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What's New in Communications Taxes
For 2017, the cable rights-of-way fee will remain $1.11. Please see the attached notice for information.
Effective July 1, 2016 taxpayers must file and make payments electronically using the CT-75 eForm and accompanying Schedule CT-75B, if applicable. This eForm is free, secure, and available at any time on Virginia Tax's website. Payments can be debited from your checking account or made by ACH credit through your bank.
If you are unable to file and pay electronically, you must submit an Electronic Filing Waiver Request.
Virginia Communications Taxes Overview
Under legislation enacted by the 2006 General Assembly, House Bill 568, the Virginia communications sales and use tax, also referred to as the communications sales tax, replaced most of the previous state and local taxes and fees on communications services, effective January 1, 2007.
The communications sales tax, which is imposed on the charge for or sale of communications services at the rate of 5%, is generally collected from consumers by their service providers and remitted to Virginia Tax each month. In cases where a consumer purchases taxable communications services and no tax is collected from the consumer on the purchase by the service provider, the consumer is responsible for paying a communications use tax.
A uniform statewide E-911 tax of $0.75 per line also took effect on January 1, 2007, replacing local E-911 taxes for landline telephone service. In addition, the public rights-of-way use fee imposed on landline telephone service was expanded to include cable television service. Finally, House Bill 568 changed the way that cable service providers pay the franchise fees on their local cable franchise agreements, as discussed below under "Cable franchise fees."
Impact on previous taxes and fees: The communications sales tax replaced the following state and local taxes and fees on communications services:
- Local consumer utility tax on landline and wireless telephone service
- Local E-911 tax on landline telephone service
- Virginia Relay Center assessment on landline telephone service
- A portion of the local Business, Professional and Occupational License tax assessed on public service companies by certain localities that impose the tax at a rate higher than 0.5%
- Local video programming excise tax on cable television services
- Local consumer utility tax on cable television services
The following taxes were not affected by the communications taxes provisions:
- State E-911 fee on wireless telephone service
- Public Rights-of-Way Use fee on landline telephone service
- Local Business, Professional and Occupational License tax of 0.5% on public service companies
Administration of the tax: The communications sales tax is generally administered in the same manner as the Virginia Retail Sales and Use tax. The tax is imposed on communications services at the rate of 5%, and appears as a line item on customers' bills.
Taxable services: The services subject to the communications sales tax include but are not limited to:
- Landline and wireless telephone services (including, but not limited to local, intrastate, interstate and international service) including Voice Over Internet Protocol;
- Teleconferencing services;
- Private communications services;
- "Push to talk" services;
- Pager and beeper services;
- Automated or partially automated answering services;
- Facsimile services;
- 800 number services;
- Telegraph, telegram, telex and teletypewriter services;
- Cable television (including but not limited to basic, extended, premium, pay-per-view, digital and music service); and
- Satellite television and satellite radio.
Nontaxable services: The following services are not subject to the communications sales tax.
- Information services
- Installation or maintenance of wiring or equipment on customers' premises (may be subject to retail sales and use tax)
- Sale or rental of tangible personal property (may be subject to retail sales and use tax)
- Directory and other advertising
- Internet access service
- Digital products that are delivered electronically, such as software, downloaded music, ring tones, and reading materials
- Over-the-air radio and television services broadcast without charge
- Bad check charges
- Charges for billing and collection services
- Charges for customers on any federal military bases or installations when a franchise fee is payable to the federal government (HB 2723, 3/23/07)
Taxable and nontaxable amounts: The communications sales tax is imposed on the sales price of the taxable services. The following items are not included in the sales price for purposes of computing the tax:
- Excise tax, sales tax, and similar taxes that are permitted or required to be added to the sales price of the service, provided the taxes are separately stated on the customer's bill
- Federal, state, and local government fees and assessments that are required to be added to the price of service, provided these items are separately stated on the customer's bill
- Coin-operated communications services
- Sale or recharge of a prepaid calling service
- Air-to-ground radiotelephone services
- A provider's internal use of communications services in connection with its business of providing communications services to customers
- Separately stated charges for property or services that are not part of the sales of communications services
- Sales for resale
- Charges for communications services provided to a federal, state, or local government entity
Landline E-911 tax: The state E-911 tax on landline service, imposed at the rate of $0.75 per line, appears as a line item on customers' bills.
Cable franchise fees: Under the provisions of House Bill 568, cable franchise agreements that are entered into or renegotiated after January 1, 2007 will not include a franchise fee. Agreements in place as of January 1, 2007 will remain in effect until their stated dates of expiration; however, providers no longer make franchise fee payments directly to localities. Instead, these amounts are reported to Virginia Tax on a schedule submitted with the communications taxes return. The franchise fees are then paid to localities from revenues generated by the communications taxes. Although localities no longer collect their franchise fees directly, local governments retain the right to audit cable franchisees and to enforce franchise agreements.
Public rights-of-way use fee: Cable television providers are required to collect the public rights-of-way use fee from subscribers and include it in their monthly communications taxes return and remittance. Landline telephone service providers should continue to remit ROW fees as they currently do, unless they provide both telephone and cable services and the locality does not impose a public rights-of-way use fee on telephone services. Please refer to the Guidelines for additional information. Effective July 1, 2016, the ROW fee will be $1.11, an increase of $0.06 from the last fiscal year.
Post-paid Wireless E-911 Fee: Service providers are required to collect the postpaid wireless E-911 surcharge from their customers and include it in their monthly communications taxes return and remittance. The imposed rate is $0.75 per cell phone.
Virginia Relay Center: The Virginia Relay Center, a telephone relay service for the hearing impaired, receives funds each month from the communications taxes revenue. No separate tax or fee is assessed on customers' bills for the Relay Center.
Disbursement of funds received with communications taxes returns: After payment for the direct costs of administration of this tax and for the Virginia Relay Center, the remaining revenues received from the communications sales tax, the E-911 tax, and the public rights-of-way use fee are distributed to counties, cities and towns.
Communications Taxes Guidelines
The Guidelines and Rules for the Virginia Communications Taxes contain comprehensive information concerning the compliance requirements and administration of the communications taxes as of November 2, 2006. This document may be updated or revised as the agency proceeds with final implementation of 2006 House Bill 568 (Acts of Assembly 2006, Chapter 780). Please check back frequently for updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Contact Us
For further assistance, please call 804.404.4195.
Fax 804.786.2645


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Apr 28,2009
The revolving door of hospital re-admissions
by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
If you paid for expensive auto repairs and the same problem recurred a few weeks later, you'd probably refuse to pony up for a second fix.
But what about medical care? What if you had surgery and, a few days after being released from a hospital, you were right back in to treat complications from the operation. Would you pay for that?
Medicare and most private health insurance companies routinely do, even though many experts say so-called re-admissions within 30 days are a sign of poor-quality care.
A new study estimates that about one in five Medicare patients released from a hospital after treatment winds up back inside again within 30 days. That adds a staggering $17.4 billion to Medicare's cost.
People aren't cars, of course, and medical results can't be guaranteed. Even with the best treatment, some patients get sicker or take an unexpected turn for the worse. That's especially true with the elderly and disabled people covered by Medicare.
Still, the new study raises important questions about the quality of care provided at great cost to hospitalized patients around the country.
National health spending has been growing at more than twice the rate of inflation for decades.
It reached $2.2 trillion in 2007. The largest single chunk of those expenditures — nearly $700 billion — went for hospital care.
For all the money we spend, there's ample evidence that quality remains uneven at best.
The new study was published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers analyzed billing records for the nearly 12 million Medicare patients hospitalized in 2004. Medicare cost about $300 billion that year, with nearly $103 billion of that going for hospital care.
Doctors who conducted the study found that about 20 percent of patients were re-admitted within 30 days and one-third were back in a hospital after two months. More than half of the patients had been re-admitted to a hospital one year later.
That's not always a bad thing. Sometimes, as when patients who had cancer surgery go back into a hospital for intensive chemotherapy, re-admissions are part of a treatment plan.
But researchers in the new study estimated that was obviously the case in only about 10 percent of the records they examined.
They found that among the most common reasons for re-admission after surgery were pneumonia and post-operative infections. Both can often be prevented by giving antibiotics before and after surgery.
There was no evidence that many of the rehospitalized patients had seen a doctor between the time they were discharged and when they went back into the hospital. That strongly suggests patients weren't getting well-coordinated follow-up care, the researchers said. Getting it can reduce the likelihood of serious complications that send patients back to the hospital.
The new report comes at a time when attention increasingly is focused on improving health care quality. Medicare recently stopped paying for costs associated with two-dozen common medical errors. Many private insurance companies will follow suit.
Last summer, officials at the federal agency that oversees Medicare recommended that Congress reduce payments to hospitals with consistently high re-admission rates. There's currently no reporting requirement for individual hospitals; there should be.
Hospitals cannot solve problems they don't identify and study. Reducing hospital re-admission rates will save money and improve the quality of health care.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nearly everyone likes classic roast chicken, whether it's served hot and golden brown right from the oven or enjoyed the next day in a sandwich or salad. Roasting the bird at a high temperature produces crisp brown skin and moist meat without having to baste or turn the chicken during cooking. Using a roasting rack also helps crisp the skin on all sides.–Editors at Williams-Sonoma
LC Easiest Roast Chicken Ever Note
Succulent. Crisp-skinned. Simple. If that's what you seek in a roast hen, your search stops here. This approach uses nothing but a slick of olive oil on the skin, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, some aromatics in the cavity, and a hot, hot, hot oven. Nothing else. No flopping the bird this way and that midway through roasting. No fussing with pan juice or gravy. It's just not necessary with a hen that turns out this juicy. For purists only.
Classic Roast Chicken
- Quick Glance
- Serves 4
- One 4 1/2- to 5-pound chicken
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 small yellow onion, cut into chunks (optional)
- 4 or 5 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)
- 4 large fresh thyme sprigs (optional)
- 1. Look to see if the giblets and neck are still in the cavity of the chicken. If they are, remove them and reserve them for another use or discard them. Remove and discard any pockets of excess fat from around the cavity. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Brush or rub the chicken all over with olive oil, and season it inside and out with salt and pepper. If using the onion, parsley, and thyme, cram them inside the cavity. Tuck the wing tips under the back. If you like, truss the chicken by tying the legs together with kitchen string. (Please note that trussing the hen will increase the roasting time by a few minutes since the bird is held in a more compact mass.)
- 2. Oil a V-shaped roasting rack or a wire cooling rack and place it in a roasting pan or baking dish just large enough to hold the chicken. Place the chicken on the rack and allow it to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- 3. Preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C) and position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. [Editor's Note: You do, of course, know that anytime you crank the oven past 400°F it's an invitation for the remnants of last week's apple pie and last summer's barbecue ribs to smolder, yes? Best take an honest look at your oven before roasting this hen and, if need be, scrub any splotches or chances you'll find yourself flinging open some windows and fanning towels at some smoke detectors.]
- 4. Roast the chicken until the juices run clear and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh away from the bone registers 165°F (74°C), 50 to 60 minutes.
- 5. Remove the pan from the oven. Slip the handle of a long wooden spoon or a pair of tongs in the chicken cavity and carefully tip the bird slightly, draining the liquid from the cavity into the pan. Transfer the chicken to a platter or carving board and tent it with aluminum foil. Let the hen rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
- 6. If you trussed the hen, snip the string and discard it. Remove any contents from the cavity and toss them in the trash. Carve the chicken and serve it at once, trying not to surreptitiously snitch any of that crisp skin before sitting down at the table.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.


