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Ultra Surround - Piano - Outlet 9185
Outlet Special: Scratches on top and bottom. See additional pics. Factory inspected and tested. 5-Year Unconditional Warranty and complete Bill of Rights coverage.
Finish:Default Title
In stock & Ships in one business day
45 Day Risk-Free In-Home Trial | Fast & Free Shipping and Returns 5-Year Unconditional WarrantyFind a Dealer
Order by Phone: 1.877.626.5623
All this and more on every SVS order.See the bill of rights
Quick Specs
dual 1"Tweeter
dual 6.5"Woofer
58 Hz-32 kHz (±3 dB)"FREQ. RESPONSE
N/APort Size & #
14" (H) 12.3" (W) 7" (D)Dimension
18 lbWeight
Introducing the ULTRA SURROUND
High-definition movie and multi-channel music soundtracks demand a high-performance surround speaker. The Ultra Surround rises to the challenge, delivering immersive and thrilling surround sound effects rivaling the finest commercial cinemas. Finished in premium-grade piano gloss black and real black oak veneer, and featuring a compact driver array with 45-degree baffles and a shallow cabinet depth, the Ultra Surround integrates seamlessly into any upscale home theater.
For the ultimate in flexibility, the Ultra Surround can operate in three different surround sound modes:
- Bipole - both sets of drivers in phase
- Dipole mode - both sets of drivers out of phase
- Duet mode - each set of drivers receives a discrete signal
Duet mode creates two separate speakers within one cabinet, allowing true 7-channel surround sound with just two surround speakers instead of the more common four. Duet mode is very useful for enthusiasts who want to experience discrete 7 channel surround sound, but who lack the space for a separate set of rear surround speakers.
The Ultra Surround also features an integral aluminum wall mounting bracket, with a safety catch feature which helps prevent the speaker from being inadvertently dislodged.
The stylish Ultra Surround cabinet design yields numerous sonic benefits. The non-parallel cabinet panels reduce standing waves within the cabinet, effectively eliminating frequency response coloration. The wedge-shaped front baffles and flush-mounted drivers reduce edge diffraction and improved on-axis high frequency response. Even the grille design is FEA-optimized to maximize acoustic transparency.
Press Reviews
"Web-direct speaker-maker SVS, long known for outstanding subwoofers, knocked it out of the park on sound and build quality with the high-value, full-range Ultra speaker line."The Ultra Speakers receive Sound ;amp Vision's 2013 Top Pick of the Year Award, 1/29/2014.
"These speakers do everything well, and the more time I spent with them, the more I appreciated the way they could get the best out of any content in my library… The Ultra's price/performance ratio is through the roof, and I recommend the line not only to those planning a purchase in this price category, but even to those who were planning to pay more. I don't say this often, but I'll say it now: I could live with these."The Ultra Bookshelf Surround Package Receives Home Theater Magazine's Top Picks Award.
"Dynamics of a custom theater system, neutrality and ambience of an audiophile system…Certified and Recommended."Sound and Vision, Review by Brent Butterworth, June 2013.
"Dammit, I think SVS may have rigged the awards. Well, that, or they simply consistently make stellar products. Okay, it's the latter."Audioholics, 2013 Consumer Excellence Award, 7/3/2013.
"The level of detail and inflection captured and put forth by the Ultra Series speakers was incredible…Simply put, the whole experience was fantastic. What more can an enthusiast on a budget ask for? I couldn't think of anything…"Home Theater Review.com, Review by Andrew Robinson, 3/4/2013.
"...an exceptional multichannel loudspeaker system that is true to SVS' tradition of offering higher performance for the money through R&D and design... the SVS Ultras offer a level of price/performance value that is rare, if non-existent."Widescreen Review Magazine, Review by Gary Reber, March 2013.
"The SVS Ultra Tower Surround speaker package came as close to earning a perfect 10 as any other speaker system we've heard in its price class...for our money, this is the speaker system to beat this year and possibly for years to come."Digital Trends, Review by Caleb Denison, 4/22/2013.
"The bass from the quartet of 8in drivers and that weapons-grade hammer of a bass driver is wondrous. Rapid beyond belief, with astonishing grip and literally no overhang at all... But there's more than just an iron grip and lack of bass boominess - this is a whole package of loveliness...the SVS system's midband and effortless, soaring, clean and pure highs were able to entertain as well as unnerve."Home Cinema Choice, Review by Adam Rayner.
"These speakers, particularly the Tower, can do anything...performed flawlessly."Home Theater Forum, Review by Sam Chandler, 5/22/2013.
Clarity Alliance announces SVS/Primare as the "Best Home Cinema Room 2013."Best of Show Awards, Sound & Vision - The Bristol Show 2013.
Owner Ratings & Reviews
SVS Drivers Extreme Performance and Uncompromised Fidelity
The proprietary SVS drivers utilize the finest materials and design features to ensure the highest sound quality and performance. The Ultra Surround driver array features dual 1" aluminum dome tweeter and a 5.5" woofer.
Dual 1" Aluminum Dome Tweeter
- Utilizes an FEA-optimized diffuser which delivers a very open 'airy' presentation and extremely unveiled highs
- Delivers a sound stage so pure and free of artifacts that you'll swear the performers are in the room.
Dual 5.5" Woofer
Delivers excellent midrange detail and radiated sound power with surprisingly punchy bass response:
- Composite glass-fiber cone with excellent stiffness/mass ratio which improves sensitivity and maintains pistonic behavior well beyond the pass-band of the driver
- Vented voice coil former to minimize air compression artifacts at high drive levels.
- Aluminum shorting ring to reduce gap inductance, lower distortion, and improve high frequency response.
- Cast aluminum basket to ensure precise alignment of critical components and enhance heat-sinking capacity.
Soundmatch Crossover Intelligently Designed For Your Listening Room
The Ultra Surround features dual isolated crossover networks to allow for bipole, dipole or the unique Duet operating modes. The SoundMatch 2-way crossover features premium-grade capacitors, air-core inductors and heavy-trace printed circuit boards to ensure pure signal transmission. Careful selection of the crossover frequency and slopes results in outstanding total radiated sound power.
Experience SVS Audio 100% Risk-Free
The best place to audition any speaker or subwoofer isn't a noisy store; it's your own home, in the exact listening room where you will enjoy them!View the Bill of Rights
Frequency Response / Acoustic Data:
- Rated bandwidth: 58 Hz-32 kHz (± dB)
- Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
- Sensitivity: 87 dB (2.83V @ 1 meter full-space, 300-3kHz, bipolar mode)
- Recommended amplifier power: 20-250 watts
Speaker Specs
- Dual Baffle Surround Loudspeaker
- Piano gloss black and real black oak veneer finish options
- Dual independent gold-plated 5-way binding posts
- Cloth grille with pin/cup retention system
- Aluminum wall mounting bracket with safety catch feature to help prevent inadvertent removal
- Elastomer stick-on bumper feet
- Cabinet Dimensions: 14" (H) x 12.3" (W) x 6.9" (D)
- Overall Dimensions: 14" (H) x 12.3" (W) x 7" (D) (with bracket)
- Shipped Dimensions: 19" (H) x 22" (W) x 17" (D)
- Weight: 18 pounds
- Shipped Weight: 40 pounds
Driver Specs
- FEA-optimized diffuser for airy and unveiled presentation
- Aluminum dome delivers exceptional transient response and exceptional stiffness/mass ratio
1" Aluminum Dome Tweeter:
- Composite glass-fiber cone with excellent stiffness/mass ratio for high sensitivity and pistonic behavior beyond pass band.
