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Tough New Cockfighting Law in Texas
In Texas, it is now illegal for individuals to attend cockfights, possess birds with the intent to fight, and sell and possess the razor sharp weapons that are designed to increase the bloodletting in cockfights. The Humane Society of the United States, on behalf of its more than 500,000 supporters in Texas, celebrates this measure's passage and thanks Rep. Wayne Christian, R-District 9, and Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-District 27, for championing HB 1043 through the process.
"Closing these loopholes is essential in cracking down on the entire cast of characters involved in cockfighting," said Nicole Paquette, Texas senior state director for The HSUS. "The spectators fuel this illegal activity and implementation of this new law will send a strong message that cockfighting will not be tolerated in the Lone Star state."
Cockfighting is a cruel activity involving the deliberate pitting of animals against each other to fight to the death for the sole purpose of gambling and the entertainment of spectators. Roosters used for fighting are often drugged to heighten their aggression and forced to keep them fighting even after they've suffered severe injuries such as deep gashes, punctured lungs, and pierced eyes. Young children are often brought to these events and exposed to the gruesome spectacle as acceptable entertainment.
The HSUS conducted two investigations into cockfighting in Texas which showed that this crime is widespread throughout the state. In 2010, undercover investigators attended cockfights at nearly 20 pits throughout Texas and documented about 100 locations where cockfights are regularly held. Investigators used hidden cameras to document repeated acts of animal cruelty as well as the presence of young children, widespread illegal gambling, and prostitution. The HSUS investigative team also went undercover in April, 2011 with ESPN E: 60 into a cockfighting ring in Gunter, Texas which highlighted the need for stronger laws to ensure that all participants in the illegal activity are charged with a crime.
Enactment of HB 1043 provides law enforcement with the tools to crackdown on this illegal activity and aligns Texas's laws with neighboring states and most of the country. The HSUS stands ready to assist law enforcement in their efforts.
- Cockfighting is outlawed in all 50 states and is punished as a felony in 39.
- With passage of House Bill 1043, 38 states and the District of Columbia prohibit the possession of birds for fighting; 43 states and the District of Columbia prohibit being a spectator at cockfights; and 15 states prohibit the possession of cockfighting implements.
- Spectators pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in admission fees and gambling bets, generating the bulk of the revenue for this illegal enterprise. The fights would not occur without the crowd betting on the outcome and enjoying the bloodletting. Spectators provide cover for animal fighters, who weave into crowds to evade prosecution at the first sign of a police raid.
- House Bill 1043 makes the following activities a crime:
- participating in the earnings of a cockfight (a state jail felony);
- using or permitting another to use property for cockfighting (a class A misdemeanor);
- manufacturing, buying, selling, possessing cockfighting equipment (a class A misdemeanor);
- owning, possessing or training a cock with the intent that it be used for cockfighting (class A misdemeanor); or
- attending as a spectator an exhibition of cockfighting (class C misdemeanor for first offense and class A misdemeanor for future offenses)
- The United States Congress is considering H.R. 2492 which would amend the federal animal fighting law to include spectators. This would allow for cases prosecuted in federal court to include the entire cast of characters that participate in animal fighting ventures.


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In mid-July, by starting The Flock, we were lucky enough to welcome 200+ new team members from all over the country and outside the US! Part of our mission is not just to create great product, but also to connect as many runners as possible, with us -- and even more importantly, with each other. Read on to find a slew of options to help you stay close with us and find run friends.
July 30, 2014

subset: commoncrawl


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The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series of Hope College will feature poets Elizabeth Bradfield and Sean Hill on Thursday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Elizabeth Bradfield is the author of "Interpretive Work" (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2008), which won the Audre Lorde Award and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and "Approaching Ice" (Persea Books, 2010), a book of poems about Arctic and Antarctic exploration that was a finalist for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.
Bradfield's poetry has been published in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Poetry," "Prairie Schooner," "Field," "The Believer," "Orion," and numerous other journals and anthologies. She has been awarded fellowships and scholarships from StanfordUniversity's Wallace Stegner program, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the VermontStudioCenter and elsewhere.
In 2005, Bradfield founded Broadsided (broadsidedpress.org), which she still runs. A grassroots, virtual, collaborative press, Broadsided attempts to pull literary work out of journals and put it on the streets. It brings words together with the energy of original visual art, publishing monthly collaborations on the website as pdfs that are then downloaded, printed, and posted around the world by "Vectors."
Born and raised in Milledgeville, Ga., Sean Hill has an MFA from the University of Houston. He has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, the Bush Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, the University of Wisconsin, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Jerome Foundation and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry.
His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in "Callaloo," "Ploughshares," "Pleiades," "Crab Orchard Review," "DIAGRAM," "The Oxford American," "Tin House" and other literary journals, and in the anthologies "Blues Poems," "Gathering Ground," "The Ringing Ear" and "Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry." His first book, "Blood Ties & Brown Liquor," was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2008. He lives in Bemidji, Minn.
Additional information about the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series may be obtained online by going to www.hope.edu/vws.
A performance by a Hope jazz group will precede the reading beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. Eighth St.


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YES! We host Weddings & Events too! View our Wedding Venue info, photos, & pricing
Landscape Design & Event Venue
In the Garden @ Casa Bella Village in Jacksonville Beach is a unique offering of landscaping services and selections presented by expert horticulturist and event manager, Louise Johnson.
Located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, our team has successfully completed landscape and design projects for residential and commercial clients in Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach, and the surrounding area.
We provide TWO distinct sets of services :
1. Landscape Design Services
In the Garden Landscape & Design founder Louise Johnson specializes in comprehensive landscape solutions for your outdoor spaces around Jacksonville Beach, FL. She works closely with each of her clients to understand their vision.
2. Garden Weddings & Event Venue
In the Garden @ Casa Bella Village is a gorgeous place to plan your next event or wedding. It is a Tuscan-inspired piazza that offers a quaint garden setting just blocks from the ocean in Jacksonville Beach, FL.


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Sony Entertainment Network
PlayStation web storefront now supports download queueing
As enabled by a recent firmware update, you can now queue downloads directly from the webfront of the PlayStation Store, otherwise known as the Sony Entertainment Network.
Sony Entertainment Network headlines
Sony web store opens, features PS3, PS Vita content and more
Sony has opened its Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) web store, serving as a browser-based equivalent to the PlayStation Store. You can buy games, movies, TV shows and other items online and queue them up for downloading on your console. Find out how here.
PlayStation 3 firmware update 4.10 rolling out
A new PlayStation 3 firmware update should hit today, as detailed on the the US PS Blog. The update includes a new terms of service agreement pertaining to the PlayStation Network's absorption into the broader Sony Entertainment Network, as well as improvements to the console's browser.
PSN accounts changing to Sony Entertainment Network
Sony has announced PlayStation Network accounts will be changed over to Sony Entertainment Network accounts via an update on February 8, a move which has been the works at the firm since September 1 of last year.
CES 2012: 500,000 Vitas sold, two new PS Suite phones
During its Consumer Electronics Show press conference in Las Vegas this evening, Sony revealed the Vita has passed half a million sales in Japan.
PSN to be incorporated into new brand, Sony Entertainment Network
Sony is to unite its disparate digital entertainment services in a new platform called the Sony Entertainment Network.
Sony Entertainment Network latest
Sony web store opens, features PS3, PS Vita content and more
PSN to be incorporated into new brand, Sony Entertainment Network


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Here is a view of the Riemann Zeta function graphed from x=1.2 to 10. You will notice a sharp spike as x goes toward 1, where it shoots off to infinity. The Riemann Zeta function at x=1 is the harmonic series. Since *everybody* knows the harmonic series diverges, so does the Riemann Zeta function at x=1. As x gets larger, the function approaches 1 quickly. This function directly determines the statistical properties of the distribution of prime numbers, so mathematician go wild studying everything about it.
If you can prove that the only solutions to the equation Zeta(z) = 0 occur on the line Re(z) = 1/2 (aka The Riemann Hypothesis), then you get a million bucks!


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Can I Just See the Pictures?
Have you noticed that Bible reference books are getting more and more graphically rich? It used to be that even "illustrated" Bible dictionaries only featured a relatively small illustration every twenty pages or so. Today, no doubt prompted by our constant exposure to multiple forms of media, it is rare to see a Bible reference book which does not feature lots of illustrations, charts, tables, and sidebars. In Accordance, we now have lots of graphically rich study Bibles, dictionaries, atlases, and photo collections. In fact, Dr. J recently produced an entire podcast explaining how to purchase and use these resources. If you haven't watched it yet, be sure to check it out.
Now, let's say you purchase one of these graphically-rich modules in Accordance. Once you've installed it, one of the first things you'll want to do is skim through all the images to see which ones really jump out at you. But in a large resource with lots of text—say for example, the Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible—scrolling through the entire resource just to see all the pictures would be prohibitively time-consuming. Wouldn't it be nice if you could view only the images and scroll through those?
One obvious way to do this is to click a picture thumbnail to view that image in a large picture window. Then you can click the right and left arrows at the sides of the picture window to view the previous or next image.
The problem with this approach is that you have to click to cycle through each picture, and because the picture window changes to match the size of each image, you likely will need to keep moving the mouse to click the right or left arrow. The problem of the moving arrows can easily be overcome by pressing the right and left arrow keys on your keyboard, but you still have to press a key each time you want to go to the next image.
Here's a trick I use to scroll quickly through all the picture thumbnails of an Accordance tool module:
First, I choose the Captions field in the Tool window search bar, and then I enter ?*. That's a question mark followed by an asterisk, and this combination of search symbols will search for every word in the Captions field.
Now that I've done my search, I can tell Accordance to show me only those paragraphs which contain a search hit, effectively hiding all the other information in the tool. To do this, I simply choose Paragraphs from the Show Text As submenu of the tool's Gear menu.
Voila! My tool window now shows only the captioned images in the tool, and I can simply scroll to skim all of these thumbnails.
I use this trick whenever I'm doing final checks on a tool module prior to its release, but it works just as well for those of you who want to look at all the pictures in your latest Graphics Tool purchase.


