin. "In terms of quality, BMR corn silage is off the charts in digestibility of the stover," he says. "Forage quality, as measured using milk per ton, is always at the high end for BMR hybrids." But in Wisconsin yield trials dating back to 1997, BMR does not have the same forage yield as conventional corn hybrids, he says. Over that time, BMR hybrids consistently lag conventional hybrids by about 1.4 tons of dry matter, he says. Most of that is the result of lower grain yield. And the BMR is not gaining ground. There are also some standability and lodging concerns with BMR corn. "But for corn silage, we're usually not worried about BMR standability because the plant is still green when we harvest it," he says. "Even if it does go down, you can usually get a chopper under it."—Jim Dickrell Five Tips for Better BMR Ration Results Mycogen Seeds offers these BMR ration formulation tips: 1. Plan ahead. Before growing BMR corn, meet with your nutritionist to discuss feeding strategies. 2. Evaluate storage needs. Although BMR can be mixed with conventional silage in a ration, it's best to store the different types of silage in separate structures. 3. Work with your nutritionist on ration formulation. Ask your herd nutritionist to create a sample diet with BMR corn silage and other ingredients on the farm to predict the impact it will have in dry matter intake, rumen efficiency, grain savings and milk production. As with any ration change, incorporate BMR gradually to ensure a smooth transition. 4. Test silage after harvest. Select a lab that has experience analyzing BMR corn silage using both near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and wet chemistry/in-vitro methods. 5. Adjust for higher silage digestibility. When formulating rations with BMR, use dynamic ration formulation software to help optimize health, productivity and profitability. Higher levels of digestible fiber will enhance rumen microbial efficiency and replace a portion of the energy from starch sources. This leads to higher dry matter intake. Back to news


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So many, want to keep honest Americans from having access to firearms, even though, since 2003, in states which allow concealed carry, violent crime rates have been lower than anytime since the mid 1970s. The reverse logic of this "knee jerk" reaction is astounding and has lead to an outright assault on our basic Constitutional and natural rights. These misguided policies to keep firearms out of the hands of law abiding citizens literally mean a death sentence for thousands of Americans.
Read Original at: Human Events


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I ran across this and found it an interesting read:
"The days of living on virtual easy street are coming to an end for many Grand Theft Auto Online cheaters. That's because Rockstar has begun resetting in-game balances for players with "illegitimately gained in-game money" in their online accounts. Many GTA Online players are waking up to a message notifying them that "we have determined that your account illegitimately gained in-game money via mods, cheats, or other actions. We've adjusted your account and updated your balance."
Over at the GTA Forums, member Viper-Venom reports that "every single person I know who has a modded account has had their money reset to $0." That includes players who gained up to $20 trillion by simply using mods to create and collect huge piles of cash in their in-game instance. Players with smaller balances seem to have less chance of being affected, based on reports, but the balance resets appear to be going out in waves, meaning modders who have yet to be affected aren't necessarily safe.
It's not just modders that are being affected—some players that used in-game glitches to artificially inflate their bank accounts are also reporting that their balances have been reset. Those who simply picked up the odd illegitimate money pile generated by other modders don't seem to be affected as of yet, however.
The in-game money reset comes alongside an update to Rockstar's banning and suspension policy for the game. Players will now see their GTA Online characters, progress, property, and inventory reset after receiving a suspension. In addition, players will now receive a permanent ban after just two infractions, tightening the previous "three strikes" policy that was widely reported. Rockstar warns that accounts using mods to gain money in the future will also be subject to "the Cheater Pool, account reset or suspension."
In an explanatory message on the Rockstar Support site, the developer notes that this is all part of an effort "to keep the gameplay environment fair." But it's important to remember that Rockstar also directly makes money by selling in-game cash through microtransactions. The developer could argue that money-making mods are a form of piracy that affects a real-money marketplace worth over half a billion dollars.
Further Reading
Rockstar to GTA V PC players: We don't issue bans for single-player mods
In any case, new attempts to balance out the money supply may be small comfort to players that have been complaining about how easy it is to cheat at GTA Online since the service launched three years ago. While Rockstar said last year that it is "regularly rolling out fixes for specific exploits," the game's apparent use of a simple P2P mesh (rather than dedicated servers) reportedly makes the online experience incredibly easy to hack—and very hard for Rockstar to implement effective anti-cheating technology in the long term. In the meantime, the company continues to issue takedown notices for "videos that encourage and promote ways to cheat your way towards gaining illegitimate RP or counterfeit in-game money or duplicating in-game items without having earned them."
"While it's unrealistic to say we can solve the problem of cheating forever and for everyone, we believe we are making significant progress on this issue and we will continue to work aggressively to stop these griefers in their tracks as best we can," Rockstar said last year."
I don't know why they stop cheaters, probably because it would cost prohibitive to do so.
I don't see an issue picking up cash somebody dropped no matter how they obtained it; afterall, it is a game about corruption, crime, etc...
Rockstar Games ⇒ ROCKSTAR INFO
Everything GTA and Rockstar
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Modders giving money is the only good part they do. Take the money away and all they do is disrupt the game for all the legit players. They are only interested in stopping players from "stealing" from them, which is not true, as we only have much of what we do because of they fail to stop cheaters.
All the real means of collecting money are inhibited by modders, poor server performance and problematic glitches in the game. Just don't try to tell them that...or they'll see the money you were forced or happy to receive.
All the real means of collecting money are inhibited by modders, poor server performance and problematic glitches in the game. Just don't try to tell them that...or they'll see the money you were forced or happy to receive.
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Miranda Lambert Fires Up 'Baggage Claim' at the 2011 CMA Awards
Miranda Lambert fired up her engine for tonight's 2011 CMA Awards, performing her current single, 'Baggage Claim,' with little visual baggage to fall back on.
Dressed mostly in black -- with the exception of a silver rhinestone belt at her midsection -- Lambert stood on a dark stage with minimal lighting effects, except for standard airport screens which ran the landing schedule on her left and right. Old suitcases and trunks were scattered behind her, surrounding her band, and of course she had her signature pink microphone. But for the most part, the newly-married hitmaker let the song speak for itself.
As the hit track built up to the bridge, so did Lambert's spunk -- and coincidentally, so did the heat. Near the end of the song, the stage walls surrounding the performer burst into high flames, which caused the audience to erupt in cheers.
Lambert is nominated for the hefty Female Vocalist of the Year prize at the 2011 CMA Awards.
Watch Miranda Lambert Perform 'Baggage Claim' at the 2011 CMA Awards