- Aluminum shorting rings to reduce gap inductance and lower distortion
- Cast aluminum basket to ensure precise alignment of critical components and additional heat-sinking capacity
- Vented voice coil formers to minimize air compression artifacts at high drive levels
5.5" Woofers:
Crossover & Cabinet Specs
- 2-way crossover with premium-grade capacitors, air-core inductors and heavy-trace printed circuit boards
- Dual isolated crossover networks allows for bipole, dipole or unique Duet mode
- Crossover frequency and slopes optimized for excellent off-axis polar response, outstanding phase coherency, and total radiated sound power
- Tweeter-to-woofer crossover: 2.0 kHz
- Non-parallel cabinet panels reduces axial standing waves within the cabinet, reducing frequency response coloration
- Acoustically transparent and FEA optimized grilles, wedge-shaped front baffle and flush-mounted drivers all contribute to reduced edge diffraction and improved on-axis high frequency response
Cabinet Specs
Looking for something else?
Prime Satelitte
A fresh approach to satellites—the smallest speaker in our line is engineered to produce deceptively big sound. Never before has a satellite speaker delivered such accurate, convincing, high-end sound.
Ultra Bookshelf
Reference-grade bookshelf monitor with 2-way crossover, 1" aluminum dome tweeter and 6.5" woofer.
Ultra Bookshelf Surround System
A dream system that fits your living space. With handsome styling, huge dynamics and amazing performance, the Prime Bookshelf system is your ticket to audio nirvana.


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Author Notes: One of my fondest memories as a kid is having a chilled glass of sugar cane juice and a slice of watermelon from the roadside vendors while coming from my painting class during Summers. There are several ways they serve a watermelon ,from plain and fresh cut watermelon to rubbing lemon on the watermelon with a sprinkle of chopped mint leaves.
I combine cubes of watermelon with a handful of mint leaves, a dash of fresh ginger juice and lemon juice, served on the rocks!! —Shri
Serves: 4
cups Watermelon cubes
inch fresh ginger root, peeled
tablespoons Sugar, needed if watermelon is not too sweet
Mint leaves, chopped
2 1/2
tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Ice Cubes
In This Recipe
- Grate Ginger using a vegetable or a cheese grater. Squeeze the peeled ginger with hand to yield a tablespoon of juice
- Combine Lemon juice and ginger juice Set aside
- Puree the mint leaves, sugar and Watermelon cubes in a juice maker or using a regular blender. You can always add a couple of table spoons of water for an easy blend.
- Mix Lemon and ginger juice well with the pureed watermelon and mint
- Drop a few ice cubes into a glass and pour the juice over the cubes Serve immediately
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Recipe with Mint
More Great Recipes:
Fruit|Lemon Juice|Melon|Mint|Summer|Alcohol-Free Drinks

subset: commoncrawl


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Trapp Airs Out Greg Street For Bashing Jermaine Dupri! "You Are Not As Big As You Think You Are"
Trapp "The CEO of The MIC DVD" fires back and exposes Greg Street for attacking Jermaine Dupri
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Whether you're tailgating or just hanging with your friends and family in the backyard, you should show off your killer grill skills and Hokies team spirit. With the Virginia Tech Hokies 3-piece BBQ set, you'll be ready for any occasion where you can display your burger expertise and stellar fanaticism. This set features a spatula, tongs and two-prong fork with hard maple handles, while the spatula and fork double as bottle openers. The spatula also boasts a unique laser-cut logo for a change-up from the average BBQ sets. Whatever your reason for firing up the grill this summer, do it your way with Hokies pride!
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text: Washington County Extension will be offering a second Babysitting Basics course June 15-19. Nancy Adrian with the Extension office says the course will cover topics such as age appropriate toys, activities, safety information, and first aid procedures. Adrian says the course is available for both boys and girls completing 5th grade and above. Registration forms can be picked up at the Extension office and are due by June 5 along with a $25 fee. For questions, contact Nancy Adrian at 653-4811.


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text: On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, Kamran Mustafa wrote: > Hi, > > I am working as an IT Manager at NED University of Engineering & > Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, and currently managing a Linux based > Cluster of 50 nodes. I just wanted to ask you that how to manage > licensing issues on a beowulf cluster. Lets say, if you want to run an > application software on 50 nodes then will you purchase 50 licenses of > that software or if there is any other alternative to handle this > licensing issue, because purchasing such a huge number of licences > will definitely be very expensive. Actually, I also want to purchase > different software for my 50 noded cluster but purchasing 50 licences > of each software costs me alot, thats why I am in need of your > guidance and kind suggestions. > > Regards, > > Muhammad Kamran Mustafa Dear Kamran, Please give us a bit more detail. In particular, what software are we talking about? Different packages have very different licensing schmea, and one usually has to go with what a package supports. For example, matlab is in use on some clusters on campus here. matlab uses a license manager that can regulate the number of instances of matlab in use on a cluster. Quite a few packages, actually, use a license manager that can regulate the number of packages one has to buy relative to the number of platforms one wishes to run them on, but of course this is a case by case thing. Compilers have a slightly different issue. There there may be floating license managers, but because compiler usage is sporadic many sites just buy a single license and put in on a specific node, e.g. the head node or the server node (which has direct access to the disk and thus avoids a networking hit). The issue there is libraries -- many compilers come with special libraries that are part of how they get good performance. In some cases the libraries can be used on many systems as long as you buy the compiler/library package for one. I don't know the exact state of things now but at one point in time at least you had to by library licenses for every node for at least some compilers out there in order to run the binaries generated by a compiler-licensed node. Finally there is the OS itself -- commercial linux distributions. There the licensing arrangements are whatever you dicker out of the company. Unfortunately, most of the companies about clusters and what consitutes "reasonable" cost scaling in a cluster where 50-500 systems are literally clones of a basic node configuration, and will cheerily charge hundreds of dollars per node as if those nodes generate some sort of incremental cost for "support". I think it is safe to say that "most" cluster sites avoid this cost by using e.g. Centos (logo-free GPL-based rebuild of RHEL), Fedora Core, Debian, Caosity -- one of the still-free linux distributions. As a FC user, I can attest to the fact that it is entirely possible to assemble a stable and highly functional cluster node (or desktop workstation) on top of FC. Admins tend to lean a bit more towards Centos for high availability/mission critical servers in the expectation of a bit more immediate support, but in the case of a cluster server I'd fully expect FC to be adequately stable and provide good performance. So if your issue is OS license management, I'd suggest going toward one of the fully open/free linuces -- those will certainly minimize your per-box outlay, and from what I can tell there is basically no difference whatsoever in ease of installation or maintenance. You can even get your cluster installation prepackaged for you (for free) from e.g. ROCKS or wulfware, which seem to be stabilizing and have active participants that are keeping them nicely current. Hope this helps. If you want better help, please include detail -- the specific packages you're concerned about, the particular setup of your cluster, and what sort of licensing scheme the packages are supposed to use (the vendors should be able to help you out here). rgb > I.T. Manager > Centre for Simulation & Modeling, > NED University of Engineering & Technology, > Karachi, Pakistan. > Tel: (9221) 9243261-8 ext 2372 > Fax: (9221) 9243248 > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Celebrate your Louisville Cardinals fandom when packing your favorite food with this kooler bag. This Louisville Cardinals-inspired bag is made of neoprene and has a printed Louisville Cardinals logo on the front. It's also foldable, stretchable and insulated for any need. The best new way to enjoy another team victory is by getting everything ready to go in this convenient bag!
