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Information Security
- FeatureUsing security information management systems for a posture assessment
- FeatureBrick By Brick
- FeatureContent inspection accelerator cards rev up application-layer security
- FeatureRecent releases: Security product briefs, September 2006
- FeatureSecure Reads: How technology is endangering your privacy
- FeatureProofpoint's Messaging Security Gateway Product Review
- FeatureRemovable Storage Security: ControlGuard Access Manager 3.0 review
- FeatureData Encryption and IDS / IPS: Getting a better view of network activity
- FeatureIntrusion Prevention: iPolicy Network's ISM Express 1000
- FeatureHead of the Class
- FeatureWhat's a Hot Pick?
- FeatureNot So Simple
- FeaturePerspectives: Focus on commonalities in state data breach laws
- FeaturePing: Christopher Ray
- FeatureEditor's Desk: A feature-set in disguise
- FeatureFace-off
iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Using security information management systems for a posture assessment
For more visibility into your security posture and smoother compliance, picture what a security information management system can do for you.
For more visibility into your security posture and smoother compliance, picture what a security information management system can do for you.
More information from SearchSecurity.com
Learn more about SIMs in our webcast with Lenny Zeltser.
Visit our resource center for SIM product reviews.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the security data your network generates? What infosecurity chief isn't? It's hard to get a good security posture assessment when you've got to pore through countless logs from disparate sources and then make sense of it all.
That's why security information management (SIM) systems -- also referred to as security event management (SEM) -- have become increasingly popular. In a nutshell, these systems automate the process of looking through logs. They normalize and store data, correlate it, help produce effective reports, issue alerts, and do forensics. Once you establish what's important and what you want to achieve, a security information management system can make it happen.
And in this age of regulation, organizations need this added visibility into network, systems and application activity. Compliance is one of the biggest drivers of the SIM market. "A lot of auditors are coming in and saying you need to be able to log and monitor this data over a long period of time," said Amrit Williams, an analyst at Gartner.
But SIMs aren't simple. "They require a lot of care and feeding," said Andrew Braunberg, analyst with Current Analysis. First, there's the process of defining your needs. Then, businesses must determine the type of technology that best suits their environment. The work doesn't end there. On top of initial costs of $250,000 to $500,000, companies spend $45,000 to $175,000 annually to support a SIM, Williams said.
But when SIM technology is running effectively, it can tighten security, satisfy auditors and executives, and prevent a lot of headaches. Turn the page to see some snapshots of SIMs in action.
[snapshot #1]
pooling logs
Global vacation exchange network, Interval International, grew by leaps and bounds at the turn of the 21st century, more than doubling its staff to 2,000 employees and expanding its ecommerce operation. The result was a massively complex network with machines running a hodgepodge of operating systems and multiple security devices.
|Sasan Hamidi's words of wisdom:
Get support for heterogeneous environments
Focus on audit benefits to win funding
Involve others in IT in project research
With such a complicated network, the company needed an automated system for security event monitoring, said Sasan Hamidi, CISO at Miami-based Interval, whose specialty is time-share exchanges. With just two full-time infosecurity staffers and a handful of part-timers, manual monitoring wasn't feasible.
Also, since Interval no longer was a small, private company but now part of a large public company (IAC/Inter-ActiveCorp acquired it in September 2002), it needed to comply with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. That made automated log management essential for auditing purposes. Because it can be tough to sell security projects to upper management, Hamidi focused on the audit benefits of SIM technology to win funding. He calculated the money Interval spent hiring contractors to help prepare for internal auditors by sifting through logs and creating procedures and reports.
"We realized that even without any additional resources to manage a SIM environment, we would be far better off spending money for the SIM than without it," he said.
The company reviewed three vendors and chose netForensics for several reasons. The vendor's nFX Open Security Platform supported nearly every type of product in Interval's heterogeneous environment. Plus, netForensics was willing to work with Interval on developing agents for products it did not support.
While another vendor promised an agentless technology, Hamidi says he wasn't confident that was the right approach.
"My philosophy was it didn't really matter whether we used agents or not. Our biggest concern was getting a comprehensive deployment in terms of log management and security event management for all our devices," he said.
Those systems include Novell, Unix, Windows and Solaris servers, an AS/400, Cisco routers and host-based IDS, Juniper and Check Point firewalls, and Sourcefire network-based IDS.
|SIM shopping list
Before buying a SIM, here are six questions you should consider:
How does the system collect and store data?
How are business rules expressed?
Does the SIM allow active response?
What are its forensic capabilities?
Can the SIM support your data retention requirements?
Does it generate useful reports?
--Joel Snyder
The SIM's reporting capabilities allow Hamidi's team to easily provide audit trails for the controls they've created. For example, they can pull weekly reports of who logged on to critical Solaris servers and review them for any discrepancies.
"Previously, it was pretty painful. We had to have someone go through...and check manually all the server logs or go to our log server and do a search by host name," Hamidi said.
The SIM has also allowed Interval to quickly detect a few infected PCs contractors brought into the network.
However, managing the technology can be a challenge, including sorting out false positives, Hamidi says. Techni-cians from the company's enterprise operations center help out a full-time staffer who stays on top of the alerts. Still, without the SIM it would take four or five times as many resources to accomplish the needed security management, he added.
Hamidi is pleased with the project but if he had to do it again, he would involve more of the IT group in the research phase. The security team had to rely on other IT staffers to implement the technology, folks who didn't fully understand how the SIM would help the business.
"I would bring these guys in and make them part of the research, have them participate more so I could do a better selling job on getting their buy-in," he said.
[snapshot #2]
second SIM gets it right
After preliminary Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS 70 audits toward the end of 2004, the security team at T. Rowe Price was under the gun. Internal findings showed that the investment-management firm could receive bad marks because it didn't have a system for managing security event logs.
|David Maas' words of wisdom:
Weigh appliance versus software-based solution
Hire full-time engineer to maintain system
Consider storage requirements
With just 60 days to get a system in place, David Maas, senior network security engineer, and his staff quickly researched SIM products, and narrowed their list to four. There was no time to test each one, so they chose a vendor that promised an easy-to-use appliance. While it worked well enough to get over the audit hurdle, the appliance didn't live up to the hype, and was difficult to set up and manage.
Fed up after struggling for a year with the device, T. Rowe Price decided to start fresh with ArcSight. The company initially deployed the software-based solution so it collected logs from primary security devices such as Check Point firewalls and Blue Coat proxies, and gradually fed more systems into it, including Cisco routers, Windows boxes and Juniper firewalls.
"We're doing it in chunks," Maas said. "We're still learning. It is a system that's fairly demanding."
Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price added an engineer to its four-member network security team to work on the ArcSight system full time, running reports, tuning the agents, and resolving any issues that crop up.
Despite the learning curve, the SIM is helping on both the audit and security fronts. An administrator can run monthly, weekly or daily reports on nearly any data collected. One example: A report detailing how many user accounts were deleted in a week, something Maas said auditors want.
The reports provide auditors and high-level managers with a nice visual of what's happening in the environment, Maas said. "We never had that before."
By collecting security events from multiple devices into a central location, the SIM allows T. Rowe Price to correlate events and trigger alerts. It also helps the security team with forensics work, such as tracking down workstation infections.
"It allows us to do a lot of forensic analysis...all in one location versus having to visit the desktop, the server or the proxy logs manually," Maas said. "It definitely saves us a lot of time."
The system also makes firewall maintenance easier. Engineers can see what firewall rules are being used; if one hasn't been used in a long time, they can remove it. That improves firewall performance and also allows the company to prove it has audited its internal security devices, Maas said.
T. Rowe Price's ArcSight deployment consists of four boxes: one running ArcSight Manager, one running an Oracle database with a locally attached storage array, and two Windows-based servers where agents are deployed to pull event data from systems. There also are some agents that run directly on individual systems. For the Blue Coat devices, logs are collected via FTP.
Having a security engineer from ArcSight helped to make the deployment successful and saved time, but Maas quickly realized that a terabyte of storage wasn't enough. That required some project redesign.
Over time, T. Rowe Price plans to expand the SIM so it collects data from more devices, such as its IBM Tivoli Access Manager.
That expansion may mean adding more staff, Maas noted. However, he expects that once the company implements more correlation rules into the SIM to trigger alerts, staff will do even less log monitoring.
[snapshot #3]
alert and analyze
In charge of monitoring U.S. Navy computer networks, operators at the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command (NCDOC) had their hands full, especially as more sensors were added to detect possible attacks. Additional networks and sensors produced a crush of data.
|Jim Granger's words of wisdom:
Rely on interactive development process
Use data warehouse for long-term analysis
Deploy flexible architecture
"That was far outstripping the ability of people to handle it manually," says Jim Granger, NCDOC technical director.
The organization decided it needed a system to manage all that security event data, and settled on a software solution from e-Security combined with a SAS data warehouse on the back end. (Novell acquired e-Security in April 2006.)
"e-Security provides our near real-time front end and can take a variety of disparate data sources and provide immediately actionable alerts to our watch commanders. ...Then we roll that data off of e-Security into our SAS data warehouse back end for long-term trend analysis," Granger says.
The deployment initially started as a pilot project, dubbed Mobius, and has grown into a full-fledged system now called Prometheus. The e-Security piece collects event data primarily from IPSes along with some firewalls and routers, but NCDOC plans to feed into it more devices, such as a vulnerability assessment scanner and host-based security systems.
With a 150-terabyte SAN, Prometheus allows NCDOC to analyze an immense volume of data to warn about possible cyberattacks, including "low and slow" probing, Granger says.
While the tool has proven powerful, he credits the sailors and civilians using it for making it a success. NCDOC operators worked closely with engineers from e-Security and SAS to develop an effective system.
Integrating e-Security more closely with its incident tracking system was essential, Granger says: "A lot of early SIM technology was about, 'We'll plug 70 sensors into one screen.' You need to be able to track the status of a long-term incident, the feedback...and store and catalog this data so it's accessible months or years later."
[snapshot #4]
a reliable utility
With some 12 million residents of Ontario, Canada relying on it for power, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has a critical need for network security.
|David Lewis' words of wisdom:
Avoid "agent bloat"
Consider ease of an appliance
Buy more storage
The importance of keeping on top of security threats was one reason the organization wanted an automated system that would collect, analyze and report the events produced by its network security devices. Another driver was the proposed security auditing requirements of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).
"Auditors have this simple phrase: 'If it's not written down, it didn't happen,'" said David Lewis, who goes by the unofficial title of "security curmudgeon" at the nonprofit IESO.
So Lewis--who has a background in archeology and a habit of "researching things to death"--began digging into whatever he could find about SIMs.
From a list of 13 vendors, he and his security team quickly ruled out a couple as too expensive. Then they reviewed product features and ultimately chose Network Intelligence's enVision appliance.
"It came down to price, usability, and ease of installation," Lewis said.
The agentless nature of the product was an important factor, he notes. "One of the things that systems suffer from these days--brutally so--is agent bloat. You'll have agents for rolling out patches, for intrusion detection, firewall agents. I finally said, 'Enough!'"
Less critical, but still important, was using an appliance. Another vendor offered a solution at a similar price but it was software-based, so IESO would also need to buy hardware, adding to the cost.
"It just didn't seem practical," Lewis said. "I like the ability to just drop in an appliance and be done."
In fact, he was surprised at how quickly his team was able to deploy the device. And with a Web-based front end, IESO staff can easily manage the appliance from virtually anywhere.
Several other SIM products required a lot of "care and feeding," Lewis said: "You'd have to dedicate a couple of resources full time just to take care of the beast...maintaining the agents, the system...configuration."
With the SIM in place, IESO now has a way to meet NERC auditing requirements for its security infrastructure. "We're able to demonstrate that we're collecting logs and they're being reviewed." Staff can also show remediation action taken.
The technology, which collects and correlates IDS, firewall, server, and other data, also provides security alerts in as near real-time as possible, Lewis says. The enVision dashboard allows the network operations staff to see at a glance if something is going wrong and respond.
Previously, the organization used a syslog server to collect event logs, a process that Lewis says is best described as "agonizing," especially with what he calls a noisy network that generates a lot of security events.
Basically, the SIM "is making life a lot easier for all of us," Lewis said.
Network Intelligence's pre-built reports allow IESO to generate a variety of reports. For example, a report on firewall alerts allowed the organization to spot a firewall rule change that should not have been made.
The lone regret Lewis has about IESO's SIMs implementation is not buying more storage from the start, primarily for compliance purposes. He has enough to last until 2012, but still plans to invest in additional capacity.
SIM & storage
Determining how much storage you'll need before buying a SIM depends on several factors. Two key ones are how many devices will be reporting into the SIM, and your company's data retention policies.
|Agent vs. agentless approaches
by Joel Snyder
Although Windows has a common logging system for applications, getting log entries to a SIM isn't a natural operation. To export log information, you need to either give the SIM sufficient credentials to pull the logs using existing Windows APIs, or add an agent that pushes logs off the Windows systems to the SIM.
For some network managers, the "pull" method -- often called agentless -- has a huge benefit that overrides any defect: you don't have to install software on the system from which you want to gather logs. However, with pull strategies, log information is generally limited to the Windows Event Log. Moreover, giving the SIM sufficient credentials to gather logs can be disconcerting.
With an agent you install, the SIM is up-to-date and--depending on the smarts in the agent--may have access to a greater variety of performance and security information than just the Event Log. Some vendors write their own agents while others have chosen to use syslog as the protocol of choice, suggesting an agent that simply translates Windows Event Log entries to syslog events.
Joel Snyder is senior partner at consultancy Opus One and a technical editor of Information Security.
ArcSight found that in many cases, customers underestimated their storage requirements because they ultimately wanted a lot more devices feeding data into the SIM than they originally planned, said Steve Sommer, senior vice president of marketing and business development.
Storage requirements also vary depending on how many days, weeks or months a company wants to retain data, and what they plan to keep.
"Do they want to collect every single event and log, or do some filtering of data that isn't relevant for compliance or security?" Sommer asked. "That can affect the storage by several factors."
Sunil Rath, director of systems engineering at netForensics, estimates that a 500 MB hard drive disk can store roughly 1 million security events. He agreed, however, that storage requirements depend on the client's retention policy and device message volume.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released guidance for computer security log management--Draft Special Publication 800-92--which Sommer says should help the industry. The document includes guidelines on managing long-term data storage.


