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No. 1 private company: Gulf States Toyota
President of a leading distributor gives credit to customers' steadfast brand loyalty
Click here to see the data on Houston-area private companies.
Toyota faced a huge challenge in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that caused a major shortage of its vehicles for an extended period.
The popular auto brand has bounced back with strong sales and several restyled models.
The resurgence has been good for Houston-based Gulf States Toyota, one of the nation's largest distributors of Toyota vehicles and parts. It generated $6.9 billion in revenue in 2012, making it No. 1 on this year's Chronicle list of the Houston area's largest private companies.
"Last year was a terrific year, rebounding off the tsunami and interruption in product," said Marty Collins, Gulf States president.
In 2012, he said, "we were up 28 percent, year over year, for new Toyotas sold at our 154 dealerships. ... And this year, we're up 14 percent."
That, Collins said, is above the 8 percent national average.
"It's been remarkable" given what the brand went through, he said. "Customer loyalty remained steadfast" and helped Toyota regain its place at the top.
Gulf States Toyota was No. 1 on last year's list with $5 billion in revenue.
Founded in 1969, Gulf States Toyota distributes Toyota and Scion vehicles, parts and accessories to dealers in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Collins said he is bullish on 2013, given Toyota's retooling of six vehicles - Avalon, Rav4, Corolla, Tundra, Highlander and 4Runner - that represent half of retail volume.
"To have that much product mix go through major freshening adds to our reasons to be optimistic," he said.
Avalon and Rav4 sales are up substantially this year over last, he noted. Some models, including the Rav4, are being sold almost as soon as Gulf States delivers them to the dealer, Collins said.
One of the ways the company aims to stand out as a distributor is by seeking ways to add value for customers and dealers, the company's senior vice president, Jeff Parent, previously told the Chronicle.
At Gulf States' vehicle processing center, for example, employees install window tinting on cars and trucks. Gulf States Toyota can provide the service more competitively and it saves car buyers money having it done there, he said, and many other distributors do not provide such a service.
Gulf States also goes the extra mile handling all Texas state inspections on its vehicles, saving dealers time and money, and helping save customers money, too.
"They've been a great partner and just continue to grow their business as Toyota grows, and this year they've been outpacing us," said Kevin Higgins, corporate manager for private distributors and public dealer groups at Toyota Motor Sales.
"They have senior people working with dealers in the field, people who know their craft, and that's why dealers rate them so highly. They help the dealers with their business, and they help us, too. They're great partners on both fronts."
Collins also cited Dan Friedkin, chairman and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, for providing "us with incredible resources."
The company recently invested in new computer systems and software, he said, and created an analytics department "that is helping us make better and faster decisions."
Gulf States Toyota has 2,000 employees, and all but 70 work in the Houston area. It has a processing center near Bush Intercontinental Airport and a 16-acre facility in west Houston.
The company was founded by chairman emeritus Thomas Friedkin. His son Dan Friedkin has been at the helm for 16 years.


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Permits and Zoning
As a governmental entity, the St. Charles City-County Library District is immune from the permitting and zoning ordinances of local governments that do not relate directly to public health or safety, as long as the project is on land owned by the Library District or the St. Charles Library Building Corporation and is used for library purposes.
The Library District shall make a good faith effort to comply with local zoning ordinances, but the Library District need not comply with zoning ordinances if the Library District determines that compliance would be unreasonable or unduly burdensome.
The Library District will file applications for approval of its construction projects with the applicable local government, and when doing so shall include a statement substantially similar to the following:
The St. Charles City-County Library District is immune from permitting and zoning ordinances that do not relate directly to public health or safety, and is filing this application as part of a voluntary, good faith effort to comply with the regulations of this locality. The Library District reserves the right to assert its immunity against any requirement it determines to be unreasonable or unduly burdensome.
This policy shall not apply to facilities leased or rented from non-governmental entities.
This policy shall not apply health and/or safety regulations imposed by other units of government.
(Approved 10/9/06)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Functional Organization Chart - Accessible List Format
Organizational Chart - Accessible List Format
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) *
California Aviation Map Viewer
" * = Under Construction"
Physical Address:
Department of Transportation
Division of Aeronautics
1120 N Street, Room 3300
Sacramento, CA 95814
Mailing Address:
Department of Transportation
Division of Aeronautics,
MS 40 P. O. Box 942874
Sacramento, CA 94274-0001
Shipping Address:
1415 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
General Information:
Fax - 916.653.9531
Aviation Environmental Guidance
|Airport Noise Specialist
|Philip Crimmins
The intent of CEQA is to provide a thorough evaluation of environmental impacts associated with proposed projects leading to balanced decision-making. Objectives of CEQA are to inform decision makers and the public about the potential significant environmental effect of proposed activities; to identify ways to avoid or reduce environmental damage; to prevent environmental damage by requiring implementation of feasible alternatives or mitigation measures; to disclose to the public reasons for agency approval of projects with significant environmental effects; to foster interagency coordination in the review of projects; and to enhance public participation in the planning process.
CEQA applies when an action is determined to be a "project" (§ 21065). A project is loosely defined as an activity requiring discretionary approval. A project is an activity directly undertaken by a public agency; an activity undertaken by a person which is supported in whole or in part through contracts, grants, subsidies, loans, or other forms of assistance by one or more public agencies; or an activity that involves the issuance to a person of certain types of a lease, permit, license, certificate, or other entitlement for use by one or more public agencies.
CEQA does not apply when the action is ministerial (airport annual credit grants, lease of facilities for their intended use, etc.).
The "lead agency" under CEQA is the California public agency (typically city or county government, airport proprietor, airport authority) that has the principal responsibility for carrying out or approving a project. The lead agency will decide what type of environmental document must be prepared. The lead agency will first consider whether the project is exempt from CEQA by considering if the project falls within either a categorical or statutory exemption. If the project is not exempt, an environmental impact report (EIR), negative declaration (ND), or mitigated negative declaration (MND) will be required for the project. The lead agency will cause that document to be prepared.
Exemptions: In determining what type of CEQA document must be prepared for a given project the lead agency will first determine if the project is exempt from CEQA. The lead agency will consider the "statutory" and "categorical" exemptions as defined in the CEQA statute and Guidelines when making an "exemption" determination. "Categorical Exemptions" used in CEQA are not the same as "Categorical Exclusions" used in NEPA. If the project does meet the criteria of a statutory or categorical exemption the lead agency should complete a Notice of Exemption (CEQA Guidelines, Appendix E) indicating the appropriate statutory exemption (for example, an ALP may qualify as "statutory exempt" under CEQA guidelines Section 15262, "Feasibility and Planning Studies") or categorical exemption class number, CEQA guidelines Section 15300, et seq. (for example, Class 3 for a new fence, or Class 1 for runway or apron maintenance or repair, or Class 2 for replacement or reconstruction of existing structure involving negligible or no expansion of capacity). Upon approval of the project based on an "exemption" the lead agency should file the "Notice of Exemption" (NOE) with the local County Clerk's Office and with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. The filing of the NOE begins a 35 day statute of limitation appeal period.
Key Environmental Links for Aviation Activities:
CEQA Statute
FAA Order 5050.4B Implementing Instructions for Airport Projects Complete Order with Appendices
FAA Order 1050.1E Policies and Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts
FAA Order 5100.38C AIP Handbook
|National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Last Updated: December 20, 2013


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No products in the cart.
Home/Shop/Pet Supplies/Dog/Dog Toys
7 Floor Colorful Pet Dog Slide Gear Molar Teeth Cleaning Chew Toy
?Safe, non-toxic, super toughness.
?Effectively clean teeth, colorful design.
?Daily interactive toy for dog, pretty and resistant to the bite, your pets will love it.
Product Attributes:
Material: Rubber
Color: As pictures shown(Random delivery)
Quantity: 1 Pcs
Size(approx.): 13.5 x 4.5 x 4.5cm/5.31 x 1.77 x 1.77inch(L x W x H)
Package Included:
1 x Pet Dog Slide Gear Chew Toy
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text:
Call or Text 406.579.9683 - Just-listed SC and SW Montana Real Estate Listings: New Bozeman Homes, Big Sky Luxury Homes, Ranch Land, Residential Building Lots.
June 22, 2013 - Taunya Fagan Bozeman Real Estate Listings: Southcentral and Southwest Montana Luxury Homes, Farms, Ranches, Land, giving you the advantage...
June 19 - 22, 2013 - Today's Southcentral and Southwestern Montana real estate, call or text Prudential's Top Montana real estate agent, Taunya Fagan at 406.579.9683 - Montana luxury condos, homes, ski property, fishing cabins, hunting land, building lots.
SC and SW Montana Realty and Much More... Taunya Fagan, giving you the advantage...® Experience...Priceless
Dynamic, Proactive, Tireless... Call - Text 406.579.9683 taunya at taunyafagan.com


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From the north: travel south on 101, exit Santa Rosa Street. Make a right at the light onto Santa Rosa. Make a right on Palm Street.
From the south: travel north on 101, exit Osos Street. Make a right on Palm Street.
For many years The Superior Court and the City of San Luis Obispo have provided free juror parking in the "Palm Street Parking Garage". Free parking is still provided in this garage.
A new parking garage, also on Palm Street, opened February of 2006. This new parking garage is small and will not provide free parking for jurors. Please read the specific parking instructions on the back of your summons.
Park in the large parking garage at 842 Palm Street. The entrance is on the north side of Palm across from the Palm Theatre.
Do not park in the newer parking garage at 919 Palm Street on the south side of Palm, across the street from City Hall and next to the County Library.
If you park in the new garage your garage ticket will not be validated and you may be asked to go back and move your car.
We validate parking only at parking structure across from the Palm Theatre.
If you cannot use the garage, park for free on the street in a two hour or more space.
Within San Luis Obispo city limits, call 541-2877.
Outside city limits, contact Central Coast Area Transit (CCAT).
Old Paso Robles Branch
SLO Superior Court


