Woman returns home with Christmas turkey, a month after setting out

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A Scottish woman who set out before Christmas to purchase a turkey finally made it home on Monday, after being cut off by snow for a month. Kay Ure left the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage on Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of Great Britain, in December. She was heading to Inverness on a shopping trip.

However on her return journey heavy snow and ice prevented her husband, John, from travelling the last 11 miles to pick her up. She was forced to wait a month in a friend’s caravan, before the weather improved and the couple could finally be reunited.

They were separated not just for Christmas and New Year, but also for Mr Ure’s 58th birthday. With no fresh supplies, he was reduced to celebrating with a tin of baked beans. He also ran out of coal, and had to feed the couple’s six springer spaniels on emergency army rations.

“It’s the first time we’ve been separated”, said Mr Ure in December. “We’ve been snowed in here for three weeks before, so we are well used to it and it’s quite nice to get a bit of peace and quiet.”

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Basketball Backboards: Acrylic Vs. Glass Backboards

By Bill Parsons

When watching the game of basketball, spectators probably dont give much thought to what type of backboard is being used. The backboard is in fact one of the most important parts of a basketball system. Though glass backboards have long been thought of as the best backboards, acrylic backboards have many of the same features.

If you are several feet away and look at a backboard you may not be able to tell the difference between an acrylic one and a glass one. They are both clear, they both come in the same sizes, and they both have the outline markings and shooter’s square. When you throw the ball and go for a rebound, that is were the difference comes into view.

Glass backboards are the backboards used by the pros. Professional style backboards are made of inch thick tempered glass. The outline of the backboard and the shooter’s square are fired into the glass so they wont wear away. A regulation size backboard is 42 x 72, but glass backboards come in many different sizes. They are dent and scratch resistant and wont get dusty.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=753GL_Ez_CU[/youtube]

What is so great about glass? The main reason why professionals love glass is because of the way the ball interacts with the glass. Rebounds bounce off immediately and crisply. There is virtually no reverberation with glass. Glass will not dent so there are no worries about the ball hitting a dent or groove. Players know exactly what to expect with a glass backboard.

One of the only drawbacks of a glass backboard is the possibility of breakage. Though shattering a backboard is not the goal of a slam dunk, it is possible with enough force to shatter a glass backboard. With breakaway goals the likelihood is less, but still possible. There are certain types of glass backboards available that are guaranteed not to shatter. The risk of shattering, however, does not compare to the excellent ball interaction.

Fairly recently, acrylic backboards have come into play. Backboard that are made of cast acrylic are very similar to glass backboards– but more economical. Cast acrylic is one of the strongest forms of acrylic manufactured today. It is virtually dent resistant. Most acrylic backboards come with steel frames for even more stability. This frame is very important for proper ball interaction.

To get a similar feel as a glass backboard, look for an acrylic backboard that is inch thick. If the acrylic is too thick the ball will not respond the same way. Though acrylic backboards are more economical, they will have to be replaced sooner than a glass backboard would. They are also more difficult to keep clean since dirt can get into the grooves.

If you are on a budget an acrylic backboard will definitely get the job done. It has good ball interaction and is durable and sturdy. But, if you are looking for longer durability and more consistency, a glass backboard is the way to go.

About the Author: Author Bill Parsons is the creative author of a variety of online specialty stores that offer both items and information for all your athletic equipment needs. Today, he offers advice on different types of

basketball hoop backboard

material and discusses the differences between acrylic and tempered glass backboards. The type of backboard you want to select depends on where it’s going to be used, Bill says. What you would select for an

outdoor inground basketball hoop

might be different then a

indoor portable system

.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

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Alabama School Bus Crash kills 4

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tragedy struck Huntsville, Alabama Monday morning when a school bus transporting Lee High School students to a local trade school careened over a retaining wall on an elevated part of Interstate 565 at the U.S. highway 231 exit and plummeted 30 feet.

Killed in the initial crash were Nicole Ford, 19, Christine Collier, 16. Tanesha Hill, 17, died later at Huntsville Hospital. A fourth victim, Crystal Renee McCrary, 17, died Tuesday. Anthony Scott, the bus driver, and 14 students remain hospitalized, according to Huntsville Hospital spokeswoman Pam Sparks.

Huntsville Police spokesman Wendell Johnson said a 1990 Toyota Celica apparently hit the Laidlaw Education Services-contracted school bus. The bus driver apparently attempted evasive action, and a reaction sent the right tire climbing up the protective barrier. The buses momentum caused it to teeter on the wall briefly, flipped upside down, careening headlong onto the ground below. It was unclear if the driver jumped or was ejected, though National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman Debbie Hersman said the bus driver was found on the overpass, and that, “We are trying to determine why the bus driver was on the overpass.”

Investigating agencies at federal, state and local levels include the NTSB, Alabama State Department of Transportation, Alabama Department of Public Safety, and Huntsville Police Department.

Thad Sokolowski, a 17-year-old Lee High School eyewitness said, “The orange car was going to pass the bus. He thought something was wrong with the car, like his tire got blown out because it started fishtailing.” He added that the orange Toyota hit the bus, “but not hard. It was a bump,” adding that the bus “skidded down the rail and it was gone.”

His description of the wreck was given to his mother, Bonnie Sokolowski, and published in the Huntsville Times, because he did not want to speak with reporters.

Police Chief Rex Reynolds said evidence will be presented to a Grand Jury, as is required by state law for fatalities involving minors, and added that charges have not yet been filed against the 17-year old Toyota driver. Chief Reynolds said the bus driver had a clean driving record.

Mass chaos ensued and Crestwood Medical Center and Huntsville Hospital, the two local hospitals, both activated their Mass Casualty action plans. Emergency response personnel from throughout the area were called upon to assist in rescue efforts. Huntsville Hospital emergency room physician Dr. Sherrie Squyres said all off-duty hospital medical and nursing personnel were requested to return to work, and that three trauma surgeons and one neurosurgeon were committed exclusively to accident response.

Among the problems facing hospital and rescue personnel was the absence of personal identification among the victims. Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Ann Roy Moore said that the Lee High School principal had initiated a student ID card program, “but not every student carried the ID.”

Brad Holley, Field Director for Alabama Department of Education, noting the tragedy said “We have not had a student killed while riding a school bus since 1969.” Huntsville’s last school bus related fatality was November 19, 1968 when a bus transporting students from Lee High Chapman Junior High Schools careened off Bankhead Parkway on Monte Sano Mountain above Tollgate Road. Faulty brakes caused that wreck.

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Preparations for inaugural Bathurst International Motor Festival begin

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

The Bathurst Regional Council has begun preparing the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit for the inaugural Bathurst International Motorsport Festival (BIMF) to be held between April 13 and 16, 2006. The Mount Panorama motor racing circuit is considered to be the home of motorsport in Australia.

Council’s staff have been busy cleaning the facilities, erecting signage, checking pedestrian bridges and inspecting the track surface for the past few days.

The BIMF will be the first event to be held at the 6.2 kilometre circuit over Easter since 2000. In 2000, Event Management Specialists held the first motorcycle racing event since 1990, but due to EMS going bankrupt a short time after their 2000 event was ran and the inability of the then Bathurst City Council to find another promoter, the Easter event was canned.

The BIMF is inspired by the Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival in the United Kingdom. The Bathurst Regional Council and event promoter Global Entertainment Team promise that the event “will cater for all motoring enthusiasts, collectors and historians”.

According to the BIMF website, the on-track program consists of:

  • Manufacturers showcasing their vehicles and track times
  • Historic touring car races
  • Aussie racing car races
  • Australian GT sports car
  • Parade laps by car clubs
  • Parade laps and races by “Legends of Motorsport”
  • Stunt car and bike events
  • Rally cars
  • Displays of cars from all eras of Mount Panorama’s history
  • The chance for patrons to purchase a ride around the circuit in a race car.

Off the track, the organisers have promised manufacturer displays, merchandise stands, music, joyflights, Off-road demonstrations and joyrides, autograph sessions and interviews with influential people in the Australian motor industry.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Preparations_for_inaugural_Bathurst_International_Motor_Festival_begin&oldid=552539”

Receivables Factoring How To Finance Your Business Using Your Invoices As Collateral

By Marco Terry

Obtaining business financing has always been challenging for small and mid size company owners. Traditional sources of financing, such as venture capital companies, angel investors or banks, provide financing that is hard to obtain and usually takes weeks or months to set up.

Angel investors and venture capitalists, although more generous than banks, only provide capital if you are willing to give them an ownership stake in your company. Usually a big one too. Banks dont demand an ownership stake. Instead, they will only lend you money if your company can show a three-year track record of profitability and if your personal credit record is spotless.

But, what if you dont want to give up ownership and if you dont meet banking requirements?

There is an option that is growing in popularity and it provides you with easy to obtain financing. Its called accounts receivable factoring. Factoring is an ideal tool for companies whose biggest challenge is that they cannot afford to wait 30 to 60 days to get paid by customers. By factoring your receivables, you can get paid in as little as two days. This helps business owners to easily meet ongoing obligations such as payroll and rent, and allows them to grow the business. In effect it eliminates the uncertainty of when youll be paid and allows you to streamline your cash flow.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBJJUWt47rk[/youtube]

Receivables factoring is very different than a business loan or line of credit. Rather than focusing on physical collateral (real estate, equipment, etc.) like banks do, factoring companies focus on your invoices. Are they from good credit worthy clients? Do they pay reliably on 30, 60 or 90 days? If they do, you have a good change of qualifying for invoice factoring.

Accounts receivable factoring is very easy to implement and works as follows:

1. Your company delivers the goods or services to the client

2. You invoice your client and send a copy of the invoice to the factoring company

3. The factoring company advances you between 70% and 90% of the invoice as the first installment

4. Once the invoice is actually paid, the factoring company advances you the remaining 10% to 30% as a second installment, less a small fee

Factoring financing is a great alternative to bank financing and venture capital that is easily available to small and medium sized businesses.

About the Author: About Commercial Capital LLC

We are a leading factoring company and can provide you with factoring financing and accounts receivable factoring financing. For a quote, please call (866) 730 1922 or go to ccapital.net/html/accounts_receivable_factoring.html

or

ccapital.net/html/our_services.html

Source:

isnare.com

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Wikinews interviews Joe Schriner, Independent U.S. presidential candidate

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Journalist, counselor, painter, and US 2012 Presidential candidate Joe Schriner of Cleveland, Ohio took some time to discuss his campaign with Wikinews in an interview.

Schriner previously ran for president in 2000, 2004, and 2008, but failed to gain much traction in the races. He announced his candidacy for the 2012 race immediately following the 2008 election. Schriner refers to himself as the “Average Joe” candidate, and advocates a pro-life and pro-environmentalist platform. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, and has published public policy papers exploring solutions to American issues.

Wikinews reporter William Saturn? talks with Schriner and discusses his campaign.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews_interviews_Joe_Schriner,_Independent_U.S._presidential_candidate&oldid=4497624”

Four-year-old boy attacked by Pit bull mix

Friday, August 24, 2007

Just before midnight Wednesday, four-year-old Taylor Bailey, nicknamed Bucky, was attacked by a neighbor’s dog. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix named Money chased the boy after he stepped out of his mother’s car, eventually knocking the boy to the ground and latching onto his leg.

The same dog had bitten the boy’s father the week before, according to the family, although this has not been confirmed by police. He recognized the dog and alerted his mother to the dogs presence just moments before the attack. She urged her son to come to her, but the one-year-old, 85-pound (~39 kg) male broke free from his restraints and attacked the screaming boy.

The struggle lasted several minutes before the boy’s mother, Melinda Walters, was able to fight off the dog, leaving her knees scraped and thigh scratched. The boy’s legs were punctured, scratched and bruised with bits of flesh missing. “It didn’t go away. It was just trying to grab me … trying to kill me,” the boy said. Walters was carrying her three-year-old son Jason on her hip during much of the fight.

The dog’s owner, Marquita Mooney, 23, was ticketed along with a relative who was watching the dog. She said that rather than register the dog as a potentially dangerous animal—which involves an insurance bond, fees, kennel requirements and more—she would have the dog put down. Police reports indicate that the dog bit two other dogs about two weeks ago. Mooney has been ticketed for both incidents.

This is the second such incident in Minneapolis this month—seven-year-old Zach King Jr. was attacked and killed in his home last week by his family’s pit bull—fueling the debate over banning pit bulls and other “dangerous breeds” in some communities. Since 1966, there have been four other deaths from dog attacks in Minnesota, all but one of which were of children seven-years-old or younger.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Four-year-old_boy_attacked_by_Pit_bull_mix&oldid=969976”

Surgeons reattach boy’s three severed limbs

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

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Considering Zoll Aed Plus Pads &Amp; Defibrillator For Your Aed Unit

byphineasgray

Every year automated external defibrillators save thousands of lives. They are so effective at treating sudden cardiac arrest that it is common to find them in many public places. If you have a heart condition and are looking for the best AED on the market, the Zoll brand has produced top of the line AED technology. Selecting this brand as well as purchasing additional Zoll AED plus pads will ensure that you have the best equipment on hand in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest.

About Sudden Cardiac Arrest

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EhRiCw3FrM[/youtube]

SCA (sudden cardiac arrest) can be brought about by any number of factors, but it is a heart condition which can strike at any moment. When this happens, the heart suddenly has irregular rhythms, and limits blood flow to the brain and other organs. This condition can be fatal in just a few minutes so acting quickly is imperative to maintaining life in an SCA episode. Automated External Defibrillators play an important role in ensuring that an SCA episode is not fatal. Zoll AED plus pads and the main Zoll AED equipment have been proven to be one of the most advanced defibrillators on the market today.

Zoll AED Plus pads & defibrillator

The Zoll AED is not just an AED it is also a mechanical coach that guides you through the process of administering aid to a SCA patient. Anyone can use this AED and it can even be used on young children. The advanced technology coaches you through the entire process and gives feedback throughout the process including letting you know when you are doing something wrong. No other easy use AED on the market is this powerful and effective and the accompanying Zoll AED plus pads make for a complete and total package.

The Zoll AED defibrillator is so advanced that it provides images and text throughout the whole process of applying this life saving technique. With instructions being read aloud to you, images, and texts, it is like having a CPR coach right next to you while you are helping the patient. The Zoll AED plus pads also use advanced technology with a single piece electrode that is easy to use. The pad goes on easily and has markings that demonstrate exactly where to place it for proper application and effective chest compression.

In the event of a life and death emergency, you need an AED that is simple to use and fool-proof. There is no time to fiddle with a confusing apparatus that can waste precious seconds throughout the lifesaving process. The Zoll AED and accompanying Zoll AED plus pads utilize the most advanced, innovative technology to provide lifesaving assistance during an SCA emergency.

AED Today sells the most advanced AED defibrillators and supplies Aedtoday.com

Finding for the Zoll AED Plus Pads? One of the best places to check out is AEDToday.com. Their rates are very reasonable and will fit within your budget very easily.

UK government loses personal information of 25 million people

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced to a shocked House of Commons today that two password-protected — but not encrypted — computer disks containing the entire Child Benefit database have been lost in transit between the offices of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in Washington, Tyne & Wear and the National Audit Office (NAO) in London, in what has been described as “one of the world’s biggest ID protection failures”.

The database contains details of all families in the UK who receive Child Benefit — all families with children up to 16 years of age, plus those with children up to 20 years old if they are in full-time education or training — estimated to contain 25 million individuals in 7.25 million families. Among other items of information, the database contains names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and National Insurance numbers, and where appropriate, bank or building society account details.

The discs were created by a junior official at the HMRC in response to a request for information by the NAO, and were sent unregistered and unrecorded on 18 October using the courier company TNT — which operates the HMRC’s internal mail system. When it was found that the discs had not arrived for audit at the NAO, a further copy of this data was made and sent — this time by registered mail — and this package did arrive. HMRC were not informed that the original discs had been lost until 8 November, and Darling himself was informed on 10 November.

The violation of data protection laws involved in the creation of the discs has led to strong attacks on the government’s competence to establish the proposed National Identity Register, when all UK residents will have an identity card. Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne described the loss of data as “catastrophic” and said “They [the government] simply cannot be trusted with people’s personal information”.

The Chairman of HMRC, Paul Gray, has resigned over the affair, and critics are calling for Darling to do likewise.

This is the third data embarrassment for HMRC in recent weeks — earlier this month it was reported that the details of over 15,000 Standard Life customers had been put on disk, and then lost en route from HMRC in Newcastle to Standard Life in Edinburgh — and last month a laptop containing the data of 400 people with high-value ISAs was stolen from the boot of a car belonging to a HMRC official who had been carrying out a routine audit.

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