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A.X.L. is a top-secret, robotic dog created by the military to help protect tomorrow's soldiers. Code named by the scientists who created him, A.X.L. stands for Attack, Exploration, Logistics, and embodies the most advanced, next-generation artificial intelligence. After an experiment gone wrong, A.X.L. is discovered hiding alone in the desert by a kind-hearted outsider named Miles (Alex Neustaedter), who finds a way to connect with him after activating his owner-pairing technology. Together, the two develop a special friendship based on trust, loyalty and compassion. Helping Miles gain the confidence he's been lacking, A.X.L. will go to any length to protect his new companion, including facing off against the scientists who created him and who will do anything to get him back.
DetailsAction/Adventure , Family
1 hr. 38 min.
Opened August 24th, 2018
Rated PG for sci-fi action/peril, suggestive material, thematic elements and some languageCastAlex Neustaedter, Becky G, Alex MacNicollDirectorOliver DalyWriterOliver Daly


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Park University is classified as a college or university with a medium-sized master's program. Colleges and universities with a medium-sized master's program typically award between 100 and 199 master's degrees and less than 20 research doctorate's during the academic year. This very large four-year institution has an estimated annual full-time enrollment of 3,000 to 9,999 students. Approximately half of degree-seeking students are enrolled full time, and fewer than 25% of undergraduates reside on campus. This institution awards 60-79% of its bachelor's degrees within professional fields. Graduate degrees are available in up to half of the fields available to undergraduate majors, and the school awards master's degrees in both the arts and sciences and professional fields. The majority of graduate degrees are awarded within the business field. According to data for fall enrollment, at least 40% of undergraduates are enrolled part-time. Enrollment data shows that both graduates and undergraduates are enrolled at this institution. Over 90% of the student body are enrolled as undergraduates.
Park University
8700 NW River Park Dr, Parkville, MO 64152-3795
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About Park University
School Information
General Information
Student Body SizeUndergraduate12,061
Student Age% Under 2519%
% 25 and Over62%
% Age Unknown19%
Attendance Type% Full-time10%
% Part-time90%
Race/Ethnicity% White57.7%
% Black21.5%
% Asian2.5%
% Latino14.4%
% Native American0.8%
% Race Unknown0.0%
% International student3%
Student ServicesCareer CounselingYes
Student Employment ServicesYes
Graduate Placement ServicesYes
Study AbroadYes
Day CareNO
Religious AffiliationNO
Campus settingSuburb
Intitution typePrivate
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Academic Information
Art-Related Areas of StudyGraphic Design
Art Degrees OfferedBachelors Degree
Distance Learning AvailableYes
Calendar SystemSemester
Admissions Information
Open AdmissionNo
% Admitted71%
% Admitted Who Enrolled55%
Application RequirementsHigh School GPA
High School TranscriptRequired
High School RankingRequired
College Prep CoursesRecommended
Letter of RecommendationRecommended
Demonstration of CompetenciesNeither required nor recommended
Admissions ExaminationRecommended
Test of English as a Foreign Language (International Students)Required
Standardized Tests% of Applicants Submitting SAT0%
% of Applicants Submitting ACT67%
Admitted Student ACT Scores 25th Percentile75th Percentile
ACT Composite18 / 3624 / 36
Tuition and Financial Aid
Tuition & FeesUndergraduate Application Fee$25
Graduate Application Fee$50
In-State Tuition & Fees$8,898
Out-of-State Tuition & Fees$8,898
Financial Aid% Undergraduates with Financial Aid93%
% Undergraduates with Loans47%
% Undergraduates with Grants89%
Average Undergraduate Financial Aid Award$ 0
Other CostsBooks and Supplies (Estimated)$1,200
Typical On-Campus Room and Board Cost$7,045
Off-Campus Room and Board Cost (Estimated)$5,850
On-Campus Living Expenses (Estimated)$3,300
Off-Campus Living Expenses (Estimated)$3,300
Living with Family, Living Expenses (Estimated)$3,300
Neighborhood Data for the Parkville Area
Median Age37.7
Median Household Income$105,107
Total Population5,430
Age/Gender % Men % Women
Total51.5% 48.5%
Age 0-954.0%46.0%
Age 10-1753.7%46.3%
Age 18-2450.4%49.6%
Age 25-2953.0%47.0%
Age 30-3945.6%54.4%
Race/Ethnicity% White90.0%
% Black1.6%
% Asian4.5%
% Latino1.5%
% Native American1.2%
% Pacific Islander0.0%
% Indian (South Asia)1.5%
On Campus Housing ProvidedYes
Meal Plan ProvidedYes, number of meals per week can vary
Typical On-Campus Room and Board Cost$7,045
Off-Campus Room and Board Cost (Estimated)$5,850
Median Rent (Rental Units of Any Size)$526
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subset: commoncrawl


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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In the first of five consecutive games against ranked opponents, the Harvard men's water polo team fell to No. 18 Cal Baptist, 12-10 in overtime, at the Rodeo in Santa Clara, Calif., Friday night.
The Crimson and Cal Baptist played a competitive game, but the Lancers held an advantage throughout most of the contest.
Senior co-captain Kevin DiSilvestro got the scoring started for Harvard with two goals in the first quarter but Cal Baptist opened with three goals to gain a slim margin. The Lancers scored twice in the second and were able to add to the lead with defensive play that slowed the Crimson to one goal in the frame. Evan Zepfel came up with the lone second period goal for Harvard and Cal Baptist entered halftime with a 5-3 lead.
The Harvard offense awoke in the third period for four goals, including two from Max Eliot, but once again the Lancers kept pace to maintain a two goal difference.
It seemed Cal Baptist had the game in control when a goal early in the fourth put them up 10-7 but two scores by William Roller midway through the final period put the Crimson back in contention. Harvard's comeback came to a climax when DiSilvestro's third goal of the contest tied the game at 10 with fewer than three minutes to play. The goal ultimately forced overtime as neither team could tally a goal in the waning minutes.
The Crimson comeback bid was spoiled when Cal Baptist found the back of the net twice in the extra time to secure victory. Evan Vardayou provided both overtime goals for the Lancers and finished with four scores in the game.
The Crimson moved to 1-1 in overtime games this season and 1-2 during head coach Ted Minnis' two-year career at Harvard. Max Eliot netted a sudden-death game-winner to defeat George Washington, 13-12, in Harvard's only other overtime game this season.
The schedule does not get any easier tomorrow as the Crimson will face No. 12 UC Davis at 4 p.m. EST before seeing No. 3 Stanford at 8:00 p.m. EST. The Rodeo features nine teams, including six that are ranked in the Collegiate Water Polo Association top 20, playing a total of 18 games over the course of three days. Click here for tournament central.


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Liberty News
Wade Morris delivers convocation message
Itinerant minister Wade Morris spoke at Liberty University's convocation on Monday, offering words of guidance for students dealing with transitions in their life.
"There are times in life when things don't work out exactly the way you want them to, and you've got to learn to make the transition," Morris said.
Morris is the author of "The Journey," an expository Bible study and devotional series on CD. Originally from Birmingham, Ala., he received his master of divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and served on staff at several churches before surrendering to a full-time call to itinerant ministry.
Citing John 21, Morris told students there are three things they should always remember. First: learn to recognize Jesus.
"When you recognize Jesus, regardless of how big or how small, he will do amazing things," he said.
Next: learn to love Jesus.
"How do you prove to Jesus you love Him?" Morris said. "There has to be something that you do to get deeper and deeper in love with Jesus Christ."
Last: follow Christ — no matter what.
"If you see Jesus and how He's going to move and how He will move, and you get deeper and deeper in love with Him, ultimately you've got to know God's call and the true message of discipleship is not how you start the race — it's how you finish the race," Morris said. "And it makes all the difference."
Eddie Hoagland and his Mariachi Band performed special music at Monday's convocation, leading praise and worship with "Mighty to Save," "Rescue" and "You Have Made Me Glad."


