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Scosche's IEM856md In Ear Monitors offer great sound
Today's Best Tech Deals
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Scosche IEM856md In Ear Monitors
Scosche originally made its name several decades ago by providing aftermarket car-stereo-installation kits, as well as other car-audio equipment and accessories. When the iPod took over the audio-playback market, the company used the opportunity to diversify into the business of making iPod and, later, iOS accessories, including headphones and iPhone-compatible headsets. I previously reviewed the the IDR400m ( ), which I found to be unimpressive. I was even less impressed by another model I auditioned, the IDR350m; it was discontinued before we could review it. Those experiences explain my initial skepticism upon receiving the company's new IEM856md In Ear Monitors, which come with a $250 price tag. In order to justify that price, the IEM856md had better be vastly superior to its siblings—and indeed it is.
The IEM856md is a canalbud design. Canalbuds split the difference between traditional earbuds and true in-ear-canal (canalphone) models. They're also usually less expensive than canalphones, although the IEM856md is an exception, falling squarely in canalphone territory. Since they fit partially in the ear canal, canalbuds block some external noise and aim to form an acoustic seal that improves bass performance. However, they don't block as much sound as true in-ear-canal models, and, as with those models, getting a proper fit can be tricky, the cord can produce unwanted microphonic noise in a listener's ear, and using the headset function can be weird due to the occlusion effect of having your ears plugged while talking. (See our in-ear-canal headphone primer for more details.)
Upon first examining the IEM856md, you'd be forgiven for not recognizing it as a $250 set of headphones. The earpieces are bullet-shaped and formed from glossy-black plastic with some chrome-colored highlights, including a prominent bass port (the mesh-covered hole visible in the picture above) that caps the back end of the earpiece. (A white version, the IEM856m, is also available; the two models are otherwise identical.) A fettucini-like flat cable, which helps prevent tangles, exits each earpiece at a 90-degree angle; the right side of the split cable hosts a small, chrome-and-black microphone module. A rubbery cable slider lets you cinch the left and right sides of the cable, which join permanently at a beefy, black-and-chrome inline remote-control module. This remote is an Apple-style, three-button version (volume up, volume down, play/pause/call/end) with tactile markings on the buttons to help you distinguish them. The cord exits the remote module and continues down to a 45-degree, 3.5-mm headphone plug.
Rounding out the package are a square, semi-rigid, zippered carrying case with a mesh pocket and a carabiner clip; a soft-leather carrying pouch; a shirt clip that snaps onto the remote; an adapter that splits the IEM856md's headphone jack into separate headphone and microphone plugs for connecting to a computer; a cleaning cloth; and silicone eartips—specifically, single- and double-flanged versions in small, medium, and large sizes.
Scosche also offers the free tuneQ iOS app, which provides a 10-band, customizable graphic equalizer along with visualization features. I didn't get much use out of the audio features of the app, but it does include one brilliant feature: a tutorial that walks you through the process of selecting eartips, including playing a 30 Hz test tone that helps confirm that the eartips are properly sealed in your ears.
While the IEM856md may not initially look like a million—or two hundred fifty—bucks, on closer examination it becomes apparent that the build quality is high. Substantial strain relief is used at all the right places, the earpieces feel heavy for their size, and none of the plastic feels cheap.
The earpieces are relatively large, which could cause problems for people with big ear canals who often have to insert canalbuds relatively deep to get a good seal, but I think most users will find them comfortable. The flat cable also does a good job of resisting tangling, although I found the remote's buttons to have an unsatisfying, mushy action that made them difficult to press. The IEM856md's microphone performance was mixed but above average—in my testing, voices were clear and natural without undue harshness, but gain was a bit low, so voices were quieter than through the iPhone 4's built-in microphone.
Balanced, yet dynamic
While the IEM856md's looks may not attract much attention, Scosche made a particularly interesting choice when designing the earpieces' internals. Historically, canalphones have used drivers (miniature speakers) based on balanced-armature technology that has a reputation for being accurate but also sometimes light on bass and "polite" sounding. On the other hand, canalbud models have generally used dynamic or moving-coil drivers, which are miniaturized versions of the cone drivers used in traditional loudspeakers. These drivers generally produce impressive bass volume and large dynamic swings, but they aren't as accurate as balanced-armature models.
Some manufacturers, such as Future Sonics, have attempted to design better moving-coil drivers to match the accuracy of balanced-armature models without sacrificing bass response; others use multiple balanced-armature drivers (up to eight in high-end custom models), or have otherwise tweaked those drivers, to improve bass response. These approaches end up still sacrificing some areas of performance—or they increase the price of the headphones significantly. Scosche's strategy with the IEM856md, on the other hand, is to to use both a dynamic driver and a balanced armature in each earpiece, letting each driver do what it does best. Ideally, this combination gives the bass impact and dynamics of a moving-coil driver and the accuracy and detail of a balanced-armature driver. The trick isn't unprecedented—the discontinued SuperFi 5EB from Ultimate Ears was probably the first model to do it, and a few other current models use it, as well—but it's still rare enough to be an interesting design decision.
So how does this Dr. Moreau-esque approach work out in practice? The IEM856md have a natural, easy sound. High frequencies are well-balanced and never harsh, although they lack some detail compared to the similarly priced, balanced-armature Shure SE315 ( ) canalphones. The midrange frequencies are smooth and sound great over all, but, again, lack a bit of detail when compared directly to the more-accurate SE315. However, the use of a dynamic driver has paid off at the low end, with authoritative bass tones down into the low-bass region. (I heard strong output with a 31.5 Hz test track, with bass volume finally rolling off substantially at 25 Hz.) That bass is also tight for a dynamic-driver design, though still a little loose compared to the SE315.
Overall, the IEM856md's performance is very good—in fact, I preferred the IEM856md's balance and dynamics to the SE315, even though the SE315 had the edge in detail. A more-subtle difference between the two models is that music sounded more driven and faster-paced through the SE315. However, I think many listeners will appreciate the IEM856md's natural sound and bass authority over the SE315's detail and drive. The SE315 does offer superior ergonomics to those of the IEM856md—the Shure model is much more comfortable for long listening sessions.
I also compared the IEM856md to the $200 Future Sonics Atrio m5 ( ), which uses a single-dynamic-driver design. Just as a comparison with the balanced-armature SE315 highlights the advantages of the IEM856md's dynamic driver, comparing the Scosche model to the Atrio m5 demonstrates the virtues of including a balanced armature in the IEM856md. These advantages were particularly notable in the IEM856md's high frequencies, which sounded both more-full-bodied and better-balanced than the Atrio's comparably thin high frequencies. The IEM856md had a similar edge in midrange production, providing more detail and a more-natural sound than the Atrio. And although bass is the Atrio's true strong suit, I found that the IEM856md entirely matched the Atrio's bass performance. The IEM856md is the clear winner in this matchup.
Macworld's buying advice
At its $250 list price, Scosche's IEM856md isn't cheap, but for that price, you get a canalbud headset that offers great, well-balanced sound with no glaring weaknesses. And the substantially lower street prices I've seen—$136 on Amazon.com at the time of publication—make the IEM856md and IEM856m potentially great values. Further, you get some of the most-impressive-sounding bass I've heard at or below this price point. While Shure's similarly prcied SE315 may improve upon the IEM856md's accuracy, you'll be hard pressed to get both the SE315's accuracy and the IEM856md's dynamic bass without spending more. Although its ergonomics leave something to be desired, its sound is satisfying and easy to enjoy, and it shows that Scosche is capable of making a great pair of headphones.
R. Matthew Ward lives in St. Louis and has more than a Scosche—er, skosh—of enthusiasm for audio and music. He writes about these subjects, Apple, and other cool stuff on his personal blog.
This story, "Scosche's IEM856md In Ear Monitors offer great sound" was originally published by Macworld.
Scosche IEM856md In Ear Monitors
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On May 15, AMD officially unveiled Trinity, the company's successor to its Llano line of "Fusion" processors that combine CPU and GPU into a single part. The company announced five models of the new processor: three for "mainstream" notebook computers, desktops, and "all-in-one" systems; and two targeted at what AMD calls the "ultrathin" notebook market.
With a 17-watt version available for "ultrathin" notebooks, AMD can offer up an alternative to Intel's trademarked Ultrabook. "In theory, AMD has something that can work there, but we'll have to see how it plays out in the real world," said David Kanter, Manager and Editor of Real World Technologies, in an interview with Ars.
And there's one other wrinkle to deal with: Intel's pending delivery of its low-voltage Ivy Bridge processor this summer. "The big question is, from a power and performance standpoint, how does the 17-watt Trinity play out relative to Ivy Bridge?" Kanter said. "We haven't seen the Ivy Bridge parts for Ultrabook yet."
Piling on the Piledriver
Trinity is a step forward from an architectural standpoint—albeit not a long one. The CPU side of Trinity is based on an architecture code-named Piledriver, the successor to AMD's (somewhat disappointing) Bulldozer architecture. Trinity processors have two or four Piledriver cores, alongside the new Radeon 6000 GPU (with up to 384 Radeon cores) that takes up the other half of the die. (Oddly, AMD is branding the Radeon 6000 in Trinity as a Radeon 7000.)
Piledriver inherits a number of things from Bulldozer. First, there's shared L2 cache for each pair of cores, as opposed to the private L2 cache used in Llano. And the L1 cache for each core is "write-through" just as in Bulldozer—as opposed to Llano's write-back cache. That makes for slower writes to cache, but somewhat faster reads.
There are some evolutionary changes from Bulldozer in Piledriver. AMD executives said that there have been modifications made to the branch prediction used in Piledriver, but didn't get into specifics. There's more bandwidth to access L2 cache in Piledriver, and larger L1 cache Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLBs) for each core, which make it less likely that their memory manager will waste processing cycles doing a "page walk" searching for memory addresses.
Other improvements that come with Piledriver are additions to the instruction set that was missing from Bulldozer. When Bulldozer was originally being developed, Intel made changes to how it was implementing the Fused Multiply-Add (FMA) extension to the x86 instruction set, which speeds up floating-point calculations. So Bulldozer shipped with the older FMA4 version of the implementation (the 4 standing for "four operands"). The version chosen by Intel to be implemented in the company's Haswell processors, which will be introduced in 2013—FMA3— has been added to Piledriver, for compatibility.
One notable improvement is a resonant clock mesh technology, licensed from Cyclos Semiconductor that allows the processor to boost its clock speed in a more energy-efficient way. The resonant clock system kicks in when the processor runs in modes faster than 2.9 GHz, and will allow future AMD processors to reach clock speeds over 4 GHz. As a result, Piledriver's architecture is more energy efficient than Llano at high clock speeds.
But Kanter said that at least part of the better performance and power profile of Trinity comes from the overall system design, and the processor's ability to shift power dynamically between the CPU and GPU based on demand. Llano's GPU lacked any real power management of its own.
Good news, bad news
All of that adds up to a significant improvement over its Llano predecessors. It also makes Trinity more competitive with a wide swath of Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs, though just how competitive depends heavily on how you measure them.
AMD claims Trinity delivers up to a 29 percent increase in CPU performance for its current top-end Trinity processor (the A10-4600M, a 4-core processor with a maximum clock-rate of 3.2 GHz and 4 megabytes of L2 cache) over the Llano A8-3500M, and over 56% better GPU performance. AMD also claims that Trinity gets twice the CPU performance per Watt of Llano.
Then there are the comparisons to Intel's current notebook processor. Trinity's programmable GPU is certainly more powerful than that of Intel's Sandy Bridge. And overall—if you count the GPU—AMD claims Trinity's raw computing capacity in gigaflops is six times that of Intel's mid-range i5-2520M (though that processor is a dual core, it runs the same number of threads as the Trinity chip). AMD also claimed that the power management capabilities of Trinity gave systems based on it better battery life than an equivalent Sandy Bridge-based notebook.
Right now, AMD's Trinity has a big advantage over Intel's Ivy Bridge in the low-power ultra-whatever range: Trinity is shipping. (So, apparently, is AMD's Brazos 2.0 low-power chip, the company's competitor to Atom, though AMD spoke about Brazos 2.0 briefly and in the future tense at the Trinity event). According to AMD executives, over a million Trinity parts have already been shipped. Intel won't start shipping ultrabook-friendly Ivy Bridge processors until this summer, though Ivy Bridge is shipping for desktops and less-than-ultra notebooks.
But the benchmark news needs to be taken with a very substantial grain of salt. ExtremeTech's Joel Hruska called all these claims into doubt because of conflicting benchmarks within AMD's own results, and suggested that Trinity's performance was about on par with a Llano processor of the same clock speed. And regardless of how you spin the numbers, Trinity still lags behind Intel's processors in terms of CPU performance—the kind of computing power that most applications depend on (despite AMD's efforts to get people to build applications that leverage its GPU).
Given the price range that AMD is aiming for, some of the benchmarks may not have a lot of meaning since they're usually run on the highest-end chips. "Reviews rarely capture what the low-end and mid-range of the market looks like," Kanter said, "but that is where most chips are sold." Yes, core for core, Trinity is not going to nuke Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge on performance—but considering that it's priced so aggressively lower than Intel's sort-of-comparable processors (AMD is shooting for ultrabook-ish systems for under $500), that might not be much of an issue.
And in the realm of the 17-watt "ultrathin", there are other issues beyond the processor that can have as much of an impact on the computer's perceived performance. But just how much help AMD's graphics prowess will be for the company on low power systems isn't clear—right now, the main "killer app" for graphics processors is gaming, and low-power ultra-whatevers are not exactly the gaming platform of choice. (Then again, if you were looking for a gaming ultra-thin notebook, Trinity might be the CPU for you.)
"AMD's advantage in graphics depends on the power envelope," Kanter said. "The larger the envelope, the larger their advantage." The further you move down the Trinity line in terms of power consumption, the more drastically the graphics power of the processor falls off. So Trinity may end up having more hearty adoption on the desktop, where people appreciate its graphics chops more.


text:
Aloha you all,
I'm in.
Got myself located down to +/- 5 meters.
Now to get some King Cobra Laulau for breakfast.
Hard to predict what I'll be doing next Friday, but it will probably be on O'ahu – either a monitoring gig or more write up reports for the Wailua Bridge project on Kaua'i. What I know for sure is that there will always be pau hana drinks after work (Tgif, damn straight!).


text:
How to Build Super Strength, Health and Power
from the Iron Game's Greatest Teachers
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Export 79 results:Author Title Type [ Year]
Filters: Author is Jayant A. Sathaye [Clear All Filters]
Generalized Comprehensive Mitigation Assessment Process (GCOMAP):. LBNL, 2005. LBNL-55743..
Multiproject baselines for evaluation of electric power projects. Vol. 2. 2003. LBNL-51917..
The California Climate Action Registry: Development of Methodologies for Calculating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Electricity Generation. Berkeley: LBNL, 2002. LBNL-50250..
Climate Change and Developing Countries. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002..
"Development of methodologies for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation for the California climate action registry." International Emissions Inventory Conference. Vol. 12. 2002. LBNL-50225..
Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions Factors for the California Electric Power Sector. Berkeley: LBNL, 2002. LBNL-49945..
Estimating carbon dioxide emissions factors for the California electric power sector. Vol. 33. 2002. LBNL-49945..
"Large historical changes of fossil-fuel black carbon aerosols." Geophysical Research Letters 30.6 (2002). LBNL-50881..
Developing Information on Energy Savings and Associated Costs and Benefits of Energy Efficient Emerging Technologies Applicable in California. California Energy Commission, 2001. LBNL-4434E..
"Forestry mitigation potential and costs in developing countries - Preface." Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 6 (2001). LBNL-50947..
"Carbon emissions trends for developing countries and countries with economies in transition." Quarterly Journal of Economic Research 6 (2000). LBNL-44546..
Empirical support for global integrated assessment modeling: Productivity trends and technological change in developing countries' agriculture and electric power sectors. Vol. 8. 2000. LBNL-56192..
Estimating Carbon Emissions Avoided by Electricity Generation and Efficiency Projects: A Standardized Method (MAGPWR). Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2000. LBNL-46063..
Estimating the greenhouse gas benefits of forestry projects: A Costa Rican Case Study. Vol. 8. 2000. LBNL-42289..
"Project-based activities." Land Use, Land-Use Change And Forestry. Vol. 8. 2000. LBNL-60365..
Guidelines for Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Verification, and Certification of Energy Efficiency Projects for Climate Change Mitigation. 1999. LBNL-41543..
Guidelines for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Verification, and Certification of Forestry Projects for Climate Change Mitigation. Vol. 4. 1999. LBNL-41877..
India's Aluminum Industry: Productivity, Energy Efficiency and Carbon Emissions. Vol. 4. 1999. LBNL-41845..
India's Fertilizer Industry: Productivity and Energy Efficiency. Vol. 4. 1999. LBNL-41846..
"The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Verification of Climate Change Projects." Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 4.1 (1999) 43-60..
The Institutional Needs of Joint Implementation Projects. 1995. LBL-36453..
"Economic Analysis of Ilumex a Project to Promote Energy-Efficient Residential Lighting in Mexico." Energy Policy 22.2 (1994) 163 - 171. LBL-34877 Preprint..
Strategies for Energy Conservation in Road Freight Transportation in China. LBNL, 1994. LBID-2066..
"Integrating ecology and economy in India." 1993. LBNL-59895..
Energy Use in Cities of the Developing Countries: A Review. LBNL, 1987. LBL-19597..


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About My Burger - Calhoun
A Minneapolis-rooted, family-run gathering place complete with a little neighborhood know-how. A place where your burger is hand-made the way you like it, just as soon as you order it. Maybe a few seconds earlier if we hear you coming. And if that's the case, you might want to have someone take a look at that muffler. Or take those cards out of your spokes. (C'mon. You're not fooling anyone.) At MyBurger, we see tastebud trust as earned, not given. So we've kept it simple, with burgers good enough to bring a man-tear to your eye. And if getting fries right is a science, high school chemistry wasn't a total waste after all. Whether you opt for the humble Single or loaded-up Double, it comes your way on a just-puffy-enough, locally-baked buttered bun. Two parts oniony. One part ketchup-mustard-pickle-y. All real good-ly. Of course you can always request a custom job. If you're comfortable messing with perfection
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04 May Jim Jefferies Live at the Irvine Improv
Show Summary
Adam and the gang bring Jim Jefferies to the stage right from the top of the show. Adam and Jim talk about a benefit they recently participated in, and why Adam doesn't understand silent auctions. Later they discuss whether or not Barry Manilow is gay, and seeing Siegfried and Roy in their prime. Adam then responds to an audience question about being scared, and talks with Jim about Paul Hogan.
Alison opens the news by reading through some of Osama Bin Laden's recently released letters. The group also talks about a controversial Ashton Kutcher commercial, doing comedy in India, and a fire at Tyler Perry's studios. After discussing the suicide of Junior Seau, the group talks about the most expensive piece of art ever auctioned. As the show wraps up, the guys discuss the stresses of being tall, and when Adam's dad would rent records from the library.
Visit http://JimJefferies.com, and follow him on Twitter @JimJefferies
Ashton Popchips
[youtube url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AezA2DPVSGQ" autohide="1″ showinfo="0″]
Junior Seau Mom
Show Credits
Producer: Mike Lynch
Producer: Mike Dawson
Audio/Voice Over/Post-Production: Mike Dawson
Newsgirl: Alison Rosen
Sound Effects: Bryan Bishop
Associate Producer: Gary Smith
Technical Director: Chris Laxamana
Show Summary: Matt Fondiler


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From the Newsroom to the Classroom
Aug. 15, 2013
ST. LOUIS - When Michelle Oyola, Journalism '07, started her first job out of college at The Washington Missourian newspaper, she never expected her career path would lead her back to school. But after a yearlong stint as web and youth editor, during which time she mentored local high school students in journalism and worked with them to launch the country's first teen page at a nondaily newspaper, the teaching profession beckoned.
"I realized I love journalism, but I love this more," Oyola said.
Oyola's goal was to teach English language arts to high school students in an underserved St. Louis school. So she applied to Teach For America (TFA), an organization that trains top college graduates and professionals who commit to teach for two years in low-income urban and rural public schools. According to TFA, in low-income communities, only 9 percent of students go on to graduate from college by the time they are 25. The organization's vision is that all children in the United States will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.
Admission to TFA is highly selective; only 14 percent of applicants, or 11,000 out of more than 78,500, were admitted to the 2013-2014 corps. After Oyola was accepted to TFA, she underwent a rigorous six-week training program in Houston. From there, she was assigned to the St. Louis Construction Careers Center (CCC) charter high school.
At CCC, Oyola served as the English Language Arts department head, taught various classes in the subject, founded the drama club and sponsored a creative writer's group. She extended her two-year TFA commitment for an additional year at CCC, while also earning a master's degree in secondary curriculum and instruction at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
It was her experience teaching in the high school setting that, in turn, led her to want to teach younger students.
"What I saw, year after year, was that at least 20 percent of the incoming freshman students were reading at a third- or fourth-grade level," she said. "They had such high career aspirations, and while not impossible to achieve, I knew how difficult it would be for them to catch up. It was clear that we need to address this problem at a younger age."
When it opened in August 2011, Oyola joined South City Preparatory Academy (SCP), a free public charter school open to all St. Louis City residents, regardless of their neighborhood, socio-economic status, academic achievement, or ethnicity. At SCP, she found her perfect niche: teaching middle school communications arts. This year, Oyola also will lead a fifth grade "home advisory," or homeroom class, serving as the personal connection to her students and their families.
When classes begin at SCP on Aug. 26, Oyola's first two weeks will be spent with these fifth-graders, getting them grounded in the school's environment, teaching them to be scholars and respect for one another.
Each home advisory class at SCP takes a name for itself, and Oyola's class will be known as "Webster" with the Gorlok serving as its adopted mascot.
"The thing about fifth-graders is that they are just so darn cute," Oyola said. "I love my job; I love those kids."


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Mauti, Hodges uphold PSU's 'Linebacker U' image
Michael Mauti seemed antsy the way he leaned back and forth in his chair, fidgeted with his fingers and checked his phone.
And that was Mauti just having a conversation in a classroom. Now imagine the taut, 232-pound package of boundless energy wearing shoulder pads and a helmet and sporting a glare as if he were a bull ready to pounce on a matador.
Yup, Penn State's star linebacker is ready to go for Saturday night's showdown with No. 9 Ohio State (8-0, 4-0 Big Ten).
''To me, it's either you're all in or ... I don't really see any other way,'' Mauti said this week. ''They say, `Don't get too high, don't get too low. To me you don't get low - you just stay high.''
For added emphasis, Mauti motioned his hand above his head. It was only fitting for one of the most respected leaders on a defense that's getting better each week.
Tackle Jordan Hill leads the push up front for the Nittany Lions (5-2, 3-0). End Deion Barnes has emerged as a pass-rushing threat as a freshman. The secondary is playing better following early-season trouble on third downs.
But the beating heart of this defense lies at outside linebacker, where Mauti and fellow senior Gerald Hodges form one of the top one-two punches in the country.
The ''Linebacker U.'' reputation is in good hands.
''I wish I had a motor like them,'' Hill said about Mauti and Hodges. ''Even when they're talking, they're going full speed.''
Converted from safety his freshman year, Hodges' 54 tackles is second on the team - to Mauti's 65, of course. And yes, they do keep track of stats in a friendly competition.
They're each semifinalists for the Butkus Award given annually to the best collegiate linebacker. Defensive coordinator Ted Roof, in his first year in Happy Valley, tweaked Penn State's already-solid schemes to add more looks and play with more aggression.
''Each and every game, and every practice, we motivate each other,'' Hodges said. ''It's not like he tells me his stats, and I get mad.''
Indeed, Hodges describes himself as the calmer of the two, at least off the field. On the field, Mauti and Hodges play like they could go 2-on-11 against the offense.
''On the field, we're basically the same exact person. The same exact intensity,'' Hodges said. ''But off the field, Mauti can't sit still ... He always has to be moving around.''
Not so fast, Gerald. Mauti's got a good description of his fellow linebacker, too, by virtue of the pregame routine last week before Penn State's 38-14 thrashing of Iowa.
The locker room in Iowa City was virtually silent except for one voice. Hodges, with his headphones on while preparing for the game, singing a rap song.
''He describes me as hyperactive? I would call him `sporadic,''' Mauti said, laughing. ''On the field, I mean he plays with the same energy, but then he gets in his own world. He's in `Gerald-world,' when he puts on his headphones and it's silent in the locker room.''
Whatever the pregame ritual, the play of Mauti and Hodges harkens of other recent dynamic Penn State linebacker duos.
In 2005 and 2006, Paul Posluszny and Dan Connor hounded opposing running backs. In 2009, Sean Lee and Navorro Bowman wreaked havoc together all over the field.
Mauti could have joined Lee and Bowman in the middle that season had he not gone down with a season-ending injury to his right knee. He was playing well last season until another season-ending injury, this time to his left knee in Week 4.
''I recruited him hard at Florida. Loved him as a high school athlete,'' Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. ''He's a tough guy. He's a leader. ... He's playing his tail off after his knee injury.''
For all that intensity on the field, though, Mauti is ''really kind of meek and mild-mannered'' off the field, said his father, Rich Mauti, who also played for Penn State.
''Like many football players, when you hit that switch when you get down to the field, he's an extremely emotional player,'' the elder Mauti said recently. ''In the real world, he fits in perfectly ... he'd rather be behind the scenes than in front, believe it or not.''
But front and center is exactly where Mauti stood in late July, days after the NCAA levied its strict sanctions on Penn State for how the school handled the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The punishment included a four-year postseason, meaning Mauti and the other seniors wouldn't be able to finish their college careers at a bowl game.
The NCAA also allowed current players - Mauti included - to seek immediate transfers to other schools without having to sit out a year. The rumor mill spun out of control. Would Penn State even have a team to field in 2012?
Mauti and running back Michael Zordich stepped up. Surrounded by about two dozen players at a hastily-called news conference, Mauti and Zordich made an impassioned statement that they were staying in Happy Valley. Eventually, most other players followed suit, though the Nittany Lions did lose about 10 key players including tailback Silas Redd and kicker-punter Anthony Fera.
Mauti also wasn't shy about criticizing Illinois coach Tim Beckman for actively recruiting Penn State players over the summer. Mauti backed up his words with a star turn in last month's 35-7 rout of the Illini with six tackles and two interceptions, including a 99-yarder that set a school record.
Just five more games to go for Mauti to put on his blue-and-white uniform, starting with Saturday's tilt against the unbeaten Buckeyes. The senior in part credits Lee, now with the Dallas Cowboys, with instilling his every-second-counts intensity.
''Once you start feeling the clock, you've got less and less time,'' Mauti said. ''You've got to make the most of what you've got.''
Follow Genaro Armas at http://twitter.com/GArmasAP


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HAN SOLO (Chinese Bootleg)
Source: (A New Hope)
Year: 1997
Assortment: Bootleg Figures
Assortment Number: None
UPC Number: None
Packaging Variations:
Weapons and Accessories:
Comments: This bootleg figure is quite different than the official figure. Notice the silver belt and blue holster.
Point of Interest: The cardback is a generic one, showing Luke Skywalker in his Stormtrooper disguise on the front and several other characters on the back.
Back To Bootlegs


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Alicia Keys will perform at NBA All-Star game
Alicia Keys will be the sole performer for the 62nd NBA All-Star Game halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 17. Keys will perform as part of the All-Star Game "Entertainment Series presented by Sean John at Macy's." The game will air live at 8 p.m. ET on TNT and ESPN Radio.
Before the start of the All-Star Game, Ne-Yo will perform as players take the court, followed by John Legend, who will sing the national anthem. Actress/singer Gloria Reuben, who stars in the multi-Academy Award-nominated film Lincoln, will perform the Canadian National Anthem.
Nick Cannon will host State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, airing live at 7 p.m. on TNT, featuring performances by British pop sensation Ellie Goulding, American Idol Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips and recently reunited pop-punk band Fall Out Boy.
Goulding will tip off the evening by singing her No. 1 single Lights, followed by Phillips, who will perform his song Home between the Taco Bell Skills Challenge and Foot Locker Three-Point Contest. Fall Out Boy will play their No. 1 single My Songs Know What You Did In The Day (Light Em Up), before the start of the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. In addition, RaVaughn will perform The Star-Spangled Banner and Michelle Peavy will sing O Canada.