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Photo Essay: Labour Exploitation
I myself like to introduce as a struggling researcher in the development sector with focus on education. Academically i was grown in Kathmandu University Nepal with my undergraduate in Media Studies and Graduate in Development Studies. Professionally i am working full time researcher in Korea International Cooperation Agency since December 2013. i have a passion for writting. The use of appropriate words in relevant context touches me. Most of the time you have to feel the most precious things, not necessary to get everything you struggled for. Your effort is the best weapon and Hope is the best way of life. That's what i think. Do you??


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It just wouldn't be a day at the park – the amusement park that is – without a hearty chorus of screams. With their rickety wooden roller coasters and other thrill machines, parks have long appealed to our innate, cathartic desire to get our pulses racing and our adrenaline pumping. To better help us confront and conquer our fears, they've upped the ante lately with taller, faster, and more devilish contraptions. How devilish? Any one of the 10 most thrilling rides would surely leave you breathless (after you've finished screaming, of course).
10: Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach in Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.and Deep Water Dive at Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville, Ky.
Family-friendly Disney World is better known for its princesses and cutesy "it's a small world" than for its white-knuckle rides. But the 120-foot tall Summit Plummet, one of the tallest and fastest water slides in the world, is so out-of-control crazy, riders actually don't make contact with the precariously steep flume for a few heart-stopping moments. It's wild enough to actually purge the "it's a small world" musical earworm from your brain. A similar speed slide, Deep Water Dive, opened in 2014 at Kentucky Kingdom. It sends riders careening at 70 degrees down 121 feet -- one foot taller than Summit Plummet. Take that Mickey.
9: Verrückt at Schlitterbahn Kansas City, Kan.
You know how I referred to Summit Plummet as one of the world's tallest water slides? Verrückt is the world's tallest slide. Opened in 2014, the ride will send four-passenger rafts down a 169-foot drop. That's not all, folks. Massive water jets will catapult the rafts up a second hill for another 50-foot drop. That's insane! (No really, the German word, "Verrückt," translates to "insane.")
8: El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, N.J.
Ride fans refer to the negative G-force, out-of-your-seat sensation that coasters deliver as "airtime." I have never experienced so much violent (in the nicest possible sense) airtime as I have on the wooden coaster, El Toro. And that's no bull.
7: Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Va. and SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa, Fla.
The essentially similar rides, known as diving coasters, climb 20 stories, hit 70+ mph, and include head-over-heels inversions. But the really nerve-rattling part? It's when the single-car train slowly nudges over the edge of the 90-degree drop, stops for a few knee-knocking moments, and allows riders to contemplate the 200-foot dive that awaits them.
6: Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion, Doswell, Va. and Fury 325 at Carowinds Charlotte, N.C.
Themed to Dale "the Intimidator" Earnhardt, the NASCAR legend's nickname is an apt description for this menacing steel coaster. The ride never lets up from the moment passengers hear, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" Climbing an intimidating 305 feet, it races at a NASCAR-worthy 90 mph. Sister park, Carowinds, upped the ante and the thrills in 2015 when it unleashed an even taller "giga" coaster, Fury 325. (325 guesses how tall it climbs.) At a scorching 95 mph, it's also among the world's fastest thrill machines.
5: X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, Calif.
One of the craziest – and certainly most thrilling – coasters on the planet, X2 takes riders to the next dimension by independently rotating the seats on a separate axis as the train navigates the track. And by rotating, I mean complete 360-degree forward and backward flips. That'd be crazy enough, but the flip-flopping, face-planting acrobatics take place on a ride that rises 200 feet and reaches 76 mph. Ominous onboard audio featuring heavy metal music adds to the chaos and disorientation.
4: Superman: Escape from Krypton at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, Calif.
Most coasters climb a poky lift hill before hitting wild speeds on the first drop, but Six Flags' groundbreaking ride uses electromagnetic motors to blast passengers 100 mph in mere seconds out of the loading station and up a 415-foot tower. Oh, did I mention that riders face backwards for the launch? Or that they experience prolonged weightlessness as they freefall back to earth?
3: Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, Calif. and Zumanjaro Drop of Doom at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, N.J.
Both of these drop rides are bolted onto insanely tall coaster towers (Superman: Escape from Krypton at Magic Mountain and Kingda Ka at Great Adventure) and slowly lift passengers over 400 feet in the air, let them stew in open seats for a few what-have-I-gotten-myself-into moments, and release them into gut-wrenching 90-mph freefalls.
2: Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ and Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
The similar rides, known as rocket coasters, use hydraulic launch systems to sling their trains to dizzying heights and speeds (456 feet – the tallest coaster in the world – and 128 mph for Kingda Ka, 420 feet and 120 mph for Top Thrill Dragster) 90 degrees up and 90 degrees down "top hat" towers. Before passengers have a chance to say, "What just happened?" they are back at the station removing the bugs from their teeth.
1: SkyJump at Stratosphere Tower Las Vegas, Nev.
There are three other thrill rides perched atop the iconic 855-foot tower, none of which would be all that thrilling if they were located on the ground. SkyJump passengers get the ultimate thrill by starting at the top of the tower, jumping off, and ending up on the ground. Yes, you read that correctly. Intrepid riders are harnessed into jump suits and attached to cables for a "controlled freefall" jump 855 feet down to the Vegas Strip. Not controlled: riders' nerves.


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The first is an excellent primer on climate change by Kenneth Arrow: Global Climate Change: A Challenge to Policy. I'd really recommend reading it as a backgrounder to the issue:
Two factors deserve emphasis, factors that differentiate global climate change from other environmental problems. First, emissions of CO2 and other trace gases are almost irreversible; more precisely, their residence time in the atmosphere is measured in centuries. Most environmental insults are mitigated promptly or in fairly short order when the source is cleaned up, as with water pollution, acid rain, or sulfur dioxide emissions. Here, reducing emissions today is very valuable to humanity in the distant future.
Second, the scale of the externality is truly global; greenhouse gases travel around the world in a few days. This means that the nation-state and its subsidiaries, the
typical loci for internalization of externalities, are limited in their remedial ability.
The detail in the article is on the issue of discounting future costs, which is central to the findings in the Stern Report on The Economics of Climate Change that susbstantial immediate action on climate change is likely to be much cheaper over the long-term than inaction. Discounting is something I need to cover in a future Oikos 101 column, but for now I'll just observe that Stern has been criticised for using a zero rate of pure social time preference - which is consistent with the idea of inter-generational equity but inconsistent with observations by economists of how people actually behave.
Arrow conducts a sensitivity analysis, plugging different social time preference rates into Stern's figures, and finds that using a higher social time preference rate doesn't change the fundamental finding of the Stern Report, that action will cost less than inaction.
Thomas Schelling discusses what uncertainty surrounding climate change implies for policy responses and makes some sensible observations in Climate Change: The Uncertainties, the Certainties, and What They Imply About Action:
In some public discourse, and in sentiments emanating from the Bush Administration, it appears to be accepted that uncertainty regarding global warming is a legitimate basis for postponement of any action until more is known. The action to be postponed is usually identified as "costly." (Little attention is paid to actions that have been identified as of little or no serious cost.) It is interesting that this idea that costly actions are unwarranted if the dangers are uncertain is almost unique to climate. In other areas of policy, such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, inflation, or vaccination, some "insurance" principle seems to prevail: if there is a sufficient likelihood of sufficient damage we take some measured anticipatory action.
At the opposite extreme is the notion, often called the "precautionary principle" now popular in the European Union, that until something is guaranteed safe it must be indefinitely postponed despite substantial expected benefits. Genetically modified foods and feedstuffs are current targets. (One critic has expressed it as, "never do anything for the first time.") In this country the principle says that until a drug has proven absolutely safe it must be deferred indefinitely.
Neither of the two extreme principles—do nothing until we are absolutely sure it's safe; do nothing until we are absolutely sure the alternative is dangerous—makes
economic sense, or any other kind. Weigh the costs, the benefits, and the probabilities as best all three are known, and don't be obsessed with either extreme tail of the distribution.