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Send announcements to The Loudoun Connection, 7913 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102, e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com or fax to 703-917-0991. Deadline is Friday, two weeks before the event. Photos/artwork encouraged. For more information, call Jennifer Lesinski at 703-917-6454. This free listing is reserved for activities and events that are open to the public at no or minimal cost.
Loudoun Women Business Forum, March 2, noon, ZeffirelliÕs Restaurant, Leesburg. Speaker: Kari Uman on Leadership Presence from the Inside Out. $15, includes lunch. 703-728-8900.
Sawdust Specialties, on March 5, will hold a special customer appreciation party. The Leesburg gift shop was recently named a finalist in Country Business magazine's national "Retailer of the Year" competition. Shoppers receive a 10 percent discount on all purchases that day and free refreshments. From noon-5 p.m., at 8 Fort Evans Road at East Market Street, Leesburg.
Loudoun Chamber of Commerce has the following upcoming events:
* March 9, Business Showcase Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., Belmont Country Club, 19961 Belmont manor Lane, Ashburn. Business attire required. Tickets $15 for members in advanced, $20 for members at the door, $25 for nonmembers. Preregister by March 7, at 5 p.m. RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com.
* March 16, After Hours Business Mixer, 5:30-7 p.m., The Medical Spa at Nova, 21785 Filigree Court, Suite 100, Ashburn. $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. RSVP email@example.com.
Local area vendors are invited to the 2005 Loudoun County
Procurement's Buyer/Seller Information Exchange sessions. The purpose of these informal sessions is to give area businesses the opportunity to meet the county's procurement staff and become familiar with the county's procurement process. The next round of sessions are as follows:
* Thursday, March 23, 10:30 a.m.
* Friday, April 21, 2 p.m.
* Friday, May 19, 10:30 a.m.
* Thursday, June 22, 2 p.m.
* Monday, July 24, 10:30 a.m.
The sessions will be held in the Lovettsville Room on the first floor of the County Government Center, 1 Harrison St., S.E., in Leesburg. Call 703-771-5142 or send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Loudoun Convention & Visitors Association has the following upcoming events:
* March 30, Annual Meeting and Tourism Awards Luncheon, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., at Washington Dulles Airport Marriott. Get the latest industry update and honor fellow tourism award winners. For information regarding sponsoring a table and other sponsorship opportunities, contact Chris Geno at LCVA at firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling 703-771-2170, Ext. 17.
Fitness Together, owned and operated by Eric Sutton, a certified personal trainer, is a new personal training studio that offers one-on-one training in private training suites. Located at 44335 Premier Plaza, Suite 130, the studio is the seventh franchise to open in Virginia.
The Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce announces that it has elevated its Hispanic Business Committee to a "council" level to reflect the importance of its mission, accomplishments, regional impact and important alliances in Northern Virginia. It will be called the Hispanic Business Council.
Since its formation in the spring of 2004, the chamber's Hispanic Business Council has been conducting outreach to the Hispanic business community by collaborating with Loudoun County Small Business Development Center, Liberty's Promise, the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The committee also reached out to the broader Hispanic community through organizing a Hispanic Business Reception, conducting community outreach at the annual Reston Multicultural Festival and the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Herndon, creating a Hispanic Resource Guide and distribution of brochures and flyers about the chamber translated into Spanish, assisting Congressman Frank Wolf's gang prevention efforts through an initiative to link businesses with young people.
The Hispanic Business Council is composed of 24 business members. The officers are Giovanni Cozzarelli, chairman; Ximena Savitch, vice chair and Jackie Krick, secretary. The council reports to Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors officer Chris Griffin, vice president of community relations.
Chuck Kuhn, president of JK Moving & Storage, located in Sterling, announces the companyÕs formal acceptance as a member of Latin American & Caribbean Association of International Movers (LACMA).
For six months, the LACMA Association and Board of Directors conducted an extensive review of JK Moving & StorageÕs international service record and documentation, along with an in-depth review of business operations, financial information, facilities and employees, prior to approving the companyÕs membership application. An association comprised of Latin American and Caribbean international movers, LACMA accounts for more than 90 percent of the moves to and from that region.
The Loudoun Arts Council (LAC) announces that it has developed a new logo to express its mission of supporting artistic expression throughout Loudoun County. LAC introduced its new logo Feb. 1.
Several area designers bid on the logo project. Following an extensive review process, the Arts Council selected SparkyÕs Garage, an award-winning advertising and design firm based in Leesburg.
LAC board member and past president, Gale Waldron, initiated the logo project last spring.
The Loudoun Arts Council is a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of artistic expression throughout Loudoun County by supporting visual, performing and literary artists and arts organizations.
Peter Thi Ha and Jona Nila announce the opening of their new restaurant, A Taste of Burma, 126 Edds Lane, in the CountrySide Shopping Center. The pair has more than 17 years experience combined in the restaurant field in the Washington, D.C., area. The restaurant will focus on preparing and cooking authentic Burmese food.
The UPS Store, 44050 Ashburn Shopping Plaza in Ashburn Village, raised more than $3,000 for the Marine Toys-for-Tots Foundation as part of a nationwide campaign conducted in November and December. The money raised locally will benefit children in the Ashburn community and surrounding areas. Overall, The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. network raised more than $500,000.
At the request of Loudoun Board of Supervisors member Lori Waters, the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce was presented on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2006, with a Resolution of Commendation. The Board of Supervisors expressed its appreciation for the chamber's successful efforts in promoting Loudoun County by hosting the Jan. 19 visit by President George W. Bush to JK Moving & Storage in Sterling. The President's visit, leading up to the State of the Union address, highlighted the great benefits of doing business in Loudoun County.
Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce on hand to accept this Resolution, included, COO Bob Steere, second vice chairman of the board Paul Bice, vice president of communications Linda Roberts, past president and CEO Randy Collins and staff members.
This year marks the 85th anniversary of Armfield, Harrison & Thomas Inc. (AH&T), an employee-owned, independent insurance brokerage and consultancy founded in 1921. During the last eight and a half decades, AH&T has experienced constant growth, demonstrated community leadership, pioneered valuable client services and stayed true to its core values, even through world wars, failing national economies and dynamic market trends.
AH&T counts its support of Leesburg, and Loudoun County among its accomplishments. For the last 85 years AH&T has had its headquarters located within the two blocks that mark the heart of downtown Leesburg. It opened an office in Seattle, Wash., in 1999, and adds new employees to both offices monthly, but AH&T remains loyal to Leesburg.
Planned activities this year include a monthly exhibit in AH&TÕs lobby displaying fun and interesting artifacts from its archives, monthly AH&T trivia contests for its employees, and a celebration later in the year.
The Loudoun Arts Council recently welcomed the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce and Creations by April, a design showroom in Sterling, into its Arts in Offices program. The program partners local artists with area businesses, giving artists the opportunity to show and sell their work in locations where it can be viewed in conference rooms, waiting rooms and other public areas.
Seven venues and 14 artists now participate in the Arts in Offices program. Visit the Arts CouncilÕs Web site at http://www.loudounarts.org. Artists and businesses in Loudoun who wish to participate in the program should contact the Loudoun Arts Council at 703-777-7838 or email@example.com.
Goodwill of Greater Washington is now also offering new goods. As the local nonprofit organization continues to rebuild its brand, it is not only redesigning all of its retail stores to make them more contemporary and colorful, but it is also supplementing its donated vintage merchandise with brand new merchandise.
Goodwill has specifically designated more than 400 square feet in four of its local retail stores including Sterling and northeast Washington, D.C., with new merchandise.
Goodwill began selling new merchandise in September and will continue to evaluate its success over the next several months. The goal is to provide a greater selection of items and to become a one-stop retail store for its customers.
On Friday, Feb. 3, JK Moving & Storage, was named Loudoun County Chamber of CommerceÕs 2006 "Member of the Year."
To be considered for this award, JK Moving & Storage has maintained an outstanding track record with the community. It also contributes its time and services in a way that is beneficial to everyone in the community.
During the 2005 holiday season, JK Moving & Storage implemented a new program that helps transitional families from shelters get back on their feet by donating its services to families moving into new homes. JK also provided storage and transport services for ÒHorsing Around Loudoun,Ó an arts initiative that results in the placement of more than two dozen painted fiberglass horses in prominent locations throughout the country.
Throughout the years, JK Moving & Storage has donated its service and expertise to a number of other organizations, including Toys for Tots, March of Dimes, Katrina Relief, WomenÕs & Girls Tech Foundation, Boy Scout Troop 982, Hamilton Fire Department, COPE (Western Loudoun Teen Center), and Junior League of Washington.
Last month, Loudoun County attained worldwide recognition, when President Bush selected JK Moving & Storage as a venue from which to address the public on his economic policy. In his speech, President Bush praised JK for its contributions to the community and throughout the world.
Safeway's Eastern Division contributed an estimated $5.1 million in cash and in-kind donations to nonprofit agencies throughout the mid-Atlantic region during the 2005 calendar year. The total giving includes $3.929 million by Safeway stores in the Washington- and Baltimore-metropolitan areas with the remaining $1.225 million being provided by Genuardi's Markets, owned by Safeway, in the Philadelphia region.
Dr. Namrata "Sonia" Choudhary of Women First OB/GYN, P.C., in Reston and Sterling, announces Dr. Reepa Shah has joined the practice.
Shah recently completed her residency training at George Washington University Hospital. She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Shah is marries and has a 1-year-old son. She is fluent in English and Gujarati and speaks some Hindi and Spanish.
Robert Dawson, director of sales for Ambassador Worldwide Moving, was inducted as a board member of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce at the Lansdowne Resort in Lansdowne. In his expanded role with the chamber, Dawson will also be chairing the Annual Expo, a key activity of the chamber.
Whitestone Farm in Aldie has been recognized nationally by the American Angus Association for having one registered Angus cow included in the Association's 2006 Pathfinder Report. Only 2,187 of the more than 34,000 American Angus Association members are represented in this year's report. The Pathfinder Program identifies superior Angus cows based upon recorded performance traits that are economically important to efficient beef production. The 2006 Pathfinder Report lists 9,321 individual cows and 258 Pathfinder sires. It is published in the April issue of the Angus Journal, and copies are available from the Association.


