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Three is the Magic Number: Port FC 3-2 Ratchaburi FC
Saturday 24th February saw Port in a strange scenario. What's the scenario? Top of the league and two wins from two games. We all know two games into a season you can't tell that much about a team, but more important than the two wins has been the style of the victories. Port have fought and looked good in both matches. PAT all too often a field of screams is turning into some sort of Klong Toei gangsta's paradise for Jadet's geto boys.
The immediate pre-match talk was about the absence of Kim Sung Hwan (8). When I heard the news, I was definitely thinking oh shit I'll be missing you, and our midfield will be missing you too. Against Muangthong, Kim showed he can marshal the midfield and give Siwakorn (16) the freedom to distribute the ball and sett up Port's attacking moves like a grandmaster of Chessboxin'. So the team news saw Port's first knock back of the day. Fitting on a day that was to see Port switch from Jim's high enthusiasm to Hockers' high anxiety every other minute.
I thought we might see a defensive Ratchaburi tie up Port and try a Whodini escape from PAT with a point. So I was shocked by the frenetic pace of the first five minutes. Port were impressive, but Ratchaburi were raising their game as they were out to impress. They were all well aware that their new coach was in the stands and everyone was trying stake a claim for their spot in the team. The first shock came with the first shot from Ratchaburi. It came on 12 seconds with the ball being blasted into a defender. Ratchaburi had come here to play. 25 seconds later Nitipong (34) was scythed down by Satsanapong (35). The ref chose not to go for a yellow and waved away the Port protest delegation. This terrible decision set the tone for the game and saw 10 minutes of players thinking "Well if he's not going to give a yellow for that, what will he give a yellow for?" Tackles flew in like it was the wild wild west and each player pushed the definition of the phrase 'shocking yet legitimate tackle'.
Unfortunately the number 1 chief shocka of the first 10 minutes was Suarez (5). After being fouled by Sami (3) he seemed to slap the hand of the referee away. Was Suarez trying to point something out to the referee with his hand and just ended up hitting him by mistake? Or was he saying, I'm gonna knock you out? This could be seen as a mistake, or assault. With this ref no one was sure which way he would go. The only thing to come Suarez's way was a rebuke and an audible sigh of relief reverberated around me in Zone B. As the game unfolded, most fans would see a gentle slap of the arm as scant punishment for a refereeing performance that could generously be called erratic and honestly be called slapworthy.
On 6 minutes Rosima Amancio (90) who goes by the name of "Bill" showed Port he has a few South American skills, even if his nickname is more South London. An interesting character with moves as smooth and deadly as Bushwick Bill's rhymes, but in sporting terms his physique was more mid 70's snooker legend Bill Werbeniuk. His jinking run was desperately blocked by Dolah (4) hitting him high and Rochela (22) hitting him low. The run set off more alarm bells in the Port defence, with some thinking maybe we could just shoot em up. I'm sure the ref would only give a yellow for that today.
Port and Ratchburi both continued creating and missing chances: Boskovic (23) scooped the ball high into Zone D and Ratchaburi hit a shot straight at Worawut (36). Finally about 10 minutes in the number 16 clattered into a player and he went flying into the air. To the surprise of everyone it was the Ratchaburi number 16 Gionata Verzura that managed to get his name in the book first, with waiflike Siwakorn being the one upended. Role reversal for Siwakorn who has been a lot more careful with his fouling in 2018: Kim is a good influence on him.
Port's best early chance came on '13 with a Pakorn (7) free kick drifted in to Suarez (5). He trapped and turned sweetly to beat the keeper, but not the post. 3 minutes later Pakorn would hit the woodwork again with a trademark inswinging corner that swung too much too soon.
Hitting back, Philip Roller (33) drew a spectacularly exaggerated, yet still needed save from Worawut. The following corner was put over the bar and another shot from a corner was blasted wide of Port's goal soon after. Port might rue their chances going astray, but they could be equally happy Ratchaburi were squandering their chances too. The attacking right back vs. attacking left back, Kevin (97) vs Roller, was a one of the mini battles going on all over the pitch that made this game so fascinating, the two young players sniping at each other for 90 minutes.
The game saw another one-two punch of missed chances with Menezes (20) putting the ball over the bar and Boskovic having a one on one with the keeper. He tried to drill it in, but only found the keeper's outstretched leg. Next it was the ever industrious Nurul (31) having a go. Rather than the keeper Nurul managed to hit Siwakorn's head and the crowd wondered how on earth this game was still 0-0.
On '35 Kang Soo-il (10) went for a theatrical dive trying to get hardworking Adisorn (13) booked. When a yellow card didn't come he cupped his ear and asked Zone C for a bit more noise. I'm sure Kang grew sick of the constant booing that followed him around for the next hour. You asked for it Kang, so you got.
Two more Port free kicks resulted in nothing and it felt like this half didn't want a goal. Then an exquisite move saw Bill (90) tap the ball with the outside of his boot, dissecting 3 Port defenders on the edge of the box. Then a sweet back heel from Chuitpol (7) to cue up Pathomchai (31), and he slotted it into the bottom corner past Worawut. At least it was a great goal that spoiled Port's 220-minute clean sheet.
Speaking of exquisite goals, after a ricocheting free kick fell to Chutipol (7) I'm sure he thought all was well with the world, and he would just hoof the ball away. Not so when you have Ninja Nurul next to you. Nurul picked Chutipol's left pocket and tapped him on the right shoulder, and before Chutipol knew which way to turn Nurul was guiding that ball into the far corner. As the keeper fell to the ground Nurul was completing his celebration somersault, handing out notes to novice ninjas, stamping fans tickets as they left for half time and posting Ask Nurul Ninja videos on Youtube. This little man can do everything. It's great to see Nurul putting in an early claim for goal of the season. And it's no more than he deserves. Nurul works his arse off, somehow channeling the spirit of Genki's work ethic and Saruta's ball skills and then sprinkling in some ancient Ninja magic. He is the Nine Carat Gold Ninja – is that a thing? I don't know. If it isn't it should be.
For readers who would like to make their own "Nine Karat Gold Ninja" flick book we have provided pictures.
1-1 at half time, and everyone walked out thanking god for Nine Carat Gold Ninjas. Everyone also knew Port and Ratchaburi were going to come out looking for more goals in the second. The second half started with Ratchaburi trying to take back the initiative with a few chances.
The Shook Ones Part II
The Kevin vs. Roller battle that had been raging all day was set off again by a good quick throw in from Pakorn down the left wing. Roller tussled with Kevin hacking at his ankles and pulling his shirt. Kevin held him off, then strong-armed him just enough to give himself some room. He fed the ball through Roller's legs onto Suarez running in at the near post. Suarez thumped the ball in. On a day when players needed to stamp their authority on their part of the turf Kevin and Suarez delivered the perfect counter punch to their opposite numbers. Port up 2-1 and Roller left scratching his head as to how to stop a player who doesn't fall down at any given opportunity. Kevin stood up and looked Roller square in the eyes and said "it's my turn, I demand my respect, Give me my burn, or get slammed in your neck" (yes, he definitely said that, I heard it).
Before the next corner with Chutipol receiving treatment, Suarez wandered over to drink some of the water by Ratchaburi's goal. He picked up two bottles, one for himself and one to throw into Zone B. It's often small things that turn a crowd for or against a player. Kang Soo-il (10) had cupped his ear and was still getting boos every time he touched the ball. With Suarez's gesture he managed to deprive Ratchaburi of some water, and give the crowd a laugh and one kid a souvenir of the game.
As more space opened up for Pakorn on the right Suarez picked him out twice with brilliant cross-field passes. One move did create a chance for Nurul, with the ball looping up in the air the whole crowd held its breath. Nurul tried an audacious Ninjaesque bicycle kick. Surely he can't score such a goal? Yes, you're right he couldn't – it went wide proving he is a ninja but still human.
Always a bright sign the crowd saw Bodin (10) warming up on the sidelines. I thought Pakorn was coming off, but it was Suarez who would eventually make way for Bodin. Then Boskovic broke through the midfield and Port had a great chance. Even with two defenders chasing yards behind him and one coming across to meet him I would still have put money on Boskovic shooting and indeed scoring with such a good sight on goal. However Boskovic looked up and played the percentages. He calmly squared it to a wide open Suarez who sided footed it causally in to the back of the net making it 3-1 to Port. Time for everyone, bar Hockers, to relax and breathe a bit easier knowing a two goal cushion was in place.
As I was explaining to Hockers that a two goal lead with 20 minutes to go was something to be enjoyed with carefree happiness, he explained joy has no place in football 'til the final whistle. As I was mid speech extolling the joys of life, Ratchaburi hit the post, reminding everyone, bar Hockers, this lead could still fall apart. Chances continued coming ten a penny, but fortunately none were going in.
On '72 Suarez exited to cheers from all zones and even Tim (just polite applause from me – Ed). Bodin entered into the fray with Ratchaburi having another pot shot at the Port goal, and Hockers tutted at the other 7,999 fans who had happily thought this match had been put to bed. Menezes who had created so many chances for Ratchaburi found Kang Soo-il to deliver his own dose of My Medicine to Port. 3-2 and the thought that Port might let a good lead slip away like so many 2017 games reared its ugly head.
At the restart the ref called Captains Sami and Rochela into the centre circle. He made them shake hands to try and foster a bit of peace in a tense game. As they were shaking hands I'm sure they were both shaking their heads too, thinking this game would be a lot more peaceful with a decent ref.
The last ten minutes of the game saw both teams slow down a bit, looking like two prize fighters who had been beating the hell out of each other for 127 rounds. Nurul had a good shout for a penalty on '86. After re-watching it oddly the ultra-biased Port eyes had it spot on. 100% nailed-on penalty. As Port ran out winners today it will be forgotten pretty quickly, but had Ratchaburi scored a late equaliser this report would have been a 3000 word dissertation on the incident and the sad tale of how Port were robbed of 3 points. It wasn't, we weren't. The last minutes saw the Grandmaster Flash himself Terens Puhiri (28) make a two minute appearance. It would be good to see the Flash for the last 10 minutes of a game to see if he can convert his pace into some genuine chances for Port. I hope Jadet gets the message.
At the end of the day it was three that was the magic number for Port: 3 goals tonight, 3 points in the bag again, 3 wins in a row.
Maybe you can subtract it
You can call it your lucky partner
Maybe you can call it your adjective
But odd as it may be
Without my 1 and 2 where would there be my 3
Sandpit Man of the Match: Sergio Suarez
My 3 of the night would be Suarez, Nurul and Kevin. Siwakorn also had a great game, the defence held up well against a tough attack. As it's man of the match not men of the match, I'll have to go with Suarez. On a day when Port needed battlers he battled and delivered two goals. He also delivered a free bottle of water for Zone B – nice touch.
(Just in case you wondered, it's the Kool Moe Dee's wild wild west, not the Will Smith version, just so you check yourself before you wreck yourself.)


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Syracuse, NY- Syracuse University has received a $1.1 million gift from John and Patricia Breyer, of Alpharetta, Ga., to establish the John E. and Patricia A. Breyer Endowed Professorship in Electrical Engineering.
The Breyers formerly lived in Syracuse and have a daughter who received her bachelor's and master's degrees from SU's School of Education in 1988 and 1990, respectively.
John Breyer has served on the Dean's Council of SU's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science since 1994; the college's Leadership Council since 2000; and has been a member of SU's Board of Trustees since 2001.
The endowed gift will allow SU's engineering and computer science college to add a new faculty member and support the faculty member's teaching, research and other activities. The college plans to launch a search for the John E. and Patricia A. Breyer Professor in fall 2009, a process in which the Breyers will be involved.John Breyer since 1997 has been president, CEO and chairman of the board of managers of Microwave Instrumentation Technologies, LLC, a global supplier of microwave instrumentation products, systems and technologies for antenna, component, radome and radar cross section measurement instruments.
The gift will be bolstered through Faculty Today, a challenge program created to encourage donors to endow faculty chairs and professorships. The program will supplement the earnings from the endowed professorship in electrical engineering for five years.
The college will also provide an equivalent contribution.

subset: commoncrawl


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To reserve your spot, go to: www.maricopa.edu/enrollment-express-day
- Apply for Admission
- Take the Placement Test
- Seek Academic Advisement
- Student Orientation
- Explore Payment Options
- Register for Classes
Rio will provide Enrollment Express Day services at:
- RSC Headquarters, Tempe
- RSC Northern, Phoenix
- RSC LLC, Surprise
- RSC Communiversity at Queen Creek
- For more information about Rio Salado services call 480-384-9966.
Other refreshments and snacks will be available at all Rio Salado locations.
Jennifer has been playing guitar for approximately 25 years and enjoys performing covers ranging from the '60s to present day. Jennifer hopes you can join her for an eclectic mix of tunes--she also encourages you to sing along! Catch her performance 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.


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This is the music news page.
Chris Dahlberg | September 28, 2014
Mall Walk premieres song off upcoming self-titled EP.
Chris Dahlberg | September 14, 2014
Obliterations releasing debut album next month.
Chris Dahlberg | September 14, 2014
Olde Worlde releases new lyric video, The Blue Musk-Oxen out now.
Chip Tamplin | September 3, 2014
Taken from the album 'PEACE AT ALL COSTS', in stores September 16.
Chris Dahlberg | July 7, 2014
Emily & the Complexes releasing new EP on August 19th.
Chris Dahlberg | June 11, 2014
Origin releases third new track from upcoming album, Omnipresent releases July 8th in North America.
Chris Dahlberg | June 9, 2014
On Top releases lyric video for "Don't Go," Top to Bottom EP out now.
Chip Tamplin | April 9, 2014
New album arrives June 17th.
Chris Dahlberg | April 7, 2014
OWL's powerful new track premieres via No Clean Singing.
Chip Tamplin | April 3, 2014
Set to play the WJRR Earthday Birthday in April.


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Milwaukee goes after new blood with a V-Rod that lives life beyond Main Street
This is our kind of Harley.
In fact, this motorcycle is the gleam we saw in the eyes of our testers back in 2000, right after they climbed off Harley-Davidson's then-all-new V-Rod. The first thing out of their mouths was what a huge leap forward this bike represented for Harley–followed closely by oohs and aahs about how freakin' fast it was.
But it wasn't long before we were yakking about what we'd do differently. If you pulled in the front end, we enthused at the V-Rod's world launch, and gave it more conventional ergos, this thing would rock! When Harley's engineers and product planners heard us commenting thusly, their demeanor morphed from thoughtful absorption to actual listening and nodding.
It was hard to tell if they were nodding in agreement (and thinking about this exact machine, then in development) or just politely dismissing us.
Now, with the release of the '06 VRSCR Street Rod, we know the truth.
If you consider the Motor Company's history with departures from mainstream cruiser chic, you can see why Milwaukee might have minimal interest in a more sporty V-Rod. Such bikes–the XLCR Cafe Racer of the '70s, the XR1000 of the '80s and the Sportster Sport of the '90s–haven't resonated particularly well with buyers, and generally became collector's items years after the fact. So when the '04 and '05 new-model intros came and went with no hint of a more functional 'Rod, we began to lose hope.
But we weren't looking at the bike through Harley's eyes. The V-Rod, which hasn't broken any sales records in the States, has quietly become one of the company's top sellers in other countries. More importantly, it attracts riders who aren't traditional H-D customers. Roughly half of V-Rod buyers come from competing brands, almost twice the average for other Motor Company models.
This is key because the V-Rod was bred and built to help bridge the gap between traditional H-D customers and those of Japanese and Euro brands. Milwaukee thinking goes like this: If U.S. riders weaned on high-tech marques aren't willing to forgo technology and function for the traditional charms of Harley ownership, maybe a pumped-up version of H-D's most tech-heavy bike will sway them. Harley is betting such a move will convince even more riders to make the jump.
The VRSCR Street Rod is the marker for that bet. It's a heavily revised version of the V-Rod cruiser series, though visually and technically it's obviously a family member. The 1130cc engine is status quo, but a host of chassis changes gives the Street Rod greater handling performance and more comfort via less-radical ergonomics, which move the bike from the cruiser category into what Harley calls the roadster genre.
It's not the only Harley living at that address; the Sportster 1200R also bears the Roadster name.
Leading the variations is the front end, which features a 43mm inverted fork set much more vertically than the raked-out conventional fork of the A- and B-model V-Rods. Those bikes have a 34-degree steering head that combines with the triple-clamp to kick the fork out 38 degrees from vertical. The Street Rod's 30-degree steering-head angle and more massive (and pretty) triple clamps hold the angle to 32 degrees.
Reducing the fork angle has taken almost an inch from the bike's wheelbase–66.6 inches compared with the V-Rod's 67.5-inch span. New fenders hug staggered 10-spoke wheels, which have been V-Rod options since last fall. These wheels look lighter than the V-Rod's solid disc hoops yet wear the same Dunlop D207 radials.
Up top is a flatter handlebar and a restyled–and more readable–instrument cluster. Complementing the handlebar are footpegs mounted significantly more rearward, which alter the riding position from straight-legged and stretched out to bent-knee and comfortably aggressive. Harley also reconfigured the frame to make room for a larger underseat fuel tank, which holds a full 5.0 gallons in place of the V-Rod's 3.7-gallon tank.
Longer shocks with more travel raise the bike to provide additional cornering clearance, though they also jack up seat height by 2.9 inches versus the low-cut V-Rod's. The seat has been recontoured to suit and is followed by a restyled tailsection.
The Street Rod's liquid-cooled 1130cc 60-degree eight-valve engine, designed in conjunction with Porsche, is exactly what you'll find in the current V-Rod. It uses the same electronic fuel induction with its downdraft intake inhaling through an airbox beneath the dummy tank. But thanks to a less-restrictive exhaust, the Street Rod's powerplant makes about 3 more horsepower than the V-Rod's, bringing the likely rear-wheel bhp number to 115–serious steam.
The exhaust is also more upswept at the rear, giving the bike added cornering clearance. It even sounds throatier than before.
The bike feels faster than the 3 added ponies might suggest, though a lean spot right off idle on the preproduction machine we rode might explain why. There is more of a power spike between idle and, say, 5000 rpm than on the standard V-Rod. From there to the engine's 8500-rpm redline, power is smooth, plentiful and satisfying.
Clutch pull remains heavy compared with non-Harleys, though engagement is progressive and controllable. This bike shifts better than any other V-Rod we've ridden, and nicely by any standard, so we were surprised when Harley reps asked us to ignore its shifting because it hadn't gotten the improvements production-spec bikes will get.
The chassis upgrades add up quickly on the road. H-D's Street Rod offers more responsive steering and much more feedback up front. The V-Rod's tendency to fall into corners abruptly, which you can counter by maintaining power all the way through the bend, is virtually gone.
Added travel allows the suspension to more fully absorb bumps, which enabled engineers to employ spring and damping rates that offer increased compliance and wheel control. V-Rods work better on bumpy roads than many cruisers, but the Street Rod makes them seem almost like hardtails in comparison. By cruiser standards, V-Rods have above-average cornering clearance, but the Street Rod gives you an additional 8 degrees before hard parts begin dragging.
That's a big difference, and the Street Rod employs it with grace, arcing accurately through corners and buttressing your confidence even as you lean to metal-scuffing angles. It's no Duck-hunter, but the Street Rod is plenty sporting for a roomy–yet heavy at 645 pounds–standard-style roadster.
It's more comfortable than the V-Rod, too, even though many cruiser riders believe that bike's stretched-out seating position–with most of a rider's weight on his butt–offers optimum comfort. The Street Rod's more conventional ergos rotate you forward some 30 degrees compared with the V-Rod's, so your legs can absorb more of your weight.
The seat-to-peg span doesn't bend your legs as tightly as a sportbike's, though those sparse of inseam might feel a bit unsteady with the additional 2.9 inches of (unladen) seat height compared with the V-Rod. Leaning forward toward the handlebar reduces the need to counter wind pressure with your arms, and the pedestal-style instruments provide a slight break from windblast. Overall, the Street Rod's standard-style posture lets you relax much more than a V-Rod cruiser's.
The Street Rod's flatter seat provides more flexibility and room to squirm than the V-Rod's scooped saddle, too. Ours had prototype padding, and though we weren't inclined to complain, Harley says the production seat will be even more plush. Passengers don't get much of a break, however; the pillion is petite and slopes slightly rearward.
Not to worry; if a passenger figures prominently in your plans, Harley's accessory division is sure to take care of you. It offers six different saddles and two pillion pads for V-Rods, and the aftermarket makes even more. We're betting this motorcycle will enjoy the same treatment as well.
When it's time to slow down the Street Rod is ready and willing, with powerful, easy-to-modulate Brembo brakes, four-piston calipers up front and 300mm discs all around. This is the first time Milwaukee has embraced the Italian maker's product, and they work wonderfully. And because of the 'Rod's thinner grips, you'll get a firmer grip on the bar when you squeeze that lever.
Riders with small or arthritic hands will wish for an adjustable lever, and they're sure to find the two-button turn-signal system cumbersome when braking and downshifting approaching a turn. Yet overall it's a functional, extraordinarily competent machine to ride day in and day out, and an exciting one to boot.
Target buyers for this machine–a rider coming from another brand–are surely going to have to adjust to the many facets of the Harley Way. There are bazillions of Harley and aftermarket-sourced options to choose from to make the bike look and fit just right, and there's also the higher price Harleys command. Harley had no MSRP at press time, but it's likely to be in the $16,000 range of the other V-Rods, and there's always the additional profit some dealers tack on, at least initially.
Based on the week of back-road and inner-city romping we did on the preproduction Street Rod, we're convinced buyers who do cough up the asking price will get much more than a unique, aesthetically pleasing machine. They'll also get a powerful and highly functional Harley-Davidson.
And that's a combination that will definitely turn a gleam in your eye into a smile on your face.
- 2010 Harley Davidson XR1200
- 2011 Harley-Davidson CVO Ultra Classic Electra Glide – Motorcycle USA
- Harley Davidson FXDSE Dyna Super Glide Screamin Eagle
- 2012 Harley-Davidson Switchback- H-D Lightweight Touring Bike
- 2011 Harley-Davidson XR1200X Review- New Harley-Davidson Motorcycles


text: Lifestyle Pets Quick Hits: Who's Clipping Horses' Tails? Plus: NYC's Wild Parrots These stories are worth a click. By People Staff Published on April 3, 2009 03:35 PM Share Tweet Pin Email These stories are worth a click. * Someone is sneaking into barns in Colorado and cutting off the long hair on horses' tails, leaving owners angry and mystified. – LATimes, LAUnleashed * New York City introduces a bill to protect its thriving colonies of monk parrots. – BrooklynParrot * One in 10 dogs has allergies, mostly to fleas. – CNN * Ed Boks, legendary campaigner for making shelters no kill, is asked to quit his post in Los Angeles. – Pet Connection * A Florida man scrimped on one meal a day after he was laid off so he and his wife could feed their 30 animals (mostly small) that help the woman recover from epileptic seizures. – ZooToo * The Scottish SPCA makes a massive appeal to find the person who tied a dog to a barbed wire fence and left him to starve to death. – BBC * A man in Stuyvesant Town in New York City is charged with beating and breaking most of the ribs on his girlfriends' shiba inu, who was one-tenth his size. – New York Daily News


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"I can't tell anyone, so I tell everyone", wrote Frigyes Karinthy* in one of his poems, lending his voice to all those who hide silently behind their actions before deciding to take up a pen and expose their thoughts. To be able to do this, to "tell everyone", one has to ignore the time-honoured adage: "A secret life is a happy life". But the desire to "have one's say" triumphs over the fear of confronting the world with all its dangers, real or imaginary.
A psychoanalyst who undertakes to go over the course of her professional life and presents the ideas connected with it will, of course, revive certain memories. To be able to speak about herself, the analyst, like everyone else, must overcome some resistance. Analytic practice is based on the ability to listen, to remain attentive to the other. However, an analyst can only listen to those who come to him in search of themselves if he listens to himself. Immersion into the patient's past causes his own past to resurface. By changing the internal narration, the analysis makes it possible to carve out a place for oneself in the world. The psychoanalyst chooses this practice out of a desire to understand, but as the author of the present work points out, at times he must also be able to accept his own inability to understand, or the fact that he may misunderstand. The practice of psychoanalysis gives rise to questions formulated in discussions with colleagues.
* Hungarian author, humorist, poet and philosopher (1887–1938).
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A full service Amazon agency can be an excellent partner to help you grow your business. Whether you are just starting or an experienced Amazon seller, an agency can supply numerous advantages. Throughout this article, you will learn about some of the reasons you should be looking at partnering with a full service Amazon agency.
Reasons To Partner With a Full Service Amazon Agency:
They Know What To Do
A full service agency like ours will be able to guide you along your journey. Unfortunately, selling on Amazon is unique. Therefore, even if you are an experienced e-commerce seller, you will likely fall into several traps selling on Amazon. It would help if you were very careful when selling on Amazon's marketplace because you have to play by their rules. Therefore, you will need to know precisely what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing. A full service agency will know precisely what to do and what to avoid doing. This can be advantageous for any seller because you can avoid the common pitfalls you might otherwise fall for.
It Saves You Time
By hiring an agency, you will be able to cut down a lot of time that you have to spend on the various things involved with selling on Amazon. Selling on Amazon can be very time consuming, no matter how experienced you are. After all, you need to do things like create listings, verify listings, optimize listings, and more. All of these things are likely to take a lot of your time. Being able to save time; not having to do these things on your own can be very beneficial to your business.
Make More Sales
One of the main things that you have to be aware of when it comes to selling on Amazon is positioning your products better to sell well. Selling on Amazon is not going to be the same as selling on your site, nor is it the same as selling on another e-commerce site. Because of this, you will need to focus on the differences to ensure that you are putting your listings in the best position to succeed. This requires a lot of research and brand/listing optimization. Without this, you risk falling behind your competition, and it is doubtful that you will be able to get the most out of your Amazon business.
Deal With Communication
Handling the back and forth between Amazon support can be very difficult. Amazon's customer support likes things a certain way. If you fail to deliver what they want the way they want it, you risk not getting the kind of response you are looking for. This is especially true for cases where there are inauthenticity complaints or issues where you failed to get the reimbursement you were owed. You want to have a professional agency with experience dealing with these things to give yourself the best chance at an agreeable solution.
There are plenty of advantages that you should get when you hire a full service agency. For one, you will be able to get expert advice and expert help. Next, you will be able to save a lot of time not having to do a lot of the time-consuming things on your own. Lastly, it will put you in the best position to make as many sales as possible. Our agency is experienced at assisting professional Amazon sellers like yourself to ensure that you can get the most out of your Amazon business.


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Source: Back to the beginning – The whys and when
I'm researching my tree, both parents are Welsh as far back as I have gone (1820's). I'm researching my birth mothers family also from Wales. My husbands mum also Welsh on her dads side, but from London on her mums side. But his dad is an Anglo Indian back 5 generations – now that is an interesting story.
We would never know how rich our ancestry and history is if we didnt have this interest!
Im looking forward to finding out about your antwerp heritage..


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Here are some tips for eating halal foods and drinks:
- Make sure that the products you buy have ingredients on their labels. If a product doesn't have a label with ingredients, DON'T buy it.
- Always check the ingredients. You might want to print and keep the list of ingredients to avoid, listed in the "Ingredients" section of our web site. If one of these ingredients are found in a product, don't buy it.
- Don't buy any meat products from the supermarket. Try to buy all your meat from a halal meat store.
- Try to avoid fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's, KFC, Subway, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. It might be true that some of their products are okay, but it is better to stay away and be safe.
- If you get a halal/haram list, make sure it is recent. There are many lists in circulation which are outdated and give out incorrect information.
- Be especially cautious in buying the following products: cheese, cheese flavour chips, cakes, cookies, french fries, candies, soups (may contain meat), sauce (may contain meat), margarine, yogurt, etc. If you are not sure about a product, ask us and we'll try to help you the best we can.
- Go through our whole web site and keep coming back often. Join our mailing list
Generally, when dining out, it pays for people to ask the person serving the food as to what's in the recipe. You'd be amazed at the number of dishes that contain alcohol or pork, the latter being very prevalent in Europe and America.
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K-Pop Icon BoA Sets High Expectations With Promise Of New Album, MV Already Filmed In US
BoA announced that she will be releasing a new album this month.
Earlier this year, she released the single "Feedback" which was well received by K-Pop fans. The music video, however, was harshly criticized by longtime BoA fans who felt SM Entertainment didn't invest in giving her the video she deserved.
Fans will be happy to know that she shot the music video for the title song of her upcoming album in the United States, hopefully reflecting a higher budget and more thoughtfulness on the agency's part.
Although BoA has been incredibly busy promoting in Japan, doing magazine interviews, and preparing to perform in the 2020 Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream Concert in Seoul, she is also currently in the middle of working on her album and plans to promote it without taking a break.
Expectations are high for the new music from BoA. Are you excited for more music from the Queen of K-Pop?


