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Two-thirds of tested samples of alcohol prep pads tied to a massive recall, serious infections and death were contaminated with dangerous bacteria, including tainted products from eight of 10 separate lots, according to a new government report.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday offered more detail about problems with medical wipes manufactured by H&P Industries Inc., which does business as the Triad Group of Hartland, Wis.
In a brief field notes summary, the CDC reported that The Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colo., tested 60 samples of Triad Group alcohol prep pads last fall and determined that 40 were contaminated with the bacteria Bacillus cereus. The bacteria were detected in wipes from eight of 10 different manufacturing lots, the report said.
Hospital officials tested the wipes — as well as other single-use, disposable items including syringes and sterile applicators — after two children, including a 10-year-old boy with leukemia and an infant with congenital heart disease, developed sudden, life-threatening infections. Both were caused by Bacillus cereus, laboratory cultures determined.
The Colorado findings sparked a federal Food and Drug Administration investigation that prompted the voluntary recall of the alcohol wipes, officials said.
Hundreds of millions of Triad Group alcohol wipes used in hospitals and clinics and sold under the private labels of grocery stores such as Safeway and Kroger and drugstores such as Walgreens were covered by the January recall because of potential contamination with the bacteria. The products are often used to clean skin before injections; many may still be in people's homes. For a list of recalled brands, click here.
Special report: Tracking tainted wipes
Investigation finds lax oversight, rampant problems with contaminated wipes
Msnbc.com series reveals federal Food and Drug Administration officials knew about problems at Wisconsin plant for years before taking action to halt production, distribution.
- Smith & Nephew sues beleaguered wipe-maker
- Tainted wipes destroyed as firm moves forward
- Tainted wipe maker gets FDA nod toward reopening
- 11 deaths tied to alcohol prep wipes
- Investigation finds lax oversight, rampant problems with contaminated wipes
In addition, H&P Industries Inc. last week recalled all lots of its povidine iodine prep pads because of contamination with different potentially deadly bacteria, Elizabethkingia meningoseptica, which have been tied to meningitis infections in newborns and to flesh-eating bacteria disease. Those pads are used to clean minor burns and scrapes and before surgery.
Can't rule out pads as cause of infections
Detailed laboratory tests in Colorado detected 21 different isolates of Bacillus cereus in the pads and eight isolates from patients with positives cultures from May through November 2010. The exact strains did not match, the report said. However, because so many different isolates were detected, and because of a time lapse between assessing patient samples and testing the wipes, investigators determined that the wipes could have caused the children's infections.
H&P Industries faces at least two lawsuits in connection with the alcohol wipes. The parents of a 2-year-old Houston boy sued after the child died of meningitis caused by Bacillus cereus and a 55-year-old Tennessee man said he developed a life-threatening heart infection that required surgery. Both parties blame tainted wipes. In addition, the parents of the 10-year-old Colorado leukemia patient, Peyton Armstrong, have said they plan to sue.
The firm closed down the division that makes alcohol wipes and lubricating jelly, also recalled, because of the FDA investigation and news reports by msnbc.com, H&P's chief operating officer, Eric Haertle, said in a letter last month to customers, vendors and employees. Haertle has not responded to repeated msnbc.com requests for comment.
Bacillus cereus bacteria are resistant to killing by alcohol and have caused rare cases of disease in health care sites, the CDC report noted. The bacteria are commonly found in soil and usually associated with foodborne illness.
Elizabethkingia meningoseptica bacteria are usually associated with fish and frogs and rarely with human infections. However, they have been implicated in infections in infants, in patients on ventilators and in orthopedic patients who received tissue from deceased donors.
The FDA investigation into H&P Industries is continuing, said spokeswoman Shelly Burgess. Though inspection documents confirm the agency knew of problems with sterilization and contamination at the Triad Group plant as far back as 2009, no sanctions have been levied against the Wisconsin firm. An FDA official last week said the agency needs more time and analysis to decide what action to take.
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints


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Rip DVD .MP4 Windows 10 64bit, Best Win10 DVD to MP4 ripper to Ripping full DVD movie tracks to MP4 file format with best MP4 movie quality for Win 10 64bit, Win 8.1, Win 7, XP, Vista PC.
Extract MP4 video file from DVD, MP4 extension format, mp4 video format is an abbreviated term for MPEG-4 Part 14. MPEG-4 is a multimedia container format. MP4 extension movie is most commonly used to store digital audio and digital video streams, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, MPEG-4 allows streaming over the Internet. The official filename extension for MPEG-4 is .mp4, thus the container format is often referred to simply as mp4 file.
Download It ( for Windows 10, Win 8, Win 7, Vista, XP )
How to Ripping DVD video to MP4 in Windows 10 64bit Win8.1, 7:
Free Download software from http://Software-Download.NAME , insert DVD disc to DVD drive, then:
Click Load DVD, there are three options available:
- Open DVD disc from DVD drive
- Open DVD folder from hard disk VIDEO_TS directory
- Open DVD iso file from hard disk
Here we select Open DVD disc, then select your DVD drive
Click Output Format pull down list to Select output video format
Usually, we select Command Video, MP4 Video with H.264 for smaller size and better quality.
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- Clip DVD title free and conveniently in Win 10 64bit
Easily clip DVD title to get video segment with the length you define to output by AVCWare DVD Converter.
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Support ripping DVD movie entirely or with one/several titles, or rip DVD movie with certain audio, subtitle and angle.
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DVD movie to MP4 format Ripper Windows 10 64bit Win8.1 is a DVD ripping tool to rip your favorite DVD movies to popular DivX/Xvid MP4 files, H.264 MP4 files, and even iPod MP4 video files with fast DVD ripping speed and excellent quality.
With DVD o MP4 file ripper Win 8, you can choose which titles and chapters, audio tracks, and subtitle tracks of the DVD you want to rip. You can also choose the output video format from avi (DivX MPEG4), avi (Xvid), MP4 (H264) or iPod MP4 Video. You can also set the video size, bitrate and framerate, audio channel, bitrate and frequency.
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How to Windows Ripping DVD to MP4
Download It ( for Windows 10, Win 8, Win 7, Vista, XP ) comments powered by Disqus

subset: commoncrawl


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Jeep Ice Racing - Cold Colorado funPosted in Events on May 16, 2014
Summer is just around the corner, so reading this story might seem a bit weird to you, but we are sitting down to write it just weeks after it happened at the tail end of January, 2014. You see, we schlepped our thin-blooded California butts on up to Georgetown, Colorado, to see some high-horsepower Jeeps with metal in their tires tear around on a frozen lake. With a 16-degree high temperature, largely overcast conditions, and 50-mph winds, you'd think we'd be complaining. Fortunately, we dressed warmly, the snow didn't bother our cameras too much, and we had a blast.
Georgetown sits to the West of Denver, Colorado, in the slopes of the Rockies near Vail, Colorado, and we were at an elevation of around 9,000 feet. The Our Gang 4-Wheelers club runs these ice race events, and if you think seeing high-horsepower V-8-powered old Jeeps tear around on a frozen lake isn't worth the trip, you've got another thing coming. You might think that it would be just a bunch of Jeeps spinning out on the ice, but these things turn and literally shoot out of the hole and corners like they were launched with the catapult on an aircraft carrier.
Our Gang has been putting on these races for almost 40 years now, and they have it figured out. From the cones to the tracks to the use of flags or the several different classes of races -- there is always something to see. Racing happens over the course of two days, and even though there are races every other week from around December to March, there are prizes each weekend. The competition is fierce. The exact start and end dates can change based on how thick the ice is on the lake, so check out www.ourgangiceracing.com if you are thinking of going later this year for the 2015 season.
How It Works
The seven classes we got to watch were as follows.
Street Studs: Street-legal Jeeps only with studded tires. Many of these Jeeps were driven to the event and the stud tires bolted on at the lake.
Women's Pro Street Studs: Normally higher-horse Jeeps that are still 100- percent street legal and are usually trailered up to the event.
Men's Pro Street Studs: Same as women's, but male drivers. Often a husband/wife team will race the same Jeep in both classes.
Women's Comp Studs: Women drivers with even higher horse Jeeps that don't need to be street legal at all. Many of these end up with different frames, suspensions, and highly-modified sheet metal or fiberglass bodies.
Men's Comp Studs: Like the Pro Street, many of these Jeeps are the same as those driven in the Women's class, with the husband behind the wheel.
Women's Cheaters: Many of these Jeeps are the same ones that race in the Comp class, but they swap tires (yes, in the cold, on the ice) to these gnarly studded tires with approximately 100 bolts sticking out of them that are roughly 3⁄8x3 inches.
Men's Cheaters: As with the other classes, many of these are the same Jeeps. Air stays in the tires thanks to inner tubes such as you might use for a mountain bike or lowboy trailer.
While we were there, the club didn't run a Bare Rubber class, but there is one of those as well. Also, there are non-Jeep vehicles that are welcome to race, but as the vehicles get more and more modified moving up through the classes, most of them are Jeeps or at least Jeep-looking.


