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Managing Director, DJ Squared Limited
This conversation is closed.
Rate educators based on their empathy alone.
• May 5 2013: Everett, I agree empathetic & tough are not mutually exclusive. as personal styles they are orthogonal. You can be empathetic or not, and tough or not, and I guess the corelation might be quite low. My point is that not ALL teachers need to be empathetic, so long as students find 1 or 2 they can relate to as"empathetic adults". Secondly, that whilst empathy is a BIG factor in successful learning, its not the only one. If education is to prepare us for the adult world, warts and all, then those fortunate enough to experience a series of challenges which stretch their ability, but not overwhelm it continuously, have the best growth and learning environment. And the specifics are quite different for different children. Amongst other factors , its that insight into how big a challenge can this child handle, here and now that requires empathy.
• May 5 2013: I do not disagree with your statement John. I also believe that students should be able to connect with a teacher who "gets" them while in school. Even the "toughest teacher" may be very empathetic to some students plights and "get" a student that others don't.
My only point with this is the subjectivity of "empathy". Most people are looking for something beyond empathy, more along the lines of sympathy or other that I can't quite put my finger on. I do agree that a personal connection is important and even required to be a great or even good teacher. At the same time, students need to learn and sometimes that means they run into deadlines and unyielding teachers.
The great point you make here is that "specifics are quite different for different children." That is the single thing that people don't understand. Two kids in the same class can perceive the same action in two different ways. Great insights and thoughtful response John.
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May 5 2013: I too am a teacher. Effective Teachers have many more qualities than just (1) Understanding [actually "Subject Knowledge"] and (2) Communication. When more teachers understand that human qualities...such as Love, Kindness, Empathy, Creativity, etc.-- both in themselves and in those whom they teach, are equally important, we will have a better world....because Life is not only about being academically smart. It's also about valuing humanity by helping everyone who passes our way in whatever way we can. It's about waking up the "unconscious." There is only NOW and if we don't start teaching awareness and consideration towards those around us to our children, their future will be very bleak.
Every teacher has the opportunity of making a difference in their students' life. What their students will remember is whether or not their class was boring and tedious, or joyful and exuberant. Like I said earlier, only people who enjoy helping others should be teachers (not those who choose this field to have their summers off!). There are many intelligent students who sit in classrooms and don't learn. It's all about presentation--making it FUN! When students are treated with kindness and empathy, they blossom--there's no need to demand, discipline, or bully them. Just like plants who are not watered die, children who are not nurtured will not develop to their best capabilities. I put my focus on bringing out the best in EACH of my students.
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May 4 2013: That's not true at all. Measures of effectiveness regarding an educator cannot hinge on one single variable. Educators must be well rounded and need to exhibit behaviors based on their position.
1. Understanding
An educator needs to have a firm grasp on the mechanics of any subject they teach. They need to understand the basic components of a subject in order to properly educate others.
2. Communication
Educators must be effective communicators. This isn't about being articulate. This is about having the ability to communicate sets of data in various ways.
Empathy is not required. Sometimes understanding that you cannot possibly fully grasp another person's situation may help you communicate with them.
The problem here is "subjective understanding". This is totally different from "objective understanding" in that "subjective understanding" is only relevant to you.
You may say "I understand" and have no real clue as to what the other person is thinking or feeling. Empathy is a tricky thing. We should not worry about empathy. We should consider that we may not be able to fully empathize with another person. So we should not base our assessments of behavior on our subjective understanding of their situation.
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May 4 2013: Henry. It is precisely this attitude that has brought us to such a low rating in education compared to so many other countries.
It's a given that teachers need to own the subjects that they teach, but besides knowing the subject, they also need to know how to capture the student's attention by making their classes FUN and interesting...no matter the subject. It's a scientific fact that, when students are having FUN, their brain expands and they pay more attention. People can only learn when they are paying attention--not daydreaming or snoozing--and it is the teacher's responsibility to create an environment of curiosity--not by demanding or bullying.
I knew a teacher who even made Calculus FUN by starting each class with a math song. My French teacher was also fully "engaged"--and as a result, I still speak French fluently (Thank you, Mr. Regester!). The minute we entered the classroom, we were in Paris, with our own French names, and if we didn't know a word, the class was encouraged to play "Charades" and help each other find the missing word/s. Anyone who lacks creativity, or doesn't absolutely love the subject and love helping others to learn, would be better off doing a different line of work.
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May 4 2013: How does any of that make me wrong?
• May 5 2013: Here is the link to the Merriam - Webster definition of Empathy:
As an educator, I should be aware of your feelings and issues as a student. But that has no bearing on how well I educate you in the classroom. What you are describing in your classes in school is not empathy, it is good teaching by inspiring the students through good education. Maybe your teachers were empathetic, maybe they weren't, just because the class was "fun" does not tell me anything about their level of empathy for you, the student.
The teachers job is what Henry describes, to teach. Your job, as a student is to learn. What you have stated in your counter-point supports what Henry believes good educators should be doing. It is not counter to his view at all, but it describes the issue of empathy quite well. Some students may not have enjoyed "singing" in class because they were not good singers and been very uncomfortable with that. Does that make your calculus teacher less empathetic or a bad teacher? Or students who don't like charades or language immersive classrooms may have not learned as much as others. If I asked them what they thought, perhaps they hated that class and French.
Yes, your teachers were creative, but they may not have cared what you thought or your feelings. As a teacher, I can be incredibly creative and forward thinking in my lessons, but not be empathetic and still considered a good teacher because my students score high on tests. I could also be considered a poor teacher because students don't like high expectations or don't want to learn.
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May 6 2013: "Your job as a student is to learn."??? The first step is for teachers to teach students HOW to learn by the way we ourselves approach the subject. That's why kids are in school--because they DON'T know and we, as teachers, are supposed to know. Kids sing because it's joyful; they're not thinking about whether they have a good voice or not.
These are inhibitions that develop BECAUSE they have not been given an environment of spontaneity and creativity. In my French class, we all became close friends because we learned to give and to share as a result of playing Charades. No child was left out because our teacher was so astute about giving care and nurturing to his "family" of students.
I think the problem is that some people don't understand that the word "Empathy" means to put oneself into the other person's place. How we would feel/respond if we had experienced the same situation and also had had the same background and experiences as the other person.
When we are able to understand that, were we to have been born to this other person's family, with the same physical and mental attributes, as well as the same relationships and experiences in our life, we would, in fact, be and act exactly as this person does. That being the case, we can all develop more humility, tolerance, and understanding in dealing with others.
• May 5 2013: To be one of the best, empathy is a necessity. You and others don't know why. Thank a teacher.
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May 13 2013: Excellent idea David Newton.
......Without empathy nothing else matters.
• May 13 2013: If only more people felt the same Juliette, the world would be a VERY different place!
• May 8 2013: I note you are selective about the questions you answer, brushing over those which appear uncomfortable for you to answer. For sure, there is a shift in teaching methods needed, I don't think anyone would argue with that, and there's not enough love going round, idem. But judging someone's professional skill PURELY on empathy just doesn't wash. Sorry.
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May 7 2013: Education is the one profession where working with others cannot be successful without empathy. Thats all I have to say about that.
• May 7 2013: May I ask what is the ONE profession where one cannot be without empathy?
Playing devil's advocate, just which profession can you engage in without reference to the physical and emotional needs of others?
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May 7 2013: I believe other professions that require working with others such as customer service, you can complete your work successfully without having to genuinely care about the customer (which sadly, I feel many people do ) whether you show it or not, such as pretending to care just to get through the day and get the job done.
With education, you're in a situation where the recipient of your work will ONLY benefit if you genuinely care. Students (for the most part) will not engage in a lecture or lesson unless you engage them and that can only happen with sincerity, consideration, and empathy.
• May 7 2013: YES...
Sir you have just made my day!
The only person who decides whether you do a good job or not is your customer. No one else matters. The fact that companies continue to fail (over 50 years since the first customer service team) in the eyes of their customers is exactly why they need to change to the empathy model. How many times have you been convinced when the rep tries to fabricate empathy? Very very few can act that well!
In CS its exactly the same as your educational standpoint believe me.
• May 14 2013: Not true. Students should be able to learn whether or not they 'like' the teacher.
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May 6 2013: I'm sorry David, I just can't get over this one. Please take the word 'alone' out of the title, then we can respond to the 'idea' of rating teachers on their empathy as A COMPONENT of their professionalism and effectiveness, rather than 'alone'. The way it reads now, we would be rating physicians on their 'empathy alone' rather than how well they wield a scalpel or apply their training on anatomy, which is laughable if it wasn't so sad.
• May 6 2013: Well RH, the good news is that you are not being asked to get over it.
The point of the the premise is that as empathy is at the centre of Emotional Intelligence, when the performance of educators is measured using its elements only, the results would be paradigm shift that education needs.
Out of curiosity, please explain to me how a physician's performance cannot be measured based on how the patient is left feeling? To be empathetic the application of training must be done in a manner that demonstrably supports the needs of the patient. Why is that laughable exactly?
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May 7 2013: Your assuming, that in being 'empathetic', technical competency is a 'given' in evaluation. Somehow, we have eliminated, in this idea, that fundamental competency in the field, technical competency, current technique competency, as part of the evaluation process. A doctor can give medicine to alleviate pain, be 'nice and kind and emotionally intelligent', make the patient 'feel better', then send them home and they die because they didn't cure the disease. Under your system, he/she would be rated satisfactorily. This makes no sense to me. I have no problem with 'empathy' being a minor component of evaluation, but a component only, not the sole scale of competency. Surely you must see that?
• May 7 2013: I do not recall anyone saying that being nice and kind equates to empathy.
The part you seem to miss is the understanding part of empathy. To fully understand there are both practical and emotional elements. If you properly understand, using your scenario, you would administer appropriately so no dead patient.
Does that help?
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May 7 2013: Ah, there we go. I am not familiar with any definition of empathy including technical, or practical, skill elements. But since you have defined it so in this instance, we are much closer to agreement. Thnx.
• May 7 2013: At the core of empathy is understanding and, as everything we do at a conscious level has two drivers - the emotional driver and the practical, understanding means understanding those two elements. Better?
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May 8 2013: At the risk of appearing uncooperative and dogmatic, and for clarity purposes only, I must offer that I believe you are combining two distinct attributes into one definition - which I have accepted for this discussion, but not as a matter of general understanding. The whole premise of this discussion rests on the definition of "... empathy alone", and I cannot find a definition of empathy that includes 'practical skill' as a component of its definition. Now, you suppose that we must 'understand' , which lies 'at the core' of empathy, that 'everything we do consciously has two drivers'. You then reason that 'empathy' is something we're 'doing', and therefore contains an understanding of a practical element which is sufficient to evaluate teachers with empathy alone. But the 'doing' of empathy is in the practical application of empathy, not 'all-encompassing' of the competency of the subject empathy is applied to. Empathy means what it means, and whatever practical driver empathy contains is driving empathy, not the practical skill level and technical competency of the subject its referring, in this case teachers. Believe it or not, I'm on your side. I'm just trying to clarify this distinction as a reader and participant.
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May 8 2013: I share your reaction, RH, but am out of thumbs ups for you for the week.
• May 6 2013: David, I think the "single criterion" approach to enabling teachers to engage better with students which you summarise as " all we would need to do is start scoring each lecture based on its empathy rating... No initiatives, no edicts, no empathy = poor score = poor review. " is probably not the most effective approach to improving. You identify both the aim, and the barrier in "This system originated as a consequence of making graduates more employable. I realised that that work was quickly undermined in the absence of a supportive environment and the Uni in question were baulking at training all lecturers." You are describing a cultural problem amongst that staff, and in that University, in giving graduates a qualification, and an attitude, that makes them employable. It sounds to me like there is a need for a significant culture shift amongst both administrators, and educators there. And that's essentially a leadership problem,, and I think it needs a more extensive intervention than trying to use student evaluation of empathy. I'd suggest you have to start with building a commitment to change in the institutional leadership team, and having them work to show staff by example what student -staff styles of interactions they seek, and consistently rewarding those over a 3-5 year period. A single factor "good review poor review" approach won't cut the mustard in my experience (only 35 years in industrial management and consulting - and in my experience, educators are even less biddable than most people. They really do need to be led by example.) But good luck, I hope your approach succeeds.
• May 6 2013: Hi John.
You are, of course, correct in that the ideal way forward is to gain the engagement and commitment of the leadership. Like you I have been through the mill over the last 30 years and this is why/how I have developed this approach.
The simple facts are that increasingly fewer and fewer boards are endowed with the wisdom that delivers vision.What this means is that they want areas of the business to change but not themselves. This, as we both know, is an impossibility.
So, my answer to this dilemma is my version of positive subversion. The changes at the coal face impact those above without their knowing or understanding. Once realisation kicks in they either buy-in or bail out. Most, I'm happy to report' can't deny the facts so go along with it and hey presto 'change' without the pain of trying to convince boards.
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May 5 2013: David, This is really inconvient for me.
For years I have been perfecting faking sincerity ... now I must add faking empathy ... where does it all stop.
If it wasn't for the kids and the parents this would be a great job.
I wish you well (not faked). Bob.
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May 4 2013: What? I don't think I understand your idea. Empathy is the vicarious understanding of the feelings and/or emotions of another person. You want to rate your kids teacher SOLELY on that? Surely you jest...
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May 6 2013: First of all, I would eliminate the wording "solely" from empathy...although empathy definitely needs to be one of the many important factors in educating children because teaching is not just about the student learning the lesson, it is also about being aware of the emotional needs of the children we teach and the understanding that every word spoken to a child either affects them in a positive or negative way and builds from there.
Teachers, parents, and any adult who interacts with children all need to get this because it can change the cycle of having so many angry adults in the world...of whom many commit heinous crimes due to their lack of empathy. We live in a world where intellectual and physical achievement are placed above Happiness and Inner Peace. People compete about everything; they don't understand that every action they take is because they "unconsciously" are seeking Inner Peace...w/o which there can be no lasting happiness ... only fleeting tastes of it.
This is because Inner Peace can only come from choosing to do the right thing which has to do with the way we treat everyone we encounter in life's journey (not just our chosen few). Unless we, as teachers, teach by example, with love and kindness, we are leaving out the most important aspect of education...that children who are treated with kindness and love grow up healthy and happy...and that happy people don't hurt others or commit crimes.
Happy people want to make others happy and look for every opportunity to help one another. When more teachers, parents, and other adults understand this, Love and Peace will reign, instead of Competition, Egotism, Exceptionality, Insatiable Greed, and Mindless Destruction--all of which put us on the path to dissatisfaction and the need for MORE...more money, more things, more activities, more clothes, more....etc.
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May 6 2013: Dear Ginger, maybe I'm missing something from this conversation, but I cannot remove the word 'solely'. The title states: 'Rate educators on their empathy ALONE.' Solely is equivalent to 'alone' in this context. I merely responded that I may not have understood the conversation because the premise that teachers should be rated ONLY on their empathy is so ridiculous.
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May 6 2013: RH: I agree with you that the word "solely" is a bit exaggerated since teachers also need to have many other aspects of the whole. At the same time, I didn't want to let a good statement go to waste by letting the most important part of it (empathy) fall by the wayside. I do feel though that Empathy should be a pre-requisite for teaching, especially for the very young.
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• May 5 2013: I think you have a point.
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Here is one of my less controversial offerings.
The science of running by Jim Ryan.
Happy running.
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May 4 2013: And we will have a better world ;)
• May 8 2013: I look forward to hearing the results of your findings then, because as you can't reveal how you will measure empathy it makes it hard to comment and as your idea of empathy seems to be much broader than many other people's, it should be fascinating. Here's wishing you all the best in your endeavours. Anyone who tries to better the world meaningfully and with genuine care and respect for others has my vote.
• May 7 2013: And again, apart from the timescale you would use,which is subjective, also the terms of measurement of empathy are surely not objective either.
Would you be happy to be rated on your empathy alone in your own work? I don't think so, especially if the people who are writing here were the ones to judge you!
• May 7 2013: Ok let's step back for a second.
Empathy has at its core understanding. Understanding has two components practical and emotional. If you truly 'understand' you recognise - and act upon - both of those elements.
So, in answer to your questions above.
First, unless you are dealing with an absolute, there will always be a variation in scoring. However, you knew there would be one of those didn't you, the measurement of empathy is incredibly stable across ages and genders.
Would I be happy to be measured on my empathy alone - COMPLETELY.
The fact of the matter is that I have to walk the walk so try very hard to practise that which I have designed.
Do I always get it right? Far from it, but I learn every day and hopefully get better.
Am I consistent? No. Just like everyone else I am affected by moods and external circumstances and those things impact my performance.
Is this a perfect system? No, not at all. What it is though is a 'game changer'. What we currently have continues to fail those it is designed to serve so doing nothing is simply not an option.
I genuinely understand how uncomfortable people feel about this proposal but let me ask this, "What is the paradigm shifting alternative?" because tinkering has failed and failed and failed and failed...
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May 7 2013: I think many people would be relieved to be evaluated by others on empathy alone, provided they could count on an objective and reliable assessment of them on that count. .
A teacher who is highly committed to student learning will likely evaluate herself also, though, on the extent to which students understand and are able to use the course content in practice.
• May 7 2013: In answer to your questions
Love is not empathy. You can love someone without feeling what they are feeling or trying to. Thus I can love my students without empathising with them.
Needing to moderate teaching methods according to students' needs is simple to see. A monkey can do it, but not necessarily show empathy. If a student is not keeping up with the majority there is a problem. The problem may be the method of teaching itself, the incorrect level placement of the student or simply that they react better to a different type of coaching or need more time than others. Not empathy.
I didn't mention that my teachers, of whom I spoke so highly, nor my mother, who was a superb infant teacher had empathy for their students. They were strict, had high expectations of themselves and of their pupils, brooked no nonsense with tantrums etc., NOT empathising with the pupils' desire to follow their own plan, but insisting, firmly, that they do what the teacher asked.
Of course a teacher can be loved and it's a good thing, but you can't base how good a teacher is on how much empathy they had with their students. Apart from anything else, how do you measure empathy? What parametres are you using?
Also, in your reply to RH you ask why a physician's performance cannot be measured based on how the patient is left feeling. I'd like to know when you would take the patient's feeling about their treatment - straight out of surgery? After 2 days? A week? A year? You don't think that patient's feelings change over those periods? Which is the correct one to base your view on how good the surgeon was? As one of many parametres it could be considered, a good bedside manner is what it used to be called. But it is only part of the job, not the be all and end all. If you can't see that, I don't know how to explain it to you. The same with teachers, empathy can be one of many parametres, but NOT the ONLY one. Again, when would you ask for the student's feeling of empathy?
• May 8 2013: Kate. Your response disappoints but does not surprise me.
My apologies for assuming you might read the posts of others and so take from my answers to them that which applies to the post above.
With the constraints of posting here on TED I will answer each point for YOU alone.
Love is I agree not empathy. However love cannot exist without it.
To moderate teaching methods requires an understanding of where there are and need to be in relation to the person in receipt of them. At the core of empathy is understanding so whether you believe it or not, you are displaying empathy.
You incorrectly associate empathy with what you call tantrums or desire to follow their own plan. As already agreed elsewhere here, being empathetic is about understanding what the child needs not necessarily what they want. So, a kind of being cruel to be kind is empathetic.
What and how am I measuring? That's my USP and as such I'm not about to tell the TED world all about it just yet ;-) What I can tell you though, is that it takes very little introduction and works consistently across ages, socio economic grouping and ALL of the cultures yet tested upon.
The simple answer to that is 'all of the above'. Of course they change over time so why should the doctors performance be reviewed down the line. For me its the same as the financial sector. These guys get huge bonuses and yet 5 years later are the root cause of chaos so it is vital all aspects of their performance is scored.
Keeping it simple here, empathy has three general elements, feeling, understanding & doing. Everything you describe fits into one of those categories.
If I may, what you and everyone else here has done, and its my fault, is assume that 'empathy' is effectively represented by a single question. That is NOT the case as I've now hopefully demonstrated.
• May 6 2013: Hi everyone. I feel compelled to write as I cannot believe a lot of what is being written here. Empathy has nothing to do with good teaching. Love and patience, lots of patience, praise where merited and knowledge of your subject are the most important tools in my opinion. Love for your students, for your subject and a desire to assist someone to learn are paramount, not empathy. I can't hope to understand what it feels like to be a kid from a home where my parents don't love me, I was lucky enough not to experience that, but I can try to share the love that was given to me with them. I can't empathise with the kids who study hard and remember everything because I wasn't that kid. I can't expect that every kid has the natural ability to do something and can wing it through exams as I did when I was younger. I can try to moderate my teaching methods to individual needs where I have that option and give extra help and time where possible, but the idea that a teacher should be rated on empathy is just ridiculous, in my humble opinion. All of my teachers at school were dedicated to their students and had high expecations of all of us. Consequently, all of the students who passed through their classes left with the tools to face life. I am still in touch with many of them 38 years later. You can't please all the people all the time, perhaps the best we can do is to strive to help the ones in our classes to help themselves.
• May 6 2013: Hi Kate.
Interesting concept in itself Kate; the one that says empathy has no place in teaching.
Just a couple of questions if I may.
1 - How can you love students you have no empathy with?
2 - You talk of moderating your "teaching methods to individual needs". How might you do that without properly understanding what it is the individual needs?
You know, It's my belief that you display and encourage empathy without realising what it is you are doing. You say "I can't hope to understand to understand what it feels like to be kid who's parents don't love me". What that literally screams at me is the fact you've tried. You've wrestled with it and cannot get there. That's empathy Kate.
Long may you continue not to recognise it but it's there none-the-less and forms the basis of what it is you are and do.
• May 5 2013: The reality Charlotte is that there is a transition and bedding in period. With a few notable exceptions, the concept has been embraced.
The simple fact of the matter is that education is being bombarded from all quarters. Anecdotally, 99% of educators fully understand that they have ignored the feedback from the likes of employers for too long. Employers are now seeking alternatives to university degrees and so these institutions have finally woken up only to find the coffee cold...
If HEIs are to even survive then a paradigm shift is required and this is what I propose and offer. Some will still have their head in the sand the day they die so there WILL be casualties. Unfortunately, in a fight for survival there always will be.
The system looks to be wide open to abuse. The reality is that its not at all. If a student decides he hates lecturer Mrs X, and always rates her low, then that anomaly will show up, he would be interviewed and asked why. If no credible answer were forthcoming he would be advised his scores are being monitored.
As time goes on, even if a group ganged up on a lecturer that would show up and have less impact on that lecturer's score overall. One would never base a review on say one student's scores. We have to be pragmatic and realise that occasionally there will be people who fall through the cracks. If you compare what we have against what we will have there is simply no comparison.
Out of this falls many 'opportunities' such as you describe regarding processes.
• May 5 2013: Hi Fritzie.
Let's relook at the original premise - that empathy be the single measure.
To be empathetic we have basic three threads:
- feeling - replicating those of the subject
- understanding - feeding back to the subject that you get it; you really do understand
- doing - actions as a consequence of the first two
Currently what do we have? Essentially zero consideration of the genuine needs of the subject. What measures are in place are manipulated to provide job security for educators and the consequences of that action resolved downstream.
Now let's look at the benefits of empathy as the sole measure. Firstly, there is the teasing out of suppressed empathy. That brings all manner of benefits not least of which is the supportive environment so critical to making it an unconscious competence. Then, vitally, there is the active understanding and consideration of the needs of each charge. This, no matter how you cut it, can only lead to more effective teaching due to the increased focus.
Realistically, is empathy the perfect measure? Possibly not. The fundamental problem faced by educators as a consequence of its introduction would be the taking of some students on a journey they, or their parents, simply do not understand is vitally important. They simply do not know they need to know!
Is this alone a reason not to adopt it? In my view No. The benefits to both the individuals (staff and pupils) AND society at large are simply too big to not consider it.
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May 5 2013: Rather than rating educators, how about educating educators? Every single human on this planet can learn the skills necessary to relate to students. Adults who do not know how to do this can learn. They can take courses. They can have mentors. If they are treated with respect and empathy by their administrators, that is the first step to learning how to do that, and the value of doing that, with their students. Rating them and firing them is the exact opposite of what we want them to be doing with our students. We do not want them to rate and then "fire" our students. Why should teachers be treated more harshly?
If we spent time and money surrounding these angry teachers with care and support and encouraging them to learn to work out problems, they can learn. They also, just like our most reluctant students, can transform themselves into achievers. I have seen it happen over and over at our Glasser Quality School. Educators who believe themselves superior to students, soon see the benefits of working out conflicts with them rather than attacking them.
Because there is a system in place to help students and teachers mediate conflicts on a daily basis, our classrooms are places students and teachers look forward to coming. When that is not happening, teachers seek out help and that is not condemned, but encouraged. We see teaching as a team sport, where teammates ask for help when needed and help is supplied with gratitude for the asking.
If teachers don't feel safe in their jobs, they won't try something new. They won't take risks. They won't admit to weaknesses, nor ask for help. Creating a safe environment for teachers to learn and setting mutually agreed upon goals and working toward them as a team will help the angry teachers relax and begin to enjoy working with their students. Probably, they have no idea how to create a strong relationship with a student, nor are they aware of the positive differences that would make in their own lives
• May 5 2013: Hi Charlotte
I am currently working on a system for HE where students rate lecturers and support staff based on their empathy alone.
This system originated as a consequence of making graduates more employable. I realised that that work was quickly undermined in the absence of a supportive environment and the Uni in question were baulking at training all lecturers. So, I worked out that in order to encourage empathetic behaviour from the tutors and staff all we would need to do is start scoring each lecture based on its empathy rating... No initiatives, no edicts, no empathy = poor score = poor review.
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May 5 2013: Have you found that poor reviews = more empathic behaviors from instructors? It seems to me that poor reviews would result in less empathic behaviors because teachers would feel judged and in an unsafe environment. They would feel more cynical, sarcastic, and unappreciated.
I believe students would not feel comfortable judging staff in a rating system if there was not already a problem of grading in the college. Because there is a risk of low grades/failure in working with staff (which is the current system of assessment), students are willing to grade staff, almost as a type of revenge. If there were no grades and instead a system of teams working together and working out conflicts, I believe no one would want to participate in a rating scale because it would be seen as hurtful of the team.
For instance, in our school, we meet twice weekly to keep everything running well. I someone needs support to get something done, they ask for it. They are not seen as weak or insufficient because they are overwhelmed in some way. We all know that the time will come when we need the support, too, so we offer it willingly. We don't need some rating system to tell us that we aren't doing well. We self-assess and then get the support we need.
If we get information from the outside that we aren't doing well enough, we work together to solve the problem -- for instance, I had a parent complaint to my principal that I wasn't answering emails quickly enough. The principal and I looked over my schedule and realized that it was impossible for me to do it more quickly without taking me away from students, which was not an optimal use of my skills, so she assigned some of my email responsibilites (for admissions) to someone else who was not with students as often. Problem solved.
I realize that what I am suggesting is a long-term fix with many system changes needed to enact it. What results have you had with the rating system leading to more empathic teaching methods?
• May 5 2013: It seems to me that there is more than one aspect to successful teaching. Empathy can be important in many situations; but so can tough demands (which feel most un-empathetic). I think it matters that students find some teachers empathetic, but learning to cope with a range of teachers different personal styles is pretty good education for real life too. Lets respect and celebrate the diversity of different teaching styles.
• May 5 2013: Empathy and tough demands are not mutually exclusive though.
A "tough" teacher can be empathetic and understand what you are going through, and even relate to the feelings you are having, then turn around and give you a failing grade for not completing said task. A teacher with a high level of empathy doesn't mean that they lower their expectations just because they are empathetic. Now, I would differentiate between those teachers who just don't care what your reason is and are even mean and one with tough demands who might even be said to be "mean".
• May 5 2013: To expand. Please forgive me for that which you already know.
Unless there is some form of abnormality in brain function, every child has empathy ‘hard wired’.
It either develops or is suppressed through childhood into adulthood. Good parenting reinforces/grows it, whilst not great (and that's not mean 'bad') parenting buries it somewhat. School's formulaic approaches impact too but to a lesser extent.
Let’s just define the empathy we're talking about. It's principally about feeling that which others feel – the same emotions. It’s also about making sure the other person understands that you are feeling those same feelings so feeding back is vital too. In an educational environment it's the educators duty to act upon that information in an appropriately supportive manner.
Back to childhood. The feelings will range from ecstasy to grief. Parental focus tends to be the negative aspects as the lessons are generally about considering others. So a good parent ensures their child feels more negativity… It’s not torture but about learning priceless skills designed to make them a better, more successful person long term. When the child experiences how 'they' might have made another feel, it’s not very nice; this means you have to support them as it takes genuine courage to go to a bad place you are not forced to go to. The child must understand it’s a temporary thing, simply a tool to become a more complete human being.
Pragmatic (not idealistic) measurement of empathy is actually very simple and takes most people, even children as young as 8/9) no more than 10 minutes to master. Adults 'get it' within seconds.
Everett is right that many people cannot differentiate between empathy and sympathy but again that is eminently teachable and always the starting point. I'm currently doing this is a major UK university.
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May 5 2013: Thank you, David, for entering your thread. Most of the responses I have seen here so far do not discount the value or even necessity of empathy in effective teaching. The debate is with the latter part of your claim- that empathy ALONE matters- that, for example, content knowledge or ability to communicate content effectively or to ask questions that guide student inquiry or the comprehension students demonstrate that they have attained are irrelevant.
Could you also address this aspect of your question, then - the case for why these other dimensions of teaching and learning that respondents are putting forward do not matter in your model? Are they subsumed under your idea of empathy? For example, would you argue that a teacher with proper empathy toward students will automatically master the subject he teaches because he understands the damage to the students' learning trajectory if he does not become expert and flexible in his content knowledge and pedagogy?
• May 5 2013: Since this conversation could devolve incredibly quickly, I would like to ask a clarifying question.
How do you rate empathy in an OBJECTIVE manner?
This is the serious under-lying issue here. If you can't rate "empathy" in an objective manner then you can't rate it appropriately. You also can make no evaluative judgement of the teacher based on this issue.
Are you going to ask students? Shoot, most of them couldn't accurately define empathy much less know if the teacher is actually "empathetic". It will boil down to "that teacher is nice and that one is mean". So, please, let me know how we can evaluate a subjective interpretation of how a teacher feels towards their students.
• May 5 2013: In life - most people we interact with do not conform to our preferred Myers-Briggs. Get used to it.
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May 5 2013: I reject the premise
I hear what you are saying regarding the speaker. I think when she said " students don't learn from people they don't like" is a tool.
The reality is that the student educates himself. The reality is that an education is something that can be applied and this is the goal of an educator.
• May 5 2013: I think this is a very slippery slope towards a very poor ending.
I am an educator and can tell you that assessment based on how I appear to treat your child is completely subjective and has no objective basis. How you perceive my treatment of you is completely out of my control. My understanding of your challenges and feelings and how your think I feel about them has no basis in anything that is evaluative.
If you want to assess me based on how I treat your child, then I will have parents who champion me and parents who think I am a tyrant based solely on what they think of me. I have been down that road and faced parents who "think" I don't like their child because I hold them accountable to a standard that the parents think is unreasonable (come into class, sit down, get to work, be polite, study, etc.). I would be opposed to this because I know of some really nice teachers who I, as an educator, would never put my child into their class because they would not learn anything.
Henry W. is bang on in his comments about what educators should do and how they should be well rounded.
• May 5 2013: That's why you and most other teachers fail as educators. You want children to be the adults, while you don't seek understanding. Tow the mark, do this, do that, don't talk in my class unless I tell you too, raise your hand if you want to go to the restroom, do what I tell you and the list is endless. You are taught by bullies, to be bullies and you teach copy and paste, that's all. You are tools for a totally corrupt and fearful leadership, but then history is full of the same.
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May 5 2013: I couldn't agree with you more, Jim. Too many teachers are still using the teaching weapons of the past...instead of understanding the newer Psychology developments that tell us otherwise. Students should not be fearful of their teachers or school; when they are treated kindly and lovingly, they look forward to attending. I believe that some very important lessons have been left out of our Educational curriculum--although some teachers instinctively understand these important factors. Many children who are bullied by their teachers and by their parents become angry adults and so our focus needs to be on teaching by example...with empathy and love.
• May 5 2013: First, you make massive assumptions about me as a teacher. Second, you know nothing about how I teach my students. Third, you have no basis for any understanding of how I treat my students. Nor do your comments reflect most of the fine educators I have had to opportunity to work with.
I will simply not engage in this discourse as it adds nothing to the nature of this discussion thread.
• May 5 2013: You tell people who you are, what you teach and how you teach, with every word you write and every word you don't write. Instead of getting all mad and lashing out, you could have asked for the reasoning behind my claims. When the first thing that a teacher does is to get mad and lash out, what do you expect from your students? If you believe you are a good teacher or that I am wrong, you would be smart enough to know that by questioning me, you would have me show by my own words, that I am wrong.
Now your pride will keep you from listening or learning, just as you teach your students. I do realize its what and how you were taught, so y'all should be forgiven. Its also easy to see that the system wants you to be this way.
You teachers teach cubicle smarts, while you teach children to always do as they are told, by the way you teach. You can't change anyhow, because the system doesn't want children that can think for themselves, stand up for themselves, how to recognize many dangers, simple psychology, how to get along with one another, how partners and friends need to consider each other and so much more.
You teachers complain bitterly about unruly students and how they disrupt everything. You have the power and the tools, but you were never taught how and why. You teach most children to be followers, because that's what industry and gov demand.
Teachers spend many more hours everyday with most children, more than their own moms and dads, because that's what our leadership has driven us too.
• May 4 2013: Amen to that Farokh.
The children would also be provided a supportive environment to grow their empathy instead of being forced to largely suppress it as at present. | <urn:uuid:ee33f0c5-b50a-4eb2-b675-278aab656e07> | http://www.ted.com/conversations/18147/rate_educators_based_on_their.html?c=663670 | en | 0.97715 | 0.054874 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Confessions of a Mad Scientist
Graham Elliot Bowles, Chicago’s best young chef, doesn’t likes menus, serves food with attitude, and has ditched bread for popcorn. You have a problem with that?
Nobody puts Graham Elliot Bowles in a corner. For starters, the guy wants to take apart everything that resembles conventional food and restaurant wisdom, and put it back together differently. He left his gig at Avenues, where he had become the youngest chef to earn four stars in Chicago, to open his eponymous restaurant and start from scratch, doing everything his way. He's amazingly confident, clearly restless, and a musician at heart.
“When you’re coming up through the ranks you’re told to go to certain places, eat a certain amount of courses; there are 50 forks and 20 glasses, everything is plotted out. When we opened it was like, step back and question everything.”
He's very articulate about why he does things one way versus another, and very willing to take chances. The expected is the enemy. A perfect—albeit slightly disturbing example—is the Spinal Tap-esque mockumentary he put together with one of his chefs, where he takes on a George W. Bush-meets-Nascar-ish persona and creates a fictitious story behind his restaurant. The film ends with both men strolling out of the "interview" wearing 10-gallon hats, dark glasses, and thongs stuffed with bananas.
A less-disquieting example is the fact that his restaurant doesn't use recipes. Nothing is written down, and the chefs in his kitchen have an amazing amount of autonomy, creating new dishes every night from their imaginations and whatever looked good at the market that day. If you go to Graham Elliot, prepare to be dazzled by a pan-roasted scallop with fried pickles and cornbread sauce, but don't expect to have it next time—they will have moved on.
When he's not at the restaurant, Graham is mulling over a new ingredient that looks and feels like a wetsuit, planning his wedding at the restaurant ("who wants that crappy catered food?"), and cooking for various bands whose contributions to breakup tapes got him through high school.
So, you get seated at Graham Elliot, and it's popcorn instead of bread.
Yeah, most restaurants are super boring most of the time, very predictable: You walk in, you sit down, and you get bread served to you. Nine out of 10 times the bread sucks, and it's not made in-house. I like popcorn and so decided we wanted to serve that instead—we're all about making food and dining fun. Also, I have no self-control; I eat everything in front of me. I'll eat the whole breadbasket, and then miss other things about the meal, and not have room for dessert.
So Mom was right, about the bread ruining your appetite thing.
Definitely; even the garlic oil-sprayed breadsticks at the Olive Garden—I'll destroy baskets of those things.
OK: bistronomic. That's the term you chose to define your cooking, how do you define it?
Gastronomic haute cuisine with a bistro setting and attitude. When you're coming up through the ranks you're told to go to certain places, eat a certain amount of courses, there are 50 forks and 20 glasses, everything is plotted out. When we opened it was like, step back and question everything. Why do you have linen? What's the purpose? What is the purpose of salt and pepper on the table, or flowers on the table? Flowers get cut, they are put on the table, they die, and then you do it again. Why?
We use one plate for every single dish we serve. It's a 12-inch plate, $2.99, from Ikea. Most people have no idea; they are not inspecting the plate, looking at the maker. We decided from the start we're not playing that game; let's focus on doing something else. We do what we think makes sense. So one kind of fork, one kind of knife, one glass for every kind of wine.
A big inspiration was wd~50. If you put Wylie in a fancy hotel doing 40 covers a night with fancy tables, overlooking Central Park, the whole shebang, it would be a four-star place. The food is four-star food.
So, youngest Chicago chef to earn four stars, and now you're doing a different thing... do the stars matter?
The stars don't matter at this point. Not to say they won't in the future. It's like a band analogy—you can play huge stadiums, or decide you want to do acoustic, and play with a friend in a smaller bar. This restaurant and what we do now represents who I am now, and the team, but two years from now I might love to do a tiny little inn on the coast of Oregon doing super high-conceptual kind of stuff. I'm working on a sandwich project right now: sandwiches, homemade soda, soft serve, popcorn and that's it.
You talk about looking at things as gray instead of black and white. What exactly do you mean?
Gray means being open-minded. I always look at the world that way; I'm able to hear both sides of an argument. I don't listen to opera, but I don’t think it's good or bad; it's just its own thing. I can completely appreciate it. In food, there are some factual things—you wouldn't call a well-done steak “steak tartare.” But then you can also make corn soup with a roasted garlic marshmallow—everything is always a bunch of moving little parts that can be put together a bunch of different ways.
So, no recipes, everything is always changing—what happens when someone comes in and wants to order the dish they had last time?
People buy into our vision and come along for the ride. I've had people say, 'Oh I loved that dish, but I know I have to come back right away, or it won't be there next time.' We are the anti-consistency—we never perfect anything, it's always being made better.
Hot, cold, sea, land, sweet—why did you organize you menu the way you did?
There are five different sections of the kitchen and each is run by its own chef who does his or her own ordering, prep, cooking, and cleaning. They own that area, and they can make their own choices. But if someone complains about the fish, that person will have a hard time sleeping that night because they are totally responsible.
Tell us about Lollapalooza, and cooking there, for some of the bands.
I wanted a merch table at the show selling our GE belt buckles, which our staff all wears. And then I was contacted by producers, who were like, “We saw you on Top Chef, we want you to be involved in Lollapaooza. Would you mind having a booth with the vendors?” They asked if we wanted to cook for anyone in particular, and I picked Jane's Addiction, but then the producer told me that Caleb of King of Leon likes my food, so we cooked for them, too.
What is it about the musicians?
There are always celebrities and stuff around, but I don't really get star struck if Brad Pitt walks by. But seeing all of these guys up close was really special for me. And so many musicians are into food—it's like everyone was on the same level, appreciating everyone else's art. I'll write to bands and invite them to come to the restaurant when they're in town. It's like all those breakup mix tapes and stuff—they got me through high school. Cooking for them is the least I can do. Alan Richman once said that all chefs are failed guitarists.
Is there an ingredient you're infatuated with right now?
There's something I read about that I haven't cooked with yet, but I can't wait to play with. It's an oyster plant, an oyster leaf. I read about it, and have been hearing about it—El Bulli serves it. It's a succulent leaf, thicker than spinach, but when you chew and eat it, it tastes identical to a raw oyster. It's supposed to look and feel like a wetsuit; it'll be neat to check that out.
Let's hear about your upcoming nuptials at the restaurant.
Well I just thought it was stupid to pay like 20 grand to say "I do" in a zoo or an aquarium or something. We're probably going to do a nice brunch—lobster quiche, white chocolate raspberry pancakes—and let the families hang out.
OK, we have to talk about your film Made in Merka. What the hell?
Yeah, when we decided to do that, we thought like 50 people would see it. And then at the film festival there was this huge theater with like 500 people. I was like, "shit," totally slumping down in my seat. The whole movie was ad-libbed. I just started in with the George Bush accent.
We just did a guest bartending gig last week where we dressed up in wigs and mustaches, like Chippendales bartenders. I don't know…we like to dress up. I'm sure some psychologist could tell you that it's because I have issues with my dad or something. I think being a chef is cool and admirable, but there are a bunch of other cool things to do. I want to tie them all together. I'd love to open a restaurant that changes every month. One month it would be a mom and bar spaghetti-and-meatball, Red Sox place, and the next it would be a British pub, and everyone gets in a fight.
I liked the end of the movie, when it said "no bananas were hurt during the making of this film."
Well, we didn't want to imply we were that well-endowed.
What was in your mouth in the movie?
Paper towels. I wanted to find some of that gum; you know the kind in the pouch with the baseball players on it? That was like the way companies were trying to get the kids to think chewing tobacco was cool, and they should try that.
It was the gateway gum.
Nicely played, ma’am, nicely played.
Katie Workman is the Editor-in-Chief and Chief Marketing Officer of, a website devoted to great, tested recipes from chefs and cookbook authors. She writes about food for various blogs and websites. Katie is on the board of City Harvest, and actively involved in Share Our Strength. She lives in New York City with her husband her two boys, ages 6 and 9. | <urn:uuid:9f605b2b-609a-4c1b-a08e-a4bfe24e834c> | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/08/18/confessions-of-a-mad-scientist.print.html | en | 0.979628 | 0.522569 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Are the "miles traveled" by CaBi users calculated using the pre-measured distance between stations, assuming users ride in a direct path from the check-out station to the check-in station? Seems like a lot of people, daily users in particular, are probably taking either indirect routes or very circuitous routes, meaning the miles traveled is probably much higher than reported.
It's probably a relatively meaningless statistic compared to trip numbers and subscriber counts, but if they're saying "CaBi saved X pounds of CO2 or X gallons of gas" then it could make those numbers look even better.
Where is the birthday party like last year?
CaBi appears to use straight-line distance. I find most of my rides are between 25-40% longer than CaBi estimates because I acatually have to follow the street grid and cannot magically bike through buildings.
A couple points:
2) Was the fear that Living Social members would not renew, or that people would just take advantage of the lower price (as I did).
3)I'd suggest system expansion might cut down on overage fees. When you looked at the breakdown before, it was clearly a lot of tourists using the bike for 2-3 hours. Does having more stations on the mall change that.
4) Despite the success, I'd like to see numbers that point to a real mode shift in bikeshare. Or reduced congestion. Or other improvements. I pointed you to a link by TomTom a while back that suggested traffic in DC was 20% better. IS that biking?
5) In terms of TIGER-type grants, we've proved proof of concept. Go big. From now we can focus on organic growth.
It would be nice if we had a "get out and detail you CABI" day because some of the bikes look like they need some love.
MM, I think they use the shortest route, but not as the crow flies. It's true that people may go out of their way, but the whole point is to determine how long a trip they replaced.
1. EOTR means East of the River.
2. I recall several people saying that membership would drop once the LS members had to renew.
3. I don't know. I've been crushed at work and haven't had time to interview DDOT on this.
4. Survey's show a mode shift. I doubt we could tease out the impact that bikesharing has had on traffic as there are just too many variables.
5. Some of the bikes are starting to show their age, and ride a little less smooth. I meant to mention that.
We calculate mileage based on straight line distance, so we are under calculating. We also count trips that start and stop at the same station as zero miles. Another under calculation. These are about 5% of all trips.
Anyone want to work on a more accurate calculation using the published trip data?
No we don't have GPS or mileage tickers on any CB bikes.
The point on EOTR it how underused it still is.
In terms of bikes, wasn't it a 3 year projected lifespan on them?
How underused is it?
The Anacostia Metro had 212 starting trips in the 2nd quarter of 2012. That's more than 12th and L, NW; Washington Blvd & 7th St N; 20th and L St NW; Fairfax Drive and Glebe Road; 19th and K St, and the White House station.
Also, that isn't a point. It is (or is not) a fact. Just saying some words is not a point.
Cheese hat elephant.
See, that's meaningless. If you have a point then make it.
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SEOUL—South Korea's rising currency is pushing Kia Motors Corp. to consider raising prices abroad and taking other measures to boost earnings as competition squeezes sales.
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Comment 3 for bug 639830
Christophe Dumez (hydr0g3n) wrote :
@Patrick O'Callaghan: Most people don't actually need to use regex, but they merely input the TV show's name. Regex is a power user feature. Would it really be useful if qBittorrent detects season and episode numbers? I would argue that most users, just provide a RSS feed, input the TV show's name and expects qBittorrent to download all new episodes. There are usually no old episodes in those feeds, nor any duplicates. The only duplicates there may be are for different qualities (720p vs regular). Parsing qualities would actually be a nice thing.
Am I missing some use case?
What could I do (concretely) to improve our current RSS downloader? and importantly, why would that help? (i.e. what is the use case?).
You said that the RSS downloader is not really user friendly and that it is easy to make mistakes. Could you please point out what's most ambiguous/misleading? I spent quite some time designing the new RSS downloader UI but then again, I'm not a regular user and it is difficult for me to understand what's wrong with it.
Also note that I want to keep the RSS downloader more generic, meaning that it should be usable more anything, not just TV shows. Of course, I could add some TV show-specific features that get enabled only if the user explicitly states he is looking for TV shows. This would be fine by me.
I hope we can work together to improve the UI. I had a quick look at TED's UI but it is very specific to TV shows. I also don't quite understand what is the point of specifying a particular episode number. Isn't the point of using RSS to download automatically ANY new episode corresponding to this show? | <urn:uuid:3d8f9188-3e5d-423b-873f-8b03ee3de6d5> | https://bugs.launchpad.net/qbittorrent/+bug/639830/comments/3 | en | 0.962716 | 0.692044 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Disclaimer: As if it would change in 24 hours. That is so not my luck.
A/N: This story is dedicated to a very good mate of mine. Love ya lots. - sam1
Promises Kept
Several hours after Gordon and Alan had run from his room, Scott set his book down and sighed, "You'd think that they could assign something more interesting to read." He stood and stretched while looking at his alarm clock. "Better go see what the Terrible Two are up to. It's been kind of quiet for a bit too long for them."
He had just poked his head in the kitchen when Grandma looked up from where she was peeling some potatoes for the night's dinner. "Where have you been, young man?"
"I was in my room, Grandma, reading an assignment for school." He selected an apple from the basket of fruit Grandma always kept handy for her growing grandsons. "Grandma, have you seen Gordon or Alan? They weren't in the family room with Virgil or John when I checked."
"Now that you mention it, Scott, I've not seen or heard from either of them for awhile. Would you please check on them? Too much quiet from either is not a good thing." Her eyes sparkled as she thought of some of the mischief her two youngest grandsons managed.
"Okay, Grandma, I'll try to find out where they've hidden themselves." Retracing his steps, he went back to the family room. Virgil was sitting at his piano but watching John. Scott glanced over at his next youngest brother and shook his head. The quiet blond was reading one of his books but had started arguing with what he was reading. He'd set the book down and pick up an encyclopedia and look at the information listed.
Frustrated, he set the encyclopedia down, picked up the other book and threw it. "Stupid book is wrong."
Scott looked down at the book that John threw in his direction and read the title, "Scooby-Doo and the Vicious Viking".
"what's wrong with the book?" Scott asked. He was interested in what John would say.
"The Viking in my book is riding a roller coaster, Scotty. But the 'cyclopedia says that the Viking period was 750-1060 AD."
"And what is your point, little brother?" Nothing riled his little brother more than screwed up facts.
His face reddened in sudden realization his brother was winding him up, "THERE WERE NO ROLLER COASTERS BACK THEN, DUMMY!"
"John Glenn Tracy, apologize to your brother right now," Grandma demanded, brandishing her wooden spoon. "And Scott, aren't you looking for two little brothers?"
"Sorry, Scott." Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared up at his big brother.
"Yes, Grandma, I was going to ask Virgil and John if they'd seen them," Scott answered, trying to ignore the baleful glare that was directed at him.
"We haven't seen them, Grandma," Virgil said. "Not since they came downstairs after Gordy yelled at Scott."
"Why was he yelling at Scott?"
"Because I promised to take them to the park but my teacher assigned a book to read and I was reading it." Scott shifted his gaze to the floor, shame flooding through him for failing to follow through on his promise. "I'll find them, Grandma." Not meeting anyone's eyes, he walked through the door and searched the house. Every room, cabinet, and closet and he still didn't find his baby brothers. Quietly, he slipped out the front door and walked to the back fence that surrounded the backyard. Calling out, "Alan? Gordon, where are you?" Walking around the huge backyard, he paused at each of the known hiding spots of the Terrible Two. It wasn't until he got to the old doghouse that had long since been empty that he spotted a clue as to where his brothers were. He dropped down to his knees and picked up a sock of all things before glancing to the roof of the doghouse where a small sneaker lay. Crawling forward, he peered into the doghouse where the weak sunlight still showed two small boys curled up next to one another sound asleep.
"Scott, have you found them?" Grandma called from the back porch. She saw him point to the doghouse and walked out to see what Gordon and Alan were up to. Scott backed away from the door and Grandma leaned down enough to see her youngest grandsons, sleeping.
"I'll wake them, Grandma," Scott said, reaching in to grab Alan as he was closest. "Come on, Allie, time to wake up." Alan opened his eyes and smiled at his big brother.
"Gordy and me pway in the park," he said, pointing to the swing set. "It was fun, Scotty."
"That's great, Allie, why don't you go with Grandma and get cleaned up while I get Gordy, okay?" Scott asked.
Alan happily reached for his grandmother and giggled. "I tooked sock an' shoe off, Grandma. It was itching me."
Crawling back into the doghouse, Scott grabbed hold of Gordy and began to pull him out. He wasn't aware that someone watched him from the driveway. Nor did he hear that someone walk up to him until he spoke, "Why is your brother in the doghouse?"
Scott jumped, letting go of Gordon who fell to the ground with a small thud. "Ow, Scotty, you dropped me." Pushing his way past his older brother, he threw himself against Jeff. "Daddy, Scotty told a lie today. He promised to take us to the park and didn't."
Jeff looked over at his oldest son who immediately dropped his gaze to the ground. "I'm sure he had a good reason for not honoring his promise to you, Gordon."
"Nuh-uh, Daddy, he was looking at a dumb book," Gordon argued. By this time, Scott had stood up and wandered further back into the yard and out the rear gate. A small pond further to the back of the Tracy's property. Dropping down to the slightly sandy beach area, he stared out at nothing in particular. He drew his knees up to his chin and finally just stared at the calm water. Unsure of how much time had passed, he was surprised when his father sat down next to him. "Scott, you can't do everything for your brothers. And you can't always fix their problems." Pulling his son towards him, hugging him, "You can't always be there for all of them if you can't take care of yourself and do what you have to do."
Mumbling, Scott tried to pull away from his dad's hug.
"Please stop mumbling and repeat that," Jeff said.
Eyes focused on the tree line just beyond the pond, "I promised Mom, Dad. I promised her and I can't take it back. And when I should have been watching my baby brothers, I was doing something else."
Hugging his son tighter, Jeff replied, "Son, your mom knows that you're keeping your promise as well as anyone your age can." Kissing the top of Scott's head, he continued, "It is I who needs to own up to my promise to you and your brothers. I promised each of you when you were born that I'd always be there for you. I haven't been much of a parent if I'm letting you handle so much."
"Dad, I miss her and I promised her that I'd watch over and protect my brothers since she couldn't." A lone tear slid down his face. A face that had been pinched in worry for the last few months as he had tried to juggle school work and helping with his younger brothers.
"You've done a great job, Scotty. But it's time for you to stand back and be Scott and have fun with your childhood."
Standing on the back patio, Grandma could just make out the figures of her only son and grandson. "Lucy, I do believe he's got a handle on things now." A slight breeze that was scented with Lucy's favorite perfume lifted several tendrils of Grandma's hair. "Still looking after your boys, aren't you?" | <urn:uuid:dc865e54-228d-4022-85b5-95976cd3fd3b> | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4837997/3/Promises | en | 0.991691 | 0.043934 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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REELING AND SPINNING: How the INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS soundtrack weaponizes cinema
Press Play By Matthew Seitz | Press Play June 30, 2011 at 8:00AM
[Editor's note: This piece marks the debut of Reeling and Spinning, a weekly column by film and music critic Craig D. Lindsey about soundtracks.]
By Craig D. Lindsey
PressPlay contributor
Even though Quentin Tarantino’s M.O. is to make movies swarming with references, tributes, hat tips and shout-outs to earlier works, Inglourious Basterds might be his most blatant salute to the power of cinema yet, because it's the first film he’s done in which the knowledge of movies is power, and cinema itself can be used as a weapon. Yeah, it’s a WW II movie, but it’s a WW II movie where you’ll find a British soldier who used to be a film critic, a German movie star working as a spy, and a vengeful Jewish-French heroine plotting to wipe out the whole Nazi elite by holing them up in the movie theater she runs and torching the place with flammable, nitrate film stock. The film itself is a mixed affair, giving viewers the best and worst of what Tarantino offers as a filmmaker. Yet all its elements are connected by the belief that movies can be an ass-kicking tool. And if there’s a glue holding all that together, it’s the 27 tracks that make up the movie’s soundtrack. (Only 14 tracks appear on the officially-released CD.) Practically every composition, every cue, every repurposed piece of music on Basterds was taken from other films – often war films. In typical Tarantino fashion, the music spans decades, as the director uses music not just from the time period Basterds is set in (the early ‘40s), but from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The soundtrack’s predominantly anachronistic tone actually accentuates Basterds’ surreal attitude. The movie itself is such a whacked-out clusterfuck -- a bloodthirsty, Nazi-eradicating fantasy -- that that the presence of music from other eras hardly seems strange.
Tarantino has said that, like nearly every film he’s done, Basterds is a spaghetti Western at heart. To that end, he populates the movie with instrumentals from renowned spaghetti Western composer Ennio Morricone. (Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to write new music, but Morricone was too busy scoring another flick.) Tarantino also picks up compositions that would feel right at home in a Leone-era spaghetti Western. Basterds starts off with “The Green Leaves of Summer,” also known as the theme from the 1960 John Wayne film The Alamo. But instead of using Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster’s vocally harmonious original, he uses a ripped-straight-from-an-old-LP, instrumental version by Perry Como collaborator Nick Perito. This particular version -- complete with Perito’s weary, smoky accordion playing -- sounds quite spaghetti-esque. The composition also gives the movie a twisted, foreboding kick: Despite the song’s rosy optimism, there’s no way in hell none of that's going to appear in this movie.
Tarantino uses the Morricone tracks (which include a track Morricone did with Gillo Pontecorvo for The Battle of Algiers) very well. Morricone always had a knack for composing music that ratcheted up the sense of imminent danger in a scene, and Tarantino plays to that strength. The film's opening sequence he uses two Morricone pieces to cinematically bombastic effect. Tarantino starts off with the traditionally Westerny “The Verdict” when Christoph Waltz’s Col. Landa visits the suspicious home of French farmer. Near the end of the scene, when Landa gets the farmer to give up the Jewish family living under his floorboards, he goes for the more orchestral “L’incontro Con La Figlia," complete with screeching violins and a thundering, choir-enhanced flourish that erupt when Nazis machinegun the floor and lone survivor Shosanna makes a run for it.
Morricone isn’t the only film composer Tarantino drafts into service. He uses Charles Bernstein’s loose, twangy main title theme from the Burt Reynolds hicksploitation film White Lightning as a virtual theme song for the titular Basterds, a group of vengeful Jewish soldiers led by Brad Pitt’s proud redneck Aldo Raine. He also uses Bernstein’s jarring “Bath Attack” track from The Entity quite startlingly when Shosanna meets up again with Landa. Works from Lalo Schifrin, Elmer Bernstein and Jacques Loussier -- many of them composed for savage war films -- also pop up on the soundtrack. There are brief glimmers of Tarantino sticking with the time period; specifically, he uses numbers that serve as background footnotes to the story. When we meet up with Diane Kruger’s double-agent screen siren in the film’s much-ballyhooed tavern scene, the music playing in the background is "Davon Geht Die Welt Nicht Unter" by German star (and rumored Soviet spy) Zarah Leander. Leander was also a star of German films many viewed as Nazi propaganda films. Since Nazi propaganda movies also figure in the movie’s narrative, Tarantino uses “Ich Wollt Ich Waer Ein Huhn,” a number that was used in a German propaganda film (a screwball comedy, believe it or not), in another part of the tavern scene.
Tarantino seems to take glee in finding cues that are proudly, unabashedly on-the-nose, as when he uses Billy Preston’s theme to the blaxploitation movie Slaughter for the backstory of Til Schweiger’s knife-wielding Nazi killer Hugo Stiglitz. And I certainly know a lot of my film nerd friends thought it was awesome when he used David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder’s “Cat People (Putting Out the Fire),” from writer-director Paul Schrader's 1982 remake of Val Lewton's Cat People, as background music for Shosanna stylishly preparing to take revenge on the Nazis. However divisive Quentin Tarantino may be as a filmmaker, you have to admire how he selects music for his movies. Inglourious Basterds' eclectic score of previously-used tracks -- sampling war films, spaghetti Westerns, blaxploitation pictures, even a Nastassja Kinski flick -- may be a bigger celebration of the strength and power of movies than the film itself.
Craig D. Lindsey used to have a job as the film critic and pop-culture columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer. Now, he's back out there hustling, writing about whatever for Nashville Scene, The Greensboro News & Record, Philadelphia Weekly, The Independent Weekly and other publications. He has a Tumblr blog now. You can also hit him up on Twitter.
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Text Smell
CodeSmells indicate deeper problems in code.
TextSmells indicate deeper problems in text, such as emails or Wiki content.
The goal here isn't really to list air fresheners, since they only mask the smell (though they help in a pinch). The goal is to determine the source of the smell and remove that. Often, in writing, this source of problems stems from the thoughts behind the words. Oh, that we could improve those thoughts.
Rebellion against these can sometimes help you communicate better, add flavor, or just reduce the amount of time it takes to write. It can be paralytic to obsess over the details as you write, just as in programming. A good strategy might be to get a first draft going that's as smelly as it wants to be and return afterward to revise.
Smells that Distract the Reader:
(See: FootnotesDestroyFlow) Footnotes are parentheses times two. If the footnote is large enough, maybe it belongs in a separate document entirely? This is more true when communicating via electronic media, because jumping around the screen is a pain.
Excessive Humor
If there's a joke in every paragraph, the reader may be amused, but miss the point. The reader who just wants some answers may find the humor aggravating, especially if the jokes are predictable. Remember, when you're writing, you can't see your reader's faces to know whether they're laughing, so don't assume that they are.
Too Wide a Vocabulary
Keep your audience's vocabulary subset in mind. Try to avoid using a bigger word when it's bigger but no more accurate than a simpler alternative. Eschew obfuscation.
Too Narrow a Vocabulary
Excessive redundancy in your word choices can be just as confusing as excessive variety.
Relying on Previously Known Information
Test your assumptions -- try to read your documents as though you didn't write them. As a bonus, this technique can help you catch other errors such as typos. Unfortunately, this is extraordinarily difficult to do. Some techniques to make this easier are: practice, leaving the text and coming back to it, and RubberDucking.
Failure to Rely on Previously Known Information
A sure-fire way to get your reader in "skim-mode" is to tell them things they already know.
Mixed Metaphors
The text "smells" are "traps" that cause "red flags to be raised", are they?
Complex Constructs
Double-negatives, (...what else?)
Smells of Superfluous Protocol
Consider the likely effect of what you are saying. Don't write, "I'm sorry, but" because it will have the opposite effect to an apology. Instead, write things that you don't have to apologize for.
Noisy Announcements
As said in TheElementsOfStyle, "Instead of announcing that what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so." The same goes for announcing humor, quality, insightfulness, truthfulness, and so on.
Smells of Suboptimal Wordings
Causes the reader to nest their thoughts too much. Do you really need to include that parenthetical comment? If so, maybe it deserves to be a sentence of its own. If you can't make it a sentence right where it is, perhaps it should be a small paragraph?
Not Being ShortAndToThePoint
Ask yourself, "Why am I leaving that paragraph/line/word in?" Is it because it serves a purpose, or because you spent all that time creating it? KillYourDarlings. OmitNeedlessWords and read TheElementsOfStyle.
Formatting (italics, bold face, etc.)
I challenge you to GIVE me an example where you _can't_ live *without* this kind of >>MESS<<. Having to think about a way to emphasize certain words without funny characters can help.
Emoticons (=), =P, ;))
We all love them, but it's easy to fall into the trap of using them instead of more expressive and clever means of conveying the same thing. It's also easy to use them to avoid saying anything at all. See EmotionOnWiki.
The sure mark of a "first-draft" sentence, but at least they are somewhat easy to fix. Not necessarily a smell if the sentence is long, but still has a necessary structure and articulation. The rule of thumb is to try breaking it up, and see whether that works as well.
Large Paragraphs
Can the thought be broken up into more distinct ideas? This is especially useful for emails, as it makes it easier to naturally interleave replies with the original text.
The "-ing" Suffix
Compare these two sentences: "Resorting to adding '-ing' to words can lead to confusing constructs." "The '-ing' suffix tends to complicate sentences."
Smells of Ambiguity
Too many pronouns, especially the word "Thing"
Pronouns force your readers to retain context. Too many pronouns, and your writing becomes ambiguous.
Passive Voice
Compare "The ball was kicked by the boy" to "The boy kicked the ball". Passive voice focuses on the effect rather than the cause, which is why it's a stylistic tic common to people who have no vested interest in understanding why things happen and how to change them, such as politicians and bureaucrats. Don't be a bureaucrat.
No Passive Voice
Compare "The car was totalled" (passive) with "I totalled the car" (active). Different implications, which is why we have the two options.
I disagree with the usage of synonyms. Don't use them as a decoration but rather to shift the focus a little bit to a different aspect of the subject.
I highly recommend Joseph William's Book "Style Toward Clarity and Grace" ISBN 0226899152 . It addresses especially the coherence of a text and debunks some of the "rules" taught at school. -- Christian Lindig
A helpful technique to discover these patterns is to look through your "Sent Mail" folder. Look at the mails you did like, as well as the ones you didn't. Is there a theme?
Would this be a text smell -- having a summary list of items (say 20), followed by each point being discussed, which when counted reveals 28 items. A very big smell of something having gone very wrong.
cf. EightSystemMetaphors
Curiosity point..Is it possible to write scientific papers that are easier to understand? I have but one degree, but I do make an effort to read conference proceedings and can generally parse out the content in my head, but it takes time. Is it that learned CS professors just don't know how to write in a way that people can understand easily, the sort of topics that papers are written about just don't lend themselves to easy understanding, or is it that nobody would publish a paper that didn't look like your traditional hard-to-parse paper?
I've had people much more learned than I suggest that the third one was the reasoning. ;)
-- KenWronkiewicz
It's probably a combination of all three. In regards to the first one, it's not a failing solely of CS professors. Writing effectively is a skill, just like anything else, and a lot of people simply never learn to how do it.
On further reflection, I'm not sure that what we have here are TextSmells. They may simply be problems with the text itself.
In the case of CodeSmells, the smells aren't things in the code that need to be fixed. They're signs that something needs to be fixed. You don't fix the CodeSmell; you use the CodeSmell to lead you to the thing that needs to be fixed.
Implicit in the idea is the notion that whatever you're working on -- code, text, buildings -- has a bit of a life of its own, and wants to conform to a certain type of form. If there's a mismatch between the form that the work wants, and the form you're trying to fit it into, a smell will result.
Most of these TextSmells aren't really like that, are they? They're definitely useful rules-of-thumb. But they seem far too direct to be called "smells".
I can't think of many decent TextSmells of the kind of thinking of, but perhaps as an example:
-- francis
Francis, after thinking about his off and on for several months, I'm probably going to agree. This page needs to return to its roots. I have two main goals for the new refactoring:
1. As you mentioned, everything on this page should be a "smell" in that it should be an indicator rather than a problem, itself.
2. Everything on this page should be talking about smells in the text.
In keeping with goal #1, I nixed a bunch of items from this page. They were all either: a) something I added, or b) referenced elsewhere on the Wiki, so I have a good amount of confidence in these changes.
In keeping with goal #2, the "IdeaSmells" up at the top moved to their own page.
More refactorings to come, most likely.
The word "usage" is, itself, misused quite a bit. There's a book: "On Writing Well". Note that "usage" can be the amount or manner of use.
Don't forget GeorgeOrwell's PoliticsAndTheEnglishLanguage.
See: ConversationalChaff
<-> http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?AbbreviationsAreEvil depends on the context
View edit of May 1, 2009 or FindPage with title or text search | <urn:uuid:435afd8b-d69e-4b07-8ae8-b60966de65a9> | http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?TextSmell | en | 0.956288 | 0.634259 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Documenting the American South Logo
oral histories of the American South
Thoughts on environmentalism and consumer rights
Talmadge addresses the growing prominence of environmentalism and consumerism during his years in the United States Senate. Focusing particularly on the impact of Ralph Nader on the ways in which the federal government sought to rectify pollution and ensure protection of the environment, Talmadge contends that the government was trying to do too much too fast. According to Talmadge, environmentalism and consumer rights issues had come to replace civil rights as "hot topic" movements and the political solutions offered tended to cause more problems than they solved.
