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Pop star Christina Aguilera has released a new song, "Change," following Sunday's mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub.
The singer posted a lyric video of the song and a statement on her website on Thursday, which said that she wants to be a part of the change the world needs to be more inclusive.
The song features lyrics about waiting for hope and change and "waiting for the day when hate is lost and love is found." The statement says proceeds from U.S. downloads through Sept. 14 will go to the National Compassion Fund to benefit the victims and their families.
U.S. & World
Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge also wrote a song called "Pulse," after the name of the club where 49 people were killed and dozens more injured.
Copyright AP - Associated Press


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A California woman is in critical condition after a teenager intentionally ran over her with his car. Lisa Solis followed the teen outside after she watched him steal a candy bar from a concession stand during a basketball game at Thousand Oaks High School.
Solis, who is an activities assistant in the high school's athletics department, confronted the 16-year-old in the parking lot and stood in front of his car to prevent him from leaving. Instead of stopping, the teen accelerated and ran her over. She suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to the hospital.
Authorities tracked down the teen near his home and took him into custody. He was brought to a juvenile center and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Officials said he had just gotten his driver's license the day before and had two other people in his vehicle at the time.
Solis remains in the hospital in critical condition. She is making improvements but has a long road to recovery and her sister created a GoFundMe page to help with her medical expenses.


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Cardinals unlikely to make big deal before deadline
ST. LOUIS -- Without getting into specifics about the club's pursuits as the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline approaches, general manager John Mozeliak suggested on Thursday the Cardinals are unlikely to make any blockbuster-type deal between now and the end of the month.
"For me to sit here today and tell you specifically what we might try to add just doesn't make a lot of sense," Mozeliak said after the Cardinals' workout at Busch Stadium. "It's not a great market to be shopping in for our particular needs. And there is no glaring weakness now. It's just seeing if there is an incremental benefit that might make us stronger for a last push."
Adding to an offense that leads the league in several statistical categories is not among the priorities. The Cardinals see little opportunity to upgrade over the pieces already in place, and that includes shortstop, where the priority continues to be strong defensive play over any potency with the bat, as Daniel Descalso is hitting .275 with three homers and Pete Kozma is at .233 with one homer.
If the Cardinals are to add, it will likely be on the pitching side. In talking about the rotation, Mozeliak expressed satisfaction in the current starting core of Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn, Jake Westbrook and Shelby Miller. Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha remain second-half rotation options, and Chris Carpenter -- who will make his second rehab start on Saturday -- remains a wild card in all of this.
"I think when you look at our rotation right now, it's hard to imagine any major change in what we're having," Mozeliak said. "I think we have to do our best to protect the younger arms, and I think we're going to space that out pretty well between now and September. But as far as feeling comfortable giving those guys the ball every fifth or sixth day, I think we're strong."
Though the bullpen has stabilized since April, the lack of experience is an area in which the Cardinals may look to improve. Each of the last two seasons, Mozeliak made key Trade Deadline deals to add an experienced reliever. That could be even more crucial this year, as the Cardinals currently have four rookie relievers in the 'pen.
Asked about pursuing a veteran reliever, Mozeliak said, "I think if we found the right piece, we'd pursue it."
Of course, any action comes at a cost, and the Cardinals do not see themselves as having such glaring holes that they would need to be desperate buyers. As a result, the organization is not interested in parting with its top Minor League prospects for a short-term fix.
"I think for us right now, we've left that very wide in terms of what we might chase," Mozeliak said. "Having said that, it starts to become what the ask might be and how we fulfill those. When I think about the next couple weeks, I think it's about us staying open-minded and us seeing how the market evolves."


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Free Appraisal Day at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
|Arts & Entertainment
|Dec 31, 2019
Join us at our gallery every Tuesday (from 10 a.m. to noon, and 1:30 to 4 p.m.) for free expert valuations of your fine art, antiques, and collectibles. No appointment is needed, and valuations are on a first come-first served basis. Stop by and discover why Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is considered 'Maine's Best Auction Experience.' We are located on US Route 1 just south of the Town of Thomaston.
PS: If you have many items, or they are too large to transport, we would be happy to set up a house call appointment. Just call us at 354-8141.


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Mark Tremonti is one of rock's leading guitarists. As the guitarist of Alter Bridge and Creed, he has met extraordinary success and continues to grow as both a guitar player and songwriter. While Creed was on tour in support of their first record, My Own Prison, Mark was contacted by PRS and asked if he would like to try one of their guitars.
"I jumped at the idea to play one of PRS' guitars. PRS was one of those guitars that I could never afford in high school or college and had always wanted to play one." PRS sent Mark a McCarty model which he instantly fell in love with. He played that guitar exclusively for a while, but ultimately wanted a guitar that was more suited to his playing style.
Mark Tremonti began to collaborate with PRS on his dream guitar that would soon become the Mark Tremonti Signature Model. He needed pickups that were a little more aggressive and could complement his rhythm playing which contains a lot of palm muting. The neck of the guitar needed to accommodate his style, influenced by thrash metal, shred, and traditional blues. PRS met these needs with the Pattern Thin neck carve.
|Top Wood
|Carved Figured Maple
|Back Wood
|Number of Frets
|Scale Length
|Neck Wood
|Neck Shape
|Pattern Thin
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|Width of Fretboard at the Body
|Width of Fretboard at the Nut
|Fretboard Wood
|Fretboard Inlay
|PRS Patented Tremolo, Gen III with Trem-Up Route or Adjustable Stoptail
|PRS Phase III Locking Tuners
|Hardware Type
|Treble Pickup
|Bass Pickup
|Volume and Tone Control for Each Pickup and 3-Way Toggle Pickup Selector
PRS Core instruments are the heart of PRS. Since 1985, we have been driven by quality, innovation, and the industry's rich heritage to deliver products with uncompromised tone, playability, and beauty. Every piece and every process is important to the finished instrument, so we take great care every step of the way to ensure you are getting our best.
Wood is the foundation of every PRS instrument, so great care is taken in sourcing, cutting, drying, and grading each species of timber used.
Neck shapes are paramount to the connection a player feels the moment he or she picks up a guitar. PRS neck shapes are designed for comfort, playability, and stability, so that feeling lasts a lifetime.
Stain and finish should do more than help a guitar look good; they should feel good and maximize tone as well. So while PRS is synonymous with beautiful, richly detailed stains, paints, and finishes, the goal is always to use a thin, clear, and hard finish that is durable and does not deaden the instrument's natural tone and resonance.
The bridge is the anchor of the guitar. All PRS bridges are designed to maximize the transfer of the strings' vibration into the guitar body while providing excellent intonation and functionality.
PRS Phase III tuners are designed to maximize the transfer of the strings' vibration into the guitar while providing excellent tuning precision and stability via the easy to use locking system.
As one of the three main contact points of the strings, the nut is essential to the guitar's tone. PRS uses a proprietary nut material, designed to maximize the guitar's tonal resonance. PRS nut placement is compensated to provide accurate intonation across the fretboard. All PRS nuts are hand-filed for precise fit and superior playability.
A pickup is a transducer that captures the mechanical vibration of a string and converts it into an electrical current. Every component (wire, magnet, bobbin, slugs, etc) affects the sound and interacts differently with instruments and amps, which is why we design and build many distinct pickup models. Nearly all Private Stock and Core pickups are designed and built in our Stevensville, Maryland factory.
PRS uses nickel silver fret material for durability and tone. In general, PRS fret wire height has been specified to provide a good platform for both chord/rhythm playing and string bends/lead techniques. PRS fret wire width and hardness is specified to minimize wear, maximize fret life, and support the tone of the instrument. All PRS frets are glued in place to avoid raised or popped frets and are leveled, radiused, and crowned giving the guitar amazing comfort and playability.
The final instrument reflects all of the thought, work, and passion that are put into every step of the building process. If all the details are cared for, a guitar can be much more than the sum of its parts.
PRS Signature Dealers carry the full line of PRS products for the ultimate shopping experience.
Click for a complete list of PRS Dealers and Distributors:PRS Dealers & Distributors


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This week in new hires, Dowling & Yahnke announced four promotions; Key Private Bank launched a Delaware trust company; Patrick Goshtigian joined EP Wealth Advisors; Jane Bachmann and Eugene Miller went to Citi Private Bank; Carl Richards joined BAM Advisor Services; and Bart Albrigo and Winnie Phung were welcomed to Beverly Hills Wealth Management.
Also, Robert Kennedy was named president of Wells Real Estate Funds; Bruce Laning went to Baker Tilly; Bennett Gross went to EP Wealth Advisors; and Daniel Sternberg joined the board of managers at Tiedemann Wealth Management.
Dowling & Yahnke Announce Promotions
Dowling & Yahnke LLC announced the following promotions on Jan. 30: Mark Muñoz to partner; Alana Asmussen to director, portfolio management; Jacqueline Bell to director, portfolio management; and Karrol Gibbs to director, operations.
Muñoz joined in 2009 as COO, has taken on additional responsibilities as CFO and has played a significant role in spearheading strategic initiatives. Previously he spent 20 years running operations and business lines, including managing capital markets businesses for Bankers Trust, Lehman Brothers, and Bank of America.
Asmussen joined in 1995 and has held various positions including her current responsibilities as portfolio manager.
Bell joined in 2007 as a portfolio manager and has 20 years of experience in investment management, including 10 years managing a global equity mutual fund for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now BlackRock Inc.).
Gibbs joined in 2001 after 10 years as operations manager at Somerset Financial Services, a financial consulting firm in Indianapolis; she currently serves as operations manager.
Key Private Bank Launches Delaware Trust
Key Private Bank, the investment, trust and wealth management arm of KeyCorp, announced Feb. 7 that it has established Key National Trust Co. of Delaware with two industry veterans to provide trust services for wealthy clients and prospects. Anne Marie Levin, senior vice president and national Delaware trust specialist, will be responsible for working with attorneys and accountants nationally to assist in managing sophisticated estate and tax planning considerations for high-net-worth clients. Isabel Pryor, senior vice president and regional trust manager, will focus on the administration of the Delaware trusts.
Levin joins from PNC Bank, where she served as vice president, Delaware trust specialist. Previously, she was a senior estate trust counselor and fiduciary counsel at The Vanguard National Trust Co. where she counseled HNW and ultra-high-net-worth clients on sophisticated estate and tax planning options. She was also a trust and estate planning attorney at Blank Rome LLP, a national law firm.
Pryor joins from Wells Fargo Bank, where she served as vice president and a senior trust & fiduciary specialist. Previously, she was an assistant vice president in the family wealth division of Wilmington Trust Co. where she focused on the UHNW segment.
Nuveen Executive Joins EP Wealth Advisors as President
EP Wealth Advisors announced Feb. 9 that Patrick Goshtigian has joined as president. Previously, Goshtigian ran global operations in Chicago and Los Angeles for both Nuveen Investments and the Nuveen Investment subsidiaries. Goshtigian is responsible for day-to-day operations, as well as for leading the firm's expansion.
Prior to Nuveen, Goshtigian held executive positions at NWQ Investment Management Co. and Analysis Group.
Citi Private Bank Welcomes Bachmann, Miller
Citi Private Bank announced Monday that Jane Bachmann and Eugene Miller have joined the firm. Bachmann is director and UHNW private banker in its North America Asian Clients Group. She will be based in San Francisco and will report to Ida Liu, head of the group. Miller, also a director and UHNW private banker, will be based in Greenwich, Conn., reporting to Patricia McDermott, head in Connecticut and Westchester.
Bachmann joins from The Presidio Group LLC in San Francisco, where she was managing director and partner, focused on providing wealth management strategies to both U.S. and Asian HNW individuals, family offices and nonprofit organizations. Prior to that, she spent 17 years at Fidelity Investments in Dallas and San Francisco, most recently as vice president in the private client group.
Miller joins from Galaxy Family Resources in Greenwich, where he was president, providing customized financial solutions for wealthy families and family offices. Prior to that, Miller was a senior vice president and wealth management strategist at Genspring Family Offices.
Carl Richards, Author of The Behavior Gap, Joins BAM Advisor Services
Carl Richards, founder of Prasada Capital Management in Park City, Utah, has joined St. Louis-based BAM Advisor Services as its director of investor education, it was announced Monday. Richards is also the author of The Behavior Gap, a regular contributor to The New York Times and NPR Marketplace Money, and a columnist with Morningstar Advisor.
Prasada has merged with BAM's sister firm, Buckingham Asset Management, allowing Richards to focus on his new role as an educator. Prasada's clients will be served by Buckingham advisors. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.
Beverly Hills Wealth Management Welcomes Bart Albrigo, Winnie Phung
Beverly Hills Wealth Management announced Monday that Bart Albrigo has joined the firm as SVP/wealth management advisor and that Winnie Phung was also welcomed as a wealth management associate specializing in compliance.
Albrigo brings over 24 years of industry experience, and will be responsible for HNW portfolio construction and investment management. Previously, he was at Morgan Stanley as SVP and financial advisor.
Phung joins from Wedbush Securities where she served as compliance examiner, supervising capital markets activity to assess continuous compliance with industry regulations.
Wells Real Estate Funds Names Robert Kennedy President and COO
Wells Real Estate Funds announced Monday it has named Robert Kennedy as president and chief operating officer. In his new role, Kennedy will be responsible for executing corporate strategy and managing the day-to-day business operations of the real estate investment company. Company founder Leo Wells remains chief executive officer of Wells Real Estate Funds.
Kennedy, who joined in 2009, most recently served as senior vice president, product development and special projects. With over 20 years of experience in the investment banking industry, he developed his career at Wachovia Securities and, later, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Later he transitioned his focus to investment-grade real estate.
Bruce Laning joins Baker Tilly Investment Advisors
Baker Tilly Investment Advisors LLC announced Feb. 9 that Bruce Laning has joined as managing director and senior portfolio manager in the firm's wealth management practice.
He is located in the Milwaukee office and has more than 25 years of experience in financial and investment advisory services.
Bennett Gross Joins EP Wealth Advisors
EP Wealth Advisors announced Tuesday that Bennett Gross has joined the firm as an investment strategist.
Previously, he was director of wealth management at Pacific Wealth Advisors, and has 25 years of experience working with HNW individuals in the Los Angeles area. He began his career as an economist for Orange County, Calif., worked at Morgan Stanley and was co-founder and chief investment officer of Windward Capital Management Co.
Daniel S. Sternberg Joins Tiedemann Wealth Management Board
Tiedemann Wealth Management announced Tuesday the addition of Daniel Sternberg to its board of managers.
Sternberg was a partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP for 23 years, from 1988 through 2011. From 1991-1996 he was a resident partner in the firm's Paris office; now he is senior counsel to the firm. Over his 30-year career as a corporate lawyer, he counseled a broad range of U.S. and international clients across the spectrum of corporate issues and transactions.
Read the Feb. 8 New Hire Roundup at AdvisorOne.com.


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Nancy Grace? LOL.
She is part of the sensation seeking media. She is also taking side with the anti-Wilson sentiment because frankly, that is more politically correct. She's not stupid, she has...
Type: Posts; User: antinimby
Nancy Grace? LOL.
She is part of the sensation seeking media. She is also taking side with the anti-Wilson sentiment because frankly, that is more politically correct. She's not stupid, she has...
He compares this tower to the Shard in London. They aren't the same. This site is sacred. Thousands of people died here. People living in condos on this site just doesn't feel appropriate.
Why put those columns in front of those doorways? Doorways and entrances should not be hidden. That just shows lack of attention to details.
Why are they building a one story taxpayer?The lot's air rights are used up?
I know perfectly well what a grand jury is. When someone uses the word 'indict' instead of the word 'convict' that should let you know that they know it wasn't a trial.
Oh really? Is that a proven fact or is that just your guess?
The grand jury aren't filled by dumb people. If there are holes in the cop's story, surely that would make them skeptical and give...
I almost got hit by a bus' sideview mirror when I stood too close to the curb. I know I would've suffered severe head trauma and a coma if it hit me.
Is there a reason for that silly cantilever or are they just trying to be cute?
That's right but that's not what you said before.
Please. You weren't there and don't even have your facts straight. Only some of those bullets actually hit Brown.
And you sitting in front of your TV 6700 km away in London know for sure it's racism eventhough a grand jury with access to all the facts and details of the case don't agree with you.
^ Yup.
Subway sandwich crumbs?
That's kinda imaginative. The curvature does evoke the shape of a Christmas tree.
^ Check out the other pics. It only got dirty when he kneeled down. Looks like the floor still had construction dust.
Why do people buy properties when there's a real estate/economic boom?
Long time no see, macreator. Where have you been? It's good to see some old time posters come back.
I think we go through one of these discussions once every few months and yet ASchwarz still don't get it.
No one here is against construction and development. We all want it. In fact, I personally...
By her actions regarding this case and her own driving record and that of her family (her son pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges in a hit-and-run of a cyclist), DMV Commissioner Barbara Fiala...
The DMV commissioner that dismissed the tickets for the driver is Barbara Fiala. She was appointed to that position by Governor Andrew Cuomo. You should send a letter to Cuomo urging him to remove...
The city has nothing to do with green cards. The federal government deals with immigration, visas, and citizenship.
As for the Chinese money/green card claim, that is totally inaccurate. This...
Is this the most popular memorial in the country or is Washington DC's Vietnam memorial still the top?
Stunningly beautiful. This "world class" city fittingly gets the best architecture in the world.
I just learned something from that ^ article. I wasn't aware that the state had a cap (FAR 12) on residential density. I hope De Blasio gets the state to change it.
It reeks.


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"Kurbads", the new album from Latvian pagan metal kings SKYFORGER, is scheduled for release in Europe on April 26 and in North America on May 11 via Metal Blade Records. The CD was recorded at the Latvian studio Lauska with the group's own bagpipe player, Kaspars Barbals, handling engineering duties. The bandmembers also produced the album themselves to make sure the recording sounds authentic and "100% like SKYFORGER."
According to a press release, "Kurbads" offers "the typical SKYFORGER fusion of various metal styles, like old-school thrash and heavy metal as well as Latvian folk music, all rounded up with the trademark SKYFORGER sound! The artwork was created by SKYFORGER guitarist Martins and is connected to the story of 'Kurbads'."
"Kurbads" track listing:
01. Curse Of The Witch
02. Son Of The Mare
03. The Nine-Headed
04. Bewitched Forest
05. In The Yard Of The Father's Son
06. The Devilslayer
07. The Stone Sentinel
08. In The Underworld
09. Black Rider
10. The Last Battle
11. Kurbads
The song "Son Of The Mare" is available for streaming on the band's MySpace page.
A trailer for "Kurbads" can be viewed below.
SKYFORGER have been tempering their music in the smithy of the Thundergod since 1995. For the last decade, the band has been fighting under the flag of Latvian Pagan metal; an extreme blend of traditional Baltic folk music and various metal influences ranging from Norwegian-inspired black metal through to '80s-rooted heavy metal. The band's unique combination of ancient and modern influence has given them a wide appeal throughout both the metal and folk scenes, and has brought great variety to their songwriting over the course of the five SKYFORGER albums.
Through the years SKYFORGER has been busy on stages all over Europe. Behind the belt of SKYFORGER are already four European tours, many mini-tours and festival appearances and SKYFORGER is well known for their non-compromising live performances.
SKYFORGER is:
Peter - lead vocals/guitars
Edgars "Zirgs" - bass/vocals
Edgars "Mazais" - drums/percussion
Kaspars - folk instruments/backing vocal
Martins - guitars/backing vocals
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/skyforgerofficial.


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Braves' young backstops following Laird's lead
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Early in his career, catcher Gerald Laird was one of several twentysomethings to make up the Rangers' youthful rosters. During his six seasons in Texas, the average player age never climbed higher than 29.4.
But despite his youth and that of the club, Laird always sought veteran advice wherever he could find it, learning about life in the Majors from the likes of veteran catchers Sandy Alomar, Todd Greene and Rod Barajas.
"I'm still learning," Laird said. "Picking guys' brains, that's how you get better. You ask questions. You watch. You're never going to know too much about this game.
"Those guys really influenced me and helped me along the way. I'm just going to try to pass down what I learned and try to help other guys along the way."
Laird now serves as a mentor and a clubhouse leader for Atlanta, the defending champion of the National League East. Though only 34, he is one of the Braves' oldest players.
Only four players on the 40-man roster are older than 30.
But age alone does not inform Laird's experience. The product of Cypress (Calif.) College has played for a postseason contender in three consecutive seasons.
He earned a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 2011, lost with the Tigers in 2012 and fell short in the NL Division Series with the Braves last October.
He believes that the way last season ended has shaped the mood in the clubhouse and set the tone for what Atlanta hopes to accomplish in 2014.
"These guys have an understanding of what they want to do now that they got a taste of the postseason last year," he said. "It left a bad taste in their mouth, so I think it makes us even hungrier to get back to where we were and advance farther."
Getting back to the postseason will require the Braves to weather the departure of seven-time All-Star catcher Brian McCann, who signed a five-year deal with the Yankees in December.
In addition to helping fill the void, Laird is taking on an increased role as a mentor to young catchers Evan Gattis, 27, and Christian Bethancourt, 22. The Braves even placed his locker right next to Bethancourt's in the clubhouse at Champion Stadium.
Laird plans to help mold Atlanta's talented young backstops into bona fide big league catchers in a simple manner -- "by doing my job."
"They have questions, I'm here. If they want to watch, watch. Ask me questions. That's my job," he said. "I'm not going to go up to them and try to bombard them with questions and answers and [say], 'This is what you've got to do.' No.
"I want them to feel comfortable and catch the way they want to catch. If they have questions on game calling or anything else, I'm there for them."
Gattis has wasted no time picking Laird's brain, having thrived under the tutelage of McCann and Laird in 2013 during his rookie season.
"[Laird's] a book of knowledge," Gattis said. "He's been around for a long time. He knows a lot about how to handle a staff. He's just a great influence, a great baseball guy and a good presence in our clubhouse."
So far Laird is impressed with what he sees out of the young catching duo.
"They do a really good job," he said. "Bethancourt does a good job of watching and getting ready to play. Gatty, obviously, took huge strides last year and became a really good catcher. I think you're going to see him improve even more this year."
Laird shares his knowledge with Atlanta's catchers, but his influence spreads throughout the clubhouse. Reliever David Carpenter especially appreciates Laird's experience "in a lot of key situations" with the Braves' young pitching staff.
"It's really, really valuable having a guy like that back there to be able to rely on," Carpenter said. "He's been in those situations where it's crunch time, and he's putting down the right fingers with confidence, and that helps give us confidence."
But as valuable as Laird is as an influence on the diamond, the Braves also love his ability to keep the clubhouse in good spirits during the season.
"Multipurpose for G-Money," outfielder Jason Heyward said. "He keeps everybody loose, but then when it's time to get down and dirty, he keeps you on your toes as well."
Added outfielder Jordan Schafer: "He's a good guy. He's always picking on people and joking around. He's kind of a funny guy, but he's a really good teammate."
Laird enjoys having fun. He likes to chat with fans during batting practice, and you can hear his laugh in the clubhouse.
"Just have some fun," Laird said. "Make some guys smile and laugh. This game's hard. It's a game of failure, and there's going to be weeks and days that are not going to go your way. For me, the biggest thing is to be the same guy every day."
Laird is not Atlanta's everyday catcher. He is not the kind of guy who lights up the scoreboard whenever he steps up to the plate. But his impact on the Braves is indelible.
"You don't want to take players like that for granted," Heyward said.


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BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine - Police are continuing to investigate a crash in Boothbay Harbor that left two teenagers dead.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's office says the teens were in an SUV that was traveling at a high rate of speed when it went off Route 27 early Wednesday morning and struck several trees.
The driver, 19-year-old Casey Dalton of Boothbay Harbor, and a 17-year-old whose name was not released by police were pronounced dead at the scene.
The sheriff's office later said that 21-year-old William Gerardi, of Hebron, had been charged with furnishing liquor to a minor in connection with the crash. Lt. Rand Maker said Gerardi allegedly provided alcohol to the teens prior to the crash.
Investigators had not yet determined whether alcohol was a factor in the accident.
Bail for Gerardi was set at $5,000.


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I didn't want to run today.
I haven't really been out on a real run since the wedding in October. My failure to complete 30 Days of Running coupled with all of the travel from the wedding/honeymoon, then the stress and fatigue of moving in November. I just haven't felt good enough to run.
My wife and I have developed a tradition of running on Christmas and Thanksgiving. I didn't run on Thanksgiving, but I did bike. This Christmas I knew we'd be running and we did a decent cold and windy 5 mile run. That's not a lot of miles for most of you "runners" but it's a fair amount for me after 2 months of no running and dealing with pain. So it took a toll.
Then we did another short run two days later. Still sore but we did it. And then there was today…
I really didn't want to run. My feet were sore, my quads very sore and I just didn't feel like it. I lobbied heavily for No-Run, she almost bought in but ultimately didn't and we left for a run.
The Memorial Park Loop was busy, people everywhere. As we started our run my feet settled in pretty quick and the pain went away. It was a nippy 34 degrees but the sun was out so it was nice, just the way I like it. As we passed more and more people I started feeling better and could feel my body settle into a solid stride. For once, I was setting the pace on this run (Merelyn usually sets the pace as I struggle to keep up).
The more people I passed the more people I wanted to pass. I started getting the race mentality and looking for stronger runners along the trail that I could chase down and pass. Soon, we were passing nearly everyone and my stride felt easy and natural and I pushed it on.
I didn't make any new PRs or break any records but it was a good run and, more importantly, it felt good.
I'm glad I ran today.


text:
Dear TeamViewer staff and experts, :smileyhappy:
My free TV account has been flagged 3 times in the past months (first time in June 2018, and twice this month with an interval of only a few days) as being suspected to be used commercially.
The issue was resolved very quickly the first 2 times this happened to me after I filled out the Form to submit Commercial Use Suspected support ticket found in the Knowledge Base.
I just filled out the form for the thrid time a few minutes ago and now waiting for a reply.
At first, I thought that my account was flagged this way twice due to the fact that my TeamViewer ID had changed between the first and the second time (see @Ann-Kathrin's reply to the post titled Master Account change regarding this change of ID), but given that this has now happened a third time only a few days after the previous one, I don't think this ID stuff has anything to do with it after all.
My question therefore is: if someone like me who uses the application for free while respecting the "non commercial use agreement", what would/could cause the "Commercial use suspicion algorithm" to keep flagging my account as suspicious?
Could it be that it's related to my travels?
I live in Europe, my primary residence is in Spain (Barcelona) where my personal Windows PC is located and remains turned on and conneced to the Internet at all times so that I may connect to it from my MacBook whenever I need and wherever I'm located from in the world.
I do travel quite a bit, mostly because, well... I can work from anywhere I please.
I have family in Rome (I'm in fact visiting them right now), friends living in France, Belgium and The Netherlands, Canadian friends visiting european cities that I haven't been to yet and therefore make plans to meet them there, etc. During most of these travels, I would work during the day and "play" during the evening....
Could this be what's causing the algorithm to flag my account as suspicious of commercial use activity? If not, what else could it be? How can I prove once and for all that I'm not using TeamViewer to earn a living?
Thank you all in advance for your kind replies !
Luca (SkyLukeQc) :smileyhappy:
Solved! Go to Solution.
Hi Luca,
Thank you for your question - I am your expert for today ;)
It is possible that one of the remote device you connected to triggered the new PopUp after you got your un-block initially.
We are already working on improvements to just show the PopUp to the one who is triggering it. Per se, travelling is not causing a commercial use suspicion.
Please stay tuned, we gonna take actions soon and are continuously working on improving TeamViewer based on the feedback here in our community (even when we do not reply - we are of course reading every single comment in this community and forwarding feedback internally).
I hope my answer helped you.
Hi Luca,
Thank you for your question - I am your expert for today ;)
It is possible that one of the remote device you connected to triggered the new PopUp after you got your un-block initially.
We are already working on improvements to just show the PopUp to the one who is triggering it. Per se, travelling is not causing a commercial use suspicion.
Please stay tuned, we gonna take actions soon and are continuously working on improving TeamViewer based on the feedback here in our community (even when we do not reply - we are of course reading every single comment in this community and forwarding feedback internally).
I hope my answer helped you.
I've never seen this, but then I've never been able to login until recently. This has me concerned, because wouldn't Teamviewer have to actually spy on you in order to make a determination? Without being able to see what you are doing they wouldn't be able to make a determination outside of looking at the IP addresses you connect through, so unless one of the machines are at a registered corporate IP address they'd have to run spyware, wouldn't they?
I am one of them, keeps flag me as "Suspicion of Commercial Use", I fill the form but they told me I am totally a commercial usage and ask me to sign something or just buy another commercial license. I just use TV to connect to my home at other country, may be they hate me own 2 house in other country. (I always travel between 2 country).
My company had the commercial license, but TV had a few bug which make some app's windows totally black (may be related to hardware acc graphic.), there are some limitation such as file copy speed(better with TV's VPN). Last year we start looking for another solution.
So fine, it is a joke to ask me to sign an aggrement to prove I am non commercial usage which clearly I am personal. I will just stop using Teamviewer, today there are better product out there and even chrome can do it with basic function. I also order my company IT department to stop renew any TV license (yes, my company use TV and we have license)
Teamview not allow to talk about other similar product in here, but google will point you to the correct one.
Teamview serve me and my company very well but it's time for a change.
I think every person that is getting flagged for commercial use that is actually using the software personally would really appreciate a pinned post on the community forum giving the fix for this issue once the developers have figured it out. If this sounds like something that could be done, I would really appreciate you letting me know. I just want to be able to use teamviewer again and be able to recomend it to others.
I support a local charity as an unpaid volunteer which clearly comes under non-comercial use. Today they are trying to open a new site. TeamViewer have blocked me as the connection times out in less than 5 mins and says i'm commercial.
Your algorithm clearly sucks... I'll be cancelling my commercial licences too now... one more customer lost.
Dear TeamViewer Team,
Yes, it happened again... :smileysad:
This will be the 4th time since June 2018 that I'm being suspected of using TeamViewer commercially, and therefore getting the "5 minutes" PopUp.
Last time I used TeamViewer (Friday, Sep. 21), it was working flawlessly ever since my account had been unlocked for the 3rd time on Wednesday, Sep. 19, from the "Suspected Commercial Use" flag / popup.
On Sunday, September 24, I travelled from Rome (Italy) to Mallorca (Spain).
Yesterday morning (local time here in Spain, which is CEST (GMT+2)), I tried accessing my Windows PC which is located back home, in Barcelona from my MacBook Pro through TeamViewer.
Guess what... My account has once again been flagged as "Suspected (of) Commercial Use". Once again, this is the 4th time since June 2018.
During the last several weeks, I've only been using TV to remotely connect to my Windows PC from my MacBook Pro. I did not remotely connect to or from any other device when the last 2 popups occurred (yesterday and on September 19). I don't remember about the 2 previous occurrences, but I rarely connect to other devices anyway and, from what I can remember, the popup never occurred while I was trying to connect to any other device than my own Windows PC.
At first, this reinforced what I've been suspecting all along: that the issue is triggered when I travel to a different country / city / location (IP address ?) with my MacBook Pro.
However, after running a few more tests, here's what I was abe to discover :
I hadn't realized that the "popup" / suspicion of commercial use was not directly linked to my TeamViewer account, but rather to a specific computer (TeamViewer-ID)
During my tests, I saw that, from my MacBook Pro, I was able to access other devices remotely and unattended without issues. For example, I was able to connect to one of my family member's computer without a glitch.
It's only when trying to connect to my Windows PC, which has its unique TeamViewer-ID, that I would get the "5 minutes" popup. It seems to be latter that has been flagged as suspicious and causes the popup to appear when attempting to connect to it from my MacBook Pro. I also tried connecting to it using my Android phone and the latter also gets the popup, so it's definitely my Windows PC computer that has been flagged as suspicious and causes the problem.
I'm still wondering what causes your algorithm to flag it as such, though... As you told me before, the location from where I use TeamViewer isn't a factor, and I now believe this to be accurate since I'm able to access other devices, either local or abroad, flawlessly using the same TeamViewer. Could it be that I very rarely connect to my Windows PC during weekends and most often during week days, then ? Could this pattern be interpreted as a potential commercial use by your algorithm ?
Thank you once again for your kind help !
All the best,
Luca Albanese
Out of curiosity, what if you simply changed the ID used to connect? I mean, I can create several different IDs easily without even logging in and all of them can be forced to use the same password I configure. If you did this, would the problem persist? Alternatively, what if you tried reinstalling or install an old version of Teamviewer?
I'm still curious about how they actually determine commercial use or not. If the above doesn't fix the problem, that would to me imply spyware behavior. It would mean there is something on that computer they don't like.
An account based lock wouldn't make sense to me because accounts are not required for Teamviewer to work. If an account was locked out, just don't login at all. So if, for example, the account on your home PC is marked as commercial you'd just log it out and then connect, but a PC based lock also doesn't make sense because you can just reinstall unless it hid malicious files on your computer or made registry entries that could easily be removed manually.
Hi @Elliander,
Thank you very much for your reply and insight on this. I honestly did think about reinstalling TeamViewer on my Windows PC with the hope that it would be given a different ID and "voilà!", but then I thought I'd prefer getting to the bottom of this for everyone's sake and keep my settings how they are until we can get TeamViewer to work as it should and without unnecessary disruptions such as the one I reported in this thread.
What can I say, I'm a believer... :smileyvery-happy:
Thanks again !
You can create multiple IDs on your windows PC, and just logout rather than reinstall. That might be enough, and if so you can then switch back to the problem ID, but more likely they will have stored something on the PC that will require you to reinstall to get rid of. It's at least something you can try without reinstalling if you just want to get to the bottom of things.
Thank you @Elliander !
As I've been suspected of commercial use for a 5th time now after getting my PC's TeamViewer ID cleared (unlocked) the 4 previous times, I'll now try a complete uninstall / reinstall, not without first cleaning up the registry and purging the contents of my %TEMP% folder before reinstallation.
We'll see how that goes...
All the best,
I'll now try a complete uninstall / reinstall, not without first cleaning up the registry and purging the contents of my %TEMP% folder before reinstallation.
Hello @Elliander, everyone,
Well, all I can say is that I've tried and failed miserably. The lesson is...
(joke intended for all Simpsons' fans out there !)
Not only uninstalling, cleaning everything (I could think of) and reinstalling didn't resolve the issue, but the TeamViewer ID associated to my Windows PC didn't even change... If the latter isn't stored in some obscure location, then it might very well be generated based on the PC's hardware (ex: the NIC's MAC address...) or something similar.
Anyway, I'm not trying to reverse engineer TeamViewer in order to resolve the issue I'm having. I'll find a different remote access tool before giving it that much attention... But I would still be interested in knowing how one can create multiple TeamViewer IDs on a single Windows PC, and switch between them as needed.
I do not intend to use any illicit method in order to achieve this (cracks, keygens and so on), however. But if there's an official way to add or even change a TeamViewer ID on a Windows PC, I'd like to hear about it.
Thank you very much in advance !
All the best,
Did I miss the solution for this problem in your text?
Same problem here, cannot go on. First block today after 20 sec, then
10min to wait for the next block again after 20sec and so on. 3 times today.
Then I gave up. Could not assist my father. Very sad.
Would buy a privat licence if there would exist one, the commercial licence is far too
Thanks to of of the posts here I could find the form for that problem and it seems that
most is in english only. Not quite helpful for me as a german native speaker,
I never would have searched in the english section for it...
So what is the solution?
This is very odd: In the past, I was able to set and change the ID as many times as I wanted without having to reinstall or be logged in. Now that I have updated and logged in, I can't even log out without explicitly revoking permissions let alone manually change it.
Regardless of the cause, this topic would be relevant:
In that case, people with cloned computers had cloned TV IDs no matter what they did. The official response was to submit a ticket and they would send you a custom registry file that would then cause a new ID to be generated, so the ID is based on the registry now. Something in there is keeping you from changing it. Since systep is suggested as a way to avoid the issue, it's probably related to the computer security identifier and the MAC address meaning their custom registry entry would override that in some way.
[ Removed by moderator per Community Guidelines ]
As a side note: I apparently don't have privilages to go directly to this thread from the links in my email anymore. I have to find it manually because:
"You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action.
Click your browser's Back button to continue."
Oh wow. The moderator removed my step by step instructions on how to remove the registry entries that are causing this problem to begin with, citing "community guidelines" even though no guidelines are broken by this.
"This is a TeamViewer forum. Please do not discuss third party or competitor products. Please do not post links to or promote third party or competitor software. Please do not advertise to sell any product or service to anyone and check your links before posting them."
yeah, helping people fix problems cause by false positives by telling them how to modify their own registry.
This just PROVES to me that the mods don't care about actually helping people with the problem. They are reading this, and actively removing anything that can actually help anyone.
moderators remove any mentions of people being tagged with 'commercial use' ... they try to take all your money thats all and this time they disabled suport
Hi @ortsruf,
Sorry for not replying sooner. I've been quite busy lately and couldn't find the time to come visit this forum.
The post I've flagged as the solution is the one that followed it, written by @Julia. At the time, the TeamViewer ID that was being suspected of commercial use was unblocked and I could resume using TeamViewer to connect from my MacBook to my PC. @Julia also stated that TeamViewer development team are aware of some issues with their detection algorithm and that they're looking to improve it. This was good enough for me at the time.
Unfornately, the same TeamViewer ID (my Windows PC) was again suspected of commercial use (5th time), and this time around I was requested to fill out and sign a form stating that I do not make use of TeamViewer commercially, which I did as I have nothing to hide. I'm still waiting for my TeamViewer ID to be unlocked following this action, however.
I've been trying to "fix" this on my own, trying to uninstall TeamViewer completely (registry entries included) from my Windows PC and then reinstall it, but my ID remained the same and the problem persisted. Maybe there were other keys in the registry that needed to be deleted, or the TeamViewer IDs are generated based on hardware or something similar. Following @Elliander's latest posts, I believe it might be the former (registry) rather than the latter (hardware).
Anyway, I'm not going to spend much more time on this. I really do love TeamViewer, otherwise I wouldn't have spent so much energy to try to make it work again for me. If the ID of my Windows PC finally gets unlocked after filling and signing the form I talked about earlier, that would be great. Otherwise, I know there are other great remote access solutions out there and I'll sadly move to one of those in order to fulfill my personal needs.
Regarding the link to the Form to submit Commercial Use Suspected support ticket, I don't know if it exists in German. But since you do have at least some basic knowledge of English and can read the form, I would personally fill it out in German. I'm sure TeamViewer's support will be able to translate your answers at their end.
Hope this helps ! :smileyhappy:
Hi @Elliander,
Thank you very much for all the efforts you've put into this. I'm sorry I didn't read your most recent posts before today, as I've been busy with other things.
It's unfortunate that the moderators removed your instructions on how to potenitally solve the problem by altering the registry and getting a new TeamViewer ID. My guess is that these instructions are not meant to be widely known, but more to be used as a workaround to individual use cases in order to resolve, at least temporarily, problems that could not be resolved by any other means (e.g. using the application's normal behavior or its embedded algorithms). If that's the case, then I believe TeamViewer's team are simply trying to protect the intellectual property of their product and I truly respect that.
As I worte @ortsruf a moment ago, if my issue can't be resolved by any official means, then I'll simply have to switch to a different remote access solution. It will make me sad, as I truly love TeamViewer and I've been actively using it for years now, but I won't begin to use unofficial or illicit tricks to make it work... It will simply be like breaking up from a relationship that simply isn't working anymore, and then I'll move on. :smileywink:
Thank you once again for all your inputs on this matter.
Cheers mate !
Hi, I to have the exact same problem on and off for at least 12 months now.. And to be honest i have had enough with the **bleep** detection and i've had enough of re justifying myself every few months. I suggest trying **Third Party Product** . It does exactly what i want it to do, and has a few better features as well ;)
same thing here, i suspect my ISP is change IP range addresses ( i have real ip) and then TW BAN ME FOR COMMERSIAL USE!
Why are there soooo many false detections? This has been going on forever. Are you actually working on improving the algorithm?
It seems very unfair to falsely accuse and suspend so many users who are actually living within the "free for personal use" restriction.
Even though you are willing to consider an appeal, it takes weeks or even months to regain proper full access. In the meantime they are forced to look for alternative solutions because the "5 minutes" limit is insufficient to continue with TeamViewer (and usually is even less than 5 minutes).
You are falsely judging these users as guilty and forcing them to appeal and then wait forever to be reinstated. That seems pretty harsh when the majority of these people are just trying to support their friends and family, many who DEPEND on their support.Try telling your parents that you can't help them to use their computer for the next month or so because you've been falsely accused of abusing a product, when in fact you are innocent.
It's time for a little JUSTICE for the innocent! Fix your detection or turn it off!
I know your FAQ says you are not intentionally trying to push free users off TeamViewer, but that's hard to believe that because the false accusations followed by long delays definitely has that affect.
Hi there,
Well I just got back from the USA where I helped our dad of 91 move to another home. And I have been helping him with his computer for years through teamviewer. Now I had to set it all back up in the new home. Just before I left, to go back to the Netherlands, I did one test on my computer to his computer, to make sure it was all fine. Since then Teamviewer is suspected me as a professional user. Since I am back home I get this popup every day, so now this old guy of 91 needs my help but I can only help him for 1 minute and then I am kick out of his computer. I can only think it is because my computer was on the same Wifi and location, as his that caused this. Or that teamviewer changed something in their update. I hope I can call somebody in the morning, so I can help our dad again so we can skype this week. WHY IS THERE NOT A INSTRUCTION ON THIS FORUM HOW TO GET YOURSELF BACK TO THE PRIVATE FREE LICENSE. THERE SHOULD BE A QUICK WAY TO PROOF YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL, RIGHT? I HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP US OUT SOON !
@Julia wrote:
Per se, travelling is not causing a commercial use suspicion.
I prepared a brand new laptop for my parent, everything worked fine in the same house, in London. I brought it to her, in France, and when I'm back to London I get this "commercial use" message. Changing the client (and ID) didn't change anything.
The exact same thing happened with my sister in Switzerland.
Travelling seems to be the cause to me... thanks for the link to the form, I didn't find it myself. I hope it will solve it. But I also travel a lot.
I don´t have answer for the problem, but the thirth time message for commercial use on private myself, i think the only thing in these commercial use suspends are money, it´s simpliest buy this "free" program, so far they seem suspend commercial use on you.
I'm getting this message everytime I remote control my pc,
I already submitted two tickets with no response,
I'm using team viewer with only two computers that I remote control them from my smart phone to check on my personal stuff running on them.
can you please help.
[personal information removed per Community Guidelines]


text:
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text:
Bokator Vs. Muay Thai BoranKevin (เควิน) Khaosan
What is Muay Thai Boran: Boran means ancient. It is actually a Khmer word which was absorbed into the Thai language. Long ago, Thailand raided Cambodia, capturing masters of various arts, from religion, to dance, to martial arts. Khmer words and culture were adopted into Thai culture. Today, in Thai language, all words associated with religion, royalty, martial arts, science, and government come from Khmer. The Khmer claim that they invented kickboxing. The original Khmer kickboxing art is called Bradal Serey (Pradal Serey).
Today, Muay Lao, Muay Thai, Bradal Serey, and Burmese boxing (Lethwei or Lethawae) are quite similar. The cultures of these countries are also quite similar, with the people following Theravada Buddhism, which originated in India and then Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Neighboring Vietnam is always the odd-man-out. The culture is Chinese. The written language was Chinese, until the French forced them to use the Latin alphabet. And the predominant ancient martial art, Tieu Lam, is a form of Chinese Kung Fu. There are rumors that Vietnam once had a kickboxing art similar to Cambodia. Today, this art seems to have disappeared, but even in Tieu Lam, we see some elements taken from kick boxing, such as shin kicks and elbow strikes.
The point here is that the fighting arts of all of the Indochina countries are quite similar, and clearly come from the same origin. In Thailand, however, martial art developed into a massive professional sport. Kickboxing is also the national sport of Cambodia, but there are less than 400 registered boxers. In Thailand there are close to 100,000.
Muay Thai Boran is a word which is often given to the original, military fighting art, which was later watered down into a sport art, used in a kickboxing ring.
What is the difference between Bokator and Muay Thai Boran?
Muay Thai Boran ad Bokator clearly share a lot of similarities, but one primary difference is that Bokator is a system. Muay Thai Boran is not. You study Muay Thai, and if your teacher knows Boran, he teaches you some movements in isolation. For example, he advocates kicking with the bottom or side of your foot, instead of just shin kicks. Or, he teaches you spinning back kicks or heal kicks, instead of just roundhouse.
Muay Thai Boran and Krabi Krabong get lumped together. Karbi Krabong is the weapons training:just staff and doubles swords. If you see Thai practitioners using double sticks, the sticks represent swords. There is, to my knowledge, no Thai double stick art like Arnis in the Philippines.
Bokator, on the other hand, is a complete system, like a traditional martial arts. There are belts, and you learn movements, forms, and techniques in order. The weapons include the double stick, double swords, long staff and scarf.
While Muay Thai Boran includes a bit more grappling than sport Muay Thai, it is still stand up grappling from the head. And you are wearing gloves.
Bokator includes Khmer traditional wrestling (jap bap boran khmer), kick boxing (bradal serey or pradal serey), and weapons. In true Bokator fights, you don't wear gloves and you can fight on the ground, with bouts ending in submissions or chokes.
The ground fighting is not nearly as effective as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or western wrestling, but it is arguably the only ground fighting art in Southeast Asia. I have trained in nearly every country in southeast Asia (except Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunai) and there doesn't seem to be any ground fighting at all.
At this point, a reader asked me how ground fighting changes the landscape of fighting, both in Muay Thai Boran vs. Bokator and in MMA.
This is my take on the dominance of ground fighting. A good street fighter, a tough biker dude like Tank Abbot or Sony Barger, could probably hold his own against most strikers. If you see the youtube clips of the bare knuckles pro fighter named Kimbo (I think that is his name). He is a huge, strong, American guy who makes his living knocking guys out in parking lots. He probably never had any training. And if he went in UFC and got matched with a striker, he could hold his own and might win on a KO because in professional street fighting the goal is to keep the fight short and get a KO.
I've done only one of these fights. Coming into it, the mistake I made was in trying to box and move, and win in a later round. I got hit once in the eye, it opened me up, and I realized there is no later. You have to win NOW. I did win. And the fight probably only lasted about twenty-five seconds, but it was too long.
So, the answer is a tough street fighter, big and strong, used to going for the knock out would be hard to beat in a ring. The best strategy would be to drag the fight on as long as possible to make him tired. But he would be landing bombs on you the whole time, and that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience.
With grappling, the rules change. An untrained grappler stands zero chance against a trained grappler. It's that simple. I pound a bag every day in the gym, but I know if I come against the right street fighter, he could knock me out. But a guy who trains grappling every day would instantly take down an untrained grappler or a street fighter and that would be the end of the fight.
The smartest strikers, like Mirco, have learned to escape. He was smart enough to just ignore the grappling and hope to win on a kick KO. And he was smart enough not to try and win on submissions. He learned to avoid the take down and to escape back to his feet. But he had to learn that. You have to train specifically to avoid the grappler. If you look at early UFCs the grappler nearly always won because they always got the take down and then once on the ground, there was no escape for the striker.
So, comparing Muay Thai Boran with Bokator, because Bokator has the ground fighting, it is the better fighting art. The issue in Thailand vs. Cambodia right this minute, however, would be that the Bokator school has only been reopened for about five years. So, the guys don't have a lot of fighting experience. When I prepared for my black belt I went out to the village and learned Khmer wrestling with the farmers. I was the first one to do this. The team isn't ready yet to fight all comers.
In Thailand there is a lot of interest in MMA now. When I am training there, they all tell me how they would just it for the shoot and then take the grappler out with a knee to the face. This is ludicrous because their entire game plan rests on a single technique. Yes, if you shoot and run head first into a knee thrown by a pro Muay Thai fighter you will get knocked out. But what if the Muay Thai guy misses? Or what if the grappler deflects the knee with his hand? Or what if he just absorbs the knee? Or, what if he shoots and executes the throw from the waist or the hip?
We have played around with this scenario in the gym quite a bit in Bangkok. And anyone who has seen my youtube knows I am no grappler. My shoot looks like an old man bending over to pickup his change. Even with that, I am able to take them down. And of course, once I get on top, I am so much bigger, that is the end of the fight.
The throw I usually use to take down a Muay Thai fighter is actually a technique from Muay Thai Boran. You shoot in with your forearm in front of your face. Instead of hitting the hips or thighs, you hit the opponent's shin with the forearm and then scoop his heal with the other hand.
To sum up: Bokator is a complete art which, if learned would be a better fighting art than Muay Thai Boran. But at the moment, there are no battle-hardened Bokator guys to fight. And in grappling vs. striking. I believe an untrained striker may stand a chance against a trained striker. But an untrained grappler stands no chance against a real grappler. Grappling would be one of the biggest determinant in who would win between a Bokator guy and a Muay Thai Boran guy. Since Bokator has ground-fighting and Muay Thai Boran doesn't, Bokator would win.
About the author:
Antonio Graceffo holds a black karma in Bokator. He lives in Thailand and has practiced Muay Thai for a number of years. He trained in Cambodia for several years in boxing, Bradal Serey, and Bokator. In Philippines he has studied Kuntaw and Yaw Yan. IN Lao he studied Muay Lao. He has also trained at the Shaolin Temple, in China, and in schools and gyms in Vietnam and Korea. He is a frequent contributor for both Black Belt and Kung Fu magazines. His book, The Monk from Brooklyn, available on amazon.com tells about his experiences at the Shaolin Temple.
He is a qualified Emergency Medical Technician, as well as an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, "Martial Arts Odyssey," Currently he is working inside of Shan State, documenting human rights abuses, doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people. To see all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search=SearchAntonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com. Contact him - see his website. Antonio is self-funded and seeking sponsors.
"If you wish to contribute to the "In Shanland" film project, you can donate through paypal, through the Burma page of my website."


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ITT Water Technology Names Mark Campbell its New Training Manager
Mark Campbell has accepted the position of Training Manager for ITT Water Technology Inc., succeeding Jack Stubbs who has retired. In his new role at ITT Water Technology Inc., Mark will be responsible for all training programs related to the Goulds Pumps, Red Jacket Water Products and Marlow Pumps brands.
"Though Jack and I have unique perspectives on training, both of us acknowledge that it is the key element separating ITT Water Technology Inc. from all its competitors," Campbell stated.
Campbell takes over management of the company's Pump School that has graduated more than 20,000 dealers and distributors since it started in early 1960s. The new ITT Water Technology Training Manager says he has plenty of ideas up his sleeve to keep participants active and interested in the highly popular three-day pump school. Like Jack Stubbs, a former Marine Corps Drill Sergeant, Campbell says his military background on a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine will come in handy in his new job.
"During a six-year enlistment in the U.S. Navy operating, maintaining – and sometimes breaking pumps aboard nuclear submarines, I developed a real passion for analyzing why some pumps fail and determining the right long-term solutions for tricky problems," Campbell said. Mark Campbell began his career with Goulds Pumps in 1992 as a sales representative in the South Central Region. His territory grew rapidly and earned him recognition in the company's Water Systems Salesman's Club.
Campbell left the company in 1996 to pursue outside interests, returning in 2003 as a Commercial Business Manager before becoming a Market Development Manager. "I believe that training our customers and our staff is essential to our continued growth and success," Mark said. "Factory schools are the core of this education." About the man he replaces, Mark said: "Jack was an icon around here, as was Don Radford, his predecessor. I attended my first factory schools instructed by Don, and I know I'll have very large shoes to fill." "All I can do is work diligently to do my best to continue the tradition of our factory schools that are recognized by all as the very best learning experience in the industry," he said.
Goulds Pumps, Red Jacket Water Products and Marlow Pumps are brands of ITT Water Technology, Inc. - a subsidiary of ITT Industries, Inc., the world's largest and premier pump manufacturer, and offers the most complete range of pumps available for the residential, municipal, commercial, agricultural, and wastewater markets. ITT Industries, Inc. supplies advanced technology products and services in key markets including: electronic interconnects and switches; defense communication, opto-electronics, information technology and services; fluid and water management and other industrial products. Headquartered in White Plains, NY, the company generated $6.8 billion in 2004 sales. In addition to the New York Stock Exchange, ITT Industries stock is traded on the Midwest, Pacific, Paris, London and Frankfurt exchanges.
Source: ITT Goulds Pumps


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By Michael Randall
KINGSTON — With more than a dozen legislators and municipal leaders looking on, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein on Monday signed the 2013 budget that lowers the property tax levy for the first time in more than a decade.
"It's a monumental day in Ulster County," Hein said.
In addition to lowering the tax levy by .2 percent, the $355.3 million budget also calls for the county to begin assuming responsibility for the Safety Net program — social service costs currently borne by municipalities. The change is to be phased in over three years.
Ulster County is the last county in the state to take on those expenses.
The budget also requires all waste generated in the county to cross the Resource Recovery Agency scales, which officials say will help pay off the agency's $23 million in debt and solve its volume problems.
Hein signs Ulster budget
By Michael Randall


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Information Management Strategies To Achieve Collaborative Asset Life Cycle Management
Kathy | November 1, 2005
Raising the levels of "asset intimacy" among service providers is crucial where maintenance is concerned.
Companies typically will embrace a business trend in an effort to move ahead of the competition, achieve long-term savings and, in some cases, improve service levels. Among today's more noteworthy trends is outsourcing of maintenance. What is often overlooked, however, is the impact that this type of outsourcing has on the quality of asset information management.
While a majority of businesses traditionally have not kept all plant maintenance operations in-house, in some sectors today, over half of equipment maintenance is outsourced. The public sectoralso is moving in this direction—even in areas such as defense operations where highly sensitive information is the norm.
Companies that outsource maintenance operations face challenging questions regarding asset information management, including:
- How do you monitor third-party maintenance providers to ensure accuracy, safety and quality compliance?
- How can service providers be efficiently integrated into in-house maintenance and repair operations?
- What is the best way to manage service levels without direct control of contracted resources?
- Does the spread of outsourcing mean that in-house maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) is gradually losing critical technical skills?
At the same time, the move toward outsourcing places a new burden on service providers by requiring them to now know more about their customers' assets — in real-time — than in the past. But, without broad access to asset information, such as engineering documentation and service histories, service contractors are unlikely to be able to deliver the sophisticated maintenance strategies and cost savings that their customers demand. How will service providers achieve new levels of "asset intimacy" without a radical re-thinking of asset information management?
Can contractors effectively add value to maintenance and repair operations over the long haul, or will asset service levels decline as a result of outsourcing?
Effective management of expanding service networks and the complexities that directly result from outsourcing require a sophisticated collaborative asset management solution. Simply stated, companies need to build tight coordination between the activities of in-house maintenance workforces and outsourced service providers.
3 levels of "maturity"
The relationship between service and maintenance information systems is often poorly aligned. Both types of systems facilitate maintenance and repair services for equipment owners and operators, but they operate under different business conditions. These differences ought to have no impact on the quality of asset management, but, because of built-in limitations, they do.
While today's service systems support many customer relationships and complex contractual arrangements, such as service-level agreements and entitlements, maintenance management systems normally support only a single customer (i.e., the enterprise) and relatively simple financial arrangements, if any. Depending on the degree of a company's maintenance outsourcing and the complexity of its assets, enterprises fall into one of three asset management maturity categories.
- Companies in the first category—Activity-Based Asset Management—utilize the simplest maintenance and service operations that require little more than the ability to schedule and track activities and costs.
- At the next level—Siloed Asset Management— information management becomes more robust, but information remains siloed within organizations, addressing either the needs of service providers or in-house maintenance, but rarely both.
- The final asset management maturity category is Collaborative Asset Life Cycle Management. At this stage, maintenance and service operations are required to increase their collaboration and information needs to converge. Increasing the size of the service network or the complexity of the assets requires an enterprise to effectively "climb" the maturity ladder or risk asset reliability and maintenance cost problems.
Collaboration is essential
There is a great difference between managing an in-house workforce and relying on a service network. For example, engineering managers will run into problems when they increase the amount of maintenance they outsource, yet they continue to manage maintenance operations as if nothing had changed. Only those companies that understand the significant differences between maintaining an internal workforce and outsourcing will be able to successfully lower overhead costs without jeopardizing safe and effective plant operations.
With outsourcing, plant engineers are forced to control service supply costs and manage a network of providers with limited visibility and control. Meanwhile, they must be equipped to guarantee acceptable asset service levels, plant safety and regulatory compliance. The result is often an increase in maintenance errors and diminished responsiveness that may endanger customer service levels.
Existing maintenance management systems, never designed to manage across extensive outsourcing, simply don't provide a complete view of service status for the enterprise or the service provider. While outsourcing may lead to savings in the short term, it is likely that asset information gaps will gradually erode assets, causing capitalized asset costs to rise. To overcome this challenge, it is important for companies to implement a collaborative asset management solution.
The key to maintenance-service collaboration is access by all stakeholders to critical, accurate asset information , such as recent and historical service records, engineering documentation, manufacturer service bulletins, certifications and regulatory notices. To achieve new levels of collaboration between stakeholders without weakening business operations, companies are beginning to consider a new approach, the previously-referenced collaborative asset life cycle management. An effective strategy of this nature includes two core components: asset data hubs and unified applications to provide real-time information.
Uniting disparate systems
Collaborative asset life cycle management calls for service and maintenance partners to eliminate duplicate data, accommodate both structured and unstructured information and facilitate communication among disparate business systems to process the constant flow of new information from outside sources, including equipment manufacturers and regulators. To accomplish those goals, powerful asset information management data hubs are necessary.
A data hub is a real-time processing engine that automatically verifies, cleanses, de-duplicates and merges information—and then synchronizes all systems. Service and maintenance rely on their own business systems; data hubs that are online and easily interoperate across different systems help to consolidate information from all disparate sources to provide business insight about best maintenance practices and service histories.
It's also important to note that technology must support ubiquitous computing, including spatial information for geographically dispersed assets, embedded sensor data, RFID and equipment telemetry. Much more than today's mobile computing, ubiquitous computing can locate assets whose whereabouts are not easily known, update service supply chain status, optimize global multi-echelon spare parts inventories, and cut down the significant travel, research and waiting time associated with maintenance and service execution.
Consolidated enterprise view
Information systems designed for collaborative asset life cycle management must incorporate unified data models and computing standards even more than in the past as simple semantic transaction interfaces aren't robust enough for the information-sharing that is required. Extensible Markup Language (XML) provides an alphabet and perhaps grammar, but it's not yet a full-blown language that all computers share. To date, SQL and XML have provided valuable windows that we can see and walk through, but not the data highways we can drive across. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services will pave the way for the much needed unification of applications.
In their early years, enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites were perceived as only a partial solution because, instead of eliminating information, they actually made the wealth of information bigger. Mature ERP suites enable enterprise information to be consolidated in one place and dramatically reduce or completely eliminate silos of asset information. Years ago, when banks did this with consumer credit information, they tapped into a huge opportunity to better serve their customers.
Collaborative asset life cycle management requires the same approach with manufactured product information, especially for complex equipment that has long lifecycles. Only by unifying asset information can an entire service network gain the real-time information quality, compliance and control needed for sophisticated maintenance strategies and high asset service levels.
As the move to outsourcing maintenance and service continues, so do the challenges of managing asset information effectively. IT systems that successfully enable collaborative asset lif cycle management between an organization and its service partners must accurately consolidate asset information from disparate systems and also embrace unified data models and computing standards.
Innovation —particularly in the area of collaborative asset life cycle management—has enabled information technology to be less costly and more scalable. When coupled with a defined business strategy, software solutions can facilitate the collaborative asset lifec cycle management vision at a reasonable cost.
Technology plays a critical role in maintenance and repair operations. In particular, utilizing asset data hubs and unified applications will facilitate advanced collaboration between a company and its outsourced service provider. Following this path, a company will be able to achieve the very critical stage of Asset Information Management maturity.
'Sunny' Hemant Gosain is senior director, applications development, at Oracle, and currently the head of development of the company's enterprise asset management, asset tracking and supply chain cost management products. Before joining Oracle, he was a senior consultant with MCI Systemhouse, where he led and managed several IT projects and ERP implementations. Telephone: (650) 506-9284; e-mail: email@example.com