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Reese Witherspoon, husband James Toth arrested
ATLANTA Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a state trooper said she wouldn't stay in the car while her husband was given a field sobriety test in Atlanta.
Witherspoon was released from jail after the Friday morning arrest and was in New York Sunday night for the premiere of her new film "Mud." She posed for cameras on the red carpet but did not stop to talk to reporters.
The trooper noticed the car driven by her husband wasn't staying in its lane early Friday morning, so a traffic stop was initiated. Her husband, James Toth, had droopy eyelids, watery, bloodshot eyes, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, according to the report.
Toth told the trooper he'd had a drink, which Witherspoon said was consumed at a restaurant two hours before the traffic stop, the trooper writes.
Before the field sobriety test began, the 37-year-old Witherspoon got out of the car, was told to get back in and obeyed, the report said. After the "Walk the Line" star got out a second time, the trooper said he warned her that she would be arrested if she left the car again.
As the test continued, "Mrs. Witherspoon began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe that I was a real police officer. I told Mrs. Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet," Trooper First Class J. Pyland writes.
Toth, 42, was then placed under arrest. He was charged with driving under the influence and failure to maintain the lane.
At that point, the report says, Witherspoon got out and asked the trooper what was going on. After being told to return to the car, she "stated that she was a `US Citizen' and that she was allowed to `stand on American ground,"' the report states.
The trooper then began to arrest Witherspoon. The report says Witherspoon was resistant at first but was calmed down by her husband.
"Do you know my name?" Witherspoon is quoted as asking the trooper. She also said: "You're about to find out who I am" and "You're about to be on national news," according to the report.
- Comedian Kevin Hart arrested on suspicion of DUI
- Bobby Brown turns himself in for DUI
- Matthew Fox arrested for DUI
- Amanda Bynes arrested for DUI
Toth and Witherspoon were then taken to jail.
A message left at the office of Witherspoon's publicist, Meredith O'Sullivan Wasson, wasn't immediately returned Sunday.
News of the arrest broke shortly before Witherspoon arrived on the "Mud" red carpet.
"I can't say anything because I don't know," said director Jeff Nichols. "I literally the first guy on the press line to say something was the first time I heard about it so I gotta go figure it out."
Matthew McConaughey, who plays the lead role in "Mud" and is represented by Toth, said "I'm not going to comment on that because it's too fresh."


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Ta-Nehisi Coates and his 'case for reparations'
The US was founded, grew and prospered on the back of the black race, writes Ta-Nehisi Coates. And the US will not fully be healed from the legacy of slavery until it confronts this truth and makes amends.
In a much-talked-about 15,000-word cover story for the Atlantic magazine, Coates lays out the case for government reparations to black Americans - for the harms of slavery and for the exploitation of blacks that has continued to the modern day.
In short, slavery, he writes, allowed the US to become a powerful, prosperous nation.
"The vending of the black body and the sundering of the black family became an economy unto themselves, estimated to have brought in tens of millions of dollars to antebellum America," he writes.
Slavery created an "indispensable working class", he says, that left "white Americans free to trumpet their love of freedom and democratic values".
After emancipation following the US Civil War, the harm continued on in Jim Crow laws in the South that denied blacks their vote, their property and even their lives.
When blacks moved to Northern cities as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the 20th Century, they faced a different kind of exploitation, he writes - discriminatory housing lenders and government policies designed to keep blacks confined to certain neighbourhoods with fewer services, substandard schools and less opportunity.
"Businesses discriminated against them, awarding them the worst jobs and the worst wages," he writes. "Police brutalised them in the streets. And the notion that black lives, black bodies, and black wealth were rightful targets remained deeply rooted in the broader society."
Even on a national level, policies discriminated against blacks. The Federal Housing Authority refused to offer preferred loans to unstable - ie black - neighbourhoods. Even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, including Social Security, was crafted to minimise benefits to blacks, he writes.
Although the overt discrimination has slowly been wiped away, by legislation or judicial action, the US is "still haunted," he says.
"It is as though we have run up a credit-card bill and, having pledged to charge no more, remain befuddled that the balance does not disappear," he writes. "The effects of that balance, interest accruing daily, are all around us."
To Americans who fail to own up to the history of white superiority, taking credit for their nation's achievements but ignoring its failings, Coates says:
The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much longer. To proudly claim the veteran and disown the slaveholder is patriotism a la carte.
Dismissing the legacy of slavery as something in the past or a stain upon American ancestors and not relevant to those alive today is a cop-out, he says: "A nation outlives its generations."
The problem is that the consequences of slavery and the discrimination that continued after the end of civil war has created an intractable wealth gap between whites and blacks.
"The lives of black Americans are better than they were half a century ago," he writes. "The humiliation of Whites Only signs are gone. Rates of black poverty have decreased. Black teen-pregnancy rates are at record lows - and the gap between black and white teen-pregnancy rates has shrunk significantly. But such progress rests on a shaky foundation, and fault lines are everywhere."
Blacks in America are "working without a safety net", he argues. "Financial calamity strikes - a medical emergency, divorce, job loss - the fall is precipitous."
Coates lists some of the ways the US has attempted to address the problem and concludes they are not enough.
Black culture, he says, is not to blame. The idea that if blacks could behave more "respectably" is a sham.
"The kind of trenchant racism to which black people have persistently been subjected can never be defeated by making its victims more respectable," Coates writes. "The essence of American racism is disrespect. "
And placing the blame on broken homes and the absence of black fathers? The destruction of the black family has been a prime means of white control for hundreds of years.
"From the White House on down, the myth holds that fatherhood is the great antidote to all that ails black people," he writes. "Adhering to middle-class norms has never shielded black people from plunder."
Liberal proponents of programmes of racial preferences like affirmative action are equally misguided.
"America was built on the preferential treatment of white people - 395 years of it," he writes. "Vaguely endorsing a cuddly, feel-good diversity does very little to redress this."
Couching preferences as a means of addressing overarching issues of class differences and wealth inequality is fruitless:
To ignore the fact that one of the oldest republics in the world was erected on a foundation of white supremacy, to pretend that the problems of a dual society are the same as the problems of unregulated capitalism, is to cover the sin of national plunder with the sin of national lying. The lie ignores the fact that reducing American poverty and ending white supremacy are not the same. The lie ignores the fact that closing the "achievement gap" will do nothing to close the "injury gap," in which black college graduates still suffer higher unemployment rates than white college graduates, and black job applicants without criminal records enjoy roughly the same chance of getting hired as white applicants with criminal records.
And so, he concludes, monetary reparations - closing the wealth gap between white and black - is the only workable solution. It is also the only way to truly put the legacy of slavery behind us as a nation.
"What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts," he writes. "What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt."
He cites as an example the German reparations to Israel following the Holocaust, undertaken despite fierce opposition in both nations:
Reparations could not make up for the murder perpetrated by the Nazis. But they did launch Germany's reckoning with itself, and perhaps provided a road map for how a great civilisation might make itself worthy of the name.
After laying out his case over thousands of words, and spanning hundreds of years, Coates's call to action is, in fact, relatively modest. He wants the US Congress to pass a bill proposed by Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan to study slavery and recommend "appropriate remedies".
Maybe the study won't be able to come up with a number, he writes. Perhaps the number will be so monumentally large that it is unworkable. But he says that the effort to quantify the damages has its own benefits:
An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future. More important than any single check cut to any African American, the payment of reparations would represent America's maturation out of the childhood myth of its innocence into a wisdom worthy of its founders.
Coates has written a blog post that accompanies his article in which he explains how his views on reparations changed over the last four years, prompted in part by what he sees as the injustice of affirmative action programmes (which he says discriminate against Asian-Americans).
It's an interesting insight into the mind of a talented essayist.
On Friday I'll dig into some of the responses to Coates's piece.

subset: commoncrawl


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This pledge closed over 5 years ago
From Save the Dogs and other Animals
THE CATCHINGS GO ON!by Save the Dogs and other AnimalsTHE CATCHING OF HUNDREDS OF STRAYS in the town of Mangalia, in Romania, continues, despite 7,000 signatures collected by our petition in a few days and the pressure out in many ways on the Municipality. Today STD will send a press release in Italy and Romania to denounce what is happening and ask for Italians not to go on holiday on the Romanian coast. We are also preparing with the local activists a legal action.Below: a short video shot thursday which shows the dog catchers on duty. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=589168394436933&set=vb.100000313320244&type=2&theater


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OpenMenu API
OpenMenu helps restaurants store and share their menus over the Internet by standardizing the menus' structure and format. This information is stored in a single, centralized database which is freely accessible and searchable by both API developers and the public. OpenMenu allows a restaurant to maintain and update a single menu which can then be accessed from a variety of other sites such as Facebook or Wordpress.


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I was planning my first long trip on my Palio and was very excited. This was the first time I will be driving on a highway. We planned to start early morning and my cousins were waiting for my arrival and plan to had a good weekend celebration. I made sure I filled up my tank and checked the air pressure the night before. Only last thing remaining was to clean my windshield and other glasses. I completed my cleaning and locked the doors. I found my trunk open and few thing left out of my car, Kept the key in the trunk and all the other things and BANG closed the trunk. My GOD I don't have a duplicate key and locked my car with key inside it.
Had very hard time trying to open the doors the Maruthi way through the front door window bidding. No success this method is not going to work for your palio. Then i started googling but nothing worked. At last 2:00 AM morning I informed my Mom that we will not be able to start tomorrow morning. Had a sleepless night. Woke up again 7:30 in the morning first thing googled some duplicate car key makers, found some on Justdial website. The first one to whom I spoke told me its not a big deal for him to just open the door and it will cost me 400 bucks , but will come after an hour. Tried reaching the second one, Wow good response told he will be there in 15 minutes and will charge 300 bucks. Good deal.
Yes, the guy was there in 15 minutes, he just brought two things with him one cloth hanger fully straighten up except the hook and other rectangular pouch with a ball attached to it to pump air some thing similar to BP measuring apparatus. He just slided the rectangular pouch under the door form top of the door and pumped the air in it as the pouch got inflated there was enough gap where he can insert the straighten hook. He inserted the hanger and pulled the lock lever. Alas the door opened. All it took approximately one minute.
I was happy as I was ready for my first trip and good thing I recorded this entire operation on my phone planning to share with you all. Unfortunetly lost my phone on the same trip
So next time you end in a situation something similar to mine. Don't Panic, just call a duplicate car key maker he will do it in a minute without spoiling your car if it palio. I am not sure about other cars. Make sure you have a Duplicate Key with you.


