The Farmlands Trust Society was abuzz with excitement on being named Pollinator Advocate for Canada at the 2018 North American Pollinator Protection Campaign Awards, on Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C.
The Saanichton-based charitable organization was recognized for its commitment to environmental stewardship and pollinator conservation by the Pollinator Partnership, the world’s largest organization dedicated to the protection of pollinators.
The society won one of only seven awards conferred to organizations and individuals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
“We are pleased to be able to recognize the outstanding efforts of these special individuals, who are leading by example and taking innovative actions that help make the North American landscape a better place for our pollinating partners … the bees, butterflies, birds, bats and other species that we all rely upon,” said Val Dolcini, president and CEO of San Francisco, California-based Pollinator Partnership.
The Farmlands Trust Society was recognized for creating a habitat for beneficial insects, including planting hedgerows of bee-friendly flowers, such as sunflowers and wild flowers. They also did not use chemicals, insecticides and pesticides to control pests at the 100-year-old historic Newman Farm in Saanichton.
The society is also an active member of the Island Pollinator Initiative, a coalition of groups working to protect pollinators on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
The success of the program has attracted requests for a share of next year’s bounty by the LifeCycles Project and two First Nations.


Welcome to the Dew Sweeper's Open rundown, your one-stop shop to catch up on the action from the golf world. From the professional tours, trending news, social media headlines and upcoming events, here's every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of July 20.
Mark O'Meara, a former Birkdale champ, was selected to hit the first tee shot of the 2017 Open Championship. O'Meara's drive won't make the tournament's highlight reel, as it sailed -- and we underline sailed -- out-of-bounds.
O’Meara's third discovered a fairway bunker, finishing near the deep face. O’Meara walked off with a quadruple bogey-8.
Let's hope this isn't an omen for things to come this weekend.
For the first time in forever, Rory McIlroy is entering a major under the radar. And with reason: the 28-year-old's 2017 has been a bit of a disaster inside the ropes. He's missed significant amount of time with injury, he's struggled acclimating to new equipment and his putting -- which has never been a strong suit -- has been particularly anemic.
Yet McIlroy isn't short on conviction. When told he was going off at 20-to-1 odds, the Northern Irishman answered, "Good time to back me, I think."
On the opposite end of the confidence spectrum is Jason Day. The 2015 PGA Champion began the year ranked No. 1 in the world, but due to a variety of issues -- most notably, his mom's battle with cancer -- Day admitted he's labored staying focused on the sport.
“The hardest thing in golf is motivation comes and goes, but the discipline needs to be there every single day,” Day said. “And unfortunately I wasn't as disciplined at the start of this year as I had been over the last couple of years and the couple of years beforehand, because a lot of the work that went into winning in 2015 and 2016 happened the years prior to that leading up to it. So some days you just wake up more motivated than other days, but you always have to stay disciplined. And if you can stay disciplined within yourself, hopefully the little slump you go through will be at the end and you can start to play better golf."
When he's on, few make the sport look as easy as Day, who possesses a physicality and touch foreign to many in the sport. But, as often seen in the game, such tools are for naught if not accompanied with a sound mental game. At the moment, one that Day doesn't seem to harbor.
For nearly two years, speculation has surrounded the professional prospects of Maverick McNealy. The Stanford product, who's reached No. 1 in the amateur rankings, has toyed with keeping his am status and becoming a modern-day Bobby Jones. McNealy's not short on capital -- his father, Scott, is founder of Sun Microsystems -- affording the leeway for such a scenario.
However, speaking with Golf Channel's Ryan Lavner, it appears McNealy is interested in an all-in approach to a professional venture in golf.
McNealy likely won't declare pro until after September's Walker Cup, but he's already received exemptions into a few fall events. Given his pedigree, expect plenty of McNealy sightings in the near future.
Lose Julian Suri's clubs once, shame on you, airlines. Lose his clubs four straight weeks...well, still shame on you, air industry.
Suri, a Duke product and current earnings leader on the European Challenge Tour, had to practice this week with a hodgepodge of equipment, as his clubs went missing for the fourth consecutive tournament. Which signals that Suri is extremely unlucky, or he has an ex-girlfriend working in the EASA.
Thankfully, it appears Suri got his bats just before Thursday's opening round. But Julian, think it's time to look into Ship Sticks, my friend.


How Many Palestinians Died in Gaza?
The dispute begins. These arguments are as inevitable as the tides, and given urgency by past incidents in which Palestinian death tolls have been inflated (see: Jenin) and incidents in which the deaths attributed to Israel were not, in fact, caused by Israel (see: Fallows).


On April 15, 2007, MARY B. TWINER (nee Barna), beloved wife of the late Grover Twiner, loving mother of Jeanne Peterson and husband Eric, Dr. Mary Ellen Clisham, Anne Hainer and Dr. Barbara Black, grandmother of Julian, Alexander, Daniel, Meghan, Colin, Michael, Amy, Christina and Jonathan, sister of Helen Badini and husband Henry. She was a Navy nurse during WWII, and retired as a Captain with the U.S. Public Health Service. Family will receive friends on Wednesday, April 18th from 3-5 p.m. at STERLING ASHTON SCHWAB WITZKE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 1630 Edmondson Avenue, Catonsville. A Mass will be held on Thursday, April 19th at 11:00 a.m. at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel, Charlestown, with viewing beginning at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be held on Friday, April 20th at 10 a.m. at the Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery, Owings Mills, Maryland. Contributions may be made in her memory to the VFW, or to one's favorite charity.


It would seem clear from the video below that we have now reached the zenith of flopping in sports.
According to From the Marbles, this is a motorbike race in Brazil, in which a biker lost control of his motorcycle (0:10 mark). When he was unable to restart his bike, he apparently thought the next best thing to do was to run out to the middle of the track and pretend like he was seriously injured so that the race would be stopped (0:38 mark).


Microsoftshares popped in late trading Thursday as the company turned in a profit and sales that both topped Street targets, helped by higher sales of its flagship Windows and Office software and the launch of the latest blockbuster Halo video game.
The world's biggest software company said it earned $5.4 billion, or 62 cents a share in its fiscal first quarter, up 51 percent from $3.6 billion, or 40 cents a share last year.
Sales for the most recent quarter jumped to $16.2 billion, from $12.92 billion last year.
Wall Street analysts who monitor Microsoft estimated on average that the Redmond, Wash., company would report a profit of 55 cents a share on sales of $15.8 billion, according to data accumulated by Thomson Reuters.
Shares of Microsoft were changing hands about 2 percent higher in extended trading Thursday. Get after-hour quotes for Microsoft here.
The stock, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, finished the regular Nasdaq session up almost 1 percent at $26.28. The shares are down 14 percent so far this year.
Looking at sales by business unit, Microsoft reported Windows and Windows Live revenue of $4.79 billion, Server and Tools sales of $3.96 billion, Online Services revenue of $527 million, Business Division revenue of $5.13 billion, and Entertainment and Devices sales of $1.8 billion.
The increase in the latest quarter's profit was exaggerated by the deferral of some revenue in the year-ago quarter relating to the launch of its Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft's primary product has now sold a record-breaking 240 million copies in one year.
"Microsoft had a very good quarter," said Morningstar analyst Toan Tran. "Windows is still doing well, Office is doing well and servers and tools are doing well. The big three businesses are firing on all cylinders as the PC upgrade cycle continues."
"These are Microsoft's core businesses and they're just doing really well right now," Tran said.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said the company had not seen any adverse effect on sales of computers running Windows due to Apple'spopular iPad tablet device.
"We haven't seen that at all," said Klein. "Analysts who have done research on it, largely think this (the tablet market) is additive to PC markets as opposed to instead of PCs."
Klein said companies were continuing to buy new computers, maintaining the recovery in tech spending, but consumers were not so strong.
"We feel very good about the business refresh," said Klein. "On the consumer side, it probably was a little bit less than people had anticipated, but it was still growth."
Earlier Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pumped up unique features in the company's new Web browser and smart phone software at the company's annual pep rally for people who will build programs for the Web, Windows computers and phones.
Internet Explorer 9, which is in beta test form, uses more of a PC's hardware to make pages load and run faster. A new version of the underlying code also was being released for developers Thursday.
- AP and Reuters contributed to this story.


ATLANTA (AP) - Angel McCoughtry scored 32 points and Atlanta survived a third-quarter collapse to pull out an 84-76 victory over the New York Liberty on Sunday.
The victory was the first for Atlanta (6-7) in three meetings with the Liberty this season and the first in six matchups against New York, which had a three-game winning streak end.
McCoughtry hit 12 of 19 free throws in a game that featured 70 attempts. McCoughtry has scored in double figures in every game this season and 19 in a row overall. Rookie Cierra Burdick added 12 points, a career-high, as did Sydney Carter, making her first start.
After trailing since the first quarter, Tina Charles' four straight points put the Liberty (7-5) in front 69-67 with 5:47 remaining. But Atlanta bounced back and the Dream finished with a 9-2 run over the final three minutes to secure the win.


The four vendors have so far certified 36 products under the organization's green metrics for printers, multifunction devices, and copiers.
Companies or government agencies that use the EPEAT green technology to guide procurement or purchasing decisions for notebooks, personal computers, monitors, and integrated systems will now be able to evaluate imaging peripherals.
So far there are 36 copiers, multifunction devices, and printers listed in the database--which looks at products along 33 strict metrics such as how they are designed, the components used in them, energy consumption, and how easily they can be recycled or refurbished. Digital duplicators, fax machines, mailing machines, and scanners are also covered, but there aren't any certified products yet.
The first four vendors have products listed in the imaging category are Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, and Dell.
In fact, Canon has earned a Gold rating (the highest possible) for all eight models of its ImageRunner Advance C5200 and ImageRunner Advance 4000 Series multifunction devices. Its commitment to earning the certification falls under the company's "Kyosei" philosophy of living and working together for the common good.
"Canon handles research and development with two simultaneous objectives in mind: Maximizing each products performance, while minimizing its environmental impact," said Seymour Liebman, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel for Canon US, in a statement. "We are extremely proud to be among the first companies in the digital-imaging category to secure EPEAT registration and look forward to expanding on our great heritage of developing products that can help our customers achieve their own environmental goals."


