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i want to insert a string as date format in mysql table using vb.net.my code is given below.but i always get an error .the string is stored in an array.
Dim sdfsa As String = Convert.ToDateTime(newarray(i + 17)).ToShortDateString().ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")
Dim newdate As Date = DateTime.ParseExact(sdfsa, "yyyy-MM-dd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
datarw("date_of_birth") = newdate
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2 Answers
Are the Users inputting this information directly?
if they are why don't you input have them input the value in a masked text box?
This Link Could Help
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Try this:
my_date =Format(Now,"yyyy-MM-dd")
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Strengthening Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) with Semantics
John Hebeler is a division scientist at BBN Technologies. Andrew Perez-Lopez is a Software Engineer at BBN Technologies. They are co-authors of Semantic Web Programming.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the de-facto architectural standard for many small and large distributed solutions. Its growing relevance is reflected not only in the bevy of rich services the SOA stack offers, but also the variety of available implementations, many of which are open-source. Yet SOA remains challenged in several areas dealing with scale, growing complexity, diverse knowledge management, and the inherent dynamics of large, distributed systems. These challenges unnecessarily constrain SOA solutions causing them to fall short of their ultimate potential.
Semantics can help. Semantics form expressive, useful computing abstractions or concepts that address these challenges and strengthen the SOA mission to use and leverage complex information and services across an entire enterprise or the globe.
In this article, we examine adding semantics to SOAs through four examples, each contributing in different ways yet adhering to the SOA standards and goals. Two examples illustrate "SOA-ize" semantic services and the other two "Semantic-ize" the SOA. All contribute to improving the scope and capabilities of what is possible with a SOA solution.
SOA Struggles
SOA exists as a set of standards and services that form a dynamic distributed service fabric that provides a step forward into distributed computing possibilities. The interface standards allow services to interact despite fundamental platform differences. SOA and services is analogous to the World Wide Web (WWW) and documents -- the WWW exists as a set of standards that allow document contributions based on many technologies and techniques all following the same document standards. SOA attempts to do the same with services. Whereas WWW standards unleashed a world of information, SOA attempts to unleash a world of services. However, services can be much more complex and temperamental than documents (and documents themselves have gotten pretty complicated). The SOA stack addresses some of this complexity by integrating a set of management services. The vastness and richness of the network services can easily overwhelm a SOA solution even with a powerful stack of services.
Theoretically, a SOA implementation can exist at a variety of levels from a small solution integrating a handful of services up to a large, dynamic solution integrating thousands of services. In practice, SOA strongly leans to the former -- integrating a few, well-controlled services. Yet the real power and possibilities require a much bigger leap into the thousands. That leap incurs a multitude of challenges including service complexity, information complexity, and service management complexity.
Services are the fundamental building blocks of a SOA solution. Service complexity refers to the degree of sophistication associated with the tasks the service actually accomplishes. Whereas a document is merely a bunch of organized words, services do things -- potentially very complex things. Additionally, they are dynamic. Services are often bound to the objects that drive their behavior. But these objects themselves can limit the ultimate complexity of the overall application. Objects or instances are bound to their creating class and often that class is static. Attributes and relationships are typically also bound to the creating class. Too often in object oriented software for services, there is little analysis of the object structure as the underlying data model. Is it consistent? Is it logical? Is it cohesive? These answers are left solely to the programmer, and the hard-coded software. Complex behavior frequently yields complex code -- often unreadable code. Some tools exist to help externalize this inherent complexity but most do not. Programming languages can also limit the complexity and thus the power of individual services. SOA solutions integrate multiple services, which, of course, compound this phenomenon.
Information processing is often at the heart of a SOA solution or almost any computer solution -- information is the "crown jewels" of computing. Just as the complexity of services stands as a challenge to SOA system designers, so too does information complexity. Most data technologies incorporate limitations that force the information to reside in multiple places and to be reassembled to produce the desired results. A typical way of addressing this data distribution issue is with XML. Databases, combined with business logic, produce data elements that can form the desired answer in XML. XML is a step in the right direction, but it struggles with complex relationships and dynamic constraints. The actual meaning of the data, the information, is separated in the document and in the XML schema, or even worse, the schema of the database back-end, and therefore very difficult to manage. These limitations of the information format and knowledge representation force all of the services in the enterprise, which should be focused on business logic, to handle a higher degree of complexity just to get started. This, of course, further aggravates the service complexity challenge outlined above.
SOA solutions enable the dynamic integration and collaboration of multiple services. This requires service management -- and this can be very challenging. In a real sense, the integration of services forms new, more complex services. We examine three aspects of service management:
• Service abstractions
• Service registration
• Service dynamics
Each represents a major aspect of service management.
Service abstractions describe the services. The richer and more complete the abstractions, the more easily the service is found and properly used. Most SOA services exist as low-level or simple abstractions. This low level forces the programmer to take up the slack and really understand the service beyond the simple abstraction descriptions. For example, say a software developer determines the need for a service, like a catalog lookup. Given a high-level abstraction like "catalog lookup" the developer would, in an ideal SOA world, find a service and be able to integrate it easily into an application at that high level. However, as we in the real world know, to take advantage of the catalog lookup service, a SOA service too often requires inspecting complex APIs defined in Web Service Description Language (WSDL), which identifies particular end point names, the numbers and types of variables, and return values for each supported method. Even those detailed WSDL descriptions, however, do not describe how the parameters serve the method, the purpose of the method, or any expectations with regard to errors and performance. This forces you, the programmer, to invert your development process in an unnatural way. Instead of finding a service that matches the needs of your application, you must design your application to match the requirements of the services. In other words, the services don't really serve your specific need, they serve their own needs in their own particular way. You must call and use the service according to the service's usage patterns and not your own. Of course, all of this is moot if you design all the services, or if all of the assumptions are shared by every service, etc -- but that is extraordinarily limiting in terms of the services that your application can exploit, and is really contrary to the goal of large-scale SOA. The key is inverting this perspective and enabling a service to align with your system's needs. Thus, your SOA system accesses the services or aggregation of services at the level of abstraction that makes sense to your needs. This is somewhat analogous to views for a relational database. This service view must also accommodate similar services, failed services, and so on. Ideally, you just want your overall system to operate correctly and not have to change drastically to accommodate the specific syntax or other dependencies of a particular service implementation.
Service registration remains a real challenge for SOA. How can you compose the best SOA without full knowledge of what services are available and how to interact with them? The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) standard has fallen short of realizing its larger goals. The inherent complexity of using XML to represent such rich knowledge has produced an unwieldy solution that befuddles many developers. Many SOA solutions now register their services in hand-carved proprietary solutions or use no UDDI implementation at all, and some even try to use a Wiki. This is a direct blow to the scale of SOA efforts. A quick look at illustrates this problem. This site lists thousands of web services, yet only a handful are used to support almost all the mashups and the vast majority of mashups use only two or fewer services (with a 40% chance that one of these is Google Maps). Sadly, most offered services are not used in any mashups. This situation could be the result of inadequate services but it is more likely due to the inability of developers to find and utilize the services they want.
For SOA to work properly, a service registration system must clearly describe and search a vast array of different service offerings available in the given SOA. These requirements demand a solution that is more than just a common set of syntaxes. Explicit syntax agreements are important, for without them nothing would work. However, determining a common syntax (or set of syntaxes) only allows exact matches or at best a basic category search. This works fine for services that you control (and name) but does not stand up to the challenge of integrating services that originate and evolve from many sources. Actually, for services you create, the registry is not even that important -- you already know the descriptions. However, large-scale integration needs much more than a common syntax -- it needs a common semantics. Capturing the information about what a service is and what it does and communicating that information effectively in an automated way remains a key challenge for large, dynamic SOA implementations.
Service abstractions and registration contain another inherent challenge -- dynamics. Over time, services change -- that is a simple rule, and they usually change for the better. Traditional SOA techniques often create brittle connections to services that may break on the slightest change to the service. Again, this is no trouble if you develop and control the services, but again, that is contrary to SOA's goal. This inhibits the use of services to two types: those that you control or those that are so big they will never (or at least very rarely) change. This set describes only a small fraction of the available services, and requires that SOA applications have regular, and often significant, maintenance. Without better ways to deal with the dynamics of web services, the growth of an SOA solution will remain stunted and more costly.
These SOA struggles result in a reduced awareness of what is available, a limited capacity to compose services, and a diminished exploitation of valuable services due to uncontrolled changes. In an ideal world, SOA could seamlessly link services around the globe, but these factors significantly threaten that vision.
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Masonry Chimney Lining and Safety
Keep your masonry chimney safe to use, and learn about two chimney relining installation methods.
September/October 1983
.The Ventinox system usually uses a stainless steel baseplate inside the smoke chamber.
You may be surprised to learn that most wood-heating industry experts agree that faulty appliances are seldom the cause of home fires these days. Rather, most woodburning-related tragedies today are the result of either improper installation or poorly maintained flue systems. Back in Wood Stove Safety, we covered installation practices in some detail, and if you're at all unsure about the safety of your heater's location and connections, we strongly suggest that you refer to that feature or to an authoritative reference book (such as Jay Shelton's Solid Fuels Encyclopedia, Garden Way, 1982).
The subject of this article, then, is aging and/or unsafe masonry chimneys, and what you can do if you're faced with the task of repairing a masonry chimney. Though folk wisdom often seems to imply that brick chimneys are the best, such flues are all too often unsuited (and/or unsafe) for use with an add-on wood burner. Very few masonry chimneys, you see, have been (or are now being) built to suit the gas flow rates common to controlled combustion ("airtight") heaters, and the typically too-large masonry flues reduce draft and increase creosote buildup. Worse yet, many, older chimneys lack any sort of liner to protect the brickwork from the extreme temperatures that can be generated by a chimney fire (such blazes can exceed 2000°F). And even flues that are lined with tile may have deteriorated under the abuse caused by chimney fires, to the point where smoke (or flames) can escape into the house through cracks. As you can see, then, masonry chimneys often actually produce conditions that can lead to danger, by virtue of their very design.
Clean and Inspect the Chimney Regularly
Nonetheless, no matter what sort of chimney you're using with your woodstove, you should definitely have the system cleaned and inspected regularly. Of course, you may want to leave this vital (and somewhat unpleasant) task to a qualified sweep, but—with a little bit of study and a steady pair of feet on the rooftop—there's no reason why you can't learn to do this job.
As you familiarize yourself with your woodburner's ventilating system, one of the first things you'll have to learn is the size of the chimney brush needed to clean it properly. Once you've determined that dimension, you can compare your flue size directly (if it's round) against the stovepipe diameter recommended by your heater's manufacturer, or calculate the cross-sectional area of a rectangular stack for comparison with that figure. When checking the suitability of your chimney, bear in mind how much even a small increase in size influences capacity: An eight-inch-diameter chimney, for example, has almost twice as much cross-sectional area as does a six-inch one. Thus, what might seem like a small deviation from recommended procedure could make a big difference in performance and safety.
Once you (or your sweep) have cleaned the walls of the flue, the lining should be checked for cracks or holes, and the mortar joints between the tile sections should be inspected for soundness. Most professionals do this by using a mirror to reflect sunlight down into the chimney, but a trouble light may be helpful on cloudy days (and when inspecting chimneys with bends).
Relining a Chimney
Should the examination turn up deficiencies in the size or condition of the chimney, there are basically only two things you can do: You can tear it down and build a safe, properly sized one, or you can have your existing flue relined. There are a couple of good reasons for taking the second approach: For one thing, relining a chimney costs approximately a third of what a mason would likely charge to disassemble an old one and build a new stack in its place, and a relined chimney may actually end up being safer and more durable than a new tile-lined one!
In the following paragraphs, we're going to describe two methods of lining an existing masonry chimney. Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses—which we'll try to point out—and neither is exactly inexpensive. However, each approach can produce a chimney that, when used in conjunction with a controlled-combustion woodburner, is essentially better than even a new brick chimney. We'll be featuring a pair of specific systems that we've seen in action, and will list other manufacturers of similar products at the end of the article. Of course, the fact that we've chosen to show you the Insulcrete and Ventinox reliners doesn't mean that we necessarily judge them to be superior to all other products. From personal experience, we do have confidence in their systems, though, and we're very grateful to Pete Luter (president of the North Carolina Guild of Professional Chimney Sweeps and a reliner himself, out of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina shop called Countryside) for leading us to them.
Ventinox Stainless Steel
In the past, many people who've found their chimneys to be incapable of providing acceptable draft for a woodstove have resorted to stringing stovepipe up the flue. And, though the practice usually has accomplished its goal, quite often the owners have been surprised to find that creosote builds up inside the metal pipe at an alarming rate. Without insulation around the steel tubing, heat is lost from the smoke so quickly that the products of incomplete combustion readily condense on the walls of the flue. Furthermore, if the material used for such a simple relining is merely galvanized stovepipe, the system will deteriorate very quickly.
On the other hand, existing chimneys that have been relined with quality stainless steel pipe have a far better track record for longevity, but still suffer from rapid creosote deposition, unless they're insulated. Unfortunately, running a factory-built double- or triple-wall chimney up a masonry flue is cumbersome and expensive (these systems can cost as much as $55 per foot). This method also does nothing to strengthen a weak brick stack, and can be downright impossible if there are any significant bends present in the existing flue.
However, a system commonly used by the Swiss avoids such problems by employing a high-grade, flexible stainless steel liner (to accommodate turns) with a fill of insulation (for good draft and low creosote deposition) or—when necessary for strength—a mix of insulation and masonry cement. The Ventinox relining method (as it's called) came to the U.S. less than a decade ago, when a transplanted Austrian, Martin Wawrla, was faced with the job of relining four existing chimneys while restoring his Albany, New York home. After coating the inside of one flue with refractory cement, a procedure that involved opening an access hole every few feet, Martin decided to track down the owners of the relining system he'd seen so often in Europe. By working through the Swiss office of Ventinox, he ended up proposing to the U.S. division of the company, American Boa, that it bring the European system to this country. As a result, Martin is now project manager of American Boa's growing chimney relining business.
The Ventinox liner is made from a continuous band of 33-gauge 321 stainless steel that is corrugated, rolled in a spiral, and then bound together by a computer-controlled electric welder. The corrugated spiral helps give the comparatively thin material strength and reduces problems with thermal expansion (which has been known to lift the top right off a chimney relined with solidly mounted standard stovepipe). In addition, 321 stainless is perhaps the steel alloy that's most resistant to the corrosive environment in a woodburner's chimney, and the company guarantees its product for ten years.
Of course, other stainless alloys may last as long as 321 does in most environments, but the strain imposed by a chimney fire can eventually be the undoing of lesser metals. You see, once many corrosion-resistant steels have been heated to above 2000°F, the chromium in the metal (which prevents corrosion) may begin to lose its bond with the other elements, and intergranular deterioration can then begin. To date, Ventinox is the only stainless reliner that's been tested to both Underwriters Laboratories basic (UL 103) and high-temperature (2100°F) standards.
Installing Ventinox is a straightforward job, and trained crews have been known to do a basic chimney in just three hours. The procedure consists of installing a baseplate, with a hole to fit the diameter of the liner (Ventinox is available in six-, seven-, eight-, and ten-inch sizes for residential applications), on the smoke shelf above the fireplace, threading the one-piece tube down the chimney, engaging it into the baseplate, and centering it with spacers, filling the area around the liner with the appropriate insulative mixture, and capping the relined flue.
In order to assure structural integrity (and a leakproof installation), Ventinox is always installed with at least the first foot (and preferably the first five feet) of void around the steel filled with a vermiculite and masonry cement slurry. From that point on, the area around the liner can be filled with insulation alone, as long as the surrounding chimney is sound. Vermiculite is very resistant to thermal degradation, but—unfortunately—it can absorb water (Ventinox and other reliners use an asphalt-treated version that is less susceptible to this problem), so the top of the relined flue must be carefully sealed with either a pointed-out masonry cap or a fabricated stainless steel lid. In addition, the rocks from which vermiculite is quarried also often contain asbestos, and that carcinogenic material can contaminate the insulation. Some sources guarantee their vermiculite to be free of asbestos, but it's still a good idea to exercise caution (and wear a respirator) when using the material.
The Ventinox installation we observed was part of American Boa's training seminars for their certified installers. Like most relining companies, American Boa prefers to work through chimney sweeps, since these professionals already have an intimate knowledge of woodstove flue systems. And even though it was their first attempt at the job, the crew of sweeps managed to reline a 25-foot chimney and install a fireplace insert in about six hours. The cost of the Ventinox reliner itself runs between $15 and $20 per foot (depending on the diameter required), and labor and other material charges usually bring the final figure up to between $30 and $40 per foot.
However, the contract also includes one free inspection for safety and creosote accumulation, and—like other relining companies—American Boa encourages homeowners to maintain their chimneys properly by making the warranty contingent on regular inspection and cleaning.
Insulcrete Chimney Lining
John Gusler, a concrete engineer and the developer of the Insulcrete Relining System, started repairing chimneys about eight years ago in order to increase business at his stove dealership. Being a conscientious proprietor, he found himself in the difficult position of refusing to sell appliances to individuals whose chimneys couldn't meet his criteria for safety. The logical decision, of course, was to start repairing those deteriorated flues.
Insulcrete itself is a proprietary insulating concrete mixture that, through the years, has seen a number of different pour techniques. The first several dozen flues were done using metal liners as forms, but—since Insulcrete is capable of standing up to the woodburning environment on its own—Gusler began looking for a way to eliminate the steel. He settled on a rubber bladder that's inflated by an air compressor.
With the help of a partner (mason Mark Borell), John developed a kit—consisting of two bladders, fittings, and instructions—to market to chimney sweeps. Today, Mark and John hold two-day instruction seminars around the country nearly every week, and one of MOTHER's staff members was fortunate enough to attend the school in Mark's hometown of Navarre, Ohio.
As was the case with Ventinox, formed-in-place refractory cement relinings were first used in Europe, in England, as a matter of fact. Their performance with coal-burning appliances has been well established in that country, and Insulcrete has been tested to the UL 103 and ULC-S-629M standards by Arnold Greene Testing Laboratories.
Our session with Insulcrete consisted of dropping a six-inch-diameter rubber tube down the 28-foot-tall chimney shown in the photos, installing turned wooden plugs with clamps, inflating the former to about 20 pounds per square inch (PSI), centering it with spacers, and pouring the Insulcrete (which is a mix of refractory cement, aluminum silicate, vermiculite, one-inch-long alkali-resistant fiberglass threads, and water) down from the top of the flue by bucket brigade (the partners also have a slurry pump available for sale to installers, but don't usually find that it's necessary). The form is left in place for 24 hours and then can be deflated and removed for reuse. At that time, the top of the flue is pointed out with regular mortar, and—if necessary—the exposed portion of the chimney is parged (coated).
Insulcrete doesn't specify a warranty period to its authorized installers, but Mark Borell does provide a lifetime warranty (it's even transferable), as long as the customer keeps a maintenance contract with his sweeping service. (Both Mark and John suggest that 15 years would be a conservative warranty for an installer to offer.) The cost of an Insulcrete relining starts at about $25 per foot (for the most straightforward job) and will run between $30 and $40 for anything more complex. Labor makes up a major part of the bill, partially because the installer must charge enough to pay off the cost of his relining kit (which runs between $2,000 and $7,500, from the basic model to the fully equipped trailer).
Is Relining a Chimney Worth It?
As we've already suggested, both Insulcrete and Ventinox can turn your old chimney into a superior flue for a woodburner. But, you may be wondering, is it really worth all that money if the chimney is essentially sound? For evidence of the advantages of a well-insulated flue, we'll refer you to the two photos of existing chimney tops that accompany this article. Both flues were relined by (or under the direction of) Pete Luter, and both have Dura-Vent stainless steel pipe. One of them, however, was insulated with perlite, while the other has only an air space. The insulated chimney has yet to be cleaned after four years of use, and shiny metal is still visible in places. The uninsulated chimney, however, has accumulated almost an inch of creosote in less than one season of use.
The answer seems clear: The amount of flue-cleaning time that can be saved (as well as the money that will be saved as a result of less-frequent calls to the chimney sweep) with a properly relined chimney is substantial—and, of course, no one can put a price on safety!
Chimney Relining Resources
American Boa
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Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by isha (Sexton)
on Jul 30, 2007 at 12:46 UTC ( #629540=perlquestion: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
isha has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:
I want to check that the value is between 0x0 and 0xffff or not. how can i do with regular expression.
Please tell the regular expression to check the hexadecimal number..
Comment on Regular expression for hexadecimal number
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by FunkyMonk (Canon) on Jul 30, 2007 at 12:55 UTC
/^ # start of string 0x # 0x prefix [0-9A-F] # a hex digit {1,4} # 1 to 4 of them $ # end of string /xi # x = allow spaces & comments in regexp # i = ignore case
or just /^0x[0-9A-F]{1,4}$/i
update: slight rewording to keep ww happy;)
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by mickeyn (Priest) on Jul 30, 2007 at 12:58 UTC
{1,4} # between 1 & 4 of them
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by grinder (Bishop) on Jul 30, 2007 at 13:24 UTC
Something like....
... should do the trick. Curlies are pretty slow, relatively speaking, though. You will achieve approximately equivalent results with
except that this will also match "0xdeadbeefcafe" and the like (which might be considered a feature).
Note that you do not want to use, as suggested elsewhere in this thread:
/0x[\da-f]{1,4}/i # or /0x[\da-f]+/i
...since that would allow 0X2a (note the uppercase X) which is not a legal hexadecimal definition.
• another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl
Hmm, this answers a question that's been in the back of my mind for a while, "Can you turn on/off modifiers in the middle of a regex."
Thanks for prompting me to pop over to Perldoc to learn about it.
A question, though: The goal is to keep the 0x case sensitive (to disallow 0X, as you said), but let the hex that follows match in a case insensitive way (i.e. match both 0xFF and 0xff)? If so, doesn't (?-i:PATTERN) actually turn off the insensitivity modifier (which wasn't on?). Based on my (probably wrong) interpretation of what I just learned at Perldoc, it seems like you'd want (?i:PATTERN) to turn it on.
What you describe is accomplished not by using a modifier, but by being explicit in the definition of the char class:
There's no reason to have or use modifiers on only part of a regex, when one can simply use the mechanisms already available to accomplish the same goal.
Ramblings and references
The Code that can be seen is not the true Code
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by andreas1234567 (Vicar) on Jul 30, 2007 at 13:36 UTC
The Data::Validate module has a is_hex function for which the source looks like this:
sub is_hex { my $self = shift if ref($_[0]); my $value = shift; return unless defined $value; return if $value =~ /[^0-9a-f]/i; $value = lc($value); my $int = hex($value); return unless (defined $int); my $hex = sprintf "%x", $int; return $hex if ($hex eq $value); # handle zero stripping if (my ($z) = $value =~ /^(0+)/) { return "$z$hex" if ("$z$hex" eq $value); } return; }
Note that this module does not support the '0x' hexadecimal syntax, so you would have to strip that off yourself.
use warnings; use strict; use Data::Validate qw(:math); my @data = qw(1234 ABCD 0x1234 foo 0xABCD bar); foreach my $val (@data) { if (defined(is_hex($val))) { print "$val\tis hex"; } else { print "$val\tis not hex"; } } __END__
$ perl -l 1234 is hex ABCD is hex 0x1234 is not hex foo is not hex 0xABCD is not hex bar is not hex
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by mjscott2702 (Pilgrim) on Jul 30, 2007 at 13:39 UTC
I have used regex's in the past to check a minimum and maximum number of digits, usually using base10 integers - check between 0 and 99 for example.
One thing I'd like to be able to do is check that a value is between two limits, without capturing and subsequent processing (for reasons beyond the scope of this discussion). Is there any regex construct that will check that the value is between two other values? For example, check that it is between 3010 and 4123, inclusively?
Sure you could; the more important question is should you. You're probably better off implementing a "lower level" check (is this a 4 digit number) at the regex level and then using comparisons in code to check range membership.
What you want to be worried about is when your requirements shift and now you've got to check if it's between 3021 and 5123 for the comparisons-in-code version it's just a matter of changing two numbers (or redefining FOO_RANGE_MIN and FOO_RANGE_MAX constants since one would never use magic numbers inline, of course :) rather than coming up with a new clever regex to match the new rage.
Update: Just to show it can be done (but again, probably shouldn't): /^ 3 (?: 0 [1-9] \d | [1-9] \d \d ) | 4 (?: 0 \d \d | 1 (?: [01] \d | 2 [0123] ) ) $/x
As I pointed out, the reason for doing this is off-topic, let's just say I need a regex that ensures a value is between A and B, where A and B are defined elsewhere (in this case, it's an installer that supports Perl regexes, and I want to check that the port number entered by the user is within an allowable range. Hence the reason I can't post-process the value, I need a regex that does it in one step).
Ideally, I wanted to be able to pass A and B to the regex, in a way similar to defining {min, max} for the number of characters to match.
I want to avoid the breaking down of the min and max values into a sequence of ranges, for exactly the reason you point out.
I still think it is a reasonable question ....
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by Anno (Deacon) on Jul 30, 2007 at 13:40 UTC
Checking a string whether it is the hexadecimal representation of some number (i.e. consists only of hexadecimal digits) is easily done with a regex. Assuming your string is in $_,
does that. I'm using the named character class [[:xdigit:]] in preference to the equivalent [0-9A-Fa-f].
Checking whether a number is in a specific range is usually quite hard to do with a regex. While your specific case is an exception (the range is all numbers with up to four digits, which can easily be checked with a regex) I wouldn't make use of that. Instead I'd use a numeric comparison which also works for other ranges:
/[[:xdigit]]+/ and hex( $_) <= 0xFFFF;
There is no need to check for >= 0 because Perl treats hexadecimal as unsigned, so every valid hex string will be non-negative.
Update: Trivial (=silly) mistake corrected.
Re: Regular expression for hexadecimal number
by radiantmatrix (Parson) on Jul 30, 2007 at 15:18 UTC
I'm curious about your actual requirement, because I'm not sure a regex is the way you want to go. If you have a hexadecimal value already, working with it as a number is pretty easy: using a regex is working with it as a string.
my $hex_val = '0xCAFE'; if ( hex($hex_val) >= 0 && hex($hex_val) <= 0xFFFF ) { print "$hex_val is in range\n"; } else { print "$hex_val is out of range\n"; }
All this requires is use of the hex function.
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Oh, one more thing...the world is still running out of oil -- have a nice day
Remenber all the talk a couple of years ago about "peak oil"? Remember you how forgot all about it the minute that gasoline dipped back below $ 3 a gallon? Remember how you used to believe in the Easter Bunny and that the 2003-04 Red Sox weren't on steroids? Well. now a top official of the world's most credible energy authority is here to tell you that Santa Claus doesn't exist:
Make fun of "Cash for Clunkers" (sure it could be run a lot better -- just like most new ventures in the free market, like the launch of Kentucky Grilled Chicken) and the need for more serious energy conservation measures now, because you won't be laughing in a few years. Meanwhile, we sit back in a daze because it's true that speculators manipulated the oil markets in 2008, creating an artificial price spike. There's an old saying that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone's not out to get you; just because speculators made a crooked buck or two on oil last year doesn't mean that the world isn't running out of oil faster than it thinks.
Programming note: Blogging is going to be very truncated for a lot of August, and non-existent for the middle of the month. More on that later.
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Rediff News All News » Getahead » Why Indian universities don't make it to world rankings
Why Indian universities don't make it to world rankings
Last updated on: November 15, 2012 14:53 IST
Why Indian universities don't make it to world rankings
Barun Roy
While Indian universities stagnate, those in China are becoming engines of growth.
In the latest annual rankings of the world's 200 best universities, by Times Higher Education (THE) there's not a single Indian name.
Shocking? Then here's the surprise: 15 Asian universities figure in the same survey as the rising stars of global higher education -- two from China, three from South Korea, four from Japan, four from Hong Kong, one from Singapore, and one from Taiwan.
But it's China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), South Korea and Singapore that are making waves right now -- in particular, China and South Korea -- as they entrench their positions as the world's new destinations of excellence, Western domination of global higher education, still unquestioned, could begin to feel the pinch.
If, against these criteria, the National University of Singapore could occupy the 29th position in the 2012-13 survey, the University of Hong Kong the 35th, Peking and Tsinghua Universities in China the 46th and 52nd places, respectively, Seoul National University the 59th slot and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology the 68th, the future shouldn't be hard to read.
Even more remarkable is the strength of the determination to excel.
Where exactly does India stand? A year ago, India was nowhere even among the world's 300 best, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai had a presence in the 301-350 band.
There's a movement, yes, but still a very tentative one.
Please click NEXT to continue reading...
Image: The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay was ranked 225 in the QS 2011-12 list of global universities
Photographs: Prateek Karandikar/Wikimedia Commons
China treats its universities and research institutes as 'engines of growth'
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What's the secret that the Chinese and the Koreans know and we don't?
South Korea, where the private sector accounts for almost 74 per cent of all R&D spending, has a funding programme called the "World-Class University Project" that encourages universities to establish new academic departments and host international scholars for collaborative research.
China treats its universities and research institutes as "engines of growth", expecting them to function as idea machines to serve specific industry needs.
IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and many other foreign firms have substantial collaborative arrangements with Chinese universities. China's own R&D spending, coursed mainly through its universities and research institutes, was up 23 per cent to $139.2 billion in 2011, which meant a steady rise of 20 per cent on average for the sixth straight year.
Until as late as 1993, exchanging students, swapping information, and attending international conferences were the primary modes of China's international academic collaboration.
Things began to change when a new law was introduced that year on the future of science and technology in the country. Beijing's Tsinghua University -- where this year's Nobel Prize co-winner in Chemistry, Brian Kobilka, is a guest professor -- reflects how this change is affecting Chinese academia.
Image: Since one of its professors won the Nobel, Beijing's Tsinghua University now enrols more international students.
Photographs: Emcc/Wikimedia Commons
Prev More | <urn:uuid:944d9019-de72-4f37-8e77-58c7073c49af> | http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-why-no-indian-university-in-world-rankings/20121115.htm | en | 0.935073 | 0.085801 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
A Thousand Clowns at the Intiman
The play is set during the early 1960s when America was standing at a cultural crossroads. On the one hand, there were the traditional ideas of the nuclear family with 2.5 kids, a picket fence and a reliable station wagon. The challenger to these ideals came in the form of the free-spirited 60's which attempted to turn all conventions on their side. This push-and-pull dynamic is embodied in Murray Burns (played with perfect comedic timing by Matthew Boston). Burns is described as “not being a person, but an experience.” He refuses to find a job, loves randomly yelling out his apartment window, but also summons enough responsibility to raise his parentless nephew.
There are some very serious and thought-provoking themes regarding individuality versus public responsibility, but the play addresses these issues with humor. How can a play not be hilarious when it incorporates ukeleles and a dancing hula doll with lighted breasts?!?! Even better, you can laugh your way all the way to the bank since tickets for the Tuesday, June 16 performance are only $25! Catch it before it closes entirely on June 17.
-Deanna Duff | <urn:uuid:1578601c-fef3-4d14-8ab2-c72c5256cdb2> | http://www.seattlemag.com/blog/arts/%5Buser-raw%5D/thousand-clowns-intiman | en | 0.951811 | 0.073279 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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How do I... Transfer logins from one SQL Server 2005 instance to another?
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In a previous download, Steven Warren described how to restore a SQL Server to a new server. That download lead to some questions regarding how to move SQL Server logins from one SQL Server instance to another. This How do I... explains the process and provides the necessary script to make the transition work.
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The spousal effect - for better or worse Add to ...
I attended a wedding last weekend, and reminded the groom not to be surprised when he learns things about his wife that he didn't know before.
People hide things while dating. I think of my friend Karen. Her feet smell worse than anyone I know, but she somehow managed to hide this from her boyfriend Scott. And Scott has a problem with morning breath, but Karen didn't know this before marriage. Both were trying to think of a way to tell the other about their odour issues. On their honeymoon, they woke up one morning staring into each other's eyes, when Scott said, "Honey, I have a confession to make." Karen replied: "Don't tell me - you've eaten my socks, haven't you?"
More Related to this Story
Having a spouse can also lead to surprises at tax time. Let me share with you some of the benefits and drawbacks of having a spouse, from a tax perspective, for better or worse. This week, I'll focus on the drawbacks. Next week we'll look at the benefits and opportunities.
Your Spouse
The term "spouse" does not solely mean someone to whom you're legally married. A spouse is also a person you've been living with in a conjugal common-law relationship under the same roof for at least 12 months - same gender or not. And by the way, the 12-month requirement is ignored when you're both parents of the same child.
The Drawbacks
While some believe that only good can come out of being a spouse under our tax law, not all is fair in love and taxation. Consider the following drawbacks. While there are others that could be mentioned, these are the key ones:
Splitting income becomes more difficult. The truth is, income splitting is most difficult between spouses. If, for example, you attempt to split income by giving cash or other investments to your spouse so that he or she will pay the tax on any income instead, you'll find that all the income generated on those investments will be taxed in your hands - and not your spouse's.
There's an exception to these attribution rules where your spouse uses the transferred property to generate business income, or where your spouse has actually paid fair market value for the property you transferred and has filed a special election to have the transfer take place at fair market value.
Restricts use of the principal residence exemption. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of being considered a "spouse." Each family unit is entitled to designate just one property as their principal residence each year for the purpose of claiming the principal residence exemption.
It's this exemption that allows Canadian families to sell the home, cottage or other qualifying property on a tax-free basis. As spouses, you're both members of the same family unit for the purpose of this exemption, and you can generally shelter from tax just one property between the two of you. If you weren't spouses, you'd each have your own exemption.
Superficial losses can arise easily. It's easier to be caught by the superficial loss rules when you have a spouse. Here's what those rules say: Where you have disposed of property (usually investments) at a loss, and you or a person affiliated with you (including your spouse) re-acquires the property within a certain time frame, then the loss will be denied. That time frame is 30 days before and 30 days after your disposition - a 61-day window in total. If, for example, you owned shares in XYZ Inc., sold them at a loss, and your partner purchased XYZ Inc. within that 61-day window, your loss would be denied as a superficial loss. The moral of this story is to make sure you have a knowledge of each other's investment activity if you're going to be "spouses" under the Income Tax Act.
Benefits tested by family income could be reduced. A number of benefits, including the GST credit, Canada child tax benefits, and certain provincial tax credits, are paid - or not - based on the family's income. As spouses, your income will be combined for the purpose of calculating the level of these benefits. The clawback of Old Age Security benefits is based on individual income, but don't be surprised if this changes in future, to provide a clawback based on family income.
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SOCHI, Russia — At the Iceberg Skating Palace on Wednesday night, Carly Gold performed a short program to Grieg's Piano Concerto. While sitting. In between her parents. In section C, row 5, way high in the rafters.
Two levels below, her twin, Gracie, skated as well. On Olympic ice.
Before the competition, Gracie texted her sister. "I'm afraid," she wrote.
"Everyone is afraid, it's the Olympics. Stick to your training," Carly said. "You've never been more prepared in your entire life, so go out there and show them what you love."
"Thanks. I'll do it," Gracie wrote.
WAGNER: Mocked her expression, then made new one
Still, Carly was nervous because Gracie was nervous. Lots of twins know what each other is thinking and feeling without words. As a senior level skater herself, Carly knows what it's like to land a triple and miss a lutz. Given their telepathy is two-fold, watching your twin compete in the Olympics is like competing as well.
Carly nods along to the opening. Smooth so far. Triple lutz, triple toe next. Deep breath.
"She's a little bit forward on the lutz. I wasn't sure if she would able to get the toe in but she's a fighter," Carly says.
Here come the spins. Carly counts the rotations. Triple loop. "I thought that was a little tight for her," Carly says. "I know she can do it better."
Double axel. "Not her best," Carly says. Footwork, final spin and final position.
Carly jumps to her feet and hugs her mom, Denise. "I'm so proud of her," Carly says.
JOHNNY AND TARA: Analysts sound off about 'the little girl'
WEIR: He coordinates outfits with Lipinski
If Frank Carroll is Gracie's coaching guru, Carly is her compass. She keeps her grounded and lifts her up. In the hours before the competition, the twins texted back and forth, as if it was just any other day.
Gracie was watching the reality TV cooking show, The Taste, (Think The Voice, but with food) on her laptop and the two were texting about the latest episode.
"I think it's good for her to have someone she can talk to about normal things because you know with coaches it's 'focus.' With parents, it's 'how you feeling?' I try to be the person to whom she can say, 'Do you believe he just got eliminated!'"
As Gracie's scores are posted, the Golds cheer wildly. At the moment, Gracie is in second place behind Yuna Kim of South Korea. By the end of the night, Gracie slips to fourth. A medal is in reach.
"Tomorrow we do it again," Carly says.
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Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach | ZDNet
Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach
The GeeksPhone "Keon" Firefox OS phone sitting on the box it came in, sitting on the desk I sit at. (Image: Matt Baxter-Reynolds)
I liked it.
However, go ahead and Google "no brand Android phones", and see what you can find. Click through to Alibaba.com, and you can buy a 4-inch Android phone with an ex-factory price of $40.
Topic: Smartphones
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• Start manning the pumps
Nokia is losing the low end and is still nowhere in the high end. They are up against entrenched leaders (iOS and Android) in the high end and apparently have nothing to compete with Android, and soon Ubuntu and Firefox in the low end.
Nokia gambled on the wrong horse. As I see it, MS/Windows is in a sense a damaged brand, which people are not clamoring for in mobile. You could call it karma, and MS is doing nothing to fix it with Ballmer at the helm; witness the Windows 8 debacle and the apparent on-going finger pointing and strong arming of competitors and partners.
The world does not need MS to succeed in mobile, and a decline in their desktop dominance would also be helpful.
I feel for Nokia, but in this fast changing world, falling asleep at the switch for even a few moments can prove fatal.
• you have too much
Bitterness inside of you. Eat a cake, it'll be better.
Throw All The Things
• He can't eat the cake.
He's lactose intolerant.
That's why he's always so bitter.
• Firefox OS will dance on Nokia's grave.
Nokia is dead. Nokia has an appalling strategy.
Guided by the two biggest fools in the business. The person who killed Nokia is CEO Stephen Elop, but he is just a proxy for the next biggest fool, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer comes from the Microsoft old-school, and is utterly unsuited to manage today's technology. Ballmer hates open-source software. He once described Linux as "a cancer".
Now look what's happening. Open-source software, be it Android, Firefox OS or Webkit, is eating Microsoft's lunch. Despite the collapse of Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Ballmer is set in his old ways and can't change his attitude.
This isn't rocket science. A simple and effective operating system like Firefox OS will be immensely popular in developing nations, and possibly in developed nations too, where people want value for money and/or long battery life.
After Firefox OS becomes established in phones, there's no doubt it will then be applied to larger form factors, like tablets and laptops.
• Must be the year of Linux again.
It's the year of Linux every year, after all.
• Have you been living in a cave?
Even if you add up the sales of all forms of Windows, desktop + tablet + phone, it's still considerably less than sales of Android now.
You do know Android has a Linux kernel, right?
• I like Android, I really do.
But it isn't a "true" Linux operating.
A true Linux OS would be something like Ubuntu, or DSL.
There are a couple of articles about it somewhere around the internet, so you can search it up yourself.
• Oh android is Linux now?
I guess we can stop telling people how secure Linux is then right? Or is it only Linux when you want to inflate sales numbers?
• Re: Must be the year of Linux again.
Considering Linux is now outshipping Windows about 2:1, the "year of Linux" happened a long time ago.
• Yes. Yes it is, afterall.
It has been the year of Linux for quite some time now. Success is not merely measured by units sold or profit margins alone. Survivability and sustainability is the true, ultimate measure of success. The dinosaurs were the most successful species on the planet for quite a while. I'm sure no one at ZDnet would have given the mammals much credit for being a successful up and coming species if it had been around to put out useless predictions at the time.
• the dinosaurs are not dead
the birds are still flying after all.
• Didn't you claim at once that you are platform agnostic
and never hated Microsoft? Ok, I got it you were just pretending that time, but you just showed your real jealousy and hatred now. So as per your words, you are a paid shill to spew hatred towards Microsoft. Moving on.
Ram U
• Re: and never hated Microsoft?
Strange how a legitimate comment about the state of the mobile industry is automatically (mis)construed by some as "hating" the company that happens to be on the losing end.
• Hating, it is...
D.T.Long stated "The world does not need MS to succeed in mobile, and a decline in their desktop dominance would also be helpful." This sure sounds like anti-ms to me. If he said something like "The more competition and choices, the better for the consumer", that would sound neutral to me, but he basically hopes ms fails, but feels sorry for Nokia.
• Interesting that only after MS started it'sTE program
hiring shills to bad mouth competing products and began bribing bloggers to write favorable reviews about MS products that no one can say anything negative about MS and not be accused of being a shill for the other side.
"What other side?" is the question here. Who has the money to pay people to point out MS problems/failures and why would they bother when people will gladly do so for free?
• "What other side?"
I'm sorry, since when do you have to get paid to root for "the other side"? Someone better tell all those sports fans to check the mailbox for their check.
• How about virus agnostic?
Ever read a post here by a Linux user complaining about getting infected?
There are many valid reasons for hating Microsoft and their abuse of humanity.
• Isn't this article about a Phone OS?
I don't recall ever reading about an infected windows phone. Android on the other hand...
• How about virus agnostic?
Start educate, first read about How about Linux/Chapro.A
:::Apache is being used to carry out these attacks, injecting malicious content into web pages served by an infected Linux server, without the knowledge of the website owner. Although the malware can serve practically any type of content, in this specific case it installs a variant of Win32/Zbot, malware designed to steal information from online banking customers:::::
In short linux servers are infected by Linux viruses which infect other systems and steal data. Following your words: There are many valid reasons for hating Linux and their abuse of humanity.
• I'm not sure I would put Ubuntu
in the low end category because the devices required to run Ubuntu Touch and the potential app ecosystem that will be available upon public launch. Don't for get that Canonical is targeting enterprise first and consumers second with Ubuntu Touch.
I do agree that Nokia bet on the wrong pony in this race. If Nokia can not score a big hit very soon they may as well just let Microsoft absorb them into the abyss. | <urn:uuid:d84469f9-cf6a-4d5a-8e7d-c42b66448a86> | http://www.zdnet.com/firefox-os-puts-a-good-50-smartphone-within-reach-7000015212/ | en | 0.961983 | 0.083767 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Não foi possível encontrar o iTunes no seu computador. Para ouvir uma prévia e comprar música Twelve Times Romance de @artistName[?]
Eu tenho o iTunes Download grátis
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Twelve Times Romance
Kelly Harland
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Opinião do álbum
Kelly Harland has a career-full of backup singing and foreign releases under her belt, and this album is her solo U.S. debut. A dozen love songs make the lineup; she covers everyone from Hammerstein to Bacharach. While the vocals are always pretty good, Harland goes through the lower-tempo patches and tends to either go under-emotional, or over the top. Twelve Times Romance holds a little bit of a cabaret feel, but is really more of a straightforward studio output in those cases. The treat is when she gets hold of an up-tempo piece. Her voice has less time to wander, and she hits the parts perfectly. Her rhythm here is what wins it for her. As such, the album is an on-again, off-again affair. When she's in her element, Harland does a bang-up job of delivering the songs. When she's not, it's relatively mundane. Pick it up for a quick look at some local Seattle vocal jazz, but hit the bigger, older names first if you're early in your jazz years.
Gênero: Jazz
Anos em atividade: '90s, '00s
Although she has flown most of it under the commercial radar, jazz vocalist and songwriter Kelly Harland has had a long and versatile career as a singer. Harland's father was a jazz drummer and she grew up in L.A. listening to his favorite vocalists, a list that included Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Frank Sinatra, among others, while her mother was a collector of Broadway and movie musical soundtracks, so Harland received a good grounding in the vocal...
Biografia completa
Twelve Times Romance, Kelly Harland
Ver no iTunes
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Pink Bamboo Chenille Scarf
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Re: syck-python / request to orphan / wanting to replace with pyyaml.org's YAML stuff
Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 14:30 -0400, Michael DeHaan wrote:
Bugzilla 189281 references the YAML parser for Python in FC-extras as being broken. The bug report went to oliver linux-kernel at on 4/18 and I've emailed him on 4/28 inquiring about the 4/18 bug report and volunteering to help. No replies yet on either account, I'm assuming long vacations and such are possible, such things are understandable and ok.
That bug doesn't show that it's broken, just poorly designed :-) (I'm
not arguing that syck's python bindings aren't broken in other ways and
deserve to get replaced....)
Not having a YAML package for Fedora that can serialize anything is pretty broken, IMHO :)
The Python community has apparently seen that the syck bindings that ship with syck (current=0.55) are broken, so they've come up with a version of syck-python that is 0.61 (http://pyyaml.org) on their own . They are also working on a Python Yaml 3000 replacement library, that is apparently also a good candidate.
My suggestion is that syck-python be orphaned due to the fact that (1) it's broken since it can't serialize anything at all (no dump function), and (2) syck isn't incredibly robust. Given this, I'm planning on packaging a "python-yaml" for extras using the Python-YAML 3000 or Python-Syck codebase here, which has syck at 0.61. We can then pull python-syck out of the repository. Yes, I'm signing up to do this, assuming we can orphan the broken package to reduce confusion.
I liked the idea of yaml but have refrained from using it due to the
problems with the python-syck bindings. I think it would be valuable to
have working bindings whether or not syck-python is orphaned.
Here are
some questions:
pysyck: the pyyaml.org website provides a patched syck that is an svn
snapshot plus pyyaml patches. Is an unpatched syck going to have
significant deficiencies?
Yes. An unpatched syck doesn't have a working dump function, which makes it at least 50% broken, so I'd call those dependencies rather major. I have not researched their other fixes to syck. The one issue with packaging their pyyaml patched version now is the 1.1 compliance. We have to move to 1.1 at some point, and it looks to me that the 3000 version is good enough now. (See below on syck issues).
Is upstream syck going to make new releases
or is all development of the library concentrated in the ruby tree? Has
the pysyck community proposed their changes to upstream syck?
I've contacted whytheluckystiff (upstream) about his thoughts and relationship with pysyck. He is for all intents and purposes in the Ruby camp, and I'm not sure how much time (if any) is spent on the Python ones. The python brokeness has no doubt been reported at least once, which makes me believe upstream syck isn't the answer. Further, per a coworker of mine (I haven't followed up on this myself), syck's source doesn't do a good job of checking memory allocation calls, does some reallocs, and so forth ... so I am well inclined to use a non-native parser for stability/safety reasons. PyYaml 3000 would fit this niche nicely.
pyyaml3000: No released tarballs. Does upstream have a timeline for
that or are we going to be making snapshots for quite a while?
As for pyyaml3000, I have a RPM on my desktop now (already built) and am about to submit it to FC-extras for review. It seems very stable and I can contact them about plans on releasing snapshots. For now, I've built a tarball myself.
To me, making a pyyaml3000 package (with some idea of what we can expect
from upstream) could go the route of any other Extras package. (After
all, we have both libxml2 with python bindings and elementTree already.)
pysyck could be treated the same way but seems like it would benefit
from coordination with the syck maintainer (to Obsolete syck-python and
stop building that as a subpackage, is upstream syck going to make
python fixes, should we add pysyck patches to our syck library, etc)
See if Oliver responds to inquiries about you packaging pysyck (or if he
doesn't have time for syck anymore and is willing to hand it off to
I've contacted whytheluckystiff to see his opinions on upstream pysyck's brokenness as well, just for good measure. I agree with you that having duplicate implementations won't hurt (if both work), but I do think that having just one broken implementation in there (syck-python) is not enough. So whether we orphan the broken syck-python or not, I'm backing the yaml 3000 as the right way to go. Package is currently named 'python-yaml', since we don't have one, and I don't want version numbers in the formal package name. Version is "0.3000.20060502".
| <urn:uuid:f0b99aa0-8e9d-4908-926d-0b1303ec82f1> | https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-extras-list/2006-May/msg00061.html | en | 0.950953 | 0.04288 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
John Hodge (politician)
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Hodge in the mid 1900s
John Hodge (29 October 1855 – 10 August 1937) was a Coalition Labour party politician in the United Kingdom, and was the first Minister of Labour and the second Minister of Pensions.
Early life[edit]
Hodge was born in Linkeyburn, Ayrshire and attended Ironworks School and Hutcheonstown Grammar School. When he was thirteen Hodge left school to become a solicitor's clerk and then worked a grocer's shop before joining the local iron works as a puddler—the same job as his father.
Hodge first became involved with trade unionism while at the local iron works. Hodge helped form the British Steel Smelters' Association in 1885, of which he would be elected secretary, because their bosses at Colville. They were informed by works in Motherwell that their wages would be twenty per cent lower than before. The BSSA was a success and by the summer of 1886 practically every smelter in Scotland had become a member and by 1888 the BSSA had members joining from England and Wales and become affiliated with the TUC. The BSSA rarely organised strikes, but Hodge was successful at negotiating increases in wages.
Political career[edit]
Hodge was a member of the Manchester City Council from 1897 to 1901. After failed attempts to get elected,
General Election 1900 Gower District of Boroughs[1]
Electorate 12,267
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal John Aeron Thomas 4,276 52.6
Independent Labour John Hodge 3,853 47.4
Majority 423 5.2
Turnout 66.3
Liberal hold Swing
Hodge was elected at the 1906 general election as a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Manchester Gorton. When the United Kingdom declared war and entered World War I in 1914, Hodge took a very patriotic stance and criticised other Labour politicians for opposing it. From 1915 to 1916 Hodge was Acting Chairman of the Labour Party.
In 1916 he was part of the Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry. He was also elected as president of the British Iron, Steel & Kindred Trades Association which he had helped to form with other iron and steel unions. From December 1916 to August 1917, Hodge was the first Minister of Labour and had a seat in the Cabinet. At this job Hodge claimed that all strikes during war-time were acts of treason and Hodge successfully made striking boilermakers to go back to work by threatening to charge them with the Defence of the Realm Act.
From August 1917 to January 1919, Hodge was Minister of Pensions in the Lloyd George Coalition Government. In 1919 he appeared in the film Broken in the Wars directed by Cecil Hepworth to advertise a fund set up for ex-servicemen.
The Labour Party was not pleased with Hodge's anti-strike and patriotic actions and therefore put up a candidate against him in the general election of 1918 but failed to unseat Hodge. Hodge kept his seat in the general election of 1922 but retired from Parliament at the general election of 1923. Hodge continued to argue against strikes during the General Strike of 1926 and retired from the presidency of the British Iron, Steel & Kindred Trades Association in 1931.
Hodge was turned down for military service because he was too old. Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, who served under Hodge, called him a "fat, rampaging and most patriotic Tory working man".[2]
1. ^ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
2. ^ Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, Memoirs (1925), p. 207.
External links[edit]
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Ernest Frederic George Hatch
Member of Parliament for Manchester Gorton
Succeeded by
Joseph Compton
Political offices
Preceded by
Thomas Burt
President of the Trades Union Congress
Succeeded by
S. Munro
New title Minister of Labour
Succeeded by
George Henry Roberts
Preceded by
George Barnes
Minister of Pensions
Succeeded by
Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt
Party political offices
Preceded by
William Charles Steadman
Chairman of the Annual Conference of the Labour Representation Committee
Succeeded by
William John Davis
Preceded by
Richard Bell
Chairman of the Labour Representation Committee
Succeeded by
David Shackleton
Preceded by
Joseph Nicholas Bell
Chairman of the Annual Conference of the Labour Representation Committee
Succeeded by
Arthur Henderson | <urn:uuid:981fbf29-8ebd-45ef-88d7-c8d3e912b665> | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hodge_(politician) | en | 0.966998 | 0.028197 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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I looked on Oxford's online dictionary and was able to find the names identifying orders of a given degree:
1. primary
2. secondary
3. tertiary
4. quaternary
5. quinary
6. senary
7. septenary
8. octonary
9. nonary
10. denary
11. -- no term for 11th degree??