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In the thrall of a New York City heat wave, Penta pounded the pavement to answer a seemingly simple question: What does $1 million buy in a necklace these days?...MUCH MORE
Not as easy as it sounds. After rounds of phone calls and a significant amount of wrangling, five boutiques in New York agreed to open their drawers, with Harry Winston and Cartier declining to participate. We have cherry-picked one piece from each boutique.
Double-Wrap Serpenti. $1.13 million
In Elizabeth Taylor's book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry, she recalls visiting Bulgari often while on the set of Cleopatra, "Undeniably, one of the biggest advantages to working on Cleopatra in Rome was visiting Bulgari's nice little shop. I used to visit [then CEO] Gianni Bulgari in the afternoons and we swapped stories." Gone are the days of Bulgari family control. In 2011, the French haute conglomerate LVMH (ticker: LVMHF) purchased the family's 50.4% remaining stake for $5.2 billion, a 61 percent premium to its Milan-traded shares.
The brand under LVMH continues its mix of bold color and unusual combinations of precious and semi-precious stones, splattering, for example, the deep blues of sapphires among a selection of milky-blue turquoise. That bright mix is somewhat anathema to more "understated" jewelers and not typically worn by the faint-of-heart, but they are show stoppers.
Bulgari's Double-Wrap Serpenti necklace, pictured, has a snake motif, a throwback to a Bulgari creation originally conceived in the 1940s. Its wild length, at 30 inches, means it can be worn as a belt or necklace, wrapped once or twice around, with the snake's head in the front or back. It shimmers and moves like a snake, and each individual scale has four or so diamonds of gradually increasing size. The work contains 3,318 (215 carats) brilliant-cut diamonds, which means they are circular, cone-shaped stones. The necklace is set in white gold and the head sports two pear-shaped diamond eyes of 0.85 carats.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Questions America Wants Answered: How Much Necklace Will a Million Bucks Get You?
From Barron's Penta (as in $5mil) blog:


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BACKGROUND IMAGE: iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
- FeatureClose the IM Loophole
- FeatureRoll Your Own NAS
- ArticleTaming HBAs
- FeatureThe evolving storage department
- FeatureGetting remote data right
- FeatureVirtual SANs put to the test
- FeatureEMC Launches Space-Saving Copy Option for Symmetrix
- FeatureCAD for SANs
- FeatureSEC: No Hard and Fast Distance Minimums
- FeatureSerial ATA Adoption Ramping Up
- FeatureCreating a large e-mail system
- FeatureIP SANs take their place
- FeatureHow to build a storage security strategy for your enterprise
- FeatureIntelligence belongs in the network and on the switch
- FeatureSnapshot: 4Gb/s Fibre Channel Switches
- FeatureVeritas SANPoint Control compared with EMC ControlCenter
- FeatureWhat are your backup, DR and data retention policies?
iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Virtual SANs put to the test
Cisco's new virtual SAN technology has aroused a lot of interest. But how does it work in practice? We look at how Australia's Deakin University uses VSANs to isolate development activity within its large, multisite fabric.
Virtual storage area networks (VSANs) are the latest tool available to storage administrators who need better ways of managing the equipment attached to increasingly massive storage arrays. At Australia's Deakin University, VSAN technology has become a major component of its ongoing effort to retire direct-attached storage (DAS) and centralize the school's immense data requirements onto a single SAN.
Deakin's largest campus is located at Burwood, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Melbourne is a city of 3.5 million on Australia's southeast coast; it sits on the north shore of 25-mile-wide Port Phillip Bay. Approximately 11,000 students attend the Burwood campus and a smaller site in nearby Toorak. Other students attend smaller satellite campuses that are separated from the main campus by up to 200 miles; more than 12,500 other students are pursuing Deakin degrees via the Web. All told, Deakin served more than 30,000 students last year.
Replicating over water
Supporting such a large student body is no small task, particularly when those students are distributed over many campuses hundreds of miles apart. Historically, meeting the needs of those students has required a significant investment in DAS storage: Some 35TB of data was spread across 53 Sun Microsystems Sun Fire 12K, E6500, E4000 and E3500 servers distributed across the university's campuses.
|Lessons learned
For three years, the primary file server had been an eight-CPU Sun E3500 server, with 8GB of RAM and 10TB of attached storage in 20 Sun A5xxx series disk arrays. This server was typically supporting anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 concurrent administrative, staff and student users. The E3500 was located in the large data center in the city of Waterfront, while 12 more Sun A5xxx arrays provided an additional 6.5TB of disk space at the four other campuses.
Deakin's IT team faced increasing pressure to accommodate rapid growth in demand for storage space, particularly since a recent desktop standardization project put standard operating environments on more than 4,000 Deakin desktops. Although users can store data on their local hard drives, Deakin uses Novadigm's Radia desktop management tool to ensure files are also stored on the centralized storage. With an average of more than 100MB of data per networked PC, that project alone increased storage requirements by 4TB.
Data storage needs have also skyrocketed in recent years with the rapid uptake of online learning--which requires storage of multimedia course materials for students in more than 4,500 courses. To store these materials, Deakin relies on a 1.5TB Oracle database supporting Callista, a Deakin-developed student management system recently purchased by Oracle for worldwide distribution. Callista runs in a logically partitioned domain on Deakin's Sun Fire 12K.
In the past, Deakin has delivered these applications to remote campuses from clusters of servers located in its Waterfront and Burwood data centers. Servers at those locations were backed up to tape, then the backed-up data was replicated to DAS at the university's secondary data center in Burwood and vice versa.
Because WAN bandwidth is expensive outside of Australia's largest cities, Deakin links its campuses using a private microwave network that pushes 300 Mb/s of bandwidth from the Geelong sites to Burwood, spanning the waters of Port Phillip Bay. Approximately 5,000 students are spread across campuses at Waurn Ponds and Waterfront, suburbs of the satellite city of Geelong.
That network is the lifeblood of the university, shuttling mountains of application data, voice over IP (VoIP) and backup traffic between sites. With around 50Mb/s of the microwave bandwidth typically left for backup after other applications have taken their share, data was being replicated between Waterfront and Burwood for up to 23 hours a day.
Although this approach worked, it imposed some major inconveniences on Deakin's community. For example, data pertaining to various applications became unavailable when host servers were brought down during regularly scheduled maintenance outages. It also perpetuated the management and consistency problems intrinsic within DAS environments.
"Our strategy up until this point has been DAS storage," says Craig Warren, Deakin's desktop and services manager. "We had all the standard problems associated with DAS: Storage was managed in silos, it wasn't easy to provide short-term storage needs, and even politics was an issue. We were managing it as islands, so we'd clean up one file server and have to move on to the next one, and the next."
As the volume of data the school was managing grew, Deakin investigated hierarchical storage management (HSM) solutions that it thought could help move old and less-used data onto tape. But the solutions were "a bit wanting," says Warren, because they weren't particularly efficient at delivering small files to users quickly. Another way of getting data off the system--in which students choose the files they want through a Web page and those files are burned and delivered via CD before being deleted from the server--was expected to be a moderate success, but it was nowhere near successful enough to counter the growth in demand for storage.
It soon became clear that the best way for the university to expand its storage strategy was to consolidate its data from its distributed servers onto a single, scalable storage area network (SAN).
Australia's biggest SAN
The impetus behind the SAN migration was to provide a centralized, consistent repository for all kinds of administrative, research and everyday data. Backup would be easier because Deakin's terabytes of data would be backed up on the SAN, rather than being constantly distributed around the university network. And thanks to logical partitioning of the SAN, it would be possible to accommodate the widely varying requirements of the university's many communities of interest.
Last November, Warren's department began evaluating the technology that would make up its SAN. It quickly settled on an IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server (Shark) 800 Turbo, which offers a capacity of 55.9TB, but was installed with just 30TB to start. Also to be connected were two SuperDLT-based Quantum tape libraries--a 500-cartridge P7000 at the Waterfront facility, and a 250-cartridge P3000 unit in Burwood.
|SAN switching for the future
Such a dramatic increase in storage capacity doesn't come cheap, but Deakin's IT team was able to justify the expenditure to senior managers by pointing out a simple fact: At the rate its storage demand was growing before the SAN upgrade, Deakin's DAS costs would have exceeded the price of a completely new SAN within two years, and the SAN would provide far more storage.
It was also clear that the environment would benefit from having many of Deakin's servers directly attached to the SAN. That meant linking up the Sun systems--as well as approximately 50 Red Hat Linux servers used for load balancing and other sundry infrastructure tasks--to the storage network. That was an expensive proposition using conventional Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity, but that problem was solved when Deakin began investigating options involving IP-based iSCSI.
Because it already had a long-standing relationship with Cisco Systems for its other networking equipment, Deakin preferred to source appropriate iSCSI technology from Cisco, rather than having to establish a new relationship with an FC specialist such as McData or Brocade. Working with Cisco, the Deakin team explained its need for direct server-to-SAN connectivity and had nearly settled on the Cisco SN5428 before it learned of the Cisco MDS 9000, a new family of multilayer directors and fabric switches that combine iSCSI with support for Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP).
"We've been using low-cost Intel-based Linux servers for load balancing," says Warren. "iSCSI was quite attractive to us because we wanted large amounts of storage on these boxes, but we didn't really want to be paying the price of Fibre Channel HBAs [host bus adapters]. So we were looking at a SAN front-ended with some storage network routers. Since we were looking for both an FC switch and [iSCSI] storage network router, we got very interested in the MDS line."
By January, Deakin was putting its new SAN equipment through its paces. Within five weeks, the basic SAN was up and running, using a pair of Cisco MDS 9509 multilayer directors to mediate between its large server environment, IP WAN and FC-attached IBM Shark storage and Quantum tape silos.
Deakin's experiments with iSCSI confirmed that the protocol will play an important role in reducing the cost of server-to-SAN connectivity. Deakin used several Linux servers to run VMware, which manages virtual Windows 2000 and XP sessions that host services such as Microsoft Active Directory. This approach makes it easy to back up the Windows 2000 virtual machine, because doing so only requires copying the relevant VMware .dsk file.
By using iSCSI to attach those Linux servers directly to one or more LUNs on the SAN, Deakin can retain connectivity from its dozens of Linux servers without having to purchase costly HBAs for each machine, as it has done for its high-end Sun servers.
Ultimately, extension of SAN-based services via iSCSI will enable capabilities such as remote booting, flash-copy backups, and continual mirroring of terabytes of data. Diskless machines will run completely over iSCSI, as will file, Web, database, DNS, DHCP and many other types of servers.
"The reason we're using it is cost," says Andrew White, system programmer at Deakin. "It will save us thousands and thousands of dollars [and it works even though] we are a very distributed university. It's amazing how little throughput iSCSI really needs to work."
Better still, this flexibility doesn't impose any performance hits: In tests, iSCSI--running over a Gigabit Ethernet connection--actually performed slightly faster than a direct FC connection (via a QLogic 2200F HBA directly into the SAN). Deakin is also exploring use of FCIP to seamlessly interlink its FC SAN fabrics between campuses over its IP network.
The SAN began serving files in early February, and throughout that month, Deakin's IT staff began migrating data from the individual DAS drives onto the Shark array.
Because most of Deakin's Sun servers already had dual HBAs installed, migration of the data from the DAS to the SAN environment has been simple. Deakin uses the secondary HBA to mirror data from the DAS to the SAN, and then breaks that mirror by disconnecting the HBA from the DAS.
In this way, the team has already migrated more than three-quarters of the data into the new environment, where it's being partitioned using the VSANs. "About 90% of our migration has been done online with hardly anyone noticing," says Warren.
During the data migration, backups are still being run over the network in the conventional way. But once all the DAS data has been migrated, the team will turn its attention to implementing SAN-based backup.
Virtual SAN reality
As well as fulfilling Deakin's need for iSCSI and FC connectivity, the MDS 9509 switches provided what was to become another important capability: support for Cisco's VSAN technology, which has been modeled after the IEEE 802.1q-based virtual LANs (VLANs) that were long ago standardized across conventional IP networks.
VLANs work by using packet tagging to assign each data packet to membership in one or more VLANs. That way, IP data can be freely routed across a network, but can only be received by devices subscribed to that particular VLAN.
VSANs take a similar approach with SAN equipment, adding a higher level of granularity to FC port switching so that FC fabrics are no longer an all-or-nothing proposition determined by the physical boundaries of the switch. VSANs allow assignment of each individual FC port to one or more VSANs, creating a virtual FC fabric that's used to manage access to the data by various elements of the SAN. As well as partitioning the data, the VSAN also segregates the various FC services that make up the fabric.
For Deakin, VSAN technology offered significant benefits in that it would allow the IT department to provide greater control over access to the SAN for the university's various applications. For example, this meant using VSAN tagging to segregate its storage production network from its storage development network.
The ability to virtually separate these two networks resolved a major problem the university had previously been dealing with in staging changes to its environment. With so much data being managed, that data had to be copied into a development environment that would allow the testing and debugging of applications using real data.
In the case of Callista--which as the main repository for all student-related data is arguably the most important system running at Deakin--this meant copying a 1.5TB database to create a development copy that could be used without fear of corrupting the real database. Callista contains over 20 years' worth of past student data and, although Deakin is only legally obligated to keep student records for seven years, it has opted to store all student data permanently.
Using the VSAN, the need to regularly copy such a large volume of data has been eliminated. Deakin uses the IBM ESS server's FlashCopy snapshot capability to provide nearly instant snapshots of the data, which the VSAN then segregates from the university's live production data.
"Because we have separate development and production VSANs, we can do crazy things in the development VSAN," says Warren. "We put in the IP services module and didn't have it have any effect on the production environment. We're stress testing applications, conducting user acceptance testing, and testing failover cluster configurations without interrupting the real environment. This sort of thing was particularly hard to do in the past, when we typically had large mirrors of the production environment."
The nine-slot 9509 chassis have been installed with three interface cards each, providing a total of 80 FC ports. A dozen ports connect to the IBM Shark, eight ports into the Sun Fire 12K and two ports into each of Deakin's other Sun servers. The Linux servers connect into the SAN using both FC and iSCSI. The control modules are configured redundantly, allowing upgrades and changes to each MDS without having to bring them down. Two lower-capacity MDS units will soon be installed at the Burwood data center to provide further redundancy and segregation of the data environment at that site.
Because it's such an early adopter of VSAN technology, Deakin has worked closely with IBM and Cisco to get the VSANs configured correctly. Yet with a bit of training, Warren says Deakin staff found the process was relatively straightforward, with problems limited to a few issues with the QLogic FC HBAs. Cisco debugging tools--including FC equivalents of Ping and Traceroute--provide diagnostic capabilities that helped trace the path of data across the VSANs and quickly resolve any discrepancies.
Although it's only running two VSANs now, Warren envisions further segregation could become valuable, as individual departments and other functional areas of the university begin to demand their own corners of the SAN. In the short term, however, a more immediate upgrade may be the introduction of a third VSAN that would separate regression testing from user acceptance testing.
The SAN may be the biggest architectural change to the university's storage strategy, but the addition of VSANs is proving to be important in helping Deakin get additional benefits from its SAN investment. When production and testing environments "were in the same fabric, whenever the fabric would reset, every machine would have to log in again," says White. "In a big environment with hundreds of switches, the VSAN will be an absolute lifesaver: We can drop and reboot the 9216 all day long without causing a hiccup on the production VSAN."
Given that the traffic segregation provided by the VSANs has now been proved to work, Warren anticipates SAN management will become easier. The university's growing data store--which he expects will surpass 60TB by next year--can now be managed in logical partitions determined by use, not just by which switch the devices happen to be plugged into.
Dig Deeper on Storage virtualization
Developing a client onboarding process for managed services
Illustrated guide to VMware vSAN HCI configuration and features
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Bank Stress Tests: Full of Sound and Fury…
Even with the stress tests completed, the Obama Administration lacks an exit strategy for its deepening involvement in supporting these banks.
What the administration needs to do is give the American people a road map for getting out of the business of owning banks. However, instead of a roadmap, the Administration keeps digging more potholes. Secretary Geithner's recent remarks, in which he suggested imposing additional requirements before letting banks repay their TARP obligations, raise serious questions regarding the administration's desire to actually exit the current situation. Treasury should reconsider its position and not only allow banks to repay, but encourage them to do so. The quicker we get these institutions out from under the government, the quicker our financial markets will get moving again.
As the witching hour of 5 pm on the East Coast approaches, when the Treasury will release both aggregate and individual stress test results, the overwhelming feeling in Washington and on Wall Street is one of closure: finally the circus can come to an end. In terms of the actual results, details of which have been leaking for days, the stress tests come close to telling us absolutely nothing we did not already know.
One purpose of the stress tests was to determine if the 19 bank holding companies could withstand "higher losses than generally expected." However, what started out as extreme economic projections are beginning to look like the consensus forecast. For instance, the stress tests assume a base case level of unemployment of 8.9 percent for 2010, and an extreme "stress" level case of 10.3 percent for 2010. There's a good chance that we'll reach that extreme; what the new extreme is, one can only guess, but what we do know is that the banks have not been tested for it.
While the aggregate results have yet to be released, it is a good bet that they will fall somewhere within the range of exactly just how much TARP funds Treasury has left. We can expect Treasury to announce capital shortfalls of just over $100 billion, while the real shortfalls are likely to be in excess of $200 billion. Treasury is understandably reluctant to go back to Congress for additional TARP funds, so it will likely do its best to stretch its existing resources.
One way of stretching those resources is converting preferred equity holdings into common stock. How this is to be done, and what kind of voting rights Treasury will have is yet to be seen. As Treasury has repeatedly said it will not let any of these banks fail, shifting the government's holding from preferred to common equity is little more than an accounting game that fails to address the underlying economic realities at many of these institutions.


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Sign in to listen
Elizabeth Kolbert on Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Publisher's Summary
About Field Notes from a Catastrophe:
Americans have been warned since the late 1970s that the buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere threatens to melt the polar ice sheets and irreversibly change our climate. With little done since then to alter this dangerous path, the world has reached a critical threshold. By the end of the century, it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years, and the sweeping consequences of this change will determine the future of life on earth for generations to come.
Taking listeners from the melting Alaskan permafrost to storm-torn New Orleans, acclaimed journalist Elizabeth Kolbert approaches this monumental problem from every angle. She interviews researchers and environmentalists, explains the science, draws frightening parallels to lost civilizations, and presents the moving tales of people who are watching their worlds disappear. Growing out of an award-winning three-part series for The New Yorker, Field Notes from a Catastrophe brings the environment into the consciousness of the American people and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet.
What the critics say
"Kolbert's calmly persuasive reporting stands out for its sobering clarity....Kolbert lets facts rather than polemics tell the story....This unbiased overview is a model for writing about an urgent environmental crisis." (Publishers Weekly)
What members say
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
- Simon Forsyth
- 2009-11-06
Climate is an angry beast
I would raise some issues with Kolbert's over attribution of global warming to various climatic events and regional changes. The increase in global average temperatures due to human produced greenhouse gasses (and other actions like deforestation), is in the order of 0.2C per decade. This will produce changes in the climate outside our standard experience. While the overall trend of weather patterns and changes in regional variations should be detectable over a good chunk of time, the attribution of singular events such as Katrina to global warming is a large stretch. People spreading the call to action should walk the rigid scientific line otherwise you open yourself up to attacks of denial from the various sources of disinformation. So while Kolbert's message may be valid, many of her facts are quite fuzzy. I love the quote "Climate is an angry beast and we are poking it with a stick."
2 people found this helpful
- ect.
- 2006-06-09
More Hot Air on Globla Warming
Here is another Chicken Little 'The sky is falling' warning on global warming. This is a hands in the air crying and pleading book on what some (I repeat SOME) self-serving climatologists say is going to happen. 20 years ago 'climatologists' were warning us of another ice age. Does anyone bring up the FACT that temperature fluctuation is a natural occurrence? Or the FACT that temperatures are about the same as they were 150 years ago? Or the FACT that temperatures are still below the recorded temperatures from 70 years ago? Reactionary knee jerk environmentalists jump from one emergency to another warning us about the next crisis that is going to kill us. What about the 'hole in the ozone layer? Wasn't that going to kill us? Did the ban on cfc's stop it ? Well, when it was shown that they 'hole ' isn't getting bigger and the reason there is a 'hole' to begin with is centripetal force, the chicken little group went to global cooling. That didn't fly. So the next crisis became 'Global Warming'. (Next in the pipeline is 'Extreme Weather')
Watch the news, the sheep that report the news never say that 'global warming' is a theory, it is reported as fact. It is sad that the 'Global Warming' band wagon is full. Maybe a little less hot air from these thoughtless-mind nummbed robots will move us on to the next crisis.
5 people found this helpful


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|Tallinn, Estonia
|High School:
|Vanalinna Hariduskolleegium
2013 Season
Named the Big Sky Conference's co-MVP along with Eastern Washington's Joseph Cohen…also a first team all-Big Sky selection for the second straight year…finished the season with a 16-3 singles record, and won each of his final 13 singles matches of the year…began the season as the team's No. 2 player, but moved up to No. 1 after two matches…became the fourth player in school history to receive a national singles ranking from the ITA, and climbed to as high as 117th in the nation…three-time Big Sky Player of the Week selection…went 5-0 in singles play against Big Sky competition, missing the other matches because of an ankle injury…beat Montana's Mikolaj Caruk, 6-0, 6-0, in the Big Sky Tournament championship match…provided match-clinching, three-set victories in 4-3 wins over Fresno State, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary's and UC Davis…also posted a 13-4 doubles record with teammate Aliaksandr Malko (all at No. 1)…at one point during the season, the tandem of Malko and Marksoo were ranked as the 80th best doubles team in the nation by the ITA, just the fourth doubles team in school history to earn a national ranking.
2012 Season
A first team all-Big Sky Conference selection…the most consistent player on the Hornets throughout the season, Marksoo worked his way up from the team's No. 5 singles player at the beginning of the season to No. 2…posted a 17-3 singles record, including 2-0 at No. 2, 6-0 at No. 3, 3-1 at No. 4 and 6-2 at No. 5…finished the year on an 11-match singles winning streak, and didn't lose a match since the middle of March…nine of those victories during the streak came in straight sets…a two-time Big Sky Player of the Week selection…went 10-8 in doubles play, including 6-4 at No. 1 with partner Javier Millan…in doubles, Marksoo went 6-4 at No. 1, 0-2 at No. 2, and 4-2 at No. 3…against Big Sky opponents, Marksoo went 8-0 in singles play, and 5-2 in doubles play…of his three singles losses this season, two came in narrow second-set tiebreaker defeats, and the third loss occurred when he was forced to retire against Utah because of a groin injury.
High School
A 2011 graduate of Vanalinna Hariduskolleegium in Tallinn, Estonia.
Son of Martti and Kaohi Marksoo…a geology major…played two years for the US Tenniseakadeemia in Tallinn.


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While I was wallowing in this, I somehow opened my email box where it says "All Mail" - and realized it contains 2,503 emails. Holly shit! And that is me, who prides herself in de-cluttering everything I get my eyes and hands on! And I do go through email on monthly basis - how did that happen? Things gets pushed down, but for the most part, I held on to things because I thought they were important to me, they defined me. And suddenly an urge to clean my mail box - my life - out of it overwhelmed me. I spent a better part of a day yesterday between experiments clicking through, getting from oldest (some 5 years old plus) forward. AT first I actually if not read, then at least scanned what it was. The process of letting go began. I said goodbye to some old friends I don't hear from anymore - and some I was surprised to even have had. I said goodbye to the words of encouragement from random people, and words of congratulations. Words of "We love you and support you" and words "You are wrong". I started deleting emails from my ex and his (then) girlfriend, at first gingerly, then in packs. Emails that said you are a good mother and was a good wife - and emails that said what a horrible person I am, how everything is my fault. Emails that were swinging from side to side in pendulum of the biggest tower clock I've ever seen! Emails from my kids and about my kids on insignificant things - and then those that seemed to be significant...but with time happened to prove they, too, were lies. Emails from old coaching clients, from schedules to thank you's "What would I do without your help". Emails from friends who, thank God, are still friends and stood the test of time - and I know and I don't need an email in my inbox to tell me I am a good friend. Emails from friends that still mean a lot to me, but our paths came apart slowly - I kept them because I was trying to tell myself I deserve their love and approval...but it was OK to let go, it doesn't mean one of us is a bad person, it just life, it flows...Emails on old houses I owed, their purchases and sales, "just in case somebody is after me" - well, it's all in my credit report, right? Emails from my own coaches, emails I sent to myself with websites I wanted to make sure to check on. I didn't need that anymore. As a woman of "past certain age", I want to believe I posses a certain amount of wisdom to know things by now I need to have learned, and to be open-minded enough to keep learning things I am still yet to know. I didn't need even my Russian family's approval of being a good daughter/mother/wife/sister or not so much - we each have our own definition of those ideas. I know where I stand, with respect, dignity, and yes, love...
Down to 353 and I am not fully done yet, just a little tired. It is not easy to have such a baggage, and apparently, letting go off it is not that easy either. Freeing, exhilarating, but not easy. In fact, I was so afraid that I'll try and hold on to something, I would go to "Trash" mail box and empty it every 200 or so emails. Especially when my deleting became "in bulk".
But there was a light in it too. There were emails from Larry, my sweet husband, then just a long-distance dating prospect. I managed to save his very first email, way before either one of us was divorced, when he just asked a question on training. I managed to save an email where I offered him a shoulder as he was going through his (at the time unknown to me, but turned out to be that very divorce) difficult time - and an email where we realized we are both grieving same loss of a marriage of 18 years for each. I had an email from our "official" meeting race, and his surprise visit to Oregon...and then a whole amazing numerous string of emails as our relationship was developing. Re-reading those was absolutely worth every minute of my time. He hasn't changed. He stands by his words, loyal as he said he is, loving as he expressed he was, supportive and accepting of how I am...
And that made a lot of letting go easier too. Not only of the past baggage in terms of emails or emotions. Letting go of concepts of what I need to continue to be when it's not really where I am. And I've been at these stages of my life already, and if you are a reader fo the blog for years - you''d remember that. As much as I am a runner, my life is not defined by it, it is enriched by it. I keep promising myself to step back - and keep luring myself back in. I love running - for emotional reasons, and I love competing - for my own personal reasons. Thus running comes as two-fold: to train (and I truly do love training) and to release emotions. When it's neither, it becomes a chore, and the last thing I want in my life is for something I love to become a chore. Where am I going with it? At the beginning of this year I promised myself to try a running streak. The definition of it is to run at least a mile every day - and it was side-tracked ahead of time that if I am injured, sick or in need of recovery, it can be a continuous walking mile instead of running. I made it all the way through my Spring season. I ran a mile after San Diego 100. I hobbled here and there, I threw some walks in. The longer summer lasted, the more my body demanded a break - physical and mental - from running, the more "walking miles" were showing up (once a week on Friday was set since mid-August). Rough Creek 40 miler, as much as I hate to call it a "race" for myself as I walked so much of it, was a race in a definition of effort I put into it. Between the fast first loop, hard power-walk and zapping heat and humidity that my body refuses to behave in, the whole first week shuffling a couple-few miles was simply disguising. It didn't feed my body, nor my soul. I threw a solid hill run on Monday and was almost excited that I am back - and yet the last 3 days was back to shuffle, not one where you are injured, or slow...I could have run faster today, but I simply had no interest. And that lead me to a decision to end my streak - on my birthday in 2 weeks. What I announced to Larry as soon as I walked in.
As I was standing in the shower, it dawned on me: why birthday? Why those artificially-imposed timelines that nobody really cares for? Nobody even cares whether or not I am running. And everybody, or, hell, definitely I , know that I am not any lesser of a runner for skipping a day, and I am not going to stop exercising and letting myself go if I don't run. But if I do continue right now, I either end up in another bout of what happened last year, or dislike the process of running and DNF at Grindstone (as I did at Tahoe Rim 100 in 2010, when I was simply fed up and quit). I don't want to risk either! I want to do thing in a long haul, and I want to finish the Grindstone 100, regardless whether or not I even apply for Hardrock 100 lottery, yet along get in! I want to go there because I absolutely love what running 100 miles in the mountains offers to me, opens to me, discovers in me, lets me grow, lets me shut things down, lets me be primal, be real, be tough, be broken down, be so much more! SO, here, you go, tomorrow, I will not go for a run.
But I will go for Power yoga:) I love my classes at Breath and Body yoga, and I am squeezing every possible time of day to put as many classes in as I can while on a 1-month intro card. It, too, offers me growth - and offers me introspection, a look inside myself, and a way to improve my health and my body. My Bikram is not behind either.
Come to think about it, my life is just on yet another spiral, and I need to honor it. I need to do all those things I want to do, without over-scheduling myself to the point when I hate doing each and every one of them, even if I started them exactly because I love them. When running needs to come - it will come back, it always did, on its own terms.
And same goes for blogging. Between that very over-scheduling of my life lately, the fact that I can't write about everything here anymore due to complication of my (former) personal life and yet not being one of those "I'll write about what others want to hear and cut the rest", taking a break from hard training and a lack of comments, it'll stay as my running, without pressure, only if and when I have a desire.
But I am still going to Virginia in 1 week (gasp!) to run Blue Mountain range and still have some kind of goals (or hopes). And yes, I am still running behind Larry 4 weeks later at Ozark 100 in Missouri with scissors in my Ultraspire pack and girl's panties in his mile 85 drop bag, still thrilled about opportunity to finally be at Hellgate 100k on December 14th at midnight and hear Horton's hell - and yes, absolutely looking forward to Veteran's camp in November, where I will be crawling around 5 days after Ozark with the slowest and least able-bodied group of soldiers helping Liza integrate our heroes into community.
Life is good. Very, very good. It is what we make of it, how we look at it, how we separate the chaffs from the weeds. Amazingly, I never stop re-learning this lesson:)


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Product Description
Certificate is good for $9,890 New Student Tuition credit for 11th Grade for the 2019 - 2020 school year.
The Cumberland School is an independent Christian school that exists to challenge young people to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to adopt a biblical world view, to love others as themselves, and to grow in knowledge and skill through academic excellence, in order that they may serve our Lord and others through their character, spiritual integrity, and leadership.
For more than 20 years the mission of The Cumberland School has remained constant—to offer Christ-centered instruction that will transform each student's heart, soul, and mind. We are unapologetically Christian. We operate on a biblical financial foundation. We provide a strong academic program taught from a Christian worldview. Our desire is that our students bring glory to God by serving our Lord and others through their character, spiritual integrity, and leadership.
Certificate Expires September 15, 2019. Certificate good for "New Student" tuition does not include $25 Application fee or $575 Registration fee. "New Student" defined as students not on the school's roll or in process of testing as of the issue date of the certificate. Admittance subject to school approval. Full refund of certificate provided ONLY if application not approved by school. No other refunds available. Certificate has no cash value.
2356 Clay Road
Austell, GA 30106


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Enjoy shade anywhere with this pop up canopy that's ready in no time! It's perfect for picnics, parties, tailgating or anything else you can think of! The blue polyester fabric is strong and durable, along with the awnings on the sides for even more protection from the sun. Have a fun time in the shade anywhere you go with this pop up canopy!
General Disclaimer: We aim to provide accurate product information, however some information presented is provided by a 3rd party and is subject to change.See our disclaimer.
- Great for tailgating, parties, camping and more
- Provides protection from sun and rain
- 16'L x 16'W x 9.4'H
- Material: Steel, Polyester
- Warranty: 1 year
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Leonie Frieda, Phoenix Non-fiction publishers ISBN 978-0-7538-2844-1, 2012.
Focusing upon the 15th century this book is a study of women in Renaissance Italy, most especially those who completely fitted into a male dominated world and more than held their own. One of the best books on Italian medieval history that I have come across. Full of both minute details that are new facts for me to mull over alongside insightful observation. Wonderful.
The Deadly Sisterhood
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I have had some crap landlords. Once, my apt. flooded with sewage and it took three days for my landlord to react. It was my own private Katrina. That was awful. That landlord just opened a pizza shop in Carrol Gardens. I'm sure it's great. Tell him he still owes me my $700 deposit.
My current landlord hasn't been faced with a similar disaster, thank goodness, but I am confident that were one to arise, FCR, the owner of my apt. building, would do terribly. I have been trying to get in touch with our property managers for three (3!) months to handle a couple of repairs. My kitchen is falling apart and my bathroom requires a plumber. I have called or emailed just about every week, sometimes several times per week and have either been blown off or ignored each time. The management company is Esquire Management, and they can only be described as negligent.
The photos to the left are of our front steps, which have been gradually falling apart. Recently an attempt to keep the steps from crumbling was made. See that hard foam that was sprayed into the cracks on either side? Looks nice don't it? Why stop there? There are a lot more cracks on those steps that could use a good foaming.
Sometimes I feel like FCR is doing the bare minimum to keep this building standing until it comes time to take it down. The problem is that my rent remains the same even as they shirk their responsibilities. Given that FCR is in the business of acquiring tenants I shudder to think what it would be like should AY get built.
When I suck at my job I get a demotion, yet when FCR sucks at theirs they get more city funding.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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A powerful element of our mission is our commitment to inspiring new generations of environmental leaders. Earthwatch is tremendously grateful to the trusts, foundations, and donors that enable us to achieve this.
The Durfee Foundation awards grants to risk takers, creative thinkers, and innovators in the nonprofit world and aims to excite students about the possibilities of science. Durfee has been providing funding for Earthwatch Student Fellowships for more than 20 years, and since 2011 has funded Earthwatch Ignite Fellowships for students in Los Angeles, California. The program is designed to stir students' imaginations, stimulate their curiosity about science and technology, act as a catalyst to deepen scientific study, and inspire them to apply new scientific literacy to their everyday lives.
The Durfee Foundation helps fund Earthwatch's innovative Ignite Student Fellowship program in Los Angeles, California. This case study illustrates how their generous funding helps students.
Data collected on the Spotting Songbirds in the Rockies project already suggest that birds don't fare well when their nests are surrounded by homes and businesses.
Jessica from Los Angeles was one of the lucky candidates in a competitive application process who joined us in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on our Spotting Songbirds in the Rockies project in 2012. She helped search for migratory birds' nests and relocate color-banded birds, collecting much-needed information on the seasonal survivorship and productivity of these birds.
Jessica says, "Before this expedition, I thought of science as a relatively intimidating field, unapproachable for someone like me, who had spent their entire life focusing on the music and the arts."
Student Fellows find that the Ignite program leads them to a wider definition of "science" that includes hands-on participation. It opens them up to the idea that citizens can be scientists. The students say the experience increases their interest in science, their science skills, and their capacity to think favorably about the importance of science in their world and the role it can play in seeking solutions to pressing issues.
On returning from her expedition to Wyoming, Jessica started an Earthwatch Club at her high school where students come together to be citizen scientists. The club also works to fund-raise for students looking to participate in future trips but who lack the funding to do so.
"My expedition was a trip of a lifetime," says Jessica. "I will never forget the friends I have made or the lessons I have learned. Coming home, I was bursting with excitement and eager to share my experience with everyone I knew."
Volunteer to conserve songbirds and their habitat in Wyoming, USA.
Volunteers help researchers measure the birds, band them for future identification, and release them.
"Before this expedition, I thought of science as a relatively intimidating field, unapproachable for someone like me."
Earthwatch Ignite Student Fellow
Find out how Earthwatch scientists, volunteers and businesses are helping us achieve our mission worldwide.
Earthwatch awards Educator Fellowships to teachers who are passionate about teaching, excited about making a difference, and committed to engaging their communities to bring about awareness and inspire action.
Earthwatch Student Fellowships enable students to join expeditions around the world. These young adults can then share their experiences and new knowledge with thousands of students and teachers upon their return.
Earthwatch Educator fellow, Silvia Acosta, traveled with other educators from New Jersey and Massachusetts on Spotting Songbirds in the Rockies, and brought her research experiences back to the classroom.


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Police and security agents engaged in widespread physical attacks on local and foreign journalists during the general election campaign and its aftermath. Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was elected to a fourth term in the February vote, which was marred by reports of intimidation and vote-buying. Reporters covering opposition candidates were at particular risk: Security agents shot two journalists covering opposition or protest rallies, leaving one reporter hospitalized. In April and May, authorities assaulted at least 25 journalists covering nationwide, opposition-organized protests over rising prices. Museveni publicly criticized foreign and local media for their coverage of the protests, saying the reports damaged the country's economic interests. Police raided the independent weekly Gwanga in May and briefly detained four journalists on the tenuous claim that its possession of a civil society newsletter could somehow incite public violence. Gwanga did not resume regular publication.
CPJ research shows police and state security operatives routinely detained journalists for periods ranging from several days to several weeks in an effort to cow the press from reporting on sensitive issues.
Presidential and parliamentary elections in February and a swearing-in ceremony in May were marred by physical attacks on local and international journalists. Further attacks against the press came after opposition party leaders organized nationwide protests, called the Walk to Work campaign. CPJ documented at least 41 attacks.
Breakdown of violence:
23: Attacked while covering election campaign
7: Attacked while covering civil society protests
3: Attacked while covering student protests
8: Attacked at other events
State agents and ruling party officials were responsible for at least 25 physical attacks against journalists in 2011, CPJ research shows. But people suspected to be working for authorities also contributed to anti-press violence, accounting for another 11 assaults, CPJ found.
Breakdown of responsibility:
21: Police and security agents
4: Public officials aligned with the ruling party
11: Suspected ruling party supporters
5: Other individuals
State-run broadcasters devoted the large majority of their election coverage to Museveni, according to a media monitoring survey conducted by the European Commission. Private broadcasters tilted toward the main opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, but were more even-handed than state media.
How they covered the race, according to the European Commission:
UBC Television (state)
Museveni: 409 minutes / Besigye: 27 minutes
UBC Radio (state)
Museveni: 158 minutes / Besigye: 43 minutes
NTV (private)
Museveni: 118 minutes / Besigye: 164 minutes
WBS (private)
Museveni: 128 minutes / Besigye: 184 minutes
Simba FM (private)
Museveni: 75 minutes / Besigye: 55 minutes
CBS (private)
Museveni: 19 minutes / Besigye: 16 minutes
CPJ research shows the majority of detentions by state security operatives are conducted without formal charge, in apparent disregard of the Ugandan Constitution's 48-hour pre-trial detention limit.


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Patrick Ronan, Ph.D.
- Researcher, Avera Research Institute
- Assistant Professor, USDSSM
- Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Southwestern at Dallas
- Ph.D., Biology, University of South Dakota
- M.A., University of South Dakota
- B.A., Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.
Current Research: Dr. Ronan's research is directed at understanding the mechanisms underlying stress-induced behavioral disorders, such as depression and sleep disorders. In order to study the roles genes play in stress and anxiety he is employing the strategy of using non-replicationg viral vectors to introduce short DNA constructs to discreet regions of the rat brain that can silence the expression of target genes by a process known as RNA interference. This is an approach that could perhaps be used for gene therapy in humans. Students could be involved in behavioral testing, both assessing anxiety as well as arousal state (sleep studies). Limited data analysis along with EEG analysis as well as some stereotactic surgery if desired would pe possible. Basic histology techniques will be taught including tissue preservation, sectioning, staining, and mounting. Other lab techniques include immunohistochemistry and Western Blot analysis for detection of proteins in tissues, in situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to measure mRNA expression, fluorescent microscopy, including confocal microscopy, and working with recombinant DNA constructs.


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By Tommy Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro rallied on Monday as a fall in Italian government borrowing costs after their recent surge introduced some calm into the market, while the promise of more Chinese stimulus helped offset broader political worries.
Rating agency Moody's downgraded the Italian government's credit rating on Friday but unexpectedly kept the outlook at stable.
That, together with comments by Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio that the government was ready to sit down with the European Union amid the ongoing row over Rome's budget, boosted demand for Italian debt after a sharp selloff in recent weeks.
The euro has often fallen this year when Italian government bond yields have spiked higher.
The single currency rose 0.3 percent to $1.1550 (EUR=), hitting the day's high and away from recent lows of $1.1433.
The dollar index dropped 0.3 percent to 95.472 (DXY).
The euro was also 0.2 percent higher at 1.1487 Swiss francs (EURCHF=), and gained 0.2 percent versus sterling to 88.26 pence (EURGBP=).
Despite the euro's rally, analysts said it remained at the mercy of Italian developments, with a great deal of uncertainty ahead.
"…A full diary of risk events over the next two weeks and little to argue in favor of support from the ECB (European Central Bank) in the near future, the question remains over how far the yield gap can blow out and how this could translate back into the FX market," said Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon.
Equity markets were largely in positive territory as hopes that China's tax cuts next year could be worth more than one percent of gross domestic product sparked a rally in Asian shares that fed across to Europe.
That helped offset geopolitical concerns about the rift between Saudi Arabia and the West over the killing of a prominent critic of the kingdom, as well as worries about Britain securing an exit deal with the EU.
Forex markets were largely quiet, although the more positive tone at the start of the week did buoy sentiment.
For the dollar, a hawkish Federal Reserve and signs of continued strength in the U.S. economy remain key drivers.
"Markets will be closely watching the release of the U.S. advance GDP number on Friday for more clarity on the direction of the U.S. dollar," said Sim Moh Siong, currency strategist at Bank of Singapore.
The dollar rose versus the Japanese yen . The yen fetched 112.71, down 0.2 percent on the day and off a one-month high of 111.61 touched on Oct. 15.
The yen had benefited from rising risk around Brexit, the Italy budget plan and trade tensions, because investors tend to buy the Japanese currency when they are nervous.
The Canadian dollar changed hands at 1.3080 on its U.S. counterpart, within striking distance of a five-week low of 1.3132 hit on Friday on the back of weaker inflation and retail sales.
The Australian dollar , often considered a barometer for global risk appetite, traded at $0.7122, flat on the day.
(Graphic: World FX rates in 2018 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh)
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Powers and Abilities Pig cops are big and tough, with a big shotgun. They sometimes use speciality vehicles. History Pig cops are members of the LAPD, who were mutated by the aliens during an invasion in order to kill the remaining humans in LA. They got their arses kicked by Duke...
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Context Duke Nukem was the "hero" of arguably classic shooting video games during the 1990s. This profile specifically represents him in 1996's Duke Nukem 3D, and was done during the late 1990s. Duke was a caricature, over-the-top version of a Hollywood/video game Adolescent...
(Duke Nukem aliens)
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Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Powers and Abilities These vaguely… felino-insectile troopers are the grunts of the alien army. History They, like, once invaded Los Angeles but were kicked out by Duke Nukem. Description By the time of Duke Nukem...
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Powers and Abilities Floating brains with three eyes, mental blasts, claws and teeth and tentacles, oh my. History Octobrains are part of the invasion force, although their role in it is unclear. Description Here's the Duke Nukem Forever version of an octobrain : Personality Vicious,...


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Skechers Pro V4 Golf Shoeview other products
This shoe is worn by Tour favourite Matt Kuchar – and we can see why, with its comfort and style points being off the charts.
Softspikes give the shoe superb traction across all weather conditions, improved further by the shoe's H2GO Shield waterproof protection. Its heel lock feature also ensures a stable and secure fit during your swing.
Key features and benefits:
- Skechers H2GO Shield waterproof protection
- Smooth leather and knitted textile upper for classic look
- Diamond-design traction plate outsole ensures maximum grip
- Sleek, low profile for stylish look
- Replaceable Softspikes for maximum grip
This shoe needs to be worn for you to fully understand just how great it feels - come down to the shop and we'll get you fitted.


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Check the Toyota Etios 2020 Overview Car Photos, Reviews, News, Specifications and more. We reviews the Toyota Etios 2020 Overview Redesign where consumers can find detailed information on specs, fuel economy, transmission and safety.
Toyota Etios 2020 Overview Interior, Exterior and Review
You can already see from the exterior. It still has the before class vents but from the interior is completely changed. I will show you that in this post. So, first we will have to look at the exterior. With a glossy black and metal design.
Let's have a look at the interior. The mechanics are great. It's really changed a lot in the interview as you can see. So guys let's get inside, it's very hard amazing how the door closes it still has this very massive quality it has beautiful leather stitched seat design. It is perforated because of the ventilated seats just the quality inside and it's amazing. So let's press the button and you can already see the ambient lighting here in the interior. There's a beautiful blue color and from the Toyota Etios 2020 Overview interior. You can really see the new technology and luxury that this car has beautiful elements.
Toyota Etios 2020 Overview , Price, Specs, Photos & Review
Read the latest Toyota Etios 2020 Overview news and browse our full collection of Review articles, photos, press releases, related videos, and more.


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hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend!
sorry that i haven't posted in a few days.
my next winning feature goes to this charming
county fair day birthday party
submitted by aesthetic nest!
i adore the bandana tablecloth! what a great idea!
all the fabric used throughout the party is just darling...
check out the orange preserve jars!
thanks for your submission, anneliese! congrats on being the winning feature! great party.


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You can easily clone single hard disk or partition using netcat and your own network. However, software such as Clonezilla offers a partition or disk clone software similar to Ghost. It saves and restores only used blocks in hard drive.
Clonezilla Ghost Like Linux Software
Norton Ghost is popular proprietary commercial software. It is slow and takes lots of time to clone system. There is also Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition with multicasting and fast cloning system.
However, Clonezilla is a free, open source, multitasking and multi operating system software. With DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot in Linux [DRBL] provides a diskless or systemless environment for client machines) and network boot enabled client computers, the only thing you have to prepare is a Clonezilla server. The best thing is ~ you do not even have to prepare a bootable CD or floppy with Partition Image for every client computer.
(Fig 01: Starting Clonezilla Clone Software)
(Fig 02: Clonezilla and DRBL running under Ububtu Linux ~ click to enlarge image)
Download Clonezilla cloning software
=> Visit official project home page to download Clonezilla software.
How to: Setting up a Clonezilla/DRBL server on Ubuntu 7.04
=> A simple howto on setting up Clonezilla/DRBL on Ubuntu Linux
How to: Setting up a Clonezilla/DRBL server on CentOS / Fedora / RHEL
=> A simple documentation to quickly setup up Clonezilla on a PXE server.
Related tutorials / software:
- Our Guide to : Copy hard disk or partition image to another system using a network and netcat (nc)
- Another open source software to : to clone system / partition


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North Posey High School Class Reunions
This section is to allow North Posey HS alumni to post and review the latest class reunion information. If you have details of an upcoming class reunion, please post the reunion info using the form below. Former students who attended North Posey High School visit this site to stay updated, so if you have class reunion information, please do share it.
If you are a North Posey alumn, we encourage you to register and be sure to sign up for the alumni newsletter.
Find more North Posey reunion info at Classmates.com®. We've partnered with Classmates.com® to ensure you find information on your NPHS class reunion.


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And now for something completely different:
The New Europe series offers a trek through: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Eastern Germany.
For many, many Americans the only understanding we have of New Europe is limited to our participation in wars in Bosnia. The New Europe series provides important cultural insights about how everyday people go about their lives.
The Sahara series begins and ends in Gibraltar, Spain with the journey taking place in: Morocco, Smara Refugee Camp (Algeria), Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia.
In the final episode of the Sahara series, Palin visits the site of his crucifixion in the Life of Brian the city of El Haddej in Tunisia.
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Filed under: Circulation, Collection development, Collection management, current topics, Humor, Intellectual freedom, Media selection, Minorities, Multimedia, On-line, Research | Tagged: Michael Palin, New Europe, Sahara | Leave a comment »


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Automotive - Safety Plans, Videos & Training
We recommend the following OSHA safety plans, videos, and training programs to help make your company compliant with the required OSHA Government standards for dealing with Automotive related safety issues.
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About Automotive Safety Training for OSHA and NIOSH Compliance
This training is vast and has many areas to consider, including DOT. We are concerned with those who drive, those who repair, and those who pay the bills. A good safety training program starts with the management, who create a culture of safety. A Good Automotive Safety Training program not only reduces accidents but will help to control overall costs including insurance and work-mans comp.
In the past year or two a major topic was and is distracted driving. This is a video that should be seen by all. "Cell phones", You are 2 X more likely to crash if texting, and texting while driving does not take a back seat to driving while under the influence. 25% of all auto accidents occurred while the driver was using a cell phone. There are of course other distractions.
We also cover parking lot safety, and communication, two areas generally not even considered, but relevant to your overall safety program if you want to get them home alive.


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Master Blaster Paintball - wildrileys
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Day of paintball w/Billy (my nephew) and my friend John and his "Boy's Weekend 2010" crowd. Weather was great and lots of paint was sprayed by all.
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text: During the summer months, there's nothing better than eating food hot off the grill. Whether you're cooking hot dogs and hamburgers or seasoned-to-perfection vegetables, everything tastes better stamped with grill marks. But factors like preparation, grill temperature and cooking time are important to consider with this type of dry-heat cooking. To ensure your meal is grilled to perfection, WomansDay.com has useful tips for grilling different types of food as well as delicious recipes to try. 1. How to Grill Seafood


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text: Share: May 24, 2009 Carbon, Energy, Environmental Policy Capitol Hill is abuzz with excitement over the Waxman-Markey bill, a 932-page document that includes cap-and-trade proposals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and combat global warming. No doubt, a cap-and-trade scheme will raise the price of energy derived from fossil fuels, lowering demand. But there are many reasons to be skeptical about how effectively cap-and trade schemes will operate.Cap-and-trade proposals gained political momentum because a similar program helped curb sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants, reducing the magnitude of acid rain. Because there are few natural sources of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, it was relatively easy to identify and limit (or "cap") sulfur emissions from power plants. This is not the case for carbon.Natural sources account for more than 90 percent of the carbon dioxide circulating in and out of the atmosphere each year. In pre-industrial times, sources and sinks were closely balanced. For most of the past 12,000 years, there were few significant changes in the CO2 content of the atmosphere. That came to an end with the Industrial Revolution.Since the 18th century, a growing human population has steadily increased atmospheric CO2 emissions through burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. Forest clearing also plays a role in releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Some emissions, such as those from large coal-fired power plants, will be easy to regulate. Others, such as the release of CO2 from deforestation, are difficult and expensive to quantify.Most cap-and-trade proposals award carbon credits for those who can capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soils. Plants take up carbon very slowly. For this process to make a dent in fossil fuel emissions, very large tracts of land would need to be dedicated to plantings. To put things in perspective, to mitigate 10 percent of the CO2 emissions produced by the United States, trees would need to be planted over an area about the size of Texas.Once sites are dedicated to carbon capture, there would need to be an effective mechanism to monitor the storage capacity of trees and soils. While the presence of large forests can be tracked using satellites, this technique fails to reveal changes in their carbon content. Tree species differ in their ability to store carbon and many store carbon most effectively during their first 20-50 years of growth. Assessing soil carbon content is even more difficult; one recent study found it would take about 58,000 samples across Europe to estimate a 5 percent change in soil carbon content over a 10-year period.There is no need to compensate forest land owners for allowing existing trees to prosper. The large-scale regrowth of vegetation in the eastern United States began before anyone was interested in climate change. Using tradable carbon credits to reward people for not harvesting certain areas would shift the burden of harvesting to other parts of the world, perhaps overseas to old growth or tropical forests. The atmosphere will show no benefit and pristine ecosystems may be destroyed.Forest and agricultural soils present another problem for international cap-and-trade programs. Global warming is leading to thawing soils in countries such as Canada and Russia. As frozen soils warm in the higher latitudes, CO2 will be emitted back into the atmosphere. Given the costs, validation difficulties and potential perverse penalties, it would be much easier to ignore forest and agricultural soils in all cap-and-trade programs.Diverse stakeholders such as Rex Tillerson (CEO of Exxon-Mobil), John Dingell (D-Mich.), Al Gore, and several environmental economists favor a carbon tax over cap-and-trade systems. They realize a tax will raise the price of fossil energy, thereby reducing demand without the complicated schemes, loopholes and bureaucracy of a cap-and-trade program. Ideally, the proceeds from a tax on fossil carbon could be used to reduce traditional income tax—taxing resource use rather than productivity.If we want to spare our effects on the climate, stimulate investment in alternative energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, call the carbon tax a FEE—a fair, efficient and effective way to spread the cost among all users. Share: Feature Carbon tax more efficient than cap-and-trade › May 24, 2009