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Marriage is not a civil union
11:16 PM, Mar. 26, 2013 | Comments
Words matter. LGBT supporters seek to redefine the ancient meaning of marriage, arguing that restricting it to traditional heterosexual unions is inherently discriminatory. Definitions discriminate one thing from another: A bird is not a tractor; that's a discrimination.
They argue that legal marriage rights conferred to heterosexual unions must extend to all civil unions, thus redefining "marriage." They say: Marriage should not be denied on the basis of gender.
I challenge the group to substitute the following words for gender: age - age discrimination is illegal, so why limit marriage to adults? Number - polygamy is illegal; why only two per union? Genus - why not confer marriage to a man who deeply loves his pet and treats it like a person? In these contexts, "marriage" becomes a meaningless term.
Marriage is what it is. Let's recognize a limited, reasonable universe of paired relationships that benefit society, and grant them equal rights. But let's not redefine marriage.
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Leaked Memo Urges Greece to Move to Six-Day Work Week
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Audio Transcript:
Lisa Mullins: I'm Lisa Mullins and this is "The World". President Barack Obama is hoping to get a boost tonight from Bill Clinton. The former President is set to address the Democratic National Convention. The Obama Campaign hopes he'll remind Americans of a time when a democrat presided over a sustained period of US economic growth. Bill Clinton did not have to deal, though, with a lingering economic crisis in Europe. As we've learned over the past couple of years, Europe's financial woes can have a big impact on American's pocketbooks, and those woes are dragging on. In the next few minutes we'll hear about the economic challenges facing Finland and Spain, but we're going to start off today with Greece where the government is under pressure to officially expand the work week beyond five days. The World's Clark Boyd has been covering Greece's economic woes. He traveled there several times in the past year. Tell us, Clark, about this proposal to expand to Greek work week.
Clark Boyd: Well, Lisa, this is a leaked memo that was sent to Greek ministries by European Union leader and it basically said that one of the measures they should consider is doing away with this anachronistic law that said that Greeks can only work five days.
Mullins: Absolutely only five days?
Boyd: Absolutely only five days straight. So there's no, you know, whereas in the rest of Europe you might have factory factories who do eight days on, four days off. In Greece they can't do that. They can only work five days.
Mullins: OK. So is this, by the way, a mandate or a suggestion to the Greek government?
Boyd: It's not a mandate. It's a measure that they're suggesting as a way to make the Greek economy more productive, to make the country more attractive to investors from outside who expect more flexible labor laws. There is nothing that says that the Greek government has to sign off on this.
Mullins: OK. I know there are other measures that were proposed too, but as far as this one goes, would it actually help the economy?
Boyd: I think people are of two minds about this. On the one hand, in the medium term, the longer term, this is just the kind of structural reform that many think Greece needs to be productive, both from an internal point of view and also productive in a wider European economy. On the other hand, I was trading emails today with Aristotle Kallis who is a Greek political scientist, he teaches in the UK, and let me just read a little bit from the email he wrote back. He said the Greek laws are anachronistic, but he said the timing of this proposal is "nothing short of lousy". "It will fan the flames of unrest, torpedo the governing coalition, enrage stakeholders, and derail Greece once and for all."
Mullins: I guess he doesn't like it.
Boyd: No, I think he actually sees, like many, I think he sees the value in trying to push the Greeks to enact these kinds of reforms, but at the same time, the timing of this leak is very, very bad. Greece is, we say this over and over, Greece is on a knife edge again. You know, will it stay in the Euro? Will it fall out of the Euro? And they're sitting there, waiting to find out whether they've done enough to get this next round of loans for the country to even stay solvent, and for them then to have this sort of outside force come in and keep telling them, "This is the way you should run your affairs," it grates on them.
Mullins: And the creditors, presumably moved by the fact that Greece's unemployment rates stands at thirty percent?
Boyd: Absolutely, Lisa.
Mullins: So, Clark, it seems indicative of larger tensions between the Greeks and their creditors. Can you tell us what's going on?
Boyd: Well, I think that you're seeing this little Brouhaha over this leaked memo and the idea of well, expand the work week, you're seeing this tension rise once again between Greece want to stay in the Euro, the majority of the population feels like the Euro has been a good thing for them, but at the same time, they don't want any of these outside people coming in and telling them how to run their affairs. So you've got this fundamental tension here between is Greece going to be a sovereign state and take care of itself and maybe drop out of the Euro and back to the Drachma? Or is it going to remain part of the Euro and do what Europe thinks it needs to do to stay in?
Mullins: The World's Clark Boyd. Thanks for joining us.
Boyd: You're welcome, Lisa. | dclm-gs1-101590000 |
Paula Deen's Savannah Style
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Author, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Illustrator
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Author, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Illustrator with Brandon Branch. Simon & Schuster $29.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5224-6
Reviewed on: 03/15/2010
Release date: 00/00/0000
The Food Network queen of buttery Southern fare departs from publishing cookbooks to present—with help from Branch, her personal assistant and creative director—a photo-laden guide (photos by Deborah Whitlaw Llewelyn) to her style of home decorating. Like Deen's food, the decor she highlights is welcoming and comfortable, and often over-the-top (music rooms complete with harps and grand pianos; oversized crystal chandeliers). She covers plenty of topics applicable to many readers, such as “porch livin',” the practical use of slipcovers, and collecting. “There's not a house in Savannah that doesn't lovingly display a collection of plates, pottery, canes, ceramics, crafts, or anything that takes our fancy,” she explains. The frequent “Brandon's Style Secrets” sidebars scarcely offer secrets, but they do contain nuggets of fun and time-tested wisdom: “For your [holiday] flowers, use several tiny bunches instead of one big expensive arrangement. You will get the same look for less money.” Though reading Deen's accent (nothin'; havin'; fixin') isn't as charming as hearing it, the prose is friendly, and the volume offers a warm invitation to those who want a peek at how Deen and her fellow Savannahans live. (Apr.)
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The Meaning of Sin: How Being Bad Is Good For You
Modern science reveals a silver lining in even the blackest cloak of sin.
The Meaning of Sin: How Being Bad Is Good For YouChris Buzelli
Over 1,400 years ago, Pope Gregory named wrath, greed, envy, sloth, pride, gluttony, and lust as the Seven Deadly Sins. But that’s so A.D. 590. See why in these seven true stories:
Each day, Donna Alexander watches an array of customers enter her Anger Room in Dallas, smash everything from TVs to mannequins, and exit smiling and content. And they pay her up to $75 for the privilege.
“I saw a lot of fights when I was growing up,” she explains. “So I thought that if there were a place to let that anger out, the world would be better.”
Destructotherapy, as it’s often called, is a controversial form of anger management among mental-health professionals, but the general population seems drawn to it. In Spain, entrepreneurs have organized outdoor events where townsfolk pay to demolish cars, appliances, and computers with sledgehammers. In Berlin, two artists designed a vending machine called the Anger Release Machine, which automatically smashes ordinary plates for $1 or crystal glasses for $20.
The chronic suppression of anger can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and sleep disorders, studies show. When you let loose on occasion, you vent the emotional steam from life’s pressure cooker.
If you’re married, a little bit of wrath might even save your life. A report from the University of Michigan determined that couples who regularly got problems off their chests lived longer than those who internalized them.
Constructive ire can also have a positive career impact. Research shows it can fuel ambition, sway negotiations, instill a sense of control, and confer higher status, whereas those who bottle up their frustration are up to three times more likely to admit to being disappointed and hitting a glass ceiling.
Ladies take note: Expressing anger on the job appears to be acceptable for only men. Angry outbursts from women are more likely to be attributed to emotional imbalance.
Take indignation over that injustice into the Anger Room.
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Well, I am back at my desk and no worse for the wear and tear. These are what I started my work week with:
• The Housing Recovery In One Index (Pragmatic Capitalism)
What actually happens at Davos? (New Yorker)
Krugman: What Ails Europe? (NYT)
• Berkshire Selects Manager to Eventually Replace Buffett as CEO (Bloomberg) see also A Buffett Heir, but Who? (WSJ)
• Investigators Scrutinize MF Global Wire Transfers (DealBook)
• The Rise of the Super-Rich (NYT) see also China’s Billionaire Congress Makes Its U.S. Peer Look Poor (Businessweek)
• Builders Feel Bite in China (WSJ)
• Bankers escape big penalties in FDIC failed bank cases (Reuters)
• That Greek debt sustainability analysis in full (FT Alphavillesee also G-20 Snubs Germany on IMF Funding (Bloomberg)
• The new hipster cities of America: Who’s emerging as the “next Austin”? (Austin CultureMap)
What are you reading?
Buyers Take a Shine to ‘Junk’
Source: WSJ
Category: Financial Press
15 Responses to “10 Monday AM Reads”
1. Robespierre says:
The MF Global reads like a who is who in criminal financial enterprise without a person in jail now or ever. Demonstrating once again that Obama’s promise to investigate/prosecute financial crimes was just another big fat lie.
2. rd says:
The MF Global wire transfers should end up being fraud, embezzlement, or SarbOx accounting violations. If they can’t nail somebody high up with one of those three, then all the little people need to pull their money out of anything that looks or smells like an MF Global type of company since it is clear that regulators and law enforcement will be completely unable to protect you. At that point, it is simply caveat emptor and you need to assume that any of these firms could potentially go bankrupt at any time taking a bunch of your money with it.
It is most likely a SarbOx violation as they had enough time to clean out the whole customer kitty if they were really intent on getting their money.
3. willid3 says:
the never ending oil saga.
where its never what is reported in the news.
demand has been tanking in the US. much more than it increased in China.
4. willid3 says:
tax cuts. the biggest source of deficits
and this is from this who claim they to lower the deficit. and debt.
instead they will increase it!
5. Sechel says:
Mckenna puts out a great column. Are auditors reporting fraud and is the SEC sitting on known cases and not protecting investors.
6. Jojo says:
Why oil won’t come down much any time soon.
February 23, 2012
The Saudis Need Those High Oil Prices
They are spending billions to create jobs and preserve the regime
The world last year watched to see if Saudi Arabia would suffer the same instability that swept away other regimes in the Middle East. The question now is whether the world’s largest oil supplier needs to raise prices to sustain ramped-up spending intended to calm its citizens. Higher prices would be bad news for Western governments, which need affordable oil to nurture their economic recoveries.
The Saudis rarely spell out exactly what they are thinking on the topic, but there are signs their strategy has changed, and they are increasingly willing to raise prices. Still, they seem not inclined to let prices go sky-high. A year ago Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said oil at $70 to $80 a barrel was fair. Then on Nov. 21, Al-Naimi said he was “very happy” with current crude prices; on that day oil traded close to $98 a barrel. Prices are now around $106 a barrel.
The bottom line: Saudi Arabia is spending at least $130 billion on a jobs and housing program at home, an effort that relies on expensive oil.
7. reedsch says:
This is a bit over the top, but I have so far found no information source that I can safely ignore 100% of the time.
8. VennData says:
Warren Buffett shoots back at Chris Christie
“It’s sort of a touching response to a $1.2 trillion deficit, isn’t it? That somehow the American people will all send in checks and take care of it?” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC.
“Shut up” was a nice thing for a Governor to say to a CEO.. imagine if Obama had said something like that, it would be called “anti-business.”
In fact Obama hasn’t said anything that bad to businessmen, only in the minds of the Chamber of Commerce who want to justify their lobbying expenses is Obama “anti-business.” Well also in the mind of anybody not looking at the facts, and listening to sound bite politics like Christie.
9. Bill in SF says:
What Ails Europe?
Once again, Krugman wades through the b.s. with a a reasoned review of the facts. I notice he calls them GIPSI nations (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy) rather than PIIGS.
“So what does ail Europe? The truth is that the story is mostly monetary. By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression.”
“The next time you hear people invoking the European example to demand that we destroy our social safety net or slash spending in the face of a deeply depressed economy, here’s what you need to know: they have no idea what they’re talking about.”
10. willid3 says:
if you think you have it bad, its not even close to being bad as those who work to ship you your orders, not much better than peonage or slavery. just tad bit better, but not much
11. Arequipa01 says:
Hipster, ugh.
Austin was cool right up until the first member of Son Yuma was killed riding his bike on North Lamar, by a turd from California. Place was ruined by late ’96. Just a bunch wankers resisting the urge to get frosted highlights in their hair.
12. Jojo says:
@willid3 – Sheese. The slave laborers in China’s Foxconn iFactory appear to have it a lot better compare to the poor people in that Mother Jones story! | dclm-gs1-101630000 |
Attorneys for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich are giving the judge yet another reason why Blago should be free. They filed paperwork with the court yesterday, claiming Blagojevich never made any clear promises to give up a job or sell President Obama's old senate seat when he solicited campaign cash from his donors. Therefore, they claim he never engaged in corruption.
Blagojevich was convicted on 18-counts of corruption back in 2010 but his attorneys are asking the judge to overturn the conviction.
(Copyright WBGZ Radio/ | dclm-gs1-101640000 |
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Subject: playback sometimes freezes when fastforwarding, rewinding, or playing different file
playback sometimes freezes when fastforwarding, rewinding, or playing different file
From: Menachem <menachem.shapiro_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:14:44 -0600
Before I open up a bug ticket, I wanted to see if anyone else has this
issue, and can perhaps offer a solution.
I have an iRiver 20GB H10 running Rockbox 3.7. I recently updated from 3.4
(or 3.5 -- i'm not entirely sure) and have started noticing the following
When I'm listening to audio files on my mp3, I'll often fast forward or
rewind a little bit, depending on what I'm listening to. Sometimes while a
file is playing, I will browse my files and select another one to play.
Most of the time this works as expected but sometimes (maybe %10-15 of the
time) playback will get corrupted, and the only solution is to reboot the
player. Most commonly, the file looks like it is playing (progress bar is
moving) but sound stops working. Trying to load another file (using a
bookmark or just clicking on the file) causes the player to sort of freeze.
It doesn't respond, but it isn't completely frozen since I am still able to
shut it off by holding down the power key. However, powering down takes a
lot longer than usual, and I have to hold down the power key the whole time.
Then it seems like the player doesn't go off until I let go the power key I
had been holding. Most of the time, rebooting the player works and the file
continues playing.
Less commonly, when I try to load a new file instead of playing all I get it
a bunch of static, which continues until I reboot the player.
Has anyone else noticed this? Any suggestions.
Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.html
Received on 2010-11-17
Page was last modified "Jan 10 2012" The Rockbox Crew | dclm-gs1-101650000 |
California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 CLARENCE A. STARKWEATHER. Actively identified with the advancement of the agricultural interests of Merced county is C. A. Starkweather, well known as the manager of the Los Banos Creamery. He is wide awake, full of energy, and not only possesses a thorough knowledge of the details of his work, but is a man of excellent business capacity and judg- ment, having inherited in no small measure the substantial qualities of a long line of honored New England ancestors. A son of A. Starkweather, he was born, October 28, 1864, in Whately, Mass., while his mother was there visiting friends and relatives. The immigrant ancestor of the Starkweather family came from England to New England in early colonial days, and settled in Connecticut, from whence his descendants have scattered to all parts of the Union. The grandfather of Air. Starkweather was a life-long farmer, and a resident of west- ern Massachusetts. Born and bred in the old Bay state, in the town of Northampton, A. Starkweather grew to manhood on the ancestral homestead, where he was early trained to farming pursuits. Mi- grating to California in 1851, he located eight miles north of Stockton, where he was employed in tilling the soil for a number of years. In 1858 he visited his old home in Massachusetts, returning the same year to his ranch near Stockton, where he resided the following ten years. In 1868, on account of ill health, he sold his land, and went back to Massachusetts with his family. Not content, however, among the rocks and hills of his native state, he returned to the Pa- cific coast in 1878. locating on a ranch near Farmington. He subsequently bought land in that locality, and was there employed in general farming until after the death of his wife, when he removed to Alameda, where he now resides. Mr. A. Starkweather's wife was Frances Loomis, who was born in Whately. Mass., a daughter of Leonard Loomis, a prominent farmer of that town, and for many years its town clerk. She died in 1899. Three children were born of their union, namely : H. K.. a well known business man of San Francisco; C. A., the special subject of this sketch, and H. R., in business with his brother, C. A., in Los Banos. During the earlier years of his boyhood, from 1868 until 1878, his parents being residents of Massachusetts, C. A. Starkweather attended the public schools of Northampton. Returning with them to California, he took a two years' course at the Stockton Business College, from which he was graduated in 1883. From that time until attaining his majority he remained at home, as- sisting his father in the care of the ranch. Subsequently forming a partnership with J. L. Beecher. Mr. Starkweather was engaged in grain farming from 1886 until 1898, being located in Stanislaus county, and operating from fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred acres of land. Selling out in 1898, having become discouraged on account of a series of bad crops, Mr. Starkweather gave up farming as an occupation. Going to Stockton, he entered the employ of Fred Arnsberger, manager of the Stockton Creamery, and during the three months that he continued with him he learned the details of the creamery business. Mr. Stark- weather then took charge of the Oakdale Creamery, which, while he was engaged in farming, he had helped to build, serving die company as its secretary and as a director, and remained there as its manager for two years. Going from there to San Joaquin county, he had charge of the Lockeford Creamery from 1901 until 1902. Accepting then a position with Schultz. Niggle & Co., he was for a time head butter-maker at the Hygea Creamery in San Francisco, then spent two months with the Jersey Creamery in Alameda, after which he spent a year in San Francisco with his brother, being city salesman for his brother, then took up his business as butter-maker for the Encinal Creamery Company until it became consolidated with the Jer- sey Creamery Company, when he was made head butter-maker at the Alameda plant. In September. 1903, Mr. Starkweather accepted the position of manager of the Los Banos Creamery for Miller & Lux, the proprietors, and since the leasing of the plant, on June 1, 1904, to the San Francisco cream depot, has continued its management, his work being in every way satis- factory, meeting the approval of his employers and of the patrons of the creamery. The plant, having a capacity of eighteen hundred pounds of butter per day, is furnished with all the latest improved machinery and appliances, including steam power, being up .to date in all- respects. In addition to manufacturing butter of a superior grade. Mr. Starkweather ships cream to San Francisco daily. In Farmington, Cal., Mr. Starkweather married Anna H. Anthony, who was born near there, being a daughter of Simeon H. Anthony, a native of Massachusetts, and one of the early pioneers of California, having come here in 1851, settling as a farmer, after leaving the mines, in San Joaquin county. Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather have two children, namely : Clara A. and Elfleda H. Politically Mr. Starkweather is an earnest supporter of the principles of the Republican party. He is a member of the National Union and of the California Creamery Operators' Association. Religiously he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. | dclm-gs1-101660000 |
SailNet Community - View Single Post - Low-Pressure Systems
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Low-Pressure Systems
Low-pressure systems redistribute hot and cold air, which often results in strong winds and seas.
What is a low-pressure system? And why should we be interested in "lows"? A low is a weather system that draws air inward along the earth's surface and then pushes that air upward until it reaches the jet stream. There, it is siphoned off downstream, which permits a continued inward flow of air on the surface.
Why does this occur? Because nature needs methods of redistributing hot and cold throughout the atmosphere and lows are a very efficient means of accomplishing this mission. Nature takes cold, dry air and warm, moist air on the earth's surface, brings these two quantities together and starts mixing them.
Cold, dry air sinks and hugs the earth's surface while warm, moist air rises. Interestingly enough, when the warm, moist air rises, encouraged by the cold, dry air settling beneath, it cools. When warm, moist air cools, its moisture condenses and forms clouds, and when moisture is condensed heat is released. This heat re-warms the cloud mass, encouraging further rising. Thus we have positive reinforcement, and after rising just a few miles above the earth's surface, this hot-but-cooling air meets the Jet Stream where this air is sucked off downstream making way for continued air inflow at the surface. (For more on this, see Reading Weather Fax Charts.)
So what makes one low a Perfect Storm and another low barely noticeable? It is all related to the rate of air inflow at the surface and outflow aloft. If air is exhausted faster aloft, which happens when the Jet Stream sucks air downstream at a rate faster than air can be dragged in at the surface, then a deficit of air occurs. You might even think of this as a partial vacuum. When this occurs, surface pressure drops dramatically, and surface wind speed increases. Winds aloft that measure 100 knots and greater are a good indication of building surface winds, dropping pressure, and a developing gale or storm.
Rate of airflow at the surface and outflow aloft is what makes one low barely noticeable and the other a Perfect Storm.
However, if upper-level Jet Stream winds are light, or the neighborhood of 30 to 50 knots, then there is no need to expedite air inflow at the surface since air is being sucked out aloft at a leisurely pace. However, an initially slow outflow aloft can evolve into an expedited airflow, so all lows bear watching carefully.
Why do we concern ourselves with lows more than any other type of weather feature? Because when strong lows form, the inward wind flow at the surface produces large seas and waves. It is these building winds and seas that cause us the most concern. Rough seas can tire a crew, fatigue gear, and threaten our vessels' stability. Generally, the worst-case scenarios, capsizes, pitchpoles, and broaches, are all wave-induced.
"Not only does the longest fetch occur behind a cold front, the winds there have the best angle of attack to produce waves. Cold air sinks and thus "digs" into the ocean just as a shovel digs into the earth when you're digging a hole."
Waves form where the wind blows for extended periods over a consistent fetch. The longest fetch area in a low-pressure system is always found behind the leading edge of cold air, known as the cold front. Not only does the longest fetch occur behind a cold front, the winds there have the best angle of attack to produce waves. Cold air sinks and thus "digs" into the ocean just as a shovel digs into the earth when you're digging a hole. By contrast, warm air ahead of a cold front wants to rise; it has no desire to sink and dig into the ocean. Thus we can say that when comparing warm and cold air influencing the same region, the cold air will always produce larger seas.
Consider also that when cold winds blow against an ocean current, such as the Gulf Stream, seas can build to a much a greater height than outside the current. The exact increase in size is dependent on the strength of the wind, the speed of the current, and the temperature difference between the air and the water. A good rule of thumb is that when the air and water temperature differential is 20 degrees C or greater during low-pressure formation (typical late fall and early spring conditions over the Gulf Stream), seas and winds will be 50 percent greater than otherwise predicted.
When air and water temperature differ by 20 degrees Celsius during the formation of a low, seas and wind will be 50 percent greater than predicted.
Once a low-pressure system forms, it rotates counterclockwise and moves in an easterly direction, its specific direction is controlled by the flow of upper level Jet Stream winds. Lows can move in other directions than east if the Jet Stream shows what is called a meridional flow pattern. In meridional flow the Jet Stream has a significant south-to-north component and lows will move in this direction as well. When lows bring snow to the East Coast of the US, this activity is due to a low moving south to north just east of the coast, thus maximizing its duration of encounter with the coast and allowing large amounts of moist, maritime air to flow over land where it cools and condenses. So, here is a forecasting tip: when lows are moving directly west to east (this is called zonal flow) there is little opportunity for snow or precipitation to accumulate along a north-south oriented coast.
When lows become stationary and move very little it is because they are under the influence of light, upper-level winds, the same winds that are exhausting (or sucking out) the rising air that flows in at the surface. Fortunately the National Weather Services Marine Prediction Center produces both surface and upper-air analyses every day and these show the direction and speed of movement for low-pressure systems. Forecast charts go out to 120 hours (five days), and since these are available on both Weatherfax and the Internet (, they should be consulted prior to and during every voyage.
One final tip on low-pressure systems: the cold front within a low always moves faster than the warm front, and when the cold front catches the warm front, it overrides it and forms an occluded or stationary front. Why does the cold front always catch the warm front? Because the cold front swings south of a low's center as it rotates counterclockwise and this is an area where upper-level winds are stronger and thus propel the cold front across the surface at a rapid clip. While the cold front is zooming along, the warm front is moving more north and northwest into an area where upper-level winds are always weaker, and so the warm front quickly slows down and stalls. A good analogy here is the bend in a river. A warm front moves to the inside of the bend where currents are weak while the cold front stays to the outside where currents are strong.
Satellite imagery provides a wonderful view of lows and I would encourage readers to visit the Marine Prediction Centers webpages where annotated satellite images are posted every six hours. I also recommend my book "Weather Predicting Simplified: How to Read Weather Charts and Satellite Images," which contains numerous charts and satellite images of low-pressure systems.
Suggested Reading List
1. Avoiding Heavy Weather by Michael Carr
2. Reading Weather Fax Charts by Michael Carr
3. At Odds with the Weather by John Kretschmer
4. SailNet Buying Guide - HF Radios
Michael Carr is offline
For the best viewing experience please update your browser to Google Chrome | dclm-gs1-101670000 |
The Pentagon announced Friday that a soldier from Spring Valley was killed by a makeshift bomb in northwestern Afghanistan.
Spc. Rafael Martinez Jr., 36, was one of three soldiers from the Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment who died Thursday when insurgents attacked their unit.
They were fighting between the villages of Moqur and Darreh-Ye-Bum, on Afghanistan's hilly border with Turkmenistan.
Martinez's unit is usually stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., the Pentagon said | dclm-gs1-101680000 |
Story by
Tia Ghose
A little randomness in deploying Border Patrol agents might work best to prevent illegal border crossings, according to a study from the RAND Corp.
The study, which was funded by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, found that combining historical data on illegal crossings with a bit of unpredictability would nab the highest fraction of border crossers.
The U.S.-Mexico border spans nearly 2,000 miles. Given its vastness and varied terrain, there is simply no way to saturate every mile with enough agents to catch every illegal immigrant or smuggler, said Joel Predd, study co-author and a researcher at RAND. The Border Patrol therefore must develop effective strategies to deploy a limited number of agents, he said.
In the past, the Border Patrol stationed agents by relying heavily on historical trends of where border crossers were apprehended, said Randy Capps, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that studies worldwide migration patterns.
"As it has been, it's pretty predictable where resources are going to be deployed. They announce an operation, they do an operation, and they stay there a long time."
The trouble with that strategy is that once crossers notice increased enforcement, they might alter their routes and actually have a higher rate of success in unpatrolled areas.
For instance, after the Border Patrol launched Operation Gatekeeper in 1994 to halt the flow of traffic through San Diego, illegal entries there plunged, but overall apprehensions continued to climb. In general, rising apprehension numbers could mean better enforcement, higher overall traffic or some combination, Predd said.
The RAND researchers conducted field interviews with agents to learn about illegal crossing trends, staffing levels, patrol strategies and past deployment patterns. They created simulations of individual Border Patrol agents and crossers and modified where agents were placed using past patterns in illegal crossing, random distributions or a combination of both. They also drew from real data to create comparisons and metrics for different stations across the border.
A mix of strategies worked best to catch the highest fraction of crossers.
"We looked at thousands of scenarios based on the number of zones, number of patrol agents, the daily rate of illegal smuggling," Predd said. "The idea that you should combine the two and shouldn't really use them in isolation is really robust across a wide range of values."
The study had a few limitations. For instance, it didn't address the geographic conditions that constrain crossers' ability to shift their routes, Predd said. Some remote, mountainous regions of the border are almost impossible to cross, while others are close to urban centers and transportation routes. Weather and seasonal conditions also might prevent crossers from changing their routes.
The Border Patrol claims that increased and more effective border enforcement already has caused the number of illegal crossings to plummet. The agency nearly doubled [PDF] the number of agents from 2005 to 2011 and has built hundreds of miles of fencing and sensors.
In the same time span, the number of illegal immigrants apprehended [PDF] dropped from 1,189,075 people to 340,252, with most of the decline occurring in the years after the recession started in 2007.
While beefed-up enforcement might have deterred some would-be crossers, Capps said other factors may have more impact on border-crossing trends. The U.S. economy has floundered since the recession, while the Mexican economy has done relatively well, reducing the incentive to make the arduous journey, he said.
Demographics also might play a role.
"The birth rate has been low there for a number of years," Capps said. "This large pool of people who could potentially migrate to the U.S. from Mexico is just much smaller than it was even five to 10 years ago, and it's going to continue to decline."
"You have less incentive, more opportunities at home, and it's harder," he said. | dclm-gs1-101700000 |
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Who says there needs to be an order, a recipe for play? Would teasing your fingers slowly, caressing each one be less enjoyable if it came after I had run my fingers along your thigh?
Imagine not knowing what to expect, being free from the belief you know, and being able to simply experience pleasure and excitement.
"Leave your assumptions at the door" I whisper, my lips brushing against your ear as your remember. Not a new idea after this night, but perhaps before it. This evening so far had been unusual for you, an adventure you were excited to continue even if it did not fit your expectations. Your plan had been to go for dinner, stop at the restaurant's lounge, ask a women to join you, she would agree in the usual indirect way women usually do, casual conversation would following with the hope of sparks, then offer to take her home, a kiss at the door step and maybe an invite inside. That was an evening out, or so you thought. Instead your evening had gone down a different path, if you could even call it a path for there appeared no linear order to the sequence of events, yet you had travelled and in that exploration changed your outlook...even if only for the night till the morning brought back assumptions of order again.
The restaurant was one you had been to before, so the setting was familiar, reinforcing your expectations of the usual path for such an location. You check your reservation, then walked to the bar, finding a seat. Glacing around you notice a woman, a prospective companion for the night. You smile, she smile back, right on schedule. A casual comment, a switching of seats, and you are next to her. You begin to flirt a bit, just enough to see she is open to such advances. Causal conversation occurs next, but soon becomes more interesting as talk of what influences who one is grows out of simple comments. Talk of assumptions follows, not fitting your own assumptions of the usual order of topics. Assumptions about people, about oneself, about the very order the conversation challenged. You are flirting more, the usual series of touches, looks and comments. Then she touches you, not in the way most women would, but in a sensuous play along your fingers. As your thoughts engage her's and your mind explores with her, her and your fingers dance, caress and explore each other's. Far more powerful in their arousal than you would have expected from such an area, add to the desire building from the words spoken and those only hinted at. Hands parting, your nearer hand finds her thigh, trying your usual play. Hers travels up your arm and neck. Discussing order and your assumptions about playing, not the conversation you expected or have had, her fingers caress your thigh, close to what you desire her to touch. Most people she says assume that if one's hand is where her hand is the hand would move upwards, her fingers do nearly touching you, but she says one can start in the same place and explore in a different direction, caressing down to your knee in demonstration. Her fingers return to yours, dancing with them as you talk. Surreal, and in a place filled with people you explore with words and fingers how expectations, including those about order and people, are ideas not necessarily reality. Boxes are not meant to fit people in, and expectations could blind you from seeing opportunities.
Even in the public location your shiver with pleasure as she teases you; with no order to her play you expectations are tossed to the side no longer needed. Your finger tease her clit through her clothes as you kiss her cheek. Breathing in the scent of her skin as he does yours. Quick or long and slow play intermixed with conversation, and interruptions from the world. You know what you want, especially as her teasing and your own hand bring you near climax restrained only by the location and potential mess. She cums, her fingers one yours as you press against her clit. Such pleasure, revealed in eyes and slow whispers to each other, mostly hidden from nearby others by circumstance and careful concealing.
Plans are made for later, discussion about locations. Your mind wandering off to dream about possibilities, only to be asked if the play was ordered upon your return to reality. It was. You has listened and discussed but not truely applied the lesson to even your dreams. Perhaps more discussion is needed.
Lips never meeting you push other boundaries, stepping out of the expected order to dance a new dance of your own combined creation. Time in the restaurant has ended, decision made not to say goodbye or simply fade away now. Exiting the place, pausing to grab a early breakfast, talking again of casual and playful ideas in the free intermixing of our closeness. Plans made to go somewhere nearby, directions obtained, excitement builiding of the possibilities with an open mind to what the sequence would be. Casual appearance to the world, heated desire within, surreal moment in time. Comfortable casualness as we approach the room, entering it, taking a moment to refresh and gather ourselves, knowing there is no need for expectations or meeting of such things. Falling into each others arms, passionate exploration, pause for hands to play, pulling off of clothes, great desire to go back to the order with is known ending, returning to the moment and leaving expectations, fingers exploring own bodies as you both watch, touching as you lay near each other, pleasure and desire burning in eyes and skin. Words moaned, whispered, spoken in encouragement, and play. Urgency building as it had earlier, calling for release, pausing to tease some more, then words spoken encouraging our mutual release as your fingers, invited to, wrap over hers. Feeling her wetness and heat, as you cum hard, and she responds in equal release. Facing each other as you both lay, watching, enjoying sharing the peaks of pleasure. Talking, teasing, a moment of simply looking, holding each other in your mind and eyes, then she dresses and you hold close one more time before saying goodbye, if only for the present...
Perhaps now you would consider leaving order to accounting, and enjoy life and pleasure in whatever direction it leads you in.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
What I want is time…
To spend starring into your eyes,
Merging our souls together
To talk of life, of who we are
Sharing our inner selves
To touch, skin against skin
A simple act, amazing pleasure
To ease away your worries,
As well as mine
To walk together, side by side
Our footsteps etched in the ground
To watch the emotions
In your face, in your eyes
To explore slowly,
With thoughts, with words, with acts
To feel you close,
Enough to melt into you
To hold you near,
With light caresses or firm pressure
To breathe you in,
Your scent that is intrinsically you
To experience your pulse,
Racing against my own
To see your face,
As you give in and find release
But most of all…
To not be interrupted or pulled away,
But to simply be…with you
Saturday, October 14, 2006
I'm Curious...
What message would your eyes send
when they first meet mine?
How would it feel to wrap my arms around you
in greeting of friendship, spark with more?
Where would our conversations take us,
communicated by eyes, words, and thoughts?
Who would move first,
or would we both move together?
Which place would I touch first
and which place would you?
How would you feel pressed against me
with the electric current running through our touching bodies?
Where would my lips first brush,
across your lips, your jaw, your neck?
How would you taste,
when my tongue flicks over your skin?
Who would undo the first button,
pull off the first shirt, run fingers on uncovered skin?
What would you look like,
Standing naked in front of my bare body?
Where would my eyes travel
as they drink in the sight of you?
How quickly would we explore,
hurried frenzy of need or slow delight?
When would you reach your peak,
And how soon would I follow you to climax?
What would you look like as you cum
sound like, smell like during and after?
What would you be like
laying with me in blissful pleasure?
Saturday, September 23, 2006
We lay here.
The warmth of the blankets surrounding us,
the heat of our skin burning deep
The day calls unrelentingly
for us to rise and go about our day
but before we do there's breakfast
We prepare and cook our first meal
the occassional glance and touch
reminding us of the morning's play
I am wearing your shirt,
my legs bare to your eyes
the collar loose enough to tempt
More than once I catch you
yours eyes following the hem of the shirt
your fingers wanting to pull it upwards
As I move about and reach for items
the shirt slips up a bit
revealing the base of my lower curves
Leaning to reach down to pick up a fallen fork
the colloar hangs low
providing you with a quick chance
Dressed, barely, in boxers
your interest is evident
even without your hinting eyes
A morning dance
of two lovers
and the aftershocks of play
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Not him and her, but him and him (mm) ~ Part 2
Resting but never still
Fingers trace the patterns
Of a knowing playmate
Stirring deep passion
Thought to already been released
Yet still remaining within
Skin slowly rubbing
As each moves
In their re-exploration
Fingers slide down long backs
Wrapping around firm cheeks
Pressing the other closer
Their shafts rub slowly
Growing with the desire
And ever increasing need
Cheeks part in knowing hands
Fingers travel lower
Along the center line
The first brush of fingertip
And the first bit of pressure
Sending sparks throughout
Disappearing for a moment
Returning wet and cool with lube
The finger rubs in circles
Ever growing
The need, the pressure
The openness he feels
Hips thrusting slowly
Alternating between rubbing cocks
And pressing fingers
Finger sliding in
Welcomed by the openness
As moans describe its entry
Endless dance of desire
Wanting more, given more
Passion rising every moment
Lips and tongue grow more urgent
As hips proclaim their needs
And fingers do not become enough
Bodies press together,
Parting to change position
A momentary sense of loss
Then the sense of being found
Desire and moans guide him in
Hips pressing back in eagerness
Till bodies merge,
Rhythmic thrusting of hips
Hands, with purpose, wrap around
Fingers encircling a hard cock
Stroking, matching the rhythm
Of the pounding desire
Thoughts fill with need
Bodies with pleasure,
Desire driving harder
Then all is forgotten,
there is only pleasure
And the echoing of moans
As two lovers cum,
One deep within,
the other covering their bodies
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Not him and her, but him and him (mm)
Not him and her,
But him and him
Embracing in pleasure
Hands exploring,
Over the other’s
Firm uncurved body
Fingertips and long fingers
Gripping shoulders and hair
As lips meet passionately
Tongues slipping out
Between hungry lips
Delving in to explore
Firmness pressed to firmness
Hips grinding slowly
Need pounding through veins
Clothes push off
And tossed aside
As each hunger for the other
Male bodies bare
Wrapped purely in passion
And his lover’s embrace
Hands wrap around
The rubbing aching shafts
Bring them closer
Heads slick with precum
Press and tease each other
Between heated bodies
Stroking one another,
And stroking both
Hand draw climax near
Pounding pulses,
Echoing ragged breathes
And deep moans
Each rub, each kiss
Fueling the scorching fire
Uniting their bodies
The climax explodes
From deep within
Pushing the other further
Pulsing through hard shafts
So close together they feel as one
The double release, the double pleasure
...To be such passionate play ought to be ;
Thursday, September 07, 2006
The Window response
(In response to Jet Hanger September 3rd post The Window)
As I lay in bed,
sheets pushed aside
curtains open to the moonlight
and to you watching
My fingers trace in smooth pursuit
of where my mind wanders
Urged on by the desire pounding
through my mind and veins.
Hands tracing soft bare skin
etching paths of burning fire
deep within my being
surrounding me in pleasure.
Desire parries with present pleasure
jousting for my hand's control
wanting more, wanting this
my pleasure ever growing
Fingers travel further
carving a path lower
finding my body's heated focus
and deep wet need
Heartbeat racing,
mind a blur,
breathing ragged
as I reach for what I want most
My eyes find yours
before closing as desire erupts
tossing all from my mind
as my pleasure overflows
Hard consonants surrounding a hard vowel
A word not designed for soft pillow-talk
A sound meant to be uttered through gritted teeth,
At the height of pounding frustrating desire
Soft, flowing sounds
Created to murmur in a lover’s ear
As their hands explore lower,
And the lips tease an earlobe
The word evokes imagery and sensation
Of encompassing warmth and softness
Of a welcoming place to fall into,
To explore slowly and lovingly
What other words are there?
Which imagery to they draw to mind?
When would a lover speak them?
How would they be breathed? | dclm-gs1-101710000 |
Blaine Border Chief Accused of Raping Foster Child
The Bellingham Herald is reporting that Joe Giuliano, the subject of a previous SW cover story, has admitted to having sex with his 14-year-old foster child.
Giuliano, who is by far the most accessible border patrol agent I've ever interviewed, seemed to me a pretty good guy. As a reporter in Southern Arizona, I spent plenty of time with Border Patrol agents. Most of them - not all - but most of them were complete assholes. Giuliano, I always thought, was a breath of fresh air. He actually considered the lives of the migrants who fell under his control and took the time to listen to the concerns of the community. I always thought that was pretty admirable.
So, to say that this accusation comes as a shock to me is an understatement. I'd like to believe it didn't happen, but if everything the Bellingham Herald says is true, it looks like a pretty open and shut case.
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Apple Jacks: The Big Green Box of Love
Cereal Philanderer is a weekly feature in which Jason Sheehan talks about cereal more than he probably should.
Cereal du Jour: Apple Jacks, my go-to cereal of choice and the baseline against which all other cereals will henceforth be judged.
History: Launched by Kellogg's as "Apple O's" in 1965, its name was changed to Apple Jacks in 1971 at the insistence of advertisers who thought the name Apple O's was old-timey and stupid. Kellogg's describes Apple Jacks as "crunchy, sweetened multi-grain cereal with apple and cinnamon," but that's a bunch of crap. Apple Jacks tastes about as much like an apple as a watermelon Jolly Rancher does the fruit whose name it wears. As a weird side note, that bastion of journalistic excellence, Wikipedia, claims that Apple Jacks was invented by one William Thilly, now a professor at MIT. I don't know whether or not this is true, but there is a professor by that name at MIT, teaching courses in biology and epidemiology, so I'm just going to go ahead and believe it because I like thinking that one of the best breakfast cereals ever was invented by some kind of mad scientist who obviously has a secret laboratory buried deep under the fertile Massachusetts soil where he does cereal-based biological warfare experiments for a cabal of evil Kellogg's executives.
The Box: Apple Jacks live in the Big Green Box of Love--easy to pick out in the cereal aisle no matter how hung over you are because of its day-glo green coloration and large size. The front of the packaging has always shown, in some form or another, a blow-up view of the product inside, enlarged to show detail and enhance its apparent deliciousness.
Of late, most of the packaging has also included images of the two new Apple Jacks mascots: Bad Apple (an anthropomorphic apple who apparently is quite naughty--for an apple, anyway) and CinnaMon (a Rastafarian cinnamon stick with dreadlocks and a skateboard. And no, I'm not making that up). Bad Apple and CinnaMon are rendered in frighteningly lifelike fashion--so much so that, if you've ingested the proper chemicals, you might want to leave the box locked in your cupboard just so they don't escape and wreak some kind of apple/cinnamon havoc on your kitchen. If said chemicals are not in your bloodstream at breakfast time, the mascots are just annoying and a little weird, and make me wonder just what in the hell they're teaching kids at Advertising School these days.