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Tax season traditionally sees larger fraud rates than other times of the year. One factor leading to increased crime is that everyone's private, confidential, sensitive data - like social security numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, and birthdates - are being accessed and used. Tax season is often a complicated, confusing time of year for most of us and criminals take advantage of this situation by posing as Tax Accountants, Bankers, or even the IRS itself. Criminals want you to hand over your information willingly, and aren't only after your tax refund - they're after the money in your accounts, and after your Identity - which ultimately allows them to take out credit and loans in your name.
...contact the IRS. If you've already had your identity stolen, or you have had items or sensitive information stolen that may lead to Identity Theft, you may qualify to receive a unique PIN from the IRS that will be required to file your taxes. This will help prevent a criminal with your personal information from filing your refund for you and claiming your refund into their bank account.


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Browse by Medical Category
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Gary Tearney, MD, PhD, works at the intersection of medicine, science and engineering. He and his team are developing technologies so they can peer into tiny spaces within the body. They can now see into structures in the walls of arteries that supply blood to our hearts. What they see will help them save lives.
Dr. Tearney's imaging methods are tools that scientists used to only imagine. These tools will be important for improving the quality of patient care.
Physicians often face challenges in diagnosing complex illnesses, like cancer and heart disease. Access to high-tech imaging machines can be a problem and the images produced don't always provide definitive answers. Biopsies are expensive, invasive, and because they pull out only small samples of tissue, can miss problem areas. Sometimes physicians may not be able to properly identify the cause of an illness until it is too late to intervene.
In the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Tearney and his team are working to discover ways to gain more information about disease. His specialty is optical coherence tomography, or OCT. It is a method of obtaining images of tissues within the body, at higher resolutions than MRIs or ultrasounds can achieve. The method produces more detailed images because it utilizes beams of light, as opposed to sound or radio frequency used by MRIs and ultrasounds. The enhanced detail holds the promise of giving researchers and physicians more clues, allowing them to better direct treatment while a patient is still living.
Dr. Tearney and his team can insert a catheter tube into the coronary arteries or other parts of the body to see the structures there with unprecedented detail. With these types of imaging, they can see the events that lead up to a heart attack, like blockage and build-up on the walls of the arteries, and potentially can diagnose cancer at a very early stage.
As a physician who also holds a doctorate in electrical engineering, Dr. Tearney has a multidisciplinary background that allows him to approach imaging from many directions. He began investigating OCT during his doctoral studies, when he realized the tremendous impact it could have on patients. OCT was revolutionary. Never before had imaging of that resolution been available for patients who were alive, he says.
His lab has invented a next-generation OCT technology, called microOCT (µOCT), resulting in an even higher resolution, 10 times more than before — capable of imaging cells and sub-cellular structures in the coronary wall, the lung and the eye. The detail of µOCT allows Dr. Tearney to see into the tissue at a level equivalent to the highest power light microscope.
He hopes one day, smaller, portable versions of his devices can be used by healthcare professionals to screen for illnesses as easily as possible in non-hospital or community settings with high rates of heart disease and cancer, among other diseases.
Mass General is the perfect environment for Dr. Tearney and his team to advance their research. The power to move this technology ahead quickly and efficiently means it can be used to save lives sooner. "Mass General clinicians are research-friendly and are willing to try new things, and we have outstanding collaborations," Dr. Tearney says. "We're one of the few labs that has really been able to take it all the way from a very early-stage concept through the invention process, the validation process, first in-human demonstrations, multicenter clinical trials and commercialization. It really enables us to get these technologies out a lot faster. And it's made possible by our existence on this campus."
Dr. Tearney was named a 2012 MGH Research Scholar, which provides him with support for five years. Such a resource is increasingly uncommon as funding from sources such as the national institutes of health is decreasing. "The funds will allow me to try out new things that i don't, otherwise, think I would be able to try. And I have a high degree of confidence that it's going to result in new technologies that are going to allow us to see in even more detail than we ever have before."
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PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi expects the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to rule on its application for multiple sclerosis treatment Lemtrada by the second half of this year.
The injectable drug, chemically known as alemtuzumab, is one of the new products the French drug maker is betting on to restore growth after losing several blockbusters to generic rivals.
The drug, which late-stage trials have shown helps people who have not responded to other multiple sclerosis treatments, has already been submitted for review by the European Medicines Agency.
In a statement, the French drugmaker also said that an expert committee at the EMA was expected to give its opinion on the medicine in the second quarter of 2013.
Sanofi's biotech subsidiary Genzyme developed Lemtrada, which was sold until September 2012 under the name Campath as treatment for leukemia and given more frequently at a higher dosage. Sanofi withdrew it from the market while it seeks to get it approved as a treatment for MS, although it remains available free of charge to leukemia patients.
Analysts said the move would allow the company to adjust the price to match that of rival MS drugs on the market.
(This story has been corrected to show that it is the European Medicines Agency that is due to give an opinion in the second quarter)
Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing Dominique Vidalon and Helen Massy-Beresford


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Greetings from The AV Company!
Great lighting is integral to the work we do and to the events that we produce. One group of lighting fixtures that we frequently use is the Chauvet Rogue R2 series! Featuring the R2 Wash and the R2 Spot, this series that debuted in early 2014 delivers upscale performance and advanced features that were previously unheard of at its price point!
The Rogue R2 Wash features nineteen 15-watt quad-color LED's, five zones of LED control, a unique lens design that allows for smooth color blending, and six distinct dimming modes. It also brags an industry-leading zoom range of 12°-49°, giving it the spread to cover very large areas.
The Parnelli Award-nominated Rogue R2 Spot also features high value and a range of colors and effects, along with its 240-watt LED lamp. It employs gobo-morphing technology and two variable scrolling color wheels to allow for an unlimited number of shape-changing and split-color effects. It also has a 3-facet rotating prism, motorized focus, iris control, and a frost filter.


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Chevrolet Yukon '00-'12
Failure of your heat and/or A/C in your Chevy Truck/SUV is due to the failure of your blend door.
Heater Treater replaces the cheap, plastic blend door with steel. Replacing the blend door with the same plastic part from the manufacturer WILL result in continued problems — the same system design problem that caused the failure in the first place WILL happen again.
Heater Treater attacks the root cause of the failure by constructing hardware that is designed to meet the rigors of normal operation of the HVAC system, and last for the life of the vehicle.
If you feel uncomfortable installing the repair yourself, go Here to find a HeaterTreater certified garage near you.
Do you have the problem?
The usual symptom is an inability to effectively control the temperature in your car. Note that this symptom can also be caused by a bad temp control knob, and this is a common failure on Chevy/GMC vehicles. Please check carefully before considering the blend door fix.
The blend door hangs on a vertical axis, so turning a sharp corner, or fiddling with the fan speed can swing the door into the hot or cold position randomly. While the symptoms are fairly conclusive for blend door failure, the only way to really check it out is to remove the blend door actuator motor and look at the axle.
The Heater Treater Kit does the following:
- Replaces the plastic blend doors and axle with steel components.
- All work is done through the glove box opening and no disassembly of the dash or evacuation of the AC system is required.
- Tools required are a screw driver, pair of pliers, and a Dremel tool (purchased at any Target or hardware store).
- Includes detailed instructions and all hardware required to complete the fix, including dremel bits and metal tape to seal the cut.
- The repair will take about an 90 minutes the first time, and once you have experience, about 45 minutes.
- No extensive mechanical skills are required.
- The instructions are dual-level, for mechanics and a "Instructions for Dummies" version.
- The fix is really easy and MUCH preferable to disassembly of the entire dash and engine cooling systems.
- We provide customer support via email or phone if required.


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Topic : Imprenditoria Sociale
The search found 45 results in 0.028 seconds.
Risultati della ricerca
Alejandro Marius
Alejandro Marius – founder of Trabajo y Persona – is transforming the concept of the workplace as a painful necessity into a place of enjoyment and fulfillment in Venezuela.
Kohl Gill: LaborVoices
For the past fifteen years, André Dupon has pioneered an alternative to the state-subsidized job training programs as a way to cope with France's deep-seated structural unemployment.
Victoria Shocrón is working, in a non-confrontational way, to integrate young people with disabilities into Argentine society and to educate the Argentine public about people with disabilities.
Since the early 1980s Danielle Desguees has promoted a culture of entrepreneurship in France; an economy historically dominated by large firms and state enterprises.
Every year, big companies spend billions of euros in procurement, but discriminate against local entrepreneurs who lack the right networks or the right reputation. Majid El Jarroudi is bridging this gap by setting all entrepreneurs on an equal footing through a unique platform that connects procurement officers' needs with the potential of entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas.
Since the 1980s, Jean-Guy Henckel has worked to help the most excluded out of long-term unemployment. His innovative model trains them to produce high-value, organic agricultural products and organizes them into local "Cocagne Gardens," organizations that market their packaged products to conscientious consumers, who in turn commit to buying their products every week. Beginning locally, Jean-Guy has expanded his approach to over 100 locations across France.
Charles-Edouard Vincent promotes economic citizenship and new alliances to transform the way France responds to homelessness. Based on his work in Paris involving a wide range of stakeholders—from social organizations to corporations to the relevant French Ministries—he has invented a more effective and integrated model to engage homeless people through employment in order to tackle the deep-seated issues that initially led them to live on the streets.
Faced with increasingly complex social and environmental challenges and the insufficient number of social entrepreneurs to address them, Emmanuel Kasperski is creating a supporting environment for everyone to become changemakers.
Arnaud Castagnède is opening up a new track to efficiently rehabilitate disqualified and long-term unemployed persons. Arnaud is tipping the job rehabilitation sector by designing an integrated market-based process whose success lies in the combination of professional qualification and social support with real work experience and the engagement of private companies.


