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Q3 FY19 Financial Results Presentation
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In addition to a big, head-trippy singleplayer campaign, the upcoming Far Cry 3 will feature a fleshed-out four-player co-op campaign. It's more than your standard "kill the enemy waves" setup; FC3's co-op has a story, complete with four different playable characters.
There's the hardassed chick, the goofy older russian dude, the wiseass cockney (or some such accent?) criminal and the big tough action dude.
In this video, a Ubisoft representative walks us through the ins and outs of a couple of co-op missions. Cool.

subset: commoncrawl


text: 18ct Gold Enchanted Twig Alphabet Necklace - Letter L Hand crafted in our London workshop, each individual letter hangs on a very fine trace chain which shimmers and shines as the gold catches the light. Created in solid 18ct yellow gold, each twig letter measures approximately 0.9 cm x 0.9 cm. Slight variations in size are possible on each letter. The 18ct gold chain is adjustable and can be worn at either 16 or 18 inches. All Alex Monroe jewellery is handmade in the UK.


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* Farm bill has same flaws found in cotton case, groups say
* House to vote later this week on big cuts in food stamps
* New farm bill, mired in controversy, is year overdue
By Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The new U.S. farm bill might violate World Trade Organization rules against trade-distorting subsidies, major U.S. business groups said on Monday in an appeal to lawmakers to revamp the bill, which is already facing slim odds of passage.
An adverse decision by the WTO could expose U.S. exports to retaliatory tariffs if there is a challenge. It would be an ironic turn, since the farm bill was intended in part to resolve a WTO ruling against U.S. cotton subsidies.
Leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees had no immediate response on Monday to the assertion by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and National Foreign Trade Council.
"We think meeting our international obligations is an important element of maintaining an open trading system, from which the United States benefits," said Bill Reinsch, head of the trade council.
In a letter, the groups said the farm bills pending in the House and Senate carried some of the same provisions that WTO ruled against in the cotton case. They said the bills each "run a substantial risk" of violating WTO rules on farm subsidies.
A House provision that ties crop payments to actual plantings of the crop could "quickly invite other nations to initiate dispute settlement against the United States - and do so with good chances of success," they said.
Brazil won the right to impose $830 million in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods when it won a WTO challenge of U.S. cotton subsidies after a long-running case. It has delayed action while awaiting U.S. reforms. Officials warned in August that their patience was not endless.
An analysis by the international law firm White & Case said "potential complainants include Brazil, China and Argentina." It said the House provision was the most likely trigger for a WTO case and highly likely to be ruled a violation.
A somewhat similar Senate provision would link price supports to historical plantings, an approach less likely to draw a challenge, said the analysis, but its high support prices could trigger payments that exceed WTO parameters.
The Republican-controlled House is expected to vote later this week on a bill to cut food stamps for the poor by $40 billion over 10 years. The vote could open the door to House-Senate negotiations on a compromise farm bill.
Analysts say that, ultimately, Congress is likely to extend the 2008 farm law for a second time. The ability to pass a new bill has stalled because of disagreements over food stamps and farm subsidies.


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Verizon is announcing a connection with NantHealth LLC, a privately held company owned by NantWorks LLC, that focuses on delivering next-generation care through the use of advanced secure fiber networks, cloud computing, and wireless mobile technology. Verizon's investment will be used to accelerate innovation for NantHealth LLC.
Funding to Help Accelerate Innovation in Health Care
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK – NantHealth LLC, a privately held company owned by NantWorks LLC, which is focused on delivering next-generation care through the use of advanced secure fiber network, cloud computing and wireless mobile technology, today announced an equity investment by Verizon Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications.
The investment will be used by NantHealth to accelerate innovation that will enable better patient care and reduced costs – two key factors affecting health care today. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"We believe that evidence-based medicine will be the cornerstone of future health care delivery," said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and CEO of NantHealth. "Partnering with Verizon gives us the national scale to succeed in enhancing patient outcomes and better access to care through secure broadband networks and our mobile platform. With Verizon's state-of-the-art fiber-optic network, communication and information services to enterprises in more than 150 countries including all of the Fortune 500 companies, the alliance will accelerate NantHealth's mission to transform health care in our nation."
John Stratton, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said: "Our close collaboration with NantHealth underscores Verizon's commitment to dramatically improve the delivery of health care in the U.S. and abroad. We believe that our joint efforts with Dr. Soon-Shiong will drive down health care costs and significantly improve the industry's ability to deliver quality care. Our goal is nothing short of transforming health care as we know it."
About NantHealth
NantHealth LLC is a subsidiary of NantWorks LLC, a company founded and led by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. Its core mission is to converge a wide range of digital technologies to transform scientific research and healthcare. It is building an integrated evidence-based, genomically-informed, personalized approach to the delivery of care and the development of next generation diagnostics and therapeutics. For more information, see www.nantworks.com.
About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 96 million retail customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 184,500. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.