The Product: Green and Orange cereal rings, studded with chunky shards of pure sugary goodness. No, they do not taste even a little bit like apples. They taste like what crack cocaine would taste like if it were being produced by a major American cereal company and marketed primarily at spastic children. In other words, delicious and vaguely chemical. Thanks, William Thilly!
The rings hold up reasonably well to milk, but give up much of their flavor once they become soggy. This is good and bad. On the one hand, no one likes a bowlful of soggy O's. On the other, the milk that's left after the cereal is gone tastes like drinking a unicorn's tears.
Best Feature: The Apple Jacks dust left in the bottom of the box after the cereal is gone could easily be collected, packaged, and sold on playgrounds across America as a gateway drug by clever coke dealers.
Worst Feature: Seriously? A Rastafarian cinnamon stick? What the fuck were you thinking . . .
Is It Better or Worse Than Apple Jacks?: Obviously, because this is Apple Jacks, it is exactly as good as Apple Jacks. But in following weeks, every cereal will be compared to Apple Jacks on a variety of levels, so this category will make a lot more sense.
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Scott LoBaido set to unfurl latest flag creation
on June 13, 2010 at 9:20 AM, updated June 13, 2010 at 9:21 AM
scott2.jpgThanks to the wonders of the computer, LoBaidoâs flag design is superimposed on an aerial photo of the Lamons Gasket Co. building. LoBaido begins work on the massive project tomorrow, Flag Day. He expects to complete the flag on July 4th.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- He's painted more images of the American flag than he can count -- at least one in all 50 states.
So why not paint, arguably, the biggest Stars and Stripes anywhere, ever: A Texas-sized 150,000 square foot rooftop flag deep in the heart of Houston.
That's exactly what nationally known Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido plans to do, starting tomorrow -- appropriately, Flag Day -- when he embarks on his most complex project yet: Producing one of his singular undulating American flags, covering what amounts to 3.5 acres, in nine gradations of red, white and blue, using some 900 gallons of paint, on the roof of the Lamons Gasket Co.
He aims to finish with a flourish on July 4th.
It will be, he believes, the biggest painting of an American flag in existence.
"I've wanted to do the world's largest flag ever since 'Flags,'" said LoBaido of his 2006 "Flags Across America" endeavor that took him from sea to shining sea to paint a flag in every state in the nation.
The enterprise burnished his cred as one of the country's leading artists of Americana.
scott.jpgKurt Allen, left, Lamons Gasket Co. president, shakes hands with Grasmere artist Scott LoBaido in Lamonsâ Houston, Texas, headquarters.
Locally, it helped him recently earn a place in the Hall of Fame of New Dorp High School, LoBaido's alma mater, where he scribbled and sketched and drew on any surface he could, whenever he could, while a student there. These days, the borough is home to dozens and dozens of outdoor LoBaido flags.
"The American flag is my favorite work of art," said LoBaido, 45, of Grasmere. "I have seen the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David. The American flag is more beautiful. It is a worldly flag; it belongs to the world. With the exception of the Native Americans, we are all from somewhere else. It represents all of us."
Six months ago, looking for a larger-than-life canvas on which to paint his biggest flag yet, one that could be seen from the sky, LoBaido began Googling the rooftop recommendations suggested by his coterie of fans from around the country after he put out feelers. Soon he was e-surfing sites in Cleveland, Denver, Jersey City, N.J., and upstate Albany.
But nothing felt as right as Lamons in Houston, in the shadow of William P. Hobby Airport -- especially after he met company president Kurt Allen, who was in Manhattan on business.
Born in England and raised in Australia, Allen told LoBaido he'd traveled the globe.
"I've been in this country since 1995," recounted Allen of his conversation with LoBaido. "I became a citizen in 2008. It was always my goal to become a U.S. citizen. America is the best place to live."
The sentiment sold LoBaido.
"I told Scott it would mean a great deal to me for Lamons to be chosen, that I wanted to give something back to the country," added Allen during a telephone interview. "I made my pitch. I told him I wanted it to be on our building--whatever it takes."
As such, Allen has pledged $55,000 for supplies and labor, including a local team of 15 men to help LoBaido apply a primer coat to the flat corrugated metal factory roof some 30 feet off the ground.
LoBaido will then transform his computer-generated grid from paper to rooftop -- a "major challenge" that has him feeling both "exhilarated" and slightly "petrified."
"When I do a flag, I plan it out, sketch it out, and there's a lot of math involved," explained LoBaido. "People don't understand the relationship of math and art. Also, people just think you get up there and paint a big flag. But it can't be static. It has to flow."
Smaller teams will then help LoBaido paint the basic red, white and blue, but execution of the detailed three-dimensional shadings of color will be all LoBaido.
Sun up to sun down he'll paint, he said, stopping only in cases of extreme heat and rain. He shrugged off questions of how he would withstand the noise from nearby Hobby Airport, saying the jets would be "inspirational."
Meanwhile, Allen -- he wants to "get up there and paint," too -- said his employees, who hail from 22 countries, are enthused about the prospect of the world's largest painting of an American flag gracing the company's rooftop.
Not that Lamons' is a stranger to flag displays -- all 22 countries have their flags showcased in an international array in the gasket factory. | dclm-gs1-101760000 |
Ann Cannon: Tales from the Salt Lake City Cemetery
Published October 30, 2013 9:21 am
I loved cemeteries when I was a kid.
Not just at Halloween. All year round. I loved them for their Creep Factor. Kids I knew used to visit the Mapleton Cemetery in the middle of the night to visit "Reggie's Grave." The story went that Reggie was killed in an automobile accident after playing with a Quija board, and if you looked at his tombstone just right you would see ghostly car lights flickering there.
I know! Shades of Stephen King's Christine!
(Moral of the story? Friends don't let friends who play with Ouija boards drive.)
I still love cemeteries and often visit them whenever we travel, but now instead of looking for chill thrills, I'm intrigued by what cemeteries tell us about our fellow human beings — who they were and what they valued. I count it as a piece of good fortune that the old Salt Lake City Cemetery, with its spreading pine boughs and crazy quilt of tombstones, practically sits in my backyard here in the Avenues.
Because I am married to a historian who loves nothing better than sifting through old newspapers, letters and journals in order to dig up "the rest of the story," I know a thing or two about some of the souls who've taken up residence in the Salt Lake cemetery since the late 1840s.
For instance, I know that Jack Slade, a reputed outlaw whose wife pickled his body in whiskey and charged folks good money to view it, is buried in an unmarked grave.
I know that Richard Morris, father of University of Utah football and basketball star Spide Morris, was also a gifted athlete who played for two territorial baseball teams — the Deserets (the Gentile team) and the Red Stockings (the Mormon team) — on a field where the City and County building now stands.
I know that the obelisk marking James McTernay's burial spot, was erected by loyal patrons who wanted to insure that their beloved tavern owner had the biggest headstone in the cemetery.
I know that while Isaac and Catherine Brockbank eventually had more children, the first five died in the space of six years. Their little headstones stand in a row, silent reminders of a day when mortality was a close and constant companion.
I know that Fanny Brooks, one of the first Jewish settlers in the Salt Lake Valley, was famous for the bagels she baked and the bonnets she made.
I know that Charles Lambert, a stone carver who created many of the cemetery's fragile sandstone monuments, arranged for his own headstone to be constructed of granite.
There are, of course, mysteries to spare in the Salt Lake Cemetery. Who is buried in the potter's field? What were their stories? Why did J. Golden Kimball, the beloved swearing Mormon leader, have his mother's name engraved on his tombstone and not his wife's? (MEMO TO GUYS: Not a good move.) Why do some headstones bear only a single name such as "Zula" or "Louie" as if that alone would tell the story? Where did the headstone go for Mahonri Young (the artist who sculpted the "This is the Place" monument)? It was there two years ago, but now it's gone. And who is buried beneath the tall eroded sandstone monument that resembles a Bryce Canyon hoodoo?
In the end it's hard not to savor the essential irony of the Salt Lake Cemetery — or any cemetery — which is this: it's a place teeming with tales of love, loss, sorrow, betrayal, anger, despair and hope.
It's a place still teeming with life.
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OU Team Building
Discussion in 'BW OU' started by Nova, Dec 6, 2012.
1. Huntofthelion
Huntofthelion Live for the nights you can't remember
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Nov 2, 2008
Hey guys, great work so far. I'll get to updating the OP with all the great stuff you guys have posted so far at some point tonight, so don't worry about your sets not being accepted or anything! Also please feel free to post commentary on other peoples sets! Yes we need people to post sets but we also need the discussion posts that make sure we have the ideal sets included in this project. If you have doubts about a sets effectiveness or something similar don't be afraid to bring them up, we want to make sure we're compiling good stuff.
So that said, I am a little iffy about the Espeon TR lead. Sure you're guaranteed to start the match off with TR but Espeon isn't really going to do anything with it and it's basically dead weight after its sash breaks. I would appreciate if you could expand on it a bit as it seems like it has some potential but I don't see what stops the opponent from just stalling out the TR since Espeon isn't exactly the most threatening thing in the world. Perhaps slashing baton pass as one of the options to give you a free switch? Also on Tornadus-t I have really found HP Ice to be pretty good for it to have, so thoughts on that would be appreciated!
Keep up the great work guys!
2. Someoneelse
Someoneelse Why am I here?
Sep 7, 2012
Just a note about the OP, ganj4lF's Celebi should be in the use section rather than the don't use section.
3. YoYoNerd
Oct 20, 2012
Except Fighting types don't trap? The hell?
Outside of that, subcharge means you get to +6 or anything similar, effectively giving you two KOs as soon as you get a switch on Ferro or his Scizor revenges something. That's pretty damn good right there.
What about Jirachi? What's a choiced Mag gonna do there? What about subCM? You want SubCharge for all those, except FirePunch users in which case both Mags aren't gonna help.
SpecsZone helps, but he's still way too slow to do what you want him to do imo. If you're gonna use a steel trapper at least fully abuse it. If you want a volt switcher don't run scarfzone 'cause it's bad.
4. TGMD
TGMD n_n
is a Battle Server Moderatoris a Team Rater Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Nov 27, 2011
What to use
Toxicroak @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch
Role: Physical Sweeper
What It Does: Toxicroak sweeps through teams, but it needs a bit of help from some teammates first. Toxicroak has bad bulk, average speed and average attack, so that begs the question: why use Toxicroak? Well, Toxicroak has amazing coverage, priority, ability, and typing. Toxicroak's bulk is made up for with the 12.5% of it's health it recovers every turn and recovers 25% of it's health every time it's hit with a water-type move, a form of recovery in Drain Punch, typing that's only weak to Psychic, which is very uncommon, never used for coverage, so only Psychic types use it and they're taken out with Sucker Punch, Flying, which is common, but it's only really used by Tornadus-T who is taken out by a +2 LO Sucker Punch after Stealth Rock and Skarmory who will be covered in the "Good Teammates" section, and finally, Ground, which you would think would used often due to it's great coverage, but alot of pokemon who have access to Ground coverage also have access to Fighting coverage, which is generally chosen over Ground due to Fighting's superior coverage. Toxicroak's typing also allows it to resist both Terrakion and Keldeo's (doesn't just resist water, it's immune to it too) dual STABs as well as not being weak to any priority and not being hit super-effectively by alot of common coverage moves. It makes up for what it lacks in speed with it's priority, coverage and again, it's typing (most of the things that it can't outspeed or take out with it's priority move can't hit Toxicroak Super-effectively and they're taken out with Drain Punch / Ice Punch.)
Good Teammates: Gothitelle is probably the best partner for Toxicroak out there. With a Choice Scarf set it easily removes a large majority of Toxicroak's most solid counters, eg. Skarmory, Hippowdon, fast Gliscor, Landorus-T, Landorus-I, Jellicent etc. Rain is something that Toxicoak cherishes deeply due to Dry Skin, so Politoed is obviously going to make an amazing teammate. Skarmory makes a pretty awesome teammate, as it not only sets up hazards that makes Toxicroak's sweep easier, it also resists all of Toxicroak's weakness' as well as being immune to one of them (ground.)
What Counters It: There's very little that can truly counter Toxicroak at +2, but Skarmory, Hippowdon, fast Gliscor, Landorus-T, Jellicent, Landorus-I, Jellicent, and Kyurem-B all do a decent job of countering it.
Any Additional Info: Toxicroak is particularly good in the current metagame due to it's effectiveness against rain teams (which is one of the most dominant forces in this metagame.)
5. DarkBlazeR
May 20, 2009
I couldn't resist. Turns out I love posting Stealth Rock weak Pokémon in this thread, so lets continue this interesting trend!
Volcarona @ Life Orb
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain / Hidden Power [Ground] / Hidden Power [Rock]
Role: Special Sweeper
What It Does: Quite possibly my favourite new Pokémon from the 5th generation, Volcarona is an absolute terror that can destroy whole teams on a daily basis, especially under the sun. Whilst at a glance it may appear to be mediocre due to its typing, which gives it an "awesome" x4 Stealth Rock weakness - on further inspection you'll be drawn to its incredible base 135 Sp. Attack and decent base 100 Speed, but more importantly its access to Quiver Dance. Essentially getting a Calm Mind and +1 Speed at once is nothing to take lightly, that's for sure. All it takes is a single boost for this set to start wrecking havoc. Although it takes a little more prediction to set up than the bulkier variants, Timid LO Volcarona is far more dangerous when it does get a boost from QD. Between Fire Blast, Bug Buzz and your coverage move of choice, you've got the power to break through virtually anything. Giga Drain is my personal preference, as it easily KOs Politoed, Jellicent, Rotom-W, Terrakion and Keldeo after a boost, taking many of its counters out with only one move. This set excels at luring out Politoed and taking out with Giga Drain, whereas before you'd have to sacrifice Volcarona to heavily cripple it as defensive Politoed would be able to survive a +1 Bug Buzz at full health. Giga Drain is also useful for mitigating the damage from LO recoil. HP [Ground] is necessary if you want to be able to get past Heatran though, however it can be easily dealt with by teammates. HP [Rock] could be used to hit Dragon/Flying types and Gyarados, though they'll all be hit very hard by a boosted Fire Blast in the sun, and can still be KOd after Stealth Rock damage. Although Volcarona's effectiveness was limited somewhat in BW1 with the ubiquity of scarfers such as Landorus and Terrakion, with the fall of the former two and the rise of Scarf Keldeo and Scarf Lati@s, Volcarona can sweep more reliably than ever before.
Good Teammates: You absolutely need Rapid Spin support, as Volcarona will not be able to sweep very easily if it loses 50% of its HP upon switching in. Forretress, Starmie, Tentacruel etc are all excellent choices for the job. Drought support from Ninetales is recommended, though Volcarona can also function well in Drizzle conditions from Politoed if you swap Fire Blast for Hurricane, and possibly swap Giga Drain for Fire Blast so still have coverage against Steels. Offensively, Dugtrio is one of the best partners as it can remove Heatran from play, which is one of Volcarona's most effective checks. It can also grant it a free setup opportunity with Memento. Landorus-T is another good choice as it can sponge the Stone Edges aimed at Volcarona thanks to Intimidate, can set up Stealth Rock and cause heavy damage to the special tanks that have a chance against a +1 Volcarona. Under strong sunlight, Mixed Venusaur with Earthquake makes for an interesting offensive teammate, as it can bait and KO Heatran without having to rely on Dugtrio trapping it. It can also take out Dragons with HP [Ice], and put something to Sleep with Sleep Powder.
What Counters It: There are no true Volcarona counters, given its sheer power. However, it does have a number of checks. As aforementioned, Heatran is amongst the best as it only fears HP [Ground], and can deal great to Volcarona with Fire Blast even after a QD, Toxic it or just force it out with Roar. Dragonite, Salamence and Gyarados can all survive at least one hit and KO with their respective STAB moves, though they have to watch out for boosted double STAB Fire Blasts or HP [Rock] (though Dragonite will be absolutely fine if Multiscale is not broken). If the rain is up, Tornadus-T gets a resistance to both its STABs and can blast it with a Super Effective, STAB Hurricane, though it is KOd by HP [Rock] at +1. Keldeo can take on sets lacking Giga Drain quite comfortably. Although they have problems switching in, Scarf Landorus-I and Scarf Terrakion will both be able to easily revenge kill a +1 Volcarona. If it manages to come in without having its sash broken, Dugtrio will be able to survive a hit with its sash and KO Volcarona with Stone Edge. The pink blobs (Blissey/Chansey) will be able to come in and try to force it out with Toxic, though they cannot repeatedly take boosted Fire Blasts.
Any Additional Info: Volcarona can actually function surprisingly well in this metagame, despite rain being present on so many teams.
6. TUO
Jun 5, 2012
IMO i think that SpecsZone really takes care of enemy steels more efficiently. SubCharge can't setup on any other steel aside from ferrothorn and forretress (even that has EQ sometimes). Skarm has Whirlwind, Scizor needs to be locked into BP, and don't get me started on Lucario and Heatran. Then comes your Jirachi argument. Jirachi isnt something you really trap with SpecsZone, it HP Fire specs still does decent damage (at least because of my sun team).
7. BlankZero
Aug 25, 2012
What To Use:
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Magma Storm
- Sunny Day
- SolarBeam
- Earth Power / Hidden Power [Ice}
Role: Anti-Weather / Lure
What It Does: Heatran is a staple if you run any kind of Anti-Weather setup, and is used frequently on Sun and Sand Teams, and even some rain teams. This one I use in all of my non-weather teams. It lures, traps, and kills Politoed, and with Earth Power, can kill T-Tar and Ninetails, or with HP Ice can kill Hippodown and dragons. With these EVs, you can come in on nearly anything on a rain team and start off with Sunny Day. this guy outspeeds all non-scarfed Politoed as well, and if you setup Magma Storm on the turn it switches in, you win the weather war right there. Hit Sunny Day the next turn, followed by a no-charge Solar Beam to the face.
Good Teammates: Latias is a great team mate due being able to absorb Fighting type attacks aimed at Tran, and Levitate makes EQ fail after the Balloon falls off. Xatu also does this, especially with 4x Resistance to Fighting.
What Counters It: Depending on the move set, a few things can counter this guy, namely Keldeo, Terrakion, Scarfers, anything that can live a hit or two and hit back with fighting/ground type moves, especially STAB ones.
Any Additional Info: This guy works in and out of weather-teams, and is pretty good as a backup weather inducer for sun teams.
8. TGMD
TGMD n_n
Nov 27, 2011
Ok, Hunt wants some discussion, so I'll try and help out.
Hey NixHex, I'm a big fan of Magnezone and I have a few edits I'd like to propose on that set. I would definitely make Thunder the first slash, add Sleep Talk as the second one, and put Thunderbolt last. Thunderbolt is only really good on the Substitute sets, as the power difference between Volt Switch and Thunderbolt really isn't enough to warrant using it, as most of the time you would want to use an electric move, you would use Volt Switch anyway, mostly because it's usually powerful enough to take the opposing mon out and the momentum Volt Switch gives you is great. Thunder is overall the superior choice in most situations, it really messes with rain, which is super common atm, the power you have access to is godly even though it's accuracy is terrible, and the paralysis chance is pretty awesome too. Sleep Talk is a really cool option too, especially on Choice Specs sets, it gives you a switch-in to Breloom's Spore (you could argue you wouldn't want to risk the Mach Punch, nor would you want to have a 1/3 chance in getting the move you want against most pokemon, but Magnezone's primary role is removing steels, and since Breloom is often found on much more offensively based teams, it's likely they'll have a frail steel on their team that can be removed without Magnezone) and often allows you to often pull off a suprise kill on Breloom (Flash Cannon and Hidden Power [Fire] from Specs Magnezone both OHKO and Volt Switch does over half.) It also works great against other Spore users, eg. Amoonguss. I understand this is 3 sets wrapped into 1, but I think it's worth mentioning somewhere in your post that a spread of 144 HP / 252 SAtk / 112 Spd (outspeeds standard Skarmory) and a Modest nature generally works better on the Choice Specs set, as Hidden Power [Fire] has a much higher chance of 2HKOing Ferrothorn, and going the Specs set won't be outspeeding much anyway.
First of all, Scizor isn't usually something that comes in to revenge kill Magnezone, as it's one of Magnezone's targets, all standard Magnezone outspeed CB Scizor and Bulky SD Scizor, and some Magnezone outspeed offensive SD Scizor. I'm not really sure what you mean by getting a free attack on Skarmory, as all Magnezone variants can get off an attack on Skarmory and if you try to sub up against it, it can just Whirwind you out. Sub Charge Beam Magnezone may be able to kill Rain Ferrothorn, but Ferrothorn will get all it's hazards up in the process, and those hazards will put a huge constraint on how you play, and Specs Magnezone kills Rain Ferrothorn anyway, Hidden Power [Fire] is a 2HKO in rain.
While you're sitting there Charge Beaming, hoping it will give you a Special Attack boost, you're letting that SubCM Jirachi get to +6, and it'll often beat Magnezone 1 on 1 and then likely proceed to do some huge damage to your team. But Specs Thunder absolutely destroys all Jirachi.
Standard Sub Charge Beam Magnezone really isn't that much faster than Standard Specs Magnezone, so I don't understand your comment of it being too slow, even then Choice Specs Magnezone can opt to run more speed. I would also kind of like to know why you think Scarf Zone is bad, you really offered no reasoning, lol.
I would slash a Timid nature after Naive. Because when running Focus Blast the only reason to not lower Attack instead of Special Defense is a slightly more powerful U-Turn and that isn't worth the trade off for the drop in Special Defense imo. There are other good options that could be slashed after Taunt, eg. Rain Dance, Hidden Power [Ground], Hidden Power [Ice] Grass Knot, Hidden Power [Grass] (hits a few things such as Rotom-W harder than Grass Knot), and even things like Tailwind and Sleep Talk (although this is usually on Specs sets), but I do agree Taunt is probably the best option so those slashes aren't all that neccessary.
I think the TR Espeon was under what not to use, but I could be wrong. As for Hidden Power [Ice] on Tornadus-T, I'm not the biggest fan. A super-effective Hidden Power [Ice] hits with only 20 bp harder than Hurricane, so it's only really useful against pokemon that are have a quad weakness to Ice. Dragon / Flying types are weak to rock, meaning their hp is knocked down to Hurricane range pretty quickly, and Torandus-T usually doesn't have much business trying to kill dragons annway as they're often either Scarfed (or Banded Dnite with Extremespeed) or DD so they outspeed and KO anyway. This only really leaves Landorus-T, Landorus, Garchomp and Gliscor, all of which can KOed by Hurricane with little weakening, and all of them except Gliscor can run Scarf sets, so again, Tornadus-T can be outspeed and KOed. I really don't see much reason to run Hidden Power [Ice] outside of a few situations where the few pokemon that are hit significantly harder by Hidden Power [Ice] are outside of Hurricane KO range but inside of Hidden Power [Ice] KO range and their current set is outsped by Tornadus-T. I think moves like Taunt are more deserving of Hidden Power [Ice]'s place.
9. HackerKing
Dec 3, 2012
What to Use
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover
Role: Wall / Support
What It Does:
What doesn't it do might be a better question. Abilities are a crucial part of a pokemon's success and thanks to Trace, Porygon2 manages to turn the opponent's against them. Come in on a setting up Gyarados/Salamence and grab Intimidate. Not only does this set them back a turn, but you can hit them for super effective damage. Trace also enables Porygon2 to get a safe switch-in against pokemon that have defensive abilities such as Water Absorb Vaporeon, or Magic Bounce Espeon (also reflecting their own status moves back to them if they're not careful). With the eviolite boosting your defenses, you can Toxic a bulkier pokemon and stall it out with Recover.
Good Teamates
Porygon2 is meant to be tacked onto an offensive team that struggles to deal with hard-hitting opponents. Don't place it on a dedicated stall team, as there are better dedicated walls such as Blissey or Skarmory. Porygon2 needs help overcoming Fighting Types, ghost and psychic types are useful teammates. That being said, do not base a team around Porygon2. It serves to be added after the main team is completed to check outside threats.
What Counters Porygon2
Porygon2 has three main weaknesses that prevent it from being on every OU offensive team. First, Porygon2 is destroyed by Fighting types such as Conkeldurr or its antithesis Breloom, who can easily spore it and then obliterate Porygon2 with Fighting attacks. Porygon2 also hates status, particularly toxic (unless you grab an ability like Poison Heal), which cuts its walling capability. And lastly, Porygon2 can't cover a relentless barrage of offensive pokemon. Against a hyper offensive team, Porygon2 will be able to defeat 1-2 pokemon, then be KO'd. Porygon2 is a pokemon that needs to use Recover liberally, so denying it this chance will easily limit its staying power.
Other Notes
Beware Trick / Knock off. Either one of those moves essentially makes you a sitting duck for the rest of the match.
EDIT: gtg, but I may edit it later.
10. Tobes
Tobes As your flesh bears the sigil...
Jul 16, 2010
What to use
Weavile @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
- Ice Punch / Night Slash
- Low Kick
Role: Revenge Killer
What it does: Weavile is an extremely versatile revenge-killer. Its Ice Shard allows it to deal with things like +1 Dragonite, Choice Scarf Salamence, or weakened Chlorophyll Venusaurs, while its naturally high Speed allows it to checkmate many Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokemon. Weavile can dispose of Lati@s and Gengar with ease, and can even trap a weakened Tornadus-T or outright OHKO a healthy one with Ice Punch. It's also capable of sweeping teams lategame if they lack a suitable answer to it, as its STABs give a surprising amount of super effective coverage, which Low Kick complements quite nicely.
Good Teammates: Pokemon that appreciate a dead Latios or Latias, such as Keldeo, Landorus, or Breloom benefit from Weavile's presence, especially if the sand Tyranitar would produce would be detrimental. It is especially worth noting Weavile's ability to remove Latios/Latias/Gengar when paired with Swords Dance Breloom or Sheer Force Landorus, as both of these Pokemon are devastating sweepers that can have difficulty getting through those Pokemon. Keldeo does have the benefit of not being overly troubled by Scizor, though. Rapid Spinners also appreciate Weavile's ability to remove Gengar with little hassle, and its ability to trap a weakened Deoxys-D or Jellicent. Teams that need these niches filled, but are also weak to Dragon-types, benefit the most from Weavile. Magnezone can remove Scizor and Ferrothorn or bait Lati@s and Volt Switch into Weavile, while your own Recover Lati@s can switch into Keldeo with near impunity.
What Counters Weavile: Scizor is one of the most notable threats to Weavile, taking neutral damage from Low Kick and threatening it with Bullet Punch for a quick OHKO or U-turn to punish attempts at escape. Jirachi, another Steel-type neutral to Low Kick, and fairly light itself, also cares little for what Weavile can throw at it. This is even more true for Wish variants, who can paralyze Weavile with Body Slam and then smash it with Iron Head, or set up Calm Mind with little risk (Night Slash's high critical hit rate should be kept in mind though). Keldeo is another Pokemon who isn't really threatened by Weavile. Bulky water-types in general, such as Politoed and Tentacruel, can prevent any headway by Weavile, and even Jellicent scoffs at it if Weavile chooses Ice Punch. Chansey is a particularly humiliating counter, since it can tank Weavile's hits due to Eviolite and its low weight.
Other Notes: A very cool Pokemon, but it can be a bit difficult to get full mileage out of it. There will be some games where it's an allstar, racking up two or three kills or ending the game itself in a lategame sweep, and there are others where it fails to kill anything important or is pitiably walled by something. It has gotten better with Genesect's ban, since it tended to be a walking U-turn target. Try it out for yourself.
11. blunder
is a Tiering Contributor
Oct 30, 2011
Yeah this thing is great. I was using this with specially defensive U-Turn Celebi to bait in Latias and Latios so I could get a nice hit on them to where pursuit kills regardless if they switch out. After that I could easily clean up with Scarf Keldeo. Great Pokemon with a pretty big niche.
12. TUO
Jun 5, 2012
What to use
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
Role: Special Sweeper, Tank
What it does: TR Reuniclus is an amazing pokemon in the current metagame as most pokemon are very fast and TR can mess up someones momentum vastly. Reuniclus packs one big punch and its speed is usually its main falter. Once it uses its decent bulk to get a TR safely, you have 5 turns to wreck absolute havoc. You will outspeed nearly every single pokemon in the metagame and do massive damage coming from reuniclus' base 125 SpA stat. Focus Blast, Psyshock, and Shadow Ball are good coverage options for Reuniclus to do as much damage in that 5 turns of Trick Room.
Good Teammates: Conkeldurr is a classic teammate for Reuniclus as it can take out Chansey/Blissey with ease and their typing works well together. Another good partner is Heatran. Heatran is really good at killing threats to Reuniclus such as Scizor, Jirachi and Metagross while Reuniclus can handle the Fighting types that Heatran hates. Another excellent partner would be Infernape. Infernape has the capability of destroying Scizor, Jirachi, Chansey, Blissey, Metagross, Bronzong and other pokemon. It is rather fast though so you can't send Infernape in while trick room is still up.
What Counters It: As said above, its main counters are Scizor, Chansey, Blissey and Jirachi. Scizor's Choice Band boosted U-Turns can OHKO Reuniclus while Reuniclus can't OHKO it unless you forego one of these moves with Hidden Power Fire. Chansey and Blissey are extremely threatening as it can take any of its special moves and wear it down slowly with Seismic toss while it can heal off any damage. Jirachi is another great poke to counter it as it resists it's STAB and can ParaFlinch it or set up Calm Mind's on it.
Other Notes: Be careful though, TR reuniclus can cause a lot of forfeits.
13. WikeCharlie
May 3, 2012
Hi I'm on my phone and if this doesn't come out right I'll edit it later. Anyway the set:?
Tornadus-Therian @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
Evs: 252 Spd / 252 SpAtk / 4 Atk
Naïve Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Hurricane
- Superpower
- U-Turn?
- Taunt / Heatwave
Role: Mixed Attacker
What It Does: Standard Tornadus-T is a very good mixed attacker attacker with very high speed and fair natural bulk. It counters big threats to rain teams such as: Breloom, Celebi, Venusaur (Outside of sun), Keldeo etc. It is a great mixed attacker, as its stab hurrican hits even resists hard. Also Regenerator helps keep it healthy through the game, and soothe its crippling stealth rock weakness.
Good Teammates: Politoed, not only does it bring rain, to give it a powerful 100% stab move in Hurricane. But also Politoed is capable of dealing with Terakion which gives torn problems. Also torn is great at eliminating grass types which toed hates.
What Counters It: Specially defensive Rotom - W, Jirachi, The pink blobs (if torn lacks taunt).
Torn can simply u turn out of these counters into something too check its counter, whilst gaining precious momentum.
Any Additional Info: you can use Choice specs on the set, however being locked into taunt or heat wave in the rain isn't a good thing too do.
14. TGMD
TGMD n_n
Nov 27, 2011
This exact set (other than Heat Wave being slashed) has already been posted :o For future reference, be sure the set hasn't been posted yet and inform us whether it's to use or not to use at the top.
15. ClubbingSealCub
Jun 23, 2012
Noticing a big lack of rapid spinners, so I'll post one of my favorite mons :D
Sandslash @ Expert Belt / Ghost Gem
Sand Rush
12 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance / Stone Edge / Stealth Rock
Role: Sand Spinner, Anti spinblocker / Sweeper
What it does: Sandslash works similarly to how Excadrill works in Ubers - he spins and can defeat spinblockers with the appropiate move. An Expert Belt Shadow Claw will always OHKO standard Gengar (the most common spinblocker in OU) after SR damage; and Jellicent can be OHKOed after SR by a +2 Ghost Gem Shadow Claw.
If one prefers, Sandslash can assume a sweeping role, but it is outclassed by RP Landorus (special or physical) in that regard. He can also set SR if you're desperate.
Good Teammates: Sandslash needs a Sand Stream 'mon with him. Tyranitar is preferred because it compounds Grass, Water and Ice weaknesses with Hippowdon. He also requires something that can get Skarmory, Gliscor and Landours-T out of the picture. Mixed Tyranitar with Ice Beam and Fire Blast can work as a great lure for those pokes and can also provide SR.
Counters: As stated above, Skarmory, Gliscor and Landorus-T are Sandslash's biggest nightmares. Anything else that is immune or resists Earthquake and takes neutral damage from Stone Edge and Shadow Claw is a roadblock for Sandslash. Defensive Celebi, for example, takes 60% from an LO Shadow Claw, so it has a chance to take a hit and take Slash out with a Grass-type move. Hydreigon will always survive a hit and dispose of Sandslash with pretty much any special move. Both of these checks can be beatet with X-Scissor; but Sandslash won't be able to defeat spinblockers without Shadow Claw and lacking Stone Edge means any Flying-type will wall Sandslash, because Bug/Ground coverage isn't all that hot.
Additional Info: Be warned that Sandslash is a very, very niche Pokemon. It should be used on sand-based teams that need a spinner that can get past OU's common spinblockers or as a physical sweeper. At any other possible role, he'll be largely outclassed.
Interesting tidbits: Sandslash can beat scarf Terrakion one-on-one (he takes 65% from CC); and is also pretty resilent to priority. Bullet Punch from CB Scizor / Mach Punch from LO TechniLoom / Ice Shard from LO Mamoswine will never OHKO Sandslash (around 70% damage each).
With the given EV spread, Sandslash can outpace anything under scarf Terrakion/Keldeo. This includes +1 offensive and +2 bulky Volcarona.
16. WikeCharlie
May 3, 2012
Use it its great
Shiftry @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
Evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spd)
- Nasty Plot
- Grass Knot / Giga Drain
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Role: Special Sweeper,Revenge Killer,
What It Does: Shiftry may seem an odd choice when other sun power houses are available, such as Venusaur and to a lesser extent Victreebell. However unlike the previous too Shiftry doesn't have to rely on growth too boost its special attack, Shiftry has access to nasty plot which means it can double its special attack even out of sun. Shiftry is also a good pick as a sun sweeper because it is seen much less and not as known. In the sun Shiftry counters: Rotom-W and other water types, but unlike other chlorophyll sweepers Shiftrys stab Dark Pulse allows it too easily pick off the latis and other common psychic type the previous pokes have trouble with.
Good Teammates: Ninetales. Shiftry absolutely needs Ninetales too work, or else its speed is left at a lack luster 259 and is easily outsped and ohkoed. Shiftry also enjoys something too get rid of Heatran, and Dugtrio does this perfectly
What Counters It: Heatran, Scarfed Abomasnow, Heracross, Toxicroak, Pink Blobs, Hydreigon and infernape with a priority mach punch.
Any Additional Info: If the sun is gone, then Shiftry is very easy to counter, but in the sun, it's very hard.
17. StarmanXL
Jul 1, 2007
I'm not sure I get what's so great about Shifty compared to other Chlorophyll sweepers. You use being able to get +2 Sp. Atk out of sun as a selling point over Venusaur but then you say that outside of sun it's easy to counter. Not to mention being weak to Mach Punch is bad for a sweeper with such frail offenses, meaning that the ubiquitous Breloom as well as its Mach Punch brethern in Conkeldurr and Infernape can all shut you down immediately. Even a CB Bullet Punch from Scizor has a small chance of one-shotting it after rocks, meaning it really can't afford to take any previous damage. Being able to one-shot Latias, I'll give you that, but 252 HP/0 Sp.Def doesn't take Venusaur's +2 Sludge Bomb well anyway having a very small chance to OHKO after rock damage, and it's an instant kill on offensive Latios anyway. So...I mean i can see getting some use out of Shiftry, but it seems very niche and situational to me. It doesn't help that sun teams are kinda on the weak side compared to Rain atm.
18. WikeCharlie
May 3, 2012
I have nothing better to do so. Use this guy!
Mienshao @ Life Orb
Trait: Regenerator
Naive Nature ( +Spd, -SDef)
Evs: 162 Atk / 92 SpAtk / 252 Spd
- Hi Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Fake Out
Role: Mixed attacker , Lure
What It Does: Mienshao is quite a fast pokemon at 100 base speed. It is a good early game scout, which can take weak neutral hits, and u-turn out, while taking little damage due to regenerator. Like most physical attackers gliscor is a common switch in, however unlike others mienshao is able to ohko with 0 prior damage with hp ice.
Mienshao can also revenge kill weakened pokemon, which may have set up too much with fake out. The evs may seem strange but they let mienshao ohko glicor, the drop in attack may be off putting however it is rarely noticeable.
Good Teammates: Anything which enjoys gliscor being dead.
Tyranitar is a good teammate as it can trap and kill the latis as well as other psychic and ghost type pokemon which resist or are immune to hjk respectively, as can scizor.
What Counters It: Mienshao is quite hard too counter because it is failry fast, but also packs a punch from both sides of the spectrum.
Most ghost types can switch into hjk and activate the recoil causing Mienshao too lose huge amounts of HP. Gengar can easily switch in and ohko with a much faster shadow ball.
Any Additional Info: entry hazards benefit mienshao greatly turning 2hkos into 0hkos also mienshao may be hard too weaken due too regenerator and is a good pick for any team looking for a fast scout!
19. TaBuu
Sep 9, 2012
Real interesting thread here, I actually really like it :)
First I want to *improve* and a little more to gengarsnemisis's suggestion on Lucario, a seriously underrated underdog Physical sweeper of this generation.
Nature: Adamant
EV Spread: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Moves: Swords Dance/Close Combat/Extreme Speed/Bullet Punch or Crunch
Role: Physical Sweeper and Late Game Cleaner
What it does: Usually when it's late game and Lucario gets a Dance, the opponent might as well hit that run button. With sky high attack stats, boosted by Life Orb, he can smash opponents with Power using Close Combat or Crunch; he could also quickly put the opponent out of their misery with priority moves such as Extreme Speed or Bullet Punch. While the chance doesn't present itself to often, he can come in revenge weakened walls or slower threats with little care, thanks to 1/4 resistance to rocks and an immunity to Toxic Spikes.
Good Teammates: Rotom-W is a beautiful partner. Taking Ground Type moves, Fire Type moves it threatens out certain Pokemon such as Gliscor, Landorus (certain varients), Heatran Scarfed, Jellicent if Lucario lacks BP, and so forth. Rotom-W can also Volt Switch on threats like Ferrothorn or Celebi that Lucario can set up on with ease. Banded Ttar works much nicer with BP Lucario thanks to the fact that it can eliminate Jellicent, Slowbro, Reuniclus and Gliscor quite easily. Celebi, usually defensive varients, work well with Lucario, being able to U-Turn or Baton Pass out of Dark moves or Bug Moves and bring Lucario safely in and also deal with things like Keldeo, Latias, and Special Landorus
What Counters it: Bullet Punch struggles more with Defensive threats, such as Gliscor and Jellicent as it lacks the coverage and power of Crunch. However, Crunch is a poor move when it comes to hitting Offensive threats. Too many Pokemon (Terrakion, Scarf Ttar or Gengar for example) can walk in after a Lucario KO, and threaten it right back out.
Any Additional Info: Using Lucario takes Skill, Patience, and Foresight. Not bragging or sounding arrogant and stuff, but I've played with Lucario a hell of a lot (almost a little too much ._.) and I've seen others use Lucario. Send it too early and use just lost a great Pokemon. Send it to late, and Lucario might have lost its set-up chance. Bring Lucario in when certain threats aren't eliminated and you're only complicating the situation. Lucario overall is a high-risk, high-reward. He'll sweep the team, 3-0, 4-0, sometimes 5-0. Or he'll be KO'd turn 13. Or he could just be dead weight. Use this Monster wisely.
Suspect: Garchomp The Land Shark
Jolly Nature
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Life Orb
Rough Skin
Swords Dance/Outrage/Earthquake/Fire Fang
Role: Physical Sweeper
What is Does: My, my, where to start. Well, this ex-Uber has an astounding base 130 Attack stat that hits an Attack stat of 718 after a Swords Dance, assuming it's Jolly Natured. (Pity, Gamefreak didn't teach this thing Dragon Dance) It has solid bulk, boasting 108/95/85 Defenses, making this Land Shark far from frail. It has a pitiful Ice Shard Weaknesses, but can be easily taken care of with correct Team Building. Packing Life Orb, it usually doesn't always need a Dance to wreck havoc. It can run in and out unlike Dnite and Mence thanks to it's Ground typing. This guy is a real team player being able to switch in and out and eventually when the chance presents itself, Sweep. Lacking a Stealth Rock Weakness, Lacking Pursuit Trap Weakness and not being weak to Super common attacking moves, Garchomp really shines above Dnite, Mence, Latios, Latias and Hydreigon.
Good Teammates: Haven't played with this guy as in depth as I have with Lucario just yet; however, I have used this Pokemon before. This particular set loves Sun. Fire Fang gets a Pseudo STAB and with a LO +2, Drought boosted Fire Fang, even Skarmory will be a bit weary about confidently walking in with its' tin ass. (75% chance to OHKO. How you feelin' Skarm?). Garchomp loves the support of Rotom-W, taking in Ice Moves and smashing Mamoswine who is a pain with a capital P. Tyranitar is yet another great partner as it eliminates the Lati twins. Ttar and Rotom-W have great synergy as well. This easily forms a three-way core that works pretty well.
What Counters it: I guess Air Balloon Offensive Heatran is one. +2 Outrage is a 2HKO, while a +0 is like a 3-4HKO. Choice Scarf Politoed can revenge the Chomp. TBH, nothing straight up counters this Chomp set (...I think. Can't think of a Mon besides Tran that can take most of Chomp's moves). Chomp is always switching in and out, scaring here, setting up there, pokin' holes over here. Chomp can only be checked by faster offensive threats. However, thanks to his bulk, he can usually take one down. Terrakion Scarfed will fall to Garchomp 1v1. Banded, Garchomp still has a chance.