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Big Ten Weekly Five: 07.12.12 EditionPosted by Deepak Jayanti on July 12th, 2012
- Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery recently signed a seven-year contract extension. McCaffery will make approximately $1.7M after next season and will be rewarded with a raise up to $2M if the Hawkeyes make the NCAA Tournament over the next few years. Iowa has not received an NCAA Tournament bid since 2006, and the university certainly believes that McCaffery is the guy to get them there with this move. Even though the Hawkeyes only finished 18-17 last season, the program certainly has a different competitive feel since McCaffery took over. During the B1G season, Iowa had the highest tempo in the league at 65.1 possessions per game and appeared to maximize the talent available. The addition of two top 100 ranked freshmen — Adam Woodbury and Mike Gesell — certainly indicates the program's upswing.
- Iowa is the not the only program that has increased the overall tempo of play in the Big Ten. New Illinois head coach John Groce plans to have Brandon Paul and Tracy Abrams run all over the place next season. Groce holds practice using a 24-second shot clock to increase his team's endurance and hopes to make a difference in Champaign immediately. Illinois ranked in the middle of the B1G last season with 63.5 posessions per game but definitely has the athletes on the wings to push the pace. They featured a three-guard lineup with Abrams, Paul and D.J. Richardson but were primarily a jump-shooting offense under Weber, especially in the second half of the season. Groce is trying to change that and hopes to instill confidence into a team that stumbled down the stretch last season.
- High school sensation and arguably the best prep player in the country Jabari Parker apparently isn't interested in joining the Illini per the latest reports. Parker, a 6'8″ wing, listed his top 10 schools in no particular order this week and Illinois was not one of them. Michigan State is the only Big Ten school that he is considering as he enters his senior year in high school. It is very likely that he only stays in college for one year so Kentucky might be a frontrunner if he plans to follow the footsteps of Brandon Knight, John Wall, Anthony Davis and the multiple "one-and-done" players who roll through Lexington, Kentucky, on their way to the NBA lottery.
- The 2012-13 season schedule is beginning to shape up. ESPN airs a 24-hour hoops marathon to unofficially tip-off the new season and Michigan State is one of the headliners that will participate in the event. Tom Izzo's Spartans will face Kansas at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on November 13. Izzo is notorious in challenging his teams with tough non-conference scheduling to prepare them for March. MSU is already scheduled to play Connecticut overseas and the matchup with Kansas will continue to shape a challenging schedule for the Spartans who are a pre-season top 10 team next season. Junior guard Keith Appling looks to step up into a leadership role after Draymond Green's exit and a healthy return of Branden Dawson should give Sparty a defensive stopper against the premier wings in the country.
- The Olympics are upon us and the USA Basketball team has been announced. The Big Ten will be well represented by current Brooklyn Net and former Illini great Deron Williams in London. Williams is one of the three point guards on the team in addition to Chris Paul (former Wake Forest guard) and Russell Westbrook (former UCLA guard). Williams earned a gold medal in 2008 and was joined by Michael Redd who made a career at Ohio State before taking his sweet shooting stroke to the NBA. Another former Illini, Robert Archibald, will be playing for England over the summer. Archibald was a key part of the Illinois team that lost to Arizona in the Elite Eight during the 2000-01 season.


