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By Michael Froehlich
and Julie Zaebst
Last month, Hurricane Irene roared through Philadelphia, flooding basements and knocking out power to thousands of local residents. A week later, Tropical Storm Lee caused more damage. And last week, the aftermath of the storms brought attention to a different kind of disaster - a man-made one blowing out of Harrisburg.
Low-income Pennsylvania families are eligible for a small amount of food stamps (now called Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits) to replace food lost because of a storm. Families have a limited number of days to claim these food stamps. But when families applied for those benefits at local welfare offices, they faced chaos and waits of more than three hours. Worse, they were given little information on eligibility and requirements.
In a lengthening recession, the state Department of Public Welfare is being called on to provide critical basic services to more Pennsylvanians with less staff. Since 2002, the number of workers at the department has dropped by 13 percent. At the same time, caseloads have nearly doubled, with each worker now handling an average of 472 food stamp and Medicaid cases.
Hardworking county welfare staffs can't keep up with the growing workload. This year's state budget included another $56 million in cuts to welfare department operations and welfare-to-work services.
Meanwhile, waits of more than two or three hours have become common at welfare offices. Phone lines are jammed, and messages often go unreturned. Several years ago, the Philadelphia office set up a customer service center to handle inquiries from clients. Today, fewer than one in five calls to the center is picked up.
In addition, the welfare office now rejects more than a third of applications for food stamps. Nearly half of the rejections are because the welfare office believes an applicant has failed to provide documentation or make an appointment. In our experience assisting welfare recipients, however, these rejections can often be attributed to documents misplaced by overwhelmed skeleton crews or to ineffectual "phone tag" between officials and applicants with busy work, child-care, and school schedules.
The system is collapsing under the weight of an increasing workload, with fewer workers to handle it and a state government oblivious to the impact.
When low-income families must spend entire days at a welfare office waiting to see a caseworker or return several times to turn in the same piece of paper, it's time they're not spending at work, looking for work, going to school, or tending to their children.
Continuous cuts to the Department of Public Welfare have undone essential government functions. Welfare caseworkers are doing the best they can, but, as we saw last week, they are completely overwhelmed. The greatest consequences are to those who can least afford them.


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A range of single residential lots are now available located just 500m from the Denham township. Prices start from just $99,000.View Land for Sale >
Denham is a coastal hamlet located at the centre of the Shark Bay World Heritage area, 830km north of Perth. The town is well known for tourist attractions including Monkey Mia, Shell Beach, Hamelin Pool stromatolites, Steep Point, Cape Inscription and Dirk Hartog Island.
The area is growing in popularity as a premier tourist destination and to help meet increasing demand for homes we have developed Stage 1 of a new residential estate adjacent to the main town.

subset: commoncrawl


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Artist description:
OMG i had ink left 12%!!!!! wow thx so much mick^^ hope you like my drawing ... ref pic >> [Link]
Flash Draw Created Aug 07, 2008 470 x 338px Unless noted Copyright 2008 Shinigami.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
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all time fav!
fantastic skills with the flash tool :)
aweeeeeesomeee!!! :D :D
she is so beautiful!!!
u r great artist
u are really good painter))
OMG this is so FANTASTIC 5h.
I never will ask you to kiss me! Wonderful 5/5.
verryyy realistic!!...
amazing, awesome, perfect , beautiful , realistic. awesome job


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As CEOs and chief operating officers worry about the current government contracting market trends, their business development leads are scrambling to find new business opportunities for their pipelines. But are they focused on the right pipeline?
Evidence suggests our intake of job applicants with appropriate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills will be lacking. U.S. STEM jobs are projected to grow by 14 percent by 2020. Data suggests 62 percent increases in biomedical engineers, 36 percent in medical scientists, 32 percent in systems software developers, 22 percent in computer systems analysts, and 16 percent in mathematics jobs in the near term, but less than 25 percent of American high school seniors are interested in STEM fields, and the numbers of college graduates with STEM degrees is declining.
When compared to 60+ other industrialized nations, the U.S. consistently ranks in the middle of the pack with respect to STEM education. We fall in the mid-20's in math and rank in the 30's in science. This trend is bad for business, bad for the economy and bad for our national security.
The successes our nation has experienced over the last several decades were due to our prowess in science, technology and engineering. Our innovation drove new markets and profits, and grew our economy. Our nation's welfare is dependent on a strong STEM workforce to constantly improve critical infrastructures like water, food, and energy supply; health services; and computers and communications. We also depend on STEM for our military capabilities, intelligence, and cyber security.
With so much riding on a STEM pipeline, it is more critical than ever for industry to join forces with government and academia to help increase STEM awareness, offer assistance and engender the kind of support needed to encourage K-12 students to learn about and pursue STEM degrees and career fields.
This is why events like the March 8th WashingtonExec K-12 STEM Symposium sponsored by Leidos are so important. Industry and government alike need to attract young people to pursue STEM education by exposing them to the vast opportunities in STEM careers.
The event was attended by over 1,500 participants, with teachers, parents and students having fun, learning, and getting hands-on experience. Attendees talked to motivational speakers including Sandy Magnus, a former NASA astronaut who spent over five months in space, as well as senior executives from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Google, Northrop Grumman and Leidos.
The symposium offered a unique experience for students to interact directly with members of industry and government in STEM career fields.
The symposium also included a large number of exhibitors including the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program, FIRST Robotics, The Children's Science Center, The U.S. Air Force Association's CyberPatriot Program, NASA, George Mason University, and many others.
Key themes throughout the day included the need to encourage children to explore STEM at an early age; that growth comes from trial and error; and most importantly the turnaround in U.S. STEM education must be through a strong partnership in which industry can play a leading role.
CEO's and COO's need to routinely ask about progress in this pipeline too. Attention from the top of an organization to the bottom is critical.
About the Author
Rob Zitz is the senior vice president of the national security sector for Leidos.
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Mr. Zits makes a lot of good points. However, it is well known that many star programmers and engineers do not have knowledge gained with early STEM skills. Relatedly, people with early-STEM and the right degrees turn out, some time, to be very ineffective in their technical work and have poor social and people-handling skills. Many top technology contractors keep their tech wizards in the back room because of this. Finally, the lesson that "growth comes with trial and error," cited by Mr. Zits is something most of the large contractors do every day, especially those like the ones he named that have a lot of cost-type contracts. It is not hard t o learn on the government's nickel, and it is done every day. This sweet (soft?) spot in the business arrangement lets a lot of companies do without people with the right STEM education background, including the right college degrees. It is just a feature of our business, well known and appreciated by shareholders, employees and a great number of customers who also lack the STEM background. But it is good of Mr. Zits to try to build up a STEM program. At a minimum it could benefit the com pay.
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The first official IKA kite cross world championship will be run from October 12-16 during the EUROSAF High Performance Grand Prix in Murcia, Spain.
6000 Euro prizemoney are up for grabs, and 406 points for the world ranking.
To hold the kite cross worlds inside the EUROSAF high performance Grand Prix in a regatta together with foiling moth, misto skiffs and other spectacular boats enable us to showcase the diversity of the racing discipline and potential suitability for the Olympic Regatta.
Kite Course Racing may be added to the regatta to showcase the full potentional and diversity of the kite racing disciplines.
The Notice of Race will be published in the next days.


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Asked by Waman R. Kumar
Q. Ok, let me confess first, it was question asked in Linux job interview. Question was after typing crontab -u user -e or crontab -e command system gave back some error code to user, he further told me that crond and and other utilities are installed. How to fix this problem? Not to mentioned I was unable to answer question. So what is the solution to such unseen problem?
A. crontab is the program used to install, deinstall or list the tables used to drive the cron daemon/service in Vixie Cron. Each user can have their own crontab, and though these are files in /var/spool/cron/crontabs (under Debian), they are not intended to be edited directly. So first you use crontab -e command. If variable EDITOR is not defined in your environment you will use ed text editor – it is a line-oriented text editor. Try following (under BASH)
$ export EDITOR=ed
$ crontab -u user -e
70 ?
Type q and hit enter to exit. Now setup EDITOR to vim
$ export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
$ crontab -u user -e
Now it will open in vim/vi text editor. This kind of questions asked in Linux/UNIX job interview to test your basic knowledge of Operating system. So it is always good idea to define EDITOR variable in you shell startup file such as .bash_profile.
And, yes you can use use crontab command with sys account too:
# crontab -u sys -e


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Integrated solutions
If you are looking for complete solution including an input system, display, electronics, and housing, you will find this full service within the SCHURTER group. Many projects require plug & play solutions, providing you with the benefit of one partner with the high end facilities of SCHURTER. This gives you the possibility to focus on your core-business.
Our integrated systems are based on the following technologies
• Resistive touchscreens
• Projected capacitive touchscreens
• Membrane Switches
• Capacitive switches, sliders and/or wheels
• Housings, including design
• Silicon keypads
• Industrial Graphics
• Components
• EMC services
• EMS services including electronic designs
Examples of integrated solutions are
• Complete HMI units
• Integrated embedded systems
• Integrated displays
• Integrated housings
• Optical Bonding of display and touchscreen
Our other solutions
Swipe to the left and right for more options


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As the NCAA basketball tournament reminds us, there's nothing quite like a nothing-but-net, buzzer-beating, three-point shot that gives one team a climactic, decisive win as the crowd goes wild.
But although Democrats believe that they're close to their own net-cutting ceremony — namely, the signing of a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health insurance system — the precise moment of victory will be a bit less clear than the final moments of a tournament game.
On Sunday afternoon, the House of Representatives is expected to hold a climactic vote on the Senate-passed version of the health care bill. The vote will determine whether or not the president signs into law legislation that overhauls the way that Americans buy and keep their health insurance. If Democrats get the 216 "yes" votes they need to pass the bill — and they appear optimistic that they will — they will trumpet the passage of the legislation as a victory for the ages.
U.S. & World
But the bill that the president will sign contains some unpopular measures, including special benefits for individual states like Nebraska. Both the House and the Senate must act to scrub those provisions to end up with a final product that most Democrats can tolerate.
(The Senate's version of the health overhaul is so unpalatable that House Democratic leaders originally planned to try to approve the bill indirectly, with members voting on a measure to merely "deem" it passed. But the strategy came under heavy GOP criticism, with some even questioning its constitutionality, and the plan was nixed in favor of a direct vote on the Senate bill.)
The House is now expected to hold a series of votes Sunday, with debate starting after the body is gaveled into session at 1 p.m. EST.
The first vote, expected to take place around 3 p.m. EST, will be on a "rule" dictating the parameters of debate on the bill.
Later on Sunday, the House will vote on the "reconciliation" package, a series of "fixes" to correct problems in the bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve in 2009.
Those fixes must be approved by the Senate before they can take effect. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday pledging that his caucus would vote to approve the corrections, which require 51 votes for approval, but Republicans may be able to derail that process.
The big moment for House Democrats will be Sunday's final vote to approve the Senate-passed bill. If there are 216 "yes" votes or more, the bill will go to the president's desk to be signed and enacted.
That moment will be as close as Democrats will get to their own version of the NCAA's "One Shining Moment," but there will be another tough game in the Senate before a real victory dance can take place. Even if the president signs the overhaul into law, there's still work to be done in the Senate as that chamber works to approve the "fixes" initiated by the House.
Here's the key rule of reconciliation that Republicans think they may be able to use to derail the fixes package in the Senate. Under the Senate's "Byrd Rule," named after its author Sen. Robert Byrd, D- W.V., any senator can raise an objection (called "a point of order") to any part of the reconciliation bill that does not address budgetary matters. The extraneous matter would be removed from the bill if the parliamentarian upholds that point of order. Sixty votes would be needed to overturn that decision.
Republicans believe they have identified several key provisions that could be vulnerable to this rule. The result could be legislation that is the policy equivalent of Swiss cheese, with major pieces missing.
If a single word of the reconciliation bill is changed in the Senate, the bill will have to go back to the House and approved again.
And Republicans think that's a real possibility. "If those people think they're only going to vote on this once, they're nuts," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in an interview with Bloomberg.
NBC's Shawna Thomas contributed to this report.


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Ingrid Michaelson Tickets
Ingrid Michaelson is among the very few female singers who have gained immense popularity in a very short time. Known for her unusual vocal texture, Ingrid is surely a great addition to the genre of indie-pop. In just the last few years Ingrid Michaelson has released five studio albums with most of them hitting the charts at various positions. Come and enjoy a tuneful evening enriched with indie-pop music of Ingrid by booking Ingrid Michaelson tickets .
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Born in Staten Island in the year 1979 Ingrid Michaelson complete name is Ingrid Ellen Egbert Michaelson. She was born in an artistic family as her mother is a fine sculptor artist while her father is a seasoned composer. She started getting her early music training at the tender age of four and by the time she was seven she was quite fluent at it. After that she continued getting music and singing lessons at the Delson Kuhn Music Institute in Staten Island. While Ingrid was in high school she was trained in singing by a famous vocal teacher by the name of Elizabeth McCullough. Ingrid Michaelson has a degree in theater from the Binghamton University. She had been pretty active in musical as well as comedy theater but eventually she took up music as a profession. She is primarily a lyricist and singer but is quite fluent at playing instruments like ukulele, piano and guitar.
Ingrid Michaelson came into the music industry in the year 2002 and since then she continues to delight the critics as well as her critics from the immense potential that she possess. Michaelson debut album was a self-released effort called Slow the Rain that came out in the year 2005. The album failed to get the attention of audience and didn't hit the charts. Michaelson gained recognition with the release of her second studio album called Girls and Boys in the year 2006. Released by Cabin 24 Records the album was applauded by fans and managed to land at #1 on US Top Heatseekers charts, 36 on US Indie charts, #63 on Billboard and #100 on German charts. Be Ok was the third album by her that went on sale in music stores in 2008, this album showed a much improved chart position as it was at #2 on US Indie, #13 on US Top Rock and #35 Billboard.
Everybody was the fourth album came out in 2009 and again showed a considerable improvement on charts racing to the #7 slot on US Top Rock and #18 on US Billboard. The latest album till date by Ingrid Michaelson was released in early 2012 and it was named Human Again, this album as of yet remains Michaelson highest charting album. Human Again was her first album that charted at #22 in Canada, it was also #1 on US Indie charts and last but not the least #2 and #5 on Top Rock and Billboard respectively. Some of the singles of Ingrid Michaelson has been used in a number of popular TV series like The House Bunny, Grey's Anatomy, pretty Little Liars and Body of Proof. Popular choreographer Travis Wall for an episode of So You Think you Can Dance used one of the duet songs of Michaelson for his dance performance, the name of the single was Turn To Stone.
If you want to spend your weekend in style then we strongly urge you to go and watch her upcoming concert by booking Ingrid Michaelson tickets as soon as you can.
Ingrid Michaelson announces 'The Dramatic Tour'
Ingrid Michaelson Ticket Prices
Currently the average price for Ingrid Michaelson tickets is $108. The date and location for this event is 13-Dec-19 at Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte. The minimum get-in price for Ingrid Michaelson tickets is $30.
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Business Rates
Business Rates (also known as Non-Domestic Rates), collected by local authorities, is the way that those who occupy a non-domestic property contribute towards the cost of local services. Under the current business rates scheme, authorities keep a proportion of the business rates paid locally. Given that authorities will benefit from growth in business rates revenues; this provides a direct financial incentive for local authorities to work with businesses in their area to create a favourable local environment for growth.
Business Rate income, together with revenue from council tax payers, revenue support grant provided by the Government and certain other sums, is used to help pay for the services provided by New Forest District Council, Hampshire County Council and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.


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An excerpt, because I'm trying to drum up some traffic right now...
Informal Communist Discussion
Goddamn Communists and their goddamn Communist hot rods keep driving up and down all over my Capitalist street, spreading filthy Communist exhaust all over my starched white Capitalist linen. I hate those Communists and their hot rods, souped-up muscle cars with big tires and roll cages, laughing and snorting cocaine and pointing at me and saying "down with the Capitalists, man." Driving arround in their Communist hot rods. They leave pot holes in the roads, these jacked-up funny cars, burnt rubber all over the intersections of the Capitalist streets as the Communists hammer down on the pedal and just go, baby, roaring off into a sunset free of McDonald's burgers and refined sugar injected into baby carrot shoots to make them more appealing to children. Burnt rubber stink and they're gone and all the old people come out of their houses onto Libertarian porches and say "there go the Communists" and sit and rock and look at the Capitalist pavement as the Monarchists walk their bulldogs. But the goddamn Communists are always back the next day in their goddamn Communist hot-rods, waving organic bread and belching fire and squealing up and down my Capitalist streets.


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Oh boy, first time I've ever posted DT fanart here.
Linking, because I uploaded it to dA much bigger than intended: http://waitingformyrainbow.deviantart.com/art/The-Empath-323595323
Right now I'm in the middle of finding a method of colouring that's both comfortable for me and doesn't take a month for me to use. While this style does fit for both, I'm still not 100% on going forward with it. So yeah, I'd love to get comments/advice on how to improve it a bit. I've got a sketchbook brimming with DT fanart that I've left uncoloured purely because my old way looked terrible, and I'd really like to get started on some of it
I'm thinking if I do upload more I should keep it in this topic? It seems to be the done thing on this bit of the forum.


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Karen J. Bannan
First Published on btobonline.com
Every year around this time, marketers, industry pundits and vendors begin to speculate about the coming year. UK Marketing solutions provider Message Systems this month released six predictions for 2013. Carrie Scott, director-product and direct marketing, and John Pinson, senior manager-content marketing, explained what Message Systems' predictions will mean for b2b email marketers in the coming year.
More brands will use a broader array of social media channels to identify online influencers and engage in two-way communications with customers, with Linkedin experiencing the fastest overall growth.
"Email has been the workhorse for so long that now it's time for marketers to find a way to use email with social," Scott said. "Yes, social is very influential and is an incredible way of having a dialogue; but you need to use email in conjunction with it as a way to go cross-channel in order to continue that conversation."
Recently, Pinson said, Message Systems started promoting a webinar with social and email, and the sign-ups have topped the 300 mark. Typically, they max out at 100 when the company focuses solely on one channel.
Counter to popular opinion, email will remain the most widespread and effective direct marketing channel and still deliver the highest ROI.
Message Systems did a survey earlier this year and expected to find that marketers were moving away from email; but survey respondents said they were planning to invest almost as much in email as in previous years. The take-away: You'll need to be investing in email in 2013 since your competitors surely are. ("Marketing Channel and Engagement Benchmark Survey," conducted online in September, polled 100 Message Systems customers and digital marketing professionals.)
Marketing and IT decision-makers will migrate from out- to in-sourcing customer service and email marketing, with a focus on investing in the in-house, on-premise model.
Several analysts recently released reports that said marketers want more control not just over content but databases. "They want to be able to leverage their data," Scott said. Marketers will need to allocate time to find the right tools and platforms to allow this to happen, she said.
Retailers will take cues from social networks such as Linkedin and Facebook, and engage with customers on their terms and contact preferences.
Email marketers say they have been doing this for years—creating preference centers—Pinson said. However, the 2012 Message System study found that only 50% of marketers actually have preference centers. This will need to change because subscribers are demanding control, he said.
Businesses will consolidate customer data into one holistic view and message to customers more intelligently.
Again, this is something email marketers have been hearing about for years: Removing silos between marketing groups to provide a more cohesive message to subscribers no matter how they engage. "Siloed information makes it impossible to have that true conversation with the customer," Scott said. If your company is still siloed, now may be the time to broach breaking down barriers and creating a cohesive marketing unit, she said.
Marketers will finally make the full leap to the small screen.
Marketers have been designing for mobile users for several years now. However, Scott said, this may be the year more people access email on mobile rather than desktops. This means your focus should shift more toward mobile design and marketing, she said. "You have to design first for the small screen," she said. "You can't design just for mouse clicks and extensive keyboard support."


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Rodgers focuses on flexibility
GREEN BAY — At age 30, Aaron Rodgers understands the importance of flexibility – in more ways than one.
As a result, the Green Bay Packers quarterback feels great physically, and he's trying to be positive about personnel changes on the offensive side of the ball.
He is excited about the possibilities with his new wide receivers. He likes the vibe the arrival of Julius Peppers has brought to the locker room. And he and his new position coach are building on the close relationship they already had.
Other than being a bit apprehensive about the idea of his fourth opening-day center in four years, life is pretty good for Rodgers a week into organized team activity practices.
"I'm OK right now," Rodgers said with a smile after last week's open OTA practice.
It begins with his health, having suffered through his first extended injury-induced time on the sideline last season following a Nov. 4 fractured left collarbone. The injury occurred on the opening series of what would end up being a home loss to the Chicago Bears, and Rodgers would miss the next seven games. The Packers went 2-5-1 before Rodgers returned for the regular-season finale in Chicago, where he threw a game-winning 48-yard, fourth-down, last-minute touchdown pass to Randall Cobb to send the Packers to the playoffs and their third straight NFC North title.
While Rodgers said he did alter his offseason workouts slightly in the wake of the injury – "There were some things I shied away from, some heavy lifting, especially shoulder stuff in the offseason," he said – he said he didn't have any lingering effects from it. He simply rehabbed the injury, did his normal workout routine and added yoga to his regimen.
"I did a lot of yoga," Rodgers said, who then joked with a reporter about needing to do yoga himself. "A lot of flexibility [is about] helping with those injuries as you get older. … I just had to rest and get into my routine when I did. I did my rehab and took it slow and feel good."
Rodgers also feels good about the team's addition of Peppers, the former Bears defensive end who was cut by Chicago and signed with the Packers on March 15. Rodgers has been outspoken in applauding the move, and he doesn't seem inclined to stop now. He also likes the addition of lesser-known veteran defensive lineman Letroy Guion, the potential improvement of some of his younger teammates and the addition of the rookies taken during the draft.
"We're going to wait on some of those guesses and goals and stuff. [But] it is exciting to look around and see a Julius Peppers here, to see a Letroy Guion right here, to see some of the guys we've added and to see some of the young guys," Rodgers said. "As I did and as a lot of young guys here have done, there's often big jumps between Years 1 and 2 and 2 and 3. A lot of guys have fit in those windows who are really looking to make big jumps. It will be exciting to watch those guys this spring, and then into the summer and then the fall and see what guys separate themselves and make this team and become big role players for us."
A few of those players will be at wide receiver, where Rodgers had Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Greg Jennings, James Jones, Donald Driver and Jarrett Boykin two years ago – and now only Nelson, Cobb and Boykin remain. Second-round pick Davante Adams, fifth-round pick Jared Abbrederis and seventh-round pick Jeff Janis will compete with young veteran holdovers Myles White and Chris Harper to fill the void created by Jones, who went to Oakland as a free agent.
"We needed to add some depth there," Rodgers said. "[I'm] excited about the guys we brought in; also excited about the possibility of some guys coming back. Jarrett came off a season where he really improved, Myles did some really nice things and Chris Harper showed signs as well during practice. There's going to be a lot of competition and I would think some strong consideration about keeping an extra guy there as opposed to some years past."
Rodgers chose his words carefully when asked about the center position, where Scott Wells was the opening day starter in 2011, Jeff Saturday in 2012, Evan Dietrich-Smith last season and presumably second-year man JC Tretter or rookie fifth-round pick Corey Linsley will get the call on Sept. 4. While he called Tretter, who basically took a medical redshirt last season after a broken ankle in the first OTA practice last spring, "a really bright guy," he also made it clear that the youngsters will have to prove themselves in training camp.
"It is a big challenge. It's tough," said Rodgers, who had hoped the team would re-sign Dietrich-Smith, who signed as a free agent with Tampa Bay instead. "You'd like to play with one guy for an extended period of time. I thought that might be Scott, and then we brought in Jeff, which we knew was a short term thing and then Evan, again, a guy who made some strides and played really well. [I] thought that he was going to be the guy of the future, but we went in a different direction and we've got to get one of these young guys ready.
"Hopefully we can get a guy who can stick for five or six years. I think as a quarterback you really appreciate when you can have some continuity there and some consistently as far as the same guy being there for multiple years."
When it was suggested that his mastery of the offense lessens the importance of the center being a veteran, Rodgers disagreed.
"I appreciate the faith in me, but I think that center's a very vital position to every offense," Rodgers replied. "Anybody who plays that spot has the luxury of playing with two of the smartest guys on our football team on either side of him in [guards] T.J. (Lang) and Josh (Sitton). I'm confident one of those guys will emerge and step up and be ready to play come Week 1."
Asked about Rodgers' apprehension about the center position, offensive coordinator Tom Clements wasn't concerned.
"I don't think anyone really likes change, but he adapts as well as anyone," Clements said. "[Continuity] is always better, but it doesn't always happen the way you want it to happen. There's change every year. You have to adapt to it. And we'll get the best player in there to help us."
The other change for Rodgers is new quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, who slides over to replace Ben McAdoo after two seasons as the team's running backs coach. Rodgers and Van Pelt, a former quarterback with the Buffalo Bills who coached quarterbacks in both Buffalo and Tampa Bay before joining the Packers staff, actually hit it off from the moment Van Pelt was hired in 2012, so that transition has been seamless.
And Van Pelt has liked what he's seen from the now 30-year-old Rodgers, who's entering his 10th NFL season and seventh as the starter.
"For a guy like him coming back for Year 9 in the offense, you want to see the drive, the fire, the competitiveness that he has," Van Pelt said. "He's had that [so far]. He's locked in right now, and that's what you want. A lot of guys can come in and slide through the cracks and get through the OTAs, but we're getting stuff done, and it starts with him."
Listen to Jason Wilde every weekday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on "Green & Gold Today," and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jasonjwilde.


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An action packed, super-magical twisting routine without the tough moves or angles!
Only the most visual and direct twisting routine EVER! Cause four cards to twist (turn over magically) over and over again without any angle-y half passes or turnover moves. Twist them over and over again without re-adjusting the cards after every twist! Show both faces and backs of the cards freely along every step of the way. Twist3 just may become your favorite and most magic-packed packet trick.
Do you own this product? Write a review.


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|Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on June 5, 2018
At the invitation of the government of the Russian Federation, Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping and Vice Premiere of the State Council Sun Chunlan will travel to Russia to attend the opening ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup from June 12 to 15.
Q: Russian President Putin will pay a state visit to China, besides attending the SCO Qingdao Summit. Do you know the specific schedule of his state visit?
A: This will be President Putin's first state visit to China since his re-election and also the first meeting between the two heads of state in 2018, thus boasting great significance in planning the future course of China-Russia relations and promoting all-around cooperation. During President Putin's visit, President Xi Jinping will hold large-group and small-group meetings with him. Besides exchanging views on bilateral relations, major-area cooperation and international and regional issues of mutual interest, the two presidents will jointly meet the press and attend signing ceremonies and welcoming banquets. As usual, the two sides will issue important political documents and ink cooperation documents covering a wide range of areas. These official activities aside, there are other highlights of President Putin's state visit, such as some people-to-people exchanges and cultural events where the two heads of state will engage in in-depth discussions amid a more relaxed and cordial atmosphere. We believe that with the concerted efforts of the two sides, President Putin's visit will be a fruitful and successful one, providing strong impetus to the development of China-Russia relations.
Q: Does China have any comments regarding reports that the US military is considering sailing a warship through the Taiwan Strait?
A: We have repeatedly emphasized that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive one sitting at the core of the China-US relationship. The US should strictly adhere to the one-China principle and the three joint Communiqués and prudently handle the Taiwan issue so as to avoid harming bilateral ties and cross-Straits peace and stability.
Q: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the Formal Meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs in South Africa. Could you give us more details on this meeting? Under the current international circumstance, what special role can the BRICS cooperation play in addressing global challenges?
A: On June 4 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the Formal Meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs in South Africa, which was held to lay the groundwork for the BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg in July. All participates had a robust exchange of views and reached important consensus on deepening BRICS cooperation, promoting common development, maintaining world stability and jointly rising up to global challenges.
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out that the world is witnessing unprecedented changes in a century and is faced with the challenges of "three deficits" in governance, trust and development. The BRICS countries have major international responsibilities when it comes to world stability and common development. The BRICS countries should hold high the banner of political settlement and seek to resolve hot-spot issues through dialogue and negotiation. We need to adhere to the principle of fairness and justice and maintain the fundamental norms of international relations. We should stick to the concept of multilateralism and bolster the central role of the United Nations in international affairs. The BRICS countries should make collective efforts to deepen pragmatic economic cooperation, strengthen political and security cooperation, and expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges. The BRICS should continuously expand the circle of friends with the "BRICS plus" model and join hands in addressing new threats and new challenges so as to create a more enabling and stable environment not only for their respective development but also for global development. We hope that the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in July and the Beijing Summit of China-Africa Cooperation Forum in September could complement each other and forge synergy in promoting peace and prosperity for Africa.
During this Foreign Ministers' Meeting, all participating foreign ministers spoke highly of the important contributions China made as last year's BRICS chair. It is agreed that with complex changes taking place on the international stage, the BRICS countries should strengthen coordination and cooperation, deepen strategic partnership, and work together to uphold multilateralism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and safeguard the basic norms of international relations. All participants also voiced their full support for South Africa in ensuring a successful BRICS Summit and committed themselves to sending positive and strong signals and contributing to global stability.
Q: On June 1, US President Trump told the media that as the US-DPRK relations are improving, he does not want to use the expression "maximum pressure" any more. What is your comment?
A: In recent days all relevant parties have been closely following the progress in the preparations for the US-DPRK summit. We have noted that recently the DPRK and the US held close talks on their leaders' summit and made positive progress. We hope that the two sides could cherish the consensus and progress they have achieved, continue with their preparations for the summit, and keep moving forward along the right path of politically resolving the Korean Peninsula issue.
Q: The Australian Foreign Minister recently criticized China for pressuring the airline Qantas to change how it refers to Taiwan on its website, saying that the activities of private companies should not be subject to political pressure. What is China's comment?
A: I have noted relevant reports. There is only one China in the world and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao have always been parts of China. This is an objective fact, a common sense as well as the general consensus of the international community. The relevant issue is not a general procedural or technical one. What the relevant Chinese department has asked for is based on the consistent and firm position held by the Chinese government on the one-China principle and is thus legal and legitimate. It has nothing to do with the so-called "political inference" or "political pressure". All companies operating in China should abide by the Chinese laws and regulations and respect and follow the one-China principle. That is the least they must do.
Q: A Chinese tourist group had an accident in Canada, with one killed and at least three injured. Do you have any updates?
A: On the afternoon of June 4, a tourist bus with 35 Chinese citizens aboard had a traffic accident in eastern Ontario, Canada, killing one and injuring many. The injured were immediately sent to the nearby hospital.
Upon learning the tragic accident, the Chinese Embassy in Canada and the Consulate General in Toronto activated emergency response mechanism at once. They contacted local police for more details and asked the Canadian side to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible. They made clear that the travel agency involved should shoulder its responsibility and properly take care of such matters as medical treatment and compensation for the Chinese tourists. The Chinese Embassy staff in Canada have visited the injured in hospital. The Foreign Ministry has reached out to the relevant local government in China and asked it to urge the domestic travel agency to take up its responsibility. The Foreign Ministry and our diplomatic missions in Canada will continue to follow the development of the accident and work with relevant departments to make proper follow-up arrangements.


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All these calls to do something and when something is done, its a shake down... AND THEY WANT TO APOLOGIZE TO BP's CEO for it?
Texas lawmaker accuses White House of BP shakedown - Yahoo! News
Thu Jun 17, 10:36 am ET
WASHINGTON A leading House Republican accused the White House Thursday of a "$20 billion shakedown" of oil giant BP by requiring the company to establish a huge fund to compensate those hurt by the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Rep. Joe Barton made the assertion at the outset of a House hearing where BP's chief executive officer, Tony Hayward, was appearing for the first time before Congress.
Facing Hayward at the witness table, the Texas Republican congressman said, "I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House" on Wednesday. Barton was referring to the agreement that President Barack Obama announced with BP for establishment of a $20 billion relief fund.
Rep. Ed Markey sharply disagreed with Barton.
Markey said the compensation fund was "not a slush fund, not a shakedown. ... It was the government of the United States working to protect the most vulnerable citizens that we have in our country right now, the residents of the Gulf."
"It's BP's spill," the Massachusetts Democrat said, "but it is America's ocean, and it is America's citizens who are being harmed. ... No, this is not a shakedown of the company."


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Aspirations for dream homes and cars are not just for the young, many of us live this dream after we turn 50 by carrying out major spending on homes, cars and holidays.
Part of this could well be driven by retirement as almost half of people say they notice more repairs that need to be done to their home since retiring.
Two thirds have bought a new kitchen, the same number have bought a new bathroom and two thirds say they have carried out major work to their home.
According to the research by Saga Personal Loans amongst over 8,000 over 50s, these home projects do not come cheap; typically people said they spent around £17,000 on renovations, they spend around £5,000 on a new bathroom and £13,000 on a new kitchen. People seem keen to continually revamp their homes, with one in eight typically refitting the bathroom twice and carrying out three-six major home improvements.
And the spending does not just stop at home - people over 50 account for almost half of the UK's spend on motoring. Having a reliable car is a key concern whether they need it for commuting, shopping or for leisure, which could explain why a people in their 70s say they have bought three new cars since turning 50.
Wanderlust also kicks in once the children have left home or people stop working. People are keen to spend their extra time travelling the world, typically taking 7 foreign holidays in their 50s, whilst people in their 70s said they had had 22 foreign holidays since turning 50.
When it comes to paying to achieve their dreams, much of this is achieved by diligent saving throughout their working lives, others use income by continuing to work for longer either full or part time, some use the equity they have built up in their homes and many use loans to pay for maintaining their lifestyle.
Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, managing director, Saga Money, commented: "We all have aspirations to maintain or improve our lifestyle as we go through life and these options should be open to people even when they stop working. New cars and home improvements are the key reasons people take out loans after 50, but many people are denied a loan because of arbitrary or income age limits requirements from lenders.
"As we get older our income sources become more diverse; typically we have a steady pension income and often earn further income from investment and other sources. Lenders have been short sighted by turning down people by looking only at earned income which is one of the reasons we launched Saga Personal Loans, to give more people access to credit they can afford in order to live the way they want to.
"Industry research also shows us that people over 55 are keen to pay off their debts as quickly as possible and as loans give them an absolute end date and the ability to overpay, they often prefer using a loan to spending on a credit card."


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BACKGROUND IMAGE: iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
- FeatureTape bulks up to keep pace with disk
- FeatureThe lowdown on replication appliances
- FeatureCDP comes down to Earth
- FeatureBackup outsourcers think small
- FeatureSurvey Says: Compliance-minded companies opt for CAS
- FeatureStorage salaries increase
- FeatureFile formats that stand the test of time
- FeatureFile Systems: The state of the art
- FeatureMac backup app picks up the slack
- FeatureQuality Awards: What are the best midrange arrays?
- TipEasing away from ESCON
- FeatureSecure your backups
- FeatureLow risk or low gain?
- FeatureCDP poised to replace traditional backup methods
- FeatureThe business aspect of data storage security
- FeatureHow many backup apps do you have?
- FeatureHow good is your disaster recovery plan
iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Quality Awards: What are the best midrange arrays?
Midrange array users are a generally satisfied group, according to the latest Diogenes Labs-Storage magazine Quality Awards survey. While all midrange array vendors fared quite well in this third installment of our awards program, the vendor that snared top honors might surprise some people.
All in all, midrange array users are a satisfied bunch, but the winner of the Quality Award in this category might surprise some people.
Midrange storage arrays aren't just for smaller companies and remote offices anymore--they've earned their place in the data center right next to enterprise arrays. The trend toward tiered storage environments has taken root to the point that Diogenes Labs estimates 70% of Global 2000 companies have a defined multitier storage strategy. Although the cost of midrange storage arrays is 30% to 50% less than enterprise storage on a per-terabyte basis, many organizations have enough midrange storage that they spend in absolute dollars the same amount for midrange and enterprise storage. Moreover, based on conversations with users and vendors, we expect the share of midrange storage to continue growing to the point that the split between the two types will be 60% midrange to 40% enterprise by 2008 to 2009. In more than 50% of organizations, the midrange and enterprise array vendors are different, indicating little technical advantage to having a single supplier for both.
|Survey products
The following midrange arrays were included in the Quality Awards survey:
The top midrange array is ...
Long recognized for its dominant market position among tape products, StorageTek doesn't necessarily come to mind when considering excellence in disk products. But that perception should change. In our survey, StorageTek not only won, it dominated the competition in achieving a No. 1 ranking in every survey category. (StorageTek's midrange disk products are manufactured by Engenio Information Technologies, as are several other vendors' products in our survey.) "StorageTek has always been kind of a trailblazer of technologies," says Dan Evans, director of technical services at Cleveland's St. Vincent Charity Hospital. "I think StorageTek has a lot of benefits to bring to Sun--it'll be interesting to see how those product lines evolve as a result."
NetApp finished a strong second, placing in that position in every category except sales-force competence (where it came in third). In fact, StorageTek and NetApp were the only vendors with products that placed in the top half in every category (see "Overall ranking of midrange arrays," next page).
Users apparently have a much more favorable impression of midrange arrays than enterprise arrays. In our enterprise array survey, the majority of responses fell between a rating of 4.7 and 5.7 (4.5 is the neutral marker on an 8.0 scale). Average responses for the midrange survey were a point higher, falling between 5.7 and 6.7. For the first time in any of our surveys, a product achieved a category rating above 7.0: StorageTek did it twice, earning a 7.11 for initial product quality and a 7.03 for product features. As impressive as that is, all of the products received high scores, reflecting a high level of satisfaction in a competitive field. Even EMC's Clariion, which was the only product to place in the bottom half in every category, had an overall rating of 5.75, which is substantially above the 4.5 neutral marker. Nevertheless, readers who have followed these Quality Awards will note that EMC had the lowest ranked product in both the enterprise and midrange array surveys.
Sales-force competence
The sales-force competence category was designed to assess a vendor's ability to sell the proper system. Inappropriate products will result in dissatisfied users. Doug McDaniel, IT director at St. Louis-based Maritz Inc., experienced some disappointment in dealing with EMC's sales force. "They're very aggressive in their sales approach," he says, "and some of the things they promised don't necessarily pan out after the product is on the floor."
But Evans, who also has EMC Clariions in his shop, likes working with EMC and feels the firm anticipates his needs well. "I'm getting notifications of things that I'm thinking about," says Evans, "and I'm getting that information without actually calling them."
In formulating the survey, we surmised that a significant number of systems were acquired through resellers and we wanted to know if this would influence user satisfaction. Only 35% of the systems in our survey were bought through resellers, with the rest purchased directly from the manufacturers. We didn't find any trend with respect to particular resellers, and the data didn't provide any conclusive evidence that one channel or the other resulted in greater satisfaction.
StorageTek, the winner of the sales-force competence category, had a 50/50 split between sales through resellers and direct sales. No vendor had more than 50% of its sales through channels. Sun had the highest percentage of direct sales (81%).
One significant result was that the lowest top and overall scores in our survey were for sales-force competence and technical support. This is an important finding as the scores reflect the "people" aspect of the survey, whereas the other categories (product features, initial quality and reliability) are primarily "technology" issues. Vendors that wish to improve their scores should therefore focus on sales-force competence and technical support.
Product features
The product features section determined how well each product meets a user's needs based on their perception, rather than on a list of functions. Our survey inquiries focused on software functionality. StorageTek's 7.03 was not only the highest score, but was more than a half-point higher than second place NetApp (see "Features ranking of midrange arrays," previous page). StorageTek was almost a full point higher than IBM and 1.11 points higher than Sun, even though the respective hardware is basically the same. For the statement "Overall, this product meets my needs," StorageTek's 7.24 score was more than a full point higher than for IBM (6.10) and Sun (6.17). In fact, StorageTek scored a 7.0 or higher on five of the seven evaluated items in the category; no other vendor reached the 7.0 mark on any item in this section.
Scalability appears to be less of an issue for midrange users than for users of enterprise arrays. For the statement "This product's capacity scales to meet my needs," all of the products scored a 6.0 or higher, with StorageTek topping the group at 7.15, easily beating out HDS and IBM (who notched solid scores of 6.39 and 6.38, respectively).
Initial product quality
The initial product quality section assesses how easily a product is installed, configured and put into production. In this section, one key statement, "This product delivers good value for the money," generated a 7.35 for StorageTek. NetApp and HDS tied for second with a 6.13. IBM, however, had a relatively low score of 5.51, which was the lowest of the group (see the related graph "Quality ranking of midrange arrays," above).
|About the survey
The Diogenes Labs–Storage magazine Quality Award for midrange arrays complements our Quality Award for Enterprise Arrays (see "Quality Awards: Enterprise arrays," Storage, August 2005). The Quality Awards identify and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use. It's important to note that the awards aren't based on the subjective opinion of a few individuals, but are derived from a survey of qualified Storage readers that assesses products in five main categories: sales-force competence, product features, initial quality, reliability and technical support. Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminates market share as a factor. Indeed, our objective is to identify the most reliable product on the market regardless of vendor name, reputation or size. Products were rated on a 1.0-to-8.0 scale, where 8.0 is the most favorable possible score.
The midrange array survey was completed by 339 respondents. Respondents were allowed to evaluate more than one array if they indicated a qualification to do so. Thirty-six percent of midrange respondents evaluated only one system vs. 26% in our earlier enterprise array survey. The study's margin of error is +6% with a 95% confidence factor.
Although product reliability generated the fewest number of average scores of 6.0 or higher, every vendor among the finalists scored a 6.0 or higher on the statement "This product meets my service-level requirements." Interestingly, every vendor, except for IBM, had its lowest score in this section in response to the statement "Patches can be added non-disruptively." HP, which had respectable scores on most items, scored a surprisingly low 4.95. However, most vendors scored well for the statement "This product does not require unplanned patches." From these results, it's clear that users aren't unhappy with product stability; however, every vendor would be well served to improve its patch management process.
With both NetApp filers and HP EVAs in his data center, Enron's Ambrocik is pleased with both offerings. "From a reliability point of view, we run a lot of litigation data through the [NetApp] filers and we also run Exchange on the filers," says Ambrocik. "From an uptime perspective, we're very happy."
Technical support
Support is typically the area where users cite their highest levels of dissatisfaction; but overall, our survey indicates that midrange users are generally pleased with the system support they receive (see "Technical support ranking of midrange arrays," below). In this category, the StorageTek juggernaut continued, with an overall score of 6.45, highlighted by a score of 7.0 for the statement "Vendor supplies support as contractually specified" and a 6.9 for "Vendor takes ownership of the problem."
NetApp's support gets the thumbs up from Tom Morrier, a systems analyst with Inco Ltd., a mining company in Sudbury, Ontario. "They usually let me know about problems before I know I've got them," says Morrier. He also likes the way NetApp monitors his systems and reacts quickly to problems. "I actually had a [drive] failure in the middle of the night," says Morrier. "When I came into the office to start my regular day, there was a drive waiting for me."
One EMC Clariion user, a storage administrator for a graphics hardware and software firm in the Northwest, says EMC's after-hours support is a big problem for his company. "I've had a number of cases where I have started with offshore support, worked through two cycles of offshore support and come back to U.S. support," he notes. He typically has to explain the problem again for EMC's U.S. support team. "I've spent all night working through Ireland and Singapore to get back to the States," he notes.
The lowest overall support score was EMC's 5.71, but four vendors all scored a 6.0 or higher--HP, NetApp, StorageTek and Sun. This is in stark contrast to the results of the enterprise array survey, where HDS' 5.76 was the top score.
But even among highly satisfied midrange users, training is an issue. "The vendor provides adequate training" was the only statement for which no vendor scored a rating of 6.0 or better--the best score was StorageTek's 5.95, while the lowest was a 5.43 for HDS.
Summing up the scores
Although EMC and Dell have similar systems in nearly every respect, including third-party field support provided by Unisys, the two didn't track together in our survey. Dell finished third overall, but varied between second (sales-force competence) and seventh (initial quality). Because our methodology includes user perception as a factor in the ratings, we hypothesize that perception is the key difference. In the case of Dell, Clariion is its top-of-the-line product, whereas Clariion takes a back seat to Symmetrix in the EMC product line. However, the products tracked closely on both initial quality and technical support.
The initial quality section of our survey showed the largest spread among vendors, from StorageTek's 7.11 to EMC's 5.7. Similar to the EMC/Dell situation, the scores from StorageTek didn't track with IBM and Sun, even though the hardware is the same (the bundled software varies by vendor). Our hypothesis is the same in this situation, given that the D-series and FLA are the primary array products for StorageTek (mainframe products weren't included in our survey). However, the IBM FAStT/DS series and Sun 6920 products also have enterprise-array siblings.
As part of our analysis, we compared the scores of products in cases where more than one product was evaluated by the same respondent. Having two vendors vie for business is a key part of some storage shop's strategy. A two-vendor strategy "is critical for us, especially when it comes to negotiating," says Maritz's McDaniel. "That's helped us immensely [in getting a lower price]."
In this head-to head comparison, StorageTek was preferred in 63.6% of such cases, while NetApp was preferred 51.4% of the time. All other vendors fell below 50%, with Dell the lowest--just 17.6% of respondents prefer its products. We also asked respondents, "All things considered, would you buy this product again?" More than three-quarters (77%) said "Yes." This indicates a high degree of product satisfaction regardless of a vendor's order of finish. StorageTek lead among our vendors with 86.4% positive responses, but Sun was a close second (85.7%). Even though EMC trailed the group in the overall standings, it had a strong 73.6% buy-again rating (see "Would you buy this company's array again?," previous page).


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Breaking News: RABBI BLECH'S HAGGADA IS OUT NOW – ORDER IMMEDIATELY FOR THIS PESACH!
Check it out here!
Rabbi Benjamin Blech is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer.
Rabbi Blech is the author of twelve highly acclaimed and best selling books, with combined sales of close to half a million copies, including three as part of the highly popular Idiot's Guide series. His book, Understanding Judaism: The Basics of Deed and Creed, was chosen by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations as "the single best book on Judaism in our generation". Together with an accompanying six hour video, filmed by the producers of 20/20, featuring Rabbi Blech, it is presently being used as the basis for study groups in numerous synagogues and universities around the country. His book Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide To Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs was featured in a full page article in the Sunday New York times and one of his recent works, If God is Good, Why Is The World So Bad? has been translated into Indonesian where it has had a powerful reception in the wake of the country's tsunami, as well as into Portuguese .
In a national survey, (www.jewsweek.com) Rabbi Blech was ranked #16 in a listing of the 50 most influential Jews in America.
A recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award, he is a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966 and has formed thousands of student-teacher relationships through his warm and caring style. Rabbi Blech is known for his ability to present complicated ideas in a clear and entertaining manner.
- A tenth-generation rabbi, Rabbi Blech is Rabbi Emeritus of Young Israel of Oceanside, which he served for 37 years.
- He is a frequent lecturer in Jewish communities as far-flung as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Israel. Closer to home, he has served as Scholar-in-Residence at hundreds of synagogues throughout the United States and Canada and been active on behalf of countless Jewish causes.
- His lectures on tape have an international following and are among the most popular from among the thousands made available on the web through Aish Hatorah.
- A past President of both the National Council of Young Israel Rabbis, as well as the International League for the Repatriation of Russian Jewry, Rabbi Blech has also served as officer for the New York Board of Rabbis as well as the Rabbinical Council of America.
- He has appeared on national television (including the Oprah Winfrey Show); hosted a popular weekly radio program in New York; and written for Newsweek, The New York Times and Newsday, in addition to a wide and varied number of scholarly publications.
- As a result of his personal meeting with the late Pope John Paul II, he was instrumental in securing the loan of precious Jewish manuscripts for exhibition in Israel and he is presently involved in further negotiations for the return of precious Judaica held by the Vatican that may well prove to be of historic significance.
Rabbi Blech is an unusually eloquent and gifted speaker, as well as a profound contemporary theologian and religious spokesman, who has made a major impact on the many tens of thousands of people he has addressed
Rabbi Blech's latest book which came out last April was featured on Nightline, Good Morning America and a 1-hour special on 20/20.
The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican
Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo's starting work on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, this groundbreaking book is already the subject of huge interest, discussion and controversy. Translated into 15 languages, including Japanese, available in 25 countries, a first printing of 100,000 copies by HarperOne, movie and TV rights presently in negotiation with 3 major film companies, national TV coverage, this major work proves that Michelangelo incorporated many teachings of Jewish Midrash and Kabbalah into the Sistine Chapel – daring ideas unknown to its 4 million annual visitors. And unlike the DaVinci Code, this book is not fiction but fact. Enrico Bruschini, official Art Historian of the American Embassy in Rome, in his Foreword to the book writes "Just as the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel changed forever the world of art, so will this book change forever the way to view and, above all, to understand the work of Michelangelo!"


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On the unique BADAGA community of the Nilgiris in Southern India…their origin, language, culture and customs !!
Website of Wing commander Bellie Jayaprakash that is regularly updated and more info added
The following photos are from Thurston's Book "Castes and Tribes of South India" published in 1909 by Government of India Press, Madras
Two little Badaga Girls on the cover
The picture of a Badaga Man [see the Badagaru Seele he has wrapped around that has distintive borders and has not changed in centuries ].
(From " Badagas and Irulas of Nilgiris(MGMB Vol.II No.I) – by Thurston . E)
(From " Badagas and Irulas of Nilgiris(MGMB Vol.II No.I) – by Thurston . E)
Kundeh Ketchigatti Hetthe & Ayya (VaNa KaNa Family)
Do not forget to see the pages [links] shown on the right like Hattis, Hethai, Rare photos, Recipes etc >>>> for more of BADAGA –>–>–>–>–>–>
This website is dedicated to the memory of the Great Badaga Leader
Rao Bahadur H B Ari Gowder
Photo by Royal Geographical Society
This photo taken in 1908, while showing many men shows only two women. Notice the roof of the house in the background- the complete absence of tiles (Odu)

page from CUSTOMS OF THE WORLD

 The title of this pic(1919) on ebay sale "A badaga with four wives ". Really ??

The Native tribals of Nilgiris including a Badaga (but who??)

Badaga Temple (1873) made out of grass called 'Hullu Gudi'
From www.adivasi-tee-projekt.org/GAL-02B.HTM

Badagas, in their DHODDA KUPPACHA (a flowing gown like attire) dancing to Kota music.
Photo drawing from : 'Counsel from the Ancients – A study of Badaga Proverbs, Prayers, Omens and Curses'

Rao Bahadur HB Ari Gowder [Hubbathalai]with his bride Gauri [Jakkadha] – 1920
(Notice the typical Badaga Jewellery the bride is wearing)

Badaga gathering
(I have no idea about the occasion or the exact place and date at which this photo was taken. From Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder family archieves)

Hubbathalai Hatti Dhodda Mane
( Ths is the view of Edha Mane or Inner room. All the edha manes were of the same design in typical Badaga Homes in olden days)
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Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder with British Engineers and workers at Bridge No.33 between Coonoor & Mettupalayam. Bellie Gowder was involved in laying the Nilgiri Mountain Raiway, now WORLD HERITAGE, a hundred years ago. He was conferred with the title RAO BAHADUR for carrying out the excellent but challenging contract work of building this unique railway system in inhospitable forest area that also involved in cutting tunnels through rocky hills as well as building many bridges with sheer guts. He employed human power to lift the racks & rails and remove the rocks and boulders. Many of his workers were BADAGAS who addressed Bellie Gowder as BELLIE MAISTRY
Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder became very famous after help laying the Nilgiri Mountain Railway between Ooty & Mettupalayam and British Officilas who visited Nilgiris accepted his invitation to come to his house in Hubbathal Village. This photo taken on 27-12-1934 shows the water tank & "Mel Tharas" (upper street houses) of Hubbathalai
Rao Bahadur HJ Bellie Gowder with boy scouts of Hubbathai School which he built (1929)
Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder with his grand sons (1929)
Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder's wife Mrs. Nanji Hethe with the wife of British Governor of Madras in 1930s.
( This photo was taken at Hubbathalai Hatti when the Governor along with his wife had paid a visit on Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder's invitation to open the first school built by Bellie Gowder. The British guest was presented with the lock – made of pure gold – that he unlocked to open the school building)
Nanji Hethe with one of the sisters of Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder
Nanji Hethe with her first grand daughter Radha [daughter of Mrs.Kade Idyammal (Photo taken about 65 years back)
This photo taken in 1927 of (15 years old) Kade – later on Mrs.Idyammal, daughter of Rao Bahadur H J Bellie Gowder & sister of Rao Bahadur H B Ari Gowder with her husband Mr.B K Bellie Gowder (Beratti)
[Parents of the author of this website Bellie Jayaprakash]
Mr.B.K. Bellie Gowder was one of the few educated Badagas who studied upto VIII in St.Antony's School, Coonoor and completed his SSLC (School Final) from St.Michael's High School, Coimbatore in early 1900s. There was no 'regular' high schools in Nilgiris in those days.
My father -Mr.BK Bellie Gowder in 1969 (just before his death).
Water Colour painting by his son, Bellie Jayaprakash (that is me)
My mother – Mrs. (Kade) Idyammal, now 98 years old
(Photo taken on her birthday on 02-09-2006 -probably one of the oldest Badaga ladies).
Young Men Badaga Association 1941 – 42
[ photo courtesy ; Badaga Welfare Association, Madras -Silver Jubilee & Rao Bahadur H B Ari Gowder Centenary Celebations souvenir 1993 ]
Kerbetta Madha Gowder – Probably the only Badaga who wears the turban like a sikh. Incidentally, he is very fluent in ARABIC and teaches many muslims from Nilgiris who go to Haj
Late Janaki Ammal, right extreme in the first photo, [wife of late Ari Kari Gowder of Hubbathalai]
Late Kerban Bella Gowder, One of the golden Voices of Badagas, whose rendering of SAVU songs can make even the stone hearted to cry
Rao Bahadur HJ Bellie Gowder's sister -photo taken abt 80 years back
Drawing &photos- from Paul Hockings' books 'Counsel from the Ancients: A Study of Badaga Proverbs, Prayers, Omens and curses' and 'Mortuary rituals…'
These rare photos are also displayed at my blogspot
Click on the pix to see Rare Photos of Badagas
Please visit there for many links and rare glimpse of Badaga websites


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Roubina - Senior Case Manager
With over 10 years' experience within the Private Investigation industry, Roubina understands the cultural sensitivities associated with Nikkah.
With over 10 years' experience in the field as a Private Investigator, Roubina is now one of our senior case managers. She has a wealth of experience and an in-depth knowledge of the private investigation industry.
Roubina is a fluent speaker of Urdu, Punjabi and Mirpuri. She has helped clients from all over the world and is sensitive to religious beliefs and customs.
If you come from a close knit community, have sensitive family issues or a religious background, Roubina will provide you with informed, professional and confidential advice.
Loughborough Detectives are also experienced in dealing with the additional worries and complications that can accompany an arranged marriage.
Roubina has extensive experience in this area and understands the cultural sensitivities associated with Nikkah.
Get in touch with Roubina via our contact page. All consultations are free and treated with the strictest confidence. There is no obligation to proceed.
Loughborough Detectives offer services to cover all eventualities. To book a service today or to find out more information, call 01509 833 193.
Thank you. Message sent.
Thank you. Message sent.


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The first time I saw GoDaddy's geek-smooching supermodel ad during the Super Bowl, I silently cheered for the curly-headed geek in a "Revenge of the Nerds" sort of way. The second time the ad came on, I was reading Super Bowl articles on my iPad and only heard the lascivious slurping sound effects. Ewww.
This got me thinking. We're supposed to root for the geek who gets the hot girl. We know the woman in the ad, Bar Rafaeli, is a real supermodel. Is the actor, Jesse Heiman, a real geek? Let's investigate.
Exhibit A: Heiman on IMDB. Heiman's a professional actor, but that doesn't mean he's not also a real geek. Looking over his IMDB credits, it seems Heiman has been typecast. In the 2012 movie "Noobz," he's listed as "Computer Guy." He has six different nerd-related credits including "Nerd #1" for an episode of "Entourage." He clocks in with 31 mostly uncredited appearances on geek-fest show "Chuck." So far, Heiman is passing the geek sniff test.
Exhibit B: Social-media action. Heiman's Facebook page is suspiciously quiet. He uploaded a bunch of photos back when he joined in 2010, but his Facebook presence has been pretty low-key since then. That might lead me to question his geek cred, but wait... there's more. Heiman is also over on Google+. He's still not very busy posting, but it's a plus that he's there at all. Like many actors, Heiman has chosen to express his social-media self mostly on Twitter, where he lets his followers know he's single. That sounds pretty geek-like to me.
Exhibit C: Visual evidence. Heiman got the Super Bowl ad role because he looks the part. He looks like a guy who spends a lot of time sitting in front of a computer. Consider his uncontrolled curly hair and buttoned-to-the-neck shirt. He's one step away from sporting a pocket protector. From what I can tell, he really does wear glasses.
According to his YouTube account, he collects hats. That's not particularly geeky, though. What is super geeky is a 15-minute-long handheld video of his analog wall clock adjusting itself for daylight savings time.
I decided to ask him myself. "I would describe myself as a 'lovable nerd,'" Heiman, reached through GoDaddy, told me today. "I play that role regularly in films and TV shows. In my personal life, I'd say I'm a nerd because I like 'Star Trek' and professional wrestling."
Conclusions: Heiman proves his "Star Trek" fan claim by having posted not one, but two William Shatner Shatoetry videos to his YouTube account. Adding that to all the other evidence, I figure this makes him a pretty good stand-in for guy geek fantasies the world over.


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Productivity-Improving Obstacles Fall Like Dominos
"Our new controls (Automator II units from Cieco Inc., Clinton, PA) have done their job for us, and more," says Clairon tooling manager John Butler, "and we've seen a domino affect throughout the plant. We continue to raise our performance standards, and adoption of new press controls is what allows that to happen."On the Upturn, Finally
Clairon Metals operates a 114,000-sq.-ft. shop in Covington, GA, with 27 presses from 35 to 1100 tons. "We're on the upturn now, finally," says Butler, "happy to have been able to hire back several employees as our business has recovered from a tough 2009. We're seeing a lot of takeover work from stampers less fortunate."But, I will say that we took steps well before the slowdown that allowed us to survive while others did not," Butler adds. Those steps include careful monitoring and tracking of press downtime and production efficiency, and "getting lean before we had to," Butler says. "If we had not, for example, performed all of the quick-die-change Kaizen events we did in 2007, improved production efficiency from around 50 percent to 80 percent today, and cut our downtime from 150 hr./day (operator downtime throughout the plant due to idle equipment) to just 25 hr./day, we would not be here either."
Clairon, which supplies stampings and value-added assemblies to the automotive, ATV, HVAC, and metal-furniture industries, has evolved into a short-run high-mix operation to minimize inventory buildup and meet customer just-in-time supply demands. It runs primarily coil stock of cold- and hot-rolled mild and high-strength low-alloy steels, as well as plenty of 300- and 400-series stainless used for ATV exhaust components and other parts.Its sweet spot, says Butler, is sheet 0.10-0.125 in. thick, although its recently picked up a lot of ¼-in. work for automotive and truck brackets and frames. "We run two weeks' worth of inventory max for most of our parts," Butler says. "So, if our typical annual volume for a part is 30,000 pieces, we'll set up a press to run 1000 parts and place them in inventory—that's maybe a 30-min. run time on one of our coil-fed presses. The end result is that we're forced to perform numerous die changes throughout the plant, all day long."
Quick Changovers Get the Ball RollingMaking dozens of daily die changes can strangle a shop's throughput unless efficiency is optimized, and back in 2006 the plant's pressroom struggled to attain a production efficiency above 50 percent. Changeovers took as long as 8 hr. as press operators waited
"We changed the procedure and now allow operators to begin to run parts as soon as dies are changed and a line's ready to run," says Butler, adding that the firm's typical die change now takes just 20-30 min.. "Operators visually inspect and approve the first parts off of a new setup, and we run parts in containment until quality can come out to the floor and check the parts."Among the steps taken to quicken die changes: the shop now assigns a primary and secondary press for each tool, and stages the tools near that primary press; and, it modified all of its tools to accept a standard locating method in the press.
"We machined a slot down the center of each bolster and keyed the dies to locate them in the slot," says Butler, who was the plant's die-maintenance manager back in 2006-2007. "We also purchased new quarter-turn quick-acting clamps."Getting Ahead of the Maintenance Curve
"Slashing die-change times from hours to just minutes made a huge impact on scheduling and lead times, and simplified our ability to manage the visual manufacturing process, continues Butler. "Also, back at that time we could never get ahead from a die-maintenance standpoint. We'd spend $15,000 or more per month repairing broken dies, and experience as many as 20 mishits or crashes each month."Butler and his team had installed a die-protection program at the time, but he feels they had taken it as far as they could have with their current press
Throughout 2006, Butler and his team retrofitted 10 of its highest-output coil-fed presses with the Cieco units, upgrading two presses every six weeks to avoid interfering with production. "We went through a learning curve with Cieco's technicians," Butler says, "and working together we identified several s to customize the controls to best-fit our needs. For example, they switched out the capacitive-type monitors on the controls with resistive monitors, to better resist the rigors of the pressroom."
Other custom upgrades at the time (which have now become standard features on the controls) include an auto-logout feature so that if no one accesses a controller within a 5-min. timeframe, the control locks out access to prevent someone from changing any settings on the control. "And, we asked for the ability to set 250 individual passwords for access to the control," says Butler, "rather than the standard 50 passwords."Butler quickly went to work taking advantage of the new-found die sensor capacity, using automation control inputs to direct all of the action in and around each press cell, including:
• Pulse-spraying of lubricant;• Operation of pick-and-place part-handling automation devices
Clairon's in-die sensing program, ramped up since it installed new controls on its 10 hardest-working presses, slashed die-repair costs from $69,000 in 2008 to $28,000 in 2009, and this the firm expects that figure to drop all the to under $5000
"Most of our dies have at least five or six sensors," he says. "Die crashes are down, to a maximum of one or two per month, a huge improvement from the double-digit monthly die crashes the firm once endures. "And now when a press stops, everything else stops as well," says Butler. "Not so long ago we were averaging 40 man-hr./day for die maintenance; that's now down to just 5 hr./day."Save a Press—Monitor Tonnage
The controls' tonnage-monitoring capabilities are in full display at Clairon Metals, too. Tracking tonnage has allowed the firm to relocate several tools to different presses to avoid impending press damage."It's amazing how one relatively simple and affordable change like new press controls can change everything you do in your facility," says Butler. "With tonnage monitoring, we've been able to treat any press-overload cases like corrective actions. Doing so, we've avoided any ram-adjustment issues and failures in areas such as tie rods and counterbalance rods. We also use the data from the monitors to take a proactive approach to scheduling preventive-maintenance activities, such as tool sharpening
Not content to rest on its impressive 4-plus-year track record of continuous improvement, Clairon's on a mission to keep pushing for more. Among its most recent improvements, says Butler: "We're focusing on streamlining our troubleshooting procedures at the press. When a die-maintenance technician goes out to a press to address a problem, he's now got 30 min. to decide whether to pull the tool or repair it in the press. We've developed specific guidelines for them to follow so that they make those decisions more quickly and, in the end, make sure our presses are running at the highest level of productivity possible."
The domino effect from Clairon Metal's ongoing improvements is best illustrated by this graph of production efficiency, which has climbed from barely 50 percent in 2006 to near 80 percent today.
And the dominos keep falling… MF
See also: CIECO, Inc.
Related Enterprise Zones: Sensing/Electronics, Tool & Die


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French fan: Group's founder <I>tres occupée</I>
When former Frenchwoman Andrée King followed her husband to the United States 25 years ago, she was reluctant to leave behind her first love, one that was less romantic and more patriotic. Upon arrival, she immediately sought out French-speaking friends, but it still felt like she was losing her grip on her cultural roots and native tongue.
"My French heritage has always been extremely important to me," says King, now in her fifties. "I wanted to find a way to hold onto it."
She found it in L'Alliance Française, headquartered in Washington, D.C. King called the organization in 1992 about the possibility of setting up a Charlottesville chapter. The alliance was interested in the idea right away and encouraged King to participate in the creation of the chapter– as its founding president.
"It was a brand-new experience for me," King says. "I wasn't even affiliated with the program before I took the job."
Not only did King accept the unpaid position, but she's been throwing her energy– not to mention money– into the task for the past 13 years. "I'm very lucky to have found this niche," she says.
Luck doesn't seem to have much to do with the creation of the chapter that King built from scratch. The program now offers French and English lessons, cooking classes, tutoring, and bi-monthly cultural activities. Though its membership started out being just a handful of King's friends, the alliance has grown to roughly 200 members.
"I've been an active member for about two years, and I'd say my French-speaking skills are at the intermediate level," says Charlottesville citizen Martin Bass. "I certainly appreciate the cultural events offered here. It's nice being able to go to a wine tasting or a lecture on France."
Or to France itself, for that matter. Members of L'Alliance Française have been working for years to officially declare a sister-city arrangement between the cities of Charlottesville and Besançon, France, to encourage and facilitate cross-country exchanges between citizens of both towns. Last July, members of the alliance and City Council member Blake Caravati finally flew to France to formalize the "Proclamation of Friendship."
"The primary purpose of this arrangement is to encourage Americans to visit France and vice versa," says King. "I really believe in cross-cultural learning, and the best way to do that is to be in the country."
But that's not the only way. The alliance's instructors teach French at 12 public and private Charlottesville area schools, including Crozet, Venable, and Meriwether Lewis. King also began Tout en Français, a Channel 13 television show for children with vocabulary lists, story times, and special guests.
"I love France's culture," she says. "What could be better than sharing it with Charlottesville?"
Andrée King


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Tickets for events at O2 Academy2 Islington
O2 Academy2 Islington tickets
Venue Information
Book Tickets: To purchase tickets in person, O2 Academy Islington Box Office is open for cash ticket sales between 12pm-4pm, Monday Saturday. Tickets are also available from O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire from 4pm on show days and O2 Academy Brixton 2 hours before door times on show days please see venue listings for opening times (no booking fee charged on cash transactions). Public holidays may vary Door sales on the night of a show are CASH ONLY. Local outlet: Stargreen 020 7734 8932or www.stargreen.com Disabled Bookings: Customers requiring access to the disabled area at O2 Academy Islington can purchase tickets through any agency and then must contact the venue on 020 7288 4410 between 10am and 6pm (Monday-Friday) or email firstname.lastname@example.com with requirements so the appropriate provisions can be made. The disabled access area is not static and is created on a show by show basis depending upon the number of people requiring access. If you are registered disabled you are entitled to be accompanied by a free carer so please take this into consideration when booking your ticket(s). Age Restrictions: Gigs: Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult. Minimum age 8 Clubs: Strictly over 18s (Photographic ID may be required) About O2 Academy Islington saw AMGs venue estate in London reach four incredible spaces. Since opening in September 2003, the intimate venue has welcomed some of todays biggest international artists to the smaller stage, including American hip-hop legend, Eminem. AMGs venue assets in the Capital covers the perfect range of sites to facilitate any event from the 250 capacity O2 Academy 2 Islington, the 800 capacity O2 Academy Islington, 2,000 capacity O2 Shepherds Bush Empire to the 4,921 capacity O2 Academy Brixton, assuring promoters that AMG can present bands at all levels of success, genre, vibe and orientation to music lovers in London. Merchandise The merchandise area for Academy2 is accessible when in use. The merchandise area for the main room can be accessed by the N1 Centre lift, Please inform security if you would like to purchase merchandise and they will assist. Strobe Lighting Events will use strobes effect lighting on most shows signs are displayed as such, on shows with a higher than usual amount/level of this effect extra signage is displayed. Details of nearby accessible hotels, bars and restaurants can be found on: www.directenquiries.com
By Tube
Angel (Northern Line) The nearest tube station is Angel which is situated on the Northern Line which is not an accessible station.
By Train
For up to date travel information call 020 7222 1234 (24 hours) or visit www.tfl.gov.uk The closest accessible station is Kings Cross St. Pancras, which is served by a number of underground and overground services. Kings Cross to Angel is then served by Bus numbers 476, 73 & 30.
By Car
To find O2 Academy Islington visit maps.google.co.uk Travel information in and around London visit www.tfl.gov.uk For customised travel plans, please use TFLs Journey Planner http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/
By Bus
For up to date travel information call 020 7222 1234 (24 hours) or visit www.tfl.gov.uk Buses from Kings Cross depart from stop E and arrive at Bus Stop X or Y on Upper Street which are approximately 85m from the entrance of O2 Academy Islington. There is an accessible ramp from the bus stops to pavement level on Upper Street or steps (12).
N1 Centre, Islington - www.n1islington.com/find-us/ The N1 Shopping Centre has a customer car park, which has a number of disabled parking spaces. The car park is served by a lift which serves both O2 Academy Islington (Ground Floor) and O2 Academy2 Islington (First Floor) www.n1islington.com
Wheelchair Access
Access Booking Tickets To book tickets for O2 Academy Islington and O2 Academy2 Islington. Please book your ticket through www.ticketweb.co.uk and then contact the venue on 020 7288 4410 or email firstname.lastname@example.com to discuss arrangements and organise your companion ticket should one be required. Once you have been in contact with the venue you will be sent an email confirmation that should be printed off and brought with you when you attend the event. You can also contact the box office through text relay by 18002 020 7288 4410 should this be required. Companion/Carer Ticket This venue offers one free companion ticket. This can be booked by contacting the venue directly. These can be limited in availability so please ensure you contact the venue as soon as possible to arrange. Companion/carer ticket holders should be able to meet the needs and assist the person they are accompanying in the event of an emergency. Braille Braille information sheets are available on request please call 02072884410 or email email@example.com Arriving at the Venue We recommend arriving at the venue 10-15 minutes prior to the doors opening. The door time will be stated on the tickets or confirmations. Please try to arrive at the venue no later than 60 minutes after the doors open. On arrival please go to the relevant box office for your event, if your event is in O2 Academy Islington, the entrance is on the ground floor of the N1 Shopping Centre opposite the pedestrian car park entrance. For O2 Academy2 Islington, the entrance is on the first floor opposite Vue Cinema, next door to Yo Sushi restaurant. Accessible Area & Facilities The area at O2 Academy Islington is created on a show by show basis and is either located facing the right hand of the stage or in the mezzanine area. Both can be accessed via a lift. The area can accommodate a total of two wheelchairs with 7 seats. The area at O2 Academy2 Islington is created on a show by show basis and will be subject to the requirements of the customers. There are 2 accessible toilets in O2 Academy Islington and 1 in O2 Academy2 Islington; neither requires a radar key. Bar Service The bars adjacent to the disabled areas do not have lowered sections. Both areas are manned by security who are happy to assist should the need arise. Box Office Please be aware that the box office doesn't have an induction loop fitted. Both box offices are at an accessible height for wheelchair users.