text:
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Market Value and George Springer
Marc Topkin said that the guaranteed money is "believed to be the most money guaranteed to a player - who was not an international free agent - with less than one year of service time." Craig Calcaterra wrote, "Assuming Archer even comes close to his potential and stays reasonably healthy this will be a bargain for the Rays."
A couple of days ago the Cleveland Indians signed 26-year old catcher Yan Gomes to a 6yr/$23m contract. In 2013 Gomes played in a career-high 88 games (322 PAs) with a .294/.345/.481 slash line. His OPS+ was 133.
Fox Sports' Joe Reedy wrote, "While the extension means the Tribe won't have to deal with Gomes in arbitration and takes out a couple years of free agency for Gomes, it's a win-win for both sides."
Now let's look back to George Springer. We all believe he's going to be a superstar. But at the risk of sounding like a Front Office homer (need somebody, Luhnow? Call me...), if Archer received the most guaranteed money to a player with less than a year of service time and the Rays and Indians are lauded for their contract prowess, why are the Astros getting slammed by Ken Rosenthal for offering Springer - who has spent a month at Triple-A - $23m over seven years?
This point has been beaten into the ground by plenty of Astros bloggers, but if Springer takes the deal, everyone is happy and the Astros are geniuses. With the Archer and Gomes deals, it's pretty clear the Astros were fair in their offer.
3 comments:
because it's a perfect storm of 'blame' against the astros: new league, new ownership, new gm, three years of cellar dwelling, and miniscule payroll. imo, i'm glad we're not the cubs and go out and spend 50 mil on edwin jackson-type player only to STILL be near the bottom of the record. i applaud the astros organization to have the stones to say that we're going to be bad, we're not going to send much money until 'its time'.
screw everyone else and don't save room on the badwagon. they can sit in the view deck seats. i'll take the crawford boxes.
- April 3, 2014 at 8:56 AM
Chris said it right. It's common place to bash everything the Astros do. Who cares? Over it!! They'll all be sniffin' our bungholes in a few years when we're the best team in baseball..
- April 3, 2014 at 10:11 AM
What Chris said.
- April 3, 2014 at 1:12 PM


text:
Why Isn't My Husband the Person I Thought He Was?
Part of the When Expectations Meet Reality Series
Series About:
When she entered counseling with her husband, Erica had one purpose: getting Jim "fixed."
Jim had fallen into patterns that might work for a single guy, but certainly wouldn't do for a married man. He sometimes worked four extra hours without calling to inform Erica, for instance.
He'd changed so much, she thought. When they'd been dating, she'd figured Jim knew how to handle his finances; at least his car was never repossessed. Now they received monthly surprises from MasterCard, detailing Jim's "toy" purchases. Likewise, his apartment had always seemed neat when Erica visited during their courtship. But now his underwear rarely made it the two yards from the foot of their bed to the hamper.
It's easy to understand why Erica hoped the counselor would take on the challenge of setting her husband straight. She wanted the "old" Jim back.
You might be asking yourself these days, "What happened to the guy I used to know? Did he change, or was I just seeing him differently then?"
The answer is probably, "Yes." That's because both reflect the truth.
Maybe he does act differently now. Your husband probably wanted to seal the deal; he wanted to win your heart. Do you think he would jeopardize losing you by sharing all of his idiosyncrasies with you? Would you do that with him?
Was it deception? It's more like "selective expression." He behaved in a way that he figured would increase your likelihood of saying, "I do." He put his best foot and shiniest shoe forward.
Some of his behavior during those days probably wasn't so deliberate. Thinking of you thrilled his heart during courtship. That type of romantic fire shapes one's actions; loving deeds come easily to one so smitten by romance. You probably felt the same excitement, with your reactions being affected as well.
In Luke 6:32, Jesus conveys this principle with the question, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" Reciprocating romantic love comes naturally to most people. Over time, it's common for the romance — and therefore some of the motivation for "good behavior" — to fade somewhat.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Contact Us
Submitting a resume and applying for a position
Please use the following process to submit your resume.
- Browse jobs by category or jobs by location
- Find a job that fits your interest and experience
- Set up your login and profile
- Submit your application
Please note that we cannot accept email, fax or paper copies of your resume or CV as an application.
If you want to apply for more than one open position, please notify our recruitment team when they contact you that you have submitted more than one application.
You can apply for a job that is available in another country. Please note that prior to employment, you will be required to have legal work authorization and follow the local visa requirements.
In certain circumstances and for specific roles, PayPal may, at their discretion and working within local immigration requirements, sponsor individuals to work in different countries.
Checking status of application
When you log in to apply for a job, you can view your previous applications in your profile on the Candidate Home page. Simply log in and go to My Applications.
If your account was created prior to November 10, 2016, you will need to go to our Login Page and choose the option to Create Account.
Due to the high volume of resumes we receive, we cannot contact each person who submits their resume for consideration. If you aren't a match for a current opening, your resume will remain in our database for review against future opportunities.
Managing your profile and keeping it up-to-date
If you've created a profile since November 10, 2016, you can update profile information, such as job history, education, address, and phone number when you apply for a new job.
Log in to apply for a new position. You will be prompted to use your previous application or you can upload a new resume or CV. While applying for a job you can also update the rest of your profile with any new details such as address, email, or new phone number.
If you can't access your information, use the Forgot Password option on the Login page to reset your profile.
If your account was created prior to November 10, 2016, you will need to go to our Login page and select Create Account.
Recovering or resetting your password
If you already have a profile and need to reset your password, click on Forgot Password on the Login page.
If your account was created prior to November 10, 2016, you will need to go to our Login page and select Create Account.
Current Employees:
If you're looking for employment verification and you're a current employee, please go to MyHR for Me to find the verification options and processes.
Former Employees:
If you're a former employee looking for employment verification, please send us an email request. We'll respond to your request with contact information as soon as we can.
Job opportunities for current employees
If you're a current employee looking for new opportunities within the company, please go to our Workday page. You can find open positions by entering "Find Jobs" in the Search field of Workday. Workday will be the best way for you to apply to opportunities across the company.
If you would like to refer someone to an open position or check the status of referrals you've made, visit our Talent Referral page while connected to the corporate network.
For more information about PayPal's Talent Referral program, visit the Employee Referral Program page on the Bridge. You must be connected to the network to access this page.
PayPal is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to workforce diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, long-term unemployment or any other characteristic protected by law.
If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at email@example.com. We will make every effort to respond to your request for disability assistance as soon as possible.
PayPal will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with PayPal's legal duty to furnish information.
If you have experienced any technical difficulty with your application process, send us a detailed email with the description of the issue. Please include requisition ID, job title, and a screenshot if possible.
We'll respond as soon as we can to help you resolve this issue.
If you can't find the information you need regarding talent acquisition, please contact us here.
If you need assistance with your PayPal account, please use the Contact PayPal link located at https://www.paypal.com/selfhelp/home.
Internal Employees
Grow your career with us. Please access our internal career opportunities while connected to our corporate network.Find new ways to grow your career
Contact us
Questions about a position or an application? We have answers to the most commonly asked questions.How can we help?


text:
This homestay is located in one of the affluent areas of the capital. It's a well-maintained and safe neighbourhood with a popular local market. However, the homestay itself is a little away from the regular hustle and bustle, which ensures Darshan's peaceful ambience.
The sun-lit home is maintained by Col. Mohinder Walia and his wife, Sonia Walia. The couple's defence background guarantees that they're excellent hosts with a natural flair for entertaining guests. They manage the homestay with a remarkable combination of innate warmth and uncompromising standards. The energetic couple take a lot of pride in their home and personally oversee its appearance as well as functioning. Darshan is speckled with period furniture some of which used to be owned by Majors of the East India Company. The homestay, which has been fully-functional for the last one year, has two comfortable guest rooms, two spacious common rooms, a garden and even a well-stocked library. The rooms are air-conditioned but provisions for heating are also provided during winters. All rooms have a personal television with cable. And the kitchen produces a virtual smorgasbord of innovative and sumptuous dishes, under the watchful care of Mrs. Walia.
This homestay is a short drive from most of Delhi's tourist attractions. The Baha'i temple also called the Lotus temple, Qutub Minar, Lodhi Garden, Red Fort can all be covered in one day. High-end shopping mall like the City Select Walk and Emporio can keep one occupied for hours. But Janpath and Delhi Haat have a charming indigenous quality which makes them extremely popular amongst tourists and ex-pats. Although reputed salons are within walking distance, massage treatments for women can be arranged at home. A beautician for basic services and a henna artist can also be called on request.
Piyush Tiwari
Mumbai, India
Mar 2014
You will find a excellent human being and host in Mr. and Mrs. Walia.They are down to earth and friendly. I booked home stay for my sister and I was pleasantly surprised when she vouched for these fantastic couples raving about their food and hospitality. I will recommend this home stay to all of them who are planning to visit Delhi
Detail Ratings
Detail Rating
AC Krishnan
Chennai, India
Mar 2014
Detail Ratings
Detail Rating
Karen Edward Day
Washington, United States of America
Feb 2014
Good stay
Detail Ratings
Detail Rating
Lynn Park
Dublin, Ireland
Feb 2014
Colonial Walia and his wife Sonia greeted us as though we were family. They have a beautiful home, with excellent food and quality of the highest standard. This was also the only place in India where we were lucky enough to get real Indian tea with tealeaves. Well worth a visit, if we had known at the start of our trip what we knew at the end, we would have appreciated the homestay alot more. We travelled around India and stayed in many homestays and this one was by far one of the best places that we stayed. I woukld recommed this homestay to anyone of any age or gender.
Detail Ratings
Detail Rating
CheersBye © 2019


text:
The options market is a forecasting model, continuously adjusting prices based on expectations of future movements of underlying assets. The market is sensitive to time because options have expiration dates. Erosion of time means value is disappearing. One focus of the options market is valuation over a relatively short period compared to assets that have no expiration date.
Another focus for valuation of options is volatility of the underlying. With time growing short, it is imperative for the underlying price to move toward a profitable level — either up or down depending on the trading strategy. Options that reflect low volatility for the underlying quickly move down in value, approaching a price of zero or intrinsic value (the underlying price less the strike price) before those that have superior implied (or predicted) volatility.
Volatility differences are illustrated in "Forex calls: January 2014" (below). The Japanese yen (CME:J6M14) is the current champion of volatility, primarily due to the strategy of Japan's central bank to keep interest rates low enough to drive the yen's value down. The yen's volatility is expected by the options market to remain high at least through the next six months because these are calls that will expire in June 2014. What if — similar to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank's decision to taper its Treasury purchases — Japan's central bank decides to keep its currency at a level price with reduced volatility? This possibility and others like it at central banks in other countries make it important for traders in forex to consistently assess central bank intentions and the economic background for their actions.


