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The US government isn't allowed to wiretap American citizens without a warrant from a judge. But there are plenty of legal ways for law enforcement, from the local sheriff to the FBI, to snoop on the digital trails you create every day. Authorities can often obtain your e-mails and texts by going to Google or AT&T with a simple subpoena. Usually you won't even be notified. The Senate last week took a step toward updating privacy protection for emails, but it's likely the issue will be kicked to the next Congress. In the meantime, here's how police can track you without a warrant now:
Stuff they can get
Phone records: Who you called, when you called
How they can get it: Listening to your phone calls without a judge's warrant is illegal if you're a US citizen. But police don't need a warrant—which requires showing "probable cause" of a crime—to get just the numbers you called and when you called them, as well as incoming calls, from phone carriers. Instead, police can get courts to sign off on a subpoena, which only requires that the data they're after is relevant to an investigation—a lesser standard of evidence.
What the law says: Police can get phone records without a warrant thanks to Smith v. Maryland, a Supreme Court ruling in 1979, which found that the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure doesn't apply to a list of phone numbers. The New York Times reported last week that the New York's police department "has quietly amassed a trove" of call records by routinely issuing subpoenas for them from phones that had been reported stolen. According to The Times, the records "could conceivably be used for any investigative purpose."
Location data: Your phone is a tracker
How they get it: Many cell phone carriers provide authorities with a phone's location and may charge a fee for doing so. Cell towers track where your phone is at any moment, and so can the GPS features in some smartphones. The major cell carriers, including Verizon and AT&T, responded to at least 1.3 million law enforcement requests for cell phone locations, text messages and other data in 2011. Internet service providers can also provide location data that tracks users via their computer's IP address—a unique number assigned to each computer.
What the law says: Many courts have ruled that police don't need a warrant from a judge to get cell phone location data. They only have to show that, under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (EPCA), the data contains "specific and articulable facts" related to an investigation—again, a lesser standard than probable cause. Delaware, Maryland and Oklahoma have proposed laws that would require police to obtain a warrant for location data; Gov. Jerry Brown of California, a Democrat, vetoed a similar bill in September. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill championed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to update the ECPA, but it would not change how location data is treated.
IP addresses: What computers you used
How they get it: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other webmail providers accumulate massive amounts of data about our digital wanderings. A warrant is needed for access to some e-mails (see below), but not for the IP addresses of the computers used to log into your mail account or surf the Web. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, those records are kept for at least a year.
What the law says: Police can thank US v. Forrester, a case involving two men trying to set up a drug lab in California, for the ease of access. In the 2007 case, the government successfully argued that tracking IP addresses was no different from installing a device to track every telephone number dialed by a given phone (which is legal). Police only need a court to sign off on a subpoena certifying that the data they're after is relevant to an investigation—the same standard as for cell phone records.
E-mails: Messages you sent months ago
How they get it: There's a double standard when it comes to e-mail, one of the most requested types of data. A warrant is needed to get recent e-mails, but law enforcement can obtain older ones with only a subpoena. Google says it received 7,969 requests for data—including e-mails sent through its Gmail service—from US law enforcement in the first half of 2012 alone. Other e-mail providers have not made similar statistics available.
What the law says: This is another area where the ECPA comes into play. The law gives greater protection to recent messages than older ones, using a 180-day cutoff. Only a subpoena is required for e-mails older than that; otherwise, a warrant is necessary. The Leahy bill would require a warrant to get all e-mails regardless of age.
E-mail drafts: Drafts are different
How they get it: Communicating through draft e-mails, à la David Petreaus and Paula Broadwell, seems sneaky. But drafts are actually easier for investigators to get than recently sent e-mails because the law treats them differently.
What the law says: The ECPA distinguishes between communications—e-mails, texts, etc.—and stored electronic data. Draft e-mails fall into the latter, which get less protection under the law. Authorities need only a subpoena for them. The Leahy bill would change that by requiring a warrant to obtain them.
Text messages: As with e-mails, so with texts
How they get it: Investigators need only a subpoena, not a warrant, to get text messages more than 180 days old from a cell provider—the same standard as e-mails. Many carriers charge authorities a fee to provide texts and other information. For texts, Sprint charges $30, for example, while Verizon charges $50.
What the law says: The ECPA also applies to text messages, according to Hanni Fakhoury, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is why the rules are similar to those governing e-mails. But the ECPA doesn't apply when it comes to actually reading texts on someone's phone rather than getting them from a carrier. State courts have split on the issue. Ohio's Supreme Court has ruled that police need a warrant to view the contents of cell phones of people who've been arrested, including texts. But the California Supreme Court has said no warrant is needed. The US Supreme Court in 2010 declined to clear up the matter.
Cloud data: Documents, photos, and other stuff stored online
How they get it: Authorities typically need only a subpoena to get data from Google Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, and other services that allow users to store data on their servers, or "in the cloud," as it's known.
What the law says: The law treats cloud data the same as draft e-mails—authorities don't need a warrant to get it. But files that you've shared with others—say, a collaboration using Google Docs—might require a warrant under the ECPA if it's considered "communication" rather than stored data. "That's a very hard rule to apply," says Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It actually makes no sense for the way we communicate today."
Social media: The new privacy frontier
How they get it: When it comes to sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the social networks' privacy policies dictate how cooperative they are in handing over users' data. Facebook says it requires a warrant from a judge to disclose a user's "messages, photos, videos, wall posts, and location information." But it will supply basic information, such as a user's e-mail address or the IP addresses of the computers from which someone recently accessed an account, under a subpoena. Twitter reported in July that it had received 679 requests for user information from US authorities during the first six months of 2012. Twitter says that "non-public information about Twitter users is not released except as lawfully required by appropriate legal process such as a subpoena, court order, or other valid legal process."
What the law says: Courts haven't issued a definitive ruling on social media. In September, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge upheld a prosecutor's subpoena for information from Twitter about an Occupy Wall Street protester arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2011. It was the first time a judge had allowed prosecutors to use a subpoena to get information from Twitter rather than forcing them to get a warrant; the case is ongoing.


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Message Board
Mary E. Trimble Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Trimble has written!
Author Trimble's Book Reviews
McClellans' Bluff
Leslie Cahill, seventeen, falls in love with an �older� man, twenty-eight year old Sloan Stroh. She's flattered by the attention of this neighboring cowboy and is swept along by her strong emotions. Her father and brother strongly object to the relationship not only because of the considerable age difference, but because they fear Sloan will take advantage of Leslie's innocense. Leslie learns Sloan's secret, which dates back many years to her mother'...

subset: commoncrawl


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Patient Presentation
An 18-year-old female came to clinic because of a problem with a navel ring. She had the piercing placed 2 months previously and had been doing appropriate care. About 1 week ago, the jewelry caught on clothing and caused a small tear and bleeding. The initial redness and swelling had not subsided, and she now noticed that the redness was spreading and there was increased tenderness. She noted that the initial clearish fluid was now thicker and yellow. She denied previous problems with her piercing, sharing jewelry, or other trauma. The review of systems showed no fever, chills, myalgia or other wounds.
The pertinent physical exam showed a healthy appearing female with normal vital signs.
Her navel was pierced at the 12 o'clock position with a ring and ball-type jewelry piece. She had erythema, ~1.5 cm extending in a fan-shaped pattern from 9 to 3 o'clock around the piercing, with a small amount of yellow fluid able to be expressed from around the jewelry. She had moderate tenderness over the jewelry and erythematous skin. The rest of her examination was normal. The diagnosis of localized cellulitis was made. The area was cleaned and some of the drainage was sent for gram stain and culture. She was instructed to keep the jewelry in place, use isotonic saline soaks (gauze pads saturated) several times a day, and clean warm compresses several times/day. She was also started on cephalexin and told to return if she had increasing wound symptoms, or new abdominal pain or fever over the night. By the next day, the erythema had decreased to around a 1 cm fan-shaped area and she had decreased tenderness. The gram-stain showed gram-positive cocci in clusters but was too early for identification. She was instructed to continue the current regimen and finish all of the antibiotics. She was also instructed to continue her after-care regimen until the piercing fully healed over the next several months.
Body piercing is the intentional perforation of a body tissue and insertion of an ornament that is for decorative, cultural, spiritual, or other reasons. It is one form of body art which also includes tattooing. Body art has been used over centuries of time across the globe.
It is estimated that body piercing prevalence is 30-50% in the 18-25 year old US population. It is popular among all ages, social classes and occupations. It does vary with certain ethnic classes and females are more common than males to have a body piercing. Basically almost any area can be pierced including the genitals and eye globe itself.
There is a high rate of complications (20-35%) which most are relatively self-limited.
Risks of body piercing include:
- Local – bleeding, infection, skin irritation, mechanical tissue tearing, hypersensitivity to the metal, granuloma, scarring, embedded jewelry, edema and ischemia, and dental problems
- Systemic – endocarditis, sepsis, brain abscess, upper-airway compromise, viral infections (e.g. Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV)
Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus, Staphylococcus (methicillin sensitive and resistant) and Pseudomonas are the most common bacterial infections. Body piercing has been associated with increased risk-taking in adolescents including substance abuse, sexual risk taking, and violence and suicide.
The United States and other countries regulate body piercing, but many people will self-pierce or use non-licensed practitioners. A listing of legal standards for minors in the US can be found here. Listings of local licensed practitioners may be available though local health departments who oversee the industry. At least one professional association is available in the United States, the Association of Professional Piercers. Like other professional organizations, membership is voluntary, but criteria standards are set for initial and continuing membership along with opportunities for continuing professional development and education of the lay public.
Learning Point
Healing time depends on several factors including the individual, piercing location, type of jewelry and aftercare of the piercing. Cartilage takes longer to heal than skin itself (ear lobe healing is around 6-8 weeks versus pinna piercing which may take 3-8 months). Areas that are covered or easily irritated such as navel, genitals and nipples also take longer. In general, ear lobes and tongues heal around 6-8 weeks, face around 3 months, and navel and cartilage heal in 3-8 months. Fastidious aftercare is necessary to decrease the potential side effects and needs to be continued much longer than most individuals believe. Even a healed piercing needs aftercare for up to a year so the skin epithelizes well. Jewelry with niobium, titanium, surgical steel, gold and plastic polymers are recommended for initial piercings. There are industry standards for materials used for different types of jewelry and its components.
After care includes washing hands prior to touching the piercing, soaking with saline for 5-10 minutes 1-2x/day, washing with a small amount of mild soap daily and rinsing thoroughly. Drying the area with disposable paper products is recommended as even clean cloth items such as towels could harbor bacteria or cause mechanical irritation. Alcohol, Hibiclens®, and Betadine® are not recommended because they may cause more skin irritation. When there is a local infection it is usually best to try to leave the jewelry in place (removing can cause abscess formation) which allows for improved drainage and epidermal healing. After 5-7 days if it is not healing then the patient probably needs to have the jewelry removed along with possible surgical drainage and IV antibiotics.
Questions for Further Discussion
1. At what age is a minor too young for a body piercing?
2. How would you counsel someone considering a body piercing to look for in a reputable piercer?
3. What are signs of contact dermatitis or metal hypersensitivity with piercings?
4. What are the risks associated with tattooing?
Related Cases
- Disease: Piercing and Tattoos
- Symptom/Presentation: Infections | Pain
- Specialty: Dermatology
- Age: Young Adult
To Learn More
To view pediatric review articles on this topic from the past year check PubMed.
Evidence-based medicine information on this topic can be found at SearchingPediatrics.com, the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Information prescriptions for patients can be found at MedlinePlus for this topic: Piercing and Tattoos
To view current news articles on this topic check Google News.
To view images related to this topic check Google Images.
Carroll ST, Riffenburgh RH, Roberts TA, Myhre EB. Tattoos and body piercings as indicators of adolescent risk-taking behaviors. Pediatrics. 2002 Jun;109(6):1021-7.
Armstrong ML, Koch JR, Saunders JC, Roberts AE, Owen DC. The hole picture: risks, decision making, purpose, regulations, and the future of body piercing. Clin Dermatol. 2007 Jul-Aug;25(4):398-406.
Hogan L, Armstrong ML. Body piercing: more than skin deep. Skin Therapy Lett. 2009 Sep;14(7):4-7.
Miller JM, Fitzpatrick JJ. Piercing: does health education make a difference? Nurse Pract. 2010 Jun;35(6):48-52.
Fijalkowska M, Pisera P, Kasielska A, Antoszewski B. Should we say NO to body piercing in children? Complications after ear piercing in children. Int J Dermatol. 2011 Apr;50(4):467-9.
Body Aftercare Instructions. Association of Professional Piercers. Available from the Internet at http://www.safepiercing.org/publications/brochures/body-aftercare/ (cited3/23/2012).
ACGME Competencies Highlighted by Case
1. When interacting with patients and their families, the health care professional communicates effectively and demonstrates caring and respectful behaviors.
2. Essential and accurate information about the patients' is gathered.
3. Informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment is made.
4. Patient management plans are developed and carried out.
5. Patients and their families are counseled and educated.
7. All medical and invasive procedures considered essential for the area of practice are competently performed.
8. Health care services aimed at preventing health problems or maintaining health are provided.
10. An investigatory and analytic thinking approach to the clinical situation is demonstrated.
11. Basic and clinically supportive sciences appropriate to their discipline are known and applied.
13. Information about other populations of patients, especially the larger population from which this patient is drawn, is obtained and used.
22. Sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, age, gender, and disabilities are demonstrated.
Donna M. D'Alessandro, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Iowa Children's Hospital


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In today's world, everyone is a global citizen. We are all connected, and building relationships with those with whom we share the earth will change your way of thinking, communicating, working and living.
SUNY Ulster celebrates our similarities and differences by creating opportunities for International students to come here to study, sending our students abroad to study, and offering on-campus and online programs for connecting us with the world.


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - August 7, 2013 - CSX Corporation announced today the purchase of the Eastern Associated Terminal in Tampa, Fla. from the Ingram Barge Company. The phosphate export facility is adjacent to CSX Transportation Inc.'s Rockport terminal on Tampa Bay, and the combined entity will be called Rockport Terminals.
As a result of the acquisition, CSX added 12 new positions for terminal operations to Rockport's current staff of 25. Shantel Johnson-Davis, who has led CSX's phosphates sales and marketing efforts in Tampa, was appointed assistant vice president and general manager - phosphates and fertilizers, and will lead both commercial activities and operations at Rockport Terminals.
"Purchasing the Eastern terminal provides strategic long-term value for CSX," said Johnson-Davis. "We will leverage synergies of the two terminals to better serve our customers and grow this important business."
Rockport Terminals are deep-water port facilities on Tampa Bay used for exporting phosphate from Central Florida's Bone Valley mining region. These facilities are located on more than 300 acres with over 25 miles of track, warehousing and state of the art loading systems.
The footprint of the combined terminals allows for quick, scalable expansion, and capacity for 1 million additional export tons. Johnson-Davis said that Rockport Terminals will seek additional commodity export opportunities and add import bulk business over time.
Approximately 300 CSX employees work in the Tampa Bay area, including train crews, engineering employees and mechanical teams. Facilities include a major classification yard and shops, an automobile distribution center and a TRANSFLO transloading terminal.
About CSX
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Florida, is a premier transportation company. It provides rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services and solutions to customers across a broad array of markets, including energy, industrial, construction, agricultural, and consumer products. For more than 185 years, CSX has played a critical role in the nation's economic expansion and industrial development. Its network connects every major metropolitan area in the eastern United States, where nearly two-thirds of the nation's population resides. It also links more than 240 short-line railroads and more than 70 ocean, river and lake ports with major population centers and small farming towns alike. More information about CSX Corporation and its subsidiaries is available at www.csx.com. Like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/OfficialCSX) and follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/CSX).


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text: The number five ranked Florida lacrosse team has proven to be quite successful in its first three years of competition. Florida's inaugural lacrosse team was established in 2007 allowing time to recruit and organize the program before the Gators began competition in the 2010 season. In just its second year of competition, the Florida lacrosse …Read More »


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Green groups seeking signatures for November referendum
Saying a lawsuit against the Suffolk County isn't quite enough, environmentalists have taken to parking lots from Southold to Huntington to get a referendum on this fall's ballot to halt a county effort to use $33 million in reserved Drinking Water Protection funds.
Dollars are raised for the Drinking Water Protection Fund through a 1/4 percent sales tax, and several dedicated programs exist within the fund. One of those, the sewer stabilization fund, is meant to offset large spikes in sewer rates for residents, and the last fall the county decided to use $32.8 million from that fund to help balance the 2014 budget.
While the Pine Barrens Society of Long Island, along with the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum, filed suit last week against the decision, Group for the East End has joined the Pine Barrens Society in gathering 10,000 signatures before the end of April. The hope is to get a measure to overturn the decision to use the funds this year.
"We've been arguing against it pretty vociferously," said Bob DeLuca, president of GFEE. "But you hit that point when you realize nobody's listening."
Suffolk voters last agreed to renew the tax in 2007 — approving a ballot measure to maintain the tax through 2030.
The PBS sued Suffolk after it decided in 2011 to use close to $20 million to balance its budget previously. That litigation is still making its way through the justice system, though is expected to be heard later this year.
In order to qualify to get on the ballot, according to PBS president Dick Amper, the groups have to gather 2 percent of the population in each town who voted in the last gubernatorial election.
That equates to about 10,500 signatures, or a town-by-town breakdown as follows:
- Shelter Island: 39
- Southold: 237
- Riverhead: 268
- East Hampton: 205
- Southampton: 475
- Brookhaven: 3,137
- Smithtown: 974
- Huntington: 1,623
- Islip: 1,917
- Babylon: 1,623
Mr. Amper said on Monday morning that he's been "amazed at the number of people who know about" the issue as PBS and GFEE petitioners have approached citizens in public places such as parking lots at supermarkets or post offices.
County Executive Steve Bellone's original budget last year had not called for dipping into the sewer stabilization fund at all, but rather closing the budget gap in the $2.7 billion budget through borrowing from the New York State Dormitory Authority, a path that would have required legislation approved at the state level. A report from the County's Budget Review Office identified that plan as a risk because of the necessary legislation.
Justin Meyers, communications director for Mr. Bellone, said last week that the county exec plans on replenishing the fund.
"The fact of the matter is that there are two overarching concerns," he said. "First, if the money is being taken and used for something other than drinking water, it must be repaid. The county executive completely supports that."
He added that also, the county "needs to engage the public and voters on the issue if it moves forward."
Mr. Meyers added that once the county decides to spend the money from the sewer stabilization fund, the county legislature would have to pass a measure approving the spending. Within the language of that approval would be a repayment structure outlining when the county would pay the fund back.
Mr. Amper said a ballot referendum would be the only way to ensure that the funds are paid back, noting that a similar use of Drinking Water Protection Program money in 2011 did not require county legislation.
"We want to guarantee" that the money is paid back, he said. "And we're going to do that through courts, or the court of public opinion."
The plan laid out by the county last fall intends to start paying back into the sewer stabilization fund in 2017, though the county would still have to formally adopt a repayment schedule. Last fall, the balance in the sewer stabilization fund hovered around $140 million, leaving over $100 million left, should the $33 million be allocated this year.
However Mr. DeLuca noted that part of the Drinking Water Protection Fund already reserves a portion of revenues raised for balancing the budget. According to the county charter, about 32 percent of the proceeds raised by the tax go toward reducing county property taxes.
"You got money for the purpose of reducing taxes," Mr. DeLuca said. "Stay away from the other part."


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Network operators have a lot of choice today when it comes to choosing equipment to help support growth. From the myriad vendors out there, Covad has selected Redback Networks' SmartEdge Service Gateway platform to increase network capacity and resiliency for IP-based services.
San Jose, California-based Redback Networks was founded in 1996 and claims a global customer base of over 500 service providers and carriers. Financial terms of the deal with Covad were not publicly disclosed.
The SmartEdge Service Gateway system includes the capabilities of Redback's SMS subscriber management system coupled with carrier-class edge routing, broadband aggregation and service delivery.
Young-Sae Song director corporate marketing at Redback commented that they were selected because the SmartEdge Service Gateway allowed Covad to consolidate their network infrastructure and deploy a single service platform.
"There were two other larger vendors in the running, but we were able to meet Covad's service needs with a single platform whereas our competitors required multiple platforms," Song told VoIPplanet.com
Song went on to explain that Redback's solution combines edge routing, Ethernet aggregation, and subscriber management (B-RAS) in a single product. In Song's view, solutions from other vendors require a separate edge router and B-RAS, increasing the number of network devices that need to be deployed and maintained. Some other vendors also offer products that combine the functionality, but they are not as scalable, similarly resulting in multiple devices to deliver what a single SmartEdge Service Gateway can accomplish.
Currently Young-Sae Song sees two things that have affected VoIP adoption: the growth of mobile phones and broadband adoption. In terms of mobile phones Song noted that that there is a a trend that the number of fixed-line phone service subscribers, which includes VoIP, is decreasing relative to the number of mobile subscribers.
"Redback's solution works well for VoIP, but it also enables additional next generation services. Our technology, once in place, can be used for VoIP, IPTV, or Internet gaming," Song explained. "Although Covad is currently focused on offering VoIP services, the Redback technology has actually enabled a network that can provide more than just VoIP."


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Listen, I don't know what a Square Hippie is, but we have to thank them and my friend Anna for suggesting today's hottie. I know less than nothing about Rugby, but English captain Chris Robshaw sure makes me want to know more.
Maybe it's a perspective thing, but his biceps appear to be bigger around than his head. That would make me cheer, too.
Square Hippies saw this is the only shirless picture of Robshaw the internet has – which is really sad and a shame. British tabloids are seriously failing us all.
You all know how I feel about a guy who wears good scruff – a blonde who manages scruff is the cake topper.
We always tend to fall on the right side of appropriate here, so I'm treading a fine line, but tell me you didn't have some inappropriate thoughts based on his open mouth and hand placement….
That is some adorably tousled hair. Looks like I'm about to be a Rugby convert.


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Mother of 'GMA's Robin Roberts Dies
NEW YORK (AP) — The mother of "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts has died.
Jeffrey W. Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, said 88-year-old Lucimarian Roberts died Thursday night.
ABC's Facebook page said Robins traveled "home to Mississippi just in time to see her."
The death came on the same day Roberts said goodbye to her co-workers and audience before starting medical leave for a bone marrow transplant.
Her departure had been set for Friday. But in a last-minute change of plans she told her viewers she was leaving a day early to visit her ailing mother.
WABC-TV said Lucimarian Roberts was the first African-American to head Mississippi's board of education. She also collaborated with her daughter on a book titled, "My Story, My Song – Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith."
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We think so and Elia Nicolas of Events magazine definitely agrees with us!
Lighting can transform any room, create an atmosphere and alter moods. Lighting should be one of the key elements of an event, bringing everything else together and cementing the desired effects.
You can create romance with dimmed lamps, you can incite glamour with chandeliers dripping with crystals, vibrance with colour and a cool contemporary feel with a modern piece.
When planning an event you cannot forget how integral a part lighting is and how important is is getting everything just right!
Have you been to an event where they have got it spot on? Or even one where the lighting was disastrous? Let us know!
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- PROPERTY MARKETING: MLS listing and 900+ channel partners ensures your property will be leased QUICK!
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PORTALS: Complete 24/7 visibility into ALL the details of your portfolio!


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ALAFCO orders additional 35 A320neo
martes, 14 de febrero de 2012
Lessor strengthens portfolio with world's fastest selling aircraft
ALAFCO Aviation Lease And Finance Company, the Kuwait-based international aircraft leasing company, has finalised a purchase order for 35 A320neo Family aircraft bringing its total backlog for the type to 85.
The firm contract is an increase of the previous agreement signed at the 2011 Dubai Airshow for 50 A320neo aircraft.
"After a full analysis, we concluded that the A320neo will continue to be in strong demand, therefore, we are seizing the opportunity to secure an additional 35 aircraft to meet the future requirements of our customers. The A320neo is the market's favourite single-aisle aircraft family," said Ahmad A. Alzabin, ALAFCO Chairman & CEO. "The significant fuel burn savings it offers, combined with the operational reliability and cost effectiveness of the A320 Family, make it an absolute "must have" in our portfolio."
"Higher fuel prices means airlines require fuel efficient aircraft and with the A320neo offering a 15 per cent fuel burn reduction, it is the ideal investment. The A320neo reduces operating costs whilst enabling airlines to offer the best cabin comfort levels," said John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers. "This significant order from ALFACO confirms that the neo ticks all the right boxes and is clearly the best product on the market."
Over 8,300 A320 Family aircraft have already been ordered and some 5,000 delivered to more than 350 customers and operators worldwide reaffirming its position as the world's best-selling single-aisle aircraft family. The A320neo has over 95 percent airframe commonality making it an easy fit into existing fleets while offering up to 500 nautical miles (950 kilometres) more range or two tonnes more payload at a given range.
The A320neo is a new engine option for the A320 Family entering into service from 2015 and incorporates latest generation engines and large "Sharklet" wing tip devices, which together will deliver 15 percent in fuel savings. This reduction in fuel burn is equivalent to 1.4m litres of fuel – the consumption of 1,000 mid size cars. This saves 3,600 metric tonnes of C02 per aircraft per year, the amount absorbed by 240,000 mature trees. The A320neo NOx emissions are 50% below CAEP/6 and this aircraft also has considerably a smaller noise footprint.


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Mount Olympus National Monument (now Olympic National Park), Washington
In 1788, the raw beauty of Washington state's Olympic Peninsula moved British sea captain John Meares to proclaim, "If that be not the home where dwell the Gods, it is beautiful enough to be, and I therefore call it Mount Olympus." Olympic National Park, situated in the north central part of Washington state, is a mountainous area with glacier covered peaks, lakes, and steep river valleys sheltering pristine old-growth forests and temperate rain forests. Miles of rugged shoreline with eroded coastal cliffs and waters brimming with an array of sea life skirt the area. The peninsula is so isolated that at least 9 types of plants and 16 kinds of wildlife are unknown anywhere else. Olympic also has a wide range of significant archeological sites, including high-altitude sites that are the subject of current research by NPS archeologists.
For thousands of years, American Indians have made their home on the peninsula, but major evidence of their ancestral presence came in the 1970s when erosion exposed the remains of a more than 500-year old Makah settlement in Ozette. Archeologists recovered harpoons, carved figurines, and household items, many of which are now displayed in the Makah Cultural and Resource Center on the peninsula's north shore at Neah Bay. Protection of the park also helped preserve many other archeological sites, from high mountain hearth sites to extensive coastal middens. In 1993, a piece of woven material found at the edge of a snowfield in the park's high country was determined to be part of a 2,900 year old basket - a tangible link to the Native Americans who lived and moved through the Olympic Mountains. The bond between Native Americans and the region remain strong; Olympic National Park is associated with more tribal groups than any other national park.
Sixteenth-century European explorers looking for a trade route to the Pacific were the first to report on the area, but it was in the 18th century that most in-depth exploration took place. In the mid-1800s, pioneers moved into the area and settled mostly along the coast, avoiding the ruggedly wild interior. Prompted by the reports of Lt. Joseph O'Neil of the U.S. Army, most of the region's forested land was set aside as the Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897 by President Grover Cleveland.
President Theodore Roosevelt, moved primarily to protect a large herd of rain forest elk found only in the Northwest, designated a portion of the forest land the Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909. It was described as "the slopes of Mount Olympusand the adjacent summits of the Olympic Mountains ... embrace ... numerous glaciers, and ... the summer range and breeding grounds of the Olympic Elk ... a species peculiar to these mountains and rapidly decreasing in numbers" (Proc. No. 869). President Wilson reduced the size of the monument from its original 610,000 to 300,000 acres. The Forest Service, under the Cleator Plan of 1930, proposed to manage the monument as a primitive road-less area to preserve the wilderness qualities "so that immense territories of the mountain fastness would be left untrammeled." The National Monument became part of the National Park Service in 1933. In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating Olympic National Park, which was enlarged in 1953 to include a strip of rugged coast. Remains of early homesteads and historic structures from initial protection efforts and depression-era government employment programs also allow visitors a glimpse into the past.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the park an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976 for the extraordinary scenic and scientific values of its rain forest. In 1981, the park was designated a World Heritage Park for its outstanding natural and cultural values. Ninety-five percent of the park was further protected from human encroachment when Congress added it to the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1988.
Over 3 million visitors a year visit Olympic National Park's the more than 922,000 acres of mountains, forest, and coastal areas. Activities include sightseeing, day hiking, backpacking, driving tours, ranger-guided education programs, self-guided walking tours, and seasonal activities, such as snowshoeing, boating, climbing, and fishing.
The collections at Olympic National Park reflect the variety of resources found within this special landscape. Over 200,000 natural specimens and cultural objects including archives are represented. Many of the specimens were collected as part of research projects or are themselves research subjects. There are extensive herbarium and geology collections as well as a fine assemblage of ethnographic objects, such as baskets, tools, and art.
Here are a few comments from the "what is the special significance of this park?" section of past Visitor Survey cards:


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That's what award-winning, Denver-based singer / songwriter Megan Burtt, says on Local Music Seen with Allen Estes, which premieres tomorrow night at 6:30pm on Cape Ann TV Channel 12.
Megan was kind enough to stop in and tape a show last week after having played to a sold out crowd at the Old Sloop Coffeehouse. Her writing is straight from her heart and gut. Her songs take you away and when you return you're a different person. You don't want to miss this show!
Those of you familiar with Local Music Seen know that Allen starts every show with a song, and for this one, he premiered a brand new song that doesn't even have a title. (Megan told me her idea for a name, but we won't reveal that until after the show airs.) Here's a video of that song. Leave a comment using the link below to share any ideas you have for a name (See more videos by Allen Estes here)
You can see Allen at Jalapenos tonight sitting in with KBMG for Dan King, who's in Seattle.
More excellent music all week long. See the complete live music Schedule here.


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5mm Round Top Pink LED - Ultra Bright
In stock
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The 5mm round top pink led is one of the most popular sizes out there for a large percentage of projects and products.
You may upload your own images that portray this specific product being used. We do ask that you do not watermark them in any way and such images will be declined. Images that are accepted may be used as product images, in tutorials, or other related articles. By uploading an image, you accept to these terms. These images may not directly represent the product on this page. The items shown may have been modified/changed and the images are shown for demonstration, ideas, and creativity only. Colors depicted in the photos may also be "skewed" from difficult nature of capturing true light colors with a camera.
The pink color 5mm round top LED is a vibrant color that you can't go wrong with. This size led is commonly used in many custom projects, car lighting, models, and nearly every other project you can think of. They are also used for custom projects or in mass production products as well. This is a extremely popular size.
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|Documentation Link
|Documentation: 5mm Round Top Pink LED - Ultra Bright Datasheet / Specifications
Write Your Own Review


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Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima ē´wō jē´mə, ē´wô [key], officially Iwo Totō [key], volcanic island, c.8 sq mi (21 sq km), W Pacific, largest and most important of the Volcano Islands. Mt. Suribachi, 546 ft (166 m) high, on the south side of the island, is an extinct volcano. The main industries were formerly sulfur mining and sugar refining, but since World War II the island has been a military base. During the war Iwo Jima was the site of a Japanese air base, and it was taken (Feb.–Mar., 1945) by the United States at great cost to U.S. and Japanese forces. A photograph of U.S. marines raising the flag over Mt. Suribachi, which they called Meatgrinder Hill, is one of the most famous images of the war. Iwo Jima was occupied by the U.S. until 1968, when it was returned to Japan. Historically known to its residents as Iwo To, the island was called Iwo Jima by the Japanese navy officers who fortified it during World War II; both names mean Sulphur Island. The island was officially renamed Iwo To in 2007.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Japanese Political Geography


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Today S4BB Limited has released the third update in the third week of the life of Battery Watch 4.0. It's still free and now comes with even more funny voices.
Changes in this version:
✔ Added 6 "Pro Voices" free of charge (until July): Clinton, Dr. GF, Duke, Mob, Walken and Williams
✔ Added "Write a Review" & "Recommend" button at top action bar – PLEASE use this and tell your friends about Battery Watch
✔ Added BuzzCity ad service (Indonesia & Singapore only)
✔ Added Compatibility with old Battery Watch Widget
✔ Improved user interface layout and texts
✔ Resolved issues: app crashes on some older devices.
*** Even MORE VOICES are coming! Stay tuned! ***
Battery Watch Features:
★ Shows your battery status beautifully when charging
★ Color-coded charging status (green, yellow, red)
★ Integrates into native Android device by showing battery state (fully charged, charging, discharging, unplugged, etc.).
★ Running out of battery warnings: Adjustable warning level and notifications.
ツ 11 Funny voices: audio notifications for "charging started", "charging completed" and "running low in battery" come with voices that sound like Cowboy, Gilbert, Mickey, Stitch, Yoda, Clinton, Dr. GF, Duke, Mob, Walken and Williams.
Battery Info Shown:
★ Battery Level & Status
★ Battery Temperature (Celsius or Fahrenheit) with min. and max. values
★ Battery Voltage with min. and max. values
Battery Watch is compatible with Android phones and tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher, and can be downloaded for FREE through Google Play:
|Free Download
|Battery Watch for Android


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What we're about
Welcome to Oakland Happy Hour.
We meet most Thursday evenings and visit a different clubs, bars and pubs, near BART, and in Oakland. Our target age range is 30's and 40's.
we do also travel to other Bay Area locations in the East Bay like Berkeley and Alameda.
We sometimes have social events having nothing to do with happy hour.
We also occasionally have events on other days of the week, and
we do allow people of all ages to join.
We're kind of free flowing like that with very little structure and very few rules. This is meant to be a fun relaxed atmosphere. There are none of the following:
No membership dues,
No name tags,
No opportunists with sales pitches,
No a person taking role with a clip board and
No giant banners or signs.
We're just there to meet and have fun. It is not necessary to arrive on time for our events; arrive when you can. We do ask that you please RSVP if you might be attending so that we can alert the bar as to how many people to expect to be there and so I can try to negotiate specials with future venues. Our numbers are our discounts and the Oakland Happy Hour is all about discounts when we can get them.
Please be clear, we are not a singles meetup. This group is about meeting new friends and having a good time. Although I do know that people have started dating after meeting in this group, please do not come with the expectation of "hooking-up." If I get enough complaints, cougars and cheese-balls will be booted.
As mentioned before, we have no signage. Please try to look for the Organizer on your first visit. We never put up a sign but are always easy to find with very little effort. you just have to ask. I have found that people in this group are incredibly friendly and very easy to talk to. You just have to show up and order a drink.
Occasionally an organizer tip box may come out to help pay for the website maintenance. Please feel free to contribute only if you had a good time and it will not impede the purchase of your next drink.
Past events (692)
- Cliff
- Bhuva R.
- CaDaveVt
- 15 attendees
- Rick
- Ann
- Arjun
- 10 attendees
- Rick
- Anuja
- 23 attendees
- Cliff
- Daniel S.
- Devender S.
- 9 attendees


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by William Cullen Bryant
Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.
About William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant's poetry is affiliated with the Romantics, often reflecting an obsession with nature and a thoughtful desire for silence and solitude. Bryant was born on November 3, 1794. An American nature poet and journalist, Bryant wrote poems, essays, and articles that championed the rights of workers and immigrants. In 1829, Bryant became editor in chief of the New York Evening Post, a position he held until his death in 1878. His influence helped establish important New York civic institutions such as Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1884, New York City's Reservoir Square, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, was renamed Bryant Park in his honor.


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Discussions about the Phantasy Star Series - www.pscave.com
Oresama wrote:The WAVs sound better anyway, and anyone with a semi-modern PC should be able to free up 600 megs of hard drive or thumb drive space.
This is an easy fix. I believe you simply locate "Change Encounter Rate" in the event editor commands and set it to 0. This should disable random battles. Note that I am using RM2k3 to check these things, but the only real difference between the two are the battle systems. =P-Eliminate random battles when in the Landrover. James mentioned that he should have done this in his Evil Path Let's Play too.
That sounds like it's related to terrain or something in the map. I'd have to look at it to see how it's handled.-Make the spaceship fly over ALL mountains, not just the mountains with the larger tiles. That things makes the Dezoris run in 20 seconds for fucks sake. You won't convince me that it can't fly over a little mountain. This might be a limitation of the engine though.
That should be located in events on the map.-Fix typos in the game script if anyone knows where to find it.
Sounds like this part could use work. I think weather effects are nice, but constant shaking? There's a way to turn that off or anything else undesired.Smaller things I could also use help with:
-Take out all snow/rain/shaking effects for a more stable game. The first time I played it got to the point where it was always raining, snowing and shaking. I couldn't take it and had to completely start over. With my knowledge of the editor I can't even find where these things are coded.
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A march, but is it a movement?
Joe Wilson brought a taste of the summer's contentious health care town halls to the floor of Congress Wednesday night, and on Saturday thousands of fired-up conservatives are planning to bring some of that anger to the streets outside the Capitol.
Borrowing tactics more familiar to protestors on the left, they're pouring into the Washington area in hundreds of buses, newly engaged grassroots activists who plan to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and voice their mounting displeasure with their government. Their issues are a hodgepodge, ranging from the bank and auto bailouts to President Obama's push to overhaul the nation's health system to concerns about perceived erosion of First and Second Amendment rights.
Saturday's "Taxpayer March"– at which organizers expect anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 people – as well as dozens of smaller marches around the country, will prove that the fledgling "Tea Party" movement is real, according to Mark Williams, a conservative radio talk show host from Sacramento who is vice chairman of Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a political action committee that is co-sponsoring the march.
"If I've learned one thing in 30 years of doing activist talk, it's that you can't manufacture this kind of thing," said Williams. "I could get on the radio and rant and rave until I was blue in the face, but if it's not out there, it's not going to happen."
But whether the marchers reflect a small minority's continuing anger over the more liberal direction the country began taking in the 2008 election or something deeper that could have repercussions in 2010 and 2012 is one of the questions the march may begin to answer.
Equally important for Republicans is whether Washington's institutional conservative leaders and groups will be able to channel this energy to help the party's candidates, or whether it will remain diffused, fueled by radio and television talk show hosts and susceptible to extremist positions that could do more harm than good to the GOP.
GOP strategist Craig Shirley, whose 2005 book chronicles the significance of Ronald Reagan's failed 1976 presidential bid in reinventing the GOP, thinks the activism of the Tea Party movement could have a similar role today.
"At that point, the Republican Party was essentially an empty vessel, and the movement took its ideas and poured them into it," Shirley said. "What we're seeing today is somewhat analogous, but all they're doing so far is anti-liberalism, which doesn't necessarily have a political philosophy or an agenda of its own."
Shirley said the Tea Party movement "can't sustain itself just as anti-liberal movement. It's got to evolve. And it will."
But Sam Tanenhaus, whose recent book, "The Death of Conservatism," traces the split in the conservative movement between "revanchist" forces and those more willing to participate in the political process, predicts the Tea Party activists won't have much lasting impact on mainstream politics.
Instead, he compares what's happening now with the peak of the John Birch Society in the early 1960s, during Kennedy's presidency.
"These are Americanists, is what they used to call themselves," he said. "This is similar to that in many respects," he asserted, explaining that the Tea Party contingent has shown the same deep suspicion towards Obama that the Birchers felt towards Kennedy.
"That's what we're seeing now," he said. "They're looking to recover a lost America."
It was Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas Republican, who first dusted off the Tea Party nomenclature in 2007 during his bid for GOP presidential nomination, as both a fundraising technique and an homage to the 1773 Boston tax revolt that played a major role in sparking the American Revolution. Some modern conservative activists use "Tea" as an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already."
In February, tens of thousands turned out to Tea Party protests around the country, and on April 15, tens of thousands more took to the streets for Tax Day Tea Parties. But it was last month's congressional town halls, when constituents turned out in droves to voice their displeasure with their federal lawmakers, that drew attention to the movement.
But defining the movement beyond its generalized sense of grievance is difficult.
"Where the real problem comes in, is that – because it's so organic – if you ask 1,000 people what this should be, you'll get general agreement on the broader theme that we have to get the government back under control, but you're going to get 1,000 different answers on the specifics," said Williams, who has been traveling on the Tea Party Express, a bus caravan that started in his hometown of Sacramento and zigzagged across the country, holding rallies at 30 stops along the way.
"We don't want to turn this into some kind of organization with a top-down hierarchy," he said. "We want to keep it a democratic kind of organization, but people have to be herded into the same general direction, which is kind of what we're doing here."
There are two divergent explanations for the energy behind the marches, and they reflect two different sides of the conservative movement, each with a different vision for its future.
One is represented by FreedomWorks, the fiscally conservative non-profit group chaired Dick Armey, the former House Republican Leader turned lobbyist. It helped plan and promote the Tea Parties, town hall protests and Saturday's march using online organizing techniques similar to those employed for years to great effect by liberal groups and more recently by Obama's own presidential campaign. And because of its involvement, and that of other established conservative groups, many on the left have been quick to dismiss the entire movement as something manufactured by big-money Republican interests.
It was FreedomWorks that set up the main march website (which lists FreedomWorks as the lead march sponsor) and has handled the permitting and logistics for the march. By the time all the bills are paid, group officials say they expect they'll have spent about $600,000 on everything from sound and stage equipment to port-a-potties and security, though they asked other conservative groups to chip in as much as $10,000 each to co-sponsor the event.
Though there's been some sniping in conservatives circles about FreedomWorks' efforts to use its infrastructure to co-opt or "own" the Tea Party movement, the group stresses that the marchers have used the group's website and online social networks to organize themselves and plan – and fund – transportation and lodging.
"People are saying FreedomWorks is trying to jump to the front of the bus," said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon. "But we helped organize hundreds, if not thousands, of Tea Parties, and we helped with the town halls and we built a network and we gained some credibility as being a helpful organization to people as they wanted to get involved in activism."
He predicted Saturday's march would be the "largest gathering of fiscal conservatives in history" and that it would demonstrate "a new center of gravity forming in the conservative movement. The gun guys, they can turn out a crowd. The abortion guys, they can turn out a crowd. And for the first time ever, the fiscal conservatives will be able to, too."
FreedomWorks has seen its membership and online donations spike as a result of its involvement in the Tea Party movement, Brandon said. And, he said, FreedomWorks picked September 12 for the march before the Tax Day Tea Parties to give activists something to work towards and because it was about the time Congress was scheduled to return from its summer recess.
The other version of the march's genesis is that the popular conservative Fox News television host Glenn Beck set it in motion when he unveiled what he called The 9-12 Project during a March broadcast in which he urged viewers to try to recreate the united America that emerged the day after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"It's not about politics," Beck said during the March broadcast. "You actually believe in something. And you thought for a while there your politicians did as well. And now you kind of realize well, maybe they don't."
Beck's 9-12 project rhetoric leans much more towards fiery populism than anything coming from FreedomWorks and, while it certainly takes Democrats – and Republicans, for that matter – to task for reckless deficit spending, it also includes a heavier element of religious and social conservatism.
Beck has voiced support for the marches and will broadcast from Washington Saturday afternoon. He even recorded a two-minute video welcoming marchers to the city though it's unclear whether FreedomWorks will play it before the march. But he has downplayed characterizations that he's leading the marches or the movement.
Some activists, however, look to him more than any national conservative leader or group.
"Glenn is probably the unofficial leader of the group – he doesn't want to be, but he is – more than any national group," said Brian Britton, who heads the Greeley, Colo. 9/12 group, which he estimates has an email list with about 400 members.
Britton and his group are going to a Saturday march in Denver, which he hopes will attract as many as 10,000 people. He sees the movement as most effective at mobilizing to affect local and state debates, and said it doesn't lend itself to national political organizing.
"It's like trying to harness a bees' nest," he said, explaining "Within our group, there are a lot of people who are just as upset at what the Republicans did when they controlled the presidency and the Congress. A lot of the people look at Washington itself as being broken."
The schedule of speakers for the Washington march includes a handful of fiscally conservative Republican officials and conservative celebrities – such as Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina (whose political action committee is also listed as a march co-sponsor) and Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Tom Price of Georgia, as well as actor Stephen Baldwin.
But Brandon, the FreedomWorks spokesman, said the group purposefully created a speaking roster heavy on grassroots activists from around the country.
"We wanted to keep the politicians and the TV folks to a minimum and leave this to the Tea Party folks and I think that they're going to go back even more energized than ever," said Brandon, who plans to wear full Revolutionary War regalia to the march.
After Saturday, he said the next step would be to organize activists by congressional district around key issues of their own choosing, possibly including opposition to Democratic proposals to overhaul the nation's health care system, and to cap and trade carbon emissions.
"Are we going to keep this movement going forever?" Brandon said. "Probably not. Every movement has its life cycle. But I think we're at the beginning of this movement's life cycle."


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Oxygen and pH Sensors
Our optical sensors use light to probe the interaction between a sample and one of our proprietary sensing materials in order to quantify a chemical property of the sample. Our oxygen and pH sensors have been used to monitor biological samples, headspace gases, and industrial slurries, cosmetics, foods, and liquids in natural environments.
Advantages of Optical Chemical Sensors
- Easily applied to probes, patches, cuvettes, and other media
- More robust and require less maintenance than most electrodes
- Do not consume or alter the chemical composition of the sample
- Less susceptible to environmental changes, moisture, and interfering chemicals


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Dealertrack Technologies Showcases New Innovations at 2013 NADA Convention
Dealertrack Technologies Showcases New Innovations at 2013 NADA Convention
Launches New Digital Retailing, Interactive and Inventory Suites, and Introduces New Mobile iPad Menu Selling and DMS Mobile Reporting Solutions
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Driving innovation and progress across the automotive retail industry, Dealertrack Technologies (NAS: TRAK) will be launching several expanded technology suites and previewing new mobile innovations and other solutions for automotive dealers at the upcoming National Automotive Dealers Association Convention and Expo 2013 (NADA 2013), February 8th through 11th, in Orlando, Florida (Booth #2415).
From its all new and state-of-the-art exhibit, Dealertrack will unveil an "Interactive Zone" at the center of the booth where dealers can see and touch some of the company's latest mobile innovations, and sign up for free trials and special offers. Dealertrack will also showcase its full portfolio of integrated technologies designed to drive efficiency and accelerate workflow for automotive dealers, including several new launches:
Digital Retailing Suite - Only Dealertrack provides dealers with the power to fundamentally transform automotive retailing by enabling their online shoppers to complete more of the vehicle buying process online. Shoppers can search inventory, receive a first pencil offer, apply and pre-qualify for financing, plus value their trade using dealer controlled smart tools.
Interactive Suite- With the acquisition of ClickMotive, Dealertrack has dramatically elevated its capabilities in the digital marketing arena, including a top performing line-up of dealer and group websites, mobile websites, search, social, managed chat tools, and integrations with Dealertrack's Digital Retailing Suite.
Inventory Suite - With solutions for pricing, appraising, merchandising, sourcing, stocking, trading, mobile and vehicle transportation, Dealertrack's solution set is the most powerful and comprehensive in the industry. For transporting vehicles, Dealertrack now operates North America's largest web-based shipping network, facilitating the moving of more than 2.5 million vehicles per year.
New Mobile Solutions for DMS and eMenu - Building on the success of its mobile sales and F&I, and TrueTarget apps, Dealertrack continues to expand its line-up of mobile offerings. At NADA, Dealertrack will be previewing new mobile tools for dealers that deliver customized business-critical analytics for DMS on mobile devices, as well as a new customer-friendly menu to present and sell aftermarket F&I options from an iPad.
"The dealer is always at the center of our thinking when we design new solutions to advance workflows and drive efficiencies," said Raj Sundaram, executive vice president, Dealer Solutions, Sales and Marketing, Dealertrack. "At this year's NADA show, we will kickoff what is shaping up to be a multi-year product onslaught with the launch of new integrated solution sets and mobile technologies that will drive unprecedented efficiency and performance for dealers."
NADA 2013 Show Demonstrations and Promotions
At the show, Dealertrack will be giving away $100 gift cards for completing pre-scheduled product demonstrations at the show. The company will also give away new iPad Minis for qualifying purchases at the show or by later completing a follow up DMS full departmental demo at a dealership. Quantities are limited. Product demonstrations can be scheduled and promotional terms and conditions are available at www.dealertrack.com/nada or at the Dealertrack booth (#2415).
About Dealertrack Technologies (www.dealertrack.com)
Dealertrack Technologies' intuitive and high-value web-based software solutions and services enhance efficiency and profitability for all major segments of the automotive retail industry, including dealers, lenders, OEMs, third-party retailers, agents and aftermarket providers. In addition to the industry's largest online credit application network, connecting more than 19,000 dealers with more than 1,200 lenders, Dealertrack Technologies delivers the industry's most comprehensive solution set for automotive retailers, including Dealer Management System (DMS),Inventory, Sales and F&I, Interactive and Registration and Titling solutions. For more information visit www.dealertrack.com.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
Statements in this press release regarding Dealertrack and its solutions, including new integrated solution sets and mobile technologies, and all other statements in this release other than the recitation of historical facts are forward-looking statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of Dealertrack Technologies to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Factors that might cause such a difference include the timing of the launch of solutions and technologies, their functionality and adoption by dealers, and other risks listed in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2011. These filings can be found on DealerTrack Technologies' website atwww.dealertrack.comand the SEC's website atwww.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements included herein speak only as of the date hereof and Dealertrack Technologies disclaims any obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or circumstances.
iPad is a registered trademark of Apple. Apple is not a participant or sponsor of this promotion.
Dealertrack Technologies, Inc.
Ken Engberg, 516-734-3692
Dealertrack Technologies, Inc.
Michael DeMeo, 516-734-3691
KEYWORDS: United States North America New York
The article Dealertrack Technologies Showcases New Innovations at 2013 NADA Convention originally appeared on Fool.com.
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The second in a series of Surf Dog Clinics run by the SoCal Surf Dogs
for the Helen Woodward Animal Center
took place on Saturday, July 20th.
All new GeoMUTTS were paired up with an expert Surfdog Instructor from the SoCal Surf Dogs.
Here are a few of the dogs who attended
as seen through the eyes and lens
of photographer Craig Jones of Dogscapes.
You can check out more of his work
by clicking on his logo to the left.
For more information
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Stephanie Pollack, associate director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy in Northeastern's School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, noted a decades-long shift in public thinking about the environmental impact of energy consumption. Now, she said, a similar movement must be directed toward sustainable transportation.
"We haven't been able to make that paradigm shift on transportation because we don't know what the transportation equivalent of the megawatt is," Pollack said.
To this end, Pollack has developed a new framework for building a more equitable and sustainable transportation system in Greater Boston. The Dukakis Center report, "Staying on Track," is based on an extensive collection and analysis of a broad range of data and is designed to shed light on how the system does or does not work.
Pollack outlined the first-of-its-kind project on Monday at the Metro Boston Consortium for Sustainable Communities fall meeting, which took place in Northeastern's Curry Student Center Ballroom. The consortium is coordinated by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional planning agency serving more than 100 cities and towns of Metropolitan Boston.
The sweeping analysis comprises three dozen proposed indicators and benchmarks that could be used to explain the complicated set of demographic and economic factors driving the region's travel patterns. Those indicators and benchmarks aim to address what Pollack identifies as nine attributes of a sustainable transportation system: the system's condition, funding sustainability, transportation options, accessibility, affordability, safety, convenience and sustainability.
In Monday's presentation, Pollack cited several daunting pieces of data. She called attention to the state transportation department's $240 million shortfall to operate its highway system in the 2014 fiscal year and a fleet of MBTA's Orange and Red Line vehicles that are beyond their intended lifespan.
Not all the data, however, were gloom and doom. Pollack pointed to a dramatic rise in the number of people who commute to work via bicycle, for example, and noted the city's efforts to install more than 50 miles of bike lanes and launch a bike-sharing program. She also said that MBTA ridership is steadily rising, though she added that the T doesn't have the financial capability to make the necessary investments to match this growth.
Following this baseline data over time, she said, will help government officials, transportation experts and lawmakers develop effective long-term policies and determine whether transportation systems are heading in the right direction.
Pollack arrived at several conclusions. She noted that the state's current transportation system is neither well maintained nor sustainably funded, though baseline travel patterns reflect relatively lower amounts of driving and greater amounts of transit use compared to peer metro areas and states. Pollack also found that travel options that support sustainable mobility are not distributed evenly across communities, which, she said, affects equitable access to jobs across the region.
Following a period for public feedback, a final transportation report will be released later this year.
"There is no sustainability without transportation," said Pollack, noting that transportation is the largest and fastest-growing segment of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts.
The Dukakis Center is also involved in two other transportation related projects: Scoring to Understand Sustainable Transportation Attributes and Indicators, or SUSTAIN, which scores the state's 351 cities and towns based on 10 attributes of environmental sustainability; and eTODscore, a database and rating system for equitable transit-oriented development based on neighborhoods with MBTA stations and key bus routes.
– by Greg St. Martin


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The Best Everyday Player of the 1970sJanuary 11, 2008
Some odds and ends from The New Bill James Historical Abstract on the players discussed in the recent Cardboard Gods poll on Best Everyday Player from the 1970s:
Though Bill James does not designate a best player of the decade, he does identify the winner of our poll, Joe Morgan, as the best player in four straight years, 1973 through 1976. Only Honus Wagner in the first decade of the twentieth century had a longer unbroken string of dominance (in James' estimation the Dutchman was tops in baseball for seven straight years).
Of the players considered in our poll, Joe Morgan ranks the highest in James' all-time list of players, at 15. Two players at the tail end of their careers in the 1970s rank higher, Hank Aaron at 12 and Willie Mays at 3. Other players getting votes in our poll were ranked thusly, starting at the back: 82. Willie Stargell (James' choice for "Most Admirable Superstar"); 64. Rod Carew; 57. Reggie Jackson (James' choice for "Least Admirable Superstar"); 44. Johnny Bench; 33. Pete Rose.
Ken Singleton was the only player receiving support in the poll who was not ranked in the top 100 by James, but he is ranked by James as the eighteenth best rightfielder of all time. Singleton and Stargell are the only two of our players who did not make it onto James' major league all-star team for the decade, passed over in the outfield in favor of Bobby Murcer, Reggie Jackson, and Bobby Bonds.
Pete Rose is on that all-star team as a utility man, which would seem to make him the most vulnerable member of the squad if not for James' high estimation of him in the overall rankings. That ranking made me feel a little better about spending so much verbiage lobbying for more consideration for Rose as one of the very best players of the decade. I'm sure part of my inspiration in doing so was reading, on some earlier occasion, the rhetorical question Bill James uses to sum up his thoughts on Pete Rose's ranking in the pantheon of the game: "Which is better to start a pennant race with, a guy that you think might be the MVP, or a guy that you know is going to hustle every day and get 200 hits?"


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Armstrong, Neil Alden
Armstrong, Neil Alden, 1930–2012, American astronaut, b. Wapakoneta, Ohio, grad. Purdue Univ. (B.S., 1955), Univ. of Southern California (M.S., 1970). A U.S. Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War, Armstrong became a test pilot for what was then the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics in 1955. In 1962, already a veteran of the X-15 rocket plane, Armstrong became a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut and served as command pilot of the Gemini 8 mission. As commander of Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969), he was the first person (July 20 EDST) to set foot on the moon, saying:
That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind(the
awas apparently lost in transmission due to static). After serving (1970–71) as an associate NASA administrator for aeronautics, Armstrong taught aeronautical engineering at the Univ. of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1979. In 1985, President Reagan appointed him to the National Commission on Space and in 1986 named him vice chairman of the panel that investigated the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
See his First on the Moon (1970), written with G. Farmer and D. Hamblin; biography by J. R. Hansen (2005).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Space Exploration: Biographies


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HTC's laying its cards down with a phone called "Smart" for Europe and Asia, which runs on Qualcomm's BREW platform. As BREW is cheap for the manufacturer, I'm willing to bet the Smart will be cheap for the consumer too.
Running on BREW, it's actually been painted with HTC's Sense interface which as you know, was last seen on the HD2. Processor speed is just 300MHz—pretty slow—and RAM is a fairly average 256MB. Internal memory is 256MB, but that's expandable by microSD. The touchscreen QVGA is 2.8-inches, and connectivity is HSDPA internet, and Bluetooth, with no GPS or Wi-Fi mentioned. The camera is 3.0-megapixel with flash. So yes, it's a budgetphone, but at least it'll be cheap, right? [HTC]


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Crist kicks off run for governor as a Democrat
ST. PETERSBURG —In many ways, Democrat Charlie Crist's message as he began his campaign for governor Monday was the same as when he was a Republican governor.
He called for investment in clean energy, more money for schools, tax breaks for small businesses. Even the slogan is the same — signs were printed up saying "The People's Governor." And he was wildly received by the group of supporters who came out to a park near Crist's downtown home, just as they did when he was a Republican.
But while Crist enjoys near universal name ID in Florida and, if he wins the nomination, will be facing an unpopular governor in Republican Rick Scott, this will be a tough campaign.
Crist will be up against money and attacks like he's never seen before in a political career where he has won three statewide offices and lost two U.S. Senate races. And he knows it.
"He's trying to bully me by waving around his $100 million checkbook. A $100 million. And he says he will start spending $25 million — I think it begins tonight — on me with false advertising, negative ads and nothing about his record because he doesn't have a record he's proud of," Crist told the crowd of about 200. "If we are tireless in our desire to make Florida a better place again, then Rick Scott can spend a billion dollars on dishonest ads and it won't matter."
If the race is about personality, Crist should do fine. He's one of Florida's best retail politicians and Scott is often an awkward campaigner who's never had the approval of even half the state's voters.
"He brings something to the table that Rick Scott doesn't have and that's likeability," said Democratic pollster David Beattie, who isn't working with Crist. "If you ask people who loves the state more, people will probably say Charlie Crist. Who would they rather have a beer with? They're going to say Charlie Crist."
But it's not just going to be about personality. Republicans and Scott have made it clear how they're going to attack Crist. For months they've pointed out that Florida's economy and employment tanked while Crist was governor and that it has improved under Scott. While Florida's rebound largely reflects that of the nation's, Scott is taking credit for it, and every week he holds press conferences to announce new jobs. His slogan has gone from "let's get to work" to "it's working."
Scott and Republicans are also trying to tear down Crist's image. They call him a political opportunist who said one thing to win office as a Republican and is saying another as a Democrat. They say he's untrustworthy and his only concern is his political career.
Crist is now the Democratic front-runner in a primary that also includes former state Sen. Nan Rich, who has struggled to raise money and with her name recognition while campaigning for nearly a year-and-a-half. Republicans and Scott will focus their money and efforts on Crist in what is sure to be the most expensive and brutal campaign the state has seen.
Crist was once one of the biggest superstars in Florida Republican politics. He left the state Senate to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Graham in 1998, a campaign he was never expected to win but one which helped him build a statewide base. Two years later he was elected education commissioner, then attorney general in 2002. In 2006, he won the governor's race and his popularity soared on a message of bipartisanship.
Then his political fortunes came crashing down in 2010 when the tea party movement was at its height and Marco Rubio came out of nowhere to chase Crist from the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. Crist ended up running as an independent and lost the race, and with it, he burned his bridges with Republicans.
Crist will have to prove that he's still the proficient fundraiser he was as a Republican. Most of the people who pumped millions into his past campaigns are now going to support Scott. Crist also has to convince the big Democratic donors that his political conversion is for real and that he can win.
Opponents were at Crist's announcement handing out fans that showed him as a Republican on one side and as a Democrat on the other. On both sides were the words, "Charlie Crist is a fan of whatever you want him to be."
It's a point that Crist himself might not argue with. He's embraced the description of a populist who wants to do want the people want him to do.
"When the people give you the honor of being their governor, you're not the governor for any one party, you are the governor for all Floridians," Crist said during his announcement. "No matter what they say, it is not a sin to reach across the aisle. It is your obligation to work together."
And Crist plans to make the argument that Scott cares more about large corporate donors than he does about average people. He will cast Scott as an extremist with a tea party mentality. And he will revive the most damning case made against Scott by his 2010 Republican and Democratic opponents — that he was forced to leave as CEO of the nation's largest hospital chain in 1997 amid an investigation that eventually led Columbia/HCA to pay a record $1.7 billion in fines for Medicare fraud.
"Governor Scott has led like this: Embrace the ideological fringes, take care of his friends, bully his opponents, hide from the public and the press and run from tough issues," Crist said. "It really shouldn't come as a surprise, though. He hid from federal investigators as a businessman and his company had to pay the largest fine at the time for fraud in the history of America."
Scott's political committee began airing attack ads Monday, spending more than $500,000 on a 30-second spot that uses old anti-Crist quotes from prominent Democrats, including former party chairwoman Karen Thurman's line that Crist's "only core belief is personal ambition."
And the Republican Party of Florida held an afternoon conference call to use one of Crist's former allies, George LeMieux, against him. LeMieux worked as chief of staff when Crist was attorney general, ran Crist's 2006 campaign for governor and was appointed by Crist to serve in the U.S. Senate after Mel Martinez resigned.
"He's unrecognizable to me in this new form he's in and he's got a lot of explaining to do," said LeMieux, adding that Crist has taken two or three positions on nearly every major issue.
Crist said he understands former friends will be against him.
"There are times in life when people disappoint you," Crist said about LeMieux. "But I have chosen when that happens to turn the other cheek and I'll just keep moving forward and understand that sometimes some people do things that are wrong but we have to forgive and forget."


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SYNOPSIS# get a Bio::SeqFeature::CollectionI somehow # perhaps a Bio::SeqFeature::Collection
use Bio::SeqFeature::Collection;
my $collection = Bio::SeqFeature::Collection->new();
$collection->features(-attributes =>
[ { 'location' => Bio::Location::Simple->new
(-start=> 1, -end => 300) ,
'overlaps' }]);
DESCRIPTIONThis interface describes the basic methods needed for a collection of Sequence Features.
Mailing ListsUser feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to the Bioperl mailing list. Your participation is much appreciated.
[email protected] - General discussion http://bioperl.org/wiki/Mailing_lists - About the mailing lists
SupportPlease direct usage questions or support issues to the mailing list:
rather than to the module maintainer directly. Many experienced and reponsive experts will be able look at the problem and quickly address it. Please include a thorough description of the problem with code and data examples if at all possible.
Reporting BugsReport bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track of the bugs and their resolution. Bug reports can be submitted via the web:
AUTHOR - Jason StajichEmail [email protected]
APPENDIXThe rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal methods are usually preceded with a _
Title : add_features Usage : $collection->add_features(\@features); Function: Returns : number of features added Args : arrayref of Bio::SeqFeatureI objects to index
Title : features Usage : my @f = $collection->features(@args); Returns : a list of Bio::SeqFeatureI objects Args : see below Status : public
This routine will retrieve features associated with this collection object. It can be used to return all features, or a subset based on their type, location, or attributes.
-types List of feature types to return. Argument is an array of Bio::Das::FeatureTypeI objects or a set of strings that can be converted into FeatureTypeI objects. -callback A callback to invoke on each feature. The subroutine will be passed to each Bio::SeqFeatureI object in turn. -attributes A hash reference containing attributes to match.
The -attributes argument is a hashref containing one or more attributes to match against:
-attributes => { Gene => 'abc-1', Note => 'confirmed' }
Attribute matching is simple exact string matching, and multiple attributes are ANDed together. See Bio::DB::ConstraintsI for a more sophisticated take on this.
If one provides a callback, it will be invoked on each feature in turn. If the callback returns a false value, iteration will be interrupted. When a callback is provided, the method returns undef.


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That's right, retirement has a Level II. I bet your competitive streak wants to get there, and that means building an overall strategy for producing stable monthly income. Depending on your personal goals, that might mean income to supplement your paycheck, or income that'll have you sipping Mai Tais on the beach in Tahiti next to your spouse of 30- or 40-plus years.
But before we get to Level II, let's review Level I.
Retirement Level I
Retirement changed radically when the government bailed out reckless banks at the expense of seniors and savers. A lot of people, myself included, entered the 2008 crash thinking their portfolios were as safe as a bomb shelter.
Personally, I allocated my portfolio by the "100 minus your age" rule. Cash holdings aside, nearly 70% of my capital was in income investments (leaning heavily on CDs, given the excellent rates at the time), and the remaining 30% was very conservatively invested in the market. In other words, I followed the rules.
Unlike many who took a large hit when the market crashed, my losses were minimal. I don't say this to brag, nor am I encouraging you to follow my old allocation. I simply want to share that, even with my allocation down pat, I too was struck hard by the crash… just not in the way one might imagine. Why? Because it wasn't the number at the end of my brokerage statement that let me sleep well at night, it was the income those investments produced.
I was living on that income, enjoying the retirement dream. Then—almost overnight—my "paycheck" was cut by 66%.
Like so many others, I was caught by a risk in my portfolio that had been unheard of a few years prior. With decades of livable interest rates behind us, not one financial advisor ever suggested I was at risk. Almost no products existed to deal with it.
The new, zero-interest-rate world was, as the kids in Silicon Valley like to say, a game-changer.
When our team sat down to develop Money Forever, we knew that retirement investing demanded both a defensive and an offensive strategy, played at the same time.
The defensive goal is to avoid catastrophic losses. Too many Americans were caught with their pants on the floor at the end of the dot-com and real estate bubbles. Others from around the world have been robbed of their savings as governments overspent and spurred inflation.
Bonds have performed very well recently. But the largest gains are not from yield, but from the Federal Reserve driving interest rates lower and holding them there.
While long-term bond funds appreciated handsomely, a new risk crept into portfolios around the world: the so-called bond bubble. If rates rise (we've seen a light preview of this since May), the net asset value of the billions of dollars in many bond funds will drop dramatically.
When we put our retirement money in fixed-income investments, we are investing for safety and yield. We cannot risk another bubble bursting at our expense.
Moving Forward
Yes, we want yield. But there is another reason for fixed-income investing: safety. What if there is a huge market drop? We may be domestically and internationally diversified and have adequate stop losses in place, but a wave can act like a tsunami at times, and right now is one of those times. So we are moving on to Level II.
Level II: Bulletproofing Your Retirement
There are two important facets of a strong portfolio: income, and opportunities. Miller's Money Forever helps guide you through the better points of finance, and helps replace that income lost in our zero-interest-rate world.
Pre-crash, if an investor bought a CD at the prevailing rate, and then interest rates rose during that period, he would not lament his loss in net asset value. He would be satisfied with the interest, and when his CD matured, he would buy another one at the current rate. So why do we look at bond funds, see our net asset value go down, and worry? Because most bond funds are always busy selling, baking in those losses along the way.
Some funds, however, hold them to maturity. In that regard, it is like a CD. Of course, it is not FDIC insured. That does not make it unsafe, however. In fact, in the fall of 2008, I would have been better off holding non-callable bonds at a nice, juicy 6% rate instead of FDIC-insured CDs. My income certainly wouldn't have taken the hit it did. (I must forgive myself for that sin against my portfolio, but now I know better.)
This is where the value of one of the best analyst teams in the world comes into focus. We focus on our subscribers' income-investing needs, and I challenge our analysts to find safe, decent-yielding, fixed-income products that will not trade in tandem with the steroid-induced stock market—or alternatively, ones that will come back to life quickly if they do get knocked down with the market. They recently showed me seven different types of investments that met my criteria and still withstood our Five-Point Balancing Test.
Somewhere in the discussion, I mentioned how tired my peers are of having holes blown in their retirement plans. While nuclear-bomb-shelter safe may be impossible, we still want a bulletproof plan.
This is what we've done at Money Forever: built a bulletproof, income-generating portfolio that will stand up to almost anything the market can throw at it.
It is time to advance to Level II and learn about the vast market of income investments safe enough for even the most risk-wary retirees. Some investors may want to shoot for the moon, but we spent the bulk of our adult lives building our nest eggs; it's time to let them work for us and enjoy retirement stress-free. Learn how to get in, now.


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it's hard to feel like this - so blue - so upset... BOOM
*** Aluminum (TMA), Barium, Strontium, Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6), and Lithium have been dumped in space to study and modify space weather for over sixty years (60) and nobody knew. - Big Wobble Blog *** Then there's Z. July 18, 2022 - I was awakened this morning with a clear message that there are three years left until the simulation ends. - ELLIE *** Ego & Time are our biggest anchors to ignorance- Walter Russell
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SOURCE I feel kinda bad for Pluto. How little we really know about space. Don't get me started on space junk... BOOM


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Toolkit for School Psychologists
This free 90-page toolkit, developed by Reading Rockets and the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), contains resources to help you:
- Get more involved in the development of comprehensive, research-based reading programs in your school district
- Apply evidence-based strategies to your assessments of students with reading difficulties
- Help students become good readers and keep more kids from unnecessarily entering special education
To Share with Parents
- What Is a School Psychologist?
- Who's Who in Your Child's School
- New school year = rough transitions for some
- Back to School Tips for Parents of Children with Special Needs
- Response to Intervention (RTI): A Primer for Parents
- Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: 8 Steps for Parents
- Empowering Parents
Put Downs & Comebacks: How to Respond to a Discouraged Kid
When children struggle in school, they can easily get discouraged. They might say or think "I'll never learn how to read" or "I'm just dumb." Discover what a child's "put downs" may mean and what "comebacks" you can say or do to encourage a child to keep trying.
Who Are Struggling Readers?
- Who Are the Children Who Have Reading Difficulties?
- About Reading Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, and Reading Difficulties
- Dyslexia Basics
- Clues to Dyslexia from Second Grade On
Helping Struggling Readers
- Creating Positive School Experiences for Students with Disabilities
- School Psychologists and Student Reading Achievement
- Best Practices in Planning Interventions for Struggling Readers
- The Role of the School Psychologist in the RTI Process
- School Counselors and School Psychologists: Collaborating to Ensure Minority Students Receive Appropriate Consideration for Special Educational Programs
- New Roles in Response to Intervention: Creating Success for Schools and Children (NASP)