text: Niobrara County Library - Welcome to the Niobrara County Library "A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us." - W. H. Auden HomeNews & EventsOrganizationsChildrenWYLD CatGenealogyHistoricalsReading WyomingLinks Welcome to the Niobrara County Library Recent News Friday, February 21, 2020Library NewsFriday, February 14, 2020Library NewsFriday, February 7, 2020Library NewsFriday, January 31, 2020Library NewsFriday, January 24, 2020Library NewsFriday, January 17, 2020Library News Upcoming Events Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - Friday, January 1, 2021Holiday Library ClosuresTuesday, January 14, 2020 - Tuesday, March 3, 2020Afterschool @ the LibraryThursday, January 16, 2020 - Thursday, March 26, 2020Financial Investing at the LibrarySaturday, February 1, 2020 - Saturday, February 29, 2020Redbird Rose PhotographyMonday, February 3, 2020 - Monday, April 6, 2020We the People Book Discussion SeriesFriday, February 28, 2020Frozen 2Sunday, March 1, 2020 - Tuesday, March 31, 2020Scott Ramsey PhotographyFriday, March 6, 2020Garfield the MovieTuesday, March 10, 2020 - Tuesday, May 19, 2020LEGO TIMEWednesday, March 11, 2020RIF - Wonders Down UnderThursday, March 12, 2020 - Thursday, May 21, 2020Board Games Friday, March 20, 2020Spies In DisguiseSunday, March 22, 2020Ross Diercks In ConcertTuesday, March 24, 2020Around the World - Antarctica @ the LibraryFriday, March 27, 2020Shrek the Third The Niobrara County Library Audio and Video Files are now available to browse! Winter Newsletter, pages 1, 2, 5 & 6 Winter Newsletter, pages 3 & 4 Stream or download free digital movies,music & audiobooks, available forNiobrara County Library card holders Hoopla is now available for Niobrara County Library card holders! Check out and stream or download digital movies, television shows, music and audiobooks at your convenience and at no cost. Several items may be checked out each month! Download the app for Hoopla Digital, sign up by using your library card number and PIN to create an account and then you're ready to go! Click here for help! Check out the Niobrara County Library's eBook Collection available for Niobrara County Library card holders in the The Virtual Library is open any time of the day or night! Now featuring a separate Virtual Library for Kids and one for Teens, click on the button above for those links. Patrons can check out and download up to six items at their convenience. Titles can be enjoyed immediately or transferred to a variety of devices, including the Kindle, Nook, iPad, Sony Reader, Kobo and many others, including many smart phones. You need your library card number and PIN to access this free service. Click here for Overdrive help and a guided tour, currently ebooks, eaudio and streaming movies are circulating in the Virtual Library. ALSO... for Niobrara County Card Holders Library card holders also have access to a database of blank and completed legal forms that are professionally created, Wyoming-specific and continually updated. Documents address subjects such as bankruptcy, divorce, power of attorney, real estate, taxation and landlord/tenant law. This resource is provided by the Niobrara County Library Foundation. ******************************************* Library Card Holders Throughout Wyoming Have Access to Additional eContent eDigital Magazines Digital Magazines are full-print, full-color (including advertisements) - exactly like the print magazine, with bonus interactive elements in many magazines. Readers can view the magazines on a variety of devices, and can download the magazine so that it can be enjoyed for offline reading. First Time Users click here to set up your account. Returning Zinio users click the button to log in with your Zinio account Click here for the Zinio patron user guide. ******************************************* eAudiobooks Be sure to click here for the help pages to assure a successful download. Returning OneClick users click the button First time OneClick users click here to set up your account ******************************************* eBooks The 3M Cloud Library is is designed to be a seamless and intuitive eBook discovery experience for library users. All Wyoming libraries will share the collection and titles will be purchased on an ongoing basis. Multiple types of eReaders and mobile devices such as Nook, Kobo and Sony eReaders will work with the service. Kindle users should be aware that only the Kindle Fire can be used with the 3M Cloud Library. **************************************** ************************************ Library Hours Sunday -- Closed Monday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday -- Noon to 7 p.m. Thursday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday -- Closed Holiday closures listed in Upcoming Events section email@example.com Questions and Information The Niobrara County Library Foundation, Inc. accepts online donations. Click to contribute via PayPal or credit/debit card. Niobrara County Library Foundation Inc Did You Know? Digital material! available 24/7 -- books, audio, movies, magazines and music -- check it out today! Staff Debbie SturmanDirector May SmithAssistant Librarian Karen AlvisCirculation Librarian Tina KitrasChildren's Librarian Jeanine WadeGenealogy Librarian WYLDCAT Library Catalog Home | News & Events | Organizations | Children | WYLD Cat | Genealogy | Historicals | Reading Wyoming | Links Debbie Sturman, Director 425 South Main Street, P O Box 510 Lusk, WY 82225-0510 Phone: 307-334-3490 © 2020, Niobrara County Library


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Nathan's wisdom, experience a boon to Tigers
Veteran closer brings to Detroit wealth of knowledge, desire to keep learning
DETROIT -- Joe Nathan and Joba Chamberlain came to the Tigers this offseason from vastly different routes. One is now the active Major League leader in career saves looking to cap his career with a World Series. The other is a former relief phenom looking for a fresh start.
As they compared stories on Miguel Cabrera home runs, however, they sounded like they'd been teammates for years.
"I'm fortunate that I came here," said Nathan, against whom Cabrera is 2-for-12 lifetime with no extra-base hits, "because the last two at-bats he absolutely hit two missiles off of me, and I think the days of me tricking him are over. I'm glad I'm on his side now."
That, of course, brought up the three-homer game Cabrera posted on Nathan's old Texas Ranger teammates last May on a Sunday night in Arlington.
"That ball he hit off of Derek Holland," Nathan recalled, "Holland ducked, and it went over the center-field wall."
To which Chamberlain recalled one of the five home runs Cabrera has hit off Chamberlain's old Yankee teammate, Phil Hughes.
"It was off the chalk," Chamberlain said of the inside pitch at Yankee Stadium last August.
Nathan marveled, "Pulled his hands in? And it was fair?"
"Yeah. It didn't even hook," Chamberlain said.
Nathan could just shake his head.
"Oh my gosh," he said.
This is Joe Nathan, whose first save as a Tiger will put him alone in 10th place on Major League Baseball's all-time saves list with 342. For the resume he has posted as one of the best closers of all time over 13 big league seasons, Nathan is as approachable as a young setup man.
He smirks at the title of baseball's reigning veteran closer now that Mariano Rivera has retired.
"Even with him in the league, I was still a veteran, which means I'm old," Nathan said. "It just means you've been around the league."
It does not, he insists, mean he knows everything. But he knows an awful lot.
For all the value the Tigers might have gained in signing the proven closer to address their bullpen concerns, Nathan's value in the clubhouse might be just as important. The veteran voice Detroit lost in Joaquin Benoit, they gained in abundance with Nathan.
It's not an authoritative voice barking orders or instructions. With Nathan, it's an experienced voice added to the group. He not only gives information, he still seeks it.
"I've always said I'm going to learn as much from a young guy as they're going to learn from me," he said. "The time you stop learning in this game, you're done."
What young relievers can learn from Nathan, however, is valuable. His journey from converted starter in San Francisco to closing force in Minnesota, his comeback from Tommy John surgery at age 35, his transition from hard-throwing fastballer to more of a starter's repertoire, Nathan has a lot to pass along.
He joins a bullpen that includes closer-in-waiting Bruce Rondon, who had to learn to trust his secondary pitches last season after trying to overpowering hitters early in the year, and strikeout specialist Al Alburquerque, who threw sliders on nearly two-thirds of his pitches last season while trying to gain consistent command on his fastball. Detroit has no shortage of high-energy relievers, but they'll be fronted by a closer who channels his emotions through his arm.
"First of all, they did an outstanding job of getting guys over there," Nathan said of the Tigers. "I know that was probably their main area of concern going into the offseason, for them to go out and pick up guys like Joba and bring young guys over and kind of take some of the steam off of some of the young guys they have too. That's a heavy load to throw on somebody coming up and trying to learn the hitters and at the same time getting thrown into the fire. I think those guys are going to do a lot better because they're going to have a lot less pressure having a guy like Joba here to go in there in the seventh, eighth inning, see what he's doing, having a guy like Ian Krol coming over with a great arm and allowing him to learn. …
"I'm going to pay attention to see what these guys like to do, because the game has changed and guys are coming up throwing 100 mph. I want to see what their approach is like and see if they're just trying to blow guys away, but maybe put a head on their shoulder and say, 'Listen, if you can spin a little breaking ball, no one's going to touch you.' You know, there's things to be learned from everybody, and I'm excited. It's always nice when you have new guys around and you can pick brains of new guys and see what they like to do, because you never know."
The same guy who credits an old Double-A pitching coach in the Giants' system for getting his velocity back with extra throwing after surgery also credits Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux for emphasizing first-pitch strikes with him. Nathan is neither too old nor too proud to learn. He also isn't too preoccupied to help teach if someone asks.
"With [Rivera] being gone, am I that veteran guy? Sure, I'll be that veteran guy," Nathan said. "But it doesn't change anything with what I need to do, and that's just go out and finish games and try to get us to win as many games as we're supposed to, and more importantly get to the World Series."

subset: commoncrawl


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ALEX Toys – Artist Studio, Twist-Up Crayons
by ALEX Toys
Please check your favorite toy retailer for availability. Prices may vary.
Buy Online:
Product Description
Twist 'em up, twist 'em down, let the coloring fun go round and round! Twist up these plastic mechanical crayons in 10 bright colors – fun to use and less broken tipped crayons lying about the house! Just twist up the bottom of the pen barrel to use your crayons, then twist the opposite direction to store them.
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"Oh, Renford? He's a genius!" That is what the late Dharma Kumar (1928-2001) said to me in the summer of 1998 at her Delhi home in what would be our last meeting.
I was taken aback. She and I had met after a long decade. Discussing what I had been up to, I had mentioned my application of the work of Renford Bambrough to economic theory in my 1989 book Philosophy of Economics.
"Oh, Renford? He's a genius!" — Dharma repeated blandly, seeming surprised that I did not get it.
"Oh, Renford? He's a genius!" — she said a third time more slowly, and then, seeing my uncomprehending stare, explained to me that that was the common saying at Cambridge about the young Renford Bambrough back in the post-War years when she had herself arrived there as an undergraduate.
Now, finally, I got it. "Oh, Renford? He's a genius!"
In "Conflict and the Scope of Reason", Renford Bambrough recounted that he had, around 1948, crossed the great Bertrand Russell himself at a meeting of the Labour Club. Russell had made a proposal (which he apparently denied later ever having made) of preventive atomic war against the USSR. Sooner or later there would be conflict between the USSR and the West, the argument went, on balance it would be worse to live under pax Sovietica than pax Americana; therefore, Russell had argued, the West's existing power should be used to ensure the Soviets never acquired the same. At question-time, young Renford, aged 22, asked Russell why, from a purely philosophical point of view, it mattered "if the human race did destroy itself rather than die of natural causes later". There was laughter among the audience, and then Russell said he had enormously liked the question, and wished he could "achieve the degree of detachment here displayed by one so young. But I confess that I, for my part, have never been able to overcome my feelings of concern for the welfare of the species of which I am a member". Russell had misunderstood the question or deftly avoided it, but even so he had noticed in his young interlocutor the calm detachment that would mark all his later thought.
John Renford Bambrough was born on April 29 1926 and died on January 17th 1999. I have written a little about him here and shall write more fully about him anon.
Subroto Roy


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A gorgeous representation of San shin from Songnimsa Temple in Daegu.
Hello Again Everyone!!
One of the most popular and well represented shaman deities at a Korean Buddhist temple is San shin, the Mountain Spirit. This article only acts as a mere introduction to San shin, if you want a more thorough introduction about San shin please check out either David Mason's "Spirit of the Mountains," (unfortunately out of print) or his personal website: san-shin.org. With all that being said, I still hope you'll continue to read this article.
Mountain worship is found all throughout the North Asian people, which includes China, Japan, and Korea. According to these North Asian people, the reason that the mountain is such a venerated object is that it symbolizes a centre axis of the world; the place where Heaven and earth are believed to be connected. And with Korea's landscape being occupied by over 70% of mountains, it's no wonder that Koreans have historically worshipped mountains.
A look up at Chiseosan Mountain that towers above the famous Tongdosa Temple.
The way in which Koreans have historically (and currently) worship these mountains is through the shaman deity, San shin, which literally translates as "mountain spirit." Historically, the townspeople prayed for good weather, bountiful crops, health, and good fortune. However, because each mountain in Korea is shaped differently, has different weather, flora, and fauna, this relationship has developed into a complex interaction between people and the mountain. San shin, and the mountain that it occupies, has long been known to be the main protector of neighbouring villages and towns. As a result, Korean kings and queens have funded elaborate ceremonies to San shin as symbols of legitimacy, as well as to gain favour. Interestingly, in Korean history, Tangun, the founder of the Korean nation, was thought to have been transformed into a San shin upon his "retirement."
A healthy and virile looking San shin from Beopjusa Temple.
It is from this shaman origin and belief system, and the absorption and acceptance of everything religiously indigenous, that San shin soon became an indispensible part of Korean Buddhism. While shamanism has used him for protection against the elements and good fortune, Korean Buddhists have employed him more personally for good health and vitality. In fact, Buddhist monks regularly perform ceremonies called "San shin-je," which is a kind of recognition for allowing the temple to take up residence on the mountain (which a large percentage of Buddhist temples do in Korea).
San shin in the company of three tigers. This is extremely rare and it's at Dongrimsa Temple.
So what exactly does San shin look like? In Korea, there are literally thousands of different images of San shin; however, there are certain characteristics that all San shin possess. In general, San shin is depicted as a seated figure. He's an old man with long flowing white hair and an equally flowing white beard. Yet, even though he's old, he's still strong and healthy. He's situated in a pastoral setting that is perfect for meditation. He's joined by a few attendants called "dongja." The clothes that he wears are dependent on the Buddhist, Confucian, or Daoist ideals San shin is meant to convey; however, his clothing does denote a royal rank. Almost always, he possesses something in one or both of his hands like a fan or a walking stick which symbolize health, longevity, virility, scholastics, or spiritual attainment. One of the easiest ways to identify San shin is that he's always accompanied by at least one tiger. The reason that the tiger is there is that it's the king of the mountain animals and the enforcer of San shin. Occasionally, San shin will be joined by a female figure. Generally, this is believed to be another female San shin like at Magoksa Temple in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do.
A male San shin with a female San shin from Magoksa Temple.
Historically, San shins were female, but with the Confucian influence during the Joseon Dynasty, San shin's gender changed to be that of a male. Still, there are mountains in Korea like Jirisan and Cheonseongsan, where San shin is still depicted as predominantly female.
A female San shin from Nojeonam Hermitage.
So where can you find San shin at a Korean temple? Generally, the most common places you can find San shin is in one of three places. First, and much like other Korean shaman deities, you can find San shin in the shaman laden "Shinjung Daenghwa" guardian paintings inside the main hall of a temple or hermitage. These indigenous shaman deities inside this painting are protectors of the Buddha's teachings. Usually, you can find the painted figure of San shin to the centre/right of the central Dongjin-bosal (The Bodhisattva that Protects the Buddha's Teachings) figure.
The guardian painting from Banyaam Hermitage. Below, and to the left of Dongjin-bosal, and across from Yongwang (The Dragon King) is San shin at the centre of the painting.
The two other common places that you can find San shin are in halls, usually to the rear of the main hall. Sometimes, San shin will be housed in a hall all by himself. If this is the case, the shrine will be called a "San shin-gak." The "gak," instead of a "jeon" hall that houses various Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, is a word that denotes a slightly lower ranking hall at a Korean temple. The exterior and interior of this hall will be adorned with various San shin figures as well as a fiercely painted tiger mural.
A uniquely painted white tiger from the exterior of the Samseong-gak shrine hall at Gyemyeongam Hermitage.
A haloed San shin fading on the exterior walls of the Samseong-gak shrine hall at Unmunsa Temple.
The second hall that San shin may be occupying is in a Samseong-gak shrine hall, which literally translates as "The Three Sages Shrine." Accompanying San shin are the two other shaman deities that form the shaman "Holy Trinity"; namely, Dokseong (The Recluse) and Chilseong (The Seven Stars). Inside this hall San shin is situated on the far left upon the altar, while Chilseong is usually in the centre and Dokseong is on the far right. Both the interior and the exterior of this hall have various murals of these three shaman deities. Also, and of note, these two halls that house San shin are just as elaborate in design and decoration as any other hall that takes up residence at a Korean Buddhist temple.
The Samseong-gak shrine hall at Chukseoam Hermitage.
So the next time you're looking for a little better health at a Korean temple, look for the white haired and bearded older looking gentleman or lady with shaman roots and a fierce looking tiger. San shin is pretty easy to find, because if there are no other shaman deities represented at a Korean Buddhist temple, you're at least sure to find San shin.


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We have a development project in Python (ArcGIS 10). This project involves a mixture of toolboxes, map templates, layer files, file geodatabase templates (acting as templates being imported into a map by scripts) and various other things.
We use Eclipse as our source editor and SVN as our Source Code Repository.
Though we have a problem with keeping all the files (that aren't py files) in a synchronised project by everyone. The toolbox routinely gets messed up by multiple people editing the toolbox and then template files get adjusted and then not updated for other people as they are not checked back in.
How are people in organisations with more than one python developer on a company toolbox project ensuring that the project and all the different files are get versioned and managed correctly? Or is it a case through everything goes into Eclipse (including template layers and GDB's used by the scripts) into the project and hope that people check out the files correctly?


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Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
A portion or part of something that may be divided into components, such as a sum of money. A unit of stock that represents ownership in a corporation.
n. 1) a portion of a benefit from a trust, estate, claim or business usually in equal division (or a specifically stated fraction) with others ("to my three daughters, in equal shares"). 2) a portion of ownership interest in a corporation, represented by a stock certificate stating the number of shares of an issue of the corporation's stock.
share(Interest), noun allocation, allotment, apporrioned lot, commission, dole, measure, pars, part, percent, percentage, portio, portion, proportion, quotum, ratio, right, section, segment, slice
Associated concepts: distributive share, equal share, share and share alike, share of capital, similiar share
share(Stock), noun asset, capital, corporate interest, holding, invested property, investment, property, security, stockholding
Associated concepts: bank shares, corporate shares, share of corporate stock, shareholder, treasury shares
See also: allocate, allot, apportion, assign, claim, communicate, contribute, convey, disburse, dispensation, dispense, distribute, divide, dividend, dole, engage, holding, interest, involve, member, moiety, ownership, part, partake, participate, partition, pool, portion, proportion, quota, ration, reciprocate, right, segment, split, stake, subdivide, supply
SHARE. A portion of anything. Sometimes shares are equal, at other times
they are unequal.
2. In companies and corporations the whole of the capital stock is usually divided into equal proportions called shares. Shares in public companies have sometimes been held to be real estate, but most usually they are considered as personal property. Wordsw. Jo. Sto. Co. ch. 1 P, p. 288. 3. The proportion which descends to one of several children from his ancestor, is called a share. The term share and share alike, signifies in equal proportions. See Perpart.


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Both RSyntaxTextArea and SpellChecker 1.4.0 were just released on SourceForge! Go grab them and try them out! A lot of new features and bug fixes have gone into the library with this release. Spell checking alone has been an oft-requested feature, but there's lots more than that:
- "FocusableTips" were added, which are tool tips that become focusable when the
user clicks on them or presses F2, like the tool tips in Eclipse. These
are the default tool tips for RSyntaxTextArea, and can be used by parsers
(such as the spell checker) for user-friendly assistance.
- Added an "Error Strip" component, designed to sit on the right-hand side of an RSyntaxTextArea. Also seen in Eclipse and NetBeans, this component is capable of displaying colored markers for various stuff in the editor – parser errors, marked occurrences of the currently selected identifier, etc.
- Delphi, Scala and BBCode syntax highlighting were added.
- RSTA will now automatically insert a closing curly brace when appropriate for C, C++, C#, Java and Perl. This behavior is toggle-able in the API if you don't like or want it.
- RSTA will also now automatically complete closing XML tags when "</" is typed (again, you can turn this off if you don't want it, but it's really nice!).
- Various bug fixes and improvements.
- The spell checker library is now officially released. It's version is "1.4.0" to indicate that it should only be used with RSyntaxTextArea 1.4.0, not earlier releases. It comes with a simple demo app showing how easy it is to use it with RSTA.
- RSTA comes with a "Task Parser" as well. It scans source code for the tokens "TODO" and "FIXME" in comments. Applications can use this parser to provide the user with a list of "tasks" they've reminded themselves of in code.
Now that the release is done, I plan on updating the RSyntaxTextArea site with documentation on how to use these cool new features.
Also coming up shortly, a new RText version should be released that will take full advantage of all of these new features!


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Hot Lost
Lost is over but there's a double dose of Lost quiveration and goddamn, well, goddamn.
First – Daniel Dae Kim in Hawaii where he's shooting Hawaii Five-O and, um, I like that shot of him getting off the bike. Unfortunately I only have 3 photos. That's all there was available. So I'm zooming in on his face.
Then, Josh Holloway in Prague – he's working with the GMD now on MI:4. And that's not Sawyer is it? No. That's Josh in leather, shorter hair, and clean-shaven, and to tell you the truth, I prefer it. I prefer it extra a lot. You?
Photos from Bauergriffinonline.com and Splashnewsonline.com


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Mamoru Oshii, director of animated films such as Ghost in the Shell, was recently revealed as the director of the Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor trailer. In the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, the director offered his insight to the creation of the trailer and some impressions on the game itself.
The 15-second trailer was filmed in Poland and depicts a group of tank pilots in combat against UN mechs. Director Mamoru explained that he had been told that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor would be a game depicting the drama in and out of the mechs. When shown previous trailers for Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, he noted that all of the trailers focused on the drama outside and on the battlefield, so he chose to focus on the human element inside the mechs. Mamoru chose Poland as a filming location due to the fact that there was a working Cold War era T-55 tank that could be used for filming. "I was told that it was an analogue world without computers, so I wanted to use an analogue tank for filming." Mamoru explained.
Director Mamoru described the story of the trailer as such: "The main character is a woman who escaped from a UN invaded Poland. The story revolves around her joining the American army as a tank pilot. Her squad mates see her yelling in Polish and superstitiously believe her to be cursed. They're sent into a heavy combat zone and are quickly wiped out."
In most games, the protagonist are shown victorious, but Mamoru decided to take the trailer in a different, more realistic route. Mamoru himself played the game and lost almost immediately. He noted that this reflected the reality of the battlefield; how that if you weren't constantly on the move, you were dead. "At first, it was very confusing using the Kinect, but after about 15 minutes of training, I got the hang of it and it started to be fun. It does take a bit of practice to be able to pilot well." Mamoru spoke, reflecting on his experience with the game. He noted that the atmosphere of being inside a cockpit was very engrossing, saying, "It's probably better to turn off all the lights and play in a room with a low ceiling."
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is scheduled for release in North America on June 19, in Japan on June 21, and Europe on June 22.
ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]


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My first real rendering of my Inquisitor. Tai'ka is the taller one with darker blue. That is her sister posing with her in the front, and it should be noted the symbols on their heads are obsolete so their skin should be bare and the symbol is no longer part of their background.
And this is the pic Kite did for me! ^_^


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A modest increase in average home prices in November is the first upturn for the Baltimore region in more than a year, but beleaguered homeowners shouldn't cheer just yet.
Though prices rose almost 1 percent on average compared with a year earlier, the median price — another common measure — fell 2.5 percent, according to numbers released Monday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems.
The diverging price measures are one symptom of a still-rough housing market trying to battle back to normal. Another is that contracts are being canceled and settlements delayed, dampening sales.
Contract activity is usually a good indicator of where sales will be in a month or two, once the pending deals close. But a strong increase in buyers signing contracts this year has not yet turned into a big pickup in done deals.
Newly signed contracts in the Baltimore region have outnumbered sales by nearly 30 percent in an average month this year, up from about 5 percent in the last two years.
Vladimir Kats, associate broker with Kats & Associates at Keller Williams Realty Baltimore, can rattle off a list of reasons: Loans for would-be buyers failing to come through. Problems cropping up during the home inspection. And potential short-sale deals — which require a bank to approve a sale for less than the borrower owes — falling apart.
"We see buyers who get cold feet also — or jump on what they consider to be something better," Kats said.
Home sales in the region were basically flat in November, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems said. About 1,630 homes changed hands, four more than in November 2010. By contrast, newly signed contracts have been increasing at a double-digit pace in each of the past seven months and rose 15 percent in November.
That will be good news when and if it translates into sales.
"You're starting to see more people writing contracts," said Kenneth Wenhold, Mid-Atlantic regional director for Metrostudy, which analyzes the housing market for home builders. "The problem is getting them to the [settlement] table."
Sometimes it's just a matter of a delay. But in the new-home market, cancellations in the Baltimore area have spiked to about 20 percent after running at 12 percent to 13 percent for most of the year, Wenhold said. Most of the increase was driven by just a few builders, he said.
Cancellations are a problem nationwide. Real estate agents reporting at least one canceled contract doubled to 18 percent of those surveyed in August and September and then all but doubled again — to 33 percent — in October, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Real estate agents with spiked contracts had been running at about 9 percent to 10 percent of the monthly total before then, the trade group said.
The especially big upturn in October could have been caused by a change in financing rules that month, which bumped more buyers into "jumbo" loan territory, requiring large mortgages with higher interest rates.
Meanwhile, head winds for the housing market — tighter mortgage restrictions, foreclosures, falling prices and a muted economic recovery — are blowing in landlords' favor. With fewer people able or willing to buy, apartment vacancies have dropped, and renters have had to pay more.
The average monthly rent for all types of apartments in the Baltimore metro area was about $1,140 over the summer, up 3 percent compared with a year earlier and more than 10 percent higher than at the end of 2007, according to apartment data firm MPF Research.
That four-year increase is one of the biggest in the country, said Greg Willett, vice president of research at MPF Research.
"In most markets, typically, you're just barely ahead of where you were in late 2007," he said.
The Greenbelt-based Bozzuto Group is hoping to capitalize on the strong rental market. It will break ground Tuesday on a 281-unit apartment complex on the Fells Point waterfront, part of a mixed-use development called Union Wharf. Last month, Bozzuto started work on an apartment project in Crofton, and executives hope to begin construction on a complex in Odenton in February.
CEO Tom Bozzuto said his company, which also builds homes, hasn't soured on the for-sale market. But he's betting that people in their 20s won't be clamoring to buy.
"The notion that buying is a way to get rich quick has, at least, been tarnished," he said. "Owning a home makes a great deal of sense at certain points in your life. Renting gives you great flexibility and makes sense at other points in your life. People tend to forget that when you get into these silly bubbles."
A modest increase in average home prices in November is the first upturn for the Baltimore region in more than a year, but beleaguered homeowners shouldn't cheer just yet.


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Funny Sh*t: Dude Steals His Neighbors Internet Connection & She Confronts No Likey! (Confronts Him Via Skype) "Its Not Free From Bell Canada You Have 2 Be Understand"
Submitted by hasan. - @Mahad_Worldstar
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The access to part of the content proposed on our website is limited to our clients.
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3rd Annual Metro Mom Expo
Metro Moms Network
Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 11:00 AM (EST)
Move & Shake Your Kids + Career
Musicology4Kids appearance by Dana Harrison of the Fuzzy Lemons. Get out of the house for an afternoon of indoor fun. Cruise by individual sections geared to kids and family lifestyle — as well as a special surprise section! For just $5 per family, you'll enjoy access to this informative and fun-filled event. Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com to get a VIP Pass that gives you special access to vendors like the NJ Devils!
*Want a FREE ticket? Sign up for our mailing list by 1/17 for an email-only coupon. Discounted parking also available!
Exhibitor list, VIP sections and more details are here.
Magazine • Expo • Mom Consulting Network
Helping Urban Parents Juggle Career & Parenting
Find out more about our workshops & exhibitors at www.metromomexpo.com
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mmmmmmmmmm, fries in lard. We had a neighbor who would cook her fries in it. Sooo good...
mmmmmmmmmm, fries in lard. We had a neighbor who would cook her fries in it. Sooo good...
In the book Fast Food Nation, the author described how he went to a McDonald's fry manufacturer. The potatoes themselves have very little flavor, so they add a chemical flavoring best described as "fry taste." When you taste a fry, you're not tasting the potato, you're tasting "fry taste." The potato is merely the vehicle of delivery. I read the book long ago, so I suppose they might have updated their practices in the meantime.
Not to say that it isn't tasty. They spend tons of money, time, and effort perfecting the flavorings to ensure that "authentic" McDonald's experience.
If being cunty is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
^ The only yummy room-temperature fries I've ever had were at my university cafeteria. Otherwise, I think it's pretty much a universal truth that cold fries suck balls.
If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
- Kahlil Gibran
i love subway, especially meatball one, good stuff. and potato fritters are awesome, very rarely i go to mc donalds, sometimes i get the itch to go but its always disappointing, i like a good meaty burger in a pub way more.
i dont like burger king, never got the appeal, its weird stuff, the meat tastes weird to me.
i went to kfc couple of days ago, my first time, the chicken was ok, but i had stomach pain after, i guess its not healthy.
all and all, im a pizza girl, love cheesy nice pizza with garlic and herb dip. i have a veggie pizza almost every time though, the meat ones are too filling. although i like ham and pineapple and tuna on pizza.
we don't have to make love to have an orgasm
Bacon? Seriously?...McDonald's senior director of quality systems Todd Bacon
I am so happy of being a vegetarian after reading this thread. Unealthy vegetarian foods do exist (fries are a perfectly vegan kind of food for example), but I find them to be less gross for some reason, and I always had, even before being a vegetarian.
In fact, while I've been to McDonalds before, I never tried any of their burgers. I only went when my friends insisted and I ate fries and nuggets. Then I realised that those nuggets were really awful - tasted more like cardboard than meat - and started to eat just fries or shrimps. Shrimps are usually so deep fried that the actual shrimp is smaller thant the fried crust around it. Ugh.
Burger King alway seemed a little better to me, but I never really liked fast food much.
Home cooked steak and fries coming from actual potatoes were way better.
^we never had shrimp in the mcd's where i'm from.*shudders at the thought*
See, Whores, we are good for something. Love, Florida
Ok, I broke down and got a McAngus for dinner on Tuesday night. Loved it. But it was the first time in ages...
But I think I'm gonna give McNuggets a wide berth, especially now that I know what are in the ingredients - including parts from chicken feet!
I never understood why my homemade nuggets never tasted like McDs; too late! I realized that mine taste like NORMAL food...
"I am a social vegan; I avoid meet! Anonymous Introvert
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970: The Important Field
|The Important Field
Title text: I hear in some places, you need to fill one form of ID to buy a gun, but two to pay for it by check. It's interesting to see who has what incentives to care about what mistakes.
It is very common that online input forms demand that one's email address is typed twice, and also quite common that pasting into the second field is disabled, so that there is no escape. If a form asks for some information that is really much more crucial, and this standard routine thoughtlessly isn't used for those fields too, it would comically seem that the form-makers consider your email address to be hideously important, maybe even more important than the location where a missile is programmed to land. In the comic, the impression is that it is less important that the wrong city is not accidentally wiped out, than that the boss knows who to blame afterwards.
The title text suggests a real world parallel to this. Randall has heard about differing priorities of identifying who is purchasing a firearm (the state/locality requires one form of identification) and ensuring the payment (the store requires two forms of ID, to properly document the person, in case the check is fake or is rejected by the bank). The point is that people often care a lot about money, but a gun in the wrong hands is a potential disaster bigger than a few hundred missing dollars.
This is the only comic so far to feature Green Hat. It appears that the green hat means that he is part of the military.
- [Green Hat sitting at a computer.]
- Computer: Welcome to the missile launch interface!
- Click
- Computer: Enter the target's coordinates.
- Type Type
- Computer: Enter your email address for our records.
- Type Type
- Computer: Enter your email again, to ensure you typed it correctly.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ refresh comments!
I never realized his hat was green until I read this page 184.108.40.206 04:22, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
In order to purchase a firearm in the United States from a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) you have to submit an official government photographic identification card (State ID or State Drivers license usually suffice), complete a Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record to include such personal data as name, address, height, weight, ethnicity, age, birth date and Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number and submit the previous personal data from the Form 4473 to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which is administered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and receive a "PROCEED WITH TRANSACTION" from the NICS in order to take possession of the firearm.
To pay for your firearm with a check you only need show two forms of identification one of which may just be your Social Security Card.
To take possession of the firearm actually requires more stringent checks on identity than to pay with one by check.
But other than that you're right. -- 220.127.116.11 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Please enter your name and address, so we know who to blame when New York disappears. Davidy22[talk] 04:22, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
How can a law-bound society write laws about guns when the all-embracing laws cannot first be rescinded?
The USA has much the same life problems that Iran once had -which probably lead to Iran's defeat at Gaugamela (Mosul.) I doubt Darius III's officers had e-mail addresses to worry about, none the less if their aristocracy were bound by bureaucracy at the wrong time and place, that would have been it.
Something else that is probably beyond emails:
"The Iraqi government is planning to retake the city with the help of the peshmerga, Sunni tribes, and US-led coalition air support."
I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 19:29, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
Why are the words "has heard" italicised in the explanation? 184.108.40.206 03:34, 7 April 2019 (UTC)


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Happy birthday and congratulations Proba
It is exactly one year today since the launch of ESA's first small autonomous spacecraft, Proba; a year in which Proba, and the instruments on board, have successfully carried out all the tasks they have been set.
Frederic Teston, manager of the PRoject for On-Board Autonomy which is better known as Proba, says "those responsible for Proba here at ESA are satisfied with the results so far, so much so that it has been decided to extend the mission for another year".
Proba's main achievement is that this small spacecraft - it is just 60x60x80 cm and looks as if it has been wrapped in blue and gold paper - has shown that it is able to carry out many functions on its own. Its ability to carry out guidance, navigation, control, onboard scheduling and payload resources management by itself has significantly reduced the need for ground control.
During its first year in orbit this small gyro-less spacecraft has proven that it is able to achieve a high accuracy in attitude determination by using autonomous star trackers. Onboard Proba the ERC-32 SPARC, which is the space version of a commercial high-speed processor, has performed flawlessly. The Li-ion batteries, used for the first time in a low-Earth orbit, have also performed according to specifications.
But Proba is not just a pretty package, onboard it has six scientific instruments, all of which have performed successfully during the past 12 months with the minimum of intervention from ground control.
CHRIS, the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, is providing important information on the Earth and its environment, and will be an invaluable tool in remote sensing during the extended mission.
This black and white High Resolution Camera, helped by the spacecraft's ease of manoeuvre, has demonstrated that high-quality images can be taken by a spacecraft of this type.
DEBIE, which stands for Debris In-Orbit Evaluator, is able to detect and measure the mass, speed and penetration power of space debris of less than one millimetre in size. Already it is providing statistical data on the distribution of debris in Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbits where most satellites - and space debris - are found.
The Space Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) is measuring electron and proton fluxes, as well as total solar radiation doses. In-flight data have been compared with simulations and the results correlate the simulation approach. The other two instruments on board - Smart Instrument Points (SIPs) and the Miniaturised Radiation Monitor (MRM) - also measure radiation.
All the goals that Proba was set have been achieved at a relatively low cost, thanks to the innovative approach used in its development. Extensive use was made of commercial off-the-shelf equipment and units, together with automated software generation and computer simulations for development, verification and testing.
You can learn more about Proba and its instruments, and view some of the CHRIS and HRC images, at our new Proba website.


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Bob Costas' NFL Gun Speech Deconstructed
December 3, 2012
By R. Tamara de Silva
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilised nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!"
Adolf Hitler
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi
Bob Costas used the incident of Kansas City Chief's Linebacker, Jovan Belcher's murder of the mother of his three-month-old daughter on Saturday before taking his own life as call for more gun control. In Chicago, eight people also died from gun violence over the weekend.
The causes of murder and suicide, especially inner-city violence are numerous and complex. The causes of gang related shootings involve suboptimal societal and economic factors that have no easy remedy. What is predictable and easy, is to blame the guns used either by a low-life gang-banger or a cold-blooded murderous NFL linebacker.
It is easier than blaming the parents of the murderer, his family, teachers, pastor,
genetics, mental illness, economic factors, cultural influences, randomness or societal failure in raising yet another psychopathic killer. As is often the norm, whatever the premeditation, mental illness or depravity of the murderer, we shift our blame towards the object used by the murderer-the gun. It happens after almost every publicized shooting, and with a high degree of predictability.
Politicians clamor, as they do in Cook County, to abridge the plain language and intent of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution,
to appear like they are "doing something" and to ostensibly express their profound empathy for the victims of murderers by imposing yet more regulations on gun ownership and taxes.
True to the playbook, yesterday, NBC's ubiquitous sports commentator Bob Costas used the half-time segment of the Sunday Night Football to call for more gun control,
"In the coming days, Jovan Belcher's actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows?
But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun,
he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today." Or he would have found another way to kill her…but this would not have been newsworthy.
Blaming an inanimate object also subtly removes a layer of culpability and provides an easier answer, as if the problem of the existence of the murderer and his intent would be erased just as particles in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle appear and then disappear on the quantum scale- in this instance somehow leaving the presence of the more culpable gun.
According to a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, guns were involved in roughly over 65% of violent crimes in 2008.[1]
There are in the aggregate of all municipal, state and federal gun regulations,
well over 14,000 to 19,000 gun regulations on the books. Gun ownership is well regulated. The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world but is 28th in the world in the rate of murders committed by firearms.[2]
Most people that own guns never commit gun violence. Do all these regulations have the effect of reducing deaths by gun?
In Illinois, the answer would be resoundingly in the negative. Illinois is arguably the most gun restrictive state in terms of the sheer number and nature of its gun regulations. Chicago is also, in 2012, on track to being the nation's murder capital. Do we have too few gun regulations or too many murderous criminals?
There is an unwritten law in politics at any level, if you are going to bring up a problem, pretend you can solve it-certainly at least say you know how. There is no profit for any candidate running for elective office in Chicago or anywhere else to simply say that we have too many really nasty unsocial people in Cook County and that they will kill you and there is almost nothing, short of moving and trying to avoid these people, that would save you from them and their unsocial behaviors, in all their possible iterations. In order to win tell Logic: drop dead.
Blame the gun.
Costas could have blamed Blecher and the fact that athletic ability is prized more than character or psychopathic temperament in the NFL but then again he is hosting an NFL half-time show and this may have been tantamount to going to a dinner party and denigrating all the food. He could have said that if you are one of the statistically improbably gifted athletes that can play at the level of the NFL, and attract the sponsorship revenue of a prime-time NFL game, when you murder your daughter's mother, someone will offer to blame the gun you used.
there are problems with the "but for" theory of gun accountability. Its principal problem is a failure of its logic. We cannot blame knives and forks for the epidemic of obesity that caused the greatest toll on our health care system or can we? But for, the knife, a 300 lb, 5″10 man would not have eaten so much because he would have lacked the means to eat so much macaroni and cheese. But for the glass manufacturer, some would never have become alcoholics and destroyed their families. But for cars, we would be perfectly protected from DUIs. But for cars, we would also be unable to have traffic accidents.
But for the sale of paint, we would not have graffiti. But for the Internet, we would not have online pornography. When you think upon it, inanimate objects, were you to suspend logic, are pretty nasty social actors-albeit in varying degrees of accompanying passivity.
Statism v. Individual Responsibility
The Government can and does legislate desirable social behavior already-often using inanimate objects. For example,
Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned the sale of super big sugary soft drinks like super-sized purple Slurpees. He had good reason-they are very sugary and excess sugar causes weight gain,
diabetes and associated and resultant health problems.
If the government could rely on you to act rationally at all times, poor Mr.
Bloomberg would not have had to bother to make a law to prohibit you from ingesting larger sized Slurpees.
His was not a novel idea. From mortgage deductions to marriage deductions to restrictions on the purchase of guns, the government already tries to engineer what it considers socially more acceptable behavior through the tax code.
But the evidence of its efficacy is mixed, at best. For example, Canada does not have a mortgage interest deduction and yet more Canadians own their homes than Americans. Cook County Illinois proposed a gun tax to prevent in part the "illegal use of guns in murders." Murder is already illegal-at the state and federal level. Also, it is not likely, though possible, that gang bangers would be so off-put by having to pay a tax on gun ownership that they would switch to machetes. Were the politicians in Cook County a more thoughtful and upstanding cross-section of the populace than their tendency to commit crime (we do after all have and have had more alderpeople, commissioners, and governors in jail than any other North American city), and take to graft, to engage in bribery and other creative means of "pay for play," to refine the art of nepotism- as they do would suggest they are, (albeit a counterfactual hypothesis)–they would realize that people inclined to murder other people in gangs are simply not going to think about the silly tax that has theoretically been imposed upon them.
The other silent but more massive cost to the governments' various attempts to engineer social behavior either by the tax code or by threat of imprisonment,
is that individual freedom and government regulation of social behavior are to a great extent a zero-sum game.
The more authority the government aggregates to itself to get into the private lives and lifestyles of its citizens, even to promote "good" and rational individual behavior, the commensurately less choice the citizen has in choosing how to live.
I ought to have a right to be irrational.
I may simply prefer pizza to broccoli and may wish to drink single malt scotch everyday over kale juice.
My enjoyment value in ingesting French fries everyday may outweigh the utility I place in living to be a skinny octogenarian.
It is not meaningful what opinion a sportscaster has about a right guaranteed by the Second Amendment any more than it matters what Mr. Costas thinks about positron emission tomography's alleged ability to produce an accurate "picture"
of the human brain. What is troublesome is that Mr. Costas, like so many politicians who would offer simple solutions to seemingly insolvable problems, is that he has a pulpit to propagate false solutions and impoverished notions.
This comes at a time when all branches of government in America today, more than at any time in its brief history, are determined to assault the Bill of Rights-because your fundamental liberties as an American cannot defend themselves,
now is not the time to be silent.
My father is a history professor and I learned the value of history early on. But in studying human nature more directly, I also learned that history, whether read or not, will repeat itself.
It was not that long ago that the governments of Nazi Germany, Socialist Russia and Fascist Italy disarmed their citizenry. There was no one to defend themselves, their old, their minorities or their children and neighbors from the atrocities that followed. Were we to utter that the odds of this scenario ever repeating itself were greater than nil, we may be called right-wing extremists or "nuts." Yet just seventy years ago, disarming the people was exactly what the governments had engineered, ostensibly in some cases, for the goal of greater safety and social stability. A trade-off no thinking person ought to acquiescence to ever again. @
R. Tamara de Silva
Chicago, Illinois
December 3, 2012
R. Tamara de Silva is a trial lawyer and independent trader


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The preparation of a highly water stable and porous lanthanide metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles (denoted SUMOF-7II; SU refers to Stockholm University) is described. SUMOF-7II was synthesized starting from the tritopic linker of 2,4,6-tri-p-carboxyphenyl pyridine (H3L2) and La(III) as metal clusters. SUMOF-7II forms a stable dispersion and displays high fluorescence emission with small variation over the pH range of 6 to 12. Its fluorescence is selectively quenched by Fe(III) ions compared to other metal ions. The intensity of the fluorescene emission drops drops linearly in 16.6–167 μM Fe(III) concentration range, and Stern-Volmer plots are linear. The limit of detection (LOD) is 16.6 μM (at an S/N ratio of >3). This indicator probe can also be used for selective detection of tryptophan among several amino acids. Compared to the free linker H3L2, SUMOF-7II offers improved sensitivity and selectivity of the investigated species.
Two isostructural series of lanthanide metal-organic frameworks denoted as SUMOF-7II (Ln) and SUMOF-7IIB (Ln) (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, and Gd) were synthesized using4,4',4 ''-(pyridine-2,4,6-triyl)tris(benzoic acid) (H(3)L2) and a mixture of H(3)L2 and 4,4',4 ''-(benzene-1,3,5-triyl)tris(benzoic acid) (H3BTB) as linkers, respectively. Both series were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis (TGA), and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Photoluminescence measurements show that Eu-MOFs demonstrate a red emission while Pr- and Nd-MOFs display an emission in the near-infrared (NIR) range. On the other hand, La-, Ce-, Sm- and Gd-MOFs exhibit only a ligand-centered emission. The average luminescence lifetimes in the SUMOF-7IIB series are 1.3-1.4-fold longer than the corresponding ones in the SUMOF-7II series. SUMOF-7IIs show a good photo- and thermal stability. Altogether, the properties of SUMOF-7II and SUMOF-7IIB render them promising materials for applications including sensing, biosensing, and telecommunications.
The production of clean and sustainable energy is considered as one of the most urgent issues for our society. Mastering the oxidation of water to dioxygen is essential for the production of solar fuels. A study of the influence of the substituents on the catalytic activity of a series of mononuclear Ru complexes (2a-e) based on a tetradentate ligand framework is presented. At neutral pH, using [Ru(bpy)(3)](PF6)(3) (bpy=2,2'-bipyridine) as the terminal oxidant, a good correlation between the turnover frequency (TOF) and the Hammett sigma(meta) parameters was obtained. Additionally, a general pathway for the deactivation of Ru-based catalysts 2a-e during the catalytic oxidation of water through poisoning by carbon monoxide was demonstrated. These results highlight the importance of ligand design for fine-tuning the catalytic activity of water oxidation catalysts.
Water oxidation is a fundamental step in artificial photosynthesis for solar fuels production. In this study, we report a single-site Ru-based water oxidation catalyst, housing a dicarboxylate-benzimidazole ligand, that mediates both chemical and light-driven oxidation of water efficiently under neutral conditions. The importance of the incorporation of the negatively charged ligand framework is manifested in the low redox potentials of the developed complex, which allows water oxidation to be driven by the mild one-electron oxidant [Ru(bpy)(3)](3+) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine). Furthermore, combined experimental and DFT studies provide insight into the mechanistic details of the catalytic cycle.
The synthesis and characterization of six ruthenium(II) bistridentate polypyridyl complexes is described. These were designed on the basis of a new approach to increase the excited-state lifetime of ruthenium(II) bisterpyridine-type complexes. By the use of a bipyridylpyridyl methane ligand in place of terpyridine, the coordination environment of the metal ion becomes nearly octahedral and the rate of deactivation via ligand-field (i.e., metal-centered) states was reduced as shown by temperature-dependent emission lifetime studies. Still, the possibility to make quasi-linear donor−ruthenium−acceptor triads is maintained in the complexes. The most promising complex shows an excited-state lifetime of τ = 15 ns in alcohol solutions at room temperature, which should be compared to a lifetime of τ = 0.25 ns for [Ru(tpy)2]2+. The X-ray structure of the new complex indeed shows a more octahedral geometry than that of [Ru(tpy)2]2+. Most importantly, the high excited-state energy was retained, and thus, so was the potential high reactivity of the excited complex, which has not been the case with previously published strategies based on bistridentate complexes.
Highly potent BACE-1 protease inhibitors derived from a novel hydroxyethylene-like core structure were recently developed by our group using X-ray crystal structure data and molecular modelling. In a continuation of this work guided by molecular modelling we have explored a truncated core motif where the P2' amide group is replaced by an ether linkage resulting in a set of alkoxy, aryloxy and alkylaryl groups, with the overall aim to reduce molecular weight and the number of amide bonds to increase permeability and bestow the inhibitors with drug-like features. The most potent of these inhibitors displayed a BACE-1 IC50 value of 140 nM. The synthesis of these BACE-1 inhibitors utilizes readily available starting materials, furnishing the target compounds in good overall yields.
The synthesis and SAR of HIV-1 protease inhibitors containing novel P2 structural elements are presented. The inhibitors were designed having hydrogen bond accepting P2 substituents to probe potential favorable interactions to Asp-29/Asp-30 of the HIV-1 protease backbone utilizing inhibitor 3 as a model template. Several inhibitors were synthesized from an L-Val-methylamide P2 motif by appending hydrogen bonding moieties from either the isopropyl side chain or from the methylamide portion. The most promising inhibitors 4a and 4e displayed Ki values of 1.0 nM and 0.7 nM respectively and EC50 values in the MT4 cell-based assay of 0.17 µM and 0.33 µM respectively, a slight loss in potency compared to lead inhibitor 3. These inhibitors were also tested against an HIV protease inhibitor resistant strain carrying the M46I, V82F, and I84V mutations. Inhibitors 4a and 4e displayed a 3 and 4 fold change respectively compared with HIV wild type, whereas lead inhibitor 3 showed a higher 9 fold change. This study further demonstrate the chemical tractability of the approach where various P2 substituents can be introduced in just one chemical step from lactone x enabling facile modifications of the overall properties in this inhibitor class.
The first direct intermolecular regiospecific and highly enantioselective a-allylic alkylation of linear aldehydes by a combination of achiral bench-stable Pd0 complexes and simple chiral amines as co-catalysts is disclosed. The co-catalytic asymmetric chemoselective and regiospecific a-allylic alkylation reaction is linked in tandem with in situ reduction to give the corresponding 2-alkyl alcohols with high enantiomeric ratios (up to 98:2 e.r.; e.r.=enantiomeric ratio). It is also an expeditious entry to valuable 2-alkyl substituted hemiacetals, 2-alkyl-butane-1,4-diols, and amines. The concise co-catalytic asymmetric total syntheses of biologically active natural products (e.g., Arundic acid) are disclosed.
Palladium-catalyzed oxidative annulations between phenols and alkenylcarboxylic acids produced a library of benzofuran compounds. Depending on the nature of the substitution of the phenol precursor, either 2,3-dialkylbenzofurans or 2-alkyl-3-methylene-2,3-dihydrobenzofurans can be synthesized with excellent regioselectivity. Reactions between conjugated 5-phenylpenta-2,4-dienoic acids and phenol gave 3-alkylidenedihydrobenzofuran alkaloid motifs while biologically active 7-arylbenzofuran derivatives were prepared by starting from 2-phenylphenols. More interestingly, selective incorporation of deuterium from D2O has been discovered, which offers an attractive one-step method to access deuterated compounds.
Oxidative coupling is a useful tool to synthesize vinylarenes. Despite remarkable successes in linear vinylarene, branched vinylarene synthesis has remained underdeveloped. Overcoming this limitation, herein, we report a chelation-assisted oxidative coupling to generate branched olefinated product in high yield. Exclusive branched selectivity was obtained using alkenyl carboxylic acid. Detailed experimental studies combined with computational investigations suggest that beta-migratory insertion, followed by a decarboxylation pathway is operative for the overall transformation.
The direct asym. α-arylation of prochiral ketones has been effected using chiral lithium amide bases and diaryl iodonium salts. The methodol. has been employed in a short total synthesis of the alkaloid (-)-epibatidine. [on SciFinder(R)]
A readily available pincer ruthenium(II) complex catalyzes the selective monoalkylation of (hetero)aromatic amines with a wide range of primary alcohols (including pyridine-, furan-, and thiophene-substituted alcohols) with high efficiency when used in low catalyst loadings (1 mol %). Tertiary amine formation via polyalkylation does not occur, making this ruthenium system an excellent catalyst for the synthesis of sec-amines.
A ruthenium complex formed from commercially available [Ru(p-cymene)Cl-2](2) and 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane catalyzes the racemization of aromatic alpha-hydroxy ketones very efficiently at room temperature. The racemization is fully compatible with a kinetic resolution catalyzed by a lipase from Pseudomonas stutzeri. This is the first example of dynamic kinetic resolution of alpha-hydroxy ketones at ambient temperature in which the metal and enzyme catalysts work in concert in one pot at room temperature to give quantitative yields of esters of alpha-hydroxy ketones with very high enantioselectivity.
Amides and hydroxamic acids derived from α-amino acids were evaluated as ligands in combination with rhodium and iridium half-sandwich complexes in asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) of ketones. The reactions were performed in aqueous media using lithium formate as hydride source. The catalyst systems turned out to be highly efficient and ees up to 90% were obtained.
Amino acid based thioamides, hydroxamic acids, and hydrazides have been evaluated as ligands in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones in 2-propanol. Catalysts containing thioamide ligands derived from L-valine were found to selectively generate the product with an R configuration (95 % ee), whereas the corresponding L-valine-based hydroxamic acids or hydrazides facilitated the formation of the (S)-alcohols (97 and 91 % ee, respectively). The catalytic reduction was examined by performing a structure–activity correlation investigation with differently functionalized or substituted ligands and the results obtained indicate that the major difference between the thioamide and hydroxamic acid based catalysts is the coordination mode of the ligands. Kinetic experiments were performed and the rate constants for the reduction reactions were determined by using rhodium–arene catalysts derived from amino acid thioamide and hydroxamic acid ligands. The data obtained show that the thioamide-based catalyst systems demonstrate a pseudo-first-order dependence on the substrate, whereas pseudo-zero-order dependence was observed for the hydroxamic acid containing catalysts. Furthermore, the kinetic experiments revealed that the rate-limiting steps of the two catalytic systems differ. From the data obtained in the structure–activity correlation investigation and along with the kinetic investigation it was concluded that the enantioswitchable nature of the catalysts studied originates from different ligand coordination, which affects the rate-limiting step of the catalytic reduction reaction.
A novel lipophilic rhodium catalyst was evaluated in the enantioselective transfer hydrogenation of ketones in water using sodium formate as the hydride donor, and in the presence of sodium docecylsulfonate. Alkyl alkyl ketones were reduced in good yields and in moderate to good enantioselectivities, and the reduction of aryl alkyl ketones proceeded with excellent enantioselectivity (up to 97% ee).
Amino acid-derived thioamides are prepared and evaluated as ligands in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones in 2-propanol. It is found that increasing the steric bulk at the C-terminus of the ligand had a positive impact on both activity and selectivity in the reduction reaction. In order to find the optimum catalyst, a study is performed on a series of thioamide ligands having substituents of varying size.
Allylic alcohols are isomerized into enolates (enols) by [Cp*IrCl2]2. The enolates react with Selectfluor present in the reaction media. This method produces α-fluoro ketones as single constitutional isomers in high yields.
Allylic alcohols can be isomerised into carbonyl compounds by transition metal complexes. In the last few years, catalyst design and development have resulted in highly efficient isomerisations under mild reaction conditions, including enantioselective versions. In addition, the isomerisation of allylic alcohols has been combined with C-C bond forming reactions when electrophiles such as aldehydes or imines were present in the reaction mixture. Also, C-F bonds can be formed when electrophilic fluorinating reagents are used. Thus, allylic alcohols can be treated as latent enol(ate)s. In this article, we highlight the latest developments concerning the isomerisation of allylic alcohols into carbonyl compounds, focusing in particular on tandem isomerisation/C-C or C-heteroatom bond formation processes. Significant attention is given to the mechanistic aspects of the reactions.
An environmentally benign method for the transformation of allylic alcohols into carbonyl compounds is described. Using [Rh(COD(CH3CN)(2)]BF4 (2) in combination with 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA, 1) as the catalytic system in water results in a very fast redox isomerisation of a variety of secondary allylic alcohols at ambient temperature. Also, some primary allylic alcohols can be isomerised into the corresponding aldehydes. The active complex, which in some cases can be used in catalyst loadings as low as 0.5 mol%, is formed in situ from commercially available reagents. Based on deuterium labelling studies, a tentative mechanism involving metal-enone intermediates is presented.
A novel iridium-catalysed tandem isomerisation/C-F bond formation from allylic alcohols and Selectfluor® to prepare α-fluorinated ketones as single constitutional isomers is reported.
The isomerisation of alkenols followed by reaction with aldehydes or N-tosylimines catalysed by rhodium complexes has been studied. The catalytically active rhodium complex is formed in situ from commercially available (cyclooctadiene)rhodium(l) chloride dimer [Rh(COD)Cl](2). The tandem process affords aldol and Mannich-type products in excellent yields. The key to the success of the coupling reaction is the activation of the catalysts by reaction with postassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK), which promotes a catalytic cycle via alkoxides rather than rhodium hydrides. This mechanism minimises the formation of unwanted by-products. The mechanism has been studied by (1)H NMR spectroscopy and deuterium labelling experiments.
A novel protocol for the oxidative rearrangement of alkenes using in situ generated hypervalent iodine(III) was developed. This approach uses inexpensive, readily available, and stable chemicals (PhI, mCPBA, and TsOH) giving rearrangement products in yields comparable to those obtained using the more expensive commercially available [hydroxy(tosyloxy)iodo]benzene [HTIB or Koser's reagent]. Additionally, an alternative protocol for the synthesis of 1-methyl-2-tetralone through the one-step epoxidation/rearrangement of 4-methyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene using mCPBA and TsOH was developed.
Dewar photoproduct (Dewar PP) is the valence isomer of (6-4) photoproduct ((6-4)PP) in photodamaged DNA. Compared to the extensive studied CPD photoproducts, the underlying repair mechanisms for the (6-4)PP, and especially for the Dewar PP, are not well-established to date. In this paper, the repair mechanism of DNA Dewar photoproduct T(dew)C in (6-4) photolyase was elucidated using hybrid density functional theory. Our results showed that, during the repair process, the T(dew)C has to isomerize to T(6-4)C photolesion first via direct C6'-N3' bond cleavage facilitated by electron injection. This isomerization mechanism is energetically much more efficient than other possible rearrangement pathways. The calculations provide a theoretical interpretation to recent experimental observations.
The (6-4) photoproduct ((6-4) PP) is one of the main lesions in UV-induced DNA damage. The (6-4) PP and its valence isomer Dewar photoproduct (Dewar PP) can have a great threat of mutation and cancer but gained much less attention to date. In this study, with density functional theory (DFT) and the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) methods, the photoisomerization processes between the (6-4) PP and the Dewar PP in the gas phase, the aqueous solution, and the photolyase have been carefully examined. Noticeably, the solvent effect is treated with the CASPT2//CASSCF/Amber (QM/MM) method. Our calculations show that the conical intersection (Cl) points play a crucial role in the photoisomerization reaction between the (6-4) PP and the Dewar PP in the gas and the aqueous solution. The ultrafast internal conversion between the S-2 ((1)pi pi*) and the So states via a distorted intersection point is found to be responsible for the formation of the Dewar PP lesion at 313 nm, as observed experimentally. For the reversed isomeric process, two channels involving the "dark" excited states have been identified. In addition to the above passages, in the photolyase, a new electron-injection isomerization process as an efficient way for the photorepair of the Dewar PP is revealed.
A nickel-catalyzed C(sp(3))-C(sp(2)) Suzuki cross-coupling of arylboronic acids and (hetero)naphthyl alcohols has been developed. A Ni(dppp) Cl-2 complex showed the highest efficiency and broadest substrate scope. High functional group tolerance has been achieved where 35 compounds could be generated in good to excellent yields, including both primary and secondary benzylic alcohols. Mechanistic studies using multiple NMR techniques as well as ESI-HRMS showed that the C-O cleavage is facilitated by an activation of the benzylic alcohol through formation of a boronic ester intermediate.
The stereospecific substitution of non-derivatized and non-allylic enantioenriched alcohols with only water as a by-product would enable the use of readily available alcohols as substrates for green and sustainable transformations. However, the poor leaving group ability of the OH group has hampered the development of such a process. Denton and co-workers recently described the use of (2-hydroxybenzyl)diphenylphosphine oxide as a catalyst of a redox-neutral and zero-waste-generating Mitsunobu reaction. This innovative process constitutes the first intermolecular stereospecific substitution of non-allylic alcohols, and might find industrial applications.
Palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution of non-derivatized enantioenriched allylic alcohols with a variety of uncharged N-, S-, C- and O-centered nucleophiles using a bidentate BiPhePhos ligand is described. A remarkable effect of the counter ion (X) of the XPd[kappa(2)-BiPhePhos][kappa(3)-C3H5] was observed. When ClPd[kappa(2)-BiPhePhos][eta(3)-C3H5] (complexI) was used as catalyst, non-reproducible results were obtained. Study of the complex by X-ray crystallography, (PNMR)-P-31 spectroscopy, and ESI-MS showed that a decomposition occurred where one of the phosphite ligands was oxidized to the corresponding phosphate, generating ClPd[kappa(1)-BiPhePhosphite-phosphate][eta(3)-C3H5] species (complexII). When the chloride was exchanged to the weaker coordinating OTf- counter ion the more stable Pd[kappa(2)-BiPhePhos][eta(3)-C3H5](+)+[OTf] (-) (complexIII) was formed. ComplexIII performed better and gave higher enantiospecificities in the substitution reactions. ComplexIII was evaluated in Tsuji-Trost reactions of stereogenic non-derivatized allylic alcohols. The desired products were obtained in good to excellent yields (71-98%) and enantiospecificities (73-99%) for both inter- and intramolecular substitution reactions with only water generated as a by-product. The methodology was applied to key steps in total synthesis of (S)-cuspareine and (+)-lentiginosine. A reaction mechanism involving a palladium hydride as a key intermediate in the activation of the hydroxyl group is proposed in the overall transformation.
Direct allylboration of various acyclic and cyclic aldimine, ketimine and indole substrates was performed using allylboronic acids. The reaction proceeds with very high anti-stereoselectivity for both E and Z imines. The allylboroxines formed by dehydration of allylboronic acids have a dual effect: promoting E/Z isomerization of aldimines and triggering the allylation by efficient electron withdrawal from the imine substrate.
The catalytic asymmetric allylboration of cyclic imines with gamma,gamma-disubstituted allylboronic acids provides products with adjacent stereocenters in high yield and stereoselectivity. Various electrophiles, including 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines and indoles, were prenylated in a fully stereodivergent fashion by switching the E/Z geometry of the allylboronate and/or the enantiomer of the BINOL catalyst. 3-Methylindole provided products with three adjacent stereocenters with high stereoselectivity in one synthetic operation.
Allylboronic acids readily react with a broad variety of ketones, affording homoallylic alcohols with adjacent quaternary and tertiary stereocenters. The reaction proceeds with very high anti stereoselectivity even if the substituents of the keto group have a similar size. a-Keto acids react with syn stereoselectivity probably due to the formation of acyl boronate intermediates. The allylation reactions proceed without added acids/bases under mild conditions. Because of this, many functionalities are tolerated even with in situ generated allylboronic acids.
Pd-catalyzed allylic C-H trifluoroacetoxylation of substituted alkenes was performed using PhI(OCOCF3)(2) as the oxidant and acyloxy source. Trifluoroacetoxylation of monosubstituted cyclopentenes and cyclohexenes proceeds with excellent regio- and diastereoselectivity. Studies with one of the possible (eta(3)-allyl)Pd(II) intermediates suggest that the reaction proceeds via stereoselective formation of Pd(IV) intermediates and subsequent stereo- and regioselective reductive elimination of the product.
Allylboration of ketones with gamma-disubstituted allylboronic acids is performed in the presence of chiral BINOL derivatives. The reaction is suitable for single-step creation of adjacent quaternary stereocenters with high selectivity. We show that, with an appropriate choice of the chiral catalyst and the stereoisomeric prenyl substrate, full control of the stereo- and enantioselectivity is possible in the reaction.
An efficient and simple methodology was developed for the synthesis of oxazolidinones, oxazolidinthiones, imidazolidinthiones, and imidazolidinones from the corresponding propargylic starting materials using Pd(OAc)(2) and n-Bu4NOAc as catalysts in DCE at room temperature.
The hexacoordinate complexes that the macrobicyclic ligands {(NH3)(2)sar)(2+) and {NMe3)(2)sar}(2+) (sar = 3,6,10,13,16,19-hexaazabicyclo[6.6.6]icosane) form with transition metals such as Co-III, Co-II and Cu-II can adopt several isomeric structures. In this article, we have firstly employed DFT methods lo compute the relative stability of their Delta-ob(3), Delta-ob(2)lel, Delta-lel(2)ob and Delta-lel(3) isomers, as well as the activation barriers for their interconversion. In agreement with the experimental data, the results show that, in general, the different isomers of the Co-III and Co-II complexes present similar free energies, whereas the Cu-II complexes show a strong tendency towards the lel(3) form. In addition, the interplay between the structure and stability of these species has been studied by combining shape maps with a distortion/interaction energy analysis. In contrast to the geometries close to the ideal octahedron that all the studied Co complexes present, the le)3 structures of [Cu{(NH3)(2)sar}](4+) and [Cu{(NMe3)(2)sar](4+) are better described. as trigonal prisms. In such structures the ligand adopts a conformation significantly more stable than in the other isomers, and this drives the formation of lel(3)-[Cu{(NH3)(2)sar}](4+) and lel(3)-[Cu{(NNe3)(2)sar}](4+). Overall, the results show a clear relationship between the stability of a given isomer and its degree of distortion with respect to the ideal octahedron (or trigonal prism), with the latter being ultimately dependent on the transition metal and its radius.
The macrobicyclic mixed-donor N3S3 cage ligand AMME-N(3)S(3)sar (1-methyl-8-amino-3,13,16-trithia-6,10,19-triazabicyclo[6.6.6]eicosane) can form complexes with Cu(II) in which it acts as hexadentate (N3S3) or tetradentate (N2S2) donor. These two complexes are in equilibrium that is strongly influenced by the presence of halide ions (Br- and Cl-) and the nature of the solvent (DMSO, MeCN, and H2O). In the absence of halides the hexadentate coordination mode of the ligand is preferred and the encapsulated complex (Cu-in(2+)) is formed. Addition of halide ions in organic solvents (DMSO or MeCN) leads to the tetradentate complex (Cu-out(+)) in a polyphasic kinetic process, but no Cu-out(+) complex is formed when the reaction is performed in water. Here we applied density functional theory calculations to study the mechanism of this interconversion as well as to understand the changes in the reactivity associated with the presence of water. Calculations were performed at the B3LYP/(SDD,6-31G**) level, in combination with continuum (MeCN) or discrete-continuum (H2O) solvent models. Our results show that formation of Cu-out(+) in organic media is exergonic and involves sequential halide-catalyzed inversion of the configuration of a N-donor of the macrocycle, rapid halide coordination, and inversion of the configuration of a S-donor. In aqueous solution the solvent is found to have an effect on both the thermodynamics and the kinetics of the reaction. Thermodynamically, the process becomes endergonic mainly due to the preferential solvation of halide ions by water, while the kinetics is influenced by formation of a network of H-bonded water molecules that surrounds the complex.
A new μ-phenoxy-μ-metoxy di-manganese(III) complex with the trisphenolic ligand, 2,6-bis[((2-hydroxybenzyl)(2-pyridylmethyl)amino)methyl]-4-methylphenol, was isolated as a perchlorate salt. The X-ray structure shows that the two manganese(III) ions are in a distorted octrahedral enviroment with approximately perpendicular Jahn–Teller axes. Investigation of the molar magnetic susceptibility reveals a ferromagnetic coupling between the two high-spin manganese(III) ions. Fitting of the data led to g = 2 and J = 12.5 cm−1


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When we were kids, one of the first things we noticed about my best friend's father was his funny left hand.
The fingers were gnarly and frozen into a claw-like grip, and we would steal fascinated glances when he wasn't looking. But he was never self-conscious about his hand, frequently using it to gesture when he was speaking with the neighborhood kids, which was often.
Years later, I would learn that Paul V. Mullaney was shot in the arm during the Korean War, the third wound he would suffer as a Marine first lieutenant, and his nerves were so badly damaged that he almost lost the whole arm.
"Did you know they call it a monkey hand?" he told me Wednesday. "I guess a monkey can't touch his fingers with his thumb, and neither can I." He laughed. "It's gotten me out of a lot of work. I don't shovel very well."
But shovel he does, along with gardening and yard work and brisk walks that would tax men years his junior. Paul Mullaney has aged the way he's lived, with enviable grace, and now this 94-year-old student of history is planning a symbolic stroll that evokes memories of past wars and local heroism.
On June 7, the retired judge plans to walk from Union Station to the Korean War Memorial and up Front Street to the back of City Hall, where the Paul V. Mullaney Plaza will be dedicated in honor of his service to his city and country. Mullaney twice left Worcester from Union Station to fight in foreign wars, and his exploits earned him three Purple Hearts, the Silver Star and Bronze Star.
"I don't know why they came up with my name," he said, predictably. "There are so many veterans in Worcester that I'm sure are more deserving. I was in City Hall for a while, so that might have given me the edge."
The fact that he's truly trying to figure it out only adds to this man's enormous appeal. Born in a Main South three-decker, the whip-smart son of a local mailman is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Boston College Law School. Mullaney was mayor from 1963 to '65, a city councilor 1960-1967, and a district judge from 1978 until retiring in 1991.
He and his spirited wife, Sallie, who died in January, raised nine kids in a crowded house near Newton Square. I grew up around the corner and was pals with his daughter Moira. Her dad was a touchstone, a second father to lots of neighborhood kids and unofficial advisor to our parents. The moms were smitten � with his thick shock of white hair and twinkling blue eyes, his hand was his only physical imperfection. But the dads didn't mind, because even the men adored Judge Mullaney.
He took Moira and me to get our first library cards; trips to the drive-in included as many kids as could squeeze into the station wagon. He was always patient and I never once saw him angry, even when we "borrowed" the family car and drove it into a tree on Newton Avenue.
In 1991, I wrote a column about Paul Mullaney when he retired from the District Court bench, recalling that he'd drive us to Notre Dame Academy and fill our sleepy heads with Worcester history � the people, the streets, the buildings.
"Sometimes, because we were 14, we would roll our eyes or giggle," I wrote. "Always, though, because it was Judge Mullaney speaking, we listened."
His oldest son, Paul Jr., said his father never saw himself as a hero but is "deeply appreciative" of the upcoming honor.
"He'll be walking by a lot of history," he said. "The city is to be congratulated, for giving this to him while he's alive."
Paul Mullaney is a Worcester treasure and a real-life Atticus Finch � gentle, kind, gracious and wise. He may belong to the city, but the honor of knowing him is all mine.
Contact Dianne Williamson at firstname.lastname@example.com


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The Good: This club can hit the ball a long ways. When hit solidly, the ball absolutely rockets off the face and rolls for forever. The club has a great feel to it and you get nice feedback from each ball struck.
The Bad: I've had a tendency to top the ball with this club for awhile. Sure this is probably due to a poor swing, but it's not something I battled with any other 3 woods. Now, I'm hitting it more solid
but the balls seems to come off with a big draw. I've watched a few other people hit the club and their misses seem to be similar topped shots.
Overall: I think the reason this club is so popular for Tour players, is because it really rewards a good swing. The club is tops in terms of sheer power and distance. I think there are some other woods that may send the ball a little higher with more carry, but add in the roll, and this club can knock it a mile. Alas, if you're swing isn't solid, I can't see this club improving your chances of reaching that elusive par 5 in two or better accuracy off the tee. It's a good club - but only if you're a good player.


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Savvy Shopper 101 will be presented at 6 p.m. May 8 at the Lubbock Garden and Arts Center, 4215 University Ave.
Rachel Hardy will talk about coupons, sales and strategies for getting the most for your money.
The free class will include a packet of money-saving tips, and gift cards will be given away.
To register, visit http://lbksavvyshopper-es2.eventbrite.com/?srnk=1 or go to eventbrite.com and do a search for Savvy Shopper.


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photo 1 of 217
Rory MacDonald
TRAINING: I train one to two times a day Monday to Saturday, between jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, kickboxing and conditioning.
When and why did you start training for fighting? I have always enjoyed fighting since I was really little, and I have always watched boxing and MMA since I was a kid. So when I discovered a MMA gym in the town I live in (Kelowna BC) I went there and never left and eventually it evolved into me becoming a pro fighter.
What ranks and titles have you held? I won the King of the Cage Canadian lightweight championship at the age of 18. At 19 I became the King of the Cage world lightweight champion. Black belt in jiu-jitsu under David Lea
Do you have any heroes? A guy I have looked up to in the sport of MMA is my friend Georges St-Pierre.
What does it mean for you to fight in the UFC? To fight in the UFC is the biggest accomplishment I have every achieved. Ever since I had first seen it on TV when I was six years old I have always wanted to compete in the UFC, and I'm finally here, so it's a dream come true.
Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? No
What was your job before you started fighting? Laboring jobs for the most part. I jumped from job to job a lot of the time because I hate work. Basically I only like fighting.
Favorite grappling technique: Rear naked choke
Favorite striking technique: Punch to the face
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Dead reboot
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:40 am
Very often if I do a warm reboot on my reactivated SAM460ex, Workbench comes up dead, mouse and keyboard ineffective. Sometimes the Workbench screen background doesn't fill the monitor screen, though the bunch of icons on the left and the dock at the bottom do appear on the black parts of the screen, and sometimes can be successfully clicked on.
Does this sound like something that might be fixable?
Does this sound like something that might be fixable?


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Mobile Computing is at risk of becoming the buzz-word of the year, but no one seems to be exactly clear on what it is and more importantly what it means for consumers, enterprises, carriers, partners, and anyone involved in the mobile ecosystem. There's an incredible opportunity for this space to be defined, and today we're introducing a solution that begins to do just that.
Here at the Telematics Detroit Conference, we've unveiled a solution for automakers that lets them easily manage and securely download software updates to a vehicle. The Software Update Management for Automotive service leverages BlackBerry's global, secure infrastructure.
Vehicles hold a lot of digital information needed to operate efficiently, and come with sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment systems, apps, media centers, and more. Automakers want to be able to deliver software updates that can offer new, compelling capabilities to their customers, long after the initial sale. With vehicles becoming connected end points, the opportunity is wireless. A secure connection to end points such as this, enabled by BlackBerry technology, will help automakers connect with customers and allow them to bring new features, and potentially diagnose problems remotely.
The development of OTA services is part of BlackBerry's broader mobile computing strategy. BlackBerry is providing the foundation for a new era of mobile computing by connecting mobile end points securely and creating opportunities for community building, connecting, and sharing.
Personally, I couldn't be more excited by where this is all going. I've become convinced of a very bright future in the form of mobile computing and dramatically increased connectivity to the devices and machines that we use.
To learn more about the BlackBerry solution demonstrated at the Telematics Detroit Conference, head over to www.blackberry.com/m2m.
Use your imagination! What would you like to see in the future of connected end points that would make your life easier, safer, or more enjoyable? Share in the comments below.


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Hempstead ISD superintendent faces criminal charges
The embattled superintendent of the Hempstead Independent School District surrendered to authorities Thursday afternoon after being indicted on charges of falsifying her résumé.
The charges against the superintendent, Delma Flores-Smith, are the latest development in a racially charged drama that has played out since she assumed leadership of the small school system northwest of Houston 10 months ago.
A grand jury Monday indicted Flores-Smith on three counts of tampering with a government record, according to court documents. The charge is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
The indictment alleges that in January, Flores-Smith "impaired" the availability of her résumé, a government document, to former school board member Kay Kloecker, who requested it through a public information law. Flores-Smith also is accused of having presented a copy of her résumé that was not the same one on file with the school district and of having done so "with knowledge of its falsity," court documents state.
"There's nothing in the indictment that indicates what the falsity is," said Brent Mayr, Flores-Smith's attorney, saying his client is innocent. "People who are unhappy with the decisions she's making are pushing these charges."
Kloecker said she could not comment. Mayr said he had advised his client not to comment. School board members could not be reached.
A broad reach
The controversy in Hempstead ISD began when Flores-Smith - placed on administrative leave last week - became superintendent last August. Shortly after taking over, Flores-Smith oversaw a financial review by an independent auditor that led to the suspension of the district's business manager for allegedly steering contracts to a plumbing company owned by her husband.
Then in November, Flores-Smith made national headlines when she suspended the principal of Hempstead Middle School, Amy Lacey, for directing students over the intercom not to speak Spanish while on campus. The board later voted not to renew Lacey's contract. She has filed an appeal and is seeking a hearing before the board.
A few months later, Flores-Smith suspended the Hempstead ISD police chief, saying he failed to properly investigate the vandalism of three school buses.
Augustin Pinedo, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Region 18, said he believes the suspension and criminal charges against Flores-Smith are backlash from officials who disagree with her decisions.
"It's like an ongoing retaliation because she got rid of these people to clean up the place," he said.
Flores-Smith turned herself in at the Waller County Jail around 4 p.m. Wednesday. She posted $1,500 bail and was released.
University of Houston criminal law professor Sandra Guerra Thompson said courts have interpreted the state statute on government record-tampering in a way that gives it broad reach.
Using other methods
"It's been applied in situations where you wouldn't expect it to be," she said.
Thompson said that using an alleged falsity on a résumé to bring criminal charges is troubling.
"If there isn't really a good, justifiable cause for using criminal sanctions, then we should use less severe sanctions" such as through internal disciplinary action, Thompson said. "If that's enough to remedy the harm, that's what should be preferred."