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As many of you know I am leveling up my first two characters right now and have recently started my first city (currently a Township) called Mos Locos on the Eclipse server. I decided to place a city near Mos Eisley so that I can continue to meet and help new players coming into SWG.
I am grateful that we have such talented people in our community that have written guides on how to do just about everything you would want to know about in SWG. I thought it would be a good idea to share with you what I have learned from these guides and have included a great deal of that content for you here.
Important information I learned for my first steps:
Player Cities can be created on Corellia, Dantooine, Lok, Naboo, Rori, Talus, or Tatooine. The number of player cities that can be placed per planet is capped. The 3 main worlds of Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine are able to hold 20 cities and the moons and adventure worlds of Talus, Rori, Dantooine, and Lok can hold up to 50 cities. It is important to note that there is also a cap on the number of cities that can achieve a certain rank. While the core worlds of Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine can have a total of 20 cities, only 15 can be rank 3 or above and only 10 can be rank 4 or above. The moons/adventure planets of Talus, Rori, Dantooine, and Lok can have 30 cities at or above rank 3 and 20 at or above rank 4.
There is no way to know for certain the number of player cities on a world (it requires rank 3 to be visible on the map and not all use that option or are able to reach that rank). The only certain way to know is to attempt to place a City Hall on the planet; if it is capped you will receive a system message stating that the hall cannot be placed. City Halls must be placed a minimum of 1100m away from other Player Cities, and the usual build-zone rules apply in regards to NPC cities.
So I set off to search for a nice piece of land to start my city that was relatively flat. I traveled around a 2300m perimeter of Mos Eisley until I found a place that I liked. I took my City Hall deed that I acquired through a Structures Trader. I placed my building in the location by using the deed through my inventory just like placing a house. I did find out that if there are any NPC's on the area that I wanted to place the City Hall that I had to clear them first. Yeah! More XP!
Now that you have a building in place make sure to give it a name that you want and adjust the messages for the city to your liking. Radial on the terminal inside your new City Hall to setup the building to your specifications.
Make sure to set your zoning to your desired preference as well. If you do not want just anyone to become a citizen in your city you will want to make sure to adjust this setting.
When the City Hall is placed, the Mayor has 24 hours to get 5 citizens into the initial 150m city radius. A player becomes a citizen of a Player City by placing a house within the city limits and declaring residence on the house terminal. If a player has had a residence elsewhere and is changing residence, it takes 24 hours to process the residence change request (players leaving one Player City for another should use the "Revoke Citizenship" option on the previous city's City Management Terminal); if the player had no previous residence it registers automatically. City Hall counts as the Mayor's residence so that person automatically becomes a citizen by placing the Hall. Players are allowed to be a resident of only one city at a time. The mayor is notified by e-mail when a new resident is added to the city, and players also receive e-mails when one of their structures is added to a Player City.
If the city does not have 5 citizens within 24 hours, the City Hall is destroyed along with any items inside and the treasury. The mayor will receive an e-mail stating that their zoning permits were rejected. If the city has at least 5 citizens within the 24 hour period, the Mayor is notified that their city was approved and valid. I did not have my four other citizens ready on the first time I did this and was standing by my town hall on my first attempt and watched it vanish so make sure to have some people ready to claim residence in your area within that 24 hour period.
Each rank of city has its own classification:
- 1. Outpost - Requires 5 citizens and grants a city radius of 150m. At Rank 1 the city is allowed to have Small Gardens placed.
- 2. Village - Requires 10 citizens and grants a city radius of 200m. At Rank 2 the city is allowed to have a Bank, a Garage and Medium Gardens placed as well as player-placed Cantinas; you can also begin to set taxes at this level.
- 3. Township - Requires 15 citizens and grants a city radius of 300m. At Rank 3 a Cloning Facility and Large Gardens may be placed as well as player-placed Hospital. Player City specializations can be set at this level.
- 4. City - Requires 30 citizens and grants a city radius of 400m. At Rank 4 a Shuttleport may be placed as well as player-placed Theaters.
- 5. Metropolis - Requires 40 citizens and grants a city radius of 450m.
When I reached level 2 (Village) I added my Banks, Mission Terminals, Junk Dealer, and started to decorate the town with various items I had picked up along the way.
I have a personal preference toward adding Way Points for various places of interest in my City such as my homes, our malls, Guild Hall, friend's houses, etc. You can see that in the following screen shot.
Player Cities update once a week; the exact time for the city update can be determined from the City Maintenance Terminal located in City Hall as the update time is unique to each city. Prior to taxation and city maintenance, the city rank and citizenship is validated. If the city has enough citizens to advance to the next level and the planetary caps for the next level have not been reached, the city is promoted one rank. If the city does not have enough citizens to maintain their current rank, they are demoted. The Mayor is notified of any changes in city rank. A city can only go up one rank at a time: an outpost with 15 citizens would become a Village at their update cycle, not a Township.
So feel free to visit Mos Locos any time and say hello and have a look around. You can find us by traveling to 3200 -6800 which is roughly 2000m from Mos Eisley.
I hope that you have as much fun creating your own City as I have and we look forward to seeing screen shots of your work soon.
You can find out more information regarding Player Cities in the following forum:
Your fellow Galactic Traveler,
You will find more reasons to go home again with the release of Game Update 9. With the addition of brand new windowed houses, you'll see the Galaxy like never before!
Small Windowed Tatooine House
Just one of the brand new houses released in Game Update 9 is the Small Windowed Tatooine House.
This house is similar to the other small Tatooine houses with the exception of one important difference: It has windows!
A Peek In and Outside!
Here's a sneak peek at one of the brand new large houses that will be available in Game Update 9.
As you can see, there are a lot of windows! Not only can you see out of your window, but people can also see what's going on inside of your house. This will give everyone a chance to show off their awesome loot!
Small Windowed Naboo House
Residents of Naboo will also find their own windowed home, with the addition of the Small Windowed Naboo House.
This home features four windows on both sides of the round house, for a total of eight viewing areas.
As with all of the new windowed houses, you can peek inside a person's home through their windows. Just don't get caught or you might be fed to the rancors!
Small House Style Three
Yet another new home available in Game Update 9 is the Small House Style Three. This lovely home will look beautiful almost anywhere you can place it and is not limited to just Naboo or Tatooine.
As you can see from the picture above, this house features two windows that make up a beautiful skylight!
Here's a view looking down into a person's home, through the skylight. These windows provide beautiful sunshine during the day and a view of the stars at night.
More in Game Update 9
These are just a few of the eight brand new houses ready to be made into your home in Game Update 9. Be sure to claim your plot of land so you can build your house of dreams in Game Update 9!
Along with the updates to Player Cities as discussed in the last Friday Feature , players will now have all new ways to decorate their cities to make them look even more beautiful, or bizarre, than before!
Exquisite Stone Gardens
A brand new decoration for players to use in their cities is two styles of an exquisite stone garden.
This garden is exclusive to Game Update 8 and is ready for use by all mayors.
If you are a Mayor looking to decorate your city with style, be sure to place one of these beautiful gardens in your city.
More City Decorations
Gardeners and Player City decorators will be happy to know that there will be several increases in your decorating abilities.
Game Update 8 will feature a 50% base increase of Civic Structures, which includes gardens. There will also be a 50% increase to City Decorations, which is different from gardens but is still receiving the equivalent increase.
Finally, there will be another increase for both Civic Structures and Decorations with Specializations, should you choose it. This increase will be 33%.
Also coming out in Game Update 8 are two brand new statues that can be selected by any Mayor, regardless of faction.
First let's take a look at the Rebel themed statue.
Not to be out done by the Rebels, the Empire also has it's own themed statue.
Remember, these statues do not require you to be a member of either faction to obtain them. If you're a Rebel and want the Imperial statue, go ahead and get it; just don't come to us when your Rebel friends abandon you.
Game Update 8
All of these brand new enhancements to player cities and more will be available in Game Update 8! Keep your eye on the official webpage and forums for more information as it becomes available.
Mayors and citizens across the galaxy will be excited about the improvements made to player cities coming out in Update 8. With all new functionality and ease of use, there has never been a better time to be a Mayor or part of a player run city!
City Structure Report
A brand new user interface (UI) has been designed for City Structures. Before Game Update 8, cities that spanned across multiple game zones did not receive proper Structure Reports. Now, all City Structures will be shown in this brand new UI!
These Structure Reports also show their current location in the UI. If you select the Structure in the UI, a waypoint will then be created leading to that Structure.
The Citizenship Report has also been given a facelift in Game Update 8.
The Citizenship Report now shows the following information: Citizen Name, Citizen's Structure Style, Structure Location, Last Login/Current Location , Character Level, and Character Profession.
If you select a citizen in the new user interface, a waypoint will be created directing you to that citizen's structure.
Mayor Message of the Day
A brand new feature for Mayors in Game Update 8 is the ability to enter a Message of the Day for their citizens.
This message is a free-form message and can be entered into the City Record by accessing the City Management Terminal. Mayors will have the ability to customize their text color so their Mayoral Messages really stand out! Each time a citizen of the city logs in, they will receive the MOTD in their chat window.
Visitor Message of the Day
Along with the Mayor's new ability to display a message to all citizens of the city, Mayors now have the ability to set a message for visitors as well. This uses the same mechanic as the message for citizens, but is seen exclusively by visitors.
When a visitor enters the city's area of influence, the visitor will receive a message in their chat window. The Mayor can update this message via the City Management Terminal.
City Recycling Center
Every citizen has lots of junk they want to get rid of, that's why Mayors can now place a Recycling Center (Junk Dealer Terminal) in their city.
The terminal behaves much like a Junk Dealer and follows the same rules as other city terminals such as the Missions Terminal.
Other City Upgrades
These are just a few of the many player city upgrades being released with Game Update 8!
For the Mayors that hate to decorate, Game Update 8 will now allow you to add administration rights to your City Halls. This gives Mayors the opportunity to hire someone to do the decorating for them so they can focus on other city needs.
Player Commercial Structures have also received an upgrade. Cantinas, Hospitals, Merchant Tents, and Theaters will now be able to make use of the Storage Increase Deeds.
Be sure to keep your eye on the official Star Wars Galaxies website and forums for the latest updates on Player Cities and everything else found in Game Update 8!
Player City Gardens
Corellian Player City Gardens
Fountain & Benches
Tree & Columns
Fountain & Benches
Naboo Player City Gardens
Gazebo & Fountains
Trees & Spire
Trees & Sphere
Fountain & Benches
Small Curved Wall
Tatooine Player City Gardens
Stones & Walls
Dry Flora With Arch
Palm & Stones
Statue & Flowers
Exotic Player City Gardens
DANTOOINE l DATHOMIR l ENDOR
Dantooine Meditation Area
Dantooine Spirit Stone
Dathomir Gnarled Tree
Endor Meditation Area
Endor Small Arrangemt.
Creating a successful Player City takes planning and dedication. Don't be fooled because everyone can gain Master Politician simply by declaring residence in a house! A Player City is not a solo venture: it is a community of players and characters creating their own space in the Galaxy. While the Politician is the figurehead of a Player City, it takes many people to make the city flourish and grow. Having a guide to help you along the path can be extremely beneficial...and the more you know, the easier it is to find what works for you and your city.
So how do you get started out in this socially-rewarding aspect of Star Wars Galaxies?
The Politician is the heart of the Player City.In order to get Politician skills you simply need to place a house and declare residence in the structure; this will grant you all the skills of a Master Politician. Without being the Mayor of a city, though, these skills mean nothing and cannot be used. There are two waysyou can become a Mayor: run for office in an existing Player City or creating your own city.
The first option, running for Mayor in an existing player city, requires the Politician to be a current citizen in a player city. Any citizen can register to run for Mayor at the VotingTerminal located in City Hall. During the three-week voting cycle, citizens can go to the Voting Terminal to cast their vote for Mayor and check the current standings. The voting cycle is explained in greater detail below.
Creating a new Player City is often the most popular option, although it can often be difficult to find a workable location. Player Cities can be created on Corellia, Dantooine, Lok, Naboo, Rori, Talus, or Tatooine. The number of player cities that can be placed per planet is capped. The 3 main worlds of Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine are able to hold 20 and the moons and adventure worlds of Talus, Rori, Dantooine, and Lok can hold up to 50 cities. It is important to note that there is also a cap on the number of cities that can achieve a certain rank. While the core worlds of Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine can have a total of 20 cities, only 15 can be rank 3 or above and only 10 can be rank 4 or above. The moons/adventure planets of Talus, Rori, Dantooine, and Lok can have 30 cities at or above rank 3 and 20 at or above rank 4.
There is no way to know for certain the number of player cities on a world (it requires rank 3 to be visible on the map and not all use that option or are able to reach that rank). The only certain way to know is to attempt to place a city hall on the planet; if it is capped you will receive a system message stating that the hall cannot be placed. City Halls must be placed a minimum of 1000m away from other Player Cities as well, and the usual build-zone rules apply in regards to NPC cities.
Creating a City:
A city is created when a City Hall is successfully placed on a planet. A City Hall deed can only be placed by a Politician and only on the planets specified by the City Hall deed. When the deed is used, the Politician will have a series of pop-up instruction boxes and system messages appear with important information and instructions; the Politician also receives an e-mail detailing these instructions for reference. **Once a City Hall is placed it cannot be redeeded!**
When chosing a location to place your city hall, it is important to keep the surrounding terrain in mind. You want to have plenty of room to build houses and civic structures, so finding an area where the terrain has a lot of flat area is important. Cities built up against a mountian or near a river will look very pretty, but you could run into problems in the future if you don't have enough room to build. It's a good idea to have at least a passing familiarity with the area around your new city, even if that area won't be within the city limits in the beginning.
When the City Hall is placed, the Mayor has 24 hours to get5 citizens into the initial 150m city radius. A player becomes a citizen of a player city by placing a house within the city limits and declaring residence on the house terminal. If a player has had a residence elsewhere and is changing residence,it takes 24 hours to process theresidence change request (players leaving one player city for another should use the "Revoke Citizenship" option on the previous city's City Management Terminal); if the player had no previous residence itregisters automatically. City Hall counts as the Mayor's residence so they automatically become a citizen by placing the Hall. Players are allowed to be a resident of only one city at a time. The mayor is notified by e-mail when a new resident is added to the city, and players also receive e-mails when one of their structures are added to a Player City.
If the city doesn't have 5 citizens within 24 hours, the City Hall is destroyed along with any items inside and the treasury. The mayor will receive an e-mail stating that their zoning permits were rejected. If the city has at least 5 citizens within the 24 hour period, the Mayor is notified that their city was approved and valid.
The city region is a circle centered on City Hall. When a player enters or exits a Player City's limits, a system message appears stating the city name, the city rank designation, and the city's specialization if applicable. As a city adds citizens, the city radius expands and new city abilities are unlocked. A city's limits will never overlap with another player city or an NPC city.
Each rank of city has it's own classification:
- Outpost - Requires 5 citizens and grants a city radius of 150m. At Rank 1 the city is allowed to have Small Gardens placed.
- Village - Requires 10 citizens and grants a city radius of 200m. At Rank 2 the city is allowed to have a Bank, a Garage and Medium Gardens placed as well as player-placed Cantinas; you can also begin to set taxes at this level.
- Township - Requires 15 citizens and grants a city radius of 300m. At Rank 3 a Cloning Facility and Large Gardens may be placed as well as player-placed Hospital.
- City - Requires 30 citizens and grants a city radius of 400m. At Rank 4 a Shuttleport may be placed as well as player-placed Theaters.
- Metropolis - Requires 40 citizens and grants a city radius of 450m.
Player cities update once a week; the exact time for the city update can be determined from the City Maintenance Terminal located in City Hall. Prior to taxation and city maintenance, the city rank and citizenship is validated. If the city has enough citizens to advance to the next level and the planetary caps for the next level have not been reached, the city is promoted one rank. If the city does not have enough citizens to maintain their current rank, they are demoted. The Mayor is notified of any changes in city rank. A city can only go up one rank at a time: an outpost with 15 citizens would become a village at their update cycle, not a township.
If a city falls below that required rank at the time of the city update, civic structures that require a higher rankwill be destroyed as well as any civic structures outside of thedemoted city's radius. Player-placed commercial structures (cantinas, hospitals, theaters) are not affected by city rank once they are placed. If you fall below 5 citizens at the time of your city update, your radius shrinks to Outpost size; you must have at least 5 citizens in 24 hours or the city hall will disappear along with the city treasury.
Once the city's rank has been validated, the city's weeklymaintenance fee is subtracted from the treasury. City Hall maintenance is paid first, then the rest of the structures. If the city can't pay for a structure, it becomes damaged and the mayor is notified of the structure status; the status of a civic structure can be checked from the City Maintenance Terminal. If a civic structure is damaged and reaches 0 condition, it is destroyed. **If City Hall is destroyed, all civic structures and decorations are destroyed and the city is disbanded. If a city can't pay for mission terminals or decorations they are destroyed and the Mayor is notified. Maintenance costs for each structure are listed below in the Structure Placement and Requirements section.
Mayoral elections take place every three weeks, starting from the time a city hall is placed. At the city voting terminal located inside city hall, citizens can vote for registered candidates; the radial menu option "Vote for Mayor" will provide a list of all registered candidates. A citizen may change their vote at any time during the three-week cycle or may choose to abstain. Any citizen may register to run during the first two weeks of the voting cycle only (an e-mail will be sent to all citizens informing them of a new candidate). Registered candidates may unregister as well to withdraw from the election. The existing Mayor must register in order to run in the election. At the end of the three week cycle, the candidate with the most votes wins the election and becomes Mayor. Uncast votes count as abstentions, and characters must be at least 10 days old in order to vote or run for Mayor. When a new Mayor is elected, the old Mayor loses all mayoral powers.
About Player City structures:
Player City buildings are purchased from Structure Traders. There are three styles to every city building: Corellia, Tatooine, and Naboo. Corellian-style buildings can be placed on Corellia and Talus. Tatooine-style buildings can be placed on Tatooine, Lok, and Dantooine. Naboo-style buildings can be placed on Naboo, Rori and Dantooine. Structure Traders gain Player City buildings as they advance through their skill progression:
- Construction I: Bank deeds, Gungan statues (which is a multi-crafting schematic comprising the Gungan Head Statue, Strange Statue, Weird Statue, Tatooine Sun Symbol, Regal Battle Statue, and Sentinal Statue), and Streetlamps (which is also a multi-crafting schematic of four different types of streetlamps in multiple colors)
- Construction II: Clone Facility deeds, Shuttleport deeds, Fountains (which is a multi-crafting schematic of the default fountain, the Round Brazier, the Square Brazier, the Circular Fountain, the Fountain of Contemplation, the Fountain of Heroism, and the Rectangular Fountain), and Small Garden deeds(another multi-crafting schematic with several types of small gardens that are planet-specific)
- Construction III: Cantina deeds, Hospital deeds, Theater deeds, and Medium Garden deeds (a multi-crafting schematic with several types of medium gardens that are planet-specific)
- Construction IV: City Hall deeds and Large Garden deeds (a multi-crafting schematic with several types of large gardens that are planet-specific)
- Master Architect: Dantooine Meditation Area (a multi-crafting schematic for the small, medium and large Dantooine gardens), the Dathomir Obelisk Garden (a multi-crafting schematic for the small, medium and large Dathomir gardens), and the Endor Huts Garden (a multi-crafting schematic for the small, medium and large Endor gardens) *These three exotic gardens may be placed on any planet and use the normal Small/Medium/Large Garden city rank requirements.
Civic Structures are city buildings that can be placed by the mayor only and take no lots. City Halls, Gardens, Garages, Banks, Cloning Facilities, Shuttleports, terminals and decorations are Civic Structures; the city rank determines how many/when a structure can be placed and all maintenance costs come from the city treasury. Only the current Mayor has admin to these structures. A Mayor can remove civic structures by using the "Destroy Structure" command from the Structure Management Terminal; all civic structures can be redeeded if they are in 100% condition except City Hall. A Mayor can remove decorations and terminals via the radial menu for the item; only Mayorscan seethe "Remove" option available on these items.
Commercial Structures--Cantinas, Hospitals, and Theaters--are player-placed structures that work the same as any player structure except that they require a player be of a certain skill in order to place the structure. A commercial structure may be transferred to another player at any time, provided the player qualifies to ownthe building.
Structure Placement and Requirements:
Player City structures require the city to be a certain rank in order to be placed (detailed above), but also requires theplayerto have certainclassskills as well. Each civic structure within a city adds to the weekly maintenance deducted from the city treasury at the time of the city update.
As has been stated, City Hall is the only Player City structure that cannot be redeeded. Once it is placed, the only option is removal which results in the destruction of the city. City Hall is the center of the city radius and is where city administration takes place.
There are three different terminals inside a City Hall: the Structure Terminal, the Voting Terminal, and the City Maintenance Terminal.
- Structure Terminal: The structure terminal is for the building itself; only the Mayor can be on admin for the city hall and use this terminal. There is no need to use this terminal unless you want to destroy the City Hall.
- Voting Terminal: The voting terminal is available to all citizens in order to cast their vote or register to run for mayorship of the city. You can check the current standings of the race at any time from this terminal. Citizens may also change their vote at any time during the three-week voting process at this terminal.
- City Maintenance Terminal: The city maintenance terminalhas two options from the radial menu: City Information and City Management. City Information is available to anyone using the terminal and includes the options Status Report, Citizenship Report, Structure Report, City Advancement, Maintenance Report, Treasury Report and Treasury Deposit. The City Management Terminal is only available to the current Mayor and includes the options Change City Name, Register/Unregister City, Enable/Disable Zoning, Manage Militia, Adjust Taxes, Treasury Withdrawal, and City Specialization.
- Adjust Taxes - Allows the Mayor to manage taxes (information includedbelow).
- Change City Name - Allows the Mayor to change the city name.
- Citizenship Report - Gives a list of all citizens of the city.
- City Advancement - Gives a system message regarding the next update cycle and opens the Status Report window.
- City Specialization - Allows the Mayor to select a city specialization.
- Enable/Disable Zoning - Turns the zoning option for a city on and off (included below in the Militia information).
- Maintenance Report - Gives a break-down of city structures and the cost per week.
- Manage Militia - Lists all current militia members and allows a Mayor to add a person to the militia (person must be in City Hall in order to be added to the militia). Citizens can also be removed from the militia using this option.
- Register/Unregister City - Allows a Mayor with Fiscal Policy I to register/unregister the city and its structures on the planetary map, provided the city is at least Rank 3. Registration costs the city an additional 5k credits per week in maintenance.
- Status Report - Lists basic information about the city. Shows the city name, current Mayor, the waypoint for the city, the city radius, number of citizens, number of structures in the city, the city specialization, tax information, and the travel cost.
- Structure Report - Lists all city-owned structures currently loaded in the game world. This list includes all civic structures and their condition, trainers and decorations.
- Treasury Deposit - Allows a player to donate money to the city treasury.
- Treasury Report - Shows the current balance of the city treasury as well as all current tax rates.
- Treasury Withdrawal - Allows the Mayor to remove a maximum of 50k out of the city treasury per day.
A City Hall is a civic structure and takes no lots,which provides the Mayor with 400 item limit for decoration or storage. City Hall maintenance per week is determined by the city rank. At Rank 1, the cost is 3500 creditsper week. At Rank 2, the cost is 6k credits per week. At Rank 3, the cost is 8500 creditsper week. At Rank 4, the cost is 11k credits per week. At Rank 5, the cost is 13500 creditsper week.
Just like the banking terminals located in NPC cities, a Player City bank offers a menu of services including withdrawals, deposits, and the saftey deposit box feature. Joining a Player City bank connects the player into the planetary bank, allowing access to the safetey deposit box from any banking terminal on the planet.
Banks are a civic structure and take no lots. They cost the city 150 credits per week in maintenance. A Bank may be redeeded by the Mayor using the "Destroy Structure" option on the Structure Terminal.
Cantina, requires Entertainer (4.6 on skill progression) or Master Chef (part of Domestics Trader):
Player City Cantinas provide a location for Entertainers to do their job.
Player City Cantinas are commercial structures that can be placed by any player meeting the class-skill requirements andtake 5 lots. They follow the same rules as any other player-placed structure once they are placed and may be transferred by the owner using the /transferstructure command to any other player who qualifies to own the structure. Cantinas have an item limit of 400.
You have the option to store clone data at Player City Cloning Centers and droids areavailable to cure Cloning Sickness.
Cloning Centers are civic structures and take no lots, but they provide the Mayor with 400 item limit for decoration or storage. They cost the city 2k credits per week in maintenance. A Cloning Center may be redeeded by the Mayor using the "Destroy Structure" option on the Structure Terminal.
A Player City Garage allows players to repair their vehicles just as NPC Garages do. When a player drives near the Garage, a system message appears stating, "You have entered into the proximity of a vehicle garage." A "Repair" menu option will appear on the player's vehicle and using this option will open the repair estimate window. If a Player City has added a Garage Tax, this percentage will be automatically added into the repair estimate.
Garages are civic structures and take no lots. They cost the city 2k credits per week in maintenance. A Garage may be redeeded by the Mayor using the "Destroy Structure" option on the Structure Terminal.
Each planet has unique garden options open to them, using the same planet-specific deeds as any other civic structure. Small Gardens can be placed at Rank 1, Medium Gardens at Rank 2, and Large Gardens at Rank 3. Exotic Gardens use the same size requirements as regular gardens.
Gardens are civic structures and take no lots. Small Gardens cost the city 1k per week in maintenance,Medium Gardens cost the city 2k per week in maintenance, and Large Gardens cost the city 3k per week in maintenance. Gardens may be redeeded by the Mayor using the "Destroy Structure" option on the Structure Terminal.
Med Center/Hospital, requires a Medic of at least Level 26:
Player City Hospitals are commercial structures that can be placed by any player meeting the class-skill requirements andtake3 lots. They follow the same rules as any other player-placed structure once they are placed and may be transferred by the owner using the /transferstructure command to any other player who qualifies to own the structure. A Hospital has a 300 item limit.
Player City Shuttleports allow players to travel in and out of the city to any other shuttleport or starport on the planet. Using the ticket terminal opens up a planetary map with available destinations; selecting a destination will give you the cost of the ticket to travel to that location. The ticket collector will let you know how long of a wait it is until the next shuttle arrives.
Shuttleports are civic structures and take no lots. They cost the city 7500 credits per week in maintenance. A Shuttleport may be redeeded by the Mayor using the "Destroy Structure" option on the Structure Terminal.
Theater, requires an Entertainer (4.6 on skill progression):
Player CityTheaters are commercial structures that can be placed by any player meeting the class-skill requirements andtake3 lots. They follow the same rules as any other player-placed structure once they are placed and may be transferred by the owner using the /transferstructure command to any other player who qualifies to own the structure. A Theater has an item limit of 300.
There are several Trader-crafted decorations that may be placed anywhere in a Player City by the Mayor. There are some limits on how close decorations can be placed to city structures, and they also place a "footprint" onto the placing grid like structures do. Decorations take 100 credits from the city treasury to place and are dropped from the Mayor's inventory into the desired location. A city may have up to its rankX 10 decorations, and every decoration adds 150 credits each to the city's weekly maintenance. Decorations may be picked up by the Mayor using the radial menu.
A Mayor can use the /installmissionterminal command to place a terminal within city limits; the Mayor stands in the location where the terminal is to be placed (as well as facing the direction the terminal should be facing), types the command and places the desired terminalusing the pop-up window. In cities with the "Improved Job Market" specialization, the payouts from mission terminalsareautomatically increased by20%. Like decorations, terminals take 100 credits from the city treasury to place and adds 150 credits each to the city's weekly maintenance. Terminals may be picked up by the Mayor using the radial menu.
Taxes are managed from the city management terminal and all tax information is public and can be seen there. There are five types of tax the Mayor can collect:
- Property Tax - Every player who owns a structure in the city pays a percentage of their maintenance as property tax. This amount is automatically added into the structure maintenance and is charged per hour in keeping with the scheduled maintenance payment of the structure. When a player examines a structure they can see the hourly maintenance rate and it will state on that dialog box what the city's taxes are.
- Income Tax - A flat fee tax charged to every citizen of the city. The money is automatically removed from the player's bank and is charged to citizens on a weekly basis (an e-mail "reciept" is sent to the taxed player when the tax has been removed from their account). This tax has a cap of 2000cr. (**This tax is currently bugged. The tax only withdraws from the citizen's account if that character is logged into during that week. If the player does not log in, no taxes are collected.**)
- Sales Tax - A sales tax is added to every item sold by a merchant in the city. The vendor owner sets a price for a given item, and the tax is calculated in when the item is listed on the vendor for viewing; this tax also applies to items offered to a vendor. Tax is collected at the time of purchase. (**This tax is currently bugged. The tax is calculated into Merchant listings but the money never goes to the city treasury.**)
- Travel Fee - An additional fee added onto the normal ticket price for traveling from the city. The maximum amount that can be added is 1k credits. (**This tax is currently bugged. The ticket fee is added to all tickets, but the money for the fee is only added to the city treasury on outbound tickets purchased in the Player City.)
- Garage Fee - A percentage tax added into the total repair fee at the city garage.
A specialization gives the city a bonus in some area for an increased cost in city maintenance. Different city specializations are available provided the city is of sufficient rank (minimum of Rank 3). A city can have only one specialization at a time and may only be changed once a week (to take effect with the next city update). Once a specialization is put into effect, it remains until the Mayor changes or removes it. There are eight city specializations currently available:
- Clone Lab: 8k credits per week. The cost of clone insurance in a city with the Clone Lab specialization is reduced by 20%. **This specialization currently provides no benefit since there is no longer insurance or decay on items.**
- Entertainment District: 8k credits per week. Entertainer healing (applies to inspirations only) are applied 10% quicker in a city with the Entertainment District specialization.
- Improved Job Market: 8k credits per week. Missions taken in a city with an Improved Job Market gain a 20% increase to their rewards.
- Manufacturing Center : 5k credits per week. Crafting done in a Manufacturing Center earns a 10% bonus to prototype assembly results, reducing the chance of failure.
- Medical Center : 8k credits per week. Medical healing and medical enhancements (buffs)are10% more effective in a Medical Center. **This specialization is currently bugged. The skill mods that this previously applied to no longer exist post-CU.**
- Research Center : 12500 credits per week. Any experimentation done in a Research Center is enhanced. A 15% bonus is applied to the final result roll is added during the experimentation phase of crafting.
- Sample Rich: 7k credits per week. Sampling in the city provides 20% more resources and a 10% greater chance of finding resources.
- Stronghold: 15k credits per week. Militia members ina Stronghold get a +50 bonus to all defense rolls against other players (PvP). **This specialization currently provides no benefit. The skill mods that this previously applied to no longer exist post-NGE.**
The Role of the Militia:
A Mayor may recruit any citizen into the city's Militia. The citizen needs to be present in City Hall in order for the Mayor to add them at the City Management Terminal. The Mayor is automatically a member of the militia when City Hall is placed. The militia has three commands at their disposal in order to regulate activity within the city limits:
- /grantzoningrights - This command grants the target player the right to place a player structure in the borders of the city or to have a structure transferred to them. The zoning rights are active for 24 hours unless they are revoked (done by repeating the /grantzoningrights command on the target). In a Player City with zoning enabled, this command is the only way that structures may be placed or transferredin the city limits.
- /cityban - This command bans the target player from using civic structures:the shuttleport (in or out), garage, bank,and cannotenter civic structures such as city hall or the cloning facility. They may still enter privately owned structures unless they are added to the ban list for that structure. The player remains banned unless they are granted /citypardon.
- /citypardon - This commandunbansa targeted /citybannedplayer.
All three of these commands must be done to a targeted player and can only be used in the city limits.


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Hillbilly Tea owner Karter Louis has announced that he is closing his restaurant at 106 W. Main St. The idiosyncratic restaurant has had a peripatetic history, having a fairly good run on First St. before the bridge construction began and altered traffic patterns. After closing that first restaurant, Louis tried to develop other locations, but personal problems scotched those plans. That most recent iteration of his creative Southern food restaurant opened last May, but a variety of problems resulted in Louis’s decision to close just as the year ended.
While the restaurant will not longer be serving meals, Karter hopes to continue developing the Hillbilly Tea brand, according to a story in Insider Louisville. Louis plans to provide his unusual teas to local restaurants, and to develop an online sales presence.
Louis, who had the audacity to open a Hillbilly Tea in Shanghai, China, has other ideas still percolating, such as tea-infused alcohol, and he has taken some gigs as a restaurant consultant, but he has no plans for another restaurant of his own.

domain: food


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Topic: Correct Order of Adjective Placement
As you fumble through the next draft of your novel, ever wondered about the order in which adjectives should be listed? I have, and I finally searched the internet. Here is the order in which adjectives should be listed when describing a character in your book.
Number (comes first); opinion; size; age; shape; color; origin; material; and purpose.
Here's an example of something I wrote.
Numerous times, he and his brother toyed with the flames and threatened to set Aunt Phoebe’s skirt afire. Robert and his brother loved the old biddy but enjoyed ruffling her feathers, a task easily invoked on an old nervous woman.
The last phrase, "an old nervous woman," is what prompted my search.
Hope this helps you with your writing. Post of a response or show us an example of how you solved your issues with adjective placement.

domain: literature


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- Recent studies on turnover in college and university presidencies reveal that most involuntary departures were tied to issues involving financial management or increasing pressures tied to financial shifts in institutional financial outlook.
- The more rigorous the institution, the greater the instance of firing or forced termination; about 18% in turnover rate a doctoral level universities versus 8% at masters-level schools in 500 transitions reviewed between 2008 and 2013.
- More than 44% of firings took place between 2008-09, which researchers attributed to the national economic recession. Campus dissatisfaction, was a distant second in most issues of presidential dismissal or separation.
Finance and race have emerged as the two biggest challenges to college administrators in the last three years, and with the increasing media coverage of the topics combined with volatile perspectives growing among students and alumni about both topics, president are under increasing pressure to be politicians, business people and peacemakers, with each of the elements carrying conflicting needs.
The goal for most college and university leaders will be to communicate with the board the kind of support they will need from them, to help in brokering relationships across each of these areas. Without corporate, community influence from faces outside of the campus, most leaders will be at the whim of the people and the markets, with no quick fix on how to alter either reality.

domain: news


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hd00:17Boy and girl students diligently study in a village school in Bengal, India. Tilt shot from the side, narrow depth of field
hd00:13A young boy batting hits the cricket ball for a six in a open field of Indian village. A slow motion shot of a young teenager playing cricket against the sun strikes the cricket ball hard
hd00:26Two cute and sweet sisters playfully pose for the camera. HD 1920 by 1080. Filmed in Navadvipa, Nadia, Bengal, India.
4k00:25A poor man smiles after a tungsten light bulb slowly turning on or brighten up in old rural house. A happy farmer smiling after a light bulb turn on and receiving electricity for the first time.
4k00:27Real time shot of splash of freshwater falling on poor man's hands against barren and dry farmland. Clean drinking water splashing on hands of the poor rural man in a drought affected area
hd00:11AMRAVATI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA 22 SEPTEMBER 2017 : unidentified rural school student learning from books in the classroom of their school, scene in a rural or small village school in India
hd00:27Portrait of a village boy in India. He stands by a worn wall and looks thoughtfully at the camera.
hd00:17A young Indian girl in a school, sitting on a bench and reading a book in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India (2017)
hd00:12Children reading in village school India panning shot. Rotating pan. Filmed at the Golden Avatar school in Navadvipa, Bengal, India.
hd00:27Simple, sweet Indian boys and girls smile, laugh and draw happily with each other in a rural school in Bengal
4k00:14Villagers set up solar panel on the roof top, to bring in electricity in their small town village
hd00:12VRINDAVAN, INDIA - JUNE 14, 2015: A doctor conducts a medical examination of older women outdoors in central India.
hd00:29Village children in India smile, laugh and fool around in front of the camera, close up, narrow depth of field
hd00:15Indian young women dancing near the Ganges river in the vicinity of Varanasi city, march 2015
hd00:51slow motion shot of splash of freshwater falling on poor man's hands against barren and dry farmland. Clean drinking water splashing on hands of the poor rural man in a drought affected area
hd00:12Decorated camel at Desert Festival in Cairo, Egypt near the pyramids of Giza- Close up low angle shot.
hd00:27VRINDAVAN, INDIA - JUNE 14, 2015: A doctor conducts a medical examination of older women outdoors.
4k00:25Light falls on a poor man's face after a tungsten light bulb slowly turns on or brighten up in old and traditional rural or village house. A farmer looking when he first time receives electricity
hd00:12Three village children: two sisters and their little brother, play and laugh innocently, in Navadvipa, Bengal, India. HD 1920 by 1080.
hd00:17PUSHKAR, INDIA - OCTOBER 27, 2014: Unidentified girl at the the annual Pushkar Camel Mela. This fair is the largest camel trading fair in the world.
hd00:12MANDU, INDIA - FEBRUARY 03, 2017 : An unidentified Indian child on the street . Poverty is a major issue in India
4k00:30A young kid wearing VR glasses enjoying and looking around in amazement in an outdoor open field against the sun. An excited young boy wearing Virtual Reality glasses in rural India
4k00:23Handheld extreme closeup of two beautiful sweet pretty female friends bonding pov of selfie stick with smart phone on the terrace of their house in rural India smiling and laughing as they pose
hd00:16Close up and candid shot of a very old traditional Indian woman. Real people of India. Rural conservative lady
4k00:08TAMIL NADU, INDIA - 23 NOVEMBER 2014: A group of women plant rice bundles in a paddy field in South India.
4k00:14Aerial shot following a bus driving through rural countryside in India. Two lane road with pedestrians, motorcycles, cars. Lush green forest/woods and light smog/haze in distance.
4k00:14A happy and smiling male farmer carrying two earthen pots filled with freshwater on his shoulder in countryside. A cheerful middle aged man carrying two clay pots with a smile in rural or village area
hd00:09AMRAVATI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA 22 SEPTEMBER 2017 : Unidentified teacher teaching to Indian rural school student in classroom, Typical scene in a rural or small village school in India
hd00:12AMRAVATI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA 22 SEPTEMBER 2017 : Unidentified teacher teaching to Indian rural school student in classroom, Typical scene in a rural or small village school in India
4k00:24Aerial shooting from flying drone of a beautiful Asian landscape with tea plantations, tropical trees in mountains and farm buildings. Wonderful view of a countryside with green coffee brushes
hd00:30NABADWIP DHAM, INDIA, AUGUST 19th, 2015 - Australian teacher at the Golden Avatar School has fun teaching kids English in Bengal, India
4k00:33Aerial shooting from flying drone of a beautiful green plantation in tropical Asian countryside in summer season. Fields with the cultivation of coffee or tea in Malaysia
4k00:24A farmer standing in the farmland making payment of farming accessories using Credit or Debit card. A working male or middle aged man using Credit/ATM card by mobile phone or cellphone or smartphone
hd00:10MRAUK-U, MYANMAR - JANUARY 28, 2016: Unidentified poor family sits on the street. Poverty is a major issue in Burma
hd00:06AMRAVATI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA 22 SEPTEMBER 2017 : Unidentified teacher teaching to Indian rural school student in classroom, Typical scene in a rural or small village school in India
hd00:12MANDU, INDIA - FEBRUARY 03, 2017 : Unidentified Indian boy on the street with goatling. Poverty is a major issue in India
hd00:15Full Hd video footage in slow motion of real farmer ploughing in the field at Veer town, Maharashtra, India.
hd00:08PUSHKAR, INDIA - DECEMBER 22 : Indian man posing in the street on December 22, 2014 in Pushkar, India
4k00:104k Footage of Real farmer family in Veer, Maharashtra using modern technology like Tab and lap top.
4k00:11POV video under tea leaves with bright sun light flickering through foliage. Fresh crops grow on green hills under warm sunshine in rural India. Vivid blue sky on background
hd00:12Simple, sweet Indian boys and girls laugh and draw happily with each other in a rural school in Bengal
hd00:23NAVADVIPA, BENGAL, INDIA - 12 OCTOBER 2014: Circle of kids studying moving tracking shot in the Golden Avatar School in Navadvipa, India 12 October 2014
hd00:05Tropical agriculture. Slash and burn agriculture (shifting cultivation, cutting farming): palm forest burning in Southeast Asia. Trunks of exotic forests tree (rain forest) burn with fire and smoke
hd00:16VRINDAVAN, INDIA - JUNE 14, 2015: A doctor conducts a medical examination of older women outdoors in central India.
hd00:13Two villagers are travelling on a mini scooter on a rural road against the rising sun, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India (2017)
hd00:10ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA - CIRCA MAY 2013 - Happy laughing children, India, close up, shallow DOF
4k00:09Aerial shot over agricultural fields in rural India.Tall lush wheat growing, scattered houses, with hills in the distance. Slightly hazy.
hd00:24Two girl students play a fun clapping game in a village school in Bengal, India mid tilt shot
hd00:13Kerala, India. Tea plantations in Munnar, Kerala in India with cloudy sky and Western Ghats mountain range at the background. Time-lapse of green forest during the day
hd00:35ADAPUR, INDIA-NOV 8: Indian women at a rural pregnancy clinic on 8th Nov 2011 in Adapur, Bihar State, India. Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. The per capita income is about 115 dollars.
hd00:21ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA - CIRCA MAY 2013 - Draw water from a well with a bucket, close up, shallow DOF
hd00:29Local man in a traditional shallow riverboat passing a home along the riverbank in the Kerala backwaters near Alleppey, India

domain: geography


text:
Call Us Toll Free
Queen Elizabeth National Park Uganda
Safari Highlights in Uganda
Queen Elizabeth National Park
The Queen Elizabeth National Park is located near the southern most point of the mist-covered Rwenzori Mountains. This beautiful game reserve boasts one of the world’s highest biodiversity ratings, and offers rainforests, swamps, crater lakes, and a lush savannah that is home to nearly 100 mammal species and almost 600 species of birds. High concentrations of buffalo, elephant, and antelope call this park home, as well as the Uganda Kob, the elusive giant forest hog, tree-climbing lion, habituated chimpanzee, and several other primates, including various forest monkeys. The views of the mountain escarpments are breathtaking, and the unique ecosystem of this are is unparalleled.


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Explore by Level
Life Before Life: Children's Memories of Previous Lives
Tucker, Jim B.
2008, April 1
This popular examination of research into children’s reports of past-life memories describes a collection of 2,500 cases at the University of Virginia that investigators have carefully studied since Dr. Ian Stevenson began the work more than forty years ago. The children usually begin talking about a past life at the age of two or three and may talk about a previous family or the way they died in a previous life. Their statements have often been found to be accurate for one particular deceased individual, and some children have recognized members of the previous family. A number have also had birthmarks or defects that matched wounds on the body of the deceased person.
Life Before Life presents the cases in a straightforward way and explores the possibility that consciousness may continue after the brain dies. It is a provocative and fascinating book that can challenge and ultimately change readers’ understandings about life and death.
To Aid Your Exploration
Alternative News Links
These are links to news resources/blogs that are an alternative to the mainstream media. The people behind these sites are dedicated to getting at the truth.
- Corey's Diggs
- Dauntless Dialogue
- Epoch Times
- Mercola (health news)
- Mises Institute
- Mish Talk (economics & politics)
- Naked Capitalism
- Natural News
- No More Fake News (Jon Rappoport)
- Of Two Minds (Charles Hugh Smith)
- Peak Prosperity (Chris Martenson)
- Rise TV (use to be Edge of Wonder TV)
- SGT Report -- The Corporate Propaganda Antidote
- Stillness in the Storm (news compilation)
- The Corbett Report
- The Defender (Children's Health Defense News & Views)
- The Highwire with Del Bigtree (website)
- The Highwire with Del Bigtree (Brighteon video channel)
- The Solari Report (Catherine Austin Fitts)
- Unlimited Hangout w/ Whitney Webb
- U.S. Right To Know
- Vineyard of the Saker

domain: library


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It is time for a new sketch at at Seems a Little Sketchy and we are sponsored by MyGrafico
Here is this fortnights sketch
and here is my card using the sketch which I rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.
I had actually originally planned to make a waterfall card but with it being school holidays and easter I just ran out of time. I coloured this image in with tria markers then found this fab paper in my paper stash which was perfect for these images from the MyGrafico Aeroboy set.
I hope that you can join us this fortnight at Seems a Little Sketchy.

domain: artistic


Qualcomm has finally burst the Nokia 8 bubble. The chipset maker has said that the smartphone, widely pitched as the Android-powered Nokia 8 model, is not a Nokia phone.
All this flurry and fuss go back to the day when Qualcomm released its Snapdragon 835 chipset at CES 2017 using a reference design handset, which was later touted as Nokia 8 by a couple of videos. It was further said that the new Nokia flagship is equipped with 6GB RAM and a front-facing dual camera setup, comprising a 24MP rear-facing camera with OIS and EIS, and a 12MP front-facing snapper.
While rubbishing the rumors, Qualcomm’s spokeswoman Catherine Baker in an official statement said that Qualcomm doesn’t disclose any detail of its reference models.
“We do not disclose details of our reference design. We’ve seen a few stories rumouring what we demonstrated in our CES booth to be a Nokia device, those reports are not accurate, our 835 demos were on our own reference design devices which we use to demo our Snapdragon SOC’s every year.”
With this clarification from Qualcomm, we assume that the dust has settled down. However, we cannot stop living in the anticipation of Nokia 8 flagship, which could be in the offing.
Let’s hope to see it, or hear something about it at MWC 2017 next month.


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Estimated Reading Time: 1
Jack Dorsey, the Chief executive of Twitter has joined the push aimed at disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery (SARS) and putting an end to police brutality in Nigeria.
In a tweet on late Wednesday, urged all concerned to make donations via Bitcoin in support of the cause which has seen many Nigerians take to the street in protest.
The Twitter CEOs call is one of several made by various international groups, organizations, and celebrities from around the world.
It comes on the heels of a protest that has evolved daily, with hashtags changing incessantly.
In the earlier days of the demonstrations, many young Nigerians took to the streets to protest the brutality and injustice they have encountered at the hands of SARS officials.
Thousands of Nigerians continue to march across major cities to demand an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, a police unit accused of extrajudicial killings and abuses. The government announced Sunday the unit will be disbanded, but many Nigerians are skeptical, as officials have promised an end to the unit and its alleged abuses before.
kindly donate to the work we do using our interim PAYPAL https://www.paypal.me/NewsWireNGR
- Femi Adesina says Nigerians who fail to pray are guilty of prolonging the war against insecurity
- COVID-19: UK to close all travel corridors
- NAFDAC warns against the circulation of fake coronavirus vaccines
- The Kwara women who built community school with their personal funds have been refunded
- NIMC lists 50 NIN enrolment centres in Lagos, Abuja
- CAC declares companies inactive for failing to file annual returns
- Buhari should change service chiefs and consider new strategies to tackle insecurity – Wike
- Nigeria’s inflation rises to 15.75%, highest since 2017
- Lagos State Government to close Apapa Dock for railway project
- Kaduna State government rescues 160 Almajiri children

domain: sociology


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Hurricane Ian left its mark on almost all of Southwest Florida.
And a big part of that damage went to our water quality.
Red tide started growing off the coast after the storm.
FGCU Water School Professor Mike Parsons said the main concern about red tide is the toxins in the air.
If you’re down at the beach and you kind of feel the sea spray in the air or on your skin, the red tide toxins can be mixed in with the air you’re breathing in, and that could cause respiratory irritation.
It could cause a cough, which for people with asthma, can be dangerous.
But then again, most Gulf Coast beaches aren’t considered safe after Ian, anyway.
Many beaches in Southwest Florida are dirty and damaged.
“The big question with the hurricane would be, how it influences the nutrients for our coastal waters and how that would affect red tide,” Parsons said.
Red tide is something that often shows up after a hurricane.
Ian was no exception but not necessarily to blame.
“I think one thing to stress is that red tide is a natural phenomenon,” Parsons said.
Red tide started showing up about six days ago. Now, there is a higher concentration of it.
“The two questions are, how much of it is the cell division factor, how much of it is the currents bringing more of it in from offshore and spreading it out? So basically, a combination of taking these water samples along the coastline. And then looking at some of the modeling that University of South Florida does, where you can see the ocean currents and combination you can kind of get a sense of is it the ocean currents spreading it around? Is it the cells dividing? And so it’s a combination of both usually,” Parsons said.
Parsons said he and other scientists are working hard to find out how to mitigate the spread of red tide.
The problem is by the time it’s detected, it’s usually too big.
For now, aquatic biologist Patrick Rose said they aren’t seeing a lot of problems from red tide immediately.
“Some of it off the Fort Myers area, Lee County are a little bit farther offshore, so it’s going to one it really is a problem for manatees even more serious when it moves in some of the bays in Charlotte Harbor. Of course, we had problems last year in Tampa Bay, as well. And so really, it’s going to be that nearshore habitat and the red tides, it begins to proliferate in those areas, we’re going to have fish kills, we’re going to have manatees affected,” said Rose, executive director of Save the Manatee Club.
In the winter months, manatees float to warmer waters, Rose said. But if they don’t head out before red tide comes in, it could be fatal.
“We’ve had a history of that with other hurricanes. But it’s not an absolute black-and-white situation,” Rose said. “But what we do know is the brava toxins produced from red tide can not only kill fish by the hundreds and thousands and millions, but they’re very, they’re very destructive that neurotoxin from red tide can paralyze manatees, cause them to drown, have spasms and so forth,” Rose said.
In 2018, about 300 manatees died from red tide complications.
November is Manatee Awareness Month. You can help protect them by looking out for a few things.
If a manatee is acting strange, like putting its head high above the water and arching its back, that indicates they’re being affected by red tide.
In that case, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.


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Composting, in broadest terms, is the biological reduction of organic waste to humus. Humus is defined as an earth-like substance that forms a beneficial growing environment for plant roots.
Composting, therefore, is a marvelous way to transform organic yard and garden wastes into a soil-building substance that can be added to the garden with great benefit. The leaves that fall from our deciduous trees are a potential gold mine for gardens.
In the past, it was not so easy to collect the leaves and shred them for efficient composting. Many compost piles included layer upon layer of whole leaves, which took much longer to decompose than shredded leaves.
Today’s blower/vacuums save time and energy as they blow leaves into piles and then collect the leaves with an easy sweep. Many blower/vacuums, such as the Toro Rake-O-Vac, have mulching fans that shred leaves, reducing six bushels of leaves to one bushel of shredded organic material ready for the compost pile. I bet these handy machines can be rented, as well.
A compost pile is just that – a pile of decaying organic material, such as shredded leaves, that is up to about 4 feet high. Many people choose to build 4-by-4 foot enclosures of fencing so that the compost pile stays where it belongs and is tidier. Choose a shady site with good drainage and see that the pile is kept moist. If the top of the compost pile is slightly convex, it will hold water rather than letting it run off.
Some gardeners prefer to build their compost piles in layers, making as many as six or seven layers per 4 feet of height. Thin layers of coarser materials, such as hay, twigs, wood chips or corn stalks could be at the base of each layer, with that followed by soil and manure. If you don’t have access to manure, you’ll need nitrogen in another form to aid the bacterial action of decomposition. Two cups of cottonseed meal or dried blood will work well. Then spread the shredded leaves on top.
Once the compost pile is layered and watered, it will heat up, eventually reaching a temperature of 140 to 160 degrees F. The heat will kill most disease organisms and weed seeds.
Many people don’t bother layering but just mix blood or cottonseed meal with the shredded leaves as they build the pile. This will work but will take longer. To make sure the compost has enough air for speedy decomposition, turn the pile every week or so. Or you can stick the pile with a pitchfork or digging fork to make air channels.
An even easier method than the usual fenced compost pen for those whose composting ambitions are not too large is to buy a commercial tumbler-type composter. While one batch of leaves is composting, you can store the rest in out-of-the-way places.
It’s easy to tell when compost is ready to use. It is dark and has a rich earthy smell. Use it to improve garden soils by digging in a 3-inch layer to a depth of 6-8 inches. You will soon reap rewards in the form of improved plant performance.

domain: agronomy


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Photo courtesy A Chump at Oxford (1940), Hal Roach Studios starring Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy
American art historian and museologist Homa Nasab began her doctoral research at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, in 2004. Prior to joining the OI, she had been awarded three graduate degrees from Harvard University (Extension), Courtauld Institute of Art and the Department of History of Art at the University of Oxford… Today, Nasab, an institutional critic, is advised that the only way through which she ought to deal with Oxford is a human rights lawyer.
Nasab is now writing a screenplay about her experiences in academia called The Don-Keys: an ode to the late Right Honourable Alan Clark’s The Donkeys (1961). A former minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, Clark was the son and the brother of eminent art historians Sir Kenneth Clark and T.J. Clark. Drawing on the expression “lions led by donkeys,” The Donkeys criticizes the actions of British Army commanders during World War I. Clark’s book inspired a musical and later the movie Oh! What A Lovely War (1969). Directed by Lord Richard Attenborough, the movie stars Baron Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Michael Redgrave, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Dirk Bogarde, Sir John Clements, Sir John Mills, Colonel Sir Jack Hawkins, Sir Ian Holmes, and Dame (declined) Vanessa Redgrave …among others.
Full story on MuseumViews ARTINFO Blog


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|By Business Wire||
|April 3, 2014 08:05 AM EDT||
holSystems, a leading provider of hands-on labs, demos, and classroom training, continues to excel in the cloud after announcing that it is using X-IO’s Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) solutions to underpin its IT platform.
As a provider of hundreds of cloud-based events and global training sessions every year, getting the best performance and reliability from its IT systems are key to holSystems’ success. After picking an X-IO ISE storage system, which is purpose built for server and desktop virtualization, cloud computing and other multi-tenant workloads, holSystems has resolved its I/O performance challenges.
holSystems’ delivers high-performance hands-on labs, instructor-led labs, demos, and seminars directly from the cloud. The company’s growth globally meant its infrastructure was becoming a victim of its own success. To support its evolving business needs, the company decided to move selected parts of its services to a cloud model from its originally on-premise hardware model, with the goal of delivering exceptional performance to its customers. However, it wasn’t long before this mixed environment experienced I/O bottlenecks and a decrease in performance.
In need of a storage update, holSystems turned to The Mirazon Group, provider of technology solutions and consulting services. Mirazon recommended and helped deploy an X-IO ISE 200 Series performance storage array. The system provides an ideal balance of price, performance, capacity and reliability. It also eliminates the previous storage painpoints holSystems faced.
Corey Hynes, CEO, holSystems said: “The ISE system was a piece of cake to bring online. We deployed the solution in half a dozen clicks, with immediate results; the platform is well designed, offers high-performance, is very affordable, and can handle all the high profile event-facing workloads we manage, such as Microsoft TechEd and Microsoft BUILD.
“We have just completed our third hosting capacity increase this year adding 2.5TB of RAM and LAN switching fabrics, and a series of new high performance firewall devices. The advance in our infrastructure supported by X-IO has increased our offering and ultimately our competitive edge.”
Blair Parkhill, VP of Marketing, X-IO said: “We love working with leading-edge providers that are pushing the envelope of cloud services. At TechEd North America 2013 holSystems provided over 19,000 lab environments, with an average of 4.5 virtual machines per environment, all over a 5-day period. It’s about reliability, predictability, and cost, and to know that Mirazon and holSystems look to X-IO technologies for highly visible, highly concurrent and highly productive infrastructures, well… that says it all.”
Introduced in 2004, the holSystems platform has been used by some of the world’s largest software companies to provide labs at events and provide access to hosted training and demo environments. It has been used at Microsoft TechEd, Microsoft BUILD and many more events that can involve hundreds of labs and thousands of virtual machines.
The holSystems platform, a fully automated multi-tenant cloud solution, allows employees, customers or partners to interact with a company’s software in a safe, predictable and scalable environment where virtual machines are cloned into a fully isolated sandbox environment and available for use in seconds.
Most of the staff at holSystems are Microsoft trainers and the company has a very strong training background.
X-IO Technologies is the only hardware company to have solved some of the fundamental challenges of Enterprise Storage. X-IO’s Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) architecture, invented as a division of Seagate Technology, addresses the demand of customers for long duty cycle storage, the demand of 100% capacity utilization without loss of performance, and uniquely does not require service intervention during its lifetime.
Based in Colorado, the organization has offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa and has a proven installation of over 7,000 units across in excess of 1,200 customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.x-io.com
Kubernetes is a new and revolutionary open-sourced system for managing containers across multiple hosts in a cluster. Ansible is a simple IT automation tool for just about any requirement for reproducible environments. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Patrick Galbraith, a principal engineer at HPE, discussed how to build a fully functional Kubernetes cluster on a number of virtual machines or bare-metal hosts. Also included will be a brief demonstration of running a Galera M...
Sep. 29, 2016 09:45 PM EDT Reads: 3,119
Developing software for the Internet of Things (IoT) comes with its own set of challenges. Security, privacy, and unified standards are a few key issues. In addition, each IoT product is comprised of (at least) three separate application components: the software embedded in the device, the back-end service, and the mobile application for the end user’s controls. Each component is developed by a different team, using different technologies and practices, and deployed to a different stack/target –...
Sep. 29, 2016 08:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,542
Why do your mobile transformations need to happen today? Mobile is the strategy that enterprise transformation centers on to drive customer engagement. In his general session at @ThingsExpo, Roger Woods, Director, Mobile Product & Strategy – Adobe Marketing Cloud, covered key IoT and mobile trends that are forcing mobile transformation, key components of a solid mobile strategy and explored how brands are effectively driving mobile change throughout the enterprise.
Sep. 29, 2016 08:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,203
Identity is in everything and customers are looking to their providers to ensure the security of their identities, transactions and data. With the increased reliance on cloud-based services, service providers must build security and trust into their offerings, adding value to customers and improving the user experience. Making identity, security and privacy easy for customers provides a unique advantage over the competition.
Sep. 29, 2016 06:15 PM EDT Reads: 3,675
All clouds are not equal. To succeed in a DevOps context, organizations should plan to develop/deploy apps across a choice of on-premise and public clouds simultaneously depending on the business needs. This is where the concept of the Lean Cloud comes in - resting on the idea that you often need to relocate your app modules over their life cycles for both innovation and operational efficiency in the cloud. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at19th Cloud Expo, Valentin (Val) Bercovici, CTO of So...
Sep. 29, 2016 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,535
SYS-CON Events announced today that Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Commvault is a leading provider of data protection and information management solutions, helping companies worldwide activate their data to drive more value and business insight and to transform moder...
Sep. 29, 2016 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,853
SYS-CON Events announced today that eCube Systems, a leading provider of middleware modernization, integration, and management solutions, will exhibit at @DevOpsSummit at 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. eCube Systems offers a family of middleware evolution products and services that maximize return on technology investment by leveraging existing technical equity to meet evolving business needs. ...
Sep. 29, 2016 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,580
Personalization has long been the holy grail of marketing. Simply stated, communicate the most relevant offer to the right person and you will increase sales. To achieve this, you must understand the individual. Consequently, digital marketers developed many ways to gather and leverage customer information to deliver targeted experiences. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Lou Casal, Founder and Principal Consultant at Practicala, discussed how the Internet of Things (IoT) has accelerated our abil...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,785
SYS-CON Events has announced today that Roger Strukhoff has been named conference chair of Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo 2016 Silicon Valley. The 19th Cloud Expo and 6th @ThingsExpo will take place on November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. "The Internet of Things brings trillions of dollars of opportunity to developers and enterprise IT, no matter how you measure it," stated Roger Strukhoff. "More importantly, it leverages the power of devices and the Interne...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:45 PM EDT Reads: 3,439
Whether they’re located in a public, private, or hybrid cloud environment, cloud technologies are constantly evolving. While the innovation is exciting, the end mission of delivering business value and rapidly producing incremental product features is paramount. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 19th Cloud Expo, Kiran Chitturi, CTO Architect at Sungard AS, will discuss DevOps culture, its evolution of frameworks and technologies, and how it is achieving maturity. He will also cover various st...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,956
Digital innovation is the next big wave of business transformation based on digital technologies of which IoT and Big Data are key components, For example: Business boundary innovation is a challenge to excavate third-party business value using IoT and BigData, like Nest Business structure innovation may propose re-building business structure from scratch, as Uber does in the taxicab industry The social model innovation is also a big challenge to the new social architecture with the design fr...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,341
So, you bought into the current machine learning craze and went on to collect millions/billions of records from this promising new data source. Now, what do you do with them? Too often, the abundance of data quickly turns into an abundance of problems. How do you extract that "magic essence" from your data without falling into the common pitfalls? In her session at @ThingsExpo, Natalia Ponomareva, Software Engineer at Google, provided tips on how to be successful in large scale machine learning...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,395
If you had a chance to enter on the ground level of the largest e-commerce market in the world – would you? China is the world’s most populated country with the second largest economy and the world’s fastest growing market. It is estimated that by 2018 the Chinese market will be reaching over $30 billion in gaming revenue alone. Admittedly for a foreign company, doing business in China can be challenging. Often changing laws, administrative regulations and the often inscrutable Chinese Interne...
Sep. 29, 2016 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 478
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Kausik Sridharabalan, founder and CTO of Pulzze Systems, Inc., will focus on key challenges in building an Internet of Things solution infrastructure. He will shed light on efficient ways of defining interactions within IoT solutions, leading to cost and time reduction. He will also introduce ways to handle data and how one can develop IoT solutions that are lean, flexible and configurable, thus making IoT infrastructure agile and scalable.
Sep. 29, 2016 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,627
Creating replica copies to tolerate a certain number of failures is easy, but very expensive at cloud-scale. Conventional RAID has lower overhead, but it is limited in the number of failures it can tolerate. And the management is like herding cats (overseeing capacity, rebuilds, migrations, and degraded performance). Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here In his general session at 18th Cloud Expo, Scott Cleland, Senior Director of Product Marketing for the HGST Cloud Infrastructure Business Unit, discusse...
Sep. 29, 2016 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,551


The IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (IEEE CSR) is an annual event sponsored by the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) Society.
DESCRIPTION & SCOPE ------------------- The technological and industrial revolution brought by complex Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) comes with new threats and cyber-attacks that exploit their inherent complexity and heterogeneity. Systems under attack, should exhibit cyber resilience, i.e. a mixture of strategies, methods, and techniques to support complex CPS adaptive capacity during cyber-attacks. The conference focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of the security, privacy, trust, and resilience of networks, systems, and services as well as novel ways for dealing with their vulnerabilities and mitigating sophisticated cyber-attacks.
TOPICS OF INTEREST ------------------ Prospective authors are encouraged to submit previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics, which include but are not limited to the following:
Cyber security › DLT/smart contract security
› Cyber-security and AI › Cyber-threat intelligence › Malicious cryptography › Moving target defense › Network intrusion detection › Post-quantum security › Privacy and data protection
Cyber resilience › AI for resilience management › Attack resilient architectures › Cyber-range platforms › Cyber-risk forecasting › Cyber-security training › Dynamic risk management › Gamification in security › SDN security
IMPORTANT DATES --------------- Paper submission deadline: February 15, 2021 Authors' notification: April 12, 2021 Camera-ready submission: May 10, 2021 Early registration deadline: May 31, 2021
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES --------------------- The IEEE CSR 2021 conference will accept high-quality regular research papers, Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) papers, and industrial papers. IEEE CSR 2021 will also host workshops specializing into the conference’s areas or focusing on high-quality applied research and innovation results that are obtained from cyber-security and resilience projects.
Submitted manuscripts should not exceed 6 pages (plus 2 extra pages, being subject to overlength page charges) and should be of sufficient detail to be evaluated by expert reviewers in the field. The conference (including workshops) proceedings will be published by IEEE and will be included in IEEE Xplore. At least one author of each accepted paper will have to register at the conference and present the paper in order to be included in IEEE Xplore.
The authors of selected accepted papers will be invited to submit an extended version to special issues of international journals. Detailed information about the paper submission and guidelines to authors are available at https://www.ieee-csr.org/instructions.


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BEL price creates more bullish sentiment as price struggles to break and hold above the daily 50 EMA BEL looks more stable as bulls breakout of a descending triangle The price of BEL could face major resistance at $1 Bella Protocol (BEL) had a rocky start to the year, failing to live up to its initial hype. However, this could be set aside as the price has recently turned bullish against tether (USDT). Bella Protocol (BEL) has seen more of a downtrend than an upside in the bear market, with the price struggling to regain the bullish structure and failing...
BitcoinPlace: Bitcoin and Crypto news all in one place
The growth in Bitcoin added to the layer-2 Lightning Network has electrified over the past year, hitting 4,000 Bitcoin less than four months ago.
The United States SEC charged the American celebrity and influencer for promoting a cryptocurrency asset security without disclosing payments received to her followers.
New CEO Jared Grey said he plans to work out the kinks associated with Sushiswap’s internal structure that may have prompted departures in the past.
The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for Oct. 3, 2022. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.
Bitcoin.com: Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH Marginally Higher as USD Weakens on Monday
Following a red start to October, crypto prices moved marginally higher during Monday’s session. After a brief stint below $19,000 on Sunday, bitcoin rose back above this point, as the U.S. dollar began to weaken against other G7 currencies. Ethereum was also in the green, momentarily moving above $1,300. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) was trading marginally
Grayscale Securities, a new broker-deal division, will handle selling shares of the company’s crypto trust products, taking over a function previously provided by fellow Digital Currency Group subsidiary Genesis Global Trading.
NewsBTC: “We are committed to becoming a crypto bank for 7 billion people.” – Vladimir Kardapoltsev, CEO of PointPay
Digital banks are coming on the market – banks that allow you to open accounts, take out loans or send money in just a few minutes. But how does it work? We’ve interviewed the CEO of PointPay to figure out how your first crypto bank will try to challenge the traditional financial system. Q: Tell us about the PointPay ecosystem. What projects does it include, and what services does it provide? Who are your main clients? A: PointPay is a comprehensive service provider in the cryptocurrency market. Launched in 2018, PointPay already has more than one million active users worldwide....
Increased crypto regulation could drive users to decentralized platforms, the bank said.
Binance claimed that its compliance infrastructure is among the best in the world which has helped them gain regulatory approval even in countries where they were deemed illegal until last year.
Kardashian also agreed not to promote any cryptocurrencies for three years.
Telefonica, one of the world’s largest telecom companies, has closed an investment in the Spanish cryptocurrency exchange Bit2me. The company, which has been very active in the metaverse space, is entering the crypto payments arena by running a pilot to allow its customers to make payments via its online store Tu.com with an upper limit
Bitcoin investment company NYDIG has promoted executives Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad to be its new CEO and president respectively.
Monoverse, a blockchain game developer, announced the simultaneous listing of FDT (Frutti Dino Token), the governance token of its blockchain game Frutti Dino, which will list on global crypto exchanges Huobi Global and Gate.io from October 5th. Huobi Global and Gate.io announced on September 30th that FDT would be listed, and trade would begin on

domain: economics


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Penny MyerscoughSenior Consultant Psychologist
Penny is a Senior Consultant Psychologist at the Centre for Corporate Health, and is one of the most sort after program facilitators for training on mental health, mental toughness, family and domestic violence and many other wellbeing topics. With a charismatic facilitation style and a unique ability to engage her audience, Penny has built a name for herself to motivate even the most disengaged groups. Penny is at her best in front of an audience and has a talent for getting participants in her programs to look inwards, take stock and leave with greater self-awareness on how they can improve their personal wellbeing as well as that of their teams.
“Bringing your whole person to work and feeling safe to do so… now that’s a place we all want to work.” Penny Myerscough
Penny’s work with senior executives and leadership teams is always focused on how they can engage their supportive leadership style to set the tone for open, honest and authentic communication within their organisations. In this psychologically safe environment, employees are able to flourish.
As Movember 2021 comes to a close, it is important to reflect and connect back to the bigger meaning behind the month and the movement, which is changing the face of men’s health.November 30, 2021
It is widely recognised that pandemics and global crises increase the prevalence and severity of violence for women and children.November 16, 2021
Family flexible workplaces strive to create a culture where employees are genuinely supported to thrive in both their work and home lives.October 14, 2021


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I train hard to be in the mid to back of the pack at Ultras, but at the same time, I’ve never been as dedicated towards it as some people can be. During peak training weeks, I normally put in 50+ miles of training, with spending long back to back weekends on the trails, it’s hard to see myself doing anymore; yet I see other runners doing the same, while dragging tires, or running in the afternoon heat instead of the morning, or putting in 60-70 Mile weeks, or regularly doing blistering speedwork, or do all manners of weight and cross training, or all of the above...and I just can’t picture myself ever being that dedicated, when it’s all that I can do just to keep up with my own rather modest training regiment. Of course, those who are doing more advanced levels of training are aiming much higher than my pedestrian goals of merely finishing these tough races, but when it comes to a race like Wasatch, being an Ultra Pedestrian is no longer enough, I need to dial the intensity way up, and for a lot longer periods if I’ll ever have a chance at these races...whether I have the will to do so, is another story.
I believe Willpower is a finite resource, for most of the year I’m in the 30s Mile/Week fitness and sanity maintenance mode, to bump that any higher would require more dedication, and more dedication usually means making more 5am wake-up calls throughout the week, and that’s just not something I can easily maintain for long stretches, unless there’s a huge race ominously around the corner that forces me out of bed. From four years of pursuing Ultras, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s only a short several months window where I have the will and drive to really dedicate myself to high level training, and hit those 50+ mileage weeks consistently before a big race. Afterwards, my training and dedication crashes for months, either due to injuries or burnout, and it’s always a struggle to start up again. 2015 has been a particularly challenging year due to the huge come down I experienced after completing Bryce 100 Mile the previous year, and especially after spending nearly half a year trying to overcome a groin injury that kept me to limited miles; the struggles (including the absolutely horrible weather in the beginning of the year) were just too much to overcome to take on an even more difficult challenge in Wasatch…I couldn’t find the motivation to push myself extra hard to train for that race before it was too late.
Looking back at 2015, I sorta wished I had never gotten into the lottery for Wasatch, I clearly could’ve used a down year after chasing ever longer and higher Ultras so intensely for 3 years prior, but at the same time, even with all the DNFs, I’m glad I got to experience the races that I did. If I hadn’t gotten into Wasatch, I most likely wouldn’t have entered the highly difficult NUT 100K as a way to challenge myself, and wouldn’t have had that out of body experience of having your mind, body, and soul being absorbed into the moss and fern covered towering old growth forests running alongside the North Umpqua River; also I wouldn’t have had the excuse to drive all over Oregon for a few days and visit the awe-inspiring Crater Lake as well. If I hadn't gotten into Wasatch, I wouldn't have experienced the majesty of the Wasatch Mountain range, climbing them was the highlight of my year by far, and it's kinda hard to say being able to spend 61 glorious miles on those Mountains was a disappointment. Finally, if I hadn't gotten into Wasatch, I wouldn't have tested my limits like never before, and subsequently know it's no longer enough...it has to be raised significantly if I'm ever going to return to Wasatch for another attempt.
I’m still undecided on what to really do for 2016, a huge part of me wants to take a step back from chasing Mountain Hundreds (not quite ready to jump back into that meat grinder...), and focus on having fun and exploring other more moderately difficult races in the 50 Mile to 100K distances that I’ve always had my eyes on. So far I’m already signed up for Big Bend 50 Mile in January and the Sean O’Brien 50 Mile February, training runs for another go at a Hundred Mile at the beautiful Zion 100 in April. I still desire a race in the Mountains though, and if not a 100 Miler, a 100K at Kat’cina Mosa or the Tushars 93K (both races are pretty much shorter versions of Wasatch) in August sounds great too, at least I know I’m capable of handling the climbing at those distances. Whatever I end up doing for 2016, I know I have to focus on continual improvement (speedwork, seeking more training partners and groups to hold myself accountable, or maybe even a coach...), because once you’ve experienced the races that I’ve participated in this year, you’ll never want to stop chasing them.

domain: sports


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Browsing posts from May, 2011
Mike Quade is not about to stop tinkering with his lineup.
Cubs have played 37 game. Quade has used 30 different lineups.
“We don’t have a set lineup. We have a set cleanup hitter and that’s it, ” Quade said.
“I’m not at the point of Lou yet,” Quade said with a chuckle. “Give me another week or two. I love this. I like the opportunity to explain why. Whether you agree or disagree, it’s all good.”
Hey, maybe it’s time to start using a set lineup?
After all…nothing else seems to work!
Batting .289 during month of May.
Has reached base safely in 10 straight games.
Drawn a walk in five straight games.
And reached base safely in 26 of his 31 starts.
His 22 walks lead the club.
Has three bunts for hits.
Name that Cub!
Cubs may have minor cure for Tyler Colvin’s major issues.
I said it Saturday. Mike Quade said it Sunday. Tyler Colvin needs playing time.
But now the Cubs are talking about shipping Colvin off to the minors?
Why, why, why?
Is there truely no place for Colvin in the everyday lineup?
Not a single opening on a team that can’t score runs? Not one, maybe two, days a week the kid could start? Seriously, we’re sending Colvin to the minors?
Listen, I know Colvin has struggled offensively this season. But give the guy a chance. He earned his playing time last year and made a good go of it.
So why on earth demote the guy? Oh, because Reed Johnson is having a hot-run. C’mon.
Tyler Colvin is…and should be…the future of this club. Not Sori, not Marlon not Fukudome…and definitely not Carlos Pena.
Moving Colvin to Iowa is on course for the Cubs most ill advised move all season (although topping multiply starts from James Russell will be hard to best).
The Cubs won’t play any better without him, and Colvin’s confidence is sure to crash in Iowa with a thud.
Don’t do it, Mike. Just let the kid play. Who knows, he might just drive in a run.
Billingsley joins list of pitchers to lose 1-hit game.
According to the AP, it’s the first time since a 1914 game against the Chicago Cubs that the Dodgers have lost a game despite only giving up one hit to the opposition.
I don’t understand how Mike Quade can’t find at-bats for Tyler Colvin.
What has Soriano, Byrd or Fukudome done to intrenched themselves as everyday starters?
What has Carlos Pena done to deserve an everyday spot at 1B?
That’s four spots on an everyday lineup that’s utterly futile with RISP…and Quade can’t find playing time for his 25-year-old stud riding the pine?
Granted, Colvin was miserable offensively through April. But I’ll argue he couldn’t be any worse in the clutch than the current lineup.
The kid won’t break his slump watching from the dugout, either. Tyler needs to play…more often, if not everyday.
Watching Colvin sit makes me equally frustrated as watching James Russell being thrust into the starting rotation.
These are no-brainer decisions that are costing the Cubs wins…and steadily questioning my confidence in Mike Quade.
Cards pound Cubs 9-1 to take series.
St. Louis finds a way…
16 hits, 6-for-16 with RISP.
No Berkman, no Theriot no problem.
Jamie Garcia improves to (5-0), ERA 1.89.
He’s one of the most over-looked pitchers in MLB.
Another dreadful day offensively for Chicago.
1-for-9 with RISP.
7 of 9 hits for singles.
No HR with wind blowing out.
Where’s the power…?
And why can’t this team score runs?
For what it’s worth, Marlon Byrd extended his hitting streak to 13-games.
Cubs continue to slip…
Five games back with June around the corner.
Cubs are 2-10 in the final game of a series.
Worse…2-6 in rubber games.
Defending champs are in town over the weekend.
Giants have won six straight…and didn’t need more than four runs per game to do it.
Bumgarner (0-5) goes Friday vs. Dempster (1-4).
Might be the Cubs best shot at a win.
Vogelsong (2-0) on Sat. & Lincecum (enough said) on Sunday.
Cubs counter with Doug Davis & Zambrano.
“It’s like, ‘Who do you love more? Your mom or your dad?” -Ryan Theriot
Jeff Samardzija wasn’t himself Wednesday night, or was he?
It’s tough to tell given his tale of two stories this season: one as a pitcher who’s been plain awful, and the other as a pitcher who’s been plain brilliant.
So what exactly is Samardizija?
Is he the hot-mess from early April with an ERA of 7.50…or the pitcher who went 14-consecutive scoreless innings before allowing three runs to the Cardinals?
Right about the time I blasted Samardzija, saying he’d be off the Cubs’ roster by June, the kid turns un-hittable lowering his ERA to 2.33 entering Wednesday’s game.
Obviously, I can’t figure the guy out, but I’m thrilled with his short-term success, nonetheless.
A solid bullpen is critical to the Cubs’ chances at the division, especially for a team that lacks offensive run production.
If the ‘good’ Samardzija keeps showing up, and we all hope he does, the Cubs’ bullpen remains a saving grace.
Otherwise, the Cubs will certainly suffer in the standing…and determining Samardzija’s trade value will be one of many issues Jim Hendry must sort through come late July.
There’s a reoccurring theme between the Cubs & Cardinals.
It has nothing to do with any rivalry, but everything to do with defining the success of St. Louis and the drudgery of Chicago.
The St. Louis Cardinals always find a way. They’ve done it successfully for years, this season being no exception.
Just consider that St.Louis lost Adam Wainwright before the season. Shortly after, they lost starting second baseman, Skip Schumaker, followed by starting third baseman, David Freese.
If that wasn’t enough, the Opening Day closer, Ryan Franklin, was bombed so hard even the well-mannered hometown crowd booed him off the field and into the dog house.
The rest of the bullpen stinks as much and, even Tony La Russa can’t escape the plight–he’s sidelined with Shingles.
You compound all this with a winless Chris Carpenter heading into Tuesday’s game and tell me how in the heck St. Louis is a first place team?
Given all the setbacks you wouldn’t expect much from these guys, right?
But as always, St.Louis is back atop the division. They hit with RISP, they get timely outs…they find a way.
The Cubs also find a way…to lose. Chicago has equal, if not greater talent, on its roster than St. Louis. But to no avail…no timely hits, no timely outs, no will to win against its fiercest rival.
I know, we’ve heard it all before, Cubs fans. The Cards are great. The Cubs stink. But the simple truth remains…the Cards find a way where Chicago doesn’t.
It pains me to say it as much as it pains me to watch it. The Cubs haven’t not just found a way…they’ve seemingly lost it, as well.
I walked past Wrigley this evening and thought: my gosh, what a beautiful night for baseball–67-degrees, light breeze, a deep red sunset over left field.
That thought, of course, is the first of its kind during this Chicago spring. A spring in which, mind you, a good day means temperatures above 40-degrees and scattered showers opposed to thunderstorms.
Granted, we didn’t suffer through the wrath of our neighbors to the south in Alabama and Mississippi, but in baseball terms, our Chicago spring has been nothing short of dreadful.
However, be it for just 24-hours, it truly felt like May weather today. The temperature reached 90-degrees by afternoon marking the earliest date the city has reached 90 in 31 years. I’d say we were due…like the Cubs with men on base…only Mother Nature actually delivers.