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Across the country, school is about to open, if it hasn't already. Many teachers, both veteran and novice, will meet a new group of bright, hopeful faces in their classrooms. Among these students, there are sure to be ELLs, or English Language Learners. As the face of our nation changes, so too must the strategies and tools we carry to meet the needs of our diverse students.
I invite you to visit the website Colorin Colorado. For the past several years, I have been part of the ELL Educator Cadre of practioners from across the United States. We have worked with the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and the developers of the website, creating materials on professional development, and advising on special projects, strategies, and best practices for ELLs.
If you work with ELLs or their parents, you will find this website to be most useful. There is a "For Educators" section, as well as a "For Parents" section, which can be accessed in either English or Spanish. There are ready-to-use tip sheets and newsletters you can use with the parents of your students. The site also contains research, articles, podcasts/webcasts, and literally everything you ever needed to know about how to best serve your ELLs.
The site also offers reading tip sheets in 11 other languages, ready to copy and send out to parents.
Be sure to check out Colorin Colorado! Tell your colleagues! Share this resource with the parents of your students!
Bilingual thoughts on life, language, learning, and all things Latina.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
If you teach ELLs - you NEED this website!
2 comments:
- Bingolady said...
Hey Cassy!
You have been awarded as one of my "I heart blog" :)
You can pick it up here:
Keep up the blogging :)
- September 1, 2008 at 3:28 PM
- Betty said...
Thanks for the link to Colorin Colorado. I will definitely share it with others.
- September 1, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Consensus Report
Levees and the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Policies and Practices (2013)Water Science and Technology Board
Each report is produced by a committee of experts selected by the Academy to address a particular statement of task and is subject to a rigorous, independent peer review; while the reports represent views of the committee, they also are endorsed by the Academy. Learn more on our expert consensus reports.
In recent years, extreme storms and hurricanes have caused increasingly disastrous flooding along U.S. rivers and coastlines, with much of the damage occurring when levees failed or were overtopped by water. This report examines how FEMA National Flood Insurance Program assesses, mitigates, and insures against flood risk behind levees, and how the program communicates that risk to the public. FEMA needs an updated approach to analyze and manage flood risk to give public officials and individual property owners a more precise idea of the risks they face, the report finds. Because no levee completely eliminates flood risk, more effective communication is needed to increase awareness and encourage communities behind levees to use multiple methods to manage flood risk.
Key Messages
- In analyzing flood risk, the National Flood Insurance Program should move to a modern risk-based analysis that uses 21st century computational and mapping techniques to produce state-of-the-art risk estimates for all areas vulnerable to flooding. Such an approach would give individual property owners a more accurate view of the risks they face. It would also assess how well levee systems are likely to perform, informing communities of their levee systems' limits and potential vulnerabilities – information that current analyses do not provide.
- While purchasing flood insurance is an effective way for property owners behind levees to deal with financial risk from floods, at this time there is no sound reason to institute mandatory purchase of flood insurance in areas behind accredited levees. The mandatory purchase requirement has not been effective at achieving widespread purchase of flood insurance in areas of the floodplain without levees; extending it to areas with levees – where the level of flood risk for many properties is unknown and where the challenges of risk communication are great -- would not be a prudent step. Once the modern risk analysis has been put in place and matures, FEMA should study whether the mandatory purchase requirement is necessary throughout flood hazard areas and behind levees.
- Because levees can reduce but not eliminate the risk of flooding, FEMA should encourage communities behind levees to use multiple methods to reduce risk and increase awareness of these risks. In addition to structural methods such as levees and floodways, communities should consider non-structural techniques, which include flood-proofing, elevating or relocating structures, evacuation planning, and the purchase of flood insurance.
- The Levee Analysis and Mapping Procedure (LAMP), a new approach proposed by FEMA to help assess the flood risk in areas protected by levees, is a reasonable first cut at dealing with the potential contributions of levees that do not meet FEMA's standards for protection against the one percent annual chance flood. However, implementing LAMP would divert effort away from a move to a modern risk-based approach. FEMA should move directly to more modern risk-based analyses for dealing with areas behind levees and not implement the LAMP approach. Interim steps to deal with non-accredited levees are proposed in the report.
- Using a more modern risk analysis would help FEMA set insurance rates in ways that more appropriately reflect flood risk. By employing advances in hydrology, meteorology, geotechnology, and engineering, such an analysis could more precisely calculate the probability of water inundation levels and the associated damage estimates throughout an area in a graduated fashion.
- An important part of managing flood risk is to ensuring that communities understand the risks they face. FEMA and others involved in communicating about flood risk at all levels should incorporate contemporary risk communication principles into their efforts. FEMA should communicate flood risk through a collaborative approach that works with and provides strong support to local communities.
- One challenge to flood risk communication at the federal level is uncoordinated messaging. Developing one federal message, using consistent terminology, transparent data, and open discussion about flood risk is critical to inform the affected communities who, in turn, communicate and manage risk at the local level. FEMA should assume a leadership role in providing direction for research, development, and release of flood risk communication products and maps.
- FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are challenged by different approaches to risk analysis. Technical and programmatic differences in the evaluation of flood hazards and levees systems can compromise inter-agency communication and cause confusion and frustration in the local community. FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should jointly develop a common, risk-based approach to levee assessment in a timely manner, and apply this approach to all levees assessed by the two agencies. This includes a joint methodology, procedure, and where feasible, the sharing of models and other risk analysis tools.

subset: commoncrawl


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Some people doubt that new Eagles coach Chip Kelly can succeed in the NFL with the same kind of offense he ran at Oregon. But 49ers running back LaMichael James, who played for Kelly at Oregon, has news for those doubters: James says Kelly's offense is already working in the NFL.
According to James, the offense that the 49ers have been running since Colin Kaepernick became their starting quarterback employs the same concepts that made Oregon's spread offense work.
"Once Kaepernick got in there, we went to a lot of spread stuff so it is a lot of the same stuff I have been doing," James said at Super Bowl Media Day. "It is pretty much similar. You are in the gun and is pretty much a zone read offense. It has been doing a great job helping me out being a young player and doing some stuff I am familiar with."
Asked if a read-option offense can succeed over the long term in the NFL, even after defenses have had a lot of film to study and a lot of time to prepare for it, James said, "I believe so. Anytime you have a quarterback like Colin Kaepernick you can pretty much do anything."
James also said he's confident that Kelly is going to win with the Eagles.
"I think he is going to do a great job," James said of Kelly. "He gets the best out of his players and he is going to be a phenomenal coach out there."
With Kelly taking over the Eagles and Kaepernick taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl, we may be seeing a major offensive shift in the NFL.


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Fungal Infections (Candida)
Fungal infections are estimated to occur in over a billion people each year, and recent evidence suggests the rate is increasing (Hsu 2011; Di Santo 2010; Brown 2012; Fungal Research Trust 2011). Fungi can infect almost any part of the body including skin, nails, respiratory tract, urogenital tract, alimentary tract, or can be systemic (Long 2009; Baron 1996). Anyone can acquire a fungal infection, but the elderly, critically ill, and individuals with weakened immunity, due to diseases such as HIV/AIDS or use of immunosuppressive medications, have a higher risk (Hsu 2011; Baddley 2011).
Although several species of fungi are potentially pathogenic in humans, candida (esp. Candida albicans) is the organism responsible for most fungal infections. Candida, which is normally present within the human body, is usually harmless. However, it can cause symptoms when a weakened immune system or other factors allow it to grow unabated (Merck Manual 2008; Cheng 2012; Douglas 2011).
Increased use of antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids are major factors contributing to higher frequency of fungal infections. Antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs, by disrupting normal bacterial colonization and suppressing the immune system, create an environment within the body in which fungi can thrive (Hsu 2011; Tani 2012).
Fungal infections can range in severity from superficial to life-threatening. For example, fungal infections affecting only the top layers of the skin are readily treatable and have a relatively limited impact on quality of life. However, if a fungal infection enters systemic circulation, consequences can be deadly (Badiee 2011; Zuber 2001).
Many integrative medical practitioners believe that chronic, low-level candida infestation can cause a variety of non-specific symptoms that may resemble chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety, or fibromyalgia. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "candida-related complex". Conventional medical practitioners do not recognize candida-related complex as a disease. However, many innovative healthcare practitioners report improvements in patient quality of life upon treatment (Gaby 2011).
Upon reading this protocol, you will have a better understanding of the various ways that fungi can infect a human host, and how conventional medicine treats these infections. In addition, you will discover several natural compounds that have anti-fungal activity and may complement conventional treatments for fungal infections.


text: Engine oil acts as a coolant as well as a lubricant. If oil is allowed to get too hot, horsepower drops, varnishes form, and oil starts to break down. Our new line of heavy duty oil coolers offer longer life to engines and components, and reduce the stress created by high performance engine modifications. Also suitable as heavy duty transmission oil coolers.


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Press Enter to perform search.
If you are unable to configure your siRNA plates online, enter the data in the Microsoft Excel template. Please do not remove the headings in the first row of the spreadsheet.
Be sure to include the MS Word Order Form containing your customer information along with the siRNA data in the spreadsheet.


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#161 Work Faster with Text Editing Shortcuts
April 11, 2013
It can be very time consuming to switch between using the mouse and the keyboard to edit text documents. But with these shortcuts, you can perform functions such as selecting one word or one line at a time without touching the mouse:
- CTRL+Left or Right Arrow – Skip the cursor ahead by one word
- SHIFT+Left or Right Arrow – Select one character at a time
- CTRL+SHIFT+Left or Right Arrow – Select one word at a time
- SHIFT+Up or Down Arrow – Select one line at a time
- CTRL+SHIFT+Up or Down Arrow – Select one paragraph at a time
These shortcuts work in Microsoft Office programs and WordPerfect documents. You can also use these shortcuts to quickly format the text that you select:
- CTRL+B – Bold
- CTRL+I – Italic
- CTRL+U – Underline
You can really speed up your workflow if you use these in conjunction with the shortcuts mentioned in this previous tip.


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White House Will Allow Some To Buy Catastrophic Health Plans
Health-Care Law Tweak Addresses People Whose Polices Were Canceled Under New Rules
The Obama administration said Thursday it would allow some of the millions of Americans whose insurance policies had been canceled to purchase bare-bones plans next year, in another 11th-hour tweak to the law likely to cause consternation among health insurers.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a group of six senators in a letter that people whose policies had been canceled because of new requirements under the Affordable Care Act would be allowed to purchase "catastrophic" plans. Those...


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Connecticut's Insurance exchange preparations praised in federal 'readiness review'
The state's new online marketplace being set up for health insurance has made significant progress toward becoming operational on or soon after the Oct. 1 target date, Kevin Counihan, chief executive officer of the quasi-public agency setting up the new insurance exchanges, said Wednesday.
Counihan, in a phone conference with journalists, said he and other staff at Access Health CT met last week with federal officials overseeing implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a "readiness review."
"We did well and received high praise," he said.
Richard Olague, spokesman for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is continuing to test systems with states and has been pleased by the progress thus far.
Before the new system - which would allow insurance shoppers to compare and enroll in one of 31 plans that will be offered - can start operating, federal officials have to give conditional approval.
Full approval would come a few months later, Counihan said.
The online system being developed will be ready for performance testing by mid-September, he said. Those who sign up between October and December would be covered starting Jan. 1.
In preparation for the new system, Access Health CT has begun training 300 "assisters" who would use laptop computers to enroll people one-on-one in their communities. Many of those being trained are from nonprofit social service and health agencies. Counihan said Access Health CT also has a marketing campaign to get the word out about the exchanges, using concert sponsorship, billboards and social media as well as traditional media.
In addition to signing up through the assisters, people will also be able to sign up on their own through the Access Health CT website, www.accesshealthct.com. The agency is also planning to open offices in New Britain and New Haven where people can meet with staff who would help them enroll. The New Britain office is scheduled for an October opening, while the New Haven office would open several weeks later. Additional offices may be added in the future, said Kathleen Tallarita, government and public affairs outreach manager for the agency.
Access Health CT is hoping to enroll at least 100,000 uninsured Connecticut residents through the exchanges in the first year, Tallarita said. There are about 344,000 uninsured Connecticut residents.
Plans will be available through the exchange in three tiers, ranked gold, silver and bronze. In addition, the exchange will offer high-deductible catastrophic coverage for 18- to 30-year-olds that would cover emergency hospital care, some wellness visits and three primary care or mental health visits annually, Tallarita said.
Counihan said about 72 percent of state residents who sign up through the exchanges will be eligible for federal subsidies toward the cost of insurance.
A calculator on the Access Health CT website provides estimates of how much residents can expect to pay for insurance plans through the exchanges.
For a family of four with an annual income of $75,000, for example, the monthly premium would be $1,284. But the family would pay only $690 per month, with the remaining $594 covered by a federal tax credit.
In another example, a business with 10 employees, with an annual payroll of $450,000 and health insurance premium costs of $150,000, would receive a $10,500 tax credit in the first year, increasing to $15,000 in 2014, according to the calculator.
Stories that may interest you
New London Green Party mulls challenge to secretary of the state
The leader of the New London Green Party said the party is considering a court challenge to a decision by the Secretary of the State's Office to bar its mayoral candidate from the election ballot because of missing paperwork.
State: Norwich Free Academy must provide education for expelled students
NFA disputes a State Department of Education ruling that the academy, not the hometown school district, must provide education while students are expelled.
Demonstrators gather in Hartford, New London as part of climate strike
With signs reading, "There Is NO Planet B," "Angry As A Mother," "Evidence over Ignorance," "On Strike," "Mother Earth, We Do Care," and "It's getting HOT in here," activists are calling for others to join the initiative.
Petitioning selectman candidate added to Preston ballot
Political newcomer Sam Chinigo, who describes himself as "a fiscal conservative with progressive ideals," will run as an unaffiliated petitioning candidate.


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You have more willpower than I. Now I have to get TWO opener sets of every single vtsc figure, because I need a loose and carded version of the figure.What a pooch-screw of a year for completists.
How many of these do you think will come in MOMC condition?
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About the Department
What is the Public Affairs Reporting program?
PAR is a one-year, professionally-oriented master's degree program that relies heavily on experiential learning. The program is designed to prepare its graduates to become working reporters covering public affairs in its broadest sense–that of informing readers, listeners and viewers about ongoing events and activities, not just of government but also of other significant players, that impact on their daily lives.
To achieve this goal, the program concentrates its instruction in three areas: journalistic skills (reporting and writing), public affairs knowledge, and professional responsibility.
The program has two main components, a classroom component and an internship. The classroom component is concentrated in the fall semester, when students typically take 18 credit hours from among required and elective course offerings.
The internship, which begins in January, requires each student to work for six months as a full-time reporter for a news organization in the State Capitol, under the direct supervision and mentorship of the outlet's bureau chief.
Before graduation, students must complete a professional portfolio that demonstrates mastery of public affairs journalism. The portfolio will include a variety of hard news, analyses, in-depth and feature stories the student has reported and written and that have been published or aired by a professional media outlet, along with project memos detailing the news judgments involved in reporting and writing the longer pieces.
Assuming the student successfully completes all aspects of the program, he or she will have a master's degree, solid job prospects, and strong potential for a successful career as a professional journalist.


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Materials & Coatings
Nucor, Mitsui Combine to Form New Investment-Minded Company
NuMit LLC is the name of a newly created company owned 50-50 by Nucor Corp. and Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc. NuMit expects to invest in various steel-related activities around the world. Investment one: taking on all of the assets of Steel Technologies LLC, which operates 23 North American sheet-processing facilities. Steel Technologies will assume implementation responsibilities for a new Greenfield flat-rolled processing center to be built in Monterrey, Mexico, a project previously announced by Nucor to include pickling, slitting and cut-to-length capabilities.Nucor Corp.: www.nucortusk.com
See also: Nucor Buildings Group
Related Enterprise Zones: Materials/Coatings
Reader Comments
There are no comments posted at this time.


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What's your favorite vegan or vegetarian friendly product?
I would have to say quinoa with the caveat that I know the rising popularity of the grain is impacting people in South America in negative ways. I know in my experience I opted for meatless convenience foods that relied heavily on soy for a long time until my daughter was diagnosed with food allergies to a number of foods including soy. Quinoa has been a fantastic option for our family.


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Rising energy prices are now squeezing consumers from a different direction: their utility bills.
Consumers from California to New York are facing rate increases of as much as 30 percent. Average homeowners' electric bills are now heading towards $70 to $80 a month in some states. And low- and middle-income residents are having trouble paying their bills as evidenced by a large increase in disconnect notices.
"Electricity's been cheap for a long time, it's just catching up," says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association in Washington.
On a national basis, the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that electric bills will rise 5.2 percent this year. But next year, they're expected to rise 9.8 percent.
"In the last two months, 20 to 30 utilities started requesting to have their rates increased," says Tyler Hodge, an electricity analyst at EIA in Washington. "With the rise in fuel costs, other utilities will follow suit pretty soon."
The fuel cost that has risen the most so far is natural gas, up about 40 percent in the past year. Last year at this time, the spot price of natural gas was $6 per million BTUs. Thursday morning, the price was $9.85 per million BTUs. In early July it reached as high as $13.31.
The rising price of natural gas is one of the reasons why Southern California Edison, the largest utility in California, recently warned customers it would be requesting a sharp increase in rates. Mid to high use residential customers can expect a rate hike in excess of 30 percent. For their overall system of 4.8 million customers, the average rate increase will be 25 percent.
"On August 1, we normally make a filing to the California Public Utilities Commission that will highlight what we feel our fuel and power costs will be," says Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the utility. "Last week we issued an early warning because of spiking natural gas prices."
The giant utility uses natural gas for 60 percent of the energy that it generates or buys since it is one of the cleanest fuels. "The price has doubled over the last twelve months, and we are quite vulnerable," says Mr. Alexander.
But, coal has also been climbing. In the past 18 months, the spot price of coal has doubled, says Jim Owen of the Edison Electric Institute, which represents the investor-owned utilities in Washington.
"One of the main drivers is global demand. People, especially in China and India, are buying coal here. And in the US, demand for coal continues to grow," he says.
The increasing price of coal is showing up in filings for fuel adjustments. For example, American Electric Power (AEP) recently filed for a 12 percent increase for its Appalachian Power subsidiary that services 500,000 customers in western Virginia.
Not only are coal prices rising, but utilities are now asking for rate increases for the equipment they have installed to remove pollutants from power plant smokestacks. AEP, which operates in eleven states, has asked for a 17 percent rate increase in West Virginia partly to pay for the new emission reduction equipment.
Some of the rate increases reflect the rising cost of commodities such as copper and the rising cost of gasoline and diesel for utilities' large vehicle fleets.
Utilities are trying to pass on these rising expenses. For example, AEP in Virginia has asked for a 24 percent increase (on top of the 12 percent fuel adjustment). "Power poles are up 39 percent since 2003, copper wire has more than doubled since then," says AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry in Columbus. Ohio.
Not all of the rate increases are in the double digit range. There are also many smaller 3 to 4 percent increases such as 4.5 percent at Pacific Gas & Electric, 2.5 percent at ComEd in Chicago and 2.85 percent at Connecticut Light & Power.
Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen says his organization has found rate increases are higher in deregulated utility markets.
"In a deregulated market, the prices are set by the cost of the last kilowatt of power," he says. "In a fully regulated market, prices are set by the average of all costs."
However, John Shelk, the president of Electric Power Supply Association, which argues for utility deregulation in Washington, says his organization's surveys have found the rate of increase is the same for both regulated and deregulated utilities. The difference is that regulated utilities face a lag in getting back their rising fuel costs.
"The rate of increase (of the price of electricity) is 30 percent in both deregulated and regulated types of states," he says.
In the June Consumer Price Index, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found natural gas and electric prices were 10 percent higher than a year ago. Washington-based economist Richard DeKaser of National City Corporation estimates the rising rates have trimmed about 0.5 percent off household discretionary income. "If it's in isolation, it's manageable," he says. "But it's not in isolation, it's part of a larger trend of rising energy prices."
In fact, for some consumers the utility rate hikes are just too much. "In the summer it used to be that 1 percent to 2 percent of consumers were shut off for not paying their bills, now it's in the range of 5 percent," says Mr. Wolfe of NEADA, which lobbies for federal aid to help low income families with their heating and air conditioning bills. "What's happened is that it's moved from a problem for the poor to the middle class. When people are living paycheck to paycheck higher energy costs become more significant."


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|Plate I
[facing page 16]
|Map of the Town of Drohobycz (Plan Drohobycza)
|Plate II
[following Plate I]
|Drohobycz: a general view
|The Town Hall
|The City Tower
|The Gymnasium
|Plate III
[facing page 32]
|Maurice Gotlieb: Self Portrait
|Maurice Gotlieb: Picture of a woman
|Maurice Gotlieb: Shylock and Jessica
|Plate IV
[facing page 48]
|A Headline from the Drohobyczer Zeitung, November 8, 1912
|Plate V
[following Plate IV]
|Dr. Moritz Pechtman
|Dr. Salo Heimberg, Founder of the Achva fraternity in Drohobycz,1887
|Dr. Leon Reich
|Dr. Max Rosenfeld and his father, Wilhelm
|Plate VI
[facing page 64]
|Asher Zelig, son of Yaakov Betsalel Lauterbach (1826-1906)
|Shmuel Abel Apfel (1829-1887)
|Prof. Dr. Yaakov Betsalel Lauterbach (1873-1937)
|Plate VII
[following Plate VI]
|The Great Synagogue
|Maurice Gotlieb: Faces in the Great Synagogue
|The Holy Ark
|Plate VIII
[facing page 80]
|The City Council in the Year 1936 with eleven Jewish members
|The Jewish Party in the City Council of 1932
|The Jewish Party of 1933
|Plate IX
[following Plate VIII]
|The Orphanage
|The Night of the Seder in the Orphanage
|Plate X
[following Plate IX]
|The Local Commitee of the Zionist Agency in 1934
|Dr. Leon Tannenbaum
|Moishe Tannenbaum
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Drogobych, Ukraine Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2019 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 18 Apr 2006 by LA


text:
Hipsta – is a unique, original and well-illustrated theme for the site. This feature-rich theme for those whose business is far from formalities and bustle of everyday office life. Blog, portfolio, daily log. And maybe the corporate website? Why not? The project is based on this theme is sure to attract visitors and set you on the background of millions of similar sites.
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- Great AJAX Contact Form by Jigowatt $5 Value
- Power and Flexibility of Bootstrap Framework
- Completely redesigned Bootstrap Styles
- Great Documentation
- More than 15 pages included
- Layered PSD with characters included


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My brother, who hasn't had a drivers license since 1987....lives at a mission......but was the best Athlete I have ever been around, won at everything (although all we had was Basketball, everything else we had to pry our way into) he's one year older than me.
We had gotten a new coach my Junior Year, My Brother was a senior coming off a 4 and 15 junior year....the true Starting five that year played only six games together, because of suspensions and such (they were unbelievably talented) but continuously rebelling and absolutely no Coach....Our Coach had taken Minto to State with the Davorak's in the mid 70's then he came back to his home town and wanted to Substitute teach and decided to take the Head Coaching Job for extra cash.
After 3 years of that non-sense the School board finally Hired the new Coach, fresh outa VC State (4 year football player)
My brother was a Senior and could sense that we finally had someone who cared.... he went to work (along with the football Player coach) on Strength training (something we had never been around)...we followed.
About the 5th game into the Season, our young new Coach was using everything to get us pumped, he brought out an old Game book from a few years prior, showing us that the team coming to town had at that time, smacked us good... 102 to 58....he said "how about a little revenge".....and the rest was history.
.My Brother took off and went Crazy, already known for his scoring ability he had 25 in the first quarter and at halftime he had 36.
The Coach sat him down (told us this later) that he had intended to put him back in but the rest of us had followed lead and were Stompin the comp......Final Score?.....110 to 36....If he had left My Brother come back in it may have been the Most points ever scored in a game in the history of ND Basketball.
He was away at a private School his freshman year of High School ....they had Cross Country Track and he joined....He Came home for Thanksgiving and decided to run to our relatives house....7 miles away down a gravel road.....me and my brother (who was one year younger than me) thought we would run with him.....we ended up in the pickup box after 3 miles...Lol!!


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The American: Big Brother In Hindi?
The historic Aadhaar identity program puts India at the forefront of a technological revolution that is quietly reshaping the world.
For most Americans, nowhere are the repercussions of their nation's increasingly insecure and outdated national identity systems more apparent than when they pass through security at the airport. In contrast to America's struggles to adapt its decades-old systems to handle modern challenges, India is undertaking one of the grandest technology experiments ever attempted. In a massive, nationwide project, the government is attempting to collect the demographic information, fingerprints, and iris scans of all 1.2 billion residents.
With this information, the government hopes to issue a unique 12-digit "Aadhaar" (which means "foundation") identity number to every man, woman, and child. If successful, India will build a major new piece of technological infrastructure for a modern economy, while fundamentally transforming the way residents interact with their government.
There are enormous logistical difficulties associated with the Aadhaar plan, as well as serious privacy and security risks. Doubts remain as to whether India's people and institutions are prepared to handle the program's massive enrollment process and dramatic impact.
Identifying the Problem
Proponents of the plan argue that it will lead to a fairer and more equitable distribution of public benefits. Currently, each governmental department works in isolation, maintaining its own separate databases and records. Over time, systematic corruption and mismanagement have populated these databases with fraudulent information. The Indian departments handling social support programs are often the most abused.
India's federalist system of strong state governments, in addition to its national government, has resulted in each state and municipality exhibiting drastically different e-government capabilities. It is often in the poorest states where the worst abuses occur. Hundreds of millions of Indians rely on the help of the state, but there are still many places where most of the goods allocated for the poorest of families are stolen before they even reach them–and the social costs are enormous.
There is a major issue at the root of these problems—large portions of the population lack even the most basic verifiable identity documents. There are countless millions living on the margins of society who have yet to receive any official recognition from their state or national government. As a result, access to financial services remains extremely limited for most of the country, especially in rural areas.
For the poorest and most vulnerable groups, this lack of access is devastating; they are unable to receive their fair share of benefits, make investments, or accumulate savings. These families are just one disaster away from being entirely wiped out.
Reshaping and Reforming
Innovative banking technologies capable of reaching these marginalized groups could be built atop the national ID system, presenting an opportunity to reshape the nation and help lift hundreds of millions from poverty. Developers aim to create sophisticated Aadhaar-linked bank accounts that could allow for a system of digital payment, such that two villagers could send each other money with just their identity numbers and an Internet connection. The mobile phone market could offer a gateway for India's masses into the financial system. With almost a billion cell phones in the country, more than twice as many Indians have access to a cell phone than a toilet.
India is a land of small businesses—and from every indication, mom-and-pop shops can't wait to reap the benefits that Aadhaar has to offer. Residents' ability to shop will no longer be limited by the amount of cash in their pockets. Additionally, unique identity numbers are the key to bringing multiple different personal records together. They can serve to facilitate beneficial services such as health insurance and background checks.
These technologies will also enable government agencies to directly target their benefits. Instead of the current inefficient cash distribution system, agencies will be able to electronically transfer money directly into a resident's account. Residents will be free to choose where to buy their subsidized goods, and thus will gain purchasing power. This will create major incentives for distributors to adopt competitive, customer-oriented practices.
Aadhaar will allow for rigorous digital audit trails. For that reason, its supporters claim that it will lead to billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers and a greater degree of accountability in public distribution.
Unprecedented Undertakings
For India, Aadhaar represents not only a chance to better serve its people but also an opportunity to showcase its nascent technology prowess.
The prime minister of India selected Nandan Nilekani—a respected IT executive and the former CEO of IT outsourcing giant Infosys—to head the authority responsible for designing and implementing the new system. An unelected official, Nilekani has received the rank and status of a cabinet minister. A private executive involved in this level of Indian government is unprecedented.
Yet little about this program is business as usual. Government contracts in India are sometimes handed out based on connections or bribes. But when it came time to choose vendors for the first biometric enrollment phase, vendors had to compete with each other to see who could provide the cheapest, most accurate verifications. With a model rarely seen in government, three companies have been chosen and given 50 percent, 30 percent, and 20 percent of the duties—with the caveat that they will be continually reassessed and reassigned based on their performance.
Nilekani is looking to leverage India's biggest public and private institutions in a partnership model, where dozens of different agencies will assist in the enrollment process. Post offices, banks, hospitals, agencies, and local NGOs—to name a few—will all serve as hubs where residents can go to enroll for their identity numbers. Those with no reliable documents can be "introduced" by a trusted party who can vouch for the person in question.
Nilekani's stated goal is to enroll 600 million people in four years, an ambitious target that could become a reality if he can trigger a new standard for excellence in Indian government. As one of India's most accomplished private executives, Nilekani has proven himself as a capable and ethical leader in the past. Yet he will face considerable infrastructural, technological, political, and cultural challenges along the way.
Immense Challenges Ahead
Of all the issues that a successful implementation will face, perhaps the single largest challenge is the colossal scale of the data involved.
The system needs to account for every single birth and death in a country where there are 1.8 million babies born every month. It needs servers capable of handling millions of identity verifications every day. The possibility of human error looms large over every step of the process: For example, there are reports that in some areas, enrollers have accidentally submitted their own biometrics when trying to demonstrate to others how the technology works. Due to a lack of coordination, some populations have had their biometric data collected by multiple different vendors and agencies.
Many question India's ability to securely store such massive amounts of sensitive data. Developers are encouraging the nation's largest public and private agencies to create their own extensive Aadhaar-based databases and smart cards, including biometric information. Unlike a credit card number or name, a person can never change his fingerprints or iris patterns. If stolen, his security may be forever compromised.
Although it has quickly become a technology powerhouse in the private sector, India lacks the types of data protection laws needed to handle modern-day technological security issues. The country's institutions are years away from developing effective enforcement mechanisms, even though more than 200 million Aadhaar numbers have already been issued.
On top of these daunting challenges, parts of the country still lack reliable electricity, let alone an Internet connection. A national format for addresses and names does not exist. The powerful and entrenched Indian bureaucracy is made up of hundreds of different entities that will be required to update their systems and comply with procedures.
'Big Brother' in Hindi?
Although enrollment is described as voluntary, in practice, residents will find it to be virtually obligatory. Many important public and private services have agreed to require an Aadhaar number for participation. If a resident chooses not to enroll, he will be denied the basic rights and entitlements he would have previously received.
Several of the most important public departments rely on the collection of sensitive data—like race, religion, caste, income, and health—in order to carry out their core functions. States use income information to allocate public goods, and poverty alleviation programs often target marginalized groups. Though well-intentioned, Aadhaar could facilitate surveillance and digitized discrimination of whole segments of the population, grouped by their undesirable characteristics.
For its part, the Indian government is already distributing state-of-the-art surveillance technologies to its military and police forces. It is unclear what can be done to prevent abuses of information by authorities—especially with so many different entities having access to portions of the information.
India's politicians have been quick to show off Aadhaar as a symbol of progress in their commitment to fight corruption. Although its developers should be commended for their commitment to some levels of transparency, the program itself was created quickly and quietly. In the world's biggest democracy, a program to collect personal, sensitive information from every individual was introduced and implemented with barely any public debate. It continues to exist without parliamentary sanction or judicial oversight.
Aadhaar may prove to be the most far-reaching and large-scale technology system ever to be implemented in a democratic nation, and it was done with almost no debate.
An Unresolved Matter
India faces a situation that may sound familiar to many Americans. The country has a group of states that share a porous border with an impoverished neighbor. For decades now, illegal immigrants have been coming across the border and inhabiting the border states or moving into the mainland cities. The local population is furious with the national government for allowing the influx of immigrants, and smuggling and ethnic violence have become increasingly intense. A border fence is being built, but it is insufficient and has largely been a failure.
India must decide how to handle the approximately 20 to 30 million illegal immigrants that have come from its northern neighbor, Bangladesh. In the last 50 years, India's northeast front—a small group of eight states wedged between Myanmar and China—has experienced rapid demographic changes. Residents of the area have grown increasingly frustrated with New Delhi's inability to stop what they have called a "foreign invasion." This tension has led to brutal massacres, frequent strikes, and widespread instability.
Meanwhile, the trafficking of illegal goods has taken hold as the primary economy. Border security forces have found themselves consistently outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Maoist guerillas, local insurgents, and Pakistani-linked terrorist groups are thought to be recruiting and training in the area, actively plotting attacks on mainland cities. The ruling Congress Party is accused of aiding illegal immigrants with protective laws in exchange for a "vote-bank." With the help of corrupt local officials, Bangladeshis reportedly have been able to secure rights and entitlements and move to other parts of the country.
The census data collection exercises include a question asking each resident his nationality. Alarmingly, the enumerator must accept the resident's answer without challenge. Illegal immigrants all over the nation will be allowed to "declare" themselves Indian in the government's primary information database. Once an "Indian" in the main, central database, it becomes much easier for an illegal immigrant to obtain other documents and services, many of which are used as proof in obtaining an Aadhaar number.
There are major concerns that this provision may inadvertently serve as a backdoor route to citizenship and voting rights for tens of millions of illegal immigrants. In many parts of the country, especially the northeast, this type of large-scale disruption may provoke more violence and further resentment. With no way to physically distinguish between citizens and legal and illegal immigrants, it is hard to envision any type of lasting stability in the region.
All Eyes on India: The Global Implications
Any system that is able to overcome India's abundance of challenges is likely to be studied and replicated all over the world. Security and development experts from many governments will be paying close attention to how India handles the difficulties posed by religious fundamentalists, foreign infiltrators, and corrupt, ineffective governance. The Obama administration has recently explored several ways to improve America's outdated identity systems in an attempt to curb illegal immigration, improve national defense, and encourage commerce.
The Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT entry program is currently the largest biometric database in the world. In Aadhaar's first enrollment phase, two of the three main providers of biometric technology to India are American companies. If this technology proves to be effective for wide-scale use, it may become commonplace for high-level transactions across the developed world, as well.
Much like in India, the issues of importance to concerned citizens in the United States should be the quality of public debate, the security and storage of personal data, the enforcement of a limited mandate, and the maintenance of personal liberties to the greatest extent possible. History has shown that the selective salesmanship of a program's advantages without an honest admission of its dangers is bound to lead to a program that is viewed with suspicion, limited in use, and one data breach away from a full-blown scandal.
With its massive population, booming economy, and entrepreneurial spirit, India may offer to the world the ultimate case study for digital identity technologies. As these systems become ubiquitous, they are changing the definition of citizenship to include, for the first time, an electronic component. The historic Aadhaar identity program puts India at the forefront of a technological revolution that is quietly reshaping the world.


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Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030
April 13, 2012
Major East Texas Deer Poaching Case Finalized
AUSTIN – State game wardens have wrapped up an extensive 16-month poaching investigation in East Texas that has netted stout fines and jail or prison sentences for four men responsible for illegally killing 30 deer in Wood and Rains counties.
Wood County Game Wardens Derek Spitzer and Kurt Kelley along with Van Zandt County warden Steve Stapleton began the investigation on Dec. 7, 2010 when a dead deer was found hanging from an oil well pump jack on a wooded 1,500-acre tract near Alba. Only the deer's backstrap had been removed, with the rest of the meat left to waste. The subsequent investigation, which involved an estimated 270 man hours, uncovered an extensive pattern of deer poaching in both Wood and Rains counties.
During the course of the investigation, the wardens conducted several protracted interviews, secured a large amount of evidence, and were able to document the illegal killing of 30 deer by four individuals. All of the deer had been killed at night from public roads with the aid of a spotlight over a three-month period.
In one documented incident, two of the men involved were found to have shot two deer behind a high fence at night and returned later with a pair of bolt cutters, which they used to cut a hole in the fence and remove the deer. Most of the deer meat in the investigation was found to have been wasted, with the violators often only taking the backstrap from the animals.
While probing the hunting law violations, the wardens recovered multiple stolen items and several theft cases are still pending. A total of 528 offenses were determined to have occurred with 40 of those being state jail felonies. Of the total offenses known, 22 charges were brought forward in Wood and Rains counties. Nine Class A misdemeanor charges and two state jail felonies were filed in each county.
Of the four defendants, three made plea deals with prosecutors with one of them entering a plea in exchange for a one-year sentence for hunting deer without a land owner's consent. The protracted investigation was finally closed on February 23 when the fourth subject changed his plea to guilty and received 3 years in state jail and $12,000 in fines for hunting deer at night, hunting with artificial light and hunting from a vehicle – all Class A misdemeanors. Sentences handed down added up to more than $41,000 in fines, 3,000 hours of community service and a total of 12 years of jail or probation time.
In addition, six firearms were seized and awarded to the state. Finally, all the defendants lost the privilege of hunting in the state of Texas for five years and will be paying civil restitution for the game animals taken.
For more information on the defendants and the charges filed against them, please contact Wood County Asst. Dist. Atty. Joey Fenlaw at 903-963-4515 and Rains County DA Robert Vititow at 903-473-5000, x. 115.
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John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), the British economist who developed the theory that increasing government deficits stimulate a sluggish economy, was long the guiding light of liberal economists. He is considered one of the major economists of the 20th century. And these days, he is enjoying a comeback.
In his times, he quarreled with laissez-faire economic policies, and with the beliefs that all uncertainty could be reduced to measurable risk, that asset prices always reflected fundamentals and that unregulated markets would in general be very stable.
Keynes created an economics whose starting point was that not all future events could be reduced to measurable risk. There was a residue of genuine uncertainty, and this made disaster an ever-present possibility, not a once-in-a-lifetime "shock." Investment was more an act of faith than a scientific calculation of probabilities. And in this fact lay the possibility of huge systemic mistakes.
His basic question was: How do rational people behave under conditions of uncertainty? The answer he gave was profound and extends far beyond economics. People fall back on "conventions," which give them the assurance that they are doing the right thing. The chief of these are the assumptions that the future will be like the past (witness all the financial models that assumed housing prices wouldn't fall) and that current prices correctly sum up "future prospects." Above all, we run with the crowd. A master of aphorism, Keynes wrote that a "sound banker" is one who, "when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way."
But any view of the future based on what Keynes called "so flimsy a foundation" is liable to "sudden and violent changes" when the news changes. Investors do not process new information efficiently because they don't know which information is relevant. Conventional behavior easily turns into herd behavior. Financial markets are punctuated by alternating currents of euphoria and panic.
Keynes's prescriptions were guided by his conception of money, which plays a disturbing role in his economics. Most economists have seen money simply as a means of payment, an improvement on barter. Keynes emphasized its role as a "store of value." Why, he asked, should anyone outside a lunatic asylum wish to "hold" money? The answer he gave was that "holding" money was a way of postponing transactions. The "desire to hold money as a store of wealth is a barometer of the degree of our distrust of our own calculations and conventions concerning the future. . . . The possession of actual money lulls our disquietude; and the premium we require to make us part with money is a measure of the degree of our disquietude." The same reliance on "conventional" thinking that leads investors to spend profligately at certain times leads them to be highly cautious at others. Even a relatively weak dollar may, at moments of high uncertainty, seem more "secure" than any other asset.
It is this flight into cash that makes interest-rate policy an uncertain agent of recovery. If managers of banks and companies hold pessimistic views about the future, they will raise the price they charge for "giving up liquidity," even though the central bank might be flooding the economy with cash. That is why Keynes did not think cutting the central bank's interest rate would necessarily — and certainly not quickly — lower the interest rates charged on different types of loans. This was his main argument for the use of government stimulus to fight a depression. There was only one sure way to get an increase in spending in the face of an extreme private-sector reluctance to spend, and that was for the government to spend the money itself.This, in a nutshell, was Keynes's economics. His purpose, as he saw it, was not to destroy capitalism but to save it from itself. — From "The Remedist," by Robert Skidelsky, The Times, December 2008


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LazyTune API
The LazyTune API allows you to programmatically retrieve content about artists, albums, and songs. Use the API to query the LazyTune database as part of adding musical content or music search results to your app. LazyTune aims to be different by being a "content-aware" search engine (bringing great relevance to users), and also focuses on audio files search. For example, you can get all songs that have the word "yesterday" in them.


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Welcome to the brand new Amphora Aromatics website. We hope you enjoy using our new site and find it easier to use than our previous website.
All stock items will clearly show whether they are in stock or not. We make every effort to ensure that the website is up to date in terms of showing the correct stock levels but there may be rare occasions when it is not accurate. Please feel free to check with us via email (email@example.com) or phone (0117 904 7212) as to whether the item you require is in stock.
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Dangerous Goods
A small number of our products are classed as low level Dangerous Goods (Flammable) due to their low flash point. Please view the following page for latest details: Export Orders


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Denver – Four years ago, the Democratic Party in Mississippi was struggling to keep its doors open. Today, party leaders here at the Democratic National Convention in Denver are seriously considering turning the onetime red state blue come November.
With an infusion of enthusiasm and cash from national party during the past four years – the state now has four full-time staff paid by the DNC – Mississippi Democrats won a special election in May 2008, taking a congressional seat that had been reliably Republican for more than a generation. And they believe that's just for starters.
"We also stand a very good chance this time around to elect a US Senator," says Rep. Bennie Thompson (D) of Mississippi. "And we may even carry this state for Obama."
That's a long shot, but four years ago, the very suggestion would have been dismissed as ridiculous. The Democrats had largely written off the South and much of the West. But today, many of those formerly red states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, and North Dakota are competitive. And Democrats are working overtime to turn them blue.
The 50-state strategy
They've been aided, in part, by the growing national dissatisfaction with eight years of Republican rule and by demographic shifts that have significantly increased Hispanic voters out west and younger white Democrats in the South.
But many diehard Democrats also credit the party's 2004 decision to ignore conventional wisdom and engage in a 50-state strategy. If nothing else, it revived a moribund party structure in red states that is now poised to take advantage of the national desire for change.
"When you see Democrats winning special elections in Mississippi and Louisiana that went for Bush at a 60 percent clip [four years ago], it's clear that's the 50-state strategy paying off," says Tom Jensen, communications director of Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, N.C. "States like North Dakota and Montana are now legitimately up for grabs."
In Denver, many of these once ignored red-state Dems are excited, and not just about Barack Obama. Until 2004, delegates from places like Alaska, Mississippi, and Colorado hadn't seen a Democratic Party chairman in their home state for decades. Suddenly, they began getting regular visits from the new chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Then, to their shock, he also started sending over money and paid staff members.
Julia Hicks, a delegate from Colorado, beaming in red, white, and blue, says the change in her home state in the past few years has been "phenomenal," and not just because it snagged the convention.
"We don't count anyone out," says Ms. Hicks, a retired professor of black history. "Voter registration here has shot off the scale. We've registered Republicans and turned them blue, we've registered independents and turned them blue, so yeah, we can turn this state blue."
Demographic shifts in the West are helping. And in its own way, so has the Republican Party. In 2005, Republicans made a national issue out of keeping Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman in a coma for more than 15 years, on life support – against the wishes of her husband.
"That may have pushed this fundamentalist, right-wing religious part of the Republican message just one step too far for the more libertarian kind of conservatives in the Western part of the country," says Guy Molyneux, partner at Hart Research, a Democratic polling firm in Washington, D.C.
Far from Washington
Obama's post-partisan message also resonates here. "Voters in the West are probably less attached to the two political parties and feel a little further from Washington [and] the political fights that go on here," says Mr. Molyneux from his office in Washington.
The effort to put pragmatism before partisanship is also resonating down South. Virginia delegate and state senator John Miller traces his red state turning purple back to 2001, when Mark Warner was elected governor there. The then-governor reached out to independents and Republicans, successfully cut the deficit, and improved governance so much that the state government won awards.
But there are many Republicans who believe Democrats are overestimating their chances this November. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney insists that when Western voters look beyond the fanfare in Denver, they'll stay reliably red.
"The people in the intermountain West, as they focus on the issues they care about, will recognize that Senator McCain is right for America and Barack Obama, as well-meaning as he is, is wrong for America," Mr. Romney said at a Monitor breakfast here Tuesday.
At the very least, the Democrats' 50-state strategy has brought the party message to places it was rarely heard before. And this election's outcome could determine whether this is the beginning of another big realignment of the country's political map, like the one in the 1960s and '70s that turned the once reliably Democratic south into a Republican stronghold.
"I don't think it will be quite as dramatic as that, but you are seeing a realignment underway in the Western states and in the upper South," says Mr. Jensen.
And if many Democrats have their druthers, those changes will be just the beginning. Says Mississippi state Senator David Jordon, "I've come up against incredible odds my whole life and I don't believe in writing anything off ... we're not giving up anything here, we're going to do the best we can with what we have."


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Facebook iPad App Flops With Timeline
Facebook rolled out new apps today for iPhone and iPad, touting zippier functionality—and now with Timeline. But when I installed the iPad app and started looking around at my friends' Timeline pages, I didn't see the advertised screenshot shown above (taken from the iTunes store). Instead, I saw what you see below (cropped to emphasize what's missing):
Version 5 of the Facebook iPad app doesn't display the entire top piece of Timeline if you're using a first-generation iPad, which I might remind readers is a device that has only been on the market for three years. Hardly antiquated.
When I spotted this, I checked a few of my friends' profiles, people I knew for certain had Timeline (I could verify it right on my computer screen). Sure enough, the iPad app had nothing to display for the tops of their pages. It's a big disappointment for original iPad owners.
I will say that in the hour or so that I've had the app loaded and running, it does seem faster. Pages load more quickly. Photos look better in the full screen mode, with clearer buttons for commenting, "liking," and simply closing the picture.
And the overall look and feel of the app is slightly changed, too. It's a bit more angular, kind of like when iPhone 3GS turned into iPhone 4 and lost its soft sloping edges. (For what it's worth, I prefer the design of the earlier iPhones).
Before you hit that "update" button for Facebook for iPad, give Facebook some time to push out one more release.
For more from Jill Duffy, follow her on Twitter @jilleduffy.


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|Sixth Season
|Assistant Coach
Julia Tamai is entering her seventh season as an assistant coach under Brie Galicinao and is starting her second year as UCSB's first assistant. She will be in charge of the team's defense and will primarily work with the outfielders.
In 2009, Tamai returned to UCSB to reclaim her role as the team's second assistant coach and primarily worked with the outfield. She has been with the Gauchos ever since and has helped guide outfielders Allison Taylor, Jessica Soria, and Kristen Clark to numerous postseason accolades. Taylor was named Second Team All-Big West (2011) and earned an all-conference honorable mention in 2012, while Soria was selected to the all-conference first team (2012) and second team (2013) in her two seasons at UCSB. In completing the most prolific season ever by a Gaucho freshman, Clark was not only named First Team All-Big West and the league's freshman field player of the year, but she also voted Third Team All-Pacific Region and was a finalist for NFCA Freshman of the Year award.
Tamai started her coaching career at UCSB immediately following her final playing season, as then head coach Kristi Schroeder brought her on as the team's second assistant for the 2003 campaign.
She originally arrived at UCSB in time for the 2001 season after transferring from Wright State. Though she didn't play much in her first year with the Gauchos, she had a remarkable senior season in being named First Team All-Big West as well as the team's MVP. Despite having just a two-season career at UCSB, Tamai was selected as a member of the program's All-Decade Team. Highlighting her time as a Gaucho was completing the 2002 season with a team-leading .307 batting average.
Tamai started her collegiate career in 1999 at Wright State University where she played two successful seasons. In her first year, she was named Second Team All-Midwest Collegiate Conference and made the MCC's all-freshman team. During her sophomore campaign, she was the ninth-toughest batter to strike out in the NCAA, as she only struck out twice all season. Tamai also made the Virginia Classic all-tournament team earlier that year.
A standout athlete in high school, Tamai was a four-time first team all-conference honoree at Cornerstone Christian High School. The Oxnard, Calif. native capped off her prep career by being named the 1998 Div. VI Player of the Year and being inducted into the Ventura County Hall of Fame.


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Giants top prospect Crick looks impressive
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The subject was Kyle Crick's workload for the coming season. It's widely understood that the Giants' No. 1 prospect must amass between 160 and 180 innings to prepare himself for the rigors of starting in the Major Leagues.
Crick said that if he attains such durability this year, "I think I'll be right on track for the future."
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The subject was Kyle Crick's workload for the coming season. It's widely understood that the Giants' No. 1 prospect must amass between 160 and 180 innings to prepare himself for the rigors of starting in the Major Leagues.
Crick said that if he attains such durability this year, "I think I'll be right on track for the future."
He already looked primed for the future Monday.
Crick pitched two innings of relief in a "B" game against the Chicago Cubs in Mesa and concluded his outing by striking out the side in the seventh inning. The right-hander looked every bit like an emerging talent, from his initial discomfort to his ultimate dominance.
Making his first spring appearance other than a 1-2-3 inning in last Tuesday's intrasquad game, Crick calmed himself after allowing a run in his first inning.
"I think I was a little bit nervous and I was kind of scared to let it go," said Crick, who's rated 32nd on MLB.com's Top 100 Prospects list. "The second inning, I just started throwing the ball and not really worrying about where it ended up."
Jeff Arnold, who caught Crick during the previous two seasons at Class A Augusta and Class A Advanced San Jose, indicated that the 21-year-old is at his best when he's relaxed.
"We even kind of joke around during the game -- 'Let's get nasty with him right here,'" Arnold said, relating a typical conversation.
Crick did just that in his second inning.
"I went back there and I was saying, 'It's like any other game. I've done this a thousand times. It's the same distance everywhere,'" he said, describing his refreshed mindset. Two of his strikeout victims were themselves highly ranked prospects on MLB.com's list, No. 9 Kris Bryant and No. 49 Jorge Soler, who played with Crick in the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game last November. Bryant watched a 2-2 fastball dart past him before Soler fanned on another 2-2 heater.
The setting was modest and the stakes were nonexistent -- a "B" game at a mostly deserted ballpark early in the exhibition schedule. But don't tell that to Crick, who has made 44 professional appearances, including 36 starts, since the Giants selected him 49th overall in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft.
"Just the fact that I was on the mound in a big league game," observed Crick, who'll likely open this season at Double-A Richmond after an oblique injury limited him to 14 starts at San Jose last year. "Even if it was a 'B' game, it was a big deal to me."
Crick has fully capitalized on his first Spring Training invitation.
"Fantastic," he said, describing his experience. "I've learned more in the two or three weeks I've been here than I have in my whole Minor League career."
Like most pitchers, Crick has worked primarily on sharpening his fastball command. He also has improved his changeup to the point where he considers it his second-best pitch. He has received tips on making mechanical adjustments from player personnel director Dick Tidrow, who advised him to shorten his stride when he begins to elevate pitches.
In the clubhouse, Crick frequently can be seen talking to veteran pitchers, sponging advice from them.
"Just picking some brains," he said.
Crick also said that he has talked to Buster Posey to gain a catcher's perspective on the craft of pitching. On one recent morning, right fielder Hunter Pence held Crick's rapt attention.
"Hunter's got a good psychological view on the game," Crick said. "He's always positive and reinforces everything he says with his actions. He's a pretty cool guy to follow around."
At the current rate, Crick could be leading the Giants in a few years.
Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Haft-Baked Ideas, and follow him on Twitter at @sfgiantsbeat.


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AMD backs USB 3.0 on desktop and laptop chipsets
First wafer baker on board
AMD has become the first major microprocessor baker to have USB 3.0–capable chipsets certified by the USB Implementers Forum.
This announcement was made on Tuesday by the USB-IF, although the impending certification of AMD's A75 and A70M Fusion Controller Hub (FCH) chipsets had been outed by SemiAccurate three weeks ago from details they uncovered in the USB-IF product database.
AMD spokesman Phil Hughes tells The Reg that the A75 and A70M FCHs are shipping today to OEMs, and the company would have more news about the USB 3.0–capable parts when it launches its Sabine notebook platform later this quarter.
"The Fusion Controller Hubs have primarily been referred to as 'Hudson' at this point on roadmaps and such," Hughes told us. "More details on which FCH will be part of Sabine to come at launch."
SemiAccurate pegs the A75 as the desktop part previously known as the Hudson-D3 and the A70M as the mobile Hudson-M3. If those identifications are spot-on – and they appear to be – that'd mean that both parts support up to four USB 3.0 ports along with 10 USB 2.0 and two USB 1.1 ports, according to Hudson details provided by Fudzilla.
USB 2.0 has had a long run as the go-to peripheral interconnect of choice in the consumer market – it was first released over 10 years ago. To put USB 2.0's age in perpective, we fanbois remember it first appearing on Macs in the Power Mac G5 – you know, the pre-Intel one built around a PowerPC 970 v2.2.
Yes, USB 2.0 is that old.
USB 3.0, which goes by the unfortunate marketing moniker of SuperSpeed USB (what is USB 4.0 going to be called, SuperlativeSpeed USB?), bests USB 2.0 in a number of ways. Not only does it provide bidirectional throughput speed of up to 10 times that of USB 2.0, but also brings with it a significant increase in power: a max of 900mA, up from 500mA in USB.
But although the USB-IF took over the finished USB 3.0 spec from the USB 3.0 Promoter Group in November 2008, the next-gen interconnect hasn't exactly taken the world by storm. One major stumbling block for the faster, more-powerful USB 3.0 has been that Intel hasn't incorporated it into its chipsets – and doesn't plan to until 2012 at the earliest.
And then there's Intel's new USB 3.0 competitor, Thunderbolt (née LightPeak). Although Intel said that they were continuing to support a parallel USB 3.0 chipset-development effort when they announced Thunderbolt, we can't help but think that Chipzilla isn't rating the incorporation of the next-gen USB as a do-or-die Job One.
And that's where AMD comes in. Although the Sunnyvale, California, chipmaker is a fraction of the size of its Santa Clara neighbor – AMD's market capitalization is a bit over $5.6bn versus Intel's $106.4bn – with the release of a USB 3.0–capable platform it'll have the jump on its ginormous competitor, at least in the consumer-interconnect arena.
For the first time in quite a while, things are getting quite interesting in the desktop and laptop PC market. AMD's Fusion processors are gaining some deserved attention from OEMs, and soon their USB 3.0–capable platforms will be available as well, ready to plug into a far larger number of peripherals than are ready for Intel's nascent Thunderbolt. ®


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Since at least May, certain Northern Nigerian politicians have been considering the idea of an amnesty program for Boko Haram, the Muslim movement whose violence has terrorized the Northeast and spread fear throughout much of the country. Proponents of amnesty feel that the problem of Boko Haram will ultimately require a political, and not just a military, solution. President Goodluck Jonathan, for his part, has expressed openness to the idea of amnesty or at least some form of dialogue, and has spoken of a "carrots and sticks" approach to Boko Haram. The sect has so far rejected amnesty offers, responding either with huge demands or with further acts of violence.
On Saturday, the Federal Government announced it is taking concrete steps toward initiating dialogue with the movement:
[A] panel will negotiate with the Boko Haram sect and report back to the government on or before August 16, the statement from the office of the secretary of the federal government said.
President Goodluck Jonathan has named the seven members of the panel, including the ministers of defence and labour as well as the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, which encompasses Abuja, the statement added.
Describing the panel's duties, it said they would include acting "as a liaison between the federal government … and Boko Haram and to initiate negotiations with the sect."
It would also work with the national security adviser to ensure the country's security forces were acting with "professionalism," the statement said.
I was unable to find the original copy of the statement, and so I cannot tell whether Boko Haram has agreed to talks.
This move is in my view both politically prudent and potentially helpful. Regarding the politics of the decision, the article quoted above notes that "Jonathan appointed the panel after meeting with leaders from the mainly Muslim north earlier this month." Presumably these leaders urged pursuit of political solutions. This stance is in keeping with the calls for amnesty that I mentioned earlier. It is also in keeping with the Sultan of Sokoto's recent objections to perceived abuses by soldiers in the Northeast. Northern leaders, in short, have been asking Jonathan not to rely on violence alone. Southern leaders who have been pressuring Jonathan to take decisive action may not have had a dialogue program in mind, but this step could at least win broad backing from leaders in the region where the violence is centered. Jonathan, whose victory in April's presidential election angered much of the North, and who is perceived in much of the region as the South's man, needs support from Northern elites in order to deal effectively with Boko Haram.
Regarding the potential benefits of dialogue, the road ahead could be quite long, but I think the problem of Boko Haram cannot be solved through force alone. Since the Federal Government has already deployed soldiers to the Northeast, the carrot of dialogue can possibly complement the stick of force.
If the group will not come to the negotiating table then dialogue will never get going, of course. But to the extent that the architects of the dialogue can identify the unique political and economic problems of the North (and more specifically, the Northeast) and address them in innovative ways, dialogue stands a chance of reaching some elements within the movement. At the very least, the willingness of politicians to talk with Boko Haram could send a broader message to the North that government takes people's problems and feelings of marginalization seriously. That could slow recruitment to Boko Haram or reduce sympathy for the group in the broader society.
We will see how, and whether, Boko Haram reacts to the government's latest overtures.
– Alex Thurston is a PhD student studying Islam in Africa at Northwestern University and blogs at Sahel Blog.
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of Africa bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.


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Metal Venetian Graphite Aluminium Venetian Blind
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Lawmakers and employee groups outraged at notion of 'nonessential' workers.
Though nearly everyone unites around the goal of avoiding future government shutdowns, some key players coming off of the 2013 version offer varying ideas of how to improve the executive branch's guidance for determining who stays home and who continues to work as the crisis unfolds.
In interviews with Government Executive, lawmakers and employee groups recommended changes ranging from a more consistent centralized taxonomy of which jobs are "excepted" to a new vocabulary more sensitive to the morale problems of employees tagged as "nonessential."
The Office of Management and Budget, in response to a query, stressed that it put out long-established guidance two weeks before this year's shutdown, identical to what it had released in 2011, when lawmakers narrowly headed off a threatened shutdown.
"OMB and the Department of Justice have longstanding guidance on the applicable legal principles that govern decisions about what activities are authorized to continue during a lapse in appropriations," said OMB press secretary Emily Cain. "Consistent with this guidance, which OMB provided to agencies once again on September 17, 2013, agencies determine which activities are 'excepted' and can thus continue during the lapse, and which employees are 'excepted' in order to carry out those activities."
Such flexibility for agency managers draws its legal basis from a pair of memos written in the final months of the Carter administration by Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti. It was followed by a series of memos expanding on his interpretation of the 19th-century Antideficiency Act from OMB directors in the Reagan and Clinton administrations. (Those documents were all cited recently in the Defense Department's brief successfully arguing for authority to call back many of its furloughed civilians before the shutdown ended.)
The thrust of the standing guidance is that agencies are required to prepare shutdown plans in advance of annual appropriations (programs under multiyear funding are spared), and that a core of employees may be excepted based on the need to protect health, safety, property, national security, benefits payments and the orderly process of closing an agency.
Yet the inconsistent (some say chaotic) way in which the shutdown was executed on Oct. 1 incensed many. Some employees were reportedly surprised at their designation or saw their initial instructions overturned, but they had little recourse.
As the American Federation of Government Employees told its members on Oct. 1, "While AFGE disputes the legal basis for the shutdown, we are urging all our members to follow the orders of management at their agency with respect to who should or should not report to work…. Just like in the normal, day-to-day operation, we must all 'obey now, grieve later.' "
The Senior Executives Association in the middle of the shutdown put out a plea to news media and Congress to cease using the non-legal term nonessential. "The word concerned SEA members because of its implications," said Jennifer Mattingley, SEA's legislative director. "Just because programs have been suspended does not mean that they do not impact individual well-being or the bottom line of many businesses."
Current events, such as a hurricane or a salmonella outbreak, can influence determinations on which employees work during a shutdown, Mattingley noted. "Someone who was excepted last time may not be this time," she said. One problem with the current system, she added, is that "some employees were deemed excepted and came to work, but couldn't do everything because other employees they needed to deal with were not there."
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said, "To simply have two classifications, euphemistically called essential and nonessential, is unhelpful and very demoralizing. There seems to be at the 26 major agencies, 26 different approaches to who's essential and who's not."
Connolly lamented that agencies such as the National Park Service lost most of their employees during the shutdown, and that furloughs hit NASA scientists working on the Mars Rover program and Treasury officials working on sanctions against Iran. "For a crowd that says we ought to run government more like a business," he said, referring to Republicans in Congress, "what business would trash its workforce, announce it was shutting down operations indefinitely and threaten not to pay its bills? Who would do that and stay in business?"
The remedy for the federal workforce, Connolly said, is for the Office of Personnel Management, which dovetailed with OMB in distributing shutdown information, "to go back to the drawing board and maybe establish categories of exempt personnel and certain grades of it, so that people can, in an orderly way, know what their status is."
But his fellow suburban Virginia Democratic colleague, Rep. Jim Moran, said agency program managers "need that flexibility that can't be provided through legislation, and is even difficult to address regulatorily. Managers have to make that decision on their own."
Moran, who was critical of the chaos during the 1995-96 shutdown, added that he harbors "a great deal of resentment toward people who forced the federal workforce into that position of requiring program managers to make those decisions between who is essential and nonessential. The reason I feel so strongly [is that] I know what happens in too many homes, [is that the shutdown is] an intangible but important thing that affects the status and morale and dignity of the family's provider, to whom the children and spouse look up to not only because they provide food and a roof over their heads, but because they perform important work that the family is proud of."
Moran said he would like to see more employees considered essential, and he recommended OMB and agency controllers put aside contingency money for use in the event of a shutdown, even though "holding back this money will hurt contractors and other initiatives," he acknowledged. No one on Moran's own staff, he added, was furloughed during the 16-day shutdown, while other members of Congress handled the decision differently.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., along with Moran, co-sponsored a bill introduced at the height of this year's shutdown by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. It would have declared all federal employees "essential and furlough-exempt" and brought them back to work immediately. The idea became unnecessary when the White House and congressional leaders reached a three-month budget deal on Oct. 16.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., has approached Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, about holding hearings on the effects of the shutdown on the federal workforce.
"Shutting down the federal government and threatening default cost our nation billions of dollars and has severely shaken consumer confidence," said his national communications director Sue Walitsky. "It also has shaken the federal family and our local communities. The most important question now is how do we avoid future shutdowns? It's a waste of money. It set back our economic recovery, demoralized the federal workforce and generally eroded faith in government."