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If you have or know a solar project, please submit it to us for consideration as a featured project using Submit an Item. http://www.solaripedia.com/302/submit-an-item.html
Limitless Clean Energy from Space
National Space Society
August 2008
The United States and the world need to find new sources of clean energy. Space Solar Power gathers energy from sunlight in space and transmits it wirelessly to Earth. Space solar power can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems. Not just help, not just take a step in the right direction, but solve. Space solar power can provide large quantities of energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact. The solar energy available in space is literally billions of times greater than we use today. The lifetime of the sun is an estimated 4-5 billion years, making space solar power a truly long-term energy solution. As Earth receives only one part in 2.3 billion of the Sun's output, space solar power is by far the largest potential energy source available, dwarfing all others combined. Solar energy is routinely used on nearly all spacecraft today. This technology on a larger scale, combined with already demonstrated wireless power transmission (see 2-minute video of demo), can supply nearly all the electrical needs of our planet.
Another need is to move away from fossil fuels for our transportation system. While electricity powers few vehicles today, hybrids will soon evolve into plug-in hybrids which can use electric energy from the grid. As batteries, super-capacitors, and fuel cells improve, the gasoline engine will gradually play a smaller and smaller role in transportation — but only if we can generate the enormous quantities of electrical energy we need. It doesn't help to remove fossil fuels from vehicles if you just turn around and use fossil fuels again to generate the electricity to power those vehicles. Space solar power can provide the needed clean power for any future electric transportation system. While all viable energy options should be pursued with vigor, space solar power has a number of substantial advantages over other energy sources.
Advantages of Space Solar Power
• Unlike oil, gas, ethanol, and coal plants, space solar power does not emit greenhouse gases.
• Unlike coal and nuclear plants, space solar power does not compete for or depend upon increasingly scarce fresh water resources.
• Unlike bio-ethanol or bio-diesel, space solar power does not compete for increasingly valuable farm land or depend on natural-gas-derived fertilizer. Food can continue to be a major export instead of a fuel provider. • Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power will not produce hazardous waste, which needs to be stored and guarded for hundreds of years.
• Unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants, space solar power is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in huge quantities. It works regardless of cloud cover, daylight, or wind speed.
• Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power does not provide easy targets for terrorists.
• Unlike coal and nuclear fuels, space solar power does not require environmentally problematic mining operations.
• Space solar power will provide true energy independence for the nations that develop it, eliminating a major source of national competition for limited Earth-based energy resources.
• Space solar power will not require dependence on unstable or hostile foreign oil providers to meet energy needs, enabling us to expend resources in other ways.
• Space solar power can be exported to virtually any place in the world, and its energy can be converted for local needs — such as manufacture of methanol for use in places like rural India where there are no electric power grids. Space solar power can also be used for desalination of sea water.
• Space solar power can take advantage of our current and historic investment in aerospace expertise to expand employment opportunities in solving the difficult problems of energy security and climate change.
• Space solar power can provide a market large enough to develop the low-cost space transportation system that is required for its deployment. This, in turn, will also bring the resources of the solar system within economic reach.
Disadvantages of Space Solar Power
• High development cost. Yes, space solar power development costs will be very large, although much smaller than American military presence in the Persian Gulf or the costs of global warming, climate change, or carbon sequestration. The cost of space solar power development always needs to be compared to the cost of not developing space solar power.
Requirements for Space Solar Power
The technologies and infrastructure required to make space solar power feasible include:
• Low-cost, environmentally-friendly launch vehicles. Current launch vehicles are too expensive, and at high launch rates may pose atmospheric pollution problems of their own. Cheaper, cleaner launch vehicles are needed.
• Large scale in-orbit construction and operations. To gather massive quantities of energy, solar power satellites must be large, far larger than the International Space Station (ISS), the largest spacecraft built to date. Fortunately, solar power satellites will be simpler than the ISS as they will consist of many identical parts.
• Power transmission. A relatively small effort is also necessary to assess how to best transmit power from satellites to the Earth's surface with minimal environmental impact.
All of these technologies are reasonably near-term and have multiple attractive approaches. However, a great deal of work is needed to bring them to practical fruition. In the longer term, with sufficient investments in space infrastructure, space solar power can be built from materials from space. The full environmental benefits of space solar power derive from doing most of the work outside of Earth's biosphere. With materials extraction from the Moon or near-Earth asteroids, and space-based manufacture of components, space solar power would have essentially zero terrestrial environmental impact. Only the energy receivers need be built on Earth. Space solar power can completely solve our energy problems long term. The sooner we start and the harder we work, the shorter "long term" will be.
Additional Info Follows:
Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study
Report to the National Security Space Office
October 10, 2007
Consistent with the US National Security Strategy, energy and environmental security are not just problems for America, they are critical challenges for the entire world. Expanding human populations and declining natural resources are potential sources of local and strategic conflict in the 21st Century, and many see energy scarcity as the foremost threat to national security. Conflict prevention is of particular interest to security-providing institutions such as the U.S. Department of Defense which has elevated energy and environmental security as priority issues with a mandate to proactively find and create solutions that ensure U.S. and partner strategic security is preserved. The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include revisiting a concept called Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) first invented in the United States almost 40 years ago. The basic idea is very straightforward: place very large solar arrays into continuously and intensely sunlit Earth orbit (1,366 watts/m2), collect gigawatts of electrical energy, electromagnetically beam it to Earth, and receive it on the surface for use either as baseload power via direct connection to the existing electrical grid, conversion into manufactured synthetic hydrocarbon fuels, or as low-intensity broadcast power beamed directly to consumers. A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today.
This amount of energy indicates that there is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a SBSP capability. NASA and DOE have collectively spent $80M over the last three decades in sporadic efforts studying this concept (by comparison, the U.S. Government has spent approximately $21B over the last 50 years continuously pursuing nuclear fusion). The first major effort occurred in the 1970's where scientific feasibility of the concept was established and a reference 5 GW design was proposed. Unfortunately 1970's architecture and technology levels could not support an economic case for development relative to other lower-cost energy alternatives on the market. In 1995-1997 NASA initiated a "Fresh Look" Study to re-examine the concept relative to modern technological capabilities.
The report (validated by the National Research Council) indicated that technology vectors to satisfy SBSP development were converging quickly and provided recommended development focus areas, but for various reasons that again included the relatively lower cost of other energies, policy makers elected not to pursue a development effort. The post-9/11 situation has changed that calculus considerably. Oil prices have jumped from $15/barrel to now $80/barrel in less than a decade. In addition to the emergence of global concerns over climate change, American and allied energy source security is now under threat from actors that seek to destabilize or control global energy markets as well as increased energy demand competition by emerging global economies.
Our National Security Strategy recognizes that many nations are too dependent on foreign oil, often imported from unstable portions of the world, and seeks to remedy the problem by accelerating the deployment of clean technologies to enhance energy security, reduce poverty, and reduce pollution in a way that will ignite an era of global growth through free markets and free trade. Senior U.S. leaders need solutions with strategic impact that can be delivered in a relevant period of time. In March of 2007, the National Security Space Office (NSSO) Advanced Concepts Office ("Dreamworks") presented this idea to the agency director. Recognizing the potential for this concept to influence not only energy, but also space, economic, environmental, and national security, the Director instructed the Advanced Concepts Office to quickly collect as much information as possible on the feasibility of this concept.
Without the time or funds to contract for a traditional architecture study, Dreamworks turned to an innovative solution: the creation on April 21, 2007, of an open source, internet-based, interactive collaboration forum aimed at gathering the world's SBSP experts into one particular cyberspace. Discussion grew immediately and exponentially, such that there are now 170 active contributors as of the release of this report—this study approach was an unequivocal success and should serve as a model for DoD when considering other study topics. Study leaders organized discussions into five groups: 1) a common plenary session, 2) science & technology, 3) law & policy, 4) infrastructure and logistics, and 5) the business case, and challenged the group to answer one fundamental question: Can the United States and partners enable the development and deployment of a space-based solar power system within the first half of the 21st Century such that if constructed could provide affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable, and expandable energy for its consumers?
Discussion results were summarized and presented at a two-day conference in Colorado on 6-7 September graciously hosted by the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies. Over the course of the study several overarching themes emerged:
•The SBSP Study Group concluded that space-based solar power does present a strategic opportunity that could significantly advance US and partner security, capability, and freedom of action and merits significant further attention on the part of both the US Government and the private sector.
•The SBSP Study Group concluded that while significant technical challenges remain, Space-Based Solar Power is more technically executable than ever before and current technological vectors promise to further improve its viability. A government-led proof-of-concept demonstration could serve to catalyze commercial sector development.
•The SBSP Study Group concluded that SBSP requires a coordinated national program with high-level leadership and resourcing commensurate with its promise, but at least on the level of fusion energy research or International Space Station construction and operations.
•The SBSP Study Group concluded that should the U.S. begin a coordinated national program to develop SBSP, it should expect to find that broad interest in SBSP exists outside of the US Government, ranging from aerospace and energy industries; to foreign governments such as Japan, the EU, Canada, India, China, Russia, and others; to many individual citizens who are increasingly concerned about the preservation of energy security and environmental quality. While the best chances for development are likely to occur with US Government support, it is entirely possible that SBSP development may be independently pursued elsewhere without U.S. leadership.
•Certain key questions about Space-Based Solar Power were not answerable with adequate precision within the time and resource limitations of this interim study, and form the agenda for future action (a complete description of these questions can be found in Appendix A – Space Based Solar Power Design Considerations and Tradeoffs).
The fundamental tasks/questions are:
◦Identification of clear targets for economic viability in markets of interest
◦Identification of technical development goals and a roadmap for retiring risk
◦Selection of the best design trades
◦Full design and deployment of a meaningful demonstrator
The study group determined that four overarching recommendations were most significant:
•Recommendation #1: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should organize effectively to allow for the development of SBSP and conclude analyses to resolve remaining unknowns
•Recommendation #2: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should retire a major portion of the technical risk for business development
•Recommendation #3: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should create a facilitating policy, regulatory, and legal environment for the development of SBSP
•Recommendation #4: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should become an early demonstrator/adopter/customer of SBSP and incentivize its development
Several major challenges will need to be overcome to make SBSP a reality, including the creation of low-cost space access and a supporting infrastructure system on Earth and in space. Solving these space access and operations challenges for SBSP will in turn also open space for a host of other activities that include space tourism, manufacturing, lunar or asteroid resource utilization, and eventually settlement to extend the human race. Because DoD would not want to own SBSP satellites, but rather just purchase the delivered energy as it currently does via traditional terrestrial utilities, a repeated review finding is that the commercial sector will need Government to accomplish three major tasks to catalyze SBSP development.
The first is to retire a major portion of the early technical risks. This can be accomplished via an incremental research and development program that culminates with a space-borne proof-of-concept demonstration in the next decade. A spiral development proposal to field a 10 MW continuous pilot plant en route to gigawatts-class systems is included in Appendix B.
The second challenge is to facilitate the policy, regulatory, legal, and organizational instruments that will be necessary to create the partnerships and relationships (commercial-commercial, government-commercial, and government-government) needed for this concept to succeed.
The final Government contribution is to become a direct early adopter and to incentivize other early adopters much as is accomplished on a regular basis with other renewable energy systems coming on-line today. For the DoD specifically, beamed energy from space in quantities greater than 5 MWe has the potential to be a disruptive game changer on the battlefield. SBSP and its enabling wireless power transmission technology could facilitate extremely flexible "energy on demand" for combat units and installations across an entire theater, while significantly reducing dependence on vulnerable over-land fuel deliveries. SBSP could also enable entirely new force structures and capabilities such as ultra long-endurance airborne or terrestrial surveillance or combat systems to include the individual soldier himself.
More routinely, SBSP could provide the ability to deliver rapid and sustainable humanitarian energy to a disaster area or to a local population undergoing nation-building activities. SBSP could also facilitate base "islanding" such that each installation has the ability to operate independent of vulnerable ground-based energy delivery infrastructures. In addition to helping American and allied defense establishments remain relevant over the entire 21st Century through more secure supply lines, perhaps the greatest military benefit of SBSP is to lessen the chances of conflict due to energy scarcity by providing access to a strategically secure energy supply. Despite this early interim review success, there are still many more questions that must be answered before a full-scale commercial development decision can be made.
It is proposed that in the spirit of the original collaborative SBSP Study Group charter, that this interim report becomes a living document to collect, summarize, and recommend on the evolution of SBSP. The positive indicators observed to surround SBSP by this review team suggest that it would be in the US Government's and the nation's interest to sponsor an immediate proof-of-concept demonstration project and a formally funded, follow-on architecture study conducted in full collaboration with industry and willing international partners.
The purpose of a follow-on study will be to definitively rather than speculatively answer the question of whether all of the barriers to SBSP development can be retired within the next four decades and to create an actionable business case and construction effort roadmap that will lead to the installation of utility-grade SBSP electric power plants. Considering the development timescales that are involved, and the exponential growth of population and resource pressures within that same strategic period, it is imperative that this work for "drilling up" vs. drilling down for energy security begins immediately.
Space-Based Solar Power (3,636 kb)


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I devoted some time to try and reduce the massive DBD::Oracle rt list today. Some issues should be fixed now (see below) but in the mean time we have a number of stalled issues and some issues more than 1 year old and some more than 3 years old!
I've not been helping maintaining DBD::Oracle for that long but I find the rt list depressing. I don't see any real prospect of clearing up the issues older than 1 year other than just closing them as often the case is I add a comment to them and the person who reported the issue is not even contactable now. What do other maintainers do in this case?
As often is the case we have another RT reporting issues in TAF (Transparent Application Failover). I don't use TAF so it is a difficult one to look at. However, I understand the issue. If you use Oracle TAF and Perl DBD::Oracle and you are prepared to try a few things out for me I'd love to hear from you.
Issues fixed today:
- Fixed RT76695 - offset passed to ora_fetch_scroll should not affect
normal fetches (Martin J. Evans)
- Fixed RT76410 - fetch after fetch absolute always returns
the same row (Martin J. Evans);
- Fixed RT75721 - does not build with Oracle 9.2 (Martin J. Evans)
- Fixed RT71343 - Oracle 9i does not have OCI_ATTR_TAF_ENABLED
or OCI_ATTR_RESERVED_15/16 so cannot build (Martin J. Evans)
- skip 24implicit_utf8.t if chr set is not UTF-8 (Martin J. Evans)
- minor change to confusing debug output for input parameters
(Martin J. Evans)
The above are comitted to subversion trunk and I have further changes for TAF not committed.


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In Italy, the term DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata. It is the equivalent of the French AOC. Only wines which have met certain requirements of place of origin, variety and vinification process are entitled to use this on their labels.
In Portugal this term refers to wines which come from a demarcated region. Portugal was 25 years ahead of France's 1855 Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in classifying "quality wine." There are currently nine Denominacao de Origem Controlada (DOC) or Regiao Demarcada (RD) wine regions.
The current list of DOC regions includes:
Vinho Verde (7 subregions: Moncao, Lima, Braga, Basto, Amarante, Penafiel, Lafo)
Porto e Douro
Since joining the European Common Market, an additional 30 areas have been identified by the phrase Indicacao de Provenienca Regulamentada (IPR) or Vinhos de Qualidad Produzides em Regiao Determinada (VQPRD).
© 2009 WINES.COM All rights reserved.
Database used with permission of Vintage Wine Lover's Software.