Any Additional Info: Sun or Sand. He prefers one of these weathers to help his sweep
20. doublenikesocks
Jul 1, 2012
What to use
Deoxys-Defense @ Rocky Helmet / Mental Herb / Red Card
Trait: Pressure
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
EVs: 252 HP /4 Def / 252 Spe
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Magic Coat / Night Shade
Role: Hazard Setter
What It Does: Sets hazards, and usually dies. Its excellent mixed bulk allows it to almost always get 1-2 layers of hazards set up, and possibly more. Can be used late game to take Specs Latios' Draco Meteors if hazards are already up. Also can break stall with Taunt or Magic Coat.
Good Teammates: Any sweeper that appreciates hazard support. Good examples are Dragonite and Lucario. Ghost types are also good teammates because they spinblock the hazards that Deoxys has set. Gengar is a good choice, as it is fast and has an offensive presence on the field. Tyranitar can defeat Xatu, Starmie, and Espeon that prevent Deoxys from setting up.
What Counters it: Magic Bouncers and Rapid Spinners mostly. Specs Zoroark can OHKO with Dark Pulse. Bug Gem Scolipede can also OHKO with Megahorn and set up its own hazards.
Any Additional Info: Use this on Hyper Offense and with Lucario.
21. Reymedy
Reymedy Tempest Man.
Oct 17, 2012
Show Hide
Sweet, I didn't dare to do it myself because well...
But, I would add that it's the only Pursuiter with a Stab able to Outspeed Starmie. And the best Pursuiter to deal with Espeon and Xatu since he kills the first one with Pursuit and threaten the second one with Stab Ice/Dark moves.
So Deoxys-D is a good partner because he usually hates them.
I'd also add as partners, Gengar since this combo makes them able to block any spinner (give to Gengar a set able to beat Tentacruel), because against Starmie you can just throw your Gengar. If the Starmie attacks, well Gengar dies depending on your set, but Weavile comes after and kill Starmie. If the Starmie did Spin your Gengar is here (and hopefully his set makes him able to kill Starmie !).
And Jellicent, they resist each other's weaknesses and perform well as a Spin Blocking / Pseudo-Trapper core like Gengar.
22. DarkBlazeR
May 20, 2009
Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Role: Revenge Killer
What It Does: Focus Sash Alakazam is a phenomenal revenge killer. Thanks to Magic Guard, it always have a functional Focus Sash when it comes in at full health, as hazards, weather and status will not damage it. This allows it to survive an onslaught and KO the opponent with the appropriate move in the same turn. Where other revenge killers (i.e. Choice Scarf users) are limited to revenging the things they can outspeed, Alakazam renders Speed a non-issue. In a metagame where boosting Speed is a frequently executed strategy, whether it be manual boost or Ability-activated, being able to revenge kill something regardless of Speed is a fantastic niche that shouldn't be underestimated in this offensive metagame. Examples of such threats you can revenge kill include Venusaur in sun, Landorus-I after a Rock Polish, Terrakion after a Salac boost, Sharpedo, Dragonite after two DDs, etc. There are some things it can't revenge kill, i.e. SS Cloyster, but there's a reason you have a full team. Although it can essentially get only one revenge kill against faster opponents, having it on your team can potentially put you at a psychological advantage, where by the opponent doesn't try to set up because they know that Alakazam will be able to come in a get a free revenge kill. Whilst Ditto can steal the boosts from enemy sweepers, Alakazam has the advantage of not having to lock itself into a move, so you can keep your offensive momentum after making a revenge kill. Even without the boost from a Life Orb, Alakazam hits very hard on its base 135 Sp. Attack alone. Theoretically you could run Modest for extra power since Focus Sash protects you anyway, though I strongly recommend Timid so you can KO Gengar, Terrakion, Keldeo, Lati@s and Starmie without having to use up your Focus Sash. Moveset wise, Psychic is usally the preferable option due to higher BP, though Psyshock can more reliably revenge kill CM Keldeo and does more damage to special tanks. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast are obligatory coverage options with your Psychic STAB of choice. Hidden Power [Ice] is also important as it KOs Landorus-I and Dragon types, both of which you may need to revenge kill and both of which can take a STAB Psychic.
Good Teammates: As Focus Sash Alakazam is unlikely to be the focus of your team, it doesn't require support from any specific teammates to succeed in its role. However, it has the tightest synergy with teams that require a general revenge killer to many of OU's top threats. Hyper offense teams will generally appreciate Alakazam the most, although it is also viable on bulky offense teams and even some balanced teams. If you are looking for specific partners though, Magnezone is a good bet as it can trap and KO Jirachi and Scizor, two of Alakazam's most prominent checks. Slow U-turn/Volt Switch users are also good teammates, as they give Alakazam the opportunity to switch in without having to take any damage, which would break its Focus Sash. You'll also want teammates that can beat Shell Smash Cloyster and QD Volcarona, as Alakazam struggles to revenge kill both of those.
What Counters It: Jirachi is one of the best counters to Alakazam, as it has enough bulk to shrug off multiple Focus Blasts, and can either cripple Alakazam with paralysis, or use it as fodder to set up Calm Mind. Scizor is similarly great at checking it, as it isn't weak to any of its moves, and can immediately threaten it with Bullet Punch. Pursuit will deal swiftly with any fleeing Alakazam. Weavile can come in on any attack other than Focus Blast, outspeed and nail it with a STAB Pursuit, which will OHKO regardless of whether or not Alakazam stays in (unless Focus Sash hasn't been broken yet, of course). The pink blobs, Chansey and Blissey, will easily wall this Alakazam if it runs Psychic over Psyshock, though the former will still wall it regardless. Other specially defensive tanks, such as Rotom-W and Gastrodon, will also be able to take on Alakazam effectively.
Any Additional Info: Remember that when using Alakazam, never let its Focus Sash get broken prematurely.
@Tabuu: You may want to mention that Garchomp can also function well in rain when using Aqua Tail.
23. Reymedy
Reymedy Tempest Man.
Oct 17, 2012
For Alakazam, I'd say since the biggest threat to Alakazam are fast threats like scarfs, priorities and bulky Steel...
Mamoswine could be a good partner !
While he does not scream "Alak is my buddy" at first glance, he kills the bulky steels swiftly, got his own Priority, and take care of many usual scarfers.
The issue being Bullet Punch.
Another partner that I like is Heatran.
Kills steels, resist anything threatening Alakazam and takes U-Turns. I especially love the idea of a Scarf Heatran to break pokemons that usually wall Alakazam.
Many fighting pokemons are good along with Alakazam by the way, Breloom, Conkeldurr etc.
This is only if you need some partner's suggestions.
24. Asek
Asek Ｒ ｅ ｐ ｔ ｉ ｌ ｉ ａ
is a Team Rater Alumnus
Apr 28, 2012
When hunt adds the rest in I'll edit this to reflect that, but these are the additions so far
Added (what to use)
Physical Sweepers
Remedy's Life Orb Breloom - Post 1 point for this submission
DarkBlazeR's Sub + Dragon Dance Gyarados - Post 1 point for this submission
Asek's Dragon Dance Dragonite - post 1 point for this submission
Whitesymphoni's Sub + SD Terrakion - post 1 point for submission
Revenge Killers
Joeyboy's Choice Scarf Keldeo - post 1 point for submission
Late Game Sweepers
Qwertyuiop's Rock Polish Landorus-I - post 1 point for submission
Jimbon's Choice Scarf Salamence - post 1 point for submission
gengarnemisis's Swords Dance Lucario - post 1 point for submission
Physical Wall's
ClubbingSealClub's Physically Defensive Slowbro - post 1 point for submission
Special Wall's
ganj4lF's Specially Defensive celebi - post 1 point for submission (somebody please move this into what to use out of what not to use >_>)
jaredz99's Expert Belt Abomasnow -post 1 point for submission
NixHex's Steel Destroyer Magnezone - post 1 point for submission
Dark Fallen Angel's Utility Jellicent - post 1 point for submission
Added (not to use)
Physical Sweepers
Joeyboy's Physical Infernape - post 1 point for submission
Special Sweepers
DarkBlazeR's Choice Scarf Charizard - post - 1 point for submission
NixHex's SubCharge Magnezone - post 1 point for submission
Will edit once OP is edited with additions dw. will prolly make it prettier too
If all sets here get added, the current leader in points is DarkBlazeR so good job :]. Keep up the good work everyone!
25. Dark Fallen Angel
May 23, 2012
What to use:
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Item: Leftovers
• Substitute
• Calm Mind
• Thunderbolt / Thunder
• Psyshock / Flash Cannon / Water Pulse
Role: Special Sweeper, Stallbreaker
What it does: Jirachi is a great sweeper, and even a pseudo-mixed sweeper if you choose Psyshock as the last move. It is one of the few special sweepers that laugh at Blissey/Chansey, as it can use Substitutes that will not be broken by Seismic Toss, and can use them as setup bait. Calm Mind slowy strengthens Jirachi, and also boosts its Special Defense, which means that if your opponent doesn't have a super-effective physical attack against this thing, Jirachi can potentially boost to the point that it will be unstoppable.
Calm Mind is there for obvious reasons. Substitute protects Jirachi from status, and facilitates prediction. For example, if your opponent brings something like Infernape (not that someone experienced would use him), and Jirachi uses Substitute as it switches-in, Infernape will be OHKOed by Psyshock.
An Electric-type attack is necessary to achieve the best neutral coverage possible with the last move. Thunderbolt is the primary option, but on a rain team, Thunder can replace it, as it is not only stronger, but thanks to Serene Grace, has a rage-inducer 60% chance of paralyzing your opponent.
The last move comes down to preference. Psyshock is the recommended option, as it has great coverage with Thunderbolt, and maims the common Fighting-types, such as Terrakion on the sand. Psyshock also lets Jirachi easily bypass the pink blobs after two or three CM boosts. With Psyshock, Jirachi is somewhat of a mixed sweeper, as it can hit specially defensive Pokémon with it, and physically defensive Pokémon with Thunderbolt. Flash Cannon is another great option. It lets Jirachi bypass Celebi, Tyranitar and physically defensive Ground-types like Gliscor, because the former two are resistant and immune, respectively, to Psyshock, and take little damage from Thunderbolt, and the latter doesn't take much from Psyshock because of their enormous physical defense.
However, on a rain team, Water Pulse is another great option. It is weak and doesn't have that much neutral coverage with Thunder (in fact, it misses out Dragon-, and Grass-types) but it has a 40% chance to inflict confusion status. Thogeter with Thunder's 60% chance of paralysis, your opponent will actually have a hard time trying to defeat Jirachi, and will be defeated one time or another with repeated Thunder/Water Pulse and confusion damage. If this doesn't happen, at least your opponent will be crippled by paralysis.
Good Teammates: Anything that has resitances and/or immunities to Ground AND Fire is a good partner. This includes: Dragon-types like Lati@s, Salamence, Dragonite, Hydreigon, as well as Balloon Heatran, and Gyarados. They are generally capable of switching-in on Jirachi's weakness, and then wrecking avoc by defeating whatever Jirachi has problems taking down. As you may noted, Jirachi has serious problems against many Ground-types. For this reason, Grass-types are amazing partners, especially Ferrothorn and Celebi. The former has hazards that facilitate Jirachi's work, and the latter can defeat almost any Ground-type, and can even check dangerous Pokémon for Jirachi, such as Sheer Force Landorus. Politoed is another amazing partner. Politoed checks most Ground-types, and summons a rain that negates Jirachi's weakness to Fire. Not to mention that Jirachi is able to use Water Pulse + Thunder to hax the opponent.
What Counters it: As was mentioned numerous times above, Ground-types are good counters for Jirachi, most of time, especially if they are physically defensive. Hippowdon and Gliscor deserve mentions, as they laugh at most atempts of Jirachi to do anything. The former can even phaze Jirachi if she dares boosting even more. Even if Jirachi carries Water Pulse, it is better off switching-out. Dugtrio traps and kill Jirachi before it can do anything. Jirachi's only chance is if Dugtrio do NOT carry Focus Sash (or if Stealth Rock is on field) and Jirachi has 1 CM Boost, an intact Substitute and Psyshock (or Water Pulse on rain). This way, as Dugtrio breaks Jirachi's substitute, it is OHKOed by Psyshock (or Water Pulse on rain). However, this is a very obscure situation that is unlikely to happen most of time, so Dugtrio remains a serious threat to Jirachi. However, the worst of them all is Quagsire, as it ignores all Jirachi's boosts.
Apart from Ground-types, Jirachi has problems with Fire-types, although they are less effective than Ground-types in terms of taking down Jirachi, for three reasons. The first is that all of them are weak to Stealth Rock, with exception of Heatran and Infernape (I am only speaking of common Fire-types). The second is that most of them aren't immune or resistant to Electric, so Jirachi can simply hit them with Thunder(bolt) and then switch-out as they break its Substitute. The third is that Jirachi's Fire-type weakness can be negated by rain, and in fact, on rain, expect Jirachi to carry Water Pulse, a move to which Fire-types are weak.
Ferrothorn resists all attacking moves that Jirachi can possibly use, but if Jirachi has an intact Substitute, Ferrothorn can't annoy him with Leech Seed, and Ferrothorn risks being haxed by Water Pulse + Thunder variants. The same applies to Magnezone, which although can trap Jirachi, actually has problems taking her down as Jirachi can boost her Special Defense to the point that Magnezone can't effectively trap her.
Tyranitar is an annoyance to variants with Psyshock, as Jirachi has to boost various times to OHKO with Thunderbolt, and Tyranitar can easily break Jirachi's substitutes with Crunch. Specially Defensive Celebi resists all moves that Jirachi uses, apart from Flash Cannon, and can use Perish Song to force her out. The same applies to Latias, that can phaze Jirachi. It can even CM alongside Jirachi, but unless it packs phazing, Jirachi will almost always win the CM war due to her double resistance to Psyshock and the fact that she almost always carry Psyshock herself.
Any Additional Info: Jirachi is an amazing Pokémon for teams that want an versatile special sweeper that can even take down the uncommon stall teams. The good of using Jirachi is that it doesn't actually require Rapid Spin support, as it is immune to Toxic Spikes and resistant to Stealth Rock. Actually, Jirachi is one of the special sweepers that require the less support possible. Jirachi is an special sweeper that inspires a fear on the trainer's hearts, that as Jirachi slowy boosts, it become more and more impossible to take down. Expect teams without Earthquake to lose to Jirachi if they don't have another way to defeat her.
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Normalizing Your Database
If you’ve been working with databases for any length of time, you have heard the term normalization.
Normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two goals of the normalization process: eliminating redundant data (for example, storing the same data in more than one table) and ensuring data dependencies make sense (only storing related data in a table). Reaching these two goals reduces the space used by the database and ensures the data is stored logically.
Guidelines have been developed to confirm that databases are normalized. These are referred to as normal forms and are numbered from one (the lowest form of normalization, referred to as first normal form or 1NF) through six (sixth normal form or 6NF). However, the 5th and 6th normal forms are rarely used, so I’m not going to mention those below. Also note that most database architects start out designing in 3rd normal form, so it’s not necessary to perform these normalizations in order.
First Normal Form (1NF)
First Normal Form (1NF) sets the very basic rules for an organized database:
Second Normal Form (2NF)
Second normal form (2NF) further addresses the concept of removing duplicative data:
Third Normal Form (3NF)
Third normal form (3NF) goes one large step further:
Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF or 3.5NF)
The Boyce-Codd Normal Form, also referred to as the “third and half (3.5) normal form”, adds one more requirement:
Fourth Normal Form (4NF)
Finally, fourth normal form (4NF) has one additional requirement:
More info:
Database Normalization Basics
First, second, and third normal form
Database Normalization: First, Second, and Third Normal Forms
Description of the database normalization basics
Video Normalisation Demonstration
Stairway to Database Design Level 9: Normalization
Third Normal Form
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Monday, Oct. 5, 2015
Society must deal with young killers
Monday, September 10, 2001
The victim was a 4-year-old boy. His killer was 8. The accomplice was 9.
In New York this week, an 8 year-old, described as a bully by neighbors, apparently used a pen to stab to death a 4-year-old neighbor. The killer's 9-year-old brother apparently helped in the murder in the hallway of a Bronx apartment.
Obviously it's useless to seek any level of understanding in this tragic episode. None exists. And yet all of society must somehow learn a lesson from this tragedy and find common solutions to assure that similar incidents are not repeated. That task may be impossible.
Is there a problem within our society that somehow leads to these tragedies? Is it as complex as a total breakdown in the family unit? Or are the usual suspects - violence on television and in the motion picture industry - to blame? The answer is not a simple one.
Do any among you know of an 8 year-old sufficiently violent to kill another child? What within us leads to this unspeakable crime?
It's far too simple to take the approach that this happens only in New York or some other urban center. The killer and victim were low-income residents of an overcrowded subsidized Bronx apartment complex. No mention in news reports is made of a father for either the killer or victim. But though these two factors - fractured family units and poverty - are commonplace, they alone cannot answer the questions.
Perhaps we over-simplify. Maybe this young killer was simply a "bad seed," a youth with no redeeming factors who was destined for violence at some age. By taking this attitude, we feel more comfortable. It happened there but it won't happen here. But I'm not so sure.
In the past two years, news reports have splashed the headlines with kid killers. Two 10 year-olds push another youngster from an apartment balcony in Chicago. A Michigan first-grader kills a classmate. A group of pre-teens kills a homeless man. And there are more.
Our social safety net is not working. It will take more than dollars from Washington to change an attitude that life is expendable. It will require a change in our culture that removes the prevalence of violence in all forms. It will require greater emphasis on two-parent households. But these are only the beginnings.
In the end, it will require a power higher than we possess. A good starting point would be the return of that power to our school systems. It may not be the total answer but it may be our only choice.
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Bruce Willis: Don't infringe on Second Amendment
By Ryan Pearson
AP Entertainment Writer
LAST UPDATED: 5:01 a.m. HST, Feb 6, 2013
"I think that you can't start to pick apart anything out of the Bill of Rights without thinking that it's all going to become undone," Willis told The Associated Press in a recent interview while promoting his latest film, "A Good Day To Die Hard." ''If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn't they take all your rights away from you?"
Willis' fifth outing as wise-cracking cop John McClane, due in theaters Feb. 14, comes as his action franchise marks its 25th anniversary. The 57-year-old actor will also be seen firing away at bad guys in the upcoming sequels "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and "Red 2," both due later this year.
But he believes "the real topic is diminished" when observers link Hollywood entertainment with high-profile mass shootings like those last year in Connecticut and Colorado.
"No one commits a crime because they saw a film. There's nothing to support that," Willis said. "We're not making movies about people that have gone berserk, or gone nuts. Those kind of movies wouldn't last very long at all."
Willis added that he doesn't see how additional legislation could prevent future mass shootings.
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Interpretation of results with covari... PreviousNext
Mplus Discussion > Growth Modeling of Longitudinal Data >
Yvonne Miller posted on Friday, December 04, 2009 - 9:33 am
I'm investigating test scores of children in arithmetics at 3 time points.
My model is
i s| arith1@0 arith2@1 arith3@2
is ON gender ses mig
I get significant effects of the covariates on the intercept and the slope.
How are the effects of covariates on the the intercept are interpretated?
Can I say for example that
1. girls have better scores at the beginning or
does it mean that
2. girls have better test scores over all 3 measurement points?
Linda K. Muthen posted on Friday, December 04, 2009 - 10:18 am
You should watch the video for Topic 3 to get a full description of growth modeling. The intercept growth factor in your model is defined as initial status because the time score of zero is at the first time point. If gender is scored as girls being one, a significant effect of the regression of i on gender says that girls started higher. If the regression of s on gender is significant and positive, it says girls have a higher growth rate.
Yvonne Miller posted on Friday, December 04, 2009 - 10:46 am
Thanks a lot for this helpful answer, Linda!
Yvonne Miller posted on Monday, December 07, 2009 - 2:13 am
I have one further question: What is the difference between non-standardized and standardized model results.
I have cases where the influence of predictors is significant in the non-standardized results but not in the STDYX standardization??
Thanks a lot for your help in advance!
Linda K. Muthen posted on Monday, December 07, 2009 - 11:06 am
See the STANDARDIZATION option in the user's guide for a description of the various standardizations available in Mplus.
It can happen that unstandardized and standardized coefficients are not not both signficant or not significant. They should be close. In these cases, I would be conservative as far as significance goes given that you are likely looking at many parameters.
Benedikt Neumann posted on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 - 9:31 am
I am testing the response status of participants in 7 waves by LGC. I implemented 2 independent variables (incentives for participation) as time invariant covariates.
My model is:
Categorical are RT1-RT7;
ANALYSIS: Estimator = ML;
MODEL: i s | RT1@0 RT2@1 RT3@2 RT4@3 RT5@4 RT6@5 RT7@6;
As far as I have understood, I can use AIC/BIC to compare the fit of more or less restricted models.
(1) But, is there any possibility to say how well the model fits the data at all (using the logit link)? If no, what alternatives could you suggest in order to make sure the model is fine?
(2) Sometimes removing significant effects of covarites on the random intercept/slope improves the model fit. Is this ought to happen?
I would need this for my thesis and would be very thankful for your advice!
Thank you!
Bengt O. Muthen posted on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 - 6:14 pm
1. You can consider the frequency table chi-square when you don't have covariates in the model. With sparse cell counts, you can consider bivariate fit using TECH10.
2. That would say the covariates don't only have indirect effects on the repeated measures via the growth factors, but also directly. But if you are using BIC to reach this conclusion, you want to compare models with the same variables.
Benedikt Neumann posted on Friday, December 11, 2009 - 10:35 am
Dear Mr. Muthen,
Thank you very much for your quick reply!
I have tried chi-square and TECH10. For most of my data the model is ok, for some it is not (too much variability, it seems).
But, I still feel unsure about the conclusion for the model with covariates.
(1) Can I conclude that a good model fit without covariates will entail a good model fit with covariates and a bad a bad one? (Because the measurement model is independent from the structural model?)
(2) A significant time-invariant covariate improves the structural model by explaining variance of the latent factors, but has no effect on the measurement model?
Am I thinking this right?
Thank you again for your efforts!
Bengt O. Muthen posted on Friday, December 11, 2009 - 4:10 pm
1) No. But it is a good start to first get good fit without covariates. To see if the covariates have good fit you need to work with neighboring models, asking of some covariates influence some outcomes directly (which would violate the usual model assumptions).
2) Not true.
Benedikt Neumann posted on Monday, February 22, 2010 - 8:02 am
Dear Mr. Muthen,
I am using the WLSMV estimator (binary outcome variables) for my latent growth analysis with an intercept and a linear slope and have another problem:
Without any covariates, the mean slope is negative and significant. This is in accordance with the appearance of the descriptive data which show an average decline rate by 2.5%.
When introducing (significant) time-invariant covariates of the latent factors, the slope intercept in some cases is not significant or even changes to a positive estimate value. This doesn't seem to match the analysis without covariates and is contrary to the descriptive data.
Could you give me any suggestions how to understand and how to "fix" this problem?
Thank you very much!
Linda K. Muthen posted on Monday, February 22, 2010 - 9:27 am
I think the issue here is that in a conditional model, the estimate you obtain is an intercept of the slope growth factor and not the mean.
Benedikt Neumann posted on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 11:47 am
Dear Ms. Muthen,
Thank you for your quick reply! Unfortunately, I still don't see my mistake.
I try to compare my descriptive data to the predictions of the LGC model by using the following equations:
Level 1: Y = N(-t + v*i + p*s);
Level 2:
i = 0 + b01*x1 + b02*x2 + b03*x1x2;
s = a10 + b11*x1 + b12*x2 + b13*x1x2;
When x1=0 and x2=0, s = a10. As far as I understand, when a10 is replaced by the positive slope intercept estimate of the model results section, the slope still "produces" a linear increase of Y, given all covariates are 0 and p increases linearly.
In result, the predicted Y goes up, while the outcome data of the "control group" obviously go down. Additionally, the slope intercept becomes also negative, when I use WLS instead of WLSMV.
I still don't see where this difference might come from. Could you please help me further with this?
Thank you!
Linda K. Muthen posted on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 4:23 pm
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Are you a human coloring book? Why do this?
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I love tats!
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cool tatoo!
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That's one damn cool tattoo!
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Mark, do not tell me your going to get a pair of Eggleston tatoos?
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Hey Jim,
how about a BIG 'EW' right across the chest. lol!!
Of course, I could get 'Andra' tattooed on me and not have to worry about getting it removed later, the speakers can't walk out on me like the other women have lol!
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One of the weirdest musical phenomena that I know of is the symbiotic relationship between really bad music, mostly classic rock schlock, played at maximum volume, and professional sporting events. I mean have you ever been to an NFL game where you didn’t hear Ozzy Osbourne’s "Crazy Train"? And let's not even discuss the NBA where the prospect of being exposed to more Kelly Clarkson or the All American Rejects keeps me from even thinking of attending.
I'm bringing this up, not only because it's annoying as hell but also because of two recent events. First, is word that it looks as though Prince may be the performer in next year's Super Bowl halftime show. Not Aerosmith or the Stones out there dragging their wealthy carcasses through the motions, lamely collecting their cash. No, this would be the purple one who if a recent performance at the Grammies is any indication, and despite his newfound Jehovah Witness faith, can still rock the house. Yes, truly, the Prince JW thing is indescribably strange. It's parallel dimension stuff. Prince, in a religion other than his own? Okay, whatever, but I still do not get it. At least it's not Scientology.
The other reason I bring up the fact that sports franchises have incredibly bad taste in music is because having just been to see my beloved and much beleaguered Pittsburgh Pirates—Bobby Clemente, we hardly knew yeI was surprised to find hope amongst the sports obsessed hordes. When fans in the gorgeous but half–filled PNC Park were asked to vote with their hands between, "Ice Ice Baby," Vanilla Ice, "Ain’t No Other Man," by Pittsburgher Christina Aguilera and "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash, the applause was loudest for Cash. Yeah, I know that everything is coming up Cash these days thanks to the film and Sony's seemingly bottomless trove of new material, and considering the competition in this little runoff, Cash was almost a sure thing. Vanilla Ice? They couldn't come up with something a little more compelling than THE one hit wonder of all time? "Take Me out to the Ballgame" sounds like Beethoven's Ninth compared to that chunk of early Nineties excess. Suffice it to say that it weren't really a fair fight. Still, it's a hopeful sign. And Christina actually drew a round of boos.
To make sure I had the facts straight, I visited the Wikipedia page on Vanilla Ice (Rob Van Winkle) where I found this gem that I'd read before but forgotten:
"She would call me at strange hours, 'Are you in bed with another girl?' At 6 in the morning, man, I'm like, 'I'm fucking sleeping all alone. What the fuck? Why do you keep doing this?'" "But is she a sexual animal?" "Nah, she's like every normal girl, man. She's very sexy, she's hot, she's romantic. She's got a great body for her age (35)."
He is, of course, speaking, in a 1994 USA Today interview, about Madonna, who's another constant musical presence, via, "Holiday," at most professional sporting events. Love how they added her age in parens.
Those in charge of music at pro teams are like PD's at radio. No one wants to take a chance. C'mon, be different. Play an album cut. There's so much music out there why huddle around the same handful of bad tunes? What, Ozzy needs the royalties? Go ahead play a Yo La Tengo cut. Give B&S a try. Hell, if it's gotta be Journey, then dig into a record and find something other than the obvious singles. Oh wait, we're talking about Journey here aren't we?
The baseball Pirates have benefited immeasurably from that current buccaneer sensation, Captain Jack Sparrow, as music from both the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Klaus Badelt's hyper–symphonic swirl from the Black Pearl and Hans Zimmer's equally blockbuster score from Dead Man's Chest, is what one now hears, at an astonishing levels of volume and richness, just before the first pitch is thrown. Like the rest of the park, the P.A. at PNC is first class. With the Pirates playing as poorly as they are, these raging seas soundtracks are an appropriate backdrop for a fan base on the verge of giving new meaning to the term, mutiny
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Regarding LSG - near a 52 week low, yes. But also lost $10MM last quarter !
What are your thoughts on SAS ? Also a gold producer; cup and handle on chart; and making more and more money every quarter and expanding gold production and reducing OPEX.
Thoughts ? DISC: I own SAS at around $0.50 avg. | dclm-gs1-101870000 |
OM/ONE levitating speaker will float into your heart
It looks like magic, but it’s really magnets
OM/ONE Bluetooth speaker
OM/ONE Bluetooth speaker
Wait… is that ball floating?Oh yes. Except it’s not really a ball – it’s a speaker. A Bluetooth speaker called the OM/ONE, in fact. It’s an orb that floats on its base through the use of magnets.
A bit like a maglev train?Precisely. The ONE itself uses Bluetooth 4.0 to wirelessly connect to audio sources like your smartphone or laptop, and pumps out music via a “finely tuned” 75mm driver.
READ MORE: Meet BAT, the hover mouse
OM/ONE Bluetooth speaker
OM/ONE Bluetooth speaker
How does it sound?Its makers say it sounds amazing, but then of course they would. We haven’t heard it with our own golden ears, so we’ll have to reserve judgement on that. We can say, however, that it looks “pretty neat”. It’s a mono speaker, which might upset some, but you can combine two of them for full stereo.
What else can it do, other than play music and float?Well, it’s fully portable, so you can take the sphere away from the base and use it on a picnic or at the beach. There’s 15 hours of music playback via the built-in battery, which charges through USB. It also has a microphone, so you can use it as a Bluetooth speakerphone for hands-free or conference calls.
And how do I get one?The ONE is currently a prototype and OM Audio, its creators, are crowdfunding its launch here – but given that they’ve hit their target with plenty of time left, it’s safe to say the speaker will be released as an actual product.
You can back the campaign to the tune of US$179 (£107) to reserve your own ONE speaker (they’ll be US$20 more expensive after the campaign ends), with postage to the UK costing an extra US$20 (£12). The estimated delivery date is December 2014. So float over to the site and you’ll have the coolest Christmas bauble around come the holiday season. | dclm-gs1-101890000 |
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Debating a liberal
By Robert L Warren
East Carbon City
Have you noticed when debating with an extreme far left-wing liberal it becomes nothing more than a complete waste of time? In lieu of facts, liberals rely on emotions, opinions, changing the subject, distorted truths indifference to actual facts, name calling, personal attacks, malicious slander, vulgarity and many appear to be elementary school drop-outs. Take a break, deep breath and allow what ever brain power you may have left to absorb some facts instead of the hysterical blabber you spew out.
On Nov. 4, 2008 we gave you power in the House, Senate and the Oval office. We voted for hope, change, balance would be restored, our world would be safer, our families would be stronger, our future would be brighter, we trusted you, Reed, Polosie, Obama so we elected you. We regret it...Fact
Now comes 2010, you will lose big. No more taxes, spending, Socialism, we tried to warn you, but you ignored our efforts. You are a threat to our economy, health-care, individual liberties, our original constitution and amendments. You became a government of take-over's, bail-outs, bribes, back room deals, pay-offs, all blatant and shameless liberal policies. We've had enough. We're taking our country back from radical leftists and liberals. America will rise again beginning November 2nd 2010.
I am one of those extremely disappointed and disillusioned Democrats born from our current administration in Washington. It appears Obama has ignored America is a government "Of the People", not a government of "Me, Obama". The ''Change we can believe in", "Yes we Can" and "Hope" has finally been exposed and identified. You are attempting to 'change' America into a Marxist Society; 'yes we can' resulting from your (or whoever's) cleverly planed and executed past failures, establishing America's total dependency on a Marxist/Socialist government.
Three straight years of job losses with an unemployment rate that has escalated from five percent to 10 percent. The national debt has exploded from $3 trillion to $13.7 trillion in the last eighteen months, burdening our future children's children for years to come. Then there is the $787 billion pork-and boondoggle-laden "stimulus" bill in 2009, which miserably failed to stimulate the economy and has only prolonged economic recovery. Record high home foreclosures originally created by Cris Dodd and Barney Frank's creative Wall Street financing, both Democrats, placing the American taxpayer on the hook for misguided economic policies. Following another "jobs bill" that cost taxpayers $18 billion yet created no "jobs". Then the $700 billion TARP bill to bailout banks that couldn't balance their books, and the 2,000+ page health care takeover bill, leaving the American taxpayer on the hook for another $2.6 trillion to pay for this new "entitlement", three years before it goes into effect, when and if it does. Federal stimulus 1.2 trillion, Federal Rescue 6.4 trillion, tax and spend, redistribute, we're broke don't you get it? You can't spend yourself out of debt! Fact!
Don't forget Cash-for-Clunkers, Mexico's invasion of America; six million to rebuild/restore Islamic Mosques, in China, Pakistan, Nigeria and India, not including the new Mosque just steps away from ground zero. Then there is replacing Biblical principles that America was built on with Quran Muslim beliefs, all financed by disapproving American Christian tax-payers.
Now comes 'Hope' --Stimulis-TARP-ObamaCare ~~~ three words that will be written on political politicians obituaries that voted for the programs, starting with Obama, Harry Reed and Nancy Polosie beginning Nov. 2 when Americans tell these self serving politicians we have had enough, voting them out of office. Hopefully, someone, somehow, somewhere can figure out a way to put America back on the map as it was when we were growing up, a safe place to live, by the Ten Commandments, Golden Rule and Pledge of Allegiance.
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From the staff of the Tampa Bay Times
Crist takes the Democratic script and attacks Romney's 'sketchy deal' and 'binders'
cristromney.jpgPage 7 in the Charlie Crist transformation manual: Act as top surrogate for Democrats on conference call, read Obama talking points.
Introduced by a top Democratic spokesman as "the great former governor," Crist did just that this afternoon, criticizing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as they descend on Florida.
"Let’s call the Romney-Ryan economic plan what it is: A so-called five-point plan that is really a one-point plan. One set of rules for them and their friends and another set of rules for everyone else – the same bad ideas that created the crisis in the first place. Mitt Romney is offering the American people, as the president said, a 'sketchy deal,' " Crist said.
Crist said Romney "mislead" voters during Tuesday's debate on his attacks on Obama over the Libya attacks and by ignoring his previous pledge to veto the Dream Act. He mentioned the "Ryan-Romney budget" that would force deep cuts and increase costs for Medicare (Romney says he likes the House budget but has made it clear he'd pursue his own.)
"Romney couldn't even give a straight answer when he was asked a point-blank question about equal pay for women at the debate this week," Crist aid. "His awkward, dishonest answer really displayed his failure to stand up for giving women the tools they need to fight for equal pay and for equal work. While the president talked about women as bread winners for American families, Romney talked about them as resumes in a binder."
In a Q&A with reporters, Crist was asked about his previous support for the Bush tax cuts, and extending them. "What I've supported is trying to keep taxes low," he said. "What we're talking about in this election is a candidate that wants to give tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and we have a president who wants to make sure that everybody gets a fair shake and a fair share ..."
He was also asked if he would accept a position in a second Obama administration. "Last thing I'm thinking about," he said.
Our question for Crist didn't get asked (apparently there were technical problems) but we would have liked to hear how Crist feels about Democratic criticisms of Romney shaping his political views to fit the times. The "severly conservative" Romney has been shedding his skin a bit lately, to the consternation of Democrats. Crist not too long ago was effectively pitching himself as severe conservative.
Then came Marco Rubio.
AP photo: Crist with Mitt and Ann Romney in 2008.
[Last modified: Thursday, October 18, 2012 6:53pm]
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tue 06/10/2015
Opinion: Ballet's Stars are Revolting | Dance reviews, news & interviews
Opinion: Ballet's Stars are Revolting
Alina Cojocaru joins ENB - the latest superstar to defy old company logic
Goodbye Royal: Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg at a Mayerling curtain call, with Laura Morera
Are we seeing a breakdown in the ballet company system? Where the brightest stars used to twinkle in the great companies, all is changing. Alina Cojocaru, the great Royal Ballet ballerina, has announced today she's joining English National Ballet - run by another great Royal Ballet ballerina, Tamara Rojo. For ENB to have the two finest talents of the past decade in Covent Garden now at the head of their cast lists is the biggest stunner since… well, since the Bolshoi Ballet's young superstars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev quit to join the smaller Mikhailovsky Ballet.
polunin coppelia stanislavskyOr since the Royal's super young male star Sergei Polunin quit Covent Garden and landed with another of Russia's "secondary" companies, the Stanislavsky Ballet (pictured right in Coppelia).
Another straw in the wind was the almost unthinkable departure this month of a leading Paris Opera Ballet ballerina, Mathilde Froustey, for the much smaller San Francisco Ballet. People just don't leave Paris Opera.
Osipova, after the Mikhailovsky began to look unstable (given its owner’s business problems), agreed to join the Royal Ballet next season - but it’s hard to predict whether that’s about joining the Covent Garden company or about living in a vibrant London, where dance in general has so many fresh options.
All sorts of norms are now up on their ear. It's as if the world's top football strikers had said no to the Premier League and were forming their own.
Stars break out much younger now, often due to their own efforts rather than a slow company nurturing
Why is this happening? Two things, I'd say. One, stars break out much younger now, often due to their own efforts rather than a slow nurturing up inside a big company. Guillem, Cojocaru, Rojo, Osipova, Polunin, Vasiliev - all are self-starters, movers-on, competition-winners, all emerged as stars in their teens, all have made their own rules, defined themselves outside the expected company patterns.
They owe less to their current home companies than their own go-getting. Some of the temperament shown has been progressive, some of it obstructive - but it has demonstrated a forceful truth: that dance careers today are shorter, riskier, more vulnerable than they used to be, injuries more frequent, insecurity and ambitiousness keener.
Companies haven't responded well to this. Artistic temperament is an old, old thing, and its vagaries have been accepted for centuries in opera, where singers with stratospheric talent were accorded stratospheric tolerance levels. The Royal Ballet's record in Monica Mason's era with obvious star talents has been poor: to lose one star like Guillem would seem to be unfortunate, to lose Polunin and Cojocaru too shows real misjudgment of what the public wants to see, and what the growth of ballet needs. It is not company competence but the exceptional interpreters who inspire greater ambition in the choreographers, and hence the movement of the art.
The second thing is that companies themselves need to redefine their attractiveness to dancers of talent. That means pragmatic stuff, like money and physio, though it's not the end of it, or why would hundreds of dancers join the Bolshoi and accept a basic salary of £400 a month in the world's most expensive city? Certainly, kudos matters. But surely what drives dancers to this or that company is a search to fulfil their own artistic identity, hoping that for their brief time upon the stage they will find a home for their talent, a microclimate for their stylistic instincts and intelligent ambitions.
Vasiliev Osipova by Charlotte MacMillanYet the aesthetic character that used to be a strong differentiator between companies has vanished. Who can really say what the Royal Ballet offers stylistically that Cojocaru does or does not fit?
Who can explain to the general public whether Boston Ballet is much different from Birmingham Royal Ballet, or whether a British dancer in a Russian company (Xander Parish at the Mariinsky) is better or worse off than a Russian dancer in a British one (Vadim Muntagirov at ENB)?
And why should unorthodox dancers like Osipova and Vasiliev put up with being constricted in old hierarchical "demi-caractère" roles in the Bolshoi when both of them are going to be wonderful in Giselle, if they're allowed to be? (Above, Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, by Charlotte MacMillan)
The grander companies are not explaining themselves well. They are behaving like corporations and brands, not like fluctuating ecosystems of art where a single species may be crucial to the existence of several others and the general liveliness of the pond. They are not examining their own products, banning staleness in interpretation, banning repetitiousness in programming. Even if predictability is helping them flog their brand, it's putting off their finest artists.
What the second-tier companies like ENB, the Stanislavsky and Mikhailovsky are saying is that they recognise great dancers are by nature travellers, who know their own journeys - and the public wants to see them. While contracts must be signed to ensure the public and company discipline aren't let down, these artists don't rate corporate identity as "them", especially if they aren't over-impressed by their artistic director's judgement.
If a choreographer is central to a company, there you will find stable, loyal artists
The prime reason for this change is the lack of choreographers. All the greatest artists want to be in new work. The eco-chain is that a fine director attracts a fine choreographer who is drawn to the best dancers. If a choreographer is central to a company, there you will find stable, embedded artists on whom the choreographer will create a "style" that will spread to others and to the training of the next generation to dance those works. At the Royal the dancing "style" was generated largely but not exclusively out of Frederick Ashton, and the acting "style" out of Kenneth MacMillan. Cojocaru was triumphant in both, as it happens, despite her Russian training.
But if a company lacks a solid link with a sought-after choreographer, it can't expect its finest artists to be satisfied with the repeat part of repertoire. They will seek change, because it's in the nature of performing artists never to be quite satisfied, never to be quite happy, never to be the same as others. And if they can't change the rep, they'll change their surroundings.
Ballet is not an equal opportunities utopia, and its very health depends on that. At the Royal Ballet the special treatment of Fonteyn and Nureyev was divisive, but no one can argue it did not embellish the company's world reputation, and drive up new generations of excited young dancers in their footsteps who themselves fed choreographers.
ENB has endemic box-office problems, and Rojo looks as if she’s tackling the issue by trialling the original "stars" set-up of ENB's precursor, Festival Ballet. It was fascinating to see how quickly she dealt with the casting question when she arrived as player-manager at the start of this current season: Vadim Muntagirov is the young man everyone wants to see at ENB, and it was expected that Rojo would pair herself with him to maximise the box office. But after the opening run of The Sleeping Beauty (which his favourite partner, the popular Daria Klimentová, does not like dancing), Rojo restored the Klimentová-Muntagirov star pairing and relied on her own fame to build up some of ENB's less well-known men. That meant two good box-office cast options.