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20579 Surnames | 135114 Records | 2764 Reunions
Dead Fred asks:Are you a Desperate Genealogist?
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Dead Fred's Genealogy Photo Archive, a free, fun photo genealogy research web site devoted to helping you visualize your heritage!
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Photo #48649
Last Name: Love
First Name : Hazel
Middle Name: Winnifred
Subject's City: Augusta
Subject's State: Me
Subject's County:
Subject's Country: United States
Date: 1901-1920
Photographer's City:
Photographer's State:
Nee: Dean
Type** :
Comments: Hazel Winnifred Love (Nee: Dean) | Augusta Me United States | 1901-1920 | Comments: Hazel Winnifred Dean, born April 17, 1898 in Augusta, Maine, died January 19, 1975 in Phila, Pa. She married Percy Burdette Love, born April 3, 1891 in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada and died April 24, 1976 in Phila, Pa. They were married May 20, 1914 and were the parents of 7 children.
Digital Image Only? NO
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8 a.m. thru 5 p.m. EST 305.757.0555
Italian wall decor plaque
Our Italian Decor Blessings and Peace plaque is handcrafted from an original sculpture by artist Al Pisano. Meticulously hand painted and stained to a lustrous finish. Made entirely in the USA by skilled artisans under the direction of the artist. Measures 22" x 6". Includes hanger. Translation: Blessings and Peace
These are beautiful handcrafted reproductions of Al Pisano's original carvings and sculptures.Created in the artist's studio, each piece is meticulously hand cast and then hand painted and stained to capture all the incredible detail. We also personalize many of our wall plaques free of charge and these make great gifts. All of our products are Made in the USA by skilled artisans under the supervision of Al Pisano. We offer a money back guarantee. We believe you will enjoy Al's artwork for many years. Call us if you have any questions!


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OTORex needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 70 designs submitted by 31 freelance designers.
We are developing a network of websites designed to help new parents find solutions to the unique challenges of raising children.
Our website is designed for New Parents that are trying to find a place to vacation with their children. We will be providing ideas and advice on everything from what to pack and safety issues to specific destinations that have famliy freindly accomodations and activities
- A clean logo that works with or without the full domain name next to/below/above it
- Creativity beyond simply our name with a couple letters stylized
- I would like a family oriented logo which is playful and incorporates multiple bright colors.
- A color palette which includes multiple colors (to support the full layout of the site which will be lead by the logo). We recommend you include the recommended color palette with your design, but it is not necessary (it can be added after the design is chosen as the winner)
- Additional shape(s) which could stand alone without the URL
don't wants:
- Boring designs that looks too staid
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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On her third day at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, Elizabeth Olsen's life changed. She was the star of two movies in Sundance—Silent House, which is a horror film, and, more importantly, Martha Marcy May Marlene, the riveting, chilling, psychologically complex story of a damaged young girl who escapes from a cult. Martha had resonance—intended or not, the film had parallels to current religious and cultlike political movements such as the Tea Party, as well as echoes of Charles Manson—but at first the talk of the festival was focused on Olsen's performance. Olsen, who is 22, had only started auditioning for films in February 2010, and was vaguely known, if she was known at all, as the youngest Olsen, Mary-Kate and Ashley's little sister. The twins had named a clothing line, Elizabeth and James, after her and their brother, but until Sundance, until Martha Marcy May Marlene, few knew what Lizzie, as she is called, looked like—or that she could act.
After the initial showing of Martha at the Eccles Theatre, word spread immediately around the festival that a star might just have been born. "For the first two days at Sundance, nobody noticed me," Olsen told me nearly six months later. "The third day was completely different. Suddenly, walking down the street was an experience. I could hear people whispering about me or staring a little too long. It was so weird that it made me laugh. In every picture from Sundance, I am laughing."
Olsen was laughing now—a kind of joyous, carefree laugh that is consistent with her personality. Unlike her character in Martha, she is decidedly not fragile, not conflicted, not haunted, not troubled. Instead, she is poised, engaged, and un-neurotic, which is unusual for someone so young. In fact, despite her round, clear eyes and open face, it's easy to forget that Olsen is still in college at New York University; she has the sophistication and perspective of someone much older who managed to stay unjaded.
We were eating lunch in one of her favorite health-food restaurants, around the corner from her apartment in downtown Manhattan. Olsen was wearing black shorts that showed off her long, bare legs, a sheer orange top, and flat Céline loafers. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and the streaming sunlight seemed to amplify the glow of her face. "Lizzie takes the light in an amazing way," Sean Durkin, the director of Martha, said. "It's not typical. She can look like a stunning, old-Hollywood actress one minute, and then, she can turn away from the light and blend in like a regular girl."
FROM WHEN SHE WAS EIGHT, Olsen had wanted to act. She grew up in Los Angeles, and studied with Mary-Kate and Ashley's on-set coach from Full House. Olsen started auditioning in the fourth grade, landed a commercial, and then at 10 decided to quit. "My dad wanted all the girls in our family to be independent," Olsen explained, as she drank a dark green shake of kale, spinach, and other assorted leafy vegetables. "All the women in the family have this crazy drive. As a kid, I always liked auditioning, but after five auditions or so I missed ballet and after-school sports. My father told me to write out a pros and cons list: acting vs. ballet and sports. I needed to have reasons to decide to do one or the other."
At 16, Olsen, who excelled academically at Campbell Hall, a private school in L.A., began studying Russian theater. While immersing herself in the Soviet theatrical tradition, Olsen had an epiphany: She definitely wanted to pursue acting. She started performing in school plays and decided to apply to NYU's theater department. During her sophomore year in 2009, she auditioned to be the understudy for the Broadway play Impressionism, starring Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. "For an entire year, I was the understudy to Margarita Levieva," Olsen said. "And I met my agent, Rhonda Price, then. I didn't really want to meet her—I wanted to finish school. It all happened so fast and naturally."
It was decided between Olsen and Price—almost ordained—that Lizzie would concentrate on theater and movies rather than television, which is where her sisters had become famous. Their lives in the public eye have not made Olsen wary exactly—just informed and cautious. "Theater seemed safe," Olsen said. "In the theater, you're sort of hidden. Most paparazzi are not after stage actors. At first, movies were really frightening to me. In my mind, if you're in a movie, you're officially out there." She paused. This was an uncharacteristically dark thought. "But then you realize, who cares?" Olsen continued, suddenly brightening. "I just want to do what I want to do."
She started reading scripts—eight or so a week. "I auditioned for everything. I love waiting rooms before auditions. Everyone is so nervous and looking each other up and down. Sometimes, I just look at everyone else freaking out, speaking to themselves. I had a teacher who said every time you audition, it's another opportunity for someone to see you act. The casting agents and directors don't want you to suck, because if you suck it makes their day longer. And if you're not what they want, that's not your fault."
Luckily, an abundance of talent has smoothed Olsen's path and allowed her to remain unburdened by thoughts of rejection: She landed her first movie, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, only six months after she began auditioning. She was about to start filming in upstate New York when she read Martha Marcy May Marlene. "I was obsessed," Olsen recalled. "I thought, This is the kind of part I want to play when I'm older. With Martha, I could do all the things I want to do later, but now."
Martha was written by Durkin, who is one-third of Borderline Films, a Brooklyn-based collective run with Antonio Campos and Josh Mond. Their independent film company has an interesting, utilitarian structure: Durkin, Campos, and Mond, who bonded and formed their company as film students at NYU, each writes, produces, and directs. The three men work on each others' movies in every capacity—from finding financing to honing the script to casting to overseeing the production to directing. For example, while Durkin wrote and directed Martha, Mond produced and Campos consulted throughout the movie. "They all split duties," Olsen recalled. "Antonio would give his two cents about how to stage certain scenes in the movie. All three work really closely together."
Durkin, who is 29 and has a calm, thoughtful manner, became interested in making a film about a cult in 2007. "A friend of Josh's had been in a cult," Durkin explained to me when I went to meet the Borderline trio at Sweetwater, a restaurant in Williamsburg near their new office, which the $1.6 million Sundance sale of Martha to Fox Searchlight had made possible. "I listened to her story and I started to do research. I came across a passage in one book about a girl who ran away from a cult after the group turned violent. They gave her money, wished her well, and then she disappeared. I tried to imagine what those first few weeks after leaving the cult were like. That was the start of Martha."
The film, which deftly jumps back and forth in time, follows Martha (her many names reflect her fractured identity as she tries to readjust to life outside the cult). Her sister (played by Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy) take her into their large, waterfront home, but her delicate emotional state and the real and imagined threat from the rejected cult members unravel Martha. The movie convincingly shows the lasting, destructive power of a charismatic, manipulative leader (brilliantly played by John Hawkes) over an insecure girl in search of herself.
"I wasn't trying to make a political statement," Durkin told me, after I suggested that the film had, perhaps, a larger symbolism. "But, in looking back, I think Martha may have come out of my own religious history. I went to a strict Anglican school in England and I felt isolated. We had to go to church every morning, and I found myself chanting without knowing what the meanings of the prayers were. I wanted to tap into that emotion—the feeling of belonging and still feeling lost."
Durkin saw around 75 actresses for the part of Martha. "You know it when you see it," he said. "I texted Antonio after Lizzie's first reading: 'I think this girl might be something special.'" Olsen made an impression immediately: Even before speaking, she had arrived at the audition with huge suitcases. "I was moving out of my apartment, on my way upstate for Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, and I was carrying these three bags like a crazy person," she told me. "Sean always says that's why I got the part—I seemed crazy."
Even during the filming of tense and depressing scenes, Olsen remained almost giddy. "I had to ask her to stop singing during takes," Durkin said. "She'd be doing a really upsetting scene, and she and Sarah Paulson would be doing show tunes. I had to ask her to stop." Not only was Olsen turning cartwheels (literally) between takes, but she was also filming another movie. "I drove myself between Peace, Love & Misunderstanding and Martha," Olsen said, still sounding gleeful. "But I keep myself very separate when I'm acting. I know what's me and what's the character. Martha never got to me—it was intense, but it's important to keep yourself separate when you're young and impressionable."
In May, four months after Sundance, Olsen stood on the Croisette in Cannes, about to attend the premiere of Martha Marcy May Marlene. It was a Sunday around 9 p.m., and it was still light out. Olsen had arrived two days prior from New York; checked into her hotel, the Trois Quatorze; and, ever practical, immediately realized that she would have to do her makeup in her agent's room. "My room had a Parisian theme," Olsen told me at a small dinner Fox Searchlight threw for Martha. "Everything was red—the lightbulbs were pink. Rhonda's room had an Asian theme. Everything was white in Asia. I put my makeup on there."
During Cannes, Olsen did dozens of interviews and posed for countless pictures. The international press, which congregates in Cannes, is often contrarian and peculiar, regularly asking questions that are completely unrelated to the films. Of course, they asked Olsen about her sisters (she demurred politely) and, more provocatively, if Martha was meant to be about the power and impossibility of utopian societies.
At Cannes (and Sundance), there were other films that dealt with cult-like religious fanaticism. Most notably, Take Shelter (which went on to win the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics' Week), a psychological study in which a man systematically destroys his life when he starts to believe that the end of days is imminent. He seeks a god-like stature, but is able to persuade only his wife and small child (a cult of two) to move into a storm shelter for safety. Like Martha, Take Shelter offers the idea of salvation through isolation and devout belief; that same clannish, xenophobic, paranoid-but-superior mentality is also the trademark of today's American political sub-tribes. Like cult members, they crave a messianic leader who preaches dogma and re-affirms the "specialness" of the group. The journalists tried to press Durkin and Olsen about these sociopolitical overtones, but the filmmakers were resistant. Which was okay with the press corps—their more intellectual queries were trumped by their passion for Olsen's performance. They veered away from the serious to swoon: Cannes loves to anoint a star.
Since Sundance is strictly puffers and mufflers, this was Olsen's first black-tie premiere. She wore a sleek black gown from The Row and looked rather like a Twenties-era ingenue. "This doesn't feel like reality to me," she said, before heading to the red-carpeted steps that led to the theater. "And that makes me laugh. I thought I would find the photographers and the press irritating, but it struck me as funny. We made this little movie, and now we're standing in pretty outfits and smiling at the camera. You have to laugh."
With that, she smiled. One can only hope that, as time goes on and the world does not seem quite so easy, Olsen won't lose her sense of joy and optimism. As the paparazzi called out Lizzie's name—a name they didn't know a few days earlier—and asked her to look left and then right, Olsen briefly looked backward, at the street where a small group of fans had gathered. She waved, they took her picture, and she turned back to the theater and headed upstairs. It was the only way to go.