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Digg it!
S2HD is like a dream come true!
Sonic really needed to go back onto its glorious roots - and I honestly never imagined we could progress so fast in less than one year with this fast pace.
This has been possible only thanks to every talented and motivated contributor, past and present, which shared the same beloved memories of pure enjoyment with Sonic The Hedgehog 2 we had.
Yes, Sonic 2 HD will set many standards as it aims to be much more than a carbon copy version of the original. For instance, it will be the first time a genuine Sonic game will run at FULL HD – cinemascope resolution, Multiplayer Online Competitions, New Levels, unlockables and much more.
So, stay tuned and note this date as the real birthday of Sonic 2HD - we'll start to amaze you from now on.
- Vincent
Needed D3D DLL Files
Please note this is pre-Alpha, so expect it to be full of bugs.
Please report any problems or issues you have experienced, along with your full system specs!
Fullscreen needs a monitor that supports 1280 x 960 resolution to work. If not, it will show a black screen because its looking for a resolution that it cannot find. (We still need to fix the fullscreen for others resolutions).
We just pushed into the demo as much content as we could and we are exhausted now! So please expect a full FAQ tomorrow.
Move the keyboard to move Sonic on the floor
A=Negate Gravity
The 3 versions are not the same
Please try all three of them - each has a diff. zoom (It's just a Zoom Effect, the game will be seen at the 4X Res). I suggest to try S2HD_TechDemo_4x.exe first. We included the smaller 1x and 2x resolutions because level scrolling is still being developed - so the idea was to give everyone space to move around by having a smaller Sonic in a bigger level. Also, full screen may not work for some in this work in progress demo. Please report your system specs if this is the case.
Wait the main title screen for more than 10 seconds will put in the secret Credits Scene.
1. System Requirements
2. The Sonic 2 HD Project
3. The History of Sonic 2 HD
4. Joining us & Contact Information
5. Legal Disclaimer
1. System Requirements
We are testing these early engine builds with the highest
quality settings during development, so as to estabilish
the required specs to run at the "FULL HD" (1080p) resolution.
Low resolution compatible specs will be included in the next releases.
This tech demo could run at almost full speed on slower PCs,
so please note that these specs are not at all final. Please
report bugs or any other issues in our release thread on the Sonic
Retro forums.
The recommended system requirements are as follows:
Graphics card:
- 512 MB graphics RAM.
- The graphics card must be able to render multiple 3d primitives
with post pixel shader effects (Direct3D 9 and Pixel Shader 2.0 compatible)
in "FULL HD" (1080p) resolution at a rate of 60 frames per second.
CPU and RAM:
- 2.4 GHz
Operating System:
- Microsoft Windows XP SP2 32-bit
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 32-bit
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultra Edition 32-bit
- (DirectX 9.0c or higher)
- Something DirectInput compatible with 8 buttons or so.
2. The Sonic 2 HD Project
The S2HD project is a Sonic Retro open community endeavour. Its purpose is
to remaster Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with high definition (HD)
graphics and music, whilst at the same time precisely preserving the original
gameplay (that continues to set quality standards to this day).
S2HD will not be limited only to presenting a beautiful graphical and musical
version of the original. New features that were not present in the original
will also be made available. Some examples are especially the online multiplayer
modes and extra levels.
3. The History of Sonic 2 HD
The idea of creating a high definition version of Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2
first appeared on a website called "Alchemist Defined". An artist calling himself
Billy had drawn an incredibly impressive piece of artwork, which showed Sonic about
to fight the last boss of the game in the "Death Egg Zone". The low-resolution sprites
were richly brought to life in this phenomenal piece of artwork: both the background
and the characters had been completely remastered. A number of video gaming websites
quickly discovered the image and were soon showing it off on their homepages.
The question had been posed; "What would Sonic 2 look like in high definition?"
The "Sonic Retro" community had always taken a keen interest in all things related to
Sonic's classical era. On December 6th 2007, a member of this community
called "Athelstone" found Billy's image and excitedly posted it in the General discussion
forums, while asking the very same question - what would it be like?. The thread was
soon moved to the "Creative Works" section of the forum.
Three months later, on March 8th 2008, a member of Sonic Retro called "Vangar"
created a discussion thread asking for a game engine he could use to start work
on such a project. The thread gained a surprising amount of interest! Many members
of the community quickly began to post concept images of what the game ought to
look like. To begin with, fans would merely apply graphical filters to the original
low-resolution graphics. A member called "Yarharhar" then posted an image of a
completely remastered Sonic, along with a method describing how he had drawn it!
It was not long until a member of the community called "Vincent" was so inspired
by Yarharhar's effort, that he took it upon himself to begin remastering a whole
set of Sonic's character frames. Sonic 2 HD had begun!
However, the most difficult tasks still lay ahead of the project. How would we
organize ourselves to achieve this goal? What game engine would be used to make
it a reality? One possibility was to use a modified Genesis emulator, which would
display the graphics from the original game ROM in high definition. However, it was
decided that this would be far too limiting for the project. This is because the
bugs and slow downs from the original game would be replicated, rather than fixed
and improved upon. It would also be impossible to expand upon the project if its
foundation was just an emulator.
Another possibility was to use a custom made engine that had already been created.
A member of the community called "Taxman" had already created a popular Sonic
engine called "Retro Sonic". Unluckily, the physics in his engine were not yet
close enough to the original genesis series for it to be used (despite the fact
that Taxman's engine boasted an incredibly impressive level development kit for
designing original Sonic levels). It was likely that Taxman would eventually perfect
the physics in his engine - but rather than wait for him to accomplish this, the
community thirsted for the Sonic 2 HD project to move forward.
After a time, a staff team had been formed. Since Vincent had already remastered
many of Sonic's frames, he became the project leader and the lead artist.
A member called "SANiK" had even created an online database, which allowed
contributors to upload all of their artwork, while members "Athelstone" and
"Blue Streak" coordinated some of the community's contributions while giving
suggestions and guidance to other project staff. Eventually, the administrators
of Sonic Retro granted us our own community forum for the Sonic 2 HD project -
but we still didn't have an engine!
Members of the community were starting to cast doubt upon the project - was it
really going to become a reality or not? Then, out of the blue, a long-running
member of the community called "LOst" privately informed the project staff that
he had already been developing his own engine for a number of years and would
like to be a part of the project. The staff were astounded at the accuracy of
his physics, since they were based upon Sonic 3 (which fixed many of the bugs
present in Sonic 2's physics). We finally had an engine! On September 15th 2008
the first technical demo of Sonic 2 HD was released - Sonic has returned!
4. Joining us & Contact Information
Want to help us? Are you an artist or skilled musician? You're welcome to join us!
Please register at the Sonic Retro forums at http://forums.sonicretro.org and
click on the "Community Projects" section. Please read our contribution rules
and guidelines first before posting an example of your work in the relevant topic.
If your work is of a high standard, it is likely that you will be invited to join
our staff. We need:
- Character / Enemies artists: To remaster sprites of characters and enemies
(the use of vector programs like Illustrator or Flash is preferred).
- Background artists: Drawing either backgrounds to be used as Level Tiles for
levels or menu screens.
- Concept artists: To throw together mockups of what the project should be aiming
to artistically achieve.
- Music composers: Either Real instruments or Synthetized music, our engine finally
accepts .OGG audio files. All remasterings must follow the original Sonic 2 tunes.
- Artists to draw an opening and ending sequence.
If you want to contact S2HD Staff, just send us a private message on the Sonic Retro forums.
5. Legal Disclaimer
"Sonic 2 HD" is in no way affiliated with Sega® or Sonic Team®.
The copyrights of "Sonic The Hedgehog" and all associated characters,
names, terms, art, and music thereof belong to Sega®. All registered trademarks
and copyrights belong to Sega® and Sonic Team®. "Sonic 2 HD" is a non-profit
endeavour created by fans. No financial gain whatsoever is made from project efforts.
No intent to infringe said copyrights or registered trademarks is made by contributors of
"Sonic 2 HD".


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Racism claims plague a Moscow soccer club as Russia prepares to host two of the biggest sporting events in the world, the Sochi Olympics in February and the 2018 World Cup.
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure, who is black and grew up in Ivory Coast, said he was racially abused by opposing fans during a Champions League match at CSKA Moscow on Wednesday. The Russian club denied it, but the governing body of European soccer opened disciplinary proceedings against CSKA on Thursday. "We regret the incident, even though we consider the accusations of racism to be unfounded," CSKA said Thursday in a statement.
Opinion polls show that many Russians dislike dark-skinned migrants from ex-Soviet nations, and violent xenophobic groups have beaten and killed non-Slavs and anti-racism activists.
Russia has come under scrutiny as host of the 2014 Winter Olympics after a law was passed this year outlawing "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors," which many worry may apply to gay athletes and visitors to the games.
On Wednesday, Toure said a section of CSKA fans abused him with racist chanting during the match, and the City player then complained to the referee.
Besides denying the incident, the Russian team went further by quoting Seydou Doumbia, a striker from Ivory Coast who plays for the Russian team, as saying Toure was overstating what had happened. "Yes, they're always noisy in supporting the team, and try to put as much pressure as possible on our opponents," Doumbia said, "but they wouldn't ever allow themselves to come out with racist chants. So my Ivory Coast colleague is clearly exaggerating."
City won the match 2-1, but Toure called on UEFA to take action against CSKA. "I think UEFA has to be stronger, and hold all the clubs and all the fans that do that (responsible)," Toure said. "Maybe they have a stadium ban. For me as an African player it is always sad to hear something like that and we need to do something about it."
Toure also raised the prospect of teams boycotting the 2018 World Cup in Russia if the racism issue isn't dealt with in the interim. "If we aren't confident at the World Cup, coming to Russia, we don't come," he said, according to RIA Novosti. On Wednesday, City manager Manuel Pellegrini had echoed the call for action over the chants, saying "it was a pity and I hope we have the right measures."
In the past, Russia has tried to deal with the issue of racism at its stadiums. Some, including Anzhi Makhachkala players Roberto Carlos and Christopher Samba, repeatedly had bananas thrown at them by fans. After an incident with Samba last year, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko vowed to reduce racism. But such promises haven't been backed up with action and authorities remain reluctant to investigate and punish the culprits.
On Thursday, CSKA also said it was "surprised and disappointed" about Toure's statements, and added that it hadn't found any such chants after checking the video recording of the game, saying that the fans were booing some of the players during the game, irrespective of their ethnicity. "It's unclear what made the Ivorian midfielder think that it was directed against him," CSKA said.
Bobby Barnes, Europe's top official in the international players' union, said Thursday that the match officials failed to carry out their own protocol. Toure said he told referee Ovidiu Hategan about the racist chants, expecting that he would speak to the safety officer who should warn the fans that the game will be stopped if the chants didn't end. "I would certainly hope in line with the hard line stance that UEFA has stated and intends to use in these circumstances they will make a meaningful sanction in this case," Barnes said in a story posted on the FIFPro website. "It's important we send a message now."
UEFA has recently decided that racist chants should involve a partial stadium closure for the first offense and a full stadium closure for repeat offenders. Three clubs this season have had full stadium bans for racism and five had had partial closures.
Previously in Russia, Lokomotiv Moscow fans held up a banner in 2010 thanking an English team for signing their black striker Peter Odemwingie with a picture of a banana. The head of Russia's World Cup bid awkwardly said it wasn't racism, but rather an innocent reference to a colloquial expression meaning a student failure at an exam.
Last year, fans of Zenit St. Petersburg called for non-white and gay players to be excluded from the team. Landscrona, the largest Zenit supporters' club, said that "dark-skinned players are all but forced down Zenit's throat now, which only brings out a negative reaction," and said gay players were "unworthy of our great city."
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.


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PHOTOS: Aaron Blatt
Words: Hondo
Ok, before I get into how insane the big air contest was, let me just say that it's god damn cold in Aspen at night. When it's clear, with a nice crescent moon, sometimes you don't notice how cold it really is. But on January 26, 2012, it was very noticeable.
Big air once again returned to Winter X this year with a field of 10 amazing riders. The riders were broken down into two heats of five riders, each heat getting a 15-minute jam session. In the first heat it was Sage Kotsenburg, Torstein Horgmo, Stale Sandbech, Tyler Flanagan, and Seppe Smits. The tricks went off, with the majority of the riders doing every 1080, and double cork imaginable. Torstein's double cork could be seen from miles away, it's pretty sick. And Seppe Smits can spin faster then anyone I've ever seen, in any direction.
The stand out of heat number one though, in my opinion, was Sage Kotsenburg. Rather than flipping and throwing style to the wind, he did mellow tricks like poked out frontside 360s, and lofty switch backside 180's. It was awesome. Progression is one thing, and it's great, but progression doesn't just mean added rotations and flips—it also means an advancement in ones style, and that's exactly what Sage displayed during the contest. In the end Sage's sick style wasn't what the judges wanted to see and he didn't make it into the next heat.
Heat number two was the more action packed of the heats, featuring Gjermund Braaten, Halldor Helgason, Eric Willett, Mark McMorris, and Sebastian Toutant. These guys were not holding back. Double cork 1080's, flat spin 1260's, you name it, it was done.
The rider to watch was Halldór Helgason. He's can do all of the crazy double corks, but he's also able to make them look really good. Halldór was trying his infamous "Lobster" flip all night, which is a double backside rodeo flip with a super tweaked, laid out japan grab in the middle, but he wasn't able to land it during the contest. He did however stomp the shit out of the trick right after the contest ended. Alas, it didn't count, and Halldór didn't make the finals.
Throughout the night, the anticipation of seeing a triple cork was high. While people wanted to see the triple, at first it looked like it wasn't going to be possible on the given jump.
The final five were Eric Willett, Torstein Horgmo, Seppe Smits, Mark McMorris, and Seb Toots. The session started off with a double cork 10 from Mark, and it never cooled down. Torstein was the first one to try a triple cork, but he didn't land it. After seeing Torstein try his backside 1440 triple, Mark had to try it as well. He threw the triple a few times before finally getting it around with bit of a sketchy landing. Torstein couldn't let that slide, and he had to get his. The backside 1440 triple he put down was the cleanest triple yet. At the end of the night though, there could be only one victor, and that man was Mark McMorris, with Torstein in second and Seb Toots in third.
Check back soon to see full recaps from the rest of X. We still have pipe and slope to go, so get ready!
• 1 Mark McMorris Watch Live 49.00 31.00 30.00 14.00 80.00
• 2 Torstein Horgmo Watch Live 50.00 26.00 14.00 14.00 76.00
• 3 Sebastien Toutant Watch Live 41.00 35.00 26.00 12.00 76.00
• 4 Eric Willett 39.00 37.00 11.00 11.00 76.00
• 5 Seppe Smits 35.00 33.00 32.00 24.00 68.00


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Greenpan 3D Dimple OFP Frypan - 26cm
Greenpan 3D Dimple OFP Frypan - 26cm
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Created with your specific everyday cooking needs in mind, GreenPan™ proudly introduces a new Thermolon™ ceramic non-stick, now with a physical attribute to make your cooking experience virtually effortless. Join our revolution with our unique collection of 3D cookware, fashioned for particular food categories. Included in our innovative new designs is a flat surface for protein rich foods like eggs, a dimpled surface for fish and veggies and a raised ribbed surface for meat and poultry. And because you have enough to remember throughout the day, our handles are made to remind you which pan cooks what. Yes, it's just that simple.
Healthy cooking is not only about the foods you use: it is also about the right cookware. We are aware of what we eat and cooking has become really "hot'. We make non-stick pans that allow you to prepare great dishes. All the products look great: premium materials in a clever design. But most of all: GreenPan™ performs!
The patented Thermolon™ non-stick technology is heat resistant up to high temperatures. This means that GreenPan™ has an extra safety feature; if you overheat your pan, even up to 450/850oF, no toxic fumes will be released and the coating will not blister or peel. Thermolon™ is a better heat conductor than traditional coatings. The thermal performance enables superb searing and crispy frying! The excellent heat distribution also allows even cooking, which makes the food brown beautifully. It allows you to mostly cook on low to medium temperatures.
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Brand Description


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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Speed tributes continue
English football will pay its respects to Wales manager Gary Speed this weekend following his death at the age of 42.
English football will pay its respects to Wales manager Gary Speed this weekend following his death at the age of 42.
Former clubs Leeds, Newcastle, Everton and Sheffield United will all celebrate the former midfielder's life before their home games.
Leeds, where Speed began his career and also won a league title, have announced that they will name a new East Stand suite at Elland Road after him in a ceremony ahead of Saturday's npower Championship match against Millwall. They will also hold a minute's applause before kick-off and wreaths will be laid, while the players will wear black armbands.
At Newcastle, where Speed played with such distinction under Kenny Dalglish and Sir Bobby Robson, Speed's career will be commemorated in the matchday programme, which will include his picture on the cover and a four-page tribute.
Before Saturday's 3pm kick-off against Chelsea, the crowd will sing the famous Welsh hymn, Bread of Heaven, while fans seated in the East Stand will be asked to hold up black and white cards which will depict the number 11, the shirt number he wore during his spell on Tyneside.
The Magpies will also hold a minute's applause, while the club has set aside a paved area next to the Milburn Reception for fans to leave their tributes.
Sheffield United, where Speed ended his playing career and took the first step on the managerial ladder, will pay their own respects before Saturday's FA Cup second round tie against Torquay. Again, there will be a minute's applause, while Chris Morgan and former Wales international Robert Page will lay wreaths.
Players and staff will wear black armbands and part of the programme will be dedicates to the former Blades boss, while lasting images of Speed are to be erected in the Bramall Lane car park for the rest of the season.
Everton will remember Speed 24 hours later ahead of their league clash with Stoke. Former team-mates, including David Unsworth, Graham Stuart and Craig Short, will take part in a minute's applause, while gates at the Park End of Goodison Park will remain closed until further notice, and official books of condolence have been opened.
Bolton, who play at Tottenham on Saturday and do not have a home fixture until next weekend, are yet to announce their plans.


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Following the lead of our guest Jorge Perez who likes to personalize everything, what better gift is there than a personalized piece of Waterford crystal!?
This lovely lead crystal monogram tray is sure to delight with its Heritage pattern featuring upright and wedge cuts. It makes for the perfect catch-all on your desk or a vanity tray in the bathroom to corral perfume bottles, cotton swabs or nail polishes. Decorate your home with this marvelous tray!
Please see the Care tab for important care instructions.
A name synonymous with elegance and luxury, Waterford was founded in 1783 by George and William Penrose in the ancient Viking city of Waterford. From the start, the principle that has guided the company for more than 200 years is simple: handcraft crystal "as fine as any in Europe...in the most elegant style."
The Penrose family knew the secret to mixing just the right minerals and glass to produce crystal with beautiful and mysterious qualities. When tapped, it sang sweetly. When touched, it felt warm and soft. The magnificent pieces crafted in Waterford's early period set the standards now recognized as the hallmarks of Waterford Crystal.
Today, Waterford is the world's top producer of fine crystal, and continues to be the brand of choice for the most elegant of table settings and luxury lifestyle accoutrement.
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Bring centuries of tradition into your home with Waterford Crystal - a luxurious collection of traditional and contemporary tabletop items from one of Europe's most iconic brands. Handcrafted in Europe using high-quality crystal, each Waterford piece will add elegance and prestige to your home.
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Discover attainable luxuries from Marquis by Waterford - an exquisite collection of traditional and contemporary tabletop items for your home. Built upon centuries of tradition, Waterford's most affordable collection contains designs crafted from crystal and Crystalline, a premium glass construction offering the same weight and clarity of lead crystal.
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Add a breathtaking, ageless elegance to any room with Waterford's premier collection - House of Waterford. Built upon centuries of tradition, House of Waterford offers meticulously and superbly crafted fine crystal from Ireland. Every piece in the collection exudes exquisite quality and a luxurious aesthetic reminiscent of the designs admired in the most renowned museums.ABOUT THE GUESTS
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Tom Brennan was born to be a Waterford artisan. Like his father, he was raised in Waterford City, Ireland where he dreamed of continuing his family's legacy of fine crystal craftsmanship. Beginning with a simple apprenticeship in 1986, Tom moved through the ranks to become both master artisan and brand ambassador.
Jorge Perez - Entertaining and Lifestyle ExpertCelebrity spokesperson and arbiter of style, Jorge Perez is a renowned Cuban-American fashion designer and luxury tabletop lifestyle expert.
A wedding industry tour-du-force, Jorge has spent many years adding his sparkle to Waterford events around the United States and Canada. His distinctive experience has landed him on many well-known television shows where he happily shares his passion for the brand's fine crystal.
Jorge has been a Waterford guest on EVINE Live for the past 7 years demonstrating how easy it is entertain with sparkle and style.
Fine crystal should be hand washed separately in warm soapy water rinsed thoroughly and dried with a lint free cloth. When washing and drying stemware, do not twist the bowl in the opposite direction to the stem as this can cause damage. We do not recommend using a dishwasher to clean your crystal as it can dull and damage the surface. Avoid pouring iced liquids or very hot water into crystal as extreme temperatures can crack or break your crystal. The finely made rims are the most fragile part of your crystal glass. Do not turn upside down while drying or storing.


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Jack with his magic beans has nothing on Nathan Storey.
Storey, who earned a Ph.D. in agronomy from the University of Wyoming in December 2012, doesn't need magic to grow bean stalks or other plants towering to the sky—just research and business savvy.
With business partner Paul Bennick, Storey owns and operates Bright Agrotech in Cheyenne. The business specializes in agricultural sustainability and healthy food through vertical aquaponic farming production.
"Folks have been so used to traditional forms of agriculture," Storey says. "Convincing them to go from horizontal to vertical farming has been no easy feat."
Bright Agrotech started as a client of the Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC), the university's business incubator that assists Wyoming entrepreneurs. As UW students, Storey and Bennick were winners of the 2011 UW College of Business $10K (now $30K) Entrepreneurship Competition. They received $12,500 to help start their company and one year of free business counseling services and space at the WTBC.
Storey didn't enter his undergraduate education at UW with the idea of starting his own business and becoming an advocate for a more efficient way of growing plants. But the more he learned about aquaponics, the more passionate he became about it, focusing on its potential while earning both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in agronomy.
"I'm not sure starting a business while working on my Ph.D. was the best idea, though," he says with a chuckle.
Storey received encouragement and advice from Dave Wilson, now a plant sciences professor emeritus, and Karen Painter, UW Extension horticulture specialist.
The expertise provided by the WTBC helped Storey and Bennick realize their dream. "The 10K was the pivotal event that launched us on the trajectory we're on now," Storey says.
If there is any magic connected to Bright Agrotech, it may be the "magic" of the Internet.
The company successfully completed a Kickstarter.com crowdfunding campaign during a few weeks last December to raise the capital to invest in business expansion with development of "The Spring System," described as the most cost-effective vertical gardening tower on the market.
"It was a good experience and an interesting medium for raising money," Storey says. "It democratizes raising capital and provides opportunities for people like us who don't have the ability to walk in a bank and ask for $30,000. It was a great way for us to get funding for tooling and to start production."
Bright Agrotech has several social media and website accounts, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Pinterest, to promote products and grow customers—establishing an important dialogue to educate, inform and promote vertical farming in general and Bright Agrotech in particular. Storey estimates four to five man hours are spent a day by him, Bennick and employee Chris Michael on social media and marketing, including producing videos that have generated more than a quarter million views on YouTube.
The bulk of their customers are homeowners growing plants in the back yard, but most customers are in other states with a "significant" number out of country. Storey says Bright Agrotech's marketing approach with social media brings customers to them already interested in their products, rather than them having to go out and seek customers and close a sale.
"We're pretty darn happy with the rate of growth we've had," Storey says. "On a short staff and a small budget, social media marketing gives us great results."
This summer a trial project was set up in Fort Collins, Colo., with the purchase of a greenhouse for a farm-to-market demonstration involving a local producer and Whole Foods natural foods supermarket.
"Part of convincing folks is doing this ourselves and showing how it's done," Storey says.
For Storey and Bright Agrotech, there is nowhere to go but up


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This magnificent homestay is located in a best administered colony on Shamshabad Road north east of Agra. It is approved by both tourism board and incredible India by Govt. of India at new Delhi. The rooms are spacious and equipped with 7 AC rooms with private bathrooms divided into two setups facing each other. One of our roof top has a "cool pool" with a provision of " Rain Showers ". you can also see the glories of Taj Mahal very clearly.
CheersBye © 2019


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By ,
Published January 13, 2015
After an impressive major league debut on Monday, Yasiel Puig put on quite an encore Tuesday.
Puig clubbed the first two homers of his career and finished with five RBI to help the Los Angeles Dodgers outlast the San Diego Padres, 9-7, in the middle test of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
"Those were two impressive home runs there," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly remarked. "We see a little bit of just everything this guy can do. Power both ways. He's fun to watch."
The 22-year-old Cuban defector also doubled in the Dodgers' second straight victory, with Tim Federowicz adding a two-run shot and Luis Cruz contributing an RBI double and two runs scored in the victory.
J.P. Howell (2-0) earned the victory despite giving up a run over 1 2/3 innings of relief work. Brandon League pitched a perfect ninth to nail down his 13th save.
After missing Monday's opener, San Diego outfielder Carlos Quentin homered among his three hits in his first game back in LA since inciting a benches- clearing brawl that left Los Angeles pitcher Zack Greinke with a broken collar bone.
Kyle Blanks belted a two-run homer and Chris Denorfia smacked a solo shot and finished with two RBI for the Padres, who have lost three straight.
Tyson Ross (0-2) was tagged for three runs on four hits over 2 1/3 innings of relief to absorb the loss.
LA trailed 5-2 heading into the home half of the fifth before Puig tied the game with his first career home run.
Federowicz singled with one out and Cruz walked before Puig launched a first- pitch changeup deep into the seats in left-center field to make it 5-5.
After Mark Ellis walked, Ross replaced San Diego starter Clayton Richard and served up a double to Adrian Gonzalez.
Hanley Ramirez, who was activated off the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, then scored Ellis with a sacrifice fly to right to give LA a 6-5 edge.
"I was more disappointed in falling behind in the fifth inning with a couple of walks," Richard admitted. "In the fifth, it kind of got away from us."
Denorfia's RBI single in the top of the sixth tied the contest, but the Dodgers scored three in the bottom half to regain control.
Skip Schumaker worked a one-out walk and moved to second when Ross' pickoff attempt sailed wide of first. After Federowicz fanned, Cruz clubbed a double to right to plate Schumaker for the go-ahead run.
Puig provided some breathing room just two pitches later, launching an opposite-field shot over the wall in right to make it 9-6.
With his second blast of the night, Puig became the first Dodgers player to have a multi-homer game within his first two career games.
Quentin clubbed a leadoff blast in the seventh to trim the margin to two, but the Padres failed to push another run across against LA's bullpen.
Denorfia led off the game with his third homer of the season before Blanks belted a two-run shot in the second to give the visitors a 3-0 cushion.
The Dodgers got a pair back in the bottom half on Federowicz's homer to left, but Jesus Guzman and Richard recorded back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth to give the Padres a 5-2 advantage.
Game Notes
The Dodgers placed pitcher Chris Capuano on the 15-day DL with a left shoulder latissimus strain prior to the game ... Ramirez hadn't played since May 4 with a left hamstring strain ... Ted Lilly started for LA and allowed five runs -- four earned -- on six hits over four-plus frames ... Richard was charged for six runs on five hits over 4 1/3 innings ... Quentin received an eight-game suspension for his role in the April 11 fracas against the Dodgers.


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In the days before digital photography, seemingly every corner store had rack upon rack of film on display. Each roll of film was marked with a speed--measured in ISO--such as 100, 200, or 400. Higher-speed film was handy for low-light photography, but it had a serious disadvantage: grain.
Film grain was every photographer's nemesis. Instead of smooth, natural textures, grain put ugly blotches all over a photo. And though the days of grainy photos are far behind us, digital photos have a similar problem: digital noise.
This is what digital noise looks like close-up.
You've undoubtedly seen noise in your own photos. On the plus side, noise tends to be very small; and when you view a many-megapixel photo on a computer screen, pixel-size noise is so small that it usually disappears into the background. You might look at a very noisy photo and not even know it. Noise becomes apparent, though, when you zoom in--if you crop it down to a small detail, for example, or if you attempt to make a large print. Let's learn how to control noise.
The science of noise
Noise is an appropriate term, because it describes what happens visually in a photo: Tiny, fairly regular but unintended splotches of color mar the photo. The source of the problem is "noisy data"--unreliable or contaminated data. And that's what is going on here.
Millions of photosites crowd your camera's sensor, and each one registers incoming light as voltage. Unfortunately, photosites can get confused. If the light is too weak or the sensor's sensitivity is set too high, photosites may interpret random voltages as light. The result is a photo with noise.
Various factors can contribute to noise in photos. The one you have the least control over is the size of your camera's sensor. The smaller the sensor is, the more noise will appear in your photos, because the tightly packed photosites tend to overlap and interfere with each other. That's why smartphones, which have tiny sensors, tend to generate very noisy photos, regardless of any other factor. Compact digital cameras are somewhat less noisy, and full-frame digital SLRs--which have comparatively big sensors--tend to have the least noise. All other factors being equal, a DSLR will take a cleaner photo than a smartphone every time.
Often, you don't have to zoom in at all to see the noise in an iPhone photo.
Controlling noise with ISO
Unlike sensor size, your camera's ISO setting--which controls the camera's sensitivity to light--is largely within your control. For example, you can increase the ISO setting to take sharper photos in low light. However, a higher ISO also means more noise. Of course, sometimes the trade-off makes sense. If you're trying to take photos late in the day without a flash, cranking the ISO is your best option. But when you're done, dial the ISO back down as low as it will go, so you can avoid taking needlessly noisy photos the next day when you're shooting in bright sunlight.
People often shoot at higher ISOs without realizing it. If you set your camera to Auto, for example, it will probably increase the ISO without telling you; that's a good reason to shoot in Program mode instead.
If you have a smartphone that you use for photography, you might have some control over ISO. Windows Phone and Android users, for example, can manually set ISO. The iPhone, however, has no ISO control--take a photo in low light, and the iPhone automatically increases ISO to try to compensate for those conditions.
Keep it cool
Camera sensors tend to generate more noise when they're hot. Thus, if you leave your camera on the dashboard of your car in blazing sunlight for a few hours and then try to take some photos, the sensor will be hot enough to generate significantly more noise, even at a low ISO. No matter what kind of camera you have--from an iPhone to a DSLR--it will take better photos if you keep it cool.
Taking long exposures and shooting video tend to heat your camera's sensor, generating a lot of noise.
Likewise, you can raise a sensor's temperature by pushing its performance limits. The more you use the sensor, the hotter it gets. Specifically, your sensor can get quite toasty from taking very long exposures--a 30-second nighttime exposure is likely to be very noisy, for example--or from capturing images in burst mode, in which you shoot a dozen photos in just a few seconds. Probably the most noise-inducing thing you can do is to shoot video: If you record 5 minutes of video and then immediately start snapping still photos, those images will almost certainly suffer from a lot of noise.
See also:
Report says iPhone 6 will have 12-megapixel camera with improved night shooting
Adobe shows off Photoshop CS7 camera shake reduction tool
New Apple patents hint at camera improvements for iPhone 6, iPad 5


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Sample OCL
self.parameter->operation(param) self.child->isTypeOf(TypeName) self <> self.child self.one and self.two not(self.name = '')
For OCL strings, they must be in single quotes. Double quotes (") and backticks (`) do not work.
Sample OCL in .gmfmap
Using packages in OCLI had an object, UserStore, which was in a separate package to the root. I was trying to use the following OCL constraint in my GMF .gmfmap:
self.oclIsTypeOf( DomainStore ) and not self.oclIsTypeOf( UserStore )
However, I was getting the following validation error:
Invalid expression body '...'. Cause: Unrecognized variable: (UserStore)
The problem is because the new type is in a separate package. The solution is to use the :: operator as a package separator, i.e.:
self.oclIsTypeOf( DomainStore ) and not self.oclIsTypeOf( users::UserStore )
eContainer in GMF OCLGMF cannot support OCL with eContainer etc, until bug 256461 has been resolved. See: Having Multiple Containments of the Same Domain Element in GMF
Categories: OCL | GMF | Technology


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Thursday, May 6, 2010 09:09 pm
Chicago political conventions, stories from Lincoln to Clinton
Chicago alderman to discuss his book at presidential museum May 10
Chicago Alderman Edward Burke's career as an author had an unlikely beginning.
"I was sitting at a table with a writer and professor named Craig Sautter," recalls Burke. "We were talking about all the great political conventions that had taken place in Chicago. But all anybody ever seemed to talk about was the fear in the streets in 1968 when the police and Vietnam War protesters struggled before a worldwide television audience. We both said somebody ought to write a book about all the other Chicago conventions because there were so many good stories to tell. Then we decided it might as well be us who told those stories."
Out of that conversation came Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions, 1860-1996. Named for the temporary, wooden meeting hall where the 1860 convention took place, the book is the first of three Burke has co-written on Chicago historical topics.
With the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Presidential nomination in Chicago occurring this month, Burke will mark the occasion with an interview focusing on his book about Chicago's presidential nominating conventions and on his own 41-year city council career. The event, which will include a book signing, will take place 7 p.m. Monday, May 10, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum's Union Theater.
Part of the museum's popular "Evenings to Remember" series, Burke's appearance will focus on how supporters of Lincoln, whom he calls "the darkest of dark horse candidates" snatched the nomination away from a better known, better funded candidate, U.S. Sen. William H. Seward of New York, setting the stage for Lincoln to go on to win the presidency on the eve of the Civil War. A special exhibit of newly acquired artifacts and memorabilia from the 1860 convention will be on display in the museum's Treasures Gallery.
A former Chicago police officer and lawyer, Burke has been a member of the Chicago city council since 1969 and has long been regarded as the council's unofficial historian. He says he was drawn to the Lincoln nomination story in part because it happened at the first Chicago convention, but also because it was such a surprise. "Lincoln had already lost in a senate campaign two years earlier. He was a private attorney and not seriously considered by many for the office of president."
Burke credits Bloomington Judge David Davis, who adjourned the Eighth Circuit Court so "his boys" could work full time for Lincoln's nomination, as one of the key players in Lincoln's unlikely nomination. In his book, Burke recounts how "Lincoln allies filed through Davis' quarters where the liquor flowed, yarns were spun, free cigar smoke hung thick and deals were hammered out." Davis was later a U.S. senator and a Supreme Court justice.
"People don't realize," says Burke, "that Lincoln didn't even attend his own nominating convention. It was considered unseemly for a candidate to do so back then, so he stayed home in Springfield close by the telegraph while his friends worked the convention on his behalf."
Burke's research, he says, mined every resource he could find. He combed scholarly papers and university archives and read newspaper accounts filed away at the Chicago History Museum. Much of his research relied on the actual minutes of convention proceedings, transcribed in shorthand by eyewitnesses.
Burke's book chronicles all 27 presidential conventions held in Chicago and concludes with the Democrat Convention of 1996 — the last time Chicago hosted the event. Burke laments the lack of relevance of today's highly scripted and controlled conventions, but says political conventions can still produce some surprises because of the reach of television.
"Everything in life is timing," he says. "Look at Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democrat convention in Boston that catapulted him to national prominence. The exposure it gave him on a worldwide stage — I don't think he could have gotten that kind of attention any other way. In some ways, presidential conventions still matter. A lot."
"Evenings to Remember" featuring Alderman Edward Burke interviewed on stage at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum by WSIU-TV Carbondale "Illinois Lawmakers" host Jak Tichnor will be open to the public, admission free. The program is 7 p.m. May 10. Reservations are required and may be made by calling 217-558-8934. Copies of Burke's book may be purchased from the Museum Gift Shop that evening. "Evenings to Remember" is sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. Julie Cellini is a member of the foundation board.


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Texas ranked top exporting state for 11th consecutive year
Texas is ranked as the number one exporting state for the 11th year in a row, according to 2012 annual trade data released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"The fact that Texas is ranked the nation's top exporter for the 11th year in a row further demonstrates that our strong economic climate provides a broad range of opportunities for businesses to succeed," Gov. Perry said. "Our longstanding commitment to holding the line on taxes, keeping our workforce strong, and maintaining reasonable regulations and fair courts has led to more than a decade of leading the nation in exports."
Texas exports for 2012 totaled $265 billion, a 5.4 percent increase from $251 billion in 2011 and outperformed overall U.S. exports, which only grew by 4.3percent to $1.54 trillion. The state's top export recipients were Mexico, Canada, China, Brazil, and the Netherlands, which respectively imported $94.8 billion, $23.7 billion, $10.3 billion, $10.0 billion, and $9.5 billion in Texas-manufactured goods. Additionally, Texas' top exporting industries in 2012 were petroleum and coal products, chemicals, computer and electronic products, non-electrical machinery, and transportation equipment.
Texas was recently named the top state to do business by Area Development magazine, and Business Facilities magazine awarded Texas as the "State of the Year" for the aggressive economic development strategies that have helped attract jobs and investment. Texas governor Rick Perry was awarded the "Governor's Award 2012" by fDi Magazine for being the most successful in attracting new investments to the state.
Boasting our continued economic success, the governor will travel to California to meet with business leaders across a variety of industries to promote doing business in Texas. He will visit San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County, departing Sunday, Feb. 10, and returning Wednesday, Feb. 13. The governor's trip will be paid for by TexasOne - no tax dollars will be used for his travel and accommodations. For more information, visit http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/18139.
To view the annual trade report, visit https://www.wisertrade.org/naics/ftbegin.


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SALEM, Ore., April 8 (UPI) -- A bill being considered in the Oregon Legislature would remove the state exemption from insurance companies being sued for fraud, officials say.
State Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, said the bill would allow health insurers to be sued for fraud under the state's Unlawful Trade Practices Act -- insurance companies are the only business in Oregon currently exempt from the act and cannot be sued either by the attorney general or insurance policyholders for fraud.
Shields said he expected the bill to pass.
"I think we have the votes," Shields told The Lund Report, a website that reports on the inner workings of the healthcare industry. "If for some reason we can't get it through, it can be referred to the people."
The bill already has been passed by the Oregon House of Representatives 33-27.
"There is (currently) very little remedy to recover the claims that are due to a consumer and that they have paid for," said Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, the bill's chief sponsor in the House.


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Is this what we pay our taxes for?
Let's agree one point straight away - bringing the 2018 World Cup to England would cost taxpayers a packet.
How much?
Frankly we have no idea. Just like with 2012 Olympics, nobody seems to have worked out anything as mundane as precise costings. All we can glean is:
"The cost of staging the tournament between now and 2018 is being put at just under £1 billion. The Government has already signed guarantees worth £300 million while the 12 host cities have guaranteed funding of £400 million. The bid itself has cost £15.5 million to finance. Manchester is one of the host cities with two of the chosen stadia. A recent report by its city council suggested the cost to local taxpayers would be up to £30 million."£1bn, huh? And does anyone believe that?
Quite. We can all remember how the projected cost of the Olympics quadrupled - yes, quadrupled - once the bid had been won. All of it to be extracted from us taxpayers.
Yes, the England bid has just been rated as being likely to generate more revenue that many of the competing bids, but what we need to ask is who gets those revenues? Sure, Fifa will take a big slug, tax free, so they'll be well pleased. But how much will we schmuck British taxpayers get? I think we know the answer.
Tyler has no problem with us hosting the World Cup (he will tune out the inevitable national humiliation). But he does have a huge problem with being forced to pay for it.
Which is why he is absolutely delighted with the late intervention of our public service broadcaster. Panorama's allegations of Fifa executive committee members taking bribes has pissed off Fifa, and almost certainly stymied our bid.
In fact it's win, win, win.
First, we win because we save ourselves a pile of cash (not to mention avoiding having our noses rubbed in a pile of national humiliation right here on our own doorstep).
Second, we win because we remind everyone of the corruption endemic in all of these big international bureaucracies (eg the UN). Putting big western money into the hands of people with third world fiduciary standards is asking for trouble.
And third, we win because everyone will blame the BBC. Our self-styled public service broadcaster has just denied the public the service of the greatest show on earth.


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Raising Baby Green. The Easy Way!
Short Green Tips For the Modern Eco-Conscious Parent.
by Angela van Tijn
This is the price your customers see. Edit list price
About the Book
New parents are usually bombarded with information and feel overwhelmed with the many choices. Here you will find some basic information that you will need when thinking about natural eco-friendly parenting. Short and easy to read, perfect for the busy modern parent.
Visit OneSmileyMonkey.com for more simple tips!
About the Creator
Angela is a Canadian mom living in Vancouver with her wonderful husband and happy baby boy. Since becoming a mother she has been inundated with choices in everything from feeding techniques to types of diapers to use/buy. Every mother wants to make the best choices for their child but it can be confusing and daunting. With so many products available she has tried to do extensive research (often with hands on testing) to find the best solutions to the everyday challenges and needs of a new mom and child. She is the creator, owner, and writer at One Smiley Monkey (Natural Parenting) www.onesmileymonkey.com, a website that features eco-friendly products for both mom and baby.


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+myConnections: Engage your community - connect to news, events and information you care about. View more information...
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View your community's facilities and features online with the new Facilities Module.
Personalize your online experience to stay up-to-date on news, events and other information.
209 West 1stP. O. Box 278Ellinwood, KS 67526
(620) 564-3161


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RN Jobs >> Browse Articles
Browse RN Jobs Articles
Does Cold Weather REALLY Make Arthritis Worse?A common misconception about arthritis is that it is an inevitable part of ageing. In fact, while osteoarthritis (OA) - the most common form of the disease - does tend to affect older people, it is not caused by ageing and it does not affect everyone. And there are increasing numbers of younger sufferers. OA affects 8.5million people in the UK, ...Published over 9 years ago |
Meijer Will Settle Pharmacy Case for $3 MillionDETROIT - Meijer Inc. will pay $3 million after the Midwest retail chain discovered it had employed four pharmacists who were barred from federal health programs, the government said Tuesday. The pharmacists worked at Meijer stores in Michigan and Ohio from 1997 to 2006 and had been barred from Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, a military health plan. Federal law prohibits stores ...Published over 9 years ago |
Senate Rejects Abortion Curbs in Health Care BillWASHINGTON - The Senate on Tuesday rejected an effort by abortion opponents to tighten restrictions in the health care overhaul bill on taxpayer dollars for the procedure, but it was unlikely to be the last word on the divisive issue. By a vote of 54-45, the Senate sidetracked an amendment by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republican Sen. Orrin ...Published over 9 years ago |
Smoking Still Kills 5 Million Every YearLONDON (AP) — Tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year, a figure that could rise if countries don't take stronger measures to combat smoking, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. In a new report on tobacco use and control, the U.N. agency said nearly 95% of the global population is unprotected by laws banning smoking. WHO said secondhand ...Published over 9 years ago |
Beer Ingredient Eyed in Prostate Cancer PreventionAn ingredient of beer may someday help ward off prostate cancer, new animal experiments suggest. The compound in question, xanthohumol, is found in hops — the bitter flavoring agent in beer — and is known to block the male hormone testosterone, which plays a role in the development of prostate cancer. FORUM: The Cancer-Obesity Link "We hope that one day we ...Published over 9 years ago |
Conn. Sues CVS, Alleging Stores Sold Expired ItemsHARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut officials are suing CVS/Pharmacy Inc., alleging it has sold food and over-the-counter medications past their expiration dates at many of its Connecticut stores. [widget:become_a_nurse__logged_out_in_article] Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. say investigators found expired cough and allergy medicines, dairy products, baby formula, and other products at 20 stores in the summers ...Published over 9 years ago |
Studies Find Fighting Global Warming Reduces DiseasesWASHINGTON - Cutting global warming pollution would not only make the planet healthier, it would make people healthier too, newly released studies say. Slashing carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, the studies show. They were published in a special issue of The Lancet British medical journal, released Wednesday. The ...Published over 9 years ago |
FDA Investigating More Dangerous Brain ScansWASHINGTON - Federal health regulators are investigating reports of dangerous radiation levels at two more California hospitals, following earlier unsafe medical scans at a Los Angeles facility. The Food and Drug Administration is probing the use of CT scans at Glendale Adventist Medical Center and Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Calif. The brain scans are used to diagnose strokes. ...Published over 9 years ago |
Study Finds Hospitals Speeding Heart Attack CareWASHINGTON - Hospitals are giving faster care to lots more heart attack patients, a speed-up sure to be saving lives. More than three-quarters of people suffering major heart attacks are getting their blocked arteries reopened within 90 minutes of arriving in the emergency room, says a Yale University study of 831 hospitals that participated in a major campaign to accelerate that ...Published over 9 years ago |
Nurse Offers Alternative Health CareDec. 8--Cathy Slay-Chipp understands the state of the nation's health care system. As a registered nurse who operates the nonprofit Perry Park Clinic at 2211 Bartow St., Brunswick, she treats financially strapped and uninsured clients. Her goal is to offer the best care possible at affordable prices. "We've been open since June 2007, and basically our goal is to provide primary ...Published over 9 years ago |
Dr. Cures Baby's Brain Condition with SuperglueToddler Dafi Evans owes his life to nothing more than a blob of glue. Using a revolutionary technique hours after his birth, doctors used Histoacryl - similar to superglue - to plug a leak in his brain that would otherwise have killed him in a few days. He was suffering from Vein of Galen malformation, in which missing capillaries between arteries ...Published over 9 years ago |
Even Hairless Sphynx Cats Give Patients a Warm, Fuzzy FeelingStrange-looking cats? Maybe. Pam Moore concedes that if someone is accustomed to long-haired cats, a Sphynx can be off-putting at first. But after a Sphynx curls up in the lap of one of her patients, Moore, a registered nurse at J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., says the animal brings about a transformation in the human. "They bring so ...Published over 9 years ago |
World AIDS Day: South Africa to Treat All HIV-Positive BabiesPRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing, the president announced Tuesday, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any other. President Jacob Zuma's speech on World AIDS Day was viewed as a definitive turning point for a nation where the previous administration distrusted ...Published over 9 years ago |
MAC Employees Give Back on World Aids DayLOS ANGELES, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Keeping true to the company's long-standing dedication to HIV/AIDS, makeup artists in the Los Angeles area will roll up their sleeves and take off their brush belts to participate in volunteer efforts today, in a company-wide effort to commemorate World AIDS Day. The volunteer initiative -- part of a worldwide effort including hundreds of makeup ...Published over 9 years ago |
Inmates Assist Ill and Dying Fellow Prisoners in HospicesANGOLA, La. — Ted "Animal" Durbin expected prison life to be about brawls and knife fights — not changing adult diapers or bathing grown men. Four times a week, Durbin, 51, who's serving 140 years for armed robbery at Louisiana State Penitentiary, meets with frail, dying inmates at the prison's Treatment Center. He bathes them, provides other personal care and often ...Published over 9 years ago |
Man Says Through Aide Leaving Coma Like RebirthBRUSSELS (AP) — With a caretaker holding his hand, a Belgian man who was diagnosed as comatose for 23 years typed out a message Tuesday that he felt reborn after decades of loneliness and frustration. A leading bioethicist, however, expressed skepticism that the man was truly communicating on his own. Car-crash victim Rom Houben was diagnosed as being in a vegetative ...Published over 9 years ago |
How Walking the Dog Beats the GymFor those who are keen to keep fit but low on motivation, a personal trainer is often the best option. But the human version may not be the most effective. Dog owners get more exercise walking their pet than someone with a gym membership, researchers have found. On average they exercise the animal twice a day for 24 minutes each time ...Published over 9 years ago |
Twins Joined at Head Successfully SeparatedMELBOURNE, Australia — A team of 16 surgeons and nurses successfully concluded 25 hours of delicate surgery Tuesday to separate twin Bangladeshi girls who had been joined at their heads, sharing blood vessels and brain tissue. It is too early to know whether the two-year-old girls, Trishna and Krishna, suffered any brain damage during the marathon operation — an outcome doctors ...Published over 9 years ago |
Why Staying Clean Could Be Bad for Your HealthThey say cleanliness is next to godliness. But it seems being too clean could actually be bad for your health. Scientists warn that our obsession with hygiene could be impairing our skin's ability to stay healthy. They say bacteria on the skin's surface play an active role in preventing rashes and damping down cuts and bruises. It is further evidence the ...Published over 9 years ago |
New Advice: Skip Mammograms in 40s, Start at 50NEW YORK - Most women don't need a mammogram in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50, a government task force said Monday. It's a major reversal that conflicts with the American Cancer Society's long-standing position. Also, the task force said breast self-exams do no good and women shouldn't be taught to do them. For most ...Published over 9 years ago |