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On Monday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Nokia's corporate debt to near-junk status. The company's decline in sales numbers and 35 percent fall in revenue have earned it a Baa3 rating, or one step away from non-investment grade. This latest drop marks the most recent stumbling block for a company that was once the pinnacle of Finnish innovation and pioneered the global rise in mobile phones.
Nokia's financial reputation has been on the decline for some time, with its unit shipments dropping from 26.5 million in Q3 2010 to just 16.8 million in Q3 2011, capturing 14.4 percent of the global smartphone market. Forbes points out that Nokia is being edged out of the low-end handset market in countries like Africa, India and China by companies like ZTE and Micromax, which is negatively affecting its shipment figures.
The company is in the middle of recasting itself as a mid-range to high-end smartphone source with its Lumia line of Windows Phone handsets. This includes AT&T's Lumia 900, which launched with a data connectivity glitch that Nokia quickly owned up to and fixed. However, given that the high end of the market has been plenty saturated with RIM, Apple, and Android devices—the company's strategy remains quite a gamble.
But the low- to high-end transition is happening too slowly for Moody's tastes: "Nokia's transition in its Smart Devices from Symbian-based phones to the Windows-based Lumia devices is proving more challenging than expected given that sales of Symbian-based devices are falling off very quickly while Lumia sales are only ramping up slowly," the agency said in its report.
Nokia responded that its investment rating is backed by its "strong liquidity position and capital structure," with a gross cash balance of €9.8 billion ($12.8 billion). "Nokia will continue to increase its focus on lowering the company's cost structure, improving cash flow and maintaining a strong financial position," said Timo Ihamuotila, Nokia's executive vice president and CFO, in a statement.
AT&T, Nokia's partner in relaunching the brand in the US, did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Nokia is set to announce its first-quarter results for 2012 on April 19.

subset: commoncrawl


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Resurgent Grains is the brand of Lentz Spelt Farms on the sunny Columbia Plateau of Eastern Washington State. We raise ancestral landrace grains and oil seed that adapt well to our arid climate and mineral-rich sandy loam.
We offer our grains and seed in a variety of traditionally organic products. Aromatically and nutritionally they're more wholesome than commodity wheat; agriculturally they contribute to biodiversity.


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Cetinje: 1858
In 1858, Montenegro was a minor region centred on Cetinje. At a time when the Great Powers were striving to dictate the future of the Balkans, the following piece appeared, unsigned in the 2 March edition of Ost Deutsche Post. In her history of Montenegro, Elizabeth Roberts reports that it was considered "sufficiently representative of the official [Austrian] government view to warrant its inclusion in a despatch sent to the Foreign office by the British ambassador to Vienna, Sir Hamilton Seymour."
The article began: "The existence of a so-called state like Montenegro is a comical curiosity in the system of European states…"
What is Montenegro? A barren rocky district of rather more than eighty square miles (German), with not more than 120,000 inhabitants, hardly tinged by the lowest degree of civilization. The whole population possesses only two or three schools, and priests who can neither read nor write are as common as workmen are uncommon. Manufacturers, engineers, physicians etc., are quite unknown. In the whole country there is not a single road; out of 300 villages the chief town of Cettinge [sic] alone has more than 1,000 inhabitants. The lowest degree of production, such as is due to nature itself with the least help of man, and by the side of this constant trade of arms, such as it is, carried on by brigands; this is the sum total of Montenegrin activity.
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro. Elizabeth Roberts. 2007.
[pp. 225-26 / Hurst]
January 2007
Tim Judah


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Tom Lehrer I Got It From Agnes Lyrics
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I love my friends and they love me
We're just as close as we can be
And just because we really care
Whatever we get, we share!
I got it from Agnes
She got it from Jim
We all agree it must have been
Louise who gave it to him
Now she got it from Harry
Who got it from Marie
And ev'rybody knows that Marie
Got it from me
Giles got it from Daphne
She got it from Joan
Who picked it up in County Cork
A-kissin' the Blarney Stone
Pierre gave it to Shiela
Who must have brought it there
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Thanks to D Zelenak for submitting I Got It From Agnes Lyrics.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS


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In the Dyer home, kale has long been more than just decoration on a plate. In other words, here's what to do with kale that just keeps on growing!
I mentioned in an earlier post that I ate kale chips for the first time at the Ann Arbor Lady Food Bloggers picnic. They were SO delicious that I just knew they would become a regular way that we would be eating kale in the future. I have already made them 3-4 times in the past month since I first tasted them.
I am still using our garden grown kale that was planted this past spring. It's now early August - I thought the kale might be done or bitter by this point in the summer, but it's all still growing with the young leaves very tasty and tender. Our one short row is a mix of the curly green kale that you see most often in the grocery store or as the ubiquitous decoration on a restaurant plate plus some flat varieties like red Russian kale. Fortunately, our resident garden groundhog does not seem to bother the kale (however, it has devoured most of my beans, including all the heirloom seeds I brought back from my trip to Monticello - can you hear me crying?)
Enough intro and/or rambling! On to the recipe and directions.
Kale Chips
Take a large bunch of kale leaves and trim off any tough stems (save the stems to later make soup stock). Wash the leaves, shake off excess water, tear the leaves into "chip size" pieces. A leaf the size of my palm would make 2-3 pieces.
Put all leaves into a large bowl. Sprinkle ~1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar over the leaves then add ~1 Tbsp. olive oil to the leaves. Next sprinkle with dried herbs or spices of your choice. Twice now I have used a few shakes from a bottle of a salad mix called Rocky Mountain Seasoning from The Spice House in Evanston, IL given to us by good friends. Use your hands to thoroughly mix and coat the leaves with the vinegar, oil, and seasoning.
Spread the kale leaves in a single layer on a large cookie sheet. I have used a sheet of parchment paper to make clean up easy, but just a spray or bit of additional olive oil on the cookie sheet also keeps the leaves from sticking to the cookie sheet.
Heat the cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven until the leaves get crisp. They will wilt at first but then start to crisp up. The color of the kale leaves will darken from a bright green to a deeper green. I do carefully turn them with a spatula after about 10 minutes and usually bake them for a total of 20-30 minutes. I check them often at the 15 and 20 minute marks to make sure they do not burn. Serve right away or they are also very very good at room temperature. In each case, a full cookie sheet of kale leaves was eaten in one sitting by two people (either by my husband and me or our younger son and me).
If I ever have any extra kale chips, I will try saving them in an airtight container to eat later as chips or even crumbling them into small pieces to use as an interesting salad addition or topping.
See the empty plate? All gone! Please let me know if you try eating kale this way and if you and your family enjoy it.
Kale is an excellent source of calcium and along with the other plants that belong to the broccoli family is power-packed with phyto-chemicals that promote general good health plus being a terrific cancer "phyter". I actually try to have so many fresh vegetables from this family on hand in my frig that I eat at least 1-2 servings from this power group daily (yep-daily!) as part of my efforts to increase my odds for long-term cancer survivorship. If you plan to always have kale available and you have the oven going for something else, it only takes a few minutes to prepare the kale chips according to this easy recipe to bake at the same time.
To get ready for planting our fall crop of kale, I finally collected the seed pods today that developed on the one plant that wintered over last year. I could see some of them had finally popped, scattering the seeds in the garden and the garden paths, and many more seed pods were also "ready to go".
Did I have anything with me specifically in which to collect the pods so that I could find those itty-bitty seeds again if they popped on the way home? No, of course not. So I simply put them into my garden hat, which worked quite well! By the time I got to the parking lot and the car, many of the pods had popped by themselves with the tiny black seeds now sitting nicely in the bottom of my hat (see photo - thank goodness this was not a straw hat as I am sure these tiny seeds would have fallen through).
When I showed the small seeds to a young woman who was in the parking lot at the community garden, she said it seemed like a miracle that such tiny seeds produced our vegetables. I couldn't help but smile and agree!! and ask if she had read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which the author Barbara Kingsolver so eloquently describes the many miracles that unfold every day from the hard work of those who grow and produce food either for their own table or for us to eat.
The next time you're at a Farmers' Market, please thank the farmers for their hard work and the many miracles they have brought to market!
Where kale is definitely more than just decoration on my plate!
Diana Dyer, MS, RD
The following 7 comments were imported from the August 3, 2008 posting:
I'm making this tomorrow! Thanks for sharing. I have so much kale in my garden right now.August 3, 2008 11:53 PM
I'm so glad you posted this, Diana - I didn't pay enough attention when Victoria was talking about making them. I'm very excited! August 4, 2008 11:44 AM
Hi Diana
I learned about kale chips from Deb at Tantré. They are my most favorite way of eating this incredible vegetable. I might love kale chips even more than potato chips, which, for me, is saying a lot. :) Thank you for posting the recipe - I think everyone should know about kale chips!!!
KimAugust 5, 2008 1:35 PM
Victoria's kale chips were awesome! (So were Kim's fried sage leaves,come to think of it). Something I'd never think to do on my own, and oh so good!!!, August 5, 2008 6:42 PM
I am now sold on kale chips. Thanks for the post and recipe.
Anne, Charlotte, NC, August 20, 2008 1:12 PM
Yum - just made my first batch - thank you, Diana! August 24, 2008 6:36 PM
Kale is my new favorite, and Ed pointed me to your blog.
I tried this kale chips recipe from Bon Appetit, but I like your idea to add herbs/spices.
Definitely trying this. March 7, 2009 9:25 AM


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Myabetic Banting Diabetes Wallet, Pink
Product Code: MYA-600364
If you are trying to jam your insulin pens into a small case cluttered with supplies, then you'll love this sleek diabetes supply wallet. Keep it all organized in this classic, fan-favorite accessory.
- 7"W x 4.25"H x 1.75"D
- Premium vegan leather & luxurious hardware details
- Fits all glucose meters
- Perfect for 1 or 2 insulin pens
- Includes Myabetic's signature removable waste pouch to gather & dispose of used test strips


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- This event has passed.
Essential Skills Service – Adult Literacies 1:1 support hub
2nd December 2019 @ 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 1:30pm on Monday, repeating until 2nd December 2019
Essential Skills Service provides free and confidential support to adults aged 16 plus, in East Ayrshire, who wish to improve on their everyday reading, writing and number support.
If you would like help with reading, writing and numbers please contact Essential Skills Service on 01563 573 757.
Initial Interview required before attending group.
We can help you with everyday literacies like:
- filling in application forms
- writing letters
- reading books and magazines
- build your confidence with words and number
- helping your child with their homework
- preparing for the Police, Army and Nursing Entry Exams
- reading and understanding questions for driving theory or CSCS Health and Safety tests
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In response to a recent angry and hate-filled letter, I wasn't sure if the 49 percent that you were talking about who do not pay federal taxes were the religious groups that are tax-exempt but still want a say in politics.
In response to a recent angry and hate-filled letter. I wasn't sure if the 49 percent that you were talking about that do not pay federal taxes were the religious groups that are tax-exempt but still want a say in politics.
Whatever happened to separation of church and state? I guess it doesn't apply when you're trying to sway voters.
Colleen Cutler
Rock Hill
I have a response to the Nov. 11 article "DeStefano scolds Obama opponents." I am not registered as a Democrat or Republican, but it is remarks by public officials like DeStefano that are printed that cause our country to be so divided.
No sooner was the election over, and millions were informed as to our motives for voting for Obama. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity of Fox News told us we voted for Obama because he was going to give us stuff. Well, I want to keep my stuff.
DeStefano was quoted as saying "get over it, you bigoted SOBs, the black man won." Really, I hadn't noticed. Isn't he also white?
Dave Fromson
Why is our government hesitant in aiding victims devastated by Hurricane Sandy and last year's storm?
These unfortunate people lost homes, possessions, businesses and loved ones, in one of the most disastrous storms in our history.
We should be giving our fellow Americans whatever it takes to put their lives back together, no strings attached.
They should be fully compensated for their invaluable losses. The businesses that have been wiped out don't need loans; they cannot possibly repay these loans with interest.
Give them the funds they need to start their businesses again.
Tell me why our government now and in the past, readily and happily hands out billions of dollars, no questions asked and certainly no accountability to countries like Iraq, a total disaster; Afghanistan, a complete waste of men and money, and Pakistan, which has not only hindered our efforts in fighting al-Qaida but also harbored Osama bin Laden until he was hunted down by our Navy SEALs.
These three countries are not only violently anti-American, but also anti-Christian. They hate us, yet take our money. We need to give this money to the hurricane victims to get their lives back on track.
It's time to take care of your own, America. Now!
Raymond E. Bally


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This is an image of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. They were both convicted of conspiracy against the law and sentenced to two years in the penitentary. They both were fined $10,000 each as well on July 9, 1917.
Based on the year of the conviction you should be able to tell me what war was involved.
After her release from prison she was arrested again and deported to Russia where she was first supportive of the Russian Revolution, but eventually spoke out against the violence and supression of independent voices.
The Emma Goldman Papers is a good site to start with if you want to find out more about her.
A great source for historical images can be found at Teaching Politics
Today is Wordless Wednesday. You can find other bloggers participating by clicking here


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If you're an avid banana eater like myself then you must be paying a premium price for your bananas at the moment as a result of the Queensland flooding earlier this year and Cyclone Yasi hasn't helped as well. I noticed that Royal Randwick Fruit Market is selling bananas for around $14.99/kg while the fruit stand at the top of Martin Place today has them for $2.50 each which sounds really expensive but actually works out to be cheaper at about $5-$7/kg depending on the size of banana available.
Interesting fact: Did you know that bananas are naturally slightly radioactive?
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Scooterpie wrote:thanks mini. Not too shabby yourself. The being vegan thing is totally new to me, but so far so good. Don't think ill ever go back, i just feel too good.
Thanks man, well I'm pretty sure your numbers will put you up in first place once the table is updated with your lifts
Scooterpie wrote:How was prepping for a bodybuilding competition?
Don't know, never done one (yet) !!
Scooterpie wrote:Do you count macronutrients? portion sizes?
Nope and no. I pretty much just eat when I feel that I need to, although now I'm bulking I am making a conscious effort to try and raise my calories a little more than normal.
Congrats on those lifts again, EPIC.


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I was blog hopping last night and came upon some lovely projects I so want to try out. I thought I would share all the cuteness I found. I love finding new projects and exploring new blogs. Seriously so fun! Check out these fancy pant ladies and share the bloggy love.
Spring Mantle @ Ode to Inspiration
T-Shirt Refashion @ So Creative
Burlap Owl Wreath @ Cope and Hope
Baby Owl pillow@ Vintage Umbrella
Simple Placemats @ Vixen Made
Make Your Own Oil Cloth@ Imperfectly Beautiful
No Sew Vest @ Tales of a Trophy Wife
Monogrammed Wreath @ It's My Life
The Hobo Bag @ It's About Blogging Time!
Charging Station @ Joyful Homemaking
Mudroom Reveal @ Life on Walnut Street
If you were featured Grab a button.
Have a fantastic Evening!
Oh and Don't forget to Link up to the Feature Friday Linky Party. It is LIVE now.
Follow me on Facebook Follow me on Twitter Browse my Pinterest Follow me with BlogLovin Send Me an E-mail Link up at My Party


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Free Appetizer
Dada Restaurant
Good Deeds deserve Great Rewards! Help support a great cause and receive an exclusive Rewards Special!
About the Reward
- Free appetizer with purchase of entree
- Wide selection of craft beers and specialty cocktails
- Nightly music or entertainment
- Charming indoor and outdoor tables
- Perfect for groups and dates
About the Business
Dada Restaurant is located at 52 North Swinton Avenue in the heart of downtown Delray Beach serving award-winning new-American cuisine served seven days from 5pm-2am. Open since 2000, we're an eclectic restaurant with an artistic bent with each room of our historic home styled in a different theme and with different local independent artists works adorning the walls as well as an intimate outdoor dining area and garden. We also offer an array of live entertainment every night of the week including open mic, poetry, art and fashion shows, comedy, singer-songwriters, live bands and our classic movie night on Sundays.
About the Chef
Executive chef Bruce Feingold, two-time Delray Beach Garlic Festival Champion and 2013 New Times Broward People's Choice Winner for Best Chef, creates a simple and creative menu with his take on new American cuisine. Along with Amanda Fiengold, he is the founder and creator of Healthy Bellies, a charitable project that, to date has raised more than $8,000 to help feed hungry kids in the community.
52 N Swinton Ave
Delray Beach, Florida 33444
(561) 330-3232
- Free appetizer w/purchase of entree.
- Must present with bill.
- Limit 1 per table.
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Every deal you purchase on RewardsforCauses.com supports a great cause. When you buy now, 50% of your purchase on RewardsforCauses.com will go directly to the cause of your choice.


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2019 Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek Edition & 2019 NAIAS
Season 38 Episode 40 | 26m 49s
This week, Nissan creates a bolder Pathfinder; The Rock Creek Edition. Pat Goss unravels motor myths that can cause real world trouble. Roger Mecca has a mid-engine tale full of twists and turns. Finally, the end of an era. Detroit's last winter time North American International Auto Show.
Aired: 06/08/19Video has closed captioning.
Problems Playing Video?
National corporate funding for MotorWeek is provided by Tire Rack, RockAuto and State Farm.


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A formal application to quash the verdicts of the original Hillsborough inquests has been made by the Government's top lawyer.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve said there was a "good" case for setting aside the accidental death verdicts and holding new hearings into the deaths of the 96 Liverpool fans killed in the 1989 football stadium disaster.
The move comes after a damning report into the tragedy revealed a cover-up which attempted to shift the blame on to the victims.
Mr Grieve will appear in person at the High Court to argue that new evidence means there should be fresh inquests.
He said: "I believe that the case for the High Court to quash the original inquests is a good one.
"My application has now been lodged with the Court. It is my intention to appear to argue the case at the hearing that will take place in the High Court."


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College Publications
Publications at Baruch College
- Baruch College Alumni Magazine is a bi-annual publication that covers the activities and accomplishments of Baruch alumni, faculty, and staff. The magazine is mailed to more than 150,000 Baruch graduates all over the world, and is also distributed on campus and online at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/bcam. For more information about Baruch College Alumni Magazine, contact the Office of Communications and Marketing at 646-660-6105 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
- The Ticker, Baruch College's weekly student-produced newspaper, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2007. Visit The Ticker to read more about it. A fully digital archive of past issues of the Ticker is available through the Newman Library at www.history.baruch.cuny.edu.
- Dollars & Sense, the College's award-winning annual review of business and society, is edited and designed by students in the journalism program at the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences. In it's new online format, the magazine can be found at http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/dollarsandsense. Go to www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/journalism/Dollarsense.htm to browse through an archive of past issues.
- The Graduate Baruchian
- Encounters Magazine


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|South Texas Sailing
Boat Directory: MacGregor 21
Selling your boat? Link your ad to this page!
|Home Sailing Lessons Cold Water Immersion / Hypothermia About Us Contact Us
Canyon Lake Area Buying a Used Boat Random Humor
phone: 210-286-4392 Email link Selling a Boat Other Boating Sites
randle @ southtexassailing com DVDs - Sailing Movies DVDs - Sailing Instruction
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Back to Directory Search
8700 N. Millsite Rd.
Columbia, MO 65201, U.S.A.View Map
Phone: 573-449-6810
Email: email@example.com
URL: http://www.youngsculpture.com
More Information
Brief Biography and Artist Statement:
Larry Young has been a full-time artist for the last 25 years and has placed over 50 monumental outdoor sculptures nationally and abroad. Most of his work has been in bronze, but he also works with stainless steel, marble, and other materials. He owns and operated a full-scale 6,000 square foot foundry where he personally creates and produces most of his work. This personal oversight of production is unusual for sculptors who create monumental bronzes.
Young developed his skills and talents through a number of forums. He first learned to cast bronze as a molder in the US Navy. Following the Navy, he achieved international prominence as a two-time Olympic medalist, the only American to ever win a medal in long-distance race walking. During this period he studied sculpture at Columbia College followed by a two-year fellowship to study sculpture in Italy. Young has been a full-time, free lance artist ever since, known for his fluid forms, his innovative compositions and use of negative space, and his mastery of the bronze medium.
The origin of mankind, man's relationship with other life forms, and humanity's destination have been important elements in many of Young's sculptures. The themes and compositional integrity of classical art and the human movement involved in athletics and dance have also fascinated Young. His life forms and other images are used as vehicles through which compositional networks are materialized. He frequently creates complex simplicity by minimizing human forms and placing them within deceptively simple complex compositions. Young is intrigued by the relationship of form and space and manipulates this relationship to evoke emotion and to project monumentality of form even when the sculpture is small in scale. Perhaps Young's experiences as an Olympic athlete helped develop his sense of fluid movement. Resolution of form, refinement of space, and fluidity couched in classical compositions that project monumentality --all are the hallmarks of Larry Young's powerful images.
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Website Design & Development by Cybermill Interactive


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Later this week, Cape Verde's national football team will make their long-awaited debut appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations – beginning their campaign with the opening match against tournament hosts South Africa at Johannesburg's Soccer City Stadium.
With the total population of their country only around six times bigger than the capacity of Soccer City, coach Lucio Antunes and his players could certainly be forgiven a sense of surrealism as they step out onto the same pitch where Spain and the Netherlands contested the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ final.
"It will be a huge honour for our small country, but we will just try to take it all in and savour the moment," beams Antunes, whose Blue Sharks (as Cape Verde's national team are known) are set to be the smallest minnows yet to compete in Africa's continental finals – even smaller than Equatorial Guinea, whose qualification for the 2012 edition came automatically as tournament co-hosts.
Nor is size the only obstacle that Cape Verde have had to overcome. Spread out in a horseshoe formation of 15 islands and islets and located some 570 km off Africa's west coast, the country has a punishingly arid landscape which belies the 'Green Cape' of its name. Indeed, with natural grass scarce and freshwater even scarcer, Cape Verde cannot even lay claim to a single grass football pitch.
The harshness of life on the islands, which were originally settled by 15th century Portuguese traders as a supply point for passing ships and later served as a base for slave trading, has also led to large-scale emigration over the years – to the extent that many more Cape Verdeans can now be found in Europe, the Americas and mainland Africa than on the islands themselves.
Talents lost
Among this widespread diaspora are a striking number of top footballers who have gone on to play for their adopted countries rather than their ancestral home. Unsurprisingly, Portugal has benefited most, with a long line of Cape Verdeans having chosen to pull on the red strip.
At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Manchester United's Cape Verde-born star Nani was one of three members of the original Portugal squad with roots in the tiny African country, while two other players of Cape Verde heritage (Besiktas midfielder Manuel Fernandes and Málaga winger Eliseu) only narrowly missed out after making it onto Portugal's 30-player long list for the tournament.
It is in the personality of Cape Verdeans to fight precisely because of the obstacles they face in their daily lives.
Switzerland's Gelson Fernandes, who scored the only goal of the alpine nation's shock group stage win over Spain at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, is another Cape Verde-born player, while the father of former Sweden great Henrik Larsson also hailed from the archipelago.
Nearby (or at least relatively close) Senegal have also snapped up several internationals who could have turned out for Cape Verde, including current national team members Jacques Faty and Mickaël Tavares. Patrick Vieira, the Senegalese-born star who went on to win the World Cup with France in 1998, also has Cape Verdean ancestry.
While not all of these 'lost' players were born in Cape Verde, it still seems remarkable that so many top stars can have such strong connections to a tiny cluster of rugged outcrops in the Atlantic Ocean – although some believe that the phenomenon may in fact be explained by the islands' isolated nature.
"Our kids start football at an early age and sometimes in difficult and adverse conditions," points out long-time Cape Verde Football Association President Mario Semedo. "It is in the personality of Cape Verdeans to fight precisely because of the obstacles they face in their daily lives.
"Under these conditions, qualities like hard work and dedication are essential, and the recipe for our success in football is made up of those ingredients."
Talents regained
In the past, those ingredients clearly benefited the national teams of other countries much more than they did Cape Verde, but the country's success in qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations demonstrates how things have started to change.
A major turning point came in April 2000, following the country's first attempt to qualify for a FIFA World Cup. While trying to work out how the team could do better next time, Semedo and his colleagues started to think about the thousands of Cape Verdeans living overseas and how they could entice them back to play for the Blue Sharks. Suddenly, the talent drain that had been seen as a purely negative influence in the past was being considered as an opportunity – prompting an ambitious scouting programme that encompassed not only the traditional hunting grounds of Portugal and Senegal but also expat communities in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the USA.
Since then, Cape Verde's reliance upon foreign-based players has reached a point where not a single representative of the islands' amateur football league made it into the squad called up in November for a Cup of Nations warm-up match against Ghana.
I think we have enough skill to take the game to our opponents, and we also have a good mix of generations.
While around half of the current squad members are based in Portugal's top division, others play their club football in locations as varied as France, Romania, Cyprus or Angola. Some are Cape Verde-born players, such as SC Braga striker Zé Luis and Lille forward Ryan Mendes, who learned their trade on the islands before making big moves abroad, while others have come in the other direction – born overseas and establishing themselves as footballers before being asked to play for Cape Verde.
"I think we have enough skill to take the game to our opponents, and we also have a good mix of generations," says attacking midfielder Odaïr Fortes, a regular with French top division side Stade de Reims who is keen to return to the international fray after missing both legs of Cape Verde's shock qualifying win over Cameroon due to injury.
"Our captain (Nando) is 34, but is as enthusiastic as a 20-year-old, and then we have lots of up-and-coming players from Portuguese and Eastern European clubs and also the very promising Ryan Mendes. When we were growing up, everyone in Cape Verde used to support Senegal as they were the closest 'big team'. Now that we have qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations, and Senegal have not, I hope that their supporters will be rooting for us!"
Home-grown hopes
While overseas talent scouting has clearly played a large part in Cape Verde's football development strategy, it is not the only secret to their success, as the country's football association has also been active in developing opportunities for the players still based on the islands.
Working together with FIFA's Member Associations & Development Division, the country was one of the first in Africa not only to embrace an artificial turf support programme which has since seen a staggering 15 pitches built across the islands, but also to host international matches on the surface, with the Estádio da Várzea in the capital Praia being used immediately after its completion to stage 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
"It was those pitches that first made it possible for us to really grow football in Cape Verde – both in terms of the national teams and also in terms of the domestic league," Semedo told FIFA World.
Cape Verde have also taken full advantage of FIFA's Goal development programme, with the approval of three projects in the space of six years helping to fund the association's national headquarters and technical centre in Praia, the construction of an artificial turf pitch at the centre and the creation of a regional technical centre on the island of São Vicente, which is currently being built.
I understand why some Cape Verdeans used the opportunities they had to represent bigger countries but I have been pleasantly surprised by the talent coming through now.
Over the past five years, the association has also allocated more than USD 250,000 of its FIFA Financial Assistance Programme funds to the development of its senior domestic competitions, with around USD 160,000 also being used to develop youth football. Six FIFA refereeing courses have also been held on the islands since 2007 as part of efforts to further boost standards in the domestic game.
"When you look at how the association is improving the standard of football management at home and combine that with the experiences that the European-based players are bringing back with us, it can only help to develop the next generation of young talents," insists former Cape Verde defender Pedro Pele, who enjoyed a brief spell in the English Premier League with West Bromwich Albion and still plays in the country's lower leagues for Hayes & Yeading United.
"I understand why some Cape Verdeans used the opportunities they had to represent bigger countries," Pele adds. "But I have been pleasantly surprised by the talent coming through now in Cape Verde, and if we continue to create a strong national squad then our team will be just as desirable to play for as any other."
The game's administrators remain realistic about the challenges they still face, with the professionalisation of the domestic league seen as one long-term goal that could help raise standards and also bring additional revenues to the clubs who do lose talented players to overseas leagues. Despite the ongoing difficulties, however, those in charge of the domestic game seem confident that the national team's qualification for South Africa 2013 can act as a springboard for future successes.
"The future is very promising for Cape Verdean football," insists Semedo. "We're in the process of enlarging the development of young footballers at various youth levels and are constantly working on developing other key areas, such as coaching, refereeing and administration, and I believe this investment will pay off massively in the years to come."