While it's startling to see Rojo and Cojocaru, the Royal's two sublime rivals, bonding like sisters at ENB, Rojo is a mistress of Realpolitik, and she knows she will have yet another box-office star for Le Corsaire, her big new production in the autumn, as well as help to draw the public for new creations next spring. And she's giving Cojocaru the freedom she wants to dance with her two other favoured companies, American Ballet Theatre in New York and Hamburg Ballet. This way both company and star are happy.
Here’s a side-thought - Osipova's recruitment to the Royal Ballet will bring her hugely engaging and brilliantly talented fiancé, Ivan Vasiliev, to London. He, like Cojocaru, is running a multi-company international career. He has already guested with ENB. Will he join the troupe to dance with Cojocaru? The male-fest Le Corsaire is tailor-made for him.
Down the road in WC2, the Royal Ballet is reeling
Meanwhile, down the road in WC2, the Royal Ballet is reeling. In September it opens Carlos Acosta’s much-anticipated new Don Quixote production, a scorching test of ballerinas. It was a body blow to Acosta when Cojocaru suddenly quit the Royal this summer, as she was one of the very few ballerinas capable of delivering the leading role - along with Rojo, of course, who was still on the Covent Garden roster when the company and Acosta committed themselves to the new production.
Rojo, who had a long, close partnership with Acosta at the Royal, is now in the position of fielding the stars he wishes he could have in her own premiere at ENB.
Suddenly, in these times, it’s stars who have the bargaining power, and the companies who must play ball. And the public, for sure, will love it.
In this country,outside of
In this country,outside of London,ballet casting is of little importance to the majority of the dance going public. I sincerley hope "Le Corsaire" will find a bigger audience than "Manon " did a few years back.
Here's an interesting
Here's an interesting suggestion for the Royal: perhaps find some homegrown English dancers? Perhaps nurture, and bring in, fresh choreographic talent rather than create yet another version of Don Q? I have to disagree about Vasiliev: while Osipova was a lovely Giselle (with Hallberg), Vasiliev is not doomed to demi-caractere by his height but by his consistent lack of polish and technical cleanliness. Sure, he's loads of fun in Corsaire, but his recent Bluebird in NYC was horrifying. Legs not straight, mediocre arms, lack of musicality. His line is poor--which is not a matter of height but of how he developed his body. (See young Baryshnikov for how a short man can have lovely line.) And of the many balletomanes I know, I'm actually one of the more favorable to him. Dancers do need to take control of their lives: it's a short career and they must fulfill themselves artistically and (it's not shame to say) financially. Wonder how the POB ballerina will feel when she retires and SF offers her almost nothing compared to the generous retirement of the Opera. the article is spot-on about the importance of choreography. Right now, in my opinion, the two best are with ABT (Ratmansky, whose newest work gave Osipova a chance to shine) and the newly minted talent Justin Peck at NYCB. Companies should make the development of choreographers a major priority and dancers will stay for that.
for the much smaller San
for the much smaller San Francisco Ballet But a remarkable company with wonderful dancers performing an interesting repertoire. Something I cannot always say of the POB now.
I don't think that they're
I don't think that they're revolting, just a little eccentric.
As a member of the ballet
As a member of the ballet going public cited at end of the article, I found this reportage nonsensical and rather ludicrous, typical of the phony storm the media is trying to cook up, over one dancer leaving one company, for another. It fails to mention The Royal Ballet has a wealth of talent both in current star dancers and dancers who will emerge as stars as they always have done. As important, they have a wealth of home grown choreographers. Liam Scarlett an original and brilliant talent is shaping up as a worthy heir to past masters. In Kevin O’Hare they have a dedicated director who love of the company, it’s history and all of its dancers, is patently obvious to anyone who has heard him speak over the years. So all is well. Royal Ballet in great shape- Sadly this does not make great headline.
The RoH needs to rethink its
The RoH needs to rethink its artistic strategy as it appears to be on a downward spiral . For whatever reason it appointed as artistic director its previous adminstrative director and , by all accounts the ghost of christmas passed, contoinues to haunt the hall on a daily basis.Thus by default It has no new ideas or fresh thinking. In trying to show itself as cool, it appointed as lead choreographer who continues to dissapoint (and bore) with his sameness and inability, if the Raven is anything to go by, to mount a substantive ballet as agianst dance work. With Tony Hall gone the new leader maybe needs to clean house and find fresh artistic leadership.
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After years of litigation in hopes of scoring a bigger slice of Facebook, Tyler S.H. Winklevoss '04 and Cameron O.H. Winklevoss '04 were told enough is enough on Monday by a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Barring further legal action, the Winklevosses are now forced to accept a deal worth well over $100 million.
The deal was originally worth $65 million, $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock. Due to the company's growth and increase in valuation since they originally struck the deal, the stock is now worth more than double its original value.
The Winklevosses had claimed that the original agreement was invalid because Facebook lied about its internal valuation of the company.
"The settlement was obtained in violation of the federal securities laws," their lead attorney Jerome B. Falk, Jr. wrote in a statement.
In the decision, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski pointed to the presence of the twins' father in the deal as reason to believe that the twins were well represented during the original negotiation.
"They brought half-a-dozen lawyers to the mediation. Howard Winklevoss—father of Cameron and Tyler, former accounting professor at Wharton School of Business and an expert in valuation—also participated," Kozinsky wrote. "The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace."
Immediately after the decision was released, Tyler announced via Twitter that his lawyers intend to keep going with the legal battle. If their petition for a rehearing is denied, the only remaining option would be to request that the U.S. Supreme Cout hear the case.
The Winklevosses and Facebook declined to comment on the case. | dclm-gs1-101930000 |
7.62x39mm accuracy/bullet size
January 29, 2003, 11:12 PM
Some 7.62x39mm ammo has a .308 bullet diameter, some a .311 bullet diameter.
My barrel is .311 internal diameter, wondering how firing the smaller bullet might affect accuracy. [rattling around]
Or vice versa, firing the .311 bullet through a .308 bore. [squeeze]
I thought the external dimensions of commercial ammo were standardized... it seems like a different bullet diameter would be a different "caliber".
Anybody know why this discrepancy exists?
But that's just me. I wonder if this is one of those cases where "that's the great thing about standards, there are so many of them !!"
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Smokey Joe
January 30, 2003, 02:33 AM
I've just done the math, and 7.62mm does not equal .308". Nor does it equal .311". These designations are done arbitrarily, for a variety of reasons, and make a fascinating historical study, if you have the time and the inclination. But your question was, why have 2 different calibers designated 7.62x39mm.
Russian military designers thoughtÑfor whatever reasonÑthat .311" was a nice diameter for their 7.62 rifle barrels when they designed the so-called 7.62x39mm round. (They whould have used a metric measurement for this however.) That round went through the various SKS models, and the various AK models, the latest of which are still in use. The same standard was used by the Chinese, and the other nations to which the USSR/Russia exported weapons-building technology, from the 1950's through the 1990's. So there are lots and lots of old military weapons designated 7.62x39mm, with this bbl diameter.
When Ruger subsequently decided to chamber their Mini 30 in this round, in their infinite wisdom, they chose to make the bbl. diameter .308", for whatever reason. Perhaps because other cartridges popular in this country, which are called 7.62mm elsewhere, are .308" diameter. Notably the .308 win, aka the 7.62 NATO. I'm not representing this as good logic, you understand, but it's what Ruger did.
So from two different sources, you have the same round with 2 different diameters. :mad: A potentially dangerous situation.
If you had a .308" diam. 7.62x39mm bbl, and fired the .311" diam ammo in it, the best you could hope for would be a ferocious kick and lousy accuracy, as the large bullet is violently forced to conform to the smaller bbl. Internal pressures would be I think, dangerously high. Gun damage and damage to shooter or bystanders are worse case scenarios. So you would be well advised to stick with domestic American sporting rounds, which are .308" diam.
If, OTOH, as you say you have, a .311 diam bbl, you should be seeking and using .311" diam bullets. The .308 diam bullets will probably upset (flatten their back ends) in the barrel and seal the bore, but they will probably NOT do so pointing straight down the bore, which means they will be headed God-knows-where when they exit the muzzle. Not a dangerous situation, but highly inaccurate, and not predictably so. If the bullets always went left of point of aim for example, you could adjust your point of aim, but when they upset in the bore they may be pointing left, right, up, down, or straight ahead. If the bullets don't upset, they'll just rattle down the bbl, with pretty much the same result as above, except with less velocity due to blow-by of some of the powder gases.
Bullets of both diameters can be had easily by reloaders, so there is no excuse in either case not to have high quality ammo for your weapon. Accurate Arms 1680 powder was designed specifically for this round, and usually works well. It seems to be the logical place to start in load development for a particular weapon.
IMHO, you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. But that's just me. I wonder if this is one of those cases where "that's the great thing about standards, there are so many of them !!" Nice way of putting it.
BTW, since you have a .311 "7.62x39mm", I hope you enjoy shooting your milsurp. :)
January 31, 2003, 12:55 PM
I had never heard that...
so 2 boxes of ammo marked 7.62X39 may have different size bullets???
I have an SAR-1 (Rom AK-47) and am shooting wolf through it. I'm pretty sure they match in size, but which size would that be??
Duke of Lawnchair
January 31, 2003, 02:51 PM
Smokey is pretty much on par.
I'd also like to say that circa 1994, Ruger mfg'd their Mini30s to allow them to be more combloc 7.62x39 "friendly". There are some lots of 7.62x39 that are .310 OR .311. If I'm not mistaken, the .310 slugs are Czech in origin. Not that you couldn't shoot the combloc ammo through older mini30s.
From Brownells:
Ruger Mini Thirty Bore Specifications
This information pertains to:
This rifle is chambered for the 7.62 x 39mm cartridge. This cartridge, traditionally, uses a projectile with a nominal diameter of .311 to .312 inch.
At the time the Mini Thirty was introduced very few bullet makers where producing .311/.312 inch bullets for reloading in the light 125-130 grain weight required. Ruger initiated the use of barrels with a groove dimension of .308 inch and a long tapered throat. The throat allowed the use of ammunition with .311/.312 projectiles by gradually “squeezing” them to the .308 diameter. In addition, ammunition loaded with more commonly available .308 diameter bullets could also be used.
Commencing in 1992 Ruger initiated a change to using .311/.312 nominal groove diameter, 1-10 inch right hand twist barrels in all Mini Thirties. It was likely well into 1993 before all rifles coming of the production line incorporated the .311/.312 barrels.
I have confirmed this with Ruger as well in regards to my very own Mini30, which unfortunately was mfg'd in '91. Bummer...
Smokey Joe
February 1, 2003, 10:35 PM
YzguyÑYour Romanian AK is a combloc gun (design of Russian origin). Wolf (Russian) is "modern" combloc ammo. Ergo, they match and can be used safely together. Enjoy.
FWIW, I don't think much of steel-cased ammo with Berdan primers. Inaccurate in my experience, hard on some guns (although combloc guns generally have no problem digesting it) and of course utterly non-reloadable. Cheap, sure. But if you do anything involved with shooting to save money, IMHO, you are in the wrong hobby area. We don't shoot to save money, we shoot to put the bullet in the target.
You can get a set of brass 7.62x39mm cases, primers, AA 1680 powder, 125 gr. .311 bullets (Hornadys work for me), and FL resize loading dies at the next gun show you go to. You can manufacture better ammo than Wolf on your first try. Get
The ABC's of Reloading and read it if you don't reloadÑReloading is part of the fun! Most any reloader, of your acquaintance or online, will be willing to help with problems or questions as they arise. Read and obey all the cautions. We are, after all, dealing with rather powerful chemicals and large forces, here. Not dangerous unless you do something stupid. You can beat the price of store ammo, over the life of your equipment, but you don't reload to save money, you do it to make better ammo for YOUR GUN than that of which any factory is capable.
BTW, there's one other 7.62x39mm complication: Remington brass for that case uses small rifle primers; the other manufacturers all use large rifle primers. So match the primers to the cases you buy. I don't know why SAAMI didn't get on Remington's a** about this; I thought that was what SAAMI was for, but there you are. Either use all Rem. cases for this cartridge, or no Rem. cases, and no further problem. Before I started loading for this caliber I never heard of such a thing. I hope I never do again. That comment above, about standards, comes to mind once again.
Sir Galahad
February 1, 2003, 10:50 PM
Who the hell wants (or needs) to reload for an AK-47? My SAR-1 ejects so far, I'd hate to be policing up brass and worrying about strays getting lost. Wolf ammo is cheap and runs great out of AKs. Wolf and Barnaul ammo is the way to go for AK owners.
Smokey Joe
February 1, 2003, 10:57 PM
I the hell want to. For the reasons stated above. If you don't want to, it's all right with me. But I promise I won't knock your decision in public.
Sir Galahad
February 1, 2003, 11:05 PM
I'm not knocking your decision. But I think most AK owners will agree that an AK shoots just fine with Russian ammo. Mine does. You can save money shooting. It doesn't have to be expensive. That's why Russian 7.62x39 Saiga rifles and Wolf ammo sells like so fast they never collect speck one of dust in many gun shops.
But when I really want to save money, I shoot my Martin recurve bow. I can reuse that ammo again and again. :D
February 2, 2003, 12:45 PM
Galahad has it about right in this case, I think.
I can't buy the bullets for the cost of the Wolf stuff, purchased in case lots.
Plus, I use a MAK 90, with new wood, for close in defence, so MOA accuracy isn't an issue.
Reliability isn't a problem, so I guess I got a good ($200) rifle, for the purpose that I intended, of course.
In any case, I can't buy the bullets for reloading for the cost of the Russian loaded rounds...
I like to think of it as a bigger .22 RF!
Besides, sometimes it's fun to shoot without worrying where the "brass" is flying.
February 2, 2003, 09:45 PM
You guys are getting exercised about nothing.
Practically since firearms have been made, the caliber designation has been the hole size drilled in the barrel.
I'll skip all of the OLD bore sizes and get to one we all recognize:
.30-06, a.300 hole drilled in the barrel in 1906, {7.62mm is exactly .300in.}
Enter the .30-54{or whatever year the .308 Winchester aka 7.62x51Nato was developed}which happens to have a hole drilled in the barrel of exactly .300in.
The reason it was called the .308 was that Winchester wanted to have a propietary name so they added the depth of the rifling which was .004 on each side or a total of .008in. so we have a hole .300in+grooves of .008={voila} .308.
Today, I slugged the barrel of one of my Chinese SKS's with soft lead{i'll measure it tommorrow when I get to the shop}, however, I did notice one strange thing that I had never seen before, the grooves are twice as wide as the lands.
All rifles I have slugged in the past, the lands and grooves are equal.
This means that with a hole of 7.62mm or .300in, if the grooves are twice as big as "normal" rifling, it will take more bullet{more diameter} to fill the grooves.
With out even taking this into consideration, I doubt that any of these military rifles have a barrel whose rifling is within .002in. or .003in. for it's entire length.
I suggest that you get a ruler that is measured off in 100ths of an inch and then imagine that the distance between each of those marks is divided into 10 to give you1/1000 of an inch.
I will assure you that a difference of .003in will make no measurable difference in accuracy or pressure.
February 4, 2003, 01:51 PM
In fact, save for about one magazine's worth of that green-lacquered Wolf stuff, the gun has never digested anything other than my handloads, and it's got about 5K rounds through it.
Funny thing is, I've gotten some witnessed groups out of the Bulgarian SLR-95 with my handloads that go inside 2" at 100 yards. Try that with Wolf ammo. Granted, the AK isn't intended to be a benchrest gun. But I can live with a 2 MOA AK, no problem!
Why is that a bummer? You've essentially got a 2-bore rifle there. You can shoot both the cheap milsurp ammo, and earlier domestic (Winchester, Federal, Remington) 7.62x39 fodder. If you were to handload for that throated Mini-30, say, using a .308" spitzer bullet, you could very well dispute the notion that all Mini-30's are inaccurate. That Ruger's tapered throat may surprise you. Weatherby did the same thing, but they call it free-boring, and use it to keep pressures down from those big belted magnum rounds.
Does that .003" difference in bullet diameter make a difference? Shoot a .308" bullet from a .303 British Lee-Enfield, or Arisaka, or AK. See what your groups do. Or should I say, see how your patterns do. Having thought the same thing as meanoldfart above, I ran some experiments. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
I even swage down .323" 8mm Mauser bullets to .321" for my .32 Remington Model 8 rifle, using a Corbin swage die. Maybe the safety and accuracy freak in me is showing, but if the barrel mikes out at a certain diameter, I go with bullets matching it, especially if it's not a throated barrel.
Several 7.62x39 Contenders, SSK Handcannons, and MOA Maximum pistols were built for the handgun silhouette game, where steel silhouettes out to 200 meters were toppled with surprising regularity using the cartridge. Neat thing was, domestic brass was used, but the barrels were true .308" bores. If you haven't noticed, there is a buttload more selection in the .308" bullet diameter than in the .311" flavor. When practicing for a local IHMSA match one afternoon, a friend turned a 100 meter silhouette sideways with his revolver, so the edge was facing him. He rather unceremoniously grabbed his scoped .308x39 SSK/Contender, and proceeded to hit the edgewise silhouette squarely.
Were I to build a 7.62x39 bolt gun, I'd probably use a .308" barrel, just so I could run decent bullets. ;)
Smokey Joe
February 6, 2003, 02:55 PM
GewehrÑOn the website, www.sixgunner.com Paco Kelley wrote of a 7.62x39 bolt gun, and was quite enthusiastic about it as a heavy varmint/light hunting/short range accurate cartridge. By short range he meant under 200 yd I believe. Paco called the round in this rifle "a .30-30 on steroids." I've never seen nor heard otherwise of a bolt gun in this cartridge. It certainly seems like a very interesting proposition.
Such a rifle could be quite accurate w/o being nearly as heavy as usual in an accurate hunting rifle.
February 10, 2003, 08:59 PM
Gewehr98-Am starting to reload for a Bulgarian, can you share your accuracy receipe? Am starting with Lapua brass, Speer softpoints (.311) and HDY's new plastic tips (.310). Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated.
February 11, 2003, 09:05 AM
Accurate Arms 1680 is the best powder, bar none, for decent 7.62x39 handloads. Best velocity, lowest pressure signs, and clean burning. Problem is, I'm having trouble finding even a single pound of the stuff here in Spacecoast Florida. :(
If you can't find AA1680, Hodgdon's H335 will work until you can find AA1680.
I've used the Hornady 123gr FMJ bullets, as well as the Winchester bulk FMJ bullets. More recently, places like Wideners, Natchez, and MidwayUSA offer South African or Russian .311" 123gr FMJ bullets. Regardless of who made them, I do a cursory diameter check on the batch, as well as weight sort the surplus military bullets.
I have used the Speer softpoints, they shoot just fine. I didn't know there was a .311" plastic-tip bullet, that's another one I will have to try.
I use a pretty good crimp on my 7.62x39 handloads, just to keep a bullet from being pushed back into the case during the rifle's cycling. It's not really a problem, the bullets I use have the cannelure for that, and it's done with a Lee Factory Crimp die.
February 11, 2003, 04:10 PM
Gewehr, if you shoot enough of it, www.gibrass.com has the czech powder that AA imports as 1680, available in 8lb kegs for fairly cheap.
February 11, 2003, 05:05 PM
I'd almost given up trying to find it, without resorting to buying a case of the stuff. The local reloading shop doesn't have much call for AA1680, and won't stock it if there's only one odd bird who needs it. (me) ;)
My current supply was bought in Wisconsin when I went home for Thanksgiving. Wife thought I was nuts to have a pickup box full of reloading supplies going from Wisconsin to Florida. :D
February 11, 2003, 07:47 PM
Gewehr98-Thanks much, it is appreciated. Graph and Sons lists AA 1680 in 1 and 8 lb jugs. They are also the only source (am aware of) for HDY's 123 gn V-Max bullets (advertised and measured .310 in dia.). They have significant savings for bulk orders.
Had to pass up a CZ carbine in 7.62x39, that had an absolutely beautiful stock and less than 1 in factory group (including a flyer). Was there when dealer unwrapped it, didn't have cash on hand before it was put away in the dealer's private collection.:banghead:
February 18, 2003, 12:34 AM
thanks to all for the info !
February 18, 2003, 01:21 AM
I get 7.62 x 39 ammo sometimes wolf sometimes other surplus for about $100 for a 1,000 round case .10 per bullet and think they shoot fine I'm sure there is better stuff out there but my question is ..is reloading AK ammo worth it?
I don't reload but would like to get into it someday when I have time, money, and space.
How much money would you save and how long would it take to reload a case of ammo?
Oh and while on the subject how many times can brass be reloaded?
I've been on this forum about a month and learned more than a semester worth of College classes.
February 19, 2003, 02:52 PM
You won't save money by reloading 7.62x39. I just bought a couple of cases of Wolf ammo from Centerfire Systems for $80 each including delivery. That is 8 cents a round. If you reload for 7.62x39 the powder will cost you that much.
The only reason to reload 7.62x39 is to get a higher quality and more accurate round. You would save money compared to a high quality factory round which might cost you 50 cents each.
February 19, 2003, 04:19 PM
The original question was regarding the loading of .308 bullets in the 7.62x39.
My answer is that there is no problem with it and accuracy is not a concern. I've loaded 125gr Nosler BT's (.308's and other .308" dia. bullets) and gotten outstanding accuracy, best of ANY bullet of either .308, .310, .311, or .312. Admittedly, the .312's of jacketed construction had the poorest accuracy, but no pressure signs were encountered. Ed Harris had a column in the American Rifleman several years back and stated he had the same results. Curtis Shipley of Ga Arms/Master Cart. let me in on his load for the 7.62x39 and it worked for me too:
Commercial US brass (I prefer the R-P w/ Small rifle primer)
Federal 205 primer
Nosler 125gr Ballistic Tip
AA-1680 (I use 26.5gr)
Seat to fit Magazine (fairly deep)
My three Norinco SKS have given approximately 2"groups at 100yds. A friends early Mini-30 (with conical throat) would give 1.5" groups, and would give 1" (3-shot) groups with H-322 (lost data card with weight).
So, try the .308 bullets in your rifle.
For what its worth, my favorite load is a 153gr Cast Ptd GC Lee over 17.5gr H4227 for approx 2050fps. sized to .311". It too gives 1.5" groups @ 100yds (3-shots). This bullet gives 1.0" 5-shot groups out of my two .30/06 bolt actions @ 2100fps over 25.0gr of H4227 or Alliant 2400.
So much for bullet/barrel diameters !!!
What works....works. 1-2 thousanths dosen't make a world of difference.
Just don't try shooting .323 bullets through a .318 bore, or .308's through a .284" bore. And .25/06's aren't real accurate through a .30/06, watched a fella try to sight in his Rem 700 one day doing that. WOW what a pattern !!! 2ft at 25yds, all sideways !
February 19, 2003, 07:23 PM
I use to reload for the 7.62x39 before I was any good with a rifle. I used RX7 with Winchester 123gr bullets. I think consitant powder drops improved groups by 90%. I think thats the biggest problem with most 7.62x39 manufacturers. Most of them drink too much Vodka.
| dclm-gs1-101940000 |
Christie Prody Injured; O.J. Simpson Not a Suspect
by at . Comments
Miami police say O.J. Simpson's girlfriend, Christie Prody, suffered bruises and head injuries on Monday - but it was because of a fall - and not at the hand of the Juice, as several celebrity gossip sources speculated.
Hey, the guy did beat up various wives and kill one of them, so in this case, we can understand why The National Enquirer might jump the gun.
O.J. Simpson Mug Shot III
The Enquirer reported that O.J. Simpson was being investigated as Christie Prody was taken to a Miami hospital with head trauma and bruising.
According to the Enquirer, investigators said from the damage to Christie Prody's body, they believe she was beaten up hard. One detective even said he has never seen such severe bruises on a woman before.
Christie Prody: O.J. Simpson's girlfriend for years. Why? Who knows.
The Miami Police were alerted by hospital authorities after doctors found that Christie Prody was bleeding from her brain â€" and also had numerous, large bruises and abrasions on her face, arms, legs and buttocks.
But cops later told the celebrity news site TMZ that Prody's injuries appear to be "consistent" with a fall she supposedly took "at a gas station."
They don't consider this a criminal case, and that O.J. was never a suspect.
Prody, who has a long rap sheet of her own, has been going out with this guy for years and hasn't turned up dead, so we'd consider the relationship a success.
As for O.J. Simpson, his recent arrest for violation of bail was aired on the MyNetwork series Jail. He's due in Las Vegas for his robbery case in April.
"I sumrise ...."? "....whites do not so the same thing"? Professor!!! Your ebonics are showing. As suggested before, you need to clean up your grammar as well as your spelling if you're going to be playing the race card. Also, you like to speak of education, but we notice it doesn't take long before you're reduced to childish name calling. Clean up your act, you Uncle Tom wannabe.
I sumrise you are probably some skinny pathetic little white guy with a mohawk haircut who has skin on your teeth and who's mom probably wishes she would have drowned at birth. For all the things you say about blacks you can not prove that whites do not so the same thing. If you have proof then prove it.
I read this article because I really do not like OJ Simpson; moreover, I hate the justice system for allowing him to get away with murdering two innocent people. It's wrong - black or white, makes no difference. Black people and white people both kill innocent people all the time. This should not be about anything other than justice for people who have lost their lives at the hands of evil people. Tons of people these days seem to be enjoying stirring the racism pot, and I don't understand why. Life is hard enough - why choose to be angry with the color of another's skin? If you are truly that bored, I have a ton of problems you could help me with!
I just wanted to say that we really need to stop the race thing. Who have all the serial killers in this country been? White people they kidnap, torture, rape, mutilate and numeruous other horrible things to people. The colored people as you call them have gang wars and so on but they are retaliating for the most part on gangbangers not innocent people. The sick perverterd ones are the white ones. Manson, Dahmer, and so on and so on. I would not want to be in a dark alley with a white serial killer. You people are crazy.
lol@ wilbab
And last week a psycho WHITE lab tech strangled, and viciously killed a graduate student before she was supposed to marry...trumped your "argument"!
To the Boss:
Are you REALLY a professor? If so, you need to go back and check out the grammar/spelling in your submittal. Wow, no wonder the education system in this country is in trouble. On the other hand, maybe you teach EBONICS 101. If not, you must be one of those "quota boys".
its time to hang some niggars in pompano beach hammondville road and sitrunk blvd sunrise send them back to the trees they fell out ,, deport them back to were they came from ,,name 3 things you cant give a black person ,, number 1 ,, a job ,, number 2 a fat lip ,, number 3 a black eye
i hate blacks keep te motha suckers in jail with his brothers
It is quite frightening to see such level of hatred and mis-informed individuals. You guys need to be able to thinks independently and not go on what you hear second-hand. I a really scared. I am professor who happens to be black.
fukin niggars
Tags: , | dclm-gs1-101950000 |
We Dont Know How Much They Have Left, We Do Know Theyll Give All
BY Ron Borges ON May 17, 2010
Of all the questions swirling around this weekend’s fourth confrontation between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez the biggest one is the simplest to state but most difficult to answer: Can they really do that to each other again?
The problem with rematches and even more so with third and fourth fights is that both fighters become acutely aware of what the other does and how he tries to do it but more significantly they become aware of the kind of damage each can inflict on the other.
Human nature being what it is, if you beat the tar out of each other in the way Vazquez and Marquez have in their trilogy of personal destruction, eventually it would seem logical to conclude a voice inside would whisper, “Enough already!’’
Might that finally be the case Saturday night when they square off for a fourth brutal confrontation at the Staples Center in Las Angeles? Might those voices inside suggest they consider self-preservation this time rather than engaging in another brutal assault which if it occurred on the street would result in felony convictions?
No one can know this until the two are alone in the ring with each other again and that includes the fighters themselves. Surely Vazquez, a three-time world champion, and Marquez, a champion in two weight classes, believe they are willing to pay the steep price of doing to each other again what they did in their first three fights but once the pain is visited on them can they simply ignore that which they know will be required to win and press on at their own expense?
That no one knows the answer is one reason why people will watch. The other is that neither man was affected by such concerns the first three times they committed felonious assault, so why would they start worrying about their own health now?
“I think it surprised everybody with how great the first three fights were,’’ said Vazquez (44-4, 32 KO). “No one expected them to be so great. We surprised everybody and we surprised ourselves.
“More than anything, we treated the fans. I still get stopped in the street and people say ‘Hey, are you going to fight him again?’ Or, ‘When are you going to fight him again?’ so I have to thank the fans because without them there wouldn’t be a fourth fight.
“I have a lot of gratitude for the fans for sticking by me because I’ve been out for such a long time and there’s still an interest in the fight.’’
After winning the final two of the three back-to-back-to-back wars, Vazquez was so beaten up he has fought only once in the past 26 months after a 19-month layoff following the third fight while undergoing three surgeries to repair a damaged eye.
Marquez, who stopped Vazquez in the first fight, was himself stopped in the second and lost a bloody, hotly disputed split decision in the third when two of the judges scored the bout 114-111 in opposite directions while the third saw it for Vazquez by a single point, 113-112.
To add to the tight symmetry between these two sons of Aztec warriors, Marquez (38-5, 34 KO) also has fought only once in the past 24 months, needing a 14 month respite from boxing after the third fight to rekindle a fire that had all but consumed him in pursuit of victory.
Vazquez’s one return was little more than a sparring session and it was another year before he reached the point where he feels again ready to face an opponent with whom he knows he will be linked for as long as men fight for money.
“It’s going to be a great fight, just like the other three,’’ Marquez insists. “It’s going to be a spectacle. That’s the kind of fights we make.’’
The kind of fights they make seem like they belong in the Roman Colosseum because they are more gladiatorial confrontations than boxing matches. Each time they fought it was assumed the next fight could not possibly be as brutal but each exceeded its predecessor and now they are back for whatever follows a rubber match, each damaged goods to be honest but not so damaged that they are not ready to damage each other and themselves once again to entertain people’s bloodlust.
“Someone once said to me when we were involved with the Gatti-Ward fights that we were part of history,’’ recalled Golden Boy Promotions COO David Itskowitch. “I know we all get caught up in the details of promoting a show but one thing we should all do is sit back and realize we’re part of boxing history with these fights.’’
It is a bloody history to be sure, one now punctuated by so much familiarity that it seems there is nothing Marquez can think inside a boxing ring that Vazquez will not anticipate and vice versa.
That causes its own problems yet both feel, as they do with everything about facing each other, that they can handle those issues in the same way they will handle the pain they are again sure to inflict upon each other.
“We know each other very well,’’ said Vazquez. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s our job to do what we have to do and it’s our job to prevent the other guy from doing what they have to do. We’re fighters.
“I’ve had big fights that have taken a lot out of me but I still feel good. That’s why I’m still fighting.’’
In the gym, they may both feel fine but neither looked like his old self in their one venture back into the ring. On those nights they just looked old.
This was especially true for Vazquez, who although he stopped journeyman Angel Priolo in the ninth round by dropping him three times looked tentative and unsure of himself for long stretches.
Considering what Marquez and the size of his own heart have put him through that is understandable but if he is slow to react, or hesitant to engage, it could be a dangerously difficult night for a guy who is 32 years old on the calendar but far older than that in boxing years.
“I know his tendencies,’’ Vazquez said. “I know where to attack him from. But how will we hold up physically? How much did those past fights take out of us? These are the questions that will be answered.
“My motivation is to shut those naysayers’ mouths. They say I shouldn’t be fighting anymore. I want to shut their mouths and let them know I can still make great fights.’’
The story – and the questions - are much the same for Marquez, who claimed recently that the only difference between him now and when their trilogy began is that he is “more mature.’’ He may be more mature but he is not what he was when they started this long walk.
Whether he knows that or not he’s not saying but one thing about boxing is that all will be revealed and undeniable Saturday night.
“I still feel physically fine,’’ Marquez insists and he probably does. They both will…until about two or three minutes after the first bell echoes inside the Staples Center. Then it will all come back to them.
What they have done to each other.
What they are risking to do it again.
What they have left inside them once the leather begins to crash home and the pain and exhaustion wash over them with an odd familiarity.
Most of all, what will come back to them is the price the other will demand of him to win.
Not even they know what will happen after those realizations hit with the force of their punches but one thing is sure. Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez will give all they have left inside them to win.
How much that is, no one knows.
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The Internet wants Netflix to release House of Cards a day early, and while that's probably not going to happen, it's a great chance for the company to show off.
You can see the chorus on Twitter, Politico even made a Storify of the requests
HitFix's Alan Sepinwall, however, threw some cold water on the affair, tweeting: "I’m with others who think Netflix would get a huge PR bump by releasing House of Cards a day early because snow, though I doubt it happens." We've reached out to Netflix PR to see if there is any possibility of this happening, and will update if we get a response.
Netflix really has nothing to lose by releasing House of Cards's second season a day early, but really nothing to gain either. Sure, fans might argue that a snow day will lead to more viewers, but specifics aren't Netflix's game. The company has made a habit of not releasing viewership numbers, and it's likely that they'll be content with however many people watch tomorrow. And yet, Sepinwall is right that an early House of Cards release would be a great PR move. As Quartz's Zach Seward tweeted: "It would be a marketing masterstroke if Netflix debuted season two of 'House of Cards' a day early for snowed-in customers."
In writing about Netflix's trend of not releasing ratings, Peter Lauria of BuzzFeed found data that "suggest[s], rather quixotically, is that the hype and attention around Netflix’s original shows raises awareness among consumers, who then sign up for the service not necessarily to watch those shows but because they are attracted to all the other content (most of it supplied by traditional TV networks) the service offers. The fact that they offer it all on-demand and for a low price makes it even more appealing to consumers."
Essentially, Netflix has built its brand on giving costumers what they want when they want it, whether that be their original programming, all there for binge watching, or their other content. Releasing House of Cards a day early, the company would prove how willing they are to cater to their users interests by doing something that no traditional television network—broadcast or cable—could do. | dclm-gs1-101980000 |
The Thinking
The Bleak Nihilism of Graffiti
April 23, 2012
ALAN writes:
One of the most remarkable characteristics of modern Americans is their propensity to neglect the local and concrete while fawning over the distant, alien, and abstract.
Recently in St. Louis, thugs used spray paint to deface buildings and a hundred-year-old monument in a city park. The reaction was predictable: The pathetic weakness of “law enforcement” was nicely conveyed in a newspaper photo of two police officers (Christine and Kyle) gaping at spray paint on the wall of one park building. The headline read: “St. Louis park hit by pro-Occupy graffiti.”
This headline illustrates the decadence of modern journalism:
1. The passive voice used in preference to the active might be proper in the case of a tornado. But spray paint vandalism is not an act of nature; it is something that people do – something that criminals do. “Criminals vandalize public property” would be the headline used if that Left-leaning newspaper had any regard for the truth.
2. Use of the word “graffiti” shows how Americans accept the vocabulary promoted by the Left. The first obligation of a reporter is to call things by their right name. Defacing other people’s property with spray paint does not cease to be a crime because ten thousand hip art critics or Marxist professors call it “Art,” or because a museum in Los Angeles presents an “exhibit” of such vandalism and calls it “Art” [ as chronicled here], or because law enforcement agencies are foolish enough to accept and repeat the misrepresentation.
To yield the choice of words and premises to our enemies is to surrender territory even before the battle has begun. Orwell wrote in 1946 of how imprecise or pretentious words and politically-approved, ready-made phrases are a sure sign of cultural degradation. “The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness,” he wrote (in “Politics and the English Language”). His targets were the preference for the passive voice, the abstractions, and the pretentiousness that were so common in newspaper journalism.
Imagine what he would think if he were here today and could see that nothing has changed. No less than in the 1940s, modern reporters agree to use buzzwords and phrases prescribed or approved for them by their Political Correctness guidebooks, rather than plain words whose meaning is concrete and understood by all.
But, Orwell also wrote, it should be possible to make such pretentiousness unfashionable if we become conscious of it and choose no longer to use it or sanction it by accepting its use by others.
I suggest that “graffiti” is a word so drenched in mendacity that we should abandon it entirely. It is a buzzword favored not by decent men and women or by those who produce “art” worthy of that name, but by Modern Art racketeers and their flunkeys. Spray-paint vandalism is and should always be treated and described as a criminal act, not as any kind of “art.”
It is astonishing to observe the inaction of “the law” in response to the tremendous increase in spray-paint vandalism in recent years. Hundreds of places are now defaced with such vandalism – city parks, bridges, walls, buildings, railroad cars, trucks. Many of them stand thus defaced and in plain sight from highways year after year. “The law” does nothing. There are no penalties. No flock of sheep could show a more supine response. What does this teach children? What does it tell tourists? What does it reveal about Americans in comparison, for instance, with the Japanese, in whose cities it is almost impossible to find spray-paint vandalism. (This, according to Jared Taylor, who has spent much time in Japan.)
I once overheard two librarians talking about railroad cars that were thus defaced. Some of the surfaces were pretty, one of them said to the other, but others are just vandalism. The principle of property rights – the fact that all of it was vandalism – the fact that no one has a right to deface other people’s property in the name of “art” – were not mentioned by either of them. Such is the Modernist mindset. Ten colorful, slick-paper books promoting spray-paint vandalism as “art” can be seen on a shelf in the “Fine Arts” department of their library.
But spray-paint vandalism is not the only decadence that lies in plain view every day but that modernists will do nothing to oppose or punish. A stone wall more than a hundred years old stands alongside a cemetery in south St. Louis on a street with heavy traffic. The cemetery is owned by the city. Vandals have worked in the dark of night, year after year, inch by inch, to dislodge some of the large stones in the wall at the cemetery’s entrance. I have watched this happen over the past ten years. It is calculated vandalism, and the vandals show more dedication to their work than “the law” shows to its responsibility to apprehend and punish them.
Are there people anywhere on this planet who are more morally obtuse than modern Americans?
I can imagine my grandparents saying: “Why don’t Americans tend to their own property, landscape, and cities and keep them neat, clean, and attractive? That is their proper business. Why do they neglect those things and persist in meddling in nations on the other side of the planet? That is none of their proper business.”
But modern Americans are another species entirely: They cannot or will not police their own cities and defend their own property against thugs with spray paint– yet they imagine they are going to “build nations” on the other side of the planet. My grandfather would get a hearty laugh out of that.
—– Comments ——
Buck writes:
Alan writes:
But modern Americans are another species entirely…
I would put it another way. The modern U.S. citizen, which in declining numbers, has American ancestry, is not a new species. They are simply more of what already existed, but had been self-restrained within the context of America’s founding ethos.
Put a certain bacteria in a petri dish and add an anti-bacteria. When most of the population dies, yet some lives and then thrives on the nutrients provided by the now dead remains of the former majority, because they are equipped with the necessary enzyme that allows them to survive; the now dominant strain of bacteria is not something new, but it is rather something that has always existed, but has always been held in check.
We slowly but steadily removed the constraints and modern liberalism flourished. Just like Marx said about Communism; that it can not come into being without the wealth provided by capitalism; modern liberalism couldn’t thrive without the prosperity and freedoms provided by classic liberalism.
There is something endemic, something weak and recessive in the traditionalist gene. We have to find out what it is and come up with the proper enzyme.
N.W. writes:
One could argue that the bleak nihilism of modern architecture invites such abuse upon itself. It does anger me though, when some idiot with an attitude and a spray can vandalizes a beautiful old building, monument or natural feature.
I was watching a documentary once about some major city’s subway system and recollect feeling just a little twinge of schadenfreude when a ‘graffiti artist’ returned to an unsolicited mural he had painted and found some ‘vandal’ had defaced his work. Appalled at the callous disregard of beauty evidenced by his fellow man the poor fellow spray painted a brief epitaph over the vandals work and his own, “This I cannot forgive.”
I do kind of feel sorry for people like him. Much like a lot of the OWSers and many others of my generation, this man realized there was something terribly wrong with the world, but became a bit lost in the sauce trying to formulate some eloquent response to the chaos. He was well-intentioned but lost and misguided.
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A wonderful video clip has been making the Internet rounds. In it a little girl, age three or four, is crying her eyes out. "I'm tired of seeing Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney," she wails. I'm with her. As I write this on election morning, Bronco Bama is said to have a slim lead over the man Ry Cooder calls Mutt Romney. The stats are so close that I may wake up tomorrow morning and find that the Mutt is my president. I've listenedd to him now for more than a year and I still don't know what he REALLY believes. As for the Bronco, I hear that he teared up during his final speech of the campaign. Perhaps they were tears of happiness: whatever the outcome, the marathon was finally over.
My wife and I arrived at our polling place, the Manoa Fire House, at 7 this morning. The line was already gratifyingly long. Just before we had our turn, a black couple stepped up to the registration table. The old gals running the operation asked for the couple's IDs and, when those did not completely conform with what was in the poll book, the pair was thoroughly embarrassed before finally being allowed to vote. When Joanne and I had our turn to sign the book, we too were asked for our IDs. I replied, "You know perfectly well we don't have to show them."
"Well, you will next time," came the retort. "We'll see," said I. We voted without showing our IDs.
Efforts, mostly by the GOP, to curtail early voting and impose voter-ID restrictions, were turned back, mostly by Democrats, via lawsuits. The courts proved once again to have more integrity than the political process. One would hope that is always the case. The decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning torture, incarceration and unfair trials during the War on Terror mostly ran against the Bush Administration's extreme positions on these civil-liberties issues. This was despite the growing presence and influence of Bush appointees on the Court.