text: Hi, I recently upgraded my hardware and am now having some problems getting everything back to work. Basically I bought a new CPU (Athlon 64 X2 3800+) and a new Motherboard (ASUS M2V). I installed Debian GNU / Linux (unstable) and compiled a custom kernel (22.214.171.124). The system is running in 64 bit with SMP support. Everything works fine as long as I only use one DVB-S card. As soon as I insert a second card it seems as if one of them has problem getting all packages from the stream, there are image and sound errors (only on one card). I have three cards (Pinnacle PCTV Sat, Twinhan DVB-S VisionPlus and Typhoon with CX24123 chip). I tried every possible combination and also disabled SMP support in the kernel but the problem is always there. Did anyone experience something like this before? Thanks, Volker -- Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser


text:
Gov. Brown signs law requiring political nonprofits to identify donors
Nonprofit organizations that make political contributions in California will have to disclose more information about the source of their money under a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Wednesday.
Senate Bill 27 was inspired by the 2012 ballot measure wars in California, when two out-of-state nonprofit groups poured $15 million into fighting Proposition 30 and supporting Proposition 32. Because of the groups' nonprofit status, they were not required to report where their donations originally came from, leading some to describe the contributions as "dark money."
The state's political watchdog went after the groups and secured a $1 million settlement last fall when the Arizona nonprofits acknowledged an error in campaign finance reporting. But requiring politically active nonprofits to disclose their donors required a change of state law.
And that's where Sen. Lou Correa's SB 27 comes in. The bill by the Santa Ana Democrat requires nonprofit groups disclose the names of donors who give them $1,000 or more to spend on political activity in California, if the group makes contributions of more than $50,000 in a year, or $100,000 over four years. The disclosure requirement kicks in with donations made after July 1 of this year.
The bill was sponsored by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission and supported by many open-government groups, including the California Clean Money Campaign, California Common Cause, California Forward, California Voter Foundation, and the League of Women Voters of California. Supporters hope the bill will have a ripple effect nationwide.
"Governor Brown's signature of SB 27 marks a turning point in the fight to reveal secret funders of political campaigns. It starts to shed light on dark money in California and serves as an example for the entire nation," said a statement from Trent Lange, President of the California Clean Money Campaign. "We must strengthen disclosure laws even further, because voters deserve to know who's trying to influence their votes."


text:
Your Price:
Best Seller in Louisville Cardinals Collectibles
Checking inventory..
Keep your favorite beverages cold while watching the next Louisville Cardinals game with this Topanga cooler tote!
Stay updated on sales, new items and more:
©2019 Fanatics, Inc., All Rights Reserved. No portion of this site may be reproduced or duplicated without the express permission of Fanatics, Inc.


text:
San Diego — A workout using Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is comparable to many other aerobic activities and could result in significant weight loss if used regularly, according to research commissioned by the American Council on Exercise (ACE).
The research from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse focused on quantifying DDR's potential physical benefits by looking at the caloric expenditure data of 24 volunteers.
In the study that was led by researchers John Porcari and Anna Norlin, male and female subjects, ages 12 to 25 years old, were recruited to participate. Half of the volunteers were under the age of 18 and enlisted from the local La Crosse Boys & Girls Club.
Based on the physiological responses to three levels of DDR, all subjects showed an increase in exercise intensity as they participated. Adults burned more calories, which can be attributed to differences in body weight because the adults, on average, were 25 pounds heavier than the teenage subjects. On average, teens burned 5.9 calories a minute on light mode, 6.7 calories a minute on standard mode and 8.1 calories a minute on difficult mode.
All study participants, regardless of their experience with DDR, were required to practice a pre-determined four-song dance sequence for up to six hour-long practice sessions or until they could demonstrate proficiency. Testing included continuously monitoring all participants' oxygen uptake, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion.


text: I have finally decided to make the big step up to 27bz-8 on a cluster where each node has 1.5 GB DDR. 27bz-7 would only recognize ~1G of memory (I'm using Athlon CPU's, if that makes a difference.) Will this also be true for 27bz-8? If so, can I rebuild the kernel to make the system recognize 1.5G? Incidentally, a few weeks ago I asked whether gcc-3.2 would work on SCYLD. I was concerned about the mpi/beowulf libraries. I compiled from sources without any problem and the existing 27bz-7 libraries work without problems for the codes I typically run (GAMESS and QUEST) Art Edwards


text:
Michelle Obama Hits Her Head Boarding Plane But Plays It Off With Class
Can never make the first lady look bad now.
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Visit our main website at www.StDavids.com
Patricia Griffin Kellicker, BSN
A mutilating hand injury is severe damage to the hand. The injury may include damage to bones, tendons, soft tissues, nerves, and skin. It can become a life-threatening condition.
If you have this type of injury, call for medical help right away. Immediate care may result in a better repair and decrease the chance of further damage. Untreated, this can lead to a serious infection.
Mutilating hand injuries can be caused by a variety of factors, including:
Factors that may increase your chance of injury include:
Injury to the hand is obvious. Bone, tendons, skin, nerves, and soft tissue may all be damaged. Common symptoms include:
© Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
When you are brought to the emergency room, a doctor will quickly assess your injury. Your wound will be inspected and your hand's nerves and tendons will be tested. You will be asked to explain how the injury happened. You will also be asked which of your hands is dominant.
Imaging tests assess damage to the bones, nerves, tendons, skin, or other soft tissues. These may include:
You may need examination under anesthesia to:
Immediate treatment is focused on stopping any bleeding. The doctor will make sure your vital signs are stable. An IV will be started to give you fluids and medications. You may be referred to a hand specialist for surgery. Depending on your injury, you may receive the following treatment:
This will protect you from a tetanus infection.
The following types of medication may be given:
Sterile saline is used to clean the wound. This will help prevent infection and further injury.
You may need to have immediate surgery. If your injury is less severe, your hand will be dressed and splinted. You will have a follow-up visit with a hand surgeon.
The type of surgery necessary depends upon the injury. Examples include fusing damaged joints and reattaching fingers. Often, several surgeries are necessary for this type of injury.
You will likely need physical therapy to regain strength and movement in your hand. You may also work with an occupational therapist to learn how to function with your injured hand.
To help reduce your chance of a hand injury:
HandCare—American Society for Surgery of the Hand
of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation
The Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons
Fingertips injuries/amputations. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Ortho Info website. Available at:
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00014&return_link=0. Updated August 2011. Accessed December 30, 2013.
Hammig B, Jones C. Injuries related to snow blowers in the United States: 2002 through 2008.
Acad Emerg Med.
Kamrani RS, Mehrpour SR, et al. High-pressure plastic injection injury of the hand: case report.
Occup Med (Lond).
2011 Aug 8.
Neumeister MW, Brown RE. Mutilating hand injuries: principles and management.
Hand Clinics. 2003;19:1-15.
Snowblower and lawnmower injuries. American Society for Surgery of the Hand HandCare website. Available at:
http://handcare.assh.org/Portals/1/SnowblowerInjuries%20WEB%20ONLY.pdf. Accessed December 30, 2013.
Tintinalli JE, Kelen GD, et al.
Tintinalli's emergency medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide. 6th Ed. United States: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2004; Chapter 268, Injuries to the Hand and Digits.
4/25/2014 DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance. http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed: Bruno MA, Weissman BN. American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria for acute hand and wrist trauma. Available at: http://www.acr.org/~/media/ACR/Documents/AppCriteria/Diagnostic/AcuteHandAndWristTrauma.pdf. Updated 2013. Accessed April 25, 2014.
Last reviewed December 2014 by Michael Woods, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.
Your Care Team, the right expertise at the right time. Our Physicians Our Care Team
Acute inpatient rehabilitation provides you the intensity and level of care you need for your road to recovery. Learn More
Privacy Policy Patient Rights Terms & Conditions Remote Gateway Access Joint Commission


text:
Tonight at Thursday Drink Night, in the Mixo chat room, we're hosting Allison Evanow, founder of Square One, and bartender H. Joseph Ehrmann, to discuss Botanical, the latest offering from Square One.
Here's a great recipe that uses this spirit.
Back Again
- 3/4 oz. Square One Botanical
- 3/4 oz. Cointreau
- 3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc
- 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
- 2 dashes absinthe or Herbsaint
- stemless cherry, for garnish
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with cracked ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Add garnish.
(Disclaimer: Square One sent me a sample bottle of Botanical.)