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Hormone Replacement Therapy for Hot Flashes in Men | Hurst, TX
Understanding Hot Flashes
While hot flashes are a characteristic symptom of menopause in women, many men report experiencing hot flashes as well. A feeling of sudden warmth radiating throughout parts of the upper body is perhaps the most defining feature of hot flashes. This is often accompanied by an increase in heart rate, sweating on the forehead, and finally a brief bout of the chills.
Hot Flashes in Men | Symptoms
Hot flashes in men are typically at their worst at night and may induce symptoms such as:
- Memory loss
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Anxiety
But what causes hot flashes, a symptom of menopause, in the opposite sex? It is widely believed that a deficiency of androgen hormones (such as testosterone) increases the influence of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone to cause hot flashes. The androgen imbalance that causes hot flashes may be due to a number of things, but obesity, old age, and a sedentary lifestyle are believed to place men at a higher risk. Fortunately, it is possible to counteract this hormonal imbalance and keep men free of hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for Hot Flashes
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is one of the most popular treatment options for hot flashes in men. HRT begins by measuring hormone levels before a dosage is tailor-made to correct the imbalance. The doses used in HRT are administered using a number of delivery methods, including injections, patches, pills, gels, or creams. While traditional HRT has been shown to provide symptom relief to men with hot flashes, there are some risks.
The hormones used in HRT are synthetic. This means that, while they closely mimic the hormones naturally produced by the body, the hormones used in HRT aren't fully chemically identical. Because of this, not all of the hormones administered in HRT are accepted for use in the body. This decreases the effectiveness of HRT. Unused synthetics remain in the body and have been shown to increase the risk of heart attacks and certain cancers.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
Safer and More Effective?
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) differs from traditional HRT in that the hormones used in this treatment are chemically identical to those naturally produced by the body. Because of this, more of the bioidentical hormones administered in the treatment are used by the body and almost none remain to potentially cause bodily harm.
BHRT is delivered, perhaps most popularly, via hormone pellet therapy. With this delivery method, a pellet no larger than a grain of rice is injected into muscle tissue. This pellet is made out of pure bioidentical hormones and dissolves gradually for several weeks. This method is popular because it calls for far fewer treatments over the course of a year. BHRT and BHRT via hormone pellet therapy are shown to be one of the safer and more effective than HRT in treating hot flashes in men. Don't wait on finding symptom relief for hot flashes. Request more information about BHRT for Hot Flashes today! Call (817) 203-2760 or contact The New You Medical & Infusion Clinic online.
The New You Medical & Infusion Clinic
Address100 Grapevine Hwy
Hurst, TX 76054
(817) 203-2760
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Tue: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Wed: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Thu: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Fri: Closed
Sat: Closed
Sun: Closed
Service Locations:Tarrant County, TX, DFW, TX, Las Colinas, TX, Carrollton, TX, Dallas, TX, Irving, TX, Richardson, TX, Sunnyvale, TX, Frisco, TX, Roanoke, TX, Weatherford, TX, Arlington, TX, Bedford, TX, Colleyville, TX, Euless, TX, Fort Worth, TX, Grapevine, TX, Haltom City, TX, Keller, TX, North Richland Hills, TX, Southlake, TX, Watauga, TX
Read More+


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Post photos to show-off your barbecuing and grilling creations! Barbecuing and grilling questions should not be posted in this forum.
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hireness necesitaba un nuevo diseño de otro y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 114 diseños de 18 diseñadores freelance.
"http://www.thingrins.com" or "Thin Grins"
Check out our site, almost completely done on 99designs.
Customer sends us a photo and we take 10lbs off and send it back to them. Pretty simple.
We are trying to generate buzz, and so we are doing a small outdoor advertising campaign in about 500 shopping mall locations in the USA. If you win, tell us what city you live by, and we will tell you the closest display with your design. To get an idea about what the displays look like, take a look at our media partner here: http://www.terraboost.com
http://www.thingrins.com is our site.
Women 35+
These are the image requirements:
- Viewable size: 9" x 11.5" (with .85" corner radius)
- Trim size: 10" x 12.5" (in case you want to bleed the edge of the art to extend to the full size of the print)
- Please delete TEMPLATE LAYER before submitting final print.
These are the file requirements:
- Must be submitted as high resolution PDF (at the end of the contest of course)
- All files must be created in CMYK
- All images must be created as 300dpi
- All fonts must be converted to outlines.
Logo and other:
- I have attached 2 versions of my current logo.
- http://www.thingrins.com is my website
- "When there is not enough time to meet your goal, there is http://www.thingrins.com.
- "Be photogenic"


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EazyBusiness necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 184 diseños de 48 diseñadores freelance.
Looking for a smart logo for our new company. When users register with EazyBusiness, they and their employees have access to all the web applications they need to run their business through an online web desktop or webtop. EazyBusiness is the eazy way to manage and run your business. To view our existing website and get information about our company go to http://www.eazybusiness.com.
We are a startup company and are looking for a new logo. We have a existing website that we will consider redesigning if we can find a suitable, enticing, modern logo. The website is http://www.eazybusiness.com.
Can we try some logos without the .com extension because we also want to have other eazy products.
Can we try some logos with small e such as eazyBusiness and some variations on color like Zoho.com have.
We are considering having our own branded SaaS applications playing on the word Eazy so some variations on eazyCRM, eazyMail, eazyHR, eazyWeb, eazyERP etc.
Also maybe some with the emphasis on the Z in Eazy so users won't misspell it as Easy.
- open to suggestions
- open to suggestions
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China, U.S. cyberwar escalates
The United States and China appear locked in a cybersecurity war — of mostly words — that's beginning to escalate.
Both the White House and Capitol Hill now explicitly criticize Beijing for failing to subdue the hackers and spies thought to reside within the country's borders. And there are real punishments on the horizon, as the U.S. government eyes trade penalties and other restrictions on China and its top technology firms.
Story Continued Below
There needs to be "a little pain and pinch," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in an interview this week with POLITICO. The lawmaker, a longtime China critic on cybersecurity, was referring to both Beijing and the growing slate of other countries accused of spying or stealing from U.S. businesses.
( Also on POLITICO: Tech not waiting for gridlock to end)
The consensus in Washington is that China has become a hub for cyberhackers, who have targeted top U.S. businesses for trade secrets and other corporate or political intelligence. A controversial report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant even pegged some of the most significant attacks to an arm of the Chinese military, though the country's top representatives have denied the accusations.
The political tensions, though, are reaching an unprecedented level.
( Also on POLITICO: China rejects U.S. hacking claims)
The most recent example: a little-noticed provision in the latest government funding bill, which could make it harder for Chinese companies to sell tech products to a few federal agencies. Obama signed the continuing resolution into law this week. The White House did not comment for this story.
By some estimates, it's one of the first such cybersecurity-related provisions in a spending plan to exclusively target Chinese IT products — and it could be a sign of similar, broader efforts to come.
The measure also follows a series of aggressive statements from the Obama administration, which has focused intently over the past year at staving off hackers and shoring up the nation's digital defenses.
The White House's top security aide, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, publicly criticized China in a speech to the Asia Society earlier this month. He urged the country at the time to "take serious steps to investigate and put a stop" to the cyberattacks.
The president raised cybersecurity in his inaugural phone call with new Chinese President Xi Jinping. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose late-March visit to China marked the first such in-person contact in months, pressed his counterparts in Beijing gently over recent hacking accusations. And Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, told reporters after a Hill hearing this month that he too stands by Donilon's high-profile remarks.
China has responded in part by turning the tables against the United States — and at least once, it has lambasted U.S. hackers for foul play in cyberspace.
Beyond the rhetoric, though, there's a brewing and complex debate in Washington over what exactly to do about the attacks. As they really just begin to confront the confounding China cybersecurity problem, both the White House and Congress must walk a precarious line — stopping the hackers, preventing diplomatic fallout and preserving U.S. trade.