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I've been bothered recently by valuations of Big 12 offenses that seem rather shallow in their methodology. For instance, a team that in conference play scored 35.8 ppg (5th in conference) and finished 2nd in the conference in turnover margin (+13) is routinely graded well behind other teams in estimations of the league's best offenses.
I think the error is in the confusion of the purpose and strategy for an offense. Typically if you asked someone, "What is the goal of the offense?" you would hear back "to score as many points as possible."
However, in reality that is merely a strategy for achieving the real objective: to score more points than the other team. If you score 40 points every game and yield 43 are you necessarily a better offense than the one that scores 26 but gives up 23? Maybe, or maybe not.
Consider the success of the Alabama offense against the 09 Texas defense in the Rose Bowl. On average, that offense scored fewer points per game than did the offensive unit from Norman, but their consistency, control of possession, and lack of turnovers had better results against Texas.
Or consider the Spanish National football team with their Tiki-Taka possession game. They don't always have scoring bursts as they did in this last Euro Final, but they yielded zero goals in the elimination rounds primarily as a result of their constant possession of the ball.
Through a quick survey of last year's conference game results we find that the spread passing offenses of the Big 12 are not necessarily having the impact that is guessed.
I was curious about the actual success of the spread passing game in this league after watching and breaking down Iowa State's upset over Oklahoma St. as well as Kansas St.'s early victory over RGIII and the Bears. In both instances running-oriented offense combined with superior possession of the ball resulted in victories over offensive juggernauts.
So I decided to examine every league game that took place last year and measure 6 features:
1). The winning percentage in games of teams with 400 yards of passing offense.
2). The winning percentage in games of teams with 200 yards of rushing offense.
3). The winning percentage of teams who out-rushed their opponent.
4). The winning percentage of teams who out-passed their opponent.
5). The winning percentage of teams who won the turnover margin.
6). The winning percentage of teams who had the greater time of possession.
The results were fascinating...
Teams with 400 yards of passing offense:
Record 10-6, .625
A team reached 400 yards of passing offense only 16 times in the 45 conference games last year. That's 17% of the time. Now, I doubt other conferences even reached 17% but it's interesting to note how rare this was.
While .625 is nothing to sneeze at, I found it remarkable that on 6 occasions last year a team managed to throw for 400 yards and still lose. Though it was very difficult to achieve, the marginal benefit was not as great as I would have guessed.
Teams with 200 yards of rushing offense:
Record 20-10, .667
Not only did teams manage to rush for 200 yards in a game 33% of the time (nearly twice as often as teams managed to throw for 400 yards) but when teams achieved that plateau they had a better winning percentage than the 400 passing yards team!
Had there been 30 games in which a team managed 400 passing yards those teams would have been expected to win 18.75 of those games. Pretty marginal advantage for the 200 rushing yard team but again, a much easier goal to manage.
Teams that out-passed their opponent:
Record 27-18, .600
Obviously throwing for more yards than your opponent is a very solid strategy for achieving victory.
Teams that out-rushed their opponent:
Record 30-15, .667
This isn't a perfect sample size to make these comparisons but it's all we have. And again we find that out-rushing the opponent offers the higher chance of winning the game than does the passing game.
While it would be a large conclusion from small data to conclude that a run-centric offense is better than a passing attack, you certainly couldn't look at this data and conclude that it's worse.
Teams that won the turnover battle:
Record 26-6, .812
On the 32 of 45 occasions in which 1 team turned over the ball more than the other, that team rarely won.
You couldn't quite say that it's impossible to win if you turn the ball over more than the other team, but the word difficult doesn't seem to capture the desperate nature of the predicament either.
I was curious to see if teams that ran the ball more had fewer turnovers and found that the teams with the 4 highest totals of rushing attempts comprised the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best turnover margins. However, the team that ran the ball the least finished first in turnover margin. The outlier team that managed to finish in the top 4 in rushing attempts but last in turnover margin? Our own Longhorns of course.
Top 5 rushing attempts
2. Missouri (415)
4. Baylor (407)
5. Kansas (386)
Top 5 in turnover margin
1. Ok. St. +17 (254 rushing attempts)
3. Baylor +3
4. Missouri +1
5. Iowa St. -3 (6th in rushing attempts)
In my opinion, these numbers have significant predictive qualities for the coming season. Let's go ahead and note that despite running the ball often (thereby limiting TO's) and effectively, Missouri didn't kill it in the TO margins and were unable to win as many league games as this approach would have suggested.
Texas managed to utilize an offense geared towards avoiding TO's and still turned the ball over enough to finish -8 in league play. It should be clear where to lay the blame for this given how well our defense played down the stretch...another microcosm of how horrendous our QB play was last season. If winning the turnover battle results in victory 80% of the time then by merely improving from "all-time worst" to "average" at quarterback Texas could expect to improve by several wins. That's not completing more passes or throwing more touchdowns...that's just from reducing interceptions.
Baylor and Ok. St., inversely, had tremendous QB play. For all their success last year, the abilities of RGIII and Weeden to carry large offensive burdens and avoid turnovers was predominant in their teams' success. You think new starters Nick Florence and Wes Lunt will match that success?
Kansas St.'s offense, which was mostly Collin Klein, was extremely good at avoiding turnovers. He's back, and with more help at the skill positions. For them to match that high TO margin may not be likely, but it's not unreasonable to believe that they'll continue to be successful there and more successful than Baylor or OSU.
Teams that had greater time of possession than their opponent:
Record: 24-21, .533
This is where the impact of the no-huddle/up tempo offense is noted.
For Iowa State or KSU, who sought to control the clock and run the ball, TOP was a good indicator of winning or losing. But Ok. St. routinely stomped teams and then allowed them to run plays and clock while sitting with a comfortable lead.
Because the spread passing game tends to result in points without making a big dent in the play clock, controlling time of possession doesn't have the same impact. Another key factor; the limited time didn't stop OSU from running more than enough plays to drop huge point totals on foes. They could usually run 60 plays in about 20 minutes of possession.
Additional conclusions:
All the data reveals 2 primary points to me:
Quarterbacks who can run spread offenses without racking up turnovers are Kings in this league (or likely any other): Any team that doesn't have an experienced starter is fairly suspect because in a league with this much parity you'd better believe that TO's will make the difference in most of the games.
The following teams have returning starters:
Texas: We'll see how much Ash has grown.
Oklahoma: Landry has coughed it up too much in the past, if he can develop some new safety blankets after Broyles you like OU a lot with him back though.
Texas Tech: Seth Doege. If they improve on D from atrocious to average there could be big trouble from Lubbock.
Geno Smith: He's coming off a 7 INT season, which is very good.
KSU: Collin Klein, arguably the best QB in the conference.
TCU: Pachall also avoided TO's well last year but it's not clear if his defense will be able to force any with all their losses.
Helps clear up the middle of the pack somewhat, no? As for the top, the presumed favorites have some of the following flaws:
WVU: Just lost every defensive player who would have been useful this year.
OU: Turnover-prone QB, still struggling to build a running game to help him.
UT: Long way to go at QB.
KSU: One-man show coming off a somewhat lucky season. If not for their large TO margin last year, their terrible ypp and ypp allowed numbers would have sunk them.
The other takeaway is my suspicion that teams with a system for building consistent running games are more likely to sustain success than others so long as they manage to avoid wetting the bed at QB. Unless I was an Air Raid disciple capable of implementing that system, if I were a Big 12 coach I'd be looking to install some kind of option or power-O offense.
There are statistics behind the classical approach. More valuable than racking up offense? Protecting the ball.


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i don't write much about the cultural difficulties of living japan. for starters, i'm not really certain who reads my blog and want to keep from making wide-sweeping statements about a place i can't fully understand, especially in moments of frustration.
i also don't want to paint a picture of my life that seems depressing or unhopeful, or display a lack of gratitude for the obvious blessings that fill my life.
but i'm still left with the unrelenting truth that living in a foreign land is TOUGH. it is very love/hate, and i've started to feel my heart opening up to writing about what i experience here. perhaps i feel that i've adjusted to life in japan just enough to be able to separate my frustrating experiences from the country and its people as a whole — at least in my writing. or maybe i have come to the place of acceptance that this is my life right now, for as long as only God knows, and that makes me want to write about it.
which leaves me here. wondering how to start sharing, make attempts at turning my keystrokes into brushstrokes and paint a little of my life, albeit lacking, for others to stare at and ponder, imagine, feel. i've been wondering how to begin this, and then yesterday happened. i spent the whole evening going over the day in my mind, and i even dreamt about it. it was a bad day. and then i knew it's where i should start.
and that it's okay for me to share the hard things, the bad days, the tough times. because, although half the time i want to buy a plane ticket home, the other half i spend thinking and praying about how to dig into life here, how to love the people around me, how to use my gifts (those dusty old things i'd forgotten about while birthing and breastfeeding) in order to bring life to japan. and it wasn't like that before.
so even though i haven't even mentioned the word 'youchien' until this sentence, this is part one of my bad day there. and its also part one to a new season of life.
thank you, God.


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Volunteer Interest Form¶
CiviVolunteer provides a public-facing Volunteer Interest Form to allow potential volunteers to express interest in volunteering for your organization without signing up for a specific volunteer opportunity. This is useful if your organization doesn't have any volunteer opportunities listed at the time of the potential volunteer's visit, or if none of them are appropriate for the individual in question.
This form allows you to collect whatever information you choose about potential volunteers from basic contact information to self-assessment of ability in various skill areas.
To see the form, choose Volunteer > Volunteer Interest Form from the menu. The URL for the form looks like this:
To encourage use of the form, link to it from you website, as potential volunteers won't have access to CiviCRM's administrative menu. Without additional configuration, the interest form will look something like this:
As its core, the Volunteer Interest Form is a CiviCRM profile with a fancy URL.
To modify this profile:
- Go to Administer > Customize Data and Screens > Profiles
- Choose the Reserved Profiles tab
- Find the Notify Me of Volunteer Opportunities Profile.
- Click Fields
If you want to add questions within these this profile that do not correspond to any fields already in CiviCRM, then you'll first need to add custom data fields.
Don't change the title of "Notify Me of Volunteer Opportunities" since the profile is reserved and the title is hardcoded.


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History The aggregation from the baker's fungus prion Sup35p reaches the
April 21, 2017
History The aggregation from the baker's fungus prion Sup35p reaches the origin from the transmissible [cytosolic extracts from [research aimed to record the result of specific and/or combinations of protein identified here prone of affecting Sup35p assembly. at the foundation of prominent phenotypic features NSC-639966 that are inherited within a non-Mendelian way and so are transmissible by NSC-639966 cytoduction in the fungus [4]. Three such features are actively examined: [the set up of Sup35p by itself and in the current presence of molecular chaperones in the Hsp40 Hsp70 and Hsp100 households by itself or in concert and showed that molecular chaperones finely tune the aggregation of Sup35p [11]. Indeed while the candida Hsp70 Ssa1p together with its Hsp40 co-chaperones Sis1p or Ydj1p was shown to sequester Sup35p in an ATP-dependent manner in assembly incompetent oligomeric varieties Hsp104p was shown to stimulate Sup35p nucleation and polymerization [11]. We also recorded the practical interplay between chaperones and shown that Ssa1p together with Sis1p or Ydj1p and ATP counteract the assembly stimulatory effect of Hsp104p. Classical proteomic methods including Rabbit polyclonal to Receptor Estrogen alpha.ER-alpha is a nuclear hormone receptor and transcription factor.Regulates gene expression and affects cellular proliferation and differentiation in target tissues.Two splice-variant isoforms have been described.. aggregates purification and immune precipitation 2 gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometric recognition of proteins have been recently used to document the changes in protein manifestation profiles accompanying cell degeneration in a number of neurodegenerative diseases [12]-[16] including prion disease [17]. More recently mass spectrometric centered strategies combining the recognition and quantification of proteins have been used to perform a global quantitative proteomic analysis of a Drosophila model of Parkinson disease [18]. These methods led to the recognition of specific proteins and modified useful proteins households and proteins systems. Efficient analysis of large amounts of uncooked data for peptide and protein recognition and quantification in complex protein mixtures is definitely a challenge in mass spectrometry-based proteomic methods. NSC-639966 Two strategies have been developed to conquer difficulties. In one approach labels are integrated within the peptides and proteins; in the additional no label is used [19]. The use of labels based on the basic principle of stable isotope dilution theory introduces mass tags that can be integrated metabolically chemically or enzymatically. Chemical label strategies include isotope coded affinity tags (ICAT) [20] or isobaric tags such as iTRAQ [21] which involve the use of a derivatization reagent for chemical modification of proteins in a site-specific manner. These labels are chemically identical within the peptides from two (or more) samples and will thus present identical chromatographic properties and ionization efficiency allowing different samples to be analyzed and quantified simultaneously by mass spectrometry. In label-free strategies quantification is acquired by straight correlating the MS sign intensity as well as the comparative or absolute proteins quantity. This is achieved either with a spectral keeping track of strategy using MS/MS obtained data and keeping track of the amount of fragment spectra resulting in protein recognition [22] [23] or by comparative evaluation of precursor ion intensities [24] [25]. Among the label-free techniques the data-independent LC-MSE technique provides accurate mass info on both precursor and their connected fragment ions in low and raised energy setting respectively whilst concurrently documenting the strength of both ion types. This label-free LC-MS technique allows the recognition of proteolytic peptides over a comparatively high powerful range and proteins quantification via normalization from the LC-MS datasets through comparison of the peptide intensities across multiple data sets [25] [26]. An addition to the scanning method includes the molar amount determination for each identified protein using the intensity peptide ratio from a given protein to that of a reference [27]. To identify modulators of the prion Sup35p conversion we have developed a functional proteomic study. First we have fractionated extracts from [strain BL21-CodonPlus in 2×YT media complemented with chloramphenicol (34 μg/ml) and carbenicillin (100 μg/ml) at 30°C. NSC-639966 At OD600?=?0.5-0.7 protein expression was induced with 1 mM IPTG. The bacterial pellets were resuspended in 20 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0 1 M NaCl 20 mM imidazole 5 mM β-mercaptoethanol 5 glycerol supplemented with EDTA-free protease inhibitor cocktail tablets (Complete Roche Diagnostics Gmbh Mannheim Germany). After disruption of the cells by sonication Sup35p was purified and stored in NSC-639966 50.


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It is so fun to see children get excited about helping others.
We designed a little bank that comes with a Vietnamese shuttle cock, a hacky-sack-like toy. You can use this unique method to Involve your children or a Sabbath school class in saving money for missions in Southeast Asia. Learn to kick this hacky-sack like toy, while placing money in the container to send back to ASAP Ministries.
Invite the children to make up fun ways to earn or receive money that can go into the bank. Then send it to:
ASAP Ministries
PO Box 84
Berrien Springs, Michigan, 49103
We will make sure the funds go to help Southeast Asians know more about Jesus.


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In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.
I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students' permission, of course).
This student submission comes from my former student Jason Trejo. His topic, from Precalculus: using Pascal's triangle.
How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?
After some research and interesting observations I came across while examining Pascal's Triangle, I feel like I could create some sort of riddle worksheet that involves the Triangle. Once I have taught my students how to create Pascal's Triangle, I could give my students riddles such as:
- Once you go and strive in prime, belittling your neighbors isn't a crime.
- Students might notice that each number (other than 1) in a prime number row is divisible by that prime number:
- Row 7= 1, 7, 21, 35, 35, 21, 7, 1
- Row 11= 1, 11, 55, 165, 330, 462, 462, 330, 165, 55, 11, 1
- Naturally shallow slides aren't much fun, but with a fib of raunchy, it is this one.
- Given that I have gone over the Fibonacci sequence with my students prior to these riddles, I could include this one. The students should eventually see that if you take shallow diagonals on Pascal's Triangle, the sum of those diagonals are the consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence.
- In a game on blades, you can't be a schmuck with a puck. Be nimble and quick to look for the stick.
- This one is a little more straightforward compared to the last two so hopefully the students will make the connection to notice the hockey stick pattern on the diagonals of Pascal's Triangle. When adding the numbers down a diagonal, then the number to the side and below will be the sum, thus looking like a hockey stick.
- What else is there? What else is in store? What patterns can you find when you know who to root four?
- The "typo" is intentional to give a hint at another pattern the students might notice on Pascal's Triangle. Now I am challenging the students to find more patterns within the Triangle such as:
- Sum of rows are the powers of 2
- Rows relate to the powers of 11 (get murky after the 4th row)
- Counting numbers, triangular numbers, etc.
- The "typo" is intentional to give a hint at another pattern the students might notice on Pascal's Triangle. Now I am challenging the students to find more patterns within the Triangle such as:
- Students might notice that each number (other than 1) in a prime number row is divisible by that prime number:
The purpose of this activity would extend the use of Pascal's triangle from what they already know. I could assign this at the beginning of the lesson and if no one understands what the riddles meant, we could come back as a class and figure them out together once the lesson was done. These riddles could be an assignment of their own if I introduce them after they are very familiar with Pascal's Triangle.
How can this topic be used in students' future courses in mathematics and science?
I would say the primary use most students will get from Pascal's Triangle would be to find the coefficients of binomials since it is much easier when working on binomial expansions, but there are also other ways they can use the Triangle as well. For one, it can be of great use in many courses that involve since it is a visual in seeing the number of combinations there are based on the number of items used. For example, say there are 6 different pieces of candy in a bowl and you need to know how many different ways can you choose 3 candies? Using Pascal's Triangle, we look at the 6th row and the 3rd entry in that row (remembering the top row is Row 0 and the first 1 in each row is Entry 0), we can see that there are 20 possible combinations of 3 different pieces of candy. Other than that, even based on the riddle activity from above, students can use Pascal's Triangle and its various patterns to help remember such things as triangular numbers, powers of 11, etc.
How has this topic appeared in high culture?
Within the past few years, the Shanghai-based design company, Super Nature Design, created the interactive art piece "Lost in Pascal's Triangle". This structure takes inspiration from Pascal's Triangle and allows people to "explore the concept and magnification of the Pascal's Triangle mathematics formula." The following link takes you to the website that gives a bit more information behind the piece and shows how people can interact with the structure through a xylophone-type console: http://www.supernaturedesign.com/work/pascaltriangle#8
Another quick application that can be done through Pascal's Triangle is by seeing the relationship between the Triangle and Sierpinski's triangle (as shown below):
The pattern is by shading in every odd number on Pascal's Triangle, you start creating Sierpinski's triangle which is found in many works of art like these:
It might actually be a small but fun project to have the students create something like this at the beginning of the lesson and then explain the relation of the two special triangles.
Pascal Triangle Information: http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680Su12/Berryman/6690/BerrymanK-Pascals/BerrymanK-Pascals.html
Image of Pascal's Triangle: http://mathforum.org/workshops/usi/pascal/images/pascal.hex2.gif
Lost in Pascal's Triangle: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/images/images_2/andrea/super_nature_design/pascaltriangle01.jpg
Super Nature Design: http://www.supernaturedesign.com/work/pascaltriangle#2
Pascal and Sierpinski Triangle : http://mathforum.org/workshops/usi/pascal/images/sierpinski.pascalfrac.gif
Sierpinski Pyramid: http://www.sierpinskitetrahedron.com/images/sierpinski-tetrahedron-breckenridge.JPG
Sierpinski Art Project: http://fractalfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/sierpkids1.jpg


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The game may have begun Friday night but no conclusion was reached until early Saturday morning as No. 4 Florida Gators softball and the No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils fought back-and-forth hoping to earn a victory in their second game of the 2011 Women's College World Series. ASU (57-6) eventually came away with a 6-5 win over UF (53-11) at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, OK, getting the final say in the matter with a walk-off single in the final frame of the game.
Read the game story and find out about Saturday's contest…after the break!
Senior right-handed pitcher Stephanie Brombacher, who started the contest for Florida, struggled against Arizona State's bats and got in some trouble early due to a pair of miscues. Brombacher threw an illegal pitch to advance a runner to second in the bottom of the first; the baseman came home the next play via a two-out RBI single that gave the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead.
ASU piled on in the second, getting on base with back-to-back bunts. Fielding the second bunt, Brombacher tried to make a play at second but instead threw the ball deep into the outfield, allowing a runner to score and the hitter to advance to third. She would come around one play later on another RBI single, which got Brombacher pulled from the game after an inning of work for freshman RHP Hannah Rogers.
Getting three outs in the second, Rogers was victimized in the third when Sun Devils first baseman Mandy Urfer (2-2, HR, RBI, R, 2 BB) powered a home run to left field to put her team ahead 4-0.
Arizona State P Dallas Escobedo forced the Gators to strand a total of four runners on base in the first three innings and recorded strikeouts on Florida's first seven outs of the game. Sophomore right fielder Brittany Schutte, who was up with runners on first and second in the top of the third, flew out to the warning track and was just about a foot from what would have been a game-tying homer.
Looking to reduce their deficit, the Gators offense got rolling in the fourth. Senior 1B Megan Bush (1-1, 3 BB) walked to lead off the inning, and senior catcher Tiffany DeFelice (1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB) capitalized with a towering two-run homer to left to narrow the Sun Devils' lead to 4-2. Sophomore designated player Ensley Gammel (1-3, R) then got on base with a single up the middle, and sophomore center fielder Michelle Moultrie followed with a two-run bomb of her own to tie the game 4-4.
After Moultrie's homer, Florida continued to wear out Escobedo, placing runners on first and second with two outs and Schutte at the plate. She took advantage of the opportunity by hitting a ball deep into the gap in left center, sending seniors second baseman Aja Paculba and left fielder Kelsey Bruder home. Paculba (1-4, R) scored to put UF ahead 5-4, but Bruder (0-2, 2 BB) was tagged out at the plate on an 8-6-2 relay to end the frame.
ASU would not stay down long. After two hard-hit balls resulted in fly outs, RF Annie Lockwood smacked a homer to right, knotting the contest 5-5 to conclude the fourth.
The Gators threatened again in the sixth but to no avail. Moultrie (3-4, HR, 2 RBI, R) led off the inning with a stand-up double, but head coach Tim Walton chose not to sacrifice her over to third. Florida failed to send her home with Schutte (1-4, RBI) striking out looking to end the frame.
Arizona State responded in similar fashion, advancing a walked batter to second on a wild pitch to start the bottom of the sixth. A pair of walks – one intentional – loaded the bags with two outs, but Rogers got out of the inning unscathed by forcing a ground out.
Hoping to send the game into extra innings, UF started the seventh with an out. Rogers walked the next batter, who was then advanced to third by a single down the right field line. She then forced a grounder to shortstop, and freshman Cheyenne Coyle responded by throwing home to get the lead runner out. Rogers loaded the bases with another walk, providing Lockwood (3-3, HR, 3 RBI, R, 2 BB) with the opportunity to hit a walk-off single on a 2-2 count to advance ASU in the winner's bracket.
With No. 7 California (44-12) and Oklahoma State (42-19) squaring off Saturday at noon, Florida will face the victor in an elimination game a few hours later at 7 p.m. The contest will air live on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.
That was a great game by both teams. However, the most horrible umpiring I've seen in my life. It was unbelievable.
Moultrie is on FIRE – I hope it continues and the Gators offense continues to produce as well! Lets GO GATORS.
Completely with you on the umpiring – it was as if the outside corner (to righties) didn't exist to that ump. Hannah hit that corner several times in the last few innings without getting a single called strike out there.
Meanwhile the inside corner got called if it even smelt like a strike.
I know we pride ourselves on our longball play but some bunting might have made a huge difference for us.
The three early errors is what bothers me the most (Steph's pitching error, Moultrie's fielding error, and Paculba's fielding error). That cost us at least one if not two runs.
Fagan's tough play at the end did not help. She should have been able to get her body in front and knock the ball down. I know it was a very tough play to field but not to knock down with her body.
If two or three of those plays are made we win the game by two or three runs.


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A late winter Nor'easter dumped about 2 feet of snow on us during what the National Weather Service is referring to as the Pi day blizzard. What fun. I was supposed to attend a 4 day weaving workshop but had to cancel and found myself at home with no obligations. Yay.
I pieced and quilted the king sized quilt. More about that another day. I'm currently sewing the binding on by hand. I started a baby sweater and dressed the loom for two baby blankets. Just like the good old days when I was really retired. Now I'm just so busy!
We took turns using the snow blower to clear our driveway and walks. It took 4 complete sweeps. I woke up to this.
Pretty impressive even if it is from the basement window.
Today I got to do one of my favorite things. I cut a cross country ski trail in the woods next to my house. It took 35 minutes to do the first loop, which was pretty hard, but then I could ski it.
I found a new way to take selfies. I was never much of a fan but this is the way to go. I even found a buddy out in the woods.
After an hour of skiing, I made my way home.
I'll hop in the hot tub a little later. That and the cabin are two of the most important things we dig out.


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Site web de l'entreprise
Senior Lighting and Look Development TD
Advertising, Episodic, & Immersive
New York, États-Unis
Offres d'emploi
Senior Lighting and Look Development TD
Senior Lighting and Look Development TD
Description de l'offre d'emploi
Framestore's New York studio is expanding our staff CG team, and are looking for an experienced Senior Lighting and Look Dev TD to join our busy facility working across a diverse range of high-end creative content within our Integrated Advertising division.
We work on award winning highly creative commercials and immersive projects and are looking for a Lighting and Look Development TD who has experience in commercials and/or film, who has a passion for high end VFX, with experience working in a collaborative team atmosphere and someone who has a great reel. If you have broader generalist skills, that is a bonus.
This is a full-time staff role with benefits, and although we are currently working remotely, this position may eventually require at least some onsite work in our NY studio.
CG scene assembly including the correct assets from applicable departments
Lighting shots as briefed by the Visual Effects/CG Supervisor or Sequence Lead
Creating lighting set ups and/or working with current set ups
Creating efficient rendering set ups in order to optimize render farm usage
Scrutinizing the colors and directions of all light sources in the real-world scene and replicating them in CG
Staying on schedule and meeting set deadlines while maintaining the highest levels of quality
Ongoing communication with Production and leads regarding schedules and deadlines
Other duties as required including wrangling assets or elements of a shot from another department to ensure shots are completed to schedule
Pré-requis du poste
Required Skills:
Previous experience with shot look development
An excellent understanding of color-space
A strong knowledge of lighting techniques
A solid knowledge of Nuke, including how to use layers and passes to tweak a shot after it has been rendered
Good knowledge of other disciplines within VFX including; FX Simulation, Modeling and UV mapping, Texturing and Camera Tracking
Excellent organization, communication and interpersonal skills
Creative problem solving and attention to detail
Able to work well under pressure and meet deadlines while maintaining high quality results
Able to work successfully as part of a team as well as independently
Reliable, with good time keeping and the ability to meet deadlines
Flexible and adaptable with the ability to work within a pre-set workflow or pipeline but also have the creativity and problem solving skills to work around issues
A thorough knowledge of Maya
Extensive knowledge of Arnold or a similar production renderer
Knowledge of physically plausible shading techniques
Basic knowledge of Python and/or Mel scripting
A strong understanding of Linux/Unix based operating systems
Desirable Skills:
Experience and knowledge in Modeling and Texturing
Experience with Houdini
Experience with digital paint software such as Photoshop and/or Mari
Experience working with effects elements and volume rendering
Knowledge and experience in other render packages
Framestore is proud to employ extraordinary talent across all genders, races, nationalities, religions, ages, abilities and sexual preferences. We aim to encourage and support all of our current and future employees to achieve their potential. No job applicant will receive less favourable treatment on any basis when applying for a career with us.
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Europe's aviation regulator says Boeing's troubled 737 MAX is safe to fly again, but US' FAA holds back on decision
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has declared Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft safe to fly, announcing on Friday that the grounded aircraft could return to the region's skies before the end of 2020.
The regulator's executive director Patrick Ky told Bloomberg he's satisfied with the changes Boeing has made to the aircraft. He said that, after test flights conducted in September, the EASA is performing final document reviews ahead of a draft airworthiness directive it expects to issue next month.
The official said that will be followed by four weeks of public comment, while the development of a so-called synthetic sensor to add redundancy will take 20 to 24 months.
"Our analysis is showing that this is safe, and the level of safety reached is high enough for us," Ky said. "What we discussed with Boeing is the fact that, with the third sensor, we could reach even higher safety levels."
Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing's main certification body, is holding back from making a decision on allowing the plane to fly. FAA chief Steve Dickson, who flew the MAX late last month, said he was "very comfortable," but the process wasn't complete.Also on rt.com Boeing's troubled 737 MAX could return to service next month – Ryanair
The US plane maker's once best-selling passenger plane, the 737 MAX is now apparently being rebranded as the 737-8, having been grounded for over a year, after two fatal crashes less than six months apart in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. In both cases, new flight control software caused the aircraft to unexpectedly nosedive shortly after takeoff.
The tragic incidents prompted widespread concerns over technical flaws and quality control at Boeing, as well as appropriate training for pilots to fly the 737 MAX. US lawmakers investigating the company last year accused it of concealing information about the aircraft from regulators during the approval process.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section


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Arriving in the Philippines was a much better experience for us this time. We flew into Clark Airbase in Pampanga province. The airport is small. There isn't even an enclosed walkway from the plane to the terminal. You have to do it the old old fashioned way and walk down a flight of portable stairs onto the tarmac and then walk to the terminal.
Coming down those stairs reminded me of the flights I've taken into military bases in Kuwait and the US, like Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, Biggs Army Air Field in Texas, Balad in Iraq, and the landing area for military flights at Kuwait International, near Camp Wolf. I don't think that last one had any special name. It's not really surprising that the disembarking process at Clark reminded me of those places, though, because Clark Air Base used to be a US Air Force installation. The buildings all had that cheap US military look and feel to them, but at least they were clean and in good repair, which is more than I can say for NAIA in Manila. That place is a dump. (Can you feel the love?)
It didn't take long before I was reminded that I was in fact in the Philippines again. Before I had even made it past the exit doors I was assaulted by a barrage of "Hey, sir! Hey, sir! Taxi sir?!" Sometimes there's so many of them, or they're so insistent, that it's hard to ignore them, but ignoring them is generally what I try to do. One thing I've discovered about the Philippines from past trips is that if you're a foreigner, you will be ripped off if you don't have a local to do your shopping for you. That doesn't apply to major stores or franchise-type grocery stores, because they have set prices, but any stall or stand in the street is likely to try to stick you for extra cash. Filipinos have the mentality that if you're from overseas you must have money to waste. One example of that I can give is a guy that tried to charge me 50 PHP for a pack of Marlboros, when the 7-11 around the corner was only charging 38. Who's that guy trying to fool?
Leaving Clark Airbase was an event in itself. My wife's parents met us at the exit area for the airport and after the formalities we moved around to the side of the building to try to get a taxi to their house in Porac, Pampanga province. At any airport you're likely to get ripped off on cab fare, but I was shocked at the price. We weren't even going that far from the airport, but the driver wanted 650 PHP (only 13.36 USD but very very high for the Philippines). My wife's mom tried to haggle with the taxi coordinator, but it wasn't working. Even so, she kept badgering the poor guy until the cab actually arrived. Neither one of them wanted to budge and in the end we wound up paying the full 650 PHP. At least the taxi justified the price. It was the size of a Jeepney, but closed in like an FX, and the air conditioning was cold. There was plenty of room for everyone and our luggage too.
The ride fromt he airport to my in-law's house was a lot different from riding from NAIA to their house in Antipolo. Pampanga is a provincial area, so it had more of a country feel to it. Also, it looked a lot more poor than areas closer to Manila, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We went through part of Angeles City and it reminded me of a big Antipolo.
The apartment we stayed at is in a residential area in Porac. I think the neighborhood is called Santa Cruz. The nearest city area is Angeles City. It has a mall, a movie theater, McDonald's, Jollibee, and the typical convenience stores, food stalls, and general goods stores. Also, there are plenty of street vendors selling everything from fruit to whole roasted chickens.


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Early Birds is a before-school club open from 8.00am for pupils of Hailey C of E Primary School. Various activities are on offer at the club including craft, drawing, ICT games, board games, table tennis, lego, puzzles and outdoor games.
Our After School Club called After Owls is open to pupils of Hailey C of E Primary School. Clubs vary each day but include a range of indoor and outdoor activities including craft, drawing, ICT games, board games, table tennis, lego, puzzles and games and there are additional clubs for sports including football and gymnastics. Please see our website for more details of which activities run on which days.
Hailey C of E Primary School is a small, friendly Church of England school with just over one hundred children which provides a perfect setting for children to enter more formal schooling. Our nursery and reception children have the chance to learn through structured play, with individual assessment of learning needs. All our 3, 4 and 5 year olds are taught by an experienced, qualified teacher supported by experienced keyworkers. Activities are developed according to the child's stage of development, and not simply their age, and children benefit from a wide range of school resources. We have created a family atmosphere, which is upheld by a dedicated staff team who put the interests of the individual child at the centre of everything they do. Prospective parents and children are warmly invited to visit us.
The high quality of provision was recognised in our Ofsted Inspection in January 2016 which judged the school to be Good and in our 2016 SIAMS Church of England Inspection which judged our school to be Outstanding.
"Pupils are proud to be members of the school and confidently state that learning at Hailey C of E Primary School is fun!" Ofsted Inspection Report, January 2016 .


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Malaysia's Michael Tan is one of those players quietly earning a strong local reputation without the high-profile finished to back it up. Recently, he made Top 16 at Grand Prix - Singapore last year. That same event saw Singapore's Royce Chai hit the Top 8. Finally Tan has a chance for revenge. Chai enjoys a bit of celebrity himself, known as "The Tourist" after he spent Worlds taking photos of himself with his opponents.
Tan leapt to the offensive immediately. Mesmeric Fiend stole Krosan Archer, leaving Patriarch's Desire behind. He then suited up with Ghostly Wings and started serving. Nantuko Disciple gave Chai pause, but he wanted that Krosan Archer back. Down came the Desire, and Tan pitched to rescue it. When the Fiend came back, it stole Chai's best hope: Narcissism.
Chai sighed and made the Archer. Tan overtrumped with Grotesque Hybrid. Chai was backed into a corner. He was forced to use and reuse his Acorn Harvest to make Tan think he was planning something. Tan dropped him to six with the Hybrid. Chai counterattacked, but Tan still stood at fifteen. He tried a Cephalid Scout to block, but Seton's Desire on the Fiend meant he was taking too much damage, too fast. He soon succumbed.
Tan 1 - Chai 0
Chai kicked off the second with Basking Rootwalla. It hit twice, then fell to Afflict. He was clearly short on offense, as he brought it back with Morgue Theft. Tan meanwhile got his Deep Analysis on, and answered Narcissism by tapping out for Dirty Wererat and Wild Mongrel. He was already at eleven. He had to play it safe.
Chai put Patriarch's Desire on the dog. Tan kept it alive for a turn with a pitch. Then he added Zombie Assassin to his team. Stupefying Touch took away Dirty Wererat's regeneration, but again Tan pitched to keep it active for a turn. Chai added Werebear, trying to keep up.
Tan continued to outstrip him. Cartographer and Hydromorph Guardian made sure he'd have ample defenders. Zombie Assassin ate the Rootwalla after Chai pitched to save it. Tan hit back, and added Hydromorph Gull to his team. Chai forced him to blow up his Guardian to stop a Demise on it.
Here Chai made a mistake. He could have put Ghostly Wings on the Gull and pitched a card to bounce it. Then the way would be clear for his Werebear. He could then sacrifice Narcissism, getting Threshold, then use his Centaur Garden for the win. Instead he attacked with the Bear, and discarded both cards to kill the Gull and hit threshold.
Tan made him sad with a Faceless Butcher. Chai topdecked Krosan Archer to stay in the game. Attacking was an impossibility for Tan. He reused Deep Analysis to find more attackers. Mesmeric Fiend forced out Elephant Ambush, then Tan used Cultural Exchange to take the token and Archer, giving up his Fiend and Cartographer.
Time was called. Both players hadn't noticed their overly cautious pace of play. Chai tried a last desperate attack to win the game and earn a draw, but Tan blunted it easily. He was thus wide open, and Tan was able to win handily.
Final Result: Michael Tan defeats Royce Chai 2-0


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The executive Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello has been alleged to have officially divorced his 3rd Wife, Hafiza. This was confirmed few days ago in a remark he made, while receiving an award of honour from the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS).
According to reports, the Executive Governor of the state, Governor Yahaya Bello had appreciated his wives, Hajiya. Barr. Amina Yahaya Bello, and the First Lady HE, Hajiya Rashida Bello but left out Hafiza, which confirmed that he has already divorced her.
However, Governor Yahaya was honoured with the award for the Most Gender Sensitive Governor of the Year. According to the Organisers of the Awards and other Executive Members of National Council of Women Societies(NCWS), they stated that the nomination and recognition of Gov. Yahaya Bello was in view of his purposeful and conscious effort by his administration in the continuous appointment of women into sensitive and strategic offices in the leadership structure of Kogi state.
Governor Bello expressed gratitude to the Organisers of the award event and thanked them for their reputable and notable honour. However, several reactions have continue to float on several news platforms, calling on ladies to engage the race for a 3rd and 4th wife for the Governor of Kogi state, as he remains ever young and smashing.


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The Alpine Region Gitschberg Jochtal comprises the villages Maranza, Rio di Pusteria, Spinga, Rodengo, Valles and Vandoies with the Val di Fundres Valley. An ideal excursion destination for hikers and sports and nature lovers, as well as those looking for adventures.
In summer numerous huts and pastures (more than 30) and hiking paths of all levels of difficulty provide ideal prerequisites for nature lovers. The traditional Altafossa Valley and the vast Rodengo Pasture, the Gitschberg or the high alpine hiking paths in the Fundres Valley – each and everyone an adventure. The cable car facilities at Jochtal and Gitschberg bring you up to high altitudes where alpine huts and numerous hiking options await you. A breathtaking view of more than 500 mountain peaks of the Dolomites, the Sarentino Alps, the Stubai Alps, the Zillertal Alps and a crystal clear view all the way to the Ortles Mountain Group.
Take advantage of the AlmenCard, which you can get free of charge from your host for the duration of your stay. The AlmenCard offers 17 inclusive services like bus journeys, the use of the cable cars, holiday programme and similar.
In winter, the Gitschberg and Jochtal ski resorts offer numerous perfectly groomed slopes. Cross-country skiers find the ideal prerequisites on the Rodengo Pasture or in the Altafossa Valley. Water fans find everything they long for in the Maranza Alpine Pool. A shopping excursion to Rio di Pusteria with the cable cars or a visit of the nearby town of Bressanone are as interesting as a visit of the Christmas Market or even night sledging.


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Images of the throwback laptop surfaced in the middle of September. Now we have the official hardware specifications:
|Screen size:
|14 inches with Touch
|Screen resolution:
|1,920 x 1,080
|Screen aspect ratio:
|Intel Core i7-7500U
|Nvidia GeForce 940MX
|16GB DDR4 @ 2,133MHz
|512GB Samsung NVMe PCI Express 3.0 SSD
|Intel Dual-Band Wireless AC 8265 (up to 867Mbps)
Bluetooth 4.1
|1x gigabit Ethernet
3x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
1x Thunderbolt 3 Type-C
1x HDMI
1x SD card reader
|2x Dolby Advanced Audio speakers
|720p HD webcam
Dual array microphones
|24WH battery promising up to 18 hours
|13.25 x 9.15 x 0.79 inches
|Starting at 3.48 pounds
|Operating system:
|Windows 10 Pro
|Starting price:
As the specifications show, there's nothing "retro" going on inside this limited-edition laptop. Instead, the rewind button was pressed on the aesthetics, such as multiple status LEDs, a backlit 7-row keyboard, dedicated volume buttons, a colorful logo, and a blue Enter key. But don't worry: this model won't sport the same thick, blocky design used on the original 700C model.
According to Lenovo, the 700C's design was inspired by the traditional Japanese bento box. By today's standards, it was incredibly thick, weighing around six pounds. The components included an Intel 386 processor clocked at 25MHz, between 4MB and 16MB of memory, a hard drive with roughly 80MB of space, a 9.5-inch LCD screen with a 640 x 480 resolution, and a 3.5-inch disk drive. MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 were two operating system choices.
On the pricing front, you'll be getting more for your money with the ThinkPad Anniversary Edition 25. The original ThinkPad 700C was marketed by IBM before the company sold its personal computer business to Lenovo in 2005. It cost around $2,375 in 1992, so when you take inflation into consideration, that's roughly $4,156 in 2017. By contrast, this new special edition of the ThinkPad T470 has a starting price of $1,899. Overall, IBM and Lenovo have pushed around 130 million units since the ThinkPad brand emerged in the early 1990s.
Despite its "retro" feel, the ThinkPad Anniversary Edition 25 has everything you need for modern computing: a seventh-generation Intel Core processor, a discrete graphics chip to handle graphics-intensive applications, and speedy SSD storage. It even has a Thunderbolt 3 port pushing data transfers at up to 40Gbps for daisy-chaining external displays, adding peripherals, external storage, and more. What you won't find here is a built-in 3.5-inch disk drive, but instead a fingerprint scanner mounted to the right of the keyboard.
You can purchase the ThinkPad Anniversary Edition 25 laptop now for a starting price of $1,899. It will be available in limited quantities in select countries, so grab one now before they're gone for good!
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In the week since the last American troops left Iraq, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an arrest warrant for the country's highest-ranking Sunni official, threatened to exclude the rival sect's main political party from his government and warned that "rivers of blood" would flow if Sunnis seek an autonomous region.
The moves confirmed what many longtime observers of Iraqi politics have suspected since al-Maliki came to office more than five years ago – that he has an authoritarian streak and beneath his tireless rhetoric about national unity is essentially a sectarian politician.
As a result, the veneer of sectarian unity that the United States tried to paint over Iraq's leadership throughout a 9-year presence is quickly being washed away after the departure of American forces.
The first casualty could be the unity government that al-Maliki heads, uneasily combining his powerful Shiite alliance with a Sunni-backed bloc. It took nine months after Iraq's elections in March last year to put it together, under heavy American pressure to include the Sunnis, but al-Maliki never liked it and is increasingly saying he wants a government based on the majority in parliament, which would squeeze out Sunnis.
And al-Maliki has made clear he intends keep a strong grip heading that government.
"I have been working here for six years and I will be here for another six," al-Maliki told a news conference last week.
He has been accruing power since rising to his post in 2006 in a process that has accelerated since the new government was formed a year ago. He effectively runs the Defense and Interior Ministries and has created a separate security force that answers to him alone. He has bypassed parliament to install Shiite allies in key positions, and he has used his control over state funds and resources to gain leverage with the judiciary and oversight agencies like the anti-graft Integrity Commission.
The one risk al-Maliki runs is that he will disillusion Shiite parties making up the bulk of his government, some of which are longtime political rivals. On Monday, a lawmaker in the powerful party of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr floated the idea of holding new elections to resolve the political turmoil. Bahaa al-Aaraji quickly backed off the idea, saying it was just his personal opinion, but his comment underlined how Shiite rivals could turn on the prime minister.
Nevertheless, for the moment, Shiite parties are strongly backing al-Maliki, unified by their common fear that Sunnis want to take back power that their minority community lost with the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.
Last week, the Shiite bloc issued a statement saying rulings of the judiciary must be adhered to, language that was seen as a show of support for al-Maliki's arrest warrant against Sunni Vice President and longtime critic Tariq al-Hashemi.
Al-Maliki accuses al-Hashemi of organizing assassinations, and the warrant has sparked a political crisis. Al-Hashemi denied the charges. The Iraqiya bloc to which he belongs is boycotting parliament, complaining that al-Maliki does not share power, and it is threatening to pull out of the unity government.
The prime minister also asked parliament to issue a vote of no-confidence in Iraqiya lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq in what could be a prelude to removing or prosecuting him. Al-Mutlaq, a deputy prime minister, branded al-Maliki a dictator in a TV interview while the Shiite leader was visiting Washington this month.
For Sunnis, the moves stoke fears that the majority Shiites want to exclude them from politics and completely dominate the country. They also worry that increasing Shiite power will translate into greater influence from neighboring, Shiite-led Iran. On Sunday, Iran's armed forces chief of staff Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said his country was ready to expand its military, defense and security relations with Iraq now that the Americans have left, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA.
Al-Maliki, meanwhile, has been able to exploit Shiite fears of a Sunni resurgence to keep his coalition's backing while he expands his personal role. Helping him is the lack of any credible Shiite rival, with former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and former vice president Adil Abdel-Mahdi viewed as too weak to take his job. Also, parliament has been unable to exercise full oversight because it is fractured and deeply divided on sectarian and ethnic lines.
His holding of the defense and interior portfolios gives him direct power over the military and police, though he recently appointed a Sunni ally as acting defense minister.
He has sole control over security forces deployed in Baghdad, creating the Baghdad Operations Command, an elite outfit that is independent from the ministries. The force was created during the height of violence several years ago and was meant to be temporary, but he has kept it in place.
The command, according to aides familiar with the inner workings of al-Maliki's office, takes its orders exclusively from the prime minister and reports to him alone. The commander of the Baghdad-based forces, his deputy and chief of staff are all Shiites loyal to the prime minister, said the aides.
His control over funds for assigning security details for judges, for example, or offering them safe housing out of militants' reach and inside Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone has meant that many senior judges became beholden to al-Maliki, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
At the same time, he has worked to defend his Shiite allies against corruption allegations that he consistently dismisses as "media talk." This month, a senior Shiite official from the Baghdad provincial council, Saber al-Issawi, was summoned for questioning by parliament on corruption allegations, but the probe was soon halted and the entire case was shelved.
"Al-Maliki is willing to sacrifice government partners like the Sunnis and the Kurds, but not Shiite allies," said one aide.
The prime minister appears increasingly willing to dump the unity government by pushing out the Iraqiya bloc, threatening that ministers who decide to stay away from Cabinet meetings will be foregoing their jobs as a result.
His aides also speak of him running for a third term when his current 4-year stint ends in 2014, despite his earlier promises that he would not run again.
But the greater fear is that al-Maliki's offensive on the Sunni politicians could re-ignite the sectarian violence that tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007. Without the Americans acting as a buffer between Sunnis and Shiites, an explosion of violence now could be even worse.
"The man is becoming more authoritarian, because he believes the coalition government is uncomfortable for him," said political analyst Kadhum al-Muqdadi. "The prime minister should ideally be for all Iraqis, not just for his sect."
Source: The AP
Hendawi reported from Cairo.


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Suburban transmission is awesome!
5 star rating found on Google from CEP.
Suburban Transmissions is a full-service Maryland transmission service repair shop serving Laurel, Howard County, Columbia, Fulton, Elk Ridge, Savage, and surrounding areas. We specialize in computer-controlled diagnostics, rebuilding, and replacement. Stop by our shop at 9160 Bursa Road, Laurel, Howard County MD 20723 or give us a call at (240) 841-0370 for all your transmission problems.