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With unseasonably warm weather drenching Whistler in rain and slush, the men's super combined race on Tuesday became the third of three scheduled alpine skiing events to be postponed due to poor conditions.
But while Olympians here can't count on their races being held as planned, one thing they can be sure of is that the X factor of their sport – the detailed science behind how skis and snowboards run fast on snow – just got a lot bigger.
Many of the athletes here have trained a decade or more. But their shot at an Olympic medal could be determined by a fraction of a second. And those fractions can be won or lost depending on something most spectators never see: the base of an athlete's skis or snowboard.
That is because the thing we casually refer to as snow is transformed by variables such as humidity, temperature, and density that significantly affect what will run fastest in a given condition. Warm, wet conditions have characterized nearly every day of competition so far at the Games.
"The more extreme the conditions, the more important it is what we do," says Knut Nystad, who leads Norway's team of 22 wax technicians and ski testers – just for cross-country. "The equipment makes a huge difference. You can spend 10,000 hours training, but what we do can give you that extra 10 or 20 seconds. This is what makes the difference between the second-best and the best athletes."
450 pairs of skis for 12 athletes
Skis with a softer flex perform better in softer snow, while springier skis are needed in harder conditions; different base structures are needed depending on the water content and temperature of the snow; and then there's the glide wax that goes on on race day. Skiers often have a quiver of 20 pairs or more of competition skis; the German biathlon team brought 450 pairs in Whistler for their 12 athletes.
So crucial is it for technicians to accurately adapt skiers' equipment to the conditions that Nystad's team spent six weeks here in Whistler in 2008 and again in 2009. The US team had someone living here for the past few winters, testing different skis and waxes, for the same reason. But no one has gone as far as the Canadians, who under the $8 million Top Secret program – a subset of their ambitious Own the Podium push – have had professors and PhD students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver working full-time on the problem for 3-1/2 years.
Just before Christmas, they unveiled their secret weapon: a new base for skis and snowboards that reduces friction by 20-25 percent – a huge margin given that races can be won by a toenail. Snowboarders have already used it on the World Cup, but no one will say much about what the secret ingredient is, which was produced by UBC and hand-carried to manufacturers in Europe, who integrated it into their design.
"The magic stuff that we put in the ski base is still [not known]," says UBC plastics expert Savvas Hatzikiriakos, who will say only that he experimented with additives normally used to help plastics slip out of molds. What is known for sure, though, is that the secret missiles work best on the suction-like snow found at the snowboard venue, Cypress Mountain, and up here in Whistler. "The new base works better in the warmer conditions, especially if the snow is wet … the wetter, the better."
The Teflon effect
That's because the new bases act like Teflon, causing the water droplets to make tiny beads, instead of something like glass, which creates more of a pancake-shaped droplet, explains Sheldon Green, who oversaw a parallel research project at UBC.
The more skis and snowboards act like a Teflon pan, the more freely they can glide across the snow – especially in wet conditions, when they're basically gliding on a thin film of water.
It's a complicated study, admits Green, an expert in "microscopic snow friction" – in other words, the nitty-gritty science behind why snow creates drag on skis and snowboards.
Linguist Steven Pinker has written that Eskimos have a dozen words for snow, and there's a reason why. "Snow" is everything from newly-fallen sharp crystals to rounded balls that have been frozen, thawed, rained on, and then baked by a sunny day. So Green's task, along with his researcher, has been to figure out how to make a ski glide best in any possible condition. A key tool in that process is choosing the right glide wax out of hundreds of options.
Nystad, the Norwegian technician, knows that all too well.
"It's a fair portion of science and a good portion of gut feeling of what is going to run today," says Nystad, noting that everything they do is secret, too. "We're not doing an exact science – it's very empirical."
Indeed, for decades ski coaches have closely collected the results of their meticulous testing of both glide wax and kick wax, which keeps cross-country skis from slipping backward on uphills and must all be matched to the snow-crystal shape. Jotting down penciled notes in a daily journal with hands numb and dry from the cold, they develop a vast knowledge base that is highly prized by skiers and fellow technicians.
"I have the best [wax technician] in the world," said US snowboarder Nate Holland ahead of yesterday's event, in which he narrowly missed the bronze medal. "My board is never the problem. It's a freakin' rocket ship."
Teammate Graham Watanabe agreed. "Wax teching is an absolute art. He [USA team wax tech] has been killing it all year long."
In cross-country, biathlon, and Nordic combined races, a bad wax job can cost even the best skier a minute or more, so it's critical to find the right concoction.
But Green and his researcher have tried to take some of the guesswork out of the game with a database that allows technicians to type in roughly 18 variables and then spits out recommendations.
Still, it's not going to be easy at the Nordic venues in Whistler, said US cross-country skier Kris Freeman ahead of the races: "It's the hardest venue in the world to wax for."
Christa knows how important the right wax is – she trained fulltime for the Olympics from 1997-2002 in cross-country skiing. Follow her as she tweets throughout the Games.


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For starters, I really recommend reading through my post on what 10-strict raiding is like. It's long, it's in-depth, and it's as accurate as I can make it. It has far more detail than this post.
Raid Difficulty vs Gear:
If you're used to thinking of tens as easier because you were wearing 25-man gear, think again. 10s were balanced for 10-man gear in WotLK. Some food for thought: no ten-strict guild has yet downed Lich King hardmode, yet. Still. All these months. If you want to think it's from lack of skill, think again, and pull your head out of the sand. It's a matter of that slight bit more health, damage, and healing/shielding output: it does make a significant difference in survival and length of the phases.
It's not going to be a walk in the park in Cataclysm. Don't go to 10s just because you think the content will be easier.
Raiding Roster and Attendance:
The average raiding roster for a 25-man is about 35 people: 2 extra players per party in the raid. My own guild uses a roster of 14, which is the exact same ratio, except has less room to ratio between an extra tank or healer vs dps (that's where offspecs come in!).
There will still be attendance problems. Some raiders will stop raiding and you'll have to recruit a new one in their place. Some will have family emergencies, etc. And each one of them that has this crop up will be that much of your raid disappearing. It's about proportional. We've had to kill the Lich King with 9 raiders before; my guild also earned Less is More in Naxx very, very quickly.
When you drop your raiding roster down for 10's, your attendance problems will not disappear: instead, you'll have to pug up a player or run undermanned, and won't have an option to split up the raid and do separate 10's.
Guess what? That PvP offspec may have to go the way of the dodo in a 10. With fewer people in the raid, flexibility for raid roles (tank, healer, dps) and even particular spec strengths (replenishment, AoE, magic type) comes down to each player having a PvE offspec... and they need to be able to play it well, and gear it, and use it. This means pulling a tank into a healing role, something significantly different than what they're used to. Or a healer into a tank role. Or DPS. If your class has more than one role it can play, be ready to get to know one of them very intimately.**
Every class has a different PvE spec they can set up as an offspec, and many of them require, at the least, different gear stats to maximize and a new set of abilities to learn how to use. For example:
- A warlock? Afflic and Destro are your two trees (as far as WotLK is concerned), be ready to swap it around and know how to rock out with both.
- Mage? Hmm replenishment may come into play, some times, or mana-management, or AoE from ze bombs.
- A priest normally holy with a DPS offspec? What if a fight suddenly demands disc?
- A resto druid who's scared of playing feathers? Get over it, starfall is OP (yes, this one's aimed straight at myself!)
- Rogue: personal single-target performance, or AoE love with a nice dps raid buff... or the best spec for dpsing with anesthetic poison?
A 25-man raider is more likely to get away with a single spec in their raids. In progressive 10's? Not so much. You need to know all the PvE aspects of your class... and you may not have another person of your class in your guild to look to for help.
Even aside from specs, hybrid roles need to be observed to maximize the raid's effectiveness, to make up for the smaller number of players in each role. Your DPSers need to help cleanse. Your ele shaman or shadow priest will need to suddenly swap to healing mid-fight as a healer dies or is ported into another plane of existence. Your cat will need to bear it up to take on some adds that are otherwise running rampant while your moonkin pulls off a battle-res on the tank. Your resto druid might need to cyclone something, or warstomp.
There's more offspec, offrole weight on the shoulders of each player in a 10m.
**EDIT: Erick's comment did remind me to add that some 10-man guilds might not care as much about hardcore progression, and so they might not require all of their players to forgo their pvp offspecs in favor of progression in pve. If this is a potential issue for your guild, I recommend addressing it before it causes too much strife as different players have differing opinions on how hardcore-PvE the guild should be.
**Along the same lines: there are some pvp specs that, while not absolutely optimal, could manage in a pve setting, depending on what talents were skipped in favor of pvp ones.
Easier Achievements?
You've likely heard the argument by now: "there's no way to balance the content exactly equally." To the nitpicky extents, this is true. We see it in the fact that no 10-strict guild has downed hardmode LK10, yet 25m has downed hardmode LK25. Could it be balanced, by lessening the severity of the fight? Sure... but after the fact. It'd take far too much time in testing/development to fully and equally balance the fights before live release to be worth it, monetarily.
I really hope there will be a separate achievement tracking system for 10s and for 25s. Separate ranking systems. The 25s stand on their own; the 10s stand on their own. Otherwise each dungeon tier may be dominated one way or the other due to slight discrepancies in balance, to the point that the most hardcore guilds have to swap between 10s and 25s regularly to strive for those world-firsts. You can imagine the logistical nightmare.
Don't go into tens expecting to get achievements easier. It's going to swing both ways. Some fights will be easier on 25, some will be easier on 10. It's the same way, now. Things can be balanced closely, but never 100%, and when it comes to world-firsts, that matters.
Choose carefully when looking ahead for your raid size format. Don't pick it because the grass looks greener: pick it because you LIKE the raid size itself, from its social aspects. Pick it because you want that weight on your shoulders as a 10-man raider requiring more flexibility or you want to be a face in the crowd that plays one spec; pick it because you like the intimacy of a smaller group, or because you want to be raiding with an army.


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There's an odd characteristic about asbestos exposure, says Gregg Grubb, an industrial hygienist with the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA). It can take up to 40 years before a person develops cancer from the substance.
"You're looking at health risks that don't occur immediately," he said. "It's often five to 40 years after exposure."
This often leads people to take an it-can't-happen-to-me attitude, he said, instead of developing a respect for* the potential problems.
"A lot of substances are suspected as carcinogens," Grubb said, "but you have one substance here that is known to cause health problems."


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He's a master at his skill and he is one of the wisest Jedis in the galactic world of Star Wars. Of course I had to go and make a tutorial on "how to draw Yoda easy", step by step. It would be a sin if I didn't make such a lesson. Yoda has been a character that can either be liked or disliked. Although I don't know too many people that dislike Yoda. When I first seen Yoda in Star Wars I was like "what the"? He was this being that wasn't human and he was old, but he still had this amazing power that didn't come from his physical body. Yoda is one of the coolest cats in the Star Wars movies. He is so cool, there is merchandise out there that actually has Yoda quotes printed right on them. Drawing Yoda easy is going to be a fun task because everyone of all ages is familiar with Star Wars no matter which one they recall watching. Heck, they even have 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' as a cartoon series. Well that's about it, have fun and be sure to rate, comment or even fav. Remember, "May the force is with you".
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Aimee Kestenberg, ECBC, MKF Collection, Sea to Summit, SOC Gear, Travelpro Korean Air Softside Luggage
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Add Events in Factory Automation & Process Control to Calendar
Add an Event to our Calendar
Wait! Before you add an event, seminar or training course to the calendar, please Search the Calendar to make sure it's not already listed. Then, please complete and submit the following form to have your event added to our calendar. If your event is applicable to industrial automation, process control or instrumentation, it will be reviewed and added to the calendar in the next few days.


text:
Call of Duty: Black Ops II weaves between the exploits of original Black Ops protagonist Alex Mason in the 1980s, and those of his son David Mason in the year 2025. A Nicaraguan drug-lord and terrorist named Raul Menendez provides a timeline-spanning villain, with gamers witnessing his formative years and his ascent to power. Multiplayer modes remain a vital part of the Call of Duty package and have received a variety of upgrades and alterations designed to promote teamwork and make the action more accessible to newcomers online.
Super Gamer Dude
PC Games
Call of Duty is tuning itself into a storied franchise that is putting out great products, in turn, increasing it's expectations with every release. Black Ops II is the latest release under the Call of Duty name, and it is meeting those lofty expectations among the majority of the gaming crowd.
For this review, we though it would be helpful to break it down into two sections, campaign and multiplayer, since that is what we all care about the most.
The story starts off as a continuation of the Black Ops I and spans two generations between Alex Mason and his son David Mason. The main villain, Menendez, has a great story line that makes for a truly epic cinematic experience while you are playing the game. Menendez's character, who you will probably hate, begins to show many of the reasons why he is doing what he does, which in turn makes you start to not hate him, adding to the compelling draw to the storyline.
As far as the game play itself goes, it is nothing short of spectacular. The engine runs smoothly making the onscreen play look natural and life-like. The responsiveness throughout campaign is great, making for a very smooth experience. The newer edition to this COD line offers a split story line, one that is going on in the 80's and one that is happening in the year 2025, which takes care of all the critics from the first Black Ops game who were saying the weapons were nothing special. The fact is, in the 80s we didn't have the technology we have today, but in 2025 we will have even better technology, which is why in BOII you have things like nano-tech climbing gloves.
Replay value in campaign mode is tremendous. Unlike many games that have one story that is scripted out, Black Ops II actually allows you to choose what happens in your game, who lives and who dies. This allows you to take different routes to the end each time you play the game.
The Multiplayer in Black Ops has been great, so many people have asked the question, how can you make perfection better? COD's answer to this was to tweak it, not change it. Well, we are here to say that the tweaks that COD made in the latest edition were great.
One of the best changes was to the reward system. Instead of getting kill streak rewards, the game has changed over to a point streak reward system, which allows those support players that are getting assists and helping teammates out to reap the rewards of their input.
Another great tweak was in the load-out section. This new pick 10' load out style allows the player to pick ten things to take with them on their mission whether it be guns, perks, or support equipment. This might not seem like a big deal, however, once you start to get a feel for the game, you can tweak your load out constantly to maximize your success.
Now with all the great things about Call of Duty Black Ops II on the PC, there are a few things that fell short for me. With all the hype around zombie mode, I felt it simply did not live up to what it was said to be. The last downside would probably come in campaign mode where you have the option, at times, to control your brigade through something called strike force. In my opinion this falls short due to its lack of AI.
All in all, the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this game, and it is well worth the money considering the great Multiplayer and many options when it comes to replaying the campaign mode.
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Since the Inaugural Game on July 15, 1999, Safeco Field has gained a reputation locally, regionally and nationally as a terrific setting for baseball and a great place for baseball fans. Sweeping views of Seattle's downtown skyline, breathtaking sunsets over Puget Sound, combined with excellent views of game action from all angles give fans at Safeco Field an experience unequalled in Major League Baseball.
Got questions? Check out these pages for answers.
Learn the history of your Mariners ballpark.
From its retractable roof to its ground rules, learn everything you ever wanted to know about Safeco Field.
Safeco Field is accessible to everyone, with entry, parking, and seating options that cater to all of our fans.
Get your Mariners Gear online and in Mariners Team Stores
Get familiar with downtown Seattle with this list of local restaurants, hotels and other amenities.
With a sincere and sustained commitment, the Seattle Mariners are working to significantly reduce our environmental impact.


text:
The Globe And Mail runs something about Alberta's gripes every day, and I try to follow along. If it weren't for wmtc's resident Albertan, and the ensuing arguments in comments, I would've had no warning. It's not something Americans know about. As is, observing for more than a year, I have only the smallest of clues.
Here's what I know. Please pardon my ignorance and oversimplification, but I have to start somewhere.
The province of Alberta is rich, because it has oil.
The province of Alberta is conservative, relative to the rest of Canada. Hmm. Funny how those two go together.
Because of its great oil wealth, Alberta revenue helps fund services in the rest of Canada. (These are transfer payments?) Apparently many Albertans resent this. They want to keep Alberta's money in Alberta. They don't want the rest of Canada to have as many "social programs" (very broad term there) as it does now, or they want them to pay their own way.
I don't get this.
Canada is a country. There is oil in one place and not another. A place with high revenues from oil reserves can help balance lower revenues elsewhere. What's wrong with that? Should the provinces be treated as separate countries, and take a sink-or-swim attitude towards each other? (What is it about conservatives and "states rights"?)
It's not as if the people of Alberta are somehow more talented than the rest of the country, and have become rich off their peculiar talents. It's the geology upon which they happen to live. If I were typing this in Calgary instead of outside Toronto, how would that make a difference? Why should I keep the wealth of the land simply because I live there, rather than more equitably distribute it throughout the country?
I've caught a tremendous amount of anger from Albertans towards the rest of Canada, and talk of secession. I can't say I understand it. Once in an earlier post, I remarked, they act as if Albertans are the only people who pay taxes. I pay taxes, too. What am I missing here? Why all this anger and bitterness?
I understand that every resident of Alberta will soon receive a $400 "prosperity cheque", a piece of the great windfall in their province's coffers. To me this sounds suspiciously like the $600
Here's a view on those Albertan cheques. It's very funny, especially now that I understand the provincial stereotypes.
So here are my questions, folks: What's up with Alberta? Why do Albertans want to secede? Should the threat be taken seriously? What would make them happy? That is, what kind of Canada would they like to be living in?
I'm looking forward to reading your answers, from many different points of view. I ask only that you be reasonable and refrain from personal attacks. That is, no posts that begin with "Rob thinks..."


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Shadowgrounds breathes fresh air into the action genre with explosive combat sequences, an innovative weapon upgrade system, and an intriguing storyline. The adrenaline-pumping, top-down gameplay and audiovisual fireworks set the scene for this new action experience which also includes single computer (split keyboard or joystick) co-op play.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.


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Online Maps
Online Maps
Welcome to Online Maps. This site provides access to a wide variety of interactive map based information that is held by New Forest District Council.
You can use Online Maps to: -
- Find places or addresses within the district
- Find the nearest recycling centre, car park, school, library and more
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If this is your first visit to Online Maps, we recommend that you read system requirements. Please refer to the online help page or glossary that explains some of the terms used within this site. For further information or advice please contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
Every effort has been made to meet the needs of computer users with visual impairment or other conditions that limit accessibility, but information cannot always be presented in an accessible format due to the high graphical nature of this site.
Location information provides a text-based alternative to the information displayed on this site.
Online Maps performs best with broadband internet access. If you use standard dial-up internet connection you may find the maps take some time to download.
Please note: - The maps are intended for identification purposes only and must not be used for scaling or formal documentation.
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text:
Necrosia Animensis
'Since the vile Plante's Deceased Hoste is not technically a Part of its Anatomy, any attemptes to Kill the Monster using regular methods is likely to prove Futile, especially that of Beheading the Creature. It seems to regarde its Head as a most Unnecessary part of its Composition, and thus as it moves its Head exhibits a frightening lacke of Expression, and lolls in a way most Unpleasant to observe.'
Of the Necrosia Animensis, by Solomon Haelbergh
'A foul thing to beholde, the Necrosia Animensis (Dead Man's Seede in vulgar) is like to a great budding Plante, which bears numerous and singularly repulsive Tendrils, each extending a near seven handspans and each adorned with various clinging Spines which allow the necrosia a steady graspe upon its Prey. The Bulbe of the Plante is like to that of an enormous Onion, yet bearing upon it many Pustulent Boils like to those borne by Plague-ridden Vermin. Yet the singular most Repulsive aspecte of this Plante lies not with its outward Appearance, nor yet its terrible Stench, like to that of molde and Witches' foul herbes. This Vegetable seems to exude an intangible Aura of Fear, Loathing, and Nausea, such that even were a Gentleman within sufficient distance of the Plante yet unable to see nor smell it, still would it work its vile Charms upon the minde, forcing those near to severe Discomforte and Mental Anguish.
'Yet more repulsive than the Plante's aspects of Physical and Psychological nature is the manner by which it subsists, not upon the minerals in Soil that wholesome Vegetation so cherishes, but instead upon the discarded Bodily Manifestations of those that have Departed this Plane of Existence. With utter disrespect for the Healthe of the Spirit that has so recently evacuated the Body, this heinous Plante will spread its Seede within the Hearte of the newly Deceased and there spring to Budding and Full Growthe ... whilst Expanding within its Repulsive Neste, a bizarre Phenomenon will manifest itself, as the Deceased Corpse will begin to exhibit a Heartbeat, despite a compleat lack of the necessary Spirit for such an Operation ... As the Plante springs to Maturity, its tendrils curl around the Hearte, forcing its Chambers open and shut in a twisted Mockery of honest Living Entities ... The vile thing exudes a sort of Sap, which appears to function very much like the Bloode which courses in honest Men's veins, and is forcefully Injected into the Deceased's arteries, dissolving the dried Bloode which once made use of those very Passages for the Nourishment of a Living Being ... Within days, the Plante has gained enough Control over its Hoste so as to Animate it, as is exhibited in Twitches and Jerks of dead Muscles ... After a week, the Plante is freely able to move its Hoste as it pleases ...
'Yet this gruesome Animation is filled with an utter Lack of Human qualities, as the Monstrocity does not walk Upright as a Man, nor displays any of the Four Characteristics of Humanity as set down by Maensen: neither Beauty, Logic, Emotion, nor Vigor is present in its Being, as it simply shambles, barely standing, in search of Prey, which it falls upon and Murders, afterwards implanting its own hideous Strain within its victim in a repulsive manner like to that of Impregnation. It is for this reason that I greatly advise Against the keeping, breeding or further study of this most Awful Abomination, especially in the presence of Ladies and Womenfolk of a Sensitive nature.
'Since the vile Plante's Deceased Hoste is not technically a Part of its Anatomy, any attemptes to Kill the Monster using regular methods is likely to prove Futile, especially that of Beheading the Creature. It seems to regarde its Head as a most Unnecessary part of its Composition, and thus as it moves its Head exhibits a frightening lacke of Expression, and lolls in a way most Unpleasant to observe.
'... I can but pray to Our Champion's Holy Spirit that my exposure to such a Vile Thing has not tainted my Soul for Departure, as many Witch-practices are known to do. Despite this Creature showing no signs of Enchantments of any Dark or Unnatural persuasion, still I feel an unpleasant similarity between this repulsive Vegetable and the varied methods used in the heretical Animation of the the Dead by the accursed Witches and Warlocks whose Kind would do better to be Expunged from our Good Earthe.'
-Exerpt from Solomon Haelbergh's Anthology of Natural Phenomena , Guildhall Presses, Long Ford, 1879.
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? Responses (6)-7
It's the veggie zombie!!! Run for your lives.
I really like this-a plant that animates a body.Certain graveyards could be infested with these. 5/5
ooh, I like this one! And I love the presentation. It can double as a PC hand-out!
Very well done indeed!
Wow, this is... this is great! I find the style easy enough to read, and the idea is fantastic. I could easily see using this thing, the party thinking that it's just another ho-hum zombie clearout. But wait! Beheading does nothing? Flee!!!
Anyways, I quite like this one. Good job.


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Minecraft – Pocket Edition play.google.com.minecraftpe
Imagine it, build it. Create worlds on the go with Minecraft – Pocket Edition
The new Minecraft – Pocket Edition allows you to build on the go. Use blocks to create masterpieces as you travel, hangout with friends, sit at the park, the possibilities are endless. Move beyond the limits of your computer and play Minecraft everywhere you go.
- Randomized worlds
- Build anything you can imagine
- Build with 36 different kinds of blocks
- Invite and play with friends to your world (local wireless network)
- Save multi-player worlds on your own phone
- Xperia PLAY optimized
Note: Samsung Galaxy Tab users, please test the demo first! If it doesn't start, you will have to update your Android system software version.What's in this version: (Updated : 4 November 2016)
- What's New in Version 0.16.0:
– We're rolling out the first iteration of Add-Ons, so you can begin to change the way things in your game look and behave. Learn more at minecraft.net/addons where you can try some examples for free.
– One of the most ferocious mobs ever devised..the Wither!
– Slash commands to let you tweak how the game plays – you can give items away, summon mobs, change time of day, and more.
– Lazer-shooting elder guardians!
– Ocean monuments and the trinkets to explore them
Required Android O/S :1.6+Screenshots :
Download : 16M APK


text: Earlier this year, I backed the Tavern Cards Kickstarter from Hannah Lipsky (Swordgleam of Chaotic Shiny fame). It funded back in mid-February 2013 and I just received my cards at the end of January 2014. I was excited about the project because it combined two things I really like – random generation and easy-to-use RPG . . . → Read More: Cards Review: Tavern Cards Kickstarter