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A matter of priorities
I don't often agree with Charles Krauthammer, but I appreciate his ability to articulate the conventional wisdom that reigns over on the right side of the Beltway political spectrum. And, thanks to a syndication purchase agreement negotiated by our corporate parents, I can now run Krauthammer on the MWDN opinion pages, along with a bunch of other Washington Post writers I also like: E.J. Dionne, Kathleen Parker, George Will, Dana Milbank and Eugene Robinson (the links will take you to some of their recent contributions).
One of the themes I see in Krauthammer's column, though hidden between the lines, is an assumption that animates much of what I hear from Republicans and conservative commentators, especially those based in Washington. To them nothing – NOTHING! – is more important than excessive federal spending and the national debt. They have become so convinced of this — with a lot of encouragement from Pete Peterson's debt-is-all propaganda machine — that they seem to think it goes without saying. Mitch McConnell's vision of the next four years is nothing but trench warfare over the federal budget. The tea partiers act like cutting spending is priority number one and there is no priority number two.
Fine, but you know what? To President Obama, balancing the budget isn't priority number one. He hasn't bought into this assumption that the federal debt is an existential crisis that will bankrupt our grandchildren unless we radically slash the size and scope of government and break the promises the government has made for generations. To Obama, the first domestic priority is making the economy healthy enough to produce the jobs we need in the short-term. His second priority is building the long-term economy, so the country can thrive in an ever-more competitive world for generations to come.
I don't think federal fiscal policy is the top priority for ordinary Americans either, as last year's campaigns and results show. I'm enough of a creature of conventional wisdom to think Obama should have included a stronger deficit-reduction plank in his platform and talked about it more in the campaign. I still hope he'll put a serious tax reform/spending cuts/entitlement reform proposal on the table when he puts forward a budget. It's part of managing the store, and he could take some talking points away from the opposition, which has been long on the rhetoric of spending cuts but woefully short of details.
But the deficit is a Beltway obsession, not the stuff of dinner table conversations in American homes. Obama understands that, which is why he'd like to make a grand bargain on the budget within the next few months so he can get on to other things — specifically immigration reform, education, energy and environmental policy, infrastructure investments and gun control. Republicans are obsessed with the budget, so much so that they have no interest in engaging any of those other issues and would just as soon do nothing but fight over shrinking government from now until the next election, and then until the election after that. It's a stark difference in outlook which seems likely to keep the nation careening from cliff to cliff for the foreseeable future.


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This sunset will forever be in my memory as, for me, the most spectacular sunset ever.
We travelled for a year around Australia in 2010. Mostly the skies were a pristine cobalt blue with not a cloud in site. That is till we rounded the corner after going up the East coast, across the outback and headed down the West Coast.
WA, as the locals refer to it, is spectacular in every way. The distances, the wild flowers, the soaring mountain ranges, the national parks, the mining boom funding and fuelling our economy, the enormous road trains, the wild ocean, the wide fish and crocodile filled rivers, the emptiness, the spinifex grass clustered in clumps like small animals and over and above it all the vast expanse of the sky.
I met Mic and Wendy in 2005 and I WWOOFed (willing workers on organic farms) on their seahorse sanctuary in the idyllic township of Kalbarri, in the heart of the National Park and the centre of the fabulous wild flower display (another story for another post…) We visited again in 2010 and this was our last day with them. We took nibbles and wine to the beach, which was just across the road from their place, and watched this sunset.
Thank you Sue for your "word a week challenge" of clouds as it reminded me of that time on our travels around Australia, and gave me the opportunity to share this with you.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chicago's Willis Tower 'Ledge' reopens after cracks
CHICAGO -- Popular observation ledges at Chicago's Willis Tower have reopened after the towering glass bays were closed for inspection when they appeared to crack beneath visitors' feet.
The Willis Tower temporarily limited access to the bays, known as The Ledge, on Thursday for routine inspection. The rest of the Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the building formerly known as the Sears Tower remained opened.
The glass itself didn't crack Wednesday night and officials say visitors were never in danger. Instead, a protective coating covering the glass produced the spider web of cracks.
A spokesman says Friday that all four bays are open.
The ledges first opened in 2009 and attract visitors in part because walking onto them allows the disconcerting feeling of stepping onto air, hundreds of feet above ground.


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I do want to talk about one thing that I learned while in New Jersey here, however. How many of you have gotten your baby's vision checked? I'm not talking about the pediatrician showing your baby some pictures on a poster down the hall in their office. I'm talking about taking your 6-12 month old child to an opthamologist or optometrist and having their eyes dilated.
I admit that I never took any of my kids to the eye doctor before they were a year old. I mean, how can they do an eye exam on a baby, right? It's not like your six month old can tell you what letters or pictures they're seeing. My pediatrician never recommended that I take my babies to an eye doctor. The thought never crossed my mind. And I wasn't alone in my thinking.
So, please take advantage of this free program to ensure the health of your baby's vision. And pass this on to everyone you know. I think it should especially be passed on to the pediatricians. Before this week, I'd never even heard of this program. I have 6 kids and not once did any pediatrician ever mention it to me. Your child's pediatrician is a prime source of medical knowledge and advice. They need to be aware of this program so they can pass it on to their patients.


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Today's Music: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole – Somewhere over the Rainbow asdf
*Note on Today's Music: Song picked by NancyTex, who was suspiciously keen on me posting this.
*Note on today's post: All the links are safe. Sort of.
I have never denied being a sappy romantic at heart. Sometimes, as I'm deleting my spam comments, I like to wonder, what if these people met? Would Ray Bans Wholesale enjoy the company of the Christian Dating Site? Could Webmaster SEO and Fancy Cat Pictures ever make a go of it? Do BabelFish and Google Translate ever find a common language (since neither of them seem to speak English)?
Let's sit in on one of their dates, told in their native language and see what happens…
Am I to be meeting him above the street upon which the light shines down. Noticeable at first is the way hair upon his eyes covers. The hand offered to me? I take it.
"Greetings", spoke him his words. "The felicitations and announcements to joy upon our reconnaissance are truly of mine".
I could not help but be swooned at the playerness of his strong welcome. The dapperity of his appearance did speak to me, from his Ray Ban Wholesale Online sunglasses to the Fine Italian Leather of his toe garments.
He did the speaking again "I am Tjhke90587fuyhn^*%jk, but you can call me &*8/". Enrapturous as the encounter was, I knew this was to be more thereof.
"Acquaintanced of you, I am" was my cautionary reply. "Please to call me Sheila, as I am called Sheila."
We were too strolling forwards near the restaurant of foods mouthwatering and good-smelling when at once, we were accosted by people from sales with finest delights!
Rolex Watches!
Laptop Cases!
Premium Electronics!
&*8/ was for the purchasing of these exquisitness one red rose that placed he fetchingly above the brow which is my forehead, and we sat the both of us for eating.
To wit of the many undertakings of conversationalisms, there was much of verbage to passing twixt us both, as though the speakage must continue. For job, of which he said there was a lots of pursuant to the makings of bucks, and the various things to selling, including
Adidas cheaper than wholesale!
Premier Spanish Handbags!
Women seeking mates in your area!
Though as concluding, I felt forced to remind him that as webmaster, his SEO usage was costing him page views, which I would dearly love to speak with him about to provide him much better placement within search engine results.
Worried need I have been not, for it was as though collaborations were with my own heart!
After all consumption had concluded and we returned insofar as going back to the place which in this country for many years my bed has been, he attempted the nicely to put kiss upon me. Truly, in lust of brightness, I did wrap arms under him and squeeze as though the first beginnings had started.
Together we have been of since, as for much time.
I hope sincerest my tale will be of inspirement to you, and to know that if you click now, all my story will be as though it were told by my cousin who only knows me as well as to relate this.


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Thursday morning past started out as a dreary, uninviting rainy morning, soon the sky brightened just in time for the Kosher round of NTD's 5th Annual International Chinese Culinary Competition in Times Square to get underway as scheduled. Elan Kornblum, the founder, publisher and editor of Great Kosher Restaurants Magazine more than ably organized the kosher competition round in conjunction with New Tang Dynasty Television.
The event was held in the pedestrian mall on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets in Manhattan. There were quite a few old friends and recognizable faces from among the foodies in our community, most notably event planner extraordinaire, Nelly Rosenking (from NellysList.com), Dr. Alan Bronner from Jack's Gourmet Kosher (manufacturers of superb sausages, unequaled in the kosher world!)
Four chefs from kosher restaurants were pitted against each other … the passion for food, the fierce competitiveness were soon apparent…
The dishes ranged from fish, to spicy chicken, tofu and more.
Thecontest entries were superbly delicious, as the chefs showed off their expertise, their unique understanding of the subtle flavor nuances of the ingredients necessary for a great kosher Chinese cuisine.
Combine the drama of the competition, the pyrotechnics indigenous to Asian cuisines, the pageantry of 5,000 years of Chinese history and the reverence Chinese pay to great chefs and you have all the ingredients for an unforgettable experience. This culture filled culinary event, clearly proved that the more food fashions, fads, tastes, evolve over time they always – invariably – stay within the parameters of rich tradition.
Sukkot starts this evening, why not enjoy a nice Chinese dish in the Sukkah?


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Final debate: Challenging each other face to face
BOCA RATON, Fla. — President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate Monday night, saying, "Every time you've offered an opinion you've been wrong." The Republican coolly responded, "Attacking me is not an agenda" for dealing with a dangerous world.
Romney took the offensive, too. When Obama said the U.S. and its allies have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran to halt nuclear weapons development, the Republican challenger responded that the U.S. should have done more. He declared repeatedly, "We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran."
Despite the debate's stated focus on foreign affairs, time after time the rivals turned the discussion back to the slowly recovering U.S. economy, which polls show is the No. 1 issue for most voters.
They found little agreement on that, but the president and his rival found accord on at least one international topic with domestic political overtones — Israel's security — as they sat at close quarters 15 days before the end of an impossibly close election campaign. Each stressed unequivocal support for Israel when asked how he would respond if the Jewish state were attacked by Iran.
"If Israel is attacked, we have their back," said Romney — moments after Obama vowed, "I will stand with Israel if Israel is attacked."
Both also said they oppose direct U.S. military involvement in the efforts to topple Syrian President Bashir Assad.
The debate produced none of the finger-pointing and little of the interrupting that marked the presidential rivals' debate last week, when Obama needed a comeback after a listless performance in their first meeting on Oct. 3.
But there was no mistaking the urgency. The two men frequently sniped at one another even on issues where they agree, and reprised their campaign-long disagreements over the economy, energy, education and other domestic issues despite ground rules that stipulated the debate cover international affairs.
Obama and Romney are locked in a close race in national opinion polls. The final debate behind them, both men intend to embark on a final two-week whirlwind of campaigning. The president is slated to speak in six states during a two-day trip that begins Wednesday and includes a night aboard Air force One as it flies from Las Vegas to Tampa. Romney intends to visit two or three states a day.
Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.
On the Middle East, Romney said that despite early hopes, the ouster of despotic regimes in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere over the past year has resulted in a "rising tide of chaos." He said the president has failed to come up with a coherent policy to grapple with change sweeping the Middle East, and he added ominously that an al-Qaida-like group has taken over northern Mali.
Anticipating one of Obama's most frequent campaign assertions, Romney said of the man seated nearby, "I congratulate him on taking out Osama bin Laden and taking on the leadership of al-Qaida. But we can't kill our way out of this. ... We must have a comprehensive strategy."
More than a half hour later, Obama returned to the subject, saying that Romney had once said it wasn't worth moving heaven and earth to catch one man, a reference to the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks.
He said he had decided it was "worth heaven and earth."
Obama said he had ended the war in Iraq, was on a path to end the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan and has vowed to bring justice to the attackers of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last month — an assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
He also jabbed at Romney's having said during the campaign that Russia is the United States' No. 1 geopolitical foe.
"Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy you seem to want the policies of the 1980s, just like you want to import the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies in the 1920s," Obama said.
Obama was snippy after Romney, criticizing the administration's Pentagon budget, said disapprovingly the U.S. Navy has fewer ships than at any time since the end of World War I.
"I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them."
Romney offered unusual praise for Obama's war efforts in Afghanistan, declaring the 2010 surge of 33,000 U.S. troops a success and asserting that efforts to train Afghan security forces are on track to enable the U.S. and its allies to put the Afghans fully in charge of security by the end of 2014. He said that U.S. forces should complete their withdrawal on that schedule; previously he has criticized the setting of a specific withdrawal date.
The two men are locked in a close race in national opinion polls. The final debate behind them, they intend to embark on a final two-week whirlwind of campaigning. The president is slated to speak in six states during a two-day trip that begins Wednesday and includes a night aboard Air force One as it flies from Las Vegas to Tampa. Romney intends to visit two or three states a day.
Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.
Barring a last-minute change in strategy by one campaign or the other, Obama appears on course to win states and the District of Columbia that account for 237 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. The same is true for Romney in states with 191 electoral votes.
The battlegrounds account for the remaining 110 electoral votes: Florida (29), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), New Hampshire (4), Iowa (6), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Ohio (18) and Wisconsin (10).
The televised debate brought no cessation to other campaigning.
Obama's campaign launched a television ad in Florida that said the president ended the war in Iraq and has a plan to do the same in Afghanistan, accusing Romney of opposing him on both. It was not clear how often the ad would air, given the fall's overall focus on the economy.
Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Canton, Ohio, emphasized differences between the two candidates on the war in Afghanistan.
"We will leave Afghanistan in 2014, period. They say it depends," he said. "Ladies and gentlemen, like everything with them, it depends. It depends on what day you find these guys."
Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, was in Colorado. "We are in the midst of deciding the kind of country we're going to be, the kind of people we're going to be, for a generation," he said.
Whatever the outcome of the final face-to-face confrontation, the debates have left an imprint on the race. Romney was widely judged the winner of the first debate over a listless president on Oct. 3, and he has risen in polls in the days since. Obama was much more energetic in the second.
Monday night marked the third time in less than a week that the president and his challenger shared a stage, following the feisty 90-minute town-hall-style meeting last Tuesday on Long Island and a white-tie charity dinner two night later where gracious compliments flowed and barbs dipped in humor flew.
At the Al Smith charity dinner, Obama previewed his all-purpose fallback to criticism on international affairs.
"Spoiler alert: We got bin Laden," he said, a reminder of the signature foreign policy triumph of his term, the death at the hand of U.S. special operations forces of the mastermind behind the terror attacks on the United States more than a decade ago.
The president and his challenger agreed long ago to devote one of their three debates to foreign policy, even though opinion polls show voters care most about economic concerns.
Growth has been slow and unemployment high across Obama's tenure in the White House. Romney, a wealthy former businessman, cites his experience as evidence he will put in place policies that can revive the economy.
In recent weeks, the former Massachusetts governor has stepped up his criticism of the president's handling of international matters, although his campaign hasn't spent any of its television advertising budget on commercials on the subject.
In a speech earlier this month, Romney accused the president of an absence of strong leadership in the Middle East, where popular revolutions have swept away autocratic regimes in Egypt and elsewhere in the past two years. He has also accused Obama of failing to support Israel strongly enough, of failing to make it clear that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and of backing cuts in the defense budget that would harm military readiness.
Yet Romney has stumbled several times in attempting to establish his own credentials.
He offended the British when he traveled to England this summer and made comments viewed as critical of their preparation for the Olympic Games.
Democrats pounced when he failed to mention the U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in late August, and officials in both parties were critical of his comments about the attack in Benghazi while the facts were unknown.


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The Werewolf
Published by JohnnySegura3rd
I'm a self-taught artist out of Lake Charles, LA. I'm also the writer/artist/creator of: 2 Tin Bean Cans F#cking The Devil in I Demon's Redemption Angry God Special Agent Harambe Goodbye The Last Reaper Also artist of these books published by CCP Comics: Dead Beats Systim Also worked on sketch card sets by Marvel, Upper Deck and various others. View all posts by JohnnySegura3rd


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Notebook: Offensive package for Purifoy
Although Loucheiz Purifoy's potential role on offense seemed to be diminishing over the final practices of preseason camp, the Florida offense is still going to feature a package of plays for him every game, offensive coordinator Brent Pease said Tuesday.
"Yeah, there will be some things involved for him," Pease said. "I look at it this way: There will be probably a package a week involved for him, touching it, throwing it to him or possibly running. There's a lot of places you can put him to run the ball. That's what we're going to do.
"And we can't overload him because he has a defensive scheme he's still got to worry about. But I think he's a kid that we can give him the ball three, four times a game, and he's still involved in the special teams like he is. He's got the potential that defenses have got to be accountable to him."
Pease said Purifoy seems to be embracing the opportunity to play offense.
"He's a kid that loves football," Pease said. "He's very natural being a football player. So, to be playing defense and then all of a sudden switch over to do a play on offense and all of a sudden hit a post route, I mean, he makes it look so natural sometimes.
"I think he's good at it. I think he understands it, and he should understand it because he is a defensive back, so he should know how they're going to play him anyway, where they're vulnerable at and techniques and stuff."
Jones returns to practice
A day after having more blood work done, tailback Matt Jones practiced Tuesday in a limited capacity. After missing all of camp recovering from a viral infection, he's due to return for next week's game at Miami.
"Probably not (in) pads," Pease said before Tuesday's practice. "But he'll be in half pack (shells) or something."
When asked how much Jones needed to practice before the Miami game to make Pease comfortable, he said, "Zero."
Florida's starting fullback, Hunter Joyer, is also back at practice after missing two weeks with a pulled hamstring. Joyer returned Monday and is scheduled to play in Saturday's opener.
"(Joyer) looked fine physically. I think we've kept his reps down to a minimum just because," Pease said. "The one thing about him is that the position he plays, you've got to kind of watch those guys because they take a lot of hits, especially with what they do. Eventually, it is a wear-down situation.
"We kind of monitor that on all the kids at that position. We protect them a little bit at this stage because we know what he's going to do. He'll be there and be ready."
Dunbar-Robinson combination
Pease said there will be times when wide receivers Quinton Dunbar and Demarcus Robinson are on the field at the same time. Dunbar is the starter at the X-receiver position, backed up by Robinson.
"There will be situations like that. The one thing with Quinton, he's a kid that's been in it," Pease said. "You know, actually, Quinton last year was at the Z. We moved him to the X because he wanted to kind of embrace the other position.
"He knows the Z, and he'll be inside for us sometimes. He's a guy with experience, he's learned the spots and it's kind of the same process we talked about last year. You kind of grow with things. He's a kid we can move around."
As for Robinson, one of the offensive stars in camp, Pease seems extremely high on the true freshman.
"That guy's really developed for us," Pease said. "For a young kid, he's got a lot of talent, he's got great hands. It's just a matter like any kid. Initially, you want to see consistency
"I think he's getting to that point where he's comfortable with things, he's playing on instinct. Now let's see you do it in the game.
"Is the kid going to make mistakes? Yes, because he's a freshman. Does he have the ability to be fun to watch? Absolutely. Is he fun to be around and coach? Absolutely."
O-line holding up
Pease said the offensive line is capable of overcoming the loss of two starters — guard Jon Halapio and tackle Chaz Green. Halapio (partially torn pectoral) is out until the Sept. 21 Tennessee game, while Green will miss the remainder of the season with a torn labrum. Green is scheduled to undergo surgery today.
"We still feel good about where we're at," Pease said. "The old saying goes, carry the flag, when someone's down the next guy has got to step up. I think kids have done that.
"We feel that we have eight, nine guys that we can play with right now, and that's a lot better than where we were last year. The kids that came here, like Tyler Moore, who has done tremendous things, have done a good job. We'll get Jon back here soon. We're going be fine."


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Imagination Technologies is one of those companies simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible. Its PowerVR graphics processors drive high-profile electronics like Sony's PlayStation Vita, Apple's iPhones and iPads, and any number of past-and-present smartphones, tablets, and laptops. But you'd probably be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of technology circles who actually knows the name.
While most of our coverage of Imagination is driven by these mobile GPU designs, the company also has its eyes on other markets. We stopped by its CES meeting room to get a glimpse at the Series6 PowerVR GPUs that are going to begin making their way into consumer products this year, but the company was also showing off something else: a pair of workstation-class PCI Express add-in cards that allow 3D rendering programs to do something called ray tracing in real time. This is something hardware developers have been chasing (and we've been covering) for many years, so we took some time to see the hardware in action.
What is ray tracing, and why do I want it?
To put it as simply as possible, ray tracing is used to render light and its interactions with objects. A ray tracing algorithm will track rays of light from a light source to an object. Once the light hits that object, the algorithm can account for how much light will be absorbed by the surface, how much will be reflected or refracted by the surface, and how that reflected and refracted light interacts with other surfaces, among other things.
The end result is an image with very accurate, realistic light. There are plenty of reasons this would be useful—better-looking 3D games, movies, and computer-generated imagery on the entertainment side, faster and more lifelike CAD renderings on the professional side—but ray tracing has typically been too intensive a task to do in real time. It's a workload that is ill-suited to even the most powerful of today's graphics processors. Intel briefly promised real-time ray tracing would become an affordable reality in its discrete graphics card, codenamed Larrabee, but that initiative was axed before any real hardware could see the light of day.
This is where Caustic comes in. The company has been talking up its real-time ray tracing technology since it was a scrappy young startup back in 2009, and an acquisition by Imagination in 2010 has only increased its ambition. Its first commercially available real-time ray tracing cards go on sale this month, but as we'll discuss, the company has even bigger plans for the technology in the future.
The Caustic R2500: Work smarter, not harder
The faster of the two cards, the $1,500 Caustic R2500, is physically large, but the actual hardware driving it is much less powerful (and power-hungry) than what's found in a high-end workstation graphics card. Two of Caustic's ray tracing units, or RTUs, are located under the card's small cooling fans. Each of them has 8GB of memory dedicated to it for a total of 16GB on the entire card.
This sky-high amount of memory, which far exceeds the amount available on most graphics cards (and even many computers), is the highest-end spec the card has. The heavy lifting is done by silicon that seems ancient by today's standards: the RTUs are manufactured on a 90nm process and use DDR2 memory, both of which were cutting-edge circa 2005 or so. Despite this, the card still requires a relatively small amount of power. While its peak power consumption is rated at 60 watts, we were told that realistically it maxes out at about 40 watts—much less than a modern high-end (or even a low-end) graphics card, and well under the amount that would require the card to have a separate power plug.
For those with less cash, the $800 Caustic R2100 offers one RTU paired with 4GB of RAM and consumes about half the power of the R2500, with a peak power consumption of between 30 and 40 watts—because it has half the RTUs and a quarter of the RAM, its rendering speed should be less than half that of the R2500, though we weren't able to see the low-end card in action to be sure.
The cutting edge secret sauce of the R2500 isn't in its raw power, then, but the patented algorithms that Imagination and Caustic are using to solve the real-time ray tracing problem.
"The way the algorithm works, it turns ray tracing from a high-performance compute, memory-intensive problem to one that's more like a database problem," Imagination Technologies Director of Product Management Michael Kaplan told Ars. "It's highly optimized. We can store about 120 million triangles on that card."
The end result is easier to show than it is to describe—Imagination Technologies Director of Business Development Alex Kelley was on hand to give us a demonstration of just what the Caustic R2500 was capable of.
The Caustic card enables CAD programs to realistically render light in real time and allows designers to change things like the angle of a windshield or the color of the paint without having to wait for the computer to re-render the image every time they make a change.
"You're getting all of this information very early on in the design process, where normally you'd have to sit, hit the render button, wait, and then move on," said Kelley.
Developers will have to build support for the Caustic cards into their applications, but Imagination is providing tools to make that as simple as possible. OpenRL is the low-level API, roughly equivalent to OpenGL on the graphics side, while the company's Brazil SDK is the high-level toolkit that developers can use to implement Caustic support in their software. The demo seen above was given in Autodesk Maya, for which a plugin is already available, and McNeel's Rhino 5 CAD software will also support the card. Imagination is working with several other vendors to implement support, but it couldn't give us any more specifics as of this writing.
Again, there's also a lower-end version of the card for those with less cash (the $800 Caustic R2100 mentioned above). Everything we saw in this demo was based on the performance of the R2500, but smaller shops will definitely appreciate the cheaper option.
An ambitious future: Real-time ray tracing in a tablet?
We came away impressed by the technology in Caustic's add-in card, but the reality is it's difficult to sell an extra add-in card that isn't a GPU these days—just ask Ageia, whose dedicated physics processing add-in cards went pretty much nowhere before Nvidia snapped them up and integrated PhysX support into its GeForce cards. The Caustic cards will appeal to people in the high-end, high-margin workstation market, but by Imagination's own admission that market is quite small.
The Caustic technology's path to the mass market will be similar: Imagination intends to integrate into future versions of its PowerVR GPUs. This isn't going to happen anytime soon—the Imagination representative gave us a tentative estimate of "four to five years" from now—but it may be that the phones and tablets of tomorrow will be capable of 3D rendering that is only now beginning to hit high-end workstations.
This would dovetail nicely with the way the industry is moving. Mobile devices are already getting more productive as they get more powerful, and the major hardware manufacturers seem determined to deliver devices that can be all things to all people—phones that can double as tablets, tablets that can double as laptops, and so on. By 2018, it's easy to imagine a tablet that can also do high-end CAD work, and if Imagination has its way, the Caustic ray tracing technology will be leading that charge.


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Banner year for Ionia County teams
All seven high schools in Ionia county needed to clear space in their respective trophy cases at some point in 2012 as each school had at least one varsity team earn hardware. Accolades ranged from invitational tournament trophies, league championships and postseason awards. Fans in Portland and Lakewood even saw teams capture state championships this past fall.
With so many great moments for Ionia County teams, it was hard to pick the top 10 of the year. These were the ones that stood out the most in 2012.
10. Raiders return to regional finals
The Portland baseball team followed up its first district title since 1998 with a second-straight title run to the Division 2 regionals.
The Raiders trailed the host Greyhounds 3-1 in the district finals at Eaton Rapids, but scored eight total runs over the third, fourth and fifth innings to earn a 9-4 victory to win the championship.
The offensive explosion came after Portland's 11-3 rout of Lansing Waverly in the semifinals.
The Raiders also made a day out of Regional Saturday by sticking around to the end.
Portland started the day by topping Owosso 8-5 in the first semifinal of the day at DeWitt High School. Senior pitcher Zach Pung picked up the victory, finishing his final season on the mound with an 8-0 record.
The Raiders fell by a score of 2-1 in the final to Thornapple-Kellogg. Sophomore Andrew Click, who is usually behind the plate as the No. 1 catcher for Portland, started on the mound and threw a complete game in the loss.
Many of Portland's key players will be back for the 2013 season.
9. Redskins end drought
The Saranac baseball team ended a 34-year drought on June 2 when they rallied from a 5-1 deficit to defeat Maple Valley 8-5 to win the District 89 championship.
Although the season would end for the Redskins one week later, due to a 9-2 loss to Olivet in the regional semifinals, winning their first postseason title since 1978 was a positive end to a year where the Redskins got off to a rough start.
Saranac entered regular-season play in late March with key players sidelined due to injury. Once healthy, the Redskins finished league play strong and earned a spot in the 2012 Central Michigan Athletic Conference Showcase.
After falling in the opening round of the league tournament, the Redskins finished the regular season with a doubleheader sweep against Montabella and a pair of losses to neighboring Ionia. They kicked off the postseason by knocking off Fennville 20-6 in five innings in the opening round of district play.
That next Saturday, Saranac knocked off Delton-Kellogg 3-0 in the semifinals, then topped the Lions for the title.
8. Facelift in Belding
The athletic facilities in Belding got an extreme makeover in 2012.
Construction of a new gymnasium, baseball and softball facilities, and upgrades to Rudness Field were completed by the beginning of the school year and the fall sports season.
The gym includes brand new locker rooms and training rooms for athletes, coaches and trainers, as well as a weight training facility. An indoor track wraps around the balcony, which is available to the public.
There are also tables and chairs in corners of the balcony for visitors to sit and enjoy a snack while watching games.
The playing surface at Rudness was replaced with field turf, like what the Detroit Lions play on at Ford Field. Play clocks and a new scoreboard were also installed around the field.
While the Redskin football, boys soccer, volleyball, girls basketball and boys basketball teams got a chance to use the new and
upgraded facilities in 2012, the baseball and softball teams will have to wait until this spring to see action on their new fields.
7. No. 3 in Division 3
Despite jumping from Division 4 to Division 3, the Pewamo-Westphalia girls track team did what they have done for the last three seasons, earned top three finishes in the state finals.
One year after finishing second to Fowler and two removed from winning the championship in Division 4, the Lady Pirates put together another strong showing in the biggest meet of the year, finishing third behind Frankenmuth and Benzie Central in Division 3.
At the meet, senior Kristie Wieber picked up her fourth state title in the pole vault, clearing a height of 11' 7". Kenzie Wieber finished in fifth (10' 10"), Brianne Schafer took sixth (10' 10") and Sasha Platte earned eighth (9' 10"), all earning all-state honors in the event.
Rachel Schmitt finished second in the long jump, with a leap of 17' 2.75", while Kenzie Wieber finished eighth in the 100 Dash (13.11).
The P-W relay team of Schmitt, Cammie Noeker, Sarah Barrett and Kenzie Wieber finished second in the 800 Relay (1:46.51), while the quartet of Schmitt, Platte, Kenzie Wieber and Tori Klein took third in the 400 Relay (50.55). The team of Erica Nurenberg, Noeker, Marissa Wirth and Jenna Thelen finished fourth in the 1,600 Relay (4:08.37).
6. Familiar territory for Pirates
The Pewamo-Westphalia football team had so much fun during their run to the Division 7 football finals in 2011, they decided to make another playoff run in 2012.
Although their season ended one game short of Ford Field, falling 8-7 to an Ishpeming team that went on to win the state title over Detroit Loyola, the season was another success for the Pirates.
Unlike its 2011 campaign, P-W did not enter the playoffs undefeated. With a tougher non-conference schedule and a challenging Central Michigan Athletic Conference slate, the Pirates went 6-3 this past fall. Their losses came at the hands of 2011 Division 5 runner-up Lansing Catholic, Division 8 runner-up Fowler and defending Division 8 champion Mendon.
However, once the postseason began, P-W started to roll, defeating Union City (42-13) and Gobles (48-12) in district play. In the regional finals, the Pirates edged out Decatur 26-21.
5. Lady Pirates find smooth sailing
The 2012 Pewamo-Westphalia varsity volleyball team put together a strong season that saw the Pirates follow another Central Michigan Athletic Conference championship with district and regional titles.
P-W finished the regular season with an impressive record of 45-3-3, going unbeaten in CMAC play. The Pirates then earned wins over Northpointe Christian and Carson City-Crystal to capture the District 80 title.
P-W's incredible season continued the next week as they picked up a win victory over Grand Rapids Covenant Christian in the regional semifinals. Although the Pirates dropped their first two sets of the postseason in the finals, they were still able to pick up a victory, defeating Muskegon West Michigan Christian 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 16-25, 15-8 to capture another postseason trophy.
The season would come to a close five days later as P-W fell in the Class C quarterfinals to Unionville-Sebawaing. The Pirates finished with a record of 49-4-3.
4. Shamrock ladies return to Breslin
With its 46-31 state quarterfinal win over Leland back in March, the Portland St. Patrick girls basketball team returned to the Breslin Student Event Center in East Lansing for the first time since 2006, earning a spot in the Class D state semifinals.
Tori Goodrich and Sidney Hill each scored 10 points for the Lady 'Rocks to help them end a four-season stretch in which they were unable to advance into the final four of the Class D tournament.
In the semifinals, St. Pats went up against defending state champion Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes.
The Lakers took a 17-10 lead after one, but the Shamrocks rebounded by outscoring Waterford 10-7 in the second to cut their deficit to seven at the break. Despite pulling back to within a field goal of tying the game multiple times in the second half, the Lakers were able to counter with runs to keep themselves in the lead en route to a 54-44 win.
Despite the loss, the Lady Rocks finished with a successful season after some struggles earlier in the year. They entered the state tournament with a 14-6 record, but set the tone in the district semifinals, holding Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart, who was ranked 4th in the final Class D state rankings of the season, under 30 points as St. Pats earned a 41-29 win.
From there they defeated Fulton for the district title, then topped Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran and Fruitport Calvary Christian in the regional tournament.
3. Eight is enough for St. Pats
With a jump to the ranks of 8-player football, the Portland St. Patrick squad looked to be competitive in their new league.
What the Shamrocks did was simply dominate.
In its first season in the new format, St. Pats went 9-0 in the regular season and 11-1 overall in 2012.
The Shamrocks' lone loss came against eventual 8-player state champion Deckerville in the tournament semifinals. After trailing 22-0 in the second quarter, the Shamrocks scored 22 unanswered points to force overtime. After both teams scored and converted on two-point tries in the first extra session, the Eagles ended the game with the only score of the second OT.
During their 11-game winning streak, the Shamrocks earned three wins over Battle Creek St. Philip, one in their homecoming game on a late touchdown. They also defeated Southern-Michigan 8-Man Conference rivals Tekonsha, Burr Oak and Waldron twice.
St. Pats opened the postseason by earning a 54-28 win over Marine City Cardinal Mooney in the program's first playoff game since 1999. The Shamrocks then defeated St. Philip 34-28 to win the regional title.
2. Swabbing the deck with the competition
The Pewamo-Westphalia boys basketball team almost matched the feat of the Pirate football team during the 2011-12 school year.
On the court, P-W swept through the regular season, finishing 20-0 against a tough slate of Central Michigan Athletic Conference opponents. The Pirates then defeated Laingsburg for a third time to earn a district title, then stretched their winning streak to 25 as they won a regional title.
They played at University Arena, home of the Western Michigan University Broncos, in the Class C quarterfinal game, where they suffered their first setback of the year, a 55-52 loss to Schoolcraft.
During their run, P-W defeated the Wolf Pack three times, picking up a four-point win and a pair of seven-point victories over its rival. The Pirates also earned a pair of wins over Fulton, including a 52-51 victory on a buzzer beater by sophomore guard Nick Spitzley.
In the quarterfinal game against the Eagles, P-W got off to a slow start, but every time it looked like Schoolcraft was ready to put the game away, the Pirates found a way to keep the game within reach. Senior Justin Thelen opened the second half with a pair of 3-pointers to erase a 29-23 halftime deficit, but the Eagles put together another run and never gave up the lead.
For the student athletes who played on both the P-W football and boys basketball teams during the 2011-12 school year, they got to be part of 38 victories and two losses combined between their fall and winter sports seasons.
1. Championship week
Members of the Lakewood volleyball and Portland football teams had a little extra to be thankful for during their Thanksgiving weekends as both squads earned state titles one week apart from each other.
The Vikings started the week by finishing off an impressive postseason run by beating North Branch on Nov. 17 for the Class B title. The Raiders topped Grand Rapids West Catholic to finish a unforgettable season by carrying home the Division 5 state championship trophy on Nov. 26.
Lakewood was a favorite heading, into the 2012 Class B tournament as the No. 1-ranked team in Class B. However, they had to get by No. 7 Wayland in the district tournament, then No. 6 Holland Christian and No. 2 Forest Hills Eastern to win the regional title.
After defeating Berrien Springs in Allegan in the quarterfinals, the Lady Vikes moved on to Kellogg Arena for the state semifinals and finals. In both contests they didn't to drop a single set, topping Dearborn Divine Child 25-22, 25-16, 25-23; and North Branch 25-20, 25-18, 25-17.
The state title was the first for the Lakewood volleyball program.
The Raiders blew out Leslie (48-6) and Olivet (36-0) to win the first district title in program history, but were underdogs in the regional final against defending Division 5 state champion Flint Powers, who finished the season as the No. 1 team in the division.
Portland trailed the Chargers by two scores in the second half before rattling off 31-unanswered points to earn a 42-28 victory, and end the Chargers 19-game winning streak.
The win earned the Raiders a spot in the state semifinals in Howell, where once again their defense buckled down and slowed down Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard in the second half, leading to a 28-23 win.
In the final against the Falcons, the Raiders scored two touchdowns, including an improbable 94-yard pass from quarterback Tanner Allison to Auston Brandt, and the defense made sure it stood for a 12-9 victory. West Catholic had averaged 20.5 points per game heading into the finals.
The team state championship is the first in Portland High School history.


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Nativity Scenes Liven Centuries-Old French Village
The small French village of Flavigny was dark and quiet around Christmas time until a resident organized a Nativity wonderland. There are 85 Nativity scenes in the windows of village houses and a treasure map to help visitors find them.
The medieval village of Flavigny, France has livened up its winter streets with nativity scenes, 85 of them exhibited in windows of houses throughout the town. This centuries-old village has been doing this for five years now and it's bringing in crowds of tourists.
NPR's Eleanor Beardsley was one of them and she sent us this Christmas postcard.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: With a population of around 240 in the wintertime, the cobbled streets of Flavigny can seem austere and empty this time of year. Not anymore. Now it's picturesque lanes are full of old folks and young, following treasure maps to find the village's nativity scenes. The Guyot children - five, six and eight - love it.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: It's the second time we've come and it's really great. We saw Jesus and his mama and papa, the kids say.
Now when the winter sun goes down, Flavigny comes to life, says resident Genest Brigand, who had the idea of the nativity contest.
GENEST BRIGAND: (Through translator) Usually it's dark early and everyone closes up their houses early here. But thanks to the nativity scenes, all the windows are lit up and everyone comes out and comes over.
BEARDSLEY: Like the Kida family - mother, son and his wife, who've traveled 30 miles from the town of Avallon.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: It's like a treasure hunt, they say. And it reminds of us our youth. We may go home as poor as we came, but we will have filled our eyes to the brim.
From life-size to miniscule, the nativity scenes are astoundingly creative and different. There is one made from Playmobil characters, another sculpted only from the wire and metallic wrapping of champagne corks, and still another made from computer parts.
BEARDSLEY: In 719, a Benedictine abbey was established in Flavigny and monks are still a regular fixture in village life.
BRIGAND: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Nativity scene contest founder Brigand says you can tell the difference between the religious and not religious villagers, according to whether they put Jesus in the manger before Christmas or on Christmas. But everyone got it wrong by putting out the Wise Men too early, he says, laughing.
BEARDSLEY: Well, it's just great to walk around this little medieval village that's usually pretty quiet this time of year. But it's just so lively tonight, dozens and dozens if not hundreds of people roaming the streets and looking at all the little beautiful nativity scenes.
SARAH PAGE: Ah, this is the one the monks did. Ah, oui, there's no Jesus in this one. That's for sure, yeah.
BEARDSLEY: Sarah Page, originally from Vermont, has had a house in Flavigny since 1970. Her nativity scene is a photo of the village. She's spliced in pictures of her family and called it a Noel Particulier, which she explains is a Christmas you don't really know what to do with.
There's my ex-husband on the side and he died in April. And so, to me, it was not possible to have a family without him. But he's there as a spirit. You can see through him. And that's his dog and my son. And then that's my ex-husband's last wife. I didn't know whether she wanted to be with us at Christmas or not, so she's sort of looking into space, and then my daughter and her husband and their baby, who is Jesus.
Bonjour, Monsieur.
JEAN LUC PETIT: Bonjour, Madam.
BEARDSLEY: The next window features a nativity scene crafted from iron by the village blacksmith, Jean Luc Petit.
PETIT: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: I did this by hand with scrap pieces of iron, he says.
Petit says it took him a month to build it, and he's not putting out his iron baby Jesus till Christmas Day.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Flavigny, France.
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


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My daughter is singing at The Royal Wedding today, Saturday, with her class.
(Princess Madeleine, second daughter of the King and Queen of Sweden, is marrying New Yorker, Chris O'Neill.)
Yesterday, she was all geared up for the dress rehearsal
And in a happy mood.
Of course, Oscar had to escort her to the station
To make sure she got to the church on time.
For more royal guests, please visit: Camera Critters.
As you can imagine,it's a busy weekend so please excuse me if I don't get round to visiting you.
UPDATE: If you're interested in seeing the class' performance, then you can see a short video here.


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Carin Berger's The Little Yellow Leaf has had a spot on my "best picture books about fall" list on its publication in 2008, when the New York Times named in one of the Best Illustrated Books of the year. So I'm happy to report that independent booksellers recently have chosen it as one of their 40 favorite children's books of the past 40 years. Berger's lovely story about an oak leaf that doesn't want to leave its branch also works beautifully as a parable about the value of teamwork.
October 17, 2010
Carin Berger's 'The Little Yellow Leaf' Honored by Booksellers
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Are you a huge Washington Nationals fan? Then show it to every person that gets into your car with these quality heavy duty vinyl car mats. These car mats are constructed from 100% vinyl with your teams logo embossed in 3D using true team colors. All our mats are officially licensed and approved by the team & league before they are ever offered to the public. In addition each set is constructed with a non-slip backing which gives the Floor Mat excellent grip on your car floor.
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The Washington Nationals returned to town Tuesday night after a lengthy road trip that was preceded by the traditional All Star break — a two week stretch that represented the longest break of the season between games at Nationals Park.
With the trade deadline looming, it's the season for surprise moves, and some fans arrived at Nationals Park expecting to see changes by general manager Mike Rizzo before the homestand concludes; but few expected a wholesale makeover of the presidents race roster.
Yet there it was on Tuesday night. Over the All Star break, every member of the Nationals racing presidents received a facelift.
The oversized caricatures of the Rushmores that first appeared in 2006 were gone — now replaced by slightly more cartoonish, smiling figures.
Was it a rumored licensing dispute with the designer that led to the change, or did the team simply think Abe Lincoln was just too menacing for the kiddies? Both the originals and the new-look racing presidents were created by Randy Carfagno Productions in New York.
No explanation yet from the Nats.
Readers – What do you think of the new "botox smile" look?
New presidents photo by Flickr member Randy Carfagno


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Cirque du Soleil Performer Dies after Fall in Las Vegas
Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.
A Paris-born performer in Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" died after a fall during a show in Las Vegas.
Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.
Witnesses told the Las Vegas Sun that the accident occurred near the end of the production Saturday night at the MGM Grand.
Visitor Dan Mosqueda of Colorado Springs, Colo., said the 31-year-old acrobatic performer was being hoisted up the side of the stage when it appeared that she slipped free of her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the stage.
"Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the (show)," he told the Sun.
"But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage."
The show momentarily continued, then stopped. Minutes after the accident, a recorded announcement informed audience members that refunds or vouchers to future shows would be offered, and the crowd was dismissed.
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte issued a statement Sunday praising Guyard-Guillot and saying performances of "Ka" have been canceled until further notice.
Guyard-Guillot, a mother of two children, had been with the original cast of "Ka" since 2006, and had been an acrobatic performer for over 20 years.
"I am heartbroken. I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family. We are all completely devastated," Laliberte said. "We are reminded with great humility and respect how extraordinary our artists are each and every night. Our focus now is to support each other as a family."
Cirque officials are working with authorities investigating the accident and have offered their full cooperation, he added. The Clark County Coroner's Office will rule on the cause of death.
The MGM Grand also issued a statement concerning the accident.
"Our company is deeply saddened by the loss of one of the talented KA artists Saturday night," it reads. "The thoughts and prayers of our employees are with the performer's family, the cast of KA, and the entire Cirque family during this difficult time."
The accident occurred while Cirque's top executives, including president Daniel Lamarre, were in Las Vegas to celebrate the premiere of "Michael Jackson One" at Mandalay Bay.
On Wednesday night, a performer in a preview performance of that show suffered a mild concussion after missing the protective pad below an act and landing on the stage. That artist is expected to return to the show.


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Summer holidays, how I love thee! I fully admit to being MIA from the blogosphere, but it's for such a good reason : Sunshine! After nearly 9 months of rain we're finally drying out and enjoying a beautiful sun. In fact, there have only been a few rainy days since the beginning of summer holidays two weeks ago.
I have been keeping up with my favourite blogs, but please don't be sadfaced if you've not been receiving comments as per my usual – I'm just trying my best to be a full-time mostly-on-vacation mum to one very energetic 4 year-old who would so enjoy having a back garden to play in! As some of you know, we live in a tiny flat in the city, so from the moment Guppy is fed and dressed we pretty much head out the door for the park or the forest or the castle grounds…taking advantage of some real quality time together since school is (mostly) out for both of us.
Enough blahblah!
You may remember I gave you a sneak peak at the gifts I was working on for Guppy's teachers. Well, let's just say that I wasn't getting the embroidery done fast enough and I found myself the day before the last day of school with the gifts not completed. I then made an executive decision to change plans and just make two cute little pencil-case sized pouches and fill them with vegan chocolate. I asked Guppy how she felt about this and her only reply was, "Make something with hearts.". Ok, fair enough.
Because I don't have any fabric with hearts on it I had to go with the appliqué method, which looked really cute I think. I just cut out two hearts per trousse – one larger in purple vegan felt, the other in lavender cotton.
I hope they liked them. Or at least the chocolate in them!
Don't you love the wonderful blurry hurry-up-take-the-picture-we're-late-for-school picture quality? You know you do! It's like a crazy-crafting action movie I tell you.
Having Guppy at home with me all day has really put a few speed-bumps in my crafting time, mostly because she just needs to get outside and play. I'm sure once the rain is back I'll be crafting up a real storm again…
Are you crafting away, despite the beautiful sunshine and warm temps? Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don't forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.


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7. DURATION OF EXCLUSIVE WARRANTY. The Exclusive Limited Warranty set forth above is valid and effective for one year (12 months) from the date of delivery of the Equipment to Purchaser. Any alleged Equipment defects in material or workmanship that are identified more than one year (12 months) after the date of delivery are not covered by this Exclusive Limited Warranty. USA SSC's warranties shall not be effective if USA SSC has determined, in its sole discretion, that Purchaser or any End User has misused the Equipment in any manner, has failed to install and use the Equipment in accordance with industry standards and practices, or has failed to use the Equipment in accordance with the instructions, if any, furnished by USA SSC.
8. VOIDING OF WARRANTY. The Exclusive Limited Warranty does not cover damage to Equipment caused directly or indirectly by improper installation of security cameras, lightning strikes, power surges, vandalism, product modifications, abuse or misuse, including failure to provide reasonable and necessary maintenance, intentional or accidental damage to the Equipment resulting from the application of the wrong voltage to the system, reverse polarity or power surges. Any removal of product tags or serial numbers will result in voiding the warranty.
9. USA SSC IS NOT AN INSURER. USA SSC is not an insurer. It is recommended that the End User or owner of the property or premises to be protected by the use of the Equipment obtain insurance in amounts and with appropriate coverage for such End User. The sales price for the Equipment is based upon the limited liability USA SSC assumes with respect to the Equipment and is unrelated to the value of a Purchaser or any End User's property or the property of others located in a Purchaser or End User's premises. In the event of any loss or injury to any persons or property other than a loss covered by the Exclusive Limited Warranty, each of Purchaser and any End User agree to look exclusively to its insurer to recover damages. Each of the Purchaser and any End User waives all subrogation and other rights of recovery against USA SSC that any insurer or other person may have as a result of paying any claim for loss or injury to any other person.
11. HOLD HARMLESS. Purchaser agrees to indemnify and hold harmless USA SSC, its employees, agents, successors, officers, and assigns, from and against any suits, losses, claims, demands, liabilities, costs and expenses (including attorney and accounting fees) that USA SSC may sustain or incur as a result of any claim against USA SSC based upon negligence, breach of warranty, strict liability in tort, contract, or any other theory of law brought by Purchaser, its officers, agents, employees, successors or assigns, by Purchaser's Purchasers, by End Users, or by other third parties, arising out of, directly or indirectly, the use of USA SSC's Equipment, or 4 by reason of Purchaser's failure to perform any obligations with respect to the Equipment. Purchaser shall notify USA SSC in writing within fifteen (15) days of Purchaser's receipt of knowledge of any accident, or incident involving USA SSC's Equipment which results in personal injury or damage to property, and Purchaser shall fully cooperate with USA SSC in the investigation and determination of the cause of such accident and shall make available to USA SSC all statements, reports and tests made by Purchaser or made available to Purchaser by others. The furnishing of such information to USA SSC and any investigation by USA SSC of such information or incident report shall not in any way constitute any assumption of any liability for such accident or incident by USA SSC.
12. OTHER PARTY'S LIMITATION. If Purchaser purchased USA SSC'S equipment through another business or person or from USA SSC through a referral from another business or person, Purchaser agrees and acknowledges that such other business or person acted solely as an independent contractor. Such business or person did not and shall not be deemed to have had any authority to create any obligation or liability on behalf of USA SSC to Purchaser with respect to the Equipment and was not authorized by USA SSC to make any warranty with respect to the Equipment other than set forth herein. Purchaser agrees that the liability of such other business or person is, in any event, limited in accordance with the provisions of this agreement. Purchaser agrees that such business or person and its assignees, agents, employees, subsidiaries, affiliates and parent companies may invoke all of USA SSC'S rights under these paragraphs.
13. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. At Purchaser's request, USA SSC may, at USA SSC's discretion, furnish technical assistance and information with respect to the Equipment. USA SSC MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND OR NATURE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY USA SSC OR USA SSC'S PERSONNEL. ANY SUGGESTIONS BY USA SSC REGARDING USE, SELECTION, APPLICATION OR SUITABILITY OF THE EQUIPMENT SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS AN EXPRESS WARRANTY OR A WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE UNLESS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNATED AS SUCH IN A WRITING SIGNED BY AN OFFICER OR OTHER AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF USA SSC.
14. THIRD PARTY INSTALLATIONS. USA SSC makes no warranty or representation that the Equipment will function properly after its installation by Purchaser or any other third party.
15. ENTIRE CONTRACT. This contract constitutes the entire contract. The terms and conditions of this contract apply as printed without alteration or qualification, unless a change is approved in writing by USA SSC'S authorized representative. The terms and conditions of this contract shall govern even if purchaser submitted a purchase order or other document with inconsistent or additional terms and conditions.
16. GOVERNING LAW. All disputes as to the legality, interpretation, application, or performance of this contract or any of its terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia including its conflict of laws principles. Each party agrees that any dispute arising between them which results in either party instituting court proceedings shall be litigated in either the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or in the Circuit Court for the County of Lancaster, Virginia. 23140804
Bullet Cameras
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 720p (1MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, Dark Grey HousingSKU: US-TV10WB42-G
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 720p (1MP), 3.6mm lens, IP66, IR Working Distance 15M (49 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV10WB03-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 1080p (2MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV20WB12-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 720p (1MP), 3.6mm lens, IP66, IR Working Distance 25M (80 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV10WB41-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 1080p (2MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV20WB42-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 720p (1MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV10WB12-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 1080p (2MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, Dark Grey HousingSKU: US-TV20WB42-G
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 1080p (2MP), 3.6mm lens, IP66, IR Working Distance 15M (49 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV20WB03-W
HD-TVI Camera, Indoor/Outdoor Bullet Camera, 720p (1MP), 2.8-12mm varifocal lens, IP66, IR (Working Distance 45M (147 feet), 12VDC, NTSC, White HousingSKU: US-TV10WB42-W


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One thing we're asked frequently (other then "When is Teddy gonna win?") is whether the entire presidents race is scripted in advance.
When I respond that Nationals Park PA announcer Jerome Hruska really calls the game live and unscripted, some people find that hard to believe.
So when the Nationals hosted several bloggers at the park last weekend, I made a special last-minute request, and the Nats were happy to oblige.
During the 4th-inning presidents race, the Nats allowed us to bring two video cameras up to the control room at
Nationals Park, to give Let Teddy Win readers an inside look at the calling of the GEICO presidents race.
High above the field, a small army of directors, statisticians, and engineers communicates with camera operators and entertainment staff stationed throughout the park, mixing the feed live for the 101-foot HD scoreboard over the centerfield bleachers.
Behind a soundproof door, Hruska reads a script introducing the presidents race video, but from that point forward, the script just reads "(RACE)."
Video below. Thanks to Chad Kurz and the Washington Nationals for letting LTW readers behind the scenes.


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The types of telephone fraud that are most common now are:
The IRS Scam - A very common type of fraud. The scammer says he is an IRS agent and threatens to freeze assets. He will also try to get information from you to steal your personal data. The IRS will never make a phone call to get bank card numbers.
Tech Support Scam - Scam in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate technical support service. They will try to steal your personal information for example under the guise of fixing computer problems.
Debt Collection Calls- In this type of fraud, they impersonate debt collectors and demand money from you that you don't owe. They threatened people with lawsuits and jail time to collect debts that didn't exist.
Real Estate and Timeshares - These phone scammers typically call with an "investment opportunity" and attempt to make themselves seem like legitimate potential returns. Scammers will usually offer victims a too good to be true price for their timeshares, pressuring these owners to seize a one-time opportunity to cash out on their investments.
Sweepstake Prize Winnings - They request credit card and personal information to save your booking. Never tell your personal data by phone!
Charity Donations - Using your compassion, fake charities use this to their advantage. They will steal your money without giving anything to a person who really needed help.
Student Debt, Loans, and Credit - Scammers can offer you an advance fee loans, reduce the interest rate on a credit card. They may also offer credit card security. These are all fraudulent tricks, do not give them the details of bank cards.
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Florida man wakes up in California motel with amnesia
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Doctors are looking into the mystery of a Florida man who awoke speaking only Swedish, with no memory of his past, after he was found unconscious four months ago at a Southern California motel.
Michael Boatwright, 61, woke up with amnesia, calling himself Johan Ek, The Desert Sun reported (http://mydesert.co/145PNGw ).
Boatwright was found unconscious in a Motel 6 room in Palm Springs in February. After police arrived, he was transported to the Desert Regional Medical Center where he woke up.
Hospital officials said Boatwright may have been in town for a tennis tournament in the Coachella Valley. He was found with a duffel bag of exercise clothes, a backpack and tennis rackets. He also carried four forms of identification — a passport, a California identification card, a veteran's medical card and a Social Security card — all of which identified him as Michael Thomas Boatwright.
Palm Springs police have documented his information in case anyone lists Boatwright as missing or wanted, authorities said.
In March, doctors diagnosed Boatwright with Transient Global Amnesia, a condition triggered by physical or emotional trauma that can last for several months.
The rare mental disorder is characterized by memory loss, "sudden and unplanned travel," and possible adoption of a new identity, according to the Sun.
After an extensive search, medical personnel and social workers have been unable to locate Boatwright's next of kin. Authorities are still unsure of his birthplace, listed on his identification as Florida. Photos show him in Sweden at a young age.
The Desert Sun (http://mydesert.co/190FGEU ) reported it had located Boatwright's sister in Louisiana but she was unable to shed any light on what had happened to him.
"I haven't talked to him in years. He just disappeared," Michelle Brewer said Monday in a telephone interview.
Brewer estimated she had last spoken to her brother about 10 years ago and couldn't even get in touch with him when their mother died last year.
"He's always been just a wanderer," Brewer said. "Then he'd come back when he needed some money or something from somebody. Then he'd take off again."
Swedish public records show Boatwright lived in the Nordic country on and off between 1981 and 2003. Several Swedes on Tuesday said they knew of him as an American with a big interest in medieval history and jousting.
Swede Olof Sahlin said he met Boatwright around 1985 through their joint interest in medieval history. He said he saw the American at jousting events regularly in the 1980s and sporadically in the early 1990s.
"He was nice, sympathetic and talented at fighting in plate armor," Sahlin told The Associated Press. "A little bit reserved maybe."
Sahlin said he never knew how Boatwright made a living during his time in Sweden but has now heard from other friends that he briefly worked as a personal assistant and in the construction sector.
Sahlin said their last contact was in 1999 and he doesn't know what happened to him after that.
Boatwright doesn't recall how to exchange money, take public transportation or seek temporary housing like homeless shelters or hotels, the social worker assigned to his case, Lisa Hunt-Vasquez, told the Sun.
He doesn't remember his son and two ex-wives, either.
He has no income or insurance, further complicating his treatment at Desert Regional. And he has little money he can access — only $180. He also has a few Chinese bank accounts but can only access one account, which holds $7, according to the newspaper.
Doctors don't know how much longer he will be able to stay at the center. Aside from his amnesia, Boatwright is in good health. The hospital is currently looking for alternatives that would keep him off the streets. For now, Boatwright is unsure of both his past and his future.
"Sometimes it makes me really sad and sometimes it just makes me furious about the whole situation and the fact that I don't know anybody, I don't recognize anybody," Boatwright told the newspaper.
Last year, a North Dakota college student who disappeared for nearly a week before turning up in Arizona said she had a bout of amnesia and didn't know who she was.
Amber Glatt, 22, a Valley City State University student, vanished on the Fourth of July, prompting aerial searches. She contacted her mother five days later from the Grand Canyon. Her mother said Glatt has had recurring amnesia since suffering a head injury years ago.
Glatt told WDAY-TV (http://bit.ly/NmbSnR) that after she lost her memory she met a man in a bar who let her tag along on his trip to the Grand Canyon. She said the man eventually saw online that she'd been reported missing and alerted her.
Glatt regained most of her memory.


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Floyd hasn't been posting betting slips lately, but if this is true he might want to let the world see.
Can you imagine going into the 4th quarter knowing you are about to blow $1.8 million? Regardless of how much money you have, you don't want to blow almost $2 million.
On the flip side can you imagine Money Mayweather watching the Clippers amazing comeback with all that money on the line?
That is why gambling is so addictive.
If Mayweather keeps winning in the ring, at the sportsbook and with his fiancée Ms. Jackson. Have you seen here?
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Found 20 results
Filters: First Letter Of Last Name is S [Clear All Filters]
Per Capita Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions: How and Why do States Differ?. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona., 2010.
Scenario Development for Water Resources Planning and Management. In Changes in Water Resources Systems: Methodologies to Maintain Water Security and Ensure Integrated Management. Wallingford, UK: International Association of Hydrological Sciences, pp. 192-198., 2007.
Climate Change Impacts on High Elevation Saguaro Range Expansion. Journal of Arid Environments , 116, pp.57-62., 2015.
Drought and Declining Reservoirs: Comparing Media Discourse in Arizona and New Mexico, 2002-2004. Global Environmental Change, 16, pp.95-113., 2006.
Biologists bring water to species hurt by drought. Southwest Climate Outlook, 4(1), pp.2-4., 2005.
The Climate of the Southwest, Tucson, AZ: Climate Assessment for the Southwest, University of Arizona., 1999.
The Climate of the U.S. Southwest. Climate Research, 21(3), pp.219-318., 2002.
The Value of Remoteness: a Hedonic Estimation of Ranchette Prices. Ecological Economics, 44(1), pp.91-103., 2003.
Water Security and Adaptive Management in the Arid Americas. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(2), pp.280-289., 2013.
Farm and Ecological Resilience to Water Supply Variability. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, 151(1), pp.70-83., 2013.
Farm Resilience to Water Supply Variability: An Econometric Analysis of Risk Management Strategies in the Mexicali Valley, Mexico. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona., 2012.
A Dry El Niño Winter. END InSight, 2(2), pp.4-6., 2003.
Wet winter? Dry winter? What's the scoop?. END InSight, 1(3), pp.4-5., 2002.
Predicting El Niño. END InSight, 1(6), pp.1-2., 2002.


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France shootings: Homegrown terrorism takes centre stage (part 3)
Issued on: Modified:
Twice, the alleged shooter in Toulouse went to Afghanistan. François Picard's panel examines what we know about 24-year old Mohammed Merah and asks whether he was "self-radicalized" as the state prosecutor claims or acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda.
- Elaine Cobbe, CBS news
- Hall Gardner, International Politics Professor, American University of Paris
- Sébastien Baer, Journalist, France Info
- Peter Neumann, Security Studies Professor, King's College
- Alain Lamballe, Former Military Attaché to India and Pakistan
- Georja Calvin-Smith, Journalist, France 24
- Christopher Moore, Journalist, France 24
Program prepared and produced by Christopher Davis, Molly Hall and Mary Colombel
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe


text:
Movie review: Weak script can't kill 'Gangster Squad'
A smart screenwriter might have used the stylish but empty-headed shoot-'em-up "Gangster Squad" to draw a relevant correlation between the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden and the city of Los Angeles' Constitution-be-damned vendetta against famed mobster Mickey Cohen. But then I'm betting no one ever suspected scripter Will Beall of being Mensa material.
Instead of following in the steps of "Zero Dark Thirty" and creating a fascinating moral quandary over whether the ends justify the means in bringing down a mass murderer, Beall uses his "inspired-by-true-events" chronicling of L.A.'s controversial Gangster Squad – a group of six cops given carte blanche to use any means necessary to rid their city of "undesirables" – to merely crack wise and create numerous scenarios aimed at tapping out Hollywood's voluminous fake-blood supply. Nowhere will you find a splattering of gray matter. That's because brains aren't permitted anywhere near the opulent post-World War II sets.
Brawn, however, is abundant, along with slumming actors anxious to play dress-up and collect a large paycheck. It's a virtual who's who of talent, led by an over-emoting Sean Penn as Cohen, a Brooklyn-born Jew who rose to become the West Coast's most notorious mobster following the gangland slaying of his close pal and partner, Bugsy Siegel. Together, they helped found the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, but in L.A. they were the kingpins of drug-running, prostitution and, of course, murder. In the late 1940s, no cop, politician or judge dared to bring Cohen down, largely because most of them were on the payroll. An exception was straitlaced L.A. Police Chief William Parker (Nick Nolte), a devout Catholic inflicted with a touch of paranoia toward his perceived Jewish critics.
According to the film, which is loosely based on a book by former Los Angeles Times reporter Paul Lieberman, it was Parker's idea (actually, it was C.B. Horrall's, Parker's predecessor) to set up a clandestine squad of clean cops to go rogue and bring down Cohen and his lieutenants through any – legal or illegal – means.
Heading the hand-picked Mission: Impossible-like team is Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a war hero determined to make the city safe for his soon-to-be-born child. As his second, he selects the flashy, womanizing Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling, often sounding like he's inhaling helium); and to finish out the crew, he appoints a rainbow coalition of specialists, from wire-tap expert Conwell Keeler (an overly bookish Giovanni Ribisi), aging marksman Max Kennard (a grizzled Robert Patrick), switchblade-wielding Coleman Harris (Gosling's "Half Nelson" co-star Anthony Mackie) and the young-and-green newbie, Navidad Ramirez (a wasted Michael Pena). Completing this embarrassment of acting riches is smoky Emma Stone (looking like a real-life Jessica Rabbit) as Cohen's luscious moll, Grace Faraday, the film's lone fictional character and convenient love interest for her "Crazy, Stupid, Love" love interest, Gosling. Any comparisons to Veronica Lake and Lauren Bacall are welcome, particularly when she's dropping sultry lines like, "I think I'll go bend my elbow while you boys bend your ears."
To the credit of director Ruben Fleischer ("Zombieland"), he wastes little time setting up the premise and introducing the players. And for a while, he keeps things moving at a brisk pace, taking full advantage of his ensemble's universal wit and charm. But as the movie drags on and turns into more of a 1940s fashion show in which the actors become clothes horses instead of living, breathing characters, "Gangster Squad" quickly runs out of steam. Its jarring attempts to lace the drama with Tarantino-type humor and sardonic violence (a mob fink chained to two cars and pulled apart like a wishbone) only add to the growing frustration.
The most glaring flaw, though, is the utter lack of rhyme and reason in how the squad goes about its business. It needn't be anything as intricate or complex as TV's "The Wire," but the only inkling of strategy we get comes via recurring scenes of the gang foolishly storming into harm's way with machine guns afire. It's as nonsensical as Penn's over-the-top portrayal of Cohen, who, by all reports, was nothing like the big-mouthed Tasmanian devil he couches him to be. And never mind that Penn, 52, is almost two decades older than Cohen was in 1949, the year in which most of "Gangster Squad" is set. But then that's just one of the dozens of factual errors that pop up en route to Cohen's predictable comeuppance.
Still, the film is never anything less than watchable, largely because of its seductively stylish look and bevy of charismatic actors. But in the wake of so many deadly shootings of late, including the tragedies in Newtown and Aurora, the almost unmitigated celebration of violence seems in awfully poor taste. And this despite Fleischer cutting a scene in which gunfire breaks out inside a movie theater, a set piece that was axed and reshot following the events in Aurora, delaying the film's release by four months. Yet, all the blazing weapons and dancing bullet casings would be tolerable if only the paper-thin story didn't make it all seem so gratuitous. For "Gangster Squad" that's the most heinous crime, and it leaves you mournful of what might have been if Hollywood, for once, valued brains more than bullets.
GANGSTER SQUAD (R for strong violence and language.) Cast includes Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Grade: B-


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Perforated Carbonless NCR Forms 2-Part 8.5"x11" Both Side Full Colour
What are NCR Forms?
There are lots of name out there for NCR Forms such as ncr paper, carbonless copies, ncr carbonless, ncr printing, order from printing, forms printing services, custom carbon copy pads, carbonless printing services., customized receipt, form printing, carbon copy pad custom, ncr invoices and the list can go on and on they all means NCR Forms.
An NCR Form is a multi-part form constructed from carbonless copy paper, (aka NCR paper). NCR Forms allow multiple copies of a handwritten or impact-printed document to be created simultaneously. NCR Corporation, a global leader in consumer transaction technology, developed carbonless copy paper…hence the names NCR Forms and NCR Paper.
NCR forms generate quick and inexpensive copies of an original document, so they are popular in the world of business. NCR forms are often used for proposals, contracts, invoices, sales receipts, requisitions, work orders, purchase orders, delivery documents, medical and insurance forms, employment applications, and virtually any other document that requires multiple copies.
NCR forms can be created for use as handwritten forms, which are filled out manually with an ink pen. NCR forms can also be created as continuous forms (aka computer forms), which are fed through an impact printer connected to a computer. The most common NCR forms are 2-part, 3-part and 4-part forms. The sheets that make up an NCR form are often a different color – white, canary, pink, goldenrod, etc. – to clearly identify the original (topmost sheet) and each subsequent copy.
Product Description
The colours of the carbonless forms are the standard white and canary yellow.
You can print full colour on this product. Keep in mind that on the canary yellow page, the colours in your file will overlap with the paper, and result in a slightly different colour.
This product is for a one-sided print. Two-sided carbonless printing is available at request with an additional fee
The turnaround time (excluding shipping) for standard orders is approximately 3 to 5 business days. If you have an urgent turnaround requirement, please contact us.
File Submission
You must submit a FULL ready-to-print file, not only your company header. The entire invoice will be printed based on the file you submit. We will not add to or remove any elements of your ready-to-print file such as titles, boxes, signature spaces etc.
What does the ""Part"" mean in 2-Part and 3-Part?
A 2-part NCR form means that there is one original and one copy. A 3-part NCR form means that there are two copies along with the original.
What are my binding options?
You can either have your NCR forms delivered to you in Loose Sets, Glued Pad with cardboard backer or Perforated HALF/FULL Wrap Around Book with cardboard backing.
Loose Set: If you choose to have your NCR forms delivered to you loose, each ""part"" of one invoice/form will be glued together, but each invoice will be separate from the other.
Glued Pad with Cardboard Backer: If you choose to have your NCR forms delivered to you in glued pad, all invoice/form will be glued together in sets of 50, but each invoice will be separate from the other.
Perforated HALF/FULL Wrap Around Book with Cardboard Backer: If you choose to have your NCR forms delivered to you in perforated wrap around book, all invoice/form will be stapled together in sets of 50 with HALF/FULL wrap around cover, but each invoice will be separate from the other.
There are two ""Quantity"" selections. One option is on this page, and the other is when I check out. What does this mean?
The selection on this page refers to the number of the same form you want. So if you want 1,000 of the same forms, then select QTY 1,000 on this page, and QTY 1 when you check out, indicating one version. If you want two different forms, 2,500 of each, then select QTY 2,500 on this page and QTY 2 when you check out, indicating two versions.


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