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This a tougher question than it sounds. The simple answer is: The National Fire Protection Association Standard 211 says, "Chimneys, fireplaces, and vents shall be inspected at least once a year for soundness, freedom from deposits, and correct clearances. Cleaning, maintenance, and repairs shall be done if necessary." This is the national safety standard and is the correct way to approach the problem. It takes into account the fact that even if you don't use your Chimney Sweeping much, animals may build nests in the flue or there may be other types of deterioration that could make the chimney unsafe to use.
The Chimney Safety Institute of America recommends that open masonry fireplaces should be swept at 1/8″ of sooty buildup, and sooner if there is any glaze present in the system. This is considered to be enough fuel buildup to cause a chimney fire capable of damaging the chimney or spreading to the home. Factory-built fireplaces should be swept when any appreciable buildup occurs. The logic is that the deposit is quite acidic and can shorten the life of the fireplace. Chimney Sweeping St. Paul MN
Chimney Sweeping St. Paul MN, fast, affordable & reliable
The Importance of Routine Chimney Repairs and InspectionInside and out, you can apply this beautiful design technique to any fireplace you might already have or are thinking of building. The greatest part about this design technique is the fact that you have so many creative options you'll have to really think about what you want before you get started. In one weekend, you can have the fireplace of your dreams. First of all, you'll be working with concrete. You'll have to learn how to work with concrete and you'll have to learn some concrete resurfacing techniques. But, it's on a small scale and you can literally make concrete look like anything. These techniques you can learn if you have any creative abilities, from doing the concrete to resurfacing. So, there's no need to feel alarmed. You can do it. Have fun with it! With colorant and the right mixture of overlay material, you can create such designs as pearl, marble, stone and brick. You can make concrete look like wood if you wanted. I have seen concrete resurfacing jobs that made a driveway look like a shiny basketball court. The more creative designs have been the remakes of famous paintings like the Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo, The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, and Woman with a Guitar by Georges Braque. But, you'd have to be a master at concrete resurfacing to achieve that level of artistry. Let's just look at creating interesting designs that you can handle at your own level of artistry, wherever you are as an artist. Whether you are working on an indoor or an outdoor fireplace, the steps are the same when it comes to creating concrete surfaces. The only difference is the dimensions and I have to leave you to be able to measure and determine those on your own. Moving forward, I'm referring to steps you would take to create an outdoor fireplace from scratch. What You'll Need Concrete Plywood 2x4s Screws Polymer Trowel Hopper Gun Colorcoat Sealant Fireplace Insert Poor Slabs A basic fireplace structure would include a back, two sides and a chimney if needed. The back and the front should overlap the sides so that the corners are flush. The front could be a square opening which would mean you need a front facing slab across the bottom, one on each side and one across the top. Of course the design is up to your creative abilities. If you can do arches or some other unique design, have at it. Once you've determined the dimensions of the fireplace you want, you'll want to pour the slabs that will make up all sides of your fireplace. Using screws, build the pouring area with plywood and 2x4s in the dimensions of the slabs you will need. Reuse molds if you don't have enough wood for each slab and many of them are going to be the same size. It will take a little longer, but you'll be able to resurface each slab at a time rather than all at once. Pour the concrete and let it sit until dry. When the concrete is ready, unscrew the screws and pull the molds apart. Be careful not to break your concrete while you remove them from the mold. Resurface Steps When your concrete slabs are ready, you can begin the concrete resurfacing steps. They are not complex. But, they are different for the different designs you might want to attempt. Make ultra surface polymer. Spray polymer on each surface with a hopper gun. Trowel over the texture to finish. Apply your colorcoat application. Seal. When you are applying your colorcoat, that's the time to be creative. You can prepare surfaces with tape and make different colored sections. You can spot spray different colorcoats so that you can have a simple design like rustic spots mixed with forest green, tan spots mixed on a dark blue surface or whatever your style would be. It's all up to your creativity. When you seal, allow to cure for 3 days. Sealant will get in the texture of your concrete and keep water damage from happening. You'll want to use sealant on fireplace projects in your home as well. You never know when you need protection from water damage. Build the Fireplace Raise your slabs and begin putting them together. My method is to reinforce the concrete slabs with a wood structure that acts as the support. Attach the concrete slabs to the wood fireplace structure with stainless steel concrete screws screwed from the inside and only three quarters of the way through the concrete. Put the two sides in place before you put the back and the front in place. That way, you won't be fitting the two sides in between the front and the back, but the opposite. You install the back and then start on the sides. For the front, put the bottom slab in place across the bottom. Then, install the two sides in place and then the top. Your chimney is up to you. Put a slab across the top, put a roof on top of your outdoor fireplace, or build yourself whatever you want. It's a ventless fireplace so you don't need a chimney if you don't want one. You can build one though if it would make you happy. Install your fireplace insert and you are ready for a wonderful evening around the fireplace. You'll want to completely plan out your fireplace and make sure that you have the materials you need. So, make sure you consult construction books at your local hardware store. But, this project is completely doable by you and you'll have some fun creating your designs that will bring you enjoyment for a long time to come.
Chimney Repair - The 5 Most Common Chimney Issues and How to Fix ThemThere is nothing quite as comforting as a roaring fire on a cold winter day to warm your heart and your home. A fireplace is something your entire family can enjoy. But you need to make sure chimney repair and maintenance is done correctly in order to ensure your families safety. The Importance of Chimney Repair A chimney is designed to draw the smoke and gases produced by a fire up and safely out of your home. This is extremely important since some of these gases are dangerous. One of the most dangerous is carbon monoxide which in large enough doses can kill. A second important function of the chimney is to contain the excess heat from a fire until it can be vented to the outside air. Most of your home is combustible. If the chimney does not get this extremely hot air outside without leaks it can easily cause a fire in your home. This is why it is so important for you to make sure that any needed chimney repair is done correctly in order to keep you, your family and your home safe. Here are some important tips to ensure that your fireplace is working correctly and avoid some common chimney repair issues. Creosote Buildup Creosote is an oil that is produced when wood or other solids are set on fire. Over time the creosote can build up on the inside of your chimney. If there is too much buildup it can ignite and cause a fire in your chimney. Blockage Another common chimney repair issue is having a blockage in the flue of your chimney. This can be caused by debris from material dislodging in your chimney or even by animal nests. Blockages, even small ones affect the efficiency of your chimney in getting smoke, gases and heat out of your home. Cracks Or Holes In The Flue Some of the gases from a fire are quite corrosive and over time can damage your chimney flue and create the potential for blockages or even allow dangerous gases to seep into your home. Make sure that your flue gets an annual inspection to ensure that it is working correctly. Brickwork Problems Another problem is caused if the flue starts to leak and erode the masonry and brickwork around the exterior and require extensive chimney repair work. Too much of this can cause major structural damage which will make your chimney repair much more expensive. Chimney Cap and Chimney Crown The chimney cap and crown basically make up the roof of the chimney that surrounds the flue and keeps water and debris from getting into the chimney. If this is cracked or missing pieces it can allow water damage to the inside of the chimney and even damage the ability of the flue to channel gases and heat out of the home. This area also keeps animals, debris and weather out of your flue. Conclusion If you see any of these problems when you inspect your chimney, you need to see that any needed repair is made before the fireplace is used. While you may be able to fill small cracks, you should consult a professional for any larger issue. It is always recommended that you have your chimney cleaned, inspected and any needed chimney repair work done at least once a year to ensure its safe operation. To ensure the safety of your family make sure that you have carbon monoxide detectors in your home. These should be placed on each floor or at a minimum on the floor where your family sleeps. Check them regularly to make sure they are working properly to protect your family from even low levels of carbon monoxide. By taking care of any needed chimney repair as soon as you see it the costs for the repairs will be much less than if you let the problem get larger. Make sure that your chimney is inspected regularly and it will give you years of safe use.
Chimney Sweeping Locally serviced and operated in St. Paul MN


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Avant - Break Ya Back (In A Good Way)
Video For Avant "Break Ya Back (In A Good Way)" Off Of His Self Titled Album Dropping December 9th!
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When I came to Cecil County to lead our public library system in 2001, the community was examining how best to lay a foundation for the success and well-being of our citizens, communities, and businesses in the 21st century. One of the strongest messages was that our economic success would be based in large part on the quality of our countys education system. In the 21st century, businesses that offer good salaries and benefits would locate in counties where the workforce is educated and engaged in lifelong learning. Those well-educated employees would demand the best of their countys educational institutions for themselves and their families. Although the recession set us back, it is not a reason to give up on our aspirations.
As we now emerge from recession, my hope is that we can reflect on the valuable insights of those discussions and, as part of our plan to facilitate strong economic and community advancement, protect funding for education.
One of the strengths of public libraries is how quickly they can adapt their educational services to any era to give our citizens and communities an edge. Literally tens of thousands of Cecil County citizens are using Cecil County Public Library for exactly that reason today. We have focused intently on job and career skills, teaching basic computer usage for the newly unemployed, and giving our small businesses a competitive advantage as they work to survive and grow. And we have reinforced our outreach to our communitys children introducing them to the powerful library services that underwrite success in school, work and life. These are the kinds of services we mean when we say lifelong learning.
Cecil County Public Library now has 55,900 active users. Library usage continues to grow. I am very proud of how much value we provide to so many citizens with just 2.7% of the county budget.
Cecil County citizens care deeply about their public library. In 2010, more than 1,000 of our citizens wrote to the County Commissioners telling them why their public library system is a lifeline for themselves, their families, and their communities, and many are writing once again. Several Cecil County business owners have written the County Commissioners this year about how the librarys high quality business reference services were critical to their opening and growing small businesses in Cecil County. One new business now has 15 employees!
We take the economic challenges of the recession very seriously. Our library budget has been essentially flat for two years. During that time, we have eliminated about 5% of our positionsa percentage comparable to other education agencies, renegotiated contracts, raised fines and fees, and eliminated an entire service, This Way to Books. But we have preserved the quality of our librarys educational services, our book budget, and the hours of operation in every branch by working harder and smarter, as well as squeezing budget lines.
The proposed county budget would reduce public library funding by 4%. We really hope to avoid that cut. We ask that the County Commissioners restore half the reduction in library funding. If the Commissioners can take that step, we can develop a Fiscal Year 2012 budget that preserves our book budget at the FY 2011 level. I sincerely thank them for their efforts, and I pledge that the library will continue to make a difference, creating a better future for our county and its citizens.
Denise Davis is the director of the Cecil County Public Library system. Contact her at email@example.com.
Tags: adults, circulation, citizens, collection, community, computers, Director's Blog, economy, education, employment, information, job skills, kids, libraries, news, small business, teens


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In Arkansas, the hottest month of the year is August. The air is definitely warmer, and the lake water is refreshing. But, did you know August is also Romance Awareness Month? I guess someone filtered in the hotness factor when deciding on the month for romance! We all know that love is popular at any time, but to honor this month's theme, our Hot Springs Bed and Breakfast is offering the Great Romance Package at a 10 percent discount.
The Package includes:
- 3 nights in your choice of room
- Hearty homemade breakfast each morning
- Spa basket for enjoying your whirlpool tub
- Chilled sparkling wine, fine chocolates and cheese/cracker basket en suite
- 1 dozen long stemmed roses
- Relaxing couples massage
- Admission to Garvan Woodland Gardens and the Mountain Tower
- $50 fine dining certificate to a restaurant of your choice
So, consider bringing your beloved to Lookout Point and celebrating Romance Awareness Month in style at our Arkansas getaway. Check out the Great Romance Package or give us a call at 1.800.525.6155. We'll be glad to set up your reservation for August so you can celebrate the romance in your life!


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I have always been a layering fan when it comes to men's fashion. Therefore I think winter is a great style opportunity. But it's not and never should be just throwing on as many clothes as you can. Layering style is an art!
Layering is alls about being versatile which gives you an opportunity to mix up. The ones you should have are:
- Shirt or T-Shirt
- Cardigan
- Blazer
- Vest
- Jumper (only in some cases).
In a daily look you can always use a t-shirt and a cardigan with a shirt inside for a classic layering look during the day. But when it comes to office style or a gents look my advice would be a vest and a blazer which gives you the look of a catch with a sharp and effortless style.
PS: To be honest I can easily say that men's vests are kind of a turn on for women.
Simon Baker is the first name that I can think about for vests. Justin Timberlake and David Beckham are the other runner ups who make the vests work as the coolest edgy style!
That also shows us that you don't have to wear a tie every time you go with a vest. Rolled up sleeves are a must though…
If you are new to vests try to go with the colour grey. This is the safest choice. √ But you can always be more bold and go with Nick Wooster's style too...
|Nick Wooster, FW Street Style
|Paris FW SS15 Street Style: Veronika Heilbrunner and Justin O'Shea.
The best way to have this winter's sharp and cool look is a giveaway for 4 winners each getting a $50 gift cards who will be picked at random among the ones who write their favorite item from EastDane.com under this post as a comment by 3rd November, 2014 at 8 pm.
UPDATE: Because of a technical problem with blogger.com for those who can't see the comment section, they can comment under the post on Facebook, reply on Twitter with mentions @TrendHimUk and @EastDane or on Google+. The comments on this platforms will be accepted. Sorry for the inconvenient.
This giveaway is a partnership with Nak Online Branding, with a prize of an East Dane gift certificate.
(East Dane, launched in 2013 as the brother site to Shopbop.com, serves up heritage brands and new names to men who are more interested in style than trends—who understand that dressing well comes from a combination of confidence and quality construction.)
For your other wardrobe essentials here is another tip --- 50% OFF Mens. :)
Good Luck!


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Here is our submission for http://www.brkt.org/ in full. Images follow the text, so scroll down if you're not "into" reading.
Tell us what you think here:
Rob Holmes
Stephen Becker
Luanda, the fastest growing city in the world, is desperately short of clean water. Only one in six Luandan households has running water, forcing most of the inhabitants of the musseques (the vast slums that constitute the majority of Luanda's land area) to depend on contaminated water brought by truck from rivers hours north and south of the city. The price of water in the musseques can be as high as 12 cents a gallon, a huge burden on a populace which lives on an average of $2 per person per day. In 2006, the worst African cholera epidemic in a decade devastated the musseques, killing 1600, spread by contaminated drinking water as well as contact with sewage.
What if water, already inextricable from agricultural farming processes, was itself farmed? Beyond the direct benefits a renewable source of fresh, clean water would provide Luanda, farming water seeds the city with potential. By establishing an infrastructure to effect the farming of water, one may farm landscapes, societies, production: a city.
Farming water in parched terrain seems paradoxical, but an established process for doing so already exists: fog farming. Like most forms of farming, fog farming can be seen as a special instance of infrastructure and, as an infrastructure, it has both direct and indirect effects: it is directly responsible for condensing and collecting airborne moisture; but it also has many indirect effects on the growth and health of the urban system. The fundamental inquiry of our project is a unique treatment of infrastructure, considering not just how its programmed function can enable positive development of some urban condition, but how the thing in itself, the system which enables that function, can have other, non-function-related (indirect) effects — and how they can be understood and utilized.
Before exploring those indirect effects, though, a brief description of the techniques and requirements for fog farming may be helpful. This technology has been explored for several decades as a means to obtain potable water in arid environments, though until now it has been confined to rural locales, owing to problems with airborne particulate pollution. A typical apparatus consists of a nylon or polypropylene mesh, at least a meter or two square, stretched across a metal or plastic frame, with condensed moisture dripping down the mesh into a collection pipe at the bottom of the net. The basic necessary conditions for the deployment of such an apparatus are an arid environment and strong fog. Such fogs are found primarily along particular ocean coasts (the Pacific coasts of Chile and Peru, the Atlantic Coasts of Namibia and Angola, or the Indian coast of the Arabian peninsula) where certain ocean currents produce atmospheric moisture which is then confined and concentrated by mountains.
Luanda is by far the largest city in the world in which fog farming is practicable, as it is projected to jump from a current population of four million to over eight million by 2025. Though Luanda experiences something of a rainy season between March and April, for most of the year precipitation is nearly absent — averaging 0 millimeters/month from June to August — as the Benguela and Angola currents of the Atlantic Ocean combine to prevent the humid air from condensing into rain. This combination of humidity, aridity, and explosive population growth creates a situation uniquely suited to an experiment in urban fog farming.
Fog farming has the direct potential to meet this need for potable water; but an investigation of this form of farming can also reveal important things about the role of infrastructures in urbanism, if we consider its indirect effects. We believe that this move — the equal valuation of indirect effects and direct effects — is essential to the development of an alternative modernist urbanism, for several reasons:
A We argue (like many others have, particularly in the past decade or two) that the modernist planning movement has run its course; has been exposed as insufficiently flexible to react to the flux that characterizes a vital urban condition. This is because modernist urbanism was concerned primarily with controlling the city, which inevitably produced conflict between the dynamic nature of the urban system and the static nature of the designer's reality.
B We also take as a starting point the inadequacy of some alternate proposals, particularly those such as new urbanism and parametricism, that propose an alternate set of forms to modernism while failing to account for the fact that it was the overreliance on formalism itself — on the controlled expression of the rationality of the designer — that made modernist planning unable to cope with the reality of the urban condition.
C We suggest that infrastructure is an appropriate object of design for the urbanist, the architect, and the landscape architect, as infrastructure can be embedded with some characteristics that provide definition (a means for the urbanist to have influence on the direction of change), as well as characteristics that permit appropriation by inhabitants of the urban system. In other words, an infrastructure can withstand appropriation while remaining coherent as an intervention.
Fog farming, then, can only be fully understood as an urban intervention if it is understood as performing 'infrastructurally' — as having effects on the urban system that extend far beyond the direct or spatial, to the alteration of streams and flows — liquid, capital, human, traffic, and so on. Thus we have sought not merely to provide a form of farming that meets a need for water, but also to understand how, in placing an infrastructure that would meet that need, we might also alter the streams and flows of the urban system for the better.
Consequently, the infrastructure we have developed is unified by its fundamental nature as a system for farming airborne moisture, but diversified in architecture, deployment, funding, distribution, and ownership, as the modification of each of those characteristics affects its interaction with the city.
Furthermore, we remain extremely sensitive to the fact that one of difficulties of working (as a designer) in a city like Luanda is that the city government cannot always be relied upon to act in the interests of the poorest inhabitants. Indeed, even we — seeking as designers to act in ways that we perceive as beneficial those who live in the musseques — are likely (if not certain) to be mistaken at times about what will benefit the musseques. And so we have varied the degree of control embedded in the infrastructure, allowing it to be more rigid in the wealthier portions of the city (where citizens have access to the levers of government) and relinquishing nearly all control in the poorest regions. Some functions, which we hope will remain uncontroversially beneficial, are embedded in the nature of the infrastructure we make available (most essentially, that it cultivates useable water from fog).
To these ends, we propose four basic forms for fog farming in Luanda (though the boundaries between forms would exist more as gradients than as hard delineations):
1 In the central districts of the city, particularly Ingombotas, a highly formal farming architecture appears, spanning the gaps between buildings and hanging off of scaffolding over streets, providing water treated with nutrients for the benefit of a system of tubes growing algae, which is in turn harvested at processing plants to make biodiesel. The profits from an industry with a fixed end-date (the oil industry) can be invested to build an infrastructure that will meet the energy needs of Luanda far past that end-date. The distribution of this water is centralized; it is a striated, non-rhizomatic network. It would be government funded, with the intention that economies of scale (resulting from the erection of this network) would drive down the cost for building future fog networks in lower income areas of the city.
2 Middle class suburbs, which ring the central districts, would also receive investment from the government and see an interface arise between the municipal water system and the fog farming infrastructure, though some of the water supply generated there would be diverted to growing personal gardens and other vegetative uses.
3 In the musseques, a combination of NGOs and microlending practices would fund the development of an infrastructure, while the deployment would be at the whim of the citizens, who stand to benefit from the income generated by new sources of water. Appropriation by the community would be nearly total, while the benefits of the infrastructure would accrue entirely to the local communities. Distribution of the water would be completely local and decentralized, disconnected from the municipal supply and its filtration. Because of this, we propose nets treated with a slowly-released store of chlorine whenever affordable, with untreated nets supplementing the supply.
4 On the arid periphery of the city, fog farming would serve to seed the future of the city. Though the practice is deplorable, it is unlikely that the government will stop clearing informal settlements in the center of the city, so the periphery will likely continue to swell with a constant mixture of slum dwellers expelled from their homes and new arrivals from the hinterlands of Angola. Expanses farmed for fog would be gradually impregnated with nutrient-rich water, cutting down on dust storms, prompting the growth of farms and eventually settlements based around this infrastructure. Through farming water, we farm landscape, farm city, farm future communities.
a statistical index of luandan fog farming:
83% the percentage of Luandan households without running water
12 cents the price per gallon of water in the musseques of Luanda
0 the average monthly precipitation in Luanda from June to August
6% the current yearly average growth of Luanda
4.8% the current average growth of the next fastest growing major city in the world, Kinshasa
4,000,000 the population of Luanda in 2007
8,200,000 the project population of Luanda in 2025
12.9 L the projected average amount of water collected by a square meter of fog net in one day
244 the number of days it would take to recoup the cost, including both materials and installation, of a square meter of fog net at the current price per gallon of water in the musseques
1,200,000 the amount of water trucked into Luanda every day from the Bengo and Cuanza rivers
$35,152,969 the estimated cost of replacing the volume of water brought using trucks from the river with water from fog farming
$100 the estimated cost of a square meter of fog net, including materials and installation
2/3 the number of Angolans living on less than $2/day
450 the number of tanker trucks that travel from the rivers to Luanda every day
1,600 the number of Luandans killed by a major cholera epidemic, due to contaminated water, in 2006
2 Responses to "BRKT submission: Hydrating the Musseques"
February 8, 2009 at 12:38 pm
[…] our full entry here https://betamammoth.wordpress.com/hydrating-the-musseques/ […]


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27 May 2020 - 16:28 UTC
Mesoscale view - at 41°N - 101°W
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0.86 µm - "Veggie" Band - 1 km resolution - Combining band 3 (a near-infrared or "reflective" band), along with the 0.64 µm ("red") ABI Band 2, will be used for detecting daytime clouds, fog, and aerosols and for calculating a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), hence its nickname the "veggie" band.
• For more details, see the Band 3 - ABI Quick Information Guide, (PDF, 913 KB)


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When Google officially unveiled Project Glass — the company's bid to develop Terminator-style augmented-reality glasses — we saw a provocative glimpse of the future. The video Google released yesterday showed us the point of view of someone wearing the glasses, with icons, maps and other graphical overlays appearing over the user's complete field of vision.
Accompanying photos, meanwhile, showed us how the new glasses might look — but the glasses weren't really glasses. Instead, we saw a system that lacked full lenses, and included just a small, rectangular pieces of glass hovering over the wearer's right eye.
If anything, the system in the photos looks similar to what Recon does with its head-up-display snowboarding goggles: Data overlays don't consume one's entire field of vision. Rather, small bits of data appear only in one's peripheral vision.
So where is Google really going with Project Glass? The hardware that appears in the photos doesn't appear capable of delivering the augmented-reality experience we see in the video. Is Google working on two different delivery systems? Or is the company going with a Recon-style approach, but released a video that over-reaches?
We asked Google for specifics, and were told in an e-mail, "We aren't prepared to put additional information on the record at this time."
However, according to Pranav Mistry, an MIT Media Lab researcher and one of the inventors of the SixthSense wearable computing system, "The small screen seen in the photos cannot give the experience the video is showing."
Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, concurs: "You could not do AR with a display like this. The small field of view, and placement off to the side, would result in an experience where the content is rarely on the display and hard to discover and interact with. But it's a fine size and structure for a small head-up display."
Mistry does point out that the Project Glass demo is a concept video. But MacIntyre believes Google may have set the bar too high for itself. "In one simple fake video," MacIntyre told Wired, "Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to."
"Some of what I find a little annoying about the video is that they staged all these things such that as when these notifications come to the middle of the screen, the person is looking at the thing it's referring too," MacIntyre said. "Is it augmented realty, or is it location-based notifications? It's going to generate ideas in people and expectations that just might not match."
Even if Google is able to deliver the goods, says Mistry, we won't see the glasses on the market for at least two years. Most of this has to do with limitations in current mobile display technology. "Current HUDs utilize a fixed lens distance of two feet," he says. "For true augmented reality, the display would have to dynamically focus, which would require additional hardware on the glasses to read your eye."
MacIntyre brings up another issue. He's found that in his own Georgia Tech research, it's difficult to create a transparent display that renders viewable overlays both indoors and outdoors. "The brightness difference between inside your bright office and outside on a bright day is multiple orders of magnitude," he says.
In other words, a display bearing overlaid graphics that performs well indoors would be washed out when the user encounters the brightness of the outside world. Because of such huge differences in ambient lighting, MacIntyre says creating a display that can handle multiple environments will be difficult. "You wouldn't be able to accomplish it by just changing the brightness," he says.
Google's public posting on Project Glass couches the technology in incredibly vague terms: "So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do." Nonetheless, if Google is unable to deliver on most of what the video shows, all the research in the world won't stop consumers uttering the worst word in the technology world: vaporware.
Source : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/augmented-reality-experts-say-google-glasses-face-serious-hurdles/


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Catherine Zeta-Jones keeps her marriage to Michael Douglas problem-free by spending days alone in a specially-built closet at their home.
The Welsh actress wed the veteran Hollywood star in 2000, less than two years after they started dating, and many critics suggested the union would soon fail because of the 25-year age gap.
But the couple is still going strong 13 years later, and Zeta-Jones has revealed the secret to their success – she has a live-in wardrobe at their home where she often spends all day watching TV away from her husband.
Zeta-Jones tells British magazine Stella, "We spend a hell of a lot of time together, so we are careful to maintain our space. We recently had an extension built, to house a closet. It's like the ('Doctor Who') Tardis – I go in there and never come out. My husband knocks on the door and says, 'Can I come in?'. But I've got a TV in there, and my daughter brings her friends in – they play shop, put on all my stuff. I could be in there for the whole day, happily."
The "Chicago" star also reveals she has a novel use for designer high heels that are too precious to scuff on the streets – they are employed as bookends on her shelves.
She adds, "I buy shoes sometimes and use them as bookends. They're too beautiful to wear."


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LONDON (AP) — Dog owners who refuse to fit Fido with a microchip may someday find themselves fetching a hefty fine, the British government said Wednesday.
All dogs in England will have to be fitted with microchips by 2016, authorities said, meaning that canines across the country will be chasing cars with a tiny circuit embedded in the back of their necks.
Britain's Environment Department said that the chips would help reunite owners with lost or stolen pets, promote animal welfare and take the pressure off animal shelters.
"It's a shame that in a nation of dog lovers, thousands of dogs are roaming the streets or stuck in kennels because the owner cannot be tracked down," Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said in a statement. "Microchipping is a simple solution that gives peace of mind to owners."
Many British pet owners already have veterinarians insert chips under the skin of dogs, cats, and rabbits in a bid to keep track of their animals. The Environment Department says 60 percent of Britain's 8 million pet dogs already have microchips, which can be scanned and matched to their owners' details.
But officials say what was once an optional extra will become mandatory in three years. Owners who refuse to fit their dogs with chips face fines of up to 500 pounds ($800).
Horse owners have had to chip their animals since 2009, a spokeswoman for the Environment Department said Wednesday. The chips will remain optional for cats — because dogs are out in public more often than their feline counterparts, a spokeswoman said.
Different parts of the United Kingdom have different rules governing pets: The chips are compulsory in Northern Ireland; Wales is considering such a move; Scotland has no such rule.
Inserting chips into animals' necks is a technique used worldwide to keep track both of domestic animals and livestock, although rules vary according to country. German shepherds can bound across Berlin chip-free, but Chihuahuas in Milan and Portuguese water dogs in Lisbon can't be caught without. In some parts of Spain, cats need chips too.
Alan Clendenning in Madrid, Victor Simpson in Rome, and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' site on microchips: http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/pets/general/microchipping
Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter


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BrandCentralStation necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 280 diseños de 64 diseñadores freelance.
Physical Therapy Consultants, LLC
My client, Physical Therapy Consultants, LLC, is a uniquely-qualified healthcare professional who feels her current name doesn't really convey what she does or the kind of services she provides. As a result, she is considering changing the name of her practice to either "Sports Rehab Associates" or "Athletic Performance Associates."
That's right, she works (mainly) with athletes and former athletes - helping them recover from injuries and the everyday strains and stresses of conditioning.
She is fellowship trained in a particular physical therapy discipline called Functional Manual Therapy - one of fewer than 100 therapists in the USA currently holding that designation. Although her practice is relatively small (she hasn't been in business very long), she is known for her personal attention and professional approach to PT.
Please be sure to download the brief for this project to read more details about the client, what she does and why her practice is unique.
My client's primary target audience are athletes (current and former) who are suffering from pain caused by a stress incurred while competing or working out (e.g. a twisted joint or back/neck sprain) or by a flare-up of an old injury (e.g. a "trick knee" going out, etc.). Even if the athlete is older, out of shape and "semi-retired" (e.g. a "weekend warrior"), these people still consider themselves to be athletes.
To these people, familiarity with sports and athletes is key to making the practice seem accessible and developing consumer preference.
The secondary market for my client is doctors and other health care professionals who may be looking to refer someone who is in pain due to an injury or some other sports-related stress. For this market, the brand must be perceived as professional and competent; familiarity with sports and sports-related injuries is important, but a secondary consideration.
I have spelled out the expectations and requirements for participating in this contest in both the brief and in our more general "Rules" document - both of which have been attached to this project. Please download both documents and review them prior to submitting any concepts for consideration.
(from the attached brief)
What's Required
In addition to reading our document on how Brand Central Station design contests are run through 99Designs, please make note of the following mandatory items.
For the five finalists to be named on DAY 7 of the contest:
• Black and white version of the logo (color versions are optional, but suggested)
• Demonstration layout showing the logo on letterhead and business card (name and address to be provided on DAY 7 of the contest)
• Blog header (700px by 250px) showing recommended logo use.
If your design is selected on DAY 10 as the winner of the contest, you must provide:
• Logo files in Adobe CS3-compatible files, using fonts/typefaces that work on both Mac and PC platforms.
• A break-out of the recommended logo colors in both CMYK and Web-compatible formats.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Install YouTube
Install Twitter
Use Twitter
Activate Apple ID on mobile phone
Set up your mobile phone for internet
Some functions on your mobile phone use a lot of power and therefore significantly reduce the battery life. You can reduce the power consumption by turning on low power mode.
Find "Battery"
Tap Settings.
Tap Battery.
Extend the battery life
Tap the indicator next to "Low Power Mode" to turn on the function.
Return to the home screen
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Sour note: Bell-ringer sent packing
What are the top holiday harmonies? Carols and the tinkle of Salvation Army bells, right? Well, apparently not everyone is cheered by the sounds o' the season.
Salvation Army rep Jennie Quick was ringing her bell and singing "Jingle Bells" beside her red kettle on the Downtown Mall December 2 when a Charlottesville patrolman showed up with some Grinchy news.
"The officer told me if I didn't move from in front of the Downtown Grille, where the complaint came from, whoever it was would just keep complaining," says Quick.
Quick called her boss, Roy Wollschlager, the Army's kettle coordinator, who told her to move her base of operations.
"We are not out there to annoy people," says Wollschlager. "I'll move the stand 50 feet to keep business owners happy."
John Archer, manager of the Downtown Grille, denies the call to the cops came from his upscale eatery.
"Absolutely not," says Archer, who says he checked with his staff to make sure. "I hope it wasn't someone walking by who said it was us."
Quick had been on the mall all day at Second Street (below The Hook offices). Was it the singing or the bell-ringing that drove someone to call in the law? That part is still a mystery.
"I came out here and got bored and decided to sing," says Quick, who mentions that her nickname is Stormy Weather. She was ringing and singing "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"– and, according to one source, "Hey, Good Looking" when an attractive male walked by.
Not everyone was complaining about Quick's holiday cheer. "The customers sitting outside Christian's were very offended I had to move," says Quick.
"Tell this person you like my music," she instructs Luke, sitting at a table outside Mudhouse, the site of Quick's relocation.
"I like the music," Luke dutifully says.
But not all reactions were so positive. One person who works in the area and demanded anonymity says the bell ringing and Quick's warbling were "very annoying in a work environment."
Does that make someone a Scrooge for calling the police because of the incessant ringing of a bell outside their office or business window, all day long for week after week during the holiday season? And how does the ring-ling-a-ling of Salvation Army minions outside every retail center sit with the city's noise ordinance? And does a little bit of holiday cheer go a long, long way?
The city did not return calls by press time.


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Tonight's Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play their 38th game of the season tonight hosting the Everett Silvertips. This is the second of four meetings between the two teams this season. The Rockets were an 8-2 winner back on November 25th. Carter Rigby scored three times in the win. These two teams close out the seasonal series with games February 10th and February 14th. The Rockets look for their 9th win in ten games tonight. Overall, the Rockets have five regulation losses in their last 27 games (21-5-0-1) with setbacks to Tri City (twice), Edmonton, Seattle and Calgary. The Rockets have won 18 of their last twenty-two (18-4-0-0) games overall. The Rockets enter tonight's game riding a 13 game home ice winning streak. The only two teams to beat the Rockets on home ice this season are Kamloops and Spokane. The Rockets open the month of January with a home game Wednesday against Victoria before traveling to Prince George for back-to-back games next weekend.
This and That: Damon Severson has 2+12=14 in his last 8 games. Severson had just 11 points through his first 28 regular season games…Since a 3-0 win over the Kamloops Blazers November 1st the Rockets are 16-4-0-0. Since that loss to the Rockets, the Blazers are 9-9-1-1….The Rockets are 25-10-1-1 after 37 games this season…Madison Bowey was named to the roster for the upcoming CHL-NHL Top Prospects game. Last season two members of the organization participated in the game. Damon Severson and Colton Sissons showcased their skills and were both 2nd round draft picks this summer by New Jersey and Nashville…The Rockets 13 game home ice winning streak is six wins shy of the 18 straight wins in 2002-2003 season…Myles Bell and Dylen McKinlay are the only two Rockets to play in every game this season…The Rockets have led going into the third period in 21 of their last 28 games with two games being tied heading into the final frame.…The Rockets have allowed 14 power play goals against in their last twenty-two games….The Rockets have 20 power play goal in their last 28 games (20 for 91 over that span – 22 %)…..In the Rockets 25 wins, Myles Bell as earned 41 points (16+25=41). Of the 125 goals scored by the team in those 25 games, Bell has been in on 41 of them…The Rockets have scored 131 goals in their last twenty-nine games (average 4.5)....Jordon Cooke was named the CHL/Vaughn Goaltender of the Week for October 22-28th. Cooke had two wins last week which included a shutout and a save percentage of .967…Ryan Olsen played in his 150th career WHL game Nov 3rd against visiting Prince George…Ryan Huska recorded his 200th WHL regular season victory November 24th against the visiting Saskatoon Blades…The Rockets are 14 and 2 after 16 home games this season…Madison Bowey (10), Mitch Wheaton (22) are rated among the top skaters in the WHL by NHL Central Scouting for June's draft. Jackson Whistle is ranked 7th among WHL goalies…Austin Glover (Team Western), Rourke Chartier (Team Western) and Riley Stadel (Team Pacific) are all playing at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge this week in Quebec… The Rockets have out-scored the opposition 79-31 on home ice this season…The Rockets have scored the second most goals in the WHL (155)….Tyson Baillie played in his 100th career game Thursday against Kamloops…Zach Franko has two more points (41) than the 39 he put up all of last season. Franko had a career high 53 points (22+31=53) in his rookie season in 2010-2011...MacKenzie Johnston plays in his 200th WHL game tonight against the Tips..J.T Barnett has 7+2=9 in 16 games with the Rockets…Colton Sissons is back in the lineup after missing 10 games with upper body injury.
Who's Hot: Myles Bell has 3+3=6 in his last five games…Colton Sissons is riding a seven game point streak (1+7=8). Ryan Olsen has 2+7=9 in his last six games… Zach Franko has 3+11=14 in his last nine games…..Damon Severson has points in seven of his last eight games (2+12=14.)
Man Games Lost to Injury = 110 games lost
J.T Barnett: 21 games lost Mitchell Chapman: 37 games lost
Carter Rigby: 13 games lost Zach Franko: 2 games lost
MacKenzie Johnston: 20 games lost Jordon Cooke: 5 games lost
Colton Sissons: 10 games lost Henrik Nyberg: 2 games lost
Better than Last Year:
Ryan Olsen has 32 points, the same number he had all of last season. Olsen has 18 goals, 4 more than last season….Colton Heffley has 15 points, five more than the 10 he put up last season…Myles Bell has 51 points, 10 more than the 41 he put up last season…Tyson Baillie has 12 goals, two more than he had in his rookie season…Zach Franko has 41 points, two more than the 39 he recorded last season…Jordon Cooke has appeared in 26 games this season, one more appearance than all of last season.


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I don't know how many people I can identify with a name now, even if I leave out the guys on my old baseball cards. But it's doubtless a lot. And the number keeps changing daily.
So imagine my interest in reading that technological diversions as mighty as Facebook have their limits. (I'm not a Facebook user, but do try to keep up to date to be hip f0r social gatherings.)
According to a report in the New York Times, the people who run Facebook have capped the number of Facebook "friends" at 5,000, which is not likely to sit well with some of the 400 million users. The term for Facebook cleansing, I believe, is "unfriending," which simply means clearing out a name here and there to make room for others. True, these are painful judgment calls, but so are a lot of other things in our lives.
The Times also mentioned a British anthropologist and Oxford professor, Robin Dunbar,
who says the human brain can't deal with more than 150 "stable interpersonal relationships", which is probably why Congress is always fighting over something. It's called "Dunbar's Number," should you ever end up on Jeopardy.
I should stop here. I have told you everything that I know about Facebook. But it was good to know that my brain had unfriended one of my cousins long before there was an internet. In other words, I will take credit for being well ahead of the curve. Cool.


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We are very sorry to announce that CouponsInDemand
has closed down as of December 31st, 2019
As a courtesy, if you had a subscription, your accounts will remain accessible and fully functional thru February 14, 2020. We will be officially taking our website offline on February 14, 2020.
Please take this time to log into your account and save any coupons you wish to preserve and make arrangements to modify your business website accordingly.
Thank you to our loyal users - We hope that you have enjoyed using CouponsInDemand as much as we enjoyed building it for you! If you have any questions, please email to firstname.lastname@example.com
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Brenner Children's pediatric emergency department has moved back to its original location. Learn more
In order to help protect patients, family members and health care workers from the spread of COVID-19, no visitors are allowed at any of Wake Forest Baptist Health's outpatient or inpatient facilities, except in certain situations.Learn moreMore COVID-19 Updates
It's not hard to find drugs, and sometimes it may seem like everyone's doing them — or wanting you to do them. But as with anything that seems too good to be true, there are downsides (and dangers) to taking drugs.
Drugs are chemicals or substances that change the way our bodies work. Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe them. Many have no medical use or benefits.
When taken (usually by swallowing, inhaling, or injecting), drugs find their way into the bloodstream. From there, they're transported to the brain and other parts of the body. In the brain, drugs may intensify or dull the senses, change how alert or sleepy people feel, and sometimes decrease physical pain.
Because of the way drugs work on the brain, they affect the ability to make healthy choices and decisions. Even drinking makes people more likely to get involved in dangerous situations, like driving under the influence or having unprotected sex.
How drugs affect people depends on lots of things:
Although substances can feel good at first, they can do a lot of harm to the body and brain. Drinking alcohol, smoking or using tobacco, taking illegal drugs, even sniffing glue all damage the human body.
Just as there are many kinds of drugs available, there are as many reasons for trying or using them. People take drugs for the pleasure they believe they can bring. Or maybe someone else talked them into it, making them think they'll have a better time if they take drugs. Often people try to talk friends into taking drugs just because they don't want to be the only ones doing them.
Some people believe drugs will help them think better, be more popular, or become better athletes. Others are curious. And some people want to fit in and take drugs due to peer pressure.
Many people use drugs because they're depressed or think drugs will help them escape their problems. But drugs just mask feelings and problems, they don't solve them. People find that when a drug wears off, the feelings and problems remain and might even be worse. This can put people on the hamster wheel of chasing a high just to feel better.
Commonly abused drugs include:
If you think you — or a friend — may be addicted to drugs, talk to your doctor, school counselor, or nurse. They can help you get the help you need.
Several kinds of treatment are available for drug addiction. The two main categories are behavioral (helping a person change behaviors) and pharmacological (treating a person using medicine).
In behavioral treatments, an expert in drug treatment teaches people how to function without drugs — handling cravings, avoiding situations that could lead to drug use, and preventing and handling relapses.
As with any addiction, it can be difficult to stop without professional help and treatment. Overcoming an addiction is not something that can be done alone — everyone needs support. The experts who help people with addictions are trained to help, not judge. To find a drug treatment center in your area, search online, check out the SAMHSA Treatment Locator, or ask a counselor for advice.
Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD
Date reviewed: January 2012
© 2019 Brenner | Site Policies & Statements
The information on this Website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. If you have a medical problem or a health-related question, consult your physician or call Health On-Call at 336-716-2255 or 1-800-446-2255.


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Companies have 'increasingly' been denying or delaying sales of their medicines, the Competition Bureau of Canada charges in court documents obtained by the National Post
Competition watchdog alleges brand-name pharma firms are denying generic companies the medicines they need for tests
The ongoing feud between brand-name pharmaceutical companies and their generic rivals has taken an unusual turn, with Canada's competition watchdog alleging some brand firms are trying to stymie generic companies by blocking access to their medicines.
Health Canada requires generic-drug producers to conduct tests proving their cheaper copies act similarly in people as the original drug, meaning they need samples of the brand-name product.
But pharmaceutical companies have "increasingly" been denying or delaying sales of their medicines to the generic manufacturers, the Competition Bureau of Canada charges in court documents obtained by the National Post.
That in turn could postpone "the launch of generic drugs and prevent competition for some time," says an affidavit the bureau filed in the Federal Court of Canada.
"Such practices can deprive consumers and the economy of the benefits of competition, including lower drug costs," says the document, part of an ongoing probe quietly begun in 2016
The bureau is investigating the industry under sections of the Competition Act dealing with restrictive trade practices, which allow competition tribunals to order corrective action and levy fines of up to $15 million.
Jayme Albert, a spokesman for the agency, said last week the bureau has yet to finish the inquiry or decide whether to take enforcement action.
"There is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time," he said.
Such practices upset the careful balance that Congress sought between product innovation and access
In the U.S., however, the Trump administration has already acted against what it calls "gaming" of the system to curtail generic competition, announcing in May that it would post details of such incidents on a sort of Internet wall of shame. It currently lists over 50 drugs that generic firms say were kept from them at least temporarily.
"Such practices upset the careful balance that Congress sought between product innovation and access," Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement earlier this month.
In Canada, the generic industry has pressed Health Canada to bring in regulations that would oblige companies to supply the drugs.
The department is aware of the generics' "ongoing challenges," is actively investigating the situation and will take whatever follow-up measures may be necessary, said Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge, a Health Canada spokesman.
News of the investigations is coming to light after the branded industry scored a win on a different front recently, with Canada agreeing in the new USMCA trade deal to extend the patent protection for a leading class of medicines by two years. The generic sector, whose copies of those "biologic" drugs would be kept off the market longer by the measure, had lobbied against it.
At the Competition Bureau's request last year, the Federal Court ordered three companies — Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis and Celgene — to turn over certain documents and make employees available for questioning for the investigation.
Pfizer and Sanofi said this week that the bureau later told them they were no longer subject to investigation. Celgene officials could not be reached for comment.
"Pfizer Canada has never engaged in any of the alleged conduct that the Competition Bureau was inquiring into," said company spokeswoman Christina Antoniou.
All of a sudden, these products are being much more tightly controlled
Sanofi spokeswoman Catherine Rose Cunningham said her corporation "has a strong culture of compliance and employees are trained on the content and importance of adhering to our code of ethics."
Asked to confirm if action had been dropped against those two companies, Albert said the agency cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.
The "bioequivalency" tests required by federal regulators essentially compare two groups of patients — one taking the original medicine, one the generic — to ensure the drugs act similarly in their bodies.
Branded pharmaceutical corporations have "for decades" handed over what are known as reference products to generics for use in the tests, said Jim Keon, president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association.
That began to change in the last few years, he said, a time when the so-called "patent cliff" had already ushered in generic competition for numerous blockbuster drugs.
"All of a sudden, these products are being much more tightly controlled," said Keon. "I don't think there's any doubt this is an attempt to block competition, delay competition."
In some cases, every day of holdup in approving a generic version of a medicine can cost the health-care system hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
The practice began with new, specialty drugs that often require patients to be helped or monitored by health professionals and are dispensed only at pharmacies the manufacturer authorizes. But Keon said the refusal to sell to generic companies appears unrelated to the health rationale for that system.
The Competition Bureau seems to agree.
Wholesalers acting on the instructions of manufacturers have restricted generic access to at least 20 drugs, say affidavits filed in court by bureau investigators.
For several years, one wholesaler "refused all requests from generic manufacturers" to buy drugs made by two of the companies subject to court action, they said.
Generic manufacturers were sometimes able to obtain the needed samples by other means, the bureau says in the court filings, but only after an unnecessary delay,.
• Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter: TomblackwellNP


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|Genealogists for Families team T-shirt
OK - here is my report - but first I want to thank Unlock the Past for all their hard work in organising such a big event. (Disclosure: Unlock the Past will pay me for the talk I gave on Tuesday, but that will not influence my comments here.)
I have previously talked about why I like genealogy conferences. During the Expo I heard many people say that they were having a great time and learning a lot. One lady even met two relatives whom she didn't know existed! Everybody enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones. But were all the exhibitors happy? I suspect not, because attendance numbers were disappointing. Could local societies have done more to promote the event? I don't know. If I could turn back the clock, would I personally change what I did at the Expo? Definitely!
A few weeks ago I emailed hundreds of my clients in southeast Queensland and northern NSW to tell them about the Expo. Many replied that they would have come on a weekend, but not Monday to Wednesday because they work full-time. On Monday evening the Expo was open until 9:15 so people could come after work; but as far as I could tell, not many did. Maybe the weather had something to do with that. (Brisbane in June/July is usually gloriously sunny, but unfortunately this week was wet and cold.) Tuesday and Wednesday were busier, but some exhibitors still spent a lot of time trying to keep warm while waiting for people to visit their display.
The venue was better than I expected. The hall was set up with lots of space between the exhibits, and people could move around without bumping into others or knocking books off tables. With a large room and a high roof, noise levels were not a problem, so (thankfully) I did not lose my voice!
I may have been busier than some exhibitors because my table was at one end of the popular Research Help Zone. I thoroughly enjoyed helping people with their research problems, but it was quite challenging at times. My area of expertise is Queensland records, but about 30% of the questions I was asked involved New South Wales or Victoria. Having done some research in those States, I could at least offer a few suggestions and recommend various indexes, Web sites and professional genealogists. Occasionally I could send the enquirer around the corner to Kerry Farmer or Carole Riley, but they had other commitments most of the time.
Being on my own was not easy. Kerin Stinear and Sharn White (bless them) came over occasionally and kept an eye on my table while I dashed out for a bathroom break or a toasted sandwich. When it was time for my own talk, I had to politely abandon a lady who had just arrived with a long list of questions. In the lecture room, after I found my Powerpoint presentation on the computer, figured out how to turn on the projector and asked someone to put batteries in the remote control, I finally got underway. By then I was feeling a bit rattled, and my presentation of 'Black Sheep and Vanishing Relatives' was not up to my usual standard.
I don't know about the other exhibitors, but for me, from a business point of view, the Expo was not a success. With so many stands selling so many interesting items, competition was tough. I barely sold enough books to cover expenses for the three days.
From a personal point of view, I did enjoy the Expo, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had not been an exhibitor. I bought a Gold Ticket because I wanted to attend a few talks, but in the end I only made it to two. I could not bring myself to walk away when people were waiting to ask me questions!
The talks I did hear (both by Audrey Collins) were entertaining and informative. Audrey said that her blog, The Family Recorder, will soon have a page with links to hard-to-find UK newspaper sites. I envy those of you in southern States who can attend Audrey's seminars in the next few days.
It will be interesting to hear what others thought of the Expo. I know I missed some good talks, but it was fun to catch up with friends and colleagues, even if we only managed a quick chat. (Next time I'll do things differently so I have more time with you!)
Last but not least, a message for members of Genealogists for Families: If you meant to buy a team T-shirt but forgot, please email me!


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I don't know about your particular T10 school, but Penn, for example (not mine--I'm higher ) has 99% employmement at graduation, meaning at least 9% of the bottom 10% were employed. Who know what those jobs were, or whether the jobs were the students first choice firm or city, but it's employment.Do you have to be at a top firm? Do you have to be at a firm at all? How about a professor? Look at what you want with your degree. There are, frankly, some jobs that are not available to someone in the bottom 10%. Wachtell, for example. However, if all you want to do is practice law for a firm that you like in a city that you like, why not? BTW, you should really talk to your career services center, as well as your academic advising center. They meet with, oh I'd say 100% or so of the bottom 10% of each class every year. They'll have some advice for you.
If a school has a 99% employment rate at graduation that DOES NOT mean that "at least 9% of the bottom 10% were employed." The 1% that is "unemployed at graduation" might as well be a studnet in the top of the class. In a different situation, your math gives the impression that if a school has an 80% employment rate at grad, the kids in the bottom 20% of the class should be concerned. That is by no means true.


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The Winter 2013 issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots continue to live up to its mandate in bringing family history to the British Isles Family History Society of Ottawa (BIFHSGO) members.
In this issue, there are articles by –
Eleanor Eagar's Descendents by Carolyn Emblem, in which she tells us about her great-grand-Aunt Eleanor's travels across three countries – England, Australia, and New Zealand, and her various marriages.
Little by Little from County Mayo to Fitzroy and Beyond by Brenda Krauter, in which she writes about the Little family who came to the Ottawa Valley during the Great Potato Famine, and the brick wall that they presented to a genealogical researcher.
These Old Walls of Ireland – Recording of Memories by Philip Donnelly is a summarized version of the Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture at the BIFHSGO conference last fall, in which Donnelly give an overview of the projects that are preserving memories of Ireland's past, and they are -
- The Gathering Ireland 2013
- These Old Walls – the Homes of our Great-Grandparents
- Ireland Reaching Out (Irelandxo.com)
- The Hercules Project in County Waterford
The Anglo-Celtic Roots also has regular columns by members John D. Reid called The Cream of the Crop, and by Betty Warburton called The Bookworm, as well as a report on the Conference of 2013.
The BIFHSGO website is at www.bifhsgo.com


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Acer wants you to just say no to the iPad. Of course. so does Samsung, Windows, RIM and other tablet competitors. It's just that Acer has a new ad campaign that really spells it out. And in a country where people literally riot
The Chinese company, known for adapting quickly to emerging technologies and offering them for less (if a sometimes less-stable product), would like buyers to notice that there are lots of "No's" when it comes to Apple's iPad:
NO: micro SD slot
U.S. & World
NO: doesn't support Flash
NO: USB port
NO: open operating system
NO: Dolby SurroundSound
MICGadget.com also reports that Acer put ads in the Taipei metro system, extolling the virtues of its own tablet, the Iconia Tab A500. It's less expensive that the iPad and has fairly consistent user ratings, too.
Of course, the iPad has sold 25 million units so far -- and shows no sign of slowing, especially with increased connectivity to other devices, in their ecosystem and out.


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What are hosted PBX, VoiP PBX, IP-PBX, and IPBX?
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