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Loaded farm system has Twins optimistic for 2014
Offseason questions linger, including how to reshape pitching staff
MINNEAPOLIS -- With a farm system that's regarded as perhaps the best in baseball, the Twins know help is on the way.
But the question now becomes how quickly they can come up and help a club that has now suffered three straight seasons with more than 90 losses.
The Twins are confident they can turn around the club in the long-term but many pressing questions remain on how to fix the team in the short-term, given their lack of quality starting pitching and an offense that failed to produce with runners in scoring position.
Twins general manager Terry Ryan, who was the architect of the club's success in the 2000s, knows it won't be an easy task to turn around the team quickly.
"We haven't had the success we've been looking for," Ryan said. "No one is passing the buck other than that we know where we're at and we know where we want to get. And unfortunately, we're just not there.
"But we're closer than people believe. But it's tough to explain that in September when we're 25 games behind the Detroit Tigers."
One thing working in the Twins' favor is payroll flexibility, as they only have roughly $60 million in commitments for 2014. It's a large drop off from 2011, when they entered the year with a record $113 million payroll.
But it remains to be seen how willing the Twins will be to spend on the free-agent market, as they've never really been players on that front. The largest free-agent contract the franchise has ever handed out was a three-year deal worth $21 million to Josh Willingham.
Ryan said he doesn't believe a team can be built on the strength of free agency but will explore all avenues to improve the club, especially the starting rotation.
"We'll address that free agent list but it's not a good way to build," Ryan said. "It's a good way to supplement a roster. We're certainly going to look. There's going to be a lot of competition for quality starting, and we'll be in the mix. We certainly need to address the pitching staff."
Contract issues
Free agents: Mike Pelfrey, RHP
Eligible for arbitration: Brian Duensing, LHP; Vance Worley, RHP; Josh Roenicke, RHP; Anthony Swarzak, RHP; Trevor Plouffe, 3B
A position-by-position look at where the 2013 roster stands going into '14:
Catcher: The catching situation is a bit murkier for the Twins than usual, as star backstop Joe Mauer saw his season cut short when he suffered a concussion on a foul tip while catching on Aug. 19. He's vowed that he'll return as the club's starting catcher next year but it remains to be seen how much he'll catch next season. The Twins have no shortage of backup catchers, as Ryan Doumit and Chris Herrmann both can catch and play outfield to give the Twins versatility. Josmil Pinto also had a very strong September, and appears primed to be the catcher of the future for the Twins, should they decide to move Mauer off catching. The Twins could look to deal Doumit, who is due $3 million in '14.
First base: The Twins have an opening at first base after Justin Morneau was traded to the Pirates on Aug. 31. (He's set to be a free agent this offseason.) It's still not out of the question that the Twins try to bring Morneau back on a new deal, but the Twins could be ready to move on. Mauer should play more at first because of his concussion but the other candidates to see time at first struggled in 2013, such as Chris Parmelee and Chris Colabello. So the Twins could look to the free agent market for help at first base this offseason.
Second base: Brian Dozier established himself as a solid second baseman in a bounce-back campaign after struggling in his rookie season. He provided impressive defense to go along with extra-base hit power. Dozier's emergence creates a good problem for the Twins to have, as top prospect Eddie Rosario could make his debut next year but has transitioned from the outfield to second base. The Twins could decide to move Rosario back to the outfield or trade one of the two players for pitching help.
Shortstop: Pedro Florimon had a great year defensively at shortstop but struggled to hit, especially in the second half of the season. The Twins like his defense enough that he's expected to start at shortstop again, as they don't have any top shortstop prospects to take over just yet. Eduardo Escobar will remain the club's utility player, seeing time at shortstop as well as second base and third base.
Third base: Plouffe was inconsistent again in 2013, as he showed flashes of power but still couldn't put it all together offensively. His defense was better but is still a work in progress. Top prospect Miguel Sano, who is ranked as MLB.com's No. 3 overall prospect, is expected to make his long-awaited debut next year, but should start out the year at Triple-A Rochester. So Plouffe will have to figure it out in a hurry, as Sano could be ready to take over at third base by May or June.
Outfield: The Twins have plenty of outfielders on their roster but none of them had a standout season in 2013. Left fielder Josh Willingham is under contract for one more year but didn't come close to repeating his impressive '12 season, when he won a Silver Slugger Award. Oswaldo Arcia had a strong rookie year and projects to bring plenty of power moving forward but needs to work on his defense in the outfield corners. Center fielder Aaron Hicks had a forgettable rookie season, and is likely to start out at Triple-A Rochester to continue to get more seasoning. Alex Presley and Darin Mastroianni figure to add depth as fourth outfielder types, although Mastroianni could lose his spot on the 40-man roster this offseason.
Designated hitter: The Twins like to use the designated hitter to give players the day off from the field, so players such as Mauer, Doumit, Willingham and Arcia will see time at DH. The Twins don't figure to add a DH-type player this offseason.
Rotation: The rotation remains the club's weakest link, as they have plenty of rotation candidates but all project as back-of-the-rotation starters. Kevin Correia, who was the club's most dependable starter, is under contract for one more year and should keep his spot in the rotation. After that, several pitchers such as Samuel Deduno, Scott Diamond, Kyle Gibson, Andrew Albers and Worley will compete for spots in the rotation. Gibson has the most upside among that group but struggled in his first taste of the big leagues. The Twins need to add at least two or three starting pitchers via free agency or trade, as the rotation remains a major work in progress. Prospects Alex Meyer and Trevor May could also make their debuts next season, but both will start out at Triple-A Rochester. And Pelfrey is set to be a free agent but has expressed interest in re-signing.
Bullpen: The bullpen was a strong point for the Twins, as they logged the most innings by relievers but still managed to post a respectable ERA that finished in the top half of the American League. Glen Perkins is an elite closer, and the Twins have options for setup relievers in Jared Burton and Casey Fien. The Twins will likely add a few bullpen arms this offseason in minor deals but won't be looking to add any major pieces to an already strong bullpen.


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Parnelli Jones hit hard by Jason Leffler's death
An emotional Parnelli Jones fondly recalled Jason Leffler's rise from a volunteer in Jones' race shop to a championship-caliber driver.
Leffler, a native of Long Beach, Calif., died Wednesday night from injuries suffered in a sprint car crash in New Jersey. The Delaware County (Pa.) medical examiner determined Leffler died from a blunt force neck injury. He was 37.
An avid Jones fan, Leffler considered the 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner his mentor dating back to his teenage years when he was working in the Torrance, Calif., shop alongside Jones' sons, Page and PJ.
"Jason was one of the nicest, most positive people I have ever been around," Jones said Friday by phone from California. "But that all changed when he got into a race car — his desire to succeed and do well, win was enormous. He was a competitor. He was a charger. Looking back now, he even had more fight and desire than I thought. Desire is a word that describes him well."
Jones recalled Leffler's father dropping him off at the race shop as a 13-year-old in the early morning so Leffler could learn how to work on midget cars.
"He's still around working 'til 2 a.m. helping with anything and everything," Jones said. "He loved racing and loved being in the shop with the boys. Jason was very close to our family for a long time — almost 25 years, and he was someone we grew up with and remained close to."
Jones said Leffler had unhealthy eating and exercise habits when he first began racing, but eventually saw the error of his ways.
"He was in bad shape, he'd eat hamburgers and junk food and 'fall out of the seat,'" Jones said. "But then he saw the benefits of working out and getting in shape to be a better driver and he sure wasn't afraid to work to become a better driver, which he did. Jason paid his dues for sure."
Leffler won four USAC Midget championships — three consecutive from 1997-99 — and eventually followed Tony Stewart's path from sprint cars to IndyCar and then NASCAR. Leffler made 423 starts in NASCAR's three national series, winning the two Nationwide races and one Truck Series event in a career that began in 1999. He also made three IndyCar Series starts, finishing 17th in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.
Leffler's last full NASCAR season was 2011, when he ran the entire Nationwide schedule for Turner Motorsports. He finished sixth in the standings that season and hadn't had a steady NASCAR ride since, which led to him running as many sprint car races as possible this year.
"He drove the wheels off of everything and was so fun to watch in a midget or sprint car," Jones said. "Although he never found the success he wanted in Sprint Cup, Nationwide or the Truck Series, he always fought hard to be successful and always did his best in whatever car he was in that race or weekend. When he raced at Indianapolis in 2000 he was so proud to be part of the event. The 500 meant a lot to him — the track, the history of the event and the people involved."
Leffler was divorced and a doting father to his 5-year-old son, Charlie Dean.
His girlfriend on Thursday tweeted a photo of the couple kissing, posting "one day we'll dance at the dirt track to you and tequila and make me crazy and be married at the start finish line" at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Although not the biggest star or household name, Leffler was popular among his peers and his death hit many in NASCAR and IndyCar hard.
At the IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile, Ed Carpenter Racing team manager Tim Broyles designed a special decal of Leffler's nickname, 'LEFturn' that was offered to all the teams. Carpenter was a fellow USAC competitor with Leffler in the USAC midget and Silver Crown races in the early 2000s.
"Jason was such a fun guy to be around and we're all very lucky we got to work side-by-side and travel with him to races over the years," Jones said. "He'll be with us for a long time, forever."

subset: commoncrawl


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|Image credit: Noba
Noba Vital Lipids is a leading Dutch manufacturer and supplier of high energy fatproducts for the animal feed industries, servicing greater Europe. Our strengths are rooted in more than 60 years of experience alongside our high standards of quality, which are fulfilled at every step of the production process.
NOBA is deeply committed to ensuring meticulous care and product safety during raw-material selection and processing, as well as in the final product. The result is the unbeatable quality found in each and every NOBA product.
Visit the website HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news


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Borders, Spaces, and Places
One big problem for collaboration has been too many borders - technical or cultural - creating silos of information for no good reason - and many bad ones.
For example - if you work for a law firm there's a reasonable - and legal - expectation that only the client and members of the firm have access to the collaborative space reserved for work with each specific client.
This "hub and spoke" collaboration pattern is common for business.
Similarly, most businesses work with a network of external suppliers, resellers, technology or business partners and external service providers - including your law firm, accountants, PR firm and others.
Your business may also have good reason to set up spaces for private collaboration that's limited to certain groups (e.
If your Enterprise 2.
The point is that by being able to listen deeply and participate on the edge, you can pick up things before anybody else picks them up, and you can use that to accelerate your own capability building.
This implies that it is not just corporate training that is important but rather rich participation with partners who are at the edge as well. One of the questions we ask ourselves is, how do you learn as much from a partner as you learn from creating something yourself. This puts a new spin on why distributed collaboration around the world might be critical in creating this sustainable edge. - John Seely Brown Can Your Firm Develop a Sustainable Edge? Knowledge@Wharton
In his Fast Forward 08 Keynote What's Most Important for Success with Enterprise 2.0? Prof Andrew McAfee said that borders are needed in order to use Enterprise 2.
I agree and suggest adding a follow-on principal: "Borders should seem transparent to those with permission to cross them.
For Traction TeamPage this means:
- All content and relevant context are indexed for search, but the search engine delivers the subset of results that the person making the request can read.
- Tag clouds and drill-down navigation present the tags and drill-down paths derived from what that person can read.
- Traction's Dashboard views roll-up content from many spaces based on tag, content or other criteria defined by Section widgets, and automatically shows the subset of content which that person can read.
- RSS feeds, email, IM notifications and cross-reference lists automatically reflect the content and cross references which that person can read.
For example, if you're an employee at the center of a "hub and spoke" collaboration pattern, when you navigate, search or link information, the borders separating different customer spaces and internal spaces you can read become transparent for collaboration.
You can still use the names of spaces created for particular customers to focus your attention on a particular issue or collection of content, but you effectively see one big wiki /
If a customer logs in to your TeamPage server, they see only the rolled-up content, search results, tags, feeds, and space names that they have permission to read.
Traction TeamPage even extends commenting and inline discussion to work transparently across borders.
Let's say a customer posts a page of product suggestions in their own space (Traction calls this a project space).
Let's say Sue is an engineer working on a related project.
The internal engineering discussion is then anchored to the third paragraph of the customer's original suggestion page, but the thread is invisible to all but internal team members who have permission to read the engineering project.
Six months later, Alan in Marketing is asked why particular approach was chosen in designing the new feature.
This multiple space model is much more than just an administrative convenience that makes it easy to deploy one TeamPage server for different groups within an enterprise.
It starts down a road to creating places which groups use for agreed social purposes - just like the rooms and spaces in a well designed building make it easy to hold conversations in different contexts without a lot of conscious thought.
With the TeamPage model, if you want to hold a conversation with a specific customer, post it to that customers private collaboration space.
See Re-Place-ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems by Steve Harrison (Xerox PARC) and Paul Dourish (EuroPARC) for some interesting thoughts on where this could lead.
See Michael Sampson's Currents: "TeamPage - the One System to Rule It All" for an independent expert's opinion of TeamPage's capabilities for cross-workspace collaboration.


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orwell, VT
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Our group includes PostDocs, PhD student and student assistants. It is headed by Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner and represented by Dr. Matthias Uflacker. If you are interested to be part of our team please contact Dr. Matthias Uflacker.
Our team is giving a series of lectures and seminars with a focus on enterprise systems design and in-memory data management. Strong links to the industry ensure a close connection between theory and its implementation in the real world.
Our research focuses on the principles of in-memory data management on modern hardware and the integration of different hard- and software systems to meet business requirements. This involves studying the conceptual and technological aspects of modern enterprise applications as well as tools and methods for enterprise systems design.
We continually strive to translate our research into practical outputs that improve the quality of enterprise applications. A close link to industry partners ensures relevance and impact of our work. Get here an overview of our current and previous projects.
If you are having questions regarding one of our publications, please contact the authors.
This seminar provides former participants of the seminar Global Team-based Innovation I & II with the possibility to take an active role as a coach in this year's projects and convey their experiences to the new teams. Participants are expected to provide the project teams with input on the following topics:
Having attended a complete project of the seminar "Global Team-based Innovation" or "Global Team-based Product Innovation & Engineering".
Participants are expected to actively take part in at least 2 of the weekly course meetings. Additionally, participants will plan and execute a coaching session with one of the teams of the parallel Global Team-Based Innovation seminar. The duration for a coaching session should be 3 hours. Afterwards, the session will be evaluated by answering a provided questionnaire and documenting observations. The grade of the seminar will be determined by
We will have an initial meeting on October 19th at 1:30 pm in the Villa Campus II
Dr. Michael Perscheid
Chair Representative
Tel.: +49 (331) 5509-566
E-Mail: michael.perscheid(at)hpi.de
Room: V-2.12
Tel.: +49 (331) 5509-560
Fax: +49 (331) 5509-579
E-Mail: office-epic(at)hpi.de
Contact Details
In our latest paper, we quantify the importance of eleven query plan optimizations for the TPC-H benchmark. Knowing …
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With beginning of May, Dr. Michael Perscheid is becoming the new Chair Representative at the chair of Prof. Dr. Hasso …
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An expert jury of the German society for computer science awarded Sebastian Serth's master thesis as the best thesis in …
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The Design Thinking teams are ready to present their first findings! After a successful start and an amazing SUGAR …
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The results of our 2019 Bachelor's project were featured in the keynote given by SAP Chief Technology Officer and …
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The students of the 2019 EPIC bachelor's project developed a platform that helps employees tackle common, repetitive …
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Another successful year of our course "Global Team-Based Innovation (GTI)" is coming to an end and we invite you to join …
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We are happy to announce that the paper "Stochastic Dynamic Pricing with Strategic Customers and Reference Price …
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"A Course in In-Memory Data Management" by Prof. Dr. h.c. Hasso Plattner. This book is the culmination of six years work of in-memory research. As such, it provides the technical foundation for combined transactional and analytical workloads inside one single database as well as examples of new applications that are now possible given the availability of the new technology. The book is available at Springer.


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Mike Lewis
Colorado Springs has been my home for over 25 years and it's the only place I want to live with my wife and son. My dad was an Air Force pilot who was stationed in Colorado Springs three separate times.
I have a passion for news and want KRDO NEWS RADIO 105.5 FM and 1240 AM to be the place Southern Colorado turns for News and Information.
Retired Lt. Cmdr. From the U. S. Navy Reserve, last assignment, Public Affairs Officer, Navy Region Northwest.
I enjoy skiing, running and spending time with my family. I also volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America. I have an MBA and believe strongly in making sure our youth get a great education.


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WaPo-ABC Poll: Citizens United against Citizens United
Dan Eggen of the Washington Post writes about the results of a new WaPo-ABC poll:
Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the high court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unfettered corporate political spending, with 65 percent "strongly" opposed. Nearly as many backed congressional action to curb the ruling, with 72 percent in favor of reinstating limits.
The poll reveals relatively little difference of opinion on the issue among Democrats (85 percent opposed to the ruling), Republicans (76 percent) and independents (81 percent).
The results suggest a strong reservoir of bipartisan support on the issue for President Obama and congressional Democrats, who are in the midst of crafting legislation aimed at limiting the impact of the high court's decision. Likely proposals include banning participation in U.S. elections by government contractors, bank bailout recipients or companies with more than 20 percent foreign ownership.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republican lawmakers have praised the ruling as a victory for free speech and have signaled their intent to oppose any legislation intended to blunt the impact of the court's decision.
This massive disagreement with the Court's decision and the partisan disconnect in Congress with the voting public show two things:
- The Court wisely kicked its Citizens United decision into this term, which has no other fever-pitched case of public concern on its docket. One deeply unpopular decision a term will allow the Roberts Court as currently constituted to steer right against today's left-leaning political winds without spending all its political capital and destroying its institutional legitimacy.
- Republican voters haven't gotten the memo…yet. If Democratic responses move beyond a State of the Union slap and some wonky Congressional bills, and into campaign fodder this summer and fall, the GOP will get the message out to its voters that disagreeing with Citizens United is for liberals–and these days, conservatives can be thrown out of the Republican party for agreeing with liberals on issues of great impact. Campaign finance is an issue of great impact, but campaign finance legislation makes peoples' eyes glass over. As such, expect some terse, lockstep messaging–the GOP's specialty when communicating to its constituency–coming from on high. "Corporate Personhood" and "Money is Speech" can and likely will be enthusiastically absorbed into the Republican voters' canon within months. Do not count on this "strong reservoir" of bipartisan disagreement with the Court's decision to last.


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School News
Grow Possible
Photo by Dario Calmese
As part of a Stern Consulting Corps (SCC) partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), 10 NYU Stern MBA students spent the semester putting their knowledge and skills to work to help NYC-based designers grow their businesses. The CFDA's Fashion Incubator program provides low-cost design studio space, business mentoring, educational seminars and networking opportunities to up-and-coming fashion designers. During the Spring 2013 semester, the students provided three incubator designers and seven established designers with advice and help on developing business plans, cash flow projections, e-commerce strategies, market analyses and more. The participating students were Erin Aarsvold, Catie Cambria, Kristin Cardwell, Connie Chen, Katey Hassan, M. Alison Melville, Kay Schneider, Sarah Smith, Crystal Ung and Carey Wikstrom. The participating designers were Daniel Vosovic, John Bartlett, Jonathan Simkhai, Loeffler Randall, Melissa Joy Manning, Reece Hudson, Robert Geller, Rogan/Loomstate, Tess Giberson and WHIT.
Read more on the CFDA blog: Part one and Part two.


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Posted on October 15, 2017
By Anna
You want to find more amazing photos on our blog? Check out our section "Photo of the Week"!
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These hot, dry, high summer mornings, just as the early sun slants in through the black cottonwoods and red cedars, sparkling on the riffles where the Cowichan River murmurs past, Joe Saysell will finish his tea on the deck, give his chunky, broad-headed Labrador retriever Sweet a pat and set out on his solitary mission to save fish.
And fish are in dire need of a saviour on this blue ribbon heritage river that sings past the house Joe and his wife Gail built on its banks 40 years ago and from which he's emerged as one of the region's best-known guides, a man who has forgotten more about the natural world than most of us will ever know.
The river is stunningly beautiful. It tumbles through rocky chutes, seethes through rapids and slides down long, sun-dappled pools for 47 kilometres from Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island to its rich estuary. It is one of only three rivers in British Columbia with national heritage distinction.
The Cowichan is beloved of anglers, naturalists, hikers, photographers, white-water kayakers, canoeists, swimmers and families that just like to drift the calmer stretches on inflated inner tubes. Its watershed is celebrated by aquatic biologists as one of richest salmon rearing habitats in the world. And recreational properties proliferate around the lake that feeds it.
Yet for all the uplifting talk about the Cowichan's intrinsic values, Joe sees a river in grave environmental crisis, slowly strangled by a combination of climatic conditions, the demands of industry, householders and even the outdoor enthusiasts who risk loving it to death — anglers, for example.
"Conditions are concentrating bigger fish in a few deep pools," Joe says. "People are still fishing for those fish, if you can believe it. We need a closure on this whole river from July to November because that kind of fishing is unethical. It's legal but it's not ethical."
Water levels are low in the Cowichan and continue to fall. It's normal for river flows to fluctuate from winter to summer, but this is far from normal.
Watershed records show the river flow was 90 cubic metres a second in February, now it's down to five cubic metres a second, less than six per cent of its winter volume. The current flow is already about 30 per cent lower than the desirable minimum summer flow of seven cubic metres a second.
If the river level drops below four cubic metres a second, operations at the Crofton pulp mill, which extracts about 120 million cubic metres of water a year from the river, would have to shut down. The mill provides more than 600 jobs in the Cowichan Valley, sustains another 5,500 jobs elsewhere in B.C., generates $20 million a year in taxes and contributes a total of just over $1 billion a year to the provincial economy.
And then there's the regional district, which disperses fully treated waste water from its sewage system into the lower river. If dilution rates fall below a public health threshold for water quality, that might have to be suspended, too.
Finally, there are the resource interests of the Cowichan Tribes that occupy the lower river and its estuary and have relied on the river's salmon runs since time immemorial. If chinook runs are unable to enter the river to spawn this fall because water levels are too low, governments which could have mitigated the problem might face significant legal challenges over liability and failure to meet fiduciary obligations to protect the resource.
In the river, shallow water is warmer water. Temperatures there have already been recorded at 22 C — 24 C is the lethal threshold for fish survival — and the driest, hottest days of summer and early fall are yet to come.
"What if climate change means this drought is the new normal?" Joe asks. "We had no snow. We had the driest May in history. What if we don't get rain until Christmas?"
If these conditions are the new normal as he fears, it's an ominous portent for the river's prized trophy-size chinook salmon, 85 per cent of which spawn just beyond his garden.
So on this morning, again, Joe will clamber into his battered Jeep Cherokee and drive the back roads. Then, some nondescript place that only a man born on the river 68 years ago would recognize, he'll stop.
It might be off the stretch that anglers have called Willow Run for more than a hundred years. Or it might be at Home Run. On this already-scorching morning, he stops by Cabin Run. You can't see the river from here. You can't even hear it.
But Joe knows every hole and meander in the Cowichan, a river once so famous among elite anglers wielding split-bamboo rods made by Leonard or Hardy — the kind of anglers who could drop a #20 Adams dry fly on a dime at 50 paces and might quote from Anacreon in the original Greek — that daily catch reports were published in the leading newspapers of London and New York.
So he'll pull on his chest waders, sweat beading his forehead before he's even laced up the well-used over-boots, get the 20-litre pail and the homemade hand seine and set off through the tinder-dry underbrush for the river that he can sense even if nobody else can.
There are three rivers, he explains as he goes. There's the river that everyone can see. Then there's the subterranean river, the one that flows through the gravel and rock below the surface. And finally there's the river of air that travels counter to the flow of water.
"You can see it during a caddis fly hatch," he says. "The flies emerge from the water and then they all dance away up the river because the air is always moving upstream." It's the kind of knowledge that tells him where the fish lie, how they feed, where they seek refuge, where they spawn and where the hatchlings hide from predators.
Before he actually gets to the river that he can sense with an otherworldly accuracy, he'll veer off into a parched gulch. It's a maze of sun-baked gravel mounds, willow tangles and clumps of bamboo-like Japanese knotweed, another invasive peril to the river. This is a dried up side channel that parallels the Cowichan's main stem.
A few months ago, Joe could drift all these side channels by boat. Now, on the artificial knee that went bad — it hemorrhaged the day after surgery, his leg went black and swelled up like an elephant's and they thought they might have to take it right off — he limps the dry river bed with its uncertain footing.
He's looking for pools that have been cut off from the main river. If there are enough of them in a string and the slope is right, he might take a shovel and ditch them together, just enough to get water flowing — moving water is cooler — then he'll channel the trickle back to the river, an escape route for trapped fingerlings.
If not, he'll take his seine — netting strung between two sticks — slosh water into the bottom of his bucket, and start carefully corralling and catching the darting silver splinters of baby chinook, coho, steelhead, stickleback, rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. Even the occasional dark purple crayfish goes into the bucket.
From there he'll carry them to the river, scrambling over the mounds of gravel and past clutching roots to carefully spill these fragile, baby fish into the cooler, oxygen-rich water of the main stream. There are more predators in the big water, but at least these fry will have a chance. There's no hope in a stagnant, drying puddle.
Then he'll move to the next pool and do it all over again.
Joe has been saving baby fish like this since the river's levels began to fall back in May.
At first he'd drift the river, beaching his boat wherever he knew a side channel was likely to be cut off. But then the river level fell again. And again. Now there's not enough water even for his flat-bottomed skiff so he drives and hikes up to 12 kilometres, bum knee notwithstanding.
He estimates he's saved about 10,000 of the small fish that will now have a second chance to grow up to become the giant slab-sided spring salmon, slashing steelhead and stealthy brown trout for which the river has been justly renowned with sports anglers since the 1880s.
"This river is dying," he says, matter-of-factly. "It's dying a slow death, the death of a thousand cuts. There are all these surveys and studies and initiatives and meetings and nothing ever happens — yet we've know the solution for 25 years."
The solution, he says, is simple and all that prevents it is a failure of political will to do the right thing in the face of ignorance and wilful self-interest. All that's required is to raise by 30 centimetres an existing weir installed in 1957 to regulate summer flows at the river's Cowichan Lake outlet.
When raising the weir was first proposed back in 1989, the cost was estimated at about $300,000, he says. Now it would cost about $3 million — still only around the same price as a single high end house in Vancouver.
The weir was built to hold back winter run-off and release it during the dry months, less for concern over fish than to ensure a consistent feedstock for the water-hungry pulp mill. But that was more than half a century ago and conditions have changed.
Modifications began when loggers stripped the headwaters of creeks feeding Cowichan Lake. That changed the hydrology. The ancient forests had acted as a huge natural sponge which would hold winter snows and seep the cold meltwater out into the lake all summer long, he says. Now everything runs off quickly over a few weeks in the spring. The river's level rockets up and then plunges again. Hotter, drier summers amplify the declines.
The answer Joe says, is to raise that weir by the length of his forearm. Over the 62 square kilometres of the lake behind it, enough water could be held back to ensure adequate flows for fish upon which First Nations and anglers rely, for the pulp mill, for municipal sewage disposal and for recreational use.
But there's been resistance to raising the weir from some — relatively few, Joe says — recreational landholders with lakeshore properties.
The regional district says raising the weir would represent what it defines as "minor impacts" on about 300 lakefront properties. But even those with a very low beach gradient would experience a water rise of only about nine paces from where it is now.
"So it's a handful of people wanting a slightly bigger beach," Joe says. But for others, slightly higher water means boat docks won't be stranded in a mud flat during the prime summer months. Even for cottagers there are trade-offs.
"Look," he says, "it's a weir, not a dam. This is only to do with holding back a bit more water for release during the dry months of the summer. It can't cause flooding. In winter, the lake level is much higher and the weir is under water.
"People say, 'Well, what happened before the weir?' But it's not the same river as 50 years ago. We've stripped out the natural sponge with logging, we've changed the riparian zones, we've changed the hydrology. Back then, there were deep plunge pools, refuges for fish in the dry months, but the river is much shallower now, it's filling in with sediment from the logging and we take more water out."
And so here we are in a state of man-made crisis with a simple man-made solution that nobody seems willing to grasp; not industry which would benefit from economic certainty; not regional governments which would secure their waste water management; not federal or provincial governments with their obligations to assure fish resources for First Nations.
"This is about a lot more than fish," Joe observes. "But these fish are the canary in the coal mine. If we manage for fish and the environment, then the environment will take care of people. If we manage just for people first, then everything else suffers and, eventually, so will we.
"But you know, maybe it's going to take a catastrophe for people to wake up. Maybe we have to have people unable to flush their toilets, dead fish floating in the river among the tubers, 600 guys on employment insurance, people bringing in bottled water to drink, humongous lawsuits. Maybe that's what it will take."
In the meantime, day after day, as long as he is able, Joe plans to be out on the river saving what baby fish he can save.
Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory


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Last Friday the PyPy Status Blog had its first anniversary. Yay! After not really buying into any of this new-fangled "blog" stuff for a long time we just bit the bullet and got started. Totally surprisingly it even worked. We posted 76 post in the last year, more than one per week. By now we have more than 800 subscribers (according to feedburner), which is quite cool for a rather niche blog.
To make our blog even more interesting, I would like to ask for some feedback via the comments:
- Which posts did you like in particular?
- What sort of posts would you be interested in getting more of?
- Any other improvements we could make?


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Vincent Zimmer and Michael Rothman are engineers in the Software and Services Group at Intel. Suresh Marisetty is a software and systems architect at Intel focusing on security and manageability. They are the authors of Beyond BIOS: Developing with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
In essence, the modern day BIOS is one that has survived for more than 25 years. However, the program and instructions themselves have been dramatically changed and adapted over time to match the ever quickening pace of technological advancement. The goals of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), and now the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), is to eventually replace the aging BIOS, learning from both the mistakes and successes of the past 25 years. This article provides an overview of the evolution of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and from the Intel Framework specifications to the UEFI Platform Initialization (PI) specifications.
When we discuss UEFI, we need to emphasize that UEFI is a pure interface specification that does not dictate how the platform firmware is built; the "how" is relegated to PI. The consumers of UEFI include but are not limited to operating system loaders, installers, adapter ROMs from boot devices, pre-OS diagnostics, utilities, and OS runtimes (for the small set of UEFI runtime services). In general, though, UEFI is about booting, or passing control to a successive layer of control, namely an operating system loader, as shown in Figure 1. UEFI offers many interesting capabilities and can exist as a limited runtime for some application set, in lieu of loading a full, shrink-wrapped multi-address space operating systems like Microsoft Windows+, Apple OS X+, HP-UX+, or Linux, but that is not the primary design goal.
PI, on the other hand, should be largely opaque to the pre-OS boot devices, operating systems, and their loaders since it covers many software aspects of platform construction that are irrelevant to those consumers. PI instead describes the phases of control from the platform reset and into the success phase of operation, including an environment compatible with UEFI, as shown in Figure 2. In fact, the PI DXE component is the preferred UEFI core implementation.
Within the evolution of Framework to PI, some things were omitted from inclusion in the PI specifications. As a result of these omissions, some subjects that were discussed in the first edition of Beyond BIOS, such as the compatibility support module (CSM), have been removed from the second edition in order to provide space to describe the newer PI and UEFI capabilities. This omission is both from a scope perspective, namely that the PI specification didn't want to codify or include the CSM, but also from a long-term perspective. Specifically, the CSM specification abstracted booting on a PC/AT system. This requires an x86 processor, PC/AT hardware complex (for example, 8254, 8259, RTC). The CSM also inherited other conventional BIOS boot limitations, such as the 2.2-TB disk limit of Master Boot Record (MBR) partition tables. For a world of PI and UEFI, you get all of the x86 capabilities (IA-32 and x64, respectively), ARM+, Itanium, and future CPU bindings. Also, via the polled driver model design, UEFI APIs, and the PI DXE architectural protocols, the platform and component hardware details are abstracted from all consumer software. Other minor omissions also include data hub support. The latter has been replaced by purpose-built infrastructure to fill the role of data hub in Framework-based implementations, such as SMBIOS table creation and agents to log report status code actions.
What has happened in PI beyond Framework, though, includes the addition of a multiprocessor protocol, Itanium E-SAL and MCA support, the above-listed report-status code listener and SMBIOS protocol, an ACPI editing protocol, and an SIO protocol. With Framework collateral that moved to PI, a significant update was made to the System Management Mode (SMM) protocol and infrastructure to abstract out various CPU and chipset implementations from the more generic components. On the DXE front, small cleanup was added in consideration of UEFI 2.3 incompatibility. Some additions occurred in the PEI foundation for the latest evolution in buses, such as PCI Express+. In all of these cases, the revisions of the SMM, PEI, and DXE service tables were adjusted to ease migration of any SMM drivers, DXE drivers, and PEI module (PEIM) sources to PI. In the case of the firmware file system and volumes, the headers were expanded to comprehend larger file and alternate file system encodings, respectively. Unlike the case for SMM drivers, PEIMs, and DXE drivers, these present a new binary encoding that isn't compatible with a pure Framework implementation.
The notable aspect of the PI is the participation of the various members of the UEFI Forum, which will be described below. These participants represent the consumers and producers of PI technology. The ultimate consumer of a PI component is the vendor shipping a system board, including multinational companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, and many others. The producers of PI components include generic infrastructure producers such as the independent BIOS vendors (IBVs) like AMI, Insyde, Phoenix, and others. And finally, the vendors producing chipsets, CPUs, and other hardware devices like AMD, ARM, and Intel would produce drivers for their respective hardware. The IBVs and the OEMs would use the silicon drivers, for example. If it were not for this business-to-business transaction, the discoverable binary interfaces and separate executable modules (such as PEIMs and DXE drivers) would not be of interest. This is especially true since publishing GUID-based APIs, marshaling interfaces, discovering and dispatching code, and so on take some overhead in system board ROM storage and boot time. Given that there's never enough ROM space, and also in light of the customer requirements for boot-time such as the need to be "instantly on," this overhead must be balanced by the business value of PI module enabling. If only one vendor had access to all of the source and intellectual property to construct a platform, a statically bound implementation would be more efficient, for example. But in the twenty-first century with the various hardware and software participants in the computing industry, software technology such as PI is key to getting business done in light of the ever-shrinking resource and time-to-market constraints facing all of the UEFI forum members.
There is a large body of Framework-based source-code implementations, such as those derived or dependent upon EDK I (EFI Developer Kit version 1), which can be found on http://www.tianocore.org. These software artifacts can be recompiled into a UEFI 2.3, PI 1.2-compliant core, such as UDK2010 (the UEFI Developer Kit revision 2010), via the EDK Compatibility Package (ECP). For new development, though, the recommendation is to build native PI 1.2, UEFI 2.3 modules in the UDK2010 since these are the specifications against which long-term silicon enabling and operating system support will occur, respectively.


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University of Hawaii nutrition scientist receives national award for contributions to the fields of nutrition and dietetics
Professor and researcher emeritus Jean Hankin honored at recent American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in HonoluluUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
American Dietetic Association
Jean Hankin, (808) 586-2985
Emeritus Professor
HONOLULU — Registered dietitian Jean H. Hankin, professor and researcher emeritus in the epidemiology program at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi and professor of public health at the University of Hawaiʻi, was named the 2006 recipient of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) Foundation's prestigious Edna and Robert Langholz International Nutrition Award.
Hankin was presented with the award during the opening session of the ADA's 2006 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo held September 16-19 at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center. This is the fifth time the award has been presented since its creation in 1992 by the late Edna Page Langholz, a registered dietitian and former ADA president, and her husband. The Langholz Award, which recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the international community in the fields of nutrition and dietetics, carries a $25,000 honorarium.
Hankin is recognized nationally and internationally as an authority in quantifying the role of diet in chronic diseases. She was a pioneer in the development and use of dietary assessment methods for discovering differences among populations, such as identifying effects of the "Westernization" of Asian diets on increased risk for heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and stroke.
"Jean Hankin has made enormous contributions to developing methodology that is appropriate for diverse ethnic groups," said registered dietitian Neva H. Cochran, chair of the American Dietetic Association Foundation. "She is revered by food and nutrition professionals, especially in Southeast Asia, Europe and Hawaiʻi, for her work in making more precise assessments of a population's nutritional status."
Hankin's methodology was first applied in studies of cancer among Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean and Hawaiian populations and was used in Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tahiti and New Caledonia to illustrate the role of diet in lung cancer. Hankin was primarily responsible in the 1980s for developing a dietary questionnaire that includes pictures of portion sizes, and an extensive food composition table to analyze the results. The questionnaire is being used to analyze the incidence of cancer among 215,000 men and women in Hawaiʻi and Los Angeles.
Hankin retired in 1999, yet remains active as a researcher in studies of associations between diet and cancer. She is a graduate of Milwaukee-Downer College, and earned a master's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master's degree in public health and doctorate in public health nutrition and epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.
With approximately 65,000 members, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) is the nation's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The Chicago-based ADA serves the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being. For more information, visit www.eatright.org .
Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaiʻi is the state's sole public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawaiʻi, the U.S. mainland, and around the world. For more information, visit www.hawaii.edu .
For more information, visit: http://www.eatright.org


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It seems like Makoto Ito get to know Miss Sachiko Tanaka quite well in the past two weeks.
Original the title of this strip was:" Boy Stuck his nose where it didn't belong." But that would be lewd. . .
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GLOBUS 2020: Ultimate Alaska & the Yukon with Alaska Cruise (CBI)
20 days from Anchorage to Vancouver
Discover the unique beauty of Alaska and the Yukon Territory during this invigorating vacation. In Alaska, ride the Alaska Railroad in Deluxe Dome Service to Denali National Park, with its impressive mountains, breathtaking scenery, and amazing wildlife. During your guided wilderness tour, you'll have an opportunity to seek out grizzly bear, moose, caribou, and much more. Also enjoy the magnificent scenery in Valdez, the "Switzerland of Alaska," during your cruise on Prince William Sound. Get a closer look at the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline and cruise aboard a sternwheeler riverboat in Fairbanks. On this Alaska and Yukon tour and cruise, you'll also experience some of the most majestic scenery in Canada combined with fascinating history. You'll visit towns important during the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon-Whitehorse and Dawson City. In Dawson City, step back in time at the site where the first gold strike was made, and learn how gold changed this land forever. Enjoy entertainment at Diamond Tooth Gertie's, Canada's oldest gambling hall, complete with can-can dancers, ragtime music, and an old-fashioned casino. This is just a sampling of the wonderful scenery and many sights that await you on this marvelous Alaska and Yukon Territory and cruise tour. Globus has also arranged special experiences to make your vacation unique. For example, you'll hear an exclusive presentation on Denali National Park by a local Naturalist and in Whitehorse, you'll visit the premier dogsled facility, Muktuk Adventures, to meet the huskies and their trainers. On your 7-night Alaska cruise, cruise through the awe-inspiring Inside Passage watching for whales, soaring eagles, barking seals, and more. Witness huge slabs of ice break off and "calve" into the sea in Glacier Bay National Park, and visit Haines, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Just imagine the memories you'll create on this spectacular vacation!
Call (248) 685-8787 for more information or to book today! Mention code 14885208
- Tour Operator
- Globus
- Offer
- Offer valid through 6/30/2020
- Duration
- 20 Days
- Escorted
- Escorted - Yes
|Day 1
|Welcome to Alaska! Meet your Tour Director this evening between 5 pm and 8 pm in the hotel reception area.
|Day 2
|Denali National Park
|Traveling north into the majestic wilds of Alaska, visit the IDITAROD HEADQUARTERS, home of the world-famous dogsled race. Arrive in Talkeetna, the jumping-off point for climbers attempting to summit Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley), the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet. Board the historic ALASKA RAILROAD for a scenic trip to DENALI NATIONAL PARK (see page 43 for information about your train). Enjoy dinner at the Murie Science & Learning Center, followed by an exclusive [LF] PRESENTATION on Denali National Park by a local Naturalist. (B,D)
|Day 3
|Denali National Park
|Today, a guided WILDERNESS TOUR takes you into 6-million-acre Denali National Park to explore the majestic wilderness and seek out grizzly bear, caribou, moose, and other wildlife! Your afternoon is free for optional adventures such as float trips, a dogsled demonstration, a helicopter ride over the park, or a delicious dinner and rollicking musical comedy performed in a camp house reminiscent of the Gold Rush era. (B,L)
|Day 4
|This morning, spend a little more time marveling at the wonder of Denali National Park. Then, enjoy a friendly atmosphere during lunch at the [LF] 49th STATE BREWERY, where you'll have a chance to sample some local specialties. Travel into the heart of Alaska to Fairbanks, where the remainder of the day is at leisure. (B,L)
|Day 5
|This morning, board the sternwheeler Discovery for a CRUISE on the Chena and Tanana Rivers, with a stop at a recreated Chena Indian Village to learn about Athabascan Native culture. Later, visit the UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA-FAIRBANKS MUSEUM during your Fairbanks city tour, and also stop at the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. (B)
|Day 6
|Dawson City
|Continuing the journey into Gold Rush history, motor over the Top of the World Highway and enter Canada's Yukon Territory. Passing through the village of Chicken, today promises to be filled with breathtaking scenery. Tonight, you have reservations at DIAMOND TOOTH GERTIE'S, featuring ragtime music, can-can girls, and an old-fashioned casino. (B)
|Day 7
|Dawson City
|Today, step back in time at the site of CLAIM #1, where the first gold strike was made. Continue to the ROBERT SERVICE INTERPRETIVE CENTER and learn about the 'Bard of the Yukon' and the numerous poems and ballads he composed while exploring this remote area. The remainder of the day is at leisure. Your Tour Director will have suggestions for additional sightseeing, shopping, and dining. (B)
|Day 8
|Today, trace the trail of the gold seekers on their way to the Klondike. View the Five Finger Rapids, which once posed a major obstacle to the hordes of fortune seekers stampeding into the Yukon. Your day concludes in Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon. (B)
|Day 9
|A city tour stops at the YUKON BERINGIA INTERPRETIVE CENTRE, where you can meet the Ice Age giant mammals that once ruled the ancient subcontinent. See the SS KLONDIKE RIVERBOAT and learn about its importance on the Yukon River in the Gold Rush days. Later, head to Whitehorse's premier dogsled facility, [LF] MUKTUK ADVENTURES, where you will personally meet the huskies and their trainers. Here, learn about the training and care of Alaskan Huskies, as well as the lifestyle required to race in world-famous competitions such as the Iditarod and Yukon Quest. Afterward, enjoy a special Taste of the Yukon dinner. (B,D)
|Day 10
|Return to Alaska, traveling along the rugged mountains of Kluane National Park, home to 19,625-foot Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak. Continue on the Alaska Highway to Tok, the 'Dog Sled Capital of the World.' (B)
|Day 11
|Head to Alaska's northernmost ice-free port, Valdez, home of the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal. As you travel toward some of the highest coastal mountains in the world, enjoy views of Thompson Pass, Worthington Glacier, and Bridal Veil Falls before arriving in the 'Switzerland of Alaska'-Valdez. Visit the unique VALDEZ MUSEUM late this afternoon. (B)
|Day 12
|Board a BOAT today and get a closer look at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Terminal, the many massive glaciers, and the playful sea life of PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. Keep your eyes open for eagles, whales, mountain goats, dolphins, and sea lions! This evening, enjoy a farewell dinner. (B,L,D)
|Day 13
|Transfer to the pier to embark on your Holland America cruise ship, the MS Noordam (sailing on the following departures: May 21, June 18, July 2, 16, 30, and August 13 & 27) or MS Westerdam (sailing on the following departures: May 28, June 11, July 23, and August 6, 20, and September 3). (B,D)
|Day 14
|Gulf of Alaska
|Enjoy breathtaking scenery as we travel the route of Alaska's Marine Highway. The entire shoreline of the Gulf of Alaska is a rugged combination of forests, mountains, and tidewater glaciers. Be on the lookout for Alaska's wildlife including whales, seals, otters, puffins and more. (B,L,D)
|Day 15
|Glacier Bay National Park
|This Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site protects a unique ecosystem in an ever-changing glacial landscape. Witness the spectacle of thunder and flying spray as huge slabs of ice break off and 'calve' into the sea-making for lasting memories. National Park rangers accompany the ship, adding expert commentary to the day's events. (B,L,D)
|Day 16
|Nestled on the shores of America's longest fjord, Haines enjoys a spectacular setting. You may choose to take a float trip through Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, home to the largest annual gathering of bald eagles, or maybe visit the Sheldon Museum, art galleries, or local shops in town. (B,L,D)
|Day 17
|Visit one of the most remote capital cities-Juneau. Accessible only by air and water, Juneau is located at the base of two towering mountains in the heart of Alaska's Inside Passage, and is home to a rich Gold Rush history, Native culture, wildlife, and a wealth of natural wonders. Shop for gold nuggets, visit the stately Governor's Mansion, saunter through the swinging doors of the historic Red Dog Saloon, or visit mighty Mendenhall Glacier, an impressive river of ice that is 12 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. (B,L,D)
|Day 18
|Experience Native Alaska firsthand. Meet the spirits of the raven, whale, and eagle as you view the largest collection of totems in the world at Saxman Totem Park or Totem Bight State Historic Park. Or, explore Creek Street, now home to contemporary art galleries and quaint boutiques. (B,L,D)
|Day 19
|Inside Passage
|Sit back and relax as you cruise through the beautiful and awe-inspiring scenery of the Inside Passage. Keep your cameras ready for spouting whales, soaring eagles, barking seals, and other wildlife. (B,L,D)
|Day 20
|The vacation ends this morning with guests departing on individual schedules. Please schedule flights after Noon. (B)
- Dates/Pricing
- Disclaimer
- US$ Price Details
Gratuities for Tour Director and driver are available for pre-purchase. Gratuities for cruise are additional and paid on board ship. Pricing based on inside category L; upgrade to inside cabin category K or J from $30 to $60; upgrade to an outside cabin category D or C from $460 to $490, or to a verandah cabin category VD or VC from $850 to $1,210. Cabin categories offered vary by ship and departure date.Cruise line non-commissionable fare, government taxes, and fees of $440 to $445, based on ship/date, are additional and mandatory. These fees will be added to your Vacation Estimate.Prices are per person, based on double room occupancy.Single Room Supplement: from $2,285, based on date and cabin category. Triple Room Reduction per person: from $380, based on date and cabin category. Extra Nights per person in Anchorage:in single room $283; in twin room $156; in triple room $122Extra Nights per person in Vancouver: May -June17: in single room $404; in twin room $227; in triple room $175June18 -September: in single room $425; in twin room $237; in triple room $181
Travel Terms & Conditions
The purchase of any travel services offered by Globus, constitutes a contractual arrangement between you (the Traveler) and Globus, and represents your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions. Please ensure that you read carefully and understand the Terms & Conditions prior to booking. These Terms & Conditions cover Deposit & Final Payment information, Air-Inclusive Deposits & Final Payment, Revisions & Revision Fees, Air Arrangements, Participation, Travelers Who Need Special Assistance, Young Travelers, Smoking, Price Policy, Visas and Passports, Hotels & Accommodations, Baggage Allowance, Travel Documents, Not Included in the Land Price, Refunds, Service Inquires After the Vacation, Holidays, Safety, Photos & Pictures, Optional Excursions, and Responsibility.
Important Notes
- Vacation departures, itineraries and prices are subject to change.
- A non-refundable, non-transferable deposit is required for Globus to reserve space for you. View Terms & Conditions for limited exceptions.
- The following charges are not included in the land vacation price unless otherwise noted: airfare to and from the start of your vacation; Intra-vacation air unless specified in the itinerary; airline baggage fees including checked and/or excess baggage fees; Federal inspection fees for the Federal U.S. Customs and Immigrations; International Air Transportation tax; agricultural tax; other per person taxes imposed by government entities; airport taxes and fees including the September 11th Security fee up to $11.20 per person, passenger facility charges up to $18 per person, Federal domestic flight segment fees up to $4.00 per segment, and U.S. and International arrival and departure and other government-imposed added by the airline and applicable at time of booking; port taxes; passports; visas (except on Cuba programs) and vaccinations; tips to your Tour or Cruise Director, Globus Group Leader in Cuba, Local Host, driver, Local Guides, and/or ship's crew; gratuities on ferries, trains, and cruise ships; laundry; telephone; minibar; alcohol, beverages, and food outside of the contracted Globus menu as presented at a hotel or restaurant or onboard your vessel (these extra items will be billed to you before leaving the hotel, ship, or restaurant); airport transfers on non-qualifying flights; optional excursions; additional activities and excursions purchased online; porterage at airports and train stations; Travel Protection; and all other items of a personal nature.
Booking your Vacation with Air
For air departure dates within 331 days, you'll be offered a choice of carriers and flight schedules as well as price points to choose from when selecting your flights. Your schedule will be provided to you at the time of booking (schedules are subject to change by carriers). Globus offers 2 air options: Flex Air and Instant Purchase Air. Flex Air allows flexibility if you want to make changes to your vacation schedule. Instant Purchase Air may offer additional airline options but has more restrictions. Some vacations may only offer one Air type option. Guaranteed air-inclusive prices: air is only available to passengers traveling from the United States and only available when booked in conjunction with a land vacation. An additional $300 per person non-refundable air deposit is required for Flex Air booked in conjunction with any land vacation (i.e. air-inclusive vacation). Air can only be booked by Globus in conjunction with a vacation package. Instant Purchase Air requires air payment in full at time of booking (i.e. air-inclusive vacation) plus non-refundable per person service fee ($30 for North/Central America, $50 for Europe/Middle East and $80 for all other destinations. Once booked, Instant Purchase Air is non-refundable, and non-changeable. Some vacations may only offer one Air type option. However, once your airfare is confirmed and Globus has received your full air and land deposit, your air-inclusive vacation price is guaranteed.
Air-Inclusive Vacations - Applicable Taxes & Fees
Air-inclusive vacations include government-imposed taxes and fees applicable at the time of booking and will be shown as a Total Amount. Additional airline fees for baggage may apply. At the time of booking your air-inclusive vacation online, carrier Websites will be provided to check baggage fees, or you can visit www.iflybags.com for up-to-date baggage pricing/restrictions. For return travel from some countries, international travelers are required to pay entry and/or exit fees at the airport. These fees will be collected by the local government and are payable by the traveler at time of travel. Your confirmation booking information will contain information about these fees.
* The "Starting at" or listed price is based on the lowest price available to book. Price is per passenger based on double occupancy and does not include airfare; additional fees/charges are not included. If a price is crossed out, the new price shown includes a limited time promotional offer(s) - please review current promotions or deals for additional information. Some tours require intra-vacation flights (and in some cases intra-vacation segments must be purchased from Globus).


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Why buy property in bodrum Turkey
Property buying and investment go hand in hand in Bodrum, with the peninsula being popular for many years with a variety of international visitors from across the globe, arriving by air, land and sea.
By far the current hotspot property investment area in Bodrum is the elite area of Yalikavak with the exclusive Palmarina attracting the rich and famous, therefore, commanding extremely high rental yields for any investors money.
The peninsula offers many other resorts, peaceful fishing village like Gundogan to highly popular lively area such as Gumbet all within a short drive from the airport and Bodrum town, also making Bodrum an ideal area for anyone thinking of relocating to Turkey for a complete lifestyle change, with ample local amenities of international schools, shopping centres and hospitals etc.
Whatever your reason for buying a new home in Bodrum, investment, personal holiday home or a permanent home for all year living. the area offers everything, nightlife, beaches, excellent restaurants, nature, history, diverse culture and of course a wonderful Mediterranean climate.
Property for sale in BODRUM Turkey
Konacik is situated on the main route into Bodrum Town and there is no real definition as to where Konacik ends and Bodrum Town begins. It lies just off the coastline of the Bodrum peninsula and has become very popular with investors of property due to its excellent connections to most areas of Bodrum.
Its elevated position location is perfect for sea view properties, many having views across the peninsula and much of Bodrum.
Konacik has proven to be a popular area for full time Bodrum residents who have fallen in love with the Bodrum area, though they prefer to live a short distance away from the hustle and bustle of the main town centre, with all the amenities of the centre being close to hand, such as shops, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, schools and hospitals, and all of the stunning beaches making the are ideal for year round living.
Real Estate on Konacik
Konacik property for sale can be found scattered around the area, some in stunning natural areas surrounded by woodlands and forests, some on the edge of the area with amazing views of the sea and much of Bodrum Town, and often in the centre with all the local amenities practically on the doorstep.
Accommodation for sale in Konacik can be modern sea view apartments in new complexes with communal facilities and 24hr security, and these can be found at bargain prices compared to other Bodrum areas, however as this is a growing area prices are steadily rising and will soon match prices in the various resorts around the peninsula.
If you are looking to buy property in Konacik, Turkey then maybe it's a private villa that you are in search of, this also possible with some stunning luxury homes on the market with varying prices, some with premium price tags that can stretch close to the £1m region, offering investors excellent rental yields throughout the year, though again it is still possible to pick up villa accommodation in Konacik, Turkey at affordable prices too.
Turkey Home will guide you to your ideal property in Konacik, taking into consideration your lifestyle requirements and budget.
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BlackBerry CEO Thorstein Heins mentioned in a Bloomberg interview Tuesday that he thought that In five years I dont think therell be a reason to have a tablet anymore. He was quickly denounced for ignoring the iPad, not owning up to the failure of BlackBerrys own PlayBook tablet, and in general for trashtalking tablets and being hopelessly out of touch.
And those are just the nicer comments.
But perhaps hes not quite as out of touch as hes painted. For one thing, he actually said something quite different from what everyone claims he said.
The Bloomberg story that summarizes the Heins comments that ricocheted over the Internet yesterday actually draws from two separate interviews he gave at this weeks Milken Institute 2013 Global Conference in Los Angeles. One presumably was an interview with Bloomberg reporter Hugo Miller (or possibly the co-bylined reporter Nadja Brandt) who wrote the online story; the second was a five-and-a-half minute on-air talk with Willow Bay for Bloomberg Television's "Lunch Money segment.
Slideshow: The Best BlackBerry 10 Apps
The online story quotes only three sentences by Heins about tablets, with no context and apparently no follow-up questions to clarify or expand on them:
In five years I dont think therell be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.
So we dont know why Heins thinks that there wont be a reason to have a tablet in five years; or what he sees developing to make that happen. And we dont know what he means by saying tablets are not a good business model.
Nevertheless, Twitter lit up with reactions that persistently claimed Heins said something that he did not in fact say. Heres a sampling:
"BlackBerry CEO: Demand 4 #Tablets Will Die in 5 Yrs. Oh Thorsten, if that helps you sleep at night..." Ashley Berndt @hashlyburnt
"Oups! Thorsten #Heins #BlackBerry CEO: #Tablets will be dead in 5 years... " IT project manager Michelle M. @mimibeloeil
"#Tablets and Thorstein Heins. He just doesn't want to play catch up" cafe moba @cafemoba
"BlackBerry CEO: Demand For #Tablets Will Die Out in 5 Years. me: if we thot for second that company got it, no more" Jeff Hasen @jeffhasen
BlackBerry CEO says #tablets will be useless in five years" Lafayette PC @LafayettePC
Surprisingly, its the TV interview that adds a bit more of Heins thinking, though Willow Bay mainly focuses on business issues.
Heres what he said, transcribed from the video clip:
As Ive always said, the tablet market is very challenging from a pure hardware perspective. Very few companies can make money on the hardware. And so, if we want to do it, we need a service-value proposition on top of that. Some of that will be shown at BlackBerry Live. But we are running with a different concept that makes THIS [waving a new BlackBerry Z10 touch smartphone] your personal mobile computing power, and only this&so its a slightly different approach to the market.
Among other things, Heins reveals that the upcoming annual BlackBerry Live user conference, May 14-16, in Orlando will reveal some of BlackBerrys attempt to create a compelling service-value proposition for mobile users.
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins Says Tablets Not A Good Business Model, Evidently Forgetting About iPad mocks the headline to Darrell Etheringtons story at TechCrunch.
Heins shouldve stuck to specifics, however, as he went way overboard and came off as though he was losing touch with reality in the interview as quoted by Bloomberg, with broad sweeping statements like In five years I dont think therell be a reason to have a tablet anymore, and [t]ablets themselves are not a good business model, Etherington proclaims.
But a closer look shows Heins has a firmer grasp on reality than Etherington. Heins is surely correct when he says that very few companies can make money on the hardware. His comment is a clear reference to Apple, because Apple is one of the very few companies, and maybe the only one, with a tablet product that returns a very high profit. Trying to imitate or catch up to Apple in hardware profitability, because of the latters highly integrated and capital-intensive approach to products, is impossible for a company like BlackBerry in todays market (as it is also for Apples other tablet rivals so far).
Thats why Heins argues that BlackBerry, and possibly any tablet company, needs a service-value proposition on top of the device itself. Amazon seems to believe exactly the same thing: its not releasing sales figures for its Kindle tablet line, but its aggressive pricing shows its not even trying to make money on hardware; and its integration with Amazons service offerings are exactly the kind of service-value proposition that Heins says is necessary.
That combination made Amazon the No.3 tablet vendor in the fourth quarter of 2012, trailing Samsung and Apple, according to IDC data presented by CoolSmartphone.com. A key part of Samsungs success in both tablets and smartphones lies in its extraordinary spending level for advertising and sales promotion. [see "The cost of selling Galaxies, continued" by Asymco's Horace Dediu.] Even combined, Amazon and Samsung sold 9 million fewer tablets than Apple in that quarter.
I think that the tablet form factor clearly has become popular for a good reason, and I dont think that this form factor is a passing fad, says Rich Adduci, senior vice president and CIO, global information systems, for Boston Scientific, Marlborough, Mass., where he oversees an iPad deployment in the thousands. I think that the tablet provides a different way to perform tasks that previously could only be done with a PC and also allows you to do many things that could never be done on a PC&for those reasons I believe tablets will be around for quite some time.
That fits with the assessment of Asymcos Horace Dediu. Tablets have proven very popular because they fit within certain consumption niches, he says. They are comfortable and very functional in settings in which other products are less so. In other words, they are hired to do a job that few other products do well. Some of these jobs are in the workplace and some are at home.
Where Heins may be mistaken, he suggests, is in apparently believing that people want, or need, or can afford only one device. If you only could have one device then perhaps a smartphone would be the best single option, but users are increasingly using multiple devices, Dediu says. Just like families tend to have more than one car, it makes sense, given the price, for people to use more than one device and use the best product in a given setting.
History has shown that when a new form factor emerges it does not become the exclusive option, he adds. Consider how laptops have taken root: at first they were not very good PCs with many compromises but over time they became great PCs. That does not mean that there are no desktops anymore. So people will own multiple computers and multiple tablets and phones.
Another analyst suggests Heins had a more limited market in mind: the enterprise. Heins comments were foolish, but I dont think he meant to say that nobody will be using tablets in five years, says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. Rather [hes saying] that hes unclear how BlackBerry can be successful with enterprise tablets in that timeframe.
Somewhat surprisingly, Greengart actually agrees with Heins up to a point. Thats far more reasonable: many knowledge workers really wont be using tablets in five years, he says. Theyll be using devices connected to a larger display. Some of those devices may be traditional laptops or desktops, and some may be phones or tablets. If Heins doesnt think BlackBerry will be successful in that space, who am I to argue?
But given the fact that many of those devices will be owned by employees, why wouldnt the same dynamic of using a personal mobile device in conjunction with an available big screen be present outside the office as within it? If yes, then its at least conceivable that buying decisions could change.
So Heins seems to be right in saying that tablets so far have not proven to be a good business model, for everyone but Apple. And hes certainly right in saying that the tablet market is challenging because its very difficult to make money on hardware alone, for everybody but Apple.
Finally, regarding his belief that there wont be a need for tablets in five years, Heins ironically seems to have more faith, whether justified or not, in innovation than the technology bloggers and pundits who continually call for more of it, and complain that Apple has lost it. He seems to believe that the pace and quality of innovation really could change the mobile market into something quite different five years from now.
According to figures at AAPLInvestors,it took the iPod 24 quarters to reach 119 million in total sales; 17 quarters for iPhone to reach just under 129 million; and just 11 for the iPad to reach 121 million in total units sold.
The pace of innovation gives at least some credence to the idea Heins may be reading the market more realistically than his critics. If he turns out to be right, then perhaps in 2018 well look back on tablets the same way that, today, we look back on mp3 music players.
John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World.Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnwcoxnwwEmail: email@example.com
Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.


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Welcome to G.R.A.C.E. (Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination)
The citizens of Richland County and surrounding communities have formed G.R.A.C.E. which stands for Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination. Please take time to view our Mission & Vision Statements here.
We host an annual event on the second Friday of August called Walk With GRACE. The next event will be held on Friday, August 14, 2020 at Krouskop Park. The Walk is held "In memory of those who have died, in honor of those who have survived, and in thanks to those who have cared." Our community has been touched deeply by cancer and it is our goal to help assist cancer patients with needs and also support research to someday eliminate cancer. Your support will be appreciated. Those of you in the service area wanting to help our communities can contact a board member or contact us to express your interest.
It is also important to note that all of the work that goes into the walk and the administration of the organization is done solely by volunteers. Thus, all money that is raised goes directly to fighting cancer, funding research, funding cancer patient care items at the Richland Hospital, provide cancer preventative educational items and helping cancer patients.
"One Step at a Time"
G.R.A.C.E. raised over another quarter million dollars again this year thanks to your efforts. The money has helped many area cancer patients. Thank you so much for your continued support. You can continue your support at Walk With Grace or with one of our fundraising events.


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R.I.P Elmo: Kevin Clash Resigns Afer Second Man Files Lawsuit Over New Underage Sex Allegations!
"Cecil Singleton is the second person to accuse Emmy award-winning puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with a minor, saying that the two had an encounter when Singleton was 15 years old. A torrid two-week romance marked by mutual groping, masturbation and heavy make-out sessions followed despite Singleton's admission" - NyDailyNews
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