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Welcome to the Premium Software Open Source Project. I've created this site for the primary purpose of giving a little something back to the open source community.
Here you will find a few projects I have developed, which I feel are good candidates for open source. The primary focus on each of these projects is lightweight, fast, clean, well documented code.
Enjoy, Chris
CLEditor WYSIWYG Editor
CLEditor, is an open source jQuery plug-in which provides a lightweight, full featured, cross browser, extensible, WYSIWYG HTML editor that can be easily added into any web site.
Reboot CSS Framework
!!! Coming Soon !!!
Inspired by Bootstrap, Reboot is a lightweight CSS Framework designed to simplify your next web project.
Schema Micro-ORM
!!! Coming Soon !!!
Inspired by Dapper, Massive, PetaPoco and OrmLite; Schema was created to simplify the process of working with ADO in an ORMish manner; without hiding the underlying command object and the ability to use prepared statements.
Premium Software
W289 N6377 Blackhawk Dr.
Hartland, WI 53029
Help support the Premium Software open source project with your PayPal donation:


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This year the Labrador Retriever celebrates it's 21st straight year as America's most popular dog. Not surprising when you can find its floppy-eared mug on everything from Valentine's Day cards to pretzel bowls, and starring alongside the likes of Jennifer Aniston in blockbuster films. But as impressive as its canine credentials are, there's one distinction that still eludes man's favorite best friend. A Lab has never won the top prize at the Westminster Dog Show, the oldest and most prestigious dog competition in the world. That's nearly 100 years (the Lab was first recognized by the AKC in 1917) of saying no to this face:
I could hardly believe it either. That's why I went to Madison Square Garden this morning to find out what gives. Here's the video:
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Elsewhere I asked about ultrapowers of the C*-algebra $A$ of compact operators on separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. My question was whether the process of taking ultrapowers of ultrapowers ever stabilizes.
It was pointed out that the definition of an ultrapower of a C*-algebra is slightly different from the usual definition of an ultrapower; that the process never stabilizes in the sense that the canonical embedding is never an isomorphism; but that nevertheless (assuming CH) that if $A^1$ is an ultrapower of $A$ then the ultrapowers of $A^1$ are isomorphic as C*-algebras to $A^1$.
This last statement depends on the fact $A$ is separable. Here I would like to ask about the corresponding question for the C*-algebra $B$ of bounded operators on Hilbert space and also for the Calkin algebra $C=B/A$. Does the process of taking ultrapowers of ultrapowers of $B$ ever stabilize in the sense of producing isomorphic C*-algebras? And the same question for $C$?


