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Captain's Report
Reggie Fountain builds boats, fast boats. Since early in his racing days, Reggie has constantly worked towards attaining and improving on the fastest V-hull design out there. This is all very apparent in Reggie's 29 Fever sportboat.The 29 Fever cranks up with a throaty roar that dares others to join her for a little water exercise. Her competition may not be ready for the speed and control this craft offers. The 29 Fever is offered with the recommended single Mercury 500-hp MerCruiser Magnum I tested, or with a single 425-hp 496 MPI Mag, 575 SC EFI MerCruiser. If you opt for twin engines in this boat you'll get a pair of 300-hp 350 MerCruiser Magnums.Boarding the 29 Fever seems safe and comfortable. The eight-foot beam remains stable when boarding and walking around. She carries a fuel capacity of 140 gallons that, depending on speed, will get you from 127 miles to 361 miles of cruising before having to stop for more. We reached planing speed between 2000 and 2500 rpm, in a matter of 4.7 seconds. The feel of speed is immediate on this boat, and you definitely feel the force as you add throttle. The advantages of Reggie's hull design become apparent when you are moving at top speed and run through performance turns without the dreaded skip, slide, or chine walking many others give at lower speeds.Up front, you have an anchor locker and bow rails. There's plenty of room to spread out for sunning, but it's not an area to ride when the boat is underway. Pop up cleats are also in this area and maintain the smooth surface when stowed. The cockpit is protected by a full framed wraparound windshield that does not block the view of the driver. All controls are easy to reach at the helm. The three-spoke wheel presents minimal obstruction, and racing influenced the placement of the Gaffrig instruments. The throttle and drive controls are located on the left, so be prepared to do some training for your visitors if they want to try their hand at driving. Trim tabs and drive position is indicated with mechanical indicators which are easy to read even at top speeds. In addition, the steering is very responsive thanks to the hydraulic system. The bolsters have bottom cushions that are power driven and are very comfortable for long-range trips. The seats drop away for the fast runs and safely hold you in position, even in the tightest turns. When you are cruising, you can easily bring the seat up for a comfortable ride. The ultra leather seating continues with a bench behind the driver and companion seat. Here three more people can rest in luxury and comfort. Even after an hour of hard riding and testing, all seats remained comfortable.Using the standard power lift, you will find all the essential checkpoints on the power plant easy to reach. Fountain left plenty of room in the single engine configuration to get to all areas in the engine compartment. With the engine hatch closed, the cover makes a comfortable padded area to soak up the sun. The pad also is good to your feet when you are coming back aboard. Getting aboard is simple using the folding swim ladder on the integrated swim platform.Accommodations below are ample for two people overnighting, yet can handle up to four thanks to a privacy curtain for some separation. A small galley with pressurized water; porta-potti and a built-in ice chest make the long days on the water much more inviting. You can upgrade to a refrigerator if you plan more than day trips. A lengthy list of 48 items is standard aboard the 29 Fever. And you have an equally lengthy list of optional items.Our test boat reached 67.6 mph carrying four beefy crew, gear and a nearly full tank of fuel for the day. Competing for speed was a 20 mph wind and the waves that go with it. Fountain claims this model can go over 70 mph and I believe that under best conditions it probably can. I found best cruise at a comfortable 2500 rpm that gave this boat a cruise of 30.2 mph (26.3 knots) and a range of 361 miles. This means I got an incredible 2.86-mpg in a boat that is built for speed!If you want a boat that will grab everyone's attention from the moment you're cranked up to the seconds it takes to become a fuzzy image on the horizon to those watching, be sure to check out Fountain's 29 Fever. This boat just might be for you!By Capt. Bob SmithTest Captain
Test Result Highlights
- Top speed for the Fountain 29 Fever is 76.0 mph (122.3 kph), burning 39.8 gallons per hour (gph) or 150.64 liters per hour (lph).
- Best cruise for the Fountain 29 Fever is 30.2 mph (48.6 kph), and the boat gets 2.86 miles per gallon (mpg) or 1.22 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 361 miles (580.97 kilometers).
- Tested power is 1 x 500-hp MerCruiser 500 MAG EFI.
Standard and Optional Features
|CD Stereo
|Head: Portable
|Trim Tabs
Exterior Features
|Outlet: 12-Volt Acc
|Swim Ladder
|Cockpit Cover
Full Warranty Information on this brand coming soon!
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The recreation yard on Alcatraz. The prisoners on Alcatraz were allowed to use this yard on saturdays and sundays only. Prisoners would spend their time here playing bridge, various sports, etc.
The Bay Area is renowned for its natural beauty, affluence, diversity, and progressive thinking new age reputation. Lots of ammenities, tours and hotels can be found all around the area.San Francisco is the cultural and financial center of the Bay Area, and has the second highest population density of any major city in North America after New York City. It is also a major tourist destination, and transport and accommodation is plentiful, ranging from luxury hotels to cheap accommodation. San Jose is the largest city in terms of population, land area, and industrial development, and is the center of Silicon Valley, a well-known high technology region. Oakland is a major manufacturing and distribution center, rail terminus/hub, and has the fourth largest container shipping port in the United States.Largely because of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the Bay Area presently ranks second only to the much larger New York City region in number of Fortune 500 company headquarters (April 2010 Fortune Magazine). source: wikipedia

subset: commoncrawl


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This model and Operating System is not supported by Dell.
Legacy BIOS
Recommended hardware Upgrades
SSD – Solid State Drives
- This unit accepts a 2.5″ Form Factor SATA SSD see Upgrading to a Solid State Drive
- The Optical Drive can be converted into a HDD bay with a 12.7 mm Optical Bay Second SATA to IDE HDD Caddy CD-ROM for Laptop
It is recommended to upgrade it to 4-8 GB of RAM (8 GB Unofficial):
- Crucial Part 4 GB: http://www.crucial.com/uk/upgrade/Dell-memory/Latitude/Latitude+D830-upgrades.html
- Crucial Part 8 GB: http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Dell-memory/Latitude/Latitude+D630-upgrades.html
Refer to the Service Manual when performing hardware upgrades. Note the 64 Bit version is recommended and required to utilise all the RAM.
Windows OS
Windows 7 and 8.1 are now obsolete if you have these Operating Systems you should use them to take the Free Upgrade to Windows 10.
If you don't have a Windows 7/8.1 license you have until the 2nd of October 2015 to upgrade to Windows 10 for free using the Windows 10 Insider 10130 as a stepping stone. See Free Upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 10 (also works with Windows XP).
OS Updates
System utilities
- Dell System Software [Windows 7 Only]
- Intel 965GM [Variant A]
- nVidia Quadro NVS 135M [Variant B]
- Conexant Modem D330 Driver
- Conexant Modem Application
- Conexant Modem Diagnostics
- Conexant Modem Utility
- Conexant Modem HTML
Try in order latest first, if it doesn't work try for an older version.
For Windows 8.1 the audio driver is inbuilt to the OS and the registry file or older SigMatel Driver should not be installed.
- Dell Quickset
- Dell Webcam Central
- Dell ControlPoint System Manager A21. Version 1.7.10000 Update Package Windows 7 64 bit
- Dell ControlPoint System Manager A19, Version 1.7.00000 Hard Drive Version Windows 7 64 bit
Dell Backup and Recovery
Note this system won't be able to boot from a Rescue Disk (external hard drive) so make a Factory Backup (Bootable USB Flash Drive).


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Matt Ribaudo needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 28 designs submitted by 13 freelance designers.
Looking for a clean cutting edge logo for a direct response media management agency.
Precision Media Management specializes in the micro-management of a marketers media dollars to ensure that media placement is specific and precise to that marketers campaign; therefore giving them the best return on investment for their media.
Precision Media Management
See short summary
- crisp
- clean
- precise
- cartoon characters
- playfullness
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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What a difference a day makes, especially when they both start at the same time. For the sake of comparison let's lookat the morning of Thursday, April 17, the date of Pope Benedict's Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, and the morning of Sunday, April 20, a papal Mass-less day in the nation's capital. Both days started at 3:35 a.m. — not that either one was intended to start that early.
Thursday, April 17
3:35 a.m.: Wake up. Alarm is set for 4 a.m. Why bother returning to the pillow and risking oversleeping? Put on clothes. Fill pockets and shoulder bag with all necessary devices required for modern news reporting. Tell wife she can turn off the alarm.
3:48 a.m.: In the car, headed for the designated "media hotel." Its parking garage is full. Risk a ticket by parking on the street (no ticket was issued; turns out the police had other things on their mind).
4:05 a.m.: Arrive at hotel, get last of eight credentials to assure entry into Nationals Park.
4:30 a.m.: Get a back seat on the every-half-hour media shuttle.
4:45 a.m.: Arrive at Nationals Park, or at least as close as security will let us. Total commute time: 15 minutes.
5:15 a.m.: Through security, into the press box. Now's the time to get my bearings before an assembly of 46,000 or so arrive. Wait — they've started trickling in ahead of schedule. Go down to the concourse and conduct interviews on every papal Mass-related subject imaginable.
8:25 a.m.: Return to press box. CNS Rome bureau chief has imagined a story subject you didn't imagine. Go back down to conduct more interviews.
9:15 a.m. Back in the press box, this time in my seat pretty much for good. Start writing copy for others' stories, and your own. Can't let the popemobile's entrance slow you down too much.
9:57 a.m.: The Mass begins, a few minutes early — at least according to the Nationals Park clock.
11:57 a.m.: The Mass is ended. Go in peace. Might as well keep writing while the faithful fan out of the ballpark.
Sunday, April 20
3:35 a.m.: Up again. Oh, well. The body tells you it's not going to let you sleep any more. What are you going to do? The answer: laundry. The first five of seven loads eventually get washed.
3:45 a.m.: The New York Times arrives. Get all but three sections of it read before the Washington Post plops onto the porch. Get a third of its sections read.
6:45 a.m.: Shower and dress for church.
7:10 a.m.: Drive to church.
7:18 a.m. Arrive at church. Total commute: eight minutes — and that's after passing a chuch closer to my house.
7:30 a.m.: The Mass begins.
8:37 a.m.: Back in the car for the commute home.
8:45 a.m.: Home again. Another load of laundry. Breakfast. Wash dishes. Fold dry laundry. Folding is a lot more labor-intensive than washing.
10:16 a.m.: Head to the farmers' market a mile and a half from home to buy produce.
10:47 a.m.: Back home. More dry laundry to fold. The seventh load to wash. Change from church clothes to more comfortable garb for an office where the work will continue long after the air conditioning's been turned off.
11:10 a.m.: Finish reading the Post — barely — before putting that last load in the dryer, telling a charity telemarketer to call back next week.
11:49 a.m.: Back to the office.


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The sea of information available to scholars and researchers can seem impossibly vast. But, with the help of a new grant, Cornell University Library, in collaboration with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and Stanford University Libraries, aims to make that sea easier to navigate.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a nearly $1 million, two-year grant to Cornell to support an investigation using Linked Data and the Semantic Web to improve discovery and access of scholarly information by the three libraries.
The Semantic Web is a set of conventions for making the human-readable information communicated on web pages more understandable and reusable by computers. Linked Data is a way of expressing data in large "clouds" on the Internet so that computers can make connections among different collections with a minimum of prior agreement.
"Currently, a lot of information about books, articles, and cultural materials that could make them easier to find and understand is hidden in scattered systems across many libraries," said Dean Krafft, the Library's Chief Technology Strategist. "We have an opportunity to use Linked Data as a common format to bring together all that scattered information. At Cornell, we've been working with the Semantic Web for more than a decade, and we're very pleased that the Mellon Foundation has given us the opportunity to further that work with our colleagues at Harvard and Stanford."
Ultimately, the goal of the project is to create a system that pulls information out of its existing silos — like library catalogs, finding aids, reading lists and more — into a common format that people can use to find and understand information. This new system would apply to all scholarly and creative disciplines, including the sciences, the arts and the humanities.
"This project will directly benefit students, scholars and researchers around the world, and it will indirectly benefit everyone who makes use of the work those people produce," Krafft added.
"Our Lab is excited about the chance to work with such leading partners on a project that can make it easier for libraries to openly share more and more of what they know — not just about their content but about how that content is being used," said David Weinberger, co-director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab.
Stanford University Libraries, like Cornell and Harvard's libraries, has had a long running interest in leveraging Linked Data for navigating information. "One of the exciting prospects for this project is that we will be testing the usability and utility of the data that is produced. Many elements of this grant project overlap with the Technology Plan developed as part of the Stanford Linked Data Workshop in 2011 and provide us opportunity for great collaboration across three library systems," concluded Tom Cramer, Chief Technology Strategist at Stanford University Libraries.
For more information
Learn more about Cornell University Library, the Harvard Library and the Harvard Library Innovation Lab, Stanford University Libraries and the Stanford Linked Data Workshop.


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Books Slideshow: 9 Lamest Business Book Clich?s and Conventions
By Ericka Chickowski | Posted 02-27-2009
Business books are a lot like fitness books. You read them for inspiration, maybe for a stray bit of wisdom here and there. But mostly you read them to beat yourselves in the head with stuff you already know.
We get that, really we do, and we understand that part of the reason why hundreds of business books come off the presses every year with the same repackaged information is because people still need to learn those lessons.
Still, a few of the clichés, conventions and genres seem tired enough to warrant an intervention.
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The Marble Framework has got two major design goals:
The KML standard itself describes the properties of a data model for maps:
GeoData holds the data model that is internally used for any geographic information which should be rendered. It deals whith the data only, drawing is performed elsewhere.
GeoDataDocument describes a document.
A model representation is built through parsing of files and creating a stack of GeoDataObject representing its data. The Geodata objects are all modeled after the Google KML files as defined in the KML documentation.


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Home / Browse / Category / Counties, Cities, and Towns / Counties / Union County
County seat:
El Dorado
November 2, 1829
Parent counties:
Clark, Hempstead
41,639 (2010 Census)
1,039.21 square miles (2010 Census)
Historical population as per the U.S. Census:
Population Characteristics as per the 2010 U.S. Census:
African American
American Indian
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Some Other Race
Two or More Races
Hispanic Origin (may be of any race)
Population Density
40.1 people per square mile
Median Household Income (2009)
Per Capita Income (2005–2009)
Percent of Population below Poverty Line (2009)
At more than 1,000 square miles, Union County is the state's largest geographically. Ninety percent of the county is forested. Forage and hay are raised for livestock, but no row crops are cultivated. Nearly one-quarter of the work force is employed in manufacturing, primarily in petrochemical, poultry processing, and wood products operations.
Louisiana Purchase through Early StatehoodIn November 1829, the territorial legislature formed Union County from parts of Hempstead and Clark counties. The next spring, the county court convened at the former colonial trading post of Ecore Fabre (now Camden in Ouachita County) on a bluff overlooking the Ouachita River. In 1837, county officers anticipated that a pending division of the county would slice away the Ecore Fabre region and approved the relocation of the county seat farther down the river to another port, Scarborough's Landing (later renamed Champagnolle). Over the following two decades, three counties and parts of six others were carved from the original Union County. Reflecting a changing economy, many residents in 1843 signed a petition requesting that the county seat be moved inland from the river floodplain and closer to major cotton farms. Three commissioners asked Matthew Rainey to surrender 160 acres he had preempted on a ridge that was the county's highest point, about twelve miles from the river. A surveyor platted the newly christened El Dorado, and officials approved $200 to build a courthouse on the town square.
Immigrants from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi spurred a rapid population growth in the 1840s, followed by a slower rise in the next decade. More than half of the 12,288 residents in 1860 were slaves. About five percent of the landholders were planters (holding twenty or more slaves), and a third of the county's slaves labored on these larger farms. Besides raising corn, Union County was second in the state in the production of peas, beans, and sweet potatoes.
By 1833, Methodist circuit riders conducted church services in cabins, while a Primitive Baptist congregation met in the southeast part of the county. About 1843, residents of Scotland, immigrants from the Carolinas who clung to their Scottish ancestry, organized the first Presbyterian church; soon after, Reverend William Lacy from that congregation established a Presbyterian church in the new county seat. Records indicate that a school was operating in south Union County by 1838. In 1843, Lacy and his wife, Julia, formed El Dorado's first private academy in their small home. After two years, he left to manage his plantation and turned his students over to Elizabeth Banks, who founded what became El Dorado Female Institute (current site of South Arkansas Community College). The school occupied land donated by Albert Rust, the first U.S. congressman from Union County.
Civil War through ReconstructionA planter dedicated to stability and order, Rust was skeptical of secessionist radicals leading to Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. Yet by the time Arkansas seceded in May 1861, Rust favored disunion and would become a Confederate brigadier general. Though local historians boasted that 1,200 to 1,500 Union County men mustered into the Confederate military, the 1860 census counted only 1,219 white males age twenty to fifty. As was true elsewhere in Arkansas, some landowners set out for Texas with their slaves during the war. No battles were fought in Union County, although residents suffered from bushwhackers as Confederate control of southwest Arkansas diminished.
White landowners had enjoyed considerable wealth in antebellum Union County. While the war led to widespread devastation, prewar plantation families retained their land and position. Falling cotton prices throughout the late nineteenth century pushed many farmers into tenancy, but this was less pronounced in Union County than in other old plantation districts. Immigrants in the 1870s spurred a rise in black residents that exceeded the increase in the county's white population. The newcomers forged new lives in the midst of the faltering cotton economy. Black land ownership at the turn of the century exceeded state averages. In 1870, Reverend Joseph Henry became the first pastor of the El Dorado Baptist Church, which became the largest black congregation in the county.
The Gilded Age through Early Twentieth CenturyBy 1897, a school for black students in El Dorado was in session. In 1908, Washington High School began enrolling generations of African Americans; it closed in 1969 under district-wide integration.
The construction of railroads in the 1890s led to the county's greatest economic transformation between the Civil War and the 1920s oil boom. On July 4, 1891, the first passenger train arrived in El Dorado from Camden on a line that the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern quickly acquired. The railroads created the local timber industry. In 1892, J. S. Cargile formed a partnership with some El Dorado businessmen to build a sawmill and a town for workers on Lourtre Creek. The partners formed the Arkansas Southern rail company to extend the Iron Mountain line from El Dorado to the mill. This transit artery led to the founding of Smackover and Junction City as rail terminals; the Union Saw Mill Company built a line in 1904 to the new mill site of Huttig, soon the county's largest sawmill community. This north-south network supplanted the east-west system between the old river landings and the interior region.
The advent of automobiles and fuel demands during World War I sparked oil exploration in the region. The first Union County leases were bought in 1914, but initial test wells near Urbana and the Columbia County line were dry. In 1921, Dr. Samuel Busey, who had invested in oil leases in Bolivia, arrived in El Dorado and quickly bought a hotel and interest in an oil well. On January 10, 1921, his well erupted with a thick column of oil that soiled clothes on wash lines a mile away. The rural market center was unprepared to become a boomtown. Hotels and rooming houses overflowed, and tent-covered cot spaces, restaurants, and shops went up along South Washington Street. A newspaper reporter noted that a person walking along what became known as "Hamburger Row" could "purchase almost anything from a pair of shoes to an auto, an interest in a drilling tract or have your fortune told."
Smackover became the second oil boomtown when a discovery oil well confirmed in July 1922 what an earlier gas explosion at a well site had indicated: the Smackover field held tremendous reserves of crude. By 1925, nearly 3,500 wells were pumping sixty-nine million barrels of oil, the greatest rate in the world. The influx of wildcatters and oil field workers overwhelmed local authorities.
The oil booms introduced a new industrial elite into a state where the alluvial cotton-growing region had been the traditional source of wealth. For the rest of the twentieth century, Union County was at the top of per capita income for the state. The county also was among the first to suffer from industrial pollution. The saltwater that surfaced with oil was released to turn surrounding creeks into undrinkable bogs and forests into a scorched landscape. A visitor arriving by train in 1937 recalled, "I wondered what I had come to, it looked like a moonscape." Environmental efforts would not begin to undo the damage until the end of the century.
Without effective state regulation, drillers ignored basic recovery practices, and production declined markedly by the 1930s. But the county found relief from the Great Depression when the Lion Oil Refining Company financed discovery wells in Shuler Field in 1937. Thomas H. Barton acquired the refining company in 1928 and soon joined Harvey Couch as one of the state's most notable capitalists and its pioneering philanthropist. His financial support for the state livestock fair and the university medical school were accompanied by large donations to youth organizations. But Barton was a disappointed office seeker, losing to J. William Fulbright in the 1944 race for U.S. Senate. In 1956, Barton sold his company to the Monsanto Corporation. Charles H. Murphy, who took over Murphy Oil Corporation in 1941, kept the family-owned company headquartered in El Dorado and exerted statewide influence through membership on private and public governing boards.
World War II through Modern EraWith the onset of World War II, Union County's industrial base attracted the attention of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Entering a unique partnership with Lion Oil, the Corps supplied $28 million for construction of the Ozark Ordnance Plant to produce ammonium nitrate. The private company oversaw the operation of the plant and acquired it for a fraction of the construction costs at the end of the war. In 1983, the enterprise became El Dorado Chemical, which continued to make explosives as well as fertilizer. World War II encouraged dramatic growth in manufacturing, and state lawmakers authorized local communities to provide financial incentives to attract industry. Union County established one of the first industrial development organizations, enticing Jess Merkle to build a large-scale poultry processing plant that became the largest employer in El Dorado. Beginning in 1965, Great Lakes Corporation processed the underground brine into a variety of brominated products, including flame retardants.
Despite the manufacturing expansion, the county's population declined steadily after the war. Yet in the face of the loss of manufacturing jobs throughout the state in the 1990s, that sector held its own in the county. New glossy brochures and websites integrated tourism into the campaign to jolt the economy. These new advertisements highlighted the refurbishment in the 1990s of El Dorado's downtown square into a historic district. Beginning early in the twentieth century, the Army Corps of Engineers built and maintained a lock and dam system designed to boost navigation on the Ouachita River. Although the shipped tonnage failed to match local economic boosters's expectations, water-level management aided boating, hunting, and fishing. The navigation project sustained the Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge, the world's largest green-tree reservoir. The pools at the dams on the river provided an alternative water source in the early twenty-first century to the underground Sparta Aquifer, depleted by decades of industrial consumption.
For additional information:Buckalew, A. B., and R. W. Buckalew. "The Discovery of Oil in Southern Arkansas, 1920–1924." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 33 (Autumn 1974): 196–220.
Cordell, Anna Harmon. Dates and Data of Union County Arkansas, 1541–1948. Monroe, AR: Century Printing and Publishing Co., 1984.
Green, Juanita Whitaker. "The History of Union County Arkansas." N.p.: 1954.
Kent, Caroline. "Uncle Sam Needs Your Resources: A History of the Ozark Ordnance Works." South Arkansas Historical Journal 5 (Fall 2005): 4–20.
Parker, Scott. "A Changing Landscape: Environmental Conditions and Consequences of the 1920s Union County Oil Booms." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 60 (Spring 2001): 31–52.
Ragsdale, John G. "Shuler Drilling Company." South Arkansas Historical Journal 1 (Fall 2001): 15–21.
Tracks and Traces. El Dorado, AR: Union County Genealogical Society (1977–).
Whitfield, Ben T. "El Dorado's Two-Year Colleges." South Arkansas Historical Journal 1 (Fall 2001): 4–14.
Ben JohnsonSouthern Arkansas University
Last Updated 10/9/2018
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NASHVILLE— Some memories of Adnan Hodzic's early childhood come to him only in flashes.
Hodzic, a forward at Lipscomb who is the top returning scorer in the nation, never had a plastic basketball hoop or an orange foam basketball growing up. He rarely even went outside to play. Instead, Hodzic remembers running through the streets of Sarajevo with his mother with bullets flying.
"It's really hard to remember, man," Hodzic says. "I remember a lot of war stuff. You know—bombs, gun shots, hiding. I also remember a loving family. Beautiful country. Granted, a lot of stuff I remember is bad."
Hodzic, who averaged 22.7 points per game last season and won Atlantic Sun player of the year honors, was the first in his family to touch a basketball. For a time, neither Hodzic nor his family knew if he'd have the opportunity to do even that, much less that his mother, father and older sister Amina one day would be able to drive a few hours to watch him play college basketball.
Hodzic is 21. He was 3 when Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. With his father, Mehmed, in the Bosnian army and a home in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, Adnan was in the middle of one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts since World War II.
NASHVILLE— Some memories of Adnan Hodzic's early childhood come to him only in flashes.


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Blizzard Says DRM Is A Losing Battle, Better To Focus On Positive Value
from the focus-on-your-fans,-not-your-enemies deptA bunch of folks have sent over variations on the story that video gaming company Blizzard has said that DRM is a losing battle. While that part is catchy, even more impressive is the overall reasoning, which is that it just makes a lot more sense to focus on adding value for the people who do want to pay, rather than worrying about the folks who don't want to pay:
"The best approach from our perspective is to make sure that you've got a full-featured platform that people want to play on, where their friends are, where the community is," he added.Now this is definitely good news. We're hearing more and more stories where content creators are realizing that wasting so much effort on stopping people who would never buy in the first place is a waste of time. It's much more productive (and useful) to focus on giving people better reasons to buy. And, Blizzard has been known to experiment creatively with that in the past as well. For example, we recently wrote about the virtual goods it was selling in the game, as well as selling some physical goods as well.
"That's a battle that we have a chance in. If you start talking about DRM and different technologies to try to manage it, it's really a losing battle for us, because the community is always so much larger, and the number of people out there that want to try to counteract that technology, whether it's because they want to pirate the game or just because it's a curiosity for them, is much larger than our development teams.
"We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology."
That said, Blizzard also does have a history of less inspiring behavior. The company is still fighting a questionable lawsuit over whether or not the creator of a bot is guilty of copyright infringement. It's also been very aggressive in sending out cease-and-desist letters to fan sites. And, worst of all, the company had announced that it would remove LAN support from StarCraft II in an effort to fight "piracy."
So, while it's good to hear these words suggesting a focus on adding more value, rather than fighting at the technology level, the company does have some legacy issues to overcome as well.
Filed Under: drm, reasons to buy, video games
Companies: blizzard


text: The complexity of industrial machinery continually outstrips itself with the advent of new technologies and increased global competition. Your company's position in the field depends on producing ever safer, more efficient, highly functional machines that comply with national and international regulations. We enable you to reach these essential goals with services carried out by experienced engineers and designed to assist you in providing machines for the modern industrial market: safe, sustainable, reliable and sophisticated. We are a notified body with accredited laboratories and a global presence, promoting safety in industrial settings and committed to helping you produce or operate cutting-edge industrial machines.


text:
Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence Look Out at 'Catching Fire' Shots Final Scenes
No doubt there's been a Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence look out this week. Catching Fire has made an emergency decision to shoot some finals scenes at Ringwood State Park in northern New Jersey.
Loyal fans of the Hunger Games series had thought all scenes for its sequel had been shot but they were wrong. A permit was filed "for a commercial film shoot at Ringwood State Park and Ramapo Mountain State Forest for GGX Productions under the film name, The Idiom."
There was widespread belief this was a fake title also used for casting calls for Catching Fire.
"The permit called for scouting of the locations on Tuesday and Wednesday with filming Thursday and Friday with any extra days to be determined. State Parks Police at the entrance to Ringwood State Park said the entire park was closed Friday and would re-open Saturday."
There have been previous times when scene locations were leaked and security had to be on hand to deal with onlookers and fans. Chances are the same thing happened this time because "park security would not allow a Record photographer to get close to the set."
Catching Fire has become one of the most anticipated movies and fans love getting behind the scenes or into the scenes when they can. If there's a chance Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence were filming, their following would have on the stake out. They have a chemistry that many wish would grow into a solid friendship that many admire.
Which celebrity would you camp out all night to catch a glimpse of? Would it be Joshifer?


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But that's not the important part. The important part is that I. AM. ABOUT. TO. BE. FAMOUS. The director has put out a casting call in my building for extras. Which means you are about to see me on the big screen. Or the tv screen. Or ummmm, online. I'm not really sure how big this movie is going to be. Today the director is walking around in the parking lot pointing at businesses and gesturing wildly with a crowd of 15 people and they're all wearing sunglasses which kind of seems Hollywood-ish, but only one of them is hot and young and the rest are basically boring and kind of overweight and older so maybe this is only going to be a made for tv movie. But who cares because I am all over this shit.
So I went to the production website and it's all "We will need 300-400 extras for a July 4th celebration scene" and "if interested, please send your name, age, email and general availability". I worked all night on my resume. I mean, it doesn't specifically ask for a resume but I figure it's implied for those with previous acting experience such as myself. So I was all *type type type* and Captain Carl was all "Whatcha doing?" and I was all "Writing my acting resume" and he was all "Gah?" and I was all "For the movie they are filming by my office" and he was all "You've never been in a movie" and I was all "I have plenty of acting experience" and he was all "What role are you trying out for?" and I was all "An extra" and he was all "You have to audition to be an extra?" and I was all "Probably. I don't know. It doesn't matter because once they see my resume? Blam!" and he was all "Blam?" and I was all "Blam! Front of the crowd extra".
I think you'll all agree that I'm a shoe in....
Resume for Miss Yvonne – Actress Not Appreciated In Her Own Time
1977 – Peter Rabbit
Martin Luther Elementary School
Played role of Mother Rabbit in Mrs. Vandervolt's morning kindergarten class production.
Noteworthy – Managed to completed both lines of dialogue despite having a crush on boy playing Peter Rabbit and peeing pants minutes before the curtain rose.
1986 – America The Prosperous
Roosevelt Middle School
Co-starring role in video on American Capitalism for Mr. Benson's 6th grade economics lesson.
Noteworthy – Let Nathan Johnson grab boob under costume without anyone noticing.
1991 – Pop Singers
Buffalo Gap High School
Co-starring role in year long production of 50's and 60's inspired song and dance routines.
Noteworthy – Totally rocked mall bangs and a spiral perm. Managed to make a tuxedo shirt and ankle length skirt look sexy while pretend surfing to a Beach Boy's song.
1992 – Santa Lucia Festival
First Lutheran Church
Starring role of Santa Lucia in Christmas pageant.
Noteworthy – Wore a crown of burning candles on head. For reals.
Special skills:
Can kind of play the piano.
Know sweet dance moves such as the Roger Rabbit and the Sprinkler.
Good at reciting hip slang phrases, such as "Oh no you didn't!", "You go girl!" and "Bitch please".
Went to a taping of Charles in Charge once. Waved at Willie Aames. Pretty sure he saw me.
In possession of a blonde 70's afro wig. Willing to wear it whenever.
Can do that cool Bollywood dancing hand move thingy.
Giant man hands. See above.
Can recite any line from Pee Wee's Big Adventure upon command.
Strong background in character acting. See below for examples of my work:
See you on the big/small screen, bitches.


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Why the law is foreign to Ginsberg
By Selwyn Duke
There is an old saying, "A man who is capable of deceiving only others is not nearly as dangerous as a man who is capable of deceiving himself." Truer words were never spoken. When a person lies, he is deceiving others about reality, but at least knows he is engaging in deception. But when someone rationalizes – which is when you lie to yourself – he is truly lost. He then not only bends reality for others as a by-product of bending it for himself, but he can render untruths without having to lie. This is because a lie is when you tell an untruth knowing it's untrue. It's much like when the ever-prevaricating George Costanza character on Seinfeld gave his advice for beating a polygraph machine, "just remember . . . it's not a lie if you believe it."
I think of this when I hear Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg tout the use of foreign law by American judges sworn to uphold the Constitution – that would be our constitution. Speaking about this recently at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, she said,
Well, you know what? I believe her. She and her fellow travelers really don't understand. That is, they don't grasp the correct legal philosophy well enough to understand what they're rejecting.
Note that I called the legal philosophy "correct" and not "strict constructionism," and for good reason. When you call it correct, it follows that other positions are incorrect. But what is the other side of the coin of constructionism? It would be living-document legal philosophies. To accept these categorizations implies that we just have a bunch of different credible perspectives on constitutional law, and who is to say what is correct? Call it, legal relativism. But more on this in a moment.
At her speech at Moritz College, Ginsberg served notice that – like so many in legal circles today – she is in fact very confused about her role on the bench. As an example of this, Adam Liptak at The New York Times tells us,
"She added that the failure to engage foreign decisions had resulted in diminished influence for the United States Supreme Court.
The Canadian Supreme Court, she said, is 'probably cited more widely abroad than the U.S. Supreme Court.' There is one reason for that, she said: 'You will not be listened to if you don't listen to others.'"
This is a striking statement, and it vindicates something I've long believed. I once wrote that part of the problem with our judges is that they're not content to just be judges. A judge is much like an umpire at a baseball game. It's not his place to make or alter the rulebook (Constitution); his is simply to determine whether or not it has been violated. And whether he likes or dislikes a given rule should be of no consequence.
Yet today we have judges who would be kings. They're not satisfied to just umpire; that's too small a role for them. They want to be agents of activism, molders of men, shapers of society – and they want the ego satisfaction attending such status. They want to be respected by their peers around the world, fellow members of the global judicial class. This is evidenced in Ginsberg's statements. Why should she care if the Canadian Supreme Court is cited more than ours? Popularity doesn't equate to perspicacity. After all, rap stars are far more popular than the most sublime moral philosophers. And, as for the matter of whether foreigners listen to her court, here's a newsflash: It matters not to normal Americans whether they do or not. Foreigners are not governed by American law; thus, our judges' rulings may be irrelevant to them. And foreign rulings should certainly be irrelevant to our judges.
Thus, it seems these things matter to Ginsberg because she isn't satisfied with her role (a common failing of man). She wants prestige and respect; she wants to set trends. Perhaps she should have started a cult. I hear there's some land available in northwestern Guyana.
Yet, living-document justices are comforted in their misfeasance by rationalizations they conjure up to justify it. One that Ginsberg has used is to criticize the view that the Constitution is "stuck in time." But she has it wrong. It is not stuck in time but stuck in law. Law can be changed through legal measures – in the case of the Constitution, the amendment process – but until then it's supposed to be "stuck." The alternative to being stuck in law is being subject to the caprice of those with greater power. This would mean that you could appear before a judge and he could rule based on whim or that a policeman could arrest you because he believed he had just experienced an epiphany about what the law should be. In other words, this thinking is no different from the rule of kings, where a Herod could deliver John the Baptist's head on a plate to please his wife. It is why G.K. Chesterton said, "There are only two ways of governing: by a rule and by a ruler." It is why we should have "the rule of law" and not the rule of lawyers.
And this is why some of us have likened our Supreme Court to a de facto oligarchy. After all, on what basis does an oligarchy rule? Its members make decisions guided by nothing more than the dictates of their own consciences. Thus, people can put as much lipstick on this pig as they want. They can wrap their living-document legal philosophy in a million pseudo-intellectual arguments. But, at the end of the day, it boils down to might makes right. When justices depart from constitutional constraints, they cannot be voted out of office or fired. The only thing constraining them then is their own consciences – just as with an oligarchy
This is why I would have far more respect for someone who overtly defies the law (think Martin Luther King and civil disobedience) and simply refuses to comply. For he is deceiving neither himself nor others. He is simply saying that the law is wrong, that it violates a higher law and that it's the duty of all good people to defy it. It is the difference between an open declaration of war and the use of subterfuge and subversion.
This brings us to a question. If Supreme Court Justices can rule contrary to the letter and spirit of the supreme law of the land on the basis that the Constitution is not "stuck in time," why can lower courts not apply the same reasoning to what is called "settled law" (areas where the Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution "definitively")? After all, how can law ever be "settled" if it can never be viewed as "stuck"? Why can a lower court not say, "Well, sure, the Supreme Court ruled that way five years ago, but times are a-changin' fast. The law has a different meaning today"? If the Black Robes won't be constrained by the Constitution, why should others be constrained by their unconstitutional precedents?
We now come to the supreme arrogance of our oligarchs-cum-jurists. For their living-law philosophy isn't for all, is it? It's not for the citizen; for him law is stuck in time. It's not for the cop on the beat; interpretation isn't his luxury. It's not for the lower-court judge; for him precedent is to be pre-eminent. It's not even for the president, for the laws he signs are subject to Supreme Court judgments. And judgments based on what? Not the Constitution, obviously. It is again merely their own judgment.
This raises the question of why we should respect the rulings of usurpers. If they will not view the Constitution as being stuck in law, why should we view the law as being stuck in courts? Are the dictates of black-robed oligarchs to be viewed as the only immutable elements in an ever-changing universe of laws? Oh, ignoring court rulings would lead to a breakdown in the rule of law and this isn't a good thing?
The point is that activist judges undermine the rule of law by setting an example of contempt for it. Others are then placed in the position of asking what adherence to the rule of law really means. Should they defer to court judgments made by those who don't view themselves as constrained by law? Or, should they rather use their own judgment – as the justices are doing – as to the real meaning of the supreme law of the land, the Constitution?
This is what living-document legal rationalizations breed. And it is why I've often said that all our designations for jurists, such as "constructionist" and "pragmatist," are nonsense. Because, really, there are only two kinds of justices: Good justices and bad justices. Good ones do their job and abide by the Constitution. Bad ones lawyer the law.
Hey, maybe Ginsberg and her fellow travelers should just be honest and boil this down to its bare essence. They could simply quote infamous occultist Aleister Crowley and say, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
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BBC News
- Brexit march: Million joined Brexit protest, organisers say
- Josh Hanson murder: Shane O'Brien detained in Romania
- Libby Squire: Mum has 'lost most precious thing'
- Isleworth stabbing: Teenage boy dies after chase
- 'Cancel Brexit' petition woman receives death threats
- Plaid aims to restrict the number of fast food outlets
- UVF paramilitaries flooding Belfast with cocaine, court told
- Fans of The Prodigy's Keith Flint to line procession route
- Tearful Des Lally ascends Pen y Fan for 365th time in a year
- Device behind M5 closure near Oldbury 'is flare'
- Asian gold: More than £140m stolen in UK in last five years
- Mystery Plymouth postman pumps up stranger's flat tyre
- Brexit: People's Vote march to Parliament Square - sped-up
- Brexit People's Vote protest: 'Stop Brexit' chants at huge London march
- What's it like to have 19 children?
- Taxidermy: 200 stuffed animals get a spring clean
- University studies benefits of herding sheep with drone
- 'Pink tax': Should personal care products for women cost more?
- Guilty Feminist: 'I can't call Theresa May a feminist'
- BBC News Channel
- Ronnie Pickering among Hull's 'alternative heritage' honours
- Great Escape tunnel hero's diary sold
- 'Reading bedtime stories helped me survive prison'
- Why are nets appearing over trees and hedges?
- Brexit: What are indicative votes?
- Boom or bust: What culture tells us about money
- Taron Egerton: 'Elton allowed me to make him ugly'
- Why bots probably aren't gaming the 'Cancel Brexit' petition
- Benefits spending: Five charts on the UK's £100bn bill
- Sustainable students: How easy is it to be more environmentally-friendly?
- Alesha MacPhail murder: The schoolboy who became an opportunistic killer
- UK lottery winners: What did they do with the money?
- Porn: Why Flintshire mum made her own adult film
- Every school 'needs dog as stress-buster'
- My one-in-a-million daughter is a 'human timebomb'
- Lorraine Kelly, tax law and how celebrities build public personas
- Who's been the Premier League's best overseas player?
- Council tax increase: Why am I paying the police so much?
Local Pubs in FRAMINGHAMEARL:
BeerInTheEvening.com search for pubs in FRAMINGHAMEARL
TheGoodPubGuide.co.uk search for pubs in FRAMINGHAMEARL


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The second anniversary of the weekend that will live in infamy -- June 22-24, 2007, when Chris Benoit strangled his wife Nancy with a cable TV cord, snapped their son Daniel's neck with a variation of the Crippler Crossface, and hung himself from a basement weight-training machine -- approaches.
Under Georgia law, the families must file wrongful-death civil lawsuits within two years of the crime. There is no indication that either the Benoits or the Toffolonis will do so. And if that proves out, the window will slam shut on perhaps the last best chance for information that could drive reforms in the regulation of pro wrestling health and safety standards.
Most pointedly, the World Wrestling Entertainment wellness program, complete with "therapeutic use exemptions" (TUE's) for astronomical testosterone levels -- which the company's own TUE administrator at the time, Dr. Tracy Ray, acknowledged to Congressional investigators had "shadiness in almost every case" -- will proceed in a business-as-usual mode.
After an initial flurry of sensationalism, the media have already whiffed on the implications of the Benoit story; the mainstream media didn't care and the wrestling media cared more about breaking down the next pay-per-view storylines. A couple of committees of the House of Representatives strutted their stuff for a while before deciding that they could get more mileage out of investigating fake records in the legit sport of baseball than out of probing the stunning volume of real deaths in "sports entertainment."
So, for public education and possible future action, only the potential of new revelations in open court remained. With Benoit's personal physician, Dr. Phil Astin, recently having been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for overprescribing prescription drugs to his patients (though the access to steroids that he also provided was not among the charges), a private lawsuit might have facilitated, for example, release of the wrestler's medical records. That, in turn, could have shed additional light on the history of both Benoit's drug use and his concussions -- to cite the two major areas of interest to students of his inexplicable descent into homicidal-suicidal insanity.
If, as I'm guessing, neither Cary Ichter nor Richard Decker (respectively, the Benoits' and the Toffolonis' attorneys) pulls the trigger, the core reason will be that there is simply not a compelling civil case to be made. Or, certainly, not one that stacks up as a good business proposition, on a contingency retainer, against the formidable legal firepower of WWE.
In December 2007 a story leaked that WWE had rejected a preemptive $2 million settlement offer from Ichter. Mike Benoit, Chris's father, denied ever approving such an offer, and told me that he subsequently instructed Ichter to focus on resolving the estate dispute between the two sides of the family. Benoit did continue to have Ichter's office investigate some of the gaps in the Fayette County sheriff's report closing its homicide file; many of those discrepancies were first exposed on my blog Wrestling Babylon News.
When I was in Georgia last summer, I met with Ichter over breakfast (and, by the way, we went "Dutch"). Ichter expended most of his energy pitching coverage of his lawsuit against TNA on behalf of Konnan. (I wasn't interested, and that suit soon settled.)
The Benoit civil lawsuit card was always a long shot. In an email to me a year ago, WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt wrote, in part, "Chris Benoit, and only Chris Benoit, is factually, legally, and morally responsible for the murders of his wife and child and his decision to commit suicide rather than face the legal consequences for committing two first degree murders." It's almost impossible to argue with the first two-thirds of that statement.
McDevitt added a point that could have had a chilling effect on any party tempted to file wrongful-death litigation as a kind of fishing expedition.
Dr. Astin, McDevitt noted, was charged with not only prescribing an illegitimate amount of drugs to both Chris and Nancy Benoit, but also "with conspiracy with some of the recipients of his prescriptions to further distribute the drugs. As Michael Benoit surely knows, since he is the executor of the estate, the house where the murders were committed had no mortgage. Instead, the builder was paid by a series of payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, and all payments were consistently made by Nancy Benoit from various accounts."
The clear message -- which should have been obvious anyway -- was that if WWE were hauled into court, it would defend itself aggressively, and such a defense inevitably would further drag Chris and Nancy's names through the mud. The same message, in more subtle form, may have been behind the brief campaign by WWE to promote Chris and Nancy's concern over little Daniel's medical condition as Chris's main stressor before he snapped.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. The deepest mysteries inevitably leave open questions, and the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide is no exception. As a writer, I have pushed, and will continue to push, for as much disclosure as possible. Only the most strident fringe of the deny-all crowd could fail to realize that the drug intake and mental hygiene of pro wrestling talent is a legitimate public health issue. The lives of hundreds of wrestlers and their loved ones hang in the balance.
Irvin Muchnick's Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death will be published this fall by ECW Press. Pre-order and other info is at benoitbook.com.


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As the United States' renewable energy sector grows by leaps and bounds, Pacific Gas & Electric recently announced plans for two gigantic photovoltaic plants in California. The solar installations will be constructed by Sunpower and Optisolar, whose 550 Megawatt plant will best the current proposed largest solar installation in the nation by 50 megawatts. The combined output of both plants will total 800 megawatts – enough to power 239,000 homes!
The two planned solar farms will produce 1.65 billion kilowatt hours per year, generating 12 times as much electricity as the largest grid-tied photovoltaic installation in the world today. By contrast, Spain has a 23 megawatt plant, Germany is building a 40 megawatt plant, and at 14 megawatts the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada is currently the largest already-built solar power installation in the U.S.
The two companies are OptiSolar, which will provide 550 megawatts, and SunPower, which will provide 250 megawatts. SunPower's panels are mounted at a 20-degree angle, facing south, and pivot from east to west in concert with the sun. OptiSolar's panels are installed at a fixed angle, and are larger, less efficient, and much less expensive, so each company's cost-per-watt of energy is similar.
Both designs aim to produce power best during high-demand peak hours of the afternoon. The plants would use existing transmission lines to convey electricity to customers, and the plants are being built on previously disturbed but unused farmland.
California law mandates that Pacific Gas & Electric must use renewable sources to produce 20% of its electricity by 2010. But the OptiSolar and SunPower plants are not expected to be up and running until 2012 and 2013, so the utility company may have to ask for leniency from the state.
Although the plans are not set in stone and the companies still need to secure numerous permits, this development is significant enough that it should encourage a significant uptake in solar power investments.
Via cnet.com


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Earlier this year, the Federal Government called for submissions in response to their draft discussion paper on the forthcoming National Cultural Policy. Being quite time-deprived at the time i hastily cobbled together a response – somewhat compiled from other things that i written in the past and probably desperately in need of a good editor. […]
My submission to the National Cultural Policy
December 20th, 2011 2 Comments
Tags: Arts in Australia · Australia Arts Policy · Australia Council Review · cultural policy · National Cultural Policy · National Cultural Policy in Australia · Simon Crean


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Zaika is here to get the full Thai treatment. She has a come a long way and she is expecting a lot.
She is not disappointed. Right from the start there is a strong bond between the two women. They instantly understand each other. It is the language of laughter. They can connect at all levels. It's physical and it's more as well.
Zaika wants long deep pressure and she gets what she has been waiting for. Tensions just melt away. The result is satisfaction for both of them.
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Established in 1930, Arab Bank, the first private sector financial institution in the Arab world, is headquartered in Amman, Jordan. In the second quarter of 2012 Arab Bank Group achieved net profits of USD 360.3 million; total assets equaled to USD 45.6 billion, while shareholders' equity reached to USD 7.7 billion.
Arab Bank has a global network of over 500 branches in 30 countries spanning five continents and locations in key financial markets and centers such as London, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney and Bahrain.Less...
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Drones, bomb-detecting robots, camera glasses, rubber bullets and sound and light grenades will all be at the ready if Brazilian police need them to quell disturbances during the FIFA World Cup.
The Brazilian military also has a contingency plan in case President Dilma Rousseff calls it to the streets. But the military's main role will be to secure stadiums, the skies, the waters and public utilities, and guard against any terrorist threats during the June 12 through July 13 event.
The possibility of massive street protests — a contingency that was scarcely part of initial World Cup security planning — is now front and center after some 1 million Brazilians demonstrated in June during the FIFA Confederations Cup, considered a dress rehearsal for the world's premier soccer event.
Violence in Brazil's shantytowns, or favelas, also is a possibility during the Copa as security forces continue an effort to take back the streets from criminal gangs in neighborhoods where emotions are already on edge.
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For the World Cup, 150,000 police and members of the armed forces will be involved and another 20,000 people trained in event security, according to Andrei Rodrigues of Brazil's Ministry of Justice.
"By my calculations, that's a force that is three times as much as you would normally see for a World Cup. That's a gigantic number," said Frank Holder, Latin American chairman for FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm.
While the manpower is certainly adequate, Holder said, the big questions are how well trained these security forces are, how well they will work together and how well they deploy their technology.
In the past year, the demonstrations, which have sporadically turned deadly with clashes between police and protesters, property set ablaze and attacks on banks and other businesses, have continued — though on a more limited scale.
What began as a protest against an increase in transit fares has evolved into a catch-all of simmering discontent at everything from government corruption to the $3.58 billion price tag for building and renovating World Cup stadiums. Generalized dissatisfaction with the healthcare system, mediocre public education and inadequate public transit also has been a catalyst for protests.
With the world's eyes trained on Brazil during the World Cup, few expect demonstrators to sit quietly at home.
Plans call for keeping them 1.24 miles away from arenas. A fleet of drones made in Israel will be used to monitor conditions in both the stadiums and cities, and the skies over arenas will be no-fly zones, closed off to aircraft one hour before and three hours after games.
"Our legislation allows us to shoot down unidentified aircraft," said Brig. Gen. Ubiratan Poty, chief of the Amazon Military Command Operations Center in Manaus. It controls military operations in four states in the Amazon as well as acts against drug trafficking, arms smuggling and environmental crimes in the border region to the north.
Counter-terrorism units will be stationed at the arenas but won't be visible to fans, Poty said.
Intelligence operations also have been stepped up in an effort to ferret out potentially violent, masked demonstrators who called themselves "Black blocs."
"A lot of the battle can be won through intelligence operations and preventive actions," Holder said.
But FIFA officials said they don't believe the soccer event itself will be the main target of demonstrators.
Despite the potential for unrest in the streets, "that does not mean to say that we are going to reduce our presence, hide ourselves away or keep our symbols under cover," said Ralf Mutschke, FIFA's director of security, during a February workshop for the 32 national teams participating in the tournament.
Brazilian officials say their goal isn't to prevent demonstrations but rather to prevent them from turning violent. "We're a democratic country and the freedom to demonstrate is a democratic right," said Luis Fernandes, Brazil's deputy minister of sports. "We lived too long under a military dictatorship," he said, for it to be any other way.
Brazil has spent about $848 million to beef up public security in the 12 World Cup host cities.
Each now has a state-of-the-art command center that will be linked electronically and via cameras with its arena. Representatives of city agencies, the armed forces, and city, state and federal police will have a seat in these centers during the World Cup.
Historically, it's been difficult to bring all these parties together, so the new command centers "will have a tangible but also intangible benefit," Fernandes said.
In the future, the command centers will be used to coordinate other big events and to respond to natural disasters, such as storms and flooding.
Smoke grenades, tear gas, light and sound grenades, rubber bullets, shields, helmets and boots have been purchased and will be used by law enforcement "proportional to the threat," Poty said.
The Brazilian arsenal for the World Cup and beyond also includes camera glasses and 30 robots with sensors capable of detecting hazmet, chemical, biological, bomb and radiation threats and defusing bombs.
But Poty said the first line of defense against violence will be local police.
The armed forces will only be employed in a law enforcement capacity if Rousseff authorizes them to go in as she did recently in Salvador, also a World Cup host city, when a police strike led to civil unrest and looting. Some 2,500 army troops were sent to the city in northeastern Brazil.
Asked if Brazilian officials were anticipating fan violence, Poty said it was unlikely except perhaps in southern Brazil, which shares a border with Argentina: "We expect something could happen in the South because Argentine fans are very aggressive. We hope that intelligence would be able to pick up on the potential for this."
Though not directly related to World Cup security, for the past several years military police from the state of Rio de Janeiro and the armed forces have been systematically moving into poor Rio neighborhoods to drive out criminal gangs. Police Pacification Units, known by their Portuguese acronym as UPPs, then provide long-term policing.
Among the areas that have been pacified is Complexo do Alemão, a grouping of favelas that lines the highway from Rio's international airport to the beachfront hotels. A military force of 3,000 with tanks and armed vehicles invaded the area in 2010 to reclaim it from drug traffickers and stayed for more than a year before a UPP was formed.
With just seven weeks to go before the World Cup, violence broke out Tuesday night in another area of Rio that will be frequented by soccer fans.
Residents of the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela, who blamed police for the death of a popular young male dancer, clashed with the local UPP, set fires and tossed homemade explosives and bottles down on the streets of Copacabana, one of the city's main beachfront tourist areas.
Rio is the venue for seven World Cup matches, including the final.
Such potential for violence means there is a risk for Brazil in hosting the World Cup, according to Moody's Investors Service. "While the World Cup offers potential reputational benefit, Brazil's image would be marred by a reprise of the social unrest seen last June during … the Confederations Cup," Moody's said.
While last year's protests caused little disruption at soccer venues, elsewhere they "escalated to riots that seriously disrupted regional retail sales due to early store closings, traffic problems and episodes of looting and vandalism," Moody's noted.
In its latest Latin American Public Security Index, FTI gave Brazil a rating of 4 on a scale where a 5 is a very dangerous country. "Significant resources have been deployed in the face of the upcoming World Cup and later Olympics, but overall public insecurity rates remain stubbornly high," FTI said.
It cited a resurgence in crime in Sao Paulo as well as in the major cities of northeast Brazil and the rivalry between the country's two largest criminal groups, Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital.
And as Tuesday night's riot in Rio shows, there is a potential for things to get out of control very quickly. The use of social media, with its ability to motivate crowds, is very prevalent in Brazil.
"That's very difficult for security forces to deal with," Holder said. "It makes things incredibly fluid."


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Security sector reform (SSR) is a nationally-owned process aimed at ensuring that security and justice providers are accountable to the state and its people; deliver effective, efficient and affordable security and justice services that meet the people's needs; operate within a framework of good governance, rule of law, and respect for human rights; and are legitimate. SSR addresses a number of problems such as the ineffective provision of security and justice services; the inability of security and justice institutions to deliver their services equally in response to the needs of all groups of society; the lack or absence of independent and well-functioning accountability and oversight mechanisms.
The goal of the course is to offer an overview of the concept of SSR, highlight the key SSR actors and their roles and outline the implementation of SSR programmes.
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Define security sector reform;
- List the key SSR actors and describe their roles and responsibilities;
- Outline the implementation of SSR programmes.
The course is structured in four lessons that will be covered over three hours:
- Lesson 1: Introduction to the concept of SSR
- Lesson 2: Understanding the SSR context
- Lesson 3: Key actors and coordination of SSR processes
- Lesson 4: International support to an SSR process
- Have a sound understanding of the structure and functioning of a peace operation;
- Have a university degree in a relevant area with proven interest in security sector reform (BA or equivalent) or the equivalent working experience in a relevant field (2 to 4 years);
- Have good command of English language (reading and writing);
- Be computer literate.
The course is based on level one "Introduction to Security Sector Reform" course developed by the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT).
Technical Requirements
UNITAR recommends the following as a minimum in hardware and software to take our e-Learning courses. Please consult your Network Administrator or Systems person to ensure that you have the following:
- Platform: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP or superior; MacOS 9 or MacOS X; Linux
- Hardware: 64 MB of RAM, 1 GB of free disk space
- Software:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (click here to download for free)
- Adobe Flash Player (click here to download for free)
- Microsoft Office (Windows or Mac) or Open Office (click here to download for free)
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or higher (click here to download for free); it works better with Firefox 3.6 or higher (click here to download for free)


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USA TODAY Sports bracketologist Shelby Mast got 68 of 68 teams in the field correct on Selection Sunday, but definitely disagrees with the NCAA tournament selection committee on these decisions.
Three things the committee got right
1. No Syracuse
The Orange (18-14, 10-8 ACC) did more damage to themselves early in the season and despite the nice cachet of top-50 wins, there was just too much negative on their profile to be included.
2. Vanderbilt higher than the play-in game
Regardless of the Commodores' record (19-15, 10-8 SEC), they did exactly what the committee wants; they had the toughest schedule in the country and beat No. 4 seed Florida three times. They are deserving of a single digit seed.
3. Wichita State on the 10-line
Despite how good you may think the Shockers are (and they are good), they only had two top-50 wins, both were over Illinois State. The committee values and rewards teams who challenge themselves (see Vanderbilt) and have a multitude of top-50 wins, Wichita State met neither of these criteria. Statistics wise, it's hard to tell how good they really are because the Missouri Valley Conference was so down this year.
Three things the committee got wrong
1. Duke on the No. 2 line
Nothing against Gonzaga but Duke has more top 25 RPI wins than any other team. Gonzaga is a worthy No. 1 seed, but the 'Zags lack of competition compared to Duke is blatant even if it's one loss to eight.
2. Louisville a No. 3 seed over Florida State
This goes against what the committee has been preaching – quality top-25 or top-50 RPI wins. Florida State has six top 25 wins compared to four for Louisville, included in FSU's win over Louisville. This one is rather baffling based on the committee's past habits.
3. Middle Tennessee as No. 12 seed
This is a team that possibly could have been an at-large selection if needed, with a very solid résumé for teams of the Blue Raiders' caliber; They should have been rewarded for scheduling tough and having a stellar record (30-4). They were ahead of Wichita State on a true seeding list.


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NASCAR points leader Matt Kenseth is leaving Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the season, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be promoted to his seat in the Sprint Cup Series.
There was widespread speculation at Sonoma that Kenseth was leaving Roush to join Joe Gibbs Racing, but Kenseth declined before Sunday's race to discuss his future. RFR confirmed Tuesday that Kenseth is leaving.
Kenseth has won 22 Cup races, including two Daytona 500s and the 2003 championship, driving for Jack Roush. He's been in the No. 17 Ford his entire career.
But his car has had sponsorship woes the last few years, and Roush is funding a large portion of this year's schedule himself for the 40-year-old Kenseth.
The team also desperately needs a slot for the 24-year-old Stenhouse.


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Banking, buying a home, and even budgeting on a monthly basis aren't the only everyday things the Great Recession has changed forever. The dating scene has been seriously affected too. Nowadays, singles under 40 aren't so much concerned with "traditional priorities like a good job, shared interests, and physical chemistry" as much as -- get this -- a good credit score! (Preferably above 660.) And no, the news doesn't come courtesy of a cheesy commercial for FreeCreditReport.com. It's from The New York Times.
One dater in the story confessed that she was having a blast while out on a date with a dreamy guy ... that is, until he totally wrecked the moment by making sure her credit score passed his test. If it hadn't, well, that would have been a dealbreaker for him. And experts say credit scores are now "like the dating equivalent of a sexually transmitted disease test." Wow.
Used to be not being on the same page with religious beliefs or professional goals could wreck your shot at a relationship! Now it's what's in your bank account and on your credit card. People are even looking for fiscally responsible love on sites like CreditScoreDating.com. Rough.
Then again, maybe it's not as crazy as it sounds to try to look exclusively for a partner who has their finances in shape. After all, if you want a serious relationship (aka marriage, kids, a roof over your collective heads, etc.), you need someone who is capable of building that with you. Not to mention that if someone's finances are good, you could probably safely assume they have a proven track record of stability and maturity. Hence they'll make better partners overall, right?
'Course this all sounds smart on paper, but it may not always translate or add up in real life. You could meet someone saddled with school debt who in a couple of years is going to be a high-paid doctor or lawyer, or someone whose credit score is in the dumper because they went broke helping their disabled parents pay hospital bills, or someone who was laid off for a long period of time due to reasons out of their control.
In other words, it's definitely wrong to give or not give someone a chance based strictly on a credit score. Just as it's totally wrong to use the method as a way to blatantly gold dig! But as one detail that could offer insight on a would-be life partner, asking that burning question -- "What's your credit score?" -- really isn't a bad idea at all.
How do you feel about your partner's -- or a potential partner's -- credit score? Could you ever see it being a dealmaker or breaker?


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If you've seen Davies' autobiographical dramatic films, especially 1988's brilliant "Distant Voices, Still Lives" and its sequel, "The Long Day Closes," you know how effective a director he is when dealing with his past as the youngest of 10 children in a difficult household.
While "Of Time and the City" is a documentary and, more than that, one in which 80% of the footage is archival material such as newsreels, it displays the same virtues that made the director's earlier fiction films so memorable.
One such gift is Davies' exceptional eye, the ability to pick out the most eloquent visual sequences from a wealth of choices. Another is his almost unparalleled ability to marry sound with image, to mix and match his clips with affecting music, especially popular songs of the period.
On one level, the tone of "Of Time and the City" is one of regret, sadness at the disappearance of the working-class city the filmmaker grew up in. Davies begins the film with a quote from A.E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad" that emphasizes this melancholy that the past is no more: "That is the land of lost content / I see it shining plain/ The happy highways where I went / And cannot come again."
But filmmaker Davies, who narrates the film himself in a gruff, acerbic voice, is not one for sentimental nostalgia. Yes, he loves and misses the Liverpool of his youth, on display in that lovely black-and-white newsreel footage, but he still boils with fury at some of what he experienced there, and he's far from shy about expressing his resentments. Sometimes that anger sounds grating and overwrought, but it also provides a stern counterpoint to the beautiful images and melodies it accompanies.
Davies, raised Catholic, is especially vocal about his experiences with organized religion, striking out against "the years wasted in useless prayer." He's none too happy with the monarchy either, lambasting the extravagances of the future Queen Elizabeth's wedding, calling it "The Betty and Phil Show."
The director also has savage things to say about the anti-gay laws and practices of his England, but at the same time he puts together a marvelous sequence that marries spookily beautiful footage of hooded professional wrestlers with his own memories of the sexual feelings that seeing those men evoked.
Both in life and in "Of Time and the City," cinema saved Terence Davies. He discovered the movies when he was 7 years old and "swallowed them whole . . . gorging myself with a frequency that would shame a sinner."
Davies' eye for footage no doubt stems from his lifelong love of the medium, and time and again, the images he has chosen for his film -- sequences of thronged ferries, huge stadium crowds or slow, dreamy pans of rows of houses -- couldn't be more effective.
Improving on these visuals are the unerringly appropriate popular songs Davies has selected to play on the soundtrack, songs like the Spinners singing "Dirty Old Town" or Peggy Lee's "The Folks Who Live on the Hill." Most memorable is disturbing Korean War footage linked to the Hollies doing "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother."
Most of all, Davies proves himself to be a poet of the commonplace whose art is the exalting of the everyday. He may rail against "the British genius for creating the dismal," but his own work is anything but.


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First, a gorgeous little handmade gift from Toni. She's such an inspiration - running a very successful business from home and being actively involved in chuch service while juggling a young family. I can't believe Toni wrote a book at the same time as being pregnant and then having a newborn!
What a darling friend to send me these handmade slippers. They fit Grace beautifully already (thanks to the elastic at the top), with a little room to grow! They have fleecy soles so they are so snuggly.
And this key holder has made it so much easier to find my keys at the bottom of my ginormous baby bag :)
I've also been meaning to show you some of the gorgeous earrings and clips Toni sent me for Christmas. I love earrings and these are just perfect (they're from her Citrus Pop range).
I wear them all the time. Thanks a million Toni.
Another good friend, Ally, made Grace this cute little quilt. Ally is also super busy teaching quilting classes, writing tonnes of patterns for quilting magazines and being a mum!
What a sweetie to think of me when she is about to give birth any day now herself!
It fits Grace really well, not too big and not too small. When she outgrows it on the floor it will work perfectly in the car or pram or hammock. Thanks Ally - good luck with your birth!
Grace gives the most beautiful smiles and so Sarah and Dane constantly try to make her smile. Hopefully she can survive their love (particularly when they compete to be the one in front of her face). I got out of the shower yesterday to find Dane in the hammock with Grace and chocolate custard everywhere. Fortunately Grace was quite happy. Maybe I'll have to start showering in the evening.
Just one more thing - the link to my Blogger's Quilt Festival post wont work, so I've linked to this post in the hope that it will work this time. Go here to see more about my "Climbing Curves" quilt. It seems the link to my original post is working now!


text: They want a 57% cut to 43%. Mind boggling. Not to mention making the UFA 31 when players are old and many are close to retirement. Basically, they want to spit in the players faces and expect them to take it. I love how Bettman tries to make it seem like the players aren't being reasonable. Get a clue Gary. It won't work this time. The owners greed is absurd. People actually are supporting the players and don't buy into the crap you are spewing.


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At this summer's Lindau Nobel Laureates meeting in Germany, the participating laureates and young researchers came from all over the world, but they had one thing in common: chemistry.
The Nature Video team filmed three discussions on issues that matter to the current generation of chemists, including the world's pressing problems and how chemistry can help us to solve them. Laureates and students clashed over the future of energy production, grappled with drug development, discussed dwindling supplies of metal catalysts and debated science's role in the developing world. Get a taste in this trailer below.


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Linkin Park Rock A Private Show For Japan, And You Could Be There [VIDEO]
Of course it will be in L.A. and you would have to get there yourself. The band will play a private concert for supporters of the band's Music For Relief organization who reach certain fundraising goals for Japanese tsunami relief. According to the group's website, anyone who raises at least $500 will be invited with a guest to a secret Linkin Park show at a small, intimate venue in the Los Angeles area. Only those who reach the goal will be given the location of the gig.
Fundraising is taking place at secretshowforjapan.com, and participants must make the $500 goal by August 24th. The top 50 fundraisers will meet the band, the top 10 will get signed instruments, and the top fundraiser will get to watch the show from the stage. Not bad if you can haul your butt to Cali. Here's Mike and Dave telling you more.


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The Jeep Cherokee was introduced in 2014 as an all-new vehicle. So, 5 years later, what could possibly be new?
A lot, actually.
From design to tech improvements, several features are completely new on this mid-cycle refresh.
"Polarizing" is the word I've most-frequently heard when describing the headlights on the Jeep Cherokee. The weird daytime-running light "eyebrow" squinting solo above the teeny, tiny headlamp well below the beltline gave a weird front profile that one of my Facebook friends deemed "predator"-like.
But here, 5 years after launch, the most significant thing about the Cherokee refresh is the DRL and headlight have been combined into a single casing.
The benefit is it looks more elegant and, functionally, the higher placement of the headlamp lights the road better at night.
Another point to note: LED headlights are standard at the base Latitude trim.
Hood lines
The current model Cherokee has a bit of a Pinocchio nose, which played into the overall quirk of the vehicle. But everything from the A-Pillar forward is all new in the 2019 Cherokee.
So, in addition to the new headlight treatment, the entire front of the vehicle is a bit more refined. Rather than the pointed front end, the hood is raised by about an inch, which gives a more blunted and masculine look.
2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine
This is an all-new engine for the Cherokee, and it accompanies the carryover 2.4-liter 4-cylinder Tigershark and 3.2-liter V-6 Pentastar engines. It is the top-tier engine that delivers 270 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque.
We love the smooth and seamless power, and after having driven all three engines back to back, this is the clear winner in terms of the power-efficiency combo. It's also super quiet, even under hard acceleration, which we really appreciate.
Additionally, it's available at every trim – even the base Latitude – and it's only a $500 premium over the up-level V-6.
Standard Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
The 7-inch Uconnect infotainment screen is standard at the base Latitude trim, which means that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard.
I'm an iPhone user, and while I'm not generally a fan of Apple CarPlay, I do like that it's standard at the base level, and I really like the voice-to-text function.
Another important note: I made two calls to the same person via the car – one using Bluetooth and one using the wired-in CarPlay connection. The CarPlay phone call came off more clear and was easier to make hands-free.
Lower base price
The value proposition is one of the big messages Jeep is trying to drive home with the refreshed Cherokee. The base Latitude trim adds more standard content, yet at $23,995, it costs $400 less than the current base model.
Another point of note: The Latitude Plus trim may cost $200 more than the current Latitude Plus, but it adds standard safety equipment, which more than makes up for the extra cost.
The Bottom Line
Jeep has gone upscale with the new Cherokee, creating an attractive and capable midsize SUV. It's set to compete in a very lucrative segment with excellent engine options, more amenities and a lower price than the previous model.


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Let me begin this column with an apology. Once a week, I pick an important issue and offer my reasoned analysis, based on the facts, of what it all means and how we should react. But there are times when the intellect fails and the heart and gut take over. And this is one of them.
In the spring of 1968, I walked into the McCarthy for President office in San Francisco and signed up as a volunteer. That was my first taste of politics and I've been involved in politics ever since, both as practitioner and observer. I've managed local, statewide and national campaigns, raised money for candidates, served as Democratic state chair of California and run for statewide office. I've made my living as a political commentator on radio and television in Los Angeles, San Francisco and nationwide.
Throughout those years, I've experienced a lot of joy, but also a lot of disappointment. Candidates I supported lost their elections. Politicians I helped elect soon forgot who their friends were. Causes I passionately believed in failed in the legislature or on the ballot. Yet, through it all, I never lost my faith in the political system. I always knew, and preached, that things would eventually work out for the best. I remained a believer.
Until now. Until this week's shameful vote in the United States Senate on gun safety. I'm no longer a believer. I've lost my faith in our political system. I've given up on politics. And I've given up on Congress. Because if they can't get this right, they can't get anything right.
There is simply no excuse — none! — for voting against extending criminal background checks to cover all gun purchases. Indeed, the arguments made by opponents of the Manchin-Toomey compromise bill don't even pass the laugh test. How, for example, can anybody say he supports background checks at gun dealers, just not at gun shows? Really? In other words, it's not OK for criminals to buy guns at licensed dealers, but it is OK for them to buy guns at gun shows or over the Internet. Give me a break.
In the biggest lie of all, other senators insist that expanded background checks will lead to some Big Brother gun registry that will in turn lead to federal agents seizing everyone's guns. Baloney. Again, no such gun registry has been created to date, even though criminal background checks have been required of gun dealers since 1994. Not only that, both existing law and the Manchin-Toomey bill specifically prohibit storage and retrieval of personal data gathered in background checks. Manchin and Toomey make it a federal crime.
In the end, there are only three reasons why senators voted against common sense gun safety measures. One, they were born without a backbone. Two, they're owned lock, stock and barrel by the NRA. Three, they don't care. They don't care about the American people. They don't care about the victims of Columbine, Aurora or Virginia Tech. They don't care about Gabby Giffords. They don't care about 20 first-graders and six brave teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary School. They don't care about doing the right thing. They only care about saving their own political skin.
In the end, the vote on the compromise proposal to expand background checks was 54-46, six short of the 60 votes necessary to break the filibuster. Democrats share some of the blame. Four Democrats — Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas — voted no. But most of the blame lies with the Republican Party. Even though four of them — John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mark Kirk of Illinois — broke ranks and voted yes, Republicans as a block voted against background checks. In fact, Buzzfeed reports, six Republicans — Orrin Hatch, Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, Mike Crapo and Chuck Grassley — who voted for universal background checks in 1999, when the NRA supported them, voted against background checks this week, now that the NRA opposes them.
As Wednesday's vote was announced, the cry of "Shame on you!" resounded from the Senate gallery. It was the voice of Tucson hero Patricia Maisch, who grabbed a loaded magazine clip out of Jared Loughner's hands as he tried to reload. In that dramatic moment, she showed more sense and courage than the entire Senate. We might as well send them all home.


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