America has never before been so sharply divided since the Civil War, the sesquicentennial of which we currently are marking. A new movie about Lincoln gets released today. Abe suspended habeas corpus during the War Between the States in order to incarcerate Southern spies and sympathizers… shades of Guantanamo. The Republic and our freedoms survived such abuses.
Whether the Bronco or the Mutt is my president tomorrow morning, my fatigue and frustration at the close of this endless, ugly election campaign are tempered by my faith in the resilience of our legal system to forestall the worst tendencies of this vitriolic and cynical cycle in our political history.
I'm writing this on Tuesday night, as election updates scroll across my television screen, rather than on Wednesday morning. Why? For one, it seems like it will be a late night. "#StayInLine" is a trending hashtag on Twitter, lines to vote are up to four hours long at some polling stations, and the polls will rightly stay open until everyone in those lines has had the chance to exercise his or her right to vote.
"It should not require this kind of heroism to vote in this day and age." -Van Jones, CNN.
I couldn't agree more with that statement. In a country with notoriously low voting rates, why isn't early voting more readily available in order to avoid the before- and after-work hours voting congestion that deters so many voters? Furthermore, why isn't Election Day a holiday? Doesn't that say something about how seriously we, as a country, take voting? It goes hand in hand with the first half of this column, in which my dad points out that it is unlawful to demand ID in order to allow a citizen to vote (especially when in-person vote stealing is almost as rare as a glance at Mitt Romney's tax returns). These roadblocks should not exist, and I'm tired of it. I think most Americans - the ones who don't unjustly benefit from pointless rules and regulations that disproportionately affect minorities, of course - feel the same way.
At the moment, I'm just tired.
Still. I am heartened by those people who are waiting in line for hours, right now, despite the cold or the inconvenience. I'm heartened by the fact that I have friends who woke up at 5A.M. this morning so they could take the bus to a polling station to vote before work. I still have hope. There are hundreds of people threatening to move to Canada if the election doesn't turn out in their party's favor - but I know those people won't actually move. They'll deal with whatever may come of this election, and they'll stick around to vote in the next one. They wouldn't be so upset otherwise.
Apathy is the death of progress. The ranting and the raving I can deal with, if it means someone cares.
If anything, I hope the hardships people have faced in attempting to vote this year make us all take a long, hard look at the process as it currently operates. It's not perfect, and it's not entirely fair. We still have a ways to go. Hopefully we're not too worn out to keep going. | dclm-gs1-102010000 |
1. Headline
1. Headline
updated 1/11/2011 10:42:41 PM ET 2011-01-12T03:42:41
Arizona legislators quickly approved emergency legislation Tuesday to head off picketing by a Topeka, Kan., church near the funeral service for a 9-year-old girl who was killed in the Tucson shootings.
Unanimous votes by the House and Senate sent the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed it Tuesday night. It took effect immediately.
Without specifically mentioning the Tucson shooting, the law prohibits protests at or near funeral sites.
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Dozens of lawmakers co-sponsored the bill, and legislative action was completed within 90 minutes. The Senate's committee hearing took just three minutes.
The Westboro Baptist Church said Monday it plans to picket Thursday's funeral for Christina Taylor Green because "God sent the shooter to deal with idolatrous America." The fundamentalist church has picketed many military funerals to draw attention to its view that the deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
Lawmakers denounced the church's plan to picket a child's funeral.
"This is just horrific that ... people have to deal with this. We shouldn't have to do this in time of great pain for our state," said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat.
The girl was the youngest of the six people killed during the shooting at an event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was among 13 people injured. Giffords was shot in the head and critically wounded.
Numerous states have passed laws restricting protests at funerals after members of the Westboro church began protesting at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Arizona legislation is modeled on an Ohio law that was upheld by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sinema said.
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The four-paragraph Arizona bill makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail to picket or conduct other protest activities within 300 feet of a funeral or burial service — about the length of a football field. The prohibition applies from one hour before the event to one hour after.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church member and a daughter of its pastor, said the prohibition wouldn't matter because church members plan to picket at one of two intersections more than 1,000 feet from the church where the girl's service will be held.
Phelps-Roper also said church members plan picketing Friday in conjunction with a service for another victim of the shooting, U.S. District Judge John M. Roll.
Sen. Paula Aboud, a Tucson Democrat, said volunteers in Tucson were organizing a human shield to block the protesters from view of victim family members.
Sinema said the prohibition applies only to funeral and burial sites because courts have struck down picketing prohibitions for procession routes.
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"This is a good compromise that doesn't trample our God-given rights," said Senate President Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican.
Sen. Ron Gould, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, voted for the bill but earlier was the only senator who objected to suspending rules requiring several days of legislative consideration before a final vote.
Gould cited the public's right to know what lawmakers are considering. "And when we suspend those rules mistakes get made," he added.
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Gallery: Tragedy in Tucson: The shooting victims
Photos: Former Ariz. Representative Gabrielle Giffords
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Slideshow (45) Mourning follows deadly shooting in Arizona
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The Real-Life Human Torch Has Been Born in India
A baby named Rahul has apparently “Flamed On” on at least three separate occasions, with the flames coming from his stomach and knees.
Sure, it COULD be due to the fact that the infant initially lived in an area contaminated with flammable phosphorous – but it’s a lot more fun to imagine that an X-man was born, or to make jokes about spicy curries and yoga flame. Or maybe yoga flame jokes are a bit of a stretch. Curry on, then.
h/t Gallen_Dugall
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Just for Kids / Hassan, The Thirsty Camel
By Margo Wayman
As the sun rose behind the great mosque that stood in the middle of the white- stoned city, Demir was tossing the last of the woven goat hair bags across his camel, Hassans, hump. The sky was ablaze with reds, pinks, purples, and oranges. Hassan turned his head to look. He noticed that it was a beautiful morning, and saw the bags being loaded on his hump. Each bag was filled with scented spices, oils, and precious stones, to be taken to a village far away, across the desert. At last Hassans master, Demir, came along and tied his leather water bag to the top of the saddle, then climbed on. He dug his heels into Hassans side and trotted off towards the coral pink sand dunes, leaving the palm treed oasis behind. Hassan wished that he had gotten a drink before hed left. He was feeling rather thirsty.
The hot summer sun was beating down on them both. Several times Demir reached for the leather bag and guzzled down a sip of refreshing water.
Camels arent supposed to get thirsty very often, but Hassan was not a normal camel. He was always thirsty. Each time Demir drank the water, Hassan wished that he could have some too. The sun felt hot on his short bristly hide. He was waiting for an opportunity when Demir wasnt looking so he could sneak a sip of water from the leather bag.
After theyd walked for several hours, Hassan was so thirsty he could hardly stand it. He wanted a drink badly. Because he was wondering how to get a sip without Demir seeing, he didnt see the big rock jutting out of the sand, and tripped over it. He fell to his knees and Demir went flying over his back, landing in the sand with a thud. Demir just lay there, his face buried in the sand. Hassan quickly reached around, grabbed the leather bag, and guzzled down some of the water. It felt so good running down his parched throat. He put the cork back in the top and put it back on the saddle just in time. Demir stood up, brushed the sand out of his nose, ears, and hair, and walked up to Hassan. He looked down at the rock, shook his head and climbed back up onto Hassans hump.
Hassan smiled a big camel grin and moved along in the sand towards the village. The sun was high in the sky; its hot penetrating rays heating the desert sands to an almost unbearable temperature. Demir used his fan to move the hot air back and forth in front of his face, but poor Hassan just kept getting hotter and hotter, and thirstier. He watched, drooling, as Demir took a sip from the water bag. He closed his eyes as he plodded along, trying to imagine himself at a cool watering hole, sipping all the water he wanted. When he opened his eyes and looked down at the sand in front of him, he let out a loud screeching sound, stopped suddenly, and watched once more as Demir flew over his head into the burning sand in front of him. Hassan backed up. There was a huge viper slithering across the sand. Hassan hated snakes.
Seeing Demir buried in the sand again, and noticing the snake slinking away, Hassan quickly grabbed the water bag and guzzled down two big sips. He replaced the cork and stuck the bag quickly back on his saddle, just as Demir stood up. This time Demir was angry. He looked around to see if there was another rock, but there was none. He gazed all around and noticed the viper off in the distance. Brushing the sand off his head and out of his nose and ears again, he then climbed back on Hassans hump and off they went.
Hours passed. The sun was unmercifully hot. Up ahead, Hassan could see the village. He started getting excited. Water, water, water; that was all he could think about. He started dreaming of how refreshing it would feel to splash about in it, to guzzle down gallons, and didnt see the palm tree until he walked right in to. He got a big bump on his head and once again, Demir, his master, went flying over Hassans head and landed with a thud in the sand.
Hassan quickly took one last sip from the water bag, leaving it completely empty. He corked it and put it back over the saddle right as Demir stood up. Demir was very angry this time. He stood in front of Hassan, looked at him suspiciously, then at the palm tree. He shook his head, climbed up onto Hassans hump and just sat there. He took the leather water bag and pulled the cork out. He lifted it up to take a drink and found there was no water left in it. He put his eye to the hole and peeked inside. He tipped it upside down and not a drop fell out. Hassan turned his head slowly and looked around at his master, who was staring at him, wondering what was going on. Hassan smiled a camel grin, and coyishly turned his back around and began walking towards the village ahead.
At last they arrived. The small oasis village was covered with date palms, bougainvillea bushes, jacaranda trees, and fragrant roses. Hassan looked around. He saw a pond in the middle of the village. He felt very, very thirsty. Demir unloaded the scented spices, fragrant oils and precious stones from Hassans hump, then walked off towards the market place.
Hassan clomped over to the pond. He walked into it and lapped at the water. At last he was happy. At last he wasnt Hassan the thirsty camel any longer. At last he was cool, refreshed and clean. Then a thought came to him; he had to go back to the city, across the burning desert sands. So he drank, and he drank, and he drank, and he drank, until there wasnt room for one more drop of water inside of him.
Demir came looking for him, pulled the rope tied around his jaw, and off they went, back through the desert, back across the sandsbut Hassan wasnt a thirsty camel anymore.
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Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources
Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources (
- Freshwater Aquarium Equipment (
- - halogen..... why not? (
Seanmiller09 04-03-2011 11:55 PM
halogen..... why not?
So, I was looking though my dad's garage and there are a bunch of new outdoor halogen lights, I think they are 150w or 250w (you know the big rectangular kind you screw to the sophet of your house and they hang down in their sealed felfector box). I was thinking, with the right color temp bulb, these would work great. No ballast to worry about, very easy to mount, and really cheap. So why do we not use them?
I know metal halides are much brighter, but for the price, add one more $15 halogen fixture and all is well.
I know they get really hot, add a few cooling fans in your canopy hooked up to a different timer so the fans keep going after the bulb is out to get rid of the heat build up.
Bulb life is about 33% of that of a metal halide, but bulbs being so cheap i wouldn't mind changing the bulb once every year.
If anyone else has an oppinion on the use of halogen lights in the aquarium world, share your thoughts.
DKRST 04-04-2011 10:25 AM
I'm no lighting expert, but here are the issues, in my opinion, with halogen bulbs:
1) they get really hot: 400-600 degrees!
2) they give off a significant amount of UV light and if the protective lens is not in place, you can actually get a radiation burn ("sunburn") from a halogen light
3) They operate at 2400K-3800K, not the correct spectrum for aquatic plants.
There may be other reasons also. You can't get different "color temps" of halogen bulbs, I don't think(?), due to the way the bulb operates.
Metal halides are available from 3,000K to over 20,000K
Seanmiller09 04-04-2011 10:29 AM
Ah, I figured you could get different temp bulbs. Does tempered glass block UV?
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DKRST 04-04-2011 10:41 AM
I think it's a requirement that halogen fixtures have a UV blocking lens of some type in place.
Seanmiller09 04-04-2011 10:44 AM
I guess its somewhat irrelevant if the bulbs can only opperate at such a low color temp. Ill have to check when I get home.
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Seanmiller09 04-05-2011 07:20 AM
looks like you are right. Found an article testing the true color temp of various bulbs, even the halogen rated at 8000k was hardly above 4000k while most were in the mid 3s.
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CIA Refuses to Turn Over Torture Tape Documents
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 11:13 By Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report | name.
CIA Refuses to Turn Over Torture Tape Documents
(Artwork: Mark Clifford)
The CIA claims the integrity of a special prosecutor's criminal investigation into the destruction of 92 interrogation videotapes will be compromised if the agency is forced to turn over detailed documents to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describing the contents of the tapes, according to newly released court documents.
In a May 5 letter to US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, Lev Dassin, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the Justice Department recently had discussions with prosecutors working on the criminal investigation into the destruction of the interrogation tapes and was informed that "the production of documents ... would conflict and substantially interfere with the [criminal] investigation" into the destruction of the interrogation tapes.
"As the court is aware, the scope of the tapes investigation includes the review of whether any person obstructed justice, knowingly made materially false statements, or acted in contempt of court or Congress in connection with the destruction of videotapes," Dassin's letter says. "The Government thus respectfully requests that [a previous court order demanding the CIA turn over detailed descriptions of the contents of the destroyed tapes] be withdrawn or otherwise stayed until the tapes investigation has been completed."
Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney, said the move is "a classic CIA delay tactic."
In court papers, she said the government is using the criminal investigation "as a pretext for indefinitely postponing" its obligation to produce documents related to the destruction of the videotapes.
"The Government makes no mention of an expected timeline for completion of [Special Prosecutor John] Durham['s] investigation," the ACLU said in court papers. "Nor has Mr. Durham provided a declaration in support of the Government's position."
Hellerstein seemed to agree. He pointed out in a two-page order that Durham had not stepped forward to state that his probe would be hindered if documents related to the destruction of the tapes were turned over to the ACLU.
In fact, in a March court filing, Dassin noted that a stay of the contempt motion filed by the ACLU seeking release of the tapes was allowed to expire on February 28 without a request for a continuation - signaling that Durham's investigation was complete. In January, Durham had indicated in a court filing that he expected to wrap up his probe by the end of February.
Last month, however, Durham questioned the CIA's former number three official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, about the destruction of the tapes. Foggo, who was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud for steering lucrative contracts to a friend, was due to report to federal prison, but Durham asked for a delay so he could question him about the tape destruction.
In December 2007, the ACLU filed a motion to hold the CIA in contempt for its destruction of the tapes in violation of a court order requiring the agency to produce or identify all records requested by the ACLU related to the CIA's interrogation of "war on terror" detainees.
Hellerstein ordered the Justice Department, on behalf of the CIA, to file legal briefs by May 27 justifying the reasons for withholding the documents. He added that those papers should include affidavits, including a declaration from the special prosecutor investigating the tape destruction
Those documents "may include also any reasons why the identity of persons involved in the destruction should not be disclosed," Hellerstein wrote in a two-page order.
Several weeks ago, Dassin revealed in another court filing that the CIA has about 3,000 documents related to the 92 destroyed videotapes, suggesting an extensive back-and-forth between CIA field operatives and officials of the Bush administration. The Justice Department said the documents include "cables, memoranda, notes and e-mails" related to the destroyed CIA videotapes.
In last week's court filing, Dassin said, "those 3,000 records included 'contemporaneous records,' which were created at the time of the interrogation or at the time the videotapes were viewed, 'intelligence record,' which do not describe the interrogations but contain raw intelligence collected from the interrogations, 'derivative records,' which summarize information contained within the contemporaneous records, and documents related to the location of the interrogations, that upon further review by the CIA, were determined not to relate to the interrogations or to the destroyed videotapes."
The ACLU and the government have jointly proposed that the government describe the contents of the "contemporaneous" and "derivative" records, but not the intelligence records or the "other records that ultimately proved to be unrelated to the interrogations or the videotapes."
Dassin said the Justice Department intends to turn over additional indexes next month, and on May 18 will produce a list of "all contemporaneous records and all derivative records" related to the destruction of the interrogation tapes, but he added that quite a bit of information will be withheld.
In previous court filings, Dassin acknowledged that 12 videotapes, showed Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, being subjected to waterboarding and other harsh methods. The 80 other videotapes purportedly show Zubaydah and al-Nashiri in their prison cells. Some of the videotapes predated the Justice Department's August 1, 2002, legal memo authorizing CIA interrogators to use ten torturous methods against "high-value" detainees.
But it's unknown whether the interrogation tapes that predate the August 1, 2002, "torture" depict "enhanced interrogation" techniques not yet approved by the Justice Department.
Last week, the CIA turned over to the ACLU documents that showed CIA interrogators at a secret "black site" prison provided top agency officials in Langley with daily "torture" updates of Abu Zubaydah, the alleged "high-level" terrorist detainee, who was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.
The documents included two sets of indexes (Part I) (Part II), totaling 52 pages that contained general descriptions of cables sent back to CIA headquarters describing the August 2002, videotaped interrogation sessions of Zubaydah. Those cable transmissions included a description of the techniques interrogators had used and the intelligence, if any, culled from those sessions.
The CIA and the Justice Department declined to turn over a more detailed description of the cables its field agents sent back to headquarters, citing several exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a two-page letter accompanying the indexes, CIA Associate General Counsel John McPherson wrote that a "senior government official" would submit a declaration on May 22 "that more fully explains the justifications for withholding a more detailed description of the cables."
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Move Debian on to software RAID setup
Q I have been happily running Debian Etch for a few months now, and would like to move it from hdb to a software RAID 1 setup on hde and hdg, My current setup is:
/boot on hdb1 using ext2.
/ on hdb2 using ReiserFS.
/home on hdb3, also using ReiserFS.
I can move things to put /boot on md0, / on md1 and /home on md2 but how do I set up Grub? I know that Grub reads hard disks and partitions from zero, but what about RAID setups? How do I reconfigure and reinstall Grub for my new RAID setup?
A You'd be surprised at how easy this is to do with RAID 1. The individual disks can be accessed as though they were standalone disks because the RAID data is not written to the rootblock of the disk. If /dev/ md0 is constructed from /dev/hde1 and /dev/hdg1, either of those can be used as the boot disk. They are probably labelled (hd1,0) and (hd2,0) because /dev/hdb will be (hd0), but you can find this out with Grub's find command.
touch /boot myraidbootdisks
#switches to grub prompt here
find /myraidbootdisks
This will show you something like this:
find /myraidbootdisks
You can use either of these to boot from, but I would recommend setting up Grub on each of them and including two menu entries, one for each disk. That way, if one of the boot filesystems is corrupted, you can boot from the other disk. Once the kernel is running and the RAID array created, it should repair itself. You can use any file in the find command, but creating a file instead of searching for a kernel avoids the possibility of confusion from your old boot disk. If you intend to remove hdb after setting up Grub, remember that your disk numbering will change and your Grub menu files will need to be amended. If you have set up Grub on both disks as recommended above, the first menu entry should still work, although it will be referring to the second disk by then. That may seem confusing, but it will make sense when you try it and will allow you boot without hdb in order to change the menu files.
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Peli's latest horror movie set in shadow of Chernobyl
By KAREN BUTLER, United Press International | May 28, 2012 at 11:25 AM
1 of 3
NEW YORK, May 28 (UPI) -- Israeli-born filmmaker Oren Peli, creator of the "Paranormal Activity" movie franchise and TV show "The River," has found yet another new way to tap into the collective fear of the unknown with his latest release "Chernobyl Diaries."
Asked if the psychology of terror has always fascinated him, Peli told United Press International in a recent phone interview: "I don't know if I've ever thought about it or analyzed it too much. It's just what's instinctively scary to me, which is usually not anything like slasher films and films with a lot of gore.
"It's more like a fear of the unknown or the unexplained," he noted. "So, in the case of the 'Paranormal Activity' movies, it's the concept of an entity -- from God knows where -- that is now in your house and trying to harm you. And you don't know what it looks like, you don't know where it is or how to defend yourself against it. And in 'Chernobyl Diaries,' you are in this foreign land in one of the most foreign locations on Earth. There is no other place like it. It's abandoned and was evacuated overnight, then there is the problem with the radiation and now you're stranded there in the middle of the night and you're supposed to be alone, but you hear some scream or cry in the night that may or may not be human. Wondering what it is and what's going to happen next, that anticipation, that concept is very scary to me."
Peli produced "Chernobyl Diaries" and co-wrote it with Carey and Shane Van Dyke, based on his original idea. Visual effects master Bradley Parker, whose film credits include "Let Me In," "Fight Club" and "Peter Pan," makes his directorial debut on the movie, which stars Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Nathan Phillips, Ingrid Bolso Berdal and Dimitri Diatchenko.
The film follows a group of young travelers who pursue an extreme tourism experience in Prypiat, a town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. They get more than they bargain for when their guide goes missing, leaving them trapped as prey to mysterious, blood-thirsty creatures on the site of one of the worst nuclear power plant accidents in history. In 1986, an explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the air, forcing thousands in the area to leave their homes and the plant to permanently close. Dozens of people died of radiation poisoning related to the disaster, while scientists say thousands of others have suffered serious health problems from exposure to the radiation.
Peli said he came up with the idea for his film when he was reading online about how some curious travelers are touring the area around Chernobyl now that radiation levels are lower.
"I didn't know that there was this town next to [the plant] that has been totally abandoned and evacuated and has turned into a ghost town for the last 25 years and now -- because the radiation levels have come down enough -- people can actually go under controlled conditions and with the right tour guide can go on a tour," Peli explained. "I looked at all these videos [online] and thought it looked absolutely amazing and very sad and very creepy and thought that seemed like a good premise for a horror movie."
The filmmaker said writing the script was an organic, collaborative process intended to make the characters' dialogue as realistic as possible.
"We actually started improvising with the actors through rehearsals and some of it was even from improvisations during the casting process and we would video-tape it and then transcribe their dialogue and put it into the script. So a lot of the dialogue in the movie was improvised on the fly and was actually their own words that they improvised prior that became part of the script for the movie," he said. "Even though the film is not found footage, we wanted it to have a feeling you're not watching a traditional horror movie but more like you're going on the ride, the journey with this group of people."
Although Peli did not direct the movie, he said he was on the set every day and very hands-on in the casting and post-production processes.
"I was a lot more involved than I originally thought [I would be,] but Brad, our director, did most of the really hard work," he said.
Peli insisted he doesn't worry about all of his films being as successful as his directorial debut "Paranormal Activity" was at the box office in 2009. That movie cost $15,000 to make and grossed nearly $200 million worldwide. It also earned Peli a reputation for being a skilled, subtle filmmaker who can make effective entertainment on a shoestring budget.
"The main thing is personal satisfaction -- if I'm happy with the movie, if I'm proud of it -- that's the main thing. And, hopefully, it also will be well-received by the fans. But it's also nice to see good reviews and to enjoy commercial success. ... I actually feel like there is less pressure now. I feel like I've already proven something with 'Paranormal Activity.' That movie really changed my life, so everything I do from now on is a bonus," Peli said.
"Chernobyl Diaries" is in theaters now.
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Friends declare Facebook user 'dead' in social media prank
Posted By KATE STANTON, UPI.com | Jan. 7, 2013 at 10:05 AM
Maine's Rusty Foster, 36, found out the hard way that it's pretty easy to fake a person's death on Facebook. As a prank, Foster's friends falsely reported him dead last week via Facebook's "Memorialization Request" page, which only requires the "deceased" person's name, email and a link to an obituary for the social media site to declare someone dead and block access to their account. Foster's friends used the real obituary of a different person with a similar name to trick Facebook into thinking he had died.
When Buzzfeed's Katie Notopoulos got word of the incident, she used the same tactic to kill off one of her coworkers, the very much alive Buzzfeed FWD editor John Herrman, with the obituary of "John Arthur Herrmann," a 74-year-old Nebraskan who died in June.
Facebook deactivated Herrman's account until about an hour after he filled out a special form. When Buzzfeed asked why it was so easy to fake someone's death, the social media site said, "We try to take all necessary precautions when processing user requests and provide an appeals process for any possible mistake we may make."
According to ABC News, Facebook reactivated Foster's account 27 hours after he reminded them he was alive, just enough time for his friends to play around with his "dead" status.
"The only thing that happened was some of my friends posted little mock-eulogies for me, because word got around that I was locked out, due to a temporary case of death," Foster said.
Jezebel pointed out the story of a Buzzfeed commenter, who said that Facebook's simple "Memorialization Request" form caused confusion in the actual death of a friend.
This happened to one of my good friends who was tragically killed in a car accident a day after getting engaged to her bf of 8 years. Someone (not family) got the page memorialized which removed all of her quotes and her description of herself and her life that she had put on there herself. Her brother, bf, and parents wanted to keep her page alive as a place where friends and family could continue to post memories and messages to her and pictures and see her happy life in her own words. I'm sure it was done by someone with the best intentions, but it still robbed a lot of people of that chance to keep that part of her alive. Her page is gone now (she's been gone for 4 years now) and they ended up making a fb group so pictures and messages can still be put up, but it's not quite the same. They need to take another look at their process, not only because of the pranking, but because it robs real people of the chance to keep some memories alive.
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a sleazy terminology for having sex
usually used in a string of three "diggity, diggity, diggity" and sometimes followed by an "all-right"
or 'i am going for diggity', ' im going out to find me some diggity'
hip gyrations are encouraged to enhance meaning
by leroy February 08, 2005
Top Definition
Often doesn't have it's own definition. Only when placed with other words it really has a meaning
1. No diggity = no doubt, for sure
2. Bomb diggity = great, awesome, the best, etc
1. "I like the way you work it. No Diggity! I got to bag it up."
(from song "No Diggity" by Blackstreet)
2. "Hey, did you get that new album yet? It's the bomb diggity!"
by MLE January 05, 2004
1. Coined by the group blackstreet "no-diggity" (meaning no doubt or without a doubt) and now used as a modifier to affirm the awesomeness of the attached word.
2. When attached to a name "diggity" can also affirm the awesomeness of that person.
guy #1 Did you hear Rossy slept with the bartender last night?
Guy #2 Get the fuck outta here! Fuckin Rossdiggity.
by Jumpin Jonnys June 23, 2006
1. A modifier creating a new phrase or word, generally a positive. (Usually associated with the word "bomb")
2. A suffix used to imply diggitiness or diggiliciousness of a word
3. Suffix used with the word "no" creating the phrase "no-diggity".
1. "That shit is the bomb-diggity": Meaning, that the shit in question is indeed "the bomb" to the highest power of diggiliciousness.
2. "No-diggity": Meaning "without a doubt" or "unquestionabally true"
by The Sheriff March 17, 2005
Affirmation of coolness or appropriateness. Suffix in "bomb-diggity", which only emphasizes the definition of "bomb".
1. "I'm going to hand you several shiny gifts." -- "Diggity."
2. "Admit it, I'm the bomb-diggity."
by JoeytheNifty November 05, 2003
adj. used to describe the greatness of an item, event or substance
often in reference to extremely potent marijuana or "diggity dank," although it may stand alone in reference to potent marijuana
1. this bud is the fuckin diggity dude.
2. lets get a bag of that diggity dank.
3. man that band is the bomb-diggity (outdated usage), -hearing this usage of "diggity" should prompt a swift backhand to the face of the user-
by Sugar J January 04, 2006
Diggity, as a word of its own, has little or no commonly accepted meaning.
A)It may used as a substitute for any number of slang words or terms, such as "doubt" in the phrase "no doubt" (ie. no diggity).
B)As rhyming slang, it is put before any word beginning with a D to accent it, such as "diggity dank."
Often associated with the word "bomb," diggity can be preceeded with bomb to add emphasis.
A)We hittin' da clubs tonight?
No diggity!
B)Yo, my boy was flossin' two Os o' dat bomb diggity dank, and two G's from the block jacked his shit.
by U-Man, MA August 28, 2008
really dank pot
dude, i got some diggities last night, i was blown out of my mind!
by Cheddar Bob November 13, 2003
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Enough of your unoriginal ranting.
Everyone knows the overused catch phrases already. Make up some new ones! Gack!
a)Use Duct Tape when your arm or leg as an extra joint in the bone and usually would not.
b)Also used for parental entities, namely mothers, when they attempt to use an imperative sentence during a conversation with you.
c)To cover your own mouth from laughing at your witless friends when that terrorist attack finally does come (which in turn keeps you from breathing the biologically detrimental substance).
a)You are riding your bike and crash. "Crap! I can lick my elbow! is that a good sign?
b)"Hello, son. How is school? You should really try harder to--MMPH MURUR GERT PHIS ERF MEHH MMPH MPH!"
c)"Hey dude, why did that plane just drop a huge barrel out of its cargo hold? Eww. its smells like crap out here *cough* *applies duc tape* see all better bah ha ha. here. have some duct tape
by sp3nx0r May 24, 2004
Top Definition
Like The Force, duct tape has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
This lady just wrecked her car! Put some duct tape around it, before it gets messy.
by Sonnybobiche January 28, 2004
Make things that shouldn't move stay put. The opposite of WD40.
by Ritch A September 16, 2003
The solver of all of lifes problems. It will fix ANYTHING, even your love life.
Much like Google, duct tape is God
by Urban Dictionary August 09, 2006
The holiest of all man-made materials. can be easily used by the smallest of children and has the adhesive power to make ANYTHING work brand new.
"QUICK this man's arm has fallen off, get me the duct tape!"
by Yacin June 11, 2003
(a.)Only one of the coolest things ever. If you ever meet the man who made duct tape you should marry him (unless you're a guy or he and/or you are married).
(b.)A nice little money maker. People will actually buy stuff made out of it, i.e. wallets, roses, cell phone cases etc. Of course if I had no skill in making it, I would too.
(a.)girl-"Hey, did you ever figure out the guy who made that cool stuff they call duct tape?" guy-"Yea, I think I'm gonna propose today!" girl-"Hey, aren't you married...and a guy?" guy-"Dangit!"
(b.)I just made 20 dollars when I sold this stuff I made out of tape, but not any tape, duct tape!
by sara February 19, 2005
1. It holds the universe together.
"Duct tape holds all things together."
by murph November 04, 2003
God's gift to man. The perfect mix between untility and cost. The average sized role of duct tape costs less than $2 and is availiable to be purchased almost anywhere. Duct tape is not as sticky as Gorrila Tape, but it is much less expensive and more easily obtained. Every man must have a roll of duct tape somewhere. It is the perfect addition to the car, utility closet and tool box of anyone.
Duct tape was origionally created during World War 2 for the US military to water-proof ammunition crates in the wet climates of the Pacific and Northern Europe. The water-proof qualities earned it the name Duck Tape as it repelled water like a duck's feathers. GIs then began using this tape for fixing things in the field. After the war, this useful product was unsuccesfully used to seal duct work (hence the generic name) later to be replaced by foil tape. The two main producers of quality duct tape are Duck Tape and 3M. It is ussually found in the full-sized, gray roll. However, it can be found in many colors and sizes with many backings (plastic, rubber, fibered etc).
Something is officialy broken when it cannot be fixed with duct tape.
by northendwhitetrash August 04, 2008
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Top Definition
An expression used to connote:
1. the act of something stupid,
2. something really lame,
3. something obvious.
The 3nd meaning is used closely more like a synonym for "Duh!"
(Person 1) I just fell from my bike, after attempting to make a 360 on bike
(Person 2) Urrrrr, stupid.
Are those shoes with little lights?
Urrrr, how lame! That is so yesterday.
*With emphasis on the rrrrr, but not to much as in roawr, kind of like DUH*
(Person 1) Are you coming for the weekend? You said you were... o_0
(Person 2) Urrrrr!
*Again, this time like DUH!*
by 5thSun July 01, 2010
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A Combination of Care and Caring
Utah Cancer Specialists, (UCS) is Utah’s largest community-based oncology practice. We offer diverse expertise in oncology and hematology.
• Medical Oncology is the study and treatment of cancer. Treatments include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and biological therapy (sometimes called immunotherapy). Most of these treatments include drugs which are injected into the body through the veins, others are taken by mouth, and others are injected under the skin or into the muscles.
• Radiation Oncology is the study and treatment of cancers using ionizing radiation (an intense form of energy). Ionizing radiation attacks cells by harming their genetic material. This interferes with their ability to grow and multiply.
• Hematology is the medical science that examines diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs. Blood cells are made in the bone marrow. In healthy people, millions of new blood cells are produced each hour to carry out important body functions. The body carefully regulates the ability of bone marrow to produce the correct number of each type of blood cell. If this regulation process is disrupted and the marrow produces too many or too few cells, a blood disorder occurs. Treatments vary according to age, symptoms and blood test results, but can include transfusions, hormonal therapy, and chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
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Rob Demovsky column: Study shows odds favor fouling when leading late by 3
7:11 AM, Feb. 12, 2013 | Comments
• Filed Under
Bill Fenlon was at a high school basketball game last spring on a recruiting trip and found himself standing next to one of the most prominent college coaches in the country.
Fenlon, the coach at DePauw University, a Division III school in Greencastle, Ind., watched as the final seconds ticked down on a scenario he has studied over and over. One team was up three points coming out of a timeout with 10 seconds to play. He turned to the coach and asked: "Do you foul here?"
The coach emphatically said: "We never foul."
So as Fenlon and the coach are chatting, the team with the lead doesn't foul. The other team makes a 3-pointer to tie and goes on to win in overtime.
And then the coach says to Fenlon: "You're that guy, aren't you?"
What guy is that, you ask?
He's the guy that more coaches should listen to when it comes to that end-of-the-game scenario. About 10 years ago, after Fenlon had lost an overtime game for the third time in a span of a couple of seasons after an opponent hit a game-tying 3 in the final seconds of regulation, he sat down with a mathematician to study this further and concluded that the only thing to do in that situation is foul. He laid out the reasons, along with all the mathematical probabilities in a 10-page essay that, while never formally published, has been passed around from coach to coach and can be found on the Internet.
"It's really taken on this life of its own," Fenlon said recently. "I initially wrote it with the idea that I might publish it in a coach's journal or something like that. But really it was an exercise for me to exorcise the demons that I had from not fouling in that situation."
Local college basketball observers saw that come into play a couple of times last week. On Thursday, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men's basketball team elected not to foul with a three-point lead late in the first overtime of a double-overtime loss to Wright State.
The Phoenix went up by three after a free throw by Keifer Sykes with 20.8 seconds left. Though that's far too early to foul under Fenlon's guide - he prefers to foul with 7 seconds or less remaining, Phoenix coach Brian Wardle said he would do it under 6 seconds - but 10 seconds or less still seems like a reasonable time frame. UWGB had three chances to foul in the final 10 seconds: first with the ball in the right corner at the 10-second mark, then with the ball on the right wing with 9 seconds left and again with 4.8 seconds left after Wright State rebounded its first missed 3.
"That's the hardest scenario, when you're in that 12- to 15-second range," Fenlon said. "It's too early, and then the team has to figure it out while the clock is going down. I think if you're coming out of a timeout, and there's 8 seconds left, that's the easiest and best scenario. You offensive rebound, now you're in a scramble. Unless you've got someone in position to do it and smart enough to do it, and you've talked about doing it already, and you've practiced it."
On the same night, the UWGB women's team hit a free throw to go ahead by three points with 18 seconds left at Loyola. Phoenix coach Kevin Borseth elected to, as Fenlon calls it, "hunker down" and play defense. It worked this time because Loyola missed a game-tying 3-pointer but, according to Fenlon's research, Borseth's team defied the odds.
On Saturday, Michigan hit a 3-pointer to take a three-point lead over Wisconsin with 2.4 seconds left. Had Michigan fouled as soon as the Badgers in-bounded the ball, Ben Brust never would have had the chance to make the game-tying 3-pointer from just short of halfcourt that allowed Wisconsin to go on to win in overtime.
Back in the Horizon League on Sunday, Illinois-Chicago led by three with 5.9 seconds left in the first overtime at Youngstown State. After a timeout, the Flames elected not to foul, and Youngstown State hit a 3 to force a second overtime. UIC managed to win in triple overtime but put itself unnecessarily at risk by not fouling.
In a nutshell, Fenlon determined if a team is up three and doesn't foul, the game will go to overtime one in five times. If it does foul, he determined there is less than a one in 20 chance of being tied when the team makes the first free throw and tries to intentionally miss the second free throw in order to rebound and score. Fenlon didn't calculate the odds of being tied or losing when the trailing team doesn't intentionally miss the second free throw, essentially forcing the team with the lead to either make free throws or run the clock out.
"Just because you want to make them both, doesn't mean you're going to make them both," Fenlon said. "So that means that if I come down and even if I don't make the free throws, and I'm still ahead, and you've got to go the length of the court and throw something in. The odds haven't changed, except you have less time to do it."
Fenlon urged that the scenario must be practiced to avoid the possible dangers such as fouling a 3-point shooter either in the act or intentionally. But, with the help of his mathematician, he estimated that there's a one in 750 chance that a player will make a 3-pointer while getting fouled and make the free throw. In his essay, Fenlon covers every possible scenario and assigns percentages to the possibility of each one happening.
In each scenario, the odds favor one thing: Fouling.
"You hear these guys on TV talking about it all the time, and I know they haven't thought about it as much as I have," Fenlon said. "The only argument against it is some testosterone-driven thing that we're just going to guard you when the reality is it's a numbers-driven thing. Everybody's afraid it's going to backfire on them, but you can probably off the top of your head right now name me a half-dozen games in the last month where people have been tied on a shot at the end of the game that's taken the game into overtime. I bet you can't come up with one where fouling backfired and somebody got beat."
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A Gangs-Eye-View of the Bronx Streets
Street gangs have always been a part of life in New York City; in some neighborhoods they’re a constant fact of life. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter spent time in the Bronx with a teenager to get a street level view.
RICH: Like right here, the four buildings right there is the Blood area. The other side is Crip territory…
REPORTER: Rich Velez is sixteen and lives in the South Bronx, and as we drive around the Mott Haven and Melrose neighborhoods he explains why kids are drawn into gangs.
RICH: Most people they get into it because they scared of other gangs and stuff like that, they scared to be jumped by theyself… and some people get like, like look at my friend, he just got into Blood, and he knows everybody, and nobody mess with him because he’s in the Bloods.
REPORTER: The Bloods are one of the largest street gangs in the Bronx and in the city. Like their rivals the Crips, they are a national phenomenon that started in California, but they are highly decentralized or even scattered into neighborhood sets that don’t always recognize each other. Claiming a gang affiliation offers protection and also the allure of random violence.
RICH: … they like yo, get into this with me, yo. And they be like, nah, nah. And the Bloods be like, yo, son, just hit this guy and get into it, it’s mad easy!
REPORTER: Rich knows from experience. He spent two years as a Blood in the Bronx, in a set that claimed as its territory a stretch of Third Avenue from the Patterson projects at 145th Street down to the Mitchel projects at 138th. He joined the gang when he was 14, which is a typical age for recruitment.
RICH: Basically they tell you to fight in an elevator. So it’s you versus four other guys…
REPORTER: His initiation ceremony was to fight members of the set in a project elevator from the twentieth floor down to the ground.
RICH: It was actually fun doing it.
REPORTER: When he got out, he was a Blood.
RICH: Then the OG was downstairs, and he was like you in, he gave me the papers…
REPORTER: O.G. stands for Original Gangster -- the leader of the set. The O.G. welcomed Rich into the gang with documents and codes to memorize:
RICH: The flag that binds my family is red and stained with the blood of my dead homies. My flag shall never be torn, my flag shall never touch the ground, no blood on my flag shall never touch the ground. That’s the oath.
REPORTER: The O.G. also conferred on Rich his street name, to reel off like a military rank whenever called upon by a superior.
RICH: And who I be was Bloody Smoke, West Side, Rollin’ 20s… Yeah that’s like the shit that you gotta spit when they go like that, when they shake your hand or whatever…
REPORTER: The names and codes aren’t just ritual. They help sort out which sets are considered legitimate by other Bloods or Crips, and which ones are just wannabes. And they give gang members a new identity, a family, to belong to -- in principle for life.
RICH: You’re in it, you’re in it. You can’t get out, you can’t get out. The only way you can get out is if your OG dies… SM: So where we at right now? RICH: We at 149 and Jackson Avenue. And that’s a girl named Jennifer, and I’m about to talk to her. …open your window, open your window!! … Jennifer! Yo! Yo! Yo!
REPORTER: Rich may have been a gang member but in this moment he’s a neighborhood kid, pointing out the places where his worlds overlap.
RICH: And this is my old school. This is a bad school. You would never want to see your kids in here. … Alright, those is Bloods right there. … Two of them is Blood, and the other one is neutral. SM: But they’re not flagging. RICH: No, they’re not flagging. But you see them in Cypress flagging.
REPORTER: Flagging means wearing distinctive gang colors: red for Bloods, blue for Crips, and so on. But Rich says gang members often don’t flag, unless they’re on their turf where they feel in control. They enforce their control by means of violence.
RICH: It’s like you hit this innocent person, basically. … Hit them to rob them.
REPORTER: Rich says that his set would attack people to take their wallets or watches…
RICH: …and sneakers. They’ll take anything that looks nice.
REPORTER: Rich says his set targeted Mexicans – a trend that activists say is on the rise. Mexican immigrants tend to carry cash wages and often won’t go to the police if they’re undocumented. As Rich saw it, Mexicans were trespassing:
RICH: ‘Cause every time we’ll be here, like there’ll always be a Mexican passing by. Say yo, take this Mexican off our block. So the Mexican would get hurt, take his wallet…
REPORTER: As Rich describes it, his own set was somewhere in the middle on the spectrum of criminality. He says he didn’t sell drugs, but he knew some who did. And he says there were guns available. In general, though, Rich says that for most kids in street gangs, gang life is pretty monotonous.
RICH: Every day they do the same thing all over. Sleep, smoke, drink, sleep, smoke, drink, chill, chill…
REPORTER: The idleness is pervasive. But it’s also deceptive. Kids in the gang life do a lot of hanging around, but they’re also alert to the presence of death around them. The city’s murder rate is at a historic low, but it actually went up last year in 22 of 76 police precincts -- including the 40th precinct, which covers much of the South Bronx. One murder victim in 2007, according to Rich, was his O.G.
RICH: He just died recently. He got shot. Fifteen times. By Crips. When he died, they told me that, yo, we gonna go bang out…
REPORTER: Rich had a choice to make: Get out of the gang, or avenge the O.G. and get deeper.
RICH: I was like, uh-uh, you bugging. I was like, I’ll fight…
REPORTER: But Rich wasn’t prepared to shoot anyone.
RICH: …cause I ain’t trying to do no time. And they never went, so the Crips never died.
REPORTER: Rich recently almost did do time after being arrested for assaulting a Mexican. But he managed to get probation. His brother works for an anti-violence organization, and they promised to supervise him. Almost going to prison made Rich think twice. Now with the O.G.’s death, he had a chance to get out. He took his case to the O.G.’s brother, who was taking control of the set.
RICH: He said why, started giving me questions about why do you want to leave the gang. I was like, because I don’t want to be doing this the rest of my life, hitting on people with no reason. And he felt offended, and he told me that. That’s why he told me to fight in the elevator…
REPORTER: It was back to the elevator. Rich had had to fight to get in, now he had to fight to get out. When it was all over, he says, there were no hard feelings.
RICH: Yeah, I’m still cool with them...
REPORTER: Rich still sees the gang members around the neighborhood, but so far, he has stayed out of trouble. He’s looking into G.E.D. programs so he can finish high school.
RICH: So now I’m free, in the ghetto…
REPORTER: These days Jonathan Figueroa, the older brother who helped Rich stay out of jail, is keeping a close eye on him.
JONATHAN: he knows about his chances of going to jail, so he can’t act up, he can’t do anything foolish. I think he’s realized that now, so he’s been much more calm, conscious of what he’s doing. SM: Are you more conscious? RICH: Yeah. I think twice before I do something now… I control myself. I don’t let people control me no more.
REPORTER: Rich Velez isn’t a Blood anymore, but he doesn’t yet have a new direction – a school program, or a job, or anything else he can sink his teeth into and trust himself to succeed. He walked away from the kind of identity and belonging the gang provided. At sixteen, his challenge now is to find a new one.
REPORTER: For WNYC, I’m Siddhartha Mitter | dclm-gs1-102210000 |
Aim higher, reach further.
Risks Are Mounting in Canada
After scratching out a faster recovery than the U.S. and most developed nations, Canada is facing its strongest economic headwinds in years, including falling commodity prices and ballooning personal debt.
Most economists say Canada can ride out the storm. But this trade-dependent nation—far less scarred by the recession than...
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In 1992, four L.A. misfits snuck in through the backdoor of hip-hop history. As the mediaâs attention focused on rapâs cop killers and mean-mugging gangsters, the PharcydeâImani, Bootie Brown, Fatlip and Slimkid3âreleased Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, an album concerned with little more than being young and acting the damn fool. Boasting a jazzy, East Coast production aesthetic but eschewing New York bohemianism in favor of absurd humor, the record exerted such an influence on â90s West Coast indie rap that, by the time of its starkly more mature follow-up, 1995âs Labcabincalifornia, even the group was sick of it.
"Along the road, people were like, 'We want another Bizarre Ride.' Well, go fucking make it yourself," says Pharcyde's de facto leader, Tre "Slimkid3" Hardson. "During that time, in our headspace, we were trying to do a lot of things. Why would we want to make the same footprint?"
As he's grown older, Hardson, 42, has come to view the record in the same light as many of its admirers: as a snapshot of unrestrained youth. Although the original foursome hasn't put out new material together in almost two decades, Hardson and Fatlip have reunited to celebrate Bizarre Ride's 20th anniversary, performing the album live in its entirety. On a recent afternoon, I met with Hardson, who moved to the Pacific Northwest four years ago, on the back patio of ¿Por Que No? on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, to break the record down track-by-track. We've got the full interview here, but here are four highlights.
"4 Better or 4 Worse"
A song about the group's ambivalent entry into the music industry—until Fatlip's demented final verse.
Tre Hardson: That was part of who we kind of were. We would joke a lot. Not just regular jokes, but really fucked-up jokes. Fatlip, he was so funny, because he did that verse when we were back at [after-school music program South Central Unit]. So this was during the time when we didn't give a shit if a label picked us up or not. When he was doing that, we were just laughing: "Ah! Why you'd say that? 'Fist up the pussy'? Who says that?" I ain't saying shit like that as long as my mama's alive.
"Soul Flower (Remix)"
Many fans first heard the Pharcyde as guests on the Brand New Heavies' original, which producer J-Swift commemorated with a celebratory reworking.
"Soul Flower" was a really touching experience for me personally. Of course, we were on "soul flower"—we were smoking weed, writing our rhymes. It was my turn to jump up and record my verse. I'm in the booth and there's a moment where I feel I can see myself rapping my verse, because I'm blazed up. I had the feeling that my voice, my spirit, is going to be trapped in time forever, on this record. And that just kind of fucked me up, and I started crying.
"Ya Mama"
Four minutes of the group savaging each other's mothers. Of course, it's one of the album's highlights.
We used to play the Dozens all the time. We'd put on a DAT tape, and everyone is in the room with a microphone, just bagging on each other. This is what we did every day, all day, anyway, so we just added a mic. From the DAT, we listened to hours and hours of us kicking the Dozens and just cut little pieces. We had some pretty foul stuff, but it wasnât on that record. Maybe theyâll put out The âYa Mamaâ Bagging Sessions.
"Passin' Me By"
The Pharcyde's greatest, most everlasting moment—no '90s hip-hop mix is complete without it.
Did we know it was going to be a hit? It felt amazing just to listen to the loop by itself. That was another song where I had some tears. It was during the editing of the "Passin' Me By" video. I had the same moment: "Our images are trapped in this thing forever." And it made me think, whatever you do, you really can't lie. You really have to represent well and say the right things, because you're putting a message out there to the world. It's a time capsule of when you existed. It forced all of us to look at what we're doing in a different way. I think we all felt that way.
SEE IT: Slimkid3 and Fatlip perform Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde at Barracks, 1235 SW 16th Ave., with Latyrx, Speaker Minds and Mosley Wotta, on Wednesday, Nov. 21. 9 pm. $18. 21 . | dclm-gs1-102230000 |
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News Releases
EPA takes action against Del Monte Fresh Produce to protect community, workers from hazardous waste Company fined $190,000 for improperly stored and handled hazardous waste
Release Date: 09/25/2008
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711,
(09/25/08) HONOLULU -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today fined Del Monte Fresh Produce Co., a Kunia, Oahu, fruit grower, $190,000 for hazardous waste storage, handling, and used oil management violations.
In August 2007, EPA inspectors found open and unlabeled containers of hazardous waste at the facility and evidence of a release of used oil.
“Companies must properly store and handle hazardous waste to protect the community, workers and the environment,” said Jeff Scott, director of Waste Programs for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “I am pleased that Del Monte has corrected the violations and that the facility no longer presents a potential risk to human health and the environment.”
Additionally, the EPA found the facility had stored containers of hazardous waste without a permit and stored hazardous waste for longer than the 90 days allowed by the EPA’s hazardous waste storage rules. At the time of the inspection, the company had ceased its pineapple growing operations.
The facility also failed to:
* have a response plan for hazardous waste and used oil spills and have an emergency response coordinator;
* properly manage other wastes, such as lead acid batteries;
* keep adequate hazardous waste training records for its staff;
* properly store used oil and label the containers; and
* respond to releases of used oil, and comply with oil pollution control requirements.
The EPA’s hazardous waste rules require facilities to properly store, label and seal hazardous waste containers. Facilities must also have trained staff, as improperly stored hazardous waste can potentially spill and pose a risk to workers and the environment. Proper disposal of hazardous waste is required at a permitted disposal site, with the required permits and notifications made to the EPA.
For information on hazardous waste, please visit:
# # # | dclm-gs1-102250000 |
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Censorship Communications The Internet Twitter
Syrian Malware Servers Survive, Then Die 23
Syrian Malware Servers Survive, Then Die
Comments Filter:
• by Anonymous Coward
Syria is dead.
• by jonadab (583620)
Syria has always been dead. In no public or private utterance can it be admitted that situation has at any time been otherwise. Officially the change of status has never happened. Netcraft has confirmed that Syria is dead: therefore, Netcraft has always confirmed that Syria is dead, and thus Syria has always been dead. The failing third-world government of the moment always represents absolute evil, and thus it follows that any past or future situation in which that government might not be failing is imp
• by jonadab (583620)
Just in case someone feels like being an idiot and taking my little allusion for more than the small bit of attempted humor that it is, I should probably clarify: I am not even remotely interested in taking sides in the current conflict in Syria. Please don't try to read anything political into my above post. It wasn't intended that way. It's just supposed to be silly and funny, that's all. Thanks.
• Well they're obviously te Syrian suicide-bomb servers.
• by Toe, The (545098) on Friday November 30, 2012 @05:32PM (#42147775)
I've heard of ideas and even projects for ad hoc internetworking and/or phone networking. In these, there is no authoritative routing, but rather meshes of individual nodes (perhaps with uplinks to the "regular" internet/network).
Obviously there are enormous obstacles to developing such a thing. It's hard; it's fragile; it's messy; it's confusing to the user; and it's not profitable.
But when we read stories like this... shouldn't we give it some more thought?
• by timeOday (582209)
I actually think it would help immensely if such a service were not anonymous, and (by convention) limited to short text messages - basically like twitter. This is for two reasons, first, I simply don't think people will get excited about being mules for who knows what data payload; and second, a protocol reliant on happenstance proximity of cellphones towards an unknown exit node will be plenty slow and inefficient, even BEFORE intentionally routing it every which way for anonymity. I just don't think it'
• by jonadab (583620)
I've given the notion quite a bit of thought, and I eventually concluded, somewhat reluctantly, that it's not practicable on a large scale, for fundamental reasons that have nothing to do with any specific design or protocol that might be attempted.
However, there are usually ways to get information in or out of a place that's disconnected from the internet for whatever reason. Ultimately, if *any* kind of communication in or out of the country is possible, somebody can use it indirectly to get information
• by Anonymous Coward
Anyone knowing anything about BGP and stuff can tell that there are no more facts than this:
All IP ranges behind AS29386 seem to be offline.
Other than that, all we have is speculation. Cloudflame is in no position to "confirm" something.
It could be this way, it could be another way around.
It would not surprise me if some stupid gov shut of parts of internet. But in this case even the Syrian official TV channel had no internet and their daily press overview programme was forced to use only papers.
Also of not
• by pepsikid (2226416) on Friday November 30, 2012 @05:48PM (#42147981)
Ya know what I think? I think we just freed up 84 unused netblocks for the rest of the Internet to use.
• ...commit genocide?
They know the world is watching and there are always ways of communicating around such a blackout, but the majority of people who'd speak up in disgust of what the government is apparently planning are not going to see it.
Its like news media hitting the mass market, only here it the sources of real news.
• by Threni (635302)
Nobody cares what is happening in Syria. Think of all the headlines of the last few years about Libya, Egypt, Iraq etc etc. It's in the news for a few days/weeks then the focus of attention moves elsewhere. X killed, Y removed from power, Rebels are fighting government forces in Z. The internet is up, the internet is down, bloggers tweet about blah blah. So it goes on. Not saying it's not important to people in that area, or who know people who are affected. But people watch the news, generally, for
• by Immerial (1093103)
It is clear that it was done deliberately by Syria... FTFA "In order for a whole-country outage, all four of these cables would have had to been cut simultaneously. That is unlikely to have happened."
My worst fear is that they are going to try either chemical weapons or indiscriminate slaughter (whole towns/cities/women/children/refugees). If those reports got out they would lose what little international support they have from Russia and China, and that would basically be it. All the nations would swoo
• by jeffmeden (135043) on Friday November 30, 2012 @06:20PM (#42148559) Homepage Journal
Is this really a thing? A service where your voice gets turned into an anonymized URL and posted to a generic twitter handle? Sounds productive... I wish Google would remind people that when phone lines work, maybe call a PERSON and make REAL contact, don't just shout into the void. This twitter obsession is nuts.
• I don't like Twitter either. But a single tweet can reach hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. When you call a person, you reach - well - that person. I say we need Speak to Slashdot. ;)
• Thats a reason, why all people should prefer small autonomous over global decentralised over centralised networks for communication.
Killing off one centralised service is easy.
If you have enought control, you can even cut a global decentralised network into 2 or more.
But try killing off 100000 of small autonomous networks - if they are not even known - and noone knows them all - , how should they be killed?
• by Anonymous Coward
And what are, the downsides? I can't think of, any at all, he said sarcastically and with random commas.
| dclm-gs1-102260000 |
The Department of Budget and Management posted on their website on Monday that a text message circulating in the country announcing winners to an alleged DBM raffle. The advisory added that the DBM does not hold raffle draws, promos, or other similar contests and asked SMS recipients to disregard the text messages instead report the incidents to the concerned government agencies.
Here's the full DBM advisory courtesy of Department of Budget and Management (Philippines)
It has come to our attention that scammers claiming to be representatives of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) are sending text messages announcing winners to an alleged DBM raffle. The messages usually require the recipient to contact a specific number or send a reply to claim his/her prize.
Please be advised that the DBM does not hold raffle draws, promos, or other similar contests. The DBM is a government agency that oversees public fund expenditure for the National Government. As such, the DBM does not engage in commercial and promotional activities, nor does it contact individual members of the public via SMS.
The public is advised to disregard text messages purportedly sent by the DBM and other government departments and agencies. Furthermore, we urge scam victims or SMS recipients to report these incidents to the concerned department, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the National Bureau of Investigation to facilitate proper criminal action against the perpetrators.
Thank you for your cooperation.
| dclm-gs1-102270000 |
Broceliande Restaurant
It was not raining today, so we decided to make restaurant while the sun was shining :) Jade’s favorite restaurant in Sens, but not mine, is the Broceliande. Broceliande, supposedly located in Brittany, was the mythical forest described in the Legend of Arthur as the habitat of fairies and the magician Merlin. Naturally, the restaurant specializes in the famous crepes and galettes of Brittany. Bleah. They also have salads. I had the Chicken Salad with Bacon. Big. And a glass of Rose.
Gratuitous photo of Jade that is much better than the photo I took of her galette.
The Broceliande used to be called something else and was a family owned and operated restaurant that specialized in regional cuisine, some crepes and moules frites. The owners turned 55, heard the retirement gong, sold the place and left to do whatever young French retirees do. A pity for us. The new restaurant, to me, lacks luster and an imaginative cook. Oh well, portions are huge and they taste okay.
Located on the square, there is both inside and outside dining.
You can stare up at the cathedral.
Or at the open market
Or at the diners in the other restaurants and cafes on the square. A very pleasant place to sit for coffee, a glass of wine or lunch.
Or you can even order a carafe of hard cider from, I think Normandy not Brittany, that you get to drink from these really cool cups.
Jade had a Poire Belle Helene for dessert that consisted of 2 scoops of vanilla, 1 scoop of chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.
I got the Cafe Gourmand, of course. Pretty isn’t it? That’s some kind of cake and a little Magnum ice cream bite. I ate the ice cream bite and drank the coffee.
Fabulous to be out in the sunshine again!
About cookinginsens
An American living in Burgundy, France
This entry was posted in Dessert, Food and Wine, French, Main dishes, Salad and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
11 Responses to Broceliande Restaurant
1. What a fun outing. The ice cream sundae certainly has a more appealing name in French!
2. :) But she’s right!
3. So what did you eat in the evening? I get the same feeling about galettes – they’re OK, but so what.
4. Jackie (Decanted Wines) says:
These pictures make me want to pick up and move to France! I just can’t imagine sitting outside, enjoying a glass of wine with that amazing cathedral right across from me.
5. Karen says:
Everyone always asks me what is my favorite country when we travel to Europe. When it comes to food, France wins hands down.
6. Pingback: Eating Around: L’Assiette | Cooking in Sens
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Ammonite" redirects here. For other uses, see Ammonite (disambiguation).
Temporal range: 400–66 Ma
Asteroceras BW.jpg
Artist's reconstruction of Asteroceras
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
Zittel, 1884
Orders and Suborders
See text
Ammonites /ˈæmənts/ are an extinct group of marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, and the last species died out during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geological time periods. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although there were some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms (known as heteromorphs).
The name "ammonite", from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing ram's horns.[1] Often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek (κέρας) for "horn".
Diagnostic characters[edit]
Ammonites (subclass Ammonoidea) can be distinguished by their septa, the dividing walls that separate the chambers in the phragmocone, by the nature of their sutures where the septa joint the outer shell wall, and in general by their siphuncles.
Ammonoid septa characteristically have bulges and indentations and are to varying degrees convex from the front, distinguishing them from nautiloid septa which are typically simple concave dish-shaped structures. The topology of the septa, especially around the rim, results in the various suture patterns found.
Suture patterns[edit]
Three major types of suture patterns are found in the Ammonoidea:
• Goniatitic - numerous undivided lobes and saddles; typically 8 lobes around the conch. This pattern is characteristic of the Paleozoic ammonoids.
• Ceratitic - lobes have subdivided tips, giving them a saw-toothed appearance, and rounded undivided saddles. This suture pattern is characteristic of Triassic ammonoids and appears again in the Cretaceous "pseudoceratites".
• Ammonitic - lobes and saddles are much subdivided (fluted); subdivisions are usually rounded instead of saw-toothed. Ammonoids of this type are the most important species from a biostratigraphical point of view. This suture type is characteristic of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonoids, but extends back all the way to the Permian.
The siphuncle in most ammonoids by far is a narrow tubular structure that runs along the outer rim, known as the venter, connecting the chambers of the phragmocone to the body or living chamber. This distinguishes them from living nautiloides (Nautilus and Allonautilus) and typical Nautilida. However, the very earliest nautiloids from the Late Cambrian and Ordovician typically had ventral siphuncles, although often proportionally larger than those in ammonites and more internally structured. The word "siphuncle" comes from the New Latin siphunculus, meaning "little siphon".
Classification of the Ammonoidea[edit]
An ammonite shell viewed in section, revealing the internal chambers and septa. Large polished examples are prized for their aesthetic, as well as scientific, value.
Originating from within the bactritoid nautiloids, the ammonoid cephalopods first appeared in the Devonian (circa 400 million years ago) and became extinct at the close of the Cretaceous (66 Mya) along with the dinosaurs. The classification of ammonoids is based in part on the ornamentation and structure of the septa comprising their shells' gas chambers; by these and other characteristics we can divide subclass Ammonoidea into three orders and eight known suborders. While nearly all nautiloids show gently curving sutures, the ammonoid suture line (the intersection of the septum with the outer shell) is variably folded, forming saddles (or peaks) and lobes (or valleys).
Orders and suborders[edit]
An ammonitic ammonoid with the body chamber missing, showing the septal surface (especially at right) with its undulating lobes and saddles.
Iridescent ancient ammonite fossil on display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, around 2.5 feet in diameter
The Ammonoidea can be divided into eight orders, listed here starting with the most primitive and going to the more derived:
In some classifications, these are left as suborders, included in only three orders: Goniatitida, Ceratitida, and Ammonitida.
Taxonomy of the Treatise[edit]
The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (Part L, 1957) divides the Ammonoidea, regarded simply as an order, into eight suborders, the Anarcestina, Clymeniina, Goniatitina, and Prolecanitina from the Paleozoic; the Ceratitina from the Triassic; and the Ammonitina, Lytoceratina, and Phylloceratina from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. In subsequent taxonomies, these are sometimes regarded as orders within the subclass Ammonoidea.
Fossil shell of ammonite Placenticeras whitfieldi showing punctures caused by the bite of a mosasaur, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale
Jeletzkytes, a Cretaceous ammonite from the USA
Asteroceras, a Jurassic ammonite from England
Orthosphynctes, a Jurassic ammonite from Portugal
Because ammonites and their close relatives are extinct, little is known about their way of life. Their soft body parts are very rarely preserved in any detail. Nonetheless, much has been worked out by examining ammonoid shells and by using models of these shells in water tanks.
Many ammonoids probably lived in the open water of ancient seas, rather than at the sea bottom, because their fossils are often found in rocks laid down under conditions where no bottom-dwelling life is found. Many of them (such as Oxynoticeras) are thought to have been good swimmers, with flattened, discus-shaped, streamlined shells, although some ammonoids were less effective swimmers and were likely to have been slow-swimming bottom-dwellers. Synchrotron analysis of an aptychophoran ammonite revealed remains of isopod and mollusc larvae in its buccal cavity, indicating at least this kind of ammonite fed on plankton.[2] They may have avoided predation by squirting ink, much like modern cephalopods; ink is occasionally preserved in fossil specimens.[3]
The soft body of the creature occupied the largest segments of the shell at the end of the coil. The smaller earlier segments were walled off and the animal could maintain its buoyancy by filling them with gas. Thus, the smaller sections of the coil would have floated above the larger sections.[4]
Many ammonite shells have been found with round holes once interpreted as a result of limpets attaching themselves to the shells. The triangular formation of the holes, their size and shape, and their presence on both sides of the shells, corresponding to the upper and lower jaws, is evidence of the bite of a medium-sized mosasaur preying upon ammonites.
Shell anatomy and diversity[edit]
Basic shell anatomy[edit]
A variety of ammonite forms, from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature)
Baculites ammonite from the Late Cretaceous of Wyoming: The original aragonite of the outer conch and inner septa has dissolved away, leaving this articulated internal mold.
The chambered part of the ammonite shell is called a phragmocone. It contains a series of progressively larger chambers, called camerae (sing. camera) that are divided by thin walls called septa (sing. septum). Only the last and largest chamber, the body chamber, was occupied by the living animal at any given moment. As it grew, it added newer and larger chambers to the open end of the coil. Where the outer whorl of an ammonite shell largely covers the preceding whorls, the specimen is said to be involute (e.g., Anahoplites). Where it does not cover those preceding, the specimen is said to be evolute (e.g., Dactylioceras).
A thin living tube called a siphuncle passed through the septa, extending from the ammonite's body into the empty shell chambers. Through a hyperosmotic active transport process, the ammonite emptied water out of these shell chambers. This enabled it to control the buoyancy of the shell and thereby rise or descend in the water column.
A primary difference between ammonites and nautiloids is the siphuncle of ammonites (excepting Clymeniina) runs along the ventral periphery of the septa and camerae (i.e., the inner surface of the outer axis of the shell), while the siphuncle of nautiloids runs more or less through the center of the septa and camerae.
Sexual dimorphism[edit]
Discoscaphites iris, Owl Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Ripley, Mississippi.
One feature found in shells of the modern Nautilus is the variation in the shape and size of the shell according to the sex of the animal, the shell of the male being slightly smaller and wider than that of the female. This sexual dimorphism is thought to be an explanation for the variation in size of certain ammonite shells of the same species, the larger shell (the macroconch) being female, and the smaller shell (the microconch) being male. This is thought to be because the female required a larger body size for egg production. A good example of this sexual variation is found in Bifericeras from the early part of the Jurassic period of Europe.
Only recently has sexual variation in the shells of ammonites been recognized. The macroconch and microconch of one species were often previously mistaken for two closely related but different species occurring in the same rocks. However, because these "pairs" were so consistently found together it became apparent they were, in fact, sexual forms of the same species.
Variations in shape[edit]
The majority of ammonite species feature planispiral, flat-coiled shells, but other species feature nearly straight (as in baculites) shells. Still other species' shells are coiled helically, superficially like that of a large gastropod (as in Turrilites and Bostrychoceras). Some species' shells are even initially uncoiled, then partially coiled, and finally straight at maturity (as in Australiceras). These partially uncoiled and totally uncoiled forms began to diversify mainly during the early part of the Cretaceous and are known as heteromorphs.
Perhaps the most extreme and bizarre-looking example of a heteromorph is Nipponites, which appears to be a tangle of irregular whorls lacking any obvious symmetrical coiling. Upon closer inspection, though, the shell proves to be a three-dimensional network of connected "U" shapes. Nipponites occurs in rocks of the upper part of the Cretaceous in Japan and the USA.
Ammonites vary greatly in the ornamentation (surface relief) of their shells. Some may be smooth and relatively featureless, except for growth lines, and resemble that of the modern Nautilus. In others, various patterns of spiral ridges and ribs or even spines are shown. This type of ornamentation of the shell is especially evident in the later ammonites of the Cretaceous.
Main article: Aptychus
A drawing of an aptychus which was mistakenly described as a bivalve and given the name "Trigonellites latus", from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in England
Some ammonites have been found in association with a single horny plate or a pair of calcitic plates. In the past, these plates were assumed to serve in closing the opening of the shell in much the same way as an operculum, but more recently, they are postulated to have been, instead, a jaw apparatus.[5][6][7][8]
The plates are collectively termed the aptychus or aptychi in the case of a pair of plates, and anaptychus in the case of a single plate. The paired aptychi were symmetrical to one another and equal in size and appearance.
Anaptychi are relatively rare as fossils. They are found representing ammonites from the Devonian period through those of the Cretaceous period.
Calcified aptychi only occur in ammonites from the Mesozoic era. They are almost always found detached from the shell, and are only very rarely preserved in place. Still, sufficient numbers have been found closing the apertures of fossil ammonite shells as to leave no doubt as to their identity as part of the anatomy of an ammonite.
Large numbers of detached aptychi occur in certain beds of rock (such as those from the Mesozoic in the Alps). These rocks are usually accumulated at great depths. The modern Nautilus lacks any calcitic plate for closing its shell, and only one extinct nautiloid genus is known to have borne anything similar. Nautilus does, however, have a leathery head shield (the hood) which it uses to cover the opening when it retreats inside.
There are many forms of aptychus, varying in shape and the sculpture of the inner and outer surfaces, but because they are so rarely found in position within the shell of the ammonite it is often unclear to which species of ammonite one kind of aptychus belongs. A number of aptychi have been given their own genus and even species names independent of their unknown owners' genus and species, pending future discovery of verified occurrences within ammonite shells.
Soft-part anatomy[edit]
Although ammonites do occur in exceptional lagerstatten such as the Solnhofen limestone, their soft part record is surprisingly bleak. Beyond a tentative ink sac and possible digestive organs, no soft parts are known at all.[9] They likely bore a radula and beak, a marginal siphuncle, and ten arms.[10] They operated by direct development with sexual reproduction, were carnivorous, and had a crop for food storage. They are unlikely to have dwelt in fresh or brackish water.[11]
2-metre (6.5-foot) Parapuzosia seppenradensis cast in Germany
Few of the ammonites occurring in the lower and middle part of the Jurassic period reached a size exceeding 23 cm (9 in) in diameter. Much larger forms are found in the later rocks of the upper part of the Jurassic and the lower part of the Cretaceous, such as Titanites from the Portland Stone of Jurassic of southern England, which is often 53 cm (2 ft) in diameter, and Parapuzosia seppenradensis of the Cretaceous period of Germany, which is one of the largest known ammonites, sometimes reaching 2 m (6.5 ft) in diameter. The largest documented North American ammonite is Parapuzosia bradyi from the Cretaceous, with specimens measuring 137 cm (4.5 ft) in diameter.
A specimen of Hoploscaphites from the Pierre Shale of South Dakota: Much of the original shell, including the nacre, has survived.
Starting from the mid-Devonian, ammonoids were extremely abundant, especially as ammonites during the Mesozoic era. Many genera evolved and ran their course quickly, becoming extinct in a few million years. Due to their rapid evolution and widespread distribution, ammonoids are used by geologists and paleontologists for biostratigraphy. They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods.
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils.
When ammonites are found in clays, their original mother-of-pearl coating is often preserved. This type of preservation is found in ammonites such as Hoplites from the Cretaceous Gault clay of Folkestone in Kent, England.
The Cretaceous Pierre Shale formation of the United States and Canada is well known for the abundant ammonite fauna it yields, including Baculites, Placenticeras, Scaphites, Hoploscaphites, and Jeletzkytes, as well as many uncoiled forms. Many of these also have much or all of the original shell, as well as the complete body chamber, still intact. Many Pierre Shale ammonites, and indeed many ammonites throughout earth history, are found inside concretions.
An iridescent ammonite from Madagascar
Other fossils, such as many found in Madagascar and Alberta, display iridescence. These iridescent ammonites are often of gem quality (ammolite) when polished. In no case would this iridescence have been visible during the animal's life; additional shell layers covered it.
The majority of ammonoid specimens, especially those of the Paleozoic era, are preserved only as internal molds; the outer shell (composed of aragonite)[12] has been lost during the fossilization process. Only in these internal-mold specimens can the suture lines be observed; in life, the sutures would have been hidden by the outer shell.
The ammonoids as a group continued through several major extinction events, although often only a few species survived. Each time, however, this handful of species diversified into a multitude of forms. Ammonite fossils became less abundant during the latter part of the Mesozoic, with none surviving into the Cenozoic era. The last surviving lineages disappeared, along with the non-avian dinosaurs, 65 Mya in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The reason why no ammonites survived the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, whereas some nautiloids survived, might be due to differences in ontogeny. If their extinction was due to a bolide strike, plankton around the globe could have been severely diminished, thereby dooming ammonite reproduction during its planktonic stage.
Ammonites in the permanent collection of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
The extinction of the ammonites, along with other marine animals and non-avian dinosaurs, has been attributed to the K-Pg extinction event, marking the end of the Cretaceous Period. Regardless of what effect an impact may have had, many of these groups, including ammonoids, were already in serious decline.[citation needed] Previously, ammonoid cephalopods barely survived several earlier major extinction events, often with only a few species surviving from which a multitude of forms diversified.[citation needed]
Eight or so species from only two families made it almost to the end of the Cretaceous, the order having gone through a more or less steady decline since the middle of the period.[citation needed] Six other families made it well into the upper Maastrichtian (uppermost stage of the Cretaceous), but were extinct well before the end. All told, 11 families entered the Maastrichtian, a decline from the 19 families known from the Cenomanian in the middle of the Cretaceous.
One reason given for their demise is the Cretaceous ammonites, being closely related to coleoids, had a similar reproductive strategy in which huge numbers of eggs were laid in a single batch at the end of the lifespan. These, along with juvenile ammonites, are thought to have been part of the plankton at the surface of the ocean, where they were killed off by the effects of an impact. Nautiloids, exemplified by modern nautiluses, are conversely thought to have had a reproductive strategy in which eggs were laid in smaller batches many times during the lifespan, and on the sea floor well away from any direct effects of such a bolide strike, and thus survived.
In medieval Europe, fossilised ammonites were thought to be petrified coiled snakes, and were called "snakestones" or, more commonly in medieval England, "serpentstones". They were considered to be evidence for the actions of saints, such as Hilda of Whitby, a myth referenced in Sir Walter Scott's Marmion,[13] and Saint Patrick, and were held to have healing or oracular powers. Traders would occasionally carve the head of a snake onto the empty, wide end of the ammonite fossil, and then sell them to the public. In other cases, the snake's head would be simply painted on.[14] Ammonites from the Gandaki river in Nepal are known as saligrams, and are believed by Hindus to be a concrete manifestation of God or Vishnu.[15]
Terminological note[edit]
The words "ammonite" and "ammonoid" are both used quite loosely in common parlance to refer to any member of subclass Ammonoidea. However, in stricter usage the term ammonite is reserved for members of suborder Ammonitina (or sometimes even order Ammonitida).
See also[edit]
1. ^ NH 37.40.167
2. ^ The Role of Ammonites in the Mesozoic Marine Food Web Revealed by Jaw Preservation, Isabelle Kruta, Neil Landman, Isabelle Rouget, Fabrizio Cecca, Paul Tafforeau, SCIENCE, JANUARY 2011 VOL 331
3. ^ Doguzhaeva, Larisa A.; Royal H. Mapes; Herbert Summesberger; Harry Mutvei (2007). "The Preservation of Body Tissues, Shell, and Mandibles in the Ceratitid Ammonoid Austrotrachyceras (Late Triassic), Austria". In N. H. Landman; et al. Cephalopods Present and Past: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 221–238. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6806-5_11. ISBN 978-1-4020-6806-5.
4. ^ "Introduction to Ammonoidea". The Geology of Portsdown Hill. Archived from the original on 2 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-26.
5. ^ Morton, N (1981). "Aptychi: the myth of the ammonite operculum". Lethaia 14 (1): 57–61. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1981.tb01074.x.
6. ^ Morton, N.; Nixon, M. (1987). "Size and function of ammonite aptychi in comparison with buccal masses of modem cephalopods". Lethaia 20 (3): 231–238. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1987.tb02043.x.
7. ^ Lehmann, U.; Kulicki, C. (1990). "Double function of aptychi (Ammonoidea) as jaw elements and opercula". Lethaia 23: 325–331. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1990.tb01365.x.
8. ^ Seilacher, A (1993). "Ammonite aptychi; how to transform a jaw into an operculum?". American Journal of Science 293: 20–32. doi:10.2475/ajs.293.A.20.
9. ^ Wippich, M. G. E.; Lehmann, J. (2004). "Allocrioceras from the Cenomanian (mid-Cretaceous) of the Lebanon and its bearing on the palaeobiological interpretation of heteromorphic ammonites". Palaeontology 47 (5): 1093–1107. doi:10.1111/j.0031-0239.2004.00408.x.
10. ^ Landman, Neil H; Tanabe, Kazushige; Davis, Richard Arnold (1996). Ammonoid paleobiology. ISBN 978-0-306-45222-2.
12. ^ Buchardt, B.; Weiner, S. (1981). "Diagenesis of aragonite from Upper Cretaceous ammonites: a geochemical case-study". Sedimentology 28 (3): 423–438. Bibcode:1981Sedim..28..423B. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3091.1981.tb01691.x.
13. ^ Lovett, Edward (September 1905). "The Whitby Snake-Ammonite Myth". Folk-Lore 16 (3): 333–4. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1905.9719966.
14. ^ Cadbury, D. The Dinosaur Hunters. (Fourth Estate, 2000) (ISBN 1-85702-963-1), p.7
15. ^ "Fossils: myths, mystery, and magic". The Independent (London). 2007-02-12. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
External links[edit] | dclm-gs1-102290000 |
Bill of attainder
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"Writ of attainder" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Writ of attaint.
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of pains and penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without a trial. As with attainder resulting from the normal judicial process, the effect of such a bill is to nullify the targeted person's civil rights, most notably the right to own property (and thus pass it on to heirs), the right to a title of nobility, and, in at least the original usage, the right to life itself. Bills of attainder were passed in England between about 1300 and 1800 and resulted in the executions of a number of notable historical figures.
The use of these bills by Parliament eventually fell into disfavor due to the obvious potential for abuse and the violation of several legal principles, most importantly the separation of powers, the right to due process, and the precept that a law should address a particular form of behavior rather than a specific individual or group. For these reasons, bills of attainder are expressly banned by Article I, section 9, of the United States Constitution (1789) as well as by the constitutions of all 50 US states.
Although the Commonwealth Constitution establishes the principle of separation of powers for the Commonwealth, it is not extended to states. Therefore, states remain free to structure their constitutions to permit bills of attainder. Starting with federation in 1901, however, state parliaments are, in principle, not allowed to pass bills of pains and penalties.
Section III of the constitution bans the imposition of bills of penalties by parliaments, however no usable definition of such is given. The High Court has decided (Judgement 13/2015) that a bill of attainder or penalties must at least name individuals. This restriction is easily circumvented by passing more general bills that give the executive branch the power to arbitrarily seize the assets of individuals. The State of New South Wales amended the Mining Act in 2014 and seized the lease and valuable commercial in-confidence information of a mining company. The amendments were ruled to be constitutional by the High Court, as the new laws, at face value, were not directed at an individual. The ruling also allows state governments to seize commercial information and re-sell it, while this amounts to a breach of copyright for ordinary citizens. While bills of attainder and penalties naming individuals are not allowed, all Australian governments now ultimately do have the power to permanently seize and sell off assets, without any due process of law. In addition, the High Court ruled that state parliaments may pass any judicial-like law since the constitution does not place any restriction on the permitted types of legislation. The 2015 ruling makes Australia unique in that its parliamentary acts can now easily circumvent the universal jurisprudence principles of equality, due process, and the presumption of innocence.
The states of Queensland and New South Wales passed laws during 2013-2014 that were aimed at permanent surveillance and the breaking up of motorcycle gangs. The laws pre-judged a class of persons to be guilty of crimes. Club houses and group associations were outlawed. Termed the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) laws. A challenge in the HC by the gangs failed (Judgement 46/2015). Thus bills of attainder are lawful in Australia provided individuals are not named, but attainder laws can target a very small group. In various states, acts were passed during the 1990s to allow the continued detention of dangerous criminals after their term, which applied to specific individuals such as Gregory Wayne Kable in New South Wales and Garry David in Victoria. These acts are similar to bills of attainder, but do not declare a person guilty of a crime; they are limited to authorizing extended detention. Strictly they were altering the sentences imposed by the courts. Kable was already in jail and committed further crimes while imprisoned. Because of this, the New South Wales state prosecutor argued that the legislation was not a bill of attainder.
Kable took the state of New South Wales to the High Court, aided pro bono, and the legislation was ruled unconstitutional. In a separate appeal, he received no damages. More recently, Australian parliaments have preferred the practice of applying preventive and indefinite detention to any criminal who meets specific conditions, rather than to named criminals.[1] These still constitute bills of pains and penalties if the crime was committed before the new laws were enacted, even though no crime is mentioned and no person is named.
In two cases of attempts to pass laws inflicting a judicial penalty on a specific person (in the first case Clifford Olson, in the second case Karla Homolka), the speakers of the House and Senate, respectively, have ruled that Canadian parliamentary practice does not permit bills of attainder or bills of pains and penalties.[2][3]
Usage under English law[edit]
The word "attainder", meaning "taintedness", is part of English common law. Under English law, a criminal condemned for a serious crime, whether treason or felony (but not misdemeanour, which referred to less serious crimes), could be declared "attainted", meaning that his civil rights were nullified: he could no longer own property or pass property to his family by will or testament. His property could consequently revert to the Crown or to the mesne lord. Any peerage titles would also revert to the Crown. The convicted person would normally be punished by judicial execution—when a person committed a capital crime and was put to death for it, the property left behind escheated to the Crown or lord rather than being inherited by family. Attainder functioned more or less as the revocation of the feudal chain of privilege and all rights and properties thus granted.
Due to mandatory sentencing, the due process of the courts provided limited flexibility to deal with the various circumstances of offenders. The property of criminals caught alive and put to death because of a guilty plea or jury conviction on a not guilty plea could be forfeited, as could the property of those who escaped justice and were outlawed; but the property of offenders who died before trial, except those killed during the commission of crimes (who fell foul of the law relating to felo de se), could not be forfeited, nor could the property of offenders who refused to plead and who were tortured to death through peine forte et dure.
On the other hand, when a legal conviction did take place, confiscation and 'corruption of blood' sometimes appeared unduly harsh for the surviving family. In some cases (at least regarding the peerage) the Crown would eventually re-grant the convicted peer's lands and titles to his heir. It was also possible, as political fortunes turned, for a bill of attainder to be reversed. This sometimes occurred long after the convicted person was executed.
Unlike the mandatory sentences of the courts, acts of Parliament provided considerable latitude in suiting the punishment to the particular conditions of the offender's family. Parliament could also impose non-capital punishments without involving courts; such bills are called bills of pains and penalties.
Bills of attainder were sometimes criticized as a convenient way for the King to convict subjects of crimes and confiscate their property without the bother of a trial – and without the need for a conviction or indeed any evidence at all.
The first use of attainder was in 1321 against both Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester and his son Hugh Despenser the Younger, Earl of Gloucester. They were both attainted for supporting King Edward during his struggle with the queen and barons.
In England, those executed subject to attainders include George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1478), Thomas Cromwell (1540), Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1540), Catherine Howard (1542), Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1549), Thomas Howard (1572), Thomas Wentworth (1641), Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud (1645); and the Duke of Monmouth. In the case of Catherine Howard, in 1541 King Henry VIII was the first monarch to delegate Royal Assent, to avoid having to assent personally to the execution of his wife.
After defeating Richard III and replacing him on the throne of England, Henry VII had Parliament pass a Bill of Attainder against his predecessor.[citation needed] It is noteworthy that this bill made no mention of the Princes in the Tower.
Although deceased by the time of the Restoration, the regicides John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and Thomas Pride were served with a Bill of Attainder on 15 May 1660 backdated to 1 January 1649 (NS). After the committee stages, the Bill of Attainder passed both the Houses of Lords and Commons and was engrossed on 4 December 1660. This was followed with a resolution that passed both Houses on the same day:[4][5][6]
That the Carcases of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw, and Thomas Pride, whether buried in Westminster Abbey, or elsewhere, be, with all Expedition, taken up, and drawn upon a Hurdle to Tiburne, and there hanged up in their Coffins for some time; and after that buried under the said Gallows: And that James Norfolke Esquire, Serjeant at Arms attending the House of Commons, do take care that this Order be put in effectual Execution.
In 1753, the Jacobite leader Archibald Cameron of Locheil was summarily put to death on the basis of a seven-year-old bill of attainder, rather than being put on trial for his recent subversive activities in Scotland. This aroused some protests in British public opinion at the time, including from people with no Jacobite sympathies.