text:
The End of Plastic?
Continue Reading Below
If you thought your phone was indispensable now, just wait until the holidays. A wave of new smartphone technologies promises to make a staple of the season -- gift cards -- easier to use than ever.
It's all about lightening your load. Nobody wants to fuss with a deck of half-used gift cards when they hit the mall. So innovators have developed new ways to remove the clutter and boost customer loyalty along the way.
Smartphones, for example, can now store and access gift cards. They'll also let you send gift cards to others using email, text messages and social media. Which technology is right for you? It all depends on what you like to buy and how you communicate.
Bankrate has compiled a list of five technologies that will change the way people use gift cards this year. Here's how they work, along with their advantages and disadvantages.
Smartphone Apps That Spread Gifts Around Town
GPS devices can do a lot more than pinpoint your spot on a map. A slew of shopping apps now use this technology to send gift cards that are tailored to your location. Say you want to buy your friend a bottle of wine, for example, but that friend lives across the country. With apps such as Giftly, you can buy your friend a gift card for wine that can be redeemed at a variety of stores in your friend's neighborhood. Your friend can walk into any store, buy whatever he wants, and then get reimbursed through the gift card.
Benefits: This is tailored to small local retailers, and there aren't limitations on what kinds of gifts you have to buy. Giftly gift cards also can be printed out for people who don't have a smartphone. You can see where the recipient went, what he bought, and unlike some plastic gift cards, Giftly certificates don't expire.
Drawbacks: The person receiving the gift must pay for the purchase upfront before getting reimbursed. That can be a bit awkward. The giver must also pay a fee to cover bank processing fees.
Mobile 'Wallets' Turn Your Phone Into a Credit Card
Google Wallet, an app that works on Android devices, replaces gift cards altogether. It stores gift card information on the phone and uses near-field communication, or NFC, technology, so shoppers can pay by tapping their phone on a terminal at the check-out counter.
Another app, Square Wallet, works on iPhones and Android devices. It also stores gift cards and uses the phone's GPS to help find merchants that accept its payment service. When you're at a participating store, Square Wallet sends your name, photo and gift card information to the merchant. You can pay at the counter simply by giving the cashier your name.
Benefits: Convenience. You don't have to pull a card out of your wallet or sign a credit card receipt.
Drawbacks: Not all retailers are equipped to scan bar codes from your phone, and Square Wallet is relatively new (a recent search of New York City's midtown Manhattan found about two dozen participating retailers among hundreds of places to shop). Also, Google Wallet and Square Wallet only work with cards that are associated with one of the major payment networks: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
Passbook for Store-Specific Gift Cards
Apple's Passbook lets your iPhone keep track of store-specific gift cards. Passbook, which is available on phones that run iOS 6, works with other apps to keep everything organized and up-to-date. Once your gift card is uploaded into Passbook, your phone doubles as the gift card. Passbook will display the card with a bar code that can then be scanned by the merchant.
Benefits: Your wallet is much lighter, and you don't have to worry about keeping track of all those gift cards.
Drawbacks: Not all apps are compatible with Passbook, which is new and still has bugs. Some users, for example, have reported difficulty adding apps to Passbook that they've downloaded. Many shoppers will also find uploading gift cards to be a pain in the neck. You'll need to go to the App Store and download the app that's linked to the gift card. In some cases, you'll be asked to open an account with the app before you can transfer the account information and gift card to Passbook.
Ding! A Gift by Email or Text
Here's yet another way to get rid of that plastic. Many gift cards can be transmitted electronically now through email or text. And if you want to announce your gift to the world, you can send someone a gift card with Facebook or Twitter. Apps such as Gyft and Wrapp will help you set this up. You can also send electronic gift cards directly from many retailers' websites.
Benefits: Great for last-minute giving. There's no need to push through crowds at the mall on Christmas Eve. You also won't be charged shipping costs, and electronic gift cards are environmentally friendly by design -- there's nothing to throw away.
Drawbacks: The technology isn't 100% reliable. If the recipient doesn't receive your text message, for example, the gift might not arrive on time. Plus, if your recipient doesn't have a texting plan with his or her cellphone carrier, it could cost them to open your text.
QR Codes for the Camera Phone
A lot of camera phones can be used as a scanner to quickly download coupons, gift card giveaways and other product information. Retailers are increasingly catering to this technology by adding scannable QR codes to circulars, catalogues, billboards and even other gift cards. These codes look like crossword puzzles, and they're usually about the size of a postage stamp.
Benefits: QR codes are quick and easy to use. Instead of hunting online for websites or pulling out a pen and paper, a QR code will take you directly to the information you need.
Drawbacks: You'll have to download an app to your smartphone to get going, and you'll need a phone that is equipped with a camera. Some retailers will also attempt to collect your email and other information as part of a registration process.


text:
A movie star. A TV legend. A Broadway VIP. Whatever your drama dreams, pursuing an acting education can help you hone your skills and further your career. Can pursuing your acting education online help put you on the path to success? Yes, but with some major limitations.
Online acting students will access most of their course information through the Internet and submit work online. Some classes may also include web-based discussions for interaction between students and instructors. Online acting students may also be required to submit video of themselves performing.
That all sounds pretty typical, so what about the limitations? Primarily, with online acting classes, the amount and level of collaboration and feedback you can achieve through the Internet is limited. As you would expect, hands-on collaboration is a very important component of acting education, and is something that is very difficult to achieve over the web.
Online education has reached new heights over the past few years, but it cannot recreate a real classroom experience in which an acting student can perform in front of an instructor and peers and get immediate feedback.
Jennifer Chapman, Communications Director for the American Alliance for Theater and Education, points out that because of this limitation online acting education is best used as part of a larger education in acting. "Online education has its place," says Chapman. "The Internet is a very useful tool and is a great way to disseminate information. However, hands-on collaboration is extremely important in this field, so online education is best used as a piece of one's whole education."
The second major limitation of online acting education is the number of programs available. Currently, only one school, the Academy of Art University, offers an online degree program with actual acting components. This school offers associate, bachelor, and master degrees in Motion Pictures and Television with an available concentration in acting.
Even if you are not seeking a degree and just want to take an individual acting class or get some feedback on your ability, your online choices are still limited. Just a few acting schools offer online classes with varying levels of interaction and feedback. Some examples include the following:
The cost of online acting classes varies significantly. If you are just looking for inexpensive pointers, there are some free online workshops. Of course, if you are looking for actual classes that include feedback about your acting ability, there will be a fee. The Hollywood Actor's Studio offers online lessons for $75.00 per session. The lessons include a phone consultation and plan of action, work assignments, evaluation of taped work, and coaching via phone or e-mail.
There's no doubt about it. Showbiz is a tough business, but it's not impossible to get work as an actor. Online acting students will face many of the same challenges students from traditional acting programs will. There is a lot of competition for a limited amount of jobs, so you have to be committed and persistent.
Online students may be somewhat at a disadvantage when compared to students in traditional acting education programs because they won't be in a classroom networking with students and teachers. However, online students can still network with their peers and instructors through the Internet and can supplement their online education through performance and education opportunities in their area.
There are some online acting education opportunities, but they are limited in scope and number. Students should carefully assess their needs and explore the options that are offered by online acting schools or training programs to ensure that they will receive the type of training that will enhance their acting career.


text:
This being the most hated bull market in memory, it\'s no surprise that traders and investors are nervously looking for the catalyst that will spark not only the next selloff, but the next bear market.
But so far, some of the most crucial ingredients for a full-fledged retreat remain missing, a pair of analysts argued in separate notes Monday.
First up, Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research. He argues that the next bear market will be caused by the next recession. Recessions are usually the caused by a tightening of monetary policy. While the Fed is likely to start hiking rates next year from near-zero levels, it\'s hard to see the move causing a recession \"right away,\" he argues, although it is possible that even a modest tightening could shock the financial system.
For now, he\'s penciling in growth through at least the end of 2015. As for the relationship between stocks and the economy, Yardeni puts a lot of emphasis on his \"misery index\" (see chart above), which is the average of the unemployment rate and a core inflation measure. The index fell to 7.8% in May from the most recent cyclical peak of 11.5% in March 2010. If unemployment continues to fall at its current pace, it would hit 5.5% by December, while inflation, though on the rise, is likely to remain subdued at around 1.5%, he says.
Yardeni breaks it down:
Nevertheless, if the jobless rate continues to plunge, the Fed will be hiking rates sooner rather than later. Right now early next year is possible, and late this year can't be ruled out. That might trigger financial tremors including a correction in stock prices. However, the U.S. economy should prove remarkably resilient, which would augur well for a secular bull market.
Yardeni also notes that bear markets tend to coincide with falls in the resource utilization rate — the average of the capacity utilization rate and the unemployment rate. He still sees room for the rate to move higher. Also, leading indicators remain on an upward trend, Yardeni said, noting that the indicators tend to turn down around three months ahead of the start of a recession.
Meanwhile, Sam Stovall at S&P Capital IQ revisited a range of fundamental and technical indicators with past bull-market tops dating back to 1948. He also gave the bull a qualified bill of good health.
Valuations, along with the S&P 500's distance from its 200-day moving average, \"hint that the market needs to rest, but not necessarily RIP,\" Stovall wrote. \"I don't know exactly when a decline will start, nor can anyone tell you precisely how far the market will ultimately fall. However, based on comparisons with prior market tops, the decline will probably be the kind that is refreshing, healthy, or even a bit scary, but a new bear market is not likely lurking around the corner.\"
— William Watts
Follow William on Twitter @wlwatts
Why markets shrug off Ukraine plane crash, Gaza and other geopolitical flashpoints
Junk-bond warning: Investors exit as yields rise