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Top Stories
Arjo Systems and Rambus have been elected to join Giesecke&Devrient, Infineon and Oberthur Technologies to strategically drive the adoption and evolution of the CIPURSE standard for transport, ticketing, micro payments and access control
OSPT Alliance, the technical industry body which develops the CIPURSE™ open security standard, today announces its Board for 2017. Founding members Giesecke&Devrient, Infineon and Oberthur Technologies, will be joined by Arjo Systems, a leading solutions provider for ticketing & transport, and government ID, and Rambus, a global leader that develops technologies and solutions from the data center to the mobile edge, including secure smart card & mobile-based ticketing solutions.
Yannick Le Goff, Head of Urban Transport at Oberthur Technologies, has been appointed as the new President of the Board for a one-year term. He comments: "Advances in the smart card ticketing infrastructure, combined with the introduction of new forms of ticketing technology, such as account-based, HCE and tokenization, is resulting in increasing demand for a standardized ticketing framework on which to build and adapt openly-sourced payment and access solutions. Consequently, the OSPT Alliance community continues to grow with new members from different industries; it is a real honor to be leading this technical body as our work matures and gains traction globally."Yannick will be joined by:
- Cesare Paciello – Vice President EMEA Sales and Ticketing & Transport at Arjo Systems
- Werner Strobl – Head of Product Management at Giesecke&Devrient
- KatjaKienzl – Head of Product Marketing at Infineon Technologies
- Carsten Loschinsky – VP Chip Card and Security, Sales and Marketing at Infineon Technologies
- Philippe Martineau – Ecosystem Business Development Executive at Rambus
"The commitment from these members is important as we begin to expand our scope beyond transport ticketing to incorporate other value added services such as access control, payment, loyalty and ID," adds Yannick. "This has been driven by members who see the value of the CIPURSE standard in many different access control and payment scenarios. We are also witnessing new work items being brought to the alliance demonstrating the industry's desire to collaborate and address market challenges that will assist in removing adoption barriers. We plan to announce these new areas of work shortly."
OSPT Alliance works with its members to advance and evolve the CIPURSE Specification – an open standard based on ISO 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443-4 for fare collection systems and multi-application programs using contactless media. To find out more about OSPT Alliance's activity for 2017, watch the Vision 2020 webinar.
To find out more about becoming a member, please visit the website www.osptalliance.org.
Top Stories
Cash was our past, contactless is our present, contextual payments are the future
By Jason Jeffreys, founder of FETCH
$6tn in the next five years, this is how much the world will spend through contactless payments, according to analyst firm Juniper Research. For many of us who have discovered and since relied heavily on contactless payments since its introduction in 2007, either through card, phone, or watch, or those of us who have taken a stroll down a covid-era high-street to see shop windows adorned with "card payment only" signs, this is hardly a surprise. Even the Church of England in 2018 equipped 16,000 religious sites with terminals to allow for contactless donations. So what is behind this rise? And what is next?
The switch from cash to contactless is a transformation of payments that is driven by four key factors: speed, security, accessibility, and hygiene. While businesses and customers alike have felt the immense benefits of the cash to contactless transition, the next iteration goes further by digitally transforming the entire transaction process. It's that potential which pushed me to launch FETCH – technology that allows customers to order and pay from their phone, anywhere. By exploring the benefits already felt by our contactless present, I hope to show you why I'm excited to be part of the contextual payments future.
Aldi is all about low prices and this is achieved with efficiency – that is why their checkout staff are trained to scan as fast as possible, it's why their barcodes are huge, and it's why you can't keep up. It's all in the name of efficiency and cost saving, and contactless payments make this possible.
While increasing the rate of transactions has a direct impact on money through the till, there is an increase in the perceived speed which does wonders to get customers back through the door. Shoppers may have spent an hour or more in-store but their direct interactions with the shop and staff were quick and timely and that's the experience they remember and the impression they build of the brand.
Aldi are not alone in realising this and while it is easy to point to the impact that contactless has had on the retail sector, its revolution has slowly crept into hospitality – an industry notoriously late at adopting new technologies.
High-street coffee shops rely on getting as many people as possible through the doors and back out again. They want as little disruption to your day as possible but more importantly, they want to process as many payments per hour as possible. Cash transactions are slow in comparison to a single tap, so for the coffee shops, this means fewer transactions per hour and money lost. For businesses in this sector who rely on periodic rushes, measuring performance per hour is a necessity and maximising revenue over these short windows is so important.
For reasons obvious to anyone who has been to a crowded hospitality venue, stood at a crowded bar or waited for waiting staff during a busy dinner rush, the businesses in this space already running on contextual ordering systems like FETCH have all reported a vastly improved staff and customer experience in hospitality venues. While it may be difficult to spot how these benefits can be felt in retail, this reality is not bound to fiction or the distant future – it's being pioneered already in retail by Amazon.
In a well documented glimpse into the future of shopping, Amazon's latest Seattle store removes the transaction element completely. Instead, you put your items in your trolley as you go round the shop, and the sensors and cameras accurately and automatically recognise the items, keeping a track and total, before taking payment automatically and digitally through your Amazon account once you walk the trolley back out of the store. Can you imagine standing in a supermarket queue to pay once you've experienced the ease, simplicity and effortlessness of that?
Smartphones have got smarter and they have revolutionised the way we get through the day. From how we discover, connect, and socialise, to how we organise, learn, navigate and search for answers – rarely an hour goes by where we aren't using our phones for something.
As time moved on they only grew to become more capable, responsible for managing more aspects of our lives, and it was only a matter of time before they were capable of handling secure contactless payments. The leap for people to trust their smartphones with just one additional task was tiny.
When you couple this with debit and credit cards being enabled with contactless technology by default, the rise of wearables, and e-commerce growing massively, the results are clear – people are more trusting of online payments, are more familiar with buying in this way, and have more ways of making contactless purchases, than ever before.
In fact, a Mastercard survey in 2016 indicated that Brits carry less than £5 in cash on average, with 14% of people surveyed carrying no cash at all, and 1 in 10 replacing wallets and purses altogether, opting for a simple card in the pocket instead. Figures which have no doubt grown even starker since 2016.
When we take this into consideration with 99% of 16-24 year olds, 98% of 25-34 year olds, and 95% of 35-54 year olds all being smartphone owners, we begin to see the inevitability of contextual payments as the next iteration and how the response to contextual payments will be positive and welcome; something FETCH clients and the vast majority of their customers can all attest to.
Cashless payments means no cash in the till or on-site; no chance of mistakenly accepting fraudulent notes or coins; no trips to the bank to deposit or withdraw cash for the till; the end of time spent counting money every day, and the end of discrepancies which occur from this.
It limits the levels of theft, switches businesses over to an accurate, secure and efficient system, and gives business owners their time back. It makes tax returns, financial planning and forecasting and more all possible, easier and quicker and in short, it makes businesses stronger.
Contextual payments go further by offering really insightful data of what happens before and after people decide to part with their money; for example, how long they spend browsing before ordering, what they look at, what they've missed, when they order next and more. This means you are informed and can redesign and improve the user journey so it works better for you and your customers, all based on accurate, relevant and timely data.
As contactless payments evolve to contextual ordering, it's important to choose a system that easily integrates with the wider business and your systems so you can continue to access the benefits of contactless. That's why from day 1 of building FETCH I put so much emphasis on ensuring it integrates with one of the biggest and most popular POS systems in hospitality.
Initial adoption has long been the biggest barrier to widespread, sustained use of new technologies and going cash-free is no exception.
Given that the coronavirus thrives and passes through human contact and shared surfaces, going cash-free and contactless was a small, easy and obvious change to implement for businesses to become covid-secure and safer for customers and staff.
FETCH and other contextual payment systems are being used to go beyond this, to keep staff and visitors safe by limiting human contact beyond just payments. In our case, we have allowed hospitality customers to continue to browse, place their orders and pay, just as before, but without the need for repeated human contact at every single stage.
Given the health imperative and coercion from governments, local authorities and health bodies to switch to contact-free operations, businesses who may have once been years away from this change are laying down the infrastructure today out of necessity and it will be no surprise if contactless becomes a staple long after the coronavirus has left.
Post-coronavirus, contextual ordering offers businesses the chance to let the technology take care of these minor tasks, giving staff the space to instead dedicate their time, talent and energy towards elevating the overall experience. It's the health imperative that acts as the gateway to this.
What does this transition mean for businesses? With visible consideration and effort put into hygiene, you are making your customers feel safe and cared for; by making transactions quick and painfree, you are giving your customers time to spend on the experience they came out for in the first place. In the process, you have created the ideal conditions for consumers to spend money and given them the confidence to do so.
I'll end with the picture UK Finance data has painted through multiple annual payments reports: in 2006, 62% of all payments in the UK were made using cash; three years later it dropped to 58%; in 2016 the proportion had fallen to 40%; and just two years after that, cash formed just 28% of all UK payments. With a pre-covid prediction envisaging that by 2028 fewer than 1 in 10 payments will be made by cash, the widespread, covid-induced encouragement, adoption and enforcement of cashless policies in retail and hospitality has surely brought that many years forward.
Contextual ordering is the next inevitable iteration and if you were one of the few who reaped the benefits of going contactless early, you have the chance to be ahead of the curve once more. A welcome future for a multitude of industries is being set around us today.
Top Stories
The Rise of Contactless Payments
By Bilal Soylu, CEO of XcooBee
Today, banks involved in the issuances of credit cards, and companies at the nexus of merchant services, are experiencing a rare event in the industry.
For years, digital payment innovators fought a hard battle to adopt contactless systems and create standards. The effort and push came from companies with much of the effort directed at consumers to adopt their methodology. Whether it is Samsung Pay, Google Pay or Apple Pay they all had to overcome similar hurdles – consumers were reluctant to adopt a technology that did not have a sufficient number of merchants; thus, the progress was slow.
The COVID-19 pandemic rewrote the script in a whirlwind. All of a sudden, consumers began to demand contactless payment experiences in every way imaginable. The supply side push has turned into a demand side pull and the adoption rate is spiking.
This left banks, originators and companies involved in the eco-system with an interesting dilemma – fast decisions have to be made as to which digital technology to invest in and do they bind themselves, for multiple years going forward, to a specific infrastructure.
While previously the belief was that this could be explored over a longer period of time, the current reality is that these decisions are forced on institutions "overnight". In this light, there are many different aspects to contactless payments and originators, and banks need to make smart bets on which type should be supported.
So, let's look at all the relevant elements of contactless payments to explore a better model for institutional support.
General Drivers of Contactless Acceptance Growths
Physical safety from virus infection by avoiding touching 3rd party equipment or allowing safe distancing from other people and/or equipment is the main driver today. It has been emphasized by many epidemiologists as a basic requirement for conducting business. Consequently, it will be no surprise that safety is the factor that underlies the rapid adoption of a number of contactless payment technologies by once reluctant consumers.
We expect this to be a primary driver well into 2021. Thus, any technology to be rolled out in the short term should enhance safety in some form or contribute in a way to the improvement of safety.
An early benefit highlighted and emphasized by contactless technology providers was the data-security aspect that surrounds the transaction. Rather than exchanging the actual credit card number, for example, a tokenization is performed to create transaction specific tokens that are then used to complete the transaction. Even when intercepted, these tokens cannot be used outside this transaction and, thus, the approach is considered to be more secure.
Although the data-security value was incessantly marketed to consumers, most had, and still have, a limited understanding of the implementation of the technology. Thus, the appeal to the consumer with this benefit was not successful. However, the increased security elements were a clearer benefit for merchants and issuers. Hence, a steady growth of terminals and accepting merchants was the result.
In general, the tokenization approach to security has been chosen for many types of contactless payment systems, this includes NFC based card chips, digital payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. However, for QR payments the use of tokenization should be verified as there are no current standards that govern its use consistently.
Convenience was the aspect of many contactless payments system that appealed the most to consumers prior to Covid-19. The ability to either very quickly conduct a transaction or very flexibly conduct a transaction drove consumer adoption. For example, being able to load many payment methods onto a mobile device that users carry with them anywhere increased the appeal of use to consumers.
Thus, when evaluating a particular contactless payment technology with a longer-term outlook the convenience aspect should be emphasized. Given the historical basis, consumers are very likely to be attracted by this aspect as the main driver of adoption again. A financial institutions' post-Covid planning and investment models for contactless technology should consider this to be a major aspect.
Contactless Payment Categories
When we speak of contactless payment systems, we normally refer to any payment technology that can trigger a payment transaction in the physical space with direct consumer presence, but without direct contact with merchant equipment. Thus, we would exclude online and ecommerce transactions for this purpose.
We will focus on the two mainstream contactless technologies, NFC and QR payments, and review them here. Other contactless payment technologies exist but have not reached widespread adoption so we will only provide brief overview of those.
NFC Payments
Near Field Communication (NFC) payments are the earliest form of contactless payments that found acceptance in the markets. Generally, two devices are needed and must be near each other to communicate via radio signals. Both the reader (interrogator) and sender (tag) must be within 4cm (1.5in) for the transaction to be initiated. ExxonMobile's Speedpass is widely believed to be the first implementation of this touch and go type of pay experience that has come to exemplify NFC based contactless payments.
There are two common sub-categories from that technology today; The single card-based sender (tag) and the mobile-phone-based sender (tag). The mobile phone-based application tends to be more flexible allowing consumers to combine multiple cards into one mobile-wallet that is secured with some form with biometric access.
However, NFC signals are not uniform and different standards are used in the Far East (i.e. Japan) rather than in Europe.
NFC payments found early success in developed western markets where the population already had easy access to banking and bank issued card-based tags. However, in countries where the banking system developed later and card-based payments were not common, NFC payments did not flourish.
Thus, today, the market for NFC is mainly concentrated in Europe, Japan, and US.
The roll out of NFC requires hardware on the merchant and consumer side. The merchant hardware is normally leased, and leasing programs have been steady revenue generators for those companies. Whereas, today, the global contactless Point of Sale (POS) terminals market is poised to grow by $5.54 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 16% during the forecast period, according to research done by Technavio.
However, with the pandemic, the speed of system activation has been a key criterium for selection of the technology. In this context, delivery of hardware, setting up of POS systems and testing connectivity slows down rollouts and potential revenue.
Similarly, requiring consumers to be equipped with supporting hardware may also introduce a friction element, especially in markets where NFC has gained less momentum.
QR Payments
QR codes are like 3D barcodes. The user scans the QR code via a smartphone and the smartphone, then interprets the barcode and a related website or application may complete the payment process. Like NFC, this can be done very quickly without any contact between smartphone (reader) and the item or display using the QR code.
Normally, QR codes are immutable, meaning that once generated they do not change. However, there are now dynamic smart QR codes, like the ones Xcoobee offers, that can overcome this limitation.
QR codes found strong distribution in markets where banking reach was limited in some form through government or market forces. The QR payment process, in many markets, also exemplifies a jump to direct digital payment, bypassing much of the banking system for purchase transactions. Especially when QR payment systems are connected to mobile wallets the provider of the wallet handles all transaction steps in-system, reducing friction and creating an ease to use and adoption. They have found popularity mainly in China, where AliPay and WeChat pay are gaining dominant market shares.
However, with the advent of COVID and the speed advantages in implementation and cost, other non-traditional markets such as EU and US are seeing dramatic increases in use of QR payments as well.
Activation of QR code payments commonly requires merchants to simply print codes, which can be accomplished with less hardware. The integration into bank systems is handled via merchant or bank app and the consumer simply requires a smartphone.
While bank offerings in this segment tend to be limited, given the simplified requirements, QR implementation can be quick for merchants to roll out.
Other Contactless Options
There are other contactless payment technologies that are currently competing for market attention and can be grouped into a biometric group and a technology group. The biometric group includes such options as voice, facial or palm recognition-based payments while the technology group includes options like Bluetooth and Farfield-type technologies.
None of these have gained sufficient market share or have execution or security advantages that would push them ahead without concerted efforts from large market-players. Similarly, there is no consumer advantage that would drive a consumer demand-based distribution for these technologies.
NFC vs QR
Which one should you choose to support? Each one of these contactless payment methodologies has advantages and disadvantages. NFC can be nominally faster to use for consumers and more lucrative for banks, but QR codes currently reach a wider market since more phones can read them than those that can read NFC tags.
Operational simplicity and speed also favor QR code activation, but if there is already and existing NFC infrastructure this may become a secondary consideration.
Simply speaking, we are living through unprecedented times, consumers are demanding contactless payment and creating a demand side wave in exchange for safety. How each institution answers this call best will depend on circumstances and context.
Overall, it may be advisable to hedge bets and support both methodologies and offer services based on both. Evaluate customer input, and then, adopt and activate the best option for your financial institution.
Top Stories
Predictions 2021: The Path To a New Normal Demands Increased Business Resilience and Cost Efficiency
By Jussi Karjalainen at Valtatech
A global pandemic, wild bush fires, a stock market crash, a presidential impeachment, and presidential elections – 2020 has been a year like no other and the impact on some businesses has been devastating. 2020 has highlighted how vulnerable many businesses are, and what they need to improve to survive and thrive – a topic that I recently wrote about. The key focus for businesses moving into 2020 will be on how they recoup their losses from 2020 and set themselves up for success. With that I mind, here are my 5 predictions on what 2021 will bring for businesses and what they need to be thinking about as we head into a New Year.
Continued Business Disruption – There are some serious global headwinds that businesses are set to face next year. Many countries are likely to go in and out of lockdowns, which will impact on local and global supply chains, consumer, and business spending, as well as overall business confidence. There is also the unknown of how the results of the US Presidential election and final transition of the UK out of the EU will impact global trade relations. Recent talk of a vaccine to stem the COVID-19 pandemic may provide some reprieve, but we predict continued business disruption heading into 2021.
So, how can your business prepare for disruption? Business resiliency is key. Namely your business ability to rapidly adapt and respond to business disruptions. 2020 taught us that finance and procurement operations are key to driving business resiliency. Getting a view and a grip on where your business is spending its money? What can be consolidated and what can be reduced? Having full control and visibility over your finance and procurement operations are key.
Cost Efficiency Should be at the Top of Everyone's Agenda – If 2020 has shown us anything, it is that we need to have greater control over our cost base. Not least because sales are, largely, harder to come by than ever before. Every organisation should be looking at the return that they are getting for every dollar invested – a simple equation of your total spend divided by your total revenue will give you a high-level overview. The focus for businesses will be on how to improve this ratio. For example, for every dollar spent enables $1.60 in revenue – increasing that number can have a huge impact on your overall profitability.
You can take a few approaches to getting this right: There is the 1% improvement approach – how can you make each process 1% more efficient and reap the benefits of the cumulative impact of those 1% gains. The alternative is to assess a specific process in more detail. Take your procure to pay process as an example. Map out your current process, identify the pain points that take the most time, and build out a business case to drive greater efficiencies in that process. It is a process we have undertaken with several businesses to deliver real bottom line value.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Asia recently outlined the results of their procure to pay digital transformation project which "helped us to reduce costs, identify risks and improve value delivery across the business; while providing the visibility and insights my team and I require improving risk mitigation, due diligence processes and governance."
Public Sector Spending Spree – Most national and state governments have announced large economic stimulus packages to get their economies going again. This will likely continue heading into 2021, with many tenders and grants being made available. Businesses wanting to take advantage of this spending spree need to be mindful of the likely compliance requirements for public sector contracts and grants. To qualify for many public sector contracts or grants, businesses may need to prove they comply with regulations around supply chain sustainability, modern slavery, buy local and national initiatives, diversity, and inclusion, for example.
In order to prove you qualify it helps to have systems and processes in place that can make supply chain mapping and transparency much easier giving you clear visibility over your entire supply chain. This enables you to know exactly where your goods are coming from in your supply chain, from who whilst being able to capture important information relating to compliance around sustainability, modern slavery etc.
Data, Data and even more data – As businesses seek to ensure their business resiliency, the demand and need for more accurate and timely data across business processes will greatly increase. Businesses that can track efficiency at a process level are going to become more cost efficient and future-proof their business. Equally, as business disruption continues, the demand for business agility can only be fulfilled through executives having access to accurate and timely data, which will put more pressure on teams to supply that data.
An effective combination of people, processes and technology can provide hugely valuable and actionable data insights. Considering the source to pay process, having access to data insights, such as invoice processing times, percentage of purchase orders and invoices sent and received electronically, and percentage of managed spend (e.g. spend going through contracts, preferred agreements etc) can reveal some real opportunities to drive efficiencies in your process.
Technology being the answer, rather than the enabler – It is only when the right processes and people are combined together with technology that real transformation can occur. Too often businesses look to technology as an answer to a problem, rather than an enabler to help solve the problem. Picking the technology before truly understanding the process that they are trying to transform has led to many failed and ineffective technology projects over the last 20 years. As businesses find themselves under more and more pressure heading into 2021, businesses will likely continue to make pressured transformation decisions based on fancy, shiny technology, rather than a clear understanding of the outcomes that they are hoping to achieve. Creating unnecessary and avoidable risk into their transformation activities.
Instead, why not conduct an in-depth analysis of your current business requirements through key stakeholder interviews and current process reviews? This can help to deliver valuable insights and resources such as:
- Key insights into the current processes
- Identification of key pain points
- Identification of key levers to drive user adoption
- Identification of key areas and drivers for financial return on investment
- Identification of quick wins and longer-term development areas
- Current state technology landscape map across your processes
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I will add a couple of photos later- right now it is pitch black outside! Well, NOW it is later.... and here are the photos.
At 5:30 am, we got an automated call from the school board advising us of the snow day. I dragged myself out of bed to let the girls know so that they could sleep in.
There isn't actually much snow on the ground, but there is a storm warning across much of the state for today and tomorrow, so I suppose they are being cautious.
This is our third time getting snow this month. I don't mind snow, nor do I mind snow days- it just seems a little early in the
**** Wednesday evening- this just in- schools are closed tomorrow too!!! It must be some storm that they are expecting if they aren't even waiting it out till the early morning!!! ****
5 hours ago


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Risk assessments are the key to machinery safety. They pave the way for a level of risk reduction that's both effective and economical. Many activities carried out by operators and maintenance staff represent a high risk.
Often it takes just a few factors to cause an accident. If you build, retrofit or interlink machinery, a competent risk assessment is the most important basis on which to design machinery safely or determine the necessary protection measures.


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Shaped Blog is a fully responsive personal WordPress blog theme with simple and fresh blog interface. With it's easy dashboard anyone can make multiple changes of the theme. It is scalable, highly customizable, SEO friendly, and translation ready personal blog theme that can be your best choice to build a stunning blog in no time.
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Hand-scraped hardwood flooring is often referred to as hand-sculpted hardwood flooring. This phrase describes a process that gives new hardwood flooring a desirable time-worn appearance.
Hand-scraped hardwood is similar to distressed hardwood. Instead of scraping the wood's surface by hand, however, distressed wood is created by machine. This also creates an aged look, but does not always offer the individual character of hand scraping.
After the hardwood has been hand scraped, it's usually coated with a tough urethane finish to protect the wood and give it long-lasting shine. A broom and dustpan are generally all that are needed to clean hand-scraped hardwood floors, though your floors may also require periodic hardwood refinishing and scratch repair, depending on the traffic they receive.
When cleaning the hand-scraped hardwood floors in your home, keep in mind that excessive water and some detergents can damage wood floors. Floor Coverings International of East Cincinnati, OH, offers free in-home flooring consultations. Call us today to learn more about hand scraped hardwood flooring in East Cincinnati, OH.
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This makes it super easy. Why waste money when you can do it your self ;-)
Saiga 12 Conversion Drilling Guide
So....If I'm NOT comfortable drilling and welding on my own weapon,nor have any equipment to do so, who would you recommend that can fix it up? I've put this off for FAR too long...
This makes it super easy. Why waste money when you can do it your self ;-)
Saiga 12 Conversion Drilling Guide
Thanks for the quick response, however I would RATHER pay someone to do this . First, I dont trust my "homebuild" skills especially on a several hundred dollar firearm. Finally, Id rather pay someone for the headache. I dont have ANY leave time.... so that makes the decision easy.
Thanks, Tho
LISTEN its really easy. there are only 3 rivets on the tg. get a $5 carbide dremel bit and gently whittle away at those little rivets. it will take you less that 10 minutes. you CANNOT hurt anything. dont even bother with the oem tg. go to carolina shooters ad get the bolt on tg. this is the most difficult part of the whole process. there is nothing to drill. the bolt on uses the factory holes.
the 2 pins holding the oem trigger in place are hand drill simple.
i had my kid do one when he was 15. he was nervous but he managed just fine. a basic conversion doesnt require any welding. there are plastic plugs at home depot that will fill the old trigger holes and its not really necessary. you can be completely finished in less than an hour.
al gore is full of carbon enriched shit
What he said!
If there is any doubt, then there is no doubt.
Go for it, You have plenty of help here if you need it.
I purchased a trigger guard from Brownells, RAM S12TG, and there is no drilling any holes in the rec. It uses existing holes and the guard uses screws intead of rivets. It even has the pistol grip mount built in. Easiest thing I've ever done. And its rock solid. SAIGA 12 OVERSIZED TRIGGERGUARD | Brownells
Last edited by mtdew; 06-18-2013 at 10:26 AM. Reason: changed words to make more sense
Clan MacPherson
yeah what they said x100 ..... its simple and painless to the pocket book .....
just a little time ( an hour max ) and you can take on the neighborhood 2 liter cola bottles in no time .... =)
it ll also build a little self confidence and learning about your item ....
That looks decent.I purchased a trigger guard from Brownells, RAM S12TG,
But I'm going to suggest getting better mounting hardware, those screws look like the low grade stuff you find in any hardware store, get some button head screws they are grade 8 and will look a lot better too.
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" Ronald Reagan
I have to agree with Coils. I'd go to Fastanel, or one of those type distributors for hardware. Hardware store screws might be OK for trigger guards and the like,, but don't scrimp on something you are going to use in a high stress areas, like trunnions. Not worth the 50 cents overall you'll save, get them from Brownells, Midway AK builder or a top end hardware distributor instead that handles quality stuff. The Aubuchon Hardware stuff is all Chinese and iffy as far as quality control and tempering goes, even the threads are chit sometimes, and very poorly cut, IMO,, junk.
If you don't believe me just try this simple test, take a quality screw/bolt and a cheap hardware store one and torque them with a inch pound torque wrench till they break,Even grade 8's, then you tell me which is stronger. Honestly,, how much do you think you will you save? Seriously,,after all what are a half dozen screws going to cost anyhoo,, is it worth the chance??? I don't think so myself. A quality job always pays for itself in the long run. Even if only for piece of mind,, if nothing else.
I put one of the Brownells trigger guards on a buds Sagia for him and it could not have been simpler. Even riveted like I did it was a snap.


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In mixed martial arts, it's almost a job requirement for fighters to spend countless hours away from their families, and in some cases depart their homes in order to seek the proper instruction needed to be successful.
But Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Jorge Gurgel (14-7) and his wife Zoila (11-1) no longer have to seek out guidance, as they now have each other.
Earlier this year, the pair exchanged vows in a private ceremony, and Jorge recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he's happier than ever.
As for Zoila, her husband now serves as her head coach, and she feels that they are living the ideal life.
"Everything's covered now," Zoila said. "I came from a place that I had to look to find everything I needed. Now, I have everything in one place, so to bring all that together, I'm more than excited to start learning more and to get to the best of my ability.
"Everything is perfect, and now it's getting to the top and staying up there."
In March, the couple accomplished a rare feat by earning victories on the same night. Zoila defeated Karina Hallinan by decision at Bellator 35, and Jorge scored a swift 44-second submission win over Billy Vaughan at "Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson."
"I think it was the greatest day," Jorge said. "She's really the hero of the whole story because all the cornermen stayed with me, and she had to leave and go by herself to California. She had all new cornermen that never coached her in the camp, and she went in there and pulled out the victory.
"It turned out to be a great start to the year for us."
The couple's passion for the sport runs deep, and the say their marriage is improving every aspect of their lives and careers, especially once they step inside of the cage.
"I think it makes the passion for everything better," Zoila said. "Love makes everything better, so when it comes to what we do and the passion we have for the sport, it brings the best out of both us. I believe it was great for both of us to of found each other."
"We have a rule at the house," Jorge explained. "We say, 'I'm the boss, but she comes first.'
"I know how to train for a fight, but my main goal is to make sure she's getting the best training she can, the best nutrition she can, the best information, and she's evolving as fast as she can."
Fittingly, the Jorge Gurgel MMA Academy near Cincinnati is where the couple calls home for training, and for Jorge, he believes his wife is destined to reach the sports elite.
"I want her to be ranked pound-for-pound," Jorge said. "Before her career's over, no one's going to touch her at 115, 120, or 125 pounds."
(Pictured: Jorge Gurgel)


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Janet Yellen tried at her first news conference as Federal Reserve chair to clarify a question that's consumed investors: When will the Fed start raising short-term interest rates from record lows?
She stressed that with the job market still weak, the Fed intends to keep short-term rates near zero for a "considerable" time and would raise them only gradually. And she said the Fed would not be dictated solely by the unemployment rate, which she feels no longer fully captures the job market's health.
But Yellen may have confused investors when she went further at her news conference. She suggested that the Fed could start raising short-term rates six months after it halts its monthly bond purchases, which most economists expect by year's end. That would mean short-term rates could rise by mid-2015.
A short-term rate increase would elevate borrowing costs and could hurt stock prices. Stocks fell after Yellen's mention of six months. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down more than 100 points.
The Fed's latest statement, issued after a two-day policy meeting ended Wednesday, said its benchmark short-term rate could stay at a record low "for a considerable time" after the Fed's monthly bond purchases end. The Fed has been gradually paring its monthly bond purchases, which have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low. Most analysts have expected the purchases to end by December.
"This is the kind of term it's hard to define," Yellen said of "considerable time."
"Probably means something on the order of six months, or that type of thing."
Even though stocks sold off after that remark, the Fed's statement and Yellen's comments made clear that borrowing rates for consumers and businesses could remain low for many more months. Yellen also stressed that rate increases, once they occur, would occur incrementally.
Some analysts said they thought Yellen's reference to six months didn't really change expectations for the timing of the Fed's first rate increase.
"We're not sure the comments suggest rates would begin to rise any earlier than the mid-2015 date already priced into rate futures markets," Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.
The Fed's benchmark short-term rate has been at a record low near zero since 2008. The Fed has previously resisted specifying the timing of a possible increase in the short-term rate.
In its statement, the Fed said it will cut its monthly long-term bond purchases by another $10 billion to $55 billion because it thinks the economy is strong enough to support further improvements in the job market.
One reason for dropping a threshold unemployment rate, as Yellen among others have noted, is that the rate can overstate the job market's health. In recent months, for example, the unemployment rate has fallen not so much because of robust hiring but because many people without a job have stopped looking for one. Once people stop looking for a job, they're no longer counted as unemployed, and the rate can fall as a result.
The Fed's previous statement had said it planned to keep short-term rates at record lows "well past" the time unemployment fell below 6.5 percent. The rate is now 6.7 percent. Several Fed officials had recently suggested scrapping the 6.5 percent threshold and instead describing more general changes in the job market and inflation that might trigger a rate increase.
The Fed's decision to drop the 6.5 percent unemployment threshold "represents the difficulty in finding the perfect economic indicator for explaining something as complex as the state of the labor market recovery and other considerations such as financial stability," James Marple, senior economist at TD Economics, wrote in a research note.
More than five years ago, the Fed cut its benchmark short-term rate to a record low near zero, where it's remained since. Most analysts think the Fed will keep its target for short-term rates near zero until mid to late 2015.
The Fed also updated its economic forecasts Wednesday. Fed officials expect the U.S. economy to grow at a steady if modest pace in 2014 despite weather-related setbacks this winter. The Fed is forecasting growth of 2.8 percent to 3 percent this year, a bit lower than its December projection of between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent.
The forecast suggests that Fed policymakers will continue to pare their monthly bond purchases, which are intended to stimulate growth by keeping interest rates low. It is doing so despite challenges the U.S. economy and financial markets face, from a brutal winter that's depressed growth, to fears about how Russia's aggression toward Ukraine might slow the global economy.
The Fed's decision came on an 8-1 vote. Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Fed's regional bank in Minneapolis, cast the dissenting vote. Kocherlakota felt the changes the Fed made to its guidance on future short-term rate increases had weakened its credibility in raising inflation to the Fed's target of 2 percent. Inflation is now running around 1 percent.
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Professional Community for Car Dealers, Marketing, Advertising and Sales Leaders
Do you remember your last Miracle Up, the up whose deal paid your mortgage that month?
You know, the up who paid MSRP, plopped down a substantial down payment and had an 800 Beacon score.
I didn't think so. Yet many sales associates dream about Miracle Ups while allowing their livelihood to slip steadily through their fingers every day.
Nice idea, Miracle Ups, but reality is we build a great book of business by working hard to give every up the royal treatment. The royal treatment means not only rolling out the figurative red carpet for Miracle Ups alone but for every up to let them know how important they are.
Part of showing that importance – that royal treatment -- is we pay attention to our customers after the sale!
As models for how to give customers a royal treatment, the car business has the leisure and financial industries. Hotels, airlines and banks all work hard to treat their customers as special, making sure they retain their business trip after trip, credit card charge after credit card charge. They know the value of handling every customer royally.
Sales associates need to be mindful to give every up royal treatment, not just those who dress or talk the part. In other words, don't be seduced by any up based on their physical appearance, oratory skills or by the age or condition of the vehicle they drive onto the lot. Most seasoned sales pros can share stories about well-heeled, glory-promising ups who fall apart as the deal progresses and of good, solid customers riding in on pumpkins and dressed like scarecrows.
The royal treatment must also extent beyond the showroom or lot. If customer retention is the goal then extend royal treatment into customer follow up. Customers want to be pursued. They want to know their business is important to you. Neglect this need or take customers for granted at your own risk.
The type of sales associate you want to be is your decision:
Views: 719
Patrick you were excellent at AutoCon. Mentioned you here: http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profiles/blogs/autocon-20...
By the way this is an excellent post! I was lucky to be "raised" my first 10 years at Carlisle Lincoln Mercury 14 time President's Award winner for CSI and #1 "bought there before" dealer in USA in the day. Very grateful for that experience.
I experienced a certain moment of irony while reading this article... I was firing off and email to a client who was asking for something that should be expected, but just sort of rubbed me the wrong way on a Monday morning... This article was in the background and made me stop, pause and appreciate how easy it is to lose a client compared to how much work goes into getting one in the first place... When I was at Rick Case Honda last week, the entire team at the dealership has developed a culture of exceeding customer expectations, before, during and after the sale. Watched a salesperson getting a key cut for a customer he sold two years ago. I asked him about getting the security chip programmed so the key would start the car; "Don't need it" he said... "She is at a shopping center and locked her keys in the car, I can get to her faster with this key than roadside assistance and all I need it to do is open the door..." This article made me think about Richard Bustillo and his team at Rick Case Honda.
The Golden Rule remains a fantastic business model.
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)—Two men accused of stealing the identities of terminally ill people to reap $30 million from insurance companies and brokerage houses pleaded guilty Monday, several days into their trial, and face prison sentences of up to 10 years each.
Estate planning lawyer and philanthropist Joseph Caramadre, 50, and his former employee Raymour Radhakrishnan, 28, each entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Providence to single counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, ending the trial that began last week and had been expected to last up to three months. Testimony was to resume Monday.
Prosecutors say Caramadre, CEO of Estate Planning Resources in Cranston, and Radhakrishnan took out variable annuities and so-called "death-put" bonds that would pay out when a person died. Authorities say they lied to terminally ill people to get personal information that was used to purchase bonds and annuities in their names without consent.
"Today's message is that greed is not good," Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said after the proceeding.
He said the defendants had taken the identities of the terminally ill for no other reason than to make money.
"They did that with impunity, and that's what brought them down," he said. "Life is not just about making money."
Caramadre and Radhakrishnan earlier had pleaded not guilty to a 66-count indictment on charges including conspiracy, identity theft, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Caramadre had also been charged with witness tampering.
At the time of the indictment, Caramadre's spokesman said he could never take advantage of anyone and contended that prosecutors had been led astray by an insurance industry "upset it got beat at its own game with products they designed and offered to the investing public."
Caramadre had no comment after leaving the courthouse Monday. His spokesman Gregg Perry said in a statement that he "has made a decision that acceptance of this plea agreement is in his best interests and the best interests of his family."
Radhakrishnan had been representing himself during the trial but agreed to be assisted by public defender Olin Thompson for the plea change. A message was left for Thompson.
Both men face up to a 10-year prison sentence under the plea agreement. Judge William E. Smith scheduled sentencing for February.
Prosecutors said the men placed an ad in a Catholic newspaper that offered $2,000 to people who were terminally ill.
The pair lied to people who responded to the ads and got personal information that was then used to purchase bonds and annuities in their names without their consent, authorities said. They also lied to the companies issuing the accounts, prosecutors said, by falsely saying that the people opening the accounts had substantial wealth and investment experience.
Some of the terminally ill people were told accounts would be opened to benefit their families or to help others with a disease, but that didn't happen, prosecutors said.
Testimony began last week with a 2009 video deposition by a Westerly man who has since died of cancer. Richard Wiley said he had heard, while in hospice, about a philanthropist who was giving out money to help dying people with their expenses. He testified he met with Radhakrishnan, who gave him $3,000, had him sign some paperwork and turn over some personal information.
Prosecutors showed Wiley papers, bearing his signature, that authorized accounts be opened in his name, but he said he had given no such permission and didn't recognize some of the documents.
See also:


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When Pep Guardiola's tika-taka playing Barcelona side dominated the world, it led many to believe that you need to control possession if you are to win.
However, that myth was undone when teams counter attacked against them, in the style Leicester City have in the Premier League this season.
The Foxes' reliance on the pace of Jamie Vardy has seen them play far more direct football and turn defence into attack with one swing of a boot.
But how does Leicester's average possession this season compare against their Premier League rivals over the same period?
Click the arrow above, right, to find out which teams averaged the most possession in games over the season and to see if keeping the ball has any impact on league position.


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Born and raised between Columbus and Pataskala, Ohio, Coraezy Hitz, Corae Benson, 26, has been known for his skill to create diverse and lyrically creative tracks. He originally started as a drummer at the age of 12 and discovered his love for creating music. As a freshman in high school he managed to build a quality studio of his own and began selling and giving away his mixtapes to his peers and public.
Through learning how to produce and engineer his own music, Coraezy also developed a true understanding of who he is and what he represents when it comes to Rap and his delivery. He chooses to take the honest approach and manages to stay true to himself.
Tweets by CoraezyH


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Kimberley Locke wants to fill that vacant judge's chair on "American Idol." The season two finalist feels having a former contestant on the show can bring renewed interest to the popular TV singing competition.
"I would love to sit in that chair and, you know, give some advice from the contestant's standpoint because I've been on that stage and I know what it's like," Locke said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.
But don't consider her a pushover. Locke says she would be brutally honest about each performance and "give it with no fluff."
"When you're a contestant on that show you do need that hard truth sometimes," Locke says, anticipating her critical tone would fall somewhere between the styles of two former judges.
"I'm not quite as nice as Paula (Abdul). Paula's super, supernice but I don't think I'm quite as mean as Simon (Cowell) either."
The empty judges' chairs came after Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez decided not to come back for another season. Last week, Mariah Carey confirmed she would join the Fox show's 12th season. Other names mentioned to fill the missing spot include Nick Jonas, Pharrell Williams and Charlie Sheen.
Locke loves the idea of former contestants coming back to judge. Adam Lambert has also been vocal about his willingness to be a judge on "Idol."
Since finishing behind Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken at the end of the show's second season, Locke embarked on a solo career, releasing two albums on Curb Records. Locke recently started her own label, IAM Entertainment. Her first single, "Finally Free," came out Tuesday. She plans to release another single this year and a full album early next year.


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No charges to be filed in 4-year-old's accidental shooting
Trinity Ross shot in head on Jan. 10
The Jackson County prosecutor's office said no charges would be filed in the accidental shooting death of a 4-year-old girl earlier this year.
Trinity Ross was shot in the head on Jan. 10. She died after being removed from life support.
Two boys, ages 5 and 6, were in the home at the time of the shooting. Prosecutors said a woman watching the children had gone outside to get something from a car when the shooting happened.
The girl's father told police that he accidentally left his gun in a jacket, but normally stored it in a safe.
"In the interest of justice, criminal charges are being declined," prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release.
She said the case was unusual because the gun owner had a permit. She said the owner used the gun for protection after being robbed in the past while making cash deposits late at night.
She said the owner had a history of being very careful about how he stored the gun, but wound up taking a different jacket with him when he left on the day of the shooting. She said the owner tried to call home and let his wife know that the gun was there, but couldn't reach her in time.
Baker said it was a case of negligence and a horrible accident.
"Some of those horrible accidents do get over the legal threshold. This one, we just all believed, fell short," she said.
She said the gun owner told investigators that the children didn't even know about the gun until the day of the shooting.
Baker said the incident should remind everyone to practice responsible gun ownership.


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All in all, what is a smart gadgets for home? A smart gadgets for home is a home that is outfitted with innovation to remotely control and robotize family unit frameworks like lighting, entryways, indoor regulators, excitement frameworks, security alerts, observation cameras and other associated apparatuses. Be that as it may, its something other than remote controls and extravagant contraptions. A smart gadgets for home rises above the remote controls and programmable settings that have been standard home highlights for as long as a very long while, to make a bound together home observing, control, vitality preservation, biological system.
The knowledge layer of smart gadgets for home
Beside highlights, the term smart gadgets for home suggests insight. To coordinate the depiction, it must have detecting, information preparing, and remote correspondence works that are optional to their basic role. Those optional capacities should nourish contribution to a focal center point to make something like a homes mind.
Highlights of smart gadgets for home
With every one of those highlights set up, a smart gadgets for home ends up equipped for taking in the propensities and schedules of the tenants and consequently changes the home control frameworks in manners that streamline the commonplace undertakings that accompany working a cutting edge family unit. A smart gadgets for home is worked around the idea of improving your home life.
What are a few highlights accessible for smart gadgets for home
Its critical to realize you can modify home mechanization to address essentially any issue you have. Key approaches to make a smart gadgets for home incorporate the accompanying: manage your home from a smart center point. What is a smart home center? Its the main issue from which you can control the different parts of your smart home. A control board inside your home enables you to communicate with your smart home. Be that as it may, you can likewise control your home from anyplace with a smart home application. This gives you opportunity to oversee and control your home whenever, and anyplace, from your most loved gadgets.


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By MARK WEISBROT
EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is addressing the question, "Should the U.S. spend billions more on the Navy?"
WASHINGTON — The Budget Control Act of 2011 required automatic spending cuts unless Congress could agree on a long-term deficit reduction plan.
When the law was passed, the conventional wisdom was that the automatic cuts in Pentagon spending would be unthinkable, and this would force the long-term budget deal.
The conventional wisdom proved to be wrong, and the cuts to Pentagon spending began in March 2013.
It was a dumb idea to reduce the deficit with unemployment elevated, but given that government spending was going to be cut, the fact that this resulted in cutting the bloated Pentagon was good.
Now we hear whining and complaining from the Pentagon spending lobby—and especially the Navy, which is pushing for a new line of $14 billion super-carriers—that America's national security will be compromised. Of course that depends on how you define "America" and "national security."
If we are talking about the actual security of American citizens and residents—well, a huge part of Pentagon spending is clearly unrelated to that.
No one has explained how the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq made us safer, and it cost the lives of more than 4,400 Americans and several hundred thousand Iraqis. It's tough to see how the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has increased our security, or the drone killings of civilians in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries—all of which are creating new enemies every day.
No, the Pentagon lobby's real fear right now is that people will see that Pentagon cuts don't endanger us in the least, and will want more.
According to the polls, the public already wants much deeper cuts in Pentagon spending than do our pampered and Pentagon-contractor-financed politicians—who do not have to sacrifice their own sons and daughters for their imperial ambitions nor suffer from the economic consequences.
The sequester has been in effect since March, and even if it continues through all of next year, the base Pentagon budget will only return to the level of 2007—excluding wars. It will still be more, in real, inflation-adjusted terms, than it was at the height of the Vietnam War.
The Navy plans to spend $2.2 billion this year on the Littoral Combat Ship, and wants more ballistic missile submarines for as much as $8 billion each.
Would you really rather have these special gifts for Pentagon contractors than thousands of teachers, or Head Start preschool programs for thousands of children?
And these Navy luxury items are small change compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars of Pentagon waste that is planned for the coming decade.
The worst deal of all would be a "grand bargain"—a long-term budget deal to avoid the cuts in Pentagon spending by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits instead.
This is no bargain; it is more like "grand theft" from our senior citizens: their average Social Security check is about $1,100 a month and makes up most of their income.
It is often argued that Pentagon spending creates jobs, but in fact it creates fewer jobs than other forms of government spending or even some tax cuts. This means that if overall spending is fixed, as it currently is under the Budget Control Act, more cuts in the Pentagon and fewer elsewhere will provide more jobs for our 11 million officially unemployed.
We narrowly avoided entering the war in Syria in September, because public opposition prevented Congress from voting for it and President Obama from bombing without congressional approval.
A smaller military will mean fewer wars and fewer lives destroyed, as our leaders will be forced to scale back their ambitions. We don't need a bigger budget for the Navy or the military—we need a smaller empire, or better yet none at all.
Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Readers may write to him at CEPR, 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20009.
via Con: Spending billions on the Navy when millions are needy is obscene | GazetteXtra.


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Dinner Tonight: Skillet Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
Your source for quick recipe every single week day.
I've long been on a search for a great macaroni and cheese recipe, so it was a thrill to see a version on Food 52 from someone I trust. Jennifer Hess of Last Night's Dinner, who I think is an inventive and smart cook, tweeted about her entry, and I put it at the top of my list. I love how her blog chronicles culinary inventions springing from what's in her pantry, freezer, and local market haul. She's the kind of cook you want to emulate, someone who can think on her feet, which I really admire. I knew that a recipe for something as serious as macaroni and cheese was sure to be perfect.
It was. Though the idea behind this recipe is common—boiled pasta mixed into a bechamel sauce and baked—the execution here is dead on. And, best of all, the whole thing cooks in a single skillet (plus a pot for boiling the pasta). It comes out of the oven brown and bubbling, with a subtle sharpness from the cheddar, nuttiness from the gruyère, and a wonderful savory roundness from the Parmesan/Pecorino tag team. This one is going into my rotation, as long as nobody who I'm eating with minds butter, heavy cream, and a heckuva lot of cheese. Hess does recommend a nice salad or sautéed greens, which is good advice.
Skillet Macaroni and Cheese
- Yield:4 to 6
- Rated:
- 1 pound dry short pasta (shells, penne, farfalle all work great here)
- Kosher salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick), plus an additional 1-2 tablespoons for topping
- 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco), to taste
- 2 cups grated sharp farmhouse Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup grated cave-aged Gruyere
- 1/2 cup grated Parmagiano Reggiano, plus 1/4 cup for topping
- 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus 1/4 cup for topping
- 2 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, sage or savory
Bring a pot of salty water to boil and cook the pasta until nearing al dente, but not full cooked. Drain it and rinse with cool water. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
Melt 1/4 cup of the butter in an 11-inch oven-safe skillet until the foam subsides, then add the flour, whisking to remove clumps and prevent burning. Add the milk and cream slowly, whisking constantly, until it is all added and there are no remaining clumps. Whisk in the dry mustard, hot sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.
Set aside half the Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses. Add the remaining cheeses a little at a time, stirring often, until the are melted into the sauce. Taste for salt and spiciness and adjust as needed.
Turn off the heat and add the drained pasta little by little, stirring to coat with the sauce, until it is all added. Combine the herbs, breadcrumbs, and reserved cheese, and sprinkle over the top. Crumble the remaining butter in small pieces over the whole skillet.
Bake until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Colorado Events, Coupons, Reviews!
Subscribe to KidsScoop! The monthly family event and savings newsletter.
We are big fans of gifting box subscriptions for the holidays. It's great for family members you don't get to see because they ship directly to them. They are also great because they get a new box with new items every single month! It's a gift that gives all year round. We recently found this great one called GrandBox. GrandBox is a great gift idea for grandparents. Full of personalized photos that you pick out and fun items that grandparents love. Check out our unboxing video:
If you are looking for a great gift for the grandparents this holiday season make sure to check out GrandBox. It's a great way to send some new items every month and some updated photos.
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Disclosure: Parenting In Progress receives products in order to conduct reviews. No monetary compensation was provided unless noted otherwise. All opinions are 100% my own. Some posts may contain affiliate links that I receive commission or payment from in exchange for referrals. In the event of a giveaway, the sponsor is responsible for delivery of the prize, unless otherwise noted in the posting. I only recommend products or services I personally use and believe will be a good fit for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 225: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising"
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Over the past three years VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has been working with Finnish-based Exote Ltd to develop a new hard metal and the necessary manufacturing process. This material can be used to replace tungsten carbide (WC), the hard metal widely used in industry today and whose global availability is becoming critical. The new material also possesses excellent bullet-proofing qualities, and ballistic tests has proved its unequalled ability to stop armor-piercing bullets.
The hard metal known as WC Co – used commonly in industrial applications demanding strength and durability – contains tungsten carbide and cobalt, both of which are defined by the EU as critical and, in the case of cobalt, dangerous to health. The EU critical materials list contains substances of significance to the EU economy but whose availability is at great risk, and are mostly non-renewable. Exote's material is a more ecological alternative, the new manufacturing technology enabling comparable properties to be acquired from other raw materials.
Exote's material withstads high temperatures and has high-level strength and durability. The metal is ideal for the manufacture of crusher blades and shear cutters, as well as exacting product tools. In ballistic protection it can be used to both personal- and vehicle protection. Especially at the highest Nato defined protection levels the material has been proved to be superior . The growing threat of roadside bombs, grenade splinters and armor-piercing bullets can now be reduced by solutions based on this new material.
VTT and Exote Ltd carried out further development on the material Exote has in production through the use of nano additives, which enable changing its toughness and hardness according to intended use.
The market potential for this new material is huge, and it will be important in many applications especially within the EU area.
Source: Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)
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For 20 years, much of Victoria has started its day to Neil Mitchell's cheery "good morning." Throughout that time, Mitchell has dominated the morning timeslot in Melbourne radio with his top-rating program on 3AW. In a 40-year career, he has been editor of the Herald newspaper, a reporter and executive on The Age, and has hosted his own television program on two networks.
In 2007, Mitchell was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and was also appointed an Officer in the general division of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to charity and the community. In 1997, he was voted Victoria's Father of the Year.
Chi listens to Mitchell's radio program regularly and is a big fan of his. "I really like him. He did such a good job during the recent bushfires and is always helping people," she says. Chi also read Mitchell's 1999 book Second Chance: inspirational stories of survivors who found cheating death enhanced life, and was moved and inspired by it. "I feel he knows how to live, how to love life and how to help other people," she says.
Introduced by a mutual friend, Chi had several sittings with Mitchell during which she sketched him. She then did six drawings before she began the painting. She aims to convey his personality through his face: "his sharp intelligence and his warm, kind heart. For me, the painting is full of sunshine and happiness," she says.
Born in China in 1967, Chi graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts from the Fine Arts Institute of Guangzhou. She is now based in Melbourne but maintains a studio in China and goes back there regularly to work. She had solo exhibitions in Beijing in 2007 and 2008 and has also had solo exhibitions in Guangzhou and Taipei. She was a finalist in last year's Archibald Prize with a portrait of her son Julius, and had two paintings in the 1996 Archibald: Wrap Time of film director John Ruane and a portrait of Hon. Ms Jan Wade, MP. She was also a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 1997, 1996 and 1995 when she was Highly Commended and won the People's Choice Award.


text: All Hall Signs aluminum blanks are manufactured at our Bloomington facility per U.S. Bureau of Public Roads Standards. Our standard blanks have 3/8" holes for mounting and radius corners in accordance with the Federal Standard Highway Signs Manual. White Painted Aluminum Blanks have been coated on both sides with a glossy, white non-reflective paint.


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To calculate lineal feet of trim, (e.g. base, quarter round) simply measure each wall in the room and add up the lineal feet. For ease of installation use whole pieces where ever possible. Allow extra for cutting each corner and splicing pieces together.
To determine the square footage of a square or rectangular room, measure the length and width of the room in feet or inches and enter the values in Area 1 of the calculator below. For irregularly shaped areas or multiple rooms, it is helpful to draw a diagram and divide the room up into sections. Treat each section as a separate area, as in this illustration. Input the measurements of each area below to see the total SQFT needed.
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Iraqi politicians are dueling with new hostility over the fate of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city that both self-ruled Kurds in the north and Iraq's central government want to control.
The dispute has caused a deadlock over an election law, threatening to delay Iraq's nationwide elections set for mid-January. Any vote setback could, in turn, disrupt American plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, scheduled to ramp up after the vote.
"The problem is that we are getting to a crisis," said Marina Ottoway, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They have been trying for over a year to reach a compromise on Kirkuk."
"Now," she warns, "it is becoming a problem for the United States. ... There is real pressure on the U.S. military to draw down as soon as possible."
For generations, tensions have simmered over Kirkuk and its surrounding province of about 1.3 million people, 180 miles north of Baghdad. Boasting a citadel believed to date to 800 B.C. or earlier, Kirkuk is in many ways an ordinary, if somewhat shabby, Iraqi city.
But it sits on a political and cultural fault line among ethnic Kurds and smaller groups of ethnic Arabs and Turkomen, or ethnic Turks. Vast oil fields, dotted with flaming smoke stacks, lie just to the north and west — raising the stakes.
Vying for control
Kurds consider Kirkuk a Kurdish city and want it part of their self-ruled region. But during the rule of former dictator Saddam Hussein, tens of thousands of Kurds were displaced under a forced plan by Saddam to make Kirkuk predominantly Arab.
Regaining control of the city is thus extremely symbolic for Kurds and many Kurds have returned since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But other groups claim Kurds have packed more Kurds into the city than before.
The population breakdown remains in dispute but U.S. officials estimated last spring that Kurds make up 52 percent of Kirkuk and its province, with Arabs at 35 percent and Turkomen about 12 percent.
The Arab-led central government vehemently opposes anything that would remove Kirkuk from its control. A referendum on the city's future — required by the Iraqi constitution — has been repeatedly postponed. The Turkomen have generally sided with Arabs, believing they'll be treated better than under the Kurds, a longtime enemy of their Turkish supporters.
The immediate dispute centers on voting rolls listing who can vote in Kirkuk in the January national election. That has delayed the necessary deal on the election law.
Long-term, money also plays a role. Because of the surrounding oil, whoever controls Kirkuk stands to benefit enormously.
The Kurdish-Arab dispute over Kirkuk is different from Iraq's main political dispute between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, which plays out more in the capital of Baghdad and surrounding areas.
The Sunni-Shiite split has less relevance in Kirkuk where both Kurds and Arabs are mostly Sunni Muslims. There, the fear among Arabs — both Sunnis and Shiites — is that Kurds will gobble up all jobs and government benefits if Kirkuk joins Kurdistan.
Election influences U.S. military withdrawal
The United States has been watching the debate intensely for any repercussions it may have for the American military withdrawal.
Under a plan by President Barack Obama, all U.S. combat troops will be out of the country by the end of August 2010, leaving about 50,000 trainers and support troops in Iraq. Those remaining troops would leave by the end of 2011.
U.S. military commanders say the majority of the troop departures would come about 60 days after the planned Iraqi election — the idea being to get the country on stable footing before making any major troop changes.
Any delay in the election date could possibly push back the troop withdrawal. U.S. officials have said that they are still hoping the Jan. 16 date will go forward, but say their troop drawdown plan is not fixed.
Iraq's central government should have tried to resolve the underlying Kirkuk issue long before now, asserts Mohammed Ihsan, the former Minister of Disputed Territories, who is now in the Kurdistan regional government.
"They forget that without sorting out this issue, you cannot develop a serious partnership throughout the country," Ihsan said.
But a Turkomen lawmaker, Abbas al-Bayati, said that Iraq's parliament has not given up hopes of a deal on the election law. "Delaying the elections is a red line. Elections must not be postponed at any price."
'Special status' for city?
The tensions over Kirkuk — already high — rose last week after Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish autonomous region in the north, said in a speech: "We refuse to give Kirkuk a special status in the election."
The wording refers to an April U.N. report recommending giving Kirkuk such "special status" with oversight by both the near-autonomous Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad. Kurds reject that.
The controversy over Barzani's words was further complicated, at least initially, by a mistranslation of his remarks on Iraqi state television, which inaccurately quoted him as saying he pledged to "annex" Kirkuk — a more hard line position.
A regional official with state-owned Iraqiya TV, Evan Nasir Hassan, said Saturday the station made the translation error inadvertently when translating from Kurdish to Arabic. The Associated Press used Iraqiya's Arabic translation in its original story on the speech Wednesday, but subsequently ran a correction describing Barzani's comments accurately.
The mistranslation aside, emotions run high.
Fawzi Akram, a legislator in radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc, who listened to Barzani's speech in the original Kurdish, called his comments provocative.
"We must contain the situation, not make it more complicated," he said. "Kirkuk is an Iraqi city."
More on: Iraq


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2013/14 Kits
USA Rugby 2013/14 Canterbury Home, Away and Sevens Jerseys
April 1st, 2013: After a two-week online countdown, Canterbury proudly unveils the new USA Rugby home and alternate jerseys for the 2013-14 season (now available at World Rugby Shop and Canterbury). The XV's home jersey will be first worn when USA Rugby take on European powerhouse Ireland in Houston on June 8th. The Sevens jerseys will make their debut at the Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held in Moscow starting June 28th.
Stars In Stripes: To mark the unveiling of the new jerseys, Canterbury has launched its "Stars In Stripes" campaign, which celebrates the new wave of USA Rugby stars emerging on the world scene. Combining these stars with stripe infused designs establishes a very iconic and patriotic look across all formats.
The fabrication used is a tough stretch fabric for comfort and ensures players have unrestricted movement. The players' Test jerseys are tight fitting to assist with evading tackles, and include new curved side body seams that give players a grip point whilst binding in scrums. The Loop 21.2 neckline provides a new aesthetic and is a technical evolution, culminating in 3 layers of fabric for strength purposes.
Canterbury Chief Executive Officer Chris Stephenson said:
"Canterbury as a brand is synonymous with the sport of rugby, and we are proud to be the official kit supplier to USA Rugby during the game's impressive growth in the States over recent years. The new set of jerseys blends a patriotic look with construction made for the rigours of the game in the 21st century, and we're confident that fans and players alike will be delighted with the results."
USA Rugby President and CEO, Nigel Melville said:
"USA Rugby is excited for the launch of the new 2013-14 Eagles kit and the expanded range of USA Rugby gear being made available to our members and fans. Canterbury has an excellent reputation for quality and performance that mirrors the mission behind USA Rugby's high performance teams. We look forward to our Eagle stars shining in the Canterbury stripes both on and of the pitch."
The "Pro" licensed jerseys offer supporters of USA Rugby the same look, but with a lifestyle fit more suited to supporting the team than being the team's hooker. A full range of training and lifestyle clothing completes the offering, available from April 15th with new and exciting products being released throughout the year.
You can see more of the latest rugby shirts in our Rugby Kits section.


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On Saturday, Mommy and Rachel went shopping while Joshua and I played Axis & Allies and Daddy started writing Communion of Christ's Body. After lunch we went down to the beach. Even though the water was cold, Joshua and I swam in it while Mommy, Daddy, and Rachel took a walk on the beach. After that we packed up and came home.
|A model of the Wright brother's plane while they were preparing it for take-off
|Joshua and I at the Wright Memorial
|The stone marking where the first flight was made from
|In this photo you can see the markers for the distance of each flight. If you zoom in you can see how far the fourth marker is
|Daddy, Mommy, and Rachel climbing a dune at Jockey's Ridge
|Joshua and I racing down one of the dunes
|A sand dune
|A recreation of the earthworks at Roanoke
|Sunset at our Condo
|A Model of one of the Wright Flyers


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Program Prioritization
Academic Task Force (AcTF)
Support Task Force (STF)
Provost June 18, 2015 Memo
Provost provides detailed results memo
In May 2013 UAA embarked on a thoughtful, comprehensive self-evaluation process of reviewing, evaluating and prioritizing all of our academic programs and support functions. Leadership chose the prioritization process to confirm mission alignment and to guide future growth and development of UAA.
After the release of the findings reports in February 2015, faculty provided recommendations for the programs placed in category four (transform) or category five (deletion/further review). Their recommendations went to the deans of each college, and the deans reviewed those recommendations before forwarding proposed actions to the provost in May 2015.
Following discussions with the deans and other academic leaders, Provost Samuel Gingerich concurred with the recommended actions and provided a memo on June 18 that details which programs, pending approval by the Board of Regents (BOR), will be eliminated. Some transformed programs have new benchmarks for evaluation. A small number of programs are still being evaluated. UAA will present the BOR with the list of proposed program deletions this fall. Typically it takes two to five years to teach out a program before deletion.


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critic's pick 256
Something curious but quite revealing happens as the soundtrack recording of the new James Bond film Skyfall heads into the home stretch. Sitting at No.23 in a dossier of 30 musical vignettes is a snippet that is essentially the album's – and, one would suppose, the film's – title piece. But it's not the Adele-penned and performed theme, which already has made rounds on the pop charts. This is an icy instrumental in which a stark Brian Eno-esque piano line is undercut with reeds and a slice of orchestral ambience that sounds almost choral. The resulting music works like a requiem, a quantum of solace, to employ an earlier Bond title, in a score filled with restless tension and global ambience.
The exclusion of the Adele track, no doubt the product of some contractual restriction, is something of a commercial kiss of death for a recording like this. After all, who buys a Bond soundtrack just for the score? Well, over a sprawling running time of nearly 78 minutes, Thomas Newman's score presents us with 30 great reasons.
First of all, this is rich, orchestral music that sounds positively old school in some respects. Sure, there are generous contemporary references, especially in the trance-like passages early on that trace Skyfall's storyline from Turkey (Grand Bazaar, Istanbul) to China (Shanghai Drive). And no doubt, there is some keyboard generated orchestral simulation at work (although if there is, Newman hides it well). Mostly, though, Skyfall unfolds as an orchestral tapestry that serves the film as reliably as John Barry's scores did early Bond classics, including From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.
But the similarity ends there. Barry's scores addressed the adventures of Bond the hipster. Newman's score addresses a decidedly steelier Bond. Skyfall is filled with the busy, requisite drama that surges with every chase and fight sequence. But it also turns gray and chilly when the film's finale unfolds along the moors of Scotland. And it does so not with the expected Celtic melancholy, but with true orchestral menace (as in the drone and chant-style punctuation of Welcome to Scotland) that mirrors the mood and urgency of the moment.
It should be noted also that Newman has come up with possibly the least romantic score ever for a Bond film. There are no love themes here, just a rich orchestral restlessness that conveys a very different beauty – one that is as deep and unexpected as the film's Scottish homefront.
It's just as well Adele wasn't invited to this party. She helps embellish the film's typically lavish opening credits, but this Skyfall score is an altogether darker party that operates best without wordplay.


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WARRANTY: 6 Months