Inside the front door of the Baltimore Ravens’
chateau-with-shoulder-pads training center hangs an enormous portrait of
the former owner who still hovers over the franchise and the city as
surely as that oil painting over the big stone fireplace.
You
have to look much harder, and down a hallway, to find a picture of the
current owner, the one whose dollars financed that lavish building, the
one who is quietly accompanying the Ravens to the Super Bowl here this
week.
That man, Steve Bisciotti, 52, is as low-profile as the
8x10 picture of him at a news conference that hangs on an out-of-the-way
wall at the Ravens’ facility. Bisciotti declined interview requests in
the weeks leading to the Super Bowl, and spoke to reporters only after
he arrived here Thursday.Site describes services including Plastic Mould.
So
the conversation this week has been much more about whether the man in
the oil painting, Art Modell, who took the Browns out of Cleveland and
rebranded them the Ravens in Baltimore, will be voted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame on Saturday than about Bisciotti’s first trip to
the game as the primary owner of the team.
“I’m O.K. if I’m one of the least-known owners in sports,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn.” Bisciotti was quoted as saying in the Ravens’ biography of him.
The
last time the Ravens raised the Lombardi Trophy, it was in Modell’s
hands in 2001. Only months before, Bisciotti had become a minority owner
— Modell needed the infusion of cash to secure free agents for that
team — with the promise that he could take majority ownership of the
team in a few years. He stood unobtrusively in the back of a locker room
in Oakland, Calif., as Modell beamed on national television about going
to his first Super Bowl.
On Jan. 20, when the Ravens beat the
Patriots to win the A.F.C. championship, most football fans finally got a
glimpse of Bisciotti, the league’s second-youngest owner and perhaps
its coolest: tanned; hair slicked back; wearing jeans, an open-collared
shirt and a duster coat; gently rubbing the arm of Ray Lewis, who was
draped over his back while wearing a Modell T-shirt.
“In a very
positive way, he is engaged,” said Brian Billick, who was the Ravens’
coach when they won the Super Bowl in 2001. Billick was retained by
Bisciotti when he took over and then was fired by him after the 2007
season. “He built his fortune on relationships and is very much about
that. It’s not a ‘I’m in charge, do what I say’ mentality. It’s an ‘I
don’t care if you’re the ball boy or the head coach, we’ve got to create
partnerships here.’ He hires people he trusts and then keeps a
purposefully, painfully low profile. He never wants to make it about
him.”
Bisciotti grew up near Annapolis, Md.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads
available anywhere., going to Orioles and Colts games — where he sat on
the 10-yard line — with his older brother and sister, and with his
father, Bernard. They would sometimes go to the Colts’ training camp,
where Bisciotti asked players if he could try on their helmets. In the
Ravens’ media guide, there is a picture of a young Bisciotti standing
beside Johnny Unitas.
His father died when Bisciotti was 8, but
Bisciotti’s mother, Patricia, is a huge fan of Baltimore sports teams
and Notre Dame, and she fed her youngest son’s love of sports, although
he played football only briefly in high school.
According to a
profile in Forbes magazine, Bisciotti spent his high school summers
building piers near Baltimore. But at 23, after he graduated from
Salisbury State University, he started a staffing company in a basement
with his cousin. It provided temporary employees — engineers — to the
aerospace and technology industries.
Forbes reported that
Bisciotti became obsessed with making enough money by the time he was 35
so his wife and children would not have to work if he, like his father,
died young. According to the Ravens, the company he started, now known
as the Allegis Group, is the largest privately held staffing concern in
the country. Bisciotti is worth about $1.5 billion, according to
calculations Forbes made last year.
In 2000, Bisciotti purchased
a minority stake in the Ravens, then largely stayed hidden, trying to
learn from Modell. That, Billick said, eased the transition for Ravens
employees who might have been caught in a tense situation.Laser
engravers and laser engraving machine
systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving
marking etching business. Even after Bisciotti took full control of the
team in 2004, Modell was a frequent presence, watching games from a
suite at the stadium and practices from a perch on a golf cart.
“He
treated him with dignity, compassion and made him feel he was still
part of the organization,” the Giants owner John Mara said. “A lot of
owners would not have handled it the same way. They would have loved to
push the guy aside.”
Those at the Ravens who have worked with
Bisciotti say he has a similar gentle touch with his employees. Billick
said Bisciotti would go to the team’s training facility about once a
week, but was just as apt to talk with the receptionist as he was with
Billick or General Manager Ozzie Newsome. Bisciotti is not active in
league matters, sometimes skipping meetings and sending the team
president Dick Cass in his place. And he has stepped out of owners’
meetings, shutting the door behind him, to smoke one of his cigars.
The
former Ravens kicker Matt Stover said he once heard Bisciotti say, “I
know I don’t know football, therefore, I hire people who do,” a
sentiment that Stover respected. Still, Bisciotti put his stamp on the
Ravens when he made the unorthodox decision to hire John Harbaugh, a
special-teams coach, to replace Billick. That reflected his real skill:
making connections.
“He’s got a tremendous ability to have a
good feel of people,” said the former Maryland men’s basketball coach
Gary Williams, who has been a friend of Bisciotti — a passionate
Terrapins fan — for 20 years. “That is a big part of his
decision-making. One of Steve’s strengths is his ability to read people.
I coached a long time, that’s as important as anything I did: getting a
feel for people you’re recruiting, coaches you work with. I just watch
that, it’s a big part of his organization.”
Bisciotti became a
sounding board for Williams when he was coaching, but at basketball
games Bisciotti is thoroughly a fan,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet
with good quality. screaming at officials from courtside. Forbes
reported that he shuttles friends to Maryland games on a private jet.
“He’s a man’s man,” Billick said. “He’ll go drink for drink, cigar for cigar. You’re going to lose that battle, I promise you.”
But
it is at Ravens games that the full snapshot of Bisciotti appears. He
has attended preseason games in shorts and flip-flops, and his closest
friends — many of them from his youth — mingle in his box with his
mother and an occasional priest, a reflection of his strong Catholic
faith and his support of religious charities.
“When you get to
Steve’s level of success, he worked really hard, you’re really grateful
for how far you’ve come, you’re really grateful for the people who
helped you,” said Kevin Plank, a friend of Bisciotti’s and the founder
of the Under Armour apparel company, which is based in Baltimore.
“There’s that idea of sitting around with four buddies in a treehouse —
‘If you hit the lottery, what would you do? I’d buy a team and bring you
guys to games, we’d still hang out on weekends.’ You’d say, ‘Yeah,
right, you’d change.’ ”
2013年1月31日星期四
Jerpoint Abbey is calling you
To understand the true importance of Jerpoint Abbey, Thomastown,
situated after a bend on the road, along the old national primary route
to Waterford (N9),We have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands. you must go back to when it was at the height of its powers before the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s.
And you have to walk around the cloister (the square-shaped covered walk) with the ‘Garth’,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. green area in the centre, and try to imagine the White Monks, their heads bearing the shaved tonsure as they walked in the cloister walkways praying or singing in Gregorian chant. As they passed the beautifully designed and simple structure that have passed down to us, it would have been difficult for them not to be touched by the different images that confronted them as they walked around.
These figures carved in stone include such images as St Anthony of Egypt, the 4th Earl of Ormond, a manticore, a wyvern (legendary winged creature with a dragon’s head, lizard’s body, two legs and a barbed tail), a man with an upset tummy, knights and images of both St Catherine of Alexandria and St Margaret of Antioch. Interestingly both of these female figures are represented three times each in Jerpoint along with a carving of St Mary. These carvings echo some drawings found on medieval manuscripts.
It was very much an all-male, hierarchical system with the under-classed, lay brothers not allowed into the cloister and living in a separate area outside the inner sanctum. And let’s put one thing to rest. St Nicholas (now known as Santa) was not buried here by knights coming back from the Crusades.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. It’s a lovely, romantic tale but has no basis in truth any there is no written record to support it.
Folklore has it that his remains or a piece of his body or a relic associated with him lie in the abbey but that does not mean to say there is no link to St Nicholas and the area. He is strongly associated with the church named after him, not far from Jerpoint and close to the lost village of Jerpoint which has been lovingly and wonderfully unearthed and brought to life by Joe O’Connell. And it does have a certain aura and who knows the remains of St Nicholas may have ended up there.
The lost town, which grew up beside the abbey and declined dramatically in the 17th Century, is extremely important and greater links between the State-run abbey and the work on the telling the story of that town should be closer, making it an even better experience for visitors.
What should be at the centre of all this history – opening it up to as many people as possible. Brian Keyes wrote extensively in this paper about the lost town of Jerpoint and it is available on the Kilkenny People website.
Jerpoint Abbey still has a huge significance and still has a strong resonance with the surrounding community. Although there have been no funerals in the abbey precincts for the last few years, local families still have plots here and are entitled to be interred here.
The guides at Jerpoint are in possession of a map from early in the 20th Century which shows the various family plots dotted around the abbey and the supervisor, Dr Breda Lynch wouldn’t mind discussing it with anyone who thinks they might be able to name some of the plots.
I think that you have to climb the stairs to the open-air first floor of Jerpoint to really understand the life of the monks. And if there was a higher visitor platform it would make an even greater impression with visitors. If you are from Jerpoint like the retired Bishop of Ossory, Dr Laurence Forristal, you still have great memories of the place and people from here have a great respect and pride in it and maybe that’s why it has lasted so long - the reverence of the community it.
As one commentator has described it: “The dark, biscuit-coloured tower of Jerpoint Abbey, with its battlements, rears above a bend on the road south of Thomastown.”
What an apt description and that colour is in part due to the Dundry stone used in its construction and the fact that it has survived wars and natural calamities to remain relatively intact compared to others is amazing. There are no rich tapestries here, no priceless antiques and no portraits of in-bred toffs with long noses but here you can touch history and appreciate the lifestyle of those who lived and died here.
Receiving a five star tour from one of the most eminent scholars on the Cistercians in Ireland, Dr Breda Lynch, helps your appreciation of Jerpoint and as we walked up the wooden stairs to where the monks dormitory was and because the roof has long since been removed, we can see the Kilkenny-Waterford railway line where, in times past, trains stopped and people got off to view Jerpoint. In the fields below the first floor we can make out the outlines of various outbuildings and defences and the remains of the drainage system which may have included a system of reed beds (eco-friendly monks). But it is the monks and their existence that characterises your visit to their meagre sleeping quarters.
Their day started at two o’clock every morning and they walked down the stairs from the dormitory to the ground floor and into the church where they sang in Gregorian chant the first of the nine prayerful periods. I’m not sure there would be many takers today for the life of a monk in an enclosed order.With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other solar light products.
These Cistercians, were originally from Citeaux, France and were followers of the Rule of St Benedict which revolved around three basic principles; peace, prayer and work. As stated their day started at 2am and they were allowed a 1lb weight of coarse bread and two dishes of boiled vegetables per day. It gets a little better. They were also allowed eight pints of abbey-made beer every day. This beer was thick and had to be strained before drinking and was lighter than today’s Smithwicks but it was this beer that gave them the energy, we are led to believe, to keep going. They were banned from eating any four legged animal but they could feed on chicken, fowl and fish. However, standing there, Dr Breda explained that in the calefactory in font of us (again without a roof) a fire was lit on All Soul’s Day and quenched on Good Friday. This was the only heat in the entire complex.
Here, four times a year, the poor monks were bled and had up to four pints of blood removed. Yes, 16 pints a year. There was even a special “monastic blood pit” at many monasteries like Jerpoint. In medieval and early modern times it was erroneously thought that “letting blood” was good for all sorts of ailments and was common practice across the medieval world.Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality.
And you have to walk around the cloister (the square-shaped covered walk) with the ‘Garth’,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. green area in the centre, and try to imagine the White Monks, their heads bearing the shaved tonsure as they walked in the cloister walkways praying or singing in Gregorian chant. As they passed the beautifully designed and simple structure that have passed down to us, it would have been difficult for them not to be touched by the different images that confronted them as they walked around.
These figures carved in stone include such images as St Anthony of Egypt, the 4th Earl of Ormond, a manticore, a wyvern (legendary winged creature with a dragon’s head, lizard’s body, two legs and a barbed tail), a man with an upset tummy, knights and images of both St Catherine of Alexandria and St Margaret of Antioch. Interestingly both of these female figures are represented three times each in Jerpoint along with a carving of St Mary. These carvings echo some drawings found on medieval manuscripts.
It was very much an all-male, hierarchical system with the under-classed, lay brothers not allowed into the cloister and living in a separate area outside the inner sanctum. And let’s put one thing to rest. St Nicholas (now known as Santa) was not buried here by knights coming back from the Crusades.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. It’s a lovely, romantic tale but has no basis in truth any there is no written record to support it.
Folklore has it that his remains or a piece of his body or a relic associated with him lie in the abbey but that does not mean to say there is no link to St Nicholas and the area. He is strongly associated with the church named after him, not far from Jerpoint and close to the lost village of Jerpoint which has been lovingly and wonderfully unearthed and brought to life by Joe O’Connell. And it does have a certain aura and who knows the remains of St Nicholas may have ended up there.
The lost town, which grew up beside the abbey and declined dramatically in the 17th Century, is extremely important and greater links between the State-run abbey and the work on the telling the story of that town should be closer, making it an even better experience for visitors.
What should be at the centre of all this history – opening it up to as many people as possible. Brian Keyes wrote extensively in this paper about the lost town of Jerpoint and it is available on the Kilkenny People website.
Jerpoint Abbey still has a huge significance and still has a strong resonance with the surrounding community. Although there have been no funerals in the abbey precincts for the last few years, local families still have plots here and are entitled to be interred here.
The guides at Jerpoint are in possession of a map from early in the 20th Century which shows the various family plots dotted around the abbey and the supervisor, Dr Breda Lynch wouldn’t mind discussing it with anyone who thinks they might be able to name some of the plots.
I think that you have to climb the stairs to the open-air first floor of Jerpoint to really understand the life of the monks. And if there was a higher visitor platform it would make an even greater impression with visitors. If you are from Jerpoint like the retired Bishop of Ossory, Dr Laurence Forristal, you still have great memories of the place and people from here have a great respect and pride in it and maybe that’s why it has lasted so long - the reverence of the community it.
As one commentator has described it: “The dark, biscuit-coloured tower of Jerpoint Abbey, with its battlements, rears above a bend on the road south of Thomastown.”
What an apt description and that colour is in part due to the Dundry stone used in its construction and the fact that it has survived wars and natural calamities to remain relatively intact compared to others is amazing. There are no rich tapestries here, no priceless antiques and no portraits of in-bred toffs with long noses but here you can touch history and appreciate the lifestyle of those who lived and died here.
Receiving a five star tour from one of the most eminent scholars on the Cistercians in Ireland, Dr Breda Lynch, helps your appreciation of Jerpoint and as we walked up the wooden stairs to where the monks dormitory was and because the roof has long since been removed, we can see the Kilkenny-Waterford railway line where, in times past, trains stopped and people got off to view Jerpoint. In the fields below the first floor we can make out the outlines of various outbuildings and defences and the remains of the drainage system which may have included a system of reed beds (eco-friendly monks). But it is the monks and their existence that characterises your visit to their meagre sleeping quarters.
Their day started at two o’clock every morning and they walked down the stairs from the dormitory to the ground floor and into the church where they sang in Gregorian chant the first of the nine prayerful periods. I’m not sure there would be many takers today for the life of a monk in an enclosed order.With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other solar light products.
These Cistercians, were originally from Citeaux, France and were followers of the Rule of St Benedict which revolved around three basic principles; peace, prayer and work. As stated their day started at 2am and they were allowed a 1lb weight of coarse bread and two dishes of boiled vegetables per day. It gets a little better. They were also allowed eight pints of abbey-made beer every day. This beer was thick and had to be strained before drinking and was lighter than today’s Smithwicks but it was this beer that gave them the energy, we are led to believe, to keep going. They were banned from eating any four legged animal but they could feed on chicken, fowl and fish. However, standing there, Dr Breda explained that in the calefactory in font of us (again without a roof) a fire was lit on All Soul’s Day and quenched on Good Friday. This was the only heat in the entire complex.
Here, four times a year, the poor monks were bled and had up to four pints of blood removed. Yes, 16 pints a year. There was even a special “monastic blood pit” at many monasteries like Jerpoint. In medieval and early modern times it was erroneously thought that “letting blood” was good for all sorts of ailments and was common practice across the medieval world.Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality.
Fast track on the air lane
Air travel has become so common that traversing miles of air distance
hardly evokes the awe and wonder of a previous age. I remember getting
into Seoul's Gimpo (formerly Kimpo) Airport long ago when the place
invariably and without apology exuded the spicy aroma of kim chee land.
Less obtrusive but also assertive of its local uniqueness was Haneda in
Tokyo, and Hongqiao in Shanghai. Now, Seoul international is in Incheon,
Tokyo's is in Narita, and Shanghai's is in Pudong.
Incheon's global ambience has become so blandly unobtrusive that the only whiff of kim chee one gasps is in what emanates from the kim chee plate at the kiosk, its scent sucked quickly into the ventilation system that drives the distinctive aroma away from those who take offense from the odiferous offering!
In 1965, we sailed from Manila to San Francisco in one of the President Lines' ships and the voyage took 20 days. It took only 10 actual flying time to travel from Shenyang to Honolulu via Incheon. When we sailed, the diversity in the passenger manifest showed American students who came to Asia for summer,We are one of the leading manufacturers of solar street light in Chennai India. while the Asian students were heading to schools and universities for the fall. Being the last voyage before the fall semester, the sea lanes heard many student songs.
The polyglot at the airports was just as noticeable even in the regional hub of Shenyang. Ethnic diversity among flyers is a reality in all of the hubs with the only difference being the ethnicity of the terminal's vendors who tend to be predominantly local. Waiting for my connecting flight in Incheon, the family on my left spoke various shades of Pinoy while the African couple on my right spoke French. Directly in front were sub-Asians of Urdu and Tamil tongues, and the ones behind spoke Arabic. My plane seatmates onward to Honolulu claimed to speak primarily Guangdonghua!
Unless one takes the mid-Pacific route to America via Guam, Saipan passengers connect through Incheon or Narita for the arctic route to the continent. We had a few Chamorro hafa tots running around our terminal wing.
On board Korean Air, stewards and stewardesses clothed their service with hospitable and gracious smiles, in stark contrast to the cold precision of disciplined efficiency often cadenced on airlines of our familiarity from the West. Korean Air prepared us for the Aloha ways of the land of the rainbow connection in Hawaii.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. The Hangguel saram (Koreans) constitute a substantial portion of the Hawaiian population, and they no longer need to have a visa before alighting on a flight to the United States.
The fast track down O'ahu way is a bit schizoid, following the demand of punctuality that contemporary Western commercial style requires in time and attire with the laidback coconut time of the islands that tend to wait for the fruit to ripen before it falls. The image of tranquility in paradise after all is that of a surfer on firm foothold in the hollow of a wave as it crashes on the beach and the surfer avoids tumbling into the shore. Tranquility in the Pacific is hardly without tension. It is rather about standing at the pivot point of the yin-yang while it swirls to balance life's natural contradictions.
In a nation that had turned Reagan's lighthearted “trust and verify” advice to the solemn and serious “suspect,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. defend, and verify” of current DHS culture, the Hawaii of our familiar has become a state under siege by phantom elements that people official (a close associate works for Corrections and his eyes blazes with suspicion) and fear brainwashed citizens' imagination.Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. It is well for the visitor to decide when it is appropriate to follow which style. Many a Hawaiian vacation hinges on this awareness.
We are on the hula palm sway to visit 92-year-old mother convalescing at a nursing home after a fall in the fall. Having caught a cough in the prolonged cold of winter up Dong Bei (Manchuria) way whose carbon-laden skies had seen blue only twice in the last 30 days, we self-quarantined ourselves from visiting the nursing home so as not to expose the residents to additional possible intruders now that the flu has been seen to be rampant across the country. Mother's attending physician exuded gratitude upon learning of our intermediate decision.
Mother Nature is not as tranquil. The overcast sky above the famed Ala Moana skyline (taken from the Pagoda Hotel where CNMI medical referrals are usually billeted) has yet to clear since we arrived. Hearing of the tornado watches and path wreckages in the Midwest, along with the rain undrained in unabated floods elsewhere, and the droughts where a drop of rain could sustain life heading toward oblivion, makes us wonder if Gaia has reached her nerves' end.
On two occasions, tornadoes have ripped through the Daiki Corp. steel manufacturing plant that employs more than 90 people in this small community. Both times,We have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands. everyone inside escaped serious injury.
The sprawling facility won't be reopening anytime soon after the storm that hit Wednesday, however: Most of it has been reduced to a pile of rubble, little more than mangled beams and twisted steel. The first time, in 2002, a tornado tossed the roof into the parking lot. Ventilation fans, ductwork and wiring were torn away.
Incheon's global ambience has become so blandly unobtrusive that the only whiff of kim chee one gasps is in what emanates from the kim chee plate at the kiosk, its scent sucked quickly into the ventilation system that drives the distinctive aroma away from those who take offense from the odiferous offering!
In 1965, we sailed from Manila to San Francisco in one of the President Lines' ships and the voyage took 20 days. It took only 10 actual flying time to travel from Shenyang to Honolulu via Incheon. When we sailed, the diversity in the passenger manifest showed American students who came to Asia for summer,We are one of the leading manufacturers of solar street light in Chennai India. while the Asian students were heading to schools and universities for the fall. Being the last voyage before the fall semester, the sea lanes heard many student songs.
The polyglot at the airports was just as noticeable even in the regional hub of Shenyang. Ethnic diversity among flyers is a reality in all of the hubs with the only difference being the ethnicity of the terminal's vendors who tend to be predominantly local. Waiting for my connecting flight in Incheon, the family on my left spoke various shades of Pinoy while the African couple on my right spoke French. Directly in front were sub-Asians of Urdu and Tamil tongues, and the ones behind spoke Arabic. My plane seatmates onward to Honolulu claimed to speak primarily Guangdonghua!
Unless one takes the mid-Pacific route to America via Guam, Saipan passengers connect through Incheon or Narita for the arctic route to the continent. We had a few Chamorro hafa tots running around our terminal wing.
On board Korean Air, stewards and stewardesses clothed their service with hospitable and gracious smiles, in stark contrast to the cold precision of disciplined efficiency often cadenced on airlines of our familiarity from the West. Korean Air prepared us for the Aloha ways of the land of the rainbow connection in Hawaii.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. The Hangguel saram (Koreans) constitute a substantial portion of the Hawaiian population, and they no longer need to have a visa before alighting on a flight to the United States.
The fast track down O'ahu way is a bit schizoid, following the demand of punctuality that contemporary Western commercial style requires in time and attire with the laidback coconut time of the islands that tend to wait for the fruit to ripen before it falls. The image of tranquility in paradise after all is that of a surfer on firm foothold in the hollow of a wave as it crashes on the beach and the surfer avoids tumbling into the shore. Tranquility in the Pacific is hardly without tension. It is rather about standing at the pivot point of the yin-yang while it swirls to balance life's natural contradictions.
In a nation that had turned Reagan's lighthearted “trust and verify” advice to the solemn and serious “suspect,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. defend, and verify” of current DHS culture, the Hawaii of our familiar has become a state under siege by phantom elements that people official (a close associate works for Corrections and his eyes blazes with suspicion) and fear brainwashed citizens' imagination.Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. It is well for the visitor to decide when it is appropriate to follow which style. Many a Hawaiian vacation hinges on this awareness.
We are on the hula palm sway to visit 92-year-old mother convalescing at a nursing home after a fall in the fall. Having caught a cough in the prolonged cold of winter up Dong Bei (Manchuria) way whose carbon-laden skies had seen blue only twice in the last 30 days, we self-quarantined ourselves from visiting the nursing home so as not to expose the residents to additional possible intruders now that the flu has been seen to be rampant across the country. Mother's attending physician exuded gratitude upon learning of our intermediate decision.
Mother Nature is not as tranquil. The overcast sky above the famed Ala Moana skyline (taken from the Pagoda Hotel where CNMI medical referrals are usually billeted) has yet to clear since we arrived. Hearing of the tornado watches and path wreckages in the Midwest, along with the rain undrained in unabated floods elsewhere, and the droughts where a drop of rain could sustain life heading toward oblivion, makes us wonder if Gaia has reached her nerves' end.
On two occasions, tornadoes have ripped through the Daiki Corp. steel manufacturing plant that employs more than 90 people in this small community. Both times,We have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands. everyone inside escaped serious injury.
The sprawling facility won't be reopening anytime soon after the storm that hit Wednesday, however: Most of it has been reduced to a pile of rubble, little more than mangled beams and twisted steel. The first time, in 2002, a tornado tossed the roof into the parking lot. Ventilation fans, ductwork and wiring were torn away.
The Hershey Management Discusses
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to The Hershey Company's
Fourth Quarter 2012 Conference Call. J.P. Bilbrey, President and CEO;
Bert Alfonso, Senior Vice President and CFO; and I will represent
Hershey on this morning's call. We also welcome those of you listening
in on the webcast.
Let me remind everyone listening that today's conference call may contain statements, which are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, which are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may vary materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements because of factors such as those listed in this morning's press release and in our 10-K for 2011 filed with the SEC. If you have not seen the press release, a copy is posted on our corporate website in the Investor Relations section. Included in the press release is a consolidated balance sheet and a summary of consolidated statements of income prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Within the Notes section of the press release,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. we have provided adjusted pro forma reconciliations of select income statement line items quantitatively reconciled to GAAP.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. The company uses these non-GAAP measures as key metrics for evaluating performance internally. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to replace the presentation of financial results in accordance with GAAP, rather the company believes the presentation of earnings, excluding certain items, provides additional information to investors to facilitate the comparison of past and present operations.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the phone and webcast. I'm pleased with Hershey's fourth quarter and full year financial and marketplace results, which represent a solid end to another good year. We accomplished our 2012 objectives while growing adjusted EPS 14.5%, our fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases.Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. We continue to build and execute our consumer-centric business model and are creating a virtuous cycle that is delivering predictable, profitable and sustainable results. We've accelerated profitable organic sales growth, increased our leadership position in the U.S. marketplace, boosted margins and returns and delivered record profitability. Outside of the U.S. and Canada our businesses continue to grow and, barring any dramatic changes related to foreign currency, we're on a path to achieve net sales of $1 billion in these markets by the end of 2014. We're operating from a position of strength. We believe there are far more opportunities ahead than successes behind us because at The Hershey Company, the future is not where we're headed but what we're creating.
Now for an overview of the U.S. candy, mint and gum category. Growth was solid in 2012 and within the 3% to 4% historical growth rate. As has been the case for the last few years, the gum category has been challenged. Excluding a decline of minus 5.5% for the gum category this year, chocolate, sweets and refreshment grew a combined 5.2% in 2012. This increase outpaced other snack alternatives such as salty snacks, cookies and crackers.
Promoters of the $38 billion Severn Barrage tidal energy project in the UK are ramping up their lobbying for the scheme, saying it would require smaller subsidies than those afforded to wind energy, and probably around the same level as nuclear, Bloomberg reports. Gregory Shenkman, chairman of Hafren Power, told a hearing in the House of Commons in London that the project – which involves a dam-like structure spanning the 18km width of the Severn River and 1,026 turbines – would be economically viable. “We plan to finance this project entirely from private sources, and it’s taken five to six years to get here so far, said Shenkman.
However, he said the project would need 30 years of support through subsidies. Across its 120 year life span, the project could produce power at about $70/MWh, nearly half the cost of nuclear. Bloomberg said the project has yet to have an environmental impact assessment. An earlier tender for a Severn power plant was ditched in 2010 because the governments said it would rely too heavily on public funds. It is estimated that it could provide 5 per cent of the UK’s energy requirements.
Meanwhile, French energy supply giant Alstom has comWe have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands.pleted the acquisition of ocean turbine maker Tidal Generation for around $78 million. The deal gives Alstom access to a 1MW turbine installed this month at the European Marine Energy Center in the Orkney Islands. Alstom says the machine has a rotor diameter of 18m, a 22m metres long nacelle and weighs 150 tonnes. It has three pitchable blades, and operates at a water depth of 40 meters, by rotating to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle,We are one of the leading manufacturers of solar street light in Chennai India. to extract the maximum energy potential.
Last week, French engineering group DCNS paid $176 million for majority stake in OpenHydro. Alstom also bought 40 percent of AWS Ocean Energy in 2011 and is working with UK utility SSE to use wave-power systems at a 200MW project off northern Scotland. Alstom also makes turbines for offshore wind farms, Bloomberg reports.
Let me remind everyone listening that today's conference call may contain statements, which are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, which are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may vary materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements because of factors such as those listed in this morning's press release and in our 10-K for 2011 filed with the SEC. If you have not seen the press release, a copy is posted on our corporate website in the Investor Relations section. Included in the press release is a consolidated balance sheet and a summary of consolidated statements of income prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Within the Notes section of the press release,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. we have provided adjusted pro forma reconciliations of select income statement line items quantitatively reconciled to GAAP.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. The company uses these non-GAAP measures as key metrics for evaluating performance internally. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to replace the presentation of financial results in accordance with GAAP, rather the company believes the presentation of earnings, excluding certain items, provides additional information to investors to facilitate the comparison of past and present operations.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the phone and webcast. I'm pleased with Hershey's fourth quarter and full year financial and marketplace results, which represent a solid end to another good year. We accomplished our 2012 objectives while growing adjusted EPS 14.5%, our fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases.Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. We continue to build and execute our consumer-centric business model and are creating a virtuous cycle that is delivering predictable, profitable and sustainable results. We've accelerated profitable organic sales growth, increased our leadership position in the U.S. marketplace, boosted margins and returns and delivered record profitability. Outside of the U.S. and Canada our businesses continue to grow and, barring any dramatic changes related to foreign currency, we're on a path to achieve net sales of $1 billion in these markets by the end of 2014. We're operating from a position of strength. We believe there are far more opportunities ahead than successes behind us because at The Hershey Company, the future is not where we're headed but what we're creating.
Now for an overview of the U.S. candy, mint and gum category. Growth was solid in 2012 and within the 3% to 4% historical growth rate. As has been the case for the last few years, the gum category has been challenged. Excluding a decline of minus 5.5% for the gum category this year, chocolate, sweets and refreshment grew a combined 5.2% in 2012. This increase outpaced other snack alternatives such as salty snacks, cookies and crackers.
Promoters of the $38 billion Severn Barrage tidal energy project in the UK are ramping up their lobbying for the scheme, saying it would require smaller subsidies than those afforded to wind energy, and probably around the same level as nuclear, Bloomberg reports. Gregory Shenkman, chairman of Hafren Power, told a hearing in the House of Commons in London that the project – which involves a dam-like structure spanning the 18km width of the Severn River and 1,026 turbines – would be economically viable. “We plan to finance this project entirely from private sources, and it’s taken five to six years to get here so far, said Shenkman.
However, he said the project would need 30 years of support through subsidies. Across its 120 year life span, the project could produce power at about $70/MWh, nearly half the cost of nuclear. Bloomberg said the project has yet to have an environmental impact assessment. An earlier tender for a Severn power plant was ditched in 2010 because the governments said it would rely too heavily on public funds. It is estimated that it could provide 5 per cent of the UK’s energy requirements.
Meanwhile, French energy supply giant Alstom has comWe have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands.pleted the acquisition of ocean turbine maker Tidal Generation for around $78 million. The deal gives Alstom access to a 1MW turbine installed this month at the European Marine Energy Center in the Orkney Islands. Alstom says the machine has a rotor diameter of 18m, a 22m metres long nacelle and weighs 150 tonnes. It has three pitchable blades, and operates at a water depth of 40 meters, by rotating to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle,We are one of the leading manufacturers of solar street light in Chennai India. to extract the maximum energy potential.
Last week, French engineering group DCNS paid $176 million for majority stake in OpenHydro. Alstom also bought 40 percent of AWS Ocean Energy in 2011 and is working with UK utility SSE to use wave-power systems at a 200MW project off northern Scotland. Alstom also makes turbines for offshore wind farms, Bloomberg reports.
2013年1月30日星期三
Some final questions for Matt and closing remarks
I would ask a few questions in response to this rebuttal, however.
Matt, what do you think about about data that demonstrates, within our
own country, higher gun prevalence correlates with higher homicide,
independent of other risk factors? Can we really dismiss the potential
impact of federal gun laws using local gun laws as an example? Its
pretty clear from places like New York and Chicago, that any local law
is undermined by whatever nearest state (or county) has the softest
laws.
The issue of whether or not increasing or decreasing gun ownership is also a bit besides the point. After all, that was not the major thrust of my suggestions. Repeatedly, it seems, I am arguing against a straw man that I am advocating gun bans. Matt acknowledges this problem.
I have emphasized in the past, I despise the stupidity and futility of the cosmetic Assault Weapons Ban as advocated by Feinstein for the twin sins of demagoguery and uselessness. But pretend for a moment I am an honest broker in this debate, and I’m not trying to land you on the slippery-slope towards gun confiscation. Do you really believe there is nothing that can be done on the supply-side to decrease either mass violence or, separately, gun homicide in this country? Or that there is nothing that can be done to prevent these guns from falling in the wrong hands in the first place? I believe we can prevent on the supply-side by preventing these guns from getting into the wrong hands, and this can be accomplished without bans.
As a closing statement on this debate,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. I’d reiterate the laws I advocate do not ban guns. You hear that commenters? During the entire debate, I haven’t suggested a single gun ban, so I don’t need to have this nonsense showing up in the comments. No. I believe there should be two major regulatory efforts: there should me more scrutiny on gun purchasers who want to buy weapons that make mass violence easy, and secondary markets need to be subjected to the same minimal level of scrutiny as the primary markets for all guns (background checks for shotguns, revolvers, bolt-action rifles etc., my higher level of scrutiny and responsibilities for purchasers of semi-automatic weapons).
I’m not talking about any kind of ban, but scrutiny on purchase of magazine-fed semi-automatics. This means people have to do some paperwork, have a check to make sure they’re not a crook (these two already exist), find a couple people to vouch they’re not nuts, demonstrate they can use and store the weapon safely, and they understand simple things like high powered semi-automatic rifles shouldn’t be used with metal-jacketed ammunition in a dense metropolis. Scrutiny, training, safety. These should be relatively noncontroversial measures.
We’ve all done this before after all, or don’t you remember the first time you showed up to the DMV to get a driver’s license? Similar theory, a car is a very dangerous machine, before you start driving you show up, they make sure you haven’t been arrested for joy-riding, you go for a little ride with an instructor to make sure you aren’t completely incompetent at operating the very dangerous machine, and you pass a little test to make sure you know the rules for safe use of the machine. Not a big deal. And how about using technology to make unauthorized use of the machine more difficult? Make it hard for the “dead-eyed killer”, as Matt calls them, to get their hands on the weapon, either from the store, or from someone’s home. Even more ideal, start working on technology to prevent unauthorized use, like the humble car key, that makes it harder for the unauthorized user to jump into your very dangerous machine, and run over a bunch of kids on the playground.
Sure they can always hotwire it, but that’s hard, it takes special knowledge, and unauthorized use of the very dangerous machine shouldn’t be easy. It will invariably be argued ad nauseum that such measures can be defeated. Sure! I agree, they can be defeated. Almost any preventative measure can be defeated by a motivated, intelligent and skilled individual, but that doesn’t mean tomorrow banks will stop using vaults, or that we should give up on restricting access to grenades and C4. Barriers are just that, barriers,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? not perfect preventatives. All human efforts are imperfect, but these barriers may be effective strategies to decrease the likelihood or frequency of such attacks. There’s an expression, low fences keep in big animals.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh.
And what’s so scary about such regulations for an item that kills as many as 30,000 of us a year? For years, we’ve recognized we need to regulate cars, they’re one of the single most dangerous objects in our daily existence. Automobile accidents are the most likely thing to kill you for a good chunk of your life. That’s why we make sure before people can drive, they know how. That’s why we require safety features. For years, the NRA has resisted any equivalent regulation to make gun ownership safer, they’ve resisted any attempt to incorporate safety features into weapons, they’ve resisted any scrutiny before gun purchase, and they’ve resisted scrutiny of secondary gun markets. Why is it so controversial to treat dangerous machines as something that need to be respected? Guns are machines that require training to use, they should have safety features that prevent improper use, they require safe storage when not in use, and there should be barriers and strategies in place to prevent possession by criminals and the mentally ill.
The second major thrust,Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. and I’m not sure Matt really disagrees with me here, addresses the fact guns in the hands of criminals are coming from secondary markets. I discussed extensively in part II guns used in crime are usually fairly new guns. The generally-agreed upon sources are secondary gun markets – straw purchases, trafficking, and stolen guns – only about 10% are used in crime by the original purchaser. If we acknowledge that gun crime is a problem in this country and actually want to do something about it, we have to extend criminal background checks to all transfers of firearms. We have to make secondary markets subject to the same scrutiny as primary markets, and when guns end up in a criminal’s hands, we have to be able to track down the source of the weapon and punish them.
This is how guns get to the street. If we don’t arm law enforcement with the tools to punish gun traffickers and straw purchasers, we’re not going to be able to stop the steady flow of weapons to the streets, and into the hands of criminals. I know, 300 million guns are already out there that couldn’t be tracked by a newly-implemented system, but I’m assuming the overwhelming majority of gun owners are decent citizens who aren’t interested in selling their guns to criminals either, will gladly use the NICS system, and won’t sell their guns to criminals once the existing secondary markets are tightened. Straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and anyone else who sells guns or makes guns available to criminals should be put in jail, and treated like the accessories to crime that they are.
In these debates I’ve suggested these two overarching strategies, one to prevent mass shootings and one to decrease firearm use in crimes. For the first I admit, as does Matt, the data on viable preventative strategies is poor. The events are rare. One of the few examples of a specific response to the problem of mass violence, Australia, is consistent with a benefit to reducing mass violence by restricting magazine-fed semi-automatic weapons, but is questionable in its reduction on gun violence as a whole. I agree with Matt, making these weapons harder to obtain isn’t going to make a huge dent in gun violence as a whole, but I reiterate,Which Air purifier is right for you? increasing scrutiny of purchases of magazine-fed semiautomatics is specifically my suggestion to decrease mass violence.
It is possible however, my storage and training portion of that strategy might decrease gun homicide rates modestly by decreasing the frequency of accidents and gun thefts. My second strategy, that of subjecting all gun transfers and purchases to this type of scrutiny, is specifically meant to address gun crime, based on the clear data that guns on the street are usually new guns, and coming from secondary gun markets 90% of the time. If we dry up the flow of guns to the street we are likely to accomplish two goals. We may decrease gun homicides, and we will arm law enforcement with the tools to track down and punish those that supply weapons to criminals.
Neither of these strategies should prevent any law-abiding citizen from obtaining any weapon that is available to them today, at the same time, they obstruct the flow of guns to criminals and erect barriers to those that might commit mass violence.
The issue of whether or not increasing or decreasing gun ownership is also a bit besides the point. After all, that was not the major thrust of my suggestions. Repeatedly, it seems, I am arguing against a straw man that I am advocating gun bans. Matt acknowledges this problem.
I have emphasized in the past, I despise the stupidity and futility of the cosmetic Assault Weapons Ban as advocated by Feinstein for the twin sins of demagoguery and uselessness. But pretend for a moment I am an honest broker in this debate, and I’m not trying to land you on the slippery-slope towards gun confiscation. Do you really believe there is nothing that can be done on the supply-side to decrease either mass violence or, separately, gun homicide in this country? Or that there is nothing that can be done to prevent these guns from falling in the wrong hands in the first place? I believe we can prevent on the supply-side by preventing these guns from getting into the wrong hands, and this can be accomplished without bans.
As a closing statement on this debate,Nitrogen Controller and Digital dry cabinet with good quality. I’d reiterate the laws I advocate do not ban guns. You hear that commenters? During the entire debate, I haven’t suggested a single gun ban, so I don’t need to have this nonsense showing up in the comments. No. I believe there should be two major regulatory efforts: there should me more scrutiny on gun purchasers who want to buy weapons that make mass violence easy, and secondary markets need to be subjected to the same minimal level of scrutiny as the primary markets for all guns (background checks for shotguns, revolvers, bolt-action rifles etc., my higher level of scrutiny and responsibilities for purchasers of semi-automatic weapons).
I’m not talking about any kind of ban, but scrutiny on purchase of magazine-fed semi-automatics. This means people have to do some paperwork, have a check to make sure they’re not a crook (these two already exist), find a couple people to vouch they’re not nuts, demonstrate they can use and store the weapon safely, and they understand simple things like high powered semi-automatic rifles shouldn’t be used with metal-jacketed ammunition in a dense metropolis. Scrutiny, training, safety. These should be relatively noncontroversial measures.
We’ve all done this before after all, or don’t you remember the first time you showed up to the DMV to get a driver’s license? Similar theory, a car is a very dangerous machine, before you start driving you show up, they make sure you haven’t been arrested for joy-riding, you go for a little ride with an instructor to make sure you aren’t completely incompetent at operating the very dangerous machine, and you pass a little test to make sure you know the rules for safe use of the machine. Not a big deal. And how about using technology to make unauthorized use of the machine more difficult? Make it hard for the “dead-eyed killer”, as Matt calls them, to get their hands on the weapon, either from the store, or from someone’s home. Even more ideal, start working on technology to prevent unauthorized use, like the humble car key, that makes it harder for the unauthorized user to jump into your very dangerous machine, and run over a bunch of kids on the playground.
Sure they can always hotwire it, but that’s hard, it takes special knowledge, and unauthorized use of the very dangerous machine shouldn’t be easy. It will invariably be argued ad nauseum that such measures can be defeated. Sure! I agree, they can be defeated. Almost any preventative measure can be defeated by a motivated, intelligent and skilled individual, but that doesn’t mean tomorrow banks will stop using vaults, or that we should give up on restricting access to grenades and C4. Barriers are just that, barriers,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? not perfect preventatives. All human efforts are imperfect, but these barriers may be effective strategies to decrease the likelihood or frequency of such attacks. There’s an expression, low fences keep in big animals.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh.
And what’s so scary about such regulations for an item that kills as many as 30,000 of us a year? For years, we’ve recognized we need to regulate cars, they’re one of the single most dangerous objects in our daily existence. Automobile accidents are the most likely thing to kill you for a good chunk of your life. That’s why we make sure before people can drive, they know how. That’s why we require safety features. For years, the NRA has resisted any equivalent regulation to make gun ownership safer, they’ve resisted any attempt to incorporate safety features into weapons, they’ve resisted any scrutiny before gun purchase, and they’ve resisted scrutiny of secondary gun markets. Why is it so controversial to treat dangerous machines as something that need to be respected? Guns are machines that require training to use, they should have safety features that prevent improper use, they require safe storage when not in use, and there should be barriers and strategies in place to prevent possession by criminals and the mentally ill.
The second major thrust,Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. and I’m not sure Matt really disagrees with me here, addresses the fact guns in the hands of criminals are coming from secondary markets. I discussed extensively in part II guns used in crime are usually fairly new guns. The generally-agreed upon sources are secondary gun markets – straw purchases, trafficking, and stolen guns – only about 10% are used in crime by the original purchaser. If we acknowledge that gun crime is a problem in this country and actually want to do something about it, we have to extend criminal background checks to all transfers of firearms. We have to make secondary markets subject to the same scrutiny as primary markets, and when guns end up in a criminal’s hands, we have to be able to track down the source of the weapon and punish them.
This is how guns get to the street. If we don’t arm law enforcement with the tools to punish gun traffickers and straw purchasers, we’re not going to be able to stop the steady flow of weapons to the streets, and into the hands of criminals. I know, 300 million guns are already out there that couldn’t be tracked by a newly-implemented system, but I’m assuming the overwhelming majority of gun owners are decent citizens who aren’t interested in selling their guns to criminals either, will gladly use the NICS system, and won’t sell their guns to criminals once the existing secondary markets are tightened. Straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and anyone else who sells guns or makes guns available to criminals should be put in jail, and treated like the accessories to crime that they are.
In these debates I’ve suggested these two overarching strategies, one to prevent mass shootings and one to decrease firearm use in crimes. For the first I admit, as does Matt, the data on viable preventative strategies is poor. The events are rare. One of the few examples of a specific response to the problem of mass violence, Australia, is consistent with a benefit to reducing mass violence by restricting magazine-fed semi-automatic weapons, but is questionable in its reduction on gun violence as a whole. I agree with Matt, making these weapons harder to obtain isn’t going to make a huge dent in gun violence as a whole, but I reiterate,Which Air purifier is right for you? increasing scrutiny of purchases of magazine-fed semiautomatics is specifically my suggestion to decrease mass violence.
It is possible however, my storage and training portion of that strategy might decrease gun homicide rates modestly by decreasing the frequency of accidents and gun thefts. My second strategy, that of subjecting all gun transfers and purchases to this type of scrutiny, is specifically meant to address gun crime, based on the clear data that guns on the street are usually new guns, and coming from secondary gun markets 90% of the time. If we dry up the flow of guns to the street we are likely to accomplish two goals. We may decrease gun homicides, and we will arm law enforcement with the tools to track down and punish those that supply weapons to criminals.
Neither of these strategies should prevent any law-abiding citizen from obtaining any weapon that is available to them today, at the same time, they obstruct the flow of guns to criminals and erect barriers to those that might commit mass violence.
Acer Iconia Tab W510-1422
Hybrid laptop and tablet designs can work by either shifting between
tablet and laptop modes, or separating the tablet from a docking
keyboard. The Acer Iconia W510-1422$729.99 at PCNation is the latter, a
10-inch tablet running Windows 8,Come January 9 and chip card
driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar
Pradesh. with a docking keyboard for those times that you want to use a
keyboard and mouse. Equipped with an Intel Atom processor,Compare prices
and buy all brands of solar panel
for home power systems and by the pallet. the Iconia W510 may be a bit
underpowered compared with your regular laptop, but it's efficient
enough to give you all-day power—enough to not only last you through a
full workday, but long into the night.
The docking keyboard uses this same metal construction, with a locking tablet dock built into the hinge. The dock and hinge are made of white plastic. The keyboard itself is a nearly full-size chiclet keyboard, but unlike the keyboard on the HP Envy X2, there is very little slope to the keyboard, and the typing experience feels hemmed in. It also has a small trackpad for navigating without using the touch screen. Neither are fantastic—the keyboard is a little cramped, and the trackpad is downright tiny—but it's a big improvement over the onscreen keyboard, and will get you through those times that you want to do something more than mere consumption. Inside the keyboard is a secondary battery, which joins the first to double the total battery life. Naturally, the docked keyboard will also add some thickness and weight—0.39 inches thick when the system is closed and 2.78 pounds altogether.
Two issues presented by detachable tablets that you won't experience with a traditional laptop—first, the weight distribution is different. With the majority of the hardware built into the tablet half of the system, the system is a bit top-heavy, and can be frustratingly out of balance, tipping backward when the screen is opened too far. Then there's the matter of the detachable keyboard—you've likely never misplaced half of your laptop before, but detachable hybrids suddenly make it very easy to misplace an entire half of the system. If you're the sort to leave your AC cable in the office, or to set down a portable drive and forget about it, you'll want to figure out a way to keep the two halves of your laptop together even when they are physically apart.
On the tablet you'll find a headphone jack, micro SD/SDHC card slot, and micro HDMI and micro USB 2.0 ports, in addition to a docking port which doubles as a power connector. Included with the Iconia W510 is a micro USB to full-size USB 2.0 adapter, but it's a small cable that can be easily lost or damaged. What we would have liked to see, but which wasn't included, is a micro-to-full size HDMI adapter for connecting to an HDTV. Unfortunately, you won't get that, not even with the docking keyboard, which boasts only a full-size USB 2.0 port. The tablet is also equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an NFC sensor in addition to standard tablet sensors like a gyroscope, accelerometer, e-compass, and ambient light sensor. A 2MP front-facing camera should do the trick for Skype and similar video chat tools (though the camera does lag considerably) while an 8MP rear-facing camera lets you grab the occasional snapshot.
The tablet is equipped with 64GB of internal flash storage, which isn't much—you may want to supplement it with a second card in the Micro SD card slot. Fresh out of the box, with just Windows 8 32-bit and a handful of programs installed, the available memory is already whittled down to a mere 28GB of available space. Eating up a lot of this space is a collection of preinstalled software, like Microsoft Office Starter 2010, apps like Amazon Kindle Reader, Evernote, HuluPlus, Netflix, Spotfiy, and Skitch, and Acer's own apps and utilities, like Clear.fi Media and Photo sharing, and Acer Cloud. Clearing off a few unneeded programs will help a bit, but 64GB isn't much storage space to start with. Acer covers the Iconia W510 with a one-year limited warranty.
The Iconia W510 is built around a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 processor—it's a step up from the previous-generation Atom CPUs used in the Kupa X11 Pro and the Fujitsu Stylistic, but it can't compete with the Intel Core processors found in more expensive convertible hybrids like the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (D11213CX) or the Dell XPS 12.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action This is clear when looking at performance based tests like Cinebench, where the Iconia W510 scored 0.3 points, ahead of the 0.19 points that the Fujitsu Q550 scored, but miles behind the Sony Duo 11's 2.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.19 points. The difference is just as stark when comparing results of Handbrake, which the Iconia W510 completed in 6 minutes 25 seconds; the Sony Duo 11 finished the same test in 1:26. Graphics performance isn't even comparable, since the Atom CPU and integrated graphics processing can't even run our gaming and graphics tests.
Despite the gulf in processing power, the Atom processors do shine in battery life, an arguably more important metric when judging a mobile device. The Iconia W510 tablet alone lasted 10 hours 27 minutes when run through our video rundown test—more than double the time of the Dell XPS 12 and miles beyond the Sony Duo 11 (3:09). Even the tablets of last year topped out around seven hours. Again, this result was for the tablet alone—the docking keyboard has its own battery, which can either supplement a full battery or replenish the charge of the tablet. With the docking keyboard attached, the Iconia W510 lasted an impressive 17 hours 50 minutes.
The Acer Iconia W510-1422 may not be the fastest tablet—it's pretty slow for anything beyond Web browsing and document editing—but it does offer portability and unparalleled battery life. But while the ability to pick up and go for hours and hours on end will definitely spark some interest, the Iconia W510 is still underpowered and lacking in features.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. That said, if you want something portable and convenient—and that works with a range of Windows software—the Acer Iconia W510-1422 is worth your consideration.
The docking keyboard uses this same metal construction, with a locking tablet dock built into the hinge. The dock and hinge are made of white plastic. The keyboard itself is a nearly full-size chiclet keyboard, but unlike the keyboard on the HP Envy X2, there is very little slope to the keyboard, and the typing experience feels hemmed in. It also has a small trackpad for navigating without using the touch screen. Neither are fantastic—the keyboard is a little cramped, and the trackpad is downright tiny—but it's a big improvement over the onscreen keyboard, and will get you through those times that you want to do something more than mere consumption. Inside the keyboard is a secondary battery, which joins the first to double the total battery life. Naturally, the docked keyboard will also add some thickness and weight—0.39 inches thick when the system is closed and 2.78 pounds altogether.
Two issues presented by detachable tablets that you won't experience with a traditional laptop—first, the weight distribution is different. With the majority of the hardware built into the tablet half of the system, the system is a bit top-heavy, and can be frustratingly out of balance, tipping backward when the screen is opened too far. Then there's the matter of the detachable keyboard—you've likely never misplaced half of your laptop before, but detachable hybrids suddenly make it very easy to misplace an entire half of the system. If you're the sort to leave your AC cable in the office, or to set down a portable drive and forget about it, you'll want to figure out a way to keep the two halves of your laptop together even when they are physically apart.
On the tablet you'll find a headphone jack, micro SD/SDHC card slot, and micro HDMI and micro USB 2.0 ports, in addition to a docking port which doubles as a power connector. Included with the Iconia W510 is a micro USB to full-size USB 2.0 adapter, but it's a small cable that can be easily lost or damaged. What we would have liked to see, but which wasn't included, is a micro-to-full size HDMI adapter for connecting to an HDTV. Unfortunately, you won't get that, not even with the docking keyboard, which boasts only a full-size USB 2.0 port. The tablet is also equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an NFC sensor in addition to standard tablet sensors like a gyroscope, accelerometer, e-compass, and ambient light sensor. A 2MP front-facing camera should do the trick for Skype and similar video chat tools (though the camera does lag considerably) while an 8MP rear-facing camera lets you grab the occasional snapshot.
The tablet is equipped with 64GB of internal flash storage, which isn't much—you may want to supplement it with a second card in the Micro SD card slot. Fresh out of the box, with just Windows 8 32-bit and a handful of programs installed, the available memory is already whittled down to a mere 28GB of available space. Eating up a lot of this space is a collection of preinstalled software, like Microsoft Office Starter 2010, apps like Amazon Kindle Reader, Evernote, HuluPlus, Netflix, Spotfiy, and Skitch, and Acer's own apps and utilities, like Clear.fi Media and Photo sharing, and Acer Cloud. Clearing off a few unneeded programs will help a bit, but 64GB isn't much storage space to start with. Acer covers the Iconia W510 with a one-year limited warranty.
The Iconia W510 is built around a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 processor—it's a step up from the previous-generation Atom CPUs used in the Kupa X11 Pro and the Fujitsu Stylistic, but it can't compete with the Intel Core processors found in more expensive convertible hybrids like the Sony VAIO Duo 11 (D11213CX) or the Dell XPS 12.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action This is clear when looking at performance based tests like Cinebench, where the Iconia W510 scored 0.3 points, ahead of the 0.19 points that the Fujitsu Q550 scored, but miles behind the Sony Duo 11's 2.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.19 points. The difference is just as stark when comparing results of Handbrake, which the Iconia W510 completed in 6 minutes 25 seconds; the Sony Duo 11 finished the same test in 1:26. Graphics performance isn't even comparable, since the Atom CPU and integrated graphics processing can't even run our gaming and graphics tests.
Despite the gulf in processing power, the Atom processors do shine in battery life, an arguably more important metric when judging a mobile device. The Iconia W510 tablet alone lasted 10 hours 27 minutes when run through our video rundown test—more than double the time of the Dell XPS 12 and miles beyond the Sony Duo 11 (3:09). Even the tablets of last year topped out around seven hours. Again, this result was for the tablet alone—the docking keyboard has its own battery, which can either supplement a full battery or replenish the charge of the tablet. With the docking keyboard attached, the Iconia W510 lasted an impressive 17 hours 50 minutes.
The Acer Iconia W510-1422 may not be the fastest tablet—it's pretty slow for anything beyond Web browsing and document editing—but it does offer portability and unparalleled battery life. But while the ability to pick up and go for hours and hours on end will definitely spark some interest, the Iconia W510 is still underpowered and lacking in features.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. That said, if you want something portable and convenient—and that works with a range of Windows software—the Acer Iconia W510-1422 is worth your consideration.
Montclair Council Passes Highland
The Montclair Township Council had a light agenda for its January 29
meeting, unanimously passing two ordinances on first reading relating to
parking restrictions for Highland Avenue between Mount Hebron Road and
Mountainside Park and following up on earlier business. The two
ordinances, which restrict parking to two hours between September 1 and
April 30 on the eastern side of this stretch of Highland Avenue and bans
it altogether on the western side, are meant to keep nearby Montclair
State University students from parking on Highland Avenue all day long.
The ordinances generated feedback from Highland Avenue residents in the public comment section of the meeting. Paul Rabinovitch, a Highland Avenue resident and a member of the Montclair Planning Board, welcomed the change. He noted that Montclair State students have consistently parked on Highland Avenue to avoid the expense of parking on campus. “They’re all very polite when you see them,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action” he said, “I love the university, I think it’s a great asset to our community here, but they’ve grown. Their growth has outstripped their ability to park their own students.”
Rabinovitch, who is also a member of the advisory board for the university’s College of Science and Mathematics, said that the great quantity of cars parked on either side of Highland Avenue has made it impossible to park. But Stewart Gleason, another resident of the affected block, said that there was a lack of clarity regarding whether one could only park a car on Highland Avenue for two hours for the entire day or move it to another part of Highland Avenue every two hours. Gleason said he believed that allowing people to move their cars every two hours would satisfy opponents to the measure, but he did add that cars parked on both sides of Highland Avenue helped to slow down the traffic, which he said was increasing due to Highland Avenue as an alternative to Upper Mountain Avenue. “It’s a real problem, and we don’t want the new parking regulations to make that worse,” he said.
First Ward Councilor William Hurlock, whose ward includes the area, promised that he would examine the speeding problem with Mayor Robert Jackson and Township Manager Marc Dashield. “We don’t want to solve one problem and create another,” he said. Dashield said that the passage of the ordinances on first reading would allow a public hearing on the matter, and he also said he would investigate whether two-hour parking ordinances allowed moving a car to a different section of a street every two hours.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. People who have done so have received tickets in the past.
The council also passed unanimously, 6-0 (Deputy Mayor Robert Russo was away on family business), four separate resolutions and six more resolutions in a consent agenda. Third Ward Councilor Sean Spiller offered guidance requested by Dashield on the issue of a service contract for arborist Steve Schuckman during the conference pre-meeting. Spiller suggested working out an agreement with other municipalities that contract Schuckman’s services by hiring him as a municipal arborist serving several towns in a shared-services partnership that could lower the cost for Montclair. Dashield replied that most of the surrounding towns were outsourcing an arborist rather than hiring one, making such a partnership difficult. He recommended that the council pass the arborist contract now – because an arborist’s services are needed immediately for the coming spring – and explore Spiller’s idea afterwards to see if such an alternative were possible.
“I would feel more comfortable moving forward with this, knowing that we are definitely going to explore something like that,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. and put that out sooner rather than later,” Spiller said, “so that other townships, when their contracts are expiring, don’t go ahead and renew them and then say, Oh ,we’re locked in now, we love to have done it.’” Dashield said he would definitely look into the idea.
In end-of-meeting reports, Dashield reminded Montclair residents that the postmark deadlines to submit comments regarding the Nishuane Well project are Wednesday, January 30 for the Green Acres hearing and Thursday January 31 for the January 17 New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust hearing. Township Attorney Ira Karasick reported his research on the land donations from the Carey family to Montclair for a park, and he said that the deed to the large parcel of land donated in 1935 specifically demands that the land be used for recreational purposes, but that such a specificity is absent from the deed to the land where the well sits, which was donated in 1940.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.
Also, Township Clerk Linda Wanat reported that the township received a letter from the U.S. General Services Administration that the former Social Security building was offered to agencies but turned down, and the property is now in the phase of being offered for services for the homeless, as required by the federal McKinney Act. Karasick said that if there is no use for the property for such a purpose,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. the township will have the opportunity to buy it for its own use.
The ordinances generated feedback from Highland Avenue residents in the public comment section of the meeting. Paul Rabinovitch, a Highland Avenue resident and a member of the Montclair Planning Board, welcomed the change. He noted that Montclair State students have consistently parked on Highland Avenue to avoid the expense of parking on campus. “They’re all very polite when you see them,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action” he said, “I love the university, I think it’s a great asset to our community here, but they’ve grown. Their growth has outstripped their ability to park their own students.”
Rabinovitch, who is also a member of the advisory board for the university’s College of Science and Mathematics, said that the great quantity of cars parked on either side of Highland Avenue has made it impossible to park. But Stewart Gleason, another resident of the affected block, said that there was a lack of clarity regarding whether one could only park a car on Highland Avenue for two hours for the entire day or move it to another part of Highland Avenue every two hours. Gleason said he believed that allowing people to move their cars every two hours would satisfy opponents to the measure, but he did add that cars parked on both sides of Highland Avenue helped to slow down the traffic, which he said was increasing due to Highland Avenue as an alternative to Upper Mountain Avenue. “It’s a real problem, and we don’t want the new parking regulations to make that worse,” he said.
First Ward Councilor William Hurlock, whose ward includes the area, promised that he would examine the speeding problem with Mayor Robert Jackson and Township Manager Marc Dashield. “We don’t want to solve one problem and create another,” he said. Dashield said that the passage of the ordinances on first reading would allow a public hearing on the matter, and he also said he would investigate whether two-hour parking ordinances allowed moving a car to a different section of a street every two hours.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. People who have done so have received tickets in the past.
The council also passed unanimously, 6-0 (Deputy Mayor Robert Russo was away on family business), four separate resolutions and six more resolutions in a consent agenda. Third Ward Councilor Sean Spiller offered guidance requested by Dashield on the issue of a service contract for arborist Steve Schuckman during the conference pre-meeting. Spiller suggested working out an agreement with other municipalities that contract Schuckman’s services by hiring him as a municipal arborist serving several towns in a shared-services partnership that could lower the cost for Montclair. Dashield replied that most of the surrounding towns were outsourcing an arborist rather than hiring one, making such a partnership difficult. He recommended that the council pass the arborist contract now – because an arborist’s services are needed immediately for the coming spring – and explore Spiller’s idea afterwards to see if such an alternative were possible.
“I would feel more comfortable moving forward with this, knowing that we are definitely going to explore something like that,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. and put that out sooner rather than later,” Spiller said, “so that other townships, when their contracts are expiring, don’t go ahead and renew them and then say, Oh ,we’re locked in now, we love to have done it.’” Dashield said he would definitely look into the idea.
In end-of-meeting reports, Dashield reminded Montclair residents that the postmark deadlines to submit comments regarding the Nishuane Well project are Wednesday, January 30 for the Green Acres hearing and Thursday January 31 for the January 17 New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust hearing. Township Attorney Ira Karasick reported his research on the land donations from the Carey family to Montclair for a park, and he said that the deed to the large parcel of land donated in 1935 specifically demands that the land be used for recreational purposes, but that such a specificity is absent from the deed to the land where the well sits, which was donated in 1940.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.
Also, Township Clerk Linda Wanat reported that the township received a letter from the U.S. General Services Administration that the former Social Security building was offered to agencies but turned down, and the property is now in the phase of being offered for services for the homeless, as required by the federal McKinney Act. Karasick said that if there is no use for the property for such a purpose,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. the township will have the opportunity to buy it for its own use.
Details about Timothy Aaron Hoag paint him as a violent man
Timothy Aaron Hoag, the man with the violent past who police say
killed Jeong Im in 2005, was capable of following through on threats of
physical violence, according to court records.
That kept at least two people from telling police what they knew about Hoag's possible connection to Im's slaying.
In December 2012, a few months after Hoag committed suicide on Aug. 9, 2012, by jumping off a parking garage at Fifth and Walnut streets at the age of 35, MU police were contacted by a person who identified Hoag as a possible suspect in the case. The person told police he feared for his own safety and that of his family if he came forward sooner.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet.
That led investigators to another acquaintance of Hoag's who talked about bringing Hoag to the Maryland Avenue parking garage several times on the day Im was killed.
But a motive for the killing remains unknown, and efforts to locate members of Hoag's family were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
Hoag's last known address was 2900 Flora Drive. Police say he had no known employment at the time of his death. A Timothy Aaron Hoag is listed on the summer 2010 President's List at Moberly Area Community College.
Court records show that a restraining order was filed against Hoag in Boone County family court in January 2001. He was accused of assaulting Mark Pressley, a local chiropractor, and threatening to hurt his family in an effort to extort $1,200 from Pressley's business, according to court documents.
After entering the business, Hoag "threatened to break (Pressley's) hands and arms so he couldn't practice" and to "go to his house and hurt his wife and make the children watch," according to the court records. He told Pressley "that he would get some sick twisted pleasure from it."
The officer who swore out the probable cause statement noted that "(Hoag) should be considered extremely dangerous to the victim due to his physical size 6 feet 7 inches and 235 (pounds). He also made threats to victims (sic) family and did already assault victim. Suspect also told victim that if he contacted the police that he would just bond out and come back as many times as it took."
Hoag was charged with third-degree assault and victim tampering in February 2001 as a result of the incident. After pleading guilty to both charges, he received a six-month sentence in Boone County Jail and two years of probation, according to Missouri Case.net.
Contacted at his business Wednesday, Pressley said: "I'd prefer not to talk about it, thank you."
In June 2004, court proceedings were begun to have Hoag evicted from a rental property. The following year, he was arrested for unlawful use of drug paraphernalia,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action and another restraining order was filed against him in family court.
One of Hoag's brothers, Michael J. Hoag,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. also sought an order of protection against Timothy Hoag. On a court document dated June 27, 2005, Michael Hoag described his reasons for seeking protection after fighting with his brother over a roofing job that "Tim" had agreed to do and then refused to finish. "He told me he was to (sic) angry with me about a previous argument. He stated that he wanted more money and that I had better give it to him. ... My girlfriend, employer and myself are all scared of Tim Hoag at this point."
Dave Miller, Hoag's former landlord who owns a house on Quail Drive, where Hoag lived three or four years ago with a varying number of roommates, remembered forcing Hoag to move out.
The feature will be available on the 2013 Honda Accord and Acura RDX (left) and ILX models as a dealer-installed option later this year. With Eyes Free,Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers. drivers can use a Siri-compatible iOS device running iOS 6 and above to perform certain tasks without having to take their hands off the wheel.
Apple first unveiled Siri "Eyes Free" mode at June's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). The offering lets you connect a compatible iOS device to a car's dashboard and use Siri to access the gadget's features. To make sure the driver is not distracted,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. the iOS device will not illuminate when the car is in motion.
"iPhone has become so integral to people's lives that they continue to use them in their vehicles," Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of automobile product planning at American Honda, said in a statement. "Offering Honda and Acura owners Siri and its Eyes Free mode via Bluetooth is an incredible opportunity to provide next-generation connectivity and meet our customer's ever-changing needs."
That kept at least two people from telling police what they knew about Hoag's possible connection to Im's slaying.
In December 2012, a few months after Hoag committed suicide on Aug. 9, 2012, by jumping off a parking garage at Fifth and Walnut streets at the age of 35, MU police were contacted by a person who identified Hoag as a possible suspect in the case. The person told police he feared for his own safety and that of his family if he came forward sooner.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet.
That led investigators to another acquaintance of Hoag's who talked about bringing Hoag to the Maryland Avenue parking garage several times on the day Im was killed.
But a motive for the killing remains unknown, and efforts to locate members of Hoag's family were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
Hoag's last known address was 2900 Flora Drive. Police say he had no known employment at the time of his death. A Timothy Aaron Hoag is listed on the summer 2010 President's List at Moberly Area Community College.
Court records show that a restraining order was filed against Hoag in Boone County family court in January 2001. He was accused of assaulting Mark Pressley, a local chiropractor, and threatening to hurt his family in an effort to extort $1,200 from Pressley's business, according to court documents.
After entering the business, Hoag "threatened to break (Pressley's) hands and arms so he couldn't practice" and to "go to his house and hurt his wife and make the children watch," according to the court records. He told Pressley "that he would get some sick twisted pleasure from it."
The officer who swore out the probable cause statement noted that "(Hoag) should be considered extremely dangerous to the victim due to his physical size 6 feet 7 inches and 235 (pounds). He also made threats to victims (sic) family and did already assault victim. Suspect also told victim that if he contacted the police that he would just bond out and come back as many times as it took."
Hoag was charged with third-degree assault and victim tampering in February 2001 as a result of the incident. After pleading guilty to both charges, he received a six-month sentence in Boone County Jail and two years of probation, according to Missouri Case.net.
Contacted at his business Wednesday, Pressley said: "I'd prefer not to talk about it, thank you."
In June 2004, court proceedings were begun to have Hoag evicted from a rental property. The following year, he was arrested for unlawful use of drug paraphernalia,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action and another restraining order was filed against him in family court.
One of Hoag's brothers, Michael J. Hoag,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. also sought an order of protection against Timothy Hoag. On a court document dated June 27, 2005, Michael Hoag described his reasons for seeking protection after fighting with his brother over a roofing job that "Tim" had agreed to do and then refused to finish. "He told me he was to (sic) angry with me about a previous argument. He stated that he wanted more money and that I had better give it to him. ... My girlfriend, employer and myself are all scared of Tim Hoag at this point."
Dave Miller, Hoag's former landlord who owns a house on Quail Drive, where Hoag lived three or four years ago with a varying number of roommates, remembered forcing Hoag to move out.
The feature will be available on the 2013 Honda Accord and Acura RDX (left) and ILX models as a dealer-installed option later this year. With Eyes Free,Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers. drivers can use a Siri-compatible iOS device running iOS 6 and above to perform certain tasks without having to take their hands off the wheel.
Apple first unveiled Siri "Eyes Free" mode at June's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). The offering lets you connect a compatible iOS device to a car's dashboard and use Siri to access the gadget's features. To make sure the driver is not distracted,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. the iOS device will not illuminate when the car is in motion.
"iPhone has become so integral to people's lives that they continue to use them in their vehicles," Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of automobile product planning at American Honda, said in a statement. "Offering Honda and Acura owners Siri and its Eyes Free mode via Bluetooth is an incredible opportunity to provide next-generation connectivity and meet our customer's ever-changing needs."
Families file lawsuit against ex-pastor
An ex-Pella pastor found to have sexually exploited four of his
former parishioners now is embroiled in a wide-ranging lawsuit with
accusations that include assault, damaged reputations and harassment.
Patrick Edouard, convicted in October of pressuring women for sex after they allegedly sought his counsel, was sued two months later by two of his former victims and their husbands. The women, sisters-in-law Valerie Bandstra and Anne Bandstra, also target the former leaders of Edouard’s church, whom the women accuse of defaming them by publicly dismissing accusations of rape as mere marital infidelity.
“You are not victims,” court papers quote church elder Clarence Hettinga as repeatedly telling the Bandstras. The lawsuit later quotes Hettinga as saying, “Unless he was holding a knife to her throat, it wasn’t rape.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.”
Edouard, who has always insisted the sex was consensual, in his own court papers accuses the Bandstra families of smearing his reputation by harassing his family with prank pizza orders, throwing a brick through his son’s window, and creating a fake posting on Craigslist that listed his house for sale.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Roxanne Conlin contends in court documents that Edouard “is libel-proof in that his reputation, as a result of his own actions, was already so poor that plaintiffs’ statements caused no appreciable damage.”
Conlin on Tuesday said actions by Edouard and his former bosses “both were horrible and damaging to my clients, but he has been held criminally liable and the church has not been held accountable for the separate and egregious harm they caused.”
Defense attorney Angela Campbell said Edouard is intent on defending himself against continued accusations that he raped the women.
“We win the jury on the rape and they keep saying it,” Campbell said. “That’s the biggest problem.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. Rape and a consensual sexual relationship that they shouldn’t have had are two very different things.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business.”
The Rev. Doug Barnes, Edouard’s replacement at Pella’s Covenant Reformed Church, said church leaders have been told by lawyers not to address the controversy.
“I can’t speak directly to the lawsuit,” Barnes said. “What I can say is that the church was devastated by what happened, and in fact disapproves of everything that was done there. Beyond that, we trust that our God is able to use even the sins of men to bless his church in the end.”
Edouard, a once highly regarded pastor in Pella, lost his job in 2011 after a husband discovered Edouard at his home and told church officials.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. Iowa authorities argued in a trial last August that Edouard had spent much of 2006 through 2010 pursuing religious and vulnerable females in his congregation. Jurors were told that the pastor used a combination of flattery and concern over the women’s personal problems to force himself on them and lure them into consensual affairs.
Originally charged with eight crimes, Edouard last fall was acquitted by jurors on three felony rape charges. He was convicted of four misdemeanor violations of a law banning sex between people who provide mental health services and those who seek guidance from them, as well as a separate charge that Edouard engaged in a deceitful scheme involving the women.
The Des Moines Register’s policy is to print the names of sexual abuse victims only when they voluntarily enter public proceedings, such as by filing a lawsuit.
Court papers say Valerie Bandstra, a Des Moines attorney facing difficult family planning decisions, was sexually assaulted by Edouard in early 2006 during a meeting in the pastor’s basement. A sexual relationship continued for roughly two more years, according to the lawsuit. It was 2008, documents say, when Edouard “persuaded plaintiff Valerie to open a bank account ... (and) transfer $20,000 from that account to defendant.”
The lawsuit accuses Edouard of assault, sexual exploitation and breach of fiduciary duty. The pastor, church, church elders — Hettinga, Arnold Van Donselaar, Norman Van Mersbergen and William Hartman — as well as the nationwide governing body of Reformed Churches, are all accused of negligence, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Court papers say Hartman told others during a meeting that “Grooming is a word made up by professionals. In reality, it is temptation. These women fell into temptation, and they sinned.” The lawsuit says Van Donselaar described Edouard in June 2011 as “more repentant than any of the women ever will be.”
Documents say the church board sent a letter to the victims and their families one month after the trial that included several statements that “we formally and officially affirm to you that we forgive you ... .”
Elizabeth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said sexual abuse victims frequently cite the fear of not being believed as a main reason they fail to report the crime.
Barnhill described Hettinga’s alleged statement about a knife to the throat as evidence of “just a very, very fundamental lack of understanding about what constitutes a rape.”
The Bandstras’ lawsuit seeks compensation for “injuries and damages” including “mental and emotional pain and anguish, and past and future medical expenses.”
Court papers filed by Campbell, Edouard’s attorney,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action stress that the former pastor never provided the women counseling and that both Bandstra women “initiated sexual activity with Edouard on numerous occasions.”
Edouard also contends that Valerie Bandstra’s marriage already was under pressure in 2010 due to Bandstra’s unrelated affair with another man.
The counterclaims accuse Valerie Bandstra of defamation, abusing court procedures and of causing the former pastor “humiliation, embarrassment and severe mental and emotional distress.”
Anne Bandstra is accused of slander for filing a false child abuse report against Edouard, while Ryan Bandstra is accused of libel for distributing a flier about the pastor. Edouard’s part of the court case seeks reimbursement for “expenses incurred in defending the criminal charges, damages affecting Edouard’s employment, reputation and livelihood; and exposure to public hatred, contempt and ridicule.”
Court documents also say Ryan and Jason Bandstra both “threatened physical harm to Edouard for his relationship with their wives.” Pella police in 2011 initiated 24-hour surveillance of Edouard’s then-home, according to the lawsuit, after Ryan Bandstra began driving by the home multiple times a day and parking across a ravine to look at the house.
According to court documents, all four Bandstras allegedly worked to inflict emotional distress on Edouard in early January 2011 by, among other things, strewing nails in the pastor’s driveway, causing the Craigslist posting and arranging for pizza deliveries.
The lawsuit claims plaintiffs “caused numerous doorbell rings at the Edouard house to harass them,” caused vulgarities to be painted on the Covenant Reformed Church and “called in false fires to cause the church to evacuate.”
Patrick Edouard, convicted in October of pressuring women for sex after they allegedly sought his counsel, was sued two months later by two of his former victims and their husbands. The women, sisters-in-law Valerie Bandstra and Anne Bandstra, also target the former leaders of Edouard’s church, whom the women accuse of defaming them by publicly dismissing accusations of rape as mere marital infidelity.
“You are not victims,” court papers quote church elder Clarence Hettinga as repeatedly telling the Bandstras. The lawsuit later quotes Hettinga as saying, “Unless he was holding a knife to her throat, it wasn’t rape.Application can be conducted with the local designated IC card producers.”
Edouard, who has always insisted the sex was consensual, in his own court papers accuses the Bandstra families of smearing his reputation by harassing his family with prank pizza orders, throwing a brick through his son’s window, and creating a fake posting on Craigslist that listed his house for sale.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Roxanne Conlin contends in court documents that Edouard “is libel-proof in that his reputation, as a result of his own actions, was already so poor that plaintiffs’ statements caused no appreciable damage.”
Conlin on Tuesday said actions by Edouard and his former bosses “both were horrible and damaging to my clients, but he has been held criminally liable and the church has not been held accountable for the separate and egregious harm they caused.”
Defense attorney Angela Campbell said Edouard is intent on defending himself against continued accusations that he raped the women.
“We win the jury on the rape and they keep saying it,” Campbell said. “That’s the biggest problem.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. Rape and a consensual sexual relationship that they shouldn’t have had are two very different things.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business.”
The Rev. Doug Barnes, Edouard’s replacement at Pella’s Covenant Reformed Church, said church leaders have been told by lawyers not to address the controversy.
“I can’t speak directly to the lawsuit,” Barnes said. “What I can say is that the church was devastated by what happened, and in fact disapproves of everything that was done there. Beyond that, we trust that our God is able to use even the sins of men to bless his church in the end.”
Edouard, a once highly regarded pastor in Pella, lost his job in 2011 after a husband discovered Edouard at his home and told church officials.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. Iowa authorities argued in a trial last August that Edouard had spent much of 2006 through 2010 pursuing religious and vulnerable females in his congregation. Jurors were told that the pastor used a combination of flattery and concern over the women’s personal problems to force himself on them and lure them into consensual affairs.
Originally charged with eight crimes, Edouard last fall was acquitted by jurors on three felony rape charges. He was convicted of four misdemeanor violations of a law banning sex between people who provide mental health services and those who seek guidance from them, as well as a separate charge that Edouard engaged in a deceitful scheme involving the women.
The Des Moines Register’s policy is to print the names of sexual abuse victims only when they voluntarily enter public proceedings, such as by filing a lawsuit.
Court papers say Valerie Bandstra, a Des Moines attorney facing difficult family planning decisions, was sexually assaulted by Edouard in early 2006 during a meeting in the pastor’s basement. A sexual relationship continued for roughly two more years, according to the lawsuit. It was 2008, documents say, when Edouard “persuaded plaintiff Valerie to open a bank account ... (and) transfer $20,000 from that account to defendant.”
The lawsuit accuses Edouard of assault, sexual exploitation and breach of fiduciary duty. The pastor, church, church elders — Hettinga, Arnold Van Donselaar, Norman Van Mersbergen and William Hartman — as well as the nationwide governing body of Reformed Churches, are all accused of negligence, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Court papers say Hartman told others during a meeting that “Grooming is a word made up by professionals. In reality, it is temptation. These women fell into temptation, and they sinned.” The lawsuit says Van Donselaar described Edouard in June 2011 as “more repentant than any of the women ever will be.”
Documents say the church board sent a letter to the victims and their families one month after the trial that included several statements that “we formally and officially affirm to you that we forgive you ... .”
Elizabeth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said sexual abuse victims frequently cite the fear of not being believed as a main reason they fail to report the crime.
Barnhill described Hettinga’s alleged statement about a knife to the throat as evidence of “just a very, very fundamental lack of understanding about what constitutes a rape.”
The Bandstras’ lawsuit seeks compensation for “injuries and damages” including “mental and emotional pain and anguish, and past and future medical expenses.”
Court papers filed by Campbell, Edouard’s attorney,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action stress that the former pastor never provided the women counseling and that both Bandstra women “initiated sexual activity with Edouard on numerous occasions.”
Edouard also contends that Valerie Bandstra’s marriage already was under pressure in 2010 due to Bandstra’s unrelated affair with another man.
The counterclaims accuse Valerie Bandstra of defamation, abusing court procedures and of causing the former pastor “humiliation, embarrassment and severe mental and emotional distress.”
Anne Bandstra is accused of slander for filing a false child abuse report against Edouard, while Ryan Bandstra is accused of libel for distributing a flier about the pastor. Edouard’s part of the court case seeks reimbursement for “expenses incurred in defending the criminal charges, damages affecting Edouard’s employment, reputation and livelihood; and exposure to public hatred, contempt and ridicule.”
Court documents also say Ryan and Jason Bandstra both “threatened physical harm to Edouard for his relationship with their wives.” Pella police in 2011 initiated 24-hour surveillance of Edouard’s then-home, according to the lawsuit, after Ryan Bandstra began driving by the home multiple times a day and parking across a ravine to look at the house.
According to court documents, all four Bandstras allegedly worked to inflict emotional distress on Edouard in early January 2011 by, among other things, strewing nails in the pastor’s driveway, causing the Craigslist posting and arranging for pizza deliveries.
The lawsuit claims plaintiffs “caused numerous doorbell rings at the Edouard house to harass them,” caused vulgarities to be painted on the Covenant Reformed Church and “called in false fires to cause the church to evacuate.”
2013年1月29日星期二
The Inside Pitch
The grass runs the entire stretch of the outfield and diamond; its
fertility uninterrupted by players or unsightly patches of decay. The
baseball field, moist from lazy coastal showers, bounces the refracted
sunlight back onto the thin December cloud cover overhead with an almost
artificial emerald hue, lending the grass the miraculous contrast of
abrupt color in an otherwise monochrome world. In a bout of synesthesia,
one smells the color in the fecund waft of freshly sown seed. Given the
recent planting, the blades shoot up tall and wild – at least by the
standards of a well-manicured baseball field like this one. While the
grounds crew must patiently wait for the right moment to trim the
verdure to code,Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp
to communities that don't have access to electricity. it is by no means
unkempt. This grass is still short enough to satisfy even the residents
of the orderly Pleasantville planned around the university.
Nestled in a corner past the empty third base dugout, beyond the fence that runs to the outfield wall, standing parallel to the left field line, there is a batting cage. The University of California, Irvine’s Anteater Ballpark is in full off-season dormancy except for the periodic cracks, thwocks and thuds issuing from within the cage. The stadium’s massive analog clock beyond the center field wall remains on Daylight Savings Time through the first Monday of the month, marking the last resistance of this men’s game of spring, summer and autumn to winter’s dominion — such that it is in mild Orange County. Despite the general lack of cold, the last few weeks have brought persistent precipitation that has kept the players off the raw, healing grassland and inside the shelter of the cage.
Two adjacent vertical strips, separated only by safety netting, run the length of the cage. On one half, a pair of hitters take turns tossing each other sets of easy lobs from a short distance, ensuring solid contact on each drive. In the other half, junior right-hander Phil Ferragamo is the first member of the pitching staff to put in his time today fulfilling the day’s mandatory, but officially “non-mandatory,” supervised “unsupervised” workout.
Year round, the players train six out of seven days a week under the watchful eyes of their coaches, who are technically supposed to be absent during offseason workouts but unable to resist monitoring their burgeoning talent. The pitchers stay tuned with practice throwing sessions without a batter — simply known as “bullpens” — on half of these days. Ferragamo towers over the mound at six-foot-eight-inches and hurls the ball with intensity commensurate to his massive frame, sometimes wildly out of play but mostly in line with the target set by the catcher’s mitt.
Newly hired pitching coach Danny Bibona paces behind the batting cage pitching rubber, offering a gentle guiding voice to Ferragamo and spitting on the ground frequently as baseball players are known to do. He periodically calls out a number, challenging Ferragamo to hit the corresponding pitch location, following the attempt with positivity no matter the outcome. An even-keeled guy, Bibona earnestly hopes he doesn’t have to have a blow-up this season and that his pitchers stay in line and put in the work he expects of them.
The mold for what constitutes a pitcher at the highest levels of baseball varies widely, perhaps more than any other position in sports. The good fortune of major league pitching success has been visited upon the nearly obese, the freakishly tall and the impossibly old — but not so often diminutive, unassuming guys like Bibona. Although he stands 6 feet tall, he possesses a narrow and wiry build that, in a generic warm-up top and windbreaker pants, casts the image of a soccer player or cross country runner, lean and humble enough to last through endless miles of running. He certainly doesn’t strike you as a two-time college All-American pitcher and eighth round major league draft pick, and as a soft-spoken 24-year-old, he’s also not your typical Division I pitching coach.
Bibona was the smallest player on all of his teams growing up. As a freshman in high school, he stood just five feet tall and weighed ninety-five pounds. He didn’t elicit much attention, as he was not one to throw blazing fastballs past hitters or smash home runs from a young age. As an eight-year-old who loved pitching, he pestered his coach to let him pitch every game only to be repeatedly rebuffed. When he finally had his chance on the mound, he did well enough to earn a spot pitching every week. From there, Bibona made all-star teams, but didn’t garner significant playing time.
At private Santa Margarita High School in nearby Lake Forest, he had the fortune of a growth spurt, as well as playing alongside four teammates bound for Division I careers. They pushed each other, practicing at night after official practice, taking extra batting practice and hitting the weight room, addicted to doing whatever work was necessary to rise to the top of the game.
UC Irvine recruited Bibona as a two-way player to split time between the outfield and pitching, but a senior year injury to his non-throwing arm gave him pause. By the time he arrived at school, his right arm was better and he was hitting again, but the jump to a higher level of play led him to focus his efforts solely on pitching. Without the physical gifts of power to hit home runs out of college ballparks and speed to run the bases and patrol the outfield,A laser marking machine can be thought of as three main parts. Bibona saw it wise to focus his energy on pitching. While he was recruited by the Irvine coaches, he had to walk on to the program and earn his scholarship by proving himself as a freshman in 2007.
Bibona fought to prove to himself and everyone that he deserved the label and buzz given to top recruits. Being left-handed certainly helped. The world is predominated by righties, so increased competition demands they throw harder and simply be better. For the same reason, hitters don’t have the luxury of practicing against left-handed pitching, so lefties are a valuable commodity in the baseball world, proving to be more difficult for their opponents with perhaps less objective talent than their right-handed counterparts.
Bibona struggled his first season, despite holding his own in the preseason against teammates from a recruiting class that was one of the best in the nation and veterans that would lead the team to the cusp of a national championship. His successful, mature performances in fall intrasquad scrimmages translated into the coveted Saturday starter role once the season rolled around in February. During the season, important conference games are scheduled in series of three weekend games, with non-conference filler games left to Tuesdays.
The first Saturday start threw him right into the fire against a big name opponent: Cal, shorthand for Irvine’s big-brother UC branch in Berkeley. It was mind-boggling for Bibona to step up from high school competition to facing a school from the big-time Pac-10 conference whose football team he watched on Saturdays. He strayed from what made him successful in the fall. He tried to pitch beyond himself and struggled mightily, giving up four runs in the first inning and leaving the game early after surrendering a fifth score.
Of course, he would have liked to do well, but making the roster for all the road trips and sitting in the dugout held its own value. Bibona was able to watch a lot of well-played baseball.
Bibona went on to pitch out of the bullpen for most of his first season, coming on in relief towards the end of games for short appearances. Despite his struggles, he was handed the ball on college baseball’s biggest stage — the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska — the season-ending tournament that crowns the national champion.
Having already lost once to Arizona State in a tournament where a second loss sends a team home, Irvine was down 4-3 heading into the eighth inning, leaving them only six outs at bat to save their season and no margin for error on the defensive side of the ball. Star reliever Blair Erickson had just allowed three runs and recorded only two outs. With a runner on second sure to score on a base hit, Danny was tasked with ending the damage and preserving his team’s slim hopes for survival. As if the tension was lacking, he had to subdue the Sun Devils’ star player Brett Wallace — the best hitter in college baseball.
In front of a crowd of 29,034 people — the second largest in College World Series history —Bibona emerged from the bullpen knowing he was going to get Wallace out. In the regional tournaments leading up to Omaha, he acclimated to the gravity of 10,000 fans at games in Round Rock, Texas and Wichita, Kansas. The local University of Texas fans didn’t play a factor in Round Rock, but Wichita presented an entirely different atmosphere.
Without a nearby team making up one of the eight World Series participants, the fans of Omaha adopted the upstart squad from Orange County making their first appearance in the tournament, energized after witnessing them pull off a dramatic extra-innings victory against Cal State Fullerton the night before. Nonetheless, as Bibona threw his warm-up pitches, he had nerves inching up the back of his neck.
Head coach Dave Serrano watched him loosen and had some last words before he headed back to the dugout, “You’ve put in the hard work in the bullpen, just have fun. And happy birthday.”
On the biggest stage, against the most formidable opponent, the last thing running through Bibona’s mind was his 19th birthday. But hearing that relaxed him a little bit. His first pitch was a curveball — ball one. The second, a fastball away from Wallace — called strike one. Then,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. on a curveball that he recalls as not very good, he jammed Wallace into a fly ball that center fielder Ollie Linton secured with a diving catch to end the inning.
The Anteaters rallied to tie the game in the bottom half of the eighth inning with a four-run surge, and Linton concluded the improbable comeback in the 10th inning with a game-winning walk-off single to right field. This, their second extra-innings win in as many nights, was a College World Series first and revived their feel-good story with a push into the national semifinal game.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere.
A sobering six-run rout at the hands of eventual champion Oregon State quickly followed and brought their run to an abrupt conclusion. A loss so close to the national championship surely meant heartbreak for those leaving because of graduation or entry into the Major League amateur draft, but for freshmen like Bibona, this deep run in Omaha was an inspiring preview of the next few years.
Nestled in a corner past the empty third base dugout, beyond the fence that runs to the outfield wall, standing parallel to the left field line, there is a batting cage. The University of California, Irvine’s Anteater Ballpark is in full off-season dormancy except for the periodic cracks, thwocks and thuds issuing from within the cage. The stadium’s massive analog clock beyond the center field wall remains on Daylight Savings Time through the first Monday of the month, marking the last resistance of this men’s game of spring, summer and autumn to winter’s dominion — such that it is in mild Orange County. Despite the general lack of cold, the last few weeks have brought persistent precipitation that has kept the players off the raw, healing grassland and inside the shelter of the cage.
Two adjacent vertical strips, separated only by safety netting, run the length of the cage. On one half, a pair of hitters take turns tossing each other sets of easy lobs from a short distance, ensuring solid contact on each drive. In the other half, junior right-hander Phil Ferragamo is the first member of the pitching staff to put in his time today fulfilling the day’s mandatory, but officially “non-mandatory,” supervised “unsupervised” workout.
Year round, the players train six out of seven days a week under the watchful eyes of their coaches, who are technically supposed to be absent during offseason workouts but unable to resist monitoring their burgeoning talent. The pitchers stay tuned with practice throwing sessions without a batter — simply known as “bullpens” — on half of these days. Ferragamo towers over the mound at six-foot-eight-inches and hurls the ball with intensity commensurate to his massive frame, sometimes wildly out of play but mostly in line with the target set by the catcher’s mitt.
Newly hired pitching coach Danny Bibona paces behind the batting cage pitching rubber, offering a gentle guiding voice to Ferragamo and spitting on the ground frequently as baseball players are known to do. He periodically calls out a number, challenging Ferragamo to hit the corresponding pitch location, following the attempt with positivity no matter the outcome. An even-keeled guy, Bibona earnestly hopes he doesn’t have to have a blow-up this season and that his pitchers stay in line and put in the work he expects of them.
The mold for what constitutes a pitcher at the highest levels of baseball varies widely, perhaps more than any other position in sports. The good fortune of major league pitching success has been visited upon the nearly obese, the freakishly tall and the impossibly old — but not so often diminutive, unassuming guys like Bibona. Although he stands 6 feet tall, he possesses a narrow and wiry build that, in a generic warm-up top and windbreaker pants, casts the image of a soccer player or cross country runner, lean and humble enough to last through endless miles of running. He certainly doesn’t strike you as a two-time college All-American pitcher and eighth round major league draft pick, and as a soft-spoken 24-year-old, he’s also not your typical Division I pitching coach.
Bibona was the smallest player on all of his teams growing up. As a freshman in high school, he stood just five feet tall and weighed ninety-five pounds. He didn’t elicit much attention, as he was not one to throw blazing fastballs past hitters or smash home runs from a young age. As an eight-year-old who loved pitching, he pestered his coach to let him pitch every game only to be repeatedly rebuffed. When he finally had his chance on the mound, he did well enough to earn a spot pitching every week. From there, Bibona made all-star teams, but didn’t garner significant playing time.
At private Santa Margarita High School in nearby Lake Forest, he had the fortune of a growth spurt, as well as playing alongside four teammates bound for Division I careers. They pushed each other, practicing at night after official practice, taking extra batting practice and hitting the weight room, addicted to doing whatever work was necessary to rise to the top of the game.
UC Irvine recruited Bibona as a two-way player to split time between the outfield and pitching, but a senior year injury to his non-throwing arm gave him pause. By the time he arrived at school, his right arm was better and he was hitting again, but the jump to a higher level of play led him to focus his efforts solely on pitching. Without the physical gifts of power to hit home runs out of college ballparks and speed to run the bases and patrol the outfield,A laser marking machine can be thought of as three main parts. Bibona saw it wise to focus his energy on pitching. While he was recruited by the Irvine coaches, he had to walk on to the program and earn his scholarship by proving himself as a freshman in 2007.
Bibona fought to prove to himself and everyone that he deserved the label and buzz given to top recruits. Being left-handed certainly helped. The world is predominated by righties, so increased competition demands they throw harder and simply be better. For the same reason, hitters don’t have the luxury of practicing against left-handed pitching, so lefties are a valuable commodity in the baseball world, proving to be more difficult for their opponents with perhaps less objective talent than their right-handed counterparts.
Bibona struggled his first season, despite holding his own in the preseason against teammates from a recruiting class that was one of the best in the nation and veterans that would lead the team to the cusp of a national championship. His successful, mature performances in fall intrasquad scrimmages translated into the coveted Saturday starter role once the season rolled around in February. During the season, important conference games are scheduled in series of three weekend games, with non-conference filler games left to Tuesdays.
The first Saturday start threw him right into the fire against a big name opponent: Cal, shorthand for Irvine’s big-brother UC branch in Berkeley. It was mind-boggling for Bibona to step up from high school competition to facing a school from the big-time Pac-10 conference whose football team he watched on Saturdays. He strayed from what made him successful in the fall. He tried to pitch beyond himself and struggled mightily, giving up four runs in the first inning and leaving the game early after surrendering a fifth score.
Of course, he would have liked to do well, but making the roster for all the road trips and sitting in the dugout held its own value. Bibona was able to watch a lot of well-played baseball.
Bibona went on to pitch out of the bullpen for most of his first season, coming on in relief towards the end of games for short appearances. Despite his struggles, he was handed the ball on college baseball’s biggest stage — the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska — the season-ending tournament that crowns the national champion.
Having already lost once to Arizona State in a tournament where a second loss sends a team home, Irvine was down 4-3 heading into the eighth inning, leaving them only six outs at bat to save their season and no margin for error on the defensive side of the ball. Star reliever Blair Erickson had just allowed three runs and recorded only two outs. With a runner on second sure to score on a base hit, Danny was tasked with ending the damage and preserving his team’s slim hopes for survival. As if the tension was lacking, he had to subdue the Sun Devils’ star player Brett Wallace — the best hitter in college baseball.
In front of a crowd of 29,034 people — the second largest in College World Series history —Bibona emerged from the bullpen knowing he was going to get Wallace out. In the regional tournaments leading up to Omaha, he acclimated to the gravity of 10,000 fans at games in Round Rock, Texas and Wichita, Kansas. The local University of Texas fans didn’t play a factor in Round Rock, but Wichita presented an entirely different atmosphere.
Without a nearby team making up one of the eight World Series participants, the fans of Omaha adopted the upstart squad from Orange County making their first appearance in the tournament, energized after witnessing them pull off a dramatic extra-innings victory against Cal State Fullerton the night before. Nonetheless, as Bibona threw his warm-up pitches, he had nerves inching up the back of his neck.
Head coach Dave Serrano watched him loosen and had some last words before he headed back to the dugout, “You’ve put in the hard work in the bullpen, just have fun. And happy birthday.”
On the biggest stage, against the most formidable opponent, the last thing running through Bibona’s mind was his 19th birthday. But hearing that relaxed him a little bit. His first pitch was a curveball — ball one. The second, a fastball away from Wallace — called strike one. Then,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. on a curveball that he recalls as not very good, he jammed Wallace into a fly ball that center fielder Ollie Linton secured with a diving catch to end the inning.
The Anteaters rallied to tie the game in the bottom half of the eighth inning with a four-run surge, and Linton concluded the improbable comeback in the 10th inning with a game-winning walk-off single to right field. This, their second extra-innings win in as many nights, was a College World Series first and revived their feel-good story with a push into the national semifinal game.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere.
A sobering six-run rout at the hands of eventual champion Oregon State quickly followed and brought their run to an abrupt conclusion. A loss so close to the national championship surely meant heartbreak for those leaving because of graduation or entry into the Major League amateur draft, but for freshmen like Bibona, this deep run in Omaha was an inspiring preview of the next few years.
Qatar 2022 World Cup will exploit migrant workers
The World Cup due to be played in Qatar in 2022 will be "a crucible
of exploitation and misery" for poorly paid migrant workers who will
toil on the country's construction sites, the campaigning organisation
Human Rights Watch will warn in a report due to be published on
Thursday.
In its World Report 2013, HRW is expected to say workers from India,Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. Pakistan, Nepal and other south Asian countries suffer forced labour, low pay, insanitary and overcrowded living conditions and other violations of their human rights when they arrive to work in Qatar, one of the world's richest countries.
HRW says the Qatar government has not fulfilled pledges made when Fifa awarded the World Cup to the country, to improve the conditions for workers who will build nine new stadiums and massive infrastructure projects for the tournament. Although there are concerns within the football establishment about players and supporters enduring the heat of Qatar if the tournament is played in the summer of 2022,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere. HRW argues no similar care is being taken for the workers labouring in that summer heat every year.
HRW, which published an extensive report into workers' human rights in Qatar in June, found that some workers have to live in "overcrowded and unsanitary labour camps", which lacked clean water, ventilation or air-conditioning, "crucial elements for adequately minimising the risk of heat stroke".
Many of the 1.2 million migrant workers, who form 88% of the country's population, suffer the kafala sponsorship system, which ties them to a single employer. That means they cannot change jobs without the consent of that employer, other than in exceptional cases, and to leave Qatar they need the sponsoring employer to grant an exit visa, which can be refused. Employers "routinely" confiscate workers' passports, HRW says.
"Qatar has some of the most restrictive sponsorship laws in the Gulf region and forced labour and human trafficking are serious problems," the HRW World Report will state. "The government has failed to address shortcomings in the legal and regulatory framework despite the initiation of many large-scale projects for Qatar's 2022 World Cup."
Qatar's bid included commitments that the situation of workers in the country would be improved but HRW argues little progress has been made. There remains no legal right to form or join a trade union and no minimum wage. Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said that, combined with the kafala system, workers are suffering "forced labour" in Qatar.
"The World Cup in 2022 was awarded by Fifa to a country which treats workers as modern-day slaves," Burrow said. Calling on Qatar to improve its labour laws and practices, including outlawing recruitment fees charged to workers, she cited figures from the Nepal government that 200 Nepali migrant workers died last year working in Qatar. "More workers will die building World Cup infrastructure than players will take to the field," Burrows predicted.
The Qatar 2022 supreme committee told the Guardian it has nearly finalised a "migrant worker charter" for all World Cup-related projects, that it will include labour requirements in its tender documents and work with HRW and other stakeholders to seek "the highest health and safety and worker welfare standards to the benefit of all major projects in Qatar".
It’s going to cost an estimated $750,000-$850,000 to take advantage of geothermal energy to heat and cool the older portion of the county jail, at 400 Walnut St.
Engineer Vic Amoroso of A&J Associates of North Liberty, whose company designed the new geothermal system for the older part of the jail, told the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors Monday evening during its regular meeting that bids will be opened on Wednesday.
The board unanimously reappointed three people to county boards: Architect and engineer Mark Hawthorne to the Muscatine County Building Board of Appeals, Dr. Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine to the Muscatine County Board of Health, and Ana Gretsinger of Muscatine to the Community Action of Eastern Iowa board of directors.
Supervisors heard from County Auditor Leslie Soule that Larry Beik of Nichols (District 2), Robert Feldmann of Fruitland (District 5) and Richard Lovetinsky of West Liberty (District 9) all won three-year terms on drainage districts within the county. Each man received all three votes cast.
The board also approved $10,400 for FSCC baseball and softball umpires for this spring season. Some $7,232 will go to pay men's baseball umpires, while $3,168 will pay for women's softball officials. The baseball team has more home games and the officials are generally paid more, thus the difference.
Trustees also approved spending $19,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us.200 for a ventilation system for welding courses at the Construction Trades Building in Pittsburg. Tatro said about $27,500 was raised, entirely in Crawford County, for the project. USD 250, Pittsburg, the city of Pittsburg and numerous Crawford County businesses raised the money for the project. FSCC currently conducts two morning classes and one night class at the site.
Tatro also announced during his President's Report that FSCC honor students will be recognized during half-time of the FSCC-Brown Mackie basketball game Wednesday night at Arnold Arena.
Trustees tabled a vote on a couple of items until the February meeting, including one to form a Board Facilities Committee. Within the next two years, Tatro said he believes the cosmetology program in Pittsburg will need find another home. He said Vinyl Plex, where the school is currently located, has allowed FSCC to use its building for $1 per year,A laser marking machine can be thought of as three main parts. but is paying more than $36,000 per year in taxes on the structure.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity. Tatro said a facilities board will help when situations like this arise.
During its February meeting, trustees also will consider a request for an exemption to the alcohol beverages policy at FSCC for it annual scholarship auction. FSCC currently does not allow alcoholic beverages on campus, but would like the option of serving them on-campus during its auction.
In its World Report 2013, HRW is expected to say workers from India,Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. Pakistan, Nepal and other south Asian countries suffer forced labour, low pay, insanitary and overcrowded living conditions and other violations of their human rights when they arrive to work in Qatar, one of the world's richest countries.
HRW says the Qatar government has not fulfilled pledges made when Fifa awarded the World Cup to the country, to improve the conditions for workers who will build nine new stadiums and massive infrastructure projects for the tournament. Although there are concerns within the football establishment about players and supporters enduring the heat of Qatar if the tournament is played in the summer of 2022,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere. HRW argues no similar care is being taken for the workers labouring in that summer heat every year.
HRW, which published an extensive report into workers' human rights in Qatar in June, found that some workers have to live in "overcrowded and unsanitary labour camps", which lacked clean water, ventilation or air-conditioning, "crucial elements for adequately minimising the risk of heat stroke".
Many of the 1.2 million migrant workers, who form 88% of the country's population, suffer the kafala sponsorship system, which ties them to a single employer. That means they cannot change jobs without the consent of that employer, other than in exceptional cases, and to leave Qatar they need the sponsoring employer to grant an exit visa, which can be refused. Employers "routinely" confiscate workers' passports, HRW says.
"Qatar has some of the most restrictive sponsorship laws in the Gulf region and forced labour and human trafficking are serious problems," the HRW World Report will state. "The government has failed to address shortcomings in the legal and regulatory framework despite the initiation of many large-scale projects for Qatar's 2022 World Cup."
Qatar's bid included commitments that the situation of workers in the country would be improved but HRW argues little progress has been made. There remains no legal right to form or join a trade union and no minimum wage. Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said that, combined with the kafala system, workers are suffering "forced labour" in Qatar.
"The World Cup in 2022 was awarded by Fifa to a country which treats workers as modern-day slaves," Burrow said. Calling on Qatar to improve its labour laws and practices, including outlawing recruitment fees charged to workers, she cited figures from the Nepal government that 200 Nepali migrant workers died last year working in Qatar. "More workers will die building World Cup infrastructure than players will take to the field," Burrows predicted.
The Qatar 2022 supreme committee told the Guardian it has nearly finalised a "migrant worker charter" for all World Cup-related projects, that it will include labour requirements in its tender documents and work with HRW and other stakeholders to seek "the highest health and safety and worker welfare standards to the benefit of all major projects in Qatar".
It’s going to cost an estimated $750,000-$850,000 to take advantage of geothermal energy to heat and cool the older portion of the county jail, at 400 Walnut St.
Engineer Vic Amoroso of A&J Associates of North Liberty, whose company designed the new geothermal system for the older part of the jail, told the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors Monday evening during its regular meeting that bids will be opened on Wednesday.
The board unanimously reappointed three people to county boards: Architect and engineer Mark Hawthorne to the Muscatine County Building Board of Appeals, Dr. Rebecca Mueller of Muscatine to the Muscatine County Board of Health, and Ana Gretsinger of Muscatine to the Community Action of Eastern Iowa board of directors.
Supervisors heard from County Auditor Leslie Soule that Larry Beik of Nichols (District 2), Robert Feldmann of Fruitland (District 5) and Richard Lovetinsky of West Liberty (District 9) all won three-year terms on drainage districts within the county. Each man received all three votes cast.
The board also approved $10,400 for FSCC baseball and softball umpires for this spring season. Some $7,232 will go to pay men's baseball umpires, while $3,168 will pay for women's softball officials. The baseball team has more home games and the officials are generally paid more, thus the difference.
Trustees also approved spending $19,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us.200 for a ventilation system for welding courses at the Construction Trades Building in Pittsburg. Tatro said about $27,500 was raised, entirely in Crawford County, for the project. USD 250, Pittsburg, the city of Pittsburg and numerous Crawford County businesses raised the money for the project. FSCC currently conducts two morning classes and one night class at the site.
Tatro also announced during his President's Report that FSCC honor students will be recognized during half-time of the FSCC-Brown Mackie basketball game Wednesday night at Arnold Arena.
Trustees tabled a vote on a couple of items until the February meeting, including one to form a Board Facilities Committee. Within the next two years, Tatro said he believes the cosmetology program in Pittsburg will need find another home. He said Vinyl Plex, where the school is currently located, has allowed FSCC to use its building for $1 per year,A laser marking machine can be thought of as three main parts. but is paying more than $36,000 per year in taxes on the structure.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity. Tatro said a facilities board will help when situations like this arise.
During its February meeting, trustees also will consider a request for an exemption to the alcohol beverages policy at FSCC for it annual scholarship auction. FSCC currently does not allow alcoholic beverages on campus, but would like the option of serving them on-campus during its auction.
Mount Vernon Secures Historic Latrobe Watercolor Painting
The Mount Vernon Ladies'
Association purchased at auction Friday a historic watercolor drawing by
Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
“A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family” sold for $602,500 at Sotheby’s in New York on Jan. 26 and was purchased through the generosity of an anonymous donor.
The image depicts George and Martha Washington with guests on the Mount Vernon piazza, as they overlook the Potomac River before sunset. This view is unique and extremely important because it is the only known life-time image depicting the Washingtons on the piazza, according to a press release issued Monday by the Mount Vernon Estate.
“Latrobe’s watercolor depiction of the Washingtons on the piazza is the closest we will ever come to having a color photograph of George Washington and his family at home in Virginia,” Mount Vernon president and CEO Curt Viebranz said in a statement. “When we couple that with the insights the watercolor provides into the Mansion and its surrounding landscape, the information contained in this acquisition is priceless to Mount Vernon.”
Latrobe visited Mount Vernon on July 16-17, 1796, having likely obtained an introduction to George Washington through his acquaintance with Bushrod Washington, the President’s nephew (and a future owner of Mount Vernon and future Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), according to the release issued by the Mount Vernon Estate.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.
The image depicts a scene that occurred during Latrobe’s visit to Mount Vernon on the evening of July 16, and was described specifically in his journals. According to the press release, after dinner, the party removed to the piazza, where coffee was served about six o’clock, and conversation continued until dark.
The Mount Vernon Estate believes that this work of art was presented to the Washingtons by Latrobe as a gift after his visit to Mount Vernon, and that it likely remained in the house until the 1850s. It was later inherited by Lawrence Washington, son of the last family owner of the Mount Vernon estate.
"A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family" will go on display as part of Mount Vernon’s landscape exhibition, Gardens & Groves, scheduled to open in February 2014 in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center at Mount Vernon.
After more than a decade of living and painting in Florence, Italy, a local artist has found a studio in Waltham where he can continue his profession and passion.
Leo Mancini-Hresko recently opened up a studio and joined the Waltham Mills Artists Association at 144 Moody St. Mancini-Hresko grew up in Brookline and when he was a teenager, his parents replaced cans of spray paint, used for graffiti, with paint brushes and canvas and a painter was born.
The 31-year-old painter said he has been into art ever since he was young. He took art classes both in public school and privately at museums and continuing education classes. Unsure exactly what he was interested in, Mancini-Hresko travelled to Florence while in his second year at the Art Institute of Boston to study at the International Art Institute Lorenzo de Medici for three months. But when he got there, he discovered it wasn’t for him.
“When I went there I found it was more of the same, ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of classes. And I guess I was looking for something more structured,” Mancini-Hresko said. “I didn’t particularly like being told over and over that I should be more expressive.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere.”
From the moment he realized the institute wasn’t right for him, Mancini-Hresko made the decision that he was going to seek out a different kind of education. He found an art academy in Florence that taught a painting technique that was unique to Boston during the early 20th century and something clicked.
“There was this sort of connection that I found in Florence to a tradition of teaching from Boston that wasn’t done anymore,” Mancini-Hresko said.
The academy taught the mechanical drawing and painting that Mancini-Hresko was searching for. He said they spent days drawing models and still objects. He started teaching as a student teacher and ran a drawing program and taught how to make paints, grinds and other techniques. Before he knew it,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. a three-month study abroad trip turned into 11 years.
Mancini-Hresko met his wife, Elpida Peristeropoulou, in Florence. Peristeropoulou,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! who is originally from Greece, was studying architecture at the University of Florence when the two met and they have been together for 11 years. The two lived and worked in Florence until 2011 when they decided to make the move back to the States.
Mancini-Hresko said the transition back to the Untited States has been filled with different adventures due to the cultural difference of how painters are perceived in Italy and the United States.
“A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family” sold for $602,500 at Sotheby’s in New York on Jan. 26 and was purchased through the generosity of an anonymous donor.
The image depicts George and Martha Washington with guests on the Mount Vernon piazza, as they overlook the Potomac River before sunset. This view is unique and extremely important because it is the only known life-time image depicting the Washingtons on the piazza, according to a press release issued Monday by the Mount Vernon Estate.
“Latrobe’s watercolor depiction of the Washingtons on the piazza is the closest we will ever come to having a color photograph of George Washington and his family at home in Virginia,” Mount Vernon president and CEO Curt Viebranz said in a statement. “When we couple that with the insights the watercolor provides into the Mansion and its surrounding landscape, the information contained in this acquisition is priceless to Mount Vernon.”
Latrobe visited Mount Vernon on July 16-17, 1796, having likely obtained an introduction to George Washington through his acquaintance with Bushrod Washington, the President’s nephew (and a future owner of Mount Vernon and future Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), according to the release issued by the Mount Vernon Estate.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines.
The image depicts a scene that occurred during Latrobe’s visit to Mount Vernon on the evening of July 16, and was described specifically in his journals. According to the press release, after dinner, the party removed to the piazza, where coffee was served about six o’clock, and conversation continued until dark.
The Mount Vernon Estate believes that this work of art was presented to the Washingtons by Latrobe as a gift after his visit to Mount Vernon, and that it likely remained in the house until the 1850s. It was later inherited by Lawrence Washington, son of the last family owner of the Mount Vernon estate.
"A View of Mount Vernon with the Washington Family" will go on display as part of Mount Vernon’s landscape exhibition, Gardens & Groves, scheduled to open in February 2014 in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center at Mount Vernon.
After more than a decade of living and painting in Florence, Italy, a local artist has found a studio in Waltham where he can continue his profession and passion.
Leo Mancini-Hresko recently opened up a studio and joined the Waltham Mills Artists Association at 144 Moody St. Mancini-Hresko grew up in Brookline and when he was a teenager, his parents replaced cans of spray paint, used for graffiti, with paint brushes and canvas and a painter was born.
The 31-year-old painter said he has been into art ever since he was young. He took art classes both in public school and privately at museums and continuing education classes. Unsure exactly what he was interested in, Mancini-Hresko travelled to Florence while in his second year at the Art Institute of Boston to study at the International Art Institute Lorenzo de Medici for three months. But when he got there, he discovered it wasn’t for him.
“When I went there I found it was more of the same, ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of classes. And I guess I was looking for something more structured,” Mancini-Hresko said. “I didn’t particularly like being told over and over that I should be more expressive.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere.”
From the moment he realized the institute wasn’t right for him, Mancini-Hresko made the decision that he was going to seek out a different kind of education. He found an art academy in Florence that taught a painting technique that was unique to Boston during the early 20th century and something clicked.
“There was this sort of connection that I found in Florence to a tradition of teaching from Boston that wasn’t done anymore,” Mancini-Hresko said.
The academy taught the mechanical drawing and painting that Mancini-Hresko was searching for. He said they spent days drawing models and still objects. He started teaching as a student teacher and ran a drawing program and taught how to make paints, grinds and other techniques. Before he knew it,we sell dry cabinet and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. a three-month study abroad trip turned into 11 years.
Mancini-Hresko met his wife, Elpida Peristeropoulou, in Florence. Peristeropoulou,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! who is originally from Greece, was studying architecture at the University of Florence when the two met and they have been together for 11 years. The two lived and worked in Florence until 2011 when they decided to make the move back to the States.
Mancini-Hresko said the transition back to the Untited States has been filled with different adventures due to the cultural difference of how painters are perceived in Italy and the United States.
The Joy of Cinemax
It may not seem like anything worth caring about to most people,we sell dry cabinet
and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. really: Cinemax has
renewed its new show Banshee for a second season, after three episodes.
It's just some random show on Cinemax, that cheesy porn-lite channel,
right? Wrong! With the renewal of this new series — a gritty, gory, only
kinda sorta corny crime show about depraved small-town America —
Cinemax is working to assure a position as a true network of original
programming. It's an oddly exciting and mostly unheralded development
that speaks to the ever-deepening and refreshing pool of available
television.
Look, Cinemax's three big shows right now aren't going to win many awards — ones that aren't for stunt work, anyway. And that's... OK. The goods are great fun nonetheless. The network's first show, Strike Back, a co-production with British broadcaster Sky, is a T&A action riot that eschews geopolitical nuance for guns-blazing bravado and is all the more enjoyable for it. Its attitude toward pesky things like extreme civilian collateral damage would be deplorable if it was the real world, but it's not, so who really cares? Not caring too much about the actual nuts and bolts of global intelligence, the show is international fun — last season told an unexpectedly complex story of nuclear armament and nation-building in Africa. And, rather surprisingly, the great Charles Dance showed up to play the season's main villain, giving it enough gusto to override most of the too-easy plot contrivances. All the neat explosions took care of the rest.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity.
Hunted, another British co-production (this time with the BBC), is a subtler and decidedly smarter affair, a domestic spy drama about a wronged superagent (Melissa George) seeking undercover revenge. Its first season had more satisfyingly knotty mythology than Homeland, but blessedly didn't take itself so damn seriously. Sure, George's Sam Hunter (get the title now?) may be the worst spy ever — breaking into the bad guy's office in broad daylight while he's in the other room is maybe not the best idea! — but she's an intriguing central figure nonetheless. George was supported ably by the likes of Stephen Dillane and confirmed dreamboat Adam Rayner, playing shadowy colleagues/potential foes of Sam's with lots of pleasing modulation and mystery. The first season ended with a wonderful twist, something we couldn't see coming miles away, like, say Abu Nazir's wicked master plan.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. Classier than Strike Back but no less viscerally engaging, Hunted was an unexpected highlight of the late-2012 TV season. We were sad to hear that the BBC has dropped its partnership with the show and that Hunted's second season will likely look very different because of it, but at least creator Frank Spotnitz and his star are still aboard.
And then there's Banshee, which is definitely the weirdest of the three series. Set in rural-ish Pennsylvania, the show focuses on an ex-con who turns up in the titular town to find his long-lost lady love, only to wind up becoming the sheriff by way of a deadly fight and a case of mistaken identity. He squares off against the de facto town leader, a sinister fellow with evil henchmen and ties to the Amish community. At just three episodes in, Banshee is already an engaging potboiler, at turns silly and kinda sexy. It's Cinemax's first purely native show, and it indicates good things for the future. That future includes another action series, called Sandbox, and, supposedly, a TV version of the Transporter films. So, Cinemax knows its brand. It's action with a dash of wit, plus just enough oddity to keep it original. It's FX to HBO's AMC.
Cinemax is lucky to be owned by HBO — they don't have to compete with their polished, prestige-ified big brother. Unlike Showtime, Cinemax does not seem burdened with aspirations of grandeur; they can roll around in the muck and grunt all they want. This is not, for time being anyway, a network that's trying to win any Peabodys. That's a nice change of pace for non-HBO premium cable. Hopefully the dribbles of praise they've been getting of late won't go to their heads. I like the network muscly and goofy; swagger and sweat become it, and too much glossiness wouldn't. I like also what Cinemax's recent intriguing developments suggest about another evolution of the television landscape. They're now succeeding where Starz largely stumbled and failed. So maybe we're truly ready for another round of new offerings. And, lo, here comes House of Cards on Netflix, as well as the rebooted, slimmed-down Arrested Development. And, further off, there will be whatever Amazon Studios turns into. Hopefully expectations can be managed on these new platforms and they'll succeed at courting a niche audience rather than flailing after wider appeal.
Radical advances in military science sometimes arrive from far afield. Take Kevlar, invented to reinforce radial tires years before it saw use in body armor and helmets. Similarly, the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft, one of the most popular military spy drones, arose from technology created to help fishing fleets find schools of tuna.
Now, a brewing legal war over the fish-finder-turned-weapon has opened a window on a rarely examined side of military contracting: ideas and intellectual property. How do you untangle who really owns the technology the U.S. government buys and deploys in battle?
A swept-wing UAV with a 10-foot wingspan, ScanEagle has become an ISR workhorse,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! deployed everywhere from Iraq to Somalia. Its manufacturer, Insitu, had $400 million in sales last year. Iran in December claimed to have captured one. And in fact, this fall, as tensions with Iran ratcheted higher, the Navy awarded another contract to Insitu to deploy, fly and maintain two more ScanEagle systems from warships in the Persian Gulf. It’s a drop in the bucket in the steady stream of contracts for the system.
Among the features that make the drone well-suited to deployment from a ship’s flight deck or a small combat outpost is its ability to land without a runway. Crews connect a taut cable to a vertical boom, then fly the little airplane so it snags the cable with a hook on its wing. They recover it easily, sliding it off the cable like a fish from a line.
That simple, ingenious feature, which Insitu calls SkyHook, is at the center of a legal war far from the conflict zone, in federal courts in Missouri and Washington, D.C. The stakes could be several hundred million dollars; the combatants bear familiar names.
On the one side of the legal struggle: an inventor who is a member of a defense-contracting dynasty. His name is William “Randy” McDonnell — as in McDonnell Douglas. He says he came up with the Skyhook landing system and that he is owed,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere. big-time, for its use in ScanEagle. The lawsuits were filed under the name of McDonnell’s company, Advanced Aerospace Technologies Inc.
Look, Cinemax's three big shows right now aren't going to win many awards — ones that aren't for stunt work, anyway. And that's... OK. The goods are great fun nonetheless. The network's first show, Strike Back, a co-production with British broadcaster Sky, is a T&A action riot that eschews geopolitical nuance for guns-blazing bravado and is all the more enjoyable for it. Its attitude toward pesky things like extreme civilian collateral damage would be deplorable if it was the real world, but it's not, so who really cares? Not caring too much about the actual nuts and bolts of global intelligence, the show is international fun — last season told an unexpectedly complex story of nuclear armament and nation-building in Africa. And, rather surprisingly, the great Charles Dance showed up to play the season's main villain, giving it enough gusto to override most of the too-easy plot contrivances. All the neat explosions took care of the rest.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity.
Hunted, another British co-production (this time with the BBC), is a subtler and decidedly smarter affair, a domestic spy drama about a wronged superagent (Melissa George) seeking undercover revenge. Its first season had more satisfyingly knotty mythology than Homeland, but blessedly didn't take itself so damn seriously. Sure, George's Sam Hunter (get the title now?) may be the worst spy ever — breaking into the bad guy's office in broad daylight while he's in the other room is maybe not the best idea! — but she's an intriguing central figure nonetheless. George was supported ably by the likes of Stephen Dillane and confirmed dreamboat Adam Rayner, playing shadowy colleagues/potential foes of Sam's with lots of pleasing modulation and mystery. The first season ended with a wonderful twist, something we couldn't see coming miles away, like, say Abu Nazir's wicked master plan.Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machines. Classier than Strike Back but no less viscerally engaging, Hunted was an unexpected highlight of the late-2012 TV season. We were sad to hear that the BBC has dropped its partnership with the show and that Hunted's second season will likely look very different because of it, but at least creator Frank Spotnitz and his star are still aboard.
And then there's Banshee, which is definitely the weirdest of the three series. Set in rural-ish Pennsylvania, the show focuses on an ex-con who turns up in the titular town to find his long-lost lady love, only to wind up becoming the sheriff by way of a deadly fight and a case of mistaken identity. He squares off against the de facto town leader, a sinister fellow with evil henchmen and ties to the Amish community. At just three episodes in, Banshee is already an engaging potboiler, at turns silly and kinda sexy. It's Cinemax's first purely native show, and it indicates good things for the future. That future includes another action series, called Sandbox, and, supposedly, a TV version of the Transporter films. So, Cinemax knows its brand. It's action with a dash of wit, plus just enough oddity to keep it original. It's FX to HBO's AMC.
Cinemax is lucky to be owned by HBO — they don't have to compete with their polished, prestige-ified big brother. Unlike Showtime, Cinemax does not seem burdened with aspirations of grandeur; they can roll around in the muck and grunt all they want. This is not, for time being anyway, a network that's trying to win any Peabodys. That's a nice change of pace for non-HBO premium cable. Hopefully the dribbles of praise they've been getting of late won't go to their heads. I like the network muscly and goofy; swagger and sweat become it, and too much glossiness wouldn't. I like also what Cinemax's recent intriguing developments suggest about another evolution of the television landscape. They're now succeeding where Starz largely stumbled and failed. So maybe we're truly ready for another round of new offerings. And, lo, here comes House of Cards on Netflix, as well as the rebooted, slimmed-down Arrested Development. And, further off, there will be whatever Amazon Studios turns into. Hopefully expectations can be managed on these new platforms and they'll succeed at courting a niche audience rather than flailing after wider appeal.
Radical advances in military science sometimes arrive from far afield. Take Kevlar, invented to reinforce radial tires years before it saw use in body armor and helmets. Similarly, the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft, one of the most popular military spy drones, arose from technology created to help fishing fleets find schools of tuna.
Now, a brewing legal war over the fish-finder-turned-weapon has opened a window on a rarely examined side of military contracting: ideas and intellectual property. How do you untangle who really owns the technology the U.S. government buys and deploys in battle?
A swept-wing UAV with a 10-foot wingspan, ScanEagle has become an ISR workhorse,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! deployed everywhere from Iraq to Somalia. Its manufacturer, Insitu, had $400 million in sales last year. Iran in December claimed to have captured one. And in fact, this fall, as tensions with Iran ratcheted higher, the Navy awarded another contract to Insitu to deploy, fly and maintain two more ScanEagle systems from warships in the Persian Gulf. It’s a drop in the bucket in the steady stream of contracts for the system.
Among the features that make the drone well-suited to deployment from a ship’s flight deck or a small combat outpost is its ability to land without a runway. Crews connect a taut cable to a vertical boom, then fly the little airplane so it snags the cable with a hook on its wing. They recover it easily, sliding it off the cable like a fish from a line.
That simple, ingenious feature, which Insitu calls SkyHook, is at the center of a legal war far from the conflict zone, in federal courts in Missouri and Washington, D.C. The stakes could be several hundred million dollars; the combatants bear familiar names.
On the one side of the legal struggle: an inventor who is a member of a defense-contracting dynasty. His name is William “Randy” McDonnell — as in McDonnell Douglas. He says he came up with the Skyhook landing system and that he is owed,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheadavailable anywhere. big-time, for its use in ScanEagle. The lawsuits were filed under the name of McDonnell’s company, Advanced Aerospace Technologies Inc.
2013年1月28日星期一
Meet Brad Keselowski
Brad Keselowski steps into the radio world's version of mission
control: three computer screens, a microphone and an on-air mixing board
that looked space age compared to the primitive dash of his Sprint Cup
car.
Like he has since team owner Roger Penske gave him a full-time Cup ride in 2010,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a smart card can authenticate your computer usage and data. the 28-year-old made the show his.
Other than a slight mishap with a mouse when he should have pushed the play button -- what's a few seconds of dead air? -- Keselowski was almost flawless introducing songs, reading station promos and keeping listeners informed on a winter storm that was engulfed the area.
He rambled off DJ terms such as "hitting the post" as naturally as he would "wedge adjustment."
Station executive Jack Daniel was so impressed that he stuck his head in the studio door 30 minutes in and said: "If you ever retire from that driving job you can do this."
Keselowski was so good that he got a new nickname: "Bradass."
Athletes often get opportunities most of us don't -- in this case to fulfill a "boyhood dream" -- because of their celebrity status. This one was born from a conversation Keselowski had with DZL last season when he repeatedly questioned the host's song selections.
DZL finally told him to win the Cup championship and "you can come and play whatever you want."
Not long after Keselowski captured the title in November and delivered the unforgettable "SportsCenter" "buzz" moment with his giant pilsner beer glass interview, the wheels for this day were put in motion.
WEND's Patrick Sills admittedly was skeptical. Athletes often underdeliver in his world of Metallica and Pearl Jam, arriving with a script to promote an agenda and never showing their true personality.
He hadn't heard much of Keselowski,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. who turned the NASCAR world upside down at the 2012 Daytona 500 when he tweeted from his car after Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer to stop the race.
Less than 10 minutes after Keselowski entered the building,Service Report a problem with a street light. particularly after the driver asked if he could say "'f--- you' on the radio," Sills knew this was going to be good.
"He nailed it," Sills said as he monitored social media feeds.
There were times, beginning with the selection of Kid Rock's "You Never Met A M----------- Quite Like Me" as his opening song,If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! when Keselowski had station executives worried.
The Penske Racing driver addressed everything from "farting" in his firesuit -- "It's got nowhere to go," he informed -- to a video that he swore would make most "throw up in 10 seconds."
It was almost an hour before the first hour of the show, when Keselowski would be in the passenger seat for 60 minutes before taking over,Welcome to www.drycabinets.net! and a winter storm had the guest host running late for the production meeting. No worries. Everyone adapted.
"I feel like I need a hoodie," said Keselowski, wearing blue jeans, a fleece jacket and a Miller Lite cap, as he entered the room. "I was going to come in sweatpants to feel real authentic."
Radio hosts aren't known for their on-air fashion style and Keselowski knew it. DZL was prepared just in case, presenting Keselowski with what he called a rock DJ jacket, in this case a black coat with the name of the show on the back.
The production meeting was a bit more serious. DZL tried to explain that Keselowski's opening song contained words the station can't play, that even the cleaned-up version needed approval to be aired before the evening hours.
DZL suggested perhaps there was another song Keselowski might want to consider. Keselowski was adamant about the one he chose because it "personifies who I am."
"I might say, 'Let's do it,'" another member of DZL's team said in the small office decorated with electric guitars and a Metallica poster. "Let's get crazy."
This was a moment Keselowski had awaited since he and his brother worked in their parents' race shop in Rochester, Mich., 35 minutes outside of "Rock City" Detroit.
He recalled that when his parents went to race they'd leave him with his grandmother, and how she would go to bed around 7:30 p.m., leaving him and his cousin to turn up the volume on rock classics such as Led Zeppelin.
That was obvious from his song selection, which ranged from "Whatever" by Godsmack to "Outside" by Staind to "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine.
DZL applauded the texture and variety of Keselowski's selections and approved the playlist, pending approval of the opener that eventually came.
Like he has since team owner Roger Penske gave him a full-time Cup ride in 2010,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a smart card can authenticate your computer usage and data. the 28-year-old made the show his.
Other than a slight mishap with a mouse when he should have pushed the play button -- what's a few seconds of dead air? -- Keselowski was almost flawless introducing songs, reading station promos and keeping listeners informed on a winter storm that was engulfed the area.
He rambled off DJ terms such as "hitting the post" as naturally as he would "wedge adjustment."
Station executive Jack Daniel was so impressed that he stuck his head in the studio door 30 minutes in and said: "If you ever retire from that driving job you can do this."
Keselowski was so good that he got a new nickname: "Bradass."
Athletes often get opportunities most of us don't -- in this case to fulfill a "boyhood dream" -- because of their celebrity status. This one was born from a conversation Keselowski had with DZL last season when he repeatedly questioned the host's song selections.
DZL finally told him to win the Cup championship and "you can come and play whatever you want."
Not long after Keselowski captured the title in November and delivered the unforgettable "SportsCenter" "buzz" moment with his giant pilsner beer glass interview, the wheels for this day were put in motion.
WEND's Patrick Sills admittedly was skeptical. Athletes often underdeliver in his world of Metallica and Pearl Jam, arriving with a script to promote an agenda and never showing their true personality.
He hadn't heard much of Keselowski,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. who turned the NASCAR world upside down at the 2012 Daytona 500 when he tweeted from his car after Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer to stop the race.
Less than 10 minutes after Keselowski entered the building,Service Report a problem with a street light. particularly after the driver asked if he could say "'f--- you' on the radio," Sills knew this was going to be good.
"He nailed it," Sills said as he monitored social media feeds.
There were times, beginning with the selection of Kid Rock's "You Never Met A M----------- Quite Like Me" as his opening song,If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! when Keselowski had station executives worried.
The Penske Racing driver addressed everything from "farting" in his firesuit -- "It's got nowhere to go," he informed -- to a video that he swore would make most "throw up in 10 seconds."
It was almost an hour before the first hour of the show, when Keselowski would be in the passenger seat for 60 minutes before taking over,Welcome to www.drycabinets.net! and a winter storm had the guest host running late for the production meeting. No worries. Everyone adapted.
"I feel like I need a hoodie," said Keselowski, wearing blue jeans, a fleece jacket and a Miller Lite cap, as he entered the room. "I was going to come in sweatpants to feel real authentic."
Radio hosts aren't known for their on-air fashion style and Keselowski knew it. DZL was prepared just in case, presenting Keselowski with what he called a rock DJ jacket, in this case a black coat with the name of the show on the back.
The production meeting was a bit more serious. DZL tried to explain that Keselowski's opening song contained words the station can't play, that even the cleaned-up version needed approval to be aired before the evening hours.
DZL suggested perhaps there was another song Keselowski might want to consider. Keselowski was adamant about the one he chose because it "personifies who I am."
"I might say, 'Let's do it,'" another member of DZL's team said in the small office decorated with electric guitars and a Metallica poster. "Let's get crazy."
This was a moment Keselowski had awaited since he and his brother worked in their parents' race shop in Rochester, Mich., 35 minutes outside of "Rock City" Detroit.
He recalled that when his parents went to race they'd leave him with his grandmother, and how she would go to bed around 7:30 p.m., leaving him and his cousin to turn up the volume on rock classics such as Led Zeppelin.
That was obvious from his song selection, which ranged from "Whatever" by Godsmack to "Outside" by Staind to "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine.
DZL applauded the texture and variety of Keselowski's selections and approved the playlist, pending approval of the opener that eventually came.
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