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Hire Indian Catering in Carmarthenshire
Browse Indian Caterers
About: High end wedding and events catering. There are some special occasions when only the best will do. From bespoke weddings to corporate events to intimate parties, we can offer a no compromise dining experience to suit your every need.
Recent review: Cannot express our thanks strongly enough. Food was amazing; service well organised. We had a Mexican theme [arty night for my 50th and had catering for up to 85 guests. Scott was brilliant and can't recommend highly enough, Cheers guys
About: Indian food
About: We have worked in the events industry for 16 years, serving those from the world of celebrity, music and sports. we love to serve at lots of really diverse events so please do ask us for a quote.
About: Al Fresco Catering is a catering company which believes in excellent service and superb food. We can offer the complete package for your weddings, special occasions and corporate events. Al Fresco is led by people who have over 30 years' experience in the catering industry. Our wealth of experien
About: Founded by Fred Balakrishna along with his wife Bec and step daughter Anna. With 3 generations of the extended family involved in the wider business, The Mango Hub. We have a multi-cultural heritage together with a passion for good food made locally from family recipes. Our ingredients are carefull
About: Authentic Sri Lankan cuisine at its best! We can offer our fully equipped modern catering trailer or sumptuous buffets with serving and waiting staff at your venue. Our hygiene rating is 5 stars and we have catered at many weddings, festivals and other events over the past 5 years. Please see our we
About: Home cooking at it's best. We do amazing all vegetarian cooking on the day in front of you. We specialise in home made samosas, onion bhaji, curries & rice and authentic snacks. This is what I grew up with and wish to share with you. Currently I am trading at Gloucester King's square - opposite Ic
About: H&A Catering provide high quality flexible bespoke catering and event planning throughout North Devon. Based in Braunton, North Devon, H&A Catering prides itself on using local suppliers wherever possible and have strong relationships with our food producers. We produce delicious authentic food w
About: A real chef. 20 years experience in the industry ranging from 2 rosette background to Michelin covering all aspects in the kitchen from pastry to pate. lots of great references from respectable customers. classicly French trained but has a vast understanding of European, Asian Indian/ Thai
Recent review: "Great service, delivered on time, good bespoke deal for a small house warming. Food was excellant real home made authentic Indian taste. Will use again"
About: We are very delighted to offer you cheapest Indian, Bangladeshi fresh home made catering food professionally. Our mouth watering freely cook starter, Biryanies, curries, naan, rice, pilou or purely and purelyrics halal dishes will give you a heavenly taste, flavour n Aromatic. Most produce is loca
About: The Spice is Right street food are purveyors of the finest chicken marinated in carefully selected spices, melt in your mouth chicken skewers with extra zing, GIANT vegetarian Samosas and curries that even our Mother's would be proud of. Food Hygiene Score 5* We serve up our delicious street food
About: Located in the heart of Birmingham, Guardian Occasions is a family run business and aims to deliver the very best in Asian cuisine throughout the UK. We have a creative and experienced team who have a track record for making every event special and unique. By working closely with you, our vision i
Recent review: The chef showed excellent professionalism throughout, the food was delicious, and all at a reasonable price. I would definitely recommend this company.
About: Sweet Cones Party Favors and Memrobilia for All Occasions e.g. Corporate Events/ Birthdays/ Baby Showers/ Weddings/ Promotional Events Party Favours for guests to take home and remember your occasion by- can be personalised with a message/logo for that extra flair.
Recent review: Huge thank you Himat, all the team loved your food and your van is amazing. I appreciated your help and professional approach to our event as it cant be easy catering for that many people. I am sure we will be contacting you again soon, meanwhile good luck with your amazing business.
Recent review: "staff arrived with all equipment and set up was quickly achieved. Food excellent! Portions plentiful and very tasty. Both the meat paella and fish paella received lots of complements from our members. Whilst the paella was cooking guests enjoyed the lovely aroma. Clearing up was quickly completed
About: We provide food for events and catering of multiple cuisines - Indian, Caribbean, African, Chinese, Thai, Halal, Vegetarian, Vegan, British, Gluten & Nut Free
About: WELCOME TO INDUS CATERING Special events can be intimate exclusives or extravagant affairs, created with understated style or developed into ultimate experiences. From traditional bridal celebrations to corporate functions, an important factor that makes any occasion unforgettable is that magical


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What advice would you give to someone getting started in the business?
What advice would you give to someone getting started in the business?
I am not sure whether or not you get this question alot, but here goes...
We all know how many oppurtunities composing professionally can do for your professional life, but does composing professionally allow you oppurtunities in your social life as well? Does it allow you to meet new and interesting people and actually make friends with them (like, hang out outside of work)?
Garam Heo, Contemporary Christian Artist
Music produced by Christopher and Craig Reeves
Working with Joss was really easy. We'd literally spot the show and he would say 'go.' The thing about Joss is that, when he hires you, he trusts what you do. He would spot and tell me when to make it scary. Every so often, he'd call in the middle of the night with an idea, but I rarely had to change music. It's wasn't about cues not working, but about him wanting to be featuresque.Originally Posted by LFO
No, it didn't create challenges. I get bored really easy and like jumping from style to style, so for me it's better working that way.
No matter what part of the scoring business you want to get in, it's all based on relationships. When you apply for a company, you could get lost. The idea is to meet the individual producers and those involved with it, so going to a GDC or E3 is the best way to go. You want to really meet these people, get to know them and get them to listen to your music. Perseverence, perseverence. If they hire you, kick ~~~ and do a good job.Originally Posted by Prowland
I have almost every library you can possibly get. I have a lot of custom stuff and I tweak a lot of the stuff you can buy. However, I do want to say the Garritan string library is the best you can buy. I use it all the time. When possible, I try to employ live stuff in with that. It's the combination of multiple elements that give me my sound.Originally Posted by Craig Reeves
Every piece of music is different, but when I write, I write it all at the same time. When I write a cue, I hear all the parts at the same time. Every cue has a different process. What hits me first may be a groove or a rhythm. There's no set method other than that I write it all at the same time.Originally Posted by Narator
Guitar and keyboards.Originally Posted by wrayer
Because of the nature of the gigs I do, I use Cakewalk/Sonar to write. I could be a paper and pencil kind of writer, but that's not the world we live in. I've been using this software for about 10 years.
I took private guitar lessons since I was 12 and went to Berklee for about 2 years. I didn't major in anything. For composition, I'm self taught. So, to answer you more directly, I have a combination of the two. You have to teach yourself to write.
There are no go to sounds, per se, because they change for the cue that I'm writing. A lot of composers may have a set up for different cues, but I don't do that. I'm very cue specific. I start from scratch every time which gives me diversity.Originally Posted by Iplayjazz
As far as my set-up, I'm PC based. I have three Giga Studios, 2 Akai S-6000, 2 E4s, a Kurzweil K2500, an E2 -- these are my main things. I also have a slew of other stuff that I can use at my disposal. For mixing, I have 3 Yamaha O2R's syched together and a Mackie 1604 submixer.
I've never read a Batman comic book in my life. That was the second of two Batman games I did. On this game, they wanted to bring elements of the film to the score. And, of course, I'd seen the movie. The first one, "Batman: Vengence," they wanted a completely new Batman. They didn't want me to watch the movie.Originally Posted by Melody
They wanted me to referrence the Danny Elfman music in the second one, but they brought in a remixer to remix my music from the first one in the game play.
Depends on the project. it depends on whether you have live player. I don't sketch. I just start writing. Watch it and write the first thing that comes into my head. It's very improvisational.Originally Posted by Justus


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Peace has come to Zimbabwe
Third World's right on the one
Now's the time for celebration
'Cause we've only just begun
22 Monday Jun 2015
Posted Famous Last Wordsin
Peace has come to Zimbabwe
Third World's right on the one
Now's the time for celebration
'Cause we've only just begun
10 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted Have we met before?in
07 Monday Apr 2014
Posted Have we met before?in
Bootboy views from the Big Smoke
Reading my way through pop culture one book at a time
A journey through the history of British Subculture Fashion
Author and Investigative Reporter
Everything With a Blue Toffee fFavour
Research and reflections by Ben Green
Author, Freelance Journalist, Sub-Editor and Lecturer
Feminist music-making in the UK and Ireland in the 1970s and 80s
international media and nostalgia network
A Site of Beautiful Resistance
On this site I share articles from my vast collection of music magazines. You can even buy them! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter to ensure you never miss an update!
Revisiting and monitoring the crimes of Britain
There is no antidote for arrogance with ignorance
Israel. Palestine. Israel-Palestine.
Writer, sub-editor, advertorial copywriter
Genres Don't Matter, Good Musik is Good Musik. Find Something New and Try It.
"I haven't heard this song in years, it never fails to start the tears"


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Que Viva el Arte De Regando
Andrew Mascarenas is a sixth generation farmer in northern New Mexico. At 7,500 feet above sea level, his family's farm location in San Luis Valley is considered the "highest desert in the world."
Due to such a classification, farming here takes hard work and diligence: Harvesting is reliant on irrigation, both traditionally, with acequias, and by hand, called regando. A farmer's livelihood depends on assessing how much water is available and in which direction it tends to flow.
Winner of both the 2009 Edward Skerbelis Entertainment (ESE) Film Festival's "Audience Favorite" and Incredible Film Awards in Espanola, NM, Que Viva el Arte De Regando! shows the dedicated, hands-on role that Mascarenas' family and other farmers in New Mexico must play to keep their crops alive and their tradition intact.
:: Community-controlled irrigation makes a comeback.


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Taiwanese in America. Ellis Island Diversity Map Exhibit, originally uploaded by !!! :: jozjozjoz :: !!!.
Other people who have searched while I was waiting: Russian, Dutch,
Finnish, Italian, African, Asian Indian
Pecked out on my iPhone. Sorry for any typos
Uploaded by !!! :: jozjozjoz :: !!! on 26 Apr 09, 8.49AM PDT.