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While it may seem like news to some, anybody who has been tracking the progress of Marvel's The Avengers has already likely to deduced that new life would not-so-coincidentally get breathed into DC and Warner Bros. perennially-stalled Justice League movie. And that's just what happened.
Not only does the Justice League movie have a new writer, he's actually been at work on the script (in secret) for a little while. And, as has been speculated by superhero movie fans everywhere, there are growing signs that DC Comics' movies will start to emulate Marvel's shared universe approach.
Will Beall is the writer that DC/WB has currently at work on the Justice League script. Beall is a quickly-rising talent who has found a good nest over at Warner Bros: he is penning several big-budget films for the studio, including this fall's Gangster Squad, the Logan's Run remake (which Ryan Gosling is slated to star in) and the announced Lethal Weapon reboot. Those upcoming projects will mark Beall's first feature-film credits; clearly WB knows something the rest of us have yet to discover.
The Variety report describes further example of clairvoyant vision from the studio: Beall was reportedly set to work on Justice League before Avengers became a billion-dollar box office smash. The money is clearly on the table when it comes to these next-level superhero team-up films - question is, how will DC/WB go about getting theirs?
The Dark Knight Rises is coming out in a few weeks - but don't expect things to kick off there. Chris Nolan has long and famously maintained his trilogy's autonomy, wishing it to be free from any sort of shared universe; ironically enough, he was later approached by the studio to "godfather" their cinematic universe, starting with the story for the Superman reboot, Man of Steel and possibly extending to directing the Justice League movie. After Batman is done, there is no telling at this point if Nolan will hang around or move on to other work... bet safe bet is on the latter.
Speaking of Man of Steel: Zack Snyder's new vision of Superman arrives next summer - and with it, many savvy fans have expected to see the first few threads of the DC Movie Universe (DCMU) take shape. We here at Screen Rant have seconded that notion - and offered the further prediction that - should he prove successful at relaunching Superman - DC will likely position Zack Snyder as a DCMU architect.
Of course, Man of Steel still has a lot of people to win over, and the DCMU already took a blow with the underperformance of Green Lantern in 2011. The question of whether Green Lantern 2 is still in the cards - or whether the property should get a fresh start - remains unanswered for now. The G.I. Joe franchise attempted to make a sequel that was also a reboot - so hey, pretty much anything goes, these days.
Director George Miller is finally set to get to work on his long-delayed Mad Max 4 film, but he also suffered many starts and stops when he was set to direct the Justice League movie in the late 2000s. We wouldn't count on Miller coming back, necessarily - especially if DC/WB does form a small circle with guys like Nolan and Snyder. For what it's worth, I think small circle is the best way to steer this kind of ship.
DC Comics and Warner Bros. formed DC Entertainment back in 2009, in order to help expand the stable of DC superheroes owned by WB into a brand that could be as lucrative as the Harry Potter franchise had been. This game plan resulted in the DC Comics "New 52" reboot of their comic book properties, with changes to core characters in the Justice League presumably to make them more modern and multi-media friendly.
Man of Steel clearly has New 52 influences all over it, and it's likely that after Nolan, Batman will also get a movie reboot (probably in the vein of his New 52 counterpart) to establish a shared movie universe version of the character. Just don't hold your breath for Christian Bale to hang around.
As noted in the Variety piece, here are some currently in-development DC/WB films we've reported on, which could all conceivably be orchestrated to fit within a DC movie Universe:
We'll keep you updated about the status of the Justice League movie as more news comes to light.
Source: Variety


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Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sacramental Significance
Our family is a mix of Roman Catholics and various protestants. My maternal grandmother and my paternal grandparents (all of whom are still living) are Roman Catholic. My maternal grandfather, William Theodore Morgan (1916-1983) was Presbyterian. When he married my maternal grandmother, she raised the children Catholic. In researching the various Catholic sacraments, I have discovered a few very interesting items.
I have found a photo (too large to scan) of one of my paternal great-grandmothers in a white, lace-trimmed dress. Mary Catherine Hermes would have been about 12 years old in the photo, dating the photo to about 1907. Because of the dress color and style, the gold cross necklace she wore and the formal nature of the photo (inside at a studio, with her hand resting on the back of a chair), our family suspects this is either her First Eucharist photo or Confirmation photo. We also have a certificate for her First Eucharist, that would confirm the date and event of the photo. The unknown is whether or not at that time, the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation were received together.
Another document that I have seen is the marriage certificate from Italy (written in Italian) for my maternal great-grandparents. They were born in 1882 and 1888, and married in Italy before they immigrated to the USA. This is also unavailable to scan tonight.
I have been raised Catholic, having this faith handed down to me from both my mother's and my father's families. I was baptized at 5-6 weeks old, made First Reconciliation and First Eucharist in 2nd grade, was Confirmed in 10th grade, and married my husband a little over 3 years ago. After our daughter was born, we scheduled her baptism to pass our faith on to her.
"Katherine Elizabeth, I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Four generations of baptized Catholic women! :)
6 comments:
Lovely post, fab photos! You look very happy!ReplyDelete
By the way, you could try taking a photo of Mary Catherine Hermes . If it is behind glass you will fight glare, but if you have a digitial camera you can try, try and try again. Have fun, and good luck.
Good post! I hope to see more from you in theReplyDelete
Wonderful pictures and post. You make it so clear why religion and faith have a place in our family history research.ReplyDelete
Carol's point about photographing your document/photos is well made. I've had luck photographing during daylight and turning the flash off on my camera.
Carol and Nolichucky Roots, Thanks! I didn't think of that this time, and yet I've done it many times before. Thanks for the reminder. :)ReplyDelete
Thank you Bill!
We have a Bergschneider connection with you, and I have recently been researching our line. See our website at www.wheeler-root.org for more. Would love to include your family.ReplyDelete
Lovely post. I enjoyed reading it.ReplyDelete


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No! It's a kooky fan comic I made. Hugh may put it up on the site later...Well, I said I'd make his comic for him, but he wanted ACTION ACTION ACTION! and this has none of that. Oh well.
http://www.geocities.com/ioagent2023/penguincomic.jpg
Sadly, I don't think I offend enough people in it. Oh yeah, geocities won't link from off the site. So you'll have to copy/paste that link into your web browser. For great justice.
[This message has been edited by flan (edited 04-27-2001).]


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Below you will find a list of discussions in the Trade Software board at D3Scene.com. Use this forum to trade software. You can use this forum to sell / purchase hacks from other members.
Request hacks for certain games with certain features here. This section is meant for both, paid and free requests.
[PAID CSGO] Looking for a 100% private...
Yesterday, 08:48 AM


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Student or Learner
Hi teachers, may I know why the author wrote "a child" instead of "children" in the sentence below?
At least eight of the nine members of the outgoing Politburo Standing Committee have a child who has studied or worked extensively abroad.
I've read countless of similar sentences that begin with plural nouns but describe their non-common possessions as singular. Why can't I find such sentence construction in grammar textbooks?
Last edited by Vaedoris; 11-Nov-2012 at 08:44.
Is the sentence grammatically correct?
It can be understood that the sentence describes what you have just explained, but technically can I or not grasp the meaning as such: the eight members have one common child?
It sounds ridiculous but technically, can the sentence be understood like so?
Last edited by Vaedoris; 11-Nov-2012 at 09:25.


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Erik lives about miles 40 miles or so from Cordova in Geneseo, IL. He said he will be at
the World Series running the Quick 8, which he won at that event last year.
I sent some of you a photo of the 53 Studebaker he and his dad have been building for
several years and he has not said which car he will be racing. I hope the Stude.
He also has a 55 Chevy race car.


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We caught this Houston quintet kicking ass opening for Of Montreal earlier this year and we're stoked to premiere their latest psych-tinged track below. Led by vocalists Zahira Guiterrez, who channels a nice Karen O, and Cody Swann, who brings a little bit of David Bowie to the table, this track is theatrical, funked up, and free-spirited.
The band is known for their upbeat, indie-pop tracks, but if "Emergency Broadcast" is any indication of what's to come on their sophomore record, 88 92, (released on 2/4 via New West Records), Wild Moccasins are heading into some darker territory. Personal turmoil, panic attacks, and toxic friendships serve as the basis for the songs on this forthcoming effort. They're going deep.


