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Iceland, island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. Lying on the constantly active geologic border between North America and Europe, Iceland is a land of vivid contrasts of climate, geography, and culture. Sparkling glaciers, such as Vatna Glacier (Vatnajökull), Europe's largest, lie across its ruggedly beautiful mountain ranges; abundant hot geysers provide heat for many of the country's homes and buildings and allow for hothouse agriculture year-round; and the offshore Gulf Stream provides a surprisingly mild climate for what is one of the northernmost inhabited places on the planet.
Iceland was founded more than 1,000 years ago during the Viking age of exploration and settled by a mixed Norse and Celtic population. The early settlement, made up primarily of Norwegian seafarers and adventurers, fostered further excursions to Greenland and the coast of North America (which the Norse called Vinland). Despite its physical isolation some 500 miles (800 km) from Scotland—its nearest European neighbour—Iceland has remained throughout its history very much a part of European civilization. The Icelandic sagas, most of which recount heroic episodes that took place at the time the island was settled, are regarded as among the finest literary achievements of the Middle Ages, reflecting a European outlook while commemorating the history and customs of a people far removed from continental centres of commerce and culture.
The capital, Reykjavík ("Bay of Smokes"), is the site of the island's first farmstead and is a thriving city, handsome in aspect and cosmopolitan in outlook. Other major population centres are Akureyri, on the north-central coast; Hafnarfjördhur, on the southwestern coast; and Selfoss, in the southern lowlands.
Iceland is a Scandinavian country, the world's oldest democracy but modern in nearly every respect. Unlike most European countries, however, it is ethnically homogeneous, so much so that genetic researchers have used its inhabitants to study hereditary disorders and develop cures for a host of diseases. Although increasingly integrated into the European mainstream, Icelanders take care to preserve their traditions, customs, and language. Many Icelanders, for example, still believe in elves, trolls, and other figures in the mythical landscape of the Norse past, while even Icelanders who live in cities harbour a vision of their country as a pastoral land, in the words of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness, of
crofts standing at the foot of the mountains or sheltering on the southern slope of a ridge, each with a little brook running through the home-field, marshy land beyond, and a river flowing smoothly through the marsh.
Iceland's rugged coastline, of more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km), meets the Greenland Sea on the north, the Norwegian Sea on the east, the Atlantic Ocean on the south and west, and the Denmark Strait—which separates it from Greenland by about 200 miles (320 km)—on the northwest.
Glacier ice and cooled lava each cover approximately one-tenth of the country's total area. The glaciers are a reminder of Iceland's proximity to the Arctic Circle, which nearly touches its northernmost peninsula. The area covered by Vatnajökull (Vatna Glacier), the country's largest, is equal to the combined total area covered by all the glaciers on the continent of Europe. The volcanoes, reaching deep into the unstable interior of the Earth, are explained by the fact that Iceland is located on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is estimated that since the year 1500 about one-third of the Earth's total lava flow has poured out of the volcanoes of Iceland.
Geologically young, Iceland contains about 200 volcanoes of various types. A new volcano erupting on the bottom of the sea between November 1963 and June 1967 created the island of Surtsey, off the southwestern coast. The new island grew to about 1 square mile (2.5 square km) in area and rose more than 560 feet (170 metres) above sea level, a total of 950 feet (290 metres) from the ocean floor.
Volcanic activity has been particularly frequent since the 1970s. A major eruption took place in 1973, when a volcano on Heima Island (Heimaey) spilled lava into the town of Vestmannaeyjar, an important fishing centre. Most of the more than 5,000 residents had to be evacuated, and—although the harbour remained intact—about one-third of the town was destroyed. Continuous eruptions took place in the Krafla area in the northeast in 1975–84, damaging a geothermal generating project in the area. Iceland's best-known volcano, Hekla, erupted four times in the 20th century: in 1947, 1970, 1980, and 1991; it also had a series of small eruptions in 2000. There were eruptions in the Vatnajökull area in 1983 and 1996. Eyjafjallajökull volcano, beneath an extension of Mýrdalsjökull (Mýrdals Glacier), erupted in March 2010 for the first time since 1821. It erupted again beginning on April 14 and sent wandering ash plumes into the skies that disrupted air traffic for days across northern and central Europe.
Iceland is largely a tableland broken up by structural faults. Its average elevation is 1,640 feet (500 metres) above sea level, but one-fourth of the country lies below 650 feet (198 metres). The highest point is 6,952 feet (2,119 metres), at Hvannadals Peak, the top of Öræfajökull in Vatnajökull. The glaciers range in size from those in small mountain recesses to the enormous glacial caps topping extensive mountain ranges. Vatnajökull covers an area of more than 3,000 square miles (8,000 square km) and is about 3,000 feet (900 metres) deep at its thickest point.
Much of Iceland is underlain by basalt, a dark rock of igneous origin. The oldest rocks were formed about 16 million years ago. The landscape in basaltic areas is one of plateau and fjord, characterized by successive layers of lava visible one above the other on the valley sides. The basalt sheets tend to tilt somewhat toward the centre of the country. Iceland's U-shaped valleys are largely the result of glacial erosion. The depressed zones between the basalt areas have extensive plateaus above which rise single volcanoes, table mountains, or other mountain masses with steep sides.
Iceland has more hot springs and solfataras—volcanic vents that emit hot gases and vapours—than any other country. Alkaline hot springs are found in some 250 areas throughout the country. The largest, Deildartunguhver, emits nearly 50 gallons (190 litres) of boiling water per second. The total power output of the Torfajökull (Torfa Glacier) area, the largest of the 19 high-temperature solfatara regions, is estimated to equal about 1,000 megawatts.
Earthquakes are frequent in Iceland but rarely result in serious damage. Most of the buildings erected since the mid-20th century have been built of reinforced concrete and designed to withstand severe shocks from earthquakes.
Traditionally, Iceland has been divided according to the four points of the compass. The centre of the country is uninhabited. In the southwest several fine natural harbours have directed interest toward the sea, and good fishing grounds lie off the shores of this region. Because of its extensive lava fields and heaths, the southwest has little farmland. The middle west is divided between fishing and farming and has many places of great natural beauty. The western fjords have numerous well-sheltered harbours and good fishing grounds but little lowland suitable for agriculture. The north is divided into several smaller districts, each of which has relatively good farmland. The eastern fjords resemble the western fjords but have, in addition, an inner lowland. The southeast, locked between the glaciers and the sea, has a landscape of rugged splendour. The southern lowland comprises the main farming region. Soil and climatic conditions are favourable, and it is close to the country's largest market, Reykjavík and its environs.
Heavy rainfall feeds the numerous rivers and lakes in the glaciated landscape. Many of the lakes are dammed by lava flows or glacial ice. The presence of waterfalls is typical of the geologically young mountain landscape. The rivers are mainly debris-laden streams of glacial origin or clear streams formed by rainfall and springs of underground water. In the regions not drained by glacial rivers, fjords and smaller inlets cut into the rocky coasts. Because glacial erosion has often deepened the inner portions of the fjords, there are many fine natural harbours. Elsewhere the coasts are regular, sandy, and lined extensively with offshore sandbars that form lagoons to the landward side.
Iceland has soils of both mineral and organic composition. The mineral soils are basically a yellow-brown loess, formed by deposits of wind-transported matter. Both types of soil are suitable for agriculture, but, because of the slow rate of biological activity in the northern climate, they require heavy fertilization.
The climate of Iceland is maritime subarctic. It is influenced by the location of the country on the broad boundary between two contrasting air currents, one of polar and the other of tropical origin. The climate is affected also by the confluence of two ocean currents: the Gulf Stream, from near the Equator, and the East Greenland Current. The latter sometimes carries Arctic drift ice to Iceland's northern and eastern shores.
Seasonal shifts in temperature and precipitation are largely the result of weather fronts crossing the North Atlantic. Relatively cold weather, particularly in the northern part of the country, results from the movement of a front south of Iceland; mild, rainy weather is brought by the movement of a front northeastward between Iceland and Greenland. Although its northernmost points nearly touch the Arctic Circle, Iceland is much warmer than might be expected.
Temperatures do not vary much throughout the country. The mean annual temperature for Reykjavík is 40 °F (4 °C). The mean January temperature is 31 °F (−0.5 °C), and the mean July temperature is 51 °F (11 °C). Snow falls about 100 days per year in the northwest, about 40 in the southeast. Annual precipitation ranges from 16 inches (410 mm) on some high northern plateaus to more than 160 inches (4,100 mm) on the southern slopes of some ice-capped mountains. In the south it averages about 80 inches (2,000 mm). Gales are frequent, especially in winter, and occasionally heavy fog may occur, but thunderstorms are rare. Although winters are fairly dark, Reykjavík averages nearly 1,300 hours of bright sunshine a year. Often the aurora borealis is visible, especially in fall and early winter.
Plant and animal life
Iceland lies on the border between a tundra vegetation zone of treeless plains and a taiga zone of coniferous forests. Only about one-fourth of the country is covered by a continuous carpet of vegetation. Bogs and moors are extensive, and sparse grasslands are often overgrazed. The remains of large birch forests are found in many places. A reforestation program instituted by the government in the 1950s has shown considerable success since the mid-1970s.
Foxes were the only land mammals in Iceland at the time of its settlement. Humans brought domestic and farm animals and accidentally introduced rats and mice. Later, reindeer were introduced, and many are still found in the northeastern highlands. After 1930, mink that were brought in for the production of furs also became wild in the country. Birdlife in Iceland is varied. Many nesting cliffs are densely inhabited, and the colony of ducks at Lake Mývatn, in the north, is the largest and most varied in Europe. Salmon and trout abound in the lakes, brooks, and rivers. The fishing banks off the Icelandic shores are abundantly endowed with fish, although these resources have been considerably eroded by overexploitation. There are no reptiles or amphibians in Iceland.
Ethnic groups and languages
The population of Iceland is extremely homogeneous. The inhabitants are descendants of settlers who began arriving in ad 874 and continued in heavy influx for about 60 years thereafter. Historians differ on the exact origin and ethnic composition of the settlers but agree that between 60 and 80 percent of them were of Nordic stock from Norway. The rest, from Scotland and Ireland, were largely of Celtic stock. The dominant language in the period of settlement was Old Norse, the language spoken in Norway at the time. Through the centuries it has evolved into modern Icelandic, which is used throughout the country. Modern Icelanders can still read Icelandic sagas in Old Norse without difficulty. There are no ethnic distinctions. The early Nordic and Celtic stocks have long since merged, and the small number of subsequent immigrants have had no major effect on the population structure.
The Lutheran faith has been the dominant religion since the mid-16th century. More than three-fourths of the population belongs to the state-supported Evangelical Lutheran church. There is freedom of religion.
Settlement patterns
Because agriculture was the chief economic activity, the population of Iceland was evenly distributed throughout the inhabitable parts of the country until the end of the 19th century. With the advent of the fishing industry, commerce, and services at the beginning of the 20th century, the population became increasingly concentrated in towns and villages. At the beginning of the 21st century, more than 90 percent of the population lived in communities of 200 or more people.
The mainstay of most coastal towns is fishing and fish processing. The greatest population concentration is in Reykjavík and its environs, with about three-fifths of Iceland's total population. Reykjavík is a modern, cosmopolitan urban centre that—in addition to being the seat of government—is the national focus of commerce, industry, higher education, and cultural activity. Akureyri, a fishing and educational centre situated on the Eyja Fjord in the north, is second in importance. Reykjanesbaer is a fishing port on the southwestern peninsula near Keflavík International Airport. The Vestmanna (Westman) Islands, off the southern coast, have some of the most important fishing operations in Iceland. Akranes, located across the bay from Reykjavík, is a service town for its region and has some industry. Ísafjördhur is a service town for the western fjord area. Seydhisfjördhur and Neskaupstadhur, on the eastern coast, are important ports for herring and capelin fishing. Höfn, on the southeastern coast, is also an important fishing port. Selfoss is in the southern lowlands, serving the farming region, and is the largest inland rural community in Iceland.
Demographic trends
The first comprehensive census in Iceland was taken in 1703, at which time 50,358 people were reported. The 18th century was marked by great economic hardship, and by 1801 the population had declined to 47,240. There began a slow increase in the 19th century, and by 1901 the population had risen to nearly 80,000. Accelerated economic growth during the early decades of the 20th century was paralleled by a rapid growth in population, which in 1950 exceeded 140,000. During World War II and the early postwar period there was rapid improvement in the standard of living and a new acceleration in the rate of population growth. The annual growth rate reached its peak during the 1950s and has been declining since 1960, primarily because of a sharply reduced birth rate and continued emigration. For a brief period from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s the birth rate rose again before resuming its downward trend. In the late 1980s the population reached a quarter of a million.
Between 1870 and 1914 there was large-scale emigration to Canada and the United States because of unfavourable conditions in Iceland; during that period emigrants outnumbered immigrants by the equivalent of about one-fifth of the 1901 population. Since 1901 emigration has continued to exceed immigration, though usually by only a small margin.
The Icelandic economy is based heavily on fishing and the production of a broad variety of fish products, but it also includes manufacturing and services. Exports account for about two-fifths of the gross national product. Despite Iceland's small population, the economy is modern, and the standard of living is on a par with that of other European countries.
Most of Iceland's production is in private hands. Government ownership has declined since the early 1990s through increased privatization of government-owned enterprises. The state shares ownership of most electricity-generating systems with local governments, and it assumed control of much of the banking sector in 2008 as a result of financial crisis.
Since World War II the government has aimed at a high rate of economic growth and full employment, and fluctuations in fish prices and catches have been an important influence on the economy. Iceland's real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by an average of about 4 percent per year after the war. After 1987, however, there was a slowdown in economic growth because of limits imposed on fish catches in response to the depletion of fish stocks that had been overexploited for many years. From the late 1980s to the late 1990s the annual GDP growth rate averaged less than half what it had been. From the late 1990s to the mid- 2000s, however, there was a strong resumption of growth, mainly as a result of an improving fish catch and an influx of foreign capital. Iceland's economy collapsed in late 2008 as a result of massive currency depreciation and the failure of its domestic banking industry.
Agriculture and fishing
As is the case throughout the Nordic countries, less than 5 percent of Iceland's population is engaged in agriculture, and this number continues to decline. The raising of livestock—mostly sheep—and dairy farming are the main occupations. About one-fifth of the land is arable, most of it used for grazing. Greenhouses are common, especially in the southern part of the country. Iceland is virtually self-sufficient in fresh foods and dairy items, but it imports most other foodstuffs.
A steady improvement in Iceland's fishing technology has increased catches despite the gradual erosion of what once were enormously rich fish populations off the country's coasts. During the late 1980s and early 1990s the concern over declining fish stocks led the government to strengthen already strict catch quotas to further husband eroded fish stocks—particularly cod, the most important species. The strict quota regime paid off with a sharp increase in the cod stock in the late 1990s. Those catch quotas for domestic waters led to increased fishing in foreign waters, particularly in the Barents Sea and off the coast of Newfoundland.
Cod and capelin make up about two-thirds of the total catch, and whitefish species such as cod and haddock are exported fresh, frozen, salted, or dried. The capelin and herring catches usually are reduced to oil and meal but also are salted. In the mid-1990s Iceland's total fish catch was between about 1.5 million and 2 million tons, of which about one-third was whitefish species and two-thirds were capelin and herring. Such fishing-related industries as boatyards, repair docks, and net factories are also important.
Iceland's entry into distant fishing waters has caused friction with other countries over fishing rights. Herring fishing in the open ocean between Norway and Iceland is a matter of debate between the two countries as is blue whiting fishing in the North Atlantic between Iceland, Norway, and the European Union (EU). Moreover, Canada has objected to Iceland's shrimp fishing off the coast of Newfoundland.
Resources and power
Iceland's energy resources are vast. Feasible hydroenergy is estimated at nearly six gigawatts and geothermal energy at more than 1.5 million gigawatt hours per year. Only about one-eighth of the hydroelectric power of the country's rivers has been tapped. Geothermal energy heats all of Reykjavík and several other communities; it provides steam for industrial energy and is used in commercial vegetable farming in greenhouses. Despite its vast natural resources, Iceland produces more greenhouse emissions per capita than any other country. To reduce emissions and eliminate the country's reliance on imported oil, in the early 21st century Iceland initiated small pilot projects aimed at determining the feasibility of creating a hydrogen-based society.
The main manufacturing enterprise for export is aluminum production, which uses domestic hydroelectricity to smelt aluminum from imported alumina. Other manufactured goods for export include ferrosilicon, an alloying agent for steel production; diatomite, an industrial filtration agent produced from diatomaceous earth with geothermal steam; fish-processing equipment; fishing gear; and prosthetic devices. There are also small industries that produce computer software, cement, fertilizer, food, clothing, and books.
Iceland has a limited number of commercial banks that have branches throughout the country and a number of savings banks. Other financial institutions include investment credit funds, private pension funds, insurance companies, and securities firms. The financial sector was gradually deregulated in the 1980s. Interest rates were left to market forces, an important stock and bond market developed, and monetary policy—previously quite inflationary—became comparable to that of other industrialized countries. The reform of the financial market played an important part in bringing inflation under control. Capital movements between Iceland and other countries were almost completely liberalized by the mid-1990s, sparking a boom in foreign investment in the late 1990s and the 2000s. The flow of currency changed dramatically in the wake of the 2008 "credit crunch," however, resulting in the collapse of a number of banks, devaluation of Iceland's currency (króna), inflation, and interest rates hovering near 20 percent. (See Financial boom and bust.)
More than three-fifths of Iceland's exports go to the EU, which also is responsible for more than half of Iceland's imports. About one-tenth of imports come from the United States. Some two-fifths of Iceland's exports are fish or fish products; aluminum makes up roughly another two-fifths of exports. Iceland has been a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) since 1970. In 1973 it concluded a tariff reduction agreement with the European Economic Community (now the EU), as did other EFTA countries. In 1993 Iceland joined in the creation of the European Economic Area; along with Norway and Liechtenstein, it reached an agreement with the EU to adopt most of that organization's commercial regulations and to eliminate many of the remaining commercial and administrative barriers between the countries. Nevertheless, Iceland stopped short of applying for membership to the EU because of its concern that the EU would control its fishing resources. In 2009, however, despite the country's wish to maintain sovereignty over its fisheries, Iceland submitted an application to join the EU.
Featuring a breathtaking natural landscape—in particular, hot springs, geysers, and volcanoes—the country has become a major tourist destination. Icelandair (Flugleidir), a major international air carrier, has helped make the tourist trade increasingly important to the national economy. Foreign tourists number more than 300,000 a year, and the tourist industry is an important earner of foreign exchange.
Labour and taxation
The central government receives a major portion of its income from a value-added tax and a progressive income tax, whereas local governments derive most of their revenue from a flat-rate income tax and property levies. With the government's commitment to full employment, unemployment generally has remained low. Fishing contributes greatly to Iceland's economy. Roughly 5 percent of the population is employed directly in fishing, and more than 5 percent are employed in fish processing.
Like most countries of Scandinavia, unionization is very high. Nearly seven-eighths of employees belong to a labour union. Iceland's largest labour union, the Icelandic Federation of Labour, was established in 1916. The union is composed of more than 60,000 members, or about one out of every three workers. Although strikes were frequent in the 1970s, by the beginning of the 21st century labour unrest had become negligible.
Transportation and telecommunications
The historic isolation of Iceland, caused by the rough seas of the North Atlantic and the country's small market and industry, was broken when steam vessels began to visit Icelandic shores late in the 19th century. The first telegraph cable to Iceland was laid in 1906, and the Iceland Steamship Company (Eimskip) was founded in 1914. Before the 20th century roads were practically unknown, the horse being the means of transportation throughout the island. Iceland has no railroads. Most of Iceland's main rural roads are paved, as are most streets in towns and villages. The majority of minor country roads, however, are still gravel. During the summer driving is possible on the extensive sandy plains in the uninhabited interior, permitting expeditions between the glaciers. The Hringvegur ("Ring Road") stretches for about 875 miles (1,400 km), forming a circle around the island. The merchant marine fleet transports most of Iceland's imports and exports. Icelandair as well as local air service carriers are important internally in compensating for the limited road system. Keflavík International Airport, the country's primary gateway, is located about 30 miles (48 km) west of Reykjavík. Air Atlanta Icelandic, a large charter airline, is active worldwide in charter operations, particularly in flying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca from various communities in Africa and the Middle East.
The telecommunications industry has been developed to reduce the country's dependency on the fishing industry. Significant government expenditures have resulted in Iceland's telecommunications infrastructure rivaling that of major industrialized countries. Although the telecommunications market was liberalized in the 1990s, Iceland Telecom dominated the sector. Reflecting the country's extensive telecommunications infrastructure, more than half of the population regularly used the Internet by the end of the 1990s.


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How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Syracuse University Press, 2005 - Education - 289 pages
"What are the core elements of a strong proposal?" "How can I accent the strengths of my study design? "How can computer use facilitate my literature review?" "What is the best way to get my proposal reviewed and approved?" You will find the answers to these and other key issues in this unique "assembly manual" for crafting a complete and convincing dissertation proposal. Three extensively annotated proposals of former students provide examples of the guidance offered and illustrate common types of studies. Whether you study best by example, review, memorization, or problem solving, this book's format enables you to follow your own pace and style. This is no ordinary step-by-step guide. The authors begin by identifying and defining the basics of a dissertation proposal. With careful consideration, they explore proposal functions and parts, show how to build your study's chain of reasoning, and carefully review alternate study designs. Chapters are devoted to qualitative studies: (sectioned into case studies, philosophical, and historical investigations); quantitative studies: (sectioned into experimental, causal modeling, and meta-analysis studies); and mixed-method studies: (sectioned into: sample survey, evaluation, development, and demonstration and action projects).
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how to prepare your dissertationUser Review - kcsandy - Overstock.com
This is no cookbook but it does have some really good information. I didnt feel like the samples were all that helpful. This is not the endall beall book but maybe one doesnt exist. Im not sorry I bought it. Read full review
What Is a Proposal?
The Functions of a Dissertation Proposal
The Proposal as a Chain of Reasoning
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Common terms and phrases
ability abstract accessed October alternative explanations and/or appropriate approval basis Beissner better chain of reasoning chairperson and committee chapter Citation Index concept mapping data analysis data collection demonstration describe detail determine discussion dissertation proposal domestic violence effect effect size emergent studies ensure evaluation example expected experimental faculty focus funding Gantt Chart generalizable hypotheses important independent variable indicate instruments interview involved knowledge literature review measures meta-analysis method noted paragraph participants persons physical therapy pilot study posal possible posttest prespecified pretest prior problem solving problem statement procedures qualitative qualitative research questions rationale reader references relevant Review of Proposals sample schedule Science Citation Index search engines self-directed learning significant situation social statistical strategies study's subjects tion usually variables Warters Worksheet writing

subset: commoncrawl


text: As new products come the market, old products must go. This is an ongoing promotion that is held by Cisco to make room for new products that are coming in. This then is a chance for you to receive some of Cisco's best products at an extremely discounted rate! Cisco has products running through the DESOP promotion all year covering Borderless, Security, Switching and all other products in the Cisco line.


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MONTEREY, Calif. - Airman 1st Class Christian Miltersen not only won a recent Chinese speech contest, sits at the top of his Chinese class at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, and holds a 4.0 GPA, he is also fourth generation military, and second generation linguist.
Christian always had an interest in language, and knows bits of French, German, and Russian, but perhaps one of his biggest language inspirations was to follow in the footsteps of his father, Robert Miltersen, who graduated from DLIFLC's Chinese Basic Course in 1994.
Robert Miltersen initially came to DLIFLC in 1989 to study Russian, along with his soon-to-be wife Sheila, but both returned in 1994 following the end of the Cold War to learn Chinese. After graduation and follow-on training, Robert and Sheila were assigned to Kadena Air Base, Japan, and from there moved to Beijing, where Robert was assigned as the Air Force Operations non-commissioned officer, U.S. Defense Attache's Office, U.S. Embassy to China.
"The highlight of my Beijing tour was that I was involved in the crisis in Hainan, China, when our US Navy EP-3 aircraft collided mid-air with a Chinese J-8 fighter aircraft during routine mission operations... The Chinese held our crew for several weeks; I was dispatched to the island along with our Defense Attache, Gen. Neal Sealock, and took part in negotiations to procure the release of the crew," said Miltersen.
In 2005, Miltersen and his family returned from numerous overseas tours to DLIFLC where he taught as a military language instructor before retiring in 2009 as Chief MLI for the Asian I school.
After turning in his uniform, Miltersen was hired by DLI for the civilian position of South-Central Regional LTD Director, and he moved from the Presidio of Monterey to Alabama. In the meantime, Christian stayed behind to graduate from Seaside High School, and carried on the Miltersen name by enlisting in spring of 2011.
"[Language] was always something I was interested in and something that felt like it was easy for me to pick up. It sort of clicked with everybody that I have all these interests in languages and could do this as a job and could go off and join the military and be independent and it could be a full-time career," said Christian.
Because Christian had lived in China with his family from age eight to eleven and he had attended the International School of Beijing for three years, his decision to study Chinese made the most sense. However, Christian hardly learned any Chinese while in Beijing because his family lived in a compound for diplomats, and he went to an English-speaking school.
"I guess I'm glad I don't have too much of an advantage. People in my class already think I do," said Miltersen.
Now at DLIFLC, Christian enjoys his independence, but appreciates the consistent structure of classes.
"Just the intensity that's provided here, as opposed to taking an hour a day in high school for an elective course, it allows you to really quickly build a foundation that you can go off of. So I took two years in high school, but what a month would do here just completely overshadows anything you could achieve in that timeframe [at a regular university]," said Miltersen.
In April of this year, Christian competed in the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California's 37th Mandarin Speech Contest and received first place at the College/University level for students with no prior background or very limited experience in Chinese of any dialect. Another testament to Miltersen's efforts at DLIFLC was his recent selection to go on an immersion to Beijing, along with the other top students in his class. The group stayed in Beijing for six weeks, and studied at a university to enhance their Mandarin skills.
"With the sort of different style, and different aspect of learning the language, I think that mixed with the foundation that the course at DLI gives, it was more comprehensive; I feel like I improved a lot from what I learned there," said Miltersen.
While in Beijing, Miltersen and his immersion group toured the city and visited sites like the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven, much of which he said felt familiar from when he was a child, especially the smell of the city, of which he said, "brought me back to when I lived there before."
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They say that those who "Do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it". Well, for when I get bored sometimes and there are patches up so the servers are down, etc., I thought I compose a list of many the notorious/famous players, particulary veterans of Gladden. I believe I did something like this before describing many of the old veterans to someone out of boredom to tell them what old pvp was like, and I guess I'm gonna do it again for ur entertainment. Some of this list is made in jest as well as SERIOUSNESSZZZ >! I like being a loto history buff, so here you go! Some may be longer than others, and I'll add on as many people that I feel like. To the very few REAL LOTRO vets left, if you wish to add anything, feel free to let me know. If you want to be on this list, you can request it, but I'll describe u the way I see fit (usually in a a positive manner ). In addition, if you wanna describe someone else, you can type one up and I'll copy it in(generally by their admission). Also, feel free to make one about any of my toons, since you can tell everyone about how big of a "pothead" I am and such.
*Narrated with Faramir's voice (David Wenham) from 300*
Timeline (so new people can keep track)
prebk 12, book 12-14, moria (book 6-8), SoM, RoI (preaud, postaud)
Azareth (no, not the doppelganger on Gladden now :P)- The tale of this warrior is of greatness, and sadly ends in tragedy. It is commonly known as "The Tragic Tale of Azareth" being akin to "The Tragedy of Macbeth" in epicness. Known as the leader of the Croatian Crew, Azareth was a soldier of great promise in the Coldfells army, showing his prowess in battle time after time, indirectly leading the freeps to Glory (literally). As he became stronger, Azareth became one of the greatest Champions the Gladden Moors has ever seen. He perfected the way of kiting champ on Gladden, which became a popular style of champion fighting up to SoM, till a new style of pure melee toe-to-toe fighting was innovated by a transfer Champion of great skill. To this day, I think Azareth may have been the most fluent strafer I have seen in this game, the way his double bladed grace flowed in the wind as well as his full-crimson regalia. Azareth had 3 apprentices: Mariuss, Mosthated, and Reedee, his last, yet most prolific apprentice. Azareth can be described as cocky, pompous, and elitist, pretty much an all-around doosh, but if you knew him he had a little soft side to him that made you lol. He also would never turn down a fight from someone's asinine challenge made to him, which caused their destruction. Over time, I had lost contact with Azareth completely. He eventually transfered to Elendilmir, then to Brandywine, then to Silverlode...where Azareth finally cracked. Azareth had become insane and mad over Azurelady, and the dark love that consumed his soul ultimately destroyed him and all what he was... Legend says one day he shall return in his familiar regalia and to his former glory, more powerful than one can possibly imagine.
Heady- Heady of the Fallohides as he is commonly and fondly known, he is not to be mistaken for Headaran and his toons as Heady was the original of Gladden. Heady is referred to as the first original hobbit hunter of the moors, as well as the best one. This laid back stoner enjoys the simpler things of life like ganking and mead. He was a notorious, yet revered enemy of Genbu and Aeons, believed to have single handily destroyed their whole raid by running them off the Cliff of Hoardale. Also, he was renowned for the Defense of TR and LC with his nameless brother-in-arms against a half raid-3/4 raid of Genbu/Aeons. Though he lead little, and with the occasional help of Azareth, he was one of the only freep leaders that could put up a fight against Aeons/Genbu and dismantle the Soldiers of the White Hand. You can see Heady occasionally wandering the moors to this day, doing his contagious hobbit laugh at people for no reason.
Silverest- Known as the first definite leader of the freeps, Silverest was the renowned leader of the 1st age of the moors (prebk12 SoA). He cleverly made the hunter turret to destroy the early and weak ranks of Angmar, most of the time the creep forces being unable to repel its strength, tho his strong rival in strategy, Silentnight, was able to break his lines occasionally. His charisma and tactics made him a favorite among freeps, and even revered among creeps. He made many of his famous battles outside of TR, posthumously being named "Silverest Rock" where he made stand after stand against the creep armada. A young, lvl 46 footman by the name of Gleefelin(Didnthurt/Kaleef) I saw was scuplted from Silverest's raids; tho I knew he would someday become great, his story/legacy took an unfortunate different path, though I digress. I only had the privilege to group with him once, tho fought him many times on my old rank 3 BA. Though he has now mysteriously disappeared into shadow and was only last seen by his freep compatriots on January 26th, 2008, legend says he fights in the wilderness, mainly in the woods of LC, west of HH, or in Arador's End in an endless battle with his worthy opponent Silentnight. A statue is said to have been in the process of being made for Silverest, but it has been long delayed by Turbine's laziness, so we just use Silverest's rock as tribute instead.
Kalib- He was the leader of the Aussie groups as well as former leader of the kin EXODUS. Tho he rarely played primetime early on his in career prebk12, Kalib was adored by the clueless Aussies, not knowing how crazy he really was. Eventually, however, Kalib became more prominent in the book 12-14 days and sought to bring his EXODUS group out as well as others to fight against Genbu/Aeons, with both them and their tribe mocking Kalib with many satirical videos. Kalib was one of the main focal points on the forums as for stirring things up and challenging Genbu and Aeons might with Valistar. Tho he lost more often than won and usually only came out to make the map blue when Genbu and Aeons weren't out, he provided good entertainment and could muster up good fights occasionally. Kalib is famous for not only going crazy with his grand, psychological scheme of pretending to quit the game then come back, but also for losing noobishly to Azhaudh with all his cds and excuses, one of the highest rank reavers at the time (rank 7) in a 1v1. His legacy was destroyed more with how he went about leaving the game. In an attempt to rebuild his legacy, he went on creepside for Gladden as well as transfer to Nimrodel on Kalib. Nimrodel was more successful for his legacy rebuilding than creepside, tho he doesn't play anymore. He is also responsible for making the abomination Thugglife the way he was, and took pride in creating him.
Valistar- Coming to prominence in the book 12-14 SoA era, Valistar was made the freep leader of the Ettenmoors from the deeming of the famous, formerly great leader Gleefelin as he made his "turn to the dark side" in order to make more fights for creeps better. Valistar became famous for his turtling ways against even numbers with oil atop keeps such as Tirith Rhaw and Lugazag and his camping of greenies at grams, until pushed out by Genbu/Aeons. When keeps were about to fall and getting tired of wiping so much, Valistar gave up and told his freep compatriots to flee for their lives, tho a nameless warrior and occasionally a few others in his raid, usually stayed behind to fight to the end for death and glory. He would usually wait at Glan Vraig till his forces were overwhelmingly powerful, then would strike after boring the creep opposition that was even with him to death, and made them log from waiting so long to fight him and his 2 raids, another reason why he received criticism from creeps. He also formed raids to hunt down notorious players/starhuggers such as Killerr, Clibni, and Cojiro when he was starhugging, which made pvp fun. He was also apart of a famous 3-leader raid lead, joining forces with the daft Australian Ootyfast and the mentally unstable Kalib to fight Genbu/Aeons and Didnthurt's armies for a battle of epicness where Valistar for once proved his worth. After the lag-filled fighting with creeps was over in the epic battle of the ages, he took his raid to the delving with 2 other raids to confront Gaergoth the delving boss, but failed due to lag. Valistar went on hiatus and came back, at first his return being seen as a desperate greatness to respark Gladden pvp. The results proved negative, as Valistar had changed dramatically. Though he lead raids, Valistar also used to enjoy 1v1s. The reason for his hatred is to be believed because he was terrible at them so he zergs them because if he couldn't, no one could, or when he was at the tavern "Moors Mash" and was knocked out over the head with a chair in a drunken bar fight with Gleefelin, and lost his wits. Anyway, this changed Valistar, and his Mccarythist ways towards 1v1s and just saying moronic things in general has destroyed his reputation even further. It is believed that he is a Communist ironically, as he can be seen spamming glff to this day about "gaining commies for his cause". Finally, he has a Billy Bob Thorton voice which makes him .1% epic.
Gleefelin (Didnthurt/Kaleef)- First being seen as a footman of Silverest's army in the 1st age of the prebk12 days, Gleefelin was seen as a soon-to-be keen strategist of the Freep army. With the departure of Silverest, Gleefelin rose to power and is credited for leading the freep armies to glory in the later prebk12 era. He made many upon many of honorable battles for the freeps against the creep hordes, earning his renown through such actions. When book 12 came, he gave his leadership role of freeps to Valistar to go over to his creep to help the creep forces and make them stronger. This is when things turned for the worst. Though Gleefelin remained unaffected for a long time on his BA Didnthurt, now known as Kaleef, gradually he became...zergish in his ways, losing all form of honor in battle, unwilling to seek challenges and only wanted to fight the easiest of battles with overwhelming numbers against weaker forces in the open field, as well as zerging 1v1s. He became notorious for his zergs, aided by his tribe known as Dark ones of Middle Earth, whom he created to brainwash them and instill his zerging ways, though resisted by a few honorable tribemates of his. Furthermore, whenever faced with a challenging opponent, either Aristedies or Viceras, he would log off and go to his other servers to seek easier infamy and fighting for him as he had lost his cunning ability. I for one am still ashamed to see the once honorable leader now turning to cowardice and gutless approaches.
Pendelas- An arrogant, yet fun-loving, skilled champion, though not as skilled as Azareth and a friend of his, known for his fear of losing stars, though not as much as Dori's early days, Pendelas's famous recanting of "It's a Trap!" left an impression on all he came in contact with. I met this champion of Gondor personally in a raid when I was rank 4, and we bonded very well. Unfortunately, his story has an honorable, yet tragic ending. Teamed with his dwarf companion Dorinori, the two fought in many hard-fought battles together against the creep horde in prebk12. He also was an asset to have in a raid as he would be a key component for its successes. Later on in his Ettenmoors war career, ironically to increase his rating, he was patrolling Hoarhallow when he saw 2 level 40 hobbits running from a creep group of greenie wls. Pendelas went to their aid to save them from these seemingly easy opponents. Pendelas's hidden honor would shine on this day, for little did he know that Abiss, one of the greatest BAs in the history of Gladden, was leading the Uruk greenie warleader army. The story is very similar to Boromir defending Merry and Pippin from Lurtz and his uruks. When Pendelas saw Abiss with them, he took down as many greenie wls as he could, tales saying he killed 10-20 uruks before finally being slain by 3 arrows in his chest and protecting the hobbits as he told them to make for the safety of Glan Vraig. The hobbits found a nameless warrior and told him about what had happened and he rode off to Hoarhallow to save Pendelas... tho it was too late. The nameless warrior found Abiss and made him his bane, watching his few warleader brethen remaining flee to the hills of Gramsfoot. He then found Pendelas pinned against a tree in Hoarhallow on his last breath, letting him know that he had fought with honor. He is said to have been buried somewhere west of HH in honor of his deeds. Be at peace...son of Gondor...
Khaotik (Blackhaert)- Known as the greatest lm in the Gladden Moors prebk12 of the 3 great lms of the era, tho not entirely appreciated for his greatness as he wasn't in the popular kins, Khaotik was a virile Elf that made famous the melee style of lm fighting, which he was very successful with in 1v1ing. He took the promising LM Nebuchadrezzar under his wing to teach him his ways as his protege. He also used his unorthodox eagle companion strategy to defeat warleaders with ease, going against the popular belief that ravens were the way to beat a warleader. Khaotik was so powerful that he was banished by Turbine for his uncommonly large phallus, and his power is said to have been distributed to the LMs of today to make them stronger. The power of the Khaos it is called. It is said from legend that this once-powerful sorcerer can still be seen from time to time wandering the moors, tho not at his former strength, can still hold his own against a greenie. It is said his offspring is now the powerful warden, the Bush King.
Blackhaert- The son of Khaotik, the warden known as the "Bush King" for his ambushing from bushes as well as being a sexual deviant and his preference of bushes, he is credited for being the first warden to attempt the dps spec style of warden, which were followed by the famous, great wardens such as Balaric, Chiknorris, Deregorn, and even the lack-lustered Voe. Like his father, he had an unorthodox, yet effective way of bringing new strats to the warden, such as his old effective strategy heal spec known as the "Wolverine" where he would stack Determination incmr and incmr traits to make himself near impossible to defeat. The Bush King was in hiatus for a long time, but his return is imminent, and his virility shall be stronger than ever!
Fenore- Basically, Fenore was a broken version of Azareth, no skill whatsoever, but was a veteran. He was the first illegitimate rank 9 in the moors. You saw a name like Fenore and you're like, "wow, that guy must be something great", but he wasn't obviously, just a zergling raid baby. One of the first elves/champs/players in the moors, as well as one of the worst, he farmed most of his rank, yet he stunk at his class (and still does), he is now rank 12 tho 75% of his rank is illegitimate. Once people found out he originally farmed his rank in prebk12, Fenore fled to the shadows, never to be seen until recent times (and to play AoC apparently, which he prob sucked at, thus coming back here and failing once again).
Aristeides - Once upon a time, when The Blender ruled the Gladden Ettenmoors, a great restlessness arose among the ranks of the One Tribe To Rule Them All and its allies. "Our freeps are so dominated we have no challenge anymore!" was the lament. And lo, a summons came from the distant land of Windfola. "Our server is freep dominated and our creeps are disorganized and boring," said the voice of the herald summoning. "Very well," said the voice of the One Tribe. "We will roll creeps on Windfola, and show your weakling creeps and dominant freeps that even on greenies, The Blender is a force to be reckoned with." And it was so. And the one who had issued the summons saw that it was good, and that these would truly be worthy opponents, and behold, when the Windfola visit was concluded, he returned with them. And his name was Aristeides. And his captain was mighty, and his burglar also, and in fact he expanded his scope to include creep side as well and mighty were his adventures on all of his characters. Legend has it that one day he will actually raise his voice on mic, and the world will be consumed in fire and flood upon that day. (Seriously, he always sounds so mellow even when things are going badly!) -Urg contribution
Urthona - Urthona - A young man with a relentless talent to QQ in the the shadow of the larger Azareth*. In simple spars and 1v1s, you could not win against Urthona. This was not due to his skill or talent, but the point that you either used an illegitimate cool down, he was bugged, Turbines fault and/or skill lag. He would sometimes make new creeps or freeps to bring himself up in typing conversation, only to rage when people would express their hatred and annoyance of him. Some say that he and Azareth shared the Azurelady in the french fashion, we may never know... -Blackhaert contribution
Lintalthir - A precocious Australian hunter that had skill for a Bards ----->. A former member of Dark Paradigm, with a large and fatal attraction to Seredir*, though his love can never be with due to the curse of high ping and a broken mic. -Blackhaert contribution
Javathegut - Some say that this hobbit had the heart of a baboon removed from Christian Slater, and the soul of Aries within his magical KB stealing daggers.Sometimes two places at once, wherever a kill were to occur, Javathegut was there, stealing the KB, even if it were 0 damage, he would claim the creeps soul. Some say this anomaly was powered by an mysterious trinket he pick pocketed off Coldbear in Helegrod, absorbing all lives of wargs into its dark void. -Blackhaert contribution
Dijerry Doooo Section
Shadowthol- Leader of the Australian Awesomez, Shadow was once the greatest minstrel on Gladden. He was one of the two original aussies of the moors. Back in book 6-7 of moria, only 2 reavers could defeat him, Nishnok and a nameless warrior. Turbine said he is too epic for the moors, so he is not allowed to ever enter on his minstrel again, especially them being as op as they are now. Him and his gay partner Tanki used to plague the moors in the days of prebk12 when no one was out, and would also pal around with the insane Kalib and Erickthered. He transfered to Elendilimir, then after realizing how bad it was, came back here and now boxes occasionally when he is out, tho he is usually on his burg Feinting.
Tanki- An Aussie lm that was being brokeback mountain with his friend Shadowthol that does not like to die, but it's fun when he does to make him QQ, so make sure to target him on any of his toons. He was also one of the original aussies along with his friend Shadow. He many a time ventured out in the moors with him to guard the moors in the late hours when there was few creeps out to make sure that havoc was not wreaked. Tho he was only lvl 40ish, Tanki played better than most of the lms out there in prebk12 and book 12-14, besides the 3 great ones Khaotik, Sowen, and Dracen.
Atoo- Everyone has their doppelgangers. Atoo is the doppelganger of Shadow as he is ring leader when he hangs around with his friend Belegarod, as it was with Shadow and Tanki. Him and his friend Belegarod were doppelgangers to the original Aussies of Shadow and Tanki. He is a pretty epic guy with a pretty epic name and is also pretty. He has the potential to be a great lm in the moors if he went out there more often. Also, he doppelganged Azareth as well on his champ. He also named his guardian after a famous lotro warrior. He has identity issues.
Belegarod- Tho not as big of a doppelganger as Atoo, Bel takes the place of Tanki as being a doppelganger. Him and atoo do the same thing by being Brokeback mountain with each other, ofc Aussie style. They enjoy drinking Fosters and putting shrimp on the barbie, as well as the satanic goat screwing ritual to the bestiality gods.
In conclusion, those 4 aussies were gay together and loved many a male goat on lonely, cold nights ^.


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The three-year deal starts in August. News International's newspapers – The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times – will be able to offer up to eight 30-second clips of action during live matches on their mobile platforms.
News Int will able to provide clips of all games apart from those that start at 3pm on a Saturday. What it will be able to do is use clips from 3pm games after the action finishes at 5.15pm.
In addition, the rights will allow the newspapers to offer extended clips of up to 60-seconds from each game for a week after it has been played.
Previously, the Premier League used to divide its rights between mobile, which are currently held by ESPN, and digital, which are currently held by Yahoo.
A spokesman for the Premier League declined to comment on the terms of the deal, but it is understood the rights were awarded as part of a competitive process and New Int outbid the other parties.
The clips will be available to subscribers of the new Sun tablet app, set to be launched in the next few months, The Sun's smartphone app and through the digital products of The Times and The Sunday Times.
The move into sports rights to drive digital subscriptions apes the long-standing and successful strategy of BSkyB, which is 39.1% owned by News Int's parent group News Corporation.
Mike Darcey, the chief executive of NI Group and former chief operating officer of BSkyB, said: "This is a major breakthrough for the company, allowing us to combine our rich heritage with cutting edge technology to transform the experience we are offering our subscribers.
"They will now have access to the most compelling moments in the most competitive football league in the world at a time, place and format that suits them.
"In a rapidly changing industry, this is an unprecedented moment and a testament to the pioneering attitude of which we can be proud. Once again we are leading the way with innovative technology, drawing on our journalistic heritage and our unrivalled world-class content."
News Int said the deal was a "significant breakthrough" for the restructured News Corporation, which has become the new publishing company that NI Group will become part of this summer when the old News Corporation splits in two.
Last week John Witherow, the former editor of the Sunday Times, was appointed acting editor of The Times, in an interim move some people believe could pave the way for more integration between the two companies.
Yesterday Sky retained the UK long-form linear TV broadcast rights for 226 Barclays Premier League matches per season (all those not broadcast live) for the next three years.
Most of the shows not broadcast live kick off at 3pm on a Saturday and Sky broadcasts extended coverage of them on Saturday evenings.


text: Brand MarketingMcCann Lands Spot on Carlsberg RosterJWT also recently addedBy Noreen O'Leary|May 7, 2013 ShareBy Noreen O'Leary|May 7, 2013 Share McCann Erickson has won a place on the Carlsberg Group's advertising roster outside the U.S. While the agency hasn't been given any specific brand assignments, landing a spot on the brewery's lineup gives the Interpublic network the chance to work on creative briefs across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Addressing the agency's appointment, Carlsberg global category manager Diana Starbanov said of McCann: "They demonstrated great expertise in managing and building brands, locally, regionally and globally." JWT also recently landed a place among Carlsberg agencies, joining shops like London's Saatchi & Saatchi and Fold7, Antwerp's Duval Guillaume Modem, and Buenos Aires-based Santo. A year ago, LBi was appointed the global digital lead on Carlsberg's flagship beer brand. This year Carlsberg has been making shifts among its roster agencies. In February the company moved global advertising duties on its namesake beer brand from Fold7 to Santo. Around the same time, Fold7 was given responsibility to launch Carlsberg's Somersby cider into the U.K. market. Sharehttp://adweek.it/141tvCq copy Adweek Adweek


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In Alabama and other parts of the Southeast, the stink bug has become the dominant cotton insect pest, and that isn't likely to change anything soon. "We're talking about more than 1.5 million acres of cotton now where the stink bug is dominating, and it's becoming more important each year. As we grow more peanuts and cotton together, the problem will increase," says Ron Smith, Auburn University Extension entomologist.
There are three stinkbugs — the green stink bug, the brown stink bug and the Southern green stink bug, he says. In most years, Southeastern cotton growers see the Southern green stink bug.
The damage threshold is currently 20-percent injury to the internal part of the boll," says Smith. "We select 10 to 12-day-old bolls, when the bolls are still soft and can be crushed in your hands. You have to peel back the boll and look inside for internal damage. When we target brown stink bugs, we have to switch chemistries and go with phosphate materials. With green stink bugs, we have a lot of choices, including pyrethroids and products like Orthene or Bidrin."
The migration of stink bugs from other crops has become more important as an increasing number of Alabama growers plant peanuts adjacent to cotton, says Smith. "Stink bugs have a clumping effect. If about 50 come from an egg mass, then you know they will be clumped together there for awhile. They spread as they get older. Most of the damage to cotton is done by the almost mature or the last instar of the immature stink bug and the adult. It takes them from the time they hatch until they are about four weeks old before they can do damage. This is a long life span, and the adult then lives for four or five more weeks," he says.
If a cotton producer has adult stink bugs in his field in July, they will be there until the youngest bolls that are harvested are mature, says Smith. They will live for another month or more.
"In looking for internal damage, we look for a brown seedcoat and warts and calluses on the inside of the boll where stink bug punctures have healed. Yellow lint isn't as common as these other symptoms. What you end up with is one or more locks on a half boll that is completely rotted and won't pick. Sometimes, you'll have a hardlocked boll, and it'll be white. It won't be totally rotted, but you can't pick it because it isn't fluffed out."
If cotton is planted near corn or peanuts, there could be a border effect, says Smith. "Stink bugs move only about 75 feet into a field in the beginning, but then they eventually scatter across the field. We need to think in terms of doing more border spraying, especially if we're next to a crop from which stink bugs are moving."
If stink bugs damage a young boll, or if they feed on a boll long enough, they'll cause the entire boll either to abort or to come off the plant, he says. Another insect — the leaf-footed plant bug — causes boll damage similar to the stink bug.
"We conducted a study at Headland in southwest Alabama this past year on stink bugs and thresholds, to try and get a better handle on how many stink bugs are needed before we begin to spray. We had three thresholds planted in 90-foot strips and replicated four times. We planted eight rows of cotton in the middle of a peanut field so stink bugs would be coming in throughout the season. It's not that different a situation than the border of any field that is adjacent to peanuts.
"There were three threshold levels — untreated, where we didn't spray at all; 20-percent damage or the university recommendation; and a treatment aimed at making the strip free of any stink bugs."
The bug-free strip, he says, was sprayed about seven times, from July 19 to Sept. 8. The 20-percent threshold was sprayed five times, but it still wasn't enough. Researchers recorded the amount of damage and the number of stink bugs per 12 row feet in each strip. The untreated had 91-percent boll damage from July 19 through the remainder of the year, with an average of 8.1 stink bugs per 12 row feet.
The 20-percent threshold damage strips averaged 30-percent damage even with the five sprays, with two and a half stink bugs per 12 row feet. The bug-free strips still averaged 16-percent boll damage.
"The point is you can't look for stink bugs and try to evaluate whether or not to spray. You'll get about 10-percent damage before you detect them in your field. We think we can live with that 20-percent damage threshold, but there will be key weeks during the season when that won't be good enough. We think the third, fourth and fifth weeks after bloom are critical when treating for stink bugs."
As for yield averages, the untreated cotton averaged 263 pounds per acre, the 20-percent damage threshold averaged 1,375 pounds, and the cotton that was sprayed seven times averaged 1,714 pounds of lint per acre.
There are now pockets in the Southeast, including 100,000-plus acres in Georgia, where bollworms could not be controlled by over-spraying Bt cotton, says Smith. If you get enough escapes, they can do a lot of damage. They were getting up to 15-plus percent boll damage in Bollgard cotton in Georgia due to sheer numbers. Three pyrethroid sprays in five days didn't do the job.
"There is a major problem throughout the United States, and especially in the Midwest where they're growing sweet corn — those growers can no longer use pyrethroids when spraying for bollworms. After 30 years of good control, the day is coming when pyrethroids won't do the job on the bollworm species."
If growers have such a failure, Smith advises that they switch chemistries. "There are a few things you can do, including going with the higher labeled rates, and getting it on as quick as you can after the worms hatch. That'll buy you some time. If you're not planting Bt cotton, and the resistance comes in, it'll force you to plant Bt cotton."
Look at wheat
If you want an indication of what kind of stink bug year you'll have, Smith says you can look at your wheat crop after it has been combined.
"Otherwise, look on corn before it's time for the stink bugs to move into cotton. Stink bugs will move from corn in one large, sharp movement, as the corn dries down. But stink bugs can move from peanuts into cotton throughout the year. They'll also move from pecan trees."
As for residual control of stink bugs in cotton, you'll get about three or four days of residual control with products like pyrethroids, Bidrin and Orthene, he says. "A cotton boll is safe from stink bugs when it is about 25 days old. You should sample about 25 to 50 bolls in a field to get a damage assessment."
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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This is the updated information regarding the Coaches/Volunteers screening process for the 2018-2019 season.
NEW FOR THE 2018-19 SEASON: ALL PERSONS SUBMITTING A SCREENING APPLICATION MUST NOW REGISTER WITH USA HOCKEY FOR THE 2018-19 SEASON PRIOR TO COMPLETING THE SCREENING APPLICATION. The USA Hockey participant number is now required on the Screening application. The link to USA Hockey Registration page is below. Select "Ice Players & Coaches" or "Ice Managers/Volunteers" as appropriate for your position – coach, or volunteer board member, team manager, etc. There is no charge for "Volunteers" to register with USA Hockey, HOWEVER, "Volunteers" may not participate in any on ice activities. We strongly suggest that all coaches and volunteers email a copy of the USA Hockey registration confirmation they receive to their program registrar.
USA HOCKEY REGISTRATION LINK https://www.usahockeyregistration.com/login_input.action
2018-19: Effective May 12, 2017, CHC has switched their Protect Youth Sports screening system to "Auto Screen." In past years, I have been notified when an application was received, could review, check name against prior screening, and then approve the application for screening, mark as screened prior season so screening would not be unnecessarily repeated (and paid for by CHC). With the "Auto Screen" process, ALL applications will be automatically screened by Protect Youth Sports and CHC will be billed accordingly. Additionally, all applicants who are approved will be transmitted to USA Hockey as "screened" with the date. Actual screening reports will not be transmitted to USA Hockey, nor does anyone other than myself have access to these reports. All of your information will remain strictly confidential. This is a huge convenience for our program registrars who will now be able to see a "Screened" check box in all coach/volunteer info, and will know who they have to notify to get their screening done.
There is however, one downside to the Auto Screen" system. CHC will now be billed for every application, whether or not the applicant was due to be rescreened. We want to avoid having these potential additional costs whenever possible, so we are asking-
If you don't remember when you completed screening: CLICK HERE to go to a list of coaches/volunteers who have been screened and cleared for the 2018-19 season. If you are not on the list, you must submit an online screening application. Please email Kathy Ludwig at email@example.com if you have any questions PRIOR to completing the screening application.
The question on the screening application asking for the name of the CHC/USA Hockey program you are with has now been changed to a drop down list. Just select the program(s) name(s) from the list. You can select more than one. Hopefully this will clear up some confusion and eliminate some of the crazy answers we've had in the past. "Other" has been removed from the list due to screening applications we were receiving from outside CT programs. If your program is not listed below, you must email me prior to submitting a screening application so you application can be approved for screening.
List of Connecticut USA Hockey Programs: Avon, CCHRA, CHC AFFILIATE Elected Officers & Appointees ONLY, Central CT, CT Chiefs, CT JR Rangers, CT JR Whalers, CT Nighthawks, CT Northern Lights, CT Polar Bears, CT Riverhawks, CT Wolfpack, Darien, East Haven, ECHO, Elite Hockey, Enfield, Greater New Haven, Greenwich Blues, Greewich Skate, Griffin, Hamden, HRACT, IHONC, Kent, Mid-Fairfield, Mid-Fairfield CT Stars, New Canaan, Northeast, Northwestern, Pawling, Putnam, Ridgefield, Salisbury, SECRA, Selects Hockey Academy, Shoreline Sharks, Simsbury, South Windsor, Southeastern, Southern CT, Stamford, Wallingford, Watertown, West Hartford, West Haven, Western, Whalers, Wolfpack, Wonderland Wizards, Yale.
· Coaches & volunteers screened in 2017-18: do not have to be screened and should NOT submit a CHC online application. CHC Screening policy is to screen an individual coach/volunteer every 2 years.
· Coaches & volunteer personnel screened/rescreened in any season prior to 2017-18 MUST be rescreened, and submit a CHC online application
PLEASE NOTE: Student Coaches, age 17 and under, cannot be screened, nor should they submit applications on the above website.
COACHES & VOLUNTEERS: Here is the link to the Screening website for the 2018-19 season https://opportunities.averity.com/ConnecticutHC This link will take you to a secure web page application form set up for CHC by our screening company, Protect Youth Sports.
When completing the application online, please double check your entries, especially your gender, date of birth, and social security number. Errors in these entries will cause delays in processing your application, and may result in your having to complete a new application.
· Screening Policy
· USA Hockey Locker Room Supervision Policy
Questions or concerns about the process should be forwarded to Kathy Ludwig, Eligibility Chair
New Privacy Policy


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Advertised service loaners may not be immediately available for demonstration or delivery. See dealer to schedule an appointment.
All advertised prices exclude government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer document processing charge, any electronic filing charge, and any emission testing charge.Advertised prices on new BMWs and BMW loaner vehicles may also reflect BMW rebates – vehicle must be financed through BMW Financial Services to receive rebate.
All advertised prices expire at midnight on the day of posting.


text:
Author and deliver employee surveys, quizzes, tests, and exams with SAP Assessment Management by Questionmark. This test authoring and talent assessment tool connects to SAP Learning Solution, and can help enhance learning initiatives and certification programs across your company. Measure knowledge, skills, and attitudes – and easily report on results.
- Efficiently create employee surveys, quizzes, tests, and exams
- Author once, then deliver assessments to a broad range of browsers and devices
- Analyse assessment results and create insightful reports to inform stakeholders
- Ensure the validity, reliability, and defensibility of high-stakes tests and exams
- Seamlessly translate, manage, and deliver multilingual assessments
- Integrate with SAP Success Factors Learning for more comprehensive training and talent management


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Securing IPv6 Transition Technologies
In the previous installment of our series of IPv6 security posts, we covered some of the basic things you need to consider when performing security testing on your IPv6 network. In this post, we will examine some of the things that you need to consider to secure the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. IPv6 is being deployed on more and more networks, but IPv4 is not going away any time soon. During this transition period, security is crucial since you will be running both IPv4 and IPv6, along with various tunneling protocols (even if you did not configure them explicitly) that enable communication between IPv4 and IPv6 networks (such as Teredo, ISATAP, and 6to4).
To begin with, the designers of IPv6 realized that the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 would not happen overnight. There was a hope that there would be a large push and the transition would go rather quickly, but as time moved on, that did not happen. The time for a quick transition has passed and we are in for a long and protracted transition. During this transition, nodes on your network will fit into one of the following buckets:
- IPv4-only node (only runs an IPv4 stack)
- IPv6-only node (only runs an IPv6 stack)
- IPv6/IPv4 node (runs both an IPv4 & IPv6 stack)
Given these types of nodes, the transition mechanisms basically fall into the following categories:
- Dual Stack (running IPv4 & IPv6 simultaneously)
- Tunneling (IPv6 over IPv4 & IPv4 over IPv6)
- Translation (IPv4 to IPv6 & IPv6 to IPv4)
Dual Stack
Running a dual stack environment is the simplest way to support IPv4 and IPv6. In this configuration, your devices run two different stacks (IPv4 and IPv6) simultaneously. Therefore, your devices can communicate through either IPv6 or IPv4. Although this appears to give you the best of both worlds, it also presents some interesting security concerns. First, since your devices are running two different stacks, existing ACLs for IPv4 do nothing to stop IPv6 traffic. You may think that this is not a problem since you have not configured IPv6 on your network yet. Think again. Many hosts have IPv6 enabled by default. Combine that with the ability of IPv6 to automatically configure network addresses, and you have a situation in which an attacker can bypass your existing protections and potentially compromise devices on your network, even though you have not yet deployed IPv6.
Compatibility Addressing
To enable interoperability between IPv4 hosts and IPv6 hosts, you need a way to encode the 32 bit, IPv4 address inside of the 128 bit, IPv6 address. This enables both the automatic tunneling of IPv6 traffic across an IPv4 network, as well as translation between IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Because of the size of the IPv6 address, numerous methods have been developed for encoding an IPv4 address inside of an IPv6 address. For instance, to maintain backward compatibility with IPv4, RFC 4291 defines both IPv4-compatible and IPv4-mapped addresses (both types begin with 80 0's) to provide a direct mapping for IPv4 addresses in IPv6. Various tunneling protocols such as ISATAP, 6to4, and Teredo also encode the IPv4 address in the IPv6 address.
Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP) is an automatic tunneling protocol that enables dual-stack devices to transmit IPv6 traffic (encapsulated in IP protocol 41 packets) between each other across an IPv4 backbone. Since ISATAP assumes that multicast is not available on the underlying IPv4 network, it has to have a mechanism for ISATAP hosts to identify potential ISATAP routers to communicate with. You can manually configure this list, but most implementations prefer to use DNS to query the IPv4 network for isatap.company.com (where your local domain is company.com) to identify the location of the ISATAP router. Given an IPv4 address of 18.104.22.168, an ISATAP encodes the IPv4 address into the IPv6 address using the following format:
<64-bit network prefix>:0:5EFE:188.8.131.52 (private address)
- <64-bit network prefix>:200:5EFE:184.108.40.206 (globally unique address)
ISATAP is implemented on most platforms and enabled by default on Microsoft devices.
6to4 also enables dual-stack devices to transmit IPv6 traffic across an IPv4 backbone via 6to4 relay servers without the need to manually configure tunnels. Similar to ISATAP, the tunneled IPv6 traffic is encapsulated in IP protocol 41 packets on the IPv4 network. 6to4 may be used by an individual host, or by a local IPv6 network, but does require the use of a public IPv4 address. Given an IPv4 address of 188.8.131.52, 6to4 encodes the IPv4 address into the IPv6 address by appending the IPv4 address to 2002::/16 in the following format:
- 2002 (16 Bits) + AABB:CCDD (32 Bits) + Subnet ID (16 Bits) + Interface ID (64 bits)
In the 6to4 address, AABB:CCDD represents the IPv6 colon representation of the a.b.c.d IPv4 address. Given our IPv4 address of 184.108.40.206, the 6to4 address would be 2002:ACC0:A005, followed by the Subnet ID and the Interface ID.
A 6to4 relay router connects to both an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network. When it receives encapsulated IPv6 traffic from the IPv4 network, it decapsulates the IPv6 traffic and sends it across the IPv6 network. For IPv6 traffic going to the IPv4 network, it encapsulates the IPv6 packet into an IP protocol 41 packet and uses the IPv4 address encoded in the IPv6 address as the destination address for that IPv4 packet. The 6to4 host must know how to reach the 6to4 relay. This is normally handled by defining a default gateway. To facilitate configuring this default gateway, the anycast address of 18.104.22.168 has been allocated specifically for 6to4 relay routers. This enables you to easily define multiple 6to4 relays on your network without having to alter the configuration on your 6to4 hosts.
Teredo gives full IPv6 connectivity for dual-stack hosts that are connected to the Internet, but which have no direct native connection to an IPv6 network. Teredo encapsulates IPv6 data into IPv4 UDP packets and successfully operates through most NAT boundaries. A Teredo IPv6 address is constructed as follows:
- Teredo Prefix (2001::/32) + Teredo Server IPv4 address + Flags + Obscured External Port + Obscured External Address
Unlike other tunneling protocols, Teredo actually obscures the IPv4 address and port to prevent "smart" NAT devices from translating the information. A Teredo environment is comprised of Teredo clients, Teredo Servers, and Teredo Relays. To communicate with another IPv6 device, a Teredo client encapsulates an ICMPv6 Echo Request to the other device in a UDP packet and sends this to the Teredo server. The server decapsulates the ICMPv6 Echo Request and sends it to the actual IPv6 node. The node will reply with an Echo Reply, but this reply is sent to the appropriate Teredo relay who then contacts the Teredo client. Both the Teredo client and the native IPv6 node utilize the same Teredo relay, which is usually the relay closest to the IPv6 node. This design means that neither the Teredo server nor client needs to know the IPv4 address of any Teredo relays; a suitable one is automatically found by means of the global IPv6 routing table, since all Teredo relays advertise the network 2001:0::/32.
Besides using the Teredo Server to determine the NAT configuration between the Teredo server and the Teredo client, the client also regularly sends IPv4 UDP traffic to the server so that firewall pinholes remain open for the Teredo server and Teredo relay to communicate directly with the client. One of the large security concerns with Teredo tunnels is that it increases your attack surface by assigning globally routable IPv6 addresses to hosts behind NAT devices which are usually not directly accessible from the IPv4 network. This can expose IPv6 services on those hosts to direct attack.
Securing Tunnels
Most of the tunneling protocols used to transition between IPv4 and IPv6 do not provide any security mechanisms. Therefore, you need to secure these tunnels using ACLs and other network controls to prevent them from impacting the security of your overall network (such as preventing IP protocol 41 traffic from entering your network at the edge). This can be a challenging task for the automatic tunneling protocols (such as ISATAP and 6to4) because they can be created without any user interaction. Two main concerns with tunnels are the following:
- IPv4 source address of the encapsulating "outer" packet can be spoofed
- IPv6 address of the encapsulated "inner" packet can be spoofed
Attackers injecting traffic into tunnels is as simple as sending the correctly formatted packets to the specific relay device. Therefore, defining the correct ACLs to limit which traffic can enter and leave tunnels, as well as preventing packets with "spoofed" source addresses from entering your network are crucial to maintaining the security of your network during this transition period.
Besides filtering traffic entering and leaving known tunnel endpoints, it is also vital to filter potential tunnel traffic at various locations within your network to make sure that attackers do not take advantage of these tunnels to transmit information out of your network without detection. These tunnels use UDP and IP Protocol 41 to encapsulate IPv6 traffic on the network. Therefore you need to make sure that these two transports are adequately filtered with your regular network ACLs. Furthermore, if you are using these transition mechanisms to migrate your IPv4 network to an IPv6 network, you need to make sure that hosts are using an official relay device. An attacker impersonating a relay device can gain control of all of the traffic being relayed through it. With ISATAP this should not be that difficult since the location of the relay is being learned from DNS. 6to4, however, utilizes an anycast address so it is easier to impersonate a 6to4 relay unless controls have been implemented that restrict which hosts can generate the normal Router Advertisement messages.
PortProxy Interface
Besides tunneling, some Microsoft systems provide a proxy functionality that can be used to translate traffic between IPv4 and IPv6 network segments. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista provide a PortProxy interface that enables the following functionality:
- Proxy IPv4 TCP traffic to another IPv4 address
- Proxy IPv4 TCP traffic to an IPv6 address
- Proxy IPv6 TCP traffic to another IPv6 address
- Proxy IPv6 TCP traffic to an IPv4 address
These translation capabilities are handled by defining corresponding DNS entries that direct the initiating system to send traffic to the specific device that is configured with PortProxy. For instance, to proxy IPv4 TCP traffic to an IPv6 address, the DNS resolver is configured to return an IPv4 address for the IPv6-only host. So when the IPv4 host initiates the TCP conversation, it sends the packets to the IPv4 address provided by DNS. This causes the traffic to be sent to the host with the PortProxy interface, which converts the traffic to IPv6 and sends it to the specific IPv6-only host.
The main security concern with PortProxy is that an attacker may utilize it to bypass existing security controls that are in place on your network. For instance, you may have specific controls in place to limit who can connect between different segments of your network. The PortProxy interface may be used to bypass these restrictions. Note that this is not new to IPv6 since this applies to traffic between two IPv4 addresses as well and is more the result of an attacker taking advantage of a misconfiguration.
This has been a quick look at some of the things to consider when trying to secure your network during the transition period when you have to deal with IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously. It is crucial to deploy strong security measures to protect your network at all times, but since this transition is going to be long, it is important to be especially vigilant. This also wraps up the series of posts on IPv6. Hopefully, these articles have provided you with some useful information to use as you begin and continue to deploy IPv6 on your network.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


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NFC TIMES Exclusive – One of the key battlegrounds for Apple, Google and Samsung as they seek more users for their respective Pays wallets is transit ticketing–with all three tech giants targeting both open-loop payments and–perhaps surprisingly–also closed-loop transit cards. (See table below).
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Sony has introduced its NFC-enabled smart watch strap, Wena, to the UK and Ireland, which will allow users to turn their analog watches into hybrid smartwatches and tap the straps to pay with tokenized EMV-compliant cards loaded into the devices from wallet apps.
NFC TIMES Exclusive – NXP Semiconductors, the dominant supplier of NFC chips and secure elements for smartphones and wearables, is seeking to push further up the value chain, offering such services as a white-label wallet platform and provisioning of bank and transit payments applications.
NFC TIMES Exclusive – Some major cities plan to enable their transit fare payments in the Google Pay wallet, using NXP's Mifare 2GO provisioning service, NXP Semiconductors confirmed to NFC Times, adding that the implementations could put the fare-payments applications on secure elements.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Another one of Australia's big four banks, National Australia Bank, has given in to pressure from customers and has agreed to support Apple Pay.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – U.S.-based sports and entertainment ticketing vendor Ticketmaster sees its new digital-ticketing technology–supporting bar codes and NFC–as a way to reduce fraud and stay in touch with both ticket purchasers and event attendees.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Japan's mobile payments market is expanding, but the talk is not about NFC payments services, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or the pioneering FeliCa wallet services originally pushed by NTT DoCoMo and rail operator JR East.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Singapore's Land Transport Authority announced today it will begin accepting Visa-branded contactless cards to pay fares on trains and buses starting June 6, only two months after it launched its "SimplyGo" open-loop fare collection service with only Mastercard-branded cards.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – With U.S. banks planning to renew tens of millions of their EMV credit and debit cards this year with an added contactless interface, industry observers are naturally considering how the rollouts will affect adoption of NFC mobile wallets.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The Rio de Janeiro Metro has launched its planned open-loop payments service, one of the first Latin American transit systems to accept bank cards–in this case, Visa credit cards–directly for payment of rides.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – With U.S. banks finally beginning to issue dual-interface EMV cards in significant numbers this year and more U.S. merchants accepting contactless and NFC payments, a key question becomes whether contactless card payment will help or hurt the prospects for what has generally been considered as disappointing take-up of NFC wallets.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Half of all domestic face-to-face transactions with Visa-branded cards globally–outside of the U.S.–are expected to be contactless within the next two months, with Visa reporting that contactless technology is maturing in numerous countries worldwide, mainly in Europe and Asia.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Contactless transactions in Canada topped 50% of all in-store card transactions for the first time ever during the first quarter of this year, said the country's largest payments card processor, Moneris, this week.
NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Transactions from contactless bank cards in the U.S. will "quickly surpass" those from NFC phones by the end of 2020, despite cards being rolled out much later than NFC-enabled wallets, industry veteran Randy Vanderhoof, head of the Secure Technology Alliance industry trade group and the affiliated U.S. Payments Forum, told NFC Times.
NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Samsung Pay is the first of the major NFC Pays wallets to announce it is working with Taiwan's large closed-loop transit and retail payments service EasyCard, as it seeks to differentiate itself in a crowded and fast-growing mobile-payments market on the island nation.


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"The end of the NFL regular season means the selection order for the top half of the first round is finally set, save for the Raiders and 49ers, who will execute a coin flip to break a tie for picks Nos. 6 and 7.
While the official list of declared underclassmen will not be made available by the league until a few days after the Jan. 15 deadline, several players have made their intentions known, and others, including USC RB Reggie Bush, have been the subject of fairly well-informed speculation, meaning some things are beginning to take shape.
Much will change in the coming months, as players take part in postseason all-star games and individual workouts, as well as the scouting combine, but here is our initial first-round mock for the 2006 NFL draft:"
1. Houston Texans (2-14): +Reggie Bush, RB, USC
2. New Orleans Saints (3-13): Matt Leinart, QB, USC
3. Tennessee Titans (4-12): D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia
4. New York Jets (4-12): +Vince Young, QB, Texas
5. Green Bay Packers (4-12): A.J. Hawk, OLB, Ohio State
6. x-Oakland Raiders (4-12): Demeco Ryans, OLB, Alabama
7. x-San Francisco 49ers (4-12): Jimmy Williams, DC, Virginia Tech
8. Buffalo Bills (5-11): +Haloti Ngata, NT, Oregon
9. Detroit Lions (5-11): Jay Cutler, QB, Vanderbilt
10. Arizona Cardinals (5-11): +Mario Williams, DE, N.C. State
11. St. Louis Rams (6-10): +Vernon Davis, TE, Maryland
12. Cleveland Browns (6-10): Mathias Kiwanuka, DE, Boston College
13. Baltimore Ravens (6-10): DeAngelo Williams, RB, Memphis
14. Philadelphia Eagles (6-10): +Santonio Holmes, WR, Ohio State
15. Atlanta Falcons (8-8): Chad Greenway, OLB, Iowa
16. Miami Dolphins (9-7): Michael Huff, DB, Texas
17. Minnesota Vikings (9-7): +Laurence Maroney, RB, Minnesota
18. Dallas Cowboys (9-7): Derek Hagan, WR, Arizona State
19. San Diego Chargers (9-7): Marcus McNeill, OT, Auburn
20. Kansas City Chiefs (10-6): Orien Harris, DT, Miami-Fla.
21. *-New England Patriots (10-6): Paul Posluszny, OLB, Penn State
22. *-Denver Broncos (10-6): Tamba Hali, DE, Penn State
Pick acquired from Washington Redskins
23. *-Carolina Panthers (11-5): Claude Wroten, DT, LSU
24. *-Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5): +Gaines Adams, DE, Clemson
25. *-Chicago Bears (11-5): Marcedes Lewis, TE, UCLA
26. *-Cincinnati Bengals (11-5): Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida State
27. *-New York Giants (11-5): Sinorice Moss, WR, Miami-Fla.
28. *-Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5): +LenDale White, RB, USC
29. *-Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4): Elvis Dumervil, DE, Louisville
30. *-Seattle Seahawks (13-3): Thomas Howard, OLB, UTEP
31. *-Denver Broncos (13-3): +Leonard Pope, TE, Georgia
32. *-Indianapolis Colts (14-2): Eric Winston, OT, Miami-Fla.
* - Still to be determined by playoffs
x - Still to be determined by coin flip
+ - Underclassman
Edit: This was made at then end of the regular season, not sure if it was posted...


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Interestingly, my biggest motivator and friend, Melissa, is also celebrating her 100th post TODAY! I guess we both started taking our writing more seriously about the same time, only she was much more disciplined than I was for a while. Then she started nursing school, and with four kids and a husband to take care of – let's just say I caught up. For now.
For my little celebration, I'm doind a round up of my favorite posts. Mostly funny, I think, but I'll let you be the judge.
Just keep it to yourself if you disagree, mmkay?
Dear God, Someone Please Stop Her
How to Leave a Party in Three Easy Steps
Top Ten Reasons to Only Go Places With Nice Bathrooms
Male Female Relations in a Nutshell
P.S. Thanks for all the love!


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Hope Island
Hope Island Wheels and Tyres
If you live in Hope Island, we want to supply your wheels and tyres and give you the best service possible. We strive to make people customers for life, and that means making sure we're the most competitively priced and giving great service. We have the biggest range of wheels and tyres in the Hope Island area. Come in and check out our air-conditioned showroom and browse through hundreds of wheels and tyres and see for yourself what we can do!
If you want to browse online, simply click the wheel and tyre links at the top of this page!
Huge savings, big discounts, on special, sales, cheap every day prices, we can do you a deal. On premium, mid-range and budget brands, we do it all.
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We will be adding more wheel brands to this list, so check back soon or call us now to find out what we can get for you!
(07) 5563 7922
Other brands include KMC XD, Elite, Lexani, PDW, XXR, Foose, Fuel, Dub, MHT, Helo and many more!
Get Tyres on the Gold Coast!


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Data Tools
School & District Info
Early Childhood
General Program Info
School & District Info
Standards & Instruction
General Learning Info
School & District Info
Grants and Funding
You are here
Measures of Student Learning Guidance
The purpose of the guidance documents is to highlight possible approaches for districts and BOCES to consider when constructing their approach to select measures of student learning for use in educator evaluations. CDE will be collecting on-going feedback to improve these documents. Guidance will be revised annually with refined versions released each summer in order to reflect increased understanding and emerging best practices. There are three versions of guidance available for download - a teacher version, a principal version and a version for special services providers.
Related Resources
Using Available State Assessment Data in Educator Evaluations – Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ explores many nuances of using state assessment data in educator evaluation systems that are universal to districts across Colorado.
Measures of Student Learning: Local Examples and Analysis from the Field:
The purpose of this document is to highlight examples of specific measures used by districts/BOCES for the Measures of Student Learning (MSL) portion of educator evaluations. These examples were gathered from participants and utilized in a gallery walk activity for the January 2016 EE Leaders' Retreat. The Educator Effectiveness Unit has compiled these examples, and the corresponding analysis, in response to feedback from the field that example measures of student learning would be beneficial as districts/BOCES continue to revisit and modify their MSL systems.
Colorado Education Initiative's Measures of Student Learning Report
The Colorado Education Initiative invited school districts to share information on their measures of student learning systems for inclusion in a statewide study of trends. Fifty-three Colorado districts, ranging from small rural to large urban, participated in the study. To review guiding questions for measures of student learning development, please click here. A full report on trends and patterns in measures of student learning systems across the state is also available here.
Measures of Student Learning Tool
This Microsoft Excel tool is used throughout this guide and is one sample approach designed to help Colorado educators input the measures that will be used in their evaluations, see the impact of the weighting decisions for each measure, input the desired learning targets that are expected as a result of their instruction, and synthesize the evidence from multiple measures into one score that will be used in educator evaluation. It includes the requirements included in S.B. 10-191, the rationale for decisions made, and creates sample graphics for various groups of teachers.
Guidance for using School and District Performance Frameworks in Educator Evaluation
In response to many questions about the use of School and District Performance Frameworks in educator evaluation, CDE has put together guidance to support districts by identifying several possible approaches for using SPF/DPF data in evaluations. This guidance is intended to highlight some of the benefits and concerns associated with some common approaches.
To better understand the approaches explained in the guidance document, the following recordings can be used. Please click on the recording you wish to access below.
- Orientation to guidance document and associated approaches (6 minutes)
- Approach 1 (10:31 minutes)
- Approach 2 (8:11 minutes)
- Approach 3 (8:39 minutes)
Using Student Growth Percentiles for Educator Evaluations
The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment and the Center for Assessment Design, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) developed this report to help districts with the technical issues of using Student Growth Percentiles for educator evaluations. The technical report and executive summary highlight multiple approaches for creating categories based on aggregated growth percentiles, discuss multiple technical considerations, and provide district examples.


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Colours of the Fleet
Despite the increasing sophistication of technology in the Royal Navy, the traditions surrounding 'The Colours of the Fleet' are still maintained.
The importance of representing the nation and the Sovereign in our maritime organisations is as great as it ever was, and flags provide both the traditional and most obvious way of doing this.
Flags have always had an important part to play at sea: for passing messages, for identifying other vessels or the people carried in them, for warning of danger and many other purposes. Today's flags provide a very useful means of identification and the traditional ceremonial surrounding Naval flags remains firmly part of Service life.