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sponsored promotion
If you are anything like us Thanksgiving is one of your favorite days of the year. The weather is crisp and cool outside, the day is full of family and friends, and, of course, delicious food!
We have partnered with Ronco to make one Mom Bloggers Club member's Thanksgiving even more memorable this year. We are giving away a Ronco 5500 Stainless Rotisserie valued at $179.99.
HOW TO ENTER (2 STEPS: Comment + Tweet)
Official Rules: This giveaway is open to US residents only. The giveaway ends at 8:00 AM on November 16 EST. Two comments must be added to win. Any additional comments will increase your chances of winning. You can leave as many comments as you'd like as long as the two required comments above are included.
Here's my tweet - https://twitter.com/ThriftyJinxy/status/269157919688372224
This would make my Thanksgiving memorable because I wouldn't have to be peeking in the oven every 30 minutes!
My husband and I are eating better (leaner proteins) in order to lose weight. This would help prepare foods more healthfully and save time!!
Our family of seven will be spending Thanksgiving without extended family this year. It would awesome to try something new like the rotisserie! Thanks for the giveaway.
we would love this in our home. serving a big family during the holidays would be made easier with the Ronco 5500 Stainless Rotisserie
I think it would be neat for guests to see the turkey actually cooking on a rotiserrie!
daily tweet - https://twitter.com/4evamamii/status/269032496304369665


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Hi Friends,
Greetings from i3indya Technologies..!
It gives me immense pleasure to introduce i3indya Technologies to your good self.
i3indya Technologies (A unit of I THREE INFOTECH PVT LTD) with its foundation pillars as Innovation, Information and Intelligence is exploring indefinitely as a Technology Service Provider and as a Training Organization.
The multi domains in which i3indya Technologies operate include:

subset: commoncrawl


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Kill Bill's Michael Madsen Arrested for Child Endangerment
Mar 10, 2012 6:25 PM EST
Michael Madsen, best known for appearing in Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. I and II, was arrested Friday for child endangerment, People reports. Madsen, 54, was booked at a Los Angeles County Sheriff's station following a… Read more


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EUR complacency deepening
Something incredibly rare happened in the Eurozone this week – economic predictions were beaten on the upside lulling many traders and investors into a sense that the Euro crisis is coming to a close. It isn't.
Germany defied concerns of a slowing economy by registering Q2 GDP growth of 0.7% versus flat lining in Q1 and the Eurozone's number two economy, France, managed 0.5% in Q2 – both comfortably surpassing the expectations of many economists. Even the struggling peripheral Eurozone countries are showing tentative signs of stabilising.
Though the Eurozone crisis has abated for the time being, it is actually alive and well festering just beneath the surface and it won't take much to kick it off again.
Beware the EUR sirens
Peripheral countries are deeply scarred
The hope is that Germany and France will pull the rest of the Eurozone out of the economic quagmire, at least if they can sustain their own growth. But countries such as Spain, Italy and others are so deeply scarred by austerity that recoveries there could take years to be felt by the majority of the population.
Also, much of their productive capacity has been destroyed making it harder to quickly capitalise on the growth of their neighbours. Indeed, trade surpluses in some of these countries more reflect the widespread destruction of domestic demand rather than a return to competitiveness.
This leaves the Eurozone hostage to political events, such as governments imploding in peripheral countries and the rise of extremist parties, which do not share a vision for a united Europe. Unfortunately, economic instability fans political uncertainty and years of depression like conditions in these countries have created a fertile breading ground for extremist views.
In the short-term the biggest economic beneficiaries of German and French growth could be other non-Eurozone European countries such as the UK and Switzerland, which could see their currencies firm further versus other currencies such as USD.
But come September European fund managers will return to their desks and may not entirely like what they see in the Eurozone. There are German elections in late September, which will create a degree of uncertainty and other events such as the US Federal Reserve tapering its quantitative easing programme. The EUR is still far from being saved, let alone the crisis being ended.


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Woman Was Denied Promotion and Fired Because of Gender, Federal Agency Charged
DENVER – H&E Equipment Services, Inc., one of the nation's largest dealers in heavy equipment, will pay $125,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 28, 2011 in federal court in Denver, charged H&E with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to promote and then laying off a female supervisor because of her gender. H&E is a Delaware corporation registered to do business in Colorado; its headquarters are in Baton Rouge, La. The alleged discrimination occurred at its Denver-area facility.
According to the EEOC's suit, EEOC v. H&E Equip. Serv's Inc., 11-cv-02546-WYD-BNB, the branch manager at H&E's Henderson, Colo., facility offered a male employee a rental manager position that he denied to Kathleen Wooten, the rental supervisor. In doing so, the branch manager said that he didn't think women could be managers in the construction industry. Wooten then complained of sex discrimination, only to be laid off and replaced by a male employee, the EEOC alleged.
In addition to the monetary settlement, the two-year agreement which resolves the lawsuit contains non-monetary relief. H&E will review its written equal employment opportunity policies and complaint reporting procedures. The company will also provide training against sex discrimination and retaliation to all Colorado employees and to all higher-level managers nationwide. The agreement also requires that H&E use non-discriminatory criteria for conducting layoffs, and that it report to EEOC semi-annually regarding compliance with the agreement.
"Unfortunately, there are too many industries in which too many people don't get the simple but crucial principle of equality between the sexes," said EEOC Regional Attorney Mary Jo O'Neill of the Phoenix District, which includes Colorado. "The EEOC is committed to protecting the rights of women in such industries and will support both men and women who confront misogynistic attitudes."
EEOC Denver Field Office Director Nancy Sienko added, "We encourage women to stand up for their rights and to file charges with the EEOC if they feel they have been the victims of glass ceiling restrictions or sex discrimination. Without courageous people willing to file charges, the EEOC cannot completely fulfill its mission to promote a work force free from discrimination."
The EEOC's Phoenix District Office covers Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and part of New Mexico.
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws against employment discrimination. Further information is available at www.eeoc.gov.


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Adventure race readies Sunday's challenge
Summit 2 Sound will feature tests of endurance and skill
The Prince William Sound's adventure race got off to a slow start in its inaugural year last spring. Pea-sea soup fog in Thompson Pass delayed the Valdez Summit to Sound Challenge and forced officials to eliminate a portion of the four-legged race.
"Mother Nature has her ways," VS2S co-founder Meg Weaver said during an appearance on KCHU's Coffee Break: Sports Edition.
The weather didn't stop over 70 athletes from around the state from competing in that race, which features skiing, snowboarding, biking, kayaking, and running. This year's event will feature 90 participants and a few modifications.
The Format and Course
Like last year, the race is divided into two divisions, Nordic and Alpine. Both divisions are similar except for the first leg. Competitors in the Nordic division must complete a backcountry ski course around Odyssey Mountain at Thompson Pass. Participants in the Alpine division will have the option of skiing or snowboarding downhill.
On the second leg of the race, participants must bike 28 miles through Thompson Pass, Keystone Canyon, and along Lowe River until they reach Allison Point Beach. From there, they must kayak across the Port of Valdez until they reach the Kelsey Dock.
There are some additional changes to the final leg of the race. Instead of running through the Harbor area, this year's participants will run through Mineral Creek.
"This year we're staying away from as much traffic as we can," Weaver said.
The changes extended the final leg from three to five miles. The overall distance of the course is 40 miles.
Ninety racers have entered this year's race. There are 39 solo participants and 13 teams. Twenty-seven of them are local and 63 are from out-of-town. There are notable absences in this year's field. Defending individual champions, Megan McKinney of Valdez (Alpine) and J.J. Tower of Anchorage (Nordic) are not competing this year. Team 75 Percent Chance (Nordic) will not be defending its team title. The Valdez Police Department (Alpine) is the only returning champion.
The Race
The 2nd Annual Valdez Summit to Sound Challenge is scheduled for Sunday, May 27th at 9 a.m. The After Party will take place at the Kelsey Dock from 4-10 p.m. at the Kelsey Dock. The Awards Ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.


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Winwood + Santana: 2010 Tour
Did you catch one of the shows? We want to hear from you. Please share your experiences with us via comments below, in the blogs, and in the forums.
PRNewswire-- "The Carlos Santana Universal Tone Tour 2010 gets underway on June 30 with an initial North American leg running through early August. Carlos and the Santana Band will be joined on the road by special guest Steve Winwood, who will open the dates. Following the kick-off concert at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, the tour travels through the Midwest and Canada for the first half of July, and then heads to the East coast.
Highlights along the way include shows at Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, IL (7/9); Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, ON (7/11); Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (7/15); Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY (7/18); Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA (7/23); Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheatre in Virginia Beach, VA (7/27), and Cruzan Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, FL (8/1).
The Universal Tone Tour 2010 will feature hits from Santana's four-decade-long career, as well as songs from a brand new studio album that Carlos Santana is currently putting finishing touches on. Santana's most recent release was the 2010 reissue of Supernatural as a 2-CD Legacy Edition — featuring 11 previously unissued bonus tracks — in celebration of the classic nine-time GRAMMY-winning album's 10th anniversary."
Steve Winwood released a multi-disc career retrospective on June 7th entitled "Revolutions – The Very Best Of Steve Winwood". It is a portrait of one of the most influential British musicians in rock history; a singer-songwriter, peerless vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player.
"Revolutions: The Very Best Of Steve Winwood" is available in two high quality formats: a single CD for the casual fan and a four CD deluxe box set including 60 page book for the connoisseur, with sleevenotes by writer Dylan Jones.
Stay tuned to SteveWinwood.com for more breaking news, ticket info, and updates.


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Norfolk Navigates by Bears
The Hershey Bears, embarking on their final road foray of the regular season, sailed into turbulent waters on the first leg of the journey on Wednesday night, falling to the Norfolk Admirals 3-2 at the Norfolk Scope.
Hershey's loss, combined with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' Wednesday night shootout victory over the Binghamton Senators, saw their East Division lead shrink to three points over the Pens, with both clubs having five games remaining.
Chris Bourque's 21st goal of the season, assisted by Alexandre Giroux and Staffan Kronwall fifty-one seconds into the contest staked to Hershey to a 1-0 lead.
Norfolk's Blair Jones, the recipient of a bone jarring check from Kip Brennan earlier in the period, tied the game at 1 with his team on a power play at 14:55.
Radek Smolenak gave the Admirals a 2-1 lead at 16:36, depositing a rebound of a Ty Wishart shot behind Hershey goaltender, Michal Neuvirth.
Daren Machesney took over in net for Neuvirth at the start of the second period, after the rookie netminder left the game due to illness.
John Swanson, a former college teammate of Hershey's Andrew Gordon at St. Cloud State and making his professional debut, was the first and only Admiral to put the puck behind Machesney, giving the home team a 3-1 lead at 10:48 of the second period.
Alexandre Giroux, finding the back door wide open in the Norfolk defensive zone, cut the Hershey deficit to a single goal by lighting the lamp for the 55th time this season at 1:01 of the third period.After the Giroux goal, Norfolk goaltender, Craig Kowalski, held the Chocolate and White at bay for the rest of the game, making 16 saves in the final period to preserve the win for his club.
Tags: Binghamton Senators, Blair Jones, Chris Bourque, Craig Kowalski, Daren Machesney, Kip Brennan, Norfolk Admirals, Radek Smolenak, Staffan Kronwall


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Rocco Grillo
Managing Director & Global Leader Incident Response & Forensics Investigations, Protiviti Inc.Leading Protiviti's Global Incident Response & Forensics Investigations Practice, Mr. Grillo and his team of world class incident responders and forensic examiners have successfully triaged some of the largest data breaches recorded over the last decade. His professional affiliations include active roles as a Board Advisor for FS-ISAC, NH-ISAC, the Shared Assessments Program, Board member of the IT Policy Compliance Group, and he has previously served on the Board of Directors NY Metro ISSA Chapter. He is a CISSP, PCI-QSA and PFI Lead Investigator. He is a frequent public speaker at the RSA Conference, the IT Policy Compliance Group, the ISSA, IIA, and (i-4). He has been quoted in CNNMoney, WSJ.Com, ComputerWorld and other industry publications.


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HR Confidential: Happy where I'm at, but opportunity fell in my lap
Humans are complicated, but the resourcing of humans doesn't have to be. Looking for managerial or career advice? All sources will be kept confidential. Email your questions to Heather Krentler at email@example.com or call our advice line at 313-327-2209.
Q: I'm happy with my current employer, but a job opportunity just fell in my lap. What do I do?
Are you unexpectedly considering a move, but love the company you're with? Our advice: always take the lunch. Navigating headhunting can be tricky, but you never know where it will lead. In this podcast, learn some tips for weighing the pros and cons.
Follow Heather on Twitter at @heatherkrentler, or connect with her on LinkedIn.


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Cairo Gossip Login Area
Fri Apr 27 10:00 pm to Sat Apr 28 03:00 am - Cairo Jazz Club 610, Al Guezira Plaza, Sheikh Zayed
French DJ/Producer Zajazza is about to fire it up at CJC 610 this Friday. Reservations at CJC are recommended, call 01008111330.
However, with all the exciting preparations and the hype in the air, a question comes to m...
Four Seasons Nile Plaza's Graffiti recently brought together the joys of sushi and jazz un...
Have you missed them? We surely did, get ready for a dazzling night with a very special performance from Sharmoofers, people..
Take a ride on the fun train with The Tap West, Choo, Choo! Go for a special night with all your favorite Pink Floyd songs played by Gravy Train
MOBBZ will be lifting you up at The Tap East with his Hip Hop, R&B sick music.
This week's Elektro Night edition is featuring AL-Sharif at The Tap Maadi.
© 2019 Media Republic.
All rights reserved.
Find out More About The Exclusive Voice of Cairo.
Find out more about how you can help Cairo Gossip get the inside track on everything worth knowing about in Egypt before anyone else!
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Asteroid Day is June 30. Don't space out on getting your asteroid gear.
boyfriend son husband man dad computer funny cool geek nerd logo green vector fun unique symbol graphic off power on up retro humor humour tech technology button sign hacker case black programming code monkey 80s tv video games game comics cartoon film movie chemistry vintage skins
A Very Big Thank You to My First Sale!
Awesome! – Love this – Very cool.
Thank you Teeze!
Mice work!
Thank you very much Steven!The mice appreciate it! LOL
A BIG THANK YOU! to all the purchasers of this Tee!
cool design!
so cool :)
Cool ^^
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If you're looking for the best commercial window contractor in the Calumet City, IL area, look no further than Preferred Window and Door. We've been providing high-quality and professional window replacement and repair services for Calumet City businesses since 1994!
We can complete any commercial window project from start to finish and help determine the best window options for your project—from window style, material, color, hardware, glass options, and more. We specialize in:
From helping you choose the right window brands and installing your windows with minimal interruption to same-day emergency repairs, we have you covered. Contact us online or call us today at 708-782-4250 to schedule an appointment at your Calumet City location and get a free estimate!
For Calumet City businesses looking to replace their windows—whether because their older windows are drafty and not energy efficient or because the building needs a facelift for a new generation of customers—you only need to know one name: Preferred Window and Door. We've been providing commercial window services, including replacement and installation, throughout Calumet City and the surrounding area since 1994.
In the case of commercial window installations, we arrive at the appointed date:
During the installation, our technicians take care to minimize disruption to your business. On completion, they clean up thoroughly and take away all old parts, so all that is left are perfectly fitting and perfectly functioning new windows.
While you may have time to plan out a window replacement project for your commercial property, emergency repair can't always wait. Your business relies on being open on a set schedule and a required window repair could set back your day-to-day operation. If you need same-day or after-hours services, call Preferred Window and Door!
We have no minimum requirements for any job and offer free estimates at your appointment.
We are dedicated to providing the best value in commercial window products to our Calumet City commercial customers. When you work with us for your commercial window project, you can count on:
When you are in the market for any commercial window service, you will always get a FREE estimate based on an appointment at your location, where our experienced estimators bring samples and discuss your needs thoroughly.
Call us today or contact us online to schedule an appointment.
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PBS premieres a new Henry Louis Gates series, "Faces of America," on February 10th. The four episode series will run on Wednesday nights from 8-9 pm EST until March 3rd.
Combining genealogy and genetics, the series will feature the family histories of the following 12 guests:
Yo-Yo Ma, musician
Queen Noor, widow of the late King Hussein of Jordan
Malcolm Gladwell, journalist
Eva Longoria Parker, actress
Mike Nichols, director
Dr. Mehmet Oz, author
Meryl Streep, actress
Stephen Colbert, television host
Louise Erdrich, author
Kristi Yamaguchi, athlete
Elizabeth Alexander, author
Mario Batali, media personality
View clips from the program on Faces to America's Channel on YouTube.


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This application is intended for organisers to scan tickets. You need to be selling tickets via platinumliust.net and have an organiser account in order to use the application.
Please make sure you have an organiser account on platinumlist in order to log in. This application is intended for event organisers only. This app is not meant for ticket buyers. If you already have an organiser account with us you can reset your password here. If you need help setting up the organiser account Contact us.
Make sure you are connected to a reliable internet connection. Log into the app using your organizer login details email/password. Select the event you would like to scan and wait for the data to load. Once the data has loaded you can minimize the app and lock the IPhone. Do not force exit the application.
If you have a reliable internet connection the application will automatically switch to Online mode, tickets scanned will be synced to our server in real time. In online mode you are able to scan and continue selling tickets simultaneously. It is also possible to use multiple scanners at entry. All scanners will be in sync with each other preventing ticket fraud. Entry statistics are reflected live in organiser cpanel. It is advised to use 3g or higher speed mobile internet connection.
It is still possible to use the application if there is not internet on site for small events. You must preload the event in advance. However there will be some limitations: Multiple scanners will not be synced. So it is recommended to use only one scanner at entry. Data is not synced live to the server but you can sync it from settings once the internet is available after the event. Simultaneous ticket sales and entry scanning is not possible. You will have to print the tickets in advance to sell at the door. The application will switch to offline mode automatically when internet connection is lost. Once the connection is re-established to the device please make sure to sync the data by going to statistics and clicking sync. This will upload all entry statistics to your organizer control panel.


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|Maine defensive end Jovan Belcher, who earned CAA Defensive Player of the Week honors in the Bears' upset of Delaware, brings a wrestler's mind-set to football. (Photo courtesy of Michael C. York)
Belcher no longer a secret weapon
Jovan Belcher didn't draw much attention from football recruiters in high school. Although he played linebacker, offensive tackle, nose guard, fullback, and special teams for West Babylon (N.Y.) High School, the University of Maine senior kept his 6-foot-2-inch frame lean for wrestling, and many programs considered him too small.
Belcher doesn't mind being underrated. "I do like being the underdog because you can come up and surprise people," he said.
Belcher's success at Maine, first at linebacker, then defensive end, is no longer surprising. He was named the Colonial Athletic Association preseason Defensive Player of the Year and has come through on that promise. In a 27-10 upset of Delaware Oct. 11, Belcher had two sacks and forced two fumbles, along with a routine seven tackles, and earned CAA Defensive Player of the Week honors along with The Sports Network's FCS National Defensive Player of the week.
His first forced fumble, in a frenetic fourth quarter, set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Maine's Mike Brusko that gave the Black Bears a 17-10 lead.
"It was all effort and desire and wanting to get to the football first," said defensive coordinator Robb Smith. "He has such a physical nature, the closer we can get him to the line of scrimmage, the better for us. He really is a headfirst guy; he's not going to wait to see what happens, he's going to make things happen."
Belcher also is on the watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award, awarded to the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision and is in the top five in the CAA in four categories: He is first in tackles by a defensive lineman (68); tied for third in sacks (4), fourth in tackles for a loss (8.0), and second in tackles (9.7 per game).
"Some people said that he played like an All-American in that [Delaware] game," said coach Jack Cosgrove, whose Black Bears (4-3, 2-2 CAA) host Northeastern (2-5, 1-2) tomorrow. "We feel he does that every week. Sometimes things happen in the course of a game that allow a player to really stand out; he had a huge tackle that resulted in a fumble on one of those plays where he was in pursuit across the field and made the big hit so that the crowd went 'oooh,' and then three plays later, we ran it in for the go-ahead touchdown. Then later they got it back, and he got a sack and a strip and Jordan Stevens ran it in 35 yards for the touchdown.
"Jovan had a huge effect on the game in the fourth quarter."
Some other schools took a look, but Maine was the only one to offer Belcher a football scholarship.
"We brought him in as a linebacker," said Smith, "but our long-range plan was always to move him to defensive end. When he got here, he was 195 pounds: His jeans were falling off him. His clothes were all too big. But you knew he had great growth potential. The first scrimmage his freshman year, he went in third on the depth chart. After the scrimmage, he was first.
"Things fell right for the Maine Black Bears."
For Belcher, the choice was not between football programs, but between football and wrestling. He was a three-time All-American on the mat.
"I love that sport," he said. "But I wanted to play a team sport."
Belcher left the wrestling mats behind when he left high school, but he kept his wrestling game face.
"I believe I got my whole attitude and mind-set from wrestling," he said. "It's about 70 percent mental toughness. That carried over to football."
Wrestlers often compete at the brink of exhaustion. "You want to give up but you can't," said Belcher. "You keep pushing yourself and pushing yourself."
When Belcher visited Maine, he was taken by "a great working atmosphere up here with players."
"When he got to campus," said Cosgrove, "he was a phenomenally impressive young man, in how he conducted himself in and around the young men in our program. We were fortunate nobody else recruited him.
"There's no doubt that wrestling was what got him his notoriety in high school, but we also saw a tremendous upside as far as his football ability, and then you attach some of the characteristics of a good wrestler. I don't know another player who runs to and through the whistle as well, who goes sideline to sideline as well. He's always playing with that wrestler's mode."
Belcher, whose first start as a freshman was against Nebraska ("That's how much of an impression he made on us," said Cosgrove), spent two years at linebacker, then moved to defensive end last season.
"There's a lot more contact at defensive end," said Belcher. "At linebacker, you can see the whole field and you know what's going on. At defensive end, it's basically hit first, then you can see what's going on.
"I don't like to give up on any play. You never know when someone might cut back or fumble. Pursuit is our biggest thing - you've just got to keep on running."
"We always try to play to our players' strengths," Cosgrove said. "By putting Jovan's hand on the ground, that's really allowed him to play with his strengths and to excel."
Belcher will graduate in December after just 3 1/2 years at Maine. He's a child development and family relations major, and hopes to tackle working with troubled adolescents after graduation.
"He has an infectious smile and a very good way around children," said Cosgrove. "He's a great role model. He's the captain of our team, as well as an astounding football player. He models all the right things."
Barbara Matson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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All smiles in "Epic Employees" Episode 16 of Season 4
UNDERCOVER BOSS: EPIC EMPLOYEES features updates on some of the most intriguing employees who have appeared on the show and how the experience impacted their life. Employees include Albert, who worked with Joel Manby, President and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment. This special episode will be broadcast Friday, May 10 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: ©Studio Lambert 2013 All Rights Reserved.


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...this blog was originally published inside Cisco Systems internal intranet site - many folks have asked that it be published externally, so here it is!
I'm like many other Cisco Employees who work hard, are active inside and outside of Cisco and come up with new ideas like I do in my role as Manufacturing Industry Solutions and Market Manager in CMO Industry Marketing. But then there are times when we should all just do a little more...
Also, just like many other Cisco employees, I knew at the back of my mind that I should probably be doing more as far as my health was concerned. Oh, I went to the gym occasionally and made sure I had my annual physical, but that was about it. There never seemed the time or urgency to do more – like getting that colonoscopy that should be routine for anyone over 50, or over 40 if they have siblings or parents that have had gastric or colon issues.
Eventually my wife Julie got her way by reminding me that we now had a second child – an 18 month old little girl – and I'd better schedule my colonoscopy if I wanted to make sure I could walk her down the aisle in twenty-odd years time, or see my grandchildren. Despite a busy home and work life I finally relented and booked the colonoscopy. That was the first step of many that meant I probably would do the wedding bit and be able to see the grandchildren, but without that colonoscopy the chances, as it would turn out, were slim. Here's a summary of what happened:
- I give way and get that colonoscopy booked for August 5th 2010. There's some prep work the day before - a special drink to 'clear-the-tubes' prior to the colonoscopy. Tastes ok, but gives you more frequent movements the day and night before. Drinking only fluids pre-colonoscopy makes sure the colon stays clear.
- I had the colonoscopy procedure on the 5th. I was asked if I wanted to be sedated more or less. I chose less so that I could see what was going on. It was pretty painless. The doctor found three polyps - one is hyperplastic, a low risk for cancer - it's removed on the spot. The second is a tubular adenoma - more serious since it's actually pre-cancerous. It too is removed during the colonoscopy. The third is worrying - it's a pre-cancerous tubulovillous adenoma - smaller ones can be removed in piecemeal fashion - sometimes over several colonoscopies. Larger sessile villous adenomas may require surgery for complete removal. At about 3-4 cm, mine was considered a large one. The Doctor marked it with ink (a sort of tattoo) and left it alone. All polyps were biopsied.
- I came back at the end of the following week to hear the news. The good news was that none on the biopsies showed any cancer. The bad news was that the doctor recommended that I have surgery to remove that third villous polyp. Owing to its position I'd lose both my appendix (no worries there) and my Ileocecal valve ("what was that?", I thought). Turns out I go number twos 3-4 times a day so the valve probably wasn't working well in my case.
- After much consternation (is the Ileocecal valve important or not? etc. etc.), we (Julie and I) were comforted by the doctor and the surgeon that a partial colectomy was the way to go to be sure that there was no cancer, now or the future. There's a 40% chance that my villous adenoma would turn cancerous in 10-15 years. That's almost like flipping a coin. The surgery took place on a Monday - 4th October 2010.
- The surgery went smoothly - I was a little groggy for the first couple of days, and I was on introvenous and a catheter (no colostomy bag). All my systems were hooked up again after 2 days and I was eating low-fibre - soups etc., for the first few days. The surgery was laparoscopic (key-hole surgery) - I just has a couple of small holes on my left side, and a small 4cm slit in my belly button (that's the route that they take the piece of colon out through). The surgeon removed about 8 inches - around 20% of the colon, plus appendix and Ileocecal valve and some lymph nodes and issue to biopsy to be absolutely certain that there was no cancer.
- After three days in hospital (shorter than usual owing to the laparoscopic surgery approach), I was sent home. Diet was low-fibre to start with and lots of soups. That week the final biopsy came back clear - a great relief that I was cancer-free in the colon, and with that section removed zero % chance of cancer there in the future. Things are going well - back to work the following week - some days home office the first week, but fine after that. Pain in the belly button region subsided in three weeks (car seat belt was noticeable), diet fairly non-restricted by that time (even a beer or a glass of vino seems ok), and off pain meds after the first week.
All-in-all things are going well - weight restriction on lifting over 20 pounds for six weeks is still in place for the beginning of November 2010, but I'm managing to do a little lifting and cuddling of my 30 pound 18 month little girl. Well, who could resist her? And now I'll be around a lot longer to keep cuddling her and hopefully her children!
Stay well, work hard, and make sure you get time to look after yourself and your family!


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This problem involves circuits which feed back into themselves: The output of a gate can be traced through the circuit back into the input of the same gate! This can lead to all sorts of interesting behaviour, which will be explored in this problem. Please note that the gates here are not interactive: they are thought experiments .
What will happen when you switch on these circuits?
What will happen if you change the gates to different types?
The following two circuits have the same gates. Look carefully at the wires which are switched on. What do you notice? What do you think will happen when the switches are flicked on and then flicked off?
Can you create your own feedback circuits? Investigate their properties.
Click here for a poster of this problem.


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Web Xtra: Empanada King
Aug 25th 2013
Mango Chicken Empanadas
(with cool avocado lime sour cream)
Serves 8
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons ice water
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced small
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
Place flour, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl or food processor. Add butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If using processor, transfer mixture to bowl. Drizzle 11 to 12 tablespoons of ice water over top. Mix with fork until mixture is damp enough to form a ball. Shape into flat disc, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6 to 8 chicken breasts, marinated overnight in citrus-style marinade
1/2 cup onion, minced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1/4 cup green bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup olives with pimientos, minced
1 small can diced tomatoes with green chilies
2 cups fresh mango, diced small
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons jerk sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
Grill or sauté breast until cooked through. Dice chicken very small when cool and reserve. Heat a large pot, sauté in olive oil garlic, pepper, pimentos, tomatoes and chilies for 5 minutes. While stirring, add tomato paste, then rest of ingredients including diced chicken. Let mixture cool, then refrigerate one hour or until completely cool.
To Finish Empanadas
Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut out 6-inch rounds from dough. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of chicken filling onto one side of each round. Moisten edges of round and fold over in half and seal with a fork. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees. Note: You can make a simple egg wash with 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of milk. Brush lightly before baking. Bake until nicely browned, about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, serve warm with dipping sauce. You can garnish empanadas with lime wedges or zest and cilantro leaves.
Dipping Sauce
2 to 3 ripe avocados (preferably Haas)
1/2 cup sour cream
Juice of two limes
1 clove garlic, mashed
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Blend all ingredients together in food processor until creamy and well-mixed. Garnish with cilantro leaf and lime after placing in serving bowl.


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KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) - The Marine Mammal Center says its new hospital for critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals will be opening to patients this summer.
The California-based nonprofit veterinary hospital broke ground on the $3.2 million Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital in Kailua-Kona in 2012.
The facility includes rehabilitation pens and pools, quarantine areas and a medical lab.
Marine Mammal Center Executive Director Dr. Jeff Boehm says the hospital is being built to help save a species.
There are fewer than 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals left in the world, and their population is declining about 4 percent per year.
The Marine Mammal Center is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team and the Hawaii Wildlife Fund to operate the hospital.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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You see one of the following error messages when trying to sign in or make a purchase on your Xbox 360 console:
This may mean one of the following:
Can't retrieve information from Xbox Live.
To resolve this problem, try the following solutions.
Solution 1: Check the Xbox Live service status
Check for service alerts at Xbox Live status or see if there's an Xbox Live service alert at the top of this page. If there are any current service alerts, wait a while and then try again.
US customers only: If a specific service or app is experiencing an outage, you can request SMS or voice notification when the outage is resolved. Under the app or service name, click Notify me when this service or app is up and running.
Solution 2: Delete and then re-add your payment option
If you keep experiencing the error, contact Xbox Support.
Thanks for your feedback!
Provide feedback for this topic
Would you like to contact Support regarding the "Error 80169E7F occurs when signing in or making a purchase on Xbox 360" issue you were reading about or a different issue?


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filebuf *buf is the file buffer to be scanned.
int lineno is used to include the line number in the error message when an error occurs. The caller is responsible for making sure the line number is accurate.
int maxlen is the maximum number of characters that can be written into l.
char *l is the buffer in which to store the string. The user is responsible for allocating and deallocating line.


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Jerry Leake is co-founder of the acclaimed world-music ensemble Natraj, whose four recordings feature his diverse percussion talents. He also performs with Club d'Elf, R.A.R.E, Moksha, and the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society. He is featured on many CDs and has released a solo recording of percussion vignettes. On tabla, he has accompanied Ali Akbar Khan, Steve Gorn, Sharafat Ali Khan, Kumkum Sanyal, Chitravena Ravikiran, Peter Row, Purnima Sen, Warren Senders, and kathak dancer Gretchen Hayden.
Leake graduated from the Berklee College of Music where he studied jazz vibraphone with Gary Burton and hand percussion with Pablo Landrum. He studied tabla in Pune, India with Rajiv Devasthali, and studies in Boston with Todd Nardin and Koashal Anand. In Chennai, India, Leake studied Karnatic rhythm theory and mridangam with T. K. Ramakrishnan. He continues to study African music with Dolsi-Naa Abubakari Luna of the Dagomba tradition (northern Ghana) and has studied Ewe music (southern Ghana) with Godwin Agbeli and David Locke, and balafon/djembe with the Coulibaly family in Burkina Faso. Jerry has written eight widely used texts on North Indian, West African, Latin American percussion, and rhythm theory.
Leake is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, and is substitute teacher for Jamey Haddad at Berklee. He teaches a summer graduate course on world percussion at the University of Southern Maine, and directed a 6-day rhythm theory seminar at the New England Conservatory in 2002. He presents percussion clinics and solo concerts throughout New England. Jerry is former president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, and has been a composer and member of the Portland Symphony Kinder Koncert percussion ensemble since 1984.
B.A., Berklee College of Music. North Indian tabla with Rajiv Devasthali; jazz vibraphone with Gary Burton; African music with Godwin Agbeli, Dolsi-naa Abubakari Lunna; Afro-Cuban percussion with Pablo Landrum.
Photo by Andrew Hurlbut


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Real Shxt: Steve Harvey Tears Up On CNN Talking About Losing A Generation Of Young Black Men! (Saying Its Time To Mentor & Teach Teens)
Steve Harvey & His Wife teach kids about accountability
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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Have Been a Good Partner
Fund: StarVest Partners
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-05-15
Starvest lead one of our rounds and have been a really good partner since. They are willing to take the long view and have made several intros to prospective customers , partners and other investors. They seem to have very complimentary skills and so they work tough issues as a team. We have been able to count on them and they have participated in every round since.
They work hard at networking their CEOs, advisors, and their insititutionial investors to discuss markets, common issues, and opportunities.
I'd go with them again...and they are really good people too.PRIVATE: Members Only


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Valtezza...... has the irishman lost his mind? The name is made up from a V6 engine (1mz vvti) and Toyota Altezza 6 speed gearbox for use in an inline RWD application.
Nobody has ever managed to mate these two together and install them into anything, in fact just getting a 1mz to sit flat in an engine bay is a massive challenge in itself, but big challenges are what makes me get up in the mornings.
I'm not saying just yet what this engine/gearbox combo will be going in to, but i will detail the process of mating engine to gearbox and the engine mods needed.
So far the parts we have are....
V6 vvti 1mz-fe
Altezza 6 speed gearbox
Beams lightweight flywheel
Altezza LSD
Altezza propshaft/rear axles.
Lots of exciting projects happening in 2018.


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What's New
Dr. Neal Clemenson Memorial Service
Michelle Wallace
The Great Plains Family Medicine Residency program is profoundly saddened to share that our Program Director, Dr. Neal Clemenson, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, March 1.
The Life of a Friend and Coworker Celebrated
Shonna Soria
Today we celebrate the life and service of our co-worker, Barbara Anspaugh.
Applicant Season
Dr. Jenna Geohagan, PGY 2
This time of year makes me reminisce on the excitement and accompanying stress that surrounds trying to figure out which program suits your educational, family, and overall life needs. Therefore, I wanted to highlight three of my favorite aspects of the Great Plains Family Medicine Residency Program, so applicants have a better idea of who we are as a residency program.
An Update from the Director
Neal Clemenson, MD
Integris Metro United Way Campaign - Wacky Bed Races!
Michelle Wallace
The faculty, residents, and staff at Great Plains came out to support the United Way Wacky Bed Races by entering two teams and they tied for 4th place!!
Integrated behavioral health services
Grace Wilson PhD
Nationwide, there is a movement towards collaborative medicine and integrated behavioral health services.
Home Where It Belongs...
Kelly Roberts
June 20, 2014 was a very good day...at least for the Great Plains Family Medicine Residents! The OAFP "Quiz Bowl" Trophy is now solidly at our home clinic for the 2014-15 year, thanks to Drs. Vonfeldt, Wright, Landt and Wheeler.
It's Almost Time!...
Kelly Roberts
Small changes are appearing around GPFM in anticipation of our incoming resident class.
Another Great Match!
Neal Clemenson, MD
New Year, Mid-Year
Terrence Truong, MD
After the blur of a whirlwind of a holiday schedule, GPFM physicians and staff alike reconnect with one another as we resume our work during this first full week of the new year.
Administrative Staff
Residency Manager
Clinic Administrator
Clinical Supervisor


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VICTORIA – British Columbia's Liberals turned their backs on more than a decade of devotion to tax cuts and hiked some significant ones Tuesday in a race to balance their books before heading into the May election.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong resorted to raising income taxes for corporations and high-income earners and boosting health-care premiums to help bridge the gap from deficit to surplus.
De Jong's budget tabled Tuesday forecasts a surplus of $197 million for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, while this year's budget posts a deficit of $1.2 billion
"We've fought our way back," he said.
De Jong's budget comes less than three months before the May 14 provincial election in which the Liberals are seeking their fourth consecutive mandate.
It borrows heavily from ideas already floated by the Opposition NDP, which has in the past mused about higher corporate taxes and higher personal levies on the most wealthy. The NDP have consistently led the Liberals in opinion polls.
Opposition New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston said he endorsed the Liberal moves toward income tax increases for corporations and the wealthy.
"I'm pleased that the B.C. Liberals, despite their strong attacks on those ideas when they were first mooted, have adopted them," he said.
The budget left members of the business community tersely unhappy. The business community has staunchly backed Liberal policies even as the economic downturn of 2009 forced the government to drastically recalibrate their budget into deep deficit territory despite winning an election on a deficit projected at $495 million.
Jock Finlayson, vice-president of the Business Council of B.C., said the corporate tax increases in the budget would not be a deep concern if taken by themselves. But added together with the province's return to the provincial sales tax, the ongoing carbon tax and the high Canadian dollar, the business community has deepening worries.
"We are quite concerned about the challenges we are facing in B.C. with respect to our competitiveness and unfortunately, this budget really doesn't say much about that," he said.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins said the taxes in the budget do not provide incentives to businesses to create jobs.
"What do we see? About a half a billion dollars in tax increases to businesses over the next two years," he said. "That's a concern."
Since 2001, when the Liberals were first elected, cutting personal income taxes and business taxes have been their road map to prosperity, but economic adversity has forced the government to make difficult choices, de Jong said.
"Getting things right has meant a lot of tough decisions," the minister said. "But this is not the time to turn our backs on the discipline that has helped us through the worst of the economic downturn."
He said B.C. — unlike Ontario, which faces a multi-billion-dollar deficit budget — is one of the few political jurisdictions to balance its books.
"We do have the option of continuing to operate in a deficit position for many years to come, which is precisely what a lot of other governments are currently making their peace with," he said. "I'll tell you right now — we're not going to do that. Why? Because my parents used to tell me, with a measure of common sense derived from their agrarian roots: 'Son, we can't afford it right now.'"
De Jong announced a personal income tax increase of 2.1 percentage points to 16.8 per cent from 14.7 per cent for the next two years, when the hikes will expire. He also announced that corporate income taxes will rise to 11 per cent from 10 per cent on April 1.
"In pursuit of achieving our objective … we are asking those who make a little more to contribute a little more," he said.
Last year, the Liberals said they would consider raising corporate income taxes to 11 per cent in 2014 from 10 per cent, but de Jong said the government is increasing the tax a year early due primarily to low price forecasts for natural gas which resulted in a revenue loss of $70 million.
The NDP has promised, if elected in May, to raise corporate income tax rates to 12 per cent and leader Adrian Dix has said he was also considering raising income tax rates for people earning above $150,000 if elected.
De Jong said other tax changes in the budget that will improve the government's bottom line include increasing medical services premiums by four per cent in January 2014 and raising taxes on tobacco by $2 per carton, effective October 1.
He said the government has plans to raise $625 million through sales of surplus properties and assets. De Jong said 16 properties, including vacant lots, former school sites and parking lots, are among properties that are estimated to provide a return of $260 million.
He said 65 properties are being prepared to hit the market.
"We expect the sale of surplus assets will deliver a net gain of approximately $625 million over the fiscal plan," de Jong said.
The budget's tax measures are expected to generate $1.2 billion over the government's three-year fiscal plan.
But Ralston said the asset sales force him to question the credibility of de Jong's ability to guarantee the budget is balanced.
Ralston said the one-time sale of provincial assets to beef up a weak bottom line does not erase future financial issues facing the government.
"It's not a sustainable way to balance the budget," he said. "You sell it once and you still have the same fiscal hole."
The budget forecasts economic growth in B.C. of 1.6 per cent in 2013, 2.2 per cent in 2014 and 2.5 per cent in 2015.
"We expect gradual improvements in commodity prices and markets for some of our key exports over the next few years, including lumber and electricity," de Jong said.
He was almost apologetic for what he described as the slim spending initiatives in the budget.
"Now, I'm going to come to the shortest of the presentations, which is new spending initiatives," de Jong said.
He announced an early childhood tax benefit program of up to $660 for the majority of British Columbians, but on a sliding scale for high-income earners.
De Jong said the government will place $1,200 into a Registered Education Savings Plan account for every B.C. child at six years old The money will be provided to children who are born after Jan. 1, 2007.
The program is called the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant.
De Jong said the government is cutting carbon tax payments for greenhouse growers, who are forced to create carbon dioxide to grow their products. Farmers will also get a carbon tax break on the coloured fuels they use to power their machinery, he said.
Health spending is forecast to increase 2.6 per cent, with the Health Ministry receiving $2.4 billion over the three-year fiscal plan.
Health spending grew on average seven per cent per year between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009. It was reduced to an average of 4.4 per cent in the next four years and the Liberals say they will constrict it to 2.6 per cent.
The Hospital Employees Union said projected health spending announced last year in the budget for 2013-2014 is down by $234 million in today's budget.
De Jong said revenues are expected to grow an average of three per cent a year over the next three years, while the government attempts to keep annual average spending growth at 1.5 per cent over the same period.
Total provincial debt continues to rise with an expected debt for 2013/2014 to hit $62.7 billion and then grow to $69.4 billion by the end of 2016.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version stated the surplus at $127 million.


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The IMF has urged George Osborne to start preparing an emergency package of tax cuts and spending increases as it called for further interest rate cuts and more electronic money creation from the Bank of England to lift Britain out of its double-dip recession.
Expressing concern about weak growth and high levels of youth unemployment, the IMF said the UK needed swift action from the Bank's governor, Sir Mervyn King, but that the chancellor should be ready with a plan B for the economy. Such a plan could include temporary cuts to VAT and national insurance, the IMF said.
Labour seized on the findings of the IMF's latest health check on the UK as evidence that two years of government austerity had killed off Britain's recovery from the deepest recession since the second world war.
Speaking with Osborne at a news conference in London, Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, said: "Growth is too slow and unemployment, including youth unemployment, is too high. Policies to bolster demand before low growth becomes entrenched are needed."
She added: "If the economy turns out to be significantly weaker than forecast, fiscal easing should be considered."
Ed Balls, Labour's shadow chancellor, who has urged the chancellor to adopt a five-point recovery plan that includes temporary tax cuts, said: "If we fail to act, and we see years of slow growth and high unemployment being entrenched, Britain will pay a heavy long-term price."
In its report, the IMF called on the Bank to take the lead with an immediate cut in interest rates and an acceleration of its £325bn programme of printing electronic money, known as quantitative easing.
The case for more QE was strengthened today by a decline in inflation to 3% in April from 3.5% in the previous month. The fall could provide the Bank with scope to inject more funds into the banking system and the wider economy.
However, the IMF and Lagarde were careful to praise Osborne's approach to cutting the UK's budget deficit. The report said that deficit reduction was "essential" in the medium term and paid tribute to the "substantial progress" towards a sustainable budget delivered by the government's austerity programme. "When I think back to May 2010, when the UK deficit was at 11%, and I try to imagine what the situation would be like today if no such fiscal consolidation programme had been decided, I shiver," said Lagarde.
Osborne said: "The IMF couldn't be clearer today. Britain has to deal with its debts and the government's fiscal policy is the appropriate one and an essential part of our road to recovery."
Lagarde also praised Osborne for relenting on some cuts in his autumn statement last November, but said this fiscal easing may no longer be enough.
The IMF said there was scope for the government to boost growth through higher spending on infrastructure projects, which would increase employment and demand within the economy and could be funded within existing budgets by imposing further public-sector wage restraint or reforming property taxes.
An OECD report also praised Osborne for sticking to his debt reduction plans, but echoed the IMF warning that the economy would struggle to pick up momentum this year. The Paris-based thinktank, which is funded by the world's most powerful countries, saved most of its criticism for the 17-member eurozone and its lacklustre response to the Greek crisis.
It urged the UK to prepare for the worst as Greece remained on the brink of leaving the euro and the single currency's protective firewalls to prevent contagion appeared weak.
The IMF, which is supporting financial rescue plans in Ireland, Portugal and Greece, also warned the UK to prepare for an escalation of the eurozone crisis that would deliver a "substantial contractionary shock" to the economy.
Its report identified uncertainty over the future of the euro as the main danger to recovery and warned: "Risks are large and tilted clearly to the downside."
The UK's central bank has resisted adopting the European Central Bank's programme of cheap three-year loans to banks, which has boosted the European banking sector and made borrowing cheaper. It has also been unwilling to buy corporate bonds, which amounts to direct lending to businesses.
Lagarde praised the monetary policy committee's (MPC) £325bn QE scheme, which she said had proved a key support for the UK economy, but urged it to go further and consider further base rate cuts, more QE and a wider range of credit schemes to boost direct lending. King could make the first move next month if the nine members of the MPC agree to cut interest rates and boost quantitative easing.
Lagarde said policies designed to stimulate growth obviously came with risks, but added: "These risks need to be weighted against the risk of lost years of growth. To this end, further monetary easing is required."
Osborne said both reports showed that the government was on the right track. "Britain has got to deal with its debts and the government's fiscal policy is the appropriate one and an essential part of our road to recovery," he said.
The Treasury is developing schemes to use its historically low borrowing costs to support a wide range of commercial projects, mainly in infrastructure.
Government spending on infrastructure was down by a quarter in the last year and the Treasury is under pressure to devise plans that will increase spending without adding to the UK's debts. Osborne said schemes to support infrastructure projects and lending to small businesses would be ready over the next few months.


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Newly selected Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson will be the guest speaker during the next Oak Ridge League of Women Voters' Lunch With the League.
The series starts at 11:45 a.m. Sept. 7 in Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 1500 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Lunch is available on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of $6.
The program begins at noon.
Watson, who has said his management style is one of "openness and communication, has had a 30-year career in local government. He was city manager in Yuma, Ariz., from 2005-10.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Roane County News, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
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We are now about 30% (based on the number of games) into the college football season and have a fairly representative sample size for the statistics and charts below.
An interesting move this week as the "Winning Team Covers" stat took a nose dive. In 2011 over 75% of the times a team won it covered the spread and that trend continued within a point or two into the first several weeks of 2012. This week it took a nose dive to just under 70%.
2012 Summary5 –
The other drop we often see as conference play begins is a drop in the "Home Team Wins" category. For the most part the cupcakes have been feasted upon and the home vs. away stat winning stat becomes much closer for the rest of the season.
The two stats that continue to amaze me (in relation to 2011) are penalties and turnovers. There was a slight uptick in teams with less penalty yards winning in week 5, but the number is still well below 50% and almost 9 percentage points behind 2011s number. Turnovers are by far the most changed category from last year.
Turnovers have been much more important in 2012 than in 2011 in terms of winning and losing. I have no idea why that is, but at this point it's hard to imagine this stat reverting back to the 2011 number over the course of the season. With that in mind, I thought it would be a great time to do our "Turnover Report", which shows the winning percentage for the number of turnovers a team has (independent of any other stats). Notice the precipitous drop when a team goes from 1 turnover to 2. That's the point your odds of winning drop below 50%.
Turnover Report12 –
So when your team takes the field today, don't be disturbed by the early turnover – be disturbed by the second turnover that happens later in the game – your odds of winning just plummeted.


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Woman Within Global Calendar
Woman Within International is a global non-profit organization. Our Programs and Circles are open to all women aged 18 and over.
Events are organized at a regional level. To register for an event, click on the link below the specific event listed.
- This event has passed.
Open Circle – Corvallis, OR
June 4 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us for a Woman Within Open Circle. All women 18+ are welcome. Attendance is free, and there are no prerequisites. Come see what the excitement is all about!


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Real-time strategy (RTS) games often feature a wide number unit types for the player to control. One of my favourite titles from the past, Westwood's seminal Red Alert, had many classes of differently sized units: small infantry soldiers, medium-sized Jeeps and large tanks. In Red Alert 3, the most recent incarnation of the series, the diversity is increased even further by the introduction of units with terrain-specific movement capabilities (Figure 1). From a pathfinding perspective this introduces an interesting question: how can we efficiently search for valid routes for variable-sized agents in rich environments with many types of terrain?
This was the topic of a recent paper [1] I co-wrote with Adi Botea and which I presented at CIG'08. In the talk I outlined Hierarchical Annotated A* (HAA*), a path planner which is able to efficiently address this problem by first analysing the terrain of a game map and then building a much smaller approximate representation that captures the essential topographical features of the original. HAA* works by using a distance-to-obstacle metric to calculate the amount of clearance (or free space) at each tile in a grid environment. This simple method is the basis for a hierarchical clearance-based pathfinding approach that is able to answer queries for many different types of units with distinct sizes and terrain traversal capabilities. HAA* is shown to be an order of magnitude faster than low-level A* search, produces near-optimal solutions and requires little memory overhead in practice.
Figure 1: EA's Red Alert 3 features a wide variety of land-based, aquatic and amphibious units. Each class has distinctive shape and size characteristics.
In this article I want to outline the two major aspects of HAA*. First, I'll discuss how one can analyse a grid map to automatically extract clearance-related topographical information. Second, I'll explain how HAA* is able to use this information to build space-efficient abstractions that allow a range of agents with different sizes and terrain traversal capabilities to very quickly find a high quality path through a static multi-terrain environment.
Clearance Values and the Brushfire Algorithm
Simply put, a clearance value is a distance-to-obstacle metric which is concerned with the amount of traversable space at a discrete point in the environment. Clearance values are useful because they allow us to quickly determine which areas of a map are traversable by an agent of some arbitrary size. The idea of measuring distances to obstacles in pathfinding applications is not a new one. The Brushfire algorithm [2] for instance is particularly well known to robotics researchers (though for different reasons than those motivating this article). This simple method, which is applicable to grid worlds, proceeds as so:
First, to each traversable tile immediately adjacent to a static obstacle in the environment (for example, a large rock or along the perimeter of a building) assign a value of 1. Next, each traversable neighbour of an assigned tile is itself assigned a value of 2 (unless a smaller value has already been assigned). The process continues in this fashion until all tiles have been considered; Figure 2 highlights this idea; here white tiles are traversable and black tiles represent obstacles (NB: The original algorithm actually assigns tiles adjacent to obstacles a value of 2; I use 1 here because it makes more sense for our purposes).
Figure 2: A small toy map annotated with values computed by the Brushfire algorithm. Black tiles are not traversable.
Figure 3: A 1×1 agent finds a path to the goal. All traversable tiles are included in the search space.
Figure 4: A 2×2 agent finds a path to the goal. Only tiles with clearance > 1 are considered.
Figure 5: A 2×2 agent fails to find a path due to incorrect clearance values near the goal. Notice that the highlighted tiles are infact traversable by this agent.
Brushfire makes use of a minimum obstacle distance metric to compute clearances which works reasonably well in many situations. If we assume our agents (I use the term agent and unit interchangeably) are surrounded by a square bounding box we can immediately use the computed values to identify traversable locations from non-traversable ones by comparing the size of an agent with the corresponding clearance of particular tile. Figure 3 shows the search space for an agent of size 1×1; in this case, any tile with clearance equal to at least 1 is traversable. Similarly, in Figure 4 the search space is shown for an agent of size 2×2. Notice that the bigger agent can occupy much fewer locations on the map; only tiles with clearance values at least equal to 2. Because this approach is so simple it has seen widespread use, even in video games. At GDC 2007 Chris Jurney (from Relic Entertainment) described a pathfinding system [3] for dealing with variable-sized agents in Company of Heroes — which happens to make use of a variant of the Brushfire algorithm (NB: this work actually takes a similar approach to HAA* but a direct comparison is difficult because the method is not outlined in great detail; nevertheless, it's quite a nice presentation.).
Unfortunately, clearances computed using minimum obstacle distance do not accurately represent the amount of traversable space at each tile. Consider the example in Figure 5; Here our 2×2 agent incorrectly fails to find a path because all tiles in the bottleneck region are assigned clearance values less than 2. To overcome this limitation we will focus on an alternative obstacle-distance metric: true clearance.
The True Clearance Metric
The process of measuring true clearance for a given map tile is very straightforward: Surround each tile with a clearance square (bounding box really) of size 1×1. If the tile is traversable, assign it an inital clearance of 1. Next, expand the square symmetrically down and to the right, incrementing the clearance value each time, until no further expansions are possible. An expansion is successful only if all tiles within the square are traversable. If the clearance square intersects with an obstacle or with the edge of the map the expansion fails and the algorithm selects another tile to process. The algorithm terminates when all tiles on the map have been considered. Figure 6 highlights the process and Figure 7 shows the result on our running example.
Figure 6: After selecting a tile (a) the square is expanded twice (b, c) before intersecting an obstacle (d).
Figure 7: The toymap from Figure 2, annotated with true clearance values.
Notice that by using true clearance the example from Figure 5 now succeeds in finding a solution. Infact, one can prove that using the true clearance metric it is always possible to find a solution for any agent size if a valid path exists to begin with (i.e. the method is complete; see [1] for details).
Dealing With Multiple Terrain Types
Until now the discussion has been limited to a single type of traversable terrain (white tiles). As it turns out however, it is relatively easy to apply any clearance metric to maps involving arbitrarily many terrain types. Given a map with n terrain types we begin by first identifying the set of possible terrain traversal capabilities an agent may possess. A capability is simply a disjunction of terrains used to specify where each agent can traverse. So, on a map with 2 terrains such as {Ground, Water} the corresponding list of all possible capabilities is given by a set of sets; in this case {{Ground}, {Water}, {Ground, Water}}. Note that, for simplicity, I assume the traveling speed across all terrains is constant (but this constraint is easily lifted).
Next, we calculate and assign a clearance value to each tile for every capability. Figures 8-10 show the corresponding clearance values for each capability on our toy map; notice that we've converted some of the black (obstacle) tiles to blue to represent the Water terrain type (which some agents can traverse).
Figure 8: True clearance annotations for the {Ground} capability (only white tiles are traversable).
Figure 9: True clearance annotations for the {Water} capability (only blue tiles are traversable).
Figure 10: True clearance annotations for the {Ground, Water} capability (both white and blue tiles are traversable).
Theoretically this means that, at most, each tile will store 2n-1 clearance value annotations (here n corresponds to the number of terrains; see [1] for details). I suspect this overhead can probably be improved with clever use of compression optimisations though I did not attempt more than a naive implementation. Alternatively, if memory is very limited (as is the case with many robot-related applications) one can simply compute true clearance on demand for each tile, thus trading off a little processing speed for more space.
Annotated A*
In order to actually find a path for an agent with arbitrary size and capability we can use the venerable A* algorithm [4] albeit with some minor modifications. First, we must pass two extra parameters to A*'s search function: the agent's size and capability. Next, we augment the search function slightly so that before a tile is added to A*'s open list we first verify that it is infact traversable for the given size and capability; everything else remains the same. A tile is traversable only if its terrain type appears in the set of terrains that comprise the agent's capability and if the corresponding clearance value is at least equal to the size of the agent. To illustrate these ideas I've put together a simplified pseudocode implementation of the algorithm, Annotated A*:
Function: getPath Parameters: start, goal, size, capability push start onto open list. for each node on the open list if current node is the goal, return path. else, for each neighbour of the newly opened node if neighbour is on the closed list, skip it else, if neighbour is already on the open list, update weights else, if clearance(neighbour, capability) > size, push neighbour on the open list else, skip neighbour push current node on closed list if openlist is null, return failure
If you're interested in playing with a working implementation of Annotated A* you can check out the source code I wrote to evaluate it. It's written in C++ and based on the University of Alberta's freely available pathfinding library, Hierarchical Open Graph (or HOG). HOG compiles on most platforms; I've personally tested it on both OSX and Linux and I'm told it works on Windows too. The classes of most interest are probably AnnotatedMapAbstraction, which deals with computing true clearance values for a map, and AnnotatedAStar which is the reference implementation of the search algorithm described here.
Hierarchical Abstraction
Having described a simple clearance-based pathfinding system we can now turn our attention to speeding it up through the use of hierarchical abstraction. The main problem here is that a multi-terrain map annotated with clearance values contains lots of topographical information but abstraction methods can only hope to approximate the original. Thus, the goal is to build an abstraction which is representationally complete i.e. if a path between two points can be found on the original annotated map, we should be able to also find it using only the abstract map. To achieve this we're going to attack the problem in 3 steps:
First, we divide our annotated map into a set of adjacent Clusters connected by Entrances. We will show that the resultant graph produced by this process is infact representationally complete but contains redundant and duplicated information.
Second, we compact the graph produced in the previous step using dominance techniques which identify and prune unnecessary nodes and edges. The resultant abstraction is shown to contain a minimal set of nodes and edges yet still retains the representational completeness properties of the original map.
Third, we describe the Hierarchical Annotated A* algorithm (HAA*) which we use to efficiently answer queries for a wide variety of agents with different sizes and terrain traversal capabilities. HAA* is shown to produce very high quality (i.e. near optimal) paths with comparatively little search effort vs. Annotated A*.
Clusters and Entrances
In order to create an an abstract representation of an annotated map we follow Botea et al [5] and divide the environment into a series of discrete square-sized areas called clusters. Figure 11 shows the result of this step on our running example using clusters of size 5×5.
Figure 11. The map is divided into four 5×5 clusters.
Figure 12. (a) Three entrances are identified between clusters C1 and C3, one for each possible capability. (b) Each transition point (denoted by a strong dark line) maximises clearance for a particular capability.
Next, we identify entrances between each pair of adjacent clusters. An entrance is defined as an obstacle-free area of maximal size that exists along the border between two clusters (Figure 12a). Each entrance has associated with it a transition point which reflects the fact that an agent can traverse from one cluster to the other. To this end we select from each entrance a pair of adjacent tiles, one from each cluster, which maximise clearance (Figure 12b). Each transition point is represented in the abstract graph by two nodes connected with a single inter-edge of weight 1.0. The inter-edge is also annotated with the corresponding capability and clearance value that reflect the traversability requirements of the transition point.
Figure 13. A complete initial abstraction.
Finally, we complete the abstraction by finding all possible ways to traverse each cluster. We achieve this by running Annotated A* (AA*) between each pair of abstract nodes inside a cluster; one search for each combination of possible agent sizes and capabilities. Every time AA* successfully finds a path we add a new intra-edge between the start and goal nodes. The weight of the edge is equal to the length of the path and we further annotate it with the size and capability parameters used by AA* to reflect the traversability requirements of the path. This approach is highly effective at capturing all pertinent topographical details of the original map. Infact, it is easy to see that the resultant graph (which is termed an initial abstraction) is representationally complete since we've identified all possible transitions between each pair of adjacent clusters and all possible ways to traverse each cluster (Figure 13).
Compacting the abstract graph
An interesting observation made during the abstraction-building process was that on many maps the same path was often returned by AA* when searching between the same pair of points with different sizes and capability parameters. This indicates that our abstract graph actually contains unnecessary or duplicated information (and is also needlessly large as a result). To solve this problem we're going to apply two edge dominance approaches to prune unnecessary nodes an edges. I want to avoid describing these ideas formally (the details are in [1]) and instead focus on the intuition behind each one.
The first, termed strong dominance, states that if two edges, both of identical length, connect the same pair of nodes and both are traversable by the same capability then we need only retain the one with the largest clearance. Figure 14 illustrates this idea. It is easy to see that using this approach preserves representational completeness; any agent able to traverse the edge with smaller clearance is also able to traverse the one with larger clearance. The resultant graph is termed a high-quality abstraction because we discard only duplicate information fromt the graph.
Figure 14: (a) Part of the initial abstraction for cluster C1. (b) Strong dominance removes edges E5 (dominated by E3) and E6 (dominated by E4).
Figure 15. (a) A graph with two inter-edges, E2 and E5. An agent traveling from "u" to "x" via E2 must both swim and walk whereas traveling via E5 only requires walking. (b) The dominated inter-edge, E2, and its endpoints, are removed.
The second approach, termed weak dominance, is focused on minimising the number of transitions between clusters. To achieve this the algorithm analyses pairs of inter-edges that connect the same two clusters and attempts to prove that if one is removed the representational completeness of the graph is maintained. The effect is that only transitions which are traversable by the largest number of agents are retained. This is similar to the way motorists frequently prefer to travel between locations via freeways, which are traversable by many kinds of vehicles, instead of opting for more direct offroad travel. Figure 15 illustrates this idea; again, it is easy to see that the application of weak dominance also preserves representational completeness. The resultant graph is termed a low-quality abstraction, to reflect the fact that some connectivity information is lost in the process (Figure 16).
Figure 16: The abstract graph after weak dominance is applied. Note that the graph is almost half the size compared to Figure 13.
Choosing which dominance technique to use will depend on the exact requirements of the target application. Empirical results have shown that in both cases the amount of memory required to store the abstract graph can be a small fraction of that required by the original map. (though the exact number depends on a range of factors which are discussed in [1]). Comparatively speaking, low quality abstractions can be more than 50% smaller than their high quality counterparts but there is a small tradeoff. In particular, high quality abstractions produce, on average, paths with lengths 3-5% longer than optimal while low quality abstractions are in the 6-10% range.
Hierarchical Annotated A*
The process of finding a path using an abstract graph is a straightforward one that will be familiar to anyone who has come across the HPA* algorithm [5]:
Insert two temporary nodes into the abstract graph to represent the start and goal locations. Connect these nodes to the rest of the graph by attempting to find a path to from the start/goal positions to every transition point in the local cluster.
Using A*, find a shortest path from the start to the goal in the abstract graph. At the end of the search, remove the two temporary nodes.
As with Annotated A*, the search algorithm from Step 2 is modified slightly to accept two extra parameters: the agent's size and capability. In addition, the search function is also also augmented so that before a node is added to A*'s open list we first verify that it is infact reachable. In this case, a node is reachable only if the edge connecting it to the current node is traversable for the given size and capability parameters. The resultant algorithm is termed Hierarchical Annotated A* (HAA* for short).
As with other hierarchical planners, HAA* is shown to be very fast. I analysed its performance on a large set of problems (over 140K) using both small and large maps from Bioware's popular RPG Baldur's Gate. Since there are no similar pathfinding algorithms to measure against, it was contrasted with Annotated A*. In short, HAA* is an order of magnitude faster and, even with my naive, non-optimised implementation, it was able to find solutions to most problems in ~6ms on average (tested on my Core2 Duo 2.16GHz MacBook, running OSX 10.5.2 with 2GB of memory).
If you'd like to play with a working implementation of HAA*, you can download the source code I wrote to evaluate the algorithm. The classes most relevant to the preceeding few sections are probably AnnotatedCluster and AnnotatedClusterAbstraction which together are responsible for generating the abstract graph. Meanwhile, AnnotatedHierarchicalAStar provides a reference implementation of the HAA* algorithm.
Concluding Remarks
So that about wraps things up. I hope this article will serve to highlight the usefulness of clearance-based pathfinding methods for efficiently dealing with the large diversity of both units and environments so often seen in modern video games. For more information on HAA* I suggest taking a look at the original paper [1] and associated presentation slides, both of which contain more indepth discussion of the ideas presented here.
Alternatively, if you have specific questions or comments regarding anything described in this article, please feel free to contact me.
Hierarchical Path Planning for Multi-size Agents in Heterogeneous Environments D. Harabor and A. Botea IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (2008) [1] Download (PDF) (Presentation)
Principles of Robot Motion, pp. 86-88 MIT Press (2004) (google books entry) [2] H. Choset, K. M. Lynch, S. Hutchinson, G. Kantor, W. Burgard, L. E. Kavraki and S. Thrun
Dealing with Destruction: AI From the Trenches of Company of Heroes Game Developers Conference (2007) (slides and videos) (audio purchase) [3] C. Jurney and S. Hubick
Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths P.E. Hart, N.J Nilsson, B. Raphael IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics (1968) Vol 4, Issue 2, pp. 100-107 Download FILE
Near Optimal Hierarchical Path-Finding A. Botea, M. Müller, J. Schaeffer Journal of Game Development (2004) Volume 1, Issue 1, 7-28 Download PDF


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Katy Perry Talks Sex Positions, Food Poisoning + Being Real
Katy Perry sat down for a chat with WiLD 94.9′s Nessa, who probed the singer about letting it all hang out and wearing no makeup in her upcoming 'Katy Perry: Part of Me' 3D film. Perry joked "Oh the horror" at the thought of appearing on camera sans cosmetics.
Perry chuffed off the idea that she was brave to forego glam in some scenes, since she wanted to capture the authenticity of her life. "Look, I don't always want to look bloated with zits, but it's real," she said. "It's human, right? We're not always so pretty. Sometimes that can bring people closer together." She likened her decision to put not-so-savory stuff in the film to the first time she experiences something difficult in a new relationship — like food poisoning. When you are parked in the bathroom and dealing with bodily functions and your bowels turning on you, it can improve relations.
"In some ways, that brings people closer together," Perry reasoned. "You are over that hump. You are a real person. You have real problems. I am not a perfect person."
When engaging in the 69-second rapid fire, Perry says she prefers good boys, but they sometimes bore her. She broke the rule of only being able to pass on one question by skipping queries about her favorite sex position, the dirtiest place she's gotten busy and whether or not she's ever had a threesome! She pleaded the fifth, calling herself a "good Christian girl."
When asked if she would finally release music with her bestie Rihanna, she said no, but that they will have sex! Touche!
As for who she'd hump or dump? Drake gets a hump, while Chris Brown gets a dump. What about Eminem? "I like him," she said. "He'd rap bad about me if I don't."
Watch Katy Perry Interview With Nessa WiLD 94.9


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June 15, 2000-Three Faces of Tonga
We've stayed in Nuku'alofa, visited Ha'api, and now we are anchored in Va'va'u. These three areas of Tonga are each unique and each in their own way, enjoyable.
Tongatapu, The Sacred Island.
Nuka'alofa is the capitol of the Kingdom of Tonga and is on Tongatapu Island. It is the biggest town, yet hardly a city. It is flat, (not a hill to be seen), and spread out. You take a taxi to go anywhere in Nuka'alofa. We liked Nuka'alofa, its shops and services, the soft tropical air, and the easy going Tongan people. We took tours, went to Tongan feasts, and we got on email every day. This is also where we replaced our riging. Tongatapu and Nuka'alofa are good for provisioning and repairs, but they are not the prime cruising grounds of Tonga. For that you need to go north.
Ha'api, The islands in between.
After Tongatapu we sailed north, on the way to Vava'u, and had a few days at anchor in the Ha'api group. Here the islands are low and are isolated on a large Pacific Ocean, hardly within sight of each other. The anchorages are not sheltered and there are no real towns, just a few villages here and there. We saw no cars and there were no lights on after dark. The water is clear and the beaches pristine, but the Ha'api is pretty primitive-more so than any place we've been to, ever. We had WINGS anchored in crystal clear water at Uoleva Island, off a mile-long beach of white sand backed by coconut palms and other tropicals. The island stopped the SE trades and the point just to the south of us offered a little shelter from the SW winds as well and it was quiet there, no sign of mankind other than one tumbledown lean-to on the beach. We sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the peace. A couple of days later, at Ha'ano Island, we watched a georgeous sunset while anchored off another perfect white sand beach. The sky to the East was purple, brushed with scarlet, overhead a moon of shining guicksilver, and to the West...the sun was setting over Kao volcano, the one high island rising 1000 meters to lord over the rest of the Ha'api. That day we swam to the shore on Ha'ano and sat on the warm sand. Behind us, coconut palms waved gently. Between us and WINGS, riding serenely at anchor, there was a reef filled with tropical fish and colorful coral. In the distance across the bay we could see the church at the village of Ha'ano and panga's pulled up on the beach. Occasionally we heard the crowing of a rooster or saw a small ferry go by with Tongans who waved at us. It was very peaceful in the Ha'api group in Tonga.
Vava'u, Paradise Regained
It was a moonlit voyage that started at 11:00 PM (to time our arrival for daylight) that took us from Ha'api to Vava'u. We arrived there at noon. Vava'u was stunning. It is truly the most beautiful area we have seen in the Pacific. The land forms remind us of the San Juan Islands of Washington State, only there are palm trees instead of Douglas fir and there are way fewer houses. Mostly the islands look untouched. There are sheer rock walls topped by the impenetrable jungle foliage and in there are coves with beaches and there are coral reefs and tiny palm covered islands. The harbors are sheltered and the distances between them are short. The water is clean, clear, and filled with sea life. In the jungles ashore the tropical birds lend their exotic calls to the ambience. Vava'u is Tonga's cruising paradise. Here there are charter boats operating and many private cruising yachts, but it doesn't seem too crowded. The VHF radio however sounds like Mexico; constant social chatter.The main town in Vava'u is Neifau. It is a mix of old wood frame buildings with peeling paint and concrete block shacks, scattered along the hillside looking over a perfect and protected harbor filled with yachts of all sizes. Neifau is what you think of when you image a remote town in a third world cruising location. It is sleepy and primitive. The stores look like 1940's general markets and the goods available there fit right in with that time frame: canned goods and bags of rice. The bread comes from a bakery, not in plastic bread sacks with the ingredients and nutritional infomation on the side. The market has locally grown produce. Fuel is available when the tanker comes, otherwise, you wait. Along the waterfront there are a few bars catering to the yachties where you can buy margaritas,listen to Jimmy Buffet, and pretend that the world beyond the back door of the bar does not exist. It seems like you could stay here the rest of your life. Probably some do. There is a Friday night sailboat race in Neifau. We go out to the islands during the week and go to town on Friday for the race. This is fun.
We are glad we came to Tonga. It is the paradise we wanted it to be.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Neiafu
Labels: Tonga


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Pay it forward.
Late in 1880, brothers Charles and Augustus Storrs donated land and money to start an agricultural school in Connecticut. More than 130 years later, the University of Connecticut has become one of the top 20 public universities in the nation.
Connecticut Gov. Hobart Bigelow signs legislation accepting Charles and Augustus Storrs' gift of a former orphanage, 170 acres of farmland, $6,000, and a few barns, and establishing Storrs Agricultural School. Classes begin on Sept. 28 with three faculty members and 13 males enrolled.
The Connecticut General Assembly approves the institution's name change to Storrs Agricultural College and permits the admission of women, three years after Mansfield resident Nellie Wilson became the first woman to take classes at the school. Benjamin Koons' title is changed from Principal to President. The school becomes Connecticut's land-grant college.
Storrs Agricultural College is renamed Connecticut Agricultural College.
The College grants its first four-year Bachelor of Science degrees.
Connecticut Agricultural College awards its first master's degree.
The institution is renamed Connecticut State College. The school begins awarding Bachelor of Arts degrees.
The husky dog mascot is chosen through a survey in the student newspaper, The Connecticut Campus. A student contest results in naming the mascot Jonathan, for Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut's Revolutionary War-era governor.
The College receives full accreditation by the Association of American Universities.
Connecticut State College becomes the University of Connecticut.
The University acquires the Hartford Colleges of Law and Insurance, effectively establishing the UConn School of Law. The Graduate School begins offering doctoral-level coursework.
The University awards its first doctoral degrees — two in chemistry and one in genetics. University trustees prohibit organizations that discriminate against or exclude individuals based on race, religion, or national origin.
The board of trustees approves the UConn Health Center, a 106-acre, seven-building complex for medicine and dentistry with in- and out-patient facilities, three years after the schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine are sanctioned by the state legislature.
John Dempsey Hospital opens at the Health Center campus in Farmington, three years after the first medical and dental school students receive their degrees.
UConn's women's field hockey team wins their first NCAA Championship. The team is the first UConn women's team sport to win an NCAA Championship. The University celebrates its centennial.
UConn attains the prestigious designation of Research I institution from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
The state general assembly adopts UCONN 2000, a 10-year, $1 billion plan to rebuild, renew, and enhance the University. The women's basketball team wins the first of nine NCAA Division I championships under coach Geno Auriemma.
The men's basketball team wins the first of four NCAA Division I championships, defeating Duke University 77-74. Alumnus Raymond Neag donates $21 million to the School of Education and $2 million to the UConn Health Center, the largest single donation in University history. Neag and his wife later donate $10 million to establish The Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Building on the success of UCONN 2000, the state legislature passes 21st Century UConn, a $1.3 billion improvement plan.
Rentschler Field, the 40,000-seat home of UConn football in East Hartford, opens.
U.S. News & World Report ranks UConn among the Top 20 public universities in the nation.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announces an agreement to launch Jackson Laboratory's $1.1 billion genomic medicine lab on the Farmington UConn Health campus as part of the Bioscience Connecticut initiative.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signs into law Next Generation Connecticut, committing $1.7 billion in funding over a decade to enhance UConn's infrastructure, hire additional faculty, and enroll more students, with an emphasis on STEM programs.
Three UConn NCAA Division I Athletics teams win national championship titles in the 2013-2014 academic year: Field Hockey and Men's and Women's Basketball. UConn is the only school to have both basketball teams win titles in the same year, and we've done it twice (the first Dual Championship was in 2004). UConn develops a new Master Plan document that will shape the physical development of the Storrs campus over the next 20 years, helping to guide capital investments and ensuring the infrastructure supports the University's mission.