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Brussels, 19 March 2009
Road Safety: Commission sends a reasoned opinion to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for failing to act on blind spot mirrors on trucks
Today, the European Commission has been sent reasoned opinions to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for failing to transpose existing European legislation on the retrofitting of blind spot mirrors on time. The four Member States have two months to act if they want to avoid being taken to the European Court of Justice.
Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom have not informed the Commission on the transposition of the EU Directive on the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community[1] into their national legislation. All Member States were required to do so by 6th August 2008 at the latest.
The Directive obliges Member States to require that trucks above 3.5 t gross weight which are not already equipped on the passenger side with wide-angle and close-proximity mirrors be retrofitted with such mirrors in order to reduce the number of accidents involving in particular cyclists and motorcyclists. The use of such mirrors will help lorry drivers to notice them when they take a turn.
A Reasoned Opinion represents the second step of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty.
[1] Directive 2007/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community, OJ L 184, 14.7.2007, p. 25–28
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Asgard (Marvel)
Asgard is the home of an advanced alien civilization in the Thor movies. Asgardians were worshipped by the Scandinavian peoples of the early middle ages due to their intervention when aliens from Jotunheim tried to invade Earth.
Asgardians are visually indistinguishable from humans, but they are far stronger and tougher. While some some Asgardians exhibit physical attributes that far exceed the norm for their race, even the mundane Asgardians can lift thousands of pounds and survive the impact of modern firearms.
Asgard is a monarchy currently ruled by Odin.
Asgardian technology is vastly superior to modern Earth technology, to the point that it can easily be called "magic". Asgardians have created artifacts that can manipulate the weather over large areas, fire powerful beams of energy, and teleport man-sized objects over interstellar (possibly intergalactic) distances. Many Asgardian artifacts appear to be capable of responding to the thoughts of authorized users.
Threat Assessment
Asgardians prefer to engage their enemies in close combat, but this preference may be explained by their high durability, which makes range weapons less effective against them. They don't appear to have starships, but the "Bifrost" device (currently inoperative) gave them the ability to deploy troops in large numbers over vast distances in a matter of seconds. How they would actually fair in open war against a space-faring race is difficult to determine.
Notable Asgardians
- Odin: The ruler of the Asgardians, Odin has vast personal power (of the Asgardian "magic" variety). He can easily alter the behavior of Asgardian artifacts, and he can generate exceptionally powerful blasts of energy. He wields a spear known as Gungnir that can channel Asgardian "magic" into intense beams.
- Thor: The heir to throne of Asgard, Thor is vastly stronger and more durable than other Asgardians. He wields a hammer called Mjolnir that responds to his (and Odin's) mental commands.
- Loki: The "God of Trickery", Loki is adept at Asgardian "magic", particularly the creation of visible and audible illusions.
- Heimdall: Heimdall guards the "Bifrost", the Asgardian device that permits rapid teleportation over vast distances. He is also clairvoyant, enabling him to perceive events occurring at interstellar (possibly intergalactic) distances.


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Professional Golfers' Association Tickets 2016-2017
Buy latest PGA Tickets on PGA Ticket Exchange with 200% Money Back Guarantee. American Golfer's Ticket Exchange for official PGA games tickets & parking passes, is partner of largest Golf event ticket network. We sell all PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, Senior PGA Championship, PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, and PGA Tour China tickets. One of the most user friendly and secure ticket portal accessible from desktop and mobile devices, Professional Golfers' Association Exchange is guaranteed secure with all seating options and last minute deals.
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- Confirm the ticket price full quantity and final total amount including ticket prices, Service delivery charges. Do not forget to check the mode of ticket delivery.
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- After making sure that everything is correct, click on "PLACE ORDER" to finalize the transaction.
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VIDEO: The Daily Zap for games played Dec. 14
Mo Williams uses Trail Blazers win as therapy | Lakers call Knicks, talk trade | Rondo won't play until New Year | Paul talks the talk
No. 1: Blazers' Williams rides emotional wave in Philly — Portland guard Mo Williams had a hand in the Trail Blazers' 3-pointer-fueled barrage against the Philadelphia 76ers. But unlike his teammates, it wasn't all smiles for the veteran point guard. He played with a heavy heart while dealing with the loss of a loved one. That didn't stop him from joining the party as the Blazers made a franchise-record 21 shots from deep. On a night when LaMarcus Aldridge did his usual MVP work and Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews, Nic Batum, Dorell Wright and rookie Allen Crabbe all took part in the 3-point party, the three 3s that Williams knocked down had extra special meaning, as Joe Freeman of The Oregonian explains:
On Dec. 5, Williams' uncle, Jerome Coleman, died after a lengthy fight with colon cancer. He was 63. Coleman's funeral was Saturday morning in Mobile, Ala., and Williams wasn't about to miss the chance to say goodbye to "Uncle Roni."So after the Blazers' Thursday night victory over the Houston Rockets, Williams left the Moda Center and boarded a charter flight to Mobile. He didn't sleep a wink the entire way, touching down in Mobile at 8:30 a.m. What followed was an emotional whirlwind of consoling family, attending memorials and taking part in countless talks that reminisced about "Uncle Roni," the older brother of Williams' mother."I'm just emotionally drained," Williams said after the game. "Time will heal. Basketball will help. But you still have those times where you just can't let it go. Being at the funeral, holding my grandma, holding my mom, then jumping on the flight coming here. It's been a draining day."The NBA allowed the Blazers to set up a charter flight for Williams so he could play Saturday, and the moment he walked into the visiting locker room — about 90 minutes before tipoff – his stress and sadness washed away. LaMarcus Aldridge cracked a joke at his expense as soon as he saw his teammate, and Williams smiled for seemingly the first time all day. Then he dove into his pregame routine.There were no deep talks. No one asked for stories about the funeral. It was as if it was any other day. And it was exactly what Williams needed."That was kind of therapeutic for me, being around the guys," he said. "Throughout the game, they didn't beat me up with the fact that they knew I was going through something. They just treated me like they treat me every day. I needed that."
No. 2: Knicks fielding calls on Shumpert and Chandler? — Kyle Lowry is low-hanging fruit, as Kobe Bryant would say, when it comes to trade talks. The Los Angeles Lakers apparently have something a bit more aggressive in mind since they are now engaging the New York Knicks in discussions about two of the teams main rotation players, the seemingly always available Iman Shumpert and defensive anchor Tyson Chandler, according to ESPN's Chris Broussard:
No trade is imminent, and sources say the Lakers' call was more about doing their due diligence; it's well-known Shumpert is available. The Lakers are unlikely to make a deal before the end of their current four-game trip, which concludes Tuesday night in Memphis.
But with Steve Blake, who is expected to miss at least six weeks with an elbow injury, joining point guards Steve Nash and Jordan Farmar on the injured list, the Lakers could be interested in strengthening their backcourt.
Shumpert is more of a shooting guard, but with Bryant taking on more of a playmaking role — averaging a career-high 6.7 assists while attempting fewer than nine shots a game — since returning from a torn Achilles tendon last Sunday, it's easy to see the two playing together.
Shumpert is struggling through a disappointing season, and the Knicks have discussed trades involving him with several other teams, including the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors.
Sources say the Lakers also are interested in another Knicks player — center Tyson Chandler. The Lakers did not inquire about Chandler when they called about Shumpert, but they are weighing whether to propose a Pau Gasol-for-Chandler trade, according to sources.
The Knicks are not looking to move Chandler — several teams have contacted them about him, sources said — but if a club agreed to take back struggling guard J.R. Smith, the Knicks would consider such a deal.
No. 3: Rondo won't play until January — There won't be any speculation about an earlier than anticipated return date for Boston's All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo. Now that he's been cleared for full contact, Celtics coach Brad Stevens moved swiftly to ease the pressure on his star by announcing that he won't play in a game until January, at the earliest. That gives Rondo a minimum of at least two and a half weeks to get himself ready for live action and potentially much more time if he doesn't progress as the Celtics hope. But is he, as Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald examines, the missing piece for a Celtics team that has already surpassed most people's expectations?:
And Rondo, according to Stevens, looked "pretty good."
"Rajon is doing more and more in practice every day. He had a good trip yesterday as far as getting good news," said the Celtics coach. "He's on schedule to be closer, but it still seems like we're not going to see him on the court this month. Hopefully, the beginning of January he'll be closer.
"He's been cleared for that in practice. He wasn't cleared 100 percent until yesterday," said Stevens. "But he's done more and more, and today was the most he's done. He looked pretty good."
Though Stevens repeatedly has said his system is designed to fit Rondo back into the team as seamlessly as possible, the coaching staff actually has to start the implementation process.
"I haven't thought a ton about it, because it really hasn't presented itself," said Stevens. "My focus is what we're going to do on Monday, but certainly your focus is on not only getting him into it, but also how you're going to manage everything around that.
"Certainly there's a lot of players who play at a high level (on this team)," he said. "The key is to continue those guys playing very well, and add in another very good player."
No. 4: Paul lives up to his own words for Clippers — It's a bit early in the season for must-win declarations, but the Clippers' Chris Paul doesn't care. He's mandating that his team step their collective game up and that starts with the man in the mirror. And that meant he had to prove his point against the Wizards, wearing them out to the tune of 38 points and 12 assists. He joined Clyde Drexler as the only player in the last 40 NBA seasons to post a 38 and 12 line while also shooting 78 percent or better (he was 10-for-13) from the floor. Drexler did it when Paul was barely out of diapers ((Nov. 13, 1990). But Paul's point was made, writes Jovan Buha of ESPNLosAngeles.com, so much so that Doc Rivers shouldn't have to come up with any fire and brimstone speeches now that the Clippers' road trip is over:
Paul stood by his bold statement, scoring 38 points — the most since his 42-point performance on Halloween against the Golden State Warriors — on 11-of-14 shooting and dishing out 12 assists in the Clippers' 113-97 victory at Verizon Center. He's the first player since 2009 to go for 38-plus points, 12-plus assists and three-plus steals in a game, and he already has done it twice this season.
While Clippers coach Doc Rivers disagreed with the notion that the game was a must-win at shootaround, he admitted that going 3-4 against mainly sub-.500 Eastern Conference teams would be a major disappointment at any point in the season.
"I think they're a little frustrated on this trip," Rivers told reporters. "They think it should have gone better. It still can go well. If you win this game, 4-3 on a seven-game trip — that's good. It's not what we wanted. We want to win all seven of them. But you just keep plugging along."
With the win, the Clippers finished the trip above .500 at 4-3 and are now 16-9. That isn't necessarily where they expected to be at this point in the season, but at the very least Saturday's win showed that if they need to win a tough road game to ease their mental psyche, they can.
SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: The Bulls' Joakim Noah insists we're going to find out what his team is about now that they are facing another round of adversity … Mike Woodson has grown tired of J.R. Smith's antics, the break up can't be far off … and make sure and take a look at Ray Allen becoming the sixth active player to join the 24,000 point club.
ICYMI: Josh McRoberts didn't have the Dunk of the Night, that honor was bestowed upon his Bobcats teammate Jeff Taylor, but he did get loose against his former team for Saturday night's Play of the Day …
VIDEO: Josh McRoberts shows off his bounce against his former team


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Reference Services
MVCC Librarians can be contacted through a variety of platforms. Choose the platform which best fits the depth and urgency of your reference question(s).
In person at the Reference desk: A Librarian is always present or on-call at the Reference desk to provide research assistance during open hours. To schedule an appointment with a staff member, please refer to our Staff Directory for contact information.
Telephone: Utica: 315.792.5561 | Rome: 315.334.7728
Email: email@example.com
A librarian will usually respond within twenty-four hours to email inquiries.
MVCC Libraries Online Chat: Available during open hours
Ask Us 24/7: A virtual reference service available 24/7 and provided through the WNYLRC consortium. This service is staffed by professional librarians including, but not limited to, MVCC Librarians. If you'd like to chat with MVCC Libraries directly, please use the MVCC Libraries Online Chat during open hours.
Utica: 315.792.5561
Rome: 315.334.7728
Text us: 315.508.4464


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Toned Photographs on the WebNovember 19, 2002
Unfettered by the freedom a 16.7 million colour palette offers, it's compelling to use the full-colour version of a photo for maximum impact.
Using full-colour photography due to lack of technical limitations is a choice made by limited designers though. While not inherently wrong, the inevitable "it's a full-colour photo, why not use it?" is a simplistic view, and it can be equally argued that if we have a 26-letter alphabet, why not use all the letters in every sentence?
Photography in the context of good design is used to accent and highlight. It can bring context to a piece, or provide additional information. A picture is worth a thousand words, but those thousand had better say something important, or they're liable to fall on deaf ears.
Photographs are useful because they can provide realistic detail that will pump up an otherwise flat piece. However, as with any element of design, a balance needs to be struck between too dull and too much.
Toning a photo doesn't necessarily mean bumping the colour value to monochrome and then assigning it a uniform hue. Adjustments to the overall colour makeup can be made subtly with Photoshop's adjustment layers.
Increasing the brightness of the red channel can change an outdoor scene from bleak and winter-esque to warm and summery by adding more warmth to the photo. Dropping the contrast and toning a portrait with subtle blue tones can add a melancholy feel that accentuates the subject. The experienced designer will tell you there are many levels between full colour and monochrome colour.
In figure 1 we see an ambiguous photo of a woman on the phone. What emotion is she showing? Anger? Excitement? Triumph? The designer can interpret it any way he wants, and reinforce his view by colouring the photo to match.
The original photo is on the left. The center photo has been toned with additional red to boost the dynamic nature of the photo and increase the visual tension. The woman takes on a more aggravated or angered look, simply due to a minor colour change. On the right, the same photo has been toned a monochrome blue to cool it down and give it a more tranquil feel. The subject matter conflicts with the peace of this new colour scheme, however, so this particular variation is unsuccessful.
weight considerations
Sometimes a photo is needed to provide context for the surrounding text, but isn't as important as the text itself. A lush, vivid photo thrown into this scenario can only serve as a distraction and draw the reader's eye away from the text.
This is illustrated in figure 2, above. The panel is an ad that requires primary focus on the text. The example on the left uses the full-colour photo and seems to emphasize the "confusing" message of the piece, since the eye has no resting place within the borders of the white box. Too much is happening, and it's overly confusing for the reader. The example on the right uses a toned version of the same photo that takes on the same lack of dominance as the less important faded text in the background, leaving the main message in the foreground clearer and more easily readable.
The designer's job is to make the decision on a case-by-case basis of what processing needs to be applied to the photography being used, if any. As in other facets of design no rules exist that can't be broken, but it's important to establish a general guideline in your own work to keep your approach consistent, clean, and logical.
Develop an eye for picking up the most important part of a page. Determine if the surrounding photography adds to it. If the distraction is too great, figure out a way to pull it back and restore the focus to the element that deserves it.
Good design is part function, part form; making the proper choices when processing your photographs will satisfy both sides of the equation.


text: Call for Papers =============== The 3rd International Workshop on Mobile Distributed Computing (MDC'05) (http://www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~mdc05) In conjunction with the 25th Int'l Conf. on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS'05), Columbus, Ohio, USA, June 5-10, 2005. With the advance in mobile wireless communication technology, research in distributed computing is beginning to extend its scope to address problems relevant to mobile environments. Mobile distributed computing has emerged as a discipline of distributed systems research and practice toward support for mobility. It is concerned with creating solutions using mobile communication networks and mobile computing devices to enable the sharing of distributed resources/services and to facilitate remote collaborations while people work away from the fixed, wired facilities. MDC'05 is the third in series. Following the success of the first two workshops MDC'03 in Rhode Island, USA and MDC'04 in Tokyo, Japan, MDC'05 provides a forum for scientists and engineers in academia and industry to exchange and discuss their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of mobile distributed computing. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to: - Distributed algorithms for communication, synchronization and coordination in mobile computing environments - Networking protocols for mobile distributed computing - Mobile codes and agents - Environments, middleware and tool support for mobile distributed computing - Fault tolerance and security in mobile distributed environments - Location-based services and applications - Mobile cluster computing / Mobile Peer-to-Peer computing - Resource/service sharing and management in mobile distributed environments - Mobile distributed transactions - Distributed applications in mobile environments - Security in mobile distributed systems Paper Submission: MDC 2005 invites authors to submit original and unpublished work. Papers must be written in English and should not exceed 6 pages in IEEE proceedings style. Authors should shubmit a Postscript (level 2) or PDF file that will print on a Postscript printer. Electronic submission through the submission website is strongly encouraged. Hard copies will be accepted only if electrnoic submission is not possible. Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to register and present the paper. Accepted papers will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press. Important Dates: Papers due --------------------- November 22, 2004 Notification of acceptance ------- February 6, 2004 Camera-ready papers due ---------- March 1, 2005 Organizing Committee: General Co-Chairs: Sajal K. Das, University of Texas at Arlington das at roop.uta.edu Jiannong Cao, Hong Kong Polytechnic University csjcao at comp.polyu.edu.hk Program Chair: Cheng-Zhong Xu, Wayne State University czxu at wayne.edu Program Vice Chairs: Guohong Cao, The Pennsylvania State University gcao at cse.psu.edu Weijia Jia, City University of Hong Kong itjia at cityu.edu.hk Program Committee: Arup Acharya, IBM TJ Watson Research, USA Giuseppe Anastasi, Univ. of Pisa, Italy Keith Chan, Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., China Dipanjan Chakraborty, IBM India Research, India Marco Conti, Council for National Research, Italy Kent Fuchs, Cornell Univ., USA Sandeep Gupta, Arizona State Univ., USA Mohan Kumar, Univ. of Texas at Arlington, USA Francis Lau, Univ. of Hong Kong, HK Jie Li, Univ. of Tskuba, Japan Jian Lu, Nanjing Univ., China Koji Nakano, Hiroshima Univ., Japan Yi Pan, George State Univ., USA Filip Perich, Cougaar Software, Inc., USA Gian Pietro Picco, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Sumit Roy, HP Labs, USA Loren Schwiebert, Wayne State Univ., USA Mukesh Singhal, Univ. of Kentucky, USA Bala Srinivasan, Monash Univ., Australia Xian-He Sun, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA Anand Tripathi, Univ. of Minnesota, USA Xingwei Wang, Northeastern Univ., China Jie Wu, Florida Atlantic Univ., USA Yang Xiao, Univ. of Memphis, USA Jian-liang Xu, Hong Kong Baptist Univ., HK Jingyuan Zhang, Univ. of Alabama, USA Wei Zhao, Texas A&M Univ., USA Wanlei Zhou, Deakin Univ., Australia Xiaobo Zhou, U. of Colorado at Colorado Springs, USA Further Information: For further information regarding the workshop and paper submission, please contact Dr. Jiannong Cao at csjao at comp.polyu.edu.edu.hk or Prof. Cheng-zhong Xu at czxu at wayne.edu


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Install Backtrack
Basic things before beginning installation:
1. Virtual Box
2. Backtrack Linux OS ISO image or DVD
Now lets learn stepwise, how to install Backtrack Linux on Virtual Box:
1. First of all open the Virtual Box by clicking on Virtual box icon ( will come after installing virtual box).
2. Now for first time we need to create Virtual Machine (Virtual Operating system on which we will install Backtrack).
To do so Click on New button then a pop up will open. In Name fill anyname that you wish to give to your virtual Machine say Hackingloops. Select Type as Linux and Version as Other Linux. Sample is shown below:
Install Backtrack on VM
Create new VM
On Clicking Next Select the Ram according, for best optimized performance try to allocate more i.e. anything between 1 GB to 3 GB. Say i allocated 3 GB(Maximum for 32 Bit).
Select Ram for VM
Then click on Next Button as highlighted. Now Proceed as shown in snapshots.
Select Create Virtual Drive
As shown above click on Create :
Select VDI
Select VDI (Virtual Disk Image) and Click on Next.
select dynamically allocated option
Now select Dynamically Allocated as shown above.
Assign Hard Drive Size for VM
Now assign the Virtual Hard Disk size as shown above, 20GB will be Good for optimization. Now When you click on Create Virtual Machine will be created as shown Below.
Configure Internet Settings on VM
To enable internet over the Virtual Machine, we need to configure the Network as shown below :
Configure Internet Settings(Bridge Adapter) on VM
After doing network settings, we need to assign Backtrack ISO image to VM's Disk drive to begin the setup on starting the setup. To assign Backtrack ISO to VM's Disk drive, do the settings as shown below:
Assign Backtrack ISO image to Disk Drive
Now the basic settings of Virtual Machine Over. Now Let's begin Backtrack Installation on this VM. For this Click on Start Button on Top of Virtual Box, then you will see something like below :
Backtrack Installation
Backtrack Live CD starts
Press Enter to proceed, now you will see Backtrack Setup Menu, Select Backtrack Text Mode : Default Boot (first in the menu) and press enter :
Select Backtrack Text
Now set up will Begin.
In Case of Intels I-series processors say I3, I5, I7 etc. You will get an error Message that
"This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU"
For correcting this, you have follow below steps :
1. Restart your Computer or Laptop, During Boot select the Boot setting usually Esc key or F1 or F2 key.
2. In Boot Menu Settings, Enable the Visualization.
3. Save the Boot Setting and start your PC or laptop.
4. Start Virtual Box and Begin from last step by selecting Backtrack Text - Default Boot text Mode.
When Kernel starts you will see something like below :
Backtrack Live CD starts
In root@bt: type startx and press enter to start Backtrack Live CD in GUI mode as shown below :
Give Startx to begin GUI mode
Now you will see the Desktop of Backtrack Live CD. If you want to use only Live CD features you can do so right now. But if you want to use Backtrack to full then we need to install Full backtrack. For that Click on Install Backtrack Icon on Desktop as shown below:
Click Install Backtrack Icon to Begin Set up
Now 7 Step set up will begin (just basic settings as shown below). Do as shown in next 7 Screen Shots:
Select English Language
Click Forward :
Select Region and Time zone
Set Region and Time Zone, then Click on forward :
Set Keyboard layout
Select Keyboard Settings, deafult US and click forward:
Select Erase VBOX Harddisk
Click Forward :
Finish Backtrack Installation by clicking Install
Final Step Click on Install
At last Click on Install and Sit back for 15 to 20 minutes to let the set up. Once the set up is over your VM is ready.
That's all the installation of Backtrack on Virtual Machine. Its just one time procedure.
From Next time Just Click on Start Your Virtual Machine to start Backtrack.
Note : From Next time Please select the Hard Drive Boot Option from the Kernel Menu. Next it will ask you for BT Login: , Give root as BT login and toor as BT password and On starting Backtrack you need to give command Startx at command prompt. Have Fun!


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Dogs may be 'man's best friend', but cats are fast becoming the preferred pet.
As of 2004 there were approximately 77 million pet cats in the U.S. and only about 65 million pet dogs. In Canada, the ratio is 4.5 million cats to 3.5 million dogs. The numbers have changed drastically since 2000 when roughly the same number of cats and dogs had homes in the U.S. (approximately 62 million of each). Why the change? If you own a cat, you probably know the answer:
- cats are easier to care for because they don't need to be walked or let outside,
- cats can be left for a longer period of time on their own,
- cats tend to cost less than dogs since the majority of dog breeds eat more, require more grooming and on average require more vet trips, and
- cats are also affectionate, intelligent and playful pets.
Cats can also do amazing things like:
- jump five times the height of its tail,
- run about 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour, and
- make about 100 different vocalization sounds.
Amazing Cats
Cats have highly developed senses which, combined with an acute sense of body orientation, allow the average cat to balance on fences, jump from one improbable location to another, often at top speed and sense prey from long distances.
More than a dozen muscles in the ear are used to precisely control movement, including the ability to independently rotate each ear to listen for prey or danger.
A cat's sense of smell is the main way it identifies objects (or people). There are 200 million odor-sensitive cells in a cat's nose, compared to only 5 million in a human's nose.
A cat can see in one-sixth of the amount of light a human requires. Cat pupils can dilate to 90 percent of the eye area, and also close almost entirely in bright light. The eyes protrude to give a cat superior peripheral vision, but a cat's overall sense of vision is actually five to ten times less acute than a human's. Cats see less detail than humans.
A cat uses its whiskers almost like a personal radar system. Whiskers are extremely sensitive to air movement, so the cat can detect an object's presence from a distance. Cats also use whiskers to determine the size of objects or openings. From tip to tip, a cat's whiskers determine the smallest gap he can comfortably get through. Since they are such a finely-tuned sensory system, whiskers should never be cut or trimmed.
Land On Its Feet
Probably the most widely known feline attribute is the "righting reflex" – the ability of a cat to right itself during a fall so that it always lands on its feet. It's an automatic sequence of movements that take only a moment: first the cat adjusts its head to an upright position and its body follows by twisting or rotating to match the head. The cat's tail is the final 'rudder' to ensure balance and a perfect landing are attained.


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In the next couple of years I am going to spend a few days each month in the bay area in connection with my work.
I have some questions in that regard:
-Can anyone recommend a shop in the area ???.
- What options are there for surfing in the down town area (staying in the NIKKO hotel) of course depending on wind direction. I am not going to bring my own gear so i will have to rent equipment.
Lars/SAS crew


text: QT for Linux is Gods gift to programmers IMHO. Therefore I've written a tutorial for those of you who are interested in programming, especially C++. I found a fun topic, basic 3D programming, and I describe how to create a spinning wireframe. If you prefer not to download and unzip, the tutorial is located on my homepage.


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New Medicare-Approved Prescription Drug Discount Card
June 12, 2004
June 9, 2004: The new Medicare-approved discount cards went into effect on June 1. They are the first step of a badly flawed but sometimes beneficial Medicare prescription-drug program, in which the U.S. government will spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years. Because of the huge amount of public money involved, eligible patients will need to deal with this program despite its problems. One big challenge will be the complexity of the process, and the difficulty of making the best decisions given one's medical needs and other circumstances.
This article outlines some basics about the program. Before making decisions always check for recent information, and get help from a benefits counselor or other well-informed adviser if possible.
Note that the Medicare "transitional assistance" discount prescription card recently in the news is a temporary program, which will last 19 months. Then, in January 2006, the discount card will be replaced by a more important but even more complex Medicare "Part D" drug benefit, which will require additional decisions by patients.
Who Is Eligible for the Medicare Discount Card Now?To be eligible for the new discount card you must be eligible for Medicare. And you must not be receiving outpatient prescription drugs through Medicaid or certain similar "Section 1115" programs. (Note: If you are "spending down" to become eligible for Medicaid, but are not on Medicaid yet, you can get the Medicare discount card. At least for now there is no look-back to take away the card if you later receive Medicaid.)
Those in Medicare who have non-Medicaid drug coverage, such as private insurance, are allowed to get a Medicare card (though usually not the $600 low-income credit -- see below). Those with good insurance or other coverage may not have much reason to, because traditional health insurance will almost always be better than the new Medicare card, which is intended mainly for those who have no other help and would otherwise be paying the full price for their prescriptions out of pocket. But some health insurance today, even from major companies, has such bad drug coverage that patients may need to buy many of their prescriptions out of pocket despite the insurance, so the Medicare card discounts might be useful. You can decide whether or not to use this card for any particular purchase.
Low-Income Benefit, $600 Per YearThe new Medicare card is most valuable for persons with a low income -- under 135% of the Federal poverty level, which currently means less than about $1048 monthly for one person (add $358 for each additional family member). We have heard that some income might not have to be counted, because Medicare normally follows the Social Security law, which specifically requires certain exemptions or disregards, especially for some earned income. It seems unlikely that Medicare will have the staff to adjust the income that applicants report, and we do not know if applicants can legally use these statutory exemptions or disregards to lower their income when applying for a Medicare-approved card.
Note: "You cannot get the low-income benefits if you already have drug coverage from your current or former employer, Medicaid, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, Tricare, or the Veterans Administration" (quoted from "76 Things You Should Know about the New Medicare Discount Cards," Center for Medicare Rights, www.medicarerights.org/ ).
Those who meet the income requirement will not only get whatever discounts the card offers (which apply regardless of income), but also will have their card programmed with $600 per year credit to buy prescription drugs; the Medicare card will work like a debit card, but for prescriptions only. This $600 credit can be used for almost any FDA-approved prescription drug -- even if the particular card does not list it and offer a discount. Also, for those who meet this income requirement, the Medicare card is free; for others, it will usually cost $30 per year (it may cost less, but cannot cost more).
Low-income patients might have to pay a 5% or 10% "co-insurance" fee when using the $600 credit (see Note 1 below).
In addition, some pharmaceutical companies will tie their "patient assistance program" (PAP) to the cards for those who meet the low-income requirement -- so that after they have used up their $600 credit they will get certain drugs free or at low cost from the manufacturer. This will apply only to some pharmaceutical companies, only to some of their drugs, and probably to only some of the 40+ different Medicare-approved discount cards now being offered. The importance of this benefit is increased by the fact that these programs often work poorly for individual patients -- and pharmaceutical companies will be under pressure to make them work better for a new, high-profile Federal program (especially before the November 2 election). For more information on coordination between the $600 low-income benefit and PAPs, see Note 2 below.
Many persons who are eligible for the Medicare card and the $600 low-income credit, but are in state pharmaceutical assistance programs (SPAPs) available in some states, or Medicare HMOs, will be signed up automatically for a card by their plan. They will not need to apply or do anything. We have heard that under the Medicare law, ADAPs (state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs) cannot sign up their clients automatically, because ADAPs do not meet the legal definition of an SPAP. This may be good news, as it turns out.
Who Gets the $600 Credit -- You or the State?The annual $600 low-income prescription credit in the temporary Medicare card system would seldom buy one month of antiretrovirals. If you are on ADAP, and also get the Medicare card with the $600 low-income credit, will your entire $600 benefit be used up the first time you purchase antiretrovirals with your ADAP card -- leaving you unable to use that money for prescriptions you need that are not on your ADAP's formulary, or for various emergencies? This is a complicated issue, and we do not have complete information yet.
Since state ADAP programs cannot automatically enroll their clients in a particular Medicare card, they may be unlikely to bill your Medicare card automatically when you get your ADAP prescription, largely because of the administrative difficulties of doing so. But it could happen that some state ADAP programs will automatically charge your Medicare account. We have also heard that under the new Federal law, the patient has control of the $600 prescription benefit, and can spend it on any FDA-approved prescription drug (there might be a few special exceptions), regardless of whether that drug is listed in any formulary. We do not know yet whether a state ADAP could demand that you use the money for ADAP prescriptions, or drop you from the ADAP program.
In some cases you may have to insist that the rushed clerk in the pharmacy does not use up your $600 without your consent. It might happen without your knowledge, all electronically with a swipe of your ADAP card. As of early June 2004, no one knows if this will be a problem, and if so, what patients may need to do to prevent it.
State ADAP programs can certainly use more money, so that they can reduce waiting lists and otherwise enable more people to receive HIV treatment. If you can save money for ADAP by using other prescription coverage, that will help. For example, veterans with an honorable or general discharge and income under about $30,000 per year can get prescriptions from the VA for $7 each.
But the $600 annual low-income Medicare benefit will most likely be needed for medically necessary non-ADAP prescriptions, or for emergencies. Keep in touch with the community and get advice, to make sure that this money is not wiped out by one month of antiretroviral coverage.
Note: the low-income patients in the standard state pharmaceutical assistance programs (SPAPs) who are automatically enrolled in a particular Medicare card by their state usually will have their $600 benefit charged for their state SPAP prescriptions, unless they can insist otherwise. This problem is less severe for them than it would be with ADAP, however. That is because most SPAPs cover all FDA-approved prescription drugs (with certain exceptions, such as cosmetics), so if the Medicare $600 is gone, the patient may still be able to get the prescriptions through SPAP. But ADAPs, even in the most generous states, do not even pretend to cover all medically necessary prescriptions -- only those on that state's ADAP formulary of drugs often used in HIV treatment. And this formulary varies immensely from state to state. If the Medicare $600 is used up immediately by ADAP, you may have to pay out of pocket for other prescriptions you need, or go without the drugs.
While ADAP is available in all U.S. states, SPAPs -- intended to help patients not quite poor enough for Medicaid buy prescription drugs -- are available in fewer than half of the states. The following states currently have SPAPs that can cover both aged and disabled: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Wyoming; all have open formularies except Illinois, which does not include any HIV drugs. Disabled persons in these states may want to see if they meet the requirements of these programs, especially for prescriptions that ADAP does not pay for. Twelve other states have SPAPs that only cover aged (usually 65 and over, but age 50 and over in Rhode Island), and do not include disabled persons under that age. The rest of the states do not provide this pharmaceutical benefit to anybody.
AIDS organizations will need to do more to understand prescription drug pricing, benefits programs, and how both work in practice -- and make sure this information gets to patients who need it. Patients must learn how to save themselves when possible, in a fragmented healthcare system designed mainly to benefit corporations.