Wearing Jordan Hankins’ No. 5, Amber Jamison plays defense. The sophomore has emerged as a key contributor for Northwestern over the past two games.
For Amber Jamison, Tuesday’s win was more than just a game.
The sophomore guard was a close friend of Jordan Hankins, who died last week. Jamison roomed with Hankins their freshman season and wore Hankins’ No. 5 jersey in Northwestern’s game against Indiana on Saturday, the team’s first game since the death of Hankins.
Jamison has started back-to-back games — the first two starts of her career — since Hankins’ death, scoring a combined 35 points over the Wildcats’ last two wins. Her 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists against the Spartans were all career highs as well.
Coach Joe McKeown did not provide an update on senior guard Christen Inman, who missed Tuesday’s game with an injury, so it remains to be seen how many more starts Jamison will get. But in the two games since Hankins’ death, Jamison and the rest of her team are keeping their teammate in their minds while on the court.
NU as a whole will need Jamison, and other role players, to continue stepping up if Inman misses extended time. However, Tuesday’s win was a good sign that the Cats’ depth may not be a problem in Inman’s absence, especially considering senior forward Nia Coffey’s rare off-night.
Coffey scored just 7 points against Michigan State, the first time she’s been held under 10 points in nearly two years. With Coffey struggling and Inman out, Jamison and senior forward Lauren Douglas combined for 35 points.
McKeown said having a versatile player like Douglas makes life difficult for other teams.
Senior forward Allie Tuttle and junior guard Maya Jonas also contributed, each notching their season high in points with 6 and 4, respectively.
But it appears that Jamison will be tasked as the primary backup to Inman for the time being. Despite her improved stats, McKeown said he hasn’t seen anything different of Jamison in practice.


We’ve looked at the average household income and age of residents in the Littlehampton area.
Bayford Road, Littlehampton. Average age of residents is 45, older than the national average of 39. Average household income of 27,000 pounds is around the national average.
River Road, Littlehampton. Average age of residents is 40, slightly older than the national average of 39. Average household income is around the national average of 27,000 pounds.
Linden Road, Littlehampton. Average age of residents is 37, slightly younger than the national average of 39. Average household income is around the national average of 27,000 pounds.
Courtwick Road, Littlehampton. Average age of residents is 42, slightly older than the national average of 39. Average household income of 30,000 is slightly higher than the national average.


ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Talented spinner Rashid Khan celebrated his 20th birthday by scoring a half-century and taking two wickets as Afghanistan upset Bangladesh by 136 runs in the Asia Cup yesterday.
Rashid scored a rapid unbeaten 32-ball 57 with eight fours and a six to lift Afghanistan to an imposing 255-7 after their captain Asghar Afghan won the toss and decided to bat at Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Rashid, who finished with 2-13 in nine overs and effected a run out, claimed the prized wickets of Shakib Al Hasan (32) and Mahmudullah Riyad (27) as Bangladesh were bundled out for 119 in 42.1 overs.
It was Afghanistan's second upset in the tournament following their 91-run win over Sri Lanka which sent the islanders crashing out in the first round.
Afghanistan next take on Pakistan in the double-header Super Four game in Abu Dhabi Friday while title holders India meet Bangladesh in Dubai.
Afghanistan rocked the Bangladesh top four for just 43 runs before Shakib and Riyad added 36 but they were not spared by Rashid, who became the fastest bowler to 100 one-day wickets in 44 games earlier this year.
This was Bangladesh's lowest total against Afghanistan by some distance — their previous lowest against the Afghans was 208 in Dhaka two years ago.
The whole Bangladesh innings had just five boundaries — two by Riyad and three by Mosaddek Hossain (26 not out).
“It was a very important game for us and I'll give a lot of credit to (Gulbadin) Naib and Rashid for their effort. Our top and middle order didn't play very well but thanks to God, Naib and Rashid did very well,” said Afghan.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza believed the game changed in the 40th over.
“Afghanistan outplayed us from the 40th over,” said Mashrafe. “They played really well and we didn't bowl well in the last 10 overs and batting wasn't up to the mark.
Earlier, Hashmatullah Shahidi hit a painstaking 58 to revive Afghanistan after they were jolted by left-arm spinner Shakib who finished with 4-42 in his ten overs.
Rashid used the long handle to the best effect, taking Afghanistan past the 250-mark, adding 90 for an unbroken eighth wicket stand with Gulbadin Naib who made 42 off 38 balls with five boundaries.


MICHAEL CARRICK believes Manchester United paid more money for him back in 2006.
Carrick joined Manchester United from Tottenham for a fee of £14m, rising to as much as £18.6m.
He has gone on to become an Old Trafford legend, winning the Premier League on five occasions.
But the move to United nearly didn't happen, as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy kept upping the asking price but in the end gave in.
"I actually went back in pre-season," Carrick said on Sky Sports.
"It dragged through the summer and I ended up going back to train with Tottenham for a couple of weeks.
"Daniel Levy to be fair to him got top dollar for me.
"It was way more than they should have paid really.
"I went to Tottenham and trained for a couple of weeks and in the end we got it done.
"It was about a week or two before the start of the season. I was delighted."


Aug. 25, 2018 3:59 PM PT4:59 PM MT5:59 PM CT6:59 PM ET22:59 GMT6:59 3:59 PM MST4:59 PM CST5:59 PM EST5:59 PM CT2:59 UAE (+1)18:59 ETNaN:� - Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said Marqise Lee will have season-ending knee surgery and be placed on injured reserve. Lee, who led the team in receptions in 2017, was carted off the field Saturday night after Atlanta Falcons cornerback Damontae Kazee delivered a helmet-first hit to his knee. Tests confirmed what everyone in the stadium expected after seeing Lee's knee buckle: The injury was severe.
Analysis: Lee is nearly a lock to be back with Jacksonville since his $7.25 million salary in 2019 is guaranteed. The Jaguars will miss him, although it's unclear how much considering Marrone's offensive philosophy features a smash-mouth ground attack.
Mar. 13, 2018 12:44 PM PT1:44 PM MT2:44 PM CT3:44 PM ET19:44 GMT3:44 12:44 PM MST1:44 PM CST2:44 PM EST1:44 PM CT23:44 UAE15:44 ETNaN:� - The Jaguars are re-signing Lee for four years and $38 million, $18 million of which is guaranteed.
Analysis: Lee has caught 119 passes over the past two seasons and despite totaling just six touchdowns in that span, he should see even more targets with Allen Robinson moving to Chicago.


President Obama's stunning victory on Thursday in the Supreme Court is a surprising validation of his dogged refusal to give ground on his 2008 campaign promise to provide health insurance for the millions of Americans who live in daily dread of disease or sickness. Just about everybody not on the White House staff expected a conservative high court to invalidate key parts of the law Obama pushed through Congress in 2010. But the president prevailed, dealing a severe blow to Republican hopes to ride "Obamacare" to big victories in November.
But before the White House gets too carried away in celebration, the reality is that the Court's decision, as historic as it is, does not guarantee the survival of the law that is the signature accomplishment of Obama's first term in office. This big legal victory gives the president a second chance to do what he flubbed the first time -- persuade the country that this is not a partisan exercise. For even after this decision, the health care law still is far from the permanent reform he envisioned when he hailed its passage as answering "the call of history." More than two years later, it remains deeply unpopular despite surviving this legal challenge. Its implementation faces threats of sabotage and its repeal is only as far away as the next election that empowers Republicans to keep their promises. And it is far from a sure political winner in the upcoming election.
This was not how the White House expected it to be. They believed that the country would come to like the new law once they saw that it provided them benefits and understood that it did not threaten their own health insurance plans. But what was an article of faith in 2010 and 2011 has run aground in 2012. Polling shows that individual components are popular. But, as indicated in an ABC News/Washington Post Poll released on Wednesday, that doesn't mean people like the overall bill any better. In fact, the survey, conducted June 20-24, shows that 52 percent dislike what has been dubbed "Obamacare" while only 36 percent view it favorably.
That the president now understands these numbers was evident from his statement in the East Room. In victory, he was restrained and serious -- no dancing in the end zone when the game is only in the third quarter. And there were certainly no claims that the law has been a political winner, only open acknowledgement that the long debate has been "divisive" and the wry observation that "it should be pretty clear by now that I didn't do this because it was good politics." He well knows the political challenges ahead.
Even on a day when the president's lawyers celebrate doing their job well, it is clear that most of these political and practical problems could have been averted or at least moderated if Obama had taken a different approach when he was crafting the legislation. He might have heard that "call from history." But he didn't heed the lessons of history. He was willing to be the first president since the Civil War to attempt to ram through a major social change "“ a program that would touch just about every American "“ on a party-line vote with no support in Congress from the opposing party. Full of hubris and with complete control of both Congress and the White House, the president's advisers did not feel the need for bipartisanship in 2009. They viewed it as a luxury, not a necessity.
Other presidents pushing big programs grasped the futility of trying to shut out the minority party. Even those who had large enough majorities to force their wishes on Congress understood that they needed their accomplishments to appear legitimate to the people and so survive the inevitable change in political cycles that would shift power in Washington. Certainly, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson understood that. Roosevelt settled for far less than he wanted in Social Security in 1935, complaining privately that it "had been chiseled down to a conservative pattern." But he won over 16 of the 21 Republicans in the Senate and 81 of the 96 Republicans in the House. In the next election, in 1936, those who campaigned to repeal Social Security seemed out of the mainstream. GOP presidential nominee Alf Landon was in a minority when he argued that the law was "unjust, unworkable, stupidly drafted, and wastefully financed." He lost all but two states.
That, added Hamilton who now heads the Center on Congress at Indiana University, "has to be the model." When you pass a major piece of legislation on a party-line vote, he said, "It makes it extremely difficult to implement the legislation effectively, because there are so many ways the opposition can interfere, disrupt, delay, or block the implementation of the legislation." Certainly, that has been the case with health care. And it remains a threat even after Thursday's Supreme Court ruling. Finding a way to win over some Republicans will be a major imperative after November's election.
The White House, of course, howls in protest at any suggestion the president did not make a good-faith effort to enlist Republicans. Aides point to the much-ballyhooed seven-hour bipartisan health care "summit" at Blair House in February 2010 and to repeated invitations to Republicans to come on board. But the process was flawed from the beginning when the White House left the writing of the bill to Democrats, gave little support to the "Gang of 14" or the "Gang of Six", and made it clear that there would be no give on medical-malpractice reform even though that could have wooed Republicans. And there was very little personal reaching out by the president to individual GOP members or senators.
But this Court decision, said former Democratic Rep. Tony Coelho, gives the president something he needed going into the election. "It makes him look strong and look like a leader," he said. "It helps diminish the notion that it is a partisan political deal." Coelho, who was in the House for 11 years representing a California district, was a House staffer when Medicare passed. He places the blame for the lack of Republican votes on the 2010 health care law on the early decision by GOP leaders to oppose anything the president offered. "Today's leadership has a hard time cutting deals with Democrats," he said.
Now, because of the Supreme Court, the pressure shifts back to Republicans to explain why they want to repeal a measure that the Court has judged to be constitutional and that offers some attractive things to voters. And the opportunity is there for Democrats to show skeptical voters "“ especially those crucial independents who now may be willing to take a second look "“ that there is something in this law for them.


A new study suggests that the death toll from drug overdoses in America is much more severe than initially believed.
In December, the CDC said 52,404 people had died from drug overdoses in 2015, with over 60% dying from opioids (prescription painkillers) and heroin. Overdose numbers have been rising for years, but new research published Monday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests that those rates were dramatically underreported.
One reason for the gap? In many overdose cases, no specific drug is identified as the cause on the death certificate. Between 1999 and 2014, up to one in four drug overdose deaths had no single drug listed as the cause.
That doesn't mean researchers who want to correct the figures are out of luck, however. Even in cases in which no specific drug is listed as the single cause of death, officials often do list at least one category of drug present in the person's body based on screenings they do at the time. For the latest study, the researchers used that information to correct the data they had on drug overdoses.
Nationally, the "corrected" death rate (using the new paper's method) from opioid painkillers was 24% greater than reported rates in 2014; the rate for heroin was 22% higher.
In the states where gaps between reported and actual death rates were greatest — Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Louisiana — the percentages differed by up to 108%.
These results change the face of the US drug overdose epidemic substantially, as can be seen on the maps below. Reported overdose deaths for opioids and heroin are on the left; corrected deaths are on the right.
The corrected figures suggest that deaths from opioids were much more concentrated in the Mountain states, Rust Belt, and Industrial North — extending to New England — as well as much of the South. Heroin deaths, on the other hand, were highest in the Northeast and Rust Belt states, but had less of an effect on the South or Mountain states.
"Current death certificate data are problematic for understanding the drug poisoning epidemic, with a particular issue being the frequency with which no specific drug is identified," wrote Christopher J. Ruhm, the author of the paper and a professor at the University of Virginia, in the paper.
The new analysis comes just four months after an investigation by a field officer for the CDC also suggested that the death toll was higher than originally believed.
Victoria Hall, a CDC field officer, and her Minnesota-based team reviewed a decade of death records submitted to the Minnesota Department of Health's Unexplained Death (UNEX) surveillance system.
Hall, who presented the results on Monday at a CDC conference, found that of the 1,676 UNEX deaths between 2006 and 2015, approximately 3.5% had some complications due to opioid use. Those deaths were never filed as opioid-related deaths, despite some autopsies showing toxic or even lethal levels of painkillers.
That's likely because the CDC classifies deaths using codes dictated by the Center's International Classification of Diseases. In some cases, if a person died due to an infectious disease, such as pneumonia, the death was classified for that only that condition, even if opioids were seen as a significant contributing factor.
"While my research cannot speak to what percent we are underestimating, we know we are missing cases," Hall told CNN. "It does seem like it is almost an iceberg of an epidemic."
The UNEX system, which began in 1995, originally included other states as well, but Minnesota is the only one that's currently maintaining its system.
Minnesota is far from the hardest-hit state in the opioid crisis, however — its overdose death rate ranks 45th in the US.
According to Hall, there is no national standard for how to file a death certificate or for what constitutes an overdose, leaving much to a medical examiner's discretion.


Route 106 in Canterbury was shut down briefly while the New Hampshire State Police worked on the scene of a commercial vehicle crash.
According to a press release, the vehicle exited the roadway while traveling northbound on Route 106 sometime Tuesday morning. The driver, Albert Toe, 36, attempted to regain control of the vehicle and crossed back over Route 106 before coming off the road on the southbound side.
Toe was transported to Concord Hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to the press release.
The vehicle was registered to Midnight Logistics, a carrier company out of Lowell, Mass. Police closed the route while clearing the vehicle and its cargo from the road. Route 106 was open by 10 a.m., according to police dispatch.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, although the press release states speed and alcohol do not appear to be factors.


China is developing a huge rocket that will be used for its first manned mission to the moon, state media said Monday, underscoring Beijing's increasingly ambitious space programme.
The first launch of the Long March-9 will take place around 2028, said the China Daily, which also cited experts saying the rocket's development is at the research stage.
It will carry a load of 130 tonnes, the newspaper added, equal to what NASA is aiming for with its Space Launch System (SLS), which aims to blast off for the first time in 2018 with an initial test payload of 70 tonnes.
The US space agency has touted its deep-space rocket as having "unprecedented lift capability".
Li Tongyu, head of aerospace products at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, told the newspaper: "Our current launch vehicles, including the Long March-5, which is set to conduct its first launch soon, will be able to undertake the country's space activities planned for the coming 10 years.
"But for the nation's long-term space programmes, their capabilities will not be enough."
Li said that the Long March-9's diameter and height would be far greater than the Long March-5, while its thrust would be more powerful.
"We need to develop a brand new engine for it to make sure the rocket has sufficient thrust," he said.
Li Jinghong, a designer at the academy, said the rocket would not only be used for missions to the Earth's only natural satellite, but also for other deep space exploration projects.
The vehicle's diameter "should be eight to 10 metres", and its weight "at least 3,000 metric tonnes", he said.
China currently has a rover, the Jade Rabbit, on the surface of the moon.
The craft, launched as part of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission late last year, has been declared a success by Chinese authorities, although it has been beset by mechanical troubles.


St. Johns County schools could find themselves in an unusual position of becoming a lifeline to high school student-athletes in Duval County this fall if an ominous proposal becomes a reality.
Recommendations sparked by a $90.9 million budget deficit prompted Duval County athletic director Jon Fox to propose eliminating 10 varsity high school sports.
As one of the fastest-growing school districts in the state, St. Johns County could very well find itself in position to absorb some of the spillover of the nearly 2,100 students who won't be able to compete in the sport that they did this past athletic season.
St. Johns County School District Superintendent Joseph Joyner said that the county would have to address some of the residuals from the Duval County situation, although that it would wait until the decisions were finalized before doing so. A vote on the proposed cuts, which include cross country, golf, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse and slow-pitch softball, will be June 13.
"Part of that is it's a little too early to tell what the impact is going to be ... are they going to be able to put some of those back through the help of some outside organizations, it's a little too early," he said. "We've been the fastest growing school district in the state the past four years (percentage-wise). Rapid growth and an influx of students is something we're used to. That's not going to change."
St. Johns County schools have increased their enrollment by an average of 922 students annually between 2007-2010, and that number could rise again if the scenario plays out in Duval County as it was presented this week. On Wednesday, Fox recommended to the school board that cutting 10 varsity sports would save $445,298.
That could send students scrambling for private schools or into surrounding counties to continue their careers. In addition to the high school sports, junior varsity soccer and two undetermined middle school sports will also be purged. According to the Florida Times-Union, the high school cuts alone would eliminate sports that 2,054 athletes competed in during the 2010-11 year.
Florida High School Athletic Association executive director Roger Dearing said that if the situation in Duval County plays out as is being projected, students couldn't just pick up and leave a program because of a sport not being offered there anymore.
"We would not ease the transfer rules," said Dearing, referring to Article 9 in the FHSAA bylaws about which covers student eligibility.
"They can't put on their application that they want to go to school in St. Johns County to play lacrosse. If that happened, that would be something that would make them ineligible. I probably will get some inquires (about students transferring). I'm hoping ... I'm hoping the board finds another way of staving it off. You have to make priorities somewhere. Sports are a very vital part of education for high school students, but it's not what the schools are there for. You've got to put education first."
School districts from around the state have differing limits on accepting out-of-district transfers, although St. Johns states on its website that it "will not accept any requests for students residing outside of St. Johns County unless they are children of St. Johns County School Board employees."
"Just with the announcement (on Wednesday), to really predict what's going to happen, whether we'll have an impact in scheduling or in transfers, I don't really think we can even predict," Joyner said.


Rami, a Syrian refugee, plans to become a physician in America. I want to hire him. But senseless paperwork has our plans on hold.
Rami Sakaan just wants to be a doctor. He is a smart, gentle spirit with a kind heart. I would be eager to hire him at Church Health, but it is not that easy.
He grew up in Aleppo, Syria, where he fell in love with wanting to help people through medicine.
In 2011, he had completed four years of his six-year medical training program (that is the way it is done in British-influenced countries) when things began to fall apart in Syria. Inspired by the pro-democracy movement, a group of school boys in Syria began writing anti-government slogans on walls.
The government reacted by rounding up the boys and torturing them. Protests broke out. The Syrian civil war had begun.
Through the early days of the war, Rami kept going to school. Then one day, for who knows what reason, he was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in a dark basement. His family had no idea what had happened to him or where he was. He was just gone.
His cell was too small to lie down. He was fed once a day. He could hear other prisoners being tortured. After three months, he had lost 60 pounds. He was then asked, “Are you sorry for what you did?” He hadn’t done anything, but he said, “I am sorry.” And just like that he was let go.
His parents knew they had to leave Syria. They escaped through Lebanon and came to where they had family in Memphis.
Rami arrived in Memphis in 2012. He did not speak a word of English, so he took ESL classes at the University of Memphis and spent a year learning English. His desire to be a doctor had not waned.
Because Rami had never graduated from college in a U.S. system, attending an American medical school was not an option. So he applied to a school in the Caribbean. He effectively had to start over, but he was determined, and he did very well.
I met him through his cousin who cooks wonderful Syrian food at the Global Café at Crosstown Concourse. I was shocked when I learned that this truly remarkable young doctor was stymied in moving on in his training to become a resident physician because of his circuitous path through medical school. His credentials do not match up the “proper way,” so training programs, including the one based at Church Health, are prohibited from offering him a position.
In Rami’s case, I cannot even blame the bank. It would be a true tragedy except for his remarkable spirit. He doesn’t blame anyone, not even his captors in Syria. He is just determined to be a doctor who will serve those who are un-served, either in Memphis or back in Syria.
There is some good news. A small hospital in the middle of Mississippi has found a way around the paperwork obstacles. If I am right, come March 15, there will be a way forward for Rami and his dream to become a physician. Until it actually happens, I will offer a prayer for him every day.
The issue is not just Rami. There are refugees, displaced workers, and victims of poverty all around us who have great talent that is going unrealized. We need those talents in Memphis, yet artificial barriers prevent these individuals from becoming fully engaged citizens.
We need everyone operating at their highest level of ability for Memphis to be fully extracted from the throes of poverty. It shouldn’t matter where someone is born as long as she or he desires to work to improve our city. We have people with skills and abilities that must be put to work. We have more talent in this city than we realize. It is just that much of that talent is not being fully utilized. I hope we can begin to change that reality.
I feel blessed that God put Rami in my path. His grace and determination are inspiring to me. I believe that in a few years he will be a leading physician in Memphis. Yet the fact remains that as of today, Rami is a young, well-trained physician working part-time at a job well below his skill level.
How does this make any sense, when we need young professionals willing to help Memphis grow and thrive?
Dr. Scott Morris is CEO of Church Health, which provides affordable healthcare to uninsured working people and their families, and gives people tools to live healthier lives. For information, visit churchhealth.org.


DANANG, Vietnam — Alex Huff is hard to miss among the dozens of children in the cafeteria at Phan Thanh elementary school. Blond-haired, blue-eyed and towering over his classmates, his legs are so long that his knees nearly touch his chest as he sits at a plastic table slurping up beef-noodle soup and milk.
In a city that was home to one of the largest U.S. air bases of the Vietnam War, in a school where the portrait of the late communist leader Ho Chi Minh hangs on the wall, 11-year-old Alex is a symbol of how even the deepest wounds can heal. But it goes further than that.
His Vietnamese is so good that he has astonished the country by placing second in a national storytelling competition that is as prestigious here as the National Spelling Bee in the United States. He is believed to be the first foreigner to do it.
Since kindergarten, Alex has been the lone Westerner surrounded by a sea of Vietnamese children. His parents, Bob and Kathleen Huff, moved here more than five years ago from DeQueen, Ark., to work with disabled children. With no international school in the area, they enrolled their son in a kindergarten where no English was spoken. He later spent two years in a school in Hanoi before the family moved back to Danang.
At first, it was hard. The other children, who had rarely seen a Westerner, liked to stare as he labored over his lessons, or to rush up and touch his skin. Then he discovered that in Vietnam, too, they play tag and hide-and-seek, and he started to make friends.
But Vietnamese is devilishly hard to master. Although its alphabet is Romanized, it has six distinct tones, each of which can change the meaning of a word. The tones are what give the language its singsong musicality.
Americans started arriving in Vietnam in the 1990s as the country sought, like China, to open up to market forces without abandoning communist one-party rule. Some, like the Huffs, came to work with children. Others came to do business.
After signing a pact normalizing trade relations in 2001, the United States and Vietnam last year had record two-way trade totaling about $2 billion. Companies like Nike have turned “Made in Vietnam” into a fixture in American malls, and Vietnam ships a lot of seafood to the U.S. market.
Today, an estimated 2,700 Americans live in Vietnam, mostly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, which both offer international schools. Danang in central Vietnam, 470 miles south of Hanoi, doesn’t have that option. So Alex’s three-story school next to an old Buddhist temple is an open-air affair with no air conditioning to keep the heat and humidity at bay.
Danang was a base from which American warplanes took off for combat during the Vietnam War. Viet Cong guerrillas regularly rocketed the Marines’ helicopter base a few miles to the south.
Now the streets that once teemed with U.S. soldiers offer everything from Internet cafes to tour companies and clothing shops. The city of 700,000 is a constant symphony of construction noise, swarms of beeping motorbikes and people chatting or eating on the sidewalks.
Overlooking China Beach, once a favorite for GIs on leave, is the five-star Furama Resort hotel with marble floors and tiled swimming pools.
Yet Danang maintains a small-town charm. A typical sight is schoolgirls on bicycles wearing the traditional ao dais, a flowing white tunic.
Alex says he feels most at home in Vietnam.
Le Nguyen Van Anh and Alex were close friends from the start, and both received high enough grades to go to the school of their choice next year. She was the top student, while Alex wowed the judges at the storytelling competition with a tale about a leper who finally became accepted in her village after the people there came to understand that it wasn’t ghosts that had nibbled away her fingers and toes.
Alex’s father, Bob Huff, says that was part of the reason the family moved here. He headed an Army helicopter crew in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. Although he has buried a lot of bad memories, he says, he has never forgotten the children.
The couple came here with World Concern, a Seattle-based international Christian organization, but they now are working independently, hoping to set up a school for deaf children. They say their son will continue in Vietnamese public schools for now but likely will go to an international high school to move away from rote learning and more toward critical thinking.


Foxview Farm Estates building site. Panoramic lake, sunset and countryside views. Located only ten minutes outside Charlevoix. Beautiful large building site with paved drive overlooking the quaint village of Norwood. Located in an area of beautiful newer homes near sandy Lake Michigan beach access. 50 acres of common area for property owners..


Earning itself instant fame with a couple world records.
Jumping aboard the llano bandwagon ahead of the APU launch, MSI has announced its A75 powered mainboard today in the "A75MA-G55" which has been given the Military Class II treatment (comprising MSI's Hi-c CAPs, Super Ferrite Chokes and Solid caps) which both improves overall lifespan and helps in lowering power consumption as well as giving a more solid, reliable platform.
Using the mATX form factor, the board packs a good array of features for its size including enough USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps ports to keep you content, HDMI and DVI output, 7.1 channel audio and proprietory features from MSI including their UEFI based Click BIOS, OC Genie II for easy one click overclocking and i-Charger Apple friendly charging support.
To really put this board in a good light, however, is the fact that a high ranking overclocker known as Toppc (who recently won MSI's ultimate overclocking championship (MOA) in Taiwan), has gotten a hold of this board to see just what it's capable of; and it turns out quite a lot. SO much so, this board has helped him break several world records for the best performing IGP platform in existance as it stands now.
Not only did Toppc manage to get the highest result in 3DMark 11 with this board (scoring 1646 points), but also in 3DMark 06 with a score of 11676. You can read more about these achievements using MSI's A75MA-G55 on their website.
For further details on the board, you can view the full press release here.


Olga and her husband Denis are looking forward to their second child. Their first son was born underweight and Olga worries that the same could happen again. Evgenia and Ilya are expecting their first child, and both are nervous. As her time draws near, scans reveal that the baby is in distress and an emergency C-section is needed.


It’s National Burger Day and you’ve had your say on the best places in the county to indulge. These are some of the restaurants and burger joints that you said serve the best burgers.
This American-style chain diner has two restaurants in Norwich, one on Mousehold Heath and another on Barrack Street.
Famous for their chargrilled burgers and with cosy booth seats, Zaks has been named by our readers as one of the best places in Norfolk to get a burger.
This burger van and grill restaurant serve American-style burgers with vegetarian options available. They also serve hotdogs, filled baguettes and basket meals but it’s their burgers that you recommend.
This fast-food chain restaurant opened in Norwich in 2016 and has clearly made an impression in the two years it’s been in the city.
Five Guys’ headquarters may be in America, but the casual chain with a focus on hamburgers has been recommended as one of Norfolk’s best bets for a tasty burger.
Not a burger joint per se, but a hotel with a pub and restaurant. Nevertheless Black Boys Inn in Aylsham was suggested as a local place where you can get a great burger.
Perhaps most famous for its chicken wings, Gonzo’s Tea Room has also been recommended for its burger billings. With an extensive burger menu including vegetarian Halloumi burgers, fans of the filled bun are sure to enjoy a trip to Gonzo’s.
This chain very much has a focus on quality burgers, so it’s not surprising that you recommended them as one of the best places to get a burger in Norfolk.
Located just outside of Chapelfield, if shopping makes you hungry it’s a great place to nip into.
Gourmet burgers washed down with craft beer seems a popular combination as Craft Burger in Cromer was recommended as a great place to celebrate national burger day.
Craft Burger pride themselves on using fresh farm-sourced ingredients and have a spacious restaurant to enjoy their food in.
This chain just outside Chapelfield does a wide variety of internationally inspired food. Its eclectic menu doesn’t mean they neglect a classic burger however, with you recommending them as one of the best places to enjoy the American staple.
Did your favourite burger restaurant make it onto the list? Let us know in the comments.


(Reuters) - The uncle of a drowned Syrian toddler whose body pictured on a Turkish beach three months ago prompted worldwide sympathy for the plight of the region’s refugees, arrived in Canada with his family on Monday.
CBC Television broadcast the arrival of Mohammad Kurdi, his wife and five children in Vancouver, where they had an emotional reunion with his sister Tima Kurdi. She lives in British Columbia and sponsored the family’s relocation to Canada.
The family chanted: “Thank you Canada” shortly after being reunited.
“I am happy, very happy,” Mohammad Kurdi told reporters at the city’s main airport.
The family came to prominence in September after a photograph of the tiny body of Alan Kurdi, face down in the surf of a Turkish beach, appeared in newspapers around the world. Alan was originally reported to be 3 years old, but some subsequent reports said he was 2.
The image brought international attention to the refugee crisis and sparked outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations to deal with the issue.
The child’s brother and mother were among those who died when two boats capsized as they tried to cross the waters from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos. The children’s father, Abdullah, who is Mohammad Kurdi’s brother, survived.
Tima Kurdi said at the time she had tried to sponsor Mohammad to come to Canada but was not successful. She had hoped to sponsor Alan and his family next.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government came under fire after it emerged the family had wanted to emigrate to Canada. The Conservatives lost the October election to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which pledged to swiftly bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees.
Tima Kurdi told reporters she was thankful to Trudeau “for opening the door” and showing other countries how do deal with the refugee crisis.
Earlier this month, Trudeau was in Toronto to greet the first planeload of Syrian refugees sponsored by the Canadian government.


Four persons, including the Chief of Sayeegu, have been confirmed dead in a renewed land dispute between the Sayeegu and Sambiluk communities, near Nakpanduri Township in the Bunkprugu/Yunyoo district of the Northern Region.
Chairman of the Northern Regional Security Council and Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed confirmed the situation to citifmonline.com.
A teacher, the Sayeegu chief’s brother and the chief’s son are the other deceased, who died early hours of Sunday April 30, 2017.
They were killed on their farmland over a parcel of land which has been a bone of contention between two rival Bimoba clans in the Nakpanduri enclave.
According to the Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed, the Regional Security Council has rapidly responded to the situation by sending reinforcements to the area to avert any spillover.
He called for a ceasefire and urged the combatants to adopt dialogue as the panacea to resolve their grievances.


President David Granger yesterday said that Guyana needs the assurance from UN Secretary General António Guterres that the deadline fixed for the referral of the Venezuela border controversy to the World Court will be met.
Granger was speaking with reporters yesterday during the lead up to the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he is scheduled to deliver an address.
According to a Ministry of the Presidency release yesterday, Granger met in New York with Commonwealth Secretary General, Baroness Patricia Scotland and raised the matter of the border controversy during their discussions.
He said that Guyana needs the assurance that Guterres will abide by the commitment that was made by former Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) if an agreement is not reached between the two countries by December 2017. Ban had set the deadline after Guyana pressed for a juridical settlement of the controversy saying that decades of the UN Good Officer process had produced no results and had emboldened Venezuela in interfering with Guyana’s development. Venezuela on the other hand has been pressing for a continuation of the Good Officer process. Ban decided that the Good Officer process would continue for 2017 and if there was no progress the matter would be referred to the ICJ which is also known as the World Court.
“The present Secretary General, António Guterres has appointed the person, Mr. [Dag] Nylander who has been working between the capitals of Caracas and Georgetown and of course reporting back to the Secretary General. Here in New York, I am looking forward to meeting with Secretary General Mr. Gutteres to get an update on the work of Mr. Nylander and also to get the Secretary General’s view on how the legacy or testament of Mr. Ban Ki-moon can be actually implemented. I raised this matter with the Secretary General of the Commonwealth because over the last 50 years the Commonwealth has given its support on that territorial matter,” President Granger said.
Granger is slated to address the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly today. He is listed as the fifth speaker on the agenda.


For Ben Nichols — singer, songwriter and front man of veteran Memphis roots rock band Lucero — life has become dramatically different over the last few years, bringing with it a marriage and his first child. As he explains how all this has affected him — personally and creatively — you can hear his daughter in the background running around getting ready to celebrate her 2nd birthday.
That kind of emotional maturity and perspective colors Lucero’s ninth and latest album, “Among the Ghosts,” due out Aug. 3.
After stints on major labels Universal and ATO, the band — Nichols, guitarist Brian Venable, bassist John C. Stubblefield, drummer Roy Berry and keyboardist Rick Steff — self-financed its latest album and will release it on their own Liberty & Lament imprint (which is distributed through Thirty Tigers). The disc arrives as Lucero marks 20 years together.
The making of “Among the Ghosts” brought changes to the band’s working methodology. Lucero’s last three LP were cut at Midtown’s Ardent studio with British producer Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Old Crow Medicine Show) behind the board. This time, the band elected to move to Sam Phillips Recording Service and co-produce the album themselves with local Grammy-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang.
“Phillips is actually two doors down from our practice space,” Nichols says. “We’d worked there before, with [legendary producer] Roland Janes back in the day. But this time, we wanted to take a different approach to how we made it as compared to the last few records, and do it in a little bit more of a laid-back Memphis environment with Matt, who’s a Memphis kid.
Rather than work for several weeks straight, the band instead did a series of hit and run sessions between tours: 10 days to start, then three days here, another five days there.
The disc also marks the first project without sax man Jim Spake, who left after several years and records as part of an expanded Lucero lineup.
“Lucero has always been the kind of band that adapts to whatever is available at the time,” Nichols says. “When the horns were there, it was a lot of fun, and we were after that Stax Records soulful direction. But Spake didn’t want to be on the road anymore, so we ended up being back to a five piece — the four original members and [keyboardist] Rick Steff, who’s been with us for over 10 years now.
Nichols notes there is a shared influence and inspiration between him and his younger cinematic sibling. “There’s been some crossover there for sure. With this record, I was making a conscious effort to write from a perspective other than mine. To work on the craft of storytelling and expand my viewpoint — which is not easy. I was looking to a bunch of short story writers, like Larry Brown and Ron Rash, and filmmakers like my little brother. So he definitely influenced me. And, I dunno, I have a feeling it works both ways,” he says, laughing.
With the record imminent, Lucero is ramping up to hit the road. Next week, on the day the album comes out, the band will headline a show at Red Rocks in Colorado. They’ll follow that with a full U.S. tour in the fall. They will play their only Memphis date at the Mempho Music Fest at Shelby Farms Park in early October. A UK tour will follow in December — which means the band will skip its annual Christmas show at Minglewood Hall this year — before heading to the rest of Europe and Australia in early 2019.
Lucero’s “Among the Ghosts” is out Aug. 3 on Liberty & Lament/Thirty Tigers.
For more information, visit Luceromusic.com.


A legal statute, which provides for the payment of stamp duty in case of all real estate transactions to duty to the local government. The value of the stamp duty depends on the rental payable and the lease term or the sale value as the case may be. This duty is paid by purchasing non judicial Indian Stamp Paper, on which the lease/sale agreements are documented.


NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the alliance will discuss this week its “next steps" in response to Russia's continued violation of a key Cold War-era nuclear arms-control agreement, as well as its presence in the Black Sea region in the face of Russian “aggressive behavior."
NATO foreign ministers will gather in the U.S. capital on April 4 to mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of Western military alliance’s founding Washington Treaty.
The talks are expected to focus largely on relations with Russia, which have been severely strained over a variety of issues including Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and its support for separatist militants in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has cost some 13,000 lives over five years.
Stoltenberg told journalists in Brussels on April 1 that the NATO ministers will “begin by addressing NATO's relations with Russia,” which he said “continues to violate” the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
The INF Treaty, the first of its kind to eliminate an entire class of missiles, banned the United States and Russia from developing, producing, and deploying ground-launched cruise or ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
The United States in February suspended participation in the bilateral accord because of what it says is Russia's development and deployment of a missile system that violates the pact. Moscow, which denies the accusation, later followed suit.
“These missiles are hard to detect, lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, and make us all less safe,” Stoltenberg said. “Russia continues to defy our calls to return to compliance with the INF Treaty, and time is running out, so we will discuss NATO’s next steps."
He has said that the alliance has no plan to deploy new ground-launched nuclear weapons in Europe.
Stoltenberg said the measures will include the training of maritime forces and coastguards, port visits, exercises, and sharing of information.
NATO is “concerned by Russia's pattern of aggressive behavior, including its ongoing actions against Ukraine and the seizure” of three Ukrainian vessels and their 24 crew members near the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in November.
NATO has demanded the immediate release of the detained crew members, as well as free access for Ukrainian vessels to the country's ports in the Sea of Azov.
The ministers will also discuss “ways to continue to build our deterrence and defense against Russian aggression, whether it is hybrid, cyber or chemical warfare," the U.S. ambassador added.
NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism and the ongoing issue of defense spending are also expected to be high on the agenda of the April 4 Washington meeting.
On April 2, Stoltenberg is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and address Congress.


What time GARIB NAWAJ EXP depart from किशन गंज Railway Station?
GARIB NAWAJ EXP (15715) departs from किशन गंज Railway Station at 06:00.
How much time GARIB NAWAJ EXP take to reach अजमेर जं. Railway Station?
GARIB NAWAJ EXP reach on day 3 to अजमेर जं. Railway Station. The arrival time of GARIB NAWAJ EXP at अजमेर जं. Railway Station is 21:45.
Distance covered by GARIB NAWAJ EXP?
GARIB NAWAJ EXP covers 1835 km to reach अजमेर जं. Railway Station at average speed of 47 km/hr. GARIB NAWAJ EXP passes through 28 stations.


Here’s to you, Mr. Ticket Writer!
Stay at Home Monster or Working Mommy?


NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods are about as far apart as can be on the leaderboard after one round of the Hero World Challenge.
Only they know how close they are after the Ryder Cup fallout.
Reed showed no sign of fatigue in his travels from Dubai to Hong Kong to the Bahamas in successive weeks, making birdie on three of his last five holes Thursday for a 7-under 65 and a share of the lead with late-entry Patrick Cantlay.
Woods was never under par at any point and opened with a 73, eight shots behind, tied for 16th in an 18-man field.
Reed’s comments after Europe won the Ryder Cup still follow him. In a phone interview with The New York Times hours after the loss, Reed blamed Jordan Spieth for them not playing together, U.S. captain Jim Furyk for twice leaving him on the bench and he made it sound as though he was stuck with Woods as a partner in Paris.
This is one time Reed held his tongue.
After his eighth and final birdie in balmy weather at Albany Golf Club, he acknowledged nothing more than they had talked.
“Whatever I talk about with other players and other guys stays between the guys,” Reed said.
He also said he hasn’t spoken to Furyk, and Reed told the New York Post on Tuesday that he hasn’t spoken to Spieth, but that Spieth has his number.
But there’s a Presidents Cup in between, next December in Australia, and while the intensity is not the same, the team concept is intact. And it could get even more awkward considering Woods is the captain.
“I don’t think anything needs to be resolved,” Reed said.
Reed is used to going about life is own way, and he’s not about to made any apologies. He just wants to play good golf, and there was plenty of that on a day that allowed for low scoring. All but three players were at par or better.
Woods was not one of them. His return to tournament competition didn’t start nearly as well as his last one ended.
The World Challenge is his first 72-hole event since he won the Tour Championship at East Lake on Sept. 23, the end of a remarkable comeback season from a fourth back surgery that signaled Woods was capable of winning again.
Woods has been battling a fever. He says his ankles were sore from wear and tear, an issue he says has been around for a few months. On the golf course, he didn’t hit it close enough or make enough putts, leading to only his third round over par in his last 21 rounds.
Woods made consecutive birdies to get back to even par, and then it came undone on the par-3 12th when his tee shot went left, just inside a hazard line but still in play. But the chip came out short, rolled down the bank and past his feet into the water. He took a penalty drop, got it on the green and missed the putt to take triple bogey.
What happens this week is of little consequence.
Most players, except for European Tour members who two weeks ago finished the Race to Dubai, haven’t played in a month and won’t play for another month when the new year starts in Hawaii.
Reed was an exception. He is playing his 30th event of the year, which includes the Ryder Cup. He was runner-up in Dubai and middle-of-the-pack in Hong Kong, arrived in the Bahamas and found his swing in good order.
Cantlay hasn’t played since a 63-65 weekend in Las Vegas on Nov. 4. He was planning to take the rest of the year off, especially after going to Miami the following week to have sinus surgery, giving him a couple of weeks without a club in his hand.
He had never been to the Bahamas, much less Albany, but figured out how to score. Cantlay’s big finish began with a 9-iron out of the waste area to 5 feet on the 13th. He also atoned for a bad drive on the par-5 15th by making a 25-footer, and he holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th before finishing with a 9-iron to 12 feet.
He had the only bogey-free round, and better yet, made seven birdies. Cantlay and Jon Rahm are donating $500 for every birdie this week to “California Strong” to help those affected by the wildfires.


On the morning of August 12, 2015, residents of a predominately Jewish neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas awoke to swastikas, Ku Klux Klan and other anti-Semitic graffiti spray-painted on their cars and homes.
At the epicenter of the rampage sits Congregation Rodfei Sholom, an Orthodox synagogue that is the spiritual home for over 300 families, led by Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg. When news of the anti-Semitic vandalism surfaced, the rabbi immediately received a visit from one of his closest friends.
A world-renowned Evangelical pastor, Hagee’s telecasts on Global Evangelism Television reach over 150 million homes in the United States. These days, Hagee may be equally well known for his support of Israel and the Jewish people.
Nearly ten years ago, Hagee founded Christian United For Israel. Today, CUFI is the largest pro-Israel organization in the world with over 2.5 million members. But without Rabbi Scheinberg, there would never have been a CUFI and nearly $100 million raised to help the people of Israel.
Sitting with the pastor, the rabbi, and CUFI Communications Director Ari Morgenstern, the love and joy in the room were undeniable. Exchanging beaming smiles that lit up the room, Hagee and Scheinberg greet each other and embrace with a hug that could break a rib.
The pastor and rabbi first met in 1981. At the time, Hagee approached the Jewish Federation in San Antonio about his desire to host a Night to Honor Israel.
“The Jewish community was vetting me out of concerns about my agenda,” Hagee explained.
I asked how CUFI’s work would be impacted today if Scheinberg hadn’t given his blessing to Hagee’s idea.
“There would never have been a Night to Honor Israel or a Christians United For Israel that now has over 2.5 million members. And if we hadn’t been successful in that first meeting, $95 million for humanitarian causes would never have been donated to Israel,” said Hagee.
After that first Night to Honor Israel, Rabbi Scheinberg began accompanying the pastor and his congregation on trips to Israel.
Hagee’s motives have been questioned ever since his first outreach to the Jewish community nearly 35 years ago. Detractors of Christian support for Israel would perhaps sing a different tune if they understood the acts of loving-kindness flowing from this relationship.
Pastor Hagee’s work supporting Israel and the Jewish people has at times been met with contempt and mistrust. He describes the beginning of his pro-Israel work as “a constant barrage of religious artillery designed to obliterate everything I was trying to do.” Receiving grief from both sides, Christians would ask him impatiently, “When are you going to convert the Jewish people?” And Jews wanted to know when Hagee was going to try and convert them.
Hagee has learned to grow a thick skin over the years. He has withstood threats against his life, a bomb scare at that first Night to Honor Israel, and his car windows being shot out.
Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.


The zero-day bug is a universal cross-site scripting issue. Google tipped their hand on this yesterday.
Adobe today released an update for Flash Player which fixes 5 critical vulnerabilities and an important universal cross-site scripting issue that they report is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks.
The last vulnerability being universal, all versions of Flash Player are affected. Updates are available now for Adobe Flash Player 10.3.183.7 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris, and Adobe Flash Player 10.3.186.6 and earlier versions for Android. The new versions are 10.3.183.10 for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris; 10.3.186.7 for Android.
Some time soon you can expect updates to Acrobat and Reader, as those products incorporate full Flash Player functionality, although only for the 5 critical vulnerabilities. Adobe says that the Flash component in Adobe Reader and Acrobat is not affected by the cross-site scripting bug that is being exploited in the wild.
Google made this fix available for Chrome in an update yesterday.


Less so with combining two or three departments maybe, but you think going from three fire administrations down to one wouldn't save money? I think it would.
And in Tri Cities WA their auto aid fire agreement is between 8-9 fire agencies with 8-9 fire administrations. I know they could sabe fire admin money going from 8-9 fire admins down to one.
Without a detailed study of what it would require, I don?t think that?s a given.
Many of those smaller WA fire districts run a lean administration. There is a chief and a secretary. Budgeting and payment of vouchers is done by the board of fire commissioners, and they don?t get all that much for their monthly meetings.
Also, regional ?authorities? that have the ability to levy taxes and fees are not very accountable to the voter. If a local fireboard goes a bit nuts on the expenses, locals will show up at the meeetings and make noise. Regional entities are good at removing themselves from accountability.
I think fire admins push fire auto aid over joining forces totally, just to save their jobs.
Again, you are barking up the wrong tree. Your issue is that you want a regional department, not that there is something wrong with automatic mutual aid.
AMA is all we do. Our run-cards are created by a GIS based on road miles, not via back-room deals and personal animosities. A fire in some corners of the county may draw a response from three different counties and a military base. Everyone works off a fairly standardized set of SOGs and we all have p25 radios that talk to each other. No citizen has ever complained that the third due engine at his house fire was paid for by the taxpayers of the neighboring county. It?s a give and take. Sure, through quirks of geography and historic station locations, some departments give more MA than they receive, but all that can be dealt with via compacts and MOUs.
The thing wrong with auto aid is that it only merges firefighters into one response and not the fire admins. Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians.
And also taxpayers in auto aid deals never seem to pay the same in tax dollars for the all for one auto aid fire response. Making one or more taxpayer groups subsidize another. You think it's fair for different taxpayer groups to pay different taxes for the same all for one auto aid response.
The deal was done back room style way before dispatch and run cards got involved. You think your taxpayers even know about run cards, GIS so forth and so on. Keep it real.
Last edited by Bigjohn24; 09-07-2018, 12:08 AM.
Of course it merges the leadership as well. In those small departments, the ?chief? also functions as company officer. So you may end up with a couple of chief level officers at incident scene. As long as everyone falls in line, that?s not really a problem.
You seem to be the only one who cares about that. I don?t even know how our neighboring counties pay for their fire protection, neither do I care. They may use general fund money, a property levy or a service fee. Makes no difference to me. Their helmet has a number on it and the engine comes with water and three guys who know how to spray it, that?s all I care about at a scene.
Why would they care ? When they call 911 they want an ambulance or a fire truck to pull into their driveway. Whether that truck is red, yellow or lime green and whether the FFs wear the neighboring towns or military base patch on their turnouts makes no difference to them.
You don't think all taxpayers should all pay the same for an auto aid all for one fire response? That's not fair to taxpayers or lets some taxpayers get by on the cheap. That's not good. Is it?
If you merged, annexed or created a new fire district then all taxpayers would pay the same for the same fire service. Seems fair to me.
And if you have asked the question why give me so much crap for discussing it here?
Okay this post is proof that you are just an obtuse argumentative azz. I explained VERY clearly how multiple communities that created a consolidated fire department, that I am VERY familiar with, do NOT pay equally for the fire service based on assessed evaluation of their community. Yet you seem to be either ignoring it or just too stupid to understand it. So NO the taxpayers of the different communities do NOT pay the same for fire protection under consolidation.
You aren't discussing anything. You are pontificating and refusing to acknowledge any other point of view or information that disagrees with yours.
One could almost think he is a politician. Just repeat your incorrect 'fact' over and over until 50.5% of the participants in the next election believe it to be true.
Unless you finance your fire protection through a uniform utility fee, different property owners are going to pay different amounts for it. Whether you are in a single fire district or a regional fire authority.
California is a good example of consolidation gone awry. Every year you can follow the squabbles when regional fire authorities squash local fire districts and city fire departments in their insatiable quest to increase their tax base and justify their administrator salaries. 140k/year for an operational chief officer is going to look quaint compared with the numbers at play there.
I have never seen folks so afraid to discuss the pitfalls of auto aid compared to lawful mergers, annexations, creating new fire districts or even regional fire authorities. All requiring voter approval.
Auto aid deals do not require a vote of the people.and have all the different taxpayer groups paying different amounts of tax dollars for the same all for one fire service. Doesn't sound fair to me. How about you?
Auto aid deals also only merge the fire response, but not the fire admins. The voter approved ways of joining fire rescue services also merges fire administrations. And many fire admins are costly. Why have redundant Fire Admins?
I'm just a retired firefighter that gives a crap. Obviously the naysayers here are the bureaucracy I speak of and they want all the Fire Bureaucracy they can get. Have fun with that. I give a crap about fairness to Taxpayers. And if merging firefighters in different fire agencies is done, then merging their fire admins should be done too. .
One could think you're an idiot Tooold and fyredup too. Speculate on what you don't know much tooold? That's a fool's play.
Last edited by Bigjohn24; 09-07-2018, 10:12 AM.
No you haven't but please do explain.
How did these communities consolidate? Was there a vote of the people creating one new fire agency? If there was a new all for one fire department created, all the taxpayers should pay the same taxes for their new consolidated fire district or department.. In Washington State all taxpayers of a lawfully consolidated fire rescue service, that was voter approved, would all pay the same money per $1000 assessed value to support the newly consolidated fire department.
You are the idiot and argumentative azz Chief. Obviously.
Are you that stupid really? All taxpayers should pay the same money per $1000 assessed value. The owner of a $500 K home pays 5 times as much as the owner of a $100 K home and a $5 million business pays ten times more in taxes than the owner of a $500 K Home.
And I have never seen an auto aid agreement adjust the money per $1000 assessed value tax rates of all taxpayers involved in the all for one fire response auto aid deal. Unlike the other lawful ways of consolidating fire services that are voter approved and have all taxpayers involved paying the same money per $1000 assessed Value for the same fire service..
Utility fee required to have all taxpayers pay the same. Get real.
Last edited by Bigjohn24; 09-07-2018, 10:37 AM.
The "same money per $1000 assessed value"? How is that fair? The guy with the $200,000 property would pay half of what the guy with the $400,000 property pays. How is that "the same"? Is one of them getting twice as much service? There is very little equality or fairness in taxing in this country. State or federal income tax and property taxes based on assessed value are not inherently fair. A flat fee would be fair but don't hold your breath.
Your point here about merging and consolidating likely applies in many, many areas of this country. I know it applies where I live. But it's 100% volunteer so the financial pain is not as bad as it could be. And you also make a fair point that a department that can't handle a house fire without help from another department has failed in it's mission. Time is the enemy here. Help that does not arrive within the appropriate window is not really helpful. Reinforcements must arrive before the battle has already been lost. We have guys here talking about help coming from the next county over. How much impact will they really have?
The clear answer would be larger fire departments for all. This is what we should have, at least from a purely firefighting perspective. But it will not satisfy your quest to save money or lower taxes. It would do just the opposite in fact. And in a big way. The public/taxpayer will not support it. They will be told and have been told "don't worry, we have aid". Which is exactly what they really want to hear because it relieves them of digging into their pockets.
I believe that merging three well run departments would not save a ton of money. Supervision, leadership, training and support would all still be required. More units with more firefighters requires more of all of those things. And large departments covering large areas need intermediate levels of command. You need command staff, unit supervision, apparatus and firefighters to handle multiple events simultaneously. Large areas of coverage make simultaneous events more likely.
Aside from the response time aspect, one could make the argument that the current aid system is more efficient than merging would be. From a financial standpoint there is little doubt. Because we are basically gambling that we will be OK.
Each community will assess property differently. Even if you have a uniform fee for a fire district it is generally based on the 5 of the assessment. If the assessment in each community is different, hence the amount that folks will pay will be different.
For example in this area, property is assessed at a much higher value in Bossier City as it is in Bossier Parish. If we had a Parish wide fire department, the folks in the city would pay more in fire taxes than the folks in the parish for the exact same property, because the assessment, on which the fire taxes are based, is higher.
Last edited by LaFireEducator; 09-07-2018, 10:45 AM.
Wow, how to make friends and influence people 101 I guess. If someone doesn't buy the argument you are putting forward, just call them stupid :thumbsup: .
You are telling me right there that they are paying widely different amounts. There is nothing fair about assessing the cost for a fire service based on the value of the property. A single family dwelling on a waterfront lot that is assessed at $900,000 represents exactly the same fire risk as one that is two rows back on a rural lot and is assessed at $250,000. How is it fair that the waterfront lot owner pays three times the amount in fire tax ? So why is there a problem with folks living in different fire districts paying different mill rates ?
And I have never seen an auto aid agreement adjust the money per $1000 assessed value tax rats of all taxpayers involved in the all for one fire response auto aid deal.
Why should they ? It costs the same to buy and staff a piece of apparatus regardless of the jurisdiction you are in. In our local formula for all in-county automatic aid, there is a small payment that all the responding companies get for the operating expense of each piece they bring. The unit itself is already paid for with tax money, so that payment is pretty minimal, somewhere around $85 for an engine.
Unlike the other lawful ways of consolidating fire services that are voter approved and have all taxpayers involved paying the same money per $1000 assessed Value.
Right, you mentioned that. What you have failed to provide is any proof that in those circumstances a unified fire district or regional fire authority is a better deal for the taxpayers. Maybe everyone pays the same, but I wouldn't be all that thrilled if that 'same' means me paying $2.50 vs. paying 80 cents before.
A utility fee based on the assessed square footage of the protected property is probably the fairest way to assess the cost of fire protection. Give a discount for sprinklered properties and for properties, for type I construction and for properties that are in a ISO10 territory more than 5 miles from the station. That way those who get the protection (and reduced insurance rates) from the presence of a higher rated fire service are the ones bearing the cost of that fire service.
Now you're getting into the age old taxation question. Property Taxes been funding government from before I was born. What is a fairer way to pay for local government Captn? Income Tax? And for fire protection funding at least the assessed value represents at least some indication of the property fire protection load. How would a flat fee be fair? Walmart and uncle wally in his mobile home pay the same fee?
Fairness of taxation not the discussion here. Fairness in the existing tax structure is the topic. Auto aid fire deals have unequal funding by taxpayer groups and every voter approved lawful uniting of fire agencies has equal taxation.
If you have well run departments, stick with mutual aid or come together with other communities if you want. But most Departments I see doing auto aid are hurting for tax dollars and firefighters or just want to keep their firefighter costs artificially low by treating other fire department firefighters as their own. That's dangerous.
You are long winded, if nothing else.
Go start your own thread on taxation vs utility fees. F&%K utility fees for FD if you ask me. .
If you want my thoughts on FD utility fees go see my post under ambulances.
And now you are on a rant about unfair property taxes and merged voter approved FD's costing three times as much. Get out of the weeds or start your own thread. Nobody likes taxes but they gotta be paid. Whiner.
And just taking lessons from you on making friends.
Last edited by Bigjohn24; 09-07-2018, 11:12 AM.
My point wasn't that income taxes should pay for local government. My point is that taxation in general is not fairly applied.
I did not intend to suggest that Walmart and "Uncle Wally in his mobile home" should pay the same. Certainly a differentiation could be made between residential and commercial/industrial. Square footage could be used as someone else already suggested. But why should the mobile home pay less than a similar sized standard construction home?
In a nutshell, you are on a quest for fairness in taxation. Or tax structure, as you put it. Either way, good luck with that. There are built in inequalities all over the place in taxation and government services.
I see your point. I just don't think there is much chance for change there.
Square footage could be used as someone else already suggested. But why should the mobile home pay less than a similar sized standard construction home?
Based on local experience, we should charge 'Wally' double for the obligation to protect his death trap.
All times are GMT-5. This page was generated at 09:53 AM.


WNBC/Channel 4 already had plans to bring news back at 5 p.m. That’s not new. But given the necessary saturation of news late last week as Hurricane Irene had New York City in its crosshairs, WNBC decided to debut its reconstituted 5 p.m. broadcast without fanfare.
A WNBC spokesperson tells FishbowlNY that the station wanted to keep the momentum going with their new anchor team, Shiba Russell and Tom Llamas.
WNBC had previously announced that the 5 p.m. newscast would start September 12th.
New York Live, hosted by Jane Hanson and Sara Gore, made its leap to 3 p.m. on Monday.


South Florida snuck its way into the glamorous Hollywood spotlight of Thursday’s Academy Award nominations, but not in a way you might expect.
“Kings Point,” a poignant look at life, love and loneliness among six residents of the titular retirement community in Delray Beach, was among the titles nominated in the Short Documentary category.
The film, which clocks in at about 30 minutes, was seen locally at last fall’s Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, which CEO Greg Von Hausch attributed to a bit of luck. “Kings Point” arrived in an unassuming envelope, one of many cold submissions that often get ignored by harried FLIFF curators. But seeing the Florida tie-in, Von Hausch took a shot.
“Kings Point” is the result of two decades of visits by filmmaker Sari Gilman (pictured) to see her grandmother, who moved to South Florida from New York. In the beginning, life was warm and sunny, but as Gilman writes on the film’s website, day-to-day existence for her grandmother and friends took an inevitable turn.
Gilman woke up early Thursday morning in anticipation of the Oscar nominations.
The film is dedicated to her grandmother, who died two years ago.
“I only wish that she were here to enjoy this moment with me,” Gilman said.
The FLIFF screening drew many Kings Point residents, who were very excited “until they found out I was going to charge them full price,” Von Hausch said, laughing.
They may get another chance: Gilman has plans to return to South Florida to screen the film for Kings Point residents. And the documentary is set to air March 11 on HBO. For more information, go to KingsPointMovie.com.


With Windows XP entering the final few weeks of official support, Microsoft executive Jay Paulus offers his take on the OS and explains why it's high time to move.
Microsoft's Jay Paulus: There is certainly risk for people who are staying on XP. Image: Microsoft.
It's easy to get sentimental about Windows XP and forget the hostile reception the OS received at launch — but the fact is, it's simply not cut out for the modern world, according to a senior Microsoft executive.
Despite the undeniable eventual success of XP — and the important lessons it taught the company — it drew criticism when it first appeared in 2001, says Jay Paulus, director at Windows Commercial.
"When you look back at some of the reviews when Windows XP shipped, it was reviled because it had some UI changes, it had some changes to the start menu, it changed the windowing, it put some rounded corners on things," Paulus said.
"People just hated it. They thought, 'It's such a big change. People are never going to learn' — and now look where we are."
Where we are now is XP still running between a quarter and a third of the world's desktops — more than 12 years after it first went on sale. Yet on 8 April, Microsoft ends support for the OS, leaving existing users with no further software updates or security patches.
Windows XP refuses to die, despite concerted attempts by Microsoft to replace it. Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and 8 have all failed to dislodge the 2001-vintage OS.
The company is reluctant to provide any sales figures to flesh out the scale of Windows XP's enduring success relative to its other operating systems.
Paulus will go no further than saying that it "ultimately became one of our most popular, highest market share products ever".
Over the years Microsoft has tried to address the issue of people sticking with XP, despite new Windows launches, according to Paulus.
"We've extended the Extended Support timeframe so many times with XP for that very reason — to keep giving folks more time," he said.
"But I think we've just reached the point where everyone realises that that platform was created in an era when the threats were just fundamentally different."
When XP shipped, wi-fi networks were a big deal and Sony Discman-type devices were still in wide use, Paulus says.
"At some point there is only so much you can do to patch the system until it becomes the time when you need to move onto a new foundation. Just purely from a security standpoint," he said.
"It's just from a different era. It's very popular. It established a huge user base and there's a lot of it still out there, but it is time to move that thing along."
Apart from commercial success, Windows XP has also taught Microsoft a lot about the importance of reliability, predictability and stability, Paulus says — along with the way people adapt to user interface changes given time.
"Windows XP was the first consumer OS that shipped on the Windows NT kernel, which may be forgotten at this point of time," he said.
"That's what made it so successful. Because it was on the new kernel and that kernel had been tested and proven in a corporate world, it brought a tremendous amount of stability and reliability to Windows" he said.
Windows XP's enduring popularity also owes much to the shortcomings of its immediate successor, Windows Vista, which Paulus describes as "just a bad memory".
Even when buying new machines, in many cases organisations and individuals opted for the older Windows XP rather than Vista.
"Windows Vista had a number of compatibility problems. It introduced fairly large security changes, changes in the driver model," he said.
"If you were involved in computing at the time, you'll remember that trying to put Windows Vista on a Windows XP-era machine was brutally difficult because of the driver compatibility issues. Because we changed so much of the core of the platform, it broke a lot of drivers."
The lessons learned from Vista about compatibility and reliability were applied when Windows 7 shipped, and help account for its present position as desktop OS market leader.
But despite the qualities of Windows 7, many have stuck with XP rather than move to more modern alternatives.
"When we talk to customers we get a few different reasons why they don't migrate — a lot of it has to do with money. People don't want to move if they don't have to," he said.
"There's a certain amount of uncertainty that drives it: 'I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm worried about application compatibility. I'm worried about the effort and the time'.
"People get comfortable with the thing they have and it's understandable — change is hard and nobody wants to spend money if they don't have to. But we've reached that point where people need to move.
"We're pretty confident that people who move on to the modern Microsoft platforms — Windows 8 and Office 365 — soon realise that the upsides are huge and unlike Windows Vista."
As to the options open to XP-using organisations and individuals, Paulus points to the free tools, guides and resources that are designed to make migration easier, as well as hardware offers from partner companies such as Dell, HP and Lenovo.
Paid-for support from Microsoft after 8 April is an option but only for larger organisations with existing Premier Support contracts.
"By and large it is only going to be the largest companies — and even for those large companies it proves to be an expensive proposition," Paulus said.
"Because in the end they're paying to have an engineering team building patches for their organisation and then delivering those patches. It's definitely designed to be a last resort."
Microsoft does not publish the prices for Custom Support, saying it depends on company size and specific requirements and is available at a few different levels — including a lower-cost form called Essentials, which requires a smaller upfront fee.
"But we're talking about thousands of dollars. It's really not designed to be a mainstream solution. We're really looking for folks to move off the Windows XP platform," Paulus said.
Standard Custom Support is for firms with 1,000 or more devices and is costed out on an annual basis depending on precise machine numbers.
"[The lower cost option] is still in the tens of the thousands of dollars to enrol, and then you pay per fix as well as a per-device fee. It allows you to scale it back somewhat, but we're talking tens of thousands of dollars on an annual basis," Paulus said.
It will be incumbent on IT departments to deploy any patches Microsoft produces for XP because there will no longer be any General Distribution Releases, or GDRs, to roll out and automatically update machines.
Recent coverage reported Microsoft as continuing to provide virus signatures and anti-malware engine updates for XP until 14 July 2015, but it's not really an extension, according to Paulus.
"Microsoft Security Essentials is something that never really had a formal published policy on how long that would continue to happen on an unsupported OS. This was just a matter of making it clear," he said.
"The honest truth here is that they would have had to do work to stop those updates from going out."
Paulus says Microsoft thought that clarification was the right thing to do for customers.
"It gives us another good way to notify them that they are on an unsupported OS. We just want to make sure people don't get the wrong idea and think that's a reason why I can stay behind," he said.
"It's a good thing. It helps and it's the right thing for customers but they shouldn't get a false sense of security and use that as a reason to delay for another year."
He also believes that recent reports about Windows 9 shouldn't be used as grounds for delaying a move from XP.
"There's always a new release. We're always working on the next version. As soon as we ship one, of course we are working on the next version. I don't think people are confused by that — I hope that they're not because that shouldn't be a reason to wait," he said.
"People need to make this move. Right now is the time. We want as many people to move as possible before the end of support date. It's really the best option for them."


The Appleton Police Department is investigating a death of a woman on the south side of the city.
APPLETON, Wis. — UPDATE: Police have identified the woman as 60-year-old Lee Ann Dorn of Appleton.
Around 3 P.M. Thursday, police were dispatched to conduct a welfare check of a woman. They attempted to locate her throughout the day. At around 1:30 A.M. Friday, officers entered a residence on Valley Road. There, they found the woman dead.
Friday afternoon, Appleton Police issued an updated press release on the woman's car. Investigators discovered the victim’s vehicle was missing and entered it in a national crime database as a stolen vehicle. Appleton Police say they were notified at around 11:00 am that the vehicle was recovered, and the operator taken into custody, by law enforcement officers in Kentucky.
The vehicle is being held as evidence and the operator is being held in custody on a probation warrant. Appleton Police say they are working with law enforcement in Kentucky on this investigation.
The cause of death is currently unknown. The Appleton Police Department say this is an isolated incident and they say there is no threat to the community.


It’s money to burn. Looks like a warehouse in Thailand full of Bitcoin-mining machines caught fire. Local media and Bitcoin websites suggest that the facility, packed with over 2000 computers connected to the Bitcoin network, went up in flames on 7 November. Equipment worth an estimated $2 million was destroyed. The machines mined Bitcoins by solving cryptographic puzzles. The fire has been blamed for a sudden slowdown in activity on the Bitcoin network.
Make yourself invisible. That’s the idea behind software that removes moving objects from video imagery. The uncensored images are then only viewable when an authorised person watches the recording. Developed by Prism Skylabs, based in San Francisco, the system uses machine-learning to identify movement belonging to foreground elements, like a person walking across the camera’s field of view. The software recognises the stationary background and can then paint over foreground objects to neatly hide human activity.
Call it roach-and-rescue. Alper Bozkurt at North Carolina State University built sound-sensing “backpacks” that can be strapped to Madagascar hissing cockroaches. With a computer processing the microphone data, the cockroaches are guided towards the sound source via automated electric pulses to their antennae: the nerve stimulation causes the insects to turn left or right. Such roaches might be used to look for disaster victims under rubble, the team suggests.