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May 24th Update
Name a Mecha Mercenaries planet or person! Since we hit $3,000 I thought it might be cool to let backers name a planet or person in the game. If you want, feel free to tack on an extra $5 to name a planet or person. It's not a requirement, but if you want to add more to the world of Mecha Mercenaries, it's kinda fun!
May 23rd Update
And the winner of the vote for the next Stretch goal is Mecha Living Robots! Can w make another $1k in 8 days...I think we can!
May 22nd Update
Thanks to you all my plans for world domination via selling copes of mecha anime games is one step closer to completion!! That's right stretch goal #2 is done.
If you are a backer or you want to be, there is still time to vote.
Go here http://www.myheroicjourney.com/mecha-roadmap/ to see all the games we want to do for Mecha and then email or message me which one you want to be the next stretch goal!
Because there's only 8 days left, I need to close the polls tomorrow at 8:00 AM Central US time. Get in the vote now.
May 5th Update
WE'RE FUNDED!! Check out the Updates section for an in-depth discussion of what this means, but the important thing is this: We're a go for Stretch goal #1: Publishing Mecha Mercenaries. If we get this one funded, then everyone who backed the project can expect, at a minimum, to receive a PDF of the Mercenaries game.
Everyone can check out the cover by clicking on this link to the Heroic Journey Publishing blog.
April 18th Update
We have had several people approach us about bundling Mecha core products with Mecha Combiners. This only makes sense because Mecha is required to play Combiners, so we were all for it. However, instead of creating a bunch of new tiers, we have created two: War Vet and Decorated Veteran. You can buy these tiers only, or if you'd rather, you can add $8 or $18 for a PDF or soft cover copy of Mecha respectively. If you decide to add on, let us know at the end of the Kickstarter.
Mecha combine and form blazing weapons!
Do you remember how cool it was on Saturday mornings to watch five robot lions come together to form a mighty robotic warrior? Did you marvel when that robot hero formed its blazing sword and hacked giant evil creatures to tiny bits? (Did I just reveal my age...if so, search for Voltron on Netflix!! :))
Welcome to Mecha Combiners, the second published supplement for the Mecha Role Playing Game by Chris Perrin. These rules have long been the most asked-for supplement for Mecha, because, let's face it, there's something pretty awesome about playing a team of pilots that can come together to form a giant robot.
Our first Oops...
It's not clear off to the side, but all levels SERGEANT and above will receive the PDF as soon as its available. Yikes. Carry on!
What does Mecha Combiners include?
If you back this project and we're successful, we will be able to publish a supplement for Mecha complete with:
1. Complete rules for creating Combiner mecha
2. All new Configurations to capture the feel of Combiners from 80s Saturday morning cartoons
3. A new Mecha setting (SRS) featuring Combining mecha in a feudal Japan that has been devastated by evil kami and their leader, the Dishonorable Lord Prefect Kagikhaan
4. Thoughts and tips for creating your own Combiners settings
The game is all done, we just need your help on a few last things. Which begs the questions:
Where is the money going?
Art. Full color books are not cheap, but we want to do this right. Our goal is to increase the art budget by 50% over what was spent on the entire Mecha core book (which contained numerous settings.) Sara Rude, who did the concept art for the video (the Kami, Superblade and Superblade slicing the Kami were all hers) has already agreed to illustrate the book.
Perks. Some of the money collected will be used to pay for the Combiners dice, unit patches, and dog tags. It is not anticipated that Kickstarter funds will be needed to deliver Chris Perrin to locations within in the 2 hour drive window.
Books. The remaining balance will be used to create physical books which we will send to backers and get into stores.
Please consider donating. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask and if there's something you'd like to see as a perk, let us know. Combiners exists because fans like you asked for it, so don't be afraid to suggest what you'd like to see.
Thanks. Now, let's get this book made so we can go fight!
Funding period
- (45 days)


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While on forum remember to keep refreshing page so you can see new info and personal messages
SIR PATRICK MOORE 1923-2012Norman Lockyer Observatory.
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Product Detail
Bear Hug Blue Creeper
Quick OverviewSnuggly fitting with a comfortable stretch, creepers conveniently snap at both the crotch and shoulder. Ships with hanger attached. 100% Cotton rib. 6,12 & 18 Mo.
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Dust or wipe clean with a cloth dampened with water once a week. Be sure not to leave water spots on the surface. These water spots will dry and could possibly leave permanent marks.
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Tea Party Cucumber Sandwiches Recipes
Bresaola and Cucumber Finger Sandwiches
These charming finger sandwiches were probably the only thing I could have prepared in the tiny kitchen of the Roman apartment we rented while in the capital city of Italy last week. But it didn't stop me for preparing yummy sandwiches for Aria and me, using local products such as ricotta pannarella and black Angus bresaola meat.
Bresaola is salted lean and succulent beef that is air-dried until the meat turns dark red. It originated from the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. And I first discovered out-of-this-world ricotta pannarella while ordering a cheese platter in a restaurant in Rome. We asked the waiter to give us his best selection and I have to admit it sure was! Now I'm just hoping I'll be able to find some back in the US!
I prepared the finger sandwiches with crust-free, sliced white bread, a mixture of caramelized fennel and ricotta, sliced cucumbers and of course, freshly-made mozzarella cheese and delicious bresaola meat.
Full Recipe...
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
Cucumber sandwiches are the most delicious, easiest finger foods to make. All you need is sliced white bread, butter and of course, cucumbers. To enhance the flavor, I also spread a thin layer of parsley and garlic chive cream cheese spread.
We hosted a pool party today for Lya (my 13-year-old sis-in-law) and her classmates. I think everyone had fun, splashing in the water, chatting and reuniting right before school starts. They all seemed very hungry after swimming and the little cucumber sandwiches and other finger foods went fast!
Full Recipe...


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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's national security adviser said Sunday it would be a "grave mistake" for Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine.
Susan Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that in Obama's phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday the two agreed that a political settlement in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, should ensure the unity of the country and the right of Ukrainians to express their free will. She was asked whether the White House fears Putin will send Russian troops into Ukraine.
"That would be a grave mistake," she said. "It's not in the interest of Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or the United States to see the country split."
Protesters took to the streets of Kiev late last year after President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an agreement that would have strengthened his country's ties with the European Union in favor of seeking closer cooperation with Moscow.
Rice said that in the weeks ahead, Washington will cooperate with Europe and international organizations to help the Ukrainian economy, which she described as fragile.
Speaking on a separate Sunday show, Republican Sen. John McCain, a frequent critic of Obama's foreign policy, echoed some of the same themes as Rice on seeking to help Ukraine.
He said the United States needs to be clear with Putin that Ukrainians must be allowed to determine their own future and that partitioning the nation would be unacceptable.
"They want to be Western," McCain said on CBS's "Face the Nation." ''That's what this whole hundreds of thousands in the square was all about. They don't want to be Eastern."
McCain said he has spoken with an array of Ukrainians in the opposition movement in recent days. They are overjoyed, McCain said, but they are also worried about the economy.
"Their economic situation is so dire that literally the economy is on the verge of collapse and they're going to need help immediately," McCain said.