Choosing a Medicare-Approved Prescription Drug Discount CardAbout 40 national cards and about 30 regional cards are currently offered by various businesses, and by some nonprofit organizations. Most of the publicity about the difficulty of the choosing a card concerns finding the best discount. We suspect that for people with HIV, the coordination with other programs may become the more important and more difficult choice -- especially for those eligible for the $600 low-income prescription-drug credit in 2004 and 2005. (Toward the end of 2005 patients will have to make new decisions for the more complex but more valuable Medicare Part D that starts in January 2006.)
Here are some points to keep in mind:
For background information on applying for a card, see www.medicarerights.org/.
Medicare "Part D" Drug Benefit, Starting January 2006This new drug benefit will replace the Medicare cards in January 2006. HIV benefits expert Tom McCormack told us about two good things in this program:
"Above all, the income level for getting free or nearly free drug coverage if you are on Medicare and are poor will be raised to 150% of poverty ($1164 monthly for one in today's 2004 dollars; add $398 for each additional family member) beginning in 2006. In contrast, present Medicaid income levels that determine which poor Medicare patients get nearly free drugs are about $564 (or a little more) in about 30 states and about $776 (or a little more) in about 20 states. So the new Medicare drug law makes an enormous liberalization in the income level for drug coverage of the poor.
"Also, while formularies (restricted lists of drugs that Medicare drug plans will cover) are allowed by the law, we do know so far that at least one Medicare drug plan---the AARP-sponsored United plan, which is member- and consumer-run and has for years served AARP members well, has 59,000 participating drug stores, a mail-order service and a good price discount record --- will offer an open formulary and will cover all FDA-approved drugs. Medicare patients need not be AARP members or over age 50 to join this drug plan. As we learn of any other open formulary Medicare drug plans, we will share that news."
HIV SummaryThe $600 annual low-income benefit of the new card could seldom pay for even one month of antiretroviral treatment. But if one does not need antiretrovirals, or has ADAP or other coverage for them, the $600 can help with other prescriptions. Patients in some states with the $600 benefit might need to make sure that this benefit is not used up immediately by being charged for major ADAP purchases without their knowledge and consent. Watch for more information as it becomes available.
The card's discounts are unlikely to be large for antiretrovirals, unless manufacturers decide to create a special low price for persons on Medicare with these cards. This is because all the antiretrovirals are patented drugs in the U.S., so the patent holder can set whatever price it wants, and does not need to offer discounts. And other costs for distribution, pharmacy, etc. are small in comparison, so there are no significant savings to be gained.
Starting in January 2006, a new Medicare Part D drug benefit will replace the discount card and the $600 low-income benefit. It may offer important help to those with an income less than 150% of Federal poverty level (and to those with higher incomes, but they will have much higher co-payments). Advising clients will become even more difficult than with the Medicare card, and much more critical; clients will need to start making these decisions a little over a year from now. Better coordination of medical programs will become more important, and could become a major activist issue.
Comment: Why Is the Medicare Discount Card Designed as it Is?The entire Medicare prescription-drug program was created in a hurry by Republicans in Congress to help their party in the November 2, 2004 elections. Democrats, who have always taken the lead on this issue, were almost entirely shut out from having input into what the program looks like. The result is what we now have to live with.
[Note: Democrats did get two changes in the Conference Committee, the final stage of Federal legislation. These changes apply starting January 2006, to the new Medicare part D drug benefit -- not to the current Medicare-approved card. Co-payments for the poorest Medicare patients will be on a sliding scale, starting as low as $1 per generic prescription; the Republicans would have made this 15% of the drug's retail price. Also due to the work of Democrats on the Conference Committee and their staffs, the income level to qualify for coverage without the "donut hole" (that after some initial prescription coverage, will require $3,600 out-of-pocket prescription expenses in case of major illness before the new Medicare Part D 95% "catastrophic" coverage begins), was raised from 135% of Federal poverty to 150%.]
The Medicare card system is complex because it was designed to demonstrate an ideological point -- that "free enterprise" makes government action unnecessary to assure that people can afford critically needed drugs. The idea is that the different card-offering companies and organizations will have an incentive to offer big discounts in order to get more enrollees -- giving them numbers which they can then take to the pharmaceutical companies to negotiate bigger discounts, getting them more enrollees, etc.
This may work to some extent for generic drugs, where huge markups remain in the U.S. market for no clear reason. And it may also reduce markups at some retail pharmacies, since the price for each drug with each card is published. But the major problem is with patent-monopoly drugs, where far larger markups exist because prices are set at what the rich market will bear -- and politicians are well paid to put the interests of industry first, and abandon the elderly, disabled, and poor if necessary. Drug distribution through Internet pharmacies is already efficient, so there is little savings to be found there.
And why are people locked into the cards except once a year, while the issuing companies can change what they offer every week -- making it impossible for individuals to make rational decisions? This follows from what we call fake free enterprise -- pretending to have free markets in a world really dominated by large institutions. What happens is that the free-enterprise rules get applied selectively to serve the interests of major institutions and powerful insiders.
If patients were allowed to change cards at will, many would find it in their interest to change with every purchase. Allowing individuals to have frequent changes or multiple cards would complicate the system and could increase the risk of fraud. But the card issuers must be allowed to change their benefits frequently, in order to create an ongoing market. The bottom line in this case (as in so many others) is that at the end of the day, powerful institutions get what they need, and people don't.
A separate problem postponed until after the November 2 election is that the Medicare Part B premium is expected to go up from $66.60 to an estimated $78.10 next year, because the new law increases the payment for doctors, hospitals, and HMOs, before the government starts paying for the Medicare Part D benefit in 2006. But persons on Medicare with income under 135% of Federal poverty level (after subtracting $20 of any income, and $65 and half the rest of any wages), and meeting asset requirements, can already get the Part B premium paid for them, through QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary), SLIMB (Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary), or QI (Qualified Individual). People must apply for this support through state welfare (not federal Medicare) offices, and many do not know about these programs.
The bottom line on the new Medicare law is that it was designed to help large corporations, and will do that very well; almost all the money spent in this program goes to them. It will also help people, but hit-or-miss, with great cost and complexity.
The long-term problem is that U.S. society is becoming a corporate/government feudalism, where huge institutions take care of themselves and each other, but ignore peoples' needs when convenient. If Americans die because they cannot afford essential medicines, it is cheaper to stonewall them, and perhaps fill the media with heartwarming PR, than to fix the problems. This abusive style, now common in U.S. corporate and government operations, degrades the quality of life of almost everyone in the country. It will continue until more people stop believing disinformation, take back control of their future, and insist on institutional as well as personal responsibility.
NotesHIV benefits expert Tom McCormack sent us the following information about the Medicare prescription-drug discount card, on May 31, 2004. He is speaking here as an individual and not as a member of any organization:
Notice: AIDS Treatment News wrote this article during the first week of the new Medicare program -- before anyone knows how it will really work in practice. Always check for recent information and advice. One place to look is www.medicarerights.org/ -- but check on AIDS sites as well. Our community must work together on benefits education, to help people receive essential medical care.
Copyright 2004 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.
Copyright 2004 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.
This article was provided by AIDS Treatment News. It is a part of the publication AIDS Treatment News.
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