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Let's play a game - or three! Have fun tuning up your memory, testing your sentence-building skills or practicing speech sounds. Gertie, Gavin and Tiga are waiting to play now!
The kids get to make all kinds of cool crafts on "Tiga Talk!" and now you can make them too! You can create all kinds of great stuff and share it with people you love. Let's go, go, GO!
Jason, Jodie, Gertie, Gavin and Tiga love story time - do you? You can watch some of your favorite stories here and play them over again as many times as you like. Yay story time!
Kokum meets a lot of amazing people doing cool things. She's chosen special videos for you to watch so you can see more about the cultural activities she learns about!
Tiga the wolf pup, Gertie the Gopher and Gavin the Goose are stuffed toys who live with Jodie and Jason, their Dad and grandmother, Kokum. But the toys and the kids have a secret. When there are no adults around Tiga, Gavin and Gertie come to life to play with Jodie, Jason and their friends! But every time Kokum (or another adult) is around they turn back into toys.
Check out this sneak preview from Tiga Talk! Season 3
Tiga Talk! is a gentle, entertaining children's series exploring sounds and languages with music, imaginary play in tv shows and games that combine live action with a magic puppet world.


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The good news keeps pouring in. Users are mighty thrilled with Fireworks CS5 and the CS4 patch. The initial misgivings have now given way to a flood of compliments. Twitter is awash with all the good things Fireworks users have to say about the new releases.
The Adobe Fireworks CS4 patch fixes some of the big issues related to text and stability. The update can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html . The automatic update for the application from Adobe Update Manager (AUM) is coming shortly.
After applying the update, please ensure that the version screen now shows as 10.0.3.011.
Here are the pages that will help you get started with Fireworks CS5.
Go ahead, check out the features! Let me know what you think of them.