The last use of attainder was in 1798 against Lord Edward FitzGerald for leading the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
The Great Act of Attainder[edit]
In 1688, the English King James II (James VII of Scotland), driven off by the ascent of William and Mary in the Glorious Revolution, came to Ireland with the sole purpose of reclaiming his throne. After his arrival, the Parliament of Ireland assembled a list of names in 1689 of those reported to have been disloyal to him, eventually tallying between two and three thousand, in a bill of attainder. Those on the list were to report to Dublin for sentencing. One man, Lord Mountjoy, was in the Bastille at the time and was told by the Irish Parliament that he must break out of his cell and make it back to Ireland for his punishment, or face the grisly process of being drawn and quartered.[7] The parliament became known in the 1800s as the "Patriot Parliament".
Later defenders of the Patriot Parliament pointed out that the ensuing "Williamite Settlement forfeitures" of the 1690s named an even larger number of Jacobite suspects, most of whom had been attainted by 1699.[8]
Private bills[edit]
Main article: Private bill
In the Westminster system (and especially in the United Kingdom), a similar concept is covered by the term private bill (which upon passage become private acts). Note however that 'private bill' is a general term referring to a proposal for legislation applying to a specific person; it is only a bill of attainder if it punishes them. Previously, private bills were used in some Commonwealth countries to effect divorce.[9] Other traditional uses of private bills include chartering corporations, changing the charters of existing corporations, granting monopolies, approving of public infrastructure and seizure of property for those, as well as enclosure of commons and similar redistributions of property. Those types of private bills operate to take away private property and rights from certain individuals, but are usually not called "bill of pains and penalties".
The last United Kingdom bill called a "Pains and Penalties Bill" was Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 and was passed by the House of Lords in 1820, but not considered by the House of Commons; it sought to divorce Queen Caroline from King George IV and adjust her titles and property accordingly, on grounds of her alleged adultery, as did many private bills dealing with divorces of private persons.
No bills of attainder have been passed since 1820 in the UK.[10] Attainder as such was also a legal consequence of convictions in courts of law, but this ceased to be a part of punishment in 1870.[11]
World War II[edit]
Previously secret British War Cabinet papers released on 1 January 2006 have shown that, as early as December 1942, the War Cabinet had discussed their policy for the punishment of the leading Nazis if captured. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had then advocated a policy of summary execution with the use of an Act of Attainder to circumvent legal obstacles. He was dissuaded by cabinet minister Richard Law who pointed out that the United States and Soviet Union still favoured trials.[12][13]
The Constitution of the Philippines, article III, section 22, states, "No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted."[14]
United States[edit]
Bills of attainder were used through the 18th century in England, and were applied to British colonies as well. Some colonists were inspired to the American Revolution because of anger at the injustice of attainder. Although at least one American state used a bill of attainder to confiscate the property of a British loyalist (called Tories) during the war (New York, in the 1779 case of Parker Wickham), American dissatisfaction with British attainder laws resulted in their being prohibited in the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1789.
Constitutional bans[edit]
Excerpt from Article One, Section 9 of the United States Constitution, prohibiting the passing of bills of attainder
The United States Constitution forbids legislative bills of attainder under Article I, Section 9. The provision forbidding state law bills of attainder, Article I, Section 10, reflects the importance that the framers attached to this issue.
Within the U.S. Constitution, the clauses forbidding attainder laws serve two purposes. First, they reinforced the separation of powers, by forbidding the legislature to perform judicial or executive functions—since the outcome of any such acts of legislature would of necessity take the form of a bill of attainder. Second, they embody the concept of due process, which was partially reinforced by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The text of the Constitution, Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 is "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed".
The constitution of every State also expressly forbids bills of attainder. For example, Wisconsin's constitution Article I, Section 12 reads:
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be passed, and no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate.
Contrast this with the Texas version: Article 1 (Titled Bill of Rights) Section 16, entitled Bills of Attainder; Ex Post Facto or Retroactive Laws: Impairing Obligation of Contracts: "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made". It is unclear whether a contract that calls for heirs to be deprived of their estate is allowed under this law.
Cases before the U.S. Supreme Court[edit]
The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated laws under the Attainder Clause on only five occasions.[15]
Two of the United States Supreme Court's first decisions on the meaning of the bill of attainder clause came after the American Civil War. In Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1866), the court struck down a federal law requiring attorneys practicing in federal court to swear that they had not supported the rebellion. In Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. 277 (1867), the Missouri constitution required anyone seeking a professional's license from the state to swear they had not supported the rebellion. The Supreme Court overturned the law and the constitutional provision, arguing that the people already admitted to practice were subject to penalty without judicial trial.[16] The lack of judicial trial was the critical affront to the Constitution, the Court said.[17]
Two decades later, however, the Court upheld similar laws. In Hawker v. New York, 170 U.S. 189 (1898) a state law barred convicted felons from practicing medicine. In Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U.S. 114 (1889) a state law imposed a new requirement that practicing physicians had to have graduated from a licensed medical school or they would be forced to surrender their license. The Court upheld both laws because, it said, the laws were narrowly tailored to focus on an individual's qualifications to practice medicine.[18] That was not true in Garland or Cummings.[18][19]
The Court changed its "bill of attainder test" in 1946. In United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303 (1946), the Court confronted a federal law that named three people as subversive and excluded them from federal employment. Previously, the Court had held that lack of judicial trial and the narrow way in which the law rationally achieved its goals were the only tests of a bill of attainder. But the Lovett Court said that a bill of attainder 1) Specifically identified the people to be punished; 2) Imposed punishment; and 3) Did so without benefit of judicial trial.[20] As all three prongs of the bill of attainder test were met in Lovett, the court held that a congressional statute that bars particular individuals from government employment qualifies as punishment prohibited by the bill of attainder clause.
The Taft–Hartley Act (enacted in 1947) sought to ban political strikes by Communist-dominated labor unions by requiring all elected labor leaders to take an oath that they were not and had never been members of the Communist Party USA, and that they did not advocate violent overthrow of the U.S. government. It also made it a crime for members of the Communist Party to serve on executive boards of labor unions. In American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382 (1950), the Supreme Court had said that the requirement for the oath was not a bill of attainder because: 1) Anyone could avoid punishment by disavowing the Communist Party, and 2) It focused on a future act (overthrow of the government) and not a past one.[21] Reflecting current fears, the Court commented in Douds on approving the specific focus on Communists by noting what a threat communism was.[22] The Court had added an "escape clause" test to determining whether a law was a bill of attainder.[21]
In United States v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437 (1965), the Court invalidated the section of the statute that criminalized a former communist serving on a union's executive board. Clearly, the Act had focused on past behavior and had specified a specific class of people to be punished. But if this specific focus in Brown was constitutionally invalid, why was it not constitutionally invalid in Douds?[23] (Many legal scholars assumed that the Brown case effectively, if not officially, overruled Douds.)[24] Additionally, the Court did not apply the punishment prong of its test, leaving legal scholars confused as to whether the Court still intended it to apply.[25]
The Supreme Court emphasized the narrowness and rationality of bills of attainder in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (1977). During the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Congress passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which required the General Services Administration to confiscate former President Richard Nixon's presidential papers to prevent their destruction, screen out those which contained national security and other issues which might prevent their publication, and release the remainder of the papers to the public as fast as possible.[26] The Supreme Court upheld the law in Nixon, arguing that specificity alone did not invalidate the act because President constituted a "class of one."[27] Thus, specificity was constitutional if it was rationally related to the class identified.[27] The Court modified its punishment test, concluding that only those laws which historically offended the bill of attainder clause were invalid.[28] The Court also found it significant that Nixon was compensated for the loss of his papers, which alleviated the punishment.[29] The Court modified the punishment prong by holding that punishment could survive scrutiny if it was rationally related to other, nonpunitive goals.[29] Finally, the Court concluded that the legislation must not be intended to punish; legislation enacted for otherwise legitimate purposes could be saved so long as punishment was a side-effect rather than the main purpose of the law.[30]
Cases considered by lower courts[edit]
A number of cases which raised the bill of attainder issue did not reach or have not reached the Supreme Court, but were considered by lower courts.
In 1990, in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act to consolidate various oil spill and oil pollution statutes into a single unified law, and to provide for a statutory regime for handling oil spill cleanup. This law was challenged as a bill of attainder by the shipping division of ExxonMobil.[31]
In 2003, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the Elizabeth Morgan Act as a bill of attainder.[32]
After the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution in late 2009 barring the community organizing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal funding, the group sued the U.S. government.[33] Another, broader bill, the Defund ACORN Act, was enacted by Congress later that year. In March 2010, a federal district court declared the funding ban an unconstitutional bill of attainder.[34] On 13 August 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed and remanded on the grounds that only 10 percent of ACORN's funding was federal and that did not constitute "punishment."[35][36]
Possible cases[edit]
There is argument over whether the Palm Sunday Compromise in the Terri Schiavo case was a bill of attainder.[37]
Some analysts considered a proposed Congressional bill to confiscate 90 percent of the bonus money paid to executives at federally rescued investment bank American International Group a bill of attainder, although disagreement exists on the issue. The bill was not passed by Congress.[38]
In 2011, the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood. Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler called that vote a bill of attainder, saying it was unconstitutional as such because the legislation was targeting a specific group.[39]
In June 2012, the House Foreign Affairs Committee reported the Magnitsky Act to the House. It was a bill to punish Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky by prohibiting their entrance to the United States and use of the US banking system.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
• Ex post facto, a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions committed prior to the enactment of the law.
1. ^ Report, Australian Criminology Research Council, 2004-05-03 .
2. ^ Debates of the House of Commons, 14 May 1983
3. ^ Canada: 35th Parliament, 1st Session, 28 November 1995 "Debates of the Senate: "Bill Concerning Karla Homolka". Hansard. p. 236. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
4. ^ House of Commons Journal Volume 8, 15 May 1660
5. ^ House of Commons Journal Volume 8, 4 December 1660
6. ^ Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8
7. ^ Macaulay, History of England from the Accession of James the Second (London, 1855), 216-220
8. ^ TO Davis, "The Irish Parliament of James II", 1843
9. ^ Paul Millar and Sheldon Goldenberg (1998). "Explaining Child Custody Determinations in Canada", Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 13, No. 1, p. 209-225.
10. ^ Zechariah Chafee, Jr., Three Human Rights in the Constitution of 1787 at 97 (Univ. of Kans. Press, 1956)
11. ^ Impeachment & Attainder
12. ^ John Crossland "Churchill: execute Hitler without trial", The Sunday Times, 1 January 2006
13. ^ Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team, "The 1st Nuremberg Trial"
14. ^
15. ^ "Nonattainder as a Liberty Interest", Wisconsin Law Review, 2010, p. 1229.
16. ^ Ely, John H. On Constitutional Ground. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 98.
17. ^ Nabers, Deak. Victory of Law: The Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil War, and American Literature, 1852-1867. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, p. 30.
18. ^ a b Johnson, Theodore. The Second Amendment Controversy—Explained. 2d ed. Indianapolis: iUniverse, 2002, p. 334.
19. ^ "Beyond Process: A Substantive Rationale for the Bill of Attainder Clause." Virginia Law Review. 70:475 (April 1984), p. 481-483.
20. ^ Cushman, Robert Fairchild and Koniak, Susan P. Cases in Civil Liberties. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994, p. 4; The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 2005, p. 155.
21. ^ a b Welsh, Jane. "The Bill of Attainder Clause: An Unqualified Guarantee of Process." Brooklyn Law Review. 50:77 (Fall 1983), p. 97.
22. ^ Wiecek, William M. History of the Supreme Court of the United States: The Birth of the Modern Constitution: The United States Supreme Court, 1941-1953. New York: Macmillan, 2006, p. 548.
23. ^ "Beyond Process: A Substantive Rationale for the Bill of Attainder Clause," Virginia Law Review, April 1984, p. 485.
24. ^ Rabinowitz, Victor. Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 56.
25. ^ Welsh, "The Bill of Attainder Clause: An Unqualified Guarantee of Process," Brooklyn Law Review, Fall 1983, p. 98.
26. ^ Ripley, Anthony. "U.S. Judge Rules Nixon Documents Belong to Nation," New York Times, 1 February 1975.
27. ^ a b Stark, Jack. Prohibited Government Acts: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002, p. 79-80.
28. ^ Stark, Prohibited Government Acts: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, 2002, p. 74.
29. ^ a b Stark, Prohibited Government Acts: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, 2002, p. 75.
30. ^ Stark, Prohibited Government Acts: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, 2002, p. 30.
31. ^ SeaRiver Maritime Fin. Holdings, Inc. v. Pena, 952 F.Supp. 9, (D.D.C. 1997); Carringan, Alison C. "The Bill of Attainder Clause: A New Weapon to Challenge the Oil Pollution Act of 1990," Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 28:119 (2000).
32. ^ Doris R. Foretich, et al. v. United States, 351 F.3d 1198 (D.C.App. 2003); Leonning, Carol D. "Appeals Court Rules Against Morgan Law," Washington Post 17 December 2003.
33. ^ Fahim, Kareem. "Acorn Sues Over Funding Vote in House" New York Times 12 November 2009. Accessed 2010-11-14.
34. ^ Farrell, Michael B. "Funding Gone, Scandal-Plagued ACORN to Disband" Christian Science Monitor 23 March 2010.
35. ^ "Federal Court Rules Against Acorn" Associated Press: 14 August 2010.
36. ^ "ACORN v. United States". ACORN v. United States. Harvard Law Review. January 20, 2011. Retrieved 2015-07-23.
37. ^ Calabresi, Steven G. "The Terri Schiavo Case: In Defense of the Special Law Enacted by Congress and President Bush," Northwestern University Law Review 100:1 (2006); McGough, Michael. "Terri's Law: Is It Constitutional?" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 22 March 2005; Marks, Jr., Thomas C. "Terri Schiavo and the Law," Albany Law Review 67:843 (2004).
38. ^ Jones, Ashby. "Would an AIG-Bonus Tax Pass Constitutional Muster? (A Tribe Calls 'Yes!')" Wall Street Journal 18 March 2009; Clarke, Connor. "No Bill of Attainder...Shall Be Passed" The Atlantic 16 March 2009.
39. ^ Nocera, David Nather and Kate (February 18, 2011). "House votes to defund Planned Parenthood - David Nather and Kate Nocera". Retrieved 2015-07-23.
External links[edit]
British tradition[edit]
American tradition[edit] | dclm-gs1-102300000 |
Candomblé Ketu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the city in Ecuador frequently misspelled as Queto, see Quito.
Candomblé Ketu (or Queto in Portuguese) is the largest and most influential branch (nation) of Candomblé, a religion practiced in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Its liturgical language, known as Iorubá or Nagô, is a dialect of Yoruba.
Queto is a system of beliefs that merges the Yoruba mythology (brought to the New World by Yoruba slaves) with Christianity and Indigenous American traditions.[1] Queto developed in the Portuguese Empire. Yoruba slaves carried with them various religious customs, including a trance and divination system for communicating with their ancestors and spirits, animal sacrifice, and sacred drumming and dance.[2][3] Its origins are entwined with the religious and beneficent brotherhoods (irmandades) organized by the Roman Catholic Church among ethnic Yoruba slaves; the Order of Our Lady of the Good Death (Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte), for women, and the Order of Our Lord of the Martyrdom (Nosso Senhor dos Martírios), for men.
See also[edit]
External links[edit] | dclm-gs1-102310000 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The 21 MB Floptical 3½-inch disk
Floptical refers to a type of floppy disk drive that combines magnetic and optical technologies to store data on media similar to standard 3½-inch floppy disks. The name is a portmanteau of the words "floppy" and "optical". It refers specifically to one brand of drive and disk system, but is also used more generically to refer to any system using similar techniques.
The original Floptical technology was introduced late in 1991 by Insite Peripherals, a venture funded company set up by Jim Adkisson, one of the key engineers behind the original 5¼-inch floppy disk drive development at Shugart Associates in 1976. The main shareholders were Maxell, Iomega and 3M.
Technical aspects[edit]
The technology involved reading and writing data magnetically, while optically aligning the read/write head in the drive using grooves in the disc being sensed by an infra-red LED (a form of visual servo). The magnetic head touches the recording surface, as it does in a normal floppy drive. The optical servo tracks allowed for an increase in the tracking precision of the magnetic head, from the usual 135 tracks per inch to 1,250 tracks per inch. Floptical disks provided 21 MB of storage. The drive had a second set of read/write heads so that it could read from and write to standard 720 kB and 1.44 MB (1,440 KiB) disks as well.
To allow for a high degree of compatibility with existing SCSI host adapters, Floptical drives were designed to work as a floppy, and not as a removable hard disk. To ensure this, a "write lockout" feature was added in the firmware. This effectively inhibited writing (including any kind of formatting) of the media. It was possible to unlock the drive by issuing a SCSI Mode Sense Command, 1A 00 20 02 A0. It is unclear how much of a problem this was, and Insite also issued EPROMs where this "feature" was not present.
At least two models were produced, one with a manual lever that mechanically ejected the disc from the drive, and another with a small pinhole into which a paperclip could be inserted, in case the device rejected or ignored SCSI eject commands.
Technical specifications[edit]
Unformatted 25 MB
Formatted 20,385 kB
Rotational speed 720 RPM
Track density 1250 TPI
Recording density 23980 BPI [clarification needed] (RLL)
Transfer from disk 1.6 Mb/s
Buffer transfer rate 2 MB/s
Average seek time 65 ms
Settle time 15 ms
Motor start time 750 ms
Number of heads 2
Cylinders 755
Sectors per track 27
Sector size 256, 512, or 1024 bytes (set at format time)
Interface SCSI
Market performance[edit]
Insite licensed the floptical technology to a number of companies, including Matsushita, Iomega, Maxell/Hitachi and others. A number of these companies later formed the Floptical Technology Association, or FTA, to try to have the format adopted as a floppy replacement.
Around 70,000 Insite flopticals are believed to have been sold worldwide in the product’s lifetime. Silicon Graphics used them in their SGI Indigo and SGI Indy series of computer workstations. It was also reported that Commodore International had selected the Insite Floptical for its Amiga 3000.[1] However this did not take place, and while Flopticals were installed in many Amiga systems, they were sold by either Insite, TTR Development or Digital Micronics (DMI), and not bundled by Commodore.
The product had lingering quality and reliability issues, and was generally much slower than other technologies such as the Iomega Zip. In fact, while Iomega licensed the floptical technology as early as 1989 and produced a compatible drive known as the Insider, they later dropped it to focus on the Zip system. Zip would go on to sell into the tens of millions.
A number of other companies also introduced non-compatible floptical-like systems. Most popular of these, by far, was the Imation LS‑120 SuperDisk. The LS-120 stored 120 MB of data while retaining the ability to work with normal 3½-inch disks, interfacing as a standard floppy for better compatibility. There was serious consideration that the LS-120 would succeed where the Floptical failed and replace the floppy disk outright, but the rapid introduction of writable CD-ROM systems in the early 2000s made the market disappear. Sony also tried their own floptical-based format, the Sony HiFD, but quality control problems ruined its reputation. A smaller competitor is the almost unknown Caleb UHD144.
Operating system support[edit]
Support of Floptical drives is present in all Microsoft Windows NT operating systems up to MS Windows 2000, where it figures as 20.8 MB drive format option in the FORMAT command options. The FORMAT command in MS Windows XP and newer MS Windows operating systems lacks support of the Floptical drive.[2] Floptical support exists in SCO OpenServer as well. SCSI-equipped Macintosh computers could boot from a Mac operating system installed on a floptical; a formatting utility application was provided to erase and format floptical disks. Likewise, Silicon Graphics's IRIX operating system includes floptical support.
See also[edit]
1. ^ The flop's a hit
2. ^ Lack of Floptical support in Windows XP, Microsoft, retrieved 12 September 2007 .
External links[edit] | dclm-gs1-102330000 |
Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District
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Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District
Hamilton Woolen Mill Southbridge.jpg
Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District is located in Massachusetts
Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District
Location Roughly bounded by McKinstry Brook, Quinebaug River, and Mill St., Southbridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°4′56″N 72°2′37″W / 42.08222°N 72.04361°W / 42.08222; -72.04361Coordinates: 42°4′56″N 72°2′37″W / 42.08222°N 72.04361°W / 42.08222; -72.04361
Built 1836
Architectural style Greek Revival, Classical Industrial
Governing body Private
MPS Southbridge MRA
NRHP Reference # 89000594[1]
Added to NRHP June 22, 1989
The Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District encompasses the well preserved "Big Mill" complex of the Hamilton Woolen Company, built in the mid 19th century. Located at the confluence of McKinstry Brook and the Quinebaug River in central Southbridge, Massachusetts, the complex consists of a cluster of mill buildings and a rare collection of 1830s brick mill worker housing units located nearby.[2] The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.[1]
The site of the Hamilton Company's mill had been used as a mill site since 1750, when the first water privilege was granted to William Plimpton. In 1812 James and Perez Wolcott established a cotton mill on the site, building in 1814 what was at the time the world's largest cotton mill. The Wolcotts continued to expand their business, until a dam they built gave way, irreparably harming their business. Its remains were acquired by Boston investors, who formed the Hamilton Woolen Company in 1831. They rebuilt the dam to a higher level, and in 1836 embarked on a major expansion of the premises.[2]
Among the buildings erected in 1836 are the Big Mill, a five story brick structure that is the dominant feature of the complex. Extensively modified in 1850, the most distinctive feature of this building is an end stairwell which is capped by a tower with a Romanesque belfry. Immediately adjacent to the mill Brick Square was established. This was a cluster of brick housing units arranged around a quadrangle. This area, now bounded by Mill Street, Canal Street, and Brick Row, includes five surviving worker houses. Built in the then-popular Greek Revival style, one of them was later adapted for company offices.[2]
In the second half of the 19th century Hamilton was the dominant employer in Stockbridge, producing primarily woolen products, especially after the American Civil War cut off cotton supplies. It remained a major presence in town, although it had been eclipsed in size by the American Optical Company, until a strike in 1934 closed its doors forever. Its complex underwent expansion in the late 19th century, but many of these buildings have not survived. The company added several buildings to the complex in 1929, most notable the dye building, which features a large segmented arch window, but is not in a prominent position of visibility in the complex.[2]
See also[edit]
2. ^ a b c d "MACRIS inventory record for Hamilton Woolen Company Historic District". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-01-02. | dclm-gs1-102340000 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the religious term, see Intercession
Intermediation involves the "matching" of lenders with savings to borrowers who need money by an agent or third party, such as a bank.[1]
If this matching is successful, the lender obtains a positive rate of return, the borrower receives a return for risk taking and entrepreneurship and the banker receives a return for making the successful match.[1] If the borrower's speculative play with the funds provided by the bank does not pay off, the bank can face significant losses on its loan portfolio,[1] and if the bank fails its depositors can lose some of their money if the deposits are not insured by a third party.
The skill of identifying potential successful new entrepreneurs who can take market share off competitors or develop whole new markets is one of the most vital (and intangible) skills any banking system can possess.[1]
Disintermediation occurs when potential lenders and borrowers interact more directly in the capital markets, avoiding the intermediation of banks.
1. ^ a b c d The Theory of Financial Intermediation, by Franklin Allen and Anthony M. Santomero | dclm-gs1-102350000 |
Ingroups and outgroups
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Outgroups)
Jump to: navigation, search
In sociology and social psychology, an ingroup is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an outgroup is a social group with which an individual does not identify. For example, people may find it psychologically meaningful to view themselves according to their race, culture, gender, age, or religion. It has been found that the psychological membership of social groups and categories is associated with a wide variety of phenomena.
The terminology was made popular by Henri Tajfel and colleagues during his work in formulating social identity theory. The significance of ingroup and outgroup categorization was identified using a method called the minimal group paradigm. Tajfel and colleagues found that people can form self-preferencing ingroups within a matter of minutes and that such groups can form even on the basis of seemingly trivial characteristics, such as preferences for certain paintings.[1][2][3][4]
Associated phenomena[edit]
The psychological categorization of people into ingroup and outgroup members is associated with a variety of phenomena. The following examples have all received a great deal of academic attention.
In-group favoritism[edit]
Main article: In-group favoritism
This refers to the fact that under certain conditions people will preference and have affinity for one’s ingroup over the outgroup, or anyone viewed as outside the ingroup. This can be expressed in one's evaluation of others, linking, allocation of resources and many other ways.[5]
Outgroup derogation[edit]
Discrimination between ingroups and outgroups is a matter of favoritism towards an ingroup and the absence of equivalent favoritism towards an outgroup.[6] Outgroup derogation is the phenomenon in which an outgroup is perceived as being threatening to the members of an ingroup.[7] This phenomenon often accompanies ingroup favoritism, as it requires one to have an affinity towards their ingroup. Some research suggests that outgroup derogation occurs when an outgroup is perceived as blocking or hindering the goals of an ingroup. It has also been argued that outgroup derogation is a natural consequence of the categorization process.[8]
Social influence[edit]
Main article: Social influence
People have been shown to be differentially influenced by ingroup members. That is, under conditions where group categorization is psychologically salient people will shift their beliefs in line with ingroup social norms.
Group polarization[edit]
Main article: Group polarization
This generally refers to the tendency of groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members, although polarization toward the most central beliefs has also been observed. It has been shown that this effect is related to a psychologically salient ingroup and outgroup categorization
Group homogeneity[edit]
Main article: Outgroup homogeneity
Categorization of people into social groups increases the perception that group members are similar to one another. An outcome of this is the outgroup homogeneity effect. This refers to the perception of members of an outgroup as being homogenous, while members of one's ingroup are perceived as being diverse, e.g. "they are alike; we are diverse”.[9][10] This is especially likely to occur in regards to negative characteristics. Under certain conditions, ingroup members can be perceived as being similar to one another in regards to positive characteristics. This effect is called ingroup homogeneity.[11]
Postulated role in human evolution[edit]
In evolutionary psychology, ingroup favoritism is seen as an evolved mechanism selected for the advantages of coalition affiliation.[12] It has been argued that characteristics such as gender and ethnicity are inflexible or even essential features of such systems.[13][14] However, there is evidence that elements of favoritism are flexible in that they can be erased by changes in social categorization.[15] One study in the field of behavioural genetics suggests that biological mechanisms may exist which favor a coexistence of both flexible and essentialist systems.[16]
See also[edit]
1. ^ See "Kandinsky versus Klee experiment", Tajfel et al. (1971).
2. ^ Tajfel, H. (1970). Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination.
3. ^ Tajfel, H.; Billig, M. G.; Bundy, R. P. & Flament, C. (April–June 1971). "Social categorization and intergroup behaviour" (PDF). European Journal of Social Psychology 1 (2): 149–178. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420010202. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
4. ^ Tajfel, H. (1974). Social Identity and Intergroup Behavior.
5. ^ Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D. & Akert, R. D. (2009). Social psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13814478-8. ISBN 978-0-13814478-4.
6. ^ Brewers, Marilynn B. (1999). "The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate?". Journal of Social Issues 55 (3): 429–444. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00126.
7. ^ Hewstone, Miles; Rubin, Mark; Willis, Hazel (2002). "Intergroup Bias". In Richard J. Crisp. Social Psychology 3. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 323–344.
8. ^ Zhong, Chen-Bo; Phillips, Katherine W.; Leonardelli, Geoffrey J.; Galinsky, Adam D. (2008). "Negational categorization and intergroup behavior". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (6): 793–806. doi:10.1177/0146167208315457. PMID 18391025.
9. ^ Leyens, Jacques-Philippe; Yzerbyt, Vincent; Schadron, Georges (1994). Stereotypes and Social Cognition. London: Sage Publications. pp. 104–107. ISBN 0-80398584-3.
10. ^ Quattrone, George A.; Jones, Edward E. (1980). "The perception of variability within in-groups and out-groups: Implications for the law of small numbers.". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (1): 141–152. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.1.141. ISSN 0022-3514.
11. ^ Jackson, Lynne M. (2011). The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. pp. 110–112. ISBN 1-43380920-6.
12. ^ L. Cosmides, J. Tooby and R. Kurzban (April 1, 2003). "Perceptions of race". Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7 (4): 173–179. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00057-3. PMID 12691766. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
13. ^ L. A. Hirschfeld (1996). Race in the Making: Cognition, Culture, and the Child's Construction of Human Kinds. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mit Press. ISBN 0-26208247-0. ISBN 978-0-26208247-1.
14. ^ F. J. Gil-White (August–October 2001). "Are Ethnic Groups Biological "Species" to the Human Brain? Essentialism in Our Cognition of Some Social Categories". Current Anthropology (The University of Chicago Press) 42 (4): 515–553. doi:10.1086/321802. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
15. ^ R. Kurzban, J. Tooby and L. Cosmides (December 18, 2001). "Can race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization". Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 98 (26): 15387–15392. doi:10.1073/pnas.251541498. PMC 65039. PMID 11742078. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
16. ^ G. J. Lewis and T. C. Bates (November 2010). "Genetic Evidence for Multiple Biological Mechanisms Underlying In-Group Favoritism". Psychological Science 21 (11): 1623–1628. doi:10.1177/0956797610387439. PMID 20974715. Retrieved 16 July 2012. | dclm-gs1-102360000 |
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Tiny State Machine Trait
This is a tiny state machine with a single public method trigger, which takes an Event which is an edge between two states, and will progress the current state into the next.
More than anything this is an attempt to put down on paper the pattern I'm using elsewhere.
Below I will build a classic State Machine:
import com.conbere.statemachine._
The "Turnstile" which has two states:
case object Locked extends State
case object UnLocked extends State
When it's locked, the machine sit's waiting for someone to feed it coins.
case class Coin(val value: Int) extends Event
If the coins exceed the cost of the turnstile it can be Pushed, the person can pass, and it will return to Locked.
case object Push extends Event
Let's look at the code given those states and events:
class Turnstile(val value: Int, val state: State)
extends StateMachine[Turnstile] {
def this() = this(0, Locked)
val requiredPayment = 10
override def defaultTransition: Transition = {
case _ => this
val transitions: Transition = {
case (Locked, Coin(v)) =>
if (value + v >= requiredPayment)
new Turnstile(0, UnLocked)
new Turnstile(value + v, state)
case (Locked, Push) =>
case (UnLocked, Push) =>
new Turnstile()
case (UnLocked, Coin(_)) =>
override def toString = "Turnstile: %s: %s".format(state, value)
Something went wrong with that request. Please try again. | dclm-gs1-102380000 |
Stability in Nevada Home Prices?
There are indications that Nevada home prices are being stabilized due to various measures. I am really sure about these indicators and there are some false indicators engineered by banks and real estate companies to hide the real numbers of foreclosed homes. Bank of America, for instance, had up to the last information, 25,000 homes in its inventory and is thinking of releasing only 500 home every months. That means that have significant inventory and also building more inventory due to increase in foreclosed homes. This is only bank of America, as there are innumerable other banks (at least 100 or so) in Nevada who are sitting on this undisclosed inventory. Now, let us read this article from Review Journal and make our own individual assessment.
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Tornado Alley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
An outline of Significant Tornado Alley in the United States, where the highest percentage of violent tornadoes occur
Tornado activity in the United States.
Tornado Alley is a colloquial term most often used to refer to the area of the United States in which tornadoes are most frequent. The 1974 super tornado outbreak with 148 tornados, took place in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Schools in Tornado Alley often have tornado drills, and many homes may have tornado shelters where people can go for safety. | dclm-gs1-102400000 |
Last Ottoman royal dies in Istanbul at 91
The last Ottoman royal born during before the 600-year dynasty’s collapse in the early 1920s died earlier this week.
Fatma Neslişah Osmanoğlu was 91 when she fell victim to heart attack Monday in Istanbul.
Once known as Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire and Princess of Egypt, Sultan was the granddaughter of the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Ottoman Empire had ruled Turkey, parts of the Middle East and eastern Europe, beginning in 1299.
Neslişah was born just two years before Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded modern Turkey, which brought a formal end to the Ottoman dynasty.
However, while the Ottoman Empire’s doom was effectively sealed when it sided with the Central Powers during World War I, it had been in decline for more than a century.
Continue reading | dclm-gs1-102410000 |
Physics teacher and film-maker Alom Shaha sets out to uncover a genuinely satisfying answer to his students' most common question: why is science important?
This film was made with funding from the Wellcome Trust, and is being broadcast in the UK on Teachers TV during March 2009. For more background and reaction, see the project website,
The downloadable video is Quicktime .mov format, H.264, 1280x720 resolution.
Loading more stuff…
Loading videos… | dclm-gs1-102420000 |
Mademoiselle Floriane from the French crafting blog, Larbreaidees has a plethora of charming cross-stitch designs, including unique geometrics, silhouettes, a tangoing couple, butterflies, and that iconic symbol of Paris and all things romantic…the Eiffel Tower. Stitch this up for a throw pillow cover or wall hanging, then daydream about lazy mornings nibbling buckwheat galettes while sipping sparkling apple cider at Breizh Café, and leisurely afternoons cavorting through Paris. Aida cloth is available on Britex Fabrics’ 4th floor, and needles and floss is available on our 3rd floor. | dclm-gs1-102440000 |
Start New Discussion within our Linux and Unix Community
Hi all.
I've recently installed Linux Mint 14 Nadia but wanted to keep the dual boot with XP whilst I tested it out. Now I am happy with it I want to remove Windows XP from my system. I've been googling how to do this but I can't find any sold (safe) suggestions.
How might I go about this?
To really answer that one, you should tell us which boot loader you are using. In your setup two alternatives could be possible: grub or WinXP boot loader.
Just let us know which one.
Easiest/Safest option: Reinstall Linux on the entire system, overwriting WinXP partitions. If you can fairly easily take a backup of all your files (e.g., take a backup of /home folder) and put those files on a separate partition (non-windows, non-linux) or on a separate hard-drive (external HDD or pen-drive), then it is probably easier to re-install Linux by re-partitioning in such a way to eliminate all the Windows and current Linux related partitions, and replace them with a fresh installation. Then, you can copy the /home folder back and reinstall all the software (you can use dpkg --get-selections and dpkg --set-selections to get a complete list of installed software, and then re-install all the software from that list, that's the perfect way to restore the entire set of software when creating a fresh install). Linux makes it so easy to create a fresh install, that this is probably the easiest thing to do.
If a fresh install is not an option, then you can fix-up the dual boot into a single boot Linux. First, you have to take care of the bootloader. If you are using Grub as the main bootloader (first bootloader), then you'll have nothing to do at this step. If you are using the windows bootloader (i.e., meaning that you first see the windows-bootloader, and then you see the Grub menu (with multiple kernel versions to choose from)), then you will probably want to remove the Windows bootloader and install Grub on the MBR, such that Grub is the first and only bootloader.
At this point, all you really need to do is re-partitioning. The idea here is that you want to leave the Linux partitions intact (without any modifications), and wipe out all the Windows-related partitions (like the restore partition) and merge them into one or a couple of freshly-formatted partitions that you can use to store your personal files (music, videos, pictures, documents, etc.). It's as simple as that.
Thanks guys. I've been trying to repartition using the info at this link . It all seems to be going okay so far up to entering
mount /dev/hda /mnt/tmp
into the terminal, at which point I get the error,
mount: special device /dev/hda does not exist
What does this mean and how do I sort it out?
Many thanks once again.
I ran
sudo fdisk -l
and got
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x37793778
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 176291839 88144896 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 176293886 222418943 23062529 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 176293888 220456959 22081536 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 220459008 222418943 979968 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Yes. /dev/sd* and /dev/hd* mean essentially the same, it just depends on your system (I think that hd* stands for an HDD connected on an IDE-bus, while sd* is for SATA or USB connected hard-drives or flash drives).
| dclm-gs1-102450000 |
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The swirling circles made by perfectly formed sushi rolls aren’t complete unless they’re accented by the bright spheres of tobiko. These candy-colored beads are part of what make the platters at Kansas City sushi restaurants so aesthetically appealing. But what are they?The eye-catching embellishments are actually the roe of the Japanese flying fish, a sleek and swift dynamo that earns its name by breaking the water’s surface and soaring over the ocean for up to 200 meters before plunging back down. Although these acrobatics are striking, the flying fish’s vibrant roe are what draws in diners. Their natural flaming-orange pigment creates a stunning contrast against dark strips of nori and white rice. However, because they absorb color and flavor well, artful chefs often infuse roe with various ingredients to alter their appearance, creating tobiko that range from squid-ink black to wasabi-inspired neon green.Aside from their beauty, the tiny eggs pop pleasantly on the tongue once bitten, and their texture—not to mention their brine and umami flavors—are difficult to imitate. This doesn’t mean that restaurants don’t try for cheaper substitutes; masago, roe from the unremarkable capelin, is often dyed orange and swapped for tobiko, but the lack of crunch should distinguish it from tobiko.However, many restaurants in Kansas City, including Sakura and Drunken Fish, insist upon the real thing, garnishing their sushi rolls with the beautiful roe. But the roe is a delicacy in its own right, and has no issue taking center stage, whether cradled in a sliced cucumber or piled on a bed of sushi rice.Photo: Christmas Maki by Quinn Dombrowski under CC BY-SA 2.0
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Add external email to Mailing List
Discussion in 'HOWTO-Related Questions' started by dgmufasa, Jan 17, 2012.
1. dgmufasa
dgmufasa New Member
Hello all,
How would one go about adding an external email account to a mailing list (using ISPConfig 3 and the SOAP interface)?
I saw the functions like:
but it looks as though the "add" is designed to add a brand new email to the mailing list (hosted with ISPConfig). What is desired is to add emails from gmail, hotmail, etc. to the mailing list.
How can this be done - or - am I missing something?
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Prices of equity securities change in response to many factors, including the historical and prospective earnings of the issuer, the value of its assets, general economic conditions, interest rates, investor perceptions and market liquidity.
Fixed income products are subject to risk, including credit risk of the issuer and the effects of changing interest rates. Market prices of fixed income securities with intermediate lives generally fluctuate more in response to changes in interest rates than do market prices of municipal securities with shorter lives, but generally fluctuate less than market prices of municipal securities with longer lives.
High yield (junk) bonds involve a greater risk of default or price changes due to changes in the credit quality of the issuer.
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Most senior loans are made to corporations with below investment-grade credit ratings and are subject to significant credit, valuation and liquidity risk. The value of the collateral securing a loan may not be sufficient to cover the amount owed, may be found invalid or may be used to pay other outstanding obligations of the borrower under applicable law. There is also the risk that the collateral may be difficult to liquidate, or that a majority of the collateral may be illiquid.
Municipal securities are subject to the risk that litigation, legislation, or other political events, local business or economic conditions or the bankruptcy of the issuer could have a significant effect on an issuer’s ability to make payments of principal and/or interest.
Commodities may subject an investor to greater volatility than traditional securities such as stocks and bonds.
Foreign investments may be affected by changes in a foreign country’s exchange rates, political and social instability, changes in economic or taxation policies, difficulties when enforcing obligations, decreased liquidity, and increased volatility. Foreign companies may be subject to less regulation resulting in less publicly available information about the companies.
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Investments in real estate related instruments may be affected by economic, legal, or environmental factors that affect property values, rents or occupancies of real estate. Real estate companies, including REITs or similar structures, tend to be small and mid-cap companies and their shares may be more volatile and less liquid.
While US Treasuries are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government, they are subject to interest rate and inflation risk.
Although bonds generally present less short-term risk and volatility than stocks, the bond market is volatile and investing in bond funds involves interest rate risk; as interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. Bond funds also entail issuer and counterparty credit risk, and the risk of default. Additionally, bond funds generally involve greater inflation risk than stocks.
Investments in convertible securities are subject to the risks associated with both fixed income securities, including credit risk and interest rate risk, and common stocks. Convertible securities may have lower yields because they offer the opportunity to be converted into stocks, and if the stock is underperforming and the bond does not convert, the bond may have a lower return than a non-convertible bond.
A value style of investing is subject to the risk that the valuations never improve or that the returns will trail other styles of investing or the overall stock markets.
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Index definitions
Barclays 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bellwethers Index is a universe of Treasury bonds, and used as a benchmark against the market for long-term maturity fixed income securities. The index assumes reinvestment of all distributions and interest payments.
Barclays Emerging Markets Hard Currency Aggregate Index is a flagship hard currency emerging markets debt benchmark that includes US dollar-, Euro-, and British pound-denominated debt from sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and corporate emerging markets issuers.
Barclays Global Aggregate Credit USD Hedged Index is an unmanaged portfolio of globally issued debt securities.
Barclays Global Aggregate ex-U.S. Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of bonds of foreign countries.
Barclays High Yield Municipal Index is generally representative of bonds that are noninvestment grade, unrated or rated below Ba1.
Barclays Global High Yield USD Hedged Index provides a broad-based measure of the global high-yield fixed income markets.
Barclays Municipal Bond High Yield Index is generally representative of bonds that are noninvestment grade, unrated or rated below Ba1.
Barclays Municipal Bond Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of the tax-exempt bond market.
Barclays Municipal Intermediate 5-10 Year Bond Index is an unmanaged index of long-term, fixed-rate, investment-grade, tax-exempt bonds representative of the municipal bond market.
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of the US investment-grade, fixed-rate bond market.
Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index is an unmanaged index that covers the US dollar-denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bond market.
Barclays U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Index is an unmanaged index consisting of publicly issued US Corporate and specified foreign debentures and secured notes that are rated investment grade (Baa3/BBB- or higher) by at least two ratings agencies, have at least one year to final maturity and have at least $250 million par amount outstanding.
Barclays U.S. Government Bond Index is a market value weighted index of US Government and government agency securities (other than mortgage securities) with maturities of one year or more.