12. duodenary
I am curious as to what would be the sequence of terms regarding a set of 'n' items? I have up to four:
1. unary
2. binary
3. ternary
4. quaternion
but, I cannot seem to find anything beyond that. Anyone know where this list may be?
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3 Answers
up vote 9 down vote accepted
The problem is that English uses two different kinds of adjectives to mean "first, second, etc". The ones in -ary without the -n- come from the Latin ordinals, "first, second, etc."; but they are different after 3.
1. Primus — primary "first"
2. Secundus — secondary "second"
3. Tertius — tertiary
4. Quartus — *quartary
5. Quintus — *quintary
The -arius suffix is also used in Latin with ordinals, and secundarius means something like "second, pertaining to two, second in rank", though it often comes very close to the simple ordinal secundus. It usually adds some connotation of ranks and order in a grand system. There is also secundanus, which I believe isn't much different.
The -n- ones come from Latin distributive adjectives, "one each, two each, etc."; they are always used in plural. They were sometimes also used in a sense roughly similar to the ordinals, which is probably why English uses them in an odd way.
1. (Singuli — single "one each")
2. Bini — binary "two each"
3. Terni/trini — ternary/*trinary
4. Quaterni — quaternary
5. Quini — quinary
6. Seni — senary
7. Septeni — septenary
8. Octoni — octonary
9. Noveni — *novenary
10. Deni — denary
11. Undeni — *undenary
12. Duodeni — duodenary
13. Terni/trini deni — *ternidenary/*tridenary
I believe the ones derived from ordinals were originally used to mean "second [in order]" in English, and the distributive -n- ones to mean "of two parts", or "characterised by the number 2". But then, because these meanings are related and often overlap, they got mixed up, resulting in the current defective lists, where the -n- forms serve both senses from 4 up.
The number one is the strangest exception of all, where a new word unary was made up, though no Latin equivalent exists (there is only unus, "one", but that is like using *duary from duo, "two"). Nonary is odd as well.
These are the Latin cardinal numbers for reference:
1. Unus/una/unum/etc. (depending on gender and case) — "one"
2. Duo/duorum/duarum/etc. (depending on case and gender) — "two"
3. Tres/trium/etc. (depending on case)
4. Quattuor
5. Quinque
6. Sex
7. Septem
8. Octo
9. Novem
10. Decim
11. Undecim
12. Duodecim
13. Tredecim
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ah, that's why I couldn't find a separate listing ... that's fine then for my purposes; the terms were going to be used in naming functions/classes in a library I am developing, and I was trying to be as grammatically accurate as I could. That's not usually a big deal for us programmers, but I tend to be more finicky about certain things than others. – Will May 13 '11 at 12:51
@Will: An excellent attitude! Users of the future with literary tastes will appreciate it in your software! – Cerberus May 13 '11 at 12:56
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• Nullary means 0-ary.
• Unary means 1-ary.
• Binary means 2-ary.
• Ternary means 3-ary.
• Quaternary means 4-ary.
• Quinary means 5-ary.
• Senary means 6-ary.
• Septenary means 7-ary.
• Octary means 8-ary.
• Nonary means 9-ary.
Hope this helps.
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...and for 10... decimal. – Mitch May 13 '11 at 1:04
...and alternatively base n. – Mitch May 13 '11 at 1:05
@Mitch No, bases are a different meaning. The words "binary" and "ternary" are used for both, but "octary" and "octal" are different. – aschepler May 13 '11 at 2:29
@aschepler: oops, you're right. what would the sequence be then for base n? – Mitch May 13 '11 at 2:32
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I know I'm a little late here, but I thought it might be worth mentioning that Wikipedia has a great list of base systems, which goes all the way up to 16 (Hexadecimal, of course) without holes, and then on to 85 (Pentaoxagesimal). Here's a quick reproduction of part of it:
1. unary (not actually on the main list, but listed farther down as being used in tally marks)
2. binary
3. ternary
4. quarternary
5. quinary
6. senary
7. septenary (used in weeks)
8. octal
9. nonary
10. decimal (everybody's favorite!)
11. undecimal
12. duodecimal (used in hours, months)
13. tridecimal
14. pentadecimal
15. pentadecimal
16. hexadecimal (Base16 encoding)
18 is octodecimal
20 is vigesimal
It's interesting to note that even our method of naming these systems reflects our attachment to the decimal system, as we begin to add prefixes after decimal. Also, if you want to form a higher number, it appears that you can use the following formula:
prefix for 2nd digit + prefix for 1st digit + gesimal
So, 27 is septemvigesimal. I invented this formula in answer to this question, but it appears to fit every case on the list.
Wikipedia also lists −2 as negabinary and −3 as negaternary. Theoretically, you can add the nega- prefix to anything, but I have no idea what you would use it for.
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Subject: Xircom pcmcia ethernet?
To: None <>
From: John Kohl <>
List: current-users
Date: 10/05/1998 13:12:42
I have an ethernet card borrowed from work:
Xircom, CreditCard 10/100, CE3-10/100, 1.00 (manufactuer 0x105, product 0x10a) function 0 not configured
The manufacturer code matches TDK according to our sys/dev/pcmcia/pcmciadevs
The product doesn't match anything.
Is this likely to work with any of our current drivers?
ne? (probably not) ep? (probably not)
sm? mbe? (maybe?)
How to tell?
==John Kohl <>, <>
Write a poem, share your heart!
Home page: <URL:> | <urn:uuid:d6cf4b57-8189-4f5f-8a62-5bd3e420c14b> | http://mail-index.netbsd.org/current-users/1998/10/05/0015.html | en | 0.851208 | 0.324337 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
SÃO PAULO, Brazil—Emerging nations from Brazil to Taiwan are racing to erect protective berms around their economies as a torrent of capital pours in from rich countries such as the U.S., threatening to derail growth by sending currencies soaring, squeezing exporters and injecting volatility into local markets.
This week, Taiwan imposed limits on bond holdings by foreigners. In October, both Brazil and Thailand raised taxes on foreign investment in local bonds. In June, South Korea restricted derivatives trading, while Indonesia limited investors from selling some short-term bonds. Meantime, central banks from Israel to South Africa are buying dollars to keep their currencies from rising.
As currencies surge across emerging markets, officials are reaching for once-taboo policy prescriptions broadly defined as capital controls in a bid to head off asset bubbles and the other economic downsides of excessive capital flows. The moves, which often carry unwanted side effects, are the latest example of how economic imbalances between rich and developing economies in the wake of the global financial crisis are creating economic headaches for policy makers in the emerging world.
With economies in the U.S., Japan and Europe feeble and interest rates there very low, faster-growing nations like Brazil are attracting a frenzy of investment. Much of it is speculative "hot money" attracted by the higher yields in emerging markets and the prospect of rising currencies, relative to those of richer nations. The trend isn't likely to ease soon. Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will buy $600 billion of government bonds to stimulate the U.S. economy. Some of the stimulus will slosh to higher-yielding emerging markets.
"There is a tsunami of dollars that is difficult to contain," said Mauricio Cárdenas, a Latin America scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Countries are doing what they can."
The currency tension between the rich and developing worlds has touched off protests by emerging economy leaders, most prominently Brazil, seeking to push the issue into the center of debate at the Group of 20 summit in Seoul this week. With its won rising, South Korea is considering new capital controls, including taxes on capital flows and foreign bond holdings to add to limits on derivatives trades.
"It doesn't help things to be throwing dollars from a helicopter," Brazil's outspoken Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Nov. 4 about the U.S. Fed's bond buying program. "The only result it has is to devalue the dollar."
U.S. officials have defended the move on the grounds that the global economy will be better off if the U.S. economy recovers faster.
What's more, some economists say the true culprits are countries such as China that maintain artificially weak currencies as a matter of course. China raised reserve requirements at banks this week, also a move to slow foreign investment.
The patchwork of currency policies has sparked concern that global cooperation in the wake of the financial crisis has been replaced by economic self-interest.
"Urgent action is needed to arrest the disturbing trend towards unilateral moves on macroeconomic, trade and currency issues," Charles H. Dallara, managing director of the International Institute of Finance, an association of big international banks, said in a recent statement.
In normal times, rising investment and strong currencies are considered good things. And emerging-market countries still rely on foreign investment for growth.
But what's changed is the flow of speculative cash has reached levels that are bigger than the mostly smaller emerging economies can digest.
The Institute for International Finance estimates private capital flows to emerging economies will be $825 billion in 2010, compared with $581 billion last year.
—Tom Murphy in São Paulo
and Evan Ramstad in Seoul contributed to this article. | <urn:uuid:8413c5e2-a153-4695-8450-231c0bb57e80> | http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB40001424052748704804504575606503406947416?mod=_newsreel_3&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB40001424052748704804504575606503406947416.html%3Fmod%3D_newsreel_3 | en | 0.94747 | 0.065708 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Reject confusing marijuana plan
Our Opinion
Oregon's existing medical marijuana laws have created a mess - placing pot in a murky legal status that is confusing for law enforcement, employers and even the people who might have a legitimate health reason for the use of marijuana.
Given the well-documented problems with the medical marijuana program, we agree with proponents of Measure 74, which appears on the Nov. 2 ballot: Something needs to be done. In our view, however, this particular measure would only add to the confusion, pushing marijuana closer to legalization without actually making it legal.
Measure 74 would set up a system of nonprofit dispensaries that could produce, sell, transport and supply pot to people who hold medical marijuana cards. At present, it is very easy to obtain permission for a medical marijuana card through physicians who specialize in authorizing such cards. The state has granted cards to tens of thousands of Oregonians in the 12 years since voters initially approved the medical marijuana program.
But there are obvious troubles that arise from allowing marijuana cards by the thousands. When some people can legally use pot - but others cannot - police have difficulty enforcing drug laws and employers are burdened with deciding whether some workers should be excluded from their drug policies.
Measure 74 doesn't solve these issues, but it does have the potential to greatly expand the availability of marijuana and encourage even more people to avail themselves of the program.
We have argued that Oregonians need to make up their minds about marijuana -either it is legal or it is not. Measure 74 takes another incremental step toward legalization, but fails to ask the real hard questions about pot in overall society.
Voters should reject this measure, lest they further confuse a system that's confounding enough already. | <urn:uuid:b28bbe74-c195-473c-80a7-43ecd7ce8bdd> | http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=36565 | en | 0.95669 | 0.364015 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have 6 required field validators and 1 custom validator. ErrorMsg is common for required fields so I have set that msg to validation summery headertext but the problem is that error message is coming with custom validator too. In case of custom validator I want only customValidator error messsage not Header text. How can I do that> Do I have to add new validation summer for custom validator with no header text OR there is any smart solution?
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up vote 0 down vote accepted
document.getElementById('<%= vsPlaceOrder.ClientID %>').headertext = "";
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Pennsylvania remains in the midst of an incredible natural gas boom, with dozens of companies flocking to its Marcellus Shale basin and giving the state — and the country — an economic jolt.
But a hydrocarbon frenzy in Pennsylvania is not without precedent.
153 years ago today, a hard-up wildcatter named Edwin Drake drilled the country's first oil well.
But while the event itself was momentous, Drake's life remained tragic throughout.
For the first decade of his adult life, he held odd jobs, according to Penn State's Urja Davé. His first wife died in child birth. Eventually he landed a gig with the New York and New Haven railroad but was eventually forced to retire when he became ill with muscular neuralgia.
Up until 1859, oil had been gathered by collecting whatever had seeped through to the surface — known drilling methods were deemed too dangerous.
Still, everyone knew that Pennsylvania had enormous potential.
Eventually, a group of chemists, lawyers, and others formed the first oil company in the United States, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York, Davé writes. The company hired Drake "due to the sheer coincidence that he was out of work and staying at the same hotel as the founders of the company."
Apparently frustrated with the methods at hand, Drake realized that if he could grind down the rocks before simply drilling through them, he could better access whatever flowed up from the ground.
On Saturday, August 27, 1859, Smith's drill bit smashed through a rock ledge 75-feet deep. It then slipped another eight inches into a dirt crevice.
According to Kendall F. Haven, at this point the sun was setting and work halted.
The next morning, Drake discovered an enormous pool of oil covering the ground around the well, "as if the derrick was rising from the middle of a quiet, black lake," Haven writes. "By noon on Monday, every container he could find was filled with oil — tubs, empty whiskey barrels, troughs and jugs."
"Western Pennsylvania produced half of the world's oil until the East Texas oil boom in 1901."
Tragically, Drake failed to patent his method, and Seneca Oil had already laid him off.
Drake dug just two more wells, and by the 1870s, they'd stopped producing.
For a brief time, Drake became a Justice of the Peace in 1860 but poor health again scuttled his work. Eventually, Davé says, "The caring residents of Titusville started a collection for him in 1870 and convinced the General Assembly in 1873 to provide Drake's family with an annual pension of $1,500."
Drake died in Bethlehem, PA in 1880, and was later moved to Titusville, where he remains today. In 1902, a Standard Oil Executive built a statue of Drake at his burial site.
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My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt
Text Size: Small Text Normal Text Large Text Larger Text
HYDE PARK, Monday—I had the first of the picnics for the Wiltwyck School for Boys the other day, and I never realized so keenly before how perfectly free from self-consciousness children can be if nobody reminds them that there are any differences in color or race. The boys show signs of early hardship, and lack of proper feeding and environment has left many of them with poor coordination and nervousness. Here and there among those who have recently arrived at the institution, there is a kind of sullenness which you feel is a protective reaction. They expect to be badly treated and so they protect themselves ahead of time by showing no interest in anyone else.
The other day, they all ate as boys should eat at a picnic, and then they sat and listened while I read aloud. Finally, they played games before going with me to the Library and the big house.
* * *
The school has recently been given a very beautiful new building by the Hofheimer Foundation and Mrs. David Levy. The building contains a kitchen fully equipped with the most modern gadgets, a dining hall with a little stage at one end, upstairs rooms for the staff, and a real projection room.
As I looked at the tables set with new china and silverware, I thought how different the effect of eating in a place like that must be in comparison with the old dining room. The latter was in a basement, and the food came out of a kitchen so small that you wondered how the cook could turn around. It must set new standards for both the staff and the children to live in these new surroundings, and I am tremendously grateful that these youngsters can have this opportunity.
* * *
Some of the boys, before being sent to Wiltwyck, were in several other institutions and were found so difficult that they could not be kept. But at Wiltwyck, the boys themselves seem to help with the discipline. One little boy announced on arrival that they would not be able to keep him, that he "always managed to run away from every institution." There are no walls around Wiltwyck, and he did run away several times. But he always came back and the other boys finally convinced him that "we don't run away from Wiltwyck."
The ten-year experiment now under way is, of course, partly psychiatric. But if they succeed in finding a way to treat delinquent children which makes them more normal, a way to interest them in education which makes them want to learn, and a way to start them on arts and crafts so that they have some outlet for the pent-up tensions that have made them turn to gangsterism, then a pattern may be set which may be helpful to similar institutions all over the country.
E. R. | <urn:uuid:383419c9-9291-4a63-9656-1fc7daa82ef0> | http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1947&_f=md000699 | en | 0.977234 | 0.024462 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Mats Zuccarello's shootout goal lifts Rangers past Maple Leafs
Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers celebrates his game
Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers celebrates his game winning save in the shootout against Mikhail Grabovski of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (April 10, 2013) (Credit: Jim McIsaac)
Mats Zuccarello felt the pressure as much as anyone.
Zuccarello was called out by coach John Tortorella before Wednesday night's 3-2 shootout win over the Maple Leafs, in which the winger scored the lone goal for a crucial second point in a tight playoff race.
"He's in better shape and quicker, but he's got to score in the shootout," Tortorella said about Zuccarello, who was denied on a shootout bid by Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury in a 2-1 loss on April 5. "It's nice that we've seen it before, but we need it now."
"Now" came after 65 minutes at the Garden, when Zuccarello's five-hole wrister beat James Reimer (26 saves). Henrik Lundqvist stopped Tyler Bozak, forced Nazem Kadri wide, and stopped Mikhail Grabovski as the Rangers improved to 4-4 in shootouts. The Leafs are 0-5.
The win moved the Rangers (20-16-4, 44 points) into a tie for sixth place with Ottawa and the Islanders. Ottawa has nine games left; the Rangers and Islanders have eight. The three teams are two points ahead of ninth-place Winnipeg and four ahead of the 10th-place Devils.
The Islanders play in Boston tonight.
The Rangers and Islanders play at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday night. The teams have identical records, but the Islanders own the tiebreaker with one more regulation win (17) than the Rangers.
"This time of year, it's a huge second point," Tortorella said. "I said before that [Zuccarello] needs to do something, and he did."
Zuccarello, who began this season in the KHL, had two assists in his first six games. He is 6-for-12 in the shootouts with four game-deciding goals. He said seeing the puck go in "was a good feeling. It's about time."
Lundqvist (23 saves) rebounded after allowing four goals in Monday's loss to the Leafs. "I was making better decisions and reading the plays better," he said.
Overall, the Rangers were far better defensively, preventing the Leafs from getting a shot for 24:33. "I don't think we spent much time in our zone, at least compared to our last game," said Ryan McDonagh, who scored his fourth goal for a 2-1 lead when he stepped around Kadri for a long wrister at 16:43 of the second period. "We didn't have the numerous breakdowns, but when we did, Henrik was there."
The one-goal lead in the third didn't last. Dan Girardi flubbed a pass at the Leafs blue line, and the turnover led to a two-on-one. James Van Riemsdyk found Phil Kessel on his right for his second goal and the 2-2 tie at 8:05. It was Toronto's first shot on goal of the period.
Earlier, Carl Hagelin scored his first goal in 11 games midway through the second period to tie it at 1. He swept home a rebound at the right post off a shot from McDonagh.
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The Hardangerfjord as seen from Odda.
Hardangerfjord south and east of Bergen
With a length of 179 km (111 mi), the Hardangerfjord in the county of Hordaland in Norway is the third largest fjord in the world and the second largest in Norway. The surrounding district is called Hardanger.
The Hardangerfjord starts at the Atlantic Ocean just south of Bergen (SW Norway). Here the fjord penetrates in a north easterly direction until it meets the grand mountain plateau of Hardangervidda. The longest branch of the Hardangerfjord is Sørfjorden which cuts south about 50 km from the main fjord. Its maximum depth is more than 800 m (2,624 ft) just outside Norheimsund in the middle of the fjord.
Norway's third largest glacier is found on the Folgefonn peninsula, a part of the Hardangerfjord. With its three parts, the Folgefonn glacier covers an area of 220 km2 (85 sq mi), and is an area which in 2005 became protected as a national park.
The history of the fjord goes far beyond its Viking history, back to the time of hunters on the surrounding mountains, and later on, farming along this fertile area which today is considered the fruit orchard of Norway. Later the fjord became the birthplace for a large tourism influx to Norway, and in 1875 Thomas Cook started weekly cruise departures from London to the Hardangerfjord, due to its spectacular nature, glaciers and grand waterfalls. Soon after this many of the major waterfalls became the power source for large industries in fjord settlements such as Odda.
Today the Hardangerfjord is witness to a renaissance in tourism and new infrastructure for travellers has once again become an industry for the local communities along the fjord.
The fjord has good conditions for fish farming. Fish farms yearly produce more than 40.000 tons of salmon and rainbow trout (2002) and makes the Hardangerfjord one of four major fish farming regions in the world.
The contemporary fjord is divided among the 13 municipalities Bømlo, Eidfjord, Etne, Granvin, Jondal, Kvam, Kvinnherad, Odda, Sund, Sveio, Tysnes, Ullensvang and Ulvik. The total number of inhabitants for all these municipalities is only a bit more than 70 thousand - on a total area of 8,471 km².
Side fjords which connect with Hardangerfjord[edit]
Hardangerfjord sunset
From west to east:
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
• Svein Ulvund's collection (Beautiful pictures, not exclusively from the Hardangerfjord, but also from nearby places. Daily updated! Please note the search feature, to be used, e.g., with Hardanger and 2007.)
| <urn:uuid:568f0abe-ff5a-400a-9f06-05a23e7f71c5> | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardanger_Fjord | en | 0.90999 | 0.026865 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Law of Argentina
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The Legal system of Argentina is a Civil law legal system. The two pillars of the Civil system are the Constitution of Argentina (1853) and the Civil Code of Argentina (1871).
The Argentine Constitution of 1853 was an attempt to unite the unstable and young country of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata under a single law, creating as well the different organisms needed to run a country. The constitution was finally approved after failed signatory attempts in 1813 (see Assembly of 1813), 1819 and 1831 (Pacto Federal).
The Civil Code was written by Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, and started being effective on January 1, 1871. Beyond the influence of the Spanish legal tradition, the Argentine Civil Code was also inspired by the Draft of the Brazilian Civil Code, the Draft of the Spanish Civil Code of 1851, the Napoleonic code and the Chilean Civil Code among others. The sources of this Civil Code also include various theoretical legal works, mainly of the great French jurists of the 19th century. It was the first Civil Law that consciously adopted as its cornerstone the distinction between rights from obligations and real property rights, thus distancing itself from the French model.
Judicial system[edit]
A 1991 law provides a fund for compensating prisoners who were illegally detained during the 1976–83 military dictatorship. In 1992, a system of oral public trials was instituted in order to speed up the judicial process while improving the protection of procedural rights of criminal defendants.
In practice, there is not a truly independent judiciary and the courts lack power to enforce orders against the executive. In 1989, President Carlos Menem, in a court-packing maneuver, expanded the number of Supreme Court justices from five to nine. In 2003, shortly after taking office, President Néstor Kirchner signaled his intention to remove some of Menem’s appointees and to strengthen the judiciary by undoing some of Menem’s moves that turned the Supreme Court into a political ally of the president rather than an autonomous power of the state. Formal and informal constitutional accusation against Menem-appointed Supreme Court justices between 2003 and 2005 allowed Kirchner to appoint new justices who are considered the among the best in the Argentine legal community.[citation needed] While doing so he issued a degree limiting the powers of the president of the republic to appoint judges to the Supreme Court.
Structure of the Law in Argentina[edit]
Jacarandá in bloom in Plaza Lavalle, the heart of Buenos Aires' legal district.
Constitution of Argentina
1. Bill of Rights
2. Form of Government
3. Delegation of Powers to the National
4. Precedence of Laws - International Treaties
5. Provincial Constitutions
Civil Code of Argentina
Preliminary titles
1. On the laws
2. On counting intervals of the right
Books of Law
1. Of the persons
2. Of the personal rights in the civil relations
3. Of the possessions and real rights
4. Of the personal and real rights
Complementary Title
1. Of the application of the civil laws
Argentine sources of law
1. Statutory Law
2. Case Law
3. Custom
4. General Principles of Law
5. Analogy
6. Equity
Argentine interpretation of legislation
1. Methods of Interpretation
2. Sources of Interpretation
3. Special Rules of Interpretation
Argentine law jurisdictions
1. Jurisdiction
2. Competence
3. Levels of Jurisdiction
4. Jurisdiction of the Argentine Courts in the International Sphere
See also[edit]
External links[edit] | <urn:uuid:c5cce662-7c4a-46b1-9242-bf0eb4a70d22> | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Argentina | en | 0.937661 | 0.387856 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Dark Lady Aldera
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The Dark Lady Aldera was a force witch believed to haunt the jungle world of Zebulon Prime in the Vargis Tau System, where she was believed to serve as an advisor to the pirate lord Ral Duris. She is known to have at least one apprentice, who was killed by the padawans of the Unified Force Academy.
Personal tools
Shadows of the Force
Mandalorian Interlude | <urn:uuid:31f026f1-ca6c-4624-a86f-9d8a981ffb8b> | http://holocron.griffcrier.com/index.php?title=Dark_Lady_Aldera | en | 0.956872 | 0.049528 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Our Backyard: Drill Baby, Drill!
program date:
Tue, 09/16/2008
Our Backyard, KBOO's locally produced environmental series. This edition: The US House passes an energy bill allowing off-shore drilling .... sorta. Republicans and Democrats do kabuki politics with energy policy.
| <urn:uuid:42f126c1-f756-4e82-8558-870d8e7c4218> | http://www.kboo.org/node/9465 | en | 0.803692 | 0.038947 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Edition: U.S. / Global
Canadian Democracy
Published: September 27, 2003
To the Editor:
Re ''Gay Wedding Bells. Why No Hubbub? It's Canada'' (Letter From the Americas, Sept. 24):
If it is true that Canada has built ''a consensus among disparate provinces to join in a confederation loosely governed by a weak central government,'' it seems that our neighbor to the north has achieved what the founders so desperately wanted for themselves and those of us who followed: a true Jeffersonian democracy.
New York, Sept. 24, 2003 | <urn:uuid:ec037c73-f472-49a5-8c7b-9cdc43fc6d91> | http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/27/opinion/l-canadian-democracy-447544.html?src=pm | en | 0.941786 | 0.13778 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Emperor's Clothes
By Paul Hein.
Exclusive to STR
Well, maybe so. Despite that, however, some of the things that we’re being told about the current financial situation simply don’t make sense to me, and I don’t see how they would become any more believable if I had a PhD in economics.
For instance: the bank bailouts. The banks are the source--and the only source--of our money, or what passes for it. You don’t need a university degree to know that. Just read some of the publications of the Federal Reserve itself, and you’ll learn how banks create money by making loans.
Uncle Sam is probably the world’s biggest borrower. So explain, please, how an organization that has no money (but, indeed, owes trillions) can “bail out” those institutions that, with the stroke of a pen, create money? If there were a drought, would you take what little water you could obtain and pour it down the well?
Well, the bailouts are a fact of life, so there must have been a reason for them, even if it makes no sense. I’m not privy to what that reason could be, but I suspect it had to do with psychology, which, after all, is an essential component of government and banking. The Fed itself admits that what makes its money acceptable is the confidence that people place in it; and the government taxes what you earn, reinforcing the idea that the money is scarce and valuable, instead of available in unlimited “amounts” with a few keystrokes of a computer. If the banks created billions of dollars in loans that were not repaid, and continued doing business as usual, it might wake up even the ever-somnolent man on the street to the realization that he was a fool to repay his loan. So the creditor had to appear to “fail,” only to be rescued by the debtor. If the public accepts that, as it apparently did, the bank/government axis knows it can get away with anything—even convincing it that money is scarce, and banks can run out of it.
There’s a possibility, hopefully remote, that the economic insanity of the rulers was intended to make things worse, but that suggests that the government thrives on “crises,” real or created, and you surely can’t believe that!
Like the boy gawking at the emperor, I’m staring with some amazement at an article from one of the larger brokerage houses, which I read on the Internet. It says that government defaults are “inevitable.” I suppose by “default” is meant inability to pay bills, perhaps even bankruptcy, although that word wasn’t used.
But doesn’t Uncle own the printing press? I know that the printing of currency is done at the behest of the Federal Reserve, but, gosh, in an emergency, couldn’t the government go ahead and print some on its own authority? After all, it created the Fed, and even though it couldn’t finance its programs without it, the Fed, in turn, wouldn’t be collecting hundreds of billions in interest without Uncle. Détente, in other words. If you had the press that printed what people accepted for money, what would you do if you found yourself in financial straits? It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?
But such an elementary, little-boy-emperor, explanation isn’t offered by the brokerage. Rather, it suggests that the government might ease its financial problems by paying its debts with a devalued currency.
Whoa! Isn’t that’s what the government has been doing for the last 30 or 40 years? And not only the government, but every other borrower? When was the last time a creditor received a dollar in repayment that had as much buying power as the dollar he loaned?
Back in 1980 the government bailed our Chrysler—the first time. One of the justifications for its action was that Chrysler was simply too big to fail. Are we to believe that the U.S. government isn’t? Thousands of workers would be without jobs were the auto manufacturer to go under, we were told. That just couldn’t be allowed to happen. But we’re hearing growing numbers of pundits warning us that Uncle Sam could go belly up. If the U.S. isn’t “too big to fail,” what is?
I don’t get it. As I said, I’m not trained in economics, so maybe that’s why I don’t understand. To me it’s like putting out a fire by pouring gasoline on it. When the government’s policies restore productivity and profitability to our economy, I will be the first to stand and applaud. Until then, it still looks to me like the emperor’s not wearing any clothes.
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Columns on STR: 75 | <urn:uuid:c2aed77e-0664-4748-a3ae-18f6499d9325> | http://www.strike-the-root.com/emperors-clothes | en | 0.967179 | 0.089636 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Ester Deline became
‘Queen’ reigns over Liberian hospital
By Kathy L. Gilbert
2:00 P.M. ET Dec. 5, 2012 | GANTA, Liberia (UMNS)
Most hospitals don't have royalty on staff, but then Ganta (Liberia) United Methodist Hospital is not like most hospitals.
Rocked and ravaged by years of war, the battle-scarred hospital was founded by two Methodist missionaries in 1926.
Ester Deline became "Queen of Ganta United Methodist Hospital" on July 31, 2010.
Deline was the top fundraiser for the hospital and the prize was a crown and title. She credits her win to contributions from her seven children and many friends among the staff and patients at the hospital.
There are no signs Deline will give up her crown anytime soon.
Her day job is the warehouse assistant for the hospital, a job with much responsibility. She catalogs everything that comes into the hospital - from purple scrubs, to pink baby sheets, to heavy equipment like the air conditioner sitting in front of her desk.
She keeps detailed ledgers, carefully printing everything that comes into or goes out of the hospital. Many of the boxed items are donations from United Methodists around the globe.
"It's a tough job … whew," she says.
But in addition to her heavy responsibilities in the warehouse she is also the face and voice for the hospital. She comes to work every day dressed for spur-of-the-moment royal visits. Even on a Saturday she looks exquisite, from her brown, ruffled hat to her black pumps.
"I serve as public relations. As queen, they carry me out for ceremonies, marriages, deaths, all kinds of things. I speak on behalf of the hospital."
Patients wait in the eye clinic at Ganta United Methodist Hospital.
Patients wait in the eye clinic at Ganta United Methodist Hospital.
Troubled history
Ganta is a hospital that needs all the good will it can get.
Despite a red mud road that makes traveling to the center a long tedious journey, the medical center cares for more than 450,000, including patients from the surrounding countries of Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire. It is a hospital that was literally a battlefield during the long years of civil war in Liberia. It is riddled with bullet holes and other scars as proof of its troubled history.
War devastated the hospital, said United Methodist Bishop John Innis of Liberia. "They practically broke down the main hospital, and we became hopeless."
Charles Taylor, 22nd president of Liberia, led a group to overthrow then-President Samuel Doe. That action initiated the first Liberian Civil War from 1989 to '96. The second civil war was from 1999 to 2003.
The hospital became the base for Taylor and his people, Innis said. "It was like a battlefield, a real battlefield. But God kept eyes on the hospital. In 2005, the United Methodist Liberian Conference voted to build a new hospital that would receive patients from all over Africa."
Dr. Albert Willicore, chief medical officer of Ganta hospital, was in Liberia during the days of the civil war.
"The whole place was devastated because there was a seesaw era between the government troops and the rebellious troops," said Willicore. "So this place was dilapidated, everything down. Most of the equipment in the operating theater was bullet-ridden so that we did not do very involved surgery that would need sophisticated equipment."
Even today the hospital doesn't have running water or reliable electricity. Generators are turned on when there is surgery or during emergencies, he said.
"The church has operated a hospital in Ganta that has met a very critical need of the people of this country as well as in adjoining countries," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in a recent interview with the United Methodist Liberian Conference. The goal to build a new hospital is most welcome, she said.
"We ask all the partners of the church, domestic as well as international, to come and work with The United Methodist Church to achieve this very, very needed goal.
"This hospital provides healing for thousands, thousands of people here and around. And so with a new hospital all their lives will be made whole. They will be happy people."
Ganta (Liberia) United Methodist Hospital was founded by two United Methodist missionaries in 1926.
Ganta (Liberia) United Methodist Hospital was founded by two Methodist missionaries in 1926.
Personal toll
Deline was hired at the hospital Dec. 1, 2008. She clearly loves her job and the hospital and works to raise awareness and funds for its repair.
"The population is increasing, patients are increasing and our hospital is full," she said. "Our dream is to build a new hospital."
The war took a personal toll on Deline. She and her father and children fled to Guinea. Her husband and mother stayed, and both were burned to death in a church rebels set on fire.
One of her sons, who was 5, died when they were in exile because she couldn't get him to a hospital.
She said it took her a long time to come back to Liberia. Her days are much happier now.
"Being queen is very important," she said. "Since I became queen, everyone loves and respects me."
| <urn:uuid:f7bc03d4-7895-4e42-b50c-82f8f30b6841> | http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/queen-reigns-over-liberian-hospital | en | 0.978424 | 0.026135 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Gatsby is No Good
Disclaimer: I do not own The Great Gatsby, this is just an assignment I did for school.
Tom and Daisy sat quietly in their kitchen for a moment, neither of them touching the food that was in front of them. Each was lost in their own thoughts of the events that had taken place earlier.
Daisy was staring at her hands, all thoughts focused on the fight raging inside of her. Should she tell Tom that it was, in fact, her driving the car that had killed the woman? Could she tell him that it was her driving, and not Gatsby? No, it was not something she needed to share; it was not something Tom needed to know. Her husband's voice broke her out of her reverie, and she realized she had not heard a word he had said.
"What was that?" she asked, looking up at him.
"I said, Gatsby is no good. He doesn't know how things work around here. I mean, a man who does not stop his car when he hits someone, a woman no less, well, what kind of man is that?" Tom stated angrily, "No man at all in my opinion. I mean, he clearly saw her run out into the run and he didn't bother to stop. Didn't even stop when he knew he had hit her. No man does an inhumane thing such as that; no man hits a young, innocent woman and then just keeps going."
Daisy looked back down, her mind reeling as she listened to what her husband was saying. At first he seemed to be trying to sway her away from Gatsby, but now… Now it seemed like there was more to what her husband was saying other than just how bad Gatsby was. She realized Tom was talking again and tried to listen to what he was saying.
"–had to have seen her, there was no way that you hit someone with that much force without seeing them first." She looked back up, putting the pieces together. Suddenly, Tom's increased anger towards Gatsby and how adamant he was that he must have seen that woman he hit. Suddenly she knew, she knew exactly who that woman was.
"You're right," she said suddenly, "He must have seen her. She ran directly out in front of us." Her hand was stretched out in front of her and when he spoke he placed his hand on top of hers.
"You see," he stressed. "Gatsby is not like us. He does not know how things are supposed to be. He throws these extravagant parties and yet no one attending seems to know who he is; and now, he's killed someone."
"You're right," Daisy agreed. "You're absolutely right. We should leave this place Tom. Tomorrow. We should leave and go somewhere far away from Jay Gatsby, that woman he killed, and everyone like him." Tom looked at her, surprised. He had been sure it would be harder to sway her. He knew she would never leave him, but to take her away from Gatsby, he had thought that would be more difficult. He supposed she had just realized how foolish she had been in thinking that whatever had been going on between her and Gatsby would last.
"Alright," he said at last, "We'll do it. We'll leave. We shall move away, take nothing but the nanny with us. We can hire new servants wherever we go and we can buy new things. It must be a nice place though, no more of these foolish men like Gatsby."
"Of course," Daisy said at one, "No more 'Jay Gatsbys', no more silly party goers, and no more women being hit by reckless cars." She appeared genuine when she said it, but Tom thought he saw something in her eyes when she mentioned Myrtle. Of course, Daisy did not know her name; Daisy did not even know her, did she? No, of course not. She could not. He shook his head, thinking the sooner they got away from East Egg and Jay Gatsby, the better things would be. At least then he would not have to wonder if Daisy was running around on him with other foolish men.
So, we had to do a creative writing piece for my English class and we were given three options. I chose to do the conversation between Tom and Daisy after Daisy hits Myrtle with the car.
I hope you liked it! | <urn:uuid:60b15cd8-bdd2-4f1f-b75c-8e791f8cff0d> | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8047259/1/Gatsby-is-No-Good | en | 0.99578 | 0.032488 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
From FedoraProject
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[14:01] jcollie has set the subject to SCM Sig starting... give everyone a minute or so to show up
[14:01] abadger1999: So jwb couldn't make it but I know he had a lot of reasons he didn't like it.
[14:02] abadger1999: s/it/exploded trees/
[14:02] abadger1999: We'll have to remember to ping him afterwards.
[14:02] jcollie: yeah... i've been updating the agenda:
[14:02] mmcgrath: jcollie: has anyone responded to you at all?
[14:02] jcollie: and it seemed i was adding more problems/pitfalls
[14:03] paulobanon: mmcgrath: thats the biggest question
[14:03] jcollie: mmcgrath, there was one followup on fedora-devel list to abadger1999's announcement
[14:03] mmcgrath: thats good then.
[14:03] abadger1999: nim-nim had issues from the previous mailing list thread but I haven't had time to go back and add them to the wiki.
[14:04] jcollie: ok, so let's get started...
[14:04] jcollie has set the subject to SCM Sig Meeting - "Exploded Trees"
[14:04] mmcgrath: kaboom!
[14:04] walters has left ("Ex-Chat" (
[14:04] jcollie: role call... I'm here obviously
[14:04] * mmcgrath here
[14:04] paulobanon: here
[14:04] * jbowes is here
[14:05] cebbert has left ( (i=cebbert@nat/redhat/x-84a37e3193eab2da))
[14:05] chjunaidanwar: here
[14:05] * abadger1999 here
[14:05] jcollie: ok, well the purpose of this meeting is to decide whether exploded trees offer enough of a benefit to spend the time figuring out how to work around all the issues that will crop up
[14:06] jcollie:
[14:06] jcollie: is what i was working on
[14:06] jcollie: before we discuss the problems, are there any features/benefits anyone wants to add?
[14:06] * mmcgrath is against exploded trees but that could be because I'm not educated enough in its theory to understand it.
[14:06] jcollie: well the theory is easy enough
[14:07] f13: I like the theory of Exploaded trees used as a tool to help wth patch management, but the end result in srpms and such is a prestine tarball + a set of patches.
[14:07] mmcgrath: so you store everything thats needed to build the RPM in the source tree?
[14:07] jcollie: instead of having .spec + tarball + patches in your SCM, you have the exploded source checked into your scm
[14:07] abadger1999: f13: Agreed.
[14:07] jcollie: mmcgrath, yeah
[14:07] f13: and the trees would be optional. Those that don't deal with patches wouldn't ever have to see them.
[14:07] mmcgrath: does that sound like a management mess to anyone?
[14:08] jcollie: yeah it could be
[14:08] skvidal: mmcgrath: yes
[14:08] abadger1999: mmcgrath: Maybe maybe not. When actively hacking on something, people use a vendor branch all the time.
[14:08] jcollie: we would definitely have to discipline maintainers into keeping branches with various changes
[14:08] f13: see, I think you'd /still/ have spec + patches in scm, tarball in lookaside, and optional exploaded source/ as a subdir.
[14:08] skvidal: mmcgrath: now add dvcs on top of that and we end up having to constantly figure out what branch someone is referring to
[14:09] mmcgrath: I guess I mean to ask the question this way.
[14:09] mmcgrath: Will this benefit the top 1% of our contributors while screwing everyone else?
[14:09] abadger1999: mmcgrath: But we *shouldn't* be hacking as much as that so it may not be a valid comparison.
[14:09] f13: (looks like I got sucked into this after all)
[14:09] f13: mmcgrath: it wouldn't have to.
[14:09] jcollie: f13, heh heh
[14:09] skvidal: f13: umm, wouldn't _have to_
[14:09] f13: mmcgrath: in my vision the only people who would ever see this are those that run a command to get a checkout of the source to play with
[14:10] jcollie: yeah, if we had a convention on what went into which branches and people actually stuck to it...
[14:10] * lennert here
[14:10] f13: everybody else would continue to see things like they see it today, spec (+ patches), tarball in lookaside.
[14:10] jbowes: f13: so that's not really exploded source in the scm, so much as maybe convenience makefile targets?
[14:10] skvidal: f13: how is this different than a 'make explodetree' in our current system
[14:10] mmcgrath: f13: so basically, its identical to what we have now. We'd just be encouraging more people to stick stuff in the VCS? (like I store .htaccess files, default configs, READMES in cvs now)
[14:10] jcollie: no, it's completely different
[14:11] f13: skvidal: jbowes; the convenience is that it would be in the /same/ scm as the spec and patches sothat you can use scm tools to deal with them.
[14:11] skvidal: f13: huh?
[14:11] skvidal: if I have a tarball in the lookaside
[14:11] abadger1999: f13: If we went that route, the exploded tree has to be persistent, though.
[14:11] skvidal: and I type (in theory)
[14:11] jbowes: f13: so like make explodetree plus commit to scm
[14:11] skvidal: jbowes: which means we now have 2 copies of that data - one of the uncompressed w/an assload of metadata
[14:11] jcollie: skvidal, in the "pure" exploded tree concept there wouldn't be tarballs in a lookaside
[14:11] abadger1999: So kernel maintainer runs make explodetree once and then the kernel checkout always uses an exploded tree.
[14:12] skvidal: jcollie: WOAH
[14:12] f13: jbowes: sure for the simplistic sake. If there were some persistance then you wouldn't have to repeat actions allthe time.
[14:12] abadger1999: Otherwise most of the benefits go away.
[14:12] skvidal: we have to have tarballs
[14:12] skvidal: we have to be able to verify pristine source
[14:12] f13: actually yea, lets clear something up righ tnow.
[14:12] jcollie: skvidal, yeah it's a really radical concept
[14:12] skvidal: jcollie: WE HAVE TO VERIFY PRISTINE SOURCE
[14:12] f13: Proposal; no matter what, srpms continue to be prestine source + patches. Period.
[14:12] jcollie: f13, yeah that's one of the pitfalls i mention
[14:12] f13: +1
[14:12] abadger1999: skvidal: I agree. We'll have to have two copies of the source.
[14:13] skvidal: abadger1999: so why?
[14:13] skvidal: why do that
[14:13] abadger1999: lookaside + exploded tree.
[14:13] skvidal: why not just have it explode a tree on the fly
[14:13] chjunaidanwar: +1
[14:13] jbowes: f13: +1
[14:13] skvidal: when a developer wants it
[14:13] skvidal: like we do with a mockbuild
[14:13] skvidal: make explodetree in 'devel' off of yum
[14:13] abadger1999: Because one of the benefits of exploded tree is to be able to see your history as you modify and rebase a patch.
[14:13] abadger1999: If you get rid of the tree between checkouts then you don't have the history.
[14:14] skvidal: how much patching are we talking about?
[14:14] jcollie: skvidal, i think what could make life easier is to make it easy for a maintainer to set up a public repository to develop patches in
[14:14] lennert: you can use stuff like interdiff to see diffs between patches
[14:14] lennert: i.e. maybe it's just a matter of some extra scripting
[14:14] mmcgrath: Just to give you guys an idea in terms of size:
[14:14] mmcgrath: 3.6G /cvs/pkgs/
[14:14] mmcgrath: 123G /repo/pkgs/
[14:14] jcollie: is repo/pkgs the lookaside?
[14:14] f13: uh, what are these?
[14:14] skvidal: jcollie: what does that buy a maintainer?
[14:15] skvidal: jcollie: to have a repo of patches - and how are we stopping them from doing that, now.
[14:15] jcollie: skvidal, coordination with upstream, comaintainers, downstream
[14:15] f13: I think maybe we need to look at how many of our packages have more than say 2 or 3 patches to see what percentage of our base we're helping.
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[14:15] skvidal: f13: more than 2 or 3 patches > 1K
[14:16] jcollie: skvidal, sure someone could set up their own repo, what i'm saying is that we'd make it easy to host on fedora infrastructure
[14:16] f13: skvidal: point.
[14:16] mmcgrath: jcollie: yeah
[14:16] skvidal: f13: one line hacklets to an init script don't really matter
[14:16] lennert: i have ~50 patches in my kernel tree at any given moment, but i still keep it in svn as a quilt queue.. because i want to be able to distinguish where stuff came from, etc.
[14:16] abadger1999: lennert: Possibly. But it goes beyond interdiff. Maybe quilt + interdiff + integration to cvs would be how to visualise the desired features.
[14:16] mmcgrath: /repo/pkgs is all of our lookaside (zipped) /cvs/pkgs is all of our cvs (unzipped)
[14:16] skvidal: lennert: an let's be honest kernel is an exception
[14:16] lennert: to me it suonds like exploded trees is trying to solve a problem that can also be solved with some scripting
[14:16] abadger1999: integrattion to cvs meaning: transparently pull and interdiff between past revisions of a patch.
[14:16] jcollie: skvidal, that way it's easier to find someone's repo, and everyone doesn't have to run around setting up git/hg web interfaces etc
[14:16] jbowes: mmcgrath: does the lookaside keep old releases?
[14:16] lennert: skvidal: well, many patches against non-kernel packages are long-lived as well, or at least, that's my impression
[14:17] mmcgrath: jbowes: yeah, I *think* we have to keep all sources around for 3 years. (I may have made this up) but right now we keep all sources forever.
[14:17] skvidal: jbowes: which exploded trees would do, too.
[14:18] jbowes: yeah.
[14:18] skvidal: but now we're doubling that
[14:18] jcollie: so if i'm hearing right, "pure" expoded tree-style package management is a non-starter because of the inability to verify against upstream tarballs
[14:18] f13: yes
[14:18] skvidal: jcollie: yes
[14:18] mmcgrath: jcollie: and possibly not having enough storage on the server.
[14:19] f13: jeremy: are you watching this at all?
[14:19] jcollie: mmcgrath, actually i think that storage in a "pure" fashion could be smaller but that's not the real concern
[14:19] mmcgrath: jcollie: you may be right.
[14:20] abadger1999: blizzard: as well (if you're not still running around with the new baby.)
[14:20] f13: abadger1999: I just pinged him elsewhere (:
[14:21] jcollie: ok, so what about what i was talking about before... the main repository for a package would still contain spec, tarball & patches but we make it easy for maintainers to host a repository on a fedora host?
[14:22] skvidal: jcollie: host how?
[14:22] skvidal: jcollie: it wouldn't be writable
[14:22] skvidal: not unless the other players had fas accts
[14:22] jcollie: oh yeah, it'd only be writable by people with fas accounts
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[14:23] skvidal: jcollie: so how is that different from now, really?
[14:23] skvidal: I mean you, as a maintainer, can check in whatever you want, really.
[14:23] jcollie: right now i don't think we encourage exploding the whole source into CVS
[14:23] skvidal: there's nothing stopping you from doing it, though.
[14:23] abadger1999: I think someone would kill me if I checked in a source tree
[14:23] jcollie: true
[14:23] skvidal: but that's just it
[14:23] skvidal: if someone would kill you now
[14:23] abadger1999: wrath of racor.
[14:24] skvidal: why do we want to make it okay in the new system?
[14:24] jcollie: communication
[14:24] jeremy: f13: in another discussion... thought this wasn't until 4 for some reason
[14:24] skvidal: have the things that make someone want to kill you gone away?
[14:25] jcollie: basically, developing your patches in a public repo make it easier to communicate changes
[14:25] skvidal: jcollie: make sources; untar; cvs add dir-you-just-untarred; cvs ci
[14:25] jcollie: yeah, but i'd like to keep that out of the main repo
[14:25] skvidal: jcollie: so if we go to a non-cvs scm
[14:25] skvidal: and it's available via anon-http or $scm-daemon
[14:25] skvidal: you just want it to not be a no-no to explode your tree?
[14:26] jcollie: into the main package repository yeah
[14:26] abadger1999: Features: patch history. ability to easily target which patch a change should be made to. scripted creation of vendor branches. Using the SCM to aid rebasing.
[14:26] skvidal: so if we make it 'ok' for a maintainer to explode a tree
[14:26] jcollie: yeah, plus if we host the repository we can teach the makefiles to extract patches from the secondary repository
[14:26] abadger1999: All those would be filled by skvidal's last statement.
[14:27] skvidal: doesn't that solve your need jcollie
[14:27] skvidal: and then we don't need to do this to everyone
[14:27] skvidal: if you maintain packages which have 3, 4 line patches, for example.
[14:27] skvidal: and you're mostly a packager of an upstream that "just works"
[14:28] jcollie: no, i wasn't suggesting that everyone would have to do that
[14:28] skvidal: if I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaay out in left field tell me
[14:28] lennert: you could make the exploded tree read-only, and auto-generated from the rw non-exploded tree
[14:28] ajax has joined the group chat (i=ajackson@nat/redhat/x-1a0cf3da10d71e28)
[14:28] lennert: what you want to avoid is people committing to the exploding tree and then losing info about what change came from where
[14:28] jcollie: in my view koji would still be expecting spec, tarball, patch files in the main repository
[14:28] f13: I asked ajax to pop in as I think he would have some interesting perspective of how our current workflow is not good and how it could improve.
[14:29] lennert: so maybe you shouldn't let people commit to the exploded tree at all then
[14:29] f13: ajax: right now we're discussing the idea of somehow having an exploaded tree ofthe upstream source to play with
[14:29] abadger1999: lennert: Uhm... no. You need to have logic in your scm tools to manage that.
[14:29] * mmcgrath still doesn't get why we should store that.
[14:29] f13: ajax: either persistant, or made on the fly, but in scm so that scm tools can be used to interact with it, for say path management or such.
[14:29] jcollie: also, i think that we would want to make it possible to host a clone of an upstream repo
[14:29] lennert: abadger1999: logic to handle what?
[14:30] abadger1999: "losing information about where a change came from"
[14:30] lennert: my point is, if you let people commit to the exploded tree directly, they'll just commit whatever
[14:30] ajax: f13: that sounds like a finished statement, not a discussion.
[14:30] lennert: and then all you can do is diff whatever last tarball you have against whatever most recent exploded tree you have, and shipping that diff
[14:30] skvidal: lennert: yes, which is what mmcgrath said
[14:30] skvidal: a mgmt mess
[14:31] f13: ajax: no, no, there is still /lots/ of argument going on regarding this.
[14:31] abadger1999: lennert: Not necessarily. We've got people trained not to submit one uber patch a la Debian.
[14:31] f13: ajax: whether or not it gives enough value to work around the pitfalls
[14:31] lennert: skvidal: yeah
[14:31] ajax: lennert: you seem to be assuming the scm can't handle branching intelligently, record unique commits...
[14:31] abadger1999: lennert: We can do the same thing in the SCM.
[14:31] ajax: git would have little trouble with this.
[14:31] jcollie: i think that having a "pure" exploded tree package management repository is dead, everything else is up to discussuion
[14:31] skvidal: ajax: no, he's assumg that people can't keep up with it
[14:31] lennert: ajax: but how do you transport that info to .src.rpm ?
[14:32] ajax: lennert: generate a patch series from the branch point to the tip, record both in the spec.
[14:32] ajax: this is just stgit
[14:32] lennert: ajax: problem with that is that you can't undo commits
[14:32] lennert: well, stgit != git
[14:32] abadger1999: lennert: Mercurial patch queues then.
[14:33] lennert: assuming that all packages are in one repo (that is still up for discussion), rolling back would roll back other people's changes as well
[14:33] lennert: abadger1999: or just plain quilt
[14:33] abadger1999: Doesn't matter if it's built in or an addon. the end product matters.
[14:33] lennert: abadger1999: i.e. pretty much what we have now with .spec, Patch: and %patch
[14:33] abadger1999: lennert: quilt is not the end all be all. I've been using it since jwb packaged it for FE.
[14:33] abadger1999: lennert: It needs to be integrated with the SCM.
[14:33] ajax: yeah, automating %patch into the scm is really all i'm after. i don't much care about having the whole project grafted in.
[14:33] jcollie: ooh no i think that each package needs to be it's own repo
[14:34] lennert: well, you can either put your quilt queue in svn or use stgit
[14:34] lennert: jcollie: ideally you also want to track which version of which package is part of which distro
[14:34] abadger1999: jcollie: At least, its own branch.
[14:34] lennert: jcollie: you lose that info if you make each package a separate repo
[14:34] f13: lennert: i think you're in the weeds.
[14:34] abadger1999: Depending on terminology/scm/whatever.
[14:34] lennert: jcollie: (i know, there are reasons for making each package live in its own repo as well)
[14:35] lennert: f13: maybe
[14:35] f13: lennert: you can easily make each 'distro branch' it's own repo for each package.
[14:35] lennert: f13: that's backwards
[14:35] f13: lennert: i did this with very little work when playing with dist-hg and dist-git. Each package was a repo that has a "brnahes" file, each file listed what branches existed and would check out /those/ repos which were the content for those releases.
[14:35] lennert: f13: so then how do i branch the distro?
[14:36] f13: lennert: simply pull each packages + DISTRO/ repos
[14:36] jcollie: lennert, you'd have to go into each repo and create the branch
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[14:36] lennert: jcollie: that's just ugly
[14:36] abadger1999: bzr multipull DISTRO/repos
[14:36] lennert: jcollie: that's no better than what we have now
[14:37] f13: lennert: what do you suggest?
[14:37] f13: I'm very open to better workflow ideas.
[14:37] lennert: well, why can't the set of packages just live in one repo?
[14:37] jcollie: lennert, sure it would, at least each distro branch would be a real branch
[14:37] lennert: then you could easily branch off f8 from devel, make an olpc branch, etc.
[14:37] lennert: without having to add subdirectories to every package directory
[14:37] lennert: just branch the entire repo
[14:38] lennert: that makes it easier to add/delete packages as well
[14:38] jcollie: i think the problem would be the size of the repo that you had to download
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[14:38] f13: lennert: for one thing, distributed scms would suck for that, as you'd have to suck down repodata for the entire thing just to work with one package.
[14:38] abadger1999: lennert: Uhmmm... I'd be against that.
[14:38] skvidal: jcollie: yes
[14:38] f13: it'd be /huge/
[14:39] lennert: f13: arguable, that would be a limitation in the scm
[14:39] f13: we basically /have/ that with CVS, it's just that CVS offers you 'jump off' points.
[14:39] skvidal: which is the other problem with exploded trees in the release
[14:39] lennert: at least svn can check out/commit to subdirs
[14:39] skvidal: s/release/scm/
[14:39] skvidal: b/c it limits contributors w/slow connections
[14:39] lennert: git doesn't handle that very easily right now but perhaps that could be added
[14:39] jbowes: and git has submodules.
[14:39] f13: lennert: yes, but cvs/svn leaves you completely tied to the upstream repo for everything, and having to be online.
[14:39] abadger1999: lennert: Each branch can be a separate branch but only if it's downloadable separately by the VCS.
[14:40] lennert: right
[14:40] lennert: so instead of checking out /blah/fedora/packagename/branch
[14:40] abadger1999: So for bzr and svn that is a valid implementation... for git and hg it is not.
[14:40] lennert: we should think in terms of /blah/fedora/branch/packagename really, IMHO
[14:40] jcollie: i was thinking of /blah/fedora/packagename
[14:40] lennert: abadger1999: that functionality can be hacked in, though
[14:41] lennert: jcollie: well, yes
[14:41] abadger1999: lennert: By having a separate repo per branch
[14:41] jcollie: then each release would have a git/ht branch
[14:41] lennert: i fundamentally think that a branch should be a collection of packages, not that each package should have a separate repo branch
[14:41] lennert: although technically in e.g. git it comes down to the same storage model
[14:42] lennert: but i won't argue very strongly about it
[14:42] ajax: it sort of depends whose life you're trying to make easy
[14:42] jcollie: that still means that you have to download the specs/patches for every package (with git/hg at least)
[14:42] jcollie: ajax, yeah
[14:42] abadger1999: a branch should be a subunit of a package. a repo should be a package. a distro should be a collection of package-branches.
[14:43] lennert: jcollie: so let's fix git then
[14:43] ajax: as a packager, i often want to grab changes whole from one release train to another. so i _do_ prefer the model of 'packages have branches' rather than the reverse.
[14:43] f13: lennert: we can easily express the release as a directory of packages, thta's all in higher level 'tools' to get stuff.
[14:43] lennert: jcollie: just that the current software doesn't easily let us do it doesn't mean we have to change the model to suit the currently available software
[14:43] jcollie: lennert, git has submodules but it's a very new feature
[14:43] ajax: but i suppose there's no deep reason you couldn't do both. perforce has views for approximately this reason, and while i hate to say anything nice about perforce...
[14:44] abadger1999: ajax
[14:44] jcollie: i don't think that git 1.5.3 is in any fedora release yet, which is where proper support showed up
[14:44] lennert: ajax: perhaps you could have both..
[14:44] lennert: ajax: e.g. "give me a diff of the current directory between branch X and Y"
[14:44] lennert: ajax: that doesn't mean that the branches should live under the package dir
[14:44] ajax: "both" would mean the fundamental scm unit is package+release. and you build views atop that, that give you either a package-centric or a distro-centric collection.
[14:45] f13: lennert: likewise 'give me every package with branch FC-7' doesn't mean that we have to have our scm setup like scm/release/package
[14:45] abadger1999: ajax: +1
[14:45] ajax: essentially, bazillions of submodules, with magic view constructors.
[14:45] lennert: ajax: define "scm unit"
[14:45] f13: yep
[14:45] lennert: ajax: you can have different paths leading to the same submodule, i.e. different ways of grouping them
[14:45] ajax: right.
[14:45] ajax: that.
[14:45] lennert: f13: ack
[14:45] ajax: we're agreeing.
[14:45] lennert: ajax: ok
[14:46] f13: progress!
[14:46] lennert: hehe
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[14:46] skvidal: so does this mean if you
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[14:46] skvidal: cd /scm/f7/
[14:46] jcollie: lennert, maybe with CVS you can, but not really with git/hg... svn could kind of do it with svn:external
[14:47] lennert: jcollie: why could you not have a commit to /blah/package to branch X auto-update the branch X super tree object or something like that?
[14:47] lennert: jcollie: then people can still only just check out /blah/package, or check out the branch tree object, and get the same stuff
[14:48] jcollie: i think that it unnecessarily complicates things
[14:48] ajax: this is not, in fact, wildly different from how our cvs is set up now; i can _get_ just the devel branch of a given package. it's just that we only construct one view with the SCM.
[14:48] * skvidal is wondering how all this will play with local branches and following the upstream
[14:48] abadger1999: Space
[14:48] skvidal: ie: multiple maintainers maintaining it
[14:48] jcollie: branching the entire distro can be easily scripted so that it's not much of a burden on rel-eng
[14:49] lennert: ok, so from the package maintainer point of view, you tend to only care about one package
[14:49] lennert: the 'branch the distro' use case isn't the popular one, it seems
[14:49] lennert: right?
[14:49] jcollie: yeah, i think we want to keep the maintainer's life as easy as possible
[14:49] skvidal: yes
[14:49] ajax: well. i care about one package at a time, anyway. i have lots of packages though.
[14:49] skvidal: we have to keep this for the vast majority of contributors
[14:49] skvidal: who are dealing with one package at a time
[14:49] jcollie: since they are not likely to have high-speed access to the main repos
[14:49] lennert: well, you could still create distro tree objects independently of what the maintainers do
[14:50] * skvidal nods at ajax
[14:50] lennert: so that people who care about branching the distro get to worry about that part
[14:50] lennert: while the package maintainers worry about their part
[14:50] skvidal: lennert: why not just step around that with makefile magic
[14:50] abadger1999: Shoot, even one or two package-releases at a time in some cases.
[14:50] skvidal: so I can cd to some dir and do:
[14:50] skvidal: make grab-f7
[14:50] ajax: yes, creating distro views is the part we're adding. we already have the package view.
[14:50] jcollie: rel-eng can run scripts on the same lan as the main repo so it's fast (enough) for them
[14:50] f13: yeah I think we're agreed that we want distro views.
[14:51] ajax: the only other feature i'm interested in is automating %patch
[14:51] ajax: and i think i can get that with quilt or stgit or whatever
[14:51] lennert: are there cases where you are interested in a partial order on patches going to different packages?
[14:51] skvidal: ajax: automating how?
[14:51] skvidal: ajax: we still need a patch in the srpm
[14:51] lennert: e.g. when you are applying dependent patches to different packages
[14:51] skvidal: ajax: and we need it to not connect out to the world when building
[14:51] jcollie: ajax, what if we had some makefile magic to pull a pactch out of a separate repository?
[14:52] ajax: skvidal: right, so, say i'm working on the X server, which is in git.
[14:52] ajax: and that we use t for the fedora scm
[14:52] * lennert likes git
[14:53] skvidal: ajax: ok
[14:53] ajax: the srpm tarball is now a complete repo, that contains both the master branch (upstream release), and a fedora branch that i'm allowed to play with for patch generation.
[14:54] ajax: i do my commits on the fedora branch
[14:54] f13: hrm.
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[14:54] ajax: and i get git-rebase if i want it, but that's later.
[14:54] jcollie: what if we had a way to specify a git://url and two commit ids, and the makefile would automagically pull down a copy of the git tree, extract the patches (git format-patch X..Y) and fix up the spec file and add the patch files to the package repo?
[14:54] f13: ajax: I think that breaks directive #1, which is srpms need to be prestine tarball + our junk, the tarball must be untouhced if at all possible for verification.
[14:55] ajax: now, at %prep time, i unpack the tarball (which gives me master), and generate the patch trail between master and fedora branch.
[14:55] f13: ajax: but maybe you can still get there if you have prestine tarball, and you overlay it with .git/
[14:55] skvidal: ajax: so your tarball would really be your own fork of X, for example
[14:55] ajax: f13: that's a bogus requirement anyway. you have sha1sums for master.
[14:55] f13: from a second tarball.
[14:55] ajax: in fact, that's how git revs are specified, period.
[14:55] ajax: it's exactly as verifiable as before.
[14:55] jcollie: interesting thought... if you have a git tree object id, git guarantees that you have the same tree as someone else
[14:55] skvidal: ajax: verifable to the source: path?
[14:56] f13: ajax: can you explain a bit more on that, as there was violent reaction to not having prestine tarballs here.
[14:56] skvidal: ajax: how do I as a random user figure out which tarball you started from?
[14:56] f13: ajax: pretend we're newbies that don't know git.
[14:56] skvidal: let's say I can find the srpm
[14:56] ajax: okay
[14:56] jbowes: violent reaction to not having pristine sources. it doesn't have to be from a tarball, so long as it is verifiable
[14:56] ajax: please, one at a time.
[14:56] skvidal: sorry
[14:57] f13: ajax: do skvidal first.
[14:57] * lennert kind of sees ajax's point
[14:57] skvidal: f13: eww
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[14:57] * jcollie reminds everyone that we are about to bump into fedora-infrastructure's meeting time...
[14:57] skvidal: ajax: It sounds like you're suggesting that fedora's tarball become the intermediary for verification
[14:57] mmcgrath:
[14:58] ajax: skvidal: yes, verifiable to the source path. xserver/.git/config contains [remote "origin"] , which contains the url I fetched from. anyone who wants to verify that my source is the same as what came from upstream, can just clone from there and compare commit IDs.
[14:58] mmcgrath: jcollie: you want to wrap this meeting up?
[14:58] abadger1999: jbowes: verifiable for who from where, though? We can keep a sha1sum similar to how we keep a lookaside but that doesn't help the enduser.
[14:58] skvidal: mmcgrath: /join #fedora-meeting2
[14:58] lennert: ajax: doesn't that require that upstream use git?
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[14:58] jcollie: yeah, since we e starting to get a little outside the agenda that we set up
[14:59] marek:
[14:59] ajax: commit ids in git are a sha1 sum over (essentially) all the change information that went into the tree, from creation to that point in time. so the odds of collision on any single hash are astonomically small, because you have to _also_ forge all the previous hashes.
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[14:59] mmcgrath: jcollie: its nice to see people show up and talk about it though.
[14:59] jcollie: yeah
[14:59] ajax: lennert: yeah, but that's just a matter of time
[14:59] lennert: ajax: you could indeed just generate a patch set between master and fedora branch and stick that into the srpm
[15:00] skvidal: ajax: umm, no
[15:00] lennert: ajax: hehe
[15:00] skvidal: ajax: anything that relies on upstream doing anything consistent is a non-starter
[15:00] abadger1999: ajax: No one will be using git in 20 years
[15:00] ajax: skvidal: you don't understand crypto.
[15:00] f13: yeah I veto that idea too, that it relies up on upstream being git.
[15:00] ajax: skvidal: all upstream objects have to be consistent because the tool enforces it.
[15:01] skvidal: ajax: what are you talking about?
[15:01] lennert: instead of certifying the upstream commit object you derive from, you'd certify the tree object
[15:01] f13: couldn't we accomplish ajax's needs by having the prestine tarball, and a second tarball that is the .git/ data thta gets overlayed upon extraction?
[15:01] ajax: f13: no, it relies on upstream using a crypto-enabled scm. hg and monotone and bzr have the same property.
[15:01] jcollie: ok, i hate to cut off discussion, but we need to turn the channel over to mmcgrath / fedora-infrastructure... we do have a #fedora-scm channel though for some informal discussion
[15:01] ajax: and if it doesn't, then you just suffer and make SRPMs the legacy way.
[15:01] lennert: #fedora-scm sounds good to me
[15:01] ajax: yay, another channel
[15:02] jcollie: i think that the summary for the meeting is that verification of upstream sources is the ultimate blocker for changing the way we do business
[15:03] lennert: jcollie: ack
[15:03] jcollie: i'll post the log and that summary to -devel in a little while
[15:03] mmcgrath: jcollie: well.... also while making sure we don't creata feature that only 5% of our users will use while the other 95% have to do more work
[15:03] jcollie: right
[15:03] mmcgrath: just making sure we don't lose sight of that
[15:04] mmcgrath: jcollie: all done? Should I change the topic?
[15:04] jcollie: yep go ahead... looks like #fedora-scm took the discussion over
[15:04] mmcgrath: excellent. | <urn:uuid:818f2c14-3f79-4f5a-af5b-7790daa28e3c> | http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/SCMSig/Meeting-2007-07-26 | en | 0.904426 | 0.648266 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Developing Arctic Modelling & Observing Capabilities for Long-term Env. Studies
Project Description
Short Title: DAMOCLES
Project URL:
Proposal URL:
The main objective of DAMOCLES is to reduce the uncertainties in our understanding of climate change in the Arctic and in the impacts thereof. To meet this objective DAMOCLES will, following the approach of Numerical Weather Prediction Centers, develop an integrated system for obtaining relevant geophysical observations, transferring them to a central databank, distributing them to the modelling centers, and producing nowcasts and forecasts of the Arctic climate. But since there exists no such thing as an Arctic Ocean Observing System, nor fully validated models for Arctic climate, nor accepted methods for forecasting of climate, a number of specific objectives need to be met in DAMOCLES:
1. Synoptic observational coverage of the Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover
The variability of sea-ice thickness, extent, concentration, ice-type and drift will be monitored by remote and in-situ systems in near real-time. Sea-ice dynamics and thermodynamics will be scrutinized to better understand their role for the large-scale ice-atmosphere-ocean system
2. Synoptic observation and investigation of atmospheric key processes
Aimed at a better predictability of the Arctic weather and climate key processes are investigated in a combined observational/process-modelling effort: the effects of Arctic cyclone on sea-ice in terms of heat and moisture transport, an improvement of boundary-layer physics over ice and ocean, an improvement of the radiative transfers and its interaction with snow and sea-ice
3. Synoptic observation of the Arctic Ocean circulation and key processes
An observational system will be set up with the aim to improve the understanding of the large-scale circulation of the Arctic Ocean and its vertical and lateral exchanges as well as the communication between central basins and the shelves. New techniques will be used to assess synoptically the state of the ocean under the ice and the fluxes of heat, salt and volume across the boundaries.
4. Integration and assimilation of observations with large-scale models
Model sensitivities will be investigated and performance be improved by model-model and model-data comparison, aiming at an improved predictability.
Observations will be enhanced by a set of assimilation activities to deliver re-analysed Arctic variables in time and space
To address the question of potential impacts of climate change in the Arctic the following specific objective of DAMOCLES can be formulated:
5. Assessment of impact on environment and humans
The observationally supported model improvements, the model sensitivities and past ranges of variability will be combined with new field data. The aim is to evaluate improved predictability and its consequences, as well as the impact of projected changes on adaptation capabilities and vulnerability of the environment and human activities.
Exploitation and dissemination of the results are key elements of the project. Thus, a 6th specific objective is:
6.User-friendly return of information to the community
A website will be available; giving the community updated information about the state of the Arctic (e.g. real-time information of key atmospheric, ice and ocean variables) as well as information about the progress of the science of DAMOCLES. Education will be provided, through workshops and student scholarships. Results will be published, both in scientific journals and in the popular-scientific press. The PIs will generally make themselves available to the public to the best of their ability. | <urn:uuid:4ea0821f-9416-4b1d-97f6-472b7501a8c8> | http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Supplementals.do?Portal=GCMD&KeywordPath=Projects&NumericId=7731&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb3 | en | 0.910514 | 0.048687 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Corroboration, Not Revelation
In January 1969, the labor attaché at the U.S. embassy in Israel sent a report classified "confidential" to the State Department. In it, she passed on the inside information on Israel's ruling Labor Party that she'd gained by having an over-the-hill politician named Golda Meir over for dinner. Meir had said that then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol would run for re-election that fall. "The tone of her remarks indicated that any other possibility was too ridiculous to consider," attaché Margaret Plunkett commented. Eshkol's health was "perfectly okay," according to Meir. As for Meir herself, she'd only agreed under pressure from the party to run again for Knesset. The report would remain classified for at least 12 years.
Eshkol was actually terribly ill at the time. The ruling party's inner circle had already chosen Meir as his successor. He died a month later. In those days, if you wanted to leak diplomatic documents, you had to copy them one at a time. Had a would-be whistle-blower at State stood over the photocopy machine after-hours, he would probably not have thought this one worth the extra seconds of his time. I have to wonder why anyone would consider it worth making a secret in the first place. To protect a source? If Meir had known that her comments could become public, perhaps she would have been more careful about fibbing. I doubt it, though. The only embarrassment for U.S. diplomacy in the memorandum is that the attaché was so eagerly misled.
Today, as the most recent WikiLeaks dump shows, it's easier to copy a quarter-million documents than to sift through them for the interesting ones. (That's also why Israeli whistle-blower Anat Kam allegedly copied 2,000 military documents, rather than a few.) The State Department has just followed young job applicants into the era of Facebook and cell-phone cameras: Anything you've ever said or done might be available online.
Since Israel still plays an outsized role in U.S. diplomacy, one might expect Israeli officials to be very nervous. Prime Minister Netanyahu, however, says that the leak has only helped Israel. That's overstating the case. But it's true that the small number of cables from the Tel Aviv embassy published so far do not contain shocking news. Like many worthwhile scientific experiments, they confirm reasonable hypotheses. There, in black and white, is what diligent reporters had previously guessed. Israel's warnings on Iran, Netanyahu's view of peace, and the way he has tangled the two things together provide good examples.
Start with Iran: You might have thought Israel has risked eroding its credibility by warning for years that Iran is only months away from the point where its nuclear-arms program becomes unstoppable. A March 2005 cable indicates that you were right. At that time, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz "cautioned that Iran is 'less than one year away,' while the head of research in military intelligence estimated that Iran would reach this point by early 2007." Such estimates bothered even some Israeli officials, the cable notes: "The head of the [Foreign Ministry's] strategic affairs division recalled that [Israeli government] assessments from 1993 predicted that Iran would possess an atomic bomb by 1998 at the latest." The cable concludes, "Israeli intelligence briefings will understandably focus on worst-case scenarios and may not match current [American] assessments."
The same document, by the way, confirms the common assessment that Israel doesn't have a real military option for stopping the Iranian program -- which might explain why the generals were so eager to convince the United States of the danger.
None of this means that the danger of Iranian nukes is a fiction. But it shows there's a price to making a prediction too urgent.
Before getting to Netanyahu's way of exploiting the danger from Iran, a word from the cables about his view of the Palestinian issue. In April 2009, just after Netanyahu became prime minister, he met with a visiting U.S. congressional delegation. He said he understood that the Palestinians should govern themselves and explained, "The only limits on Palestinian sovereignty would be elements that affect Israel's security. A Palestinian state must be demilitarized, without control over its air space and electro-magnetic field, and without the power to enter into treaties or control its borders."
In a meeting with another congressional delegation several weeks earlier, Netanyahu said that if Israel were to withdraw from the West Bank, Hamas would take over and create an Iranian satellite. He also argued that Iran reaching nuclear-arms capability would cause a regional realignment that would "topple the peace process." In other words, the Iranian threat makes an Israeli pullout too dangerous to discuss at present, and if Iran gets the bomb, it will be impossible to talk about peace. The kindest reading of this logic is that if the United States wants any progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace, it must first eliminate the Iranian nuclear-arms project. In the meantime, the linkage between the two issues frees Netanyahu from negotiating seriously. Exploiting the Iran issue in this way only erodes the credibility of the warnings further.
None of this shocking. It's helpful to see it on paper. I have to wonder if the "confidential" and "secret" labels on top of the cables are mostly a matter of habit.
What's on the WikiLeaks site is actually very limited -- less than a thousand out of a quarter-million leaked cables. So far, none are from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, the de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Even when everything is online, we won't necessarily know what the people in Washington thought about reports from the field. Personally, I'd particularly like to know how what the reaction was at the State Department and White House to Netanyahu's June 2009 promise to remove the so-called unauthorized outpost settlements (he still hasn't) or to his adviser's statement that the previous government had already eliminated all financial incentives for settlers (it didn't). I'd like to believe the response was skepticism. A leaked document showing that claims were eagerly believed in Washington -- that would be embarrassing.
You need to be logged in to comment. | <urn:uuid:3b7dd9c1-1cc2-47cd-81bb-8a5a4e30dd20> | http://prospect.org/article/corroboration-not-revelation | en | 0.971995 | 0.080495 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am trying to figure out a way to query a property feature lookup table.
I have a property table that contains rental property information (address, rent, deposit, # of bedrooms, etc.) along with another table (Property_Feature) that represents the features of this property (pool, air conditioning, laundry on-site, etc.). The features themselves are defined in yet another table labeled Feature.
pid - primary key
other property details
fid - primary key
id - primary key
pid - foreign key (Property)
fid - foreign key (Feature)
Let say someone wants to search for property that has air conditioning, and a pool and laundry on-site. How do you query the Property_Feature table for multiple features for the same property if each row only represents one feature? What would the SQL query look like? Is this possible? Is there a better solution?
Thanks for the help and insight.
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You can actually drop the "id" column on Property_Feature table and make pid and fid a combined primary key. – Mats Fredriksson Jun 18 '09 at 16:32
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3 Answers
up vote 1 down vote accepted
In terms of database design, yours is the right way to do it. It's correctly normalized.
For the query, I would simply use exists, like this:
select * from Property
exists (select * from Property_Feature where pid = property.pid and fid = 'key_air_conditioning')
exists (select * from Property_Feature where pid = property.pid and fid = 'key_pool')
Where key_air_conditioning and key_pool are obviously the keys for those features.
The performance will be OK even for large databases.
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This is fairly unfriendly, isn't it? Are you expecting him to memorize keys? Why not use joins so you can just name the feature instead of trying to remember what could potentially be an identity column? – Eric Jun 18 '09 at 16:30
Eric, because he's doing it in the context of a program obviously, and the key is probably near hand. I prefer the EXISTS because are cleaner and easier to build, specially if the number of conditions is variable. – tekBlues Jun 18 '09 at 16:32
Joins do tend to get a bit messy with variable numbers of conditions...I'll have to think about how to do that cleaner...and as a challenge, I want to do it a bit differently than you have :) – Eric Jun 18 '09 at 16:45
Thanks for the help. I was stumped. – stillLearning Jun 18 '09 at 19:17
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Here's the query that will find all the properties with a pool:
property p
inner join property_feature pf on
p.pid = pf.pid
inner join feature f on
pf.fid = f.fid
f.name = 'Pool'
I use inner joins instead of EXISTS since it tends to be a bit faster.
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Thanks Eric I completely overlooked the EXISTS keyword. – stillLearning Jun 18 '09 at 19:18
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You can also do something like this:
FROM Property p
WHERE 3 =
( SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM Property_Feature pf
, Feature f
WHERE pf.pid = p.pid
AND pf.fid = f.fid
AND f.name in ('air conditioning', 'pool', 'laundry on-site')
Obviously, if your front end is capturing the fids of the feature items when the user is selecting them, you can dispense with the join to Feature and constrain directly on fid. Your front end would know what the count of features selected was, so determining the value for "3" above is trivial.
Compare it, performance wise, to the tekBlues construction above; depending on your data distribution, either one of these might be the faster query.
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I appreciate the feedback. All of these solutions I will try. – stillLearning Jun 18 '09 at 19:18
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Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:aa91cb44-f0de-455e-8c49-caced4fdf1f1> | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1013662/best-practice-to-querying-a-lookup-table | en | 0.882376 | 0.377747 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have a messaging system that is a .NET 2 ASMX web service, very basic system. I push messages and would like to have newline symbols in the message so it's formatted on the receiving end. For example, I'd like to send a string such as: "Hello\n\nMy Name Is..." and have it have two line breaks. When the receiver reads the text it's actually outputting the \n's in the text. How can I get the \n's to be interpreted as if I was writing it in C#? Or \t etc.
Thank you.
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Have you tried sending \r\n instead? – Blorgbeard May 24 '12 at 23:39
How is the 'receiving end' outputting the text? – RJ Lohan May 24 '12 at 23:49
It sounds like your string is being escaped somewhere along the way. Have you looked at the raw text in a debugger or somwhere? I suspect you'll see either C# or html escaping in the raw text. Either way it should be simple enoungh to unescape it on the client side. – Mike Parkhill May 24 '12 at 23:54
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4 Answers
up vote 2 down vote accepted
You should compose the message using Environment.NewLine to insert the character(s) used to represent a newline on your system.
See here for references
However using Environment.NewLine has some problems.
For example, your message should be written in this way
string msg = "Hello" + Environment.NewLine + Environment.NewLine + "My Name Is...";
a bit cumbersome to use from a programmer point of view.
Then you could write an extension method for the string class which takes your message and insert at the place of a placeholder the Environment.NewLine chars.
This example use the | (pipe) character as placeholder for the newline pos.
public static string InsertLineBreaks(this string inMsg)
Strinbuilder sb = new StringBuilder(inMsg);
sb.Replace("|", Environment.NewLine);
return sb.ToString();
and you can call this extension in this way
string msg = "Hello||My Name Is...".InsertLineBreaks();
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That will only work if the receiving environment is the same, which can't be guaranteed by the service, right? – RJ Lohan May 24 '12 at 23:48
@RJLohan given the tags I suppose that this was the case. However waiting for clarification from the OP – Steve May 24 '12 at 23:52
Both sides are .NET – Neal May 25 '12 at 0:18
it can make help in stored templates, can replace like MessageBody.Replace("{{newline}}", Environment.NewLine) ;) – ali youhannaei Aug 18 '13 at 14:18
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The web service is likely sending the message back with carriage returns listed as "%0D". What I have done in my programs is use:
str.Replace("%0D", Environment.NewLine);
That seems to work for me.
I'm sure you could also use:
str.Replace("%0D", "\n");
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You have to replace the \n with something that is interpreted as a new line by the browser, i.e. <br/>. I suppose you're using it as an HTML string.
Besides you need to get sure that it isn't HtmlEncoded, i.e., that your <br/> isn't converted into <br/>. This shouldn't happend if you're using JSON serialization. but will happen if you serialize it as XML and isn't properly decoded in client side.
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Use this:
string returnString = "Hello" + Environment.NewLine+ "My Name Is..";
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Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:25775084-ca23-40ae-87d5-5625acd45b5a> | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10746719/get-c-sharp-to-respect-n-returned-in-a-string-from-a-web-service | en | 0.887391 | 0.718728 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
This question is similar to Exploitable PHP Functions.
What are all of the sink functions in C#? I am looking for functions that introduce a vulnerability or software weakness. I am particularly interested in Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities. Are there whole classes/libraries that contain nasty functionally that a hacker would like to influence? How do people accidentally make dangerous C# code?
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It's a little bit vague. A lot of the danger comes from applications running under full trust instead of a lower trust level; the lower the trust, the harder it gets to do something malicious. – Lucero Oct 15 '10 at 8:28
@Lucero I liked the php question, I think this applies to C# quite well. – Rook Oct 15 '10 at 16:08
wow, the software weakness link is a huuuuge page. – giordano261 Oct 26 '10 at 18:13
@Gio yep took a while to put together ;) – Rook Oct 26 '10 at 18:14
What exactly do you expect here? A huge list of functions? I'm not sure how that is useful... Also, to be pedant, you are talking about the .Net Base Class Library, or maybe Asp.Net, not C# functions (I'm not sure there are "C# functions"). – Kobi Dec 29 '13 at 10:31
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12 Answers
Anything that uses regular expressions (particularly the RegularExpressionValidator). To see this, run a RegularExpressionValidator with the regex ^(\d+)+$ and give it 30 digits and an alpha character to validate against.
Some posts:
This is called a Regular Expression Denial of Service attack and it can bring a website to its knees.
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Oh, that's a good one. And applies to any language with regex support. – Jeff Mercado Oct 28 '10 at 23:52
Interesting oddity, but this is a far reach from the complete answer. – Rook Oct 30 '10 at 19:29
All regular expressions won't cause such problems. This one is particularly crafted to have this kind of problem. – Lasse V. Karlsen Nov 6 '10 at 18:33
Yes, I did, and I fully agree. If you use regular expressions that you haven't vetted, and you know a lot about regular expressions, you're opening up all sorts of cans of worms. – Lasse V. Karlsen Nov 6 '10 at 19:52
By using a smart algorithm and removing support for some exotic features, regex can be done safely. Examples: TRE, Google's RE2. – jilles Nov 10 '10 at 22:23
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Process.Start is the first one to come to mind.
I am sure that WindowsIdentity and much of System.Security can also be used for evil.
Of course, there are SQL injection attacks, but I don't think that's what you mean (though remote execution can occur through SQL Server).
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Things like connection strings that have a username and password for SQL are a bit dodgy, when you use static strings they are typically found in decompilers, so its always best not to use them if they contain private information. – kyndigs Oct 15 '10 at 8:32
Please describe the problems with WindowsIdentity – jgauffin Oct 23 '10 at 18:20
Whereas I prefer connectionstring with usernames and password, but then tightly control the database permissions so that the username and password cant do anything I didnt explicitly give it permission to do on a case by case basis. – Goblyn27 Oct 29 '10 at 21:50
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Aside from the obvious Process.Start() already mentioned, I can see a couple of ways of potential indirect exploitation.
• WinAPI calls via PInvoke to CreateProcess() and whatnot.
• Any sort of dynamic assembly loading mechanism using Assembly.Load() and other such overloads. If a compromised assembly made it to the system and loaded.
• If running in full trust in general.
• With the right permissions, any registry operations could put you at risk.
That's all that comes to mind right now.
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On the web based side of things, C# (and more generally, ASP.NET) is commonly vulnerable to the following (items listed by OWASP Top 10 2013). I realise you were mainly interested in sink functions, of which I cover some, however you did ask how people accidentally make dangerous C# code so hopefully I've provided some insight here.
SQL Injection
Generating queries by string concatenation.
var sql = "SELECT * FROM UserAccount WHERE Username = '" + username "'";
SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(sql , connection);
SqlDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader();
This can often be solved by parameterised queries, but if you are using an IN condition it currently isn't possible without string concatenation.
LDAP Injection
Code such as
searcher.Filter = string.Format("(sAMAccountName={1})", loginName);
can make the application vulnerable. More information here.
OS Command Injection
This code is vulnerable to command injection because the second parameter to Process.Start can have extra commands passed to it using the & character to batch multiple commands
string strCmdText= @"/C dir c:\files\" + Request.QueryString["dir"];
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo("CMD.exe", strCmdText);
e.g. foldername && ipconfig
A2-Broken Authentication and Session Management
Sign Out
The default Forms Authentication SignOut method does not update anything server side, allowing a captured auth token to be continued to be used.
Calling the SignOut method only removes the forms authentication cookie. The Web server does not store valid and expired authentication tickets for later comparison. This makes your site vulnerable to a replay attack if a malicious user obtains a valid forms authentication cookie.
Using Session State for Authentication
A session fixation vulnerability could be present if a user has used session state for authentication.
A3-Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Response.Write (and the shortcut <%= =>) vulnerable by default, unless the developer has remembered to HTML encode the output. The more recent shortcut <%: HTML encodes by default, although some developers may use this to insert values into JavaScript where they can still be escaped by an attacker. Even using the modern Razor engine it is difficult to get this right:
var name = '@Html.Raw(HttpUtility.JavaScriptStringEncode(Model.Name))';
ASP.NET by default enables Request Validation, which will block any input from cookies, the query string and from POST data that could potentially be malicious (e.g. HTML tags). This appears to cope well with input coming through the particular app, but if there is content in the database that is inserted from other sources like from an app written using other technologies, then it is possible that malicious script code could still be output.
In old versions of .NET it was a bit of a mine-field for a developer to ensure that their output was correctly encoded using some of the default web controls.
Unfortunately, the data-binding syntax doesn’t yet contain a built-in encoding syntax; it’s coming in the next version of ASP.NET
e.g. not vulnerable:
<asp:TextBox ID="txtYourField" Text='<%# Bind("YourField") %>'
<asp:Repeater ID="Repeater2" runat="server">
<%# Eval("YourField") %>
A4-Insecure Direct Object References
MVC model binding can allow parameters added to POST data to be mapped onto the a data model. This can happen unintentionally as the developer hasn't realised that a malicious user may amend parameters in this way. The Bind attribute can be used to prevent this.
A5-Security Misconfiguration
There are many configuration options that can weaken the security of an application. For example setting customErrors to On or enabling trace.
Scanners such as ASafaWeb can check for this common misconfigurations.
A6-Sensitive Data Exposure
Default Hashing
The default password hashing methods in ASP.NET are sometimes not the best.
A7-Missing Function Level Access Control
Failure to Restrict URL Access
In integrated pipeline mode .NET can see every request and handles can authorise each request, even to non .NET resources (e.g. .js and images). However, if the application i running in classic mode, .NET only sees requests to files such as .aspx so other files may be accidentally unsecured. See this answer for more detail on the differences.
e.g. www.example.com/images/private_photograph_user1.jpg is more likely to be vulnerable in an application that runs in classic mode, although there are workarounds.
A8-Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Although the legacy web forms applications are usually more secure against CSRF due to requiring the attacker to forge the View State and Event Validation values, newer MVC applications could be vulnerable unless the developer has manually implemented anti forgery tokens. Note I am not saying that web forms is not vulnerable, just that it is more difficult that simply passing on a few basic parameters - there are fixes though, such as integrating the user key into the View State value.
When the EnableEventValidation property is set to true, ASP.NET validates that a control event originated from the user interface that was rendered by that control. A control registers its events during rendering and then validates the events during postback or callback handling. For example, if a list control includes options numbered 1, 2, or 3 when the page is rendered, and if a postback request is received specifying option number 4, ASP.NET raises an exception. All event-driven controls in ASP.NET use this feature by default.
[EnableEventValidation] feature reduces the risk of unauthorized or malicious postback requests and callbacks. It is strongly recommended that you do not disable event validation.
A10-Unvalidated - Redirects and Forwards
Adding code such as
will make your site vulnerable. The attack could be initiated by sending a phishing email to a user containing a link. If the user is vigilant they may have double checked the domain of the URL before clicking. However, as the domain will match your domain which the user trusts, they will click the link unaware that the page will redirect the user to the attacker's domain.
Validation should take place on Url to ensure that it is either a relative, allowed URL or an absolute URL to one of your own allowed domains and pages. You may want to check someone isn't redirecting your users to /Logout.aspx for example. Although there may be nothing stopping an attacker from directly linking to http://www.example.com/Logout.aspx, they could use the redirect to hide the URL so it is harder for a user to understand which page is being accessed (http://www.example.com/Redirect.aspx?Url=%2f%4c%6f%67%6f%75%74%2e%61%73%70%78).
The other OWASP categories are:
• A9-Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities
of which I can't think of any to mind that are specific to C#/ASP.NET. I'll update my answer if I think of any (if you think they are relevant to your question).
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IMO: The nr 1 exploitable functions, are innocent looking, but very dangerously when used without thought.
In ASP.Net Response.Write or the shortcut:
<%= searchTermFromUser %>
In ADO.Net:
• The string + operator:
var sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE name = '" + searchTermFromUser + "'"
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Never ever do SQL statements like that. Use Command.AddParameter and parameter names in queries. – jgauffin Oct 23 '10 at 20:15
Yes, that's what I mean. These are examples of exploitable code. – GvS Oct 23 '10 at 21:41
What's wrong with response.write for the website using that ? – Xaqron Oct 30 '10 at 1:55
@Xaqron: Because it is common to forget HtmlEncode – GvS Oct 30 '10 at 19:57
@Xaqron: that is one path to allow [cross site scripting ](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting) – jachguate Nov 10 '10 at 3:27
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Any piece of data you get from the user (or any other external source) and pass to another system or another user is a potential exploit.
If you get a string from the user and display it to another user without using HtmlEncode it's a potential exploit.
If you get a string from the user and use it to construct SQL it's a potential SQL injection.
If you get a string from the user and use it to contract a file name for Process.Start or Assembly.Load it's a remote execution vulnerability
You get the point, the danger comes from using unsanitized data, if you never pass user input to external system without sanitizing it (example: HtmlEncode) or using injection-safe interfaces (example: SQL parameters) you are relatively safe - the minute you forget to sanitize something the most innocent-looking method can become a security vulnerability.
Note: cookies, html headers and anything else that passes over a network is also data from the user, in most cases even data in your database is data from the user.
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Yes data from the user is called tainted data. When tainted data reaches a "sink" function, then you have a vulnerability. Look at the list of PHP sink functions i posted at the top. – Rook Oct 26 '10 at 16:25
@Rook - You can't possibly list all the "sink" functions, any code that is not explicitly designed to deal with possibly malicious data is a sink function - also, any code that is designed to deal with malicious data in a diffract context that you use it is a sink function (example: XmlDocument.Load is designed to detect and reject malformed or malicious XML, but if you let the user control the file you load it can be used to load your configuration files and create a really bad information disclosure vulnerability) – Nir Oct 27 '10 at 10:01
did you see my PHP link at the top? Or have you come across static analysis tools like RATS (fortify.com/ssa-elements/threat-intelligence/rats.html) – Rook Oct 27 '10 at 16:44
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Plenty of things in the System.Net, System.XML, System.IO, (anything that takes a URI and/or file path and actually deals with the resource they identify) System.Reflection, System.Security, System.Web, System.Data and System.Threading namespaces can be dangerous, as in they can be used to do bad things that go further than just messing up the current execution. So much that it would be time consuming to try to identify each.
Of course, every method in all third party assemblies will have to assumed to be dangerous until shown otherwise. More time consuming again.
Nor do I think it's a particularly fruitful approach. Producing a checklist of functions only really works with a limited library, or with a large-language where a lot of what would be in a library with a language like C# is in the language itself.
There are some classically dangerous examples like Process.Start() or anything that executes another process directly, but they are balanced by being quite obviously dangerous. Even a relatively foolhardy and incompetent coder may take care when they use that, while leaving data that goes to other methods unsanitised.
That sanitation of data is a more fruitful thing to look at than any list of functions. Is data validated to remove obviously incorrect input (which may be due to an attack, or may simply be a mistake) and is it encoded and escaped in the appropriate way for a given layer (there is too much talk about "dangerous" character sequences, ' never hurt anyone, it's ' not correctly escaped for SQL, that can hurt when it is indeed at a SQL layer - the job required to make sure the data gets in there correctly is the same as that to avoid exploits). Are the layers at which communication with something outside of the code solid. Are URIs constructed using unexamined input, for example - if not you can turn some of the more commonly used System.Net and System.XML methods into holes.
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Using any type of unsafe code can cause problems such as pointers. Microsoft provided a good article about unsafe code here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288474(VS.71).aspx
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"Problems such as pointers" – ta.speot.is Oct 30 '10 at 4:25
-1 for qualifying pointers as problems... what kind of problem they are? – jachguate Nov 10 '10 at 3:24
They are unsafe, pretty obvious if used incorrectly they can be exploited hence they can be a problem, doesnt take einstein to figure that one out does it? – kyndigs Nov 10 '10 at 9:38
if used incorrectly. Your car is unsafe if used incorrectly, a kitchen knife is unsafe if used incorrectly, but they are not inherently unsafe for someone who knows what are doing and how to properly use them. – jachguate Nov 10 '10 at 21:31
Which is exactly why I said "can cause" in my post... I didnt say "will cause". – kyndigs Nov 11 '10 at 10:15
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Reflection.Emit and CodeDom
Allowing plugins or third party libraries that uses threading can bring your whole application down unless you load those libraries/plugins in a separate appdomain.
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Probably half the framework contains very scary functions. I myself think that File.WriteAllText() is very scary since it can overwrite any file the current user has access to.
A different approach to this question would be how you can manage security. The article at http://ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/02/18/permissions.html contains a basic description concerning the .NET security system, with the System.Security.Permissions namespace containing all permissions .NET makes available. You can also take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5ba4k1c5.aspx for more information.
In short, .NET allows you to limit the permissions a process can have, for example denying methods that change data on disk. You can then check these permissions and act on whether the process has them or not.
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even a simple string comparison can be an issue.
If an application makes a trust decision based on the results of this String.Compare operation, the result of that decision could be subverted by changing the CurrentCulture
Take a look at the example. Fairly easy to miss
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I've seen code where the user could set the name and parameters for a function call in a database. The system would then execute the named function through Reflection without checking anything ...
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Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:be078100-fa68-4f56-860c-47e80e934496> | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3940576/exploitable-c-sharp-functions | en | 0.876671 | 0.264308 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have the script:
object_name(fk.parent_object_id) 'Parent table',
c1.name 'Parent column',
object_name(fk.referenced_object_id) 'Referenced table',
c2.name 'Referenced column'
sys.foreign_keys fk
inner join
sys.foreign_key_columns fkc ON fk.object_id = fkc.constraint_object_id
inner join
sys.columns c1 ON fkc.parent_column_id = c1.column_id and c1.object_id = fkc.parent_object_id
inner join
sys.columns c2 ON fkc.referenced_column_id = c2.column_id and c2.object_id = fkc.referenced_object_id
And I know that I get a result set back with 5 columns. Is there is a slick and efficient way to store this data in a linq type object or an iQueryable object? I want to be able to iterate through it...
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There are many ways. Are you asking which ORM is best? That's too open-ended... – RedFilter Nov 3 '11 at 13:27
are you using EF / Linq2SQL ? or "pure" ADO.NET ? – Yahia Nov 3 '11 at 13:28
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4 Answers
There are a few ORMs that use IQueryable: Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL, NHibernate, Subsonic, etc. I recommend trying one out.
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For a very lightweight ORM, you can use the DataContext's ExecuteQuery:
class YourRow
public string Col1 { get; set; }
public string Col2 { get; set; }
// DataContext takes a connection string as parameter
var db = new DataContext("Data Source=myServerAddress;" +
"Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;");
var rows = db.ExecuteQuery<YourRow>(@"
select fk.name,
object_name(fk.parent_object_id) 'Parent table',
If you can store your SQL query in a view, you can drag the view to a DBML file to have LINQ create the wrapper class for you.
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If you execute this script by using a DbCommand and a DataReader you can iterate over the rows that are returned and add them to a list of a custom object that will hold the 5 columns.
You can then use Linq To Objects to filter the list even more.
Or you can use an ORM to map your entities to the database. If you create a Database View for your query you can map an entity to the view with for example the Entity Framework and use that to execute further queries.
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You can store this into DataTable. You have add assembly System.Data.Exetensions in your project to used DataTable as IQueryable.
from tbl in dataTable.AsEnumerable()
//where clause
select tbl;
DataView view = tbl.AsDataView();
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Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:1c78055a-3a64-4644-a18e-546771b18eb2> | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7995676/how-do-i-encapsulate-this-data-from-sql-using-c | en | 0.762884 | 0.432241 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The History of the ZL1
• ZL1 engines were not painted red, while cast iron big blocks were. - 0
• ZL1 engines included power saving clutch fans and forced air induction. - 1
• In 1971, Fred Gibb’s ZL1 Camaro held the AHRA national record in Pro Stock at 9.63 seconds and 143 mph. - 2
• Fuel flowed through dual 4500 dominator carburetors. - 3
• The compression ratio was 12.7:1. - 4
• A Dana 60 axle supplied power to the ground. - 5
• This is 1969 Camaro ZL1 #40. - 6
• The ZL1 block casting number for 1969. - 7
• 1969 Camaro ZL1 blocks were all aluminum with a casting number of 3946052. - 8
• All ZL1 cars came with aluminum heads. Intake valves were 2.19" and exhaust valves were 1.88". - 9
• The ZL1 crankshaft is made from 5140 steel tuftrided and cross drilled. The last four digits of the casting number were 7115. - 10
• A Holley 4296 850 cfm dual feed double pumper was used on ZL1 cars. - 11
• All ZL1 blocks were produced by Winters Foundry, noted for its trademarked snowflake symbol cast into the block. - 12
• Print
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by Joe Babiasz More from Author
Blazing Fast, Powerful, and Impossible to Sell
Perhaps no other engine earned more respect during the factory muscle car era than Chevrolet’s ZL1. Not only did it offer pavement-melting power, but it also represented a time when General Motors, or more correctly, a small group of speed freaks within the corporation, could pull off a stunt like producing the ZL1 without the blessing of GM’s bureaucrats. The ZL1 program, while brief in its existence, brought Chevrolet to the forefront of factory performance.
The all-aluminum 427ci big block wasn’t specifically designed to be installed under the hood of 1969 Camaros and Corvettes. It actually began several years earlier when Chevrolet, disappointed with their results in the 1966 Can-Am races, needed to increase the horsepower for their race cars. Chevrolet was using their small block in the cars, but quite frankly lacked enough power to win races. The 427 cast iron big block engine was available, but the added weight in the Can-Am cars would be detrimental to handling. Engineering began development of an all-aluminum 427 engine that produced approximately 600 horsepower. The experimental engine debuted in a 1967 Chaparral 2F. Shortly thereafter, it set a record for the fastest lap on the course and became one of the most successful race engines of all time.
As with many experimental powertrains, it eventually find its way into a production vehicle. Enter the 1969 Camaro. Some car nuts at Chevrolet couldn’t think of a better vehicle to drop the ZL1 in. Unfortunately, there was a corporate edict that a Camaro could not have an engine larger than 400 cubic inches. To those in the know, there was only one way to circumvent the policy. It was known as COPO, or Central Office Production Order. COPO was GM’s little-used method of ordering “fleet” cars and was typically used for taxicabs, special paint and special wheelbase trucks. Fortunately for hot rodders, it could also be used to bypass the cubic-inch issue with the Camaro. If someone wanted a ZL1 installed at the factory, they simply wrote COPO 9560 on the order sheet. Adding an AA or BA after the COPO number gave them either a four-speed manual or an automatic transmission.
Before the ZL1 went into production vehicles, it required several changes from the race-ready Can-Am engines. The dry sump system was replaced with a traditional wet sump system and the block was prepped for a mechanical fuel pump. Production cams were modified to withstand street driving. A total of 90 ZL1 engines were produced for factory production. Of these, 69 went into Camaros, two went into Corvettes, two went into 9567 prototypes and the remaining 17 sold as crate engines.
The trouble with ordering a ZL1 was the need to order the necessary quantities. Chevrolet was not going to build just one or two for private customers, as it would be too much trouble. Since the requirement to race in a “stock” classification required at least 50 cars to be produced, Chevrolet made it necessary for a dealer to order at least 50 vehicles before the order would be accepted. Thankfully, Fred Gibb, a successful Chevrolet dealer and drag racer in La Harpe, Illinois, was ready to make such an order. He was well known within Chevrolet and a personal friend of Chevrolet’s General Manager and Vice President Pete Estes. With Pete’s assistance, Fred ordered 50 ZL1 Camaros after learning that the price would be approximately $5,200 – big dollars at the time. Still, he felt he could move them with the help of other dealers to racers nationwide. Fred was anxious for a car to be delivered early enough for Dick Harrell to race it at the AHRA meet in early 1969. Gibb was advised that the cars wouldn’t be delivered in time for the meet. After pleading with Chevrolet, two ZL1 cars were delivered on December 31, 1968. Pete Estes personally made sure the car would be produced for Gibb. The broadcast sheet of these two cars indicated “Estes Request Red-Hot” on them.
It was 22 below zero on the day the cars were delivered, and as the carburetors lacked a choke, neither car would start. Gibb eventually got them into the service bay, and they finally fired up. He would later find out that the starting issues would become the least of his problems. Of the original two, one of the cars was sold to a private party, and the other was set aside for Harrell. In three short weeks, Harrell’s car was prepped and ready for racing at Phoenix. Unfortunately, the car failed tech inspection due to the carburetor not being listed as correct for that particular engine. After a few phone calls to the right people, an engineer flew to Phoenix with the correct carburetor. While the car did well for its first outing, it did not win its class.
Gibb was not without his share of problems. After contracting to purchase 50 cars, he received the invoices for the first two Camaros. The original $5,200 price was actually over $7,300, even though they were ordered with few options. Chevrolet division, without advising Gibb, had changed the rules, and all production costs were now the burden of the buyer. In this case it was Gibb. The actual price of the ZL1 option, called the “High Performance Unit” option, was $4,160.15, which was more than the $2,726 base price of the car. Gibb, who would soon have to write a check for over $363,000 to cover the cost of his 50-car order was overwhelmed. He contacted Chevrolet to plead his case. In an unprecedented move, Chevrolet agreed to take back approximately 30 of the cars, and they were sent back to the Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant.
Fred Gibb ordered his cars without any comfort features. After all, these were to be drag cars that represented the fastest Chevrolet offered. Unfortunately, this limited sales to the general public. Soon after Gibb placed his order, several other dealers learned of the 9560 option and ordered their own, increasing production of the 1969 Camaro with a ZL1 option to 69 units. The difference between the Gibb cars and other dealer cars was that the other dealers ordered them with several comfort features, including two Rally Sport cars, to improve their opportunity of selling them retail. It was still a very hard sell with the high price, in some cases reaching over $8,000. The other dealers soon found out the car was almost impossible to sell.
All ZL1 Camaros started out as an RPO L78 396ci 375hp Camaro. When COPO 9560 was ordered, the L78 engine was replaced with the ZL1 engine. Also included was a heavy-duty 4.10 posi-traction rear axle, heavy-duty radiator, cowl induction hood, special springs and transistorized ignition. Customers ordered either the automatic or four-speed transmission. As with any solid lifter Chevrolet, air conditioning was not available. Interestingly, the first 50 ZL1 cars were incorrectly produced with a 780 cfm Holley carb. The cars were later retrofitted with the correct, larger Holley carburetor. While the 9560 Camaro produced high horsepower, small tires and restrictive exhausts showed stock ZL1 cars crossing the quarter-mile in just over 13 seconds at about 110 mph. Headers and super-tuning lowered that time to the mid 11s.
So what made the ZL1 engine so special? High on the list of advantages was its light weight. Using aluminum brought the big block’s weigh very close to the weight of a small block, around 500 pounds. Another advantage was that it started out as a race engine, and much of that technology was kept for the production powerplant. The icing on the cake was the breathing ability of the big block. Specifications were nearly identical to the production version of Chevrolet’s L88 but included a tweaked cam and a specially-tuned aluminum intake manifold. Open chamber heads moved the air/fuel mixture like gale force winds. All ZL1 blocks were produced by Winters Foundry, noted for its trademarked snowflake symbol cast into the block. While a production line horsepower (with all accessories and stock exhaust system) peaked at only 376, when accessories were removed and headers installed, horsepower jumped to 524. That’s not bad for a production car engine forty years ago.
Chevrolet soon recognized that the ZL1 would be difficult, if not impossible, to sell. In response to the cold shoulder customers gave, Vince Piggins and his GM design staff built two COPO 9567 prototypes. It wasn’t an attempt to build a cheaper ZL1 but to build a more streetable car. The Camaro was to come with a Muncie M21 four-speed transmission and an 11:1 compression ratio. Both prototypes were Tuxedo Black in color with gold stripes. The price was pegged at an astronomical $8581.60. Needless to say, the COPO 9567 Camaro never made it into production.
In the end, the Camaro ZL1 saga was a difficult time for Chevrolet and their dealers. Fred Gibb was able to send a portion of his cars back to Chevrolet. Other cars went to other dealers in an attempt to sell them. Only 13 cars were sold directly through Fred’s dealership. About 20 cars were prepped for NHRA Super Stock class, and others were sold to private owners. Many dealers who ordered a ZL1 Camaro wound up removing the ZL1 engine and replacing it with a cast iron 396 or 427 in an effort to sell the car. Several other cars were stolen and never recovered. Interestingly, it took until 1972 for Fred Gibb to sell the last 1969 ZL1 Camaro sitting on his lot. It sold with a $1,000 rebate from Chevrolet. Unfortunately for Gibb, it was repossessed and returned to his dealership in 1973. It is safe to assume that he hated to see it come back.
Luckily for automotive enthusiasts, Chevrolet was required to retain a list of all ZL1 Camaros produced, and today this is very important for verification. Without proper documentation, these cars would be lost in the shuffle of the “was it an original big-block car” wars. Several cars are still unaccounted for, but enthusiasts around the world are still searching for this rare factory racecar. Today, it is known that 50 cars still exist. Many have been accounted for, and a few are back on the racing circuit, showing today’s generation what 1960s drag racing was all about.
Many said the potential was there for a fire-breathing factory racecar to dominate the drag race scene. But the high cost, low production run and durability issues of the early cars came into play. Some think that an L88 Camaro would have been a better idea. By the end of 1969, corporate interest in the ZL1 program dwindled. The people who brought it to production moved on to other jobs. Pete Estes, the driving force behind the ZL1, left Chevrolet to become GM Group Vice President. John DeLorean replaced him and concentrated on Pontiac’s role in factory performance. Budgets were tight, and the ZL1 program was dropped like a hot potato.
Eventually, the ZL1 Camaro made its name known in the drag race circuit. Racers like Malcom Durham, Dick Harrell and Ken Barnet took an edgy factory racer and recorded quarter-mile times in the low 10s, with speeds of over 132 mph. No other factory racecar would accomplish so much. Today, any documented ZL1 Camaro commands top dollar at collector car auctions. The Dick Harrell Camaro recently sold at the 2009 Barrett Jackson Auction for $319,000. It is expected these rare racecars will continue to increase in value.
On a related note, the ZL1 Camaro was not the rarest ZL1 car for GM – that was the 1969 Corvette ZL1. Unlike the COPO 9560 Camaro, the Corvette ZL1 was considered a factory option. Reports vary in the total of ZL1 Corvettes produced, but the unverified production numbers are two, although it’s possible that up to seven Corvettes were produced with this engine.
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Waste not, want not
That's not an attack on the quality of shows being presented by the theater center and the opera. I'm not suggesting they don't deserve 500 Inc. money; I suggest that, relatively speaking, they don't need it as much as many groups. We're talking about two organizations that have the political and corporate clout to build new homes for themselves in downtown Dallas, assuming local voters give their approval in bond elections. (A $10.5 million bond proposal for land acquisition for new homes for the theater center and opera goes before voters in May.) Would either multimillion-dollar organization miss $20,000 a year? They might say yes--times are tough financially all over for performing arts. But I challenge both groups to be chivalrous and forgo their 500 Inc. contributions in the name of assisting the little guys, whose flourishing would, in turn, make our city a more inviting place for the international performers the theater center and opera bring in. This would be especially appropriate as the opera and the theater center are subsidized by Dallas taxpayers.
The Dallas Morning News recently ran an editorial on "What Makes a City Livable." If the Morning News is really interested in making Dallas more livable, it can stop flying stage critic Lawson Taitte out to New Jersey for lengthy articles on how great downtown performance centers are, and start directing him toward a more nuanced examination of local performers. The newspaper can face Dallas' inferiority complex about culture--and overcome it--if it acknowledges how much talent we have here and realizes that paying less attention to international artists and more to our own will, conversely, stir up the interest of outsiders. Most importantly, as a major supporter of 500 Inc., the theater center, and the opera, the Morning News can play a key role in helping make Dallas more livable for its resident stage artists by nudging more money toward those who barely eke out a living, yet create provocative theater. That's how you slowly, patiently create a scene that earns a national reputation.
The 500 Inc. is in a prime position to lead the way on this one, if they just reconsider some basic assumptions behind their funding system. That process might include confronting their own reputation (fair or unfair, you hear it from many different corners) as an organization whose main goal is hobnobbing with opera and symphony board members, not cultivating artistic visions. Cliff Redd and the 500 Inc.'s top brass, the long-term serious-as-a-heart-attack volunteers who sit on the funds distribution committees, could lead the move in this direction.
All this would entail a certain deferred gratification--the process of building a world-class cultural scene isn't as big an ego stroke as living in one. Picking up empty soda cans after a show at the Swiss Avenue Theater is a helluva lot less glamorous than chatting up opera director Plato Karayanis or the theater center's Richard Hamburger at a cast party. But over the long haul, it contributes more to the kind of glamour that counts--the confidence that your city is doing something unlike any other city in the country. When you radiate that kind of pride, outsiders start to notice.
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day 19 - sleepy
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to be honest, it was 'one of those days'... I won't go into detail, but I somehow very mysteriously lost my train ticket while sitting, reading, and waiting for the train. I still don't know how I did that. so I had to buy another. my train was over 10 mins late, then I ended up having to wait a good 10 mins for the subway. on saturdays, sales are usually high and there's a ton of traffic, but it was epically slow until around 3, and the rest of the day made up for it, but I made less in commission than usual. It wasn't a *bad* day, just one of those fml types. but the good/neutral stuff balanced out the bad.
I finally got home around 9:15, and I was exhausted and starving (as usual on saturdays :P ). I made dinner and my sister and I decided to finally watch dirty dancing havana nights together, which I was excited about cause we are obsessed with that movie/javier.... but I ended up accidentally sleeping through most of it! D:
when I woke up it was basically the end, and I was so sleepy and cozy but I still had to take my photo of the day. my sister was nice enough to get me my cam so I could take a photo where I was. I took like 5, then left my stuff downstairs and went to sleep... which is why this photo didn't get put up until today! :P
Dario Castillo, MissytheMuse, and 4 other people added this photo to their favorites.
1. DBLClick Photography {Joe Ford} 46 months ago | reply
Sounds like a very rough day, take care and get some rest.
2. len watson [deleted] 46 months ago | reply
i like the perspective and the focus.
3. alle dicu 46 months ago | reply
At least you got to see the cast, haha! I love this anyway.. it is so moody and that light is killer. I can't take beautiful inside shots;
4. Schoonmaker III 46 months ago | reply
great POV and DoF, hey I think I see my name in the credits..... LOL
5. Dario Castillo 46 months ago | reply
sounds like a long day, i have those too :(
6. SaraAbd 46 months ago | reply
I love this photo, you're perspective is genius
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"some music was meant to stay underground..."
The Moshketeers
From: unknown
Last Known Status: Unknown
Latest The Moshketeers News
Below is our complete The Moshketeers news coverage, including columns and articles pertaining to the band. Some articles listed may be indirectly related, such as side projects of the band members, etc.
The Moshketeers' "The Downward Spiral" CD Release
Roxx Records in conjunction with Divine Metal Distro are ready to unleash their latest offering of pure metal from one of New Mexico’s thrash metal band The Moshketeers.
Originally formed in the mid 80’s as a straight ahead heavy metal band and going by the name Rapture, the band released several demos, including "Vacation from Hell" and "Die by the Sword." The band toured with Barren Cross and shared the stage with many bands including Deliverance and Sacred Warrior. The band would eventually change their name in 1989 to The Moshketeers which would coincide with the bands full transition in to the growing thrash metal scene.
The Moshketeers independently released two cassette tapes including a four-song demo and a full length release entitled "The Downward Spiral." The band would begin touring and performing shows with many of metal’s finest bands including Testament, Deliverance, The Crucified and Vengeance Rising. The band continued off and on into the 1990s, releasing another cassette demo in 1997 with four new songs that were suppose to be from an upcoming full length album, that was never finished. The band continued to be open shows for many popular bands including P.O.D. and Ultimatum.
Rumors began flying in 1990 that The Moshketeers were signing with a major label but it never happened and the tapes would never see the light of day and the masters would be locked away for many, many years…until now.
The Moshketeers "The Downward Spiral" will now see a full CD release, for the first time ever. Set to be completely restored and remastered and include several previously unreleased bonus tracks, including the rare 1997 demo.
Here's the tracklisting for The Moshketeers' "The Downward Spiral" (Remastered and Expanded): More...
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Eugene Jarecki takes questions seriously. An earnest student of history and precise thinker, he asks questions for a living and answers them with care. His 2002 documentary, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, found the former Secretary of State guilty of crimes against humanity, but also symptomatic of his era. Jarecki’s new film, Why We Fight, winner of the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, extends and deepens such analysis, examining the social, economic, and political systems that drive U.S. war-making policy.
You call Eisenhower the “hero” of Why We Fight. Is the significance of his Farewell Speech partly a function of its timing, the ways that TV affected his image?
You could say it this way: How many times have we heard that the quality that made the difference between Nixon and Kennedy for that election was Kennedy’s tanned complexion and camera-friendly appearance? Even though Eisenhower’s speech is profoundly important, it’s a little bit ignored, as we in this society often attribute significance to an event more for its media-oriented, formal qualities than for its substance.
Yet Eisenhower had a good relationship with the press.
Eisenhower gave more press conferences than virtually any president we’ve had. He was very active in informing the fourth estate about his decision-making and his thinking. He saw the press as a conduit to speak in his very “talking Kansas” way to the American people. And this raises another problem, the current myth that Republicans own the copyright on war. They don’t. A disproportionate number have been run by Democrats, the same Democrats who disappointed their constituents by failing to stop the war in Iraq. I mention this because the candidacy of John Kennedy was driven by the military industrial sector and sought to embarrass Eisenhower as a kind of old school thinker who was, among other things, soft on the Soviets. So here you have a war hero looked like a dove because of a young upstart who was talking hawkish talk about the Soviet Union.
In large part, that led Eisenhower to say that there are forces operating here that are getting too big for even someone like myself to control. That’s when he said this famous phrase in the Oval Office, “God help this country when somebody—potentially John Kennedy, potentially George W. Bush—sits at this desk and doesn’t know as much about the military as I do.” Kennedy used to embarrass Eisenhower about the “Missile Gap,” the idea that Eisenhower had allowed the U.S. to fall behind the Soviet Union in missile development. I spoke to Susan Eisenhower, Ike’s granddaughter, and she said that in fact, Eisenhower knew that we were ahead of the Soviets, but that the only way he knew that was that he was flying secret U2 spy missions over the Soviet Union, and he couldn’t reveal it. So he had to sit on his hands, unable to defend himself, while Kennedy impugned Eisenhower’s stewardship of the national security.
Wasn’t the PT-109 story part of the Kennedy campaign as well?
It very much was. But looking back now and seeing Kennedy as the military-industrial candidate flies in the face of the inclination Americans have today to see Republicans as the seat of war. And the moment one liberates oneself from that kind of simple preconception, one realizes this is a bipartisan problem, a systemic, societal problem. When Eisenhower talks about the military-industrial complex, he is not a conspiracy theorist, but a keen observer at the policy-making table, who is warning us of the way that a society, even with the best of intentions, can lose its way.
That is a party-blind issue, and the forces that drive America to war don’t care who’s president. If you look at the micro, there may be peaks and valleys where defense spending goes up or down, or our global posture becomes a little more peaceable or a little more bellicose. But what you see over time is a consistent rise in the pressure exerted by the military-industrial sector and a correlative growth of our global footprint and our willingness to use force to galvanize that global footprint.
What’s striking now is how cynical these choices seem. The film shows there’s a moment when it was “the right thing to do” to look after the world. Now that seems abandoned.
That’s what Eisenhower tells us, absolutely. A society can go awry. We started out as a republic, the idea being to break off from an empire and, among other things, avoid the errors of past empires. After winning World War II and seeing a world bleeding from the ravages of totalitarianism, American policy-makers thought, “Who better than ourselves to shepherd this hurt world?” And so it made sense to take a more global role.
But in the years that have followed, that role has only increased, until today the United States has 860 military bases in 130 countries. Combine that with our economic, political, and cultural influence, and it’s an imprint of unprecedented scope. It doesn’t matter how we got here, for good reasons and bad: we are here. And that compels each American—what Eisenhower called the “alert and knowledgeable citizen”—to take stock of the challenges of empire and say, “Okay, this is a country we care deeply about, and if it’s lost its way, what is its new way? How can we proceed in the world in a way more consistent with its founding principles?”
There has been a slippery slope, starting with that raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. With that symbol, the troops were sending a signal about our struggle to define ourselves as a nation. Today, when an American soldier raises a flag somewhere in the world, it sends a signal of our willingness to impose definition on others. That is a sea change in the history of the country, and none of us can ignore that and be true to the work in progress that the founding fathers created.
And as soon as U.S. troops placed the flag on the Saddam statue, someone associated with the military’s PR noted it, and the flag came down.
We live in this referential culture now, where everything is a reference to something else. But bear in mind that the Iwo Jima moment also occurred, and then was restaged for the camera. And so, it was ever thus.
How do you see race and racism working in your analysis of imperialism?
Western nations traditionally dominated nonwestern nations beginning in the 15th century. As the heir to the legacy of power established by those western nations, the United States has continued the power dynamic of dominating less advantaged nations through economic, political, and military means. And though here at home we have sought to foster instruments of democracy, we have been willing to undermine those when pursuing our interests even at the expense of nonwestern peoples.
Let me add two other ideas. One is that the United States was born of racist aggression, the decimation of the Native population and enslavement of Africans.
But I would argue that the arrival to these shores of Europeans and their immediate willingness to dominate the existing less advantaged people here makes us part of that legacy. So yes, the christening ceremony itself was characterized by the same dynamic of abusive power and gives a glimpse of what’s to come. Now, we’ve become more polite. We had the black slave experience, and though we sought to redress the wounds of that experience, that legacy remains and it is not easily unlearned.
The second part is that these “less advantaged peoples” are more often than not people of color: how is that built into the system, the ability to dehumanize someone who doesn’t look like you?
What is it that caused us to end slavery? We know it was a more complicated story than the good will of Mr. Lincoln, that there were also serious considerations about the impact that slavery was having on this country. There was no impulse to end abuses of people of color overseas. Had it really been a matter of humanitarian concern, we would have equated the end of U.S. slavery with the end of institutions of human subjugation in which we were involved elsewhere. But we didn’t, because there was no lobbying group who saw the needs of those overseas as affecting the state.
Lobbying brings me back to cynicism. And here’s an example: in the State of the Union Address, Bush notes suddenly the U.S. addiction to oil. No one believes he’s just noticed that.
Yes, it’s so perverse. I stood up in front of the European Parliament a few years ago to show [The Trials of Henry Kissinger], and I gave a critical assessment of a number of conflicts in which the U.S. was involved. And at one point the French delegate, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, scolded me. He said, “Your criticism of your own country is so discrete to your own country, that it is in its own way a form of nationalism. You ignore the possibility that the rest of the nations represented in this room also are ethically challenged. You seem to think that’s the special province of the United States. If anything, the United States has been the battleground, where democracy has seemed possible. And so perhaps the special tragedy is that when democracy in the United States is in peril, so goes the world.”
I do focus unduly on United States, because I love America, I show tough love to America, as any parent would a child if that child were addicted to something. And this country has gotten to the point where we are essentially dependent on the forces of militarism. We have so atrophied most parts of our national life and diverted the resources therefrom to the military instrument that we have an overdeveloped right arm and the rest of our body is falling away. It comes to seem that the military is the solution to all problems, and in fact it is. Because when the floods come and you have no infrastructure, send in the Guard—unless they’re overseas. We’ve taken the money from the schools, but young people can be educated through the Army. This is what Eisenhower foresaw when he warned of the danger of becoming a garrison state.
Eisenhower argued that any complete definition of national defense must include education, health care, and infrastructure. He built the American highway system out of defense department money. And his understanding goes further. If you allow private interests and corporatism to run rampant and trample the delicate flowerbed of your democracy, you will end up in a situation where the public loses faith in their government. At that point, you lose your last line of defense, you see the recruitment figures shrinking.
And Eisenhower’s understanding came from experience in the field.
Understand that Eisenhower had a pacifist mother, that he was born in a Mennonite household, and she was shocked when he went to West Point. He forced himself as a commander to witness the gore and the gravity of the battlefields of Europe, and wrote a certain number of letters home to next of kin, taking responsibility for his decision-making. And that gave him a sense of how serious war policy-making is.
Do you attribute Colin Powell’s appeal to a similar gravity?
One of the signs of a society tilted toward militarism is that the only people who have credibility to talk about war wear uniforms. Somebody called at one point for the withdrawal U.S. forces from tv studios, “retired potbellied generals,” as Gil Scott-Heron called them. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting did a study, in which they found that in the two weeks leading up to Colin Powell’s appearance at the United Nations, of 396 programs on the major networks dealing with the impending war, three featured voices that were anti-war. Those same mainstream networks adopted the Pentagon’s name for the war, “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” as their logo, the name for their coverage and branding. It’s one thing for the Pentagon to use such a euphemism, but it’s another for the fourth estate to adopt that indiscriminately. In a state-controlled media, how would it be any different?
Here’s the thing: when you get to a point where you have armchair generals in Washington who have never heard a shot fired in anger, think-tankers advocating hawkish policy, we almost long to hear the sobriety of a battle-hardened, thoughtful military men. Mr. Powell did himself a great disservice by living out the fullness of the contract he once signed to serve the powerful. And he failed to recognize until too late that there is an order which it is the soldier’s duty to disobey.
How did you approach the film: you had an argument to make? A question you were asking?
I had an inquiry before I started, which was implicit in the title, qualified by the question: If Frank Capra asked why we fight today, is Dwight Eisenhower’s answer pertinent? We wanted to talk to people across the American spectrum, professional and political. When we started out making the film, there was no war in Iraq. When the war happened, you couldn’t ignore it. And that meant you deal with people’s stories. When these started to emerge, it changed the film. You couldn’t figure out at a given moment, was it an analytical film or a human film? Ultimately I hope it’s both, dealing with hearts and minds.
Can you talk about three overarching stories in the film: William Solomon, Wilton Sekzer, and the two pilots?
I think Wilton is a soldier who has fought to defend his country, then worked to defend his city, then experiences an unimaginable loss on 9/11 and feels the impulse of violent revenge. And he comes to learn that there may be a higher wisdom than the initial impulse. His capacity to evolve in that way is one of the most inspiring personal influences I’ve ever absorbed, because he is more open to self-reflection than I am at my relatively young age. He represents the most evolved wisdom I the film.
William represents the least evolved. He is joining the Army at a time of war. He has lost his mother, he has mounting bills, and faces the grip that so many young people face in the inner city. Some viewers see him as joining out of necessity, an example of America’s poverty draft. But while they think the film shows him making a bad choice, I don’t. For someone like William, the military is the best game in town. And that raises the larger question: What kind of society are we living in when the best opportunity for a young person is to take a job that might cost the life of himself or of another? The military is like the mafia, who come to a young person and say, “You want a roof over your head? A little bit of pocket money? I just need you to do a job for me.”
William thinks through some difficult questions on camera, with frighteningly little information.
Though he is deeply reflective, he is naïve about all that awaits him, all that Wilton learned in the battlefield. But when Wilton entered the military, it was a matter of duty. As he says, “When the bugle calls, you go.” William never mentions a thing about fighting for his country. What he mentions is what the military appeals to, the “opportunities” the military can provide. So he’s on the least informed end of the film’s spectrum, notwithstanding his intellect.
And in the middle, between those two poles are the pilots. They understand the challenging moral dilemmas that service poses; whether they agree with an order to not, they obey it. They are still comfortable enough with that role that they obey without engaging in the kind of deep thinking that Wilton does. So those three sets of characters represent a range of evolved thinking, across members of our military family.
And as pilots, they have a certain remove from their targets, granted by increasingly advanced technologies.
We showed the film at West Point. The cadets collectively gasped at two moments in the film that civilian audiences don’t notice, both having to do with William. One is the scene where William is told he might become a pilot some day, and given his level of education, age, and less than straight-laced persona, the cadets all knew that was a cruel ruse. Later, when he’s glancing through a brochure of helicopters and points out one he’s been told he might be able to fly in the service, they gasped again, because that helicopter had been discontinued two years before this scene was shot.
Do you see a way out of all this?
Yes, I do. I’m optimistic because I’m not overly preoccupied with the present.
A decision that’s a function of not being in a war zone?
Yes. But there’s a tendency in our society to forget history. It’s the long story of many dark chapters, followed by enlightenment. We are living in a dark chapter and the majority of people feel it. What happens in the darkness, I think, is people wake up, become concerned and frustrated, and look for answers. Usually, when their voice rises to the point of being heard, it is too late for many people. It certainly looked to the black South Africans that they would never overcome their white oppressors. For the colonists, triumph over the British empire must have seemed a tall order. And it must have seemed to the French that they would never eject their tyrant.
These are violent overthrows.
They don’t always have to be. For Nelson Mandela, everything was bloody except the revolution. He figured out, through the strength of reason, decency, charisma, and a devotion to democratic principles, that violence begets violence. If you look at the prelude to the Iraq war, 30 million people marched in protest before a single shot was fired. If you compare that to the Vietnam war, about 13 Quakers marched down Fifth Avenue and nobody even heard them.
People will say, “But it didn’t stop the war.” But this is a long-term struggle. Someone once asked Zhou En Lai what he thought about the French Revolution. “Too soon to tell,” he replied. We are only a small blip in the tension between the basic altruism and basic avarice of the human being. It’s all of our mandate to find a sustainable and decent way to go forward. And we can only do that if we keep our eye on the struggle.
I take comfort from a strange place, in the lies we were told to go into this war. The extent of those lies underscores that it was against our better judgment to go to war in Iraq. I trust the good intentions of the public. If that means we have to endure a dark stretch of time, revolutionary change takes many forms. We adapt. We learned that we could not turn to the usual source of information, the mainstream media, because journalism is prey to the same forces of runaway corporatism that Eisenhower was warning against. And so the public looked elsewhere, to documentaries, to the blogosphere, the internet, satellite radio, or papers they’d never read before. That’s a very inspiring phenomenon. That’s not good news for CEOs of major media organizations, but it’s very good news for anyone who cares about democracy. Because it says that no matter what you do to democracy in the halls of power or corporate America, you can’t take it from human beings.
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Clunkers cash flowing slowly
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The federal government says it has paid back about 40 percent of the money it owes to car dealers who participated in the Cash for Clunkers program.
But dealers across the nation are disputing that claim, saying that less than 20 percent of the money they put up to make the sales under the program has been reimbursed to them. Dealers in Pittsburgh say reimbursements have been sporadic here, too.
"I did read something within the last 24 hours that the percentage of claims paid was very, very low, at most in the teens," said Tom Libby, independent auto analyst.
Officials at the American International Automobile Dealers Association said yesterday that the government has paid $1.22 billion for 289,000 vouchers. In total, 690,000 requests for voucher repayments worth $2.88 billion were submitted.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said all dealers should be reimbursed by Sept. 30.
"Dealers started issuing $3,500 and $4,500 vouchers to customers on July 24. Here it is Sept. 10, and many of them are still waiting to be reimbursed by the government. We appreciate the government's efforts to speed reimbursements, but the process is still too slow," said dealers association president Cody Lusk.
"Cash flow is absolutely critical to small businesses. The impact of this kind of backlog quickly trickles down, impacting employee salaries and inventory."
Some Pittsburgh car dealers said they already have received a significant portion of the reimbursements.
"We're actually doing pretty good. We've gotten back most of our money," said Keith Accettulla, general manager at Day Ford in Monroeville. "Our money's been coming in pretty well. I'm surprised."
"They're coming through just fine, with several coming through each day, and we're getting paid," said Eric Weingrad, new car sales manager at Pittsburgh East Nissan in Monroeville. "We're doing just fine."
But at Baierl Honda in Wexford, "We're now up to about 30 percent right now. They still owe us about 70 percent of our money. It's a slow process," said Raul Arias, general manager of the dealership.
Part of the problem is that "any little thing can cause them to reject the request to be paid, and you have to start out all over again. If they can't read a number on a driver's license, they send it back and they get another 10 days to wait. You just have to be patient and be a solid enough dealer to withstand it," Mr. Arias said.
Still the Cash for Clunkers program was such a success that the number of new cars and trucks on dealers' lots has diminished dramatically.
"That's what happens when you sell 90 days worth of cars and trucks in 30 days," Mr. Accettulla laughed. "We've got about 50 cars and trucks on the lot right now, and it will probably be about 45 to 60 days before we fully recover."
At a time when in past years, dealers would be struggling to get old models out before new ones come in, 2009 models are almost nonexistent on dealer lots.
Because new cars are in short supply, "the focus is on the used cars," Mr. Arias said. "None of the cars that came in as clunkers could be kept, so used car prices went up. Everything's shifting to used cars at almost all the dealers. It will take at least a couple of months before our inventory will be back to normal."
"We know we aren't going to sell as many as we did in July and August during the Cash for Clunkers program, after all, there's $4,500 that's no longer on the table. Still, we're doing pretty good," said Mr. Weingrad.
"The first three or four days after the program ended, it was, 'Wow, where did everybody go?' Now we have people buying a car out of necessity, not because of the program," said Mr. Arias. He usually has about 300 vehicles in stock, but now he's down to about 120.
Auto industry analysts are unsure what impact the Cash for Clunkers program will have on sales in the fall.
"This was not a traditional, normal incentives program. So it's not clear that the [drop in sales] will be as big as usual since it was so unique," Mr. Libby said. "Some of the buyers may have been people who would not have bought a car anyway. So if there's a substantial portion of customers that were not pulled ahead because of the program, the sales drop may be less than what would normally occur."
He also isn't sure that small, economical cars will continue to sell well now that the clunker program is over. "Now that it's over with, and gas prices have been pretty steady, I don't see a huge swing to small cars," Mr. Libby said.
But the program did improve what had been expected to be a 9 million unit sales year for the industry to between 10 million or 10.5 million sales year, analysts say.
Meanwhile, General Motors Co. is trying to keep sales climbing through a new marketing campaign called "May the Best Car Win." Under the program, the company will allow customers who purchase a new vehicle between Monday and Nov. 30 to return it for a refund within 31 to 60 days from the date of purchase if they're not satisfied.
Don Hammonds can be reached at 412-263-1538 or .
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Justin Bieber
'Harassed and Stalked'
By Dead Photog
1/3/2013 8:30 AM PST BY TMZ STAFF
No Avatar
Poor little freak, the pap claims he was smoking pot so everyone believes the hearsay. Pap gets killed by oncoming car, it's the little freak's fault cause it was his car being driven by someone else. Now, the little freak's camp comes out with a statement and HE gets pegged for disrespecting the dead. The little freak can't conduct an interview without coming off sounding like he's had a partial frontal lobotomy, do you guys really think he made this statement? LOLOL.
438 days ago
The majority of these celebs enjoy the attention of the photographers because if they didn't they would move somewhere else.
438 days ago
I am NOT a fan of Justin Biebers AT ALL, I think he is the biggest joke in the entertainment industry so my 2 cents are worth much but here it is..... I don't think Justin Bieber is responsible for the photographers death, with what is being reported the photographer, Chris Guerra just wasn't paying attention while taking the photos. With the whole weed issue HECK YEA I think Justin is smoking pot and maybe more than that. No one seems to know why Justin & Selena keep having problems, if I had to guess I would say she isn't into the weed & drugs scene and would rather not be dating someone who is. As to Justin Biebers reps response, the excuse they are shooting out isn't adding up....try spinning a different story and see if we believe it.
438 days ago
Sad, but it is theprice of fame. Can't have it all your way folks. The press is why you're famous, so learn to live with it.
438 days ago
I don't get the people who are telling TMZ how heartless they are and ridiculous they are,,,umm pretty sure when you hate a website, you do not go on there and give an opinion. You need to sign up to give your opinion too so those people make me laugh and I am sure TMZ loves it too. LOL Team JB all the way, I would defend myself too....JB is one of the nicest, sweetest, genuwine famous people out there, I am so proud that he is from my country, he represents Canada soo well. Usher is a good dude, never getting into trouble....Usher has his back, JB is a good kid. Also if he does smoke weed, SERIOUSLY WHO CARES! Its not even bad at all!! Geeess.......
438 days ago
Sorry, but celebrity folks cant have EVERYTHING their way. Publicity gets you fame and fortune, gonna be a price to pay for it. Lots of famous celebs get along just fine. Deal with it, or go back to being poor nobodies.
438 days ago
How do you make a living on this your are s***...sorry for talking smack about the dead but LOSER! Get a real job. You like taking pictures shoot models still art something. Dont chase people down for there pics. You wanna shoot them at an event fine. But again dont try and shoot someone supposedly smoking weed in the car.
438 days ago
I'm sorry but paps should not be celebrated in any way. Granted I enjoy reading the fodder here on TMZ BUT it's not like he was in a war zone reporting on genocide or war or actually making a difference in anyone's life. Dumb schmuck shouldn't have been standing in the street. Period.
438 days ago
the Piece of **** got what he deserved.
438 days ago
I'm not a fan of the Biebs but I also don't think he or his people need to give any statement about the incident. He wasn't involved, end of story!
438 days ago
bieber knew what he was getting into when he became a star he signed up for it everyone in hollywood knows this ..hes as guilty as anyone
438 days ago
M're telling me that a ladylike Canadian lad went out for CHICKEN AND WAFFLES and there was no pot involved?
438 days ago
What is really disturbing is this guy killed himself. Everyone seems to want to give him sympathy.
I have read almost nothing about the poor girl who's life has changed forever that hit him.
She is the one that should be getting everyones sympathy. This guy broke several laws, then stood in front of an innocent driver who had no chance. Now she must live the rest of her life knowing she killed someone.
Jeeze. I can't imagine.
He gets no sympathy from me. He stalked people, put other lives and himself in jeopardy and the ultimate price was paid. And now an innocent victim has the rest of her life to deal with this.
438 days ago
Good thing a car full of innocent family members didn't swerve to miss and end up dying
438 days ago
Harrassed and stalked by a dead guy? Doesn't that mean that he needs to call and excorsist?
438 days ago
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Suggestions on hypothetical build?
Last response: in Systems
I'm hoping to put together my own computer. I want to use it for some gaming. I don't have a budget but the cheaper the better. This will be my first build. All suggestions are welcome. I think the cpu cooler is for intel cpus but i'm too lazy to change it at the moment.
a b B Homebuilt system
a b à CPUs
"I don't have have a budget..." wanna throw out a ballpark figure here? say like $800-$1000?
"I want to use it for some gaming." what is the least resource-demanding game you intend to play? the most? any game in the future?
"...but the cheaper the better." AMD builds are typically cheaper, not necessarily for comprimise either.
Why include Microsoft Word on your cost, or the OS. We're not going to change those so they don't need to be included in your hypothetical build. (actually i would use openoffice, but that's just me)
Is it safe to say you have a budget of $900 for this hypothetical build
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The absolute max is $1500 but i'd prefer to keep it under $1300 for everything (~$900 without software). I play mostly shooters and rts games (Cod black ops, Quake Wars, starcraft 2 etc.)
I haven't really used open office much. I was worried about having file compatibility issues while at colleges. Most schools use microsoft office.
I looked up most of the components on microcenter and they seem a bit cheaper. A few things like 6850 and ssds were more expensive but I bet I would be saving a lot more not having to pay for shipping. Thanks for the suggestion.
How does the psu look? Is 550w the right amount? I'm not sure I would be able to see the red led from outside the case. I was considering getting a different color led fan for the front of the case and didn't want to the two colors to clash. Any recommendations for psus?
a c 91 B Homebuilt system
a b à CPUs
Well you could either change the PSU or opt for a different case. The PSU probably won't be visible as there isn't a side panel. But if you are fearful, here's a case with the same LED's as your PSU, comes with more fans and is, imo, the better case.
CM Scout:
Or a psu is this:
It's cheap, not modular though. But it has a great efficiency, and comes from a great brand. | <urn:uuid:078b0182-b58e-4e85-94b3-f038b90923a7> | http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/300801-31-suggestions-hypothetical-build | en | 0.96369 | 0.671975 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Reno, NV, USA < change city >
October, 2010 in Reno
"All the important parts of the wedding were perfect. The ceremony was beautiful. The venue however was the worst experience of my life and I even made a trip to the emergency room two hours before the ceremony. Wedding mapper however was a godsend as during seating chart drama of the century, I could just hand my laptop to my groom and let him figure things out."
Reception: The Grove
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"Beautiful photos and such a great studio to work with. Kiley was always there to answer any crazy questions and took stunning photos of brunch and the wedding amidst all the craziness that was my day."
Reception Venue:
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Reno, NV 89511, United States
"Worst venue experience of my life. They changed my contract without telling me. Scheduled a brunch the day of my wedding. Were late for meetings and didn't communicate what was said in meetings to other members of the staff. One whole table didn't get a first course (it was only a two course meal) They threw out most of my wedding cake. No one in the bridal party even got a piece of cake. They totally messed up the ceremony music even after I had explained it twice. They charged my credit card without permission and won't even apologize for the day's events or refund me any money. It's pretty but not worth the headache and pain of a wedding being completely ruined. I would not recommend this to anyone and say stay away!"
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Ex-Cop Jack McCullough Sentenced to Life in Prison For Girl's 1957 Murder
Former police officer Jack McCullough was sentenced to life in prison today for the 1957 murder of a little girl, ending one of the nation's longest and most notorious cold cases. McCullough, now 73, was sentenced in Sycamore, Ill., the same town where he kidnapped and killed Maria Ridulph on Dec. 3., 1957. Prosecutors alleged that a 17-year-old McCullough, who was known then by his birth name, John Tessier, approached Maria and her friend, Kathy, while they were playing outside of her...Full Story
Commenting on this article is closed. | <urn:uuid:61966e31-56e1-4560-b8cd-73c038c35ee1> | http://abcnews.go.com/US/cop-jack-mccullough-sentenced-life-prison-girls-1957/comments?type=story&id=17925894 | en | 0.974927 | 0.117973 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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does anyone have any feedback for somerset medical or overlook. I recently got offers at both! somerset requires a 2 year contract *ugh* and i have almost one year experience. I am torn between the two! overlook is a night shift which is horrible on the body and somerset is early afternoons!
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Scientific Method / Science & Exploration
Blowing holes in the atmosphere
French researchers point a big laser at the sky and blow a hole in the …
Sometimes, when surfing through a journal's table of contents, an article just jumps out at you as an absolutely awesome experiment to do. Not necessarily significant in terms of science—just, simply, awesome. This is one such experiment.
A group of French researchers are interested in exploring the composition of the atmosphere, which is commonly done with laser-based radar system, known as lidar. The idea is that the intensity and delay of the time of flight can produce an accurate measure of the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere. However, if the laser can be made to emit more than one color, more information, such as the species of gases can be detected as well. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, lasers only emit a narrow band of wavelengths, which limits the amount of information that can be retrieved from lidar soundings. To get around this, the scientists simply upped the power on their laser to 32TW (32,000,000,000,000W). At such high intensity, the laser modifies the air so that it acts like a lens, which focuses the laser to an even higher intensity. This process continues until the laser ionizes the air. The resulting plasma tries to disperse the laser beam, leading to a balance that channels the laser light in fine filaments which generates white light that has all the properties of laser light.
This glowing white beam traveled more than 20km, reaching from the ground into the stratosphere. Although, as I said before, this caught my eye due to sheer awesomeness, there is a some serious science involved as well. For instance, the propagation of such intense beams of light is very difficult to predict from our understanding of light, so this was an interesting test of the physics of light propagation. Furthermore, the development of a white light lidar system should be a boon to atmospheric physicists everywhere.
In the meantime I'm off to find some frickin' sharks.
The green pilot laser for the main beam (©CNRS / LASIM / J. Kasparian).
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On last night's Dollhouse, we went deep inside the curiously understaffed heart of Rossum Corp., met the man in charge, and dished out sweet, brain-soaking justice. Yay, the good guys won! Well, sort of. Spoilers ahead.
The penultimate Dollhouse episode had the toughest job of all: Wrap up the present-day storyline, explain last week's whodathunkit revelation, and set the stage for post-apocalyptic hell ten years from now. And it finnessed those challenges by offering up a classic "destroy the McGuffin and the bad guy is ultimately defeated" story — only to pull the rug out from under us, with the nasty brainpocalypse world that those of us who watched the unaired episode on the DVD set will remember. It was a nice fake-out, even if we could see it coming a long way off.
So perhaps the fact that almost nothing in "Hollow Men" quite made sense to me was part of this fake-out. It was like a pastiche of the standard TV series finale, in which the huge shadowy evil corporation suddenly turns out to be the work of one ranting supervillain, and there's an easy-to-destroy McGuffin, a "mainframe." If our heroes can only wipe that out, they'll vanquish the evil megacorp and the world will be saved. Echo even outruns an explosion! Whee!
Except that we already know the good guys fail, and the end of the world is inevitable. So the huge "saving the world" episode is kind of a joke, on the characters most of all.
Dollhouse Gives Us The Happy Ending We DeserveS
That's the charitable explanation for why so many things in last night's Dollhouse felt random and out of nowhere. Especially the "Whiskey is Clyde" thing, which I still don't quite get. (Was she Clyde all during last week's episode? Really?) There were also a lot of lines of dialogue in the episode that seemed to refer back to stuff we never saw, like "Echo is the only one who can get us into that building." (Why?) Or: "We just have to hold on until Echo finishes the job." (What job?) Most of all, the "mainframe" thing felt almost too silly to swallow — suddenly, the mainframe is a thing? I thought it was all the brains of the humans stuck inside the Attic? And why would destroying one computer even slow Rossum down for a second?
The thing is, the rest of the season did such a great job of building up Rossum as this unstoppable force whose ethics were as limited as its power wasn't. Episode after episode showed us Rossum as the ultimate bastion of psycho entitlement, with old guys sitting around smoking cigars while treating humans like cattle. They own a U.S. Senator — soon to be a president — and their evil tentacles stretch into every corner of the world. And suddenly last night, Rossum seemed clumsy and ill-equipped. Partly, it was the "mainframe" thing, but also especially the Boyd=Rossum thing.
Remember last week, when we asked if the Boyd thing was going to wind up making sense? I guess you shouldn't ask questions you're not going to like the answers to.
Dollhouse Gives Us The Happy Ending We DeserveS
So... I'm Boyd. I founded the Rossum Corp. several years ago, with my partner Clyde, who's such a brain science genius he makes Topher look like an amateur. We create the ultimate brain-reprogramming technology, and when Clyde balks at the implications, I plug the original Clyde into my newly created human computer, so his brainpower can still work for me. And I create copies of Clyde, without the original's scruples, or any ability to disobey my orders. Soon I've got an empire of "Dollhouses," where people's brains are reprogrammed for the entertainment of the wealthy. And I can already see where this technology is heading: We're going to wind up being able to put our brains into anybody's body, and if you're rich, you'll put your brain into lots and lots of bodies. Soon, there'll only be a few minds left on Earth. (Presumably, I don't foresee the "Chinese phone brainwashing" wrinkle, or the fact that eventually every piece of tech on Earth starts reprogramming people.)
This is great news for me, because it means I can live forever, jumping from body to body. There's only one problem — how do I protect my own mind from being overwritten? Luckily, my medical company does blood tests on a young woman whose blood contains certain substances that might indicate a resistance to imprinting. (Call them "midichlorians." Sorry, couldn't resist.) By an astonishing coincidence, this woman is also a sworn enemy of my company, and is doing everything in her power to destroy it. (Or maybe, after I discover the secret of this woman's blood, I somehow manipulate her into becoming Rossum's sworn enemy?)
So finally, the woman with the incredibly special blood plays into my hands — she comes to my headquarters in Tucson and tries to destroy it. Now I've got her where I want her — she either plays along with my scheme, or I send her to prison forever (or have her executed.) But for some reason, I can't harvest the neuro-chemical transmitters in her spinal fluid right away — they have the potential to resist imprinting, but they aren't there yet. Something needs to happen, before she's ready to have her spinal fluid harvested — she needs to be imprinted with new personalities, over and over again, until her resistance to them builds up and she eventually becomes immune to imprinting. (Or rather, she learns to integrate her imprints into one personality.)
So how do I go about building up Echo's immunity? Do I stick her in a lab somewhere, where I can have a huge team of scientists monitor my company's most important asset, while we imprint her with personality after personality, until her immunity builds up? No, of course not. Instead, I send her to the L.A. Dollhouse, to be shot at, caught up in kidnapping rings, hunted by bow-wielding maniacs, etc., etc. The woman whose blood is the key to helping the "chosen few" avoid being erased will go into a situation where she's in constant danger of being destroyed. (Although, maybe she has to be exposed to stress in order for her to resist her imprints? So okay, maybe that makes sense. Possibly.)
But it's okay that the company's most important asset will be in huge jeopardy, because I'll be there as her Handler, sitting hundreds of yards away in a van and monitoring her vital signs.
Part of the problem, of course, is that last night's episode sort of punted on explaining any of this stuff in a more coherent fashion than I've pieced together above. Boyd sort of turned into a garden variety television psycho, ranting about how the technology is out there now, and you can either be the destroyer or the destroyed. I did like the part where Boyd said he loves his Dollhouse "family" and wants to keep them around — although he then negated it by acting completely callous towards them, threatening to shoot Adelle a moment later. I was also quite shocked that Boyd was so casual about Clyde erasing Claire Saunders, whom he seemed to have genuine feelings for before.
In the end, none of it even matters — because the villain of the series wasn't even the Rossum Corp., but the technology that Rossum helped to develop. As someone said in season one's "Man On The Street," if the technology to rewrite brains even exists, then humanity is over as a species. Eventually, someone else will discover it and use it.
So Boyd is right — the tech is out there. Topher's schematics are probably backed up to dozens of hard drives all over the world. And the evil Rossum execs' brains are stored in dozens of bodies as well. The whole "cut the head off the snake" metaphor winds up being somewhat nonsensical — it's more like a Hydra. (Probably the only thing the fiends at Rossum actually fear is exposure — having the truth known about their misdeeds before they're ready to mindwipe the world. So the smart thing to do probably would have been to perfect Topher's remote mindwiping tech, and use it on the Rossum board before they finish their own version — plus use it on a few dozen leading political figures, and program all of them to start speaking the truth about Rossum. Crude, but effective.)
Dollhouse Gives Us The Happy Ending We DeserveS
I did like the theme that was snaked through "Hollow Man," of people rejecting evil tech, but then turning to it in desperation. Tony and Priya have sworn never to be imprinted again — but then they decide to try it one last time. And Priya even agrees to have her boyfriend "upgraded." Mellie doesn't like guns, but Paul convinces her that the way to deal with her fear is to carry one anyway. Topher hates the "remote control for the brain" tech he perfected, but Evil Boyd easily convinces Topher to repair one of the devices so they can use it for good. It was yet another way we see good intentions and technological convenience leading us down the slippery slope to annihilation.
And there were a few great character moments, many of them Topher-related. We got to see Victor-as-Topher one last time, ranting about how much he prefers his physique to Victor's. "Brainpocalpyse" was great, and so was Topher's continuing willingness to do the wrong thing when an authority figure asks him to. Oh and, "The mad scientist in me says yes" should really be a T-shirt. It was nice that Paul finally admitted his feelings for Mellie were real — even though I saw her death coming a mile off. Tony and Priya got to be all noble and give up their chance at happiness to help their friends.
I'm sad to admit it, but my overwhelming feeling about the penultimate Dollhouse episode is head-scratching. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. The episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do, and it pulled a few of those back muscles that tend to lead to excruciation if you don't lift with your legs. Mostly, i'm just glad it's not the absolute final episode — here's hoping next week's "Epitaph Two" lives up to the greatness of last year's unaired "Epitaph One." | <urn:uuid:b87f9d04-512c-47f4-a2b4-075e720d4981> | http://io9.com/5449891/dollhouse-gives-us-the-happy-ending-we-deserve?tag=dollhouse | en | 0.974778 | 0.024362 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
BEIJING—China's new leader, Xi Jinping, appears to be ingratiating himself with the country's generals by protecting the defense budget even as economic growth slows. He also is cultivating a public image as a strong military leader as China faces off with Japan over a group of disputed islands and seeks to counteract the U.S. strategic pivot toward Asia.
A national budget unveiled Tuesday at the opening of an annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, forecast military expenditure of 720.2 billion yuan ($114.3 billion), an increase of 10.7%, in 2013.
It is the first budget since Mr. Xi took over as Communist Party and military chief in a once-a-decade leadership change in November.
Military spending has increased at a similar rate for most of the past two decades, but this year's increase comes as China's overall economic growth begins to slow, with parliament approving an official GDP growth target of 7.5% for the second year running, compared with an average growth of more than 10% for most of the past decade.
New recruits of the Chinese navy march in Qingdao. Xi Jinping boosted China's military spending by 10.7%. Reuters
Diplomats and analysts say Mr. Xi has moved faster than expected to establish himself as a strong military leader, making a series of high-profile visits to army, navy, air force and missile-command facilities in his first 100 days in office, and launching a campaign to enhance the armed forces' ability to "fight and win wars," according to diplomats and analysts.
Those people also say Mr. Xi has taken direct control of an interagency body that has overseen an escalation in Chinese civilian and military patrols around islands claimed by both China and Japan, leading to frequent confrontations with Japanese ships and planes that many regional defense experts say could escalate into military conflict.
Mr. Xi's more dynamic military profile is mainly designed to build up a political support base within the armed forces, and cultivate a public image that distinguishes him from his predecessor, Hu Jintao, who struggled to establish his authority over the armed forces and was widely viewed as a weak and uncharismatic leader, say diplomats and analysts.
A Look Inside the Meetings
A hostess arranged the delegates' chairs before the opening session. Andy Wong/Associated Press
But the U.S. and other foreign governments are watching for indications that Mr. Xi's apparently closer ties with the military might result in a continuation, or even an escalation, of China's recent assertive behavior, especially in relation to the country's territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
That assertiveness, combined with China's rapid development of military capabilities designed to deny U.S. forces access to waters near its shores, was among the factors behind the Obama administration's decision last year to bolster defense and trade ties in Asia. China has denounced that as a ploy to contain its economic and military rise.
The official military spending for 2012 was around $106 billion, which was an 11.2% rise from 2011.
China says its defense budget is expanding in line with its economic growth, but isn't directed at any other country, and remains far behind U.S. military spending. The figure is usually unveiled at a news conference the day before the parliament session begins, but Fu Ying, a vice foreign minister who is spokeswoman for the parliament session, declined to reveal the number on Monday.
"It seems China needs to explain every year to the outside world why we are strengthening national defense and why we are increasing military spending," she said. "If a large country like China cannot protect its own security, that won't be good news for the world," she said. "Strengthening China's defense capability will be conducive to further stability in the region and will be conducive to world peace."
Experts on the Chinese military have long argued that China's real defense budget is much higher than the official figure, which doesn't include big-ticket items such as arms imports, indigenous weapons development, and military components of the space program.
Last year, the Pentagon estimated China's actual military spending in 2011 at between $120 billion and $180 billion.
However, an article by two Western scholars to be included in this month's China Quarterly academic journal argues that China's official military budget increasingly reflects actual spending, and also includes some items—such as disaster-relief operations—that aren't usually calculated as part of Western defense budgets.
"Increases in the official defense budget are roughly consistent with GDP growth and constitute a declining percentage of central government expenditures," wrote Adam Liff, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, and Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
"This suggests that, generally speaking, investment in military modernization—aside from specific capabilities considered exigent for party leadership continuity, national survival and defense of critical national interests—remains a lower priority overall than economic development for Beijing's leadership," they wrote.
Experts on China's military also say that generals have been lobbying for larger increases in real military spending to help fund the development of costly weapons systems including aircraft carriers, the first of which was launched last year, and stealth fighters, a prototype of which made its first test flight in 2011.
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sciencehabit writes "Shining just 25 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra, Vega is the fifth brightest star in the night sky. In 1983, astronomers discovered dust orbiting the star, suggesting it had a solar system, and Carl Sagan chose to make Vega the source of a SETI signal in his 1985 novel Contact. At the time, Vega was thought to be only about a couple hundred million years old, probably too young for any planets to have spawned life. Since then, however, estimates of Vega's age have increased to between 625 million and 850 million years old. So suitable planets have probably had sufficient time to develop primitive life."
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
am opening command prompt using system command like system("start cmd.exe") and then running some batch file. I want to stop the batch file running in command prompt or close the command prompt window. Could you please help me with this.
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possible duplicate of How to close command prompt Window in Ruby? – Mischa Aug 3 '11 at 14:15
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1 Answer
If you want the command prompt to terminate you just write the following in your script..:
To stop the batch file I will use win32ole lib and send a CTRL+C combo like this..:
require "win32ole"
key = WIN32OLE.new('Wscript.Shell')
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
In some academic circles, such as theoretical physics, during a presentation it is customary for the talking author to cite himself using only his initials, while leaving the remaining author names unchanged as per the citation style.
For instance, if my initials are DCG and I cite a paper that has me as an author, it should show up as:
[Lima, DCG, Horvath, 2010]
Is there any way to make this automatic in LaTeX? I use powerdot for presentations and natbib for references, and I have found nothing of the sort in their documentations. Maybe there is a way to replace the strings generated by BibTeX in the second LaTeX run, but I have no idea how to do it.
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The easiest method is to modify the .bbl file when the presentation is complete and the .bbl file is in its definitive form. Otherwise it would be necessary to act on the .bib file. – egreg Feb 11 '12 at 15:06
Yes, that would work, but I would like a more automatic method, such as a command to be introduced somewhere in the source code, so I don't have to worry about it later. – Sir Whiteout Feb 11 '12 at 15:38
This should easily be done with biblatex, which is easier to customize due to its use of LaTeX macros rather than the awkward bibtex language. – Timothée Poisot Feb 11 '12 at 16:17
Some Biblatex solutions: tex.stackexchange.com/q/22135/10119, and I am sure it can be done with biber too… I just can't find the question where this was implemented. – ienissei Apr 15 '12 at 7:03
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1 Answer
up vote 6 down vote accepted
In relation to the comments I want to provide an approach using biblatex.