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For some writers, the end of a chapter is little more than a pause for breath. For the audacious British novelist David Mitchell, the chapter is the organizing principle of his imagination. His first three works—"Ghostwritten" (1999), "Number9Dream" (2001), and "Cloud Atlas" (2004)—are divided, with almost fetishistic care, into sections that resemble the movements of a musical composition. The sections are presented as independent narratives, divergent in theme and tone, which are carefully tethered to a larger design.
The Mitchell method reached a height of virtuosity in the entertainingly kinetic "Cloud Atlas," in which six archly distinct narratives—each set in its own place and era, and each mimicking a different genre, from the nautical adventure to the conspiracy thriller—are spliced together, as if by a twitchy film editor. Five of the stories cut off, at a moment of high drama, like an old projector snapping the celluloid right in the middle of the big shoot-out; they resume, with equal abruptness, in the book's second half. As the novel progresses, strange connections emerge: the text of the first chapter is discovered on a bookshelf in the second; the hero of the third section hears a bewitching recording of chamber music, the "Cloud Atlas Sextet," which was composed by the protagonist of the second. Mitchell's early books are elaborate games—Calvino-style curios, swollen to five hundred pages—and they are written in playful pastiche, with sly imitations of writers as various as Daniel Defoe, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick.
In the wake of such ostentatious artifice, Mitchell's new novel, "Black Swan Green" (Random House; $23.95), seems startlingly unmannered. It's a modest, sweet portrait of a thirteen-year-old boy, growing up in Worcestershire in 1982, who is afflicted with a stammer, unhappy parents, and a snide older sister. Mitchell hasn't abandoned his fascination with the chapter: his meditation on being thirteen has thirteen sections, each featuring a self-contained story. This time, however, his approach has the subtlety of a watermark.
Even Mitchell's admirers may find "Black Swan Green" a welcome act of simplification. His previous novels have won him acclaim in Britain—he has twice been a finalist for the Booker Prize—but the characters were often lost amid the multilevel structures. By settling into a single narrative voice, and skipping the pyrotechnics, Mitchell has come by something that eluded him before: a sense of earned emotion.
Jason Taylor, the book's narrator, is humiliated by his speech impediment—it "makes me shrivel up like a plastic wrapper in a fire," he says—and he often retreats into near-silence. Black Swan Green, where he lives, is a typically claustrophobic hamlet, and Jason works hard to render himself invisible, deflecting his teachers' glances and taking lonely walks to avoid his peers. His retreat to the sidelines has, at the same time, sharpened his abilities of observation. Watching two schoolmates fighting, he notes, "My own body flinched under the punches automatically, like how your leg hoists itself when you're watching a high jumper on TV."
Jason analyzes his verbal debility compulsively. When people with a stammer falter, he explains, "they go trembly-red like an evenly matched arm wrestler, and their mouth guppergupperguppers like a fish in a net. It must be quite a funny sight." He envisions the stammer as a hulking monster, Hangman, whose "snaky fingers . . . sink inside my tongue and squeeze my windpipe so nothing'll work," and he catalogues the myriad ways his defect shames him: "If I stammer with Dad, he gets that face he had when he got his Black & Decker Workmate home and found it was missing a crucial packet of screws. Hangman just loves that face." Jason's voice-over is fluid and self-deprecating, but, when he actually speaks, his words are often self-conscious or strangled. "I can feel the stuff I don't say rotting inside me like mildewy spuds in a sack," he says. Jason feels freakish, misunderstood, and singularly miserable: "My billion problems kept bobbing up like corpses in a flooded city." He feels, that is, the way most thirteen-year-olds do, and his stammer becomes a surprisingly resonant metaphor for the stoppered frustrations of teen-agers everywhere. (It's certainly subtler than turning your troubled adolescent into, say, Spider-Man.)
The narrator of "Black Swan Green" is sharper than most kids his age, but he isn't absurdly so. Ever since Salinger created the precocious Glass clan, the teen-ager in modern fiction has too often displayed an omnivorous intellect and a suspiciously honed wit. (Jason is practically a dullard compared with the polymathic tot in Jonathan Safran Foer's recent "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.") Early in the novel, Jason reveals an abominable secret: he furtively composes poetry on his bedroom typewriter. "If I ever admitted that out loud I'd get BUMHOLE PLUMMER scrawled on my locker," he explains. Yet, when Jason tries to conjure the English countryside in high verse, Mitchell makes sure that the results have the florid touch of the talented novice: "Petaled stars and dandelion comets streak the green universe"; "Wormcasts pitted the bubbling lawn like squeezed blackheads." Similarly, Jason's displays of writerly wisdom are clever but hardly brain-rewiring: "Eavesdropping's sort of thrilling 'cause you learn what people really think, but eavesdropping makes you miserable for exactly the same reason."
Just as Jason's mind is engaging but ordinary, "Black Swan Green" remains snugly within familiar thematic territory: Mitchell's protagonist has his first romantic stirrings, becomes sadly aware of his father's limitations, and is shaken when a local youth is killed in the Falklands War. Jason's slang, and even his metaphors, belongs to the realm of small-town Britain. "The lake in the woods was epic," Jason raves, one wintry day. "Tiny bubbles were trapped in the ice like in Fox's Glacier Mints."
Part of what elevates the book from the mundane is its crisp, intelligent construction. The varied stories in "Black Swan Green" are set a month apart, and the bookends match: the first chapter, which takes place just before Jason's thirteenth birthday, is titled "January Man"; the last, set on the cusp of fourteen, bears the same title. Not to worry: Jason doesn't triumphantly come of age. In Mitchell's episodic portrait of adolescence, thirteen is something you stumble through. In one chapter, Jason tells of a moonlit stunt that has made him suddenly popular; a few months later, he recounts his equally swift descent to outcast status.
The episodic nature of "Black Swan Green" may call to mind another form: the television series, with its seasonal story arcs interspersed with stories-of-the-week. The sarcastic retorts of Jason's sister sound almost as if they had been scripted in Burbank, and one unfortunate story line, involving the broken watch of Jason's dead grandfather, has the tidy sentimentality of a Very Special Episode. Yet the show that "Black Swan Green" most closely evokes is the wonderful 1994 series "My So-Called Life," an unusually intimate portrait of another bright-but-not-too-bright kid. As that show demonstrated, the chopped-up format of television accommodates shifts in tone more forgivingly than the novel—from week to week, "My So-Called Life" veered deftly between comic plots and dramatic ones—and the medium is peculiarly suited to portrayals of adolescence, the time of life when you feel all over the place emotionally. In a similar way, the episodes of "Black Swan Green" effectively conjure the lurchy feeling of being thirteen.
Meanwhile, enthusiasts of Mitchell's puzzle-fictions have been quietly placated. Jason's father has an aggressive mistress, and her stalking presence is sneakily and repeatedly foreshadowed, in the manner of Clare Quilty, in "Lolita." And one lively story tells of Jason's brief friendship with the town eccentric—a Belgian dowager who welcomes his covert interest in music and literature. In "Cloud Atlas," the Belgian has a memorably toxic flirtation with the composer. (Jason, too, listens to a recording of the "Cloud Atlas Sextet," and his rapturous description of the music betrays Mitchell's lingering desire to push every button at once: "Jealous and sweet, this music was, sobbing and gorgeous, muddy and crystal.")
Mitchell's international renown—"Cloud Atlas" was a best-seller in Britain, and his books have been widely translated—hasn't yet extended to America. The British love him, paradoxically, because they sense an American novelist's ambition: he is determined to dazzle. Some of his American critics, though, grouse that he's a middlebrow neatnik: they object that his narratives always come together seamlessly, rather than dangle dismally, in proper postmodern fashion. This is a bit unfair: the idea that the modern world is too complex to cohere—and that, therefore, our novels shouldn't, either—long ago became a literary cliché. (Decades after Pynchon began producing works in which loose ends were ends unto themselves, wasn't it predictable that the baseball in DeLillo's "Underworld" would take a long roll to nowhere?) Given that Mitchell has a flair for narrative closure, it's understandable that he'd want to display it.
With "Black Swan Green," however, Mitchell seems to have learned to appreciate the eloquence of restraint. A sequence near the end of "Cloud Atlas" suggested that he was already beginning to question his baroque tendencies. In a moment of creative agitation, the composer ponders the value of his sextet, which, inevitably, has a structure mirroring that of Mitchell's novel. "Revolutionary or gimmicky?" the composer asks himself. "Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late." ♦


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Spurs continue title hunt
Tottenham Hotspur continued their quest for the Barclays Premier League title with a nervy victory over West Bromwich Albion at White Hart Lane.
A succession of first-half corner couldn't help breach The Baggies' resolve, and it wasn't until an hour gone that Spurs made the breakthrough.
Following Rafael Van der Vaart's pass, Gareth Bale's cross found Defoe, whose quick turn in a congested West Brom saw allowing him to slide the ball past Ben Foster.
The win was marred by injuries to Williams Gallas and then substitute Jake Livermore.
But Tottenham hung to give the rest of the Premier League evidence that among their stylish performances, they do have the steel and patience required to challenge for the title.News Now - Sport News


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Recently the head of the Russian federal space agency announced plans to construct permanent manned bases on the Moon and put cosmonauts on the lunar surface by 2030.
There are many engineers who would agree that the Moon is a more opportune target for manned exploration that should be less risky and more affordable than Mars.
However, with regard to this Russian exploration initiative, this is the latest in a long line of ambitious announcements. Less than a decade ago they announced Kliper, a winged orbiter replacement for their 40-year-old Soyuz. Unfortunately, they had almost no budget and expected a magical fairy to come along and start writing checks. The European Space Agency (ESA) respectfully declined to provide the requested billions of euros when they learned that the spacecraft design and development effort was to be entirely a Russian enterprise.
Instead, Russia developed and "flew" Mars-500, incarcerating a few volunteers for more than a year, an undertaking that cost almost nothing, required very little space expertise (it could just as easily have been orchestrated by Ethiopia), and provided few insights or advancements with regard to the serious challenges of long-duration space exploration.
NASA's current fraction of the federal budget is 90% smaller than it was in 1966, when the U.S. was serious about manned space exploration. The ESA budget is 75% smaller than NASA's current budget. Japan's space budget is smaller than the ESA. And Russia spends less on space than Japan.
As far as the ESA, with their current financial crisis, they will be in no position to pay for a manned lunar program, or anything approaching it. And calls by Neil deGrasse Tyson to double NASA's budget are a political nonstarter.
The only country that is serious about manned space exploration is China, which reportedly has assigned a workforce of 200,000 to their space program. They are nearly as reluctant as the Soviets to reveal details of their space roadmap. Like the Soviets, their primary objectives are nationalism and geopolitical power, rather than genuine exploration.
With regard to lunar exploration, one has to wonder about the cost-benefit ratio for manned lunar exploration. The International Space Station alone consumes in excess of $3 billion per year while accomplishing comparatively little. Just keeping a few humans alive on the Moon would be a very expensive, time-consuming challenge. And one also has to wonder how much lunar terrain they would be able to explore from one permanent lunar campsite. The biggest concern, however, is the lack of a clear, detailed lunar exploration and development strategy beyond putting a few boots on the ground.
It is not totally unreasonable to assume that someday there will be substantial human outposts on the Moon. People may be able to see the bright lights of cities and highways sprinkled across the face of the Moon when they look up at night. In order for us to reach that future, we will eventually need to manufacture much of the required support infrastructure (power, vehicles, structures, …) on the Moon in order to dramatically downsize the astronomical startup and operating costs.
At this time, although we cannot afford an effective manned lunar exploration program, we, as well as other nations, can easily afford an aggressive exploration and development program, using teams of remote-controlled rovers that can crisscross the entire lunar surface, identifying significant resources, conducting scientific experiments, and constructing the power infrastructure needed to begin serious development of the Moon.
Even with budget cuts, NASA can get the job started while the US economy continues to struggle. And should the economy ever turn around and a clear majority of Americans favor increased NASA funding, we will be able to accomplish more, faster, starting out initially with an unmanned strategy for lunar exploration and development.


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Richard BF necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 140 diseños de 20 diseñadores freelance.
A Mac OS X application icon for a PHP call graph profiling tool.
The application analyses PHP call stacks or call graphs, and is also known as a profiling tool or call graph profiler. It is predominantly for PHP, but also supports non-PHP call graphs in the callgrind format, so no PHP specifics should be included. More detail on call graph profiling can be found here:
We want an icon indicative of concepts to do with call graph profiling. Don't worry if you don't understand what it is, just see the wikipedia pages above and pull out some ideas.
Also, the following keywords may help: stack, hierarchy, statistics, instrument, performance, grind, graph, analysis. Photorealistic and 3D would be prefered but not really fussed if the result is good.
- Must deliver Illustrator or Photoshop files size 512 x 512 pixels, with 128x128, 32x32 and 16x16 versions (cleanedup, not just scaled) all with appropriate masks. It is not necessary to make a Mac OS X icon file, but if you do we would be grateful.
- Must conform to Apple Human Interface Guidelines for application iconsfor Mac OS X 10.5 and later, especially the notes about Cover Flow,lighting angle, shadows and alpha channel as specified here:http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIcons/XHIGIcons.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000967-SW19
- Anything PHP specific
- Anything based on system icons
- Letters of the alphabet
- A picture of a graph/chart on a piece of paper or a screen
- A picture of an actual "tree", as in the growing with branches and leaves kind of tree


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Latest News
U.S., China worlds apart on climate change curbs
WASHINGTON — China's top climate negotiator's visit to Washington on Monday sent a fresh signal that the two countries, which account for about half the world's greenhouse gas emissions, have a long way to go to reach a common agreement on how to cut emissions to prevent serious climate change.
China wants to become a "low-carbon society," but can't say when that will be achieved. And it doesn't want to be held accountable for emissions it produces to make goods for export, said Li Gao, the director of China's climate change office.
Li described China's actions and plans on climate while the head of China's negotiating team met with his American counterpart at the State Department. The meeting was part of the preparations for global negotiations on an agreement to reduce emissions in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.
China plays a big role as the world steps up efforts to hold back global warming.
With 1.3 billion people and large industrial base, China is the world's biggest source of heat-trapping gases from coal, oil and gas, just ahead of the U.S.
Many members of Congress say that they'll only support mandatory emissions limits at home if China acts too. And other countries are looking to see what the U.S. will do to cut emissions before they make commitments of their own toward an international agreement due in December.
China shouldn't have to take responsibility for the 15 percent to 25 percent of its emissions that result from making products for the rest of the world, said Li, the director of the Department of Climate Change in China's National Development and Reform Commission. He spoke at a briefing sponsored by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a nonpartisan research organization.
"For many developing countries, not only China, we produce the products for the consumers, especially in developed countries," Li said. He argued it wouldn't be fair to hold China accountable because "we are on the lower end of the economic chain of the global economy."
Li also said that it would be a "disaster" — and possibly the start of a trade war — for the U.S. to impose tariffs on imports from China or other countries that didn't have mandatory emissions controls. He said the tariffs would be unfair and a violation of trade rules.
Action by China will be critical for any chance for any global solution to global warming. The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined the dangers of letting temperature rise beyond 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Many reports in the past two years find that the effects of warming are happening faster than predicted.
Last week, international scientists meeting in Copenhagen for a conference on climate change told world leaders that recent observations confirmed "the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realized."
The report added that many changes, such as average global temperature and changes in the ocean, were "already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived" and that "there is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climate shifts."
President Barack Obama has said the U.S. would follow scientific advice on climate and would reap benefits — including new jobs — from a shift to cleaner energy.
Li said that China saw shifting away from fossil fuels was in its own long-term interest, "but I cannot tell you what time we can achieve it, because there's not a format in the world," he said. "I think if developed countries can give us an example, if the global economy can structure to a low-carbon type, that will be helpful for the developing countries to learn the experience and follow the trend."
China's plans call for it to reduce energy intensity — the amount of energy needed for each unit of gross domestic product — and to increase renewable energy to 15 percent of total energy supply by 2020. China also intends to expand the use of biogas in rural areas, plant more trees and expand research in clean energy.
The Chinese delegation was in Washington to talk about China's climate policies and its negotiating position for international climate talks, but not to try to reach any agreement with the U.S., Li said.
"We think that climate change is a global challenge," he said, and that it had to be addressed within the United Nations climate framework. Those negotiations are meant to reach an agreement in December, though some experts predict 2010 is more likely.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the meeting was "a beginning, and we'll see where it leads." He added that the Chinese were willing "to really engage on the subject of climate change, and we welcome that."
Elliot Diringer, the vice president of international strategies for the Pew climate center, said the big issues to be worked out are what emissions targets developed countries will set, what developing countries will agree to do and what support developed countries will provide to help them.
"There's quite a distance to go on those," he said.
The U.S. will have a stronger negotiating hand if it makes progress on its own climate plan first, Diringer said.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the energy and commerce committee in the House of Representatives, plans to release a draft version of an emissions reduction bill soon.
Obama's budget outlined a plan that would cap emissions, reduce that level annually and set up a system for companies to buy and trade emissions permits. The theory is that companies would have incentives to conserve energy or develop renewable energy.
The president's plan would return most money from the sales of emissions permits to low- and middle-income Americans.
Power points by Li Gao and representatives of other countries at a forum on international climate action
Coal industry hopes it has place in Obama's energy plan
Obama administration may revive carbon capture plan for coal
New study: climate change will hit California harder than thought unless action taken


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The majority of our items are sent out with the Royal Mail's Tracked service. Upon your item being dispatched, a tracking number will be added to your order, with this you can check your parcels delivery status.
This is a 2-3 working day delivery service.


text: Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon. Scott Detrow/StateImpact/Pennsylvania hide caption toggle caption Scott Detrow/StateImpact/Pennsylvania The Two-Way Chesapeake Energy CEO In Hot Seat Today June 8, 2012 Shareholders of the natural gas driller at the center of the nation's hydraulic fracturing controversies are meeting in Oklahoma City. Aubrey McClendon, the controversial chief executive, faces many questions.


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NEWS | July 31, 2012
Curiosity's Daily Update: Entry, Descent and Landing Timeline Activated
July 31: Entry, Descent and Landing Timeline Activated
The Mars Science Laboratory continues its final preparations for entry, descent and landing this upcoming weekend. Yesterday, the flight team completed and confirmed a memory test on the software for the mechanical assembly that controls MSL's descent motor. They also configured the spacecraft for its transition to entry, descent and landing approach mode, and they enabled the spacecraft's hardware pyrotechnic devices. MSL is now under the control of the autonomous entry, descent and landing timeline flight software. The flight team continues to monitor Curiosity's onboard systems and flight trajectory. The spacecraft and ground systems remain in good health, with no significant issues currently being worked.
July 30: Entry, Descent and Landing Procedure Begins
Today, the Mars Science Laboratory flight team begins executing its procedure for entry, descent and landing (EDL), and the spacecraft begins its sequence of autonomous activities leading to the landing this coming weekend. These activities include enabling needed components and setting final parameters. In addition, the schedule over the next several days includes opportunities to update parameters for the autonomous software controlling events during EDL. If needed, these updates can fine-tune the spacecraft's autonomous controls for its descent through the atmosphere. Some parameters give the spacecraft's onboard computer knowledge about where the vehicle is relative to Mars. Others may be updated based on observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft of Mars' variable atmospheric conditions in this week before landing.
July 29: Course Maneuver Successful; MSL Begins Final Approach
Late Saturday night, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft successfully fine-tuned its course to better zero in on its target entry point into the Martian atmosphere on landing day. Two brief thruster firings totaling about six seconds altered the spacecraft's velocity slightly, by about one-fortieth of one mile per hour (one centimeter per second). This trajectory correction maneuver—the fourth since MSL's launch—adjusted the point at which Curiosity will enter the Martian atmosphere by about 13 miles (21 kilometers). On landing day, MSL can steer enough during its flight through the upper atmosphere to correct for a miss of the target entry point by a few miles and still land within its target ellipse. Mission engineers and managers rated the projected 13-mile miss big enough to warrant a correction maneuver. Telemetry and tracking data indicate the maneuver was successful. MSL will have two further opportunities for additional course corrections during the final 48 hours before landing, if needed.
July 28: MSL Set to Begin Final Approach
Tonight the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is scheduled to perform a very small course adjustment, called Trajectory Correction Maneuver 4 (TCM-4). Around 10 p.m. PDT (1 a.m. EDT), two brief thruster firings totaling about six seconds will adjust the spacecraft's trajectory to better hone in on Curiosity's target entry point into the Martian atmosphere. This course adjustment will be the fourth performed during MSL's journey between Earth and Mars. The maneuver will turn the spacecraft to its final attitude and mark the start of Curiosity's final approach to the Red Planet.
July 27: MSL Telemetry Monitoring, Trajectory Tracking Continue
The flight team continues to monitor the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's telemetry and track its trajectory. There are no real-time spacecraft activities planned today. Late tomorrow night, the spacecraft is scheduled to perform its fourth and smallest trajectory correction maneuver, which will mark the beginning of MSL's final approach to Mars.
July 26: MSL Configured for Final Approach; Flight Team Takes a Breath
With completion of nearly all work to configure the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft for entry, descent and landing, most of the flight team is getting some well-deserved rest today in preparation for next week's final approach to Mars. There are no planned flight team spacecraft activities today. NASA's Deep Space Network continues to monitor spacecraft telemetry and track the spacecraft's trajectory.
July 25: MSL's Terminal Descent Radar System Gets a Checkout
Today, the Mars Science Laboratory's terminal descent sensor is being checked out in preparation for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing. The sensor is a radar system that is mounted on MSL's descent stage. Following separation of MSL's heat shield at an altitude of approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) and a velocity of approximately 280 mph (125 meters per second), the sensor begins collecting data on the spacecraft's velocity and altitude in preparation for landing.
July 24: Curiosity's Batteries Get a Charge
Today, Curiosity's two lithium ion rechargeable batteries are being recharged to 100 percent of capacity in preparation for entry, descent and landing. The batteries, which have been maintained at a 70-percent state of charge during the cruise to Mars, are being recharged using power from Mars Science Laboratory's cruise-stage solar array. The batteries enable Curiosity's power subsystem to meet peak power demands of rover activities when the demand temporarily exceeds the onboard multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) steady output level. With a capacity of about 42 amp-hours each, the batteries are expected to go through multiple charge-discharge cycles per Martian day.
July 23: Prepping MSL's Descent Stage Navigation System for Landing
Preparations continue for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing and surface operations. Today, the two inertial measurement units (IMUs) in Mars Science Laboratory's descent stage are being configured, along with other guidance and control parameters for entry, descent and landing. The IMUs are electronic devices that will be used to maneuver the spacecraft's descent stage, measuring and reporting on its velocity, orientation and gravitational forces. The descent stage does its main work during the final few minutes before touchdown on Mars, providing rocket-powered deceleration and two bands of telecommunications for the final phase of MSL's arrival at Mars that includes lowering the Curiosity rover on a bridle and continuing descent until rover touchdown. In addition, more communications parameter updates for Curiosity's surface operations are being uploaded to Curiosity's main computers.
July 22: Trajectory Tracking Continues
Engineers at NASA's Deep Space Network continue to run differential ranging track passes to track Mars Science Laboratory's trajectory. These activities are designed to more closely track the spacecraft's trajectory and position as it draws nearer to the Red Planet and Mars' gravitational influence on the spacecraft increases.
July 21: Getting a Better Bead on Trajectory
Today, engineers at NASA's Deep Space Network are running two differential ranging track passes to track Mars Science Laboratory's trajectory. These activities are designed to more closely track the spacecraft's trajectory and position as it draws nearer to the Red Planet and Mars' gravitational influence on the spacecraft increases.
July 20: Curiosity Completes Week of Onboard Computer Preps
As of yesterday evening, the week-long reboot and configuration activities on Curiosity's two redundant main computers, or Rover Compute Elements -- including the uplink of spacecraft configuration parameters for entry, descent and landing -- were completed, a day ahead of schedule. Today, backup software for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing is being configured onboard the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft. In case Curiosity's prime computer resets for any reason during the critical minutes of entry, descent and landing, this backup software is designed to enable Curiosity's backup computer to promptly take control and finish the landing with a bare-bones version of entry, descent and landing instructions.
July 19: More Computer Preps for Curiosity
With updated flight sequences and communications parameters for entry, descent and landing and surface operations now uploaded to one of Curiosity's two redundant main computers -- Rover Compute Element (RCE)-B -- today RCE-A is being swapped back to become Curiosity's prime computer, and RCE-B is returning to backup mode. Prime computer RCE-A will then receive its own set of updated flight sequences and communications parameters.
July 18: Curiosity Continues Computer Preps, Gets 'Attitude Adjustment'
Activities continue to prepare Curiosity's redundant main computers, or Rover Compute Elements, for arrival at Mars. Today, Curiosity's RCE-A computer, which was swapped with the backup computer yesterday, is being cold reset, or rebooted, while in online, or backup, mode. Work continues to upload updated flight sequences and communications parameters for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing and surface operations to the spacecraft. In addition, mission controllers yesterday completed the 21st attitude control turn on the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, a day early. This turn adjusts the spacecraft's orientation to keep its medium-gain antenna pointed toward Earth for communications. This was the second-to-last attitude control turn planned before landing day.
July 17: Curiosity Swaps Computers, Gets Updated Arrival Data
Activities continue through July 20 to prepare Curiosity's redundant main computers, or Rover Compute Elements, for arrival at Mars. Today, the computer that has been operating as Curiosity's prime computer is being swapped with the backup computer. On Wednesday July 18, that computer will be cold reset, or rebooted, while in online, or backup mode, following the same process used to cold reset the redundant computer on July 16. In addition, beginning today and continuing through July 20, updated flight sequences and communications parameters for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing and surface operations will be uploaded to the spacecraft.
July 16: Curiosity Computer Preps for Arrival
Beginning today, Curiosity's redundant main computers, or Rover Compute Elements, will be power-cycled while in the online, or backup mode. The process, called a cold reset, reboots the computer, resetting it to a predictable, default state prior to the mission's arrival at Mars. This activity begins today with the reboot of the backup computer while in the online state and will continue through July 20. Tomorrow, the prime and backup computers will be swapped, and the reboot process will be repeated on Thursday with the other computer.
July 13: Radiation Instrument Finishes Inflight Measurements
The Radiation Assessment Detector instrument on Curiosity has finished the measurements it had been making during its flight from Earth to Mars. It will be configured for surface operations and turned off today and remain turned off until after landing.
July 12: MSL Team Has Final Test of Landing Procedures
Today, the Mars Science Laboratory flight team is conducting a final operations readiness test of entry, descent and landing procedures in preparation for Curiosity's landing on Aug. 5, PDT.
July 11: MSL Complete Turn
The Mars Science Laboratory Spacecraft completed an attitude control turn today, adjusting its orientation for keeping its medium-gain antenna pointed toward Earth for communications. This was the third-to-last attitude control turn planned before landing day.


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poh necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 9 diseños de 2 diseñadores freelance.
we are the authors of a book that will be released in early 2010 with heavy national promotion. the general theme of the book and the website is how the average family can give back. this website will serve as an extension of that theme, promoting interaction between users, the authors, various bloggers while also promoting the book as effectively as possible.
the primary audience will be women and men ages 30-60, so a clean, visual, but readable design is a must.
all we need is a single page psd.
we will require all designers to sign an nda first, then we will send you the spec. go to http://www.thepowerofhalf.com/nda.doc for the nda. please fill out and mail to firstname.lastname@example.com to continue.


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Bring three luscious lace hats off your needles and into your outfits. From confident cast-on to beautiful bind-off, learn to knit lace in the round, shape in pattern and more!
Expand your lace knitting expertise to include elegant, in-the-round projects alongside knitwear designers Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn. Get comfortable reading lace charts and joining in the round to knit the simply chic Spiral Lace Hat from the bottom up. Master Courtney's invisible cast-on and work the Medallion Crown Hat (a beautiful beret) from the top down before binding off in pattern. Knit the True Lace Hat with patterning on every round, and receive tips for modifying the length or circumference of your hats. Plus, discover finishing techniques for weaving in ends securely and blocking your hats for crisp stitch definition. Learn to knit lace in the round and light up your look with these exclusive, alluring accessories.
If you're not delighted with your Bluprint experience, we'll make it right or give you a full refund.


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Although it's hard to imagine running out of things to do within the New Orleans city limits, you may desire a day of relaxation exploring South Louisiana's famous bayous and rich history . Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, named after the mysterious waterway smuggler himself, includes six sites in the area documenting the ecological, cultural, and political history of the region. For those interested in experiencing the wetlands firsthand, the 23,000 acre Barataria Preserve outside of Marrero provides walking trails and waterway canoe access. This is a great opportunity to see local flora and fauna up close and personal, including alligators and nutria, and the mild regional weather allows for year-round access.
If you're a history buff, look no further than the Chalmette Battlefield, location of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, where General Andrew Jackson and his troops defeated in British in the final and greatest land victory of the War of 1812. Also on the site is the Chalmette National Cemetery, established in 1864 for Union troops following the Civil War, and including over 15,000 headstones. After spending the day walking around the battlefield you'll welcome our tropical gardens where you can relax with your favorite beverage.
Jean Lafitte also includes three Acadian Cultural Centers, in Eunice, Thibodaux, and Lafayette, LA, chronicling local Cajun origins, culture, and history. While in the French Quarter, stop by the Jean Lafitte Visitor Center at 419 Decatur St. for free ranger-led riverfront history walks everyday at 9:30 AM or for more information on any of the other parks. Park Headquarters is available at (504) 589-3882.


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we're passionate about humor and the power of words!
...wonderful women..point the way to your favorite powerful locations! find Themyscira, the Amazon or even the Invisible Plane!
select the sign of your choice...the perfect decor for your powerful woman living space, these handcut, hand-painted wooden pointy finger signs will direct all female superheroes to the right place!
Choose one, two or all three via the drop-down menu!
at Pretty Clever Words, we like quirky bits of art - simple, quirky, funny bits, that can fit in any nook or cranny throughout your living or working space.and although we love a good snarky quote or pun, often we only need a single word or two for inspiration.. and this line of pointer finger art provides a simple and fresh approach to wooden sign decor.however, simple looks can be deceiving! as always, we have combined complex layers of paint, sanding, distressing, waxing and varnish to add lovely texture and a lush vintage look.
combining the formality of a tuxedo-clad usher's direction with the fun and humor of every-day destinations, these are sure to find a place in your space.
measuring 3 inches high by 18 inches long and 3/4 inch thick, you'll want to pick up more than one..as a gift for you and your friends. pairing it with one or more pointers will increase the fun factor!each piece is unique! your piece will be very similar but could have variations in texture and color. PLEASE NOTE TURNAROUND TIME - these are custom pieces, and have a 5-day create/shipping time.
PS - create your own custom wooden pointy finger sign here!


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What are E-Cigs?Puff where no one else can!
A young woman strolls toward you at the mall, puffing on a cigarette. In most states, it's been years since such a thing was allowed and you do a double take. But something seems a little… off. When she exhales, you see something that looks like smoke, but it doesn't smell. And the lit tip of the cigarette emits a blue glow. Turns out that she's demonstrating an e-cigarette—an electronic device that vaporizes nicotine and has been touted by manufacturers as a safer alternative to cigarettes and other tobacco products.
E-cigarettes, also called e-cigs or personal vaporizers, were developed in China in 2003 and have been available to consumers since 2004. They're designed to mimic the size and appearance of a traditional cigarette, although cigar- and pipe-shaped models are also available. In an e-cig, a heating element atomizes liquid nicotine in a cartridge, delivering a smokeless, scent-free dose of the drug without many of the carcinogens found in tobacco products. E-liquids are available in different concentrations, just as cigarettes are available in light and ultralight formulas.
Automatic e-cigs work when the user inhales; manual versions require the push of a button on the "filter" portion of the device. Most models operate using lithium-ion batteries, and many users opt for rechargeable models that power up via wall outlets, USB ports, or a car's 12v charger. The LED light at the tip of the e-cig usually comes with different color options and signals that the unit is activated, as well as adding to the realism of the experience. Starter kits including an atomizer, cartridges, e-liquid, and a charger run from $20 to $150 at online retailers.
The cartridge needs frequent replacement or refilling with drops of "e-liquid," and users typically pay about $2 for the equivalent of a pack—significantly less than the $6 to $10 per pack that traditional cigarettes usually cost. The liquid nicotine contains other chemicals and flavors, from tobacco and menthol, to mint, chocolate, vanilla, and fruit flavors. Electronic cigarettes also come with their own lingo. You smoke a cigarette, but you "vape" an e-cig. Brands called The Safe Cig, Green Smoke and Smoke 51 are as widely known among vapers as Camel and Marlboro are among traditional smokers.
Sold in mall kiosks, convenience stores, and tobacco shops, e-cigs are currently facing a barrage of legislation from states seeking to ban them and an equally vocal contingent of supporters on blogs, comment boards, and Facebook groups.


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Treat yourself to something special with our dark chocolate covered cherries. We covered our whole dried Bing cherries in luscious 60% cocoa dark chocolate.
Supreme dark chocolate covered cherries are a delicious treat that will melt in your mouth. Dried bing cherries are smothered in luscious 72% dark chocolate.
Premium dried bing cherries smothered in chocolate and then layered with red couveture. These pastel chocolate bing cherries are a real treat!
Make our white chocolate-covered cherries the final topping of a perfect day. Succulent dried Bing cherries wrapped in creamy white chocolate.


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For over a hundred years, the automobile industry has been bringing mobility to the masses. From the early days of Ford's Model T to today's high-tech sedans, relentless innovation driven by competition has steadily improved the cars we drive every day.
But over the last couple of decades, the automobile industry has changed: No longer are big automakers focused primarily on one region of the world. Today's big automakers are global giants, competing in all of the world's major markets, often with a single line of products. As a result, competitive pressures -- and the speed of innovation -- are greater than they've ever been.
Let's take a closer look.
What is the automobile industry?
Simply put, the global auto industry is made up of companies that make and sell "light vehicles", the industry term for cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, and small vans.
For many years, the industry was dominated by regional giants: General Motors and Ford were the dominant players in the U.S., while Volkswagen was big in Europe and Toyota in Japan.
To some extent, that's still true: GM and Ford are still the leaders in the U.S. market, VW is still on top in Europe, and Toyota still has the biggest market share in Japan.
But globalization has muddied the national boundaries: Toyota is also a huge player here in the U.S., for instance, while Ford has a big share of Europe and Italy's Fiat is a major player in South America.
And it has made for international mashups, as former regional powers seek global scale: Fiat and Chrysler have merged to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Japan's Nissan is closely linked with France's Renault.
Recently, China has become a major factor in the industry. There are a host of up-and-coming Chinese automakers, some of which could become global players in the future -- but right now, China's massive auto market is dominated by VW and GM, with Ford a rapidly rising contender. Chinese tastes are a growing influence on the design of global vehicle models.
How big is the automobile industry?
According to figures from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, 85.4 million new vehicles were sold in 2013, or about 2.7 every second.
That number has grown significantly in recent years, as you can see from the chart below. Quite a bit of the growth has come from China, now the world's largest new-vehicle market.
How does the automobile industry work?
Unlike many high-tech industries, product cycles in the auto business are measured in years, not months. Designing and building a new vehicle from scratch can take anywhere from two to four years from first design to the start of production.
Automaking is a heavy industry, and the fixed costs are significant. It can cost a billion dollars or more to develop an all-new vehicle from scratch, and as much as a third of that cost can go to pay for the specialized tooling used on the assembly line, much of which -- like the giant dies that stamp out body panels -- may be specific to a particular model.
Often, there will be several different factories around the world making a particular model. For instance, Ford's Fiesta is made in five different factories, in Mexico, Germany, China, Thailand, and India. To minimize high shipping costs and exposure to tariffs, automakers tend to locate their factories near to where their vehicles are sold.
Those factories -- and the expensive tooling, and the skilled labor forces required to operate them -- are part of why we say that automakers have high fixed costs. Not only do automakers have to pay to keep their factories going, but they also have to continually invest in the development of future products in order to stay competitive.
That makes automakers especially vulnerable to economic downturns, when consumers and businesses tend to postpone new-vehicle purchases. In the past, automakers that haven't been able to sustain investments in future products through difficult recessions have found themselves at a disadvantage during the recoveries that have followed.
Nowadays, nearly all of the global automakers maintain a hefty cash reserve of $10 billion or more in order to ensure that new-product programs won't be disrupted by an economic downturn.
Who are the major players in the automobile industry?
Nearly all of the big automakers are familiar names to Americans. These were the top ten by total sales in 2013:
|Vehicles Sold (approximate)
|General Motors
|Volkswagen Group
|Nissan-Renault Group
|Fiat Chrysler
|PSA Peugeot Citroen
|BMW Group
Each of those automakers owns a portfolio of brands. Sometimes the portfolio is small: Honda, for instance, sells vehicles under the Honda and Acura brands, as well as other products (like motorcycles) under the Honda brand.
But sometimes it's large: The Volkswagen Group includes the VW, Skoda, SEAT, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Bugatti light-vehicle brands, as well as several brands of heavy trucks and the Ducati motorcycle brand.
What are the drivers of the automobile industry?
Generally speaking, economic conditions drive new-vehicle sales, which in turn drive the fortunes of the automakers. Simply put, when they have the option, people (and businesses) tend to postpone new-car purchases when their jobs or profits are at risk, as during tough economic times.
But when we look at any specific automaker, what drives its success relative to rivals is the competitiveness of its products. This is the first thing to look at when evaluating an automaker as a potential investment. But it's not simple to gauge. Autos aren't commodities; they sell on a wide range of criteria, some of which are largely emotional and defy measurement. What makes a great car? It's a hard question to answer.
A competitive product is one that is seen as more desirable than others in its market segment, because of quality or design or technological advantages, or sometimes because of the power of its brand. Generally speaking, a new product will be more competitive than an older one, but there are exceptions.
Here's why it's so important: An automaker with a competitive product can charge more (or put another way, discount less), meaning it will make more profit per sale.
The companies with many competitive products will tend to have strong profit margins (and fatter profits). That gives them more money to reinvest in future products -- or to pass on to shareholders via dividends. (That said, margins in the auto business tend to be thin when compared to some other industries: a 10% pre-tax or "operating" margin is quite strong for a mass-market automaker.)
As investments, the stocks of automakers are considered cyclical, meaning that they tend to rise and fall with economic conditions. Because of those high fixed costs, an automaker needs to sell a certain number of vehicles just to break even. As sales fall closer to that number, profits shrink.
In the past, some automakers would endure several quarters of heavy losses during recessions. But most of the big global automakers have learned the lesson of the 2008-2009 economic crisis and have tried to structure their operations in a way that lowers their break-even point to about the rate of sales seen at the worst of the crisis, in late 2008 and early 2009. And, as mentioned above, most have established large cash reserves so that they can continue investing in new products even if -- or perhaps we should say when -- the next recession squeezes their profits.


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Stanford University was founded in 1891 to "promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization." More than a century later, the school — located between San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. — still holds true to this tenet, as is evidenced by the recently constructed Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building.
Nicknamed Y2E2, this 166,000-square-foot facility, which is situated within the university's new 8.2-acre science and engineering quad, functions as a virtual living laboratory for training students about solar energy and green building technologies. A two-level basement accommodates wet and dry labs, while the floors above contain office, conference, and teaching areas.
"Y2E2 is the flagship sustainable building on Stanford's campus, so we spent a lot of pre-construction time discussing various sustainable features and their cost implications," says Jeremy Camper, project executive for San Jose, Calif.-headquartered Cupertino Electric, Inc. (CEI), the electrical contractor chosen to design as well as perform the installation.
One of the only structures of its kind in the United States, the $118 million Y2E2 is projected to use 50% less energy and 90% less water than a facility similar in size and of standard construction. Energy savings are accomplished via a variety of sustainable technologies, including a sophisticated lighting control system that incorporates daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors; separate thin-film, monocrystalline, and polycrystalline solar PV systems; and the extensive use of atriums and architectural light shelves that reflect natural light into perimeter areas.
"The building's lights contain dimmable ballasts," says Camper. "Photocells mounted inside of the building measure the amount of daylight entering the structure, and fixtures automatically adjust based upon available natural light."
For temperature control, the building employs a "natural" ventilation system comprised of active and passive chilled beams, chilled panels, radiant floors, and ceiling fans.
"In addition, we segregated certain loads of the building, which are measured through different monitoring devices," explains Camper. "This allows the energy consumption of particular areas and systems to be tracked. Furthermore, with this level of detail, malfunctioning equipment or systems can be quickly identified."
According to Camper, the building's four large atriums proved challenging when it came to installing a smoke control system. The atriums, which extend through multiple floors of the structure, incorporate louvers programmed to open and close as needed for aeration. Therefore, the smoke control system has to be wired to communicate with the louvers so that, in the event of a fire, they would be forced open.
"Not only does CEI hope this building attracts people to the university, but we also hope it creates a better work and learning environment for Stanford's staff and students," adds Camper.


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Chris Horlacher necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 20 diseños de 8 diseñadores freelance.
Maple Leaf Metals Exchange
Maple Leaf Metals Exchange is a newly formed bullion dealer in Canada. We will be selling physical gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium to customers for investment and wealth preservation purposes.
Maple Leaf Metals Exchange Inc. is 100% Canadian owned and operated. The Maple Leaf itself is an important aspect of the company as it is a national cultural symbol as well as what is stamped in to highly recognizable bullion coins produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. These ties should feature strongly in the website.
Site imagery could consist of gold/silver bars, the minting process, the Royal Canadian Mint etc. It could also show jewelry, gold sculptures or historical artifacts/events.
Some other themes associated with this firm should be the long history of gold and silver being used as a universal money (all international trade had been conducted in precious metals from the dawn of human history up until the US dollar, unbacked by gold, became the world reserve currency in 1971), the stability of its value over time, the beauty of the metal itself as well as its cultural importance (gold is highly prized by Indians, for example). An overview of the history of gold can be found at the Facebook link below and other info at the World Gold Council.
The following website is of a competitor dealer. You can get some basic ideas about what goes on a bullion dealers websites but I leave it up to the designer to take as much liberty as they like with the actual design for Maple Leaf Metals. I want the site to be intuitive and not cluttered, as I find this site to be a bit of an overload.
Designers can use the list of sites at the following link to get an idea of layouts and use of graphics.
We will be needing two page designs. A homepage and content page.
The homepage should be clean and professional looking, as well as serve as the central navigation hub for the website. I would like to have a news feed there, where I can put links to recent news stories as well as a price chart that will show the current spot prices of the metals we sell. It should also let users know of our flat-rate shipping policy ($30 shipping on all orders up to $100,000) and give users quick access to the other main areas of the website.
The content page will be used as a template to fill in each section page's content (About Us, Browse, About Bullion, FAQ and Contact sections that could each have multiple subsections that users can navigate to). It should retain the price chart because I would like to always have that displayed but can otherwise look however the designer feels is most attractive.
See the following link and scroll down to "SP-6" to see the chart that I would like included on the website and the instructions on how to embed it.
Our customers could be anyone from small individual purchasers, to large institutional clients. So the look and feel of the site should have a broad appeal and attract customers of all backgrounds. Trust is the key element and the site will need to make a good impression.


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Shabby Chic Baby Shower Invitation | Baby Carriage Invite | Classic Elegant Printable invite | Damask | Pink | Green | Sip and See | Pretty
Product Info
This classic and elegant baby carriage invitation is the perfect way to celebrate your little one's arrival. The pretty damask and the sage green accents are timeless and the perfect choice to celebrate the mommy-to-be.
This listing is for the digital 5x7printable shabby chic damask baby shower invitation shown in this listing. The print-at-home option is sure to save you time and money by allowing you to print as many invitations as you need.
{WHAT to DO}
1. CHOOSE and PURCHASE this design. (add to cart/pay through paypal)
2. EMAIL ME: SwishPrintables (at) gmail.com
The invitation will be personalized with your party information. Please type out the information EXACTLY as you'd like it to appear. Other design changes will incur an additional fee. (This includes adding a photo, changing the font, changing the colors, etc.)
Within 24 hours, I'll email the proof to the email on file with Etsy. If you'd like me to send it to another email address, please indicate that in the email that you send with the party information. If you have not received the proof within 24 hours, please check your spam folder.
Once the proof is approved, I will send you the high resolution jpg file. You can then print at any photo lab, office supply chain or your own home printer. (If you need help or suggestions, please ask - I have a lot of information to share.)
5. IMPORTANT NOTES (things you need to know - READ THIS)
* Included with this sale are up to 2 sets of revisions. Additional revisions will incur an additional fee.
* Please print all proofs prior to approving final design. Swish Printables cannot be held responsible for color variations between what you see on your monitor and how it prints on paper.
* Once the final versions are sent, no additional changes can be made without an additional charge. Please PROOF all samples prior to approving - this includes printing them. Swish Printables is not responsible for errors once you have approved the final designs.
* There is no charge for shipping as these are electronic files.
If you have questions, please refer to my shop policies or send me a message through etsy. I'm also available through email: "firstname.lastname@example.com"
Happy Planning!


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J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot was a hit on nearly every level - critically, financially, you name it. It is, in fact, Abrams' most well-received film to date. And yet, for various reasons (Super 8 being one of them), it will have been four very long years by the time Star Trek 2 finally hits theaters.
While promoting their new film, People Like Us, Chris Pine and Alex Kurtzman - the star (Captain Kirk) and co-writer, respectively, of the upcoming Star Trek sequel - talked about returning to the Enterprise set, the "relentless" and "much better" story, how the film's antagonist (played by Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock fame) will make Kirk the man he needs to be, and more.
On Benedict Cumberbatch's yet-to-be-revealed antagonist - courtesy of MTV - Chris Pine said:
"['Star Trek 2'] is structured so that the antagonist brings out all of the qualities in Kirk that need to happen in order for Kirk to grow. As you know from Benedict, just watching him, vocally, he's fascinating. He's got this deep resonate voice. He has a fascinating face. He's a lovely guy and just super smart. You want to see something firing in his brain, so he's not just a blood-dripping-from-the-fangs bad guy. Benedict brings those kinds of smarts."
It's reminiscent of what Kurtzman said a few weeks ago, and unfortunately, just as vague. Benedict is brilliant, et cetera, et cetera. No revelations here, people. Move along.
On returning to the set of the Enterprise for the first time in years - courtesy of Collider - Pine said:
"The first day going back to work we did all the bridge stuff, and that's always... Even if you're not a fan, and I was never a fan of the series... you cannot help but step on that bridge and feel kind of overwhelmed. It's just the set, [but] you're like, 'God, I gotta fly this thing!'"
Ah, to be an actor.
On how much better Star Trek 2's story will be compared to the first one's - courtesy of Ain't It Cool - Pine said:
"['Star Trek 2'] is relentless, and for the visually inclined people who want to see major sequences, there are a couple specifically that I think… I'm not a huge 3-D fan, but I think will be incredible. But what I'm more excited about and what I think they did so well is that really the story is that much better, and the journey that these guys go on is that much more, and what they always talked about is that even though they're a crew from what we know about the original team, the fun of getting there is following that journey to where they become that tight-knit crew. It's no fun if they're already a tight-knit crew. So suffice it to say, they're still learning how to get along."
On not wanting to re-establish the same old crew dynamic from the original series (and subsequent films), Alex Kurtzman said:
"The assumption that we did not want to make was that just because he's in the chair and they're on the bridge together that they're the crew that you remember from the original series. They're not - the crew from the original series had gone on many, many journeys, they were a well-oiled machine in terms of how they function, and these characters are still figuring out who they are and who they are to each other. And I did not want to jump so far ahead that we missed a really important emotional connection to that transition for them."
There's also the fact that these Star Trek adventures technically exist inside an altogether separate timeline, so there's no rule that says the characters ever have to act exactly like the old crew from the old show.
Of course, there's a fine line between doing fun, new things with (slightly) different versions of the old characters and utterly enraging the die-hard Trekkies who already have mixed feelings about this alternate timeline business being inflicted upon their beloved Star Trek.
What say you, Screen Ranters? Are you looking forward to the sequel to the reboot of Star Trek? Drop us a line in the comments.
Star Trek 2 (if indeed that is its real name) hits theaters May 17th, 2013. Just eleven-and-a-half more months to go!
Follow me on Twitter @benandrewmoore.
Sources: MTV, Collider, & Ain't It Cool


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My computer recently died. I hosted my personal-learning MediaWiki within uniform server to help guard against this type of problem for years (thanks!) - so I simply pulled the files across to the new computer....
- Uniform server ran fine with the browser showing the home page of localhost.
- When I pointed it to my wiki, the browser sat "Waiting for localhost..." then finally returned:
- Looking into the Apache Error Log, I saw:
PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 60 seconds exceeded in C:\\Users\\Kevin\\Documents\\USB\\Wikis\\UniServer\\www\\insightswiki\\includes\\db\\Database.php on line 459
This is the first time I've had this type of error.
Nothing has changed aside from the hardware & OS that's running this ie: I haven't changed Uniform Server and MediaWiki's settings (and line 459 doesn't look strange) with the only change being it running on a Windows 10 machine as opposed to a Windows 7 machine.
- It's not a problem with Windows Firewall as far as I can tell (tried shutting it off, rebooting windows then running the wiki).
- http://localhost/apanel/phpmyadmin/ runs fine and is able to interact with the DB (tables) for the mediawiki.
Lots of work and valuable information is now trapped. Help appreciated!


text:
Mark, is it safe to say that Javy Vazquez will never be a second or even third starter for this team? He is over 30 years old and everybody acts like he just needs to "figure it out." I only see him getting worse, and that contract will prevent the Sox from being able to demote him or risk all of his "value." And will the Sox continue with Vazquez instead of trying a younger, possibly better option? --Brendan McCaffrey, Elmhurst
My feeling is that Javy is here to stay, primarily because of his durability and ability to pitch like he did Friday at Toronto.
With the obvious need for a true leadoff hitter with speed (especially with the recent injury of Ozuna), what are the chances that Kenny Williams tries to acquire a young talent like Tony Gwynn Jr. who can't seem to find enough playing time in Milwaukee but certainly has a knack for getting on base and can play all outfield positions? --Steve von Horn, Madison, Wis.
Mark, we have got to get some team speed and manufacture runs to take some pressure off of the bullpen late in games. We cannot win when we need three hits to score a run. Jerry Owens should get a look until Pods is ready to return. At that point a decision can be made. --Dan Bowman, Marlette, Mich.
Mark, I wrote a while back asking if the Sox would consider disarming to add a legit leadoff hitter like Rocco Baldelli. Your response was to point to the job Erstad was doing. Despite the obvious injury-prone nature, Erstad is great, but if we're relying on Owens to set the table now that he and Pods are down, we're asking a lot. Would the Sox consider Baldelli as an alternative or do they have others in their sights? --Al, Montgomery, Ala.
As for Gwynn, I'd ask my part-time neighbor Doug Melvin, but he's currently trying to keep the Brewers in first place in the NL Central. Maybe I'll ask in the off-season.
The jury is split on Jerry Owens, but it's good that he's getting a look until Podsednik and Erstad return. He almost beat out a bad bunt for a single and can run. But I want to see him perform this way over an extended period.
I was told at the end of the winter meetings that several Sox officials liked Baldelli except one prominent decision-making official. At some point, Tampa Bay will have to move one of its outfielders. I like Baldelli but you have to wonder about his health. His contract isn't an issue.
I have a question. I've been to Birmingham and Fort Mill (where Triple-A Charlotte plays). Why isn't double-A in Fort Mill and Triple-A in Birmingham? Especially if it's hard to evaluate pitchers at a Triple-A field. Getting to Triple-A is suppose to be rewarding! --Francine Bukvich, Brandon, Miss.
Francine, several fringe prospects or "Four-A" players fill Triple-A rosters while the bulk of Double-A rosters are filled with players still considered prospects or suspects. Some of these Triple-A players are paid well but usually are told they have little or no chance of making the big league roster.
That doesn't mean these players can't make the major league roster. But in most cases, they must excel much more than the organization's prospects to earn consideration for a major league promotion.
There's usually a progression a player has to make from Double to Triple-A, but it's not uncommon for pitchers (rather than position players) to make the jump from Double-A to the majors because of the belief that pitching talent can make the jump easier than a position player who hasn't faced or solved Triple-A pitching yet.
I don't understand why people (including, it seems, Kenny Williams) are looking for us to trade for an outfielder, a right-handed bat, a new Ozunasomething. Let's get real. We need to start looking at trades for prospects and then setting our sights on some free agents in the off-season. This team is going nowhere fast. Do you think the Royals will give us Tyler Lumsden and Daniel Cortes back for Mike McWALKal? --Andrew, St. Louis
It appears that the advance scouting has already caught up to the new Sox pitchers that Williams traded for this past winter. Because of that and not being able to beat teams in their own division I don't have much hope for the 2007 Sox. If I'm correct when do you believe they will start a fire sale. Who, in your opinion, will stay and who will go? --Bob Tietz, Tempe, Ariz.
Sisco and MacDougal are so bad that I have to wonder, did Ken Williams actually think that the lowly Royals would actually give up 2 pitchers that were any good? --Paul Zimmerman, Walnut Creek, Calif.
So when the Sox trade Iguchi, Dye, Crede and Buehrle next month, are they going to load up on "can't miss" prospects and then use 2008-2011 as "rebuilding" yearsor will they try to sign free agents this next off-season and try to field a winning club before the next decade is upon us? --John Fitch, Cary
Hello Mark. The Twins have a lot of young up-and-coming talent, Do you think losing Torii Hunter to free agency will be that big a blow to them? I don't mean to discount his talent, but Terry Ryan and his development staff always seem to do a great job of having a constant flow of young talent in their organization. There is one guy this year playing for a contract that no one has mentioned yetEric Byrnes. --Tyson Shroyer, Peoria
The Sox have the look of a team that couldn't get it together if they wanted to. That being said, when does Ken Williams decide to make sweeping changes in hopes that the new troops can mesh and make a run yet this year? I'm afraid if it doesn't come soon, the fans are going to turn on them. --Irv Kaage, Park Ridge
The Sox aren't going to make the playoffs this year. Who can they get the most trade value for? Thome and Buehrle? Also will Williams admit the mistake and send Vasquez to the bullpen and pull up a young starter? --Keith Rainville, Bishop, Calif.
Mark, it's pretty obvious the Sox don't have it this year. What players do you foresee the Palehose getting in a fire sale of their vets? --Sam, Ottawa, Ill.
What do you feel needs to happen for the Sox to start a fire sale come July? I think Kenny overestimated every aspect of this team from signing Vasquez to an extension to believing that a bullpen full of young flame throwers would be able to save the day. --Clifton, Chicago
Mark, it's May 31, and the Sox are done. There is so much talent on this team, this is a real shame. Where do we go from here? Is it time to ask if Ozzy and Kenny really have it or was 2005 just a fluke? I'm thankful to have lived long enough to see a championship, don't think I'll see another any time soon. --Bob, San Antonio
Is there anybody on the Sox worthy of even being a bat boy in the All Star game? Right now the team is bad. --George Walkow, Monument, Colo.
Why do the Sox suck? --Wendell, Belvidere
I think this team has played older than its age. I think Podsednik's injury has hurt the offense more than anyone imagined. There's more upside to Lumsden and Cortes, although Lumsden has a 5.63 ERA at Triple-A Omaha. Cortes has struck out 35 in 31 innings at high Class-A.
Paul Zimmerman makes a great point that several scouts warned earlier: "Kansas City was willing to trade MacDougal and Sisco, why would the Sox want them if Kansas City needs pitching in the first place?" These guys simply haven't thrown strikes.
A question also can be raised that MacDougal and Sisco each pitched for a team that wasn't expected to win, and now the stakes are higher with the Sox.
I think there's too much at stake to rebuild immediately, but some re-arranging of the furniture wouldn't surprise or bother me. I would keep Buehrle and Dye as long as possible up to the trading deadline because of the value they could bring to a team desperate to make a move. And at the same time, a mid-season run can vault the Sox back into contention with plenty of division games in the second half.
I would be more excited about Torii Hunter if he hit for more power. Terry Ryan and his scouting and player development staff do as good a job as anyone in baseball.
I was at an Arizona State-Arizona game in late February in Tucson, and ASU was up by about 20 runs (that's right). I stayed until the ninth inning just to watch a left-handed reliever from the U of A pitch. Sure enough, there was a Twins scout among the five talent observers in attendance.
I like Eric Byrnes, but he's not the answer.
Mark, MLB rules question. Runner on third, two outs, two strikes on the batter. The batter strikes out, the catcher drops the third strike. Catcher throws ball to third baseman, third baseman throws the runner out at first. Does the run score? --Stu, Reisterstown, Md.
I'd like to keep this limited to Sox questions, but if the runner crosses home plate before the third out was made at first, then the run counts.
One day its the pen, the next day the starter gets rocked. Then they don't hit. It's takes a little sychronicity to win and the Sox have lost that big-time. Ozzie has overstayed his welcome and needs to go. --Rick Schwartz, Tucson, Ariz.
Ozzie seems to have become very safe in his managing. Why not more hit-and-runs, suicide bunts, etc. I'd love to see Thome, Konerko and/or Dye lay one down every now and then, just to get the other teams' defenses rattled. --Jim, Cincinnati
I know what's wrongit was that "anger management" course that Ozzie had to take! Ever since then the Sox have been a bunch of wimps. We need to get a chip on our shoulders and run some people over! Send Ozzie back to Geeked and Angry School! Think I'm on to something? --Southside Cliffy, Chicago
Ozzie has lost the respect of his players. That's a given. He needs to be replaced. --Ron Munry, Surprise, Ariz.
Why do we always praise the Twins for the way they play but we don't play that way or get players like that? I want to win, and if these guys are going to be passive and just fold in big games, then praise teams after the game, then trade them. --Tom, Elk Grove Village
Ozzie, whose mouth is an endless and unneeded distraction, must go and be replaced by either Joe Girardi or Jeff Torborg, both solid managers. --Sid Skolnik, Los Angeles
No matter how you look at it, they are not the team of 2005. It's not just the hitting. They have lost the ability to play small ball and are very sloppy in the field. A.J.'s act has gotten old. Ozzie seems to have lost their attention. Time to reassess. --Fred, Denver
Unless Ozzie punches or severely offends someone, he's staying through at least the 2008 season. The chairman reaffirmed Ozzie's security last Friday in a telephone conversation. Maybe Ozzie stayed with MacDougal one or two games too long, but Ozzie's not striking out with runners in scoring position. The coaching staff is working as hard as always. This one is on the players, with few exceptions.
A scout raised the question of why the likes of Anderson, Sweeney, Rogowski and several other position players have stagnated since Double-A.