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Broil King Imperial XL 6-Burner Natural Gas Grill With Rotisserie & Side Burner - Black
Product Info Guide
Recommended Accessories
Key Features
- Six stainless steel Dual-Tube burners provide two rows of flame for efficient heat distribution
- Slow roast turkeys and roasts with the included rotisserie and heat up side dishes with the built-in side burner
- Two independent stainless steel ovens offer the ability to sear in one oven while at different temperatures in the other oven
- Double sided cast stainless steel cooking grates feature one pointed side for perfect grill marks, while the other is grooved to capture juices for continuous basting while cooking
- Stainless steel Flav-R-Wave cooking system vaporizes drippings, creating smoke for distinctive barbecue flavor
The Broil King Imperial XL Black features two totally independent ovens with a total of 1000 square inches of cooking space and includes six stainless steel Dual-Tube burners, built-in oven lights, professional cast stainless steel cooking grids, stainless steel Flav-R-Wave cooking system, built-in oven and control knob lights, two electronic igniters. The XL Black features stainless steel side shelves with right side storage drawer and an enclosed cabinet base with two black powder painted doors and two utility drawers.
Legal disclaimers and warnings
Product packaging, owners' manuals, installation instructions, and/or operating instructions may include more information than what is shown on our website. The content on our site is intended to be used for reference purposes only. Please fully read all included manuals and documentation before installing or using this product. WARNING for California residents: this product may contain chemical(s) known to the state of California to cause birth defects, cancer, or other reproductive harm.
Product Information
- 062703577876
- Model Number
- 957787
|Gas Grill Class
|Fuel Type
|Natural Gas
|Exterior Material
|Painted Steel
|Number Of Main Burners
|6 Burners
|Grilling Surface BTUs
|Infrared Main Burner
|Not Available
|Main Burner Material
|Stainless Steel
|Flame Tamer Material
|Stainless Steel
|Cooking Grate Material
|Cast Stainless Steel
|Cooking Grid Dimensions
|Main Grilling Area
|750 Sq. Inches
|Secondary Grilling Area
|250 Sq. Inches
|Total Grilling Area
|1000 Sq. Inches
|Burger Count
|Rotisserie Burner BTUs
|Rotisserie Kit
|Heat Zone Separators
|Ignition Type
|Continuous Spark
|Flash Tubes
|Grill Lights
|Internal / External
|Spring Assisted Hood
|Includes Smoker Box
|On Wheels
|Cart Assembly
|Some Assembly Required
|Side Shelves
|Side Burner Type
|Side Burner
|Total Side Burner BTUs
|Made In USA
|310 lbs
WarrantyBack to Top
Broil King offers a limited lifetime warranty on the cookbox (which includes lid, control panel & housing). The stainless steel Dual-Tube burners and rear rotisserie burner are warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for ten (10) years. The stainless steel Flav-R-Wave cooking system is warranted for five (5) years. All remaining parts and paint are warranted for two (2) years.
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Expert ReviewBack to Top
The Skinny:
- Made in the USA
- Excellent Value
- High BTU Dual Tube Burners
- Many great features at a good price
Things We Love:
Broil King's Regal and Imperial Series Gas Grills are top of the line for Broil King, especially the Imperial. They are a great value and are loaded with many great features. Some of my favorites include: control knob lights that are great for night time entertaining, storage shelves inside the cart, tool hooks with side shelf bins, and pull out tank drawers for the propane models. The Imperial Series also feature a pull out drawer in the side shelves, as well as interior oven lights.
I really like the Stainless Steel Dual Tube Burners. This Dual Tube design creates an efficient double row of flame, powered by a high BTU, which results in solid, high heat output. The Regal Series comes in 4, 5, and 6 burner configurations, and the Imperial Series comes in 5 and 6 burner configurations.
The Regal and Imperial Series also feature the Broil King Stainless Steel Flav-R-Wave flame tamers which are great. Above the Flav-R-Wave's, I love the heavy gauge, 9mm Stainless Steel thick and durable cooking grids found on the Regal Series. The Imperial Series cooking grids are even better and tougher, made of reversible Cast Stainless Steel. These reversible grids create steakhouse sear marks on one side, and the other side is grooved to capture juices for continuous basting.
I love that these grills come with a side burner and rotisserie. The side burner is perfect for creating mouth-watering side dishes, soups, or sauces while you grill. The powerful 15,000 BTU Stainless Steel Rotisserie Burner comes complete with a premium spit rod and motor, which delivers consistent even heat for excellent cooking results. The side burner isn't available on the Regal S420, and the rear burner isn't available on the Regal S420 & S440.
From a durability perspective I like the Stainless Steel Cook box with cast aluminum end caps, backed by a limited lifetime warranty. The Regal XLS and the Imperial XLS feature two independent stainless steel cook boxes that offer the ability to sear in one oven, while cooking at different temperatures in the other oven.
Things To Consider:
While the limited lifetime warranty on the cook box is great, the warranty on the remaining grill components is lower than several other competitors. Also note there is no ceramic infrared sear burner available.
You'll Like This Grill If:
You want an American made grill, loaded with features, at a good price.
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Questions & Answers (1)Back to Top
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Proposition 65Back to Top
This product can expose you to chemicals including lead, which is known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Wash your hands after handling this product.The burning of gas cooking fuel can expose you to chemicals including Carbon Monoxide, which is known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. To minimize exposure to these substances, always operate this unit according to the owner\'s manual, ensuring you provide good ventilation when cooking with gas. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Shipping & ReturnsBack to Top
Ship your entire order to your home for free, especially the big stuff! * Continental US only.When Will My Item Arrive?
Once shipped, items usually arrive within 3 to 5 business days. If your item is large it may ship via one of our third-party freight carriers (18-wheeler). If your order has an item that is shipped on a freight carrier, you will be contacted to schedule a curbside delivery time.
Anything under $49. ships at one low price. If your order increases, your shipping stays the same!45 Day No Hassle Returns
Return all new, unused and unassembled items in their original packaging, and we'll give you a full refund minus the cost of the original shipping AND return shipping.No Restocking Fee
Most companies charge a restocking fee. We think that is wrong.
About UsBack to Top
At BBQGuys.com we pride ourselves on being the grilling experts. From expert product reviews to free outdoor kitchen planning services, BBQGuys.com is dedicated to being your go-to resource for all things barbecue. Based in Baton Rouge with over 500,000 happy customers nationwide, we stand by our wide selection of grills, smokers, outdoor kitchen components and grilling accessories. Call us with any questions - we're here to help.