First of all I changed the definition of the output of authors and replace the name stored in \highlightname with the initials saved in the macro \shortform.
The main idea is inspired by P. Lehmann.
author = {Goossens, Michel and Mittelbach, Frank
and Samarin, Alexander},
title = {The LaTeX Companion},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
location = {Reading, Mass.},
year = {1994},
author = {Mittelbach, Frank and Goossens, Michel
and Samarin, Alexander},
title = {The LaTeX Companion},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
location = {Reading, Mass.},
year = {1994},
author = {Mittelbach, Frank and Samarin, Alexander
and Goossens, Michel},
title = {The LaTeX Companion},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
location = {Reading, Mass.},
year = {1994},
% Ende der Gruppe
enter image description here
EDIT 1: Fixed spacing problem
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Nice solution. But it looks like there is a trailing white-space before MG on the first line. – ienissei Apr 15 '12 at 6:56
@ienissei: Thanks. Fixed – Marco Daniel Apr 15 '12 at 11:44
Great solution indeed. But how does it account for middle names? – Sir Whiteout Sep 26 '12 at 17:40
@SirWhiteout: What do you mean? – Marco Daniel Sep 27 '12 at 16:03
The above solution does not work if the name to be shortened includes a middle initial. Is there a specific field to put it, or does the code have to be changed further to be able to deal with it? – Sir Whiteout Oct 1 '12 at 14:03
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| <urn:uuid:75a1374b-8e35-44a0-8ba5-ce517dc3be92> | http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/44200/citing-the-initials-of-one-author-and-the-full-names-of-other-authors | en | 0.820715 | 0.212706 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Open Access Highly Accessed Research article
Leaf-cutting ant fungi produce cell wall degrading pectinase complexes reminiscent of phytopathogenic fungi
Morten Schiøtt1*, Adelina Rogowska-Wrzesinska2, Peter Roepstorff2 and Jacobus J Boomsma1
Author Affiliations
1 Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
For all author emails, please log on.
BMC Biology 2010, 8:156 doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-156
Received:21 September 2010
Accepted:31 December 2010
Published:31 December 2010
© 2010 Schiøtt et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Leaf-cutting (attine) ants use their own fecal material to manure fungus gardens, which consist of leaf material overgrown by hyphal threads of the basidiomycete fungus Leucocoprinus gongylophorus that lives in symbiosis with the ants. Previous studies have suggested that the fecal droplets contain proteins that are produced by the fungal symbiont to pass unharmed through the digestive system of the ants, so they can enhance new fungus garden growth.
We tested this hypothesis by using proteomics methods to determine the gene sequences of fecal proteins in Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutting ants. Seven (21%) of the 33 identified proteins were pectinolytic enzymes that originated from the fungal symbiont and which were still active in the fecal droplets produced by the ants. We show that these enzymes are found in the fecal material only when the ants had access to fungus garden food, and we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis to show that the expression of six of these enzyme genes was substantially upregulated in the fungal gongylidia. These unique structures serve as food for the ants and are produced only by the evolutionarily advanced garden symbionts of higher attine ants, but not by the fungi reared by the basal lineages of this ant clade.
Pectinolytic enzymes produced in the gongylidia of the fungal symbiont are ingested but not digested by Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants so that they end up in the fecal fluid and become mixed with new garden substrate. Substantial quantities of pectinolytic enzymes are typically found in pathogenic fungi that attack live plant tissue, where they are known to breach the cell walls to allow the fungal mycelium access to the cell contents. As the leaf-cutting ant symbionts are derived from fungal clades that decompose dead plant material, our results suggest that their pectinolytic enzymes represent secondarily evolved adaptations that are convergent to those normally found in phytopathogens.
The fascinating natural history of obligate mutualistic symbioses, in which two completely different organisms live in a close and fully interdependent relationship, are increasingly unraveled by studies of extant adaptations and phylogenetic history [1-3]. Such intimate relationships have the potential to become very complex because their coevolution may produce specialized structures that provide indirect fitness via the symbiotic partner [4,5]. This may constrain a detailed understanding of the key molecular processes that maintain the symbiosis, so that identifying the gene sequences involved in these processes is of paramount importance. New high-throughput methods offer the opportunity to obtain a more comprehensive molecular understanding of so-called "nonmodel" organisms involved in obligate symbioses. Illustrative examples are the recent genome sequencing projects on Laccaria and black truffle fungi, which have led to significant new insights into the respective roles of these fungi in ectomycorrhizal symbioses [6,7].
Leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta live in mutualistic symbiosis with a basidiomycete fungus (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus), which they cultivate as fungal gardens in underground nest chambers. The ants provide the fungus with a growth substrate consisting of freshly cut leaf fragments. After new leaf fragments are brought into the nest, the ants chew them into smaller pieces and apply droplets of fecal fluid to the leaf pulp before depositing this mixed substrate in the fungus garden and inoculating it with small tufts of mycelium from older parts of the garden [8]. Previous work has shown that the fecal fluid of a wide range of attine species contains various digestive enzymes such as proteases, amylases and chitinases [9-12]. The fecal fluid of Atta colombica tonsipes has also been shown to contain enzymes to degrade pectin, xylan, carboxymethylcellulose and several disaccharides as well as synthetic p-nitrophenyl glycosides [13]. It has been suggested that the three fecal fluid proteases of Atta texana and Atta colombica tonsipes originate from the fungal symbiont, as proteases with similar biochemical properties could be isolated from the garden mycelium [14]. A more recent study used isoelectric focusing to show that cellulases, pectinases and laccases present in the fecal droplets of Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants had properties similar to those of fungus-produced enzymes, which likewise suggested a fungal origin of these enzymes [15]. However, it is rarely made explicit that the implications of this notion are rather spectacular, as this would imply that these fecal proteins are not affected by the digestive system of the ants and that they must have important functions for the symbiosis to compensate for the ants not under selection to digest these proteins.
The primary food source of leaf-cutting ants consists of the swollen hyphal tips, called gongylidia, that their fungus gardens produce in clusters (staphylae). These structures are not known from any other fungi and are believed to be produced exclusively for the benefit of the ants. If the fecal droplet proteins would indeed be directly derived from the fungus ingested by the ants, we should expect the gongylidia to be the primary source of these proteins. Here we use state-of-the-art molecular techniques (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), gene cloning, and quantitative enzyme assays) to test the validity of the idea that fungal proteins are excreted in ant fecal droplets to be recycled for active service in the decomposition of new leaf fragments.
Our study focuses on pectinolytic enzymes, as previous studies have shown that these enzymes are present in the ant fecal droplets and because pectinolytic enzymes are known to play a key role in the infection process of live plants by necrotrophic fungal pathogens [16-18]. The fungi that are cultivated by leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta belong to a clade of universal decomposers (Basidiomycotina: Agaricaceae: Leucocoprinae), but secondarily, and exceptionally, have evolved the ability to decompose live plant material that is offered to them as substrate by the farming ants [19]. The ant-fungus mutualism is thus facing similar selection pressures as necrotrophic fungi, that is, to breach the cell walls of living plant tissues to gain access to the nutritious interior of these cells. We therefore tested the hypothesis that gongylidia consumption and fecal droplet deposition might have evolved to concentrate and transport fungal pectinolytic enzymes to the upper part of fungus gardens to enhance the degradation of live plant cell walls immediately after they are processed by the ants.
We confirm that a large number of distinct proteins survive gut passage, that many of them are pectinolytic enzymes, that they are active in fecal droplets only when the ants are allowed to feed on symbiont mycelium and that the genes encoding these proteins are overexpressed in the gongylidia.
SDS-PAGE of fecal droplet proteins resulted in a specific pattern of protein bands (Figure 1b) that was highly reproducible. To identify the proteins, 24 bands were extracted from the gel and subjected to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). This resulted in 90 different peptide sequences determined from the MS/MS spectra. In a first approach to identifying the proteins from which these peptides originated, we designed degenerate primers matching the amino acid sequences of the peptides and used them in PCR reactions using cDNA from the fungal symbiont as template. By this method, we were able to identify 14 fecal droplet proteins. In a second approach, the sequences were used in a Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) search of a newly generated database (M. Schiøtt et al., unpublished work) containing approximately 700 Mb of genome sequence data of the fungal symbiont obtained by 454 sequencing [20], which led to the identification of an additional 19 fecal droplet proteins. In both cases, rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)-PCR was subsequently used to obtain the full-length sequences of the genes encoding these proteins. Among the 33 gene sequences identified by these methods, 7 were found to share a high degree of similarity with enzymes involved in the degradation of pectin (Table 1). The molecular mass of the proteins calculated from the corresponding cDNA sequences were in all cases similar to the molecular mass predicted from SDS-PAGE, indicating that the proteins in the fecal material are full-length proteins and not just short degradation products.
thumbnailFigure 1. The life cycle of fecal droplet proteins. (a) Degradation enzymes produced in the gongylidia are passed through the ant alimentary system to end up in the fecal fluid, fecal droplets of which are mixed with the new plant substrate to form leaf pulp that the ants add to the fungus garden. (b) Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of ant fecal fluid. M, molecular size marker. F, fecal fluid. Excised bands are indicated by numbered boxes in the right-hand version of duplicated lane F.
Table 1. Protein sequences of pectinolytic enzymes in ant fecal fluid and corresponding molecular weights in daltons
To reveal whether the obtained pectinolytic enzymes were in fact active in the fecal droplets of the ants, activity assays of five of the six identified types of enzymes were performed on single fecal droplets of nine ants taken from each of three different colonies. The same activity measurements were performed on fecal material from a similar number of ants that were kept for more than 2 weeks on sugar water and bramble leaves, but without the fungal symbiont to confirm the fungal origin of the enzyme activities. Without exception, the enzyme assays showed pronounced activity in fecal material from ants kept with their fungal symbiont, whereas fecal material from ants deprived of their symbiont showed almost no activity (Figure 2). The low activities apparently still present in some of the assays on fecal droplets from the starved ants were most likely artefacts because any colored substances in the fecal material will absorb light during the spectrophotometric assays and will consequently produce a weak false-positive signal. Alternatively, some enzyme activity may remain in the fecal fluid of the ants even after 2 weeks of separation from the fungal symbiont. Enzyme assays of heat-denatured fecal droplets hardly showed any activity, confirming the appropriateness of our activity measurements (data not shown). Activity measurements for the sixth pectinase, rhamnogalacuronan acetylesterase, were not been performed as no suitable assay could be found.
thumbnailFigure 2. Pectinolytic enzyme activities in fecal material from ants with access to fungal symbiont food compared to ants deprived of their fungus garden material for 2 weeks. Bars are means ± SE (n = 9).
To test whether the expression level of the identified pectinolytic enzymes is upregulated in the gongylidia, the main food of the ants, RNA was extracted both from gongylidia and from gongylidia-free mycelium taken from fungus gardens of four different colonies. After reverse transcription of the mRNA into cDNA, the expression levels of the genes were measured by qPCR using three different reference genes to normalize the data. Six of the seven genes showed significant upregulation in the gongylidia (Figure 3), while one gene (pectate lyase) was equally expressed in the two types of tissue. The latter gene had a relatively high cycle threshold (Ct) value in the qPCR (and also a high PCR efficiency value), suggesting that it was only weakly expressed. Peptide sequence tags for the pectate lyase genes were found only in the weak bands 7 and 8 (Figure 1b), confirming that this enzyme does not play an important functional role in the fecal droplets.
thumbnailFigure 3. Expression levels of pectinolytic enzyme genes in gongylidia relative to gongylidia-free mycelium measured with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Bars are means ± SE (n = 4). Statistically significant results are marked with an asterisk. An equal level of gene expression between the two tissues gives a fold change of one (dotted horizontal line).
Our tandem mass spectrometry analyses identified seven pectinolytic enzymes in the fecal material of Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutting ants. Activity assays showed that these enzymes were still active after passage through the ant gut, and our feeding and gene cloning experiments showed that these enzymes must be derived from the ingested fungal tissue (Figure 1a). This is consistent with findings that pectinolytic enzymes are very rarely produced by animals [21,22]. The number of proteins that we were able to visualize on the SDS-PAGE gels remained limited (Figure 1b), suggesting that many other proteins in the fungal food are being degraded in the ant guts. This is as expected because proteins are valuable nutrients with high nitrogen content, a resource that is clearly limiting for the overall performance of the symbiosis [23,24]. The fact that we were able to document the earlier inference [14,15] that some proteins, including pectinolytic enzymes, are not digested in the ant gut indicates that selection for decomposition efficiency has affected the exosymbiosis between ant and fungi at a deep molecular level. We expect that other bands on our SDS-PAGE gels represent proteins with important functions in the symbiosis, and work to unravel these functions is ongoing.
The production, circulation and function of pectinolytic enzymes in the symbiosis
Gongylidia, the swollen hyphal tips produced by the fungal symbionts of the higher attine ants (including the leaf-cutting ants), are generally considered to be the almost exclusive food source of the ants and their broods [8,25-27]. They are found nowhere else other than in these fungal symbionts and thus represent an evolutionarily derived trait that has been inferred to be adaptive for symbiosis [27]. However, the details of this adaptive function have remained poorly understood. For example, it has previously been suggested that only the larvae of leaf-cutting ants rely exclusively on a fungal diet [28], whereas later research has shown that adult workers also ingest significant amounts of fungus garden material [29], a notion that is corroborated by our present study. Here we have shown that the gongylidia not only serve as nutrition for the ants but also produce enzymes needed for the degradation of the plant substrate in much higher quantities than in undifferentiated mycelium. Our results thus imply that we have likely discovered an important adaptive function of the gongylidia, as we showed earlier that pectin degradation in newly grown sections of leaf-cutting ant gardens proceeds at a very high rate and with the primary function of providing access to the fresh cell contents of the leaf tissue [23]. The farming ants clearly prioritize highly digestible nutrients such as proteins and starch relative to the bulk of cell wall material, which tends to be discarded on the dump piles that leaf-cutting ants maintain [23,25] (Møller I, De Fine Licht HH, Harholt J, Willats WGT, Boomsma JJ: The dynamics of plant cell-wall polysaccharide decomposition in leaf-cutting ant fungus gardens, unpublished work). These studies also indicate that the degradation of pectin itself is unlikely to contribute much to the available resources of a leaf-cutting ant nest relative to the proteins and starch from the interior of the plant cells.
Pectinolytic enzymes are known to be important for the virulence of both bacterial and fungal phytopathogens [17]. A recent study comparing the gene inventories of phytopathogenic versus free-living filamentous ascomycetes found that pectinolytic enzyme genes were more common in pathogenic fungi [18]. When the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum is grown on a plant cell wall substrate, pectinolytic enzymes are the first enzymes to be secreted, followed by other carbohydrate active enzymes [30]. Gene disruption studies have shown that the virulence of fungal phytopathogens may decrease significantly when a pectinolytic enzyme gene is mutated [31], although in most cases more than one gene has to be mutated to affect virulence, owing to redundancy between multiple isoforms of these genes in the fungal genomes [32]. Also, Erwinia chrysanthemi bacteria produce a wide range of pectinolytic enzymes upon infection of plant tissue, and inactivation of at least some of these genes makes infection by these bacteria ineffective.
Plant pathogenic microorganisms typically produce many different pectinolytic enzymes targeting both the pectin side chains and the backbones of the molecules, as both are apparently needed to breach the cell wall to gain access to the cell content [16,17]. In our study, we found one pectinolytic enzyme targeted toward the backbone of the smooth region that was upregulated in the gongylidia (polygalacturonase), whereas another (pectate lyase) was found without being upregulated (Figure 3). Otherwise, we found a pectinesterase that removes methyl groups of the smooth region of pectin molecules and several enzymes targeted toward the hairy regions, including an arabinogalactan endo-1,4-β-galactosidase and an arabinofuranosidase that, respectively, remove galactose and arabinose from the side chains. In addition, we found two very similar rhamnogalacturonan acetyl esterases, which remove acetyl groups from the rhamnose moieties of the hairy region. However, no degradation enzymes targeted toward the backbone of the pectin hairy regions were found. We have previously found enzymatic activity toward rhamnogalacturonan in the fecal droplet material (unpublished work Schiøtt M), but apparently the abundance of that protein was not high enough to be detected by the methods used in the present paper.
Selection pressure, evolutionary pathways and convergence
When new leaf material is brought into the ant nest, it is added to the top of the fungus garden, and tufts of mycelium are subsequently placed on it [8]. This means that the leaf-to-mycelium ratio in the top of gardens is very high, so that production of digestive enzymes by these small mycelial tufts is likely to be a limiting step in the degradation process. Application of high concentrations of these enzymes via the fecal fluid of the ants thus increases the turnover rate of garden substrate, which may provide some compensation for the relatively low nitrogen to carbon ratio of the leaf material. This may be why this intricate pathway of having pectinolytic enzymes brought in from mature parts of the garden via the digestive system of the ants could evolve by favoring mutations that allowed these enzymes to accumulate in the hindgut rather than being degraded.
Plant tissues usually contain chemical compounds that have evolved to protect against attack from herbivores and fungal or bacterial pathogens [33]. Being of saprotrophic origin, the free-living ancestors of the attine ant fungal symbionts may not have possessed mechanisms to cope with such defenses expressed in live plant tissues. The chewing behavior of ant workers turning leaf fragments into pulp before mycelium is inoculated may therefore make decomposition highly effective when it is combined with the application of large amounts of pectinolytic enzymes that open up and kill the plant cells so that the production of any secondary defensive compounds is terminated. This would imply that it is the combined effort of the unholy alliance [34] between ants and fungus that allowed the efficient utilization of fresh leaves as a novel resource, something neither of the symbiotic partners would have been able to do on its own.
The fungi that are cultivated by Latin American leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta are highly peculiar, because they belong to a universally dead substrate decomposition clade (Agaricales: Agaricaceae: Leucocoprinae), but have secondarily evolved the ability to degrade live plant material when it is offered to them as substrate by the ant farmers [19]. Recent studies have shown that the fungus reared by the leaf-cutting ants throughout their range may be a single genetically variable species (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus) that replaced older symbionts in a single selective sweep only a few million years ago [35]. Future studies should address the extent to which pectinolytic enzymes are upregulated in the gongylidia of the less derived fungal symbionts of Trachymyrmex and Sericomyrmex, genera of higher attine ants that also rear symbionts with gongylidia, but with a much lower proportion of fresh leaf material in their diet [36]. In addition, it would be highly interesting to unravel the degree of convergence at the molecular level between the pectinolytic enzymes of leaf-cutting ant garden symbionts and fungi that are free-living parasites of fresh leaves.
We have shown that pectinolytic enzyme genes are overproduced in the gongylidia of leaf-cutting ant fungal symbionts. After ingestion of the gongylidia, the enzymes pass through the ant gut and end up in the fecal fluid, where a significant fraction of these enzymes remain functional. Droplets of this fecal fluid are mixed with the new leaf material that the ants fragment to become fungus garden substrate, and we infer that it is particularly in this time window that the pectinolytic enzymes enhance the efficiency of the symbiosis. This jointly produced adaptive response to overcome cell wall defenses of fresh plant substrate resembles the enzymatic mechanisms that phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria realize by themselves when facing similar challenges of decomposing fresh plant material. This suggests either that these traits have evolved convergently in the different fungal lineages or that the ancestors of the leaf-cutting ant symbionts were somehow preadapted to a necrotrophic lifestyle. We believe that the former explanation is most likely, but explicit studies on nondomesticated leucocoprinous fungi are needed to confirm this contention.
Biological material and a summary of pectin cell biology
Colonies of Acromyrmex echinatior (numbers Ae263, Ae280, Ae282, Ae322, Ae332, Ae335 and Ae349) were collected in Gamboa, Panama, in 2004-2007 and maintained in the laboratory under standard conditions of about 25°C and about 70% relative humidity [37], where they were supplied with a diet of bramble leaves, rice and pieces of apple. In experiments using ants that were deprived of their fungal symbiont, the ants were instead fed a diet of bramble leaves and 20% sugar water. Fecal droplets were collected by squeezing large worker ants with forceps on the head and abdomen until they deposited a drop of fecal material. A quantity of 0.5 μL of water was added to the droplet before it was collected with a micropipette.
Pectins are polysaccharides composed of smooth regions of (1,4)-linked α-D-galacturonic acid (GalpA) interspersed with hairy regions where (1,2)-linked α-L-rhamnose alternates with GalpA [38,39]. About half of the rhamnose residues are branched with mainly L-arabinosyl- and/or D-galactosyl-containing side chains, although several other types of sugars may also be used [40]. Breakdown of the backbone of the smooth regions is accomplished by endo- and exopolygalacturonases, as well as by pectin and pectate lyases, whereas breakdown of the backbone of the hairy regions is mediated by rhamnogalacturonan hydrolase, rhamnogalacturonan galacturonohydrolase, α-rhamnosidase and rhamnogalacturonan lyase [41]. A wide variety of enzymes related to release of L-arabinose and D-galactose are also used to break down the side chains of the hairy regions [41]. Finally, the activity of these pectinolytic enzymes depends on the degree of methylation and acetylation of the pectin, so that the removal of methyl and acetyl groups by methyl and acetyl esterases is also a prerequisite for efficient pectin degradation. This general knowledge of pectin biochemistry allowed us to make some inferences with regard to the functions of the pectinolytic enzymes that we were able to identify.
SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry
Fifty fecal droplets from workers of colony Ae263 were collected and put immediately into 2× SDS-PAGE loading buffer (100 mM Tris·HCl, pH 6.8, 200 mM dithiothreitol, 4% SDS, 0.2% bromophenol blue, 20% glycerol) and loaded onto a 12.5% polyacrylamide gel [42]. The gel was run for 1 hour at 60 mA, followed by 1 hour at 75 mA with cooling, and stained for 3 hours with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R250 (0.25% Coomassie Brilliant Blue R250, 0.44% ethanol, 9.2% acetic acid) and destained in 5% ethanol and 7.5% acetic acid overnight.
Sample preparation methods for MS were modified from Shevchenko et al. [43]. In brief, bands of interest were manually excised from the gel and washed with deionized water followed by two washes with 100% acetonitrile for 15 and 2 minutes, respectively. The gel plugs were dehydrated in a vacuum centrifuge and rehydrated with a solution of 2% trypsin (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) in 50 mM NH4HCO3 at 4°C. After 20 minutes, the excess of trypsin solution was removed and 30 μL of 50 mM NH4HCO3 were added to allow digestion to proceed at 37°C overnight, after which samples were stored at -20°C until use. Peptide desalting was performed on custom-made reverse-phase microcolumns prepared with R2 resin (Perseptive Biosystems Inc., Framingham, MA, USA) as described elsewhere [44]. Peptide solutions obtained from digestions of each separate spot were loaded onto a microcolumn, followed by washing with 10 μL of 1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Bound peptides were eluted with 0.8 μL of matrix solution (5 μg/μL α-cyano-4-hydrocynnamic acid in 70% acetonitrile and 0.1% TFA) directly onto the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) target plate. Peptide mass spectra were acquired in positive reflector mode on a 4800 Plus MALDI-TOF/TOF™ Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) using 20 kV of acceleration voltage. Each spectrum was obtained with a total of 800 laser shots and was externally calibrated using peptides derived by tryptic digestion of β-lactoglobulin.
Tandem mass spectra were acquired using the same instrument in MS/MS-positive mode. From the raw data output, peak lists were generated using Data Explorer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). MS and MS/MS peak lists were combined into search files and used to search the National Center for Biotechnology Information protein sequence database using the Mascot search engine (Matrix Science Ltd, London, UK). Since sequence information was not available in the database from either the ant or the fungus, the searches did not result in identification of any protein. As a consequence, manual de novo sequencing was performed on the basis of the presence of b and y peptide fragment ions in MS/MS spectra [45]. To facilitate de novo sequencing, the remaining sample was derived by adding 7 μL of 10 μg/μL 4-sulfophenyl isothiocyanate dissolved in 50 mM NaHCO3, pH 8.6. The reaction was allowed to proceed for 30 minutes at 50°C and terminated using 1 μL of 1% TFA. The mixture was then loaded on a desalting column (as described above), eluted on the target and analyzed using 4800 Proteomics Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) in MS/MS mode. Derived peptides (showing a mass difference of 215 Da compared to the original MS spectra) were sequenced using the same instrument in MS/MS-positive mode. The obtained MS/MS spectra from underivatized and derivatized samples were analyzed manually supported by the AminoCalc program (Protana A/S, Odense, Denmark) to find the distance between fragment ions and to obtain amino acid sequences [46].
RNA isolation
RNA was isolated from the fungal symbiont using an RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) with modifications of the protocol. Fungus garden material was ground in liquid nitrogen and 100 mg were added to 700 μL of the RLC lysis buffer (with addition of β-mercaptoethanol) included in the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). The RNA was extracted twice with an equal amount of phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1), pH 8, followed by one extraction with chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (24:1). The final extract was further purified using the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit following the enclosed protocol from the step where the extract is loaded on a QIAshredder column. An on-column DNase I treatment step was included as described in the protocol.
PCR and gene cloning
Sequencing of full length gene products was performed using a RACE strategy. 3"- and 5"-RACE libraries were made from approximately 1 μg of the purified RNA with the SMART RACE cDNA kit (Clontech, Mountain View, CA, USA), and gene sequences were PCR amplified from these libraries using specific primers designed from the fungal genome sequence along with the primers enclosed in the SMART RACE cDNA kit (for primer sequences, see Additional file 1, Table S1). The following PCR scheme was used to amplify the genes: one cycle of 95°C for 5 minutes, 10 cycles of 94°C for 20 seconds, 72°C for 30 seconds (with a decrease in temperature of 0.5°C in every cycle) and 72°C for 2 minutes, followed by 35 cycles of 94°C for 20 seconds, 67°C for 30 seconds and 72°C for 2 minutes, and ending with one cycle of 72°C for 7 minutes. Five of the pectinolytic genes were initially cloned by degenerate PCR using the cDNA libraries described above as the template. In these instances, the PCR scheme used was as follows: one cycle of 95°C for 5 minutes, 35 cycles of 94°C for 20 seconds, 50°C for 30 seconds and 72°C for 2 minutes, and ending with one cycle of 72°C for 7 minutes. All PCR products were cloned in pCR4-TOPO before sequencing using the TOPO TA cloning method (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Gene sequences were deposited in GenBank with the accession numbers HQ174763-HQ174771. For primer sequences, see Addtional file 1, Table S1.
Additional file 1. Table S1. List of primers used in the study.
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Quantitative real-time PCR
Pure mycelium and staphylae (clusters of gongylidia) used for real-time PCR were collected with forceps from small pieces of fungus garden (colonies Ae263, Ae280, Ae322, Ae335) using a stereomicroscope and put directly into liquid nitrogen before further processing to extract RNA (see RNA isolation section above). Gene expression levels of the pectinolytic enzymes in gongylidia and gongylidia-free mycelium were determined using qPCR. Either 200 ng or 1,000 ng of total RNA from pure mycelium or staphylae (clusters of gongylidia) were reverse-transcribed to cDNA with Superscript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) and an oligo(dT) primer and subsequently diluted 40 times with water. cDNA (0.5 μL) was used in a 20-μL qPCR reaction with 10 μL of 2× SYBR Premix Ex Taq (TaKaRa Bio Inc., Otsu, Japan) and 0.4 μl of each primer (10 μM). The qPCR was run on a Mx3000P QPCR system (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA) with PCR conditions consisting of one cycle of 95°C for 2 minutes, then 40 cycles of 95°C for 30 seconds, 55°C for 30 seconds and 72°C for 30 seconds. A melt curve was included after each run. The primers used in the qPCR procedure were all positioned in the 3" end of genes and amplified a DNA fragment of about 250 bps. At least one of the primers in a pair was spanning an intron to prevent amplification of genomic DNA (for primer sequences see Additional file 1, Table S1). qPCR reactions were run in triplicate, and the mean Ct value was used in the subsequent analyses. The transcript levels were normalized using three different reference genes: Elongation factor 1-α (GenBank HQ191273), ubiquitin (GenBank HQ174771) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GenBank HQ174770). The efficiency of the qPCR reactions was measured using a dilution series of templates at four different concentrations. The relative gene expression levels between mycelium and gongylidia were determined using the software program REST (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) [47], which uses a pairwise fixed reallocation randomization test for assessing the significance of the obtained values.
Enzyme assays
Enzyme activities were measured in fecal droplets harvested from colonies Ae280, Ae332 and Ae349. Arabinofuranosidase activity was determined by incubating one fecal droplet in 100 μL of 1 mM 4-nitrophenyl α-L-arabinofuranoside (Sigma N3641) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 5, for 60 minutes at 30°C. A quantity of 100 μL of 0.5 M Na2CO3 were added, and the absorbance was read in a Versamax Plus plate reader (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) at 405 nm. The absorbance measurements were converted to enzyme units using a standard curve made with 4-nitrophenol (Sigma 241326). One unit was defined as the amount of enzyme able to release 1 nM nitrophenol per minute.
Endogalactanase activity was determined by incubating one fecal droplet in 50 μL of 1% Azo-galactan (Megazyme International Ireland Ltd., Bray, Ireland) and 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 5, for 60 minutes at 30°C. A quantity of 125 μL of 96% ethanol was added, and the mixture was incubated for 10 minutes before being centrifugated at 1,000 g for 10 minutes. A quantity of 150 μL was transferred to a microtiter plate, and the absorbance was read in a plate reader at 590 nm (Versamax Plus). The absorbance measurements were converted to enzyme units using the standard curve provided by the manufacturer. One unit was defined as the amount of enzyme able to release 1 nM galactose equivalents per minute.
Pectate lyase activity was determined by incubating one fecal droplet in 50 μL of 0.5% citrus pectin (Sigma P9135), 50 mM Tris·HCl buffer, pH 7, 1 mM CaCl2 for 30 minutes at 30°C. The absorbance at 230 nm was read before and after incubation. One unit was defined as the amount of enzyme able to increase the absorbance by one unit per hour in a 1-cm path length.
Polygalacturonase activity was determined by incubating one fecal droplet in 100 μL of 0.5% polygalacturonic acid (Sigma P3889), 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 5, for 10 minutes at 30°C. A quantity of 50 μL of DNS solution (0.4 M NaOH, 0.04 M 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid, 1 M potassium sodium tartrate) was added, and the mixture was heated at 99.9°C for 5 minutes in a PCR machine [48]. A quantity of 50 μL of the mixture was added to 150 μL of water, and the absorbance at 540 nm was read in a plate reader (Versamax Plus). The absorbance measurements were converted to units using a standard curve made with glucose. One unit was defined as the amount of enzyme able to release 1 μg of glucose equivalents per minute.
Pectinesterase activity was determined using a titrimetric method [49]. One fecal droplet was added to 250 μL of 1% citrus pectin (Sigma P9135), 100 mM NaCl, pH 6.1, and pH was maintained at 6.1 over a 5-minute period by addition of 5 mM NaOH. The amount of NaOH used corresponds to the amount of protons released by the activity of pectinesterase, and one unit of enzyme activity was consequently expressed as the nanomolar NaOH added per minute.
cDNA: complementary deoxyribonucleic acid; Da: dalton; DNS: 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid; GalpA: (1,4)-linked α-D-galacturonic acid; MALDI-TOF: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight; MS: mass spectrometry; MS/MS: tandem mass spectrometry; MW: molecular weight; qPCR: quantitative polymerase chain reaction; RACE-PCR: rapid amplification of cDNA ends-polymerase chain reaction; SDS-PAGE: sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; TFA: trifluoroacetic acid.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
MS and JJB designed the study. MS performed the experimental work except for the mass spectrometry. ARW and PR designed and performed the mass spectrometry. MS and JJB wrote the paper with input from ARW and PR. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We thank Sylvia Mathiasen and Charlotte Olsen for help with the maintenance of ant colonies, Andrea Lorentzen for acquiring the mass spectra and for help with de novo sequencing, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, for providing logistic help and facilities to work in Gamboa, and the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente y el Mar (ANAM) for permission to sample ants in Panama and to export them to Denmark. MS and JJB were supported by the Danish National Research Foundation and MS was also supported by the Carlsberg Foundation. ARW was supported by the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme grant LSH MCT-518230.
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Question about raw cookie dough
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Question about raw cookie dough
"Don't eat the raw cookie dough!"
I'm sure we have all heard our mothers and fathers say that at least once. But is it really that bad for you, let's say 3-4 spoonfuls? I just had about 4 while baking cookies, and yes, it had raw egg in it, but I can't ever help it!
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Re: Question about raw cookie dough
Someone asked Dr. Knowledge this question a while ago. His response was that it's a gamble because of the samonella in the eggs. Dr K said that there is more samonella in eggs nowadays then there were back in the dark ages when I was a kid.
I bake all the time and let my kids lick the bowl. Yes, it's a gamble but life has to be fun. For me, I prefer freshly baked cookies over cookie dough any day. Warm cookies and milk. yum!
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Social Question
Unbroken's avatar
What does your stomach 'say' to you?
Asked by Unbroken (9355 points ) February 6th, 2013
Does it grumble? Is it loud, quiet, inbetween?
What does that mean to you? Full, happy, satieted, upset, hungry?
Do you understand the langauge of your stomach?
When you’re in close quarters and everyone is quiet does your stomach speak up? What do you do?
Why do we have fart jokes and not stomach jokes?
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0
14 Answers
filmfann's avatar
What does my stomach say to me? How about “Keep eating those burritos for lunch, and we’ll be playing hide and seek with your dick.”
ETpro's avatar
Well, with the hernia patch in my tummy area not yet healed, this is about what mine seems to be saying.
gondwanalon's avatar
My stomach likes to tell lies about being hungry. Also it scolds me for skipping a meal now and then (like I’m going to starve to death). It complains about every little thing that it is not happy about like: I ate too much; I didn’t eat enough; I ate too much fatty food; I ate something bad, etc. Fortunately when I won’t swallow it’s BS, it shuts up.
ucme's avatar
My gut reaction tells me to answer this question seriously, however…
Sometimes when i’m really famished the sounds coming from my stomach are similar to the mating call of a fucking whale, think dory’s impression in Finding Nemo.
Symbeline's avatar
I ain’t got much up there. ’‘knocks on head, is met with hollow sound’’
So I’m pretty much just a flaming savage who understand naught but the most primal of languages. I know when I’m hungry, I know when I’ve had enough, I know when it’s time to evacuate and I know when I have to lay down and rest, if my poor stomach met a bit of a hindrance in its digestion process. It’s also pretty good at giving me cravings for things that my body might need in a jiffy, like water or people pieces.
Being an alcoholic for a number of years made me tell my stomach, and liver, to fuck off for a while…but I like listening to my body, and I’m thankful for it now. (I slip up a lot actually, but I no longer wash out important body signs with more beer) Although sometimes at night, my stomach is all like, you will grab that turkey kniiife…and you will fuck up the neighbor’s fence with iiiiit…do it nooooow!
Symbeline's avatar
Do it noooooooooow!!
rooeytoo's avatar
@Symbeline – so your stomach tells you to fuck up your neighbor’s fence??? Doesn’t it like your neighbors or their fence?
livelaughlove21's avatar
It tells me I’m hungry even when I’m not. And when I try to please it, it isn’t afraid to let me know I’ve gone to far.
wundayatta's avatar
I don’t understand why people are so apologetic about their tummy rumblings. It’s no big deal to me. Maybe because mine does it all the time, and there’s no telling why. It should be rumbling now because I’m hungry, but it ain’t. Anyway, I think tummy rumbling is kind of sweet.
Bluefreedom's avatar
My stomach tells me…..“Don’t forget that you’re a diabetic and that you need to eat intelligently and healthy. Everything in moderation.”
Sometimes I wish my stomach was unable to talk. =(
blueiiznh's avatar
Reading this question made mine growl.
Unbroken's avatar
Ode to the power of humanity.
Symbeline's avatar
Right now my stomach’s all like, aaah, that Subway sandwich was just what I needed.
Unbroken's avatar
Was it a Jared ahh?
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Her Bonnibel
Her Bonnibel's avatar
Last Login: 02/23/2014 7:29 pm
Registered: 05/31/2008
Gender: Female
Location: Your Computer
Birthday: 10/20
Occupation: Student
"Distance between two hearts
Is not an obstical
Rather a great reminder
Of just how strong true love can be"
yummy_smilies/icon_strawberry.gifMY TUMBLR
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Hallo, Her Bonnibel here.
Name: Danii
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2'' ish
Age: 18
Blood Type: O
Sign: Libra
Ethnicity: Filipino, a mix of various European races, & Native American
Sexuality: Femme & Pillow Queen Lesbian
I'm taken.
My face:
SCREENIESSSS (Pictures from the past) emotion_smilies/icon_heart.gif
Favorite Color: Olive Green, Mint, Maroon, & Silver.
Personality: Peacemaker. I like things balanced. I'm sensitive and I really don't like that about me.
Likes: Candy, Cute things, Shrimps, Cats, Flowers, Adventure Time, Harry Potter, Homestuck, OFF, Seals, Singing, Drawing, Pasta, Rice, Chocolate, Fashion, & Beauty stuff.
Dislikes: Horror movies, Loneliness, People who think they're the cool when they aren't, Working too much, Procrastination (kinda hypocritical) , Some Vegetables, Being forgotten about and seeing people in pain/sadness, & Zombies.
I think I might have anxiety. I'm always feeling like I'm bothersome or worried about how others will see me as, even though it probably really doesn't matter. So, forgive me if I'm always questioning if I'm being bothersome. ;u;
Since she means so much to me
I decided to write a nice little space here about her. cx
By 'she' and 'her' I mean my sweet girlfriend, Sonia.
She means so much to mean I just want everyone to know that.I feel so, so lucky to have met her and that we are together. She is so special and there's a nice big place for her in my heart for her to be comfortable. She's silly and so fun to be around.I never ever never get tired of her company. She's always able to put a smile on my face every single day and she has the amazing power to cheer me up whenever the world decides put a little or a lot of weight on my shoulders. Sometimes we get in little dilemmas and we fight every now and then,sometimes it's hard to notice but hey, we're just like a lot of couples. She treats me like a best friend but then again a LOT more than just a best friend, a GIRLFRIEND. I could go on and about her but sometimes words aren't enough to explain how much I love her.I love you very, very, oh so much, Sonia. I know we'll go a long way and forever.
Written: ♥ 07/31/11 ♥
Been together since: ♥ 11/13/10 ♥
Thank you for looking through this if you have.
. . . . . . .
Visitors <3
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We Recommend
• D0CCON - January 7, 2012 8:19 p.m.
Wow, Lorenza Veloria's first paragraph was a word for word recreation of how I went from loving COD to being sick of it (he even picked the same game that started the fatigue as me). Of course, there was the thing that I never bought the game or had hope for it.
• JohnDagger - January 7, 2012 12:53 a.m.
I think the worst game of the year would be Blackwater. It's a shameless attempt by a company known for war crimes and atrocities to re-brand itself with a hollow COD clone. And what's worse than that is that the game is really short, like 3 hours and really boring. I mean if you're going to become a company that is often brought up in conversations about Hitler and other mass murderers, they could at least make a good game.
• mothbanquet - January 7, 2012 5:29 a.m.
Hopefully next year's Kim Jong Il Chronicles will be better...
• LoudestCannon - January 6, 2012 8:12 p.m.
I cannot refer to Call of Juarez by anything other than Call of Duty: Modern Juar-fare. Because it is a pun. And I like puns.
• PanaMusica - January 6, 2012 7:01 p.m.
When MW3 first came out it totally felt like a retread of MW2 so I went back to BF3. But a month or so later I played the campaign and prestiged multiplayer, and it's pretty great. Best $100 map pack ever.
• talleyXIV - January 6, 2012 5:20 p.m.
Black Ops will probably be the last truly acceptable Call of Duty. My mind if boggled about the fact that IW and Sledgehammer had two years to create a game that already had an engine for it and all they did was make new maps and change guns. Making 16 maps might take a bit of time and guns might take a little bit of time as well, but two years is a long time. They didn't even come up with new titles and emblems, something as simple as that would be nice. The theater mode that was actually very good in Black Ops is hilariously bad, they took out almost every cool feature of it! Black Ops was very different and people don't recognize that fact. The titles, the customization of emblems, theater mode, CoD points, the graphics, and zombies. All those things made Black Ops quite acceptable in my book. However MW3 is just lazy, for example they took out scrap assist! Where someone helps take down a killstreak, why the hell is that gone? I know it is a tiny feature but where did that go?! Why has theater mode gotten so terrible? Why is there only one knew game mode? Why is Survival mode just multiplayer maps with infinite spawning enemies? The other Spec Ops game mode is just campaign levels with two people pretty much. The game is uninspired and recycled dog crap. Hopefully Treyarch can once again come through with a slate of new ideas and re-energize my love for the series because I want IW to cup my balls in their mouth. Oh, by the way the prestige token glitch makes me laugh. One thing they bragged about was prestige tokens and the shop, and they messed it up! One of the only new things they did and they completely messed it up! Now they are resetting people because they messed up their own game! That is exactly how you alienate your customers you bunch of numb skulls at IW. I haven't even been deranked and I still think the way they are handling it is dumb. Sorry for the silly rant.
• talleyXIV - January 6, 2012 5:24 p.m.
I have a couple of mistakes in that comment. Knew = New at one point. I said "very good in Black Ops is hilariously bad" meant to say "Black Ops, it is hilariously bad in MW3."
• Moondoggie1157 - January 7, 2012 5 p.m.
Totally agree with ya, the only reason I bought Black Ops (used) was for the zombie maps, I haven't touched any other mode since beating the campaign a year ago. I really want to love CoD, the campaigns are always great (By Michael Baye standards anyways haha)
• FlyinHawaiian13 - January 6, 2012 4:25 p.m.
I bought Skyrim for the multiplayer and was sorely disappointed
• Xerxes667 - January 6, 2012 6:10 p.m.
FlyinHawaiian13 and B. Buttercup FTW on best reasoning for anti-games ever!
• Bloodstorm - January 6, 2012 12:32 p.m.
I agree with Gears 3. I was looking forward to it. I preordered the limited edition because I was so excited. I love Gears, I love the gears of war fiction and reading the Gears of wars books. I thought this title can only be amazing, because Gears 2 was such a great step up from Gears 1. Me an my brother hunkered down in the living room after dragging in my Xbox so we can play on the biggest, best screen in the house, and then we sludge through hours of meaningless nothing. The addition of 4 player co-op stripped away the narrative you normally got from actors 3 and 4. Suddenly you always had an extra pair of people with you. Gone were the parts where is split you into 2 groups, then split you again so that you and you're friend were fighting parallel but not necessarily together. Then, gone were the gigantic set pieces. I wasn't necessarily expecting to be eaten by a giant worm again, but come on, something big needed to happen and it never did. The final boss fight was annoyingly crap as well. Nothing was answered, nothing felt truly resolved, and I kind of wished I'd of spent my precious money on something else like Arkham City.
• samsneeze - January 6, 2012 6:17 a.m.
Skyrim was a disappointment, but more on that later. If butt gets hurt easily, I suggest that you skip that part. Saints Row: The Third was complete crap when you compare it to the second game in the series. In all honesty, it just shows that you can make a game less funny, take away character customization options and a town that's actually worth exploring, remove activities and replace them with stale replicas of existing ones, destroy or kill off characters that made the franchise's story enjoyable, take away all the diversions except for streaking, and people will do nothing but praise it like it's the best in the world. Seriously people, go play Saints Row 2 and try and tell me that The Third was a good game. Back to Skyrim. You know, Fable: The Lost Chapters is technically a better game than Skyrim, it just doesn't look as pretty or have as much to do. It does have better characters, more memorable people, quests that are fun and rewarding, and when you save the world, people mention it for more than two or three days. Granted, there are no guilds to join and the map is considerably smaller, but at least you have actual boss fights. In Skyrim when I hit level forty, I and my companion had full Deadric Armor wielding Deadric Warhammers with fire enchantment. The gauntlets and boots were both enchanted to increase the power of two handed weapons by a total of thirty-six percent, I think. There was literally nothing that could stop us. Master isn't the problem at all, heck I played the entire game through Master. If I drop the difficulty to normal, everything will only take one hit to defeat, instead of Master's five hits(Provided you arem't fighting a Draugr Deathlord or something then it's ten) I never bothered with magic to be honest. Bows are nice, but aren't practical to use outside of dragon fights. And while the shouts are fun at first, you'll find that only a few are actually useful or worthwhile. Fire Breath is the only one I actually continuously used. The cool down times between shouts is ridiculous. Since the actual gameplay isn't stellar, where does that leave the story and guilds? The main quest is pretty stale to be honest and Dragons lose their excite factor after the third or fourth kill. I've only played through the Companions, Thieves guild and The Companions quest line was disappointing. And the quest line for the Thieves guild can't compare with the one from Oblivion in my opinion. The Dark Brotherhood has some interesting people but the missions themselves suck. Overall, it feels like a group of good ideas put through half-ass execution. The same can be said about most of the other quests I've encountered in the game. Combat is brain dead, plain and simple. I understand the entire game isn't about combat, but enough of it is that it should be better than this. Melee is just hitting the attack button, and yes you can say that about any game, but man, is it true in Skyrim. You might backpedal, or strafe while you swing, but if the enemy is stronger than you there isn't enough skill involved for you to be able to beat him without an exploit. You win or lose almost entirely on your stats, and at that point it may as well be turn based. The lack of worthwhile unique items makes questing feel unrewarding, especially when it's not possible to offer EXP as a reward. The loot from the end of a dungeon will almost never be better than what you already have, if it's relevant to your build at all. If you make use of smithing or enchanting at all it is unlikely any item you ever find will be anything but vendor trash. It manages to simultaneously suck the fun out of exploring AND questing when I know I'll never find anything worth finding. Overall, Skyrim is about a 6 for me. Skyrim's soundtrack is also bad or rather, very much uninspired.
• Jedipimp0712 - January 6, 2012 6:42 a.m.
i would argue that Fable: The Lost Chapters is one of the best RPG's ever made. Then after that, the Fable series sucked. I am only about six or seven hours into skyrim right now, and the fact that you don't consider other things like magic or bows. If you go the warrior path (just like with any other game that has a warrior, specifically i can remember Mass Effect soldier being WAY more powerful than any of the other classes) your going to win. No matter how much a company balances the warrior, they are always going to have the highest attack and defense, so it will be easier to win. I usually go for sneak in Bethesda games, because it is more of a challenge than just "hurp a durrr, i swing hamma!" if you are going to be closed minded enough to not try other systems built into the game (like magic and bows) then why are you even complaining about the one system you did try and got bored of after hours of playing?
• Jedipimp0712 - January 6, 2012 6:43 a.m.
"I am only about six or seven hours into skyrim right now, and the fact that you don't consider other things like magic or bows. If you go the warrior path" should be "I am only about six or seven hours into skyrim right now, and the fact that you don't consider other things like magic or bows is naive. If you go the warrior path"
• samsneeze - January 6, 2012 8:08 a.m.
I haven't put in the time to go about making another character yet. I'm just posting from my experiences as a warrior based character. It isn't about being close-minded, it's just that I was focusing on creating that certain character type for my first playthrough of the game. I'm sure that going for stealth would be more of a "challenge". I just don't see why I would limit myself to make the game more challenging. Shouldn't the game already be designed in such a way that I don't have to do that? I went Adept in both Mass Effect 1 and 2. The challenge was there, and I didn't feel like I was limiting myself by choosing that class either. Once I found a decent attack strategy and put a bit more faith in my stupid-ass squad mates things became fun and the game was great. (Insanity is best this way) I prefer Adept to any of the other classes in the series. So maybe choosing something other than hammers would change the way I see combat situations. I don't see a way to fix everything else I have a problem with, though.
• Scotch - January 6, 2012 11:29 a.m.
You must be the bizarro version of me. I got the double pack over the summer, played both saints games for about ten collective hours, and couldn't bring myself to finish either. I got the third in a drunken haze, and when it arrived I figured "why not give it a shot?" I 100% the game in two days and fucking loved it. Maybe the Saints games are games you have to play during their release, because I didn't think the first two aged too well.
• jmcgrotty - January 6, 2012 4:47 a.m.
Complaining about gameplay in an FPS is like complaining about the acting in a porn. What the hell did you expect??
• minimaxi - January 6, 2012 4:14 a.m.
mine is pretty obvious, it's duke nukem. I wasn't aiming for lofty heights here, all I wanted was serious sam with boobs, what I got was a last-gen game designed with two weapon pickups and regenerating health. with last-gen boobs. the effing broken MvC3 and UMvC3 are also my anti games of 2011, though I didn't expect it to be good, just bought it because my friend bought it, so it's not entirely capcom's fault.
• winner2 - January 6, 2012 3:54 a.m.
red faction armageddon
• n00b - January 6, 2012 1:14 a.m.
i coudn't think of any then i remembered ssf4:arcade edition and all the months of bickering weather or not the game was broken.
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Bring Back That Lovin' Feeling
Not in the mood for sex? How you and your husband can recapture that spark and learn the secrets of true intimacy.
By Dr. Gail Saltz
By Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock
Special Offers
For decades, much has been said — out loud — about sex. And yet, behind closed doors, many of the same problems that have plagued women for generations — issues of confidence and confusion — still exist. Some women have grown up uninterested in sex; other women are finding that, as they've aged, their interest in sex has diminished greatly.
Years ago, a little blue pill called Viagra radically changed people's sex lives. Because of this and other, newer drugs, marriages that had been coasting on mutual sexual dysfunction — the husband was unable to have sex, and the wife was quite happy to go without it — changed dramatically. Many wives have come to me and said, "I was fine with the way it used to be; I don't need sex." Yet they now have an extremely aroused husband to contend with, and his interest is unlikely to wane.
Some studies have found that one in three women lacks an interest in sex. But that can change. While it's true that low desire can be caused by medical problems, it's essential to uncover and understand the psychological factors behind it. Your lack of desire may have many causes. Here are the questions women most frequently ask me and how I advise them.
Q: I have sex with my husband even though I don't really want to. Is that okay?
A: This may be the question I get asked most often by women. It's late, you're tired, but your husband initiates sex, and it seems like less effort to simply go along with his wishes than to start a fight. Many a woman buys into the idea that she has to be passive and agreeable and give her man what he wants. And, of course, there is also the desire to please your husband — it's natural not to want him to feel rejected and frustrated, so many women try to be giving in this way. But it's not really giving if you're not a participant. What gets most men really excited is seeing their wives aroused. You can't think, As long as I'm there and I'm willing, then it's all okay. True, your partner may appreciate that it's better than having no sex, but he certainly can tell an enthusiastic partner from an "if I have to" lump. Giving in, rather than figuring out how to make sex an enjoyable prospect for you, is not the answer. You're denying yourself the intimacy and the fun you could be having. So what's holding you back? You may be thinking, I'm so angry with him, the last thing I feel like doing is giving him pleasure. Or you may resent the fact that your spouse isn't taking your fatigue into consideration. Feelings like that can and should be addressed. And if being intimate with your spouse doesn't feel physically good, then your motivation is going to plummet. Remember, there's no man who can't do what you want if you show him and tell him. A man who wants to have a good sex life is going to realize that intimacy is about more than what is satisfying for only him.
Q: Is it okay if my husband and I are both fine without sex?
A: It's important to acknowledge that having a sex life doesn't have to mean having sexual intercourse. Intimate contact of any kind with your spouse is what is essential. Human beings are by nature sexual creatures with an innate desire to touch, cuddle and feel. If you lack interest in even these things, there is likely to be some underlying psychological reason, such as guilt about sex, low self-esteem, depression, or dissatisfaction with your relationship. Some people will need counseling, but just awareness about what's really going on is half the battle.
If you've experienced a sudden lack of desire, you should have your hormone levels checked to see if there is a medical cause. But you may need to consider the psychological causes too. You could have performance anxiety, negative feelings about your body, or misconceptions about what it means to be sexual. Once you've figured out what's inhibiting you, tell your partner. If it's fear, your spouse needs to understand that fear. If it's shame or embarrassment about some aspect of sex, your spouse needs to know that you aren't ready to swing from chandeliers. If there's something he says or does that bothers you, he can't know it's a problem unless you say something. Starting a dialogue may seem difficult, but a few awkward moments are certainly worth it if the result is a far more fulfilling relationship.
Q: What if I want to have sex but my husband doesn't?
A: Wanting more sex than your husband does can be very embarrassing, and women take it very personally. It can lead you to wonder, What is the matter with me? Nothing. Wanting sex doesn't mean you're dirty or strange. The truth is, many men suffer from low libido. But when a woman wants to be intimate and her husband doesn't, she often feels that his rejection must have something to do with her desirability. She may even think he's having an affair!
And yet, a man will often avoid sex because he is having potency problems and is afraid of risking failure. This is why it's so important to discuss his lack of interest in a supportive and loving way. Avoid becoming distressed about it because that's going to drive him farther away from the bedroom. He may also be having a medical problem; diabetes and cardiovascular disease can cause erectile dysfunction. Or, he may be angry or depressed about something, unbeknownst to you. You can't know the problem until you begin a dialogue. Ask directly if he is avoiding sex because of concerns about his erection, because he's angry with you or because he's lost sexual interest (a sign of low testosterone, which can be treated). Working to resolve the problem will bring you closer together — and asking for what you want sexually will make you feel better about yourself.
Q: How do I know if low desire is due to a physical problem?
A: Testosterone is the hormone of desire, and it can drop after menopause. Estrogen replacement therapy can also lower testosterone. Your gynecologist can test for this and prescribe replacement testosterone (although giving testosterone is controversial, due to the potential for risky side effects). Many medications can also decrease desire (these include antihypertensives, antidepressants, sedatives, antihistamines, ulcer medications, and oral contraceptives). And postmenopausal women who are not on hormone replacement therapy may experience decreased lubrication and thinning of the vaginal walls, which can make sex painful. But estrogen and vitamin E creams can help.
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Harriet Tubman certainly deserves recognition, but why are we funding with federal dollars a $21 million monument and visitor center in her honor at a time when we are closing national parks, shutting down FAA control towers and dealing with sequester issues ("A monument to Md. abolitionist," March 26)?
Our elected officials seem to have lost contact with reality in pursuing their political ambitions. Gov. Martin O'Malley went off campaigning in South Carolina claiming he cut state spending "big time," all the while supporting the Tubman monument.
Why couldn't this have been done earlier, or postponed to a more propitious time? Meanwhile, the Obama administration has promised to deliver $500 million in annual aid to Palestine. Again, why now? Where is the sense in that? Doesn't charity begin at home?
Walter W. Salmon Jr., Perry Hall
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Image Processing Toolbox
Perform image processing, analysis, and algorithm development
Image Processing Toolbox™ provides a comprehensive set of reference-standard algorithms, functions, and apps for image processing, analysis, visualization, and algorithm development. You can perform image analysis, image segmentation, image enhancement, noise reduction, geometric transformations, and image registration. Many toolbox functions support multicore processors, GPUs, and C-code generation.
Image Processing Toolbox supports a diverse set of image types, including high dynamic range, gigapixel resolution, embedded ICC profile, and tomographic. Visualization functions and apps let you explore images and videos, examine a region of pixels, adjust color and contrast, create contours or histograms, and manipulate regions of interest (ROIs). The toolbox supports workflows for processing, displaying, and navigating large images.
Image Processing with MATLAB
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LAS VEGAS - Vehicle manufacturers and technology developers often claim that their motorsports programs provide a proving ground for new technologies. When pressed, they can sometimes point to an electronics package, transmission or an engine technology. Michelin has taken a more direct route.
"We are blowing open the vault to bring more of our outstanding motorsports technology to the consumer," said Sheryl Henderson, Michelin brand director, Michelin North America, Inc.
Drawing from the technology, resources and experience behind one of the most extensive and successful motorsports program in the world, Michelin is transferring an "unprecedented" level of its competition technology to four new ultra-high-performance passenger car tire lines. The new Michelin ® Pilot® Sport PS2(tm) will be available to consumers beginning in the spring of 2004, followed later in the year by the Michelin® Pilot® Exalto PE2(tm), the Michelin® Pilot® XGT Z4(tm) and the Michelin® Pilot® Alpin® PA2(tm).
"Michelin is developing so much new technology in design, construction, compounding and tread design that these new street tires represent a tremendous increase in the volume and level of performance innovations flowing to the market at one time," Henderson said.
The 2003 Michelin Record:
Michelin Formula One-partner teams (Williams-BMW; West McLaren Mercedes; Renault, Jaguar and Toyota) scored seven poles, eight race wins and 30 of 48 podiums in 2003 competition. The five teams scored 408 of 624 (65.38 percent) championship points.
In endurance competition, Michelin teams swept the top ten overall positions and all four classes as Michelin scored its sixth consecutive overall race victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Michelin-fitted overall race winning Bentley Speed 8 car twice quadruple stinted (four fuel loads on a set of tires) on its way to victory.
In the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Michelin teams won the overall, the LMP900 (Audi) and the GT Class (Porsche) championships. In addition, Michelin fitted-Ferraris won the GTS class in the last four consecutive ALMS events after beating the series-champion Corvettes by ten laps at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Michelin partner teams (Peugeot, Citroen, Ford) have won ten of the 13 World Rally Championship (WRC) events to date and locked up a record 16th team championship. Michelin drivers lead the championship and hold eight of the top nine positions with one race remaining. Earlier in the season Michelin scored its 200th WRC victory.
In addition, Michelin teams continue to shine in motorcycle competition, having captured the MotoGP 500cc World Championship for a fifth consecutive year and posting a 300th series victory earlier in the year. Michelin team riders also won the World Superbike championship.
The Michelin Technology Transfers:
Michelin has always believed in transferring technology from its motorsports programs to its consumer products.
"We've taken a great deal of technology and experience from our motorsports programs for these four new tire lines," said Henderson, "We started with the philosophy of the tire, especially for the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2. The weight, belt package and belt compliance all are based upon our racing experience. The sidewall stiffness and traction features also tie back to lessons we've learned in competition..
Here are additional examples of the Michelin technology transfer:
* The new Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 was inspired by Michelin Formula One tires. The four-groove tread is designed to provide greater stability in tread and contact area under extreme cornering.
* Asymetric tread in combination with dual tread compounding optimize wet and dry performance.
* Ladoux, France, where all Michelin race tires are designed and produced, was the "birthplace" of the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2.
* The Pilot Sport PS2 features Le Mans endurance racing-influenced softer, stickier compounding that maximizes dry grip without compromising tread life.
* All four new tire lines will be produced on Michelin's proprietary manufacturing processes, including its highly guarded C3M manufacturing system for some of the products.
"These are the best handling, highest grip, best performing street tires that Michelin has ever offered to the public," said Henderson.
Michelin manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks, motorcycles and the space shuttle. The company also publishes travel guides, maps and atlases covering Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America ( employs 24,640 and operates 22 plants in 18 locations. | <urn:uuid:27f7d756-08dd-49b3-8166-47cfeb9d7ee0> | http://www.motorsport.com/alms/news/michelin-plans-to-continue-success/ | en | 0.932526 | 0.034491 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Team develops 1,000-core processor. Yes, really.
Posted by Kate Taylor
University of Glasgow scientists have created an ultra-fast 1,000-core processor which they say can run at 20 times the speed of current processors.
Dr Wim Vanderbauwhede and his team used a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and divided up the transistors within it into small groups, thereby creating more than 1,000 mini-circuits within the FPGA chip.
The researchers were then able to use the chip to process an algorithm central to the MPEG movie format at a speed of five gigabytes per second.
"FPGAs are not used within standard computers because they are fairly difficult to program, but their processing power is huge while their energy consumption is very small because they are so much quicker – so they are also a greener option," said Dr Vanderbauwhede.
Traditional multi-core processors must share access to one memory source, which slows the system down. But the Glasgowe team was able to make the processor faster by giving each core a certain amount of dedicated memory.
"This is very early proof-of-concept work where we’re trying to demonstrate a convenient way to program FPGAs so that their potential to provide very fast processing power could be used much more widely in future computing and electronics," said Dr Vanderbauwhede.
"While many existing technologies currently make use of FPGAs, including plasma and LCD televisions and computer network routers, their use in standard desk-top computers is limited."
But with microchips combining traditional CPUs with FPGA chips now being announced by developers, including Intel and ARM, he says he expects this type of application to become more common. | <urn:uuid:c8f6f1a0-afc4-48b3-aa2a-9854f9e68ba4> | http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/53313-team-develops-1000-core-processor-yes-really | en | 0.957107 | 0.020015 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Ravnica is a vast, worldwide cityscape—a patchwork of grand halls, decrepit slums, ancient ruins, and layer upon layer of stonework structures. Of the world's countless civic centers, one looms large above all others: the City of Ravnica, a metropolis so vast that its name has long since become synonymous with the entire plane. It is here, amid mazes of streets and towering gothic spires, that Ravnica's guilds vie for power and control.
Ravnica's guilds had been openly at war for centuries, each claiming dominion over the others. Then something began to happen that gave the guilds pause: The spirits of the dead were lingering in the world. The guild masters of old agreed to divert their energy toward investigating the phenomenon, leading to the signing of the Guildpact, the ancient accord that established relative peace on the plane.
Each of the ten guilds mastered two of the five colors of mana, and each had its own cultural identity and essential function.
Boros (red-white): The Boros Legion believed in a higher law—one in which righteousness is fire, and justice the light that shines from it. Led by the angel Razia, the Boros were Ravnica's most formidable military force, and the enforcers of its laws.
Selesnya (green-white): "Once you are with us, you are an equal among us. Until then, you are lost," said the wolfrider evangel Tolsimir, an agent of the Selesnya Conclave. The Conclave thought itself a selfless, nurturing, spiritual congregation, but others regarded it as a brainwashing nature cult.
Golgari (black-green): The Golgari believed you can't truly live until you die. With its vast horde of undead that served as both standing army and labor force, the Golgari operated in Ravnica's undercity, slowly taking over abandoned and derelict areas like a fetid slime mold.
Dimir (blue-black): House Dimir was so secretive that only some knew that it even existed. Over the millennia, ghost stories about the Dimir grew more and more complex, telling of ancient, undead necromancer-advisors, phantasmal assassins, and slick, black horrors slithering through the endless maze of sewers under the city.
Orzhov (white-black): To find the Orzhov, the saying went, follow the gold. The so-called Guild of Deals was a rigid hierarchy with the wealthy ghost-patriarchs ruling from the top and countless indentured servants forming the base. Holding this fragile social order in place was a veneer of religious pomp and ritual, though few believed the Orzhov worship any god other than coin.
Gruul (red-green): The Gruul Clans celebrated base urges and lived by instinct, considering all of civilization to be an elaborate cage that suppresses desire. Once a powerful guild, the Gruul were an assemblage of beggars, gangs, and raiding parties, with the largest of their gangs led by the cyclops Borborygmos.
Izzet (blue-red): The undisputed masters of spellcraft and invention on Ravnica, the Izzet were rabid inventors, fusing elemental magics with technology to power their creations. Led by the capricious and unfathomably brilliant dragon Niv-Mizzet, the Izzet magewrights endlessly created and destroyed, driven only by rabid passion for discovery.
Azorius (white-blue): The Azorius Senate was the primary origin of all laws on Ravnica. The Azorius believed that their rigid system of governance kept nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, and that included the guild's venerable Grand Arbiter, Augustin IV, who some say was blind to Ravnica's most significant problems.
Rakdos (black-red): The Cult of Rakdos was a thrill-killing, pleasure-seeking cabal led by the ancient demon Rakdos. Even as a force of chaos, the Rakdos were a resource for the law-abiding guilds; when the denizens of Ravnica needed an obstacle removed or an unsavory client entertained, the minions of Rakdos were happy to oblige.
Simic (green-blue): Amidst the chaos of Ravnican politics and strife, the researchers of the Simic Combine worked industriously to improve their world. The Simic were charged with maintaining nature on Ravnica. In ever stranger ways, the Simic "modified" nature so it could survive on a world increasingly blanketed under civilization.
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• Magic Locator | <urn:uuid:0a306e20-e1fb-4790-af20-e55d5f866551> | http://www.wizards.com/MAGIC/Multiverse/Planes.aspx?plane=ravnica | en | 0.945602 | 0.425698 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Driving Home
The sky is white as clay with no sun.
All is dusty gray.
like porcelain, the scene could crack.
I sit cold in my car.
The drive is serene.
Soon a lazy sun peaks around
the west mountain,
dripping honey into Utah Lake.
My eyes glory in the juxtaposition
until distance leaves it a
smoldering glow above the horizon,
like the tip of a match
when first blown out.
At dusk, a translucent mauve
dusts the chalk-painted valley.
Gray smoke from quaint chimneys
blends with the settling fog.
All is calm.
All is bright.
Still and content. | <urn:uuid:bbff52db-3db9-4637-aec9-2f4bbe76e8fc> | https://www.lds.org/new-era/2001/03/driving-home?lang=eng | en | 0.837919 | 0.028343 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Wyoming lawmakers shoot down "doomsday" bill
February 28, 2012 - 8:06 PM
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming lawmakers have shot down the so-called doomsday bill, a proposal that would have resulted in a plan of action in case the federal government collapses.
The bill would have set up a task force to create a strategy for a replacement state currency and a military, complete with an aircraft carrier for the landlocked state. The military amendment was a tongue-in-cheek addition from an opponent who thought the rest of the measure was a waste of time.
Republican state Rep. Kermit Brown says the aircraft carrier plan injected "a little bit of humor into the bill."
The absurdist provision brought enough attention that the bill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. David Miller, thinks it killed the proposal.
Miller says the risk of catastrophic government failure is real given the present course in Washington D.C. and Europe. | <urn:uuid:9ced2b48-080a-4568-b640-afe41cc3dd12> | http://cnsnews.com/news/article/wyoming-lawmakers-shoot-down-doomsday-bill | en | 0.946683 | 0.019729 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Transverse and Longitudinal Waves
Summary: For middle school and up, a short explanation of the difference between transverse and longitudinal waves, with some suggestions for classroom presentation.
Waves are disturbances; they are changes in something - the surface of the ocean, the air, electromagnetic fields. Normally, these changes are travelling (except for Standing Waves); the disturbance is moving away from whatever created it.
Most kinds of waves are transverse waves. In a transverse wave, as the wave is moving in one direction, it is creating a disturbance in a different direction. The most familiar example of this is waves on the surface of water. As the wave travels in one direction - say south - it is creating an up-and-down (not north-and-south) motion on the water's surface. This kind of wave is very easy to draw; a line going from left-to-right has up-and-down wiggles. So most diagrams of waves - even of sound waves - are pictures of transverse waves.
But sound waves are not transverse. Sound waves are longitudinal waves. If sound waves are moving south, the disturbance that they are creating is making the air molecules vibrate north-and-south (not east-and-west, or up-and-down. This is very difficult to show clearly in a diagram, so most diagrams, even diagrams of sound waves, show transverse waves.
It's particularly hard to show amplitude in longitudinal waves. Sound waves definitely have amplitude; the louder the sound, the greater the tendency of the air molecules to be in the "high" points of the waves, rather than in between the waves. But it's easier show exactly how intense or dense a particular wave is using transverse waves.
Longitudinal waves may also be a little difficult to imagine, because there aren't any examples that we can see in everyday life. A mathematical description might be that in longitudinal waves, the waves (the disturbances) are along the same axis as the direction of motion of the wave; transverse waves are at right angles to the direction of motion of the wave. If this doesn't help, try imagining yourself as one of the particles that the wave is disturbing (a water drop on the surface of the ocean, or an air molecule). As it comes from behind you, a transverse waves lifts you up and then drops you down; a longitudinal wave coming from behind pushes you forward and then pulls you back. You can view animations of longitudinal and transverse waves here, single particles being disturbed by a transverse wave or by a longitudinal wave, and particles being disturbed by transverse and longitudinal waves. (There were also some nice animations of longitudinal waves available as of this writing at Musemath.)
Figure 1: In water waves and other transverse waves, the ups and downs are in a different direction from their forward movement. The highs and lows of sound waves and other longitudinal waves are arranged in the "forward" direction.
Transverse and Longitudinal Waves
Transverse and Longitudinal Waves (wavetypes.png)
Presenting These Concepts in a Classroom
Watching movies or animations of different types of waves can help younger students understand the difference between transverse and longitudinal waves. The handouts and worksheets at Talking about Sound and Music include transverse and longitudinal waves. Here are some classroom demonstrations you can also use.
Waves in Students
1. You will not need any materials or preparation for this demonstration, except that you will need some room.
2. Have most of the students stand in a row at one side of the classroom, facing out into the classroom. Let some of the students stand across the room from the line so that they can see the "waves".
3. Starting at one end of the line, have the students do a traditional stadium "wave". If they don't know how, have them all start slightly bent forward with hands on knees. Explain that the student on the end will lift both arms all the way over their heads and then put both down again. Each student should do the same motion as soon as (but not before) they feel the student beside them do it.
4. If they do it well, the students watching should see a definite transverse wave travelling down the line of students.
5. Starting with the same end student, next have the line make a longitudinal wave. Have the students start with their arms out straight in front of them. As the wave goes by, each student will swing both arms first toward, and then away, from the next student in line.
6. Let the students take turns being the first in line, being in line, and watching the line from the other side of the room. Let them experiment with different motions: hopping in place, swaying to the left and right, taking a little step down the line and back, doing a kneebend, etc. Which kind of wave does each motion create?
Jumpropes and Slinkies
1. To do this demonstration, you will need a jumprope, or other rope of similar length and weight (fairly heavy but very supple are best), a long, springy slinky, a broomstick, and some room.
2. Load the slinky onto the broomstick and stretch it out a bit. Have two people holding the broomstick horizontally at waist level, as steadily as possible, or secure the ends of the broomstick on desks or chairs.
3. Holding one end of the slinky still, have someone shove the other end of the slinky forward and back along the broomstick as quickly as possible. This should create a transverse wave that travels down the slinky to the other end. (If the other end is being held very tightly, but without interfering with its coils, you may even be able to see the wave reflect and travel back up the slinky.)
4. Secure or have someone hold one end of the jumprope very still at waist height. Stretch the jumprope out taut, horizontally.
5. Have the person at the other end of the jumprope suddenly jerk the end of the rope up and down again. You should see a transverse wave travel to the other end of the rope. If the other end is secured very tightly, you may even be able to see a reflection of the wave travel back to the other end.
6. With both of these setups, you can experiment with sending single pulses, multiple waves, or even try to set up standing waves. In fact, a jumprope is usually used to make a sort of three-dimensional standing wave of the fundamental of the rope length. Try making the standing wave in two dimensions, going just up-and-down, without the out-and-in motion. With a good rope and some patience, you may be able to get a second harmonic standing wave, with one side of the rope going up while the other side goes down.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
In the early game Great Prophets function nicely to create and enhance religions. However, later on, I find their effect on religion entirely overpowered. They can be used to convert entire cities, and the AI usually goes for my holy cities and those that benefit greatly from beliefs I have chosen specifically with those cities in mind. A city of millions of people in 1960s just drops the religion they've been following for a couple of thousand years and completely converts. So the question is, is there a mod for great prophets that prevents this from happening?
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I would appreciate if all the people leaving minus votes could leave some feedback in a comment. – SMeznaric Jun 16 '13 at 14:27
I have voted to close your question because recommendation questions don't work very well for Arqade. You're looking for a mod that essentially changes key game mechanics so the game plays more to your liking. That's not really something we can help you with, I'm afraid. – Frank Jun 16 '13 at 14:32
Thanks for feedback @fbueckert. I didn't expect this to happen because I saw other people asking for mod recommendations with good results. For example, here is one asking if there is a mod for adding spies: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/17145/… – SMeznaric Jun 16 '13 at 14:34
@SMeznaric: You'd be welcome to ask in chat though. – Wipqozn Jun 16 '13 at 14:40
I appreciate the question... is there a mod for Civ5? I would add that a good mod would be not to eliminate great prophet but use the number of years of the former religion as some type of defense against conversion – Mike Jun 20 '13 at 14:49
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closed as not constructive by StrixVaria, Wipqozn, Frank, Schism, Ullallulloo Jun 16 '13 at 16:52
1 Answer
You don't strictly need a mod for this, it is possible to defend against a Great Prophet within the rules of the standard game.
As per a previous question of mine, Can I politely stop an AI's Great Prophet from getting to my cities?, you can do one or both of the following:
• Station Inquisitors in your cities - they will prevent any Prophet or Missionary from acting in that city.
• Using non-combat units (such as workers) you can block the 'attacking' unit from getting next to your cities - a Prophet or Missionary has to be adjacent to your city to act.
If it's too late, and one of your cities has been converted, then Inquisitors can clear the 'attacking' religion, so you can then spread yours back to the city again (with Missionaries or time).
share|improve this answer
Yes, I read this post before I asked the question and I used this solution successfully a couple of times. The reason I asked is because I don't like to waste faith points on inquisitors just to station them in my cities. – SMeznaric Jun 16 '13 at 12:18
That's similar to saying you don't want to waste time building soldiers, just so they can defend your cities - if you're not going to spend time/effort/money/resources/etc on defending yourself properly then you'll be leaving yourself open, and it shouldn't be a surprise when an opponent takes advantage of the weaknesses you leave exposed. – DMA57361 Jun 16 '13 at 12:25
If I didn't want to do any of it then I wouldn't be playing Civ5. The reason this particular feature bothers me is that it completely destroys the immersion. I like to see religion evolve more organically and not for an AI to be able to just drop a religious atomic bomb in the middle of the map somewhere. – SMeznaric Jun 16 '13 at 12:28
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| <urn:uuid:90cdcf55-08ec-4ec7-ae88-66a81fb44ea9> | http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/120553/civilization-5-great-prophet-mod | en | 0.948705 | 0.102604 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Script Pages Show 4400 Reasons To Watch "V" Reboot
Will ABC's reboot of V be another retro-disaster, along the lines of Bionic Woman and Knight Rider? After reading a ton of script pages from the pilot, we're actually somewhat optimistic. Thar be spoilers below.
The script pages were released for casting purposes, but they appear to be genuine pages from the pilot. In a nutshell, they introduce our cast of characters — the word "montage" is mentioned on one page, which makes me a tad nervous — and then strange earthquakes disrupt everything. The earthquakes turn out to be the effects of the Visitors' spacecraft, which finally arrives. The Visitors' leader/spokesperson, the human-looking Anna, appears on big screens all over the world, and she seems to be speaking the local language wherever she's broadcast. She explains that her people thought they were the only intelligent life forms in the universe until now, and they're overjoyed to find out they're not alone. They observed Earth for a while, to make sure humans were peaceful, but now they're happy to make contact. They need some of our water (which for some reason they can't just take from Mars or Enceladus) and a common Earth mineral, and in return they'll give us some of their technology and leave us better than they found us.
Reactions to the aliens are mixed, with some humans embracing them wholeheartedly and others being suspicious. The aliens generate a sort of cult of followers, including teenagers who tag the "V" sign everywhere and shout "Visitors rule!". Other people become paranoid and start forming underground resistance networks. The pilot ends with the motherships landing all over the world, with a pulsing dance beat, as one human warns that the aliens now have the most powerful weapon in the world: people's devotion.
Reading through the script pages, I can easily believe that The 4400's Scott Peters is involved. It feels very similar to The 4400, in good ways as well as bad.
The script pages also give a pretty good sense of some of the characters' story arcs:
Chad, described as an "Anderson Cooper wannabe," interviews Alison, an aide to the Vice President and then sleeps with her afterwards. She tells him he did well, and he can expect to get an interview with the VP soon. Later, he goes aboard the alien mothership to interview the aliens' mouthpiece, Anna. With one minute before the interview goes live, Anna insists that Chad must only ask her questions that put the aliens in a positive light. Chad tries to protest that he'll be fair and balanced, but she insists he must be "more than fair." Chad caves, and later, Alison writes him an email asking whose morals he had to corrupt to get such a great gig. The interview's a huge success, and Anna decides Chad will be her mouthpiece whenever she has an announcement.
Father Jack, a Catholic priest, gives a sermon warning people not to trust the aliens, and the church tells him to cut it out. "We are all God's creatures," the Vatican says. "Rattlesnakes are God's creatures too," Jack remarks. "People need to hear that the visitors are part of God's plan," says another priest, Father Travis. And then a formerly wheelchair bound guy turns up, having been miraculously healed by the Visitors. But a visitor to Jack's confession booth tells him to keep up the anti-alien sermonizing, because people are going to need to wake up to the alien threat. All of a sudden, Jack's normally empty church is full of fearful people. Jack winds up helping to organize the anti-alien resistance, and visits a secret meeting where a doctor injects them with anesthetic at the base of their scalp, and then tests them to make sure they're really humans. Jack says he's a coward, but then later he gives a huge speech about how we need to stand up and fight.
Script Pages Show 4400 Reasons To Watch "V" RebootS
Erica, an FBI agent in the counter-terrorism group, has a son named Tyler who's in the area where the aliens show up. Erica tries to use her FBI badge to get into the area the marines have cordoned off to find Tyler, but winds up having to sneak in. Tyler is a teenage dork, who is obsessed with being cool but knows he's not really cool — he buys a cool bike, but as soon as he gets on it, it's not cool any more. He goes to a cool party, but is the least cool person there. Seriously, Tyler constantly talks about his failed attempts at coolness. Tyler becomes a huge fan of the Visitors, and starts tagging people's cars and spreading pro-alien tagging instructions online. Erica starts investigating the anti-Visitor movements as possible terrorist cells, and then she attends an anti-Visitor meeting, along with Father Jack. When Erica and Jack leave the meeting, they get attacked by thugs. Erica attacks one of them, but it turns out to be her FBI partner Dale. She thinks it's just a big mistake, but he keeps trying to kill her. She injures him, and the wound reveals gray reptilian skin... her partner is a "fucking Visitor!" Most of the people from the meeting wind up dead.
Ryan is buying an engagement ring for his girlfriend Valerie when the earthquakes start. He's trying to decide whether to do the "going down on one knee" thing. But then later, Ryan attends the anti-Visitor meeting and helps the resitance to fight off the pro-Visitor thugs and undercover Visitors. Ryan himself turns out to be a Visitor, but he insists he's a traitor to his own kind and he wants to help fight them. Later, Valerie finds the ring and tells Ryan she loves him, but there's a lot of crying, maybe because Valerie found out Ryan is really a scaly alien.
Thanks to Lukas for the heads up! | <urn:uuid:6cb6f1c9-0491-4e6f-97de-4ed666794093> | http://io9.com/5150025/script-pages-show-4400-reasons-to-watch-v-reboot | en | 0.967482 | 0.071649 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am trying to prove that:
(uv)R = vRuR
where R is the reversal of a String defined recursively as:
aR = a
(wa)R = awR
I think I have the base case right, but I am having trouble with the inductive step and final proof.
here is what I have:
Base Step
prove for n = 1 where |uv| = 1
(uv)R = uReR = uR = u (where e is the empty string)
I dont really know where to go from here, any help would be great.
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Instead of doing induction over the entire $|uv|$, let the induction variable be just $|v|$ and keep the $u$ constant-but-arbitrary throughout the induction proof. (Also, since $u$ can be empty, the base case should probably be $|u|=0$ rather than $|u|=1$). – Henning Makholm Sep 3 '11 at 22:01
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
I agree with Henning that your induction should be on $|v|$. Note in the case $|v| = 1$, you're done by definition. It's probably also worth mentioning something about the empty string for completeness.
Let me demonstrate how I would prove this for $|v| = 3$ supposing we knew this were true for when $|v| = 2$. This should illustrate how you should prove $|v| = n$ from assuming $|v| = n - 1$ is valid.
Let $v = v_1v_2v_3$ be a string of length 3. Assume the claim is true for strings of length 2. Then $(uv)^R = (uv_1v_2v_3)^R$. By the recursive definition, $(uv_1v_2v_3)^R = v_3(uv_1v_2)^R$. Note $v_1v_2$ is a string of length 2, so we have $v_3(uv_1v_2)^R = v_3(v_1v_2)^Ru^R$. But by definition, $v_3(v_1v_2)^Ru^R = v_3v_2v_1u^R = (v_1v_2v_3)^Ru^R$.
In almost all inductive proofs, it helps to prove a few small cases by using even smaller cases. If you're still having trouble, try proving this for $|v| = 4$ by using the same ideas as above.
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thanks, this cleared up a lot for me. – Hunter McMillen Sep 3 '11 at 23:08
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| <urn:uuid:abe57610-99fe-4f6d-9bae-ea977e7094a9> | http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/61680/prove-reversal-of-a-string-by-induction | en | 0.894031 | 0.656969 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm facing a big problem today. My website is very slow. I've tried everything and nothing helped. I disabled mysql and my website was still slow loading a static page. I also restarted the server. I also disable apache and tried to update something using yum and also tested lynx -dump test.com and it's taking a lot of time to make the dump.
after executing this command
netstat -an |grep ESTABLISHED
I got a lot of connections like this
udp 0 0 here.my.ip.number:52644 ip.109.188.1:53 ESTABLISHED
udp 0 0 here.my.ip.number:52782 ip.109.188.1:53 ESTABLISHED
udp 0 0 here.my.ip.number:53573 ip.109.188.1:53 ESTABLISHED
I think this ip is an attacker I tried to block using iptables
/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -s ip.109.188.1 -j DROP
but I still see it when I use netstat.
everytime I restart apache process fill up really fast but memory is fine, I still have 2gb free but around 200 sleeping processes.
Please help me anyone, my website is down for several hours, this is driving me crazy and my host Godaddy couldn't help me. They said it was my database. I'm using VPS and centos 5.
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To me it seems that your VPS is initiating connections to ip.109.188.1:53 and this is not about incoming connections. Is ip.109.188.1 the forwarding DNS server configured by coincidence? (see /etc/resolv.conf) And please provide some output of netstat -anp (p for process). – gertvdijk Nov 23 '12 at 1:05
Those are outbound DNS queries FROM your server TO an external DNS server. – joeqwerty Nov 23 '12 at 1:07
Guys thanks for the help, I almost lost my mind today. I wanna kill Godaddy right now. It's all their fault. Their dns resolver just sucks and they told me there was nothing wrong with the network. I changed to google ip and Now it works. I think they do this on purpose to force people to upgrade. When you restart the machine their junk resolver goes back. I need a permanent fix right now. I also can't use my email I guess. – Victor Nov 23 '12 at 1:47
Make sure your Apache httpd.conf file includes this directive: HostnameLookups Off – platforms Nov 23 '12 at 6:20
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1 Answer
This is not a DDoS attack (probably). Rather, your server is simply making an excessive number of outbound DNS queries.
While these will build up if you are trying to use a slow resolver to query lots of names, the root cause is likely that you are running a service which is doing rDNS queries on a lot of traffic.
The specific reason for these queries depends on what your server is being used for, but common causes are SMTP servers (checking rDNS to see whether it matches the presented hostname or looks dynamic, for spam filtering), and IRC daemons (to determine hostmasks). Apache, too, can cause these queries (use the HostnameLookups Off directive as mentioned in the comments to disable it).
Depending on the content of the DNS queries, it might also indicate that you have malware on your host which is querying DNS, though this is one of the least likely causes.
To determine the process responsible for opening these connections, add the -p option to netstat and observe which process is associated with the connections with an outbound port of UDP/53.
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| <urn:uuid:0349ff30-1384-4f60-b614-c9d33b9bb483> | http://serverfault.com/questions/451409/website-slowed-down-possible-ddos-attack | en | 0.930179 | 0.044069 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Right now, every time I type mydomain.com it would automatically go to mydomain.com/projectname/home.jsf, which is my login page. Not sure why, I know I still in session meaning that I can navigate to a restricted page without login in again. So how do I make so that if I type mydomain.com, I go to mydomain.com/projectname/CentralFeed.jsf instead of login page if the user still in session. Here is my rough design
In my web.xml
I am not sure if you guys need to know this, but I also have a Filter call MyFilter, which map to restricted page, and check if the user still in session, if so then just chain.doFilter(req, res);, if not then redirect to login page home.jsf
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2 Answers
up vote 2 down vote accepted
put index.jsp
and in it put
<% response.sendRedirect("desired URL"); %>
from web.xml
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Does that work for jsf as well? – Thang Pham Mar 17 '11 at 17:57
yes. by response.sendRedirect() you will just make client to GET desired URL which you want to redirect from root – Jigar Joshi Mar 17 '11 at 17:58
I hope you dont mind if I ask this, so CentralFeed.jsf is the page I want to always go first. If I change that page to index.jsf, will I get the same result, like what you suggest above? – Thang Pham Mar 17 '11 at 18:04
yes. but go for the approach I have suggested – Jigar Joshi Mar 17 '11 at 18:06
Dont think it work: Here is my Exception: javax.servlet.ServletException: Error Parsing /index.xhtml: Error Traced[line: 12] The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup. I am using JSF Facelets btw – Thang Pham Mar 17 '11 at 18:13
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The <welcome-file> has to point to a physical file on the disk, not to some servlet mapping. Since you've a CentralFeed.xhtml file, a <welcome-file> of CentralFeed.jsf isn't going to work.
There are two solutions (apart from the scriptlet hack as suggested by Jigar):
1. Create an empty file CentralFeed.jsf file next to the CentralFeed.xhtml. This fools the server that the file is physically present.
2. Map the FacesServlet on *.xhtml instead of *.jsf. While this was impossible in JSF 1.x because it would run in an infinite loop, this works fine on JSF 2.0. Your question history confirms that you're using JSF 2.0. This way you can just set the <welcome-file> to CentralFeed.xhtml.
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Thank you so much for the great information. Learn something new :D – Thang Pham Mar 18 '11 at 1:03
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| <urn:uuid:398b2bd1-dabb-480e-adc0-b2bcc477d734> | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5343086/jsf-make-a-jsf-a-default-page-to-go-to-when-type-mydomain-com/5343112 | en | 0.776227 | 0.031708 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Businessweek Archives
How To Handle Neighbors From Hell
Personal Business: The Law
After waiting two years for the courts to resolve a boundary dispute with his neighbors in a suburban Chicago development, George Moser decided to take matters into his own hands. On May 7, he brought in a bulldozer to rip up a section of his neighbor's driveway that was built on his lot. According to a suit filed by Kenneth and Carla Pies, Moser shouted "keep on bulldozing," as Carla Pies screamed for the destruction to stop. The Pies are now seeking $1 million in punitive damages.
Neighbor disputes often have the distinctive flavor of bad comedy. But you won't find the parties involved laughing. "You start fighting with a neighbor, and it is like a marriage gone bad," says Bob Hauer, a personal-injury lawyer in Minneapolis. "But you can't divorce them because they live next door."
Small irritations, repeated over and over, can lead to increasing anger and violence, says Raymond Novaco, professor of psychology at the University of California at Irvine. The press is littered with horrifying tales of exaggerated responses to neighbors: On July 18, a Locust Valley (N.Y.) man stabbed to death the man who lived downstairs after complaining of a loud radio.
FEUDING OVER FIDO. But for people willing to do some legwork and be patient, there are civilized ways to resolve neighbor disputes. Everyone is entitled to "quiet enjoyment" of their home. There are laws in every city, town, and county to address problems that can arise between neighbors, says Cora Jordan, author of Neighbor Law ($14.95, Nolo Press, 800 992-6656). "Most of the laws are a lot stricter than we realize," she says.
Local ordinances are similar in many small towns and large cities. To deal with noise disputes, towns legislate decibel-level limits and quiet hours. Ordinances against blighted property can be invoked if your neighbor's yard is overgrown with weeds or filled with rusted auto parts.
Is a tree the source of conflict? You can't force your neighbor to chop it down, even if it blocks your view or threatens to topple over onto your house. But you can trim branches or roots that reach into your property as long as you don't destroy the tree. Zoning laws limit the size of home businesses in residential areas to keep traffic and noise from disturbing neighbors. Local laws may also regulate the height, location, appearance, and material of fences.
POSSESSION. Pets, one of the biggest causes of neighbor disputes, are restricted by kind, number, and behavior. Most towns have leash laws and an animal-control officer to force owners to control and care for their pets. Boundary disputes arise most often when one person starts using a strip of a neighbor's land. Experts say property rights are worth protecting, even if you're not currently using the land. It should be noted that in most states, if your adjoining neighbors control some of your land and show all signs of ownership, the court may hold that they "adversely possess" it after about 15 years, and now own it.
To check your local laws, call the appropriate government agency or the town clerk's office. Better yet, do some research at the public library or county law library so you can make a copy of the law. A librarian should be able to assist you.
A much more detailed list of rules and regulations may cover your dispute if you live in a co-op, condominium, or another "common-interest community." Sam Dolnick, president of a condo association in La Mesa, Calif., says homeowners' contractual obligations at his development include maintaining quiet hours after 11 p.m. on weekends and keeping pet ownership down to one cat or one dog--which can't weigh more than 20 pounds. "The trouble is, a lot of people don't read the governing documents before they buy," he says.
Unfortunately, determining that you are on the right side of the law may do little to resolve your dispute. "Basically, you are entitled to buy a home and live in it and not have the couple from hell live next door and ruin your life," says Hauer. "The problem is that once you get involved in all these legal issues, they may ruin your life anyway."
Be informal and diplomatic when you first approach your neighbors about a grievance, says Jordan: "In the majority of cases, the neighbor doesn't even realize there is a problem." If a casual approach fails, write your neighbors a formal letter, citing the ordinance they are violating and enclosing a copy. Consider having a lawyer draft the letter for extra impact.
TALK IT OUT. You can also try calling local authorities. These cases are very low priority, but the police may respond to neighbor disputes and attempt to mediate the situation. Code-enforcement officers should be on hand to deal with zoning or public-safety issues. But basically, says Jordan, "the law is on the books to aid you if you want to do something about it yourself."
You may have better luck with town officials if your entire neighborhood is calling for action. Talking to other neighbors about the issue can also have therapeutic benefits. "It validates your own reactions when you have support," Novaco says. "It can also help a person put things in perspective. You can test out to what extent you are reacting in an exaggerated way."
Only if all else fails should you sue. Not only is the process expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining, courts have also proven ineffective at dealing with these cases. Once the suit is over and one side is named the victor, you will still be neighbors. "It does very little in terms of actually improving the relationship," says Jon Weiss, executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago.
So before taking your neighbor to court, try mediation. Free dispute-resolution services intended to keep minor disputes from clogging courtrooms are available across the country. The American Bar Assn. directory lists 420 not-for-profit programs and hundreds of private practitioners who will mediate disputes for a fee. The ABA section of dispute resolution operates a resource center that offers basic advice as well as referrals to mediation services. Call 202 331-2258.
JOINT AGREEMENT. In cases where disputes are mediated, parties are able to come up with written agreements 80% to 90% of the time, says Prudence Keftner, associate director of the ABA dispute-resolution section. About 95% of the disputants abide by the agreements, she says, while judges' orders are complied with only about 40% of the time. "The point is that the two parties understand best what is right for them," she says. The drawback is that both parties must agree to go through the process. The great majority of mediated cases today are referred by the court when the dispute has already resulted in a misdemeanor charge, such as trespassing or assault. Only about 10% of the time will the other party submit to mediation when their neighbor approaches the center voluntarily, says Weiss.
For some people who aren't reasonable, says Jordan, "the only thing that works is to hit them in the pocket." If your neighbors have adopted the familiar "let 'em sue me" approach, go ahead and file. The cheapest way is to go to small-claims court, where you don't have to hire an attorney and claims are limited to a few thousand dollars. If others in your neighborhood join you, the claims can add up, providing strong incentive for your neighbor to comply with the law.
If filing a civil suit seems the only means for redress, be ready to show a lot of patience. Attorney Hauer has seen clients grow so angry and upset over an ongoing neighbor dispute that he has suggested they put the matter behind them and relocate. It's a better option than letting an uncooperative neighbor destroy your mental health. WORKING IT OUT WITH THE JONESES
TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS Assume they don't know they are disturbing you and
would change their behavior if they did.
CHECK THE LOCAL LAWS Do research at the public library, call the appropriate
town office, or check with your condominium or neighborhood association to make
sure you're on the right side of the law.
WRITE YOUR NEIGHBORS A LETTER Describe the problem and enclose a copy of the
appropriate law. Consider having a lawyer draft the letter for added impact.
CALL IN THE AUTHORITIES Although neighbor disputes are low priority, the
police or another town official might respond, warn the offenders, and issue
ORGANIZE THE NEIGHBORHOOD You will get better response from local
authorities if others are complaining, too.
TRY MEDIATION Professional dispute-resolution services recommended by the
local court or bar association can keep you from wasting time and money in
SUE, IF YOU MUST Go to small-claims court or, for larger claims, to civil
court. Remember, judges hate these cases, costs can be high, and you'll still
live next door to the person.
The Epic Hack
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Frontier: First Encounters (DOS)
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Developed by
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.
Written by : Stargazer (99)
Written on : Dec 09, 2003
Rating : 3.5 Stars3.5 Stars3.5 Stars3.5 Stars3.5 Stars
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Frustrating at times, but occasionally brilliant
The Good
The graphics and physics are definitely the two strongest points of Frontier: First Encounters (FFE), I mean, for its time, the graphics of FFE are simply excellent - with complex and detailed planetary bases, surfaces, and ships. But the physics engine of FFE features things amazingly rare in other simulators, namely inertia-physics flight! Sure, the engine is nowhere as good as that of Orbiter 2004 or I-War, but it's still quite good for its time - impressive actually.
The atmosphere of the game is good at most times, when you occasionally are left alone to explore and discover - unfortunately, these times seems to be quite rare, as I'll mention later.
The well-written plot is evolving as you play the game, with interesting twists and turns, but you're not in any way bound to follow it.
The freeware aspect is excellent, as usual in the Elite-series, makes you wonder why they don't make games like this anymore (at least not commercial developers).
The Bad
A lot.
Where to start?
Well, for starters, there are the bugs: a whole lot of bugs. As you probably know already, FFE was skipped before it was anywhere near ready, and the costumers ended up with a very unstable release of the game. Sure, a few patches has fixed most of the problems - it doesn’t crash at all anymore, but there's still a few bugs to boot: for example, the extremely annoying pirates which just keep popping out of nowhere without any warning. I mean; is it too much to ask just to enter a new star system without being blown of the face of the universe?!
The pirates are definitely one of the worst things which brings this game's rating down - and then there's some of the issues of atmospheric flight, where the ship sometimes just blow up without any reason.
Also, why did they flood the interface with so much nonsense and words everywhere? Sometimes it gets extremely irritating; as in ship combat, where one is usually blown up before one can find out how to counter-attack. Actually, combat itself seems to be very poor elements in the game, at least as far as I've played of it. I have already mentioned enemies just keep popping out of nowhere, but at the start of the game, you don't got a chance to defend yourself before you’re blown away; simply because one can't afford a shield generator at the start. It's not like I'm asking for an easy start, but any new players barely gets much of a fighting chance.
There are some other things as well, but after the patches, these are now mostly minor issues
The Bottom Line
In the end, Frontier: First Encounters is a good game. Although it is quite troubled by various bugs, if you could oversee those and learn to live with them, you'll find yourself getting hooked in this wonderfully detailed galaxy where you are literally your own boss.
With great, crisp VGA-graphics, outstanding physics (for its time and genre), unprecedented (even today?) open-ended Gameplay, and a well-written plot, FFE is a wonderful gem among the classic star-flight simulators. In many ways, we can call it a very faulty piece of art, but if you can learn to live with these faults, I think you'll find FFE to be quite enjoyable - despite its many problems.
Final score: 6/10 | <urn:uuid:56d49d47-29cf-4296-8e31-e9bdace2381d> | http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/frontier-first-encounters/reviews/reviewerId,20808/ | en | 0.965031 | 0.057633 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Patheos Watermark
Religion Library: Zen
Quick Facts
Formed650 CE
OriginChina / Japan
DeityNone (N/A)
Sacred TextsPlatform Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Shobogenzo
Zen is the Japanese form of the Sanskrit word dhyana, "meditation," and is a school of Buddhism which has had significant impact in Japan and Europe and America. Founded in China in the 6th century C.E. as the Ch'an school of Mahayana Buddhism, it was exported to Japan in the 12th century C.E. and gradually developed its own unique, indigenous character. The Indian scholar/monk Bodhidharma is traditionally attributed with transferring the tradition from India to China. The essence of Bodhidharma's teachings is that one does not need to study sacred texts, worship deities, or do elaborate religious rituals to achieve enlightenment. Rather, one needs to break through the boundaries of conventional thought using meditation and experience the world as it truly is in the moment. Zen maintains that this was the way the Buddha himself attained enlightenment. Zen teaches that all humans have the capacity to attain enlightenment because we all have an inherent Buddha-nature; indeed, we are all already enlightened beings, but our true potential has been clouded by ignorance. According to some Zen traditions, this ignorance is overcome through a sudden breakthrough — called satori — during meditation in which the true nature of reality, and our experience of it, is revealed. Different Zen sects, of which Rinzai and Soto are the major two, have developed various methods to achieve this enlightenment, including the practice of zazen ("just sitting" meditation). Despite the apparent simplicity of the message of Zen, training is arduous and requires guidance from a master. In Japan Zen became popular among the warrior samurai for its focus on discipline and self-control; Zen also informs the practice of various arts, such as calligraphy, painting, garden design, and archery. Beginning in the 20th century a popularized version of Zen has become spread throughout the world and influenced many in both the United States and Europe, where it has been incorporated into everything from motorcycle maintenance to cooking to professional sports.
Quick Fact Details:
• Formed: The roots of Zen are clouded with legend; its origins in Chan (Chinese Buddhism), its transmission to Japan, and its transition to a uniquely Japanese tradition are gradual and not identifiable until the 12th century C.E. and later.
• Deity: Zen includes the wide diversity of the Buddhist pantheon, but also teaches that the divine nature is in all things and that the Buddha-nature is shared by everyone. There is no concept of omnipotent, eternal deities.
Recommended Products | <urn:uuid:baa9e6b4-f6ef-454d-8dba-a25440a210ae> | http://www.patheos.com/Library/Zen | en | 0.948535 | 0.029836 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
All-State Swimming: Bishop Stang's Olivia Decas eyes title defense
Bishop Stang's Olivia Decas has her sights set on defending her Div. 2 trophy in the 50 freestyle when she competes Sunday during All-States at Harvard University.
Decas won the event last year and is seeded second this year (24.90) behind Reading's Erin Daly (24.52).
Decas also has a shot at the 100 freestyle title as she is seeded first (54.75).
Maria Lopez will also compete in two individual events, the 100 butterfly (seventh; 1:02.02) and 100 backstroke (fifth; 1:03.72). Others who will swim for Stang are Kaya Flanagan in the 100 backstroke (seventh; 1:04.47), Sienna Lapalme in the 100 breaststroke (eighth; 1:13.35) and Meredith Gauvin in the 500 freestyle (11th; 5:43.57). Casey Allaire is seeded fourth (310.60) in 1-meter diving in front of teammate Sandra Decas (11th; 192.50).
The Spartans have a shot at a top finish in relays with all three competing; 200 medley relay (3rd; 1:55.07), 200 freestyle (fourth; 1:46.10) and 400 freestyle relay (seventh; 3:58.27).
Apponequet will send two individuals and three relays to All-States. Makayla Logan is ranked eighth (1:02.12) in the 100 butterfly while Jenna Leanues is 12th in the 100 freestyle (58.97). The Lakers will also swim in the 200 medley relay (11th; 2:04.42), 200 freestyle relay (11th; 1:50.64) and 400 freestyle relay (eighth; 3:58.46).
Reader Reaction
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Bob Dylan to receive America's highest civilian honour
Singer will be awarded presidential medal of freedom for 'significant impact on American culture' over five decades
Bob Dylan in 2012
Presidential sweet … Bob Dylan to receive medal of freedom at White House. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/AP
Just weeks before his 71st birthday, Bob Dylan is to be awarded with America's highest civilian honour, the presidential medal of freedom.
Dylan, who released his first album 50 years ago in March 1962, was one of 13 people chosen for the award. He was praised by the White House as being among "the most influential American musicians of the 20th century", for "his rich and poetic lyrics" and for work that has "had considerable influence on the civil rights movement of the 60s and has had significant impact on American culture over the last five decades".
Other recipients will include novelist Toni Morrison, Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, physician and epidemiologist William Foege, and astronaut John Glenn.
Dylan, who has won 11 Grammys including a lifetime achievement award and a national medal of arts, will be presented the honour at the White House in the late spring. The singer is currently playing South America as part of his "never-ending" tour.
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Kaylee Xiang
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How nonbasics are made
This Land is My Land
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The letter W!elcome to Nonbasic Land Week! This week is dedicated to the card type that does the most amount of work and receives the least amount of attention. And as this is a design column, I thought I'd take my time today to explain how land is designed.
Land Ho
When a designer sits down to design a land, the first thing he has to confront is a number of rules about how R&D has decided land needs to work. (For those of you that feel rules to design are ruining the game, I ask you to stay tuned for next week when I talk about the importance of structure in design.) I thought I'd run through each rule and explain what ramification it has on design.
Rule #1 – No Land Can Be “Strictly Better” Than a Basic Land
I guess I should start by explaining what I mean by “strictly better.” This is a phrase R&D tosses around a lot. “Strictly better” means that one card is in all occurrences (within reason) better than another. An example of a “strictly better” would be Lightning Bolt versus Shock. Barring a really convoluted set-up (you know your opponent has Eye for an Eye and you're at 3 life while he's at 2), you would always want Lightning Bolt over Shock. For an identical cost, it just does exactly the same thing, but better.
The ramification of the “strictly better” rule is that we cannot design lands that tap for a colored mana without having some kind of drawback. The nonbasic land status, incidentally, is not considered by R&D to be enough of a drawback. While there are spells that hose nonbasic lands (like Price of Progress), there are also spells that hose specific basic lands (like Boil) that do not affect nonbasic lands (other than the original dual lands). As such, we consider the ability to be a slight negative but not enough to avoid the “strictly better” problem.
Nonbasic lands
Each of these lands has advantages and disadvantages over basic lands, leading to interesting deckbuilding decisions.
Designing lands requires us to create drawbacks. Here are some of the more popular drawbacks we use:
1. Tap For Colorless (Goblin Burrows, Rishadan Port, etc.) – One way we avoid the color problem is to not have the lands produce colored mana. This is enough of a drawback that we can add a second ability. Although, once again, R&D needs to be careful. Most of our mistakes with lands occur in this category. Colorless lands are a lot like artifacts in that they can go in any deck. This general utility has to be accounted for both to keep it from usurping colored abilities and for overall power level.
2. Comes Into Play Tapped (Forgotten Cave, Coastal Tower, etc.) – The most popular technique for lands that produce colored mana is to have the land come into play tapped making it unusable for the first turn it's in play. The advantage to this method is that it's very simple and straight-forward. The downside is the drawback is terrible for cards designed to fit into an aggressive deck and overall is a bit overused.
3. Requires Life Payment (Karplusan Forest, City of Brass, etc.) – This is the second most popular answer to keep color producing lands in check. The idea here is that the drawback is an additional cost. Life is the best answer as its always relevant and easy to both write and understand.
4. Use Every Other Turn (Lava Tubes, Teferi's Isle, etc.) – Another drawback is to keep the player from using the lands every turn. Numerous techniques – such as depletion counters, self-boomeranging, phasing – have been used to accomplish this.
5. Limited Number Of Uses (Gemstone Mine, Remote Farm, etc.) – This drawback has the advantage in that it works well in aggressive decks. The downside is that it requires the use of counters.
6. Cost Required When Land Is Played (Kjeldoran Outpost, Rith's Grove, etc.) – This drawback requires a payment to play the land. The most popular payments are sacrificing a permanent or returning a permanent to your hand. This drawback makes you pay up front for the bonus you will receive for the remainder of the game.
7. Don't Provide Mana By Themselves (Reflecting Pool, Mossfire Valley, Gaea's Cradle, etc.) – Another drawback is to create cards that need other cards (usually lands) to work. These cards cause problems because you don't want them to be your first land in play.
8. Requires Another Permanent In Play (Thran Quarry) – The idea behind this drawback is that the land can only be used in a certain type of deck (a deck with creatures, for example).
One of the challenges of designing lands is finding new drawbacks or interesting twists on existing drawbacks.
Maze of Shadows is a "modernized" spin-off of Maze of Ith: it can tap for mana.
Rule #2 – Lands Must Produce Mana
I spend a great deal of time talking about the importance of color identity, how it's important that each color do something unique. The same arguments hold true for card types (artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land and sorcery). Like color, each card type should have its own unique role in the game.
In early Magic, the designers fooled around with lands that had effects other than mana production. Through trial and error, R&D learned that non-mana producing lands started feeling more like artifacts or enchantments. To keep land's identity pure, R&D created this rule. This doesn't mean that lands can't do non-mana related things, it just means that in addition each land must provide mana.
There is one big exception to this rule. Lands that either filter for mana or allow you to get access to lands (which will in turn provide mana) are allowed. This is why lands like Mossfire Valley or Windswept Heath are acceptable under this rule. The idea is that these lands are being true to land's identity because their main function is helping players get mana.
Rule #3 – Lands Cannot Produce More Than One Mana
This rule is a result of the Urza's Saga block. R&D recognized that one of the key elements to the craziness of the block was the fast mana available in the format. As such, R&D decided to slow down mana production. One way to do this was to prevent creating lands that created more than one mana. We do occasionally break this rule (with a card like Cabal Coffers), but we do so very carefully to make sure that the land does not contribute to creating a recklessly fast environment.
Rule #4 – Lands That Produce Colored Mana Must Come In Cycles
Just as we balance colored cards in any one set (with a few prominent exceptions), we also balance cards that produce colored mana. If a card produces all five colors it may stand on its own, but if it produces any less than all five, we have the card appear in a cycle to make sure that all the colors get equal representation. Most commonly this leads to single-color cycles (such as the cycling lands in Onslaught) and dual-color cycles (the pain lands in Ice Age).
This means that designing lands often comes very early in the process as you have to carve out space for five cards. Also, this means that we do not have the freedom of making a random colored land. The one pseudo-exception to this rule was our “mega mega cycle” (Teferi's Isle, Volrath's Stronghold, Kor Haven, Yavimaya Hollow, and Keldon Necropolis). These cards were alone in the set they appeared but were part of a cycle that came out once a year over a five-year period. And of the five, only Teferi's Isle—the first one printed—produces colored mana.
Mishra's Factory, Library of Alexandria, Rishadan Port, Wasteland
Dominant colorless lands are often looked at by R&D as mistakes, as they start showing up in a disproportionate number of decks.
Rule #5 – Lands Cannot Do Colored Abilities Without Requiring the Use of Colored Mana
One of the strengths of land (and artifacts) is that they can be used in any deck. As such, R&D has to be very careful about what abilities we put on lands. Land destruction, for example, is an ability centered in red that also appears in black and green (and occasionally in white in the mass variety). This makes Strip Mine a mistake (for many reasons other than this one, incidentally) because it allows a blue deck access to a non-blue ability with little or no effort.
To combat this problem, we always require colored mana to use an effect we are uncomfortable giving to all five colors. What this means is that we allow small effects for colorless, but most large effects or highly color-aligned effects require the use of a colored mana symbol in their activation. Occasionally, this can be accomplished by means other than mana (for example, sacrificing the appropriate basic land).
Land of the Free
As you can see, designing a land is not as easy as it might first appear. Given the above rules, here is the most common process a designer will take when designing a land.
Step #1 – Come up with a new twist for a land.
Step #2 – If it doesn't have a drawback, create a drawback (this is often tied into step #1).
Step #3 – Decide whether or not the land can stand on its own or whether it requires a five card cycle.
Step #4 – If the card uses any color-associated abilities, make sure that the ability cannot be used by off-color.
Step #5 – If the land produces more than one mana, red flag it for development to study.
And thus a land is born. Hopefully, this has given you a better insight into the many issues that go into designing a land.
Join me next week when I explain the role of structure in the design process.
Until then, may you draw the lands you want in your opening hand.
Mark Rosewater
Mark may be reached at
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A husband and wife were driving their teenage daughter to the hospital where she was scheduled to undergo a tonsillectomy.
They discussed how the procedure would be performed.
“Dad,” asked the girl. “How are they going to get me to keep my mouth open the whole time?”
Her dad chuckled and replied, “They’re going to give you a phone.”
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Caucus wants DOJ to challenge Senate lines
Assemblyman Karim Camara, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the state’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus is urging the federal Department of Justice to object to the set of new Senate lines adopted last month.
Camara says the Republican-drawn plan disadvantages the electoral representation of racial minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act, building off his denunciation of the plan when it was due for a vote. (Despite the strong words, many Caucus’ 48 members voted for the lines.)
They’ve been voted into law, but the Department of Justice must now determine whether the redistricting maps comply with the VRA. This set of Senate lines continues several splits of communities of color on Long Island that have existed for decades, and which civil rights advocates have denounced as racial gerrymandering.
So while there’s precedent to back the Republican-drawn plan, there’s a historical twist: this is the first time since the VRA was signed that the Department of Justice is controlled by a Democratic appointee during a time of redistricting. Let alone a black attorney general, Eric Holder, appointed by a black president, Barack Obama.
We’ll see how aggressive the DOJ is here.
This letter mentions those possible problems, and also gripes that districts downstate, where minorities are concentrated, are larger than predominately white Upstate districts. It also questions the Republicans’ decision to place a 63rd Senate seat along the western and southern edges of the Capital Region.
Despite the substantial difference in the population between upstate and downstate New York, the new State Senate seat is located upstate, instead of downstate. The new Senate seat was located downstate rather than upstate, I believe, because the Senate majority wanted to create a new White majority district in the hope of maintaining their majority in the New York State Senate.
Senate Democrats are challenging the lines in court. They contend the decision to upsize the chamber to 63 seats was reached based on an unlawful interpretation of the State Constitution.
Republicans have always contended their redistricting plan complies with the tenets of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the federal and state constitutions.
Here’s the letter:
BPRHA Senate Redistricting Comments
1. Hope for the Best says:
Does anyone wonder whether there should be a White Caucus? If equality is the goal, there should be a balance.
2. Upstate says:
Count all people living in NY, who are legally in the US. Count all non-white people living in NY, who are legally in US. Divide B by A, round to the nearest integer, and if they have that many districts they have proper representation.
Whites are represented by non-white legislators, why is it that minorities feel that they cannot have white legislators represent them?
Otherwise we need white caucuses in legislatures and unions.
3. Upstate says:
b / a x 63 rounded to nearest integer.
4. CUmike says:
I guess I don’t understand why we have two separate legislatures in NY, with different numbers of members, that have to be divided into equal population; I feel that a similar structure to the federal legislature should happen in NYS. The assembly should be a fluid number of seats with boundaries that correspond to equal representation. The Senate should have 62 seats, with one legislator per county.
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Author: coolerthanranch Add to my Favorite Fools Ignore this person (you won't see their posts anymore) Number: of 24781
Subject: Re: Consciousness and its relationship to Evolut Date: 6/7/2001 12:31 PM
Recommendations: 1
Something has to experience conciousness: it is a subjective quality. Hence whatever runs the set of programs (into my way of thinking) with the appropriate input and output will experience conciousness.
Now we are back to consciousness being a quality existing in the mind. I hope we can figure out mind before we go on to its qualities (or is it states, or is it a property? A red folding chair has the property of being red, but may have the states of being folded or unfolded. I need a little more precision or else I lose the thread.
Ummm, my bad. But my bad 'cause its easy to slip into a linguistic trap here. Conciousness is a subjective process that exists in the brain. The mind is a result of that subjective state. Its not a property.
And whatever runs the programs .. will experience consciousness. But we've got that mind thing again. Does everything have a mind which may burst forth into consciousness if it is capable of, and happens to, run the appropriate programs?
No, anything that experiences conciousness can have a mind. Thus anything that runs the programs can experience conciousness.
Hence a scientific description of conciousness is of necessity a detailed elaboration of the processes that are necessary and sufficient to be up and running while the organism in question is experiancing conciousness.
Are these processes like UNIX processes? And consciousness is something which can be experienced? Is it this mind that you keep referencing indirectly that is doing the experiencing? Experiencing: 'that which is seen, felt, or lived through'. Does the organism then sense consciousness like it sees something?
Your last question first: conciousness is a subjective quality, in relationship to the organism the same way being a lawn chair is in relationship to the lawn chair: the lawn chair is a structured composite of materials, but it is only a lawn chair relative to an observer (human), or a breeding ground relative to another observer (mildew). Conciousness is a state that the brain experiences relative to itself. Unlike the color red, which has both subjective and objective aspects, conciousness is purely subjective.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Does anyone know when we should use and and when we should use and/or?
Is and/or even official English?
And when using it in conversation, do we actually pronounce "and" and "or" as such:
Hey, I would like some tuna and or salmon.
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Can you please provide some examples? The first question is incomprehensible to me :D – Alenanno Jun 17 '11 at 16:44
@Alenanno: Formatting can help. "When should we use and and/or and/or." – MrHen Jun 17 '11 at 17:15
Related: Alternatives to “and/or”? – RegDwigнt Jun 17 '11 at 18:21
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4 Answers
up vote 4 down vote accepted
There is no official English: English is what its speakers make of it. That said, and/or is terrible English. It should be avoided, and people who use it should be made fun of. It exists because there are three ways to use the words and and or:
1. Eat your peas and carrots.
2. Do you want steak, salad, potatoes, or what?
3. You can either look at your cake, or you can eat it.
In the first, you must eat both your peas and your carrots. In the second, nothing prevents you from choosing steak and potatoes for dinner. In the third, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Some people, especially lawyers, get the second and third senses confused. The argument is that because and and or are entirely different words, they should have entirely different meanings. Overlap is indicated with a slash, since "you can walk on the red and or or the blue squares" would be unacceptable.
Or means exactly the same thing as and/or. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't speaking English. The mechanic who says
If your car has a dent or needs an oil change, stop by our shop!
is certainly not excluding those cars that are both dented and need their oil changed. The main difference between or and and is a mild sense of contrast or indifference: "Help yourself to the cakes, the pies, and the tarts" versus "Help yourself to the cakes, the pies, or the tarts."
Still, there are some cases where or is exclusive:
1. Either A or B.
2. A or B, but not both.
3. A or B (where A and B are obviously mutually exclusive)
Context can serve the role of saying "but not both". If your mom says "you can get the jawbreaker or the bubblegum", you know that she (wisely) won't let you have both. But if she intends to let you have both, even when context suggests otherwise, she can say:
1. A or B, or both if you'd like
Or, and I doubt that many will share my taste, you could try omitting the slash, as in the following:
You can walk on the red and or the blue squares.
In summary, avoid and/or and simply use or, they mean the same thing. Context will suggest the correct interpretation of or without the need to be explicit. And if context is misleading and you must be explicit, say "A or B, or both".
share|improve this answer
+1 for having 1 rep – Pacerier Jun 17 '11 at 20:50
btw i've edited the question (to add a side-question to it) take a look at it! – Pacerier Jun 17 '11 at 20:50
Yeah - too bad I can't comment yet, because I think the top answer is wrong. As for the side-question, I've never heard and/or in casual conversation, which is a good indication that it's bad English. I'd omit the "and", or I'd go with "Hey man, gimme fish! Tuna, salmon, whatever you got!", though "some tuna ander salmon" has a certain charm. – course Jun 17 '11 at 21:52
i meant like if its typed and we gotta read it out, is there like an official pronunciation for it..? i'd thought i'd probably read it "and slash or" which of course doesn't sound official at all – Pacerier Jun 19 '11 at 20:15
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In English "or" is usually taken to be exclusive or, if you wish to specifically use inclusive or then use "and/or".
share|improve this answer
+1 for assuming readers know what inclusive or means – Pacerier Jun 17 '11 at 20:48
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Breaking this down:
• and/or is as official as English gets in the sense that you can use it in extremely formal contexts. There is typically a better way to say whatever is being said but it does convey a specific meaning.
• You should use and/or when both options are applicable in its place. "I would like cake and/or pie" means "I would like one or both of the following: cake; pie."
• The main reason for using and/or is to remove the ambiguity of whether and means "only both" and whether or means "only one." And/or explicitly means "it could be one of these or both of these."
• The confusion is drastically exacerbated by mathematicians, logicians and/or computer scientists who are very familiar with the differences between the logical operators AND, OR, and XOR. Namely, or in English can be either OR or XOR; and/or can only mean OR. As you may have noticed, all of the terms look similar which leads to the confusion in parsing sentences like your title.
EDIT: To strictly answer the question, you should use A and B when you explicitly mean both A and B, and you should use A and/or B when you mean A or B (or both).
In response to a request for pronunciation, I typically treat the / as a hyphen and simply say "and or". This is not always standard for the / symbol, however, and other words or phrases with a / may be different.
share|improve this answer
Great answer, @MrHen, but couldn't you have used "and/or" in it at least once? – JeffSahol Jun 17 '11 at 18:17
@Jeff: Done and done. – MrHen Jun 17 '11 at 18:18
You mean "Done and/or done"? – JeffSahol Jun 17 '11 at 18:25
There is no ambiguity about "whether and means 'only both'". And always means both and only both. After I would like cake and pie, one would not respond Oh, do you mean you want one of cake or pie, but maybe not both? (unless you were trying to discourage taking both, but that's not a case of ambiguity). – mgkrebbs Jun 17 '11 at 18:44
thanks for the help Hen, btw i've edited the question (to insert a side-question in it) take a look at it! – Pacerier Jun 17 '11 at 20:35
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And/or is generally used when either one or both of the options may be true. Consider the following three examples:
1. I am going to buy milk and eggs.
2. I am going to buy milk or eggs.
3. I am going to buy milk and/or eggs.
In example #1, I am specifying that I will buy both.
In contrast, example #2 specifies that I will buy only one of them.
Example #3 combines these two and specifies that I may buy one or the other -- or both.
As for whether it is "official English" or not, I would say that it is. It is used within the AP Stylebook, for example.
I have never seen a reference to and/or in any spoken English textbooks, and as such, when answering how it is spoken, I can only speak from personal experience. In my experience, both words are pronounced as normal, i.e. "and or".
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With the election behind us and the fiscal cliff approaching, recession forecasting is in full swing again, and so it's time once more to roll out the standard caveat-not all predictions are created equal. In fact, quite a lot of the opinions are of poor quality, largely because one or more of the following applies: 1) the predictions are driven by emotion; 2) the analysis relies on cherry-picking the data; 3) the analyst is generally misreading and abusing the economic signals and models; 4) the analysis is overly focused on recent data that's probably infected with short-term/seasonal distortion; 5) the analyst has another agenda to promote that conflicts with objective macro analysis.
For example, some pundits claim that there's a clean, direct link between the business cycle and policy debates in Washington related to decisions that may or may not happen in the future. For example, Steve Forbes predicted yesterday that "we will have a recession." Yes, that's a reliable forecast--now and forever. There's always another recession lurking. Timing, however, is a complicating factor. That's a reminder that we must consider the source--the model--for any recession prediction.
On that score, Forbes' analysis looks wobbly: "Raising taxes on capital, raising taxes on small businesses, which we will likely get now, particularly since the Republicans did so badly in the Senate races, that is going to pose a real burden."
Sounds plausible, in a warm and fuzzy way. But if you spend any time analyzing the business cycle, you'll quickly discover that the link between macro fluctuations and tax rates in the short-to-medium term is clear as mud. As a tool for deciding if recession risk is high or low, rising or falling, this approach is worse than useless. If it were otherwise, your first source for predicting recessions would be listening to debates in Congress and press conferences at the White House. Good luck with that.
Fortunately, there's a better way, although it doesn't lend itself to quotable commentary in 30-second sound bites: Analyzing and monitoring a broad set of economic and financial indicators. Aggregating and tracking the broad changes in the data is the idea behind The Capital Spectator Economic Trend Index (CS-ETI). It's not perfect-nothing is-but it's performed admirably since I rolled it out publicly in the summer (I tested it privately for nearly a year before that). There are pretty good odds that CS-ETI, after a long period of testing and tweaking, will continue to provide reliable real-time signals on recession risk in something close to real time.
On that note, not much has changed since October 17, when I last published a CS-ETI update. In other words, recession risk is still quite low, based on data through September. A few more data points for September have been released since October 17-personal income and spending-and the signals remain positive. As usual, I'll continue to monitor the incoming data from various sources and run the analysis for any statistical hints of trouble. That includes looking ahead several months via econometric techniques for projecting where CS-ETI appears to be headed and keeping an eye on the vintage data (see the third chart in the link above for a recent example). I also translate CS-ETI into probabilities via a probit model for another take on how the business cycle is faring. Crunching the data on GDP nowcasts adds another dimension to the analysis. (I'll have updates for all of these reports later in the month.)
The basic message: it's essential to look at the data from multiple angles, regularly, in an econometrically intelligent way. It's not rocket science, but you can't whip up an intelligent review in a few minutes either. What could go wrong? The main risk is that a bolt from the blue renders the latest data points irrelevant. That's a risk for every model, including CS-ETI. For example, new war in the Middle East that quickly sends oil prices to the moon, or a failure in Washington to resolve the fiscal cliff threat by January, could trigger a recession-risks that aren't reflected in the current numbers.
Keep in mind, however, that if the economy does start tipping over the edge, it'll be obvious in the data, and relatively soon. That is, over the course of two, three or four months, history suggests that clear signs of fatal macro deterioration, for any reason, will be increasingly conspicuous. But isn't that too late as a practical matter? Not necessarily. Most folks, and even many professional economists, don't recognize the early stages of rising recession risk until it's blindingly obvious. How could they miss it? I think one reason is that they're not routinely monitoring a broad set of numbers. Business cycle analysis that's focused on calling recessions in real time is a highly specialized field, and most of the time the analysis isn't practical for the simple reason that recessions are relatively rare events in the grand scheme of macro. No wonder that contractions and the associated signals mislead so many people.
That leaves a fair amount of opportunity for identifying high levels of recession risk several months ahead of the crowd. Sure, it'd be better if we could identify the exact moment when a recession begins, but that's impossible because a high-confidence assessment requires a wide array of data-most of which arrives with a lag.
The best-case scenario that's both practical and relatively reliable is looking for a high-probability signal that a recession has recently started-and identifying such a tipping point as early as possible. The good news is that this type of analysis is feasible, although it requires a fair amount of vigilance in tracking the numbers.
It also helps quite a lot if the analysis is transparent, replicable, and uses publicly available data. All of those points apply to CS-ETI, but that's hardly the norm. It's one thing to claim to have a great business cycle model, but if the understanding the mechanics requires a Ph.D. and deep insight into highly complex calculations, the result for most folks is that they're looking at a black box that relies on the kindness of strangers.
On that note, I'll have an update of CS-ETI soon-in a week or so, once more October numbers are released. Meantime, the early reports for last month look modestly encouraging for expecting that October will go into the history books as another month of growth for the U.S. economy. Monday's news on the services industry, for instance, looks decent. Ditto for last week's economic updates.
Meanwhile, don't let the economic porn that spews regularly from the usual suspects distract you from the necessity of a hard, objective look at the facts when it comes to business cycle analysis. There are lots of things that could go wrong (or right) in the months ahead, but there's a big risk of declaring a new recession before the data supports such a call. Ignoring the telltale signs of a new downturn is no trivial risk. But the same is true for yelling fire in the macro theater without sufficient cause. The goal is finding a reasonable compromise, and that takes hard work-day in, day out. Some pundits would have you believe otherwise. Fortunately, that's one risk that's easily avoided.
Source: Beware Of Zombie Recession Forecasts | <urn:uuid:ccf24ae9-4ceb-46a3-8c77-4e04cac535e7> | http://seekingalpha.com/article/990121-beware-of-zombie-recession-forecasts?source=feed | en | 0.955522 | 0.180672 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Navy stealth bomber drone (Source: IBtimes)
Navy stealth drone take to the skies
Comments Threshold
RE: unmanned bombers
By PorreKaj on 2/10/2011 4:04:23 PM , Rating: 0
Are you saying threat is necessary to keep peace?
RE: unmanned bombers
By dgingeri on 2/10/2011 5:07:31 PM , Rating: 3
Think about it. go into a rough bar and look for the biggest, strongest guy in the bar. Nobody messes with him because they know they'd get their butt beat in. Strength and power are the biggest means for peace. Once in a while someone else bigger might come along, but that's not often, and it is not going to happen to us.
The biggest threat we have to worry about is China, and they wouldn't dare attack us because their whole economy is based on us. They attack, their whole economy collapses, our economy will hurt, but it will get better in the long run, they lose. Nobody else comes close. With these unmanned stealth bombers, it gets a whole lot less likely.
RE: unmanned bombers
By headbox on 2/10/11, Rating: 0
RE: unmanned bombers
By kingius on 2/11/2011 7:32:32 AM , Rating: 1
Peace is built upon mutual understanding and cooperation. People do not attack the big man in the bar and because he is /not/ threatening them... I repeat because he is NOT THREATENING he is instead acting himself in a peaceful manner.
The idea that it is force, that creates peace, is one of the most foolish ideas in the history of mankind and continues to lead us down the path of poisonous paranoia.
RE: unmanned bombers
you really have no concept of human behavior, do you?
RE: unmanned bombers
RE: unmanned bombers
RE: unmanned bombers
We achieve great things in life through cooperation
RE: unmanned bombers
RE: unmanned bombers
By nafhan on 2/10/2011 5:17:05 PM , Rating: 3
You say BULL, but I don't see a suggested alternative. What's your idea? Ask everyone to be nice to each other?
RE: unmanned bombers
By kingius on 2/11/11, Rating: 0
RE: unmanned bombers
By Manch on 2/11/2011 8:49:53 AM , Rating: 3
there is no security at the end of a gun..
There is if you're the one holding it.
RE: unmanned bombers
By kingius on 2/11/2011 10:44:17 AM , Rating: 2
That's a fallacy.
At the earliest opportunity, the person you are coercing through force will attempt to reverse the nature of that very relationship _because_ of the one sided nature of it.
To understand this, you have to put yourself in the position of someone who is being coerced against their will, at gun point. You will not like it, nor the person doing it to you. You will seek fairness and justice and perhaps revenge.
If you want to live in a world where you don't have to watch your back, you have to wake up to the fact that aggressive actions lead to more, further aggressive actions back at you. There is no safety in such a world, no peaceful cooperation, no mutual respect, instead there is something more akin to barbarism.
RE: unmanned bombers
By nafhan on 2/11/2011 11:13:59 AM , Rating: 2
If the weapon is for security and being used in such manner, then without the weapon you'd already be at the wrong end of the relationship, and the fact that the nature of the relationship may get reversed is irrelevant. Your argument only applies to purely offensive actions, not "security".
Also, how do you propose to keep people from engaging in aggressive actions (or convince them, I guess, since no weapons/force allowed)?
RE: unmanned bombers
By Manch on 2/11/2011 2:35:23 PM , Rating: 3
Not a fallacy, reality.
I have a gun. I dont go around coercing people. I have some for hunting and others for defense/detterence. Sad fact of the matter is their are people in the world who will take from others who can't or aren't willing to defend themselves. We live in a world where you need to watch your back. Wether you're talking about an a community, a state, or a nation, there are people outside and within willing to take regardless of the consequences to themselves or others. Having weapons for the purpose of detterence does not make one a bully, it just makes you prepared and keeps them in check.
Having a gun doesnt make me aggressive. Breaking into my house, or trying to harm me or my family makes me aggressive. Fortunately, I've never had to shoot anybody, and I dread the day if it ever comes. If I have to choose between them or my family, they'll be at bad end of my gun.
If you want to live in a world where you don't have to watch your back, you have to wake up to the fact that detterence prevents aggressive actions that could lead to more further aggressive actions. If someone realizes they can take from you whatever they want, whats to stop them from continuing to take from you?
RE: unmanned bombers
By SPOOFE on 2/12/2011 7:34:13 PM , Rating: 2
If you're dealing with a person who will attack you at the earliest opportunity if you're NOT pointing a gun at him, pointing a gun at him may be the only way to prevent a fight. We must also be prepared to accept that there may be NO way to prevent a fight.
That's why Japan is our bitter, bitter enemy and would never consider being one of our best allies and trading partners, right?
Related Articles
| <urn:uuid:ec408ae8-7a11-412c-a28a-535ab4f1cef1> | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=20880&commentid=655105&threshhold=1&red=1437 | en | 0.972457 | 0.092662 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Canalys is including iPad sales in its estimates
Apple iPad 2
Apple MacBook Air
Source: Canalys
Comments Threshold
RE: Hmmm...
By MrBlastman on 11/21/2011 10:59:50 PM , Rating: 2
Can you run a high end flight simulator on an iPad where:
You export instruments and devices in-sim to multiple PC's to distribute the load and then display/control those devices on those respective machines in a full-blown homebuilt cockpit--i.e. MFD's, HUD, Gauges?
You plug in multiple--I mean a LOT of external I/O devices into the iPad such as a homebuilt cockpit with multiple panels each containing many switches/buttons/levers/throttles/sticks/pedals/spe akers/microphones/head tracking devices etc.?
Load these homebrewed/modified/modded simulators onto the iPad without an app store--completely outside the control of a parent body?
Develop applications on it using the standard input devices designed for it? (i.e. in the iPad's case, just the glass based keyboard)
You can't do any of the above. The iPad completely fails at being a PC. It isn't one.
RE: Hmmm...
By Urbanmech on 11/21/2011 11:36:00 PM , Rating: 2
See, you are the minority here.
My mom for example, has no interest in any of that, email and internet is what she wants, and tablets do everything that she needs.
Yes, a dedicated PC is wonderful for those who really want to take advantage of the possibilities, but we are a small number compared to those who just want a basic internet machine. They use a computer all day at work, and have very little interest in spending their home time on one.
RE: Hmmm...
By bupkus on 11/22/2011 3:37:18 AM , Rating: 2
Tablets: PC's for people who never really needed PC's in the first place...
See previous post.
RE: Hmmm...
By Reclaimer77 on 11/22/2011 11:54:06 AM , Rating: 1
See, you are the minority here.
No YOU are. The majority of people are NOT exclusively using iPad's for everything and calling it a PC.
A $200 eMachines from Wal-Mart can do email and internet and MORE than an iPad while still costing less. So I'm not sure what you're on about here. Love the "mom" example though lmao. Like that's relevant.
So the iPad isn't a PC! Ah ha, you just said it right here in this quote. When they come home from a long day of using a "computer", they want to use something that isn't one.
| <urn:uuid:ccb4f724-227e-4290-8b9a-6e9f4246088d> | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=23337&commentid=732586&threshhold=1&red=3438 | en | 0.951472 | 0.095336 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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For play on Xbox
Presented by BoredGamer
Version 1.27
Last Updated: 10/15/04
Phase: Technically Complete
GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com)
Supercheats (www.supercheats.com)
If you are e-mailing me about feedback, questions, or anything having to do
with any FAQ, please send it to boredgameradvanc@cs.com. If any e-mail is sent
to boredgameradvanc that does not concern a FAQ, it will be deleted/ignored, as
I primarily use this address for FAQ-related stuff.
After the Monster Rancher 3 FAQ, I'm going to say this. If you don't have
anything nice to say, don't say it at all. I know that not everyone is
instantly going to listen to this, but if you wish to flame me for something on
a FAQ, please don't even bother e-mailing because you will be instantly ignored
and added straight to my e-mails' blocking lists, so that you can never e-mail
me with that address again. Also with the last one, if you feel the need to
falsely accuse me of plagiarism, please only do so if you are the author of the
item that you felt was plagiarized. If you are not, you will be instantly
Please stop sending me files. I will not download them unless they are someone
I know, and by this I mean someone I know -personally- like family or best
friends. I have suspected that some files that have been sent to me are
viruses (with good justification after being persecuted) and did not download
them. This also means not to send me FAQs or any other material to critique.
If you have something you would like to contribute to this FAQ, do send it in.
That does not mean it will be definitely accepted, though.
This FAQ contains some sexual connotations that may not be suitable for all
readers. Said connotations are necessary, as they are a big part in this realm
of the game.
9:31 PM Update
I have come out of my extended hiatus to return to FAQing once again. My EVO
FAQ still needs to be complete, but before I get the motivation to complete
that FAQ, I've decided to try my hand at this one.
1:10 AM Update
FAQ is technically complete. There may be other additions later, depending on
what kind of response I get. Even spell checked it and added the ASCII.
2:25 PM Update
Added a little extra note from Ken on the attractiveness/scariness thing. See
Section 1C for details.
12:35 AM Update
Holy sweet buttered nipples! Lots of e-mails, lots of e-mails. I
added some new notes. Take a look and weep. Thank you for those of
you contributors out there. Unfortunately, I'm not perfect, but
fortunately, you can all help me patch the holes!
-9:00 PM Update
Finally, there has been a break in the hectic schedule. Just adding
anything new that I have found from e-mails.
-11:30 PM Update
Made some small corrections and added an extra tidbit.
-2:20 PM Update
"No booty" glitch added to extra tidbits.
------Important Notice------
From here on, if you send e-mail and someone beats you to the punch,
you will not get a response back. It's not because I don't care and
I'm not appreciative of your sending, but I have a ton of e-mail
regarding this game and I really need to do this quickly.
Therefore, to anyone who sends any information, this is your advance
thank you notice. Regardless of whether or not you made it on the
FAQ, you still cared enough to send. Thanks a bunch!
Reference credit goes to:
Prima strategy guide for the tattoos and a few of the hairstyles.
Lasher Dragon and Vidmaster for the info on attractiveness/scariness.
Tony for the bit on obtaining items.
Slayn and chas3265 for the Fire Monkey Tattoo bit.
mb1 for the info on merchants.
p03t_15_g0d_0f_p4 for the info on Hook Coast.
daidojimamoru for the info on apprentices.
Jason "TheRaven" for the info on the Sexy Pose.
FableRules for the divorce info.
Minty for the bit on the hair dresser.
freshgroundtuesday for the bit on killing people in Bowerstone.
sprucE moosE for the bit on trophies.
poxsonm for the rental wife tidbit.
Contents According to Joe
Section 1: Introduction
1A: Fable: Land of Love and Lust
1B: Why marry?
1C: Attractiveness and Scariness
Section 2: Pre-Courting
2A: Housing
2B: Apparel
2C: Tattoos
2D: Hairstyles and Facial Hair
2E: Renown
2F: What Not to Do
Section 3: Courting
3A: Expressions
3B: Gifts
3C: What Not to Do
Section 4: Let's Get Hitched!
4A: Proposal
4B: Engagement
4C: What Not to Do
Section 5: Married Life
5A: Maintaining Your Marriage
5B: Sex
5C: Divorce/Ending a Relationship
5D: Extra Tidbits
Section 6: Romance Rating
Section 7: FAQ
Section 8: Legal Bit
Section 9: Thank You and Goodbye
Section 10: My Apologies...
Yes, Fable! The land where you can have every woman falling at your feet or
fleeing in absolute horror. Yes, you can even have men falling at your feet in
"adoration." However, it isn't as simple as walking up to a woman and saying,
"Nice shoes. Wanna [copulate]?" If only it were that simple. Thank the gods
of gaming, however, that it isn't quite as difficult in real life. I mean,
we're talking about a game where you can meet a girl/guy, court her/him, marry
her/him, and boink her/him in the frame of 5-10 minutes, and never have to
worry about trying to figure out their complex psychology. All you need is the
right look, the right attitude, the right implements (and by implements, I
don't mean anything battery operated), and a house, and you, Chicken Chaser,
could be a happily married man... Or you could use marriage as a way to benefit
yourself in several different ways... Mwahahahah...
Yes, why marry anyway? Does it give you any specific advantages? Does your
spouse have the ability to kill Balverines? Can your spouses shoot lasers from
their eyes? No, but I can give you some reasons- some good, some half-assed-
to marry in the game.
-It broadens the depth. The game is somewhat short compared with other RPG's
as it is. Having some mundane, yet fun side quests like this are an added perk
to the gameplay. Just don't expect to get shacked up immediately. You will
have to work at it a bit.
-If you marry a woman, you will get paid a dowry. Marry enough and the dowry
can outweigh what you've spent to get shacked. It'll take a while, though, so
getting married to make long term money isn't always the smartest idea.
-If you marry someone in a place that does not allow weapons (and thus, no
killing) like Bowerstone South, you can easily get divorced and earn 600 evil
points. Beating your spouse and getting a divorce is one of the most, if not
the most, evil thing you can do.
-The "sex scenes" are worth a chuckle, especially to hear your wife call you
-According to Tony, you can get items from your spouses. Yes, it's
true. I've gotten a few myself, such as an Obsidian Greatsword or Dark
Leather Gloves.
-You'll get a lot of renown points. A lot.
Before you get too far into this FAQ, it would probably be a good idea if you
knew something about these stats. These are stats that do not affect your
battle, but your appearance towards others.
Attractiveness- This measures how good looking you are, and is essential in
getting you a spouse. If it's really high, women will fawn over you,
relationship ratings will get high quicker, and you won't have to work as hard
to get someone to fall in love with you.
Scariness- Shows just how much of a terror you are to gaze upon. This is the
stat you don't want. Think of going to a bar, club, or other social engagement
and trying to hit on a prospective mate while wearing a werewolf costume.
Unless it's a Halloween party, which don't exist in Fable, chances are you're
not going to get far. Then again, if your prospective mate is into furries, it
might... Nonetheless, higher Scariness is bad for relationships. Moreover, if
it's too high, you won't even be able to approach people, as they will be
running in the other direction.
Relationship Rating- This is something you don't see in your stat menus. It
can be judged based on the heart over the NPC's head. You can make this bigger
by hitting on the person or giving him/her gifts. What you really want to look
out for is when it begins to slowly fade in and out. This means the person has
fallen in love with you and will shortly ask for marriage.
---This just in---
"My character has 100 attractiveness and 100 scariness, and I have women
just falling in love with me left and right. After I got married, I
went into the bar in Bowerstone South and decided to see what affect
alcohol has on my character and the effect of buying beers for people.
I gave a couple people beers, did a few hero poses, had the bard sing,
and then people started flocking to the bar. Next thing I notice is
that all the women in the bar have almost full hearts above their heads
- and I hadn't even given a beer to them yet. So I go back to the bar,
order a bunch of beer, and start handing it to the ladies. Get this -
every, and I mean EVERY girl a gave a beer to immediately fell in love
with me! I was already married, but it was cool to see."- Lasher Dragon
"You said that the trick does not work when you are playing the evil
path. I have found that it does actually work, and there's an even
easier way to make everyone fall in love with you. If you keep your
attractiveness at 100 (which I did by wearing a big beard, the normal
haircut, and some attractive tatooes) and keeping your scariness in the
negative numbers, people fall in love with you just by looking at you.
When I first entered Oakvale, I was already well down the evil path. I
had the beginnings of horns popping out of my forehead, but my
attractiveness was 100 and my scariness was below zero - I don't
remember exactly what it was, but it was definitely negative. After
wandering around town, only talking to merchants, I noticed that every
single female in the town and a few men had enormous hearts above their
heads and had developed the green aura that signifies love. I also
found that when I went back to Bowerstone, people I had never talked to
began to fall in love with me - not everyone one, but the majority of
the eligible citizens would have accepted my marriage proposal, and all
I had to do was be really sexy."- Vidmaster
One thing I also found last night while playing with my good character
is that if your good level is high enough, people will fall in love
with you automatically. I also noticed that people who hadn't even
fallen in love with you yet will ask for a Wedding Ring.
"while it is true that most women in the game wont take a second look at
you once you burn out their eyes with your scariness... there is one
town in the game (that i know of so far) where the more evil and scary
looking you are (im talking horns red aura round your feet evil armor
scary tatoos the whole deal) the more they will be attracted to you
try going to Hook Coast with the most evil character you can imagine i
bet after 1 flirt each all the girls will have flashing giant hearts
above their heads"- p03t_15_g0d_0f_p4
Before you even consider making a girl yours, there are a few pre-requisites
you'll need to do. As I stated before, you can't just solicit around for
marriage and sex. You actually have to do some work for it. Now, not all of
these things are wholly required, but they are incredibly helpful...
You don't have to get a house before courting, but it is nice to have before
you start. Just be sure you have one before you propose to someone. If you're
looking for a house that meets the minimum requirement for one suitable for
marriage, get the one in Bowerstone South. It's only 1500 gold. You can
easily make that money doing quests or gambling (if you're good at the games).
I actually found I'm really good at the pairs game. I can usually make more
than 10,000 gold in one sitting off that game alone. However, if you're not
that good at that game, then you're going to need to make a living some other
way. Either way, the Bowerstone house is one of the cheapest you can get
without killing someone to get it.
Note that I will keep you posted once I find a house chaeper than this. I just
have to evict a few people in some other houses first, heh...
Wearing dark armor suits isn't going to win over too many fair maidens. There
is actually one suit of clothing that's incredibly easy to get that has around
the highest, if not the highest, attractiveness rating.
-Getting the Will User's Bright Suit-
If you don't have any gifts, you'll need to purchase one. Chocolates and Red
Roses are the cheapest. If you happen to have some on you, don't bother buying
one. Now, head to the Rose Cottage. To get there, you will have to travel
through the Greatwood Forest. When you come to a place called the Greatwood
Cullis Gate, you're one map away from the Rose Cottage. When you come to the Y
in the road, hang a right. Against the left wall as you're coming in will be a
Demon Door. He'll whine about how no one loves him. Give him a gift (I
stupidly gave him a Wedding Ring, thinking only that would suffice, the first
time, but came to find out that any gift will do). He'll swing wide open.
Inside will be a chest with the suit in it.
Tats are not in any way required to do this. However, there are a couple, like
either of the Harvest Tattoos, that can still give you a little extra edge.
Honestly, I usually don't even bother with them, as most of them just raise
your scariness level. There is, however, one tattoo that will raise your
attractiveness by quite a bit, but you need to commit a crime in order to get
-Getting the Golden Harvest Tattoo-
Run over to the schoolhouse in Bowerstone South. You should see some barrels
near the entrance. Destroy one of them to reveal the tattoo. It's best to do
this during the night, when no one can see you. If one of the kids should see
you, one of them will most likely rat you out and you will have to pay a
not-so-hefty fine for vandalism. Getting this on your body will actually raise
your attractiveness and your alignment by 35 points!
---This just in---
"Just to mention on the tattoos(perhaps I didn't see a comment about
it). You can get a +51 attraction/alignment tattoo called Fire Monkey
Tattoo. I got it in the [second GreatWood area] (we think it's great
wood lake...), the area with the broken bridge. Not that one would need
it if they had the full suit of Bright Will Robes."- Slayn
According to chas3265, you can also get the tat from the Beardy Baldy
sidequest in Bowerstone South.
This actually does have some effect on how you will do. Different styles of
either will change your scariness, alignment, and attractiveness. Obviously,
you're going to want ones that make you more attractive. This means if you're
shooting for a particular look, you may have to give it up in order to get some
action. That is _may_. You can still attract women when you're somewhat
scary, just as long as you're not so ungodly scary that the blind flee from
you. Here are some suggestions of hairstyles and facial hair that I think
might work.
-Hair Styles-
Bald Head (+50 Attract/-50 Scare)
Short Hair (+50 Attract)
Normal Haircut (+50 Attract/+50 Scare)- Just make sure you can balance out the
scare factor here...
-Facial Hair-
Big Beard (+48 Attract/-48 Scare)
Chin Beard (+24 Attract/-24 Scare)
Mutton Chop Beard (+48 Attract)
Normal Beard (+48 Attract/+48 Scare)- Same as the Normal Haircut
Power Mustache (+49 Attract/-49 Scare)
Regular Beard (+48 Attract)
Sheriff Mustache (+49 Attract/+49 Scare)- Same as above
I, personally, went with a Normal Beard and a Bald Head the first time through.
You could do any possible combination, as long as you are still one sexy beast
at the end of the day.
What is it that woman yell in the beginning of the game? "There goes Chicken
Chaser! Look at those chickens run!" That's pretty much a signal saying, "You
gettin' NONE of this!" If you hit on girls early in the game, they'll laugh at
you or question you for flirting with them. It has nothing to do with your age
or your title Chicken Chaser. Hell, you could go to the namingway
(REFERENCE!!!) and pick "Arse Face" and age to 65 and still get married.
What you need to improve is your renown. With this, people will be more
impressed with you, they'll take you more seriously, and you'll have a bigger
repertoire of hit-on arsenal. Gaining renown is about the easiest thing you can
do in the game. It's elementary, really:
-Do quests. Duh! That's what the core of the game is!
-When doing quests, try to do boasts that are within your playing skill.
-Kill more creatures. It will add meagerly to your renown level, but every
little bit helps.
-Kick major ass at gambling. I found this out by owning all at the pairs
table. I got about 200 renown for it.
-Show off your trophies in highly populated areas (thanks sprucE moosE!)
It is also worth noting that if you become a celebrated champion in the game,
people will naturally begin to fall in love with you. At least, that is what
it seems.
1) Wear ugly/scary clothing. Bottom line.
2) Get scary tattoos. People don't dig the "I'm a powerful wizard that
worships Satan" look. Although, being evil doesn't seem to matter, as I have
gotten many wives while I was evil.
3) Get scary haircuts. You had to see this one coming. Punks and Fu Man Chus
are pretty much out of luck.
4) Super boost your scariness rating. You're trying to attract them, not repel
5) Hit on people naked. Those of you nudists out there are going to be a bit
So basically, just use common sense and you'll be alright.
You've got the look. You're not scary. You're a tiger! Now, it's time to
start hitting on the prospects. Keep in mind when courting, you can hit on
women and men alike. However, finding a woman who will marry you is many times
easier than finding a guy who will marry you.
NOTE: Before courting anyone, it's usually best to do it in a town where you
own a house. Otherwise, you will have to lead that person all the way to your
house where they'll run the risk of becoming Hobbe food.
There are three expressions that you can use that will cause the denizens of
Fable to swoon: Flirt, Manly Arm Pump, and Sexy Pose. You will gain Flirt
early in the game, but Manly Arm Pump and Sexy Pose you will have to build up
your renown. See Section 2E for references on Renown.
What you're going to want to do is use these constantly while courting your
selection. A heart should appear over her or his head and get bigger each time
you use one of these expressions. Do not use the same on in a row. In other
words, don't Arm Pump, Flirt, Flirt. It will be less likely to work if you do
the same one you just did. Alternate between the two or three that you have.
On a sort of side note, I'd like to add that the Sexy Pose is not totally
necessary to win someone over. It is, however, incredibly nice to have, as it
does raise their relation rating quicker (or at least it seems to).
I also find it easier to hot key these expressions since you cannot rely on the
game to give you the one that you want at the right time. In case you do not
know, you can hot key in the main menu or in the quick menu you can bring up by
pushing D-pad up. Keep going through the menu until you hit the expression,
select it, and it will bring up a menu with functions such as "Assign to Up,"
etc. Choose the buttons that suit you best. Bring up the hot keys by hitting
the R Trigger and push the desired D-pad direction.
-This just in...-
"I just wanted to give you an addendum on the Sexy Hero Pose Expression.
It seems that the Sexy Hero Pose is good for "group work;" while
flirting raises one 'target' girl's love meter, Sexy Hero Pose appears
to have an influence on anyone within a certain range of your character."-
Jason "TheRayven"
Expressions can only go so far. After a while, if you expression your victim
to death, they'll begin to lose interest in you. That's when you slip a gift
There are many gifts you can choose from, but I'm only going to talk about the
ones that are the best suited for the job, or at least necessary to talk about.
Your best bet is to go with ones that are inexpensive, since you really don't
need any of the expensive ones to get married (save for a Wedding Ring). The
ones that you will probably find yourself buying the most are Red Roses and
Chocolates. Both of these items are incredibly cheap. Seriously. You can get
them with chump change and they work just as well as a ruby or a diamond (if
only it were that easy in real life...). The Perfume is also not a bad choice,
but it's about 100 gold vs. the 10-20 that you would spend on Chocolates or a
Red Rose. Honestly, I don't buy Perfume, but if I happen to find it on oh say,
a dead body, I'll still give it to a girl. Nothing says lovin' quite like
goods from your burning victims. As far as the expensive gems go, I don't even
use them for relationships. Sell them. They're worth much more that way.
Especially when someone many times cheaper will get the job done.
---------------WHAT YOU'RE AIMING FOR---------------
So, you're doing the expressions, you're giving the gifts. What you're waiting
for is for a harp sound, followed by the heart over the person's head fading
out and back in. This means they've fallen in love with you and are ready to
be married.
1) Buy expensive gifts. I said it before. Cheap ones work just as well.
2) Give crappy gifts. Your prospective woman would love a Rose, but probably
not enjoy, oh say, a fish.
3) Use vulgar expressions. Nothing will sink a relationship faster than
burping and farting constantly around your prospective mates. While doing it
once will not kill the mood completely, doing it a lot will get you in deep
doo. It's also best not to swear, sneer, or laugh maniacally around them,
4) Hurt your mate. One hit, just one, will completely end the relationship.
Several more will completely end their life.
5) Commit crimes in front of the ones you're courting. No one likes a bad boy
in this game. At least, they don't like you when they see it. It's still kind
of darkly funny to shank someone in front of a person and hear them say, "I
wish I hadn't seen that," so matter-of-factly.
Your mate has fallen in love with you. Congrats, Tiger! Now, before you
choose Excel Saga's lavish Put it In selection on the menu (sorry if that
confused anyone who hasn't seen Excel Saga), you need to get married.
After the person has fallen in love with you, talk to them. They'll ask you to
get them a Wedding Ring. What you'll want to do is either buy the whopping one
at Bowerstone South, which is fairly expensive, or head to Oakvale where they
have more Wedding Rings for quite a bit cheaper. I recommend the latter of the
When you have a real Wedding Ring in hand, get to the person who's fallen for
you. If they've lost a little favor, do a few tricks to get it back up, talk
to them again to prompt the wedding ring suggestion, and give them the ring.
You can do this by hitting the Up D-pad button, going into Items, then Gifts,
then Wedding Ring, then Use. If that isn't brought down to bloody detail, I
don't know what is. The person's heart will turn yellow. This means you are
now engaged.
Now, to marry the person is simple. Walk up to them, select the Follow
expression, and lead them to your house. Once your partner is inside, he/she
will say that the two of you make a great couple. Talk to them at that point
and it will prompt a selection to marry him/her or not. Select yes. If you
married a woman, you will get some money in dowry and a nice cut scene. If you
married a man, you get a big, hairy oaf who wants hot man lovin'.
From that point on your spouse will have a ring over his/her head. You can
only have one spouse per house, so don't go looking for another mate unless you
have another house in another town. Yes, polygamy is okay in Fable.
1) Give your prospective mate a Fake Wedding Ring. Fable people may be plain,
but they're not stupid.
2) Propose to someone before they've fallen in love with you. Thankfully, this
has no repercussions, it seems. You don't lose the ring and you can still
propose to the person later.
3) Propose to someone who isn't in love with you. Same story as above. This
mainly applies to men, as most men in the game are not wanting another man in
their life.
4) Attack the person after proposing to them. Congrats, you've just wasted a
wedding ring. Now, off with her head!
5) Lead the person you've just proposed to into the wild. Unless you're so
good at killing enemies that you can protect your fiancee. Although, it might
be amusing if you leave him/her in the middle of a pack of Bolverines.
Well, now you've ignited the fire and you've got to keep it burning. Unless,
of course, it becomes too much of a hassle, then you can find ways to
extinguish it. Some more radical than others, of course...
Just because you're married doesn't mean your home free. You'll have to keep
the person happy, which isn't hard. Here's what I do after about every other
quest/task or so: Visit all of your spouses and spend time with them. Flirt
with them, use pleasing expressions, give them gifts, have sex with them, etc.
Not joking. Having sex with them seems to keep them quite pleased.
Now, what you want to avoid is pretty much common sense. Don't do things
during the marriage that you wouldn't do before the marriage. Don't become
scarier, don't hurt your spouse(s), don't use vulgar expressions. Most
importantly, don't neglect them, otherwise they will divorce you. If you're
trying to play a good character, you don't want a divorce on your hands.
Strangely enough, you would be better off just killing your spouse, as that
lands you far less evil points than divorce.
I've spoken to a lot of people who brought this up as one of their first goals
in the game. While sex in this game is about the same as Grand Theft Auto
(minus the car; and the fact that you don't get life back; and the fact that
you can't club your spouse to death and get your money back; and the... well, I
think you get the point) it seems to really help strengthen a relationship.
Having sex isn't hard. Keep flirting and talking with your spouse until their
aura turns yellow. Talk to her/him at that time and they'll ask you if you
want to go to bed. Say yes and the screen will go black. You'll hear
different somewhat sensual expressions and phrases, such as a moan, a playful
laugh, or even the woman calling you "norty." On a funny note, if you have sex
with a man, he seems a bit more cautious and uptight about the affair.
Sometimes, he'll even scream in sudden panic or surprise.
Most of this stuff is covered throughout the FAQ.
Anyway, it goes without saying that being "norty" outside of bed will get you
nowhere in your relationship. However, this is a great way to earn some evil
points if you've married the person.
-Getting Divorced for Dummies-
The easiest way I know is to marry someone in Bowerstone South. Why, you ask?
If you marry someone where weapons are allowed, you're more likely to kill the
person and get less evil points rather than divorce him/her. Once you've
gotten hitched and done what you want with your new spouse, begin to beat
him/her up. Eventually, they will say they want a divorce. You will have to
give part of your house to them, and you will have to will successfully earn
600 evil points. So, apparently killing someone isn't nearly as bad as
divorcing them.
There are other ways to lose your spouse's interest. Continually use rude
expressions, commit crimes in their presence, or just plain neglect them.
Don't visit them, don't talk to them, don't do anything with them. After a
while, they'll hate your guts.
If getting divorced isn't in your forte and you'd rather see truly take their
breath away, attack them while in an area that allows weapons. You see, people
can't die in towns like Bowerstone South where they do not allow weapons. So,
you will have to lead your spouses out into the wild and either leave them for
the many bad guys or just kill them yourself. Most cities, however, will allow
you to execute them. Just make sure you do it where no one is looking,
otherwise you will have to pay a 2000 gold fine.
"If you're married, and you get divorced with your wife, (I usually beat
my wives for a divorce so neglect might not work) the other women/men
in that town will no longer be attracted to you. In fact, they will
fear you. This worked in Bowerstone and Oakvale, but in Bowerstone, I
had already given a ring to another woman so after a little bit, her
heart came back, but if I hadn't given her the ring, it might've stayed
gone. You should experiment with it, if you want, and then you can add
this fact to your FAQ to warn people about being divorced. I'm pretty
sure I wouldn't be married in Oakvale if I hadn't led a Guild
Apprentice that was in love with me there from the Heroes' Guild (lots
of walking, bleh) so you can get married there, just not to residents
there."- FableRules
I just wanted to give my two cents, in your faq you
mention that it isn't possible to kill your wife in
Bowerstone. While this may be true that you are not
allowed to directly kill her, she is fully capable of
dieing in an unfortunate accident involving guards and
stray crossbow bolts. Doesn't really affect anything
except for being a good way to get your ex out of your
home after divorce."- freshgroundtuesday
Freshgroundtuesday, you'll be the patron saint of murder in
murder-restricted areas in my book. Thanks!
---Rental Wife---
1) Go into Bowerstone South and buy the house there.
2) Pull out on of your trophies midday and use it and you'll find that
there are exactly 20 people in this town that can be awed by you.
3) Rent out your house, go out and adventure some and stop by
Bowerstone South every now and then and use your trophy. Keep doing
this until it tells you that there are now 22 people in town that can
be awed by you. If you go over to your house now you'll see that the
door has opened and that two people have moved in (One is a little boy
that you can find in the school, and the other has always been a
women, though it shouldn't matter if it's a man)
4) Find the women that moved into the house (She's often in the house
but does wander around). Make sure it's the women that rented the
house and now use your charm on her. When she says she wants a ring
try and marry her and it should tell you that you need a house first
(You have a house but you are currently renting it)
5) Well, you should know what to do now, go over to your house that
you are renting and say you would like to use it as your marital
house. Then go find your bride to be and give her that lovely ring.
You'll be moved on over to the house and wife with you.
6) Have all the fun you want with your wife before leaving town.
7) When you leave town and come back you'll find that the sign is now
back up front that you can use to sell or rent out the house and that
your wife is nowhere to be found (Nor is her little kid).
Contributed by: poxsonm
---"Alien Abduction" glitch---
One other thing that I'd also like to note that I've been getting
reports on from many people is that there appears to be a bad glitch
that was left in Fable. Apparently, people's wives have been
mysteriously disappearing. When this happens, you can apparently
remarry. Either this is a glitch or proof of alien life in Fable.
Maybe one day, one of those wives will return with a stiff walk about
---No Booty For You Glitch---
New reports have been coming in of another glitch that was not properly
taken care of. It is not known what causes it, but basically your
character goes from sexy ultrahunk to undesirable sod. People have
said that everyone absolutely adored their characters, then suddenly
people would not respond to their flirting. Their spouses, also,
showed no love towards them at all.
There is no known way to patch up this glitch or what causes it.
Should be be stricken with this glitch, my condolences.
This is nothing too special. This is in your Personal menu under Statistics.
This basically sums up your history and your present love life in a few small
There are four different sexualities, each one reflects on your current
spouses. You can change your sexuality by marrying or divorcing/killing other
Unknown- This means you have no current spouse, regardless as to who you were
previously shacked up with.
Heterosexual- This means you have at least one wife and no husbands.
Gay- This means you have at least one husband and no wives.
Bisexual- This means you have at least one husband and at least one wife.
---Number of Spouses---
This is the number of spouses you currently have. Change this number by
getting married or losing a spouse.
---People That Have Fallen In Love with You---
This is the number of people who've had the "harp sound" and are ready to be
proposed to. This is a cumulative amount, so anyone who's fallen in love, then
fallen off the mortal coil is still accounted for.
---Number of Weddings---
This pertains to the number of times you've been married, both current and
Number of times divorced. Did you really need that one explained. Deaths do
not count.
---Number of Times Widowed---
How many of your spouses have died, either by force or by "accident."
---Number of Times Had Sex---
How many times you've sunk the apple in any kind of marital relationship.
/ SECTION 7: FAQ \
Q: Is there really sex in this game?
A: Yes and no. There is no visual sex. You just hear what's going on.
Q: Is there gay marriage/sex?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you be a pedophile?
A: Thank God no!
Q: What happens if you hit on children?
A: They'll say they don't understand.
Q: Can you hit on any person in the game?
A: Yes, but only women and a select few men will respond.
Q: Can you marry an apprentice?
A: Yes, as far as I know.
"Well, I just finished reading through the faq, and wanted to let you
know that yes, you can marry an apprentice, however, you will have to
lead him/her to whatever town you have your house in (Not too bad if
you're going to Bowerstone, pretty sucky for Oakvale, as I learned too
late). Also, at least the one I picked, the female apprentices have the
same married phrases as Lady Grey, so that might effect some people's
decision. Anyways, hopefully that's useful for ya."- daidojimamoru
Q: Can you marry a guard?
A: No. You cannot even hit on a guard.
Q: Can you kill your spouse?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you have children?
A: As far as I know, no. I've done it with my wife many times and she still
has yet to get pregnant.
Q: Can a marriage sour in any way?
A: Yes. Through neglect, abuse, or just plain rudeness.
Q: Is polygamy aloud?
A: Yes, but only one spouse per town.
Q: Can you marry both a woman and a man?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you rape people?
A: No.
Q: Can you have pre-marital sex?
A: Though a lot of people insinuate it, no.
Q: How come someone won't marry me?
A: Well, either they aren't ready yet or they aren't interested. Or they're a
Q: Can you marry a chicken?
A: No, though that would be amusing. Then your daughter can be the Chicken
Lady (ah, I miss Kids in the Hall).
Q: Can you marry merchants?
A: "Just a tip, I tried it to see what would happen, but you cannot
marry a shopkeeper. Every time you try to talk to them, you can only
shop. The only way I can think to do it would be to get them to follow
you out of their shop and keep them out until after the shops close. I
don't even know if that would work then. I got to thinking about this
when the barber fell in love with me and I thought you might want to
put it in your FAQ." -mb1
"A small update to the last Q&A, you actually can marry the hairdresser
in Bowerstone South. I did it mostly out of curiosity. When you talk
to her and it says "Do you want to trade?" say no and if she's in love
with you and has a pink heart over her head she'll start asking about a
ring. After your wedding, the barbershop goes up for sale and you can
buy it for 1500 gold. Unless you're interested in that, I don't really
recommend marrying her because you have to say no, you don't want to
trade to start all of your conversations, and then the town is short a
barber for awhile. Also her voice gets on your nerves really fast."-
This FAQ is copyright 2004 to Joe Shaffer, aka BoredGamer. Any use of this FAQ
for commercial purposes in any way, shape, or form without confirmed consent of
the author is strictly prohibited. This can be used for personal use and
freely distributed, as long as there is no profit being made off the FAQ
without my approval before hand (this includes magazines). This also cannot be
posted on any websites without my solid approval. Any failure to comply with
said premises can, and probably will, result in legal actions.
Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and GameFAQs. Thanks for the brilliant site.
Prima for the tattoo and hairstyle lists.
Microsoft for Fable (Me thanking Microsoft? Never thought that would happen...
This world really is ending.)
Yes, thanks to Lionhead for developing the game.
Lasher Dragon and Vidmaster for the bits on Attractiveness/Scariness.
Tony for the bit on obtaining items.
mb1 for the merchant bit.
Slayn and chas3265 for the Fire Monkey tattoo contribution.
p03t_15_g0d_0f_p4 for the bit on Hook Coast.
daidojimamoru for the apprentice bit.
Jason "TheRayven" for the info on the Sexy Pose.
FableRules for the divorce info.
Minty for the bit on the hair dresser.
freshgroundtuesday for the bit on killing people in Bowerstone.
sprucE moosE for the bit on trophies.
poxsonm for the rental wife tidbit.
I'll see you again when Fable 2 hits... If it ever hits...
My sincere apologies to anyone who tried to e-mail me between now and February.
After having a very rough time with my student teaching, I lost the will to
write FAQs and Reviews, and thus never logged into my BoredGamerAdvanc account
on CS. I decided to call it an extended hiatus until my inspiration truly
returned. Well, Fable has inspired me to write.
(c) Joe Shaffer 2004 | <urn:uuid:fbc56b6f-76a3-417f-bd76-9da17845b452> | http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox/516688-fable/faqs/32402 | en | 0.956596 | 0.228456 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Report a Review
Review:1_madeline_3 says:
Thanks for the fast update. Okay so here's the thing...I'm one of those ghost readers...never review..only read completed stories. But I after I read In My Blood..I had to know what happen! So far you have kept me at the edge of my seat! You're amazing. I cried for Lily. I had gone through the same thing..I have lose a best friend..I let myself go. I know this is fiction but I know what it's like. Thank you for this story.
Author's Response: You're absolutely welcome! Ooh, hello Ghostie :) Nice to hear from you again. I'm glad you're enjoying it... (I've cried a lot writing it, too. I've lost a lot of people and that's what inspired me to write this one, to help grapple with my own feelings, so I understand how hard and helpful it can be simultaneously). You're welcome. Thank you for reviewing :)
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Slackware 10 Stuff
by Kingnubian on Thu 15th Jul 2004 13:59 UTC
In the last few months I've tried about a dozen different distros and have come back to slackware 10. Presently I'm using dropline gnome as my desktop and couldn't be happier. I was productive right away. I did try Arch .6 for a few months and loved it's direction but the package quality was just so so even though by now things seem to have been cleaned up. I'll give it another shot when Arch .7 comes out. PClinuxOS .7 is another distro I kinda like. Even though it's based on a now bloated Mandrake it is a slim and trim i686 compiled race car compared to it. As 1 cd bootable distro it gives the user a "Try it first from cd" experience before comitting to an install. Xandros was real easy but I kept getting the feeling of being trapped in a box with it's out of the box limited upgradability. This is perfectly fine for cooperate installs but not so IMHO for the progressive linux user. I keep coming back to Slackware and version 10 has been a great experience, except for some initial sound issues. Slackware 10 + swaret + dropline gnome = my perfect desktop. | <urn:uuid:9e4d1b63-7278-48c2-af25-ae6792aab4f1> | http://www.osnews.com/permalink?f260438 | en | 0.969875 | 0.032108 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Lisa Edelstein Happy Birthday to rapper Notorious B.I.G. (1972; d. 1997), "House" star Lisa Edelstein (1967), WWE star Chris Benoit (1967), actor/director Nick Cassavetes (1959), "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" actor Judge Reinhold (1957), "Rocky III" and "The A-Team" star Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud in 1952), comedian turned political pundit Al Franken (1951), British pop singer Leo Sayer (1948), soul singer Ronald Isley (1941), French trumpeter Maurice Andre (1933), "Perry Mason" actor Raymond Burr (1917; d. 1993), 'deadball era' baseball player Earl Averill (1902; d. 1983), legendary film producer Sam Jaffe (1901; d. 2000), French post-impressionist Henri Rousseau (1844; d. 1910), and Greek philosopher Plato (427 BCE; d. 347 BCE).
Lena Dunham Apologizes For 'Not So Great Molestation Joke' Miley Cyrus And Flaming Lips Frontman Wayne Coyne Cover The Beatles' 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' | <urn:uuid:0f237d07-e1f4-4d9d-bd2f-45fbbdc4d9c8> | http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/05/21/celebrity_birthdays_may_22 | en | 0.74108 | 0.054722 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Alliance An Unnatural Drought
Vindicator Idaar at Telredor wants you to kill 12 Withered Giants.
The soil sample you brought me is nearly devoid of moisture, <name>. If the soil itself is losing moisture, then the creatures that live in the Dead Mire must be suffering terribly.
I've seen what happens when the region's fungal giants begin to wither and die. The pain drives them mad, causing them to attack anything in their path.
These creatures have no idea what's happening to them. They're beyond our ability to save, so the best we can do is to end their suffering.
You will be able to choose one of the following items:
Explorer's Bands Fen Strider's Bracer
Vindicator's Cinch Researcher's Mantle
You will also receive:
• 10,050 experience
• 2 70
• 250 reputation with Exodar | <urn:uuid:53d93be3-e34f-44e8-a376-a761c78606f4> | http://www.wowdb.com/quests/9783-an-unnatural-drought?cookieTest=1 | en | 0.919936 | 0.603536 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I recently did a presentation to the Triangle Drupal Users Group (Research Triangle Park, NC USA area) about WebFM. It covers "What is Drupal, Why Use It, and How to Install/configure it. I thought it might be useful to other people. Here's the URL to the slide deck.
My apologies if I misrepresented anything...
D'oh... forgot to say that it does include a few shameless plugs for the "Custom Layouts" patch I wrote...
The maintainer burn-out quip is warranted. I hope to commit your patch sometime in May.
Status:Active» Fixed
I added it to the front page. Thank you very much for doing this - really.
Status:Fixed» Closed (fixed)
| <urn:uuid:f6a2248f-7efb-48d2-b5af-701d38ce29e2> | https://drupal.org/node/780214 | en | 0.923382 | 0.074819 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Summary: Directly following the events in Jus In Bello, the Winchesters find themselves stuck in a small Minnesota town during
Summary: Directly following the events in Jus In Bello, the Winchesters find themselves stuck in a small Minnesota town during a blizzard, drawn into a hunt they are not prepared for.
This started as a simple tag for episode 3.12 JIB, and kind of rambled on from there. Mostly it's me taking out my frustrations about all the FRIGGIN' SNOW that has pounded the Midwest this year. I thought it would be nice to share it with our favorite demon hunters. I'm sure the boys appreciated it.
Thin Ice of a New Day
Sam shifted his focus to the threadbare brown carpet, the silence in the room oppressive to say the least. Ruby's parting words rang in his ears, his head formulating arguments to her accusations while his heart ached in acceptance of the blame. He could hear the harsh breathing of his brother and knew without looking that Dean had been hit hard by her rant as well.
His attention remained on the floor as Dean rose from the opposite bed and moved about the room. As the silence began to grate on his nerves, Sam shifted his eyes to his brother just in time to see the older man lash an arm out across the desk, sending the lamp situated there crashing into the opposite wall.
Sam held his breath, his sight taking in the broken shards of the light fixture that now lay shattered on the floor before returning to his brother's hunched form. Dean leaned against the desk, his left arm pulled in tight against his body, his eyes squeezed shut against obvious pain.
Sam started to rise, but a shake of his brother's head kept him from completing the move. Sam could only wait as Dean slowly straightened and made his way back across the room to his bed. Without a word, he lowered himself carefully onto the mattress and pulled his legs up, resting his injured arm against his stomach and throwing the other across his eyes.
Sam idly wondered if his brother was trying to block out the world or hide himself from it.
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He knew he should probably take a look at his brother's bullet wound, but Dean's current position made it clear the older man was not in the mood for any kind of concern. Leaning forward, Sam placed his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. "This is all so messed up," he mumbled.
Dean's laugh held no humor.
"Ya think?" Dean didn't bother to remove his arm from across his eyes. "We screwed up."
Sam shook his head, hating the defeat in his brother's voice. "Dean, we tried. We did everything we could –"
"Fat lot of good that did, Sammy. They all died anyway. Hendrickson, Nancy…"
Sam sighed, his shoulders slumped. "Dean. Don't do this." It was one thing to admit that their good intentions may have backfired, it was another to heap more blame on their shoulders in a fight where they were struggling just to stay above water.
Dean's head slowly moved back and forth under the shield of his arm. "She was right. We didn't help at all."
Sam stared at his brother. He'd never seen Dean give up. Even when Dad had dragged them around the country, never settling into anything resembling a home, Dean had kept the family together. He had kept them strong enough to continue the quest. But lately, Sam had to admit, this war, the costs had begun to take their toll on his larger than life big brother. Dean's cracks were becoming more and more obvious and his soul was becoming more and more weary. Throughout their entire lives, even when things seemed insurmountable, Sam could never remember hearing his brother sound so… small.
Dean had reacted in outrage when Ruby wanted to sacrifice Nancy for the greater good.
He had made it very clear that they would find another way, that they were not going to start picking and choosing who got to live and who was to be sacrificed in this hellish war they'd found themselves in.
At first Sam had been torn. He'd even been tempted to listen to Ruby, to let her kill the young virgin if it meant saving the rest… saving Dean. But Dean's voice had penetrated his confusion and showed him that they couldn't start ignoring their own humanity for the sake of winning. Like Dean said, if that's how you win a war, he didn't want to win. If that happened – if they allowed it to happen -- they'd already lost.
"No, Dean. She's wrong." Sam's voice was soft, but it held conviction. "Ruby was wrong."
Dean lowered his arm and stared in confusion at his brother. "How can you say that?" He pushed himself up onto the edge of the bed and leaned forward, his eyes locked onto his brother's. "I don't remember you exactly telling the bitch 'no deal' back there, dude."
Sam nodded, dropping his eyes to the floor as he felt a flush of shame color his face. "I know. I just…" He shrugged. "I just didn't know what else to do." He returned his gaze back to his brother. "But you did."
"Yeah. Great plan. They're all dead, Sam. All of them. I blew it. I failed."
The sudden slump of Dean's shoulders nearly broke Sam's heart. "No. We didn't fail. You were right." Sam waited until the older hunter raised his head, his eyes searching for a glimmer of truth in the statement. "We can't start sacrificing innocent lives. We can't play some kind of numbers game. It's our job to protect people."
Dean nodded, a sad smile on his face. "Yeah," he breathed. "We're doing such a bang-up job so far, huh?"
Sam leaned forward, catching his brother's eyes and holding them. "Dean, we have to put the blame where it belongs. On this Lilith. The demons. We saved those people. You saved those people."
Dean searched his brother's eyes and allowed himself to believe that maybe what Sam was saying was the truth. "Yeah, maybe. Doesn't make me feel any better, though."
Sam returned his sad grin. "Me either."
The muffled tone of Dean's phone sounded from his pocket and he leaned as he used his good arm to dig into his jeans and retrieve the device.
"Dean? You boys alright?"
Dean grinned at the concern in the older hunter's voice. "Hey, Bobby." He quickly glanced at his brother, seeing his grin mirrored at the mention of their old friend's name. "We've been better," he replied honestly.
"I just saw a report on the news. Some kind of gas explosion. Wouldn't've paid it no mind except it mentioned that Fed that's been on your tail. Hendrickson. You and Sam weren't involved in any of that, were ya?"
Dean shook his head even though the man on the other end of the line couldn't see the motion. "Nah. Hendricksn had already let us go."
"Let you go? Then you were there?"
Dean took a deep breath and quickly explained what had happened.
"You said the demons came right at you?"
Dean rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. It's like they were gunning for us, Bobby. Like they had some kind of contract on us or something."
"That don't sound right."
Dean snorted in agreement. "Tell me about it. And on top of every thing, this Lilith bitch apparently has the hots for Samantha here. I don't have a friggin' clue what's going on, but whatever it is, it's way the hell over my head."
"Well I've got something that may be a bit more along your pay grade."
"Bobby, I'm not sure –"
"I've got a lead on Bela Talbot."
Dean's head shot up and he stared hard at his brother. "You found the Colt?"
"Maybe. After we left Pittsburgh, I put out some feelers. A friend contacted me this morning and said that Bela was in Minneapolis."
"What's she doing there?"
"Hell if I know. But this guy is trustworthy. If he says it's her, it's her. You and Sam up to checking it out?"
Dean raised his eyebrows in question, knowing that Sam had been able to follow the conversation despite only hearing one side. At a nod from his brother, Dean answered.
"Yeah, Bobby. We'll call you when we find something."
The snow hadn't begun to come down hard until they were across the North Dakota border. They had habitually stayed off the major interstates, taking the back highways as a precaution against any chance sightings by the authorities. At the moment, Sam was pretty sure that was a really, really stupid idea.
There was no one he trusted more behind the wheel of a car than his brother, but the winter storm that was pummeling the Midwest was currently dropping about a ton of wet, slippery snow on top of an already frozen sheet of ice that made driving conditions hazardous at best. They hadn't run across another car for the last half hour, most of the locals obviously having better sense than to try and drive in the current mess that was Minnesota Highway 10.
Dean had been forced to use both hands on the wheel, his brow creased as the pain from his wounded shoulder took a back seat to his need to keep the big Chevy on what could still be considered a road. As the Impala fishtailed for the hundredth time on the slippery asphalt, Sam held his breath as his brother decreased their speed again until the vehicle was barely crawling along through the blowing drifts.
The wind had picked up as the sun began to set, causing the almost horizontal fall of the heavy white flakes to become a mesmerizing spectacle reflecting in the headlights of the classic car.
"Dean," Sam kept his voice level, not wanting to disturb his brother's concentration. "Maybe we should just find a motel and wait this out."
Dean didn't take his gaze from the road, his voice clipped as he answered. "Great idea, Sammy. Gonna wave our magic wand and make one appear any time soon?"
Sam held his tongue, knowing Dean's frustration was directed more at the situation than him… at least he hoped so.
The narrowing field of vision obscured a sharp turn in the road, forcing Dean to wrench the wheel to the right. The back end of the heavy car slid across the snow and ice covered road as Dean fought to right her. Sam gasped a breath, his hand flying out to brace himself against the dashboard as he felt the car begin to slide out of control. Before Dean could compensate for the slide, the Impala spun completely around, jarring both occupants as it plowed through the drifts accumulating along the edge of the highway, tipping precariously towards the driver's side as it came to rest half buried in the ditch.
Sam swallowed hard, his heart thudding in his chest, his breath loud in the confined space of the car as the engine stalled and the howl of the wind rocked the Impala on its haphazard perch. A quick look showed that they were stuck, trunk down in a three-foot ditch, the car listing slightly to the left. There was no way in hell they were going to be able to drive the heavy car out of it's current position. It would take a tow truck with heavy chains to get the Chevy back onto the road.
Taking stock, he drew a deep breath, noting that outside of a slight tingle brought on by the euphoric reaction to the shock of the crash, he was unharmed. The low moan from his left told him his brother wasn't quite as lucky.
The older hunter was pushed up against the driver's side door, his right hand gripping his left shoulder, his eyes screwed tightly closed against obvious pain.
"Hey, Dean," Sam slid across the slightly inclined seat, careful not to pin his brother and cause any further damage. "Man, you okay?"
"I freakin' hate snow."
Sam let out a relieved chuckle at the typically Dean response. "I guess that skiing weekend in Vermont is gonna have to wait then, huh?"
Dean finally lifted his head, giving his brother a weak glare. "Skiiing is for geeks who like to wear ugly sweaters, dude."
Sam shook his head in exasperation. "Are you okay?"
Dean leaned his head back against the window. "Yeah. Just bashed my shoulder against the door during our little Disney on Ice moment. I'm okay."
From the grunt of pain coming from his brother as he tried to shift away from the door, Sam didn't take much stock in Dean's idea of 'okay', but that was kind of par for the course when it came to the older hunter. As far as Dean was concerned, if he was breathing, he was okay. Sam had long ago realized that his job entailed the simple act of keeping his brother breathing. Everything else they could deal with.
He hoped.
Although the Impala was tilted into the ditch, Sam was able to wrestle the passenger door open, wedging it with his body as he pulled himself up and out. Sinking almost to his knees in the snow, he turned and held out a hand to his brother. Without the use of his injured left arm, Dean was forced to turn and push with his legs against the door, allowing Sam to wrap an arm around his waist and awkwardly hoist him up and out of the passenger door. Once they both got their feet under them, they were able to trudge through the still falling snow and climb back to the road.
"I hate just leaving her there," Dean said softly, his eyes squinting through the flying snow at the dark shape of the Impala. The snow was quickly covering her in a blanket of white and Sam hoped they would actually be able to find the car once the storm passed.
"It'll be okay, Dean. We'll find a tow truck in the next town and get her back on the road first thing in the morning."
Dean nodded, tucking his injured arm close to his body and pulling the collar of his coat closed with his other hand. "And just how far is this town exactly?"
Sam zipped his own jacket and shoved his hands into his pockets as he shrugged and squinted into the darkness. "If I read the map right, there should be a town called Perham about two or three miles east. If we stay on the highway, we should see a turn off."
"Great," Dean mumbled as he started to trudge east along the snow-covered road. "Why couldn't that bitch have been spotted in Arizona. Who the hell could possibly want to be in Minnesota?" | <urn:uuid:82829898-137b-489d-9ad6-4ffc4cc63c49> | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4157854/1/Thin-Ice-of-a-New-Day | en | 0.993666 | 0.128923 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Irish Confederate Wars
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This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641–53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland.
Irish Confederate Wars or
Eleven Years' War
Part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Date October 1641 – April 1653
(11 years and 6 months)
Location Ireland
Result English Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland, defeat of Royalists and crushing of Irish Catholic power
Irish Catholic Confederation
(allied with Royalists 1648–1650)
Parliamentarians English and Scottish Royalists
(allied with Irish Confederates 1648–1650)
Commanders and leaders
Confederate Supreme Council,
Owen Roe O'Neill (in Ulster),
Thomas Preston (in Leinster),
Garret Barry (in Munster),
John Burke (in Connacht)
Murrough O'Brien (1644–47),
Michael Jones (1647–49),
Oliver Cromwell (1649–50),
Henry Ireton (May 1650–Nov 1651),
Charles Fleetwood (Nov 1651–Apr 1653),
Robert Monro (Scottish Covenanter in support of Parliament 1642–48)
James Butler (1641–Dec 1650),
Ulick Burke (Dec 1650–Apr 1653),
George Munro (Scottish Covenanter in support of Royalists 1648–50)
up to 60,000 (incl. guerrillas), but only about 20,000 at any one time ~10,000 (before 1649),
~30,000 New Model Army troops (after 1649)
Casualties and losses
unknown – over 25,000 battlefield casualties and over 200,000 civilians from war-related famine or disease,
~12,000 transported to West Indies (by 1660)[1]
8,000 New Model Army soldiers killed, more from locally raised units,
thousands of Scottish Covenanters killed
Total dead: 200,000–620,000
The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (derived from the Irish language name Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland (all ruled by Charles I). The conflict in Ireland essentially pitted the native Irish Catholics against English and Scottish Protestant colonists and their supporters. It was both a religious and ethnic conflict – fought over who would govern Ireland, whether it would be governed from England, which ethnic and religious group would own most of the land and which religion would predominate in the country.
The war in Ireland began with the Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster in October, during which thousands[citation needed] of Scots and English Protestant settlers were killed. The rebellion spread throughout the country and at Kilkenny in 1642 the Association of The Confederate Catholics of Ireland was formed to organise the Catholic war effort. The Confederation was essentially an independent state and was a coalition of all shades of Irish Catholic society, both Gaelic and Old English. The Irish Confederates professed to side with the English Cavaliers during the ensuing civil wars, but mostly fought their own war in defence of the Catholic landed class' interests.
The Confederates ruled much of Ireland as a de facto sovereign state until 1649, and proclaimed their loyalty to Charles I. From 1641 to 1649, the Confederates fought against Scottish Covenanter and English Parliamentarian armies in Ireland. The Confederates, in the context of the English Civil War, were loosely allied with the English Royalists, but were divided over whether to send military help to them in the war there. Ultimately, they never sent troops to England, but did send an expedition to help the Scottish Royalists, sparking the Scottish Civil War.
The wars produced an extremely fractured array of forces in Ireland. The Protestant forces were split into three main factions (English Royalist, English Parliamentarian and Scottish Covenanter) as a result of the civil wars in England and Scotland. The Catholic Confederates themselves split on more than one occasion over the issue of whether their first loyalty was to the Catholic religion or to King Charles I (See The principal factions in the war).
The wars ended in the defeat of the Confederates. They and their English Royalist allies were defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland by the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell in 1649–53.[2] The wars following the 1641 revolt caused massive loss of life in Ireland, comparable in the country's history only with the Great Famine of the 1840s. The ultimate winner, the English parliament, arranged for the mass confiscation of land owned by Irish Catholics as punishment for the rebellion and to pay for the war. Although some of this land was returned after 1660 on the Restoration of the monarchy in England, the period marked the effective end of the old Catholic landed class.
The plot, October 1641[edit]
The rebellion was intended to be a swift and mainly bloodless seizure of power in Ireland by a small group of conspirators led by Phelim O’Neill. Small bands of the plotter’s kin and dependents were mobilised in Dublin, Wicklow and Ulster, to take strategic buildings like Dublin Castle. Since there were only a small number of English soldiers stationed in Ireland, this had a reasonable chance of succeeding. Had it done so, the remaining English garrisons could well have surrendered, leaving Irish Catholics in a position of strength to negotiate their demands for civil reform, religious toleration and Irish self-government. However, the plot was betrayed at the last minute and as a result, the rebellion degenerated into chaotic violence. Following the outbreak of hostilities, the resentment of the native Irish Catholic population against the British Protestant settlers exploded into violence.
The Rebellion – 1641–42[edit]
From 1641 to early 1642, the fighting in Ireland was characterised by small bands, raised by local lords or among local people, attacking civilians of opposing ethnic and religious groups. At first, Irish Catholic bands, particularly from Ulster, took the opportunity given them by the collapse of law and order to settle scores with Protestant settlers who had occupied Irish land in the plantations of Ireland. Initially, the Irish Catholic gentry raised militia forces to try and contain the violence[3] but afterward, when it was clear that the government in Dublin intended to punish all Catholics for the rebellion [4] participated in the attacks on Protestants and fought English troops sent to put down the rebellion. In areas where British settlers were concentrated, around Cork, Dublin, Carrickfergus and Derry, they raised their own militia in self-defence and managed to hold off the rebel forces. All sides displayed extreme cruelty in this phase of the war. Around 4,000 Protestants were massacred and a further 12,000 may have died of privation after being driven from their homes.[5][6] In one notorious incident, the Protestant inhabitants of Portadown were taken captive and then massacred on the bridge in the town.[7] The settlers responded in kind, as did the Government in Dublin, with attacks on the Irish civilian population. Massacres of Catholic civilians occurred at Rathlin Island and elsewhere.[8] The rebels from Ulster defeated a government force at Julianstown, but failed to take nearby Drogheda and were scattered when they advanced on Dublin.
The Confederates' war – 1642–48[edit]
Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met.
King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland in 1642 to put down the rebellion, as did the Scottish Covenanters. The Scottish army quickly drove the Irish rebels out of Ulster and the English force drove them back from around Dublin. In self-defence, Irish Catholics formed their own government, the Catholic Confederation, with its capital at Kilkenny and raised their own armies. The Confederates also held important port towns at Waterford and Wexford through which they could receive aid from Catholic powers in Europe.
The Confederates controlled two thirds of Ireland and commanded the allegiance of most Irish Catholics, with the enthusiastic support of the Catholic clergy. However, their support was weakest among the Catholic upper classes, who were often reluctant to disobey Royal authority and who feared losing their own lands if the plantation settlements were overturned. Some of them fought against the Confederation, while others like the Earl of Clanricarde, stayed neutral.[9]
For armed forces, the Confederates had available to them only the militias and lords' private levies, commanded by aristocratic amateurs like Lord Mountgarret. These were defeated in a series of encounters with English and Scottish troops at Liscarroll, Kilrush, New Ross and Glenmaquinn.
However, they were saved from defeat by the outbreak of the English Civil War. Most of the English troops in Ireland were recalled to fight on the Royalist side in the civil war.
In mid-1642 Charles signed the Adventurers Acts into law, whereby loans raised in London would eventually be paid off by the sale of Irish rebels' lands. This gave an extra impetus for the Confederate armies to succeed, but the Confederates also took advantage of Charles' weakening position in England after 1643 to try to negotiate with him.
The Irish Confederates mopped up the remaining garrisons within their territory, leaving only Ulster, Dublin and Cork in Scottish and English hands. Garret Barry, a returned Irish mercenary soldier, took Limerick in 1642, while the townspeople of Galway forced the surrender of the English garrison there in 1643. The remaining British forces were disunited by the events in England. The garrison of Cork, commanded by Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, sided with the English Parliament, as did the Protestant settler army around Derry, whereas the troops on Ireland’s east coast, commanded by Earl of Ormonde, sided with the King. The Scottish Covenanter army, based around Carrickfergus, pursued the agenda of the Edinburgh based Scottish government, allied with the English Parliament up to 1647.
This gave the Confederates breathing space they needed to create regular, full-time armies. They supplied these by creating an extensive system of taxation throughout the country, centred on their capital at Kilkenny. They also received modest subsidies of arms and money from France, Spain and the Papacy. The Confederate armies were commanded mainly by professional Irish soldiers such as Thomas Preston and Owen Roe O'Neill, who had served in the Spanish army in the Eighty Years' War and Thirty Years' War. In total, the Confederates managed to put around 60,000 men into the field in different armies in the course of the war.
The Confederates arguably squandered the military opportunity presented to them by the English Civil War to conquer and reorganise all of Ireland. They signed a truce with the Royalists that was effective from 15 September 1643 (known then as the "cessation"), and spent the next three years in abortive negotiations with them. It was not until 1646 that they launched a determined offensive on the Protestant enclaves in Ireland. Between 1642 and 1646, the war in Ireland was dominated by raids and skirmishes. All sides tried to starve their enemies by burning the crops and supplies in their territory. This fighting caused great loss of life, particularly among the civilian population, but saw no significant battles between 1643 and 1646. The Confederates mounted an expedition against the Scots in Ulster in 1644, but failed to capture any significant territory.
In the south of the country, the Confederates took some territory around Cork in 1644–45, for example the town of Bandon, constricting the territory held by the English Parliamentarian force there, but failed to eliminate Inchiquin's garrison. Their major success of this period was Thomas Preston’s siege of Duncannon in January 1645, which took the town (on Ireland's southern coast) from its Parliamentarian garrison. However, an attempt by a combined Munster and Leinster force, commanded by Preston and Castlehaven, to follow up this success by besieging Youghal ended in failure. Youghal was held by a much stronger Parliamentarian force than Duncannon and problems of supply and money meant that the Confederates' siege broke up in March 1645.[10]
The opening years of the war saw widespread displacement of civilians – both sides practising what would now be called ethnic cleansing. In the initial phase of the rebellion in 1641, the vulnerable Protestant settler population fled to walled towns such as Dublin, Cork and Derry for protection. Others fled to England. When Ulster was occupied by Scottish Covenanter troops in 1642, they retaliated for the attacks on settlers by attacks on the Irish Catholic civilian population. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 30,000 people fled Ulster in 1642, to live in Confederate held territory. Many of them became camp followers of Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster Army, living in clan-based groupings called "creaghts" and driving their herds of cattle around with the army. Outside of Ulster, the treatment of civilians was less harsh, although the "no-mans-land" in between Confederate and British held territory in Leinster and Munster was repeatedly raided and burned, with the result that it too became de-populated.
Victory and defeat for the Confederates[edit]
Bunratty Castle, besieged and taken by the Irish Confederates from an English Parliamentarian force in 1646. One of a string of Confederate victories in that year
However, the stalemate in Ireland was broken in 1646, with the end of the first English Civil War.
The Confederates, after their military ousted the Confederate Supreme Council who had signed a peace Treaty with the Royalists abandoned further negotiations with the defeated Royalists and tried to re-take all of Ireland before the English Parliament could launch an invasion of the country. They were bolstered by the arrival in Ireland of the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought with him large amounts of money and arms. They managed to capture a Parliamentarian stronghold at Bunratty castle in Clare and to smash the Scottish Covenanter army at the battle of Benburb and also take Sligo town. Late in the year, the Ulster and Leinster Confederate armies under Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston (a total of 18,000 men) laid siege to Dublin, trying to take the city off Ormonde’s Royalist garrison. However Ormonde had devastated the land around the capital and the Confederates, unable to supply their troops, had to lift the siege. In hindsight, this was the high tide for the Irish Confederates. Ormonde, who said that he "preferred English rebels to Irish ones", left Dublin and handed it over to a Parliamentarian army sent from England under Michael Jones. Further Parliamentarian reinforcements were sent to Cork in southern Ireland.
In 1647, these Parliamentarian forces inflicted a shattering series of defeats on the Confederates, ultimately forcing them to join a Royalist coalition to try to hold off a Parliamentarian invasion. Firstly, in August 1647, Thomas Preston's Leinster army was annihilated at the battle of Dungans Hill by Jones’ Parliamentarian army when it tried to march on Dublin. This was the best trained and best equipped Confederate army and the loss of its manpower and equipment was a body blow to the Confederation. Secondly, the Parliamentarians based in Cork devastated the Confederates' territory in Munster, provoking famine among the civilian population. In September, they stormed Cashel, not only taking the town but also massacring its garrison and inhabitants, including several Catholic clerics. When the Irish Munster army brought them to battle at Knocknanauss in November, they too were crushed. Sligo also changed hands again – captured by the Ulster British settlers' army. The battles in this phase of the war were exceptionally bloody: in the battles of 1646–47, the losers had up to half of those engaged killed – most commonly in the rout after the battle was decided. In the three largest engagements of 1647, no less than 1% of the Irish male population (around 7–8,000 men) were killed in battle.
This string of defeats forced the Confederates to come to a deal with the Royalists, and to put their troops under their command. Amid factional fighting within their ranks over this deal, the Confederates dissolved their association in 1648 and accepted Ormonde as the commander in chief of the Royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquin, the Parliamentarian commander in Cork, also defected to the Royalists after the arrest of King Charles I.
The Confederates were fatally divided over this compromise. Rinuccini, the Papal Nuncio, threatened to excommunicate anyone who accepted the deal. Particularly galling for him was the alliance with Inchiquin, who had massacred Catholic civilians and clergy in Munster in 1647. There was even a brief period of civil war in 1648 between Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster Army, as he refused to accept the Royalist alliance, and the new Royalist–Confederate coalition. O'Neill neglected to secure adequate supplies and was unable to force a change in policy on his former comrades. During this divisive period the Confederates missed a second strategic chance to reorganise while their opponents were engaged in the Second English Civil War (1648–49), which was lost by their royalist allies.
The Cromwellian War 1649–1653[edit]
Oliver Cromwell, who landed in Ireland in 1649 to re-conquer the country on behalf of the English Parliament. He left in 1650, having taken eastern and southern Ireland – passing his command to Henry Ireton
The Confederate/Royalist coalition wasted valuable months fighting with Owen Roe O'Neill and other former Confederates instead of preparing to resist the impending Parliamentarian invasion of Ireland. O'Neill later re-joined the Confederate side. Belatedly, in August 1649, Ormonde tried to take Dublin from the Parliamentarians, but was routed by Michael Jones at the battle of Rathmines. Oliver Cromwell landed shortly afterward with the New Model Army. Whereas the Confederates had failed to defeat their enemies in eight years of fighting, Cromwell was able to succeed in three years in conquering the entire island of Ireland, because his troops were well supplied, well equipped (especially with artillery), and well trained. Moreover, he had a huge supply of men, money and logistics to fund the campaign.
The Cromwellian Conquest[edit]
His first action was to secure the east coast of Ireland for supplies of men and logistics from England. To this end, he took Drogheda and Wexford, perpetrating massacres of the defenders of both towns.[11][12] He also sent a force to the north to link up with the British settler army there. Those settlers who supported the Scots and Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians at the battle of Lisnagarvey.
Ormonde signally failed to mount a military defence of southern Ireland. He based his defences on walled towns, which Cromwell systematically took one after the other with his ample supply of siege artillery. However, the Irish and Royalist field armies did not hold any strategic line of defence and instead were demoralised by a constant stream of defeats and withdrawals. Only at the siege of Clonmel did Cromwell suffer significant casualties (although disease also took a very heavy toll on his men). However, his losses were made good by the defection of the Royalist garrison of Cork, who had been Parliamentarians up to 1648, back to the Parliament side. Cromwell returned to England in 1650, passing his command to Henry Ireton.
In the north, the Parliamentarian/settler army met the Irish Ulster army at the battle of Scarrifholis and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and fled for France, to be replaced by Ulick Burke, Earl Clanricarde. By 1651, the remaining Royalist/Irish forces were hemmed into an area west of the River Shannon, holding only the fortified cities of Limerick and Galway and an enclave in County Kerry, under Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry. Ireton besieged Limerick while the northern Parliamentarian army under Charles Coote besieged Galway. Muskerry made an attempt to relieve Limerick, marching north from Kerry, but was routed by Roger Boyle at the battle of Knocknaclashy. Limerick and Galway were too well defended to be taken by storm, but were blockaded until hunger and disease forced them to surrender, Limerick in 1651, Galway in 1652. Waterford and Duncannon also surrendered in 1651.
Guerrilla War[edit]
This was the end of organised Irish resistance, but because the Cromwellian surrender terms were so harsh, many small units of Irish troops fought on as guerrillas, or "tories" as they were called at the time. The tories, who were usually former Confederate soldiers, operated from rugged areas such as the Wicklow Mountains, attacking vulnerable groups of Parliamentarian soldiers and looting their supplies. In response, the Parliamentarians forcibly evicted the civilian populations from areas which had been helping the tories and burned their crops. The result of this fighting was famine throughout the country, which was aggravated by an outbreak of bubonic plague. The last organised Irish troops surrendered in Cavan in April 1653, when the Cromwellians agreed to let them be transported to serve in the French army – the English Royalist Court was in exile in France. However, any troops captured in this phase of the war were either executed or transported to penal colonies in the West Indies . Even after the formal surrender, Ireland was plagued with small scale violence for the remainder of the 1650s.
The Cost[edit]
The death toll of the conflict was huge. William Petty, a Cromwellian who conducted the first scientific land and demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the Down Survey), concluded that at least 400,000 people and maybe as many as 620,000 had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. The true figure may be lower, but the lowest suggested is about 200,000. At the time, the population of Ireland was only around 1.5 million inhabitants. It is estimated that about two thirds of the deaths were civilian. The Irish defeat led to the mass confiscation of Catholic owned land and the English Protestant domination of Ireland for over two centuries.[13]
The wars, especially the Cromwellian conquest, were long remembered in Irish culture. Gaelic Poetry of the post-war era laments lack of unity among Irish Catholics in the Confederation and their constant infighting, which was blamed for their failure to resist Cromwell. Other common themes include the mourning of the old Irish Catholic landed classes, which were destroyed in the wars, and the cruelty of the Parliamentarian forces. See Also Irish Poetry
Appendix: Shifting Allegiances[edit]
The Irish Confederate wars was a complex conflict in which no less than four major armies fought in Ireland. These were: the Royalists loyal to King Charles, the Scottish Covenanters (sent into Ulster in 1642 to protect Protestant planters after the massacres that marked the Irish rebellion of 1641 in that region), the Parliamentarian army and the Irish Confederate army, to whom most of the inhabitants of Ireland gave their allegiance.[14] During the wars, all of these forces came into conflict at one stage or another. To add to the turmoil, a brief civil war was fought between Irish Confederate factions in 1648.
The Royalists under Ormonde were in conflict with Irish Catholic forces from late 1641 to 1643. Their main enclave was in Dublin. A ceasefire with the Confederate Catholics lasted from 1643 until 1646, when the Confederates again came into conflict with the Royalists. After 1648 most of the Confederates and the Scots joined an alliance with the Royalists, this was the array of forces that was to face Cromwell's army in 1649. Ormonde's handling of the defence of Ireland was however rather inept so that by mid-1650 the defence of Ireland was conducted mainly by Irish Confederate leaders.
The Irish Confederates: Formed in October 1642, the Confederation of Kilkenny was initially a rebel Irish Catholic movement, fighting against the English troops sent to put down the rebellion, though they insisted they were at war with the king's advisers and not with Charles himself. They also had to fight the Scottish army that landed in Ulster. From 1642 to 1649, the Confederates controlled most of Ireland except for east and west Ulster, Cork city and Dublin. A cessation was arranged with the Royalists in 1643 after the outbreak of civil war in England and negotiations began to bring the Confederates into the English conflict on the Royalist side. A strongly Catholic faction under the influence of the Irish Bishops and Nuncio Rinuccini emerged in 1646, which opposed signing a peace treaty that did not recognise the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland or return confiscated Catholic land. When this faction ousted the Confederate 'peace party' or pro-Royalists, the Confederates once again clashed with the English Royalists, who abandoned most of their positions in Ireland to the Parliamentarians during 1646. However, after fresh negotiations, an alliance was arranged between the Royalists and Confederates in 1648. Some Confederates (most notably the Ulster army) were however opposed to this treaty initiating a brief Irish Catholic civil war in 1648 in which the Ulster Confederate army was supported by the English Parliament.
The Scottish Covenanters arrived in Ireland in early 1642 to put down the uprising and thereby protect the lives and property of the Scottish Protestant settlers in Ulster. They held most of eastern Ulster for the duration of the war, but were badly weakened by their defeat by the Confederates at the battle of Benburb in 1646. They fought the Confederates (with the support of the English Parliament) from their arrival in Ulster in 1642 until 1648. After the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters' alliance broke down, the Scottish forces in Ulster joined the Confederates and Royalists in an alliance against their former allies in 1649.
The Parliamentarian Army gained a major foothold in Ireland for the first time in 1644, when Inchiquin's Cork-based Protestant force fell out with the Royalists over their ceasefire with the Confederates. The Protestant settler forces in the north west of Ireland, known as the Lagan Army (or Lagan Force), also came over to the Parliamentarians after 1644, deeming them to be the most reliably anti-Catholic of the English forces. The city of Dublin fell into Parliamentarian hands in 1646, when the Royalists surrendered it to an English Parliamentarian expeditionary force after the city was threatened by Confederate armies. In 1648 the Parliamentarians briefly gave support to Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulstermen after his fall out with the Confederates: Thus the extreme Catholic and Puritan forces were briefly allied for mutual expediency. The Ulster Catholic army however joined the Confederate-Royalist alliance after the shock of Cromwell's invasion in August 1649. The most potent Parliamentarian force was the New Model Army, which proceeded to conquer Ireland over the next four years and to enforce the Adventurers Act by conquering and selling Irish land to pay off its financial backers.
See also[edit]
Soldiers: Alasdair MacColla, Hugh Dubh O'Neill, George Monck, Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Michael Jones, Theobald Taaffe 1st Earl of Carlingford
Political figures: Patrick D'Arcy, Richard Martyn, James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, Richard Bellings, Nicholas French, Patrick O'Neill, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Nicholas Plunkett, Charles II
Places: Clonmel, Rathfarnham Castle, Trim Castle, Cahir Castle, Narrow Water, Ross Castle, Rock of Cashel, Charlemont Fort
1. ^ Mícheál Ó Siochrú/RTÉ ONE, Cromwell in Ireland Part 2. Broadcast 16/9/2008.
2. ^ Philip McKeiver; A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign,Advance Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9554663-0-4
3. ^ Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War 1641–49, p33-34, "The Catholic elite of Meath dithered for a whole month between trying to rein in popular rebels and going into rebellion themselves". "Right up to the eve of the encounter at Julianstown, the local Catholic nobility and most of the gentry still backed the government"
4. ^ Lenihan, p23, "Bellings, the future secretary of the Confederate Catholics, claimed the Lords Justice, in response to the rebellion, showed they wanted to drive the Old English into following the example of the Ulster insurgents by their offensively wide description of the insurgents as some "evil affected Irish Papists"
5. ^ Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p. 278, 'William Petty's figure of 37,000 Protestants massacred... is far too high, perhaps by a factor of ten, certainly more recent research suggests that a much more realistic figure is roughly 4,000 deaths.'
7. ^ Hull, Eleanor (1931). A History of Ireland, Chapter "The Rebellion of 1641–42" website of Library Ireland
9. ^ Padraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest, p109-110
10. ^ Philip McKeiver, A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign", (Advance Press), Manchester, ISBN 978-0-9554663-0-4,
11. ^ Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p.98.
13. ^ Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p.278
14. ^ Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest, p109-110 | <urn:uuid:0ed009b2-5e95-4c4d-a8f8-6913718af0e1> | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Confederate_Wars | en | 0.969895 | 0.039299 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Is it possible to find the distance of a pixel to a rendered sphere, in screen space? All my naive solutions for just using the 2D screen distances are failing because of the warping that occurs during projection.
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See maybe Closest point on an ellipsoid. But I'm not sure that's really what you are looking for. Could you maybe explain what is the purpose of knowing that distance? – Sam Hocevar May 26 '12 at 14:24
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It's definitely possible, though it doesn't have a clean explicit formula. The projection of a sphere is an ellipse, and given the projection matrix you should be able to find an explicit formula for the ellipse, something of the form ax^2+bxy+cy^2+dx+ey+f=0 (the canonical formula for a conic section); from this you can find a rational parametrization of the ellipse (of the form x=f(t), y=g(t) with f and g rational functions). The problem then comes down to minimizing (f(t)-x_0)^2+(g(t)-y_0)^2 as a function of t, and it turns out that rootfinding methods work pretty well for this - there are exact solutions but they require solving a degree-4 equation, which can involve hairy complex arithmetic and tends to be less numerically stable (and thus less accurate) than the approximate methods anyway.
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Your screen is a plan. Your sphere is an elipse. When the user clicks somewhere on the screen it's easy to find the coordinates on the screen plan. Then you just have to apply basic elipsis equation in order to know if the selected point is inside or outside the elipsis and how far it is.
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This works if the question is 'is my click point inside the ellipse or not?' but not if the question is 'how far is my click point from the ellipse?' - there the calculation of, say, (x/2)^2+(y/3)^2 doesn't result in a distance value. – Steven Stadnicki May 26 '12 at 16:32
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| <urn:uuid:1faf15ce-b6fc-43b7-9b5a-c04ef8666f3f> | http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/29631/distance-to-a-sphere-in-screen-space/29632 | en | 0.908692 | 0.846599 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Chef Leslie Lampert is well known for her soups. She makes all kinds and says the key to her success is her immersion blender. Leslie Lampert "You just put it in whatever size pot you have, and you can blend the entire contents of the stock pot in one fell swoop." While Leslie uses a big industrial immersion blender, there are many available for home kitchens. Consumer Reports tested six to see if the blenders are all they're cooked up to be. Mandy Walker "To use these blenders, you hold them in one hand, dip them in whatever you want to mix, and then push a button to start." Some immersion blenders come with a chopper and a whisk. So you can use them to mix smoothies and whisk eggs, as well as purée soup. To test, Consumer Reports puréed soup … … and blended frozen strawberries and peaches with yogurt to make smoothies. The most expensive blender tested was the Bamix Professional for 180 dollars. "However it wasn't as good as the others at puréeing soups, and it was the lowest-rated blender." And the Waring Pro Professional blender left behind a lot of chunks of unchopped fruit. But Consumer Reports did find some winners and named this 50-dollar Miallegro MiTutto a Best Buy. It rated excellent at puréeing soups and did nearly as well at making smoothies. ." | <urn:uuid:729b60bd-c139-4566-98a5-117556e6f041> | http://www.news8000.com/money/on-your-side/Soup-er-1-27-12/8494042 | en | 0.963699 | 0.040519 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
State to seek federal funds for Cleveland bridge
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The state will seek a $120 million federal grant to speed up construction of a Cleveland bridge.
The Plain Dealer reports ( ) the competitive grant program is among a number of sources that officials hope to leverage for the $350 million bridge project.
State transportation staffers had recommended last month that planned work on some bridge and road projects be delayed by as many as 19 years, citing a lack of funds and over-commitment by previous administrations.
The announcement that the completion of the second Inner Belt Bridge might be more than a decade away, instead of just a few years, has spurred a push to find more money to get it done sooner.
The newspaper reports its unclear how much money or how soon the federal grant would deliver.
Information from: The Plain Dealer, | <urn:uuid:ed9ab3c7-4c35-49c6-a0a6-f6c9540e7ce3> | http://www.times-gazette.com/ap%20state/2012/02/24/state-to-seek-federal-funds-for-cleveland-bridge | en | 0.957282 | 0.035744 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |