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Though matter characterization methods, viscosity designs, and you can move designs provides improved, it nonetheless simply take a highly comparable means since the first applications in order to anticipate the connection regarding pressure, circulate rates, and temperatures as the plastic material circulates as a result of a shape
? ? ? P = 8 ? Q ? ? ? ? ? L ? ? ? roentgen cuatro Eq ? ? step 1
To complete the objective to anticipate polymer flow in a mold, the last ways programs must Boston escort mix the rheological and you can thermal acting and you will stage change to expect the connection regarding move price, tension, and you will temperature away from a beneficial polymer streaming compliment of a mildew and mold
Where ?P ‘s the tension to help you disperse from channel; Q is the move price; ? ‘s the viscosity of polymer and roentgen ‘s the radius of move route. Observe that roentgen is always to the latest fourth fuel, hence, perhaps the tiniest mistake inside the predicting the brand new density of your own frozen coating will have a critical effect on pressure predictions.
Brand new software still make an effort to expect the circulate from good polymer fade through the burn beginning program (an effective mold’s athlete and doorways) and you may part creating cavity, or cavities, away from an injection mildew and mold as a result of usage of state-of-the-art analytical types of the new polymers rheology, thermal functions, and stage alter (fluid burn to help you solid). The ways demonstrated herein you will need to need the fresh new highly complex standards the spot where the non-Newtonian polymer melts away properties are influenced by shear speed, temperature, and you may pressure, and polymer temperature is a direct result the balance ranging from heat shed to your apparently cool shape and heat get from the viscous dissipation made as the melt streams significantly less than high pressure as a consequence of the latest shape. Subsequent, newest acting actions must take into account the newest continually switching circulate route cross-section since the dependent on new density off a developing frozen level that develops along side edge of your mold’s circulate route wall space. Due to the fact thickness of your suspended surface grows, this new circulate channel’s cross section minimizes.
Today’s initiate-of-the-art previous art modeling of your polymer melt’s rheological attributes is actually predicated on mathematically acting the newest non-Newtonian rheological features out of a great polymer burn streaming due to a hot die, that’s heated in order to a temperature of the molten polymer, and so approximating an enthusiastic isothermal condition. Which rheological characterization comes with wanting to grab brand new dictate away from shear rate and you may heat and sometimes stress. New acting of your rheological features is alongside then counted polymer properties (which include actual and thermal properties) while the influence regarding temperatures, temperatures alter, while the rates out-of temperature changes on these attributes. A lot more polymer properties have to be calculated which you can use to help you just take the newest phase transform where a polymer burn changes so you can a good extremely viscous after that solid stage polymer at move route structure. The fresh forecast of the occurrence for the low-streaming polymer layer is essential since it determines the actual disperse route cross-section that the polymer melt are flowing as a result of. The latest forecast regarding the occurrence is highly state-of-the-art because temperature shed of your polymer nearest the new route wall surface normally exceed step 1,000° F./sec, leading to a stage transform out-of water to good occurring at extremely fast pricing that cannot be seized in most of your try steps utilized right now to define the newest polymer having forecasting move into the a mold. Polymer services required for this type of early in the day ways polymer disperse simulator app programs typically tend to be thermal conductivity, thickness (burn as a result of solid stage), certain temperatures, certain regularity while the dependent on heat and you will pressure, and every of these will include new dictate from temperatures. Such counted features is attained for the intended purpose of statistically acting brand new thermal change between your apparently beautiful polymer and you will apparently cool mildew and development of the frozen level along side circulate route limits.

domain: chemistry


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domain: design


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I am very happy to announce that the publication date for my next novel, WILLOWS OF FATE, is set for Friday, October 3rd!
Writing WILLOWS OF FATE has been a lot of fun. It’s really challenged me and I’m extremely proud of it. I want to thank my beta reader and writing group for helping me to get this manuscript ready for the world. (And thank you to the Husband for putting up with all the unwashed dishes and not-done chores as I finished this.) Right now, it’s being edited at Sherman Writing Services.
This novel is the first in a series called Lands of Sun and Stone Series. I expect this series to go on for at least five books. This series is separate from another short fiction series I plan to launch this year. (Though, there is a slight connection between them and anyone who catches it gets a gold star.)
Official Blurb for WILLOWS OF FATE:
All her life, Desdemona has seen things others haven’t. Dragons, knights, dwarves, kids with three eyes. Heeding her mother’s advice, she keeps silent about this and struggles through life, pretending everything is normal.
At her mother’s death, Desdemona returns to a home haunted with memories but she is determined to not be shaken from what little normalcy she has. However, when her brother is murdered and she uncovers a family secret, Desdemona realizes that there is more to what she sees. Perhaps a whole other world, one that’s willing to kill to have her as its own.”
There will also be a book tour associated with the release and a giveaway. More details to come.

domain: artistic


How Sure Are Scientists About Global Warming?
Commonwealth Club - The Commonwealth Club of California
It has taken just three centuries for human growth and rising industrial economies to bring the delicate relationship between ice and humans to a dangerous precipice. Ice carved Earth's landscape to its present state - the sharp Alpine peaks of Europe, the vast Great Lakes of North America, the majestic valleys of Yosemite National Park and the deeply incised fjords of Norway.But as the climate change debate becomes more heated, are we at risk of losing these precious formations? Dr. Henry N. Pollack, author of A World Without Ice, explains why our cold natural wonders are disappearing while humans are prospering.


Samsung Galaxy Fold One UI 3.0 (Android 11) update released
Samsung Galaxy Fold came out in September 2019 with Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box but the wait was on for Android 11-based One UI 3.0.
To recall, the successor to the Galaxy Fold i.e., Galaxy Fold 2, bagged the latest OS update pretty recently.
Now, the OEM has started rolling out the One UI 3.0 (Android 11) update for the Galaxy Fold LTE and 5G variants as well.
While the OEM has not made any announcements on the matter yet, the latest OS update is indeed live for the device in question.
As per a report from Sammobile, the update comes with versions F900FXXU4DUA1 and F907BXXU4DUA1 for the LTE and 5G variants respectively.
It must be noted that the said update is currently live for the Galaxy Fold units sold in the UK, UAE, and France.
It is quite possible that other regional variants of the device in question might also be getting the same sooner than later.
However, this is still based on our speculations as user reports are yet surface along with some sort of official acknowledgement from the OEM.
The Galaxy Fold bagged the Android 10-based One UI 2.1 update way back in March 2020 and was getting the monthly security updates till now.
Nevertheless, the OEM has listed the Galaxy Fold in its three major OS updates plan which makes the latest OS update the second last one for the device.
That said, we will keep tracking the development of Android 11 and will provide more details once new information becomes available.
In the meantime you can check out our Samsung One UI 3.0 (Android 11) update tracker to get the latest updates on the topic.
NOTE: There are more such stories in our dedicated Samsung section so be sure to go through it as well.
PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.


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Sherron Caldwell Wiki – Biography
Sherron Caldwell born Sherron L. Patterson is the wife of former NFL player Reche Caldwell born Donald Reche Caldwell Jr.. During his NFL career, Caldwell played for the Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins. In 71 games, Caldwell finished with 152 receptions for 1,851 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Reche Caldwell was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons in the 2000s. Caldwell played college football for the Florida Gators, and thereafter, he played professionally for the San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins of the NFL.
Sherron Caldwell Age
Sherron Caldwell’s age is unknown, however, her ex-husband Reche Caldwell was 41 years old, He was born on March 28, 1979, in Tampa, Florida, United States. He died on June 6, 2020.
Reche Caldwell Wife
Reche Caldwell was previously married to his wife Sherron Caldwell.
Reche Caldwell and Sherron Caldwell had two children together, Cash Caldwell and Shayla Caldwell. She has a brother, Moe Dollaz.
Reche Caldwell Death
Reche Caldwell died in Tampa, Florida on June 6, 2020, at age 41. He was ambushed by a couple of people who jumped out of the bushes in an attempted robbery and was shot in the leg and chest.
The Los Angeles Chargers tweeted: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of former Charger Reche Caldwell. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Reche’s family, friends, and teammates during this difficult time.”
Who is Kurt Thomas First Wife? Leanne Hartsgrove Wiki, Biography, Age, Husband Death, Children, Instagram, Net Worth
The New England Patriots tweeted: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of former Patriot Reche Caldwell. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
The Washington Redskins said on Twitter: “We are terribly saddened to hear of the passing of former Redskins WR Reche Caldwell. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Caldwell family along with all of Reche’s friends and teammates.”

domain: news


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On the way home from DC, we stopped today at Gettysburg. Despite my love of American history and knowledge of the battles and details, I was not prepared for the sheer vastness of Gettysburg. Endless fields, and endless room for the imagination.
The National Cemetery at Gettysburg was created in efforts to bury the dead from the Battle of Gettysburg. A quick look at Wikipedia lists the casualties as such:
Union: 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured/missing)
Confederate: 22,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing)
These numbers are unbelievable… the battle lasted 3 days from July 1-3, 1863, and was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. There was an immediate need to bury the dead, and the land for Gettysburg Cemetery was purchased. Several months later, Lincoln came to the cemetery’s dedication and delivered his famous Gettysburg address there.
The Soldiers National Monument stands in the center, with semi-circles of graves flush to the ground around it, divided by states. The number of burials (details here) per state were:
* Maine ~ 104
* New Hampshire ~ 49
* Vermont ~ 61
* Massachusetts ~ 159
* Rhode Island ~ 12
* Connecticut ~ 22
* New York ~ 866
* New Jersey ~ 78
* Pennsylvania ~ 526
* Delaware ~ 15
* Maryland ~ 22
* West Virginia ~ 11
* Ohio ~ 131
* Indiana ~ 80
* Illinois ~ 6
* Michigan ~ 171
* Wisconsin ~ 73
* Minnesota ~ 52
* US Regulars ~ 138
* Unknown, Lot North ~ 411
* Unknown, Lot South ~ 425
* Unknown, Lot Inner Circle ~ 143
As you can see, most of the burials presently in the cemetery are of Union soldiers. The majority of Confederate soldiers were removed to cemeteries closer to home. While the soldiers monument which dominates the scene was intended to reflect the Union, what is interesting about Gettysburg is that it does not, in text or visually, talk of victory. History has marked the battle as a human tragedy, and the losses from both sides of the battle are overwhelmingly evident throughout the national park.
Beautiful and haunting poetry on large signs surround the stones along the walkway. As we walked through the cemetery, it was very overcast and began to rain, a fitting tribute to the somber nature of the cemetery and the nearby preserved battlefields.
One thought on “Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania”
From: A Story behind Every Stone: The Confederate Section of Oakwood Cemetery Raleigh, North Carolina; compiled by Charles E. Purser, ed. by Frank B. Powell, III – on page 2 it is noted: In 1871, 137 bodies were brought from Gettysburg and reburied on August 25, 1871, in separate graves.

domain: geography


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In Vitro Mesenchymal Cell Toxicity
MSC/MPC can be obtained from numerous primary sources, for example, bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, Wharton's gelee, adipose tissue. The MSCGlo™ assays can be used to study MSC/MPCs from any source, including iPS-derived cells. MSC/MPCs have a finite lifespan in culture. This lifespan is usually measured in the number of passages or the number of doubling times. Withime in culture, the potency and quality of the cells decreases, a fact that is particularly important when MSC/MPC are used in regenerative medicine applications.
These parameters are also important in measuring potential toxicity to the system regardless of the cell source. MSCGlo™-Real Time can be used to measuring the doubling time of MSC/MPCs and determine the growth kinetics, onset of cytotoxicity and other parameters. MSCGlo™-Tox HT is a multifacetted, standardized and validated in vitro end-point assay platform designed to measured multiple parameters of toxicity. The graphs show the exponential increase, measured using MSCGlo™, of human bone marrow MSCs when passaged and expanded over a 44 day period. After 44 days of MSC culture, MSCGlo™ can detect a linear dose range from at least 500 MSC/well to 50,000 MSC/well. On days 28, 36 and 44, phenotypic analysis of the MSCs detected by multiplexing with MSCGlo™ demonstrates how the MSCs change with time in culture.
Benefits of Using MSCGlo™-Tox HT and MSCGlo™-Real Time for Predictive In Vitro MSC Toxicity Testing
- MSCGlo™-Tox HT is an end-point, lytic, ATP bioluminescence predictive toxicity assay for MSC/MPCs from any source or species.
- MSCGlo™-Real Time is a non-lytic, bioluminescence assay for MSC/MPCs from any source or species that can help optimize culture conditions, define growth kinetics, measure doubling time and determine the onset of potential toxicity.
- Both assays measure cell viability and proliferation/cytotoxicity. Under specific conditions, the onset of MSC/MPC differentiation into chondrocytes, adipocytes or osteoblasts can be determined.
- Used to analyze effects to the bone marrow stroma (microenvironment).
- Can be used with other HemoGenix® assays to study the immunomodulatory role of MSCs.
- Both assays can replace the manual CFU-F assay.
- Both assays have high-throughput capability using 96- or 384-well plate formats allowing ADME-Tox drug or compound screening, thereby significantly reducing unexpected results during pre-clinical testing.
- The assays can be used at all stages of drug development.
- Both are 3Rs Assay Platform-Reduction, Refinement, Replacement for animal testing.
- MSCGlo™-Tox HT is part of the ComparaTOX™ 1 Platform for comparing and ranking toxicity according to cell type and species.
- Both assays can use CRUXRUFA human platelet lysate or proprietary, high performance MSCGro™ medium with either low serum, serum-free or humanized formulations.
- Results are usually available in 2 to 7 days depending on the assay used, source and species.
- MSCGlo™-Tox HT has been validated according to FDA Bioanalytical Method Guidelines.
- MSCGlo™-Tox HT standardization allows results to be compared over time and between samples.
- Both assays have been designed for multiplexing with other assays using the same sample. The non-destructive MSCGlo™-Real Time assay actually allows cells to be phenotypically analyised by flow cytometry during culture.
Two types of assay procedures have been used to characterize and identify MSC from different sources. These include the subjective Colony-Forming Unit - Fibroblast (CFU-F) assay and flow cytometry. The CFU-F assay is, in many ways, similar to the CFC assay for hematopoietic cells. Unlike the CFC assay, the CFU-F assay requires that the cells are grown under adherent conditions, usually in large petri dishes (60-100mm in diameter). Since the MSCs represent a continuously proliferating system, it is important that when the colonies of fibroblasts are counted under an inverted microscope, cell confluency has not occured. The assay lacks standards and controls and has not be validated according to regulatory requirements. Although flow cytometry is usually used to charcterize MSCs by the expression (or lack of) membrane markers, flow cytometry provides no indication regarding the functional capability or capacity of the MSCs.
MSCGlo™-Tox HT is a validated MSC/MPC cytotoxicity assay that can be multiplexed with the following (and other) assays:
- Flow cytometry to characterize the cells, perform cell cycle analysis and apoptosis.
- Growth factor, cytokine, chemokine production and release.
- Apoptosis detecting caspases.
- Membrane integrity.
- Mitochondrial dysfunction.
- Oxidative stress.
- Oxidative DNA damage (OxyFLOW™, see below).
- Kinase assays.
- Protease assays.
- Lactate dehydrogenase assays.
- Cell-based drug interaction.
- Residual toxicity and drug sensitivity change assays.
Toxicity to Mesenchymal Stem/Progenitor Cells
To demonstrate how drugs, in particular anti-cancer drugs, can affect MSCs, consider the effect of doxorubicin (Adriamycin) on human bone marrow MSCs shown in the graph. The MSCs were tested at two different cell doses. In both cases, there was significant cytotoxicity.
Cellular Drug-Drug Interaction
Drug-drug interaction can activate or inhibit CYP450 enzymes. Although occuring primarily in hepatocytes as the cells responsible for detoxification, drug interactions can occur in many other cell type. Although little, if anything, is known regarding the response of MSCs to drug interactions, drug-drug interaction assays can be performed in a similar manner to those for the lympho-hematopoietic stem cells using HALO®-DDI. For more information, please contact HemoGenix® directly.

domain: biology


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In response to this tragedy, Dan Martin, the Parenting Director for pureHOPE, one of our partnering ministries, has written an excellent article. If you are a parent, I encourage you not to ignore this tragedy, but it is time to engage with your kids concerning what happened.
This article is re-posted with permission. To see the original post, please click here for the pureHOPE blog.
Engaging With Your Kids About the Connecticut Shooting Tragedy
by Dan Martin, Director of Parenting Ministry
The news today of the Connecticut shooting tragedy is devastating. My emotions are all over the place as I write this post. Why did this happen? How could anyone murder innocent children? What “good” could possibly come from this? Why am I so angry about this? And…What in the world do I say to my kids?
I would strongly encourage you to engage with your kids about this tragedy. Here are some thoughts that I hope and pray will help you as you engage with your kids this weekend:
● Affirm your Love and God’s Love for Them – This is a great opportunity to remind your kids how much you love them and how much God loves them. They really need to hear that now.
● Get them talking – If your child is verbal, this may not be a challenge for you. If your child is quiet, you may need to prompt them to talk. Either way, both types of kids need to talk with you and share what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing as a result of this event. Be directive in leading them to talk. “I want to talk about what happened at the school in Connecticut today and get your thoughts and feelings.”
● Ask Questions – Ask them open-ended questions that require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. Have them share their thoughts and feelings. Tell them how you feel. Here are a few starter questions: “Tell me about your thoughts and how you are feeling?” “How did you feel when you heard the news?” “What questions do you have for me?” “When I heard this it made me feel…”
● Hold Them – Let your child bury themselves in your arms. Hold them as you talk to them. Hold them as you both cry.
● Anticipate Bad Dreams and Fear at Night – The first couple of nights after a tragedy like this are incredibly difficult for most children, especially if they are young. Your rules (if you have them) for not sleeping with you or you with them need to be thrown out for a while.
● Inject Some Family Fun – This is not an attempt to avoid the issue, it is an attempt to allow them to think about other things. Tonight might be a great night for a family game night. You may need to limit the amount of news you watch and/or hear.
● Reaffirm your Love and God’s Love for Them
● Pray with Your Kids – Pray for the families who are suffering with loss. Pray for your child and ask God to give them strength and understanding. Invite your child to pray as well.
We would love to hear from you and have you share ideas with all of us for how best to address this with our kids.

domain: psychology


NOTE: This story incorporates particulars and language some might discover disturbing. Please learn at your individual discretion.
Johnny Depp‘s cross-examination continued Thursday as he took the stand for a 3rd day to testify in opposition to ex-wife Amber Heard, whom he has accused of ruining his status and profession with false accusations of home violence.
As cross-examination started, Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn requested Depp if he thought-about himself a “Southern gentleman.” Depp confirmed, including he’s achieved his finest to uphold chivalrous requirements.
Heard’s lawyer then requested about Depp’s relationship with Marvel star Paul Bettany, finest identified for taking part in Imaginative and prescient in WandaVision.
Throughout a 2020 U.Ok. libel case, which Depp misplaced, a number of non-public and disturbing textual content messages with Depp have been learn in courtroom.
These texts from 2014 have been once more learn in courtroom Thursday, together with messages from Depp, who texted Bettany, “Let’s drown [Heard] earlier than we burn her.”
“I'll f–ok her burnt corpse afterward to ensure she is lifeless.”
A number of photographs of medication allegedly belonging to Depp have been submitted as proof to the jury, together with a photograph of a number of strains of cocaine alongside whiskey, and a small field with a cranium and crossbones and the phrases “property of JD.” A photograph of 4 giant baggage of marijuana was additionally proven in courtroom.
A number of textual content messages from Depp discussing medication and drug utilization have been learn aloud, together with references to cocaine, marijuana and numerous capsules.
Defamation trial: Jury hears alleged audio recording of Heard, Depp discussing his drug, alcohol use
The courtroom additionally heard an audio recording of a dialog between Heard and Depp. Within the audio, jurors listened to Heard inform Depp of his behaviour whereas allegedly below the affect of medication, together with vomiting in his sleep.
A photograph was additionally proven of Depp asleep on the sofa in his Boston residence with melted ice cream in his lap. Depp defined to Rottenborn he had labored a protracted day and had taken opioids, and that’s why he fell asleep on the sofa.
Defamation trial: Depp testifies about photograph of him sleeping with melted ice cream on his lap
Tensions rose within the courtroom as Rottenborn continued, casting doubt on whether or not the actor had been sober from alcohol for 18 months.
Depp has claimed durations of sobriety throughout his testimony earlier within the week.
After lunch, Rottenborn continued to grill Depp. Heard’s lawyer started by questioning the actor concerning the couple’s time in Australia throughout 2015, when Depp’s finger was severed.
Throughout his testimony, Depp admitted to dipping his severed finger in paint to write down messages in each paint and blood on the partitions and furnishings in the home the place he and Heard have been staying.
A number of photographs of the the paint/blood “reminders,” as Depp known as them, have been proven in courtroom, together with scrawled, barely legible writing on a mirror and lampshade.
A big portion of Thursday afternoon’s questioning was devoted to the day Depp’s finger was severed. In each an audio clip and several other textual content messages, Depp refers to that day as “the day I chopped off my finger.”
Throughout his earlier testimony, Depp claimed the digit was severed by Heard throwing a vodka bottle at him.
Maybe essentially the most disturbing particulars to be revealed throughout Thursday’s cross-examination got here within the late afternoon, when Rottenborn performed for the courtroom a video of a combat between the couple, that Heard had tried to secretly document.
Within the video, Depp could be seen within the kitchen of his Hollywood residence, slamming cabinets violently and kicking on the cupboard. He stumbles in and off digicam a number of instances, and the sounds of breaking glass could be heard two time.
Heard asks him a number of instances what he’s upset about, whereas Depp, visibly intoxicated, drains a considerable amount of wine right into a mason jar wine glass.
When he realizes Heard is recording the argument, he slaps the cellphone out of her hand.
The courtroom was additionally proven texts from Depp to his pal Issac Baruch, through which he referred to Heard as a “slippery whore” and advised Baruch “hopefully that c–t’s rotting corpse is decomposing within the f–king trunk of a Honda Civic!!”
Thursday’s cross-examination closed after the jury was offered a five-minute audio clip of one in all Depp and Heard’s final conferences in 2016.
Within the recording, Depp could be heard attempting to persuade Heard repeatedly to chop him with a knife.
“Do you need to reduce me someplace?” he asks.
“Please don’t harm your self,” she begged.
“In the event you don’t, I'll,” her replied.
A number of instances all through the clip, Heard asks Depp to not reduce himself and tells him she won't reduce him, both.
On Wednesday, Depp testified concerning the particulars of his relationship with Heard, claiming she used his private weaknesses as “ammunition.”
“It appeared like pure hatred for me,” he stated, claiming Heard would name-call and escalate misunderstandings into “full-scale arguments.”
Depp advised the courtroom the rationale he stayed with Heard was “difficult,” hypothesizing his behaviour stemmed from his personal mom’s abuse in opposition to his father.
He stated Heard threatened suicide “many instances” when he tried to depart, and likewise shared particulars of a very nasty combat that occurred shortly after he requested Heard to signal a postnuptial settlement in 2015.
Though he claims he had been sober for “many months” at that time (excluding marijuana) he stated he drank two or three photographs of vodka.
As he was ingesting, he stated Heard threw two bottles of vodka at him. The primary bottle missed the actor, however the second bottle, he claims, made contact along with his hand, severing the highest of his finger.
‘Too many strains have been crossed’: Johnny Depp particulars alleged abuse by ex-wife Amber Heard
Depp stated in the midst of his “nervous breakdown” he began to write down “little reminders from our previous” on the partitions in his personal blood, together with “little lies I had caught her in.”
Depp additionally accused Heard of extinguishing a lit cigarette on his proper cheek throughout the identical incident.
The courtroom additionally heard audio clips of the ex-spouses arguing. In a single clip, Depp accused Heard of punching him, whereas Heard accused Depp of operating away from the combat into different rooms of the home.
“I didn’t punch you, by the best way,” Heard stated within the clip. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hit you throughout the face in a correct slap, however I used to be hitting you. I didn’t punch you.”
Johnny Depp alleges Amber Heard threw liquor bottle at him, severing his finger
“Don’t inform me what it feels prefer to be punched,” Depp replied.
Depp additionally shared that after one altercation, the place he claims Heard scratched him on his face, she returned to the room with what gave the impression to be blood on a tissue and he or she claimed he broke her nostril.
Depp stated when he retrieved the tissue from the rubbish it gave the impression to be crimson nail polish on the tissue, not blood.
“Every time one in all these incidents would happen it appeared to worsen and worse,” Depp stated, referring to the extent of alleged abuse.
Earlier than turning to cross-examination, Depp detailed a few of the results Heard’s allegations had on his profession and status.
“I don’t know if she needed me to be erased, or drop lifeless, or needed me to stay round and permit her to damage my life and exit of her strategy to disgrace me, and harm my youngsters, and harm folks I’ve identified for a lot of, a few years,” the actor advised the courtroom.
He stated that as Heard’s allegations made their means by way of the media, he started to note a change in how folks handled him.
Johnny Depp claims he ended relationship with Heard over ‘feces’ incident
“You discover folks taking a look at you in a different way. And then you definately discover calls cease coming from brokers and producers.”
Cross-examination began on the finish of the day on Wednesday, with Heard’s lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, rapidly getting below Depp’s pores and skin by narrowing in on the op-ed piece and a joint assertion launched by each actors, casting a lot of Depp’s different testimony apart.
The lawyer emphasised that in 2016 Depp signed a doc stating “Neither celebration has made false accusations for monetary achieve,” contradicting what Depp now claims occurred.
Testimony earlier this week heard Depp element his troubled childhood by the hands of an abusive mom, the historical past and frequency of his substance use and the timeline of his relationship with Heard.
Johnny Depp takes stand in defamation trial in opposition to Amber Heard: ‘My objective is the reality’
Talking incessantly of the influence the case and its particulars have had on his youngsters, Depp stated he’s additionally suffered from a private fall-from-grace.
“Someday you’re Cinderella, so to talk, after which in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”
The authorized battle of the 2 stars has captured the eye of spectators across the globe, with each Heard, 35, and Depp, 58, claiming to be victims of violence. The preliminary courtroom case started when Depp filed a $50-million defamation lawsuit over a Washington Publish op-ed penned by Heard in late 2018 about home abuse.
Heard didn't point out Depp by title within the article, however the actor alleges his status and profession have been nonetheless “devastated” in consequence.
Depp’s legal professionals have already known as on a number of witnesses, together with mates, the couple’s therapist, and the physician and nurse who declare they handled the Pirates of the Caribbean actor for substance abuse points.
In opening statements delivered by the previous spouses’ authorized groups final week, Depp’s legal professionals declare Heard is “selecting to lie about him for her personal private profit.”
Heard’s legal professionals argued the other, claiming freedom of speech allowed the Aquaman actor to pen the Washington Publish op-ed.
© 2022 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.


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In this post, you will learn how to make Best Ever Bolognese Sauce and also watch our highly recommended video on how to make a (related) Recipe at the end of this post.
If you want to be an expert in the Recipe and Food industry, then you will need to purchase our highly recommended Countertop Blenders at the end of this Recipe article, at a very cheap and affordable price.
Below are the ingredients and the instructions on how to make Best Ever Bolognese Sauce.
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 14-ounce cans beef broth
- 1/2 cup carrot, chopped
- 1/2 cup celery
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 pound ground veal
- Olive oil
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 pound uncooked pasta
- 2 slices thick-cut bacon, diced
- 1 1/2 cups canned tomato puree
- 1 cup yellow or white onion, chopped
- Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add bacon and saut until just beginning to brown (about 5-6 minutes).
- Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and thyme; saut 5 minutes.
- Add veal and pork; saut until brown and cooked through, breaking up meat with spatula, about 10 minutes.
- Add wine and bay leaves and simmer until liquid is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes.
- Add broth and tomato puree, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring often, about 1 hour.Season with salt and pepper.Boil pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but al dente (firm to bite), stirring often.
- Transfer to pot with sauce; toss.
- Serve with Parmesan.
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domain: food


by Anthony Cervino | Mon, Apr 25th 12:18pm EDT
ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that newly signed Baltimore Ravens running back Trent Richardson lost 22 pounds this offseason. Richardson has battled rumors of being "out of shape" in years past. (Adam Schefter on Twitter)
Trent Richardson could be taking his 2016 comeback attempt like it will be his final opportunity to rejuvenate his stalked NFL career. Richardson lost 22 pounds this offseason and appears to be in better football shape entering Baltimore's organized team activities.


The Morning Report
August 21, 2017
Edited by Ronald Miller of Valet.
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A modern take on the classic movies that Bruce Lee was known for.


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#9. Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren is an Academy Award-winning Italian actress and pinup beauty. A striking beauty, Loren is often listed among the world’s all time most attractive women. Italian actress Sophia Loren was born in Rome on September 20, 1934. Raised in poverty, she began her film career in 1951 and came to be regarded as one of the worlds most beautiful women. Loren won the Best Actress Academy Award for the film Two Women in 1961 and an Academy Honorary Award in 1991. Married to producer Carlo Ponti for 50 years until his death in 2007, Loren lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

domain: celebrity


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Placing African universities in global knowledge production
By Duncan Omanga
| September 22nd 2018
Thanks to JPR Ochieng Odero, a leading researcher, trustee of Kenya’s National Research Fund, and a team leader of the East Africa Research Fund, I got a link to a recently published academic piece in The Lancet on rethinking research in Africa.
The article, bearing the title ‘repositioning Africa in global knowledge production’, was penned by Adam Habib (Witwatersrand University), Laban Ayiro (Moi University), Philip Cotton (University of Rwanda), Alfred Mtenje (University of Malawi), Peter Mbithi (University of Nairobi), Barnabas Nawangwe (Makerere University), Eyitope O Ogunbodede (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria), Idowu Olayinka (University of Ibadan) among other academic leaders.
It sheds tremendous light on what African universities ought to do to redeem their future research credentials. Coming from academics who have sat at the helm of some of Africa’s most notable universities, the ideas proposed in this article are provocative, radical and most probably inevitable.
Some of the issues raised and proposals given by the authors have been raised in this column before, albeit with a more sense of urgency. There is a reason for this urgency. Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa, accounts for 13.5 per cent of the global population but less than one per cent of global research output.
A decade ago, the number of published papers from this region, 27,000 in total, were equal to that produced by tiny Netherlands, a country of about 17 million people and measuring only 41,543 square kilometres and slightly smaller than Kenya’s Garissa County.
This is a reflection of the lean times that African universities have faced, especially in the past two decades. In the 60s, African universities benefitted from a rare political commitment, demonstrated in generous funding from these states.
Most African countries used 10-35 per cent of their national budgets on education, with a similar percentage going to higher education. This honeymoon was to last up to the late 70s and early 80s. The 80s and 90s marked a gradual downturn of university education in Africa, with universities becoming centres of politicisation, victims of harsh structural adjustment programmes, and a general cut in funding. Meanwhile, Africa’s population continued to soar even as enrollment tripled.
The results of some progressive policy change in higher education in the last few years is beginning to show, albeit in trickles. The pulse of research is beginning to show beeps, even as citations from the continent improve. But the record is still generally poor and confined to only very few geographical centres of the continent.
African governments contribute less and less to research (one per cent to global expenditure on research). Increasingly, the quality of training and research is jeopardised by ageing infrastructure, too much teaching load, inadequate PhDs, pervasive labour disputes, poor governance structures, invasive politics, poor intra-Africa collaboration and the increasing tendency in which Africa is seen more as an object of research, than as a research front-runner in itself.
So what should be done to spike research output in Africa? First, universities require proper funding. Until this changes, the situation will only grow worse. Second, and which the authors of this article gave voice to, was the differentiation of university education in Africa. This column has twice argued that Kenya needs to differentiate between research and teaching universities to redeem their role in national development.
Across the continent, research-intensive universities need to be identified, recognised and isolated for a deliberate, concentrated investment. This column has argued that the so named Kenya's big five, or seven, be set apart as research universities. The rest might be designated as teaching universities but with a clear track of changing status.
According to the authors, the inevitability of such a decision lies in the reality that by 2050, the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will have doubled, and the demand for faculty with advanced training is needed. To ensure that research-intensive universities do not fall into complacency, the vice chancellors propose a 3-5 year peer review supranational and broadly representative body, which would allow research aspiring universities to sign up for consideration, and underperforming research universities to lose their designations.
These universities would then spearhead research demonstrated by their funding models, their capacity to attract and retain leading researchers, generating grants and a deliberate focus at PhD supervision and post-doctoral training. These universities must demonstrate good research management, and a high level of transparency and accountability.
This accountability, the authors argue, must extend to ‘efficient use of resources and achieving economies of scale. Best practise must also guide PhD-level training, including that only eligible academics, irrespective of age, sex, or traditional hierarchy, should supervise doctoral students'.
The authors, being mostly VCs, carefully glossed over the issue of labour and the disruptions it is causing to the research agenda in African universities. They argue that research universities must consider freeing up existing posts currently filled by non-research-active staff (a polite way of saying non-research active academies should be terminated). I agree with recommendations to make available opportunities for post-retirement contracts only to departing staff that promote institutional research; mentorship and role-modelling so that new graduates can carry on traditions of research excellence upheld by their mentors.
Still, implicit in the lofty and noble ideals of creating a differentiated university structure in Africa, is the reality of individuated remuneration. In this sense, to attract the leading researchers in respective fields as envisaged, most of whom have migrated to better paying jobs in Europe and North America, the designated aspiring and research universities in Africa must allow room to think creatively on their remuneration models.
While the current model in Kenya has its strengths, it masks intellectual mediocrity, promotes deadwood academics, and legitimises an adversarial culture of labour relations between universities and unions in Africa, whose overall effect is a distraction from the academic mission of universities.
The writer lectures at Moi University and is currently a British Academy visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK.
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domain: sociology


Mexico is the sixth largest emerging economy to attract foreign investment worldwide, with strong activity to receive foreign investment flows in the telecommunications sector with the new anti-monopoly law, while for investment in electricity and energy, these sectors provide an interesting result.
On a metropolitan scale, in 2014, the DF (Mexico City) attracted over 43% of flows at the national level and 55% during the period (2000-2014). Mexico City is now the center of attraction for the world’s best companies for developing an important activity of services due to the presence of large consulting firms such as PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and lawyers from Baker & McKenzie, accounting services and the development of its class A + office space (Historical Center, Reforma and Insurgentes) and Premier (Santa Fe).
Therefore, Mexico City has the profile to be a leader in smart city in Latin America. At the dimension “government” the city capital is recognized in various publications and international events for its online services (procedures and payments), infrastructure (WiFi coverage, detection, health and integrated security, etc. ) and also through its CityLab (available applications, open data and private data protection, etc.) which improved transparency. The DF has also been a player in the region in promoting smart and green technologies such as LEED certified buildings. On the front of the transport, the city is in the head with the introduction of a free program Velo “Ecobici”, a BRT bus system “Metrobus” and shared electric cars.
Turning the concept of the central and equitable city, the idea is that the main concerns of citizens about urban environment and social equity will be resolved. Among others, the recurring problems are the caps, pollution, the rising cost of water and its scarcity, waste management, the increase in housing prices.
For reference, it has been demonstrated by several successful initiatives globally that introduction of technology and also citizen participation in urban services such as water management, mobility, transport, Waste and lighting are priorities for cities to encourage smarter and a better quality of life.
The main opportunities for investors include:
Optical fiber data network.
Spaces, equipment and smart public parks.
Intelligent Parking Management System.
Technology services utilities management system.
Intelligent networks (Smart Grid).
Among others ….
SmartCity development projects is realized through public-private partnerships.


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Global Dialysis Powder Market 2019 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2024 is a complete blend of latest Dialysis Powder market statistics, trends, and growth scenario. The primary objective of this report is to show positive growth owing to increasing demand from different sectors. This latest report added to the repository of MRInsights.biz provides an all-inclusive analysis of the key perspectives. The report then offers a complete market outlook and growth rate during the past present and forecast period from 2019 to 2024. It features extensive information in terms of changing market dynamics, manufacturing trends, structural changes in the market, and the latest developments. Specific regions expected to show remarkable growth during the forecasted period are also covered in this report.
DOWNLOAD FREE SAMPLE REPORT: https://www.mrinsights.biz/report-detail/200968/request-sample
Later on, the report displays a far-reaching consistent survey of the environment of the market, offering a forward-looking perspective on the market. The report delivers an in-depth segmentation by application, product type, technology, and competitive landscape analysis. A comprehensive investigation has been provided that features capital requirements, regions classes, application, sales, and earnings. The tremendous market competition, regional analysis, and market demand are further covered in this report. Real business players have projected crossing value more than expectations before the end of 2024, targeting 2018 as the base year and conjecture period in the range of 2019 and 2024.
Major players listed in the Dialysis Powder market report are: Asahi Kasei Medical, Baxter International, B. Braun Melsungen, DaVita Kidney Care, Diaverum, Fresenius Medical Care, Fresenius Medical Care North America, JMS, Kawasumi Laboratories, Medical Components, Medivators, Nikkiso Group, Nipro Diagnostics,
Leading topographical countries featuring in the industry includes North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)
Following are the applications of the market: Application I, Application II
Following are the types of market: Type I, Type II
Moreover, in this report, a neat description of the value chain, developed by the potential systematic methods is offered. The report highlights the costs involved in production and manufacturing, device sales, and total market revenue. The report is a must-read for every stakeholder to understand the market situation and execute their strategies according to it. The market review helps to summaries the industrial and financial development within the Dialysis Powder industry through expert analysis.
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Customization of the Report:This report can be customized to meet the client’s requirements. Please connect with our sales team (email@example.com), who will ensure that you get a report that suits your needs.

domain: economics


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Restaurants, including large chains like Panera and P.F. Chang’s, but also local eateries and coffee shops are increasingly adopting subscription models to secure steady revenue and customer loyalty. These subscriptions can offer perks like free delivery, favorite dish selections or free beverages. According to this online piece on AP News, this model is capitalizing on the growing trend of Americans who subscribe to various services like streaming and groceries. While it hasn’t become a dominant aspect of the restaurant marketplace, it is something that small businesses might want to consider to stay engaged and competititve.
Featured recently in this article in the Cornell Chronicle, Abena Foli shares how her inspiration to bring West African flavors to the US marketplace was the idea behind her launch of POKS Spices. Foli is a graduate of the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship certificate program and discusses how specific coursework as well as the connections made in the program opened her eyes to funding and resources that were available to launch and scale her business. We are so proud of all that she had achieved so far and can’t wait to see where POKS Spices goes next!
This article from Time shares examples of small businesses banding together rather than competing head to head to weather the challenges presented by public health necessitated lockdowns. By thinking both creatively and collaboratively, these businesses have been able to stay afloat while also building a community stronger than the one before COVID-19.
On November 11, 2019, NPR posted an article about a question posed to 100 female chefs and food writers by author Charlotte Druckman in her new book Women on Food. Druckman asked if there were any words or phrases that should no longer be used to describe women in the culinary field. While many words made the list, one word sparked a lot of discussion: “badass”.
As Druckman shared with NPR, “Badass is a detonated way to describe a kind of cultural male whiteness — an aggressive, swaggering one…and then it gets put onto women, as what feels like a tarnished ‘badge of honor,’ or backhanded compliment. Calling a woman — chef or otherwise — ‘badass’ is a way to signify that she’s cool or relevant because she’s acting like a man (specifically, an aggressive, swaggering one); that she is only of interest or worth consideration because she’s going against whatever ‘type’ it is she’d otherwise be categorized as because she’s a woman.”
The cofounders of Sorbabes are teaching consumers that sorbet can be plant based but also taste more like ice cream with the use of nut butters. Sorbabes earned almost $2 million in revenues last year and expects to bring in $5 million this year. To read more, see this piece in Entrepreneur.
Food-related businesses are one of the highest growth areas within women-owned businesses. The James Beard Foundation just named 20 fellows (maybe we should call them “ladies” instead of “fellows”?) to their 2019 Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program. This diverse group of women will gather for five days in October 2019 to learn new skills to grow their careers and scale their businesses. Past fellows have expanded from a single restaurant to restaurant groups, signed national product distribution deals, and launched whole new companies. The power of education and networking is real!


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- Bikes & Gear
- Training & Nutrition
- Ride Maps
A philosophical Levi Leipheimer says he won’t contend for the 2012 Tour of California.
By Joe Lindsey
As late as last night, there was still a chance.
At a debut screening of a documentary about his cycling career Thursday night in Santa Rosa, three-time Amgen Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer made his first major comment that suggested that his return from a fractured leg almost six weeks ago had been even harder than most of us suspected. He wouldn’t even commit to starting, in fact, saying he would make a decision on Friday.
At the press conference, the questions about his leg came early and often, but it wasn’t until Phil Barber, a reporter from the local paper, the Press Democrat, asked him whether it was pain holding him back, or a lack of form, that Leipheimer let on what has really been happening for him these last weeks.
“The leg is obviously … a story that’s been going on far too long for me,” he began haltingly. “Some days are better than others, honestly. The recovery has not been as fast as I would have hoped. It’s been a trying five and a half weeks.”
Leipheimer isn’t always the most expansive rider from behind a microphone. His personality—at least with the press—tends to quiet and understated, almost guarded. Where his fellow ToC hopefuls Chris Horner and Tom Danielson cracked smiles and jokes, Levi’s expression wouldn’t have been out of place in the World Series of Poker.
But at the podium, before dozens of clicking cameras and voice recorders, he seemed to open up a little, to let us in to what has been a desperate, frustrating month and a half since a car smashed into him just before April’s Vuelta Pais Vasco.
The crash itself was traumatic; afterward, Leipheimer spoke of how close he felt he came to getting killed, and feeling lucky to have escaped with only a fractured fibula to go with scrapes and bruises.
But that official diagnosis and treatment (two weeks rest) didn’t quite square with the actual severity of his injury. “I have to be realistic; my leg is broken,” he said. Leipheimer is a careful, deliberate man on a bike or when interviewed; he chose the present tense for a reason. He continued, “On the X-ray, the bone was apart; you didn’t need to be a doctor to know it was broken.”
He had been training, he said, for only a few weeks, “and it hasn’t been great.” Others close to Leipheimer had privately confided before the race that he would use it for training, but for Leipheimer himself, the big question didn’t seem to be how he would finish, but whether.
“It was important to show the team that I wouldn’t be a burden or a weak link. I didn’t want to start in Santa Rosa and do the first 50k or even the first stage and drop out. That wouldn’t be fair to the team.
“As professional athletes, we’re always taught to reach for the stars and never give up. But I have to be realistic and take the pressure off of myself. It’s taken a lot of hard work just to get to the start and I don’t think you should count on me for the overall.”
There is, of course, always a chance that Leipheimer is bluffing. Chris Horner, for one, felt that Leipheimer had been a little cagey and might not be as bad off as he said. Horner is a smart racer and knows Levi better than me, but I’m still not so sure about that. Levi sounded tired; he sounded very much as if he’s been living the month and a half of frustration he talked about.
There was a flash of the fighter when, as he began to talk about his form, he started to estimate at what fraction of 100 percent he was operating, before stopping himself and offering only a more vague, “less than 100 percent.”
Even if Leipheimer hadn’t been so candid, his form was questionable enough that it was, literally, questioned, early and often. Other cues abounded. Tom Boonen, the world’s No. 1-ranked rider and Leipheimer’s teammate, got equal time at the press conference.
And even with the start in his hometown of Santa Rosa, Leipheimer didn’t get top billing, with the center spot on the podium and the last introduction going to defending champion Horner.
But even if we all knew, privately, that he wasn’t there to contend, Leipheimer was gracious enough to confirm it, to point the spotlight at Horner, or Boonen, or young phenom Tejay van Garderen.
The ToC is one of Leipheimer’s favorite races, and to swallow his pride and use the race for training must be bitter medicine. But his 2011 season was arguably his most successful ever, and his 2012 started in similar fashion. If he can get back to the form he had, he has a chance to do something on a much bigger stage. For now, that will have to be enough.
After narrowly missing a complete cancellation, the Volta Catalunya goes sideways on the queen stage.
By Joe Lindsey
I think Slim Pickens said it best. “What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?!”
Wednesday was supposed to be the queen stage of the Volta Catalunya, a prestigious seven-day stage race in Spain that is an important early-season test for Grand Tour hopefuls.
The start list included RadioShack-Nissan’s Andy Schleck, Liquigas-Cannondale’s Ivan Basso, Sky leader Brad Wiggins, Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, and Omega Pharma-Quick-Step’s Levi Leipheimer, among others.
It’s a crucial target for those riders because the race features some of the first real, sustained climbing on the calendar. Races like Paris-Nice have climbs, but Catalunya has three straight days of mountainous riding, starting with yesterday’s mountaintop finish at Port-Aine.
Except it never happened.
Horrible weather conditions doomed the race from the start of the stage and the race itself was utter chaos.
Not 10 kilometers in, a massive crash (involving a parked car on the side of the course) caused serious injuries to several riders. GreenEdge’s Julian Dean broke both his tibia and fibula in the right leg; RadioShack’s Jakob Fuglsang broke a bone in his hand.
Garmin-Barracuda’s Tom Peterson put it this way on Twitter:
A total of 34 riders abandoned. Race organizers shortened the stage several times, finally ending it partway up the penultimate climb, the Port del Canto, after about 155km of racing—far short of the 210 planned.
As the race neared the Canto, “I learned that the stage was going to be stopped in ten kilometers,” said GreenEdge director Neil Stephens. “We went from having 70K to race to having 10K to race.”
Astana’s Janez Brajkovic won out of a breakaway on what he called, “the hardest day of my life,” and organizers decided midrace to neutralize all time gaps. So Brajkovic got the stage win, but GreenEdge’s Michael Albasini remained in the overall lead, 1:32 ahead of a large group of riders, despite finishing over eight minutes behind Brajkovic on the stage.
If that weren’t enough, the race jury debated late into the night whether to let the 34 riders who abandoned during the stage have the option to start again on Thursday. (Ultimately, they said no.)
The reaction from various corners was swift. Former pro and one-time riders’ union president Cedric Vasseur tweeted “What is happening with cycling?” That same phrase, word for word, appeared in a post on the RadioShack-Nissan site with former-pro-turned-director Jose Azevedo expressing his exasperation with the events.
“There wasn’t even a finish line set up,” said breakaway member Thomas Roehregger (RadioShack-Nissan) of the haphazard denouement to the stage. “When we saw the UCI officials on the side of the road we started to sprint. It all makes this look like a low-level amateur race.”
Catalunya is not, however, a low-level amateur race. It’s part of the WorldTour, cycling’s top level of racing, and recently had a four-year license at that level renewed, despite questions about its financial stability. And the events of Stage 3 were both predictable and easily avoided.
Every year at least one event deals with a chaotic, weather-shortened race. Last year the Tour of California lost its entire first stage and a chunk of the second to atrocious weather conditions at Lake Tahoe.
Weather forecasts for Catalunya had forewarned of snow for days, but race organizers appeared to have no solid Plan B in hand. This, incidentally, was despite the fact that Port-Aine is a ski area, and it is mid-March, and of course they are still operating. (“Welcome skiers and riders; we’ve had four inches of fresh snow in the last 24 hours and conditions are great!”)
Conditions were rough enough that five teams staying overnight at the resort were snowed in Thursday morning and it was unsure whether they would be able to get to the start of Stage 4 in Tremp. (They did.)
You tell me: Is it reasonable to send a stage race to a summit finish at a ski area during ski season and not have some kind of planned alternate program in case of snow?
Catalunya organizers are absolutely at fault here. But they and the race jury are forced into the position of making ad hoc decisions on the road in part because there’s no clear rule.
Pro cycling has never had firm rules on how to deal with weather. It’s always been a race-time decision, and even the choice to race is fluid and can be reversed at any moment.
On one hand, that means that organizers can be flexible and react to changing weather conditions. Terrible at the start but sunny by the finish? Carry on—a great “epic” day of racing may result.
On the other hand, it can easily result in situations like Catalunya. Look at the damage there: several riders knocked out with injuries from a senseless crash (in Dean’s case, possibly career-ending); a PR disaster for a race already on tenuous financial ground; and total disorganization regarding who’s in and who’s out.
Among the DNFs: Schleck, Wiggins, Richie Porte, and Basso. As of bedtime last night, no one knew if they’d be allowed to start Thursday. All were in the group 1:32 behind overall leader Albasini after stage 2. Imagine if they were let back in and one of them won the race (Basso crashed and re-injured his knee and likely would have stayed out no matter what).
Would that be fair to the riders who suffered through 155km of rain and snow? Who then piled, cold and wet, up to six at a time into the few team vehicles at the hastily decided finish and endured an hour-plus drive to the team hotel, without much in the way of food, recovery drinks, or warm and dry clothes, while the team buses with all of those necessities idled far up the road near the final climb?
Surprising inclusions and omissions from big stage race.
By Joe Lindsey
The Amgen Tour of California announced today the 16-team lineup for the May 13-20 race, and as is always the case with sought-after events, there were some surprises.
Wild-card invites to any race are highly contested and there are never enough to go around. With 16 slots open, the TOC has fewer than the Tour de France but more discretion on whom to invite as it’s not a WorldTour event and doesn’t have to guarantee entry to those 18 teams.
As an HC event, the Tour of California no longer has to invite the top three teams from the UCI’s Americas Tour, which frees them up to select teams based on other criteria.
As expected, half the field is made up of ProTeams, especially ones with a strong North American interest. That includes US-flagged BMC and Garmin-Barracuda of course, but also teams like Omega Pharma-Quick-Step and RadioShack-Nissan, with strong U.S. leaders and American-tied sponsors (in Omega’s case, bike sponsor Specialized).
One interesting new team is Ag2r-La Mondiale, which has no obvious tie to the market.
The other half of the field gets more interesting. The mix of four Pro Continental and four Continental teams includes some eyebrow-raisers. In: Project 1t4i, the as-yet mysteriously sponsored-but-not-named Dutch Pro Continental team. I expect Southern California-based bike sponsor Felt has something to do with this.
And Colombia-Coldeportes gets a somewhat surprising nod. With past entrants Spidertech and Unitedhealthcare getting nods, that’s four. But it leaves out Team Type 1, a U.S. registered Pro Continental team that raced the TOC last year.
On the Continental side, Bissell and Optum-KBS get return nods; Exergy and developmental team Bontrager-Livestrong are in as new teams. Arguable snubs include Competitive Cyclist, Kenda/5-Hour Energy, and Jelly Belly, a longtime fixture of the race.
At first glance, the Bontrager-LS inclusion is against the rules. In years past, it was considered a “feeder” team for RadioShack and shared a paying agent in Capital Sports and Entertainment. UCI rules prohibit two teams with the same paying agent racing in an event—a rule that got then Trek-Livestrong and Chipotle’s U23 team 86′d from the USA Pro Cycling Challenge last year.
But with the merger of Leopard and RadioShack, the ProTeam’s paying agent shifted to Leopard SA in Luxembourg, while Bontrager-LS remained with CSE in Texas. With different paying agents, the door’s open.
It’s still a curious inclusion, at least on competition criteria. The current crop on Bontrager is a good crew but is necessarily (as a development team) young and relatively inexperienced. You can argue it both ways—that the TOC is a perfect chance for them to gain experience alongside the world’s best, or that a 2.HC stage race slammed into the gutter at 50kph in the crosswinds en route to Clovis is a place for experienced teams, not ones learning the ropes.
But a better argument might be the strength of CC’s roster: Francisco Mancebo‘s past may not thrill race organizers, but he’s won a stage of the TOC before. And with Cesar Grajales, Mike Olheiser, and Chad Beyer, there’s a strong nucleus of talented riders.
Either way, the team choices represent what the TOC has always had—a mix of the absolute world’s best and smaller American teams who will ride the story lines of pluck and grit as they attempt to win stages. As always, the race will be nothing if not interesting to watch.
Some new sights and some familiar in next year’s route.
By Joe Lindsey
Anschutz Entertainment Group announced this morning the host cities for the 2012 Amgen Tour of California.
The eight-stage race starts Sunday, May 13, in Santa Rosa and ends on Sunday the 20th in Los Angeles.
It’s a familiar path in many respects, but there are some wrinkles to the event:
—Likely no Sierras: After a little bit of footsie with California’s largest mountain range, the race went in whole hog last year with the Lake Tahoe start. It promptly ran into weather concerns that cancelled stage one and greatly altered stage two. The race may yet return, but for 2012 at least it seems to be staying clear of the high mountains. The one stage that goes close, Sonora to Clovis, looks to skirt the Sierra foothills but never venture far into them. (Word was that the National Park Service nixed a Yosemite stage.)
—Repeat what worked: The Mount Baldy finish last year was an enormous success. It was the second true mountaintop finish in the race after the Sierra Road stage, and helped cement Chris Horner’s overall victory. Huge crowds turned out and the racing was excellent overall. The race goes from a new start point (Ontario) but should have much of the same flavor,
—Fewer big mountains, but maybe more climbing: The 2011 edition featured two major mountaintop finishes. For 2012, we get one true uphill finish on Baldy, but almost every other day on the course has potential at least to include significant climbing, whether it’s the shorter, sharper ascents like Oak Ridge Grade near Santa Rosa, or a quick trip over Sierra Road on the stage from San Jose to Livermore. There will certainly be one or two sprint finishes, but the 2012 route could easily favor breakaways more than bunch sprints.
—Some uncertainty: Organizers named host cities, but one—Santa Cruz County—is not a city. Santa Cruz is the central draw there, but it’s a fairly big area and where exactly the race finishes will have a big effect on the course of stage two.
—A new time trial: Bakersfield will host a stage again but in a twist it’ll be an individual time trial. Look for a relatively non-technical course where winds may play a pivotal role.
—Back-weighted overall: The three standout days are stages five, six, and seven. Starting with the Bakersfield time trial, the race then moves into the San Gabriel Mountains with a long ride from Palmdale across the spine of San Gabriels to Big Bear Lake, reprising a 2010 stage. Then stage seven features the ascent to Baldy. Although the first few days look to have some hills in them, the race will likely be decided in the stage 5-7 stretch.
Overall it’s an intriguing course. It mixes some familiar components with new cities, and mixes up even the terrain that the race has been over before. The Santa Rosa stage could be fantastic. I would bet a not unreasonable sum of money that the stage will share major portions of the route with three-time TOC winner Levi Leipheimer’s King Ridge Gran Fondo.
And the Bakersfield time trial could produce surprises. The area around the town is mostly flat, but winds in the Central Valley can be fierce.
Competition will also be interesting to watch. We’ll likely see some new teams, as Levi Leipheimer’s arrival at Quick Step (along with Bay Area–based bike sponsor Specialized) almost assures they’ll race.
RadioShack will be a force with defending champion Horner, backed by the Schleck brothers, who love racing in the United States. And Garmin always brings a strong team. But HTC is gone. BMC will probably come, in all likelihood supporting Tejay van Garderen.
And the Olympics may change preparation concerns for riders, so we’ll simply have to see how teams and riders approach a crowded calendar with many options.
2012 Amgen Tour of California, May 13-20:
The Tour of California got snowed out of Lake Tahoe. Will the race ever go back?
By Joe Lindsey
The opening of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California was not an unmitigated disaster.
That would have been the scenario had a rider been hurt in the treacherous conditions, or if organizers had stubbornly pushed forward with plans to race only to run into a white wall of snow that would have sent riders scrambling for team cars and a mid-race cancellation.
But short of that, the fact that two days and 250 miles of picturesque racing in an iconic location were reduced to a 72-mile mini-stage points to an unsettling truth about the race: Organizers bet heavily on the weather, and lost.
While race president Andrew Messick and director Jim Birrell put a brave face on and claimed that there was virtually no way to know that there would be that kind of weather for the start, even a brief survey of Tahoe weather history shows otherwise.
The start of Tuesday’s stage, at Squaw Valley ski resort, drove home the point, as the Liquigas-Cannondale team awoke to the sight of skiers and snowboarders queuing up for lift rides to hit still-fresh powder from Sunday.
“You would never start a race in, say, Vail, in mid-May,” pointed out Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters. “You’d know it was 50-50 at best,” saying that he wasn’t against the decision, only that maybe no one had openly acknowledged the risks. “I thought Tahoe would be perfectly fine,” he said.
Quizzed at the ad hoc start of “stage 2″ in Nevada City, managers and ex-pros said they couldn’t remember a similar occurrence.
“Certainly races have been shortened or altered but I can’t recall a back-to-back event like that,” said BMC manager Jim Ochowicz, who has more than a quarter century of experience as a team director.
But to a man, riders and managers supported the decision to make such huge changes in the name of safety. They also wanted to come back to try again.
One of the keys to their positive impression was that they arrived earlier in the week, when the weather was basically perfect.
“I would love to come back and race around the lake,” said world champion Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo. “I rode halfway around the lake in training and it was lovely; on TV it would be wonderful.”
But the damage of the past two days was significant. Three of the first four host towns have lost the chance to be a part of the race.
Race organizers lost the chance to offer some truly fresh and iconic imagery to the sport—we’re accustomed to May shots of the Dolomites and Swiss Alps, but the image of the riders climbing up Emerald Bay with the deep-blue Tahoe and snowcapped peaks in the background would have dominated all coverage of the race.
Fans in person and elsewhere lost the chance to see great racing, and the racers lost because, well, if you don’t race you can’t win.
But at the start Monday, almost everyone seemed supportive not only of the decisions but also of the chance of coming back.
Sky director Bobby Julich, who has owned a house near Mount Rose ski area for the past decade, pointed out that other races regularly see weather force changes to the route.
“Paris-Nice goes to the same spots every year, and sometimes they get lucky and sometimes not,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a deterrent to going somewhere beautiful for an epic stage.”
But Paris-Nice has existed for over 70 years, I replied. It’s an iconic race put on by the largest promoter in the sport. Was Paris-Nice more resilient than a six-year-old race that makes riders change nine time zones in order to participate?
“I hate to say it but this won’t be the last time this happens for the ToC,” he answered. “I think it shows that that organization is really solid and isn’t afraid to take a difficult decision.”
If there is a silver lining to the very large cloud that’s hung over this race the past few days, it’s that the race may come away from it stronger, not weaker.
“This is an amazing place up here,” said Julich. “Everyone saw how beautiful it is, and I hope it doesn’t scare the organization away. I hope we come back again next year.”


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Actress Megan Fox is reportedly moving back in with estranged husband Brian Austin Green.
The pair, who are expecting their third child together, are planning to rekindle their romance, reported the New York Post.
A source close to the pair said, “They’re a couple again. They’re moving back in with each other.”
It was previously claimed that the couple, who have sons Noah and Bodhi together, are considering calling off their divorce.
The 29-year-old actress tied the knot with Green, 42, in Hawaii in 2010. She filed for divorce from the actor last August, citing irreconcilable differences.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines


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Quattro Exploration and Production Ltd. (TSXV:QXP) reported the approval of its $50 million capital budget, including a three year drilling program, which will commence in the third Quarter of 2014. Phase I of the program will focus on its operated lands in Western Canada.
As quoted in the press release:
The Company anticipates that its development drilling efforts combined with its ongoing remediation and consolidation activities will carry Quattro’s 2,500 boe/d exit target in 2014, up to 3,500 boe/d (net) in the 12 months ending June 30, 2015. The development wells are all incremental activities within the Company’s operated properties and will be operated by Quattro. This positions Quattro to quickly tie in new production at minimal cost. The allocations of these activities are as follows, on a net/gross interest basis;
- 2 / 2 Vertical Oil Wells at Oak BC. – targeting the Halfway with in our current producing Pool
- 1 / 2 Horizontal Oil Wells in East Central Alberta – targeting the Ellerslie within our current producing Pool
- 4 / 4 Oil Wells at Rangeview Saskatchewan – targeting the Madison and Shaunavon
- 8 /40 Oil Wells at McMullen, Alberta – targeting the Wabiskaw
- 8 /10 Vertical Natural Gas Wells at Donalda, Alberta – targeting the Viking, Mannville and Belly River
- 23/60 Diversified between 16(net) oil and 8(net) natural gas wells, Quattro’s net cost being approximately $13.5 million.
Quattro CEO, Leonard Van Betuw, said:
The approval of this budget by our Board of Directors is an endorsement of the Quattro team’s work and technical understanding of the potential within the Company’s diverse land base. We are now in the process of licensing the first 24 (net) wells of a 55 (net) well drilling program. These 24 wells are scheduled to be drilled in the next 12 months. We will also be continuing to increase production with our remediation and recompletion program within our existing oil and natural gas fields over the next 12 months, while drilling 23(net) development wells, 15 targeting oil and 8 targeting natural gas. In addition, we have budgeted 2 wells, 1(net) exploratory well within our 110,000 acre permit (50% net) situated in the Williston Basin of Saskatchewan. The first well is scheduled to be drilled in the 3rd quarter of 2014.


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- Cariad Photography
- North Georgia, United States
- I have been an artist for as long as I can remember and photography is my passion. I used to be a successful fine artist, but since I shot my first wedding I never looked back. I am madly and completely in love with weddings, I guess it is the romantic in me :)
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Gertie Mae's Flower Studio at Lake Rabun Pavillion Wedding.
Gertie Mae created these beautiful flowers for Brooke and Steven's Wedding at the Lake Rabun Pavillion. Brooke chose yellow and white tulips and they sure portrait the feeling of Spring in her wedding.


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The new Scrapping 4 Fun Challenge is a Food/Drink theme challenge. How fun is that?!
Our sponsor for this challenge is The Paper Shelter. They gave us an image that included the black and white digi, a pre-colored digi, pre-colored background paper, and a pre-colored image with the paper and digi together! I chose to use the black and white image and colored it in myself because it is so cute!
The image is called Pixie Caramel Macchiato.
I chose to use my image to create a gift card holder for a coffee gift card for a friend. I laminated a piece of patterned paper and did a little die cutting. I added a snap and an eyelet. I created a tag as well and tied it on with twine.
I love this little coffee fairy! I think this is a super sweet image and I had a lot of fun coloring. I gave her the same hair color that I currently have as well!
The little gift card was so quick and easy to create with the laminator and it looks so nice. I don’t know if the pictures quite capture it, but I am really happy with this project.
I’m thinking that I will be making a stack of these to have on hand to give away with gift cards!
Thank you for stopping by! Please leave a comment and stop by the challenge blog to share your creations with us!
Have a wonderful day!

domain: hobby


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Elizabeth Resnick is a professor in communication design at the
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston. She earned her BFA
and MFA degrees in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of
Resnick served on the board of the AIGA Boston chapter from
1989–2005, organizing numerous events. From 2003–2005 she served on the
AIGA National Design Education Steering Committee. She is the 2007
recipient of AIGA Boston’s 2007 Fellows Award.
Resnick is a passionate design curator who has organized four
comprehensive design exhibitions with faculty partners: “Russell Mills:
Within/Without” (1991) with Teresa Flavin; “Dutch Graphic Design:
1918–1945” (1994) with Alston W. Purvis; “Makoto Saito: Art of the
Poster” (1999) with Jan Kubasiewicz; and “The Graphic Imperative:
International Posters for Peace, Social Justice and the Environment
1965–2005” (2005) with Chaz Maviyane-Davies and Frank Baseman.
Her published work includes Design for Communication: Conceptual
Graphic Design Basics (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and Graphic
Design: A Problem-Solving Approach to Visual Communication
(Prentice-Hall, 1984). She writes commentaries and event reviews on
occasion, and has interviewed many prominent designers and design
educators for publication in Eye, AIGA Journal of Graphic
Design, Graphis, Graphics International, Argentina’s TipoGrafica
and IDEA from Japan.
Besides her full-time teaching schedule, Resnick is currently
assembling material for a book project of sociopolitical assignment
briefs and conducting research for an international poster exhibition on
AIDS awareness globally.
In the relatively small world of information design, “data
visualization” is the buzzword. (“Unedited visual data dumping” might
sometimes, perhaps, be a more accurate description.) Recently, data visualizers
are advocating for something that’s new to them: storytelling.
Section: Inspiration -
If you try to do all web development yourself to save money, you will find yourself stretched thin and limited by what you can do. You will discover, just like I did, that if you want to focus on growing your business and getting higher-end clients, you
will need to grow your team.
In 1964, Saul Bass hired me as a strategic logo design planner, account
manager, and director of new business contacts. I was young, just a few
of UCLA, and I was attracted to Saul's rational approach to great
logo design in the ‘60s. Saul was captivating as he described his
reasoning why his great
designs worked: thoughtful planning first, design next. Then it all
came together which I call credibility-based logo design. This new
resulting process happened one night in Saul's office.
When is an original thought truly original? Summerford argues only at the moment of revelation, and only if the audience (of one or many) hasn't already thought of it.
Section: Inspiration -
Voice, professional development
Seeds of the Cities
Tips for entering design awards
Posted by Khumo
SEA's new books showcase the untapped world of post-war Italian graphic design
Posted by Rob Alderson
2 days ago from
It's Nice That
Check out what Logo Design Love had to say about Hillary Clinton's campaign logo. Offers great advice into critiquing other designs.
Shared in Tools & Resources by Brandon Mooney
Justen Renyer Design
Video: AIGA Medalist Ann Willoughby
KNOCK identity - Self Awareness
TheSmittyB (Brian Edward Smith)
Procrastination: #aigadesign's video https://t.co/2KCcHPkYzS
38 minutes ago


“Athirvu” exclusive interview with Hon. ALM Athaulla (Former Member of Parliament and National Leader of National Congress) and Hon. Abdur Rahman (Founder of The National Front for Good Governance), held on 11-09-2016 at 09.00PM on Vasantham TV.
Every Sundays @ 09.00PM on Vasantham TV.
Copyrighted © Vasantham TV | www.vasantham.lk | Athirvu


Thompson Opposes Decision to Exclude Amendment to Declassify Vietnam Era Biological and Chemical Test Project from NDAA
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) spoke against a decision to exclude a bipartisan amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2018 to declassify a Vietnam Era project that intentionally exposed servicemembers and civilians to deadly chemical weapons.
The House Committee on Rules did not make in order the amendment to H.R. 2810. This action blocks consideration of the provision that was offered by Representatives Thompson, Young (R-AK), and Walter B. Jones (R-NC). The amendment would have required the Department of Defense (DOD) to declassify and disclose information related to Project 112/Project Shipboard Hazard (SHAD). Should the DOD deem the information could not be declassified due to national security concerns, they would have been required to brief Congress explaining why.
“The DOD continues to stonewall American veterans who were intentionally exposed to Sarin and other chemical agents by their own country, and Congress is complicit by not considering this Amendment,” said Thompson. “To sweep this under the rug is a shame. These veterans served honorably for the security of our nation and when they need it most, this rule effectively turns Congress’s back.”
The issue garnered support from American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Vietnam Veterans of America as well as Members of Congress in both chambers.
“Veterans were exposed to several extremely hazardous agents, including Sarin and VX during Project SHAD and now suffer from debilitating health care conditions,” said Carlos Fuentes, Veterans of Foreign Wars National Legislative Service Director. “The time has long passed when the classified information from this operation would be dangerous to release but the wounds inflicted on these veterans will always be relevant.”
Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) has a similar amendment he is introducing in the Senate when NDAA is scheduled for a Senate vote.
“Often, the impacts of toxic exposure don’t appear until long after service members have returned home from the battlefield and military records are filed away,” said Moran. “We have a duty to make certain our servicemembers’ health is protected both in and out of service, and providing access to classified military records that may prove exposure to toxic substances is critical to veterans applying for VA benefits and service-connection.”
Thompson spoke in opposition to the amendment exclusion today on the House Floor. Text of his remarks as prepared and video are below.
Click the image to watch Thompson's floor speech or visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEL91h1__Pw.
Mr. Speaker rise in opposition to the rule.
I submitted a bipartisan amendment along with Don Young (AK) and Walter Jones (NC) that would declassify a 50-year-old DOD project that sprayed biological and chemical weapons on our servicemembers and civilians, and it was not made in order.
Convulsions. Paralysis. Respiratory failure. Death.
Those are just a few of the most severe side effects of Sarin gas – a chemical weapon so deadly and debilitating it was outlawed as a weapon of mass destruction.
When the Syrian military released Sarin on civilians and children this year, they were broadly criticized and our own military retaliated.
But in the 60s and 70s the United States Department of Defense sprayed biological and chemical weapons like Sarin, VX nerve gas, and E. Coli. on our own servicemembers.
In the years since, many of those exposed have suffered debilitating health effects.
For 40 years DOD has not provided a comprehensive public accounting of these tests nor have they notified all of the veterans and civilians who were potentially exposed.
We cannot allow this information to continue being released piecemeal.
These veterans cannot wait any longer. Their health continues to decline, and some have already passed away.
To sweep this under the rug is a shame on us, for these veterans served honorably for the security of our nation.
These tests were an ugly part of our history. They put veteran lives at risk. And our veterans have every right to know.
I yield back.


The Volvo XC70 is a high-riding, safe, family-oriented wagon that Volvo wants you to think is rugged and definitely not just a minivan with normal doors. What do you need to know before you buy a Volvo XC70? Don’t worry, we’ll tell you everything right here in our Buyer’s Guide.
Rugged. Capable. Tough. These are the kinds of words with which many modern press releases are laced. Why? Because this is ‘Merica, the land of Chuck Norris and the double quarter pounder. We like big. And we like tough.
That’s why small cars and wagons aren’t selling, and crossovers are. Ground clearance is king here in the states. Volvo realized this two decades ago, and threw macho bumpers, side cladding, bigger wheels and tires, and taller springs at their V70 wagon. The result: Sales out the wazoo (well, for a Volvo).
Yes, sometimes we Americans can be rather simple people to figure out.
Still, the XC70 isn’t exactly the Clint Eastwood of automobiles. It’s really just a plush family car that promises to keep your family from dying in most accidents. It’s a car for wealthy east coast hedge fund managers with kids. Matt Hardigree wrote in his review the main reasons why someone would buy an XC70:
Frankly, the world scares you. You’ve got three great kids and you’ll do your best to guarantee that nothing happens to them between your gated community and their Montessori school. Your country club is on the other side of a somewhat bumpy road. You want a Volvo, so why not get a ridiculous one?
So there you go: the XC70 is practical, will fit plenty of lacrosse equipment in the trunk, and with its available all-wheel drive and high ground clearance, Volvo’s tall wagon is meant to get your precious kids to practice at their private school even in treacherous stormy conditions.
The third generation Volvo XC70 launched alongside its lower, front-drive-only V70 stablemate in 2008. With more ground clearance and beefier-looking front and rear fascias, the XC70 was Volvo’s realization that Americans love CUVs, and that wagons are still not cool in the U.S.
As a 2008 model year, the new XC70 sat on Volvo’s EuCD platform and shared many of its components with the S80, whereas the previous P2 platform-based XC70 was closer in build to the S60. The new third generation brought new styling inside and out, more interior tech, and more safety features to the XC70.
The old 2.5-liter inline-five and five-speed auto were ditched for a 235 hp 3.2-liter mated to a six-speed. Mid year brought Volvo’s bread and butter to the table: Safety systems. The Collision Avoidance Package offered adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Collision Warning with Auto Brake (CWAB), Distance Alert (DA), Driver Alert Control (DAC) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW).
The second model year introduced a new XC70 T6 AWD model, with a 281 hp 3.0-liter turbo I6 and unique interior and exterior looks. In 2010, Volvo launched a slightly less powerful PZEV 3.2-liter model, as well as a new grille and fresh exterior trim on all XC70s. The T6 made leather, interior wood inlays, unique wheels and a power passenger seat standard for ‘10.
The following year, Volvo ditched the XC70's brother, the front-wheel drive V70 wagon, and instead offered a new base front-drive trim to the XC70. In addition, the 3.2-liter and 3.0-liter received more horsepower, up to 240 and 300, respectively.
In 2012, Volvo redesigned the instrument panel for their new standard Sensus infotainment. The big news for ‘12, though, was the addition of more trim levels. Instead of just an XC70 3.2 FWD and XC70 T60 AWD, Volvo gave the 3.2 Base, Premier, Premier plus and Platinum trims. The XC70 T6 AWD model also received those same trims sans the premier trim.
In 2013, the XC70 received updates to its infotainment system, rain sensing wipers and a new tunnel detection system for headlights. In ‘14, Volvo’s tall wagon got a new front fascia, instrument cluster and rear taillights.
Last year’s 2015 XC70 saw the introduction of the new Drive-E models, which got a 240 hp 2.0-liter I4 with Start/Stop mated to an eight-speed. And finally, this year’s 2016 XC70 ditches the 3.2-liter and T6 3.0-liter models, and adds a new XC70 T5 AWD with a 250 hp 2.5-liter five banger mated to a six-speed auto. This leaves only two main trims: T5 Drive-E and T5 AWD, along with three sub-trims.
Which One We’d Buy
The Volvo XC70 comes in two main trims: T5 Drive-E and T5 AWD, both of which come in base, Premier or Platinum guise.
The Drive-E trims get a 240-horsepower turbo inline-four mated to an eight-speed automatic and sending power to the front wheels. The T5 AWD models do with two fewer cogs in the transmission and a 2.5-liter turbo inline-five routing its power to all four wheels.
Naturally, the front-drive car with the smaller motor scores better fuel economy numbers at 23 city, 31 highway and 26 combined. The T5 AWD manages only 19 city, 26 highway and 22 combined.
All XC70s come with hydraulic power steering, a MacPherson Strut front suspension, a multilink rear suspension, 12.4-inch vented discs up front and 11.9-inchers out back. Standard features include: T-Tec leatherette seats, heated power front seats, electronic climate control, dual exhaust, skid plate, HD radio, rain sensing wipers, seven-inch infotainment screen, electric parking brake, memory for driver’s seat and heated mirrors, whiplash protection front seats, rear seat belt detection, 18-inch alloy wheels and plenty of airbags.
If we were looking for a wagon with a little extra ground clearance, we’d have to go with the T5 Drive-E Premier. Yes, ideally we’d prefer all-wheel drive for handling and winter hooning — and if we lived in a snowy climate, we’d grab the T5 AWD Premier — but the fuel economy of the Drive-E makes a lot of sense to us for a car like this.
If we’re spending 40 grand on an only moderately powerful, automatic, tall wagon, we’re probably looking for cabin comfort and practicality above all. And on that front, the Premier adds leather seats, a power moonroof, walnut interior trim, Navigation, auto dimming interior mirror and adaptive TFT display to the XC70's standard equipment list. All in, we’d be dropping $41,490 with destination fee.
MSRP: $37,100-$47,175 Top Speed: 130 MPH (estimated)
Acceleration: ~6.5 to 60 (estimated)
MPG: 19-23 city / 26-31 hwy / 22-26 combined [T5 AWD-T5 Drive-E]
Engines: 2.0-liter turbo I4, 2.5-liter turbo I5
Max Horsepower: 240-250 hp [2.0L-2.5L]
Torque: 258-266 lb-ft [2.0L-2.5L]
Curb Weight: 3,792-3,931 [T5 Drive E-T5 AWD] IIHS Safety Rating: NA
Transmissions: 8-speed automatic, 6-speed automatic
Drivetrain Layout: Front Engine, FWD/AWD
Photo credit: Volvo


In the absence of clear direction from the federal government on coronavirus, state and local officials were forced to chart their own course in handling the crisis. A new report by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting examines the early decisions that were made in two states: California and Florida. We'll talk with two reporters on the piece, KQED's Marisa Lagos and Caiti Switalski of WLRN in Miami.
Coronavirus: A Tale Of Two States
Mayor London Breed speaks at a press conference at City Hall about the first two confirmed novel coronaviruses (COVID-19) cases in San Francisco on Thursday, Mar. 5, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Marisa Lagos, Politics correspondent, KQED. Co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown show
Caitie Switalski , reporter, WLRN, South Florida's NPR station