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What does CTC's membership think about infrastructure?
What does CTC's membership think about infrastructure?
CTC is currently reviewing all its policies. On the fraught topic of cycle infrastructure and road design CTC decided to elicit cyclists' views on the matter to inform the development of a new policy.
The survey gathered comments and measured attitudes to statements on the subject of cycle infrastructure and transport planning for cyclists. 1,130 people responded to the survey, mostly members of CTC.
Support for the statements of policy was extremely strong, with most people welcoming a commitment to promoting high quality design of cycle facilities in certain circumstances.
Respondents were offered a set of conditions that CTC suggested be met before implementation of cycle tracks. These include cyclists having priority over turning traffic, adequate width and a high standard of maintenance. Support for these conditions was very high, with 88-95% of respondents saying that these were very or quite important.
In addition to gauging people's views on a set of statements and conditions, the survey also offered respondents the opportunity to make their own comments.
Around half of the respondents made suggestions, 28% of which referred to the need for better quality cycle facilities, 18% suggested that driver behaviour needed improving, 16% stated strong support for segregated facilities. A further 10% felt that the right to cycle on the road network must be retained if facilities are built, and another 10% referred to the need for better maintenance of roads and paths.
The results suggest that although CTC's proposed policy line is strongly supported, there remain opposing currents of opinion within the cycling community.
The small proportion of non-members who took part in the survey appear much more enthusiastic about segregation, whereas members tended to be either sceptical or understood the need for segregation, but wanted to ensure that design standards of such facilities are high.
CTC will need to weigh up the benefits from providing stronger support to segregation despite the risk that this may undermine conditions for existing cyclists. The strongest message is that the existing quality of cycle facilities is of considerable concern for all road users and CTC must prioritise their improvement.
The survey will inform CTC's formal revised policy which will be examined by CTC's Council over the coming months. To read the full report please download it below.


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Conduit in water pipe
I can't seem to locate any Code requirement precluding me from securely supporting a 1-in. rigid metal conduit onto the bottom of a 10-in. insulated metal water pipe for about 40 ft. The pipe is rigidly supported via pipe stands. The client wants to make the conduit less conspicuous by having it securely strapped to the pipe, either inside or outside the insulation. He doesn't want it on the pipe support.
The application is a pumping station that is prone to vandalism. We can't bury it without getting a wetlands permit. No continuous concrete pad exists between the building and the groundwater tanks located outside, so surface mounting is out. The insulation is fiberglass-covered with metal (tin or aluminum). The conduits are for 480V power to an immersion heater and the temperature and level switches.
Beside the portions of the Code that define the support distances, I don't see anything that says not to do it. My instincts tell me that for personnel safety, it should be done. For example, the pipefitter or insulation installer has to come and perform maintenance on the piping. He sees (or worse, doesn't see) the conduit. He doesn't have time or doesn't want to wait for an electrician to show up to disconnect and remove it. He can't perform his task with it attached, so he figures he will disconnect it himself. Maybe he is careful and knows what he is doing or maybe he doesn't.
I do not know of any Code rule that directly addresses your issue. The primary rules for support in your case are found in Sections 300.11(A) and 344.12. Both of these require that the conduit be "securely fastened in place." They do not say, "directly attached to the structure." Generally, the maximum support spacing requirement for RMC (rigid metallic conduit) of trade size 1 is 10 ft, but for straight runs with threaded couplings, this spacing is increased to 12 ft. Nothing in the NEC states that you cannot use the same supports for conduit as for other systems. Although Section 300.11(B) generally prohibits the use of conduit as support for anything else, it does not mention the use of water pipe or other systems (other than ceiling grids and wires) for support of conduit. Some plumbing or mechanical codes may cover this. I doubt that the physical load of a size 1 RMC would be significant to the 10-in. water pipe system or its supports. A different argument might be made if the piping used to support the conduit was much smaller.
All of the arguments you make are valid considerations. The argument, however, that the pipefitter or insulation installer might tamper with the conduit supports rather than wait for an electrician could apply to any installation where electrical and other systems are in close proximity. I would add one more consideration: If the conduit was placed within the insulation, the ampacity of the conductors would likely be affected, and that would have to be considered. I think the installation would be safer if the conduit were on the outside and identified in some manner, and I would prefer that the pipe supports be used directly. Those are simply my preferences, however, and I can't quote Code references that would require those installation methods.
Noel Williams
Sizing vaults
Please advise on where we might find criteria for sizing in ground (typically concrete) vaults, used for pull or junction, for all voltages. Are we just stuck with NEC Article 370?
Since you refer to Article 370 for pull or junction boxes, I assume you are in the 1999 or earlier NEC. In the 2002 NEC, Article 370 was renumbered as Article 314. In 1999, Part D was added to Article 370. This part covers manholes and other electric enclosures intended for personnel entry. The same rules are found in Article 314 Part IV of the 2002 NEC.
You do not pose a specific question but I suspect that the information given above will help solve your problems. As a former member of an NEC Code panel and current member of another NFPA committee, I do not want anyone to feel "stuck with the Code." Public proposals made to the committee can revise the Code or expand it. Information on the Code proposal system is found in the back of the Code book. Additional information is available from NFPA. I will also provide assistance if you have questions about the Code development process.
Dann Strube
E-mail your NE Code questions to [email protected]


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Shop Update
6 Comments
notes of sinceritySeptember 30, 2011 at 5:00 pm
What a darling charm pack!! :o)
I am having a little give a way.
Would you like to drop by?

Are you counting the days until The Sewing Summit? I can't wait!! :o)

Sincerely, Trish
LauraSeptember 30, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Love both! Can't wait to get them in the mail! 😉
KimberlySeptember 30, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Enjoy those flip flops! Our weather's been a real mixed bag lately. I just bought one of your Christmas kits and am so excited! I missed out last year and couldn't resist this time around!
KristieSeptember 30, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Have just been assembling my Christmas quilt kit from last year….love it! A little sidetracked for now, but hope to finish up in time to enjoy it this holiday season (and for many years to come!).
NicoleSeptember 30, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Super Cute Fabric. I think I need a christmas quilt! Love your blue and brown quilt. Do you think they will being having the sewing summit other years! I want to go so bad, but it's just not in the budget this year!
MaryOctober 4, 2011 at 12:26 am
Very cute Christmas quilt. Glad to know you have fun and watch Conference too! It was soooo Good!


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Free shipping continues above Dkr 739
Free shipping continues above Dkr 739
Rectangular tray Tiffany is designed by Silvio Coppola. His work is classified in the last phase of the "Bel design" phenomenon which characterised Italian design of the 1960s and 70s. Tiffany dates from 1974, and was put back into production in 2008, at the request of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
He began his career as a designer in 1960, making a name for himself with innovative designs for motor vehicle bodywork made of fibreglass. He has collaborated with companies that manufacture computers and private and public industrial vehicles. Several of his works are exhibited in international museums, such as Big Screen, a professional viewer, for C & Partners (1986) and the timing attendance reader terminal TRP2000 Dating (1987).


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Particle Analysis Software fosters usability via automation.
Press Release Summary:
In combination with full range of HORIBA Raman microscopes, ParticleFinder module for LabSpec 6 Spectroscopy Suite is suited for locating and identifying any particulate matter where automated molecular analysis is key. Interface leads analyst through process of locating particles, generating size/shape statistics, selecting candidate particles based on size/shape parameters, and acquiring Raman spectra. Functionality enhances full analytical capabilities of HORIBA Raman systems.
Original Press Release:
HORIBA Scientific Launches New Raman ParticleFinder Software
Innovative Software Automates Particle Location and Chemical Characterization
EDISON, N.J. -- HORIBA Scientific (HORIBA), the global leader in Raman spectroscopy systems, is proud to announce the launch of their new ParticleFinder module for the LabSpec 6 Spectroscopy Suite. ParticleFinder was developed as part of a collaboration with Particle Sciences, Bethlehem, PA, to support their client drug product formulation and analytic, bioanalytic, physical characterization services.
In combination with the full range of HORIBA Raman microscopes, ParticleFinder brings a new level of automation and ease of use for particle analysts who require the unique chemical characterization tools that Raman can offer. It is ideally suited for locating and identifying any particulate matter where automated molecular analysis is key, including pharmaceutical materials, trace forensic evidence, geological rock/mineral particles, and airborne contaminants trapped on filters.
The simple work-flow inspired interface for the ParticleFinder module leads the analyst through the process of locating particles, generating size/shape statistics, selecting candidate particles based on size/shape parameters, and finally acquiring Raman spectra.
"We wanted ParticleFinder to provide a high level of automation that will positively impact the laboratory's efficiency," said Robert Lee, Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development, Particle Sciences. "In fact, it offers full particle characterization at the touch of a button!"
ParticleFinder enhances the full analytical capabilities of HORIBA's Raman systems, from the compact "one shot" XploRA ONE confocal microscope, to the versatile, fully-automated LabRAM HR Evolution with extended wavelength range capability and advanced confocal imaging capabilities in 2D and 3D.
The LabSpec 6 Suite is simple, yet powerful software. LabSpec is a complete Raman software application that guides researchers through system set up, Raman spectrum data and map acquisition, measurement and data processing, and report generation. ParticleFinder adds to its capabilities, in an easily accessible add-on module.
ParticleFinder is currently available. For more information, please go to: ParticleFinder. Or, contact your local HORIBA Scientific office for further information, upgrade details, and demonstrations.
About Particle Sciences
Particle Sciences is an integrated provider of drug development services. Particle Sciences is an expert in formulating difficult to solublize API's using traditional and nano-based approaches. We bring that skill set to bear on a variety of dosage forms including topical, mucosal, oral and parenteral drug products. Particle Sciences is also a leader in combination drug/device product development. Through a full range of formulation, analytic, and manufacturing services, Particle Sciences provides pharmaceutical companies with a complete and seamless development solution that minimizes the time and risk between discovery and the clinic. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. www.particlesciences.com
About HORIBA Scientific
HORIBA Scientific, part of HORIBA Instruments, Inc., headquartered in the United States, provides an extensive array of instruments and solutions for applications across a broad range of scientific R&D and QC measurements. HORIBA Scientific is a world leader in elemental analysis, fluorescence, forensics, GDS, ICP, particle characterization, Raman, spectroscopic ellipsometry, sulphur-in-oil, water quality and XRF. Our instruments are found in universities and industries around the world. Proven quality and trusted performance have established widespread confidence in the HORIBA Brand. www.horiba.com/scientific.
The HORIBA Group of worldwide companies, part of HORIBA, Ltd. headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, provides an extensive array of instruments and systems for applications ranging from automotive R&D, process and environmental monitoring, in-vitro medical diagnostics, semiconductor manufacturing and metrology, to a broad range of scientific R&D and QC measurements.
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Prompt Medical Care When You Need it
Immediate Medical Care Near You
Central Urgent Medical Care knows accidents happen and illnesses can come on suddenly. So, if you or a loved one is experiencing a health problem, we are here for you. Central Urgent Medical Care has one locations in Rancho Cucamonga, making care easily accessible. We can take care of all your urgent care needs, large or small. Whether cold and flu symptoms, minor cuts or scrapes, fractures and sprains. It's nothing new to us.
Central Urgent Medical Care provides quality, convenient and compassionate urgent medical care. Our board certified doctor's and PA-C ensure timely and professional services for patients of all ages.
Walk-in to Central Urgent Medical Care for a Wide Variety of Medical Conditions
What makes Central Urgent Medical Care stand out? Our walk- in clinic is open 7 days a week, with extended hours from 8am to 8pm, and holidays. Our on -site pharmacy, laboratory, x-ray facility, echo and ultrasound machine enable us to cover a wide range of medical issues. Walk- ins are always welcome and no appointments are ever needed. We take patients until closing!.
X-rays / Labs / EKG / Physical / Echo and Ultrasound
We will coordinate with the specialist in order to give you a comprehensive preoperative assessment and clearance. Same day appointments available.
We accept all patients until closing.


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We continue to attract and inspire talented people from around the world. Our 60 active employee networks in around 22 countries bring together some of the 155 nationalities working with us in 70 countries. We attract talented people from all over the world and across our business in building rewarding careers.
Employees are encouraged to enhance their external focus through developing networks and participating in professional associations. These support networks will help you settle in, build friendships and give you an opportunity to lead or co-ordinate business or community activities.
Our employee networks include those for women, disability and ethnic groups, just to name a few. These networks are making value added contributions to business objectives by providing a forum for sharing information and ideas. They are voluntary organisations that allow employees to come together and support common goals and interests.
Employee networks operate on the principles of inclusion, open dialogue, and constructive contribution. They can help you grow personally and professionally, but they can also help us by providing feedback on creating a better workplace and ways we can attract and retain diverse talent. Perhaps most importantly, these networks help us build stronger communities ties and enhance our social obligations.
To further support the importance of work-life integration Shell's social clubs provide social events that build peer relationships in an informal setting, as well as a number of events that can be extended to family and friends.


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Don't adjust your calendar.
But it definitely does feel more like mid-February than mid-April, especially following a stretch of back-to-back days of true spring weather.
That trend will continue the next couple of days with heavy rain, possible thunderstorms, brisk winds and even the possibility of freezing rain in areas farther north.
The potential for pockets of freezing rain and drizzle into Sunday evening, mainly in higher elevations, is for Northern Westchester, Putnam Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Northern Fairfield and Western Passaic. A glaze of ice accretion is possible.
A period of moderate to heavy rain is in the forecast from late Sunday night into Monday. Rainfall should start after 3 p.m. Sunday on a cloudy and cold day with the high temperature in the low- to mid-30s but the wind-chill factor making it feel more like it's between 20 and 30 degrees.
Rain, heavy at times, continues Monday on a breezy day with a thunderstorm possible. The high temperature will rise to the mid-50s but wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour will make it feel colder.
Forecast rainfall amounts from Sunday night through Monday is shown in the image above. An average of about 2 to 3 inches of rainfall is expected, with locally higher amounts.
A Coastal Flood Advisory is in effect for portions of Southern Westchester, coastal Connecticut and Northeast New Jersey. (See second image above.) Minor to locally moderate flooding is possible during the times of high tide Sunday night and Monday morning, generally from 8 p.m. Sunday to 2 p.m. Monday.
There could be scattered showers Monday night and Tuesday morning. Tuesday will be mostly cloudy with a high around 50 degrees.
Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.


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Arriving next week alongside the "Sazh: Heads or Tails?" story pack, these two new outfits for Final Fantasy XIII-2 main characters Serah and Noel might seem like a pair of extravagant attempts to acquire $2.99 from players, but they make perfect sense in the grand scheme of things.
Take Noel's Spacetime Guardian outfit, the main reason I had sexy in the headline. Without spoiling too much, it stands to reason that an outfit similar to the one the game's main antagonist wears would be lying around somewhere or sometime. There might not have been anyone around to make it, but maybe the other folks in Noel's time period planned ahead.
And then there's Serah's bits of pink cloth. It's easy to accuse Square Enix of playing to adolescent male fantasies, but think about where Serah lives. She's got a lovely little beach bungalow. It stands to reason she'd go swimming now and then, and it's not too far-fetched to imagine the monster attack from the beginning of the game occurring during a bit of swimming. You don't run and change when monsters attack!
You do run and change after the attack is over and you're about to embark on an epic adventure through time and space, but Serah's not that bright. I mean hell, she think's Snow is the new hotness, and Snow's a giant dick.
Justified or not, these lovely outfits will be available February 28 for $2.99 or 240 Microsoft points. I'd only pay for them if I was allowed to swap them between characters. Noel would look so cute in pink.


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The world's most famous Astronaut passed away one month ago today.
It was one month ago, on Aug. 25, that the first person to walk on the moon and the most famous government employee ever, Neil Armstrong, passed away. Armstrong didn't give many interviews and shied away from the spotlight, remaining humble until the end in his accomplishments. In a rare hour-long interview conducted earlier this year with, oddly enough, the head of an Australian accounting group, Armstrong talked about leadership and his life.
Excellence in Government will begin sharing images containing inspiring quotes and leadership lessons on our Facebook and Google + accounts--you can like, share, print or do whatever you like with them. You can see the first one, a quote from Armstrong's interview, we found to be of particular interest for managers who often forget progress comes one step at a time.
Share your thoughts in the comments below and follow Excellence in Government on Twitter | Facebook | Google + | LinkedIn


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Around the same time last year, we caught up with Ramy Ayach in London where he was performing with Myriam Fares before touring the rest of Europe. Now the Lebanese star is ready to tour again, only this time he is sticking to the region for the summer.
The singer has certainly been busy; fresh from a huge performance at Cavalli Club in Dubai, where the Italian designer Roberto Cavalli was seen photographed on stage with Ayach, the singer then headed to Egypt's Porto Sokhna for a sold out Easter concert. Now, he is back in Dubai getting ready to film a new music video. Here's what he had to say.
You seem to really enjoy Dubai when here.
Yes, Dubai is a beautiful city. I adore the UAE — it is always fun to be here. I had a great time at Cavalli recently. It was packed, and we had guests from all over the region who came and joined us for the night. Friends from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Morocco... it was great.
Your next video will be for the song Aghmorney Taeesh, which you're also shooting in the UAE. Tell us more about it.
Yes, I am preparing to shoot the video in Dubai. It is a collaboration with [female director] Ingy Jameel, who I previously collaborated with for the Majnoon video. I cannot reveal much about the concept, but I am really excited about it.
Isn't this one of your older songs?
Yeah, I have had it for about 3-4 years, but it is only now that I have decided to release it. It's a difficult song, in the sense it has different melodies, but I am very proud of it. I think it's nice to have a decent song in your archive that is timeless. That way you can release it when the time is right.
You're one of a handful of Arab stars who have joined social media to connect with fans. How are you finding it?
Yes, I am very active on Twitter — you can find me @RamyAyach — it is a great way of connecting with fans.
What's next for you?
After the shooting for the video wraps up, I have a full schedule of live concerts to take me through to the summer as well as performing in Morocco, the UAE and Egypt.
I have a few major concerts happening throughout Lebanon.
Finally, we have to ask about you and Haifa Wehbe — there are rumours that you are going to do a duet together. What can you reveal?
When the time is right. It hasn't happened yet as I have my work and she has hers. However, one day we will work together.
Via SyndiGate.info
© Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2019. All rights reserved.


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Main Content
Expedition Begins - September 28, 1803 through December 5, 1803
September 28, 1803. (Cincinnati). Lewis writes Clark that his trip to Cincinnati was difficult. Two young men with him may be likely recruits for the expedition (Jackson, 1: 124-26).
October 14, 1803. Lewis arrives at Louisville (Holmberg, Timeline).
October 15, 1803. Lewis' boat passes through the Falls of the Ohio. James Patten, from Clarksville, is a possible pilot (Holmberg, Timeline; Holmberg, Brother, 137). See items this page.
October 18, 1803. Thomas Rodney's 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory
"I went with the batteau, with the pilot Patton and a steersman and Buckanan, through the Falls [of the Ohio]. We hung a minute on a rock above the brig and struck twice after but went through safe . . . .
I must now say a few words more about the Falls. They are a terrable place to pass through when the water is as low as now. For the first time I had a dread of wrecking our boat. The rocks are so cragy, the channil so crooked, and the water so furious and rapid that it requires the utmost care and dexterity to avoid the danger. There are several islands in the Falls and a large island and several sand bars below and riffles for 2 miles below, so that indeed there is 4 miles of rapid[s] and difficulty; but the pilot only conducted us the first two and we came safe over the others" (Smith and Swick,124-25).
October 24, 1803. Jonathan Clark spends night in Clarksville with brother William (Holmberg, Timeline).
October 26, 1803. (Clarksville). Captains Lewis and Clark, the "nine young men," Clark's slave York, and others leave on the expedition (Holmberg, Timeline; Moulton, 2: 59).
November 11, 1803. Lewis' Journal: Expedition party reaches Fort Massac, Indiana Territory (Moulton, 2: 85).
November 13, 1803. (Vincennes). In answer to a request from Clark, Harrison sends a copy of a map of the Missouri River and the Mandan country (Jackson, 1: 135-36).
November 28, 1803. Clark's Journal: Expedition party lands near Kaskaskia, Indiana Territory (Moulton, 2: 118-19).
November 28, 1803. Lewis' Journal: Lewis leaves Clark in charge of the boat. He leaves December 5 on horseback for St. Louis to meet with the Spanish commandant (Moulton, 2: 117-18).
December 5, 1803. Clark's Journal: Clark and party land near Bellefontaine, Indiana Territory to pick up additional provisions (Moulton, 2: 125-26).


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Thirteen years ago, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis faced double murder charges in Atlanta. Eventually, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, with an agreement to testify against other defendants. No one was convicted of the killings.
While Lewis avoided the far more serious crime, the NFL still fined Lewis $250,000 for his role in, as prosecutors have described such cases, kicking dirt in the eyes of the authorities. If that's the only charge prosecutors in Boston ever are able to pin on Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, either by guilty plea or through the introduction of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Hernandez can count on an even stiffer sanction from the league office than the Lewis penalty.
Six years ago, Commissioner Roger Goodell overhauled the personal-conduct policy, expanding its reach and enhancing its penalties. Since then, Goodell has shown a willingness to take swift and decisive action against players who violate it. Pacman Jones received a one-year suspension despite never going to jail for any of his various legal entanglements at the NFL level. Ben Roethlisberger received a six-game suspension (reduced to four) despite never even being arrested. And the NFL indefinitely suspended Mike Vick the moment he was indicted for charges of dogfighting and gambling.
For Hernandez, the clearest apples-to-apples comparison comes from the cases of Leonard Little and Donte' Stallworth. Both caused a death while driving drunk. Little was suspended eight games by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in 1999. Stallworth received a full year from Goodell in 2009.
From Hernandez's perspective, that formula would result in a fine of $500,000, if he pleads guilty to obstruction of justice. We've got a feeling, based on Goodell's history of imposing discipline for off-field misbehavior, that won't happen.
Based on reports from ABC and FOX 25 in Boston, police believe Hernandez deliberately destroyed (or at least tried to destroy) electronic evidence that would likely help solve the question of who killed Odin Lloyd. Goodell won't react kindly to NFL players attempting so brazenly to prevent justice from being done, especially when "justice" entails finding a murderer. If Roethlisberger was suspended four games for being sued for sexual assault in Nevada and accused of another in Georgia despite never being arrested or charged, Hernandez could be in line for something like that or worse if he ultimately admits or is convicted of attempting to cover up a murder.
It gets far worse for Hernandez if he's charged with murder. Or if the NFL, through the in-house police force known as NFL Security, determines that he did it. There's no "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" in the Court of the Commissioner. He remains, under the personal-conduct policy, the judge, jury, executioner, appeals court, and governor. And while the bounty case proved that diligent, aggressive lawyering could force Goodell to bump the appeal to his more lenient predecessor, Goodell and company surely learned from that experience how to avoid creating evidence that could be used to undermine his perceived neutrality.
So, basically, Hernandez is likely looking at a suspension if obstruction of justice sticks. If the NFL decides he did more than merely help cover things up, Hernandez may be gone from the game for a long time.
The more immediate question becomes whether the league and the Patriots will allow Hernandez to show up for training camp if the situation remains unresolved. The NFL and the Cowboys have managed to keep defensive tackle Josh Brent at a distance while he prepares for a September 2013 trial in the DUI death of Cowboys linebacker Jerry Brown. Look for the league and the Pats to finesse a similar outcome that would keep Hernandez from being a far bigger distraction than the player the Patriots signed only 10 days ago.
UPDATE 10:42 a.m. ET: This item was based on multiple reports than arrest warrant has been issued for Hernandez, and that he will be charged with obstruction of justice. The Boston Globe has since reported that no arrest warrant has been issued.


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1 Events Found
Kids Fishing Workshop
Sat, Jun 20, 2020 10:00 am - 2:00 pm CDTKids along with their parents will work their way through fun, interactive stations that allow them to learn about fish, ways to fish, places to fish, how to fish and how to minimize any negative impact on the environment while fishing. The first 200 kids to check in will receive their own mini tackle set.
Topsail Hill
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Operation Recreation Geotour
The Operation Recreation GeoTour hosted by Geocaching.com, stretches from Pensacola to Key West and includes 71 of the First Three Time National Gold Medal Award Winning Florida State Parks and Trails. Visit 20 caches and win the Official Operation Recreation Geocoin.
The Outsiders Club
"The Outsiders Club" is an exciting 30-minute program starring kids who explore the great outdoors and model ways to pursue a healthier, more active, nature-connected lifestyle. Each episode is set in a beautiful Florida State Park and features an outdoor adventure, such as camping, fishing, kayaking or hiking.


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Did the region's planning agency make the right choice in buying the troubled South Bay Expressway?
Could the San Diego Association of Governments have taken over the toll road for a lower price? Will ridership grow fast enough for it to pay off the purchase debt, which stands at $160 million plus interest? And will SANDAG's improvements on nearby Interstate 805 draw traffic away from the expressway — the opposite of what the agency originally envisioned?
SANDAG officials are wrestling with such questions a year and a half after the agency spent $341 million to assume control of the toll road. They continue to maintain that the transaction was a well-timed bargain, but have not provided a key figure — an estimate of how many I-805 drivers have switched over to the expressway — to back up their conclusion definitively.
The initial operator of the South Bay Expressway, a 10-mile stretch from Otay Mesa to Spring Valley, went bankrupt in 2010. That was less than three years after a public-private consortium spent $800 million to build the toll road, which opened amid the Great Recession. The expressway attracted only about a third of the expected motorists.
Now with ridership and revenue starting to increase under SANDAG's supervision, there's talk among some transportation leaders of a turnaround for the operation. But even with the best models of traffic growth, SANDAG officials and outside observers said it's too early to know whether the agency's high-profile gamble will pay off.
Samuel Johnson, SANDAG's program director for the expressway, acknowledged that some motorists may pick I-805 over the toll road once the interstate's widening projects wrap up, some as early as this fall. He also said those improvements on I-805 won't make the expressway obsolete, adding that the toll road will remain an important "tool in the toolbox" for solving South County's traffic challenges as the economy rebounds.
At least one government watchdog agrees with Johnson's description of the expressway takeover as "a solid investment."
"We supported (SANDAG's purchase) because it looked like a good deal at the time. And it still looks that way," said Sean Karafin, an economic policy analyst for the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. "The ridership numbers are a really good sign that things are going as well as we expected."
Gaining traffic
Since SANDAG took over last year, ridership and revenue totals have surpassed the agency's goals. That has allowed SANDAG to cover its monthly debt payments, pay for road operations and maintenance, and tuck away money in a reserve account for the expressway, officials said.
Year-over-year ridership was up 27 percent during the recently completed 2013 fiscal year, far exceeding the target of a 15 percent increase, according to the agency. There were 11.65 million vehicle trips on the toll road during fiscal year 2013, or 2 million more than the previous year.
Revenue hit $22.6 million, slightly above the $21 million goal. Those results followed SANDAG's decision last summer to slash tolls by up to 40 percent.
Over the life of SANDAG's 30-year lease to operate the road, Johnson said the expressway would need to average 5.7 percent annually in combined traffic and revenue growth. He noted that SANDAG expects to see about 3 percent growth in year-over-year ridership during the current fiscal year, which started July 1.
Karafin said SANDAG has not disclosed how many drivers have switched from I-805 to the expressway after the agency lowered its tolls. Johnson said the agency was working on compiling that figure.
The statistic is important because in late 2011, the chief economist for SANDAG said buying control of the expressway would enable the agency to add overall ridership capacity in South County for less money than what it would take to make various improvements to I-805, including a major widening.
SANDAG officials have consistently said future ridership gains on the toll road would ease the strain on I-805 and allow them to proceed with a smaller widening project for the interstate.
Opportunity cost
One skeptic of SANDAG's purchase said it's important to examine more than the project's revenue and ridership.
The original purchase cost and the "opportunity cost" should also be factored in as well, said Jonathan Peters, a finance professor at the College of Staten Island's School of Business. Peters, who studies toll road financing, said he has followed the fate of the South Bay Expressway, one of the nation's few private toll roads to suffer a severe financial failure.
He said he's surprised that SANDAG bought the operation rights so quickly rather than waiting for the asking price to drop.
"Personally, I think ($341 million) was a pretty high number. … Could (SANDAG) have waited? Could they have pressed the price lower?" Peters said.
The professor did not say how much he felt SANDAG should have paid.
Peters added that SANDAG was likely motivated to buy the toll road, at least in part, to eliminate a non-compete clause held by the expressway's previous operator.
Gary Gallegos, SANDAG's executive director, confirmed that the clause was "a significant factor" in the purchase. He said SANDAG would have had to pay "tens of millions of dollars" to the previous operator if the agency's envisioned improvements for I-805 drew traffic away from the toll road.
Gallegos said he continues to believe that SANDAG "got a good price" on the expressway. He also said SANDAG's board spent more than a year studying the details of the proposed toll road takeover before approving the transaction.
On the issue of opportunity cost, Peters said SANDAG's $341 million investment "means they can't do other priorities."
The agency's officials said that's simply not the case. They forecast that the region's taxpayers will save millions of dollars over the life of the operations lease with the California Department of Transportation, which owns the expressway.
They said building a full four-lane expansion of I-805 would have taken decades and cost taxpayers not only the $192 million construction tab but also an additional $268 million for property condemnation and rebuilding of certain bridges.
Of course, to ensure that SANDAG doesn't have to widen I-805 by that extent, motorists like Karen Davis need to keep taking the South Bay Expressway.
Davis, who was at the toll road's main office in Otay Mesa paying a bill in July, said she used the road frequently when her husband worked nearby.
"It was like smooth sailing," Davis said of the expressway. "It was costly, but I was ready to pay it" because of the time savings and reduce gasoline bill.
SANDAG has taken several marketing steps to boost ridership and build goodwill among the toll road's users.
Last summer, it launched a retail partnership with Costco to expand its customer base. Since then, the agency said, about 3,500 transponders — the electronic toll devices that drivers mount on their windshields — have been distributed through stores in Chula Vista and La Mesa, where Costco members receive $5 in free toll credits.
SANDAG also started the Clean Slate program, which offers discounts on unpaid fines to the roughly 58,000 people with outstanding toll violations. The agency expects that payment of fines will account for only about 5 percent of the expressway's annual budget, said Johnson, the road's program director.
It said outstanding fines, many of which were assessed before SANDAG took over, total about $20 million.
No matter how many incentives SANDAG offers, drivers like Phil Hummell of El Cajon may never be persuaded to try the expressway.
"I'm just philosophically opposed to (paying tolls)," Hummell said recently while pumping gas in Otay Mesa, where he delivers plant nursery products and does some fishing.
firstname.lastname@example.com (760) 529-4929 Twitter:@christhejourno


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Primers are my one of favourite things to try so I was very happy to try this Benefit Stay Don't Stray product:
They say:
You put it underneath your concealer and eyeshadow, and it's packed full of antioxidants and vitamins E & C to protect the skin.
The primer then keeps your concealer and eyeshadow in place and stops pesky creasing.
So this product is:
a. Filled with vitamins
b. To be used BEFORE concealer and foundation – would this be overload? hmmm..possibly as this product is already quite thick.
The product comes in a pump bottle – I love it BUT, its easy to get too much product out and the next thing you know, you've concealed your entire face and look like David Cameron.
Anyway here it is:
In terms of colour, its a pretty beige toned shade – it only comes in one shade so this is for everyone – light, dark, beige, orange…
It looks like it would suit me. I found it a tad ashy in the end, not warm or yellow enough BUT if it goes under concealer then it shouldn't really matter.
This is quite a heavy duty, thick product:
This is how much came out with one small pump! you only need a bit. You dot it around the eyes.
I had to use more than 3 dots cos there was so much product. Waste not, want not:
What is quite unique about this product is that you use it under the eye and on the eyelid which makes it a all-in-one product. I found it definitely kept my eye area brighter and it helped with eyeshadow staying put.
I'd say this plus concealer, might be overkill – I think you could probably just use this then foundation.
Nice product, useful if you need a lot of cover around the eyes or want make up that really stays but.
Beware the colour which might not work for very warm or dark skins and the pump!
Priced at £19 from Boots, Selfridges etc.


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Oct. 21, 2019 -Callista Owens, a junior majoring in violin performance and music education, received financial support from a generous donor which allowed her to continue her education at WSU.
Oct. 14, 2019 - River Vista Boathouse is one-year-old and Wichita State rowing is enjoying benefits of its new home with current students and recruits.
Oct. 8, 2019 - Have you ever wondered what Wu's preferred chicken sandwich is? Or his go-to instrument? Follow along with Maddie as she hits the streets to find out what fellow Shockers are thinking in the first episode of Shockers on the Street.
Oct. 3, 2019 -- Beginning in fall 2021, first-year freshmen will be required to take one first-year seminar course for introduction to life at Wichita State. The courses will not be required for returning or transfer students, but are encouraged for those new to WSU.
Oct. 2, 2019 -- For the first time in nearly 30 years, more than 16,000 students have enrolled for fall classes at Wichita State University. The total headcount at WSU for fall 2019 is 16,058 students, an increase of 274 students, or 1.7%, over fall 2018.
Sept. 30 - If you're ever feeling uninspired, bored or overwhelmed and you need a little kick to keep you moving throughout the day, I have just the solution for you: Fairmount Coffee Co.'s Aztec mocha.
Sept. 26, 2019 - Students Zeeshan Kahn and James Meli, along with alumni Emmanuel Daramola and Billi Meli, recently released their mobile application, aimed at connecting students through campus events. With more than 350 downloads so far, they are excited about the possibilities the app provides.
Sept. 24, 2019 -- Social work senior Kitrina Miller is the 2019-2020 student body president of WSU, and she has a few key ambitions for the university this year. Her chief goals include improvements to student services, increasing information about student fees allocations and strengthening the Student Government Association (SGA) brand.
Sept. 19, 2019 - It's that time of year where students are starting to apply for internships and jobs. It's important to research the positions before applying to get a better perspective of the company and opportunity. The Career Development Center is a great resource to gather information and seek help if you're in a bad situation.
Sept. 19, 2019 - William Flynn, assistant professor of guitar at Wichita State, recently won the Excellence in Creative Activity Award, which recognizes faculty members who have established an exemplary record of creative activity that has brought recognition to the university.
Sept. 17, 2019 – Wichita State University and Kansas State University have combined resources and started the planning phase of a program that will give students the opportunity to earn both a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Health and Human Sciences at KSU, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (BSN) from the College of Health Professions (CHP) at WSU.
Sept. 12, 2019 -- The FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University is hosting its first-ever FirePoint C3 Challenge, inviting university students from around the U.S. to submit their best designs for the Army's future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) intended for next-generation combat and defense.
When the Navy gave Shawn Henderson the opportunity to go to college, she decided to become a Shocker and study social work and criminal justice so that she could advocate for suffering people. Now she has found another family at WSU.
Sept. 4, 2019 -- Walk-A-Mile is an international march to stop rape, sexual assault & gender violence. The event raises awareness about the serious causes and effects of sexual violence.
Sept. 10, 2019 -- Psychology and sociology second-year Jonathan Miller can trace a lot of his success back to lessons learned during his service in the U.S. Navy. After networking his way up to driving a multi-billion-dollar ship, nothing is impossible for him.


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How to Use
Charlottesville is in the Piedmont region of Virginia, about 75 miles west of Richmond, the state capital. In selecting the site for the new state university, Jefferson proposed "a healthier and more central position" than Williamsburg (the location of the College of William and Mary). He suggested that the university might be located "perhaps in the neighborhood of this place [Monticello]."¹
The site which was ultimately selected for the University of Virginia was a piece of land one mile west of Charlottesville that was once owned by James Monroe. The land consisted of farm fields and woodlands amidst the rolling countryside of Albemarle County. It is consistent with Jefferson's long-standing dislike of city life that he chose a rural location removed from the established town. While the University was being built, Jefferson frequently rode the four mile distance from his home at Monticello to the worksite to survey the construction.
1. Locate Williamsburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Washington, D.C. on Map 1.
2. What advantages did Jefferson see in locating the university in the western part of Virginia? What disadvantages might there have been in selecting Charlottesville, as opposed to Williamsburg or Richmond, given 18th-century transportation?
3. The University of Virginia is located a mile outside of Charlottesville. Suggest reasons why Jefferson would prefer a rural setting to an urban one (such as the state capital at Richmond).
* The maps on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Map 1 and Map 2, but be aware that each file may take as much as 40 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.


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I want to share QGIS files and maps which are made by me, to some of my friends through a server. Then I want to know:
- how to establish a server and network to upload QGIS maps and files
- how to upload maps and QGIS files
I refer to the QGIS server instructions, but I couldn't get any favorable result. I want simply understandable instructions.
My system is Windows 7


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South American Youth Girls' Championship set to begin
Rio de Janeiro, November 7, 2013 – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia are ready to participate in the South American Youth Girls' Championship on Friday.
From November 9 to 17, the Colombian city of Popayán will host the second edition of the South American Youth Girls' Championship, which will take place at the Sports Complex in Coliseum. The first edition of the competition was in 2011 in Uruguay.
The host team will be represented by Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Valle, Atlántico and Bogota.
"We have a good team and with some improvement, we will be looking to progress into a higher category," said Coach Oscar Guevara. "We hope to represent Colombia well in the second South American Youth Girls' Championship where the best teams from the continent will participate and compete."
At the beginning of the week, the Argentinian Youth Girls' National Team made its way to Colombia to participate in the South American Championship. Their final preparations for the tournament will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 12 players coached by Guillermo Caceres spent a week training in Brazil in anticipation for the their most important season competition.
Juan Diego's Peruvian team placed second in the International Tournament held in Lima. The tournament was in preparation for the South American Youth Girls' Championship where they will play in the same category as the Dominican Republic, Chile and Uruguay. With the best average height in Peruvian volleyball, in addition to a variety of attackers and one of the best sweepers, the girls have high expectations.
"Achieving first place is the main goal," said captain Lucia Magallanes.


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It looks like a metal marble floating in space. Or the palantír of Orthanc, magically teleported from Middle Earth to 11,000 light years away, in the Cassiopeia constellation. But it's just a visual effect. This is the Bubble Nebula.
Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and right of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and approximately 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud.
It still amazes me how such cosmic violence can generate all this breathtaking beauty. [APOD]


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Today, LV Moms editor Cheryl Lock shares her personal experience selling Mary Kay, and explains why, in the end, it just wasn't the money-making scheme she was led to believe it would be.
Virginia Sole-Smith argues in her Harper's story, "The Pink Pyramid Scheme" that Mary Kay, a nearly 50-year-old institution with a sales force of 2 million women worldwide, is a huge scam.
While I can't speak for every woman who has ever sold Mary Kay, I can tell you my own personal story about working with the Pink Ladies. (I'm calling them that, though I doubt it's something a Mary Kay consultant would call herself.)
My experience working for the company was about six years ago. Though some of the details are fuzzy, I remember the overall process like it was yesterday …
I Was in a New City, and I Was Lonely
My story starts back in 2006 when, as a just-out-of-college graduate, I had followed my then-boyfriend to a little town in northern Florida, where he attended graduate school. I had a journalism degree and big plans to move to New York City to become an editor at a magazine … but that would not be possible in St. Augustine.
I was young and in love, though. No one could reason with me.
I settled in decently enough, but St. Augustine never felt like home. I took freelance jobs at the local paper, then full-time ones at newspapers in neighboring cities. Although I appreciated the experience, I worked mainly with older men and found it hard to make good friends.
Something about living in St. Augustine was lonely, and I felt like the life I envisioned for myself right after college might never come true.
How I Met My First Pink Lady
I met my first Mary Kay contact (let's call her Helen) at a networking event. My first impression was that she seemed great. She was young, beautiful and impeccably dressed. When we first met, she was working as a manager for a spa.
I didn't know right away that Helen was selling Mary Kay–I actually didn't know much about her involvement with the company until she had quit her job to sell Mary Kay full time, and I had quit mine.
It started innocently enough. Helen and I became friendly, so it seemed normal that she would reach out to me upon finding out I was leaving my company. I remember the first phone call happened while I was sunbathing at my apartment complex pool. (Florida wasn't all bad, after all.) It went something like this:
Helen: "It's a shame you're leaving the company, but I wanted to tell you that I've actually left my job, too, and I'm selling Mary Kay full-time."
Me: "Mary Kay, is that the make-up?"
Helen: "Yup. It's so simple to do, and we have a great support team. Our team leader in St. Augustine has made millions. Her husband quit his job, they live in a great house and it's all because of Mary Kay. Is that something you'd ever be interested in?"
Me: "Sounds fun! Sure, I'd try it out."
Have I mentioned how naive I was? This is not to say that I don't think anyone could be successful selling Mary Kay. If you're a true businesswoman willing to put out the time and money to make it happen, you probably could end up making a lot of money.
That just wasn't my experience.
That Very First Phone Call …
I knew going in that Helen would be making money off my sales, and that the person above her was making money off of her. But the way I saw it as a 23-year-old was that Helen really believed in me, and she'd be that much more willing to teach me the ropes.
Instead, Helen passed me off to the all-powerful St. Augustine team leader. Let's call her Marissa. We spent about a half hour on that first call, while Marissa explained to me (again) how fabulous Mary Kay had been for her. She and her husband lived richly, she said.
The husband was able to quit his job and the two of them traveled for Mary Kay all the time. She said she barely had to find new people to sell to because she had such a steady base of customers and such a fabulous team. Not to mention that that company set her up with the elusive pink Cadillac to thank her for her hard work. (According to the Mary Kay site, more than 130,000 sales force members have qualified for use of a "career car," or elected the cash compensation.)
The Dream They Sold Me On
Mary Kay salespeople are individual sellers who each essentially own their own Mary Kay "business." I ordered product from a warehouse, and it was up to me entirely to sell that product for a profit, whether by setting up my own website, acting as a Mary Kay representative at parties hosted by individual people or–and this was my least favorite–literally walking up to people to introduce myself and ask if they wanted or needed makeup.
As a MK representative I would be purchasing product at a 50% discount, and then selling it at full price. I was also required to purchase things to start my business off on the right foot, like mirrors and make-up holders for the parties I'd be attending, sample inventory to test out on people at the parties, sample brushes, sponges, mascara applicators and order cards.
It only makes sense to purchase bulk inventory each time you order, since the shipping fee was flat no matter how much you buy, Marissa explained. And when you're getting started, you should really bulk up, because the last thing you want is to make your customers wait for their products to come in.
So, would I be willing to shell out $350 for my first order?
That might not sound like a lot now, but at the time I was unemployed and had no way of knowing when my next solid paycheck would come in.
I forked over the cash.
Selling Make-Up Was Fun … for a While
I wasn't thrown directly into the lion's den–my first step was to attend Mary Kay "classes," taught by Marissa at a local event space.
I showed up to my first one, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with Helen, and we sat in the front row soaking it all in. I was introduced as a new hire, along with a handful of other women who were also newbies. We watched make-up demonstrations, learned about ways to find new customers and, of course, heard more success stories:
The flexible schedules!
It's not hard to do!
I work from the comfort of my own home!
Armed with tons of inventory, all the supplies I needed to start my sure-to-be-wildly-successful business and my expert knowledge from the classes, I did what every good business owner would do: I started asking all my friends in the area if they'd like to throw a Mary Kay party.
I had only known these people for a handful of months at this point, and they were all, for the most part, grad school classmates of my then-boyfriend. Read: dead broke. "Come on!" I chided. "It'll just be a fun party! Plus, when you host, I can give you a discount on any stuff you buy for yourself!"
And so the parties went, for a little while. I hosted about 5-10 parties, never making much more than $15-$30 from each. I also held a "flash" sale in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, in which I emailed my family and friends to say I would be donating 50% of my proceeds to a breast cancer research fund. In essence, I would be making no profit from a sale. ("What a savvy businesswoman I am!" I thought, when I got a few bites.)
This is the text of an actual email I sent out:
Dear Preferred Customers and Friends,
Exciting news!! I'll come right to the point. I am in a very special
contest right now, and in order to qualify I must have $1,000 in retail sales in
one day! Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Well, I'm hoping this is where we can
help each other …
I was getting desperate. I even manned a booth at a local business fair when Helen dropped out last minute and had already purchased the space. I made business cards, bought ribbon and cellophane wrappers and made up dozens of cute little gift bags containing sample products with my business card.
I handed out about ten of those.
The Beginning of the End
After a few months it was becoming increasingly clear that my days selling Mary Kay were coming to a close. No matter how much a person loves you, none of my friends or family members needed a lifetime supply of microdermabrasion sets. And I was learning that my talent for approaching random people and asking if they'd be interested in make-up was slim to none.
The pros would say I just wasn't doing it the right way, but selling Mary Kay really wasn't the career for me.
I slowly started backing away. I stopped trying to have parties, wasn't attending any more training sessions or picking up the phone when Marissa or Helen called.
Marissa put in a call every week or two in the beginning. I never answered, and her message was always the same: "Come back now and you won't have to pay a re-activation fee for your account! Mary Kay can really make you a lot of money–call me and we can discuss ways to grow your business!"
According to this site, keeping an "active" account means ordering a minimum order of $200 to start, and continuing to purchase $200 wholesale every three months.
In the end, I roughly broke even when you compare the cash I made with what I spent. I did, however, end up with a ton of leftover makeup. Some I used myself, some I gave away and I ended up throwing out a lot more than I would have liked.
I don't regret my experience, but I certainly didn't make any lifelong friends (I haven't spoken to Helen since I left Mary Kay). I definitely didn't come away with any extra cash or skills.
On the plus side, to this day I still carry around leftover Mary Kay Oil-Absorbing Beauty Blotter tissues in my purse.
So at least there's that.
How My Big Sister Made Me Bad With Money
The Mistake That Plunged My Credit 200 Points
Get Ahead At Work With Free Build Your Career Bootcamp
Cheryl Lock is the LV Moms editor at LearnVest. Selling Mary Kay was the final push she needed to break away from her St. Augustine life. A few months after she stopped selling, she moved to New York City and started working in magazines. She's been living the dream ever since.


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The Twitter – Wikileaks Cases and the Battle for the Network Free Press, Now its Personal: an Afternoon with Birgitta Jónsdóttir
A week-and-a-half ago I met up with Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an activist Icelandic MP and central figure in the Twitter-Wikileaks cases (see earlier posts on the topic here, here, here and here). Passing time on Twitter, I saw she was in Ottawa, sent her a tweet, quickly received a reply and presto, we met on a Sunday afternoon with a fellow professor from Ottawa University, Patrick McCurdy.
Jónsdóttir came to our attention after becoming a target of the U.S. Justice Department's ongoing investigation of Wikileaks because of her role as co-producer of the video Collateral Murder. The video documents a U.S. Apache helicopter gunning down two Reuters journalists and several others in Baghdad and was released by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks in April 2010. It marked the beginning of the site's campaign to release what would be the largest cache of US classified material the world has ever seen.
Over the course of 2010, Wikileaks teamed up with five of the world's most respected news outlets — New York Times, The Guardian, Der Speigel, Le Monde and El Pais – to release material that wreaked havoc with the routine conventions of journalism and to set the global news agenda not once, but three more times: (2) the release of the Afghan and (3) Iraq war logs in July and October, respectively, and (4) a cache of diplomatic cables starting in late November.
The response from the U.S. Government was ferocious. The search to find the source of the leaks quickly led to the arrest of U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, in May 2010, and his detention in solitary confinement ever since. Simultaneously, it began shaking down popular U.S. search and social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Google in a bid to gain access to information about people of interest in the Wikileaks investigation.
Birgitta is one of those people, along with Wikileaks front man Julian Assange, Tor developer, activist and Wikileaks volunteer, Jacob Applebaum, as well as Dutch hactivist Ron Gongrijp. Let's call them the "Twitter –Wikileaks Four".
Entering this murky world of state secrets, blacked out documents and unnamed internet companies cooperating with electronic surveillance efforts by the state offers a rude slap to anyone who sees the U.S. as a beacon of democracy, human rights and the free press. In fact, such values seem to have wilted with alarming ease in the face of the national security claims surrounding Wikileaks, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir specifically.
Talking to Jónsdóttir gave us a personal look behind the cool, technical view found in legal briefs and court rulings. And one of the first things she told us is that she no longer sets foot on U.S. soil on the advice of her lawyers and Iceland's State Department, despite having diplomatic immunity on account of being a Member of Parliament in Iceland. Still embroiled in the Wikileaks cases, she has recently joined a lawsuit launched by Noam Chomsky, Noami Wolfe, Christopher Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and others to overturn the National Defense Authorization Act on the basis that its vague definition of terrorists threatens to sweep up dissidents into its maw, thereby threatening their ability to travel freely in the US and worldwide without fear of being arrested.
That we know much at all about how internet companies have been dragooned into the crackdown on Wikileaks is due to the fact that Birgitta, Applebaum and Gongrijp have led the fight with legal support from the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation against such activities in the courts of law and public opinion (Assange has kept his focus elsewhere). And it is for this reason that The Guardian newspaper last month put Birgitta, Applebaum, Twitter's chief lawyer, Alex MacGillivray, and Assange on its list of twenty "champions of the open internet".
MacGillivray made the list primarily because only Twitter had the spine to challenge the Justice Department's "secret orders" (not "court authorized warrants"), whereas all of the other search and social media companies rolled-over and shut-up. This was not just a one-time stance, either. This week Twitter was at it again, pushing to have a court order forcing it to hand-over information about an Occupy Wall Street activist to New York Police over-turned.
Twitter won a modest victory in January 2011 in the first Twitter – Wikileak case when it obtained a court order allowing it to tell Jónsdóttir and the others that the Justice Department was demanding information about their accounts as part of its Wikileaks investigation. The victory also opened a bigger opportunity to discover what other internet companies may have received the Justice Department's secret orders.
Whatever hope was raised by the first Twitter – Wikileaks ruling was dashed by a District Court ruling in the second case last November, however. The ruling was blunt: users of corporate-owned, social media platforms have no privacy rights.
Using the same logic subsequently used in the "Occupy Wall Street" case, the court argued that Jónsdóttir et. al. had no privacy rights because Twitter, Skype, Facebook and Google's business models are based on maximizing the collection and sale of subscriber information. Under such conditions, users alienate whatever privacy rights they might otherwise claim. As the ruling put it, Jónsdóttir and her co-defendants "voluntarily relinquished any reasonable expectation of privacy" by clicking on Twitter's terms of service (p. 28).
With privacy reduced to the measuring rod of corporate business models and a perverse interpretation of its terms of service, Twitter was forced to hand over Jónsdóttir, Applebaum and Gongrijp's account information to the Justice Department: registration pages, connection records, length of service, internet device number, and more.
A last ditch appeal was made by lawyers at the ACLU and EFF last January to reveal which other internet companies had received "secret orders" from the Justice Department. While no one knows for certain who they are, all eyes are on Google, Facebook and Skype (Microsoft). A decision is expected by the end of June, but Jónsdóttir isn't holding her breath.
Pausing to reflect on the personal affects of the Twitter – Wikileaks cases overall, however, she remains upbeat rather than down-trodden.
"You have to completely alter your lifestyle. It's not pleasant, but I don't really care. . . . It's just insults my sense of justice . . . . I would not put anything on social media sites that . . . I don't want on the front pages of the press."
Rather than dwelling on the costs to her personally, however, Jónsdóttir is quick to tie these events into a larger, more daunting picture. In doing so, she wants to prick the fantasy of Obama as a great liberal president and the illusion that the U.S. turned a corner after he replaced Bush as President.
As she reminds us, the Twitter – Wikileaks cases occurred on Obama's watch. The Obama Administration has charged more whistle-blowers (six) than all past presidents combined (three), she offers (also here).
To this, we can add that revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Security Amendments Act in 2008 gave retroactive immunity to companies and ISPs such as AT&T and Verizon for the illegal network surveillance activities they conducted under the Bush regime, with few barriers now standing in the way of their continuing in that role under Obama (see here and here).
These concerns are crystallized in the latest Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index showing that press freedom in the U.S. plummeted from 20th to 47th place between 2010 and 2011. In short, the national security state after 9/11 has not been rolled back but kept intact. Jónsdóttir experience, she wants us to know, is not a fluke.
Glenn Greenwald has made a similar case that positions Wikileaks as being part and parcel of a new kind of journalism that mixes crowd sourcing, the internet and professional journalism. After a recent talk in Ottawa co-hosted by the National Press Club, he also mentioned that Wikileaks had invited journalists to use its material long before all hell broke loose in 2010, but it was the lure of exclusive access in their respective home markets that finally enticed The Guardian, New York Times, Der Speigel, Le Monde and El Pais to the table.
In other words, it was the pull of exclusive rights and private profit, not a good story, that brought the press to Wikileaks' table, and it into the journalistic fold. And seen in that light, Wikileaks serves as a much-needed corrective to lazy and cautious journalism.
Harvard University law professor Yochai Benkler makes a similar case but in a much more systematic and constitutionally grounded way. He also shines a light on how the network free press is being subject to death by a thousand legal and extra-legal cuts when what we need is a strong press to counter the power of the strong state if democracy has a hope in hell of surviving, let alone thriving.
Benkler argues that attempts to bring Wikileaks to heal have involved a dangerous end run around Constitutional protections for the networked fourth estate, i.e. the First Amendment. Pressure from Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, for instance, led webhosting provider Amazon, domain name supplier everyDNS and financial payment providers (Paypal, Visa, Mastercard) in December 2010 to withdraw internet and financial resources that are essential to Wikileaks' operations to exemplify the point.
While government actors are prevented from such actions by First Amendment protections for the press, Lieberman used commercial actors who were, Twitter aside, all-too-willing to serve the state on bended knees, and a campaign to denigrate Wikileaks journalistic standing, to do an end run around such Constitutional restraints. Such actions eliminated the routine financial channels (Paypal, Visa, Mastercard) through which an estimated 90 percent of Wikileaks donor funding flows, and to scramble to find a new domain name provider and webhosting site.
Now of course, some argue that Wikileaks has nothing to do with journalism and the free press. They are wrong.
Remember, it set the global news agenda repeatedly in 2010, mostly by working hand-in-glove with the world's leading newspapers to edit and publish stories. It has won oodles of journalist awards before and after these events, as the following partial list shows: Economist – Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award 2008; Amnesty International human rights reporting award (New Media), UK 2010; Human Rights Film Festival of Barcelona Award for International Journalism & Human Rights, 2010; International Piero Passetti Journalism Prize of the National Union of Italian Journalists, Italy 2011; Voltaire Award of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, Australia 2011; Readers' Choice in Time magazine's Person of the Year (Julian Assange) 2011. The honorifics bestowed on the "Twitter Wikileaks Four" by The Guardian, also referred to earlier, adds yet another.
Awards are nice, and the recognition helps to bestow legitimacy, Jónsdóttir observes, but the real key is to keep pushing the envelope. To that end, she updated us on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) that she and others have spearheaded since the initiative's birth in the Icelandic Parliament in July 2010. IMMI is, in short, a "dream big" project designed to make Iceland a digital free media haven where whistle-blowers are protected by the highest legal standards in the world and the value Net Neutrality formally incorporated into the country's new Constitution that now awaits Parliamentary ratification.
Thus, as she rails against powerful forces on the global stage, Jónsdóttir is helping to build in Iceland a model of information rights, privacy and free speech for the world.
These are important things, she says, because they are all about our history and about making democracy fit for our times. In terms of history, and reaching for the right words, she points to the importance of Wikileaks as
"part of the alchemy of what is going on in the world. . . . The Iraq and Afghan war logs changed how people talk about the wars. It has provided us with a very important part of our record, our history".
As for democracy, "voting every four years is absolutely not democracy, it is just a transfer of power", Jónsdóttir exclaims as our conversation draws to a close. Of course, the rule of law, an open internet, and fighting against the strong state are essential, but these are abstractions unless they are made personal and concrete.
Hmmm, the battle for the open internet and network free press, now its personal. That seems like a great way to think of Birgitta, and our long afternoon together last week.
May 14, 2012 at 1:19 pm


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tammycarpenter necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 72 diseños de 23 diseñadores freelance.
LocalBiz Webmasters
We are a woman owned and operated company that designs, builds, and maintains Websites for small businesses. We work with companies that are willing to help support their local educational facilities by advertising with our sister company, I Support My School. If a company is an advertiser but does not have a Website, we will build them one at a discounted price because they are helping out their local schools. We are very big on education and believe that with our services we can help support our children's future by creating a better tomorrow with better funding through local business support.
The target audience for this logo is small to medium sized businesses that are supporters of local education and the partnership between community and schools. They would be businesses that do not currently have a custom Website and would like one at a discounted price.
- A logo for "LocalBiz Webmasters"
- The logo should imply professionalism and high quality with a focus on business and a very subtle influence in education.
- The logo should be flexible and simple so it can be pad-printed onto multiple mediums; in full color, or black and white.
- The logo should be easy to recognize and easy to remember.
- The logo should be available in multiple formats; including .eps and .ai.
- Suggestions: an abstract or modern logo that includes something "business" or "partnership" related" while also including something subtle that represents education with the main focus being on the business or partnership aspect.
- Colors: the colors being used in the new Website design are as follows: (Hex #'s: 800000, 002764, 536a82, 162534, ffffff, 000000). Other neutral color can be added if necessary, but the main colors should be from the above list.
- Have fun designing this logo and good luck!
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.