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Shocking photographs of acid attack victims shine light on Bangladesh's cruel reality of frequent mutilation acts. The project called "Survivors" was made by an award-winning photographer Ken Hermann and video journalist Tai Klan. The duo visited Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, aspiring to document the heartbreaking stories of people disfigured by acid attacks.
Rejection to have an affair, refusing to get married, land or marital disputes are the most common reasons for attacks often performed by close relatives, neighbors or a spouse. Majority of such violence acts are directed against young women and children who then are scarred for the rest of their lives. Medical treatments and surgeries are a mere utopia.
But there is an unbelievably inspiring side even to this tragedy: people captured in Hermann's photographs refuse to see themselves as victims. Their portraits radiate extreme resilience and profoundness. According to the photographer, his goal was to portray these people by emphasizing their beauty and strength rather than displaying them as freaks.
"I have nothing to hide. I look at myself and love myself for who I have become in spite of what I have suffered",—says Umma Aysha Siddike Nila, who was 15 years old when her husband burnt all of her face and parts of her upper arms with acid.
Many people whose lives were affected by acid attacks have devoted themselves to fight against the rooted custom. Thanks to people like Nila and bigger organizations such as Acid Survivor Foundation, there has been an 85% decline in recorded acid attack cases.


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REACTION: Philippines' Deadliest Catch
Posted on 08 February 2013
After typhoon BOPHA hit Mindanao last December, among the missing were 218 crewmembers of two fishing fleets, operating in circumstances beyond their ships' condition and crews' trainings. Dr Jose Ingles details the factors that lead to the tragedy, and what should be done about it.by Dr Jose Ingles, WWF Coral Triangle Strategy Leader
Typhoon BOPHA hit Mindanao in the southern Philippines last December 4, leaving in its wake over 1,000 people dead and 800 others still missing (NDRRMC report, December 22). It is considered the second deadliest typhoon on record since 1947. Of the missing, about 218 were crewmembers of two group seining fleets catching tuna. These consisted of two catcher boats and about 18 support vessels such as carriers, scout boats, and light boats. The vessels were operating east of the country's EEZ, some 200 km offshore.
Why were these vessels on the path of a Category 5 super typhoon? Most, if not all of the country's domestic purse seine fishing fleet are very old and decrepit and will not pass the international maritime safety standard set by International Maritime Organization (IMO). Outdated policies from the 1960s and 70s are mainly to blame—one that incentivizes importation and use of ships for fishing that should have otherwise been destined for recycling. There is also a law that provides a waiver for use of these decrepit vessels to operate as long as it is used in fishing and within Philippine waters.
Another policy provides exemption of the fishing crew members from the requirements of the maritime agency to have a certificate of formal training on navigation and seamanship. These are gross violations of the IMO rules of which the Philippines is a signatory. These twin policies creates a fishing flotilla of floating coffins where vessels are manned by untrained crew members that in case of accident, both the vessels and its crew members cannot claim any insurance or damages. The bureaucratic hurdles in the processing and the horrendous cost of the registration of new vessels by the maritime agency are also to blame—another disincentive to modernize the country's fishing fleets.
The size and condition of these fishing vessels were not equipped to operate in the EEZ. The unproductive near-shore fishing grounds have pushed them to fish outside the limits of their safety operations. Early warning systems for storms are announced with the formation of an active low-pressure area (LPA). These are precursors of storms. But since these vessels have been out for weeks with only a radio link as their form of communication, there was no way for them to determine the exact location, direction, and speed of the oncoming weather disturbance.
Packing sustained winds of 140 knots (259 km/hr) and traveling at a speed 27 km per hour, typhoon Bopha's speed was probably more than twice the cruising speed of the fishing vessels. The vessels couldn't have outran the storm, and its decrepit condition couldn't have withstood the gale force winds and waves.
It's about time that two agencies, the Maritime Agency (MARINA) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) pull their acts together: review and repeal policies and to replace it with those that modernize fishing fleets. These two agencies that are concerned with the fate of fishers need to agree to a common set of rules that ensure the safety of lives and property.
It's the only way we can eliminate most fishing vessels' moniker: widow makers.


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Miami Dolphins Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall Reveals He's Fighting Mental Illness
Miami Dolphins' receiver Brandon Marshall is one of the league's best wideouts, but his erratic off-the-field behavior over the years led one blogger to refer to him as "the NFL's version of Lindsay Lohan."
However, now new reports are giving some explanation for Marshall's strange behavior: he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder earlier this year.
The disorder stems from unstable personal relationships, according to reports, which could explain an April incident when Marshall's wife allegedly stabbed him during a domestic dispute. He's been seeing therapists since he entered the league, but only came forward about the illness this weekend. "By no means am I all healed or fixed," Marshall told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Some Dolphins fans are worried that the new revelations could have an impact on Marshall's play on the field, as he deals with his personal demons on his time. See Marshall discuss his illness: