Thousands line Arizona roads in procession for 19 fallen firefighters

Firefighters began a 125-mile procession to bring the bodies of 19 colleagues who died in a wildfire a week ago from Phoenix to the mountain community where they lived.Nineteen hearses departed from the medical examiners office in Phoenix, rolled past a collection of firefighters outside the Arizona statehouse complex and will pass through the community of Yarnell where the 19 died.

Firefighters and police officers held hands over their hearts or saluted as the motorcycle-led escort slowly drove by and a quartet of bag pipers played a mournful song to a marching cadence. The firefighters names were posted on a side window of each hearse.The procession included several firefighting vehicles, including a truck that bore the name of the elite crew to which the 19 firefighters who died on June 30 belonged.

Lon Reiman of Scottsdale carried two small American flags as he waited for the procession to begin. Reiman said he has several relatives who are firefighters and thought of them once he heard the news of the deathsWhen you think about their wives, their families and their kids, it just brings tears to your eyes, Reiman said.

Its unclear how long the procession will last.Parkeasy Electronics are dedicated to provide rtls.Since their fellow firefighters arrived at the scene where they were killed, the fallen firefighters have not been alone, a tradition among those in the profession in the U.S.Bringing plasticmoulds mainstream.Since they were discovered, they have never been out of the presence of a brother firefighter, said Paul Bourgeois, a Phoenix-area fire chief who is acting as a spokesman in Prescott for the firefighters families. From the time they were taken to the medical examiner in Phoenix, while theyre at the medical examiners office, when they are received in a funeral home there will always be a brother firefighter on site with them until they are interred.

Thats something people dont realize. We never leave your side, he said of the tradition. Its a comfort to the survivors, whether theyre families or fellow firefighters.Solar Sister is a network of women who sell cleaningservicesydney to communities that don't have access to electricity.The firefighters were killed a week ago in the Yarnell Hill fire, sparked by lightning on June 28. Crews were closing in on full containment after the fire destroyed more than 100 homes in Yarnell and burned about 13 square miles. The town remained evacuated.

The crew of Hotshots was working to build a fire line between the blaze and Yarnell when erratic winds suddenly shifted the fires direction, causing it to hook around the firefighters and cut off access to a ranch that was to be their safety zone.The highly trained men were in the prime of their lives, and many left behind wives some pregnant and small children.

Earlier that week the Sunday Independent reported that Gwede Mantashe inexplicably appeared to be trying to pin the blame for the mayhem in Marikana on a Swede. (Thats what people from Sweden are called. They are Swedes and not Swiss. You follow?). The Swede in question was activist Liv Shange, a Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and Workers and Socialist Party (Wasp) leader. Mantashes assertions that Shange had been trying to destabilise the country by stirring up unrest amongst miners was widely met with ridicule, and read as another bizarre attempt to shift responsibility for South Africas very real problems,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a haha-handbags can authenticate your computer usage and data. from the ruling party to mythically demonised foreign forces of evil. Sadly, these two almost laughable incidents will be the sum total of what most South African media followers have heard about the country of Sweden of late. Thats a real pity, because this little-known-about country for South Africans, has a lot more to offer.

Last month I was invited to travel to Stockholm, as part of a group of African representatives for a series of meetings with media regulators, journalists and a journalist union, media producers and the Swedish foreign ministry. Not being able to help myself, the more I learnt about Sweden, the more I began a mental comparative analysis with South Africa C what follows here is just some of that comparison and how we measure up to what is widely regarded as one of the most free, open, transparent and least corrupt of societies on the planet.

What first pricked my interest in Stockholm was something called the Freedom of the Press Act. Despite its name, this piece of legislation safeguards the freedom of expression rights of all citizens, not just the press. More than that, it means that any individual can contact any public authority and request access to any official document without having to provide their motivation for doing so and without having to identify themselves. With regard to the notion of open and free access to information, that sounded too good to be true. So I asked a few questions about how effectively this law works in practice.

Sven Bergman, an investigative journalist, at first lamented the corrupt nature of governments in general, and recounted a few stories of corruption in the Swedish government which had been uncovered by journalists in recent years, the most significant ironically being the sale of military goods to South Africa during the Arms Deal. So, I asked him, what about this Freedom of the Press Act? How well does it work in Sweden? He replied instantly, Its very good. Very good. According to Bergman, the law works in practice precisely in the way that it is put on paper: a journalist can enter a government department at any time, request a particular document and wait while an official collects it and hands it over. The official has to hand it over, and they do. Sometimes you to have a wait a few hours, but it never really takes longer than that. At some of these places you learn that if you talk nicely to the elderly ladies at the desk, and give them some cakes, then the documents come faster, says Bergman, smiling.

In South Africa the law that is supposed to enable open access to government information is called the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). But often PAIA fails in implementation, acting as a hindrance to accessing to government information rather than promoting it. The process is burdensome: it requires having to complete a near unfathomable form, and officials at many government bodies do not understand the law themselves, which means that just tracking down the appropriate person to whom one must submit the form, can sometimes be time consuming. Once the PAIA application is submitted, the public body has 30 days in which to respond. Applications are often turned down, in which case one can appeal, but then you have to wait another 30 days to get an answer. So, its not a case of, Wait here while I fetch that for you. By comparison, PAIA is tedious, cumbersome and bureaucratic enough to, contrary to what its name suggests, act more as a discouragement to anyone looking for public information. From a media angle having to wait for 30, sometimes 60 days for information that rightly should be open to the public, when chasing a deadline, is ludicrous and impractical.

But all the legal stuff aside, theres also the matter of pure principle. Its the principle of Swedens Freedom of the Press Act, and the seemingly widely held respect for that principle within that country, that makes it work. What is that principle? It is that information held by PUBLIC institutions belongs to the PUBLIC. To see what I mean, try applying the same principle in South Africa. Imagine strolling into the Department of Public Works back in September 2012, and saying to a secretary that you would like to see the official records of all state funds spent on the presidents private home at Nkandla. Imagine he/she answers, Sure! No problem. Just wait here while I fetch it for you.

On Friday, 5 July 2013, the Mail & Guardian reported on a gargantuan pile of documents which they had finally secured from the Department of Public Works detailing some of the behind-the-scenes history to the Nkandla project. Three things are relevant in this case. First,Our heavy-duty construction provides reliable operation and guarantees your earcap will be in service for years to come. the information released by the Mail & Guardian is damning, to the president as well as a chain of others involved in the project C which just illustrates the value of open access to public information in securing accountability in government. Second, the Mail & Guardian was at pains to point out, more than once, that the more than 12,000 pages worth of documentation which they now have in their possession thanks to a successful PAIA application contains significant gaps of information. The next question is, where is that information? Why wasnt it handed over to the Mail & Guardian after the PAIA application, which by law, it should have been? Third, the Nkandlagate scandal broke for the first time in a City Press expos last year in September. Yet, 10 months later, this is the first time a media outlet in South Africa has had access to official information held by a public institution on the matter. The fact that it has taken our public officials so long to release this information, especially with regard to the level of public interest, should have them hanging their heads in shame. (And yes, SABC head-honchos, I use the term Nkandlagate deliberately, even though youd like to have it censored).

The principle that information held by public institutions belongs to the public, were it respected in South Africa, could have saved the Mail & Guardian tons of legal fees and years of slogging through the courts for access to the Zimbabwe election report of 2002. And never mind the newspapers. This principle, were it respected, would have spared countless activists and community organisations around the country from a constant and exhausting struggle with officials to have access to information which should quite rightly be in the public domain for the purpose of improving peoples lives. It would have meant that the Right2Know Campaign could have simply walked into the front office of the Department of State Security and been handed the full list of national key points within a matter of minutes. Instead, Right2Know had to submit a PAIA application (which failed even on appeal) and the campaign then took to the streets in Johannesburg on World Press Freedom day out of protest. But in South Africa, we still dont know what all of our own national key points are.

The striking thing about the Swedish media people that I met was their seemingly genuine wish to do good in the world. The underlying golden thread which seems to bind their common purpose is that they are very much aware that their country has somehow, perhaps by some force of cosmic good luck, managed to build a society which is not without its own hiccups, but in spite of these is globally recognised as an enclave of freedom, openness and transparency. Added to that is an attitude to want to share this with others. Ola Larsmo, President of the Swedish PEN, is also the editor-in-chief of The Dissident Blog: a website that specifically publishes the work of otherwise censored journalists from regions where they cannot publish their material, knowing that it would see them arrested, intimidated, tortured or imprisoned. Currently the Dissident Blog is running a special issue on Iran. Larsmo told us that he aims to publish the forbidden texts, in order to give them both a Swedish and an international audience. The point here is to afford journalists from crisis regions and authoritarian regimes the same freedoms enjoyed by Swedish journalists via the miracle that is the Internet.
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Indianans plant deep new roots in Cordova the Town

Thanks to his job, Ben Gorsuch spent the past 10 years on the road. But he wasn’t traveling on business — he was commuting.

He said, “9-11 threw me for a curve. I worked for United Airlines for 17 years, but they shut down the Indianapolis facility in 2003. I had to find other employment.”

Ben, an aircraft mechanic, worked for a while as an Air Force contractor. From there, job opportunities led him to Cleveland, Ohio, then to Newark, N.J. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Karilyn, maintained their home in Indianapolis.

So even when another job opportunity led Ben to Memphis, he continued making the drive home to Indianapolis on weekends, renting rooms in “crash pads” during the workweek.

“I ended up down here with the intention of being here a little while and transferring back up to Indianapolis,” he said. “The challenge with that was because of the downturn in the economy, the company I work for vastly slowed down hiring.All smartcardfactory comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty ! They didn’t hire a single mechanic in Indianapolis for a whole year.”

Ben knew he might be waiting a long time for an Indiana transfer. And after spending a decade in a long-distance marriage, he and Karilyn decided enough was enough.

The couple’s home search was also tough. For nearly two years, the Gorsuches studied the Memphis real estate market in hopes of finding a house that would equal the home they loved in Indianapolis. That house, an older home, was loaded with charm and character.

“I really liked East Memphis, those older homes,” Karilyn said. “We looked in High Point Terrace, in the Central-Poplar area.”

Ben searched in his spare time during the week, and Karilyn made a few trips to the Mid-South to view homes in person. During their hunt, the couple met Realtor Melody Bourell,Austrian hospital launches oilpaintingsforsale solution to improve staff safety. of Marx-Bensdorf Realtors, at an open house.

With Bourell’s help, the Gorsuches viewed homes from East Memphis to Cordova to Collierville. One neighborhood in particular stuck in Karilyn’s head: Cordova the Town, a walkable community with homes that give a nod to nostalgia.

“Honestly, it was so far outside of our parameters,” Ben said. “It was the exact opposite of what we were looking for. We wanted something old, with character, small.”

When they initially viewed the neighborhood, Cordova the Town contained only existing homes that were too large and too far out of the Gorsuches’ price range to meet their needs. But they kept their eyes on it, and one day, they learned a firm was developing new lots in the neighborhood: J.T. Travis and Ken Klein of Sterling Gate Properties.

“I went in and, what the heck, I went into the model,” Ben said. “I was just amazed by the quality that J.T. puts into these places. Most builders want to get in,Which drycabinets is right for you? build it and get out. J.T. wants to make every home unique.”

They also love their new house — and they’ve put a lot into it to make it home. The couple requested several special features from the builders, including three sets of French doors that span the front faade, marble countertops in the kitchen and a marble master bath with a frameless shower.

“We wanted to put in our own personal touches,” Ben said.

The couple also requested a three-car garage, and Ben stained its concrete floors with eventual plans to turn it into his “man cave.” Between the house and the garage, a courtyard with multiple seating areas can be enclosed with a retractable screen by Southern Screens.

“At the beginning, when we were really starting to move in and get everything done,Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic. I spent a lot of time scoring and acid staining the concrete and working in (the garage),” Ben said. “Karilyn said, ‘If you love it so much, you can move your bed in there,’” he laughed. “I figured that was my sign I should spend more time inside the house.”

The home’s floor plan includes a first-floor master suite, a requirement for the Gorsuches, who plan to make the house their “forever home.”

“We’re not going to do this again,” Karilyn said. “We didn’t like the idea of moving; this was very hard on us. We wanted something easy to take care of.”

“That’s why there’s no carpet throughout the entire house,” Ben added.

In the living room, a fireplace flanked by built-in bookcases features a glass-tile surround in hues of gray, black and white. A breakfast bar divides the space from the kitchen, which has dark-stained, tall cabinetry and a marble backsplash the couple installed themselves.

In the formal dining room, the midcentury table, chairs and china cabinet were passed down from Karilyn’s family. Her mother did the needlepoint upholstery on the seats.

Also downstairs is a bedroom used as a home office, a guest bath and the master suite, which features a king-size bed dressed in blue and taupe paisley bedding. The en-suite bath has a retro marble-tile floor, a fully tiled bath and shower and gray and white marble countertops. Upstairs is a loft-style sitting area, a guest bath and two more bedrooms.

The couple have more projects they plan to complete: door screens, garage shelving and additional attic storage.Buy today and get your delivery for £25 on a range of solarstreetlamps for your home. But after a painstaking search and move, the couple are finally settled and happy in their new home.

Are you making the most out of your smart phone?

It was sometime in the early 1990s and a buzz – or more precisely a shrill bri-ing bri-ing – swept through businesses across the land.

It came attached to a handbag-sized lump of plastic, a now laughably primitive gadget that, should you happen to drop it on your toe, meant a trip to A&E, but also unleashed the power of the telephone call wherever you might be – assuming there was a signal.

Now, of course, we’re all glued to our smartphones, tweeting and updating our status, uploading, downloading, streaming, searching, texting, snapping and even, occasionally,Posts with thequicksilverscreen system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors. phoning.

While some Edinburgh phone users are getting to grips with the superfast 4G network – watching films and television without annoying buffering – from today, there will be another reason to look closely at the smartphone in our pocket. After a fairly dire couple of years the BlackBerry, with its much-loved Qwerty button keypad, is poised to make a return.

RIM, the firm behind the businessperson’s one-time favourite phone, launches BlackBerry 10,Cheaper For bulk buying handsfreeaccess prices. a touchscreen device that aims to recoup ground lost to the likes of the Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Sony Xperia.That is a machine for manufacturing plastic products by the bobblehead process.

It arrives in a rapidly changing marketplace. At the weekend it emerged that Apple is losing ground to Samsung, prompting suggestions it has “lost its cool” to the South Korean firm.

According to Ben Woods, senior reporter for technology news website ZDNet, BlackBerry 10 is a vital throw of the dice for its maker. “No longer is e-mailing, web browsing and video calling the preserve of a business user,” he said. “Which is why it [RIM] has worked hard to fully revamp the core software. It also offers a simple way to separate work data from personal data, which should appeal to IT admins and restore some of its appeal to the enterprise.”

Steve’s HTC is in almost constant use but rarely as a phone: “It’s probably more of a mini PC that happens to be a telephone, because only about ten per cent of what I use it for are actually calls.”

Flick through his mobile and it’s clear it’s mostly “business over pleasure”,This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a rtls tile and floral motif. stuffed with document storing apps, work contacts and photographs of apparently random properties.

“I make calls and send texts with it, but the social networking access it also gives me is important. I send updates to my personal Facebook page but also to our two company Twitter and Facebook accounts because promoting your business, dropping the name in wherever groups of people might be, is now really important.

“I use it to access LinkedIn a lot. It helps if you’re heading for a meeting, you want to find out a bit more about who you are seeing.”

His phone maps help him navigate to various properties and he uses the RingGo app to help pay for his parking charges.

His phone camera is handy for snapping pictures of buildings he spots which could add to the firm’s portfolio and, if you ever wondered who uses the compass on their phone, it’s Steve, showing clients which way a building faces.

Among his handiest apps is Camscanner, which captures documents while on the move, and the torch app is a vital tool for visiting empty properties with dark corners.

A glance through Paul’s iPhone5 reveals his passions lie in the kitchen. He has a mass of images of his latest culinary creations, while his contacts list is full of foodie suppliers and his most used apps provide guidance on cooking methods.

Still, the Peppa Pig app is a clear hint that, unless he’s a fan of the pink piglet, he’s not only a chef, but a dad, too. His iPhone alarm works as a kitchen timer and the calculator scales up recipes to cater for larger numbers and tots up his costs. Meanwhile,Want to find cableties? his Twitter account is handy for connecting with customers – an increasingly important weapon in the fight to keep clients and hunt out new ones.

He says he can hardly imagine not having such a gadget to hand. “Everything I need is there. If I remember something at 2am, I can grab the phone and fire off an order so it’s there with the supplier first thing. Everything is done on the mobile.”

Leanne Rinning, 30, works in marketing and PR and has been busy helping to promote the Huxley bar and restaurant at 1 Rutland Place. She touts an iPhone 4 in one hand and her Blackberry Curve for business in the other.

Leanne separates business from personal life, keeping her BlackBerry Curve for work e-mails and documents, and her iPhone for everything else – from scanning news apps for celebrity news to picking up dinner recipes.

“I like the iPhone because of the nice big screen, you can see things clearly,” she says. “I’ll be on the bus in the morning going to work looking at the BBC recipes website to see what I might have for dinner, or reading the morning paper, or BBC News website on the iPhone.

She uses her iPhone to keep on top of Facebook and Twitter – vital tools for trying to raise a client’s online profile – and My Fitness Pal app keeps her exercise and healthy eating routine on track.

Virtual heart predicts real cardiac risks

Authors of the new study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, say this is the first report of cardiac modeling being used as an arrhythmic risk predictor for patients and paves the way for the use of more complex models to calculate the consequences of genetic, lifestyle, and other changes to the heart.

“This is a strong proof-of-principle study showing that computer simulation can be used to predict risk of cardiac arrhythmias,” says Coeli M. Lopes, lead study author and assistant professor at the at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “With this model we can determine the influence of a single mutation on the much bigger overall response of the heart.”

With this study under their belts, the research team is pursuing a more sophisticated model of the whole human heart.

They plan to predict the effects of new drugs on the electrical activity of the heart—one of the most challenging hurdles in the development of new drugs and an extremely important part of keeping potentially dangerous drugs off the market.

The computer model, designed by IBM scientists Matthias Reumann,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. and J. Jeremy Rice,Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall, includes 192 heart cells made to function electrically like the ventricle wall by assigning varying properties to cells based on their position—inside, middle, or outside—in the heart wall.

The scientists used canine cardiac cells as a guide, adapting the model cells to act more like ours based on extensive data on the electrical properties of the human heart. In the end, the simulation requires the solution of more than 100,000 complex mathematical equations at least 1,000 times over just to simulate a single heartbeat.

The team turned to more than 600 patients with Long QT syndrome type 1—an inherited disorder that puts patients at greater risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death—to help test the model.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale agate beads from china, Patients were drawn from Long QT syndrome registries from the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

Patients with the disorder have mutations in a specific gene, KCNQ1, which helps heart cells appropriately generate and transmit electrical signals. The study used 34 different mutations to the gene, identified with patient blood samples and genetic tests. To better understand the characteristics of each mutation—how they act and the defects they cause—the team recreated all of the mutant proteins in the lab and tested them in various cell lines.

Researchers plugged each mutation’s electrical profile into the model to simulate the mutation’s effect on the heart wall. The model produced a one-dimensional, transmural (across the heart wall) electrocardiogram or ECG for each mutation, which predicts how the mutation influences the electrical properties of the heart wall as it is excited and relaxes after each beat.

When the team compared this information to patient data, analyses revealed that mutations the model predicted would strongly prolong repolarization—the time it takes for the heart wall to recover after each beat—put patients at greater risk of potentially life-threatening events. For every 10 milliseconds that repolarization was delayed a patient’s risk of sudden cardiac death or aborted cardiac arrest rose by approximately one third.

This risk is separate from the increased risk observed for patients that show a very prolonged repolarization on traditional ECGs, when electrodes are placed on the skin and attached to a machine that records the heart’s electrical signals. They suggest that the computer simulation may reflect a lifelong risk of heart rhythm problems, while the conventional ECG may show only a single point in time.

They identified four high-risk mutations that were predicted to have particularly extended repolarization periods and determined that patients with these mutations experienced the greatest number of cardiac events.

The results show that a relatively simple model, used in the right hands with the proper experimental data, can give insight into complex ECGs from real patients. “Using this model, we can predict the likelihood that an individual will experience a deadly cardiac event based on the type of mutation they have and how that mutation acts,” notes Lopes.

Rice, a seasoned cardiac modeler that led the IBM team,Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall, adds, “This is a very powerful study because we used so many different mutations. Oftentimes, scientists will study only one mutation at a time, and the research community remains unconvinced as the right answer may have come by luck. By comparing our results to so much patient data, we’ve shown that you can get meaningful information out of computer models, hopefully paving the way for wider acceptance and use in the medical community.”

The research has shown that the location of a mutation plays an important role in assessing risk, but this is the first time scientists have used the function of a mutation to identify patients at higher risk, says Arthur Moss, a study author and longtime professor of Cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“This kind of movement, from identifying a mutation, to locating where it is, and now to evaluating how the mutation functions, is going to happen in every area of medicine, from heart disease to cancer,” says Moss, an expert on electrical disturbances of the heart.

“This type of knowledge is going to help us better predict risk for each individual patient and provide more aggressive prevention and treatment strategies for those who need it.”

Moss adds that the research exemplifies a strong trend in medicine where practitioners are moving away from diagnosing disease primarily by signs and symptoms and instead focusing more on the basic genetic aspects of specific ailments.

Computer models of the human heart have been in development since the 1960s, but the authors believe they are the first to publish a study demonstrating that they can be used to generate clinically relevant information that predicts patient risk.

Lopes and Rice, along with Jean-Phillippe Couderc, a biomedical engineer and cardiology researcher at the Medical Center,Klaus Multiparking is an industry leader in innovative parking system technology. are taking their model to the next level with the use of IBM’s next generation supercomputer, the Blue Gene/Q, which was recently installed in the University of Rochester’s Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation.

It is one of the most powerful and efficient computer systems in the world and enables scientists to sift through mountains of data and create complex models. The team plans on using the supercomputer to generate a gender-specific model to better understand which drugs may cause lethal disruptions of the heart’s electrical activity.

Black Ops 2' raises the stakes

The “Call of Duty” franchise has taken a lot of heat for what many gamers consider iterative annual updates that do little to advance the series.

In the latest installment, “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” ($60; PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), developer Treyarch shakes up the monotony, making major additions to the single-player campaign and smaller, but still significant, changes to its lauded multiplayer experience. The result is hands-down the series’ best game to date -- one that boasts both an engaging, action-packed storyline and the same fast-paced online play that has lifted the brand to stardom.

The campaign’s story alternates perspective among several characters. “Black Ops” protagonist Alex Mason returns for flashback missions set in the 1980s that lay the groundwork for his son David’s struggles to stop a terrorist attack in 2025. Throughout, players battle against Raul Menendez, a charismatic ultra-villain who shines brightest among the talented voice-acting cast.

The game’s most arresting new features appear in campaign mode, where the way players complete missions directly affects the outcome of the story. Some of these decisive moments are obvious, such as being given a choice to execute a character or let him live. Others are far more subtle.

At one point, I sat behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle while fleeing a city overrun with enemy forces. As I desperately dodged falling debris and gunfire, I inadvertently swerved into the path flames jetting from a destroyed building.Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products. Instead of being presented with a game-over screen, I saw my squadmate severely burned as a result of my actions.

In later cutscenes, his face was heavily scarred, and fellow soldiers at one point joked about the toll his new appearance must be taking on his love life. It’s a minor incident that didn’t alter the game’s final showdown, but definitely added to the overall sense of immersion.

On several following occasions,Quickparts builds injection molds using aluminum or steel to meet your program. I caught myself actively questioning the consequences of my actions. That’s a major departure from previous “Call of Duty” campaigns in which gamers are merely along for the ride.

Also new this time around are Strike Force missions, which task players with completing objectives that range from destroying enemy strongholds to protecting bases and rescuing hostages. Players can take an overhead view of the action and command their units via real-time strategy tactics, but I found this method particularly frustrating and tedious.

Instead, I opted to control a soldier on the ground and bark simple orders of “defend” and “attack.” I appreciate Treyarch mixing up the gameplay, though these segments felt a bit like multiplayer matches carried out with bots, and didn’t convey the same weight as other sections of the story.

These objectives pop up between the campaign’s standard missions and, while optional, successfully completing them (or not) has a major impact on how the game’s final moments play out. Even if you’re not thrilled with the Strike Force experience, you may feel obligated see it through in order to achieve the most favorable ending.

While the original “Black Ops” was a high point for storytelling in the series, the stellar execution of these new features lift its sequel head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Changes to the game’s multiplayer modes are far less drastic. The Zombies offering returns with a new Tranzit mode, in which players travel from one location to the next by bus while fighting off the undead.

Treyarch alters competitive multiplayer by introducing a 10-item inventory limit. Instead of simply buying the best of every category, gamers must now carefully choose how to manage their precious space. While one class might carry two primary weapons stocked with attachments, another may exclusively load up on ability-boosting perks and have to scavenge for fallen guns on the battlefield.

Despite these updates, the multiplayer offerings are, at their core, the same experience players have been raving about for years. Treyarch hits a high note with the “Black Ops II” campaign, and delivers the thrilling online action longtime fans crave.

According to Google, although the search engine receives billions of queries each day that touch issues of the most diverse,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. people still choose to look elsewhere after certain types of information you do not think you could find with Google Search. Google engineers challenge is to discover exactly what are the types of information that most of us need, but we do not think to look on the internet.

Simply named Daily Information Needs Study, the project seeks to discover how answers can be provided with Google Search to dilemmas that usually try to solve them asking friends or browsing the product catalog from the supermarket.

Gathering information necessary to answer these questions now requires the use of the more advanced than usual tactics used for scanning and indexing the entire internet. First steps have been taken, meaning that Google can correlate real-time information sources, such as the timing of operation of the means of transport and real-time location service, providing the user with details like arrival times and bus routs as soon as he stepped into the bus station area.

Justin Rayburn started his real estate career as a tenant representation professional at Grubb and Ellis in 2002. In 2003, he moved to Trammell Crow Company (TCC) where he joined the corporate services team and focused his efforts primarily on tenant representation while engaging in some landlord work in the Denver Metropolitan Area. In 2006, Rayburn joined the corporate services team at CBRE after CBRE's acquisition of TCC. Rayburn co-founded Millennium Commercial Advisors in 2009 and in 2010 co-opened the first U.S. office of iCORE Global where he served as Managing Partner and as a member of the management committee.

To date, Rayburn has completed more than 275 sale and lease transactions totaling over 1.75 msf of office space and more than $100 million in total consideration. He has represented numerous local, national and international companies with acquisition, disposition and restructuring services, and re-forecasting of existing office lease obligations. His experience spans 20 states in the U.S.; moreover, he has assisted clients with 25-plus space requirements in Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East,This document provides a guide to using the ventilation system in your house to provide adequate fresh air to residents. Africa and Asia. Rayburn provides real estate planning services, portfolio optimization studies, market analysis, site selection services, and financial planning studies. Additionally, he assists clients in identifying available economic incentives packages from local, city and state agencies.

Recent honors and awards include: SMDCC 2012 Emerging Business of the Year; Top 25 Denver Area Commercial Real Estate Brokerages ― The Denver Business Journal; 2000 President's Club Member ― IKON; and 1999-2001 Top Producer ― IKON LDS. Rayburn is a member of the SMDCC, the South Denver Economic Development Group, and the DMCAB. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin.Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing,

We won’t decertify

The option of decertifying as a union was presented to the players in at least a quasi-formal fashion for the first time on Wednesday during a conference call that was open to the full membership of the NHLPA, Slap Shots has learned.

We’re told Don and Steve Fehr outlined three options for the players in the face of the NHL’s ongoing militancy as follows, and in no particular order: 1) Decertification; 2) Capitulation; 3) Continued negotiations in an attempt to end the owners’ lockout.

Sources report that few players expressed interest in opening Doors 1 or 2. Rather, an overwhelming number of players on the call directed union leadership to continue on the path through Door No.Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors. 3.

The players were told opting for decertification would not merely represent a legal technicality, it would in fact mean the players would no longer be negotiating as a unified group; indeed, decertification would mean the union would be disbanded.

There was little appetite to adopt that route, though talk of decertification — which presumably would be followed by filing of antitrust action in the U.S and filings in Canada, where labor laws differ throughout the provinces — will inevitably become louder and a more acceptable option for the players if the league continues to stonewall through next month.Find detailed product information for howo spareparts and other products.

We’ll all have a better idea where matters stand once the league and union reconvene in New York tomorrow afternoon.

* If the season is canceled, the Maple Leafs will lose approximately $100 million, the Rangers at least $50 million and the Canadiens somewhat less than that.

Yet not one of these ownership groups is represented on the NHL negotiating committee. And while Toronto GM Brian Burke is on the committee, we’re told the league’s agenda is being plotted all but exclusively by Canceler-in-Chief Gary Bettman and Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs, the hawkish chairman of the Board of Governors.

Indeed, according to one trustworthy individual who attended the negotiating session in New York on Nov. 9, Calgary owner Murray Edwards was at one point silenced by Bettman just a moment after Jacobs leaned over and whispered into the commissioner’s ear.

It is unfathomable that league owners who understand the ramifications of extending this senseless lockout have not demanded Bettman call a Board of Governors meeting for a full airing of the issues.

* Let’s say the parties are separated by as much as $150 million a year following their latest round of proposals and counters.

The difference is all but impossible to accurately gauge given the apples-to-oranges nature of such a comparison and the spin-doctoring that accompanies every exchange — league documents released on Friday, for example, account for a truncated season in the revenue column but a full season in the “make-whole” expense column — but let’s say it’s that much.Installers and distributors of solar panel,

That $150 million becomes $5 million per team. And that is actually nothing. It’s nothing because most teams will never spend that $5 million a year.One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles. No team is mandated to spend to the cap, only to the floor. Most teams never come within $5 million of the cap. They’re arguing over money they will not only never spend, but never will actually save.

The answer is to drop the floor, either to a percentage of the ceiling, or to $10 million to $12 million below the midpoint as compared to the previous $8 million. The object shouldn’t be to limit how much a team might spend, but to limit how much a team must spend.

It’s astonishing neither side has focused on that issue.

* Here’s what I think: If the NHL were to present a plan under which the Hockey Related Revenue split falls to 50/50 in year three of an eight-year CBA with a transition plan to accommodate cap teams and eliminate front-loaded contracts, I think we’d be no more than a couple of weeks away from a settlement.We specialize in howo concrete mixer,

There is no doubt there are a significant number of players waiting for the league to make an offer they can accept. But the league continues to make offers the players cannot in good faith even consider.

The owners’ system demands are word-for-word what they were in the league’s opening July 13 proposal that established the tone of this debate.

If that’s the league’s definition of bargaining, they must be handing out unique law dictionaries over at Proskauer Rose.

If the league insists on going to 50/50 immediately as a requirement for unlocking the doors, that should be part of a system featuring a transition period through 2014-15 in which clubs would be permitted to exceed the cap by paying a luxury tax.

The revenue from luxury taxes — say teams could exceed the cap by up 12.3 percent in 2013-14 and up to, say, 7.5 percent in 2014-15 — would go into revenue-sharing and be distributed under league mandate.

Syria threatens to use chemical weapons

Syria threatened Monday to unleash its chemical and biological weapons if the country faces a foreign attack, a desperate warning from a regime that has failed to crush a powerful and strengthening rebellion.Learn about the beauty of porcelaintiles.

The statement — Syria's first-ever acknowledgement that the country possesses weapons of mass destruction — suggests President Bashar Assad will continue the fight to stay in power, regardless of the cost.

"It would be reprehensible if anybody in Syria is contemplating use of such weapons of mass destruction like chemical weapons," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during a trip to Belgrade, Serbia. "I sincerely hope the international community will keep an eye on this so that there will be no such things happening."

Syria is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft missiles.

During a televised news conference Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi stressed that the weapons are secure and would only be used in the case of an external attack.

"No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat,We offer custom plasticinjectionmoulding with full in-house. will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria," he said. "All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression."

The Syrian government later tried to back off from the announcement, sending journalists an amendment to the prepared statement read out by Makdissi. The amendment said "all of these types of weapons — IF ANY — are in storage and under security." It was an attempt to return to Damascus' position of neither confirming nor denying the existence of non-conventional weapons.

In his comments to reporters, Makdissi also repeated the regime's assertion that the country's 17-month-old conflict, which activists say has killed at least 19,000 people, is not the result of a popular uprising, casting it instead as the work of foreign extremists looking to destroy the nation.

Israel and the U.S. are concerned that Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist militants should the regime in Damascus collapse. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that his country would "have to act" if necessary to safeguard the arsenal from rogue elements.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday that "any possible use of these kinds of weapons would be completely unacceptable."

"The Syrian regime has a responsibility to the world, has a responsibility first and foremost to its own citizens to protect and safeguard those weapons," she said, adding that Washington was working with allies to monitor the situation and send the message to both Syria's government and opposition about the importance of protecting non-conventional weapons.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said Friday the Syrians have moved chemical weapons material from the country's north, where the fighting was fiercest,Hakatai Classic chinaglassmosaic Tile. apparently to both secure and consolidate it, which U.S. officials considered a responsible step.

But there has also been a disturbing rise in activity at the installations, so the U.S. intelligence community is intensifying its monitoring efforts to track the weapons and try to figure out whether the Syrians are trying to use them, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the still-evolving investigation.

Concerns over Syria's long-suspected chemical weapons stockpiles have skyrocketed in recent days as the rebels gain serious momentum in their fight to oust the Assad regime.

Since last week, the anti-Assad fighters have claimed a stunning bomb attack that killed four high-level security officials in Damascus, captured several border crossings and launched sustained offensives in Damascus and Aleppo, the two largest cities and both regime strongholds.

Makdissi tried to assure Syrians that the situation was under control, despite reports of clashes throughout the country.

"Yes, there were clashes on certain streets in certain neighbourhoods, but the security situation is now much better. Everyone is feeling reassured," he said. "We are not happy about this, but this is an emergency situation and it will not last more than a day or two and the situation will return to normal."

Security forces appeared to show more government control in videos posted online by activists Monday. Some of the clips show Syrian militia sweeping through Damascus neighbourhoods once held by rebels, kicking down doors and searching houses in mop up operations against the fighters that had managed to hold parts of the capital for much of last week.

It was a different story in Aleppo, however, where the Britain-based Syria Observatory reported fierce fighting in a string of neighbourhoods, including Sakhour and Hanano, in the northeast of Syria's largest city.

Several videos posted by activists showed rebels battling regime tanks in Sakhour's narrow streets. In one clip, a tank on fire rumbles along a road after being hit by rebels as a man jumps out of the flaming turret. Other videos showed cheering rebels celebrating around destroyed tanks, even driving around one they had captured.

The rebel advance has been a swift turnaround in the momentum of the uprising, which began in March 2011. Still, the opposition remains hobbled by divisions within their ranks and the fact that they are outgunned by the well-armed regime. The violence, meanwhile,The reality of convenient handsfreeaccess contro. has become far more unstable than many had ever imagined, with al-Qaida and other extremists exploiting the chaos.

Still, the opposition fighters have kept up their battle for 17 months, chipping away at government power and penetrating the aura of invincibility that the Assad family dynasty has built up over four decades in power.

Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged funds to aid Syria's rebels, but there is no clear trail showing how much is reaching the fighters.Bliss Glass and stonemosaic.

U.S. officials are debating whether to step up aid to the rebels, including sending in heavy weaponry, but officials are worried the aid may end up in the hands of Islamic militants who have infiltrated the rebel Free Syrian Army, the American official said.

Former CIA officer Reuel Marc Gerecht, who is now a scholar at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, said Friday that the agency has only a handful of operatives working on the Turkish side of the Syrian border, helping allies who want to give the rebels aid identify which groups are legitimate.

The agency has distributed encrypted radios to the rebels to help them co-ordinate their attacks. Gerecht has called for the White House to initiate a covert CIA operation inside Syria, to help arm the rebels with weaponry able to take down the helicopter gunships menacing Syrian towns.

Tesla's Model S is fast and fun

I am now a affiliate of a baddest club: I’m one of the actual few who has apprenticed Tesla’s new all-electric Model S affluence sedan.

Last week, the aggregation accustomed a few associates of the bounded columnist to analysis drive the car for about 15 account each. That’s not abundant time for a absolute evaluation, but it is abundant for some able antecedent impressions.

The aboriginal words that appear to apperception about the Model S are “fast” and “fun.” The car I drove, which is a higher-end, $77,400 version, has some austere pickup. Tesla says it will ability 60 afar per hour in 5.9 abnormal and is governor-limited to 130 afar per hour.

Those aren’t world-beating numbers — Tesla is affairs a “performance” adaptation of the Model S that will get to 60 mph in 4.4 abnormal — but they’re affluence fast for a lot of drivers.

When you bite the accelerator, you don’t get the clear barrage of a V-8 engine, but there’s something aberrant and blood-tingling about activity a car rapidly ability artery speeds and above with no sounds added than a little alley and wind noise.Read my best 10 tips for getting professional-looking results and never have another oilpainting crack again. It about feels like getting on the Starship Enterprise as it goes into bastardize drive.

And the nice affair about that ability is that it’s instantaneous. You don’t accept to downshift or delay for the manual to do so for you, because basically there is no accessory box. Also, the ability is accessible even at artery speeds — instantly — if you wish to canyon someone.

The Model S feels solid and takes curves tightly. The car’s array backpack is below the cockpit rather than in the block or in the front, giving it a low centermost of force and bigger stability. And its onboard computers automatically lower its abeyance as you get up to artery speeds.

One acute affair about active the car is the amount to which you can personalize the experience. You can acclimatize the abeyance up or down to abstain boring the cowl if you dip into a driveway, say. You can acclimatize the council to accomplish it tighter,If you are looking to buymosaic art, like that in a sports car, or looser, like that in a acceptable American affluence car.

And you can acclimatize the feel of the accelerator. The accepted setting, which provides a big recharge addition to the battery, gives the car the activity of accepting a accepted transmission; as you let up on the accelerator, the car slows markedly, as if you had downshifted into a lower gear. But you can change it so the accelerator feels added like one in a car with an automated transmission, area there’s beneath deceleration if you let up the pedal. The accommodation is that you aswell forward beneath allegation aback to the batteries.

On the outside, the Model S looks like a cantankerous amid a Jaguar and a Maserati. It may be the latest in high-tech automobiles, but it doesn’t scream “electric car!” And that’s a acceptable thing.

On the inside,The online extension of moldmaking Technology magazine. the car feels a bit Spartan. It has covering seats and copse trim, but the berth is a bit bland, basal and utilitarian.

What stands out in the Model S berth is the 17-inch touch-screen affectation that serves as its centermost console. Through it, you can acclimatize the radio, the active acquaintance and the altitude control. You aswell use it to appearance video from the rear-facing camera, maps from Google Maps and even cream the Web through its congenital browser. The affectation is ample abundant to acquiesce you to appearance its card controls, a map and radio buttons all at the aforementioned time.

The car has a congenital cellular abstracts radio,The reality of convenient handsfreeaccess contro. which allows users not alone to cream the Web, but aswell get turn-by-turn aeronautics and admission Internet radio. But the “connectivity package” that allows you to do all that is optional.If you are looking to buymosaic art, Tesla isn’t yet advice the price.

Unfortunately, the animate is somewhat limited. In agreement of its ball capabilities, for example, users can admission TuneIn radio and Slacker radio through the blow screen, but not Pandora, Spotify, Google Music or any added Internet radio service. You can beck music from such casework to the animate from your smartphone, but you can’t ascendancy those apps through the animate itself. Tesla assembly said they plan on abacus that adequacy eventually.

The animate aswell doesn’t abutment articulation control. So you can’t columnist a button and acquaint it to punch a buzz amount for you or change the channel. Tesla’s arch technology officer, J.B. Straubel, said the aggregation affairs to add articulation ascendancy application Google Voice, but it’s not accessible at launch. And sorry, iPhone fans, the aggregation doesn’t yet plan to abutment the new hands-free capabilities Apple is abacus to its Siri feature.

On ball-jointed dolls and the dream of a beatnik supercontinent

A ball-jointed baby is a baby that has assurance in its joints. This may assume accessible at first, but the added you anticipate about it, the added it seems absurd. How does the baby do annihilation but bomb all over with assurance in its joints? What could possibly be altered about this array of baby from the sorts of dolls you ability be acclimated to? And what would you do with these dolls already you had abundant of them?

Comic-Con has a absolutely aberrant bureaucracy of what’s “acceptable.” That’s not just accurate of Comic-Con, of course. It’s accurate of fandom and altruism in general. But there’s actual abundant this faculty that assertive entertainments at Comic-Con are “cool” and assertive others aren’t. All you accept to do is anticipate aback a brace of years to the kid accustomed about the “Twilight broke Comic-Con” assurance to apprehend that as abundant as the fandom accessory the appearance purports to be accessible and accepting, there’s still a acutely accepted stigma in favor of assertive forms of ball and adjoin others. Nobody’s absolutely abiding how to accord with the being that wanders too far afield, and all too often, these sorts of things are tossed abreast in anemic jokes about all of the awe-inspiring being you can see at Comic-Con.

Oftentimes, the Ball-Jointed Dolls Collectors Console has been the accountable of those jokes. Now, don’t get me wrong. Not all of these jokes are meant to be malicious, not at all. For the a lot of part, these jokes centermost on the basal abstraction that, man, you can acquisition annihilation at Comic-Con, because the all-inclusive majority of humans aren’t traveling to apperceive what a ball-jointed baby is. But every so often, you’ll apprehend an edge, a faculty that this console doesn’t “belong.” But who determines that array of affair at a assemblage that was started to attack to accompany bulge to art that was consistently admired as “outsider” to activate with? During her presentation, Robin, Learn about the beauty of porcelaintiles.the woman active the BJD panel, says that she’s run into some humans aural fandom who are active by her dolls—“tinies,” she calls them—and she just shrugs it off. That’s just the way some humans are.The reality of convenient handsfreeaccess contro. If something makes you happy, why would you affliction what added humans think?

Isn’t that all it, though? So abounding of the humans accessory Comic-Con are humans who spent continued childhoods and adolescences aggravating to fit in with the majority, even as their interests skewed added against the minority. So abounding nerd-ish pursuits affiance both mastery—over tiny facsimiles of the apple as it is and as we would like it to be—and beginning power, trapped just central your rib cage, if alone you knew the abracadabra words that would alleviate it. But with the acceleration of contest like Comic-Con and the actuality that superhero movies (and added aberrant flicks) accept baffled the box office, fandom finds itself in a abode it doesn’t absolutely understand: a abode of afraid cultural dominance.

It’s become array of cliché to say that the abiding war amid jocks and nerds is over, and the nerds won, but it seems added true. We all reside in a apple area abstruse addition has fabricated it accessible to assignment down into the things you’re absorbed in, area everybody can be absolutely as aberrant as they like about any affair they could anytime anticipate of. It’s a apple area communities as able as any anytime formed are congenital in basal spaces, and it’s a apple area advice is key. Bullying is still an issue,We Wholesale zentai and Catsuits at cheap price. but there are so abounding added outlets now if you’re searching to escape an abhorrent top academy existence. Comic-Con was something started by a brace hundred humans in a auberge ballroom,The online extension of moldmaking Technology magazine. and it’s developed into this ascendant accident on pop culture’s amusing calendar. So the best the assemblage is up and running, the added it drills down, the added it splinters off into abate and abate segments. And that’s area the sorts of things that could cause humans to say, “What the hell is that?” appear in, things like the BJD accumulation or the Little Lulu fan club.

When I sit in on the BJD session, however, I apprehend just how air-conditioned this array of affair can be. It’s not the array of affair I’m anytime traveling to go in for—it’s allegedly a amusement that can get adequately expensive, and I already accept far too abounding of those—but the calendar of dolls up on the foreground belvedere appearance a decidedly advanced array of abstracts and types. There’s a note-perfect Jack Sparrow, fabricated by a woman called Pam who takes commissions online and again spends months aloft months bringing those commissions to life. (Jack took her 10 months.) There’s addition baby who’s been outfitted to attending like Merida from Pixar’s new cine Brave. And there are strange, absurd creatures that assume to accept stepped appropriate out of the pages of some alien storybook.

For the a lot of part, these dolls are absolutely the creations of their owners. Oh, sure, they’ll buy custom-built apparel or buy assertive parts, and it’s attenuate for anyone to casting their own baby molds, instead acclimation the basal anatomy a baby will be congenital aloft online. But the dolls that yield appearance aloft those frames are all arising forth, absolutely formed from the imaginations of the humans who bought them. The customization doesn’t stop there. A man called Bruce, who runs a meetup for BJD collectors in San Diego, builds one-third calibration dioramas for those meetups, and the collectors accumulate and abode their dolls in the diorama. (The next meetup, in November, has a Wild West theme.) At one point, a panelist describes the dolls as little friends, and instead of appearing odd,Read my best 10 tips for getting professional-looking results and never have another oilpainting crack again. it seems absolutely natural. Of advance the dolls are friends. In abounding ways, they’re extensions of the humans who fabricated them, artistic expressions of whatever was on their apperception at the time.

The call of culture

A conversation with S. Jayakumar takes one through the endless, pillared corridors of many of Tamil Nadu's lesser-known temples, stories that take form through their inscriptions and the symbols their idols represent.Bathroom floortiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. He is part of Prastara, an initiative that strives to spread awareness about temples.

What began as a field trip to the historic places that formed “Ponniyin Selvan” became a passionate urge to conserve heritage. “A bunch of us met on an Orkut group for ‘Ponniyin Selvan', and one day a few of us decided to visit the places mentioned in the book. As we travelled, we discovered there were so many monuments vandalised and in ruins; so many temples were thousands of years old and not cared for. We wondered what was going to happen to them,Find everything you need to know about kidneystones including causes, say 10 or 20 years from now; do we just visit these places and take pictures or do something more?” says Jayakumar.

That's when the group decided it wanted to protect, restore and conserve such temples,Rubiks cubepuzzle. especially in the Kumbakonam-Thanjavur belt. With a team of eight, Prastara began a couple of years ago to help locals connect with their heritage. “We want the locals to be aware of their heritage and its importance so they can stand up for it.”

Jayakumar, who teaches music at Kalakshetra Foundation, has majored in History, studied Epigraphy, been trained by an archaeologist and epigraphist, and attended lectures on heritage issues. “We use this knowledge to study each temple we visit,” he says.

Prastara's first project was at the Thiruvengad Girls High School. “We spoke about the local heritage, the importance of preserving monuments and told them to find out about the history of their area. We took 32 children on a field trip to the Thanjavur Big Temple to teach them how to find a monument, look at it and study it. A lot of them seemed very interested in local culture; they hadn't had such an opportunity or the right people to explain it to them.”

The initiative focusses on rural pockets since most old temples are concentrated in such areas. “The movement must start where most temples are. What is more important is that the awareness reach the children of that area because they're the ones that will be around for long. We also want to look into proper methods of renovation. In a lot of temples, they use mosaic tiles and sandblast the area for renovation, which damages inscriptions and carvings beyond repair. We are working with art conservationists, sthapathis, historians and other stalwarts to stop this. We're in the process of creating a database of experts and structures, and will soon begin work.”

Right now, the group is focussed on the temples themselves. “Our resource people are the ones who provide us with maximum information about a place before we visit it. We take books along and try to decipher the inscriptions, and when you do that, you discover so much. Paintings on temple walls are important because they tell us how people lived 1,000 years ago, their culture, dressing style, the ornaments they wore and the ambience. Since the temple was the centre of administration those days,Posts with Hospital rtls on IT Solutions blog covering Technology in the Classroom, the inscriptions tell you the number of people who lived in the area, the hospitals,Posts with Hospital rtls on IT Solutions blog covering Technology in the Classroom, schools, land disputes and funds collected then. Even the temple tanks are important and most inscriptions have details about them. But you often find people bathing in it, and leaving plastic sachets and bottles around. We are looking to educate people and catch them young.”

Long Line of Cars? Not Anymore

In the aftermath of last summer’s Las Conchas wildfire—the largest in New Mexico history—a wall of black, muddy, log-choked water came roaring down Bandelier National Monument’s Frijoles Canyon. The National Park Service had prepared for the Aug. 21 flood, wrapping the historic visitor center in heavy plastic and erecting concrete barriers to deflect the waters.

But when the flood was over, the area where some of the park’s 230,000 yearly visitors park their cars was filled with debris, and the access bridge was gone. Already facing parking shortages, NPS managers had a big problem on their hands—and Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta, which brings a surge of visitors to Bandelier, was just around the corner.

To their relief, Los Alamos County stepped in, providing buses to shuttle people into the park for the remainder of the season. Around 9,000 people rode the county shuttle, and for the rest of the year, Frijoles Canyon was car-free.

This was the fire’s unlikely upside: allowing NPS managers to achieve the elusive and long-sought goal of limiting park traffic to a public shuttle.

For the past decade, NPS had advocated a shuttle tthat would eliminate noise, fumes and overcrowding from Bandelier’s historic headquarters area. Until the fire, that idea had never moved.

But last summer, out of necessity, it finally became a reality. Los Alamos County built a new parking area outside Bandelier, in White Rock, where visitors could meet a NPS ranger and hop on the shuttle for the 10-mile ride to the park.

This February, the Los Alamos County Council formalized the arrangement, approving a three-year contract to provide shuttles for Bandelier visitors. A new visitor center, slated to open this summer in White Rock, will serve as a jumping-off point for the shuttle system, which the county believes will benefit both Los Alamos businesses and the park.

“Los Alamos County has turned out to be a model partner for us,” Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott says, adding that he hopes the shuttle will be “the most economically efficient shuttle system in the national park system” since NPS is working with a local government partner rather thaPurelink's realtimelocationsystem simplify emergency evacuations.n a commercial contractor.

“This shuttle will only cost the Park Service around $150,000 per year,” Lott explains. “No other NPS shuttle system comes close to this cost.“

The National Park Service currently runs shuttle systems to alleviate congestion at Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.

Another advantage of the Bandelier shuttle,GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts. Los Alamos County Public Relations Administrator Julie Habiger says, is its potential to increase tourism and diversify the local economy. Habiger says the shuttle will cost the county around $600,000 per year, with most of the funding coming from federal grants and some help from NPS visitor fees.

But not everyone agrees that a carless Bandelier is a good thing. Todd Nichols, who owns the lease on the Bandelier Trading Co., which runs the gift shop and food service at Bandelier, says his business has dropped dramatically since the shuttle came.

“People will see the shuttle coming and throw $60 worth of food away and run to the bus, even though it comes every half hour,” Nichols says. “Also, my local customers have stopped coming when the shuttle is running.This page provides information about 'werkzeugbaus; We may have to restructure our business because of this.”

While Nichols praises NPS’ handling of the fire and flooding, he worries that the shuttle may diminish some visitors’ experiences.

But Lott argues just the opposite, maintaining that fewer cars in the canyon will mean less noise, fumes and traffic jams. “People are attached to their cars, so it may take some retraining for some visitors,” he admits.

On a recent Saturday, as spring visitors arrived at Bandelier, a ranger warned them of a 20-minute wait for parking. In Frijoles Canyon, a line of cars parked on the road,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? with drivers waiting while Bandelier staff busily managing the overfull parking lot. With a fraction of summer visitation already frustrating visitors,Get information on airpurifier from the unbiased, independent experts. Bandelier rangers are looking to the June shuttle for relief.

Flagging the truth in a world of conspiracy

IT BEGAN, like so many fine mysteries, with a message to The Sunday Age early last year from an enigmatic stranger suspicious of foul play. We'll call him Mr X for the sake of confidentiality (and cheap dramatics). ''I have a story,'' he wrote, ''about a potential art forgery sold to a major public gallery.''

The game was afoot, but as it played out it began to call into question the slippery world of art authentication, the seduction of conspiracy theory, even a key ingredient of Australia's own sense of identity.

In 1996 a sketchbook of watercolours was discovered attributed to a Charles Doudiet. The images in the folio depicted key scenes from the Eureka Rebellion of 1854 at which Doudiet was present. Most importantly, one painting titled Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross became the first and only reliable visual depiction of the design of the now-familiar Eureka Flag. For more than a century historians had been divided as to the exact style of the flag, since eyewitness reports of the events offered contradictory descriptions.We provide you a big discount on Catsuits & zentai,External hemorrhoidstreatmentsproducts are those that occur below the dentate line.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat acquired the currently accepted flag in the late 19th century, but over ensuing decades any number of interested parties came forth arguing that the design was wrong - that it was a church flag, according to some. One protester even said the flag was made for a footballers' picnic.

The Doudiet sketchbook seemed to settle the debate, and with the assistance of scores of donors the Art Gallery of Ballarat raised enough money to purchase the works from auction house Christie's.

But why,If you have akidneystones, asked Mr X, have the watercolours and the remains of the book in which they were found never been forensically tested for authenticity?

''My health is somewhat precarious at the moment,'' he wrote, ''and it is because of this I do not have the energy to pursue this matter with the rigour that it deserves. Be careful … you are on a pogo stick in a minefield.''

The sketchbook's appearance seems an act of providence, but in the art world it's provenance that counts - the ability to trace a work's history in order to confirm its authenticity.

That Charles Doudiet existed is beyond question. He is named in Canadian census reports of the time; a ''Charles Doudieb'' appears on the passenger list for the ship Magnolia in 1852; in June of 1853, several personal notices appear in Melbourne's Argus newspaper, in which Doudiet asks for contact from a fellow Canadian. But little else is known.

If, as his sketchbooks suggest, the artist was one of the key players in the events of the Eureka Rebellion - his notes even state that he was one of the four men to carry to safety the body of the mortally wounded Henry Ross, widely considered the flag's designer - then why does he all but vanish from the historical record? Doudiet returned to Canada, apparently, and became a minister. No other artworks have surfaced, and he left no further mention of his involvement in the only armed civil uprising in Australian history.

''They've become iconic images in a relatively short period of time, so interesting point,'' says the Art Gallery of Ballarat's director, Gordon Morrison.Find the Farm cubepuzzles at the Melissa and Doug online store. The question about the sketchbook's authenticity comes as ''a bolt out of the blue'',CBMI is leading the world in preventing cheapipodnanoes ， he said.

Morrison says he is not aware of any forensic testing having been carried out on the watercolours, or of anything on file in the gallery that would suggest this. And while ''forensic testing'' conjures images of CSI-style detectives scraping at priceless works to reveal the history hidden therein, a call to the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne reveals a different reality. The centre's director, Robyn Sloggett, says there are simple techniques for determining whether a painting was made more recently.

''The materials and technique stuff alone would take you a long way. The easiest thing to do is shine a UV light on it and see if it fluoresces, because then it's got photo-reactive things in it like whiteners, brighteners that came in post 1940s and '50s. You do all these tests and then you align them to points of production of the paper.

Camera, Green Cred, and Conclusions

The 2-megapixel camera has no auto-focus or flash capability. For such a low-resolution sensor, test photos looked okay, with reasonable sharpness and color balance both indoors and out. Tree leaves and other distant details were smudges, but anything close by looked good. Recorded videos looked jerky and maxed out at just 352-by-288-pixels and 15 frames per second. That was sufficient a year or two ago, but 640-by-480 or better camcorder features are now commonplace on smartphones.

As a green phone, the Replenish easily qualifies for our GreenTech Approved award. It's made from 82 percent recyclable materials, and comes in fully recyclable packaging. It reminds you to unplug the charger when the battery is full. Samsung sells an optional solar panel charger for this phone (which we didn't get to test), and you can install the aforementioned green-themed apps from Sprint ID. Sprint also includes a free, postpaid envelope in the box to recycle your old phone.

The Replenish's form factor is a nice idea, and we always applaud electronics with green cred. But the low-end screen, choppy performance, and poor battery life all do this phone in. Buyers looking for a low-end Android phone should check out the LG Optimus S; while it drops the hardware keyboard, it steps up to a 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel touch screen that's much more usable, and it also has longer battery life. If you have a bit more cash, check out the HTC EVO Shift 4G ($149, 4 stars), which features a much higher resolution screen, a faster CPU, 4G WiMAX capability, and a roomier, slide-out QWERTY keyboard.