Citing this Excerpt
Full Text of the Excerpt
Let me get your views on another man that you mentioned to me the other day, who has had a tremendous impact in this country. Some people think that it has been mostly for the good and some people think that it has been mostly for the bad and that is Ralph Nader, who burst on the scene a few years ago.
I don't know Nader well, I visited with him a time or two, he came by my office lobbying for the Consumer Protection Bill that he devised. He is an intense sort of a zealot, really. I think that it is his mission to save mankind. I don't doubt but what some of the things that he has advocated has been in the national interest, others have not. You take the Clean Air, Clean Water Bill, we probably went too far too fast. That is one of the reasons that we are having enormous inflationary problems now. The industry in this country is spending countless billions and billions of dollars for pollution control that is non-productive. It earns no income. I can give you an illustration with my personal automobile. We are going through an enormous energy crisis now. I've got about a seven year old Oldsmobile 98. It gets fifteen miles to the gallon. I have got a Cutlass that is a year and a half old, the smallest car that Oldsmobile makes. It gets about twelve miles to the gallon. It has got all of Mr. Nader's gear on it and we are using more energy because of those things. We had representatives of all the automobile manufacturers before the Finance Committee about ten days or two weeks ago and all of these safety and pollution devices that we put on automobiles in the last three or four years have driven up the price over a thousand dollars a vehicle. That is one of the reasons that people aren't buying automobiles today, they have gotten so high priced that they are out of the market and lo and behold, they have suddenly discovered now that some of the devices that we put on the automobiles at the request of Mr. Nader create more pollution than they solve.
Why do you think that there has been such a tremendous consumer movement and environmental protection movement that has caught fire in the past decade?
This country goes through slogans from time to time and they overreact frequently. When I first came to the United States Senate, they would burn your mother at the stake in the name of civil rights. Then it got to be the environment and of course, the environment needed protection, but we probably went too far too fast. Then it got to be consumerism and we passed a multiplicity of consumer protection bills in recent years, I would think twenty probably. I think that I voted for all of them but one. But it puts an enormous burden on business, trying to fill out all these forms and prove all of these things that sometimes they are criticized for, or to disprove them and the average businessman is just smothered in red tape coming from Washington. Bureaucratic controls and bureaucratic regulations. In the final analysis, in a free society like ours where we have the capitalistic system and private enterprise, say five firms are manufacturing the same product, the American people aren't all crazy. They know by the process of use which one of those products is the most efficient and which is the cheapest and in the final analysis, the consumer polices their own product. If you have got junk goods, it won't sell. At least you might sell it one time, but you don't buy it the second time. Pretty soon, that business, that firm, is out of business. They can't sell their junk goods. Of course, the capitalistic competitive system, where you don't have a monopoly, prevents them from gouging the consumer. If I am selling a device for a dollar that cost me ten cents, somebody very quickly will find out how profitable that item is and he will put it on the market and sell it for twenty cents and then I will cut mine to eighteen cents and he will cut his to eighteen cents and that is the way it goes. You've got your competition that regulates the sale of consumer products. | <urn:uuid:ca91561a-b8b8-4e0a-adff-99b2269bc6cd> | http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0331-2/excerpts/excerpt_4143.html | en | 0.968334 | 0.045931 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I need help on figuring out the correct approach to parse out the names of geographic entities from a web search query.
I've been reading various papers on the subject and it seems that the approach I need to take is a dictionary/gazeteer approach.
Basically what researchers on the subject do is that they take the query and look for candidate entries in the dictionary that match any substring of one or more words included in the query.
Then they select the dictionary entry that has the longest number of words.
So my question is basically: How do I implement the above parsing algorithm in an efficient manner?
How do I find the dictionary entry that best matches any words sub-sequence of my original string?
Many thanks in advance for any suggestion or help. | <urn:uuid:e487d3f7-7824-490c-a653-e293232db2e8> | http://forums.codeguru.com/showthread.php?488687-Help-with-scheduling-algorithm&goto=nextnewest | en | 0.921261 | 0.935518 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
MuMM: Make up My Mind!
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I see people with tons of these and they're really expensive. Are they worth putting out the money at all these people keep hitting me up and asking me for? Why are they so expensive what did they do?
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Local Government Offices
Cities, municipalities, counties, school districts and boards of education all employ lawyers. Because of the preponderance of federal cases in law school coursework, many students come to assume that federal practice is somehow “better” than local government practice; however, attorneys working in local government know that there is tremendous satisfaction in seeing the direct impact of their work in their own community.
Large urban centers often have city attorney, solicitor, or corporation counsel’s offices (all carrying out essentially the same functions and referred to here as the “city attorney’s office”), which provide legal counsel to city officials and represent the city in litigation (like the Attorney General's Office on the state, or DOJ on the federal, level). In the biggest cities, the city attorney’s office can be as large and complex as a small state AG’s office. Many large cities also have in-house counsel for individual city agencies, such as the local Civil Rights Commission or the city child welfare agency. Smaller municipalities may also employ city attorneys to provide representation in litigation and legal advice on day-to-day issues such as personnel and zoning questions, as well as drafting and negotiating legislation, public contracts and real estate agreements.
Local Government Hiring
Lawyers hired for local positions are generally required to have prior legal experience, as well as relevant state bar admission. Municipalities sometimes contract out all or part of their legal work to private public interest law firms specializing in public sector law.
Last modified: August 15, 2014
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Google AdWords Quality Score -- That's Old-School for SEO
Google's new AdWords Quality Score algorithm is messin' with some folks who were very happy with the way things were. And I've been listening to the complaints.
In case you aren't aware, or don't participate in PPC search on Google via AdWords, there's a new sheriff it town and his name is "Buildapage." That's right, build a page that is specific for every keyword that you're targeting with your AdWords campaigns.
Google is asking that you have a targeted page for every keyword that you would like to advertise against. They're saying that if the keywords aren't in the title tag, content, and if the page isn't specific to the keywords that you would like to advertise against, there's a good chance that the page won't show up in the top Google AdWords listings, even if you're willing to pay or bid the highest amount for a listing there.
Hmmm...sounds familiar...where have I heard this before?
Oh yeah, that's the way that organic search has worked for a long time.
If you think about it, this isn't such a bad move by Google. They're protecting the user experience. They also may be indirectly protecting advertisers from spending their money on clicks that wouldn't be relevant or convert for them. Sounds like a win/win to me.
The other interesting thing about the AdWords Quality Score is its heavy weighing toward CTR. If this is such an important aspect of the system because Google deems this as proving that an ad is valuable to a searcher, what's to say that they don't use the same metrics in their organic listings? The AdWords blog has reported that they often apply a "disabling rule" that inhibits ads with very low CTRs for a given query from being shown.
Many SEOs probably neglect optimizing their SERP snippets to entice users to click. If your site ranks number five or six, and is driving more clicks than the four, what's to say that Google won't reward you with better rankings for providing a better user experience? This isn't to say that this is definitely a way that Google's algorithm works, but just an idea to get you thinking about how optimizing for PPC can help out greatly in what you do for your organic campaign because, as Google says, "better ad relevance leads to a better user experience."
As a little refresher for those SEO newbies out there, you must have a few things to do well in organic search:
1. A Web site that's deep in quality content (specific content to your industry).
2. A Web site that is linked to by other relevant, quality Web sites.
3. An older domain certainly doesn't hurt.
4. A strategy and plan for execution of that strategy.
That last one is where things get a little cloudy for most people. When I say "strategy," it doesn't have to be rocket science. I'm talking about knowing which keywords you would like to target and building a page for these keywords.
These pages should mean something to your audience and be helpful or useful for them. Don't just post a bunch of nonsensical pages.
Developing a page for each keyword that you want to rank for makes sense, doesn't it? Search engines read text, so if you don't have the keywords on your page, you probably won't rank for those keywords.
Once you've developed these pages, make sure that you're giving each a unique title tag, keyword inclusion in the URL (if you can swing it, do something like, keyword inclusion in the header (H1), and keyword inclusion in the first paragraph of copy and links pointing to this page (internal and external links).
A good practice for checking the ability of a page to rank organically for a keyword is to run PPC for the keywords you're targeting and use the page as your landing page. Send some traffic to it, and then check on your AdWords Quality Score.
If your quality score is low, then you may want to rethink the setup of that page because it probably won't rank well in organics for these same terms. If it ranks well, then you know you could rank even better because Google is telling you that the quality of this page is low.
By optimizing your Web site for organic search, and building out a bunch of pages for each keyword that you're honestly interested in targeting, your pages might do well with Google's Quality Score algorithm. After all, it's starting to look more like the organic algorithm.
About the author
Read more of Mark Jackson's columns at ClickZ. | <urn:uuid:077f5fd7-aad2-44cd-97f5-63b34b3fa51c> | http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/opinion/2065517/google-adwords-quality-score-thats-old-school-seo | en | 0.954725 | 0.045459 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Michelle Obama The Angry Black Woman vs. Ellen Sturtz
So Tuesday night, Michelle Obama was giving a speech during a fundraiser and was interrupted by a heckler. The heckler was Ellen Sturtz. The issue Sturtz was concerned about was getting the President to sign an Executive Order on gay rights. Michelle Obama, responded by simply giving Sturtz an offer. She could keep talking and discussing gay rights and Executive Orders, and Michelle would not speak anymore; or Sturtz could be quiet, and The First Lady would finish what she was saying. She didn't curse Sturtz out. Mrs. Obama did not call her names, she simply gave her a choice, as even she says, she wasn't good at that kind of thing.
Now I'm pro gay rights. I'm very pro freedom of speech and I defend and I applaud Ms. Sturtz for her stance and choice to protest. However, I am a bit disturbed by Ms. Sturtz response to Ms. Obama's reaction to her protest:
"She came right down in my face," Sturtz told the Washington Post. "I was taken aback."
Ms. Sturtz seems to be surprised the FLOTUS responded to her. Wasn't that the intent of heckling? She approached you, and explained how she felt about the situation, and that is "getting in your face" and you were the one "taken aback", and not the FLOTUS as she was giving a speech on children while you interrupted her to discuss another issue all together?
I'm "taken aback" in how the media has portrayed this situation. That Ms. Obama was aggressive in her response. You know, essentially being the "angry black woman". We all know she shouldn't have said or done anything, after all, she's just the First Lady of the United States. What is the appropriate way to handle a heckler? What could have Michelle Obama done differently? I'm also curious as to why Ms. Sturtz wanted the FLOTUS to demand the POTUS sign an Executive Order. Was it simply for the awareness? Most likely, but let's be honest, Michelle isn't in Barack's office telling him what to do on a daily basis. Not to mention Barack Obama is the first president who has openly supported gay rights and marriage equality, so why demand that he is to sign the Executive Order, in a long uphill battle that is likely to come? Ms. Sturtz seems to think her and Michelle were on equal footing. They weren't. Ms. Sturtz disrespected Mrs. Obama, and now she wants to cry foul because Ms. Obama didn't just sit there and take it. Now Ms. Obama is the scary woman who "got in her face", instead of the First Lady of the United States who took a stand in how to respond to a heckler. Michelle Obama was the one interrupted, she was the one disrespected, but it seems Ms. Sturtz has now become "the victim".
I shouldn't be surprised at the response of the media or Ellen Sturtz. As a black woman, it's the quintessential stereotype. You're angry and full of attitude, because that is just how us black women are. I know I've talk to several other black woman who have been in similar situations. No matter how the approach was in a situation where there is a difference of opinion, or if you are given a position of power, you will be the rude, aggressive black woman who's intent it is to make everyone's lives hell.
The problem is, that isn't always the case, and I think in many instances when the "angry black woman" stereotype surfaces, it is really code for "you need to sit down, shut up, and just take it like you used to". Well the problem is no one has to sit and take it anymore. We're still needed to be passive for some people, and they fail to realize being passive has never really benefited anyone trying to gain equality or gain respect. I'm not saying black women are ball busters, we're just now on equal footing, and that makes some people uncomfortable, so even when we do the same things, they are perceived differently when someone else does it; and there is really nothing we can do to change the perception because it's a stereotype based upon outdated assumptions of woman and blacks in this country. It's 2013, not 1913 we're equals, and just because we are equals, doesn't mean we need to apologize for people's outdated expectations. So Michelle Obama can continue to handle business like she's always done, and it's the media and people like Ms. Sturtz who need to quit being "taken aback" anytime a black woman exercises her freedom to not want to be disrespected.
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Mother Fucker
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Isabella Clara Eugenia as nun Anonymous
The Blessed Mother Fucker
Fucker was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October 2003, hence Fucker may be properly called Blessed Fucker by Catholics. Fucker was the first and only person to be featured on an Indian postage stamp while still alive.
edit Books
Fucker was also known for Fucker's books about Christian spirituality, prayer and fuck you, some of which were written together with Fucker's close friend Frère Roger. While for some, Fucker was the embodiment of a "living saint," others such as Christopher Hitchens, who believed Fucker to be "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud," have raised questions about Fucker public statements, working practices, political connections, and funding terrorism. Are you fucking mad?
edit Dictionary Definition
"Sister" Fucker as a young novice.
Mother Fucker: noun that acquired in time wide moral connotations, due especially to the subjective complexity of the term "mother". Brought to the world's attention by the greek king Oedipus, it subsequently came to mean "father".
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids came up with the term "motherfucker" after the North Philly white catholic priest tickled each of their balls gently until they bled. He did that while he was having sex with his mother.
~ Samuel L Jackson on Molesting Priest
“Youse a bitch ass motherfucker! HEY HEY HEY!”
~ Fat Albert on Molesting Priest
~ Bill Cosby on Molesting Priest
“Yippie Kay-Yay, Mothafucka!”
~ Bruce Willis on fucking a Mother Fucker
edit Alternate Meanings
The purports of the term have diversified dramatically in in this fast pacing world:
1. Mother of Anton Fucker, the man who devised the means to screw people through an airplane propellor;
2. Sexy dude; attractive person;
3. Postman;
4. Neighbour from the above floor who comes home drunk late at night, and accidentally opens the wrong door;
5. General manager (if mother is a secretary);
6. Misa activist - esoteric, yoga based practices follower;
7. Jehovah's Witnesses;
8. You, if you don't check your mother is really gone, while you're making love to your girlfriend in your parents' dark bedroom. This is sometimes also referred to as "brother fucker", or God knows what else;
9. Michael Jackson. Not likely, but who knows what that bugger's up to;
10. Brad Pitt. Also, possibly Angelina Jolie. These are the Christmas mother fucker editions. While in America, people must pay extra attention;
11. Melissa Etheridge. Why do you think your mother has taken a sudden interest in guitar, dude?;
12. A tall black-man, called Bassulu. Noticed any such characters around your building lately? You may start asking them for allowance.
13. The love between mother and son.
Since the world has gone increasingly evil, this term has been lately extended to include almost everybody.
In Romania, a close related activity to the above acceptances is muie. thats nasty
edit Grandmotherfuckers
edit List of All-Time Mother Fuckers
edit References
edit See also
For those without comedic tastes, the so-called experts at Wikipedia have an article very remotely related to Mother Fucker.
Four-letter words (of various lengths)
Personal tools
In other languages | <urn:uuid:77a51b66-d5d9-4c03-9266-72992e712464> | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Mother_fucker | en | 0.929065 | 0.079225 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Anthem Suggestions
Hi. Was hoping someone would have some anthem suggestions for Matthew 5:38-48. Thanks!
Replies (3): Threaded | Chronological | <urn:uuid:597f7fd4-1b99-45d5-9220-1e569945cea5> | http://www.choralnet.org/view/394484 | en | 0.895797 | 0.227984 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Opinion Editorials
Fortunately, Judge Cofield Picks Retirement
Given her poor record, Superior Court Judge E. Curtissa Cofield is right to call it a day and retire from the bench with a full $108,500 annual pension when her term expires a year from now.
The 65-year-old judge, who since 2009 has been given two disciplinary suspensions without pay, has reportedly withdrawn her bid for reappointment to another eight-year term.
The state's Judicial Selection Commission, which evaluates incumbents for judgeships, must be sighing with relief. Now it won't have to wrestle with whether to recommend her to the governor for reappointment.
Failure to reappoint a sitting judge doesn't happen often, but in Judge Cofield's case it would have been deserved.
In October 2008, she was arrested on drunken driving charges. She was caught on tape making racist remarks and threatening the officers' jobs.
For that shocking display, Judge Cofield was given a 240-day suspension without pay by the Judicial Review Council, the judiciary's disciplinary body. She thought the penalty was "awfully harsh," but in retrospect it was not harsh enough.
The same can be said for the 30-day suspension without pay she received last year as a juvenile court judge in New Britain for inexcusably letting child-protection cases languish for three times longer than the law allows.
This failure was arguably worse than Judge Cofield's ugly, drunken rant at the Glastonbury police station because the lives of 10 at-risk children were at stake.
It is difficult to stop the reappointment of judges because incumbent-friendly state law gives each sitting judge who seeks another term the presumption that he or she qualifies for retention. For the selection commission to rebut that presumption can take months.
Judge Cofield did the judiciary a favor by deciding not to seek another term. She surely has had many more good days than bad ones while a judge. But the bad have been awful.
Copyright © 2015, Hartford Courant | <urn:uuid:e336892f-e6f8-4b70-acdc-237bf95649a0> | http://www.courant.com/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-judge-with-poor-record-to-retire-20140603-story.html | en | 0.979853 | 0.020507 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Hans Zimmer On Returning To Batman
By Garth Franklin Tuesday September 3rd 2013 01:02PM
He scored Chris Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy, and Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel". Now, things are circling back around for composer Hans Zimmer who isn't quite sure what he'll do for the upcoming 'Steel' sequel involving a quite different Batman.
In an interview with Red Carpet News, Zimmer confirms he hasn't accepted the job yet. However, he's already considered the dilemma:
"This is really complicated for me. Because we all went, 'Okay, we're done with Batman,' and now it's sort of getting smuggled back in. I'll have to have a think about that one. I might give you a new Batman if I do it."
He was also asked his opinion on Affleck as Batman:
| <urn:uuid:cd502138-6833-4c91-9b55-3594ddb4dca7> | http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/28435/hans-zimmer-on-returning-to-batman | en | 0.988291 | 0.068293 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
tight curl or loose ?
I am a super- plushy.
Barked: Wed Apr 2, '08 7:04pm PST
ok here's the question. Bear has a really tight double curled tail and lily has a looser tail that straightens when
she sleeps. What are everyone elses tails like?eek
Barked: Fri Apr 11, '08 10:19pm PST
tight curl, curls 1 1/2 times.
Do any other shiba tails droop when they're scared
I am a super- plushy.
Barked: Sat Apr 12, '08 10:55pm PST
Lily's tail is dead straight when she is scared.
Barked: Thu Apr 17, '08 8:02am PST
My tail is a perfect circle. When I am scared or unhappy it uncurls. It makes it easy for my mom to know when I'm scared or uneasy.
Princess of the- Doggy World
Barked: Thu May 22, '08 3:26am PST
Takaras tail is tighley curled but straightens and droops down when she's anxious, scared or worried
Barked: Wed Jul 9, '08 5:15pm PST
Real tight curl..almost goes around twice. With all of the colors in it, it looks like a cinnamon roll.
Mine, all mine!
Barked: Mon Sep 8, '08 12:29pm PST
In order --
Wika has a tight single curl, Kai has a loose single curl, Kat has a tight double curl, Ryder has a loose single curl, Kiko a sickle or Saisho tail, JackJack a tight double curl and Dozer a loose single curl.
Wika, who is almost 13 years old has lost some of her curl - it never used to drop - ever, but as she's aged, it does drop now and then. Kat's and Jack's are too tight to ever drop, Kiko's goes straight behind her at times, but doesn't drop and Ryder and Dozer never drop their tails.
Kiko and Dozer have the best (as in most preferred for showing) tails but all of them (except for puppy JackJack) are champions and Jack's got almost all his points to be a champion.
All of them except for Kat's and JackJack's tails go streaming out in a straight line and act as a rudder when they're running at top speed.
Mr. Scream- *Anyone Know- Shiba Scream?*
Barked: Sun Apr 11, '10 2:54pm PST
Maddox usually has a loose single curl, almost sickle at times. He does lower it though when he's nervous. | <urn:uuid:c1fa3f32-1a33-45d3-940e-0b7fb9612f38> | http://www.dogster.com/forums/groups/thread/511828/last | en | 0.933252 | 0.034268 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Friedman's test
GraphPad Statistics Guide
Analysis checklist: Friedman's test
Analysis checklist: Friedman's test
Previous topic Next topic No expanding text in this topic
Analysis checklist: Friedman's test
Friedman's test is a nonparametric test that compares three or more paired groups.
Was the matching effective?
The whole point of using a repeated-measures test is to control for experimental variability. Some factors you don't control in the experiment will affect all the measurements from one subject equally, so they will not affect the difference between the measurements in that subject. By analyzing only the differences, therefore, a matched test controls for some of the sources of scatter.
The matching should be part of the experimental design and not something you do after collecting data. Prism does not test the adequacy of matching with the Friedman test.
Are the subjects (rows) independent?
The results of a Friedman test only make sense when the subjects (rows) are independent – that no random factor has affected values in more than one row. Prism cannot test this assumption. You must think about the experimental design. For example, the errors are not independent if you have six rows of data obtained from three animals in duplicate. In this case, some random factor may cause all the values from one animal to be high or low. Since this factor would affect two of the rows (but not the other four), the rows are not independent.
Are the data clearly sampled from non-Gaussian populations?
By selecting a nonparametric test, you have avoided assuming that the data were sampled from Gaussian distributions, but there are drawbacks to using a nonparametric test. If the populations really are Gaussian, the nonparametric tests have less power (are less likely to give you a small P value), especially with small sample sizes. Furthermore, Prism (along with most other programs) does not calculate confidence intervals when calculating nonparametric tests. If the distribution is clearly not bell-shaped, consider transforming the values (perhaps to logs or reciprocals) to create a Gaussian distribution and then using repeated-measures ANOVA.
Is there only one factor?
One-way ANOVA compares three or more groups defined by one factor. For example, you might compare a control group, with a drug treatment group and a group treated with drug plus antagonist. Or you might compare a control group with five different drug treatments.
Some experiments involve more than one factor. For example, you might compare three different drugs in men and women. There are two factors in that experiment: drug treatment and gender. Similarly, there are two factors if you wish to compare the effect of drug treatment at several time points. These data need to be analyzed by two-way ANOVA, also called two-factor ANOVA. | <urn:uuid:fa6b659a-5907-4f19-8c8a-98399677db54> | http://www.graphpad.com/guides/prism/6/statistics/stat_checklist_friedman.htm | en | 0.90865 | 0.093999 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Joaquim Terruella Matilla
Born in 1891. Nephew and disciple of Segundo Matilla. He was also a pupil of Burroughs, with whom he traveled to Italy and painted in Aranjuez. Exhibited for the first time in Goya, Barcelona (1916), the city where he held often. He did well in Paris in 1922. He was a graphic illustrator but mostly an landscape Impressionist . He died in 1956. | <urn:uuid:86b4977f-6e91-4dc3-b63c-85b9be450af3> | http://www.martinsthepublishers.co.uk/martins-the-gallery/artists/joaquim-terruella-matilla/ | en | 0.956937 | 0.147949 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.
Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 6
Search for a response to this letter.
Docno: ADMS-06-06-02-0084
Author: Adams, John
Recipient: MacCreery, William
Date: 1778-05-14
To William MacCreery
Passy, 14 May 1778. printed:JA, Diary and Autobiography, 4:98–99. Replying to MacCreery's letters of 25 April (above) and 3 May (Adams Family Correspondence, 3:12, note 2), Adams thanked MacCreery for his unsuccessful effort to find a pair of JQA's breeches, containing a sum of money, that had disappeared either at Bordeaux or on the trip to Paris. Adams then turned to MacCreery's warnings against Arthur Lee, given during Adams' stay at Bordeaux (Diary and Autobiography, 2:304; 4:39, 68) and in MacCreery's letter of 25 April. JA declared that from all that he had seen, Lee was devoted wholly to the public interest and that, regardless of MacCreery's opinion of Silas Deane, who { 114 } had largely controlled the Commissioners' finances during his tenure, a large sum of money had been spent and another was still owed and that he was unable to determine exactly what America had received for the expenditures. Finally, in regard to MacCreery's desire that one of the Delaps be appointed the continental agent at Bordeaux, Adams stated that such matters were in the hands of the Continental Congress and, in any event, John Bondfield was doing a satisfactory job. JA did not send this letter because, after considering its content, he concluded that it was inappropriate to air the Commission's internal disputes before a private person. | <urn:uuid:cb211860-63ce-44ad-bb9c-630d2ef954f8> | http://www.masshist.org/publications/apde2/view?id=ADMS-06-06-02-0084 | en | 0.964863 | 0.079531 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
And Now, Back to the Economy
Under Obama, will taxpayers still fund Wall Street's bonuses?
| Fri Nov. 7, 2008 3:00 AM EST
During his victory speech, President-elect Barack Obama told the world that "if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers."
It seems Wall Street didn't get the memo. All nine banks about to get a total equity capital injection of $125 billion, courtesy of phase one of the bailout plan, reserved $108 billion during 2008 in order to pay for compensation and bonuses (.pdf). Guess who'll end up footing the bill?
Advertise on
That hasn't happened, which is why it's particularly offensive that this no-strings-attached money is going to line the pockets of the biggest executives on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs, the country's top investment bank (which since September 21 calls itself a bank holding company), set aside $11.4 billion during the first nine months of this year to cover bonus payments for its 443 senior partners and other employees. That's one-third less than last year's amount, but only slightly more than the firm's $10 billion US government gift. Economic woes notwithstanding, those partners are still expected to make at least $5 million each. While Wall Street may not believe in higher taxes for the richest citizens, it does believe in higher bonuses for top executives. The bulk of bonus money on Wall Street concentrates there, after ferocious internal discussions about how much each person's contribution to the firm is worth, no matter what the market conditions are on the outside. Trust me, I witnessed too many of these during my time on Wall Street. They are exercises in pure, unadulterated whines of entitlement.
Yet that didn't stop their election money from pouring out. Goldman was Obama's largest corporate campaign contributor, with $874,207. Also in the Obama top 20 were three other recipients of bailout capital injections: JPM, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. In the spirit of not sacrificing Main Street for Wall Street, this shouldn't matter.
Similarly, New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo demanded information about this year's bonuses, requesting a detailed accounting of expected payments to top management, including the size of the firm's expected bonus pool both before and after knowing that it would be a recipient of taxpayer funds.
House Financial Service Committee chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) concurred. "Any use of the these funds for any purpose other than lending—for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc.—is a violation of the terms of the [Troubled Assets Relief Program] Act." Next week, his committee will hold oversight hearings on the matter.
If that sounds like accounting prattle, it's because it is. It doesn't matter where in the balance sheet capital comes from or goes; the point is, there's more of it because of taxpayer redistribution in the wrong direction than there would have been otherwise, and that is not just.
According to Gar Alperovitz, economist and coauthor with Lew Daly of the book Unjust Deserts, that beautifully explains why too much money goes to those whose contributions are marginal compared to the historical contribution of others before them. "We're making homeowners take a big hit, and if there's any justification for any of these bonuses, which is dubious, sharing that burden is important."
That's not quite the sharing that Wall Street wanted from the bailout package, but if "change has come to America," as per Obama's promise, then it's time for Wall Street to shoulder its share. Taxpayers will not be getting a personal return on their capital from Goldman Sachs partners. Getting involved in decisively saving taxpayer money from being distributed to the likes of Lloyd Blankfein before these payments are made would be an excellent way for Obama to invoke immediate change.
| <urn:uuid:932d0883-dc62-4038-aab7-e7d900d4004f> | http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/11/and-now-back-economy | en | 0.962621 | 0.060373 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Week 10
Season 10
Episode 1010
Air Date 11/18/10
Steuart admits the situation is tense outside the boardroom between himself, Clint and Brandy. Brandy explains that she's not upset, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit to being on her guard, working alongside two men who've worked together since day one and have built up such camaraderie. When Liza and Stephanie come out of the boardroom, the other three talk about how this session was the longest boardroom yet. Stephanie tells Liza that she didn't like anything Liza said in the boardroom. She resents Liza, and basically accuses her of lying to Mr. Trump's face. Interviewed, Stephanie can't believe she's now stuck with Liza, the one person in the competition she can't stand. Her plan is to win a task, then throw Liza under the bus.
As winning project manager, Clint gets to meet with Barry Sternlicht, the founder and CEO of Starwood Properties Trust. Sternlicht tells Clint, "Genius is perseverance in disguise." After their meeting, Sternlicht gives Clint a present from Mr. Trump, a $5,000 gift certificate from Pier 1 Imports, a gift Clint can't wait to share with his wife.
Trump introduces Jane Hancock from FLO TV and Ted Woodbury from AT&T. Ted announces the new task: the teams will be creating 30-second spots that convince people to use AT&T mobile to watch their favorite programming on the go. Jane explains that the task will be judged by three criteria: creativity, brand representation, and concise and clear messaging. Stephanie announces she'll be project manager for Fortitude, while Steuart opts to be team leader for Octane.
Stephanie comes up with the idea of putting people in situations they don't want to be in so they escape by watching TV on their phone. Liza suggests a mother with her kids, but Stephanie won't bend, and insists on an office setting. Stephanie, who's "had issues with Liza since the beginning," tasks Liza with accounting and location scouting. Stephanie considers herself a one-man show with a "secretary," i.e. Liza. Meanwhile, Steuart assigns himself editing, Clint creative, and Brandy presentation. They're struggling for an idea, when Clint has an epiphany in the bathroom. He suggests a group of guys, all excitedly watching their favorite sports, except one guy who doesn't have AT&T mobile. At the end of the spot, he walks into AT&T and becomes one of the guys. Steuart isn't sold on the idea, but for lack of a better one, they go for it.
Fortitude meets with their photographer. Liza introduces herself, but Stephanie takes over, insisting she's the boss. Unable to secure either a sporting location or an office location over the phone, Liza leaves to find a location. Looking increasingly annoyed, the cinematographer points out that they have no location, no props, no wardrobe, and no actors. He asks if they even have a concept. Stephanie says they jotted something down on the way over. Finally the actors arrive. Lacking a real location, Stephanie decides to rehearse with what they have. The cinematographer works with her, but continues to roll his eyes at the apparent pointlessness of what they're doing.
Realizing they probably have an overly ambitious schedule, Octane fights to shoot all six of their scenes in time. Clint plays the father in the commercial, the odd man out without FLO TV on an AT&T mobile phone. Clint says his role on the task is "you name it": actor, director and writer. Steuart is project manager, but Clint feels he's putting in as much as a PM would. Meanwhile, Brandy feels like she doesn't have a lot of input in the project and it's not her "baby." Ivanka visits, and Clint immediately launches into a description of the project. She says that it seems like Steuart is relying too much on Clint, and wonders if Steuart is actually a good leader or just fortunate to surround himself with strong people.
Unable to find an actual location, Fortitude is forced to use – in Stephanie's words – a "cheesy backdrop" for a location. Cinematographer Chris Hall says Stephanie is "all over the place," and describes this as literally the "high school version of film school." He says he's being extra patient with Stephanie but it's starting to wear off. Running out of time, with no location, no wardrobe, and barely any concept, Stephanie decides she's going to have to improvise.
Don stops by while Stephanie directs the actors against a sky backdrop. She explains that they were hoping to have an outdoor location, but were disappointed. When Don asks how they're doing time-wise, Stephanie says they're doing well. Liza arrives with two bags of props and costumes, not enough for all of the actors. Don sees that Stephanie is once again relegating Liza to a negligible role. If they win, that's great, because she'll take the major credit. But if they lose, it's a lot of responsibility Stephanie's taking on herself. Stephanie thinks she's doing a great job directing, and thinks it might be her calling. Watching the results, Liza and Chris the cinematographer seem inclined to disagree.
Octane is feeling pressed for time while they edit their footage. Working until early in the morning, they worry that fatigue is affecting their ability to judge edits clearly. Meanwhile, Liza squirms, watching their footage and thinking she would laugh at this if it were a real commercial. Stephanie considers a lot of the situation to be Liza's failure, since she didn't deliver a location. She also feels as though Liza has washed her hands of the project. Stephanie says that if Liza thinks she can wash her hands of the project and pass the responsibility on to her, she has another thing coming.
Fortitude presents their ad to Trump and the judges. It's an office scene where the boss complains about a lack of energy in the office. One of the employees suddenly jumps up, yelling the score - he's watching sports on his AT&T mobile. The boss says they need to get everyone AT&T mobile so they can foster that energy. After the commercial, Stephanie explains what they were trying to achieve, demonstrating that AT&T Mobile and FLO TV can help people capture the "finer moments" in life. Trump says, "Very nice, very good," and Stephanie is ecstatic to have finally had the chance to "relay the true Stephanie to Mr. Trump."
Octane presents their commercial with Clint as the odd-man-out dad, who finally joins the movement of folks watching live TV through FLO TV on their AT&T mobile phones. After the commercial, the three deliver their presentation. Steuart is a little stiff, and Brandy mangles her lines left and right. Trump asks Brandy why she didn't memorize her lines. Steuart explains that they were up all night editing. While he and Clint edited, Brandy worked on the presentation. Steuart thinks their presentation went well, but admits they could have done better. Ultimately though, "What's done is done, and what are you gonna do?"
In the boardroom, Trump asks Steuart how he thinks they did. Steuart thinks they did well. He admits Brandy didn't do as well with her presentation as she had for previous tasks, and Brandy agrees. Trump says some days you're up, some days you're down. While he thought she did a phenomenal job on the previous task and would have hired her in a second, this time the person who did the fantastic job with the presentation was Stephanie. Trump asks Stephanie how she got along with Liza this week, and Stephanie insists they got along fine. Trump asks Liza if that's true, and she says absolutely.
Trump asks Stephanie and Liza who came up with the boardroom idea, because he really doesn't like the idea of his employees watching television on the job. Stephanie admits it was her. Don reads the judges' comments. They really liked Stephanie's presentation. They liked the production values, and they liked the energy level both in the commercial and in her presentation. The negatives were the questionable concept of a boss encouraging employees to watch TV, and the fact that the commercial took 18 seconds out of 30 before finally identifying the brand.
Ivanka tells Octane that the judges liked the way the branding was presented up front and center. They thought the ad was creative with high energy, and they liked that a location for purchase was included in the ad. What they didn't like was that it was a bit campy, and brand messaging was inconsistent. Trump says that the executives felt that Clint, Brandy and Steuart absolutely won. He congratulates them and tells Steuart that he'll be meeting with Cathie Black, chairman of Hearst Magazines.
Trump asks Stephanie why he shouldn't fire her. She said she did her best to overcome her hardheadedness, and Trump acknowledges that she did. She says that Liza is very hard to work with. Trump points out that in the boardroom, Liza always seems very confrontational. Liza claims she has to defend herself from attacks. Stephanie suggests that Liza should get used to being criticized when she doesn't do anything. Ivanka points out that Liza does seem to take an ancillary role, and that at this point in the game, she's the only candidate who hasn't won a task as project manager. She says that Liza is vocal in the boardroom, but doesn't seem particularly effective in the field.
Liza insists she really wanted to use her idea of an overworked mother with kids watching TV in the back of the car, but Stephanie insisted on doing something else; with Stephanie it's "her way or the highway." Trump says that it's sometimes okay for a leader to insist upon her vision. Liza points out that the client didn't like Stephanie's vision. Stephanie insists the problem was the location, but Trump reminds that it was the concept, not the location. Watching outside the boardroom, Steuart insists that Stephanie needs to be fired; Trump can't let her make it out of the boardroom.
Donald Trump Jr. presses Liza again about the fact that she really didn't do more for the execution of the ad. Liza tries to defend herself, but Stephanie shushes her by making mouth-closing gestures with her hands. Watching this, Steuart blurts out, "Ooh, Mahsa hands! The Mahsa hands are back!" while Clint adds, "The guns are out!" Ivanka voices an issue with Stephanie's concept, but also with Liza's lack of input. Liza insists she was pressing for a different concept entirely, but Stephanie wouldn't listen to her. Ivanka says this just tells her that Liza isn't good at selling her ideas.
Trump asks who was responsible for not including the branding earlier in the ad. Stephanie owns it, saying she directed the commercial. Trump tells Stephanie it's very simple: he's not happy with Liza, but as project manager, Stephanie is responsible for the concept and the execution. "Stephanie," he says, "you're fired." Stephanie thanks him and the two get up to leave. As they walk out, Trump tells Liza that he's not happy with her one bit, and she had better get her act together. | <urn:uuid:1b4d8d8a-9e5f-475c-a8bc-cb550b5cd025> | http://www.nbc.com/the-celebrity-apprentice/episode-guide/season-10/week-10/1010 | en | 0.983593 | 0.253121 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
NASA previews Eta Carinae supernova
At the turn of the 19th century, the binary star system Eta Carinae appeared faint and rather undistinguished to astronomers.
Astronomers watch replay of celestial eruption
In the mid-nineteenth century, one of the most massive stars in our Milky Way galaxy suddenly got much brighter. For ten years, indeed, it was the second-brightest star in the sky. | <urn:uuid:c997fe00-2768-49bd-886a-ac783e5dff07> | http://www.tgdaily.com/tag/eta-carinae | en | 0.899766 | 0.437158 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Red Light: Idle or Off?
Image Source: Found_Drama
Dear Pablo: If I am stopped at a red light should I idle my car or turn it off?There are several occasions when people idle. In cold and hot climates people may let their cars idle to acheive a comfortable temperature while they wait in their home. Some people also believe that it is better for their car to let the engine warm up, a myth that I have written about previously. Other times people may let their cars idle while they run into a store for "just a minute." In fact Mayor Michael Bloomberg has told his drivers to cut out the idling after The Associated Press reported it observed his SUVs idling throughout the city. In another form of idling, the one the reader asked about, your car continues to run while you are waiting for the light to change, a train to pass, or a traffic jam to clear. While the first two types of idling are completely dependent on convenience and personal comfort, and therefore easily avoidable, most of us find ourselves idling against our will at least a few times a day.
In order to boost fuel economy further hybrid vehicles automatically turn off when you come to a stop and seamlessly restart once your foot returns to the gas pedal. New technologies are also being developed to allow non-hybrid vehicles to do this as well, such as Mazda's Smart Idling Stop System, an internal combustion engine that is outfitted with idle-stop technology can save fuel by shutting down the engine when the vehicle stops, and nearly instantly restarting it when the driver takes his foot off the brake pedal. But for the rest of us does it actually make sense to turn the car off at red lights?
Using a device called Scangauge II, which plugs directly into a car's computer to read performance characteristics, speed, fuel consumption and numerous of other information, I can observe that my car, a 1.8 liter 4-cylinder uses 0.21-0.27 gallons per hour while idling between 667 and 778 RPM. I can also calculate that the car consumes 0.00053 gallons every time I start it up. So the fuel consumption of leaving it running appears to be far more than the fuel used in starting the vehicle.
A critically-thinking reader may point out that most of the energy used in starting a car comes from the battery and not from the gasoline, which is true. As a result of drawing electricity from the battery for the starter, the alternator needs to capture energy from the engine to recharge the battery. The elevated fuel use for this contributes 0.00225 gallons to the ignition fuel use, for a total of 0.00278 gallons per start-up. If we convert the gallons per hour used in idling (0.21) to gallons per second (0.0000583) and divide the start-up fuel use (0.00278) by it we find that idling longer than 38.6 seconds (in my car) is less efficient than turning the car off an restarting it. The results will vary from car to car but I would expect them to fall into a reasonably close range. In Europe many red lights and railroad crossings where the wait is longer than 30 seconds are equipped with lighted signs telling you when to turn your engine off an on again.
Of course there are many more factors involved in the exact answer, such as "evaporative soak emissions," and the impact on the performance of the catalytic converter as it cools while the engine is off, but in general it is not good TreeHugger practice to idle your car longer than about 30 seconds. I don't need to remind you that the "greenest" car trip of all is the one that is avoided, replaced by alternative means, combined with other trips, or done as a carpool.
Additional Resources for TreeHuggers on the Go:
Hybrid-Electric Cars: How They Work, Battery Technology, and More
Should I Cash In On My Clunker
Is My Electric Bicycle Lame?
New to TreeHugger? | <urn:uuid:7b5821d6-4944-4c49-b1e9-0241292868e6> | http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/red-light-idle-or-off.html | en | 0.95852 | 0.284525 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[AGA]SZ[19]KM[7.50]TM[7200]OT[5x30 byo-yomi] GN[US Open Round 2 - 2008 US Go Congress - Michael Chen 8d vs Bi Jang 9d]PW[Zhaonian (Michael) Chen]PB[Bi Jang]WR[8d]BR[9d]DT[2008-08-04]RO[2]PC[The KGS Go Server at http://www.gokgs.com/]US[Dennis Wheeler]C[Enraiha [8k\]: go zchen go go go :) dthiv57 [9k\]: hi Rakeliem [1k\]: he is zchen? noned [2d\]: no Enraiha [8k\]: yes lol Rakeliem [1k\]: he would be mchen if anything Enraiha [8k\]: zhaonian chen is zchen english name michake Enraiha [8k\]: michael Enraiha [8k\]: lol Rakeliem [1k\]: lol kryft [4k\]: Does the game start in a few minutes? (I'm not entirely sure about the time zone..) hanen [13k\]: maybe they're just thinking Hikarujr [2k\]: bi jang is gentlerain right Rakeliem [1k\]: i think so mate105 [2d\]: the game is about to begin? bleep [3d?\]: probably in 5 minutes Hikarujr [2k\]: wait where is eric luis game bleep [3d?\]: games often start at nice round times :) Hikarujr [2k\]: i know hes like one of the top boards AznKid93 [1d\]: usgo1 AznKid93 [1d\]: has eric's game Hikarujr [2k\]: ahhh ok AznKid93 [1d\]: hes playing ming jiu AznKid93 [1d\]: o.o Hikarujr [2k\]: i guess i have to wait until they post it Hikarujr [2k\]: lol Hikarujr [2k\]: azn didnt cherry win last night AznKid93 [1d\]: go to user view user's info and look for usgo 1, the game is set up bleep [3d?\]: I added all USGO# in my fan list bleep [3d?\]: convenient :) Hikarujr [2k\]: ahh ok AznKid93 [1d\]: cherry in the ing? AznKid93 [1d\]: or open Hikarujr [2k\]: redmond cup road2hell [5d\]: open AznKid93 [1d\]: yeah cherry won in the open first round Zureiyaaa [5d?\]: zchen vs gentlerain, no? Hikarujr [2k\]: yea Groningen [10k\]: black seems to be leading Tangerine [5k\]: score est. is broken, as usual kuikentje [5k\]: white is about 7.5 points ahead actually kuikentje [5k\]: but black's turn bleep [3d?\]: black should be able to catch up this turn Tangerine [5k\]: black has sente i think xushibagua [5k\]: haha kuikentje [5k\]: it looks pretty even DarthVader [12k?\]: blacks dead myspersson [8k\]: i look pretty even bleep [3d?\]: yeah, close game so far Tangerine [5k\]: i can never read pro games road2hell [5d\]: no w is leading by komi so far Tangerine [5k\]: too complicated myspersson [8k\]: white is on the top of black DarthVader [12k?\]: but white is overconcentrater DarthVader [12k?\]: d kuikentje [5k\]: black is thin though kuikentje [5k\]: plenty of invasion points cheuta [2k\]: when will be start ? myspersson [8k\]: soon? Groningen [10k\]: where is the vital point ? kuikentje [5k\]: n7 xushibagua [5k\]: 10-10 nickwasy [11k\]: White's up by komi, but factoring in that it's Black's turn, I'd say the game's pretty even Groningen [10k\]: let the games begin USGO2 [-\]: Welcome to the 2008 US Open, broadcasting live from Portland, Oregon! The Open is being held at the US Go Congress and features one of the strongest fields in North America. The games are being broadcast by the American Go E-Journal; free go news from around the world, delivered free via email; sign up at www.usgo.org christopff [2d\]: when does it start??????????? myspersson [8k\]: yay myspersson [8k\]: now??? Groningen [10k\]: very soon myspersson [8k\]: how soon? Tangerine [5k\]: b getting low on time nickwasy [11k\]: right now they're just playing Go in the depths of their minds mate105 [2d\]: where can i find yesterday result? Sweetmango: White might have komi, but black managed to get sente... PaperClip [1k\]: http://www.usgo.org/congress/2008/ AznKid93 [1d\]: http://www.usgo.org/congress/2008/crosstab.html mate105 [2d\]: thank you very much Tangerine [5k\]: i think we're in ooyose now kuikentje [5k\]: yeah kuikentje [5k\]: all groups are pretty much settled Yopla [5k\]: b lack of cash G0g0l [1d\]: what are the nickname of the two player on kgs ? kuikentje [5k\]: bi jang is gentlerain I believe kuikentje [5k\]: I don't know about Michael Chen Sweetmango: That's zchen Ardur [9k?\]: When is this starting? Sweetmango: who used to be darkmage Groningen [10k\]: the countdown has started Arkavon [11k\]: When does it start? Groningen [10k\]: soon Groningen [10k\]: dunno when the countdown reaches zero USGO2 [-\]: The players are here Dudidude [17k\]: whats going on guys? USGO2 [-\]: they are setting their clock Tangerine [5k\]: cmon tengen ]RE[B+Resign] ;B[pd]C[TanGeng [1k?\]: wooo Arkavon [11k\]: Michael chen anyone we know? Enraiha [8k\]: scroll up USGO2 [-\]: Zhaonian Chen (zchen, darkmage) ] ;W[dd]C[Shana [3d\]: oh so zhaonian=michael ] ;B[pq]C[Shana [3d\]: cool USGO2 [-\]: yes Hoole3 [9k\]: is feng yun playing today? USGO2 [-\]: and Bi Jang = gentlerain barty [1d\]: will be nice game USGO2 [-\]: Feng Yun is not playing in the Open, but in the Ing later tonight ] ;W[dq]C[Hoole3 [9k\]: what is an ing? barty [1d\]: how many people in this year on USGO ?? Shana [3d\]: is there byo yomi? Kumoriha [-\]: What's this? bleep [3d?\]: wasn't he Arwen too? ] ;B[qk]C[nickwasy [11k\]: so is this game actually going on somewhere right now over a real board? DarthVader [12k?\]: yeah chinese!! StormRider [1d\]: yes :) Arkavon [11k\]: Why is R9 better than R10? Kumoriha [-\]: They should totally play mirror go XP USGO2 [-\]: Welcome to the 2008 US Open, broadcasting live from Portland, Oregon! Shana [3d\]: cuz it is DarthVader [12k?\]: its the chinese opening! THATS WHY! StormRider [1d\]: only pros can explain why but try both and you will see it s true ^^ USGO2 [-\]: For latest Congress tourney info, click on http://usgo.org/congress/2008/ Round-by-Round pairings, running crosstabs and more! Shana [3d\]: storm i can explain it too kuikentje [5k\]: you should indeed try both Shana [3d\]: but its too long and complicated xD Kumoriha [-\]: Depends on whether he wants the serious answer or not. StormRider [1d\]: y ^^ ] ;W[mp]C[kuikentje [5k\]: if you can't notice the difference in your games, don't bother about it, the difference will show up when you're stronger (I guess) Arkavon [11k\]: I don't play either :P StormRider [1d\]: but you would forget few se4uences i think .... it s very complicated Shana [3d\]: well lets say... r9 makes w not want to play q5 kryft [4k\]: Or R5, for that matter. DarthVader [12k?\]: why aren't the timers going? Kumoriha [-\]: It's always like this, just don't mind them... Shana [3d\]: cuz they arent playing on kgs Beanbag [2d\]: pincer? IIamamiIk [4k\]: k4 DarthVader [12k?\]: o4 Beanbag [2d\]: l4 barty [1d\]: Why in table of results there is no write how strong player is ?? ] ;B[qo]C[kryft [4k\]: Is Q5 considered a bad reply? Kumoriha [-\]: ...what? IIamamiIk [4k\]: i like q5, but i thought he would play k4 nickwasy [11k\]: I would have played Q5, if only because it looks nicer Kumoriha [-\]: I would have played Q5... Kumoriha [-\]: >_< Shana [3d\]: r5=weird nickwasy [11k\]: maybe it was a mis-place Groningen [10k\]: r5 makes a shimari Arkavon [11k\]: Is N4 common? StormRider [1d\]: maybe r5 for sente? IIamamiIk [4k\]: q5 leaves a peep i guess Beanbag [2d\]: yes n4 is normal move OrangeKyo [7k\]: lol tournament dans do not misplace Shana [3d\]: but the shimari extension is already cut off and it doesnt go that well with r9 USGO2 [-\]: Both players arrived smiling and greeting their friends and other players. ] ;W[oq]C[Shana [3d\]: lol Shana [3d\]: they have friends... im so jealous Beanbag [2d\]: its nice to hear that they are well Kumoriha [-\]: That was informative. Pimple [2k\]: T.T ] ;B[op]C[Ciovo [5k?\]: what did they have for breakfast? Shana [3d\]: cereal StormRider [1d\]: lol nickwasy [11k\]: I was joking, Orange (a play off misclick) USGO2 [-\]: They are now sitting quietly with serious faces studying the board Kumoriha [-\]: Bread and honey ] ;W[nq] ;B[pr]C[kryft [4k\]: nickwasy, I did actually 'misclick' in a real life tournament once. nickwasy [11k\]: that sucks Groningen [10k\]: well, that corner looks pretty solid USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang has a gold kanji painted on his face nickwasy [11k\]: did it cause you to lose? Kumoriha [-\]: Wait, how does that work? Pimple [2k\]: o.o Beanbag [2d\]: whats it say? play234 [5d?\]: lol, what does the kanji say? Shana [3d\]: i never went to a tournament but i took the wrong ko in a real life game before xD after my opponent took like 30 minutes for a move OrangeKyo [7k\]: usgo2, is there a live broadcast to watch the players? USGO2 [-\]: I don't recogonise the kanji myself Kumoriha [-\]: eurogotv maybe? jankenpopp: didnt know kanji was used for korea.. Euphorie [-\]: hangul* kryft [4k\]: nickwasy, It was a rather bad move, but I did end up winning the game anyway. (After all, there are lots of bad moves in kyu games. ;) Mikho [4k\]: I think they use less kanji there ] ;W[jq]C[GeZe8 [19k\]: The previous USGO games did not have a live broadcast, I doubt this one does. play234 [5d?\]: b + Beanbag [2d\]: yeah i thinc they actualy use some kanjis in korea. like the number ones kryft [4k\]: C5 or D5? Kumoriha [-\]: I like think of those as "Chinese" >_> USGO2 [-\]: The games are being broadcast live from the 24th US Go Congress in Portland, Oregon by the American Go E-Journal; free go news from around the world, delivered free via email; sign up at www.usgo.org ben1988 [13k\]: how long do these games last? Arkavon [11k\]: 4 hours? ;) Pimple [2k\]: :-| Rakeliem [1k\]: wow 4 hrs saimic [4k\]: 2 days. ] ;B[cn]C[Mikho [4k\]: how common are these kind of distant approaches in professional play? Sweetmango: Depending on the fuski, quite common Sweetmango: For example, see the Kobayashi Fuseki Arkavon [11k\]: Is C5 good for white here? Mikho [4k\]: I usually play them only in handicap games as white NateC [1d\]: c4 can be an enclosure move here, but I don't w wants a contact play Beanbag [2d\]: ogeima kakari is most common when w has strong formation in upper left and b does not want to get pincered in ] ;W[dl]C[Kumoriha [-\]: One space? Expected it to be further away... kryft [4k\]: Beanbag, White was not particularly strong here, though, so what is the point here? Beanbag [2d\]: i have no clue GeorgeW [-\]: because the pincer fighting would favor white with a close approach due to k3 Beanbag [2d\]: b looks so strange in loer right USGO2 [-\]: The weeklong annual U.S. Go Congress is the biggest event on the North American calendar and features a number of tournaments – including the U.S. Open and North American Ing Masters (NAIM) – as well as lectures and simuls with more than a dozen professionals from the United States, Japan, China and Korea. kryft [4k\]: GeorgeW, Right, and white could develop the lower side while attacking black's pincered stone Mikho [4k\]: I would probably c3 ] ;B[cq] ;W[cp] ;B[dp]C[Hagalaz [4k\]: why is the 9d black? USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang sighs quietly as he plays c3 ] ;W[cr]C[kryft [4k\]: Hagalaz, White does have komi, so it's an even game. It's not a handicap tournament. profi [1k\]: Did Bi Jang win yesterday? Beanbag [2d\]: both win yesterday USGO2 [-\]: For latest Congress tourney info, click on http://usgo.org/congress/2008/ Round-by-Round pairings, running crosstabs and more! fallen16 [15k\]: how come the timers not moving? Mikho [4k\]: Is the us congress related in any way to the european congress? Arkavon [11k\]: They're both go congresses ] ;B[bq]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: they both are done in a building MaLa [2k\]: of different continental Go federations ^^ MaLa [2k\]: EGF and AGA ^^ fallen16 [15k\]: grr. once again y arent the clock thingies moving Zureiyaaa [5d?\]: d5 :P Rakeliem [1k\]: they never do, fallen Mikho [4k\]: and they both happen at the same time it seems USGO2 [-\]: Michael quickly checks his opponent's time (but the clock is on the other side of the board from me, so I can't see it) ] ;W[do] ;B[ep] ;W[co] ;B[eq] ;W[dr] ;B[br]C[G0g0l [1d\]: o17 USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang setps out for a break fallen16 [15k\]: whos the USGO2 dude? i confuzzled wit that. USGO2 [-\]: Michael also gets up and checks out some of the other games in the room nickwasy [11k\]: he's a guy who's actually there Sponge7 [3d\]: lol Sponge7 [3d\]: zchen already tried this against b Mikho [4k\]: weird way of using the time Sponge7 [3d\]: and failed ~~ Jump [6k\]: Micheal's head explodes but then reassembles itself Beanbag [2d\]: he one of our lincs to the live game fallen16 [15k\]: how can he be thea? its online i thought we're all there. er, here. RedFangs: is there a possibility of Hu being one of the USGO dudes? Mikho [4k\]: does this work for b? Cassis0 [3d\]: it seems Beanbag [2d\]: game is not played online USGO2 [-\]: Michael retuns to re-examine the position on the board fallen16 [15k\]: how does that work though? if its not played online how are they playing? nickwasy [11k\]: on a real board... Mikho [4k\]: on real stones Cassis0 [3d\]: wasnt w who was supposed to trick b? Beanbag [2d\]: usgo watche theyr moves and relay onto kgs Mikho [4k\]: with a guy recording the game for everyone to see fallen16 [15k\]: ohhhh Mikho [4k\]: keeping the suspense of the tournament fallen16 [15k\]: i gotcha. so other people play the moves online while they play it on a board Rakeliem [1k\]: yea they are next to the players Beanbag [2d\]: game is demo mode so he can do both side moves by himself ] ;W[er]C[nickwasy [11k\]: anyone know why some stones in the history have numbers and others have triangles? Mikho [4k\]: isn't e2 the only move? Cassis0 [3d\]: e5? Sweetmango: Triangles had comments Sweetmango: numbers are the number of moves nickwasy [11k\]: ok thanks Sweetmango: Welcome ^^ fallen16 [15k\]: are mango's really sweet? NateC [1d\]: b e5 is sente. I can't see this working hollywood [3k\]: yep Cassis0 [3d\]: I don't see what w can do here??? Beanbag [2d\]: not all mangos are sweet RNak [10k\]: omg, it's hard to follow many games :B Rakeliem [1k\]: if f2, g2 Beanbag [2d\]: just pick one and go with it fallen16 [15k\]: lol. fallen16 [15k\]: im hungry... fallen16 [15k\]: damn these people play really slow. Rakeliem [1k\]: I think black can do nothng here elohimmeth [2k\]: can f2 Rakeliem [1k\]: f2 fails to clamp janibi [1d\]: e5 Paradize [2k\]: NateC have probably right here profi [1k\]: white should give e2 and take some influence.. ^^ christopff [2d\]: i read in the description of USGO2 christopff [2d\]: Computer vs. Pro Exhibition Match : 07.08.08 22:00 --> Kim MyungWan 8p will play Mogo on a 3000+ node supercomputer. christopff [2d\]: when is this in germany christopff [2d\]: ? elohimmeth [2k\]: f2 g2 f3 g3 f4 e5 w get 2 stones and black get d6.. christopff [2d\]: and how are the chances of mogo? MaLa [2k\]: 19x19? christopff [2d\]: yeah MaLa [2k\]: Catalin beat Mogo with 9H :P webby913 [14k\]: is Bi Jang bigben79? christopff [2d\]: does it reach 1d on 3000 Stones christopff [2d\]: on 3000 processors Dominas25 [9k?\]: no webby MaLa [2k\]: and Kim should be much stronger then Catalin webby913 [14k\]: thx Dominas25 [9k?\]: he's gentlerain elohimmeth [2k\]: who? Rakeliem [1k\]: dominas: black cyp2d6 [9k\]: 0.3 mDan per processor Rakeliem [1k\]: oh sry IIamamiIk [4k\]: is Bi Jang back, or is he still away? Beanbag [2d\]: whats up with the sequence in the loer right anyway Beanbag [2d\]: loer left i meand USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang is taking a long break I guess :) christopff [2d\]: @USGO2 christopff [2d\]: when is Computer vs. Pro Exhibition Match : 07.08.08 22:00 --> Kim MyungWan 8p will play Mogo on a 3000+ node supercomputer. christopff [2d\]: in germany? webby913 [14k\]: seems w did his home work on this variation christopff [2d\]: do you mean gmt Beanbag [2d\]: w did? it doesnt look good for w tho Tangerine [5k\]: just look at the profile. it is localized to your timezone Tangerine [5k\]: 3pm eastern goinin: Mogo on a computer network plays way worse than a single instance mogo... Paradize [2k\]: B have two empty triangles Paradize [2k\]: that sn t always good Yamantaka [2d\]: they're not empty Mikho [4k\]: I was just going to check this game quick, but now can't logout as I'm curious of how this will turn out... Yamantaka [2d\]: there's no record of this sequence in pro games i have Snaga [1d?\]: f2 ? Kumoriha [-\]: This is really weird... nickwasy [11k\]: zchen is a sophomore at Princeton MrShintou [-\]: f2 leads to black being in a net Beanbag [2d\]: b thincing hard USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang returns; Michael points out his last move Beanbag [2d\]: usualy b can force at e5 ] ;B[fr]C[Mikho [4k\]: ohh Beanbag [2d\]: e5? MrShintou [-\]: f3 ] ;W[gr]C[RedFangs: g2? RedFangs: yep Sonica [1k\]: is chen won yesterday ? goinin: Chen is not a prize. NateC [1d\]: :) Kumoriha [-\]: Hehe Tangerine [5k\]: depends on who you ask Rakeliem [1k\]: bi jang is black? RedFangs: no RedFangs: hes chinese Rakeliem [1k\]: ... goinin: Korean. Kumoriha [-\]: Haha USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang is Korean RedFangs: ah cmon, just a joke :P USGO2 [-\]: living in Seattle RNak [10k\]: how old are them? MrShintou [-\]: overcast lives in seattle are they the same? RedFangs: w 21 b 56? nickwasy [11k\]: Chen is 19 or 20 USGO2 [-\]: former Korean insei (or whatever they call them there) goinin: wonseng Rakeliem [1k\]: e5? profi [1k\]: f1 USGO2 [-\]: players photos are on the website MrShintou [-\]: and by overcast i mean gentlerain lives in seattle ] ;B[fq]C[hollywood [3k\]: can you send the link usgo2 Kumoriha [-\]: Maybe black will make a B2 bomber ] ;W[fs]C[Mikho [4k\]: this can't be good for b ] ;B[hq]C[USGO2 [-\]: For latest Congress tourney info, click on http://usgo.org/congress/2008/ Round-by-Round pairings, running crosstabs and more! Beanbag [2d\]: i was thinking w would go e5 to try and seal b inside Arkavon [11k\]: b F4 looks nice... fallen16 [15k\]: j2? christopff [2d\]: b1 ] ;W[ir]C[fallen16 [15k\]: ha. smart. RedFangs: this seems a mess rainysky [5d?