text:
Brush fences
A brush fence is a fence or gate that is primarily constructed of brush such as broombrush.
Building requirements for brush fences
Brush fences in close proximity to dwellings are fire hazards that pose a risk to the safety of occupants.
There are safety requirements 796.1 KB for new homes, home additions and new brush fences to prevent the spread of any brush fire to a home.
These include:
a new brush fence, or a rebuilt existing brush fence cannot be erected within three metres of an existing or proposed dwelling, unless the dwelling materials meet certain fire resistance measures
dwellings cannot be erected within three metres of an existing brush fence, unless the dwelling materials meet certain fire resistance measures.
Development plan consent is not required for the construction or alteration of a brush fence, but building rules consent is.
Existing brush fences
These requirements do not affect existing brush fences or existing dwellings if no changes are being made to the fence or dwelling. Existing brush fences can be repaired, but not replaced with another brush fence unless the new conditions are met.
Pool and spa safety
As a swimming pool or spa pool owner you are responsible for safety.
Drowning is the biggest cause of accidental death for young children. Most occur in private backyard swimming pools. You can reduce the risk of accidents occurring in your swimming pool or spa pool by adequately fencing your pool and ensuring young children are supervised at all times.
In a life-threatening or urgent situation phone the emergency services on 000.
All swimming pools or spa pools must have a continuous safety barrier maintained by the pool owner that restricts access by young children to the pool.
If you are a property owner and are selling a property with a swimming pool or spa pool built before July 1993 you must make sure that the safety barrier meets today's standard for new pools. Fencing must be constructed in such a way to make sure that:
- The fence is an effective barrier to young children
- It is permanent
- Young children can't crawl under or climb over it by using foot and hand holds
- It is at least 1.2 metres high
- Any boundary fences used as part of the child-safety barrier are at least 1.8 metres high on the side that faces the pool, with a 900 millimetres non-climbable zone at the top inside of the fence; a boundary barrier may be climbable on the neighbour's side.
Gates to the pool area must:
- Swing outward from the pool area
- Be self-closing from any position
- Be fitted with a latching device, out of reach of small children, at least 1.5 metres above ground level.
Hard covers on spas
Child-resistant hard covers cannot be used as safety barriers in place of a fence for above-ground spa pools because:
there are no current regulatory standards for spa pool covers
when the cover is off the spa pool there is no barrier.
In-ground or above-ground swimming pools and spa pools must have a water recirculation and filtration system that complies with Australian standards. This is to reduce the risk of a young child being trapped by suction or hair entanglement.
As a swimming pool or spa pool owner you must make sure that all required pool safety features are maintained in working order at all times. Gates should never be propped open and it is very important that a gate closes and latches every time it is opened.
Children can move quickly and may not recognise the dangers of a swimming pool. Close child supervision will help to reduce the number of drownings in private swimming pools.
In a life-threatening or urgent situation phone the emergency services on 000.
Resuscitation skills are crucial because they save lives – make certain that someone on the property has these skills.
In a life-threatening or urgent situation phone the emergency services on 000.
Development approval for a new pool
Development approval is required for a new swimming pool, spa pool and safety fencing. Your local council will check:
- The details and location of safety barriers
- The safety of the pump
- The adequacy of structural support for the swimming pool or spa pool.
Fencing must be installed before a new pool is filled with water.
Above-ground or inflatable pools and 'portable' spa pools
If the swimming pool or spa pool has a filtration system you will need to:
- Get approval from your local council
- Ensure safety features are in place.
The sides of an above-ground pool can be a suitable safety barrier if:
- They are non-climbable and are at least 1.2 metres high, and
- A barrier is placed around the ladder (even if it is removable), and
- A barrier is placed around anything else that can be climbed on.
Installing a portable pool or spa on a deck
You should seek the advice of an engineer or from your local council if you are thinking about installing a portable swimming pool or spa pool:
- on a deck
- on a balcony
- on a suspended floor
- near a retaining wall.
They are able to check that the deck or wall can safely take the weight of the swimming pool or spa pool.
Legal obligations when selling a house with a swimming pool or spa pool
Pools built before 1 July 1993
If you are selling your property with a swimming pool or spa pool, you are responsible for making sure that current safety requirements for swimming pool safety are met. This may mean you have to upgrade fencing or barriers.
If the property where a swimming pool or spa pool is located is not for sale, the pool can continue to comply with the old Swimming Pools Safety Act 1972. The Act requires a swimming pool or spa pool owner to ensure that the pool is enclosed by a fence, wall or building to restrict access by young children.
If the property is sold after 1 October 2008, the child-safety barriers must comply with Minister's Specification SA 76D before settlement. This means that barriers must be installed to separate the pool area from the house where ever possible.
The revised Minister's Specification SA 76D took effect on 15 May 2014 by notice in the Government Gazette and only applies to prescribed swimming pools and spa pools as defined in section 71AA of the Development Act 1993.
Pools built on or after 1 July 1993
Swimming pools or spa pools built on or after 1 July 1993 must comply with the rules that were current when the application for construction was submitted. This includes the provisions of the Development Act 1993 and the Building Code of Australia to restrict access to the pool from the house, garage, street and any adjoining properties.
Getting a pool inspected
You are not required to have a swimming pool or spa pool inspected when selling a property with an existing pool.
Should you decide to have your pool inspected it is recommended that you use a private certifier to undertake the inspection of pool safety barriers and certify (or otherwise) compliance as they possess the appropriate qualifications, experience and professional indemnity insurance to perform this function. Private certifiers subject to Condition C cannot perform this function.
Only council officers have legislative authority under the Development Act 1993 to enforce requirements for swimming pool and spa pool safety.
Source: https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/housing-property-and-land/building-and-development/residential-building-regulations/safety-regulations-around-the-home/pool-and-spa-safety


text:
This week's "Week in Review" is dedicated to TMZ and all of the other media outlets that deliver the "real" news on a regular basis.
She's Just Being High"¦ly
Miley Cyrus' new music video features the teen sensation
with her same candy-coated shtick – except this time the singer allegedly takes
a hit of Salvia, one of the few still legal hallucinogenic drugs. Cyrus
immediately gained media attention condemning her for doing just that –
consuming a legal substance. Because in the grand scheme of priorities,
damning a teenager not smoking or drinking underage but actually doing
something legal should clearly be a top concern.
Take Two
This week, a video of Miley Cyrus taking a massive bong hit
went viral. Fortunately for her, it was confirmed that she wasn't smoking
marijuana but a natural herb called salvia, which is legal in the state of
California. Lindsay Lohan was distraught, declaring, "I thought I taught
her to go big or go home."
Take Three
18-year-old pop singing sensation Miley Cyrus was caught
smoking out of a bong on video. When asked for comment, she blamed it on her
fictional alter-ego, Hannah Montana. And that girl that gave an erotic lapdance
to that movie producer openly in public was Hannah too. And that scandalous
crotch shot from a few months ago – also Hannah.
Columbian Drug Circle
Looks like South America isn't the only place to host to a
Columbian drug circle. This week, five
students at Columbia University in New York were arrested on drug charges.
One of the drug-dealing students even went as far as stating that he threw "da
sickest party," leaving police to conclude that Ivy Leaguers are even
arrogant when it comes to getting arrested. Miley Cyrus later confirmed that
the student did, in fact, throw da sickest party.
Heh heh heh"¦Doody.
A student at Boston
University set up a website to rate girls, similar to the initial
conception of Facebook. Facebook and Rate BU have another similarity too: both
have nerdy founders who rated girls that they had no chance of sleeping with.
(Note #1: the student's name was Justin Doody, but there were WAY too many
jokes to make with the name Doody to fit into this Week in Review.) (Note #2:
Miley Cyrus did not fare well on the site, though Hannah Montana was apparently
rated as "totally bangable.")
Calling All Captains
This week, someone's name was legally changed to Captain
Awesome. To be fair though, Miley Cyrus was pretty high on salvia when she decided to go through with the name
Syracuse Week in Review:
Freshman SU football player charged with South Campus
Local Syracuse police arrested an SU freshman responsible
for the South
Campus burglaries that took place over Turkey Break this weekend after an
eye witness saw the student juggling the flat screen TVs, gaming systems, and
computers outside his apartment. The best part? Police were able to follow the
suspect thanks to his footprints left in the 17 feet of snow we got last week.
It is still unknown whether or not Miley Cyrus was the mastermind behind the entire
Last week of classes get record amount of snow
While most students were aiming to end their semesters by
getting hammered in peace, Syracuse University got blanketed by more than 100
hours of continual snowfall. The blizzard left many students with too much time
on their hands, which they used to read way too far into Miley Cyrus taking a
hit of salvia.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Show
The Songs
Production History
The Creative Team
Website Designed
List Your Business for Free
Chana Wise
Carl Johnson
Just before the 1920's start to roar, 13-year-old Mary Marie is bright, free-spirited, and surprisingly philosophical about her parents' divorce. So much so, that she is actually looking forward to observing and writing about the various other romances they are certain to have now that they are no longer married to each other. But after a while of being shuttled between them, she finds the experience is not at all what she had anticipated, and discovers not only more about them, but about herself as well.
Welcome to the home of
Mary Marie
, a new musical written by Chana Wise and Carl Johnson.
Mary Marie
was a finalist for the 2015 Richard Rodgers Award, and was
one of the eight shows selected for the 2014 NAMT Festival. It was chosen as a finalist in the 2019 Tru Voices reading series and a new reading will be presented at The York Theatre in New York on May 20th, 2019. Stayed tuned for details!
Designed by Adam Hitt for NAMT"
To see a video performance of Broadway actors Mamie Parris, Emerson Steele, and Kevin Earley performing "For the Summer" at the NAMT sponsored "46th Minute" evening, click below.
"For the Summer"
Photos from the Sierra Madre Playhouse "Off the Page" reading of Mary Marie, featuring Caitlin Cohn as "Mary Marie", Peter Welkin as "Father", Kendra Munger as "Mother", Elise Dewsberry as "Aunt Jane", "Aunt Hattie", all the other female roles and Christopher Showerman as "the Violinist" and all the other male roles.
one of ten shows chosen
for the Broadway Producer Pick List of 2018!
to read more about it!


text:
(Pocket-lint) - Children will be able to drive their very own Tesla Model S starting this spring.
Thanks to Radio Flyer, the Model S will be available to kids. It has partnered with Tesla to create a Power Wheels-like version of the all-electric car for youngsters. It's called Tesla Model S for Kids, naturally, and of course it's electric-powered just like the sedan it is based upon. The steerable toy features Flight Speed lithium-ion removable batteries that recharge in just 3 hours.
With this setup, your kids will be able to go either up to 3 miles per hour or 6, depending on which of the two models you choose to buy. Other interesting features include working headlamps, a sound system, and the same look and paint job as the actual Model S. It doesn't seem like this car will feature autonomous capabilities, but if you're still interested, it is due to arrive in May.
Radio Flyer, which is an American toy company best known for its popular red toy wagon, will sell the Model S for Kids for about $500 a pop. So, it's not exactly a whim purchase. Your child will probably be the coolest kid on the block with this new whip however, thus making you the coolest parent.
Yeah. Go ahead and pre-order now.
Also, check out the trailer below to see more of this toy car in action.


text:
Welcome to the Newly Live Lumens Customers of Fall
Minneapolis, Minn. – October 1, 2016 – Congratulations to the newly implemented schools of third quarter: Northwestern University – OLLI Program and College of William and Mary – Christopher Wren Association. These sites are now live and taking registrations on their newly designed sites.
The Osher Lifelong Learning program at Northwestern University offers over 70 diverse study groups in a comprehensive span of topics. This OLLI program is embracing the peer-to-peer learning model in the Evanston suburb of Chicago. Northwestern is running on the Lumens Collective product that caters to OLLI or membership-based programs.
The Christopher Wren Association at the University of William and Mary is an organization dedicated to persons who seek opportunities for learning. They service over 1400 community members. The association is also running on the Collective version of Lumens as they make their offerings free to members.
About Augusoft
Augusoft®, Inc. develops and maintains Lumens® – the first SaaS enrollment management system designed for the continuing education industry. More than 5.5 million students have registered for continuing education classes using Lumens. Visit https://augusoft.net to see Lumens in action.
Media Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com or (763) 331-8300.


text: All Charles de Lafosse Oil PaintingsFrench Baroque Era Painter , Paris 1636/40 -1716 French painter and draughtsman. He was the most important decorative painter in France in the generation after Charles Le Brun and in this capacity contributed to many of the major official and private building projects from the 1670s to the 1710s, including the D?me des Invalides in Paris and the chapel at the ch?teau of Versailles. His colourist's temperament, his early study of the Venetian painters of the 16th century and his interest in the work of Peter Paul Rubens contributed to the triumph of the party that championed colour over line and put him in the vanguard of the new tendency in French painting in the later 17th century. His work, with its rich and changing colours, combines the strength of the 17th century with the lightness and grace of the 18th


text:
16 comments :
- Robin said...
Very nice--love the fabric and the sleeves.
- March 24, 2017 at 11:16 AM
- Ola Dipo said...
@Robin thank you!!!
- March 26, 2017 at 2:38 PM
I like it. U always look good in traditional. U gave it a twist by using the scissors- show those sexy legs!! x xx
- May 2, 2017 at 1:16 PM
- Unknown said...
fred perry polo shirts
hollister clothing
fitflops sale
michael kors outlet store
coach factory outlet online
cheap air jordans
pandora charms sale clearance
toms outlet
louis vuitton handbags
true religion jeans outlet
- May 17, 2017 at 6:47 AM
- raybanoutlet001 said...
ralph lauren polo
oakley sunglasses
nike shoes
ugg outlet
christian louboutin sale
ugg boots
michael kors handbags
bengals jersey
ugg outlet
nike blazer pas cher
- July 27, 2017 at 3:31 AM
- Unknown said...
adidas nmd
authentic jordans
golden goose sneakers
adidas nmd
cheap jordans
longchamp sale
adidas shoes
links of london
yeezy shoes
air jordan
- August 14, 2017 at 9:22 PM
- jeje said...
huarache shoes
nike air max
lebron 14
adidas nmd
basketball shoes
lebron 13 shoes
adidas tubular
yeezy boost
golden goose sneakers
cartier bracelet
- October 4, 2017 at 9:59 PM
- Unknown said...
hogan outlet online
lacoste outlet
links of london sale
adidas nmd
kyrie 4
kobe byrant shoes
air max
moncler jackets
jordan shoes
asics sneakers
- October 7, 2017 at 9:28 PM
- raybanoutlet001 said...
ralph lauren outlet
bears jerseys
ralph lauren uk
jordan 4
kate spade outlet
canada goose jackets
nike shoes
oakley sunglasses wholesale
mbt shoes outlet
- May 1, 2018 at 10:37 PM
- AB78 said...
cazal sunglasses
polo ralph lauren
raptors jerseys
world cup jerseys
michael kors outlet
rockets jerseys
air huarache
true religion jeans
76ers jerseys
chopard jewelry
- July 2, 2018 at 10:36 PM
- Obat Sariawan Alami said...
This article is interesting and useful. Thank you for sharing. And let me share an article about health that God willing will be very useful. Thank you :)
Obat Sakit Mata Belekan Alami
Cara Mengatasi Diare
Obat Penghancur Batu ginjal
Cara Mudah Mengobati Diabetes
Cara Menyembuhkan Mata Minus
Cara Mengobati Gusi Bengkak
- July 12, 2018 at 8:55 PM
- QQQQQQQQQ said...
ferragamo belt
air max 2018
crazy explosive
michael kors outlet online
timberland boots
nike free run
fitflops sale clearance
yeezy shoes
nike sneakers for women
jordan 13
- July 24, 2018 at 4:39 AM
- QQQQQQQQQ said...
ferragamo belt
air max 2018
crazy explosive
michael kors outlet online
timberland boots
nike free run
fitflops sale clearance
yeezy shoes
nike sneakers for women
jordan 13
- July 24, 2018 at 4:39 AM
- Unknown said...
mbt shoes
nike air max 90
nhl jerseys
kate spade outlet online
nike shoes for men
ugg boots on sale 70% off
oakley sunglasses
polo ralph lauren
moncler uk
canada goose outlet
- August 19, 2018 at 9:15 PM
- Tangki Fiber said...
Tangki Panel
Tangki Fiberglass
Jual Septic Tank
Tangki Kimia
Jual Talang Fiber
Jual Rotameter
jual mesin ro
Jual Botol Plastik Agro
Jual Botol Plastik Murah
- October 7, 2018 at 2:14 AM
- fmm said...
(Ray Ban Outlet Store) tried to base people cascades by - beefing older perimeter stability for the towards the (Cheap Yeezys For Sale) southern states of the us as a your dog's"To (Cheap Yeezy Shoes Sale) the south outside coverage, (Ray Ban New Wayfarer Polarized) Set up all over core 2014. My gumption originates down below intense self deprecation a (Michael Kors Outlet Online) psychological privileges groupings world health organization (New Yeezys 2020) perhaps it has grown illegitimate at detention searchers asylum, Consisting of toddlers, As well as being making the criminals to use better treacherous avenues to discovery.Be able to observe:Mexico's minefield meant designed for the purpose of migrantsUndocumented migrants at the (New Jordan Releases 2020) moment are discovering it tougher to car overlaid on"L. A.
- July 14, 2020 at 11:56 PM


text:
5500: Deadstock 1960s Japanese Kasuri (ikat) Cotton Fabric by Yard
Vintage Japanese Textiles:
Japanese Kimono Kasuri (Ikat)
1950's Deadstock Japanese Cotton Fabric
Width: 14 inches /35.56 cm
Length: 1 yard/ 91.44m
Catalog# 5500:
Shipping free under 4 pounds
Fabric Description: Deadstock never used), Japanese vintage kasuri (ikat) cotton fabric;
Fabric Type: Kasuri (ikat), Light Weight, still firm; 3 colors; This is a traditional ikat pattern with colored accents.
Colors: background is black with motifs in white, gray, burgundy-red; (see close-ups).
This is an unused Japanese country vintage fabric called kasuri (also called ikat in Southeast Asia; ) ; Kasuri is a labor-intensive process where patterns are made by pre-dyed paste resistance and varying techniques used to create the sorts of patterns seen here. Because of the methods used, authentic kasuri is usually highly expensive. More info on kasuri below:
Cultural Notes on Kasuri(ikat):
Wikipedia.org, on-line encyclopedia, defines Kasuri as:
To see a YouTube.com video of the making of traditional indigo kasuri please click HERE .


text:
Boemboe Sambal Goreng
Spicy spice paste for meat or chicken
Warning: Last items in stock!
9 Item in stock Items in stock
1,65 €
16,50 € per kilo
- Brand Toko Lien
- Origin Holland
- Net weight 100 g
- Ingredients Onion, red pepper (20%), flavour enhancers (monosodium glutamate), palm oil, sugar, coconut meat, salt, garlic, tomato, lemon grass, galangal, antioxidants (potassium lactate), wheat flour, preservatives (sodium (di)acetate, sodium benzoate, sorbic acid), corn flour, acids (acetic acid), herbs and spices, shrimp.
- Preparation Necessary ingredients: 500 grams of beef or chicken or 500 grams of vegetables or 8 hard-boiled eggs, 1 onion, oil. Preparation: Cut the meat or chicken into pieces, then fry with the chopped onion in the pan with some oil, add the sambal goreng and 3 cups of water and simmer. Add to taste salt or sambal. Tip: Instead of meat you can use vegetables, hard-boiled eggs or chicken for this dish.
- Preservation Do not expose to direct sunlight. Keep cool.
- Information about allergies Contains gluten, wheat and shellfish. This product has been made in a place where nuts and peanuts are also processed.
No customer comments for the moment.
30 other products in the same category:
- Jalfrezi Sauce
- Tikka Masala Sauce
- Rogan Josh Sauce
- Chilli Pickle
- Jalfrezi Spice Paste
- Mix for Marinade Saté
- Sweet Chilli Sauce
- Mix for Saté Sauce
- Mix for Nasi Goreng
- Ketjap Asin
- Mix for Bami Goreng
- Mix for Babi Pangang S...
- Ketjap Manis
- Mango Pickle
- Mix for Peanut Saté Sauce
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Rogan Josh Spice Paste
- Wok Sauce Hoisin
- Mix for Chicken Madras
- Coconut Oil
- Boemboe Nasi Goreng
- Boemboe Bami Goreng
- Egg Noodles
- Boemboe Sajoer Vegetables
- Peanut Sauce Mild
- Peanut Sauce Spicy
- Mashed Ginger
- Wasabi Crackers
- Coconut Milk
- Korma Sauce


text:
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was …. But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:1-5, 13-21
Today's thoughts from today's verses:
John 17 is a prayer offered by Jesus to the Father on behalf of His disciples just before His crucifixion. He is praying that they will be steadfast in their faith when He is no longer with them. But then amazingly Jesus takes it much further and says, "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word." What a wonderful picture of how the impact of the original disciples and each subsequent generation lives on.
Jesus' prayer includes us and we are a testimony to the reality that His request was granted. One generation after another has believed through the "word" of disciples who have "gone on" but in a very special sense "live on" because they fulfilled their role as "God's Agents." While such considerations are mind boggling, there is one specific consideration that is of supreme importance. When we have "gone on" will we "live on" because the impact of His "word" through us has gone forth, with us as "God's Agents" having left behind others who have believed? How to leave behind a "genuine spiritual legacy" such as this, is the focus of this week's Devotionals.
Today's prayer response from today's thoughts:
Lord, I join you in the desire you have for me to leave behind a genuine spiritual legacy by accepting the role you have for me as an agent of the Gospel. I really do want it to be that when I have "gone on" the impact of my life will "live on" because there will be others left behind who have truly believed. Teach me more fully than ever before how to leave behind such a spiritual legacy. Amen!
Sun, November 24, 2019 @ 3:02 PM
Sat, November 30, 2019 @ 3:28 AM
Tue, March 31, 2020 @ 4:39 AM
Mon, April 27, 2020 @ 6:03 PM
Your Name:
Your Email/URL (Optional):
Your Comment:
Comment Guidelines: No HTML is allowed. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Thanks.


text:
Boaz Baptist Chronicles
Hebrews Four...
|Posted on April 27, 2012 at 3:15 PM
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached [The gospel being preached, here, is the gospel of victory for the Hebrews (the name of this book) to enter the Promised LAND], as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day [Creation Week—the last day or the day of rest, at the end of seven days. (Genesis 2:2-3)] from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached [It was first preached to the Hebrews that came out of Egypt, who God promised would occupy the land of Canaan, but they didn't believe God's promise and fell in the wilderness.] entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. [When David writes, he is referring to a FUTURE date. And, when the writer of Hebrews, during the time they might have believed on Christ as their Messiah, writes this book that day is at hand. (Matthew 3:2) If the Jews had accepted their Messiah, the Promised Land would have been set up as God's theocratic kingdom on Earth and His Kingdom—the Kingdom of Heaven would've been established. But, since the Jews, nationally, rejected Christ, this promise moved forward (again) to the Tribulation period.] 8 For if Jesus [Who takes over (from Joshua) as "Captain" (Hebrews 2:10) to lead these Hebrews into rest] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. [That other day will happen in the future, at the end of the seventh dispensation or the "rest" given after the first six dispensations are accomplished. This day of a thousand years (II Peter 3:8) is also the seventh thousand year of human history. ] 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour […by works—Remember, this is a tribulation book and passage, written to the "Hebrews"—to gain an inheritance into the Millennium…] therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Thanks given to Dr. Peter S. Ruckman for his writings and understanding of Scripture.
Lion lying down sketch - Rembrandt.
Categories: None


text:
Well, it's about time.
Just when things were getting kind of dull around Greeley, and we hadn't made any BIG NEWS in a couple of weeks, one of our nice families comes through for us.
Headline: "Couple accused of fight at game."
Yeah, that's right. A Greeley couple, attending a game of 10-year-old boys, got into a fight and a bunch of parents joined in.
We always like to see Greeley making the news, because we want the rest of the state to know what a nice, friendly city we are.
" We have our County Commisshes, who want to pull out and make us a separate state, and that made NATIONAL news, and made us all look good, of course.
" And when Bronco Training Camp was here, the Denver TV folks always made fun of Greeley and the smell and that they had nothing to do. I won't miss that part of training camp.
" And of course, we were on a nationally popular TV show called South Park, which showed a city limits sign of Greeley with the label "The opposite of Hawaii." Har Har. I laughed so hard at that one.
Well, anyway, here we are again, making news that makes our town look goofy. At least one of the Denver TV stations sent up a reporter to "report from the scene," and she spent a long time making Greeley look like a Home for Idiot Parents.
It all started when the Proud Parent got mad at the other team's coach this week, and went over after the game and (as one witness put it) began swearing and "throwing "F-Bombs."
I'm sorry, but if you start cussing out a coach at a 10-year-old boys' game, then get into a fight, while your wife is hitting other people and taking away a woman's phone/camera, and several other parents join in and throw drinks at you and your wife kicks a man in his tender place, it means you aren't the World's Best Parents.
Those are 10-year-old kids! They play baseball to have fun, not to watch their parents fight. If you're a kid and you get to wear a uniform and play ball in front of a crowd and you're having fun, it could be one of the most memorable moments of your life. Now, this 10-year-old boy will have a memorable moment all right, but it won't be a good one. He must be SO proud of his mom and dad.
The fight reminds me of a game-fight situation I was in about a thousand years ago, when I was supervising the referees in the Greeley City League Men's Basketball.
I got a call at home one night from one of my refs. He said they'd just finished a game, and one of the teams was waiting outside the gym for him and the other ref, and they were going to "kick their you-know-whats" because they didn't like the way they reffed.
It was happening in Evans, so I told the refs to stay in the gym, I called the Evans police to get an officer to the scene, and then I drove over there myself. It was pretty ugly. The team was standing out in the parking lot, shouting cusswords at the refs in the school, and the Evans cop arrived at the same time I did.
Well, I thought, at least with the cops here, my refs will be safe.
The cool-headed Evans cop pulled everybody together: me, the refs and the angry team. And here's what the cop told the team: "I don't care if you beat 'em up. Just don't do it in Evans."
Luckily, the refs and I were able to escape from the team (and from Evans) safely.
And that Evans cop doesn't work in Evans anymore.
But just think if that would have happened in Greeley today. Nobody would have told the cops until the refs were pounded badly. The cops would arrest the team members on assault charges.
And the Denver TV station would send a reporter to Greeley to make us look like idiots again.
Come to think of it, I think that maybe one of this week's Fighting Parents was on that basketball team years ago.
Well, it's nice to know he's still setting a good example for his children.
The name Gnarly Trombone was taken from an 1871 Cincinnati newspaper that misread Horace Greeley's handwritten name of the Greeley Tribune. Mike Peters is a retired Tribune staff writer. He may be emailed at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
April 28, 2019
UPS Teamsters Local 243/Metro Detroit
Supplement Vote Results
UPS Teamsters covered by the Local 243 Metro/Detroit Supplement Agreement have voted to ratify the agreement. Voting took place today.
UPS – Local 243 Total YES votes:
Percentage YES:
Total NO votes:
Percentage NO:
Total Votes:
April 12, 2019
There was a conference call of the IBT National Negotiating Committee held today. Under review on the call was the passing of the Western Pennsylvania and Local 804 Supplemental Agreements.
April 9, 2019
UPS Teamsters Local 804
UPS Teamsters covered by the Local 804 Supplement Agreement have voted to ratify the agreement. Voting took place over the past several weeks and votes were tallied today.
UPS – Local 804 Total YES votes:
Eligible Voters:
Turnout %:
UPS Teamsters Western Pennsylvania Supplement Vote Results
UPS Teamsters covered by the Western Pennsylvania Supplement Agreement have voted to ratify the agreement. The supplement covers members in local unions 30, 110, 249, 261, 397, 491, 538, 585 and 926.
UPS – Western Pennsylvania Total YES votes:
March 5, 2019
UPS Teamsters Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania and Local 243/Detroit Metro
Supplemental Vote Results
UPS Teamsters covered by the Central Pennsylvania Supplement have ratified the agreement. UPS Teamsters covered by the Western Pennsylvania and Local 243/Metro Detroit supplements have rejected those two agreements.
Voting took place over the past several weeks and votes were tallied today.
UPS Central Pennsylvania Total YES votes:
Another supplement yet to be voted on is the Local 804 Supplement. However, a tentative agreement on the Local 804 Supplement has been reached and a vote will take place in the near future.
February 5, 2019 -
UPS Teamsters Ratify Upstate and Western
New York Supplement
UPS Teamsters covered by the Upstate and Western New York Supplement have ratified the agreement.
Total YES votes:
Four other supplements remain outstanding: Central Pennsylvania; Western Pennsylvania; Local 804; and Local 243 Metro Detroit.
The national agreement cannot take effect until all the outstanding supplements are ratified. Once ratified, economic improvements are retroactive to August 1, 2018.
December 14, 2018 -
UPS Teamsters Vote to Approve
Trailer Conditioners, Inc. (TCI) Supplement
UPS Teamsters covered by the Trailer Conditioners, Inc. (TCI) Supplement voted today to approve the agreement. The vote count was 61 yes to 45 no.
The TCI Supplement is the first of the six outstanding supplements to be approved in a re-vote by the members. Members at TCI repair trailers and are represented by local unions 385, 480 and 745.
Five supplements remain outstanding: the Central Pennsylvania; the Upstate and West New York; Western Pennsylvania; Local 243 and Metro Detroit; and the Local 804.
November 30, 2018 -
Two of the six outstanding UPS supplements will go to members for a re-vote soon, Teamsters Package Division Director Denis Taylor said following a conference call with the Teamsters National UPS Negotiating Committee yesterday.
Chairmen of the outstanding supplements provided updates to the committee regarding negotiations that have taken place since the supplements were rejected during the first vote.
The two supplements that will be re-voted soon are the Central Pennsylvania Supplement and the Upstate and West New York Supplement.
Four others are not yet ready for a re-vote, and negotiations will continue. The four are the Western Pennsylvania Supplement, the Local 243 and Metro Detroit Supplement, the Local 804 Supplement and the Trailer Conditioners, Inc. (TCI) Supplement.
The national UPS contract will not take effect until all the supplements have been ratified.
Visit the UPSRising Facebook page where members can see the latest updates. Go to "UPSRising" on Facebook. Or visit www.upsrising.org to see all the UPS Rising news. Text "UPS" to 86466 to receive text message alerts (message and data rates may apply).
A ballot to cast your vote for the 2018-2023 UPS contracts has been mailed to each member's home.
If you have not received your materials to vote on the UPS contract, contact the local union immediately
at 973-923-7070
Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:00pm,
to request new information so that you can vote.
Requests for new or re-credential voter access credential and voting instructions will be accepted using the web platform until 5:00 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, October 4, 2018.
Remember, Member voting will end at 1:00 pm Eastern Time on Friday, October 5, 2018.
The ratification tally will start at
8:00 pm Eastern Time on Friday, October 5, 2018.
UPS Teamsters may follow the contract ratification vote results live on Friday, October 5.
There are two ways to participate:
1) You may join a conference call at 7 p.m. Central time/8 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, October 5 to listen to the results. To join the call, dial 866-767-0669.
2) You can watch and listen to the results live at ibt.io/UPSvotecount
To view the flier, click here: https://teamster.org/sites/default/files/ups_vote_count_flier.pdf
September 4, 2018
UPS/UPS Freight Contract Ratification Vote -
Please be advised the official date for balloting materials to be mailed to all eligible members at UPS and UPS Freight will be between Tuesday, September 11th and Friday, September 14, 2018.
The ballots will be counted on Friday, October 5, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
August 17, 2018
Below, please find the links that you can click on and view the tenative agreements for both Local 177 Supplemental agreements, along with the National Master Agreement;
Local 177 Drivers
Local 177 Mechanics and Maintenance
Master Agreement
August 9, 2018
Leaders of UPS and UPS Freight Local Unions Approve Tentative Agreements
July 10, 2018
Teamsters Release UPS National Agreement in Principal, Highlights.
Click links below to read the full agreement,
June 29, 2018
Since the settlement in principle was reached last week with UPS for the National UPS agreement, plans have been made for negotiations on the supplemental agreements. As stated in the previous contract update (June 21), the supplemental agreements must be resolved and approved by UPS local unions first. This week's update will focus on the new classification of Full-Time Combination Driver and further materials will be issued about other highlights of the settlement.
There will be a conference call on Tuesday, July 10 for UPS Teamsters to learn more about the proposed contract.
The first call is at 6 p.m. (Eastern) and a second call is at 9 p.m. (Eastern). Members only need to join one call.
The call-in number is (877) 229-8493, and access code is 111566.
June 21, 2018
The National Negotiating Committee has agreed to a settlement in principle on the National Master UPS agreement, subject to the resolution of supplemental agreements and approval by UPS local unions. The term of the national agreement is set at five years, expiring on July 31, 2023.
Visit www.upsrising.com for more contract update information
UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters Strike Authorizationtion Results:
June 5, 2018
UPS and UPS Freight Teamsters have approved giving their respective negotiating committees the right to call a strike, if necessary.
The UPS members authorized a strike, if necessary, by a 93 percent margin.
At UPS Freight, the margin was 91 percent.
The vote was conducted by electronic secret ballot and the tally was released tonight.
"This vote by our UPS and UPS Freight members gives the negotiating committees bargaining leverage this week and during subsequent negotiations for the national contract and the supplements," said Denis Taylor, Director of the Teamsters Package Division and Co-Chairman of the Teamsters National UPS Negotiating Committee. "It is very helpful to have the members' backing as we work toward negotiating strong contracts at UPS and UPS Freight."
"This vote by our UPS and UPS Freight members gives the negotiating committees bargaining leverage this week and during subsequent negotiations for the national contract and the supplements," said Denis Taylor, Director of the Teamsters Package Division and Co-Chairman of the Teamsters National UPS Negotiating Committee. "It is very helpful to have the members' backing as we work toward negotiating strong contracts at UPS and UPS Freight."
Sign up for the UPS Rising app where you can find the current UPS contract, along with all the UPS contract updates and other news. Visit the UPS Rising Facebook page where members can see the latest updates.
Text "UPS" to 86466 to receive text message alerts (message and data rates may apply).
Learn more about organizing your workplace.
Contact Teamsters Local 177 at:
This Web page provides the latest updates for the national contract, riders and supplements that cover about 3,500 Teamsters at DHL Express.
We Are eXPOsing XPO's Global Greed
XPO Logistics is a top ten global logistics and transportation company with annual revenue of $15 billion and 89,000 employees, another 10,000 workers classified as independent contractors, and thousands more working for firms that subcontract with XPO. We are the REAL workers at XPO Logistics worldwide exposing the truth about the company's global greed, illegal wage theft, unsafe conditions, and abhorrent and vicious anti-worker, anti-union tactics.
This greed includes mistreating former Con-way Freight workers in the United States who are being kept in the dark about terminal closures and layoffs, and the company's illegal refusal to bargain contracts and denying their workers' federally protected right to organize. It also includes port, rail and last-mile drivers around the country and in Southern California fighting wage theft in excess of $200 million because they are misclassified as independent contractors and denied the right to form their union. This greed has caused numerous lawsuits and strikes. Greed also means an unsafe workplace and mistreating its warehouse employees.
XPO's greed extends to Europe beginning with breaking its promise to not layoff any workers for at least 18 months. French workers and the unions have been fighting back against XPO's disrespect, lies and attempts to slash jobs. Similar struggles are taking place in Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and across Europe.
Join the worldwide struggle now! Get involved with this campaign by joining the Facebook group "XPO Exposed."
Together, we can eXPOse the company's global greed and win fairness, respect and dignity for tens of thousands of XPO employees around the world!
This page provides the latest contract information to the 7,500 Teamsters—drivers, dockworkers and office staff—employed by ABF Freight System, Inc.
Workers' pensions are being endangered by both Congress and those charged with overseeing them. The Teamsters and our members are standing united to say "No!" to cuts and "Yes!" to greater retirement security!
The 'Let's Get America Working!' campaign seeks to restore a dynamic and prosperous middle class to drive economic growth by helping to advance policy decisions that create and maintain good middle-income jobs, guarantee retirement security, expand access to the American Dream, and ensure that the benefits of the ongoing economic recovery are felt by the many, not just the few.
This webpage provides information on the Teamsters Union's legislative advocacy at both the federal and state level as well as our field activity to support those policy positions and to get strong labor candidates elected to office. Among other resources, you will find our federal legislative scorecard, formal statements of policy position and communications to Capitol Hill, a weekly update on federal legislative happenings, an overview of bills we are tracking at the state level, and quick links to take action on priority issues.
This web page provides information on the ongoing effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since 1994, NAFTA has devastated working families, putting corporate profits ahead of people. What's worse is that NAFTA has become the blueprint for all other trade agreements, from the way that it was negotiated in secret, to the bad provisions that have made their way into every agreement that has been signed since then. Now, NAFTA is being renegotiated and we demand that it be reframed to work for workers instead of corporate interests.
The Teamsters have stood in solidarity with worker struggles in other countries since our founding. With economic globalization, our ability to organize increasingly depends on our ability to build alliances with workers on a global scale.
More than ever, Teamsters are organizing and bargaining with multi-national companies. A key objective of our Global Strategies Campaign is to build strong alliances with unions around the globe who organize and bargain with common employers. Our focus is on workers in the emerging global supply chains – the infrastructure of globalization.
Globalization creates new opportunities for international worker solidarity. We seek common cause with workers around the world to build social justice for all workers and the communities in which they live.
The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. This month, the Teamsters Union spotlights some of those contributions.


text:
Third Time Lucky for Muddles Green
It was third time lucky for a touring ride to Muddles Green today (Tuesday); two previous attempts this year had been cancelled due to bad weather. However, the weather today was fine and eight tourers cycled to Muddles Green for a refreshment stop at one of our favourite cafes, the Chiddingly Village Shop & Cafe. It's a community shop located in what used to be a farmyard at Farley Farm.
Hopefully, the cold weather of Winter is over and we can look forward to more fine days; after all, Spring is just around the corner!
We try to have three touring rides each week: Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The Tuesday rides are the shortest at approximately 25 miles. Those on Thursdays are the longest and are usually more than 40 miles; sometimes as much as 70. The Sunday rides tend to be between 30 and 40 miles. Our rides are called touring rides as we cycle at an average cycling pace of about 12½ mph, the sort of pace that most cyclists would adopt on a long distance cycle tour. Also, all our rides include a refreshment stop.
Other rides being planned later this month are to Blackboys, Horam, Rottingdean and Bexhill and possibly Isfield. So, if you're an experienced cyclist and fancy a bit of 'touring' then please give our rides a try. Details are on the Rides Calendar.
Happy cycling


text:
The 2013 U.S. Housing Market at a Glance
By Colin Ryan
After the housing market collapse of 2007, many experts worried that the market would never fully recover. Six years later, the dust has finally settled and the housing market appears to be on the rise.
The big question in 2012 was whether home prices had hit rock bottom. We now have our answer: Yes. All of the major indexes now show that asking and sales prices are on the rise.
For all of 2012, the average price of new homes sold was $288,400: an 8-percent increase from 2011's average price of $267,900. The average price of existing homes also experienced an increase, growing 5 percent from $214,000 to $225,100 during the same time period.
Looking to the future, the big question for the rest of 2013 is whether the upswing in home prices will continue strongly enough to encourage homeowners to sell and home-builders to build. After all, more homes on the market leads to more sales and gives homebuyers more options to choose from.
Based on last year's numbers, we have good reason to be (cautiously) optimistic. In 2012, builders completed 651,400 housing units: an 11-percent increase from 2011. Of these completed builds, 484,600 were single-family units (9-percent more than in 2011), and 158,100 were multi-family units (22-percent more than in 2011).
But while the housing market is gaining ground, some worry that it won't last. Industry experts point out that investors are currently taking advantage of deflated prices and low interest rates. When those prices and rates rise, it's likely that demand will soften and investors will pull back.
Published on July 3, 2013
Written by Colin Ryan
As the Brand Manager at Placester, it's my goal to cut through all the jargon and provide real estate professionals with insights and strategies for using our solutions to grow their businesses online.


text:
Brassac restores Crédit Agricole's Spirit of Conquest
After a bloodless revolution at the eurozone's second biggest banking group, Philippe Brassac says he has engineered a return to Crédit Agricole's origins, rooted in French regional banking. Now he is aiming to revive the group's appetite for foreign expansion. Can Brassac prevent a repetition of his predecessors' international errors and avoid falling victim to another coup?


text:
Here is what you need:
2 heaping tbsp of Coconut Oil* (I use Tropical Traditions brand)
*If the coconut oil is solid, heat it up so that you are working with a liquid
2 heaping tbsp of Raw Honey (if you are looking for a less sweet muffin try less Honey)
1/4 cup of applesauce (if you want dry muffins use less applesauce or cut it out entirely, I like my baked goods a bit on the heavy side.)
3 Eggs
1 tsp of Almond extract (if you want to use less feel free)
2 tbsp of coconut milk
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl.
1/4 cup of Coconut Flour (Tropical Traditions brand)
1/4 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
1 small carrot - minced into small bits
1/3 cup of almonds - minced into small bits
1/3 cup of goji berries
1/3 cup of shredded coconut (Tropical Traditions brand)
- Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then grease your muffin tins with coconut oil - enough so the muffins don't stick. Mix all the ingredients together and then spoon into the muffin tins about half way full. At this point I sprinkled shredded coconut on top of the muffins before I popped them into the oven, just to make it look pretty.
Bake for about 15-20 min depending on your oven. Use a toothpick, knife, or fork to test the muffin. If the utensil comes out clean the muffins are ready.
NOTE - mix and match things. I did not have any dried fruit or bitter chocolate chips, but if I had I might have tossed them in. I had also thought about using brown rice syrup rather than honey for a less sweet muffin (next time I will try that because these were sweeter than I had wanted for breakfast). I had a zucchini so I had debated on using that with the carrot...the possibilities are endless.
Don't forget to signup for the FREE Coconut Oil Contest!!!


text:
I was cleaning out some of my old files the other day when I came across this photo of Frankie as a puppy taken in the Toorak store just before I opened it in 2008. In some ways it seems like yesterday that this picture was taken and in other ways it seems like a lifetime ago. We bought Frankie on a whim one day a few weeks before I opened the store. He spent the first year of his life in shop and proved a handy draw card to passers by.
Since this first photoshoot Frankie has proven a very handy prop for photographing shoes. He is at the right level to add a little bit of cute to every shoot!
These are some Frankie's appearances in the Bared photo shoots.
A word of warning. These are the best dogs in the world but for those of you about to head out and find a puppy for yourselves make sure you take out a good pet insurance policy. We know all about this as poor little Frankie had to have spinal surgery a few months ago!
My Sausage Dog obsession has also found its way into other areas of my home.


text:
2000 Nissan Cefiro Excimo 2.0 from Malaysia
Value for money and best engine performance in its class
General Comments:
Having owned a Volvo 850 2.5 GLE, the 2 litre Cefiro has been a real delight since day one. The VQ engine is excellent and a lot quieter than the Volvo. The suspension is too firm for my liking.
Overall, better value for money than the Volvo.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th June, 2000
21st Mar 2001, 19:55
I currently drive a Mitsubitshi Galant VRV6. After an unintentional pop-in to a Cerfiro last week, I was totally impressed with its handling and suspension. Engine noise was well low, though the pick-up feels a little slow compared with the Mit-Galant. Nevertheless, I placed booking for 1 unit and I can't wait for the delivery. Great Car!!


text:
As requested by TroyL, two Greasemonkey scripts. Both are up for scrutiny and testing.
1. Jumpbox - adds a small textbox and a button next to your account information in the top right of the screen. It allows you to instantly jump to any article you want. Typing in only numbers will shoot you off to the relevant scip. Typing in a mix of letters and numbers, or only letters, will get you that page. So 'chat guide' will get the chat guide. Note that Wikidot takes care of the spaces in there, converting them to dashes.
Preface a title with [modifier]| to get a specific type of article. It makes sure that when you type 827 and want the tale by A Fat Ghost, you don't get SCP-827. Alternatively, typing out the entire pagename will do the trick too. I.e. both j|2006 and SCP-2006-J should get you SCP-2006-J.
- j: for Joke articles (included a special fix for SCP-J)
- x: for -EX articles
- a: for -ARC articles
- d: for -D articles
- h: for hub pages (i.e. typing in h|unfounded should get you the Unfounded Canon hub page.
- t: for tales
If you use any other modifier, it ignores it and acts like you only requested the page you specified after the pipe. I.e. typing o|chat guide will get you the chat guide, ignoring the unknown modifier.
Both an ENTER keypress and a click on the button work to submit.
Note: it doesn't check whether or not the page exists and it doesn't provide anything in the way of spelling correction. I didn't think that would add much when contrasted with the extra work/page load. Also, appearance can of course be pimped/tweaked/tuned and such.
2. Previous and Next buttons - Provides "« Previous" and "Next »" links at the top of any mainlist SCP article. Uses the already existing (and currently unused) action-area-top div, adding a bit of margin at the bottom to make sure it doesn't interfere with the page title. Works fairly fast, but does get slower when there's a lot of [ACCESS DENIED]s between the current page and the next eligible article. This is really only a factor in Series 3 at this moment. I tried to minimize the ajax calls to lighten the load on poor old Wikidot.
3. PM Shortcuts - Adds a small envelope image to the right of usernames produced with the Wikidot [[user XXXX]] and [[*user XXXX]] syntax. Click on the envelope to go directly to a new Wikidot PM addressed to that user. Image is contained within the script in base64 to avoid having to upload it somewhere.
4. Author karma - Replaces the karma bar with one that tells you how many pages the user has written for the site. This pulls info from Nala's Authors by Page Count page. Images are in the script in base64 to avoid having to upload them. Also adds the number and the date Nala's page was updated after the username.
Caveat: Nala's Authors by Page Count page doesn't seem to be updated at a regular interval, so figures may be off. Won't be off by enough to really affect the karma, I suppose. Secondly, Nala doesn't seem to count authors who've only created 1 page.
Karma classification:
|# pages
Nothing's set in stone, so if you have an idea for a better division, let me know.
5. Staff Identification - Adds a line below the username on forum posts to signify if a user is staff. Takes its cue from the Senior Staff list, but leaves out inactive members and chat operators/mods.
- Fixed your link, will use it today and let you know what I think. -bluesoul
- Uploaded new version of Previous/Next because it derped on -Js etc. - Crayne
- Uploaded new version of Previous/Next because I forget to exempt the hub tag - Crayne
- Will test it this weekend on Chrome, will let you know if it works. Using Tampermonkey. -Accel
- Uploaded new version of Previous/Next. Moved lastSeries variable out of the loop, kept getting overridden and cause problems on the first SCP in a series. - Crayne
- Uploaded new version of Jumpbox, malfunctioned when supplying it with input that contained uppercase 'SCP' - Crayne
- Uploaded new version of Previous/Next to account for untagged pages (didn't show up there) - Crayne
- Adding two more: PM-shortcut and Author-Karma - Crayne
- Fixed L4 and L5 karma bars not being rendered for Author-Karma - Crayne
- Uploaded new version of Previous/Next to account for pages that haven't been created yet (previous fix for untagged pages meant that while it now did run on created pages without tags, it also ran on non-existent pages) - Crayne
- Uploaded new versions of PM Shortcut and Author Karma scripts to make them run after switching to the second page of results on pages like Recent Posts etc. - Crayne
- Uploaded new versions of most scripts to comment out console.log calls, added new script Staff Identification - Crayne


text:
DD Hammock Beer Holder
£2.9167 Inc VAT
(Approx $3.7996)
(Approx $3.7996)
Was £4.1583
Save £1.2416
A beer can/bottle holder for DD Hammocks! Surely this is a must have product for those lazy summer days and nights around the campfire? Each DD Beer Holder will fit any standard drink can (soft drink or alcoholic) and the vast majority of bottles too. The can holder simply hangs from the side loops of the DD Travel, Frontline or Superlight Jungle Hammocks or it can be secured to a tree. These are a great accessory for your outdoor hammock!


text:
By Anita Snow,Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
Supporters of a no-fly zone over Libya called for a Security Council vote Thursday on a U.N. resolution aimed at preventing Moammar Gadhafi's planes from conducting aerial attacks on the Libyan people, but the United States was pushing for broader action to protect civilians from land and sea attacks as well.
Britain and France put a draft resolution that would impose a no-fly zone in a final form late Wednesday after more than eight hours of closed-door discussions by Security Council ambassadors. France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said the text was being sent to capitals overnight and could still be changed before being put to a vote in the 15-member council.
With Gadhafi's forces intensifying attacks and heading toward rebel-held Bengazi, Libya's second-largest city, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told the reporters the Obama administration is "fully focused on the urgency and the gravity of the situation on the ground."
According to a council diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private, Rice said during more than eight hours of closed-door discussions by council ambassadors Wednesday the goal should be expanded from creating a no-fly zone to protecting civilians, meaning the international community must have all the tools it needs including authorization to use planes, troops or ships to stop attacks by Gadhafi's air, land and sea forces.
According to the diplomat, Rice said the U.S. will not act without Security Council authorization, does not want to put U.S. ground troops into Libya, and insists on broad international participation, especially by Arab states.
"We are interested in a broad range of actions that will effectively protect civilians and increase the pressure on the Gadhafi regime to halt the killing and to allow the Libyan people to express themselves in their aspirations for the future freely and peacefully," Rice told reporters after the meeting. "Those include discussion of a no-fly zone, but the U.S. view is that … a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk."
The initial draft resolution would establish a ban on all flights in Libyan airspace and authorize U.N. member states "to take all necessary measures" to protect civilians. But an amendment proposed by the United States and obtained by The Associated Press would authorize states "to protect civilians and civilian objects from the Gadhafi regime, including by halting attacks by air, land and sea forces under the control of the Gadhafi regime."
During the sometimes heated closed-door discussions, the diplomat said Rice told council members the United States is very concerned that Gadhafi's forces are on a rapid march to Benghazi and wants the amendment because a no-fly zone isn't enough to protect civilians from probable atrocities.
It was unclear if the amendment the U.S. was calling for would remain in the text that was eventually put to a vote.
The diplomat said Russia, which has veto power, raised serious questions about the use of force against Gadhafi and other council nations reacted cautiously.
Lebanon, France and Britain introduced the draft resolution Tuesday afternoon, spurred by the Arab League's urgent call for a no-fly zone.
Rice told reporters the U.S. is "working very hard" toward having a vote on Thursday.
China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong, the current council president, told reporters "we hope we will have real progress tomorrow."
An Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because council discussions are private, said the United States is discussing a range of other concrete steps with allies, both at the United Nations and at NATO. Among those additional steps are greater humanitarian aid, supporting the Libyan resistance with money from seized Gadhafi-related assets, and greater enforcement of the U.N. arms embargo on Libya.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose government had expressed misgivings about a no-fly zone, proposed that the council vote first on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Libya. Rice told reporters a majority of council members did not support a separate cease-fire resolution but said that a call for a cease-fire could be incorporated in the no-fly resolution.
"We were not rejecting at all the larger resolution," Churkin told reporters, adding that his country thought that the call for a cease-fire "could possibly prevent impending bloodshed in Libya."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier Wednesday urged all sides in Libya to accept an immediate cease-fire.
Ban "is gravely concerned about the increasing military escalation by government forces, which include indications of an assault on the city of Benghazi," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The U.N. chief warned that "a campaign to bombard such an urban centre would massively place civilian lives at risk," Nesirky said.
While Russia and Germany expressed doubts, France pushed for rapid action with Foreign Minister Alain Juppe saying in Paris that several Arab countries have pledged to participate in possible military action in the North African country.
Libya's deputy U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who supports the opposition, said five Arab countries have offered support.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on leaders of the 14 other Security Council nations to "fully shoulder their responsibilities and give support to this initiative."
"Together, we can save the martyred people of Libya," he wrote in a letter. "It is now a matter of days, if not hours. The worst would be that the appeal of the League of the Arab States and the Security Council decisions be overruled by the force of arms."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a visit to Egypt on Wednesday that the Obama administration is consulting with the Arab League "about their understanding of the goals and modalities of a no-fly zone as well as other forms of support."
"We believe that this must be an international effort and that there has to be decisions made in the Security Council in order for any of these steps to go forward," she said.
Libya's Dabbashi told reporters he expects a no-fly resolution to be adopted, with a provision that will also allow air strikes.
He stressed the urgency of council action, saying according to information the Libyan Mission has received, Gadhafi is preparing for two operations: One against the eastern city of Ajdabiya, which is already under siege using mercenaries in more than 400 vehicles that are already en route, and one against mountain villages in the west where tanks, heavy artillery and other weapons are being gathered for an assault.
The latest push for a ban on flights in Libya came as Gadhafi's forces intensified offensives in the east and the west Wednesday with relentless shelling aimed at routing rebel holdouts.
France and Britain failed to win support for a no-fly zone during a two-day meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris earlier Tuesday and the G-8's final communique did not mention a flight ban, leaving any action to the Security Council.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the G-8 that his country wants more details and clarity from the Arab League about its proposals for Libya before approving any military intervention, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country was "very skeptical" about military action.
The Security Council on Feb. 26 imposed an arms embargo on Libya and ordered all countries to freeze assets and ban travel for Gadhafi and some close associates. It also referred the regime's deadly crackdown on protesters to the International Criminal Court, for an investigation of possible crimes against humanity.


text:
A few months ago, on a trip through New Mexico, I stopped by Ghost Ranch for a short visit and hike. Ghost Ranch is a beautiful area in north central New Mexico. It is a retreat and education center that belongs to the Presbyterian Church, but is open to the general public (all visitors must register with the visitor center). Though there is a long history to the Ranch, perhaps it has become most well known due to its links with the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, who once owned a home on a small portion of the Ranch.
There is an easy and rather popular hike to a rock formation called Chimney Rock, not far from the Ghost Ranch Welcome Center. As I ambled along the trail to Chimney Rock on that cool and windy Spring day, I was delighted to come across what I believe to be Yucca harrimaniae, occasionally dotting the sides of the trail. This small and very charming yucca was quite numerous on areas along the hike.
In the limited research I did, I discovered that there is also a possibility that the yuccas I saw at Ghost Ranch might also be Yucca angustissima. And it seems that there is disagreement among botanist about these two species of Yucca, and what distinguishes them. For the sake of simplicity, and at the risk of being wrong, I will refer to these yuccas as Yucca harrimaniae. Some people call Yucca harrimaniae by the common name Harriman's Narrow Leaf Yucca.
I have seen these in the Denver area, planted in gardens, but I had never before noticed them in the wild, as I am usually accustomed to only seeing Yucca glauca, which is quite common in natural areas of northern and eastern Colorado. That is why I was so excited to see them. The Yucca harrimaniae leaf color is less blue-grey than Yucca glauca (glauca or glaucous translates to "blue-grey" in Latin), and I think Y. harrimaniae exhibits more of the curly white "side hairs" than the Y. glauca. Like all other yuccas, these will sport a beautiful flower stalk in spring to early summer.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.
The post Photo of the Day: Ghost Ranch and Yuccas appeared first on Lot-Lines.


text:
Web Design // Illustrations // Icon Design // Development
Ever wanted to make phone calls from a number that's not your own? Well this is what Spoof My Phone is all about. You can also add effects, change your voice and a whole lot of other options. I was responsible for the whole design (including logos, illustrations and icons) and the responsive implementation.


text:
Bunny Knowledge = Bunnylove!
Did you know that Rabbits are just as intelligent as dogs and Cats? That they can be as social and affectionate as dogs? And that they are clean and groom themselves as well as any cat?
Rabbits are amazing little lagomorphs, and they are as enchanting as a fairy tale!
But they are fragile and delicate little creatures despite their feisty strong-willed little personalities!
As a matter of fact, if you come down to feed your little house-rabbit one morning and he doesn't come running to you for his routine feeding ......there is definitely something wrong. And if you don't know what it is.....you shouldn't have a rabbit as a pet!
Because in 24 hours if you don't do something, and I mean fast......this rabbit can be dead!
When a rabbit doesn't come running for his meals, he is almost surely getting something called GI Stasis. If you notice right away, and give him just 10-20 mls of water every few hours with a small syringe, he can be fine by the next day. If you don't he could easily die....
Wouldn't you want to know this before you adopt a rabbit?
Help me help rabbits and people by spreading the word about what rabbits need and why they are so fragile. Every little spread helps!
My website, www.bunnygroomer.com is a simple site to help anyone, even children, understand rabbits. If you want to delve further and learn everything there is to know about rabbits, www.rabbit.org is your best rabbit information site in the world. I trust them above all when it comes to rabbits.
Thank you for helping the delightful wonderful rabbit!


text:
Despite its cheeky title, Spencer's recent book on the source of Islamic doctrine —The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran — is a valuable compendium of information about the Koran and its literally illiterate "author," Mohammed. Spencer's first chapter, "Why Every American Needs to Know What's in the Koran," offers an engaging introduction to the entire work, and immediately dispenses with many of the silly arguments which Islamists, and their apologists, often throw out during a debate to distract or confuse their opponents. For example, Spencer shoots down the familiar argument that a statement from the Koran has been "taken out of context":
Critics of jihad violence and Islamic supremacism are often accused of taking quotes from the Koran "out of context." This is a bitterly ironic charge given that much of the Koran has no context in the first place. For long stretches there is little or no narrative unity. The text move[s] from topic to topic with scant regard for any conventional notion of continuity. Many verses appear as abstract maxims, related without regard to any particular situation; to demand that they be quoted "in context" is to demand something that was never possible in the first place. (17)
Spencer's book is a powerful argument against Islam precisely because it sets forth the actual teachings of the Koran and the Hadith (the voluminous record of supposed sayings of Mohammed, which are of tremendous importance for sharia law). Reading the Koran matters, Spencer maintains, "because, contrary to what many would have us believe, sacred texts are not entirely determined by what the faithful wish to see in them." (9)
Unlike the apparent lack on context in the Koran, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran gathers the teachings of the Koran and Hadith topically, with chapters on Mohammed's self-glorification, Islam's vilification of Jews and Christians, the appalling teachings of Islam regarding women, and the glorification of violence against non-Muslims. In regard to this last subject, Spencer makes the point that many Islamic scholars believe that the "Verse of the Sword" ("slay the idolaters wherever you find them" [9:5]) is the "last word" for Muslims regarding non-Muslims:
One Koranic scholar, Ibn Juzayy, notes that 9:5 abrogates "every peace treaty in the Qur'an," and specifically abrogates the directive in 47:4 to "set free or ransom" captive unbelievers. According to as-Suyuti, this verse "abrogates pardon, truce and overlooking" — that is, the overlooking of pagans' offenses. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn is particularly belligerent, saying that the Muslims must "kill the idolaters wherever you find them — whether they be in the Haram [the sacred precincts of Mecca] or outside it — and seize them by capture and besiege them in citadels and fortresses until they either fight or become Muslim and lie in wait for them on every road on which they travel. If they repent of their unbelief and establish the prayer and pay zakat, let them go on their way and do not interfere with them." (201)
Spencer also observes that it is not enough for a Muslim to claim he rejects such teachings, because "Islam is the only major religion with a developed doctrine of deception. Many believe this doctrine, called taqiyya, is exclusively Shi'ite, but actually it is founded upon Koranic passages." (202)
Chapter eleven ("'Love Your Enemies' and Other Things the Koran Doesn't Say") offers a number of striking contrasts between what those who have been raised in a nominally Christian country take for granted as basic teachings of a religion, and demonstrates that such things are quite notably missing from Islam. As Spencer writes,
And indeed, the reader of the Koran will search in vain for even a single verse that specifically tells Muslims to be kind to Infidels or to befriend them, unless it be "by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them" (3:28) — a verse that, as we have seen, Islamic theologians explain as mandating a false solicitude toward unbelievers for self-protection and/or the protection of Islam.
The Koran also lacks any admonition that all human beings are equal in dignity before God, or the corresponding conviction that all people should have legal equality. And that absence of these principles makes itself felt all through Islamic cultures and societies. (212–3)
Throughout The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, readers encounter numerous boxes where quotations from the Bible and the Koran are set together so one may compare and contrast the teachings of Christianity and Islam. A certain mix of comedic value and horror is also provided by a series of similar boxes entitled, "The Hadith illuminates the Koran." One such passage from the Hadith, for example, offers a fascinating insight into human anatomy provided by Mohammed: "Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying that a non-Muslim eats in seven intestines whereas a Muslim eats in one intestine." (100) Another, however, explains why slavery is good for non-Muslims: "The Verse: 'You [true believers in Islamic Monotheism, and real followers of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunna] are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind...' means, the best for the people, as you bring them with chains on their necks till they embrace Islam (thereby saving them from the eternal punishment in Hell-fire and make them enter Paradise in the Hereafter)." (104)
The final chapter of Spencer's book seems particularly apropos in the context of the recent controversy over one pastor's professed intention to burn the Koran. Chapter twelve ("Ban This Fascist Book?") discusses efforts in India and the Netherlands to specifically ban the Koran. Though Spencer does not advocate such a course of action, he does observe that "It is futile to pretend the problem doesn't exist and hope that it will go away." Instead of what he terms "naïveté and appeasement," Spencer recommends:
First, we must recognize that the contents of the Koran have implications for public policy. The fact that significant numbers of Muslims worldwide consider the book to be a mandate for violence should concern government and law enforcement authorities, who should act to prevent Koran-inspired violence. Officials should refuse to accept the deceptions and half-truths that U.S.-based Islamic groups routinely offer regarding the Koran's violent teachings. (226)
How likely Spencer considers such a course of action to be is another matter. The arguments of moral equivalence — honed to virtual perfection during the days of the Cold War — are now applied to Christianity and Islam, instead of the West and the Communist bloc. Still, not all of the public is prepared to repeat the lie of moral equivalence, as was recently demonstrated by a Washington Post-ABC News poll:
The new results come alongside increasingly critical public views of Islam: 49 percent of all Americans say they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say they have favorable ones. That's the most negative split on the question in Post-ABC polls dating to October 2001.
Nearly a third of all Americans see mainstream Islam as encouraging violence, little changed from recent years. More, a slim majority, say it's a peaceful religion. "Whatever faith or God they believe in, I think most people are decent," Susan Deal, 45, of Walbridge, Ohio said in a follow-up interview.
The answer to such naïveté is found in careful examination of the actual teachings of Islam, and not the bumpersticker cliches dished out by Islamist apologists on cable news channels and the Internet. Spencer's book can be of great service in dispersing the fog of such shallow thinking.
Robert Spencer, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2009), paperback, $19.95body>


text:
Dino & Harry's
[411 Note: The Old Frankie & Johnnie's restaurant thread is now closed, and all future comments belong here.]
11/21/2008 Update:
Hoboken411 reader Deb was kind enough to snap a picture of Dino & Harry's Sunday Brunch menu!
What do you think of their offerings? How about the prices? Has anyone tried it yet?
11/15/2008 Update:
Dino & Harry's brunch
Hoboken411 reader CreativeAngel noticed that Dino & Harry's is now serving brunch! Haven't had a chance to check out the menu yet, though. If you sample them one day soon – please share your experience in the comments section!
See other pictures and contact info after the jump…
if (!isset($phpAds_context)) {
$phpAds_context = array();
$phpAds_raw = view_local(", 2, 0, 0, '_blank', ", '0', $phpAds_context, ");
echo $phpAds_raw['html'];
Dino & Harry's finally got their sign up, and have officially put an end to the Frankie & Johnnie's era in Hoboken. I just wonder how long people will refer to Dino & Harry's as "the old Frankie & Johnnie's" and continue mentioned the movie "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando.
Description – Fine Restaurant & Piano Bar.Fine dining. Zagat rated. Entrée price range $21-$37.
Services – Restaurant – Salads, pasta, Steak, Seafood
Website – www.dinoandharrys.com (site not live yet)
Address – 163 14th St, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Telephone – 201-659-6202, Fax – 201-659-3389


text:
Horizon Centre, Inc. is your one-stop destination for development services performance improvement. We turn proven streamlining and customer service ideas into results for your city or county government. Our commitment is to provide unbiased, expert advice to help your agency cut costs, improve performance, and bolster support by your elected officials, businesses and residents.
Understanding Your Challenges
more than ever, development services related
agencies are under the scrutiny of the public eye. Elected
officials, businesses, and the
public alike want improved
regulatory services.
But how do you deliver in a climate with growing and numerous challenges?
We help agency executives and managers address and meet the high demands for tangible and immediate results, in a climate with the challenges of:
|A downturn in the economy with budget cuts that result in constrained and insufficient funding levels
|Complacency in a government culture too often entrenched and comfortable
|Service improvements involving complex multi-departmental processes and systems
|Political expectations for quick fixes with limited patience to spend time on sustainable change
With numerous challenges and high expectations, it is clear that executives and managers have to get creative and be flexible. In order to be successful, they have to collaborate with other managers on strategies and solutions and take a comprehensive look at how services are delivered to its customers. Most importantly, they must begin to think from the customer's perspective. We can help. Find out more about our Development Services consulting resources.


text:
Huge Hello Everyone!
As you all know it's Sunday!
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
i love my Sundays! cause it's scrappen day! Whoopie!
Now it seems that in my midst was a moment of pure luck
as on my first cuppa of coffee this morning
Mazz my dear friend caught me eye on face book with a lovely
photo of her family...when she was a little sprout :)
and i loved the colours in the photo and had to comment...
next thing i know Mazz throws me a challenge colour pallet
from Mad Scrappers
saying "I'm going to Challenge the challenger"
sounds a bit like a cowboy stand off or a mortal kombat sence...lol
but i was really taking with this pallet and being my scrappen day i thought..
Why not?!
the pink was going to be a battle but i was thrilled to get stucking to my kit from
that i won from entering Bird is the Word
totally luck duc i know THANK YOU WENDY! MWAH!
check out this months kit....
What a delish colour explosion!
Now to get into the groove even more i got out the New July sketch from Anna's Craft Cupboard
and came up with this little number
First Swing
How cute are these little buttons!
made a heap of buttons yesterday!
like maybe this much....
and a few more little one :)
once you start it's knid of hard to stop....untill you run out of buttons...lol
Well lovely ladies i hope your all have a lovely Sunday and hope your
all finding some time to get creative and make yourself smile :)
Thanks Mazz for the challenge! i really loved getting out of my confort zone and
finally getting my scrap on! :)
keep smiling and enjoy the simple moments!


text:
Join us to stay up to date
A Marcs staple, the Marle Arnie returns in a range of fresh spring tones. Crafted from durable and soft 100% cotton in a classic v-neck style this is the timeless must have t-shirt for this season and the next.
- V- Neck- Short Sleeves- 100% Cotton- Gentle Cold Machine Wash- Model is 188cm Tall & Wears a Size M
No returns on outlet items
Style Number: C150.18S.18818


text:
This week, rumor has it that NetApp is going to make a big announcement around their new release: ONTAP 8.1.1
I work for EMC, so I'm expected to have an opinion, and not necessarily a positive one. Despite my obvious affiliation, I'm also pretty deep into the storage industry overall (20 years!) and spend a lot of time with customers who use a lot of storage.
And -- in a nutshell -- this announcement is not especially good news. Particularly for their customers who've been waiting patiently for NetApp to close the gap against viable competitive alternatives.
Before long, I can see that many of these NetApp customers are going to have to make hard and difficult choices between whether they stick it out with their current vendor and hope for the situation to improve, or start to look at bringing in competitive alternatives. And while we could sit here at EMC and perhaps gloat a bit, that's really not what this is all about in my mind.
Customer storage requirements and technologies are moving so fast that it's becoming more difficult for even a focused storage specialist like NetApp to keep up.
The Background And Disclaimer
I've worked for EMC for 17 years. For several of those years, NetApp has competed vigorously with part of EMC's portfolio, namely the VNX -- previously the CLARiiON and Celerra.
The back-and-forth between the two vendors has provided both endless entertainment as well as occasional annoyance for many.
The two companies individual strategies couldn't be more different: EMC with its very broad range of storage and non-storage technologies, and NetApp with its mostly singular focus on a single storage operating system.
While the merits of each approach are discussed widely in the investment community; for customers it's a more pragmatic decision: who will I invest in to help solve my challenges?
And, competitive rancor aside, I believe 8.1.1 in its current form is not particularly good news for their customers.
The roots of this go way all the way back to November, 2003 when NetApp acquired Spinnaker in an effort to bring modern file system DNA into their ONTAP environment. After a few experiments in the 7.x world, the result finally hit the market late last year in the form of 8.1 in general release with some severe restrictions; we now are being presented 8.1.1 as a release candidate.
And, after spending a few days getting to know what's in this release, if I were a NetApp customer I'd start thinking about Plan B.
Big disclaimer: all of the discussion here is based on a mix of official and unofficial sources. Some of the specifics here may eventually turn out to be incorrect, in which case I'll come back to the comments section and clarify. And, while certain EMC product divisions compete vigorously with NetApp, we all sort of like having a tough competitor to go wrestle with in the marketplace -- it makes everyone stronger in the long term.
The Big Trends
If I were to boil down what ONTAP 8.1.1 is all about, it's about attempting to take ONTAP forward into the modern storage world in three key areas: flash, scale-out and continuous operations.
Flash storage is a performance discussion; scale-out is more nuanced around capacity, performance and simple operations, and continuous operations is -- well -- really darn important to certain audiences. None of these are new discussions for EMC or anyone else who's deep into the storage business.
So, let's take a quick look at what's in ONTAP 8.1.1 and how it compares to other alternatives.
The Flash Discussion
Enterprise flash is all about paying less for performance. Old school: use lots of spindles. New school: put your hot data in a flash storage device and watch how things fly.
Flash implementations break into two broad categories: cache and persistent storage. They're not the same thing.
Flash as cache has definite value: EMC continues to invest in various flavors of storage caching (FAST Cache and FAST VP on VNX, VFcache, Project Thunder, etc.). Historically, NetApp invested only in array-based read cache in the form of Flash Cache, formerly known as PAM.
With this announcement, NetApp introduces a new array-side caching construct -- Flash Pools -- which are different than what they've done in the past.
A NetApp array is comprised of one or more aggregates, on top of which are carved volumes and file systems. A Flash Pool is a read-write cache that's bound to a specific disk aggregate in a NetApp array.
This is big for them, because a random write workload presented problems for the classic NetApp filer. Flash Cache (or PAM) wasn't any help -- it was read-only -- and when the modest onboard NVRAM got filled with writes, classic ONTAP would write to each aggregate sequentially with the expected unpleasant outcomes. Of course, we as competitors would point this out as much as possible!
Now, NetApp customers can upgrade to 8.1.1, and purchase read-write SSDs to cache their traditional disk drives, avoiding this particular problem. NVRAM destages are now done to SSDs, so less bottleneck.
Case closed? Not really.
Generally speaking, any money you spend on SSDs under 8.1.1 can only be used for caching -- they can't be used to actually *store* any data in a persistent fashion. As a result, there's no storage tiering function as you'd find in a VNX or any number of other arrays on the market.
Now, to be totally accurate, you *can* use SSDs for storing data under ONTAP 8.1.1 if the entire aggregate is comprised of SSDs, but that ain't tiering, is it?
I'm sure there will be many statements to the effect that you don't really need storage tiering, or perhaps they hope the name of the function (e.g. Virtual Storage Tiering) might throw you off the scent -- but there are more than a few common workloads that clearly benefit from a combination of caching *and* tiering.
If you've got diverse workloads, you'll want access to both approaches.
It gets more problematic when you realize that the expensive SSDs that are used to implement Flash Pool caching are bound to specific aggregates; they're not a shared or pooled resource.
Not a big issue if you've only got one or maybe two aggregates, but anything beyond that and you'll have to make some pretty smart decisions about how you set things up, because it'll be difficult to change things -- reconfigurations, moving data sets around, etc.
In larger environments, that's a double hit if you think about it: one hit on efficiency (SSDs aren't pooled across aggregates) and a second hit on complexity both during configuration time and manually re-balancing workloads (e.g. copying stuff around) as data access patterns evolve.
Neither issue exists on a VNX, in case you're interested.
The Scale Out Discussion
Scale-out environments are fundamentally different than the traditional mid-tier storage environments so many of us are familiar with. Yes, there is a lot more data.
But little things can become big things simply because of that enormous scale. Much discussion has been bantered around in the investment community about how EMC's Isilon represents a serious competitor to NetApp in very large file-sharing environments, and there's definite merit to that line of thought.
What the investment community tends to miss is an important point: the Isilon product is built from the ground-up as a scale-out architecture -- it's not an adaptation. That's why we acquired them.
And, viewed through this lens, you can see where the scale-out features of 8.1.1 "cluster mode" are targeted.
It took me a while to wrap my head around what NetApp is currently doing here, so I'll share with you a quick synopsis of what I understand. The best source I've found is TR-4078 which recounts the best practices as they stand today.
At a low level a NetApp cluster is an aggregation of nodes arranged in failover pairs in a 1+1 arrangement as opposed to the N+M approaches you'd find in natively architected approaches, such as an Isilon cluster.
Everything looks mostly reasonable for modest-sized file system access, until you start looking at their approach for large data sets. Enter the world of "vServer" and the quintessentially named "infinite volumes". If you want to do seriously large file systems (like an Isilon normally does), there are some interesting restrictions in play.
In ONTAP 8.1.1 to get meaningfully large file systems, you start with a dedicated hardware/software partition within your 8.1.1 cluster. This partition will support one (and apparently only one) vServer, or visible file system. Between the two constructs exists a new entity: the "infinite volume" -- an aggregator of, well, aggregates running on separate nodes.
This "partitioned world" of dedicated hardware, a single vServer and the new infinite volume is the only place where you can start talking about seriously large file systems.
While there's some indication that popular ONTAP features (e.g. snaps, compression) are intended to be supported, there's a meaningful difference between snapping 5TB and 20PB. We'll leave that squishy area alone for now -- as well as compatibility the extended software portfolio -- until we get more information.
Harder to swallow are sobering realities about capacity utilization.
In addition to the well-understood ONTAP overheads around RAID 6 (er, RAID-DP), right sizing, volume overheads, etc. there's a nice note that you shouldn't let your usable capacity get above 60% if you expect reasonable performance.
I would view that as a tax on top of a tax.
And, since we're targeting really big file systems, we're talking about a really big tax.
While the capacity numbers and associated utilization might somehow be tenable, it looks like admins are going to have to start to pay serious attention if they're concerned about performance.
There's no automatic load balancing against available node and storage resources. Yikes!
The best practices note goes into some detail about how best to set things up when you do an initial data ingest, but the concerns become more real when you start to realize what happens when you add new capacity -- which, of course, is what scale-out is all about.
Typically, when you add new capacity to an ONTAP aggregate, it redirects all new write traffic to that new capacity until it starts to get full, and at some point goes back to a more randomized approach across all available capacity vs. the new stuff you just added. That means that all that traffic gets funneled to a specific node (and disks) until it hits some watermark – which may or may not be a concern depending on your write ingest rate.
And, of course, when you turn around and read it, it all funnels through that same node (and disks) where it was written en masse. NetApp will point to a round-robin access feature to the various nodes, but that doesn't really help if all the interesting data is bound to one or two nodes, or a limited amount of new storage. Youch!
Compare that with the autobalancing capabilities found on Isilon, and you'll quickly appreciate the architectural difference.
Only if performance matters to you, that is.
There's an associated challenge with metadata handling: all metadata in an "infinite volume" partition appears to funnel to one physical location, albeit a redundant one. Again, not a problem if metadata usage (e.g. file directory access reads and writes) are within the performance envelope of that particular node. And there isn't any mention of Flash Pools.
Again, none of this is an issue on an Isilon approach -- metadata is fully distributed just like everything else in the cluster. And Isilon has supported flash drives used as metadata cache for quite a while, thank you.
Finally, we've seen NetApp start to position 8.1.1 with prospects as a really big block device.
Within Netapp, there appears to be some controversy on the merits of this approach in a low-latency block-oriented environment. Clearly not supported in the vServer/infinite volume world as described above, as one example.
But in a more normal cluster, there's some serious node-hopping going on as I/Os are routed from source to target. Not really a big issue for patient file-system protocols, or perhaps even moderate block usage. But as you start talking serious levels of block I/Os, you start looking at potential routes, and you can easily come away with more questions than answers.
Again, not apparently purpose-built for the task at hand.
I feel bad about having to drag you through all this, but it took me some time to understand what the heck was going on here, so I thought it was worth sharing :)
Continuous Operations?
There are a handful of new features in ONTAP 8.1.1 (e.g. transparent volume migration across controllers) that help lessen the impact of some of the normal disruptions NetApp customers tend to experience, especially in larger settings. That's a good thing. Always room for improvement, yes?
But to brand their current capabilities as real-deal continuous operations (in the full meaning of the term) seems to be stretching things a bit, especially when you compare them against purpose-built environments from EMC and other vendors.
So far, the pitch to customers has been "good enough for less money".
That may or may not be the case, but I think it's good to go with a vendor whose capabilities generally exceed what you're asking for, and you can dial things back if needed, rather than positioning every customer for a compromise.
Is Compromise A Good Thing?
While compromise might be a good thing in the political arena, it's usually not a desirable state of affairs in demanding IT settings.
When I look at NetApp's latest release, I see "compromise" written all over it.
Yeah, NetApp does flash -- sort of.
Yeah, NetApp does scale-out -- sort of.
Yeah, NetApp does continuous operations -- sort of.
Yeah, NetApp supports large block environments -- sort of.
With this release, it's pretty clear that -- from NetApp's perspective -- compromise is OK.
Maybe compromise is a good thing for NetApp, since they're up against a strong competitor who looks at the world very differently.
The real question is -- how many of their customers will agree?