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Please fill out the details below to Enquire
Crowne Plaza Shanghai Anting Golf is the Place for work or holiday for people travelling for success. Conveniently located in Jiading District and 15km from Hongqiao Airport , we are next to the Enhance Golf course and close to attractions like International Automobile City Shanghai , International F1 Circuit and Huaqiao CBD, Kunshan . Travel easily to other parts of the city with the nearby highways or Metro Line 11, 5 minutes from the hotel. Crowne Plaza Shanghai Anting Golf boasts 2,000sq.m of flexible event space in 11 meeting rooms, including a grand ballroom that seats up to 1200 guests. Let our Crowne Meetings Director customize our facilities to suit your event needs, whether it's a boardroom meeting, intimate champagne reception or grand wedding party. Our master chefs will craft full banquet menus, elegant tea breaks or scrumptious working lunches for your events. To rejuvenate, play a round of golf, try a few laps in our indoor swimming pool , workout in our modern Fitness Center or relax with a massage in our tranquil Spa . Treat yourself to the finest cuisines at our signature House of Fame restaurant or in our all-day dining Link's Café . Then relax with an evening cocktail at Dali's Havana Bar . Be it for vacation or work; make Crowne Plaza Shanghai Anting Golf your first choice for your next visit to Shanghai. Suburban, suburban


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libqt4-network 4.5.2-0ubuntu2 (amd64 binary) in ubuntu karmic
Qt is a cross-platform C++ application framework. Qt's primary feature
is its rich set of widgets that provide standard GUI functionality.
The QtNetwork module offers classes that allow you to write TCP/IP clients and
servers. It provides classes to make network programming easier and portable.
- Package version:
- 4.5.2-0ubuntu2
- Status:
- Superseded
- Component:
- main
- Priority:
- Optional
Downloadable files
amd64 build of qt4-x11 4.5.2-0ubuntu2 in ubuntu karmic RELEASE produced these files:
- libqt4-network_4.5.2-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb (deleted)
Package relationships
- Replaces:


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As sharing data from more and more sources takes on a larger role in the business of caring for patients becomes, the security of accessing and sharing of patient information becomes more and more critical to patient safety. The KOLOGIK patented technology solves the problems of secure data interoperability by making it possible for multiple record sources to effectively speak to one another.
AVAILABLE Features
+ Scalable n-Tier Architecture
Seamless integration with existing databases, records management systems and case management systems is a key function of KOLOGIK technology. Whether you're a operating from a single data source or large network, your system can be up and running almost immediately. Each add on will require additional hardware, a KOLOGIK integrator, and minimal customization to bring the new site into the network.
+ Flexible
KOLOGIK technology links existing infrastructure from network topologies, structured or unstructured data types and data sources, and disparate operating systems. An extensive library of external interfaces gives us the flexibility to link all systems into a unified, cohesive network.
+ Secure
KOLOGIK technology allows you to permit users' access to data based on their specific roles. Our technology incorporates risk-based advanced authentication and is FIPS 140-2 encrypted
+ Stable
Whether in business-critical environments or situations where downtime is critical KOLOGIK reliability and stability is second to none.
+ Fast
Because KOLOGIK incorporated rapid deployment, single sign-on and single point of administration, using our technology is easy and quick. KOLOGIK technology generates result returns from hundreds of data sources in seconds. Dynamic updates, clustering and load balancing help gather the data you need in real time.
Additional Features
- Automatic Payment Tracking
- Robust Search Capabilities
- EIMS Interface, GFIPM and SAML compliant
- FIPS 140-2 Encrypted
- Rapid Deployment & Advanced Installation
- Extensive Library of External Interfaces
- High-Speed Transaction Processing
- High Availability & Redundancy
- Disaster Recovery option
- Single Sign-On, Single Point of Administration
- Certification/Role-Based User Authorizations
- Dynamic Updates
- API, XML & Web Services Support
- SNMP Monitoring, Auditing & Reporting
- Supports High Availability, Clustering & Load Balancing
- Training & Certification
- Intelligent Master Query
- Centralized Administration
- Dynamic Auto-Updates
- Smart Forms & Plain-Text Field
- Descriptions on Forms
- Configurable User Interface
- Detailed Logging
Available Benefits
+ Real Time Data
Access complete criminal profiles, dynamic data analysis and distributed searches instantly from local, state and federal data sources.
+ Easier Access
Integrate with existing system to deliver quick access to real time criminal justice information and law enforcement.
+ Unprecedented Flexibility
Link disparate operating systems infrastructure, network topologies, structured or unstructured data types, and data sources.
+ Creates Efficient Workflows
Incorporate proven workflow models that help accomplish goals more effectively, in a timely manner.
+ Easy to Use Interfaces
Customize screens to adapt to business needs and individual preference.
+ Eliminates Confusion
Display data in an easy to use and recognizable format.
Additional Benefits
- Improves Data Quality
- Facilitates Faster, More Accurate and More Complete Reports
- Speeds Access to Vital Information
- Cost Effective
- Saves Money, Increases Revenue
- Retrieves Data from Multiple Sources in a Single Search
- Dramatically Reduces Errors
- Seamless Integration
- Quick to launch and implement
- Improves inter-department Efficiency
- Federated Search


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As a general rule, new cars are expensive, especially the performance models that car lovers lust after. Even if you can't afford to purchase the car you lust after when it's brand new, as long as it's not something super rare or exotic, chances are eventually you might get a chance at owning your dream car for a reasonable price.
This weekend we want to know what newer vehicle will be on your must buy list when it gets a little older and a little cheaper. Tell us what realistic price will it have to be to end up in your garage and approximately when you think that will be? What car do you hope to purchase when it depreciates in value?
I'm waiting for the 2006 Corvette Z06 to depreciate in value so I have a chance at actually owning one. Why the 2006? Well it was the very first year for the 505 horsepower LS7 equipped C6 Corvette, which means it's the closest to getting cheaper. Hopefully given another 8 or 9 years I'll be able to purchase a clean Z06 somewhere in the mid to low 20 thousand range. This may be slightly wishful thinking, but I'm willing to suspend reality a little bit to entertain the day dream of a high horsepower Z06 sitting in the garage.
What car do you hope to purchase when it depreciates in value?
Photo Credit: Hertj94


text: We use reviews and online testimonials when downloading an app or shopping on eBay. So, why not when choosing a new dentist? from www.shutterstock.com October 2, 2017 Googling for a new dentist or therapist? Here's how to look past the glowing testimonials Alexander Holden, University of Sydney Many of the online testimonials you might read for dentists and other health professional can not only mislead, they can be illegal.


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Employers in the U.S. added fewer workers than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined as people left the labor force, underscoring concern the world's largest economy may be losing speed.
Payrolls climbed 115,000, the smallest gain in six months, after a revised 154,000 rise in March that was more than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 160,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to a three-year low of 8.1 percent and earnings stagnated.
A slowdown in hiring as corporate optimism cools may restrain the wage growth needed to fuel consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve policy makers view unemployment as "elevated" and plan to hold borrowing costs low through late 2014.
"The labor market isn't improving all that much," Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report.
"Layoffs have slowed but hiring hasn't really picked up. The next couple of months are going to be challenging. The Fed's caution is well-placed."
Transportation and warehousing, government agencies and construction all cut jobs in April. Bloomberg survey estimates ranged from increases of 89,000 to 210,000 after a previously reported 120,000 rise in March. Revisions added a total of 53,000 jobs to payrolls in February and March.
The jobs data come six months before Americans head to the polls to either re-elect President Barack Obama or choose Republican Mitt Romney, who has said White House policies have done little to help U.S. workers.
The unemployment rate was forecast to hold at 8.2 percent, according to the survey median. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 8.1 percent to 8.3 percent. Unemployment has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest such stretch since monthly records began in 1948.
The participation rate, which indicates the share of working-age people in the labor force, fell to 63.6 percent, the lowest since December 1981, from 63.8 percent.
Private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, rose 130,000 after a revised gain of 166,000. They were projected to rise by 165,000, the survey showed.
Factory payrolls increased by 16,000, the smallest in five months and less than the survey forecast of a 20,000 increase.
Employment at service-providers increased 101,000 in April, the smallest gain since August. Construction companies cut 2,000 jobs and retailers added 29,300 employees.
Government payrolls decreased by 15,000. State and local governments employment dropped by 11,000.
Evan Christou, owner of Tops American Grill, Bakery & Bar in Schenectady, New York, said at this time he has no plans to add to his staff of 42 employees. His sales were up about 6 percent earlier this year before dropping off when gas prices went up. He said he would need to see a significant increase in sales for a sustained period before hiring more workers.
"We're kind of consolidating and multi-tasking," said Christou, 49. "In this market, it's pretty much a wait-and-see attitude."
Average hourly earnings were essentially unchanged, the weakest since August, at $23.38, today's report showed. Compared with April of last year, earnings climbed 1.8 percent, matching January as the smallest in a year.
The average work week for all workers held at 34.5.
The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who'd prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- held at 14.5 percent.
The report also showed a drop in long-term unemployed Americans. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more decreased as a percentage of all jobless, to 41.3 percent.
The number of temporary workers increased 21,100. Payroll at temporary-help agencies often slow as companies seeing a steady increase in demand take on permanent staff.
Faster economic growth would help lay the groundwork for more hiring. The economy expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter after a 3 percent pace the prior three months, the Commerce Department reported last week. Consumer spending grew 2.9 percent, the most in more than a year.
Chrysler Group LLC, the automaker controlled by Fiat SpA, said it will accelerate the addition of 1,100 jobs and a third crew of workers by hiring them in November, pulling ahead plans for increasing production in early 2013. Earlier this week, it also said four plants will skip normally scheduled two-week midyear shutdowns to meet increased demand.
Chrysler led the five largest automakers by U.S. sales in exceeding analysts' estimates for April, reporting a 20 percent jump. Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. this week said they will add shifts at factories this year. General Motors Co., the top-selling automaker in the U.S., raised its forecast for full-year U.S. light-vehicle sales.
"Over time, we believe that strength in the manufacturing sector and strong retail sales will continue to lead to more job creation," Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales at GM, said on a May 1 conference call with analysts. "That's going to help more consumers put the recession behind them, gaining even more confidence and drive vehicle sales higher."
The improvement in the U.S. contrasts with some of the other major economies.
Joblessness in the 17-nation euro area increased to 10.9 percent in March, the highest since April 1997, from 10.8 percent a month earlier, data showed this week.
UPS Positive
United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package- delivery company, is among firms taking note.
"During the quarter, the most positive news has come from the U.S. where indications of economic rebound are evident," Scott Davis, chief executive officer of UPS, said on an April 26 conference call. "Retail sales have grown faster than expected and the employment environment has improved. On the other hand, economies in other parts of the world continue to face challenges."
At the same time, cost-cutting is prompting reductions at some companies. H&R Block Inc., the biggest U.S. tax preparer, plans to reduce 350 jobs and close about 200 company-owned offices. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines this month said it will eliminate 1,200 airport agent, baggage and cargo jobs as part of a bankruptcy restructuring plan to trim annual labor spending.
"Labor market conditions have improved in recent months; the unemployment rate has declined but remains elevated," Fed policy makers said in an April 25 statement. The group "expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up gradually," and "anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline gradually."
The central bankers last month repeated their plan to hold borrowing costs low through late 2014 to spur growth.
Fed officials also cut forecasts for the jobless rate, to an average 7.8 percent to 8 percent in the fourth quarter from a January projection of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent, according to central tendency estimates released April 25.