\]: nice... chen gets him with a korean trick barakeel [1k\]: what s the difference between j2 and h2 fallen16 [15k\]: im korean. rainysky [5d?\]: H2 fails barakeel [1k\]: ok rainysky [5d?\]: this is only possible because of K3 NateC [1d\]: It's humbling to see a sequence I don't understsand in the least Mikho [4k\]: B must have misread at some point RedFangs: no way you are korean fallen RedFangs: korean are born 1d fallen16 [15k\]: actually i am. road2hell [5d\]: if w h2..e1 d1 b1 g1 c1 e1 j2 fallen16 [15k\]: lol i jux started playing recently. Dominas25 [9k?\]: or maybe he'll pull a hikaru and make it work for him anyway RedFangs: haha RedFangs: soon you will become 1d fallen16 [15k\]: oh yeah fa sho! Lacrimosa [1k\]: hmm, it's a well known sequence i think? i'm just not sure if it was for getting tricked or avoiding the trick :) Beanbag [2d\]: so this was hamete? Lacrimosa [1k\]: d8 was because k3 was there RedFangs: lets wait gentlerain come with his tesuji Beanbag [2d\]: seems b coulca gone e5 earlier and then eated w with d2 but he went e3 instead RedFangs: coulca? USGO2 [-\]: Myungwan Kim 8p has taken a break from his own game on board 5 and come over to look this one (and the others as well) Beanbag [2d\]: wel actualy thats ko Lacrimosa [1k\]: dinerchtein went through this in his newsletter barakeel [1k\]: i dont see any ko barakeel [1k\]: there RedFangs: i see no light in blacks future RedFangs: cant find any good sequence Beanbag [2d\]: e5 d6 d2 e3 f3 e2 f2 d1 f1 e1 b2 b1 a1 a2 a3 USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang lets out a quiet "humm" Beanbag [2d\]: sekuens started from move 23 larrymarx [6k\]: sequence ] ;B[hr]C[USGO2 [-\]: Michaels eyes quickly scan both this side position and the bottom right corner fairgo1 [10k\]: wow Mikho [4k\]: this usgo2 guy is pretty observant =) fallen16 [15k\]: lmao. USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang, originally prepared to respond quickly, throws the stone he was holding back into his bowl Rakeliem [1k\]: isn't it whites turn ? Beanbag [2d\]: gentlrain is in pinch Tangerine [5k\]: he thought white would immediately respond pippo2 [13k\]: h 1 and w live, no? Mikho [4k\]: well, I would h1 without thinking fallen16 [15k\]: so do they hold the stones like on hikaru? ] ;W[hs] ;B[gq] ;W[gs] ;B[jp]C[Arkavon [11k\]: Between the nail of the index finger and the pad of the middle finger Rakeliem [1k\]: yes they do Beanbag [2d\]: j3? Mikho [4k\]: well that's probably the best way to hold the stones ] ;W[kp] ;B[es] ;W[ds] ;B[bs] ;W[is]C[presque [5k\]: l3 elohimmeth [2k\]: L4 mistake ? ] ;B[dm]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: nice move Mikho [4k\]: d7?? Tangerine [5k\]: b thinking about b5? Paradize [2k\]: yes he ll close him inside USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang gets up for a quick look at the other games around the room Mikho [4k\]: maybe he'll get a chance to fix up his shape by threatening c4 USGO2 [-\]: and while two tables away, still looks back and studies the board position of his own game for another moment or two Rakeliem [1k\]: hehe Snaga [1d?\]: lol this game position looks strange Beanbag [2d\]: lol nice comments usgo! blimp [2d?\]: W ?e7 Mikho [4k\]: never had an opponent like that Rakeliem [1k\]: like a hawk jst4fun [5k\]: w e5? USGO2 [-\]: he's now standing a little ways behind Michael looking at the board from the other side's perspective Mikho [4k\]: lol ] ;W[cl]C[Beanbag [2d\]: b position does not apear to improve Matinee [9k\]: USGO2 is the best commentator ever... Matinee [9k\]: should work for ESPN jrsfsj: white likes to kill USGO2 [-\]: Michael steps out of the room for a moment Beanbag [2d\]: result ok for b if ha can make his grup at f3 strong somehow jrsfsj: is this the result of a mess up joseki? Mikho [4k\]: I can't see a way to accomplish that USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang shakes of a few variations in his head bolb [-\]: >> view offline :) USGO2 [-\]: *off elohimmeth [2k\]: hard for black.. ] ;B[bo] ;W[bp] ;B[bn] ;W[en] ;B[em] ;W[fn]C[Mikho [4k\]: f2 etc weakened... cblau: looking grave for black? Beanbag [2d\]: let it die for now ] ;B[ap]C[send [6d\]: this was a trick play OrangeKyo [7k\]: j4? USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang lets out a brief sigh as he reluctantly places his stone on the board send [6d\]: and d7 was a mistake send [6d\]: should have been b5 ] ;W[hn]C[USGO2 [-\]: Mingjiu Jiang gets up from his game on board 1 and stops by for a brief look fairgo1 [10k\]: O_O USGO2 [-\]: Michael turns around to see how Eric Lui is doing against Mingjiu Beanbag [2d\]: thancs send Motie [?\]: This looks pretty hopeless for B PeteLibo [13k?\]: I like how the players just leave the boards elohimmeth [2k\]: k5.. profi [1k\]: j3 l3 k5 Mikho [4k\]: why do they keep looking at other games? MilanMilan [9d\]: b is gentlerain? Beanbag [2d\]: yes OrangeKyo [7k\]: whoa ] ;B[ip]C[Beanbag [2d\]: w is mage MilanMilan [9d\]: zchen? Beanbag [2d\]: yea Sweetmango: zchen and darkmage, yes cblau: yes, bi jang is gentlerain Sweetmango: And, briefly, if I recall, Arwen? mrkibbles [1d?\]: yup bleep [3d?\]: yep Violence [?\]: hmmmm... Violence [?\]: can white play... L7? MilanMilan [9d\]: L5 DavidB2 [2d?\]: he can play anywhere except in an eye or where a stone has been placed violence Motie [?\]: How about K6? mrkibbles [1d?\]: l5 does shurt slightly cblau: F9? Violence [?\]: L5... then black can J6? USGO2 [-\]: his eyes are darting around that area mrkibbles [1d?\]: i thought l5 in resposne to l7 ] ;W[ko] ;B[in] ;W[im]C[PeteLibo [13k?\]: what is blacks time usgo2? ] ;B[jn]C[USGO2 [-\]: they've only been playing for about an hour, so each player has used about 30 mins so far ] ;W[el] ;B[fm]C[MilanMilan [9d\]: ... ] ;W[gm] ;B[fl]C[MilanMilan [9d\]: strange move MilanMilan [9d\]: risky MrShintou [-\]: ya kryft [4k\]: Milan, What was? Beannie [2d\]: isn't it just an inducing move so white can protect with G7? Beanbag [2d\]: b coulda goed at b8 instead Beanbag [2d\]: f7 is risky nickwasy [11k\]: look at S.E. Motie [?\]: He plans F(? Hoping for B G8 and then W H*? Rocker [4d\]: muhahahaha nickwasy [11k\]: it's more confused than I am Motie [?\]: Oops Motie [?\]: F9 and H8 katori15 [4k\]: Mr SE is not good in AGA rules Rocker [4d\]: lovely struggle Hanne [6k\]: risky because it doesnt protect k6 i guess Rocker [4d\]: butcher each other! ] ;W[kl]C[Beanbag [2d\]: it gived w gooder shape elohimmeth [2k\]: M7 ! Kumoriha [-\]: Gooder? Dominas25 [9k?\]: gived?! Dominas25 [9k?\]: SHAPE?!!! Rakeliem [1k\]: w Kumoriha [-\]: XP Jump [6k\]: YOu got it before me Rocker [4d\]: kill MrShintou [-\]: where whites points Paradize [2k\]: no K8 Beanbag [2d\]: well b stil has aji at l3 to help him Rocker [4d\]: kill with passion Jump [6k\]: L7 Rocker [4d\]: jump u r very strong Beanbag [2d\]: jump only strong at jumping and l7 is a jump ] ;B[jm]C[Paradize [2k\]: is K8 only ?? Paradize [2k\]: ah Paradize [2k\]: B wanna live MrShintou [-\]: white cannot win a ko MrShintou [-\]: and q16 pervents ladder Jump [6k\]: strong but I got it worng MilanMilan [9d\]: b could make use the tie liberty of w ] ;W[jl] ;B[lm]C[bleep [3d?\]: I expected b to cut j8 first :) katori15 [4k\]: g5 g6 h5 k5 for one eye Paradize [2k\]: K5 sente Motie [?\]: B has L3... Jump [6k\]: eye and a half Paradize [2k\]: before NateC [1d\]: Internal life is painful right now; b is better to gain access to the outside Rocker [4d\]: j8 is too normal idea that comes first so they dont play it Beanbag [2d\]: starting to look like b grupe escaped with minimum damage Motie [?\]: yes, looks like BOKITO [2k\]: he can't be happy though with 2 weak groups Rocker [4d\]: is b struggling ????????????? Rakeliem [1k\]: no rocker Jump [6k\]: 2 weak groups to white's one Rocker [4d\]: is b sailing?????????? Motie [?\]: Well, the one on the left can make 2 eyes with B8, so not too weak Paradize [2k\]: lol Beanbag [2d\]: b doing gooder than expected after what hapend in loer left Rocker [4d\]: hi prody cuty USGO2 [-\]: earlier, Nakano 9p and now Feng Yun 9p have been looking at the game Jump [6k\]: yes but gote to make life Violence [?\]: This is very complex fairgo1 [10k\]: O_O Violence [?\]: Can darkmage strike his killing blow here? bleep [3d?\]: think b is out Cassis0 [3d\]: very strange game Rocker [4d\]: they were having headach? Cassis0 [3d\]: b is surviving ] ;W[dg]C[Violence [?\]: Whoa Mikho [4k\]: a tenuki Beanbag [2d\]: send said that b d7 was bad but it might have ended up ok bleep [3d?\]: well, he can't let b attack D8 ] ;B[dj]C[Jump [6k\]: too late? bleep [3d?\]: maybe he should have played closer? ah well, I'm weak, wouldn't know :) Rakeliem [1k\]: e9 Beanbag [2d\]: b9 can put more hair on b chest hngryhippo [4k\]: if the idea was to stop the attack on d8, then he should have played closer bleep [3d?\]: I would have played D11 or connecting around J8 I think Rocker [4d\]: what is the purse for the 1st place? kryft [4k\]: E10? hngryhippo [4k\]: twenny bucks an dinner at macdonals Rakeliem [1k\]: versacci USGO2 [-\]: Feng Yun had walked away, and upon passing by again made a face when seeing Michael's move Jump [6k\]: sweeet prize Beanbag [2d\]: lol hngryhippo [4k\]: ^_^ Rakeliem [1k\]: the d13 right? ] ;W[cj]C[katori15 [4k\]: Feng seems to be a bad poker player Rakeliem [1k\]: so I guess zchen is black and bi jang is white? Dominas25 [9k?\]: that would've been fun to see Jump [6k\]: good thing he plays go then Beanbag [2d\]: when w go b9 then b need eye in midl area bleep [3d?\]: white is a player who never backs away from a fight on KGS, let's see what happens here ^^ Rocker [4d\]: sashimi shushi dinner for the winner? NateC [1d\]: Rakeliem, the names are above this chat box Rakeliem [1k\]: I saw Rakeliem [1k\]: but there's been like 4 indicaters that it's the other way around USGO2 [-\]: I'm recording the game, it may take me a while to add the comments bigben79 [7d\]: m7 is not necessary. b can live by h5 j8 f5 g6 g4 ] ;B[fk]C[Dominas25 [9k?\]: not necessary, but still oodles of fun! Mikho [4k\]: j8? Rakeliem [1k\]: h9? Hanne [6k\]: i would not want to be white ... ] ;W[di]C[bleep [3d?\]: can h8 cut? ] ;B[dn]C[MrShintou [-\]: ignore... Violence [?\]: I guess white wanted his profit up front, in cash down payment USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang quickly plops that stone in place; Michael seems puzzled Euphorie [-\]: these are cutting stones Euphorie [-\]: hard to let them go MrShintou [-\]: white cannot win a ko. Dominas25 [9k?\]: good use of "plops" USGO2 Rakeliem [1k\]: I'm sure he's won a ko before Violence [?\]: what ko? doesn't black want to cut with H8? NateC [1d\]: ...Rakeliem :) fallen16 [15k\]: doesnt black win here? fallen16 [15k\]: j8 after he plays e5? Beanbag [2d\]: e5 just not feasible Motie [?\]: H8 doesn't really cut Rocker [4d\]: ATARI! Mikho [4k\]: what if W hand protected j8 instead of d11? Rakeliem [1k\]: h8 g8.. Mikho [4k\]: *had jst4fun [5k\]: w in trouble Hanne [6k\]: whats wrong with e5 bleep [3d?\]: oh yeah, right :/ bleep [3d?\]: so j8 will probably be better Beanbag [2d\]: e5 gains so little. both b grups strong either way jst4fun [5k\]: w e5 g5 g6 j8 Euphorie [-\]: strong? Rocker [4d\]: camon , connect and think bigben79 [7d\]: e5, h8 Motie [?\]: and then g8? jst4fun [5k\]: hi bigben Rocker [4d\]: connect!!!!!!!! jst4fun [5k\]: I am your fun jst4fun [5k\]: fan nickwasy [11k\]: it might be better to make b take it in gote Hanne [6k\]: e5 j8 makes f9 group weaK no Beanbag [2d\]: tenuki!!! USGO2 [-\]: Michael keeps glancing at the bottom right corner, and the right side makoregevr [2d\]: tenuki =\\? makoregevr [2d\]: i dont think so Gay [4d\]: looks bad for w makoregevr [2d\]: i dont think he will tenuki Rocker [4d\]: michael looks sad? USGO2 [-\]: Now Guo Juan and Jennie Shen come in to check on the strong player's games Gay [4d\]: who is Jennie Shen Rakeliem [1k\]: a pro MrShintou [-\]: she works w/ guo juan on her website lectuers Beanbag [2d\]: shen is 2p? Rakeliem [1k\]: 1 or 2 Euphorie [-\]: she is MrShintou [-\]: she also lecteurs on KGS as JennieP or something of that sork i think Rocker [4d\]: shen is chinese name > Rocker [4d\]: ? Rakeliem [1k\]: probably bleep [3d?\]: if w connects, h8 will work? bleep [3d?\]: or did I misread :) USGO2 [-\]: Both Michael and Bi Jang sit rather still and show little or no emotion on their faces Randombeat [-\]: yes bleep, i read h8 working too Rakeliem [1k\]: I think it will bleep Mikho [4k\]: g8 as a response to b h8 works, no? bleep [3d?\]: so w probably can't, costs too many liberties Rocker [4d\]: r they eating popcorns or any snack? bleep [3d?\]: Mikho: h8 g8 h9 h7 j8 g9 g10 h10 j9 j10 k9 l10 h5 I read ] ;W[pe]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: O.o bleep [3d?\]: ladderbreaker :) MaLa [2k\]: o.O Motie [?\]: whoa! Rakeliem [1k\]: ah yea Rocker [4d\]: what ladder? bleep [3d?\]: cutting stones Mikho [4k\]: right Rakeliem [1k\]: the one around j9 USGO2 [-\]: Michael plops this move down with a sigh Arkavon [11k\]: Where is the ladder? MrShintou [-\]: K8 black group bleep [3d?\]: if b plays h8 w can ladder the bad shape stones Randombeat [-\]: hehe here is the counter bleep [3d?\]: after e5 by white bleep [3d?\]: w can't net, because he has low liberties Hanne [6k\]: net means what Hanne [6k\]: oh net Rocker [4d\]: i dont get this ladder thing!! theres no ladder! bleep [3d?\]: h8 g8 h9 h7 j8 g9 g10 h10 ladder bleep [3d?\]: after white e5 USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang starts to place a stone nearby, hesitates, and pulls back to reconsider Hanne [6k\]: like wooden shoe Rakeliem [1k\]: I would play p16 Arkavon [11k\]: Who is playing better so far? ] ;B[od]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: probably bjang bleep [3d?\]: Rocker: do you agree, or did I miss a variation? Rocker [4d\]: NO LADder!!!!!! bleep [3d?\]: so what move is different? ] ;W[eo]C[Mikho [4k\]: geta ] ;B[mr]C[Rocker [4d\]: bleep i couldnt follow ur variation MrShintou [-\]: finally Rakeliem [1k\]: I knew he would play n2 Motie [?\]: Interesting Mikho [4k\]: so that was what they were eyeing in the lower right USGO2 [-\]: Michael shakes his head a bit in response to Bi's P16 bleep [3d?\]: if b now would play h8 , w answers g8 , h9 h7 j8 g9 g10 Tsuijin [1d\]: he needs to transform into Darkmage Zureiyaaa [5d\]: looks promising for black.. Paddlefoot [1d\]: why not j8 Paddlefoot [1d\]: what am I missing? bleep [3d?\]: j8 j9 bleep [3d?\]: I think ] ;W[km] ;B[kn]C[Motie [?\]: B L3 cacthes D1 bleep [3d?\]: but I know nothing for certain ^^ ] ;W[ln]C[Motie [?\]: catches ] ;B[cs]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: uh ohhh Motie [?\]: I expected W M3 after N2 Motie [?\]: Seemed like only move Rocker [4d\]: bleep maybe u r right!!! bleep [3d?\]: thanks :) then Q15 at least makes sense ;) ] ;W[qd]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: wow ] ;B[qc]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: h8 ] ;W[qe]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: picks some stones up no? ] ;B[rc]C[calgacus [?\]: How does w look - sick as a parrot? ] ;W[oe]C[Mendocino [3k\]: ! ] ;B[nd] ;W[qi]C[Mendocino [3k\]: costy push Rocker [4d\]: but Mikho [4k\]: are parrots generally sick? ] ;B[kc]C[Dominas25 [9k?\]: always bleep [3d?\]: I probably missed a variation, just wondering what :) Paddlefoot [1d\]: welsome to the world of aphorisms calgacus [?\]: Give us a picture usgo Rocker [4d\]: bleep it still didnt break the ladder with q15 p16 exchange i think ] ;W[ec]C[bleep [3d?\]: I think it did, he could play two ladders bleep [3d?\]: I mean, push once extra Paddlefoot [1d\]: ladders? where? Rocker [4d\]: ah bleep [3d?\]: oh wait bleep [3d?\]: not anymore maybe, since l7 l6 exchange Paddlefoot [1d\]: h8 Rocker [4d\]: there was no l7 cut that time bleep [3d?\]: yeah PeteLibo [13k?\]: http://www.usgo.org/congress/2008/openplayers.html PeteLibo [13k?\]: calgacus Beanbag [2d\]: seems like b eneded up gooder in the end USGO2 [-\]: both players are staring intently at the board calgacus [?\]: Yes? ] ;B[kq]C[Dominas25 [9k?\]: not gooder, better profi [1k\]: a ladder working after q15 USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang makes his move as Michael stands up USGO2 [-\]: Michael looks back to see the move, then continues to wander off Motie [?\]: B is going to ponnuli at M6 Motie [?\]: ponnuki Motie [?\]: My spelling isterrible today Rocker [4d\]: where did michael go? Mikho [4k\]: looks like b is quite strong Paddlefoot [1d\]: I can't see w winning Rocker [4d\]: toilette? Beanbag [2d\]: ponuki? cant w go n6? Paddlefoot [1d\]: b looks incredible nouziller [2k\]: he is Richdad [5d\]: c17 instead of l17 might have been better USGO2 [-\]: ey're both back studying the board again Rocker [4d\]: is gentlerain = bi jang? Beanbag [2d\]: anyhow w has bad aji at j8 Motie [?\]: for example: B L2, W M5, B N6 then B M3 destroys W nouziller [2k\]: yes USGO2 [-\]: yes Rocker elohimmeth [2k\]: m2 only move.. Paddlefoot [1d\]: aaah ] ;W[lq]C[elohimmeth [2k\]: m3 sorry. ] ;B[mn] ;W[lo] ;B[es]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: w can surviv ] ;W[lr]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: but seems still behind Beanbag [2d\]: w end up under severe ataction USGO2 [-\]: white has 55 mins left, black has 71 min Mikho [4k\]: so what do you think was w's mistake? Mendocino [3k\]: now cut Beanbag [2d\]: probably tenuki at d13 Paddlefoot [1d\]: cutting at M6 Paddlefoot [1d\]: and losing d2 ] ;B[cc]C[Mendocino [3k\]: ok first corner then cut Mikho [4k\]: bold ] ;W[cd]C[Rakeliem [1k\]: a bold move Sonica [1k\]: doesn t care Sonica [1k\]: g17? Beanbag [2d\]: d13 was w mistake caus feng yun made face from it twintom [6k\]: test ] ;B[hc]C[Sonica [1k\]: aji mahatma [1k\]: time? Beanbag [2d\]: b looks happy Hanne [6k\]: how does h17 interact with c17 Mendocino [3k\]: b so much secure teretory Sonica [1k\]: e18 Motie [?\]: B can now aim at reducing with E18 Beanbag [2d\]: b go e18 after to reduce w and make b biger USGO2 [-\]: time? 30 seconds later than the last time I announced it... scroll up Richdad [5d\]: b clearly ahead bleep [3d?\]: w still has a weak group, I wonder how b will handle that jst4fun [5k\]: b can simply play territory game Paddlefoot [1d\]: h8 can cut bleep [3d?\]: you sure? Beanbag [2d\]: b can handle w grupe inderectly Motie [?\]: I think B about 10 pts ahead Beanbag [2d\]: h8 can cut yeah b can keep going straight out on h line Richdad [5d\]: yeah motie, i asses the same bleep [3d?\]: h8 g8 h9 h7 Richdad [5d\]: and very hard 10 points, because black is very strong Beanbag [2d\]: he said h8 can cut not capture bleep bleep [3d?\]: but it doesn't cut bleep [3d?\]: well, maybe it does bleep [3d?\]: you're right bleep [3d?\]: but the f6 part escapes Beanbag [2d\]: its so bad aji tho Beanbag [2d\]: maybe w resign? bleep [3d?\]: it's terrible aji and b is doing fine already, w can't even spend a move to remove it Beanbag [2d\]: too early but seems so hopeless Richdad [5d\]: if w spend a move at j8 or so, b increases the point lead ] ;W[kd]C[bleep [3d?\]: true ] ;B[lc]C[Beanbag [2d\]: yes b happy to let w pain with aji on board bleep [3d?\]: and if b plays around o13 suddenly the cut works Rocker [4d\]: richard! Richdad [5d\]: ? Sponge7 [3d\]: wow Rocker [4d\]: i thought i was calling ur son Sponge7 [3d\]: zchen is is aga 8d :o Beanbag [2d\]: amazing game tho. i swear b had terible result in loer left Mikho [4k\]: i think you are not mistaken there Mendocino [3k\]: someone gets whites plan? Mikho [4k\]: he must be desperate bleep [3d?\]: b doesn't have many weakness to strike at, maybe he'll expand right side trying to make his weak group stronger at the same time bleep [3d?\]: and then maybe later R7 bleep [3d?\]: wouldn't know :) MrShintou [-\]: r7 would be epic failur e=D USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang had stepped out of the room for a minute or two and has now just returned makoregevr [2d\]: i saying w win makoregevr [2d\]: im makoregevr [2d\]: ** Hanne [6k\]: thanks USGO2 [-\]: the TD is wandering about the room with papers to seal the moves for lunch breaks USGO2 [-\]: so far, no one is taking him up on it Hanne [6k\]: please what is td Yamantaka [2d\]: tournament director Arkavon [11k\]: What time is it in the US? cyp2d6 [9k\]: And what is meant with "sealing the moves"? Hanne [6k\]: writing them down Mikho [4k\]: one player writes a move on the envelope and it is stored as both players have a break Beanbag [2d\]: SE says w + 30.5 Mikho [4k\]: later the game is continued revealing the move Mikho [4k\]: both players can study the game meanwhile Hanne [6k\]: this way no one has disadvantage cyp2d6 [9k\]: Thanks ^^. Mikho [4k\]: without sealing the move, the one in turn would gain advantage cyp2d6 [9k\]: Yeah, right... he could think during break. bleep [3d?\]: that's why some people consider it rude to kikashi as sealed move Hanne [6k\]: actually the other one can think too, but he has to think more Appendix [3k\]: kikashi as sealed move XD ] ;W[qn]C[Hanne [6k\]: kikashi is like forcing move rite elohimmeth [2k\]: huh cyp2d6 [9k\]: So you would kikashi and seal the next move. kryft [4k\]: Hanne, yes Paddlefoot [1d\]: thought to be questionably ethical bleep [3d?\]: but you should just pick your best move and don't sweat about the meta-game in my opinion Mikho [4k\]: usually there is a reason why people hold back absolute sente moves. Using up one just for that purpose might not be such a good idea bleep [3d?\]: even if it is sente Arkavon [11k\]: Surely all good plays are forcing moves, what with sente and all? bleep [3d?\]: no kryft [4k\]: Arkavon, No, a gote move can be the best move. bleep [3d?\]: and moves like this are sente, but hav emultiple possible answers Hanne [6k\]: but a foricng move is usually easy to answer .. so why is it rude Mikho [4k\]: one huge ko threat less might be a loss jst4fun [5k\]: w has to play dramaticle moves. Otherwise no hope ] ;B[po]C[cyp2d6 [9k\]: Ah, now I get it... bleep [3d?\]: because then the sealer gets more thinking time, although wasting a ko threat wouldn't be worth it USGO2 [-\]: Janice Kim passes by to briefly observe the game cyp2d6 [9k\]: The player sealing the move knows already the answer. USGO2 [-\]: she too has a kanji painted on her face ] ;W[ro] ;B[rp]C[Appendix [3k\]: which one? Arkavon [11k\]: What's a kanji? Mikho [4k\]: a chinese character avatar1 [3d?\]: why not h8 ? seems big Arkavon [11k\]: And who's janice kim? USGO2 [-\]: must be the popular thing to do here; I must be hanging with the wrong crowd Mikho [4k\]: probably not anything as blatant as 力 or 強 or sth Hanne [6k\]: i assume sth means something Mikho [4k\]: yes Hanne [6k\]: lol that was a joke bro Arkavon [11k\]: How do you get non-abc123 characters on KGS? Mikho [4k\]: haha :P cyp2d6 [9k\]: When I type 力 into google, I get the wiki about the physical force... Mikho [4k\]: I think you have to set up your OS such Mikho [4k\]: I have a japanese vista, and didn't have to do anything to be able to write special chars Gueust [7k\]: like that ? か (i use windows. YOu just have to install with the CD the langage you need) cyp2d6 [9k\]: I have german vista and I see it too. Arkavon [11k\]: Oh, I see! cyp2d6 [9k\]: Though It says nothing to me. ] ;W[pl]C[Mikho [4k\]: well, both chars indicate strength in one way or another Hanne [6k\]: so strength is blatant or what Mikho [4k\]: I think they would write something more subtle Tsuijin [1d\]: isn't Jie Li preparing for World Student Oza? cyp2d6 [9k\]: Depends on what strengths you are talking about. Hanne [6k\]: i can think of more blatant things to write on faces Tsuijin [1d\]: wrong window USGO2 [-\]: Michael has stepped out; Bi is intently studying the right side of the board Anglagard [-\]: He is right to do so Hanne [6k\]: try q10 Bi, i sometimes play this Anglagard [-\]: huh Paddlefoot [1d\]: q10 hebo-kosumi ] ;B[pk]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: usualy considered bad shape Mikho [4k\]: q10 not goog Hanne [6k\]: what hebo mean sensei Paddlefoot [1d\]: (hebo means fool) Mikho [4k\]: *good Hanne [6k\]: domo Mikho [4k\]: hebokosumi is a weak player's kosumi ] ;W[ql]C[Beanbag [2d\]: hebo dont mean fool Beanbag [2d\]: hebo mean unskillful ] ;B[ok]C[Uberdude [2d\]: does anyone understnd r5 at the start? Uberdude [2d\]: seems too inefficeint with r9 to me USGO2 [-\]: Bi shakes his head slightly Beanbag [2d\]: no i was totaly oconfused by r5 Mikho [4k\]: well, it's a shimari Uberdude [2d\]: yes a flat inefficient one to me Beanbag [2d\]: is it ok for b to go pincer on n4 instead? u gots a w stoan on d3 Beanbag [2d\]: q5 instead is more normaller mikho Uberdude [2d\]: yes the pincer is possible too Beanbag [2d\]: last time i had that position i went at l4 ] ;W[rq]C[Uberdude [2d\]: L4 and k4 possible Mikho [4k\]: the difference is pretty subtle imho Rocker [4d\]: i won! Beanbag [2d\]: no the diference is very stark mikho Paddlefoot [1d\]: ??? Uberdude [2d\]: well to L4 w is more likely to counter pincer Uberdude [2d\]: at j3 makoregevr [2d\]: S3 stupid ] ;B[rn]C[Mikho [4k\]: if you say so then Beanbag [2d\]: yea thats why its gooder if d3 is not at d4 i thot jst4fun [5k\]: w is hoping b play s6 Paddlefoot [1d\]: L4...J3 Uberdude [2d\]: for example: http://www.online-go.com/games/board.php?boardID=74875 Paddlefoot [1d\]: are we looking at the same game? ] ;W[rm] ;B[so]C[jst4fun [5k\]: than w s7,t5 s9 Uberdude [2d\]: and to j3 p4 is a funky move Universe [2d\]: that was pretty interesting move Universe [2d\]: to connect his groups ] ;W[rk]C[Tangerine [5k\]: yea, I don't think s3 was "stupid" Beanbag [2d\]: s3 inducing move i guess Uberdude [2d\]: s3 induces s7 Uberdude [2d\]: seems decent plan to me bleep [3d?\]: b obviously saw it coming, but he didn't mind taking the sacrifice :) Uberdude [2d\]: connecting to r11 is big Rocker [4d\]: r13 Uberdude [2d\]: as otherwise b might attack w a bit there Beanbag [2d\]: now b can poke at the h8 aji Beanbag [2d\]: lader braker bleep [3d?\]: well, no h8 yet Tangerine [5k\]: that would make a nice problem Beanbag [2d\]: i mean lader braker bleap Lynx [2d\]: go and rock with it bleep [3d?\]: yeah, good idea Uberdude [2d\]: h8 is small now though Uberdude [2d\]: b connected Uberdude [2d\]: just a 25 point yose USGO2 [-\]: The games are being broadcast by the American Go E-Journal; free go news from around the world, delivered free via email; sign up at www.usgo.org Beanbag [2d\]: lol 25 point wil do nice to pad w lead ] ;B[pi]C[Uberdude [2d\]: this fight is urgent Uberdude [2d\]: bigger than 25 Mikho [4k\]: w has tenukied before Beanbag [2d\]: yea of course but its not like b gona die Beanbag [2d\]: just that w is seriously in disadavantage and the h8 aji is part of it ChemBoy613 [-\]: I like B here Rocker [4d\]: b wanna attack k8 as a whhole Beanbag [2d\]: ah yeah that sounds like a plan Lifestream [-\]: i want to be ur friend Rocker ] ;W[qj]C[Rocker [4d\]: i want a girl friend USGO2 [-\]: white has about 25 mins left and black has about 55 Tangerine [5k\]: b is enjoying this game I bet ] ;B[ph]C[Rocker [4d\]: but its ok to be just a friend danke USGO2 [-\]: they are talking about breaking for lunch... humm, maybe not yet Rocker [4d\]: what there r going to eat ? ] ;W[ni]C[Rocker [4d\]: big macs? Tangerine [5k\]: empty triangle Rocker [4d\]: o12 Rakeliem [1k\]: r112 Rakeliem [1k\]: q10 Rocker [4d\]: make up ur mind Rakeliem [1k\]: o12 seems ok makoregevr [2d\]: O12? makoregevr [2d\]: =\\? makoregevr [2d\]: w cut makoregevr [2d\]: /// Rakeliem [1k\]: yea but then w can't capture any of vblack bleep [3d?\]: this O11 move looks good Uberdude [2d\]: r12 i think Uberdude [2d\]: to connect dame in bad shape seems bad Rakeliem [1k\]: p8 Rakeliem [1k\]: p8 bleep [3d?\]: if r12 works it's good, I can't tell without reading :) Uberdude [2d\]: treat the 3 lightly Rocker [4d\]: o10 best shape makoregevr [2d\]: your telling stupid things,for showing smart makoregevr [2d\]: but its not really work Rocker [4d\]: p1* beeko [7k\]: Looks hard for black Rocker [4d\]: p10 i mean Oleksandr [2k\]: is it translating on eurogotv? Uberdude [2d\]: r12 and attack q15 makoregevr [2d\]: P10 the best bleep [3d?\]: think hard about the name of eurogotv NateC [1d\]: 'your telling stupid things' Uberdude [2d\]: this is american not european Rakeliem [1k\]: he just cuts and something dies bleep bleep [3d?\]: yeah, thought so too bleep [3d?\]: :P AznKid93 [1d\]: you're* ] ;B[oi]C[Rocker [4d\]: eurovision song contest USGO2 [-\]: Bi Jang lets out an audible sigh Rakeliem [1k\]: is he out of shape? makoregevr [2d\]: ah,told you? Cail [4k\]: lol Mikho [4k\]: BJ made a bad shape it seems ] ;W[rg]C[Zureiyaaa [5d\]: there are even josekis with empty triangle ] ;B[qg]C[Zureiyaaa [5d\]: did you know that? Hanne [6k\]: this is not joseki though Rocker [4d\]: becuz b wanna attack egcguest: p12 is shining. Mikho [4k\]: everybody knows that Hanne [6k\]: not me Cail [4k\]: zchen always wants to attack csgo [?\]: b seems to be confident to survive Zureiyaaa [5d\]: looks like you don't, Mikho :P ] ;W[rf]C[Mikho [4k\]: I do. 4-4, keima approack, tsuke on top, hane, nobi, block is the first josekis I learned Rocker [4d\]: no b likes attacking so he didnt waana give up on the l8 group Mikho [4k\]: minus the nobi =) Arkavon [11k\]: What is the time like now? Rocker [4d\]: is w zchen 7d ? NattyIce [1k\]: y Rocker [4d\]: kgs 7d account Rocker [4d\]: oh NattyIce [1k\]: darkmage also bleep [3d?\]: aka darkmage, aka arwen Rakeliem [1k\]: who is arwen USGO2 [-\]: about 10 minutes later bleep [3d?\]: same person, while ago :) Paddlefoot [1d\]: he has a thing for liv tyler Rakeliem [1k\]: wh o is liv tyler rvf [2k\]: gee Paddlefoot [1d\]: girl who played arwen...(character in lord of the rings) Hanne [6k\]: liv tyler is a human ape Cail [4k\]: she makes a hot elf though. csgo [?\]: I think this game depends on this Rocker [4d\]: i thought zchen 7d is not so strong 7d Rakeliem [1k\]: arwen I don't thin is in lotr? Paddlefoot [1d\]: daughter of aerosmith dude I think rvf [2k\]: what a troll Paddlefoot [1d\]: arwen is the elf with the white horse KGSPlus [-\]: please keep comments related to the game Rakeliem [1k\]: arwen is a troll? Rakeliem [1k\]: ok Paddlefoot [1d\]: someone is Arkavon [11k\]: How long do they each have left? NattyIce [1k\]: dont think zchen plays seriously half the time Paddlefoot [1d\]: how old is zchen? rvf [2k\]: 16-17 Paddlefoot [1d\]: damn rvf [2k\]: something like that bleep [3d?\]: nah, he's older AznKid93 [1d\]: hes a gonna be a sophomore at princeton AznKid93 [1d\]: cant be 16-17 NattyIce [1k\]: hes in college baltimore [2d?\]: he used to be 16-17 bleep [3d?\]: found it, he's 19, born on May 9, 1989 unc [6k\]: he is 19 calgacus [?\]: Princeton eh, who is paying the fees? rvf [2k\]: ah ok sry csgo [?\]: o12? NattyIce [1k\]: he won north american amateur a year back right? he beat mingjiu? Mikho [4k\]: I wonder why the chinese have a habit of taking english names... Beanbag [2d\]: w kinda looks like staring down throat about now Rakeliem [1k\]: it's cool to do Tangerine [5k\]: because no one in America can pronounce their real names Rakeliem [1k\]: yeah Rakeliem [1k\]: Za-oh-nee-an? bleep [3d?\]: it's because when you want a job you'll have a better chance as mike or steve Enraiha [8k\]: that's definitely the reason Mikho [4k\]: why does it seem it's just the chinese? Tangerine [5k\]: More like jiao-nien I believe calgacus [?\]: Innumerable European Jews changed their names Mikho [4k\]: there are lot of things north americans can't pronounce Enraiha [8k\]: no it's zhaonian it's the pingying that's how you pronounce it csgo [?\]: may be o10 Tangerine [5k\]: but pinyin isn't that easy to pronounce for most people... Enraiha [8k\]: for westerners Enraiha [8k\]: to be specific just like english words are more difficult to pronounce for us Rocker [4d\]: r they off to mcdonalds? Hanne [6k\]: rent u Rocker [4d\]: for happy meals? USGO2 [-\]: Bi is still thinking Rocker [4d\]: ah Beanbag [2d\]: b gota find best way to atac the w stuf mentat [3k?\]: hurray, 2 great games to watch this afternoon! USGO2 [-\]: I'm hoping Michael can convince Bi to think about lunch soon :) Tangerine [5k\]: there isn't a designated recess? ] ;B[mk]C[USGO2 [-\]: plays with a sigh Mikho [4k\]: b likes to sigh it seems Beanbag [2d\]: now w go about trying to run away Rocker [4d\]: they must agrre to play without lunch Beanbag [2d\]: im sure b would have loved to be able to go j9 or something USGO2 [-\]: I've covered several of Michael's games in the past, and he is good at containing his emotions ] ;W[nl]C[Uberdude [2d\]: n11 ? beeko [7k\]: Lol i can imagine hiws vioce sounding monotone beeko [7k\]: *his Beanbag [2d\]: is n11 let b end up playing h8? Beanbag [2d\]: yea its plausible USGO2 [-\]: but always cheerful and smiling off the boards Mikho [4k\]: I think I respect an emotion displaying attitude Beanbag [2d\]: nah w can respond to n11 constructively Rocker [4d\]: b must prevent w m8 by all means at all cost!!!!!!! ] ;B[rh]C[racine [2d\]: at the cost of Q11 group? Mikho [4k\]: s12? Rocker [4d\]: if necessary yeah! Paddlefoot [1d\]: ??? Uberdude [2d\]: what is this move? Rocker [4d\]: mik , u cant play such move Uberdude [2d\]: to get q10 sente? Paddlefoot [1d\]: making Q10 sente Uberdude [2d\]: big whoop Uberdude [2d\]: is it wirth it? Paddlefoot [1d\]: an expensive manouever though Uberdude [2d\]: it loses seom points ] ;W[nk]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: is that really nescessary Uberdude [2d\]: yikes USGO2 [-\]: Michael hastely places the stone on the board Paddlefoot [1d\]: there goes the gauntlet ] ;B[qh] ;W[nh]C[Rocker [4d\]: s12 was preparation to prevent m8 but w rebelled USGO2 [-\]: with a loud click Vogel [1k\]: this will be a bloody end Rocker [4d\]: does he use mouse? ] ;B[ol] ;W[om] ;B[nm]C[Mikho [4k\]: too bad you can't respect snap in kgs Beanbag [2d\]: oh yeah theres a good shot USGO2 [-\]: I use a mouse, he uses his hands ] ;W[nj]C[fujichan [2k\]: ?? ] ;B[pm]C[Rocker [4d\]: pass! Uberdude [2d\]: good move! ] ;W[on] ;B[pn] ;W[no]C[mentat [3k?\]: w is too agressive USGO2 [-\]: almost missed a move - sorry Uberdude [2d\]: s8 ? Paddlefoot [1d\]: b seems ahead in the semeai Vogel [1k\]: b3 only one eye? lol csgo [?\]: w sacrifice right side for the center? Beanbag [2d\]: if w get sente its gooder than before Paddlefoot [1d\]: madness Universe [2d\]: yes ] ;B[pj]C[Blockdude [3k\]: hes trying to kill the right side Universe [2d\]: pluse black has to fill in Universe [2d\]: to kill Universe [2d\]: even better for white Beanbag [2d\]: theres some important yoses to play Paddlefoot [1d\]: w has lost beeko [7k\]: That was not a good trade Beanbag [2d\]: w really got off cheap ] ;W[hj]C[Vogel [1k\]: yes attack b3 :) Universe [2d\]: i think good trade Uberdude [2d\]: l13 or so? Paddlefoot [1d\]: really? Rocker [4d\]: by professional sense , it cant be good for b Paddlefoot [1d\]: why do you say that? fsong2 [1d\]: how attack b3? Paddlefoot [1d\]: the right is big Uberdude [2d\]: can he cut p15 or is short of libs? Rocker [4d\]: b got gote Beanbag [2d\]: padlefot dint you see the position before? w was in so much trouble Brizou [2k\]: is j9 an option ? csgo [?\]: b o15 fatprince [1k\]: I don't see w can win... Vogel [1k\]: hm not sure :) Rocker [4d\]: and w settles centre with a lot of influence racine [2d\]: b o14 Universe [2d\]: white win to mee Beanbag [2d\]: even if w behing now dont gota resign yet csgo [?\]: I know I know l15 fatprince [1k\]: w has no chance... that's my take Rocker [4d\]: this feels very bad for b almost 10 points unfair trade Beanbag [2d\]: e18 looks big Rocker [4d\]: btw q10 was mandatory!!??????? baaba [3k\]: yeah Rocker [4d\]: why!!!!!!!! mentat [3k?\]: ~o15 looks interesting calgacus [?\]: w territory becomes b - twice the value. Paddlefoot [1d\]: O14 Rocker [4d\]: cal it was not much of territory first hand! Paddlefoot [1d\]: fireworks ] ;B[mf]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: I think a simple reducing move will suffice Beanbag [2d\]: w had serious issues in center and fixed all is really big point value ] ;W[og] ;B[id]C[Beanbag [2d\]: even gain point in midle ] ;W[gb]C[Beanbag [2d\]: g18 large Mikho [4k\]: yose Uberdude [2d\]: j16 odd looking Uberdude [2d\]: seems inefficient to me Paddlefoot [1d\]: I am interested that both you, rocker and evidently Michael think this is good for w Rocker [4d\]: j16 is professional Paddlefoot [1d\]: meaning? Uberdude [2d\]: why? Uberdude [2d\]: g18 seems a good move for white Uberdude [2d\]: i think e18 better mentat [3k?\]: j16 is calm and steady. g18 looks like a huge double sente that black missed Beanbag [2d\]: j16 is profesional caus it confuses us amaters ] ;B[bd]C[Terran [5d\]: j16 wastes ko threat, makes black stronger, makes white heavier. in other words, it sucks. Mikho [4k\]: ko potential? elohimmeth [2k\]: yes ! racine [2d\]: g18 removes aji from the corner :p ] ;W[be]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: not enough racine [2d\]: (b g18 i mean) ] ;B[db] ;W[bb] ;B[eb] ;W[fb] ;B[bc]C[makoregevr [2d\]: b gonna win i think ] ;W[ad]C[Paddlefoot [1d\]: w has too many weaknesses Rocker [4d\]: it might be better for b to playy f18 then j16 though its not certain w will answer with e18 but b going to e18 seems a bit overplay to my professional sense Paddlefoot [1d\]: can he really hold the kill? ] ;B[ab] ;W[ba]C[makoregevr [2d\]: cut! Paddlefoot [1d\]: seems like he can't Paddlefoot [1d\]: I'm surprised to see w try to kill here Beanbag [2d\]: i kinda felt like f18 was normuser than g18 Paddlefoot [1d\]: perhaps he can lose E17 and still kill Mikho [4k\]: maybe he has no other choice Rocker [4d\]: c15 akira04 [7k\]: jsui d'acord^^ csgo [?\]: b should focus on end game beeko [7k\]: dead? Brizou [2k\]: c15? akira04 [7k\]: dead or dead what is the question Mikho [4k\]: I can't see a way to live vman [11k\]: l14? USGO2 [-\]: Bi shakes his head fsong2 [1d\]: lol beeko [7k\]: ? fsong2 [1d\]: that means dead? Brizou [2k\]: c15 for cut at f17 seems best option Beanbag [2d\]: w can probly let b eat e17 and stil suround him Rocker [4d\]: he looks crying? beeko [7k\]: LOL fujichan [2k\]: C15 for cut in F17, no ? csgo [?\]: j8 GameFAQs [3d\]: beeko is next beejang. GameFAQs [3d\]: You heard it here first. Mikho [4k\]: looking up for some aji at around c11 or sth beeko [7k\]: =D Beanbag [2d\]: wow beeko on fan list :D calgacus [?\]: j12 ] ;B[ei]C[beeko [7k\]: =DD Sponge7 [3d\]: lol ] ;W[ej]C[Rocker [4d\]: i think f17 cut doesnt work now thats why mr jang shook his had Rocker [4d\]: but e10 seems a bit risky , why not happily d12? ] ;B[hk] ;W[il] ;B[hl]C[Beanbag [2d\]: w not happy ] ;W[hm] ;B[dh] ;W[dk]C[Mikho [4k\]: there cugel23k [5d\]: c14 Rocker [4d\]: b not ataariing at j8 seems a bit odd , cuz it could ve left more oyshi aji USGO2 [-\]: and the prisoner drops loudly to the table bleep [3d?\]: c15 ? Rocker [4d\]: resign? Rocker [4d\]: nooooooooooooooooooooooooo cugel23k [5d\]: c14 and f17 Beanbag [2d\]: cugel 23k cause he peeps at cuts ] ;B[ed] ;W[fd]C[mentat [3k?\]: f16 ] ;B[ee]C[Mikho [4k\]: b keeps surprising me Beanbag [2d\]: d17? wijii [-\]: hes read it all i bet bleep [3d?\]: when a move this cool-looking does something remotely useful, you have to play it bleep [3d?\]: it's a go-fundamental fsong2 [1d\]: go micheal! Rocker [4d\]: michael dropped d10 prisoner onto the table ?? how do they continue so quick without restoring the previous set of the stones? mentat [3k?\]: bleep, you could not say it better mentat [3k?\]: ^_^ Rocker [4d\]: how!!! cugel23k [5d\]: looks w lost USGO2 [-\]: table != board wijii [-\]: they move at the speed of light Rocker [4d\]: ah MrShintou [-\]: I Prefer b ] ;W[df] ;B[dc] ;W[fc]C[Rocker [4d\]: i got confused , so i thought b expressed his intention of resignation first then.. hehe ] ;B[ea] ;W[ca]C[Beanbag [2d\]: looks like b alive Beanbag [2d\]: to the bloody end cugel23k [5d\]: how did he expressed resignation? ] ;B[eg]C[beeko [7k\]: Black is fight for life calgacus [?\]: Looks like a brawl, Brizou [2k\]: was it all for c12 ? Rocker [4d\]: at least it extended the liberties by 10+ cugel23k [5d\]: b wants to kill f17 Uberdude [2d\]: b will surely get something here ] ;W[bg] ;B[fe]C[Rocker [4d\]: like i said w not playing d12 when b forced with e11 was odd to my sensitive feel Beanbag [2d\]: i guess resign now ] ;W[ge]C[Uberdude [2d\]: j16 in nice place now =) ] ;B[gd]C[cugel23k [5d\]: simple cut ] ;W[fg]C[Uberdude [2d\]: deep reading by b Rocker [4d\]: i think w collapsed vman [11k\]: W have around 35 point? Blockdude [3k\]: white is in serious trouble now bleep [3d?\]: h18 ? Brizou [2k\]: h15 ] ;B[gf] ;W[he]C[cugel23k [5d\]: g14 cugel23k [5d\]: and h18 Blockdude [3k\]: ...nice cugel23k [5d\]: or h16 cugel23k [5d\]: or any move b win Mikho [4k\]: nice ] ;B[ff]C[USGO2 [-\]: white 10 min left ] ;W[hf]C[Blockdude [3k\]: h16 ] ;B[hg]C[cugel23k [5d\]: b17 alive now ] ;W[ig] ;B[hh]C[MrShintou [-\]: no mercy by b Rocker [4d\]: cugel god cugel23k [5d\]: thx cugel23k [5d\]: resign time Rocker [4d\]: yeah mike2096 [5k\]: how strong is w again? USGO2 [-\]: White resigns Blockdude [3k\]: 8dan mike2096 [5k\]: thx Mikho [4k\]: good game! Greil [4d\]: great game Chris929 [14k\]: sweet game^^ Beanbag [2d\]: exciting game elohimmeth [2k\]: huh -_- beeko [7k\]: Great game USGO2 [-\]: Thanks for watching; stay tuned for more exciting top-board games this week! LightA [15k\]: >.< very intersting game Beanbag [2d\]: im so confused about parts of the game but thats go for ya Rocker [4d\]: usgo my view on b w not answering e11 with d12 was bad right? beeko [7k\]: Amazing comeback jolieg [6k\]: is there a bracket online? Beanbag [2d\]: i liked how there was some back and forth action in the game.. w really fought hard after geting pwned by the weak b grups Mikho [4k\]: won despite all the sighing Beanbag [2d\]: well theres some games stil going on. Rocker [4d\]: it was semi exciting but w showed his weakness rather apparently in the last reading Mikho [4k\]: I wonder if e10 was *the* mistake Rocker [4d\]: which shows it had a little diistance to top level games of the tournament Rocker [4d\]: mik like i said immediately after it was played , i felt its odd Mikho [4k\]: maybe w thought there wasnt any aji left there Rocker [4d\]: for my sensitive feels its just out of question to play d12 , not e10 frankzappa [4k\]: time ? please Paddlefoot [1d\]: why D14 not D17 ]) | <urn:uuid:9a81669a-d451-4e8b-8d4b-f8e6fbd75128> | http://www.usgo.org/tournaments/crosstab/sgf/102-zhaonian%20chen%20vs%20bi%20jang.sgf | en | 0.869304 | 0.13141 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
CHARGERS: Spanos integral to keeping L.T. in San Diego
SAN DIEGO -- The relationship between Dean Spanos and LaDainian Tomlinson goes farther than football.
The Chargers' president and star running back play golf together. Their families are close. A true friendship has developed between employer and employee, one that started when Tomlinson was drafted in 2001 and continues today.
That's why Spanos wanted to tell Tomlinson early this offseason that his future was in doubt without a restructured contract. That's why Spanos called Tomlinson on Tuesday afternoon with news of a new three-year deal that would keep him in San Diego.
Spanos wasn't just a messenger in this negotiation. He got involved.
"If there's anyone you would do anything extra for, L.T.'s the guy," Spanos said. "Because of who he is and what he's done for the franchise, you have to consider that. It's not just his ability. It's also emotional from my perspective because I'm a fan like everybody else. There was more emotion invested, so yes, I was more involved."
Spanos sat in on negotiations between assistant general manager Ed McGuire and Tomlinson's agent, Tom Condon, offered opinions and greased the wheels to complete Tomlinson's deal.
"The negotiation itself was very short," Spanos said "There were some initial talks and a lot of thought went into the proposals from both sides. When we sat down and started negotiating, I was there with Ed and there were several points that we talked about. Ed asked me what I thought, and I said, 'Let's do this.' From there, everything happened very quickly."
Spanos' extra effort was not lost on Tomlinson, who wanted to remain in San Diego.
"I really appreciate the role Dean played throughout this process," Tomlinson said Tuesday in a statement. "He made it work for everyone, and I appreciate his friendship more than he knows."
Friendship aside, Spanos simply wasn't ready to let the face of his franchise walk out the front door.
"He's been the heart and soul of this team since he's been here, but he's also the main reason why we've been successful," Spanos said. "He's been a great representative for the franchise, but we also believe he's still one of the premier backs in this league. It was important to keep him for both of those reasons, which were the driving force behind why we needed and wanted to get this deal done."
| <urn:uuid:de24eaad-182f-4f25-ba9e-84b2a4746cdc> | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/mar/11/chargers-spanos-integral-to-keeping-lt-in-san/ | en | 0.989684 | 0.134709 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Edmund Fanning (colonial administrator)
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Edmund Fanning
Edmund Fanning colonial administrator.jpg
Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia
In office
Lieutenant-Governor of St. John's Island/Prince Edward Island
In office
Personal details
Born April 24, 1739
Died February 28, 1818
Military service
Allegiance Great Britain
Rank full General
Commands North Carolina militia
King's American Regiment
Battles/wars War of the Regulation
American Revolutionary War
Fanning was appointed lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia not long after his arrival, and helped oversee the resettlement of other Loyalist refugees in the province. In 1786 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Saint John's Island, which was renamed Prince Edward Island during his tenure. He served in that post until 1813. He retired to London, where he died in 1818.
Edmund Fanning was born in the Town of Southold on Long Island in the colony of New York to Captain James Fanning and Hannah Smith.[1] Nova Scotia Governor John Parr believed Fanning was, like Parr, a Protestant Irishman, and was from Ulster and owned great estates there.[2]
He graduated from Yale College in 1757 and studied law in New York. He then moved to the Province of North Carolina in 1761 and settled in Hillsborough. He held several local political posts and became a protégé of colonial governor William Tryon. Fanning came into conflict with the leaders of the Regulator movement. He, along with lawyer Francis Nash, was charged with extorting money from the local residents, but was fined only a small fine. After several riots, the movement was crushed by the an army of North Carolina militia led by Tryon at the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771.
Fanning followed Tryon to New York as his personal secretary. At the start of the American Revolutionary War, revolutionaries drove Fanning from his home, forcing him to seek refuge aboard HMS Asia in the New York harbor. After being commissioned a colonel by General William Howe, Fanning raised a regiment of Loyalists named the King's American Regiment. He was wounded twice during the war and was credited with saving Yale from destruction by British forces during a destructive raid against New Haven led by Tryon. Fanning was granted an honorary law degree in 1803 as thanks for this action. He was later appointed to the office of surveyor general, which he retained until he fled, with other Loyalists, to Nova Scotia in 1783.
Fanning became lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia in that same year, serving as deputy to Governor John Parr. On November 30, 1785 he married Phebe Maria Burns. In 1786, he was appointed lieutenant governor of St. John's Island (which was later renamed Prince Edward Island) by the Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, a post which he held for almost 19 years, resigning in 1805. Prince Edward Island's Government House, the official residence of the lieutenant governor, is often referred to as "Fanningbank" on the island, though Fanning never dwelt there. He was promoted to general of the British Army in 1808. He retired to London in 1813 and died there in 1818.
Despite having several children, Fanning had no grandchildren. He had two daughters, Lady Wood, who lived near London with her mother; the other daughter married a Captain Bentwick Cumberland, a nephew of Lord Bentwick, and lived in Charlotte's Town, Prince Edward Island. He also had several prominent nephews, including the like-named explorer Edmund Fanning, the war hero Nathaniel Fanning, and the celebrated attorney John Wickham. A great nephew was James Fannin.
1. ^ Bumsted, J. M. "Biography of Edmund Fanning". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
2. ^ Memoir of Governor John Parr, page 56 | <urn:uuid:488b6d78-64e6-44e2-908c-b8b8bba5632e> | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fanning_(colonial_administrator) | en | 0.978687 | 0.079287 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Secret Sex Lives Of Squid
You know, this time of year is filled with wacky sex advice for both men and women. But what about squid? Luckily, Miriam Goldstein is here to (hilariously) break squid sex lives down, Cosmo style.
'Ah, February," Goldstein, a doctoral student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, writes, "that special time of the year when love is in the air and the heart turns toward romance. Or, in the case of the Southern California population of the market squid, that special time of year when giant underwater orgies are followed by immediate death." Or, as the Cosmo headline would read: "Squid Sex: Hot And Deadly!"
Goldstein goes on to break down the rules of squid orgies for those hot and bothered squids, interested in the mating process. The article is filled with "squid-oriented sex advice", and is a pitch-perfect parody of the ridiculous ladymag "trap a man" articles we all love to hate. "Squids that follow these six principles will perish in a pleasant afterglow, knowing they've passed their genes on to thousands of adorable baby squids," Goldstein writes, "Squids that fail-well, being an evolutionary dead end is a far worse fate than buying your sweetie the wrong box of chocolates."
The six secrets of squid sex, which encompass everything from "avoid mood lighting" to "don't forget to cuddle," provide a silly but educational spin on your traditional February looooove article. Because is there anything more romantic than a tentacle filled underwater death orgy? I think not.
Motion In The Ocean [Slate]
[Image via Natalie Dee] | <urn:uuid:4eae887e-8427-460a-9749-fad6f7b2d87b> | http://jezebel.com/5153922/the-secret-sex-lives-of-squid?tag=squid | en | 0.930187 | 0.110119 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Bookstores and Publishers
Again I think about my week at the Religious Book Trade Exhibit in St. Charles, IL and am even more aware of the effects of the economy and the age of computers on our bookstores today. I felt the loss of many of our smaller stores as I sat in on meetings and wandered through the aisles to buy books for our own store. There were many discussions about e-books and there is always mention of the biggest competitor for stores, Amazon. How can we compete? What will e-books do to the market? How can we be a part of that business? Many questions, many answers, fewer brick and mortar stores.
But there was encouragement amongst us and there was positive feedback and potential support. There was a workshop given by Lisa Hendey about social media and how our bookstores can get on board to advertise our stores and our events and our products. There was a talk given during lunch by Sr. Joan Chittister praising bookstores and publishers and below are a few of her words. These words, these workshops, these gatherings help to keep the fire going in our work to light the next candle. These words rejuvenate and encourage us in times when it is "easier" not to be supported locally. I'm not whining. Don't worry. I'd just occasionally like to remind others to "Support your local Catholic Bookstore" whenever possible so they can continue and maybe not just survive, but thrive. If you do not have one near you, support an online store that perhaps you have been to in another city or know of in some way more personally. And, thank you to all who already do. We are grateful.
Sr. Joan - "It is you, in other words, publishers and book sellers, who face the questions for us all, who keep the questions alive, who make questions the footpath on the way to God—whatever the era, whatever the challenge, whatever the threat to freedom of thought and the perils of personal faith in an institutional time.
As the people of God, we owe you much.
As an institution, the church owes you even more.
The books you publish, the books you put on your shelves seed the soul of tomorrow.
More than that, they enable the thinking Christian to go on when the church lights go out and ideas big enough to show the way are being veiled by those who prefer the comfort of darkness. You are the keepers of the ministry of the Word. Who understand that it is sacred and who, in whatever form, keep it well.
You are the keepers of questions that are soul-sized, that are dangerous, perhaps, but that are necessary if any of us are ever to be true to the Gospel we preach."
1. Julie,
I've had an e-reader for several years now and I still buy books. I just like them better. Of course some would call me a dinosaur and those like me will be dying out I know. Not a bad thing in some respects... Ha! Except for the book trade! But there is nothing can replace the feel and smell and the je ne sais quoi of a REAL book.
And I DO support my local Catholic bookstores. Both of them--we only have two in the entire OKC metro area, but they know me by name!
2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator. | <urn:uuid:76be9d4f-9763-46da-a8fc-682c1c04765e> | http://juliecragon.blogspot.com/2010/06/bookstores-and-publishers.html | en | 0.971137 | 0.052077 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Home > Guides > Core Developers Guide > Result Types > XSL Result
XSLTResult uses XSLT to transform an action object to XML. The recent version has been specifically modified to deal with Xalan flaws. When using Xalan you may notice that even though you have a very minimal stylesheet like this one
<xsl:template match="/result">
Xalan would still iterate through every property of your action and all its descendants.
If you had double-linked objects, Xalan would work forever analysing an infinite object tree. Even if your stylesheet was not constructed to process them all. It's because the current Xalan eagerly and extensively converts everything to its internal DTM model before further processing.
That's why there's a loop eliminator added that works by indexing every object-property combination during processing. If it notices that some object's property was already walked through, it doesn't go any deeper. Say you have two objects, x and y, with the following properties set (pseudocode):
x.y = y;
y.x = x;
Due to that modification, the resulting XML document based on x would be:
Without it there would be endless x/y/x/y/x/y/... elements.
The XSLTResult code tries also to deal with the fact that DTM model is built in a manner that children are processed before siblings. The result is that if there is object x that is both set in action's x property, and very deeply under action's a property then it would only appear under a, not under x. That's not what we expect, and that's why XSLTResult allows objects to repeat in various places to some extent.
Sometimes the object mesh is still very dense and you may notice that even though you have a relatively simple stylesheet, execution takes a tremendous amount of time. To help you to deal with that obstacle of Xalan, you may attach regexp filters to elements paths (xpath).
Note: In your .xsl file the root match must be named result.
This example will output the username by using getUsername on your action class:
<xsl:template match="result">
Hello <xsl:value-of select="username"/> how are you?
In the following example the XSLT result would only walk through action's properties without their childs. It would also skip every property that has "hugeCollection" in their name. Element's path is first compared to excludingPattern - if it matches it's no longer processed. Then it is compared to matchingPattern and processed only if there's a match.
• encoding - character encoding used in XML, default UTF-8.
struts.properties related configuration:
• struts.xslt.nocache - Defaults to false. If set to true, disables stylesheet caching. Good for development, bad for production. | <urn:uuid:724ec432-0b60-4fc3-95da-96c3c639f499> | http://struts.apache.org/docs/xsl-result.html | en | 0.911034 | 0.897065 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Japanese Language Sideboard
Quarterfinals: Murray Evans vs. Sam Lau
By Del Laugel
You could tell that this match didn't include any of the Pro Tour regulars in the Top 8 just from watching the pre-game shuffling. This is the 13 year old Murray Evans's first top-level tournament success (although he has done reasonably well at the JSS), and Sam Lau doesn't have Pro Tour experience. Unlike the more experienced players' rigorous shuffling of their opponents' decks, this match started out with a much more laid-back tone.
Murray Evans was playing one of the two Stompy decks in the field yesterday (the other was Ryan Fuller's, and he also made the Top 8). Stompy seemed to be a good call considering the large number of monoblue decks being played. Sam Lau was playing one of those accelerated blue decks, with Masticores and Grim Monoliths to get them out faster.
Murray Evans won the die roll and went first. He had a slow start, playing Treetop Villages on his first two turns (He's playing four Treetop Villages, compared to Ryan Fuller's two.) He also had a Pouncing Jaguar, but Lau got the start he was hoping for: second turn Grim Monolith, third turn Masticore. Evans got in six points of damage with small creatures and Rancor before Lau cleared the board by stealing a Rancored Pouncing Jaguar with Treachery and the shooting the rest of Evans's critters with Masticore. Evans got out a Tangle Wire, but Lau had enough permanents in play that he could still attack the next turn with Masticore . . . and then he played a Rishadan Port. For Murray, the overall effect was similar to playing Armageddon after his opponent had played an Ernham Djinn. Not good. Lau got in enough damage before Evans recovered that his Faerie Conclave could finish the game. Evans was a bit flustered by the end of this game -- he played Rancor on a just-summoned River Boa and then tried to attack with it on his last turn.
Lau 1, Evans 0
Between games, the players made small talk about their activities of the previous evening. Evans had played five games against a copy of Lau's deck, winning three of them. Lau took the night off and went to see the Canada Day fireworks.
Evans went first in the second game, and put Lau on the defensive. Lau played Hibernation on Evans's fourth turn in response to a Rancor, but Evans's Gaea's Cradle let him replay both his creatures that turn. Lau looked like he might be able to get back into the game when he played a sixth-turn Masticore, leaving two islands untapped. Evans played Rancor on his Wild Dogs. Lau though for a few minutes before letting that resolve. He was at 9 life, facing two Wild Dogs and an Elvish Lyrist. He had to let the Rancor resolve so he wouldn't lose if Evans had a Giant Growth. Evans attacked with everything. Lau blocked the Wild Dogs without Rancor and asked if Evans had any effects. Evans played Giant Growth on his Rancored Wild Dogs! Lau thought long and hard, and then spent his last two mana to shoot the Dogs in response, knowing that Evans only had two copies of Giant Growth in his deck. Unfortunately for Lau, that Giant Growth was in Evans's hand, and the match was tied up at one game apiece.
Lau 1 Evans 1
The third game was really short. Evans mulliganed to six cards, but Lau didn't play lands on his third and fourth turns, and didn't have a Grim Monolith. Lau did cycle twice, but didn't get a fourth land and a Masticore in play until it was too late.
Lau 1 Evans 2
In the fourth game, Evans kept a one-land hand that would have been devastating if he were going first: it included a couple Elves, Wild Dogs, Hidden Gibbons, and Rancor. Unfortunately, he was going second. On his first three turns, Lau played Faerie Conclave, Powder Keg, and a Rishadan Port. By Evans's main phase on his fourth turn, he only had a tapped forest in play, and he'd taken one hit from his own Wild Dogs. Lau drew a second Port, and locked up the game while his Faerie Conclave served every turn. At 6 life, Evans conceded when Palinchron hit the table. He had only a forest and an inactive Hidden Gibbons in play.
Lau 2, Fuller 2
The fifth game was a battle. Evans went first again. By Lau's third turn, Lau had two islands and a monolith in play, but he was already facing 7 damage a turn from River Boa, Wild Dogs, and Treetop Village (or 10 if Evans drew a land to activate the second Village). He though long and hard before playing a Rishadan Port and then tapping it and his Monolith to play Masticore, leaving two islands untapped. Evans attacked conservatively, only sending in the islandwalking Boa. He then played Gaea's Cradle and tapped out to play Hidden Gibbons and Blastoderm. Lau capitalized on that by shooting the River Boa at the end of Evans's turn.
Lau played an island and then thought some more. Evans had two cards in hand, and Lau had four mana untapped, so he said, "Go." Evans attacked with Blastoderm and the Wild Dogs, leaving his Treetop Villages back. Predictably, Lau blocked the Blastoderm, shot the Dogs, and regenerated his Masticore. With Lau tapped out, Evans then go to play a Saproling Burst. Lau holds on for seven turns just using the Masticore and his mana to, at first, hold off Evans's assault, and then to start attacking. Evans kept his Treetop Villages back the whole game, which seemed a bit odd. He was facing down a Powder Keg and two Rishadan Ports, but it looked like a few extra damage could be the difference in the match. All Evans was drawing was land.
Finally, Evans was at 8 life and Lau was at 6. Lau was discarding his one card turn to Masticore, so he didn't want to leave Evans time to recover. Evans had only a tapped Blastoderm, an inactive Hidden Gibbons, and a couple Treetop Villages that Lau could stop with his Ports. Lau attacked with the Masticore to drop Evans to 4, thinking that he'd just take a Blastoderm hit down to one on the next turn. After all, Blastoderm is untargetable, so Evans can't use Rancor or Giant Growth effects to get in that extra point of damage. Evans untapped, attacked with Blastoderm to put Lau at 1, and then played (drum roll here) RATH'S EDGE. (The one copy of the card in the deck, by the way.) That's the last point of damage Evans needed, and there's nothing Lau can do about it.
Next, Murray Evans will play #1 seed Gab Tsang in the semifinals, and Sam Lau will play in the losers' bracket.
Evans 3
Lau 2
| <urn:uuid:f196b101-8b8c-4ed5-8c6d-e95974449df6> | http://wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=CANNAT00/900match2qf | en | 0.984406 | 0.055215 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Alapure Cosmetics Menu
African Fair Trade Support
Fair Trade Africa
Alapure Cosmetics is committed to supporting the conservation of biodiversity and fair trade. This commitment extends to the raw materials used in our products. The quality of our hand harvested Marula oil used in our products is unparalleled and truly, our special gift to you.
How the Marula Oil Journey Begins
Native to southern Africa, the Marula fruit has been used for centuries for healing skin ailments, preserving food and fruit, and in various beauty rituals. Its highly stable nature and solvent-free extraction process keeps the Marula oil in its purest form, allowing for its application in skincare and cosmetic products.
marula fruit
The process of extracting the Marula oil is one that has been passed down from many generations and even though there are modern technologies of extracting the oil, the women who work in the cooperatives doing this job prefer to use the methods that have been handed down.
The fruit flourishes from January to March. During this time, the women of the cooperatives focus on only collecting the fallen marula fruit and brewing marula beer. The brewing process is an important one that not only produces beer that does not give hangovers but also removes the flesh from the seeds in preparation for drying.
Every part of the Marula Tree is Used
No part of the marula tree is wasted. This is evident as the skin of the fruit is left to dry for one to two weeks and then combined with ‘mokgako’ (a type of tree buck used as an ingredient). The resulting mixture is then burned to produce an organic substance that is used mainly by ladies for sniffing to relieve headaches and tension.
The Marula seeds are left to dry for three months before they are cracked. The cracking of the seeds occurs during the months of April to December. It requires skill and precision. There are thousands of seeds to crack and the ladies usually crack about 300 seeds per day.
After the seeds are cracked, a hard part of the exposed kernel called the eye of which there are 2 to 3 is then removed with a special extraction tool that could be considered a pick. The kernels then go into a sorting bin where they are dried for 16 hours. After 16 hours of drying, a sample of kernels is grated and tested that it contains less than 3 degrees of moisture before cold pressing. This test ensures that the kernels are free from impurities.
Cold Pressing
Once the kernels attain the correct moisture level they are ready for cold pressing. The cold-pressing method of extraction heats the seeds to a low temperature of no more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit to allow the oil to be gently pressed from them. This method is preferred as protects the chemical make-up of the oil leaving it in its most nutritious state. In addition, it allows it to retain it slightly nutty aroma. The extracted oil is then left for 2 weeks to allow any unwanted particles to settle. The by-product of the pressed kernels referred to as cake, is used to make delicious pastries such as relish and muffins. After two weeks of sitting, the crude marula oil is filtered of any particles and is placed into 20 liter drums for sale.
Alapure Cosmetics is proud to be a part of the Ba-Phalaborwa Marula community fair trade empowerment program, of which the goal it is to produce high quality products from indigenous and organic raw materials gathered by the women in those communities. The program empowers women and provides far reaching economic and social benefits, while upholding the highest international, environmental and fair trade standards. Know that when you use Alapure products, you are supporting and empowering an African community of women who are in turn better able to support their families and their communities.