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Meanwhile, Rose's older sister, Hen, has returned to live at her parents' farm with her young daughter. Hen and her modern husband, Brandon, are separated by mutual agreement, although he is threatening to sue for custody of their daughter if Hen does not return soon. Will the judge rule in Brandon's favor? Is there any way Hen can reestablish her place among the People without sacrificing her marriage?
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Publication Date: 2011
Series: Rose Trilogy


text: Nothing hard but our subjective evaluation running WRF and MM5 showed a notable improvement in overall wall-clock time-to-completion. gerry Mark Hahn wrote: >> DX38BT have a 82566DC Gigabit controller, that isn't capable of jumbo >> frames >> (frame size is limited to 1500 bytes). >> But S3200SH have a 82566 controller too and a 82541PI that support jumbo >> frames up to 16kb (probably your switch will support frames up to 10kb). > > do you have any data showing that jumbo frames will make a significant > difference? yes, they will reduce interrupt-handling overhead (and perhaps > other overheads), but those tend to be fairly minor concerns on modern, > obscenely-fast cores... > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf -- Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983 Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843


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Ryan Leslie - Dress You To Undress You
The fifth in a series of 10 videos making up the "LES IS MORE" visual album - in stores in the US on October 22nd and in Europe on October 26th. [m]
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Trae Tha Truth (Feat. Z-Ro & Noble) - F*cked Up World
Trae The Truth mixtape "Blackprint" available on LiveMixtapes 8.30.12
Directed by Jordan Tower Films
Follow @TraeABN on Twitter
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Retro Comfort Foods Add Nostalgia To The Foodservice Menu
Research shows that diners still seek comfort foods this season. Dishes that are tied to an era, specifically the '50s through the '80s, like meatloaf, casseroles, pies and breads are predicted to appeal to multiple generations.
Apples are a signature way to tap into this trend with creative applications that will differentiate menus this fall and winter, so Peach Glen, Pa.-based Knouse Foods offers an assortment of recipes and apple products to help foodservice professionals create American retro foods with a modern twist. Simple adjustments to ingredients can transform traditional dishes into more contemporary meals. Flavorful alternatives like using apple butter and applesauce increase moisture and taste, reduce fat and add to the nostalgic element to classic recipes, such as: Acorn Squash Sausage Bake -- An all time fall/winter favorite, acorn squash is enhanced with an apple sauce sausage filling for slightly sweet and savory flavors; Boston Baked Beans -- Apple butter adds the right thickness and richness to this hearty side dish; Savory Meatloaf -- Applesauce adds moisture and a twist to this traditional meatloaf recipe. Italian seasonings and a mustard-catsup glaze maintain the old-fashioned elements that make this dish a classic; Caramel Apple Gingerbread -- Gingerbread is a must for any holiday menu. The rich, fragrant aroma of ginger is balanced with sweet apple pie filling for a dessert that goes back in time; and Lucky Stars Ginger Apple Tart -- Apple pie fashioned as a contemporary tart. The combination of crystallized ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla boost spicy flavors.
"Comfort foods shine during the fall and winter seasons, adding retro American classics to the menu with a twist is a great way to highlight culinary creativity with mainstays like meatloaf and apple pie," says Todd Michael, director of food service sales for Knouse Foods. "Using apple ingredients like applesauce and apple butter provide an inventive way to boost the traditional element of dishes and help chefs and operators remain on-trend, profitable and innovative."


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Jadakiss Interview Speaks On His New Deal W/ RocaFella & Jae Hood Leavin D-Block
Jadakiss Interview Off The Come Up DVD Vol. 17 "Lil Wayne" Edition. Jordan Tower I See You&IP=220.127.116.11
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The Nobel Prize Committee pays attention to governance of the commons
The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences is being shared this year by Elinor Ostrom, a political economist at Indiana University, and Oliver Williamson, an economist at UC Berkeley. The award could not be more appropriate in these times of rethinking what markets can and cannot do.
The award to Ostrom, who has spent her professional life studying how societies manage common resources is particularly relevant as we draw closer to the Copenhagen summit and countries are busy defining what they are willing to do to protect the global atmospheric commons.
In fact, Ostrom wrote a background paper for us earlier this year for the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change. In it, she took exception to the notion that a solution to global change must be global. Such a solution would take too long, she argued. She also reminded us that a solution negotiated at the global level, if not backed up by a variety of efforts at the national, regional, and local levels, was not guaranteed to work well. This is because climate change is the result of many individual and local decisions.


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RRJ, Blackstone, Seatown Invest $372 Million in Cheniere Energy Partners
Asia-focused private-equity fund RRJ Capital has invested around $300 million in a unit of U.S. natural gas producer Cheniere Energy Inc., a person with knowledge of the deal said, as Asian interest in U.S. natural gas continues to mount.
Blackstone Group LP and Seatown Holdings, the hedge fund arm of Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., jointly invested around $72 million in the unit of Cheniere Energy, the person added.
The latest investment follows RRJ and Temasek's joint investment of around $468 million in Cheniere Energy in May last year.


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Three men were shot in Baltimore in separate incidents this weekend, police said.
About 10 p.m. Saturday, a man was admitted to an area hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, police said. The victim told police he was in the 3600 block of E. Lombard St. in the Baltimore Highland sections of Southeast Baltimore when he was shot. He could not identify the gunman, police said. He is currently listed in stable condition.
Then about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found a man with a gunshot wound to the stomach in 6500 block of Eastern Ave. in the Bayview section of Southeast Baltimore. He is currently listed in critical condition at a local hospital. Police believe that the shooting may have been the result of a robbery.
Another man was shot in the arm and torso at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday in the first block of N. Payson St. in the Penrose/Fayette Street Outreach neighborhood in West Baltimore, police said. His condition was not released, nor were the circumstances of the shooting.
Baltimore Sun staff reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this article.


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Become a Mentor
New Pathways for Youth supports one-on-one relationships between high risk youth and trained, volunteer mentors to unearth the core beliefs that are impeding youth from achieving their goals and reaching their full potential.
Donate and Support
Support New Pathways for Youth with an online or monthly financial donation. New Pathways for Youth also accepts Memorial and Tribute Gifts, Workplace Giving and Employer Matching Gifts and In-kind Donations. New Pathways for Youth is a Qualifying Charitable Organization for Arizona tax credit (formerly the Working Poor tax credit).
New Pathways for Youth invites volunteers to serve in a variety of ways. Dedicated volunteers are needed to serve on strategically focused committees and to provide administrative and program support. Volunteer group projects are also available and welcomed.
Through New Pathways for Youth, young people in our community can grow, learn and succeed with the guidance of a volunteer mentor who has chosen to make a positive impact on a young person's life.
New Pathways for Youth's mission is to empower youth to fulfill their potential through mentoring and life skill development. Our organization is a model for and thought-leader surrounding transformative mentoring relationships.
New Pathways for Youth connects youth ages 12 to 21 with caring and dedicated adult mentors to help these youth reach their greatest possible potential. We ground our mentoring practices in evidence-based curriculum that focuses on social and emotional learning. The curriculum involves intentional programs through which youth, with the support of their mentors, acquire and effectively apply knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
New Pathways for Youth has transformed the lives of nearly 6,500 youth through the development of core social, emotional, and academic skills with the help of committed volunteers and community support.
-- Brianna


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Supercomputing 12: Intel, Nvidia, and AMD Face Off
At this week's Supercomputing 12 show, the biggest news has been the increasing competition in accelerators and co-processors. AMD, Intel, and Nvidia all unveiled new processors designed to improve the performance of parallel operations by including large numbers of specialized cores. As they have been doing for several generations now, Nvidia and AMD both introduced new versions of designs originally aimed at processors designed as graphics processing units (GPUs), while Intel uses multiple small x86 cores in its long-promised many integrated core (MIC) architecture.
Many of these announcements were expected, but we heard some of the new details.
Intel Xeon Phi
Intel finally announced the formal shipment of its Xeon Phi processor, which it positioned as improving parts of software that can be parallelized—pretty much the same target as the Nvidia and AMD processors.
Intel announced two general versions, the Phi 5110P, which is available (in limited quantities) now, and the Xeon Phi 3100 series, which will launch in the first quarter of 2013. Both are manufactured on a 22nm process (and reportedly have around 5 billion transistors, though Intel did not confirm this or provide a die size) and are based on Intel's MIC or Many-Integrated Core architecture.
The 5110P has 60 cores, each with four threads, runs at 1.05GHz, has 30MB of L2 cache, and supports up to 8GB of GDDR5 memory with a peak memory bandwidth of 320GBps. That gives it peak double-precision floating point performance of 1.01 teraflops. Early customers, including Stampede at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin, are using a custom version of the 5110P, the SE10, which has 61 cores running at a slightly faster clock speed, with a bit more L2 cache.
Intel hasn't disclosed the number of cores or the speed of the 3100 Series, though it seems likely it will have fewer cores running at a higher clock speeds, as it is rated at 300 watts instead of the 225 watts of the 5110P (which is designed to be passively-cooled, while the 3100 will be available in passive and active cooling models).
Nvidia Tesla K20
For its part, Nvidia formally its announced the 28nm Kepler-based Tesla K20X and K20 processors, which were previously disclosed as part of the Titan supercomputer that now heads the TOP500 list. Both are based on the firm's 28nm Kepler architecture. The K20X, which is used in Titan, has 2,688 cores and runs at 732MHz, and is rated at 1.31 peak teraflops of double-precision floating point performance and 3.95 teraflops single precision. Nvidia says this is twice the double-precision and three times the single-precision performance of the previous generation. The K20 has 2,496 cores and runs at 706MHz, and is rated at 1.17 teraflops for double-precision and 3.52 teraflops for single-precision. In any case, this is a massive, 7 billion-transistor chip.
The company highlighted a number of applications where it can offer huge performance improvements compared with CPU-only calculations. It also emphasized partnerships with almost all of the makers of supercomputing equipment.
AMD FirePro S10000
AMD announced its FirePro S10000 GPU accelerator, which uses two GPUs, each from the firm's 28nm Tahiti (Southern Islands) design. AMD had earlier announced the S9000, based on a single GPU. The S10000 has 3,594 total cores (1,792 per chip), running at 825MHz, with a total peak rating of 1.48 teraflops at double-precision and 5.91 teraflops at single-precision. (ExtremeTech has details here.) The single chip S9000 has 1,792 cores, but runs slightly faster at 900MHz.
The FirePro S10000 has theoretically better scores than the Nvidia K20X, though it has two GPUs instead of one and it also requires more power—375 watts TDP vs. 235 watts for the Nvidia product. Note also that although all of the companies cite performance on the LINPACK benchmark, real-world performance can vary dramatically depending on the application you're running and how the software was developed.
AMD also pushed its "Graphics Core Next" (GCN) architecture, which enables the S10000's two GPUs to carry out compute and graphics/visualization tasks at the same with a single board, so this seems to be promoted more as workstation solution (where Nvidia also offers its Quadro workstation board). AMD has had more success in the workstation market than in the HPC accelerator market.
x86 Coprocessors vs. GPU Accelerators
Indeed, the next big battle in this space seems to be between x86 coprocessors and GPU accelerators. Intel tries to distinguish the two by noting that the Xeon Phi can run operating systems, but accelerators can't. That's true today—the Xeon Phi can run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x or SuSE Linux 12+—but I'm not sure how relevant it is, as both run in systems that use other main processors, and often the point is to distribute the application, not the OS.
The more important differences are likely to be how well they perform, how much performance per watt they can generate, and how easy it is to get that performance. That's because in the real world, software often needs to be written to take advantage of massively parallel processing.
Intel often talks about how because the Xeon Phi uses x86 cores, it can run all of the same languages, libraries, and tools that programmers are used to today. Intel does have a widely-used parallel programming library, often used for multi-core Core and traditional Xeon chips.
Nvidia stresses its CUDA language extensions that work with C/C++ or Fortran, as well as its support for the OpenACC tools for directing compilers to produce parallel code, and says many universities find it easy to teach CUDA as many students have laptops with CUDA-compatible graphics cards. (Xeon Phi is very rare at the moment, though x86 cores are nearly universal.) AMD mostly relies on OpenCL.
Over the next few years, it looks like we will see more experimenting with both co-processors and accelerators, and such heterogeneous systems will likely come to dominate the high-performance computing world.
Interconnects, Memory, and More
Other interesting things at the show include lots of discussion of interconnects, like Mellanox's expanding line of 56Gb/s FDR InfiniBand products. Micron pushed its Hybrid Memory Cube, which uses large amounts of server memory stacked together enlisting a technology called through-silicon vias, or TSVs, to provide dense, high-speed memory. The first commercial products are slated for 2014, with 4Gb and 8Gb cubes with 160GBps of throughput, about 10x what you get out of an entire standard DDR3 memory module today.


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The Bonneville Salt Flats might be all about going fast in a straight line, but nothing is going to stop this '51 Ford F1 pickup from wringing out its V8 with some salty burnouts.
Mike Bumbeck covered the '06 Speed Week when it was actual news five years ago, but he somehow neglected to include this brief rebellion from Bonneville's straight-line supremacy. It took us a while to fill the absence, but better late than never.
Hat tip to: TheKlic!


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Catering to both form and function, these structural wood brackets have the capability to provide load-bearing capacity without compromising options for style. All of our structural brackets are available in Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir with a smooth or rough sawn texture. These structural wood brackets are "Rustic"; they will likely have knots.
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text: I can't contain myself everytime I see mesh items, I have to get them! This top is pretty cool, it looks like a crop hoodie but all mesh, totally in the current trend :D it's so nice that after many years finally fashion took so many inspiration from the alternative world, I saw so many alternative people complain about it but sincerely I couldn't be happier 'cause for the first time in my life I found cool and affordable items almost everywhere (and it's so nice finding inspiration even in streets, I remember a few years ago girls dressed up so boring and now the whole fashion world is totally changed). My outfit is really simple, just added some of my favorite items like this fake leather skirt and platform sneakers, always in all black ahah I noticed I alwaysdressed up this way in the past weeks, I hope I didn't annoy you with my boring color scheme.


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Scroll Down to Glove Size Guides
At The Board Basement you will find a range of different gloves and mittens that are suitable for all weather conditions. To go for a glove or mitten depends on what you prefer. Most skiers prefer a glove so they can get a good grip around their poles, whilst most snowboarders ride with mittens to keep the warmth and comfort levels high. Mittens are generally a bit warmer as mittens trap body heat and maintain the ability to keep you warm better. If you are lucky enough to be riding some powder, a glove or mitten with a longer cuff will keep the snow out. For warmer or spring days you need something that will protect you from wind and water but with little or no insulation so you don't get to sweaty. On The Board Basement website you can use our filters to find the right suited glove / mitten for you.
Most gloves come with pre curved finger construction. This will improve your performance articulation by shaping the palm pattern to fit the hand in the relaxed position, giving you an optimal fit with superior blood flow to the fingers and as a result leading to warmer hands.
To find the right size for you; Measure around the knuckles of your hand with a tape measure and use the guides below to find your size.
|Dakine Mens
|5.5" to 6.5"
|14 to 16.5 cm
|6.5" to 7.5"
|16.5 to 19 cm
|7.5" to 8.5"
|19 to 21.5 cm
|8.5" to 9.5"
|21.5 to 24 cm
|9.5" to 10.5"
|24 to 27 cm
|Dakine Womens
|5" to 5.5"
|13 to 14 cm
|5.5" to 6.5"
|14 to 16 cm
|6.5" to 7.5"
|16.5 to 19 cm
|7.5" to 8.5"
|19 to 21 cm
|8.5" to 9.5"
|21 to 24 cm
|Pow Mens
|18 cm
|7.5" to 8"
|20 cm
|8.5" to 9"
|23 cm
|9.5" to 10"
|25 cm
|Pow Womens
|15 cm
|17 cm
|18 cm
|19 cm
|20 cm
As you ride you will become warm and start to sweat. If that moisture can't escape from the glove / mitten your hands will become wet. Wet and cold is not a good combination.
Gloves with premium leather materials such as Goat leather, Drum dyed leather are great for waterproof and breathability. Natural leather repels water, breaths and is very durable and soft so you get the ultimate in comfort and durability. You can use Nikwax to improve waterproofing and treat the leather to prolong the life of your gloves. Many leather gloves come with a sachet of Nikwax.
Shell fabrics such as Corded Nylon, Polyester and Cordura are treated with a Durable Water Repellent finish to act as an initial barrier to moisture. Helping your hands to stay warm and dry.
Gloves featuring Gore-tex inserts are considered to be completely waterproof and completely breathable. So if you see the Gore-tex logo you are guaranteed to stay dry.
An insulated glove has an integrated moisture-wicking thermal lining. You will often get several layers of insulation fabric inside an outer layer of waterproof material. If you want gloves that will perform for most conditions through the season then look for a glove with good insulation. Below are the most common types of insulation
Primaloft insulation offers superior performance for high quality cold-weather gloves. Primaloft is lightweight, breathable and is proven to repel water better than any other synthetic or natural insulation, so you remain dry, warm and comfortable even under the most extreme conditions.
High loft synthetic is a synthetic insulation with an excellent balance of comfort, warmth and value. It resists moisture in wet conditions, providing loft retention and an air space that holds heat and keeps hands warm. The non-bulky nature of this insulation allows breathability when conditions are warmer.
Thinsulate Insulation is on of the warmest insulations on the market. Fine fibers trap body heat and maintain the ability to keep you warm. Thinsulate Insulation absorbs less than 1% of its weight in water. Even in soaking wet snow conditions, gloves or mittens with Thinsulate Insulation will retain the ability to keep you warm.
Non-insulated gloves are often referred to as a Pipe & park gloves. These gloves / mittens are not very warm but great for spring conditions or during warmer days.
Very Important! Only machine-wash your gloves / mittens if you really need to. Do not machine -wash leather gloves / mittens! ?Check the label on the inside of the cuff for product specific washing instructions.
Zip up all zippers and attach all Velcro before loading!?Zipper sliders and teeth can easily be damaged in the washer and/or dryer.? Velcro gets clogged up with fuzz from other garments and can snag your other clothes, causing damage to both.
Front-load machine wash only! Using an agitator-style top-load washer could possibly do damage to your technical outerwear or clothing.
Gentle cycle should be all that is recommended to clean your technical outerwear.?If your gloves are stained, you may be out of luck.
Use cold water!?Actually, warm is OK, but cold is preferred to maintain the waterproofing.
Use outerwear-specific detergent or powder. Using liquid detergent that is not outerwear-specific clogs the pores of technical fabrics and damages the DWR coating, greatly reducing the performance (waterproof/breathability) of the garment.
Hang Dry in shade or Tumble Dry on Low Heat. Drying with excess heat can damage or melt fabric, zippers, and/or trims. Leave in until almost dry and change to NO HEAT or hang dry to finish.? Low heat actually helps re-activate waterproofing after washing.
Replenish Waterproofing as needed.?The waterproof coating (the magic that makes water droplets bead up on your outerwear) on all technical fabrics will become less effective over time and use?- especially if you are around campfires, smokers, oily lift pulleys, or other contaminants in general.? Revive the performance of your technical outerwear by washing as instructed, then using a spray-on waterproofing product such as NikWax TX-Direct.
This is durable and good looking glove, made in collaboration with Vans. The sublimation printed Cordura outer materials gives the vans glove a very unique look that stands out from the crowd. This snowboard glove is lightweight, strong and good looking. Checkout the full list of key features below.
There are no reviews for this product yet.
10K/10K Breathable and waterproof rating on this Goat Suede leather mitten.
Trigger mittens offers added warmth and dexterity. With durable and premium quality leather, your hands will be warm and dry inside.
A boosted leather version of the popular Fillmore mitt. This is team rider Louif Paradis pro model.
The excellent Trench Glove with Gore Tex
Artist colab with Simon Riviere
Park and pipe mitts
removable trigger finger liners, nice!
Goretex and premium merino liners
Brand new trigger mitt in the Dakine range. This is Team Baron Trigger Mitt with prima loft insulation, leather material and Gore-tex inserts.
Polartec Wind Pro 300g fleece with touch screen compatible index finger.
Touch screen compatible index finger with loads of dexterity. The Sammy Carlson's pro model in red and camo is a win!
Comfortable mitt with DWR treatment and leather palm.
High Loft synthetic insulation and DK Dry waterproof inserts on this affordable glove.
Afforadable glove with removable Storm liner glove included.
Protect your wrist when on the slope. The Dakine Glove with built in wristguard is warm and comfortable.
For added protection for your wrist, the wristguard protects from impact and unexpected falls. Please note that this will not prevent any accidentes from happening.
4 way stretch fleece liner that is touch screen compatible
Warm mitten with Gore-tex inserts to keep your hands warm and dry
Vans and Howl collaboration resulting in this good looking and warm glove.
Trigger mittens offers added warmth and dexterity. With durable and premium quality leather, your hands will be warm and dry inside.
10K/10K Breathable and waterproof rating on this Goat Suede leather mitten.
High spec leather glove with Goretex active insulation.
Super Tech for the Little Princess of the Alps
Warm, Waterproof and tough, what more do you need?
POW's proven design integrates with a mountaineers needed functionality in the Tormenta GORE-TEX® Glove


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Science Friday® is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Science Friday® and SciFri® are registered service marks of Science Friday, Inc. Site design by Pentagram; engineering by Mediapolis.
|Americans seem to be driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars -- but what is Congress doing to help address our nation's energy problems? In this segment, Ira talks with senators John Warner and Jeff Bingaman about energy policy topics including offshore drilling, alternative energy, and even lowering the speed limit. Can legislators from both sides of the aisle work together to deal with the energy crisis?


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Extending PHP 5.3 Closures with Serialization and Reflection
By Jeremy Lindblom on January 28th, 2010
PHP 5.3 has brought with it some powerful and much-needed features like late static bindings, namespaces, and closures (also referred to as anonymous functions and lambda functions). Anyone who is experienced with JavaScript or who has worked with programming languages like Scheme or Lisp should realize the value that anonymous functions can bring to PHP. The PHP Manual explains closures like this:
Anonymous functions, also known as closures, allow the creation of functions which have no specified name. They are most useful as the value of callback parameters, but they have many other uses. Closures can also be used as the values of variables; PHP automatically converts such expressions into instances of the Closure internal class.
PHP has very few predefined classes that are part of the core language, so naturally I was intrigued by the Closure class. The PHP Manual has this to say about the class:
The predefined final class Closure was introduced in PHP 5.3.0. It is used for internal implementation of anonymous functions. The class has a constructor forbidding the manual creation of the object (issues
E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR) and the
__invoke()method with the calling magic.
The invoke magic method is also a new feature in PHP 5.3. It is called when an object is used in the context of a function (e.g.
$object($parameter);). Since Closure objects will be used like functions, this is a critical feature of the Closure object. The Closure class may be perfectly equipped to act like an anonymous function, but it does not provide any extra utility beyond that. A
var_dump() of a closure will reveal the functions parameters, but there is no way to get any other information about the Closure (like the actual code of the function). Trying to serialize the Closure throws an Exception and
json_encode() just returns an empty JSON string. To make matters worse, the Closure class is final, so there is no way to extend it.
That simply wasn't going to cut it for me. I wanted to make my own Closure class that was at least able to do the following: Read More »
Tagged with: classes, closures, magic methods, methods, php, reflection, serialization
Posted in: Articles, Development


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HIGH POINT, N.C. - Coker College senior cross country runners Ashley Meador (Union, S.C.), Alex Ochoa (Pamplico, S.C.) and Austin McJunkins (Walhalla, S.C.) have been named to the 2010 Conference Carolinas Men's and Women's Cross Country Academic All-Conference teams.
Conference Carolinas member institutions stress the role of "Academics and Athletics Working Together" and each sport's Academic All-Conference award winners exemplify this continued league-wide commitment.
The 2010 Conference Carolinas Men's and Women's Cross Country Academic All-Conference representatives are junior and senior student-athletes with a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher on a 4.0 scale in all work completed at their member institution that have played in a conference sponsored sport. The GPA is calculated based on the student-athletes cumulative average through the previous semester and each student-athlete must have attended their member institution for at least one academic year.
Each year the Academic All-Conference Team is released while closing out each regular season before starting the tournament championships. The 2010 Conference Carolinas Cross Country Championship Meet will be hosted by Queens University of Charlotte on Friday, November 5th at McAlpine Park in Charlotte, NC.
Keep up with all the Conference Carolinas fall tournament action on the league website at: www.conferencecarolinas.com/Championships/2008-09/20082410_08-09ChampionshipsLinks


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Call (206) 818-1211 for 24 hour assistance
Welcome to Washington Cremation Centers
Our services require no pre-registration or pre-payment.
We provide respectful, professional, direct cremation services. Family owned and operated, Washington Cremation Centers is not a cremation society, which means there is no membership fee. Our services require no pre-registration or pre-payment.
Washington Cremation Centers is a practical and lower-cost cremation-only service for the discerning consumer who does not wish to pay the high funeral home fees for simple cremation arrangements. When all you need is an affordable cremation option with no service by request and you prefer arrangements to be done with caring and professional service, then call Washington Cremation Centers.
We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Regardless of when and where a death occurs, a family member should call the Washington Cremation Centers as soon as possible. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We work to make a difficult situation a little easier.
We will come right away if you request immediate assistance. If your family wishes to spend some time with the deceased, to say good bye, we understand and will take your love one into our care when your time is right. Washington Cremation Centers is a consumer friendly funeral provider. That is why we provide our families several options to make final arrangements... in our office, online or by fax. We hope to make a difficult situation just a little easier.
If making arrangements in our office, we will set a convenient appointment time for you to come to Washington Cremation Centers; during business hours to complete the details of the cremation services. Prior to your appointment we will inform you of what all is necessary to bring with you.
If making the arrangements online, our website will walk you through the arrangement process, step by step
If making arrangements online, our website will walk you through the arrangement process. Step by step you can make the arrangements at your pace in the comfort of your home. You can start by clicking here. you will be directed to select the cremation arrangements you desire. You will select the choice requested by clicking the button of the option chosen, then click the button to move to the next selection page. Once arrangements have been selected, you will be requested to fill in the information required for the death certificate. Only one Next Of Kin will have to fill in the vitals form and select the cremation services requested. The majority of all equal Next of Kins must sign the digital cremation authorization (click here to start the online cremation authorization form). We will contact the Next of Kin by phone or email to confirm the cremation arrangements and organize payment for the services requested. We will email you a contract of all services selected. Making all cremation arrangements online require between 10 to 30 minutes.
If making cremation arrangements by fax, you may download the forms by clicking here or from our downloadable forms section and print them off. If you do not have a printer connected to your computer, please call us and we can fax the documents to you and you can fill in the blank forms and fax the completed copies back to us. Our fax number is (253)852-9666.
The Cremation Center is committed to you. We promise that you will not cross this bridge alone. We will be with you in your time of need, every step of the way. Sincerely, Washington Cremation Centers.
Washington Cremation Centers are Proud to Serve the following areas in the Greater Seattle area and Washington State:
We offer funeral parlor services, direct cremation services, cremation caskets, urns, and funerary products to many major cities in the state of Washington. Large cities we offer our services include cities like Seattle, Everett, Bellevue, Edmonds, Redmond, Tacoma, Olympia, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Marysville, Bothell, Renton, Kirkland, Issaquah, Lynnwood, Vancouver, Mountlake Terrace, Bremerton, SeaTac, Kent, Auburn, Gig Harbor, Federal Way, Lakewood, University Place, and Puyallup.
We also supply cremation services and affordable funeral home options in smaller cities and towns. Feel free to contact us when you are in need of cremation Sedro-Woolley services, cremation Arlington services, cremation Stanwood services, cremation Lake Stevens services, cremation Snohomish services, Shoreline cremation services, cremation Monroe, cremation Mercer Island, cremation Issaquah, cremation North Bend, cremation Burien, cremation Anacortes, cremation Poulsbo cremation, Silverdale cremation, cremation Bainbridge Island, cremation Port Orchard cremation, Maple Valley cremation, Des Moines cremation, cremations Fife, Bonnie Lake cremation, DuPont cremation, cremation Tumwater, Spanaway cremation, Enumclaw cremation, cremation Buckley, cremation Covington, cremation Orting, and/or cremation Graham services.
*Prices are subject to change without notice. Prices as of 02/01/2018.*


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According to the ever-vigilant Team Fortress 2 forumites who take great pleasure in dissecting anything and everything to do with the game's code, there's an amusing MMO reference in the last patch.
The following "code" was unearthed in the game's GFC files:
// TF2 MMOAmusing, yes; a sign of anything other than riding the community's ability to read into things that aren't there? No. Still we thought it was funny.
"TF_MMO_LFG" "Looking For Group"
"TF_MMO_Quest1" "You must kill %s1 %s2 to complete this quest."
"TF_MMO_Monster1" "Boars"
"TF_MMO_Monster2" "Rats"
"TF_MMO_Monster3" "Bats"
"TF_MMO_Monster4" "Wolves"
"TF_MMO_Monster5" "Spiders"
Bryn says: Hah. This is awesome. I love how Valve continues to joke around with its products, while remaining committed to keeping the hardcore on their toes. Don't get me wrong, if there was the slightest hint of a TF2 MMORPG, I'd be the first in line with my smoking minigun to slaugher rats by the hundreds just to hear myself ding.
Guess I'll just have to make do with aiding those Heavies with my mad Medic skillz.


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Piers Day needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 36 designs submitted by 13 freelance designers.
Logo required for New Rapid Stop Smoking Audio download to help people stop smoking.
Rapid Stop Smoking - http://www.rapidstopsmoking.com
Logo for Website, ebook and general advertising - want a brand logo not just a website logo.
The 2 CD and one DVD package will hopefully be a high end product - above many of the other Stop Smoking Hypnosis downloads out there -e this is the first comprehensive program about.
Please make sure that it has .com after it
- Smart,
- Professional
- Somehow to show that this give willpower!
- eve catching
- show as an inductry leader
- have a come and buy me feel
- MUST HAVE .com on it!
- No swinging watches
- Nothing Cheesey
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Increase in Newly Diagnosed HIV Infections Among Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men -- Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, 1999-2008
February 4, 2011
During 2001-2006, new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses among black men aged 13-24 years who have sex with men (MSM) in 33 states increased by 93%.1 The Wisconsin Division of Public Health (WDPH) recently reported to CDC a 144% increase during 2000-2008 in HIV diagnoses among black MSM aged 15-29 years in Milwaukee County. In October 2009, the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD), WDPH, and CDC investigated whether the increase in HIV infections among young black MSM in Milwaukee represented increased HIV transmission or simply better identification of prevalent infections. This report describes the results of that investigation, which indicated that a new "social networks" HIV testing strategy and the recent expansion of better targeted HIV testing efforts accounted for few diagnoses among young black MSM and occurred after HIV diagnoses increased, respectively. Therefore, although some diagnoses were made because of intensified testing, an increase in HIV transmission likely occurred. Moreover, an increase in syphilis diagnoses among young black MSM in Milwaukee preceded the increase in HIV diagnoses, which suggests that changes in risk behavior or sexual networks might explain the increase. These findings highlight the need for new or improved interventions promoting prevention education, early HIV detection, and entry to care for young HIV-infected and at-risk black MSM in Milwaukee.
CDC, MHD, and WDPH reviewed the timing of recently implemented HIV testing strategies and examined data from two sources: 1) name-based, confidential HIV surveillance data (collected in Wisconsin since 1985) and 2) HIV testing data from publicly funded test sites. HIV diagnoses that were not reported previously were considered new diagnoses. Trends were analyzed comparing the number of new HIV diagnoses (counted by year in which the diagnosis was made), number of tests performed in publicly funded test sites, and the proportion of those tests that were positive among black and nonblack (white and Hispanic) MSM, stratified by age group (15-19, 20-24, 25-29, and ≥30 years). Because of small numbers, year-to-year differences were highly variable, so CDC compared aggregate data for the years 1999-2001 (before diagnoses increased and before new testing strategies were adopted) and 2006-2008 (after diagnoses increased and after new testing strategies were adopted). WDPH determined whether the new social networks testing strategy or traditional testing strategies were associated with cases identified.
The trends in HIV diagnoses also were compared with trends in diagnoses of primary or secondary syphilis in young black MSM in Milwaukee because HIV and syphilis are both transmitted through unprotected sex. Primary and secondary syphilis occur within a few months of infection, so increases in primary and secondary syphilis suggest increases in HIV incidence also might have occurred. CDC compared primary and secondary syphilis incidence for 1999-2001 and 2006-2008 using WDPH surveillance data. Because syphilis surveillance data in Milwaukee do not document HIV coinfection, CDC also reviewed MHD partner services records, in which coinfection is recorded routinely, for all primary and secondary syphilis cases among black MSM aged 15-29 years diagnosed during January 2006-June 2009. The latter period was chosen to maximize the number of cases considered (the period for trend analyses ended in 2008 because of concerns about delayed reporting of more recent diagnoses to surveillance).
During 2006-2008, WDPH intensified HIV testing statewide. Beginning in 2006, a new social networks testing strategy encouraged MSM who were diagnosed recently with HIV to recruit MSM within their social networks for HIV testing. In 2007, WDPH intensified targeted HIV testing to black MSM by urging publicly funded test sites trained in the social networks testing strategy to administer ≥45% of all tests to black and Hispanic MSM. The extent to which these strategies detected infections among previously undiagnosed black MSM was unclear.
Comparing 1999-2001 and 2006-2008, new HIV diagnoses increased among black MSM aged 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29 years (by 143%, 245%, and 78%, respectively) (Table). In contrast, new diagnoses increased less among nonblack MSM aged 20-24 years (by 14%) and 25-29 years (by 45%),* and they decreased among black and nonblack MSM aged ≥30 years (by 40% and 1%, respectively). Comparing 1999-2001 and 2006-2008, the percentage increase in the number of HIV tests among young black MSM aged 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29 years ranged from 90% to 372%, whereas the percentage increase in the number of HIV tests among nonblack MSM in each of these age groups ranged from 44% to 63%. Along with the increased number of tests conducted, increased HIV positivity among black MSM aged 15-19 and 20-24 years and nonblack MSM aged 25-29 years also contributed to the trend of increasing diagnoses in these groups.
During 2006-2008, the new social networks testing strategy resulted in new HIV diagnoses only among black MSM. However, within the 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29 year age groups, this strategy accounted for only 11.8%, 5.3%, and 6.3% of new diagnoses, respectively. Moreover, the effort to expand and better target testing in publicly funded test sites began after increases in HIV diagnoses and positivity were observed among black MSM aged 15-29 years (Figure). Although data were unavailable to describe testing trends in privately funded test sites during this period, the proportion of new diagnoses in these test sites decreased from 56% to 24% among black MSM and from 22% to 4% among nonblack MSM from 1999-2001 to 2006-2008; the number of diagnoses among black MSM aged 15-29 years in privately funded sites increased from 15 to 17 during these periods.†
An increase in syphilis diagnoses was noted first in 2005, 1 year before the increase in HIV diagnoses was first noted (Figure). Comparing 1999-2001 to 2006-2008, the number of syphilis diagnoses increased from one to 19 among black MSM and from zero to four among nonblack MSM aged 15-29 years. Investigators reviewed records of the 22 black MSM aged 15-29 years with primary or secondary syphilis diagnosed and reported to MHD during January 2006 - June 2009. Of the 22 men, five had only syphilis diagnosed, nine had concurrent diagnoses of HIV and syphilis, six contracted syphilis after HIV diagnosis, and two contracted HIV after syphilis diagnosis.
Reported by: P. Biedrzycki, M.P.H., City of Milwaukee Health Dept; J. Vergeront, M.D., M. Gasiorowicz, M.A., Wisconsin Div of Public Health; J. Bertolli, Ph.D., A. Oster, M.D., P.S. Spikes, Ph.D., T. Sanchez, D.V.M., Div of HIV/AIDS Prevention; T.A. Peterman, M.D., Div of STD Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention; D.C. Ham, M.D., CDC Experience Applied Epidemiology Fellowship; W.L. Jeffries IV, Ph.D., E.A. Torrone, Ph.D., C.F. Nielsen, Ph.D., EIS officers, CDC.
Disparities in Diagnoses of HIV Infection Between Blacks/African Americans and Other Racial/Ethnic Populations -- 37 States, 2005-2008
Disparities in Diagnoses of HIV Infection Between Blacks/African Americans and Other Racial/Ethnic Populations -- 37 States, 2005-2008
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Visit the CDC's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
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We've heard rumors all year that Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the long dormant companion title to 2009's Final Fantasy XIII, had been canceled. Until we get official word from Square-Enix, the cancellation will have to remain a rumor, but this report from the fine folks at Kotaku is pretty convincing.
It would be logical for Square-Enix to move away from the Final Fantasy XIII brand at this point. The whole purpose of linking Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XIII back in 2006 was to show consumers that the next evolution in the Final Fantasy series was to be a gigantic, multi-dimensional, very important enterprise. Six years later, Final Fantasy XIII is no longer the "next evolution" of Final Fantasy in the eyes of consumers. Now it's "that old Final Fantasy game that some people really hated and then got a weird sequel that no one paid that much attention to". If Square-Enix wants to get people more excited for Versus XIII (which had no narrative, thematic, or gameplay ties to Final Fantasy XIII anyway), then might be a good idea to name it something else. Final Fantasy XV is one idea.
Square-Enix is holding a Final Fantasy event on September 1st, and the word is they'll be making some Final Fantasy XIII announcements there. Maybe we'll find out the fate of Final Fantasy Versus XIII then.
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Friday, 17 September 2010 08:27
Dealing with Washington and Israel is like swimming with sharks. Get out of the water or be eaten. Achieving an equitable Israeli/Palestinian peace settlement is no more likely now than ever. Both sides know it but pretend otherwise, suggesting perhaps a finessed or arranged resolution - a sham one or capitulation if anything is agreed.
On September 15, the latest Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt round ended with no progress, Haaretz saying both "sides seem no closer to a compromise on West Bank settlements."
Al Jazeera headlined "Slow progress in Egypt peace talks," saying "Latest round of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians make little headway....The only agreement the two sides arrived (at) was to meet for the scheduled talks in Jerusalem on" September 15.
Al Jazeera's Marwan Bishara said "Because of a lack of optimism, the negotiations are being conducted in secrecy. We don't know what precisely is going on in these two rounds," or what will follow.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin called settlements "the main issue" and that any sort of agreement "does not look promising."
Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh added: "Americans came pretty much empty handed." Further, "Thousands of new (settlements) are approved and ready for construction come the end of September." More about them below.
Even New York Times writers Mark Landler and Isabel Kershner struck a sour note headlining, "Amid Shelling, Mideast Peace Talks Drag," saying:
Shifting "to home turf" on September 15, neither side "had broken an impasse over Israel's (settlement construction) moratorium." More on it below. First some spin.
Obama said "talks are moving forward in a constructive way."
His regional envoy George Mitchell claimed "We continue in our efforts to make progress....and believe that we are doing so."
Hillary Clinton was also optimistic and buoyant, saying progress was made. Resolving the settlement construction issue is manageable, and a deal is possible in a year. No elaboration of what kind she means. For sure, none of the most fundamental Palestinian issues will even be discussed, let alone resolved, including:
- the right of return;
- borders - Israel is the only country in the world without established ones;
- East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital;
- self-determination or a one-state solution, protecting all Israeli citizens equitably by law, making no distinctions based on faith, ethnicity, or other factors; and
- short of that, ending the 43 year occupation, repressive and illegal under international law.
The Contentious Settlement Construction Issue
Netanyahu's December 10 month moratorium was bogus and deceptive. Construction perhaps slowed but never stopped, a topic an earlier article addressed.
In August, the Israeli Peace Now group launched an anti-settlement campaign, explaining moratorium violations. It concluded by saying "there is almost no freeze or even a visible slowdown, despite the fact that legal construction starts have been prohibited for eight months. It also means that....Israel is not enforcing the moratorium."
In September, Peace Now updated its information headlining, "13,000 housing units can be built without further government approval," saying:
- 2,066 are ready for immediate construction - where "ground works have already begun or the construction permit has already been approved;"
- hundreds more are also ready to go, but ground work construction hasn't begun;
- at least another 11,000 housing units have been approved according to valid building plans, "and the settlers can build them even without further government approval;"
- it means that "if the government (imposes) a de facto 'tacit freeze,' (settlers) can still build 13,000 housing units, 5,000 of which are in isolated settlements east of the" Separation Wall; and
- 25,000 more units were previously approved but need updating to proceed.
What's clear is that freeze or no freeze, massive settlement construction will continue.
On September 16, Haaretz writer Avi Issacharoff headlined, "Report: US suggests 3-month extension to settlement freeze," saying:
"Abbas has agreed....but Netanyahu has yet to respond." His office then issued a statement saying:
"we don't comment on the content of the negotiations. The position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (is) well known, and hasn't changed."
During Sharm el-Sheikh meetings, he told Abbas that construction would resume at the end of September - that is, at a faster pace than now. If finessing the issue, in fact, happens, Peace Now says:
"The reality is that under such a compromise, construction....can still re-start on a massive scale." Besides the 2,066 ready to go, 60 settlements have gotten Civil Administration land allocations though the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division or another settlement agency.
Taking all of the above into account, total potential settlement construction is about "38,000 housing units (in) plans that were approved" but never built. Most require further approval, but it's little more than rubber-stamping them whenever Israeli authorities wish. Neither Washington nor Abbas will stop them. Nor will world leaders object.
The "peace process" charade goes on, Palestine's legitimate government excluded. Palestinians are instead represented by a coup d'etat regime, headed by an Israeli collaborationist serving them, not his people. Imagine what's likely ahead.
On September 1, five disreputable leaders began discussions in Washington - Obama, Netanyahu, Abbas, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and Jordan's King Abdullah, men journalist Matthew Cassel calls "a dictator, a (dictatorial) monarch, a puppet and two heads of government responsible for the region's only military occupations - not the best ingredients for making world peace."
They're superb ones, in fact, for waging war against it, the agenda America and Israel pursue, intolerant of peace and dedicated to avoiding it at all costs.
A Final Comment
On September 16, Haaretz writer Gideon Levy headlined "Plastic flowers," using them as a metaphor for the settlements, saying:
They're not real. "They are rootless, lifeless, without an ounce of grace, and they obscure the real landscape."
The settlements are the same, "wedged into foreign soil and never producing anything but their own ugliness." They've grown nothing "but the damage they have caused....No theater, no museum, no music and no dance, very little literature and no meaningful creative work."
They're "comatose cities," out of place "migrant villages." They "should have collapsed (on their own) years ago....This then is the project we're fighting for and paying for," and negotiating for - to steal land from its owners instead of "removing this ugly plastic flowerpot from our windowsill," and acting civilized instead of like rogues.
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