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Jacob Savage was born in Chicago and moved to Palo Alto when he was six months old after his father got a faculty position at Stanford University. As a young boy, Jacob's two passions were airplanes and food and by 16 years old, he held the youth world record for gain of altitude in a 1-26 type glider and got his first job as chef at an Indian catering business.
Jacob's atypical high school life consisted of flying airplanes out of Palo Alto airport, cooking Indian food, and riding along with the local police officers as an Explorer/Cadet.
After graduating high school, Jacob began his college years at University of California at Santa Cruz. Some of his freshman classmates were starting a ska band and asked Jacob to play trumpet in the band. Though Jacob had not picked up his trumpet since middle school, he decided to give it a shot. A long story made short, the ska band catapulted him into the music business he started a music production company (bandwagonbros.com).
Then came Draper University and Jacob has pivoted out of the music business into the entrepreneurial world of mental health innovation. Jacob is now the director and co-founder of Concrn, a software company building tools for communities/public safety agencies to more compassionately respond to mental health crises.
He plans to set up a flight simulator at Noisebridge to help spread his passion for aviation. The first step towards setting up the flight simulator is build a high performing computer that can run Microsoft 8. Anyone interested in helping Jacob build this computer should email or call him immediately!
More info at concrn.com Email: email@example.com 650-248-1396
Membership Endorsements[edit]
- I'm Qbit (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2014 (UTC), and I support Egavas629 as a full member of Noisebridge. He's a swell guy.
- I'm Egavas629 , and I support Egavas629 (as a full member of Noisebridge. He's the best guy in the world.
- I'm Neurotech1, and I support Egavas629 (as a full member of Noisebridge. He's a top pilot, a future astronaut.. :)
- I am Sid , and I herby endorse Egavas629 his mind is in the right place.


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One of the world's biggest cities is bursting at the seams with energy, culture, great food and enough surreality to keep it endlessly fascinating
Author Joe Keohane Photography Holly Wilmeth
Mexico City has no shortage of great museums, but none has inspired more buzz than Museo Soumaya, a shining, top-heavy $70 million structure in Polanco showcasing the personal collection of one Carlos Slim Helú: the world's richest man. Named in honor of Slim's late wife, who kindled his love of art, and designed by his son-in-law, the museum contains some 66,000 items, including Picassos, da Vincis, Renoirs and Rodins (most notably a version of The Kiss). Slim — whose net worth clocks in at more than $74 billion — claims he erected this temple not to show off that he has the means to amass such a collection, but for a purer reason. "All desirable things," he has said, "must be accessible."
Lowbrow, melodramatic and often hilarious, lucha libre is second only to soccer in the hearts of Mexican sports fans. Of course, it's less sport than it is frenetic, muscular soap opera. Rudos (bad guys) and técnicos (good guys), clad in colorful masks and attended by beautiful women, clash in a series of elaborately scripted battles, while a rowdy all-ages crowd representing all points along the socioeconomic spectrum bellows its support. The fans at ringside tend to go for the técnicos, while those up in the cheap seats throw their support behind the rudos, particularly when the latter gang up on their goody-goody opponents, as they're prone to do. Matches can be caught on Fridays and Tuesdays at the Arena Mexico or on Sundays at the Arena Coliseo, and tickets (and masks) are available online.
Grant Cogswell
"Be sure to try pulque, the Aztecs' smoothie-like sacred beverage, at La Hija de los Apaches in the Doctores neighborhood, where retired lightweight boxer Epiphanio 'Pifas' Leyva warmly caters to students, punks, workers and grandmothers like an extended family."
David Lida
"Have lunch at a cantina in El Centro for a true D.F. experience. At most cantinas, traditional food comes free with your drinks. At La Mascota, children and grandparents are welcome."
Rose Mary Salum
"One of the buildings downtown that surprises me is the Secretaría de Educación Pública. It was built during the 16th century, but between 1923 and 1928 it was decorated, mainly by Diego Rivera, with some of the most magnificent murals you can find in Mexico City."
View Three Perfect Days: Mexico City in a larger map
I noticed that the last three "Three Perfect Days" articles are not available in pdf format (the last one was Stockholm). I do have the Hemispheres iPad app, but I don't usually walk around foreign cities with my iPad in my hand. It's nice for reading, but not for sightseeing. Nor do I have international data roaming plans that permit me to pull up the web based versions while traveling overseas.
Could I convince you to continue the practice of posting the pdf versions in addition to tall the other dissemination?
I really love the articles and have followed the recommendations of many of your Three Perfect Days articles — with a printed copy in my hands!
Eric Mazur
Professor of Physics
Harvard University


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Clarion's new car stereos are definitely aimed at Eighties aerobics teachers with permed highlight — the type that wore Reebok Jazz trainers and carried their gear in a Head sports bag. With an FM/AM tuner and CD player, the DUB275MP connects to your music player via the USB port, and will also let you connect a Bluetooth dongle. Apart from selecting any of the other 727 shades of LED, should you not fancy the peach, non-aerobics fans can revel in the fact that it comes in a more manly color:
Yep, black. Huzzah! Expect to pay 34,600 ($295) when it launches in Japan at the end of this month. [Clarion and Akihabara News]


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Monsters University
Disney/Buena Vista, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99/$45.99/$49.99
Available on VOD beginning Tuesday
"Monsters, Inc." always has been one of the most underrated of Pixar's animated features, not getting enough credit for its zippy pace, cute beasties, clever visual gags and unexpectedly heartwarming ending. The prequel "Monsters University" made a ton of money this past summer, but the relatively mild response from critics suggests that it's on its way to being underrated too. The story of how the hulking James P. Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and the diminutive, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) met in college and became unlikely friends doesn't have the strong theme of the first film, but it's every bit as loaded with great jokes and state-of-the-art computer animation. The DVD and Blu-ray are also delightful, with genuinely informative featurettes, deleted scenes, commentary track and clever parodies of nonmonster college advertising.
Family Tree: The Complete First Season
It's been nearly a decade since comedian-director Christopher Guest made a movie as funny and rich as his and co-creator Jim Piddock's eight-episode HBO sitcom "Family Tree," which stars Chris O'Dowd as a rootless young man who looks into his lineage, traveling across the United Kingdom and to Los Angeles in search of distant relatives to help him understand who he is. The quest for identity lends the show a neat episodic structure and also makes Guest's usual assortment of eccentrics (played by the likes of Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., Fred Willard and the hilarious puppeteer Nina Conti) seem more sweet than mocking. The DVD includes extra scenes to tide fans over while they wait to see if there'll be a second season.
La Notte
Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95
In the early '60s, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni defined sophisticated ennui with movies such as 1961's "La Notte," starring Marcello Mastroianni as a famous author who glad-hands his way through a swank party while his wife (Jeanne Moreau) sinks further into depression over their loveless marriage. Voyeuristic and modern, "La Notte" has the quality of a literary novel, defining its characters' interior states, but with artfully composed images and camera moves instead of prose. It's one of the films that helped move Italian art-cinema beyond neorealism into equally sober but more cinematic films, dealing with the problems of the upper classes. Criterion's DVD and Blu-ray add interviews with historians.
Lorber, $29.95
Trying to explain the plot of Miguel Gomes' weird, winding "Tabu" would be a fool's errand. Shot in dreamy black and white and split into two parts (plus prologue), "Tabu" is ostensibly about a headstrong elderly woman named Aurora (Laura Soveral) who, near the end of her life, asks to be visited by an old acquaintance who proceeds to tell her friends the story of Aurora's younger years in Africa. "Tabu" is partly a film about Portugal, colonialism, romance and regret, but it's mostly about Gomes following a story wherever it leads, unconcerned about the ultimate destination.
And …
MPI, $24.98; Blu-ray, $29.98
Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98/$49.98
Springsteen and I
Eagle Rock, $14.98; Blu-ray, $19.98