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Note to readers:
This thread follows the founding and early history of what became raspbian (though the name raspbian wasn't used until some time after the project began). Most early discussions happened here (though some happened on the debian-arm mailing list). The thread was originally posted in the "projects and collaboration general" forum and has moved forums a couple of times as the raspberry Pi guys reorganised and expanded their forums.
Some even earlier discussions (before the project really started) can be found in http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 1&start=25
I have now locked this topic because having new posts in it when we have a whole forum to use does doesn't serve to do anything except confuse.
-- plugwash
I'm creating a new topic in this forum in the hopes of getting some help around the project of creating a flavor of Debian armhf that is tuned to the specifics of the RPi. I'm hoping that by doing some of the early work I can help kick off a broader effort to make Debian a first class, no compromise, Linux distribution for the RPi.
Right now, my immediate goal is to not create a full Debian port for the Raspberry Pi, but rather an experimental build of armhf tuned to the RPi that would have enough of the system in place that tests can be run to determine if a full blown porting effort would be worthwhile. This would involve re-compiling enough of the armhf packages for ARMv6+VFPv2 to create a minimal Debian install using debootstrap, the build-essential packages and perhaps some other interesting packages that might demonstrate the performance benefits of hardfloat compilation.
As of now, I've purchased a Freescale iMX53 Quick Start Board with a ARM Cortex-A8 1 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM and went through the somewhat arduous task of getting u-boot, a working Linux Kernel and a basic install of Debian Wheezy armhf distribution running on it. It is my intention to use this platform to develop the early RPi tuned Debian packages that I can share with others.
My next steps are to recompile the build-essential packages to, by default, output RPi friendly ARMv6+VFPv2 binaries rather than ARMv7-A+Thumb-2+VFPv3D16 binaries and then use these packages to recompile the 250, or so, packages required to create a minimal install of Debian. I believe (and someone please confirm this if possible) that the ARMv6+VFPv2 packages I create should be fully compatible with the standard armhf packages, meaning I can mix them on a system which should help the porting process. This is because they share the same ABI and the ARMv7 processor should run ARMv6 binaries fine (the passing of floating point values in the VFP registers is where some issue may crop up).
Once I get the 250 or so packages recompiled for a minimal install of Debian armhf for RPi, I should then be able to test these out by creating a minimal install for my iMX53 Quick Start Board. By then, hopefully, I'll have actual RPi hardware in hand and use the same packages to create a Debian armhf install on the Raspberry Pi. Obviously, such an install will be severely limited due to a lack of all the 10,000 other Debian ports being available, but it should at least be enough to run performance experiments against and have enough available to port any other Debian package to the RPi with hard float enabled.
The other route I could have gone is to stay with the armel ABI where floating point values are passed in integer registers and recompile key packages with hardware floating point enabled. The advantage this has is that the 10,000s of existing armel packages for Debian could be used without change and the compilation process is narrowed down to just a few hundred packages that could really benefit from hard float compilation. However, to me, this seems to be just a half step forward for RPi Debian users and the RPi would benefit from having a Linux distribution that takes maximum advantage of the computing resources of the platform.
I could use help in this effort by people more familiar with the Debian package build system giving me advice as to the most efficient way of getting the packages built. First, beginning with the build-essential compilers and making sure I'm selecting the right options and configuring things so that the resulting binaries would indeed run on the Raspberry Pi. Then, if there are other people who have iMX53 boards, perhaps sharing the task of building the initial set of packages needed for the minimal install of Debian.
What do other Debian fans think of this approach? Comments or suggestions?


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Visualizing the Hosting Patterns of Modern Cybercriminals
Nice article on SANs:
Andrew Hunt – Visualizing the Hosting Patterns of Modern Cybercriminals
For example when seed data pulled from Malware Domains is correlated with passive DNS and ASN data, then visualized, it is possible to see how the majority of the authoritative nameservers are hosted in the same network block. This dependence indicates an investment by the aggressor into a particular hosting company and can provide an effective network-level block at relatively low cost. As always, be aware of potential collateral damage when blocking a network portion that may also contain legitimate IP hosting space.


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Directed by BSC associate artist Christopher Innvar (recently seen in White's The Snow Geese on Broadway), performances play the Massachusetts venue May 21-June 14 on the St. Germain Stage.
The cast also includes Katya Campbell (Woman), Adam Donshik (Man) and Brent Langdon (Ian). Opening night is set for May 24.
In The Other Place, press notes state, "Juliana Smithton (Helgenberger) is a successful neurologist whose life seems to be coming unhinged. Her husband has filed for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man, and her own health is in jeopardy. But in this brilliantly crafted work, nothing is as it seems. Piece by piece, a mystery unfolds as fact blurs with fiction, past collides with present, and the elusive truth about Juliana boils to the surface."
Currently featured in the new CBS TV series "Intelligence," Helgenberger is best known for her role as Catherine Willows in "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." She won an Emmy for her break-out role of K.C. in the series "China Beach."
The Other Place has scenic design by Brian Prather, costume design by Krissy Sneshkoff, lighting design by Scott Pinkney and original music and sound design by Anthony Mattana. Michael Andrew Rodgers is the production stage manager.
The Other Place received its world premiere Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre, and subsequently received its Broadway premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club with Joe Mantello directing Laurie Metcalf.
The St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center is located at 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield. Tickets start at $40. Low-priced previews May 21 and May 22 are $15. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Barrington Stage Box Office at (413) 236-8888 or visit BarringtonStageCo.org.


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Swimming & Diving Kicks Off Season With Blue/Gray Intrasquad
By ODU Athletics
Sept. 14, 2012
NORFOLK, Va. -- Catch your first glimpse of the 2012-13 Old Dominion men's and women's swimming & diving teams in the annual Blue-Gray Intrasquad at 9 a.m. at the J.C. "Scrap" Chandler Pool in the Student Recreation Center.
The ODU swimming & diving squads will have four home meets this season including Richmond and UNC-W on October 12th-13th, the Pod Meet with George Mason, Northeastern, and Towson on November 2rd-3rd, George Washington and Rutgers on December 1st, and William & Mary on January 26th.
The men's team returns several key members including junior Olympian Sidni Hoxha, distance swimmer Bernardo Figueredo, and All-Conference swimmer Jason Haigh.
Hoxha, representing his native Albania at the 2012 London Olympics, swam to a first place finish in heat #3 in a time of 51.11, .33 seconds ahead of Kevin Avila Soto of Guatemala for the top time of the heat and 37th overall. The 2011 Rookie of the Year, Hoxha earned a pair of All-CAA honors last season as the champion in the 50 freestyle and with a second place finish in the 100 freestyle. In the 50 free, Hoxha captured a new ODU benchmark and NCAA "B" cut time of 19.71 becoming the second ever Monarch to come in under the 20-second mark in the event, while he tied the school record of 44.31 in the 100 freestyle.
Figueredo earned All-CAA accolades in the distance events with a pair of third-place finishes and ODU record setting times in the 1650 and 500 freestyle. He collected a time of 15:23.90 in the 1650 freestyle resetting a mark that had stood since 1999 and swam to a record time of 4:26.34 in the 500 freestyle.
Haigh earned All-Conference accolades in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke. The sophomore Monarch captured a personal best of 55.80 in finishing the 100 breaststroke in third place, putting his name third all-time in the Monarch record books. He also earned All-CAA in the 200 breaststroke with a third place time of 2:01.30 and the second fastest time in ODU history behind Arnason.
Junior Andrew Crockett also picked up a trio of All-CAA selections in the relay events. Crockett helped the 400 medley relay race to an NCAA "B" cut time of 3:16.01 and new ODU record for the CAA title, while he placed second with the 200 medley relay with a new ODU record of 1:29.33. He also helped the Monarch swim to a third place finish in a time off 3:01.38 in the 400 freestyle relay.
On the women's side, the Lady Monarchs return a pair of All-Conference performers in senior Kimberley Rashleigh and sophomore Yesim Giresunlu.
Rashleigh earned a pair of all-conference honors with NCAA "B" cut times coming in the 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke. Rashleight swam to a time of 4:17.20 for a second place finish in the individual medley while she bested her own school record by .32 seconds with her time of 1:58.54 to take second place in the backstroke.
Giresunlu picked up All-CAA accolades in the 1650 freestyle in her first appearance at the conference championships. She had a third place third place finish in the event setting a new ODU benchmark by three seconds with her time of 16:42.59.
Following Saturday's intrasquad, the Monarchs and Lady Monarchs will return to the pool to host Richmond and UNC-W in a two-day meet beginning on October 12th.


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San Francisco, Satellite Awards, Chicago, St. Louis, Indiana, Toronto, Florida, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, Black Film Critics, Utah, Dublin, Women Films Circle – I feel I may have neglected you slightly.
With thirteen different lists of winners to report back on, well, I'll keep it brief, but a list of Best Picture, Director, all four Acting winners, Best Screenplays, Cinematography, Documentary, Animation and Foreign Film can be found below.
It's mainly all about Zero Dark Thirty and Daniel Day-Lewis as expected, but there are some interesting wins to pick up on (namely thanks to Toronto) and prizes to whoever finds The Artist hidden within.
Check it all out below: Continue reading


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Cast iron was first invented in China in the 4th century BC. After melting, it was poured into molds to make ploughshares, pots, weapons and pagodas. In the west, where it did not become available until the late 14th century, its earliest uses included cannon and shot. Throughout the 1700s, this iron proved valuable for making armaments, pots, steam engines, architecture and bridges. Automobile and machine parts are still valuable uses of cast iron, along with home decorations and cookware.
Bare cast iron is able to withstand high cooking temperatures, both on the stove and in the oven. It is cast from a single piece of metal so the heat is distributed evenly. Seasoning the cook surface will also make it stick free. Searing, frying, braising and baking-it can all be done in this black iron. It can be set directly on the coals at a cookout, too! No other metal cookware can do this.
Cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens can be purchased in most big box stores, specialty stores, and online. However, American cast iron cookware manufacturers are harder to find. During the first half of the 20th century, such brands as Griswold and Wagner Ware were especially popular. Both of these companies folded and were integrated into other manufacturers in the 1950s. The Lodge Manufacturing Company is currently the only major manufacturer of this rustic cookware in the United States, as most other cookware suppliers sell pots and pans that are made in Asia or Europe.
Enameled cast iron cookware is an attractive alternative to the bare version. It is finished in many attractive colors and does not need to be seasoned to make it stick free. It is also rust resistant and easy to clean. There are several companies that make this enameled version, including Lodge, who make theirs in China. A negative aspect is that the enamel can scratch and chip. Care needs to be taken to prevent damage as this will expose the metal and possibly allow rust to develop.
Benefits and advantages that come with owning a cast iron cooking set.
Even Heating
When you are ready to toss those fresh veggies, meats or breads into a quality cast-iron pan you know that the evenly distributed heat this cookware will produce perfect foods that everyone will appreciate.
Basic Simplicity
Today there are people who choose to use cast iron cookware because they prefer the unadorned, country look that these pots and pans offer. The black iron stands out and gives the appearance of serious cooking style yet there is something comfortable and familiar about each and every cooking set.
You should also realize that cast iron pots and pans feature some healthy benefits as well. While Teflon and other non-stick coatings appeal to a number of cooks these types of pans have chemicals that will leach into your food when the temperature exceeds a certain temperature. Even aluminum pots and pans have come under intense scrutiny as far as consumer health and safety is concerned. A quality cooking set is safe to use for a wide assortment of cooking tasks.
Practical and Economical
The cast iron material can hold up to high temperatures, extended cooking periods and years of use. This means that you are getting a iron cooking set set that delivers on its promise and you are also going to get your money's worth out of this particular purchase. Many iron pots and pans have been handed down through several generations of family members and they are still in 'like new' condition.
With cast iron skillets it is easy to brown your meats and vegetables or achieve that ideal searing effect. These cooking accessories are meant to be used in the oven, under a broiler, on top of the stove or with an outdoor campfire. The versatility of a iron cooking set is unmatched by any other type of cookware on the market.
|Estimated shipping time 7 to 14 days.
12.5" Skillet With Two Silicone Handle
- Code: wilson45595 Free Shipping.
|Estimated shipping time 7 to 14 days.


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The Ocean in Google Earth combines renderings of underwater terrain with regional information from marine biologists and oceanographers to enable Google Earth viewers to explore the ocean realm and learn about marine life and other ocean-related areas of interest.
Given that science has only explored a small percentage of the vast ocean, which makes up 71% of this planet, this will be a unique and useful tool to help people gain an understanding of the importance of the marine environment.
Oceans are rarely discussed in the media during this era of greening the planet. Climate change is focused on the impact it will have on land, overfishing is a tremendous problem in the ocean, but few people are aware. The ocean is viewed superficially by most of humanity – we see the surface and assume the ocean is invulnerable to over-exploitation.
This tool will allow those with access to the web an up close and personal look at all ocean regions as well as access to information through fact files and videos and the ability to track satellite-tagged animals such as whales.
This tool is available on the latest version of Google Earth.
To read how the concept was born and implemented see: Google Earth Fills Its Watery Gaps from today's New York Times.


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Our Work
In communities
We move the world to create better lives for dogs by ending inhumane killing.
In farming
We take action to help the billions of farm animals who suffer every day.
After disasters
We move fast to protect animals affected by natural disasters around the world.
In the wild
We work to protect and save wild animals and to keep them in the wild, where they belong.
Alternatively, you can give your gift over the phone by calling our Supporter Services team at
1 800 363 9772.


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Established in 1895, Brazil's largest independent insurance company, SulAmerica Seguros needed to create a blueprint and a roadmap capable of supporting new business needs. Goals: increase the efficiency of marketing - producing faster retention and new customer campaigns - and improve customer service through a hybrid, unified, fast and low cost architecture. With Informatica MDM – Customer 360, SulAmerica is able to provide a single version of truth for customer data from 16 different sources and now has a trusted 360 degree view of customers across all lines of business. Simultaneously, SulAmerica is gradually reducing IT costs and improving on customer insights for enhanced segmentation for targeted selling in order to enable cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. As a result, SulAmerica is entering in a new relationship with customers, brokers, and suppliers that is bringing about a cultural transformation and igniting a market differentiation.
The true end-to-end MDM solution tackles complex issues head-on with complete and accurate views of complex business-critical master data and relationships.
American Equity Investment Life Insurance increases business in the broker dealer space by 400%.
Transamerica's Enterprise Marketing and Analytics Platform provides a complete view and understanding of all customer relationships across Transamerica's operations.
Western Union built a data platform based on Hadoop and Informatica Big Data Edition


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Key Info Compare
- FuelDiesel
- TransmissionAutomatic
- 0-62mph secs
- Top Speed141 mph
- C02112 g/km
- Torque236 lbs/f
Mercedes wants its A-Class to meet a wide cross-section of customer needs. That's why as part of this fourth generation model line-up, the company has brought us this Saloon body style. To compensate for the lack of a hatch, you get a little extra rear seat room and a big 420-litre boot. And arguably, a little extra style.Read Full Review
The A-Class Saloon offers an interesting proposition to buyers who'd like a compact four-door Mercedes but have no need to stretch up to a C-Class. Jonathan Crouch takes a look at what's on offer.
You'd have thought that the market for really compact premium brand saloons might be a little bigger than it is. Normal 'D'-segment premium brand four-door models like the BMW 3 Series, the Audi A4 and the Mercedes C-Class have, after all, become fairly expensive in recent times, with prices starting at well over £30,000. Think £35,000 in fact, to get what you probably want. If in contrast, you could get much the same thing for around £28,000 fully kitted-out, that'd have to be an interesting proposition for middle managers. Wouldn't it? Audi thought so, launching its A3 saloon in 2015. But BMW didn't respond at all and Mercedes fielded only its CLA four-door Coupe - which wasn't quite the same thing. Now though, Mercedes has done the job properly, taking the opportunity represented by the introduction of the fourth generation A-Class range to bring us a proper notchback four-door A-Class Saloon. Let's check it out.
Driving Experience
The A-Class Saloon range is based around nine engines. In the petrol range, the entry-level A 180 variant is likely to be popular, featuring a 1.4-litre 136hp unit available with either 6-speed manual or 7G-DCT dual-clutch auto transmission. This same engine's offered in the A 200 with 163hp, which manages rest to 62mph (in the manual model) in 8.2s. Next up is the A 250, which uses a 2.0-litre petrol powerplant in a 224hp state of tune, manages rest to 62mph in 6.2s and is only offered with a 7G-DCT auto 'box. Mercedes also offers an A 250e petrol plug-in hybrid variant, which uses a 1.33-litre petrol engine mated to a 75kW electric motor linked to a 15.6kWh battery and offers 44 miles of WLTP-rated electrified driving range. There are three diesel alternatives, all offered only as automatics. The first is the A 180d, which puts out 116hp and uses the 7G-DCT auto gearbox. Next up is the A 200d which has a 2.0-litre 150hp engine. Beyond that lies the top A 220d, which tunes the same unit up to 190hp. The A 200d and A 220 use an 8G-DCT auto. At the top of the range are the two Mercedes-AMG 2.0-litre petrol turbo hot hatch variants. There's the A 35 4MATIC which offers a potent 306hp. And the A 45 S 4MATIC+, which has 421hp. What else do you need to know? Well the suspension is the usual torsion beam rear set-up on most models, but if you go for a variant with 4MATIC AWD, you'll get a more sophisticated multi-link rear set-up. The 'DYNAMIC SELECT' driving modes system is standard, as usual enabling you to tweak steering feel and throttle response. At extra cost, adjustable damping can be added into it. Some of the autonomous driving capability from larger Mercedes models has been built into this one, meaning that, in certain situations, you're a-Class, if appropriately equipped, will effectively be able to drive itself on dual carriageways at cruising speeds.
Design and Build
This Saloon A-Class model is 130mm longer than its hatch stablemate, but sits on the same wheelbase. The long wheelbase version of this four-door is limited to the Chinese market. The standard wheelbase model for Europe gets a modular two-part rear bumper and what Mercedes calls a 'muscular and sensual' shoulder line. Inside up-front, it is of course exactly the same as in an A-Class hatch. The usual instrument binnacle cowl has been completely dispensed with, so the wing-shaped main body of the dashboard can extend from one front door to the other with no visual discontinuity. A virtual instrument screen (of either 7-inches or 10.25-inches in size) replaces the usual dials and can be joined with a centre-dash infotainment display (again either 7-inches or 10.25-inches in size) to create one continuous monitor, much as you get in larger Mercedes models. Obviously, this saloon variant differs from the hatch versions more in the rear. The roofline isn't so swept back as to limit headroom, while the wide-opening doors allow easy access. Mercedes claims there's class-leading headroom in the back. It'll still be tight for three adults though. The boot, which offers 420-litres of space, is 50-litres bigger than that of the hatch, though has a narrower opening.
Market and Model
You'll pay around £1,500 more for this Saloon body style. That means a starting price of around £28,000 for either the A200 petrol model or the A180d diesel, assuming you go for base 'Sport' form; there's a £1,200 premium for more dynamic 'AMG Line' spec. The 'Sport' models feature twin seven-inch displays including a central touchscreen with MBUX multimedia system with 'Hey Mercedes' voice activation. There's also comfort suspension, a DAB radio, 17-inch alloy wheels, 'Artico' and Fleron fabric upholstery, automatic two-zone climate control, Active Lane Keeping Assist, Speed Limit Assist and a Keyless-Go starting function. 'AMG Line' customers will benefit from 18-inch AMG alloy wheels, an AMG body styling kit, 'Artico' and Dinamica microfibre upholstery and a three-spoke sports steering wheel. This fourth generation A-Class is well connected. Navigation functions, for example, can be based on traffic feedback from so-called 'Car-to-X communication' where information gets fed in from other similarly-equipped road users. As usual, there's a dowloadable 'Mercedes Me' app that connects you into your car and can tell you things like local fuel prices or the availability of parking spaces at your destination.
Cost of Ownership
Let's get to the WLTP figures. The economy champion of course, is the A 180d variant, which in base trim manual form exhales just 120g/km of CO2, while only drinking a gallon of fuel on the combined cycle every 62.8 miles. With respectable performance figures, it's a tempting package - albeit one that in its standard form, forgoes the big wheels and aggressive bodykits of more dynamic-looking versions. If you plan on adding the extra features, then economy will obviously take a hit. The A 200d manages up to 58.9mpg in manual form and 134g/km. And the A220d auto returns up to 57.7mpg and 129g/km. As for the petrol engines, well the A 180 and A 200 in manual form both manage up to 47.9mpg on the combined cycle and 134g/km of CO2, figures that change to 47.1mpg and 135g/km if you go for auto transmission. The auto-only A 250 2.0-litre petrol variant manages 41.5mpg and 155g/km. The A 250e plug-in hybrid manages 256.8mpg and 25g/km of CO2. The warranty may be an industry standard 3 years but is for unlimited miles, handy to know if you spend a lot of time on the road. Just remember that a mid-range diesel is the sensible option for high resale figures. With that in mind, something like a mid-spec A180d model might well represent the sweet spot of the range. On the other hand, an 4MATIC petrol variant with every option thrown at it will lose a lot more of its value over the years.
You can see how this Saloon A-Class variant might carve out a useful niche for itself. You get smart looks, a decently-sized boot and a class-leadingly sophisticated cabin that no rival model can match. Running cost efficiency is top-notch and, despite the front-driven format, there's pretty much all the warm feel of quality that comes with any model bearing the famous Three-Pointed Star. In short, if you can't quite stretch to a C-Class, then this might be a tempting option.Hide Full Review
- Exterior Features
- Solid paint
- 4 Electric Front and Rear windows
- Adaptive brake lights
- AMG bodystyling - Front apron with splitter in chrome, rear apron with chrome trim and chrome visible trim elements in tailpipe
- Black weather strip
- Body colour bumpers
- Body colour door handles
- Body colour side skirt
- Body coloured door mirrors
- Chrome beltline
- Diamond radiator grille with chrome pins and silver louvre + chrome insert
- Electric adjustable and heated door mirrors with integrated LED side indicators
- Exhaust system - Twin visible tailpipes in polished stainless steel
- Headlamp assist automatic headlamp activation
- Heated glass rear windscreen + timer control
- LED high performance headlamps with integrated LED daytime running lights
- LED tail lamp
- LED third brake light
- Privacy glass
- Radio aerial
- Rain sensing windscreen wipers with two sensitivity settings
- Rear fog lights
- Window line trim strip in chrome
- Driver Convenience
- Ultrasonic sensors positioned in the front and rear bumpers
- 10.25" Digital instrument cluster display screen
- 10.25" media display
- 180 degree rear view camera with parking guidelines
- Active parking assist with visual and audible warning of detected obstacles
- Attention assist
- Brake pad wear indicator warning light
- Car wash mode
- Cruise control + speed limiter
- Direct steering
- Dual bluetooth interfaces
- DYNAMIC SELECT with a choice of driving modes (ECO, Comfort, Sport and Individual)
- ECO start/stop function
- Fluid level warning indicator for fuel, oil, coolant and washer fluid
- Hard-disk navigation
- Hey Mercedes Voice activation
- Lamp failure indicator
- MBUX augmented reality for navigation
- MBUX multimedia system with DAB digital radio and touchpad including satellite navigation
- Mercedes me connect including emergency call system, accident recovery, breakdown management and maintenance
- Mercedes me remote services
- Outside temperature gauge
- Owners manual in English
- Pre-installation for car sharing
- Preinstallation for Mercedes Benz link
- Service indicator (ASSYST)
- Smartphone integration with Apple CarPlay and Android auto
- Speed sensitive power steering
- Trip computer
- Wireless charging
- Entertainment
- 10 speakers
- 2 USB ports (type C) in rear stowage compartment and one in front of center console
- DAB Digital radio
- Mercedes-Benz advanced sound system - 225W
- Interior Features
- 3 Spoke flat bottom leather multi function steering wheel with perforated leather in grip area
- 40:20:40 split folding rear seats
- Artico man-made leather/Microfibre Dinamica upholstery with red contrast stitching
- Auto Mercedes-Benz child seat recognition sensor
- Black air vents with surround in silver chrome
- Black roof lining
- Brushed stainless steel sports pedals with rubber studs
- Controller on centre console with chrome surround
- Floor mats with stitched edging and AMG lettering
- Front centre armrest with storage compartment
- Front seat backs luggage nets
- Front seat cushion length adjustment
- Galvanished gear shift paddles on steering wheel
- Heated front seats
- Height/reach adjustable steering column
- Illuminated front door sills with changeable cover
- Interior lighting - 64 colour Ambient lighting
- Interior mirror with reading lamps in black and frameless
- ISOFIX and top tether child seat fixing points in two outer rear seats
- Manual height adjustable front seats
- Rear armrest with 2 cupholders
- Rear head restraints
- Seat occupancy sensor for front passenger seat
- Sports seats with adjustable head restraints
- Stowage compartment in centre console with retractable cover
- Sunvisors with illuminated vanity mirrors
- Touchpad on center console
- Twin front cupholders
- Two zone thermotronic luxury automatic climate control
- Packs
- Light and sight pack - A Class
- Mirror package - A Class
- Seat comfort pack - A Class
- Safety
- 3 rear 3 point seatbelts
- ABS with Brake Assist
- Active bonnet
- Active brake assist includes forward collision warning system with autonomous braking
- Adaptive brake assist with hold function and hill start assist
- Black seatbelts
- Childproof locks manually operated for rear doors and electrically operated for rear power windows
- Crash responsive emergency lighting
- Driver and passenger head and side airbags
- Drivers knee airbag
- Dual stage Driver/Passenger Airbags
- Electronic parking brake
- ESP curve dynamic assist
- ESP with ASR
- Front and rear seatbelt reminder
- Front brake callipers with Mercedes Benz lettering
- Tyre pressure monitoring system
- Warning triangle and first aid kit
- Window airbags
- Security
- Alarm system/interior protection/immobiliser
- Keyless entry lock/unlock
- Keyless Go
- Remote central locking and crash sensor with emergency opening function
- Urban guard vehicle protection system with immobiliser and interior protection
- Technical
- Lowered comfort suspension
- Rear axle torsion beam
- Trim
- Light aluminium with longitudinal grain interior trim
- Wheels
- 18" AMG 5 twin spoke light alloy wheels in titanium grey with highsheen finish
- Summer tyres
- Tirefit sealant kit
- Emissions - ICE
- CO2 (g/km) 108
- HC+NOx 0.024
- Noise Level dB(A) 69
- NOx 0.018
- Particles 0.0008
- Standard Euro Emissions EURO 6
- WLTP - CO2 (g/km) - Comb 130
- Engine and Drive Train
- Camshaft DOHC
- Catalytic Convertor Yes
- Compression Ratio 15.5:1
- Cylinder Layout IN-LINE
- Cylinders 4
- Cylinders - Bore (mm) 82
- Cylinders - Stroke (mm) 92.3
- Engine Layout FRONT TRANSVERSE
- Fuel Delivery COMMON RAIL
- Gears 8 SPEED
- Number of Valves 16
- Transmission SEMI-AUTO
- Fuel Consumption - ICE
- EC Combined (mpg) 68.9
- EC Directive 1999/100/EC Applies No
- EC Extra Urban (mpg) 78.5
- EC Urban (mpg) 55.4
- WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Comb 4.9
- WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Extra High 4.7
- WLTP - FC (l/100km) - High 4.2
- WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Low 6.7
- WLTP - FC (l/100km) - Medium 5.3
- WLTP - MPG - Comb 57.7
- WLTP - MPG - Extra High 60.1
- WLTP - MPG - High 67.3
- WLTP - MPG - Low 42.2
- WLTP - MPG - Medium 53.3
- General
- AdBlue Yes
- Alternative Fuel Qualifying No
- Badge Engine CC 2.0
- Badge Power 150
- Coin Description d
- Coin Series AMG Line Premium
- Insurance Group 1 - 50 Effective January 07 23E
- Manufacturers Corrosion Perforation Guarantee - Years 30
- Manufacturers Paintwork Guarantee - Years 3
- Did at least one aspect of this vehicle's safety give cause for concern? No
- Service Interval Frequency - Months 12
- Service Interval Mileage 15500
- Special Edition No
- Special Order No
- Standard manufacturers warranty - Mileage Unlimited
- Standard manufacturers warranty - Years 3
- Vehicle Homologation Class M1
- Performance
- 0 to 60 mph (secs) 8.2
- Engine Power - BHP 150
- Engine Power - KW 110
- Engine Power - RPM 3400
- Engine Torque - LBS.FT 236
- Engine Torque - MKG 32.6
- Engine Torque - NM 320
- Engine Torque - RPM 1400
- Top Speed 141
- Test Cycles
- Emissions Test Cycle WLTP
- RDE Certification Level RDE 2
- Tyres
- Alloys? Yes
- Space Saver? No
- Tyre Size Front 225/45 R18
- Tyre Size Rear 225/45 R18
- Tyre Size Spare TYRE REPAIR KIT
- Wheel Style AMG 5 TWIN SPOKE
- Wheel Type 18" ALLOY
- Vehicle Dimensions
- Height 1446
- Length 4549
- Wheelbase 2729
- Width 1796
- Width (including mirrors) 1992
- Weight and Capacities
- Fuel Tank Capacity (Litres) 43
- Gross Vehicle Weight 2010
- Luggage Capacity (Seats Up) 405
- Max. Loading Weight 500
- Max. Roof Load 75
- Max. Towing Weight - Braked 1600
- Max. Towing Weight - Unbraked 750
- Minimum Kerbweight 1510
- No. of Seats 5
- Turning Circle - Kerb to Kerb 11
|Annual Mileage
|Monthly Payment
|24 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£578.08 p/m
|£19.34 p/m
|36 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£464.61 p/m
|£25.13 p/m
|48 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£399.79 p/m
|£31.98 p/m
|24 months
|5,000 miles p/a
|£505.89 p/m
|£17.30 p/m
|24 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£693.69 p/m
|£23.21 p/m
|24 months
|8,000 miles p/a
|£528.40 p/m
|£18.97 p/m
|24 months
|10,000 miles p/a
|£543.40 p/m
|£20.08 p/m
|24 months
|15,000 miles p/a
|£575.08 p/m
|£46.31 p/m
|24 months
|20,000 miles p/a
|£607.58 p/m
|£50.24 p/m
|24 months
|25,000 miles p/a
|£635.09 p/m
|£68.56 p/m
|24 months
|30,000 miles p/a
|£661.77 p/m
|£89.47 p/m
|36 months
|5,000 miles p/a
|£364.56 p/m
|£18.65 p/m
|36 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£557.53 p/m
|£30.15 p/m
|36 months
|8,000 miles p/a
|£387.90 p/m
|£31.15 p/m
|36 months
|10,000 miles p/a
|£403.47 p/m
|£39.48 p/m
|36 months
|15,000 miles p/a
|£437.73 p/m
|£42.12 p/m
|36 months
|20,000 miles p/a
|£469.66 p/m
|£63.28 p/m
|36 months
|25,000 miles p/a
|£497.54 p/m
|£84.99 p/m
|36 months
|30,000 miles p/a
|£524.82 p/m
|£114.77 p/m
|48 months
|5,000 miles p/a
|£334.15 p/m
|£26.04 p/m
|48 months
|6,000 miles p/a
|£479.75 p/m
|£38.38 p/m
|48 months
|8,000 miles p/a
|£354.57 p/m
|£36.25 p/m
|48 months
|10,000 miles p/a
|£368.18 p/m
|£43.04 p/m
|48 months
|15,000 miles p/a
|£396.91 p/m
|£57.89 p/m
|48 months
|20,000 miles p/a
|£423.86 p/m
|£83.32 p/m
|48 months
|25,000 miles p/a
|£445.52 p/m
|£108.27 p/m
|48 months
|30,000 miles p/a
|£472.03 p/m
|£123.01 p/m


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300-Foot Buffer Proposed for Ohio Park Drilling
Proposed rules for allowing drilling in Ohio's state parks would require natural gas and oil companies to stay at least 300 feet - the length of a football field - from campgrounds, certain waterways and sites deemed historically or archeologically valuable.
The Columbus Dispatch reports Thursday that the proposals for drilling leases also include an 89-page list of "best management practices."
The state in September opened its parks and other lands to drilling. Records on proposed rules were released this week after the filing of a lawsuit claiming the state Department of Natural Resources had ignored repeated requests by the Ohio chapter of the Sierra Club to review them.
Among other proposed rules, state approval would be required before companies could store drilling waste in pits.


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Student-produced hockey webcast a finalist for CSMA award
May 28, 2014 | Atlanta, Ga.
Liberty Flames Sports Network (LFSN) coverage of Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team's Jan. 25 contest against Arizona State University, streamed live from the LaHaye Ice Center, was one of seven collegiate student productions to be nominated as a finalist for "Outstanding Live Game and Event Production" at the 2014 College Sports Media Awards, presented Wednesday night in Atlanta.
The show, "Saturday Night Hockey," was produced primarily by broadcast and digital media majors from Liberty's School of Communication & Creative Arts under supervision from LFSN streaming producer Matthew Byrd. It was rebroadcast to more than 85 million homes across the United States as LFSN's "Game of the Week."
The awards, hosted by ESPN's Rece Davis, were a highlight of the Sports Video Group's (SVG) College Sports Summit. This year, there were a record number of more than 300 entries in categories for national, regional, and local professional broadcasts as well as collegiate athletics and collegiate student productions.
"This is judged by those who work in the industry, ESPN, Fox Sports," Byrd said. "All the entries have to involve a college sports broadcast."
|One of 13 student camera operators involved in the LFSN production of Liberty's ACHA DI men's hockey game against Arizona State.
Liberty's nomination was pitted against two other hockey productions (from Bethany Lutheran College and St. Cloud State), a men's volleyball broadcast (Ball State), and coverage from two men's basketball games — Indiana University (Pa.) and the winning entry from Middle Tennessee State University.
All of the winning entries are available for viewing online.
Three other student-produced broadcasts for LFSN received honorable mention from SVG and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, including an ACHA preseason show, aired live from LaHaye on Sept. 17, and the teaser for the three-hour ASU game coverage.
Liberty students were also honored for a special feature on Liberty Head Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Bill Gillespie, which was produced last summer and rebroadcast throughout the year during breaks in LFSN's live coverage.
|Ru O'Dell served as LFSN's technical director.
"Last year, we submitted our very first ACHA selection show and received an honorable mention for that," Byrd said.
"This year, we submitted an entry in each of the four categories," he added, referring to Live Game and Event Production; Program Series; Special Feature; and Promotion, PSA, Tease, or Marketing Campaign. "It was great to have three awarded honorable mention and one nominated for the (Outstanding) award."


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1. My uncle once worked at the zoo
2. Never in my life will I give less than my best.
3. When I was five my parents sent my dog "to the farm" and they still won't tell me what happened to him. I also went to Disneyworld. Being 5 had it's ups and downs :)
4. High school was where I met my best friends and my husband.
5. I will never forget the day Lorelai was born.
6. Once I met Anthony Rapp. Twice actually.
7. There's this boy I know who is new to the world and I would really like to meet him. (Hi Will!)
8. Once, at a bar,a guy took my hat - it was St. Patrick's Day in Worcester, MA. I think I got the hat back. Don't remember that part.
9. By noon, Lorelai and I are usually out and about.
10. Last night I got to spend too short a time with one of my brothers.
11. If only I had a dog that didn't bark so much.... (I swear, dachshunds are GREAT watchdogs. A dust bunny scurries and they bark. Chipmunks fart and they bark. Don't get me wrong, I love love love love my dog. When he barks there is no changing his mind!)
12. "Next time I go to church" is not a phrase I say often, but probably should.
13. What worries me most the health of grandparents, aging parents, my brothers decisions and Lorelai's happiness.
14. When I turn my head left I see a door.
15. When I turn my head right I see twilight and trees.
16. You know I'm lying when..... Why would I answer that?
17. What I miss most about the Eighties is the music. And how my dad and I would rate hair do's with how many cans of hairspray were needed for the do.
18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I'd be (oh god, Betsy? VIK? help?) Who was the shrew, maybe her? Maybe a queen from Midsummer? I am not up on my Shakespeare.
19. By this time next year I might be working outside of the home?
20. A better name for me would be - Rachel? That's what some people think my name is, but it's not. I was so close to being a Molly or Sorcha, but Dad squashed those. I currently also go by "mommy" even though my daughter can't get past "mmmm".
21. I have a hard time understanding people who lack common sense. Or common courtesy. Or a sense of humor.
22. If I ever go back to school, I'd take an art class. Photography maybe. Drawing perhaps.
23. You know I like you if I respond in sentences and converse, not just "mmm-hmm."
24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be my parents probably. They've instilled all that is award worthy in me I think.
25. Take my advice, never forget to say Thank You.
26. My ideal breakfast is blueberry pancakes.
27. A song I love but do not have is that song from a LimeNViolet podcast that referenced Shakespeare and The Princess Bride.
28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest that you visit the trails.
29. Why won't people use common sense? Think about others? Think about the planet? Think someone else might be right?
30. If you spend a night at my house you will be barked at by Jackson if you use the guest bathroom and you will either a)share a wall with the baby or b)share a room with yarn.
31. I'd stop my wedding for nothing short of the groom not showing (which he did. no worries.)
32. The world could do without drug advertisements all over the tv.
33. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than sing in public.
34. My favorite blondie is a type of brownie?
35. Paper clips are more useful than staples.
36. If I do anything well it's word puzzles. take photographs. make Lorelai smile. science.
37. I can't help but shop a sale.
38. I usually cry when I think I've let someone close to me down.
39. My advice to my nephew/niece
40. And by the way, Have a Nice weekend!


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The live show and merchandise are becoming more important in the music industry. On top of that, there has been a surge in small indie musicians trying to make it on their own. Many think that merch is out of their budget, but with the right planning and strategy merch can become a profitable revenue stream for anyone.
This article, written by Robal Johnson of PUMP Merch, was originally posted on Hypebot. To read the full article, click here.
1. Decide what to sell
Where to begin? Start small, be patient, and analyze your early merchandise investments. Get creative. Have an artist friend design your logo: pay them in drinks and guestlist spots. Be conscious of your audience: determine what apparel and accessories are trendy. Understand the demographic: ask how they consume and share music, which can easily be done via social networking. Acknowledge your environment: if its hot, tank tops and ballcaps are essential; if it's cold, hoodies and beanies are a must. At first, focus on selling more for less: keep designs to 1-3 colors, buy the inexpensive option, and charge fans as little as possible. Remember, you can always upgrade later.
Don't be afraid to be aggressive. You're not bothering anybody at the show. I guarantee most of the people there will be excited to meet you and honored you came up to talk to them. They know you're just doing your job and they actually want to talk to you. I have approached the bar in a small town in Mississippi and sold $10 T-Shirts. I have wandered a club in Nashville asking folks if they'd like to buy $5 CDs. Merch is a souvenir purchased to commemorate a notable experience. Every music fan enjoys the pride that comes with seeing an act "back in the day" and you need to offer them something to take home that night.
2. Convenience
Once you have decided on the right products to sell on tour, your next focus should be on convenience. If you do not accept credit cards while on the road, you are leaving countless dollars on the table. Just ask Laura Keating, Melissa Garcia, and Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment and Readymade Records: "We have been taking credit card payments in some form or another since 2005 and it always doubles our sales at the merch table." Now THAT should motivate the hell out of all of you.
Companies like Square and PayPal Here have made it extremely simple for you to accept all major credit cards as long as you have a smartphone or tablet. If you have not already, stop reading this right now and order one of the FREE card readers from either of those companies immediately. It will take you a few short minutes and the results are literally priceless. I can not stress the importance of this enough. In this day and age, you MUST accept credit cards. You will not only sell your merch to more people, you will sell even more items.
At this time Square is only offered in the United States, Canada, and Japan. PayPal Here is available in the US, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. For acts touring the United Kingdom and Europe, Team Whitesmith/Readymade suggests using iZettle for your credit card processing needs. iZettle is now live in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Germany, Spain, and Mexico.
3. Get organized!
Third on your to-do list while gearing up for tour should be organization and accounting for your merchandise while on the road. For decades this was done by either the merch guy or the tour manager in a looseleaf notebook with pencils and a whole lot of mistakes. Then came Microsoft Excel, which we ALL love to hate. But I have seen the future of tour merchandising and it comes to us via Orange County, California in an app called atVenu. These guys are changing the game and every single touring artist needs to take note.
I spoke with co-founder of atVenu, Ben Brannen, and he shared his story of what drove him and his partners to create the service. "While on the road, I experienced first hand the inefficiencies of existing methods by which we track and settle our touring merch. Too much money is lost due to inventory issues, poor nightly settlements, limited analysis, or one broken cell in an Excel sheet. atVenu solves these problems by empowering merch reps with a mobile app designed for their needs which syncs to the artist's web-based account where merch company and management can login and easily access a robust suite of real time analytics and reports."
This is a game-changer for many reasons, but most importantly it is something that will save artists time and money on the road. As a merch rep myself, I can attest to the great many headaches that go along with inventory, accounting, and restocking of products while a band is touring. It is all about organization and communication. With a system in place that knows when you're getting low on the green v-necks in small and medium and your merch guy gets a notification, imagine how much money you'll save on those rushed deliveries from halfway across the country that will hopefully make it to the venue on time. Envision how much easier it will be to do reorders for the next tour because you know exactly what you sold, when, and where.
My buddy Randy Nichols of Force Media Management, who represents The Almost and Bayside, among others, also works as Strategic Music Industry & Product Advisor with atVenu. He sums up the app perfectly, "A tool like atVenu shows me real time forecasting data for my tour so I can both improve my profit margins and be sure to maintain a healthy stock of my in demand items. This can easily mean the difference between 10 boxes of merch in the drummers garage at the end of the tour vs an extra $10,000 in profit."


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54 Products
Walk down the aisle in beautiful, DIY beaded style with our bridal jewelry projects! You can easily customize these beautiful designs both for the bride or the bridesmaids to match your unique wedding colors. Each jewelry design has a handy list of all the beads, tools and techniques that you will need to make the piece, along with free, step-by-step instructions.


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Antimicrobial wound dressings are available in many forms like sponges, silver dressings, foam dressing, hydrogel dressing, island dressings, non-adherent dressings, adherent dressings etc. These dressings are meant to cover the wound and alter the wound bed bioburden through their antimicrobial activity. The ability of antimicrobial dressings to handle exudate depends largely on the characteristics and composition of the dressing. In cases of infection in partial- and full-thickness wounds, tracheostomies, over percutaneous line sites and surgical incisions, etc. antimicrobial dressings are recommended.
Antimicrobial dressings can be used as a primary or secondary dressing for the treatment of draining, exuding, infected and non-healing wounds where a bacterial contamination present, including:
Antimicrobial dressings lowers the potential toxicity to host cells by giving out a continuous and uniform release of antimicrobial agents to the wound bed and lowering the concentration of microbial agents. These dressings use antimicrobial agents like silver, iodine or polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) that are known to reduce microbial activities. Antimicrobial dressings can be left in place for several days depending upon the wound drainage and amount of dead cells present.
The selection of the appropriate dressing depends greatly upon the type of wound and the requirement of the patient. Silver antimicrobial dressings provide a topical antimicrobial surface that reduces the bacteria and fungi counts on the wound surface as in the case of Argentum Silverlon Antimicrobial Wound Contact Dressing. The Derma Algicell Ag dressing provides an effective barrier to pathogens with its seven-day effect. Another variation in antimicrobial dressings are those with nanocrystalline silver that conform to the body contours for eg. The Acticoat Flex 3 Antimicrobial Dressing form Smith & Nephew that comes with a low adherent polyester layer which helps minimize wound trauma at dressing changes. In some cases powder dressings may work better than other dressings. When a wound which produces high exudates needs to be dressed alginate powder dressings are preferred by medical professionals. The powder turns into a gel as it come in contact with the wound by absorbing the fluid from the wound. Powder dressing is ideal for deep, tunneling, highly exuding hard to dress wounds. Try the Medline Arglaes Antimicrobial Powder Dressing for high exudate wounds.
Choose from a range of antimicrobial wound dressings from top manufacturers like Argentum Medical Llc, Smith & Nephew, Covidien/Medtronic, Medline Industries, Molnlycke Health Care, Coloplast, Dumex/Derma Sciences, and many more… at effective prices on HPFY. For more assistance call our customer care team toll free at 866.316.0162


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Nelson Mandela buried in home village
QUNU, South Africa >> Anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela was buried in his home village on Sunday after a funeral that mixed ancient tribal rituals with a display of the might of the new, integrated South Africa.
Military officers, both black and white, rolled Mandela's flag-draped coffin to the family burial plot in the village of Qunu. Formations of planes and military helicopters, South African flags flapping from the bellies, flew over the green hills where thousands of mourners had gathered.
Unlike a public memorial service on Tuesday at a stadium that was rife with problems, the funeral and burial — broadcast on many TV channels — went smoothly, although behind schedule. The ceremonies mixed solemnity with joy at Mandela's accomplishments, lasted all morning and into the afternoon and were fit for African royalty. Mandela, South Africa's first black president, is descended from royalty.
Several thousand gathered in a huge white tent at the Mandela family compound for the state funeral that preceded a private service at the gravesite. Songs, speeches and the boom of artillery rang across the fields and a tribal chief draped in animal skin declared: "A great tree has fallen."
Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail as a prisoner of the racist white government and emerged to lead a delicate transition to democracy, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95 after a long illness.
His portrait looked over the assembly in the tent from behind a bank of 95 candles representing each year of his remarkable life. His casket, transported to the tent on a gun carriage, rested on a carpet of cow skins below a lectern where speakers delivered eulogies.
Ahmed Kathrada, an anti-apartheid activist who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela, remembered his old friend's "abundant reserves" of love, patience and tolerance. He said it was painful when he saw Mandela for the last time, months ago in his hospital bed. Some listeners wiped away tears as Kathrada spoke.
"He tightly held my hand, it was profoundly heartbreaking," Kathrada said, his voice quavering with emotion. "How I wish I never had to confront what I saw. I first met him 67 years ago and I recall the tall, healthy strong man, the boxer, the prisoner who easily wielded the pick and shovel when we couldn't do so."
The songs and speeches in the tent ceremony were broadcast on big screens in the area, including at one spot on a hill overlooking Mandela's property. Several hundred people gathered there, some wearing colors of the African National Congress — the liberation movement-turned political part that Mandela used to lead — and occasionally breaking into song.
"A great tree has fallen, he is now going home to rest with his forefathers," said Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, a representative of Mandela's family. "We thank them for lending us such an icon."
Mandela's widow, Grace Machel, and his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were dressed in black and sat on either side of South African President Jacob Zuma.
Guests included veterans of the military wing of the African National Congress, the liberation movement that became the dominant political force after the end of apartheid, as well as U.S. Ambassador Patrick Gaspard and other foreign envoys. Britain's Prince Charles, Monaco's Prince Albert II, U.S. television personality Oprah Winfrey, billionaire businessman Richard Branson and former Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were also there.
After the ceremony in the tent, a smaller group of guests walked to a family grave site.
Banyanda Nyengule, head of the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha and Qunu, was one of the eyewitnesses to the private burial.
"I realized that the old man is no more, no more with us you know," Nyengule said. "The moment when the coffin went down into the ground I felt too ... emotional."
The burial ended 10 days of mourning ceremonies that included a massive stadium memorial in Johannesburg and three days during which Mandela's body lay in state in the capital, Pretoria.
While South Africa faces many problems, including crime, unemployment and economic inequality, Mandela is seen by many compatriots as the father of their nation and around the world as an example of the healing power of reconciliation.


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"All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I realize I should have been more specific."
Gotta go back and look at the picture of the passenger obviously leaning the wrong way for the lean angle of the bike at that moment.
Get trained! The best "performance" upgrade you can get is YOU. Visit msf-usa.org for training info.
Recently riding the Skyline Drive from Luray to Front Royal. Yes, we hit a bit of fog- but we'd been on a lower section of the BRP in North Carolina two days earlier and were in fog so thick you could barely see the road in front of your wheel- over 40 miles worth! (group ride)
This stretch was mid morning on a Monday- and we all but had the road to ourselves. Another lovely moment on Skyline Drive!
Be The Change You Want To See In The World
Phil Bouffard
SSG U.S. Army
Kaiserslautern, Germany
Attachment 40464don't know how to post 2 pics on the same post. The ALPS are in the landscape, YAY what a great ride.
Phil Bouffard
SSG U.S. Army
Kaiserslautern, Germany
On my way to Salem.
Grand Teton's
Steve Henson-Mod Team and SABMWRA Prez
Be decisive, right or wrong.The road of life is paved with
flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision~unknown
Don "Radar" Wreyford
MOA # 91738, RA #27032 , ABC #7915 - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results" - Albert Einstein
Crater Lake Oregon. Very hot on the way home from the BMW MOA
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The simple sign outside Taylor's Accents Gifts says it all: "Congratulations Aly Raisman, Needham's Golden Girl."
It seems as if everyone in this Boston suburb is rooting for Raisman, the captain of the U.S. women's gymnastics team that captured Olympic gold Tuesday in London.
As the 18-year-old Raisman prepares to compete Thursday in the individual all-around event, her friends, acquaintances and even those who don't know her say they are riveted to their TVs.
"Everybody I see is talking about it. It's the major source of conversation," said Jerry Wasserman, chairman of Needham's Board of Selectmen. "People are very proud. She grew up here, went to school here. It's a boost to the community."
Town Hall workers had a 32-foot congratulatory banner printed and hung on the building. They're showing tomorrow's competition live, opening their doors to those who want to watch the next step of the Games that have so captivated the town.
Raisman, voted in middle school as "most likely to be on ESPN," is a typical teenager in some ways, but then can also "do all these crazy flips and have no fears at all," said close friend Maddie McGill, 19.
"Someone asked me yesterday how it feels to know your friend is one of the most famous athletes, and it hadn't even hit me how everyone knows her now," McGill said. "I don't think we realized how famous she was going to get."
Said 16-year-old Diane Meason, who attended school with Raisman but wasn't acquainted with her: "I see banners all over the place. Everybody is rooting for her even if they don't know her."
Raisman was a star here even before the Olympics, before she qualified for the individual all-around and before her parents' now-famous reactions — shouting encouragement and squirming in their seats while their daughter competed on uneven bars — were broadcast across the globe, Wasserman said. At a July 3 fireworks show, he introduced Raisman, who, as soon as she left the stage, was swamped by fans asking for autographs and photos.
"We already know an awful lot of little girls are strongly, strongly rooting for Aly — as we all are — and not just in Needham," Wasserman said.
Jack McQuillan, 59, the owner of Taylor's, decided to put out two signs cheering Raisman on when she made the Olympic team.
"We would've been proud of her for just going. Over the Russians and the Chinese and the Romanians, who you expect to do those things, is a little girl from Needham Massachusetts that's topped them all," McQuillan said. "She certainly put Needham on the map."
It's not just Raisman and not just in Needham. Across the country, family, friends and fans are gathering to cheer on their hometown gymnastics heroes.
In Lansing, Mich., athletes, parents and coaches from a gymnastics club watched Jordyn Wieber via live stream at a movie theater. Kyla Ross' supporters and fellow gymnasts in Alisa Viejo, Calif., gathered at a local Buffalo Wild Wings.
Even President Barack Obama has joined in the accolades, speaking on the phone individually with each of the five gymnasts who competed in the team all-around.
Mass. hometown rallies around gymnastics captain
NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The simple sign outside Taylor's Accents Gifts says it all: "Congratulations Aly Raisman, Needham's Golden Girl."