- Donna A. Bucella
- Terrorist Screening Center, FBI
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Before The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and The House Select
- Washington DC
- March 25, 2004
Good afternoon Chairman Coble, Chairman Gibbons, Ranking Members and Members of both Subcommittees. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the missions and objectives of the new Terrorist Screening Center (TSC). Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6 (HSPD-6), issued on September 16, 2003, ordered the creation of the TSC, directing its operations to begin on December 1, 2003, and we met that goal. The TSC was created to ensure that government investigators, screeners, federal agents, and state and local law enforcement officers have ready access to the information and expertise they need to respond quickly when a known or suspected terrorist is encountered here in the United States, at our borders and at our embassies. Today, I will tell you about our daily operations, including some of our successes, our future plans, and how we will safeguard civil liberties. I will provide as much information as I can in this open forum, however, I will be happy to provide additional, classified details in a closed hearing at your request.
The TSC is a multi-agency Center, including participants from the FBI, Department of State, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Other agencies, including the Postal Service and Drug Enforcement Administration, have agreed to participate. Our goal is to consolidate the Government's approach to terrorism screening and provide for the appropriate and lawful use of Terrorist Information in screening processes. We will be a diverse Center, manned by experts to include intelligence analysts and law enforcement from a wide variety of agencies, and to communicate and coordinate efforts across the full spectrum of federal, state and local government agencies. Currently, the TSC is staffed by approximately 84 employees, including permanent personnel, temporary duty assignees, and contractors to staff our 24/7 operation.Since December 1, 2003, TSC has been providing key resources for screeners and law enforcement personnel. These include:
(1) a single coordination point for terrorist screening data;
(2) a consolidated 24/7 call center for encounter identification assistance;
(3) access to a coordinated law enforcement response to federal, state and local law enforcement;
(4) a formal process for tracking encounters and ensuring feedback is supplied to the appropriate entities, and
(5) a process to address the misidentification issues.
The TSC's initial capabilities were limited because of the need to integrate records in a way that ensured that the data about known and suspected terrorists was as accurate as possible. Each agency contributing data to the TSC is using its own database. These databases, which were created to support the mission of the individual agencies, are in many instances their case management systems, not terrorist watch lists.
Despite our limited capabilities in the first week of operation, the TSC answered 56 calls, including one in which a local police department was seeking information regarding an ongoing investigation. A suspected terrorist had traveled over 1,000 miles from his home, and the department's call alerted the FBI to his activities. The police department coordinated their surveillance with the FBI investigation, resulting in solid intelligence for both local and federal law enforcement.
Another call came from a West Coast police department that was investigating an individual for a state felony charge. The TSC determined the individual was a terrorism suspect in a federal investigation, and our operational component at the FBI's Counterterrorism Division put the respective investigators together. The FBI and the local investigator are now sharing case information, resulting in a coordinated approach. Again, we are linking investigations and coordinating the U.S. Government approach to screening for suspected terrorists.
There are three fundamental types of inquiries: interior (within the U.S.), border (at the border/ports points of entry) and exterior (outside the border). Interior inquiries will normally be made by state and local law enforcement. Border inquiries are made by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Exterior inquiries are conducted by the State Department.
The process for making an internal inquiry is relatively simple. A police officer checks the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database on a routine traffic stop, and he/she is requested to call the TSC because the person stopped has similar identifying information to a known or suspected terrorist listed in the NCIC. When the officer calls TSC, through the police department's dispatch, the call center verifies the caller's identity, takes the information on the encounter and the circumstances of the encounter, and checks his name through the TSC 's database. The TSC database includes the name, date of birth and other identifying information for a known or suspected terrorist. The call center quickly researches the underlying information, including classified, sensitive information. We make a determination as to whether the encounter is the same person as the one in our database. After notifying the officer of a positive, negative or inconclusive result, we help coordinate operational support as to how the person should be handled. For example, the officer may be advised -- in appropriate and lawfully authorized circumstances -- to arrest, detain or question the individual. Simultaneously, we contact our operational component at the FBI's Counterterrorism Division known as CT Watch. CT Watch provides for the local Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to respond. In some cases, officers provide valuable intelligence from a simple car stop, and in other cases, JTTF agents will respond to assist. Two cases serve to demonstrate the process:
In one case, local police arrested a suspected terrorist associate on a state criminal violation. After TSC assisted in the positive identities match, the CT Watch, contacted the FBI case agent, who immediately went to the local detention facility to talk with the individual. During that interview, the individual agreed to cooperate with the FBI. Another case illustrates the intersection between local law enforcement, homeland security and counterterrorism investigations. Local police arrested an individual and while conducting the "search incident to arrest," discovered significant evidence of terrorist activities. The TSC confirmed the individual's identity and our operational component, the CT Watch, notified the case agent. Intelligence gained from the local arrest has significantly affected a long term counterterrorism case, confirming the value of bringing local law enforcement into the war on terrorism.
In addition to serving local law enforcement, the TSC receives a high volume of calls from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors who are stationed on the Nation's borders. A typical CBP call involves incoming passengers on international flights. A CBP inspector will query a list of names and may receive several possible suspected terrorist hits from IBIS and NCIC. The CBP inspector will go through their National Targeting Center (NTC), where the record will be analyzed, then passed to TSC. Our process is the same as it would be for a law enforcement call, that is, to examine the underlying record which often contains all source sensitive and highly classified information on a 24/7 basis, and determine whether the individual is identical to the person in the Terrorist Screening Center Database. The TSC then appropriately passes any derogatory information on the subject, and CBP makes a determination on whether the individual will be allowed into the United States.
Our consular officers are our first line of defense in keeping known and suspected terrorists out of our Homeland by denying visas to these individuals. In this regard, State Department assignees at the TSC are continuing the work previously done by the TIPOFF Office. Since December 1, 2003, when the TSC came into operation, State Department assignees and their staff at the TSC have reviewed over 54,000 security advisory opinions, which are cables from U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the globe, to determine if the visa applicants described in these cables were "true hits " with records contained in the database. Eighty of those "hits" resulted in true matches. As an example in December, a member of a terrorist organization applied for a visa at a U.S. consulate overseas. Consular officials denied the visa based on the TSC 's review of the information and confirmation that the individual was a "true hit," i.e. matched the record at the TSC. The same process applied to a senior member of a proscribed terrorist organization based overseas. His visa was also denied.
In addition, 53 visas have been revoked, as a result of the State Department's careful comparison of new records entered into the terrorist database with visas that had been previously issued.
Finally, since December 1, 2003, agreements between the State Department and several allies are now implemented at the TSC, resulting in over 125 possible "true hits" of known and suspected terrorists at the borders of those nations. During January, an individual known to the U.S. government as an affiliate of a terrorist organization attempted to board a flight to enter one of these nations. The individual's identity was one of several thousand consolidated from various U.S. agencies and passed to this nation. According to protocols contained in our agreement, State Department assignees at the TSC worked with their counterparts in our allied nation, and the individual was removed from the flight despite holding valid travel documents.
According to a 16 September 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between Secretary Powell, Secretary Ridge, Attorney General Ashcroft, and DCI Tenet, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center's (TTIC) identities database will serve as the single source for the TSC's terrorist database, excluding purely domestic terrorism. Currently TTIC, which assembles and analyzes information from a wide range of sources to identify potential terrorists, provides the TSC with the vast majority of its information about known or suspected international terrorists.
The FBI provides the TSC with information about purely domestic terrorism – that is, information that has been determined to have no link to foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism. The TSC consolidates this identifying information and makes it accessible for queries from federal, state, and local agencies for screening purposes.
When a nomination is received at the TSC from TTIC or the FBI, it is reviewed by assignees to the TSC from participating agencies, who, in consultation with their assigning member agencies, determine how an encounter with this individual will be handled. The system is tailored to provide different feedback depending on where the encounter takes place. For example, an FBI representative who reviews a record may determine that an individual is subject to a criminal warrant and needs to be arrested by state and local law enforcement, while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) representative may decide that the individual is not appropriate to board an aircraft. This tailoring ensures that specific guidance is provided to federal, state, and local agencies based on their legal authority.
The TSC has approached the challenge to consolidate terrorists watch lists by implementing a "phased in" approach.
We implemented phase one from September 16, 2003 to December 1, 2003, on the day the TSC achieved initial operating capability. During Phase One, the TSC had the ability to: (1) make the names and identifying information of terrorists, known to or suspected by the U.S. Government, accessible to federal, state and local law enforcement; (2) have a system for properly reviewing whether a known or suspected terrorist should be included in or deleted from additional screening processes; (3) administer a process to ensure that persons, who may share a name with a known or suspected terrorist, are not unduly inconvenienced in U.S. Government screening processes; and, (4) implement a system to adjust or delete outdated or incorrect information to prevent problems arising from misidentifications.
Phase two occurred from December 1, 2003 to March 1, 2004 in the development of the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). The TSDB is an unclassified law enforcement sensitive database, containing identifying information of known or suspected terrorists. The TSDB allows the consolidation of disparate information, currently held by multiple agencies and used in different ways, to be brought together for a single purpose -- to help identify and detain potential terrorists to prevent future terrorist attacks.
We are currently in phase three which concludes before the end of this year. The TSC will create a more dynamic database and use a single, integrated system for ensuring known or suspected terrorists' identities are promptly incorporated into all appropriate screening processes. The terrorist screening database will eventually allow private sector entities, such as operators of critical infrastructure facilities or organizers of large events, to submit a list of persons associated with those events to the U.S. Government to be screened for any nexus to terrorism. In addition, the TSC will begin to implement mechanisms for sharing terrorist screening information with additional cooperating countries and to obtain such information from these countries. The Department of State is currently working on this issue.
Because our mission cuts across traditional boundaries between law enforcement, national security, and homeland defense, we have begun an aggressive outreach program. Our outreach must include members of the intelligence community, federal law enforcement, non-law enforcement/non-intelligence related government agencies, critical infrastructures, and most importantly, officers from the Nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies. We not only train our law enforcement and government agency partners; viewing outreach as a two-way process, we also seek feedback and innovative ideas from them.
Safeguarding Civil Liberties
We recognize that with all of these capabilities also comes the responsibility to ensure that we continue to protect our civil liberties.
The TSC has absolutely no authority to conduct intelligence collection or other operations. In fact, the TSC does not collect information at all – it only receives information collected by other entities with preexisting authority to do so, each with their own policies and procedures to protect privacy rights and civil liberties. The handling and use of information, including U.S. person information, is governed by the same statutory, regulatory, and constitutional requirements as if the information was not to be included in a TSC-managed database.
The TSC's primary mission is to ensure that the identities data that is already known to the U.S. Government is held in one location where it can be queried by those who need it, including federal security screeners and state and local law enforcement officers. The structures which are in place also ensure that information about U.S. persons that has been determined to be purely domestic terrorism information with no link to foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism does not go through the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, but instead is placed directly into the TSC by the FBI. The Attorney General has also been directed to implement procedures and safeguards with respect to information about U.S. persons, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of Central Intelligence.
We are also committed to addressing the issues and inconveniences arising from the misidentification of persons under previous watch-listing practices. Procedures are in place to review and promptly adjust or delete erroneous or outdated domestic terrorism information. The TSC works closely with TTIC regarding any international terrorism information errors, as only TTIC can make changes to the records it provides to the TSC. In addition, we are currently in the process of creating a dedicated staff specifically to address the misidentification process for the TSC.
The creation of the Terrorist Screening Center marks a significant step forward in protecting America's communities and families by detecting, disrupting, or preempting terrorist threats. The TSC is already contributing to nationwide efforts to keep terrorists out of the U.S. and locate those who may already be in the country. For this unclassified hearing, I have given you only a few of our successes. We have screened over 2,000 calls since our inception, and the numbers continue to rise. State and local law enforcement officers are now assisting in the identification of known or suspected terrorists here in the U.S., have provided invaluable intelligence for pending investigation, and are now integral in the efforts of combating terrorism in the U.S. I appreciate the Joint Subcommittee's interest in the TSC's activities and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.


- The Method
- Practitioners/Classes and Events
- The Profession
Many postural habits begin in childhood, and often we aren’t really aware of our tendencies. Habit dulls the sensory awareness: if you sit a certain way long enough, your brain will stop noticing that it’s not comfortable. For instance, many computer users mouse with the arm held a long way from the body. This position creates static load - essentially, you are holding up the weight of your arm all day. A similar strain happens in the shoulders if the head is held too far forward. But the inherent strain may not be noticed until it becomes pain - by which time injury may have occurred to the connective tissue.
Awareness helps you notice sooner when your postural habits tend toward strain. The Feldenkrais Method is a great asset here: you learn to sense for yourself when you are in better alignment with gravity. You learn tools for being aware of your range of comfort, so you can make appropriate changes before damage occurs. You are also introduced to optional ways of sitting, shifting weight and moving, which has multiple benefits: choices of action allow the nervous system to adapt to changing conditions, and variety of movement prevents static load.
The postural training often offered by ergonomic salespeople amounts to a one- shot lecture on “proper posture,” as if you could assume the correct position and maintain it all day. Even if you could, it would just produce stiffness. Because Feldenkrais practitioners understand the dynamics of movement, they are ideally suited to introduce lasting improvement in the workplace.
For example, Mary Newell ‘s firm Workplace Wellness, of Westchester, NY, implements training programs based on Feldenkrais principles. “I empower employees to be more responsible for their own well-being,” says Ms. Newell.
“Participants learn principles of active sitting, use of the arms for keying, how to give relief to eyes, neck and shoulders, how to vary posture during the day to prevent static load. With fewer discomforts, employees can put their whole attention on their job, and productivity and job satisfaction increase.”


Question: Name The Parts Of A Fish You Dont Eat?
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YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's health ministry has ordered the eviction of 82 HIV/AIDS patients from a shelter run by supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi because the center is not hygienic, state media said Wednesday.
An official at the facility said the patients have refused to move, setting the stage for a showdown with authorities who said they must vacate by Thursday.
Local authorities last week ordered the HIV/AIDS victims to leave following a visit by the newly freed Suu Kyi, who promised to help provide badly needed medicine.
Health officials inspected the shelter in July and August and found it unhygienic with patients susceptible to infections because of overcrowding, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.
But shelter organizers said authorities simply want to pressure them because of the visit by Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.
Yarzar, one of the center's staff members who uses only one name, admitted the shelter was crowded but said preventive measures were taken against the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Health authorities offered to relocate patients to a state-run HIV/AIDS center, but they refused to move out as their shelter not only offers medical care, food and accommodation but "warmth and affection that no other center can provide," Yarzar said.
Since the patients have decided not to leave, Yarzar said he was ready to face any consequences.
The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested in 1989. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.
Suu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results.


RE: Converting from PostgreSQL to Oracle???
- From: "Goulet, Dick" <DGoulet@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <revoohc@xxxxxxxxx>, <Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:38:27 -0400
Chris, Text fields depend a lot on what's in them. For the most part they should convert into VARCHAR2(4000) with ease. Serial columns convert to integer or number(38)'s. Booleans have no good conversion to Oracle. The best would be a number(1) where 0 =3D FALSE & 1 =3D TRUE, = but a char(1) (T,F) would work also. You'll probably find WinSQL from Synametrix (http://www.synametrics.com/SynametricsWebApp/WinSQL.jsp) very helpful. It has an export feature that allows you to query a PostGreSQL table & then export the data to Oracle. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Hoover Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 1:30 PM To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Converting from PostgreSQL to Oracle??? Hey Everyone, I've been given a rather exciting project on which to work.=3D20 Management wants to look at migrating one of our large in house developed systems from PostgreSQL to Oracle. Does anyone know of any good sites with help on this type of conversion? Also, does anyone have any advice they can offer up? Here is what we have: ~200 Postgresql DB's running between 5 systems (all schemas are the same, 1 db per customer) DB's run from a ~100MB to ~100GB. Any advice on how to go about this? We have a lot of text, serial, and boolean columns that don't appear to map cleanly over to Oracle. What have some of you done in the past conveting these type of columns? We are looking at either 9i (which we currenly have in house), or 10g for the Oracle server version. Thanks, Chris -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l


One night a clergyman was walking to church when a thief pulled a gun on him and demanded his money or his life. When he reached in his pocket to hand over his wallet, the robber saw his clerical collar and said: I see you are a priest. Never mind, you can go. The clergyman, surprised by the robbers unexpected act of piety, offered him a candy bar. The robber said, No thank you. I dont eat candy during Lent.
The man had given up candy as a supposed sacrifice for Lent, but his lifestyle of stealing showed his real character! According to the writer of Proverbs, conduct is the best indicator of character. If someone says he is a godly person, his words can only be proven by consistent actions (20:11). This was true of the religious leaders in Jesus day as well. He condemned the Pharisees and exposed their sham for professing godliness but denying that profession with sin in their lives (Matt. 23:13-36). Appearances and words are deceiving; behavior is the best judge of character. This applies to all of us.
As followers of Jesus, we demonstrate our love for Him by what we do, not just by what we say. May our devotion to God, because of His love for us, be revealed in our actions today.
Read: Matthew 23:23-31
Good evening, Mayor, and thanks for today’s sustenance for body and soul.
Reminds me of the Los Angeles mobster and hoodlum Mickey Cohen, who at one point described himself as a "Christian gangster."


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February 21, 2014 7:37 pm
It began in a car shed in Chennai, the southern Indian city formerly known as Madras. The year was 2008 and AR Rahman, the most successful composer in Indian history, was looking for a site for a music conservatoire – a place where young Indians could receive the western classical training that he felt was missing in his country. The parking lot behind the family home was the only available space.
Fast-forward to the present. Buoyed by the success of Slumdog Millionaire , the Danny Boyle film for which he won Academy Awards for best original score and best original song in 2009, Rahman has exchanged Bollywood for Hollywood, and his KM Music Conservatory has moved from its humble backyard origins to a purpose-built home occupying 40,000 sq ft.
It now has 80 full-time students, a teaching staff from the UK, US and Russia as well as India, and academic tie-ups with advanced music colleges in London and Glasgow. Last month, a group of its students visited the Scottish city to take part in a concert of Rahman’s music. Next month, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will spend a week in Chennai giving concerts and masterclasses.
Rahman’s initiative is notable not only as a philanthropic gesture (he provides most of the funding) but also as an educational model in India. Western classical music and its disciplines stand on the sidelines in a subcontinent of 1.3bn people where almost the entire music market is generated by the film industry.
It is even more surprising when you consider that Rahman, who has notched up 400m album sales and has 16m followers on his Facebook page, is enjoying a new career in Tinseltown – which, by his own admission, exists on a different creative planet from both India and Europe. His current projects include Disney’s Million Dollar Arm, a biographical sports drama by Australian director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night) and The Monkeys of Bollywood, a musical film to be directed by Kevin Lima (Enchanted) with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell).
Rahman, 47, may be classically trained but he makes no claims to being a classical composer. Most of his output consists of beat-based, synthesiser-modulated songs, representing a fusion of Indian influences and western pop. He has put Indian music on the international map to a degree not known since Ravi Shankar, who popularised the sitar.
Western composers, popular or classical, can only dream of Rahman’s commercial reach, yet he devotes time and energy to an educational project with Chopin and Beethoven at its core, in a country where western musical tuition is scarce and expensive. He wants talented Indians to share some of the opportunities he had as a boy in a musically affluent Tamil family. His childhood influences included Italian opera, American pop and recording sessions with his father, a film composer, for whom he played keyboard. After his father’s early death, he worked as a session player for bands and orchestras and took a diploma in western classical music through a scheme run by London’s Trinity College of Music. He started composing advertising jingles in 1987 and was later invited by Mani Ratnam, one of India’s best-known directors, to create the soundtrack for Roja (Rose), a Tamil-language thriller that won three national awards in 1992. That opened his career to the lucrative Hindi film market.
Rahman still performs. YouTube clips of his concerts show a serene figure sitting cross-legged centre stage, playing a hapji (a keyboard instrument with guitar frets) and surrounded by dancers, musicians and meticulously choreographed lighting. Despite clear western influences, the songs are inflected with gamakas, the fluid decorations characteristic of Indian melody. “It creates an emotion that is unparalleled,” he says. “The idea of music is to liberate the listener and lead him to a frame where he feels he is elevated.”
Born RS Dileep Kumar, he changed his name to Allah-Rakha Rahman after converting to Islam, his mother’s religion, aged 23. Self-effacing and quietly charming, Rahman is the opposite of your brash movie mogul – but neither is there much of the charismatic guru about him. He usually has a business manager by his side, and seems happier talking about music production software Logic Pro X than about Bollywood, which he says “is really just Mumbai. It creates the impression that all Indian film is about glitzy girls and dancing. I don’t like it.”
He describes Hollywood as “like a holiday for me. I meet people I have adored [from afar] all my life.” But he is under no illusions about the compromises involved in working there. In the past, he says, film composers would read the screenplay and come up with themes. “John Williams would play them on the piano to Steven Spielberg. It would then go to the scoring stage, to see how it sounded with an orchestra.”
Today, soundtracks must follow “the demands of the number-crunchers. We have to mock up the whole orchestra on synthesiser. The more dollars the studio producers put in, the less freedom we have. If the budget hits $100m, they get scared – they’ll take the existing score of a successful movie and expect composers to copy it, like wallpaper. The biggest challenge for any composer in Hollywood is to be as creative as possible within those boundaries.”
The dictates of US film producers made Rahman determined to set up his own production company, and he already has a storyline for his first film. His love of Indian cinema stems, he says, from its capacity to cross language and ethnic barriers and the way it communicates “a spiritual elevation that gives contentment to the heart. That’s how people on $50 dollars a month are able to survive. It’s all a state of mind, whether you’re low-income or high. Money is important, sure, but the goal is to give people a sense of happiness and fulfilment.”
About his nurturing of a conservatoire in Chennai he says, “I want young Indian composers to be able to do more than just film music. I want to give them the skills that will enable them to create their own palette of sounds, instead of having to write formulaic music. It doesn’t matter if they become sound engineers, producers, composers or performers – I want them to be as imaginative as they like. My aim is to expand sensibilities.”
‘Million Dollar Arm’ is on general release from May 16
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In a speech today in New York City to the Milton Handler Antitrust Review, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris discussed his philosophy about the appropriate content of the FTC's competition policy strategy and explained the logic of the positive agenda used to implement the strategy.
"My experience in public agencies," he said, "confirms a vital, often-stated conclusion of academic researchers: no public institution achieves policy success without a coherent strategy for exercising its authority and spending its resources. A key manifestation of an agency's strategy is a positive agenda -- a statement of the measures the agency intends to pursue to accomplish its substantive aims. Without a general strategy and a positive agenda, an agency becomes a passive observer, swept along by external developments and temporary exigencies."
Muris explained that a positive agenda also provides essential guidance for the agency's staff and for the business community. For the agency's staff, a positive agenda focuses effort on measures most likely to fulfill the institution's mission. For the business community and other interested parties, a clear statement of intentions reduces uncertainty and facilitates compliance with the law.
The speech detailed the four general principles that Muris believes should inform the development of the FTC's competition policy strategy:
- Play an active role in promoting competition as the basic principle of economic organization through strong enforcement and focused advocacy;
- Focus antitrust enforcement resources on conduct that poses the greatest threat to consumer welfare;
- Make full use of the agency's distinctive institutional capabilities by applying the entire range of its policy instruments to solve competition policy problems; and
- Attach a high priority to improving the institutions and processes by which antitrust policy is formulated and applied.
"I view antitrust law as a form of regulation that competes with other regulatory structures," he stated, "and makes direct regulation unnecessary."
The United States has chosen antitrust law to provide the governing rules for competition in most sectors of the economy, Muris explained. He noted that two antitrust immunities help protect and foster regulatory growth: Noerr immunity and the state action doctrine. Each has been widely criticized. Muris then described two initiatives to address their immunities.
Muris first described the Task Force he created to study Noerr and to recommend appropriate case and advocacy opportunities. The FTC's Noerr Task Force has been conducting a careful analysis of existing case law, seeking to identify opportunities to clarify the case law in a manner that promotes competition and enhances consumer welfare. The Task Force has been evaluating the feasibility and desirability of promoting a number of specific developments in the Noerr doctrine including:
- Adopting an appropriately narrow view of conduct that constitutes immunized "petitioning," currently used in cases involving tariff filings and private settlements.
- Making clear that the Walker Process exception to Noerr immunity extends beyond the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) context to analogous non-legislative proceedings. In Walker Process, the Supreme Court ruled that an effort to defraud the PTO does not enjoy antitrust immunity.
- Recognizing fully an independent misrepresentation exception -- separate and distinct from the "sham" exception set forth in Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries. In short, material misrepresentation should not be protected.
Muris next described the State Action Task Force and the history of the state action doctrine, first articulated by the Supreme Court in 1943 in Parker v. Brown. Since Parker, the scope of state action immunity has increased considerably. At times, courts have failed to consider carefully whether the anticompetitive conduct in question was envisioned by the state legislature or truly necessary to accomplish the state's objective. Other courts have granted broad immunity to quasi-official entities, including entities composed of market participants, with only a tangential connection to the state. He explained that overbroad state action immunity has significant costs.
Muris said that the FTC's State Action Task Force has been conducting a careful analysis of existing state action case law, seeking to identify opportunities to direct the development of that case law in a manner that promotes competition and enhances consumer welfare. To date, the Task Force has evaluated the feasibility and desirability of promoting a number of specific developments in the state action doctrine, including the following:
- Clarify the proper interpretation of the "clear articulation" requirement the first prong of the two-prong test in California Retail Liquor Dealers Association v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc. to ensure that a state truly intended to displace competition by authorizing the anticompetitive conduct at issue.
- Elaborate further the standards for the "active supervision" requirement the second prong of the Midcal test to ensure that the requirement has "teeth" and will prevent private entities from restraining competition absent meaningful government oversight. Courts have not articulated a well-defined standard for active supervision. The Supreme Court has stated that a state official must engage in a "pointed re-examination" of a pricing scheme (Midcal) and must exercise "independent judgment and control" (Ticor), but has provided little concrete guidance on the standards federal courts should use to assess the state's efforts and what states should do to satisfy those standards.
- Advocate a tiered approach to govern the application of the "clear articulation" and "active supervision" requirements to ensure that these tests are applied most strictly when the threat to competition and consumer welfare is greatest, and less strictly where the threat is less severe.
- Consider explicit recognition of a "market participant" exception to state action immunity based on the statement in Omni Outdoor Advertising that immunity "does not necessarily obtain where the State acts not in a regulatory capacity but as a commercial participant in a given market."
Muris then turned to the Commission's role of competition advocacy. He emphasized that although vigorous law enforcement is necessary to protect consumers, the Commission also can enhance consumer welfare by increasing the information available to decision makers on the likely effects of proposed policies. "Today, the FTC is acting as a vigorous advocate for competition through the publication of studies and reports, as well as participation in state and federal legislative and regulatory fora. Participation in judicial fora, as an amicus curiae, is part of our advocacy program, especially when the FTC's participation can help remove protectionist regulations, when substantial questions of antitrust law are likely to be debated, or when because of special knowledge or experience, the agency can add a different perspective to the deliberations," Muris explained. "The FTC's advocacy program provides economic analysis and other informed guidance to help policymakers better understand the impact of their decisions in creating, maintaining, or forestalling competitive markets."
Muris noted that law enforcement provides the most consistent means by which the FTC influences the rules of the competitive process. Competition policy succeeds when it serves consumer interests for example, by pressing producers to offer lower prices or to improve product quality. "The true measure of our contribution to the economy," Muris stated, "is our progress in increasing consumer welfare."
Muris continued by noting that public antitrust enforcement has not always achieved this objective. In some cases, the departure from a consumer-oriented focus resulted from conscious policy choices that equated the well-being of individual firms with consumer interests. In other instances, antitrust enforcement has failed to serve consumer interests owing to a basic misdiagnosis of commercial phenomena.
Placing antitrust thinking in a chronological framework, Muris pointed out that the 1980s brought a "revolution" in antitrust. Antitrust finally regarded enhancing consumer welfare as the single unifying goal of competition policy, and it used a policy framework that was based on sound economics, both theoretical and empirical. The foundation of that framework was the belief, supported by modern economic research, that economics should be the guidepost for Commission actions. In addition, an approach based on enhancing consumer welfare recognizes that governmental impediments to, or exemptions from, competition can be at least as harmful to consumers as private restraints. This approach to antitrust enforcement, Muris noted, has been largely consistent at the Commission since the acceptance in the 1980s of economic analysis as the basis for antitrust analysis and decision making.
In describing the Commission's enforcement program, Muris noted that it focuses closely on the transactions and kinds of practices that have been shown over time to pose the greatest threat of substantial consumer injury. The agency considers the deterrent effect of enforcement action as well as the amount of immediate consumer injury. Additionally, the Commission carefully considers its enforcement experience. The pharmaceutical and standard-setting cases highlight an area in which the agency is devoting substantial resources to identify enforcement targets, such as the nexus between intellectual property and antitrust.
According to Muris, the agency has responded to the centrality of intellectual property issues in these cases and other investigations, in part, by forming an Intellectual Property Case Generation Working Group, whose responsibility is to identify and investigate widespread or significant practices that have anticompetitive effects without corresponding consumer benefits.
Shifting the discussion to mergers, Muris set the stage by stating that "there is a general consensus that the practices about which we should most worry occur when competitors stop competing vigorously, making peace to benefit themselves at the expense of consumers."
Horizontal mergers in which anticompetitive effects are likely are one fertile area for firms to make peace to the detriment of consumers, he explained, which is why there is a well-accepted horizontal merger policy, based on the foundations of the Department of Justice and FTC Merger Guidelines. Despite the decline in the merger wave, the FTC has a very active enforcement program in which over one half of its total competition budget is used to scrutinize horizontal mergers.
Continuing the merger discussion, Muris noted that firms also make peace through a wide range of non-merger conduct such as pure price-fixing, naked output restraints or market divisions, and bans on advertising. Muris pointed out that the Commission has brought numerous cases in these areas in the last eighteen months involving physicians, trade associations, and generic drugs.
Muris next touched on the category of potentially troubling single-firm conduct involving the abuse of government process. He noted that potential monopolization concerns can occur when firms misuse a self-regulatory process such as standard setting, citing American Society of Sanitary Engineering and Dell. Muris ended the merger discussion by noting that it is now widely accepted in law and economics that, in most situations, vertical restraints or vertical mergers do not harm consumers, citing Cytyc/Digene and Synopsys/Avant!.
Muris next discussed the Commission's unique collection of capabilities that include expansive power to conduct studies or perform research about the economy; a broad charter to act as an advocate for competition before other government bodies; and authority to use administrative adjudication to resolve competition policy disputes.
He described the agency's use of competition advocacy to address exemption and immunity issues as most prominent among its non-litigation instruments, citing the Commission's recently published generic drug study as an example of how the agency's research and analysis function can shape the policy environment. Muris also noted that the President recently announced that the Food and Drug Administration was proposing to change its rules to adopt the FTC report's major recommendation.
Citing another example of the Commission's unique institutional capacities, Muris described the agency's efforts concerning competition in e-commerce. He said he created a task force to examine possible anticompetitive efforts to restrict competition on the Internet. The task force is analyzing state regulations, such as occupational licensing and physical office requirements, that may have pro-consumer or pro-competition rationales, but that nevertheless may restrict the entry of new Internet competitors. The task force also is examining barriers that arise when private parties employ potentially anticompetitive tactics, such as when suppliers or dealers apply collective pressure to limit online sales.
To position the FTC to make intelligent contributions to competition policy through litigation or non-litigation instruments, Muris stressed the need for substantial investments in competition policy research and development. "For the FTC to be effective," Muris said, "the agency should be in the forefront in understanding whether markets are operating in a competitive fashion, and in communicating to decision makers the harm to consumer welfare when there is movement away from competitive, free markets. The agency also should explore the relevance of the theoretical foundation (generally, but not exclusively, industrial organization theory) of our efforts and those of others."
Muris detailed that the FTC's current competition policy Research and Development efforts have focused on: (1) improving the empirical understanding of our theoretical framework, (2) analyzing "merger outcomes," (3) reviewing two decades of change in the petroleum industry, (4) a unique effort in the real time monitoring of wholesale and retail gas prices across the nation, (5) the operation of current and developing health care markets, (6) reviewing the development of barriers to e-commerce, and (7) considering the interplay between the competition and intellectual property regimes. He stressed that the findings in these areas will continue to form the basis for enforcement actions, changes in enforcement policies, legislative recommendations, and public reports and comments.
Muris cited the FTC's recent two-day health care workshop as an example of the Commission's efforts, and noted that because the workshop only began to explore these complex and interdependent issues, the Commission authorized an extended set of hearings on health care and competition policy, commencing in February 2003 and continuing through the year.
Muris concluded his speech by touching on the role of the FTC in improving competition policy institutions and processes. He explained that the Commission has a special responsibility to pursue improvements in the processes and institutional arrangements through which competition policy is formulated at home and abroad. On several occasions in the past year, the Commission has issued statements explaining why it declined to take actions involving mergers for which the agency had issued a second request or otherwise conducted a significant inquiry. By doing so, the agency has sought to provide greater transparency concerning its analysis of mergers. The FTC also has made a considerable effort to improve the premerger review of specific transactions and reduce the costs associated with the merger-control regime.
Continuing on this theme, Muris said that the FTC is intensifying its commitment to improve the operation of our bilateral cooperation agreements. "No relationship assumes greater importance than our cooperation with the Competition Directorate of the European Commission," said Muris. "In many respects, this relationship between two of the world's most substantial antitrust regimes is a vital testing ground for collaborative approaches and practical techniques that might be adapted on a larger multinational scale. The past year has featured expanded cooperation between our agencies on a variety of fronts, and it is evident that the additional effort is yielding positive results."
Muris announced that he expects to see the FTC and its counterparts overseas use their experience in antitrust cooperation to improve the enforcement of consumer protection prohibitions against fraud. Such efforts, he noted, could become part of a larger international program to improve understanding of the links between competition policy and consumer protection and to ensure that public policy in these two areas serves the mutually reinforcing purpose of improving consumer welfare.
Finally, Muris stressed that the FTC's commitment to assist transition economies in building effective competition policy and consumer protection regimes has reached an all-time high. In the fiscal year that concluded in September, the FTC performed numerous short-term technical assistance missions involving antitrust and consumer protection issues in transition economies and assigned long-term advisors to assist the competition authorities of Indonesia and South Africa. These initiatives extend and build upon the FTC's decade-long program to help less developed countries build the legal infrastructure to support the operation of a market economy.
- Media Contact:
- Cathy MacFarlane,
Office of Public Affairs


Mary Margaret Gretta WREN was born in Lancaster, Ohio, June 15,1875 to Edward WREN and Margaret Kinnane WREN. She married Patrick Leo REAP on January 17,1917 in New York City. Gretta died on March 23,1938 in Pittston, PA and is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Pittston. PA. They had one child, Edward Wren REAP born on May 10, 1919. Gretta's father, Edward originated the WREN Dry Good Store in Springfield, Ohio in 1877. He owned and expanded the very well know store until 1917 when he died while living at Far Rockaway Beach, NY. My great grandfather, John, was
Edward WREN's brother and was also in the dry goods business. They were born in Littur Townland, County Kerry, Ireland.
Edward Wren REAP married Rita REAGAN in Chicago. They have 5 children.
Please tell me the NAME of your husband's cousin that worked at WREN's store. Explain the relationship as I have all the information on the WREN family in Springfield.
Thank you, Jenny
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The goddess Venus tries to restrain her lover Adonis from going off to the hunt. She clings to him, imploring him not to go, but Adonis looks down at her impassively. His dogs strain at their leashes, echoing his impatience, as detailed in the tragic love story found in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Cupid sleeps in the background, a symbol of Adonis's resistance to Venus's entreaties, since his ineffective arrows hang uselessly in a tree. The story ends tragically; during the hunt the mortal Adonis is fatally gored by a wild boar.
Titian's loose, energetic strokes of paint give the painting a sense of spontaneity and movement. In some areas, the artist even painted with his finger, as seen in Adonis's arm. The composition's dynamism springs from the torsion caused by Venus's awkward pose, which was inspired by an ancient sculptural relief. Titian used rich colors, shimmering highlights, and a lush landscape to create the painting's evocative, poignant mood.


Elizabeth was sold into marriage at a young age. When she had daughters of her own, she wanted them to avoid the same fate. She dreamed that they would be able to finish school.
So when Elizabeth’s husband insisted that their daughter Athieng be given away in an arranged marriage, Elizabeth refused. She hid Athieng away from the family so that her daughter could continue to attend school. For her defiance, Elizabeth was beaten. She was thrown into prison. She was shunned by her entire community.
After turning to Women for Women International, Elizabeth learned to read and write. She received rights awareness and job skills training. She now has a job that pays well enough to keep all her children in school—without depending on an abusive husband.
Elizabeth’s determination to give Athieng the opportunities that she never had has paid off. Athieng is continuing her education and wants to become a lawyer. With her daughter at her side, Elizabeth says, “Now I can imagine a tomorrow that could be better than today."
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating or by subscribing to this project's RSS feed.
Online Marketing Manager


Glass tiles are thin, flat shaped tiles used to line or cover a surface. Glass tiles come in a wide variety of shapes, transparencies, colors, and can come in combination with other materials such as stainless steel. They can be used to make a surface more durable or water repellent, or they can be used for surface decoration. Glass tiles are more rigid than ceramic or cement tiles, making them easier to break under stresses. Though they require more delicate handling, glass tiles are popular because they can refract light, offering a wider variety of surface effects than ceramic or porcelain. Glass is also impervious to water, will not fade in sunlight, and is frost-proof.
Glass tiles are typically used for walls, bathrooms, in window details, or for decoration. However, some glass tiles are manufactured for use as floor tiles. Glass floor tiles are often textured to prevent slippage when wet. Tiles come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, making them attractive for both residential and commercial use. Glass tiles can be transparent or opaque, depending upon the mixture of glass and other components such as metal oxides. Some tiles are backed with other materials like stainless steel, or coated with substances that allow the tiles to be impregnated with heat transfer dyes. Coated tiles are used to create custom glass tiles for use in murals or other artistic designs.
Glass tiles can be cast into identical shapes, such as a square or rectangle, and used with grout to cover a surface in a geometric pattern. The tiles can also be irregular in shape and used to create a free-flowing or organic design. Glass mosaics have been made this way for many years, using a variety of shapes and colors to make a unique design. Glass tiles can also be manufactured in large sheets with a mesh backing, making for easier installation.
Glass tiles are commonly manufactured by fusing, which involves placing several thin sheets of glass in layers into a kiln and heated to about 800 degrees Celsius, essentially fusing the different layers of glass together into one sheet. Glass tiles may also be manufactured using glass powders that are melted together in kilns operating at much higher temperatures. The layers of glass go through a cycle of ramps, where they are heated rapidly; and then soaks, where they are held at a specific temperature. Tiles go through the ramping and soaking process for several cycles until the kiln operator decides they have fused together to the desired effect. The fused layers are then allowed to cool over time, essentially annealing or strengthening the glass tiles.
Installing glass tiles involves using a backing such as a cement board; green board, which is water resistant; concrete; or drywall. The tiles are mounted in an adhesive and then secured together with a grout. Glass tiles may also be cut to fit into small areas or around fixtures. Tile cutters or nippers are used to shape small tiles, while a wet saw is preferable for use on larger or thicker tiles.


11 December 2013 - Findings from The 2013 Issues Survey, a GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey.
In comparison to the 2011 edition of this survey, this year’s results show a slight uptick in the level of urgency experts feel across top sustainability issues, as well as in their impressions of how well industry is managing the transition to sustainability. But, even while perceptions of performance have increased incrementally for nearly every sector (a first since 2000), the overall gap between urgency and performance remains significant.
For the first time in this survey series, experts were asked not only for their views on which issues are most urgent for particular industry sectors, but also which sectors are most accountable for reducing their impact on, or providing solutions for, each issue. By comparing these results against issue urgency, a series of sector-specific “accountability/urgency maps” were created, each of which provides an updated view on industry challenges and opportunities, and a unique input for materiality analyses, strategy setting and other processes.
This report includes a generalized version of these maps that aggregates ratings of urgency and accountability across all issues and highlights two distinct groups of industries: those facing high levels of both urgency and accountability on a number of fronts, versus those dealing with less overall urgency and accountability. For those in the second group, however, there is often still at least one or a subset of issues that stand out. For example, while the pharmaceutical industry’s overall urgency and accountability scores are relatively low (see page 17), experts consider this industry extremely accountable for addressing the issue of access to medicines/healthcare.
As outlined in GlobeScan and SustainAbility’s 2013 report Changing Tack, collaboration within and across industries is required to address the many challenges facing corporations and society at large. With this in mind, readers are encouraged to view the following findings as both a snapshot of where we are as well as a springboard for discussions that raise ambition and instigate enhanced collective action.


This spring 200 school kids learned that building a dream city is easier when it's made out of cardboard than from steel and concrete, but the principles of design still apply. "Box City" is a miniature community of cardboard, construction paper and pipe cleaner "people'. Architects and architectural grad students worked with 4th, 5th and 6th graders and their teachers to explore the basics of design, the physics of structure and the essentials of city planning. It will be on display as one of the events for Architecture Week.
The Utah Center for Architecture (UCFA), a non-profit cultural organization created the week to invite people to look more closely at their neighborhoods and urban environments and to appreciate inspired design where it occurs.
The tours and exhibits are free and open to the public. Here are the events from Wednesday, April 30th - Saturday, May 3rd.
Wednesday, April 30
6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Educating Elementary Children Through Architecture (EECTA) Box City Awards presentation and new exhibit about design principles taught through EECTA for adults. Salt Lake City Main Public Library Urban Room and Auditorium. Box City closes.
Friday, May 2
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Walking tour: “East of Washington: Reintroducing the Trolley District” of Odgen’s historic 25th Street and original streetcar neighborhoods led by co-authors of Ogden’s Historic Trolley District Book, Shalae Larsen, ASLA PLA and Sue Wilkerson. Tour begins at Union Station. Co-sponsored by the Trolley Distrct Community Council. Refreshments provided.
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Exhibit: Brett Donnelly Gallery in Ogden hosts ”Form, Space and Concept” an exhibit of models created by architects and architectural students to explore concepts, ideas, and functions that ultimately are developed into habitable spaces.
Saturday, May 3
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
“Rethinking Sugar House Park”, a Jane Jacobs Walk, will be led by University Honors students who studied it in depth and recently shared capital improvement ideas for the park with the Sugar House Park Authority. The walk will allow participants to share ideas and re-envision the park (see map for tour route). Co-sponsored by UCFA. Refreshments provided.
11:00 a.m. – Noon
Walking tour of late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings in downtown Salt Lake City designed by Richard Kletting, architect of the Utah Capitol. Meet in the courtyard of the Boston & Newhouse Buildings on Exchange Place at Main St. Led by Allen Roberts, AIA, historic preservation expert and CRSA president.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Tour of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, completed in 2011, designed by Sparano & Mooney Architecture, at 7405 S Redwood Road, West Jordan. Received the Design Arts Award from the Utah Arts Council, an Excellence in Concrete Award from the American Concrete Institute, and Merit Awards from AIA Western Mountain Region and from AIA Utah.
For more information, please visit: http://utahcfa.org/.


In Alaska with Shipwreck Kelly
1897 - the last great gold rush More than a hundred thousand raced toward the Yukon and the Klondike - all of them desperate to be first to arrive at the headwaters of the Yukon. Leaving his federal post in Montana, U.S. Deputy Marshall Patrick Kelly becomes a partner in a spectacular enterprise: the disassembly and transportation of Studdsworth P. Blackmore's famous Alham...more
Audio Cassette, Abridged
Published by Paperback Nova Audio Books
(first published February 1st 1996)
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US 5227104 A
A method is described for producing hard, dense, finely crystalline fired bodies from alumina gels of solids content greater than 45%, by the use of high pressure in mixing and/or presssure extrusion together with seeding of the gel by submicron alpha alumina particles.
1. A method for making ceramic bodies comprising polycrystalline alpha alumina comprising the steps of: gelling a mixture including hydrated alumina powder, water and acid, said mixture having a solids content of more than 30% by weight, by extruding said mixture while exerting pressure thereon, said mixture immediately prior to extrusion containing ungelled agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder, said extrusion acting to force the water and acid into contact with such ungelled alumina powder to provide a substantially homogeneous gelled product; drying said gelled product; firing the dried product to a temperature of less than 1500° C. to convert at least a portion of said hydrated alumina to alpha alumina, said body having a density of at least 90% of theoretical; and providing in said gelled product prior to said firing step submicron sized alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers as seed material in an amount of between about 0.1% and 5% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said seed material includes submicron size alpha alumina particles.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the amount of said seed material present is 5% or less of the total content of said mixture.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the temperature of firing is 1400° C. or less.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the solids content of said mixture is at least 50% by weight.
6. The method as in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the solids content of said mixture is between 45% and 75% by weight.
7. The method of claim 6 further including the steps of hydrothermally treating said mixture prior to said gelling step.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein said pressure forces said mixture through an extrusion die.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the solids content is between 45% and 65% by weight and said pressure is between 20 lbs. and 20 tons per square inch.
10. The method of claim 6 further including the step of crushing or breaking up the dried product prior to the firing step to form abrasive grits upon firing.
11. A method for making abrasive grits comprising the steps of:
(a) forming a mixture including hydrated alumina powder, water and acid, said mixture having a solids content of more than 30% by weight;
(b) gelling said mixture by extruding said mixture under pressure through a die to obtain substantially homogeneous gelled extruded rods, said mixture immediately prior to such extrusion containing ungelled agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder, said extrusion acting to force the water and acid into contact with said unpeptized alumina powder;
(c) drying said rods;
(d) firing said rods at a temperature of less than 1500° to convert at least a portion of said hydrated alumina to alpha alumina to alpha alumina having crystal sizes of less than 1 micron; and
(e) providing in said rods prior to said firing step submicron alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers as seed material in an amount of between about 0.1% and 5% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein said mixture has a solids content of between 45% to 75%.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein said grits have a density of at least about 97% of theoretical.
14. The method of claims 11, 12 or 13 wherein said seed material constitutes 5% or less of the total solids of said mixture.
15. The method of claims 11, or 13 further including the step of breaking up said rods prior to firing.
16. The method of claims 11, 12 or 13 in which said seed material includes submicron sized alpha alumina particles.
This is a continuation of copending application Ser. No. 07/323,268 filed on Mar. 15, 1989, now abandoned which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 06/732,973 filed May 13, 1985 now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 06/620,654 filed Jun. 14, 1984 (now abandoned).
In the manufacture of so called sol-gel aluminum oxide ceramic articles and in particular aluminous abrasive grain, large volumes of water have been used to form the gels. These large volumes have been made necessary basically for 3 (three) reasons:
1. The prior art teaches that gels, particularly for abrasive purposes, made from gelable alumina powders should contain high levels (3-7 weight percent) of MgO. The MgO is introduced into the sol-gel as a solution of a magnesium salt. Such introduction of salt solutions dramatically increases the viscosity of the system. Therefore, to ensure good homogeneous mixing of the magnesium salt with the alumina gel it is necessary to work with a relatively dilute sol-gel so that upon addition of the magnesium salt the viscosity remains low enough so that efficient and good mixing remain possible. For conventional abrasive manufacture containing around 5% MgO, a solids content in the 15-25 weight % range may be conveniently worked with but becomes very tedious beyond that. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,827 and published British application 2,099,012A.
2. The manufacture of gels from present commercially derived alumina monohydrate powders requires that some acid (e.g., nitric or formic) be added to the powder to allow the colloidal particles to disperse. In order to ensure that the acid can interact with all of the powder, the acid is diluted with a large volume of water and conventionally mixed in a high shear blender or other convenient mixer. If insufficient water is used, the gel becomes too viscous to homogeneously mix in the magnesia (as above) and also it is extremely difficult to gel agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder. With conventional mixing it becomes very very tedious to ensure a homogeneous peptization beyond about 45 weight % solids content. Solids content referes only to alumina monohydrate content in the sol gel and neglects the magnesia salt.
3. Relatively large volumes of solvent (almost always water but could be a mixture of methanl-water or many other possibilities) are required in conventional gel preparation in order to ensure proper formation of the gel so that a coherent glassy dried green form is obtained. If insufficient water (solvent) is present the resulting green-ware is not coherent and tends to crumble easily, not at all exhibiting the glassy like features of the high water containing gel. When these poorer quality green bodies are sintered, the product tends to have weak zones and "pock marked" surfaces. This becomes especially noticeable beyond about 50 weight % solids.
The presence of large volumes of water has several major disadvantages:
1. energy cost to remove the water is extremely high because conventional dewatering such as filtration is difficult if not impossible once the gel is formed,
2. large capital investments are needed to provide large scale dewatering equipment,
3. volumes handled are large, and
4. control of shrinkage and cracking during drying is extremely difficult.
In view of the drawbacks of these conventional low solids content gels, I was led to investigate means whereby high quality ceramic articles, particularly abrasive grain could be made at high solids (greater than 30%) levels. Thus an object of the invention is to produce a high solids content aluminum oxide based gel system which will as a result have much improved economics of drying (dewatering) and permit much more control of greenware shrinkage and cracking during drying.
Copending U.S. application Ser. No. 06/592,689, filed Mar. 23, 1984, now abandoned, along with its continuation-in-part U.S. application Ser. No. 662,869 filed Oct. 19, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,364, and its copending further continuation-in-part U.S. application Ser. No. 023,346 filed Mar. 9, 1987, teaches that high quality abrasive grain may be formed from a gel without the use of high levels of MgO. Rather than requiring the MgO as sintering aid/grain growth inhibitor, it has been found that an addition of extremely fine Al2 O3 will allow the gel to sinter to greater than 90% theoretical density in only a few minutes and thereby still retain a submicron microstructure.
Such a "seeded" ceramic abrasive material has been found to perform much better than the MgO containing "unseeded" gel in many grinding applications. The MgO may still be added to the "seeded" gel but generally does not improve performance any further and is often deleterious.
By eliminating magnesium salt additions then, I have effectively removed the first reason cited earlier for high water requirements, and the solids content can be increased by a factor of 2-3 times.
In order to insure complete peptization of the alumina (i.e. contact with acid), and to also insure "polymerization" i.e. contact with water, I resorted to using a high solids kneader/mixer and subsequent extrusion of the mix with either a piston or auger type extruder. It was felt that the pressure exerted on the mixed paste/gel would force the liquids (acid and water) into any remaining ungelled alumina powder compacts and provide a homogeneous gelled product. When the solids content was from 45-65 weight % it was found that pressures from 200 psi to 20 tons/square inch worked satisfactorily with the preferred pressured at 300 psi to 10 tons/square inch. Presumably, given a mixer with the combined features of mixing and exerting such pressures, the extrusion step could be omitted unless, of course, shape control was desired.
The problem of unpeptized material, typically in the amount of a few percent is recognized even in the case of dilute sol-gel dispersions, as indicated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,827, where the use of a centrifuge is disclosed to eliminate such material. In the case of the high solids sol-gel dispersions of the present invention, removal of unpeptized material cannot be practically done by centrifuging. However, such material can be made peptizable by subjecting the mix to hydrothermal treatment e.g. 180° C. for 2 hours at autogenous pressure. Such treatment may or may not be needed depending upon the quality of the alumina monohydrate powder and the tolerable amount of unpeptized material in the product.
Illustrates sintering enhancement by using "seeded" gel, preparation of high solids content gel and effects of extrusion.
In a Maternini mixer was put 8 kg Condea Pural SB alumina monohydrate, 9.5 kg of alumina gel (Condea base) at 20.7% solids which had been "seeded" with 10 g ultra fine (submicron) Al2 O3 generated from wear on Sweco mill (vibratory mill) alumina grinding media, and 400 ml concentrated nitric acid. The 56% solids paste which formed was very difficult to mix thoroughly and many sections of unreacted powder were visible. A sample of this paste was dried and sintered at 1400° C. for 10 minutes; the specimen showed a Vickers hardness of 16.5 GPa but many large pores and pits were visible. The remainder of the sample was extruded in a verticle piston extruder through a 1/16" die plate at a pressure of 13-15 tons per square inch and 27 inches of vacuum. The extrudate which was very pasty and crumbly going in, emerged as translucent/transparent fibres, quite homogeneous and relatively flaw free. The extrudate after sintering as described above had only a few small pores and uniform hardness of 16.5 GPa.
The extrudate, therefore, had hardness (density) equivalent to non-seeded MgO containing gels suitable for use as a superior abrasive. The extrudate fibres dried essentially intact although some cracking was observed. Nonetheless, shrinkage and cracking control were much improved over the conventional 15-25%, gels and drying rates were increased dramatically.
Illustrates preparation of high solids (50%) Gel extrusion and sintering to 97% theoretical density.
In a mix-muller were mixed 40 pounds Condea Pural SB monohydrate alumina powder, 11 pounds of Sweco milled water (661/2 hours milling with 1/2×1/2 cylindrical, 90% alumina, grinding media) which contained 2.266% solids, 14 pounds of tap water was added and the whole mixed. A mixture of 1600 ml concentrated nitric acid and 1600 ml tap water was then added the whole mixed for 2 minutes. Then 6 pounds more of tap water was added. The whole was mixed 2 minutes more and then piston extruded through 1/8" holes at 500-1000 pounds per square inch pressure. The mixed material as in the previous example did not seem to be homogeneously gelled and was somewhat granular. After extrusion the material appeared to be much more uniformly and homogeneously gelled. The extrudate after sintering at 1400° C. for 5 minutes had Vickers hardness of 19.5-20 GPa.
The aluminous bodies made by the process of the present invention may contain spinel formers such as alumina, modifying agents such as titania, and may serve as matrixes or boding agents for other ceramic materials. By solids contents I mean 100% times the ratio of the weight of the alumina hydrate to the sum of the weight of the solid alumina hydrate starting material and the weight of added liquid. My invention comprehends a solids content of from 45% to as high as 75%. It should be noted that although the alumina (boehmite) starting materials are termed "monohydrates" they may in fact contain more or less than one mole of H2 O per calculated mole of Al2 O3.
By "seed material" I mean submicron sized alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers which produce a non-cellular submicron structures in the alumina bodies when fired for 10 minutes or less at 1400° C.
The optimum amount of submicron seed material (contained in the "milled water" in the above example) is 1% solids based on the total solids of the mixture. No more than 5% of such seed material should be added since at such levels above the optimum it tends to increase the crystal size of the fired product and reduces the hardness of the product. The minimum, as evidenced by Example I, is about 0.1% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.
In all of the products of this invention, as in the above example, the fired crystal size of the alpha alumina body, (or matrix material when serving as a bonding agent) should be less than one micron.
The preferred firing temperature is 1400° C. or less, and in no event should be over 1500° C. to retain the required submicron crystal size of the product.
Hardnesses herein were measured by a Vickers diamond indenter point at a load of 500 grams.
The high solids gels of this invention may be shaped by extrusion or molded to produce wear resistant parts, parts designed for use in corrosive or high temperature environments, substrates for electronic applications, and any other applications where strong and dense alpha alumina bodies are required.
Where abrasive grits are desired, extruded rods of appropriate size may be formed then dried and crushed or broken up to the desired grit shapes prior to firing.
The gels of the present invention may also be used to form coatings, which are then fired to 3.9 or greater specific gravity.
Illustrates usefulness of the invention as an abrasive and sintering to 99% density.
Eight (8) mixtures were prepared and extruded as in II. After drying at 80° C. the extrudate was impact crushed and fired (sintered) in a rotary electric kiln (SiC tube) under various conditions. The resultant grain was sized to 50 grit (Coated Abrasive Manufacturers Institute Standard) and evaluated as an abrasive on coated disc. The results are shown below:
______________________________________ % of Result UsingSintering Hard- CAD Co-fusedTemp. Time Density ness Results Alumina-Test °C. Min. (g/cm)3 (GPa) 1020 Zirconia______________________________________1 1350 5 3.84 19.9 120 882 1350 10 3.89 19.9 100 823 1350 30 3.94 19.9 80 684 1350 60 3.95 19.1 80 545 1400 5 3.91 19.9 93 786 1400 10 3.94 19.1 76 677 1400 30 3.97 18.5 74 47______________________________________
In this particular example, best grinding performance was obtained at relatively lower densities. This is so because at the higher densities, exaggerated grain growth has become a deleterious factor fracture characteristics of the material. This does not mean that in general better grinding will occur with lower density.
The data indicates that the gel can sinter to near theoretical density under relatively mild conditions.
The comparison abrasive, co-fused alumina zirconia, is the best prior art fused abrasive material for use in coated abrasives. The results reported in the table refer to the weight of material removed before failure from (1) a 1020 steel speciman as a % of the weight removed by an alumina-zirconia coated disc, and (2) the weight of stainless removed by the test abrasive as a % of that removed by the alumina-zirconia abrasive, under identical test conditions.


Funding and grants for groups and individuals.
Oxfordshire County Council has a section on it's website about Funding and grants for groups and individuals. Many of the links on this page are taken from there.
GRANTNET - Free to use funding database.
Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (OCVA)
OCVA runs a free Funding Advice Service for voluntary and community organisations and the Development Team can help you put your application together and offer advice on other sources of help. [OCVA website]
The Oxfordshire Guide to Funding Opportunities 2011
This is currently being updated. You can also use Source Oxfordshire which helps businesses and voluntary organisations understand the procurement and grants processes as well as helping to find and apply for opportunities in Oxfordshire and further afield.
Big Society fund - February 2011
Oxfordshire County Council has created the Big Society fund of £600,000 so that community groups can bid for funds to help them take responsibility for providing services in their communities. It will be one-off funding to help communities get their ideas going. For more information and guidance go to the Big Society Fund pages.
Funding for children and young people for out of school play and leisure. Funding for Community Chest has now ended. (July 2011) OCC can't currently fund any applications for assistance.
Play Design Grants
The Play Design Grants (PDG) are small grants to help groups develop their ideas for improving the play spaces in their communities.
Playbuilder Capital Grant
£1,000,000 funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) part of the 'Fair Play’ initiative, that aims to change the way play spaces are commissioned, designed and built. [link]
Chill Out Fund for youth activities
Improving and extending provision for children and young people in Oxfordshire [link]
Village hall grantsOCC have a small grants scheme to fund improvements to village halls and community centres in market towns, including Oxford. All enquiries about this fund should be made to the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) who administers the scheme on their behalf.
List of links to funding and grant making bodies
- Chill Out Fund
- Grants Online
- Lottery Good Causes
- Awards for All
- Big Lottery Fund
- Sport England
- Arts Council
- Heritage Lottery Fund
Waste Recycling Environmental Limited. Provide grants under the terms and conditions of the Landfill Communities Fund (formerly the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme).
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
- Directory of Social Change
South East Museum, Library & Archive Council
- Government Funding
- Oxfordshire Community Foundation
- The API
Lead trade body within the play sector representing the interests of manufacturers, designers and distributors of both indoor and outdoor play equipment and play area surfacing.
- Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
- The Football Foundation
One of the largest sports charities in the world and certainly the largest in the UK. They are an important funder of multi-use games areas.
- The Forestry Commission
Deliver practical programmes to make sure that, as communities and individuals, we can get the most from our forests. Search for Play Space on their excellent website for a variety of resources.
- The Free Play Network
Aims to promote greater public understanding of the need for better play opportunities for children, by promoting discussion, exchange of information, and guidance on best practice in development of children's play opportunities.
Work for disabled children, young people and their families. KIDS vision is a world in which all disabled children and young people realise their aspirations and their right to an inclusive community which supports them and their families.
- The Oxfordshire Community Foundation
Has been awarded £761,000 over three years to make grants from between £250 to £5,000 in a straightforward and easy way, to voluntary and community groups with annual incomes below £20,000.
- The Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association (OPFA)
A body of expertise on local Outdoor Play, they organise a Children's Playground Inspection Roadshow programme.
- The Oxfordshire Play Association (OPA)
a registered charity that promotes play for all children & young people throughout Oxfordshire.
- Play England
provides advice and support to promote good practice, and works to ensure that the importance of play is recognised by policy makers, planners and the public.
- Play Wales
the national organisation for children's play in Wales.
multi-faceted independent play and informal leisure consultancy working in the areas of design, planning, policy, strategy, local engagement, fundraising and organisational development.


[Haskell-cafe] Re: Existencial quantification and polymorphic
datatypes (actually, components...)
lrpalmer at gmail.com
Tue Jan 20 16:00:55 EST 2009
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:14 PM, David Menendez <dave at zednenem.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Mauricio <briqueabraque at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>> But how is this:
> >>> data SomeNum = forall a. SN a
> >>> different from:
> >>> data SomeNum = SN (forall a. a)
> >> At a glance they look the same to me — but only the first is accepted by
> >> ghc.
> > Following the link you pointed in the last
> > message, I found this at 18.104.22.168:
> > data T a = T1 (forall b. b -> b -> b) a
The constructor here is irrelevant. The function here can do anything a
top-level function of type:
something :: b -> b -> b
I like to think about quantification in this regard in terms of
isomorphisms. Think about what a function of type forall b. b -> b -> b can
do. It cannot do anything with its arguments, because it must work on all
types, so it only has one choice to make: it can return the first argument,
or it can return the second argument.
So, forall b. b -> b -> b is isomorphic to Bool.
For symmetry, the constructor T1 has type:
T1 :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> T1 a
> > If I understand properly, it can be activated
> > with -XPolymorphicComponents. It's different
> > from my example, but I would like to know what
> > it does that this can't:
> data T a = forall b. T1 (b->b->b) a
The constructor T1 here has type:
T1 :: forall b. (b -> b -> b) -> a -> T1 a
See the difference?
You can pass the latter a function of any type you choose, eg. (Int -> Int
-> Int) or ((Bool -> Bool) -> (Bool -> Bool) -> (Bool -> Bool)). So when
somebody gets a T from you, they have no idea what type the function you
gave it was, so they can only use it in limited ways (in this case, nothing
useful at all can be done with it).
Here's another existential type:
data T' a = forall b. T' (b -> a) b
Here, a T' contains a value of some type b -- who knows what it is -- and a
function to get from that value to an a. Since we don't know anything about
b, all we can do is to apply the function.
T' a is isomorphic to a. But it might have different operational behavior;
e.g. maybe a is a huge list which is cheaply generated from some small
generator value (of type b). Then if you pass a T' around, it's the same as
passing that big list around, except for you don't cache the results of the
list, improving memory performance. It's like inverse memoization.
Not all existential types are for inverse memoization, this is just one
I found it easiest to reason about these with the types of the constructors,
and thinking about what non-quantified type they are isomorphic to.
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July 24th, 2014 Pioneer Day July 24th, 2014 Laylat al-Qadr July 27th, 2014 Parents' Day July 28th, 2014 World Hepatitis Day July 29th, 2014 Eid-al-Fitr July 30th, 2014 World Friendship Day August 5th, 2014 Tisha B'Av August 9th, 2014 World Indigenous Peoples’ Day August 11th, 2014 Victory Day August 12th, 2014 International Youth Day August 15th, 2014 'Bennington Battle Day' observed August 15th, 2014 Statehood Day in Hawaii August 15th, 2014 Assumption of Mary August 16th, 2014 Bennington Battle Day August 19th, 2014 National Aviation Day August 19th, 2014 World Humanitarian Day August 23rd, 2014 World Day for Slave Trade Abolition
Potion Masters Mahogany Wood Wand W/ Velvet Bag Wiccan Wizard Druid Pagan For Sale
This hand turned mahogany wood wand measures approximately 15 inches in length with an approximate5/8 inch diameter handle. The wand handle is a gothic inspired design and the wand features a beautiful ebony finish and mahoganywood grain. The wand includes a velvet wand storage bag. All of our wood magick wandsare hand turned, carved, and finished by master wand makers. Each wand is carefully crafted to enhance the appeal of the natural wood grain and to maintain the balance of the wand. Wands may have slight color, size and wood pattern variations.
Mahogany: This wood is in touch with the elements of fire and earth. Well balanced, this wood seeks a partner with strength and energy. Excellent for protection spells. Magical properties: This is one of the most spiritually focused of all woods, and would be best used in magick dealing with anything non-physical. Divination and spiritual growth and guidance are its primary properties. It is also an excellent wood for healing spells, though mostly for emotional and spiritual healing.
Please Note: That this listing is for a single wand and each wand is individually hand turned, carved, and finished, no two wands are exactly alike and each wand has it's own unique appearance and finished design. This wand includes a velvet cloth storage bag to protect the wand from dust, dirt, and any unwanted energies. Stands, display and storage boxes, and leather holsters are sold separately.


Take a look a these Gout Home Remedies and see which one can help you soothe the extremely painful symptoms of a bout of gout, which comes on suddenly and without any warning.
Gout, dubbed as the "rich man's illness", is a great source of amusement for others.
But you ask anyone who has suffered from this and they will tell you in detail that it is no laughing matter.
It is seriously painful!
Now that we have checked out some of the facts about gout let's take a look at some traditional Gout Home Remedies and see how
these old folklore solutions can help in reducing the build up of uric
acid in the body, and perhaps help us stop worrying about what is causing our gout.
And at the same time give some relief in soothing the area afflicted by this incredibly painful ailment.
"The Best Remedy that I have for Rheumatism is to thank the Lord it ain't Gout".
1 pkt Epsom Salts
1 pkt Cream of Tartar
1 pkt Flowers of Sulfur
Mix all the ingredients together and place in an airtight container.
Take a half teaspoon stirred into a glass of water first thing in the morning.
Take a few leafs of the Arum Lily
Do not crush or bruise the leaf and heat it up in water.
Apply this as a plaster to the gout infected area for relief of itching and peeling of the skin which is one the the unpleasant after effects of a gout attack.
One thick slice of bread
One large onion
Heat the milk, and pour onto the slice of bread.
Grate the onion and add to the milk and bread. Mix into a paste and place on the inflamed gout infected area. Keep in place with a retaining dressing.
A bowl of cherries a day will keep my gout at bay!
To the top of Gout Home Remedies
Or else back to our Home Page
Copyright 2010 Home Remedies Haven.com. All Rights Reserved.
Soak 4 figs in water, mash them and then apply directly to the affected area and keep in place with a clean cloth.
Leave for up to an hour.
Gout is caused by build up of uric acid in the joints.
Figs are alkaline and help to counteract this acidity.
Morin, a compound found in figs have been shown to reduce uric acid.
The information on this site does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with your Health Professional.


Press Release No.:
Date: 26 April 2009
Geneva - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is monitoring events concerning the recent cases of ‘swine influenza’ in Mexico and the United States. On 25 April 2009 the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of its Emergency Committee, and subsequently determined that the situation represented a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ under the terms of the International Health Regulation (2005).
Details of the WHO’s statements can be found at www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en
Guidelines for managing suspected communicable diseases during such public health events have been developed by IATA, in consultation with WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Airports Council International (ACI) and are available on IATA's Communicable diseases and Air Transport pages.
At the present time, IATA recommends that airlines review their preparedness plans for public health emergency and consider how they may be implemented in the event that the current situation becomes more widespread. No specific additional measures are currently advised. Recommendations will be reviewed in light of WHO evaluation of the evolving situation.
Notes for editors:
For more information, please contact:
Tel: +41 22 770 2967


- THE MAGAZINE
In my 40-plus years of affiliation with the cleaning Industry I have watched closely the ebb and flow of our business in relation to the ups and downs of the general economy. Unlike direct retail, our service business seems to weather the storms of economic downturn and recession fairly well. When money gets tight, as it is now, consumers tend to want to take good care of what they have, as opposed to replacing their things with new.
Cleaning companies often experience actual increases in business when the general economy takes a downturn. There is an increase in consumers shopping for a bargain, but companies with strong reputations for providing good value for the price paid seem to do well during these times. One thing that is a bit different about the current times is the relationship of the economic downturn to the two issues of housing and the price of fuel.
The “correction” in the housing market has led to a decrease in New Housing construction which has definitely affected the carpet manufacturing industry resulting in some of the lowest levels of production and sales in recent history. This could have a delayed effect the cleaning industry, since these would be the carpets being cleaned in the years to come. The whole mortgage and foreclosure crisis has created a lot of pressure on the bank accounts of consumers. On the one hand, many are cleaning up homes to sell, while others are just letting things go, expecting to lose the property. This creates an uncertainty in the cleaning marketplace unlike anything I’ve seen before.
The price of oil and gasoline has cut deeply into the amount of “disposable” or elective income available for services like carpet cleaning. While travel plans and vacations can be modified, many must use fuel for transportation to and from work in order to keep their jobs. This need for basic transportation, plus the increase in the cost of shipping goods to market leading to higher prices for food and other basic necessities, will cause people to look at what is a necessity and what is a luxury.
To weather this storm, cleaning businesses need to emphasize the role cleaning plays in maintaining a healthy environment and protecting the value of expensive furnishings. Cleaning just for appearance reasons can put our service into the “optional” category, but health and investment protection are more likely to be placed in the necessity column and less likely to get cut out of the household budget.
I am still optimistic that the current times represent as many opportunities for the cleaning service professional, but careful marketing and packaging of our services emphasizing improving the healthiness of the home and protecting the value of investments is a necessity.


Font Installation on Unix and Other Systems
Windows and Macintosh systems have one central directory where all applications access their fonts. Unfortunately, in Linux and Unix, each application implements fonts differently: the X Window system has its way, word processors want it a different way, printing systems want it another way, and so on.
Several font installation examples are documented below with links provided by IDAutomation's clients. If they are not helpful, contact the operating system or application vendor for installation procedures.
IDAutomation's TrueType and PostScript fonts are created to the standards set for TrueType and PostScript fonts, and can be treated as any other font for the purpose of getting the vendor's assistance. IDAutomation can only support the font tools, the symbology and the fonts themselves as stated in the statement of support - IDAutomation is unable to assist with the installation of the fonts on Unix or Linux systems. Assistance for installing fonts on a Unix platform can be obtained from the consulting company mentioned in the tutorial about installing fonts in Unix for Oracle Reports or consider IDAutomation's Java Barcode Packages, which work on any operating system with a Java Virtual Machine.
Sun Solaris Xsun supports TrueType fonts. Use the Font Administrator GUI, /usr/dt/bin/sdtfontadm, to add them to the server's list of fonts.
Currently, Linux does not provide native support for TrueType fonts, but it is possible to install and use TrueType fonts with xfstt, a free TrueType font server. More information on xfstt is available at the following links:
Enter the following commands in sequence from a terminal window (Assuming the ttf file has been downloaded to "/usr/local/fonts/ttf" directory)
This will create two files, "fonts.scale" and "fonts.dir", containing a list with full font names for each true type font. Finally, add this directory to XWindow's font search path. Redhat users can make use of "chkfontpath" tool to add search path.
chkfontpath -a /usr/local/fonts/ttf
If the "chkfontpath" utility is not available, then manually edit the "/etc/X11/xfs/config" file (or "/etc/X11/fs/config"). Find the line "catalog = ". Add the directory to the end of list, separated by commas.
Sometimes, the font server needs to be restarted for the changes to take place.
This information was from one of IDAutomation's previous customers.
With most PostScript installations, PostScript interpretation is done in the printer. All that is needed is to get the proper PostScript commands onto the stack in the printer. For instance: When a PostScript program has been created to print a document, prepend the .pfa font to the file, then when the PostScript program is ready for use, add the following line in the program: /FontName findfont 12 scalefont setfont. This will load the font named "FontName" from the font dictionary, set it to a scale of 12 and set it to the active font; this will work with any OS. If the flat text document were sent to LPT1 on a windows machine by typing or copying, not by the printer driver, the same thing would be achieved. For additional information, refer to the installation of PostScript fonts on Unix using X11 example.
The ASCII version of IDAutomation fonts does not always work with X-Server on Sun Solaris with Oracle Reports. This is what one customer did to get the fonts working.
Please note that the following steps were used to install the sample version of the IDAutomation Interleaved 2 of 5 fonts, sADVI25f, on a Solaris machine. In order to get the ASCII version font to work properly in another environment, please substitute the font name to be loaded for IDAutomationC128M.
Customer's Solution: "I told you that the binary version *.pfb worked on my X-Server but I need this font for Oracle Reports. Oracle Reports can only handle the ASCII version, so the problem was not solved with the binary version. But I found a solution":
(0) Make the ASCII-file work:This is all of the information IDAutomation has concerning the font installation on Sun Solaris.