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Nangong Xu chuckled at Zhou Hes answer, Looks like Mr. Yan takes life too seriously. Either that or you love hunting too much. Come now, dont you do anything other than hunting?
Zhou He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, I need to hunt in order to provide for the family, so there just isnt much time to do other things. Master Ruan is still young. I assume you have not yet been married and started your own family? Youll soon realize that the more people you are responsible for, the heavier the weight on your shoulders, and youll spend less time and make fewer decisions for yourself.
Nangong Xu smiled awkwardly. If he wanted to be lectured, he would have gone to his uncle instead. Er, well if Mr. Yan enjoys hunting, then I will make sure you join us the next time we go for a hunt. It's getting late. I suppose I should be heading off, too. Perhaps tommorrow, if Mr. Yan feels better, we can wheel you out to the garden for some fresh air. I've grown some pretty rare breeds of flowers here. Perhaps you'll enjoy them."
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Over the next few days, Zhou Hes health gradually returned to him. He began to feel more energetic and the pain and aches in his body slowly disappeared. However, due to the fact that he had to lie in bed for such an extended period of time to recuperate his injuries, his body became severely deconditioned and he required to more and exercises to regain his strength. When he was first able to leave the bed, he could barely move between the bed and the chair, even with assistance from the maids. During the first few days, he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair, but eventually, he was able to walk in short distances with assistance.
Nangong Xu was not joking when he claimed to have a beautiful garden with rare breeds of flowers. Indeed there were plants of shapes and sizes that Zhou He would never have even imagined. He came by everyday to show Zhou He around the garden, giving a detailed explanation for each plant: its history, its ideal environment for growth, its various shapes and sizes, its references in literature, its medicinal uses, etc. In fact, he took so long to describe each plant that it took a week for him to go through the entire garden with Zhou He. Ruan Qianyu also joined them often, though she was noticeably cold towards Nangong Xu during the first few days that Zhou He wondered if the two had gotten into a fight. Though, the fight must have melted away quickly because by the end of the week, they appeared to be back in their usual moods, bickering and joking along.
Despite Nangong Xus seemingly vast botanical knowledge, Zhou He was sure that he was no gardener by trade. He had never seen Nangong Xu actually taking care of the plants. It was the maids who spent time distributing fertilizers and watering the plants. In fact, he had never seen Nangong Xu in the garden outside of the visits to him.
Zhou He also took notice to his surroundings: large buildings with wide courtyards, along with a vast garden, and surrounded by high walls on all four sides. The architecture was intricately designed and decorated. Surely, this would be a fine manor for even the wealthiest men. Strangely, it appears that no one else lived here besides him and perhaps a few maids. Neither Nangong Xu nor Ruan Qianyu lived here, and only came by to visit for a few hours a day. If this place was designated only for guests, then their family must be extremely wealthy. However, if they were indeed that wealthy, then surely their family would have more guests. However, the only people Zhou He came into contact with were Nangong Xu, Ruan Qianyu, and the maids who took care of them or worked on the garden. Never before had Zhou He felt so isolated from the world. He could only think of one type of place that could boast such wealth, yet also retain such seclusion...


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Ham and Cheese Roll Ups
PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Unroll pizza crust dough onto lightly floured surface; press to form 12x8-inch rectangle.
ARRANGE ham slices evenly over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges; sprinkle evenly with cheese. Starting at one of the short ends, roll up dough to form log. Pinch seam together to seal. Place, seam side down, on greased baking sheet.
BAKE 25 to 30 minutes or until deep golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into 8 slices. Serve with yellow mustard or KRAFT Horseradish Sauce, if desired.


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The Istanbul BB-SR23 Black Bell Ride Cymbal 23" is crafted from hand hammered B20 bronze with a medium gauge and shiny finish. The Black Bell range of cymbals produce bright and sonic tones with an unlathed bell that retains a metallic darkness. On the other hand the lathed and hand hammered playing surface delivers brassy, "ballsy" and bright sonic colours. The shiny versions of these cymbals are more resonant and richer in overtones than the traditional models.
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Ben Bernanke helped lead nation out of crisis
It's official: One of the most influential Fed chairmen ever will step down on Jan. 31.
It's finally official: Ben Bernanke, one of the most influential Fed chairmen in history, will step down on Jan. 31 when his second term ends.
President Obama's nomination of Janet Yellen Wednesday to be the next Fed chair ends months of speculation about who will lead the Fed next year. It will likely set off a cascade of tributes, as well as some criticism, of Bernanke, a shy and self-effacing former Princeton professor. He boldly led the U.S. economy through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and spearheaded communication policies that have made the Fed more transparent to financial markets.
"When faced with potential global economic meltdown, he has displayed tremendous courage and creativity," said Obama, flanked by Bernanke and Yellen, at a news conference. "He took bold action that was needed to avert another Depression."
Bernanke also has been assailed for failing to spot the housing bubble and for easy-money policies that could be sowing the seeds for eventual high inflation.
Bernanke, 59, grew up in tiny Dillon, S.C., the son of a pharmacist and a school teacher. He eventually became perhaps the foremost scholar on the Great Depression, immersing himself in the subject as an economics doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His study proved valuable when the housing crash and financial crisis froze credit markets in late 2008 and threatened to send the economy into a depression. The Fed acted swiftly, rolling out an armada of innovative products aimed at providing cash for banks to lend to consumers and businesses. With short-term interest rates near zero, the Fed also launched unprecedented purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to push down long-term interest rates for home buyers and others.
"It felt like the institution turned on a dime," says Barclays Capital economist Michael Gapen, who headed a Fed monetary affairs unit at the time. The philosophy: "Let's try it and see if it works, and if it doesn't, we'll try something else."
Bernanke has been uniquely suited to the task. "Given his experience and research, he was able to quickly figure out the channels through which (Fed liquidity programs) would spill into the real economy," says New York University economics professor Michael Gertler, who has collaborated with Bernanke on economic papers. "This was like brain surgery, and you needed an expert to do it."
Bernanke is criticized for not raising interest rates quickly enough or cracking down on questionable mortgages to head off the crisis as the housing bubble formed.
"I'm sure he wishes he had a sense ahead of time what was going on with subprime mortgages" and a shadow banking system that was bundling the mortgages into securities, Gertler says. He adds, however, that the vast majority of economists similarly failed to foresee the meltdown.
More recently, Bernanke has been castigated by some economists for continuing Fed purchases of Treasury and mortgage bonds the past year. With interest rates already near zero, they worry about high inflation if the Fed can't move deftly enough to shrink its portfolio as the economy heats up.
"He may have overdone it," says Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics.
Bernanke also has brought more transparency to a Fed policymaking committee that previously was the mirror image of the often inscrutable former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. Fed policymakers have vowed not to raise its benchmark short-term interest rate at least until unemployment — now 7.3% — falls to 6.5%, assuming inflation is stable. Bernanke began holding quarterly press conferences in 2011.
"I think he has made (the Fed's policymaking committee) more accountable to the public," says Richard Moody, chief economist for Regions Financial.
The detailed communication, though, has sometimes befuddled investors. Many investors, for example, expect the Fed to hike short-term rates when the jobless rate hits 6.5% — but that may not happen if unemployment is falling because Americans are giving up their job searches. "People are finding it very confusing," says Tim Duy, a University of Oregon economics professor and author of the Fed Watch blog.
Before last month's Fed meeting, financial markets interpreted the remarks of Fed officials as signals that the central bank would pare back its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases. They were stunned when the Fed maintained the bond-buying. A big reason it did is that Bernanke's earlier remarks that the stimulus soon would be tapered pushed up interest rates, damping the housing recovery.
At a news conference, Bernanke rejected the suggestion that the Fed should be less forthcoming. "I think there's no alternative in making monetary policy but to communicate as clearly as possible, and that's what we try to do," he said.
Gertler says Bernanke would prefer to leave office with the economy firing on all cylinders and the stimulus wound down. But noting that Bernanke has endured unparalleled stress among postwar domestic policymakers, Gertler said: "In his mind, he did everything he could."


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HerbalGram 84 includes articles on Balancing Nature and Wellness-Malaysian Traditions of "Ramuan"; "Silver Bullet" Drugs vs. Traditional Herbal Remedies: Perspectives on Malaria; Blood of the Dragon: The Sustainable Harvest and Replanting of the Croton lechleri Tree; astragalus, American ginseng, ginger, turmeric; and more.
American Botanical Council, 6200 Manor Rd, Austin, TX 78723 Phone: 512-926-4900 | Fax: 512-926-2345 | Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
The information on this site is intended for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for the advice of a qualified healthcare professional. The American Botanical Council does not endorse or test products, nor does it verify the content or claims made, either implicit or explicit. ABC does not accept responsibility for the consequences of the use of this information or its most up-to-date accuracy. ABC is an independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt research and education organization under IRS section 501(c)(3). All text, images and content Copyright © 2016 American Botanical Council, unless otherwise noted.


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I've been doing a little testing of the Ubuntu Touch preview on my Nexus 10 tablet. It's very pretty, but I'm curious what support is planned for "legacy" Linux/X11 apps that aren't based on Qt/QML?
Will traditional desktop applications like LibreOffice and Gimp be runnable on the tablet view? Or will they run in a dedicated X11 desktop app? Or only when docked? Or will they be supported at all?


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Originally published January 27, 2013 at 8:00 PM | Page modified January 28, 2013 at 3:32 PM
As India gains strength, so does its coffee
Coffee has long been the stuff of compelling legends in India. But the drink itself hasn't been anything special. Now the country's farmers are on a journey toward better flavor and higher profits.
Seattle Times business reporter
Coffee in India, part two
Part 1: Starbucks is brewing a following in India, where tea is supreme. Read story →
More from this series:
The coffee beans in Jacob Mammen's hand look like they've been processed.
To some extent, the naked gray-green half-spheres have been — by a monkey, who ate the coffee fruit and spit out the seeds, which we call coffee beans.
Mammen fought the monkeys for years. Even now, he has workers walk around a forested coffee plantation firing noise-making "monkey guns" to scare them off.
"It doesn't work," he said. "The monkeys are smart. They know."
So Mammen found a solution: He turned the beans into a boutique item, "monkey parchment" coffee, which he sells to roasters in Taiwan and Germany for about double their unchewed value.
His marketing savvy would not have been possible two decades ago, when the Indian government handled all coffee sales and sent a lot of low-quality coffee to the Soviet Union.
The way Mammen and other coffee farmers operate in India is in many ways emblematic of India's development into a global economic power.
Since the Indian government changed its policies and allowed farmers to take control of their own sales in the mid-'90s, India's coffee industry has seen a boost in quality and profits, and has taken a seat in gourmet coffee circles.
Even Starbucks has noticed. After years of buying very little Indian coffee, the chain is using it exclusively in espresso drinks at its recently opened shops in India.
Eventually, the granddaddy of specialty coffee expects to use Indian espresso in other countries, said John Culver, president of Starbucks' Asia-Pacific region. It operates the new stores with Mumbai-based Tata, a conglomerate that is one of Asia's largest coffee producers.
A late start
The story of Indian coffee is compelling in ways that farmers in more marketing-prone countries might seize on for a label.
In India, they are part of a centuries-old way of life.
Aside from its romantic-sounding pests — monkeys, king cobras and elephants — Indian coffee is grown not just in the shade, but in forests that from the ground resemble the slopes of Washington's Cascade Mountains.
Its workers live in free multiroom homes and have government-mandated free child-care and pensions. Some make dinner using electric spice grinders and have satellite television.
"Bird-friendly and ethical coffee, I think we had before you even spoke about it, but we never marketed it," Mammen said. "Even now, we're very poor in marketing."
Coming from a man who sells "monkey parchment," that could be hyperbole.
But it is true that Indian coffee is not as celebrated as some coffees from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa. It is rarely used by U.S. specialty roasters, partly because it is so far away and partly because it is so little known.
Indian coffee also had a late start.
In the 1940s, India began pooling its coffee and paying farmers mostly for quantity, not quality. That continued until the '90s and meant India missed the start of the specialty coffee craze in the 1970s, when roasters from Seattle and elsewhere began searching the world for gourmet coffee.
Mammen recalls being frightened during his first visit to the annual convention of the Specialty Coffee Association of America in 1996.
He could handle questions like, "You grow tea. Are you sure you grow coffee?"
Of course he grows coffee. His great-grandfather bought coffee plantations from British owners.
But "What does your coffee taste like?"
"It tastes like coffee," thought Mammen, who drank Nescafe instant coffee at home. "Indian coffee used to taste like dishwater."
Today, although they have yet to crack the U.S. market, Mammen and others have spent time and money to improve their coffee and sell it to high-end roasters in Asia and Europe, including Illy in Italy.
Legend of Baba Budan
Despite its youth in specialty coffee, India was one of the first countries in the world to grow it.
The crop was first cultivated in Ethiopia, and by the 1600s was hugely popular throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Turks boiled or roasted coffee beans before they left the Yemeni port of Mocha to keep them from being grown elsewhere, according to coffee historian and author Mark Pendergrast.
That is why, according to legend, a 17th-century Muslim pilgrim named Baba Budan taped seven coffee beans to his stomach and smuggled them to India.
The hills where he planted those beans are now known as the Bababudan Giris. A Hindu temple sits atop the highest peak, and coffee forests are visible in all directions.
To the west is the town of Chikmagalur, where growers still congregate at a members-only club. The walls are hung with animal heads and skins, and photographs of British coffee barons with tigers they shot at their feet.
When the British arrived in the 1600s, looking at first to break a Dutch monopoly on the spice trade, tea and coffee were "backyard crops" in India. Over the centuries, the British installed plantations. Tea, which is a much larger crop, is grown mostly in the north, while coffee is grown mostly in the south.
East of the mountaintop temple sits Mammen's 375-acre Arabica plantation, where workers shoot "monkey guns" and sometimes see tigers that live on a nearby preserve.
Path to better flavor
For many Indian coffee farmers, the path to better flavor and higher profits started with a woman named Sunalini Menon.
Formerly head of quality at the Coffee Board of India, Menon took early retirement when the government agency downsized in the 1990s. Although the Coffee Board did not focus on quality, Menon had created a small program in which some farmers were paid more for better-tasting coffee.
Now her nine-person Coffeelab in Bangalore inspects coffee quality for cafe chains and advises farmers about how to improve the flavor of their coffee.
Two-thirds of India's coffee is Robusta, the long-maligned sibling to gourmet coffee's preferred Arabica.
Although Robusta's reputation has improved, it still is not used by many high-end roasters, including Starbucks. It also remains unwelcome in the prestigious Cup of Excellence competition, which has brought high prices and fame to some coffee-producing farms and regions.
"That's so sad," Menon, a judge for the Cup of Excellence, says of Robusta's reputation for harsh flavor.
Robusta can be spicy and buttery if it is processed correctly, she said.
She has pushed India's farmers to wet-process their Robusta coffee as they do Arabica, even though Robusta beans can take twice as long to ferment.
"We don't just strip Robusta off the tree and say, 'Hey, Robusta's not a bad coffee.' It's a lot of work," said Mammen, standing in his new $200,000 Robusta processing facility. Roughly 65 percent of the coffee he grows is Robusta.
Robusta is harder to process and fetches lower prices than Arabica, but it remains appealing to farmers because the trees tend to be stronger and produce more coffee.
Indian coffee farmers also grow other crops, in part to protect themselves from low yields and cyclical coffee prices.
"We can't survive on coffee alone," Mammen said.
Ethical coffee
Tea is sometimes grown alongside coffee, even in the south.
One year, when both coffee and tea prices were down, peppercorns rescued Mammen.
India's coffee farmers also grow cocoa, cardamom, coconuts, areca nuts and timber.
The silver oak that they often plant for shade is not indigenous to India. Farmers like it because it grows fast and straight and stands high above coffee trees, which rarely reach higher than 7 feet.
Trading those for indigenous trees is one area in which Indian coffee farmers could improve sustainability, said Joke Aerts, manager of South Asia for the Rainforest Alliance's sustainable landscapes program.
They also could stop rinsing fertilizer bags and spraying equipment in streams, Aerts said. "There's always room for improvement."
But compared with some coffee-growing countries, she said, India already has many of the basics covered.
India's coffee always has been grown under heavy shade.
The government mandates a minimum wage for workers, which this year is about $4 a day. (India's average income is $1,490 a year.) Coffee and tea laborers also receive free housing, maternity leave, child care, pensions and other benefits.
Mammen's cousin, Rohan Kuriyan, remembers being proud as a child when his father built a new four-classroom schoolhouse on their Balanoor Plantations, which includes 1,650 acres of coffee and tea near Mammen's Badra Estates.
The extended family still shares ownership of the coffee, tea, rubber, teak and newspaper businesses, but they are managed separately.
Scrambling for workers
Despite the benefits they offer, India's coffee estates are suffering from a labor shortage.
There are so few permanent workers at Balanoor that only two of the school's classrooms are used.
Many laborers, especially young ones, prefer jobs in growing cities such as Bangalore, more than five hours away. Farmers consider the resulting labor shortage one of their two biggest problems, the other being climate change (see sidebar).
More than a third of Balanoor's 464 housing units sit empty. Twenty years ago they were full, and Balanoor's permanent work force was almost double its current 468 employees.
Kuriyan and his father are scrambling to attract more and younger workers by building new housing with indoor bathrooms and plumbing.
Besides field workers, Balanoor needs employees for what amounts to a small village with day-care centers, medical facilities and nine Hindu temples.
The temples are a telling detail amid India's emergence as a modern nation, a sign that the country still retains its rich cultural heritage.
One evening in December, dozens of Balanoor's workers gathered outside one of its temples for a puja worship ceremony.
An 11-year-old boy relentlessly sounded a small gong while two priests honored a goddess before serving fruit and shaved coconut to worshippers.
On such auspicious evenings, the Hindu priests wear saffron shawls. But by day, they work in India's burgeoning tea and coffee industry.
Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or email@example.com. Twitter @AllisonSeattle.