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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Anelka requests personal hearing
Nicolas Anelka has requested a personal hearing after denying that his "quenelle" gesture at West Ham was anti-Semitic or racist.
The Football Association has confirmed West Brom striker Anelka is to argue his case at a forthcoming Commission hearing, although no date has yet been scheduled.
Anelka was charged by the FA on January 21 with making a gesture which was abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper after scoring during Albion's 3-3 draw at Upton Park on December 28.
The FA further alleged it to be an aggravated breach, in that it included a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief.
The Frenchman faces a potential five-match ban at least if found guilty.
A statement from the FA read: "Nicolas Anelka has today replied to a charge in relation to an incident that occurred during the West Ham United versus West Bromwich Albion fixture at the Boleyn Ground on 28 December 2013.
"Anelka, the West Bromwich Albion player, has denied the charge and requested a personal hearing."
A statement from West Brom confirmed the FA's position, adding "the club will make no further comment until the FA's disciplinary process has reached a conclusion".
The case is a minefield for the FA as it is mired in French politics and beliefs, resulting in them hiring an independent expert to assess the symbolism of the 'quenelle' before laying down the charge.
The man behind the salute, French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, believes Anelka should be allowed to continue to perform the gesture as it signifies his liberation from slavery.
Dieudonne has strongly denied the gesture has any anti-Semitic or racist connotations, and instead is effectively an 'up yours' to the French establishment.
Dieudonne, a friend of Anelka, told Sky News: "The 'quenelle' salute, it's simply a salute.
"At the beginning, an insult, a little like this. I'm not sure how you do it in England (placing his left hand on his right arm and then raising the latter with a clenched fist).
"In France it means simply a gesture against the system, and then after time it became a gesture of emancipation.
"Many Africans like me, descendants of slaves, it's for self-liberation."
Performing the 'quenelle' by placing an upturned left hand across his right bicep, Dieudonne added: "That means liberation from a system, and it's because of that Nicolas Anelka did it.
"It's a gesture against submission to a system, a gesture belonging to the descendants of slaves who say 'Stop. It's done. I'm done'.
"There's no hint of racism. Racism is a bad thing."
Dieudonne feels Anelka should not be facing the prospect of sanctions from the FA simply for displaying his beliefs.
"It's strange because if they (the FA) are independent, if they love football, they should be more interested in what's happening in the match," added Dieudonne.
"When an athlete is technical like Anelka, one of the able ones, he scores goals, people applaud him.
"Anelka is a descendant of slaves and if he wants to remark on his history then he has a right to do so.
"We are very proud he does that, all of us, because Nicolas Anelka is hope.
"So if those who are pro-slavery deny us, the slaves, our emancipation, it's serious."
Further underlining he is firmly behind Anelka, Dieudonne said: "He has all my support. We see him as a brother in our humanity.
"He's someone who shows courage and is someone for whom we have lots of respect and admiration.
"We are all behind him in solidarity, and we are, above all, proud of him because of his noble position. To us, he is a prince.
"You have princes, queens in England, but us, we prefer Nicolas Anelka. He's our prince, no?"
Via his Facebook page on Wednesday, Anelka had reqested the FA drop the charge, insisting he is "not anti-Semitic or racist".
Anelka believed he had the backing of a Jewish community leader in the battle to clear his name.
However, Roger Cukierman, the president of CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) clarified earlier remarks he gave in a video interview to Le Figaro, further expressing his unhappiness with Anelka's actions.
"I was disappointed with the attitude of Anelka, whose behaviour is the opposite of what a top athlete must show the youth of our country," said Cukierman.
"I was troubled by the fact the public man he is - a symbol for some of the youth of our country, and so he must therefore be perfect in his behaviour - can make this gesture 'to show his friendship to his friend Dieudonne', whose motivations are without a doubt anti-Semitic."


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New Audi Virtual Showroom at Audi Milwaukee
Conduct your new Audi pre-buy research below! We're here to help answer questions about new Audi vehicles!
10606 W Arthur Ave
Directions Milwaukee, WI 53227
Woah, slow down there! We don't have any vehicles that match. Dial back the selections you've made and let's see what we can find for you.
At Audi Milwaukee, we believe that exceptional customer service begins even before our customers set foot in our dealership. We aim to provide our customers with the best possible car shopping experience, and it all starts with providing our customers with the most comprehensive information about our Audi models, to better inform their shopping and help them to find the right Audi to suit their needs. That's why we've included this handy model research page to provide our customers with a one-stop shop for all the most up-to-date information on our exceptional new Audi models.
Using the links below, you can quickly and easily browse our specifications and inventory of the most popular Audi models, like the Audi A4, Audi Q5, and Audi TT. This showroom page also helps you to sort through our inventory using the sliders on top to view inventory by price, fuel economy, and horsepower, allowing you to easily find whatever you're looking for, whether it's an economical commuter car, fuel-efficient crossover, or luxury sport sedan.
With our expansive selection of new Audi vehicles for sale in the Milwaukee, WI area, we're confident that whatever you're looking for in your next vehicle, we'll have exactly the model to suit your needs. Even better, once you've found the perfect Audi for you, we're well-positioned to offer it to you at competitive price. Our staff in the finance center have worked with our customers from the Milwaukee, Glendale, Wauwatosa, New Berlin, and Brookfield, WI areas for a number of years now, and they're committed to providing the best in Audi financing offers to fit our customer's budgetary needs.
Feel free to explore the links below to learn more about what each new Audi model has to offer. However, if you'd like a more hands-on experience with these exceptional vehicles, we'd be only too happy to oblige you. Visit our Milwaukee Audi dealership to explore our expansive inventory and take a test drive today!
Your privacy is important to us.
Audi Milwaukee takes your privacy seriously and does not rent or sell your personal information to third parties without your consent. Read our privacy policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Ian Martin designs a pop-up church
MONDAY Cash in on multiple cultural trends by patenting my new 'self-bake' affordable home protoype.
TUESDAY I just don't understand it. Over the last few days I've submitted four proposals and they've all been greeted with blank indifference.
A boutique urban picnic area. The conversion of an office block to a 'city hive' buzzing with inferred Mad Men chic and stylish space constraints. An artistic intervention in the roofspace of a Victorian railway station. A re-imagined Carlisle where, in my renderings at least, inhabitants enjoy sunshine and wi-fi and eye contact.
Why have these proposals not been welcomed by local politicians and planners with appropriate levels of enthusiasm? Why have I not, as is customary, been praised for my insight into the human condition and for my selfless generosity in showing how this could be ameliorated by the healing balm of epic space?
Not even a 'thank you'!
WEDNESDAY Wait. My fault. I don't know how it happened, but I sent out all four proposals without any references to a 'cloud' in the design. No wonder I've been getting the cold shoulder.
Everyone knows that - this quarter at least - it's 'about the cloud, stupid'.
For, without 'the cloud' there can be no aspiration, no higher plane. THERE CAN BE NO NEBULISED FUTURE.
I ask the various recipients to destroy the proposals as they stand. To be honest I feel a bit guilty about blaming an unpaid intern for the cock-up but if you can't do that once in a while I'm struggling to see what the point of an unpaid intern is.
THURSDAY My revised urban picnic area now presents the swirl of humanity as a cloud of hopeful possibility. The residential tower block 'puts other lifeclouds in the shade'.
My installation piece is now simply called RailCloud 2020. New Carlisle is reformulated along 'cloudsourcing principles of social stakeholding'.
Within an hour, everyone's sent me an email telling me how brilliant my proposals are, how these days the cloud is more crucial than ever.
Of course, they're all idiots.
Nevertheless we all need to be reading from the same weather chart when the cumulo-nimbies coalesce into their own inevitable clouds of poisonous gas.
FRIDAY In the morning, design a pop-up church. Sort of 'ecumenical rationalism'. I wouldn't want to offend any atheists, they're really touchy. Plus, it's made of laminated cardboard, so you can't be having too many fiddly bits.
In the afternoon, struggle with the internal layout. A 'worship space' is obviously essential, but it's a non-specific church. I'm not entirely sure what or who will be glorified, or how. Likewise, toilets. Impossible to know how long people are going to be mumbling and bumbling about inside with the remembrance of sin pressing on their bladders.
In the evening, solve most of the architectural problems by creating a pop-up religion. Inclusive, welcoming, a range of deities to suit all members of the congregation and available in pill form for those who require their god within them. I'm calling it Truism. 'Right enough to be true, true enough to be trite'. It's a credo I've borrowed from architecture, where trite is acceptable in a way that 'pastiche' can never be. In fact I think I'll make Truism an architectural movement AND a religion, it'll be much easier to determine an appropriate building style.
SATURDAY Lunch with my old friend Darcy the environmental correspondent and his muse Bess of Hardwick, the only border collie in the country to wear prescription Le Corbusier spectacles.
I explain the principles of Truism. Eclectic borrowing from the past without the irony of Post-modernism. Dullness as a virtue. In due course, practitioners could become self-sanctified, etc. Bess seems much more impressed than Darcy. She cocks her head and pants enthusiastically. Darcy just shrugs through another drink and says he's heard it all before. That's the WHOLE POINT, I tell him. Bess clearly shares my exasperation and gives him an old-fashioned look over her tortoiseshell frames.
Her cleverness is wasted on Darcy, whose outlook has been clouded by bitterness ever since he was ousted from the Creative on Sunday in favour of his former companion, the architectural dachshund Bauhau.
SUNDAY Eschew the recliner. Take Bess for a long architectural walk while Darcy skulks indoors. She really would make an excellent 'ambassadog' for Truism. I wonder…
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Chronicle Text
Chronicle, a "blended Scotch."
A vigorous hybrid of time-honored forms and contemporary design strategies, Chronicle Text is a new suite of high-performance text faces that brings strength and utility to the classic serif.
Seriffed text faces are often casually grouped into two major divisions: wholehearted Old Styles, which vaguely reference their calligraphic origins, and steely Moderns, whose highly rational designs aspire to mathematical precision. Old Styles are prized for their warmth, which they achieve through heavily bracketed serifs and a policy of planned inconsistencies (an Old Style's lowercase c and o are thickest in different places, for example.) Moderns produce the opposite result — a detached, elegant simplicity — and, crucially for both typefounders and designers, their forms naturally invite endless variation in weight and width.
Bridging these extremes is the Transitional style, which combines the energy and ardor of Old Styles with the sobriety and adaptability of Moderns. The most functional and enduring subspecies of Transitional is the Scotch, a form of typeface originating at the end of the eighteenth century, and associated with Scottish typefounders Alexander Wilson and William Miller. The opening of the Binny & Ronaldson foundry in Philadelphia, begun by Scottish émigrés Archibald Binny and James Ronaldson in 1796, helped establish the style in the United States, where it has since remained a fundamental part of the modern typographic vocabulary. Some of the twentieth century's most significant designs are tributes to the Scotch style, including W. A. Dwiggins' interpretive Caledonia (1938), and Matthew Carter's definitive anthology Miller (1997).
The Style Revisited
Nineteenth century Scotch faces enjoyed early popularity among book printers, but the rise of industrialized newspaper publishing quickly revealed their limitations. Delicate hairlines and serifs vanished under thin ink, low quality paper, and ruthless presses that operated at breakneck speeds. Signature details, like the pipe-shaped tail on the capital R and lowercase a, became traps for ink and pulp — a problem that plagued every lowercase letter in the dainty Scotch italic. The faces that were gutsy and smart when carefully printed were undone by the slightest variables: underinked they became dour, overinked they felt sluggish.
Beginning in 2002, we revisited the Scotch style with the goal of producing two families of fonts: a text face that would withstand the effects of different kinds of media, and a display face that would unlock the potential of the Scotch style to support a broad range of weights and widths. The result is Chronicle Text, a series of hard-working text faces produced in four press-sensitive "grades", and Chronicle Display, an abundant collection of 46 display faces that includes three different widths, six different weights, and versions for two different sizes — each in both roman and italic.
Chronicle ScreenSmart: High-Performance Webfonts
Chronicle ScreenSmart is an adaptation of the family specifically engineered for the screen, and available for use on the web through Cloud.typography. To ensure outstanding rendering on screen at sizes as small as nine pixels, we carefully adjusted the fonts' fit, color, and proportions, and orchestrated their progression of weights so that each style is distinctly different from its neighbors. Like all ScreenSmart fonts, Chronicle ScreenSmart is equipped with a set of detailed instructions called "hints," which tell its outlines how to adapt themselves to pixel grids at different point sizes, to ensure that the fonts always retain both their legibility and their personality.


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Complete Story
Call for Papers
Roosevelt Study Center (Middelburg) and Ghent University
One year after the 2012 US presidential elections an international conference will be held in the neighbouring towns of Middelburg in the Netherlands and Ghent in Belgium. This fourday conference (November 6-9, 2013) will be hosted jointly by the Roosevelt Study Center (Middelburg) and Ghent University.
Click the link below for details:
Roosevelt Study Center Middelburg and Ghent University


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Game Thread: Warriors @ Phoenix Suns 2012-10-31
Talk about the upcoming Warriors game here
Moderators: Mr. Crackerz, JREED, Guybrush, 32
hobbes wrote:Can't wait to see Bogut when he isn't rusty and out of shape...lol
Held my breath when he went to the floor on that and1.
Lovin our team defense. David Lee gave weak side help. Ezeli is give great weak side help too. You can see the effort that Bogut wants to give, but he's just not quite there yet. You know he's gonna give you good minutes on defense when he's 100%.


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The other day I was doing some preliminary planning for our first RV trip of the year. In addition to prepping the motorhome for another camping season, I decided to review some paperwork that I keep in the RV.
I'm glad I did, because I noticed that our emergency roadside service plan had expired. Recently, I went through the trouble of locating a 22.5-inch spare tire and rim for our motorhome. It would have been crazy to have the spare but no ERS plan to assist in getting the tire change. It just goes to show how easy it is to overlook things sometimes.
With that said, and with camping season right around the corner, I thought a good topic for an article would be some trip-planning reminders.
The first step is to plan the trip you are taking. Travel guides, magazines, state tourism boards and Internet sites offer valuable information to help plan your trip. Route your trip on a map or from an Internet trip-planning Web site. Here are a couple of helpful links for fuel cost calculations:
Fuel Cost Calculator
Local Gas Prices in the USA
Always keep an atlas or maps in the RV or towed vehicle. Driving a motorhome can be stressful, especially if you don't know the route you will be traveling. Using a GPS system can make traveling much less stressful.
Here are my top 7 trip-planning reminders:
1. Plan your itinerary to include the campgrounds you will be staying at. Give a family member or friend a copy of your itinerary along with the campground contact information. Make campground reservations in advance, especially during the busy travel season.
2. Try to limit your daily driving to 350 miles a day or less. Not only will your trip be more enjoyable, but this will allow plenty of time to get set up at the campground before it gets dark and to enjoy some of the amenities the campground has to offer.
3. Make sure your emergency roadside service plan is up to date. If you don't have one, you should get one prior to leaving on your trip.
4. Conduct pre-trip checks on your RV.
5. Check and refill any medications you will need. If you are under a doctor's care, bring a copy of your medical records.
6. Be sure you have the following: credit cards, ATM card, checkbook, cell phone, address book and stamps, emergency contact numbers, a spare set of eyeglasses or reading glasses, a spare set of keys, RV owner's manuals and warranty information. Also, make sure you have your passports, if necessary, and check the expiration dates.
7. Check the weather conditions for where you will be traveling each day. Take a weather radio receiver with you. Don't travel in bad weather or during high winds.
Now, double check that everything is loaded in the motorhome before you hit the road. Have a great time exploring this wonderful country we live in.
Happy RV Learning,
Mark Polk
RV Education 101
RV University
RV Orientation
Go for the RV Gold
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Polk's Top 7 Motorhome Trip-Planning Reminders
Posted by Mark and Dawn Polk
Labels: rv trip planning
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Popular People Searches
Latest People Listings
Recent People Searches
Last Names for Ta - Tango
USA-People-Search > People Directory > T > Page 1
If you are hoping to locate someone with the last name Ta, you are exactly where you need to be. As you browse through the results below you will notice there are many people with the last name Ta. To help accelerate your people search and furnish the information you need, narrow down the number of results displayed by selecting the link of the last name of the person you are hoping to identify.
Once you refine your search query you will receive a list of people with the last name Ta along with their corresponding first name. While examining the list of names you will be able to locate the person you need more information on. After you identify the correct person, click on the link of their name and you will be taken to a page all about them.
If you have further information about the person you are hoping to locate, such as their previous address or phone number, you can modify your search by keying in this information about the person. This is a quick way to find the Ta you are looking for, if you have any new details on them.
Popular People Searches
Latest People Listings
Recent People Searches


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Is India's Fiscal Consolidation at Hand?
"What you don't touch, for you lies miles away. (…) What you don't coin, you're sure is counterfeit." These sophisms are voiced by Mephistopheles, under the guise of the Court Fool, in Goethe's Faust. He aims to convince the Emperor to mint more coins, for money buys everything: parks and palaces; breasts and rosy cheeks. The Commander-in-Chief accompanies the scene and speaks his mind: "The Court Fool is wise, for he promises benefits to all."
Economic theory, in contrast to the Commander-in-Chief, the Court Fool and other populists, states that all government handouts come at a cost – regardless of whether they are distributed in the form of subsidies or direct transfers. Financing them is only possible by raising taxes and getting into debt (or creating more money… and inflation).


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With the rise of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) in the presidential primary polls, America may be ready to crush crony capitalists by embracing "libertarianism."
As the founding philosophy that once unified our nation, today libertarianism represents the true existential threat to the crony capitalism that has flourished for decades in both established political parties. But with both political parties in decay and independents positioned to determine the outcome of next year's presidential and congressional elections, voters seem ready to embrace a political philosophy that puts strict limits on all government activity in order to maximize individual liberty and economic freedom.
Libertarianism is defined as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals." To the political party establishments who fund their existence on the ability to attain this power and rent it back to their crony capitalist fellow travelers, libertarianism was dismissed as a "popular, dogmatic political cult in the vein of Marxism-Leninism."
The political elites have been comforted that "libertarians would never get hold of true power, for unlike their Marxist-Leninist brethren, they are a political cult without a broad base of support; they have no proletariat and no peasantry!" But in the age of social networking's viral formation of voluntary associations at virtually no cost, libertarianism has found its broad base of support online and now can compete favorably versus paid advertising that drives the "peasant" support of the established parties.
Over the last 12 months, there has been an unreported groundswell of support for Paul's libertarian philosophy that virally self-organized through social media. Paul never captured as much media attention as other Republican presidential candidates, even after placing second in the early Iowa Ames Straw Poll. When his name came up on the cable news shows, his libertarian ideas were dismissed as the fringe ramblings of an un-electable candidate.
The media remained oblivious to Paul's emergent online following. According to the Pew Charitable Trust's Project for Excellence for Journalism, in a new study analyzing more than 20 million election-related tweets from May through November, Paul "fared far better" than any other Republican candidate. Pew found that Ron Paul was referred to "positively" in 55% of the 1.1 million Twitter assessments about him; versus 15% negative assessments and 30% neutral.
America's libertarian roots were incubated in the run-up to American Revolutionary War of 1776. The British raised taxes by 500% from 1698 to the 1773, and imposed the taxes without consent from America's own directly elected representatives, denied Americans their right to a fair trial by enforcing the Sugar and Stamp Acts in military courts, and kept troop levels high to intimidate the colonial settlers into submission.
American Exceptionalism is associated with our libertarian tradition of personal freedom, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. Of course these values clash directly with the goals of crony capitalists to extract massive wealth from U.S. government contracts, permits, grants, special tax breaks and so forth. But the low-cost economics of libertarian social networking is driving a determined challenge to crony capitalists' tight-fisted grip on elections.
CHRISS STREET is the former Orange County treasurer-tax collector and a Newport Beach resident.


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A little bit off thread, but here it comes:Taurus, Minotaur and Antares all use a Hardware AND SOFTWARE architecture Orbital calls MACH (Modular Avionics something or other, pardon me, I have little patience for that stuff...) made up of about a dozen types of "slices" (computer, I/O, power supply, ordnance drives, etc. etc.) that can be stacked up in an enclosureless-type way (i.e. each slice has its own peripheral enclosure and the ends are closed up by plates) I've seen MACH stacks as small as 5 slices and as large as 11, IIRC. Intra-slice connections are built into the "sides" of each slice, and external connectors are on one of the sides of each slice. The result looks a lot like a loaf of sliced brad.Each of the above-mentioned launch vehicles has a number of differently-configured MACH "stacks" acting as the central avionics, stage remote I/O, engine controller, etc. Slices (and stacks) communicate via Ethernet. Indeed, a MACH stack is used in the Antares launch pad both to communicate with the rocket AND control the pad (e.g. TEL retraction after ignition.)Pegasus used an older design but is slowly converting to the MACH architecture (the last two Pegasi flew a MAC stack as its flight computer - the resulting change in software made NASA pause and take a deep breath, but it was the right thing to do and it worked.)More important, other Orbital products (e.g. targets) also use this architecture; the result is a) lots and lots of experience (dozens of MACH stacks and socres of MACH slices are flown every year) and b) non-trivial cost reductions. Similar benefit with software: the amount of NEW software needed for Antares was focused on the liquid propellant elements while, for instance, the basic GN&C has long heritage (yes, even the variable-azimuth feature!...)The MACH architecture is uniquely designed for Launch Vehicles and is not intended to be used on spacecraft, BTW.
Can anyone in the industry discuss the benefits of doing MACH as (apparently) a literal stack of hardware components rather than a modular software stack loaded into a single machine? Are the data ports required for each rocket different enough that the modular design is actually more about them than the software?
I would be curious if some of those boards contained gyro's and accellerometers or if they just interfaced to ones placed elsewhere in the rocket.
Originally (N-1 days) to increase the volumetric efficiency of the Oxydizer system (LOX itself and tanks). However, the NK33 LOX pump bearings take advantage of the properties of the apparently superior lubricating properties of sub cooled LOX so we're stuck. Pre-chill is a common requirement for any cryo system, sub-cooled or boiling-point.
I wonder if the Antares could handle 6- 7 Merlins.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 01/16/2014 01:17 amI wonder if the Antares could handle 6- 7 Merlins.The core is wider than the Falcon 9, so physically yes. But it doesn't have enough isp, the piping, control and avionics would have to be redone. So it doesn't really makes much economic sense. Dual RD-191 or even an AJ-1E6 would give a much better performance with little engineering effort.
Not having a down mass capability is part of why it has the better up mass.
Nice review of soon to appear planned upgrades to Antares and Cygnus today over at that other site.http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1401/14orbital/#.Utc2Gvt0lpECygnus, already carrying more up cargo than Dragon, will soon carry substantially more - and Orbital wants to start planning for post-2016 ISS missions soon. Also some hints about an increasingly dim future for NK-33/AJ-26. - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 01/16/2014 12:32 amNice review of soon to appear planned upgrades to Antares and Cygnus today over at that other site.http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1401/14orbital/#.Utc2Gvt0lpECygnus, already carrying more up cargo than Dragon, will soon carry substantially more - and Orbital wants to start planning for post-2016 ISS missions soon. Also some hints about an increasingly dim future for NK-33/AJ-26. - Ed Kylethx for the linkFound this interesting: " Antares rocket's more powerful Castor 30XL upper stage motor provided by ATK. The Castor 30XL is a lengthened version of the Antares rocket's flight-proven Castor 30 motor, boosting the launcher's maximum load to the space station by more than 1,000 pounds."Something to be said for the simple design.


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itschrisk needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 29 designs submitted by 8 freelance designers.
evoJets - private jet charter brokerage
evoJets is a private jet charter brokerage based in Aspen, CO with access to 5,000+ private jets world wide offering our clients service to and from anywhere on the globe.
We are looking to grow our company by expanding our web presence; getting people to contact us / request trip quotes via our website.
We have two distinctly different audiences:
1. Very wealthy individuals, usually self made business people traveling for business or pleasure.
2. Executive assistants, secretaries and other support staff for wealthy individuals.
This should be EASY!
The location of functional elements on the site should not be changed. Aesthetic modifications only. We require just the psd's - no code.
Design changes should better reflect the look and feel of our homepage and look nice and the site should be clean, luxury and conversion oriented.
Our existing site for your reference is evojets.com (does not need change at this time though it might be the next project)
The site to be touched up is:
*The primary purpose of this flight is to drive QUALIFIED viewers to contact us via: request a quote, phone, speak with an agent or sign up for our empty leg list.
The simple form attached to that page is:
*Our primary concern on this form is that people will not complete the information so, it should be consolidated but, all data points should remain.


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A tradition that started in the 1970s when the Warwick Beacon offices were located on Meadow Street in Apponaug continues this year when Santa arrives for a photo shoot this Saturday at the Pilgrim Senior Center. The photo session starts at 9:30 a.m. and will run to 11:30 a.m.
The newspaper initiated the photo session as a way for children to meet with Santa, share their wishes and to have their photographs appear in the pre-Christmas edition. Over the years, Santa has moved around, sometimes stopping at the Beacon offices, to the Ben Franklin Store when it was in the Gateway Plaza and on to the Buttonwoods Community Center.
For the first time last year, the Beacon teamed up with the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce to add breakfast to the event and relocate to the Pilgrim Senior Center. Breakfast with Santa starts at 8:30 a.m. and runs until 10. Breakfast tickets are $8 but children under 2 eat free. For planning purposes, the chamber requests reservations, which can be made by calling 732-1100 or visiting the chamber website at centralrichamber.com.
The photo session is free and if you don't want to watch Santa eat eggs, that's fine. Come at 9:30 and bring the kids and the grandkids. Photos will appear in the Dec. 22 edition of the paper.
With such a tradition, it's no wonder that some of the first kids in the 70s are back with children of their own and even a few grandchildren.


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Microsoft has said Windows 8.1 will be finished sometime this month, but if you're anxious to get the update to the operating system on your PC, you'll have to exercise patience.
That's because, according to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet, Microsoft is going to wait until "mid-October 2013 or so" to release the finished version of Windows 8.1. Sorry, no immediate gratification for you!
Foley speculates as to why Microsoft wants to wait:
Even if Microsoft waits until mid-October to release the Windows 8.1 RTM bits, the company still will have managed to deliver to customers a new release of Windows within almost exactly a year – instead of three years after the previous release, as was the length of time between the release of Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Holding back the RTM bits immediately could give Microsoft other benefits. It could give the company more time to stamp out bugs remaining at RTM and deliver fixes for them to those with the preview build via regular patches and updates. It also could provide the company with more of a bigger bang launch event. The Windows 8 launch felt to many as though it was anti-climactic, as they had the final bits in hand for a month-plus before it happened.
And as Tom Warren at The Verge points out, delaying the release gives hardware makers time to update their drivers. Windows 8 and 8.1 do a much better job of delivering hardware drivers to PCs than Windows 7, but hardware makers must submit them to Microsoft in a timely fashion for this process to work. With more time to get them polished, higher-quality drivers will be delivered to PCs when the final release of Windows 8.1 is installed on an existing computer.
A recently leaked interim release of Windows 8.1 reportedly shows the progress Microsoft has made as it closes in on the finish line. The build, numbered 9471, now includes a series of tips and tutorials aimed at first-time users of the tile-based interface that first appeared in Windows Phone and then Windows 8. One of the knocks against Windows 8 was that it threw users into this new pool without any swimming lessons, and Windows 8.1 appears to fix that problem, among many others.
But if this will be enough to tempt those who've stayed away from Windows 8 in droves remains to be seen. With PC sales sluggish, and some analysts laying the blame squarely on Windows 8, Microsoft needs Windows 8.1 to be something of a silver bullet.
Microsoft has been pushing the notion that, to really get the most of Windows 8, folks should use it on a touch-capable PC. But Computerworld reports on new IDC numbers indicating customers aren't flocking to touchscreen notebooks running Windows 8. As a result, the market research firm has cut its forecast for sales of these systems:
According to IDC, touch-ready laptop shipments are significantly lower than optimistic forecasts by computer makers such as Acer, whose president, Jim Wong, said in May that by the end of the year 30% to 35% of his company's notebooks would sport touchscreens.
"We forecast that 17% to 18% of all notebooks would have touch this year," Bob O'Donnell, an analyst with IDC, said in an interview Friday, referring to the research firm's own estimates earlier this year. "But that now looks to be too high, to be honest." He said IDC would probably drop its touch estimates to between 10% and 15% of all laptops.
Others have already pegged touch to that range for the year. In April, NPD DisplaySearch said that about 12% of notebooks sold in 2013 would be equipped with touch.
Microsoft has bet the Windows franchise on the concept of a hybrid operating system that works on both tablets and traditional PCs. So far, it's been a losing bet, and Microsoft has one more shot to get it right with Windows 8.1. That's probably why the company is taking its time to get the operating system – and the marketing message used to to sell it – just right. With Windows 8.1, failure is not an option, but it's a very real possibility.


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The Brewers and Cardinals faced off 18 times during the regular season, with each team winning nine. Since Aug. 30, though, the Cardinals took five of six. That stat matters.
Oh, they apparently don't like each other, either.
Jaime Garcia (13-7, 3.56) for the Cards. Zack Greinke (16-6, 3.83) for the Brewers. First pitch: 4:05 p.m.
Wonder what Front Row Amy'll wear for the whiteout at the first Brewers NLCS game since the year she blossomed into teenhood.
The Brewers, the Cardinals, and 1982 [Brew Crew Ball]
stop me if you think that you've heard this one before [Viva El Birdos]


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Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research
versão On-line ISSN 2219-0635
versão impressa ISSN 0030-2465
Onderstepoort j. vet. res. vol.81 no.2 Pretoria Fev. 2014
Investigation of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in the Mbala and Kazungula districts of Zambia
Frank BandaI, II; Christopher J. KasangaI; Raphael SalluIII; Yona SinkalaIV; Tingiya W. SinkombeII; Misheck MulumbaV; Mark M. RweyemamuI; Philemon N. WamburaI
ISouthern African Centre for Infectious diseases Surveillance, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
IICentral Veterinary Research Institute, Zambia
IIITanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency, Tanzania
IVUniversity of Zambia, School of Veterinary Medicine, Zambia
VSouthern African Development Community Secretariat, Botswana
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute, highly contagious viral infection of domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals. It is known to be endemic in Zambia, with periodic outbreaks occurring in different geographical areas of the country. This study was conducted to investigate the presence of FMD virus (FMDV) in reported FMD-suspected cases in cattle from the Kazungula and Mbala districts of Zambia. Sixty epithelial tissues or oesophageal- pharyngeal (OP) scrapings (probang samples) were collected from Mbala (n = 51) and Kazungula (n = 9) and examined for FMDV. The FMDV viral RNA and serotypes were examined by realtime reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and antigen Enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Twenty-two samples (36.7%) were positive for the FMDV genome by qRT-PCR with Cycle threshold (Ct) values ranging from 13 to 31. The FMDV-positive samples from epithelial tissues showed relatively higher Ct values compared to those obtained from OP scrapings, irrespective of geographical location.
Forty percent (40%; n = 4) of epithelial tissues from Mbala were serotyped into SAT 2 serotype by antigen ELISA. Kazungula samples were serotyped into SAT 1. These findings indicated that Mbala and Kazungula districts had FMD outbreaks in 2012 that were ascribed to at least FMDV serotype SAT 2 and SAT 1 field strains. Furthermore, regular interaction between buffalos from the Mosi-o Tunya Park and domestic animals from surrounding areas could contribute to the occurrence of regular FMD outbreaks in Kazungula, whilst the uncontrolled animal movements across borders between Mbala and Nsumbawanga could be responsible for disease outbreaks in Mbala. In-depth molecular biological studies, including sequencing and phylogeny of the viruses, should be conducted to elucidate the complex epidemiology of FMD in Zambia, thereby providing valuable information needed for the rational control strategy of FMD in Zambia and neighbouring countries.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is the most contagious disease of mammals and has a great potential for causing severe economic loss in susceptible cloven-hoofed animals (OIE Terrestrial Manual 2010). It is one of the most economically important infectious diseases of livestock as it can severely constrain international trade of animals and animal products (Li-na et al. 2011). The agent of the disease, FMD virus (FMDV) is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus in the genus aphthovirus, family Picornaviridae. There are seven immunologically-distinct serotypes of the virus, namely: types O, A, C, Asia 1 and the South African serotypes SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3. Infection with one serotype does not confer immunity against another (Ferris et al. 2006). This needs to be taken into consideration when developing intervention strategies in endemic settings; it is important to take into account the characteristics of the different serotypes in different ecological systems (Loth et al. 2011). Further collection and analysis of samples, together with improved local epidemiological investigation into FMD outbreaks in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, is required to improve our understanding of the complex epidemiology of FMD in the region.
Foot-and-mouth disease is endemic in Africa and the epidemiology of the disease is more complicated than in other parts of the world (Vosloo et al. 2006), as six of the seven serotypes (O, A, C, SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3) have occurred in Africa (Rweyemamu et al. 2008; Vosloo et al. 2002). In addition to having endemic infection by six of the seven serotypes of FMDV, serotype distribution differs between regions and intratypic variants within serotypes occur (Vosloo et al. 2002). In Southern Africa, SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3 serotypes of FMDV are maintained by large numbers of African buffaloes (syncerus caffer), which provide a potential source of infection to domestic livestock and wild animals (Vosloo & Thomson 2004; Thomson et al. 2003).
In Zambia, FMD is endemic and the first outbreak was reported in 1933 (Overby & Zyambo 1983; Perry & Hedger 1984), but its epidemiology is still unknown. Data available indicate that there are three high-risk areas identified where FMD has occurred repeatedly (Figure 1). Rampant outbreaks of FMD are still observed in Zambia (Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MLFD) 2010; Knowles 2010) with the recent ones occurring in January and May 2012 in the Mbala and Kazungula districts, respectively. The genotypes of circulating FMDV serotypes in Zambia have not been studied. Furthermore, the occurrence and distribution pattern of the known serotypes in the country are not fully exploited and hence, poorly understood (Mulenga, pers. comm., 2012).
In this study, a panel of virological-detection assays, including Antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and RNA extraction followed by one-step real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), were used. This was done in order to determine the presence of the FMD viral genome and typing for the FMDV serotype responsible for the FMD outbreaks in Mbala and Kazungula districts of Zambia.
Materials and methods
Study area
The FMD outbreaks in cattle were suspected in January 2012 in the Mbala district in the Northern Province and in May 2012 in the Kazungula district in the Southern Province of Zambia (Figure 2 and Figure 3). The Mbala district is bordered with the Nsumbawanga region of Tanzania, whilst the Kazungula district is in the Zambezi basin. In both areas, there is subsistence-type of farming practice. The Mbala district has a livestock population of 21 560, whilst the Kazungula district has 65 125. In the Kazungula distict there is greater possibility of interaction between livestock and wildlife, as most of it is in a game management area (GMA). In the Mbala district there is less chance of interaction between the two because the nearest game park, Katavi National Park, is approximately 600 km away on the Tanzanian side; there are, however, reports of interaction of livestock in the border areas.
Sample collection
Epithelial tissues and probang samples were collected from FMD-suspected animals. All of the 60 (100%) samples examined were from bovine species. Of these, 47 (78.33%) were probang tissue samples, whilst 13 (21.66%) were epithelial tissues (three mouth tissues and 10 foot tissues). Samples were collected in duplicate from Mbala (n = 51) and Kazungula (n = 9). Areas where the samples were collected are shown in (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Seventeen (17) of the 51 samples collected from Mbala came from Itokoto, which is an area with no active cases, but is in close proximity to the outbreak area. The tissue specimens were collected as described by Kitching and Donaldson (1987) and the probang samples were taken as described in the OIE Terrestrial Manual (2010). The epithelial tissues were transported from the collection site to the diagnostic laboratory in 0.04 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.2 - pH 7.6) with 50% glycerol at 4 °C. The probang samples were placed in transport fluid (composed of 0.08 M phosphate buffer containing 0.010% bovine serum albumin, 0.002% phenol red and antibiotics) and adjusted to pH 7.2 (OIE Terrestrial Manual 2010). All specimens were packaged as described elsewhere (Kitching & Donaldson 1987) and shipped to the Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency (TVLA); copies were also submitted to the regional reference laboratory of the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI).
Virus isolation and typing
Epithelium samples were ground in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) using sand and a pestle and mortar to give a 10% suspension. These suspensions were tested in an antigen- detection ELISA (Roeder & Le Blanc Smith 1987) both at TVLA and BVI. Total RNA was extracted from the ground tissue suspension and the oesophageal-pharyngeal (OP) samples using QIAamp Viral RNA kit (QIAGEN, Germany) following manufacturer's instructions. To determine the presence of FMD viral RNA, samples were also tested by one-step qRT-PCRs targeting the 3D regions of the FMDV genome (Callahan et al. 2002) using an Agpath-ID One-step qRT-PCR kit (Applied Biosystems, USA) (P/N AM1005, 4387424, 4388519) according to manufactures instructions. A 7500 fast real-time PCR system machine (Applied Biosystems, USA) was used. At BVI, virus isolation was performed on two samples submitted; there was no virus isolated on the first and second passage. PCR, followed by sequencing, was performed later.
Out of a total of 257 cattle that were physically examined in both areas, 33 (12.8%) animals showed clinical signs and lesions suggestive of FMD. The principal clinical signs were salivation and lameness. Mouth lesions consisted of erosions and ulcers, which were mainly on the tongue and dental pad. Foot lesions comprised of erosions on the interdigital spaces and the coronary bands. On the latter, the lesions were so severe that the hoof tended to separate from the coronary band. The most-affected cattle showed foot lesions and, in most cases, healing mouth lesions where observed. No deaths were recorded during the outbreak in both districts.
Using a positive cut-off cycle threshold (Ct) value of 32.0 (Shaw et al. 2007), 22 (36.7%) samples were positive for FMDV genome by qRT-PCR (Figure 4), with Ct values ranging from 13 to 31. After repeat testing, 38 (63.3%) samples still showed Ct values of 'No Ct'; hence, they were considered to be no virus detected (NVD) and where excluded from further study. All the 13 (100%) of the epithelial tissues examined came out positive. The lowest Ct value of 13 was recorded from a sample from the Kazungula district, whilst the highest was a sample examined from the Mbala district, with a Ct value of 30. No virus was detected in all 17 samples collected from the Itokoto village, an area with no active cases of FMD. In general, samples collected from the Kazungula district showed lower Ct values than those collected from the Mbala district. The Ct values ranged between 13 and 18, indicating higher levels of viral RNA in the samples collected from the Kazungula district than those collected from the Mbala district (Table 1). Lower Ct values were observed for most epithelial tissues than those from the probang tissues, indicating that there were higher levels of viral RNA in the epithelial tissues than in the OP samples.
At TVLA, four of the 13 epithelial samples from Mbala demonstrated FMDV SAT 2 antigens by ELISA. At BVI, FMDV SAT 1 was demonstrated from the Kazungula samples and FMDV SAT 2 from the Mbala samples. History of previous vaccinations with serotype O in some areas was recorded in the Mbala district, whilst in the Kazungula district there was no history of vaccinations against FMDV.
Longjam et al. (2011) stated that for effective control of FMD, outbreaks should be detected at an early stage and persistent infections should be recognised to prevent further transmittance. The observation of high Ct values from samples in both outbreaks and clinical signs of FMD, coupled with the confirmation of SAT 2 from the Mbala samples and SAT 1 from the Kazungula samples at both TVLA and BVI, confirmed that the majority of the animals in these herds had been infected by FMDV. Due to the foot lesions characteristic of FMD, some animals were observed as having difficulties in moving; Hunter (1997) also observed this.
Using a positive cut-off Ct value of 32.0 (Shaw et al. 2007), it was noted that only eight of the 47 (17.02%) probang samples examined had Ct values below 32.0. This is contrary to the epithelial tissues, which showed a 100% positivity rate. It must be noted that the FMDV genome-positive samples from the epithelial tissues showed relatively higher Ct values compared to those obtained from the OP scraping; this was irrespective of geographical location. This could be attributed to the fact that there was much higher replication of the virus in the epithelial tissues compared to the OP samples; hence, more viral RNA was recovered from the epithelial cells than the OP cells. This could also be because epithelial tissues were from active clinical cases, whilst OP samples were from those recovering or from non-clinical cases. The one-step qRT-PCR generally showed much higher Ct values for the Kazungula samples than for the Mbala samples (Table 1). One of the contributing factors to this difference could be that different serotypes of FMDV could be responsible for the outbreaks in the two regions. Furthermore, samples from Mbala were collected in January 2012 and were subjected to longer storage time before being finally tested, as compared to the ones from Kazungula, which were only stored for two weeks before being examined. The storage facilities at Central Veterinary Research Institute (CVRI) were also questionable in terms of maintaining the cold chain due to frequent power cuts. Since samples were transported from Zambia to Tanzania by road, the maintenance of cold chain was also questionable, despite the fact that dry ice was used, as it took almost 36 hours for samples to arrive at the laboratory. These facts were also found to be true by Mwiine et al. (2009), who reported that the low rate of virus, despite healing lesions suggestive of FMDV, was probably due to long transportation times for samples and difficulties in maintaining the cold chain during both transportation and storage. It is worthwhile to note also that all the OP samples collected in the areas with no active cases of FMD were deemed to be no virus detected (NVD) by one-step qRT-PCR. This was a good negative control for the study and also showed the extent of the outbreaks.
During the investigation of the outbreak in the Kazungula district, a discussion with local people and wildlife officials in the area revealed that each year during the rainy season a herd of buffalo moves up into areas where there is human habitation and, at times, mingles with local herds of cattle. These buffalo, however, return to the game park after the rainy season. The fence that was in the Kazungula district and was meant to separate wildlife and domestic animals has since been vandalised and is no longer standing. This leads to free interaction of cattle and wildlife from the nearby Mosi-o Tunya National Park. In this outbreak, however, no buffalo were observed interacting with cattle. Furthermore, vaccinations where not conducted in some camps within the district. It is known that buffalo are important for their role in maintaining FMD infection and their ability of infecting other susceptible species in Sub-Saharan Africa (Thomson & Bastos 2004; Thomson et al. 2003). They have been shown to be the source of infection for impala and domestic animals in proximity of the Kruger National Park (KNP) and other game parks in southern Africa (Thomson & Bastos 2004).
In the Mbala district, previous outbreaks of FMD have been believed to be extensions of outbreaks in the Sumbawanga district of Tanzania, which borders the Mbala district of Zambia (Overby & Zyambo 1983; J. Banda, pers. comm., 2012). Despite the fact that there is no game park with herds of buffalo in the Mbala district, Katavi National Park in the Sumbawanga region of Tanzania is known to house a number of buffalo and these could be speculated to be the sources of the FMD outbreaks in this region. Furthermore, during the outbreak investigation, a discussion with the local people revealed that, fortnightly, there are organised local markets (commonly known as Munanda) in the Sumbawanga district and at these markets cattle fetch a much lower price compared to the price of cattle in Zambia. Villagers also revealed that cattle traders usually pass by the villages on their way home from these markets with their animals and at times ask for shelter to rest for a night or two. During this time, the traders' animals interact with the local animals. Intermarriages are also common on the borders and cattle are usually used for payment of the bride. This entails movement of animals from one family to another. In addition, pockets of farmers deliberately do not vaccinate their animals. The SAT 2 FMDV outbreaks in Mbala could be extensions from Tanzania, which has previously reported high incidences of FMD outbreaks along the borders (Picado et al. 2010). However, it should also be noted that there is a possibility of having more FMDV serotypes circulating in the area and that they could not be detected during this study. Previous reports (Knowles 2010) have indicated outbreaks of FMDV SAT 1 in 2009 and FMDV serotype O in 2010 in the same areas.
Conclusion and recommendations
This study has detected the FMDV genome in the samples collected from both the Mbala and Kazungula districts. Furthermore, four (40%) out of the total of 10 epithelial samples examined from the Mbala district using antigen ELISA at TVLA, showed high prevalence of antigens to FMDV serotypes SAT 2; this was also confirmed by results obtained from BVI. The study also detected FMDV SAT1 antigens from the Kazungula samples. It can thus be concluded that Zambia had FMD outbreaks in both the Kazungula and Mbala districts in 2012. Vosloo et al. (2003) stated that current outbreaks of FMD should be researched in order to ensure that vaccine strains could be appropriately matched against the strains currently in the field. It was with this background that this study was conducted.
This study could not conclude the sources of these outbreaks, although information on the ground indicated that they could be from buffalo in the Kazungula district. This would be due to the regular interaction between buffalo from the Mosi-o Tunya National Park and the domestic animals from the surrounding areas. Cross-border movements of animals between the Mbala district and the Sumbawanga region also play a major role in the FMD outbreaks in these areas. Thus, there is a need to conduct a phylogenetic analysis of the SAT2 outbreak in the Mbala district in order to infer the genetic relationship of viruses circulating in the two regions.
It is also recommended that cattle owners who take their livestock to graze in national parks should be sensitised on the potential risk of transmission of FMDV from cattle to wildlife. Restriction of animal movement must be enforced to minimise further trans-boundary transmission of the disease. This could be done by erecting cordon lines, setting up more veterinary camps and increasing the number of veterinary assistants (VA) in FMD high-risk areas, as the areas are too vast for the number of VAs currently manning them.
Because of the porous borders, a regional FMD control strategy should be developed. Furthermore, animal identification and the monitoring of animal movements are necessary to identify the cross-border movements and market chain interactions of ruminants; this would lead to improved border and movement controls. Stricter adherence to protocols for the issuance of movement permits should also be followed.
It also recommended that in order to characterise the circulating FMDV serotypes, more systematic epidemiological and molecular studies be carried out. These studies should be done not only in cattle but also in small ruminants and buffalo to ascertain their roles in the regular FMD outbreaks in Zambia. Therefore, for Zambia to properly control FMD there is a need to invest in scientifically valid epidemiological investigations in order to help devise a national strategic plan. This would include re-evaluation of the vaccines used and the role of wildlife animals in the transmission and maintenance of FMD.
This study was supported by the Southern Africa Centre for infectious disease Surveillance (SACIDS) and the SADC-TADS project in Zambia. The authors would like to thank George Thobokwe for virus isolation and typing and Milner Mukubwali for digitising maps of the Kazungula and Mbala districts. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Grant WT087546MA to the Southern African Centre for Infectious Diseases & Surveillance (SACIDS).
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Authors' contributions
F.B. (Sokoine University of Agriculture and Central Veterinary Research Institute, Zambia) prepared the manuscript, collected samples, performed most of the experiments and edited the manuscript. C.J.K. (Sokoine University of Agriculture) undertook the experimental design and edited the manuscript. R.S. (Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency) performed some laboratory work. Y.S. (University of Zambia) collected samples and proofread the manuscript. T.W.S. (Central Veterinary Research Institute, Zambia) prepared the samples. M.M. (Southern African Development Community Secretariat, Botswana) proofread the manuscript and designed the project. M.M.R. (Sokoine University of Agriculture) designed the project. P.N.W. (Sokoine University of Agriculture) offered mentorship and helped to prepare the manuscript.
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Frank Banda
PO Box 33980
Lusaka, Zambia
Note: Proceedings of the 2nd One Health Conference in Africa. Jointly organised by the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance and the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research, held at the Snow Crest Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania from 16th to 19th April 2013: http://www.sacids.org/kms/frontend/index.php?m=119.


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Amber Valletta partners with IFAW to help California whales
Actress and activist Amber Valletta joins the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.4825412.com) at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, California, September 26 – 28 to raise awareness of entangled whales in California.
"It is upsetting to imagine such a magnificent creature with ropes and other marine debris wrapped around its body," said Ms. Valletta, an IFAW Honorary Board member. "It can cause life-threatening injuries to whales and can often be dangerous for their rescuers as well."
Boaters and other ocean users are urged to call the toll free entangled whale hotline,
1- 877-SOS-WHALe, to report the exact location of an entangled whale. The information is immediately routed to the California Whale Entanglement Team (W.E.T.) – an organized crew of local and regional marine mammal professionals and volunteers that have received special training to respond to large whale entanglements along the state's coastline.
"Whale entanglement is considered one of the leading threats for all large whale species," said Patrick Ramage, IFAW Whale Program Director. "And it places the animal at risk of drowning, starvation or infection. Quickly summoning expert help provides the best opportunity for the entrapped whale's survival."
Under the jurisdiction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), W.E.T.'s highly-skilled teams of marine biologists, veterinarians, mariners, and other volunteers use specialized equipment, including satellite radio buoys when appropriate, in their attempts to free the entangled mammals.
To reinforce W.E.T.'s response to whale entanglements, IFAW has equipped the group with a full supply of disentanglement tools, along with a portable trailer – W.E.T. on Wheels – to transport the gear needed to rescue entangled whales in crises. NOAA, Monterey-based Marine Life Studies and the Fluke Foundation have also contributed to W.E.T.'s efforts.
Most of the large whale species that inhabit the waters off the California coast are listed as endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The loss of only a few animals can have an impact on certain whale populations making it difficult for the species to recover.
"California's whales – and all of the world's whales - should be protected," added Ms. Valletta. "IFAW works globally to address the increasing entanglements and other urgent threats whales face. I'm proud to join them in this important work."
In the three years that the whale hotline has been active, 38 entangled whales were reported. Twenty whales were reported as entangled off the central California counties of Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco and Monterey.
Complimentary stickers and other items promoting the whale entanglement hotline will be available at the IFAW booth at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival at the Portola Hotel in Monterey, and in retail shops throughout the Monterey Bay Peninsula.
About IFAW
Founded in 1969, IFAW saves animals in crisis around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats. For more information, visit www.4825412.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About WET
California W.E.T. (Whale Entanglement Team) is a group of marine mammal professionals and volunteers under the direction of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Protected Resources and under the authority of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. W.E.T. is tasked with responding to whales entangled in fishing gear and marine debris.


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2012/11/06 - Longines the new Ladies Diamond Conquest – Sporty elegance in black and white
The Ladies Diamond Conquest models combine the brilliance of precious stones with the strength of ceramic in black and white. The dynamic beauty of those models, achieved through a marriage of sporty design and glittering diamonds, echoes the fine balance between performance and elegance. Sporty women who appreciate elegance will find exactly what they are looking for.
The Ladies Diamond Conquest models are aimed at those women who enjoy sport but are not willing to compromise on elegance. Thanks to the use of diamonds and the innovative combination with ceramic, these models add a touch of sophistication to the sporty beauty of Longines' range of products. With its delicate balance, the Ladies Diamond Conquest watch is the ideal timepiece to weapon many occasions; during an equestrian competition, a tennis tournament or while having fun on the ski slopes, but in the same vein it will add a touch of elegance worn for a cocktail party or a formal dinner.
These glittering timepieces boast a dynamic beauty which has been achieved by the use of ceramic embellished with 54 Top Wesselton VVS diamonds set around the inside of the bezel and on the dial. The bezel and the bracelet are reinforced by the use of white or black ceramic while the matching dial – white mother-of-pearl or black – completes the appeal of this model.
The Ladies Diamond Conquest models have a screw-down case back while the crown has a lateral protection. They are water-resistant to 5 bar and the bracelets have a triple safety folding clasp. The stainless steel case has a diameter of 35 mm and houses a quartz movement that shows the hours, minutes, seconds and date.
Thanks to their delicate balance between performance and elegance, these robust timepieces are ideal for women who enjoy sport but at the same time appreciate refinement. The Ladies Diamond Conquest models have added a new dimension to the Longines Sport Collection thanks to the inclusion of diamonds and the combination of these precious gems with the strength of ceramic.
Copyright © 2012 Watch Mobile 7


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Fashion Ring
In Stock | STYLE: 002-200-03715
Two-Tone Sterling Silver and 22 Karat Yellow Gold Vermeil Ring With One Round Blue Topaz Ring Size 7 Can be special ordered or re-sized per request. Please contact for details. Local Tahoe Artist from Homewood!... *Prices are subject to change based on fluctuations in metal prices and currencies
Michele is a Tahoe local designer. She calls her jewelry "Art to Wear," and indeed each piece is a diminutive sculpture created with exquisite, one-of-a-kind details: Tiny, gleaming hinges that move between fluid elements of filigree, granulation, scrollwork, or reppousse; luscious 22 Karat Yellow Gold vermeil accents; vibrant faceted stones set against gleaming sterling silver, polished bright or brushed to a pearlescent finish. Michele's Art to Wear jewelry is perfect for every occasion, with dramatic pieces born of inspired vision and lovingly brought to life, suitable for both night and day.


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Reliable Skip Hire, Waste Removal, and Recycling Services
The first step when scheduling a skip hire in Greenwich, SE10 South East London is choosing which skip size you need from our skip size guide. From small skips for household waste to RORO containers for professional construction, our skip size guide will help you hire the right skip for the job.
Hiring a Skip in Greenwich, SE10 South East London
You'll find plenty of useful information in our Skip Hire Guide and FAQ, covering topics such as allowed materials, road permits, recycling and delivery times. If you prefer to speak to a representative of C & G Skip Hire & Waste Management our dedicated sales team is waiting to answer your questions.
Midi skips are ideal for larger amounts of household or garden waste. They are also commonly used for commercial waste. Midi skips measure 3' 2" (0.97m) high, 6' (1.83m) long and 4' 3"wide (1.29m). You can put about 35-45 black bags into a midi skip.
Our most popular skip, the builders skip is used in the building trade and for larger domestic renovations. Builder skips measure 4' (1.22m) high, 12' (3.66m) long and 5' 6" wide (1.68m). You can put about 65-85 black bags into a builders skip.
We offer several different sized enclosed skips for asbestos disposal and hazardous waste. If you are unsure about the kind of waste you need to remove or would like more information about our asbestos and hazardous waste services please contact us for advice.
Large skips are higher than standard builders skips. Again, they are suitable for builders and for all domestic renovations. Large skips measure 5' 3" (1.6m) high, 13' 8 " (4.2m) long and 6' wide (1.84m). You can put about 180-210 black bags into a large skip.
Contact us today
Contact us in London schedule a skip hire for your project.
Call:020 3369 0684
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
7 Mercury Way, London,
Opening Hours:
Monday–Friday, 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | Saturday, 7:00a.m.–12:00p.m.
Areas Served for Local Skip Hire in South East London:
Skip Hire in Abbey Wood | Skip Hire in Blackheath | Skip Hire in Catford | Skip Hire in Charlton | Skip Hire in Deptford | Skip Hire in Eltham | Skip Hire in Forest hill | Skip Hire in Greenwich | Skip Hire in Grove park | Skip Hire in Hither Green | Skip Hire in Kidbrooke | Skip Hire in Lee | Skip Hire in Lewisham | Skip Hire in New Cross | Skip Hire in New Eltham | Skip Hire in Plumstead | Skip Hire in Sydenham | Skip Hire in Thamesmead | Skip Hire in Woolwich


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Rodney Liber needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 54 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
Justice For All
We are launching a book in one month that will talk about what is wrong with America's Financial System, Court System, Healthcare System etc.
The Target Audience will be all Americans and Leaders of America.
First of All, the Logo/Book cover title is "Justice for All" (with the "All" crossed out). Underneath the title will be "Saving Justice in America".
IMPORTANT: Not only do we want this as a logo, but with each logo you submit we want a book cover with it as well. If there is no book cover, we will not accept the logo. So, the logo will go on a website so keep that in mind, but we also want a book cover with the cover being the logo.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS: We want an American Theme, Flag, Crimson, White and Blue, Patriotic. You are allowed to get real creative. We are looking for uniqueness.
If this book was sitting on a shelf, we want it to reach out and grab your attention.
The overall theme of the book is Truth, Justice and Common Sense.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text: You can look into OpenAFS but be warned that you have to know infrastructure software quite well (LDAP+kerberos). It's cross-platform, can be distributed but don't think it's up to multiple writes on different mirrors though. Le vendredi 8 décembre 2006 21:36, samit a écrit : > hello list, > > i am looking for a application (most preferably, but not necessarily OSS or > free software) and that can create distributed, reliable, fault tolerant, > decentralized, high preformance file server. I've looked at few P2P file > storing solutions that store multiple copies of file in different server for > data reliability but i havent found any solution that would help me access a > file as flexibly like the local file with high preformance. Cross platform > solution would be even better as i want to aovoid the SMB overhead if its > just a linux based solution! > > PLEASE RECOMENT ME SOMETHING!? feel free to suggest any solutions that even > qualifies half of this criteria! > > -bipin > -- Eric Thibodeau Neural Bucket Solutions Inc. T. (514) 736-1436 C. (514) 710-0517


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First two PhDs awarded at fall commencement
UH Hilo Home > News and Events > UH Hilo Press Releases
Date: Friday, December 17, 2010
Contact: Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, (808) 974-7642
For Immediate Release
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will present two doctorates in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization at fall commencement, to be held Saturday, December 18 at 9 a.m., at the New Gym. The honors go to Katarina Edmonds, a Maori educator from New Zealand, and Kauanoe Kamanā, the first of Native Hawaiian ancestry to receive the PhD awarded by UH Hilo's Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language.
"The PhD is our highest academic honor and investing these two students with doctoral degrees is highly significant," said UH Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney. "And as the first doctorate presented by the College of Hawaiian Language to a Native Hawaiian student, this event marks a major milestone in the history of UH Hilo and the island of Hawai'i."
Kamanā has over 30 years of personal and professional experience in Hawaiian language revitalization. She is a founding member of the non-profit `Aha Pūnana Leo, the leading language revitalization organization in the United States. She serves as the director of Ke Kula `O Nāwahīokalani'ōpu'u, the internationally renowned P-12 Hawaiian immersion laboratory school in Kea'au, Hawaiʻi.
Kamanā's dissertation is entitled "Mo'oki'ina Ho'oponopono: Ke Ō O Ka 'Ike Ku'una Hawai'i Ma Ke Kula 'O Nāwahīokalani'ōpu'u," with a focus on traditional Hawaiian conflict resolution practices at the immersion school.
UH Hilo's College of Hawaiian Language awarded its first PhD in December 2008 to Edmonds, who specializes in language proficiency assessment. She was unable to attend commencement ceremonies at conferment, and so will be honored along with Kamanā on December 18.
Edmonds first began teaching in a Maori immersion school in 1989, and established a program for the professional development of Maori medium education at the Language Institute and the School of Maori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato. She also has served as a policy analyst and curriculum facilitator at the New Zealand Ministry of Education National Office. She currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi.
Edmonds's dissertation determined the reliability and validity of proficiency tests in writing.
Disclaimer: The University of Hawaii at Hilo is not responsible for the contents, links and/or materials presented in any web site listed above that are not of the "hilo.hawaii.edu" or ".uhh.hawaii.edu" domains. All comments, complaints and grievances should be filed with the author, host and/or owner of said site.


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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Agricultural bankers and other players in the world's grain markets say fallout from the collapse of giant broker MF Global is changing cash grain trading and fueling calls for alternatives and reforms.
Trading changes include more "back to back" transactions and more direct contracting by farmers to end users, eliminating middlemen like MF Global, merchandisers say.
Bankers and traders also say anger with lack of oversight by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's clearing house regarding MF Global's supposedly secure customer accounts is rampant, spurring calls for more regulation of a traditionally close-knit, clubby and "self-regulating" industry.
Proposals have included the idea of setting up a separate "insurance fund" to hold the so-called "segregated" accounts that futures commission merchants (FCM's) now hold and account for with the exchange clearinghouse, which is supposed to "mark to market" every trade every day to assure adequate capital.
Up to $1.2 billion in such segregated customer funds are still missing eight weeks after MF Global collapsed into bankruptcy after a revelation it had made a $6 billion bet on European sovereign debt that went sour.
"I don't think people are satisfied with CME's response. What the banks thought was rock solid isn't as rock solid any more," said Lance Holden, senior vice president with Wells Fargo Bank, the largest private lender to agribusiness that had customers who lost funds with MF Global.
CME Group chief operating officer Bryan Durkin told a packed meeting of the National Grain and Feed Association this month, echoing earlier testimony by CME executives to Congress, that MF Global was the culprit, not CME's clearing house.
"This was the failure of a firm. A firm that broke the rules, not the failure of any clearing house. At CME, we met our obligations," Durkin told the gathering of 700 farm bankers, grain traders, brokers and farmers in Chicago.
"We believe all customers affected should have their full balances and property returned by MF Global. Until then, we will not consider the process complete," Durkin said.
CME, looking to line up with its futures-trading customers and the banks like Wells Fargo who finance them, has pledged at least $550 million to the court trustee now sorting out the MF Global mess to help make good customers who were victimized.
But CME will need to do more, grain traders said.
"We want to get the confidence back and restore confidence with the lenders too," said Diana Klemme, vice president of Grain Services Corp in Atlanta, which advises grain buyers and sellers on marketing and risk strategies.
"In the end the loss of even a dime by users of the system will have a chilling impact," said Jeff Hainline, president of Advance Trading, an Illinois brokerage with many farmer and farm cooperative clients.
As the CME's regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as Congress and the bankruptcy court try to sort out accountability for the missing funds, many farmers and grain traders have backed off using CME's grain futures, the world pricing and risk-management benchmark for decades.
"We are watching closely how these events play out to figure out what do we need to ask more of from a counter-party risk standpoint," said Sam Miller, senior vice president of agricultural banking at M&I Bank in Appleton, Wisconsin, who had customers who lost money with MF Global.
Miller said he's seeing more interest among bank customers to sell commodities directly to end-users but they are looking at all their choices -- over-the-counter privately negotiated deals, options markets, and back-to-back deals where purchases and sales are done simultaneously.
"We do see more contracts between a seller and somebody who is actually going to use the product," Miller said.
"There are some real concerns about figuring out just what happened and how we make sure the situation never repeats," said NGFA Treasurer and director of marketing Todd Kemp. "Of course, the number one issue among customers right now is return of supposedly segregated funds to customers."
Kemp said NGFA members, which include more than 1,000 firms who buy and sell grain, will find it hard to market grain without the CME. But confidence has been deeply shaken in the CME and the FCM's who hold customer funds, he said.
"Our task in that respect is to re-establish confidence and examine changes that might help ensure safety of customer funds in the future," he said. "Some have suggested that we might look at changes in which entity holds customer funds.
"Instead of the FCM, should the clearinghouse or exchange, or maybe some independent third party, hold the funds? Should we look at extending some form of insurance to commodity accounts?" Kemp said. "Our Risk Management Committee will begin those discussions soon."
Oversight and accountability must be addressed, he added.
"NGFA historically has not been an organization that believes in more government regulation. However, it's clear that in some way customer protections need to be improved," Kemp said.
Even bankers may seek more regulation -- of brokers.
"Futures trading is supposed to be riskless from the transaction side. If you've got outside risk, people may use different types of products," said Holden of Wells Fargo.
Grain elevators, farmers and others using futures markets to hedge price risk often borrow 90 percent or more of the value of their crops or livestock to finance futures trades.
The government-linked Farm Credit System (FCS), for example, lent some $6 billion to make sure grain elevators could make margin calls when grain prices plummeted in 2008.
So grain traders are closely watching the stance of CoBank, the Denver-based FCS bank with $62 billion in assets and one of the biggest lenders to U.S. grain elevators.
"CoBank has not changed its credit policies in light of the events at MF Global." Lori O'Flaherty, chief credit officer for CoBank, told Reuters in an interview. "But the failure of this institution highlights the need for close monitoring of counterparty risk, both by banks and their customers, during these volatile economic times."
Bankers said CME will also remain squarely in the grain industry's sights, as an institution that must re-earn trust.
"CME -- all of the exchanges have been focused on contracts, more growth, all these hedge funds, private equity funds that are getting into these markets. They are focused on that instead of their base business," Holden said. "That something like missing segregated funds could happen -- that's a big miss."
(Editing by Peter Bohan, Leslie Gevirtz)
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.


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Brolly Sheets necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 34 diseños de 6 diseñadores freelance.
Brolly Sheets Ltd
Hi designers. I can't wait to see what you can do with mattress protectors!!!
Brolly Sheets is an online store that sells waterproof bedding to the child, senior and disability markets. We sell our products mainly in Australia and New Zealand, although we now have a duplicate UK site. We specialise in waterproof bedding for young and old that is cotton topped, looks great and is easy to care for. We believe that protective bedding can look and feel great and still work. We want to give our customers a healthy nights sleep with peace of mind.
Our site is several years old and so we are looking to refresh and revitalise it.
I'm not looking for a cookie-cutter "online retail website". All of our competitor products are quite sterile and hospital looking - and this has been the nature of waterproof products before we came along. I want this difference reflected in our design.
Our aim over the next few years is to triple our sales and as our website is our 'shop front" it needs some wow factor.
We are looking at a brand new site in 2012, but meanwhile we want a design that will fit with our existing "template" style site. My programmer needs to implement the new design without changing the technical structure to the page. So we can change colours, move the layout around plus we want to add wallpaper.
At present the majority of our customers coming to our site are parents of toilet training children. We are trying to grow the senior and disability markets, hence we do not to appear "too childlike" with lots of images of children. So it is important to appeal to all three markets.
• Professional website emphasizing quality and trust
• The website should appear simple and efficient
• I want a one-page concept for our new homepage. Ideally a similar styled page could be used for sub-pages, but we are initially looking for a great front page.
• I have a logo that makes strong use of turquoise. I'd like to continue using this, as it presents our brand strongly, but the overall treatment of the page should be light.
• Our tag line is "Take the hassle out of a wet bed".
• Most competitor sites are quite sterile and hospital looking. Wet beds aren't fun for anyone, but like a Brolly Sheet – we can still make a stylish product that works.
• On the home page we want space for a "feature product" so we can update with new products on a regular basis.
• I would like a wallpaper that appears each side of the page – see example website for Whippersnapper. The wallpaper could be rain drops, umbreallas or any sort of pattern that fits with the design.
• Once a design is picked we would ideally like a style guide for the text headings. There will be 4 header options decreasing in emphasis, size and colours.
Home page
• Left and top menus to have the same content.
• Footer details to retain the same content
• Anything else can change
• Links to our social media? Or to us showing products on You Tube? Not sure if these are good ideas or not to have on a home page?
http://www.BrollySheets.com and http://www.BrollySheets.co.uk
I think our exsiting sites make it easy for customers to buy, they just look a bit "white and boring". Wallpaper would deffinately help.
http://www.whippersnapper.co.nz : I like the wallpaper and the fact the darker blue of the heading goes across the whole page, plus the buttons (home, shop, your questions etc) are not separate buttons but one long strip. It looks very clean and easy to use. So just the wallpaper and headings on this site are good examples, not the content.
http://www.wallacecotton.com – clean
http://www.vanillacupcake.co.nz – Fun, funky great colours


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Magazeen (Feat. Rick Ross) - 7-11 Hustle
The official video for Rick Ross' artist Magazeen's "711" shot in
Directed by SpiffTV.
Posted by @WorldStarVids
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alentine's Weekend and Cape
February 17, 2009 by: Susan Goldsmith
Well, finally, things seemed back to normal at Boreas Inn–we had a wonderfully busy long weekend with lovely guests. The weather was glorious, the stars were brilliant each night, and the Long Beach Peninsula was looking beautiful.
Over the last two nights, we had a couple staying in The Dunes Suite on their honeymoon. Around our age, these two amazing people were in so many ways very inspiring to us. (This is one of the real rewards of this work–we get to meet phenomenal people!) Alan has metastatic prostate cancer, is solid and hopeful and that helped us to be as optimistic as he is! He is totally in love with his new wife, Susan, who is like an old friend. After the wedding, she tripped and dislocated her left ring finger (I think), and of course, she's left-handed. Her hand was swollen and very painful. In spite of all the challenges, they were extremely gracious with us and so very loving with each other. How fortunate that they found each other and graced Boreas. Alan, as it turns out, is a most talented photographer. Yesterday, he caught an eagle in a classic pose down in the wetlands area at Beard's Hollow at Cape Disappointment State Park. I tried to to copy the eagle image he sent me, but the format couldn't copy so I will ask him to re-send the photographs as attachments. He loves taking pictures of flowers–and I may copy some of those onto a blog when I get a chance. Alan and Susan will be back to celebrate their first anniversary next year. Hopefully they will be back sooner!
The Chocolate Lover's Dinner at The Depot Restaurant was phenomenal this past weekend. Our guests loved it! I forgot to bring home a menu. The specialty dinners at our local restaurants never cease to amaze me. We had an early Valentine's dinner there on Friday night to celebrate Bill's birthday, which was marred by his fracturing his right ankle on the 10th. It's as swollen as Susan's left hand. He will get more x-rays tomorrow and find out the prognosis.
Now for a bit of trivia about one of the most frequently asked questions at Boreas. For those of you who don't know why Cape Disappointment and the Columbia River was so named, here's the explanation courtesy of Washington State Parks. In 1788, while in search of the Columbia River, English Captain John Meares missed the passage over the river bar and named the nearby headland Cape Disappointment for his failure in finding the river. In 1792, American Captain Robert Gray successfully crossed the river bar and named the river "Columbia" after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. Only a few years later, in 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at Cape Disappointment. So now you have the real story!


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We collect information about your visit to our website that will help us diagnose problems and to make our website more user-friendly. This information includes which portions of the site are most heavily used and which external websites or search terms are used to locate our site. While all cases are tracked for this information, all users remain anonymous and no personal information is collected.
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