text:
October 2000
Syria is located in the Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon to the West, and Iraq to the East. Most of the population lives in the Euphrates River valley and along the coastal plain, a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert.
Archaeologists have demonstrated that Syria was the center of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth. Around the excavated city of Ebla in northern Syria, discovered in 1975, a great Semitic empire spread from the Red Sea north to Turkey and east to Mesopotamia
from 2500 to 2400 B.C. The city of Ebla alone, during that time, had a population estimated at 260,000. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be the oldest Semitic language.
Syria was occupied successively by Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans, Byzantines, and, in part, Crusaders before
finally coming under the control of the Ottoman Turks in 1517. The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840.
Syria is a middle-income developing country with a diversified economy based on agriculture, industry, and an expanding energy sector. During the 1960s, citing its state socialist ideology, the
government nationalized most major enterprises and adopted economic policies designed to address regional and class disparities. Despite the positive growth rates of the past few years, this legacy of state intervention and price, trade, and foreign exchange controls still hampers economic growth.
Israel is located in the Middle East, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt to the West, and Syria and Jordan to the East. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts by Zionist leaders to establish a sovereign nation as a homeland for Jews. The desire of Jews to return to what they consider their homeland was first expressed during the Babylonian exile. It became a universal Jewish theme after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. and the dispersal that followed. It was not until the founding of the Zionist movement by Theodore Herzl at the end of the 19th century that
practical steps were taken toward securing international sanction for large-scale Jewish settlement in Palestine--then a part of the Ottoman Empire.
Israel is a parliamentary democracy. Its governmental system is based on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament, the Knesset. The president (chief of state) is elected by the Knesset for a 5-year term. The prime minister (head of government) exercises executive power and has in the past been selected by the president as the party leader most able to form a government. The members of the cabinet must be collectively approved by the Knesset. In the May 1996 elections, Israelis for the first time voted for the prime minister directly, in accordance with recent legislation.
Israel has a diversified modern economy with substantial government ownership and a rapidly developing high-tech sector. Poor in natural resources, Israel depends on imports of oil, coal, food, uncut diamonds, other production inputs, and military equipment. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1997 reached $98 billion, or $16,800 per person. The major industrial sectors include metal products, electronic and biomedical equipment, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. Israel possesses a substantial service sector and is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing. It is also a world leader in software development and is a major tourist destina
The World Factbook, CIA, US Department State Background Notes, 4/1999 12/1998
This map has also been used:
- Syria/Israel, October, 2000


text:
Photo by Jeff Nelson via Wikimedia Commons
At the start of each season, all teams are equal in the standings. A team that was among the league's worst a season ago is tied for first at the beginning of
October December, and hope springs eternal for all but the most browbeaten fanbases. Of course, those particularly unfortunate fans remember something important that many fans like to forget: every team has a past, and that past matters. Sure, teams change in the off-season but there's a lot of continuity too, which means that, even when we confine ourselves to a simple thing like the previous season's goal differential, we can get a pretty decent idea of what can be reasonably expected in the year to come.
Since the NHL expanded to thirty teams for the 2000-01 season, there have been eleven complete seasons (or 330 team seasons). That gives us 300 pairs of seasons to look at if we want to use one season's goal differential to predict what might happen in the next one. When we look at those pairs, these are the results:
One of the things that I was impressed with is the symmetry: 74% of teams will have a change of less than 40 goal differential from the season before and teams are just as likely to crater (13%) as they are to flourish (13%). I don't know why, but I found that result a little bit surprising. I was expecting to see more complete tank-jobs than giant leaps, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Setting that aside, the amount of change is also impressive. Over half of the teams will see a change of 20 goal differential or more and we can expect about a quarter of the league's teams to have a shift of 40 or more. Half of that is in the wrong direction, but that still leaves three or four teams taking a leap forward each and every season, providing hope for next year to everyone else in the process.
Another thing we might be able to do with this data is find historical precedents for current teams. The Edmonton Oilers, for example, improved by 49 goal differential (-76 to -27) from 2010-11 to 2011-12. If we look at teams who made a similar jump in the past, what might that tell us about Edmonton's prospects for 2012-13?
The first step is identifying comparable teams. To do that, I looked for clubs who had one season with a goal differential of -50 or worse in Year One, and then saw that improve by 29 to 69 to end up somewhere between -37 and -17 in Year Two. I then looked at how those teams performed in the subsequent season (Year Three) to see if that might help give some indication of what to expect out of the 2012-13 Oilers. Here are the results:
I was surprised to find that there was no consistent pattern in this group. Usually when a team takes a big jump like this, most of us regard it as a step toward better things, and while that group of teams is over-represented in this sample, it's not exactly exclusive. I would suggest that, while there seems to be some basis for the conventional wisdom in this case, there's also reason for caution. Some teams that look like they're taking a big step forward aren't able to sustain that improvement, and others regress badly. Which will the Oilers be? God, I hope the lockout ends so that we get a chance to find out.
Previously by Scott Reynolds
- The One-Percenters
- How Often Does Rebuilding Work?
- Is the NHL Lockout Helping AHL Attendance?
- Time on Ice – Goaltenders
- AHL Salaries 2012-13 – Opening Night Rosters


text:
Tabor College continues its Lifelong Learning series this fall with eight programs including historical and informative presentations and music.
All but the final presentation will be at 9:45 a.m. in the Wohlgemuth Music Education Center on Tabor's campus. Most are on Fridays. There will be no meeting Oct. 11 or Nov. 1.
Sept. 27
The Silver Tsunami: Chuck Buller of Visalia, Calif., will discuss issues related to aging. Buller was an administrator for a retirement community in Reedley, Calif., until recently.
Oct. 4
Not Your Ordinary Elementary School: Principal Natise Vogt of Walton Rural Life Center charter school will speak about what has made the agriculture-based school noteworthy enough to be covered by Reuters international news service.
Oct. 7
Art or Popular Music in the Church: In the only Monday presentation of the series, composer and lecturer Larry Warkentin of Fresno, Calif., will discuss whether modern culture is influencing evangelical worship music and how people with a beloved hymn tradition can make peace with contemporary worship music.
Oct. 18
Leave No Threshing Stone Unturned: Author Glen Ediger will explain the importance of and history of threshing stones, grain, and the railroad in Kansas.
Oct. 25
Hearts4Him: This men's vocal ensemble will present a concert of gospel songs. Based in central Kansas, Hearts4Him has been performing together since 2001.
Nov. 8
Hatteberg's People: KAKE evening news anchor Larry Hatteberg will share stories from time on the road seeking memorable people to profile for the evening news.
Nov. 15
Wheat Bread is Not Created Equal: Kansas Wheat Commission spokesman Mary Beth Bowers of Marion will present the latest baking and nutrition information regarding wheat, flour, and bread.
Nov. 22
The Great Commission Today: To close the fall series, Lifelong Learning will have a Thanksgiving dinner at 6 p.m. Brent Warkentin of Wichita will give a presentation. The dinner requires a $10 per person payment due by Nov. 18.
Registration for the entire fall series is $15 per person or $29 for a couple. Alternatively, guests may attend single sessions for $4 each.
For more information, contact coordinator Connie Isaac at firstname.lastname@example.com, (620) 947-3121 ext. 1709, or (620) 947-5964.


text:
Britain's unemployment rate dropped in July to its lowest since late last year, adding to speculation that the Bank of England may raise interest rates earlier than it has predicted.
The rate dipped to 7.7 percent in the three months ending in July from 7.8 percent previously, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. That was its lowest since the September-November period in 2012.
Continue Reading Below
The Bank of England has set the unemployment rates reaching 7 percent as a target in its decision about raising interest rates. It suggests this won't be before the third quarter of 2016, but markets are betting it will be before this.
As a result, Wednesday's release caused a jump in the pound to its strongest level against the dollar in seven months, while the difference between British and German government borrowing costs widened back to the highest level in three years.
British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the fall in unemployment. Two days earlier, his finance minister, George Osborne, said the country's economy was turning a corner having struggled to recover from the financial crisis.
"It's another set of impressive figures," said Investec economist Victoria Clarke. "It suggests the jobs market is recovering much like the broader economy. It reinforces our view that unemployment will come down to 7 percent more quickly than the Bank of England expects."
Investors reckon joblessness will come down more quickly than the Bank does and have been pricing in the first rise in interest rates as soon as late 2014.
This risks a future confrontation between the Bank and the market.
The bets have led to rises in a range of market interest rates, including those that usually feed through to mortgages and other loans. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned that the bank might provide more stimulus for the economy if Britain's recovery is threatened.
The Bank believes the jobless rate will on the whole fall slowly as firms squeeze more out of their current staff as the economy recovers. Surveys of British services and manufacturing last month backed up that view as employment grew more slowly than overall activity.
But in another sign of surprising strength in Britain's labor market, the number of people claiming jobless benefit - a narrower and timelier measure of unemployment - fell by 32,600 in August, much more than economists had expected.
July's fall was also revised to show a drop of 36,300 - the steepest decline since June 1997.
Not all analysts see jobs improvement prompting earlier tightening.
"Although employment rose strongly, more timely evidence from the recent activity surveys suggests that firms are responding to higher demand more by boosting productivity than taking on new workers," Martin Beck, economist at Capital Economics, said.
Forecasting the path of Britain's unemployment rate has been complicated in recent years by older workers rejoining or remaining in the labor force, job cuts in the public sector and uncertainty about immigration levels.
The ONS said on Wednesday public-sector employment fell in the second quarter by 34,000 to 5.665 million.
The data also showed a record number of people working part-time because they could not find a full-time position.
Stronger productivity is unlikely to boost real wages anytime soon: the ONS said average weekly earnings growth including bonuses slowed to 1.1 percent in the three months ending in July compared with a year earlier. Excluding bonuses, pay grew 1.0 percent.
By contrast, inflation averaged 2.8 percent over the same period. Britain's opposition Labor party has made the fall in living standards a centerpiece of its challenge to the government's claims that its austerity helped the economy heal by keeping borrowing costs down.
(This story is refiled to add dropped word in para 13)
(Additional reporting by Christina Fincher Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)


