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View the article online at http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/article/a633059
SimplyBiz posts £2.5m profit
by Rachael Revesz on Nov 09, 2012 at 11:07
Support services provider SimplyBiz has posted a £2.5 million pre-tax profit for 2011, up slightly from the £2.1 million it made in 2010.
The group reported a 22% increase in profit from the previous year despite acquiring subsidiaries and investing in IT infrastructure and services.
It’s result for 2011 showed that it made a provision of £713,000 for run off professional indemnity cover was listed for its Ireland-based subsidiary, Quantum Reinsurance, which was run from 2003 until 2010, when it closed to new business.
The firm became debt free at the end of last year.
Chairman Ken Davy (pictured) said he was confident about the group's future prospects.
'Looking to the future there is no doubt that the full impact of the retail distribution review on financial services in general and the IFA sector in particular remains unclear,' he said. 'I believe however that the SimplyBiz Group has consistently demonstrated an ability to adapt, grow and prosper in a rapidly changing financial services marketplace.'
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- SimplyBiz's business academy launches free gap fill tool
- Costs take toll on networks with no rescue on horizon
- SimplyBiz sets deadline for alternative assessment applications
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Autumn Statement: Osborne cancels fuel duty increase
by David Campbell on Dec 05, 2012 at 13:23
The government has cancelled the previously planned 3p fuel duty increase.
The decision had been widely expected. The increase in fuel duty, in addition to an oil price which continues to hover above $100 a barrel, would have hit rural communities hard.
The rise has already been postponed twice. Osborne said that the government had kept fuel duty rates on hold over the full course of its term
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Aberdeen Live supplement: Fundamentals point to ongoing flows and solid returns from EMD
After a record year for inflows and market-leading performance in 2012, emerging market debt has taken a large step towards the mainstream. Our recent debate covers the outlook for the asset class this year and where opportunities can be found.
On the road
on May 24, 2013 at 11:32
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November 8, 1861 (Friday)
Charles Wilkes, Captain of the USS San Jacinto, had been taking a keen interest in two Confederate envoys to Europe who had been biding their time in Havana. James Mason and John Slidell had run the Union blockade from Charleson in mid-October and made it to Cuba a few days later. There, they were waiting for the Trent, a British mail packet, to take them to England. The US Navy had tried to find them, but it was Wilkes who accidentally tracked them down in Cuba.
There, it was well known that the envoys were leaving on the 7th of November. Wilkes planned to bag them in international waters on the 8th.
Wilkes knew that the Trent would have to steam through the Old Bahama Channel, 240 miles from Havana. He picked a spot where the channel was only fifteen miles wide, which would allow him to plainly see the ship carrying the Confederate envoys. Wilkes’ second in command, Lt. Donald Fairfax, thought that boarding a British ship, seizing the envoys and taking the ship as a prize was an incredibly bad idea. It would, he believed, help bring England into the war on the side of the South. Captain Wilkes, however, paid him little mind.
The morning passed as the San Jacinto waited for her prey, as mild breezes floated from the north and east. Around noon, a plume of black smoke appeared over the horizon. Before long, the ship was positively identified as the Trent. Wilkes ordered all hands to quarters and readied two cutters full of Marines to board the British steamer.
As the Trent pulled closer, the San Jacinto raised her flag, identifying herself as a US vessel. The guns had been run out and Wilkes ordered a shot fired over the bow of the British ship. The Trent slowed, but did not halt, so a shell was fired, exploding 100 yards to her front. For this, the Trent stopped.
The Captain of the Trent, James Moir, called over to the San Jacinto, “What do you mean by heaving my vessel to in this manner?” Wilkes replied that he was sending over a boat. Lt. Fairfax reluctantly headed the boarding party, pulling along side the British ship. Fairfax, who had already resolved not to capture the Trent, told the armed men to wait in the boat while he spoke to Captain Moir himself.
When asked, Moir was polite, but refused to hand over the passenger list. Fairfax told him that he believed Mason and Slidell were aboard. As he said this, John Slidell walked over and introduced himself. Soon, Slidell was joined by Mason and their secretaries. Lt. Fairfax informed them that they were all under arrest. While Slidell and company remained calm, the English sailors were outraged. A loud argument spiced with threats ensued and in short order Fairfax was reinforced by the Marines from the cutter.
This, however, outraged the English sailors even more. Just before it came to blows, Fairfax ordered the Marines back. Mason and Slidell, then told him that they would not willingly surrender. They would “yield only to force.” At this, Fairfax called over the second cutter with another dozen Marines. When they arrived, he ordered six to board the Trent, again outraging the English. One Marine secured Mason, while Slidell retreated into the ship’s cabin. Fairfax and a few Marines, their bayonets pointed at the passengers, followed.
John Slidell’s seventeen year old daughter stood between her father and Fairfax. Either Fairfax stole a kiss from her (as was later asserted by the daughter) to get her to move, or, as Fairfax claims, the ship bobbed and tilted to one side, and he had to save her from falling (with his lips?). Either way, with the daughter removed, Slidell came peacefully.
Once arriving back on board the San Jacinto with the prisoners, Fairfax broke the news to Captain Wilkes that he wasn’t going to seize the Trent. He listed some practical, military and political examples (not wanting to endanger the passengers, the San Jacinto might still be able to join Du Pont’s expedition to Port Royal, and delaying the Queen’s mail might look iffy to the rest of the world). Wilkes took it all in stride and the two ships parted.1
The Plot and Plight of Eastern Tennessee Unionists
While Tennessee had seceded on May 20, eastern Tennessee remained mostly loyal to the Union. To check this rebellion against rebellion, President Davis demanded that all eastern Tennessee citizens swear an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy by October. If they refused, they could be seen as “alien enemies,” and subject to having their property seized.
As Confederates under General Zollicoffer moved into eastern Tennessee, worries of a Unionist uprising became very real. For the past week, Zollicoffer and others had written their commanders, as well as the Confederate Secretary of War and even President Davis that the Unionists were “as hostile to it as the people of Ohio and will be ready to take up arms as soon as they believe the Lincoln forces are near enough to sustain them.”2
In September, William Carter, a Presbyterian minister and loyal Unionist, developed a plan. He made a trip to Washington to propose it to McClellan and Lincoln
Carter had become a firm believer in direct action. He wanted to organize a group of fellow Unionist to burn nine important railroad bridges in and around eastern Tennessee. To join in the fun, he wanted a Union force from Kentucky to march on the Rebels. As the Union troops entered Tennessee, the Unionists citizens would rise up. With the railroad bridges destroyed, the Rebels would have no way of receiving reinforcements.
Lincoln and McClellan seemed to like the plan and General William Tecumseh Sherman was ordered to send General George Thomas into the region. Carter left for his home and then, along with his team of saboteurs, set off for the railroads.
After Thomas had advanced south, Sherman decided to focus upon central Tennessee, instead. The Union uprising in eastern Tennessee would have to wait. Rev. Carter, however, was already poised to destroy the bridges and could not be reached with the unfortunate news.
On this date, five railroad bridges were burned by Carter and his men. All over eastern Tennessee, Unionists gathered together to await the advance of Union troops that would never come.3
- Gunsmoke Over the Atlantic: First Naval Actions of the Civil War by Jack Coombe, as well as Lincoln and his Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War by Craig L. Symonds. [↩]
- Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 4, p837. [↩]
- East Tennessee and the Civil War by Oliver Perry Temple. [↩]
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5 things nobody told me about transitioning.
Reasons to date a transguy (for the ladies):
1. We won’t leave the toilet seat up.
2. No risk of pregnancy.
3. We just want to cuddle anyway.
4. We’ll remember your birthday.
5. We understand how long it takes to get ready in the morning.
6. During your period, we can commiserate.
7. If you’re lucky, we might have some old clothes that fit you.
8. We aren’t grossed out at the thought of giving oral.
9. …AND we can locate the appropriate parts.
10. We’ll never force you to dress girly against your will.
11. We often look young, even into middle age.
12. We’re willing to go to the store and buy you feminine products.
13. Will never need Viagra.
14. Size is never an issue; if you don’t like it you can choose a new one.
15. How many bio-guys you know have a vibrating dick?
I made this store in an attempt to help raise funds for my top surgery. I have heavy weight and standard weight t-shirts in a variety of colors. They’re each $15. Let me know if you’d like to see any of these designs on something else, like a hoodie or v-neck.
I actually ordered a “He Him His” shirt for myself because I’ve been getting mispronouned quite a bit lately.
Thanks. :) -Codi
LGBTQ Zine at a Christian University
End the silence. End the shouting. Listen to the voiceless, and let your voice be heard! Learn more at www.voicelesszine.com.
Hear the LGBTQ voices of Abilene Christian University.
This is a zine that has been put together by a few individuals who attended Abilene Christian University. It is a place where they have shared there stories of mistreatment and shame exhibited by peers and faculty. I highly recommend that you take time to read this, these are true stories from real individuals. The contributors are also fielding questions and emails from readers. Anybody in need take advantage of this!
These wristbands are going towards the top surgeries of my dear friends, Tyler, Effy, and Codi. They are $3 a piece and shipping is only $0.50. They say, “Internal Evolution” on one side and “External Revolution” on the other. Help them out, spread awareness, and show your support for the trans* community!
The Suit that I Wear
Every day I look for the zipper
A simple way to escape
Why this must be my fate.
A fate I had no say in
One that was created
Before a noise was uttered
Or sight was seen
By the arbitrary development
An appendage you see
This world was created
But not for me
Still I look for the zipper
With the desire
The one to be me
With a definition my own
Throwing off these words
That have taken my voice
No one can understand what it means
To really be me
In place that a zipper can be found
One that will reveal the truth
It takes work, you see
I have to pay to be me
I pay for these decisions
Ones that I didn’t make
It will never end
I will always be in conflict
With my community
Trying to be something
That was prescribed to me
A simple picture caused this travesty
That zipper leaves marks
That never heal
Week after week
Forcing things into this body
Praying that eventually
I will see, the real me
I am told that this is what it means
What means to be me
Further entrenching my identify
In this place
That is simply a disgrace
Where even those like me
Impose a future of black
And of white.
They say there is only one way,
that deviation makes you
The one that causes this tribulation
My circuitry cannot be held
In a definition created before me.
It contains twists and turns
It contains Shades and hues,
of colors that can’t even be seen
Of Patterns not yet drawn and
Textures that can’t be felt
Please don’t force me,
Just let me be
Leave me to find my zipper
I will wear it pride
A different shape,
And yet to earn that figure
I have to wait
Your society wants to label me
Label me like a disease
Putting records in place
Allowing for you to remember
Telling me that this difference is not allowed
You push yourself on to me
A chance to be Normal
Hoping that I will fade
Further into this stream
Where possibility does have an end
And dreams cannot survive
That you see is the fate you created just me
I have no desire to fade
No desire to be labeled
Your words will no longer take my voice
Your gaze will no longer be my battle
Even when I find my zipper
It is not for you
Only for me
I will wear your label
I will pay your price
But in the end
You will see
These barriers will be broken
Regardless of my zipper
But at last these are just words
Created before books were written
Differences were set
And light was seen
A construct of generations before
Invented without my consent
So is it really me, or something else
That is to be seen.
Hey this is a video I made a few months ago and it was intended to just be personal but I feel like it could really offer some insight to the struggle behind figuring out gender, let me know what you guys think!
There are the Trans* Bracelets that are being sold to benefit 3 top surgeries. Each bracelet is going for 3$. The Bracelets say “Internal Revolution, External Evolution” If you would like one, let me know, I’ll give you the information for making payments and how they will be shipped.
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Missions Trip to Cebu, Phillippines
Human existence is about love. We seek love in all it's forms, it is embedded deep in our psyche and nature... because He first created us to be loved by Him, to love Him, and then to love others.
In all my ugliness, darkness & sin, God still loved this girl with a furious love. Through people, prophecies and other miraculous means, He steadfastedly wooed me back to His side. How incomprehensible, the thought that a perfect almighty God, maker of heavens and earth, could ever want a close relationship with a fallen soul like me. I am wholly undeserving! But when love and blessings are lavished upon you freely by grace, how could you possibly not feel the joyful compulsion to pass some love on?
I made my way to Cebu Island with a group of 13 friends from my Christian community :)
We worked together with a local church and missions group.
They were lovely people with a heart for God! We brought the fire of revival to them as there was great outpouring of the holy spirit during our worship sessions and as we prayed and ministered to the workers.
For the first time, I was thrown into the deep waters of a third world country. Although the "chalet" we stayed at was considered quite liveable and relatively clean, it was still a drastic change from what I'm normally used to. Cockroaches and a host of other assorted creepy crawlies ran amok all over the room; hot water was a luxury we did not have :X
Yet, when we walked around the villages and towns daily to interact with locals, we encountered much worse. Faced with abject poverty and impoverished living conditions, it was a wake-up call that hey, how insignificant in comparison are our complaints that we don't have the latest Chanel bag, that our public transport sucks, that our homes are too small?
I was truly shamed and humbled. I felt immensely blessed. I felt even more driven to help them.
Because after all, I believe we are blessed to be a blessing to others!
One thing that struck me - the kids don't need expensive homes, nice clothes, cars, or iPads to live with smiles on their faces. In fact, they seem happier, friendlier and more spirited than our city kids!
THE BAIT: The guys in our team were adept at attracting the children with their balloon twisting, haha.
After which, we would share with them about Jesus, acting out skits and pray for them.
Our regular meals consisted of fried chicken (omg! my arteries!) and quick meals at the Philippine's own rampant fast food chain Jollibee.
The adventurous (and in my opinion, insane) amongst us plucked up the courage to try Philippine's delicacy (in my opinion, something best eaten in the 10th level of hell) called Balut.
The "17" indicates how many days old the fertilized duck egg is. 17 is apparently the most ideal at which point it's known as balut sa puti ("wrapped in white").
I literally screamed and immediately dashed away from our table when I saw it. I practically closed my eyes while taking the pictures. That's how terrifying and disgusting it was to me. Would YOU dare try it?
Alright, let me soothe your traumatized nerves.... Here's an adorable little girl I fell in love with :)
Isn't she lovely? What a smile of sunshine!
Let's talk about transport. Thailand has their tuk tuks, and Philippines has a curious thing called the... Jeepney.
Filipinos clearly have a penchant for loud colors and crazy designs, perhaps to cheer up the dreariness of their everyday lives. These buses or vans that make up the backbone of the country's chaotic mass transport system. They're locally assembled using second-hand truck engines and transmission systems imported from Japan. We rode in them all the time! I found them peculiar and rather funny, yet pretty fun to travel around in.
Melancholic cool shot of our leader Jeff and his guitar.
He is probably having an intimate conversation with God here, lol.
We also got around by boat. Cebu, with it's white sandy beaches, is a popular resort destination. What a pleasure sailing into the gorgeous blue ocean, breathing in the salty sea breeze and singing songs of worship together!
We visited a few different high schools to reach out to the youths, many got saved and healed!
I shared my testimony publicly for the first time, all glory to Him.
Before we left, the students all clamoured to take photos with us and asked for our Facebook pages; they were so sweet!
A cell phone photo one of the girls took and tagged on Facebook. x
We would hold evangelistic night rallies in public basketball courts. In the day, we'd spend some time giving out flyers telling the villagers to come join us.
Love the little children :)
Praise God that turnout to the rallies were always great, rain or shine.
Praying for both young & old to receive Jesus, for healings and restoration :)
Cebu City by night
This elderly lady lives in a wooden shack in the forest.
Through a translator we heard snippets of her life story and ministered to her. God is so good, He healed her legs, she could walk much better after!
Helping to reconcile families
According to nurses and mothers at the local health centers we spoke to, there is a lack of funding, facilities, medicines and resources. Hospitals are scarce and health care is often too expensive for them to afford. With resigned despair and a tinge of anger, they tell us that their government is corrupt.
While we brought donations of money, clothes and books to them, that's just looking at the trees. To bring about real long-lasting, positive change in the lives of these people, we have to also aim for the forest. In the bigger scheme of things, the welfare of a nation is largely dependent on good governance, good public policies and leaders with integrity. It is my wish that I could one day help impact these poor countries in a more powerful way by starting at the top.
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14
Starting the day with some crazy fellowship over breakfast :)
Sightseeing! Bagacay Point Lighthouse
This lighthouse stands at a towering height of 72 feet in an uphill area overlooking the splendid Mactan Channel. The landmark was built in 1904 by virtue of an executive order issued on July 28, 1903 by William Howard Taft, who came to the country in 1900 as president of the Philippine Commission and later appointed US governor general.
Going on this missions trip was not only incredibly eye-opening, it was an adventure of a lifetime and allowed God to prune me as I stepped out of my comfort zone. It was an opportunity to grow and let Him use me to make His love known. I further discovered my identity in Christ, got equipped, and became empowered to advance God's kingdom by sharing and living out the gospel to the poor and under privileged.
What other missions veterans told me is true - you go to bless others but you end up being more blessed as well.
I look forward to my next missions someday soon!
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Jan 23, 2013
Today I went to the fitness club and I loved it. I feel so alive and ready for the world. I didn't like my numbers in the beginning. I have a BMI (body mass index) of 35% . This is not good for me. In order to get the BMI I had to get on the scale. I hate the scale. It has never been a friend of mine. I have battled with this machine for the last 15 or so years. I mustered up the courage and step on the monster. I'm not afraid to say I was 151 pounds. This is the biggest I've been in 5 years. This weight triggered so much pain and heartbreak. I stepped off the scale shook it off. Wiped away any tears and went on with the rest of my evaluation. This is a huge deal for me. Of course I broke down in the car on the way home and came to the realization that I'm not all that bad. I'm portioned just right and shouldn't worry about it. With me working out, that weight will fall off and I will do it the healthy way.
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To Two Too Tuesday
Homework for Tonight.
1. Read for 20 ~ have a discussion about the book, parent signature in agenda.
2. Social Studies ~ read pages 90-94 and answer questions from worksheet.
3. Writing ~ Snow Day writing adventure due tomorrow.
4. Spelling due tomorrow.
5. Science ~ Test Thursday. There is homework but I am sitting in my kitchen at home and cannot remember what it is...perhaps someone could post a comment to let us know. Thanks.
---> Winter Party Tomorrow ~ 12:00-1:00. We'll be designing wrapping paper, organizing the gift boxes, and finishing up with a catered luncheon. Sounds fun to me.
---> Please return report cards
---> I am collecting Blogging Permission Slips.
hmm...did I forget anything?
Article posted December 15, 2009 at 06:13 PM •
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Students created a question and series of answers for their own polls. Please note that their was not any teacher assistance for spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or grammar. It's fun to see their "raw" writing!
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2:1 And although you were 1 dead 2 in your transgressions and sins, 2:2 in which 3 you formerly lived 4 according to this world’s present path, 5 according to the ruler of the kingdom 6 of the air, the ruler of 7 the spirit 8 that is now energizing 9 the sons of disobedience, 10 2:3 among whom 11 all of us 12 also 13 formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath 14 even as the rest… 15
2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! 16 – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages 17 the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward 18 us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved 19 through faith, 20 and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from 21 works, so that no one can boast. 22 2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. 23
2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body 24 by human hands – 2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, 25 alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, 26 having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 27 2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one 28 and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 2:15 when he nullified 29 in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man 30 out of two, 31 thus making peace, 2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 32 2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 2:18 so that 33 through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built 34 on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 35 with Christ Jesus himself as 36 the cornerstone. 37 2:21 In him 38 the whole building, 39 being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
1 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
2 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.
3 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
4 tn Grk “walked.”
sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripatew) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
5 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”
sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiwn).
6 tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”
7 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
8 sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).
9 tn Grk “working in.”
10 sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.
11 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
12 tn Grk “we all.”
13 tn Or “even.”
14 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
16 tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).
17 tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”
18 tn Or “upon.”
20 tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.
21 tn Or “not as a result of.”
22 tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”
23 tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).
sn So that we may do them. Before the devil began to control our walk in sin and among sinful people, God had already planned good works for us to do.
24 tn Grk “in the flesh.”
25 tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”
26 tn Or “covenants of the promise.”
27 tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”
sn See the note on “his blood” in 1:7.
28 tn Grk “who made the both one.”
29 tn Or “rendered inoperative.” This is a difficult text to translate because it is not easy to find an English term which communicates well the essence of the author’s meaning, especially since legal terminology is involved. Many other translations use the term “abolish” (so NRSV, NASB, NIV), but this term implies complete destruction which is not the author’s meaning here. The verb καταργέω (katargew) can readily have the meaning “to cause someth. to lose its power or effectiveness” (BDAG 525 s.v. 2, where this passage is listed), and this meaning fits quite naturally here within the author’s legal mindset. A proper English term which communicates this well is “nullify” since this word carries the denotation of “making something legally null and void.” This is not, however, a common English word. An alternate term like “rendered inoperative [or ineffective]” is also accurate but fairly inelegant. For this reason, the translation retains the term “nullify”; it is the best choice of the available options, despite its problems.
30 tn In this context the author is not referring to a new individual, but instead to a new corporate entity united in Christ (cf. BDAG 497 s.v. καινός 3.b: “All the Christians together appear as κ. ἄνθρωπος Eph 2:15”). This is clear from the comparison made between the Gentiles and Israel in the immediately preceding verses and the assertion in v. 14 that Christ “made both groups into one.” This is a different metaphor than the “new man” of Eph 4:24; in that passage the “new man” refers to the new life a believer has through a relationship to Christ.
31 tn Grk “in order to create the two into one new man.” Eph 2:14-16 is one sentence in Greek. A new sentence was started here in the translation for clarity since contemporary English is less tolerant of extended sentences.
32 tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”
34 tn Grk “having been built.”
35 sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.
36 tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”
37 tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.
39 tc Although several important witnesses (א1 A C P 6 81 326 1739c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”
tn Or “every building.” Although “every building” is a more natural translation of the Greek, it does not fit as naturally into the context, which (with its emphasis on corporate unity) seems to stress the idea of one building.
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19/07/2012 Five Questions to Richard Mille, Watchmaking Pioneer
Richard Mille, owner of the world-famous luxury watch company, talked to Classic Driver at the Le Mans Classic, an event he has sponsored since its inception.
Which passion came first, cars or watches?
Well, I received my first watch for my Communion when I was about 8 years old and I opened it up immediately to see how it functioned. In fact, all kinds of mechanised toys and machines intrigued me totally. Cars were also on my mind, in the form of my first model car, and motorsport has always been a passion of mine. So it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.
Some of your other sponsorships (polo, St Barth’s sailing regatta, Rafael Nadal tennis, Bubba Watson golf, the world of film and arts) seem to represent the purest, ‘human’ side of competition and artistic performance. Would you say these represent the emotional – rather than simply ‘technical’ – side of a Richard Mille watch?
I think that what you say about competition and artistic performance is true. Golf is almost Zen-like, because you are playing against yourself, even if you are competing to win. In that sense, cars are quite unique, since you need to have so much physical material under control before you can even go around the track – it’s quite mind-boggling, actually. But I wouldn’t agree that a Richard Mille watch is simply ‘technical’, because I put passion into every single design of my timepieces, however technical, whether a jewellery piece for ladies or a complicated sports watch. And the reverse is also true; even my jewellery pieces have many technical aspects. I think it is hard to separate these two themes.
A Richard Mille watch is instantly recognisable. And yet now your collection embraces classic tonneau designs, round, over-sized instrument chronometers and fine, jewelled, ladies’ evening watches. What is the ‘Richard Mille DNA’, and how do you maintain ‘the look’?
Richard Mille watches offer the cutting edge from the world of many different techniques and concepts. Everything we do must, at the same time, encompass serious developments and open up new horizons for the future of watchmaking. Another aspect is that RM watches are easy to wear and extremely ergonomic. I also want to continue to open up high-quality watchmaking to the worlds of art, architecture, sport, lifestyle. Besides, my goal is to keep the entire collection coherent and I want clients to be able to find everything they desire – all within the world of RM watches.
Your watches are known for their technical artistry. The clear skeleton design allows virtually all components to be seen, and everything must be made to function perfectly while being a work of art in its own right. Which part of the watch, be it a component or material, has presented the most challenge in the 11 years since you first produced the RM 001?
I have always been fascinated by those large blow-up technical drawings of cars and engines. I could look at them for hours. Beautiful exterior lines can be sexy, but what is happening under the bonnet of the car is much more interesting for me. And this is exactly what you will see reflected in each of my watches. As to my biggest challenge, it was probably my first watch, the RM 001. I wanted the watch to grow out of the designs, materials, concepts, techniques, ideas and philosophy that I had – without any constraints. The final product ended up being totally uncompromising but expensive to make. This was a challenge, of course, that in the end turned out very positively and today everyone understands this philosophy of creating cutting-edge timepieces.
With a long-standing relationship with the Le Mans Classic, an association with Martin and Alex Brundle at this year’s modern 24 Hours and being synonymous with Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa, are we going to see an even greater involvement from Richard Mille in the world of motoring in years to come?
It would be hard to imagine even more involvement with motorsport than there already is! However, the ‘mix’ of our participations and sponsorships will always move along with the development of circuits, events, partners around the globe, and so on. So stay tuned…
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Michael Pollan is our most eloquent writer on food. But he doesn't worry about recipes. Instead Pollan tirelessly explores the thicket of fact and fallacy that surround the production, distribution, and consumption of food, and posits new ideas for solving some of the ills caused by industrial farming, a problem many of us are just starting to recognize. "Farmer in Chief", his article in last week's New York Time's Sunday magazine outlines what our next president can do to begin restoring balance and responsibility to our food chain. It's fascinating reading for anyone who cares about what we eat and how it gets to our table.
While we're on the subject, I'd like to get in a plug for another of Pollan's books, "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education." It's a meditation on the meaning and practice of gardening that rehsaped some of my thoughts on what tilling the soil is all about.
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|N U T S H E L L|
|Description||XML/HTML tree transformer, validator, pre-processor|
|Platform||any Java-supported (Windows,Linux,...)|
XmlTransform is a general-purpose XML transformer and/or validator that operates on an arbitrarily deep tree of files, optionally generating multi-level indices and adding navigational linkages. But what is it good for, you wonder? The validation side is reasonably straight-forward: it allows you to check that a collection of XML files are grammatically correct, or more formally, that they are valid per your XML Schema specification. You may check either your input files, or your output files after transformation, or both.
Perhaps the more interesting part, however, is the transformation capability, more typically thought of as a pre-processor. And a pre-processor is a very handy thing indeed when designing--for instance--web pages. XmlTransform is an HTML pre-processor, though it is not limited to just HTML. XmlTransform is actually an XML pre-processor; since well-formed HTML is a flavor of XML (well, technically it needs to be XHTML), XmlTransform handles web pages quite nicely. The illustration shows what XmlTransform does with some of the parameters you may use to tailor its operation to your needs. Click on the illustration to enlarge it.
So what is a pre-processor and why is it useful? Maintenance is what consumes resources on any software project--more than the original design and implementation of the project. A pre-processor can help you reduce maintenance costs. For example, say that you include a logo of a certain size on every one of your 509 web pages. A year passes, and one day word comes down from above that the corporation is getting a new look--new letterhead, new typefaces, and oh, yes, a new logo (which is, of course, a different size). You must then edit each of your 500+ pages to point to the new logo graphic... or you could play smart and just give the new logo the same file name. Whew! Saved all those edits. When you view your home page, however, the logo is a bit distorted. That is because you design your web pages properly, providing height and width attributes in your <img> elements. So even though you've replaced the image, you still have to update its size in every one of your web pages. Ah, you proclaim, but you also use cascading style sheets, and all of your pages refer to the common logo style that specifies logo size. So you have only to update your single CSS file to correct the logo display. Good for you... but remember the memo on the new corporate image that mentioned that the wording of the copyright notice is also changed? And that copyright notice is hard-coded in every web page. Ugh.
<!-- BEGIN footer --> <div> <div style="float:left"> <img src="image/logo.gif" alt="XYZ logo" width="143" height="25"/> </div> <div style="float:right"> XYZ Corporation -- © 2004 All rights reserved </div> </div> <!-- END footer -->
Just like a style sheet lets you define something once and reuse it over and over, a pre-processor does the same thing for anything in your web page, not just styles. Why not, for example, create your own new HTML element, call it <footer>. When you use that element, you really want to see the HTML code shown in the figure, including the comments. With XmlTransform, you create your own XSLT template that specifies precisely what should happen when <footer> is encountered. You provide a list of all your directories that should be transformed (your source path), and indicate where to place the output files (your target path). There are a number of other parameters that you need to consider, though most default to some reasonable value. The bulk of your effort will be in creating the XSLT specification that drives the transformation engine. Below, for example is the XSLT necessary to recognize the <footer> element and generate the HTML fragment above. Designing clean, useful XSLT does take some effort, but it can be quite useful in the long run.
<xsl:template name="footer"> <xsl:comment>BEGIN footer</xsl:comment> <div> <div style="float:left"> <img src="image/logo.gif" alt="XYZ logo" width="143" height="25" /> </div> <div style="float:right">XYZ Corporation -- © 2004 All rights reserved</div> </div> <xsl:comment>END footer</xsl:comment> </xsl:template>
So far we have talked about maintenance when something on the web page changes. Now let's consider interactions between web pages. Say, for example, you have a series of web pages that have a natural order, say lessons in a tutorial. Each web page has navigational buttons to advance to the next page, go back to the previous page, and so forth. When you want to add a new lesson, remove a lesson, or re-order lessons, you would typically have to manually edit all the linkages, a time-consuming and error-prone process. In the illustration, you'll see a representation of four such related pages, with navigation buttons to go to the first and last pages, the previous and next pages, and the parent page. Again, with appropriate XSLT code in your transformation specification, these links can be generated automatically by XmlTransform. And, in fact the very same buttons on the CleanCode site were generated by XmlTransform in this fashion.
Another benefit of XmlTransform is maintainability. (I cannot emphasize enough that reducing maintenance should really be a priority.) As shown in the illustration, XmlTransform has the capability to automatically populate a parent contents page using elements from each web page. You create the template for the contents page, complete with any other HTML that you wish. You then add a marker element that tells XmlTransform where to insert the generated contents. And you are not limited to a single list; XmlTransform can apply groupings so that you could, for example, have an introductory paragraph, then some generated contents entries, another introductory paragraph, then some additional generated contents entries, and so forth. The contents templates are specified independently for each directory, so you may tailor them as your web content dictates.
To get you started, here is a "sandbox" for XmlTransform, providing several simple examples on how to use it, or, for a real-world example, see the source code of the CleanCode web site itself here.Go to tech docs
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(from left) Frenchy's restaurants proprietor Michael "Frenchy" Preston, Big Brothers,Big Sisters vice president Maria Johnston and Michael's brother, Louis Preston, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, smile for the camera at Frenchy's 14th Annual Gumbo Tennis Classic at the Henry L. McMullen Tennis Complex in Clearwater on November 4. The three-day event, which attracted nearly 400 participants, was a benefit for Big Brothers, Big Sisters serving Pinellas, Hernando and Citrus counties. A silent auction raised additional funds for the organization.
((at back) Kevin Dunbar, director of Clearwater Parks & Recreation, and Kim Cashman, community tennis director at the Henry L. McMullen Tennis Complex, are pictured with (front l-r) Nicholas Oppenheimer,7, Autumn Oppenheimer, 5, and Dylan Lorigan, 9, who were among the youngsters taking part in the tennis-related games and contests at the Kids Fun Day held in conjunction with the Frenchy's 14th Annual Gumbo Tennis Classic.
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Rotary Club of Clearwater Hosts Dr. Charles Henri (Hank) Hine
Fred Simmons hosted Dr. Charles Henri (Hank) Hine, Executive Director of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg at the Wednesday noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Clearwater at the Belleair Country Club. The Dalí Museum holds the most comprehensive collection of Dali’s work outside of Spain, the artist’s country.
Dr. Hine directs the museum in a current period of intensive growth. Foremost on the Museum’s agenda are the establishment of the Dalí Center for the Avant-garde, as the research and publication arm of the museum, and construction of a new and innovative museum building.
The new museum building will provide a safe housing for the collection of art and serve as a welcome center for its many visitors. Over 10,000 school children come to the museum each year. Over 200,000 tourists visit the museum, and their stay in the local communities adds to the economy.
The new museum will provide protection against flooding and high winds. Groundbreaking for the new museum is expected within a month and will take 22 months to build. Dr. Hine is also publisher and editor of Limestone Press and Hine Editions, a San Francisco press specializing in artist books. He is director of the research and publishing institute GraphicStudio. He has extensive experience with contemporary artists and writers, production methods, marketing, and systems of distribution.
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Cleco will purchase needed goods and services from qualified suppliers using competitive bidding or other competitive means to the maximum practical extent. Purchasing decisions are made on the basis of quality, service, price and delivery. If all other considerations are substantially equal, suppliers located in our service area may be given preference.
If you wish to be considered for bids, please send your company information to the Purchasing department, P.O. Box 5000, Pineville, LA 71360. It is not necessary to fill out an application if you want to be considered for bids. The need for an application will be determined at a later date. Cleco does not conduct public bid openings.
Cleco encourages participation of qualified small, disadvantaged, veteran- and women-owned businesses to provide goods and services at competitive prices. The Purchasing department is responsible for locating and soliciting business from such companies. If your company is a minority, disadvantaged, veteran- or women-owned business, please complete our Supplier/Contractor Application online.
Our suppliers and contractors contribute to the success of our company. We value the business relationships we have established with our suppliers and contractors and seek to develop additional, reliable sources of products and services.
All employees maintain the highest standards of integrity in all procurement activities and avoid conduct that could create the appearance of a conflict of interest. We accept no special favors or gifts from our suppliers and incur no obligations to them, other than payment for the products and services they provide. We do not attempt to influence procurement decisions in return for personal compensation or favorable treatment from these suppliers. We maintain, in confidence, sensitive business information submitted to our company in connection with the purchasing of goods and services, to avoid giving or removing any competitive advantage to our suppliers.
We also maintain an Ethics Helpline. The Ethics Helpline is a way for you to anonymously report suspected or actual unethical business activities involving Cleco. The toll-free number is (800) 378-8121. The Helpline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Suppliers or contractors wishing to conduct business with Cleco are encouraged to complete and submit our online application. If you have any questions regarding the application process, Contact Us.
Please allow 30 business days for a decision to be made. If further information is required, a representative from Cleco's Purchasing department will contact you. Cleco reserves the right to accept or reject any application based on the information provided to us.
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The best bridal shop ever!. I loved Images bridal. They went the extra mile to accommodate my last minute wedding. I know it takes months for a dress to come in but the owner bent over backwards to get me my dress on time. I am kinda in between sizes so she also altered my dress to fit like a glove. I love you guys. Everyone was so pleasant and accommodating. I LOOKED LIKE A PRINCESS LOVE YOU IMAGES
Terrible Customer Service.
All brides-to-be, do yourself a favor and stay far away from Images Bridal. My daughter had a 12:00 appointment to try on bridal gowns. Upon arriving, we were not greeted by anyone and after about 10 minutes, I finally approached a salesperson to tell her why we were there. At that time a young woman walked us to the back of the shop and told us to start looking through the racks to see if we liked anything. I thought that rather strange because she never even asked my daughter what she had in mind as to style. We did pull out a few dresses and when the salesperson finally came back we asked her to see them in the correct size. She then told us that the samples did not come in assorted sizes and directed us to a dressing room to do our best with the sizes we had pulled (none of which were my daughter's size). Not once did anyone help my daughter button or zip or help her get into the gowns. Much unlike either Catan's or David's who offer exceptionally personal and preferential treatment. We were appalled and left one gown on the floor of the dressing room and stormed out of the shop. Disgraceful treatment. They should be ashamed to call themselves a bridal shop.
The only reason I clicked a one-star rating is because I couldn't submit this review without rating the shop. They do not deserve even one star.
30 years in business with several business of the year awards. A very busy shop. Leaving a dress on the floor only exhibits bad breeding. Sorry if you do not understand the bridal business only what you fit into or do not.Obviously the suggestion made by the salesperson was the right one because you did browse the shop. You obviously came to Images on a very busy day and did not have the patience to wait your turn. Understandable.
WORST BRIDAL SHOP. I ordered my dress for wedding I am in only to have it come in and NOT FIT AT ALL! In fact, none of the girls dresses fit. The lady tried to tell me the dress fit, but the mother of the bride was so mortified, she said the priest was going to walk down the isle next to me with a cloth to cover me up because I was busting at the seams (and I'm not a curvy girl). They were very rude about the whole thing, tried to blame it on me and offered to do alteractions for an additional cost (even after they charged me an extra $20 for fabric because I'm "too tall" BTW I'm only 5'8'...hardly that tall)...GIRLS STAY AWAY...it was nothing but a nightmare...
Once again, dresses ordered come in exact lengths, there are extra charges to alter a particular dress that does not accommodate your exact measurements The bridal gown selection and process often takes a year in which time weight gain and loss occurs. Bridal gowns are not sized like your average dress off the rack. Some brides insist they are a particular size and maybe they are but not in bridal and formal wear. They often order the size that they think they are against the advice of the bridal consultant. As professionals, we always advise the customer as to the correct size to order based on the manufacturers specifications. When that advice is not heeded and the customer insists, what choice do we have.
Great selection, excellent customer service and extremely accommodating. Both of my sisters got their wedding gowns at Images, so that's the first place I headed when I needed one. The difference is that I had less than two months left before my wedding - in theory, this should have limited my selection. But the owner and her daughter were incredibly helpful - they called to find out how quickly they could get each of the dresses I was interested in, and within an hour, I had chosen an ordered the perfect dress. Linda is incredibly honest and has an amazing eye - if you don't look good in something, she'll point you in the right direction. I also didn't feel pressured to buy the more expensive dress - Images' primary concern is that you're happy and look great, and that's exactly what I got. I would recommend them in a heartbeat.
Bent over backwards. I have had more than one visit to Images. My first visit was in the early 90's and they did the alterations on my dress. I was so happy with the way the dress turned out that in 2006 I made my second visit for my bridal gown. I order a dress and changed and added items from the original design. When the dress came in, it was not what I had order. Everyone was more than helpful. They took the zipper and buttons off to get the back of my dress just right. I had three bridesmaid and three flower girls in the bridal party and 2 bridal party memebers out of state - Linda was so wonderful with my niece who was three years old. Try and get a three year old to stand still for five minutes let alone for 20 minutes when trying to hem three layers on a dress - when all my niece wanted to do was twirl. I thank all the ladies at the brial shop they were wonderful and they felt like family. We all looked wonderful which added to the joy of the day.
THANK YOU, IMAGES BRIDAL!!!. i was thrilled with my experience at Images Bridal. The bad experience above must have been the girl that came into the shop when i was there with her two very young kids and bags of McDonalds. She let the kids run the store with their greasy hands on all the gowns while she tried on her bridesmaid gown that was gorgeous, but she had an aweful figure. The owner was forced to reprimand the kids, and tried all she could to get the gown to look good on the girl, who couldn't be satisifed. Anyway, my experience, and that of my six bridesmaids and mom were awesome at Images Bridal. All three of the employees, including the owner, bent over backwards to please us. They were extremely helpful and courteous and made the experience a memorable one. I had gone to David's Bridal, Catans, and a few others, and one compared to the quality selection and personal service that we received. Thank you, Images Bridal. I will recommend you to everyone I know who is planning a wedding or even a special event and needs an awesome selection and especially personal service that myself, my bridal party and my family received! Most Sincerely, Dawn Moravcik.
If you want a BAD bridal shop experince by all means do go to this store..
If the seamstress is infact the owner, she has NO CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS at all. She should learn how to talk to her customers.
She does not admit to anyone in her establishment ever making a mistake, they are all "perfect". If they are then why were measurements taken wrong? People are human and DO make mistakes. Admit to that much.
Never once said I AM SORRY lets see what we can do.
Seamstress is very rude, lies to your face saying the dress looks fine, when it looks aweful .
Seamstress does not know how to alter or offer suggestions as to how to make the dress fit properly.
The customer is always right is not thier philosophy.
Do not offer anytype of apology or anything.
VERY BAD EXPERIENCE.............
If you want people to lie and say the dress looks good when it does not, then go here.
If you want to base what size one piece dress you are getting from a halter top, then go here.
If you want to be called a lier, then go here.
If you want to have a miserable experience, then go here.
I you want to be told to wear 2 bras under your dress then by all means please go here.
If you want your dress shopping experience to be a pleasant one then DO NOT GO HERE, go to Pat Catan's. They have a much, much bigger selection and the price of my dress in question was the same. It was just discontinued at Catan's so we had no other choice, we had to go here.
When I get married, I will NEVER go to Images and if I am in a wedding whose bridesmades dresses come from Images, I will kindly decline being in the bridal party due to the rudeness of "the owner".
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CIF Partnership Documents Posted, Comments Sought on Lessons in Climate Investment Funds
March 2010: Documents for the 2010 Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Partnership Forum, which will gather CIF stakeholders to share lessons learned from the CIF design process and from early implementation of CIF-funded programmes, have been posted online. Also available online is a draft document titled "Looking Ahead for Lessons in the Climate Investment Funds: Emerging Themes for Learning," which is open for comments.
The CIF Partnership meeeting will be held from 18-19 March 2010, in Manila, the Philippines, and will be hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The main CIF programmes that will be reviewed during the partnership meeting are: the Clean Technology Fund; the Forest Investment Program; the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience; and the Program for Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries. [2010 CIF Partnership Forum]
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Imagine that you live in a village in Africa, say Niger. Your family has been farming the same plot for generations. It’s never been easy. But recently it seems to have become even more difficult. The weather seems more variable, the rainfall less predictable, yields more uncertain, prices more volatile.
Now imagine one, two, three or five decades from now. How goes farming in your village?
It could be much worse─more droughts, worse floods, lower yields, lower incomes. Quite possibly the village hasn’t been able to survive.
Or it could be much better. Stronger soils, better yields, more predictable harvests, more varied and nutritious crops, and cash flows each year to the farmer for sequestering more carbon on his land.
Which of these happens is a choice.
It depends on our decisions on two things: whether the world as a whole decides to lower carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2050. And what we all do to support that farmer and the system of farming around the world.
As I write this there are 1000 people from 100 countries spending a week in The Hague in the Netherlands discussing this second issue. The Dutch Government and the World Bank
have organized a conference─called “Down2Earth
just four weeks prior to Cancun in order to give momentum to a subject that has been often neglected in the climate debate. Farmers are under the greatest threat from climate change, but they could also play a major role in addressing it. Agriculture accounts for nearly 15% of global carbon emissions, with deforestation and forest degradation accounting for as much again.
Read more »
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Monday, January 28th 2013, 1:18 PM EST
Click source for MUST SEE VIDEO LINK at the BBC (Sunday Politics - London edition) and Fast Forward 0:51:30
Piers Corbyn opens the debate at WeatherAction but sadly was not invited back to the BBC studio for more.
Boris Johnson also did not take part in the debate but his environment representative had some interesting points made regarding finance.
The BBC tried to force the issue regarding how important climate change was, but then did not acknowledge there had not been any warming for 16 years!
The link for the Boris Johnson article
See below for comments from Piers Corbyn
Article continues below this advert:
Comments from Piers Corbyn
BBC and commentators failed totally to respond to Piers' point that there is no evidence in the real world for CO2 claims and instead flew to promoting their CO2 religion.
"It's obvious why they refused to have me in the studio!" said Piers."They fled from the fact the whole CO2 story is fraud and put forward distortions and lies to shore up their delusional sect:-
1. Boris article was very clear he was writing about the last 5 years ie winters 08/09 to 12/13, yet BBC dishonestly said he was wrong because 07/08 was mild. His point was winters are getting colder.
2. The BBC claim handouts for roof etc home insulation is a gain for taxpayers is a LIE. These and other subsidies are paid for by all taxpayers through tax and energy bills. The insulation scheme is theft from those of the public who live in flats who cannot use the schemes and together with all other delusional green schemes (wind farms - paryer wheels, solar power etc). The green game is robbery of the public.
3. Matthew Pencharz's (Mayor's Environment Adviser) defence of Boris was pretty dithery and his defence of CO2 policy by the so-called Precautionary Principle was stupid because proper application of such means politicians should also listen to the dangers of the (maybe, they think) coming Mini Ice Age. There is no evidence for CO2/warming dangers and very strong evidence for dangerous world cooling and a coming mini-ice age. (Aka Little Ice Age). Amen."
Click source for MUST SEE VIDEO LINK (this will expire within seven days)
Comments section below this advert:
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Study About Safety and Efficacy of Coenzyme Q10 in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
A 6-week p.o treatment with 5 mg/Kg Coenzyme Q10 is safe and tolerable,increases the brain's metabolism and ameliorates clinical symptoms in patients with PSP.
|Study Design:||Allocation: Randomized
Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||Mono-Center, Prospective, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomized Clinical Phase IIa Trial to Assess the Safety, Tolerability, and Immediate Biological Effects of Coenzyme Q10 - nanoQuinon® in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy|
- Brain Energy Metabolites measured by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
- Slowdown of clinical progression after 6 weeks, rated with UPDRS III, PSP rating scale, PSP staging system, modified Hoehn and Yahr, FAB, MMSE, Montgomery- Asberg Depression scale, Schwab and England Score and UPDRS II
- Safety and tolerability:Vital signs physical examination and safety laboratory with Blood tests and urine status.
- Evaluation of occuring adverse events(AE), severe adverse events(SAE) up to 6 Weeks after the beginning of the treatment.
|Study Start Date:||May 2006|
|Study Completion Date:||February 2007|
Background and Rationale:
1. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP, Steele-Richardson-Olszewski Syndrome) is a sporadic neurodegenerative disorder resulting clinically in a Parkinson syndrome (i.e. akinetic-rigid movement disorder) with prominent postural instability, oculomotor deficits, and cognitive decline (for review: Albers and Augood, 2001; Burn and Lees, 2002). With an average annual incidence of 5.3 per 100000 and an age-adjusted prevalence of 6.4 per 100000, PSP is as common as motor-neuron disease (Burn and Lees, 2002). There is no symptomatic treatment, because PSP patients do not respond to any known therapy (Albers and Augood, 2001; Burn and Lees, 2002). The progression of PSP is rapid and the median survival after onset of symptoms is 5-10 years (Albers and Augood, 2001). Presently, there is no known effective symptomatic or neuroprotective therapy for PSP.
2. Evidence suggests an impairment of mitochondrial energy metabolism in PSP (Albers and Beal, 2002):
- Reduced cerebral glucose and ATP metabolism have been shown in functional imaging studies in PSP patients (Forster et al., 1988; Martinelli et al., 2000).
- Cybrid cells harboring mitochondrial genes from PSP patients have decreased ATP-levels and complex I activity (Swerdlow et al., 2000; Albers et al., 2001; Chirichigno et al., 2002).
- A tropical PSP-like tauopathy has been linked clinically and experimentally to the consumption of the fruit and teas of leaves of the tropical plant annona muricata rich in lipophilic complex I inhibitors (Caparros-Lefebvre et al., 1999; 2001). These clinical observations suggest a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in the etiology of PSP.
3.Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is the physiological electron recipient of complex I. Exogenous CoQ10 (1.) enhances the electron transport by complex I and (2.) powerfully scavenges free radicals. Thus, CoQ10 has been shown to reduce the toxicity of complex I inhibitors in vitro (Menke et al., 2003) and in vivo (Beal et al., 1998
|Neurologische Klinik der Philipps-Universität Marburg|
|Marburg, Hessen, Germany, 35033|
|Principal Investigator:||Wolfgang Oertel, Professor||Neurologische Klinik der Philipps Universität Marburg|
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Meronheddo shows considerable skill by combining vectoring and painting into one amazing wall with snow and amazing effects, the hair looks really amazing! Check it out!
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next you find he has no sister / friends etc and he's spending all of this time seducing his imagination
nope justin deleted them :*[ wo what happened when i was gone i was gone for like 2split seconds
why are you still watching that show if its so bad
he didn't say it was bad
it was probably playing with his feels
acid's got a love-hate relationship with it
my headphones broke T_T
if you had watched the latest episode you would know what i mean
question for y'all does anyone really give out help like serious help with designing stuff
what is endymion mean anyways?
isnt that the name of the raildex movie
sorry the double post
if you post a wall with good potential I'm sure a lot of people would be willing to critique
Miracle of Endymion
uh its from gundam seed
well not really a critique but like lets say pointers like class really
like tips and tricks
there are a bunch of tutorials on deviant art, might be better to check there instead
tips and tricks dont really help too much for walls aside from general stuff
like rule of thirds
each wall is different, so its hard to say what works and what doesnt
a lot of the artists here learned from tutorials on the internet
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A brief history of virtualisation
Operating-system level virtualisation
As we explained in part 2 of this series, A brief history of virtualisation, in the 1960s, it was a sound move to run one OS on top of a totally different one. On the hardware of the time, full multi-user time-sharing was a big challenge, which virtualisation neatly sidestepped by splitting a tough problem into two smaller, easier ones.
Within a decade, though, a new generation of hardware made it easy enough that a skunkworks project at AT&T was able to create a relatively small, simple OS that was nonetheless a full multi-user, time-sharing one: Unix.
After its early years as a research project, Unix spent a few decades as a proprietary product, with dozens of competing companies offering their own versions – meaning that it splintered into many incompatible varieties. Each company implemented its own enhancements and then its rivals would copy it to create their own versions.
Fairly late in this process, a new form of virtualisation emerged as one of these features. First implemented as part of FreeBSD 4 in 2000, a version came to Linux in 2001, Sun Solaris in 2005 and IBM AIX in 2007. Each Unix calls it by a different name and has slightly different functionality, but the overall concept is the same.
It springs from a far simpler piece of Unix functionality – the humble chroot command, which dates back all the way to Version 7 Unix in 1979. For those Windows-only types out there, a tiny bit of Unix background is needed at this point.
One big directory tree
In all flavours of Unix, there is just one, system-spanning directory tree, starting at the root directory. On CP/M and DOS and Windows, the base level of storage is an assortment of drive letters, on each of which is a directory tree.
Unix does things the other way round: there’s one big directory tree, starting at the root directory – called just “/” – and disk partitions and volumes appear as directories within it.
What chroot lets you do is transform a subdirectory into the root filesystem just for one particular process. You build a skeletal Unix filesystem containing only whatever files are necessary for that process to run, then imprison that process – and any subprocesses it might create – within it, so that it can no longer see the whole directory tree, just its particular subtree.
In essence, then, it virtualises just the filesystem: it doesn't protect the system against a program with superuser – ie, administrative – rights, but it is very handy for testing purposes.
The chroot command proved to be such a useful tool that in time it was extended into a more complete form, which also virtualised the memory space, I/O and so on of the operating system. The result is that a process locked inside the virtual environment seemed to have the whole computer to itself.
To understand how this works, consider how modern operating systems work. In most processors, there are at least two privilege levels at which code can execute, which are generally called something like kernel space and user space.
Code running in kernel space – usually the OS kernel and any essential device drivers – is in direct control of the hardware and can directly manipulate peripherals and so on. In contrast, code running in user space can’t – it just gets given its own block of memory, which is all it’s allowed to access, and it has to ask the kernel nicely for I/O. On x86 chips, kernel code runs at a level called Ring 0 and user code in Ring 3, and the levels in between are left unused.
There's only one kernel, and generally, in most systems, there's only one big program running in user space. Sometimes it's called "userland", and it encompasses all the bits that you actually interact with.
As far as the kernel is concerned, userland can effectively be considered as one big program. One original parent process – on Unix boxes, traditionally called init – starts up all the rest and thus is the parent of the whole tree of dozens to hundreds of others.
So if you set things up so that the kernel is able to run more than one userland at a time, you can effectively virtualise the whole visible face of the OS. So long as the primary copy stays in control of the filesystem and the secondary copies are penned up in subdirectories, you can suddenly split your computer into multiple identical “virtual environments” (VEs).
There’s only one copy of the actual OS installed and only one kernel running, but you can have lots of separate root directories and install whatever you like in each of them without it affecting the others.
Each one starts with a skeletal copy of the filesystem with just the essential files it needs – which is what you do with the chroot command anyway – and then it can put whatever it likes, wherever it likes, and it all stays neatly penned up and separate from all the other software on the computer.
This is called “operating-system level virtualisation” or “kernel-level isolation.”
Every sysadmin's dream
No more “DLL hell,” no more clashing system requirements, no more trying to untangle which directories or files belong to which app. Apps are completely isolated, simplifying management – for instance, they can be removed without a trace, as every file the app ever wrote to disk is locked inside its VE.
So far, so good. Sounds like running a few Windows VMs on a server, doesn’t it?
But it isn’t. Because at the same time, there’s only a single install of a single OS to configure, patch and update; one set of device drivers; and rather importantly if you’re running a commercial OS, one licence to pay for.
No more “DLL hell,” no more clashing system requirement
To anyone who’s ever been a sysadmin, it’s a dream come true. Every app on the machine is locked away from every other one in its own little walled garden.It’s also very different from a performance or administration point of view – each VE is equivalent to just a program, rather than a whole OS instance. You don’t need to allocate storage to VEs – they all share the same pool of memory and disk space, managed by the kernel, so it is vastly more efficient to run multiple VEs than full VMs.
A dozen copies of a full OS under a hypervisor means thirteen times the hardware resources needed by one – so suddenly you need a dual-socket eight-core server with 32GB of RAM to make it all work. Not so with VEs – it only needs the resources for one OS plus the dozen apps.
It must be admitted that this approach doesn’t work for every type of program. If an application has to modify the kernel or change its behaviour, or needs kernel privileges, then you can’t run it inside a virtual environment, because that would affect all of them – so certain apps need to run in the base or parent environment. You can’t just install absolutely anything alongside anything else. Some don’t get along and won’t share.
But overall, VEs are a very useful and powerful tool. The snag is that at the moment, you only get this if you’re running a version of Unix with long trousers.
Solaris 10 calls VEs Zones, management by Containers, and it’s a very powerful implementation. For instance, each zone can have its own network interfaces and sets of user IDs.
Zones can be bound to particular processors for performance optimisation, but they don’t need a dedicated one, nor must they be allocated any memory. The OS not only supports zones offering the native Solaris API but also ones emulating older versions of Solaris as well as Linux-branded zones.
AIX 6.1 does it, too; IBM call them “workload partitions” – WPARs for short – as opposed to LPARs, IBM’s name for full-system virtualisation, as we described in the previous article. WPARs offer several levels of isolation, from some shared resources to none, right down to a single process. A running WPAR can even be migrated onto a different host server.
And for the Free Software user, FreeBSD offers "jails". Jails don’t have all the bells and whistles of their commercial rivals – you just get multiple instances of the same version of the same OS – but are still a very useful tool. Most of the other BSDs shared a similar implementation under the name "sysjails", but an insecurity in their implementation caused development to stop in 2009.
With Linux, the situation is more complex. VEs are not a standard part of the Linux kernel, but there are multiple competing tools offering variations on the same functionality. The newest and possibly simplest is LXC (“Linux Containers”), which builds on the cgroups functionality that’s been built into the kernel since 2.6.29. Rather more mature is Linux-VServer, which is sufficiently robust to allow other distributions’ userlands to be started inside a VE.
Probably the most capable for now is OpenVZ, which allows VEs to have their own network and I/O devices. OpenVZ is the basis of Parallels’ commercial Virtuozzo Containers product and its development is sponsored by Parallels.
Aimed at service providers, Virtuozzo builds on OpenVZ with additional management and provisioning tools. It can support a higher density of containers with closer management of their resources and it integrates with Parallels’ Plesk management tools.
Interestingly, Virtuozzo also runs on Windows. Parallels is not as well-known in PC virtualisation circles as it is on Linux and on the Mac, where its Parallels Desktop product brought several new features to Mac users wishing to run Windows. Virtuozzo Containers for Windows brings Unix-style partial virtualisation to Microsoft’s platform.
Each container takes only about 60MB of files, but appears from the management console to be a complete, independent machine – you can even assign it its own IP address and connect to it with Remote Desktop. Obviously, all the containers on a host run the same OS as the host itself, but the memory and disk footprint is dramatically reduced as you're only running a single OS instance.
Virtuozzo or something like it might yet cause a small revolution in PC virtualisation. If it does, going by the company's history, it’s likely that the technique will be imitated by Microsoft itself. Partly because that's what it's currently doing with Hyper-V, which is progressively acquiring more and more of the features of VMware’s VSphere and VCenter management tools. Mostly, though, because Microsoft is in the best position to incorporate OS-level virtualisation into its own OS.
To be fair, the notion of OS-level virtualisation is not a Parallels innovation – as we've discussed, it's been around for more than a decade and has been implemented in multiple OSs. Parallels is just the first company to make it happen on Windows. If the concept were to catch on in the Windows world, it would make virtualisation a great deal simpler, faster and more efficient.
In the next part of this series, we will look at the state of the virtualisation market today – and in the final one, where it might go next. For the historically-inclined, one of the only PC OSs ever to actually use more than rings 0 and 3 was IBM's OS/2. Its kernel ran in ring 0 and ordinary unprivileged code in ring 3, as usual, but unprivileged code that did I/O rang in ring 2.
This is why OS/2 won’t run under Oracle’s open-source hypervisor VirtualBox in its software-virtualisation mode, which forces Ring 0 code in the guest OS to run in Ring 1. ®
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Hi Everyone! Wishing you a very Happy and Safe Memorial Day Weekend!!
Saturday Snippet Soapbox
I saw something this morning as I was visiting my daily routine stops and it really bothered me. I have talked about it briefly in the past but thought I would get on my soapbox and discuss it today with y’all. Hoping we can have a discussion and/or you will share your thoughts on the subject.
What was it? This:
‘Seeking a reviewer
Hi, I offer professional reviews on Amazon.com. I have review other books on religion and Christianity. I do this for a fee. I also offer… more »(source LinkedIn)
I understand the majority of us, in the book blogging community, are not “professional” reviewers but ordinary every day consumers who share our opinions of books we have read. Some do or do not have degrees in English Literature and/or writing, but we do have opinions. A great number of book bloggers write great reviews, another one of my opinions.
I came on the scene a bit late so maybe I shouldn’t be taking on this subject, but then it has been 2+ years so I think I can speak a little about the neighborhood. My TBR list has tripled because of your reviews and I thank you, I think lol, for that. I value your honesty and respect your opinions or my TBR list wouldn’t be the size it is.
Over the past 2+ years, I feel and sense that we are taken more seriously as to our feelings on books. If not, I don’t think authors, publishers, publicists, etc would contact us for reviews. We no longer are “just mommy blogs” or people who just blog as a hobby. I think, again my opinion, that the majority of us take reviewing seriously. Most bloggers conduct and maintain their blogs in a professional, credible, with integrity, serious and more as a job than a hobby fashion.
My questions regarding paid reviews: Are they really going to be honest? If one is writing a review that has received payment, are they REALLY going to write a soso review or worse? How can that be an honest and credible review? Some of us post our reviews on Amazon, B&N, and other sites and now our reviews are going to be lumped together with “paid for reviews”. I will be honest, I do read reviews on those sites, however, I won’t be taking any of them seriously now. I will stick to those bloggers that I know are credible and who I have to thank for my TBR list. But what about the average consumer that don’t know about the book blogging community and honest reviews? Is that fair to the reading public and to those that decide on a purchase due to paid reviews?
I will now step off my soap box, refill my coffee cup and move on to my next stop, my google reader to see who has written reviews on books that I am interested in and to see if they get added to my TBR list. What are your feelings, thoughts and opinions on this? Am I wrong in my thinking on this matter? If I am misunderstanding this, then would greatly appreciate your comments to better understand. Criticism accepted lol.
I have not paid for any comments left. If there are responses, they are the honest opinions of those who took the time to leave their opinion.
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Busy Week In Club Circles. State Suffrage Convention is of
It Will Be Convened Here Wednesday—Other Events on
the Club Calendar.
The club calendar for the new week
is of unusual interest, and club women
of the city will be kept very busy this
week keeping up with the various
The unusual club activity of the week
is occasioned by the fact that the state
suffrage convention will be in session in
this city Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday. The day sessions of the convention will be held at the Imeprial (sic., Imperial)
hotel, and at Market hall in the evenings. The public is invited to attend,
the afternoon and evening sessions.
This afternoon, Ossoli circle will study
George Bernard Shaw, the greatest living English playwright. This study
comes in the department of modern
English drama, of which Mrs. Harry C.
Martin, is chairman. There will be no
papers, and the entire meeting will be
devoted to a general discussion of
Shaw, his work, and his genius.
Tuesday morning, at ten o'clock at
the home of Mrs. H. J. Kelso, a meeting of the Political Equality League of
Knoxville will be held. This is the new
suffrage league, formed last week, of
which Mrs. C. E. Lucky is president.
At the meeting Tuesday, officers will be
elected, also delegates to the state convention, to be held in this city this week.
Dr. Lillian Johnston and Miss Ernestine Noa will be present at this meeting, and will make talks. All persons
interested in "the cause" are cordially
Wednesday afternoon, the mothers' association of the Highland avenue school
will meet at the school building to observe vice-president's day. Dean J. D.
Hoskins will make a talk, and there will
be special music.
The parent-teacher association of the
Bell House school will hold a meeting
at the school building Wednesday afternoon.
Friday afternoon, at the board of
commerce rooms, the regular meeting
of Nicholson Art league will be held.
The league will study early Flemish
painters of genre. Miss Marion Van
Campen is chairman for the afternoon.
The Writers' club will meet with Mrs.
Samuel McKinney Friday afternoon.
The meeting will be a social one, and
an informal program will be given.
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.
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The Application Process
It is important that you read, thoroughly, this information. Make sure you understand that to which you are agreeing by completing the application process.
All campus student employment is coordinated through the Career Center. To be eligible for employment, students must be currently working toward a Ball State degree and satisfy additional eligibility conditions. If you are a new student beginning your first classes at Ball State in the fall, you may be able to work the preceding summer.
Cardinal Career Link lists hundreds of employment opportunities, including:
all on-campus part-time jobs (possibly full-time during summer)
available off-campus Federal Work Study-Community Service part-time jobs
a variety of on-campus internship and fellowship programs
on-campus graduate assistantships
off-campus part-time, internships, and full-time employment
Applying for Campus Jobs
Please read all of the instructions below before applying for campus jobs. Once you have carefully read through the instructions, you may click on the link below to complete your online student employment application. You will need your valid BSU username and password to access the application.
To be academically eligible, you must be enrolled for a minimum of 6 hours if you are an undergraduate or 5 if you are a graduate student.
If you are a graduate assistant, doctoral assistant, resident assistant, student athlete, or international student, contact the Career Center to find out what additional forms you may need.
All student job vacancies are posted on Cardinal Career Link on the World Wide Web and are accessible on any computer with Web access.
Review the job listings carefully, including the job description, required qualifications, and the days and times of the job.
Write down the job-vacancy numbers of the positions that interest you.
Only students who have been awarded Federal Work-Study (a form of financial aid) are eligible to apply for positions listed for work-study students (FWS) only on Cardinal Career Link. Contact the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, 765-285-5600, Lucina Hall 245, to find out whether you are eligible for this type of financial aid.
After completing your online student employment application and selecting jobs, come to the Career Center to get job referrals.
After you are hired, we will check your eligibility to work in the United States and on campus before referring you to the department that is hiring.
At your first referral visit, you must complete the federal I-9 form and show documents to verify your eligibility to work in the United States. A list of acceptable documents is available at the Career Center or on the World Wide Web.
Interviewing with the Hiring Department
After receiving a referral, contact the hiring department as specified on the referral. If you get an interview,
Understand that a campus job is to be treated like a post collegiate job.
Do some research on the department and its role on campus.
Be prepared to discuss any previous work or volunteer experiences you have had.
Dress appropriately and be on time for your interview.
Take both your class schedule and referral form to the interview.
The referral form shows the department that you are eligible to work on campus.
After Your Interview:
Be sure to thank interviewers for their time and consideration.
If you have not heard from the department within a week of the interview (or the deadline specified by the department), call and ask if a decision has been made.
If you get the job, be sure to read the guidelines and policies available on line.
If you do not get the job, don't give up. Look for other jobs on Cardinal Career Link and go to the Career Center for more referrals.
For help with your job search, visit the Career and Experiential Learning Lab in Lucina Hall 235 for information on interview techniques and résumé writing. You may also want to attend one of our daily drop-in advising sessions.
The Career Management Action Plan
Student employment can be the first step in your career development at Ball State. The Career Center has designed the Career Management Action Plan to guide you step-by-step through the career development process, from making good career choices to conducting a successful job search. The Career Management Action Plan outlines available Ball State programs and services you need to be successful and is available to you on line.
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Dental Hygiene Application Workshops
Reservations are required to attend!!!
See the dates and times for the Dental Hygiene Application Workshops and click on the below link to sign up.
Please arrive 30 minutes prior to purchase parking permit and check-in early.
Please be prepared to stay the entire length of the 2 hour workshop. Seating is limited.
You must bring the following:
Cerritos College Student Number
**MANDATORY** Official transcripts are required at the workshop, or you will be asked to re-schedule into another workshop.
Students with International Transcripts must make an individual appointment.
Please check the website frequently for additional dates and times.
To Sign up for a Workshop above you must have a current Cerritos College Student ID Number for this semester andclick on the link below:
Call the Counseling Division for more information at (562) 860-2451 extension 2231.
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Facebook has a small, but useful set of keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate the social networking site.
They're not universal like Twitter shortcuts, so the modifiers are different depending on the browser and operating system you use. The shortcuts work best with Chrome in Windows and Firefox on Mac OS X, because they only need one modifier key, plus the shortcut key. Also keep in mind that the number shortcuts must be pressed from the number row; they don't work with the number pad.
Here are the keyboard shortcuts for Facebook:
Windows Firefox modifier: Shift + Alt + # … Read more
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Naked Ape: "Fashion Freak" Video
Eric and Donald debate over which item is most likely to freak out your spouse: Star Wars themed corn holders or deadly DIY slingshots for circular saw blades?
Bling gold plated MacBook Pros, invisible cloaks, naked Natalie Portman, sexy Polish Barbers, pink is the new Google, HaloDS for real and the awesome new Microsoft Zune.
See the full story
"The antithesis of everything that's out there" is how director/producer Alex Postowoi (Joan Armatrading, Jann Arden, Bif Naked+) describes this super-natural video of Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe performing live-in-the-studio. Crowe performs in a first, single take her song, "Whether I'm Wrong," which has been featured by the UNESCO-endorsed New Songs for Peace project.
A sexy invite from electro-soul master Jamie Lidell, in a video directed by Fredric D.
Koach K's "LAST CALL" is the title track of a fun and energetic music video featuring the Freak Vultures and lots of beautiful women, from the up and coming new motion picture entitled "LAST CALL".
The Sony Handycam HDR-FX7 is an excellent high-definition camcorder from a video perspective, but it's less satisfying if you're an audio control freak.
The LG Prada (KE850)is a fashionable cell phone that's sleek and sexy, plus it has a large, touch screen display.
HBO launches a Netflix competitor, Microsoft opens up with Outlook Social Connector, and we are begrudgingly bringing sexy back during Fashion Week in NYC.
A software modification for Take-Two's "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" produces female characters that are naked from the waist up. That means a "mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Here's a clip from the game. Video courtesy of Gamevideos.com and Gamespot.
Top 10 naked people and Wii-mote violence.
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February 16, 2013
Blonde teen with fake tan beats Einstein on IQ test
By QMI Agency
A cute, blonde, teenage Briton has a higher IQ than Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Albert Einstein.
Lauren Marbe, 16, took the Mensa test with her friends for fun and scored a whopping 161, one point higher than the three previously mentioned geniuses.
That puts her in the top 1% of of smartest people in the world.
“I am blonde, I do wear make-up and I do go out,” Marbe told the Daily Mail. “I love my fake tan and fake nails as well.”
The straight-A girl from Essex said she's used to being underestimated.
“My teachers knew I was quite clever because of my grades but they had always thought I was blonde and a bit ditzy,” Marbe said. “Now they keep saying 'I didn't realize you were that clever.'”
She's happy to crush people's ill-conceived perceptions, both of herself and her home.
“I love living in Essex and I'm glad that I might be able to show people that we aren't all ditzy and blonde.”
When she graduates, the genius daughter of a cab driver plans to get an architecture degree at the University of Cambridge or become a West End drama performer.
Her mom, the deputy head of a primary school, couldn't be prouder.
“Obviously, I am really proud. I am quite shy and I don't like boasting but I am really pleased that she has done so well,” said Sue Marbe. “I don't know who she got it from. Me and my husband should get tested as well.”
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A Muleshoe man involved in a shooting incident Friday with a Muleshoe police officer is still in the hospital, according to a Texas Department of Safety spokesman.
Cpl. John Gonzales of the DPS’ Lubbock office said Monday afternoon the DPS department has taken over the investigation into the incident that led to an exchange of gunfire between Juan Mendoza Quezada, 44, and Muleshoe Sgt. Steve Bartley, 35.
Muleshoe Police Chief Brian Frieda on Monday directed questions to Gonzales.
According to a release Saturday from Frieda:
• Bartley, who has been an MPD officer for 20 months and has spent 13 years in law enforcement, responded to a domestic violence call at 416 E. Fifth St. about 11:30 p.m. He was shot once in the hip and once in the chest, while Quezada was struck several times.
• Both were airlifted to Lubbock hospitals. Bartley, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was released Saturday from University Medical Center. Quezada remains in Covenant Medical Center in critical but stable condition.
Gonzales declined to answer questions on charges being filed in the case. Gonzales said he expected to release more information Tuesday morning.
Residents at 416 E. Fifth St. declined interview requests on Saturday, and residents at adjacent homes said they did not know any of the details.
Frieda was not aware of the department’s last officer-involved shooting, if one existed.
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There is a looming rift on the right as many newly elected Republican congressional members want defense spending on the chopping block as they head to Capitol Hill, a position not shared by some of the old school Republicans in Congress.
Military and foreign policy analysts see the incoming group as game-changers in the Republican party.
“Within the Republican party, with the rising Tea Party caucus, you’re going to see, I think, very confusing but interesting politics on this issue over the next couple of years,” said Gordon Adams, a professor of foreign policy at American University.
“The reality is if the Republicans want agreement in their caucus and if they want to join with the Democrats in any way in an effort of deficit reduction all of these pieces need to be on the table and that means defense.”
Sen.-elect Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who has been outspoken on the matter, has broken from the traditional Republican party line on the issue of defense spending.
“Republicans traditionally say, oh, we’ll cut domestic spending, but we won’t touch the military. The liberals, the ones who are good, will say, ‘Oh, we’ll cut the military, but we won’t cut domestic spending,” Paul said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Bottom line is you have to look at everything across the board.”
Praising Paul earlier this month for saying he would go after defense waste, Sen. Tom Coburn , R-Oklahoma, called taking defense spending off the table “indefensible.”
“We need to protect our nation, not the Pentagon’s sacred cows,” Coburn wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner.
Paul and Coburn are not alone. Taking aim at programs tacked onto the defense spending bill, that are not requested by the Pentagon, Sen.-elect Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, echoed calls to cut waste.
“There is waste pretty much everywhere in the government, and that includes the Pentagon. Part of the problem is Congress voting on systems the Pentagon doesn’t even want,” Toomey said in a debate during his campaign.
“Congress has real serious spending problems, and it manifests itself in many ways. Certainly wasteful defense programs are occasionally in that list,” Toomey said.
Sen.-elect Mark Kirk, R-Ilinois, also voiced support for cuts during his campaign.
“I back spending restraint across the board at the DOD, like no second engine for the F-35 Fighter, closing down joint forces command, across the board reductions,” Kirk said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
But the congressman who will likely take charge of the House committee that oversees the Pentagon has no intention of seeing the defense budget shrink.
“Cutting defense spending amidst two wars, is a red line for me and should be a red line for all Americans. You do not need to be a policy expert to realize that investment is key to maintaining a robust defense,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-California — currently the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee — told an audience at the Foreign Policy Initiative on Monday.
In fact McKeon, who is likely to replace outgoing Missouri Democrat Ike Skelton as Armed Services chairman, is opposed to the slower growth that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates desires in an effort to reduce waste.
“The growth in the department’s top line is insufficient to address the future capabilities required by our military. One percent real growth in the defense budget over the next five years is a net cut for investment and procurement accounts. A defense budget in decline portends an America in decline,” McKeon said.
McKeon downplays the rift saying the freshman members are more focues on getting the lay of the land first.
“I think it will just take time to see where they really are on all the issues. Right now they’re probably trying to learn each other’s names and trying to find where they’re going to live and what they’re going to do with their families and hiring staff and getting an office,” McKeon said Monday at the Foreign Policy Initiative.
Rep.-elect Vicky Hartzler, R-Missouri, is in just that predicament, not ready to take a stand on cuts.
“She will bring her practices as a businesswoman to the federal government, wanting to first get a look at the books before making any decisions on cuts or freezes to various departments,” said Hartzler’s representative.
But defense experts see a struggle between the two camps in the near future.
“The Tea Party movement is going to have more fights with the status quo Republican leadership than it will with the Democrats,” said retired Col. Douglas Macgregor. “And what we’re going to witness over the next two years is whether or not this political movement, which is quite powerful, will succeed in asserting itself and taking control of the Republican party.”
Macgregor and Adams made their comments during a phone briefing Thursday where they released a letter sent to President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, urging its members to cut the Pentagon’s budget. Fourty-five others signed the letter.
The commission’s co-chairmen released a report earlier this month that proposed $100 billion in defense spending cuts in 2015. The full panel will vote on the recommendations by Dec. 1, the date of the commission’s last public meeting.
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Hour-long film reveals boy’s recovery from a brutal attack when he refused to be coerced into begging – and how he was helped from a world away
A seven year old Bangladeshi boy was viciously attacked, castrated and left for dead, allegedly by a criminal gang in Dhaka after he refused to be forced into begging. The latest CNN Freedom Projectdocumentary, Operation Hope chronicles his remarkable journey to recovery against all the odds. In 2011 CNN senior international correspondent Sara Sidner first reported about the brutal attack on the little boy.
American businessman Aram Kovach was so horrified and moved by the boy’s plight when he saw the story on CNN that he offered to help finance a trip to the United States for medical treatment. The much needed reconstructive surgery was unavailable in Bangladesh so the boy – who we’re calling Okkhoy, a Bengali name that means ‘unbreakable’ – was treated at no cost by doctors at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Kovach, along with his wife Branka and business partner Tom Shaver, financed all other expenses including travel and accommodation for the boy and his father.
“Operation Hope tells a remarkable story, one of unthinkable suffering that ultimately ends with the triumph of the human spirit. This boy’s courage in the face of adversity – and his bravery in facing up to his attackers – is extraordinary, and we were honored to have been able to document his journey through our CNN Freedom Project initiative,” said Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.
Operation Hope records Okkhoy’s long, complicated path to recovery from a life-threatening experience at a very tender age. While the doctors work towards Okkhoy’s physical recovery, he and his family live in the shadow of fear – Okkhoy is the key witness against the criminal gang accused of leaving him for dead, so the whole family lives in the protective custody of an elite Bangladeshi paramilitary force called Rapid Action Battalion. Will this courageous little boy who already fought off death once, triumph again?
The Freedom Project blog offers resources encouraging viewers worldwide to take a stand against the organized trade in exploitation of children.
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By Basilian Father Chris Valka
One in a series
As a young priest, I am often asked to speak on the topic of vocations to the priesthood. As a result, I spend a fair amount of energy thinking and conversing about the issue, and was recently encouraged to put a few ideas in writing. There are, of course, numerous thoughts, books, conferences and opinions concerning the cultivation of vocations. So, while I do not believe these ideas to be innovative, I do hope they serve as good reminders about the support each person makes to the “vineyard.”
Perceptions of holiness
Most people believe that the largest obstacle to the priesthood in the minds of young men is celibacy. However, I have not found this to be true. As far as religious life is concerned, the vow of obedience is much more daunting to a very independent generation. Yet, even more than any notions concerning the vows, are ideas that stem from ignorance about the personhood of a priest. In a recent survey by my own community, we discovered that many young men in our schools have “seriously considered” the priesthood, but do not feel that they are “holy” enough. We concluded that when priests served in greater numbers, young men had greater opportunities to know the man behind the collar – as a man who struggles with prayer and service as much as most people. Thus, it seems one task of everyone who promotes vocations is to demystify the preconceived notions of priestly holiness, allowing for priests to be seen as men who are devoted to the spiritual life, but are quite far from holy. Admittedly, many believe the recent scandals have over-humanized the priesthood, but I have not found this to be true. Young men seem to know the exceptions when they see them and still place the office of the priesthood on an almost unreachable altar.
A choice among many
The second challenge I have found concerns the choices afforded to those who may consider the priesthood. In my own community, many of the elder priests entered because that is what a friend was doing or because they did not see many other options available to them. Many of these men confess that they stayed because they felt called, but their original reason was not as special as some may think. This is a very different scenario for modern men who are often afforded more options than they know to handle. Thus, the priesthood must be promoted as one of many choices. While it is a call, it is often difficult to hear in the beginning. If men are to hear God’s voice, then the priesthood must be promoted as the best choice over the others. In the beginning, I believe this requires a pragmatic and inspirational line of reasoning to capture their mind in addition to their heart.
A family affair
While it is important to speak to young men (and women) about vocations, my parents often remind me that I am not the only one living my vocation. As a religious-order priest, my parents have a whole new family of Basilians, whom are often quite close to them. Of course, they did not expect this; in fact, they did not know what to expect. While many people spoke to me about priesthood, no one talked to them. My parents have since spoken to other parents about what it is like to have a son as a priest, and the response is quite positive. Simply put, parents have as many concerns as those considering the priesthood, and while they want to support their son, they often do not know how. My encouragement to pastors has been simple – bring young priests, and their parents, to the parish. If we are to encourage the families to promote vocations, give the whole family a reason to talk about it.
In closing, I hope you share your thoughts on this topic – successes, concerns and hopes.
Father Chris Valka, CSB, was ordained a priest for the Congregation of St. Basil last May and is teaching at Detroit Catholic Central High School in Michigan.
Filed under: Year for Priests blog
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Ahmadinejad Says Iran May End Enrichment
(AP) - Iran would consider ending uranium enrichment, the most crucial part of its controversial nuclear activities, if world powers send Tehran nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday.
Addressing a packed press conference in a New York hotel, Ahmadinejad also said Iran was prepared to set a date for resumption of talks with six world powers to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, saying October would be the likely time for the two sides to meet.
Ahmadinejad also defended his remarks at the U.N. a day earlier in which he claimed most people in the world believe the United States was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and again challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to probe the attacks.
"I did not pass judgment, but don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact finding committee?" Ahmadinejad asked.
Ahmadinejad said Iran had no interest in enriching uranium from around 3.5 percent to 20 percent purity but was forced to do so after the world powers refused to provide nuclear fuel that is needed for a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes for patients.
That level is far below the more than 90 percent purity needed to build a nuclear weapon, but U.S. officials have expressed concern Iran may be moving closer to an ability to reach weapons-grade level.
Tehran began higher enrichment in February after talks stalled over a U.N.-brokered proposal that the United States hoped would - at least temporarily - leave Iran unable to produce a warhead. The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.
"We were not interested to carry out 20 percent enrichment. They (the U.S. and its allies) politicized the issue. We were forced to do it to support the (medical) patients," Ahmadinejad said in response to a question from The Associated Press. "We will consider halting uranium enrichment whenever nuclear fuel is provided to us."
Ahmadinejad said pressure was counterproductive, but respectful talks will bear fruit.
"The era of following a policy of carrot and stick is over. Even such words are insulting to nations. It's only good for cowboys and those of retarded people. Definitely it has no effect," he said. "They issued resolutions as talks were underway. Still, we are ready for talks."
The Iranian leader said an Iranian representative will probably meet with members of the five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China as well as Germany in October.
He suggested that a specific date could be set should European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton contact Iran.
"Probably in October; we are ready for talks. The doors are open for talks within the framework of justice and respect," he said. However, he warned that Iran won't give in to pressure. "They are definitely mistaken if they think they can trample the rights of the Iranian nation through coercion in the talks."
In his one and a half hour session with reporters, Ahmadinejad also lashed out at the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an overreaction to the September 11 attacks. The Americans should "not occupy the entire Middle East...bomb wedding parties...annihilate an entire village just because one terrorist is hiding there."
Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by the U.S. diplomats. Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.
President Barack Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview Friday saying: "Well, it was offensive. It was hateful."
"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.
Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.
Iran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.
On other matters, Ahmadinejad said, "I don't have a problem meeting with" Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans who were taken prisoner in Iran during a hiking trip along the border with Iraq. She was released from solitary confinement on Sept. 15 and has said she wants to meet Ahmadinejad while he is in New York.
The Iranian leader did not answer a question about whether he would also release Shourd's boyfriend Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal. All three were captured in 2009.
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Nashville is a special place, a community filled with talented folks, old-fashioned charm, new-school vitality, and of course, great music. We spent 72 hours there for our Spring Collection shoot and we had an amazing time. If you don’t know Nashville, or haven’t been there in a while, make it a point to pay a visit soon.
A few instagrams from our latest photoshoot. Can you guess where we were?
I am not a coffee drinker, but if I were, this would be my spot. Camp 4 Coffee is located in beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado and all their coffee is “roasted by hand in small batches by human beings.” It’s a principle I can definitely get behind. And you don’t have to go to Crested Butte to support these guys – their coffee is sold online. www.camp4coffee.com
Sitting down with Nathan Greenwalt, owner/distiller of the Old Sugar Distillery of Madison, WI.
We’re big advocates for doing things from scratch. That’s why we’re big supporters of our buddy Nathan Greenwalt – proprietor and distiller at the Old Sugar Distillery here in Madison, WI.
He loves rum. So he bought a small still from a guy down south. He started making his own rum to share with friends. His friends loved his rum. He saw a business opportunity. He got the permits. He found a space to distill. 3 years later he’s producing 7 different liquors and sells over 12,000 bottles a year of his handcrafted spirits.
We asked Nate what his favorite drink was, and he replied, “The Standard.” The recipe is as simple as it gets: Cane and Abe Rum on the rocks with a wedge of lime.
Cheers to the holidays.
More images and places from Nashville.
Last coffees at Barista Parlor in Nashville. Shout out to the kind peeps that work here. Go if you’re ever in town.
Having grown up on the east coast, there is so much about my current home in the midwest that’s new to me. I love going on long car rides, and one of my favorite drives is between Madison and Minneapolis along the Mississippi River. The views are spectacular and there are a lot of cool, little towns along the way. These are images of Wabasha, Minnesota, which has a Hopper-esque main street and some great, old signs. If you visit be sure to stop in at the National Eagle center situated right on the Mississippi River, which is home to hundreds of bald eagles that make their nests along the river valley. www.nationaleaglecenter.org
File under: GO HERE. If you are ever in Portland, Oregon and are looking for a great, quick, and cheap lunch spot, I highly recommend Bunk Sandwiches. I am mostly vegetarian and I am often disappointed with veggie sandwich options. My grilled veggie sandwich was awesome. George got something with meat and a cold brew from Stumptown coffee.
“I do all of my hiking free form. Like John Muir, I enter the wilderness with nothing more than my journal and a child-like sense of wonder. ” - Nick Twisp, Youth in Revolt
I’ve considered hiking a tag-along activity for the past several years: No chance it’s my idea, but I’m always game when challenged to a difficult one. On a recent vacation to Tahoe, I was met with Mt. Rose. After 14 miles roundtrip and 5 hours on the mountain, I was “all natured out”. In spite of my general resistance to crampy calves and dusty shoelaces it was worth the spectacular sights. One day I will initiate such adventure, but for now I am a fine volunteer for kayak and paddle boarding excursions. Did I mention the mountain squirrels? Not exactly meek little creatures are they? I saw this one helping himself to some fellow hikers’ snacks.
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Four new restaurants have opened in Seaside, Oregon offering a variety of fare from fine to casual dining. Finn's Fish House, formerly Pudgy's Restaurant, has been remodeled and updated from top to bottom. Finn's serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and also offers a full-service lounge. The menu features local seafood fare with a Finnish flare. The restaurant is open every day, 7am until 10pm weekdays and 2:30am weekends. Located at 227 Broadway, (503) 738-8330.
Moody's Supper House is located at 20 North Holladay Drive and serves North Carolina southern-style cuisine. Pork chops, fried chicken and ribs can be paired with side dish options that include southern fried green beans, cornbread, coleslaw and many more southern favorites. Other offerings include steaks, seafood, roast chicken and hand-pressed Angus burgers. Peach cobbler and pecan pie a la mode are just a few of the desserts offered. Moody's is open weekdays at 4pm and weekends at noon, (503) 738-4054.
Firehouse Grill serves breakfast and lunch in a high-end diner atmosphere. Using fresh local ingredients in their food, you'll find homemade buttermilk biscuits every morning and a selection of tasty omelets and homemade Italian breakfast sausage. Lunch items include hand-dipped cod or halibut fish and chips and halibut fish tacos as well as burgers made with fresh beef ground in-house. The restaurant, located in Seaside's former firehouse at 841 Broadway, is open from 8am-2:30pm Thursday-Monday. Open for breakfast only on Sunday from 8am-1pm, (503) 717-5502.
Opening in June is Seaside Brewery where small batches of craft beer will be made daily allowing the brewer to experiment with lots of fun and interesting flavors. From the kitchen, the Kansas City chef will be smoking meat in-house for authentic KC-style barbecue and other dishes. You'll find lots of seafood on the menu and most dishes are prepared using the brewery's own beer. The restaurant is kid-friendly offering family dining areas as well as a bar for adults. Located at 851 Broadway, the Seaside Brewery's hours are 11am-11pm seven days a week, (503) 717-5451.
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Ticket #10087 (assigned Bug Report - General)
Opened 20 months ago
Last modified 7 weeks ago
mythmusic: 88.2KHz/24bit/6ch FLAC/WAV distorts
|Reported by:||ignissport@…||Owned by:|
|Component:||Plugin - MythMusic||Version:||0.24-fixes|
88.2KHz/24bit/6ch becomes distorted on playback when played in mythmusic. This occurs in both FLAC and WAV formats.
I've replicated this on two machines with very different hardware setups. One was an Audigy 2 ZS running through headphones over pulseaudio, the other was an onboard SP/DIF direct to an external amp (no pulse). Both played other formats fine, but heavily distorted when playing FLAC/WAV in this specific sample rate/bit depth/channel.
44.1KHz/16bit/Stereo plays fine. 48KHz/16bit/Stereo plays fine. 88.2KHz/24bit/Stereo plays fine. 88.2KHz/16bit/6ch plays fine. 96KHz/24bit/Stereo plays fine. 96KHz/24bit/6ch plays fine.
It's just 88.2KHz/24bit/6ch that distorts. If I re-encode the FLAC/WAV as 16bit, it plays back fine.
The FLAC/WAV also plays fine in other media players (including mythffplay) and passes a "flac -t" test.
mythffplay output: (a file that distorts) Audio: flac, 88200 Hz, 6 channels, s32
(a file that does not distort) Audio: pcm_s16le, 88200 Hz, 6 channels, s16
I suspect this may have something to do with changes introduced ticket #9930, but I can't be sure.
Both test machines are running v0.24.1-96-ge89d6a9 branch fixes/0.24
I've marked it as low/trivial as I suspect I'm the 0.0001% of the population that actually has media in this format.
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Technical Skills -Dan Morrison
To save you time, the buzzwords most obviously missing from this acronym collection (as of 2009) are: .NET, VB and if you care, C++ and ActiveX.
Good skill with MS Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP.
Advanced helpdesk and troubleshooting roles as a LAN/Intranet Administrator (combined MS and Linux).
Much experience supporting the entire MS Office suite and many other software packages.
Good skill with Apple Macintosh through to OSX. Macintosh network & software troubleshooting skills as well as proficiency with common design packages including PhotoShop and the Macromedia Suite Dreamweaver Fireworks and Flash.
Advanced Sysadmin skills under Unix/Linux (Ubuntu + Debian mostly). Key abilities include Email maintenance, TCP/IP Network configuration, Webserver setup & related protocols, Backup duties, Security issues & monitoring, Windows and database connectivity.
Good knowledge of hardware maintenance, upgrades, and OS installations on all above platforms.
With over 15 years in-depth experience in web programming, most of my current skills and interests are in this area. Strengths include:
- Advanced knowledge of cross-browser, cross-platform issues.
- Concentrated experience in back-end database connectivity and mission-critical transactional websites.
- Professional knowledge of leading-edge internet security, e-commerce, social impact, and HCI/useability issues.
- Commitment to open standards validation and accessibility best practices.
With many duties for many clients, I have developed good skills in numerous web-related duties & disciplines, these include
Highly Skilled, Head coder in many unique & challenging professional projects.
Advanced in XHTML and CSS. Much experience in user support and tutoring. Deep knowledge of version and compatibility issues between browsers.
|XML/XSL||Development experienced in coding using the various XML models under PHP, MSXML and Perl. Advanced research and code in RDF, OWL ontologies, Taxonomies, namespaces and XSL transformations for structured knowledge management and content scraping.|
Development experience in several related technologies such as WSH, WSC, ASP & COM under JScript.
|CGI||Highly advanced, many years experience coding & maintaining web transactional interfaces.|
|PERL||Advanced, coded many server-side solutions including many website maintenance tools, legacy database middleware, demos, and stub applications.|
|SQL||Competent, involved in several development projects, sole coder in others. (ODBC, MYSQL, MSQL)|
|PHP||Very Good, developed and maintained many web-based applications, mostly using databases. Several years of advanced development under the Drupal CMS|
|ASP||Advanced, sole coder in several development projects, troubleshooter and maintainer in many others. Using ECMAScript/JSCRIPT, not VB.|
|Java||Good, coded on several commercial web-based projects, some server-side development.|
|Graphic production||Competent, often responsible for original graphic production and processing using PhotoShop, Fireworks, Paintshop Pro, Inkscape, and animation packages. Highly experienced in slicing and converting supplied designs into dynamic, fluid layouts.|
|Multimedia||Good, created several projects using Macromedia Flash and CD-ROM presentations, screensavers and demos. Knowledgeable about media issues such as Content Distribution Networks (CDN), and embedded metadata management.|
Very Good. Responsible for Apache server configuration (on Linux, OSX & Win32) and IIS installation/administration and security on multi-user systems. Related networking skills.
Also cache management (SQUID), intrusion detection, logging and performance analysis (WebTrends & others).
Other Web-related disciplines I am experienced with and been responsible for in a commercial environment include:
XML, XSL, RSS, VRML(1.0), SVG, XMP, TCP/IP networking, DNS configuration, FTP clients & servers, Telnet/SSH, Secure Servers, Browser support & testing, Stress testing & download optimisation, Dial-up networking, LAN and Intranet configuration, Helpdesk & web tutoring.
Other Technical Skills
- Development experience in source control systems and source documentation management.
- Instant intuitive pick-up of new applications and protocols.
- Web-savvy. Experience and knowlege of existing standards and technologies, plus ongoing research into emerging developments.
- A commitment to semantic web and related technologies. I enjoy defining and managing metadata and publishing real data using open standards.
- Team Skills - I have enjoyed working as both an employer and employee in healthy, cooperative-operative environments, as well as some highly stressful ones.
- Graphic art - Having worked several times as a sign-writer and illustrator, as well as layout editor of a small paper, I create original and balanced graphics which I apply to my user interfaces and site designs.
- Technical skills - practical experience with Power, Lighting, Network and Audio rewiring, and all sorts of Mechanical repairs.
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It has taken me a while to appreciate lighter, citrusy coffees. For the longest time I have preferred super-dark coffees that are cooked to the point that their personalities (if they had any to begin with) are blasted away.
Coffees such as Java City’s Café Del Corazon, however, have helped me transition into loving lighter coffees.
The flavor of this particular blend is light and vibrant. Very clean finish. You can taste the freshness and quality in this unique blend before and after brewing.
Thanks to Java City, I have learned a thing or two about what makes organic coffee “organic.” If all the steps leading up to an end-product (such as a bag of coffee that you buy off the shelf) hold up to certain ecological and human rights standards, then this product can be “Certified Organic.” Café Del Corazon is certified organic by QAI (qai-inc.com) who specialize in qualifying products that claim to be organic.
Also, after browsing through Java City’s website (JavaCity.com) I found this interesting link listing some specific uses of coffee of which I was not aware, including an insect repellent, deodorizer and dust-inhibitor. This goes to show you, coffee really can be integrated into practically every aspect of life.
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Enchères Monnaies et Numismatique Facilement
Bienvenue chez Circuit Club philatélique & Ventes pièces de monnaie, où vous pouvez trouver les dernières ventes aux enchères et le plus important, les réalisations d'enchères mis à jour et bien plus encore.
Inscrivez vous gratuitement et envoyer vos offres directement aux marchands. SANS COMMISSION. REJOIGNEZ-NOUS MAINTENANT
The auction with 3.500 lots the International stamp offering the Colonia collection, China, Saudi Arabia, USA International Reply Coupons etc.
Saturday May 25th 2013 with
at 12.30 o'clock lots 1 - 808 Netherlands and (former) colonies, collections, lots etc.
The auction will continue on Thursday May 30th
at 11.00 o'clock lots 1000 - 1216 Netherlands and (former) colonies, collections, lots etc.
at 13.00 o'clock lots 1217 - 1748 Netherlands and (former) colonies single lots
Friday May 31th 2013
11.00 o'clock lots 1749 - 1975 Foreign countries single lots
13.00 o'clock lots 1976 - 2066 Coins, medals, papermoney etc.
15.00 o'clock lots 2067 - 2364 Postcards
Saturday June 1st 2013
at 10.00 o'clock lots 2365 - 3653 Foreign countries collections, lots etc.
2013 Spring Numisnatic Auction featuring:
China, Asia & Worldwide Coins and Currency
The Lucky Seven Collection
Editions V. Gadoury of Monaco is proud to present its Coin Sale-List, which offers a large variety of the coins from all periods and countries: Ancient Coins (Byzance, France, Great Britain, Greece, Rome, Spain and Turkey). Medieval and Modern coins from many world-wide countries, the prominent ones being Belgium, Corsica, Denmark, France (1407 items), Italy, Monaco, Russia, San Marino, Switzerland and Vatican. Items are sold at staring price on first come first serve basis NEW ITEMS ADDED WEEKLY.
As this Sale-List is presented here as an auction, we do not accept any offer below the staring price.
Gold and silver coins from all over the world with an extensive material in foreign metal and silver items;
A large selection of Hungarian and worldwide banknotes;
Faleristics, tokens, shares, accessories, militaria with numerous rarities.
Remarkable items, rarities, worth viewing!
Prices are in Hungarian Forints. Auction closes: 1st June, 2013 (17:00 CET)
Dear customer, dear philatelic and numismatic friends. We are delighted to present you the new series of auction catalogues for our 25th International Public Auction to be held from the 3rd to 6th of June 2013. in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.
We end with NUMISMATICS and POSTCARDS single lots and collections.
You will enjoy this concentration of outstanding jewels of International Philately.
Archives International Auctions, Part XV, presents:
Rare U.S. & Worldwide Banknotes, Scripophily and Security Printing Ephemera.
Additional Selections from the Hamtramck Collection.
American Bank Note Commemoratives Archival Inventory.
Properties of Banknotes, Coins and Scripophily, from various consignors.
Included will be over 1000 lots of Rare Worldwide Banknotes, Coins and Scripophily.
Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers are proud to present, among other numismatic material, in The Pre-Long Beach Coin and Currency Auction #74, the following topics:
The "Coins of the Bible" collection of Ancient coinage
Ancient coinage (including Greek, Judea, Roman, Byzantine and large lots)
World gold coins
World crowns and minors
A. KARAMITSOS is holding an auction of Coins, Banknotes, Medals & Decorations from Greece.
PAPER MONEY - Governor Capodistrias, Coin Notes, National Bank of Greece WWII Issued & Banknotes issued after WWII.
Coins - King Otto, George I, Paul & Constantine II.
Greek Island with Crete, Ionian state and Hellenic Republic.
Medals & Decorations of Greek military and Foreign countries.
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My mother texted me last week requesting my Christmas List. Eeek! Isn't it still October?
Even though I haven't a clue about the majority of my wish list, one thing that I've wanted for a while is great stud earrings. I'm on the hunt for something that's less formal than pearls that will go from work to dinner out.
ShopBop has some great stud options, and all of these finds are less than $100. How great is that?
Tory Burch Small T Logo Studs $58
Elizabeth and James Architecture Cube Stud Earrings $75
Marc by Marc Jacobs Bolt Studs $48
House of Harlow 1960 Evil Eye Stud Earrings $60
Giles & Brother Nara Pave Studs $75
Low Luv x Erin Wasson Arrowhead Studs $25
House of Harlow 1960 Antler Button Stud Earrings $70
Marc by Marc Jacobs Logo Disc Stud Earrings $48
Juicy Couture Princess Studs $48
Tory Burch Small Domed Studs $58
Marc by Marc Jacobs Turnlock Studs $32
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Description found in Archives
Item (linked) part of
Place of creation
No place, unknown, or undetermined
Conditions of access
Copy negative PA-040610
Credit: Canada. Dept. of Interior / Library and Archives Canada / PA-040610
Restrictions on use: Nil
AGRICULTURE - TYPES - RANCHING.
Other system control no.
- Date modified:
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CW’s highly anticipated drama, Beauty and The Beast, promises to be one of the exciting new shows to premiere this fall. This weekend at Comic-Con, we had a chance to sit down with series executive producers/co-showrunners Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders to talk about their role in bringing the series to television. Peterson and Souders have been writing and producing partners for over a decade after they first met at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Both served as showrunning executive producers on the Emmy award-winning Smallville.
At a roundtable interview, they told us what attracted them to the story, how it evolved from the 80’s cult-classic CBS show that inspired it, how the look of the show is sleek but still retains a gothic undertone, how 9/11 was chosen to be part of the Beast’s backstory to appeal to a modern audience, and why it was exciting to explore the relationship between two very strong-willed and physically capable characters. They also compared Kristin Kruek’s character, Lana, in Smallville to her new character, Catherine, in Beauty and The Beast. Finally, they discussed the challenges of adapting the BATB story for the modern information age of Google, Facebook and Twitter and finding fun ways for two people to connect while retaining the mystery of their characters. Check out our recap of the Beauty and the Beast panel and hit the jump for the interview.
Question: What drew you to this story?
Kelly Souders: We got to sit down and see the pilot at one of the CBS screening rooms and we were constantly surprised in a great way. The character of Kristin (Kreuk) as this complete kick-ass woman was obviously a huge draw and also the way that Jen (executive producer Jennifer Levin) and Sherri (executive producer Sherri Cooper) made Vincent so accessible and you feel for him. You can see the pain in his eyes and how hard this is. Knowing immediately as we walked out that the ideas just started flooding in, that’s usually when we know we’ve hooked into something, because we can’t stop thinking about it and we have all these thoughts about it.
Brian Peterson: On just a personal level, since I was little, I’ve loved fairytales, especially this one, because it is about what goes into making a beast a beast. Do you start as a beast? Do you turn into a beast because of the way that people treat you? I think it’s something that is really universal and hit a chord with me when I was little, and so, hopefully we can explore some of that.
What are the major changes or differences in this show from the 80’s show?
Peterson: I think the look of the show. We’ve tried to use some visual motifs. As far as the cinematography and the lensing and all that, we are presenting a different view into that world. It’s a little sleeker, but we’re keeping the gothic feel underneath it.
Souders: With Vincent’s whole character, from his ties to 9/11, to the military, to how he’s ended up this way, it’s something that hopefully is much more visceral for people and easier for them to click into just because it will feel like “Oh God, this could’ve happened to somebody I know.” I know people who have dealt with the big tragedies of 9/11 or have come back from the war or what happened during the war. His character is a big difference, a big change as well.
Peterson: I think our Beauty will be saving the Beast as much as he’s saving her which is a little different.
What was your initial reaction when you first saw the pilot? Was there anything that surprised you?
Peterson: We actually didn’t come in until after the pilot was shot because Jen and Sherri wrote the pilot and shot it and then brought us on. What was interesting to me was how they actually went to 9/11 and they chose that as part of his back story that we can unravel because it’s something that people have shied away from for very obvious reasons. The opportunity to deal with some of that aftermath and the sensitivity, we can use that, and it will be a really neat thing.
How would you characterize the relationship between Catherine and Vincent? Is it a tragic love story or…?
Souders: Tragic love story is good, although you never know. It might have a happy ending hopefully around season 12. What’s been fun about their relationship is she’s so strong. She’s such a strong character, and she herself has come out of tragedy and rebuilt her life and dedicated it to helping other people. She has a very strong opinion and he’s the same way. He was a doctor, then went into the military and came back, and for ten years, has been in hiding. So these are not people who are using her like doormats. That’s been the most fun part of it is that we have two characters who are really strong — strong-willed and physically capable — so it creates a dynamic that’s been a blast to write.
Peterson: They’ve convinced themselves, like a lot of people, that they don’t need anybody and so I think watching that all break down will be really fun.
It’s unusual to have four showrunners, why were you brought on?
Souders: We’ve done that before. We had a year where we had four of us on Smallville. Actually it makes things a lot easier because we usually take turns taking each episode so you’re on every fourth episode, and it allows you to delve into the details and focus on it in a way that [you can’t] if you’re on every episode, like a lot of showrunners are. Everybody weighs in. It’s not like that one episode is just that showrunner spearheading it, and it gives you a little breathing room to really pay attention to every little detail because there are so many of them.
Peterson: What we learned for a lot of shows, especially on the CW, is that they are very production heavy because you have car chases and trains and leaping and monsters and things that a lot of shows don’t deal with. There’s so much of your time that’s dedicated to that. It’s so helpful to have somebody else from the writers’ room while you’re dealing with your episode. It worked seamlessly for us on Smallville so I think it’s going great.
Are you having any trouble keeping Kristin different from her Smallville character?
Souders: No. I mean, Kristin was two characters in a lot of ways on Smallville. There was the girl that was in high school who was running a coffee shop, but she evolved over time to be this very strong willed and very physically present woman. So, I think it’s a separate character in a lot of ways. This is somebody who has been through tragedy in the same way but has dealt with it very differently and has a very different sense of humor, has a different way of dealing with relationships. Lana had a tendency to be very open, and Cat has spent most of her life diving into her work and not getting that close to anybody. As you will find out in the pilot, she’s had a string of ex-boyfriends because she has a little intimacy issue going on. It’s different.
Peterson: She grew up with a loving family before tragedy hit, whereas Lana, the character, was damaged very early on and that informed her character. That’s why you see a lot more confidence, a lot more sarcasm, a lot more fun from Catherine.
A good deal of the Beauty and the Beast story that we’ve seen adapted, whether on film or TV, took place in the age before the internet. How are you adapting that aspect for a story set in the modern information age of Google, Facebook and Twitter?
Peterson: It’s main storytelling hell because it’s really hard to keep a secret. It’s really hard to not communicate. But I think that’s what’s great about this world is it’s a world where he is off the grid, and for me, it’s a way to step back. She lives in a world where all that is happening, whereas he lives in a world that’s a little bit more removed where he can’t just log in and tap in and text. You don’t really want a Beast tweeting.
Souders: (laughs) I didn’t think that was going to happen.
Peterson: It’s a thing we deal with all the time.
Souders: It’s something in the writers’ room we’ve actually been talking about – the fun ways of how two people who can’t connect actually connect and we were actually talking to some people who were talking about CIA agents and how they get notes back and forth and how they communicate when they can never be see together and can never pick up any kind of device to help them reach out and touch the other person. It’s actually been really fun.
Beauty and The Beast premieres on the CW on October 11th.
Catch up on all of our continuing Comic-Con coverage here.
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Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival—which doesn’t begin until August 29th—but Sony Pictures Classics isn’t wasting any time, and have snatched up the U.S. distribution rights to the film. In addition to directing, Redford also stars in the film as a civil rights lawyer who must go on the run when he’s outed by a young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as being a former 1970s Weather Underground militant. I’m a little surprised at SPC’s eagerness to pick up the movie considering Redford hasn’t directed a good film since 1994′s Quiz Show, but maybe the execs like what they’ve seen. With a stellar ensemble cast that also includes Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon, the movie shouldn’t be a difficult sell to audiences.
Hit the jump for the press release. The Company You Keep will also play at the Toronto International Film Festival. There’s no word on a general release date, but it may hit theaters before the end of the year if Sony Pictures Classics thinks it could be an awards contender.
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS KEEPS COMPANY WITH ROBERT REDFORD
NEW YORK (August 24, 2012) - Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all US Rights to Robert Redford’s THE COMPANY YOU KEEP. Redford, who directed and produced the film, also stars alongside a stellar cast including Shia LeBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon. Additional producers include Nicolas Chartier (THE HURT LOCKER), and Bill Holderman (THE CONSPIRATOR).
Redford also assembled a prestigious crew to work on THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, Director of Photography Adriano Goldman (JANE EYRE, SIN NOMBRE), Composer Cliff Martinez (DRIVE, TRAFFIC), Editor Mark Day (HARRY POTTER films) and Production Designer Laurence Bennett (THE ARTIST, CRASH).
A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, will premiere Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival and at the Toronto International Film Festival.
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP was financed by Voltage Pictures, who is also the international sales agent on the film.
“Robert Redford’s film is classic storytelling at its best and we are really looking forward to bringing the film to the American audience,” states Sony Pictures Classics.
“I’ve known Tom and Michael for many years. I have great respect for what they do and how they do it. So it’s a pleasant connection,” adds Redford.
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A featurette filled with new footage from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s feature directorial debut Ted has been released. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a grown man whose childhood wish that his teddy bear would come to life actually came true, and now as an adult he’s having trouble letting go of his foul-mouthed buddy. In the featurette, MacFarlane describes the film as a warm, fuzzy, heartfelt fucked-up fairy tale. We get a look at a fair amount of new footage, including Ralph Garman and Alex Borstein as the young version of Wahlberg’s character’s parents. As with the previous trailers, if you’re not a fan of Family Guy you probably won’t love the footage. I particularly enjoyed Ted waxing poetic on the sexual stylings of Bostonian women, while there’s also a really funny gag at the end of the clip involving a pair of bare breasts.
Hit the jump to watch the decidedly NSFW clip. The film also stars Mila Kunis, Joel McHale, Patrick Warburton, and Giovanni Ribisi. Ted opens on June 29th.
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Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic. Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season. However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established. Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season. Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.
Perhaps I had unfairly high expectations for the fourth season of The Wire. Then again, that can happen when you hear from multiple sources that it’s the best season of the best show ever made. Until season four, the show had consistently captivated me both in terms of craft and dramatic resonance. Knowing that the fourth season would extend into the school system seemed like rich material for expanding the show’s complex societal and character relationships. Sure, Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) was dead and Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) had gone to jail, but there was potential for the quiet, calm, and lethal Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) to be a new spin on the criminal side of the series.
Rather than experiencing a stream of constant orgasms I was promised from the greatness of season four, I discovered the series’ most uneven season thus far.
The season kicks off with a bit of brilliant symbolism by having Marlo’s lieutenants Chris Partlow (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Felicia “Snoop” Pearson (Felicia Pearson) continuing a killing spree, and hiding the bodies in the vacant buildings. A ghost town may as well have dead residents. The lack of corpses allows Marlo to rise to power even though he only seems to have Chris and Snoop as his muscle (more on that later). Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Major Crimes Unit is trying to follow the money and root out political corruption, and homicide can’t investigate crimes they don’t see, and frankly, aren’t trying too hard to find. Bunk (Wendell Pierce) believes a missing corner kid, Lex, has been murdered, but with no body, there’s no case.
Despite the rising body count, life on the street is relatively quiet. Daniels (Lance Reddick) now runs the Western District, he’s in a happy relationship with Ronnie (Deirdra Lovejoy), Herc is working protection for Mayor Royce (Glynn Turman), and Lester (Clarke Peters) and Greggs (Sonja Sohn) are happily working their case with no interference from their new commander, who’s too busy working on his summer home to care what his unit is up to. Most surprising is a happy Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), who has stopped being a surly drunk and now enjoys domesticated bliss with Beadie Russell (Amy Ryan). Of course, a happy McNulty isn’t necessarily and interesting McNulty, and the show makes the bold move of marginalizing one of its most popular characters.
But the heart of the new season is the new characters Duquan “Dukie” Weems (Jermaine Crawford), Randy Wagstaff (Maestro Harrell), Namond Brice (Julito McCullum), and Michael Lee (Tristan Wilds). Up until this point, The Wire had embraced a multitude of dramatic tones ranging from the darkly comic to the coldly clinical to the sweepingly tragic. But the show had never been deeply compassionate until the introduction of these young men. There was always an element of sympathy for the characters, but David Simon made us feel protective of this quartet. They’re the innocents, or at least as innocent as one can be on the streets of Baltimore. Sadly, they’re trapped by their circumstances and the institution of the public schools. “Lambs to the slaughter here,” says Edward Tillman Middle School Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly in season premiere. And if we’ve learned anything so far from watching The Wire, it’s that institutions are immovable, selfish, and a hindrance.
Season four draws a majority of its emotional impact from the futility of the school system, and the young lead actors. We know these aren’t bad kids. They live at a crossroads, but unlike children of privilege, their world pushes them towards the path of a life of crime, a life that tends to be short as a result. Namond’s, son of Avon’s enforcer Wee-Bay (Hassan Johnson), is being actively pushed to the corner by his parents. Michael cares deeply for his little brother and, according to Cutty (Chad Coleman), has the potential to be great boxer. Unfortunately, Michael has to deal with his drug-addict mother, and the impending arrival of his abusive father. It’s also strongly implied that Michael was molested by his father before his father was sent to jail for an unrelated crime. Randy is whip-smart, and lives a relatively happy life with his foster parent. However, being at the wrong place at the wrong time (an easy thing to be in this world) ends up ruining his life. And as for Dukie, he’s extreme poverty and neglect makes him a social pariah until Prez (Jim True-Frost), now a math teacher at Tillman Middle, shows the kid some compassion and helps him realize he has a knack for computers.
Again, it comes back to compassion and there’s a sense that the show was struggling mightily against cynicism. The continued presence of Cutty provided a nice contrast of a positive role model set against all the bad influences of the street. Colvin (Robert Wisdom) returns with a new initiative to see if the “corner kids” (angry young people who seem unreachable, and are likely to turn to crime) like Namond can thrive outside the narrow-minded factory of the outdate school system. As one teacher cynically tells Prez, “It isn’t about the kids. It’s about surviving.”
The Wire has no patience about this kind of statement when it comes to the schools. The social commentary has expanded with the scope of the series, but the knives are out like never before when it comes to the education system. The show spits venom at teaching to the test, and the influence of government is a throwback to last season when McNulty tells D’Austino (Brandy Burre) that the higher-ups have no idea what life is like in the streets.
As far as a “lighthearted” plotline, the politics is about as much of a relief as The Wire can provide, because it fits into a familiar model. There’s comfort in Carcetti’s (Aiden Gillen) campaign and eventual election because we’ve seen this kind of story before. Unfortunately, I knew Carcetti would be elected, but I can accept the “spoiler” of a major plot point when the season aired almost eight years ago. Additionally, there’s not much investment about who wins or loses the election because we know life is going to be the same as it ever was. Carcetti is probably an upgrade from Royce, and we can see Carcetti has somewhat matured since he’s unwilling to sleep with D’Austino after his unexpected victory. We believe Carcetti genuinely wants to improve Baltimore, but we know he can’t so while his plotline is entertaining, but not as substantial as it was last season when he served as conduit to Baltimore’s political underbelly.
However, Carcetti’s victory also plays into the absurdities season four relishes. Carcetti wins in part because of a dead state’s witness who was assumed to be a murder, but turned out to be hit by a stray bullet (chew on that symbolism). When the MCU gets shut down, no one is watching Marlo except for Omar (Michael K. Williams). The cops can’t even get a hidden camera on Marlo, but Omar can lookout from a nearby window at a guy who wants him dead. There’s darkly comic, and then there’s an existential madness and season four has its share of the latter.
When you have an expanded tapestry with a compassionate and tragic coming-of-age story at the center, the love for season four is understandable, especially when you throw in so many memorable moments. There’s the understated power of Colvin taking some corner kids to a fine restaurant, and we see his statement about “They’re not fools. They know exactly what we expect them to be,” in full technicolor. If society has trained them to be canon-fodder for inner city Baltimore, do they really have a place in the middle-upper class. It’s a nice throwback to D’Angelo (Larry Gilliard Jr.) going to high-class restaurant in season one. The institutions have become so engrained in people that some can’t handle the shock of being pulled out.
So if season four is subtle, powerful, compassionate, and heartbreaking, where’s the problem? Sadly, there are two aspects where this season comes up surprisingly short. First off is Marlo’s crew. At the end of season three, we saw a twisted passing of the torch as Barksdale headed to jail and Marlo coldly watched in the courtroom. And to say “coldly” is redundant. Marlo is a cold, heartless character, which makes him terrifying, but not particularly interesting. Marlo Stanfield owns West Baltimore, but his organization appears to be comprised of him, Chris, Snoop, and…that’s it. That’s not really an organization, and it begs the question of how he becomes so powerful. Yes, the trio is ruthless and cunning, and it makes sense that the police can’t stop them. But I find it hard to believe that no other gang would simply come out a clip Marlo, Chris, and Snoop especially when the three of them hang out together in broad daylight. Logistics aside, they’re not particularly interesting characters. Akinnagbe at least gives a strong performance, especially when he absolutely destroys Michael’s father, but there’s no depth to Marlo and Snoop.
The other weak plotline belongs to Bubbles (Andre Royo). Bubbles functioned as the show’s happy wanderer who occasionally had strong dramatic moments. However, as he moved away from being a C.I., the writers clearly had a problem with finding something for him to do. In season three, he could at least roll around Hamsterdam, but with the safe zone destroyed and Johnny dead from an O.D., Bubs is stuck pushing his cart with a new protégé in tow. From there, the story stalls with trying to get Sharrod (Rashad Orange) to stay in school, and when that goes nowhere, the plot turns to Bubs getting the shit kicked out of him by another addict. Granted, the beatings lead to another example of Herc’s (Domenick Lombardozzi) incompetence turning harmful towards the innocent, but the pattern goes on too long and no one wants to see Bubs hurt this badly. The plotline ends on a particularly weak note as Bubs tries to poison his nemesis and Sharrod accidentally takes the poisoned dope and dies. It’s predictable, maudlin, and unworthy of The Wire.
Sharrod’s death felt like an attempt to hit the big dramatic notes that landed elsewhere in the season. The Wire can go subtle, but it can also go big and land a hell of a punch. In one of the most cinematic and powerful moments in the series, a stunned and defeated Randy mockingly calls after Carver (Seth Gilliam), “You got my back, huh? Huh, Sergeant Carver?”, and Carver has no choice but to walk away in shame and defeat. It’s an earned moment unlike Bodie’s death, which the show assumes will be powerful because we’ve known the character so long and he goes down in a blaze of glory, but the impact is softened because we spent so little time with him this season.
In the fourth season, the show’s reach finally exceeded its grasp in terms of drama. In wanted big cinematic moments, but never managed to get all of them because it wanted the moment before figuring out how to get there. When Stringer Bell dies in season three, it’s the culmination of a character’s machinations across two seasons. When Bodie (J.D. Williams) dies, it feels like we missed a step, but the show wants the deaths to have equal weight.
The most powerful drama of season four doesn’t come from death. It comes from life. None of the kids die this season because it’s more rewarding to see how they changed. Michael, unable to trust a father figure like Cutty, turns to an older-brother figure and embraces an ugly lifestyle in order to protect his younger brother. Dukie thrives in Prez’ class, but when they try to kick him up to the high school, he’s lost again, and so he goes to the only place that makes sense: slinging on the corner (and when Prez sees that, it’s all the world’s futility summed up without dialogue in less than ten seconds). Randy, tragically, will always carry a snitch jacket he never should have gotten, and will probably be beaten until he runs away from the group home or dies.
And yet Namond somehow gets away. The show’s final scene doesn’t linger on Carcetti’s crushed hopes, the revival of the MCU (the dead bodies in the school gymnasium is a little heavy-handed, but still a nice touch), Marlo ruling with an iron fist, or any of that. It’s Namond, released by his murderous father and disowned by his greedy mother, who finds a new life with the help of Colvin’s understanding and kindness. It’s a miracle in this rigged game of a city where almost everyone is doomed.
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February 21, 2013
Craig aims to extend AU's reach
AUBURN | Dameyune Craig was at Florida State last season and signed three major prospects from the state of Alabama.
It was his crowning achievement as a college recruiter.
That superlative didn't last long. Craig, hired by Auburn in January, played a central role in the Tigers' remarkable, come-from-behind power play on the recruiting trail that yielded a top-10 signing class earlier this month. The work that went into this staff's first Auburn class won't soon be outdone.
"We had to do three-week recruitment process that usually takes a year, a year and a half, sometimes two," Craig said Thursday. "With me, I felt like we had to get done in a week. Once these kids hit campus, you had to strike while the iron was hot. If it had gone past a week, we probably wouldn't have got them. We had to get them on campus, we had to recruit them for a week and we had another week to get them committed. It was crazy, but it got done."
Craig, a former Auburn quarterback with deep roots in Mobile, focused his efforts primarily on four wideouts, offensive lineman Austin Golson and quarterback Nick Marshall.
All but Golson signed with the Tigers.
His pitch was simple, but didn't include the message you expected. Craig said he rarely discussed his time as Auburn's quarterback - or even that he holds an Auburn degree -- when seated in the living rooms of prospects and their families. He insisted that the university and the program's new promise, anchored by fast-paced offensive system and defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, should be enough to curry favor with recruits.
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Home > Patient & Family Forum
Participate in a free online forum and join discussions about serious mental illness with people who have experienced these conditions and their family members
Colorado Recovery, in conjunction with the Recovery Trust, has set up a moderated online forum so that our clients and their family members can join discussions with others who are in the same situation.
The Recovery Trust is a non-profit organization that focuses on improving outcomes for people with serious mental illness. They provide education and support to people with mental illness and their families and friends through the use of this forum, and through their classes on serious mental illness. The Recovery Trust also aims to improve employment opportunities and the social inclusion of people with mental illness by developing social firms—businesses that employ people with disabilities.
The forum is hosted on The Recovery Trust's website, and can be found here.
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All domestic designers, Frolic, Lantern Bloom, Deer Valley and Mezzanine are on SALE for $5.00 a yard.
Have a sunny and happy Memorial Day weekend!
This was without a doubt the longest I have gone with out sewing! Yesterday I put my foot down and demanded sewing time. Ella needs clothes for the Summer (Romy now inherits Ella's clothes!) and I needed to get all these UFO's under control. But I have hardly made a dent, sad to say. Nevertheless, Silverlake the jacket that is in the book Sewing clothes kids love, is done!
And not only did I finally get to sew Silverlake but I also got to use this totally rad fabric by Farbenmix called Tattoo-Kids. Ella was over the moon in love with this fabric from the start. I used nice ribbon accents and lined the jacked with fleece. It is going to be perfect!
Now I am sorry to say that I didn't manage to get this lovely fabric for the shop. The communication was bad and there was not enough for me to buy anymore for retail.
But and here is the great news and the GIVEAWAY part, I am sending off a meter (and it is 1.40 Meters wide!!) of LOVEchirp! One lucky winner will be able to make something beau*ti*full :)
I forgot to add, that LOVEchirp is another fabric from Farbenmix created by Luziapimpinella and LOVEchirp turned out to be super popular!
To enter I would love it if you could help m spread the word about my shop! If you love Bunte Fabrics let everyone who likes high quality fabrics now :) Or leave a comment here and tell me what you like about the shop!
The winner will be chosen on June 1st, 2010 (goodness can you believe it is June soon????) and will be announced here on my blog.
The super talented and sweet Berrie is celebrating her impending marriage :) If you would like to have a shot at winning this most fantastic Waldorf Doll go on over and visit her blog!
Good Luck but not too much! I entered also ;o)
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CeCe McDonald, the young black transgender woman who accepted a plea deal and pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter last month will be incarcerated by the state of Minnesota as a male. McDonald was arrested after she stabbed a white male who was part of a group of that physically and verbally attacked her with transgender and racial slurs.
The plea agreement calls for a sentence of three years and five months in prison, according to the Star Tribune.
Upon sentencing, McDonald, 24, will be taken into custody by the state Department of Corrections and housed as a male “because he is being housed as a male with Hennepin County,” corrections spokeswoman Sarah Russell told the Star Tribune on Monday. “We will intake him as a male at St. Cloud prison.”
Russell went on to add the state will make its own determination of McDonald’s gender.
“We will assess him as any other offender would be assessed,” Russell said. “The assessments include, but are not limited to, screening for potential vulnerability to sexual assaults, tendencies to act out with sexually aggressive behavior and any disabilities” as defined by federal law.
The Transgender Law Center gathered testimonies from former prisoners, sheriffs, and others, about the risks that many prisoners face and found that sexual violence is an “ever present fact of life for far too many transgender prisoners.” [PDF]
Akiba Solomon will bring you more detailed reporting on McDonald’s story later this week.
It is true that McDonald was not out looking for a fight. On the night of June 5, 2011, McDonald walked past a bar with four other black friends in Minneapolis. She and her friends were attacked by two white women and a white man, first with words, “niggers,” “faggots,” and “chicks with dicks.”
But the words, while enough to incite a response, were not the end of it. McDonald was struck in the face with a cocktail glass by one of the women, slicing all the way through her cheek. A fight ensued as more people joined in to attack the group of black folks, and eventually Dean Schmitz, the white man who was among the first to start harassing them, was stabbed and died later in the hospital.
Even if there is not physical evidence in place to secure the conviction the prosecutor originally sought, it doesn’t really matter. A black person who fights with white people, even when self-defense is clear, is going to likely be arrested. This is often true also in transphobic and homophobic contexts, even when the violence is between people of the same race. The burden to prove one didn’t deserve to die or be brutalized often falls on black, queer and/or trans bodies. In fact, McDonald’s judge ruled that the swastika tattooed on Schmitz’s body was inadmissible by her defense as evidence of his racist assault.
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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — He momentarily sounds a little confused, like a dude who forgot what parking garage floor he left his ride on.
Steve Marker is recalling why his band, electronically enhanced alt-rockers Garbage, went on hiatus in 2005, briefly getting back together to record material for a best-of album in 2007, but mostly remaining idle for years.
The guitarist admits that even the bandmembers themselves began to lose sight of why Garbage was still on hold when they and their families would periodically visit one another in L.A., where singer Shirley Manson and drummer Butch Vig live.
“After a while it was like, ‘That was really fun, when we were in that band that was pretty successful and playing shows all over the world,’” Marker remembers. “It was like, ‘Why did we stop that? That was really awesome.’ “
None of this is to suggest that Marker has no explanation for Garbage’s inactivity, which ended when the band hit the studio at the beginning of 2010.
“It’s fun to play music with people who you really like, and I think we kind of lost that along the way,” he says. “The business stuff ends up taking over some of that fun. We got really bogged down in people’s expectations of what we were supposed to be doing, being on bigger record labels and stuff.
“With all that behind us,” he continues, “it was suddenly exciting again and it felt a lot like it did when we first formed, which was really just sort of a fun idea that we had, ‘We’re here in the studio anyway, let’s see if we can find a cool singer and maybe call it a band and see what happens.’ It turned out that it worked.”
Beginning with Garbage’s self-titled 1995 debut, the band sold more than 10 million records worldwide and earned multiple Grammy nominations with their equally sultry and hard driving blend of radio-friendly alt-rock with electronic flourishes.
The group stood out in the alternative boom of that era for a number of reasons.
Drummer Vig was well known as a producer of such smash albums as Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Siamese Dream,” and indeed, Garbage started during some downtime at Vig and Marker’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wis., as Marker alluded to earlier.
Plus, they were older than many of their peers at the time, established music industry vets who knew their way around the business (Marker recently turned 53).
And then there was Manson, a fiery Scot with a razor-wire sharp tongue and the commanding demeanor of a high-heeled drill sergeant.
“I came to cut you up / I came to knock you down / I came around to tear your little world apart,” she warned on “Vow,” Garbage’s debut single, a song on which she compared herself to both Joan of Arc and Jesus Christ.
This was the height of the riot grrl era, with bands such as Bikini Kill, Seven Year Bitch, Bratmobile and dozens more challenging traditional notions of feminine beauty and sexuality.
Amidst this fray, Manson was a distinct figure: a woman who both embraced, and even flaunted, her sensuality, while still maintaining an in-your-face, occasionally confrontational presence.
She was the grrl who had grown into a lady — a lady in charge.
As such, Garbage, rounded out by bassist Duke Erikson, always came across as one of the more sophisticated, adult faces of the alt-rock ranks — and considerably less hip, because of it.
But what they lacked in perceived coolness, they made up for in craftsmanship, with tightly honed songs that pointedly eschewed the frayed-around-the-edges feel of the grunge rock that dominated the airwaves at the time of the band’s emergence.
These days, Garbage is readying the release of their fifth album, “Not Your Kind of People,” which comes out on May 14 on the band’s own label, Stunvolume Records.
First single, “Blood for Poppies,” has a vintage feel to it, a languidly paced slow burn with Marker’s distinct, dissonant guitar, an insistent digital pulse and an afterburner chorus.
“Duty calls,” Manson sings as if she’s attempting to make up for lost time, though the song sounds as if time has stood still for this bunch.
“I think it picks up from how we were at the very beginning more than the later stuff,” Marker says of his band’s forthcoming album. “When we made the first record, we had nothing to lose. We said, ‘Hey, let’s put a record out, that would be fun.’ We didn’t even think we’d ever play live. It was really just for our own enjoyment.
“Now, here we are however many years later, and we didn’t have a record company, we had no plans on touring,” he adds. “In some ways, we were in the same position, which I think was great, because there was nobody breathing down our necks. We had no pressure and no expectations on this. I think it really served us well just to do it for fun again.”
Jason Bracelin is an entertainment writer for the Las Vegas (NV) Review-Journal. Contact him at JBracelin@reviewjournal.com.
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Dave Eggers: Guys who are in the third coolest frat of a private college.and:
Nick Hornby: Guys who wear skinny jeans and the girls that love them.
Phillippa Gregory: Women who have repressed their desire to go to Renaissance Festivals
Richard Dawkins: People who have their significant other grab them under the table in order to shut them up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong.
Michael Pollan: The girl who just turned vegan to cover up her eating disorder.I know that Michael Pollan girl. She is a "model" and "eats," she swears.
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Once upon a time, in the city of Baghdad, there lived two friends and their names were Eliezer and Abdalla. They had grown up together since childhood, gone to the same school and they loved each other very much. Their souls were close and their friendship knew no borders.
When they finished their studies, they both decided to go into business. Eliezer opened a carpet store in Baghdad and Abdalla went to Bocara in the south where he opened a shop to sell goods. Now, in those days, long-distance communication was difficult and even the closest friendship was hard-pressed to thrive. The separation was hard on Eliezer and Abdalla and, as the saying goes, "far from the eyes - so, far from the heart." And that is how each of them forgot the other.
Time passed, the years went on and Eliezer's business prospered. He became more and more wealthy until he had much gold and money, buildings and land. Eliezer's name was renowned and, in Baghdad, they called him "Eliezer Effendi." Fate was not so kind to Abdalla, and his situation worsened. In time he lost all his money and before long he had to return to his own city of Baghdad with nothing in his hands.
One day Abdalla's wife told her husband, "listen to me, and God will listen too. You know, God helped your good friend, Eliezer, and gave him all that is good. Go to his place, tell him what you have gone through all these years from the time you separated until today and he will see you and he will be happy. He will help you with good heart."
At first Abdalla was unsure about taking his wife's advice because 'the full belly doesn't know how the hungry belly feels.' Because that is the way of human beings - when you become rich you are far from the poor. But finally, when hunger knocked at his door, Abdalla decided to visit his old friend. Abdalla went to Eliezer's palace and requested permission from the doorman to enter and speak with the owner of the palace. The doorman passed the message to his master and when Eliezer heard that his best friend from childhood had come to visit him he went himself to open the door and give welcome.
From across the courtyard Eliezer could see Abdalla's face and he realized that face was not the face of their youth - Abdalla's clothes were ragged; his skin was bruised and reddened; he looked like a poor man in a desperate situation. Eliezer retreated and told the doorman to send the visitor away and to say that he wasn't in the palace.
But Abdalla had seen his friend from the distance, and he understood the meaning of this answer all too well. He returned home feeling ashamed and he was angry with his wife whom he blamed for suggesting that he go to the palace where he only suffered great humiliation. In his heart he felt the truth of the saying: 'one day honey, one day vinegar, don't ask anything from men.'
This episode weighed heavily on him and he took all his hurt and humiliation and he put it all in his heart. After a few more days Abdalla had still found no work and his family was hungry. He had only a few coins in his pockets and he couldn't decide what to do with this bit of money. Buy food or buy clothes? Abdalla sat, read from a book and prayed day and night asking for God's mercy.
One day a young lady knocked on Abdalla's door and said to him, "Oh righteous man, I am a widow. Since my husband died I have been lonely and abandoned. My husband, may he be remembered and blessed, left nothing except this brilliant stone. But what can I do with it? Eat it? Put it in water and drink the water? Have mercy upon me and buy this stone and you will save my soul from death."
Abdalla looked at the stone and could see that it was a good one, likely worth a great deal of money. He thought that God must have sent this woman to him so that he might make a bit of money. He said to the woman, "all I have is a few coins, not enough to buy the stone."
The young woman looked desperate.
Abdalla said, "I will give you these few coins now and take the stone to the market place to sell. Come back tomorrow and I will give you the profit from this."
The young woman looked relieved and thanked him for his good heart and went her own way. Abdalla sold the stone and waited the next day for the young woman's return. When she failed to appear he went in search of her but could neither find her nor find anyone who had ever heard of her. The next day, another young woman came to Abdalla's house and she had with her all her jewelery. She said, "I have heard that you are an honest man. Have mercy upon me for once I was very rich; but now I do not have enough money even to support my children. My husband sailed to the ocean countries and now many years have passed and I have received no message. Help me and buy my jewelery so I will have something to feed my children."
Abdalla bought the jewelery and explained that the jewels were worth much more than he had to offer but that if the woman would return tomorrow he would give her the profit he could make. The woman thanked Abdalla and went her way.
Abdalla waited the next day in vain to share the profit with the woman for she never showed up. And, as before, he sought her with no success. The next day Abdalla met a good-looking young man who offered to sell him 50 robes for a very good price. Abdalla knew this was an unusually good deal and the young man explained that he had to sell his wares quickly because he had far to travel and little time. Abdalla bought the robes.
These opportunities encouraged Abdalla's spirit, he sold everything and began a thriving business. Fortune looked favourably upon him and he opened more stores and became wealthy. And one day Abdalla's wife said to her husband, "The time has come for you to go to Eliezer, your friend who betrayed you. You must scold him for his behaviour towards you in our days of poverty."
These words entered his heart and Abdalla went to Eliezer's palace and requested entry. This time Eliezer came out himself to receive his childhood friend. He hugged and kissed him, and invited him to enter the palace and be served special food and drink. But Abdalla said to Eliezer, "not for your love have I come to you this time, but to scold you for how you treated me the first time I came to see you. Now I know that you do not love me. You love my money. When I needed your help you avoided me."
Eliezer said: "Forgive me, my good friend, but please do not judge me so fast."
"You are not my friend," said Abdalla with pain and anger. "You are not my true friend and this is the last time I will be in your home. From now I have no intention to see you again, ever!"
Eliezer said "Wait, I want you to meet someone." Eliezer spoke to a servant who went out of the hall and returned with two young women and a young man. "I wish you to meet my children," Eliezer said to Abdalla.
When Abdalla saw them, he fainted and fell on the floor for he recognized them immediately. They were the ones who had come to him to sell the precious stone, the jewelery and the robes. When Abdalla's spirit came back to him, he bowed to his friend and asked for forgiveness. He apologized for his rude words and the favours he didn't return. He asked, "But if you wanted to help me, why did you hide this from me, and why didn't you offer your help on my first visit?"
Eliezer said, "My dear friend and soulmate, Abdalla. The first time you came here I saw your face from a distance and I knew immediately what had happened to you. I said in my heart, 'If I help him openly, he will feel inferior in front of me, and he will surrender to me.' You would always see that money as charity. But that is not true now. You took the money, not as a beggar but to help others and you made a profit from it. These miracles strengthened your spirit to live again with ambition. Believe me, my dear friend," continued Eliezer, "from the first day I saw you until today all my thoughts have been with you. I made all the effort I could to help you. It pained me to see you in your poverty and I rejoice now to see you in your wealth."
Abdalla put his head in his hands with shame. The two friends embraced with love in their hearts for each other.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A long time ago i decided that there was something wrong with the way we made, followed, elevated leaders such that i eschewed ever wanting to be such a thing. I learned the language of "leadership" from the work of Movement for a New Society gang as represented by books like Resource Manual for Living Revolution and Leadership for Change: Toward a Feminist Model. And i reflected (principally through reading everything that Alice Miller ever wrote) on my problems with "authority" that threatened to make me a reactionary anti-leader guy. Learning about Paulo Freire's work, i committed myself to the praxis of popular education and i have followed that path ever since. Popular education, i believe, represents a different paradigm of leadership - one that not only flies "below the radar" of most leadership thinking but moves in a different universe entirely. I have come to believe that popular education is closer to the buddhist notions of mindfulness and right action than to the traditions of western individualism which find their ultimate expression in the American notion of individual liberties (which, oddly enough, the US chooses to extend to corporations under the rubric of corporate personhood).
I think the popular education ethic which i am addressing here is nicely summed up by Ronnie Gilbert, member of the Weavers singing group:
I worry when 'activists' are lionized that people will say, Oh, that is such an extraordinary person - look at all she does - she must be some kind of Superwoman. We all want models and examples to inspire us. But it seems to me that the single mother who campaigns for daycare is the activist, the woman who works for battered women, the ex-battered woman who turns her experience into a teaching project for school children, the precinct worker, leafleter, petition circulator, the person who supports with letters and money and/or physical presence the fight for reproductive rights or divestment from South Africa, who opens her doors or her church's to Central American refugees, who takes whatever small but firm bites out of her small or large resources to end religious, racial or political persecution ANYWHERE, and she who gives of some part of herself to prevent nuclear disaster - she is where the action is. (in HERESIES: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics # 20Activists, Organizers, Progressives, Heroines, Visionaries..., 1985 )Angela Davis' October 10, 2006 talk (at UC Davis) titled How Does Change Happen? includes a wonderfully lucid critique of the over-attention given charismatic leaders and which is often at the expense of the often thankless, slogging work of organizing carried out by people who often remain forever unrecognized in social change work - and, of course, many of these people, if not the vast majority, are women. As Angela Davis says: "Often those who contribute most powerfully to movements for radical social change are erased in the histories that are transmitted from generation to generation." I recommend listening to this entire talk - it is rich in critical reflection that remains urgently relevent. You can fast-forward to 15:40 if you wish specifically to listen to Angela Davis' comments on leadership. And following is the transcript of that stretch of the talk:
Often those who contribute most powerfully to movements for radical social change are erased in the histories that are transmitted from generation to generation. And I’d like to use the civil rights movement as an example. Because it’s historical for me – I was quite young, so I have an experience of it but I have to think about it as history as well. And also because everybody in this country knows who Reverend Martin Luther King is. Everybody knows. Can you think of any person in the United States of America who has not heard the name Martin Luther King? I mean, even in places like Arizona where… you know… they really resisted the observance of the birthday.(Thanks to Rob Howarth for telling me about Angela Davis talk!)
And I think this is great. This is a change that happened. But it may not have been entirely the change that we wanted because we aren’t really informed about the conditions under which that particular leadership developed. And we assumed that because there was someone called Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … he appeared on the scene in Montgomery, he was the Messiah, and this whole movement developed. I mean that’s what I call the “Messiah Complex” in terms of our notions of leadership. And it seems to me that the greatness of Dr. King resided precisely in his capacity to learn his leadership abilities, to acquire his leadership abilities from the people who had organized that movement… to listen to them. As a matter of fact, most people don’t even know that it was a group of black women who organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Most people haven’t heard of the name Jo Ann Robinson even though she wrote a book called The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It. Because that method was the paradigm, right; you’re supposed to think that it is these great, heroic, male leaders who are the motors of history. And how could you possibly measure up to someone like that? And what you don’t realize is that the real work happened long before Dr. King ever thought of associating himself with those struggles.
As a matter of fact, do you know why he ended up being the spokesperson? Because all the black ministers in Montgomery had been involved in all these confusing debates and there were contradictions and you couldn’t ask this one… And so the idea was to choose this young man who had just arrived in town and who hadn’t had an opportunity to get embroiled in all of the debates and who really didn’t know very much anyway; which isn’t to say that young people don’t know very much, they do, they know a great deal. But he was considered to be the easiest choice.
And so, basically, the women selected Dr. King as the spokesperson for the work that they were doing. And this isn’t the history that we learn, is it? And we don’t know about Jo Ann Robinson who taught at Alabama State University and was the chair of the Alabama Women’s Political Association - how she and the members of her organization were trying to start a boycott - they had planned that. And they had tried on several occasions; and then, finally, when Rosa Parks got arrested – and Rosa Parks was an organizer; she wasn’t a tired woman, you know – she wasn’t the individual you always see portrayed, especially in the visual portrayals of her: the one black woman who manages to make it to the ranks of the heroic-historical figures – alone. She was an organizer. She was a trained organizer. And when she was arrested, Jo Ann Robinson got a couple of her students, they stayed up all night long … mimeographing … it was hard work. They stayed up all night long making those leaflets. And that’s how the bus boycott got started.
And I say this because that was really unglamorous work. It’s work that we would not necessarily think about as being that significant. But that was what helped to create that movement. If they hadn’t stayed up all night, if they hadn’t worked that mimeograph machine, if they hadn’t gotten people to go out and distribute all of those leaflets at six o’clock in the morning when people – particularly when people who were domestic servants were getting on the bus – it never would have happened. I’m not saying that the struggle for civil rights wouldn’t have happened; but it wouldn’t have happened in the way that it did. And that’s a very different story. It’s a story about people just like you. It is not a story about heroic individualism. And it’s a story about the erasure of women’s contributions.
And so I could talk about other movements as well. I could talk about the Chicano Movement, the Latino Movements, the American Indian Movement, the Asian-American Movements. And I could talk about the contributions that women made to those movements during my time in the late sixties and the seventies that will be lost if we don’t figure out how to rectify the tendency to tell history in this way that privileges heroic individualism. And keep in mind that I’m going to be using “individualism” for the rest of my talk. Because it’s dangerous; it’s really, really dangerous.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Well, i've got J'net keeping me honest about writing towards one of the many books i fancy gestate within me, and yet are perpetually deferred in favour of innumerable (if always seemingly worthy) endeavors (or distractions?). And i'm reminding myself of advice i learned from writer Alan Garner (a childhood favourite and author of one of my favourite novels ever: Strandloper) about feeding and harnessing the "magpie mind" - that appetite (or capacity?) of the mind to collect "shiny" objects at the expense of focusing on a (shining?) path. While the collecting has its obsessive and distracting side it also can be used to see new connections, new patterns amongst the ocean of information and knowledge in which we swim.
And so it is that my mind has been connecting a variety of pieces about responsibility, reciprocity, music and more. Learning about Playing for Change (see previous post) i am inspired to think about how music does indeed connect us all around the planet, across cultures, across times. I remember discovering WOMAD in 1981-ish - the album and then institution - that Peter Gabriel and others founded and which was a quantum leap in global awareness of non-western music. I had a radio show at McGill University at that time and i used it to teach myself about (and share with others) that world of music that had, until that point, been the purview of anthropologists. And i am forever grateful to Peter Gabriel and his co-founders for helping me to populate my musical life with some of the richness of the world's sounds. (An odd footnote to this is my stint as a music producer when, for the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of South Africa in 1990, i managed a music tour - i was the desk guy and my friend Bruce Burron was the road manager - of a Mozambican group called Eyuphuro. I found enough money - about CDN$10,000 - to cut a dozen tracks here in Toronto which we digitally mastered and then sold to Real World Music, the commercial arm of WOMAD. Later we learned that Billboard Magazine had included the album in it's "top 100 world beat" category. It looks like Real World still sells the album which they called Mama Mozambiki.)
Playing for Change's video productions are wonderful gifts. Which makes me think about what kind of economy they represent insofar as we share the wealth of beauty and joy that is the product of their labours. The gift economy aspect of all this is an intriguing and, i believe, vital thing to understand better. Nor is it separate from the capitalist economy that is, arguably, what underlies the greater part of the internet (as well as most of the infrastructure of global communications). I'm pleased to see that Playing for Change also has a non-profit (charitable) aspect and they feature three initiatives (in Guguletu and Johannesburg, South Africa; Dharamsala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal) to which they donate support. I do hope they prosper. And it's obvious that the musicians who themselves are donating could receive a positive benefit from this that could help them prosper.
But how will internet fame affect them? For fame is a dangerous condition that seems to offer material wealth for a fatal cost which only begins with an elimination of private life and continues through the slow crushing and making miserable of the soul. (Or perhaps we are seeing the dawn of the new kind of economy imagined by Cory Doctorow in his novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom). Street musicians can make a fine living while also relying on relative obscurity to protect their privacy. And i'm sure some thrive in their chosen medium while others, no doubt, barely scrape by. What will happen now to Grandpa Elliot who has been an established street performer for a long time? I would only hope that he remains in control of his fate. Similarly, what of internet sensation Susan Boyle who has instantly won the affection of millions with her disarming forthrightness and stunning singing. I appreciate Dennis Palumbo's point in The Huffington Post:
Again, i hope that Susan Boyle can maintain some control of her fate which, of course, presumes that she had that control to begin with. But who am i to hope anything for someone i am never likely to meet or know, except through the heavily mediated lenses of the internet and mass media? I guess i just hope that her soul doesn't get stomped by the new attention showering down on her. And i avoid reality TV precisely because i find it so hard to bear watching the indignities people suffer (both those they are put through and those they seem willingly to rush into).
But I can't help wondering, what would have been the reaction if Susan Boyle couldn't sing?
What would the judges and the audience have thought, and said, had her voice been a creaky rasp, or an out-of-tune shriek? Would she still possess that "inner beauty?" Would we still acknowledge that the derisive treatment she received before performing was callous, insensitive and cruel?
The unspoken message of this whole episode is that, since Susan Boyle has a wonderful talent, we were wrong to judge her based on her looks and demeanor. Meaning what? That if she couldn't sing so well, we were correct to judge her on that basis? That demeaning someone whose looks don't match our impossible, media-reinforced standards of beauty is perfectly okay, unless some mitigating circumstance makes us re-think our opinion?
I am reading Martin Buber's work and came across this passage on "responsibility" that has been on my mind as i ponder the connections of global music and internet fame - just how do we "respond" to these moments and the people who are living them:
ResponseI believe that every moment of every day is an opportunity to practice this kind of responsibility. Which isn't to imply that i come anywhere near the implied ideal of doing so. And so, back to J'net's task of keeping me on track with writing ... that's something i have to respond to now.
This fragile life between birth and death can nevertheless be a fulfillment - if it is a dialogue. In our life and experience we are addressed; by thought and speech and action, by producing and by influencing we are able to answer. For the most part we do not listen to the address, or we break into it with chatter. But if the word comes to us and the answer proceeds from us then human life exists, though brokenly, in the world. The kindling of the response, which occurs time and again, to the unexpectedly approaching speech, we term responsibility. We practice responsibility for that realm of life allotted and entrusted to us for which we are able to respond, that is, for which we have a relation of deeds which may count - in all our inadequcy - as a proper response.
in The Way of Response - Martin Buber - Selections from His Writings edited by Nahum N. Glatzer (NY: Schocken Books, 1966) p.19.
Friday, April 17, 2009
A big thank-you to Almira for sharing this. I'd not heard of Playing for Change and as beautiful as is this first gorgeous 20C spring day here in Toronto, it is the more beautiful still for learning of this global collaboration. I've been singing a whole lot of lullabies and gospel and folk songs and shape notes hymns lately (it's great to have the audience of such singular devotion that an infant can be) and i've been marveling at how universal the joy and peace of music seems to be. I'm especially fond of two lullabies - one from Samoa and one from Malta - that i have learned only through their sounds. And, though worlds apart, yet these beautiful melodies and lyrics carry love and joy and peace that can bridge the vast distances of geography and culture. What a marvelous idea to use this internet technology to connect people - not just in artistic collaboration, but also for the sake of world peace. What if we used all our clever industrial and digital technologies in this way? (Check out the Playing for Change website for other videos - click on "The Media" link).
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Covers for an unpublished book
Here we have sketches for the front and back of an unpublished book. It was supposed to contain all the Illegal Batman and Ramollo stories. The book was to be titled RRRR or RRRRRRRRR depending on whether you read the cover or the spine.
The contents, in order, would have been ‘Ramollo’s Talents’, ‘The Gardener in the Moon’, ‘Ice Baby’, ‘Easter Song’, and ‘Illegal Batman’. All of these stories are now available on this website in one shape or form, with the exception of a two-pager called “The Uninvited Batman”, which was drawn by Darryl Cunningham.
When I was putting this book dummy together, the final story ‘Ramollo-Speak’ hadn’t been drawn, but if the book project ever sees the light of day then it ought to be included too.
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Have a customer who ordered up a S&W M&P pistol from S&W a month or so back and it hasn’t shown up yet. He asked me to light a fire under ‘em. I emailed their LE rep and this is the exact reply I got:
No ETA, sorry bud. Its the end of the world and all that right around the corner so we are backordered.
Nice. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Personally, if it’s the end of the world I would think the autopistols of choice will be Rugers and Glocks. The Ruger will edge out the Glock for durability, but the Glock will win the trophy hands-down for parts support.
Regardless, this is really a bad time to be trying to buy a particular gun. Oh, theres guns available, to be sure….but you may not get exactly what you want. Or, if you do, be prepared to part with some major cash.
ETA: Factor in the mass shooting in Connecticut today and it look’s like AR shipping times are gonna be pushed back another several weeks and lets not even think about what the magazine market is going to look like. Now that the election is over this might be the casus belli that The Usual Suspects need to enact their ‘sensible’
citizen gun control.
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Although they might not know her by name, to young girls of a certain age in New York, the CB Richard Ellis broker Susan Kurland is something of a saint.
After all, it was Ms. Kurland who not only represented American Girl in its earliest brick-and-mortar pursuits in Manhattan and later the nation, but also apparel chains H&M and Mango. With each of those retail clients, the CBRE executive vice president has played a substantial role in helping to expand and nationalize the brands while ushering in a particular style of youth culture to the American masses.
“A girl can really go in, who doesn’t have a lot of money, and go out on a Saturday night and feel good about herself because she can put herself together in a fashionable way,” said Ms. Kurland of H&M in particular. “Nobody’s going to know that it cost $20, and that’s a great thing because girls are insecure when they’re kids.”
It was for a 36,000-square-foot deal she inked for H&M’s first Manhattan location, at 640 Fifth Avenue, that the veteran broker was honored in 1999 with the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Retail Deal of the Year” award. Besides steering the clothing store to the luxurious confines of Fifth Avenue, at the center of a shopping district known then for its expensive fashions, Ms. Kurland also successfully paved the way for a wave of more affordable retailers on the strip.
Since then, she has inked an estimated 45 transactions for H&M nationwide and 10 for American Girl, including an outpost in Seattle last month, she said.
“When we put H&M on Fifth Avenue, they didn’t really have that type of retailer,” said Ms. Kurland, who during the same time frame also located two additional storefronts for the chain that opened very soon afterward. “It was more luxury-ish, and now when you look at Fifth, it’s totally changed.”
More recently, however, Ms. Kurland’s retail transactions have tilted less toward youthful accessories and apparel and more toward outdoors equipment.
Indeed, in September the broker inked a deal on behalf of REI, the big outdoor gear and sports equipment superstore that will open its first city location in the Kushner Companies-owned Puck Building. In addition to being the first retailer to take space at the historic 295 Lafayette Street, the transaction also marks the Washington-based company’s first major push into the New York area. At 40,000 square feet, it will be one of the gear purveyor’s smaller outposts, but as a company with a devoted following across the nation it will no doubt cause a level of pandemonium when it opens for business this fall.
“When the deal was done, I started getting emails from several of the landlords that I do business with,” recalled Ms. Kurland, who also inked a deal for REI in Long Island. “They said, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you. Now I don’t have to go to New Jersey.’ If you’re a fanatic, you’re a fanatic. Outside of New York there are stores that are, like, 100,000 square feet, with rock-climbing walls and all that stuff.”
BORN IN WESTBURY, L.I., and residing for years in Westchester, Ms. Kurland, who now lives on the Upper East Side, had always had a knack for numbers and business, but chose instead to focus on the arts and her more creative tendencies.
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, she labored for some time as a graphic designer, creating branding and logos for corporate clients as well as for brochures and other mediums. But in due time, her passion for the work began to wither.
“What I found is that it wasn’t sort of stimulating enough in that I’d get an assignment, I’d go back to my little studio, sit at the drawing board and there just wasn’t any stimulation,” said Ms. Kurland, who studied under Milton Glaser, the artist best known for the ubiquitous I Love New York logos. “It wasn’t stimulating because there was no chance to talk to people.”
As an alternative, she earned her real estate license and worked for several years as a broker before going on a brief hiatus. Since 1998, however, she has never looked back, first taking a job at Cushman & Wakefield before going to CB Richard Ellis six years ago. In 2009, she was the firm’s top retail broker nationwide.
It’s not surprising, perhaps, that as a creative thinker, Ms. Kurland, who also recently picked up photography as a hobby, prefers representing tenants over agencies, which she says requires a bevy of creative solutions to unique commercial real estate problems. “Tenant rep, to me, is just so much more creative,” she said. “Probably the reason I chose retail over office is I find it to be a much more creative type of business and thought process and so forth. With a lot of my clients, it definitely requires creative solutions for this particular New York marketplace.”
Although Ms. Kurland was not raised by a family of real estate agents, she has indeed succeeded in mentoring her two sons in the ways of the trade.
To be sure, her youngest son, Keith Kurland, recently departed a position at CB Richard Ellis for a lucrative new job at Meridian Capital-although not before first snagging CBRE’s in-house “Rookie of the Year” award. Her older son, Chad, meanwhile, has excelled by investing in residential real estate.
Asked if she tried to convince Keith to stay on at CBRE, the proud mother said she did right by her son. “I didn’t ask him to stay here, no,” she said. “I knew it was a great opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.”
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The Manhattan District Attorney’s office yesterday opened up its manslaughter trial against the owner of a construction crane involved in a 2008 accident that killed two workers, and prosecutors said it was that man’s greed that lead to the fatal crane collapse, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors painted James Lomma, the head of New York Crane & Equipment Corp., as a man who passed on a crucial repair job on the faulty crane in favor of the bottom line.
“They were killed because of one man’s greed,” said Manhattan District Attorney Eli Cherkasky in his opening statements inside a packed Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report.
Mr. Lomma is currently standing criminal trial for the 2008 crane collapse that took place on East 91st Street. The 200-foot crane was working on the 14th floor of a high rise residential development when the top part of the crane broke off. The debris then fell into the building and down below, crushing a sewer company worker, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. The collapse also nearly beheaded Donald Leo, 30, who was in the crane’s cab during the time of the accident. Both men died. A third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, was seriously injured.
In its 2010 indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Lomma, 66, and mechanic Tibor Varganyl used Chinese firm RTR Bearing to replace a cracked turntable on the crane, which allows the upper parts of the rig to swivel.
Mssrs. Lomma and Varganyl were told by two other companies that work on replacing the turntable would take at least seven months and $34,000. RTR Bearing pledged to come up with the part for nearly $20,000 in three months, prosecutors said at the time.
But even RTR Bearing had its doubts about the repair, sending an email that warned “we don’t have confidence on this welding,” prosecutors said.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. accused Lomma of wanting to speed up repairs to the 25-year-old crane to prevent losing roughly $50,000 in rental fees for leasing out the rig to other companies.
Mr. Varganyi, 65, plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide and is expected to be sentenced in April. He could possibly avoid jail time if he testifies against Mr. Lomma, The Associated Press reported.
“This five week trial will show that James Lomma had acted entirely responsibly, and the prosecution’s opening statement was more fiction than fact,” Paul Schechtman, one of Mr. Lomma’s defense attorneys, told The Commercial Observer yesterday.
This crane accident happened two months after a separate crane collapse in Manhattan killed seven people.
Since 2008, the city Department of Buildings has implemented more than 25 new construction safety laws, created new inspectorial units, and increased training of its employees, said Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the city agency.
“The Building Department has really clamped down on who is operating, who is responsible, who’s got licenses, whether they’re trained, I think there has been a vast tightening of the protocols for insuring greater compliance and the penalties for non-compliance, if there are any future incidences,” said Barry LePatner, an authority on construction and founder of law firm LePatner & Associates who authored the books “Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets” and “Too Big to Fall.”
The new mandates pushed forth by the Department of Buildings, which includes increasing the number of crane parts privy to inspection from 35 to 200, has lead to a 18 percent drop in construction accidents in 2011, added Mr. Sclafani.
“Stricter enforcement and increased industry outreach has created a greater result of safety throughout the industry,” said Mr. Sclafani.
That’s not to say crane accidents no longer occur in New York City.
Last week, a crane situated atop the 4 World Trade Center development was lifting a load of steel beams when its crane cable popped, sending the steel to fall 40 stories below and on top of a flatbed truck. A construction worker was slightly injured on the scene.
That accident is still under investigation, said Mr. Sclafani.
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Ten commandments of Speech Preparation
A Guide to Writing and Usage
FINAL EXAM: Please complete your answers to this exam and then e-mail the essays to me at firstname.lastname@example.org. Remeber, it is an exam. So, limit the time you spend on it to an equivalent amount.
The deadline is May 27, 2003
PART I: (40%) Read the speech. “Making the Grade” by Nicole Tremel” (pp. 436-438) and evaluate it using the standards for the last persuasive speech we have given (excluding evaluation of delivery). Explain how well or poorly the speaker has done on the criteria listed below. Explain your judgments and use examples from the speech itself.
Introduction gained attention: ___(5 pts maximum)
Topic is well suited for persuasive purpose: ___(5 pts maximum)
"So What" step effective for this particular
audience and distinct from rest of introduction ___(5 pts maximum)
Previewing of mainpoints clear: ___(5 pts maximum)
Topic is adapted to audience attitude/background: ___(5 pts maximum)
Organizational design appropriate and clearly
covered stock issues for proposition type: ___(10 pts maximum)
Transitions are clear and complete: ___(5 pts maximum)
Sources well chosen and completely documented: ___(10 pts maximum)
Rebuttal step of opposing arguments effectively used: ___(10 pts maximum)
___(5 pts maximum)
General impression: ___(10 pts maximum)
PART TWO (20%)
Outline a persuasive speech on the topic of banning handguns in America. Make sure to include:
Purpose statement for a policy proposition, organizing question, three mainpoints that deal with the stock issues for policy propositions and that answer the organizing question with parallel structure; indication of the type of introduction you would use; indication of the type of conclusion you would use; identification of the location of the preview and transitions, (do not write them out); indication of the "so-what?" step you plan; evidence that you would use to support mainpoints (make up sources for this exercise); rebuttal step (identify it and indicate your reaction to the opposition). You know the drill.
PART THREE: Answer any five of the following items (8% each):
Suppose that you were preparing a speech on the topic used in the speech
in PART ONE of this
exam. Suppose that you were planning to speak to a group of high school students. Describe
the steps you would take in audience analysis. Describe the results of audience demographics,
audience culture, and audience psychology.
2. What are the stock issues for propositions of policy and non policy propositions? Explain each.
3. What are the causes and cures of poor listening?
4. What methods of delivery (e.g., manuscript, impromptu) are best for typical speakers? When are the other methods appropriate?
5. What elements of voice and nonverbal communication are most suitable for enhancing persuasion?
6. What are the factors of source credibility?
7. What are the major forms of reasoning?
8. What are the major forms of introductions?
9. What language factors can aid or inhibit persuasion and comprehension?
10. If you studied something that is not on this exam, please ask yourself the question and answer it. You will be evaluated on the integrity of your answer and the significance of your question.
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Ethics & Compliance
Following yesterday’s story that data security is the number one Law Department issue comes the news that it is ethics and compliance that tops the General Counsel’s list! The 2013 report by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) tells us that 87% put ethics and compliance as their biggest concern, followed by regulatory and government change. Data and information security was also high on the list.
Senior legal staff find themselves expected to give increasing amounts of business and strategic advice – probably no surprise if the issues listed above are considered so important. Executives need help in navigating through the morass of regulatory and reputational risks that surround business today.
The good news for the law department is that most are gaining an increased budget,which is being spent on both more internal resource and greater use of external counsel. This finding reflects similar discoveries from a recent IACCM study of both legal and contract management groups. However, this increased focus does not always lead to greater job satisfaction – there has been a drop of 11% in those who enjoy their work. It is often demanding to find ways to reconcile the needs for improved ethics and compliance with the demands of a business that is still challenged by harsh business conditions and facing a struggle for growth.
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The Student Organization for Cognitive Science (SOCS) is preparing for the Fall 2010 semester. Any interested students may submit their availability at http://www.doodle.com/s4fypa3b4gxik7xc by Friday, September 3rd, so we can plan an optimal meeting time.
SOCS is open to both majors and non-majors interested in discussing topics in cognitive science - which includes (but is not limited to!) topics in psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and education.
This semester, in addition to a series of professor dinners, we will be reading through the "30th Anniversary Perspectives on Cognitive Science: Past, Present, and Future" collection in Topics in Cognitive Science to start a discussion about each of the cog sci subdisciplines. We invite other suggestions for articles, activities, or TED talks that may interest the group.
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No blog posts have been added.
Thanks for the note. I don't check my site very often, sorry. I just have one qestion for you. What does openmined mean to you? I'm a little concerned...cher
I fially checked my site and saw your post. Sorry I don't check more often. Remember I am only doing friends and nothing more, so if you are hoping for anything else I am not the person for you to contact, okay? Hope we will be friends, in that case tell me about more about you...cher
I am Tony Yahaya. From Ivory Coast. I saw your interesting profile at (/community.beliefnet.com/). I think i will appreciate your friendship. Could you please contact me at my e-mail (email@example.com) for my picture and more information about me. Note: colour, distance or age does not matter, but love.
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I LOVE Italians! I especially love their coffee and animated men.
Yes, such a object of entertainment for "exceptional" Americans, a specimen under the microscope to laugh at, or ridicule, depending on the mood. From the sounds of this thread, I'm not sure if we're talking about the evil doing Muslims and an evil doing Muslim/Arab country, actually. Interchangeable, when it comes to condemnation of an entire people, it seems, whether for amusement or fear.
Please, Italians are much more than entertainment for "exceptional" Americans. They are a delightful culture and much appreciated for the multitude of contributions in many areas of the human race. Lighten up! Take a stroll and have some Italian coffee.
...Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell has stated that Amanda Knox did not receive a fair trial in Perugia, Italy, implying the Italian system is inherently deficient, and calling for the Department of State to intervene. In fact, Knox has stronger rights on appeal in Italy than a defendant in the U.S... (more)
So those thinking she did not get a fair shake might want to read this...
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WFN ultimate fishing town Contest
4/29/11: 19:50 hours....We are ahead by a hundred and need to pour the coal to the voting. I just voted four times.
Keep it up and we can win the south east region and go on to the finals.
Read More »
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Michelle Martin Kocher of Delta Medical Systems is our Share Your Convergence Story November winner for her written submission about her first Convergence experience. Congratulations Michelle, and enjoy your $250 American Express gift card! Michelle's first Convergence was 2009 in New Orleans, where she learned about new products, networked and rode the mechanical bull had some 'fun' on Bourbon Street. Check it out to see what you might expect in March.
Does her story inspire one of your own? Then send it in! Each month is a new opportunity to win a $250 American Express gift card and be entered for that grand prize - a FREE full attendee pass to Convergence 2014!
Your entry can be a written story or a video, like the one submitted by Jerry Weinstock of CRM Innovation. His video gets November's Honorable Mention and highlights the value of the in-person experience of Convergence - including one conversation that triggered what he calls "the single best thing that has ever happened to him" in all his years in business.
Incredible things happen when like-minded folks get together to push the bounds of their experience, ask questions and connect with new people.
What conversation is waiting for you at Convergence 2013? What new experiences? How might it change your future? There's only one way to find out - attend! If you haven't already, register today for Convergence 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 18-21, 2013. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!
Early registration is now open! Save $300 per attendee by registering right away. Check the Convergence 2013 website for the latest information.
Enter the Convergence Share Your Story contest and you could win a $250 gift card - and a FREE PASS to Convergence 2014.
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You For Me Music Video
Due on 06/01/11
You For Me Music Video → "Terra Naomi's You For Me"
By Luke Watters
The contest this print was entered in is closed.
WANT TO ENTER?
Click here to learn more »
WANT TO ENTER? GET THE HIPSTAMATIC AND START SHOOTING!
Past and Present
How to enter
Hipstamatic iPhone App
Digital Photography turned Analog
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I have previously reported the Wrong Field Order on the BBC iPlayer App but there has been no positive response from VM on that.
When the BBC Sport App was introduced with only Formula 1 the live streaming was correct as were the other videos, i.e. the correct Field Order.
Once the App was updated to include Euro 2012 and Wimbledon, I immediately noticed that the football live streaming was suffering the Wrong Field Order problem and reported this at the time.
Since then, today has been the first occasion to see the Formula 1 live streaming and I can confirm that it now also exhibits the Wrong Field Order problem. The other non live video feeds are however still correct.
Something has been done by the BBC in updating the Sport App to re-introduce the Wrong Field Order problem. The internet live stream on the web (bbc.co.uk/sport) does not exhibit this fault.
Could VM please liaise with the BBC to sort this out a.s.a.p.
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This post takes a departure from describing the world and instead focuses on what it is like to DM this world. This is a huge topic, so I will concentrate on two aspects that can be particularly important for the campaign world: maintaining the sense of Athasian uniqueness and achieving an appropriate challenge level.
Running the Sands - Tips for Surviving as a Dark Sun DM
Keeping Athas Interesting and Unique
One of the hardest aspects of DMing a unique campaign world is that everyone wants it to feel unique. The DM wants it unique, the players want it unique. And yet, when you play past a few sessions, it is surprisingly easy to have it feel like the PCs are just crossing terrain, just speaking to an NPC, or just fighting in some place. How can you keep the Athasian feel without running yourself ragged or repeating yourself?
The technique I like to use is to prepare two unique aspects for each session. You can go with more, but it is usually better to try to have two really memorable aspects (where you go into something in depth and leave a real impression) than to have more but explore them in only a very shallow way.
Here is an example. We might be traveling through stony barrens, with the point simply to be to get from one place to the other. We could describe a lot of things, such as color striations in the rock, the pebble-rich sand, the dust-filled sky, or different types of plants. And, in fact, it is good to do that.
However, an idea for more depth could be to single out a single type of plant and make that unique to that area (and make a note of it in your campaign notebook or other tracking device). Maybe there is a tiny barrel cactus that is a dark grey and covered with stubby thorns. Making some nature or history checks, the party learns that the cacti are very dangerous to mounts, because they can easily be covered by wind-blown sand, acting as caltrops. On the positive side, they are often desired by merchants because after a rain they put forth a bright yellow flower and a shriveled brown fruit that is very nutritious. The flowers are also collected and are popular with nobles in the closest city-state.
This might lead the PCs to ask about when it last rained, to seek some that have fruit, and even to dig up a few (even without fruit) to sell them to merchants.
At the simplest level, such detail gives variety to what would have been a routine trek, provides an opportunity for discussion and role-playing, and creates a bit of lore for your world.
At the next level, you can make this part of your living campaign. For example, you might at their destination have the NPCs respond positively if offered some of the fruit/cacti. Or, perhaps next time in the city-state they see a noble wearing the flowers and recognize them. It all adds up to making Athas very unique.
The best part is that a lot of this you can just make up as you go. Make a few rough notes on the two things you want to introduce and some ideas, then feed off of your players. You might have an idea of a type of distinctive clothing with plans to show it later on in other sessions. Then a player asks if they can buy that type of clothing, leading to an encounter with an NPC weaver/tailor (which might further the adventure) and perhaps a bonus to skills interacting with people from that area.
You may be surprised at how this technique adds up over time to create a very interesting campaign world. Sometimes one of the elements won't receive much attention, but usually one of the two will help make Athas memorable each and every time you play.
Fair Brutality - Maintaining an Appropriate Challenge Level
Another challenge with running a Dark Sun campaign is maintaining an appropriate challenge level. Like an Athasian arena, you want a lot of blood on the sand. You want the feeling that no matter what, the PCs are in a brutal world that could swallow them up at any moment. With such dangerous environmental conditions and with beings like Sorcerer-Kings, gargantuan drakes, and massive elementals, your PCs should always be worried about surviving.
But, if we look at the DMG, there is a stated challenge level. For reasonable play, you want to periodically give the PCs easy encounters, encounters at their level, and then every now and then a challenging encounter that is a couple of levels above their average PC level. Now, sure, we can push that a bit for a Dark Sun campaign, but at some point we are just making the players suffer - after all, the guidelines for reasonable play exist for a reason. Players want to feel like their PCs are heroes and they want to win. They don't want to die every other encounter. A quick look at the D&D Encounters forums will demonstrate how unhappy players can get when they fell the game is unfair.
The trick is then to angle for fair brutality. It should feel brutal but always fair. There are a couple of ways to achieve this.
1. Use more extender rests or methods of renewing resources
For reasons of rules balance, the Dark Sun PCs are not significantly stronger than their non-Athasian counterparts. Sure, they get an extra encounter power via a Theme, but the second edition DS PCs had huge ability, class, and weapon specialization benefits and started at 3rd level.
To get the feel back, find ways to renew spent player resources. Put simply, in a Dark Sun campaign it is cool for players to spend their cool powers more often, but also to regain them. An extended rest works, but you don't always want to fight once in a day. Instead, consider ways to:
- refresh a daily power in between encounters
- refresh a spent encounter power within an encounter
- heal yourself or an ally, even if you aren't a leader
- refresh a daily magic item power
- refresh a class or racial feature
- renew a healing surge in between encounters
- gain a bonus to a skill to enable something difficult
- pull off a stunt to gain a bonus that makes a big power more likely to hit
On Athas, just as you might look to design the encounter to be difficult, look for ways to make it easier. You might increase the level of the encounter by two, but then add a cactus that only the PCs know would deal damage and ongoing poison if a foe was pushed against it, plus ruins that one PC could jump off of in an acrobatic stunt to get combat advantage and a bonus to damage (only once, the ruins crumble after that and become unsafe). When the PCs are finished, they find a cactus that replenishes a lost healing surge with a moderate heal check.
Experimenting with D&D Encounters, players seem to really like having ways to renew resources, spend big powers more often (and regain them), break weapons and get new ones, use terrain to pull off cool stunts, and find things in the wilds that can boost or renew them. It all makes the high challenge level seem manageable, and can be more fun than lowering the challenge level to normal levels. Plus, it is more imaginative! In fact, you can combine the idea of something unique to Athas and make it something that also renews the player. For example, a player wearing the clothes local to the area might be able to make a bluff check as a minor on their first round to gain combat advantage as the foes are not sure if the PC is on their side.
2. Provide constant threats more often
One way of making the world seem meaner is to provide some sources of constant damage more often. The rain of obsidian shards in D&D Encounters is a fantastic example, but more mundane ones are fine. Maybe the ground is littered with cacti that cause damage when stepped upon or brushed against. Maybe the sands are literally burning hot. Maybe swirling winds blow things around, causing low constant damage. The point is to have everyone taking a little damage. Even a very low amount, such as 2 at heroic or 5 at paragon, can be send the signal of how the world is constantly out to get you.
You can come up with some fun and clever ways to do this. You can also make it non-automatic and story-based. Maybe, when fighting in an arena, the PCs will be attacked twice at the start of their turn by hateful spectators. One attack is with a rock, with low damage if it hits, while the second is a rotten fruit, causing discomfort and foes to gain CA against the PC. Of course, the PCs can gain the favor of the crowd. They might do something cool tactics-wise, spend a minor to use a social skill on the crowd, or get lucky and crit the opponent. They might even get the crowd to attack their foe...
These can also be excuses for skill use. Maybe the sands are incredibly hot, but there is a barrel storing precious water. Any PC can use athletics to knock the barrel onto the sands, cooling them. Maybe the ancient tomb has unearthly cold, but the spirits can be appeased if PCs make a group religion check (each using a free action on their turn).
3. Someone else is always bigger than the PCs
In Greyhawk there is the time-honored tradition of "wheels-within-wheels", where any threat usually turns out to be part of a larger machination from some more dangerous threat. In Dark Sun, it often works a bit differently. There are some really powerful evil forces, but with no powerful good forces (at least not overt ones), they can often be more obvious and become involved more often. For example, if the PCs recover a powerful relic from the green age they might find that an interested Sorcerer-King sends a mid-ranking templar to request it. If the PCs decline, they receive a summons to visit the Sorcerer-King himself! The PCs would be foolish to refuse, but that is part of the plot...
This concept of being small fish in a dangerous pond can happen in many ways. PCs in an arena have no chance to fight their way out, so they must win their freedom. PCs fighting templars can't possibly kill them all - they need to win this fight and run. Defeating an entire slave tribe is difficult. Etc. This knowledge should generally be freely given and should help establish a unique feel to the campaign. In Greyhawk the PCs might kill some elven thieves and be done with it. In Athas they find the elven merchants will no longer trade with them - something they need to progress. Now they may want to appease them, performing an act for them to regain their trust and complete the trade for the item they seek.
The trick is to make this fun, but not to block the PCs. The PCs should still feel they have choice, should still feel they have room to operate. For example, they might choose to work with templars who would like to deal a blow to the elven merchants and steal the item they need... Regardless of the choice, they know they are dealing with powerful forces and that should be a fun tension.
The corrolarry to this is that they should be able to prove themselves. As they rise in level they also rise in stature and gain recognition and respect. There may be many more powerful organizations and creatures, but they give them some respect and treat them differently in many cases.
There you have it. Two broad tips for being a better Dark Sun DM. Give them a balanced but brutal-feeling challenge and give them two cool unique aspects of Athas every session. Now I turn it to you - do you have any broadly applicable tips for DMing Dark Sun effectively? I would love to see readers comment or blog responses.
Next: We will return to lore and take a look at the major organizations on Athas. Templars, nobles, Veiled Alliance, and more!
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Ok so puresteel is not that great anymore in t2 and is always WW or W/u for draw and fetching via trinket mage and the stalker is nice.
But I want to go Gw I like to play for that early game of mana maker(no birds) t2 play sword of x and y and equip/attack t3. but that's where I am lost.
FNM extended is actually still being played in places and I want to keep the deck in some form of a format where it might do some good.
Puresteel is to week for modern and has no power level for legacy and sense fow is still legal I am never playing legacy same with p9 of vintage. The card pool of extended should give this failed archetype some new life.
So extended it is, my current list is as follows.
4 x avacyn's pilgrim
4 x puresteel paladin
2 x mentor of the meek
2 x etched champion
4 x flayer husk
3 x mortarpod
1 x Mox Opal
4 x Dispatch
1 x sword of vengeance
1 x sword of feast and famine
2 x sword of body and mind
2 x sword of war and peace
4 x sunpetal grove
3 x razorverge thicket
2 x gavony township
8 x forests
7 x plains
So that's where I am at, I had 4 birds and 3 garruk the relentless but I removed them for a powerful GB grave run.
I would love to stay gw cause I have the mana base sorted out already and well my wu lands are tied up in my venser splicer control deck, so no blade splicers.
No other land options right now, I looked around for some ideas but I hate exalted, alwase have, anthem effects are meh and slow at best, even the 2 gavony townships are there for late game hence only 2.
I got 6 slots to fill out and I even think mentor can be removed completely, something better than etched champion would be nice as well.
But in the end of the day its
t1: land, mana dork
t2 land, sword of something
t3 equip on mana dork and attack
But you know extended has some of the best removal spells and green is just that a ramp color.
There is no real efficient creatures to make the deck actually survive, I have no idea. as to what ppl are running in extended cause no one updated this forum.
I see a new influx of new extended happening soon and Iw ant to be prepared for an aggro and or mid range meta.
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About Me: I'm a girly girl with a love for all things geeky. I'm always looking to try new rpgs and ideas.
Movies: Hellboy 1&2. Harry Potter (all but 3). Mamma Mia. Stardust...I used to work at a movie store so I have way too many favorites.
TV Shows: Eureka. Sanctuary. Bones. Supernatural.
Books, Comics and Graphic Novels: Harry Potter. Dresden Files. Codex Alera. Alpha and Omega. Mercy Thompson. Sookie Stackhouse. Dragonlance.
Music: My favorites are Weezer and Paramore, though I enjoy just about everything.
Wizard Book Lines:
Hobbies: Besides playing rpgs....knitting, programming, fixing PCs.
Likes: I like a lot of things. I'm pretty easy going and optimistic.
Dislikes: hard-core rap music and vindictive people. but who doesn't?
Dungeons & Dragons
Magic: The Gathering
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There are no upcoming events for this calendar.
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Kudos Activity for Maria Zajczenko-Varela
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Re: is the town of aurora, ill. a safe place? i he...
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If you have a website then you are interesting in Internet Marketing. What you might not know is that you might be interested in internet marketing even if you don’t have a website currently. There are more and more people that are beginning to create websites and blogs so they have a place to serve Google Adsense ads and can start making a profit. This is where The Keyword Academy comes in.
Passive Internet Marketing
There are two ways to market a website, passive and active. Passive internet marketing is much like old school brick and mortar marketing. If you have a business in the real world that you want people to know about you might buy an ad in a newspaper or a billboard. Passive internet marketing is the same thing basically, where you buy space on another website that you feel has people visiting that would be interested in your site. So for some fee that website will place a banner advertising your site and you hope that people will click it and come to see what you are all about.
Active Internet Marketing
Active internet marketing is a whole other animal all together. This is going to take much more time and thought but has the potential to be much more effective. Once you realize that other then word of mouth, and an occasional banner ad click, search traffic is the way that people find out about sites on the internet, then you realize how powerful active marketing can be! You need to be the search results when people type in keywords that relate to your site.
So the question is how do you get to the first page of the Google results for keywords that relate to your topic? First you need to understand what keywords you need to be chasing, and this is a really important time not to ASSUME! There is much research and stat available to help you with this if you know where to look! You might think you know the search terms that relate to you site but there could be very few people actually typing those terms into Google each month. You need to find popular search terms that relate to your topic in order to start bringing people into your site.
You also want to work you content around so that it is search engine (Google) friendly. This can pretty easily be done without effecting your overall message if you know what you are doing. In other words you are going to have the same message and say the same thing on your site or blog but you are going to get more traffic. That’s never a bad thing!
You also can create backlinks to your site which is a key element in how Google decided which sites appear in what order for search results. The more you know about backlinks the quicker you can move up the results page of Google, which is what is going to bring you traffic in a hurry!
This all sounds really hard and complicated if you haven’t been exposed to the concepts before. The good news is that thekeywordacademy.com is a site dedicated to teaching you these very concepts, and it’s geared toward the beginner.
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Mrs Chandra Justice won a thousand dollars worth of classroom supplies from OfficeMax today. She was selected by office max as one of this year's "A Day Made Better" recipients. Mrs. Justice has taught at Glenmore Elementary for thirteen years. She made it very clear to us how much she loves her community - kids and job.
Among the boxes of supplies delivered to Mrs. Justice's classroom today - was a new camera - a laminator - new desk chair and lots of pens, pencils, and paper and backpacks.
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Man Fatally Shot at Gas Station Over Costly Condoms
Gas prices are rising and it's getting on everyone's nerves and putting a dent in our wallets. But we have to drive so we fork over our hard-earned cash. A Detroit man wasn't so ready, however, to dole out extra dollars for condoms.
The condoms are priced too damned high, complained Michael Haynes II once he realized how much he had just spent on a box of condoms at a BP gas station. When denied a refund or a lowered price, Haynes raised a ruckus, including knocking over shevles of merchandise. The customer's belligerent behavior allegedly caused the store clerk to leave his bullet-proof area, wield a weapon and fire a warning shot, which struck Haynes in the shoulder. Haynes died as a result of the wound later at the hospital.
Haynes felt the BP station's condoms cost more than other stores. This was probably true, but it's not to say that BP was pricing their condoms too high. Condoms are available all over but there is a sizable variance in the pricing, as well as the selection, depending on the type of store. Grocery stores tend to have higher prices while convenience stores are notorious for having both high prices and a very limited selection. You're paying for the convenience of buying condoms any time, even overnight. Buying condoms online is perhaps most economical and offers the best selection. Plus, you can stock up so you are always prepared.
We sincerely hope that this tragedy will not deter anyone from buying condoms. Always practicing safe sex is a matter of life and death.
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17-Jun-2001 -- (continued from 48N103W)
From Keene, ND, we headed south on ND 23 to Johnson’s Corner. We veered south and east on McKenzie County 53 past Croft and on to ND 22 heading south. Along 53 we saw penned up elk and buffalo, but the cattle roamed across and on the road (picture #2). Heading south on ND22 we skirted the eastern edge of the Badlands (picture #3). About 7 miles north of Dickinson we turned west on the road leading to New Hradec. We went through that small town and across the farm country for another 5 miles or so. The Atlas showed a “T” at the spot with the confluence being about ½ to ¾ of a mile forward and to the north but in reality our road (picture #5) narrowed but continued on west. We found a wide spot in the road about .4 of a mile south of the point and headed out across the field. The crop appeared to be hay or oats. As we approached the confluence (picture #1) we thought it would be in the pond but it was on the southern edge of it. Back in the car we headed south toward I-94.
(continued to 47N104W)
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Exotic invasive plants of the Northeast
Connecticut is home to many plants, some of which are considered invasive exotics. They are called exotic because they are not native to our region, and invasive because they are able to reproduce on their own outside of cultivation and have become so abundant that they cause a variety of problems.
For more information on this topic, see the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group website.
270 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320
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Real Estate Professionals beware! It’s the second week of our Halloween Real Estativity on Facebook and Pinterest. Be sure to visit our Facebook Page and Pinterest Board every Wednesday and engage (i.e. comment, share, like and/or re-pin) with our Real Estativity question for a chance at $50 each Wednesday in October and a $100 GRAND PRIZE drawing on Halloween!
Hurry because you must enter by 11:59 pm EDT tonight! We will contact the randomly selected winner on Thursday, October 25th (see all rules here). Remember, the more you comment, like and/or share with the Real Estativity post, the more entries you will have in the weekly AND grand prize drawings!
Do you dare to enter this week’s Real Estativity question? See this week’s post below.
Click here to go directly to the board, then find photo, hover over right corner and click repin. If you are new to Pinterest read our first-timers guide here, and request an invite to firstname.lastname@example.org that says “Amber invite me to Pinterest!”
Don’t be spooked! Enter at your own risk! See you online today!
Do you believe in the 80/20 rule? Applied to real estate, this principle suggests that in most communities, the top 20 percent of real estate professionals get 80 percent of transaction sides. This means 80 percent of agents struggle for the 20 percent of business that’s left over after the top performers have taken their share.
Numbers aside, most real estate pros would agree that every community seems to have a few top performers who capture the majority of business. How do you join the elite 20 percent? In working with thousands of real estate professionals nationwide, we have seen some traits that top performers seem to share. Continue reading →
If you’re not familiar with the sales funnel – also called a marketing funnel or pipeline – it’s a popular way to organize, track and improve marketing activities.
At first glance, it appears that the real selling and closing gets done toward the bottom, but your business will experience far more long-term success when you learn to fill the top of the funnel. Key questions:
How many prospects do you have at each stage of the funnel?
How many prospects need to be in the funnel to reach your financial goals?
What activities are required to move prospects through the funnel?
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Anita Marie Grassi, M.D.
|Title||Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology|
|Institution||Massachusetts General Hospital|
|Address||Massachusetts General Hospital|
Dermatology Laser and Cosmetic Center, Suite 250
50 Staniford Street
Boston MA 02114
Local representatives can answer questions about the Profiles website or help with editing a profile or issues with profile data. For assistance with this profile: HMS/HSDM faculty should contact Human Resources at faculty_serviceshms.harvard.edu.
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… it just depends on who’s doing it:
There could be another clash in the offing about who should be able to join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
Cao, the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress, told his hometown paper, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, that he’s interested in joining the CBC. He also said he’s seeking a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Appropriations Committee.
And though Cao is a minority from a minority district (his district is 64 percent African-American, and 3 percent Asian), the CBC has never admitted a non-black member.
It’s true. Even a super-liberal was excluded solely on his race:
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) learned that after he was elected to succeed Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D) in a majority-black district in 2006. Cohen talked about trying to join the caucus but backed off when leaders made it clear he wouldn’t be allowed to join.
This powerful caucus discriminated against a Jew, and they’re about to discriminate against an Asian — just because — they’re different. Right here in America. And obviously, no one’s going to condemn their actions, because, well — that’s just the way it is. Cue Bruce Hornsby:
They say hey, little boy, you can’t go where the others go,
‘Cause you don’t look like they do.
Said, hey, old man how can you stand to think that way,
Did you really think about it before you made the rules?
He said, Son,
That’s just the way it is.
Some things will never change.
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Gregory writes in to point out that Facebook does a lousy job of monitoring the development of its third-party Platform applications—and in fact many of them are written so badly that they can be easily hacked. The examples he cites, which are listed in the winter issue of the hacker magazine 2600, are all fairly mild stunts like spoofing user IDs, changing the moods of another user, and re-routing gifts, “but this information could be used to mount large scale social engineering attacks if automated and coupled with other information.” To illustrate how easy it is to change another user’s settings, he pointed us to a YouTube example of how to change another users “mood” via the Mood app.
Have any of you out there read the winter issue of 2600 (the hacker quarterly)? There’s a pretty good article in there called “Facebook Applications Revealed” and it just serves to point out that many people just don’t know what they’re getting into when they click to add an application. In my opinion, it is irresponsible of Facebook to post assurances to its users that their data is just as secure when using Platform applications as they are when they are using the first party system. Of course, the most personal data still resides on Facebook servers, and one must be authenticated to get access to it; however, poorly-written applications can have numerous security holes that enable prankster “friends” or malicious hackers to gain access to other remotely stored information, e.g. mood histories, etc.
At any rate, it seems Facebook turns a blind eye to these applications that don’t properly authenticate users for appropriate data access (e.g. Super Wall), and it seems developers don’t really care to properly protect the information they are entrusted with. I have looked plenty of places, including the official Facebook Developers Wiki, and have found no mention of a set of best practices for identity/permission verification or data security for application developers. I am researching these particular vulnerabilities in order to make them more widely known and to help establish a set of suggestions to send or make available to developers that would assist them in properly identifying the user and only allowing said user to modify his/her data, as well as to assist them in verifying that a user has permission to view another user’s application data (histories, etc.). At this point, I feel that there is not enough public awareness of these vulnerabilities or their implications. Many users don’t know about them, and thus don’t care. This provides no incentive for developers to modify their code and make their applications more secure.
Quite a few application developers fail to consider implementing adequate security measures in order to verify data ownership. The article I mentioned earlier points out particular vulnerabilities in the Moods, Free Gifts, and Super Wall as examples. In all three of those applications, User A can very easily modify User B’s data by intercepting a form and modifying the uid before transmission. In addition, with some applications, User A can gain access to stored application data (e.g. history, etc.) for any User B, whether they are friends or not. Such applications blindly trust form data that can easily be tampered with, which is very clearly a bad idea. The Moods application allows unauthorized users to view the mood histories of non-friends, and with Firebug, anyone with the app can intercept their own mood change form before submitting it, change the uid in the form, and change someone else’s mood.
In fact, someone has posted a screencast of this hack being executed in under 60 seconds, including commentary, on YouTube. See this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w65s1iyXqLo
At any rate, something needs to be done about this. I’m not sure what exactly, but I am sure that users need to know exactly what they’re getting into when they add apps like this. I know at first it seems inconsequential that hackers can gain access to someone’s Super Wall or Mood History, but this information could be used to mount large scale social engineering attacks if automated and coupled with other information: for example, one would tend to be much more likely to fall for a scam if he or she were depressed. The Moods application freely gives out this information to anyone wanting to take a peek. Coupled with a list of email addresses cross-referenced to user id’s, such an attack could be made extremely effective with that added information. Super Wall post spoofing could be used to instigate fights between two friends or lovers. The possibilities are only limited by a social engineer’s mind, and since Moods and Super Wall together boast almost two million active users, these seemingly small holes are too large for malicious minds-or those that protect us against them-to ignore. I hope you can help me get the word out.
Bottom line: if you’re going to use Facebook, be aware that there’s no guarantee that app you just added to your page was well-written or secure against basic hacking techniques.
“Facebook Takes Letting The Whole World See Your Private Photos Seriously”
(Door photo: roblisameehan)
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Reader Tom was all set to buy a ticket on Virgin America when all of a sudden the fare he thought was locked in shot up 33%. The machine told him his reservation had expired. Tom tried redoing the purchase several times, clearing his cookies, changing browsers, only to continue to be denied by Richard Branson’s faceless automoton army. So then he cleared his cookies and then rerouting his signal through another computer so to Virgin America it looks like a different user is trying to buy the ticket (in technical terms, he rerouted his traffic through a SOCKS proxy server on the West Coast). Shazam, he was able to get the ticket at the old price. Whether the deal had expired because he dawdled too long, or whether he was only able to get it because it looked like he was coming from the West Coast and the fare was related to the time of day, Tom felt jerked around. If this happens to you, here’s a how-to on using proxy servers.
Using Proxies To Get Good Deals When Virgin America Reneges
By April 2, 2008
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When the little trolls with the green visors determine your credit score, a big factor in their abacus-shuffling is how much percent of your credit limit you’re using. However, it’s not just your total credit utilization, all of your credit limits added together and divided by how much of that you’ve tapped, but also how much of each credit line you’re using, the individual credit utilization. Say what?
You might be only using 10% of all your credit, but if that one $500 card is at $490, it’s going to adversely affect your credit score. Instead, it’s better to use no more than 25% of any individual credit line, says The Better Credit Blog. Of course, it’s great if you can be debt-free, but if you can’t, but you can still choose which credit lines to use, and you’re concerned about your credit score, try spreading the debt around so it doesn’t take up more than 25% on any one line.
Utilization: Maintaining The Right Credit Balance to Limit Ratio [The Better Credit Blog]
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Reader P. works for one of those big national car rental companies, on the customer service front lines. She has some insights for how to get on the good side of car rental employees, how to make sure the car you ordered ends up where you need it, and the potential hazards of online reservation systems.
1. If you make your reservation online, PLEASE GIVE A PHONE NUMBER AND/OR EMAIL ADDRESS!!! We would love to confirm your reservation with you, but we’re not mind readers. The reservation/rental system I am forced to use is DOS-based (oh! the shame!) and leaves a lot to be desired as far as being user-friendly.
2. If you make your reservation online, be proactive and call the station where you’ll be picking up your vehicle to verify that the reservation went through and that your desired car will be on the lot. Should you have to do this? No, you shouldn’t. But what’s the harm in giving a heads up so that potential difficulties can be headed off at the pass?
3. We don’t grow cars on our lot. Our cars are constantly moving to and from location depending on demand. “Specialty” vehicles ñ things like 15-passenger vans, minivans, or high-end cars like sports cars, Infinitis, Lincoln Navigators and Town Cars, etc. need at least one week lead time to ensure you can reserve one.
Additionally, just because the online system allows you to reserve a certain type of car, it does NOT mean we actually have that car at the station you want to use. Please ñ call us and confirm.
4. Regarding availability ñ right now, a lot of car rental places are very tight on inventory because of the credit crunch, the general state of auto manufacturers, etc., so finding that “perfect” rental car might be even more difficult.
During peak times ñ holiday weekends, vacation months, special event days ñ”specialty” vehicles like minivans, 15-passenger vans and high-end vehicles may be very scarce or even impossible to obtain.
5. Be a pal and let us know when you aren’t going to honor your reservation. This isn’t such a big deal on a one day rental, but if you have a reservation for a week or for a specialty vehicle, please do the Christ-like thing and call and release the vehicle so we can possibly rent to someone else.
6. Regarding minivans and 15-passenger vans ñ a lot of rental franchises require a minimum rental period ñ especially during the summer months when people are taking vacations. Do not take this out on your local station; they have rules they have to abide by and are not doing this just to ruin your day.
7. Regarding truck rentals ñ I’m sorry that you have to rent a big old truck to move that big old widget you got for free on Craigslist. Yes, I realize the truck rental is costing you more than the widget. Yes, I recognize the cruel irony of this, but life is like that sometimes.
8. Speaking for my station, you must be at least 21 to rent a car. Renters 25 and younger are subject to an additional $25 per day surcharge. Again ñ I’m not doing this to cramp your youthful style, dude ñ it’s a rule of my boss. This also means that no, you can’t rent that fancy car for your senior prom, but your mom can (you still can’t drive it, though ñ sorry)
9. Regarding coupons/discounts ñ you generally have to bring the specific coupon with you when you pick up your card. Saying “I work for AT&T” doesn’t cut it ñ sorry. If that were the case, ALL of my customers would work for AT&T. If you *do* work for a company that has a discount with a rental agency, it is best that you make your reservation through your company, not in person, if you want that discount. If you’re using a coupon, please read it carefully. Some require a minimum rental period. Others require a certain class of car. I can’t give you what your coupon doesn’t provide for.
10. Regarding insurance on rental vehicles. I am required to advise you that insurance is available (loss damage waiver, additional liability policy, etc.). You are NOT required to take the insurance. HOWEVER ñ you must be aware of what your credit card or personal auto insurance does or does not cover. I cannot tell you this ñ don’t say “I have Allstate ñ what do they cover?” I haven’t a clue ñ sorry. I can say that, generally speaking, your auto policy/credit card does NOT cover rental trucks, and in a lot of cases, this includes SUVs and minivans. It’s your responsibility to find out ñ not mine.
11. When you do make a reservation online, whatever rate you requested is the rate that my system processes. I do not choose the rate – you did when you asked for unlimited mileage or a car seat or a GPS or asked to take the insurances available on a rental. Sometimes I can amend these items, but it can possibly affect your rate for the negative.
12. At my station, if you want to rent a car for someone and you aren’t here in person, you will have to fax me front and back of your credit card, front and back of your driver’s license and a signed statement authorizing the use of your card for this rental. Additionally, the person for whom you’re renting will be considered a secondary driver and a $25/day fee will apply.
13. Regarding debit cards: when you rent, depending on the type/length of rental, our system is going to get anywhere from a $200 to a $400 authorization on your card. This means $200 – $400 is going to be *frozen* on your debit card until you return the vehicle and your transaction is closed out. At least 2 times a week, this conversation transpires:
Customer: Can I rent a car with a debit card?
Me: Sure. We’ll take a $200 – $400 authorization/freeze on the card.
Customer: Oh. I only have like $23.47 in that account.
Me: (head asplodes)
Translation: The customer wants me to let him drive off my lot in a $45,000 car with absolutely no guarantee or deposit on his part. And no, we don’t rent on a cash deposit or a check.
Any questions for P.? Leave them in comments and we’ll pass them along.
(Photo: Osbournes Life)
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A few weeks back, before KFC had even unleashed their bacon, fried chicken and salt concoction known as the Double Down, vegan website Vegansaurus had already come up with their own animal-friendly version. But while it might not harm any of your furry, feathered, scaly or insecty friends, the vegan Double Down certainly isn’t a diet item.
According to Vegansaurus’ own numbers, here’s how the concoction breaks down, in terms of calories and fat:
* 2 Gardein Chick’n Scallopini patties: 180 calories, 4g fat
* 2 Tbsp Vegenaise: 180 calories, 18g fat
* 25 percent of the batter recipe (plenty for one sandwich): 225 calories, 25g fat
* 2 oz Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack: 140 calories, 14g fat
* 3 strips Smart Bacon with cooking oil: 60 calories, 8g fat
Grand total: 785 calories, 69g fat
So how does that stand up against the real thing? Well, that depends on who you ask.
If you go by KFC’s numbers — 540 calories, 32g fat — then the vegan version should make the list of foods worse for you than the Double Down.
But then there are the folks who claim that the number should be closer to 1190 calories. If that’s the case, then the vegan version is a little friendlier to your waistline, though still on the same level as a McDonald’s Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese.
We still haven’t found anyone who has done a side-by-side taste test of the two versions. Any volunteers?
Calorie count cage match: KFC Double Down vs. Vegan Double Down [Vegansaurus.com]
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In a world where fees for checked baggage top the list of annoying things about air travel, it’s a small victory to learn that Delta has decided to offer an incentive to travelers with the airline’s co-branded American Express card — no fees for the first checked bag for you and up to eight other members of your party.
The deal, which will begin June 1, waives the $25 checked bag fee for travelers booking with Delta-branded business or consumer versions of American Express Gold, Platinum, and Reserve SkyMiles cards.
This means that a family of four would save $200 on a round-trip ticket. American Express is hoping that will entice more people to sign up for their cards and Delta is hoping it will entice card-holders to fly with them, especially in light of the recent merger announcement between Continental and United that will push Delta from the front of the pack to number two.
We’re just hoping that it leads other airlines to follow suit, offering travelers some way to avoid at least one of the many fees that get layered atop our airfare.
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Virginia discovered her Netflix DVDs stopped flowing because Wells Fargo disabled her credit card, apparently without notifying her. When she called to see what was up, she got an opportunistic upsell. The bank rep told her the account was closed because it had been “compromised” then offered her a $12-a-month protection plan to quell future compromising.
So I called Wells Fargo and they said they had to cancel my card because my data was “compromised.” They said that I should have received a letter telling me this. (I have not.) They said that they meant to have sent out the cards before they canceled my card, but they are so sorry that the cards were mailed late (today.) They hope I will get my card in a few days.
Then, this is the most amazing thing — they said that they are offering a data security service and they transferred me to a very inexperienced sales person. For $12 a month I can get data security.
Yes, they said my security was compromised and they wanted to sell me a service to make me feel more secure.
I think the word for this is extortion? It is sort of funny, but sort of terrifying.
For my money the best way to keep your account secure is to check it daily for suspicious activity, not pay for some silly service.
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Miyapur, strategically located at NH9 in Hyderabad, enjoys proximity to the IT Hubs – Hi-Tech City and Gachibowli. The growth of real estate in Miyapur has recently been triggered by the spurt of many new residential projects.
About 12 projects have been delivered in last two years, while 30 new projects are lined up to be delivered in next 3 years. There are projects by SMR Builders Pvt Ltd, Rishi Sai Ram Projects Pvt Ltd, Divya Shree Shakti Group, Sri Shreenivasa Constructions, Amulaya Constructions, Aparna Constructions & Estates Pvt Ltd, Ushodaya Constructions and Empire Meadows among other famous developers.
These projects offer 2 and 3 BHK units, some of which are with the high-end amenities like swimming pool, club, gym, tennis ground, children’s park, etc. “About 50 per cent of the developers such as Girdhari Constructions, Divya Shree Shakti Group, Rishi Sai Ram Projects Pvt Ltd and SMR Builders Pvt Ltd are coming with these amenities that increases the maintenance cost of the unit to Rs 5 lakh, which is Rs 3 lakh otherwise”, says a local realtor, Zubair Sayed from RZ Home Property Solutions.
The sizes of 2 BHK and 3BHK units are 1050-1200 sq ft and 1360-1550 sq ft respectively. The prevailing rates for residential apartments in Miyapur range between Rs 2800 – 3300 per sq ft.
Miyapur real estate market is largely driven by end-users that mainly consist of young IT professionals and students. While the IT professionals are working in the IT Hubs- Hi-Tech City and Gachibowli, there are also buyers who come from the nearby industrial belt of Bolarum, Balapur and Bachupalli.
“With Metro coming to Miyapur, the prospects of demand and supply of property have increased to manifolds. Connected through ORR to International Airport also adds advantage to the real estate in Miyapur”, says Sayed while explaining the connectivity prospects of the area.
With all the new constructions and consistent demand and supply, Miyapur is all set to develop rapidly in coming years.
Garima Jain, MagicBricks.com Bureau
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On this day in history, Ty Cobb (1886) was born and Bobby Jones (1971) passed away.
Cobb - the man who hit .367 lifetime and played a round or two of golf at Jones' Augusta National course - and the Grand Slam winner who founded The Masters, had two of the most successful swings in sports history.
Here is Cobb:
Here is Jones with a little fun at the end:
Reid Cherner has been with USA TODAY since 1982 and written Game On! since March 2008.
He has covered everything from high schools to horse racing to the college and the pros. The only thing he likes more than his own voice is the sound of readers telling him when he's right and wrong.
Michael Hiestand has covered sports media and marketing for USA TODAY, tackling the sports biz ranging from what's behind mega-events such as the Olympics and Super Bowl to the sometimes-hidden numbers behind the sports world's bottom line.
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Liste des déclarations formulées au titre du traité n° 176
Situation au 26/5/2013
Declaration contained in a Note Verbale from the Permanent Representation of Denmark, handed over at the time of deposit of the instrument of ratification on 20 March 2003 - Or. Engl.
Denmark declares that the Convention, in accordance with its Article 15, paragraph 1, until further notice shall not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
Période d'effet : 1/3/2004 -
Declaration contained in the instrument of acceptance, deposited on 27 July 2005 - Or. Engl.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands accepts the Convention for the Kingdom in Europe.
Période d'effet : 1/11/2005 -
Declaration contained in a letter from the Permanent Representative of the United Kindom deposited with the instrument of ratification, on 21 November 2006 - Or. Engl.
In accordance with Article 15 of the Convention, the Government of the United Kingdom declares that the United Kingdom will initially apply the Convention to the metropolitan area of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Période d'effet : 1/3/2007 -
Source : Bureau des Traités sur http://conventions.coe.int
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Economists typically think of unemployment as falling into two categories. There is "cyclical" unemployment, which is the unemployment that occurs because of a recession. And there is "structural" unemployment--sometimes called the "natural rate of unemployment" or the NAIRU for "nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment." This is the rate of unemployment that would arise in a dynamic labor market even if there was no recession, as firms expand and contract and people move between jobs. The level of structural unemployment will be influenced by factors that influence the incentives of people to seek out jobs (like the costs of mobility between jobs and the structure of unemployment, welfare, and disability benefits) and the incentives of businesses to hire (including rules affecting the costs of business expansion, rules affecting what firms must provide to employees, and even rule affecting the costs of firing employees, if necessary, later on).
Inconveniently, the unemployment that the United States is currently experiencing doesn't fit neatly into either of the two conventional categories.
After all, the recession officially ended in June 2009, according to the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, the unemployment rate has been above 8% since February 2009, and in a February 2012 report on "Understanding and Responding to Persistently High Unemployment," the Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that it will remain above 8% until 2014.
In a conventional economic framework, it's not clear how to make sense "cyclical" unemployment that persists for four or five years after the recession is over. However, the CBO and other forecaster have been predicting all along that the unemployment rate will eventually drop as the aftereffects of the Great Recession wear off, and in that sense it doesn't seem like natural or structural unemployment, either.
It's not clear what to call this persistent jobless recovery unemployment. "Lethargic" unemployment? "Sluggish" unemployment? "Torpid" unemployment? "Tar-pit" unemployment?
However you label it, this this is now the third consecutive "jobless recovery," where it has taken a substantial time after the end of the recession for unemployment rates to come back down. It used to be that unemployment rates peaked almost right at the end of the recession, and the steadily dropped. Here's a graph of unemployment rates from the ever-useful FRED website of the St. Louis Fed. Periods of recession are shaded.
For example, when the 1974-75 recession ended in March 1975, unemployment was 8.6%. It climbed just a bit higher, to 9% in May 1975, but then fell steadily and by May 1978 was at 5.9%. Or look at the aftermath of the "back-to-back" recessions of 1980-81 and 1982. When the recession ended in November 1982, the unemployment rate was also peaking at 10.8%. It then dropped steadily and was down to 7.2% by November 1984 and 5.9% by September 1987.
In the jobless recoveries since then, the pattern has been different. When the 1990-91 recession ended in March 1991, the unemployment rate was 6.8%. But the unemployment rate kept rising, peaking more than a year later at 7.8% in June 1992. it wasn't until August 1993, more than two years after the economy had resumed growing, that unemployment rates had fallen back to the 6.8% rate that prevailed at the official end of the recession.
A similar pattern arose after the 2001 recession. At the end of that recession in November 2001, the unemployment rate was 5.5%. But then the unemployment rate kept rising, peaking out at 6.3% in June 2003. It wasn't until July 2004 that unemployment rates declined back to the 5.5% that had prevailed at the end of the 2001 recession.
In the most recent recession, unemployment was at 9.5% in June 2009, when the Great Recession officially ended. The official unemployment rate peaked at 10% in October 2009, and has drifted down since then. But in this recovery, the unemployment rate is an underestimate of labor market woes, because the official unemployment rate only counts those who are "in the labor force," meaning that they are out of work but looking for a job. Those who have given up looking, or who are working part-time but would like full-time work, aren't counted as unemployed. The last few years have seen a dramatic drop in the "labor force participation rate," that is, the share of adults who are "in the labor force." This rate rose substantially from the 1970s through the 1990s as a greater share of women entered the (paid) labor force. But with job prospects so poor, it has been dropping off.
The February 2012 CBO report describes the disconnect from the official unemployment rate to a broader appraisal of the U.S. labor market this way: "The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched
for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent."
Our public discussions of what to do about these persistently high rates of lethargic or torpic unemployment have been unfortunately locked into the two older categories of cyclical and structural unemployment.
For example, some argue that if only the federal government had enacted an extra $1 trillion or so in fiscal stimulus, probably backed by a Federal Reserve willing to carry out another "quantitative easing" by printing money to finance the Treasury bonds for this stimulus, then the economy and the unemployment rate would be recovering much more quickly. But the federal government is in the process of running its four largest annual deficits since World War II from 2009 to 2012. The Fed is planning to hold the benchmark federal funds interest rate near zero percent for six years (!), while also engaging in $2 trillion of quantitative easing. The amount of countercyclical macroeconomic policy has been massive, and I have a hard time believing that just another boost would have fixed everything.
While I in general supported the countercyclical macroeconomic policies taken during the Great Recession (with some reservations about the details), it seems to me that countercyclical macroeconomic policy is like taking aspirin when you have a bad case of flu--or if you prefer a more extreme metaphor when talking about an unemployment rate that may exceed 8% for 7-8 years, like an athlete taking a cortisone shot for an injury before playing in the big game. Such steps can be worth taking, and they can sometimes even modestly help the healing process, but they are palliative, not curative. Also, the CBO offers a reminder that while more fiscal stimulus could help the economy in the short-term, it will injure the economy over the long run unless it is counterbalanced by a way of holding down government debt over time.
"Despite the near-term economic benefits, such actions would add to the already large projected budget deficits that would exist under current policies, either immediately or over time. Unless other actions were taken to reverse the accumulation of government debt, the nation’s output and people’s income would ultimately be lower than they otherwise would have been. To boost the economy in the near term while seeking to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, a combination of policies would be required: changes in taxes and spending that would increase the deficit now but reduce it later in the decade."
But the standard policy agenda for dealing with structural unemployment doesn't seem particularly on-point just now, either. Sure, it would be useful to encourage mobility between jobs and to rethink how regulatory and other policies affect incentives to work and to hire. But while this kind of rethinking is always useful, it's not clear that it addresses the reality of high unemployment here and now.
We need a convincing theory of this third kind of unemployment--sluggish unemployment, tar-pit unemployment--and an associated sense of what policies are useful for addressing it. Firms as a group have high profits and strong cash reserves, but they are not seeing it as worthwhile to raise hiring substantially, preferring instead to focus on getting more productivity from the existing workforce. Are there ways to reduce the costs and risks that firms face when thinking about hiring? Many households are struggling with outsized debt burdens, including those who have mortgages that are larger than the value of their home. Are there policy levers to help them move past their debt burdens?
Long-term unemployment is very high. CBO writes: "[T]he share of unemployed people looking
for work for more than six months—referred to as the long-term unemployed—topped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since." What do we know about getting the long-term unemployed back into the labor force? Are there ways to encourage greater mobility of people between jobs, perhaps by spreading more information about job opportunities, making it easier for employers to verify skills of potential employees, or encouraging both greater geographic mobility and mobility across sectors of the economy?
Tolstoy famously started Anna Karenina with the comment: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Each unhappy recession is unhappy its own way, too--and the Great Recession is quite different from previous post-war U.S. recessions. It needs some fresh thinking about policies to address what has happened.
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I froth my milk using the steam wand on my espresso machine. With a national-brand organic whole milk, I am able to get a perfect micro foam nearly 100% of the time. However, when I instead use a local, grass-fed, organic whole milk (whose flavor I prefer to the national brand), I am only able to produce a perfect micro foam about 20% of the time. What could be causing this? Could it be differences in the fat content? (They are both labeled "whole".) Does it have something to do with the fact that the national brand was likely from grain/corn-fed cows, whereas the local brand is grass-fed?
Update: The local milk is homogenized and pasteurized. It does not say anything about ultra-pasteurization (i.e., HTST vs. ESL). The "national brand" milk is homogenized and apparently comes in both "pasteurized" and "ultra-pasteurized" forms. I'm not sure which one I usually get, but if I had to guess I'd say it's ultra-pasteurized (i.e., ultra-heat treated) because the national brand usually has a sell-by date at least a week after the local milk's expiration. According to their nutrition labels, both have the exact same nutritional content except:
- Sugar (per cup)
- Cholesterol (per cup)
- Vitamin C (% of Daily Value per cup)
- Vitamin A (% of Daily Value per cup)
Protein content is reported as identical.
Update #2: As I mentioned in a comment to TFD's answer, I let the local milk age for several days and now I seem to be getting better results (although I am now at the cusp of its sell-by date). Perhaps there is some psychological effect going on and I am paying more attention to my technique now, though. If in fact this success is due to the aging, can anyone explain why? What happens over time that allows the milk to froth better?
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January 8, 2010 Steph Larsen, of the Center for Rural Affairs, points out the essential pieces of growing a local food system, and the necessity of adding community for it to thrive. We all play an integral part in the growing, buying, and eating of food. h/t @LocavoreBlog Go to Original Source…
Organic farmer Anthony Boutard, of Ayers Creek Farm, shares the history behind the different varieties of corn that he grows, and describes their more notable uses.
This is part of an ongoing series; Heather Jones shares her first-hand experiences as she attempts to bring a farmer’s market to her small rural community of Woodbine, New Jersey, population: 2800. Who knew it could be this hard? You guys know the expression that “Time is of the essence”. Well I’m starting to think [...]
[ Editors Note: Darren made a comment to an earlier post that piqued my interest. I wrote him back asking if he would be interested in sharing his thoughts on what he sees as the future of agriculture, and the role for sustainable and organic farming systems. He was kind enough to present his views [...]
Across the national landscape, family farmers have been for decades a declining breed. The national average age of farmers is 57, and climbing. Fertile land is diminishing. Purchasing affordable farmland for new farmers poses severe challenges. Listening to Michael Pollan, perhaps the closest this country has to a patron saint of food, during a recent [...]
Who will be the next generation of family farmers? How will they access the needed land to farm? Listen in on this discussion between farmers and eaters.
This Article From Our Friends at Local Harvest Nearly a decade ago, an idea was born in a field outside of Decorah, Iowa. After a field day at Sunflower Fields Farm, several farmers wondered if they could band together, coordinate their marketing efforts, and sell their products to local institutions under a single name. They [...]
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Take a look at just a few examples:
Fox News Channel:
KCBS CBS 5:
Los Angeles Times:
On-the-job experience demonstrated the futility of trying to enforce laws prohibiting the possession and use of small amounts of cannabis, Gray said at a news conference held by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a nonprofit organization supporting Proposition 19.
"I was a drug warrior until I saw what was happening in my own courtroom,'' said Gray, a former federal prosecutor.
Associated Press (picked up by over 200 news websites):
Supporters said keeping pot illegal props up drug cartels and overburdens the state's court system. Stephen Downing, former deputy chief for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the nation's drug policy has failed, likening it to cutting off the leg of a spider to cripple it.
"The drug organizations are more like starfish," Downing said during a press conference at a West Hollywood park where children were playing with their parents behind him. "You cut a leg off, it regenerates. We are dealing with a sea of starfish. The only way you kill a starfish is to remove its nutrient. And that nutrient is money."
New York Times Caucus blog:
“This November, Californians finally have a chance to flip the equation and put drug cartels out of business, while restoring public respect for the criminal laws and their enforcement,” said William John Cox, a former sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department and a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.
Ventura County Star:
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In a provocative post, Donny's Blog calculates that if the RIAA got its way and was able to extract $150,000 per infringement, in one month it would accumulate more money than the annual GDP of France. In the end, some $11,441 billion. This seems a tad more than the $300 million per year the RIAA estimates it is losing because of downloads. To recover that, only 2000 prosecutions would need to be successful.
I enjoy these types of calculations, but it would be remiss of me not to point out the obvious: the fines for those prosecuted are much more than the cost imposed by them on the music industry. This is consistent with the economics of crime and penalties that tells us that to deter an activity when you can't catch everyone you need to set penalties high enough that people who gamble on not getting caught won't do it.
But this calculation does enable us to assess what the probability of being caught might be. Let's suppose that the RIAA targets 2,000 successful prosecutions per year. Using the numbers that got us the $11 trillion cost per month, there are possibly 1 billion downloaded songs per year. Thus, your probability of being caught is 2 a million. To back out the deterring penalty we take this and divide it through the cost of downloading a song legally (that is, $1). That gives us $500,000. [I guess if we could adjust for US versus other downloads it may be less].
So according to this, the RIAA's penalties are too low and not too high as the blog was suggesting. Perhaps that is why downloading still occurs.
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Massimo Restaurant & Oyster Bar Private Dining Room
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Major league baseball has a couple of ugly twins whose names are “The Brush-Back Pitch” and “Charging the Mound.” Here’s how they work.
A new batter comes to the plate and he drives the first pitch about 410 feet into the upper deck of the outfield. But it is not a home run because it is foul by just about 3 feet. The pitcher is thinking to himself, “We cannot have that! So, I’ll brush him back from the plate a little.” The next pitch is a fast ball – sometimes way inside, sometimes very fast. This is the “brush back” pitch and it is designed to warn the hitter about hitting home runs, to throw the hitter off balance and to “teach him a lesson” about getting hits off me! (The brush-back pitch can be thrown for many other reasons and it can sometimes be upgraded to the full-blown “Bean-Ball.” The bean-ball is shot right at the ear-hole of the batter’s helmet as if he had a little bull’s eye painted there. The bean-ball is more malicious than the brush-back pitch, though both can be very dangerous to the hitter and, ultimately, the pitcher.
Back to our story. In order to avoid being hit by the brush-back pitch, or the bean-ball, the batter must quickly jerk his entire body backwards, often flopping onto his back in the dirt with a body-jarring thud. What comes next in the chain of events is often a tactic known as ”the charging of the mound.” The hitter, angered by the pitch and hurt by the fall, jumps up, throws down his bat, and charges out to the pitcher’s mound to teach a lesson of his own. From here the story line can go any number of directions including, but not limited to, a fist fight between the two angry players, a bench-clearing brawl involving both teams and both dugouts, ejections of various players from the game, fines, injuries to players, managers or umpires, and, in rare cases, fans joining the melee.
There are some significant hazards to charging the mound. You can get hurt. You can get ejected from the game. You can get fined. You can look stupid. I once saw future hall-of-famer Nolan Ryan throw a brush-back pitch to a hitter. When the hitter had charged the mound, Ryan got him in a head-lock with his left arm and pounded on his head with his right fist. This continued until cooler heads arrived and rectified the situation. There are significant hazards to charging the mound.
While most of us have never played professional baseball and most of us never will, nevertheless, we are given to ‘charging the mound” in our own settings. I have, on rare occasions, “charged the mound” on my father, my friend, my fellow believers, and my wife. As in major league baseball, I figured someone had done me an intentional and malicious wrong, and I was going out to the mound to retaliate. This has often been very hazardous to me and those involved. Sometimes just the two of us get hurt and other times both “benches clear” as my supporters and the other person’s allies join the battle. I will leave these hazards to your imagination as my purpose here is to deal specifically with the hazards of one narrow type of “mound charging.”
I confess that I have, on too many occasions, charged the mound on God Himself. Believing that God had done me some great disservice – which is ludicrous – and also suspecting that God harbored some malice toward me – which is ludicrous – I charged the mound to retaliate, demand an explanation and extract from God the thing I was wanting – which was also ludicrous. Anyone in the mound-charging mode is not thinking well, they are only feeling deeply.
Before I tell you what I charged the mound on God about this most recent time, I want to say two other things. First, on my last trip up the mound to get even with God, something profound happened to me. It changed my whole perspective on mound charging. Second, there are a myriad of reasons for which we as children of God, or for which unbelievers, can be motivated to charge the mound. For their divorce or their spouse’s adultery. Some for the death of a child or the loss of a business. Some for the failure of an idea or the treachery of a friend.
Mound charging is based on a contract approach to relationship with God. We are usually not consciously and verbally honest about this contract approach. But we usually have a quiet contract with God about how we expect things to go. The thinking goes like this: a) God sacrificed His Son to save me. I am grateful for that and I will put my full trust in the work of Christ for my eternal salvation. b) I will keep my nose clean for God and live for Him. Let me qualify that. If not fully for Him as demanded by the radical discipleship of the New Testament, at least I will live for Him according to my definitions of what it reasonable. c) God will ensure that certain minimum things happen for me so that my life is a “good life” as defined by me.
These “minimum things” for delivering the good life will vary greatly from believer to believer. However, they usually include things like: God will provide for us financially at a middle income level or better. God will keep our children safe from drug use, sexual promiscuity, bad grades, inappropriate friends, severe illness, and injury. God will keep our home and possessions safe from fire, flood, theft, vandalism and outdated, embarrassing décor. God will keep us from severe relational alienation like divorce, family fights, and employment hostilities. God will keep my work at least tolerably enjoyable and insure good benefits from my employer. This list can go on and on. Sadly, the list of minimum expectations for the good life seems to be escalating at an embarrassing rate with each new generation of Americans.
The problem with “contract relationship” is that, while only God signed the contract to save you, if you look carefully you will find that only we have signed the contract for a “good life.” God is a loving Father Who has zero commitment to giving any of His children the “good life” as I have just defined that life. God’s commitments in our lives are more eternal and more profound. He is committed to things like growth, maturity, Christ-likeness, servanthood, sojourning, impact, salvations, reconciliations, repentance, and justice. (Do not confuse justice with equality or fairness. Justice is right things while equality is equal things. God is committed to right things while Americans are committed to equal things.)
God has not signed our contract for a good life, He remains deeply committed to our maturity. He is willing to use events that violate our contract to accomplish His purposes.
Divorce, unanswered prayer, the death of a child, illness and financial setback are all possible in our lives – not because God is malicious and unfaithful, but because God works through even sinful and brutal events to bring about our good. (Genesis 50:19-20)
My last trip up the mound to teach God a lesson – ludicrous, I know – involved a ministry opportunity that He did not give to me. It was an opportunity that I was expecting. I figured it was in my “I’ve kept my nose clean” contract with Him.
I have a very good friend who, like myself, is a pastor who speaks part- time for a nationwide ministry. It takes him all over the nation three or four weekends a year to speak to crowds of up to 900 people and pays about $500 a weekend. Travel. Money. Ministry impact. Recognition. One-upmanship on the other local pastors. Resumé enhancement. Where do I sign up?
And sign up I did. My friend, who was one of the superstars of this ministry, put in a good word for me. I filled out the 19-page application, sent in the speaking tapes, went through the phone interviews, got the references to say I was great, wrote the doctrinal statement, showed them the master’s degree and the doctorate – in a word, I jumped through all the hoops with flying colors and with good form. I am a shoe-in. Done deal. I can hardly wait.
Their letter was short, polite, and to the point. “We regret to inform you that we cannot use your services in our ministry at this time. I read it three times in stunned silence. It was a blind-siding event. I was in full-blown disbelief.
Then I was angry. Severe understatement. My disbelief metamorphasized into major anger, but not at the ministry or at the evaluators who had turned me down. After all, they are only human. “They made a mistake and as humans they are entitled to that,” I said in a fit of humility. “How could they know my giftedness and the incredible asset I would have been to their ministry? I am sad for them at their loss, but they cannot be held accountable for their humanness and short-sightedness.
I am angry at God. He knows better! How could He let this happen? How could He be so malicious? How could He violate our contract? I figured that God had thrown some “high heat” at my head and I was fully justified in charging the mound. My family went to bed that night but I stayed up to have it out with God. I made demands. I asked “why.” I argued. I fumed. I stormed. I reasoned. I circled back and did it all again. I charged the mound to retaliate against God and get what I demanded.
As I said earlier, on this most recent trip up the mound something profound happened to me. I was on my way to get even with God, charging up the mound and finding that it was higher and steeper than most of the pitcher’s mounds I had seen. Nevertheless, I charged on in my growing anger until I realized as I neared the top of the mound that, unlike other pitcher’s mounds, this one had an empty cross on top.
I was charging Calvary, the very mound where God had forever answered the question, “Does God love me?”
I had decided that God was a malicious, unfaithful, contract-breaker. Now I was face to face with the fact of His sacrifice. He had already demonstrated His towering and unshakable love for me in the gift of His Son. In the crushing of His Son. He had answered once and for all the questions, “Does God love me?”, “Has God forgotten me?”, “Is God a mean-spirited, compassionless Father?”, “Is this latest set-back in my best interests?” He had forever annihilated the possibility of throwing a brush-back pitch at me, of having an ounce of malice toward me, or of being unfaithful in any way or in any time. He had forever dispelled the possibility of not loving me well. He had completely and finally settled the question of His compassion for me.
I don’t believe that God is threatened by my anger and my mound-charging. He does not disown me for it. He is mostly grieved by the short sightedness in me that motivates my mound-charging rage. Romans 8:32 explains it like this: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” The gift of His Son means that all the rest is designed for my good.
My purpose here is not to ridicule mound-charging or even to say, “Don’t do it.” We all do it from time to time in the course of living our lives in a sinful, unfriendly world. My purpose is simply to say two things. First, God is a Father but not a contractor. Second, whenever you charge the mound, look for the empty cross at the top. It can have a profound impact on your perspective.
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MIAMI / FT. LAUDERDALE, February 28, 2008 –A strike proof schedule kept viewers watching their favorite shows on CW South Florida. For the February sweep, WSFL-TV was up 8% (Mon-Sun/7a-1a), posting impressive household share gains in Daytime (9a-3p), Fringe/Access (5p-8p) and Late night (10:30pm-12:30am).
Here are a few highlights: Daytime (M-F/9a-3p) – WSFL was up (+11%), while WBFS (-48%), WSVN (-3%), WTVJ (-48%), WFOR (-32%) and WPLG (-2%), all posted declines. Early evening (5-7pm) – WSFL was up an impressive (+40%). Simpsons/Malcolm/Simpsons/Family Guy has proven to be a powerful combination. Family Guy has increased the time period a tremendous +75% from a year ago. WSVN is (+2%), WBFS (-33%), WTVJ (23%), WFOR (-7%) and WPLG (-11%). Access (7-8pm) – WSFL was up (+27%) with Two and a Half Men and Everybody Loves Raymond. WFOR/WBFS are both (-42%). Two and a Half Men delivered (6.1 HH rating) this past Tuesday (2/26), its highest rating to date in the February sweep. Late fringe – WSFL’s Two and a Half Men is the No. 1 rated late fringe program in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, beating The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman. In late fringe, WSFL is up (+19%) and the only station posting growth. Family Guy and Two and a Half Men are now proven late fringe vehicles. WBFS (-47%), WSVN (-32%), WTVJ (-27%), WFOR (17%) and WPLG (-15%).
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Here’s the Amendment language from Move to Amend:
Here’s a link to Free Speech For People, congratulating Representatives Nolan and Pocan, as well as Move to Amend, on the We the People Amendment:
Here’s a Reddit discussion with Ben Manski, from Move To Amend:
Move to Amend has announced that a proposed Constitutional amendment “stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech” will be introduced in Congress on Monday. Here’s the media advisory:
MEDIA ADVISORY for Monday, February 11 at 10AM at National Press Club, Washington DC
- Glenn Turner, 917-817-3396, email@example.com,
- Shayna Samuels, 718-541-4785, firstname.lastname@example.org
- On the ground in DC: Ben Manski, 707-269-0984
First Constitutional Amendment to be Introduced in Congress Stating Corporations Are Not People & Money Is Not Speech
Reps. Nolan & Pocan Respond to Over 500 Municipal Resolutions Calling for “We the People” Amendment
On Monday, February 11, Move to Amend will join members of Congress as they introduce Move to Amend’s “We the People Amendment” an amendment that clearly and unequivocally states that: 1) Rights recognized under the Constitution belong to human beings only, and not to government-created artificial legal entities such as corporations and limited liability companies; and 2) Political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.
The Move to Amend coalition was formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Today, the coalition of nearly 260,000 people and hundreds of organizations has helped to pass nearly 500 resolutions in municipalities and local governments across the country calling on the state and federal governments to adopt this amendment.
The “We the People Amendment” is being introduced by Representative Rick Nolan (DFL-Minnesota) and Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin).
WHAT: Press Conference Announcement of We the People Amendment Introduction in Congress. Amendment language to be unveiled.
WHEN/WHERE: Monday, February 11, 2013. 10:00 am, National Press Club (PHOTO OP)
WHO: Move to Amend Spokespeople Ben Manski (Wisconsin) and Leesa “George” Friday (North Carolina) together with lead sponsor United States Representative Rick Nolan (DFL-Minnesota).
# # #
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The Shoyu Story: New Ones: Kikkoman Honjozo,
Marumata Maroyaka Katsu and Nido Jikomi
Kikkoman Honjozo shoyu is a brand new, Limited production of Kikkoman created to replicate a soy sauce that was favored in Tokyo during the Taisho era (1912-1926), the reign of the present Emperor’s grandfather. There was always a difference in the shoyu made for the market of Tokyo (Kanto), and that of Kyoto (Kansai) due to the cuisine style popular in each place. Kansai is lighter both in flavor and color as shown by the Marumata shoyu we featured last winter and the heavier, thicker tasting, darker one from Kanto.
Using only Japanese soybeans, wheat, salt, and the oldest known koji, the aspergillus mold used to change the starch in grains to sugar, and aging a year, autumn to autumn, the resulting HONJOZO soy sauce is pressed, pasteurized and bottled in the traditional light blue bottles reminiscent of the Taisho period. Here is another specialty from the world’s largest soy sauce producer delving into its own history.
Two specialty shoyu come from Marumata. They are composites of shoyu with different flavor profiles. Nido Jikomi Tokusen is an usukuchi (light) shoyu in the Kansai style with added mirin and the double addition of koji. This is for sashimi, sushi, and pickled vegetables. Maroyaka Katsuo Shoyu is a honjozo koikuchi (dark) shoyu blended with dashi (broth) made from katsuobushi (dried bonito) and konbu (dried kelp). It has 30% less salt than normal koikuchi shoyu. Best with ohitashi (boiled vegetables), yaki-zakana (grilled fish) and hiya-yakko (cold tofu with ginger. I like to use a light fruity oil and lemon zest for a summer dish.)
A cookbook such as Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese home kitchen (2005) is a wonderful base for using these new shoyu. It is widely available from bookstores.
Best of Show Oils from LA County Fair: Domestic and International
First off, a disclaimer of conflict of interest. As of spring 2006, I am the chairman of the Los Angeles County Fair Olive Oil tasting and I am writing about the Best of Show winners at that tasting. It is the first State oil tasting competition, now in its 7th year. However, I do not taste oils there, I taste wine. This year I instituted a slightly different Best of Show scale since it would be impossible to find only one oil as Best of Show since there are three oil typologies: light fruit intensity; medium fruit intensity, and intense fruitiness. (This notion needs to be imbedded in our collective oil mentality.) There is no single oil which can be “the best.”
From the 386 oils submitted by 246 producers, there were selected three Best of Show oils in California oils and three from the international class. Described below are the oils in their class of fruity intensity. They are all wonderful oils, differing among themselves yet each having great quality and distinction. In the international class, there were no Best of Show from traditional producing areas; Italy, Spain, Greece. The Best of Show came from three widely differing areas not often thought of as famous oil producing regions: France, New Zealand, and Chile.
In order to qualify for Best of Show judging, an oil had to have won a gold medal in its class and a Best of Class award. Thus all the oils here, with the exception of the New Zealand Te Arai 2006, have won a gold in their respective class and a best of class. For complete results go to:
A lot of other oils won gold medals in their class and are fine oils. But these Best of Show winners happen to be special. There were four international judges on the panels; one each from Tuscany, Australia, Chile, and Spain. They were severe in their judgements, and if an oil won a Best of Show, you can trust that it is just that.
Best of Show: California
Light Fruit Intensity:
Medium Fruit Intensity:
Best of Show: InternationalLight Fruit Intensity:
Medium Fruit Intensity:
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Welcome visitor #9,999!
Welcome visitor #8,888!
I know! I've seen it multiple times. Never gets old, though. :3
Your ferret picture is just so excellent.
See? SEE! I knew it!
Well, never let it be said that my gullibility knows bounds. Because it doesn't. What I'm driving at here is my gullibility knows nobounds. Am I being too subtle? Where's capslock when you need it?
Honestly, I have suspicions of you being a shapeshifting half-ferret half-bug, with a pinch of animal thrown in for dubious measure.
Oh, and your mouse is just like any other mouse.
Err... I'm pretty sure he had him in one or more of his avatars.
Is that based on anything more than the profile pic? He certainly is a mysterious character.
I'm still waiting for my tickets to the little island in the Caribbean (St Lucia?). A promise is a promise.
So this is you? Where do you find the time to bug out and shop for catwoman outfits?
Welcome visitor #7,777!!
Order of Kilopi
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Ok, so the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory (EChO) project is one of four, (out of 47), major ESA Missions shortlisted in Feb 2011, for further assessment and study (in their Medium Class Cosmic Vision program) ...
It comes down to a sub 1 metre class telescope operating in the visible - thermal infrared (9.4 to 11 micron) range, to be placed in a quasi halo orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2) - 1.5 million km from Earth..Originally Posted by ESA
The Cosmic Vison programme defines the high-level scientific questions which these candidate projects should be aimed at making progress towards:
The flow-on primary mission goal is:Originally Posted by ESA
Ok, so in other words, exo-gas 'biomarkers'.Originally Posted by ESA
So, putting aside the planetary formation research goals (which as far as I'm concerned, aren't an issue), the only way I can see how this project can lead towards providing hard data in answer to the ESA Cosmic Vision ‘Life emergence’ component theme question (see above), is for there to be simultaneously, local planetary exploration aimed at discovering another instance of life in our Solar System.
And, lo and behold, item 1.3 Life and habitability in the Solar System covers it:
The JUICE mission which targets the localised exploration Jovian moons, in particular Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, was recently selected for the purpose (albeit a much larger mission, in a different category than EChO).Goal
Explore in situ the surface and subsurface of solid bodies in the Solar System most likely to host – or have hosted – life
So, the noteworthy point is that the EChO mission requires the data from direct exploration missions, in order for the EChO data to be interpretable in the context of exo-life presence/absence). Without it, the EChO data can only support more speculative hypotheses.
If the exploration mission, (in this case, JUICE), doesn’t go ahead for some reason, then I don’t see how the EChO data can be constrained sufficiently to support any meaningful exo-life conclusions.
This seems to be exactly the situation NASA finds itself in at the moment !
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