Hey Mark. I'm a Twins fan, and love being able to watch and listen to my team when they are playing the Sox, but both the radio and TV booths make it almost impossible to enjoy. These announcers complain more about Sox hitters getting bad calls at the plate than any other announcers I have ever heard. --Jeremy, Chicago
Ed Farmer is just awful, I actually listen to the Cubs on the radio rather than The Score and I hate the Cubs! Contract, loyalty, or nothe stinks and is costing the radio station ratings. --Matt Clark, Chicago
Hi Mark, I'm a defender of Ed Farmer. He and Rooney were named the second best duo in the ML in 2005, of course the Sox couldn't keep that together just like their championship team. --Steve, Zachary, La.
Is it just me or have Hawk and DJ been arguing a lot recently in the booth? They couldn't agree about A-Rod yelling at the infielders on that pop-up in Toronto, and they've disagreed about some other things recently, all on-air. Is it just me, or is Hawk getting testy? --Matt, Los Angeles
Jeremy, I'd be curious to hear what Sox fans in the Twin Cities have to say about Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven, although I don't mind their work when I'm able to watch Twins games on DirecTV.
As for Ed, he has his large share of loyal fans, and I think it's time to end the debate on Ed, especially since he's signed through 2010. Besides, Ed is not the cause of the Sox's woes.
As for Hawk, he was pretty fired up over the way DJ and Chris Singleton were stopped for an extended period at Canadian customs, so DJ knows that Hawk has his back.
Why didn't the Sox bring in Bobby Jenks instead of David Aardsma in the ninth inning of the ? He hadn't pitched in four days. --Howard Frieden, Pasadena, Calif.
Mark, do you know why Guillen didn't bring in Jenks instead of Aardsma in the ninth with the bases loaded against the Twins on Wednesday? If that's not a spot for your best reliever, I don't know what is. --Joel Wittert, Crete
I understand Ozzie trying to use his bullpen and roll the dice with them, but it's the ninth inning. I mean, don't we have a closer named Bobby Jenks who has beenif I recalllights out lately? --Corey, Chicago
The Sox didn't have a lead entering the ninth, so it wasn't a save situation. Ozzie said that Bobby "isn't Mariano Rivera" yet, but he will be willing to use Bobby for more than one inning in the future if needed. That time might be now.
Somebody in your is "still sick about letting Magglio Ordoñez go." If the Sox had signed Ordoñez, they would have gotten two seasons in right field worse than Jermaine Dye, at a much greater cost, and more importantly, probably wouldn't have won the World Series. --Adam Newman, Buffalo Grove
I think you should correct people who think the White Sox "let go" of Magglio. They are forgetting that the White Sox made a very fair offer prior to his injury, and his salary demands after injury were unreasonable. Detroit rolled the dice and got lucky. --James, Santa Monica, Calif.
I think Magglio's departure helped the Sox and himself.
Hi Mark, how do you like Kenny and the Chairman now? The genius is gone. Trying to fix the bullpen on the cheap worked for a month. But in the end you get what you pay for. Add to that raised ticket and parking prices, and you are showing that all you care about is grabbing greenbacks from Sox fans. But we aren't gullible Cub fans, so your money bonanza is soon to end. --Stan Kaminski, St. John, Ind.
If you were Kenny Williams, what strategic vision would you have for rebuilding this team? --Ed Lasak, Riverside, Calif.
I'm curious to see what Kenny's plans are after spending at least a week evaluating minor league talent. Changes, whether it's major or minor, have to be made. The demotions of MacDougal and Aardsma are only a start, in my opinion.
Mark, why is the Chicago media giving Ozzie a pass for the loss to the Twins last Wednesday? He is the one who did not get Aardsma up until after Morneau made his out. The Twins announcers pointed out that he only got about 10 or 12 rushed warm-up tosses in the pen before coming out and that none of them were close to being strikes. They were laughing at Ozzie's handling of the bullpen all year. --Spiro, Maryland
Last time I checked, Ozzie didn't blow that big lead. It was Jon Garland, who accepted blame for that. The offense, not Ozzie, didn't get a hit after the third inning.
My question is, do you or anyone else feel as though A.J. Pierzynski's antics have had a negative influence on the team? Everything I've read about him since his playing days up here in Minnesota, and later with the Giants would lead me to think that to be true. I look forward to yours or any of your fellow beat writers' comments. --Jerry Duncan, Blaine, Minn.
Mark, now that Barrett is the lone common denominator in the last two major scrums in Chicagodoes AJ get a pass more as the victim of the ? Okay, A.J. getting a pass sounds like a joke even to me! --Al, Montgomery, Ala.
Jerry, thanks for your interest. A.J. was one of the key players to the 2005 World Series. He had a bad April, but so did other players. In fact, A.J. is one of the few consistent hitters they have right now.
The Morneau incident raised a lot of eyes, but I don't think A.J. would try to hurt someone, especially knowing that one of his teammates could get severely hurt in retaliation.
Here's an interesting column from Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist and fellow Wyomania member Pat Reusse.
I think the White Sox have never displayed the magic or verve of their 2005 season and need major overhauling. The injuries, poor hitting, bad pitching, lack of speed, lack of clutch hitting, penchant for double plays, and bullpen incompetence is an indictment against the entire team. Can you take a reader poll on how many fans think it is time to "back up the truck" as it were and make wholesale changes on this roster? --Terry, Schaumburg
Mark, the problem with this year's and last year's White Sox teams is that they look too much like the 2003 and 2004 teamsInconsistent pitching and defense, as well as an over-reliance on home runs. I'm a firm believer that what wins consistently is reliable pitching, solid defense, and team speed. --John Magdziasz, Sarasota, Fla.
Terry, the e-mails above suggest a house cleaning may be needed. Detroit was terrible for a few years but got better through free agency and the draft. Cleveland's talent is coming together, and Mark Shapiro has made some timely additions. Minnesota always finds a way to compete, and one of Terry Ryan's best moves was the signing of backup catcher Mike Redmond.
It's tough to play Ozzie Ball when Erstad and Podsednik are hurt. It's tough to hit-and-run when runners aren't getting on base with any degree of frequency. But there aren't any excuses for the low average with runners in scoring position or the failure to bunt runners over.
The 2005 Sox seemed to give the starting pitchers an early lead, then add a run late in the game with a timely hit.
Mark, what was with the sudden release of infielder Pedro Lopez from Triple-A Charlotte? He was performing, is still very young, was a starter for the team and I believe hit a home run the night before he was released. He previously had been rated high by the White Sox and was ahead of Andy Gonzalez on the depth chart of infielders. --Kevin, Milwaukee
Lopez was claimed on waivers by Cincinnati. He was with the Sox for a brief call-up in 2005 but didn't make any progress at the plate. Another concern is the lack of hitting by Robert Valido, so the Sox could be forced to bring Juan Uribe back for another year, regardless of how he performs the rest of the season.
Gonzalez was promoted at about the time Kenny Perez got hurt. That caused Fields to move to short on a temporary basis. Tomas Perez was signed to lend depth.
How much longer are the Sox going to keep Aardsma and MacDougal? What a couple of launch pads. I'm sure they have somebody in the minors that couldn't do any worse. --Marty, Las Vegas
Talented starter comes out, inept relievers come in, Sox blow lead, game. Isn't it getting hard for you, Mark, trying to find new ways to write the same story? --David Beck, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Please provide some insight as to why the Sox' bullpen has been so horrible as of late. Is it merely confidence? Why do they get such a long leash? How many games are we going to lose before Williams does something? --Drew, Chicago
Why in the world have the Sox not called up Paulino Reynoso or Lance Broadway from Triple-A Charlotte? They are both pitching stronger than the Sox middle relief and set-up men. --Andy Freeman, Charlotte
I thought I understood the Triple-A option process, but recent demotions have conflicted with my understanding. My understanding was that during your first three years of major league activity, the major league team had unlimited options (i.e., the club could ship you back and forth as much as it liked). But after three years, you had to clear waivers. The recent demotions of Aardsma and McDougal seem to conflict with this understanding. --Bill Clarkin, Frankfort
Ozzie needs to stop putting MacDougal out there and Kenny needs to get bullpen help. Any idea if what a Chad Cordero would cost the Sox? They have to do something, this is 2006 post-All Star break all over again. --Steve Carter, Berwyn
I don't want to say, 'see, I told you,' because I thought the bullpen would do much better than this. But I wrote around the start of spring training that this was a big challenge for pitching coach Don Cooper because of all the new powerful but unpolished arms. It's why a finesse or veteran reliever would have helped.
As I said earlier, the demotions of Aardsma and MacDougal were deserved.
Bret Prinz has handled the setup role before with Arizona and is a tough-minded kid. Ryan Bukvich impressed many in spring training. Reynoso needs to cut down his walks. The Sox need effective relievers, not starters.
As for the option status, this is why it's important for teams to have administrators who know the rules thoroughly, such as the Sox's Rick Hahn and San Francisco's Tony Siegle.
MacDougal wasn't on the 40-man roster until he was called up in September of 2001, so an option wasn't used. Options on MacDougal were used in 2002 and 2004 but not again until Monday.
If three options are used up, then a player must clear waivers. A player with more than five years of Major-League service timebut who grants permissioncan sent to the minors if he has options left.
Sox are done Put a fork in them. --Steve, South Bend, Ind.
Hi Mark, just want to say the Sox are not dead yet. If they win two out of three for the rest of the year, the Sox will wind up with 92 wins and make the playoffs. It's not too late to turn it around! Tim Sweeney, Villa Park
The time is now, especially with no games against AL Central opponents until June 29.


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