text:
Here are the best articles from across the web that I can find on using stories and storytelling in business.
I've chosen them because they actually make a contribution to our knowledge and wisdom about stories, show us how to apply stories to growing our businesses, or give valuable how-to tips.
I weed out all the junk. And besides, who needs another post in why storytelling is important?? Where's the beef?? We want the meat!
I've written reviews of each article to share what I like best, what you can get from reading the article, or what may be missing in the article.
How To Find A Topic: Click on the Filter tab above, and type in a keyword. All the articles with that keyword will appear.
I may occassionally review an article that I think is problematic as a way to educate us all, although most I will simply pass over. If you wonder if I've seen an article that is not included here, send me a message and I'll respond.
After doing biz story work for over a decade (and with a PhD in Folklore) I hope you find many great insights and tips here. Many thanks for visiting and enjoy the articles!
And I hope you will also visit my website for more tips and tools, & take the free Story IQ assessment so you can see how well developed your storytelling skills and knowledge is: http://www.juststoryit.com/storyiq
See on www.juststoryit.com


text:
New high school graduation requirements passed in Texas
Under House Bill 5 (HB 5), passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature and signed by the governor, high school students are now required to pass five State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) end-of-course exams to meet the new graduation requirements.
The five assessments under HB 5 include Algebra I, English I (combined reading/writing), English II (combined reading/writing), biology, and U.S. history. The Texas Education Agency will be advising school districts and charters that students must pass all five of these end-of-course assessments to be eligible to graduate from a Texas public high school.
As a result, students who have taken a required assessment - but have not yet passed - will still need to demonstrate satisfactory performance on that exam to meet the state's graduation requirements.
Reading and writing are currently assessed separately in English I and English II. However, HB 5 requires reading and writing be combined and given in a single day.
High school students who have to date passed English I or English II reading but not English I or English II writing (or vice versa) will still need to successfully complete the second test to meet graduation requirements. Existing state law does not allow the commissioner to waive a testing requirement.
The English I and English II tests will continue to have separate reading and writing tests for the July 2013 test administration and the December 2013 test administration. English I and English II assessments that combine reading and writing will be available beginning in spring 2014. High school students who have not successfully completed a separate reading or writing assessment by that time will take the new combined English I or English II test.
"Whenever the state revises its graduation plans and assessment requirements, many high school students get caught in that transition," said Commissioner of Education Michael L. Williams. "The Texas Education Agency is working to make that transition a smooth one for those already in the pipeline, while also balancing fairness to those students who have successfully completed components of the current system."
Assessments in Algebra II, geometry, English III, chemistry, physics, world geography, and world history have been eliminated from the testing requirements. As a result, the July 2013 STAAR administration will not include assessments for these courses. End-of-course assessments will continue to be offered in Algebra I, English I, English II, biology, and U.S. history.
The Texas Education Agency will be advising school districts and charters that accelerated instruction is required for students who did not perform satisfactorily on end-of-course exams required for graduation under HB 5 (Algebra I, English I (reading/writing), English II (reading/writing), biology, and U.S. history).
Since the end-of-course exams for chemistry, physics, Algebra II, geometry, world history, world geography and English III are no longer required for high school graduation under HB 5, accelerated instruction is not required for those courses.
HB 5 also eliminates the 15 percent grading requirement. Under the rule previously connected to the STAAR end-of-course examinations, a student's score on the STAAR end-of-course exams would have counted 15 percent of the student's final grade in each tested subject area. The STAAR end-of-course cumulative score component has also been eliminated.


text:
Orion/Continuous Delivery
This page collects ideas, processes, and technology requirements for supporting continuous delivery of Orion
For the past couple of years, the Orion project has followed an abbreviated version of the classic Eclipse milestone development process. Each release consisted of two 6 week milestones, followed by a 5 week end-game, for a roughly 4 month total release cycle. This release cadence works well enough for classic software that is released and delivered to customers, but is not acceptable for Orion consumers building hosted software services. Four months is far too long to wait to update a web application. Other related web technology such as browsers and web frameworks are releasing much faster, and security bugs often require very fast (even zero day) turnaround.
This page captures the Orion community's efforts to move from three releases a year, to an interim goal of releasing stable builds once a week.
Orion runs with two classes of builds:
|Build Type
|Deployed To
|Daily or on demand
Stable build process
Each week we converge to produce a single stable build using the following process:
- On Monday at 12:00 ET / 18:00 CET a new stable branch is created of the form stable_YYYYMMDD
- A committer designated as the Integrator reviews all changes in master and merges into the stable branch
- A stable build is performed against the stable branch and promoted to orion.eclipse.org
- Committers test orion.eclipse.org and further stable builds are run as needed
- The build is promoted as stable with the naming convention S# where # is the sequential stable build number since start of the release cycle
Release process
Every four months a stable build is promoted as a release.
Automated testing
Every dev and stable build runs a full suite of automated unit tests against both client and server components. Further integration testing is done by "self hosting" at orion.eclipse.org prior to release.
Controlled access for new features
Significant new features should be introduced in the main code base early, either on a separate, unlinked URL, or by using some form of feature toggle. Some options for implementing feature toggles in Orion:
- Put the UI portions of the new feature in a plugin that is not installed by default. Early adopters need to install the plugin to get the feature.
- A major page overhaul can be done by introducing a duplicate page that is not linked elsewhere. Early adopters need to know to navigate to that URL to see the new page. The feature is launched by switching URLs to the new page. Once feature is accepted the old page should be deleted to avoid cruft.
- Use a temporary setting that is disabled by default, and adopters need to know to turn it on. Once ready for more exposure the default can be changed to on, and then remove the setting entirely.
- Use a query argument in the URL to control access to a feature. User needs to alter the URL to see the feature.


text:
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons. These engines comprise specialised devices which use some form of stored energy to operate, whether mechanical, chemical, or electromagnetic. Originally designed to breach fortifications, they have evolved from nearly static installations intended to reduce a single obstacle to highly mobile weapons of great flexibility in which now reposes the greater portion of a modern army's offensive capabilities.
There are no registered leaders of this group. This can be granted to the right person on request. Also why don't you join the community, we welcome creators and consumers alike and look forward to your comments.


text:
Download: PDF
The report, The Untapped Opportunity: How Public-Private Partnerships Can Advance Education for All, highlights four areas in which public-private partnerships can make investments that matter:
Entry: Because there is a shortage of school buildings, businesses can partner with governments and communities to build schools closer to where students live in order to increase entry rates. These partnerships can also work to educate the public on the need for education, and advocate for policy and program improvements.
Retention: To keep children in schools, business can use their expertise in market analysis to investigate why 25 percent of children drop out of school before completing the primary level. Working with communities, businesses can suggest solutions to the problem and create incentive programs to keep students in school and find future employment.
Learning: The quality of learning varies considerably from country-to-country and school-to-school. To improve learning, businesses can contribute to curriculum development and teacher training programs, and work with schools on effective human resource management.
Inequality: Inequalities in all areas of education remain a serious problem. Girls and children who are poor, or from rural areas, are least likely to access high-quality education. Businesses can use their communications expertise to create campaigns that stress the benefits of educating girls and marginalized children.