Discover the secrets and the anti-aging properties of our Marula oil-based products today! | <urn:uuid:e2143d04-2bf2-455e-a2be-9f4e57b60a6e> | http://www.alapure.com/african-fair-trade-support/ | en | 0.957221 | 0.019439 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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The Marshall
Tucker Band
The Capricorn Years
One of the most special shows Marshall Tucker ever put on was their performance at Jimmy Carter's Inaugural Ball in 1977 with Guy Lombardo, Sea Level and Charlie Daniels.
"There were ten thousand people wearing cocktail dresses and wearing black ties. They were drinking out of their champagne glasses and we were up there playing 'Take The Highway.' I kept thinking, 'Don't pinch me now. Don't wake me up,'" Riddle laughs. "My mother met Guy Lombardo, the President, the First Lady and cher all in about ten seconds time."
By this time in their career, the band and Hornsby had developed a consistent process for recording albums. Much of the time, Toy would come into the studio with a handful of songs that, more than likely, hadn't been worked up by the band. Since Marshall Tucker and Hornsby didn't do any real pre-production rehearsing, the songs were worked out in the studio.
This approach certainly made the performances on the album have a freshness. Nevertheless, it also helps explain why many of their songs would gradually evolve into dramatically different arrangement as they matured over months of touring.
"Most of the time, we would go into the studio and pretty much learn the songs there. Then the song would develop on the stage," says Riddle. "Sometimes, Toy might have a specific musical idea, but usually he was real generous about his tunes. He trusted us and liked our input. If Toy had a musical idea, everybody would seriously tune in, because he was so gifted."
"Those records weren't really thought out. The music was just what we felt good playing," adds George McCorkle. "Toy had this knack of writing music that worked wel for that group of guys. He always told me that we interpreted his thoughts very well."
"For the first album, the band had those songs in their repertoire for quite a while, and they had been playing them live," Paul Hornsby points out. "A lot of times later on, the band might have heard some of the songs on acoustic guitar, but they usually hadn't worked them up. They were never ones to sit in a warehouse and do pre-session rehearsals."
"When your success is measured by your last record, and everyone of them seemed to be a hit, there was no planning and they were expecting a lot out of it," Hornsby continues. "I would told that the band was taking off two months to make a record and 'go and do some fantastic.' Jesus Christ! I'd be gnawing my fingers off to my elbows, because it was all on Toy, because he wrote 99 per cent of all the good material."
"The only song that was an exception to that process was when I was in a dressing room at a gig in Atlanta. We were getting ready to do the next album in about a week, and I ask Toy if he had any good songs ready. He said, 'Listen to this one,' and started strumming and singing and everybody in the dressing room started singing "Heard It In A Love Song." I said, ' That will be your first real hit single. 'And it was."
"Hearing that song in the dressing room just floored me. It had "hit record" written all over it and I was smiling all over the place," recalls Hornsby. "We worked towards that song being the Top Forty single from the album. It had all the right ingredients and we tried to put all the right licks and hooks in the right places."
The hard work paid off and "Heard It In A Love Song" became the band's biggest hit, peaking at #14 in the spring of 1977. The album, from which that sing came, reached #23 on the Billboard Album charts and became Marshall Tucker's second platinum album.
"The next recording I did of them was a European tour, which came right on the heels of that album's completion," includes Hornsby. "Those tracks were supposed to go for a projected live album that was never released."
Carolina DreamsAfter the huge success of "Heard It In A Love Song" and the Carolina Dreams album, the band began to subtly unravel. This was partiially due to different directions of interest each member was beginning to pursue, but the element that clouded the sensitivity and judgment of many of the band members was substance abuse.
Politics between the band and the label also began to strain. The first obvious casualty during this evolution was the demise of Paul Hornsby as producer.
During the late spring of 1978, the Stewart Levine-produced Together Forever hit the stores and, on the strenght of the band's hit credibility, reached #22 on the Billboard Album charts. It also went gold.
Unlike the band's previous album covers that featured arty Wild West theme paintings, Together Forever sported the first group picture of the band. In a sense, the effect underscored the band's sense of unity and permanence.
"On that album cover, we were pissed off, but we were really united," Riddle remarks. "You can tell we were very determined to be together forever. That wasn't some trite thing on our part. We really felt like that then."
"We really thought that we would be together forever at the time. We were very content with what we were doing in life," McCorkle underscores.
Levine, whose production credits included The Jazz Crusaders, Joe Cocker and The Dixie Dregs, took the band to Criteria Studio in Miami.
The opening track, "I'll Be Loving You," was a fine Marshall Tucker track, as was "Dream Lover."
Together Forever would be The Marshall Tucker Band's final album of new material for the Capricorn label. In 1978, a Greatest Hits was released that, while not reaching the Top Forty Album chart, also went gold.
The group moved to the Warner Brothers label and released five more albums.
On April 28, 1980, Tommy Caldwell passed away from injuries sustained in a car wreck almost a week earlier. The effect of Caldwell's death took a lot of the wind out of the band's sails, but Marshall Tucker continued on, enlisting old Toy Factory bassist Franklin Wilkie to fill the vacancy.
"It was a real turning point for the band," says McCorkle. "We all wanted to continue playing, but there was a big void there."
"When you are a musician on your own stage, and you're playing and locking into a groove with these five other guys, there is no other high in the world that compares to it. Very few people on the planet get to experience what that truly is like," McCorkle explains. "When you get use to locking into that awesome power and then, all of a sudden, one part of that power is gone, it is hard to get it back."
In June of 1984, Toy Caldwell, George McCorkle and Paul Riddle called it quits, due to internal band tensions brought about by conflicting agendas, continued substance abuse and general fatigue.
Toy Caldwell eventually pursued a solo career and released one album, Toy Caldwell Band, in 1992 to good notices. Unfortunately, Caldwell passed away suddenly from a heart attack on February 25, 1993. On that day, the music world lost a considerable songwriter and one of it's finest guitarists.
Today, George McCorkle is a successful songwriter in Nashville. Paul Riddle lives in Spartanburg and owns a drum shop and a drum stick company called The Carolina Stick Company. Doug Gray and Jerry Eubanks continue to carry on under the Marshall Tucker banner to audiences all over North America.
"The way I look at it, is the Marshall Tucker Band consisted of six players all with a very different tastes and musical backgrounds," offers Gray. "It is American music, because it takes all those cultures and music that come from within the South or across the country. When you put those elements together, you got a Marshall Tucker sound."
"The Marshall Tucker Band was something that I did out of pure love for what it was that we did," McCorkle concludes. "That is what it started out to be and, if you listen to the music close enough, you will definitely understand that we loved each other and we loved what we did. I don't think anybody ever loved what we did more than we did and I feel really blessed to have been involved in that small part of history."
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Marshall Tucker Band
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from the CD The Best Of The Marshall Tucker Band, The Capricorn Years | <urn:uuid:5616bbf8-2141-497d-96aa-27a8500ae48e> | http://www.angelfire.com/tn/LSkynyrd/marshall3.html | en | 0.984842 | 0.021057 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
ATOMIK AZTEX by Sesshu Foster
“Prove you are alive. Prove it.” In Atomik Aztex, Sesshu Foster takes a deep breath and conjures a loopy, violent multiverse in which “78 rpm realities” spin one after the other, for a monstrously comic opera in which life and death, glory and degradation, possible pasts and feverish futures collide on cue. Call it Slaughterhouse Jive: narrator Zenzontli is a powerful Aztec warrior attacking the Nazis at Stalingrad in 1942—or a killing floor drudge at an East L.A. meat factory, hallucinating his way out of history to the aroma of naked lunch.
In this delirious first novel—part Mumbo Jumbo, part The Man in the High Castle—poet Foster has the “proper energy vibe” to make the whole thing fly. He Herrimaniacally eschews the hard c in favor of k (“Wake that man up there, I have something kool to say”), unleashes Beat-like stretches of indentless, incantatory prose, and chocks his text with W. B. Yeats and penis-enlargement ads. When an interloper eavesdrops on a rendezvous between Zenzontli and a union organizer, the two trump him with an absurd dialogue consisting wholly of mismatched clichés. What initially seems like a dodgy literary conceit gathers steam as Foster lets the vernacular percolate for a stupid-brilliant three and a half pages. If Atomik Aztex works as a koruskating kritique of U.S. arrogance and konsumption, it’s also an exhilarating melting pot au fou, a twisting masterpiece of hybrid vigor. The pure products of America go krazy—thank Huitzilpochtli.
From Atomik Aztex by Sesshu Foster:
The Europeans figured they’d wipe us out, Plan A, enslave our peoples down at the corner liquor store, crush all resistance thru germ warfare and lawyers, lie, cheat, kidnap, ransom, burn our sakred libraries, look our kapital, install Christian theokratik diktatorships, slaughter us by the millions, MILLIONS (my emphasis), then claim it wuz all accidental, just their luck—they’d pretend they just happened by on their way to India to buy some cardamom, some nutmeg and spices—like you’d just accidently happen to decimate Whole Civilizations and Worlds just to set a nice breakfast table—hot coffee, cinnamon toast, chiming silverware; furthermore just by chance, as luck would have it they’d enslave our native brothers and sisters of all other Red Nations as well. Could we let that happen? Of course not. Did we care if they had a Plan B? Hell, no. Cuz in no way does that fit our aesthetic conception of how the universe is supposed to run. It’s just plain ugly. To think that they want to foist that vision of Reality on the rest of us. That’s the insult. Barbarik, cheap aesthetik based on flimsy Mechanistik notions of the omniverse as a Swiss watch set to ticking by some sort of Trinity. The Spanish believed they had superior firepower with their gunpowder, blunderbusses, crossbows with metal darts, steel body-armor, Arabian horses, galleons built in Cádiz. All that wuz true. But we Aztex had our ways and means. We have access to the meanest, nastiest, psycho Gods through voodoo, jump blues, human sacrifice, proletarian vanguard parties, Angry Coffeehouse Poetry, fantasy life intensified thru masturbation & comic books, plus all our armies, Flower Warriors, Jaguar Legions, Eagle Elite Units, Jiu Jitsu and of course the secret weapon. In a nutshell. The Spanish didn’t have a chance. Sure, the Spaniards rowed up in their quaint canvas-rigged galleons ready to conquer the world. The vicious leathery little rats crossed the Sargasso Sea come to find out indigenous peoples already had their number. We welcomed them to our land. They were not heard from again. And after the Spanish fell to our advance forces, who was gonna stop us? The Italians? Come on! They don’t even make second round of the World Cup.
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96. Re: Croteam on Windows 8 Issues Nov 18, 2012, 02:39 Verno
noman wrote on Nov 18, 2012, 02:25:
Just because something isn't new doesn't mean people can't discuss the problems associated. I'm not sure why you think people just all need to run in the opposite direction any time they have an issue with something either, particularly when they're a business that needs to serve its customers wherever they might exist.
There is a big difference, one is owned by the company who makes the operating system and exercises a great deal of control including deciding whether or not to even allow those aforementioned applications compete on the Windows Store in the future. Microsoft also has a lot of control over the direction the market will move in the future and this exactly because they basically forced and frontloaded their own store. A more apt comparison of "DRM game stores" would be all of those services and GFWL which largely failed because Microsoft had to compete fairly and basically wasn't interested in putting in the effort.
Windows 8 should be great, it's largely Windows 7 with some minor improvements. I would word the Metro stuff differently, that's putting it mildly. It is a pretty mediocre experience for desktop users and has very poor discoverability as a user interface. It need serious improvement.
I have no inherent problem with what Microsoft is trying to accomplish with Windows 8, it's just how they are doing it that sucks.
This comment was edited on Nov 18, 2012, 02:46.
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A ketone is an organic compound containing a carbon to oxygen double bond (also known as the carbonyl group). The carbon atom must be attached to two other carbon atoms to be a ketone. A common ketone is acetone (CH3COCH3), which is a carbonyl group with a methyl group on each side.
Ketones differ from aldehydes. While both are similar, aldehydes require the carbonyl carbon atom to be bonded to at least one hydrogen atom as opposed to two carbon atoms.[1]
1. Solomon's Organic Chemistry, Fifth Edition, 1992
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The latest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knows its audience pretty well.
They’ve cast Megan Fox as ace reporter/turtle buddy April O’Neil, marking the second time she’s sexed up an ‘80s franchise geared toward boys ― the first being Transformers, of course. Today Megan was photographed jumping on a trampoline on set ― and, really, could there be any more enticing combination for a certain generation of fanboys than a new TMNT and Megan Fox on a trampoline?
The answer is no.
Why is Megan Fox jumping on a trampoline? Is this some kind of stunt? “Who cares?” is the most likely response from TMNT fans who happen across these photos. As the saying goes, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth... nor do you look a gift "Megan Fox on a trampoline" in the [insert body part of choice here].
The newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie comes from Jonathan Liebesman, director of Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans, with lesser-known actors playing the titular turtles in motion capture performances. Will Arnett has also been cast, though his role has not been revealed.
Naturally, the movie is being produced by Michael Bay, who turned Megan Fox into an instant sex symbol with the first Transformers movie. He's hoping to recapture that fanboy magic and whoever thought up a scene in which Megan Fox must bounce on a trampoline should get a raise, since we know a certain demographic of men who were under 10 in the early '90s are just about the right age to appreciate such things.
The movie is set to be released in June of 2014. So this is all you get of Megan Fox on a trampoline for a whole year. Enjoy!
Do you think another Ninja Turtles movie can be a success?
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Can't resize/reposition fields independently
I highlight a table and click Create -> Form. Access creates the form with all fields as desired. When I select Design View and try to resize a field or move a field all the fields are affected. Access won't let me change the field sizes independently.
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A couple of really simple queries regarding resizing and basic buttons
1) I am resizing my fields on a form but when I resize one of the fields the rest of the fields resize as well. How do I only resize one of them?
2) I would like to add a button that lets me search for a record. I have added a button and have used the Find Record Macro builder. I have no clue what to do from there though.
Contiguous Forms
Is there a way to make these resize on their own based on the number of records? Auto Resize is set to yes. Also, it's a subform.
Basically, I just need it to resize on it's own so there's only one scroll bar (it's a tab on a Navigation Form
Move and resize controls independently
Work with the Help window
Click the Microsoft Office Help button Button image in the upper right or the F1 key on your keyboard to open Help on your computer. The first time you use the Help feature in Microsoft Office programs, the online Help window appears in a default location and size on your screen. You can change the way the Help window is displayed. After that, when you open the Help window, the settings that you made are maintained.
Learn how to: Resize or reposition the Help window and Keep the Help window on top
move fields independently
I'm trying to create a report with several fields.when I create the report, all the fields are smashed together horizontally. as all fields are connected. Is there an easy way to "disconnect" the fields?
DoCmd.MoveSize after DoCmd.PrintOut
I have a form (actually a calendar on a form) that I am printing out, but in order to have it fit on the printout, I have to resize the form, then print out, then I wanted to resize the form to the original size that the user had it.
The code works perfectly up until I try and movesize after I printout. It goes through the code, but the actual window does not resize. If I actually step through the code it will resize. If I remove the printout, it will resizes just fine. I thought that if I added a pause that it would help. That didn't work. It is really strange. Any help here would be great. I have looked everywhere to see if anyone else has encountered it.
Essentially this is the code that I am using.
Private Sub PrintCalendar()
Forms in Microsoft Access
I have created a form in Access 2010 using the Form button (not the Form Wizard) based on a table. I am unable to resize the fields separately as they all resize at once in both Design and Layout views. I am unable to move them around either.
Form Resize
Access2007 .mdb
I have a form that is not a pop-up or modal, single form, form-view only, auto-center=no, auto-resize=no, fir to screen=no. My Access Options has overlapping windows set.
say, the design properties sheet in Access). Which other settings do I need to be able let my users resize the form please?
Make controls stretch, shrink, or move as you resize a form
By default, the controls on a form stay anchored to the upper-left corner of the form, and do not resize when you resize the form. To change this behavior, you can use the Anchoring command. For example, you can configure a text box so that it stretches down and to the right as the form becomes larger. This lets you see more text in the control.
Resizing Forms
Here's a thing. What I am trying to do is, when I resize a form, I am trying to resize all the controls to fit the resized form. It does look very slick.
Nearly there except for a couple of snags. Anyone seen any code to do this
Datasheet - Custom fields to behave independently for each row
Got datasheet on forms. Want to add a "Pay" check box to each row and want to have a "pay selected" button to look at rows where the "pay" check is selected.
How do I get the check boxes to act independently on each row and how do I refer to each individual check box programatically in VBA?
Access 2007: Resizing one textbox resizes all
All textboxes were auto-created from the Data Source | table. Now, I want to resize some of the textboxes to smaller and larger.
When I give focus to one textbox and drag to resize, all textboxes automatically get focus and resize as well. Or, when I change the textbox width in the Properties for one text box, all of them change. Never saw this behavior in Access 2003.
Wizard Report has "locked" fields
I have used the wizard to create a report. Overall it is good, but I want to move a few of the fields and now cant move the fields independently. Is this a lock feature? Edit permissions? Help please - need to get this report off my desk today
Resize ListBox Columns
how do i make forms not resizable?
I can make them unmovable, but I cant make them stay the same size?
There's an event procedure "on resize".but what code do I need to put in to make it so the user cant resize the form
Run-time error '424': Object required
I am trying to make a function that when I pass the control it will resize the control according to the length of the data in the given text box. I am trying to do this in a report only. Anyone know why I am getting this error?
Run-time error '424':
Object required
Resize (Me.txtLocationTest)
Function Resize(ctl As Control)
Dim tlength As Long
test = Me.TextWidth(ctl)
Me.ctl.Width = test
Auto resize columns in split forms
For example :
Me.[nameOfColumn].Columnwidth = -2
This doesn't seem to work in my split form
Text box resize horizontally
Is there a way to have a text box that will resize itself horizontally depending on the size of the data? The can grow property allows it to grow vertically which I don't want. If there isnot an easy way to do it I would imagine there would be a way to do it with VBcode.
How to disable this annoying auto arrange?
I've got several forms made up (created using "Create Form") and I can't move the fields around or resize them separately as they all seem to be grouped together.
How do you resize a popup box upon trigger?
I have a popup box containing a button that, when pressed, adds/removes a few fields to the popup. When this happens, the buttons are moved down to provide space for the additional fields, and are no longer visible - you'd have to scroll or re-size the box to be able to see them. Is there a way to simply increase the popup height (re-size it) to the current height | <urn:uuid:465c8708-5b91-4441-9da3-73334a6ed7e2> | http://www.tutcity.com/access/can-resize-reposition-fields-independently.33038.html | en | 0.921309 | 0.03796 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
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Smelly Socks: Lessons learned from an older brother - and James Bond
March 27, 2014 at midnight
Updated March 26, 2014 at 10:27 p.m.
Jamison, left, and his older brother, Austin.
By Johanna Bloom
Austin, my 13-year-old, displays firstborn behavior. I believe in all of the research about birth order and how it affects a child's behavior and personality.
I see most of these personality traits in my eldest child. One characteristic that strikes me as pure Austin is that he is the essence of extreme caution. To clarify, I am not referring to physical caution, - actually he is a daredevil, a pure risk taker, physically speaking.
In matters of the heart, it takes him a long time to trust someone. He has to warm up to the person before he opens his heart to them. When he finally does, he does it with complete abandon. Also, Austin has the controlling trait that most firstborns display.
In any given situation, Austin will most likely take the lead. He might lead in the right direction or often, in the wrong direction, but it will undoubtedly be in the Austin direction.
Jamison, my youngest child at 10 years old, fits the mold as the baby of the family and is a perpetual people-pleaser. The second-born usually has to fight for attention and for their voice to be heard. Jamison has taken the role of a smiling, happy, secure child who just wants everyone to be happy and get along.
His happiness wish also extends to trying keep his older brother content. Make no mistake about it, though, Jamison does like to be heard, and he knows how to raise his voice to the level in which he can't or won't be ignored.
My boys' relationship is typical, complete with inside jokes, annoyance, brotherly love and sometimes, sheer avoidance. Austin lives to assert his power and size over the younger Jamison. Jamison often gives in to Austin's whims in hopes of keeping everyone happy. But just because Jamison is a people-pleaser doesn't mean that he plays the fool. After being duped many times by Austin's jokes, Jamison has grown a little suspicious and much wiser than his 10 years reveal.
This weekend, my parents joined us for an impromptu casual dinner of "steak and whatever else we could find to go with it." Jamison, John and Popsy were manning the grill getting the steaks just perfect while I was in the kitchen getting everything else ready.
Austin decided to play the role of sous chef, complete with apron and his Crocs a la Mario Batali, and assist me in the preparation of his favorite Gouda cheese sauce.
Everything was finally ready, and I asked Austin to help me put the ice and tea in the glasses. Remembering that Jamison doesn't like iced tea and prefers water specifically with no ice, I reminded Austin to just give him plain water.
When we gathered around the table, I told Jamison to sit down in the seat where the water is. I watched as Jamison went around to each glass and looked in to see if there was tea or water in the colored glasses.
When he finally got to his glass and saw water I noticed that he immediately bent down and smelled his water, looked around suspiciously at all of the other glasses and asked, "Mom, who gave me this water?"
I replied that Austin helped me get glasses to the table. Immediately, a hint of terror filled Jamison's eyes. He smelled his glass again, raised an arched eyebrow in Austin's direction and then turned to face Austin in an all-out stare. "Um, I'm OK. I'm not thirsty."
Austin, truly mastering the art of his older brother position, had a satisfied grin spread across his face as he realized that without trying, he caused strife. "Ah, come on, Jamison. What's wrong with your plain ol' water? Why are you so suspicious? You know that your dear, sweet brother (as he placed a hand over his heart) would never do anything to your drink," Austin whispered devilishly.
I got a little annoyed with Jamison being - in my opinion - silly about his drink. I knew that Austin wouldn't have done anything to Jamison's water; he just likes to stir the pot and be in control of his younger brother. But Jamison remained intent on ogling his water glass suspiciously.
"Mom, James Bond should have smelled his vodka martini that he likes shaken and not stirred. If he would have only smelled it, then he would have realized it was poisoned. Then he wouldn't have had to stick that shot into his heart and then shock himself back to life."
I laughed as I remembered that the boys had just had a late night watching James Bond movies, and apparently, Jamison garnered some important spy wisdom.
Even though SPECTRE got the best of 007, Austin was not going to get the best of Jamison this time around. This younger brother had learned at a very early age to trust his instincts.
God gave us all instincts, and Jamison's instincts are super-charged from growing up with his older brother and watching just a little too much James Bond.
A fact that is evident from him asking me later that night, "So, can James be a nickname for Jamison? James Bond, Jamison Bloom - they are kind of similar."
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[Noisebridge-discuss] more about the attempted theft
Patrick Lake pat at patsanimation.com
Thu Jun 9 15:53:46 PDT 2011
Here's a follow up.
Story: I looked up from cooking and saw a guy I had never seen before wearing my jacket, going through my bag, putting his laptop in it with mine, and zipping up to leave. I grabbed the bag and yelled for a couple members I know and we started questioning him. He couldn't say anything that made sense (quoting him "It was a mistake, it was a prank because I'm a hacker and that's what we do, I thought my brother gave me the bag for a gift," etc.) Some members separated me and they spent a long time questioning him. That really sucked to wait an hour without resolution, thinking he was going to get up and run away any minute (a pro thief would have). It was tough for me to give that much respect to Noisebridge over my wish to get something done. Eventually I got an OK to call cops to meet downstairs. They couldn't do anything and the guy was free to leave.
The day after, it's easier for me to understand the guy's behavior probably came from real mental illness. I didn't treat it that way at the time for several reasons.
- It was just so freaky and upsetting.
- I didn't have a lot of time alone with the guy to see him show symptoms.
- I had never personally seen a manic/bipolar episode like that.
- I already brought up a specific security worry to another member the day before.
- the handling by Noisebridge was a lot different than it would have been in another setting, and the process wasn't clear.
I went up to the line of threatening to physically restrain the guy myself. I was afraid that people wouldn't help me stop him from leaving. Yeah I was told you can't legally do that, it's a liability, whatever. I didn't and don't give a shit about risking arrest for beating a thief. Especially when the response by cops has serious limits on what they can do. I already knew that and as expected this guy wasn't charged.
I asked the cops to give me a few minutes, to tell him how fucked up it was that he tried to rob me. I couldn't get a single bit of remorse or responsibility from him, and that was the worst part.
In my adrenaline filled pissed-offedness, I went home and emailed the guy's professional contacts. This morning I got a call from HR at his employer. They apologized on his behalf. I told them I was satisfied the message got to somebody and they cared enough to respond, so I can consider it settled. I added that I felt more understanding today, and if mental illness was the cause, I hope the guy is not fired because of my message. That was going out there to make consequences, but it's better for him than getting a rap sheet that would follow him.
I still want to add photos and another write up of this to the page (please let me know if there's a good place for it.)
More points about the collective response by Noisebridge.
- You might know cases where crime victims get their rights fucked because they let "non-cops" handle justice. Like, private security guards or college campus security. Example, how colleges handle rape complaints. The solution to save your rights is call the real cops and fuck the internal process. I wanted to keep my rights and that's why I was intent on getting cops. Nevertheless, Noisebridge got an hour to handle things before I did. Waiting time was an issue by itself.
- While this was going down I didn't know what the process should be. I was afraid that nobody would help me restrain the guy, or join me to stand by the door so he wouldn't even think about running. When shit is going down, if people are ready to do that without a second thought, it would help.
- The laptop held everything for my business, and as far as I know, no insurance would have protected my livelihood. Not my own, and none from Noisebridge. Seems like it might be a liability concern for the whole place.
- What if the cops use an emergency call as a pretext to go in there and bust it up without a search warrant. I understand why there can be civil liberties worries, and people (especially at a collective space) have different opinions about how to interact with the system. Briefing people about the big picture is good.
It ended OK, but if the guy was a pro, it wouldn't have. That's all.
thanks, Pat
More information about the Noisebridge-discuss mailing list | <urn:uuid:a6b5390e-02d6-497e-9b9e-918dfd79955e> | https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/2011-June/023452.html | en | 0.989303 | 0.153818 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
This undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Corrections shows inmate Freddie Lee Hall. / AP
WASHINGTON - For more than half of his 68 years, Freddie Lee Hall has been awaiting execution in Florida for the brutal murder of a 21-year-old pregnant woman.
But for "his entire life," according to a court that re-sentenced him to death in 1991, Hall has been mentally retarded.
On Monday, the Supreme Court will consider whether that diagnosis is accurate enough to spare Hall's life - or if Florida is correct in determining that he is smart enough to die for his crime.
On a human level, the decision will have limited impact. No one in Hall's precise situation has been executed in the 12 years since the high court prohibited the death penalty for people with "mental retardation," now called intellectual disabilities. Only four other death row residents in Florida and Alabama face similar predicaments.
But the court's ruling could have broad repercussions in the future by spelling out exactly what the justices meant in 2002 when - at least according to Florida and its allies - it prohibited executing the mentally retarded without defining who is and who isn't.
Thirty-two states permit the death penalty. The number of executions peaked at 98 in 1999 but dropped to 39 by last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. From 1984 to 2001, 44 people with mental retardation were executed.
"Everybody understands that the stakes are very high here," says Sean Jordan, an attorney representing nine other states that argue Florida's determination is the right one.
Hall represents a generation of inmates sentenced to die before a consensus emerged among many states and the federal government that intellectual disability should be taken into consideration. In scientific terms, their diagnoses haven't changed. But in the eyes of the law, they've been given new life.
Since the Supreme Court's ruling in 2002, several hundred claims of mental retardation have been filed by prisoners on death row, representing about 7% of all cases, according to John Blume, a Cornell University law professor. Slightly more than 100 sentences have been reduced as a result, a 28% success rate.
The opposite fate may come true for Hall and a handful of others in the four states that impose a strict numerical cutoff for IQ tests without taking into consideration what's called the "standard error of measurement." That includes Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky; several other state statutes are open to interpretation.
The Supreme Court's landmark 6-3 decision in Atkins v. Virginia exempted people with mental retardation from execution. The court cited their "diminished capacities" to understand and process information, communicate, learn from mistakes and experiences, engage in logical reasoning, control impulses and understand the reactions of others.
Three of the court's current justices - Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - were in the majority in that decision. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are new to the court.
The court set a three-prong test that includes intellectual functioning, adaptive behavior and age of onset; proving mental retardation requires passing all three tests. But while Florida and other states say the specific definitions were left up to the them, mental health and intellectual disability groups say the definition was linked to their clinical determinations.
The difference comes down to numbers. Florida sets a maximum IQ of 70, which is two standard deviations from the average of 100. The professional groups say that must include room for error, defined as plus or minus 5 points. Therefore, they say, a person with an IQ of 75 still can be intellectually disabled.
Hall scored above and below that range, from 60 to 80, but mostly in the low 70s. Still, the Florida Supreme Court refused to set aside his death sentence in December 2012 - with two vocal dissents.
"If the bar against executing the mentally retarded is to mean anything, Freddie Lee Hall cannot be executed," said Judge James Perry. Hall, he said, "is a poster child for mental retardation claims."
That's largely because six experts who tested and evaluated Hall over the years agreed that he qualified as mentally retarded, regardless of his varying IQ test scores. Hall's attorney, Seth Waxman, makes that point in his brief.
"The Florida Supreme Court has redefined mental retardation so that it means something different - and narrower - than this court's decision contemplated," he says. "The predictable consequence of Florida's rule is that persons with mental retardation will be executed. Without this court's intervention, that will happen here."
Ronald Tabak, a lawyer who specializes in death penalty cases, says Florida "is virtually unique in cutting off consideration of all but one factor, an unadjusted IQ score, if it is above an arbitrarily set number." Prisoners elsewhere with higher scores have won mental retardation claims, he says, or never faced the death penalty.
James Ellis, the lawyer for several developmental disabilities groups, calls the protected error range of 71 to 75 a "degree of professionally required modesty." States can exercise leeway in procedural matters, he says. "What they can't do is change the definition."
Florida and its allied states contend the Atkins decision left the definition to the states, which have not reached a consensus. One reason for that, the state says, is that diagnostic criteria used by mental health and disability groups are "vague, constantly evolving, and sometimes contradictory."
"Florida's standard resulted in the correct outcome in this case," says the brief filed by Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi. "Hall's conduct in his crimes and extensive evidence from the record of his appeals refutes his claims of intellectual and adaptive deficits."
Florida isn't alone in its effort. While some states - notably Mississippi and Oklahoma - use an IQ test score of 75, several others use stricter criteria than Hall's side recommends. Jordan says about half the states with death penalty statutes vary from the norm.
Georgia is a different story entirely. The state requires that prisoners prove their intellectual disabilities beyond a reasonable doubt, a standard that has blocked Warren Lee Hill's efforts to get off death row. Only a challenge to the state's lethal injection secrecy law has blocked his execution.
"Atkins did not outsource to mental health organizations the development of substantive criteria, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, for determining mental retardation," Jordan says in his brief for nine states led by Arizona. Such a standard, he says, would deny "finality and closure for the victims' families."
Copyright 2015
Read the original story: Court to reopen debate over executing mentally disabled
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A Kommander crash course: Part 2
By Michał Kosmulski on December 24, 2004 (8:00:00 AM)
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Last time, we introduced Kommander -- a development environment for easily creating graphical KDE applications. For demonstration purposes, we built a simple application, which we are now going to make fully functional by allowing it to communicate with KDE via DCOP.
Using DCOP
Click to enlarge
Our example application is growing in functionality fast, so now we'll add almost all the remaining widgets to the window. First, add a CloseButton called okButton and labeled "&OK", setting its "default" property to true. This will cause the button to become the default one, which is activated when Enter is pressed in the dialog box. Next, add an ExecButton called applyButton and set its text to "&Apply". Then, add a checkbox called "showIcons" with the text "Show icons on desktop", followed by a combo box called "position" and a text label with the text "Wallpaper position:" to accompany it. Double-click the position combo box to edit its contents and enter the following items: None, Centered, Tiled, Centered tiled, Centered maxpect, Tiled maxpect, Scaled, Centered auto fit. Preserve the order, as we will treat this combo box in a way similar to the viewingApplication combo box -- each item's position corresponds to a magic number that KDE uses to identify a particular wallpaper position.
We are now going to implement the functionality of changing desktop wallpapers. The key to this is the Desktop Communications Protocol (DCOP), which KDE applications use to communicate with each other. By issuing DCOP calls you can for example control your music player, enter text into an open KWrite window, or tell the KDE screensaver to lock your session. You can also get and set information related to the desktop background. General information about using DCOP and related tools can be found elsewhere, but there are two useful things to know. Firstly, you can check what DCOP calls are available for running applications using the program kdcop, which displays each application's interfaces in a nice tree. This program is a part of KDE itself and is not directly related to Kommander, though it is quite useful for people writing Kommander applications. As an exercise, after we enter our code into Kommander, you can try to navigate through kdcop in order to find the calls we used. Secondly, there is a command line tool, dcop, which makes it possible to issue DCOP calls from the command line. In some situations, you must use this instead of Kommander's built-in DCOP functions.
So, first we will use DCOP calls to set the initial values of our dialog's controls so they reflect the desktop's settings. One widget whose state is not set based on settings received from KDE is the wallpaper position. Unfortunately, there seems to be no easy way to get it using DCOP calls, so the best we can do is to set it to some arbitrary value, e.g. 6 (Scaled). Append this code to the form's initialization slot:
Clearly, the @dcop function is used to make DCOP calls. In the first call, we ask the application kdesktop to execute its currentWallpaper function available through its KBackgroundIface interface. This function takes one integer parameter (the virtual desktop number), which we pass as the last parameter to @dcop. The result of this DCOP call is used to set the file selector's text. In a similar way, we ask kdesktop whether desktop icons are currently enabled. By the way, your application can also issue DCOP calls to itself. Just use the special @dcopid identifier as the first parameter to @dcop.
As you see, we have to work around a small inconsistency, namely that setChecked function expects either true or false while the DCOP call returns 1 or 0. In Kommander versions newer than 1.1development2, we can use both the 1/0 and the true/false notation, so the much more obvious call @showIcons.setChecked(@dcop(kdesktop,KDesktopIface,"isIconsEnabled()")) can be used instead. On the other hand, thanks to this inconsistency in older versions, we get a chance to see an example of Kommander's switch/case instruction. Another possible workaround, which requires less code, is to use an array to map 1 to true and 0 to false.
Kommander offers an interesting way of getting the state of checkboxes and radio buttons. We will now use the value provided by the showIcons checkbox in a DCOP call. The @dcop function expects parameters of type bool to be either "true" or "false". When you open the Kommander Text editor for our showIcons checkbox, you will see that it has three special slots: checked, unchecked, and semichecked. The last one is for three-state checkboxes, which we will not discuss at the moment. The other two are quite interesting, however. When you enter a @showIcons function call somewhere, the text entered for one of these slots is returned, depending on the checkbox's state. So, just enter "true" for the checked slot and "false" for the unchecked slot, since that's convenient in our situation. In other situations, other values may be more appropriate. Imagine, for instance, that you have a button that executes ls in order to list a directory's contents (you would have to run the program from the command line to see the result). You can create a checkbox called longFormat and assign the text "-l" to its checked slot and the text "@null" to its unchecked slot. The latter one is a Kommander special function which simply returns an empty string. Now if your button's default slot has the script "ls @longFormat", "ls -l" will be executed if the checkbox is on and "ls" if it is off.
Now let's consider the OK and Apply buttons. They are both supposed to perform the same action, and the only difference is that OK closes our program afterwards (which is done automatically anyway, since it's a CloseButton). It would be nice to not have to enter the same code twice in two different places (and have to correct it in both places, too, when an error is found). Script objects serve this very purpose for us. They are objects that don't appear in running window and only serve as containers for scripts. We will now use one to make both Apply and OK perform the same action when clicked.
Create a new script object called applySettings anywhere in the form (it's invisible in the running dialog anyway). In the default slots of okButton and applyButton, enter simply:
This will cause the script contained in applySettings to be executed when these buttons are clicked. We could also use the longer form @applySettings.execute for the same effect.
The default slot for applySettings is rather simple and quite similar to what we already know. DCOP calls are used to set the wallpaper image and its position as well as to enable or disable desktop icons:
@dcop(kdesktop,KBackgroundIface,"setWallpaper(QString,int)", @fileSelector.text,@position.currentItem)
Notice how it now pays off that we conveniently made showIcons return directly "true" or "false" instead of some other values which we would have to convert to the desired format now.
Since we want the dialog box to be usable even without a mouse, we should set the correct tab order for the widgets. First, we will need to make the file selector selectable through tabbing since by default it isn't. In order to do that, change its focusPolicy property to StrongFocus, which allows the widget to be given input focus both using the mouse and using the Tab key. Next, select the tab order tool and click on widgets until the displayed numbers reflect a sensible order. Users will now be able to navigate the dialog easily using the Tab key. After you're done, choose the Selection tool again to return to previous mode.
Our application has now got all the functionality we want it to have. The only thing that's not quite as good as it should be is the widgets' positions and sizes, which are rather random at the moment. Using layouts, we'll get this fixed in no time.
The complete script at this stage can be downloaded here.
Layouts provide a way of automatically placing and resizing a window's widgets in a reasonable way. Generally, a layout is like a box in which a number of widgets reside. Layouts can contain not only widgets but also other layouts, which makes arranging large sets of widgets possible. There are three types of layouts in Kommander: horizontal (where items are placed side by side), vertical (items placed one over another in a column), and grid, where widgets are placed in the cells of an imaginary table.
We will now add some layouts to our dialog box. You can have a look at another tutorial for a better description of all the different layout types (it is based on Qt Designer, which was used as a basis for Kommander Editor, and as such it is very similar).
The way widgets will behave once packed into layouts depends on some of their properties. The sizePolicy property has two important subproperties: hSizeType and vSizeType, which control how the widget's horizontal and vertical sizes change inside the layout. Some of the most often used values are: Fixed (the size cannot change), Preferred (the widget stays at its optimal size if it can, but it can also shrink or stretch to fill empty space if necessary) and Expanding (the widget can shrink but it prefers to stretch and is very willing to do so). Other values are explained here. Widgets also have minimumSize and maximumSize properties, using which you can restrict them from growing too large or shrinking too small. An extra tool used with layouts is spacers, which are widgets that aren't visible in the running application, but which are used to push other widgets into appropriate positions (in the editor, they are represented by objects resembling springs). There are two types of spacers: horizontal and vertical. Spacers have a sizeType property using which you can control how they affect other widgets. "Expanding" is the most often used type, and we will not discuss other modes in this article.
The best way to learn about layouts is through hands-on experience, so let's lay out our sample dialog. First, we will line up the four push buttons. We want them to always stay aligned with the dialog box's right edge, so add a horizontal spacer just left of all the buttons. Now, select the spacer and the four buttons and from the context menu select "Lay Out Horizontally" (or click the horizontal layout icon in the toolbar). The objects are now surrounded by a red frame indicating that a layout is controlling their sizes and positions. You will notice that you can't resize or move widgets that are inside a layout, even though you can change their other properties. To be able to manually change the widgets' sizes and positions, you have to right-click the layout and select "Break Layout" from the context menu. You can move the whole layout around and resize it. You will notice that when the layout is resized, widgets inside are moved and resized too, according to their sizeType properties. You will also notice that the spacer actually works, pushing buttons to the right side of the layout regardless of how we scale and move it.
In the next step, create a grid layout using the wallpaper position and viewing application combo boxes and their labels, using the technique outlined above. By default, combo boxes' horizontal size type is set to Minimum, which means that the widget can't shrink below a certain size (this will be the size it was at the moment it was added to a layout). When you horizontally stretch the newly created layout, you will notice how the labels and the combo boxes expand equally. This is because both Preferred and Minimum allow the widget to grow and are, so to say, equally strong. In contrast, Expanding indicates that a widget is more willing to grow than one using Preferred size type and that it will try to take up as much space as possible. When you now change both combo boxes' horizontal size type to Expanding, you will notice that now resizing the layout causes labels to stay the same size all the time, while combo boxes take up all the remaining horizontal space.
To exercise using spacers a bit more, we will align the checkbox to the right window margin, too. Put a horizontal spacer between the layout created in the previous step and the checkbox. Select that layout, the spacer, and the checkbox, and from the context menu choose "Align Horizontally". This again proves that we can put one layout inside another. You can resize the outer layout to check how the different widgets inside it behave now. In order to make the file selector and its label play nicely together, put them both in a horizontal layout, too.
Click to enlarge
Now comes the tricky part -- positioning the image preview and the script object. In theory, a script object is completely invisible in the window. However, in some older Kommander versions, while it is transparent, it can influence layouts and appear as empty space in the window. Thus, to make sure the window will look good in all versions, we will create a layout which prevents the script object from messing up the rest of the widgets.
First, we will change the image preview's minimumSize and maximumSize properties to 40x30 and 400x300, respectively. This is to prevent the window from becoming excessively large when a large wallpaper is opened. Now, surround the image preview with four spacers laid out in a cross pattern: one vertical spacer above and one below the image, and one horizontal spacer to the left and one to the right of it. Now, make sure that the script object is located to the right of and above the image. Select the image, the four spacers, and the script object and lay them out in a grid. Since we placed the script object in the upper right corner of our 3x3 grid whose center is occupied by the image preview, it can't distort the layout of other widgets very much (in worst case it adds a little margin around the image). To reduce its destructive effect, set both its size types to Ignored, which will basically let it expand and shrink to any size.
Our dialog is almost finished now. The complete script at this stage can be downloaded here.
The last step to perform is to create a layout which will take care of positioning the layouts we have already created. First, resize the layout containing the image preview to be large enough to contain the 400x300 maximum size we assigned to the preview (when you resize an object you can see its current size in a tooltip). Resize the form as needed, too. Once all objects in the window are roughly positioned, right-click on an empty place in the form and select "Lay Out Vertically". This way you create a layout that encompasses all the top-level objects the window contains. You can now resize the window and see all the widgets nicely move and resize to fill the window's contents. In a similar way, you could lay out objects located inside a group box by choosing the appropriate layout option from that group box's context menu.
The application is now complete. You can use all the widgets' functionality and resize the window to put the layouts at work.
The complete script for the finished application can be downloaded here.
Notes on executing Kommander scripts
Kommander programs are not compiled into binary form, but a special program, Kommander Executor, reads the source files and executes them in a way similar to how shell scripts are run. This makes distributing software simple, since most projects need only this single source file to be distributed. This eliminates problems with binary incompatibility or package management systems. If you plan to create and distribute Kommander apps, you may also want to have a look at Kommander Project Tools, which simplify this task.
Kommander scripts usually have the extension .kmdr and are internally XML files, which means they can be viewed and edited with a text editor, should a programmer find some reason not to use Kommander Editor. To execute a Kommander program, simply click on your .kmdr file in Konqueror. To run it from the command line, invoke Kommander Executor with the following command:
kmdr-executor your-script.kmdr
For often-used Kommander programs, it is convenient to put the above statement inside a shell script.
In the course of this tutorial, we have created a working Kommander application without writing much code. Kommander makes rapid development of small GUI applications easy and often frees the user from having to use more heavyweight languages like C++. Superb integration with existing command-line tools and shell scripts puts the power to create graphical applications for KDE in the hands of people with little or no programming experience. Finally, thanks to DCOP bindings, integration with KDE is a breeze. We are certainly going to hear more about Kommander soon.
Kommander homepage
Download site for all Kommander releases, including obsolete ones
Search for Kommander applications on
Kommander Project Tools
Introduction to DCOP and related tools
Qt Tutorial: Layouts
Qt Tutorial: Layouts (ctd.)
Description of the sizeType property
Kommander Looks to Shake Up the Desktop
See an updated version of this article at the author's Web site.
Michał Kosmulski is a student at Warsaw University and Warsaw University of Technology.
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on A Kommander crash course: Part 2
Kommander seems like something really innovative!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 25, 2004 09:16 PM
I am really impressed!
Kommander seems like a really powerful tool, and innovative as well. If it really can do only half of what its "hype" is worth, then all kudos to its developers.
The tutorial seems to indicate that it is well on its way.
If so, we should see thousands of applications and GUI utilities and GUI frontends to CLI programs developed within the next few months...
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• September 1, 2015
The Millennial Muddle
How stereotyping students became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions
The Millennial Muddle: How Stereotyping Students Became an Industry 2
Sandy Huffaker for The Chronicle
For those who serve students, theories on Millennials seemed to offer crucial clues during a time when the profession was changing rapidly.
Kids these days. Just look at them. They've got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip-flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them?
Only some people do, or so it seems. They are experts who have earned advanced degrees, dissected data, and published books. If the minds of college students are a maze, these specialists sell maps.
Ask them to explain today's teenagers and twentysomethings. Invite them to your campus to describe this generation's traits. Just make sure that they don't all show up at the same time. They would argue, contradict one another, and leave you more baffled than ever.
Figuring out young people has always been a chore, but today it's also an industry. Colleges and corporations pay experts big bucks to help them understand the fresh-faced hordes that pack the nation's dorms and office buildings. As in any business, there's variety as well as competition. One speaker will describe youngsters as the brightest bunch of do-gooders in modern history. Another will call them self-involved knuckleheads. Depending on the prediction, this generation either will save the planet, one soup kitchen at a time, or crash-land on a lonely moon where nobody ever reads.
Everyone in higher education has pondered "the Millennials," people born between 1982 and 2004 or thereabouts (the years themselves are a subject of debate). Ever since the term went prime time about a decade ago, a zillion words have been written about who Millennials are, how they think, and why they always _______________. In short, Millennials talk is contagious.
Those who have shaped the nation's understanding of young people are not nearly as famous as their subjects, however. That's a shame, for these experts are colorful characters in their own right. Some are scholars, and some aren't. Many can recall watching the Beatles on a black-and-white television, and some grew up just before Barney the purple dinosaur arrived. Most can entertain an audience, though a few prefer to comb through statistics.
In other words, they're all different. But just for fun, let's stereotype them as smart, successful, and full of unshakeable opinions. Although they have described one another's work as "wrong," "unempirical," and "wildly mistaken," these experts have something in common: They are products of their time. In an era when the wants of young consumers have become a fixation for colleges and businesses alike, these unlikely entrepreneurs have fed a world with a bottomless craving for labels.
For as long as human hair has turned gray, elders have looked at their successors and frowned. "Children nowadays are tyrants," goes an old quotation widely attributed to Socrates. "They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers." In 1855 a professor at Davidson College described college students as "indulged, petted, and uncontrolled at home … with an undisciplined mind, and an uncultivated heart, yet with exalted ideas of personal dignity, and a scowling contempt for lawful authority." Albert Einstein opined that while classrooms are many, "the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small."
Criticizing the young is inevitable, but so, too, is change. In 2000, Neil Howe and William Strauss published Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, which cast turn-of-the-century teenagers as rule followers who were engaged, optimistic, and downright pleasant. The authors assigned them seven "core traits": special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving. These conclusions were based on a hodgepodge of anecdotes, statistics, and pop-culture references, as well as on surveys of teachers and about 600 high-school seniors in Fairfax County, Va., which in 2007 became the first county in the nation to have a median household income of more than $100,000, about twice the national average.
The authors made a sweeping prediction. "This generation is going to rebel by behaving not worse, but better," they wrote of Millennials, a term they had coined. "Their life mission will not be to tear down old institutions that don't work, but to build up new ones that do." Such thinking promised to give educators, not to mention tens of millions of parents, a warm feeling. Who wouldn't want to hear that their kids are special?
Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss were unlikely messengers of this "good-news revolution." After all, they were not social scientists; they were Washington wonks. At the time, Mr. Howe was an economic-policy consultant and an adviser to the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that supports deficit reduction and Social Security. Mr. Strauss, who had worked in President Ford's White House and as a staffer in the U.S. Senate, was the director of the Capitol Steps, a satirical singing group. The two shared political views, Ivy League degrees, and a love of history.
The latter had inspired them to write their first book, Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. Although Millennials Rising would fill the bookshelves of college presidents, deans, and professors, Generations laid the foundation for the authors' writings on students. Published in 1991, the elaborate chronicle contained a bold, almost mystical theory: that the nation's entire history had revolved in a predictable cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises. In turn, each generation fit one of four distinct archetypes (prophet, nomad, hero, and artist), which have repeated continuously in the same sequence. As surely as autumn follows summer, the Millennials would become the next "hero" generation, destined for coming-of-age triumphs, intent on taking action and building community, just like the "G.I. Generation" decades before.
This retelling of history impressed many reviewers, as well as some influential people. Former Vice President Al Gore—who graduated from Harvard University with Mr. Strauss—called Generations the most stimulating book on American history he'd ever read. He even sent a copy to each member of Congress. Yet Publishers Weekly called the book "as woolly as a newspaper horoscope." And in academe, scholars chuckled. Nothing like this had ever been written with a straight face.
Arthur E. Levine, a former president of the Teachers College of Columbia University and co-author of When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student, remains unimpressed. "Generational images are stereotypes," says Mr. Levine, now president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. "There are some differences that stand out, but there are more similarities between students of the past and the present. But if you wrote a book saying that, how interesting would that book be?"
Generations established its creators as pioneers in a burgeoning field. They soon became media darlings, best-selling authors, and busy speakers. Generations would popularize the idea that people in a particular age group share distinct personae and values by virtue of occupying the same "place" in time as they grow up. In turn, this would affirm the notion that Millennials were a riddle waiting to be solved.
These days people all over the world seek Mr. Howe's advice about Millennials. Mellow and soft-spoken, he listens for rhythms in history. Meandering through a conversation, he can relate the generational significance of the RMS Lusitania to that of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Animal House's Bluto Blutarsky, and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, the first U.S. governor of Indian descent—all in five minutes. Close your eyes, and Mr. Howe, 57, might be a philosophical ex-hippie, riffing on how the universe fits together.
In fact, he's a well-connected consultant who runs a bustling business, LifeCourse Associates, from the ground floor of his spacious home in Great Falls, Va., just outside Washington. Mr. Strauss died of cancer in 2007, and Mr. Howe now works side by side with three employees, the oldest of whom is 28. Soon the company plans to publish Millennials in the Workplace, which follows several other books, such as Millennials Go to College, Millennials & K-12 Schools, and Millennials and the Pop Culture.
On a recent Monday afternoon, Mr. Howe's telephone is ringing. Evidence of several half-finished projects covers his desk. Soon he must submit a draft of an article about changing moods throughout American history, which the Harvard Business Review plans to publish. He must prepare for several trips, including a visit to the United Nations, where he will discuss "global aging and demographic security." On his computer screen are rainbows of charts, on crime, drinking habits, and pregnancy rates among young people.
A deliveryman arrives with packages. "The market is so vast," Mr. Howe says. "There are so many projects that I don't have time to do." As if to prove this, he tells his colleagues that he's thinking of canceling a contract with a client—a state chapter of the National Guard—that's haggling over some small details. "They're all bureaucrats!" he says.
Each year Mr. Howe gives about 60 speeches, often followed by customized workshops. He speaks at colleges, elementary schools, and corporations, and he charges between $5,000 and $14,000, plus travel expenses. He has consulted with various colleges, including Arizona State University, Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, and the University of Texas. His recommendations have influenced the mailings admissions offices send, the extracurricular activities colleges offer, the way professors teach, and even the food students eat. LifeCourse Associates has a partnership with Chartwells, a food-service company that has redefined campus cafeterias and menus at many colleges (think small-group seating and made-to-order meals).
Mr. Howe has also consulted with some of the globe's biggest companies, including Nike, Hewlett-Packard, and Kraft Nabisco. Recently an investment firm in Prague hired him to do a demographic forecast. Soon the U.S. Army's lucrative advertising contract will go up for grabs, and Mr. Howe is advising an agency that will compete for it.
A while back, the Ford Motor Company hired him to answer a question: What kind of car would Millennials want to buy? He advised the company to consider the power of "hero myths"—Hercules, Superman, and the boys of Iwo Jima—in its marketing. "Millennials want to do big things," he wrote in a report for Ford. "Even when driving back and forth to community college in a Focus … their future will be anything but mundane."
Those are the grand terms in which Mr. Howe thinks, even when he's just sitting here, shooting the breeze, with his brown walking shoes propped on a desk. When this thirtysomething reporter makes an offhand observation, he remarks, "That's such an Xer thing to say." He means Generation X, whose members hail from 1961 to 1981, according to his timeline. Because they tend to be skeptical, hardened pragmatists, he says, they have trouble seeing what's so great about todays's kids. For emphasis, he pauses, then says of Millennials, "They are so special."
And who is Mr. Howe? "A typical boomer," he says. There is such a thing, he insists. That historical events shape people of a given generation in specific ways is a pillar of his philosophy. The Vietnam War was one event that shaped him. As a student at the University of California at San Diego, he watched a national debate boil. In 1970, when he was a freshman, a fellow student named George Winne Jr. set himself ablaze on the campus while protesting the war and died the next day. Mr. Howe later transferred to Berkeley, where tie-dyed curtains hung in fraternity windows and students bagged classes to hold teach-ins. Everywhere, he saw a cultural rift between young and old. "There was a hysteria in the air," he says. "A sense that we were headed for the apocalypse."
A similar feeling swept the nation in September 2001, just as the first Millennials were settling into college campuses. The day after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, Mr. Howe appeared on CNN to discuss historical cycles, a subject he and Mr. Strauss had described in a 1997 book called The Fourth Turning, which described four repeating "saecula," or seasons, of history—awakenings, unravelings, crises, and highs. Did the smoldering twin towers portend a crisis era? The day after the interview, The Fourth Turning appeared in Amazon's top 20.
Weeks later, Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss flew to San Antonio to give a keynote speech at the National Association for College Admission Counseling's annual conference. Attendees stood and sang "God Bless America." In the convention center, as on college campuses and town squares, people perceived that a line had just been drawn in the sand of history. Soon Newsweek published a cover story called "Generation 9-11," which described the unprecedented attacks as a "defining moment" for high-school and college students.
The aftermath made many people more receptive to the message of Millennials Rising, Mr. Howe believes. "Whenever there's a change in social mood," he says, "it makes thinking about generations clearer."
As cheery as a bouquet of roses, the good news about Millennials intrigued many people who recruit, serve, and teach college students. Administrators and professors had long stereotyped the students walking through the campus gates, but as the 21st century began, higher education was evolving in ways that made the time ripe for a new and tidy explanation of contemporary undergraduates.
For one, colleges turned to marketing as never before. Among selective colleges, the decade brought intense competition for applicants. Even among less-selective institutions, recruitment meant expanding into new territories and reaching out to more-diverse students. Early-acceptance programs ballooned. Parents morphed into co-purchasers. Deans embraced holistic evaluations, attempting to peer deeper into hearts and noggins. Sophisticated statistical models predicted who would enroll—and at what price.
Meanwhile, technology changed the application process. The Web was the Wild West of the enrollment profession, and with it came "stealth applicants" and much uncertainty. Many admissions officials found themselves under pressure to meet ambitious enrollment goals while protecting the bottom line. Understanding the whys of students' attitudes and behaviors was more crucial than ever.
Amid this complexity, the Millennials message was not only comforting but empowering. "It tickled our ears," says Palmer H. Muntz, director of admissions and an enrollment-management consultant at Lincoln Christian University, in Illinois. "It packaged today's youth in a way that we really wanted to see them. It gave us a formula for understanding them."
Over time, however, Mr. Muntz started to doubt the formula. Each year he visited many rural and urban high schools. He did not meet many students who had sweated their grades or taken standardized tests multiple times. Millennials Go to College, published in 2003, described an "intense new emphasis on preparation and planning" among students who were competing in a college-application "arms race," who thought about their futures in "five- or 10-year time horizons," and who perceived the high achievements of their peers as "a constant source of personal pressure."
Yet Mr. Muntz met few students who seemed to have these "pressured" and "achieving" traits. Generally, he saw what he had always seen—sharp kids, average kids, and kids with weaknesses, all with hopes and worries, floating day to day through teenage life. He wondered if the sample of students in Millennials Rising had corrupted the findings. After all, most students do not apply to top-20 colleges.
And so Mr. Muntz confronted a fact: To accept generational thinking, one must find a way to swallow two large assumptions. That tens of millions of people, born over about 20 years, are fundamentally different from people of other age groups—and that those tens of millions of people are similar to each other in meaningful ways. This idea is the underpinning of Mr. Howe's conclusion that each generation turns a historical corner, breaking sharply with the previous generation's traits and values.
Several researchers have blasted this theory of "nonlinear" social change. Some cite data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, which has conducted an annual survey of college freshmen since 1966. The survey, which provides a longitudinal view of trends, suggests that many changes among students happen gradually, not abruptly.
Moreover, the survey complicates the Millennials theory in numerous ways. According a recent report by the program, "American Freshmen: Forty Year Trends," today's students are not significantly busier, more confident, or more positive than they were in recent decades. Though more say they want to contribute to society, more also cite "being well off financially" as a goal. They are only slightly less likely to say they want to go to college to get a job, make money, or go to graduate school. They are not any more or less cooperative or competitive, nor do they seem more interested in developing a meaningful philosophy of life
Not long ago, Mr. Muntz attended a presentation about those findings. He has since decided to stop thinking in generational terms. "You can't just take one stamp and put it on this generation," says Mr. Muntz. "But it sure was nice when I thought I could."
In other corners of academe, many people have wrestled with similar thoughts. Among those who serve students, Millennials theories seemed to offer crucial clues during a time when the profession was changing rapidly. Over the last decade, the umbrella of student affairs widened to cover a vast array of programs and services. More and more staff members became co-educators and crisis managers. "Student engagement" turned into a full-time mission amid growing concerns about retention. Mental-health services multiplied. Colleges built walls for students to climb and heated pools for them to swim. They opened parent offices, started parent orientations, and published parent newsletters.
Studying students went hand in hand with the growing interest in measurements of "learning outcomes" outside the classroom. "We really had to know what our students were thinking, feeling, and learning in everything we were doing," says Richard H. Mullendore, a former vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia. He credits Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss for several keen observations about Millennials, especially their tendency to enjoy close relationships with their parents. But he reached a conclusion similar to Mr. Muntz's. He need look no farther than the town of Athens, one of the poorest in the state, where high schools have much lower graduation rates than most of those that send students to Georgia. "A large number of young people have been totally overlooked in this literature," Mr. Mullendore says. "Their battles have not been similar to anything those other students have faced."
Some student-affairs professionals struggled to square Millennials Rising with what they saw on their campuses each day. A decade ago, Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, executive director of Naspa-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, recognized the inherent appeal of the Millennials framework. "People in student affairs have this philosophy of believing in the basic goodness of young people," she says. Yet she believes that the book is longer on generalizations than on truth. After all, a competing narrative about students had developed. In it, more of them were anxious and depressed, and more were as self-centered and demanding as diners in a crowded restaurant. "We heard that this was the next great generation," Ms. Dungy says, "but many people just weren't seeing them that way."
Jeannine C. Lalonde was skeptical from the start. She read Millennials Rising when she was an assistant hall director at Boston College. "To be frank, I just laughed," says Ms. Lalonde, now senior assistant dean of admissions at the University of Virginia. "It was really singular in its approach." As a residence-life staffer, she believed her job was not only to support students, but also to challenge them. Yet some students, who seemed to see themselves as customers, did not want those challenges—they wanted problems solved for them. "I was seeing many of these positive things, but I was also confused by all the entitlement I was seeing," Ms. Lalonde says. "Where was that in the book?"
Jean M. Twenge asked the same question when she read Millennials Rising. After all, she had spent years in library stacks, studying generational differences. While working toward a Ph.D. in personality psychology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, she discovered questionnaires that academic psychologists had designed to measure personality traits and attitudes. The questionnaires had been used widely since the 1950s, and most had been completed by college students and schoolchildren. That allowed her to compare changes in young people over time.
Like Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss, Ms. Twenge concluded that when people were born shapes them more than (or at least as much as) where they were born or who their parents were. Yet she did not buy the idea that changes in students came suddenly. "Changes are linear; they happen over time," she says.
In Millennials Rising, Ms. Twenge did not find sufficient evidence to compare this generation with previous ones. Moreover, her findings did not come with a big smiley face. In 2006, Ms. Twenge described her research in her first book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before. "I see no evidence that today's young people feel much attachment to duty or to group cohesion." Ms. Twenge wrote. "Young people have been consistently taught to put their own needs first and to focus on feeling good about themselves."
Ms. Twenge defined Generation Me as anyone born in the 1970s through the 1990s. Born in 1971, the author thus included herself in this generation. Many children of this era, she wrote, had been raised in a culture of constant praise, in which everyone got trophies and parents filled their children's ears with assurances that they were unique, talented, and special. Call it too much of a good thing. Among other outcomes, she found, the "self-esteem movement" had led to a rise in narcissism. She had analyzed some 15,000 students' responses to a questionnaire called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1987 and 2006. The inventory contained statements like, "I think I am a special person," "I can live my life any way I want to," and "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place." Over time, the percentage who scored high had risen substantially.
Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss had labeled Millennials as "special," which they described as a positive trait, a feeling of self-worth instilled by doting parents. Generation Me cast this same feeling in a darker light.
Ms. Twenge even suggested that the rise in volunteering Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss had described might not indicate an increase in altruism. After all, students knew that doing community service helped them fulfill requirements for the National Honor Society and perhaps get into college. Over time, Ms. Twenge's research created a buzz in higher education, even prompting mention on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Before long, Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss pounced on her findings, questioning her research and her motivations. In an opinion piece published in The Christian Science Monitor, they wrote, "No message … could be so perverse and contrary to fact as the accusation of selfishness."
Mr. Howe has described Ms. Twenge as having a "Manichaean" view of the world. He has accused her of mistaking self-confidence for narcissism. "You can tell young people that they're not special and see if that works," he says. Colleges and companies alike, he believes, can "leverage" this feeling of specialness among young people and turn it into good things.
Ms. Twenge has stopped short of calling students selfish, but her message has prompted many questions. For one, who is this woman who upset the Millennials' apple cart?
As it turns out, Ms. Twenge is an engaging teacher who draws bell curves on napkins and has no time for nonsense. An associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, she insists that she likes her students, at least most of them. The ones who ask if they can take final exams early so they can go to Las Vegas, or who grub for grades and demand extra credit? Not so much.
Ms. Twenge's research has given her insights into her personal life. About 10 years ago, she went over the narcissism inventory with a man she was dating. He scored in the 99th percentile, which, she says, confirmed problems in their relationship. After their breakup, she vowed not to end up with the same kind of person. So on her fourth date with another man, she asked him to complete the same questionnaire. He scored low, and they eventually married. She calls the inventory "the boyfriend test" and has given copies to students who want to find out if they're dating a narcissist.
On a Tuesday in August, Ms. Twenge is teaching a course on personality. She arrives a few minutes late because she had to do a radio interview about public perceptions of generations. Today's the last class before the final exam, and students have many questions. One asks if she can get extra points because she listened to Ms. Twenge's interview on the way to class. The answer is no.
While reviewing the semester's lessons, Ms. Twenge walks over to tug on a student's sleeve to demonstrate what a clingy, anxious person might be like in relationship. Later she introduces some of her research on narcissism. She shows a slide of Whitney Houston from way back and asks if any students remember the singer's 1986 hit "Greatest Love of All." The sight of Ms. Houston's hairdo draws laughter, but Ms. Twenge is serious about one of the song's lyrics—"learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." In the 1950s, she explains, this very idea would have been beyond weird, but these days, it's normal—and unhealthy. She draws a distinction between self-confidence and narcissism, the latter being associated with a lack of empathy and with aggression after insults.
Ms. Twenge then shows her students a list of statements, such as "Be yourself," "You are special," and "You can be anything you want to be." Then she asks a question: "These phrases are individualistic, but are they good advice?"
"No!" several students say.
"Good," Ms. Twenge replies with a grin. "I've taught you well."
"Are you just being defensively pessimistic?" one student asks.
"Maybe," Ms. Twenge replies.
"Defensive pessimism" is a psychological strategy in which one considers worst-case scenarios and braces for the worst, to avoid disappointment. It's fair description of her, not to mention of her book, says Ms. Twenge, who describes Generation Me as a warning about young people, not an indictment of them. "These kids didn't raise themselves," she says. Ms. Twenge tries to practice what she preaches. She does not ask her young daughter, Kate, too many open-ended questions, like "What would you like for dinner?" She does not tell her that she's special, nor does she buy her clothes that say things like "Little Princess."
Ms. Twenge does, however, take her along on speaking trips. This year she has given about 15 presentations, for which she charges between $1,000 and $5,000. Recently she has spoken at PepsiCo, McGraw-Hill, and the Florida Association of Blood Banks, where she encouraged attendees to appeal to young peoples' sense that they can make a personal difference by donating their blood—"Make it about them." During her presentations, she asks her audience to sing along to a song that's become popular in preschools. It's a song she dislikes. Sung to the tune of "Frère Jacques," it goes, "I am special, I am special, look at me, look at me. …"
Teenagers who grow up with this chorus in their heads have a venue for self-absorption that their parents never imagined. It's called the Internet. Ms. Twenge argues that Facebook and other social media have fed a bonfire of vanity among young people. On the other side of the country, a scholar named Mark Bauerlein has reached a similar conclusion.
Mr. Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, in Atlanta, is the author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. The sub-subtitle turns an old generational rallying cry on its head: "Don't trust anyone under 30."
Mr. Bauerlein (who writes for The Chronicle Review's Brainstorm blog) concerns himself with only one generational trait, what he calls the "intellectual condition." Today's students, though blessed with limitless high-tech wonders, have squandered these tools, using computers mostly for their amusement—chatting, networking, and posting online updates about themselves, Mr. Bauerlein argues. Teenagers, he writes, "are drowning in their own ignorance and aliteracy." To tout the technological skills of today's students, he continues, "feeds the generational consciousness that keeps kids from growing up."
Mr. Bauerlein, 50, directed the survey reported in "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America," published by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. It found a sharp decline in reading among all age groups between 1982 and 2002, and the largest drop was among people between 18 and 24. In The Dumbest Generation, he cited numerous other studies that affirmed that today's students were reading less and absorbing fewer facts than their predecessors had. His own experiences in the classroom also informed his conclusions. He describes most of his students as highly professional; he encounters fewer and fewer who seem interested in culture, in wrestling with ideas. "Many of them have a mercenary attitude about the university, and they regard humanities as an interruption," he says. In this, he foresees cultural doom.
Not long ago, Mr. Bauerlein faced off against Mr. Howe in Washington during a debate sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. He thinks Mr. Howe has many good insights, but he sees limits to them. "There's an investment in being enthusiastic—maybe too strong an investment in that," Mr. Bauerlein says.
Like Ms. Twenge, Mr. Bauerlein describes his book as a labor of love, not scorn. "It's a provocation with a generous aim," he says. "In the raising and rearing of young people, a critical voice is essential. They have to hear someone knock them down, and if they fight back, that's good. It's part of the health of a culture from generation to generation." Several technophiles in academe have cast Mr. Bauerlein as a Luddite who clings to a single (and dated) definition of literacy. He invites them to his classes. "They've never sat across from a freshman who comes in and says, 'I don't want to read any novel.' It's a lot easier to be sanguine about students if you've never encountered that."
The professor acknowledges that the book's title is incendiary. As his agent assured him, bold proclamations help get authors on the radar, though his conclusions are more nuanced than the cover might suggest. Still, when he told his wife that planned to dedicate the book to her, she said no thanks. She knew that a book that called roughly 100 million people dumb would make him a public enemy. Sure enough, since the book came out last year, Mr. Bauerlein has received scores of angry e-mail messages, many of them from teenagers. Recently, a 13-year-old wrote that he was "great, big hypocrite." Another began: "Dear sir, you are an ass."
A curious thing has happened, though. Mr. Bauerlein, who says that he has responded to each message he has received, has become engaged in several positive, continuing dialogues with some of the parents and students who wrote to him. It's a testament to the possibilities of the very technology he has questioned.
As the Millennial decade rolled on, Mr. Bauerlein and other professors encountered waves of teenagers who had grown up using search engines and instant messaging, and they wondered how those experiences might affect the way students learned. Many students were indeed behaving more like fussy consumers. It was not clear how far their demands would go for personalization, satisfaction, and instant gratification. This uncertainty led to a larger question about supposed generational traits. Were educators to see them as something to indulge—or to cure?
Many instructors who weighed this question with regard to technology have tried to meet students where they are, by incorporating Facebook, Twitter, and all kinds of multimedia platforms into their teaching. Siva Vaidhyanathan has no problem with such innovation per se, but he questions the notion that regardless of what they are teaching, instructors must do all they can to please Millennials by embracing technological portals like some kind of magical device. "There's this expectation that your No. 1 job is to pander to this exotic alien consumer," says Mr. Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. "At that point, you cease being a teacher and you are simply selling yourself to an audience that might not be interested in buying."
Mr. Vaidhyanathan has read Millennials Rising. He says Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss might as well have written a book on how to reach out to Geminis. "If you work in higher education, the first thing you should do is throw out all their books," says Mr. Vaidhyanathan. "Generational thinking is just a benign form of bigotry, in which you flatten out diversity. This is debilitating to the job of trying to work with young people."
Over the last decade, commentators have tended to slap the Millennial label on white, affluent teenagers who accomplish great things as they grow up in the suburbs, who confront anxiety when applying to super-selective colleges, and who multitask with ease as their helicopter parents hover reassuringly above them. The label tends not to appear in renderings of teenagers who happen to be minorities, or poor, or who have never won a spelling bee. Nor does the term often refer to students from big cities and small towns that are nothing like Fairfax County, Va. Or who lack technological know-how. Or who struggle to complete high school. Or who never even consider college. Or who commit crimes. Or who suffer from too little parental support. Or who drop out of college. Aren't they Millennials, too?
Many pieces of the Millennial puzzle are missing, says Fred A. Bonner II. He's one of several researchers who have examined the experiences of nonwhite students in hopes of broadening the understanding of the generation.
Mr. Bonner, an associate professor in the department of educational administration and human resources at Texas A&M University, has described how the prevailing generational descriptions focus narrowly on the experiences of majority populations. He believes the Howe/Strauss model is useful, but limited. "Many other kinds of students have not come from backgrounds where they felt safe, sheltered, and secure, or from schools that recognized their gifts and talents," says Mr. Bonner, who is 40.
During class discussions, he has listened to black and Hispanic students describe how some or all of the so-called seven core traits did not apply to them. They often say the "special" trait, in particular, is unrecognizable. "It's not that many diverse parents don't want to treat their kids as special," he says, "but they often don't have the social and cultural capital, the time and resources, to do that."
Mr. Bonner is a co-editor of a forthcoming book, tentatively titled Diverse Millennials in College, which Stylus Publishing plans to publish in 2010. In recent years, Mr. Bonner has also done some generational consulting of his own. So far that work has been limited to speaking engagements at two- and four-year colleges. Generally his audiences understand that the experiences of a black Millennial from, say, Houston may differ greatly from the experiences of a white student from the Houston suburbs. After all, people who work in higher education see plenty of reminders that the when of student's birth is but one factor in that student's development. Where a student is born, who a student's parents are, and how much money they have—all these things influence that student's educational opportunities, scores on standardized tests, and expectations of college.
"Some folks are using this as a template and a cookbook," Mr. Bonner says of Millennials descriptions. "It makes it very difficult to see and understand variations because people who don't fit the recipe may be viewed as outliers. That anesthetizes nuances."
At the same time, generalizations are often as necessary as lifeboats; they allow people to navigate a sea of complexity. This is the very reason that many people in higher education have found Mr. Howe so useful.
The list of those who swear by his work is long. One is Lisa A. Rossbacher, president of Southern Polytechnic State University, in Georgia. After hearing Mr. Howe at a conference a year ago, she invited him to come talk to faculty and staff members on her campus recently. The university has made many changes that incorporate his insights into Millennials. To acknowledge their comfort with technology, it offers more hybrid courses that combine classroom and online learning. To satisfy their wish for more feedback, it encourages instructors to assign more group work and more short, graded assignments. To involve their parents, it provides them with cellphone numbers for the vice presidents for students affairs and for enrollment.
Those are all changes that the university probably would have made anyway, Ms. Rossbacher suspects, only without knowing exactly why. "We can see the trends, but Neil gives us the context to help us understand why we're seeing the things we are seeing," she says. "He speaks as an outside authority, as a prophet not in his own land."
Among other things, Mr. Howe is a gifted storyteller. He describes generational membership as an underappreciated part of people's stories, but concedes that it's just one part. So perhaps his conclusions about the generations are best thought of as medieval maps, with their rough approximations of a land's boundaries and rivers. They suggest a general features, though they do not give you all the specifics you would need to get somewhere. Like inside a particular student's head.
These days Mr. Howe's talking about the next birth cohort, born 2005-25, which he calls the "Homeland Generation." According to his framework, those Americans will fit an "artist" archetype. "Such generations tend to be remembered for their quiet years of rising adulthood," he has written, "and their midlife years of flexible, consensus-building leadership." One day Mr. Howe hopes to start a nonprofit group devoted to the study of generational differences. After all, historians may never fully embrace it.
"Academia gives this no home despite the fact that managers of for-profits and nonprofits find it so valuable," Mr. Howe says. "Why is it that I constantly get calls? This is a demand-driven business."
It's a business that begets business. In the Millennials industry, plenty of people owe their success—not to mention their talking points—to Mr. Howe. If you're a career counselor on a college campus, odds are good that many of your students go on to work for companies that have paid experts to come and explain how to make young workers happy and retain them. Perhaps the expert was Mary Crane, who was once a lobbyist, then an assistant chef at the White House, before becoming a full-time generational consultant for Fortune 500 companies and law firms. Recently she was featured on a 60 Minutes segment about Millennials. Or perhaps it was Eric Greenberg, a philanthropist who found the time to write a book called Generation We: How Millennial Youth Are Taking Over America and Changing Our World Forever in between running Beautifull Inc., a health-food company, and endowing genetics laboratories.
Lynne Lancaster, a management consultant and "cultural translator," is a co-founder and partner of BridgeWorks LLC, which offers companies advice on bridging generational divides among employees. So does Kanna Hudson, 26, a former academic counselor who works for a consulting company called Futurist.com. Another consultant, Scott Degraffenreid, a former forensic accountant, wrote Understanding the Millennial Mind: A Menace or Amazing? and patented the term "crash-test geniuses" to refer to young people's willingness to "reboot" and learn from failures, even if it means walking away from their jobs. Eric Chester, a former teacher, runs a consulting business called Generation Why; his Web site describes young people as "weird-looking and impossible to understand."
Such descriptions are reminders that most renderings of Millennials are done by older people, looking through the windows of their own experiences. So in any discussion of generations, it's only fair to give a Millennial the last word. This is tricky exercise, however. After all, it's easy to find one who agrees—or disagrees—with the idea that students are team-oriented, or narcissistic, or anything. And many have given generational labels no more consideration than the ingredients of their breakfast cereal.
Susanna Wolff, however, has thought a lot about the differences between younger and older people, at least in terms of their mastery of technology, a theme she mines for laughs. Ms. Wolff, a senior at Columbia University, compiles a weekly feature called "Parents Just Don't Understand," for collegehumor.com, a popular Web site. Submissions come from all over the country, about mothers who don't understand how e-mail works and fathers who ask about joining "MyFace."
Besides technology, however, Ms. Wolff believes that people her age have few common experiences to bind them together the way Millennial theories describe. When she hears the term "Millennial," she thinks of marketing executives huddled around tables, looking at pie charts and figuring out how to sell stuff. "When every commercial is marketed to you," she says, "it feeds the idea that everything revolves around you."
Ms. Wolff sees many things that complicate generational generalizations. Take her own family. Although she's close to her parents, they call her more than she calls them. In fact, she talks most often to her grandmother—who recently sought her advice on starting a blog.
Although she is wary of the many predictions about her generation, Ms. Wolff, 21, offers a guess about what people her age will be like in, say, 20 years. "We'll be really good at the technology we're familiar with and really bad about learning anything new," she says. "And we'll complain about the young people."
1. patbrown - October 12, 2009 at 12:02 am
Amazing article! As a "millennial" I wondered why I didn't fit into their boxes. I hope more people in higher ed realize that we're stereotyping students based on a limited data set. Thanks for being so thorough.
2. patbrown - October 12, 2009 at 12:04 am
*comment by LAA
3. rdittben - October 12, 2009 at 09:54 am
Eric Hoover's article makes two compelling points and entirely misses two others. First, he is right to call attention to the some of the over-generalization of characteristics of Millennials fostered by some of those on the "lecture circuit" as he refers to it. And, his criticism of the focus on white middle class kids (nearly all are American) is well taken.
Hoover misses the evidence from others writing about this same age group in other countries, and for that matter, diverse young people in that age in this country. There are similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese young people and American young people in this group. For example, what are the differential motivations between American teenagers and Japanese teens of the same age when the Japanese teens shed their school uniforms for an hour or so to hang out with their friends (a la American) after school, then go to a juki to study for university entrance for several hours after that?
There really are appropriate generalizations and differences about and within this age cohort. Hoover's article would have been stronger by taking the time to explore the cross-national elements of his criticism. Also, had he examined the evidence being collected by the purveyors of electronic social networking about their Millennial clients, and the findings of some of the nation's leading employment agencies about their clients, he would have learned some surprising things that tend to confirm the hypothesis of some of the findings about which he is critical.
Like those he criticizes, Hoover tends to over-generalize.
4. skellyfenske - October 12, 2009 at 10:14 am
Great article! This is exactly why I've chosen my dissertation research to focus on the characteristics of Millennials who attend two-year colleges. There is nothing written about that specific group and after working at both a four-year and two-year college, I have noticed big differences in the two populations. I look forward to sharing my results!
5. millen1 - October 12, 2009 at 10:50 am
Agreed this is a good summary article and highlights some of the most prosperous of the experts benefiting from this social phenomena "the Millennial, Generation Y, others..." An alternative opinion, as referenced by rdittben, is the impact the Millennials have on employers. For those going to college they have two, four, or six years to learn new behaviors and be exposed to their professors and the higher education grind. However, Millennials who do not go to College - are entering the workforce. Managers needed to change quickly and adapt how to coach, challenge, and mentor these new young workers. A useful primer is the work done by Eric Chester, http://www.generationwhy.com/. Regarding a disseration on this subject, there are larger two-year college systems who have invested and created materials on how to communicate with Millennial students and how to challenge and support students from this generation in the classroom. These school groups may be willing to share success and failures. Additionally, groups like RallyCap Consulting at http://rallycapconsulting.com/, provide research, relevant real-world practices to the higher education community and assist with the communication challenges these insitutions have identified in working with stydents from this generation. They get it. This is the real challenge for any higher education adminstrator or instuctor. Don't get caught up in the fact that all generations are different; focus on the one in front of you and understand to whom and how you are communicating.
6. 11266895 - October 12, 2009 at 10:55 am
Sigh. I challenge the author of this piece to go back and read Generations. It made several, very specific predictions--for example, that an explosion of partisanship would occur once the Boomers took over from the Silent Generation/GI leadership cohorts. Guess what--as Newt, Clinton, and W showed, they were exactly correct. This at a time when the conventional wisdom was that there was little policy difference between the two parties.
Does a generational archetype explain a specific student? Of course not. But the underlying logic--that age cohorts of people are impacted by external events in a largely similar fashion--is unassailable. THAT'S the motor driving their theory, not some mysticism.
7. cpri2405 - October 12, 2009 at 11:33 am
There are two issues to consider here.
The first issue relates to how college teachers should respond to the "millennial thesis". I think the article does a good job exposing that the generation our students belong to is just one factor among many that faculty should use to better understand their students. Unfortunately, the generational effect seems to have been overstated (and oversold by Howe and others) probably due to the fact that it is much easier to give credit or blame to the "kids these days" for the teaching opportunities and challenges we face than it is to accept responsibility for our role in helping them learn.
The other issue, discussed by post "11266895" above, relates to the effect of "external events" on "age chonorts of people." Such theories may (or may not) be accurate while still telling us very little on how they apply in the classroom.
8. smurf82 - October 12, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Great article! Thanks for adding value to those of us who have built our research on college students around more than just trends and birth years. While some validity to Howes work, so much more of what he has to say is solely generated from a very small, suburban, white population of studnets that are not representative of the masses that aspire to attend college year in and year out.
9. caring - October 12, 2009 at 04:28 pm
Hi. Most of the students in colleges in Chicago are women though men are catching up. We have a diverse population of students ranging in race, ethnicity, religion, and age. In 1987 I was 38 and a freshman in college. In 2009 some of my students are 40, 50, even 60. Would I be surprised or put-off if any student or number of students were more than 60 years old? Of course, not! Our population, at least in Chicago and I believe in the Midwest, is far too diverse on all accounts to be narrowly defined simply by labels created for various groups. I'm not a white Midwestern Humanities Teacher who is also Jewish--and a Boomer--when I wake up in morning. When I wake up in the morning, I'm just me trying to wake up in the morning! Boomer-shmoor. Great generation and I wouldn't call the preceding generation the Silent Generation by any stretch of the Depression Era and World War II era, what Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation." I do believe time and place can define groups, but when we zero in on individuals within any group, we still find the person who just wants to get some sleep some time of day or night, wake up some time of day or night, and be able to function in his or her life. Call me a teacher, thank you very much, but first and foremost call me a person. Thank you very much.
10. gerberle - October 12, 2009 at 05:04 pm
Eric Hoover has written a very valuable article here. I'm presently teaching a course on the Millennials and we use Millennials Rising, Generation Me, and The Dumbest Generation. Since first reading Generations (1991, I have been both very critical of Strauss and Howe--but also amazed at the amount of information they have managed to organize.
The chief shortcoming of these authors is their strong claim that each generation has unified persona, one that can "feel nostalgia for a unique past, express urgency about a future of limited duration, and comprehend its own mortality" (Rising, p.41). In fact, given the intricate multiplicity of ethnic, racial, class and religious identities in the US, no such persona exists. Hassidic Jews, Caribbean Americans, and West Coast Asians simply do not participate in American generations the way that, say, suburban Methodists do.
But *teaching* the major generational authors--especially their conflicting accounts--can be a delight. Students are drawn in to important debates about narcissism, parental authority, the communication between elders and the young, the meaning of "crises" and "awakenings," and the changing folkways of
higher education.
And all of this enthusiasm with the professor having to utter even once the most despised word in the student lexicon: HISTORY.
11. rsmulcahy - October 12, 2009 at 06:21 pm
Just like every time I see a student's paper include the numbing sentence starting something akin to "modern society thinks....." I am reminded that sloppy thinking begets sloppy conclusions. Societies don't think just like generations don't think, it is individual people who think (or not). Labels create their own warped sense of truth value...once a few media outlets get hold of such short-hand definitions for loose, marginally connected bits of data, the game is over. Must be nice to make 300K a year going around giving meaningless talks about the profound differences between people born 15 years apart. Of course "Boomers" are different than "Gen Xers" how could they not be? They have different labels! Aggregrate data will continue to corrupt...aggregately. And on a minor final note to rdittben, the Japanese "cram" schools are called juku not juki.
12. kmellendorf - October 12, 2009 at 07:09 pm
I teach physics at a two-year college, and see a very common attribute among students. I do not know whether the attribute is growing, or whether it is just becoming more visible. Students are pushing to be told HOW to do things independent of WHAT they are doing or WHY they are doing it.
Students have always resisted asking questions, but the ability to ask questions seems to be fading. Discussion seems to be fading. Discussion length in the halls is decreasing. I find students expecting to be given a book of instructions that will apply in all situations. I find students expecting to be taught how to do well on tests independent of learning the subject. Many past students have desired it, but few expected it. I do not really know whether this is a change of attitude or merely a greater willingness to express such an attitude.
A large portion of my students talk to me early in the semester as if it is my responsibility to see that they do well in class, to adjust the class to fit their preferences. I do make adjustments from year to year, but this it to explore the usefulness of new tools as they become available and to make use of the misunderstandings and previous experiences that vary from class to class. Perhaps it is student uncertainty that is decreasing. Although they are often wrong, many students seem quite sure that their expectations are correct. It almost seems that these students have been shown an incorrect image of how such things will be, but by means of a system in which they have complete confidence.
13. ldegaris - October 12, 2009 at 10:51 pm
14. 11167997 - October 12, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Thanks, Eric! Best piece the Chronicle has run for a long time, mostly because it exposes the way glitzy propaganda bowls over thin-witted academic administrators. The path is open for the next faddish reading, even one bolstered by a lot of good stories and data. After all, pick a slogan, wrap it in such flowers, and it will sell, sell, sell!
15. graykane - October 13, 2009 at 09:23 am
Commercial ventures do thrive on generalizations about millennial students. But that, of course, doesn't mean we should throw away the movement to personalize learning experiences.
First of all, birth year is not a determining factor when it comes to people's different uses of technology. Technology-influenced personality traits can more accurately describe a retiree who devotes her life to online social-networking groups than an 18yr old who might text message and use Facebook, but who doesn't fight one-sentence political battles on SodaHead or bond with a plethora of strangers online over a shared interest in dogs. Ignore the age groups. Knowledge about a technology-influenced personality trait can help a teacher engage one particular student who otherwise might remain disengaged.
Second of all, millennial studies are more about the changes in and varieties of learning styles than in universities catering to one type of learner. The idea is to create multiple points of access into course content: visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic, social, and individualistic opportunities to approach the course material and achieve learning outcomes. Sometimes classroom technologies facilitate that objective. Sometimes they're obstacles to that objective.
The point is to personalize learning experiences, not to use these generalizations to teach only in one way as if you were teaching to one student. And when it comes to millennial studies, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
16. zealousagenda - October 13, 2009 at 11:33 pm
This article has reaffirmed for me the indelible voice of my sometimes-crotchety grandfather's grumbling that, "Nobody really has any idea of what in the hell is going on."
17. ptravers1957 - October 15, 2009 at 07:45 am
The most profound predictions of generational behavior can be found in the Old Testament. But oh well... what else are academics supposed to do.
18. tcnjsociology - October 15, 2009 at 08:29 am
Longitudinal analysis is difficult and should remain probabilistic because it must untangle three twisted cords -- age, period, and cohort effects. Age refers to knowledge, life cycle, and maturity-related effects, period refers to history or era effects, and cohort refers to generational effects. Those who have spent time doing statistical analyses of longitudinal data know well what a Gordian knot these three create. By contrast, the above generational theories gloss over complex age and period effects.
Karl Mannheim, who launched social scientific analysis of generations, was insistent that not all birth cohorts necessarily become generations. He argued that there had to be sufficient and compelling historical cause to create a member-shared (not author-projected) sense of belonging to a generation. While such arguably exists for the Depression, WWII, and Baby Boom generations, the constellation of claimed causes for GenX, GenY, NextGen, Millenials, PostMillenials, etc. shifts across authors, as do the start and end dates of these "generations."
The reality is that the number of commonalities across generations far exceeds the number of differences; but as others ably point out -- that story does sell books or generate consulting fees.
19. bromo33333 - October 15, 2009 at 09:35 am
Eh ... youth of today as well as in the past had been sheltered. Part of becoming an adult is seeing and reconciling preconceived notions based upon the sheltering to reality.
And with all the communication tools, the nature of consciousness is likely different.
We have no idea what the character of this generation will be, but we do know the reality they face is far more limited and harsh than in times past. How they approach this challenge will determine how they are adults.
20. sturm_und_drang - October 15, 2009 at 01:19 pm
This entire discourse of "generations" and especially of "the millenial generation" is *preposterous* and impossible to take seriously. This Chronicle article does a good job of explicating the industry that has produced this nonsense, but doesn't go far enough in making a more general critique of the production and consumption of public knowledge which discussions of this sort represent. The whole discourse about "generation y" is business world jargon masquerading as social criticism and social science; every single thing to which the participants in this discussion point can be explained by two (closely related) phenomena: (1) Reaganism and the rise of neoconservativism and neoliberalism as political-economic projects, which among many other things produce and legitimize their own forms of knowledge; and (2) the growth of competition between extremely expensive private universities which migrate ever more towards a market-focused way of being. It is obvious that (1) is a consequence of (2), which then only feeds the power of (1), given the conditions of the mode of production of konwledge today.
In other words: from any even vaguely critical perspective, this whole thing is total B.S. If social knowledge is to have any sort of separation at all from market reproduction, it needs to assert whatever meager autonomous powers it has left to fight against this type of crap--not in the name of some "expertise" (the glorification of which is only part of the same general problem) but in the name of freeing some realm of life, any realm, from the [smug, triumphant and very dangerous] rule of technical-bureaucratic-instrumental reason.
21. sturm_und_drang - October 15, 2009 at 01:33 pm
...sorry, a typing error in the above post at 1:19 PM: the marketization of the university (2) is a consequence of the more general rise of neoliberalism (1), not the other way around, as misstated.
22. irfan_khawaja - October 15, 2009 at 05:07 pm
Gee, so Jean Twenge has to go all the way back to 1986 and Whitney Houston to find advice to love oneself. Well, she and other "experts" on generational change ought to try this text on for size. It comes from that narcissistic author, Aristotle, from his pre-1950s text, The Nicomachean Ethics (Book IX.8):
"For men say that one ought to love best one's best friend, and man's best friend is one who wishes well to the object of his wish for his sake, even if no one is to know of it; and these attributes are found most of all in a man's attitude towards himself, and so are all the other attributes by which a friend is defined; for, as we have said, it is from this relation that all the characteristics of friendship have extended to our neighbours. All the proverbs, too, agree with this, e.g. 'a single soul', and 'what friends have is common property', and 'friendship is equality', and 'charity begins at home'; for all these marks will be found most in a man's relation to himself; he is his own best friend and therefore ought to love himself best."
Pretty "weird," huh? Here we have an ancient Greek philosopher telling us--somewhat in advance of Whitney Houston--that we ought to love ourselves most of all. If this is narcissism, then I guess it began with the PRE-millenials--i.e., the ones who lived in Athens in the third and fourth centuries BCE. But a conceptual framework that equates Aristotelian self-love with "narcissism" is too superficial, confused, and impoverished to be taken seriously. It might be worth thinking about that before indoctrinating any more group-think students ("I've taught you well") in the mud-puddle level superficialities that masquerade as "science" among contemporary social scientists.
23. strider - October 16, 2009 at 06:33 pm
Technology may play a role, as per Bauerlein, but the same technology is present in many other countries without seeminly producing students as disengaged as those reported by professors.
24. csabel - October 18, 2009 at 01:20 pm
irfan_khawaja makes an interesting point but misses an even more interesting and important point. Aristotle's ethics are not grounded on any principle of "other-directedness," and he has no difficulty exploring the good life in terms of what is good for oneself. True. But this is not to be confused with selfishness, egoism, narcissism, or "self-esteem" of the sort that has been taught to school kids in the USA for decades now. He is not saying, in spite of what a single quote taken out of context might seem to suggest, that we ought to love ourselves unconditionally. Certainly he is very far from saying that to do so would be the basis of virtue. He is (i) taking for granted, and in a descriptive sense, that most men do love themselves; and (ii) he is saying -- when you look at the whole context of his discussion of friendship -- that we ought to strive with intensity, seriousness, and self-discipline to be the best human beings we can be. To fulfill the demands of Aristotelian ethics is, to say it mildly, challenging. And (iii) he is trying to elucidate the logic of friendship, and explain how and why there can be a bond with another human being that mirrors the bond we have with ourselves; but, as his discussion goes on to say, true friendship can occur only between two people who are equal AND virtuous -- the vicious can form various kinds of associations, but friendship is not among them. To put it another way: Our "friendships" or other unions, will be reflective of the quality of our own character; what we are capable of and what we know others to be capable of will manifest itself in our dealings with others, in direct and indirect ways. So cheating, lying, stingy sorts of people will tend to be capable of relationships where cheating, lying, and stinginess prevail -- not friendships worthy of the name. So friendship has to be based on virtue, on having a self that is worthy to be loved. Aristotle is not asserting that we are, just as we happen to find ourselves, lovable, "just because." That said, I would in no way suggest that Aristotle necessarily agrees (or disagrees) with Howe, Twenge, Bauerlein, or Bonner II. For taking Aristotle seriously, irfan_khawaja is to be lauded.
25. irfan_khawaja - October 18, 2009 at 07:06 pm
Csabel is missing my point. I didn't say that Aristotle's view endorsed self-esteem of the sort that's been taught to schoolchildren today, and I didn't suggest that he was saying we ought to love ourselves unconditionally regardless of who we are, or regardless of our moral stature. What I said was that Twenge's research has no way of capturing the *difference* between a view like Aristotle's and the vices (narcissism, etc.) for which she berates those whom she berates.
This isn't really the place for extended exegesis of Aristotle, but I think it is uncontroversial as a textual matter that NE IX.4-9 endorses a conception of self-love that says the following: It is proper for the virtuous person to love himself, to love himself more than anyone else, to act for his own sake even when he is acting for the sake of others, and in general to take the quality of his own life as his central moral concern. On Twenge's view, the virtuous Aristotelian agent is therefore a narcissist.
Take the claim "I am special," which Twenge regards as inherently narcissistic. Well, the claim could be made by a genuine narcissist or by an Aristotelian philautos ("lover of self"). Does it denote the same thing in each case? No. Does it have the same moral or psychological implications? No. (Try the same exercise on "Loving yourself is the greatest love of all." You should get the same responses.) Why then does she teach her students, without apparent qualification, that it is bad advice to teach a child to believe that they are special? Why does she infer that a higher incidence of assent to "I am special" by itself implies a higher incidence of narcissism? Because her conceptual apparatus has no way of making relevant distinctions between the narcissist and the virtuous self-lover. Why exactly is it WRONG to think that loving yourself is the greatest love of all, if indeed you are the kind of self that is worthy of that kind of love?
It might sound unkind to describe this research as "mud-puddle level superficial," but I meant that criticism and would stand by it: Twenge's research and much of the research here is work of a moral nature on a morally significant topic that literally has no way of distinguishing virtue from vice. For all of the talk about the authority of social science, we are being offered findings that mean absolutely nothing. So lots of kids think they're special. So what? So kids are taught to put their needs first and focus on whether they feel good. Again, so what? None of these things even begins to indicate "narcissism," except on a view of "narcissism" that is so imprecise and coarse-grained as to be useless (at best) and seriously distorted and ideological (in the more likely case).
What I find most objectionable about this research is the tacit claim that it represents the supposedly neutral and objective findings of social science. But the ideological agenda is right there for anyone to see: the problem with students today (we're told) is that they feel no sense of duty of social cohesion. That ideological thought is clearly driving the research, and it's more than an open question whether it should.
26. csabel - October 18, 2009 at 11:36 pm
If "irfan_khawaja" meant to differentiate Aristotle's self-love and narcissism, that point might have been made more clearly; it seemed that the point was to equate the sentiment in Whitney Houston's song with "evidence" of the same thing existing from c.400 BCE. Nary a word about virtue. As far as I can tell, it wasn't Twenge who as equating Aristotle and narcissism, or showing any inability to differentiate them. The non-differentiation is only possible on a grossly incorrect reading of Aristotle, a reading "irfan_khawaja" appeared to me to hold. Twenge never brought up Aristotle, did she? So, while the reading of Aristotle suggested by "irfan_khawaja" may be "uncontroversial" it seems an absurd inference to draw that Twenge believes Aristotle's agent is a narcissist. It would appear the exact opposite, if Twenge were consulted and shown the correct Aristotle -- the distorted Aristotle she might regard as a narcissist, but she would likely point out (as I tried to do) that no, Aristotle's agent is not a narcissist because his self-love is another matter. But that is what "irfan_khawaja" was saying all along, right? Alas, glad to have that cleared up.
Now, the attack on sloppy social science has my entire sympathy. I tried to point out that I neither meant my comments to support or attack the work of any of the main scholars referenced in the piece. Still, it might be worth noting in a slightly supportive vein that the article credits Jean Twenge with doing research based on 15,000 surveys. As a sample size, that isn't shabby. I am not familiar with the "Narcissistic Personality Inventory" but "irfan_khawaja" ought to examine it in order to make a more precise attack [and perhaps, elsewhere, she/he has done so? a cite would be appreciated]. The dismissal of the entire work of a scholar as "ideological" is a bit much, especially when Twenge's work arises as a challenge to the moral, and unjustifiably upbeat tone of the work of Howe, and Strauss -- which, incidentally rests on lousy historiography, whatever its insights might be. So far as the claim that Twenge has no way of distinguishing virtue from vice, I find it suspect. Isn't her work an attempt to elucidate that distinction? If it is to be faulted, it is for a fault shared by nearly all purportedly non-normative work in the social sciences, and that is that it attempts to discuss matters of real human concern, ethics, happiness and so on, as if they were morally neutral, so that instead of writing about "vice" we speak of a psychological "disorder" (disease) called narcissism. The discussion tries to distance itself from normativity, when, perhaps, it can't help but be normative. As for the specific moral "agenda' "irfan_khawaja" detects, I confess I didn't take the few references to "cohesion" or "duty" to be terribly revealing, except , as suggested above, as part of the challenge to Howe and Strauss's optimistic analysis.
As for today's students, my own inclination is to disregard all the generational talk as so much self-promoting clap-trap. Bad history, poor sociology. It is itself likely a fad with which we (boomers, Gen-X'ers, or whatever we are) are afflicted, and like all things it too will pass. However, the article gives several anecdotal pieces of evidence of entitled, self-important, consumeristic students. As Jeannine C. Lalonde "an assistant hall director at Boston College" notes, in relation to Howe and Strauss' work, "I was seeing many of these positive things, but I was also confused by all the entitlement I was seeing. . . . Where was that in the book?" Or professor Bauerlein, "an English professor at Emory" who responds to some of his critics by noting, "They've never sat across from a freshman who comes in and says, 'I don't want to read any novel.' It's a lot easier to be sanguine about students if you've never encountered that." And, perhaps the best item in the article reminds us that these intergenerational complaints go far, far, back, from Davidson College in the 19th century, all the way to "irfan-khawaja's" favorite time, ancient Greece, where Socrates complained of the tyrannical attitudes of the youth of his day. Le plus ca change.
I find, personally, in these words, attributed by Socrates to Diotima in Plato's *Symposium*, the very crux of any and all education, whether reading classical texts, or learning to skateboard. To learn implies self-dissatisfaction. To learn requires DESIRE which implies LACK of that which is desired. A healthy and life-giving discontent is what is missing in many students -- all generational issues aside. Diotima says: "No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom, for he is wise already; nor does any man who is wise seek after wisdom. Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself: he has no desire for that of which he feels no want."
27. archavers - October 20, 2009 at 08:28 am
An article of fortitude and substance and opinions galore leads to the question, if not historical references worth taken at face value then what ? we are only what our education has given us and we accepted what is relevant to us today and tommorrow, but are we what others describes us, as if there are no descriptivies, what is defined by chronological measures are with us until we expire what we believe and pay for everyday is to live educated, it happens all the time, those who have been talk to, those who have been , the perimeter meets with the lines of communication. What's attributed to Socrates still needs validation by those who see his writings as valid, your thoughts of anything are more than the past but aren't they the past? so the mill/baby boomers/generational, students reflect their knowledge in their own time world, our time world could reflect on assasinations of presidents and civil rights workers or on death and violence in schools, but schools of what ? today's knowledge is today's student's curse. Laser Education means never study it's forced fed to a student at lightning speed, what generation is that?
28. market2millennials - October 28, 2009 at 07:51 pm
Please see http://marketingtomillennials.blogspot.com/ for a millennial's response to this article.
29. plauborg - October 29, 2009 at 07:06 am
Working as a journalist in higher education in Denmark I was very fascinated by Eric Hoovers article. This is surely one of the most important and best written articles I have read for a long, long time. Let's have more of these in depht stories in The Chronicle.
30. upallnight - December 19, 2009 at 10:02 am
In defense of the notion that there is something different about college students today, I have numerous colleagues who teach freshman. This year more have found the "typical college behavior" completely unfathomable. Example, a student oversleeps for the final exam, tells you he/she oversleeps for the final, asks for a make-up exam, a make-up is denied, and then the student sends an email stating how out he/she paid for this course and they should be given the make-up. Example 2, I had five cases of plagiarism this semester. I usually have none (or 1 every 3 semesters). More distressing, I have students with very high high hopes of going off to medical school or graduate school who have standardized test scores that are shockingly low. It is a dilemma for me to decide what to advise these students. I have seen too many only find out that they don't get into graduate programs/professional programs after they have applied and do not have a back up plan. For those who will listen, I try to tell them before they put those applications in the mail.
It's not important to me what we call this phenomenon. But something is different.
31. jeff1 - December 31, 2009 at 08:53 am
I have always held a cynical view of the profits of Millenial students. At one institution I was at a very hold admissions VP who had no real connections was presumed to be the institutional expert on them and presented to the parents on the subject. Here presentations were both not well put together and really more plattitudes than substance. She was so old and disconnected from any literature and the contemporary culture that it was laughable (e.g., she did not own an Ipod, had no regular contact with students, really did not attend events, etc.). Conversely, at another institution I have been at the people speaking to the parents on this issue were right on the money, realistic and not overly focused on the concept but on orienting students and parents where they were. I have found most of the presentations I have seen over the years on Millenials to be full of generalizations that could and do apply to any generation. While we are no doubt shaped by historical events, that is not a guarentee or inevitability.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I've already played through the first bit on the iPhone (but I hated the controls), so now that I am playing it on the PC (where I like it much better), I was hoping I could skip some of the early cutscenes.
Is there a way to do this?
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I never skipped the cutscenes, but have you tried "escape"? That usually does the trick... – agent86 Dec 22 '11 at 3:04
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There is no way to skip cut scenes. I believe it's intentional by design.
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Boo. :( That's a little annoying. :( – Ashley Nunn Dec 22 '11 at 4:46
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Black and White by DirigiblePlumHead
Chapter 1 : Chapter 1 - The Whites
Rating: 12+Chapter Reviews: 1
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Chapter 1 – The Whites
The White family lived in a small cottage that looked like it was falling apart. Mr White was thirty-four years old. He wore his dark brown hair pushed back, and he regularly shaped his moustache so that it there was always one third of a centimetre of flesh between his nose and moustache, and there was always one third of a centimetre of flesh between his moustache and lip. He had a perfectly proportioned, heart-shaped face. His large eyes were a dark brown in colour, accentuated by his dark eyelashes. Mrs White was thirty years old. She had long red hair that was parted in the middle and naturally curled at the bottom. Her hair formed a triangle on her forehead where it fell slightly onto the front of her face and then curved out towards the sides. She had high cheekbones and a tidy nose. Her blue-grey eyes turned down just a little at the corners, and she surrounded them with lots of make-up that matched her clothes. She wore fancy dresses that her husband bought for her, in bright colours but never any shorter than just below the knee. On her legs, she wore stockings and, as she spent most of her time at home, caring for her daughter, her feet usually bore a pair of fleece lined slippers. Mr and Mrs White had only the one child. Penelope White was ten years old. She shared the same hair colour and eye colour as her mother, but her face was heart shaped and perfectly proportioned like her father's. Her pale skin was covered in freckles, and she had dimples embedded in her soft, round cheeks. Penelope was a happy child, and lived a happy life. Her father had a good job; he was the manager of a factory. He bought her lots of toys, and cared for Penelope and her mother very well.
It was the day of her eleventh birthday when Penelope's life was turned upside down. Penelope and her mother were sat at their kitchen table eating porridge when a tapping noise at the window came to their attention. Penelope looked at Mrs White and said, "Mother, can you hear that peculiar noise?" Penelope's mother had turned even paler than usual, and her lips were tightly pursed. At Penelope's words, Mrs White looked at her daughter and slightly opened her lips, as if to speak, then frowned and stood up. Pushing her chair back from the table, she carefully approached the window as the tapping started again. She pulled back the curtain and jumped back, grabbing the back of a chair for support. She put her hand on her heart, bit her lip, and looked at Penelope once more, still frowning.
"Mother, what is it?" Penelope asked. Mrs White leaned forward and unlatched the window. An owl, large and brown in colouring, hopped onto the windowsill. In it's beak was an envelope. It looked at Mrs White, then scanned the room, and it's eyes found Penelope. The owl flapped it's wings a little, and half flew, half hopped, to the table. It dropped the envelope in front of Penelope, then left through the open window. Penelope's mother closed the window again, and swayed as she made her way back to the table. Her cheeks were now a funny shade of pink, and she looked like she was about to pass out. She carefully lowered herself back into her chair and rested her head in her hands, as Penelope held the envelope gingerly, waiting for her mother to speak. Mrs White sighed.
“Penelope, dear,” she began, “there are things I haven't told you. Heavens, there are things I haven't told your father. I have many secrets from my past, that I tried to escape, but, no matter what happens, somehow your past always catches up on you.
“When I was a girl of your age, I received a letter. It was a letter I was expecting, and had been expecting from a young age, due to my upbringing. My mother and father... were not the most normal of people, you see. They had certain... talents. They knew that, because of this, I would also possess these... talents. When my letter arrived, I was so proud. The letter changed my life, as I had expected it to, but then, when I was just eighteen, I met your father, and everything changed. See, your father did not possess these talents, but I fell in love with him all the same. Being with your father, I was ashamed to be my true self, as I was afraid he would not want to be with me if he had known. Just a year after meeting him, I fell pregnant with you and, after that, my parents no longer wanted anything to do with me.
“My parents believed, and they were not the only ones, that people who were of this particular upbringing should not love those who were not.” Mrs White sighed. Penelope looked at her blankly, having not thoroughly understanding her mother's ramblings. Her mother had closed her eyes and mouth, and was swaying where she sat. Penelope stood up and went to the sink, to get her mother a glass of water. She took her time, turning the tap very slowly, and waiting for the water to run extremely cold. She felt awkward, seeing her mother, who was usually such a strong, confident woman, quivering and unhappy. She glanced back at the table and saw that her mother looked a little more healthy, so she turned off the tap and took the water back to the table.
“Mother--” Penelope began, but her mother interrupted her.
“Penelope,” Mrs White addressed her daughter. “You, like me and my family before me, possess magical blood. You are a witch.”
Penelope almost laughed. She would have done if she wasn't so afraid that her mother may be ill. A witch? Witches were things of fairy-tales, not of real life. She should telephone her father at the factory, but they weren't supposed to use the telephone when he wasn't at home, except for real emergencies. Was this a real emergency? Penelope sucked on her index finger, as she usually did when she was nervous.
Mrs White looked at her daughter. “Penelope, Penny, I know you don't believe me, it is a lot to take in. Just, stay here one moment. I need to fetch something from my room. Don't open that letter yet and, please, honey, breathe!” Penelope's mother rushed out of the kitchen and Penelope heard the muffled footsteps as her mother's slippers hit the stairs in quick precession. She let out the breath she had been holding and her right hand reached for the telephone receiver and rested there. Not two minutes had passed when her mother's footsteps again sounded on the stairs, clearly taking them at pace,
and she appeared once more in the kitchen. In her right hand was a long wooden stick. Clearly, Mrs White had lost her mind. Penelope went to lift the telephone receiver and Mrs White's eyes opened wide with shock.
“No! Penny! Honey! Don't do that!” Mrs White shouted. She held the stick high and quickly yelled “Lumos maxima!” A bright light erupted from the tip of the wand, and Penelope dropped the telephone in shock. “Mother! What was that?!” She enquired, in shock.
“Expecto Patronum!” Mrs White shouted, and a large cat appeared, almost ghost-like in appearance, surrounded by light. The cat prowled around for a minute or so before it faded away. Mrs White continued waving the stick, pointing it at things and shouting words that sounded like a different language to Penelope, words that were making things happen; the porridge bowls that had been sat beside the sink jumped into the wash bowl and the dish brush started washing them. The hands on the clock started spinning around. The cloth from beside the sink flew across the room and started wiping the table, whilst the objects on the table took it in turns to jump out of the way so that it could clean beneath where they had been. Mrs White waved the stick, and everything stopped instantaneously. She moved her hair from in front of her eyes, which today were heavily lined in black Kohl, and looked at her daughter, who was astounded.
“Penelope, dear, I know this is a lot to take in. Please, forgive me for not telling you and your father for all of these years and, please understand why I didn't do so.” She lowered the stick and came to stand in front of Penelope. She put her hand on her daughter's shoulder and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Penny. I truly do. I love your father, but I'd hate for him to not love me for what I am. I am going to settle this though, dear, I will tell him the truth. Now, open your letter.” She smiled at her daughter encouragingly.
Penelope smiled back, still slightly confounded. She picked the letter up from the table, and turned it over. It was sealed with red wax, in which an emblem was imprinted. The emblem was shaped like a shield, which was separated into four smaller, equal sections and, in each of those, there was a picture of an animal. In the centre of the shield was a “H”, and under the shield was what looked like a banner, adorned with words. She carefully slipped her finger under the seal, opening the envelope. The envelope was made with a thick, expensive feeling paper, as was the letter inside. She pulled out the letter, which consisted of two sheets, and unfolded it.
“Dear Miss White,
“We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...." Penelope couldn't help herself; she grinned as her eyes took in the words. It seemed too real to be true, but she trusted her mother, she had seen the proof. She turned her attention to the other sheet of paper, which, true to the word of the letter, contained a list of things that she would need for her first school year. There were titles of books that she was definitely not familiar with, and items that she almost giggled at. A wand? A cauldron? She looked at her mother, still in almost disbelief.
“What are we going to do?” Penelope questioned, suddenly serious. “What are we going to tell father? I honestly can't go to this school if he disapproves. And what if he leaves us?”
Mrs White looked troubled for a moment, and then smiled a thin smile at her daughter. “Penelope, my darling, let me talk to your father. We can handle whatever consequences and, if he loves me as I believe he truly does, he shall forgive me.”
Right on cue, Mr White walked through the door. He smiled a practised smile at each of them in turn. He then walked to his wife, wrapped his left arm around her, and pulled her close in an embrace. He then kissed her, on the lips, and pulled a bunch of yellow gerberas from behind his back; Penelope's mother's favourites. “Thank you Philip!” She beamed at her husband, for a moment obviously forgetting the situation, and he sat her back down in her seat. Then he turned towards Penelope and set down his large bag on the table, right on top of the letter. Penelope and her mother looked at each other briefly. Philip White opened the bag and pulled out an expensive looking tan coloured leather satchel, with a decorative gift tag, attached by a star-shaped bow. Penelope grinned and, without thinking, she hugged her father and said “Oh father, oh daddy! That's perfect, it will be perfect for when I start Hogwarts!” Her father smiled, and then furrowed his brow.
“Hogwarts?” He asked, looking between Penelope and her mother. “What's Hogwarts?”
Mrs White looked at her husband, her cheeks filled with colour. “Philip, my darling,” she began, “there is something I need to tell you.”
Author's note: I do not own the idea of Hogwarts or the Hogwarts letter (obviously!) those are ideas from the mind of the marvellous Joanne Rowling! Please let me know how you find the first chapter in the comments section :) Thank you!
Hogwarts letter from p.39, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K Rowling (1997)
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old penny
There are thousands of old pennies kept by nostalgic collectors in the UK. Most are worth £1 at the very most - even if they are in brilliant condition. The damaged ones are worth their weight in scrap. However, one is about to go on sale, and is expected to fetch at least £2,500.
So why is it worth so much, and how does it compare to the most expensive coins?
The penny
The Penny is incredibly rare, because it was made in 1919 out of the wrong kind of metal. It's made from a blend of copper and nickel instead of bronze, and because it's the only one of this type that the experts know of, it has real rarity value.
According to the Daily Mail, it was made by the Kings Norton Metal Company, which at the time was making UK pennies, but also British West Africa pennies - which were made from the copper and nickel mix.
The manufacturers accidentally used a blank from the British West Africa pennies to make a British penny. It made two pennies, but while one went into the fire, the other was kept by the man who spotted it. He passed it to Francis Edward Brown, who wrote a note explaining the history of the penny. The note and the penny will be sold by Woolley and Wallis in October.
How does it compare?
It seems like a rare oddity, but it's small potatoes in the world of pricey coins.
The world's most valuable coin is the Flowing Hair dollar - the first ever issued by the US federal government. It was made in 1794, and the coin believed to have been the first one struck was sold at Auction in New York for $10 million in January.
Second place goes to the 1933 Double Eagle, with Liberty on the front and a flying eagle on the back. Just after half a million of the coins were struck from gold, a law was passed banning the payout of gold, so they were never circulated. Most were destroyed, but one remains, and is worth $7.5 million.
In third place is the 1787 Brasher Dubloon, which sold for $7.4 million. These were privately minted gold coins of which this was a rare and expertly-made version. It was bought by a Wall Street investment firm.
Even closer to home, coins can be much more valuable than our rare penny. The Double Leopard, made in 1344, is worth £460,000, as only three are left in existence. It's the most valuable UK coin.
And who knows, there could be a treasure like this lurking in your loft. In January the Woolley & Wallis auction house sold a rare American Half-Penny from 1796.
It was found in a homemade 'cabinet' of decorated matchboxes, glued together by English schoolboy Mark Hillary over 50 years ago and remained forgotten at the back of a cupboard after he tragically died at an early age of 20 in 1963 in a climbing accident in Greece. The coin eventually sold for £225,700 and Daniel Fearon, Woolley & Wallis coin specialist who identified the coin amongst the collection commented: "It was a wonderful result and a most satisfying ending to an amazing find." | <urn:uuid:7a0e3d01-bc9b-418a-9d70-81cb849ac665> | http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/09/02/rare-coin-in-wrong-metal-to-fetch-2-5k/ | en | 0.984868 | 0.813924 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
09 March 2010
OCAL 2.0: Finally, an usable Open Clip Art Library
Now I think I should upload some more clipart...
1. It's a shame that the conversion from the old system is being so poorly managed. A lot of old clip art has been lost and there doesn't appear to be a rational plan to recover it.
2. we did what we could... help is needed
3. The article "a" modifies the noun "clip art", not the adjective "usable". So your title should be "Finally, a usable open clip art library."
4. In the old clipart library I could combine several tags to search for clip art.
I haven't understood how this works with the new version.
If it no longer worked it would be a GREAT regression in usability. | <urn:uuid:f0341f36-0fa5-4e2e-aee0-0e62ea1a4e40> | http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/03/ocal-20-finally-usable-open-clip-art.html | en | 0.970722 | 0.808027 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I will be putting together an application to automate an external web site/application. In some instances I will need to navigate the site as a user would (some links I need to follow cannot be predicted and must be parsed from a response)
I am already using Html Agility Pack, and am aware of Tidy if that is needed.
Are there any other technologies I should be aware of?
Are there any recommended patterns for being able to quickly adjust in the event that the external web app changes? I’m envisioning encapsulating the validation of responses as some type of strategy or similar pattern that can be easily separated/plugged in as necessary, but any specific suggestions would be great.
share|improve this question
put on hold as too broad by gnat, Ixrec, Snowman, Thomas Owens yesterday
About it, any step-by-step guide, or Getting Started - Quick Start that can be completed in 15-20 minutes? I get you a good step-by-step guide sample like berniecook.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/… I wanted to quickly cover off several assumptions before we get started: install (requisites, tools required), configure, an running quickly. Target will be an "go and ready" sample. Maybe better an real application sample. – Kiquenet Dec 29 '14 at 13:12
5 Answers 5
If you're looking to automate navigation of an external website as a user would, Watin is perfect for that. It will drive a web browser through an object model, and has a wide range of parsing capabilities built upon the DOM (as well as non-DOM abilities you would find in a browser, including scripting).
Here's a link:
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Watin is like your favorite JavaScript library for C#. – The Muffin Man Jul 28 '11 at 20:52
Any final solution with full source code sample application ? IMHO, better samples for minimize learning curve are real applications with full source code and good patterns&practices – Kiquenet Dec 29 '14 at 13:13
If you're looking for the ability to quickly make changes to track those in the external web app, then I'd look at scripting. If C# is your language of choice, then look at compiling code on the fly. If you're using a database, the script code can be stored there, otherwise, plain text files would work too.
As to GoF patterns, Strategy is the textbook choice.
The other "pattern" to consider, especially since you mentioned validating responses using them to select the next action, is a finite-state machine. For example, the states for a web-mail client could be "not logged in", "at inbox", "reading message", "editing reply", etc. You'd execute some action depending on the state, then based on the response, select the next state.
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The pattern really should stem from the problem but here are some choices:
If you are mainly concerned with ongoing development cost/annoyance: Strategy Pattern (already mentioned) - use this to implement the component level interfaces, and use a dynamic binding methodology to resolve specific strategies (implementations). An IOC container (I like Autofac these days) would work well.
If you are need to support the above plus have a need to scale: Map Reduce (anyone know of a good m+r fx for .net?).
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Depending on how much the webpage changes this could be tough. You could keep a list of standard regular expressions in a DB and then when one no longer works you can loop through the base set with others until you hit one. Then you'd want to mark that for future use.
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I use an open source library fully .net that can be simply included in custom project. It supports GET and POST requests, cookies and uses xpath language to locate data. Very simple and powerful. ;-) http://www.gekoproject.com/component/k2/17-gkscraper
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protected by gnat yesterday
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
| <urn:uuid:820cf7e4-4957-4a3d-b7d8-93ad79240e06> | http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/91898/patterns-and-practices-for-web-scraping-in-net-c/96264 | en | 0.9251 | 0.066884 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Bahamas to Broward pipeline OK'd
Associated Press
Published Saturday, January 24, 2004
FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) -- A pipeline that would carry natural has from the Bahamas to South Florida is one step closer after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the project final approval.
The commission voted 4-0 Thursday to approve the Ocean Express pipeline, which would carry natural gas from Ocean Cay in the southern Biminis to Broward County, where it would serve as fuel for power plants.
The pipeline still needs approval from the government of the Bahamas, where environmentalists say they will continue to fight it.
The commission, a board appointed by President Bush, approved the pipeline without discussion, spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said. The commission included a long list of environmental-protection conditions in its draft order approving the project.
The Ocean Express pipeline would be built by AES Corp., which is competing with two other companies to build pipelines to serve the region's growing demand for natural gas to produce electricity.
The company expects to start work this summer and put the pipeline into operation by August 2006.
El Paso Corp. has proposed a pipeline from Grand Bahamas to the Port of Palm Beach, while Tractebel North America has proposed one from Freeport to Dania Beach. AES's victory Thursday makes it the first of the three to win final approval.
Under each proposal, countries that produce natural gas, such as Nigeria and Trinidad, would send it in liquid form by tanker to the Bahamas. Processing plants would convert it back to gas and send it through the pipelines to South Florida, where smaller pipes would carry it to power plants.
Environmentalists generally support the use of natural gas because it emits far less pollution when burned than oil or coal. But some environmentalists in Florida oppose the pipeline as a threat to coral reefs, sea grass and other natural resources.
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Surgery just one hemorrhoid option
Dr. Paul Donohue
Syndicated Columnist
Published Sunday, August 16, 2009
ANSWER: I have a couple of questions for you. Why does your doctor suggest removing part of your colon? That's not a standard hemorrhoid treatment. What exactly was your problem in India? You say you couldn't eliminate. Do you mean you had constipation? Hemorrhoids don't cause constipation, but constipation can aggravate hemorrhoids. Keeping stools soft greatly lessens hemorrhoid complaints.
Hemorrhoids are veins. External hemorrhoids are located near the anal opening. This region has a plentiful supply of nerves, so external hemorrhoids tend to be painful. Internal hemorrhoids are farther up in the rectum. Fewer nerves supply this area, so internal hemorrhoids are less painful unless a clot forms in them. That is a most unpleasant condition. Internal hemorrhoids become dilated like varicose veins, and they can drop down and even protrude through the anus.
The rubber-band treatment for hemorrhoids is an approved method for getting rid of them. The doctor, using a special instrument, slips a rubber band around the base of the hemorrhoid. The rubber band cuts off blood supply, and within a matter of days the hemorrhoid withers and is sloughed off. Other treatments include injecting hemorrhoids with solutions that dry them up, stapling them so they don't fill with blood, and coagulating them with infrared light. Whether any of these procedures can be used for a specific hemorrhoid problem depends on many factors.
Self-treatment includes sitting in a tub with a few inches of warm water so that the water can bathe the hemorrhoids. The knees should be bent, and the heels brought near the body to allow the water to reach the problem area.
StAugustine AllAccess
Trending this week:
| <urn:uuid:32f62dbf-56f7-46b4-9987-c4e7043c10d5> | http://staugustine.com/stories/081609/health_1853615.shtml | en | 0.954595 | 0.180228 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
04/07/2011 - 06:45
Is the United States prepared for a nuclear reactor accident?
Laura H. Kahn
Laura H. Kahn
As Japan struggles to contain the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, government officials in other nations are nervously assessing their own emergency-response policies and procedures for a nuclear reactor accident. If any country is prepared to handle the worst that nature can present, it's Japan, where strict building codes and evacuation drills saved many lives from the March 11 disaster. But even Japan was not ready for a colossal 9.0 earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami.
Although a catastrophic failure of emergency backup systems at a US nuclear reactor may be unlikely, we need to be assured by our government officials that they have in place policies and procedures for dealing with nuclear worst-case scenarios.
Now the Japanese are struggling to contain the release of radioactive materials from the stricken Fukushima reactors. As of March 30, elevated levels of radioactive cesium 137 had been detected in 12 of Japan's 47 prefectures, and radioactive iodine 131 had been detected in eight prefectures. When these two isotopes escape during a nuclear reactor accident, they can pose major risks to human health.
Cesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years and emits penetrating gamma rays that, in massive doses, can cause radiation sickness. The first symptoms are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. A gamma-ray dose of 6 grays or more to the entire body causes death within two weeks; that dose is approximately 60,000 times greater than the exposure you receive from one chest X-ray. Depending on the dose and duration of exposure, gamma rays can also damage DNA and eventually lead to cancer. Geographic areas that are heavily contaminated with radioactive cesium require evacuation, but the evacuation need not be hasty. What matters is to avoid a large accumulated dose over many months or years, as the cesium slowly decays.
Iodine 131 has a half-life of only eight days and primarily affects the thyroid gland, a small organ that uses iodine to produce thyroid hormones. Radioactive iodine absorbed by this gland can increase the risk of thyroid cancer and other thyroid problems. Exposure to radioactive iodine can occur through inhaling it, drinking contaminated water, or consuming contaminated food -- particularly milk and other dairy products. Infants and young children are especially at risk from the harmful effects of radioactive iodine.
Fortunately, we have an effective strategy for avoiding the health effects of iodine 131: Taking potassium iodide pills saturates the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine and prevents the gland from absorbing radioactive iodine. To be most effective, potassium iodide should be taken before exposure to radioactive iodine, or at least within a few hours of exposure. Its protective effect lasts about 24 hours, so it must be administered daily as long as the risk of exposure persists. There are health risks associated with potassium iodide, so it should not be taken unless necessary.
In the US, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission emergency-preparedness regulations require that states consider providing potassium iodide to people living within a 10-mile emergency planning zone of a nuclear power plant, as a supplement to plans for sheltering and evacuating these people in the event of a nuclear power plant emergency. However, the final decision about providing potassium iodide is left up to each state.
The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 requires that the president make potassium iodide tablets available to state and local governments in sufficient quantities to protect people living within 20 miles of a nuclear power plant. The act includes a waiver for the president to invoke if it is determined that there is an alternative to the mandate.
The National Academy of Sciences studied the impacts of expanded distribution, and concluded in 2004 that potassium iodide should be available to everyone at risk of significant health consequences, and that emergency response programs should consider pre-distribution and local stockpiling outside of the emergency planning zone. However, the study did not address the discrepancy between the 10-mile and 20-mile requirements, instead deferring to local emergency response officials to decide the geographic boundaries for distribution.
In January 2008, John M. Marburger, the director of President George W. Bush's Office of Science and Technology Policy, issued an executive decision invoking the presidential waiver: "A nuclear power plant accident that creates public health risks beyond the 10-mile range would be a highly unusual catastrophic event … Federal distribution of KI [potassium iodide] beyond the 10-mile emergency planning zone (EPZ) is not warranted, and the mandate for KI availability places an unnecessary burden on State and Local emergency preparedness coordinators already struggling with the establishment and maintenance of programs within the 10-mile EPZ."
Currently, 23 of 34 states with nuclear reactors provide potassium iodide tablets to people living within the 10-mile zone, and 16 states provide liquid pediatric potassium iodide. But in an accident like the Japanese crisis, 10 miles might not be far enough; depending on environmental conditions, radioactive materials can spread widely to soil, food, and drinking water. On March 17, the US embassy in Japan recommended that Americans stay at least 50 miles away from Fukushima Daiichi.
The Fukushima crisis highlights the challenges that government officials face. While rare, accidents do happen. The 1986 Chernobyl explosion resulted in the deaths of 30 plant workers, 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children, serious psychological and sociological consequences, and severe economic losses. Almost 58,000 square miles in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine were contaminated by radioactive materials requiring hundreds of thousands of people to be evacuated. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone established soon after the disaster -- in which the only human activities allowed are those associated with the cleanup, monitoring, and study of the accident -- extends 19 miles from the plant in all directions. While the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crisis does not appear to be as bad as Chernobyl, the full scope of the crisis will likely take years to assess.
Currently, there is no evidence that people living in the US need to take potassium iodide. Increases in radioactivity detected in the US have thus far been very small, and are not expected to cause any health effects. However, government officials are closely monitoring radiation levels.
There are 438 nuclear reactors worldwide, with 65 new plants being built. Most nuclear reactors are in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The US has 104 reactors -- more than any other country. President Obama has made clean energy an important goal for his administration, and concern about fossil fuels and their contribution to global warming may lead to an increased reliance on nuclear energy. Although a catastrophic failure of emergency backup systems at a US nuclear reactor may be unlikely, we need to be assured by our government officials that they have in place policies and procedures for dealing with nuclear worst-case scenarios. | <urn:uuid:07450fc0-959a-482d-8bf8-476f415918d1> | http://thebulletin.org/united-states-prepared-nuclear-reactor-accident-0?qt-most_read_staff_picks=1 | en | 0.936599 | 0.1306 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Federal authorities recently raided the compound of a polygamous Mormon sect in Eldorado, Texas, after allegations that underage girls were being sexually abused. Why is polygamy illegal, and why is it still practiced?
What is polygamy?
The term polygamy, strictly speaking, describes any long-term, consensual mating arrangement in which the total number of partners is greater than two. In its common usage, however, the term generally denotes one specific form of polygamy: polygyny, the practice of one man having multiple wives. The other kind of polygamy, polyandry, whereby one female has multiple husbands, is not unheard of—some nomadic Tibetan cultures practice a form of it, as has the Toda tribe of India. But for reasons that probably have something to do with the nature of male sexuality, polyandry never really caught on the way polygyny did.
Who practices polygamy?
Throughout the world, millions of people. Anthropologists estimate that three-quarters of human societies have, at one point or another, allowed a man to take more than one wife, and that even today roughly a third of the world’s population lives in a community that tolerates polygamy. That includes much of the Middle East—Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Israel—and most of the Muslim nations of North Africa. Even in the United States, where polygamy is illegal, there are an estimated 50,000 people living in polygamy, the vast majority of them “Mormon fundamentalists”—a contentious term, as we’ll see in a moment.
What does Mormonism have to do with it?
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, had a revelation that God not only tolerated polygamy—he required it. On July 17, 1831, Smith said, God told him that only a man with at least three wives could enter heaven. In Mormon theology, the individual human soul exists both before and after mortal life, and it is therefore the duty of all Mormon men to have as many children as possible, thus sparing those souls the indignity of being born, as the Mormon apostle Orson Pratt put it, “among the Hottentots, the African negroes, the idolatrous Hindoos, or any other fallen nations that dwell upon the face of the Earth.” So-called plural marriage was seen as a means to that end, not to mention increasing the then-tiny sect’s number of followers.
So why aren’t all Mormons polygamous?
Because God changed his mind. In 1890, after Smith’s death, the Utah Territory was applying for recognition as a federal state, but the government insisted that first Utah had to outlaw polygamy. Happily for all concerned, however, church president Wilford Woodruff received a revelation from God during prayer to the effect that Mormons were now to submit themselves to U.S. law and cease the practice of plural marriage. To some church members, the convenient timing of Woodruff’s revelation seemed suspicious, and they split from the mainstream church to practice polygamy in accordance with Smith’s teachings.
What happened to the splinter groups?
They have survived and, in some cases, thrived. Even though their lifestyle has been illegal for more than a century, there are now roughly three times as many practicing polygamists in North America than there were in 1890, divided among roughly a dozen different sects. The largest, and most notorious sect, is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), which has some 10,000 members living in secretive communities scattered across Utah, the other mountain states, and Canada. Mainstream Mormons, who do not practice polygamy, denounce them as heretics.
How do other religions feel about polygamy?
Contrary to what you’ll often hear from modern defenders of “traditional marriage,” the sacred texts of Christianity, as well as those of the other major religions, are more than tolerant of polygamy. No less a figure than Abraham enjoyed the company of three wives, King David had an impressive 18, and David’s son King Solomon—whose eponymous Song is often read at weddings as a hymn to the joys of monogamy—somehow handled a household of 700 wives. The Jewish Talmud and the Islamic Koran tackle the issue more directly, saying that a man is allowed to take up to four wives, as long as he is able to provide for them and their offspring.
So why is it illegal in the U.S.?
That’s an intriguing question. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and says nothing about how many wives a man might have, if all are consenting adults. Yet as law professor Jonathan Turley has pointed out, these protections are denied to polygamists on the constitutionally dubious grounds that having multiple wives just isn’t . . . well, normal. In its 1878 ruling that permitted states to outlaw polygamy, the Supreme Court sniffed that polygamy was “almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and African people,” and that it was “contrary to the spirit of Christianity”—the 700 wives of Solomon notwithstanding.
What about child abuse?
Opponents of polygamy say it’s no coincidence that in so many polygamous communities one finds very young girls being forced into marriage, and sex, with much older men. Child-rape, they argue, is what you inevitably get when you design a social structure in which men have more power than women. Of the 250 girls who lived at the Texas compound of the “Yearning for Zion’’ sect, authorities say, 60 percent were pregnant or had already had children. That’s no surprise, says Carmen Thompson, who left a polygamist sect after spending years as one man’s sixth wife. “The women don’t have any say as to what’s happening with their daughters in the first place,” Thompson says. “These decisions are made by the men, and often the men will trade their daughters with each other.”
In defense of polygamy
Not all polygamists live in sinister compounds under the heel of a tyrannical prophet. Many, like the fictional Henrickson family in HBO’s hit polygamy saga Big Love, lead discreet suburban lives and insist that the lifestyle is neither as bizarre nor as challenging as its critics maintain. According to a 2005 estimate by the pro-polygamy group Principle Voices, there are some 15,000 independent Mormon fundamentalists living in the Western U.S., Mexico, and Canada—people who believe in plural marriage and Joseph Smith’s other original teachings, but who live alongside normal monogamous families and eschew the authoritarian, cult-like practices of sects like the FLDS. In an interview with National Public Radio, Linda Kunz Green, one of the five wives of polygamist Tom Green, spoke to the joys and practicality of sharing her husband with four other women. “We have a very close, sister-like relationship with each other,” said Kunz Green of her co-wives, “and our children have often expressed that they enjoy having that many mothers to care for them and love them.” | <urn:uuid:c3fcf716-2564-4a48-8900-c956724ba990> | http://theweek.com/articles/514778/briefing-married-mob | en | 0.967527 | 0.134617 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Autumn Landscape
Photograph by Olegas Kurasovas, My Shot
Autumn colors are a beautiful subject to shoot. This place has a special aura all year long, but at autumn it reveals its best.
I used a tripod standing in cold water. There were a few moments when I could have slipped in the water from slick rocks, but glad it didn't happen.
(This photo and caption were submitted to My Shot.) | <urn:uuid:8c1f6a86-7e60-4b18-94c7-efa9611b8fc9> | http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/photography/photos/best-pod-september-2010/autumn-landscape-colorful-leaves/ | en | 0.978171 | 0.022957 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm trying out the fish shell 2.0 to replace bash. I'm trying to convert the following bash function to a fish function, but its giving me hell. I have a several similar functions so if someone could point me in the right direction with an example I would be very grateful
connect() {
if [ "$2" != "" ]
ssh -ti ~/.ssh/work/id_rsa user@host$1.domain.com "sudo ssh $2"
if [ "$2" == "" ]
ssh -ti ~/.ssh/work/id_rsa user@host$1.domain.com "sudo -i"
Tried just replacing $1 and $2 with $argv[1] and $argv[2] but it complains about not being able to locate the end of block. I know its because the scripting synxtax is quite different in fish. I tried starting from a simpler function and had troubles with figuring out how to get it to do one thing if 1 variable is passed, and another thing if 2 variables are passed:
function testvarz
switch "$argv[2]";
case ""
echo "no second variable passed"
case != ""
echo "second variable passed"
but that doesn't work, if you pass 2 variable it does nothing, if you pass 1 it complains about
share|improve this question
migrated from serverfault.com Jun 8 '13 at 0:45
This question came from our site for system and network administrators.
1 Answer 1
up vote 4 down vote accepted
Here is a working function that's similar to your test function.
function testvarz
switch (count $argv)
case 0
echo 'zero'
case 1
echo "one $argv[1]"
case 2
echo "two $argv[1] $argv[2]"
case '*'
echo 'else'
You can use a similar structure for your connect function.
By the way, you should similarly use $# in your Bash function instead of trying to rely on $2 being null. You can also use a case statement in Bash.
share|improve this answer
Thanks for the example and tips – MrSilver AG Jun 8 '13 at 2:09
Your Answer
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Development Resources/Handling Git Contributions
Git does a great job of keeping track of author information, but there is no built in way to keep track of all the other stuff. At some point in the hopefully-not-too-distant-future, we'll be able to use Gerrit for this (see Bug 283749). In the meantime, we have to bridge the old world with the new.
1. A contributor who is not currently a committer on the project indicates that they've authored some code that they'd like to contribute to the project (this may occur through any number of communication channels).
• The developer who authored the code is referred to as the "contributor" or "author"
3. Contributor (author) or project committer creates a bugzilla that include URL pointers to the refs (commit record) in the source repository.
4. The contributor (author) provides a statement regarding the provenance, rights, and license of the code in a comment on the Bugzilla record.
• e.g., I assert that I:
1. authored 100% the content they are contributing
2. have the rights to donate the content to Eclipse
3. contribute the content under the EPL
5. If required by the IP Due Diligence Process (e.g. if the contribution exceeds 250 lines), the committer creates a CQ (including the URL of the ref), attaches a patch, and waits for "check in" permission
6. Project committer merges the pull request back into the eclipse.org project git repository.
• The "Committer" name and email in the Git commit record must be set to the committer's information. The "email" field must be the Eclipse committer ID, or the committer email address as recorded for the committer account at the Eclipse Foundation. See Committing and Pushing for more information.
• The "Author" name and email in the Git commit record must be set to the contributor's information. See How do I change the author of a commit in git? for help.
• In simple cases, pull requests can be merged into your local Git repositories as follows:
• Add the contributor's Git repository as a remote, e.g. "git remote add <contributor-name> <contributor's repository URL>"
• Fetch the latest from the contributor's repository: "git fetch <contributor-name>"
• Cherry-pick the commit mentioned in the pull request: "git cherry-pick <hash of commit>"
• Confirm that the generated commit has the correct content, and the correct metadata: "git show HEAD", "git log --pretty=full"
7. Project committer adds a comment on the Bugzilla record that includes URL pointers to the refs in the eclipse.org repository
8. Project committer closes the bug.
Note that the automated IP Log generator has been updated to include contributions made through Git (see bug 327594). If Git contributions have the author field correctly set, there is no need to mark the Bugzilla entry iplog+; in fact, doing so may result in redundant entries in the log.
The process changes a bit for projects that use Gerrit Code Review.
• A user may have multiple email addresses registered with Gerrit; and
• All of these addresses can be used to identify the user (generally via the Author Email field).
1. Contributor must create an account on eclipse.org and agree to the Contributor Agreement;
2. Contributor creates a Git commit:
• If the contribution is associated with a Bugzilla record, cite that record in the commit message (e.g. Bug 12345); and
• Author email address is set to a address registered to the author in Gerrit.
3. Contributor pushes their commit to the Git/Gerrit repository;
4. Contributor asserts on the corresponding bug or in a comment on the Gerrit push record that they:
1. authored 100% the content they are contributing
2. have the rights to donate the content to Eclipse
3. contribute the content under the EPL
5. Project committer works with contributor to revise (if necessary) the contribution and otherwise shape it into a form that can be accepted by the project;
6. Required number of committers approve the commit (this may vary by project);
7. Project committer initiated IP Due Diligence process:
• If a CQ is required, the committer creates a CQ and attaches a patch generated from the Git commit;
• Committer records CQ number in the commit message; and
• When approved, committer reflects approval on the Gerrit record (i.e. they flip the IP bit on).
8. Commit is merged into an appropriate branch by the committer
• The IP Due diligence process permits for certain contributions for work done "under the supervision of the PMC". The definition of "under the supervision of the PMC" varies from PMC to PMC, but is generally accepted to mean that the work is within the scope of the project plan and/or the contribution is a patch for an existing bug/issue.
• A contribution provided through Gerrit does not necessarily have a corresponding record in Bugzilla. If such a record does exist, it should be cited on in the commit message.
• A this point in time, we require that the contributor explicitly consent to the Terms of Use when an account is created; we further require that the contributor assert the three questions with each contribution. Consent can be given either on the Bugzilla record (if one exists), or on a comment connected to the Gerrit push. | <urn:uuid:dfabd0e7-d7d9-4a7e-81ee-8e461283a3b8> | http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=Development_Resources/Handling_Git_Contributions&direction=prev&oldid=307282 | en | 0.895517 | 0.043934 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
How Do You Avoid Clutter?
As a very visual person, I'm often torn between wanting to be surrounded by an array of inspiring decor and simultaneously desiring a serene, un-distracting environment. It's not an easy balance to strike, but one thing's for certain: for either style to work, clutter cannot be a welcome guest. Many moves, some with small children, have absolutely convinced me of the need to form clutter-busting habits. My number one tactic is...
Saying no! Many well-intentioned friends and family members have generously offered us enough furniture and tchotchkes to furnish a home ten times the size of our current abode. During our first year of marriage we said yes to practically everything, and to say the very least, it was overwhelming.
With kids, come toys. Lots and lots and lots of toys, and most of them are not the most stylish of items. There is no way, short of being rude, to keep all less than attractive kid-clutter out of the home, but we've found that encouraging friends not to bring gifts to birthday parties to be one easy solution—a simple: "Please, no gifts. Your presence is present enough!" on the invitation often does the trick.
Be realistic about your storage needs. Try to edit your possessions, sure, but be realistic. If you are a clothes monger, designate as much space possible to your wardrobe. That may mean forgoing the reading chair in your bedroom, and putting another dresser in it's place. If it's paper and files you struggle with, come up with a system. Even if you don't have adequate room for a full-fledge office, you can find ways to work in a filing cabinet as in Summer and Josh's gorgeous living room below.
What clutter tricks work for your?
(Images: 1: Real Simple, 2: Hotze Eisma, 3: Ohdeedoh: Ashley's Nursery Tour, 4: James Merrell, 5: Apartment Therapy Chicago: Summer and Josh's House Tour) | <urn:uuid:2839e802-5a0b-41b0-9528-a79da5082739> | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-do-you-avoi-90741 | en | 0.953405 | 0.04805 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Lauletta, Prinzi, Robinson
• Season 2, Ep 0225
• 05/26/1993
I've noticed thatuh, in New York,
they have a very differentway of ordering coffee
to go than theydo in California.
Do you know about this?
In California, if youorder coffee to go,
they give you yourcoffee and then
you go over to the coffeesupplementation area
and you use the variouscreams and sweetening agents
to sweeten the coffee orcream in to your liking.
Whereas in New York City, ifyou order the coffee to go,
they just give it to you.
You're not allowed totouch the dairy products.
I don't know if this isa trust problem or what.
But you have to communicate howmuch uh, cream and sugar you
want through a very complicated,uh, ritualistic code that, uh,
like a lot of other thingsin New York is foreign to me.
The first time I go and Iget my coffee I-- I-- the guy
says, do you want regular?
And I thought, as opposedto decaf, yeah, regular.
It turns out "regular" in NewYork means cream and sugar.
So-- so-- you, you, have to--I don't know how they determine
even how much-- theyjust put it in for you.
I don't know if they're psychic.
They know how much you want.
Or then I thought, wellmaybe they're highly trained
and they determine how muchcream I want by my weight
and height and you know, likemy bone structure or something.
He's a necromorph, givehim light and sweet.
Uh, which, that's how youtell them the cream thing.
It's-- is the cream nomenclatureis you tell them how you want
it by how-- what color thecoffee will turn when they put
the cream in, so-- youneed like a Benjamin
Moore paint sampler card thing.
I'm looking here forsomewhere between the Burnt
Sienna and the Ochre.
So I get my coffee andI'm walking around.
You have some street food.
I've noticed that thestreet food in New York
is very similar you know, withthe hot dogs and the pretzels
to the food that youget at the ballpark.
And then I-- then itkind of occurred to me
that walking aroundNew York City
is very similar to going toa baseball game in the sense
that it may seem like nothing'sgoing on for a long time
but pretty soon someone is goingto hit something really hard
with a bat.
Retired professionalwrestler, my dad.
Think it's cool havinga dad as a wrestler?
No, let me explain something.
No, no, no no, no!
One time he went to the bank.
You know what he did?
Started bouncingoff the bank ropes.
Ha ha ha!
I want a loan!
Dad, you suck.
You know that?
You really suck.
Please take off thetights, Lard Ass,
you don't even fitin them anymore.
The only cool part waswhen he spanked me,
he didn't really hit me.
The bank, my account,I'll do what I want!
You figure a bigmacho guy like my dad
would like Schwarzenegger.
Hates Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Hates him.
You know why?
You know why?
Because the only really time Ido Schwarzenegger, the voice,
around my dad, triesto tell me what to do,
throw the Schwarzeneggerat him, bam!
He's pissed off instantly.
One time he goes, hey why whydon't you go mow the lawn,
you're not doing anything.
Why don't you go mow the lawn.
[schwarzenegger accent]Why don't you go mow.
You do it.
It's your lawn mower.
You use it.
You, you, you paid for it.
You use it.
You paid for yourcar, you don't tell
me to use that,do you, Poopyhead?
Do you, Poopyhead?
I don't hear you!
[normal voice]What'd you call me?
Come here.You don't call me Poopyhead.
My house.
Admit it.
Only Scharzeneggercould say "Poopyhead"
and scare the crap out of you.
So like George Bush comeout, [george bush voice] Uh,
Poopyhead.[normal voice] Give me
a-- you're not the president.
Get outta here.
Schwarzenegger go "Poopyhead."
Aww, jeez, you want a drink?
Have a drink, Mr. Manwith a [inaudible]
You know he's business partners,you know, Planet Hollywood.
He and Stallone.
They're investorsat Planet Hollywood.
They're business partners.
How the hell are Stalloneand Schwarzenegger
going to communicate?
Think about it.
I can see Stallone walking outthe Schwarzenegger in the back.
[stallone accent sounds] Ithink we need more hot dogs.
[schwarzenegger voice]No, we need beer.
[stallone voice] Uh,that's good, that's good.
I understand that.
But also we need hot dogs.
[schwarzenegger voice]We need beer.
[stallone voice]We need hot dogs.
[schwarzenegger voice] Beer.
Listen to me, youdumb grease ball.
Two syllables.
Get your Hooked on Phonics.
Yeah, listen to me, writeit down, F-O-N-I-C-S.
Learn the language, Poopyhead.
[stallone sounds] I wantto drink the [inaudible].
This is my impressionof Roy Scheider.
You all know Roy Scheider.
Roy Scheider played ChiefBrody in the movie "Jaws."
Roy Scheider as Chief Brody.
And this I can only doonce a night because um,
it really hurts, so.
-I think we need a bigger boat.
Oh, you guys havemade my day great.
Wait a second.
You worked every bit of fame.
Thank you.
[stallone voice] Yo, Andrian!
We need hot dogs!
[normal voice] Thankyou, very much.
and it's just unbelievable.
I've developed some sortof New York City ailment
that I can't explain.
I've got this itch betweenmy ear and my throat
that I can't getat no matter how
far I shove my finger in there.
I'm walking around thewhole day going, [click]
You guys communicate toeach other like that.
I could get on thephone right now
and go [click] a pizzawould come in 20 minutes.
I'm driving in from the airport,we got stuck in traffic.
We sat there there 30, 40minutes without moving an inch.
By the time I got upto where the accident
was there was nothing there.
God, that pisses me off, man.
When I sit for 30 minutes, Iwant to see like a human head.
Then you don't feel so bad.
Some guy lost his head,I lost a half hour,
that's an even tradein New York City.
and I was back there last week.
You know, it'sreally interesting.
My sister had a baby.
I had never heldan infant before.
That is an incredible feeling.
You know about thatsoft spot thing, though?
Babies have soft spots, man.
I didn't know that.
I was holding himand he was crying
and his little headwas just going--
it was some sort of alien baby.
I was frightened.
I didn't want to sayanything to my sister,
I was afraid she'd bendover go, we all got that!
I think God madea mistake, though.
He should have left usall with soft spots.
You know, we'd be alittle more vulnerable,
maybe nicer to each other.
You know we wouldn't be soquick to infringe on someone's
freedom if they could justboink you and kill you.
You know, military leaderswouldn't be so quick to invade
defenseless countries if wecan come by with helicopters
and broom handles justgoing boink, boink, boink.
Our defense budgetbe like $8.00.
But holding my nephew, Irealize that I'm getting older
and that's a verystrange feeling.
And I don't mind it becausenow the simplest things in life
make me really happy.
I'm telling you, if I have anew box of breakfast cereal
in the cupboard in the kitchen,I get up about 20 minutes
early morning.
I mean, I'm really excited.
I march in there, rip it open,jam my hand right to the bottom
of the box, lookingfor the prize.
Because when you're an adult,you don't have to wait.
I love Grape Nuts.
Except lots of times, I forgetto put milk on them the night
before I want to eat them.
You know, theynever get soft ever.
Twinkies will go badbefore Grape Nuts get soft.
I love food.
Food is my best friend in life.
It never lets me down.
If I had the money, I'dlove to open up a chain
of all-you-can-eatrestaurants that deliver.
Wouldn't it be great, just callthem up late at night, uh yeah,
we'd like uh, some more.
Big truckload of food pullsup, guy with a shovel,
where do you want it?
I have trouble sleepingand I blame my diet.
I've been buying a lot ofthose deep fried pork skins.
I'm not eating them,though, I'm just
trying to reassemblea pig in my apartment.
When I'm on theroad, I usually buy
that Quaker instant oatmeal.
I love that stuff.
I love the apple and cinnamon.
That's my favorite.
It's number one, right now,according to Casey Kasem.
Do you know anyone who eats theregular flavor instant oatmeal?
That's like heroin, isn't it?
You gotta heat the spoon andtie off before you eat that.
Make the pain goaway, Wilford Brimley!
It's great though.
You just pour boilingwater on this oatmeal
and these things just startappearing in your bowl.
Raisins start poppingout, apples, cinnamon.
I made some the othermorning, I got so excited,
I spilled theoatmeal on the floor.
It formed the face of Jesus.
It was singing "Love Me Tender."
It was the young Jesus.
Guys been great.
certain things, man, but I'mgoing to say this and any
of you can get mad or whatever.
I'm glad the whole RodneyKing thing is over with.
I'm tired of hearingabout it, man.
Y'all know I'm tiredof hearing about it.
Because people act likeRodney King had a career
before all thishappened to him, man.
Like, oh, poor Rodney,why they messing with him?
You know he wasgoing to be a doctor.
Hell no!
Wasn't going to be no doctor.
These people are crazy, man.
You know what showI hate, though?
I hate that show "Cops," man.
You ever see that show "Cops?"
Well the thing about, is thatyou can turn it on one day
and see somebody whoyou know being arrested.
That's embarrassing, man.
Last week, I seensomebody who I knew and I
found myself cheeringfor him, man.
I'm like, run, George, run!
Run, man!
He behind the car!
Will you run?
What's that other show"America's Most Wanted."
Can't stand that show.
Now I don't mean to be alittle you know, whatever.
But if you notice when theyhave rewards for the white kids,
any amount of moneywill do. $50 million--
who's seen our little Joey?
Little black kid-- all right$50 and a bucket of chicken.
Who's seen him?
I know somebody had to see him!
I'm looking around, man.
We don't careabout the homeless.
We walk right past the homeless.
Don't care about them.
You ever see how theycome out the trains?
Y'all catch the subway too,so you could just walk,
Hi, I'm Eddie,give me some money.
I wish they did that alllike airplanes, first class.
Just folks our of nowhere.
I'm Earl, I'm hungry, man.
Who got the grub?
And these celebrities,they kill me, man.
Because like every Thanksgiving,they'll give them a turkey.
Like that's the only timethey get an appetite.
You know.
And we walk right-- homelesspeople come up and ask us
for a quarter, we get all upset.
Get away from me!
Why do you want a quarter?
Go away!
We won't give ahomeless guy a quarter,
but yet we'll flip moneyinto a wishing well
and make a damn wish about it.
We'll flip moneyover a homeless guy's
head just make a wish, man.
Out my way, youhomeless bastard.
I'm trying to make a wish here.
Gotta get my greedy self somemore money, that's what I need,
Would you ever calla psychic hotline?
Dionne and her friends.
You've called it.
How many of you knowwho Jeane Dixon is?
You know Jeane Dixon,you know who she is?
You know she predictedeverybody's death?
John F. Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy.
Don't you thinkthis is the bitch
who's killing this folk, man?
Check her alibi.
See where she was at.
She did it.
Somebody's gonna dietonight, I swear to God.
I was watchinginauguration, man.
I seen that.Did you see the inauguration.
You see it?
Is it me or is Chelseathe ugliest little girl
you ever seen in your damn life?
Oh, come on, youknow she's ugly.
Daddy, I love you!
I love you!
Get back, girl!
Get back!
Get back before youget me impeached.
Get back!
[inaudible] likeshe your cousin.
Don't talk aboutAmy, she my cousin.
America, we're phony, man.
In America, we won't letsomebody who's terminally
ill have a right totake their own life.
We say it's illegal.
But yet we'll letEvel Knievel jump over
the Grand Canyon witha damn moped, man.
Aww, don't give me that clap.
All of us believedthat he can do it.
Look at that, Evel going to jumpfrom New York to Philadelphia.
Look at that, man.
Aw, hell, plus he's going topay the tolls all the way.
I swear to God.
He got change in his pocket.
And nowadays, you can walkinto court, plead insanity.
They'll cut you a breakbecause you pleaded insanity.
Why the hell will someone who'sstabbed somebody 87 times then
try to eat them haveto plead insanity, man?
Yeah he's messed up!
What more proof you need?
Does he have tolight his eyelashes
on fire, run aroundthe courtroom.
If that's the case, youshould be able to go to court
and plead stupidity.
It's the same thing.
Oh, Your Honor, my client herewould like to plead stupidity.
What do you meanon what grounds?
He tried to rob an undercovercop that had a walkie-talkie,
handcuff, and gun sticking out!
Look, Your Honor, he'sa damn idiot, man!
Look at this guy! | <urn:uuid:78056013-272f-4b9b-8857-c63d4e2f6034> | http://www.cc.com/episodes/0ez5u4/two-drink-minimum-lauletta--prinzi--robinson-season-2-ep-0225?currentPage=1 | en | 0.927462 | 0.193081 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Can Microsoft Convince You to Use Internet Explorer?
Having gone from industry leader to industry laggard, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has had to fight harder than ever to convince consumers that its products are viable competitors to services offered by Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Among its neglected products is Internet Explorer, whose popularity has diminished in the wake of Chrome and Safari. In order to try to turn some of its losses around, Microsoft rolled out a new advertisement for IE 10, and it is certainty…interesting.
CHEAT SHEET Analysis: Does Microsoft have a High Quality Product?Browsers
Data from NetMarketShare suggest that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is by leaps and bounds the most popular browser in the market. While this may technically be true, the data may be misleading because Internet Explorer comes pre-installed with every copy of Windows. Usage statistics suggest that Chrome and Firefox claim the top two shares of the market.
Regardless of who’s on top, tech and Internet companies have a vested interest in having a popular browser just as they have a vested interest in the popularity of any of their products. If Internet Explorer is still king of the mountain, then they are fighting tooth and nail to stay there. If not, then they are fighting tooth and nail to try and get back up top.
Is an Ad Campaign what IE 10 Needs?
Here’s the advertisement:
The video speaks volumes about how users view Internet Explorer and how Microsoft wants them to view it. It seems they’ve abandoned the idea of convincing people they are best in class and are trying to win users through personality and the promise of progress.
How Will This Affect Microsoft’s Stock?
Coincidentally, shares of Microsoft are pulling about 1.5 percent lower on Friday afternoon. The movement is unlikely related to this advertisement and more likely related to the relatively weak performance of Windows 8.
It would take a substantial increase in the number of Internet Explorer users to move Microsoft’s stock or give it relative traction against its competitors. What the advertisement does do is reiterate to current Internet Explorer users that Microsoft has not forgotten about them, and reminds non-users that it’s still out there, and it isn’t going away anytime soon.
Don’t Miss: Moody’s to H-P: Apple is Eating Your Lunch. | <urn:uuid:d856eb8d-d03e-4bcd-b4b0-29d5340db1aa> | http://www.cheatsheet.com/features/can-microsoft-convince-you-to-use-internet-explorer.html/ | en | 0.930399 | 0.019179 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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johnfarnworth - (5/19/2012 12:45:29 PM)
Over here it's the time of the year when we all start to get round our tractors and make sure that they start after the winter layup.
Every year an odd magneto iginition tractor will refuse to start - "mag gone off" as we say over here. Often we can cure it by simply giving the points a good cleaning, but sometimes one has to take the magneto off and warm it up in a very low oven.
What's the experience in N. America? Does the fact that you are frozen stiff all winter protect the magnetos? Here we have little frost and a very damp climate and this seems to be the problem.
Anyone got bombproof methods of magneto preservation over winter??? | <urn:uuid:ea4c5a14-2984-4c29-a7b3-63bd8412a3ca> | http://www.masseycollectors.com/Discussion/f2/fp9/t206/MAGNETOS?subscribeto=206 | en | 0.90524 | 0.039354 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Obesity Linked To Brain Degeneration
Thursday, September 17, 2009 by: S. L. Baker, features writer
Tags: obesity, health news, Natural News
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(NaturalNews) While the talking heads on TV frantically warn about the so-called swine flu pandemic that is supposedly on the verge of causing world-wide suffering and death, there's another world-wide health problem of enormous proportions that's here, right now -- being overweight. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates more than 300 million people across the planet are obese, and another billion more are overweight. Being too fat isn't a cosmetic problem, it's a condition that kills people prematurely by leading to cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke and type 2 diabetes. And now there's evidence that being too fat also causes brain degeneration and maybe even Alzheimer's disease.
In a study just published in the current online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping, a research team headed by Paul Thompson, senior author and a University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) professor of neurology, and lead author Cyrus A. Raji, a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, compared the brains of people who were obese, overweight, and of normal weight. To define the weight categories, the scientists used the Body Mass Index (BMI), to establish that normal weight people had a BMI between 18.5 and 25, overweight people had a BMI between 25 and 30, and obese people's BMI was more than 30.
The scientists wanted to document whether the brains of those in each of the three groups were equally normal and healthy. Surprisingly, they weren't. In fact, the scientists discovered that obese people had eight percent less brain tissue than people with normal weight. In addition, people who were only overweight and not downright obese still showed a loss of about four percent of brain tissue.
Thompson, who is a member of UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, said in a statement to the media that this study marks the first time anyone has established a link between being being overweight and having what Thompson called in a statement to the media "severe brain degeneration." In fact, he noted that "..the brains of obese people looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean, and in overweight people looked eight years older."
"That's a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other diseases that attack the brain," Thompson stated. "But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control."
The researchers used brain images from the earlier Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study. The researchers then transformed those scans into three-dimensional images using a high tech neuroimaging method that produces detailed resolution mapping of differences in brain anatomy.
When they compared both grey matter and white matter of the brain, the scientists found that the people defined as obese had lost brain tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes (parts of the brain critical for memory and planning), the anterior cingulate gyrus (needed for attention and executive functions), hippocampus (critical for long term memory) and the basal ganglia (needed for movement). Overweight people showed less brain loss, but it was brain loss, all the same -- mostly in the basal ganglia and the parietal lobe (known as the sensory lobe).
"It seems that along with increased risk for health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, obesity is bad for your brain: we have linked it to shrinkage of brain areas that are also targeted by Alzheimer's," Raji said in a statement to the press. "But that could mean exercising, eating right and keeping weight under control can maintain brain health with aging and potentially lower the risk for Alzheimer's and other dementias."
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| <urn:uuid:70c517b9-ee70-4f71-ae32-433a02e54a66> | http://www.naturalnews.com/027046_brain_weight_overweight.html | en | 0.939716 | 0.019566 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Moore's Pretty Good Law
Yes, Virginia, there's still a Moore's Law. But do you care?
In this holiday season, I am comforted to read that Moore's Law, which only recently seemed headed for repeal, now appears safe for another decade or two. It's hard for me to imagine a transistor the size of three atoms, but Intel says it can build them and that's what counts, I suppose.
But what counts and what matters is different. And what matters is this: What has Moore's Law done for us lately?
Don't get me wrong, I am all for faster processors. But right now I need megabits much worse than I need megahertz. The problem I have isn't that my computer can't process data quickly enough -- it's that data doesn't move around the network quickly enough to use all that computing power.
And ever-teensier transistors -- the core of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 to 24 months -- won't solve the problem by themselves.
Most people already have more megahertz on their desktops than they can really use. The slow sales of this year's Christmas computers seem to bear that out: Lacking a killer application that demands more CPU horsepower, people seem content with what they already own.
And that killer application hasn't appeared because most people, while they have the megahertz, don't have the multi-megabit Internet connections they need to make the applications usable. And for all the talk, those connections are years away for most Americans.
Intel knows this and has been grappling with the dilemma for several years. Nobody works much harder than Intel on dreaming up new ways for people to use processing power. But even as they build atomic-sized transistors, dreaming up applications has been a problem.
The big things I've seen Intel develop are, alas, media applications. And media apps hog more than just processing power; they also require a lot of network bandwidth that most people don't yet have.
I say "yet" because I think this is just a speed bump for the importance of Mr. Moore's law. As bandwidth increases, people will find cool things to do with it -- mostly entertainment and communications -- and applications will catch up to the power available to them. Then we will need new computers, and all will be right with the hardware companies again.
But like I said, huge bandwidth is, forgive the pun, just a pipe dream for most people. And the broadband we really need is bigger than what's even being offered today, so add some more time to the equation. Remember how long it took for "everyone" to get cable television?
So while Moore's Law seems to still have life in it, it would be OK with me if it took a little rest while bandwidth catches up.
ZDNet News commentator David Coursey is based in Silicon Valley and has covered personal computers, software, and the Internet for more than 20 years. He is an industry analyst and creator of several industry conference events. His Web site is
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ar-Rihla, or, Riḥlah (الرحلة, literally "Journey") is a Classical Arabic term of a quest, with connotations of a voyage undertaken for the sake of divine knowledge of Islam. It is also a form of travel literature based upon the experiences of the travelers.[1]
History[2] The term "Rihla" was especially attributed to the written account of the adventures of the Islamic traveler and scholar, Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta traveled throughout most of the Islamic world during 1304-1369 C.E., recording his findings in his journal, named Rihla.
As Travel[edit]
The Rihla travel practice originated in Middle Ages Morocco and served to connect Muslims of Morocco to the collective consciousness of the ummah across the Islamic world, thereby generating a larger sense of community. Rihla consists of three types:[3]
1. Rihla - journey within Morocco, typically to meet with other pilgrims before traveling beyond the local area.
2. Rihla hijaziyya - journey to the Hejaz which would be transmitted via an oral or written report.
3. Rihla sifariyya - journey to foreign lands including to embassies and missions in territories in Dar al-Harb. Events on these journeys would be the basis of the extant travel literature.
The performance of Rihla was considered in Moorish al-Andalus as a qualifier for teachers and political leaders.[4] These journey also coincided with the end of the Mongol invasions and a new opportunity for Islamic expansion.[5]
As Literature[edit]
The writing of Ibn Jubayr is a foundation of the genre of work called Rihla, or the creative travelogue. Concerning his travel to Mecca in 1183, "...his two-year journey made a considerable impact on literary history. His account of his travels and tribulations in the East served as the foundational work of a new genre of writing, the rihla, or the creative travelogue: a mix of personal narrative, description, opinion and anecdote. In following centuries, countless people emulated and even plagiarized him."[6] The best known Rihla manuscript is (Arabic: تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفارTuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār, "A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling"), or simply referred to as (رحلة ابن بطوطة Riḥlat Ibn Baṭūṭah, "Journey of Ibn Battuta"). The Journey of Ibn Battuta is a medieval book which recounts the journey of the 14th-century Moroccan scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta. The book was written by Ibn Juzayy on orders from the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan who was impressed by the story and journey of Ibn Battuta.[7] Although Ibn Battuta was an accomplished and well-documented explorer his travels had been unknown outside the Islamic world for many years.[8]
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
Euben, Roxanne L. Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691138404.
1. ^ "What is the Rihla?". Rihla Reflections.
2. ^ http://ibnbattuta.berkeley.edu/resources.html
3. ^ Eickelman, Dale F.; Piscatori, James P. (1990). Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, Migration and the Religious Imagination. University of California Press. pp. 69–71.
4. ^ Michael Karl Lenker, “The Importance of the Rihla for the Islamization of Spain,” Dissertations Available from ProQuest (January 1, 1982): 1–388
5. ^ Tolmacheva, Marina (1995). "Ibn Battuta in Black Africa". The International Journal of African Historical Studies 28 (3): 696–697. doi:10.2307/221221.
6. ^ Grammatico, Daniel and Werner, Louis. 2015. The Travel Writer Ibn Jubayr. Aramco World. Volume 66, No. 1, January–February 2015. Page 40.
7. ^ Dunn, Ross E. (2004). The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century. University of California Press. p. 310. ISBN 0-520-24385-4.
8. ^ Tolmacheva, Marina (1988). "The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century". The International Journal of African Historical Studies 21 (1): 149–150. doi:10.2307/219908.
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Rafer Johnson
Inducted: 1974, athlete
Born: August 18, 1935 - Hillsboro, Texas
Decathlon - 7982 pts.
One of the greatest all-around track athletes in history, Rafer Johnson competed equally well in several events while a student at UCLA and quite naturally made his mark in the decathlon. In high school, Johnson excelled in football, baseball, basketball and track. An outstanding sprinter and long jumper, he gravitated to the decathlon after seeing Olympic champion Bob Mathias compete in the 10-event ordeal. Less than a month later, Johnson won the California state junior decathlon championship. By 1955, in his fourth attempt at the event, he scored 7,608 points, displacing Mathias as world record holder. That same year, he won the decathlon at the Pan-American Games. In 1956, he qualified for the Olympic team in both the long jump and decathlon, but because of a knee injury, he limited himself to the 10-event competition. At Melbourne, he finished second to fellow American and Hall of Famer Milt Campbell. Johnson never lost again. He won three National AAU titles from 1956 to 1960 and his duels with the USSR's Vasiliy Kuznetsov and Taiwan's C.K. Yang, also a UCLA teammate, were some of the greatest in track history. Johnson capped his career by winning the 1960 Olympic championship in a world record performance. Winner of the 1960 Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete, Johnson retired to begin to work for President John Kennedy's Peace Corps. Like many other decathlon stars, he later became a movie actor and a successful businessman.
1956 Olympics: Decathlon (2nd)
1960 Olympics: Decathlon (1st)
1955 Pan-Am Games: Decathlon (1st)
high school: Kingsburg (Kingsburg, California)
undergraduate: UCLA (Los Angeles, California), 1958
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Candy Crush Saga Wiki
Level 500
3,850pages on
this wiki
Messagebox info Change in Difficulty Colours
Reality Poll Dreamworld Past Versions
Level 500
Reality level 500 (nerfed) (Facebook)
Episode Meringue-Moor
Level type Ingredient drop
Ingredients Hazelnut: 4 Cherry: 4
Moves Moves-60
Target score 1star (trans): 80,000 pts
Blockers Licorice-swirl Marmalade Locked Candies Three-layered Icing Chocolate Fountain Cake bombs 9-move
Other features Ingredients Dispenser Licorice & Candy Bomb Dispenser CoconutWheel
Number of
candy colours
Red Orange Green Blue Purple
Number of spaces 79
Difficulty Very Hard
Previous Current Next
Jelly Ingredient drop Jelly
Level 499
Level 500
Level 501
Level 500 is the fifteenth and last level in Meringue Moor and the 122nd ingredients level. To pass this level, you must bring down 4 hazelnuts and 4 cherries and score at least 80,000 points in 60 moves or fewer. When you complete the level, Sugar Crush is activated.
This level is intrinsically special due to its round number (though the design has nothing special). Even more remarkable is that this is the final level of the episode, making it the second level to be an episode finale on a multiple of 100. The first was level 200.
With a complex design and abundance of icing, it is a difficult level to complete. Furthermore, this level also formerly had all the blockers except the toffee tornado before it was nerfed.
• This level is hard due to the amount of blockers that separate the ingredients from the bottom of the screen, with 36 three-layer icings. Just about every blocker in the game is present in this level (with the exception of toffee tornado). There is also a division in the screen, first by liquorice locks, then by liquorice swirls from the dispenser, and the dispenser also drops bombs which will explode in nine moves, making them a massive threat. If you do not pay attention, they will blow up in no time.
• The chocolate spawners make it almost impossible to reach the bottom layers of icing, and also the coconut wheel at the bottom is often rendered unusable by the liquorice swirls, as well as the fact it cannot reach the bottom icing. The chocolate will also multiply out rapidly.
• It is hard to bring down all eight ingredients even though there are 60 moves and five candy colours.
• The coconut wheel does not clear the bottom layer of icing, also, the coconut wheel is often set off prematurely or is rendered useless by liquorice swirls. Bombs can also get stuck in that position.
• Overall, this is a difficult ingredients level that generally takes many tries. Before it was nerfed it was considered one of the hardest ingredient drop levels like Level 181 and Level 361.
• The ingredients are worth 80,000 points (8 ingredients x 10,000 points per ingredient = 80,000 points) which is equal to the one star target score.
Two Stars
Score 80,000 260,000 300,000
Difficulty None Medium Hard
1. Make matches next to the icing to remove the layers of icing.
2. Create striped candies or wrapped candy + striped candy combinations to release the coconut wheel and remove the slices of the cake bomb
3. Once the coconut wheel is released, clear the liquorice swirls above it. Then move the coconut wheel upwards, where it will make 3 horizontally striped candies and remove the slices of the cake bomb.
4. Once all cake bombs have been cleared, make as many vertically striped candies or its combinations above the ingredients as this is the only way to the icing below the ingredients.
5. Mind the bombs and do not let them get trapped between the cake bombs or at the bottom space.
Earning More StarsEdit
• The presence of five colours makes it easy to create special candies. However, it is not all that useful till most of the blockers have been cleared.
• The ingredients are worth 80,000 points. Hence, an additional 180,000 points for two stars and an additional 220,000 points for three stars have to be earned through matching of candies.
• The player is required to earn an additional 3,000 points per move (180,000 points / 60 moves = 3,000 points per move) for two stars.
• The player is required to earn an additional 3,680 points per move (220,000 points / 60 moves = 3666,67 points per move) for three stars. This amount is higher than the maximum amount of points a striped candy during sugar crush can provide which in this case is 3,540 points (3,000 points per striped candy + 540 points if the striped destroys nine candies). [1] Moreover, only a few hundred points will be earned for at least the first ten moves or even more because the blockers heavily reduce available board space.
• Colour bombs are hard to create due to the limited number of spaces, at least for the first ten moves or more.
• Most of the moves have to be spent to clear the blockers and dropping ingredients, reducing the number of moves left to create colour bombs.
• The dispenser frequently dispenses liquorice swirls instead of candy bombs, limiting the opportunity to create colour bomb + candy bomb combinations and reduce the power of the colour bomb if used on regular candies or even colour bombs.
• Clearing the cake bomb removes all the special candies on the board including colour bombs. Moreover, the amount of points earned from the first cake bomb is likely to be less than 3,700 points due to the huge amount of blockers (every regular or special candy cleared by a cake bomb is worth 100 points).
• Try to create as many colour bomb + candy bomb combinations. Even then, using colour bombs on the most plentiful candies are also effective.
Element Spawn Notes
Elements Notes
• Ingredient(s) spawn density: 10 move(s).
• If there are fewer than 1 ingredient(s) on screen, then the board spawns up to 1 when possible.
Liquorice swirl
• Spawn 1 every 1 move(s).
• If there are fewer than 5 liquorice swirl(s) on screen, then the board spawns up to 5 when possible.
Candy Bomb Green
• Spawn 1 every 5 move(s).
1. The amount of points earned by the striped candies during sugar crush may be higher or lower. If the striped candy causes cascades after detonation, the amount of points is increased. If the striped candy destroys a blocker or less than nine candies which is the greatest number of spaces in this board and does not cause cascades, the amount of points earned will be less than 3,540 points. For the former, a minimum of 140 points per striped candy has be created from cascades.
• Level 500 is the second level to be an exact hundred and was an episode finale. The first was level 200. Interestingly, people thought Level 200 would be the last level and incredibly hard, when actually it is quite easy. Both were ingredients levels. The difference is this level is a lot harder.
• This is one of those levels, like the original level 147 and level 181, which look easy but are actually very difficult.
• Many people thought this level would be a jelly level due to the pattern of level finales. Levels like 350 (the hardest in the game before it was nerfed), 380, 410, 440 and 470 were all difficult jelly finales (every other finale), and the ones in between being candy order levels. However, when level 485 turned out to be jelly instead of candy order, people began to suspect level 500 would not be a jelly level, as it turned out not to be.
• There was a poll before the release of this level to vote on the predicted level type. About 70% of people voted "Jelly".
• Many people thought that it would be the last level ever, as there was a ten week gap between this level's release and the next episode, Ice Cream Caves. The record-breaking gap was the reason for this belief.
• Before this level was nerfed, it had 65 moves, which was previously the most amount of moves in a level in the game. This record has since been broken with level 666 having 66 moves which in turn is broken by level 696 having 75 moves.
• This is a milestone level.
Celebrating The MilestoneEdit
Main article: Dreamworld
To celebrate the release of this level, King created Dreamworld, a separate saga where each level is similar to its reality counterpart but Odus the owl is balancing on the Moon Scale and collecting certain candy colours will make him fall off and lose a life, but after a certain number of moves, Odus activates Moon Struck where the number of candy colours is reduced to four (from either five or six) for a certain number of moves.
Dreamworld was released on November 27, 2013, which was many weeks after the release of Level 500, although King has stated that Dreamworld was dedicated to the release of 500 levels.
Unlike level 200, which had Sweet Surprise, there was not a celebratory episode for it, for the episode containing levels 501-515 is Ice Cream Caves. However, most would consider Dreamworld is a much bigger element to the game.
Candy Crush Saga Level 500 walkthrough (no boosters)02:21
Candy Crush Saga Level 500 walkthrough (no boosters)
Candy Crush Saga Level 500 IMPOSSIBLE LEVEL BEAT!06:06
Candy Crush Saga Level 500 IMPOSSIBLE LEVEL BEAT!
Reality Levels
World Six (441-530)
Butterscotch Boulders
Sugary Shire
Cherry Chateau
Meringue Moor
Ice Cream Caves
Sour Salon
Start a Discussion Discussions about Level 500
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Out of the mouths of babes
Rainbow made a home visit this afternoon. Sure enough, Dolly bounced right up to her (twirling her big long braid around) and announced, "I want to be an Eldridge!" Rainbow looked at her kind of funny. (Dolly doesn't enunciate well when she's excited!) Dolly continued bouncing and chanting, "I want to be an Eldridge!"
Then....then she went on.
"I want to be an Eldridge. I want to play out front. I want to go over to my friends' houses. I want to be an Eldridge!!"
Oh crap.
Rainbow is slightly concerned that if the children announce what would be different after adoption that it will look like I'm trying to talk them in to this.
She's probably right.
But dammit! It's the truth. I'm not allowed to let my kids play in the front yard unless I'm sitting RIGHT THERE with them. Let's just say I've got better things to do with my time than sit around in my front yard doing nothing. (My back yard has balls, a small basketball hoop, hula hoops, a scooter, a swing set and a sand box so it's not like I'm torturing them in the back yard.) And my kids aren't allowed to play over at anyone's house unless all of the adults have passed a full background check. I'm not in a place to require my entire neighborhood to submit themselves to that.
But wouldn't ya know it?! I said that stuff to Dolly ONE TIME. Only once did I tell her that things would be different after she became an Eldridge. We've talked that there would be no more social workers, lawyers, or judges. But only once did I say that other stuff.
I hate the chess game that IS this intervention. I can't wait until all the parties playing the game know I'm involved now too!!
I did coach the cherubs a bit at dinner tonight. I told them that I want the LAWYER to tell Minnie they want to Eldridges. I said it's a surprise and eventually everyone will know. But right now, I need the lawyer to tell Minnie.
MamaFoster said...
lol nice. :) oh well
POWmom01 said...
Dolly is so smart. She seems VERY much aware of everything going on. | <urn:uuid:fd4f3f5b-e655-4c70-9c19-14177440bc76> | http://cherubmamma.blogspot.com/2013/05/out-of-mouths-of-babes.html | en | 0.981903 | 0.026739 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
HOME > Chowhound > Spain/Portugal >
Jul 30, 2008 11:56 AM
Madrid in 3 days with baby and no Spanish: help!
Hi, I've searched this board for Madrid chowhounding tips and am now very excited about my trip there in late November. But I have a few problems: my husband and I will be traveling with a 15 month old baby, and we speak virtually no Spanish. Even reading articles on eating in Madrid, I can't pronounce many of the dishes that I would like to try.
So, I would be grateful if anyone could advise on the following:
(1) Should I definitely try and pick up some rudimentary Spanish before the trip? Will it be a complete nightmare to try and get by without it?
(2) Do Madrid tapas bars frown upon babies? Would an evening tapas crawl be impossible with a baby in tow?
(3) Any suggestions for eating in Madrid with a baby but not getting sucked into tourist trap and sterile family-friendly options?
We are staying in central Madrid, near the 3 big museums and will be spending a lot of time in the museums in the day.
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1. Hey medgirl,
We've been to Spain a few years ago, Madrid-Pamplona-San Sebastian-Pyrenees-Madrid. My wife and I, our two friends and their 6 year old daughter. Just my thoughts...
I'm not comparing a 6 year old with a 15 month old, but I will say having a child along did not cramp our style. We did tapa crawls, bars, etc, and no one even blinked at the young girl.
I was the only one in the group with basic Spanish. This came in handy in non-tourist situations like getting specific tickets @ train station and such. In places frequently visited by travellers, like the museum, like most restaurants, like taxi drivers, English is at least understood, so it shouldn't be a complete nightmare, maybe just a couple of bad dreams ;-)
As for tapas bars, most every dish is on display and a simple point & nod will get you what you want. Or point to someone's glass of wine or get the idea. Don't forget, Spain is the second most visited country in the world, so travellers are not uncommon.
Like I suggest to anyone with similar questions, at least learn some basices; good morning, good afternoon, good evening (standard greetings to anyone), please, thank-you, happy to meet you, how much, do you speak English, etc. It goes a long way.
As for not getting sucked into a tourist trap, do some research before you go and decide on some of the highlights you would like to visit (perhaps breakfast in Plaza Mayor, dinner at Botin, etc) and let the wind carry you at other times...
3 Replies
1. re: porker
Thanks! Will start learning some basic Spanish to enhance the experience. Glad to hear the 6 year old was well-received generally. I've heard countries like Spain and Italy are quite child-friendly but tapas crawls in the evening sounded like something maybe kids are not really meant to be part of. Thanks again for sharing your experience.
1. re: medgirl
Hi medgirl--I have a six year old who has grown up in Madrid. Kids are welcome nearly everywhere at almost any time--but--a kid who isn't used to eating standing up in a big crowd late at night (10-12ish) might not do so great tapas hopping (remember, Spanish kids have had years of training). Luckily in the summer, there are terrazas (outdoor cafes serving food) in plazas all over the city. If your 15 month old is a good stroller-sleeper, you can linger on long into the night and no one will blink an eye. Kids stay up quite late in the summer, because it is so hot during the day. If you are going to be here the second week of August (until the 15th) there are huge street parties (verbenas) in the center of the city that are fun for kids--also puppet shows in the Retiro in the evening (10pm!) on the weekends. If you are going to be here at the end of August most of Madrid will be you won't have to contend with any crowds.
1. re: butterfly
Alas, we are going in winter (end-November). But if it turns out to be a great trip, we may return the next summer!
2. Oops, the title should have read: Madrid for 3 days, not in 3 days.
1. I've seen plenty of babies out 'til midinight in restaurants in Madrid. Obviously you're not going to go the 3-star megabuck venues, and most other restos in Madrid are family restaurants. As for tapas bars, I don't know if they've banned smoking, but I would think that would be your biggest concern.
Bocaito is well known to visitors to Madrid for their tapas, but it is still far from being a tourist trap. It has the great virtue of offering sit down tables and menus to order tapas. If you have a baby in tow, you might find one of their booths really much better than trying to elbow your way to the bar and point. Besides, their food is really excellent. Really good.
My main recommendation to you is that you focus on learning Spanish pronunciation, first and foremost.. I live in Italy most of the time, and sometimes when I listen to English speakers talk in Italian, it is impossible to understand them, even when they know the Italian grammar and the vocabulary. Too often English speakers only learn the words, not how to correctly voice the sounds. It's more important you know how to pronounce tortilla or chorizo than it is to know how to say "I would like to have...."
5 Replies
1. re: summerUWS2008
Thanks for this. I have requested a colleague to teach me some rudimentary Spanish and more importantly, make me practice speaking it with her. Bocaito looks like the sort of place we could do with a baby. The smoking is something I didn't consider: it's banned in all restaurants/bars in the UK and I completely forgot other places in Europe probably still allow it.
1. re: medgirl
I forgot about the smoking.
I'm going back a few years, but landing in the Madrid airport, the cigarette smoke was sooo thick, you could've cut it.
Stop in the bank, each teller had their own ashtray with a cigarette going.
Stop in the pharmacy and its the same thing, the woman in the white pharmacist smock is speaking through squinting eyes 'cause of her cigarette smoke.
Reminded me of home (Canada) in the 70s!
1. re: porker
It's just possible that Spain or Madrid in particular has gone the way of the rest of most of Europe on this and bans smoking indoors.
1. re: summerUWS2008
Large bars and restaurants, larger than 1000 sq. ft. of public area, may have a smoking area which complies with certain standards for ventilation, etc. Smaller places can either be smoking or non-smoking as the owner chooses and a visible sign will be posted to indicate if smoking is permitted or not. I know that there are some restrictions on taking children into places in which smoking is permitted but I don't know exactly what they are.
1. re: kathinmadrid
The days of bank tellers smoking, smoking on the metro, etc. are over. A law went into effect (two years ago or so) that finally put the kibosh on that and it has been for the most part respected. But restaurants and bars still allow smoking--though as Kath says, those over a certain size are supposed to provide a smoke-free, ventilated alternative--most don't... it's just not being enforced (one spot that actually does is the cafe/video store Diurno in Chueca). If there is a non-smoking section, kids are supposed to be seated there--they are not prohibited from entering any kind of establishment.
2. By the way, the Thyssen has a good eatery in its basement, and a lovely place for lunch or a coffee break in your area is the cafe in the Circulo de Bellas Artes
The cafe area is as sophisticated as the rest of the historic space, so you might want to eyeball it or ask if it's OK to bring the baby. But it's a lovely piece of architecture, so you won't regret poking your head in.
5 Replies
1. re: summerUWS2008
A long time has passed since summer UWS posted his/her comment but I hope someone can answer my follow up.
I went to the web site and located the page with the schematic of the Edifico Circulo Bellas Artes. Looking at the list of rooms/businesses, the only place that might qualify as the cafe mentioned is the Cafeteria Pecera. Is this what you meant?
If not, what is the name/location of the above cafe or any other good places for lunch after a visit to Thyssen-B?
1. re: Indy 67
The website that you found is the correct location of Cafe del Circulo Bellas Artes. It is on c/Alcala, just past the junction of Gran Via. It has a beautiful cafe on the ground floor with a terrace on c/Alcala which is great for people watching. La Pecera is another name for it. It is a good 30 minute walk from the Thyssen.
There are many good places near the museum, especially on c/Huertas and around Pl. Jesus...Cerveceria Cervantes, Taberna de Dolores, Maceiras, El Temparanillo and branches of Museo de Jamon.
1. re: PBSF
El Círculo de Bellas Artes is very close to the Thyssen--just a 5-10 minute walk at the most.... Though it's a cafetería in the Spanish sense (a coffeeshop/bar) more a place for coffee, drinks, a light morning/afternoon snack. A great place to just hang out and linger (you have to pay a euro to get into the Círculo for the privilege). If you are looking for light snacks/tapas with wine, I like these two spots that are right next door to one another on calle León: González (number 12) and Artesanía Ibérica Jamón (10). Neither is a restaurant, per se, the first is a deli with a particularly good cheese and wine selection and tables; the second strictly offers ham (good stuff) with very limited seating.
1. re: butterfly
You are correct that El Circulo Bellas Artes is a short walk from the Thyssen. I mistakenly thought the museum was further down the Paseo del Prado and closer to Atrocha.
2. re: Indy 67
The Thyssen restaurant itself offers a decent menu del dia at a reasonable price. I've eaten there several times and like it quite a lot, and it's convenient if you want a break in between spells of viewing the enormous and excellent collection and don't want to go out.
I agree with all PBSF's recommendations, especially Cerveceria Cervantes: wonderful tostadas and gambas al ajillo. At 9 calle del amor de dios, a little further on but still walking distance, is a good little restaurant whose name alas escapes me- but I'll post it if I can remember it or maybe someone else can help. Cheap, good home cooking, always packed with local people.
If you are heading to the Reina Sofia, the El Brillante is a good place for a quick snack: good bocadillos.
2. Bar Museo, very close the the Prado, is a nice small cafe. One half is a stand up tapas bar, the other is table service. All casual and pretty classy. The food was very good. Their bread is much better than most places- very artisanal, more handmade and crusty than the usual white loaves that are served with tapas. We had a great little sandwiches with egg and roasted pepper, toast with tomatoes and olive oil. We also enjoyed excellent tapas with fish at Taberna de Dolores. We followed and liked a lot of Rick Steves recs: | <urn:uuid:c95b145e-c8d7-49a0-90c9-056b64839a97> | http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/543970 | en | 0.958551 | 0.064313 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
HOME > Chowhound > Manhattan >
Oct 20, 2012 01:03 PM
dress code for peking duck house,
Does anyone know the dress code for the Peking duck house, E. 53red St NYC. Or if these isn't any, what is appropriate?
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1. i'd say as long as you avoid tank tops or t-shirts and shorts, you'll be fine. i've gone in jeans with a nice top and not felt out of place.
1. Eaten there a couple of times in shorts, sandals and collar-less t-shirts and both times were served the same as any other non-Chinatown Chinese restaurant in the city. No complaints with the service.
1. As long as you don't stroll in there nude you should be fine
1. No shirt, no service.
2 Replies
1. re: Duppie
Ok, I get the picture...LOL....thanks
1. re: RalphM1960
The manager/greeter/maitre'd sometimes wear a suit/tuxedo. Don't let that throw you off.
2. I've eaten there with a sports jacket for business and have gone in golf shirt and jeans. No problem either way. Because of its location you will see a lot of suits there, but it won't be a problem, they will take your money even if you are in jeans | <urn:uuid:c3901967-6cb8-4a47-9fe9-0d2b40a94a76> | http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/874380 | en | 0.953596 | 0.459284 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm taking a crypto class this semester and after learning the definition of a perfect cipher. I started wondering how this definition applies to AES.
Obviously AES isn't a perfect cipher, since the key length is only 256 bit at the maximum. But when talking about messages of sizes 128 bits to 256 bits, can one claim that AES is a perfect cipher?
Meaning, how can I prove that $\mathbb P(P|C) = \mathbb P(P)$, where $P$ is plaintext and $C$ is ciphertext ($\mathbb P(x)$ is probability of $x$)?
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
Short version: I don't think AES restricted to key-size messages is a perfect cipher, and I'm quite sure it can't be proven without breaking AES.
Long version:
A perfect cipher means that an attacker has the same chance to guess the plaintext if he has the ciphertext or he has no ciphertext at all, i.e. the ciphertext gives no information to someone who doesn't have the key (even with infinite computation resources).
AES itself is a 128-bit block cipher. To use it for longer messages, you need a mode of operation, and the probabilities in this statement will likely depend on the chosen mode. To avoid the complications, let's assume we have a 128 bit message encrypted with ECB mode (i.e. directly application of the block cipher), and the key is not reused for any other message.
$\newcommand\Enc{\operatorname{Enc}}\newcommand\P{\mathbb P}$Then we have a probability distribution $\P$ of the plaintext $P$ (this distribution is assumed to be known to the attacker), and on the (secret) key $K$ (which is assumed to be a uniform distribution). This induces a probability distribution of the ciphertext $C = \Enc_K(P)$ by $$\P(c=C) = \sum_{k} \P( K = k \text{ and } \Enc_k(P) = c) = \frac{1}{2^\text{key size}} \sum_k \P(\Enc_k(P) = c)$$ The conditional probability $\P(P=p|C=c)$ is defined as $$ \P(P=p|C=c) = \dfrac{\P(P = p \text{ and } C = c)}{\P(C = c) },$$ and for a perfect cipher we want that this is equal to $\P(P=p)$ for all $c$ and $p$.
In effect, this means at least that for each pair of 128-bit-blocks $(c, p)$ there must be an equal number of keys $k$ with $\Enc_k(p) = c$. With 128-bit keys, this would mean that each key maps a given plaintext on a different ciphertext, and all ciphertext blocks can be hit this way.
While this sounds like a reasonable property for a block cipher, it is also one which looks like quite hard to prove. I assume proving this could actually provide a way to retrieve the key in a known-plaintext attack, which would mean that AES is broken for all practical uses (with more than one use of each key).
(This is similar for the one-time pad: correctly used, it is a prefect cipher, but using the same key twice, it is totally broken.)
AES doesn't look like easily broken, so we can assume that this is not possible.
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Your Answer
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Sally Kern Fears for her life because of mean gays…
Oh honey girl shit face, let me say two things that should ease your mind. First off, anyone with the amount of hate toward gays as you have or any group for that matter, out there on the front line whipping your diarrhea mouth comments through a fan, should be scared. It just goes with the territory. However us “terrorist gays” do not act like the same pigs you and your cohorts do. No gay is going to trade their Prada & Armani fall wardrobes (those are fashion designers) for prison blues in order to kill a peace of scumbag trash like yourself. You are simply NOT that important. Quite honestly irrelevant.
Shit Kern-al was on Wallbuilders Live with host David Anti-gay bitch Barton and related how “fear gripped her body” when she realized all the angry hat mail she gets from gays.
1. Jim Hlavac
Jim Hlavac10-13-2011
They call us “Militants” and “Jihadis” daily, and we have yet to so much as pack a pistol in our Speedos — I mean, really, we gays are the most gun shy people I’ve ever encountered. Pacifists and peaceniks are more violent than us, for heaven’s sake. Why, not a gay parade ever was violent. What are we going to do, tickle her to death?
Meanwhile, she is telling all her gay constituents that they are “evil” “sick” and “disgusting” and such, and she wonders why some gay folks tell her to go to hell? Are we not entitled to redress our grievances? And she does give cause for grief indeed. And why has she not turned over any of these “Death threats” to the local police there, or to the FBI or somebody? Do these people really believe this? Are they this out of their minds? Apparently so, apparently so. I pity the poor woman, and do hope she gets the counseling she needs.
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:104e8ada-1987-41e7-a84f-50cd6670dac8> | http://izzoiz.com/2011/10/sally-kern-fears-for-her-life-because-of-mean-gays/ | en | 0.956384 | 0.023724 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
suddenlink communications
The company that runs the St. Louis-based cable provider Suddenlink Communications has agreed to sell itself to its management and other investors who will invest about $2 billion in the company.
Investors BC Partners and the Canada pension plan's CPP Investment Board are joining with Suddenlink managers including Chairman and CEO Jerry Kent in the deal to buy Cequel Communications Holdings L.L.C.
Cequel's previous ownership group included Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Quadrangle and Oaktree Capital Management. The deal values the company at $6.6 billion, including debt. | <urn:uuid:808b04e1-3a7c-4664-a1ff-4b0fcb19c5db> | http://kbia.org/term/suddenlink-communications | en | 0.934604 | 0.031012 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
It is in the blood
I grew up in my grandfather?s house, along with my family and my four aunts. The eastern suburbs of Brisbane, in the 'sixties. It was rugby league heartland. It was one of those old weatherboard houses on "stilts"; I slept in a room that was converted from the old front verandah.
It was a very full house. I remember watching the old black and white television ? the Mickey Mouse Club and the Flintstones were favourites. All of my aunts were young, beautiful and unmarried, and they covered their dressing table mirrors with Beatles stickers. It was a wonderful childhood, with so many people paying attention to the first of the new generation. Apart from parents, aunts love the new children in the family almost more than anyone.
But none more than my grandfather. I remember sitting on his lap on his rocking chair while he told me stories, and football was a favourite topic. Our household was an Eastern Suburbs Tigers household.
My grandfather played for Coorparoo, the club that was eventually transformed into the Easts Tigers. He used to tell me repeatedly how they would ?have to win the fight on the field? against the opposition before they could win the game. Then they would have to "win the fight all over again after the game behind the dressing sheds". If the team played away, they would not only have to fight the other team after the match? they would have to "fight their way through the opposition supporters" to the truck that would take them home.
When I was a child, the Easts Tigers were my grandfather?s life. It was my uncle?s life as well. He played for Easts and then he became a coach for Easts in the junior grades. It now seems like a blur. I can?t remember the timelines and all the details? I keep getting told about how I was taken to my first ever football game, at the age of six months. It was at Davies Park in South Brisbane ? Easts versus Souths in a lower grade match - and my mother keeps telling me how I got thrown from player to player on my uncle?s team after the match.
In another blur of childhood, my aunts, one by one, seemed to marry footballers. I loved them and my heart broke as they moved out, but my uncles were Tigers, some more prominent than others, but they were part of the Tigers family no matter what.
My earliest memories are of my grandfather going down to the Stones Corner pub every Saturday morning, selling chook raffle tickets for the Easts Juniors. He was a football manager in those days, and the Easts junior team he managed in 1964 presented him with a rocking chair. It was there as long as I can remember, in the corner of my ?room?. My uncle got exactly the same chair in the same year, as coach of the team.
My family moved out of my grandfather?s house when I was nearly seven years old. A few years later, I remember a day at Lang Park, when my uncle was the coach of the Easts reserve grade team. They won the Grand Final that day, and our whole family was in tears. There was nothing better. Football was our lives and winning the Grand Final was the ultimate. It didn?t matter that it was reserves. We lived and breathed Easts.
Today, in 2005, the Tigers are still living and breathing. Some of the clubs of my childhood are not - the Valley Diehards, Brothers - and no longer compete in what is now the Queensland Cup. But I moved away from Brisbane long ago. I moved to Canberra in the year that the Raiders were established. I have a passion for a team that didn?t exist when my grandfather fought his way home after an away game decades years earlier. He passed on the year before I left Brisbane.
I still remember what he told me as a kid, sitting in that rocking chair: "Football. It is in the blood."
The rocking chair was left to me in my grandfather?s will. It sits in the corner of my study, a proud memento of my childhood. The tarnished silver plaque can still be read: ?To Reg. From Easts Under 18. 1964.? A journey from the Tigers to the Raiders, that chair will always represent the development of my love for rugby league.
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[Bug 4719] [FT] editorial: 3.7 Ignore Option
From: <bugzilla@wiggum.w3.org>
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:49:39 +0000
To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Message-Id: <E1JQKbz-0001p7-IR@wiggum.w3.org>
jmdyck@ibiblio.org changed:
What |Removed |Added
Status|RESOLVED |REOPENED
Resolution|FIXED |
------- Comment #3 from jmdyck@ibiblio.org 2008-02-16 10:49 -------
(In reply to comment #2)
> Fixed, as part of fixes to 4728 or as editorial changes as suggested.
The phrases
each item Ni (i=1..k)
If Ni is not a node,
indicate that it doesn't have to be a node, so in the phrase
let N1, N2, ..., Nk be the sequence of nodes that UnionExpr evaluates to
"nodes" should presumably be changed to "items".
Note that you could say something like
let N1, N2, ..., Nk be the nodes in the sequence of items
that UnionExpr evaluates to
and then subsequently know that Ni is a node.
"omits each item Ni (i=1..k) that is not Ij"
The "that is not Ij" part doesn't agree with fts:reconstruct.
I think fts:reconstruct's interpretation is less surprising.
"If Ni is not a node, it is ignored, as "is" does not apply to non-nodes."
The second part is kind of a non-sequitur. I'm guessing you're talking
about XQuery's "is" operator, but there isn't a use of it nearby. And
even if there were, it wouldn't really explain much. I suggest just
ending the sentence at "is ignored".
> Point [1] was considered at F2F 2008-01-24 and we declined to do so, on the
> grounds that FTIgnoreOption is not a core feature.
Hm. Well, looking at 5.2.13 and 5.2.14, it seems that FTIgnoreOption and
Scoring are about equivalent in their core-ness, but that doesn't prevent 2.3
Score Variables from being close to section 2.2.
Look at it this way: syntactically, FTIgnoreOption is not part of FTSelection,
it's part of FTContainsExpr. So [3.7 Ignore Option] doesn't belong in [3
Full-Text Selections], it belongs in [2.2 Full-Text Contains Expression].
Received on Saturday, 16 February 2008 10:49:46 UTC
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Topic: negative * negative
Replies: 11 Last Post: Apr 5, 1996 6:02 PM
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W Gary Martin
Posts: 80
Registered: 12/6/04
RE: negative * negative
Posted: Apr 2, 1996 12:26 PM
A critical question has been lurking behind a couple questions that
people have raised. Before we talk about multiplying integers, we must
have some understanding of what an integer is. We act as if this is a
trivial, obvious idea, but it is most certainly not! Witness the
historical controversy in an earlier post by my good friend John Owens.
To get really technical, an integer is an ordered pair of whole numbers,
where (a,b) is equivalent to (c,d) iff a + c = b + d. Now I am not
advocating teaching middle school students using set theory, but the point
is that an integer is a RELATIONSHIP between two whole numbers. That's
why they are so difficult. [Side note: Ditto for rational numbers.]
From a mathematical point of view: We generally name an integer using
the representative of its class so that one of the whole numbers is 0,
that is in relationship to zero. So for example, if a>b, then (a,b) =
(a-b,0); which we can consider a positive number. If a<b, then (a,b) =
(0,b-a); a negative. [Remember: the ordered pairs must be whole numbers.]
Thus, when we teach integers on the number line, we are really saying that
an integer is the displacement above or below zero, which is the same as
the displacement between other pairs of whole numbers. So, -3 = (0,3) =
(1,4) = (2,5) ... When we use money, -3 is the change that occurs when we
go from $5 to $2 or from $4 to $1 or from $3 to broke.
When we try to apply operations to integers, things get strange because
we think of operations in terms of whole numbers. Now we are applying
them to RELATIONSHIPS between whole numbers.
Adding is not bad -- join together displacements (as on the number
line). It feels right, much like joining whole numbers (but not the same).
For -3 + -4, we move 3 units to the left, then 4 more units to the left,
for a total of 7 units to the left. [Note: Hitting on the point named -7
is just a shortcut for saying that you ended up 7 units to the left of
where you started from, assuming that you started at 0. If you started at
1, you would end up at -6, which still is the right answer; i.e., a
displacement of 7 units from where you started. An integer is NOT a
Subtracting is manageable -- it is the inverse of addition, so displace
in the opposite direction. This is analogous to take away with whole
The real problem comes with multiplication. There is a trap, because
when we multiply by a whole number, we can think of this as repeated
addition. BUT this is not integer multiplication! This is whole number
multiplication. While the whole number a is related to the integer +a or
(a,0) but IS NOT THE SAME, because an integer is a relationship between
two whole numbers.
