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|Thu August 28, 2008
|From 12:00 to 21:00 UTC (8am -> 5pm EDT)
|#fedora-qa (need irc help?)
This week's instalment of Fedora Test Day will focus on 2 additional features planned for the Fedora 10 release. On the agenda will be:
We'll have a host of QA and Development characters hanging out discussing bugs (aka "features"), expectations, and test areas. I've included details below for how you can contribute below.
The following cast of characters will be available testing, workarounds, bug fixes, and general discussion ...
- Development - twaugh, huffd
- Quality Assurance - jlaska, wwoods
Triage NEW Bugs[edit]
Much like a field hospital, bug triage is the art of quickly addressing the big issues in a bug, and moving it on for further review by the development team. Unlike a field hospital, there should be no blood or guts. The triage process has generated quite a following. You are encouraged to read more about the triage process on the BugZappers home. In a nutshell, bug triage is a several step process that includes:
- Getting started
- Finding bugs to triage, the list we'll use for Test Day includes:
- Taking action
One should not spend more than 5 minutes triaging a single bug. If you have more time to spare, and are looking to get a bit more involved, please proceed with Bug Verification or Test Execution.
Review Proposed Test Plan[edit]
See a typo or spot a gap in coverage in the proposed test plans for these features? Either modify the pages noted below, or come to #fedora-qa to discuss your suggestions. Help improve this feature by making changes/suggestions.
Getting Started[edit]
To help with testing, you'll need to get a copy of the Fedora 10 Alpha. Additionally, since the Test Day involves testing installation, you'll likely need a spare system to install to.
Here are some testing requirements:
- A spare system (can be a virtual guest)
- Access to install F10-Alpha install media (mirror list)
- Optical CD/DVD media and a media burner (optional)
One you have selected a mirror, you must decide how you'd like to start the installer. There are many options, but the following lists the most popular choices.
Installation from CD/DVD[edit]
This method requires:
- A spare system (can be a virtual guest)
- Optical CD/DVD media and a media burner (optional)
The same process used to install an Fedora release can be used to install F10-Alpha. For an overview of the process, please review the Installation Guide.
- First, determine your system architecture (docs).
- Next, locate a nearby mirror where you can download install media (mirror list).
- Next, download a F10-Alpha Fedora CD, DVD, or
boot.isofor your architecture from a (docs)
- Burn the downloaded image to a CD/DVD
- Boot from the CD/DVD
Installation from LiveUSB[edit]
- Refer to USB HowTo
Installation over Network[edit]
This method requires:
- A spare system (can be a virtual guest) - already installed OS (F9, F10-Alpha)
Information on installing without http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f9/en_US/ap-medialess-install.html. The same process for locating installation media will be used.
- First, determine your system architecture (see http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f9/en_US/sn-which-arch.html).
- Next, locate a nearby mirror where you can download install media (see http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/development/).
- Next, install the
# yum install snake
- Using the mirror you selected above, update your bootloader information using snake:
# snake-install http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/test/10-Alpha/Fedora/i386/os
- Reboot your system to start the install
With your system installed, you are ready to move on to testing. Good luck!
Install/Update Appliance Tools[edit]
Since rawhide is not fully functional yet, the latest Appliance Tools packages have been built and are available for download at http://thincrust.org/download/. To install the updates ...
- First, install F10-Alpha using a method described in the sections above
- Next, install all prerequisites using yum:
yum install libvirt virt-manager libvirt-python python-virtinst qemu kvm
- Next, install appliance-tools and livecd-tools which are not yet available in rawhide by issuing the following commands:
rpm -ivh http://thincrust.net/download/appliance-tools-003-3.fc10.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh http://thincrust.net/download/livecd-tools-018-1.fc10.thincrust.x86_64.rpmor
rpm -ivh http://thincrust.net/download/livecd-tools-018-1.fc10.thincrust.i386.rpm
- Finally, confirm that packages have been installed by typing:
some md5 comparisons?
Exploratory Testing[edit]
Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing that is not scripted or planned in as much detail as a more traditional test plan. Rather than walking through a series of pre-defined test cases, the tester is asked to think about the high-level test areas in the software. From there, the tester is encouraged to use their knowledge of the product and the code in order to navigate through different areas of the software. As they walk through the software, their emphasis is to find bugs, expose new test areas, and learn more about the product to help guide future test efforts.
The simplest definition from Exploratory Testing Explained by James Bach works the best:
Exploratory testing is simultaneous learning, test design, and test execution.
For further reading on exploratory testing can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratory_testing. Also make sure to do security testing. Here is an insightful post on how to remove malware from wordpress site.
Test Areas[edit]
For our test day, let's define the following test areas as primary focus areas for exploratory testing:
Targeted Testing[edit]
Not in the mood for exploratory testing? That's fine. We've taken the time to define explicit test cases for the different test areas noted above.
With a spare system(s) in hand, you are welcome to walk through one or more of the following test cases.
The goal is to flesh out any bugs in the software that might be exposed by your special hardware environment.
Test review[edit]
See a typo in the proposed test matrix? Have an interesting hardware scenario to share? Is something not clear? Help us improve the test coverage.
Come join us on #fedora-qa, ask questions, propose changes, and share your issues.
Known Issues[edit]
Both features have been available for testing already through rawhide. As a result, there is a list of bugs already filed for each area. Before you file a new bug, please refer to the following before filing a new bug:


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Hampton, since 1965 part of the Greater London outer borough of Richmond upon Thames, SE England, on the Thames River. It is the site of
Hampton Court Palace, which occupies about eight acres (3.25 hectares) and contains approximately 1,000 rooms. The palace was begun by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514 as his private residence. After his downfall it was taken (1530) by Henry VIII and remained a royal residence until the time of George II. William III had part of it torn down and enlarged and redesigned by Christopher Wren. Although much of the palace has been open to the public since 1838, many of its rooms are occupied by royal pensioners. A portion of the Wren building was gutted by fire in 1986, restored, and reopened to the public in 1993. On the palace grounds is a sumptuous garden, the site of a celebrated maze. The Hampton Court Conference (1604) was held early in the reign of James I; its purpose was to consider reforms of the Established Church for which its Puritan clergy had petitioned. Few concessions were made to the Puritans. The conference authorized a new version of the Bible (the King James Version).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish Political Geography

subset: commoncrawl


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Active Clip 1.0.1 Updater - 220.127.116.1160
What does it fix?
Adds an option for starting "Note Anytime for VAIO" from within the "Active Clip" program.
Supports starting "Note Anytime for VAIO" by pressing the upper button of the Digitizer stylus (pen).
Supports portrait mode.
Adds a setting option for the Digitizer stylus (pen) within the "VAIO Control centre" program.
How do I perform this update?
1. Exit all running programs.
2. Download this update and save it to your hard drive.
3. When the download is completed, locate the downloaded file in the location you specified.
4. Double-click EP0000600512.exe to run it.
5. Wait while the wizard updates your software.
6. When the installation is complete, restart the VAIO.
File Info
File Name
- EP0000600512.exe
File architecture
- 64 bit
File Size
Release Date
- 26-10-2012


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Dennis Robaugh: Lessons from the road less traveled
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- the final lines of Robert Frost's 1915 poem
"The Road Not Taken"
The year was 1987. I stood in the main hall of my high school chatting with a pal when my buddy Dominic ambushed me and hoisted me into the air. I kicked and squirmed, but others joined in and together they carted me down the hallway to the school's band room.
"We need actors," Dominic said, plopping me down next to a piano.
"Whattaya mean you need actors?" I protested.
"This year's show is 'Lil Abner,' and we need a bunch of guys," he replied. "So, you're trying out."
The drama teacher looked me over, pained at having to resort to strong-arm tactics to gather a cast for the school play. Few boys had tried out for the show, and the spring production seemed to be doomed. I tried to escape, but my path was blocked by desperate young thespians anxious to save their show. With trepidation, I acquiesced.
"You have to sing me a song," the teacher said.
Now, Mrs. Curtis was no artsy-fartsy-flighty cliché of a drama teacher. She was tough, and everybody knew it. Mess with her, and she'd crush your world.
"I don't know any," I said back.
"You know 'Mary Had a Little Lamb,' don't ya?"
Well, yes, I did. Then sing, she commanded, sitting down to the piano.
And sing I did, trembling with every verse.
"You're a baritone," Mrs. Curtis announced, as if unveiling some heretofore unknown part of my identity.
She demanded a dramatic reading. Having just been bodily dragged into this, I had nothing to read. She handed me a physics text book.
"Pick a page and read - with some feeling," she demanded.
And so I did, tentative at first, then with gusto. I snapped the book closed and strutted across the room, speaking with authority on angular momentum and driving force as I made my way across the floor ... and angled my way toward the door.
"How does he know this stuff?" Mrs. Curtis asked my captors.
"He's making it up," Dominic replied, moving menacingly toward me, "and trying to get away."
My escape thwarted, I turned back to the teacher.
"You've got a part," she said. "And you better show up."
How could I not?
Several months of rehearsal later, we staged several showings of the 1950s-era musical based on the old Al Capp comic strip. As one of the hillbilly hunks of li'l ol' Dogpatch, I danced and sang and cavorted across the stage. I found friends among kids who once were just faces in the hallway. And I learned more about myself in those months than I had in all four years of school.
A few weeks ago, I realized 20 years had passed since senior year. The high school reunion may be coming up ... if it hasn't come and gone already. I don't keep up with such things, and I've moved far from home. Truth be told, the kids I grew up with long ago became memories.
All but one.
I never found my way onto a stage again, but that show set me on a path quite different from the one I was on. I have Dominic to thank for that.
In the poem, Frost's traveler thinks back on the choice he made, wondering, perhaps wistfully, if the road he'd chosen was the right one.
I tell this not with a sigh, but a fond thankfulness. I've learned there are times when we must be dragged kicking and screaming down the road less traveled.
And that may make all the difference.
Dennis Robaugh can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Q. Just given the situation tonight, what can you tell your team, and how are you feeling and how do you just suck it up to get ready for tomorrow?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I think we have to try to keep it simple. We show up tomorrow and our only objective, our only goal is to win tomorrow. You start looking ahead -- and it's in anything. I felt the same way in July. It starts looking a little daunting if you start looking at too big of a picture, you show up tomorrow and do everything in our power to win tomorrow and keep it simple and then we'll go from there.
Q. Given the fact Tim Wakefield pitched tonight how does that alter your starting rotation the rest of the series?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, Derek will pitch tomorrow and we're not quite ready to go from there. We'll obviously aim to win, but we'll have that in order. Again, tomorrow is what we're looking at, and Derek will start tomorrow.
Q. Can you talk about the decision-making process, bringing Wake in in relief tonight?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, we got ourselves into a bind. I mean, you saw what was going on. We needed to try to -- when we were in the third inning already we're three our four pitches in, it was getting ugly. Because Wake did what he did, we were able to stay away from Timlin and Foulke. They can throw multiple innings tomorrow and give us a chance to win. We got into a position we didn't want to get in. Wake really, really picked us up. And he would have stayed out there and pitched more. He's a professional and he -- when we win tomorrow, we'll have Wake to thank for that.
Q. This has been a team where if the pitching has not done it, the bats have come in. This seems like one of the very few times where both the offense and the defense kind of collapsed or have had bad nights. Is there anything that you will specifically be looking at to spark that, or is there at this point, there's nothing really specifically to do?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I mean, the first couple of nights I agree, I thought we swung the bats very well tonight, very well. Just not quite like they did. You know, we had a night tonight where none of our pitchers located. I mean, none of them. We walked guys, we hit some guys, we got men on base, we gave up a lot of extra-base hits. That's a bad combination. You saw what they did to us.
Q. Given the way that the game was going, was there something that you saw with Mendoza that you thought forced your hand there, just given the fact the game was looking like it was going to turn into kind of a slugfest?
TERRY FRANCONA: I'm sorry, repeat? I didn't quite get all of that.
Q. Mendoza, after he hit the batter there.
TERRY FRANCONA: Yes.
Q. Like I said, given the fact you were going to extend it to the bullpen, what was the thinking there in terms of bringing Leskanic in right there?
TERRY FRANCONA: Winning the game. You can't let it get to a point where, you know, we're just trying to win the game. Already Lesky, he had had a lot of success against the guys he was facing, not necessarily tonight, but we were still trying to hold on tonight and win that game. Lesky was going to get us out that have inning and Wake was going to start the next inning. The way we were swinging the bats, that's what we --
Q. So you thought that inning was pivotal?
TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, every inning was. We needed to try to stuff it out somehow.
Q. Can you recall any time in your Major League career when you've been as disappointed as you are right now?
TERRY FRANCONA: You know what, it doesn't matter. Tomorrow is going to come real quick, and we've got to try to win tomorrow. I mean, I sat in that dugout for a lot of wins this year and took the smiles and the laughs and everything. You have to sit through a night like tonight, I can't wait -- I won't bail on those guys. We'll show up tomorrow and play. It was disappointing for everybody, but we're not done. I fully expect we'll come out tomorrow and play our asses off.
End of FastScripts...


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Reader Justin wants to bring the Game Boy back. So he's designed a brand new one. It's not as rugged as its predecessors, but it sure is glassy.
Taking as many cues from modern phone design as portable games hardware, Justin's design has a 5.3" 1080p screen, two cameras, 16GB of flash memory, 4G connectivity, a quad-core processor and 2GB RAM. He thinks that would cost $199 - hey, he's dreaming here, remember - and serve as much as a mini-tablet as a games device.
That sounds like the anti-Nintendo device in some ways. And I'm not sold on the fold-out controls. But then, once they're out, that slimline d-pad actually looks neat.


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NEW YORK – Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married Saturday in the French hamlet of Correns, a spokesman for the couple says.
Jolie and Pitt wed in a small chapel in a private ceremony attended by family and friends at Provence's Chateau Miraval. In advance of the nondenominational civil ceremony, Pitt and Jolie obtained a marriage license from a local California judge. The judge also conducted the ceremony in France.
The couple's children took part in the wedding. Jolie walked the aisle with her eldest sons Maddox and Pax. Zahara and Vivienne threw flower petals. Shiloh and Knox served as ring bearers, the spokesman says.
Jolie and Pitt's wedding caps years of rampant speculation on when the couple would officially tie the knot. Pitt once said that he didn't want to marry until gay marriage was legal, but in recent years, both said they intended to. They were engaged in early 2012 after some seven years together.
"It's an exciting prospect, even though for us, we've gone further than that," Pitt told The Associated Press in an interview in November 2012. "But to concretize it in that way, it actually means more to me than I thought it would. It means a lot to our kids."
They have six children together, including three they adopted: 13-year-old Maddox, from Cambodia; 10-year-old Pax, from Vietnam; and 9-year-old Zahara, from Ethiopia. The couple's three biological children are 8-year-old Shiloh, and Knox and Vivienne, 6-year-old twins.
This is the second marriage for Pitt, who wed Jennifer Aniston in 2000. They divorced in 2005.
Jolie was previously married to British actor Jonny Lee Miller for three years in the late '90s and to Billy Bob Thornton for three years before divorcing in 2003.
Both Jolie and Pitt are prepping movies. Jolie's second directorial effort, the World War II odyssey "Unbroken," will be released in December. Pitt stars in the upcoming World War II drama "Fury," due out Oct. 17.
SEE MORE CELEBRITY NEWS IN OUR ENTERTAINMENT SECTION: https://www.dailyrecord.com/entertainment/


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One of Mexico's most important modern artists, Juan Soriano (1920–2006) served as a link between the nationalist imagery of the Mexican muralists and the experimental vanguard of the 1950s and 1960s known as "La Ruptura." This fascinating book, which examines the earliest period of Soriano's career, is the first focused, critical study of him in English.
Opening with texts on Soriano by the artist's friends and colleagues Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes (appearing here for the first time in English), the book places Soriano's work within the context of Mexican painting during this vibrant and transitional moment. In his essay, Edward Sullivan examines the parallels between paintings by Soriano and those of other modernists from Europe and the United States. He also analyzes the continuity within Soriano's paintings of certain Mexican pictorial traditions while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of his conscious rejection of folkloric elements sometimes associated with Mexican modern art.
This is a used copy in good condition with light general wear across the front cover.
By Edward J. Sullivan. Additional texts by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes. Paperback, 60 pages. Published by Yale University Press, 2008.


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Boy burned in Fort Pierce house fire returns home, meets rescuers
Demetrius Gollett, 8, asks LeBron James to come see him
Demetrius Gollett ordered French toast at his family's favorite diner, got to sit in a fire truck and thanked the men who saved his life.
Gollett suffered second- and third-degree burns Feb. 18 when his great-grandmother's house caught fire, killing the elderly woman, injuring his grandfather and trapping the boy in a burning hallway.
ALSO: Heat Streak Ends At 27 In Chicago
"Oh my God, is he alive? What happened? How did it happen?" recalled his mother, Chiquita Andrews, who had just dropped off her only child on her way to work and then got the chilling call that the house was engulfed in flames.
Firefighters broke a window and rushed Demetrius out through the flames. He spent a month in an Ohio burn center, undergoing skin grafts and painful burn treatments. For two weeks, he remained unconscious, eating through a feeding tube.
"When he opened his eyes and he tried to reach for me in all that pain, and it was just -- it was a real touching moment for me," said Andrews.
This week, the St. Lucie County firefighters who saved Demetrius met him at Linzi's diner in Fort Pierce, posing for pictures with the badly scarred but still smiling boy.
"I really thank them for saving his life, I really do," said Andrews.
Demetrius must wear a protective mask and undergo painful, twice-daily burn scrubbing to his face and head. Treatment will last at least a year.
He ate his French toast with enthusiasm, but really perked up when asked about his favorite basketball team.
"Lebron James, come see me," he piped up, looking hopefully into the camera.


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YOU ARE MOVING DOWN A TRAIL AT THE WALK. THE SCENERY IS DRAWING your attention away from the trail, but your mount is paying attention to everything around him. You feel it as he starts to tense uphis head turns, his ears are up, and he is exploring, sensing something that you were not initially aware of. Now, you see what has attracted your horse's attention, as do your teammates a hundred yards to either side. Their mounts have keyed in on the same item.
As you dismount to verify your find, you reach for a radio, a map, and a first aid kit. After several hours in the saddle, and perhaps several days of effort, your horse has found the object of your search, a person alone in the woods, at risk of hypothermia, dehydration, or worse.
This may be a once-in-a-lifetime event, but as a mounted search
and rescue rider, you will likely invest years of training to accomplish
your goal of finding someone who needs your help!
Please donate to SEPASAR
a 100% Volunteer organization with no paid members.


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Results for ""
Näytetään 1 - 5 / 5
The tool is meant for indoor painters and façade workers, with tasks like painting walls and ceilings, painting of carpenter products, setting wallpapers and insulation, decoration of advertisement spaces and boards, primary protection of products: wood against moist and decay, metal against rust. They work with gear/equipment like paintbrushes, cutting tools, etc. Inside, the risk is drought. Outside, painters and façade workers are exposed to the weather based risks. They often can't avoid filth, foul smell, and toxic paint fumes. Work is usually done standing up or on a ladder. That makes additional risks. The work can be one person or a group, often with longer working hours. The danger is working with toxic substances. The purpose of the online tool OiRA for painters and façade workers is for employees and employers to remind each other of dangers, collaborate, and give each other advice to make a safer workplace for employees.
Parquet workers
This risk assessment has been produced in order to assist parquet workers to do their job safely. Parquet workers tasks relate to the flooring laying and other floor coverings made of wood and wooden materials. A parquet worker uses a number of tools and equipment such as hammers, saws, rotating drums and the circular grinding machines and a vacuum cleaner which all pose several risks. An interactive OiRA tool intended for parquet workers comprises a basic description of hazards in the workplace. It encourages cooperation between employees and employers and significantly contributes to improvements in the workplace and working environment.
This risk assessment has been produced in order to assist those who have a legitimate need to access and/or work on a roof to do so safely. Roofers' basic work activity is to cover roofs with various roofing materials. Their work varies depending on whether they cover the roof on anew building, which is still under construction, or they replace the roof on an existing building. The main risk to which the roofers are constantly exposed is to fall off the roof. An interactive OiRA tool for roofers comprises a basic description of the risk posed to the roofer. With this and the proposed measures to reduce the risk, the OiRA tool encourages cooperation between employees and employers. The OiRA tool for roofers brings the description and identification of the general risks involved in carrying loads, working at heights, on job sites documents for work and so on. Additional modules are about working at heights and roof treatment while working at height, roof work, work on the roof with a slopes greater than 60° and the roofs with the non-load bearing roof structures.
From the occupational safety and health perspective, working in the construction industry is among the most risky. The reasons are mainly based on the fact that the work is performed at the work environment where the situation is constantly evolving in terms of both the performance of work activities, the number of participants, work at different levels (at height, excavations, tunnels), transport (horizontal, vertical) as well as in very changing weather conditions (heat, cold, wind, rain, snow). During construction work, workers are exposed to health damage risks, such as diseases related to asbestos exposure, back pain, vibration disease (white finger syndrome), and skin ulcers due to the use of hazardous substances like cement. The OiRA tool for construction workers deals with general risks with an emphasis on chemical safety and the safety of work equipment, slipping, tripping, falls from heights, exposure to dangerous substances, the risk of electrical current, manual handling of loads, stress, violence and so on. This risk assessment contains proposed solutions to reduce or eliminate the risks. All requirements, listed in the OiRA tool, are linked to legislation.
The woodworking industry has one of the highest rates of accidents in the manufacturing sector. The reasons are largely the result of workers interacting with various sets of tools and equipment. Carpenter work requires normal physical and mental capability with an emphasis on skills of hands and fingers, muscle sensitivity and pressure sensation on feet, hands and fingers. Carpenters work with the coordination of hands and fingers and must be able to concentrate in dangerous situations with a rapid understanding and reaction to signals and sounds. Occasionally, they work at height and in forced positions. Because of the potential harm caused by excessive noise, dust, fumes, glues, paints, thinners and hardeners periodic medical check-ups are required. The OiRA tool for carpenters deals with general risks with an emphasis on chemical safety and the safety of work equipment - machinery and equipment (maintenance of machines, control systems, etc.). This risk assessment contains proposed solutions to reduce or eliminate the risks. All requirements, listed in the OiRA tool, are linked to legislation.


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5 Minutes
Prep Time
10 Minutes
Cook Time
4 People
Midweek rushing and savoured Sundays have never been so easy. From quick curries to slow braised chicken, there's an option for every family gathering. Tender chicken, fresh vegetables and herbs are the main ingredients in our recipes, all ensuring a happy and healthy family life.


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Roskilde Festival - Moments
Fine Art Photography Exhibition
At Galleri Rocks, Copenhagen
Photograpers Gorm Valentin, Jens Juul & Ole Christiansen
Featuring U2, Nirvana, The Clash, Neil Young, Malurt, Bob Marley, Nick Cave, Kaizer Orchestra a.o.
Limited Edition Photo by Gorm Valentin.
Only 63 prints are available for sale in the limited edition series. Comes with a signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity.
Archival pigment print. Printed on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta 325g
50 Prints size 42 x 59,40 cm (A2)
10 Prints size 60 x 90 cm
3 Prints size 120 x 170 cm
Manager, Michael Quvang
+45 2173 4262


text:
on orders $49+
Availability: Usually Ships within 24-48 Hours
Atlantic Blower AB-1000 Regenerative Blower
Atlantic Blowers is bringing together trendsetting innovative technological advancements through our products for our customers. We believe that continual improvement and continual reengineering of our products will keep us at the top of cutting-edge technologies.
In designing our products we focus on making a product that is energy efficient, compact, lightweight, durable, cost-effective and requires little to no maintenance over the life of the product
Our regenerative blowers as well as our centrifugal blowers offer our customers many advantages such as a steady, oil-free air flow stream which you cannot achieve with compressed air.
Atlantic Regenerative Blowers are an ideal alternative to rotary vane vacuum pumps and PD – Positive Displacement (Roots style) blowers. PD, Roots style blowers, tend to be extremely large, noisy, costly to repair (high-maintenance), expensive and heavy compared to our regenerative and centrifugal blowers.
AB-1000 Specifications:
* Model Number: AB-1000
* Curve Number: A23
* 3-Phase
* Weight: 366 lbs.
* Flow: 399 CFM
* Max Pressure ("H2O): 248"
* Max. Vacuum: 158
* Sound Level (db): 80
* Inlet Diameter: 2.5"


text:
You are currently browsing the daily archive for February 14, 2009.
Bowsprite's Tugkiss post recalled one I did some months back on full frontal … here. This recollection made me return to archives for other imagined kisses, like the one below of Davis Sea and Janice Ann at the Tug Race 2007, a likely pair, whose kiss entertains humans on the pier as well as a single commercial gecko on the billboard beyond Davis.
And then unlikely pairs happen, like Cornell's hoary rostrum giving the tiny BTU moments of anticipation, amusing a similarly lopsided set of observers..
Even official vessels can lose all self-consciousness during moments of abandon.
At Tug Race 2008 when Teri Lou looks for some stress-relieving kissing, you might imagine she'd find the likes of
Ron D. Garner, right? But
But no . . . objects of our attractions might be quite unexpected. Who would have thought she'd be drawn to . . . W. O.?
Bowsprite . . . you might –like a photographer at a Valentine's Day ball– brush all day creating aquarelles of the stuff that keeps philematologists busy. Isobel Gloag created one of my favorite painted kisses here, top left.
This just in: Henry's sent his latest update from Amsterdam. Check it here.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp; Ron D. Garner was foto'd eastbound on KVK this week.


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4.5 disco balls
Publish Date: April 17, 2018 by Lake Union Publishing
Purchase: Amazon US kindle unlimited eligible, Amazon UK
Category: Women's Fiction, Family Life
The Ross Family on the outside are poster children for a successful nuclear family. Bobby and Emma Ross fell in love as children, only loved each other and would get married and have twin girls. The night of the girls fifteenth birthday the family will be changed forever. A video of one of the twins engaging in a sexual act is sent as an anonymous text to their peers.
Besides what this does to a young daughter the "shameful" event triggers a memory of a painful mistake for Emma (and will affect how she reacts). Bobby can't comprehend how his daughter could do such a thing and distances himself from the family when they need him the most. The facade of a perfect family is just that, fake. Will this act – along with Emma and Bobby's actions – be the end of the Ross family?
Although I am not a parent myself (I am an aunt, a sister, a friend) I do think this was one of those books that all parents (and really anyone) should read. Throughout the story I found myself very uncomfortable at times just thinking what if this happened to my family, someone I know, or even me; and, what would I do? Uncomfortable because its was painful to watch the process play out for a young girl who never knew this was a possibility. Uncomfortable because as a married couple I don't know what I would do.
You can think that it wouldn't happen to you, but it could happen to anyone. Especially with how ingrained social media is in all our lives nowadays. I am so thankful that my time in high school did not include the added stress of keeping a perfect appearance for social media. With how quickly something can go viral: can one mistake be with someone forever?
Sadly, there are many lessons in this book that are relevant to the world we live in. Author Rochelle B. Weinstein did a great job of playing them out in an authentic way. It is also a story of acceptance and forgiveness. I still don't know what I would have done.
The book was well written and you will find it very hard to put down. The chapters are short and you can't help saying "just one more." I highly recommend this thought provoking read…so I have someone to talk about it with!
Thank you to Get Red PR for providing me an advanced reader's copy of Somebody's Daughter.
If you also read 'Somebody's Daughter' or are going to read, let me know!
Please note: this post contains an Amazon affiliate link. If you purchase this book through the link above I will earn a small fee; at no additional cost to you. This will help me purchase more books to read and recommend to you all!


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I have received a few emails from readers who have tried to have my patterns printed at Kinko's and other print shops. Because they need permission from the copyright holder thay won't print the pattern. I have added a note to the bottom of the cover page giving permission for unlimited printing. If you run into problems just point out that note and they should do the job.
Make A Donation


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I'd never heard of these before reading this post. I think my family will be trying them before too long! They look so delicious!
Growing up in Canada, I'd never really heard of bakewell tarts until a few years ago.
In fact, since I moved to Ireland almost exactly 1.5 years ago, I've been introduced to a whole slew of new things (I'm sure you're shocked to hear that).
Some things I've learned:
1. Sliced Pan = sliced bread
2. Potato chips are crisps. Most of you know that. But did you know crisps can be a sandwich filling? And, in fact, all you would need for this sandwich are crisps, sliced pan and butter? Did you know that was a thing? I didn't.
3. When someone asks you if you want salad with your sandwich at a cafe and you say yes, you generally get several kinds of mayo-laden potatoes and coleslaws. Gotta say, I don't always mind. I really like mayo.
4. What we think is breakfast in Canada is a piece…
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Every once in a while the media come across people who shy away from the fame and the glamour that is bestowed on them, they dont crave for the limelight that 9 out of 10 people amongst the rich and the famous would, stardom is something that just happened on the way to achieving what they wanted to. Their ultimate aim wasnt being glamorous and well known but earning fame in the field they chose. They are called reluctant celebrities and sometimes we at the media accidentally stumble upon such stars who dont like the unwanted attention and the poking and prying into their lives. Actually come to think of it there are quite a few celebrities who like their stardom till a certain limit beyond which they guard their privacy fiercely. We at entertainment news will get you updates on the so called reluctant celebrities too, celebrities who lead guarded lives away from the glare of the media. Entertainment news is different because we would get you news of even those celebrities who actually did something worthwhile to earn the fame and the fortune. This isnt only about run of the mill celebs like Katie Price whod do anything to secure the attention of the newspapers and the shutterbugs or even Kevin Federline, Britney Spears ex husband who loved to bask in the glory of his wifes past musical fortunes. Entertainment news shall get you stories on the celebrities from the literary world too, the ones who shut themselves up for months altogether to produce one masterpiece after another. Entertainment news shall give you valuable entertainment news too.
Who can forget Ernest Hemingway, nicknamed "Papa" because he was also a part of the community known as the expatriate community in Paris that was moreover known as "the lost generation". Leading the colorful life that he did which included four marriages and a number of divorces the writer could not help but grab the attention of the media even if he did not want to. However his work spoke volumes of his talent as a littrateur as he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 for his contribution to the world of English literature. His gruesome death at the end evoked the inquisitiveness of the media still more as he ended his own life in a bizarre fashion. Thus Black Entertainment News shall get you all the news of such reluctant celebrities who like living away from the clutches of the media. We shall also get you stories of past celebrities like Ernest Hemingway who in their time were the favorites of the media. The Black Entertainment News shall also enlighten about the latest in tinsel town. Extra Entertainment News shall get you news from the sidelines of the entertainment industry.


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Courtesy photo Martin and husband Lynn were married Nov. 15, 1948, in Clovis at First Baptist Church.
Longtime Clovis resident Marian Ruth Martin remembers walking home for Eugene Field Elementary School in wind gusts that could knock her down. The 81-year-old said she remembers wondering what that wind's purpose was.
"In God's universe, everything is created for a reason, but I couldn't see a reason for it," she said.
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Later in her life, she rode her fascination with the wind to her involvement with wind energy. She began researching and realized Curry County had great potential for wind energy. Martin began contacting developers to see what could be done on the wide open plains of the county. In August 2007, she organized the first meeting of the land owners in the Grady area who were interest in getting a wind farm in the area. Over 80 land owners attended and the Frio Ridge Energy Development Association was born. The group now spends time working with a developer of wind turbines and looking forward to the Tres Amigas plant which will remove the biggest roadblock to the project by providing transmission grid lines to transport Curry County's wind-generated energy to the rest of the country.
"I've always been interested in wind," Martin said. "And the idea kept growing."
After she retired from teaching, she wanted to continue helping Clovis.
"This is something that would be beneficial to everybody," Martin said.
Martin decided to be a music teacher when she was seven years old and began teaching private piano and organ lessons at age 13. She worked at Marshall Middle School as the choral director for 19 years.
My friends and family call me … By both names, Marian-Ruth.
What was your most embarrassing moment? I've never been a morning person and have always struggled to get going. One day at Marshall during second period some of the students started snickering then it started spreading. Finally one of the students asked me to look at my shoes. I had on one black shoe that was low-heeled and one brown shoe that had about a one and a half-inch heel on it. Of course, when I saw that I had to laugh with them, then the more they laughed the more I laughed and vice versa until tears were rolling down my cheeks. Finally one student asked what I'd do if Mr. Purvis, the principal, walked in and as fate would have it he was walking down the hall at that exact moment and opened the door to see what was so funny. Of course the students got stone quiet and all I could do was point to my shoes and finally was able to say I dressed in a hurry this morning. In order to stay dignified he just smiled, shook his head and closed the door, but before it fully closed he started roaring with laughter and needless to say it took a while to get the class back to the lesson.
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Tell us about your greatest individual accomplishment. The ability to play the piano and organ. My dear aunt said I was the only child she had ever seen who Mother had to make her stop practicing. When I was at the conservatory, I was required to practice eight hours a day, but most days I would hit closer to 10 hours. I always had one more spot that needed to get perfect before I stopped.
Tell us about a time you cried. I cried tears of joy when our first grandchild, Jarin Lynn Martin was born.
What do you envision your life being like in 10 years? Hummmm at 91?? If the Good Lord is willing, I want to find something I can do to help someone else and remain as active as possible. Above everything else, I hope and pray my mind is still as alert as it is at 81.
What is your greatest fear? Better stated my biggest concern is the direction our great nation and world is taking. There is so much good in people, but it seems only the bad is coming out and the good is being pushed aside. It's time for the good to come forth again and get back to our Constitution and God-given freedoms. Our nation desperately needs the patriotism everyone had during World War II.
Tell us about a time you were afraid. My father was a conductor on the railroad. One night coming back from a run to Vaughn he was sitting up in the cubby hole on the caboose and saw this huge explosion. He talked about how unusual it was for weeks and described it many times and just couldn't seem to get it off his mind. It lit up the entire sky to near daylight and ascended like a mushroom. It had been explained as a munitions explosion at Alamogordo Air Base. When the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan he had his answer to what he had seen in the wee hours of that night.
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Tell us a story about your mom or dad. Love at first sight? I love to tell this one on my parents. Most people don't believe in love at first sight but they came as close as possible. Daddy had just been transferred to Belen on the railroad and the first Sunday he was able he went to church. Mother was sitting with her friends on the other side of the auditorium and told them that that guy was going to be her new boyfriend. They did not meet that day, but Daddy laid off work and made over an 800 mile round trip and broke his engagement to "the girl back home" and told her he had found the girl he wanted to marry. They met the next time he was able to attend church and the rest is history. I never heard them have an argument.
Tell us how you met your spouse. We met at church on the Sunday before New Year's Day. Lynn asked me for a date for New Year's Eve. After the date my mother asked me what I thought of him and I said I thought he was a drip. Lynn's brother Howard and his wife Gertrude asked him what he thought of me and he said "oh she is just a kid!!" But for some reason he asked for a second date and he was nice enough so I couldn't say no, and that one wasn't too bad, then one Jan. 23 he gave me an engagement ring. Time changes things but hasn't changed our love for each other. We've been blessed beyond all expectations.
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If I could do anything, I would… Want to do exactly what I'm doing now. Trying to help people have better lives. My wish would be that everyone could have the joy of being a Christian. My life has been blessed from start to finish with wonderful parents, a wonderful brother, Donnie, whose life was cut too short, a wonderful husband, wonderful children and grandchildren, a wonderful Martin family, the greatest students any teacher could have and wonderful friends and extended family. Who could ever want or need more?


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© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and Infection Control Today. All rights reserved.
As H1N1 continues its global spread, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others. In their research study published online in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, the scientists show that the influenza virus can actually paralyze the immune systems of otherwise healthy individuals, leading to severe secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia. Furthermore, this immunological paralysis can be long-lived, which is important to know when developing treatment strategies to combat the virus.
According to Kathleen Sullivan, MD, PhD, the senior researcher involved in the study and Chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, "We have a very limited understanding of why some people who get influenza simply have a bad cold and other people become very sick and even die. The results of this study give us a much better sense of the mechanisms underlying bacterial infections arising on top of the viral infection."
Sullivan and colleagues recruited pediatric patients with severe influenza and examined the level of cytokines, which serve as the first line initiators of immune response, in the blood plasma. Although they found elevated levels of cytokines, they also found a decreased response of toll-like receptors, which activate immune cell responses as a result of invading microbes. This suggests that the diminished response of these receptors may be responsible for the paralysis of the immune system, leading to secondary bacterial infections. The influenza patients were compared with patients with moderate influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and a control group of healthy individuals. The immune paralysis appeared to be specifically a result of influenza infection and was not seen in patients with respiratory syncytial virus. This process might explain why one-quarter of children who die from influenza, die from a bacterial infection occurring on top of the virus.
"Despite major medical advances since the devastating flu outbreak of 1918 and 1919, influenza virus infection remains a very serious threat," said John Wherry, PhD, deputy editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, "and the current swine flu outbreak is a grim reminder of this fact. The work by Dr. Sullivan and colleagues brings us a step closer to understanding exactly what goes wrong in some people who get the flu, so, ultimately, physicians can develop more effective treatment strategies."


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LONDON (AP) -- Captain Tony Azevedo (above) scored four goals Thursday as the U.S. men's water polo team beat Britain 13-7 to remain undefeated at the London Olympics.
The win put the United States on top of Group B with six points, one ahead of gold medal-favorite Serbia with two preliminary stage matches to go.
The Americans, runners-up four years ago in Beijing, seized control of the match early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter and cruising from there against an outclassed British team that only qualified for the tournament as the host nation.
"We definitely wanted to start this game off stronger because we saw their two previous games when they came out on fire in the first quarter, and once a team gets going and the crowd gets behind them, they start throwing up shots and everything starts going in," Azevedo said. "We wanted to play strong defense and make sure we got a lead at the beginning."
Azevedo took care of that, firing two long-range shots past Britain goalkeeper Ed Scott and then converting a penalty to make it 3-0 just four minutes into the game. After pushing the lead to 7-0, the U.S. relaxed.
The American captain got plenty of help, with fellow four-time Olympian Ryan Bailey scoring three goals and Shea Buckner adding two more.
"Tonight we kind of settled in and kind of let off the gas a little bit after going up," coach Terry Schroeder said. "But I think we're real happy, we're 3-0 for sure so it puts us in a good place in our bracket and sets up a good match with Serbia here in two days."
After Serbia, the U.S. wraps up the group stage against three-time defending champion Hungary on Monday.


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Katy Perry Dedicates Song to Tim Tebow at Super Bowl Party
Flamboyant pop star Katy Perry dedicated suggestive song "Peacock" to evangelical quarterback Tim Tebow at a pre-Super Bowl party Saturday night.
Perry, the daughter of Christian ministers, said "This one goes out to Tim Tebow," before singing the single at the DIRECTV Sixth Annual Celebrity Beach Bowl party Saturday night in Indianapolis, Ind. – her first U.S. concert since her separation from husband Russell Brand – reported Indy Star. There is no report that Tebow was at that party when Perry gave a shout-out to him.
But the two sort-of met earlier on Saturday at the NFL Honors ceremony, where Perry spotted Denver Broncos quarterback Tebow in the front row and said to him while on stage, "Hey Tim, my parents say hi."
Perry's parents, who are evangelical pastors with a church in Huntington Beach, Calif., have said that they wanted to set up their daughter with Tebow, who they think would have a good influence on her with his strong Christian faith.
A source told OK! Magazine that Perry's mother thinks "Tebow is the perfect guy for her daughter."
"He's handsome, charming, intelligent and above all, a good Christian."
The source also said that Keith and Mary Hudson are trying to coordinate a schedule where their daughter performs at the church the same time Tebow is scheduled to speak there.
Perry is perhaps best known for her breakthrough song "I Kissed a Girl," a surprising song for a singer who had her start in the Christian music industry and who was raised by ultra conservative Christian parents. In December, Russell Brand filed for divorce from Perry, just after 14 months of marriage.
The successful pop star is in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records for the "Best Start on the US Digital Chart by a Female Artist." Perry is also named MTV's Artist of the Year in 2011, and won several awards at the 38th People's Choice Awards earlier this year, including "Favorite Female Artist."


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This might be the deadliest building for birds in Minnesota
This stadium isn't one for the birds.
Supporting the long-held concerns of ornithologists and volunteers, a report on bird mortality at U.S. Bank Stadium, the new home of the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis, shows the window-filled facility has been deadly to avian creatures.
The $1 billion stadium, which opened in 2016 and is hosting next season's Super Bowl, has approximately 200,000 square feet of reflective glass on its exterior. Critics of the stadium's design as far back as 2012 were worried birds would have trouble with the glass.
A report prepared by the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis, Minnesota Citizens for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Friends of Roberts Bird Sanctuary record through an informal survey 74 injured birds and 60 deaths around the stadium during the fall 2016 migration season. The report says the highest mortality for a building in Minneapolis recorded 250 deaths over six migrations years, or 42 birds per season.
"We knew that the glass would be highly confusing to the birds," volunteer Jim Sharpsteen told City Pages. "They see a reflection of a blue sky in the glass, they think it's a blue sky. They see reflections of trees, they think they can land in those reflections of trees. This confirmed what we already believed would be bad."
According to the report, the figure "significantly underestimates true mortality" because it doesn't include birds found by maintenance staff, security and others. One cleaner estimated he "vacuumed up at least two birds each week," and a security guard said he "disposed of approximately 11 birds." Some birds may die after away from the stadium after hitting the glass.
The National Audobon Society has contracted with the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority and Vikings for a new bird collision study to be conducted this year through 2018. The Audobon Society suggested more frequent monitoring to get a more complete count, as well as increased access around the stadium.
The study won't bring any new information, said Ann Laughlin of the Audobon Society's Minneapolis chapter.
"Birds are dying because of the glass on the stadium," she told City Pages. "The only thing that a new study does is buy the Vikings time [to not have to do anything]."
The report offers retrofitting options that can make the stadium safer for birds, including patters on glass, window films, decals and netting.


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Why We Must Think Bigger by Charles Moldow, General Partner, Foundation Capital
February 24, 2013 Leave a comment
Charles Moldow, General Partner, Foundation Capital
Why We Must Think Bigger
One day, about six billion years from now, the sun will burn out.
This cataclysmic inevitability was brought to my attention over the holidays by my 6-year-old son. Far off though it may be, he believes our solar system's imminent demise is cause for alarm sooner rather than later. (For him, that means sooner than getting a flu shot — but later than downloading the most recent service pack for Minecraft.)
Of course, I recognize my 6-year-old is thinking too far ahead. Too big.
But he did get me wondering, are the rest of us thinking big enough? Especially those of us who develop — and invest in — new innovations.
If not for being stuck on an antiquated United Airlines plane unequipped with Wi-Fi (is there any other type?), I may not have found the time to commit this thought to paper — I would likely have been overwhelmed by the next flurry of emails or meeting requests. It's easy to lose sight of the big picture. In fact, as I survey the current startup landscape and consider the kinds of companies attracting VC dollars, it seems like the investing community isn't thinking of the big picture at all.
Today, investors are less interested in transformative companies and more interested in trendy ones. Funding is flowing — and flowing fast — toward "quick-response startups." These companies, more often than not, are launched during all-night hack-a-thons. They're the wired brainchildren of eager coding buddies and Costco-like volumes of Red Bull.
Do many — or even any — of these startups, still in incubation, believe they can create a billion-dollar company on the heels of a market that's already matured? No. And we don't expect them to.
Because typically, companies like these aren't founded to solve big problems — but rather immediate, narrow (and sometimes trivial) ones. For example, we now have dozens of VC-funded apps that help friends share photos, plan their weekend activities and order drinks more quickly in a bar. Yes, the first mobile photo-sharing app leveraged the social graph in unique ways and was — without a doubt — transformative. Three years later, however, startups continue to evolve the concept, but to what end?
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a cool app as much as the next guy. But we can't continue funding the companies that produce them at the expense of companies that produce truly breakthrough technologies and experiences. It's bad economics, and, to the extent that this mindset pushes out true long-term transformative thinking, bad for humanity as well.
Indeed, these quick-response startups reflect — and perhaps are causing — a new and worrying trend: As a recent article in the Economist — "Has the ideas machine broken down?" — points out, today's inventions are producing far less "economic impact" than inventions of the past. Progress actually appears to have slowed since the early 1900s.
It seems, in short, that we have reached a plateau when it comes to the more recent megatrends that stimulated great innovation: Games, social, local and mobile. Now that these digital revolutions are maturing, we're just tinkering around the edges. Making marginal improvements. Tweaking the charger ports on our iPhones.
This trend, by the way, is not all that different from what happened in the late 90s — when the spread of the Internet was followed by VC investment in every dot-com commerce play imaginable, including dozens of pet-related dot-com startups. (In retrospect, one may have been too many.) In some ways, the early aughts saw a dearth of fresh ideas, too — right after the Web 2.0 innovations hit the market.
Now, we seem to be trapped by the narrowness of our own thinking again. And we have to ask ourselves: What will it take to buck this worrying trend, to push past this period of creative stagnation?
The answer? The same thing it took in the 90s and the early aughts: more companies like eBay, Google and Facebook — startups that brought to life world-changing and enduring ideas.
These companies may have been founded by "hacks" like the ones portrayed in "The Social Network." But they were hacks that created massive waves of innovation, as did the founders of Yahoo!, Amazon and Twitter. They pioneered at the front end of huge emerging trends, from Web to commerce, from social to mobile.
Today, there aren't enough of these front-end innovators. Years after these companies created new markets and experiences, we still have startups paddling out into the surf, hoping to catch the big tsunami that long ago passed them by.
What we need, in other words, are more wave-makers. More pioneers. More Yangs, Bezoses, Zuckerbergs, Brins and Pages, not to mention more Jobses, Fords and Edisons.
And make no mistake, the investor community — especially the VC investor community — has a role to play in encouraging that level of genius. In many ways, we just have to return to our roots.
It used to be that venture capital was the most ambitious kind of capital there was. Investors like me would fund startups, and not expect to see the payoff until five to 10 years down the line. We did so because we chose companies of extraordinary promise that trafficked in big ideas — businesses that, with enough time and money, could create products that changed the way humans interact on a day-to-day basis. Microsoft, Google and Apple — these are companies built with long-term VC investment. And they gave rise to the Age of Information.
So, going forward, let's be as ambitious and smart with our capital as we once were. Let's take more risks and be more encouraging of big ideas and bold leaders. We can't get trigger happy with our funding dollars and settle for a quick fix or a "me too" idea.
Let's also remember that innovation can benefit those living in the developing world. After all, innovation brought automobiles to India that cost less than $2,000 — and stoves to Africa that also charge cellphones.
And, most importantly, before we invest, let's ask ourselves some crucial questions:
- Will this startup change the world — not just my world? Is the problem it solves large enough and its appeal wide enough?
- Does this company meet a critical, unmet need — or does it just bring simplicity or efficiency to an already-tackled issue?
- How difficult is the problem I want to solve? And is my solution unique, based on strong intellectual capital or a patentable idea? Or is it a piece of Web functionality that could be easily and quickly cloned, copied and resold?
In the past, investors haven't always asked these questions. But if we start now — and answer them honestly and correctly — then we can unleash a new era of greater creativity and better returns.
If my tenure at Foundation Capital has taught me anything, it's that investing in truly meaningful companies pays off. There are startups with world-changing ideas out there. And discovering what they are — and bringing their ideas to life — will require each of us to slow down and devote some time to big thinking.
If my 6-year-old son can do it, so can we.
Charles Moldow is a general partner at Foundation Capital, focusing on consumer Internet companies. He was previously a founding executive at TellMe Networks and at @Home.


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©bongkarn thanyakij via Canva.com
HIPAA Phase 2 Audits –An Insiders Perspective
This Webinar is over
|May 11, 2017
Description :
- It seems almost daily I am receiving calls from nervous practice managers and compliance officers all over the USA regarding a HIPAA audit letter or call they have received
- I will be speaking to real life audits conducted by the Federal government for Phase 2 and beyond (I've been on both sides of these audits) what your highest risks are for being fined (some of the risk factors may surprise you).
- This lesson will be addressing how practice/business managers (or compliance offers) need to get their HIPAA house in order before the imminent audits occur. It will also address major changes under the Omnibus Rule and any other applicable updates for 2017.
- The primary goal is to ensure everyone is well educated on what is myth and what is reality with this law, there is so much misleading information all over regarding the do's and don'ts with HIPAA – I want to add clarity for compliance officers and practice managers
- I will uncover myths versus reality as it relates to this very enigmatic law based on over 1000 risk assessments performed as well as years of experience in dealing directly with the Office of Civil Rights HIPAA auditors.
- In addition, this course will cover the highest risk factors for being sued for wrongful disclosures of PHI and the manner in which patients are now using state laws to sue for wrongful disclosures. – MAJOR RISKS HERE – I will discuss real life cases I have been a part of and how to avoid being dragged into litigation altogether.
- Protect your practice or business!
- What factors might spurn a HIPAA audit? …are you doing these things?
- Why are the Feds enforcing after all these years?
- Be prepared for the imminent Federal audit!
- You need to know how to avoid being low hanging fruit in terms of audit risk as well as being sued by individuals who have had their PHI wrongfully discloses due to bad IT or internal administrative practices.
- Court cases that are also changing the landscape of HIPAA and patient's ability to sue.
- Do you have an affective HIPAA compliance program?
- New laws and funding mean increased risk for both business associates and covered entities!
- HIPAA Omnibus – Do you know what's involved and what you need to do?
- What does Omnibus mean for covered entities and business associates?
- Why should you be concerned?
- It is important to understand the new changes going on at Health and Human Services as it relates to enforcement of HIPAA for both covered entities and business associates as it relates to what we need to do as compliance officers.
- Updates for 2017
- Requirements of Compliance Officers
- Audit Process
- What can cause an audit
- How to avoid audit
- What to do in the event of an audit
- How to speak and deal with Federal auditors
- Risk Assessment
- Best resources
- Practice managers
- Any business associates who work with medical practices or hospitals (i.e. billing companies, transcription companies, IT companies, answering services, home health, coders, attorneys, etc)
- MD's and other medical professionals
Create your own event
Turn your passion into a business.
Turn your passion into a business.


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The IIHS has performed another round of slow-speed bumper tests, this time demonstrating all mid-size sedans will cost you a pretty penny to repair in slow speed collisions. See how your favorite appliance auto did below.
The IIHS tested 2009 models of the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 6, Nissan Maxima and Chevrolet Malibu along with the 2010 Ford Fusion. Each car was was tested with low-speed corner and straight-ahead crashes in the front and the rear. Costs were estimated for each accident and averaged to determine how well each car did. The best of the bunch was the Mazda6, the only mid-size to score "acceptable" with a weighted average cost of $871. The worst was the Chevy Malibu, which will set you back more than $3,400 for a 6 MPH rear-ending. None of the vehicles scored a "Good" rating.
Click "next" to see how each of the cars performed overall as well as in individual tests.
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Ford Fusion
Overall: Poor
Front Full Cost: $2,529
Front Corner Cost: $1,889
Rear Full Cost: $2,610
Rear Corner Cost: $1,073
Weighted Average: $2,207
Mazda Mazda6
Overall: Acceptable
Front Full Cost: $742
Front Corner Cost: $1,437
Rear Full Cost: $768
Rear Corner Cost: $767
Weighted Average: $871
Honda Accord
Overall: Marginal
Front Full Cost: $941
Front Corner Cost: $1,461
Rear Full Cost: $974
Rear Corner Cost: $1,507
Weighted Average: $1,133
Hyundai Sonata
Overall: Marginal
Front Full Cost: $1,791
Front Corner Cost: $1,019
Rear Full Cost: $1,131
Rear Corner Cost: $729
Weighted Average: $1,265
Nissan Maxima
Overall: Poor
Front Full Cost: $997
Front Corner Cost: $1,787
Rear Full Cost: $2,494
Rear Corner Cost: $1,352
Weighted Average: $1,687
Chevrolet Malibu
Overall: Poor
Front Full Cost: $2,092
Front Corner Cost: $1,685
Rear Full Cost: $3,494
Rear Corner Cost: $1,116
Weighted Average: $2,329


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(Photo: CGTN)
Refugees will take part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday said it would form a refugee team for the second consecutive Summer Games.
IOC President Thomas Bach asked members of the Olympic body at its session in Buenos Aires to support the creation of a refugee team, along the lines of the one that competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The members responded with applause.
"So you have created the refugee Olympic team, Tokyo 2020," Bach said.
The German said the IOC had already identified a pool of more than 50 refugee athletes and it was necessary to keep the world aware of the plight of the tens of millions of refugees around the world.
"There is one unfortunate reason for the creation of this team," Bach told a news conference. "This is the fact that the reasons we created the first ever team still persist. We have altogether 68.5 million refugees in this world."
"Through sport we want to make a contribution to keep the world aware of this problem and this challenge and that it does not disappear from the conscience of the world, and send another signal of hope to these refugees."
There were no details yet on the final size or makeup of the team but Bach said the pool of potential athletes for the team could grow more.
"Last time (for Rio) we were under very high time pressure. Now we have two years. We have already taken precaution... and we have a pool of athletes in place. Already now we're supporting 51 or 52 refugee athletes who we have identified," Bach said.
"This pool can still grow in the run-up to Tokyo 2020. It is too early to say how many will finally make it."
The IOC unveiled its first team of refugees in an effort to raise awareness of the issue and it was one of the feel-good stories of the Rio Olympics.
The 10-member team from Syria, Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan hogged the spotlight after marching as the penultimate team before host nation Brazil in the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic stadium.
The athletes took part in athletics, swimming and judo.
The IOC has continued supporting these athletes, some of whom attended the IOC session in the Argentine capital.
The IOC had said last year it was considering forming such a team again for the Tokyo Games and has continued to support the athletes who took part in Rio.
"I am delighted that this tradition is to continue in Tokyo," said United Nations High Commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi in a statement.
"Giving these exceptional young people the opportunity to compete at the very highest levels is admirable."


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Mary-Kate Olsen is engaged to Olivier Sarkozy, reports Us Weekly. The couple have been dating for nearly two years, and greatly enjoy attending basketball games.
Olivier, you may remember, is the half-brother of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. He is also 44 years old to Mary-Kate's 27, but the Olsen twins have never seemed to have much of an issue with a big age difference (Ashley has recently been spotted with 47-year-old director Bennett Miller). Mazel tov, Mary-Kate!
Follow Eliza on Twitter.
More From Cosmopolitan
Photo credit: Getty Images
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher Got Engaged


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Angels Landing is one of the best known unique hiking trails in America. We've seen a lot of pictures and video of Angels Landing and the trail that leads to the top of this remarkable sandstone fin, but we've never seen a video as good as this one.
This video captures the real views and the dramatic sensations that come from hiking Angels Landing. We invite you to watch this and then plan your next great vacation to Zion National Park and Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort. Read about the Top 10 Things To Do in Zion.
The other best view in the park is Observation Point which is actually quite a bit higher than Angels Landing. Check out some pictures and video of that great hike which is best accomplished from Zion Ponderosa.


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Managing Mobile Application Security in the BYO Device Era
Mobile applications have greatly driven the success of smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, just as mobile app success increases, so do the incidents of malware and cybercriminals targeting them.
In this E-Guide from SearchConsumerization.com, wireless expert Lisa Phifer explores the challenges of managing mobile apps in a BYOD enterprise and provides suggestions for how your organization can manage and safeguard these versatile tools and the devices they're used on to prevent compromises.


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Thrift shop
Don't see your thrift shop listed here? Send the details to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thrift shops
— Find it at the First Thrift Shop: located in the parish house of First Parish Church, 218 Central Ave, Dover. Open Thursdays, 1-4 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Seasonal clothing, shoes, household items, jewelry, books, crafts, antiques, small furniture. Parking next to the church building.
— Echo Thrift Shop with Wildcat Friends: "The economical and environmentally friendly way to shop," located at the Community Church of Durham, 17 Main St., Durham. Offering clothing, shoes, accessories, jewelry, linens, household items and vintage items. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Gladly accepting clean and gently used items during hours of operation.
— Blessed Bargains Thrift Shop: located in the basement of the First Congregational Church, 400 Main St., Farmington. In its 19th year of operation, it is open the second and last Saturday each month from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. year round. The shop offers inexpensive adult and children's clothing, books, household items, linens, jewelry. View the church web site at www.farmingtonnhucc.com.
— Second Generation Thrift Shoppe: & Generation Gap Furniture Barn is located on Tide Mill Road, just off Route 33. The shop offers gently used clothing, housewares, books and furniture. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday- Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. 430-9482. Second location at 779 Lafayette Road, Seabrook, phone number is 468-3700.
— Women's Alliance: at Greenland Community Congregational Church, 2 Post Road, Route 151. 436-8336 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
— A Dollar Will Do: Thrift Shop located at First Baptist Church of Hampton, 36 Winnacunnet Road. Hours of operation are Monday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. All clothing items are $1 and the store is accepting donations. Donation bin is near the entrance.Call 926-3200.
— The Nearly New Shop: at the Lee Church Congregational, 17 Mast Road, Route 155, Lee. 659-2861.
— Thrift Store: at Newmarket Community Church, 10 North Main St., Newmarket, open noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 659-3892. 659-3892 or www.newmarketchurch.org.
— Journey Home Thrift Shop: 180 Lafayette Road, North Hampton. Mission is to provide financial support and to highlight the work of New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 379-8070, e-mail www.journeyhomethrift.org.
— St. John's Common Cents Thrift Shop: located at 101 Chapel St. Portsmouth is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursdays. The shop offers name brand clothing for all ages and sizes plus housewares, childrens' toys and jewelry. Donations accepted if clean and in good condition.
— Trinity Anglican Church Thrift & Gift Shop: 180 Rochester Hill Road ( stone church next to the Airport) Rochester. Adult clothes and shoes, $1, children's clothes and shoes.50 cents, plus many other items. Hours 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 332-1376.
— Community Clothing Shop: (in the Rochester Community Center) 150 Wakefield St. Rochester. Offering adult & children's clothing, housewares, books, toys, furniture, and more. Low prices for the public and free shopping for families in need who qualify. All proceeds benefit the SHARE Fund's emergency assistance programs. The shop is open 9 a.m. to noon Monday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdsay. Donations gladly accepted. 994-3199. www.sharefund.org.
— The Thrift Shop: at Rye Congregational Church, located on Washington Road in the center of Rye, is open for the summer. The shop has new hours, which will be 10 a.m. till 1 p.m, Thursday and Saturdays. The shop has men's clothing shoes and accessories, women's clothes, shoes and accessories, plus jewelry, as well as a housewares department.
— First Congregational Church of Eliot Thrift Shop: 1361 State Road, Eliot, Maine, will be open for the first time this season from 9 a.m. till noon Saturday April 15. After that the shop will be open from 3 to 6 p.m. the first and third Thursday and from 9 a.m. to noon, the first and third Saturday for the rest of the year. Call (207) 439-2790 for more info. There will be a Bake Sale also. The shop is accepting items for the Thrift Shop.
— Full Circle Community Thrift Store: ("Supporting People Living With Cancer") at 150 Dow Highway (Route 236) Eliot. This store has gently used clothing for men, women and children, housewares, books, linens and furniture. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Donations are accepted during all business hours. Pick-up is available for large items. (207) 703-0266.
— Fair Tide Thrift Store: 15 State Road, (Route 1), Kittery, Maine. Information at (207) 439-2427 or www.fairtide.org. Weekdays 10-6 and Saturday 10-5, closed Sunday.
— The Fabulous Find: 139 State St., Kittery, Maine. Information at: (207) 439-8669. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday. Profits generated are given to other local nonprofit organizations.
— The Yankee Thrift Shop: located in the basement of the First Parish Federated Church, on the corner of Main and Academy streets (across from Dunkin' Donuts) in South Berwick. Open from 2-5 p.m. Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and from 10 a.m., to 2 p.m., on Saturdays. Donations that are clean and gently used are welcome. No computers or baby car seats. (207) 384-4091.
— York Community Thrift Shop: part of the York Community Service Association (YCSA), located at 1302 US Route 1 in Cape Neddick, Maine. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Donations of clothing, shoes, housewares/small appliances and books are welcome. All proceeds go to fund aid to York families through YCSA Family Services and the York Community Food Pantry. For information, call (207) 363-2510 or visit www.ycsame.org.
— Time and Again: Nonprofit community consignment and resale shop, 676 Post Road, No. 2, Wells, Maine. Call (207) 646-8885. Store hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday; and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday.


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Ubuntu Serial Lirc Install
This Guide is the 'official' way to install Lirc remote control drivers in Ubuntu Linux
This guide is for a serial device
There are similar instructions at the Ubuntu Community site https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Install_Lirc_Feisty
An alternate method using ledxmit (lirc) is located here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=550068 (This method works well with homebrew serial irblasters)
Note: lirc_serial.ko has a serious bug in a number of distributions including Ubuntu 10.10 that my prevent it from working. A quick fix is here: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/477915#477915
Note: For Intrepid, this procedure has changed somewhat. After installing the lirc packages, edit /usr/src/lirc-0.8*/lirc-modules-source.conf as directed below. Then sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source. This will not present the configuration screens as noted below but it will build the lirc kernel modules automagically using DKMS.
- Install Lirc
sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source module-assistant
- Configure lirc-modules-source
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source
A Configuration should appear Choose the OK button and press enter (tab key to move across) Make sure only the serial module is selected, use the space bar to select, and then press enter on OK You will be given an option to build the modules. Be sure not to build the modules here You may be given an option to replace with a new version. Be sure to choose to Install the package maintainer's version
- Modify /etc/lirc/lirc-modules-source.conf
sudo nano /etc/lirc/lirc-modules-source.conf
For Intrepid do not edit the LIRC_MODULES entry. The DKMS build fails if certain modules are removed and it is easiest to just leave this line as is and build them all.
LIRC_SERIAL_PORT="0x03f8" LIRC_SERIAL_IRQ="4" LIRC_SERIAL_CFLAGS=" -DLIRC_SERIAL_TRANSMITTER -DLIRC_SERIAL_SOFTCARRIER"
LIRC_SERIAL_PORT needs the address of your serial port, this is usually shown in the bios, 0x03f8 is usually serial port 1 LIRC_SERIAL_IRQ is also shown in the bios, 4 is usually serial port 1
If your serial device is a receiver, leave LIRC_SERIAL_CFLAGS empty.
- Modify /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
sudo nano /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
Make sure LOAD_MODULES is =true. Also, edit your modules to MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_serial". On Feisty the device created was /dev/lirc0. If this is the case you should add DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
Your files should match the documentation here at this point Ubuntu_lirc_configuration_files#lirc_serial
- Remove Old Drivers and Build Lirc Modules (Don't worry about file not found errors).
sudo m-a update,prepare sudo rm /usr/src/lirc*deb sudo m-a clean lirc sudo m-a a-i -f lirc sudo depmod -a
- Install setserial to allow lirc to take control of your serial device
sudo apt-get install setserial
- Disable Ubuntu's control of your serial port
sudo setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none sudo setserial /dev/ttyS1 uart none
- Load Module
sudo modprobe lirc_serial
This should now complete without an error
- Restart Lirc
sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart
- Startup Configuration
To ensure that lirc starts up correctly on reboot, add the appropriate setserial line (without the sudo) to the top of your hardware.conf file. There are two other methods for this given in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Install_Lirc_Feisty
Remote Configuration
You can get a remote configuration file at sourceforge http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/
If your remote is not listed there, or their remote codes dont work for you, you will have to reccord your own For this you will need a IR Reciever, a serial one will work with the above guide I managed to record using the mceusb2 reciever, however you will need to recompile lirc to use it
Lets assume you have a 3M MP8640 remote
mkdir ~/lirc cd ~/lirc wget http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/3m/MP8640 sudo cp MP8640 /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
Testing Your IRBlaster
Assuming you managed to get a lircd.conf that worked
sudo nano /etc/lirc/lircd.conf At the top there will be somthing written next to name
lets assume it says
name MP8640
now to test a code
irsend send_once MP8640 1
You should now see a 1 appear on your set top box (or if you have an LED irblaster it should blink)
Testing your IR Reciever
Open a terminal and type
now start pressing buttons on your remote, you should see lines appear in your window If its working ok, press Ctrl+C to quit irw
Recording your Remote
Firstly you need to stop lirc
sudo /etc/init.d/lirc stop
Then run irrecord
irrecord -d /dev/lirc lircd.conf /dev/lirc is your lirc device, for me this was lirc0
irrecord will ask you to press buttons, this is to determine how your remote works If it is picking up your remote, full stops will scroll accross the screen It will then ask you to enter a name for each button, and then to press it, this will record your remote When you are done, press enter without putting anything in the name field This will write your remote control codes to lircd.conf in the directory your in
- Move lircd.conf to the correct dirrectory
sudo cp lircd.conf /etc/lirc
If you are having problems, like IRW dropping back to the console a good way to diagnose is to launch lircd in the foreground
sudo lircd -n
now if you do IRW you will see why lircd is dieing, or any other errors


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The summer after my freshman year of college, I told somebody's mother that I wouldn't be attending her son's funeral. I remember the moment, if not the conversation, with great clarity. I was working in my dad's shop, filling orders for spare bike rack parts, when my phone rang. My hands were sticky with glue from the ancient packing-tape dispenser.
Here are some things I didn't tell her: I never met your son. We only talked on the phone once or twice. He had my number in the first place because we played at being general managers in the same imaginary baseball league. When Chris and I did speak, it was about lineup exports.
Here is something I don't remember if I told her: I'm so sorry.
I was 18. Chris, sick as he was, could not have been much older. I panicked. Our friendship was too convoluted and trivial to explain in the moment. Who was I to waste the time of a mother as she slogged dutifully from A through Z in her dead son's contact list when I didn't even know what her dead son looked like? But there was also another thing that was harder to admit: Chris's death turned something fake into something real.
Foldable Camping Cot
Adjustable and portable
Set the backrest to any position to fit your needs so you can relax out under the sun this summer.
The world that Chris and I shared was centered around a game called Out of the Park Baseball, or OOTP. In simple terms, OOTP is a simulation game—a computerized descendant of Strat-O-Matic. Imagine a highly complex, supercharged version of the Franchise Mode you'd find in a sports video game and take away the pixelated players moving about the field. What you have left is an insanely powerful, super-complex text-based approximation of baseball management. OOTP allows you to set lineups, make trades, and sign free agents. It also allows you to set ticket prices, allot a specialized country-by-country budget for international scouting, and take part in your very own Rule 5 draft.
"OOTP is the only baseball sim I've ever been addicted to," says Curt Schilling on the company website. And he's not lying, either: Schilling has posted 93 times on OOTP's teeming, vibrant message board, about topics so banal only a truly committed player could find them compelling: preventing injuries to pitchers in the low minor leagues; adjusting the average ages of the amateur draft pool. Schilling appears to play alone. His message board posts indicate a man deeply invested in his own private baseball world: "I am in year 7 of my team, won the WS in year 3, haven't won it since," he writes in one post.
In OOTP, you are a prisoner of the whims of the artificial realities that you inhabit.
Chris and I played in an online league called Major Baseball League, or MBL. It worked a lot like fantasy baseball. There were 30 GMs, one for each team. Instead of winning or losing based on the real-life performances of players you drafted before the season, we won or lost according to the simulated performances of ratings-based approximations of real-life players. We moved fast, playing a few MBL seasons and offseasons in a calendar year. Trade negotiations, which were ongoing, happened by way of AOL Instant Messenger. The MBL message board was a hub of activity—there were articles written, awards dispensed. For a while, there was an MBL Arizona Fall League.
I was unnaturally susceptible to the charms of OOTP, the type of kid who filled the margins of all his notebooks with fantasy-baseball trade ideas and optimized Dodger lineups for five years down the road. In school, my class notes were framed by scribbled speculation about what kind of real-life stats Shawn Green and Brian Jordan might put up. By the end of my senior year in high school, I'd gone down the rabbit hole. At my peak, I was playing in the neighborhood of five sim leagues at a time, including a basketball league (using a program similar to OOTP), and a historic baseball league set in the 1950s. My computer screen was full of trade negotiations, the AIM chat windows flashing in the menu bar. The scribbled marginalia in my notebooks began to annex entire pages. Meanwhile, I also played alone—eschewing the company of fellow human GMs to enter fictional worlds, with fictional players, and leading franchises decades into the future.
In Robert Coover's 1971 novel The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., middle-aged accountant Henry Waugh becomes increasingly obsessed with the alternate reality of his own invented table-top baseball simulation. The players, the rules, the very system by which the Universal Baseball Association operates are all of Henry's own devising. He invents histories, writes game recaps, and is always on the hunt for names for potential players. (The book is worth picking up for the names alone—extravagantly folkloric American names of the sort you might hope to find on the headstones in a Civil War cemetery, names like Swannee Law, Rag Rooney, and Sycamore Flynn.) Henry becomes so invested in the fates of his players and teams that the line between their world and his begins to blur, even though the entire Universal Baseball Association exists only in Henry's composition books and dice throws.
The dice are the heart of the Association. They are miraculous and cruel. Henry has perfected a detailed, comprehensive odds-based system in which three dice can determine anything that could happen in a baseball game. Henry is fully aware of the irony: He gave the dice their power, and yet he is enslaved by them; enslaved by the banality of actual odds and by the omnipresent possibility that he will roll a 1-1-1 or 6-6-6 and be dispatched to the Stress Chart, or more dramatic yet, to the Chart of Extraordinary Occurrences, whence players are led into fisticuffs, into fixed ballgames, even into death. "These two charts," Coover writes, "were what gave the game its special quality, making it much more than just a series of hits and walks and outs."
I don't think J. Henry Waugh would be offended by my opinion that Out of the Park Baseball shares this special quality. The game offers an infinite number of alleyways into baseball—and, once inside, infinite possibilities. You can be a manager, a minor league manager, a general manager. You can, like Henry, be a commissioner. There are story lines. There are sabermetrics. There are bean balls and ensuing brawls. But what gives the game its mystical power, what makes it so much more than just a series of hits and walks and outs, is the fact that one never fully plays OOTP. On some level, the game plays itself. Like Ron Washington says, baseball do what baseball do—often to the manager's dismay. Building a dynasty in a console video game's Franchise Mode or in a traditional fantasy league can be a matter of simply executing a plan, exploiting a system. Doing so in OOTP requires an aligning of the stars. As an OOTP GM, you can't fall back on playing the game yourself (roster construction be damned) or blaming it on real-life injuries (fantasy baseball is all luck anyway). In OOTP, you are a prisoner of the whims of the artificial realities that you inhabit.
After a five-year sim-baseball hiatus, I recently downloaded the newest version of Out of the Park Baseball, OOTP 13, and so far the stars have not aligned for me. In season after season, in every kind of league setup, in ways easily predictable and completely vexing, I have failed as a GM. I've quickly rediscovered how terrible I am at the game, how unsuited temperamentally I am to a hobby that pushes back with so much force, and demands so much attention. Time moves fast in OOTP. Ratings tumble in great heaps; scouting departments get No. 1 picks all wrong; and sometimes Troy Tulowitzki bats .230. Sometimes fictional first basemen named Tex Houston win the triple crown playing for the Seattle Whales. You can't predict baseball. In real life, this is not a problem for me. In OOTP, it is. The game imitates life too well. Circumstances change in frustrating ways. OOTP disappoints me. Realizing that I'm disappointed only disappoints me further.
Yet I continue to play. Despite having the ability to customize game settings, to do away with whatever fluctuations and quirks make the game so infuriating, I choose not to. It is OOTP's capacity to frustrate me, to simultaneously heighten and numb my senses like some sort of low-grade methadone, that draws me back in. Over the past few weeks, in order to be even halfway productive, I've had to make a forceful and conscientious decision to close OOTP 13, or not to open it in the first place. Even reading The Universal Baseball Association, which I bought explicitly to read for this article, and which is not a long book, and which by all means I really enjoyed, became a chore in the most literal sense. Why bother with Henry's Pioneers when Tex Houston and my Seattle Whales franchise are right there in front of me?
The game has nearly made me late for work. It has rendered my apartment a mess, my refrigerator even emptier than usual. Over the last few days, I've found myself re-reading Tom Bissell's insane and depressing account of getting simultaneously addicted to cocaine and Grand Theft Auto. I've found myself perusing websites like WowDetox.com, where people post horrifying stories about lives squandered because of World of Warcraft. (Sample entry: "I Used to listen to Beatles music while playing WoW, now I can never listen to Beatles music without thinking about the game."). I don't know whether I'm trying to scare myself straight, or just remind myself that it's not so bad, that I don't need to feel guilty or scared.
It's the fear that will get me. Soon enough, I'll uninstall OOTP 13. The game icon will prove too ominous on my desktop. The opportunity cost of each hour spent in simulated arbitration hearings will prove too high. I know this because it's happened before. The last time was in 2007, when I quit all of my sim leagues, MBL included, for good. I'm the sort of person who never feels like he's being productive enough (in part because I am rarely being especially productive). Plenty of people are capable of playing OOTP and also living well. I am not one of those people. The specter of time better spent looms behind every chat window and scouting profile.
While writing this, I reached out to a few of the guys I played with in MBL. I'm still in regular contact with some of them anyway. They all said that, as a GM, I was sort of bipolar: one minute tentative, the next wanting to trade Kevin Brown for prospects. Generally, I was ineffective, which makes sense. My management style paralleled my relationship with the game itself. I love thee, I love thee not; I love thee, I hate myself; I love thee, I hate myself even more. You get the picture. In college, especially, I struggled to balance my involvement in sim baseball with my involvement in everything else. I aspired to keep the worlds as far apart as possible (I may lack Henry's imagination, but I best him in self-control). I never talked about OOTP to my real-life friends. Even my girlfriend, whom I've known since freshman year of college, had no idea that I played these games until a few weeks ago.
The chasm I dug between OOTP and everything else is why now, almost seven years later, I still think about getting that phone call from Chris's mom. I think about the phone call more than I think about Chris's death. At the time, he was not a fully formed person to me. Sure, I knew Chris was real. I even had vague notions of his illness. We had negotiated trades, chatted meaningfully about sports and life, and spoken on the phone those couple of times. But Chris was of the game in the same way that Tex Houston, Seattle Whales first baseman, was of the game. Our relationship was defined by OOTP. It existed in a world I tucked into the far corners of my imagination and relegated to the margins of my notebooks. When Chris died, that world revealed itself as dramatically subservient to the goings-on of the larger one. Chris had a mother. Chris had a funeral.
The MBL GM of the Year Award was named for Chris (and still is). And eventually somebody came in and took over his Angels franchise. Meanwhile, the game has not changed. The MBL has upgraded from one edition of OOTP to the next. It has wrecked entire histories only to begin again with brand new ones. But mostly it has hummed along, oblivious. Dice don't care who throws them.
Eric Nusbaum founded Pitchers & Poets and is a founder of The Classical. His work has appeared in Slate, The Billfold, GQ.com, TheAtlantic.com, and The Best American Sports Writing. He may one day tweet again @ericnus.