text:
British Columbia Coaches Week kicked off this past Friday, September 14, 2012. This week, Vancouver Whitecaps FC together with BC Soccer would like to extend our appreciation to the many BC coaches that dedicate their time and share their knowledge and abilities with over 120,000 registered soccer players across the province.
Earlier this year, BC Soccer, in partnership with Coaches BC organized a group of 75 experienced coaches to deliver soccer-specific community coach stream courses to educate its valued members and coaches across BC. We will spend this week highlighting each phase of the workshops and recognizing the coaches that helped facilitate them. For more information on the national coaching pathway and soccer coaching certification please click here.
Yesterday we covered Active Start which is followed by the second phase of the four-level coaching pathway called Fundamentals. Stage two, also called "fun with the ball", focuses on teaching technical skills such as ball handling to ages U-7 to U-9. Today we recognize the BC Soccer learning facilitator of this course, Nara Riplinger. We would like to recognize and thank Nara for over 15 years of commitment to coaching and training others in BC. In being asked how the Fundamentals course benefits young soccer players today Nara states:
"I can truly appreciate the benefits of the new delivery model for the participants. The take-away resource material can only help coaches provide an enjoyable environment for themselves and their players. Being a female coach and player (I still play recreationally), it is rewarding to be a mentor for young girls and for females who are pursuing their coaching credentials."
In addition to delivering the formal pathway of coaching certification in the province, BC Soccer is proud to support supplemental coaching-education opportunities such as the first ever Whitecaps FC Coaching Clinic presented by Tim Hortons.
Whitecaps FC would like to invite all coaches to join our technical coaching staff this Sunday, September 23, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. PT at BC Place for our free Whitecaps FC Coaching Clinic presented by Tim Hortons. Register now for your chance to gain expert advice and coaching tips from MLS level coaching staff.
For more details on coaches week please visit www.coachesbc.ca/coaches-week
Vancouver Whitecaps FC are preparing to launch a special offer for fans on 2013 Season Tickets. To thank fans for their continued support, those who purchase Season Tickets from Saturday, September 22 to Wednesday, October 3 will receive a special signing bonus of 12 per cent off. Fans can take advantage of this offer and renew or purchase their Season Tickets online at whitecapsfc.com or by phone at 604.669.9283.


text:
By John Goralski
Sports Writer
The year was 1962. The Southington High School football team was riding an 18-game winning streak, and Lenny Clements made a rare defensive mistake that allowed the Croft quarterback to complete a pass for a large gain.
No matter how tough they might have been, the Croft linemen must have been nervous when they lined up for the next play. The quarterback must have felt Clements' presence as he dropped back for the pass. That poor receiver was probably worried about getting hit when he stretched out for the ball…
Clements was already returning the interception the length of the field. Lenny Clements rarely made a mistake on the gridiron. But when he did, he made you pay for it.
"We ended up 8-1 that year, but if he didn't play for us we probably would have been 1-8," said former Southington High School football coach Joe Orsene. "He was that good. He punted, and he received the punts. He kicked off, and he received the kickoffs. He played defense and offense for us. He led the state in scoring that year. He did everything."
The fact that Clements was good came as no surprise to Southington fans. After all, his father was an all-American player in Pennsylvania at the turn of the century. Clements was the youngest of seven brothers and his older brothers had already raised the bar for Southington football by the time that Lenny reached the high school. Football was in his blood, and Lenny was one of the best.
"All you had to do with Lenny is tell him what you wanted to do, and he'd do it," said Orsene. "I would work with the defensive ends for hours, but all I'd have to do is tell Lenny once. Then, forget everything else. They weren't going around his end. That was it. That was the kind of guy that he was."
On both sides of the ball, Clements was dominant. He caught three interceptions in his senior season. He rushed for 1,022 yards in nine games and averaged 6.5 yards per carry. He caught seven passes and threw for three completions, including one for a touchdown.
Clements scored 18 touchdowns in 1962, and he converted eight extra point plays. He led the state in scoring with 124 points. With his combined offense, defense, and special teams, Clements accounted for 1,559 all-purpose yards. His efforts earned him a first team selection for the Class B all-state football team, and he went on to score the winning touchdown in the 1962 East vs. West all-star football game.
"He always gave 100 percent. He always gave everything that he had, and he never let anyone down," said his older brother Jerry, a star on the 1953 hall of fame team. "He had such intestinal fortitude. Joe Orsene used to always say that he wished he had 11 guys like Lenny."
And why not? Clements was a top defender. He led the state in scoring, but he wasn't just limited to football. He earned four varsity letters in basketball, two in baseball, and one in track.
Former sports writer Art Secondo was Lenny's teammate on the high school basketball team, and he still marvels at Clements' competitiveness. Football was his primary sport, but Clements could make any team better. He wasn't worried about looking good or collecting stats. Clements just wanted to win.
"He didn't possess the agility of a basketball player, but he was a tremendous rebounder. He was a key player in our league championship run in 1961," said Secondo. "What you saw with Lenny Clements was an old-fashioned athlete who put sports ahead of just about everything else. He demonstrated an intense desire to always do his best even though there were times on the court that he looked like a fullback blasting through the line."
Clements was known for doing whatever he could to make his teams successful, and that carried into every season. Clements just loved to compete.
"After his junior football season, he came up to me—I was the track coach at the time—and he told me if there was any way that he could help me in track to just let him know," said Orsene. "That's the type of guy that Lenny was. He was a great ballplayer and a great guy. Everybody loved him."
Clements earned a varsity letter for the track team as a state-level sprinter but returned to baseball to earn another letter in his senior year.
After graduation Clements carried his athleticism into a 35-year career with the Meriden Fire Department. He continued to play in town leagues and on firehouse teams, but he never pursued football at the collegiate level. Still, his competitive spirit made him an excellent fireman.
"He used to give 150 percent in everything that he did. If he couldn't give 100 percent, he wouldn't even try," his brother Jerry said. "He would never complain. He was a fireman for 35 years, and when he went into a house, he had no fear at all. If there was somebody in there, he'd go in and get him. There were stories about him in the fire department that were just unbelievable."
Clements passed away in 2008 after a long battle with cancer, but his memory still lingers on local sports fields an in sports discussions by long-time Southington fans. He continues to be a measure for high school athletes, and it can be argued that his sports dominance in 1962 has yet to be duplicated.
Perhaps that's why the Southington Sports Hall of Fame selection committee selected Clements to be inducted posthumously into the local sports hall of fame. According to Orsene, it is long overdue.
"If he isn't in the hall of fame, I don't know who should be in it," said Orsene, a member of the Class of 2010. "I'm really glad that he's in. I think he would have loved this. If Coach [Walt] Lozoski was alive, he would tell you that he loved Lenny. We all did."
On Thursday, Nov. 14, Clements will be honored in an induction ceremony at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville. To reserve tickets, contact Jim Verderame at (860) 628-7335.
"I think it's great that he's finally getting the recognition. I'm sure that he would have loved this," said his brother Jerry. "He deserves a spot in the hall of fame, and I'm sure that everyone that knew him would certainly agree. He was a heck of an athlete."
Just give me the ball, coach; Lenny Clements raised the bar for scoring in the early 1960s
By John Goralski


text:
EasyEnergy Solar needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 51 designs submitted by 22 freelance designers.
Easy Energy Solar
We are an Electrical contracting company that currently services Corporate Clients in Sydney, NSW. We are expanding our business due to demands in the Solar Panel industry. Due to the increases of electricity costs over the last year of 25% and future increases estimated at an additional 50%.
Australian Government are currently offering incentives for homeowners and businesses to install Solar Panels.
Homeowners, Businesses, Designers, Architects, Energy Assessors, Builders and basically anyone that uses Electricity.
Logo will be Trade Marked.
Would consider logo's that use EasyEnergy as one word.
Example: Easyenergy Solar
Be FREE to be creative
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
3 Horses Hit by Truck, Killed in Minnehaha County
Minnehaha County authorities are investigating a hit-and-run near Crooks that killed three horses early Saturday.
The Sheriff's office says the horses escaped from a fenced area and were on the roadway on 469th Avenue, just north of Willow Creek Street when they were struck by what authorities believe was a pickup truck or SUV.
The driver left the scene without reporting the crash, but Sheriff's Captain James Hoekman says investigators recovered two chrome side mirrors from the vehicle, along with some broken glass from a side window.
Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Sheriff's office or Crimestoppers at 1-800-367-7007.


text:
Out-of-the-box components
Create pages with backward-compatible out-of-the-box components like bread crumbs, forms, page navigation, search teasers, and search, saving time for both authors and developers.
Your customers want content created just for them, the moment they need it. Your teams want the flexibility to deliver. With a web content management platform flexible enough for marketers and developers to use simultaneously, you can keep the right content flowing, and your customers coming back for more.
Launch a new microsite. Keep the content relevant. Translate and localize. Oh, and make sure it displays just as beautifully on a 5.5-inch smart phone as it does on a 27-inch desktop. For your marketing and IT teams, keeping up with these demands is a tall order, especially if your web content management platform isn't up to the task.
When content is stored in different systems, information isn't relevant to your site visitors, and a simple edit takes days instead of minutes, the customer experience — and your competitive edge — slip. To stay ahead, you need a quick way to access and create content. A more precise way to target your customers. And a simple way to publish to your website (and other devices).
In short, you need a better way to compete with content. This means giving marketers and developers one place to access content, and the tools to do what they do best, so you don't have to worry about bottlenecks. Because when you get it right, your teams are more productive, your sites get launched faster, traffic numbers climb, and revenue grows.
Adobe Experience Manager Sites provides the digital foundation you need to swiftly create, manage, and deliver personalized, engaging content to every customer who visits your site. That's why we've been recognized as a leader in the Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management" for seven years running, and in "The Forrester Wave™: Web Content Management Systems" report for the last four.
An easy-to-use drag and drop interface, out-of-the-box components, and an intuitive template editor help marketers deliver content at speed with minimal effort, while custom components and Single Page Applications (SPAs) give developers flexibility and room to innovate. At last, you can give your customers the content they want along every step in their journey. No matter how many turns they take.
"What used to take us a week can now happen in 20 minutes with Adobe Experience Manager. We have the control to make changes when the market demands, allowing us to be much more agile as a team."
Kamran Shah, Director of Corporate Marketing, Silicon Labs
Create pages with backward-compatible out-of-the-box components like bread crumbs, forms, page navigation, search teasers, and search, saving time for both authors and developers.
Build, publish, and update pages faster and easier with our in-context WYSIWYG interface, with its drag-and-drop components, simple keyboard shortcuts, visual search, and reusable content.
Streamline and reuse content across devices, with elements like layout, text size, content, navigation, and images that automatically adjust to fit the device your customer prefers.