Thus, if multiplying by a negative does not seem to flow nicely from
previous ideas of multiplication, there is a reason. We need to add in the
idea of displacement. If we take multiplying by a positive to be like
whole number multiplication, then multiplying by a negative must have the
opposite effect.
SUMMARY: There is a reason that integer multiplication is hard to
explain. Take plenty of time to develop integers so that the students have
a chance to figure out how they work. IT IS NOT OBVIOUS!
PS: This does not mean I know how to do teach this! Just that I believe
it is much harder than we often act. :)
Gary Martin
Univ. of Hawaii
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Is there a way in Python to determine if an object has some attribute? For example:
>>> a = SomeClass()
>>> a.someProperty = value
>>> a.property
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: SomeClass instance has no attribute 'property'
How can you tell if a has the attribute property before using it?
share|improve this question
6 Answers 6
up vote 674 down vote accepted
Try hasattr():
if hasattr(a, 'property'):
EDIT: See zweiterlinde's answer below, who offers good advice about asking forgiveness! A very pythonic approach!
The general practice in python is that, if the property is likely to be there most of the time, simply call it and either let the exception propagate, or trap it with a try/except block. This will likely be faster than hasattr. If the property is likely to not be there most of the time, or you're not sure, using hasattr will probably be faster than repeatedly falling into an exception block.
share|improve this answer
Seems to be working for checking for functions in namespace as well, e.g.: import string hasattr(string, "lower") – riviera Apr 8 '11 at 12:54
hasattr is exactly the same as using try/except AttributeError: the docstring of hasattr (in Python 2.7) says that it uses getattr hand catches exceptions. – Jeff Tratner Apr 27 '12 at 3:04
I think the most obvious use case has nothing to do with forgiveness and is "initialise it if it's not there" for lazy initialisation. Co-location of initialisation and use in the source is often better than initialising in one place and using in another. – Evgeni Sergeev Dec 19 '12 at 12:51
@JeffTratner: hasattr is unfortunately not exactly the same as a try: ... except AttributeError: in Python 2.x since hasattr will catch all exception. Please see my answer for an example and a simple workaround. – Martin Geisler Apr 24 '13 at 7:44
@MartinGeisler Good point - it's not the same as it catches all exceptions. Not sure which version is more correct--really depends on the assumptions you're working under and who's calling your function. Thanks for clarifying. – Jeff Tratner Apr 25 '13 at 15:47
As Jarret Hardie answered, hasattr will do the trick. I would like to add, though, that many in the Python community recommend a strategy of "easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" (EAFP) rather than "look before you leap" (LBYL). See these references:
EAFP vs LBYL (was Re: A little disappointed so far)
EAFP vs. LBYL @Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python
except AttributeError:
... is preferred to:
if hasattr(a, 'property'):
share|improve this answer
But how do you check that it was the a.property that caused AttributeError, and not something in doStuff()? It seems you don't. I think it is really easier to ask for forgiveness, but many times, it's also incorrect. – jpalecek Apr 14 '09 at 13:22
EAFP seems ... insane. HasAttr telegraphs to future maintance programmers that you are checking for a particular attribute. Getting an exception tells future programmers nothing and could lead someone down the rabbit hole. – Ethan Heilman Oct 14 '10 at 18:54
@e5: you have a fair point in this case, but in many cases EAFP is the only correct option. For example, if you check the existence of a file and then open it, expecting that it will definitely exist, your code is incorrect: the file may be deleted or renamed between the check and the use. This is called a TOCTOU error (Time-Of-Check-To-Time-Of-Use) and besides causing crashes can also be a source of security vulnerabilities. – Max Jun 1 '11 at 13:08
@EthanHeilman it's only insane when there is ambiguity in the source of the exception, which can be avoided with good design in most cases. Well-layered structuring of logic within try / except / finally generally makes for more robust (less programmer error prone) logic than littering the code with preemptive if-checks for each piece of consuming code. Makes errors very explicit also, and allows consuming programmers the option of dealing with them directly. – Peter M. Elias Jan 2 '13 at 16:23
Most of the ambiguity complaints here are simply because the sample code is poorly structured. The only thing inside the try: should be the attempted attribute access; there's no reason to wrap the execution of doStuff as well. There still is some potential for ambiguity though: if property is a computed property instead of a plain attribute, its implementation could raise AttributeError internally. This is why in almost all real situations like this, getattr is preferable to either hasattr or catching AttributeError. – Carl Meyer Sep 24 '13 at 20:21
You can use hasattr() or catch AttributeError, but if you really just want the value of the attribute with a default if it isn't there, the best option is just to use getattr():
getattr(a, 'property', 'default value')
share|improve this answer
This solves both aforementioned problems: a) The ambiguity of the source of a possible AttributeError, b) Preserving the EAFP approach. – Peter M. Elias Jan 2 '13 at 16:17
It's also 25% of the lines of code. Surely this has to be the best solution. – fatuhoku Sep 24 '13 at 11:36
Definitely the best solution. The default works magic. – fantabolous Apr 30 '14 at 15:20
Why isn't this the top solution? – BlueTrin Aug 26 at 8:22
I think what you are looking for is hasattr. However, I'd recommend something like this if you want to detect python properties-
getattr(someObject, 'someProperty')
except AttributeError:
print "Doesn't exist"
print "Exists"
The disadvantage here is that attribute errors in the properties __get__ code are also caught.
Otherwise, do-
if hasattr(someObject, 'someProp'):
#Access someProp/ set someProp
The reason for my recommendation is that hasattr doesn't detect properties.
share|improve this answer
so, your advice is don't you buil-in - implement it! – SilentGhost Mar 4 '09 at 14:57
Well, not exactly, don't use the built-in IFF you want to detect properties. Otherwise hasattr is perfectly good. – batbrat Mar 4 '09 at 15:01
According to pydoc, hasattr(obj, prop) simply calls getattr(obj, prop) and catches exceptions. So, it is just as valid to wrap the attribute access with a try statement and catch AttributeError as it is to use hasattr() beforehand.
a = SomeClass()
return a.fake_prop
except AttributeError:
return default_value
share|improve this answer
Well hasattr actually may be optimized. E.g. with pypy. – Velmont Aug 18 '11 at 17:37
+1. This is even safer than using hasattr when SomeClass overrides __getattr__ since hasattr will catch all exceptions in Python 2.x, not just AttributeError like you would expect. This was fixed in Python 3.2 — please see my other answer for a simple workaround. – Martin Geisler Apr 24 '13 at 7:47
Depending on the situation you can check with isinstance what kind of object you have, and then use the corresponding attributes. With the introduction of abstract base classes in Python 2.6/3.0 this approach has also become much more powerful (basically ABCs allow for a more sophisticated way of duck typing).
One situation were this is useful would be if two different objects have an attribute with the same name, but with different meaning. Using only hasattr might then lead to strange errors.
One nice example is the distinction between iterators and iterables (see this question). The __iter__ methods in an iterator and an iterable have the same name but are semantically quite different! So hasattr is useless, but isinstance together with ABC's provides a clean solution.
However, I agree that in most situations the hasattr approach (described in other answers) is the most appropriate solution.
share|improve this answer
protected by Marco A. May 14 at 14:26
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am seeking excellent examples of Ruby DSLs (Domain Specific Languages). Which repositories, projects do you know of that are worth a read? Why is it (or: are they) great examples?
I am particularly interested in more complex examples that are well thought-out and designed.
share|improve this question
6 Answers 6
Rake and Rack are some good examples of DSL's. If you want some more examples, check these out:
• Sinatra is a very popular DSL for building web applications, and it's open source on GitHub.
• Twibot is a newer DSL inspired by Sinatra that lets you create Twitter bots that automatically respond to messages and replies.
If you want to get started on making your own, here's an excellent tutorial called Building a DSL in Ruby.
share|improve this answer
Twibot is an interesting find I'll look at. Thanks! – Demi May 22 '09 at 20:28
Another example, of course, is Rake, the Ruby build system. What makes a DSL "good" in my opinion:
1. Notation conforms to meaning, i.e. if you read a sentence (statement) in the DSL, you have a clear, unambiguous idea of what it does.
2. Domain-specific, i.e. the DSL does not solve every problem in the universe but rather focuses on one little domain (such as building software, querying data, or contructing UIs)
3. High-level of abstraction. A DSL uses high-level concepts that the programmer can use, and translates those to a lower-level implementation (internally). In the case of Rake the main concept the language is based on are tasks and dependencies between them.
share|improve this answer
In the area of Behaviour-Driven Development you can check out:
• Cucumber - Describe BDD using scenarios
• RSpec - Replace testing code with specifying behaviours.
Though I have to admit the RSpec code leaves me scratching my head sometimes because I'm still very much a novice.
share|improve this answer
Have you checked out the Docile gem, it may be the easiest and cleanest way to meet your needs?
share|improve this answer
Some good ruby DSLs I can think of are hpricot and sinatra
share|improve this answer
The structure of sinatra is really nice. Had heard about it but not looked at it. Thanks for the reminder. – Demi May 22 '09 at 20:31
Ruby on Rails' Active Record is a DSL!
Also this episode of code school might be interesting as it leads up to building a DSL (where I learned Active Record was a DSL)
The above course also talks about external and internal DSLs. Cucumber is an example of an external DSL where you need to build a parser and compiler, etc. Active Record is an example of an Internal DSL that runs inside some existing code.
share|improve this answer
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Monday, January 31, 2011
Another voice against the unnecessary costs of high-speed rail
Last week I wrote a post wondering why some politicians, like our President, have an obsession with high-speed rail.
As my blog feeds to my Facebook page, we had a good discussion there about the concept, the funding and the alternatives.
Today, I came across Wendell Cox, writing in National Review, agreeing with me that high-speed rail is a budget-buster. He writes:
If the nation is going to reduce its out-of-control spending, the first step is to stop spending money on things we do not need. Despite President Obama’s call in his State of the Union speech for linking 80 percent of the nation by high-speed rail, it is hard to imagine a more unnecessary program.
Cox provides details on cost overruns (as common as 80% and, in some countries, more than 200%), and environmental claims. I hope you'll take the time to read the entire article.
1 comment:
Chuck Greer said...
Maggie, The politicos think this is a "good idea" because it plays well with the progressive crowd. I mean, what sounds better that getting people from one place to another fast? It saves all that Big Oil, dontchaknow? Its the government doing what it should to get big things done, big ideas, great stuff. Only, like Amtrac, it depends on the government for its very survival. If it were such a great thing, the private sector would do it...but they don't, and that's the most telling part of the story.
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Syrian Security Forces Kill 2 Anti-Regime Protesters
Jul 4, 2011
In Syria, the city of Hama has been the scene of the largest anti-government protests in the country.
Rallies have often been met with armed retaliation by security police. That didn't happen at Friday's mass rally, and the city's governor was fired. There were reports of tanks advancing on the city.
Hama is a sensitive place. Thirty years ago, the Syrian army crushed an Islamist rebellion there, killing tens of thousands.
Now, a new generation is on the streets, demanding democracy.
A Coming Backlash?
Syrian tanks pulled back from entrances of Hama, says Omar al Habbal, a resident and government opponent. He said there were some arrests on the outskirts of his city. But he was on the street again Sunday to join another nighttime rally of anti-government protesters, despite power cuts to Hama.
"People enjoying coming and calling for freedom, we have not been used to that," he says.
For the past three weeks, security forces and the military have stayed outside of the city after clashes in early June. The government says the violence was instigated by armed gangs, but Habbal says Hama's protests have been peaceful all along.
"We don't know why they take decision to shoot the people," he says. "There was a big massacre, around 120 people killed and thousands of injuries."
He says government officials worked to keep the city calm, negotiating settlements with the families of those who died. The head of security was fired, and the governor worked out an agreement that peaceful protests would be permitted in Hama.
"He is good guy. He is educated; he's a doctor in law," Habbal says. "He was acting, playing a cooling way."
But the governor was sacked Saturday and reportedly jailed. The government gave no reason for the dismissal, but it came after the largest anti-government rally in the country. Habbal says that the crowds swelled in Hama because neighboring villagers now join the demonstrations.
But with the dismissal of the governor, who worked to accommodate peaceful protests, and the overnight arrests, many in Hama fear a security backlash is coming.
Habbal believes it's a sign of a split over policy at the highest levels of the Syrian government.
"Sometimes they want to cool up. Some other people maybe they want to fire up. So, I think it's stupid if they do clashes in Hama on wide range," he says. "They might do on small scale, just to reduce and not allow the demonstration to grow bigger and bigger."
Attempts At Dialogue
The events in Hama overshadowed a meeting of government loyalists in Damascus. They gathered in a hotel in the center of the city to urge the government to open a dialogue. They demanded reforms, called for tanks to pull out of Hama and advised the government to negotiate with those who are organizing the protests on the street.
Mohammed Habash, a member of Syria's Parliament, is a government supporter, but he says he is politically independent.
Habash organized the meeting, but kept a close watch on the developments in Hama, as reports reached the capital that tanks had deployed. If there is a renewed crackdown, he believes dialogue will become impossible.
"I believe with this kind of conflict we cannot help government, we cannot help opposition, we cannot help any one," he says. "This kind of meeting, it was very hard one and we find a lot of problems."
Problems that undermined the message of these Syrians trying to find a way out. The meeting was chaotic, despite being sanctioned by the government. A nervous hotel staff cut the electricity and the sound system, and tried to drag participants out before the speeches began.
The group was promoting dialogue, but a fight broke out when one participant shouted that the gathering supported demands of the protesters on the street. He was punched by other members of the group.
Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit | <urn:uuid:eae76014-1666-4ccf-8abb-20b2c080f6b8> | http://weku.fm/post/syrian-security-forces-kill-2-anti-regime-protesters | en | 0.982607 | 0.055163 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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This Day in the Arts: January 20
Italian filmmaker and director Federico Fellini is born in Remini. His films, including La Strada and 8 1/2, often combine dreams, memory, and fantasy.
In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking film shot outdoors, is released.
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Image: Juno
An artist's rendering shows the solar-powered NASA's Juno spacecraft with Jupiter in the background. Each of the solar panels is as big as a tractor-trailer truck.
updated 8/2/2011 10:40:57 PM ET 2011-08-03T02:40:57
NASA's upcoming mission to Jupiter can't get much greener than this: a solar-powered, windmill-shaped spacecraft.
The robotic explorer Juno is set to become the most distant probe ever powered by the sun.
Juno is equipped with three tractor-trailer-size solar panels for its 2 billion-mile (3.2 billion kilometer) journey into the outer solar system. It's due to be launched at 11:34 a.m. ET Friday aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket — barely two weeks after NASA's final space shuttle flight.
The shuttle's demise is giving extra oomph to the $1.1 billion voyage to the largest and probably oldest planet in the solar system. It's the first of three high-profile astronomy missions coming up for NASA in the next four months.
Jupiter — a planet several NASA spacecraft have studied before — is so vast it could hold everything else in the solar system, minus the sun. Scientists hope to learn more about planetary origins through Juno's exploration of the giant gas-filled planet, a body far different from rocky Earth and Mars.
"Look at it this way — it is a new era," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science. "Humans plan to go beyond low-Earth orbit. When we do that, it's not like 'Star Trek.' It's not 'go where no man has gone before.'"
Plunging deeper into space will require robotic scouts first, he said.
Southwest Research Institute astrophysicist Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator, said it's also important for people to realize "NASA's not going out of business."
"If we're going to learn who we are and where we came from, and how the earth works, we've got to keep doing these science missions, not just Juno," Bolton said.
NASA's long-range blueprint would have astronauts reach an asteroid by 2025 and Earth's next-door neighbor Mars a decade later, although there's still uncertainty surrounding the rockets needed for the job. A Juno success would be a good sign for future solar-powered missions of all types.
Jupiter may be just two planets over, but it's far enough away to be considered part of the outer solar system.
It will take Juno five years to reach its target, five times farther from the sun than Earth. No spacecraft has ever ventured so far powered exclusively by solar wings. Europe's solar-powered, comet-chasing Rosetta probe made it as far as the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Image: Juno solar panel
Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., stow one of Juno's solar arrays against the spacecraft's body in preparation for flight. The robotic explorer Juno is set to become the most distant probe powered completely by the sun.
Each of Juno's three wings is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide, necessary given that Jupiter receives 25 times less sunlight than Earth. The panels — folded for launch — emanate from the spacecraft much like the blades of a windmill.
At Jupiter, nearly 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun, Juno's panels will provide 400 watts of power. In orbit around Earth, these panels would generate 35 times as much power.
The choice of solar was a practical one, Bolton said. No plutonium-powered generators were available to him and his San Antonio-based team nearly a decade ago, so they opted for solar panels rather than develop a new nuclear source. They wanted to avoid ballooning costs and possible delays connected with developing new technologies.
"It's nice to be green, but it wasn't because we were afraid of the plutonium," Bolton explained.
Indeed, NASA's six-wheeled, Jeep-size Mars rover named Curiosity, due to launch in late November, will be powered by more than 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of plutonium. Despite safety efforts, there's always the question of public safety if an explosion occurred.
NASA's Grail mission — twin spacecraft to be launched next month to Earth's moon — employs solar panels.
Eight robotic craft already have flown to or near Jupiter and its many moons, as far back as the 1970s: NASA's Voyagers and Pioneers, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and, most recently in 2007, the Pluto-bound New Horizons.
Juno — named after the cloud-piercing wife of Jupiter, the Roman god — will go into an oval-shaped orbit around Jupiter's poles in July 2016, after traveling 1.74 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers).
The craft will fly within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of the dense cloud tops, closer than any previous spacecraft. Any closer, and Juno would feel the tug of the planet's atmosphere, which in turn would alter the spacecraft's orbiting path and hamper its gravity experiment.
The spinning spacecraft will circle the planet for at least a year, beaming back data that should help explain the composition of its mysterious insides. Each orbit will last 11 days, for a total of 33 orbits covering 348 million miles (560 million kilometers).
Nine instruments are on board, including JunoCam, a wide-angle color camera that will beam back images.
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Juno's most sensitive electronics are inside a titanium vault to protect against the incredibly harsh radiation surrounding the planet. The radiation exposure will worsen toward the end of the mission. "We're basically an armored tank going to Jupiter," Bolton said.
Scientists believe Jupiter was formed from most of the leftovers of the sun's creation. That's why it's so intriguing; by identifying the planet's contents, besides hydrogen and helium, astronomers can better explain how the solar system came to be.
"We want to know that ingredient list" for Jupiter, Bolton said. "What we're really after is discovering the recipe for making planets."
For these answers, Juno will study Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields, and turbulent, cloud-socked atmosphere, which can spawn 300 mph (480 kph) wind and hurricanes double the size of Earth. The experiments will investigate the abundance of water, and oxygen, in Jupiter's atmosphere and help determine whether the planet's core is solid or gaseous.
Once its work is done in 2017, Juno will make a kamikaze dive into Jupiter. NASA doesn't want the spacecraft hanging around and crashing into Europa or other moons, possibly contaminating them for future generations of explorers.
Video: Mission to Jupiter
Photos: Jewels from Jupiter
loading photos...
1. Jupiter loses a stripe
2. Family portrait
3. Cratered Callisto
4. Dark face
5. Cloudy weather
6. This is the Spot
7. A big splash on Europa
8. A blast at Io
9. Lava light
10. Crazy quilt
11. A moving moon
1. Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
2. Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
3. Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
4. Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
1. Anthony Wesley via The Planetary Society
Above: Slideshow (11) Jewels of Jupiter
2. Image:
Y. Beletsky / ESO
Slideshow (12) Month in Space: January 2014
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updated 8/8/2013 10:35:42 AM ET 2013-08-08T14:35:42
August 7, 2013
Guests: Steve McMahon, John Brabender, Cynthia Tucker, Dan Balz
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews in Washington.
"Let Me Start" tonight with this. The wild right is readying its attack.
The Ted Cruz wing is about to make its run for an historic takeover of the
party in which it has made its home. Each day, the far right is building
its strength to bring the U.S. government to a halt and confront Republican
leaders in Washington with its ultimatum. Either those worried (ph)
leaders do as they`re told and move to kill Obamacare, even if that means
shutting down the federal government indefinitely, or lease.
Well, the force fueling the angry right is the right-wing base in this
country that dominates these August town hall meetings and now commands the
fears of GOP congressmen far more than anything the weak John Boehner can
say or do or pretend to do or hope to do.
Here`s a town hall meeting held this week by North Carolina congressman
Robert Pittenger. Pay close attention to who`s calling the shots. Does
this guy look anything like John Boehner, even a little?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real quick, easy question. This is what the Tea Party
wants to know. Will you vote with Mike Lee to -- and Meadows here -- to
defund Obamacare? Yes or no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want yes or no.
funded. That`s a fact!
PITTENGER: No, sir. It has to pass the Senate and be signed by the
president of United States.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you make a stand against --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- shut down the government.
PITTENGER: Do you think Harry Reid is going to pass that in the Senate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn`t matter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn`t matter what Harry Reid does. We need to
show the American people we stand for conservative ideas (ph)!
MATTHEWS: Well, I`m joined right now by Democratic strategist Steve
McMahon and Republican strategist John Brabender. John, it`s your party.
Looks like the person in charge there is the loudest voice at the next Tea
Party meeting, not John Boehner. And that`s the direction of your party, I
think. Am I right?
JOHN BRABENDER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you are right because the
Republican Party is a conservative party. It`s why generally conservative
candidates win Republican primaries. It`s the people who have the core
convictions that are at the loudest and show up for things like town hall
meetings. So you`re absolutely right, the passion within the Republican
Party is among the conservatives.
MATTHEWS: So when that congressman out there tried to explain to that
constituent that even though we vote to defund it, it`ll never get repealed
because you`d have to get it repealed through the U.S. Senate, which is
controlled by Democrats, and signed by the president -- making that
rational argument didn`t seem to make much news to that guy who was
challenging him, did it.
BRABENDER: Well, and that does happen. But I will tell you, defunding it,
even if it doesn`t get through the Senate, will actually be good for
Republicans. It`ll probably help them pick up a majority in the Senate
BRABENDER: But if these --
MATTHEWS: How does it change reality?
BRABENDER: Well, it will change reality because it might change the
numbers in the United States Senate. You change the numbers in the United
States Senate and you can change health care forever in this country,
particularly kill a bill that Republicans feel is going to kill jobs --
MATTHEWS: It`s a law. It`s not a bill, it`s a law.
BRABENDER: -- and (INAUDIBLE) freedoms.
MATTHEWS: John, it`s a law. It`s the law of the land.
BRABENDER: But you can change it --
MATTHEWS: You guys keep calling it a bill as if it wasn`t enacted by the
Congress and signed by the president. It was. Why do you keep calling it
a bill, John?
BRABENDER: But you can change bills. You can change laws. I mean, that`s
what --
MATTHEWS: Of course, you can! It takes two congress --
MATTHEWS: It takes two houses of Congress and the president. Is that what
they`re talking about doing here, or is it some sort of PR move to appeal
to the hard right?
BRABENDER: I don`t really -- I believe this is their beliefs.
MATTHEWS: OK, fine. Let me go to -- let me go to Steve on this. It seems
to me what we see is a takeover bid by the hard right of the Republican
Party. If you don`t play their game and stop government and defund
Obamacare -- if you don`t do that, it seems to me you`re in big trouble.
And I agree with John. This is an ultimatum. It`s a takeover bid. If
you`re not with the hard right, you`re not with the right.
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Right. And you know, they`ve voted
40 times now to repeal Obamacare. So everybody in Congress has already
done what the hard right wants. And do you know what it`s gotten them?
It`s gotten them a 7 percent approval rating.
MATTHEWS: Follow John`s point, Steve. You`re a Democrat, but follow his
point. What is the hard right up to? It seems to me they are into a
takeover bid. They`re saying no more RINOs, no more moderates, no more
liberal Republicans. We are taking over the party.
MCMAHON: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: If you`re not willing to fight to the last vote, if you`re not
willing to play all the PR games and the symbolic votes and attacking
Obamacare -- if you don`t play that game, you`re out of here. That seems
to be the message.
MCMAHON: That`s not just the message, that`s what -- that the message
they`re sending and that`s the message that`s being received. If you look
at the number of incumbent Republicans who don`t have any vulnerability
from a Democrat, their only vulnerability is on the right, they`re
petrified of these people. And then you look at people like Mitch
McConnell, who actually is vulnerable on both the right and left.
MATTHEWS: I think he might lose the primary. Let`s --
MCMAHON: I think he could lose the primary if he doesn`t vote to shut down
the government.
MATTHEWS: I want you to jump on this guy -- Brender -- Brabender -- I
think you got a good case here. Here`s Mitt Romney --
BRABENDER: Get it right, will you, there?
MATTHEWS: I work at this -- Brabender, OK? Brabender.
MATTHEWS: Let`s take a look -- yesterday, at a rare public display, the
former presidential nominee jumped back into the spotlight, urging his
Republican Party to fight back against Ted Cruz and the Tea Party allies.
Speaking at a fund-raiser in New Hampshire at Lake Winnipesaukee up there,
he said, "Emotion is understandable, understandably at play in Washington
among some of our fellow Republicans that badly want Obamacare to go away,
about any talk of shutting down government."
"What would come next when soldiers aren`t paid, when seniors fear their
Medicare and Social Security aren`t coming and when the FBI is off-duty?
I`m afraid that in the final analysis, Obamacare would get its funding, our
party would suffer in the next elections, and the people in the nation
would not be happy."
Well, Romney`s criticism of Cruz didn`t stop there. He went on to warn
Republicans that extremists in the Republican Party need to be recognized
for what they are, unelectable. Quote -- this is Romney -- "We have got to
stay smart, very smart. Staying smart means backing candidates that can
win, but there will only be one or two perhaps who actually would win or
could win the election in November. Think it through. Stay smart."
What`s he talking about, John?
BRABENDER: Well, I think you got to be careful. First of all, on
Obamacare, taking advice from Romney is like taking advice from the captain
of the Titanic, nautical advice from that captain, because "Romney care"
was the precursor to Obamacare.
The second thing where Romney is actually wrong, what the Republicans are
talking about is not shutting down the government. What they`re talking
about is defunding Obamacare while still having the funding for everything
else in place. We can argue whether that`s a good idea or not, but what
Romney is throwing out there I think is wrong. But I will say --
MATTHEWS: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let`s get the (INAUDIBLE) let`s
get the truth out. They`re saying if any continuing resolution to keep the
government open includes any money for Obamacare -- to implement a law --
they will shut down the government. They will vote not to continue the
MCMAHON: That`s right.
MATTHEWS: That`s what they`re saying.
BRABENDER: What -- that`s not what Cruz`s office said today. What they
put out is that they believe that there should be funding in place for all
the important things --
MATTHEWS: That`s the same thing I just said!
BRABENDER: -- but this is a defunding of Obamacare.
MATTHEWS: But that`s the law of the land. How do you -- how do you -- how
do you pass a continuing resolution that doesn`t fund lawfully created
MCMAHON: You don`t. You don`t. And --
BRABENDER: I think they want to do that.
MCMAHON: For a guy who`s as smart as Ted -- go ahead. Go ahead.
MATTHEWS: Go ahead, John. Make your point. I mean, I don`t -- I think
you`re making the same point I`m making.
BRABENDER: No, no. I --
MATTHEWS: Isn`t it true --
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you this. Isn`t it true that Ted Cruz says, If you
put a nickel in there for Obamacare, I`m not voting for it?
BRABENDER: I think he`s standing his ground and saying that we have to
kill Obamacare once and for all. Look, even the Democrats are trying to
kill Obamacare.
MCMAHON: No, they`re not.
BRABENDER: They just delayed it by a year because they`re worried about
what --
MATTHEWS: They`re not trying to kill it.
BRABENDER: -- it`ll do for the 2014 elections!
MATTHEWS: If you have a vote on the House floor tomorrow. There`ll be
maybe four Democrats voting against it, the same ones who voted against it
when it first came up. Back to you, Steve.
MCMAHON: Mitt Romney may be the pink flamingo standing out in the
Republican yard that embarrasses a lot folks in the Republican Party, but
he`s speaking a fundamental truth. If you look at the track record of the
Tea Party people who have run for Congress, only one in three has been
successful. And if you look at seven of the nominees that the Republicans
put up in U.S. Senate races that lost races they probably should have won
if they`d had a candidate who was more in the mainstream.
Mitt Romney`s absolutely right. The Republicans would control the Senate
today if the Tea Party wasn`t wreaking havoc with it. And I predict if
they get Mitch McConnell to shut down the government to protect his right
flank so he`s not vulnerable in a primary, he`ll lose the general election
because centrist voters who decide elections in most states are going to
vote against him. They don`t reward people like that because that`s not
leadership --
MATTHEWS: Well, meanwhile --
BRABENDER: But Mitt Romney --
MATTHEWS: Go ahead.
BRABENDER: Mitt Romney was our nominee! Mitt Romney was our nominee, and
look what the results were there!
MCMAHON: And he was pulled so far to the right by Rick Santorum that he
couldn`t win the general election so far to the right on immigration and
all the policies that, frankly, the American people have rejected time and
again, that he couldn`t win the general election. If Mitt Romney, the
Republican governor of Massachusetts, had been the nominee -- he was
terrifying Democrats, but that`s not the guy that showed up. It was a
caricature of Mitt Romney.
MATTHEWS: OK. (INAUDIBLE) John, I want to pronounce your name correctly,
John Brabender, by the way, John. It`s nice to have you on the show.
You`re a good guy.
And here`s the question. Prediction. You`re the expert on your side.
What`s more likely, the Republican nominee of 2016 to be somebody a lot
like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, one of them perhaps, or someone like them, or
someone like Mitt Romney? Who`s more likely to be the nominee?
BRABENDER: Well, just for the sake of winning the elections, I certainly
hope it`s not somebody just like Mitt Romney. I think it will be somebody
coming from the more conservative wing of the party. It`ll be somebody who
does play well to social conservatives, but also somebody who can talk to
blue-collar and hard-working families, which the Republican Party has not
done a very good job doing and Mitt Romney did not do a very good job
MATTHEWS: Could be Santorum.
BRABENDER: I`m happy to go with that, too.
MATTHEWS: I think that`s what you`re thinking. Anyway, I -- what do you
think, Mr. Steve McMahon, Democrat? Do you think the Republicans might --
this might -- I`m going to predict at the end of the year -- I think it`s
one of those times like 1964, like 1980 --
MCMAHON: Could be.
MATTHEWS: -- like 1972 on the Democrat side or 2008 on the Democrat
side. After years of being practical and manipulative, parties actually
show their souls and say, This is what we believe.
I think the next time that we have a presidential election, which is 2016,
the Republican Party will be the conservative party, I think very
conservative party. I think they`re going to stop playing games. They`ve
been trying all these years to run Bob Dole and W. when he went and spent
all that money in the government, and then, of course, they had a guy like
McCain they didn`t believe in. They didn`t believe in these guys. I think
they`re going to run -- they certainly didn`t believe in Mitt Romney.
I think they`re going to run a true believer next time. What do you think,
looking across the aisle?
MCMAHON: Listen, I think -- first of all, I hope they run a true believer.
I hope Ted Cruz is nominated because 330 electoral votes that Obama got
last time will be the starting point, if Ted Cruz is the nominee.
MATTHEWS: -- Rand Paul.
MCMAHON: -- any of these guys.
MATTHEWS: Let me tell you why it won`t be Ted Cruz, because occasionally -
- look at him here -- you have to smile once in a while -- not all the
time. You have to occasionally crack a smile. He doesn`t do that.
Anyway, John Brabender, it`s great to have you on, and Steve McMahon, thank
BRABENDER: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: I think we`re getting to the point we all agree.
Coming up: What patriots these Republicans are! They`re grateful that
President Obama canceled his summit with Vladimir Putin -- he did it today
-- not because they think it`s good for the country that he did it, but
because they get to call it a foreign policy failure, just like they called
getting along with Putin timid. This president can`t win on that side.
Also, President Obama goes on Leno last night, and who comes up? Hillary.
Reince Priebus wants to take on CNN and NBC. The right wing`s randy to
take on someone. It`s always Hillary. All roads lead to Hillary.
Republicans seem to be terrified of her. They keep going after her.
And looking for a leafy 16-room mansion in downtown Washington, D.C., with
lots of green and easy access to the subway? We now know how much the
White House might go for if it was up for sale, if it was on the block.
Finally, "Let Me Finish" tonight with my personal prediction on whom the
Republicans will run for president in 2016. I just told you. I`m going to
tell you more.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Take a look at this. That`s the wrecking crew demolishing the
house of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro. By the way, he`s a murderer,
too. Castro pled guilty last week for holding those three women for three
years in his house -- actually, eight years -- keeping them in chains and
sexually abusing them. Well, this morning, that house of horrors was
knocked down in less than 90 minutes. There it is. The plot of land could
be developed, we don`t know, perhaps as a community park or garden.
We`ll be right back.
they slipped back into cold war thinking and a cold war mentality. And
what I consistently say to them and what I say to President Putin is that`s
the past, and you know, we`ve got to think about the future, and there`s no
reason why we shouldn`t be able to cooperate more effectively than we do.
last night on Leno.
Well, today the White House announced it was canceling a planned one-on-one
meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. It was going to be next month
on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting over there. Well, the White House
cited lack of progress between the two countries, the U.S. and the former
Soviet Union, on issues ranging from missile defense to global security.
But hanging over everything, we all know, is the case of NSA leaker --
there he is -- Edward Snowden, who`s in Russia right now on a visa, which
White House press secretary Jay Carney said is also a factor in this
Republican leaders wasted little time sounding almost gleeful about this.
According to a spokesperson for Speaker John Boehner, quote, "The
president`s signature foreign policy accomplishment from the first term, a
reset with Russia, has just collapsed."
Well, of course, for Boehner, this is just another opportunity to attack
the president, which is a job requirement of a Republican speaker.
Other Republicans like John McCain, who know what they`re talking about,
said they agreed with the president`s decision but suggested going even
further in cooling our relationship with Moscow.
Steve Kornacki is the host of MSNBC`s "UP WITH STEVE KORNACKI."
(INAUDIBLE) up! Generally, or up with you? Anyway, it`s on weekend
mornings and it`s doing great. And Jon Alter is a great historian, also an
MSNBC analyst and an author of the great book, "The Center Holds," about
the 2012 election.
Gentlemen, let`s just try this thing, Steve and then Jon. Think
(INAUDIBLE) it just seems to me you whack him if he goes right, whack him
if he goes left if you`re a Republican. Boehner says, "We failed to make
friends with Vladimir Putin." Take a look at Vladimir Putin!
MATTHEWS: You can`t make friends with that guy! He wants to be Daniel
Craig, you know, in the action movies. But he`s really a ferocious guy
that probably is a KGB guy to his soul!
could look at the reactions from the right, what we`ve gotten in at least
so far now, from -- you put them in two categories, basically. And Boehner
I think definitely falls into the category of, this is just an extension of
what the Republican playbook on domestic politics has been --
MATTHEWS: By the way, where`s he golfing while his --
MATTHEWS: His golfing -- his spokesman trashes the president of the United
States on a global issue. Where`s Boehner?
KORNACKI: Right. Well, also, maybe he wants to keep a little distance
from --
KORNACKI: -- something like this, too, where this is a little bit of red
meat --
MATTHEWS: I got you.
KORNACKI: -- he`s (INAUDIBLE) for the base, but he`s not officially
saying it himself. But at the same time, this is sort of, like -- we`ve
see this story on the domestic front a lot, where it`s sort of, like, if
Obama`s for it, we`re against it. And now we`re going to work backwards
and find out why -- what conservative principle justifies our opposition to
this, sort of invent --
MATTHEWS: OK, let`s go back --
MATTHEWS: -- and the world of common sense. Americans are incredibly
rational, except maybe some Tea Party people and some people on the hard
left. Most people are rational. They see Putin, they look him in the
face, and, This guy`s not a good guy. This guy -- he`s got thumbscrews in
the basement somewhere. You don`t know what he`s doing with the KGB,
what`s left of it.
Of course we`re having a problem with him! He`s for Syria, we`re not. He
doesn`t want to help us with Iran. We`re trying to avoid a war with Iran.
Name the issue. It`s Snowden -- of course, it`s an opportunism thing, but
he`s got Snowden with a visa now.
Of course we`re a little ticked at him. What`s new?
JONATHAN ALTER, MSNBC ANALYST: Well, and of course --
MATTHEWS: We should be ticked with him.
ALTER: -- and we -- to go ahead with this summit after the Snowden
episode, they just would have bickered with each other and nothing would
have been accomplished. And the United States had to indicate to him that
we`re mad at him.
MATTHEWS: Time out! Time out!
ALTER: We`re mad at him not just because he rides around without his shirt
on on a horse. We`re mad at him because --
MATTHEWS: Jon, you`re being kind! Remember the last time they met? The
president tried to do some ice breaking (INAUDIBLE) and the president`s
just trying to loosen him up a little. He made fun of the president for
trying to get along with him!
ALTER: Yes, and you know, he`s a bad guy in a lot of ways. That doesn`t
mean we don`t want to have relations with him.
I mean, what bothers me about the Republicans, you know, piling on Obama on
this issue is they`re suggesting that the last five years of U.S.-Russian
relations have been a failure, when the only reason that the sanctions
against Iran are in place in the first place is because of this reset
policy that Boehner is now saying is a failure.
It wasn`t a failure. It gave us those sanctions. And those sanctions have
now helped lead to a more moderate regime in Iran.
MATTHEWS: This is strong territory for me, my battle that never ends with
the neocons. Here`s an interview with my old pal, neoconservative writer
Bill Kristol, who only seems to emerge volcanically occasionally, like now
when we`ve sort of forgotten the Iraq war for a while.
Here`s what he told -- said the president being stubborn in pursuing
diplomacy with Russia. Here`s Bill with his hard, East-West edge again.
This is like Jeane Kirkpatrick. Here he goes.
study of the reset, and they have just doubled down on it so many times.
They never wanted to admit that it was wrong. There was a moment two years
ago, incidentally, where even I would have said, Look, I never liked the
reset with Russia. It was too trustworthy (ph) of Putin.
But I can see, if you`re a new administration, you would try it. We didn`t
pay that much of a price for -- probably in the first of years. But now --
you know, now reality has hit. Could we please adjust to reality? But
they`re so obstinate on that, have been so obstinate on that, that they
have made it worse.
MATTHEWS: OK. I said it. Ted Cruz never smiles. He smiles when he`s
talking about war.
MATTHEWS: What is it about Kristol? I mean, he`s just -- he`s such a
neocon all the way. He loves this stuff.
KORNACKI: This is the second category I think of conservative response.
You have the cheap political point-scoring that I think you could look at
bone Boehner and say, but there`s a broader movement within the Republican
Party. Think back a decade.
MATTHEWS: What do they want, the Cold War back?
KORNACKI: Basically. This is a very hawkish wing that when George W. Bush
a decade ago said he looked into Putin`s eye, looked into his soul, and saw
a good man, they didn`t believe it back then.
MATTHEWS: Right. Mr. Teddy Bear? Do they miss their teddy bear?
KORNACKI: This is an opportunity for them I think to take this a lot
MATTHEWS: Here`s some more guys. You jump in here , Jon.
Here`s the familiar suspects. here`s Rick Santorum, Jim DeMint, my God,
Jim DeMint, and John Bolton, who can`t wait to get back in power, talking
about the global terrorist alert as an excuse to hit the president. That`s
what he`s just put us on and they say he`s being weak because he put us on
watch. Let`s watch him.
of the policies of this administration.
I mean, if you look at Benghazi and what happened, we haven`t seen anything
from this administration really go after the people who were responsible or
the network behind it.
JIM DEMINT (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Our attempt to placate parts of the
world, reset, whether it`s Russia or somewhere else, are clearly not
working, and the perception of weakness in this administration is
encouraging this kind of behavior.
weakness that we have displayed around the world, particularly after the
September 11, 2012, killing of our ambassador in Benghazi, without any
retaliation nearly 11 months later, so the administration`s world view has
been in effect completely rejected.
And we`re seeing now the consequences of operating under the illusions that
he has operated under.
ALTER: I love how they say that weakness. And, you know, they have got
their talking points.
MATTHEWS: Timidity.
ALTER: Timidity, Benghazi, they all use the same words. Who`s writing
those talking points that they all use?
MATTHEWS: Yes. Well, Marty Peretz, the king of the neocons, always said
we need a muscular foreign policy.
ALTER: I`m hoping that Obama -- the last time they did this, when Romney
called him an appeaser, Obama came out in a press briefing and said tell
that to Osama bin Laden and the 15 leaders of al Qaeda I have taken off the
The notion that this guy is somehow appeasing our enemies is so
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk politics for a minute. Do you think they have polled
on this, the neocons, and they figured after the embarrassment of Iraq, a
war that they wanted to fight regardless of WMD -- they wanted to fight the
war. George W. wanted to fight it, and the vice president wanted to fight
it. They all wanted to fight it. OK.
They have decided that we have sort of forgotten that, and now they`re
coming back? Bolton is back. Kristol is back. Do they think it`s time
for more rousing, let`s go to war again? Because when they say
retaliation, their idea of retaliation after 9/11, Steve, was going into
Iraq. Retaliation, what does that mean?
KORNACKI: I don`t think -- I have never gotten the impression that their
world views were radically altered by what happened in the last decade,
what happened after the invasion of Iraq, what happened in Afghanistan. I
don`t think their world views were ever changed by that.
I think that they sense an opportunity though within the Republican Party,
the argument taking place within the Republican Party over foreign policy.
Whenever they see an opportunity to connect their agenda to opposition to
Obama, that gives them an opportunity to clear out space.
MATTHEWS: To clear out Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
So, that`s the real fight.
ALTER: That`s who they have the problem with. Rand Paul said that Snowden
was a hero. So, instead of attacking Obama, they should be going after
Rand Paul.
MATTHEWS: Well, John Bolton is never going to be secretary of state under
Rand Paul.
MATTHEWS: He`s not asking --
ALTER: Well, they`re never going to nominate Rand Paul. This part of the
party won`t accept him.
MATTHEWS: You`re too rational.
ALTER: They will walk out of the convention before they nominate Rand
MATTHEWS: OK. OK. Watch the end of the show.
ALTER: I will.
MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Steve Kornacki and Jonathan Alter.
We`re about to have a fight here on this issue. He may be right. I don`t
think so.
Up next, just when you think it couldn`t happen, Anthony Weiner hits
another new low.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
Anthony Weiner was at a mayoral forum last night hosted by the AARP and
used some choice words. The event was a chance for candidates obviously to
court New York`s senior citizen community. That didn`t stop Weiner from
calling one Republican rival grandpa. Well, he cast his insult before the
debate during a heated exchange with 69-year-old George McDonald.
New York One caught it all on camera.
me ever again.
WEINER: Really? What`s going to happen if I do? Are you a tough guy now?
MCDONALD: Yes, yes, I am.
WEINER: But your anger issues.
MCDONALD: I don`t have any anger issues.
WEINER: Yes, you do, Grandpa.
MATTHEWS: Grandpa. Smart move there. The AARP called Weiner`s remark
Well, next, President Obama answered questions about his U.S. housing
market today in a live streaming Q&A hosted by real estate Zillow,
Zillow.com. And while he was answering questions from homebuyers, the
event brought attention to one listing in particular, the president`s own.
Yes, Zillow has a page for the White House. The real estate listing, 16-
bedroom mansion in a leafy area, brags over actually 15,000 square feet on
18 acres in a great Washington neighborhood. Amenities include a doorman,
elevators, a pool, and a basketball court.
The price? Well, Zillow crunched the numbers and estimated that if the
White House were on the market, it would be worth $319 million. I think
that`s a steal.
Next up, Jay Leno pressed President Obama about his on-again/off-again
relationship with former presidential opponent Senator John McCain.
something I`m seeing.
LENO: I remember you had that lover`s quarrel for a while, and, oh, now
you`re -- oh, well, you`re best friends.
LENO: What happened?
OBAMA: That`s how a classic romantic comedy goes, right?
LENO: Yes.
LENO: You know, initially, you`re not getting along, and then you keep on
bumping into each other.
MATTHEWS: A student of the movies there. Anyway, romantic comedy, imagine
that movie poster. Barack Obama and John McCain, there it is, starring in
a bromantic comedy about two Washington insiders who just can`t get enough
of each other.
Finally, last night, Steve Colbert performed this summer`s hit song "Get
Lucky" and guess who made a cameo? Henry Kissinger. Take a look.
MATTHEWS: Security.
Anyway, up next, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. President Obama`s praising
her, and the Republicans are terrified of her. They certainly should be.
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
"Market Wrap."
The Dow falling 48 points, the S&P 500 down six, the Nasdaq losing 11
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That`s the second largest profit in the company`s history. Walt Disney
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OBAMA: We had a great time. She had that post-administration glow.
LENO: Yes.
OBAMA: When folks leave the White House, two weeks later, they look great.
But it was a wonderful conversation. By the end of my first term, you
know, we had become genuinely close. And I could not have more respect for
her. She was a great secretary of state.
LENO: Did you notice her measuring the drapes or anything like that?
OBAMA: Keep in mind, she`s been there before.
LENO: Right. That`s true. That`s true.
OBAMA: She doesn`t have to measure them.
Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Even Jay Leno asked the president now about Hillary Clinton, and the
Republicans, their anger -- reaction, actually, to the planned NBC
miniseries on Hillary Clinton and the CNN documentary about the former
secretary of state has put her squarely back in the headlines.
And here`s a sample of today`s reaction. "New York Times" columnist
Maureen Dowd concedes that the RNC chair -- that`s Reince Priebus -- has a
point in his complaints to the networks with the piece headline, "Reince Is
Well, David Brock of Media Matters wrote letters to the NBC entertainment
division and CNN, all their heads over there, calling for the Hillary
Clinton projects to be scrapped. His concerns, he said, include how the
networks would handle right-wing criticism. He writes -- quote -- "How
pressuring you to adopt its ideological lens on Clinton?"
Well, David Bossie, president of Citizens United, whose unflattering movie
about Hillary Clinton in the 2008 cycle became the subject of a Supreme
Court case, has helpfully offered the networks his movie as a counterweight
to the upcoming Hillary productions, writing, "If you would like more
information about our films, please do not hesitate to contact us." I
think that was sarcastic.
Bottom line, Hillary Clinton and the Republicans` free of fear of her in
2016 have been dominating the latest political discussion.
Howard Fineman is an MSNBC political analyst and director -- actually
editorial director of the Huffington Post Media Group, and Cynthia Tucker
is visiting professor of journalism at the University of Georgia and a
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.
Thank you both.
I want to start with Cynthia.
Cynthia, one of the interesting things, I have always -- back when we were
with Carter, we would watch Johnny Carson in his day to find out where the
country was. If Carson was with you, you`re OK. If he turns against you,
with his snappy humor, even sharp humor, you are dead.
And we could tell where Carter was headed towards the end of that
administration. When Carson left you, it was worse than Cronkite leaving
you. And in this case, he had the audience nailed when he said the nice
things about Hillary`s service as secretary of state. Automatic applause
line, no question about it.
MATTHEWS: Isn`t that something the Republicans have to deal with as they
begin to turn their guns on her, that she has this accepted success at
State, and they -- if they have that to run against, how do they beat her?
TUCKER: Well, that`s why they`re starting to try to beat up on her now,
Chris, because they understand that they don`t have a single possible
candidate who has either Hillary`s experience or her stature.
TUCKER: You know, it is certainly early.
We don`t even know if she`s going to run, but the polls show her currently
besting the best that they have to offer. She`s running better than Chris
Christie. She`s running better than Rand Paul. And the others fall off
after that. And so -- but they have been worried about Hillary Clinton
since 2008.
They thought she was going to be the nominee then. That was before her
very successful run as secretary of state. As you mentioned, they were
aiming, you know, a poisonous movie at her even then.
TUCKER: So they have feared a run by Hillary Clinton for a very long time.
MATTHEWS: Howard, you know what I think is really bugging them? They know
the only way to beat Hillary is to run a moderate, like Christie, and
they`re darned determined not to do that.
So, now they face the awful conundrum, we don`t want her to beat us, but we
can`t beat her with any of our right-wing guys, so we`re screwed. And they
hate thinking that, because what`s happening now is, the only way to beat
Hillary is probably to run somebody like Christie, and have a shot based on
the polling. And they don`t want to do that. They don`t want to beat her
with a guy who can beat her. They want to beat her with somebody who can`t
beat, which is nonsense. That`s the problem.
And I think, also, they would like to raise some money off of the specter
of Hillary.
FINEMAN: And I think that`s part of -- I think part of that`s what`s going
I think President Obama still scares them, but, after all, he can`t run
FINEMAN: Washington`s tied up and in gridlock. The president, it`s a
little hard to get people as worked up and as scared, perhaps, as they were
a few years ago.
And -- but Hillary scares the heck out of them, and so they want to raise
her profile at a time when Hillary really doesn`t want to do so.
FINEMAN: They`re trying to draw -- they`re trying to draw her in and draw
her down.
Hillary has -- and the Clintons have a great sense of timing. They know
this is a four-year campaign. This is way too early for Hillary to be this
controversial, this exposed.
FINEMAN: She wants to go around the country, give a lot of speeches, make
a lot of money without too much spotlight, and also wait for the right time
and work on building her base by helping other people get elected in the
states between now and 2014.
MATTHEWS: That`s so smart. There`s the animated attack on Hillary against
the unanimated Hillary, because she`s staying out of the spotlight, for a
good reason.
MATTHEWS: You can`t run for three years.
FINEMAN: Exactly.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, RNC chair Reince Priebus, a favorite of this show, says
he doesn`t expect NBC or CNN to back down on their planned Hillary Clinton
And, because of that, he now vows to exclude them from Republican
presidential debates.
Here`s Reince.
REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: I expect them to move forward, and I expect
us to cut them out. So, I know, my guess is this is exactly what is going
to happen. They will produce the films, and we will cut them out.
MATTHEWS: I guess that was on Skype.
Anyway, it reminds me of the Joker in Batman. Anyway, he was talking to us
from Skype there.
And my question is why is Reince Priebus picking a fight over a Hillary
Clinton movie? A movie?
TUCKER: Well, you know, Howard talked about the fact that it`s a great way
for them to raise some money at a time when Republicans don`t have anything
to be excited about. And so, I think it`s true that their anger at Hillary
is a good fund-raising tool.
But, Chris, let`s remember, Republican leaders have been looking for a way
to get out of primary debates for some time now.
MATTHEWS: Yes, because --
TUCKER: Because the primary debates were not a good thing for them the
last time around.
MATTHEWS: Because?
TUCKER: It gave them -- their crazies way too much exposure.
TUCKER: And it didn`t help Mitt Romney much either. He was their eventual
nominee, but it was in one of those debates that he made his unfortunate
remark about self-deportation.
TUCKER: And that stuck with him throughout the general election. And so,
one of the things they`ve talked about in their analyses and postmortems,
how to sort of clean up their act for 2016, is maybe they need to have
fewer debates.
And so, they`re looking for a way to minimize the exposure that the
Republican crazies have during the primaries.
MATTHEWS: They don`t want to give another highway to the clown car.
Anyway, thank you, Howard Fineman. And thank you, Cynthia Tucker. We`ll
be back after this.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Two more women have come forward accusing San Diego Mayor Bob
Filner of sexual harassment. That brings the number to 13. The latest
women to come forward are both veterans of his staff and each say they were
subjected to unwanted sexual advances when Filner was a U.S. Congress
Well, this week, Mayor Filner entered a behavior counseling clinic for two
weeks of what`s been described as intensive therapy.
HARDBALL, back after this.
spontaneous demonstration. Is that what you`re saying?
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CANDY CROWLEY, MODERATOR: He did in fact, sir. Let me call it an act of
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
CROWLEY: He did call it an act of terror.
We`re back.
That was President Obama and Mitt Romney colliding in an exchange over
Benghazi in that October 16th second presidential debate.
Well, "The Washington Post" chief political correspondent -- actually the
dean of Washington political reporters, Dan Balz, is out with his new book
about that campaign. It`s called "Collision 2012: Obama Versus Romney and
the Future of Elections in America."
Well, the pendulum I believe is swinging in the Republican Party right now.
And as the party moves hard right, will they try another establishment-type
like Romney or Dole or McCain or someone -- or Christie or Jeb Bush? Or
will the party go for one of its Tea Party heroes like Rand Paul?
Here with me now is the author of thereat book "Collision 2016", "The
Washington Post`s" Dan Balz.
Dan, let`s talk about what you call the subterranean campaign of 2012 and
what it offers us perhaps as a future.
DAN BALZ, AUTHOR, "COLLISION 2012": We think of the campaign as the
campaign we all cover all the time. Everything we talk about, every
utterance, every gaffe, every debate, every movement. And that`s part of
politics and in many ways the interesting and enjoyable part of politics,
but it`s not necessarily the decisive part of politics, Chris. And there
are important and underlying powerful forces that affect every campaign.
In 2012, one was the economy. Would it be just good enough to allow
President Obama to win re-election or bad enough to deny him re-election?
Another was voter anger. Which direction would it go? A third was the
deep red/blue divide in this country and how that shaped attitudes beyond
what other people might say.
And lastly, the shifting demographics in this country, which have moved
against the Republican Party over a number of years and which they realized
in a more significant way when Mitt Romney got only 27 percent of the
Hispanic vote last year. They have a problem on their hands on that front
and they have to figure out how to deal with it.
MATTHEWS: Are they in a "whose turn is it" mood like they have been so
many times in the past? It was Reagan`s turn and then George, Sr.`s turn
and then George Jr.`s turn and then McCain`s turn and then Romney`s turn.
Are they in a "whose turn is it" mood? Or are they into something a little
more revolutionary next time based upon the selection?
BALZ: Chris, it doesn`t seem like they`re in a "whose turn is it"?
Because if you look at the people who ran in 2012 and who may run again,
Rick Perry, governor of Texas, Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania
senator. The truth is very few people are talking about them as likely
nominees or even front-runners at the start of this.
BALZ: The party at this point is looking at a very wide open contest for
the Republican nomination in 2016. There are a lot of people thinking
about running. There are a lot of potentially attractive candidates to
Republican voters. And I think we`re going to see a pretty big and robust
debate among these people, and part of that will be, what`s the direction
the party should take?
MATTHEWS: The establishment wing -- and that`s why the establishment wing
of both parties, Democrat and Republican, tends to win nominations.
They`ve got to Dukakises, they`ve got to Clintons, they`ve got all the
money, they`ve got the big states behind them, the big stats behind them.
Do you think the establishment wing of the Republican Party can get one
more election victory? Can they win after all these people like Dole and
McCain and the Bushes, can they win against the right, because the right
hasn`t won since Reagan really?
BALZ: The right has not won since then probably is the fair way to put it.
The establishment wing does somehow manage to prevail, and in part because
the insurgent wing or very conservative wing or however you describe it
often come to far to the right in these contests that Republican voters as
a whole conclude they`re probably not electable.
Governor Romney was out this week talking about the importance of getting
behind candidates who can win. And he basically said there will only be
one or maybe two people in the campaign in 2016 who can do that. And they
said get behind those candidates.
But we`re likely to see a more significant debate because conservatives
believe they haven`t had the opportunity to show their ideas to the
MATTHEWS: How about the Getty thing, where the party knows it probably
can`t like in `64 against Johnson after Kennedy was killed, or in `80, I
guess, I`m trying to -- `80, when they couldn`t -- actually McGovern, when
they couldn`t beat Nixon in `72. When they look at Hillary as almost
insurmountable, would that tend to make them go to the bases say, you know,
we`re probably not going to win, so let`s pick somebody we believe in.
BALZ: Well, I put it this way. I think that choice for the Republican
Party in the near term is do they decide they`re a congressionally based
party, in which their power will reside primarily by controlling the House
of Representatives --
BALZ: -- where they have a built-in advantage. Or do they seek to become
a national party capable of winning a presidential election? And I don`t
think we know the answer as to where the party as a whole decides they want
to go on.
MATTHEWS: And a leading indicator will be the vote on immigration, right?
BALZ: That will be one indicator. But very likely many of the people who
seek the nomination in 2016 are on the side of some kind of path to
legalization or citizenship. There will be some who seek the nomination
who are against that. But a number have already come out in favor of that
whether it`s Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan, Scott Walker.
A number of Republicans may run who are already on record in favor of that.
What happens in the House of Representatives, we really don`t know.
MATTHEWS: Let`s look at a preview here. It may be a decisive battle
coming up in the primary here. Look at this recent spat between Chris
Christie, the governor of Jersey, and Rand Paul from Kentucky, the
libertarian. This is two wings of the party in action here. Let`s watch.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: It`s really, I think, kind of sad and cheap
that he would use the cloak of 9/11 victims and say, "Oh, I`m the only one
who cares about these victims." Hogwash. If he cared about protecting
this country, maybe he wouldn`t be in this, "Gimme, gimme, gimme, give me
all the money you have in Washington or don`t have".
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: So, if Senator Paul wants to start
looking at where he`s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he
should look at cutting the pork barrel spending he brings home to Kentucky
at $1.51 for every $1 and not look at New Jersey where we get 61 cents for
every $1.
MATTHEWS: Dan, I know you don`t make predictions like the late -- David
Broder never made predictions. Maybe that`s the safe move. But what are
we looking at here? Are we looking at something that`s the future, not the
rearview mirror here?
BALZ: Well, we`re looking at two people who certainly have their eye on
running in 2016 and they`re taking a few potshots at one another now and,
you know, testing it out. And seeing what the other`s made of. But I
think when you look at each of those two men, one of the things that they
share in common is they both have some convincing to do to a part of the
Republican Party.
BALZ: There`s a lot of conservatives who are unhappy with Governor
Christie for some of the things he`s done. But there`s a part of the party
that`s very wary about some of the positions that Rand Paul has. He`s a
favorite of the Tea Party on some fiscal issues, but on foreign policy
issues, he`s not in the mainstream.
MATTHEWS: No, he`s where I`m at on foreign policy.
Anyway, the name of your book, it`s a great big book, "Collision 2012:
Obama Versus Romney and The Future of Elections in America." I like it
when Dan goes to the future. Dan Balz, maybe some predictions in there.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this:
I`ve been offering a prediction of late. Let me nail it down tonight.
I believe the Republican Party is going to go hard-right in 2016. It`s
something it hasn`t done since 1980.
And here`s the thinking, which works equally well for Democrats as well:
Parties, as you`ve noticed, face a conflict every four years. Should they
they run someone who appeals to the middle?
Well, most of the time, they head to the middle. And this is what
Republicans did most successfully in 1952 -- when, after 20 years of FDR
and Harry Truman -- they wanted back in the White House. They ran the
general who received the Nazi surrender and, guess what, they won.
with Richard Nixon.
Palace out in San Francisco, mocking Republican moderates and liberals like
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, then getting killed with Barry
Goldwater running against Lyndon Johnson in November.
The Democrats ran moderates in `60 and `64 and `68 but then went wild in
1972 and ran anti-Vietnam warrior George McGovern of South Dakota. That`s
the year the Democrats got killed.
And so, the pendulum goes. The party bases get pushed aside for several
elections and finally build up steam -- much like a volcano -- and come
roaring to the surface.
War had had it with party leaders who played it safe and backed the war.
2016 and that the nomination is going to Rand Paul.
You watch! This is what I do for a living.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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Tokens of love etched in the memory of their dear lady
By Yvonne Tahana
A group of Tainui women took the hint of their beloved Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu and began a movement to revive the art of moko in their tribe, with themselves as the first candidates.
Te Aroha Tai-Rakena (left) and Rangiawatea Tahapeehi are proud to be part of a 50-strong group of women who stand out at traditional Waikato gatherings. Photo / Christine Cornege
Te Aroha Tai-Rakena has no trouble getting her 70-year-old niece over to her house to talk about their inked chins, tattooed with moko kauae in 2007 as a mark of love for two Kingitanga leaders.
When Mrs Tai-Rakena, 75, known by most as Aunty Roha, calls she's a hard woman to refuse. She cajoles in a gentle way, although she's clearly a woman who gets things done.
She laughs when asked if she thinks she's a bit bossy. She is the boss, she reckons.
The pair are Kingitanga women through and through, loyal to a movement which has shaped their lives. They were also part of the vanguard of 16 Waikato-Tainui women who were at the forefront of the resurgence of moko in the tribe.
There are now more than 50 women with dark green-black chins and darkened lips who stand out at traditional gatherings in a way that hasn't been visible for decades in the region.
Aunty Roha was central to the change.
Those close to her say she was in Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu's inner circle during the monarch's 40-year reign. Her tangi in 2006 was the largest in modern times, 100,000 attending over the mourning period.
A year later the grief was still felt keenly by those who'd served Dame Te Ata.
The Ngaruawahia grandmother remembers having coffee with a group of friends, including moko expert Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku. They were talking about how they were all missing the woman many knew affectionately as The Lady.
"We were all wondering what we could do to remember her. I spoke up about her musings around why Tainui women weren't getting the moko like other women - that was about 10 years before, but it stayed with me."
It was a typically subtle way to get women thinking about the disappearance of female facial tattoos from their iwi, and a nudge to think about getting it done themselves, Mrs Tai-Rakena believes.
"[The queen] had a magic way of getting people around to the way she thinks. This was her dream. She speaks in riddles sometimes but at the end of the day, you know what she wants."
Mrs Tai-Rakena and another niece, Hera White, approached King Tuheitia to ask if he'd consent to some women taking a moko in memory of both his mother and his own succession.
"We explained to him that especially from the women's point of view we wanted to mark her life in some special way. We just had a little conversation with him rather than a big karakia or a big stand-up mihi - he nodded his head and that was that.
"The women who came forward were Kingitanga people who really loved and worked for Dame Te Ata for many years."
The group of women had a practice, where they drew on each other's chins before a two-day ta moko session in the whare Parewaikato on Turangawaewae Marae in June 2007.
Three male artists with connections to Te Aitanga a Hauiti and Ngati Tuwharetoa worked on the women. Accompanying their work were the voices of 50 women, many with moko themselves, who sang as the skin work occurred. The singers had travelled with ta moko exponent Mark Kopua to support the occasion.
Mrs Tai-Rakena was the first to be tattooed.
"I was the first one who went through all the pain, and it was painful, but we never uttered a sound. Not one of us.
"All that beautiful singing, it absolutely lifted everything listening to it ... We had all these people with us, we had [local] schoolchildren from Bernard Fergusson, we had our kaumatuas and so hell, you couldn't make a fuss. You had to be strong for the others."
The artist took her design from a precious picture of her paternal grandmother, Nanny Tiahuia, who'd died long before her granddaughter was a flutter of a thought.
Her mother didn't have one, like so many of that generation. It's meant decades have passed with no strong line of marked Waikato women, and practitioners have also passed on.
Because of that gap, for a while it felt a little radical to have one, Mrs Tai-Rakena says. Five years on, although the moko is perfect on her face, she still catches herself in the mirror. "I look at my moko every morning and greet it 'Oh, kia ora' because it's an addition, something special. It's powerful, a thing of beauty.
"Most important it was done out of aroha for our queen, and for our king."
Te Awhina Naera, 67
The former kohanga reo nanny's whanau had no idea she was going to be one of the first Kingitanga women in generations to have her chins inked.
"I told them before and they thought I was just joking ... One of the ladies saw my husband and said 'hey, you better come up - your wife is getting herself done. Come up to Parewaikato'.
"She put my husband up there and I was really thrilled that he came. He was quite amazed with all of the ladies but the East Coast ladies who came - they were young and they all had their kauaes done and they looked beautiful.
"The nice thing about it was being at Parewaikato and being surrounded by all the photos. I was thinking 'Gee, will it hurt?' But you know I never felt nothing ... you never had time to worry about the pain."
Ataarangi Poutapu, 62
There's a special dance that Waikato Tainui women are known for. It's not particular to them solely but they are exponents of the kopikopi, and Ataarangi Poutapu is one of the best.
Hip thrusting is usually accompanied by huge smiles and loud laughter from crowds at hui. It's a mood lightener and it's what her moko reflects.
"It's cheeky, funny humour. I was taught to do the kopikopi at the age of eight. When we were entertaining in the old Kimiora dining room the old kuia, for their koha, they would put their money on the ground and call out to me 'Kia kaha, Te Ataarangi - kopikopi!' The old people had seen my mother do it and she was well known for it, too.
"It was about fun, our old people had style and passion. They weren't always serious people, they were always happy-go-lucky. There was never a dull moment."
It's also something the late queen loved.
"People would say, 'oh Ata, don't go in front of Te Arikinui [when she performed]' and I didn't listen because I used to look at her and she'd use her eyes to tell me to go to the front."
Rejuvenating one tradition, moko kauae, also helped to send a message about upholding other cultural practices just as central to tribal identity - entertaining. "There's a time for karakia, there's a time for tapu and there's a time for noa [the ordinary] - there's also a time for happiness," she said.
Rangiawatea Tahapeehi, 70
Layers of happy childhood memories are captured in Rangiawatea's moko. She was born during World War II, and her family were river people, living on the banks of the Waikato below Turangawaewae Marae. In 1951, her family moved into a home adjacent to the marae which is the formal seat of the Kingitanga movement.