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Treasurer - Good Practices
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
The following are ideas and suggestions collected from many different sources meant to help manage the finances of scouting units. Pick and choose the below ideas and suggestions that best match you and your scouting unit.
Every year, thousands of non-profit organizations lose money thru disorganized finances, borrowing by volunteers and/or just simple embezzlement and theft. Watch the newspapers for a few months. You will start seeing the incidents. Protect your organization by adopting some of the below suggestions.
Why does this happen? It's actually easy to understand. Non-profits exist because of good intentions and are run by very well meaning volunteers. Those volunteers are focused on fulfilling a need and not on basic business infrastructure. A natural result is that caution is lowered allowing problems and incidents to occur.
Many volunteers will not see the importance of financial discipline because it's just a scout group. It's not obvious to most volunteers that every year a 40 person Cub Scout pack can easily have $20,000 "passing thru" their checking account between dues, fundraisers, camp fees and such. Larger units can easily have $50,000 or more going thru their checking account. Groups with high adventures, monthly camping and summer camps can have even more passing thru checking.
Consider a 40 Cub Scout pack with $50 annual dues. Selling both popcorn and wreath fundraisers (averaging $300 per scout ... some higher ... some lower). 50% signing up for one winter event at $30 per person (scout and parent). 50% camping each summer at resident camps ($100 per person). That's $2000 in dues. $12,000 gross in fundraising. $1200 in winter event fees. $4000 in summer camp fees. Or a total of $19,200.
Consider common scouting expenditures. Philmont trip for ten scouts and leaders - $7,000 to $12,000 dollars. Week long summer camp for forty scouts - $8,000 to $10,000. Pack summer camp for 20 cubs and 20 parents - $4,000. Weekend camping for 20 scouts - $300 to $600 dollars. Pinewood derby - $200 to $600. Blue and Gold Banquet - $200 to $1,500. Monthly pack meeting program segments - $50 to $350.
Key Ideas and Goals
- Keep it simple. Don't require large corporation policies and procedures. We're all volunteers with very full lives.
- Divide and conquer the accounting so that each step is a smaller easier process.
- Make it easy to re-create financial records when things get messed up.
- Make it easy to trace the money spent and the money received.
- Automate
- Simple units such as small Cub Scout packs without "scout accounts" can probably survive using Excel.
- Larger units or units with Scout Accounts might consider adopting TroopLedger, QuickBooks or Excel with a scouting template.
- This contradicts "keep it simple". Formal accouting software require accounting expertise.
- Keep up to date - Units repeatedly get in trouble when the treasurer falls weeks or months behind in their record keeping.
- Reimburse quickly - You will quickly lose volunteers if you don't reimburse them for weeks or months.
- Be supportive - We're all volunteers. Though the treasurer can be one of the hardest jobs in a unit, every volunteer job is significantly harder than doing nothing. Help each other get things done and succeed.
- Don't burn your volunteers - If they incur a "reasonable" expense, get them reimbursed in a timely way. If it's not reasonable, you have a different issue.
- Watch the rumors - Misunderstandings easily occur over money, hurt reputations and drive away volunteers.
The Bank
- Don't hesitate to switch banks. It's cheaper to switch to the right bank than to stay in a less than perfect match.
- Avoid fees. Some banks have community service checking accounts that do NOT require a minimum balance, do NOT charge a monthly fee and do NOT charge other fees such as fees for too many checks being deposited (fundraisers).
- Ask if the online PDF bank statements will include images of the checks written against the account. This allows you to read the name on the check and the "comments" field. Most banks allow access to check images one-by-one when on-line. Some have them printed on mailed paper statements. But it is extremely useful to have the images on the on-line bank statements themselves because you can save them to PDF files and email to your co-leaders. You may want to change banks to get this capability as it promotes open easy communication and traceability.
- Have at least two registered signers for the checking account. Three or more signers is preferred.
The Person
BSA has no strict rules for the treasurer's position. Plus, the position can take significant work and be one of the key positions in any unit.
- You can ask the treasurer of the Chartered Organization to be your treasurer.
- You can divide the role any way necessary matching your organizational needs.
- BSA encourages the checking account have two, three or more authorized signers.
- BSA encourages (NOT REQUIRED) two or more signers for every check. This can add challenges and work.
The right person
- Not everyone will be a good treasurer. You don't need to be a CPA or a math teacher. But the treasurer must be organized and be willing to regularly spend time at home balancing the books when everyone else is taking a break from scouting.
- If the treasurer falls behind, fix the situation. If it's a one time life or family situation, your unit will survive. If it's a recurring problem, find someone else to be treasurer.
- Don't be afraid to to give up the job if you are the treasurer or to suggest someone else pick it up.
Separation of Responsibilities
Even if the family has the best of reputations and single handedly started the scout group, split the responsibilities with multiple families. It's to protect both the interests of the unit and the reputation of the family.
- Don't have the unit leader and treasurer be the same person.
- Don't have the unit leader and treasurer be husband / wife.
- Don't have family members approve expenses or co-sign their own reimbursement check.
Financial Secretary
Some organizations split the treasurer role into two positions: Treasurer and Financial Secretary.
- The Treasurer is transaction oriented. Collects money. Makes deposits. Receives expense reports. Pays bills. Writes checks.
- The Financial Secretary is planning and reporting oriented. Creates and manages the budget. Updates and publishes scout account records. Reviews bank statements. Balances the books. Creates event profit / loss event summaries.
- Coordination is done by the treasurer providing the submitted expense reports and detailed deposit information to the financial secretary.
Transparency & Communication
- Openly share information
- If someone wants to see the detailed finances, absolutely let them.
- You probably want to sit down and walk them thru the documents to avoid misunderstandings or quick judgments.
- You probably want to sit down with them to understand why they are asking.
- Don't automatically send the detailed finances out to everyone. Finances and financial statements take time, experience and context to understand.
- Review both large expenditures and non-standard expenditures with the committee BEFORE and AFTER the spending the money.
- Share the bank statements with the key leaders and a few non-leaders who know finances and accounting.
- Key leaders probably include your committee chair, unit leader (Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Adviser, ...) and one or two assistant unit leaders.
- One way to share is to save documents into an encrypted ZIP file. Then, share that ZIP file with the key leaders.
- Another way to share is to bring print outs of the documents to the committee meetings. The challenge here is that people won't have enough time to understand details during the committee meeting.
- Use on-line banking to download monthly bank statements in PDF format.
- Bank statements that include images of every check written is very, very helpful.
- Share financial summaries with the committee.
- Bring print-outs of balance statements and profit-loss statements to the committee meetings
- Walk the committee thru the financial statements ... line by line.
- If someone wants to see the detailed finances, absolutely let them.
- Document standing decisions
- Put them in the unit handbook, family guide or unit web site.
- Dues - How much are they and when are they charged? What do you charge scouts joining at other times of the year?
- Fundraisers - What is standard division of profits for a standard or annual fundraiser? What if, instead of buying product, someone donates cash / check? Neighbor? Grandparents? Other?
- Refunds - What can be refunded? How much notice is needed?
- Scout accounts - What can be purchased with them? What happens to them when the scout leaves?
- Adults - Who is charged what? Is there a discount? Is the cost of gas reimbursed?
Scout accounts
Managing Individual Youth Accounts can easily double the work of the treasurer.
- There is no rule requiring units to manage scout accounts.
- There is no rule requiring units to allocate fund raiser profits to individual scouts.
If your unit does have Individual Youth Accounts, managing them is one of the most important jobs and one of the most questioned. Parents will review these statements in detail.
- Have the information readily available
- Keep the information up to date
- Use a consistent format for communicating
- Hand them out regularly. At minimum, consider handing them out at each Court of Honor.
- Strongly prefer "checks" to "cash" - Of course never turn away someone who is ready to pay in cash. Just prefer checks written to your scouting unit. Handling cash is the number one place where money is confused, lost or stolen. A disorganized person can easily confuse cash with their own money. A stressed person can easily borrow cash. Cash is an issue because cash can't be tracked. Checks require deposit and leave a trail.
- Track cash - As money is handed to you, record the cash in a ledger while the person is still standing with you. Give the person a receipt for the cash.
- Never pay expenses directly from incoming cash - Deposit everything. When ever possible, pay all expenses with checks. It's about transparency, discipline, organization, knowing what things cost and getting receipts (or at least something to document the expense). If a volunteer protests this, you don't want that person handling money anyway,
- Don't keep petty cash on-hand - Deposit everything. It's hard to track and rarely needed. Most scouting volunteers will float minor expenses for a few days. A better solution is to always reimburse volunteers ASAP. Reimburse the same day if possible!
- All incoming checks should be written to your scouting unit. Never have incoming checks written directly to the volunteers.
- With every check, incoming or outgoing, write in the comments section a brief description of the purpose of the check. This is useful when reconciling records as most banks allow retrieving the image of the check.
- Deposit checks continually.
- The treasurer should never sign checks payable to anyone in their own family. Have another authorized, non-family member sign the check.
- BSA recommends two signatures on every check.
- Though a very good recommendation, many units don't do this as it can slow reimbursements and make the treasurer's job harder.
- If your unit doesn't do this, make sure your unit has good financial "transparency" (i.e. multiple people see the bank statements and other documents) and "traceability" (i.e. is there evidence on why money was spent and where incoming money went)
- Create a detailed deposit record for reconciling records later. Record the date received, amount, scout, purpose and name on check if different than the scout family, very important for fundraisers.
- Collect money continually - Don't wait weeks or month for an activity, a camp or a fundraiser to be done. Ideally, at every troop and committee meeting, the treasurer should ask the scoutmaster, camping chair, fundraising chair and all others ... "Got any checks for me?"
- Deposit money often - A repeated problem in many units is holding checks for months and months. This affects families that don't have good control of their own finances. This makes it difficult to know the unit finances.
- Keep receipts organized - One way is to get a three ring binder with school paper. Tape them sequentially in as they arrive. Three hole punch large receipts.
- Write on each receipt the date it was paid, the name of the person being reimbursed, the check number used to pay it.
- Make them write something down and sign it if there is no receipt. For example, firewood purchased at a state park using an "honor box".
Plan & budget
- Support annual planning and budgetting
- Provide supporting information before the annual planning session.
- Provide a balance statement
- Provide a summary of past profit / loss balance statements to evaluate budgeing results.
- Create an estimated budget based on past actual spending.
- Event based accounting - Create an event summary for each event including camps, activities, bank deposits, courts of honor, equipment purchases and such. Review and finalize each summary with the troop committee. Once finalized, update scout accounts with the transactions as documented. Scout accounts could be documented in Excel or Quicken (not QuickBooks).
- For camps and activities, reflect who, what, where and when. List scouts being billed and expenses for that event.
- For deposits, list check # (or cash), amount, purpose, scout to credit, name on check (if different).
- Simple. Easy to adopt. Easy to execute.
- Each individual event summary is a useful document for review by the unit leaders and unit committee.
- Can be used to "close out" and finalize events.
- Does not follow basic accounting principles.
- "For an skilled accountant", this is more work.
- Double entry accounting - This method is accepted world-wide as a standard for all accounting has every entry represented by two off-setting entries (a credit and a debit). If your troop has the skills and tools can manage this, it is a very good choice.
- Follows generally accepted accounting principles
- Reflects a professional approach
- Hard to hand off to the next volunteer
- If data gets screwed up, all data is in question.
- Requires significant accounting expertise and skill. If you don't have accounting expertise, this may be a bad method to adopt.
- Requires a software application like QuickBooks or TroopLedger.
- Requires setting up a chart of accounts and knowing which are assets and which are liabilities ("credit" vs "debit" accounts).
- Does not create an event summary that can be used for review.
- Need to still declare when events are done and publish some type of cost accounting summary.
- Close and audit the books every year.
- Choose the financial year. Some use July 1st through June 30th. Choose dates that makes sense for your unit.
- At the end of the financial year, make one last call expenses and receipts.
- Reconcile and close issues. Don't let financial problems bleed from one year to the next.
- Pay all outstanding bills. Of course if someone has a late expense submitted after the final financial statements are published, still reimburse them. Just record it in the next year financial year.
- Produce a profit / loss statement.
- Produce a balance statement showing scout accounts, receivables and payables
- Publish and review with the troop committee
- Close and review events when their done
- At the end, call one last time for expenses and receipts
- Reconcile and close out issues. Don't let financial issues bleed from one event to the next.
- Pay all outstanding expenses.
- Produce a profit / loss statement
- Publish and review with the troop committee
Quicken is my personal favorite for managing scout account details and producing reports for parents. Here's a few comments.
- Learn how to "SAVE" your favorite reports. I depend on the Reporting -> Banking -> Transaction ones.
- Field values - You might have your personal preferences, but this is what I found.
- The Quicken "accounts" are your scouts.
- To charge a scout for an event, ...
- Date = Event Date
- Transaction type = INVOICE
- VENDOR / Payee = Event name. I prefix mine with YYYY-MM Event Name
- Category = Event name. I use same as payee. There's a reason.
- Save the category as an "Expense" category.
- To credit a scout for a payment...
- Date = Event date. Not the deposit date. It makes for nice looking report.
- Transaction type = payment
- Vendor / Payee = Event name. Same as for the invoice.
- Category = Deposit name. I name mine "Deposit - YYYY-MM-DD" matching the date of the bank statement deposit.
- Save the category as an "Income" category.
- To tell I've posted data correct,
- Run a report grouped by category.
- Event categories dollar totals should match individual event reports.
- Deposit categories should match individual deposit records & match the bank statements.
- Run a report grouped by vendor.
- If everything is paid up, vendor values should approach zero. INVOICE - PAYMENT = 0. :)
- Things won't add up if scouts do a pass payment to their scout account.
- Run a report grouped by category.
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Docs
- Quick Books
See Also
- Unit Treasurer
- Unit Fundraising Chair
- Pack Fundraising Chair
- Individual Accounts - Important to running a successful scouting unit, especially troops and crews.
- Fundraising - Great ideas on raising money for a scouting unit
- Popcorn - Great ideas for running the annual popcorn sale
- Pinewood Derby and Fundraising
- Friends of Scouting
- Eagle Scout Service Project additional fundraising requirements
- Friends of Scouting annual local council solicitation for donations
- Accident Insurance


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'''Watch for more information here soon
'''Watch for more information here soon
up for a team!
Revision as of 23:27, 3 June 2008
The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It's as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California," John Steinbeck once said. This summer at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, your knowledge will be put to the test in California Dreaming, a conference wide scavenger hunt.
California has always been steeped in myths, from the verdant valleys of Steinbeck to the sun-soaked beaches of the Beach Boys to the rain-drenched noir of Chandler. Each artist has created their own unique dream of the Golden State. Can you separate the fiction from the reality and discover the real California? As attendees explore the conference they will encounter cryptic quotes and brain-teasing puzzles taken from books, movies and music about California.
A little friendly competition quickens the pulse. With so many information professionals on the case the competition will be quick and stiff. See how your problem-solving and information-gathering skills match up against your peers.
- Play alone or work in teams to solve the puzzles and sort the dreams from the reality.
- Turn in answers at the game headquarters and score points for yourself and your team.
- Use your points to help your team capture famous areas of California from the Salinas Valley to Haight-Ashbury.
- Keep an eye out as you attend sessions and visit the exhibit floor for new puzzles and questions.
- Identify team members to work and share information with by team badges.
- Learn the history of California and have fun doing it.
Are you California Dreaming?
Watch for more information here soon!
Sign up for a team!


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A neck-and-neck White House race reached a frantic conclusion on Tuesday as voters chose between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a decision that will set the course for two starkly different visions for the country.
After a long and bitter presidential campaign, Americans cast their votes at polling stations across the country. At least 120 million people were expected to render judgment on whether to give Obama a second term or replace him with Romney.
The first clues to who will win could come once results are in from the swing states of Virginia and Florida and, even more importantly, Ohio. Polls in all three will have closed by 8 p.m. EST (1:00 a.m. British time) and if the results are clear, U.S. television networks could begin projecting winners in those states soon after that.
Polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky - both firmly in the Republican camp - at 6 p.m. EST (11:00 p.m. British time) and voting will end across the country over the following six hours.
Who Americans choose will set the country's course for the next four years on spending, taxes, healthcare and foreign policy challenges like the rise of China and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Each man offered different policies to cure what ails America's weak economy, with Obama pledging to raise taxes on the wealthy and Romney offering across-the-board tax cuts as a way to reignite strong economic growth.
National opinion polls show Obama and Romney in a virtual dead heat, although the Democratic incumbent has a slight advantage in several vital swing states - most notably Ohio - that could give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the state-by-state contest.
According to Reuters-Ipsos Election Day polling, one in three Obama voters said the economy was the most important issue for them, while half of Romney voters agreed. Healthcare was the second most important issue for Obama voters and the budget deficit was second for Romney voters. Unemployment was third for both.
Three-quarters of both Romney and Obama supporters decided to vote for their preferred candidate before the October debates, according to the data.
The Romney side was encouraged by what was described as heavy turnout in Republican areas from Florida to Colorado.
Romney made last-minute visits to Ohio and Pennsylvania to try to drive up turnout in those states, while Vice President Joe Biden was dispatched to Ohio. Obama remained in his hometown of Chicago.
Romney told reporters on his plane as he flew back to Boston that he was optimistic.
"I'm very proud of the campaign that I've run, to tell you the truth," he said. "I'm sure like any campaign, people can talk to mistakes, but that's going to be part of anything that's produced by human beings," he said.
The multimillionaire former head of a private equity firm and former governor of Massachusetts, Romney would be the first Mormon president and one of the wealthiest Americans to assume the nation's highest office.
Obama, the country's first black president, seeks to avoid being relegated to a single term, something that has happened to only one of the previous four occupants of the White House.
Whichever candidate wins, a razor-thin margin might not bode well for the clear mandate needed to help break the partisan gridlock in Washington.
In Chicago, Obama delivered a final pitch to commuters in toss-up states that have been an almost obsessive focus of both campaigns, and made a surprise visit to a local field office staffed with volunteers.
"Four years ago, we had incredible turnout," Obama told a Miami radio station in a pre-recorded interview. "I know people were excited and energized about the prospect of making history, but we have to preserve the gains we've made."
He called a hip-hop music station in Tampa, Florida, in a final outreach to African-American supporters, telling listeners that voting was "central to moving our community forward."
Fuelled by record spending on negative ads, the battle between the two men was focused primarily on the lagging economic recovery and persistently high unemployment, but at times it also turned personal.
The close race raises the prospect of a disputed outcome similar to the 2000 election, which ended with a U.S. Supreme Court decision favouring George W. Bush over Al Gore after legal challenges to the tight vote in Florida. Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have assembled legal teams to deal with possible voting problems, challenges or recounts.
Although voting appeared to go smoothly in most places, complaints about procedures and possible irregularities surfaced sporadically across the electoral map. But there were no immediate claims of anything widespread or systematic enough to cast doubt on the credibility of the election outcome.
Storm-weary residents across New York and New Jersey encountered long lines as they went to cast their ballots just over a week after the devastating storm Sandy caused havoc in the region. New Jersey granted a last-minute extension to the deadline for email voting.
The balance of power in the U.S. Congress will also be at stake in races for the Senate and House of Representatives that could affect the outcome of "fiscal-cliff" negotiations on spending cuts and tax increases, which kick in at the end of the year unless a deal is reached.
Obama's Democrats are now expected to narrowly hold their Senate majority, while Romney's Republicans are favoured to retain House control.
Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Chicago, Patricia Zengerle in Boston, Edith Honan in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Philip Barbara in New Jersey, Matt Spetalnick, Lisa Lambert, Susan Heavey, Thomas Ferraro, Susan Cornwell, Anna Yukhananov and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and John Whitesides; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Christopher Wilson


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Keshav Music Welcomes Your Question or Comments
*** Request a price quote here
Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
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Pomona, NY, 10970
Online indian music store featuring harmoniums, sitars, tablas and other Indian musical instruments. Unmatched experience and quality. twenty years of unparalleled customer service.
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My make up collection is still in a state of disaray, so at the moment, I have my day to day products in a plastic bag next to my bed. Oh yes. The glamour.
So I decided I needed a fairly big train case type vanity bag. I found some on eBay for around £15 and a simple black on from Muji for £14. The thing is I wanted something simple but easy to use, ideally cheap because my make up bags always get trashed.
I went to Primark and ran into some luck! I found this cute bag for only £3!
It's spacious and has this nifty mirror on the top that folds out:
Even the inside is lined with plastic – easy clean!:
£3! What a bargain. It even fit all my rubbish in.


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Obtaining your international cell phone rental, or any of our rental products is really easy. We have designed our web site so that you can get an accurate and complete quote before placing your order! All you have to do is answer a couple of simple questions to get full and detailed costs and information. If you are happy with our rates and conditions, you can continue with the process to actually place an order, all in one single smooth operation. Whether you're are looking at a cell phone rental, satellite phone rental or SIM rental, you can go ahead and check our services right here from our home page, explore and get information about the different services, or go straight to the costs calculator! Going to Italy, France and Kenya, and you'll be using the phone mostly for local calls? Not a problem! Our automated system will show you the best options for whatever your cell phone rental needs are! You´ll see that doing business with us is a satisfying experience right from the very beggining!
The 2010 World Cup will take place in South Africa, the first time the tournament will be staged on the African continent.
Vinexpo Asia-Pacific is the international reference in Asia, built on the expertise of Vinexpo, the world leader since 1981.
The Cannes Film Festival founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals.
Baja 1000 is an off-road race that takes place on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula in the fall.
Roaming Voicemail: Your cell phone provider is charging you up to $6 per minute
Taming High International Roaming Charges
U.S. Businesses Pay as Much as $693 in International Cellular Roaming Fees Per Traveler, Per Trip
Phonerental's new website is online!


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Sparkling wines such as champagne contain natural carbonation. Fortified wines such as port and sherry have higher alcohol content because of the addition of other liquors such as brandy. Aromatic wines such as vermouth, have been flavored with herbs.
For long-term storage, wine bottles with corks should be placed on their side with the bottom of the bottle slightly higher than the top so that the cork remains wet and expanded from the moisture to keep air from entering affecting the flavor of the wine. Once the bottle is opened, the wine is exposed to air so as it oxidizes it begins to decompose in flavor, becoming more vinegar flavored the longer it is stored. To help with storing opened wines, many different types of cork substitutes are available that are made to remove excesss air remaining in the bottle after some of the wine has been consumed. Various vacuum pumps with bottle stoppers that allow air to be withdrawn from the bottle can be purchased to delay the wine from becoming acidic or to seal the opening securely so the fruit flavor can be retained for 4 to 5 days. The bottle stopper is moistened to create a tighter seal, the pump is placed over the stopper and the pump is activated up and down to withdraw the air inside. The wine, regardless of type and variety, should then be placed in a refrigerator to help preserve the flavor. If the flavor becomes too acidic, it can still be kept for up to a month to be used as a cooking wine.


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PARIS: A new study says the gap between the richest and poorest is growing across leading economies, and recommends fairer tax laws to reduce it.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says the gap is growing even in countries seen as more equal, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Paris-based OECD is made up of 34 major economies, including the United States.
The study says the top 1 percent of earners in the United States earned 47 percent of all income growth over the past three decades.
It warns that the gap will continue to grow �without concerted policy action.� Ideas it is mooting include reducing tax breaks and havens that reward the rich more than the poor.


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Jeb Bush Says His Father is the 'Best Man I've Ever Met'
(WASHINGTON) -- In a special Father's Day edition of the Sunday Spotlight on ABC's This Week, former Florida governor Jeb Bush reflected on lessons learned from his father and hinted about his own political future.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Jon Karl, Bush spoke about Father's Days spent in the Bush household and called the 41st president "the best dad and the best man I've ever met."
"He's a humble guy," Bush said. "Every day was Father's Day as I'm concerned."
Bush said his father's lessons on humility have stayed with him. As Bush reflected on his loss in a 1994 Florida gubernatorial run, he recalled the resiliency his father taught him.
"I ended up learning that losing actually turns out to be pretty good," Bush said. "It makes you better. You learn and grow."
Bush said his father's reaction to losing his 1992 presidential bid also inspired him.
"I think my dad's post-presidency, he didn't miss a beat," Bush said. "He didn't get into any kind of 'woe is me.' He dusted himself off and led an incredible life since 1993."
Bush opened up about his father's health challenges. President Bush celebrated his 89th birthday on June 12th and donned a signature pair of colorful Superman socks for the occasion.
"I think it was hard at first for my dad to transition to being immobile," Bush said.
"I think he's in a good place. He's mentally alert," he added. "He's spiritually in a place that we should all envy."
The former Florida governor is frequently mentioned as a potential 2016 presidential candidate -including by family members.
His father and brother, George W. Bush, have encouraged Jeb to enter the race in 2016, while his mother, Barbara, concluded that there have been "enough Bushes" in the White House.
"I think we've got a split ballot amongst the Bush senior family. Pretty sure that's the case," Bush said smiling.
For now, the Bush family is focused on their Father's Day letter writing contest, recently launched to honor fathers and promote former First Lady Barbara Bush's Foundation for Family Literacy.
Bush says the project honors his father's love of writing letters and encourages families to get involved in the "process of teaching kids how to read and giving them the joy of reading."
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio


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In what can only be described as a questionable dating move, let this Rant show that Robert Greenfield is officially choosing his dedication to the Packer Ranter over his on-again/off-again ladyfriend relationship.
Some may recall my dating adventures with diehard Bears fan Connie a while back. While it was quite the psychological hurdle to even consider dating someone who idolizes Jay Cutler, I was willing to jump it for a chance at a little-known thing called love. I chronicled some of it here and even more here and here. The entire time, I concealed my identity as Head Cheese of the Packer Ranter because a) it may have been improperly labeled as dorky and b) this is not something I share with everyone.
Well my friends, don't make the same mistake I did and write about your personal life on the Interweb – especially with real names. A friend of a friend told Connie about my stories and let's just say she is really ticked off. Like angry badger kind of thing. I got 3 email-fulls so far and a rather nasty voicemail to boot. Turns out that women don't like that sort of thing EVEN THOUGH you could be totally complimentary toward them (as I tried to explain).
Things have quickly turned into what feels like a simple decision I have to make: Connie or the Ranter? Well Connie, if you are reading this, I have your answer and it goes something like:
We had some good times. We had some fun times. I will never forget that time you tried to get my barber to shave my eyebrows to "just thin them out a little" and we had the subsequent conversation about manscaping becoming more popular than MMA among the U.S. male populus (which I still disagree with, btw). Then there was that time you made my Uncle Orlo that cheeseburger surprise for his birthday and he threw up. Thrice. Those were wonderful memories I will cherish and I hope your takeaways from our time together are equally filled with fond laughter. You are a genuinely nice person and I think you will in fact make it one day as an interior designer if you stay focused and lay off the Peach Schnapps. However, I think we can both agree this was never going to work out for reasons known to you and I. I do wish you the best and will genuinely miss the smack talk. I'm sure I'll see you at the bars.
P.S. The Bears still suck. Sorry, but they do. Cutler is overrated too. You'll see. Devin Hester, also not good. Go Pack!
Some may think it cruel or just plain weird to write a "Dear John" letter like this and I've decided I'm generally OK with that. We only went on 4 dates (5 if you count the bass fishing expo) and I'm doing my best to be a gentleman otherwise. I hope you agree.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
I Choose the Ranter!
6 comments:
This is frickin' awesome.ReplyDelete
What can I say, I loooove the Pack!ReplyDelete
Good. Clear your head for the season. No distractions.ReplyDelete
I heard she was off-again/on-again with Jim Thome and Paul Konerko anyway.
I'm glad the ranter is here to stay. I laugh everytime you grace me with an article. Who ever 'Connie' maybe, she is missin out one one cool cheesehead/bass fishing expo loving guy.ReplyDelete
Thanks for the encouragement guys.ReplyDelete
The Ranter is here to stay!
Bears Fans < HumanReplyDelete
I think you did the right thing.
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Latest News
Keys 'Seahag' gets 30 years for killing man who refused to give her a beer
Former Conch Key resident Carolyn Dukeshire has the next 30 years to think about the can of Busch Light beer she never got from neighbor Martin Mazur.
That's the reason Dukeshire, 62, shot and killed Mazur, 64, last July 29 — she asked Mazur for a beer and he said no. That's when she shot him five times outside his Conch Key home.
Dukeshire — known by her friends and co-workers as the Seahag — pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday, accepting an agreement with the Monroe state attorney's office for a maximum 30 years in prison. Assistant Public Defender Patrick Stevens represented her.
A grand jury handed down a first-degree murder charge against Dukeshire in August.
Assistant State Attorney Tanner Demmery said Mazur's brother was at Thursday's hearing before acting Circuit Court Judge Ruth Becker.
"The brother of the victim, he elected to have the victim advocate read his prepared statement to the court. Ms. Dukeshire had no comment," he said.
Demmery said Dukeshire submitted a statement to Becker indicating her remorse and that she'd pay the rest of her life for losing composure in that moment.
A 17-year Keys resident, Dukeshire had no previous arrest history in Monroe County.
According to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report, just before the shooting, Dukeshire reportedly asked Mazur, for whom she had previously done some lobster-trap work: "Do you have a cold beer for me?" He reportedly replied, "I have absolutely nothing for you."
That's when Dukeshire shot Mazur twice in the lower right abdomen, twice in the back and once in the right wrist.
Deputy Michael Claudy's report says "it seems apparent" Mazur was attempting to flee from the gunfire but collapsed near a tiki bar in his backyard.
Mazur's reported business partner, Casey Whippo, 30, witnessed the shooting and told police he struggled with Dukeshire for the gun. Sheriff's office divers recovered the small-caliber weapon the next day in a canal behind the house.


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Kaidoku Wood LCD Watch
- $169.00
Available Options
A limited edition wood watch that displays the time with words instead of numbers, Kisai Kaidoku Wood features a smart new stainless steel case, a custom made wooden strap and includes time, date and alarm.
A Cool Watch That Uses Words Instead Of Numbers
Kaidoku means to decode in Japanese but this watch needs no translation once you understand how it works. Look at the words that are flashing and read them in order to tell the time. The date can be read in exactly the same way by pressing the lower button. Take a look at the graphic below.
A Modern Wood Watch With A Custom Made Case And Strap
Kisai Kaidoku Wood has a newly designed stainless steel case which contrasts beautifully against the 100% natural wood strap. There are three models to choose from, dark sandalwood with blue LCD, red sandalwood with green LCD and maple with a purple LCD.
Like all wood watches from Tokyoflash Japan, a clear coating has been applied to Kisai Kaidoku Wood for protection.
A Wood Watch Designed For Small And Large Wrists
With a wide case and curved strap, Kisai Kaidoku is ideal for both small and large wrists. The color options are suited to both men and women and the watch is light weight, more like a modern bracelet than a time piece.
The links that make up the strap are individually made so the strap can be adjusted like a normal watch to fit your wrist perfectly. The watch uses a standard CR2016 watch battery which will last at least 12 months and can easily be replaced.
Time Mode, Date Mode, Alarm Mode, EL Backlighting
Simple in function, Kisai Kaidoku features date mode and alarm in addition to an electroluminescent (EL) backlight function for night time.
Press the upper button to illuminate the words. This function only works in dark conditions and is not as bright as LED lighting used in some watches.
Due to the natural qualities of wood, the color and grain may be slightly darker or lighter than shown in the photos.
Made of a natural material, Kisai Kaidoku Wood is light and comfortable to wear and every single watch has a unique color and grain pattern.
- Displays the time and date
- Unisex design for small & large wrists
- Alarm mode
- LCD "always on" display
- Electroluminescent (EL) backlight (for night time only)
- Stainless steel case & buckle
- Adjustable Wood Strap
- Minimum wrist size: 100 mm (approx.)
- Maximum wrist size: 210 mm (approx.)
- Case Dimensions: 47 mm x 35 mm x 9 mm
- Weight: 72 grams
- Battery: CR2016 standard replaceable watch battery
- English instructions
- One year warranty
In February 2010, Tokyoflash opened its Design Studio Blog to showcase its concept designs and request ideas for new watch designs from fans. The original idea for Kisai Kaidoku was submitted by 15 year old Tynan Mayhew and was voted as one of the most popular designs by fans. Find out more about the original concept on the Tokyoflash Design Studio Blog.
Find out more about the original concept on the Tokyoflash Design Studio BLOG.
Blog reader & watch designer, Tynan Mayhew from Canada says:
When I first discovered Tokyoflash, I was fascinated with the watch designs. I followed the Tokyoflash design blog on Twitter, and checked it frequently.
When the Tokyoflash Design Challenge started, I had an idea. I wanted to create a watch design that told time in a completely different way, using words instead of numbers. I made a few sketches and uploaded the design. In a few days, a concept design had been posted, and I loved it. After a while, I forgot about it until I was contacted regarding my idea.
When I finally got to see the real thing, I was floored. It looked very sleek and smooth and like a lot of effort had been put into designing it.
|Watch Attributes
|Strap Material
|Case Material
|Stainless Steel
|Stainless Steel


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Click here to listen to the podcast.
This week Kevin Bialy discusses his career at the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he serves as the acting international program officer for the Western Hemisphere. Bialy describes some of the opportunities available for students and more experienced researchers at the NIH, USAID, and CDC. He also details how his training in anthropology has assisted him throughout his career, particularly in navigating between science and policy realms. He offers suggestions for those interested in pursuing federal employment, and urges students to acquire skills and experiences that will help them stand out from their peers.
In February 2007, the Practicing Anthropology Working Group (PAWG) launched a "Profiles in Practice" column in Anthropology News that highlighted anthropologists working outside of academia. PAWG soon transformed into the more permanent AAA Committee of Practicing, Applied and Public Interest Anthropology (CoPAPIA), which reimagined its Anthropology News column under the new title "Anthropology Works" in September 2008.
CoPAPIA is now building upon past Profiles in Practice columns with an online interview series geared towards students interested in anthropology but uncertain about career paths that await them after graduation. The series is hosted by Ruth Sando, owner of Sando and Associates, who is a practicing anthropologist and former board member of the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists.
If you're having trouble playing the mp3 file, try installing a free version of Apple Quicktime.
Interested in participating in this podcast series? Please contact Brian Estes at bestes AT aaanet DOT org
Previous Profiles in Practice podcasts:


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Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site.
If Chinanu Onuaku has a favorite school or plans to make a decision any time this summer, he's hiding it well. The fast-rising big man is rising fast for a reason: he's focused on improving his game rather than his recruitment.
"I'm open," said Onuaku, who's known to teammates and coaches as 'Nunu.'
Onuaku, whose offer list is up to 14 schools following a strong showing at the NBPA Top 100 camp two weeks ago, said he's got no favorites, no visits planned and no intentions to commit this summer. He did say that a handful of schools are recruiting him hardest: Maryland, Kansas State, Seton Hall, Rutgers and DePaul.
"I've been hearing a lot from Maryland. Both [Mark Turgeon and Dalonte Hill]," he said. "They like me and they think they can make me better."
Onuaku, who averaged 8.2 points, 10.8 rebounds and three blocks as a junior at Riverdale Baptist, took the short trip over to College Park last week to watch the NBA Draft with the team.
"It was good. They all seem like they like each other and are good teammates," he said.
Terps commit Melo Trimble, Onuaku's teammate on D.C. Assault's U-17 team, has been pitching in a bit as well.
"He just tells me I should come with him so we can make Maryland basketball better," Onuaku said.
Onuaku's a defensive specialist who should be able to contribute immediately on that end as a college freshman. He's working this summer on showcasing an improving offensive game. The 6-foot-10, 220-pound rising senior could play power forward or center in college. With Maryland in need of a rim-protecting big man, he's quickly ascended Mark Turgeon's wish list this year.
But where he ends up committing is anyone's guess, and may remain so for a while.
"I'll probably decide at the middle of next season, at the end of next season or on signing day," he said.
To gain access to all of InsideMDSports.com's premium Terps sports and recruiting content, click HERE.


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Wednesday, 9 June 2010
KJAER WEIS: First impressions
It's a small line consisting of eye shadows (4 shades), lip tints (3 shades) and cream blush (3 shades). Each product is priced at £32-£38 but you can buy refills for a much cheaper price (£13-£18).
Colour wise I think it's more of a natural suits all range. I emailed the company directly for colour descriptions of the eye shadows and got a quick reply:
Cloud Nine: Cream, that is good as a base.
Wisdom: Taupe, beautiful mix of gray, brown and purple
Earthy calm: Brown, good for adding depth and shading to the eye
Onyx: dark gray, almost black.
Naturally I bought Wisdom (£32). The description they gave is spot on, the finish is neither matte, nor overly shimmery, just has a really pretty sheen to it.
The eye shadow blends perfectly and stays on without creasing.
The weighty metal Compact with its white enamelled logo is beautiful. I have never seen anything like it and it feels truly unique and modern, almost like a piece of jewellery. The compact is roughly 3x3.5cm. Each compact comes housed in a red lacquered textured box.
I've since gone and ordered some more items, the quality of the product combined with the luxurious packaging is enough of an enticement for me and I feel like its an exciting range and definitely a brand to watch out for. I'll make sure to review them as soon as possible as I appreciate at this price you really want to look at reviews/see swatches if you are ordering on-line.
I bought my items from Space NK who is their only UK stockist (I think you can only get the range in the UK and Denmark, although I think the Space NK UK website does ship internationally).
4 comments:
Curse you! I trekked round 3 SpaceNKs today, to finally be told this is only at Kensington and City SpaceNKs at the moment. So I gave up. Now you're persuading me that *maybe* the schlep to Knightsbridge would be worth it...just for a look, you understand ;)ReplyDelete
This looks pretty interesting. I was hoping this be sold in the States but no such luck.ReplyDelete
Oh my, this is quite possibly the most beautiful, astounding packaging I have ever seen! I was planning a trip to the Covent Garden shop anyway today, but just read Grace's comment...so disappointing. I had a look online and the cream blushes look like an investment I will most gladly make in the near future (as soon as I get to Knightsbridge).ReplyDelete
Hi Grace,ReplyDelete
Ha, I was hoping to catch your eye! I think you should have a "look" I've ordered another shadow and 1 lip tint so will post about those as soon as I get them.
Hi Ammie,
Hopefully if they do well here they will expand to other countries, I definitely think there is a gap in the market for them.
Hello Nina,
I had asked for the ingredients for the cream blush and got these descriptions today,
"Blossoming, a rosy-pink'ish. Pretty color, especially for fair skin.
Sun Touched, a coral color, gives a beautiful healthy looking glow, very
good for summer. All skin tones really.
Desired Glow, light brown/tan color. Gives the look of a bit of a tan,
pretty" they contain corn starch which I normally avoid, and yet I am still tempted by Blossoming.. its probably a good thing the range is small as I think this is going to work out rather expensive for me :)


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Start Slideshow
- Landsbanki HeadquartersNew York-based WORK Architecture Company has unveiled a design for Landsbanki Bank Headquarters that consists of a series of green-roofed steps rising up from a ground-level city park. The striking proposal is designed to visually connect the historic old town of Reykjavik with the newer, more modern scale of the buildings on the edge of town. Courtyards and a narrow floor layout provide occupants with plenty of daylighting and access to the outdoors in Iceland's capital city.1
- Landsbanki HeadquartersWORKac was one of five teams invited to propose a new Headquarters for Landsbanki Bank in Reykjavik, Iceland.2
- Landsbanki HeadquartersReykjavik's historic old town is skirted by a number of more contemporary buildings, which creates a dramatic dichotomy between the old fabric of the city center and the new developments at the city's edge.3
- Landsbanki HeadquartersWORKac's facade for the Landsbanki Bank, which serves as both structure and fenestration, was inspired by the interwoven patterns of Icelandic art.4
- Landsbanki HeadquartersThe proposal calls for a series of programmatic strips that are stacked to create strategic voids and shared elevated gardens.5
- Landsbanki HeadquartersThe strips feature narrow floorplans that allow for maximum flexibility in office layout and permit daylight to suffuse the interior spaces.6
- Landsbanki HeadquartersThe shared gardens are protected from the cold northern winds by the exterior of the building, and the green roof acts as an extension of the courtyards and the nearby park.7


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Subscribe To Weekend Box Office: Remade Evil Dead and Re-released Jurassic Park Help Rejuvenate Box Office Updates
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After a very sluggish first quarter, the first weekend of April brought a ray of sunshine to the box office. While there weren't any blockbusters, the top ten did fairly well overall for an April weekend.
The remake of Evil Dead landed first place with $26 million, just shy of the $28 million that horror flick Mama enjoyed earlier this year. While it's not a particularly distinguishing opening, even for a horror film, it's proof there's interest in the reboot to perhaps see the franchise redux continued.
The re-release of Jurassic Park 3D, intended to whet appetites for the forth coming Jurassic Park 4, launched at fourth place with $18 million. That's short of the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I, but a step ahead of Titanic 3D, both of which launched last year with $22 million and $17 million opening weekends respectively. The relaunch is already a money maker. The 3D conversion reportedly cost around $10 million, but the bigger payoff will come from reminding fans of the time when Jurassic Park was good, and getting them excited all over again to go back for the next installment.
There were big splashes in small release this weekend, including Robert Redford and Shia LaBeouf's The Company You Keep and Danny Boyle's Trance, both of which opened on just a handful of screens but earned over $125,000 apiece. Neither movie has a definite schedule for wide expansion, though Trance which has already earned over $7 million abroad, is set to appear in almost 400 venues next week.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:


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Arthur Conan Doyle
by Laurie R. King
"Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms."
It really is the only explanation. Not just for Mr Sherlock Holmes, who says those words as he muses over the source of the detecting abilities he shares with his brother Mycroft (and thus siding with the Detective-as-artist school of thought over the Detective-as-calculating-machine), but equally to explain the man who penned the words, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
How else to account for the strange, vivid, flowers of fiction that burst from this outwardly ordinary British gentleman, except to say that Conan Doyle had art in his blood? Certainly he came from a family of artists on his father's side, and his mother was a born storyteller with a strong sense of the dramatic. That Sir Arthur's father, a failed artist from a clan of successful artists, was also a huge problem to the familyerratic, alcoholic, and finally condemned to a mental asylumwhile his beloved storyteller mother was a strong moralist who raised her seven living children to the Roman Catholic faith, served to lay the groundwork for an extreme polarity of vision that was to characterise Conan Doyle's life and work.
Conan Doyle started out ordinary enough. He grew up in Edinburgh, went to an appropriately brutal boy's school in England, followed it with medical school like a good son, did well on his exams, splurged on a brief trip with an Arctic whaling expedition that put some money in his pocket but more to the point gave him Adventure enough to blow the cobwebs of the lecture hall from his brain; then he settled down to work. Except that he didn't. He spent the next ten years hopping from one place to the next, acting as medical officer aboard a West African steamer and training as an oculist in Vienna, marrying and begetting and trying his best to be a responsible husband and father.
But he could not deny the art in his blood. Even while at medical school he had written fiction, and now, in the slow intervals between patients, the doctor sat at his surgery desk and took up his pen. (All praise to the patron saints of storytelling and doctors, for ensuring that the Conan Doyle medical practice, although considerably more of a success than the man's later self-mythologising would indicate, did not roar immediately into packed waiting-rooms.) Mysteries and adventures, historical tales and fantasies, one after another they trickled out and, with gratifying and increasing regularity, found homes for themselves in the pages of Strand and Cornhill Magazine, until in the spring of 1886, Conan Doyle found the character he was born to write: With a sharp cry of triumph and the words "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive," Sherlock Holmes met Dr John Watson, and a legend was born.
Note, please, the sequence in our introduction to the young proto-detective: The ecstatic cry comes first, then the analytical deduction. Holmes might be called a thinking machine, even by his closest friend, but it is that cry that rings in our ears, that almost childlike delight in his discovery over the test-tubes that animates his thin face in our mind's eye, forging a human link to the close analysis of perceived data that follows.
Dichotomy delights. Sherlock Holmes, the world's first consulting detective, might think of himself as a cool-blooded calculator of data, might even convince his audience that he is nothing but a feverish brain appended to an inconvenient body, but any reader of Conan Doyle knows better. We know that Holmes' cold and massive rationality is in fact driven by an equally immense passion, for life and action and above all, for Justice. Holmes may indeed be a Thinking Machine, but he is a machine that regularly bubbles over with joie de vivre: He jokes, he rants, he plays pranks, he relishes his food and lusts after the challenge of a good case, he loses himself in music and philosophises on the Goodness represented by the existence of a rose and once, just once, reveals his heart to Watson.
Yet it can not be denied that Holmes at times verges on the inhuman, greeting the news of a client's death with mild regret and a philosophic determination to solve the case regardless, shamefully misusing his ever-faithful companion-at-arms Watson (or indeed any number of other innocents) when a case seems to call for it, and often seeming incapable of looking beyond the puzzle before him to its human elements. Holmes is dichotomy personified: the scientist fuelled by passion, the arch-egotist who lives for the good of his fellow man, the friendless misanthrope adored by millions, and even (whisper this last) the monk-like bachelor who has contributed so much to the fantasy lives of women.
Holmes is not the only one of Conan Doyle's creations to demonstrate the author's innate sense of polarity. One of the Professor Challenger stories frankly shocks modern sensibilities by blithely murdering off the world's entire population in order to prove the Professor right; one wonders uneasily if Mrs Challenger was saved merely to provide necessary genetic material for the next stage of human development. Certainly the Professor's affections did not extend to his neighbours, his long-time employees, or even his King, any of whom might have benefited from a word of warning concerning the efficacy of oxygeneven though, by all accounts, the author himself was a man of hearty affections and considerable loyalties. He would not divorce a dying wife, even with an eager and much-loved second-wife-to-be waiting patiently in the wings. His softness of heart led him to lengthy advocacy of strangers (such as the case of George Edalji, a half-blind Indian accused of the nocturnal serial mutilation of...cows. Holmes would have burst out in his famous biting laugh.) The doctor was an easy touch for causes.
Which brings us, necessarily, to Conan Doyle's spiritualism. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's great rationalist, was a fervent believer in all things spiritual, ghostly, ectoplasmic, and charlatan. A self-declared agnostic who stated firmly that he could not accept an unprovable thesis such as Christianity, he later seized on the eminently disprovable performances of mind-readers and automatic writing to explain his world. Particularly after the disasters of the Great War, he became ever more deeply committed to the belief that his dead son had survived the grave and that his mother was watching over him; in the end he gave all his energies and most of his fortune to the sort of muscular spiritualism that called to him, declaring the furthering of mediums to be his mission in life. He was convinced, for examplehe knew to his bonesthat Harry Houdini escaped his chains not by mere trick, but by dematerialising from within their iron bonds and resuming his corporeal self off to one side. He stuck to his belief even when Houdini explained, over and over again, that it was mere technique: Poor deluded Houdini might not recognise his own psychic powers, but Conan Doyle did.
A bundle of contradictions, Sir Arthur: gullible skeptic; earth-bound romantic; law-abiding suburbanite whose great hero had little respect for the law or the law's agents; spokesman for rationality who yet joyously accepted a child's simplistic photographs as proof of the existence of fairies; creator of a character any writer would kill for (as those of us who have tried to write Holmes are too painfully aware) who after a brief seven-year run heartlessly tossed the character off a high waterfall because he was threatening to interfere with his creator's "real work" of historical romances; unschooled literary force capable of tight-knit prose studded with such nerve-tingling gems as the horrified, "Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"; or the admission that a mystery was proving "a three-pipe problem"; and the most famous of all his exchanges, the protest, "The dog did nothing in the night-time" followed by Holmes' enigmatic reply, "That was the curious incident."
Immortal, language-enriching phrases, vital, immediate places and people flowed from the doctor's pen with an ease that makes a writer writhe with envy. And the most frustrating thing is knowing that the Holmes stories were so easy for Conan Doyle, he discounted them entirely. They were of such minor importance in his own mind that he would toss off a story with little revision, send it off, pay his bills, and then return to his real work. Conan Doyle was like some artist capable of exquisite, evocative pen-and-ink sketches who yet sees value only in the huge, overworked oil canvases he insists on producing.
The only revenge a poor imitator can take is the knowledge that the unloved detective won out in the end, that the light and unimportant fiction Conan Doyle reverted to when time came to support a family and his spiritualist enterprises managed to sneak around the backs of those closely researched and utterly earnest historical novels and take on a life of their own away from their creator, leaving Holmes standing alone, uncreated, timeless, and infinitely more immediate in the world's eye than the stolid British doctor under whose name the stories are kept on shelves from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar.
(It may even be a good thing that Conan Doyle did not take the Holmes stories seriously, or we might have seen the detective's personality stretched and twisted to promote the cause of spiritualism. Holmes depending on automatic writing to solve a case, or consulting an ectoplasmic mediumone shudders at the possibilities.)
Thus, in the end, Sir Arthur was overtaken by his own creation, Holmes' great shadow engulfing his own. Surely there can't be many writers who habitually receive mail addressed to his or her fictional characterand, moreover, get it delivered by the postman? We might spare a moment of sympathy for the good doctor's dignity, as he battled to free himself from the sticky webs of his own brilliant fiction.
But perhaps only a moment. I for one am happy enough to take up my slim, engagingly worked volume about, and by, a man transformed by the art in his blood; I join with a throng of others in a Babel of languages, all of us eager to step again into those pages lit perpetually by the hissing gas jets, as we prepare to flag down a hansom cab in the pursuit of villainy. The game, surely, is still afoot.
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M2 Narcotics Locker
The MedixSafe Biometric M2 Narcotics Locker is the ambulance trade's most technologically-advanced Triple Access Security Solution. The revolutionary M2 Narcotics Locker is equipped with a stand-alone networkable TCP/IP based controller and is designed to require combinations of fingerprint, PIN and Proximity Card for access. Allowing for the absolute highest degree of individual accountability and automated recordkeeping – M2 Narcotics Lockerassures compliance with new, stricter laws and regulations.
The M2 Narcotics Locker combines the security and ease of scanning a fingerprint with the power and efficiency of remote network administration – not only enforcing authorized access, but tracing access for unprecedented accountability. Any PC-based computer, with internet access, can be equipped to remotely manage and monitor any number of mobile units. And each unit stores up to 50,000 events and will serve up to 1,500 users.
M2 Narcotics Locker narcotic cabinets are made of heavy gauge steel construction with a durable powder coat finish. Each unit comes with pre-drilled holes for bolting to any structurally sound surface and come with a foam-padded insert for added protection of contents.
Remember – Keys or PIN numbers alone are no longer enough to ensure security and accountability for emergency narcotics access. Across the country, controlled substance inventory loss is having a critical impact on patient care, staff integrity, liability, and the bottom line. This has led to new regulatory demands for an access audit trail – the M2 Narcotics Locker not only enforces authorized access, it tracks access for unprecedented accountability. MedixSafe offers unique, field-tested security technologies to meet those demands.


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What price beauty?
Gardening is not pretty.
Things die. Rabbits come. Grasshoppers multiply. And rain is a constant tease, pouring down in Denver for brief, steamy, rainbow-punctuated interludes, spurning the desperate pleas of the rest of the landscape.
Is there anything as poignant as a parched cherry tomato plant, its shriveled leaves furling as it dessicates after setting its first few strings of fruit? I doubt it, but if there is, maybe it's a pot with a garlic or lavender carefully seeded or dug up and sent out into the world, only to sit neglected while we struggle for the time to give it a proper home.
We pour hope and sweat and money and time into this thing we call gardening, whether we do it to assist our physical survival or the survival of our souls. And when something fails, there is a heartbreak that strikes deeper than mere disappointment. There is little perfection and almost no certainty, and the world does not exactly stop its whirling round to hand us, stretched out on a silver platter, the time to give root to our dreams.
Or the money. My achingly beautiful plan for backyard bliss? Well, my landscaper stopped estimating it when his figures totaled twice what my budget allowed. This is not uncommon. Plants cost, and stone is not cheap, nor is labor or the fuel to bring it to a site. The plan is solid. But the cost? Not in my universe of the possible right now. So my back yard remains as it was last year — actually, more weed-choked than last year, since I held off on planting beds that will be ripped out for the renovation. While my brain balked and whirled and scurried for solutions and bonded with calculators and schemes for additional income, summer arrived. My tolerance for heat is not what it once was, but I am the muscle that will be tearing out the past mistakes of this tiny piece of land. Those beds will come out, piece by piece; perhaps the chard that's now gone to seed will gift me with seeds for a second crop this fall, in the one part of my dream backyard that I will be able to execute.
I think the thing to do in dry summers like this one is to live like a tough desert plants — like this sedum, which has grown at my backporch downspout every year I've lived here. The gifts of water it gets are accidental and unpredictable — a splash from the dogs' drinking dish when I change it, or the water from their Paw Plunger when they've managed to get their feet dirty. And yet it blooms, those years when it gets enough water. It blooms abundantly in its scruffy, untrendy, militantly lowbrow fashion. It expects nothing, accepts what I can spare for it, is grateful for whatever it gets.
It refuses to give up.


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Courtesy Photo / Estes Park Trail-Gazette
Courtesy Photo / Estes Park Trail-Gazette
The next Family Night will be Sept. 11, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The topic will be: "Finding time for the Kids and Time Management for Young Families," presented by Harley Rotbart, MD. Dr Rotbart has been a pediatric specialist for thirty years and he is a professor and vice-chairman of pediatrics at the University of Colorado and Children's Hospital. Dr Rotbart is a part-time resident of Estes Park and has been a favorite speaker of many local parents. His book: "No Regrets Parenting" will be available for sale for $12.
Estes Park Parents as Teachers Program (a program of EVICS) has hosted monthly Free Family Nights for families with young children, ages 0-5, for three years and is coming back this September after taking a break for the summer. The fun evening includes a family dinner, parent/child activity, followed by adult discussion with childcare provided. Families enjoy the opportunity to eat together, socialize, play, and sharpen their parenting skills. All families with children ages 0-5 are invited to participate and it's free. Reservations are required.
Parents will have the chance to hear from Dr Rotbart after a delicious dinner provided by Poppy's Pizza (sponsored by the Estes Park Medical Center) and a scavenger hunt activity.
Family Night is held at the Community Church of the Rockies, 1700 Brodie Avenue. Reservations are required by Sep 8. For reservations please contact Karin Steers: 970-646-5840 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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I have difficulty seeing how it would navigate the pinch point.
It's thrilling to see they've gotten some kids out safely so far. I bet the coach will be the toughest case.
I am a certified cave diver (both NACD and NSSCDS) and when I was living in a part of the country where a lot of cave diving takes place I was on a recovery team (fortunately I was never involved in any actual recoveries). I would be very leery about trying to use that thing in a cave with restrictions (that's the technical term for "pinch points" ). I certainly wouldn't be on the cave side of it (as opposed to the entrance side - when I was acting as a guide I wouldn't even be on the non-entrence side of fat divers if the system had restrictions). It also looks like it would be very easy for the divers to get seriously injured trying to maneuver it. Especially if, as the media has reported, there are currents in the water - and in low-to-no visibility conditions as has also been reported. It would also be exhausting and dramatically increase the divers' breathing gas use. Without knowing more about the actual circumstances in a given rescue, I can see almost no advantages in trying to use that in a real cave over what the divers are doing now. Both are very, very dangerous but the tube adds the possibility of trapping or injuring divers as well as the rescued person (and everyone else further in the cave).
I don't know from this story but I wonder if any actual cave divers were involved in the development of this thing or if this is another example of the modern tech world not knowing what it doesn't know. Cave diving is not like open water diving and this is a circumstance where the "move fast and break things" approach is one I wouldn't want anything to do with. The people to listen to in this circumstance are not people in the tech community but the actual divers in the water there. There is a reason that so much specialty cave diving equipment is made in north-central Florida and not silicon valley.
I don't question the designers' motives, just how workable a solution this in this case.


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Dispensing Optician -Holloway
- Recruiter
- Specsavers
- Location
- London (Greater)
- Salary
- Competitive plus benefits
- Posted
- 17 Sep 2019
- Closes
- 15 Oct 2019
- Job Role
- Dispensing Optician
- Sector
- Multiple Practice
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
Specsavers has been going from strength to strength, ever since the business started back in 1984. We strive for the highest clinical standards – and believe that the customer should be at the heart of everything we do. We also recognise that our people are critical to our past and future success – so we do everything we can to make sure they get the experience and career they're looking for: from outstanding training and a personal development plan, to excellent benefits and unstinting support. The business has nearly 1,500 stores across 12 countries – and is still growing. We want you to be part of this outstanding success story.
There's nowhere quite like Specsavers
High quality equipment, career development, solid support that's what you'll find in our Holloway store: these are just a few of the reasons why so many skilled Dispensing Opticians have chosen to work with Specsavers. But what really makes our business different is our belief in teamwork. Here, we pull together to get results and help each other to be the best we can be. Join us and you'll soon see for yourself.
Your task will be to provide an ophthalmic dispensing service that's in a league of its own. You'll make sure every customer gets the right glasses and lenses – and the right advice. You'll also co-ordinate your efforts with the rest of team, making sure customers get a consistently great experience, from the moment they step through the door, to the moment they leave. Thanks to your expertise, we'll build sales as well as our reputation within the community – cementing our position as the UK's number one provider of professional eyecare. As a qualified Dispensing Optician registered with the GOC and good with people, you'll be a natural when it comes to customer care. You're friendly, polite and helpful – comfortable working as part of a team and able to answer questions and queries thanks to your excellent ophthalmic knowledge.
For more information or to apply, please contact Emily Spendiff at Specsavers Recruitment Services on 01566 771 894 or email@example.com


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Friday, June 17, 2011
International flavor
Yes, technically the summer solstice is next Tuesday, and today thunderstorms are rattling through the area, but it seems like the season is already well underway. June has been a thoroughly international month so far. We've had visitors from Buenos Aires, Santiago, Chile, Paris, three cities in Germany, four cities in England as well as Northern Ireland, Canada and Australia! It is wonderful to meet so many visitors new to our country, and even nicer to know that we could be a small part of their experience. And gratifying to learn that our web presence is wide enough to ensure they find us online, as most of them tell us that "the Hamptons" is not a well-known destination in their country.
(Okay, true confession: When Chris accepted a butler position here in early 1992, I had never heard of "the Hamptons" either.)
And yet, in the midst of all this international traffic, we have welcomed back a number of repeat guests in the last couple of weeks. These lovely people don't realize it, but their continued custom keeps my creative juices flowing. You could say that having published A Butler's Manor: The Cookbook, I would have my menus pretty much set, yes? Well...yes, but...! When you stay with us, I make note of what we served you for breakfast, so that if you come again, I don't make the same entree unless you've specifically requested it. (Banana French Toast and Southwest Souffle are always on the menu for Hamptons Classic week because Zach and Deborah, who have stayed with us 9 out of our 10 years, ask for these entrees when they book in January!) Therefore, in between introducing new guests to proven favorites, when we have guests like Jerry and Gay who have spent long weekends with us going back six years...or Walter, who travels to the area so often on business that he has "his" room (and a permanent code to the door!)...or Ron and Alice, who come out several times over the season to enjoy a round of golf...this inspires me to change things up, surprise and hopefully delight with food. Recent additions to A Butler's Manor's repertoire include a strata made with prosciutto, seasoned croutons, and gruyere cheese..."creme brulee" French toast garnished with fresh raspberries...a meatless Italian-inspired frittata with artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and lots of fresh herbs from the garden...and a muffin stuffed with so many great things (shredded carrots, raisins, coconut, grated apple) I simply call it a Good Things Muffin. I'm not sure there will be an ABM Cookbook, vol. 2, anytime soon, but cooking is the most immediate of my outlets for creativity, and the documentor in me ensures that these recipes get written down for future use!
Quote of the Day: "Food can look beautiful, taste exquisite, smell wonderful, make people feel good, bring them together, inspire romantic feelings....At its most basic, it is fuel for a hungry machine. --Rosamond Richardson
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