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Each week, the Washington Post’s Mark Maske provides in-depth Monday morning NFL analysis with “First and 10,” a dissection of the league’s most important developments from a weekend of action.
First and 10: Feb. 8
1. The never-ending saga of the catch rule | 2. Where do Cam Newton, Panthers go from here?
3. A big offseason in Denver | 4. NFL safety developments
5. Giants owner talks concussions | 6. A needed replay change?
7. Deion Sanders talks about everything | 8. Michael Irvin on Cam Newton
9. Will Raiders land in Vegas? | 10. Reminder: DeflateGate not over yet
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The football fates gave an NFL legend a send-off here Sunday befitting his all-time greatness.
Now it’s up to Peyton Manning to gratefully accept the gift and not push his luck by continuing to play.
The defense of the Denver Broncos carried Manning in Sunday’s Super Bowl 50. Manning and the Denver offense had a productive opening drive en route to a field goal, then did next to nothing thereafter. Manning threw for 141 yards and was a non-factor all night. The Broncos were on the verge of becoming the first team to win a Super Bowl without an offensive touchdown.
Instead, the defense forced a third turnover by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, and the Denver offense cashed in with a four-yard touchdown drive to seal the outcome in a 24-10 triumph. But make no mistake: The defense won this game almost single-handedly.
“It’s a great feeling,” Manning said Sunday night. “It’s a great sense of accomplishment for this team. We’ve been through a lot this year. The team’s been unselfish, tough, resilient. All that was on display tonight. I got a chance to talk to the team last night and I just kind of thanked them for letting me be a part of the journey. It’s really been a team effort and it was a team win tonight.”
Manning did not use the occasion to announce his retirement. That is not his way, to upstage the Super Bowl and his team’s glorious victory. If that’s all it was and Manning will step away from the sport in the coming weeks, fine.
He told New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick on the field following the AFC title game that this might be his last rodeo. That sounds like something a player says when he already knows he’s retiring but isn’t yet ready to confirm that for everyone. Manning’s father Archie told the league-owned NFL Network following the game Sunday that he thinks Peyton is “done in Denver” and “may be done everywhere.”
But if it’s something else, if Peyton Manning is having any hesitation about retiring and giving consideration to trying to play another season beyond his 40th birthday in March, that could be tempting fate.
He has been given his John Elway-esque exit. He has been handed his storybook ending. He has his second career Super Bowl win in four tries with four different coaches. No one should talk any longer about Manning’s playoff struggles. He is on a very short list of the best-ever quarterbacks. He has records. He has five league MVP awards. And now he has multiple Super Bowls to his name.
There is no more greatness to be summoned from his right arm. He was an ineffective quarterback Sunday. Yes, it came against a very good Carolina defense. But Manning had two weeks for his body to rest for this game. He should have been at his best. If this is the best that his body allows him to be at this point in his career, it’s not good enough. There aren’t too many two-week breaks between games in the NFL. Manning was the league’s 34th-rated passer this season, and it’s unlikely to get better if he keeps playing.
“It’s been a unique season,” Manning said. “You’re probably tired of hearing me say this but I really have just tried to take it one week at a time and not get too far ahead. I certainly knew this defense and this team would have a chance. From the get-go, they’ve been nothing but awesome. Being hurt and struggling early in the season wasn’t a lot of fun. I was grateful to get back healthy and try to play my part these past couple weeks.”
Manning said Sunday he’d spoken with Tony Dungy, his former Indianapolis Colts coach, about avoiding a too-hasty retirement decision.
“I communicated with him last night when he got in the Hall of Fame,” Manning said. “That was very special. But I talked to him last week. He called me and said, ‘I need to talk to you.’ He got some good advice from Dick Vermeil and I think maybe Bill Cowher as well about not making an emotional decision one way or the other. And so I thought that was good advice. It’s been an emotional week, an emotional night. And the night’s just beginning. I look forward to celebrating with my friends and family. I think I’ll take some time after that. I’m gonna kind of enjoy the night and take it one step at a time.”
The Broncos can move on with Brock Osweiler at quarterback, although he is eligible for unrestricted free agency and must be re-signed or franchise-tagged. The Denver defense will remain in good hands, assuming that the Broncos do not allow linebacker Von Miller to escape in free agency this offseason.
Manning should move on as well. He now is tied with his younger brother Eli, the New York Giants’ quarterback, with two Super Bowl triumphs each. He should not try for a third.
“We don’t do that,” Peyton Manning said when asked late Sunday about any sibling rivalry relating to Super Bowl wins. “It’s not what we do. Maybe you guys and your brothers do that. We don’t do that. I just had a chance to see Eli. It’s great being with him and having a moment with him in the locker room. I remember being in the locker room with him when he won his first Super Bowl. Those are special, special, special memories.
“I had a chance to see my parents and see [Manning’s wife] Ashley. I had a chance to hug my kids. Marshall [his son] is down here chewing gum underneath this podium. To celebrate with your family, with your teammates and your friends and all the people that have helped you along the road, I’m very grateful for that.”
… AND TEN
Panthers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery made what appeared to be a legal, but juggling, catch in the first quarter. But the officials on the field ruled it was an incompletion. An instant replay challenge by Carolina failed to produce a reversal. And the uncertainty continues.
It appears unlikely, at least at this point, that the NFL’s competition committee will make major changes this offseason to the catch rule. The league’s leaders somehow seem convinced that the current rule can be made to work with perhaps some further tweaks and better explanation.
That’s not right, of course. The rule needs to be overhauled, and everyone except those in charge of the NFL’s rule-making process seems to realize that.
But it’s okay. Be patient.
For years, league leaders insisted they were fine with the tuck rule, that officials needed a bright line to make calls in such circumstances and there was no better alternative. Then, suddenly, the league did away with the tuck rule, and everyone wondered why it took so long.
So it will go someday with the catch rule. The NFL will come to its senses and apply a common-sense approach to what should be a fairly basic play. Maybe not yet. But someday.
We can dream, can’t we?
2. Newton negativity
Newton’s disappointment was on full display during a postgame news conference Sunday night in which he gave few expansive answers.
“They just played better than us,” Newton said. “I don’t know what you want me to say. They made more plays than us and that’s what it come down to. We had our opportunities. There wasn’t nothing special that they did. We dropped balls. We turned the ball over, gave up sacks, errant passes. That’s it. They scored more points than us.”
Newton undoubtedly will be assailed by some for the manner in which he conducted himself following the game, answering most of the questions sent his way with extreme brevity. But losing a Super Bowl is jarring. So Newton will be given, mostly, a pass here, even if it came at the end of a week in which the quarterback failed to realize that you are going to be asked the same question more than once at a Super Bowl and you may as well just keep answering it.
But anyone who assumes that Newton and the Panthers automatically have more Super Bowls in front of them just because Newton is a terrific young quarterback with a good team around him ignores the basic facts of the NFL. That is far from a guarantee. Some seemingly great teams fail to sustain success. The 1985 Chicago Bears didn’t get back to another Super Bowl, and they were a team as dominant as it gets.
Newton was right to take the loss hard. There’s no telling what the future holds for these Panthers.
3. Von Miller and Brock Osweiler could complicate Denver offseason
Miller, the Super Bowl MVP, is eligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason. So, too, is Osweiler, the apparent successor to Manning at quarterback in Denver.
The Broncos have only one franchise-player tag to use this offseason.
Good luck, John Elway.
NFL officials and doctors spoke of the research into a potential blood test for concussions. They also mentioned the development of an under-surface for playing fields that could soften impacts in an attempt to lessen the severity of those head injuries caused by a player’s helmet being slammed to the turf.
NFL Players Association representatives talked about work being done to create a knee brace that would aid in the prevention of anterior cruciate ligament injuries.
All would be significant and welcome injury-mitigating advancements.
“When that statistic came out, it certainly caught my attention,” Mara said late last week. “But, again, I want to understand the reasons for that. Are we just diagnosing more? Is there more self-reporting? Or are we actually having more incidents? I don’t fully understand that. That’s something our committee will look at when we’re in Indianapolis [for the NFL scouting combine] in a couple of weeks.”
Mara, speaking to a small group of reporters following NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual state-of-the-league address Friday, said he also was jarred by the news that Boston University researchers had found that late Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease thought to result from repeated blows to the head. Stabler, who died last year from colon cancer at age 69, was elected Saturday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“It definitely concerns you when you see that,” Mara said. “That’s why we spend so much time now trying to improve the rules, trying to improve the equipment, trying to talk about these protocols, trying to talk about the increased safety measures. We have to keep working at it. What we did 20 years ago, 30 years ago pales in comparison to what we’re doing now. And hopefully what we’re going to be doing over the next 10 years will be an even greater improvement.
“It’s the number one concern for a lot of us and we have to keep working at it. … I wish we had more knowledge 20, 30 years ago. I wish we had the kind of knowledge that we have now. We still have a lot to learn obviously. And we still have a lot of work to do on it. But it, again, for me is the number one issue.”
This season’s incident in which St. Louis Rams quarterback Case Keenum was allowed to remain in a game in Baltimore after suffering a concussion cannot be repeated, Mara said.
“That bothered me quite a bit,” Mara said. “It bothered all of us. How could that possibly happen when it was so obvious? That’s something we’ll be discussing at length over the next few weeks. I’d like to think that was an aberration. We put these protocols in place just to deal with situations like that. I’m not sure how that happened the way it did. That’s something I want to get an answer to.”
The Keenum episode led to the league leaving open the possibility of teams or individuals being disciplined for any future violations of the sport’s concussion-related procedures.
“If it’s a deliberate action on the part of the clubs or reckless activity on the part of the clubs, yeah, I think we should be subject to discipline for that,” Mara said. “But I want to understand what the factors were in the Keenum case. A lot of people missed the boat there: the officials, the medical people, the unaffiliated neurosurgeon. A lot of people were wrong there. I don’t think you’re going to see many incidents like that moving forward. We’d better not.”
Mara objected to last week’s criticism by Chris Nowinski, the executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, of the NFL’s efforts to deal with head injuries. Nowinski reportedly likened the league to the tobacco industry, and Mara became visibly upset when asked about the comparison.
“I disagree with that,” Mara said. “Listen, I respect him. But my God, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about this. This is not for show, as far as I’m concerned. I myself spent a lot of hours in those meetings both in the competition committee and in the health and safety committee. We’ve committed a lot of money for research. For me, it’s not a game. It’s not for show. It’s to try to find the answers to these problems.
“We’ve been involved in this business in my family since 1925. You better believe it’s important to me to find out what’s going on to improve this going forward. This is our business. You’ve got a lot of young men playing this game that we want to try to protect. This is not for show. This is serious business.”
6. Replay change needed with automatic ejections?
Roger Goodell said Friday he’d proposed to the NFL’s competition committee that any player penalized for two personal fouls in the same game should be automatically ejected.
The proposal, which would need to be ratified by at least 24 of the 32 owners to be enacted, comes after this season’s highly scrutinized Odell Beckham vs. Josh Norman battle during the Giants-Panthers game in December, as well as the rugged playoff game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Mara and Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt each said Friday he thought the proposal would have support, although both mentioned the need to determine which 15-yard penalties would be deemed serious enough to warrant automatic ejection.
Here’s the other issue: If two personal fouls are made to equal automatic ejection, would the NFL need to amend its instant-replay rules to make calls on personal fouls reviewable?
Do you want to risk ejecting a player over an erroneous call?
The competition committee previously has rejected making such judgment calls by officials subject to replay scrutiny, and owners rejected a series of replay changes last year proposed by individual teams.
But if the league is going to up the stakes of the consequences of personal-foul rulings made during games, it might have to do more to ensure those calls are accurate.
Here is Sanders on:
Player health …
“I have back surgery scheduled this Wednesday. I have a sciatic nerve that’s brushing up the back of my right leg into my back right now that’s really hurting. I’ve probably got about a seven-minute window right now to sit in this position, then I have to change. I probably had three toe surgeries. I need another one but really don’t care about getting another one because what is it gonna do? I’m not racing anybody’s daddy. In every battle, there’s gonna be casualties. And this game is that. So I’m gonna be one of the casualties. But it’s what I signed up for. So how can I complain?… You had the aches and pains when you played the game. That’s part of it.
“That’s part of what you signed up for. You had aches and pains in high school. You had aches and pains in college. In the pros, you definitely have them because the season is so long and so challenging. I don’t know one player that goes into a game without one ache or pain. … It’s what we sign up for. We can’t complain. And we can’t attribute everything that we’re feeling to this game. My eyes are starting to fade. That has nothing to do with football. I’m 48 years old. I’m getting old. Such is life.”
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford …
“Matthew Stafford? Isn’t Matthew Stafford and Jay Cutler the same dude?”
The retirement plans of Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson …
“Tell me this: If Calvin comes back, you’re gonna ask him to take a pay cut, right? You didn’t ask the quarterback to take a pay cut. Don’t you think that upsets Calvin? Let’s just think about that for a moment. Let’s just ponder that thought. Just think about one of the attributes, one of those things that attributes why Calvin walked away from the game. He is responsible for the quarterback making what he makes. I don’t know what he makes. But I know he makes a lot more than Calvin. But you’re gonna ask Calvin, the only thing they’re coming in that stadium to see, to take a pay cut, after he’s been the most consistent thing and the only thing they’ve had in years? And you ask him to take a pay cut and you don’t ask your quarterback to?”
“I’m not a fan of any man. I love what the kid brings to the table. My momma told me a long time ago, a fan only goes when you’re hot. That’s why I’m not a fan.”
Bengals cornerback Adam Jones …
“He’s a good man. He’s a good, kind-hearted human being. I know him away from the game. I call him my son. He calls me Pops. I was at the wedding, one of his best men. What says a lot about Adam is when he got married, Marvin Lewis and many members of the coaching staff were there. They don’t do that for just anyone. That lets you know who this kid is away from the game. … He had a really, really good year.
“But I think he could have done better. In every way. When I come at him, I tell him the truth. I really watch film and look at his game. And I guarantee you he’s going to make those adjustments. He was in the weight room [Thursday] morning. He just got back from the Pro Bowl [Wednesday] and he was in the weight room [Thursday] morning.”
“We want the president to be presidential. … We want our quarterback to be quarterback-ish,” Irvin said. “I don’t know what that means. We want him to be a certain way. And when we see a guy like Cam, how they respond, we take it the wrong way. We see Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers celebrate. But they’re usually celebrating after throwing a touchdown to someone. So it’s almost like it’s a team celebration. They engage with the guy that caught the touchdown: ‘Aw, look at them being part of the team.’
“But Cam runs a lot of the touchdowns. So he gets to celebrate after he scores touchdowns, and we deem that to be selfish. I’m gonna tell you what makes this game work and if you’ve got it, you’ve got the most rare thing that this game offers. … Whenever you can have your emotional leader of your team be the quarterback, you’ve got a chance to win a lot of games, a lot of games.”
It seems highly unlikely that the owners would ratify a move by the Raiders to Las Vegas, given the league’s long-standing opposition to sports gambling. But the NFL has no rule forbidding a team from relocating to any particular city. And Mara, like the league, said the owners would have to consider the possibility if Raiders owner Mark Davis ends up wanting to make that move.
“My personal hope is that he stays in Oakland because I think it’s a great market,” Giants co-owner John Mara said. “If that ends up being his only choice, it’s something we’d have to discuss.”
10. Brady appeal and PSI
DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA’s executive director, said last week that the union is more concerned with the league’s upcoming appeal of the federal judge’s ruling overturning Tom Brady’s DeflateGate suspension than it is with the NFL’s refusal so far to release publicly the data gathered during its random checks this season of the air pressure in footballs at games league-wide.
“I think the issue for the union is to continue to defend the player and prepare for the Second Circuit hearing,” Smith said. “Issues of PSI and how they collected it and what kind of job that they’ve done is up to them. If we think the information is important, at some point we’ll demand it. But the process that we’re in right now is fighting and vindicating the collective bargaining agreement.”


"Looking back, it's difficult to believe how much fuss was being made about the strip by The Star. The editor who sanctioned all this was a guy called Lloyd Turner, who was a great supporter of the strip and wanted Beau Peep to be almost synonymous with the paper.
I remember walking down Fleet Street one day and, outside every newsagent, was a poster advertising The Star with Beau Peep's face staring out at me. To get that kind of backing from an editor is VERY rare in a cartoonist's life and it's something I'll never forget. More often than not, cartoons in newspapers are tolerated rather than promoted."
Some of the Star's features which used Beau:


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Anna Koshmal is an actress who has recently attracted a lot of attention thanks to her role in the series “Matchmakers”. She made a big impression with her performance and became a fan favorite. She recently filmed a scene in which she was completely naked.
This scene caused a lot of reaction among viewers and caused a debate about nudity in television shows.
While some viewers felt that showing nudity on television was inappropriate, others argued that it was necessary for the plot and added to the realism of the show.
Anna Koshmal herself defended her decision to appear naked on television, saying that it was necessary for the storyline and the development of her character. She also stated that she feels comfortable with her body and wants to proudly display it on the screen.
In general, the appearance of Anna Koshmal in the film “Matchmakers” was highly appreciated by both critics and fans, and her decision to appear nude only intensified the discussion around nudity in the TV show. Obviously, Anna Koshmal is not afraid to take risks when it comes to acting, which makes her one of the most interesting young actresses today.

domain: celebrity


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By Shaiann Frazier
The line leading into the Faculty Dining Hall of the Music Building stretched around the hallway as students waited with curious faces, hesitant smiles, and much excitement for the Singles Mixer Event to begin on Wednesday May 9. “I saw the flyers and I was thinking it would be great to meet new people and get to know the people around campus,” said Efren Vaquero, 20, a double major in computer science and graphic design. Vaquero added she was “looking for more friendships and connections. I’m not seeking relationships.”
The Single Mixers event was sponsored by the Lehman Wellness Center and the Student Government Association. Its purpose was not only to bring singles together but to also make new friends and break down the barrier of first encounters and impressions.
“It was just an idea that sparked in my head about people on campus who are single and need to find someone,” explained Sheridan Dunne, 28, a P.E.E.R Educator for the Lehman Wellness Center, which helps students foster healthy and balanced lifestyles. “Especially students who are always complaining about not having friends, which helps with that by putting all these people together that share at least one thing in common,” Dunne added.
“We were only expecting 60 people because we didn’t know if people were going to be interested in something like that because it’s never been done on campus before,” said Nikita Shetty, 23, a coordinator of wellness education and health promotion at the center. “And then we got 207 people who showed up, but we had to turn away people because we didn’t have any more seats available.”
Once each attendee reached the sign-in table, they were a given a number and goodie bag filled with condoms, candy, flyers related to health education awareness, and a raffle ticket. Participants were free to sit anywhere, with each table having four seats, two post-it notes which read “Stay,” and 20 questions meant for breaking the ice with someone you were meeting for the first time.
Scheduled to begin at three, the event started late due to the unexpectedly large turnout. But once everyone was seated, discussions opened about what to expect on a first date, bringing your own money during a date, and who should pay. The conversation became very heated and decisions were split over who would pay the bill.
After this, the mixing began. Those seated near a post-it that read “Stay” had to remain sitting, while those who weren’t had to find someone to mingle with. They then had two minutes to talk. When the time was up, the original seated person would go to a new table and mingle with someone else. The mingling stopped when a person made it across the entire room and managed to talk to almost everyone.
If an individual had found someone who peaked their interest, they had the option of exchanging numbers, with blank cards left on the table for that purpose. Dimitrios Lefas, 21, an English major, said, “I only got one number. And the process of getting the number wasn’t scary or hard.”
Kenya McDonald, 21, a business and marketing major, said she felt the energy in the room. “I could feel how eager a lot of guys were based off of them being extra enthusiastic.” McDonald added, “It’s just a vibe I picked up, to be honest.”
Some students claimed their presence was unintentional. Christina Johnson, 20, a social work major said it was an accident that she came to the event. “But now I’m hoping to meet new people and I guess mingle,” she said, “even if it’s not guys.”
Lehman physical therapy major James Morgan, 25, also said he was there by accident. “It’s more so that I was really hungry, so that’s what got me here,” he explained. However, he said he doesn’t have a problem with talking to people, and that “dating people in college is the best, it’s pretty dope.”
The three-hour event ended with dinner, music and a raffle in which some participants won water bottles and sweatshirts. By this time, the uncertain faces had been replaced with laughter and smiles.
Ferdinand Essizewa, 20, a nursing major, was one of those smiling. He said he enjoyed the discussion because he got to see different points of view which made socializing easier. “I got one number which was really easy because I’m a charismatic person which helped a lot.”

domain: sociology


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the 10th kingdom (1 program)
Official Dungeon Siege III wallpaper. ... Kingdom of Ehb after the 10th ... for the kingdom for 400 ...
- Total downloads
- Programs available in other platforms
Articles the 10th kingdom
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be released on November 4th, and now publisher Activision has... See more
Windows and Mac users can now download iTunes 12.01, which has been released alongside Mac OS X... See more
Ubisoft's racing game The Crew is coming out for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Xbox 360 on December... See more

domain: entertainment


245 Farmers Files Nomination From Nizamabad To Contest Against K Kavitha
Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 02:49 PM
In a shocking move, 245 agitating farmers filed their nominations to contest for the Nizamabad MP constituency in Telangana. According to the reports, these agitated farmers would be contesting in the elections to register their protest against the TRS government led by CM KCR for failing to bring turmeric under the Minimum Support Price and for not establishing a National Turmeric Board. Nizamabad is the constituency of ruling party president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao(KCR)’s daughter, Kalvakuntla Kavitha. Watch the video for more insight.


MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Jason Smith has heard all of the talk about the possibility that he might have to switch positions in college.
He's a consensus four-star prospect as an athlete, a player with exceptional speed and enough game-breaking ability on the outside that he's playing receiver for Alabama at the 26th annual Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game in Montgomery this week.
But the new Auburn head coach -- Smith has been committed to the Tigers since July -- has only mentioned quarterback to the McGill-Toolen star so far.
"We talked about how I was going to fit into the offense, at the quarterback spot," Smith said. "I knew what he would bring to the table, that high-tempo offense, and that's what I do best."
Smith plans to officially visit Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and possibly Arkansas, but he already has a relationship with Malzahn that goes back to Malzahn's time as an offensive coordinator at Auburn.
"That's a great guy," Smith said. "I've been keeping in touch with him at Arkansas State, and we're communicating now that he's the Auburn head coach."
A dual-threat quarterback who is listed at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, Smith played wide receiver as a sophomore, but he's been McGill-Toolen's starting quarterback the past two years. As a junior, Smith threw for 1,307 yards, rushed for 740 and scored 20 combined touchdowns.
He got even better as a senior. As a passer, Smith racked up 1,521 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions, and he added 849 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground.
Auburn's 2013 class also carries a commitment from Carver-Montgomery quarterback Jeremy Johnson, a pure passer, but Smith wouldn't put up a fight if he's asked to switch positions in college.
Smith and Johnson have teamed up in Montgomery this week to keep Auburn's 2013 class together, and when the game finally kicks off on Saturday, Smith will be lined up wide and catching passes from the 6-5, 220-pound Johnson.
And Smith wouldn't mind carrying the arrangement over to the collegiate level if the coaching staff eventually asks him to switch positions.
"I'm OK with it," Smith said. "I'm all about helping the team out. I'm playing receiver, and I'm comfortable, because I started there my sophomore year, and I'm comfortable with the routes, the depth and catching the ball."
The shift from Gene Chizik's staff to the one Gus Malzahn is putting together has given a few members of Auburn's 2013 class reason to think twice.
But Smith still expects to end up on the Plains.
"It's not really going to change much," Smith said. "I think Auburn's going to be my fit."


Toyota Research Institute Has Integrated Robots With VR To Teach it New Skills
At the Toyota research institute (TRI) they have been researching and developing assistive home robots with the vision to empower and perform useful human-level tasks in real homes with practical applications.
For a robot to perform a set of tasks requires a set of data and key points to navigate through a set of tasks. Often times the robot is preprogrammed, like ones used in assembly line, but this time the robot is integrated with VR as a way for the robot to learn specific tasks being set by the human.
Using manipulation and mobile capabilities the teacher through VR can see a model of the robot as well as the object. This allows human trainers to teach robots arbitrary tasks with a variety of objects, instead of specific tasks like they would perform in a more controlled setting. The teacher can then teach the robot how to grip certain objects and how to identify which objects are of certain importance when commanded to perform a set of duties.
Each set of tasks that is performed by the user translates into data that is then used to teach behaviours linked to things in the environment. It also has the capability to identify certain floor surfaces that it can and cannot go over to ensure safe movement, which is achieved by using advanced motion sensors and visual in-depth to create a 3D visual representation of its surrounding environments.
Currently the robot is used as a prototype research and not as product concepts for consumers. However, as robots continue to advance we could soon see their presence in various settings in the not too distant future.


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NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Brutal, satisfying combat; huge, detailed world; tons of loot; fun co-op multiplayer.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D
Poor UI and control; numerous performance and stability issues; gets repetitive.
Ever dreamed of a vacation on a tropical island paradise? Ever dreamed of a vacation consisting of bludgeoning, shattering, stabbing, slashing, shooting, burning, electrocuting, and exploding hordes of bathing-suit clad zombies? Well, then Dead Island is the place for you!
Dead Island, the latest from Polish developer Techland defies simple classification. It is instead defined by the many games it seems to lovingly, if not shamefully, pull inspiration from. The survival horror themes borrow heavily from Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead, and latter-day Resident Evil, the setting is reminiscent of Far Cry in climate, detail, and scope, whereas the game's structure and core mechanics are drawn from Borderlands with a dollop of Fallout 3 mixed in. Essentially it's an open-world first-person survival horror action RPG. Yeah, it's a mouthful.
The game begins with its own version of Spring Break gone wild. Unfortunately, the wildness exceeds the typical MTV-style hijinx (concerts, drunkenness, regrettable orgies, etc.) when a full-blown zombie outbreak is unleashed upon the unsuspecting bikini-clad denizens of Banoi (henceforth known as Dead Island). Your character, one of four possible zombie-slaying warriors, is immune to the zombie scourge. While the "heroes" each have a brief introductory bio, it’s essentially irrelevant—they're are defined by their combat abilities, not their (nonexistent) story and depth. This is hardly a fault, as Dead Island isn’t really a game about story; still, even after playing the game for upwards of 50 hours, I can barely remember the character names and instead think of them by such monikers as Shrill Sword Lady or Cocky Jerk Throwing Guy. There is one thing the characters have in common: they're all annoying, and you'll be sick of the three or four repeated reaction lines they spout non-stop within minutes.
While a first-person experience, Dead Island is kind of a bizarro FPS. Where in most games shooting is the focus and melee combat feels tacked on and clunky, Dead Island is the exact opposite. You'll spend the majority of the game using a plethora of melee weapons, from commonplace items like sticks, oars, and wrenches, to tricked-out electrified machetes and flaming baseball bats. You'll use these homemade weapons of mass destruction to dispatch your zombie foes in truly brutal and gory fashion.
Melee combat feels weighty and substantial. The weapons have a very tangible heft, and the speed, range, and swing style are different enough from weapon to weapon to make each type feel distinct. Edged weapons are quick and can sever limbs, but tend to have short range, weak durability, and minimal ability to stop and knock down enemies. Blunt weapons tend to swing slower and can't sever limbs, but generally have greater range, durability, and impact, plus they can break bones—not severing limbs, but making them equally useless.
All weapons can also be thrown, which is also a key form of inventory management to get rid of the otherwise worthless fodder weapons that you'll find littered all over the environment. Thrown weapons can thankfully be recovered (they don't flicker and fade away 90s brawler style), but occasionally if you wander too far away, the area will reset and the item will disappear. While throwing is a useful mechanic—and the primary combat strength of one of the playable characters—it leads to some head scratching situations—like how a thrown baseball bat will do more damage than a swung one, or how explodable fuel tanks and gas canisters can be detonated by throwing a stick, but not by powerful melee attacks.
Firearm failure aside, Dead Island's action is simple, brutal, and satisfying. Whether it’s smashing a zombie’s ribs with a crowbar or stomping through the skull of a downed infected, impact feels heavy and real. Zombie limbs are liberated with geysers of glorious gore, and shattered bones and mangled intestines are on full display as you flay the flesh from your undead foes.
The game's non-gore related mechanics aren't quite as successful. While looting and leveling serve as the primary carrot-on-a-stick mechanics to keep you drawn in, these aspects often feel synthetic, contrived, and video game-y in a game that otherwise aims for the usual survival-horror style of gritty realism. Much like other loot-based games, the loot uses color-coded rareness indicators and procedurally generated descriptors. This works well in fantastic settings where the items are imaginative implements of destruction with whimsical design and effects that match their gaudy names. It doesn't work quite so well in Dead Island when you're finding a Level 12 Dependable Homemade Diving Knife or a Level 34 Tiring Flimsy Wrench.
Also, while smashing zombie brains continues to be fun for many hours, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Dead Island is a long game. Too long. Playing through the game without getting sidetracked will probably take a good 25-30 hours, and you can easily put in double that if you want to explore every inch of Dead Island. Act I, the resort section, is the highlight of the game, as the area is beautiful, detailed, and strikes a wonderful balance between combat, survival, and exploration. The game's focus gets narrower and narrower as it progresses, and once you've come up with a go-to gameplay style (kick, slash, stomp, repeat, etc.) and found your favorite weapon(s) you'll find yourself just running from quest marker to quest marker, largely ignoring everything in between.
The game does offer a decent amount of replay value, not really by playing as the other characters (as they're not compellingly different enough to warrant a whole new playthrough), but mainly through its multiplayer. Dead Island supports a streamlined hop-in, hop-out cooperative gameplay, where an onscreen prompt will pop up when a potential multiplayer companion is nearby. Jump in and you can accompany 1-3 other players through their own zombie misadventures.
Multiplayer is a vicious and violent good time, but it highlights some of the weaknesses of the game as a whole. Difficulty is very uneven throughout, with some areas being very slow with multiple players, and other areas being almost impossible to survive solo. Playing multiplayer also inherently changes the gameplay, becoming less about survival and exploration and more about non-stop fighting, looting, and trading. Also, while hopping in to a multiplayer game is easy, hopping out? Not so much, as there's a good chance your quest progress won't be saved.
And, unfortunately, multiplayer progress not saving is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the technical problems of Dead Island. The game is beset with serious performance and stability issues, from terrible tearing and microstuttering to random crashes, and save deletion. Many users have reported unplayable framerates—and clipping, lighting, and collision issues are present in many areas—and particularly noticeable in multiplayer. Nauseating motion blur, stick figure shadow maps, extreme light bloom, and a muted color palette also diminish the otherwise nice looking Dead Island. To make it worse, most of the graphics options, even simple ones like FSAA, are only changeable through altering archived game files in notepad.
Perhaps the most damning sin, however, is Dead Island's extreme case of consolitis in its UI and control design. The game supports mouse and keyboard or controller, but it's clearly designed with controller in mind. The analog swing control method—the preferred style of melee combat—is not even usable on mouse and keyboard without file modification. Targeting uses a non-toggleable auto-aim-like reticle that snaps in on specific enemy body parts—not terribly noticeable in melee, but horribly consolized when throwing or shooting. Inventory management and the radial weapon-switching menu are infuriatingly slow and unwieldy with a mouse and keyboard. And, some of the game's quick time events, like shaking off zombies or smashing through doors are goofy with mouse and keyboard controls.
Ultimately, Dead Island is a lot like its own weapon degradation system—it hits hard at first, but eventually falls apart. There's a lot of fun to be had, particularly for those partial to stats, numbers, loot, and multiplayer co-op, but—perhaps to be expected from such an ambitious, genre-defying mashup—not everything quite comes together. Much like the shambling, limb-dragging zombies you'll face by the boatload, Dead Island is an always-gory, always-brutal, cobbled-together mess that could use just a bit more brains.
$50, www.deadisland.com , ESRB: M


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Accession Detail Results
|Determination||Nemacladus orientalis |
More information: Jepson Online Interchange
|Collector, number, date||Rimo Bacigalupi, Roxana S. Ferris, 6260, 1958-3-22|
|Verbatim date||3 22 1958|
|Locality||Wash draining into the Colorado in region in which Saguaros are found on the the California side, 2.5 miles S of Parker Dam|
|Coordinates||34.28723 -114.14300 BerkeleyMapper [or without layers, here]|
|Datum||WGS84; ER = 3036 meters|
|Coordinate source||GeoLocate (copied from JEPS81738)|
|Check for yellow flag|
Explanations of the fields are available by clicking on the left-hand headings.
Information about the collector is available by clicking on the collector name.
The location can be mapped by clicking on "BerkeleyMapper".
Other possibly pertinent records can be retrieved by clicking on "Related searches".
|Copyright © 2018 Regents of the University of California — Updated 11 January 2019|

domain: geography


text:
PLEASE NOTE :
All information is supplied by the Haunt, event or location. If there is no information below, it was not submitted to Haunted House.com.
603 Munger Ave
Dallas, TX Zip Code: 75202
Fatal End in The West End is non-stop screams, scares and special effects within the walls of an authentic haunted building in downtown Dallas, features cast & characters from Dallas' best haunted houses, past and present. The scariest fun you ever had.
Dates & Times of Operation:
Month of October & certain dates during year.
Tickets $20-$25. Free Indoor parking when purchased online.
Web Address (URL):
Buy Tickets Online:
REPORT A DEAD LINK


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Join me as i show you the 4th commemorative 50p coin in the Paddington Bear set this is the bear visiting St paul's cathedral#paddingtoncoins #royalmint #com. Britain’s favourite bear, Paddington is about to get two brand new Paddington Bear 50p coins with his image on it. So just like Mr. Brown chanced upon the marmalade lover unexpectedly, you can too. The new Paddington Bear 50p coins will have Paddington in front of the St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London. Paddington Bear is a massive part of British popular culture and is a favourite amongst fans of all ages, who we're sure will be looking out for him in their change.' New Paddington Bear 50p. A RARE Paddington Bear coin has sold on eBay for £300 - 600 times its original value. The 50p was released into circulation by the Royal Mint in August last year, so it's worth checking if you have.
How much is it worth?Collector Value:£1.25 is a mid-point price for Paddington at the Station 50p coins marked as sold on eBay UK. The price range for a good condition circulated example of this 50p coin is between £1.21 and £1.50.
Coin values based on 183 eBay sales selected from data collected 19/01/2021 19:54:13.

domain: hobby


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US Warship Given Passage through Turkish Black Sea Straits
A US warship was allowed on Wednesday to pass through the Turkey-controlled Black Sea straits.
The ship, which enters the Black Sea amid escalating tensions on the Crimean Peninsula, is expected to travel through the straits within the next few days, as Turkish newspaper Zaman has reported.
US officials have specified no reason why the ship is crossing the Straits.
No reports have so far shown a link between the maneuver and the standoff between Russia and Ukraine, which deepened after Moscow approved sending troops to Ukraine's autonomous region of Crimea, located to the north of the Black Sea.
Turkey has held exclusive rights to grant passage through the Straits since 1936, when the Montreux Convention stated that Ankara exerts control over warship traffic.
It also stipulated that warships from states without a Black Sea coast cannot stay in its waters more than 21 days.
- » Russia’s Envoy to NATO Warns of ‘Additional Precautions’ in Black Sea Area
- » Istanbul Airport Attackers Were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz, Turkish Official Says
- » Death Toll Rises to 44 in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport Terror Attack
- » Two Blasts Kill at least 27 Police Cadets in Kabul
- » Turkey Detains 13 Suspects over Istanbul Airport Attack
- » Bulgarian FM Advises Citizens Travelling to Turkey to Register Beforehand

domain: politics


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Readings for Lunch — [ 13 Feb 2018 ]
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Steven Spielberg is a keen fan and collector of Norman Rockwell, and has referenced some of the painter's work in his film. This essay explores those references and what they mean.
Level Up is a tool to help growing high-performing design teams identify gaps in development and build better environments for design.

domain: artistic


BARNEVELD, N.Y. (WKTV)--A 10-year-old from Holland Patent celebrated his birthday and his fight of survival on Friday night at the Barneveld Unity Hall.
Utica, N.Y. (WKTV) - Concern in our area is growing with the latest Ebola patient in New York City. For those who are traveling or planning to travel, it has become a top priority, and for local travel agencies, there are some new policies that are being put into place.
It's the time of year for hayrides, fun harvest events, and of course pumpkin anything! NewsChannel 2's Skyler Srivastava took time out to learn to make a hometown favorite in Utica: pusties.
YORKVILLE, N.Y. (WKTV) - A local furniture store has decided to give back in a big way to the Mohawk Valley area, ravaged by floods earlier this summer.


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Staples memberships could save you more | Learn More
Loveykins by Quentin Blake is an interesting story of a woman who rescues a baby bird blown from its nest. The book contains beautiful images and illustrations to keep readers engaged.
|Number of Pages in Book||32|
|Author Name||Quentin Blake|

domain: literature


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Dr. Amy Myers is a specialist in autoimmune diseases whose career was set in motion by her own experience dealing with autoimmune issues. Myers graduated cum laude from the Honors College at the University of South Carolina, attended medical school at Louisiana State University Health Science Center, and completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland. She founded the nationally renowned functional medicine center, Austin UltraHealth, and currently serves as its Medical Director.
Recovering from a betrayal, whether your partner cheated or your best friend shared your deepest secrets, is a process. I’m joined by Dr. Debi Silber to talk about her work helping women discover their Post Betrayal Transformations.
Years of agriculture modification has destroyed our wheat supply, stripping it of its beneficial nutrients and increasing harmful elements. I’m joined byDr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly, to talk about how we can heal our chronic diseases likely caused by an overconsumption of wheat.
Dr. Anna is a Triple Board Certified OB/GYN, Anti-Aging Medicine expert, and author of the best selling book, The Hormone Fix.
Dr. Anna helps women heal the 9 most dreadful symptoms of menopause with natural, safe solutions. Follow her for content on hormonal imbalances, vaginal dryness, menopause (and more) that are medically backed, and created to empower women — not just treat them.

domain: medical


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No. 18 USC's game against Washington State, originally scheduled for Friday, has been moved to Sunday to allow USC players to return from COVID-19 isolation.
Los Angeles teams
Rams coach Sean McVay didn't mince words following his team's 23-20 loss to the injury-plagued 49ers on Sunday. "Our quarterback has got to take better care of the football," McVay said tersely after the game.
- USC-Washington State game moved to Sunday
- McVay says Goff's turnover trend 'can't continue'
- Bias among eight named to college hoops HOF
- Rams' McGhee banned after violating NFL policy
The two-time Defensive Player of the Year temporarily got the Rams on track, but L.A. ended up losing to the Niners for the fourth straight time.
— Robbie Gould made a 42-yard field goal as time expired, and the San Francisco 49ers snapped their three-game losing streak with a 23-20 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, sweeping their season series for the second straight year.
Maryland basketball star Len Bias, who was chosen No. 2 by the Celtics in the 1986 NBA draft before dying days later of a drug overdose, was chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Eric Karabell ESPN Senior Writer
Fantasy managers sure missed Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, as he returned from serious injury with heavy workload Sunday.
— Tre’Davious White’s fourth-quarter interception set up Tyler Bass’ 43-yard field goal, helping the Buffalo Bills hold off the Los Angeles Chargers for a 27-17 win Sunday.
Ekeler looked good as new in his return after nearly two months off but the Chargers squandered numerous second-half opportunities.
Lindsey Thiry ESPN
Rams inactives vs. 49ers: OL Brian Allen, WR Trishton Jackson, DE Derek Rivers, RB Raymond Calais and OLB Terrell Lewis.
The top of the AP Top 25 college football poll remains the same, but there's plenty of movement in the back half. Here's what's next for each ranked team.
The Allstate Playoff Predictor breaks down which teams have the best chance to make this season's College Football Playoff.

domain: news


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Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) by 66.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 244,938 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 98,007 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $13,711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LUV. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 11.2% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 36,800 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,287,000 after acquiring an additional 3,700 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 4.0% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 23,748 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $1,476,000 after acquiring an additional 903 shares during the period. Beach Investment Management LLC. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 1,154.7% in the second quarter. Beach Investment Management LLC. now owns 286,941 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $17,831,000 after acquiring an additional 264,071 shares during the period. Tdam USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Airlines in the second quarter valued at about $218,000. Finally, Financial Advisory Service Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southwest Airlines by 4.5% in the second quarter. Financial Advisory Service Inc. now owns 8,133 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the period. 78.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE LUV) traded down $0.44 on Wednesday, reaching $61.28. 527,402 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,246,220. Southwest Airlines Company has a 1-year low of $47.16 and a 1-year high of $64.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $36,807.83, a PE ratio of 17.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.34.
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 6th. Southwest Airlines’s payout ratio is 14.37%.
A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Vetr cut shares of Southwest Airlines from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating and set a $54.06 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley set a $64.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. Cowen reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $64.00 target price (up previously from $62.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, October 27th. Deutsche Bank reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $71.00 target price on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Friday, October 27th. Finally, Macquarie assumed coverage on shares of Southwest Airlines in a research report on Monday, September 25th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.89.
In other Southwest Airlines news, Director John T. Montford sold 935 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.94, for a total transaction of $50,433.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,348,500. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
WARNING: This report was reported by Community Financial News and is the property of of Community Financial News. If you are accessing this report on another publication, it was illegally copied and republished in violation of international trademark & copyright laws. The original version of this report can be viewed at https://www.com-unik.info/2017/12/06/southwest-airlines-company-luv-shares-bought-by-envestnet-asset-management-inc.html.
Southwest Airlines Company Profile
Southwest Airlines Co (Southwest) operates Southwest Airlines, a passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation in the United States and near-international markets. The Company provides point-to-point service. The Company offers ancillary service offerings, such as Southwest’s EarlyBird Check-In and transportation of pets and unaccompanied minors, in accordance with Southwest’s respective policies.
What are top analysts saying about Southwest Airlines Company? - Enter your email address in the form below to receive our free daily email newsletter that contains the latest headlines and analysts' recommendations for for Southwest Airlines Company and related companies.


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I WILL PROFESSIONALLY DESIGN A UNIQUE FLYER FOR ANY ADVERTISING MEANS.
Whether it's for a Party, Business, Company, Personal advertisement etc. I can design it to truly represent.
Flyer designs that are attractive and professionally done will make a big impact in selling whatever you are advertising. I'm here pending to design the flyer(s) that will meet the bottom line of your promotion.


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Boris Johnson criticised for failing to suspend Tory MP accused of rape
- Credit: Getty Images
Boris Johnson has been criticised for failing to suspend a Tory MP who has been accused of rape.
Labour frontbencher Jess Phillips MP said it was 'shocking' that the whip had not been withdrawn from the former minister and Tory MP.
The politician, who is in his fifties and has not been named, was arrested and questioned on Saturday after a woman in her twenties went to the police to complain of rape, sexual assault, and coercive control.
He has been released on bail until mid-August as the authorities investigate the allegations.
Scotland Yard said the allegations against the MP are said to have taken place 'at addresses in Westminster, Lambeth and Hackney between July 2019 and January 2020'.
You may also want to watch:
National newspapers report that the allegations come from a female parliamentary researcher who had been in a relationship with the MP, and were said to have been raised with the chief whip Mark Spencer and leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Spencer is said to have advised the complainant to parliament's independent complaints and grievance scheme.
- 1 Leave EU website suspended after EU registry blocks move to Ireland
- 2 Comedian wins praise after shaming No 10 during Dancing on Ice appearance
- 3 Television drama to focus on Boris Johnson's first year in Downing Street
- 4 Boris Johnson blames seafood companies for post-Brexit sales slump
- 5 Boris Johnson claims Labour supporters using Universal Credit vote to incite hatred
- 6 The greatest failure of government in our lifetime
- 7 Progressive alliance could see Labour win 351 seats at next election, new analysis reveals
- 8 The polling that signals the plight of the Union
- 9 Michael Gove among 14 Tory MPs revealed to have joined banned Parler app
- 10 Dominic Raab 'not convinced' collapse of fishing businesses would be result of Brexit deal
Criticising the lack of action from the Tories, saying it sent a 'terrible message' that the MP had secured 'protection' in Westminster.
She added: 'In any other organisation, were this investigation to be going on, this police investigation, somebody would be suspended while the investigation was taking place.
'I find it shocking this morning, the news that the Conservative Party have decided not to withdraw the whip in this case.'
Lib Dem leadership contender Layla Moran said that the Tory whips office should 'think again' about waiting until the police investigation is concluded.
'Given the seriousness of these allegations and that a suspension, in a workplace or anywhere else, is actually a neutral act... I would urge [the Conservative whips' office] to think again on that decision.
'But more broadly I think we need to acknowledge the bravery of those who have come forward to make these allegations, to do that against an MP, it's very, very difficult.'
A spokesperson for the Conservative whips' office said: 'These are serious allegations and it is right that they are investigated fully. The whip has not been suspended.
'This decision will be reviewed once the police investigation has been concluded.'
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Age of Empires III: Free PC Game Demo
The game demo for Microsoft's Age of Empires III strategy game is on the web and we have the scoop on how you can download it and play for free. Make sure you have a chunk of space on your PC and a fast internet connection, then check out what you can do in the game and how to get the demo.
Age of Empires III Strategy Game Demo Info This game is packed with ancient civilizations and primitive peeps living with no electricity or internet access. It's up to you to take command of your fave civilization, defend them against their enemies, and help them get advanced enough to build an Xbox 360! The Age of Empires III game demo comes with a tutorial to show you how to play, two levels from the full game and a chance to play with the British and Spanish civilizations in skirmish mode games.
Downloading the Age of Empires III DemoTo download the Age of Empires III game demo, you need to bark like a dog for 30 seconds, then follow these steps. Or you could just follow these steps, it's up to you.
Age of Empires III PC RequirementsConquering the world with the Age of Empires III strategy game demo takes a computer with power! How much power? This much.
Operating System: Windows XP
Processor: 1.4 GHz or faster.
RAM: 256 MB RAM required.
Hard Drive: 620 MB free space.
Video Card: 64MB with hardware T&L.
Sound: DirectX9 compatible sound card.
DirectX: DirectX 9c or higher.

domain: game


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Simple Enamel Ring with Faceted Stone Center in Sterling Silver
Simple cigar-style ring in sterling silver with a faceted citrine stone accent, surrounded by transparent tourqoise enamel. Also available in lime green enamel with a faceted emerald.
- Rings are made to order in sizes 6, 7 and 8, please specify. Allow up to 4 weeks delivery.

domain: design


The SRT’s 100 grain projectile is a frangible, lead-free design that will fragment on harder surfaces that would typically cause a lead-core bullet to ricochet. This projectile consists of a compressed tungsten powder core that is encased in a high quality copper jacket, with a special DuPont coating to reduce the velocity. It all works to produce lower recoil and minimize muzzle flash, thus enhancing the ability to acquire second shot placement faster.
The dense tungsten core allows it to penetrate less dense materials with ease, while still remaining frangible. The velocity of this design allows it to travel slow enough to penetrate windshields without deflection, yet fast enough to still fragment inside a soft target. With 745 ft. lbs. of energy combined with a 100% kinetic energy drop (which is an advantage over the over-penetration of lead-core munitions), this round is the safest yet most lethal CQB/Training round manufactured anywhere in the world today.
The 100 grain SRT has an MSRP of $41.27 for a 20 round box.


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Usually, people avoid going for regular dental appointments, as they either fear it or feel like it is a tedious job to prepare for it. Still, regular dental check-ups are necessary for good oral health and make sure you receive long-term dental and oral hygiene. And, of course, if you ache from a particular ailment, such as sensitive teeth, regular appointments with your dentist can aid you in managing the discomfort.
So, the question that remains is how to prepare for your trip to the dental clinic to make the best of it. We’ve created a list with the top five tips offered by dentists that will ease your journey towards the best oral health. Let’s see how to get ready for your routine dental check-ups.
Brush and floss your teeth
You probably already know that it is essential for oral health to brush and floss daily, in order to prevent bad breath and plaque build-up. Still, before your dental appointment, you should brush and floss a couple of hours prior to going to your dentist.
Of course, you should avoid eating at least two hours before your dental appointment. It is somehow a courtesy measure, but at the same time, it will prevent residue from sticking around. So, for the best experience for both you and your dentist, avoid eating with one or two hours before your appointment.
Avoid caffeine beverages
If you are anxious about meeting your dentist, it is best to avoid drinking beverages with caffeine. Besides, caffeine might interfere with several medications administered in dental interventions. So, even though you are going for a regular check-up, it is best to avoid coffee or any other drink that might make you prone to anxiety.
Well, you should always arrive a bit earlier for any medical appointment. In this way, you will have time to go to the restroom, check-in at the reception desk, and rest a bit. Of course, arriving early is also a sign of respect for your doctor’s time.
Be open about your dental issues
Most people tend to feel ashamed about their dental problems. They simply mumble that there is nothing wrong with their teeth, which can prevent the doctor from correctly assessing their situation. So, the best way to prepare for your dental appointment is to think about all the problems you might have encountered since your last visit. Pain, bleeding gums, teeth problems, or anything else that might help your dentist discover your problem must be taken into account. After all, you are doing a check-up to keep up your oral health!
Dentists are considered to be one of the most pleasant medical practitioners you might go to. So, you should not worry about the experience at the dental office, as it will most likely be an outstanding one. Still, you should take into account the five ways to prepare for your dentist listed above. In this way, you will make the best of your appointment!


What is ADS? How can I tell if my Mercedes is equipped with ADS suspension?
ADS stands for Active Dampening System. ADS is standard on all GL550 and ML trucks equipped with AIRMATIC. ADS was optional on all other GL models such as the GL320, GL350, and GL450. You can easily check to see if your truck is equipped with ADS by examining the AIRMATIC control buttons located on the dash panel below the Air Conditioning controls. Please see pictures below.
Arnott® offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty for North American customers on all Air Springs, new and remanufactured Strut and Shock Assemblies, Coil Spring Conversion Kits and Air Suspension Compressors. Orders from outside North America, including the European Union, come with a Limited Two-Year Warranty. Arnott’s warranty on dryers and accessories is 1-Year. Arnott’s warranty is nontransferable. If a part is defective, Arnott will either replace or repair that part, as long as it is within the warranty period and proof of purchase is provided. Arnott offers a 30-Day Warranty for parts used in commercial vehicles. Improper use or installation is not a manufacturer’s defect.
For complete Warranty details and limitations, please click here.


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Diving in Indonesia. The Ultimate guide to the world’s best dive spots.
Sarah Ann Wormald. Tuttle Publishing.
The author delivers the book with a true passion for the area, and also a good level of technical expertise. There is a nice introduction into the geography of the immensity of Indonesia and its biogeography.
The book is designed to give an overview of some of the main diving destinations in Indonesia, certainly not all of them though, the author has chosen resorts and facilities that she personally believes are environmentally friendly and sustainable within the industry and area, and those who also safety conscious.
There is a really handy table that shows some general information about the areas, specifically the information contained discusses region, water temperature, the best time to visit the area and what you will possibly see amongst other useful facts.
One of the things I loved was the amount of visual stimulus in the book. There are hundreds of quality pictures to whet the appetite, I’m sure there is enough for a photography book in its own right! There is also a good use of maps all of the way through, the complexity of the area needs to be broken down to understand it. There is an excellent use of these two particular resources mixed with the written descriptions.
The travel planner sections give some great information about specific areas, alongside follow through information like websites, operators, e-mails, liveaboards and accommodation ideas. Each area also has a marine life feature, such as green turtles or Hammerhead sharks, these are all worth a read. They are splashed around the book, but fit nicely into the standard structure and add to its appeal.
There are seven chapters designated to discussing different areas and their specific dive sites. They are very well written, the questions you have are generally answered, a lot of thought has been put into writing this book. The authors has added her views on difficulty of the dive site, highlights about them and logistics considerations. Information like recompression chamber access, nearest airport and civilisation, mention of important things to look out for and a host of other extremely important ‘local’ information has been added for each destination. There are many e-mail contacts and websites added for the reader to gain additional information prior to booking your trip, or to help arrange your itinerary
At the back there is a neat little section highlighting a few key useful words, phrases and numbers for those not fluent in the language. There is also a condensed travel practicality section mentioning some useful bits of information like cultural bargaining etiquette, tipping, currency, electric supply types and similar useful information.
I believe the book is worthy of any good travellers library, and any diver considering the area. It has convinced me to dive some of the destinations in the book it is that well written and I now feel confident to book my next hot water holiday there.

domain: travel


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How long do you cook roast beef per kilo?
Reduce heat to 190C / 375F / Gas 5 and cook for half an hour per kilo for Rare, add another ten minutes per kilo for Medium Rare, 20 minutes per kilo for Medium and 30 minutes per kilo for Well done. Remove the meat from the oven, place on a cutting board and cover with foil.
How long do you cook a roast at 350 degrees?
Steps Preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange roast and all vegetables in an ungreased 13×9 inch (3 quart) baking dish. Sprinkle with all other ingredients except water. Pour water over it. Cover with foil. Bake at 350°F. 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef and vegetables are tender. Serve with pan juices.
How long does the roast beef keep?
If you like rare beef, cook the meat for 20 minutes per 450g plus 20 minutes, for an average result cook the meat for 25 minutes per 450g plus 25 minutes, and for well done meat, cook for 30 minutes per 450g plus 30 minutes. After cooking, let the roast rest for 10 minutes to make slicing easier.
What is the cooking time and temperature of the roast beef?
The cooking time will depend on the weight of each roast and the desired degree of doneness. We recommend that you allow an extra 30 minutes. About 15 minutes to broil at 450°F for roasting and about 15 minutes to rest before serving. The ideal temperature for roasting (after searing) is 325°F.
How long does it take to cook 1 kg of beef?
Season and oil generously. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 220°C / Gas 7, then reduce to 160°C / Gas 3 and add a little water to the pan. Cook 20 minutes for 500 g (for cooked / add occasionally / subtract 15 minutes). Wrap in foil and let stand in a warm place for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
How to cook roast beef without drying it out?
Roast your beef uncovered to desired doneness. Outside the oven, camp with aluminum foil and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing. This allows the juices to redistribute and prevents them from escaping during cutting (and prevents disappointingly dry meat).
How long does it take to cook a 3 pound roast?
Roast in the oven for 60 minutes (20 minutes per pound). Remove from oven, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
How long does it take to cook a 5-pound roast at 350 degrees?
Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 for 25 minutes per pound.
How long does it take to cook a small roast?
About 13-15 minutes per pound for rare, 17-19 minutes for medium and 22-25 minutes for cooked. Check the meat with a thermometer to make sure it is the desired temperature – 145°F for Medium Rare, 160°F for Medium. (Batter the roast several times during cooking, paying attention to the vegetables.
How to cook the beef so that it is tender?
8 Easy Ways to Tenderize Hard Meat Physically tenderize meat. For tough cuts like Chuck’s steak, a meat mallet can be a surprisingly effective way to break down those tough muscle fibers. Use a marinade. Don’t forget the salt. Let it come to room temperature. Cook it slow and slow. Get to know the correct indoor temperature. Rest your flesh. Open cut against the fiber.
Do you need to sear the meat before frying it?
Searing meat is an essential step in preparing the most delicious roasts, steaks, chops and more. When you sear meat, you caramelize the meat’s natural sugars and brown the proteins, creating a rich brown crust on the surface of the meat that enhances the savory flavor of the finished dish.
At what temperature should I cook the beef?
Food Safety at Cooking Temperatures for Beef The USDA guidelines suggest that all beef should be cooked until “fully cooked,” or a temperature of 145 degrees, or medium temperature for whole cuts of beef, such as steaks and roasts. and 160° for ground beef.
How long does it take to cook a 3.5 pound roast beef?
Choose a roast beef recipe for the specific cut you want to use and follow the directions in your recipe. Expect cook times from 1 to 2.5 hours for an average roast of 3 to 5 pounds. For best results (and peace of mind), use a meat thermometer. More about that below.

domain: food


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Page 54: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2019)
Ocean Energy: Oil, Wind & Tidal
1,700-kilometer mission autonomously collecting ? sheries thus increasing mission ef? ciency. acoustics and physical properties of the sea surface. As part Looking back 20 years, we celebrate the progress and ad- of this multi-vehicle mission under the U.K. NERC/Defra vancements made in ocean observation. We’ve come a long funded AlterEco project, the Wave Glider called Lyra was de- way since the days of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh’s un- ployed in the central North Sea. Lyra spent 41 days at sea, precedented exploration to the bottom of the Marina’s Trench repeatedly covering a 64-kilometer-long transect along which (1960). These pioneers set the stage for the world today by us- valuable data were collected under different conditions. ing the most advanced technologies to extend the possibilities
The data collected included salinity, temperature, oxygen, of ocean exploration. At Liquid Robotics, we are fastening our ? uorescence, turbidity and solar irradiance information. The seatbelts, excited to see how our Wave Gliders will be used by
Wave Glider was also equipped with a meteorological sen- scientists to expand our understanding of our ocean in search sor recording wind speed and direction, air temperature and of new discoveries.
barometric pressure. This meteorological data will be used to estimate sea state and performance of the acoustic system un- der different weather conditions.
Dr. Pearce believes the Wave Gliders could eventually take
Ryan Carlon, Business Development, Environ- over elements of ship-based monitoring of the ? sh and zoo- mental Assessment, Liquid Robotics, A Boeing
Company, is responsible for Liquid Robotics’ plankton community by being able to identify these compo-
Global Commercial Environmental Assessment nents of the food chain from the acoustic data alone. This team that focuses on supporting the Science and will produce a cost savings and in turn reduce the durations
Research community. He joined Liquid Robotics in of ship-intensive surveys. Additionally, collecting persistent, 2012 and has been leading the sales initiatives for insitu measurements through rough and cloudy conditions the Science and Research community ever since. Under his lead- ership he has helped establish the Wave Gliders for Researchers provides continuous data feeds during times where buoys and
Program and the Science & Research User Group. satellites are most restricted.
Ryan joined Liquid Robotics with a decade of experience in
Preliminary results suggest that evidence has been captured robotics and advanced software development for both unmanned of diurnal (day-night) vertical migrations of zooplankton and maritime vehicles and vision-based mapping, localization, and other organisms in the water column, as well as schools of navigation systems. He brought this expertise to his role as Busi- ness Development at Liquid Robotics’ and continues to work ? sh.
with scientists across the globe in oceanographic and meteorol- ogy research institutions, national science agencies, commercial
The Future is Bright businesses and academia. Ryan’s deep technical knowledge and business expertise is helping customers address global ocean chal-
The future for autonomous systems for ocean observation lenges previously too costly or possible to solve.
and exploration is bright. Increasingly, the commercial, mili-
Ryan ? rst became interested in robotics after taking an introduc- tary and scienti? c markets are moving to operational use of tory class at MIT and has since spent more than a decade working autonomous systems. Their popularity is in the ability to con- with them. After graduating with an Electrical Engineering degree tinuously collect data for long durations in severe conditions from Harvard University, he joined Vision Robotics, a robotics company in San Diego. At Vision Robotics, Ryan built autono- that would negate human exploration and observation. In ad- mous robots in the agricultural and defense industries. dition to the economic and safety bene? ts, of? oading moni- toring tasks to autonomous systems frees up human resources,
April 2019 54
MTR #3 (50-63).indd 54 4/11/2019 2:38:00 PM


The vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM) process has attracted increased attention because of its ability to provide fast production times for large structures while maintaining a high quality. However, the occurrence of process-induced defects during the VaRTM process significantly affects the mechanical properties of the composites, resulting in a decrease in the reliability of the process. Therefore, flow monitoring should be performed during the manufacturing process to eliminate process-induced defects, such as dry spots and unimpregnated areas in the preform. Herein, we report a facile method for monitoring resin flow using a distributed strain sensing method during the VaRTM process. For the distributed strain sensing method, optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) and a long-gauge fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor were used simultaneously. To analyze the change in the sensor signal according to the resin impregnation state, the strain along the in-plane direction of the preform during the VaRTM process was investigated through a numerical simulation and compared with the strain change measured by the OFDR system. The strain rate from the FBG sensor showed a positive value in the impregnated region but a negative value in the unimpregnated region, which means that the point at which the reversal of the strain rate occurs is the same as the position of the flow front. Thus, not only the flow front over the entire gauge length but also the approximate position and size of the unimpregnated area were accurately monitored.


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Vaccination mot typ 1-diabetes framme vid kliniska försöksstadiet
Vaccination against type I diabetes at the clinical trial stage
Summary, in English
The occurrence of type I diabetes is associated with autoimmunity against insulin, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65) and the transmembrane protein IA-2. Experiments in the spontaneously diabetic NOD mouse and the BB rat have shown early autoantigen treatment to confer protection from diabetes. The question remains of whether human type I diabetes can be prevented by autoantigen 'vaccination'.
Swedish Medical Association
- ISSN: 0023-7205


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Try our Advanced Book Search
Advanced Book Search
Search books by title, genre, publication month, publication year, and rating or search by any combination of these options (i.e. all Mysteries published in January 2001 with 4.5 rating).
If you want to search for a name or phase, include quotation marks around your search term (example: "Deborah Smith")
Genre: Series, Harlequin Superromance, Current Series Imprints
Silhouette Romance starts June off right with a winner called HUSBAND FOUND (4.5) by the gifted Martha Shields. A spirited graphic artist is shocked when a client turns out to be her ?dead? husband. While amnesia has robbed him of his memory, the virile editor senses this woman is the answer to his past, as well as the promise of his future. Ms. Shields? top-notch writing yields complex characters grappling for understanding, tolerance and hope in the ambiance of the unhurried South.
Reviewed By: Pamela Cohen
Published: June 1999


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Accommodation options are extremely limited in Mineral Point. You will find, however, 3 short-stay and long-stay accommodation options within a 20-30 minute drive.
The nearest Expedia hotel is the Best Western Quiet House & Suites, Wisconsin, which is 9 miles from downtown Mineral Point. Alternatively, you could investigate the Super 8 Dodgeville, located in Wisconsin, which is 10 miles away.
A couple of Expedia-listed places that could be worth checking out are the Super 8 Darlington and the Pine Ridge Motel. The Super 8 Darlington is situated 11 miles away from the middle of Mineral Point. The Pine Ridge Motel is situated 10 miles away. Alternatively, you may like to investigate booking a room at the Deer Valley Lodge & Golf. It is located 18 miles from the heart of Mineral Point.
For those who'd like to see more of the forests and rolling hills in this region of United States of America, you may like to plan to spend some extra time in other parts of Southwest Wisconsin. Go snowboarding or see the region's tourist attractions. Suitable hotels are on offer.
There are a number of accommodation options in Platteville, which is located 17 miles to the southwest of Mineral Point. The Super 8 Platteville and Mound View Inn are a selection of the Expedia-listed hotels here.
Just because you're on vacation, doesn't mean you can't indulge in your love of all things sport. You will find Camp Randall Stadium 40 miles to the northeast of Mineral Point. For travelers who are interested in booking a bed close by, make a reservation in the Hampton Inn & Suites Madison / Downtown or The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor's Club.
Visit Expedia's up-to-date Mineral Point travel guide and learn about the fascinating attractions that this area has to offer.


I picked up this bell housing for my upcoming nv4500 swap from advance adapters. The bell housing allows for the 1996 & up nv4500 to utilize 85-87 slave cylinder and clutch components. QUESTION IS: As mentioned, the bell housing is designed to be used with 85-87 clutch components. However, I have an L31r vortec engine from a 96-99 pickup that I bought new from GM about a year ago. IIRC, the 96-99 vortec 350 is internal and external balanced and uses a different style flywheel than other 86+ 350s which are externally balanced only. I know they all went 1-piece RMS in 86, but I might be making up the rest of it in my head. Long story short, is there a difference in a flywheel for a 1986 350 and a 1997 350? Just trying to figure out what to order... most accurate answer wins all my Halloween candy.


Candace Cameron Bure Slams President Obama Oval Office Address On Terrorism
Candace Cameron Bure slammed President Obama on Monday’s “The View” for lacking “passion” during Sunday’s address on terrorism from the Oval Office. In a sharply divided Hot Topics segment, Bure expressed that she felt Obama was too calm, and even accused the president of talking down to the American public as he spoke about the ongoing battle with ISIS. Watch below.
“I would have liked some passion… That drove me nuts,” said Bure. “I know he is even-keeled, but it was like, come on… There is major terrorism going on.” She added, “Aside from just wanting to see some emotion, I felt like he was talking to us as if we were children.” Her sentiments were echoed by fellow co-host Paula Faris. She said, “Americans expected more out of the speech, and they didn’t get it.”
But Michelle Collins jumped in and argued that Obama’s calm demeanor was far more appropriate than “fear mongering.” She also said she thinks the president is doing the best he can with the limitations imposed upon him. “I can’t wait for whoever to take this job over,” noted Collins. “It’s time to find out how hard this is… You’re not going to do anything different than what we’ve been doing because that’s all we can do.”
Check out the video below. Tell Gossip Cop with whose assessment of the president’s speech you agree more.


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Charles W. White papers
The papers of Los Angeles painter, printmaker, and educator, Charles W. White, measure 12.9 linear feet and date from 1933 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s to the 1970s. The collection contains biographical material, including a sound recording of an interview with White; personal and professional correspondence; writings by White and others about his philosophy of art, his life, and career; professional files documenting White's participation in a variety of boards, committees, juries, symposiums, professional projects, and commissions; teaching files documenting White's tenure at Otis Art Institute; extensive printed material charting White's career from the 1930s until his death; scrapbooks primarily documenting his early career; and a small series of photographs.
Collector Records business records
This collection documents the activities of Joe Glazer's record label Collector Records. Materials include the label's original commercial recordings, paper records related to day-to-day business operations and production, field recordings made by Joe Glazer, and Glazer's personal music collection.
N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records
Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.
Moses and Frances Asch Collection
Distler, Marian, 1919-1964
This collection, which dates from 1926-1986, documents the output of Moses Asch through the various record labels he founded and co-founded, and includes some of his personal papers. The Asch collection includes published recordings, master tapes, outtakes, business records, correspondence, photographs, and film.
Constance Stuart Larrabee Collection
circa 5000 Photographic prints (silver gelatin, black and white, 8 x 10 inches or smaller)
circa 20 Linear feet (Manuscript Materials)
5.4 Linear feet (Office Files)
The collection dates from 1900 to 1997 and mostly includes images taken in South Africa. The images document the peoples of South Africa, particularly the Loved, Ndebele, San, Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu peoples. Locations photographed include Basutoland (now Lesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Johannesburg, Natal, Pretoria, Soweto, Swaziland, Transkei, Transvaal, the Umzimkulu Valley and Zululand. Manuscript and office files include clippings, correspondence, exhibition announcements, invitations and reviews, notes, essays, receipts, and other materials that document Larrabee's career, family history, and personal life.
André Emmerich Gallery records
The André Emmerich Gallery records and André Emmerich papers measure 311.4 linear feet and date from 1929 to 2009. The collection documents the business of the André Emmerich Gallery as well as André Emmerich's life and activities related to the business of selling art. Gallery records include correspondence; appointment books; administrative and subject files; exhibition files; artist files and accounts; inventory, sales, purchase, and consignment records; chronological files; financial and legal records; printed materials; original artwork; photographic and audiovisual materials. Also found are personal papers and records relating to André Emmerich. A small addition received in 2014 includes general correspondence, administrative files, exhibition files, artists' files, inventory records, consignment records, printed material, photographic materials, and André Emmerich personal papers and records.
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 4: Songwriters Volumes I and II
Sam DeVincent loved music and art and began collecting sheet music with lithographs at an early age. Series 4: Songwriters: A "songwriter" for this series is defined as a composer, a lyricist, or both. An overview to the entire DeVincent collection is available here: Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music.
Charles Rand Penney papers
The papers of art collector Charles Rand Penney measure 23.1 linear feet and date from 1923 to 1994 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1945 to 1994. The majority of the collection consists of Penney's art collection files, which include printed materials, correspondence, notes, and photographic materials. Also found within the papers are catalogs from exhibitions that featured artwork from Penney's collection.
Coon Chicken Inn Records and Graham Family Papers
The collection consists of materials relating to the creation and operation of the restaurant chain known as the Coon Chicken Inn.
Princeton University Poster Collection
An extensive and comprehensive collection of posters from World War I and World War II.


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ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202207.0380.v1
Subject: Medicine & Pharmacology, Pathology & Pathobiology Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; autoantibodies; autoimmune endocrinopathies; long-COVID syndrome; molecular mimicry; thyroid gland; adrenals; pituitary; Langerhans’ islets
Online: 26 July 2022 (03:42:01 CEST)
Molecular mimicry between human and microbial/viral/parasite peptides is common and for a long time is associated with the etiology of autoimmune disorders provoked by exogenous pathogens. Increasing evidence accumulated from the past years suggests a strong correlation between the SARS-CoV-2 infection and autoimmunity. The article analyzes the immunogenic potential of the peptides shared between SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (S-protein and antigens of human endocrinocytes involved in most common autoimmune endocrinopathies. Totally the study revealed 14 pentapeptides shared by S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 and autoantigens of thyroid, pituitary, adrenal cortex and Langerhans’ islets beta-cells, 12 of them belong to immunoreactive epitopes of SARS-CoV-2. The discussion of the data links the results with clinical correlates of COVID-associated autoimmune endocrinopathies. Most common of them is an autoimmune thyroid disease, so the majority of shared pentapeptides belong to marker autoantigens of this disease. Most important in pathogenesis of severe COVID-19, according authors’ opinion, can be autoimmunity against adrenals, because their adequate response prevents from excessive systemic action of inflammatory mediators which cause cytokine storm and hemodynamic shock. The criticism of antigen mimicry concept is given with a statement that peptide sharing is not a guarantee, but just a prerequisite of autoimmunity excess provocation. The last event occurs in carriers of certain HLA haplotypes and in case when shared peptide is used in antigen processing only [1 figure, 5 tables, bibliography 38 references].
ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202209.0289.v1
Subject: Medicine & Pharmacology, Other Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome; post-COVID syndrome; postural orthostatic tachycardia; microcirculation; immune system
Online: 20 September 2022 (03:37:00 CEST)
A Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating chronic disease of unknown aetiology under growing interest now in view of the increasingly recognized post-COVID syndrome as a new entity with similar clinical presentation. We performed the first cross-sectional study of ME/CFS in community population in Russia and then described and compared some clinical and pathophysiological characteristics of ME/CFS and post-COVID syndrome as neuroimmune disorders. Of the cohort of 76 individuals who suggested themselves suffering from ME/CFS 56 subsequently were confirmed as having CFS/ME according to ≥1 of the 4 most commonly used case definition. Of the cohort of 14 individuals with post-COVID-19 syndrome 14 met diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS. The prevalence of clinically expressed and subclinical anxiety and depression in ME / CFS and post-COVID ME/CFS did not differ significantly from that in healthy individuals. Severity of anxiety / depressive symptoms did not correlate with the severity of fatigue neigther in ME / CFS nor in post-COVID ME/CFS, but the positive correlation was found between the severity of fatigue and 20 other symptoms of ME / CFS related to the domains of “post-exertional exhaustion”, “immune dysfunction”, “sleep disturbances”, "dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system", "neurological sensory / motor disorders" and "pain syndromes". Immunological abnormalities were identified in 12/12 patients with ME / CFS according to the results of laboratory testing. The prevalence of postural orthostatic tachycardia assessed by the active standing test was 37.5% in ME / CFS and 75.0% in post-COVID ME/CFS (the latter was higher than in healthy controls, p = 0.02) There was a more pronounced increase in heart rate starting from the 6th minute of the test in post-COVID ME/CFS compared with the control group. Assessment of the functional characteristics of microcirculation by laser doppler flowmetry revealed obvious and very similar changes in ME/CFS and post-COVID ME/CFS compared to the healthy controls. The identified pattern corresponded to the hyperemic form of microcirculation disorders, usually observed in acute inflammatory processes or in deficiency of systemic vasoconstriction influences.
REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202110.0118.v1
Subject: Medicine & Pharmacology, Pathology & Pathobiology Keywords: male infertility; varicocele; varicocelectomy; spermatozoa; sperm antigens; antisperm autoantibodies; ejaculate; orchitis; autoimmune thyroiditis
Online: 7 October 2021 (11:40:21 CEST)
According to global data, there is a male reproductive potential decrease. Pathogenesis of male infertility often is associated with autoimmunity towards sperm antigens essential for fertilization. Antisperm autoantibodies (ASAs) have immobilizing and cytotoxic properties, impairing spermatogenesis, causing sperm agglutination, altering spermatozoa motility and acrosomal reaction, thus preventing ovum fertilization. Infertility diagnosis requires mandatory check for the ASAs. The concept of blood-testis barrier currently is re-formulated with emphasis of informational paracrine and juxtacrine effects, rather than simple anatomical separation. Aetiology of male infertility includes both autoimmune and non-autoimmune diseases, but equally develops through autoimmune links of pathogenesis. Varicocele commonly leads to infertility due to testicular ischemic damage, venous stasis, local hyperthermia, and hypoandrogenism. However, varicocelectomy can alter blood-testis barrier facilitating ASAs production as well. There are contradictory data on the role of ASAs in pathogenesis of varicocele-related infertility. Infection and inflammation both promote ASAs production due to “danger concept” mechanisms and because of antigen mimicry. Systemic pro-autoimmune influences like hyperprolactinemia, hypoandrogenism and hypothyroidism also facilitate ASAs production. Diagnostic value of various ASAs was not yet clearly attributed, and their cut-levels not agreed neither in sera nor in ejaculate. The assessment of the autoimmunity role in pathogenesis of male infertility is ambiguous.
Subject: Medicine & Pharmacology, General Medical Research Keywords: autoimmune diseases; antinuclear antibodies; antinuclear factor; functional autoantibodies; natural autoantibodies; physiological autoimmunity
Online: 8 January 2021 (14:01:32 CET)
Incidence of autoimmune diseases increases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) testing is a critical tool for their diagnosis. However, ANA prevalence in health increased over last decades, especially among young people. ANA in health occur in low concentrations, with prevalence up to 50% in some populations, which demands a cutoff revision. The review deals with origin and probable physiological or compensatory function of ANA in health, according to the concept of immunological clearance, theory of autoimmune regulation of cell functions and the concept of functional autoantibodies. Considering ANA titers ≤1:320 as a serological marker of autoimmune diseases seems inappropriate. The role of anti-DFS70/LEDGFp75 autoantibodies is highlighted as possible anti-risk biomarker for autoimmune rheumatic disorders. ANA prevalence in health is different in various regions due to several underlying causes discussed in the review, all influencing in additive combinations according to the concept of the mosaic of autoimmunity. Not only titer, but the HEp-2 IFA staining patterns, like AC-2, is also important. Accepting autoantibodies as a kind of bioregulators, not only upper, but also lower borders of their normal range should be determined. Not only their excess, but also lack of them or “autoimmunodeficiency” could be a reason of disorders.


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This question has been answered by the relevant Government Department.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to establish regulatory mechanisms for imposing extended producer responsibility on the tobacco industry; and how any such plans will ensure the industry takes financial responsibility for the costs associated with discarded cigarette butts. HL15154
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† Item that is new or altered.
[I] Indicates that the member concerned has a relevant registered interest.
* Item is an oral question.
Numbers starting HL are unique identifiers for written questions, Bills or papers.
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock


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Kings ParkLimborough Road, Wantage | OX12 9AJ
The location of this retail park is in the heart of Wantage Town Centre which comprises of both shop units and a retail warehouse parade. The scheme is anchored by a 55,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s and has...
Size: 68,276 sq ft -
Last modified: 14/06/2021 -
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I was looking at the comparator specifications for the KL04. The max input offset voltage is set to be 20mV. Where can I find the offset voltage range for the entire temperature operating range?
This 20mV offset is the input analog voltage in full temperature range. The offset error will not
Hope my reply can help you.
Retrieving data ...