It was a happy house. During the annual Coronation celebrations out-of-towners - those from Huntly and Tuakau - would fill the family's home, shed and garden; in some cases sleeping under trees so that they'd be close to the marae.
Marae fundraisers also drew a crowd. "We used to have all the rangatiras from all over the country from Tuwharetoa, Ngapuhi and people like that at our house."
King Koroki, King Tuheitia's grandfather, was also a frequent visitor.
"In our house we had a photo of my grand aunt, that's [Princess] Te Puia's older sister Hera. So he used to tell me ... E Rangi, e noho koe ki [Rangi you sit] at the bottom of her photo and I'd be brassed off sitting there and they'd be talking about her life and things like that and they'd say I was the one that looked like her."
When it came to the moko kauae there was no question of what she wanted.
"I thought about her, I thought 'I'm going to have a moko like her'."
Artist Mark Kopua
What does moko kauae (chin moko) represent?
It reflects [a woman's] achievement or acquired authority. The women who take a leadership role in your family, the recognition for that is that your whanau follow.
How did the practice develop?
It became part of our tradition, chin moko, only after we arrived here in Aotearoa.
Are more women choosing moko kauae?
It's coming back to life. Definitely women are the stronger in terms of taking on moko not just on the chin, but everywhere. In urban areas moko activity is a little bit slower, there's a little bit of catching up to do. But there are smaller areas or communities that are very, very strong and it's part of their everyday existence as a community.
The idea that it was the preserve of older women came about because this generation of kuia may have only seen [it on] their grandmothers. Many in the old days we see in pictures actually received their moko when they were young.
What are the difficulties in applying the moko?
The edges of the lips and the lips themselves are the most painful place to work. It's only because the texture of the skin is thinner, it's far more sensitive.
- NZ Herald
© Copyright 2015, NZME. Publishing Limited
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Parents as Providers
By Jack Petrash
Providing for our children is another of parenting’s paradoxes. Because our children start out in life depending on us for everything, it is vital that we live fully into our role as providers. Food, clothing, and meaningful experiences are all a part of what parents work hard to provide. The more thought and care we put into providing for our children at an early age, the more they benefit. Providing healthy food, warm clothing, and good medical care are just the kind of assignments that good parents take seriously. It is our job to provide the very best for our children and over time these decisions will involve schools, camps, after school lessons, and all sorts of teams. But here too, Emerson’s words apply: “Every excess has its defect… Every sweet hath its sour.”
In his book, Too Much of a Good Thing: Raising Children of Character in an Indulgent Age, Dan Kindlon points out that providing too much for our children for too long, impedes character development. When Kindlon did a survey on “too good to be true teenagers,” the kinds of healthy children parents hope to raise, he found that there were certain characteristics that these young people had in common. They cleaned their own rooms. They did not have a phone in their room (I assume that also means a cell phone). And they did some kind of community service. What the parents provided was very simple; these children ate dinner regularly as a family.
What is clear from this study is that we should always provide our children with opportunities to give as well as receive. This can mean different things in different families. It can mean that children make their own beds or do the dishes. It can mean that adolescents do their own laundry or clean the bathroom. And with teenagers it can mean that they work outside of the home on weekends or in the summer to earn their own spending money, keeping in mind that independence fosters responsibility and that leads to self-esteem.
A number of years ago, the state of California offered a work program for young people modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, the federally funded program during the Depression. The California program promised “hard work, long hours, and low pay.” It had a waiting list, mostly with young people from well-to-do families who wanted to find out what they were really worth.
In the end children must provide for themselves. How many kids today pay for their own car insurance, their gasoline, their cell phones, or their credit card bills in college? What message do we send our children when we give them so much, other than the message of privilege or entitlement?
Parenting has to be a bi-polar undertaking. We are called on to protect our children, but not over-protect them, to provide for them, but not indulge them. These are the challenges that parenting sets before us; and as with any art form, there are no easy answers. We simply have to be present in the moment and move between the opposites to achieve the right balance. Sometimes this work seems overwhelming and I must say there are nights when I get down. It is then that I look for a little help with this work and this quotation by E.F. Schumacher from Small is Beautiful, helps.
“Through all our lives we are faced with the task of reconciling opposites which, in logical thought, cannot be reconciled… How can one reconcile the demands of freedom and discipline in education? Countless mothers and teachers, in fact, do it, but no one can write down a solution. They do it by bringing into the situation a force that belongs to a higher level where opposites are transcended – the power of love.”
These words remind me that I am just a struggling artist who really loves his work.
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- Argentina U.S. Embassy
video after the jump
Cyprus rejects Eurogroup’s savings levy and bailout deal
(click here if video is not observable)
The Cypriot parliament has rejected the EU/IMF bailout for the country’s banks.
Support for the deal, which would have involved a one-off charge on all deposit accounts in the country, ebbed away almost as soon as it was announced on Saturday at the Eurogroup meeting.
Before rejecting the package Cypriot MPs had already decided to exempt any savers with 20,000 euros or less in their accounts, but this was not enough to gain support.
The Eurogroup said the charge was justified because Cyprus has allowed its banking sector to mushroom, Iceland style, into a monster that is more than twice the size of the rest of the economy, and has sucked in so much foreign money, much of it Russian, that foreign deposits account for 37% of all savings in Cyprus.
The Cypriots countered by saying they have a right to build up a services sector which they accuse Germany of wanting to destroy, and that they are being targeted because of ongoing disagreements with Moscow that the EU should work out elsewhere.
The European public has not failed to notice the one big fact to emerge from this latest crisis in the Eurozone. That is, no-one’s money appears safe any more, unless its stuffed under the mattress. The implications for the EU’s already hard-pressed banking system are obvious. A collapse in confidence at this stage of the game could prove fatal for the entire European project.
Yet although the Cypriot “no” vote appears to have struck a blow for ordinary people it plunges the country into a deeper crisis, one that could have serious repercussions for the rest of Europe.
Category: Bailouts, Credit, Think Tank
5 Responses to “Is Cyprus Too Small To Fail?”
1. V says:
Never would have predicted too small to fail, but is there any reason why Cyprus can’t protect the payments system so businesses can stay open etc, while trying to recapitalise/restructure the debt burden?
2. Anonymous Jones says:
“This is a lesson to the modern monetary theorists who believe governments with independent central banks can’t default.”
I’m not an expert in MMT, but I find this statement interesting. So you are saying that the Bulgarian government (or its electorate) was put in a position in which it did not have a choice whether or not to default on debt that was issued in sovereign currency? That doesn’t seem right.
You, of course, cannot be claiming that MMT adherents believe that governments (or electorates) with independent central banks do not have the *ability* to default on sovereign currency debt. Because the adherents are not idiots, right? They obviously know that any debt issuer anywhere always has the *choice* to default. The argument is that if the government has an independent central bank and debt is issued in sovereign currency, then the issuer is never *forced* to default. There are always other options, however unpalatable.
Unless you have some special insight into this, I’m afraid this isn’t just a minor mistake. You seem to have casually dismissed a whole bunch of obviously thoughtful and intelligent people based on a gross misunderstanding of what they believe. That is what some people in the business refer to as a credibility-killer.
And even if you do have some special insight into this Bulgaria situation, size and interdependence matter. A small European country bordered on all sides by trading partners that are collectively much larger brings the possibility for competitiveness and currency issues far beyond anything that the larger sovereign nations would ever face in any but the most absurd of situations. So even if you have indeed discovered a great flaw in this theory, I would parse your objection a bit more finely if I were you.
3. rallip3 says:
The Cyprus problem is a banking problem first; I believe that the Euro area problems show that it’s unsafe to run a bank when there are not enough risk-free assets. Surely, however if the Single Market means anything, it should mean that there is nothing foolish about a Cypriot or Luxemburg bank considering the whole of the Eurozone to be its home market.
Also on Cyprus’ side is the observation that when Greece renegotiated its debt the ECB and IMF got an unfairly good deal compared to Cyprus’ banks. In that sense, it was not Cyprus or Athens that was deciding who took the pain from a Greek default but a group of foreign politicians hiding behind Central Bankers.
The big paradox from Greece is that if you had a bank account you did not lose out, while those who you held a theoretically safer government bond lost unnecessarily big. In Cyprus they the same ECB and IMF are proposing a different (and perhaps more logical) outcome than in Greece. This is totally capricious and unmanageable.
The Eurozone can only work if either all sovereign bonds are risk-free or some community-wide risk-free debt vehicle is available in sufficient size and liquidity.
4. Lugnut says:
I gather you feel then that Iceland would not be a valid comparison? Orfrom a different angle, why does it seem to be such an alien concept that banks w(who hold these bonds) aren’t alllowed even the hint of potential at actually having to realize a loss on an investment with inherent risk? Remember kids, the German FinMin and the other puppets wanted a 40% theft of personal depositor assets when they first started talking about this. So you think this was going to be their only bite at the apple? Fat chance, that. What happens 6 months from now, when their baseline financial situation doesnt improve markedly?
Sure this may ‘only’ be 6-10% now, but your daft if you think thats the extent of the tax. Contrary to that a default allows them to do a total reset of obligations and debt and interest overhang. And a better long term prospect.
Their only digging deeper if you think that the Euro is the long term victor in this story. I don’t think that book has been written yet.
5. davebarnes says:
late 1990s and not 1990′s
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A Cray Fish Story
Chapters: 1 2 3 Next »
If you go to New York City and take a boat or a car about seventy miles east, then you will find yourself in what used to be an underwater paradise. In the time when our story took place, it was a highly populated area of fish, but it could not have been further from peaceful or pleasant. It was a place where every fish was uneducated and ignorant, which led many to be extremely violent towards others. There was no place to get an education, no police stations for justice, no courts to judge the many criminals running amok in that large community, and no peaceful sanctuary of a church where lovers may wed. The water around the variety of fish living there seemed to be darker than most parts of the big blue, but it had nothing to do with lack of sunlight.
One fish living there, who is very important to our story as you will find out, is named Ozzy. Just Ozzy, as none of the fish could remember their families’ names. He’s a small Sunfish, but being as uneducated as all those fish were, he did not know that. This curious little fellow was a great friend to anyone who is willing to get to know him, but most fish in the ocean saw him as a loser. He lived in a coral cabin that’s on the borders of the kelp forest and lived his days trying to avoid all of the big jocks and jerks with their S (S for Shark) rated moves and their horribly loud tunes that rocked the ocean and shook the sand. He always saw a better day, when everyone would be nice, and anyone would be able to sleep at night without having to worry about what gangster fishes were lurking under the sand.
He kept his hopes up, and one day he befriended Gill and Sandy. The twin clown fishes (although they didn’t know that) were just as clownish and as silly as any clown fish could get. They were like partners in crime, their worst crime not being very bad. Gill became Ozzy’s very best pal, sharing every deep, dark secret they had, and doing almost everything together. Almost. Sandy would just be like a third wheel, always tagging along and having a great time, but never quite having the same bond as her brother had with Ozzy. She may also have had a small crush on Ozzy, but only a teeny tiny one, as she will tell you.
Ozzy really enjoyed his life under the sea, and had as much fun as he could with the little knowledge he had. Every fish only knew how to build coral cabins and grow seaweed that was good enough to eat, so the entire place looked like a bunch of boxes with grass growing all around. No one liked the seaweed, they were all so tired of it, but it was the only thing that they knew how to prepare and eat. Life was boring and tasteless in that village under the sea, but every fish had as much fun as they could, and for most, that meant beating the flounder out of old fish.
But then one day all of that changed for Ozzy. He was out on his morning swim - trying to not get fat from his seaweed meals - when he heard two old lady fishes talking about when they were children.
“Yeah, I remember the taste of coral, but now no one can even expand their food horizons beyond seaweed!” the first fish said.
“Well that’s because no one remembers. No one remembers anything. Remember?” said the second.
“Sadly, that’s all I remember, or do I remember? Is it possible to remember remembering?” the first replied.
“Remember, it’s such a funny ford, right? Think about it, or say it ten times fast!” the second added.
“Uh, how’s this: remember, remember…” the old lady fish started.
Remember, thought Ozzy. So there was a time when fish knew about things, things like coral. He swam away, not needing to hear the rest of this old ladies’ tongue twister.
On his way home, Ozzy thought to himself, what if people knew? No one would be mean, people could have fun! And we could stop eating seaweed! Life would be so great! And at that moment, Ozzy knew exactly what to do.
Chapters: 1 2 3 Next »
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The 101 strangest records on Spotify: Space – Just Blue
Made by 24-year-old Moroccan-born composer Didier Marouani, Just Blue is a prog and classical disco fusion album that redefines bombastic with its hands-in-the-air oddity
By the spring of 1979 disco was so big all it could really expect to do was implode. In the same week that the brilliant single Final Signal from this LP was released, the shelves were groaning under the weight of new dancefloor-destined 12" doofers from Hot Chocolate and Wings to super-producer Desmond Child - even Dolly Parton was in on the boom with the 4/4 country-synth thuderama of Baby I'm Burnin'. In March famous dancefloor holdout Las Vegas finally launched its own 24-hour disco station that played 7"s only until 5pm then 12" specials all the way through the night. The demand, it seemed, was insatiable. So it followed, to some, that if even Nashville and the crooners were making advances to disco then why not prog and classical? Consequently, as their label Casablanca lined up more straightforward platters by Cher, Music Machine and Meadowlark Lemon, they also found space for Didier Marouani's Space. 24-year-old Moroccan-born composer and singer Marouani - a disciple of Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart - had already toured with Johnny Hallyday and Claude Francois when he began recording this, his band's third LP in 1978.
The title track is a gentle throb, a pseudo-classical gander across a well-trodden disco path, but one with huge, echoey reverb on the bass synth, while Blue Tears is spectrally deep, a sighing cosmic breath from within a dusty, wood-covered, button-heavy synthesizer. Then there's Symphony, which redefines bombastic: this is a hands-in-the-air, multi-voiced oddity that breaks down to tick-tock tremulously along its timeline before being elevated by a glorious robot choir. Secret Dreams features two wildly contrasting (and both beautifully horrible) synth noises that rub up against some twinkling bells before breaking down into a Comfortably Numb-like axe-a-thon. But it's our old friend Final Signal that's the killer jam here featuring, as it does, a heavily processed fretless bass going buckwild over a decidedly Moroder-esque throb and a heavily stereo-panned keyboard - it is ludicrous and wonderful disco-sploitation genius of the first water. Space sold an amazing 12m copies of their first three LPs and, happily, rode the disco train to Russia, opening up new worlds even as previous strongholds began to whither and die in deserts and divebars across the States. | <urn:uuid:e4610d5d-e9ac-4c8a-b9a2-7a06006d58c8> | http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/02/101-strangest-spotify-space-just-blue | en | 0.960955 | 0.034581 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Force Is Almost With You
At a twenty-year remove, Star Wars comes off less as the work of a wizard than as the weird obsessive outgrowth of an eccentric American primitive. George Lucas is a tycoon version of those self-taught craftsmen who fill backyards, storage rooms and cramped city apartments with paintings, gewgaws or wire-hanger sculptures. Fine-arts critics have a name for what these characters produce: Their quirky private mythology is called "outsider art." Lucas at his most likable has a strain of the outsider artist in him; when he made Star Wars, he was following his own impulses and bucking the studio heads who thought space fantasy and heroic legendry were dead. What's unsettling about Lucas is that his stubborn idiosyncrasies are devoid of anything controversial or outre. He's an outsider with inside intuitions--he created the new mainstream, and it swamped Hollywood.
The movie isn't a breakneck adventure, either. It's often blamed for the action-blockbuster mentality that's corrupted American moviemaking for two decades, but no studio executive today would green-light such a gassy script. The first hour, in particular, is heavy lifting, as Darth Vader bullies a horde of forgettable subordinate baddies and Obi-Wan convinces Luke to be all that he can be. The movie's hold relies on Lucas's pulp notions of virtue connecting with America's hunger for an all-purpose, ready-to-wear philosophy. What could be easier to swallow than the beliefs of the Jedi Knights (compacted from cartoons, sci-fi serials, Westerns and swashbucklers, spiked with '60s consciousness expansion and anthropology)? In spite of the scripture that's grown up around them, their pursuit of positive feeling isn't any more challenging than Green Lantern's faith in willpower. (Lucas and mythologist Joseph Campbell are now intertwined in the public mind; in 1985 Lucas told the National Arts Club that Campbell "has become my Yoda." But Campbell appears only in a footnote in Dale Pollock's 1983 Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, written with Lucas's cooperation. Pollock cites Carlos Castaneda and his Tales of Power as the main source of the movie's mysticism.)
"I am Oz, the Great and Powerful," declared one of Lucas's major influences, the Wizard of Oz. Star Wars alternates between the Not-So-Great and Powerful, but it is intriguing: uninteresting in an interesting way, filled with notions that don't quite crawl to the level of ideas and moods that rarely acquire the weight of emotion. There is still something enjoyably jolting about seeing "sand people" with eyes that resemble the air jets over airplane seats, or "Jawas" who look like incongruously jolly leprous monks, or a junk heap filled with mutated gadgets, all rolled out with serene matter-of-factness, as if each had an ordained place in the cosmos. And if you're surrounded by hundreds of rapt viewers--people who've attended the film so many times that they don't clap for the cliffhanger climaxes or laugh at the obvious jokes but do clap fervently at the end--you have to grant that Star Wars is a genuine Yankee-tinker oddity. It's a cult movie for a mass viewership. And unlike cults for small-scale movies, the Star Wars cult, like Star Trek's Trekkies, take their preoccupation seriously, as a pop route to transcendence. They turn stick figures into icons and worship the notion of "The Force"--Lucas's variation on the Eastern concept of a vital energy coursing through the universe, here capable of fueling good or evil depending on how it's shaped by humanity.
But Lucas has had subtler legacies, too. Would Diner have been financed if the success of an earlier vignette-style coming-of-age ensemble period piece--American Graffiti--weren't in studio executives' heads? And the credits to Lucas's directorial efforts are also a credit to his taste, from actors such as Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat and Harrison Ford to that sound and editing wizard Walter Murch. The second-unit photographers for Star Wars alone included Carroll Ballard (who went on to direct The Black Stallion), Robert Dalva (who edited The Black Stallion), and Tak Fujimoto (who shot Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, and The Silence of the Lambs for Jonathan Demme). Too bad Star Wars has become such a commercial vortex that it's weakened Lucas as a catalyst, sucking down his time.
And the slicker the movie gets, the more it loses character. Because Lucas pioneered seamless meldings of special effects into live-action footage, his trilogy has left a glossy afterglow, though one of its charms is how knocked-up its futuristic vision gets--even that golden boy C-3PO has a charming collection of dents. Part of the Star Wars appeal for a non-technical, non-cult audience came from its transposition of World War II propaganda and baby-boomer youth culture to that "long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." It was a daydream come true for many members of the Woodstock generation--fighting Nazi-like Imperial Stormtroopers as their fathers did, but with the vaguely countercultural Force as their weapon. One of the several spontaneous chuckles at the screening I attended came when Luke begs off cleaning up the androids because he's got to go to "Tosche station to pick up some power convertors," sounding for all the universe like a Valley Boy aching to get some new shocks for his jalopy. In his enormous "Letter From Skywalker Ranch" in the January 6 New Yorker, John Seabrook writes that people applaud for Lucas "because he is Star Wars. It's difficult for brains braised in Star Wars from early adulthood to conceive of Lucas in any other terms." But even at the time of its premiere, movie fans couldn't help seeing Luke as Lucas. In Star Wars, Luke is thrust into an intergalactic civil war when he's nothing more than a kid from a desert nowhere-land who would fit right into the Modesto of American Graffiti--and he ends up triumphing over the evil Empire by sticking to his gut urges, just as Lucas ended up conquering Hollywood. The movie's one heartfelt twinge comes when John Williams's music wells up like tears as Luke, profiled against a melancholy double sunset, laments what promises to be a fate of rural drudgery. (In general, Williams's score carries the emotional load: When you saw the film without the score, Carroll Ballard told Lucas biographer Pollock, "you couldn't take it seriously. But the music gave it the style of an old-time serial.")
Star Wars Special Edition.
Written and directed by George Lucas. With Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness and the voice of James Earl Jones.
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fitness: workout
Dotted Line
Move 01
The Single-Arm Bench Press
Step 1.
Grab a dumbbell in your left hand and lie on your back on a flat bench, holding the dumbbell over your chest with your arm straight. Your palm should be facing out, but turned slightly inward. Place your right hand on your abs.
Step 2.
Lower the dumbbell to the side of your chest. Pause, then press the weight back to the starting position as quickly as you can. (Straighten your arm completely.) Do all your repetitions, then repeat with your right arm.
Use this move in your workout
Twice a week, perform three sets of 10 repetitions, resting for 90 seconds between sets. Want to work your butt and abs even more? Slide over so that only your right butt cheek and right shoulder blade are on the bench. Now do your reps with your left arm. Keep your body in a straight line from your knees to your shoulders as you perform the exercise. (Don’t let your hips sag; you’ll have to place your left wider to maintain your balance.) Then slide over so that your left butt cheek and left shoulder blade are on the bench and do your reps with your right arm. This increases the activation of your core, particularly your glutes. Trust me, you’ll be able to tell it’s working.
Dotted Line | <urn:uuid:822c4991-3fe8-469d-9f38-ed578b643ae5> | http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/the-single-arm-bench-press | en | 0.901614 | 0.047445 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Try A Tough 9/11 Quiz Sarah Palin Would Totally Fail Worse Than You!Seven years after terrorists attacked New York and Washington in a stunning feat of gargantuan destruction that instilled a seemingly permanent sense of fear in Americans pretty much everywhere except New York and DC, we at Gawker have not forgotten to never forget! And guess what, there is a very difficult new quiz up on MSNBC that five of us just took to prove it! We even beat Wonkette. Come, try failing it yourself! And then see which Gawker editors you most resemble in the Rage of the Creative Underclass Curve:Pareene and I both scored 60%, because he is a genius and I was a journalist then. (All journalists covered nothing but 9/11 until January 2002; it was like Sarah Palin but with anthrax too.) (Also, remember Ashleigh Banfield? Just saying.) Richard got 50%, because he is secretly a genius. Jim Newell of Wonkette got 40%, because he is a child genius whose contemporaries were barely reading that Pet Goat book* in 2001 and Sheila got 40% because she was late to theater class and thought people were describing the plot of some wack ass movie. Ryan Tate got 20% because his mind is filled with information and data points that are actually usable in blog posts. [MSNBC]
*Yeah, extra credit if you knew it was actually called "The Pet Goat", not "My Pet Goat." I guess we can blame Michael Moore for that common misnomer, but hey, like I told someone I misidentified in a post yesterday accuracy in these times is a giant fucking bridge to nowhere. | <urn:uuid:ff93702b-70b2-46cd-9c50-1da9b1c6b0e7> | http://gawker.com/5048654/try-a-tough-911-quiz-sarah-palin-would-totally-fail-worse-than-you?tag=quiz | en | 0.970108 | 0.04966 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Friday, January 28, 2011
Space Shuttle Challenger - I'll never forget
When I was in Junior High School I wanted to be an astronaut. The guidance counselor would try to persuade me to not try for it because they hire so few a year, blah, blah, blah (yeah...wonderfully encouraging man...). I was also in 8th grade when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I was sitting in typing class when our science teacher, Mr. Nause, knocked on the door and called our typing teacher, Ms. Miller, out of the room.
Ms. Miller was a jokester. She was a bit harsh too...not all of her jokes were the most pleasant, i.e. - telling kids with dimples that they were birth defects, etc. I didn't mind her. In fact I enjoyed her class, if not her humor (and I have dimples!). So a couple minutes later she came back into the classroom and told us that the Challenger exploded. The class laughed. Everyone figured that with her sense of humor she was trying to make a joke, and we knew that you always laughed at her jokes! She repeated it several times, but couldn't convince us. She actually had to leave the room and get Mr. Nause to come back in and tell us that she wasn't joking. Needless to say there was silence after that.
The period ended a few minutes later and it was time for gym class. My gym teacher (I don't remember her name) sat in the gymnasium with the radio on listening to the news about the disaster. There were only about 5 of us that sat there with her and listened and cried while everyone else did who knows what.
There are three tragedies that occurred during my life that I feel certain I will remember for the rest of my life. This is one. How absolutely heart-breaking to think of their families (and I somehow always do think of the families when tragedy happens), and how terrible it was for Mrs. McAuliffe's class to be there watching it happen. I hope they will be remembered for what they are. Heroes making the way into the great unknown. Explorers. Trail-blazers.
Rest in Peace:
Ellison S. Onizuka - Mission Specialist - from Kona, HI. First Asian American to in space. LTC, USAF
Sharon Christa McAuliffe - Crew Member, "Teacher in Space Program" - from Concord, NH. Was selected from over 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space.
Greg Jarvis - Payload Specialist - born in Detroit, MI. CPT, USAF
Judy Resnik - Mission Specialist - born Akron, OH. Second American woman and second Jewish person in space.
Michael J. Smith - Pilot - born Beaufort, NC. CPT, USN
Dick Scobee - Commander - born Cle Elum, WA. LTC, USAF (Vietnam veteran. Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal)
Ron McNair - Physicist - born Lake City, SC. Second African-American in space. Black belt & Saxophonist.
For more information on these heroes, please check out the NASA website. | <urn:uuid:19b4ea8f-ba1c-43e2-a58d-ceb9263aaee7> | http://haveyouseenmyroots.blogspot.com/2011_01_28_archive.html | en | 0.965429 | 0.030289 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Psychology Wiki
Language barrier
34,192pages on
this wiki
Language: Linguistics · Semiotics · Speech
Language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to indicate the difficulties faced when people who have no language in common attempt to communicate with each other. It may also be used in other contexts.
Language barrier and communication Edit
Typically, little communication occurs unless one or both parties learns a new language, which requires an investment of much time and effort. People travelling abroad often encounter a language barrier.
People who come to a new country at an adult age, when language learning is a cumbersome process, can have particular difficulty "overcoming the language barrier". Similar difficulties occur at multinational meetings, where translation services can be costly, hard to obtain, and prone to error.
In 1995, 24,000 of the freshmen entering the California State University system reported English was their second language; yet only 1,000 of these non-active speakers of English tested proficient in college-level English (Kahmi-Stein&Stein,1999). Numbers such as these make it evident that it is crucial for instruction librarians to acknowledge the challenges that language can present. Clearly use of English is a key complicating factor in international students' use of an American university library. Language difficulties impact not only information-gathering skills but also help-seeking behaviors. Lack of proficiency in English can be a major concern for international students in their library use as it relates to asking for and receiving assistance. Lee (1991), herself a former international student, explains that international students tend to be acquiescent and believe that school is the one place in the English-speaking world where they should be able to compete on an equal basis. International students are receptive and strongly motivated. For international students, concerned with proper sentence structure and precise vocabulary, this alteration of words and positions can be much more baffling than it is to native English speakers. The use of synonyms, a necessity in keyword searching, is a difficult to master, especially for students with limited English vocabulary (F. Jacobson, 1988). In 2012, The Rosetta Foundation declared April 19 the international "No Language Barrier Day". The idea behind the day is to raise international awareness about the fact that it is not languages that represent barriers: languages should not be removed, they are not a barrier - to the contrary, they should be celebrated. It is access to translation services that is the barrier preventing communities from accessing and sharing information across languages. The annual celebration of this day aims to raise awareness about and to grow global community translation efforts.
Language barrier and migration Edit
Language barriers also influence migration. Emigrants from a country are far more likely to move to a destination country which speaks the same language as the emigrant's country. Thus, most British emigration has been to Australia, Canada, or New Zealand, most Spanish emigration has been to Latin America, and Portuguese emigration to Brazil. And even if the destination country does not speak the emigrant's language, it is still more likely to receive immigration if it speaks a language related to that of the emigrant. The most obvious example is the great migration of Europeans to the Americas. The United States, with its dominant Germanic English language, attracted primarily immigrants from Northern Europe, where Germanic tongues were spoken or familiar. The most common backgrounds in the United States are German, Irish, and English, and the vast majority of Scandinavian emigrants also moved to the United States (or English-speaking Canada). Southern Europeans, such as Italians, were more likely to move to Latin American countries; today, people of Italian descent are the second-largest ethnic background in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, after Spanish and (in Brazil) Portuguese, but rank fourth in the United States among European groups. In the past decade, Romanians have primarily chosen Italy and Spain as emigration destinations, with Germany, the largest Western European country, ranking a distant third.
Auxiliary languages as a solutionEdit
Since the late 1800s, auxiliary languages have been available to help overcome the language barrier. These languages were traditionally written or constructed by a person or group. Originally, the idea was that two people who wanted to communicate could learn an auxiliary language with little difficulty and could use this language to speak or write to each other.
In the first half of the twentieth century, a second approach to auxiliary languages emerged: that there was no need to construct an auxiliary language, because the most widely spoken languages already had many words in common. These words could be developed into a simple language. People in many countries would understand this language when they read or heard it, because its words also occurred in their own languages.
This approach addressed a perceived limitation of the available auxiliary languages: the need to convince others to learn them before communication could take place. The newer auxiliary languages could also be used to learn ethnic languages quickly and to better understand one's own language.
Examples of traditional auxiliary languages, sometimes called schematic languages, are Esperanto, Ido, and Volapük. Examples of the newer approach, sometimes called naturalistic languages, are Interlingua, Occidental, and Latino Sine Flexione. Only Esperanto and Interlingua are widely used today, although Ido is also in use.
Language barrier for international students in the United StatesEdit
Nowadays, more and more students study abroad. Along with all the problems that international faced, language barrier becomes the biggest problem for international students, especially in America. In addition, this kind of language barrier make many students feel helpless and over stressed. Nowadays, many researches prove that the difficulty of language barrier for international students. Selvadurai mentioned the problem of language barrier, identification of classroom atmosphere and faculty-student relationship as cause of difficulties for international students in his research which published on 1998. In all the factors, he said that the language is “the first barrier encountered by international students” (154).[1] Not only language barrier will cause international students’ anxiety, Chen, the counseling instructor at The University of British Columbia, Canada, identifies second language anxiety, educational stressors, and sociocultural stressors as the three biggest challenges for international students (51-56).[2] In order to solve the stress that international students have, some scholars gave some suggestions, including deal with the problems with a positive attitude and educate international students to use various ways to help them solve their problems, especially during the orientation periods (Olivas and Li 219-220).[3]
Language dominance after colonisationEdit
Nigeria was a British colony, and was forced to use English. Because of this, Nigerians use English rather than their own languages, and the use of English is rapidly spreading among the upper classes. The role of English in education is important, and English dominates the printed media. Although Education in Nigeria uses Nigerian languages, most Nigerians are more literate in English. This is also exemplified throughout other British commonwealth or past colonised countries. It is also prevalent in countries which weren't colonised, but have an under developed economy where education is limited and basic, such as Botswana. Besides English, this is also seen in countries such as Portuguese for Mozambique, and French for Mauritius and many more.
Other uses of the term "language barrier" Edit
• SIL discusses "language as a major barrier to literacy" when a speaker's language is unwritten.[4]
Misconceptions about the "language barrier" Edit
It is sometimes assumed that when multiple languages exist in a setting, there must therefore be multiple language barriers. Multilingual societies generally have lingua francas and traditions of its members learning more than one language, an adaptation which while not entirely removing barriers of understanding belies the notion of impassable language barriers.
For example, there are an estimated 300 different languages spoken in London alone, but members of every ethnic group on average manage to assimilate into British society and be productive members of it.[5]
See also Edit
References Edit
1. [1][dead link]
2. Bookmarkable URL intermediate page. URL accessed on 2012-08-22.
3. Bookmarkable URL intermediate page. URL accessed on 2012-08-22.
4. Mother Tongues: Breaking the language barrier. URL accessed on 2012-08-22.
5. Multilingual London. URL accessed on 2012-08-22.
External links Edit
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Dear CareerDoctor,
I'm currently doing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in the U.K., even though I'm originally from Canada. My long-term career goal is to stay in academia, either in Canada or in Europe. However, since coming to the U.K. I've become quite confused about the various research positions within university and the academic career structure as a whole. For example, in Canada most academic staff are associate professors, but in my department here in the U.K. only the most senior staff are professors. Is this generally the case or is it just a peculiarity?
Also, I have been told that a "postdoc" should be the next step in my career, but I'm not sure what this position is exactly. I'm more familiar with the idea of a research fellowship, so I am not sure what the right choice for me is.
As well as clearing up these points for me, I'd also be grateful for any tips you may have to boost my chances of success in an academic career. From your previous columns I can see that the number of publications I will produce is going to be a deciding factor, but what else do you think will help me to get ahead in academia?
Dear Ruth,
You surely aren't the only one who finds the different job titles and career structure within academia confusing. I was caught out myself a few years ago when a former colleague of mine applied for a post in the U.S. as an associate professor. He was still at an early stage in his career, and I remember thinking, "Well, he's good, but not THAT good!" Once I started looking into the career structure in the States I soon realised that an associate professor there is more or less equivalent to a lecturer in the U.K. But if the terminology related to academic positions can vary greatly between countries, there are actually few differences in terms of career progression and pressures.
So first let's clear up any confusion. In the U.K., you should expect to complete a period of postdoctoral research after your Ph.D., which will last from 2 to 5 years typically, although there are variations between disciplines. People at this stage of their career are known as postdocs, research associates, research fellows (more on these later), contract researchers, or various acronyms including JRA (Junior Research Associate or Assistant), SRA (Senior Research Associate), and CRS (Contract Research Staff).
Don't worry too much about these terms; what all these have in common is that they are fixed-term posts during which you will be a member of university staff (hence attracting benefits such as a pension and more importantly for some, a parking permit), and you will be working on a defined, funded research project. In terms of your career, your postdoctoral contracts are the first step on the ladder, as during this time you should lay the foundations of your academic career by beginning to develop your own research strategy, writing papers, and contributing to grant-proposal writing. You need be in control from an early stage, as many postdocs can find themselves trapped as contract researchers if they don't demonstrate all the qualities and achievements needed to make the next transition into lecturing posts.
For academic fast-trackers, this first research position is also the time when applications for a personal fellowship start. These are prestigious awards which are given to the best researchers to give them the freedom to pursue their own project in their chosen location for as long as 5 years. (Extensions are also available.) Awarding bodies include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and charities such as the Leverhulme Trust. A personal fellowship is not an essential step in an academic career, but it will give you a distinct advantage over your peers.
You will enjoy a dedicated period of research without the traditional pressures of teaching and administration (unlike those who go into lectureships and find their time for research squeezed to the margins). This leaves you more space to establish a research group, develop your research proposal-writing skills, and focus on writing papers and building your reputation at conferences. Still, many research fellows will undertake limited teaching and light administrative duties to build goodwill in their department and increase their indispensability, thus increasing their chances of being offered a permanent post by the university once their fellowship has ceased.
While you are a fellow you are indeed in a strong position to negotiate for a permanent academic position within your institution, as you are already directly contributing to their RAE grades. Perhaps I should elaborate on that: RAE is the Research Assessment Exercise, which is a measure of universities' research output scored on a scale of 1 to 5*, with 5* being the highest. The funding universities get is partly determined by their RAE score, and although the exact assessment criteria change regularly, it is fair to say that a high number of publications is good for your institution. As a consequence universities are always keen to keep staff members who produce high-impact publications (that is, get their papers into journals with a high credibility as judged by their "impact ratings") and can attract funding.
As I hinted above, after your postdoc years your first academic and permanent position is likely to be as a lecturer. These posts are given a Grade A or B, with A being more junior. The review of pay scales, which you may have seen reported earlier in the year, may change these terms, but the salaries will give you an idea of the seniority of the post. (Current salary ranges are available from the AUT.) The next step on the ladder is up to senior lecturer, then professor (also known as a chair). As you've observed in your own department, professors are a rare breed!
There is a final point of confusion I should mention: the readership. This is a post that is between senior lecturer and professor, but it is not a mandatory step on the career ladder. A reader is a senior researcher who shares the fellows' focus on research and their minimal teaching and administration duties. For most academics, the main attraction of their job is the freedom to pursue their own research, so reader posts are again highly sought after. However, in contrast to the fellows, readers are funded by the university itself, so most departments can only support a small number of them.
For more general information on research in the U.K., take a look at the HERO Web site. However, the U.K. system is different from other European countries, as our degrees are shorter, so Ph.D. graduates are younger. I don't have space here to describe the career paths in other countries, but if you look at the profile of European researchers on Next Wave you'll develop an idea of the career paths typical of each country. You probably also work in a department with a broad range of other nationalities, so ask these other researchers about the university systems in their home countries.
All I've done so far is outline the career structure within British universities, but academic career success depends on you understanding more subtle issues. I've mentioned impact ratings, but you also need to be aware of differences in institutional culture (i.e., whether they offer permanent posts, how many readers or professors are appointed, promotion rates) and tap into hot research topics. I'm not a chemical engineer, so I can't answers these questions; they will come from your own exposure to the research community.
So my top tips for you now are to:
1. Go to conferences and present your work so you begin to raise your profile;
2. Whilst at conferences, network using the tips you'll find elsewhere on Next Wave;
3. Join your professional body and start getting involved in activities with other chemical engineers to broaden your professional network and your awareness of developments that may influence your research;
4. Investigate research funding and identify the best fellowships, then contact the awarding body for advice;
5. As a general rule tell people about your interest in an academic career, as they may be aware of awards, vacancies, and other opportunities that will help you.
In the space I have here I can only summarise the top tips for longer-term success, which I've gathered from talking to academics in many different fields.
1. Publish in high-impact journals;
2. Secure research funding;
3. Attend conferences and talk to other researchers in your field (and in related fields);
4. Work in a department that values its staff and offers career progression (you'll only work out which these are by talking to other academic engineers);
5. Build an international research career (i.e., do a postdoc in a different country).
But you may feel that all this is a long way ahead, so where do you start? Well, most first postdocs (I'm going to stick with postdoc as it is the term I'm most comfortable with!) work on projects that have been developed by the academic supervisor they are working for, the PI (no, not like Magnum, but in fact the principal investigator). Another role of the PI is to secure funding for your research project, and sometimes they apply for funds with a researcher in mind, who is named in the research proposal and known as the "named researcher" (who said academics have no imagination?), but a quick look around Science Careers demonstrates that most projects are staffed only after funding, so this is probably the surest way you can start your academic career.
Where else can you look for these positions? There are many dedicated sites and publications, so you need to ask around your department for advice on where to look for your particular field. In the U.K. there is, for example, a Web site for jobs in academia called, which also carries some international posts. I'd also look at the Institute of Chemical Engineers Web sit, which links to all the jobs it advertises in its magazine. If you are planning to move to another country, the University of Strathclyde Careers Service has written a comprehensive Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet for researchers, which can be browsed by geographical area as well as subject.
Just a few words of warning. When you search through vacancies, you will see the term "Research Fellow" cropping up from time to time. This is a final point that many find confusing. Some postdoc positions are indeed called fellowships, even though you apply for them in the same way as other posts. These shouldn't be mistaken for the "Fellowships" I mentioned earlier, that is, those ones where you are awarded personal funding for your postdoctoral research.
A few final thoughts about your field. In chemical engineering (like most other engineering fields) there are fewer Ph.D. students and postdocs than in the more traditional sciences. This means that there is less competition for academic posts, and you may not have the struggle to secure a position that you might read about elsewhere in Next Wave. However, if you apply the strategies developed by researchers in these fields, you should find yourself on the academic fast track, wherever you ultimately decide to base your career.
Good luck in your career,
The CareerDoctor | <urn:uuid:ef3fab4f-906e-4c81-afa4-f3f5c7cb124f> | http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2004_06_11/nodoi.16710427584629788382 | en | 0.971225 | 0.023596 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Tag:Felix Dubront
Posted on: April 13, 2011 3:45 pm
Dice is Plural for Die
That's what Matsuzaka seems to be doing out there on the mound when it's his turn in the rotation. The Red Sox are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place; they can't waive him--he's owed too much money. My guess is that they'd love to waive him, but it's not really a matter of the money that makes them continue to "roll the dice." If Daisuke fails, it was an embarassing baseball move four years ago when they paid over $50M to the Seibu Lions just to be able to negotiate a contract. It was considered a steal when they signed him to six years and $52M, but added to the $50M posting fee, it was merely a solid contract offer. If Matsuzaka fails, this bid by the Red Sox was a big mistake.
But how many tries does one player get? Matsuzaka hasn't been the player they envisioned since his second season. If only those World Baseball Classics counted toward his Red Sox contract. He was voted the MVP of the inaugural and second Classic. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, he just doesn't seem to pitch with the same fervor as he does when it is world competition. Perhaps the level of competition is overwhelming at the Major League level? This would be a valid point, except Japan has won both World Baseball Classics. Apparently their players are at least on par with US players. Also, let's not forget that US players are on many of their home teams' rosters.
Looking back on Matsuzaka's stats over the years, it would be hard to argue that he has earned his contract with the Red Sox. If he had been paid just the $52M from the contract, it still would have been money poorly spent, compound that with the posting fee, and it becomes a mistake of huge proportions. The real winners here were the Seibu Lions who pocketed $51,111,111 just for allowing Matsuzaka to negotiate with the Red Sox. That's enough money for them to pay their entire payroll for over two years!
In 2010, Matsuzaka had an ERA of below 4.00--following only one game! On August 5, 2010 the Red Sox faced the Cleveland Indians. Matsuzaka pitched quite well; he pitched 8 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 earned run, walked 2, and struck out 6. His ERA after that game was 3.96; it was the only game that he ended with a cumulative ERA for the season of under 4.00. His next start a few days later, corrected that anomaly. It continued to get worse until his second to last start on September 26, 2010 in which he pitched 8 innings, allowed 2 earned runs, walked 1, and struck out 7. He didn't pitch terrible against Cleveland for his first start of 2011, but it certainly wasn't expected to be leaps and bounds better than his second start of this year.
Daisuke Matsuzaka has a no-trade clause in his contract. This is fairly normal, and I'm glad the Red Sox gave in on that demand. It was a reasonable concession as Matsuzaka was excited to play for the Red Sox. He was taking a chance on the situation, and I can certainly understand his desire to make sure that the Red Sox didn't undermine that by trading him away. I imagine that Matsuzaka would not accept an outright assignment to the minors where he could continue to work out his mechanics, timing, or demonic possession that has been affecting him over the past couple of years. I think it's time for the Red Sox to bring Matsuzaka and his translator into the office and tell him that he has an injury and is going on the 15-day disabled list. This way, he can save face, and the Red Sox can explain that it wasn't a mistake to sign him, but he's been trying to work through an injury. Whatever their decision, they have to do it soon. I realize that they don't have many options for starting pitching to turn to, but Tim Wakefield is still on the roster and there are minor leaguers that can give at least comparable results--Felix Dubront comes to mind. | <urn:uuid:2565199c-7888-4db2-8bd7-ddc546c27c85> | http://sf49ersfan.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/view/28275625?mcctag=Felix%20Dubront | en | 0.992361 | 0.097196 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
121,476pages on
this wiki
For other uses, see Clone Wars (disambiguation).
CW Gambit Stealth front cover
Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
Attribution information
Karen Miller
Cover artist
Craig Howell
Publication information
Del Rey
Release date
February 23, 2010[1]
Media type
Trade paperback
Rise of the Empire era
21 BBY
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Preceded by
Republic Commando: Triple Zero
Followed by
Clone Wars Gambit: Siege
Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth is the fourth novel in the series of novels that tie-in to The Clone Wars television series. It was written by Karen Miller and was released on February 23, 2010. The audio version is narrated by Jeff Gurner.
Publisher's summaryEdit
Plot SummaryEdit
The novel starts out prior to the Battle of Kothlis as Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and their allies prepare to battle against the Separatists at the aforementioned planet. When they do engage the Separatist forces led by General Grievous, the Republic forces find themselves blind and deaf in their communication systems among each other. Regardless, they fight against the Separatist forces, and despite heavy losses, they save the planet from Separatist occupation. In the aftermath of the battle, as the surviving Republic troops, including Skywalker, Kenobi, and Tano, begin their recovery from their wounds, Republic Intelligence agents begin looking in to find out how General Grievous was able to sneak in a computer virus and communication jamming device among the Republic forces.
In the meantime, as Tano heals on the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center with the other surviving clone troops, Kenobi and Skywalker return to Coruscant for a five-day furlough. This is after they, along with Grand Master Yoda, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and Senator Bail Prestor Organa, assess the situation on Kothlis. They also assess how this would have consequences for further engagements with the Separatists in the future.
Senator Organa soon learns that a few months earlier, the Separatists took hold of a relatively insignificant planet in the Outer Rim Territories known as Lanteeb. Organa calls Skywalker, Kenobi, and Senator Padmé Amidala for a meeting in his home to find out what intrinsic value Lanteeb could possibly have for the Separatists. After collecting data from Kenobi, Tano, and Senator Amidala, they all hypothesize that the Separatists plan to use a certain mineral accessible only from Lanteeb and turn it into a biological virus against the Republic. So Kenobi and Skywalker go to Lanteeb disguised as locals who got back from labor on Alderaan, and they begin investigating where the virus is.
On Lanteeb, Kenobi and Skywalker discover that the biological virus is being developed in a compound headed by Separatist General Lok Durd, and the virus designer herself is Dr. Bant'ena Fhernan. Fhernan is being held against her will in the compound to create the virus, and Durd threatens that if she doesn't do what he tells her, he will eliminate all of her friends and family. As a result of this knowledge, Kenobi and Skywalker transmit a message to Master Yoda back on Coruscant, apprising him of the situation. Yoda assigns several Jedi teams to rescue Fhernan's friends and family, and all of the missions succeed, though one of Fhernan's loved ones is killed by one of Durd's henchmen once the rescue operations became known to the Separatists. Durd shows the death of Fhernan's loved ones and lies to her by saying that her other friends and family members are still in danger if she doesn't do what he says. So she ultimately betrays Kenobi and Skywalker to Durd's forces when they try to return to the compound, but the two Jedi barely escape death by hot-wiring a speeder and leaving. In order to hide out from Durd's forces, Kenobi and Skywalker decide to travel to one of the Lanteeban villages for help.
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could you please review my answers and confirm my reasoning. This is self-teaching work.
In how many ways can 8 people be seated in a row if:
(a) there are no restrictions:
Answer: 8!
(b) persons A and B must sit next to each other:
Answer: 8!/2! Now, the demoninator is 2! because the couple are considered 'a like', right?
(c) there are 4 men and 4 women and no 2 men and 2 women can sit next to each other
Answer: 8!/(4!*4!) I think this is correct, can you explain why?
(d) there are 5 men and they must sit next to each other.
Answer: 8!/5! I can't explain why this is correct
(e) there are 4 married couples and each couple must sit together
8!/(2!X4) the 4 couples are alike.
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1 Answer 1
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Let me discuss these answers stepwise. These problems should be thought in a two step process. You can easily realize that two humans can not be treated alike as can be the colors (red, orange etc.). Different person has different identity. So, most of your answers are not correct as you have taken persons to be alike. Don't worry, this is a very common mistake that almost everyone makes initially.
(A) As you have rightly pointed out, when there are no restrictions, the answer for (A) is 8!.
(B) If you want to place $n$ things in $n$ positions, and you care about order, you can do it in $n!$ ways. (Doing so is called permuting $n$ items at a time.)
So, your reasoning is not proper for (B). Here persons A and B can be thought of as a block of items along with 6 other individual items (here persons). So, as a whole we get 7 items (1 block+6 items). They can be arranged in $7!$ ways. You can then permute the 2 items (person A and B here) within the block (or within themselves) in $2!$ ways. So, the answer should be $7!\times2!$.
(C) To preserve this condition you should either select seat 1, 3, 5, 7 for men and seat 2, 4, 6, 8 for women or seat 2, 4, 6, 8 for men and seat 1, 3, 5, 7 for women. Then you should permute men and women between them. So, the result should be $2\times4!\times4!$.
(D) This one is very similar to (B). Here 5 men form a block. Along with the other 3 persons they form a total of 4 items. They can be arranged in $4!$ ways. Again these 5 men can be arranged within themselves in $5!$ ways. So, the answer should be $4!\times5!$.
(E) If we arbitrarily name the people A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, and D2, then one possible seating arrangement is B2, B1, A1, A2, C2, C1, D1, D2. Another such assignment might be B1, B2, A2, A1, C1, C2, D1, D2. These two examples illustrate that counting here is a two-step process. First, we have to figure out how many ways the couples A, B, C, and D can be arranged. Permuting 4 items (couples) 4 at a time... there are $4!$ ways. Then, we have to arrange the partners within each couple. Well, couple A can be arranged $2!$ ways. We can even list the ways... they can sit either as A1, A2 or as A2, A1. Likewise, couple B can be arranged in $2!$ ways, as can couples C and D. The Multiplication Principle then tells us to multiply all the numbers together. Four married couples can be seated in a row of 8 seats in:
$4!\times2!\times2!\times2!\times2! = 384$ ways
if each married couple is seated together.
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Thanks Blain Waan. You are accurate with my foundational issue. Early on I recognized that grouping objects (people) with similar attributes is not the same as grouping identical objects (flags). You have provided to me some useful techniques, and I am grateful. – 1c1cle Oct 23 '12 at 19:09
You are most welcome. – Blain Waan Oct 23 '12 at 19:10
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It was dark, that's all that really mattered. The day, month, year... All lost in the idea of time. All that was needed now was day and night. The stars glittered in the black sky, illuminating the gentle waters of the sea below. The waves lapped up against the white sands of the ever stretching beach, disappearing along the horizon.
Along this beach stood a mighty brick and stone structure that rose high above the tree tops. Black birds perched at the top layer of this stone building, a temple. It was a lonely building, as the little structures around it had been overtaken by the force of erosion and the gentle touch of ivy plants…
Through a broken window in this mass stone house, came a gentle glow of candle light. And through that window, hidden inside those old stone walls lived two mobian echidnas, as lonely as the temple itself. One of these two was currently walking down the chipped and cracked broken stair case, down to the first floor. He held in his hand a holder for the candle, as it burned brightly and melted the snow white wax.
This mobian echidna was old, to put it simply. His albino fur had grown thin and long, kept clean though. His dreads had long ago reached the floor, dragging behind him several feet. He had heard they stop growing eventually, and reach a point to where whatever length you have, you got. But he didn't believe it anymore… they are still growing, still ever so long. His name, was Finni.
Finni let out a yawn, and tugged a bit on the collar of his coal black robe. Stopping by a block of stone, he placed the candle down for a moment and stretched. He let out a small sigh and took off his cracked glasses, rubbing them against his robe to clean them. They were his last pair, and he knew of no place that sold any like his own. He didn't mind too much. His life was peaceful, and he was glad nothing worse than a broken pair of glasses, and being a care taker to someone even older than him. And he himself was over 200 years old. A thin smile crossed his face as he thought about this.
He had lived a long life, one not many would experience. While experimenting with his own gift given abilities, he figured that the Chaos Force, a grand idea of time, space and power put together, could be used in more than one way. Many small experiments on small animals such as fish and rodents, he managed to extend the life of these small creatures, and even his own. He slowed down internal growth, but he has not perfected this. As his outer image was beginning to follow the plan time had set for him.
But it works, for his 'father' (a name he does not call him) was still around, who was and still is very ill. If nature had taken over, and surpassed his knowledge of the Chaos Force, his 'father' would have long ago died of many problems, most likely of organ failure.
Suddenly, a shuffle. A whisper broke his thoughts. His ale golden eyes snapped towards the entrance of the temple. He held his breath, and listened. The wind was beginning to pick up outside, the midnight birds had stopped singing, the crickets quit chirping. Someone was outside.
Finni felt himself quiver, as he leaned over and with a gentle breath blew out the candle. A flicker, and the light disappeared leaving the room in darkness. The only light that existed now was from the starlight outside, and the faint glow his necklace emitted. A chaos emerald shard, one form the Master Emerald, and the source of his power. He took his hand and covered it, destroying that light as well. The room was dark and silent.
A click, a beep. Something electronic had gone off outside. The beeping was consistent, like a heartbeat, but he could hear it, speeding up slowly, but it began to get faster and faster. A bomb!
Finni dashed towards the stair case, and ducked into the arch and hid sheltered behind a small piece of stone. Just seconds after a fiery ball of flame and destruction broke open the stone doors. Shattering the thousand year old stone into rubble. Finni looked around the small corner, his body shaking, startled.
A flash of silver, and gold. Uniforms he recognized so very well. It was soldiers from Albion, the empire of his kind. Long ago they had fallen into a pile of ashes and misery, when Dr. Finitevus had struck upon them, beginning his long time goal of "cleansing" the world of technology, corruption and stupidity.
But years later they managed to rise up again, and upon their new rise to power, it was time for 'justice'. Finitevus needed to be found, and pay for his crimes. Finitevus' mental state had become worse, and his health had started to fade from him, making this the perfect time to capture him. The only thing Albion had not known, was he had a son. Finni.
And Finni had never left the temple, always stayed to protect Finitevus as he lie somewhere in the stone maze, waiting out his days till the end. And Finni now has become a prime enemy of Albion, because in his long struggle to protect Finitevus, he had need to kill many upon many soldiers… All in self-defense.
For many years they had left him alone, and Finni silently cursed to himself for letting his guard down. But more than anything, he was worried. These were new, young soldiers, training for this, he was old, alone, and had never been trained to fight.
Yet here he was now, and with this problem faced before him. The soldiers stormed in, and he turned just a bit raising his hand. He gave them no warning this time to leave, and they gave him no chance to surrender. He fired, a blast of emerald flame that hit the ground and erupted into a wall of green fire. It burned, lapping up the air. This was normally enough.
But suddenly the wall of flame was extinguished, nothing but a few stray flickers. The only explanation for this, was that his necklace's power was almost gone. He glanced down, seeing it flicker. A scowl of hate crossed his face, and this time he just simply fired, managing to hit one of these silent soldiers. They screamed in pain, but quickly recovered.
Another one, fired at Finni from an angle, and Finni watched as a bullet whizzed past his face hitting the wall behind him. Bullets? They have never used them before…
Finni decided he didn't have time to think about what weapon they used, all he knew was that it was dangerous. Finni stepped out from the corner and fired a string of chaos arrows towards the soldiers. Not a single one making contact with them, but hitting the ground at their feet. A small panic started between them, until two took aim, and fired.
Finni swiftly opened his warp ring as a pair of bullets were engulfed in the golden light, and came back out in a second one, facing the group. They dodged. They were prepared.
A blast, from a strange weapon went straight for the warp ring, and Finni watched in surprise as his only warp ring dissolved in midair, disappearing into nothing. Before he had time to fully get passed what had happened, a single shot rang out, and a sudden blow struck him in the gut. He bellowed over, clasping his hand over the wound as he felled back onto the steps.
He had been shot, and this to him was a new pain. One he had never experienced before. And it scared him down to his core. He shook, backing up slowly. He kept sliding back on the stairs, blood pooling up on his robe. With a quick action, he fired at the ceiling causing the support to give away, and a wall of stones suddenly was made between him and the entrance to the stairs. He was safe from them, for a moment.
Finni managed to get to his feet, and begin the walk up the steps. A sudden realization came to his mind as he took his fourth step. He had just blocked his only way out of the temple. And sealed himself inside. Not only that, but he could hear the soldiers yelling, working to move the stones. They would be through soon. And when they get through they would shoot again… and wouldn't shoot so low.
Finni hurried up the stairs, each step letting out a small cry, the bullet wound caused waves of pain to flow over him, but he ignored it. He felt his warm blood cover his hands as he reached the top of the stairs. He fired, at the celling blocking one way, and then he did it again firing at another way. Walking over in a hurry he smeared his hand across the wall leaving a blood mark. Then, he turned away and went down the last direction of the hall, closing that one up with a chaos spear and stones too.
Now, with little time to spare, he leaned on a wall and took a second to rest. He was too old to run far, or for a long time. His body was wracked with pains, and he was on the edge of shedding tears. A deep fear was welling up inside. He was wounded, he was old, and in the natural world. Kind like him don't last long, especially when versing a group of healthy, young soldiers, trained to fight, to win. This fear struck him, and he knew if they found him again, he was going to die.
His glasses slipped off his face, but he did nothing about them. They fell, and shattered when they hit the floor. Keeping his hand on the wound, he walked forward, and turned opening up a door. He shut it quietly behind him once he walked in, and began up the spiral stair case.
"Finitevus…" He called, his voice thin and just above a whisper. He walked up these steps, his blood dripping to the floor. The room was beginning to spin around him, and he nearly fell. He was tired, oh so very tired. But his mother had taught him to be strong, and he was just that.
He reached the top of the spiral stair case, and once again fired with the last remaining power in his stone at the ceiling. The spear was not enough, and only cracked the foundation. Dismay fell over him as he tried again, but only a thin spark came from his hand. He looked down at his necklace, as it gave out its last flicker, and became a cold, dead stone.
Suddenly a black, corrupted spear of chaos energy flew overhead, and hit the spot causing the ceiling to cave in, and fill the stairs with lose rubble, and blocking the doorway. Finni turned around and looked towards Finitevus.
Finitevus, lie in an old broken bed. The legs of this bed had snapped and the mattress and wood boards lie on the stone floor. The blankets were old and worn, with many holes in them. Finitevus faced Finni, his arm outstretched, and chaos energy crackled around the tips of his bandaged fingers. He slowly placed the arm back to his side. And sat up slowly.
"You've been shot." He pointed out bluntly and then commanded "Come here, Finni." Finni did what he was told without question. It was always easy to do what Finitevus wants. Finni had no idea how sane he was at the moment, or if he would snap at him all of a sudden.
Finni sat down next to Finitevus and waited for the insanity to take over, and for a lashing to follow. But it never came. Instead Finitevus reached over and carefully tore Finni's robe open a little, right above the wound. He then pressed his own hand on it, and said very quietly "You're going to bleed out if you aren't careful. And then what would I do? No one would be here to stop all this nonsenses from happening…" He went on a bit, about how things would change if Finni where to "bleed out" but Finni didn't listen. Finitevus didn't care if he died. He only cared about what hot meal, or the protection he was getting. He never cared about Finni…. Never….
A blast, from downstairs broke his thoughts and both the echidnas looked to the blocked doorway. Albion was on the move, and they would reach them soon.
Finni kept staring at the door, his eyes locked on the rubble. Finitevus on the other hand, turned to his left and reached over, a small tray serving as a night stand was there. On it a small potted plant, a glass of water and empty dish. Finitevus carefully reached for the plant, and pluck of the small black and red berries from the plant. The mint leaves shook as each berry was taken. In all, he held six berries in the palm of his hand. He brought them close and with his free hand, reached over and set off flicker of chaos flame, which lit the plant on fire.
Finni looked over at it, and stared confused on why Finitevus had set his favorite plant on fire, he liked it so much because it was the only thing that depended on him now. Depended on him to care for it, and water it. But just in a matter of seconds, the person it depended on had ended its life.
Finitevus took half the berries, and held them out to Finni. Finni looked down into his hand, but he could hardly make out any details of this fruit, his head was spinning, his mind was drifting. He looked to Finitevus and softly said "I don't want them…"
Finitevus ignored him and replied almost in an equally quit voice "Finni… just take them… the Albion Soldiers will find us soon."
Finni was surprised that Finitevus fully understood the situation they were in. It was like his mind had fully settled and he knew just how serious this situation had become.
All of a sudden Finitevus' hand jerked upwards and he pressed it against Finni's mouth. He rolled over and with his other hand he tightly gripped the bullet wound, digging into the torn flesh. Finni opened his mouth to scream, but it was choked off by the small berries. They slid easily down his throat, and before he knew it, he had eaten the unknown fruit.
A cough. "What did you give me?" Finni asked, angrily. He hated being treated in such a manner, even in the situation they were in. Finitevus had left the other three berries on his lap, and just stared at them.
Finni rolled his eyes and then asked "Do you have a warp ring, any at all? We need to go…" Finni started to get up but Finitevus grabbed his arm and held him down. "No… Just sit… This will all end soon…" A dead silence filled the room, which was soon broken by the distance sounds of another explosion.
"We need to go!" Finni said and moved his leg to get off the bed, but stopped. He moved his leg but he couldn't feel anything. He stared at his own feet in a frozen state, as he could feel a numbing sensation overcome them.
"….What… What did you do?" Finni asked, his voice slightly cracking. Finitevus didn't look at Finni, instead played with the berries in his lap. "Oranion Berries…" He said softly… A thin smile crossed his face. The most dangerous berries there are…"
Finni froze up completely, but his body began to shake uncontrollably. He no longer could feel his legs, and moving them was now impossible. Finni began taking quick breaths, as a panic rose up from deep in his chest.
Finitevus pulled up the tatted blanket and scooted close to Finni. And he watched as his son fell back onto the pillows shaking. His whole body jerked in ways Finni could not control, and he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out.
Finitevus laid down next to him and wrapped his arms tightly around him, slowly forcing Finni to stop shaking so violently. He then said softly "We can do this anymore… You can't." Finni's only reply was tears of fear slipping down his cheek.
Finni looked around, as the edge of his vision began to fade to black. He was scared beyond anything he had ever felt before. No longer was he in danger of dying, because he was dying.
Finitevus continued to talk. "Your mother loved you. A lot… and I am truly sorry I ripped you away from her. These past years I have realized how much time I had wasted ignoring the only person who stayed by my side…. Alex is gone… Aruna and Justin is gone…. Celty, Arrow, Lucy-Na…Falo-Lan… everyone's gone. Yet, you're here. And so am I…" He paused and slipped each of his own berries into his mouth.
"We both have blood on our hands. But for different reasons. You wanted nothing but peace and love… I knew it from the time you were five. And I hated you for that. For not seeing my ways. But in the end everything in my power could not change the world, and I was going to be left alone… yet you stayed… And now it's time for you to go… And I'll take you there."
Finni's reply was soft breathing, followed by a cough as he spat out blood. Finitevus went on. "I'll take you far as I can go… but in the end… we will have to say goodbye… but not before I tell you…. I am sorry… for all the things I put you through…."
"I don't love you though." Finitevus coughed himself and slowly loosened his grip on his son. "I have never loved anything. Never. I wish I could sometimes, so that I may understand more about the world I had forgotten the day everything had changed for me. But it is too late for regrets… So, I do not love you Finni. But I care deeply about you, and that is as far as I will ever feel towards anyone in the end…"
Finni just looked at Finitevus…. His father… He moved his hand with what little strength he had left and laid it on Finitevus' arm. He could hear Albion Soldiers running up the stairs… He heard the click, the small quiet beeps. But nothing after that… darkness filled his world… his everything.
And there he was, floating in this darkness. The fear he felt was swirling through his body, as he only saw, only felt darkness. But then, he felt someone grab his hand and he turned. And in this darkness he saw his father looking back at him, half hidden in the eternal black.
"Come on…" He said with a calm tone. A gentle smile crossed his face, and he held tightly onto Finni's hand. "I told you, I'd take you there, Finni…" And then he turned, and started walking. Finni didn't reply, only followed his father as they walked through this void. The distant sounds of life had left him, anything that was is no longer of any matter to him. All he wanted to do now, was to get out of the darkness... to someplace where people were waiting for him. Where his family was. Where his father was going. And so, Finni followed him, heart, soul and all. He grabbed Finitevus' hand back and hurried along to keep up, and he followed him into the bright light...
Promised some people I would have a happy ending for Finni...
There you go :/
Best I got -3-; And I am proud of this one :I ... One of my favs... and when I get better at writing I will redo it. :>
Finni (c) Way-to-Haven
Finitevus (c) Archie Comics
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xXDreamQueenXx Featured By Owner Aug 20, 2014 Student Digital Artist
QAQ B-But... aww.... ;A;
Well at least the soldiers didn't get them .A.;; But I didn't expect the berry thing though, so caught me off guard, so I sad ;A;... But glad their hard life is done...
.3.~ Oh so Fin doesn't really love Alex, just cares for her like Finni? And also for Rachel and Lola in the AU? Just checkin', you know how I am with my Sparky girls XD;;
But I like the writing though! You can reel in the emotions :3
Way-to-Haven Featured By Owner Aug 20, 2014 Student Digital Artist
I wanted to make it a somewhat happy end for Finni, instead of the original plan I had for him to die in the main universe. I came up with this today at school when I was supposed to be doing work :I
...We've been over this before tho eAe; Our version of Fin can't feel love, but he tries to simulate the feeling. I'm not saying he hates them or is ignoring them, he just... you know e3e... He's crazy :I idk what crazy people think.... eAe; Don't quiz me out of the blue I can only say what I think I know about Fin...
But thank you~ ;3;
xXDreamQueenXx Featured By Owner Aug 20, 2014 Student Digital Artist
ahhh school :D the place where you should do work but instead think of ideas during daydreaming or whatever :D But I actually like this ending better... idk why... I just do :I
BUT IN THE STORY HE SAID IT QAQ!!! I'm sorry I do understand, but you know how I feel with Alex, Rachel, and Lola. They're my personal Sparky babies ;3; So I can get sensitive around this topic of Fin and the girls- not mad though! Don't get me wrong, I know Fin is crazy and most if not all of his emotions are lost :I But how to RP him makes me forget that he did and that he might actually feel them for a few moments ;A; idk...
And you're welcome~ .A.
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(WJLA) - An elderly man is accused of forcing his way into a woman's apartment and stealing her purse.{}
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Police found Offringa inside the apartment building and arrested him.{}He was charged with burglary. | <urn:uuid:b25c1e60-d224-4283-a112-dc6630be1955> | http://wjla.com/news/crime/piet-offringa-79-charged-with-burglary-97975 | en | 0.961824 | 0.023539 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |