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Gold Leopard On Pink Apparel Fabric
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Sew together something glamorous and chic with a hint of sweet using Gold Leopard On Pink Apparel Fabric! This fun fabric is designed with a very light-pink background printed with leopard print markings over top in matte black and shimmery gold. Use this bold, patterned fabric to make stylish apparel and accessories!
- Width: 44" - 45"
- Weight: Lightweight
- Country Of Origin: Pakistan
- Content: 100% Cotton
- Care: Machine Wash, Cold; Tumble Dry, Low; Use Cool Iron.
- Flammability Note: Not For Sleepwear
Available in 1-yard increments. Average bolt size is approximately 7 yards. Price displayed is for 1-yard. Enter the total number of yards you want to order.
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Title: The Annotated sense and Sensibility
Authors: Jane Austen; David Shapard (Ed.)
Genre: fiction (classic, with annotations)
Length: 709 pages
Published: 1811 (2011 for this specific edition)
Source: personal collection
Rating: 5/5
Reason for Reading: Firstly, this year marks the 200th anniversary of the original publication of Sense and Sensibility, Austen's first published work. Secondly, it just so happened that the annotated edition of this book was also released this year. Therefore, I had multiple reasons to read it!
Summary (from Goodreads):
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
My Thoughts: This is either my third or fourth reading of this book, but it was my first experience with the annotated edition. (I have read The Annotated P & P though.) Annotations aside, it never ceases to amaze me how much of my favorite books go forgotten by me between readings. I have this problem with Harry Potter, too. I know that the reason is because of the movies. Sense and Sensibility is a movie I watched many times before I read the book, but the rest of Austen's books have movie versions I rarely watch, so the story stays truer in my mind.
As with The Annotated P & P, I really appreciated the notes. It cannot be easy deciding what deserves further explanation in some parts and what doesn't. I think the biggest difference the notes made to me were in the area of Elinor and Lucy's relationship. I had not really thought Lucy told Elinor of her engagement to Edward because she was marking her territory–it was a sort of, "Step off, bitch!" situation, according to Shapard. I, perhaps naively, simply thought that Lucy wanted to brag and boast, and picked Elinor to confide in because she was the more friendly sister of the two. I never contemplated why she chose that moment in time to tell of her secret. She easily could have been feeling him slipping away, not necessarily to anyone in particular, and therefore wanted to tell someone beside her sister so that she could further hold him to the engagement if he tried to squirm away.
Also, I was a little surprise as to how much time the ending took. Elinor and Edward get engaged with a couple chapters left, and then they're married for almost a whole year before Marianne marries Colonel Brandon. I would not have realized that there was a whole year between those events if it hadn't been for Shapard's notes and timeline for the whole book.
I still have misgivings towards Willoughby. I feel much like Elinor in regards to him. I feel sorry for him, but he was quite in the wrong at the same time. The notations made me see a little clearer how much of his explanation to Elinor was to make himself look better than he was before revealing the whole story. So that makes me lean a little towards the "he's just plain bad" side.
But I still love Mr. Palmer 🙂
"I did not know I contradicted anyone in calling your mother ill-bred." (p310)
He's very comical. (I love Hugh Laurie as Mr. Palmer in the 1995 movie.)

subset: commoncrawl


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The Center for the Study of Global Change and IU Press are co-sponsoring a book release reception for Framing the Global. This event will also kick off the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Center fo the Study of Global Change. The reception takes place November 3 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union. Please RSVP to email@example.com by October 27.
Framing the Global explores new and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of global issues. Essays are framed around the entry points or key concepts that have emerged in each contributor's engagement with global studies in the course of empirical research, offering a conceptual toolkit for global research in the 21st century. Learn more about the book on our website.


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How cool is it?
It's SO cool the following things have been reported on social media:
– Some guy was seen cleaning the snow off his windshield with a hockey stick.
– Some other guy was seen shovelling snow off his sidewalk with a lawn chair.
No fried brains here. Just frozen ones.
In other cold related news, the Calgary Zoo had to cancel their penguin walk yesterday, because king penguins get stressed out in extreme temperatures. Well, don't we all.
The sun was shining at our house today, but the air is bitterly cold. Like -35 to -40 C depending on where you are and how much wind there is and what snowbank you're trying to get your vehicle out of. This is when the snow gets crunchy and squeaky and hard as rock if you let it get packed.
Better temperatures are on the way though, so we can slowly thaw out next week.
We are almost at the halfway mark for January!
Look how happy I am about that.


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Contact us, we are happy to answer your questions!
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Grove Farm is a cattle livestock breeding and free-range chicken growing farm in Knighton, Wales.
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To produce renewable heat, the Grove Farm had biomass boilers installed on site. The business was growing, but so were energy costs, which lead the farm owners to research technologies that provide both renewable heat and energy. Volter 40 Indoor Combined Heat and Power plant was selected, because it offers long-term reliability and automation, allowing the farm owners to focus on their core business.
Cutting costs with a combination of Volter's CHP and woodchip pre-treatment system
Two Volter 40 Indoors are generating heat for a wood drying process, working together with a chip pre-treatment system to dry and screen the woodchip. Due to this fully automated drying process, the unscreened and wet chip can be bought at a lower cost. The CHPs are producing electricity for the farm's own needs, reducing energy costs and excess is sold into the grid.
This installation was done by Volter's distributor in the UK, Arbor Heat and Power.
Solution: Volter 40 Indoor
Fuel: Woodchips Electric power: 40 kW Heating power: 100 + 20 kW
One Volter 40 Indoor produces enough electricity and heat for the annual needs of a farm, an entire small housing estate or small business. Our plants can be scaled up to multi-unit installations in order to meet the needs of growing energy demand across diverse applications. Electricity is produced by gasifying biomass. Waste heat from the process can be used in hydronic underfloor heating, preheating of air-conditioning or domestic water, to name a few.More about Volter 40 Indoor
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New interview on Jinxiboo.com
Posted on 12/5/09
I have a new interview that I'm happy to announce on Jinxi's new website,Jinxi started out as a client but now is a really good friend of mine, she is an amazing person,any one that meets her says she is the nicest person that they have ever met,and trust me it's true! She has an awesome website at www.jinxiboo.com. Check out my interview using this link http://www.jinxiboo.com/blog/2009/12/5/jinxis-interview-with-tattoo-artist-mike-devries.html


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This easy to install DVR boasts 5MP recording capabilities producing outstanding high definition images that bring everything back to life. Get a smartphone, table or computer and get real-time monitoring of your home and office no matter where you are. With the free and easy-to-use app, remote monitoring can be as easy as ABC.
While working with cameras, every unexpected movements that thrown into the cameras eye will be detected and recorded. Full HD VGA and HDMI Outputs.
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Recently I was searching for a bird identification. At the time I came across the Lesser Goldfinch. Even though they have a much smaller range than our American Goldfinches there are 2 distinct variations.
Digging into my archives I knew there were some untouched raw files I've never processed. They turned out to be the 'western' variation. Looking at a map of the 'eastern' versions habitat I have a hard time finding where they separate.
Both species only live in the deep southwestern part of the USA. The eastern variation has a much darker head and chest.


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Bring in the Midwife!November 12th, 2007
Midwives resist standardized care
By Robyn Fiedler
With one hand pressed against her protruding stomach, Sabrina Dodge rests on a couch in Monica Daniel's living room. Lifting up her large sweater without reservation, she continues talking about the terrible cab services in Ithaca.
Dodge is in her sixth month of pregnancy and has opted to have her baby naturally with the aid of a midwife. This is her fifth visit to Daniel, a home-birth midwife who has been practicing at her home office in Ithaca for 14 years.
Daniel takes her blood pressure, feels her rotund belly and then measures from the pubic bone to the top of the baby. Twenty-eight centimeters. The measurement is right on track.
"I spend a lot of time getting a three-dimensional feel of the baby because the measurement is very limited," Monica says as she massages Dodge's tummy. She locates the feet and then the head of the baby. As she touches the baby's head, she feels a kick.
Midwifery is an ancient practice that has managed to survive through the development of modern medicine. The role of midwives in America has evolved over time, becoming increasingly more scientific and less spiritual. But while some hail the more rigorous training of today's nurse midwives, others fear traditional midwifery is becoming a casualty of the "medicalization" of pregnancy.
Daniel argues that midwifery is an art form – a specialty and a profession that has survived despite the advent of new technologies and medicines. Midwives are autonomous practitioners who are responsible for assisting women through a natural childbirth. They counsel women, check for complications, carry out emergency procedures and deliver babies.
"It's about choice," said Mary Yglesia, a mother of three children, all delivered by a midwife. "Women should have the ability to choose where they want to birth their child and have the ability to have excellent care providers whatever their choice may be."
When a woman contacts Daniel for a home birth, her options are almost unlimited as far as where and how she'd like to have her baby. Daniel makes sure everything is just as the woman wants.
"My job, as I see it, is to give people information, encourage them to study, research and discover what is really good for them," Daniel says. "Everybody has their unique needs."
Kate Finn, another practicing midwife, had her first baby as a water-birth in a tub outside. "That tells you the breadth of how far you can go with birth, if you're making your own choices about it," Finn said.
Although 80 percent of the world's mothers have their babies delivered into the hands of a midwife, the practice is rarer in the United States. Midwives attended 8 percent of deliveries in the United States in 2004. Only 1 percent of births were at home.
History of midwifery
In colonial America, midwives attended the majority of births. It was considered indecent for men to be present; thus few doctors caught babies. During this time, pregnancy and birth were risky because of a lack of medical procedures to deal with complications. Prior to the 19th century, women faced birth not with joy and anticipation, but with fear of death and eternal judgment.
As one of the few medical practices dominated by women, midwifery wasn't a highly regarded profession in the 18th century. In 1716, New York City began licensing midwives, making them civil servants. At this time a division between surgeons and midwives developed, as doctors began to assert that their modern scientific processes were better for mothers and infants. Midwives relied on an education through apprenticeship and tutoring courses. In response to the accusation that midwives weren't well educated, Dr. William Shippen opened the first formal training for midwives in Philadelphia in 1765. Regardless, high-class families soon began to turn to physicians for what they believed would be a healthier birth.
By the 1900s, physicians were attending about half the nation's births, including all births to middle- and upper-class women. Midwives took care of women who could not afford a doctor. Soon pregnancy was no longer considered frightening to women, with the possibility of a painless birth. Dr. Joseph DeLee, the author of a frequently used obstetric textbook of the time, proposed a sequence of medical interventions designed to save women from the "evils" that are "natural to birth." Thus, it became routine, almost relied upon, for women to be drugged when giving birth. The term "twilight sleep," which refers to the combination of analgesia and amnesia produced by a mixture of morphine and scopolamine given by a hypodermic injection, was coined in 1914.
In response to the previous 20 years, nurse-midwifery — midwives with a formalized education in nursing — began to dominate the field in the 1920s.
"Nurse-midwives had to become subservient to the medical model, which created highly professionalized, midwifery educational programs in order to gain legitimacy," said Finn.
It was then that Stephen and Ina May Gaskin founded "the Farm" in Summerville, Tenn., a community focused on respect for the Earth and one of the first out-of-hospital birth centers in the U.S.
Ina May Gaskin was one of the first direct-entry midwives. Direct-entry midwives don't have a formal education in nursing or midwifery but rather learn through self-study, apprenticeship, midwifery schools or university-based programs. A direct-entry midwife, also known as a lay midwife and considered a Certified Professional Midwife, takes a more traditional and spiritual approach towards birth.
The Farm is an example of the country's movement toward deinstitutionalization and deviance from medicine. A desire to escape what some perceived as the desensitizing environment of the hospital emerged alongside a string of legal conflicts between the medical profession and the women's movement.
A revival of midwifery occurred in the 1970s, when a crisis in health care was accompanied by considerable optimism about the possibilities for reform. Women began rejecting the "twilight sleep" and attending births of their friends.
In 1979, a national study discovered lingering behavior and motor deficits in children whose mothers had received anesthesia in large doses of analgesics. The Food and Drug Administration convened a special meeting, and the press attention increased the interest in natural childbirth and homebirth.
The Opposition
But some believe that direct-entry midwives are not qualified to handle physical complications that may arise during pregnancy and childbirth, including fetal distress, failure to progress, postpartum hemorrhaging and ruptured uterus.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is a professional association of medical doctors specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in the U.S. ACOG has policies against lay midwifery in particular.
"Ongoing surveillance of the mother and fetus is essential because serious intrapartum complications may arise with little or no warning even in low risk pregnancies," says ACOG's Statement of Policy regarding out-of-hospital births in the United States. "ACOG believes that the hospital, including a birthing center within a hospital complex, that conforms to the standards outlined by American Academy of Pediatrics and ACOG, is the safest setting for labor, delivery and the immediate postpartum period."
A board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, a general pediatrician, advanced-practice nurses, a radiologist, a clinical pathologist and anesthesia personnel should be available during childbirth for any emergency complication, according ACOG. The only setting in which most of these professionals are found is within the hospital.
But as Finn explains it, most obstetricians are direct competitors of midwives and so, often disagree with home birth. With a different standard of practice, they are hesitant to support midwifery.
"[Direct-entry programs are] focused on birth as a natural, normal phenomenon," Finn said. "This is critical because when you see birth in a home setting, you see birth in a wide variety of normal experiences. In a hospital setting it's medically managed; even if it's midwifery care, it's under the approval of medically directed guidelines. So they'd have less tolerance for what I would consider variations of normal."
The New York State Midwifery Practice Act, which was changed in 1992, made New York one of the first states to license direct-entry midwives and nurse midwives under the same law and the same midwifery board. New York won't recognize the Certified Professional Midwife credential as worthy for a license, regardless of a midwife's experience.
CPMs received cease and desist orders and practicing midwifery became a felony for these women who didn't have formal training in nursing. In response, many midwives left the state.
The Advocates
Dr. William Saks is the only physician in the area that works with midwives, at Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls, NY.
"Women deserve to have a natural birth," Saks said in an e-mail interview. "As long as they and the fetus are healthy there is no reason for medical intervention. Anything can happen during a delivery whether it is at home, the birth center, hospital, car, etc. … These people understand the risks and the consequences."
"The question is," continued Saks, "Is modern medicine overstepping its bounds? Why subject 90 to 95 percent of all births that will be normal to interventive medicine?"
In 2000, Ken Johnson and Betty Anne Daviss conducted a study that screened all homebirth midwives in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which was published in British Medical Journal. Over five thousand CPMs sent in reports of births. The results showed that only three percent of homebirths resulted in ceasarian. Only 5 to 6 percent had to be transported to the hospital. In 2000 1 percent of babies died during homebirths, and there were no maternal fatalities.
The Future
For some, the uncertain future of midwifery is troubling.
"If you eliminate the CPM or the licensed midwife or the direct-entry trained midwife then everybody's choices have been severely limited. And all you get is the maternity-in-a-box care," said Mary Yglesia, a former licensed midwife.
Kate Finn believes that on the horizon of the profession is a movement to require a doctorate in nursing to be able to practice midwifery.
"Unfortunately, rather than nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives seeing enough common vision to band together to say 'we can move midwifery forward together', nurse midwifery continues to have its stronghold in the medical community, which means that they continue to, about every decade, raise their education requirement from certificate programs to bachelors degrees to master's degrees," Finn said.
Direct-entry midwives would like to continue to do what they do best: serve the women who desire a natural birth.
"We don't need to dance to the drummer of the medical establishment that says you have to have a formalized degree from a university in order to do what we do," Finn says. "This model prevents us from being responsive to our clients."
Robyn Fiedler is a junior journalism major who was surprised to learn that midwives sometimes use baseball gloves during births. Email her at rfiedle1[at]ithaca.edu.


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23 November
Indore to Omkareshwar Ujjain
Mathri, Gujiya, Chaklis, Laddoos and what not! Diwali brings with itself not only lights and vibrant colors, but also exotic sweets and Indian delicacies. And of the greatest delights are the long holidays that accompany. We are two days before Diwali and the preperations must of pacing up!Read More


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It's amazing what a new look can do for a platform, isn't it? Back in January, we reported that CyanogenMod, the most popular third-party Android ROM, reached one million unique installs. Now, a little more than four months later, that number has doubled, according to CM's stat tracker. This is huge.
© 2010-2015 Atrecto Innovations Corp. All rights reserved.
HelloAndroid - Android news & tutorial portal


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goji berries(redirected from barbary matrimony vine)
goji berriesSmall red berries, the secretions of which act as an aphrodisiac; data from Wuhan University reported increased sexual performance and sperm quality in rats.
Beta-carotene; vitamins C, B1, B2 and other vitamins; minerals; antioxidants; amino acids; are said to contain isoleucine, tryptophan, zinc, iron, copper, calcium, germanium, selenium, phosphorus, B6 and vitamin E.
Believed to enhance immune system function, help eyesight, protect liver, boost sperm production and improve circulation. They act on the liver, lung and kidney channels and enrich yin.
Raw, tea, tincture.
Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Just one week after graduation, she had a job interview. The next week, she started her new job as a lab coordinator at Thermo Pac, a flexible food packaging firm.
"I had several opportunities," Boretski said. "It all was very fast."
Boretski, like most students graduating with science and marketing skills, found the job market ripe with positions for her picking.
Companies Seeking Science Students
Students with science and marketing skills will continue to be the most sought-after by employers in 2005. That's the finding of a report by the Office of Higher Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.
"We're expecting slightly more job opportunities than there will be students to fill those jobs," said Allan Goecker, associate director of academic programs in the Purdue University School of Agriculture. He is the principal author of Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in the Food and Agriculture Sciences, 2000-2005.
Georgia Students Wanted
At the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the nation's oldest agricultural college, the scene is no different.
"We have maintained a high level of activity from employers seeking to recruit our students," said David Knauft, associate dean for academic affairs. "We have far more opportunities than we have graduates to fill them."
Annual job openings for U.S. food and agricultural sciences graduates are projected to be around 58,000. The number of graduates will be about 57,000. Of the job openings, 32 percent will be in science, engineering and related specialties. Jobs in marketing, merchandising and sales will make up another 28 percent.
Food scientists, engineers, landscape horticulturists, plant geneticists and outdoor recreation specialists are expected to be in greatest demand.
Those who provide services to farmers and ranchers will find weaker offerings. Hiring will be down, too, in farm and forest production, veterinary medicine (general practices) and some government agencies.
UGA Looking For Science Students
While the job market in food and environmental technology continues to grow, CAES enrollment has declined yearly since a peak in 1995.
The college is moving to get the message to Georgia high school students that the future of the job market in farm-related science fields is booming.
"Although overall enrollment in the college dropped slightly this year, those departments with aggressive recruitment efforts have more students than before," Knauft said.
The most popular majors in the college are biological and agricultural engineering, animal science, environmental health and horticulture. "That makes us consistent with what the study says the job market is moving toward," he said.
The college is trying to show high school students there's more to an agricultural college than traditionally comes to mind, and there's a wealth of opportunities awaiting graduates, especially in urban areas.
"About 40 percent of our students come from the metro Athens and Atlanta areas," Knauft said. "The largest number come from Clarke County, followed by Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, Oconee and Madison counties."
The attraction for many urban students is the environmental focus of some of the degrees. Others find the small-college atmosphere appealing.
"There is a combination of benefits in our college," Knauft said. "Students find a range of disciplines in which they can apply science to solve problems. They can do that kind of study in our small college atmosphere with a faculty that takes an active interest in the students' success."


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What is no secret is that the wealth of insights made available by the knowledge economy is making possible the unprecedented understanding of customer relationships for companies. As part of the Slingshot Platform, we are developing one such new analytics, entitled the Infatuation Interval Index (or I-Cubed) which uses social media and big data to measure the cyclicality of customer attachment to corporate brands, services, and goods. Here is another interesting example.
Per a recent article in the Wall Street Journal: "Two people call customer service at the same time to complain about the same thing. One waits a few seconds before a representative gets on the line. The other stays on hold. Why the difference? There's a good chance it has something to do with a rating known as a customer lifetime value, or CLV. That secret number is used by all manner of companies to measure the potential financial value of their customers."
Read the whole article here:
#customerexperience #customerservice #innovation


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Big left arrow icon Big right arrow icon Close icon Three dots icon Down arrow icon Email icon Exit Fullscreen icon External link icon Facebook logo Instagram logo Snapchat logo YouTube logo Grid icon Key icon Left arrow icon Link icon Location icon Mail icon Menu icon Open icon Phone icon Play icon Radio icon Rewind icon Right arrow icon Search icon Select icon Selected icon TV icon Twitter logo Up arrow icon User icon Audio icon Tickets iconAdd to calendar icon.Here's our Schein Nine http://www.dolphinsauthenticofficial.com/YOUTH+ADAM+JOSEPH+DUHE+JERSEY on the rosters that received the biggest boost from the prospect pool., NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that discussions about the package are ongoing with key industry stakeholders.
His 37 points were a 10-point reduction from his rookie campaign.I mean, it's what we do.Powell was initially placed on the disabled list early April due to a Grade 1 MCL sprain and then suffered a thumb injury while on a rehab assignment with Nashville late .
I'm more comfortable.The game remained delicately poised until Pratley netted midway through the second half to keep Swansea two points clear of Blackpool with a couple of matches to go.He tacked on four steals.The , who'll remind you he won't turn 22 until the day after next week's game against the Browns, reminds Green of a great game-breaker.
A leading second has far not existed for Brazil at the World Cup.At the time, he chose to skip surgery and keep playing.Friday 16th .Not people were going to go 2.
It's not about finding a potential gem later.On defense, players such as Cam Wake, Reshad Jones and T.J.That timetable would put Lopez back on the court plenty of time to showcase his health to the Magic.Saw 33 percent of his catches this season go for 25-plus yards and averaged almost 22 yards per catch over last two seasons.Free Play from Doc's Sports.
Daniels of North Florida won Defensive Player of the Year, while Tayler Persons of Northern Kentucky won Freshman of the Year:
- 2006 the first-place teams were 6;
- This deal looks like a win-win for both sides, with the only real losers being Osweiler's ego and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam's bank account;
- 2011 when they were 26th the league, they asked for everybody's no-trade clause, they traded Fisher, and Kovalev;
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Unlike Osama bin Laden, he's not a household name - at least not until now.
But no individual's capture could have wider implications for America's war on terrorism than that of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Apprehended in Pakistan this weekend and now facing interrogation in US custody overseas, Mohammed is considered to be Al Qaeda's foremost operational leader, with unrivaled knowledge of the organization's plans and personnel.
The news of Mohammed's capture could help on several fronts, from the manhunt for bin Laden to the efforts to crack "sleeper" cells in the US and elsewhere. For one thing, Al Qaeda members may now feel compelled to change locations, making them more vulnerable to capture.
Moreover, as the Bush administration struggles to build international backing in a controversial showdown with Iraq, Mohammed would also know something that could either bolster or beset that effort: the degree of any Iraqi involvement with Al Qaeda operations.
"This arrest is likely to have profound repercussions on Al Qaeda, and perhaps even on bin Laden and his continued ability to avoid apprehension," says Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terror at the Rand Corp. "Mohammed has been at the vortex of every major operation going back a decade - from the first bombing of the World Trade Center to 9/11 to the most recent incidents."
At the very least, experts say Mohammed's arrest removes a key link in the command structure of the Al Qaeda network, a crucial link that translated Mr. bin Laden's threats into operational details.
Nabbed with two compatriots in a joint FBI-Pakistani sting, he would know virtually every operation in the planning stages - including those in the US.
"Depending on who interrogates him and where, several Al Qaeda operations in the planning, preparation, and execution may be disrupted," says Rohan Gunaratna, an Al Qaeda expert at St. Andrews University in Scotland. "As head of the military committee of Al Qaeda, he knows all the key regional leaders and assets ... in at least 98 countries."
If information is pried from him or from computer disks captured with him, it could fill in details on past and future attacks, their financing, and even how much control the Al Qaeda network exerts on minions worldwide.
The conventional thinking has been that after Al Qaeda was driven from Afghanistan, its leadership went into hiding - unable to communicate and exert control, and that attacks since have been planned and carried out by smaller, disparate local groups.
But Mohammed is the latest of some 400 Al Qaeda members detained in Pakistan, including two other high-level leaders. Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's field operations commander, was captured in a shoot-out in March 2001. Ramzi Binalshibh, who allegedly headed the 9/11 hijackers cell in Germany, was captured in a joint FBI-Pakistani string operation in September 2002.
"Given such a critical mass of Al Qaeda leaders seized in Pakistan, that might reveal a centralized control over operations," Mr. Hoffman says. "They might not have stayed close to Afghanistan only because it kept them from being caught. They might have tried to create a command and control that was pretty effective."
Indeed, Mohammed's arrest puts renewed focus on Pakistan as a key link in the terror war - and on the state of Washington-Karachi cooperation.
While the White House was quick to congratulate Pakistan for its key role in the arrest, the very fact that it occurred in Pakistan underlines a perception which that nation has worked hard to shake: that Pakistan remains a relatively safe haven for Al Qaeda.
It is a point of concern both for US military officials in Afghanistan and for Pakistani liberals who worry about the growing role of Islamist parties in Pakistan, who often voice support for fugitive Taliban leaders.
One senior US military officer in Afghanistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Pakistani government could clearly be doing more to round up Al Qaeda. "Our bases along the border are being shelled every day from the Pakistani side, so clearly, they could be doing more to stop that," said the officer. "We're grateful for what they're doing, but they could be doing more to keep their country from being turned into a safe haven."
But Pakistani officials say that Mohammed's capture shows that Pakistan is far from a safe haven for terrorists. "It's not a question of how was he in Islamabad or Rawalpindi," says Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. "It's the fact that he has been identified and captured that is significant."
To be sure, this is a major blow to the Al Qaeda network. While the arrest of one man will not cripple the organization, members will have to presume their locations and operations are compromised, and this will throw them into disarray for some time. In all, intelligence officials estimate that more than one-third of the Al Qaeda leadership has been either detained or killed. "Operationally, his arrest is the most significant since 9/11," Mr. Gunaratna says. "It will impact more on operations than anyone else's arrest, including bin Laden's."
Mohammed was born to Pakistani parents in Kuwait in 1965, studied in the US, and is considered a master language and disguise. He had a $25 million reward on his head.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to intelligence officials and experts, was a principal planner of these Al Qaeda strikes:
• The October 2002 Bali bombing that killed nearly 200 people.
• The April 2002 attack on a historic synagogue in Tunisia that killed 21.
• The January 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
• The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
• The October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, where 17 US servicemen died.
• The 1998 US Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
• The 1995 plot in the Philippines to bomb several airliners simultaneously, and crash an airplane into CIA headquarters.
• The first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Mohammed's nephew, Ramzi Yousef, has been convicted in connection with that attack.


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As Leonardo Da Vinci said, "Water is the driving force of all nature." Without water, everything dies, including people. You have 3 tiny days that you can survive without consuming it. When you are out in the wilderness, you always need to have water with you, or a way to obtain water that is safe for drinking. Today we are going to discuss some survival skills: how to purify water.
Sometimes, people run into some bad luck and find themselves lost in the wilderness without clean water. Hopefully they have packed a few essentials that will help them find, collect, and decontaminate water that is safe for drinking.
Find the water
If you are out in nature and don't have any water on you, then the first thing that you need to do is find a water source. There are many ways to find water in some situations and very few ways to find water in other situations.
Water can come from freshwater sources like lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, and so on. If you have a way to distill the water you can even use saltwater. Drinking water is also typically safe to drink straight from springs and underground water sources, even from inside tapped trees.
The majority of "found" water needs to be purified in some way, as it is considered dirty water.
You can also find water by looking up. Precipitation is an excellent source of emergency water; think rain, snow, sleet, ice, and dew. If the rain isn't falling through a forest canopy, it should be safe enough to drink without processing it. The same goes for melting snow and drinking it.
Note: always melt snow, if possible, rather than eating it straight (especially in an emergency), because eating it straight will cause your body to burn more precious energy due to a drop in body temperature and the work your body has to do to melt the snow in your mouth.
Why should you purify water?
I think it's important to talk about the risks of drinking water that hasn't been treated, that way you can make an informed choice about water that you ingest, but choose not to treat.
Many survival experts say to treat all water sources as "suspicious" and for good reason. Water-borne disease organisms are no joke.
The water may look clear and cold, pouring off of a mountain, but what we don't see are the billions of tiny organisms living in that water; a lot of them coming from human and animal feces (gross!). Most of the organisms are harmless to humans, but a few of them could make you extremely sick; E. Coli and Salmonella are two that you have probably heard about.
There are a huge amount of other unsafe organisms lurking invisibly in supposedly clean water. One example is a rotting animal carcass could be upstream.
The water pouring off that fresh mountain spring is filtering through the rotting animal and then reaching you looking fresh and cold and pure. Not something that anyone wants to drink without purifying it first!
The Best Way to Purify Water
There are many ways to purify water, and we will share a few of them with you. But the best way to purify water and render it 100% safe for drinking is to boil it. Boiling water kills pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.
The water doesn't even have to reach boiling point of 212 degrees to become safe for drinking, it just needs to boil; typically around 185 degrees. Most people don't carry a thermometer around with them though, so the water reaches boiling point, which is perfectly fine.
You don't have to boil the water for a minute, or 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, even at higher elevations, it just needs to reach a boil and you are good to go.
Water Purifying Tablets
Water purifying tablets like these are an option for emergency situations. They take quite awhile to work (4 hours!), so having more than one water bottle could be useful so that one can be "working" while the other is ready to drink. Tablets won't remove sediment, so a filter in conjunction with tablets could be a good idea.
Potable Aqua Tabs are also a popular option. Both are 99% effective at removing pathogens, but the Potable Aqua tabs work in just 35 minutes. The only drawback is that they leave a heavy iodine flavor which is a turnoff for some (especially children who are more susceptible to dehydration quicker). They could also be unsafe for pregnant women or those allergic to shellfish.
source: outdoor-survival.knoji.com
Filters are an easy option, as well. There are a couple of different types that are common. Worst case you can create your own water filter like illustrated above. There are pump action filters that use a pump to filter raw water through the filter. Then there are drip and suction filters that pull the water through the filter as needed, and they attach to bladder hoses for ease.
These Steripen filters are a popular filter option. They use batteries and a UV light that destroys 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. These would be a great option if you had a clear water source, but wanted to purify it anyway. They wouldn't destroy anything lurking in water that had large particles in it, as they could hide inside and around the large particles.
The LifeStraw Personal Water Filter is also a great little emergency guy to have tucked into your pack. You could drink out of a muddy puddle with this thing, which could come in handy in an emergency situation.
Whichever type of filter you use, always check the expiration dates when you receive the item, and periodically, so that you can replace anything that is outdated. The same goes for the water purification tablets.
SODIS or Solar Water Disinfection
If you don't have anything to purify your water, you can harness the power of the sun! You will need a water bottle that is not more than 3 liters. PET bottles are recommended, and without any scratches or wrappers. They need to be completely clear. If the water is cloudy, filter it first through a cloth or coffee filter.
A rule of thumb from SODIS is:
- "If less than half of the sky is clouded over, 6 hours will be enough to completely disinfect the water.
- If more than half of the sky is covered with clouds, the bottle must be placed in the sun for 2 consecutive days."
If it is raining, SODIS doesn't really work, but then you can just collect rainwater.
There are plenty of ways to purify water that make it safe for consumption. This is a survival skill that you don't want to skip over. If you are on the brink of dying, you can drink the water raw, risking bowel-stirring pathogens to enter your body. But this is better than being pathogen-free and dead.
You just need to bring a few supplies with you and you can make safe drinking water in most any situation.
You can bring something to boil water in along with firestarter (which you should have with you anyway!), water purification tablets, some household chemicals, water filters, or the good ole' power of the sun. Whichever method you choose, it should provide you with safe drinking water and a longer life span in a survival situation.
What are your favorite water purification methods? Let us know in the comments! Did you enjoy this guide? If so, please share it with your friends and family.


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Wee Gallery, created by a husband and wife team, designs products that provide stimulating experiences that can be the salvation you need during bedtime, while out and about or during those fussy diaper changes. With an adorable aesthetic that is also chic in its black and white minimalism, these products greatly assist in a baby's development early on. We are absolutely in love with their elegant designs, high-quality organic materials, and sustainable practices.
The genesis of Wee Gallery was born from a fascination over the idea of helping a baby's brain development through vision. This led to creating beautiful and stimulating products specific to a baby's senses, such as the Organic Muslin Swaddle, Cuddle Bunny, Art Cards for Baby, and the Clutch Ball.
The Cuddle Bunny was definitely made for its namesake. The combination of the star pattern, embroidered face, and textured body make it the perfect snuggle companion for any time. The Clutch Ball is the perfect baby's first ball. Inspired by a Sensory Puzzle Ball, its construction allows it to be used in different ways to promote physical stimulation like kicking or clutching. The graphics and materials provide a tactile experience while the organic shell fabrics make this the perfect heirloom gift. Paired with the Cuddle Bunny, baby will be getting plenty of support for mental and physical stimulation.
Another thing we love about Wee Gallery is the company's commitment to sustainability. The Organic Muslin Swaddle is a large, sustainable, earth-friendly version of the staple necessity with charming illustrations and super cute packaging that you will never stop gushing over. Art Cards for Baby are a set featuring black and white illustrations printed with safe for baby inks on cardboard. Great for ages newborn – 3 yrs, these cards grow with baby. Beginning as fun visual stimuli, keeping baby fixated and focused, they become flashcards as baby gets older, helping with language development and comprehension.
Wee Gallery's products use high quality and organic materials while also promoting a love for art and design. Pragmatic, entertaining and beautiful.
Interested? You can get the Bundle of Joy Gift Set


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Ten years on...Some thoughts on the past and future Royals
Well, today is the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.
Her sons Prince William and Prince Harry developed two distinct memorials this summer. First was the very public rock concert on her birthday, and today a splendid service of Thanksgiving. You can read the New York Times presentation of the Associated Press story here. And Prince Harry's talk here. For the official Royal Family site, and schedule, click here.
Diana has been commemorated on plenty of postage stamps which make use of the extensive photographic library available. Coinage memorials need to be sculptural, and thus usually require good artistic imput. We have 257 different types listed in the Standard Catalog of World Coins, between the 20th and 21st Century editions. It was easy to do a design/type search using the on-line version of the catalog, called Numismaster.
Some of those commemorative coins have been successful and dignified. The official 5 pound coin of Great Britain is at right. It is a Royal Mint product and depicts her in the often-seen "Shy Di" pose with a modest, ever-so-slight downward glance. Some postraits have been just unidentifiable, and one is glad that her name is part of the legend as an aid to identify the portrait. The Liberia 5 dollar coin is below. It is a Pobjoy Mint Product, and a sad example of poor sculptural work.
She appears on at least one "fantasy" 5 pound bank note producted some years ago. There are no official government issue commemorative bank notes, and I do not know of any other formal intaglio portrait engravings. Not even on postage stamps, as the trend is to have photos used for that medium. Intaglio engraving is expensive and has gone out of fashion on stamp production.
However, the thought I came away with after watching the memorial service today is how tall and handsome the two young princes are, and that one day, we will have engraved bank notes with a nice formal portrait of King William, perhaps in the robes of the Garter, or the robes of state, as we had with King George V on the notes of Canada, or in a sharp business suit, as we had with King George VI, in Malta and Canada among others.


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- Basic Operation
- Tables and Multivalued Fields
- Pattern Matching in Text Fields
- Option Lists
Here are a few examples of queries for those who are best guided by examples. Be sure to read the more technical and general descriptions that follow, starting with Basic Operation and ending with Option Lists. Note that you can fill in one or more fields and leave as many fields blank as you like. Scroll the query form to see the fields available. The Submit button brings a Select list of records that satisfy your specifications or a single record if only one satisfies those constraints.
Find a RecA-deficient, hsdR-minus strain. Go to the Strain Query form and enter recA in one of the Mutations fields and hsdR in the other. Press the Submit button. Examine individual records by clicking on the name of the records retrieved. The records are ordered by the number of mutations that they contain.
Find a Tn near a given marker, Go to the Mutation Query form and select Tn from the Type list and enter the range of map coordinates for the marker (in minutes) in the Mutation location boxes. For example if you wanted to find all Tn insertions within one minute of lacZ (located at 7.8 min.), you would enter 6.8 in the first Mutation Location box and 8.8 in the second box. Near the end of each Mutation record, you will find a list of the strains we have that carry that mutation, and you can examine each of those. (DO NOT USE THE SITE FORM TO QUERY FOR Tn's, ALTHOUGH THERE IS A "SITE OF INSERTION" CORRESPONDING TO EACH Tn INSERTION MUTATION.) You can also query by name of the mutation, of course, using either the Strain Query form's Mutation field or the Mutation Query form's Name field, but beware of using the 3-letter "z" name for an insertion not in a known gene, because the name is position-based and may have changed due to changes in map coordinates. It is safer to query for zc%506 or z%506 as a mutation name than zch-506. You can also use the name field rather than the Type list box to search for all insertions, rather than just Tn insertions, by putting %:: in the name field and entering a range in the Mutation Location boxes.
Find a deletion that spans part or all of the pst operon: (Things to know: The wildcard in the database is "%". The deletion symbol Delta is represented by "DE". The standard nomenclature for a deletion is of the form Delta(clockwise_gene - counterclockwise_gene)numeral, which tells you the genes known to mark the outermost borders of the deletion and the unique deletion number for that deletion. The database uses standard nomenclature even if a non-standard designation was used in a publication about the mutation, and is restricted to ASCII characters, which must replace, for example, Greek letters.) One way to find such a deletion is to go to the Mutation Query form and enter in the Name field the string DE%pst. Or if your query is more specific, perhaps DE%pstS. (As explained below, the wildcard is automatically appended to the right-hand end of a string in the Name field.) This will retrieve mutations such as DE(phoU-pstS)606(::kan), DE(phoU-pstS)627(::FRT), DE(pstA-pstC)607(::kan), and DE(pstA-pstC)628)::(FRT) for the more general query, and only the first two returns for the more specific query. Examining each Mutation record will lead you to a description of the "Strains carrying this Mutation" and references and definitions. Other successful query strategies include selecting Deletion in the Type list and use %pst in the Name field (this also retrieves deletions within the pstB or pstS gene only), or selecting Deletion in the Type list and entering a Mutation Location range as described above.
- % matches any string of 0 or more characters, e.g. "abra%" matches "abra" or "abracadabra".
- _ matches any single character, e.g. "a_c" matches "abc".
Basic OperationPut desired values or constraints in fields, then press the Submit button. Values in different fields are ANDed, i.e., all constraints must be satisfied for an object to be retrieved.
Tables and Multivalued FieldsIn multi-row tables or multi-valued fields, constraints in different rows are ANDed, i.e., all constraints must be satisfied by some (not necessarily the same) row in the retrieved entity.
Pattern Matching
In any field you can use the following pattern matching symbols:
Matching in text fields is case-insensitive. Note also that text field matching uses automatic completion, so that "adh" matches "adh1", etc. In effect, every pattern ends with '%'. In some cases such as Comment fields a '%' has been automatically appended onto the front of search entries as well. If in doubt, adding a '%' to the beginning of a search field that already automatically appends one will not cause an error, or slow down the query.


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Process for joining the wait-list for adopting a puppy:
Call, text or email me to get set-up and on the waiting list.
I will then let you know the availability of litters and approximately when they will be born.
I will contact you 2 weeks prior to their delivery to make sure you are still interested, then again when the puppies arrive.
In the first week after birth, I will send you the 'cuddlyk9 contract' (which is on this website). When you receive the contract please fill it out and mail back to me with a $400.00 deposit to hold your puppy.
Puppies are to be picked up on your scheduled appointment day and time or deposit will be forfeited and puppy will be re-sold.
Pictures of your puppy will be sent weekly to you and even some short videos as they get more active!


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Imagine a world in which your shirt can recharge your cell phone, your camera can take pictures in the dark, and your rooftop shingles can power your home. This is the vision that Professor Ted Sargent and his team of researchers at the University of Toronto are hoping to turn into a reality.
In a paper published January 9 in Nature Materials, Sargent reports on his research in harnessing the invisible—or infrared—part of the sun's spectrum. What his group has done is pretty novel. By mixing lead sulfide (PbS) nanocrystals—a.k.a. "quantum dots"—with plastic (conjugated polymer) in a solvent, they've created a sprayable mixture that is sensitive to visible, and more importantly, infrared light.
In the past, this infrared sensitivity has been achieved using such expensive materials as indium phosphide (InP). But this is the first I've heard of anyone figuring out how to capture that part of the spectrum using a flexible and low cost plastic base.
So what are the market opportunities for this infrared-sensitive technology? A variety of medical imaging applications and fiber optic communications use IR-detectors. Television and other CE remote controls use them as well. But my guess is that Sargent's technology will be most competitive in those cost-sensitive applications that need to sense both visible and invisible light.
Thus, Sargent sees two very promising applications: affordable digital cameras that can take pictures in the dark, and high efficiency, inexpensive plastic solar cells.
Strangers in the night
"Existing visible digital cameras—the ones that now cost a few hundred dollars and have excellent performance—use silicon to detect light and manage the electronic signals read out by each pixel," says Sargent. "Silicon does not absorb light in the infrared spectral region we managed to address using our quantum dots."
"There exist infrared cameras today that allow night vision, seeing not just illuminated subjects, but also seeing thermal signatures in the dark. These cameras, though, can be hundreds of times more expensive than our visible cameras. This is because they cannot be made of silicon alone, but require the growth of an expensive, very perfect, infrared-absorbing crystal which must then be connected to the silicon chip. Our detector technology could potentially be painted on the silicon chip directly, enabling infrared visualization at a cost comparable to that of today's silicon-based digital cameras."
Would I pay a lot more for a digital camera that could shoot in the dark? Not likely, unless I was fond of taking pictures of owls and other nocturnal creatures. But if for roughly the same price, I could get good pictures at dusk, especially from my cell phone cameraand without a flash—why not? But the killer app, in this post-9/11 world, is security. I see real value in using an IR-sensitive video camera to monitor high risk areas at night. Continued…
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Cloud designs and architectures introduce many interesting topics of discussion when meeting with customers revolving around how they currently do things, as well as how we're going to be doing things 5 years from now. How they should design their storage infrastructure, how the storage infrastructure integrates seamlessly with the next level of abstracted infrastructure, and backup. You can't have a discussion around storage architectures [typically] without backup being mentioned or expressed as a concern.
So let's talk about backup.
Did you just cringe a little? Yea…me too.
This isn't going to be talking about backup in the traditional sense of the word. I want to bring to light NetApp's next-generation framework that we're architecting specifically for cloud deployments, with ITaaS, vCloud Director, and Service Provider deployments in mind. To have this discussion, we're going to need to set the stage, and discuss where we currently are today, even in the best case scenarios. I'm going to use an example of what we're seeing current NetApp customers do today, as well as refer to the few tape fanboys that won't let go of their precious LTO drives. Yes, we know that demand is still out there.
Let's start with a typical "Best case scenario" of what we see out there today. Separate datacenters, active cross-site mirroring going on between these datacenters (sometimes for DR, sometimes for shared infrastructure), vaulting of backups to a lower tier of disks or a long-term storage "dumping ground," as I like to refer to it, and yes, a lot of times, there are large tape libraries plugged into the back of the controllers sucking data off to tape to be sent out to Iron Mountain, or the like.
Why won't this work for cloud?
Cloud implies the use of Service Levels, Chargeback, and what I'll refer to as "invisible provisioning." This has no exposure to the VM/App owner in ITaaS environments, or to the customer in Service Provider environments. All they know is what they are being sold in compute/memory/storage, and what service level they have selected for a particular vDatacenter that they've purchased. They know that by paying for GOLD service level, they are getting multiple hourly snapshots, daily snapshots, and DR to off-site, etc. SILVER might only get once-daily snapshots and off-site replication, and BRONZE might just get nightly snapshots, even weekly or monthly perhaps. Tenants in a cloud environment, whether they're internal ITaaS app owners or external SP customers, are not running their own backups. Let me rephrase that. Tenants in a cloud environment should not be running their own backups. There's nothing saying they can't, but they should be leveraging the Provider to handle this for them.
Enter SnapCreator
Let's start with a definition…
SnapCreator is a Backup Plugin framework for integrating virtually any application with NetApp snapshot technology.
Keyword: Framework. This is not a backup application. At NetApp, we see that even traditional backup means and methods need abstraction when you're going to a Cloud Provider or ITaaS scenario. By removing this responsibility from the tenant, you get to standardize ALL tenants on a single, simple, vm- or application-consistent backup architecture, across your entire vCloud organization. SnapCreator does not handle directly talking to applications such as Oracle to achieve application consistency; instead you can tell SnapCreator to call an application backup modules, or "plugin." Most applications should be quiesced before a snapshot is taken to ensure the snapshot taken is consistent with the application itself.
And don't think for a second we're only hitting the low-hanging fruit.
Lotus Domino
All of these already have supported modules/plugins into SnapCreator. We understand there are many more applications that potentially will need to be backed up in cloud architectures, but this is where we've started, and development continues. If you're currently using one of our SnapManager products, this framework will not necessarily replace that, but rather give you an alternative means of backup in Cloud environments such as vCloud Director.
This is just one of the many reasons you should be considering NetApp for hosting your vCloud deployments.
Have any questions? Post them up in the comments and let's discuss, or hit me up on twitter.
Virtualization changes everything. Go Further. Faster. With NetApp.
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- NetApp
- 03/29/2011


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On Tuesday, the Indian government announced a big change in how the people of Delhi get their air quality data.
So far, the three agencies monitoring air quality in the city – the Central Pollution Control Board, the Indian Meteorological Department and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee – collect and disseminate their numbers separately. The Indian Meteorological Department has digital displays across the city. The Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee put their numbers online.
But in the new system, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the Indian Meteorological Department will stop making their numbers public. Instead, their data will be sent to the Central Pollution Control Board for analysis. "Authenticated air quality information will be communicated to Delhi Pollution Control Committee on daily basis for further dissemination to the public at large," the government statement said.
Coming at the end of a year where Delhi came to be known as one of the most polluted cities in the world, the announcement has been greeted with suspicion.
And with this, drumroll, I open my account at Scroll.in. ;-)