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Captain's Report
Yamaha's designers were the first to turn the transom of a small boat into a new venue on the boat.
In my opinion, the entire Yamaha boat lineup is a big "sleeper". They're darn good boats, loaded with features and value. But the public has yet to recognize the inherent advantages in the waterjet propulsion system nor do people typically compare these boats to I/O runabouts and bowriders in this size range. I see this scenario as somewhat similar to when Audi introduced the Quattro four-wheel drive automobiles. It took a while for people to "get-it", but once they did, four-wheel drive became extremely popular. The other aspect of this situation is the stigma that was created when the first two-stroke jet boats first came on the market. The first attempt at transitioning customers from inline PWC seating, these things resembled noisy, floating bathtubs. But that description is far from how I would describe the 232 Limited. I recently took a close look. Here's what I found.About the BoatFor starters, this boat is a complete package. But don't be fooled -- Yamaha doesn't give you things like fenders and boat hooks. They leave the "Coast Guard Package" for the dealer to handle. What they do include are things like twin engines and a swim platform. That's the kind of stuff which is hard to find, even as an option on a boat of this size. The 232 Limited is built on Yamaha's 23 foot hull. It's got an 8'6" beam and a 20 degree deadrise, making the hull shape very suitable for the intended use. The draft is only 16", less when on a plane. That's great news these days, given the lack of money for dredging, plus the new emphasis on protecting the environment. Take a look on deck and you notice the fine upholstery offering really comfortable seating for ten. The bow seats offer room for me to stretch my legs out, and I've got a 34-inch inseam. I'm often cheated when it comes to legroom, but not here. There's lots of storage underneath the seats, so you can bring everything you need for a day out on the water and it won't be lying around the deck. There are stainless handrails in handy places, as well as stainless cup holders. For the skipper, they've installed a captain's chair with an adjustable bolster. It's not the most comfortable captain's chair I've ever sat in, but it's suitable, and the bolster offered a great view.
The 232 can be used for entertaining as well as watersports.
The instrument layout is efficient and logical; dual tachs on either side of a speedo, with a compass, a depth finder, and a row of rocker switches. It's all standard, so nothing looks like an afterthought. And since you need to have a soundtrack to your boating adventures, they've included a Sony stereo with CD player, Sirius, and an MP3 input. Additional creature comforts are much appreciated- a bimini top, a cockpit table, and a nicely finished head compartment. Don't look for a factory installed toilet, though. They've left it up to the dealer to include as an aftermarket option. That's a smart idea, given the different ways people use this boat. The finish work on the entire boat is excellent. It's consistent with the classy little details like the wood-grain dash, the snap-in Berber carpeting, the finished head compartment and the color-matched gel coat in the engine compartment. In fact, the builder's fine execution of the 232 Limited will force you take a second look at the price tag.
Under the seats in the raised swim platform is a good storage area and access to the pump impellers in the water jets.
The Entertainment Center
The best part of this boat, for my money, is the swim platform. It's the center of activity on the 232 Limited when you're anchored at your favorite beach or cove, and rightly so. The deck surfaces are covered in what they call Hydro-Turf mats, and backrest cushions are integrated in the design. There's a mount for the cockpit table, so you can enjoy refreshments at the water's edge. A freshwater shower and a remote for the stereo complete the details, and the platform lifts to provide storage underneath. The design offers a smooth transition between being in the water and being in the cockpit. Think about it; when you spend the day with your family on a boat like this what do the kids want to do? Anchor so they can get in the water. This boat offers the perfect platform for that kind of family fun.
Jet drives are not only safer but they also give superior acceleration performance.
Our Test
We cruised around one of the lake systems in Central Florida to do a little sightseeing. The connecting canals offered shallow, environmentally sensitive wetlands to cruise through. The water jet propulsion systems didn't appear to affect the fragile plant and animal life at all. In terms of performance data, I was impressed by what I saw. We rocketed up out of the hole in 2 ½ seconds, and reached thirty in 4.8 seconds. Our top speed was 50.3 MPH, and we figured that we could cruise for 171 miles at 28.4 MPH on a tank full of gas.
A Class Act
The 232 Limited is as good looking as she is functional and durable. It will serve your whole family well for a long day on the water. When the day ends, this is a classy ride for the adults to take a harbor cruise or go for a nice dinner at that waterfront bistro across the bay. I was fortunate to have my wife along for this test ride, and she loved this boat. I'm sure you will, too.
Test Result Highlights
- Top speed for the Yamaha 232 Limited (2009-) is 50.3 mph (81 kph), burning 21.0 gallons per hour (gph) or 79.48 liters per hour (lph).
- Best cruise for the Yamaha 232 Limited (2009-) is 28.4 mph (45.7 kph), and the boat gets 3.78 miles per gallon (mpg) or 1.61 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 171 miles (275.2 kilometers).
- Tested power is 2 x 160-hp Yamaha HO.
Standard and Optional Features
|CD Stereo
|Head: Portable
|Shore Power
Exterior Features
|Carpet: Cockpit
|Ice Chest
|Outlet: 12-Volt Acc
|Swim Ladder
|Swim Platform
|Bimini Top
Hull Warranty
5 year limited
(It's quick and FREE!)


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Mercy to hold groundbreaking, anniversary celebration May 31
Mercy Hospital will celebrate its past and its future at a special groundbreaking and 50th anniversary event for the community at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 31. The event will be held outside near the emergency entrance.
"Fifty years ago, after much debate and discussion, the people of this area made a big decision to build a new hospital in a new location," said Jason Douglas, Mercy CEO. "While not an easy one or one without certain risk, that decision regarding the future of health care took community commitment and vision. That decision continues to impact both the health and economy of our region today. It's that same commitment and vision that continues to guide Mercy as we prepare to break ground on our new major building and renovation project."
"Mercy has a strong history of responding and growing to meet community needs," said Kelly Goeb, M.D., Chair of Mercy's Board of Directors. "This is a great opportunity to reflect on our history as we build for the future. Our new project is focused on meeting the health needs of the hospital district well into the future, enhancing patient care, safety and privacy while reflecting the personalized, high quality care already provided by Mercy's dedicated staff."
Mercy begins its next 50 years by breaking ground on a major building and renovation project which will feature a new, two-story addition, along with renovation of existing space.
The new facility will have 21 new private patient rooms and four labor and delivery suites, along with a new Emergency Department. Other departments, like radiology and lab, will be relocated to improve the flow of services and better ensure patient privacy and safety.
New addition features
- Emergency Department with private treatment rooms
- Diagnostic Imaging, including inhouse MRI
- Laboratory services
- Admissions
- Expanded gift shop
- 21 private patient rooms, including 2 ICU rooms
- Four birthing suites and nursery
- Meditation room
- Pharmacy
- Comfortable family waiting rooms
- Addition of third surgery suite and new pre- and post-op rooms
Completion: Late 2014
Features of renovations
of the existing hospital
- Chemotherapy and infusion services
- Physical, occupational and speech therapy, including a new dedicated pediatric therapy area
- Sleep studies clinic
- Medical records, business services and administrative offices
- Dining and kitchen
- Material management
Completion: Summer 2015
Project details
Architect for the project is BWBR; general contractor is The BOLDT Company. USDA Rural Development funding for the project comes in the form of a $30 million direct loan and an $8 million loan guarantee delivered through AgStar Rural Capital Network in collaboration with local banks and other financial institutions. Financing will cover construction and equipment costs, as well as the refinancing of some existing debt.

subset: commoncrawl


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I made a class called imgObj, so that I could add custom attributes to an Image, such as name, position and layer (front, back, ect.)
Before further explaination, I'll just post the code:
public class Window extends JFrame { private ArrayList<imgObj> allImages; private JLabel[] labels; private JPanel[] panels; //<-- contains the labels. private JLayeredPane aLPane = new JLayeredPane() ; //<-- contains the panel. public Window(){ super("title"); setLayout(new BorderLayout()); add(aLPane, BorderLayout.CENTER); aLPane.setBounds(0,0,800,600); LoadImages(); labels = new JLabel[allImages.size()]; panels = new JPanel[allImages.size()]; //loop through allImages, and give all images a label, and adds the label to the window. int counter = 0; for(imgObj i : allImages){ labels[counter] = new JLabel(i.getImg()); labels[counter].setOpaque(true); labels[counter].setBackground(Color.BLUE); labels[counter].setBounds(i.getPosx(), i.getPosy(), i.getImg().getIconWidth(),i.getImg().getIconHeight()); panels[counter].add(labels[counter]); panels[counter].setOpaque(true); panels[counter].setBounds(0, 0, 800, 600); panels[counter].setBackground(Color.BLACK); System.out.printf("%s was added to window, as pos (%d ; %d)\n", i.getName(), i.getPosx(), i.getPosy()); counter++; aLPane.add(panels[counter], new Integer(i.getLayer()), 0); } } }
My problem is: when I run the code, I get a NullPointerException at the "panels[counter].add(labels[counter]);".
When looking at the variables in the debug-window (i am using Eclipse), I can see that both my imgObj icons are loaded correctly, and it seems that nothing is wrong the first time the enhanced for-loop is running (yet the console does not print " ... was added to window at pos..."), but the second time, the i.getImg() in "labels[counter] = new JLabel(i.getImg());" is null.
Any help will (of course) be appriciated, and I will gladly elaporate anything which I have (tried to) explained in this first post..


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Attendees at the BICSI Winter Conference, held January 17-21 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Conference Center in Orlando, Fla., recognized that IT budgets may be stagnant, but the recession hasn't slowed the growth of data center storage facilities. Fueled by applications such as Internet protocol (IP) TV, audio file-sharing, Internet gaming, and mobile broadband, the storage capacity of many data centers is rapidly reaching saturation. In fact, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco predicts the volume of IP traffic will quintuple between 2008 and 2013. Faced with this challenge, data center managers are planning solutions that include more bandwidth, more servers, and more storage — all at faster speeds.Improving economics of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and final ratification of the Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol are important factors in many of these planning strategies. FCoE is simply a transmission method in which the Fiber Channel frame is encapsulated into an Ethernet frame at the server, before the server sends it over the LAN. The server does the reverse when FCoE frames are received. In general, FCoE simplifies the maintenance of the cabling system and allows use of economical Ethernet hardware and OM3 optical fiber for up to 100 Gigabit data rates.
But consider that a 10GbE application requires two fibers, and in the future, running a 40 GbE application will require 20 fibers. Thus, determining the space allocation and routing for this fiber will be an important task for data center managers. To support this trend, many suppliers were displaying modular high-density racking systems in their booths, designed specifically to accommodate high fiber-count installations. These enclosures offer basic and optional components that allow users to configure a system to their specific space and application requirements.
Another key factor to keep in mind is terminating the cable, which is often considered the most difficult part of a project. Because it's also expensive, manufacturers have developed cable termination products to increase the yield, reduce the insertion loss, and make the task a lot easier. A number of new products in this area were evident on the exhibit floor.
On the conference front, presenters of more than 20 educational sessions covered topics ranging from wireless technologies to fiber-optic cabling to electronics safety and security.
In a pre-conference seminar on Monday, January 8, Herb Congdon, Tyco Electronics, Conover, N.C., described the work of the "1179 Healthcare Facility Cabling Task Force," and some application standards activity, which includes IEEE 802.at — Power over Ethernet Plus and 802.3az — Energy Efficient Ethernet. The 802.3az project is being recognized as an important component in other standards, such as the EPA Energy Star program. The main concept is that telecom equipment should use power only when there is network activity, and it should revert to a low power state when there is no activity. The full benefit of Energy Efficient Ethernet will be seen when 802.3az-compliant equipment is installed in a building network. It is hoped that converged IP networks will be increasingly cost-effective and thus promote the acceptance of communications/control components in an intelligent building, for example.
In "40Gbps Over Twisted-Pair Cabling: Planning for a New Ethernet Application," Valerie Maguire, Siemon, Watertown, Conn., and Todd Harpel, Berk-Tek, New Holland, Pa., made the case for using copper cabling beyond 10 Gbps in the data center. Noting that data centers and server clusters need to reduce power consumption and to increase energy efficiency, they believe that the time to plan for 40Gbps Ethernet applications is now. They also think that copper cabling can be a viable choice for 40Gbps Ethernet using a fully shielded Cat. 7A cable construction for distances less than 100 m. The rationale is that 92% of channels in a data center are less than 50 m in length, and this topology can satisfy the short-term data center needs for the next three to five years.
In "An Expanding Role of the Rack in the 'Future Proofing' of a Data Center," Rick Trombetta and William Santucci, Great Lakes Case & Cabinet Co., Inc., Erie, Pa., promoted the idea that an equipment enclosure should allow the use of many accessories and installation techniques throughout the life span of the data center. It should support a variety of power configurations and facilitate making proper grounding connections while fill and blanking panels can direct airflow in the cabinet for maximum cooling of the equipment. By properly applying the components and accessories, a user can go from a low-density layout in a traditional hot aisle/cold aisle, to the employment of more advanced air management systems. Whereas the traditional role of the enclosure offered simple protection for mounted equipment, security/restricted access to equipment, and internal cable management, today's role of the data center enclosure must be thought of in terms of being an integral part of the building infrastructure.
In "Contemporary Considerations When Precision Cleaning Fiber Optic Connections," Edward Forrest, ITW Chemtronics, Marietta, Ga., cleared up many misconceptions regarding the preparation and cleaning of the glass fiber ends of fiber-optic cable prior to splice or termination. The end face preparation of the connector is a critical factor, because particles of dirt on a connection end face can cause transmission error and permanent damage. A portable high-definition video scope is essential when doing fiber installation and maintenance work to detect this contamination. It's also a best practice to never assume that a fiber end is "factory clean."
The two general soil categories you'll face are ionic and non-ionic, sometimes called polar and non-polar. Because not all cleaning methods work the same way, you should clearly understand both the dry and wet methods of cleaning. Dry cleaning is not effective on all soils, and the wiping materials used can generate static that attracts more soils. In addition, wiping materials can leave "lint" residues. Wet cleaning is usually done with 99.9% IPA isopropyl alcohol. Although the newer solutions are water-based and effective, they require an active drying step.
In "Fiber's Role in the Video Security and Surveillance Network," Curt Carlson, Transition Networks, Minnetonka, Minn., described how fiber-optic cabling can be integrated easily into an existing copper-based cabling system that uses either UTP or coaxial cable with analog cameras. By using a media converter, two or more media types with dissimilar cable and connectors can be integrated on a network. With the ever-increasing need to support video surveillance equipment at distances beyond the reach of UTP or coaxial cable, multimode optical fiber cabling easily provides the extended transmission capability. Industrial Ethernet enclosures, connectors, and other products can satisfy the needs of outdoor applications and in any application where extreme temperatures are encountered.
In "The Importance of Cabinet Level Power Monitoring in a Data Center," Jeff Miller, Geist Mfg., Lincoln, Neb., emphasized how proper monitoring and tracking of AC power use at the equipment/receptacle level can be beneficial in maximizing power efficiencies. Power distribution unit (PDU) level meter options include local ammeter, remote ammeter, and remote management and control. A power meter can be used as a diagnostic tool to measure phase loads and neutral loads for proper balance, monitor breaker loads, and measure current usage at each receptacle. He also described the advantage of bringing 3-phase power to the cabinet level.
In "Using the Structured Cabling System for Security Applications," Mark Dearing, Leviton Network Solutions, Bothell, Wash., noted that traditionally the various security subsystems in a building, such as access control or intrusion detection, was supported on its own cabling system. Today, however IP-enabled devices, running on an Ethernet platform, offer advantages such as standardization, scalability, system integration and interfacing, resource sharing and centralized power via PoE. The use of TIA 568-C standard requires adherence to a star topology with a maximum of two levels. But this effort delivers predictable performance as well as flexibility to accommodate growth and change over an extended period of time. Video surveillance offers the best opportunity for IP integration, followed by access control, while alarm and intrusion detection offer limited opportunity.
In "Product Counterfeiting – The Economic Scourge of the 21st Century," Ralph Frasca Jr., Grand ISS, St. Petersburg, Fla., explained why the counterfeiting of high-tech products is a serious economic threat. This worldwide activity affects consumer health and safety, national security, legitimate business, national revenues, foreign investment, and brand integrity. Research shows that about 10% of high tech products sold globally is counterfeit; in specific cases, such as network interface cards, the percentage is even higher. Bogus products proliferate because the profits can be significant, and the penalties in most countries are minimal or nonexistent. In addition, there is lax regulation and a low risk of being caught. Counterfeiting is increasingly the crime of choice for criminal groups, including terrorist organizations.
Some basic steps to combat this threat include making greater use of creative enforcement tools to detect, deter and respond; implementing internal remedies; working with local authorities; lobbying for stricter laws; encouraging international cooperation; and using unique identifiers on the products or packages. More importantly, know and closely monitor/investigate channels of distribution and reward distributors for detecting/refusing bogus goods.


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Weekly Update
Okay, time for my little update here. I know these posts haven't been too exciting, but I've been so busy getting settled into Peoria I just don't have much time for this right now. I really appreciate those of you who have been stopping by and commenting, it means a lot to me and I promise my new blog will be lot more fun. Speaking of my new blog, I'm going to start it on Monday December 3rd, so mark that on your calendar, if you have one. If you don't have a calendar, then write it on your forehead and send me a photo and that'll be next weeks post. I finished one week of work, and while I never blog about work, I will say it went very well and I'm working with some really nice and cool people. It's a totally different kind of job than I had in New York and I really like it. It's nice having a job that you don't dread going in to. I've started fixing up my place and when I start my new blog I'll give you a full tour, but here's a few teaser shots of my new place for now.
It's in the fridge, Daddy-O. Are you hip to the jive?
Here's my entertainment center, Patty Smyth is now playing. Note the Sham Wow dolls below, created by my friend, Ash. They're very happy to be in Peoria.
This is my desk and writing area. I'm currently writing a story about leaving New York that will be up on the first post of my new blog that's going to debut December 3rd.
And here's my new favorite thing in the world, the ice machine in my building.
I don't know why this thing makes me happier than anything, but it does and that's a good thing.
Okay, I have to do some things and then get ready for work, so I'll see you here next week. Have fun!
Further Reading: Wikipedia, ebay and Wikipedia.
Goodbye to you.
Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!
Bonus Photo From Gidget!
The world's coolest DJ, Gidget, sent me this photo that really cracked me up. No one else except "Boris" will get the joke and that's part of what I love about it! And speaking of Gidget and "Boris", don't forget to check out their wonderful radio show on Woody Radio, the "Secret Weapon". "Boris" picks the tunes and Gidget spins them, it's the best radio show in the world, tune in and turn on!


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Q: How long does it take for breast cancer to grow? My doctor just examined my breasts a month ago (no lumps), and today I found a lump. Is it possible that breast cancer could have developed so quickly?
Answer from the expert staff of breast cancer research at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center at Providence Portland Medical Center:
Q: "A friend forwarded an article to me suggesting that vitamin D can reduce the risk of getting breast cancer. Is this true?"
Answer from Alison Conlin, M.D., medical oncologist, Providence Cancer Center:
Q: I'm undergoing chemo, and though I am experiencing heavy-duty fatigue, I am also suffering from insomnia! Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep; other nights I wake up around 3 a.m. for an hour or two. My medical oncologist said chemo can disrupt the sleep-wake cycle and prescribed Ambien. I don't like the idea of relying on a sleeping pill. Anything else I can do?
Answer from Miles Hassell, M.D., director of Providence Integrative Medicine at Providence Cancer Center:
A guide to how our team can help you live well through cancer and beyond.
Prostate cancer, once it spreads to lymph nodes and bones, generally is not curable. But basic and clinical researchers at Providence are working on this challenge.
Oncologist and researcher Brendan Curti, M.D., discusses the benefits and limitations of the prostate-specific antigen test – and which patient groups can benefit from annual screening.
The ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) is the first nationally validated, risk-adjusted, outcomes-based program to measure and improve the quality of surgical care.
Of all the side effects of chemotherapy, nausea and vomiting are the most common and are among the most feared. But having chemotherapy does not mean that you have to suffer with nausea and vomiting.
Cancer Care is a national nonprofit that provides free, professional support services for anyone affected by cancer.
National Cancer Institute home page with links to all cancer topics, clinical trial information, statistics, research and treatment information.
The Fellowship Council was created to foster the development of high quality fellowships in minimally-invasive surgery, gastrointestinal, flexible endoscopy, bariatric, colorectal and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery through a universal application and match process.


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When Chrissy Falletti was born, in 1975, she seemed healthy, but soon her father, a physician in Youngstown, Ohio, and her mother, a nurse, observed that she was losing weight. At six weeks old, Falletti was admitted to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, in Cleveland. As part of her evaluation, she underwent a sweat test—electrodes were strapped to her forearms, and her perspiration was collected on a thin paper filter. The test showed abnormally elevated amounts of chloride, a component of the salt in sweat, which indicated a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. Falletti's mother quit her job to oversee her care. "No one in my family had cystic fibrosis, but my parents knew what to expect," Falletti, now thirty-three, told me when we spoke by phone recently. "Parents want to fix everything. As a doctor and a nurse, they are trained to fix people. They tried to keep positive, but they had a child who couldn't be fixed."
Cystic fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disorder in North America among Caucasians; some thirty thousand Americans have the disease, and about ten million Americans are silent carriers of the defective cystic-fibrosis gene. The normal gene produces a protein called CFTR, which channels chloride ions out of the cells that line the body's cavities and surfaces. When the gene is mutated, the chloride ions cannot be moved, and regular body secretions become thick and congested. As the gastrointestinal tract and the pancreas become blocked, the absorption of fats and certain vitamins slows, starving the body of essential nutrients. (Sometimes the intestine must be opened surgically to remove a large blockage and help restore digestion.) In the lungs, the trachea, and the sinuses, the mucus becomes as thick as overcooked oatmeal, and the caked mucus provides a fertile field for bacterial growth. The mucus also impairs the function of the cilia, the fine hairlike projections on cells that are crucial to cleaning the airways. On average, people with cystic fibrosis lose two per cent of their lung function each year. Although antibiotics and pancreatic enzymes (which improve fat and vitamin absorption) have helped extend the average life span of patients into their late thirties, cystic fibrosis remains a uniformly fatal disease, with death often occurring as a result of pneumonia or respiratory failure.
Since childhood, Falletti has had a daily regimen that includes more than fifteen medicines and treatments. "Many days are exhausting," she said. Twice a day, she uses an apparatus that resembles a life vest; hoses inflate the vest at specified frequencies and pressures to vibrate the chest wall and mobilize the mucus. At night, she does postural draining, a sequence of twelve inverted positions during which a partner claps her upper back, her sides, and the front of her chest in order to loosen the mucus. "It takes about three hours out of my day just to clear my airway," Falletti explained. Even so, she has led an active life; until she was sixteen, she competed in gymnastics at state and national levels. A first-grade teacher now and married to an optician, she is keenly aware that she is approaching the age at which most people with the disorder die. She has suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia and a near-fatal collapse of one lung, which required emergency care, and she struggles to maintain a healthy weight. By 2007, her lung function had fallen to as low as fifty per cent of normal. "Because my lung function is so low, I am told that I shouldn't have children, which makes me really sad, because my husband doesn't have the gene and we really wanted kids," Falletti said. Two of her close friends, also cystic-fibrosis patients, have died; so has a fellow sufferer and teacher from a nearby town, whose achievements she admired. "That really hit home," she said. "It is heartbreaking to imagine my husband by himself."
Last year, Chrissy was among a group of patients with cystic fibrosis who took part in a study of an experimental oral drug, produced by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, that is designed to restore function to the abnormal protein and permit the movement of chloride. "On the Vertex study, I just felt completely different," Falletti said. "My sister said she used to know when I entered church because she could hear my cough. Then, when I was on the study, my nephew told me, 'I can't tell when you come in anymore.' " Within two weeks, her lung function had improved from a baseline of about fifty per cent to just over sixty per cent. She gained almost ten pounds, and after twenty-eight days her lung function had increased by eighteen per cent over all. The clinical trial ended, and all patients came off the therapy. Within a week, Chrissy's lung function had begun to decline. "I call the cystic-fibrosis center all the time, asking, 'Do you have any news?' " she said. "When you've finally felt what normal feels like, you kind of realize it's not that much fun being your abnormal self."
Last October, at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference, held in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Frank Accurso, of the Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, presented the results of the first two parts of the Vertex trial, which was placebo-controlled. (I served on a scientific-advisory board at Vertex from 1991 to 2000. I have no current connection to or financial interest in the company.) Of the nineteen patients who participated in the second part of the study, those who received a specific dose of the drug demonstrated a renewed ability to transport chloride and markedly improved lung function, with an average gain of more than ten per cent. Vertex is launching a long-term, placebo-controlled trial that could lead to F.D.A. approval this year. And, while this drug targets a very specific form of cystic fibrosis that occurs in only four per cent of patients, the fact that similar drugs—which are also intended to address the basic defect in the faulty CFTR protein and which have shown promising results in initial laboratory trials—are being developed by Vertex and other companies seems to signal a new treatment paradigm.
In the past, drugs have been developed that inhibited proteins that were toxic to cells or that stimulated proteins to counterbalance the symptoms from diseased proteins. But Vertex's drugs are among the first that appear to be able to restore the normal function of a mutated protein like the one that causes cystic fibrosis. Researchers caution that further studies are needed, but the convergence of several drugs performing comparable functions might mean an entirely new approach to pharmaceutical research—with the potential to be applied to a wide range of genetic disorders, from Duchenne muscular dystrophy to Huntington's disease and certain kinds of cancer.
The characteristics of cystic fibrosis have long been recognized, if not always understood. In medieval times, a baby who tasted "salty" when kissed would be predicted to die under an evil hex; the autopsy of an emaciated, "bewitched" eleven-year-old girl in 1595 in Leiden, the Netherlands, revealed that the pancreas was swollen, hard, and gleaming white. The name of the disease describes this effect: fluid-filled cavities, or cysts; and prominent scarring, or fibrosis. Dr. Dorothy Hansine Andersen, a pediatrician at Columbia University's Babies & Children's Hospital, in New York City, was the first to identify cystic fibrosis as a disease, in 1935. She also first hypothesized that the disease was a recessive disorder, and was the first doctor to treat children with pancreatic enzymes to improve their digestion.
In 1985, researchers in the United States and Canada discovered that the cystic-fibrosis gene was situated on the seventh chromosome. Two years earlier, Dr. Francis Collins, at Yale, had devised a technique to find a gene by "jumping" over segments of chromosomes. "It's like looking for a burned-out light bulb in the basement of somebody's house," Collins told me. "You search the whole United States, and then you narrow it down to the right state, maybe even the right county, but you still have an awful lot of territory to search through for the burned-out light bulb. You needed a method that would allow you to do a house-to-house search—ideally, one that would allow you to start searching multiple city blocks at once. And that's essentially what chromosome jumping allowed."
The technology could identify mutations—the burned-out light bulb—in any genetic disorder, but Collins chose to focus on cystic fibrosis, in part because of a young woman he had treated as an intern, in 1977. "I became interested in the condition, and frustrated when I tried to learn more about its genesis, and there was nothing there," he said. In 1984, Collins moved to the University of Michigan, and in 1987 he began to collaborate with Lap-Chee Tsui and Jack Riordan, researchers in Toronto, to find the exact nature of the cystic-fibrosis mutation. Two years later, the researchers identified the gene and determined its function. Their findings were published as a series of three papers in the journal Science.
The discovery of the gene set off a wave of euphoria, with many people convinced that cystic fibrosis would soon be cured. Collins recalled, "You know the affected organs, the lungs and pancreas, you deliver the normal gene, and, bingo! You'd be done." The N.I.H. spent millions of dollars setting up gene-therapy centers to attempt just that. In 1990, a year after the gene was discovered, researchers published papers on successful laboratory tests in prestigious journals like Nature and Cell. The New York Times reported, "Scientists have cured cystic fibrosis cells in the laboratory by inserting a healthy version of the gene that causes the disease, an unexpectedly swift advance that left researchers almost giddy with delight. The results throw open the door to using human gene therapy to treat the deadly respiratory disorder, the most common fatal genetic ailment in the United States." Yet, despite the successes in the laboratory, patients had an immune reaction to the procedure, rejecting the delivery system that held the normal gene.
For those who had invested their hopes in the therapy, the disappointment was devastating. Last November, I visited the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Children's Hospital Boston with Dr. Ahmet Uluer, a pediatric pneumologist and the director of the adult cystic-fibrosis program. The mood was sombre: a few days earlier, Dean Barnett, a conservative columnist and political activist in Boston, who had cystic fibrosis, had died, at the age of forty-one. In one examination room, Sabrina Kelley, a twelve-year-old patient, and her father, Brian, a Massachusetts state trooper, were waiting for the doctor. Sabrina had been running a fever for several days; during the previous year, she had spent weeks on intravenous antibiotics for sinus infections and lung infections. "Sabrina was born in 1996, when it was all about gene therapy," Brian Kelley said. He paused and looked at Dr. Uluer. "You doctors were supposed to fix it," he said. Kelley has been following the trials of the new drugs, but, he told me, "I have no expectation."
Dr. Robert Beall, a biochemist who had worked at the N.I.H., joined the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 1980 as executive vice-president for medical affairs, and became the president and C.E.O. in 1994. He was determined to find a new approach to treating the underlying genetic defect in cystic fibrosis. "I was on a long plane ride and catching up on reading," he recalled. "There was an article in Nature Medicine on high-throughput screening—using automated systems like robots to test hundreds of thousands of compounds in search of a drug." Beall sought funding to apply this new technology to cystic-fibrosis research, and in 1998, he approached Roger Tsien, a biologist who was working on ways to track proteins and monitor signals in cells using fluorescence. (Tsien won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year for this work.) Tsien had co-founded a biotech company, Aurora Biosciences, in San Diego, which utilized the high-throughput-screening technology.
Realizing that the research would be intensive, and that its results would have a relatively small market, Beall arranged for the foundation to provide Aurora with an initial grant of two million dollars. "Basically, we just wanted to see if they could get going," Beall said. The company formatted a system to screen for the chemical compounds that facilitated chloride transport, but it would need a larger subsidy in order to continue with the research. In 1999, Beall approached the Gates Foundation. William Gates, Sr., then the head of the foundation, interviewed Beall about the unprecedented idea of correcting a mutated protein with a drug that could be taken orally, would work throughout the body, and would restore functioning of diseased organs. "We sat around his living-room table and wrote a proposal," Beall told me. "They called us two weeks later and said they were giving us twenty million dollars to start the Aurora project." The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation contributed seventeen million dollars, from the sale of patent rights to an aerosolized antibiotic. (The foundation often acts as an investor in cystic-fibrosis research done by for-profit companies, and sometimes retains the rights to patents on any drugs produced from such research.) "We knocked the socks off the biotech world," Beall said. A few years ago, Beall recruited Joseph O'Donnell, a successful businessman whose twelve-year-old son had died of the disease, and who had served on the foundation's board, to lead an effort to raise a hundred and seventy-five million dollars to contribute to more new drug development; so far, he has garnered a hundred and fifty-one million.
With more than sixteen hundred known mutations in the cystic-fibrosis gene, the process of finding drugs to address the disease's pathology seemed formidable. But researchers soon realized that these mutations could be grouped into categories. One category of mutations produces a protein that is able to insert itself into the membrane of the cell but contains a "rusty gate" that closes off the passage of chloride. Another group of mutations, the most common, prevents the protein from reaching the membrane. A third category has a so-called "nonsense mutation," which causes the cell to abruptly terminate production of the protein, making only a fragment.
With the grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, scientists on the Aurora team began screening more than half a million chemical compounds. Once a chemical was found to restore the movement of chloride, the team worked to modify the compound into potable forms that might serve as drugs. Eventually, Aurora identified several compounds that would either wedge open the rusty gate (potentiators) or repair the protein's ability to reach the cell membrane (correctors). "It's sort of molecular origami," Paul Negulescu, who was one of the Aurora researchers, explained. "The CFTR protein has to fold in a certain order in a certain way to work properly, and the mutated cystic-fibrosis protein didn't fold quite right. Just a little tweak, we believe, at one phase of that folding process gets it to the right shape, or otherwise it's like a crumpled piece of paper you can throw away." The drug that Falletti took, known as VX-770, is a potentiator; Vertex Pharmaceuticals (which acquired Aurora in 2001) has also developed a corrector, VX-809, which has been tested in small studies of healthy volunteers and cystic-fibrosis patients, and began a larger clinical trial in cystic-fibrosis patients this year.
At the Vertex offices, in Cambridge, Joshua Boger, the C.E.O., and the cystic-fibrosis research team showed me two videos, taken through a microscope, of cells from the lungs of cystic-fibrosis patients. In the first video, a layer of cystic-fibrosis lung cells had uncoördinated, slowly moving cilia that were unable to move mucus off the cell surface. The second video was of cystic-fibrosis cells that had been exposed to a corrector compound. In these cells, the cilia eventually began to beat in a synchronized fashion, like palm fronds swaying back and forth in the wind, showing how bacteria and mucus could be moved from the airways.
Other researchers are developing drugs that operate in similar ways and are also yielding positive results. One such drug targets the nonsense category of mutation. Normal genes contain so-called "stop signs" at the end of their DNA blueprint in order to produce proteins of an appropriate length. The nonsense mutations in cystic fibrosis create an additional, premature stop sign, which arrests synthesis of CFTR; researchers had to find a way to bypass the abnormal stop sign while respecting the normal one. Worldwide, some fifteen per cent of all patients with cystic fibrosis have this kind of nonsense mutation, but more than sixty per cent of patients in Israel carry it. PTC Therapeutics, a New Jersey development company, screened more than a million compounds and chemically optimized these compounds for several years before finding one that masks the abnormal stop sign while letting the cell recognize the normal point of termination.
In a clinical study conducted by PTC in Israel, nineteen patients underwent three months of treatment. Typically, these patients coughed nearly six hundred and fifty times per day. (Healthy people usually cough fewer than sixteen times per day.) During treatment, the nineteen study participants had their rate of coughing reduced by about two hundred times each day. In a study in Europe, lung function improved: pretreatment biopsies of the patients' nasal tissue, which is similar to lung tissue, showed no CFTR protein; after treatment, the protein appeared in its normal place on the cell surface. The drug also restored chloride transport in the airways. Dr. Eitan Kerem, who directs the department of pediatrics at Hadassah Medical Center, in Jerusalem, and is the head of its cystic-fibrosis center, oversaw the pilot study in Israel. "We saw that it improved the physiology—that chloride now could be transported," Kerem said. "But we need a placebo-controlled trial to really know its benefit." An international, placebo-controlled study of two hundred cystic-fibrosis patients will begin in the coming months. "I don't expect to see a complete cure," Kerem, who plans to participate in the study, told me. "But if it can slow the progression of the disease, and patients can receive it at an early age, so they live much longer and much better, dayenu"—a Hebrew word meaning "it is enough for us," traditionally used at the Passover seder to express gratitude for the exodus from slavery in Egypt.
These drugs may also have ramifications beyond cystic fibrosis. The drug produced by PTC Therapeutics, for instance, was designed to override any nonsense mutation—and could therefore be applied to a wide number of genetic diseases. (Nearly twenty-five hundred such disorders have been catalogued.) So far, the research team at PTC has provided data that suggest that the drug can bypass the stop mutation in mice genetically engineered to have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and pilot studies in patients with the disease have shown promising results.
Although the treatment of genetic disorders has long been considered too small a market for most pharmaceutical companies, an increasing number of biotech firms have found that genetic research can be used in broader ways than anticipated. By identifying common protein pathways, a number of researchers say, research conducted to develop drugs that treat relatively rare afflictions may also be applied to a spectrum of illnesses. Mark Murcko, Vertex's chief technology officer, said, "We believe that misfolding diseases can be treated with small-molecule drugs"—these may be oral medications, like those developed for cystic fibrosis, which work throughout the body. Diseases associated with a misfolded protein include Alzheimer's and more commonly occurring diseases, such as cancers that have the mutated p53 gene, thought to be important in certain cancers of the colon, pancreas, and lungs. In malignancies, tumor-suppressor genes, which normally restrain cell growth, acquire mutations, from carcinogens like tobacco smoke and radiation exposure, that eliminate the genes' ability to halt growth. If the promise of corrector drugs like those in development for cystic fibrosis bears out, drugs could also be developed to restore the restraining function of the tumor-suppressor protein. Murcko is also interested in the future possibility that other drugs that facilitate chloride transport might be useful in enhancing the pulmonary function of patients with common lung diseases, such as chronic bronchitis from smoking.
This strategy—pursuing treatments for rare genetic disorders with the intention of finding ways to use them for more common ailments as well—has found adherents outside the biotech world. Dr. Mark Fishman, the president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, the pharmaceutical research arm of Novartis, a major global health-care company, has shifted his institute's research program to focus on diseases with well-understood underpinnings, including rare genetic disorders. "If you understand the genetic mechanism, it becomes scientifically tractable to develop drugs," he told me. Novartis, for example, is developing a treatment for Muckle-Wells syndrome, an extremely rare auto-inflammatory disease, which also has the potential to provide relief for those who suffer from gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and some kinds of diabetes. Fishman has been heartened by the advances made by Vertex and PTC in treating cystic fibrosis. "This approach to restoring the protein clearly changes the way you look at the world of drug development," he said.
Francis Collins, who discovered the cystic-fibrosis gene and, until last year, was the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, at the N.I.H., has helped to establish federal programs to use high-throughput-screening technology to target a variety of mutated proteins, inspired in part by the success in finding new treatments for cystic fibrosis. "If we recognize that most inherited disorders do not have a foundation with the resources cystic fibrosis had, is it realistic to imagine that the same path of drug development could be travelled for other genetic diseases?" he asked. In the absence of private funding, Collins has urged the federal government to fill in the breach. "We have a robot screening three hundred thousand compounds in a span of forty-eight hours, each compound at seven different concentrations," he told me. "There are four screening centers throughout the country. At N.I.H., there is the ability to do animal testing and to see if a compound is ready for human trials." He added, "We have a unique opportunity with this cystic-fibrosis story to figure out how we can help other diseases."
It seems likely that the treatment for cystic fibrosis will ultimately consist of combinations of these targeted therapies, much the way people with AIDS have gained longevity with multi-drug regimens. Because each parent, as a silent carrier, contributes one mutated gene, many children with the disease have two separate defects—for example, a misshapen CFTR mutation and a nonsense mutation, or a misshapen CFTR and a rusty-gate type of mutation. The clinical studies are still in the early stages, so neither the long-term benefits nor the potential side effects are known. Combining drugs might allow for synergy in restoring chloride movement, but it might also lead to toxic interactions, as with any combination therapy.
All the physicians and scientists I talked to who are working on the experimental agents emphasized the many unknown variables, but for the first time there is convincing evidence that the underlying defect in cystic fibrosis can be corrected. Dr. Susanna McColley, the director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Children's Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, who did not participate in the Vertex or the PTC studies, told me, "These drugs are absolutely for real. It's very striking, for example, that with the Vertex drug patients showed dramatic improvement and when it was stopped their lung function dropped back down." It was particularly surprising, McColley said, because most experts believed that these patients' lung function had been so destroyed over years of infection that they were incapable of such improvement. "The work with these drugs tells us that maybe we were not ambitious enough in our thinking," she added.
McColley did take part two years ago in studies of denufosol, a drug produced by the biotech company Inspire that works in a different way from the Vertex and PTC drugs, by stimulating an alternative-chloride channel and bypassing the effects of the genetic mutations entirely. The drug, which increases hydration of lungs and helps open airways, is inhaled. In the placebo-controlled trial, involving three hundred and fifty-two patients, those on the drug showed a meaningful improvement in lung function. The study was not limited to a particular category of mutation, and the patients continued their standard therapies, such as antibiotics, during the trial. Dr. Accurso, at the Denver Children's Hospital, acted as the lead principal investigator for denufosol's Phase III clinical trial; one of his patients, Maya Nibbe, a seven-year-old with cystic fibrosis, participated in the study. (Another large clinical study is already under way.) Maya takes some forty pills a day, receives aerosol treatments with bronchodilators, to open her airways, and uses Pulmozyme, an enzyme-based treatment, to thin and loosen the viscous mucus. "During the cold weather, she needed supplemental antibiotics about once every month," her mother, Jennifer Reinhardt, told me when we spoke by phone. While on the denufosol trial, which lasted forty-eight weeks, Maya needed such supplemental antibiotic therapy only once. She has been off the drug for eighteen months, and her lungs are now populated by resistant staphylococcus—MRSA—requiring two months of combination-antibiotic therapy. "It's really hard on her," Maya's mother said. "It's frustrating that we can't have it." ♦


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Luther Burbank's legacy on display
He'll never be as famous in popular culture as his friends Thomas Edison or Edsel Ford, but you can't fault Luther Burbank for that. Breeding plants just isn't as sexy as engineering incandescent light bulbs or next-generation cars.
One of the pre-eminent horticulturalists in American history, Burbank developed more than 800 varieties of fruits, flowers and vegetables over his career, including the russet potato, the most widely cultivated in the country.
It's also the potato most often used to make french fries, and that's just one of the Burbank trivia bits you'll encounter while tracing his life and works through former residences in Sonoma County, where he lived from 1875 until his death in 1926.
Today, the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens is a 1.6-acre city park, a historic downtown landmark that sits across from City Hall and Juilliard Park in downtown Santa Rosa.
It's here that I met Barbara, one of the volunteer docents who leads guided tours between April and October. (A self-guided audio tour, conducted via visitors' own cell phones, is available year-round and covers much of the same information for the garden and grounds.)
Barbara and I started off in the gardens, which essentially double as a living museum to Burbank's plant wizardry. It includes the paradox walnut tree that Burbank created in hopes of achieving a fast-growing hardwood tree - hence, the paradox.
Nearby is a plumcot tree, a cross between a plum and apricot. The difference between a plumcot and a pluot? The plumcot has the fuzzy skin of an apricot.
Soon, we came to a potato bed, a significant marker, Barbara says, because the potato financed Burbank's trip west.
The Massachusetts-born lad, born in 1849, was the second-youngest of 15 children and a rather sickly child, so he was often at home, following his mother around the garden.
Forced to help support the family when his father died, Burbank bought a plot of land and began farming, developing the Burbank potato, a precursor of the russet. Eventually, he sold the rights to the potato and farm for $150, enough to buy a ticket on the transcontinental railroad and start life anew in California.
"Nine days," Barbara says of the journey west.
It wasn't long before Burbank and his plants began flourishing. Inspired by Darwin but with only an elementary school education, Burbank didn't practice traditional scientific methodology.
Records of his cross-breeding, hybridization and grafting efforts are spotty at best. In many cases, results that were successes were simply denoted with an 'X' - examples of which can be seen in his greenhouse.
Burbank managed to develop more than 100 varieties of stone fruit, including the Santa Rosa plum, freestone peach and plumcot. He also spent 20 years trying to develop a spineless cactus that cattle could eat and that would be drought-resistant, a project that was ultimately unsuccessful.
Most of Burbank's work was conducted at his 18-acre Gold Ridge Experimental Farm in Sebastopol, where he sometimes stayed overnight.
But "home" was officially in Santa Rosa, and a walk through the Greek revival cottage reveals family keepsakes and furniture, as well as the colored glass and hand-painted tiles beloved by Burbank's second wife, Betty Burbank. There are family photos and photos of famous friends, including Ford, Edison and Helen Keller.
Although the Burbanks moved into a larger home in 1906, the much younger Betty Burbank returned to the cottage upon her husband's death in 1926, remaining there until her own death more than 50 years later.
The floors creak and the things are as they were in Betty Burbank's final years - except in the kitchen, where the antique icebox and Wedgwood stove were moved in to keep the interior consistent with Luther Burbank's era. Betty Burbank, having outlived her husband by a half-century, had upgraded to modern appliances by the time of her death.
By prior agreement, the Burbank estate was turned over to the city of Santa Rosa when Betty Burbank died, and both she and Luther Burbank are buried on the property.
Though the guided tour season is over, there's still a chance to see the whole property this year, when the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens' 33rd annual Holiday Open House takes place the first weekend of December.
Luther Burbank Home & Gardens: 204 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa; (707) 524-5445. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Gardens open 8 a.m.-dusk daily. Entrance is free. Self-guided audio tours, via cell phone, are also free. Annual Holiday Open House is Dec. 1-2, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $2. Public tours of garden, home, greenhouse and Carriage House Museum run April through October, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Cost is $7 for adults; children 12 and under are free.
The Gold Ridge Experimental Farm: 7781 Bodega Ave., Sebastopol; (707) 829-6711. Open for self-guided tours year-round, with docent tours available by appointment. Plant sales every Wednesday, 9 a.m.-noon.
Janny Hu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail email@example.com Twitter: @janny_hu


text:
Thursday, July 28, 2011
HIWWI: Steve Madden Shazzam Platforms
8 comments:
- Taylor said...
Ok I too am obsessed with gold glitter too and not that this is even that closet related to his post (cute romper by the way) but the shoes reminded me of something. I jut pinned something under my future craft room and it's a gold glittered floor! Yeah u can believe it... Anyway I totally thought of you, even Bryan okayed it.... U will be a's obsessdical as I am!!
- July 28, 2011 at 10:47 PM
- Meg O. said...
those sunglasses are cray cray! In a good way!
- July 29, 2011 at 1:36 AM
- Patricia Paramo said...
you're funny!
- July 29, 2011 at 3:56 AM
- Paleo said...
hahah I love the outfit put together. Her legs are completely proportioned to her body. Totally.... does HIWWI ever leave you depressed ... it depresses me a bit because now I want this outfit.
- July 29, 2011 at 9:05 AM
- Meghan said...
I'm totally buying that feather bracelet
- July 29, 2011 at 9:31 AM
- Kerri HollyMuffin said...
I just came across your blog, and I instantly loved it!
Consider me your newest fan & follower :)
Love the shoes!
Kerri at HollyMuffin
- July 29, 2011 at 10:20 AM
- Kel said...
Wow those Steve Maddens are intense.
In the best possible way!
Lots of love from Sydney,
x Kel
totally seeing red
- July 29, 2011 at 11:30 AM
- Sunshine said...
I think those shoes are a bit much for me. But I do like feather bracelet. I would add it on to other bracelets.
- July 29, 2011 at 12:00 PM


text:
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Ford F-250
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Oxford White 2019 Ford F-250SD XL 4WD 6-Speed Automatic Power Stroke 6.7L V8 DI 32V OHV Turbodiesel 4WD.
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 5.0
Expensive but inline with the competition.
By Steve on Monday, April 22, 2019The Ford Super Duty trucks are gorgeous, well made,feature-laden and very powerful. Ford often sets the bar for innovation and power but GM and Dodge leap frog quickly. All of the "big three" trucks are expensive and powerful but their styling really boils down to personal taste. However, Ford is the only manufacturer supplying its own diesel engines & transmissions for their products. I think that says A LOT about the company. I'll admit that my Platinum spec F250 has some cheap interior materials shared with the base models, which contrast with the other premium materials with my package, but it's not bad enough to really whine about. When it comes to the reliability and performance I've personally experienced, I can't say enough good things about my truck. Hauling, towing, exhaust braking, maneuverability, power and economy, tech features, etc., I have zero complaints. There are a few features I have found annoying or pointless, such as Lane keeping alert and auto high-beams, but I had the ability to deactivate them. If there were one feature I'd wish to have though, it would be the step bumper GMC offers, in conjunction with the "Man-Step" in the tailgate my truck has. To have both available would be ideal, yet I'm sure each company has patents on their designs so I'm not expecting that anytime soon.
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Good Truck
By Ryan on Monday, March 26, 2018Ford needs to have a way to have options you want and not have to buy a package. I understand Ford wants you to buy a certain package but I wanted a touch start with keyless entry on a Lariat and you have to get the ultimate Package to get that. I did not want the moon roof so that was not a option for me. I will say I wanted the silver they offered but its hard to find what you want unless you want a fully loaded truck at 73,000.00. Really did not want to spend that much for just a few other options. I have now had the truck for about 7 month and it has been a great truck. Finish on the truck was not what I was expecting but after a few trips to the dealership they have worked out most of the kinks. I had a 2015 F150 before this and it was a great truck and fully loaded with the twin panel roof and all. Over all a great turck, just a few things I wish they would change.
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Ubelivable power available
By Butch on Sunday, January 20, 2019Towing a 35 ft. Cardinal 5th wheel that comes in at around 18,000 lbs. The camper is a little heavier than I like, but 6.7 diesel has more power than you need. The camper is 13.5 ft. high and you go down the hwy. at 70 plus mph with no effort. Comfort and handling are great, and it's averaging 10 mpg towing and 18 mpg normal without load. When shopping for a 5th wheel camper it was the #1 truck recommended by the dealers. Love it !!!!
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text: KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management Mar 1, 2013 Hugh McKellar This article appears in the issue March 2013 (100 Companies) [Vol 22, Issue 3] With the juggernaut of consolidation growing ever louder since we first put this list together in 2000, you'd think identifying a hundred companies that matter in knowledge management would be increasingly easier to assemble, right? Heck, it simply follows that with fewer companies to choose from, it would be simpler to pick 100. Not at all. It's harder than ever because of the increasing cross-functionality of today's solutions.As is the case since we first published it in 2000, compilation of the list is a yearlong collaborative effort among colleagues, analysts, system integrators and a select group of users. As it has been for 13 years, the list is intended to spark a larger discussion of knowledge management. Hence, we consider this list to be a work in progress. We're always on the lookout for groundbreaking solutions or notable modifications to existing ones. Throughout the year, the organizations and products we find most interesting will be showcased on our site and in our magazine.Criteria for inclusion vary, but all companies have things in common. Each has either helped to create a market, redefine one or enhance one, and they all share two things-velocity of innovation and the agility to properly serve customers. We should emphasize again that the list is really a marker in time for the evolving and expanding knowledge management universe. We invite discussion and encourage you to contact us regarding KM tools and services you find especially valuable. Vendors: Ask your customers to tell us how your solutions have benefited their business. Analysts, consultants and integrators: Give us a heads-up when you discover especially interesting software and emerging trends.Remember, the purpose of the list is to generate interest and discussion about the breadth of knowledge management tools and services-and to highlight the companies our panel believes best fulfill the goal of delivering the right information to the right people at the right time.We encourage you to visit the websites of the 100 companies we listed. You'll see why we selected them. And starting on page 19 (KMWorld, March 2013, Vol.22, Issue 3) or following this online artice, you can hear from the companies themselves in the special View From the Top section. Here, CEO and other top officials share their vision of the knowledge economy and how their solutions allow their customers to reach their goals.A2iA—Natural handwriting recognition, intelligent word recognition (IWR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR) technologies.ABBYY—Optical character recognition, document capture and language software for both PC and mobile devices.Accellion—Enterprise-class, secure file sharing solutions for mobile-enabled organizations.Access Innovations—Information management and database construction products and services. To Learn more, read Access Innovations CEO Jay Ven Eman's View From the Top.Accusoft—Document, content and imaging solutions. To Learn more, read Accusoft Founder, President and CEO Jack Berlin's View From the Top.Acquia—Products, services and technical support for the open source Drupal social publishing system.Adobe—Tools and services to create digital content, deploy it across media and devices.Alfresco—Open source enterprise content management system developer for Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems.Altep—Document management, electronic discovery and litigation support. To Learn more, read Altep Vice-President of Data Forensics Warren G. Kruse II's View From the Top.Amazon A9—Cloud-based search service.AnyDoc Software—Automated document, data capture and classification solutions. To Learn more, read AnyDoc Software President Samuel L. Schrage's View From the TopAppian—Business process management software, including solutions for mobile devices, cloud computing and social business.APQC—Business benchmarking and best practices for organizations in all industries.Aptean—End-to-end, industry-specific solutions to address business challenges.ASG Software Solutions—Professional services and software solutions for management of metadata, applications, operations, content, performance, security, management and infrastructure.Attensity—Social analytics and engagement solutions.Attivio—Integration of enterprise search, business intelligence and analytics.AvePoint—Enterprise-class governance and infrastructure management solutions for SharePoint.Azul Systems—Elastic Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) with highlighting scalability, manageability and production-time visibility.BA Insight—Integrated search technologies and search-based applications that help organizations fully leverage SharePoint and FAST Search.Birst—Agile, real-time business analytics.BP Logix—Infrastructure and business intelligence that enables business users to anticipate and predict potential problems in recurring business processes.Bridgeline Digital—Web experience management and interactive technology solutions that help organizations optimize business processes.BroadVision—Web self-service applications for enterprise social software, e-commerce, enterprise portals and CRM.Cambridge Semantics—Semantic data management software for the enterprise that is designed to bridge the gap between business processes and data-driven business intelligence.Citrix—Virtualization, networking, collaboration and cloud technologies.Colligo Networks—Mobile collaboration and e-mail management in SharePoint. To Learn more, read Colligo President, CEO and Founder Barry Jinks's View From the TopComintelli—Enterprise information access software focusing on solutions for competitive intelligence, knowledge management, content delivery and enterprise search. To Learn more, read Comintelli CEO Jesper Martell's View From the TopConcept Searching—Software products that deliver conceptual metadata generation, auto-classification and taxonomy management.Connotate—Web data monitoring and collection for the business user. To Learn more, read Connotate CEO Keith Cooper's View From the TopContent Analyst Company—Search and analytics for unstructured text. To Learn more, read Content Analyst President & CEO Kurt Michel's View From the TopCoveo—Modular and scalable enterprise search platform that indexes information stored in various repositories throughout the enterprise.Datawatch—Information analytics systems through data extraction from static, but content-rich, sources.Eccentex— Allows organizations to leverage the power of the cloud delivery model to rapidly and cost-effectively automate their business processes in order to reduce risk, increase efficiency and improve customer service. eGain—On-premise or cloud software for knowledge-powered, multichannel sales and service.EMC—Information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations to transform the way they create value from information.Empolis—Creation, management, analysis and intelligent processing of all relevant information for a company, regardless of producer, source, format, application, user, location or device. To Learn more, read Empolis CEO, Dr. Stefan Wess's View From the Top.EntropySoft (acquired by Salesforce)—Content integration software that connects people and applications to information.Exalead-Dassault—Content integration software connecting people and applications to information.Exsys—Software that provides non-programmers a new way to build interactive Web applications.Exterro—Solutions for legal hold, early case assessment (ECA), data collection and processing and other electronic discovery processes.FTI Technology—E-discovery software and services. To Learn more, read FTI Technology Global Practice Leader, Seth Rierson's View From the TopFuzeDigital—Blending knowledge sharing, online community and gamification technologies, Fuze is focused on quickly getting stakeholders to high quality answers. To Learn more, read FuzeDigital CEO and Founder, Chuck Van Court's View From the Top Google—Technology solutions for search, voice, analytics, documents, geospacial applications, etc.Huddle—Content collaboration platform.IBM—Complete portfolio of enterprise content technologies and solutions.iDatix—iSynergy document management solution designed to solve transactional and paper-based problems in accounting, human resources, customer service and operations.Igloo Software—Social business software.Integrify—Lean business process management.IntelliResponse—Software platform that allows customers and service agents to ask questions in natural language.Jaspersoft—Business intelligence interactive reports, dashboards and analytics with support for cloud, big data and mobile deployments.JustSystems—Content life cycle solutions.KANA—Solutions designed to unify business process, case and knowledge management for customer service organizations.Kapow Software—Automated data integration.kCura—Web-based platform servicing the analysis, review and production stages of the e-discovery reference model. To Learn more, read kCura President Andrew Sieja's View From the TopKenexa (an IBM company)—Recruiting, hiring, training and employee management solutions.KnowledgeLake—Document imaging-related products and solutions for SharePoint. To Learn more, read Knowledgelake CEO Ron Cameron's View From the Top Kofax—Data capture and BPM/workflow solutions.LiquidPlanner—Platform-independent, online project management.LucidWorks—Apache Solr/Lucene open source enterprise searchtechnology.Lymba—Natural language processing-based solutions to transform large unstructured data collections into actionable knowledge.M-Files—Metadata-driven content management solutions.MarkLogic—Enterprise NoSQL database.Metalogix—Content life cycle management solutions for SharePoint.Microsoft—Complete software solutions for home and office.Mindbreeze—Enterprise search, information access and data cognition. To Learn more, read Mindbreeze Managing Director Daniel Fallman's View From the Top.Moxie Software—Enterprise social software for employee and customer engagement.Mu-Sigma—Data analytics consulting.Mzinga—Enterprise social software solutions and services serving the learning, marketing and support markets.NewsGator Technologies—Enterprise social computing solutions with direct integration with SharePoint's collaboration platform.Noetix—Instant operational reporting and packaged analytics for Oracle applications. To Learn more, read Noetix President & CEO Morris Beaton's View From the TopOpenText—Enterprise information management solutions that enable users to extend and build BPM, CRM, SCM and ERP applications.Oracle/RightNow—Combines Web, social and contact center experiences for a unified, cross-channel service solution in the cloud.Pegasystems—Business process management and customer relationship management solutions.Perceptive Software—Intelligent capture, content and process management, enterprise search and integration solutions.PPC—Consulting firm addressing the energy, environment, financial, healthcare and insurance industries. To Learn more, read PPC President & CEO Harry Thornsvard's View From the TopQ-Sensei—Multidimensional search and index platform for search-based applications. To Learn more, read Q-Sensai CEO Ute Rother's View From the TopQuest (a Dell company)—Solutions for the management of databases, applications, Windows, SharePoint, virtualization, etc.Raytion—Solutions for enterprise search, digital archiving, portals and collaboration.Recommind—E-discovery, enterprise search and information governance.RightAnswers—Knowledge management, self-service and knowledgebase development tools.Rivet Logic—Solutions for content management, collaboration and community. To Learn more, read Rivet Logic President and CEO Mike Vertal's View From the TopRSD—Software for business information delivery, content and records management, and document archiving and retrieval.San Jose State University SLIS—Graduate degrees and leadership development for professionals who organize, manage and enable the effective use of information and ideas. To Learn more, read San Jose State University SLIS Professor and Director Sandra Hirsh's View From the TopSAS—Unstructured content solutions using linguistic rules and statistical methods to automatically assess, analyze and act upon the insight buried in electronic text.SDL-Content Management Technologies—Solutions to deliver a targeted customer experience. To Learn more, read SDL Content Management Technologies CEO, Jan Jaap Kolleman's View From the TopSearch Technologies—Search engine implementation and tuning.Sherpa Software—Solutions for e-mail archiving, recovery, compliance, e-discovery, and .PST management for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange.Smartlogic—Taxonomy management and automatic classification.Socialtext—Social networking software for microblogging, blogs, wikis, profiles and social spreadsheets.SpringCM—Cloud-based enterprise content, document and workflow management.StoredIQ—Range of integrated solutions for fast response to litigation and investigations.Summit 7 Systems—Planning, designing and deploying collaboration and unified communications solutions. To Learn more, read Summit 7 Systems President & Managing Partner Scott Edward's View From the TopSusQtech (acquired by Protiviti)—Microsoft SharePoint solutions, support and training for nonprofit and commercial industries.TIBCO—Infrastructure software for companies to use on-premise or as part of cloud computing environments.Traction Software—Social business software.Verint—Analytic software and hardware for the security, surveillance and business intelligence markets.Wall Street Network—Knowledge management for SharePoint.Webtrends—Web, social and mobile analytics and other software solutions related to marketing intelligence.X1 Discovery—E-discovery and enterprise search solutions specifically designed for IT, electronic discovery and legal professionals. To Learn more, read X1 President & CEO John Patzakis's View From the Top


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Possible Duplicate:
When stuck, how quickly should one resort to Stack Overflow?
Its good that solution to almost every programming problem is available at my disposal, either someone has asked it before or programming gurus are waiting for me to post it..sometimes its just the matter of seconds after posting the question and someone points out the error-causing-line or proposes alternate (easier, lightweight and efficient) solution. But today it struck me "is this making me dumb?"
In good (umm..not so good) old days I used to figure out the source of my problem and then work it out myself, though it used to eat up lot of time but it helped in developing my logical thinking as it used to make an impression in my mind due to which I tend to avoid that situation in future codes.
Now, as soon as I encounter a problem I just give it a shot or two and head towards the community. Many times after looking at the solution it turns out that answer was all in front of me..all I needed was to take a break, hover it once and its solved. Both the approaches make me feel guilty, for wasting time when I could have asked and solved it within minutes OR being too lazy to look over it again before posting the code snippet.


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Say hallelujah, you entrepreneurial New Yorkers buying unlimited-ride MetroCards and selling subway-entry swipes to tourists. Your "occupation" is no longer considered a felony, according to New York law thanks to New York's Court of Appeals.
In his decision, judge Jonathan Lippman said the act, "although decidedly criminal in nature," doesn't rise to felony status because the transit authority does not have a valid property interest in the swipe-buyer's fare. That is, the MTA "never actually possessed the fare that it would have otherwise been paid." Tricky.
But don't go stocking up on Thunderbird and dancing in the streets, yet. The scam will probably still be a misdemeanor under "theft of transportation services" statutes.
Giving away free swipes to your MetroCard-challenged friends is still legal, though. How else could we get Matt through the subways in he's in town?


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Woman Dies After Receiving Smoker's Lungs in Transplant
(NEW YORK) -- Jennifer Wederell, a 27-year-old British woman with cystic fibrosis, died of lung cancer after she received the lungs of a heavy smoker in an organ transplant.
According to BBC News, Wederell had been on the waiting list for a lung transplant for 18 months when in April 2011, she was told there was finally a match. She received the transplant, apparently not knowing the donor had been a smoker.
In February 2012, a malignant mass was found in her lungs. She died less than 16 months after the transplant.
Her father, Colin Grannell, said he believed his daughter had died a death meant for someone else.
"The shock immediately turned to anger insofar as all the risks were explained in the hour before her transplant," he told the BBC, "and not once was the fact smoker's lungs would be used mentioned."
Wederell's case raises difficult issues regarding organ transplants. She was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a progressive and debilitating lung disease that affects more than 70,000 people worldwide, at the age of 2. By her mid-20s, she relied on an oxygen tank 24 hours a day to survive.
Would she have been better off refusing the transplant, and hoping another set of organs became available that matched her blood type and came from a non-smoker?
"Probably not," said Dr. G. Alexander Patterson, surgical director of lung transplants at the Washington University and Barnes Jewish transplant center in St. Louis, one of the largest organ transplant programs in the nation. "If she was critically ill and had poor chance of short-term survival, she was better off accepting the transplant."
Patterson said most hospitals, including those in the U.S., also transplant the lungs of smokers if they are of otherwise good quality.
"This is a necessity because there are far fewer donors than there are recipients and most patients who are on a waiting list would gladly accept a set of smoker's lungs in exchange for the ones they have, which usually have little chance of carrying them through to long-term survival," he said.
About 17,000 Americans receive a transplant each year, and more than 4,600 die waiting for one, according to United Network for Organ Sharing, the organization charged with allocating the nation's organs. If surgeons do not accept less-than-perfect organs, Patterson said that the numbers might be much worse.
Harefield Hospital in London, where Wederell was treated, has since apologized to her family for not revealing all the information about her donor's medical history. But Patterson said most transplant surgeons don't share such details with their patients unless they are asked directly.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio


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Campus Classics
April-May 2008
For each Penguin Classics newsletter we invite a professor to share an experience of teaching with a Penguin Classic. Alfred Mac Adam of Barnard College Columbia University shares his thoughts on teaching the Penguin Classics editions of Choderlos de Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Gustave Flaubert's Sentimental Education.
"Mad Love," a comparative literature course, traces the history of overpowering passion (and the flimsy means allotted us to avoid it) from Plato to the twentieth century. The students move forward like reluctant mules through Greece, Rome (Dido in The Aeneid), the Bible (David and Bathsheba), the Middle Ages (Dante), and the Renaissance (Fernando de Rojas), and then suddenly come alive when we read P. W. K. Stone's admirable translation of Laclos's epistolary novel, equipped with a frankly inflammatory cover by Fragonard (The Bolt). The godlike and doomed miscreants, Valmont and Merteuil, send the students into paroxysms of admiration and puritanical rage. This cools when they confront Robert Baldick's version of Flaubert, with its cover from Courbet (Man with Leather Belt), not because of the splendid translation but because they discover they are Frédéric Moreau and share both his youth and his susceptibility to a love that can culminate only in disillusion. These Penguin Classics are the pierced heart and suffering soul of the course.
Alfred Mac Adam


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Scout Cheers
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
|Cub Scout Cheers - All of these Cheers on One Page!
Tips for Great Scout Cheers
- Keep them short and fun.
- Never have a cheer that could hurt someone's feelings.
- Do not use cheers to actually belittle.
- Use cue cards and scripts if you need to. Rehearse until everyone is comfortable and has memorized their parts.
- Speak loudly and clearly.
- Avoid gross, vulgar, or un-Scout-Like topics or content.
- Keep your program fast paced and get everyone involved!
Almost: With hands far apart, bring them rapidly together but miss just before meeting each other.
Archery: Shoot arrow and shout "BULLS EYE."
Avon Lady Cheer: "Dinnnnng! Donnnng!"
Baseball Cheer: "Back, Back, Back, It's out of here! Homerun!"
Bee Cheer: "Bzzzzzzzz, Bzzzzzzz, OUCH!"
Beehive Cheer: Buzz gets louder or softer when leader's hand is high or low.
Bear Cheer: "Grrrrrr!"
Big Hand: Leader says, "let's give them a big hand" everybody holds up one hand, palm out.
Blastoff: "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 BLASTOFF!"
Canned Cheer: Leader opens and closes imaginary can, to start and stop cheering.
Canned Laughter: Leader opens and closes imaginary can, to start and stop laughter.
Cat cheer: "MeeeeOOOOW!!!"
Clam: Fold hands together, interlocking fingers. Make noise by pressing palms together.
Class A: Clap in this rhythm: 1-2-3-4, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3-4, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3-4...(pause)..One big clap.
Cow Cheer: "MOOOOO!!!"
Cowboy Cheer: Twirl lasso. Yell: "Yeeee Haaaw!!!"
Coyote Cheer: ""YIP, YIP, YIPEEEE!!!!!"!!!"
Doctor's Cheer: Open up, tongs out, everyone say "Aaaaaah!"
Dog Cheer: "Woof, woof, woof!"
Drum Roll: Pat knees soft then loud, then one last pat.
Duck Call: Make a duck call by making a circle with thumb & index finger. Blow like a trumpet.
Easy Duck Call: Make a duck call as above but instead yell, "Here duck! Here duck!"
Dynamite: Light fuse, "Sssssssssssssss, BOOM!"
Eskimo: Hold your shoulders, shiver, say "Brrrr."
Ferris Wheel: Like Round of Applause but also say "Ooooh" on the way up, "Aaaah" on the way down.
Fireworks Cheer: Look up at the ceiling and say "OOOOOH!" "AHHHHH!"
Food Cheer: "Yuuuummm!"
Football: Signal a touchdown and yell "Touchdown!"
Fred Flintstone Cheer: "Yabba-dabba-doo".
Frog Cheer: Crouch down. Jump Up."Ribbit! Ribbit!"
Ghost, fast: "Boo!"
Ghost, scary: Stand, hands up: "Whooooooooo."
Good Turn: Stand, clap as you turn in one full circle.
Homerun cheer: "Back…Back…Back…HOMERUN!
Ice cube cheer: "COOOOOOOOOL!"
Jet flying: "ZOOOOOM"
Jet flying backwards: "MOOOOOZ!"
Ketchup Bottle Cheer: Hold bottle in one hand and slap with other hand to get ketchup out.
Magician's Cheer: "Taaa Daaa!"
Mosquito Cheer: Slap face, neck, shoulders, etc.
One hand cheer: Leader: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Everyone claps one hand.
Photographer's cheer: Pretend to take their picture. "Everyone smile. Say Cheeese!"
Pig Cheer: Suueeee, Pig! Pig! Pig!
Politician's Cheer: Pat yourself on the back.
Popcorn Cheer: "Pop! . . . Pop! . . Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!"
Relay Clap: First person claps second person's hand and then relay it on through all of the Cubs.
Roller Coaster Cheer: Hold onto bar, tip back, say "Click,click, click, click, click, WHEEEEEE!"
Round of Applause: While clapping hands, move them around in a circle in front of you.
Seal of Approval: Put your arms straight out together. Clap flippers and say "Ort, Ort, Ort"
Silent Yell: Everyone stands and open their mouths and screams without making any sound.
Six Shooter Cheer: Point imaginary gun in air and say "BANG!" six times.
Supersonic Cheer: Wave arms; pretend to cheer. Sit down wait a moment, then make sounds.
Surgeon's Cheer: Right Side of room: "Scalpel!" Left Side: "Sponge!" Back: "Oops!" Go faster & faster.
Theater Cheer: "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"
Thunderstorm Cheer: Pat knees soft them loud, then yell "Booom"
Tiger call: Quietly: "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty." "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty."
Tony the Tiger cheer: "They're Greeeeeat!"
Water Sprinkler: Move outstretched arm in a circle: "Choo, Choo, Choo, etc." Swing back "Whee!"
Watermelon: Hold a big slice in both hands, suck up from one end to the other, spit out the seeds.
Wave: As done at sports, stand, raise hand and cheer then sit as a wave around the room.
Wave of applause: Lie Wave but clap on your turn.
Wolf Cheer: Wolf howl: "Wooooooooooooooooooo!"
Official Books from Scoutshop.org
- Superior Campfires - contains skits, cheers, introductions, riddles and Scouting legends.
- More...Scout Skits - 75 more campfire skits, plus cheers, introductions, riddles and Scouting legends
See also
- Scout Cheers
- Scout Skits
- Scout Songs
- Theater Merit Badge
- Pack Meeting
- Den Meeting
- Scoutmaster
External Links
- Buckskin Council - great list of cheers.
- From Bill Smith - Another Source for cheers


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You must own copyright to all photos submitted. We are not responsible for any copyright infringements
Orders OUTSIDE the USA will be sent an invoice for shipping charges once they have been calculated.
Returns are not accepted on personalized items unless there is a mistake in the personalization on our part. Once an order is placed it cannot be cancelled as the process dept. starts processing as soon as the orders are placed. Please read detailed information before placing any orders so there is no confusion. Most of our items have to have background so if the photos are sent and do not fit as you think they should that is not a printing mistake on our part since you are asked to email if unsure before placing order.


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St Thomas
St Thomas, ON, N5P 1E2
GET DIRECTIONSopens in a new window
Get 50% off any medium or large pizza!
Buy ANY medium or large pizza and get your second medium or large for half the price. Just add two pizzas to your cart and we'll automatically apply the discount to your order.


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The Fedora Scholarship program recognizes one high school senior per year for contributions to the Fedora Project and free software/content in general.
The Fedora Scholarship is intended to assist in the recipient's college or university education. To this end, the recipient will receive $2,000 USD per year for each of the four years that he/she is in college.
Additionally, the recipient will receive funding for travel and lodging at the FUDCon nearest to his/her location each year of the scholarship, should he/she choose to attend.
For applicants
- December 15, 2009 -- Application window opens.
- February 19, 2010 -- Last day to apply.
- by April 5, 2010 -- Recipient will be notified privately, and preparations for public announcement (interview, press release) will begin.
- by May 31, 2010 -- Public announcement of the recipient, in conjunction with the release of Fedora 13.
For selection committee
- Date TBA -- Each member of the selection committee reviews the applications, weighs the merits of each along with the criteria, and writes a few paragraphs to the rest of the committee indicating their thinking.
- Date TBA -- discussion continues, and if we have not reached a consensus by email, a conference call will be set up in order to make a final decision.
- April 5, 2010 -- according to the Terms and Conditions, the recipient will be notified by this date.
- Date TBA -- by this date, a postmortem will be conducted with ideas on improvements to this program for the next year, including marketing, selection criteria, the selection process itself, etc.
Students who will begin an undergraduate degree program at a college or university in Fall of 2010 are eligible to apply.
Please review the full terms & conditions of the 2010 Fedora Scholarship program.
How to apply
To apply, email scholarship AT fedoraproject DOT org. Attachments should be provided in .txt, .pdf, or Open Office format. Include "Fedora Scholarship Application" in the subject line.
The application should include:
- name, age, and Fedora Account System username.
- a resume, including contributions to Fedora or other free software projects.
- a personal statement indicating why you would like to be considered for the scholarship. 500-1000 words is an appropriate length.
- the names and contact information of two references from within the Fedora Project. Those references may not be part of the Selection Committee (below).
- (optional) the names and contact information of one or two other references you would like the selection committee to contact.
Selection Criteria
The selection committee will judge applicants based on quality of contributions made to Fedora and other free software projects, references provided, the amount of time the applicant has been contributing to Fedora, and the quality of the application.
Selection Committee
The 2010 selection committee will be announced in late December.
The 2009 selection committee was:
- the current Fedora Project Leader, as well as past FPLs who remain active in Fedora.
- Chris Tyler, Professor at Seneca College and Fedora Board member
- Dimitris Glezos, Fedora Localization Leader and Fedora Board member.
- Luke Macken, Fedora Software Engineer
All previous recipients of the Fedora Scholarship have the option to serve on the selection committee.
Previous recipients
The Fedora Scholarship is administered by Mel Chua of Red Hat's Community Architecture team. For what this entails (for future administrators as well as others curious about how to offer a similar scholarship program) see the Scholarship administration SOP.


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China Corruption Blotter (January 31, 2014)
Huang Jianlong, the former party secretary of Rucheng Township in Jiangsu province, was sentenced to nine years in prison for taking bribes worth $261,446. Huang took bribes from Shanghai Life Global Architecture Group and Nantong Zhongtie Huayu Electrics Co., Ltd in return for granting them favors in land deals. http://news.cnr.cn/