text:
Windwing C+S wrote:Hey Windwing fans! Check out the French Gillette Mach 3 razor TV add powered by the OUTRAGE kite.
(Reposted from Kiteforum)
WINDWING OUTRAGE/GILLETTE TV commercial
Post general kiteboarding discussion topics here!
Moderator: BayAreaKite
6 posts • Page 1 of 1
WINDWING OUTRAGE/GILLETTE TV commercial
(Reposted from Kiteforum)
Man, that's pretty cool. I use Gilette Mach 3 Turbo myself and it rocks. But I need some new cartridges.... Thanks for yet another cool link!
Btw, the Outrage is simply and honestly the biggest hucking and hang time kite I have ever flown....Not that you can tell from the video...
Btw, my french isn't so good, what's "Puissance"?
puissance means power.
I like some of the words in French that are used for kiting.
"Le kite" sounds funny and refers to the sport.
They use the word "wing" to refer to a kite.
They use the word "navigate" to talk about going kiting.
I just like the connections to flying and sailing.
6 posts • Page 1 of 1
Return to General Kiteboarding Discussion
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests


text:
94 – He Menaced Mah Chickens
April 23, 2013 Leave a comment
Featuring Joey, John "MusiM", Lauren "Literally",Scott "Artisann002", and Suzy "Specter".
Music by MusiM. Buy the music at musim.bandcamp.com
As the Carousel turns we discuss Injustice Gods Among Us, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Wolverine Origins, The Stand, Carrie, Evil Dead, Hannibal, and Wreck It Ralph. And an impromptu discussion on Canada's premier super hero team, Alpha Flight.


text: At 08:24 PM 3/14/2006, Robert G. Brown wrote: ..snip... >Using PVM is fairly easy to write programs that CAN be tuned by hand or >dynamically to a heterogeneous environment. In fact, PVM can actually >run a single program on multiple architectures -- one of my first >exposures to it was one of Vaidy's presentations in which he showed >scaling results for a computation that was being run in parallel across >a Cray, a cluster of Sun workstation, a cluster of DEC workstations >(this WAS 1992 and DEC still existed:-), and a cluster of I think HPs or >AIX boxes, cannot remember. One computation, four or five distinct >binaries, ethernet for all IPCs. Tres cool. > >Even today, I'm not at all certain that a version of MPI exists that >>>can<< do this. Sure, with Linux nearly ubiquitous in production >cluster environments there is less incentive than there was a decade >plus ago, but even now PVM "could" be used to run a single computation >across e.g. i386 and x64 architectures, using native binaries on both >(not i386 compatibility binaries and libraries on both). PVM also gives >you fairly straightforward control over just how the job distributes >itself, permitting you (with some effort) to invoke multiple instances >of a job per node, respawn a worker task on a crashed node, and so on. ..snap... I used to do this type of stuff with mpich: AIX machines (2 versions, 2 types of power chips, some single proc other 2way SMP), solaris (with 2-way smp ultrasparc cpus), linux machines (several distributions) on a variety of intel and amd machines, and once during a test a Dec machine (only used it once to test this, can't even remember the details. Was a 4-way smp machine. Might even have the DEC-part wrong) to run distributed programs across the network. Nice mix of bit-endian and little endian :-) The jobs started in a parallel queue on the SP2 cluster of the computation center, spread out to our own machines here at chemistry, some interactive machines on the SP2 where I was allowed to run jobs (it was not _explicitely_ forbidden to have them started by a script or a job inside the cluster so...) and some machines made temporarily availble for these tests/runs at other research groups. Worked very nicely, no problems in the communications, and since the algorithm I used was self-balancing it scaled pretty good too. I gather Mpich-2 no longer supports this type of heterogeniety nowadays ? Luc Vereecken Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm


text:
NAS DISKPAK - SATA - 20TB (4 x 5000GB) WD RED (NAS)
Product SKU: NDP-45TBWDRED
20TB (4x5000GB) SimplyNAS - NAS DISKPAK for Integration into all NAS Servers. This pack includes NASBIT Testing and Installation.
What kind of Enterprise Storage Solutions Do You Need?
SimplyNAS staff of experts can perform an audit and provide recommendations for the kind of server and networked storage that would work best for you. This is true if you are a SAN, a NAS, or a combination of both. We have years of experience providing our clients best of breed solutions. We will find the best infrastructure for you needs. Contact us today for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.


text:
Coupons & Promotions click for details
Kissaluvs products are proudly made in the USA.New to Cloth First off, WELCOME! We are very excited about your interest in cloth diapers and more than willing to give you all the resources and information you need to get your cloth diaper collection started! Let us start with the basics on Cloth Diapers (CD): Fitted Diapers Kissa's Cotton fleece This is a basic approach to cloth diapering. The fabric is soft, absorbent, stretchy, and well-fit. There are elastic leg openings to contain messes, snaps for sturdy and adjustable fit to different sized babies, and a unique low-rise front and full-coverage back to allow optimal movement and absorbency. Diapers must be paired with a Diaper Cover for waterproofing and no leakage. Kissa's Organic Cotton/Hemp Fitted Diapers Benefits of a fitted cloth diaper with the addition of organic and "green" fabric Made of a mix of naturally durable and anti-bacterial Hemp, and certified Organic cotton, our organic Kissa's take green and sustainability seriously Paired with Diaper Covers Contour Diapers Kissaluvs version of the prefold diaper with our improvements to make it better! Least expensive and easy-to-use route to cloth diapering Made with the same Fitted's fleece but the freedom of your own closure system (e.g. snaps, pins, etc.) Continue to pair with Diaper Cover Diaper Covers Kissa's Sensational Solid Made from durable, water resistant PUL (Poly Urethane Laminate) and Gentle elastic in gussets that provides excellent containment Cross-over waist snaps ensure a good fit for chubby and skinny babies alike AND added hip-snap which prevents the dreaded wing droopage to get a perfect fit around baby's legs. Convenience in minimizing number of covers needed – may be wiped clean between uses (e.g. one cover per every fitted diaper is not necessary) All-in-One Diapers Kissa's AIOplus Diapers Easiest, efficient, and most popular with new cloth-diapering moms (dads and babysitters too)! A combination of a fitted diaper and a cover in one! (no need to buy both/not paired with a diaper cover) Dry fleece touches the baby's bottom while waterproof pul faces the outside for a competitive, "green" alternative to the disposable diaper! Cloth Diaper Accessories GoGo Bag Changing your cloth diapers on the go made easy with a small, antibacterial storage bag easily held in your regular diaper tote/bag (13×13 inch). No need to switch to disposables everytime you leave the house! Can hold multiple diapers and wipes and conveniently washes alongside your diapers. Wipes While many new and veteran cloth diapering moms use regular disposable/flushable wipes, we provide a matching "green," washable, and therefore cost-efficient alternative! We have a one-ply, undyed knit terry option as well as and organic fabric option. Diaper Lotion Potion A Kissaluvs exclusive! This magic is made especially for and only distributed by us and our retailers! Apply some lotion potion to your cloth wipes for the right amount of comfort during changes for your baby's bottom Pail Liner Line your garbage can/diaper pail but wash with your diapers! non-wicking, bacteria free, and odor control provides an excellent addition to your cloth diapers Doublers Diaper liners to add and control absorbency fit in all sizes of our diapers. We offer two sizes for your baby perfect for those heavy-wetters!
Products (Total Items: 0)


text:
Whiplash movie is astonishingly intense and epic! Damien Chazelle has landed a knockout blow in extremity with his epic jazz project. Whiplash is a story of a young drummer with a potential to stand among the greats, and an abusive instructor who seeks perfection at every note to help his students achieve greatness.
Casting of Whiplash Movie
The casting couldn't have been more perfect. Both Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons fit the portrait of their characters superbly. Simmons is an exceptional actor who tries to create an abominable Fletcher. He dons an abusive and mean demeanour quite naturally. He carries it successfully throughout the flick, and reeks of perversion, hubris and foul-mouthed barbarism. Going inhumane to create a musical virtuoso was something Fletcher was trying to achieve.
Teller, an equally great actor, plays Andrew who leaves no stones unturned to play the obsessive drummer. He fumes with confidence and rage when he is tipped over the breaking point. You see him burn in conviction whenever he tries to prove himself. All of it gets unequivocally justified in the final climactic session of the Whiplash movie.
Damien Chazelle: The True Directorial Gem
Damien Chazelle directs the movie brilliantly. The way he moves the camera, rotating it throughout the orchestra by capturing the instructor gesture, the protagonist and then every instrument, is commendable. His frames were exciting. Beats in the background subtly wrapping up New York buildings help bring skills of the director into the limelight. The editing of the movie was outstanding as well. There wasn't an element of ennui present in the entire movie.
You can order Whiplash movie from here:
Outstanding Drama (Spoilers)
Whiplash movie is brimming with dramatic scenes that insinuate how Miles Teller has significantly evolved as an actor. Watch out for the bit when he gets rammed by a truck and then still wakes up from that decimation to play. Also, watch out for the time when he plays so fiercely that he bleeds and ends up jabbing the drum in resentment.
The climax of the movie would literally take your breath away. So brilliant is the energy there that it would be a rare miracle if you somehow survive that nerve wreckage. My hands were moving along with Andrew's sticks as if I was the one who was drumming it. Hands down one of the best drums you would ever listen to!
Wasn't a big jazz fan. This movie has transformed the way I looked at it. Highly recommended quality cinema ladies and gentlemen! Go watch this one. Don't miss it for the world!
You can check out the trailer of Whiplash here:


text:
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Rodizio Rico, Fulham
I used to have this recurring dream that I was at the most glorious buffet. I knew it was a dream as the food looked more beautiful, more luscious, more tempting than anything you could possibly imagine. I'd pile my plate high, and return to my seat, and just as I was about to dig in, I'd abruptly wake up.
I don't think this means anything more profound than the fact that I am a pathetically greedy person. But the only thing I can think of that would be better than a buffet (apart from this one) is an all-you-can-eat that comes to me.
And what an all-you-can-eat - men with meat - wielding huge whacking swords of the stuff (and we're back to the psycho-analysis).
Rodizio-style churrascarias are a real dream; at these Brazilian steakhouses, an endless procession of butch, barbecued meat is brought straight to your table by the dashing passadores and carved onto your plate until you admit defeat.
Rodizio Rico is such an establishment - unlimited 'prime cuts' and a buffet of side dishes costs £23.50, which is great value, especially if you're a glutton like me.
So, I find myself living this dream one balmy summer night.
Before the meaty onslaught, our hungry band visit the buffet to find some authentically stodgy Brazilian dishes like farofa, coxinha, pão de queijo, and bolinho de arroz (rice balls), but also random salads, slightly crummy lasagne and that buffet staple of boiled eggs.
There's even banana frita, deep-fried banana in a crunchy bread coating which is just ... odd (I feel like I've come to the end of a Chinese meal). I'm most enamoured of the dish full of stellar pork scratchings, which I return to on more than one occasion.
With full plates, we sit down on the terrace outside with our cocktails and the meat begins to arrive. Skewer upon skewer of beef, pork and lamb (including some luscious Picanha ie top sirloin) melt in our mouths, having been seared beautifully on a charcoal grill beforehand.
They also produce a mildly disturbing joint of beef oozing with cheese - I don't know why this throws me, as I'll happily eat this combo in a burger.
As well as skewers, the passadores bring us great platters of ribs, steak, lamb chops, chicken wings, and my best beloved chicken hearts - all of them excellent. It's so much fun being waited on like this, and it's tempting to keep going all night.
However, mindful that I''m not wearing elasticated trousers, eventually I find some restraint, and I stop the meatwave by turning round my handy "stop/go" sign to red (to be honest, by that point, I think I've lost the power of speech).
I waddle my way home before desserts arrive to catch the last train - we're in Fulham which is a bit out of the way for me, but there are branches in Islington (where the buffet is "even better" I'm assured), Westbourne Grove and the O2.
I've vowed to visit again the next time the meat-cravings hit. I expect that will be quite soon.
I dined as a guest of Rodizio Rico.
Rodizio Rico
11 Jerdan Place
Fulham Broadway
London SW6 1BE
13 comments:
Yeah, have since been to the one in Angel and the buffet is better BUT the selection of meats offered wasn't as wide-ranging as when we went on the PR night in Fulham - there was no lamb at all, for starters. Still really enjoyed it though and still think it's very good value.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous7 November 2011 at 02:34
Even though I know I will probably never be able to eat at this restaurant I still enjoyed reading the post and drooling over the pictures. You make food writing actually enjoyable and worth reading!ReplyDelete
@Kavey - Ooh, then I might stick to Fulham. The buffet isn't a priority - the meat is!ReplyDelete
@Sydneylk - Aww, thank you! You should hunt down a rodizio near you :)
Rodizio Rico is AWESOME. We go to Westbourne Grove as it's nearest, we go quite rarely, and we prepare by not eating much/anything all beforehand. Can't wait to go again!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous7 November 2011 at 11:16
I remember I went to the one in Westbourne Grove many years ago and stuffed my face silly. Your pictures had me drooling for some meat!ReplyDelete
I went to the one in Islington around a year ago and was quite disappointed that a lot of the meats had run out and they didn't tell us until we'd started eating. They gave us a voucher for a free drink the next time but that wasn't enough of a redeemer for us to return.ReplyDelete
@Alex @chasingbawa - Ooh, Westbourne Grove may have to be my next stop.ReplyDelete
@Lizzie - That's rubbish! Sounds like the Islington branch is a bit disorganised.
And to think I just moved away from there. Boo :-( Great post.ReplyDelete
See, i read your post and thought, "ohh, better get to the Islington branch" as this wounds right up my street. But then the comments are making me think again. Still, you can't go wrong with a place like this, proper meat-a-geddon.ReplyDelete
How many servings did you manage? I'm slighty worried that going there would actually shorten my life... might be worth it though.
This looks so much better than the churracasria I had at rival Rodizio Preto.ReplyDelete
Just out of curiosity what time of day did you go? Might seem a weird question, but I wonder if there's an optimal time of day to visit such places.
MEATY! Looks good.ReplyDelete
@Nicola - Thank you! You near any of the other branches?ReplyDelete
@Mr Noodles - Ooh, someone just told me they think Preto is better. We were at Rodizio Rico at 7.30 on a Thursday.
@Niamh - It *was* good :)
Just been to the one in 02 yesterday for lunch from and the rest goes unsaid, I couldnt keep my eyes open the rest of the afternoon . All the meat was very flavourful so its not just gluttons, but those who love every bite of their meat... I will go back again soon.. just as I am writing this, theres a thought at the back of my mind urging me to go ther.e. but not today... love the food.. it was £17 at 02 on thursday 23/02/12ReplyDelete


text:
Tech-Tool Plastics Inc.
7800 Skyline Park Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76108
1-817-246-4694 or
Products > Bell Helicopters > Bell OH58C
In addition to all standard windows, we offer custom and quick-change options. Our Quick-change windows mount with a rubber seal and can be used as a replacement for the traditional rivet-in installation. These windows save installation time by eliminating rivets and repainting.
Our OH58C windows are available in blue, clear or gray tint, as well as your choice of White or Black Track/Edging.


text:
Lots of professional athletes go on to become team owners, such as Michael Jordan with the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team, and not all of them buy stakes in teams in the sport in which they made their name, like Magic Johnson, who is part owner in the $2.15 billion sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and LeBron James, part owner of Liverpool football club.
It's more unexpected when a celebrity who is best known for dazzling on stage or screen rather than for possessing any athletic inclinations buys a stake in a sports team.
Although in past decades, show-biz figures such as Bob Hope, Gene Autry, Burt Reynolds and John Candy invested in teams, it seems to be getting more common in recent years. Actors, comics and musicians own stakes in teams ranging from football to soccer to soccer that's called football, and in numerous other sports. Read on to see who they are and the teams they partially own.
By Colleen Kane
Posted 5 June, 2012


text:
U.S. agency proposes more hunting in wildlife refuges
WASHINGTON — Officials will ease hunting restrictions at 10 wildlife refuges across the country if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves changes it proposed this week.
The public has until Aug. 4 to comment on the proposal. The changes, which would affect wildlife refuges in eight states, would take effect by the fall.
At the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Texas_ one of the sites that would see an ease in regulations — certain animal populations have grown so quickly they threaten other species and habitat, refuge manager Stuart Marcus said.
"We are definitely not controlling all the hogs and deer," he said.
Three units of land would be opened there to several types of hunting. Before submitting its recommendations to the Fish and Wildlife Service, a team at the site weighed the ecological impact of easing hunting restrictions.
"I couldn't do this every year," Marcus said. "It'd burn me out too much."
Ultimately, the officials decided the three units could support the hunting, which had been practiced there before the refuge acquired the land. Marcus said the reduction in population of non-native and invasive species, such as feral hogs, would be beneficial.
There will be other benefits, too, he said. The refuge gets about 700 hunting visits a year, and Marcus expects that number to increase to about 1,000.
But while new visitors could bring dollars to local businesses, the refuge itself will benefit only minimally from the uptick in hunting applications, which cost $15 each.
That's the point, said Martha Nudel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates 553 refuges across the country. In setting hunting restrictions, she said, wildlife officials try to balance ecological concerns against their congressional mandate to provide places for recreation, which includes hunting.
Revenue "absolutely is not a consideration when we make a determination about hunting programs," she said.
Hunters and conservationists share common goals, she said.
"Hunters and anglers were very much at the forefront of land conservation efforts," she said.
As part of the changes, officials would open Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota to deer and turkey hunting for the first time.
At Mississippi's Coldwater River National Wildlife Refuge, restrictions would be lifted on migratory bird hunting of duck and geese and upland game hunting of squirrel, rabbit and raccoon. Hunters there also would be able to shoot deer and hogs for the first time.
At Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, N.C., the proposal would lift restrictions on hunting deer and hogs. For now, the refuge in northeastern North Carolina allows only an annual waterfowl hunt from designated hunting blinds.
Nudel, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency routinely updated its hunting regulations to reflect changes in ecosystems at the sites.
Among the other proposed change announced this week:
- Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado and Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in Utah would offer elk hunting. Ouray also would offer upland game hunting of turkey.
Fish and Wildlife Service reopens debate on Arctic refuge
Texas may allow hunting of feral hogs, wolves from helicopters