Barclays U.S. Government Credit Index includes treasuries and agencies that represent the government portion of the index, and includes publicly issued US corporate and foreign debentures and secured notes that meet specified maturity, liquidity and quality requirements to represent the credit interests.
Barclays U.S. Government Intermediate Index represents intermediate-maturity government securities within the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index.
Barclays U.S. TIPS Index is an unmanaged index that measures the performance of the US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (“TIPS”) market.
BofA Merrill Lynch 3-Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index represents an unmanaged market index of US Treasury securities maturing in 90 days that assumes reinvestment of all income.
BofA Merrill Lynch All U.S. Convertibles Index is a market-capitalization weighted index of domestic corporate convertible securities. In order to be included in the index, bonds and preferred stocks must be convertible only to common stock and have a market value or original par value of at least $50 million.
BofA Merrill Lynch Municipal 3–7 Years Index consists of bonds with an outstanding par greater than or equal to $25 million and a maturity range between three and seven years.
BofA Merrill Lynch High Yield Master II Index tracks the performance of below investment grade US dollar-denominated corporate bonds publicly traded in the US domestic market.
Credit Suisse Leveraged Loan Index represents tradable, senior-secured, US-dollar-denominated, noninvestment-grade loans.
FTSE EPRA/NAREIT ex-U.S. Index is designed to track the performance of listed real estate companies and REITS.
FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of US REITs.
JP Morgan GBI-Emerging Markets Diversified Index is a comprehensive global local emerging markets index, and consists of liquid, fixed-rate, domestic currency government bonds.
Morningstar Category: Intermediate-Term Bond portfolios invest primarily in corporate and other investment-grade US fixed income issues and typically have durations of 3.5 to 6 years. These portfolios are less sensitive to interest rates, and therefore less volatile, than portfolios that have longer durations.
Morningstar Category: Multi-Sector Bond portfolios seek income by diversifying their assets among several fixed income sectors, usually US Government obligations, US corporate bonds, foreign bonds, and high-yield US debt securities. These portfolios typically hold 35% to 65% of bond assets in securities that are not rated or are rated by a major agency such as Standard & Poor's or Moody's at the level of BB (considered speculative for taxable bonds) and below.
MSCI EAFE Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of stocks of Europe, Australasia and the Far East.
MSCI Emerging Markets Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of stocks of developing countries.
MSCI USA Index is a free float adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure large and mid-cap US equity market performance.
MSCI World Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of stocks of developed countries.
Russell 1000 Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of large-cap stocks.
Russell 1000 Growth Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of large-cap growth stocks.
Russell 1000 Value Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of large-cap value stocks.
Russell 2000 Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of small-cap stocks.
Russell Midcap Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of mid-cap stocks.
S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of the US stock market.
S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index measure the performance of S&P 500 companies that have increased dividends every year for the last 25 consecutive years.
S&P 500 Pure Value Index measures value in separate dimensions across six risk factors. Value factors include book value to price ratio, earnings to price ratio, and sales to price ratio. The Pure Style Index only includes those stocks from the parent index that exhibit strong Value Characteristics, and weights them by style score.
S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index is a composite of single-family home price indices for the nine US Census divisions. As the broadest national measurement of home prices, the index captures approximately 75 of US residential housing stock by value.
S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index is a weekly total return index that tracks the current outstanding balance and spread over Libor for fully funded term loans.
The Russell Indices are trademarks/service marks of the Frank Russell Co. Russell® is a trademark of the Frank Russell Co.
Unmanaged index returns do not reflect fees, expenses, or sales charges. An investment cannot be made directly in an index.
Other definitions
5- and 10-Year Treasury, US Government Obligations may be, (i) supported by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury, (ii) supported by the right of the issuer to borrow from the US Treasury, (iii) supported by the discretionary authority of the US Government to purchase the agency’s obligations, or (iv) supported only by the credit of the instrumentality. There is a risk that the US Government may choose not to provide financial support to US Government-sponsored agencies or instrumentalities if it is not legally obligated to do so. In that case, if the issuer were to default, a portfolio holding securities of such issuer might not be able to recover its investment from the US Government.
10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate is based on the average yield of a range of Treasury securities, all adjusted to the equivalent of a 10-year maturity. Yields on Treasury securities at constant maturity are determined by the US Treasury from the daily yield curve. That is based on the closing market-bid yields on actively traded Treasury securities in the over-the-counter market.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care. The CPI is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them; the goods are weighted according to their importance. Changes in CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living.
Correlation indicates the degree to which two investments have historically moved in the same direction and magnitude. A greater positive correlation (+1.00 maximum) means the two investments have behaved more similarly; a greater negative correlation (1.00 maximum) means the two have performed less similarly.
Price-Book (P/B) Ratio is a financial ratio used to compare a company's current market price to its book value.
Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a closed-end investment company that owns assets related to real estate such as buildings, land and real estate securities. REITs sell on the major stock market exchanges similar to common stock.
Standard Deviation measures a fund’s range of total returns and identifies the spread of a fund’s short-term fluctuations. | dclm-gs1-102490000 |
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Performance Management Reference Materials
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Measuring Team Performance
Jack Zigon, writing in Training (June 1994), recommends five keys to designing a measurement system that supports and improves the performance of teams and their individual members:
• Tie the team's results to the organization's goals.
• Begin with the team's customers and the work process the team follows to satisfy their needs.
• Measure both team and individual performance.
• Shoot for verifiability. Don't try to measure everything using numbers.
• Train the team to create its own measures.
Christopher Meyer agrees that teams should develop their own measures based on commonly understood team goals. He states in the May/June 1994 Harvard Business Review: "When a group of people builds a measurement system, it also builds a team. One benefit of having a team create its own measurement system is that members who hail from different functions end up creating a common language, which they need in order to work as an effective team."
The way measures are used to appraise team performance will depend on the team's location in the organizational structure. For example, a high-level management team might use measures that determine program effectiveness or the success of the organization's strategic plan, whereas teams at lower levels in the organization would be more concerned with measuring quality, cycle time, waste, or delivery.
Another factor to consider when setting up team measures is the type of team to be measured. A temporary, problem-solving team would probably want to measure results, such as the effectiveness of the solution they developed. On the other hand, a permanent work team will want to measure work processes as well as results. If work teams only measure results and they don't reach their goal, they won't know why. Measuring the work process will show the team where improvement can be made.
Helping teams establish effective measurements will provide them with the information they need to improve their performance. As Jack Zigon states, "Measuring team performance is difficult but not impossible. And it can pay off in better quality, shorter cycle times, and improved customer satisfaction."
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In today's challenging job market you can have the right education, work experience, and talent and still not get on the short list of finalists. Present yourself with confident composure and you can tip the balance in your favor.
Confident composure is an attitude of mind where you recognize that you can directly command only yourself, and you choose to do so. You don't demand that the world change for you, and you don't need it to. Your productive actions are driven by positive emotions. With this softer but stronger view, you can better influence the controllable events that take place around you. Your psychological resources are available to empathize, socialize, and act effectively. You'll normally come across to employers as friendly, unpressured, and natural. This type of favorable impression can give you a winning edge. The good news is that you can learn confident composure.
You can bolster your confident composure with cognitive, emotive, behavioral techniques. By taking extra psychological steps you can give yourself a big advantage over those who take a business as usual approach, track want ads, submit resumes, and anxiously wait for a call.
Correct Negative Thinking
Shakespeare wrote, ". . . there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." Unemployment is a stress trigger. A job loss may be stressful, but doesn't have to be distressing.
Unemployment is going to influence your thinking, but how you think makes a difference. If you see getting a job as threatening, you'll feel and act differently than if you view the search as a challenge.
What you expect makes a difference. Tell yourself that because this is a tough economy you can't find a job, and you've set the stage for resignation. Think probabilistically, and this broader perspective can anchor confident composure and turn a job search into a challenge.
1. A job search is a numbers game. The more opportunities you create, the better your chances of landing a job. When it comes to unearthing both advertised and hidden job opportunities, think of the adage, "leave no stone unturned."
2. Setbacks and disappointments are part of a job-search. In tough economic times you'll have far fewer interviews. You may not hear back from many employers. Expect this and you'll have fewer disappointments.
Build Emotional Resilience
Emotional resilience is your ability to bounce back from adversity, such as financial losses and job-search disappointments. With high emotional resilience you'll tend to roll with the punches and come back faster from the inevitable disappointments that are like potholes on the road to a job. Resilience is an emotional anchor for confident composure.
You earn emotional resilience by the actions that you take to fortify yourself:
1. Set aside an hour a day for moderate aerobic or anaerobic exercise. Exercise moderately and you can increase your energy, boost your immune system, improve your mood, and activate brain regions associated with executive functioning and memory. Beside all that, you'll look better.
2. Watch what you eat. Gobble down cakes and other high caloric foods and you can experience a serotonin surge that may temporarily feel good. This comfort food fix rewards eating and has weighty consequences. It does nothing to help you get a job. Instead, eat healthily. (Click on No-Diet Weigh- Loss Plan)
3. Get adequate sleep. An average adult requires about 7-8 hours of sleep. Sleep loss often precedes depression. Adequate sleep is a buffer against stress and a prescription for health. Cognitive and behavioral methods work for insomnia. Learn to clear your mind of worries and troubles. Learn muscular relaxation methods to ease muscular tensions, etc.
4. Attend to your relationships. People who create or maintain close family and community ties are likely to be more productive in their job searches. Work at it!
Activity Scheduling for Success
Activity scheduling is an evidence-based behavioral method that boils down to setting up a reasonable schedule of job-search activities followed by giving yourself rewards for finishing. This method also is as effective as anything you can do to reverse a lingering down mood from being out of work for an extended time. Activity scheduling is a behavioral anchor for confident composure.
This method is a surprisingly simple way to build and maintain momentum during your job-hunt. You schedule time to research organizations, make networking contacts, physically exercise, etc. After finishing a task (or a pre-arranged time-on-task) you give yourself a scheduled reward. One type of reward is to do something you'd ordinarily do because it feels good: read your favorite news columnist, have a cup of your favorite coffee, watch your tropical fish swim, or look at a picture of an appealing face. The key is to follow the activity with the reward.
You are more likely to stimulate your brain-reward circuitry with short-term rewards, such as the above. Some of these rewards will stimulate dopamine production in the brain. This stimulation contributes to an improved mood.
Here are some more confident composure boosting experiences that you can accomplish through activity scheduling:
• Limit unproductive job-hunt activities. If you spend most of your time reading and re-reading want ads, this is a form of procrastination. Networking yields an overwhelmingly higher success rate than searching want ads.
• Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to organize and regulate your thoughts, emotions, and actions to reach desired goals. You set meaningful goals, create workable action plans, and persistently execute them. (To boost self-efficacy, set time aside at the end of the day for planning the next.)
• Communications are a pivotal part of a successful job-search. By listening reflectively,asking clarifying questions, and expressing your views effectively, you open opportunities for establishing rapport with potential networking contacts and job interviewers. An interviewer with whom you have rapport is likely to remember you for making a good emotional impression. That gives you a psychological advantage. Build activities to practice communicating with positive impact into your search schedule.
For practical information on effective communications (and other vital job-search skills) see: Fearless Job Hunting
For a free crash course on job hunting, see: Successful Job Hunting
(C) Dr. Bill Knaus
Most Recent Posts from Science and Sensibility
How to Start Breaking Your Worst Habit Today
Ideas and actions for kicking bad habits
The Procrastination Fallacy of Working Better Under Pressure
How to Finish What You Start
The art of doing what you set out to do | dclm-gs1-102520000 |
February 5, 2009
Hoops Preview: ASU
Oregon enters the second half of the Pac 10 schedule looking for their first conference win. They'll do it Thursday night at Mac Court where they'll have the home crowd, but a formidable opponent in 23rd ranked ASU. As a testament to how tough the conference is, the Sun Devils are just 5-4 in conference play but 16-5 overall.
Assistant Coach Kenny Payne spoke a little about the challenge the Sun Devils present for their young team. "ASU is a very good team and present a challenge because it's about individuals. Harden makes plays when there are no plays. He penetrates and goes left 95% of the time. And even when good defensive players move over and sit on that side, he still figures out how to go left. If we can keep him in front of us, we'll have a chance. We'll also mix up our defenses to force them to deal with more than one look "
Harden is almost surely a first-round pick and may be on his way to becoming the player of the year in the conference. He's averaging 22 points a game and shooting over 50% from the field. Along with Harden they have Jeff Pendergraph who's scoring almost 14 a game down on the block and bringing down 8 rebounds a game as well. "Harden is a lottery pick kind of player and Pendergraph is another guy with solid pro-potential," said Payne, "He's shooting close to 70% I think. With those two they get a lot of things done. They're experienced, they're physical, and they're smart. That's why those two guys are helping them win a lot of games."
But Harden and Pendergraph obviously aren't the only pieces to the ASU puzzle. Harden's ability to drive and dish to others is well documented, but they also have guys who knock it down when he gets it to them. "He's surrounded by shooters so we have to make sure we cover him and recover to the perimeter. If we do that, we have a chance to disrupt them a little." said Payne, Sophomore Rihard Kuksiks is obviously one that Payne's referring to. The 6'6" guard is a solid spot up shooter who's knocking in over 10 points a game as one of the big beneficiaries of the Harden and Pendergraph tandem.
The Ducks have nine more games in conference play to pick up some wins and get grow as a team. That's not what you'd say about most teams but with everyone coming back next year who plays a key role, this season is really just the pre-season for the 2010 year with this group.
Coach Payne spoke a little about how the team's mindset is going into the second half and what Oregon's got to battle past to get some wins.
"Now we've seen everybody. Each team is different. We're not going to be the most talented team every night, but we have to be the toughest. With our youth we cannot afford to make mental mistakes or they'll make us pay. The kids are willing to work hard. I think it'll be a better second half of the Pac ten than the first. "
| dclm-gs1-102530000 |
It was a glorious spring night, the flowers blossoming and unicorns running wild through the streets of Los Angeles. A group of friends got together to play a wonderful game of “strip” scrabble, while analyzing various world issues. As the game progressed, the group of friends brought up politics, grey poupon, and most importantly, life.
After a few hours of discussion they decided that the world needed more laughter. They plotted to form a sketch comedy group that would allow people to laugh every day. Therefore, putting their hand model careers aside in order to bring laughter and justice to the world… they formed “Koala Ninja”. A group that would force the human race to laugh so hard that they would no longer wear pants. Mostly because Koalas will be attacking their 'down theres' with laughter swords to the point of urination glee.
Why Koala Ninjas you ask? Because they can fight!...and they're cute...what's better than that?
“That's right! A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have” - Roger Rabbit
Louie Koala
My Clips
5 stars
A movie trailer for a movie that will never happen. DON'T take offense to this. We were just having fun. This is what we do. ENJOY! Koala Ninja Comedy!
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The Filipino media’s hate for gaming, and why that’s wrong
How do I begin to tell you how frustrated, sad, and angered I become when I see crime, murder, and violence being attributed to gaming? It’s frustrating, because there are gamers who don’t realize that a game is not enough reason to commit a crime let alone take a life. It’s saddening, because the damage has been done and lives are either ruined or taken because of something so trivial. And finally, it’s frustrating, because people always choose to blame everything on gaming.
Philippine media thinks negatively of gaming
In the Philippines, mainstream media often attribute violence and crime to games. It has not been a month since a 16-year-old allegedly killed an 11-year old over Dota when it was reported that a 17-year-old allegedly killed his grandmother over the same game. There’s even a video report on Dota addiction and betting games.
In spite of the objectivity and lack of bias that supposedly exists in journalism, none of the big media channels in the Philippines reported that team Mineski competed as the sole Philippine representative in The International 2011 for a $1,000,000 cash prize. Neither did they think it was a big deal when 13-year-old Alexandre ‘AK’ Laverez placed third at an international Tekken championship.
Also Read: GMPGL ticket sales donated to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan
The mainstream media seem to favor reporting only negative gaming news, and I fail to understand why. Is it because in the Philippines, this is how the general public perceives gamers and gaming? What are the consequences of telling the masses that there are positive sides to playing games, such as learning to work in teams, self-discipline, eye-hand coordination, and problem-solving skills?
The impression of gaming as built by gamers
In the Philippines, there are beliefs that video games make you stupid or dull; that it teaches people to be violent; or that it is the demon’s tool to make other people feel bad.
Do the reasons sound ridiculous to you? Well, defending gaming would be easier if gamers would be responsible enough to prove these beliefs otherwise.
Many Filipino gamers get so addicted to games that they don’t finish college. Some spend so much on betting games that they end up selling their gadgets and jewelry to fund their addictions. There are gamers who would rather stay home and play games instead of going to school or helping around the house.
Also Read: The Facebook video of a kid trash talking is not okay
Some become secluded and slowly draw themselves away from other people. What’s worse is that some people use their problems to justify their bad gaming habits. Some use the good old excuse that “nobody understands”, that their significant other broke up with them, or that ‘life is boring’.
What some Filipino gamers don’t understand (and sometimes don’t choose to understand) is that gaming is just like any other activity that needs to be treated in moderation. There is a fine line that turns a hobby into a vice. Unfortunately this is a line that many people cross.
They fail to understand that if the media doesn’t have any opportunities to report about negative gaming, they won’t be doing so any more.
Taking the easy way out
But that can only happen if people start to look at why others get addicted to gaming, and how to deal with it. When looking at gamers, most people fail to actually focus on their mental, social, or emotional root cause that is causing him or her to turn to gaming for solace. On other occasions, some people believe that it is better to not talk about it, perhaps because it’s easier that way.
This is all wrong.
Gaming is yet another form of leisure and entertainment. We bet on gaming the same way we bet on basketball games, and there is violence in it like there is violence in the movies. We yell at the screen during The International much like how others yell during the NBA grand finals. We get pissed when we get disturbed in the middle of the game the same way you get pissed when you’re in the middle of reading an interesting book. We get carried away with playing for hours much like how you tell yourself you’re just going to watch just one more episode of whatever series you’ve just downloaded.
As a student, I had gaming blamed for many things that went wrong in my life. No one stopped to wonder if I had turned to games for solace because I had been pressured into taking a college course I did not want, or because my parents were in the midst of separating from each other. They simply blamed the games. And that was just me deciding to stop schooling for a year to shift to a new course.
And yet despite football hooliganism, murders inspired by a TV series, and the so called My Way killings, no one has chosen to blame and ban sports, television, or songs for this. A book, a character, a TV show, or a game may be the trigger behind actions ranging from lashing out to murder, but it definitely isn’t the sole reason. But Philippine media choose not to see this.
The negative perception that local media has over gaming is not something that we can control, or change immediately. But if we reflect on ourselves as gamers, and on our own actions, it’s possible that we can change things for the long term.
It’s only when we stop skipping school, stop pawning gadgets and jewelry for more time on gambling sites, stop leaving immature comments on blog posts and stop being overly-sensitive to well-meaning constructive criticism from our friends and family that the media will finally stop looking at gamers as if they are a plague.
Philippine media might be wrong in their impression of us, but we’re no saints, either.
(Image source)
Read More | dclm-gs1-102550000 |
asymmetric warfare love
asymmetric warfare
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
• n. armed conflict between belligerents having different strengths and weaknesses
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Sorry, no example sentences found.
• It still sounds way too euphemistic a term, if you ask me. Why bother coming up with a fancy name for this "activity" when there are so many simpler ways to phrase it? Assymetric warfare to an average person doesn't say anything. I had to look it up, and I have a college degree. Still, thanks for an alternative definition!
July 14, 2008
• No, it's more to do with using a conventional army to tackle suicide bombers etc.
July 14, 2008
• assymetric warfare – a euphemism for local violence or unrest, suicide bombing; contained violence
July 14, 2008 | dclm-gs1-102560000 |
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Tiger's Tail Review
Sometimes the hub and I need a "post kid bedtime" date night, now don't take that with your mind in the gutter.... but sometimes we just need to veg out with a movie. We decided to do so this past weekend with a movie that we had never seen before, as we usually just end up with one that we've seen a million times over.
We relaxed on the couch and popped in "The Tiger's Tail" and though normally, this style of mystery, crime, drama, you name it, isn't my style... "The Tiger's Tail" definitely kept my interest. Without ruining the whole movie for you, because you KNOW you have to at least rent this, if not purchase it, it's really easy to get immersed in a movie that follows someone who is trying to figure out his past after seeing his "double."
After watching "The Tiger's Tail," both the hub and I looked at each other and had no words except... "Whoa..." Kim Cattrall is able to pull off an Irish accent wonderfully, and a story of someone trying to figure out who he is, is definitely engaging!
You can purchase "The Tiger's Tail" at amazon.com.
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Amaterasu Blog
Natsuyume Nagisa Review
Score: 8/10
Polarization: Low (-1)
Routes/Endings Played: All.
Killer Queen Review
The premise is essentially Battle Royale: A bunch of ordinary people get kidnapped, wake up with explosive collars around their necks, and the evil kidnappers make them play a game that requires killing each other if they want to survive.
Thankfully, unlike Battle Royale, Killer Queen has good enough execution to be taken seriously, which was a welcome surprise for me. The rules are more complex but thoroughly explained, so there's a lot of interesting strategy and mind games. None of the characters ever do something stupid for no good reason. And there's quite a few unexpected twists beyond the obligatory "X killed Y in some clever way". For much of the story there's a genuine sense of tension because there really could be a trap or an ambush around any corner, and it's usually not at all obvious who's going to die next (if anyone). It also benefits from being short: There's basically no padding, and it wraps everything up before it runs out of ideas.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest issue with KQ is that it's following an obvious formula, so there's some inevitable predictably and plot armor involved (eg, we know the main antagonist can't die at the beginning). The relationship in the second route also felt unnatural and even a bit creepy to me at times, so I'd say the first route was better.
Score: 7.5/10
Polarization: (+1/-0.5)
Largely depends on how interested you are in this particular kind of story.
Routes/Endings Played: Both routes, none of the omake stuff.
Comyu Complete Patch
Download the patch from the usual place.
Finally, we've released a complete patch translating all routes of Comyu. This means all the routes from the previous patch plus Kagome's route.
As before, the images for these routes are fully translated (I checked this time, they really are!), and this patch includes an h-scene enable/disable option in Comyu's config menu.
Filed under: Amaterasu 50 Comments
Comyu 2nd Patch
Download the patch from the usual place.
This patch translates the Common, Benio, Hisoka, Mayuki and Ayaya routes, ie everyone's except Kagome's. You must read Benio first, but you can read Hisoka, Mayuki and Ayaya in any order. To help you decide what order: Hisoka's is the most "real deal" and relevant to the main plot, Mayuki's is largely a side plot, and Ayaya's is arguably a joke route (in a good way).
As before, the images for these routes are fully translated, and this patch includes an h-scene enable/disable option in Comyu's config menu.
Filed under: Amaterasu 29 Comments
There probably won't be any translation until January.
Filed under: Amaterasu 19 Comments
Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo Yori Mo Review
Score: 7/10
Polarization: Mild (-1.5)
Translation Hiatus
As some of you already know, I'll be moving to the UK for my first job in the very near future. In theory I could attempt to continue translating right up until the day I get on the plane, but that would be a very bad idea for obvious reasons. Plus, I've already been quite slow lately, partly because all the things I have to worry about in real life are weakening my focus. So now that there are only a few weeks left before I should be moving, I'm going to officially pause translation until I've finished settling in to my new living arrangements.
Since I've never moved to a foreign country for work before, I can't claim to know how much time I'll need to settle. But I do know my job starts at the beginning of November, and my gut feeling is that I should be translating again a month or so from today.
Just to be clear: Everything I promised to translate (Comyu, Rewrite:Hf, Valusia, Sona-Nyl) I will still translate. This is just a temporary hiatus until I get settled.
Filed under: Amaterasu 10 Comments
Comyu Common and Benio Route Patch
Download the patch from the usual place.
The images for these routes are fully translated, so you shouldn't be able to find any Japanese unless you start going into the other routes.
I apologize for the huge delays on this patch. There's no specific reason for it other than a hell of a lot of bad luck, the biggest of which was my laptop breaking and me being unable to replace it for over a month.
This patch includes an h-scene skip option. Unlike our a profile patch, we managed to add the option directly into Comyu's config menu, instead of making it a checkbox in the installer.
Also, we had significant difficulties getting Comyu's default font to change. We think it's completely fixed now, but if you see thick letters overlapping each other so much it's impossible to read some lines, please tell us.
Filed under: Amaterasu 18 Comments
Aiyoku no Eustia Review
This is how you do low fantasy.
The setting is fairly original and well-thought out, with several large and interesting parts of it getting explored. The plot does an excellent job of producing plausible, detailed conflicts and investing you in the outcome, and quite a few of the twists are genuinely shocking. The writing is thankfully devoid of unnecessary text, and although the pacing isn't very fast you quickly realize that the time it's spending developing the world and the people in it is completely worth it. Even things that appear overly convenient at first always seem to get a good explanation later.
In fact, the characters are probably the best part. Some of my favorite scenes in this VN were when two characters who strongly disagreed on something tried to explain themselves to each other. The result is lots of meaningful, believable development for most of the major characters. When combined with the good story and setting, that was more than enough to get me excited at every fight, happy at every triumph and sad at every loss. Once I even shed a tear for the death of spriteless minor character. The ending in particular is just about perfect, giving a completely satisfying resolution to everything that had built up to it.
My only serious complaints are that some of the major twists in the first half were pretty easy to predict, and in many chapters there's often a nagging sense that you're just waiting for lots of little things to finally add up to a certain big event you know has to happen eventually.
Score: 9/10
Polarization: (+0.5/-1)
Not a lot to dislike here honestly. I think the biggest problem you might have is feeling that some of the character development happens implausibly fast.
Routes/Endings Played: All, including the omake stories.
P.S. The non-true endings and omakes are all very short, typically five minutes of fluff and an h-scene, so at first I'd recommend ignoring them all and focusing on the main story. It is good fluff though, so don't hesitate to read some or all of them afterward.
Tenshi no Hane wo Fumanaide Review
The ojou-sama of the family is off to study at a stunningly gorgeous all-girls academy, so as her servant and close friend you decide to dress like a girl so you can be of assistance to her there. Also, this academy is special because every year God chooses a single girl--referred to as μ--from among the student body and grants her one wish.
Much like its premise, this VN's quality is a mixed bag for the first couple routes. At its worst it's using lazy cliches to cram in fanservice/sex/rape scenes. At its best it's giving the interesting characters opportunity to develop in a fairly engaging way. Often it's somewhere in between, since the plot develops at a nice pace and the setting is cool, but it's a bit too forced or predictable to have any real tension and leaves a few too many nagging questions to be thoroughly satisfying.
The two true routes are a step above, since they lack the lazy cliches, actually succeed at creating dramatic tension, and have significantly more character development. In addition to that, the final route's revelations answer some of the nagging questions from earlier and provide a very intriguing take on the theological implications of a μ (and God in general), making the VN briefly verge on awesomeness. Even these routes leave some annoying questions, but overall they're far more satisfying.
Score: 7.5/10
Polarization: (+/-0.5)
There's no denying this VN has a mix of good and bad parts, so it'll probably depend on how good you are at ignoring the bad and focusing on enjoying the good. Also, the optional Ikoi route is the worst by far (it ends up being little more than a jumble of events from Hanene's route and some new things that never go anywhere) so skipping that should help.
Routes/Endings Played: All of them, including the YODAngel/むしろもっと踏んでっ bonus patch (that's also worth skipping imo). | dclm-gs1-102580000 |
The National Catholic Review
Weighing in on the legislative debate in Wisconsin over the right of public employees to join unions and engage in collective bargaining, Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee – speaking in his capacity as President of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference – issued a forthright defense of workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively. The WCC “Statement Regarding the Rights of Workers and the Value of Unions” begins:
The statement reminds Wisconsin legislators that the Church’s traditional teaching defending the right to organize, laid down over a century ago by Leo XIII, was reaffirmed in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate in no uncertain terms:
Wisconsin’s Bishops do not express an opinion about the proper level of public employees’ pay, pension benefits or health insurance contributions. They do, however, remind us that the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively is a basic tenet of Catholic social teaching.
Tom Maher | 2/21/2011 - 2:36pm
Walter Mattingly in #20 has the essential fix on what is going on in Wisconsin. Ir isthe democratic process in high gear. Wisconsin voters have elected a state governemnt who promised what they are now trying to deliver - a long term correction to Wisconsin indebtedness starting with the current 3.5 billion dollar deficit it has. Republicans certainly did not promise to single out the rich and then tax them more. The Republican won hands down becasue majorities abhor tax the rich as a strategy. The level of taxes is not the problem The risch potentially aret he one who provide urgently sought after private jobs. Jobs are what we want. As they say "It's the economy stupid"
THe Obama adminsitration's 700 billion stimulus spending programs of two years ago failed to deliver jobs. And funding more government failed to stimulate the economy. We still have high levels of unemploymnet. The only effect of increased is to give ave us the greater hazard of more public debt.
In the 2010 election in most state you would be unelectable backing an increase in government spending aprpoach to the economy. The voters in most plasce in 2010 found run-away government indebtedness and a weak private economy to be the most important problems.
So Wisconsin voters delivered a very clear voter preferance and choice. It would be a mistake elected Wisconsin officials to ignore the clear wishes of the voters.
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 8:15pm
I was out taking my wife to her singing group's rehersal and had the radio on. The governor from Wisconsin was on and was explaining everything and then it hit home. What this is about is money not for the employee or the state but for the union. Depending upon salary level, each employee gives between $500 and $1,000 to the union in dues each year and they have almost no say on how that money is used.
Under the new law the employee would have the option not to join the union and give them these dues. They then could use the money for whatever they want including applying it to medical insurance costs. The unions are scared to death that they will lose a lot of this money. That is why they are mobilizing people from all over the country. It has nothing to do with rights to organize or bargain collectively. It has to do with just the opposite, imposing a practice on all employees whether they want it or not and getting their dues money.
I understand all the arguments about the necessity to have large numbers in unions in order to bargain for salary and benefits and my guess is that most will choose to remain in a union but it would not be compulsory if this law passes.
Liam Richardson | 2/21/2011 - 7:02pm
Defrauding workers of wages promised for work already provided is a sin that cries to heaven for justice in Catholic social teaching going back many centuries.
Vince Killoran | 2/21/2011 - 2:49pm
Just to keep Jeff's figure in perspective corporations and business backed groups outspent unions anywhere from 3 to 2 up to 2 to 1.
I know Cosgrove, Jeff, and the rest of the guys will want the last word but how about-after that-we all take a break and let others join in?
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 2:32pm
Mr. Sinyai writes: ''They (the WI bishops) do, however, remind us that the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively is a basic tenet of Catholic social teaching.''
While I accept this as basically accurate with respect to private sector unions, this ignores that nothing re labor unions in Catholic social teaching addresses itself to PUBLIC SECTOR employees, a context all together different from Rerum Novarum & its progeny. I would like for a support of collective bargaining for public employees to take the following arguments and tell me why they are wrong. This is taken from a very good piece on National Review (the horror, I know - those schmucks): [Remember, its just an argument, so tell how the ARGUMENT is wrong (not how the person is greedy, or its all Wall St's fault, etc).]
''Put simply, public employees (even when they are not organized, let alone able to bargain collectively) have some major advantages over their private-sector counterparts. They are guarded by generous civil-service protections—the most significant of which predate public-sector unionism, having been put in place, ironically, to combat the inclination of urban political machines to use the public sector as a powerbase. And most government employees work in non-competitive fields where their employer has a monopoly, so their jobs are not threatened by competitors, and are not dependent on their ability to work efficiently and so keep their employer competitive.
When you add collective bargaining to that mix, the unions gain the power to make in private negotiations decisions that should be made in public deliberations—decisions about public priorities and public budgets. And they turn public employees into a formal procedural adversary of the public they serve.''
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 1:52pm
"I do agree that there are spineless legislators but I see their spinelessness in giving in to powerful lobbyists and advocates of tax breaks for the wealthy."
The New York Times reported this past weekend that "Big Labor" had given or spent over $200,000,000 to the DEMOCRATIC Party in the last election. Just to make clear that's TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. They were, the report went on, the largest single contributor in either party. I assume you don't consider them to be part of that "powerful" cabal of lobbyists and advocates???
Point to me a comparable example of such corruption arguing for tax breaks for the rich?
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 12:47pm
I want to thank Mr. Bohan for all his kind words. Maybe there is no public employee beneift and pesion problem and I was just confused. Some isolated notes.
The average teacher where I live makes over $100,000 with about 15 years experience. This is in suburban New York City. This does not take into account the generous retirement packages they get which cost about $25,000 - $30,000 a year additional per teacher to the state.
Here are a few links I quickly found:
There was another story about a year ago how Bloomberg raised salares in New York City by about 50% in 8 years but I could not find it and how all these additional costs were coming back to haunt him after the financial crisis. If I do find it, I will post it on a future discussion.
I would love to see how under paid the public employee salares are especially the teachers and how their pensions and salaries are not driving state budget problems. I cannot understand why Cuomo is trying to cut back here in New York and why Wisconsin is such an anomaly.
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 12:21pm
I don't blame public sector unions; I blame the spineless politicians of both parties who have given away the candy store in unfunded liabilities to public employees. And to say that public employees should be willing to make certain concessions is not to "attack" them. The fact remains that big union political contributions are just as corrosive as big corporations.
As a general matter, I believe private sector workers have benefitted from reduced unionization (I have cited before evidence to higher, more financially feasible salaries and benefits in non-unionized car plants here in the Southeast such as Honda, Toyota, BMW, & Mercedes-Benz) and I believe it unseemly for public employees to hold the state hostage over certain matters. Something about that whole "public servant" notion, you know? Now, if I felt like every dollar I have willing paid in state or federal taxes were being maximized in the most useful way, I might feel differently. Teachers' unions, for example, harp about more and more money, yet dig in at even the most benign tweaks to the tenure system, for example, arguing that abolishing the last in, first out rule is an "assault on public education".
But at bottom, I certainly agree with the Post's comment that the factors are many; so why just pick on our favorite targets like Wall St? What does that have to do with collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin? Again, seems like another conspiracy theory to me, which, while always efficient and convenient, are usually wrong.
Vince Killoran | 2/21/2011 - 12:02pm
We should be paying attention to the extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest, not attacking public employees.
When I wrote that public employees in general cannot strike and must depend on arbitration I should have noted that this is a major concession on the part of labor. The power to strike is one of the few responses open to workers in the face of employers' substantial arsenal.
Jeff's article from the WASHINGTON POST is interesting. But, Jeff, it's been a long time since the WP has been anything close to liberal and their regular drumbeat against teachers' unions is baldly polemic.
As for Montgomery County it does seem dysfunctional but even the article's author points out that it is due to a myriad of factors. In general the fiscal problems states such as Wisconsin, NJ, & Ohio are having has not been "caused" by labor unions. There has been no sharp changes in the public union collective bargaining patterns in the last several years. Look instead to the financial meltdown in the housing market and Wall Street's bad behavior. That has stressed out state budgets by way of reduced tax revenues, sales tax, and increased the need for social services.
The answer is not to blame unions. That contributes to the "race to the bottom."
Tom Maher | 2/21/2011 - 11:09am
Mr. Bohan.
Really. Well do tell us what the facts are Mr. Bohan. You sound like Hillary Cinton on learning about her husband's affair where Hillary declared: "It's a vast right-wing conspiracy."
Mr. Cosgove or Fox News is not the issue here. Stairing us in the face is the massive public sector indbtedness accumulating in unsustainable scale at the local, state and federal level. The voters of Wisconsin in last falls election have a lot to do with what is going on Wisonsin stae buget proces. It was the Wisconsin voter that voted in Republican majoities to the Wisonsin House of Representative and senate and a new Republican Governor who is actually doing what he promised to do - reduce the Wisconsin Deficits now and in the future. Wisconsin has a 3.5 billion dollar deficit and a giagantic underfunding of its its state and local public employee pension fund. at the state and local leve Rin the Wstate homajoirbuget prary are far more to blame. How would you fix long-term budget problems of Wisconsin which are very much like many other states?
Most Americans have still not gotten the meo that nations in the European Union such as Greece and Ireland borrowed so heavily to support it governemnht deficit spending that they went broke. Talk about union busting, Irish pensions and public employees were given 30% cuts force on them by teh austerity budget which are happening all over Europe. Ireland went from a free spending to severe restictions in a matter of weeks when it could no longer fianace its public debt and had to be bailed out by the European Union.
Economist onall media not just Fox News are warning the United States that we are in the exact same over-extended credit position as Greece and Ireland but with far more drastic consequences. For one thing we do not have anyone to bail us out especiall at a 14 trillion dollar level at the national level and trillions at the state level.
So Mr. Bohan how do we deal with our nationwide massive indebtedness without being as you put it "schmucks"? Give us your schmuckless truths. The Wisconsin bishops would be enlightened I'm sure.
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 10:59am
I'll break the no links rule to provide some support for mine and Cosgrove's (among others) conservative "schmuck-iness": the following is an editorial from that notoriously right-wing obtuse rag, the Washington Post, cataloguing some of the cost differences between Mongtogmery Country, MD and Fairfax Country, VA - literally a geographic side-by-side comparison.
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 10:49am
As one of his fellow "conservatives", I know you won't take my word for it, but I think regular commentators on this blog whatever their political stripe, would acknowledge that Mr. Cosgrove routinely attempts to back his statements with facts. Admittedly the "keep the post short" rule has been flaunted sometimes.
It is widely acknowledged that public employee benefit plans (assuming defined benefit plans, etc.) widely outstrip comparative private plans. Googling the issue brings up different sources, but again, site rules caution against providing links.
And with respect, the only "name-calling" I've read here is in your post calling people who disagree with your point of view "schmucks" (again I always thought liberals were supposed to be tolerant, open-minded people who welcomed and celebrated diversity).
Rick Bohan | 2/21/2011 - 10:08am
Cosgrove has all the requirements for making a good Fox "News" pundit: Doesn't know much, makes up the rest. Apart from a distinct antipathy for working class folks, there's not much to be gained from Cosgrove's rants. Well, some name-calling, perhaps.
Cosgrove (like his buddies on Faux "News" and across the AM radio dial) feels that something is so because he says it's need to back up one's statements, provide references, point to sources. And, no, providing one link to one article that the writer admits is likely to be sharply biased doesn't count.
If one accuses public sector workers of having "bloated salaries and benefits", one might be expected to provide some proof. When one says "stimulus bill of two years ago was an abject failure" one might be expected to be willing to back that up.
But Cosgrove and his fellow conservatives have learned...just make it up as you go. Only schmucks are constrained by the facts.
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 9:52am
A few thoughts:
In response to a comment above re ''conservatives'' listening to the Bishops. I have listened and I disagree with their (as usual) pretty timid statement that gives both sides room for justification. I continue to find it ironically humorous that liberals are always harping about the need for change and reform in Church teaching, usually citing a document like Humane Vitae, less than 50 years old, as Exhibit A; however on their pet issues, they will quote Chapter and Verse from documents over 100s of years old as if the economic situation of labor has remained stagnant.
Traditionally, public sector workers have had NO collective bargaining rights because most of them (until the development of a civil service in the early 20th century) were patronage jobs of the old Political Machines. Most citizens still resist such broad collective bargaining rights because of the unseemliness of, let's just take a hypothetical, teachers holding the education of children hostage to contract negotiations...oh wait, that's not hypothetical?
This will come as a shocker, but Vince Killoran hit the nail on the head when he wrote: ''In general, public sector unionists can't strike but there are sophisticated arbitration mechanisms in place for many of them.''
It is these incredibly broad arbitration rights that, as I understand it, the Governor objects to primarily. For example (I have not read the contracts) supposedly teachers have the right to object to the paint color in rooms and invoke their bargaining rights. As usual, Big Labor sees an opportunity to exert its ever-shrinking muscle on issues that to most working Americans seems trivial. I suspect this will give liberals and social justice professional protestors some fun, but ni the end a moderate compromise will emerge. Meanwhile, Professor Obama should have learned the lessons of playing lecturer-in-chief and stay out of Wisconsin's political arguments (or, given his ''success'' on weighing in on previous local controversies, perhaps he should keep sounding off).
We frequently get invocations of the "Common Good" for things such as higher taxes, more government regulation, etc. I would like someone to look honestly at the MATH facing both Wisconisn and the US Government and tell me how objecting to requiring public employees to contribute (on average) LESS THAN HALF of what their private sector counterparts contribute to their health and pension plans contributes to the "Common Good"? Again, its pure math, not politics. But the unions and their political patrons keep fiddling...
Anonymous | 2/20/2011 - 10:22pm
Here is a document on public service unions written about a year ago by the Cato Institute, which is a libertarian organizaion. As you would expect they do not favor the current situation with public service unions.
Vince Killoran | 2/20/2011 - 9:19pm
"Maybe for a time, but then things will be corrected. Nothing in politics is permanent."
I'm not clear what David means-who exactly will "correct" this? THis is cold comfort to employees being robbed their legitimate rights.
Vince Killoran | 2/20/2011 - 9:54am
An interesting conversation but a very important fact is getting lost: if the Governor gets his way the right of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining will be effectively eliminated.
Anonymous | 2/20/2011 - 9:10am
My comment in #13 was both serious and facetious. Over the last 10 to 15 years liberal politicians bought peace and support by over hiring in the public sector and offering above competition wages and benefits. These policies are now coming back to haunt them and other liberal politicians who now have to make a Faustian choice between the public employees who they have bought and other liberal goodies that are no longer affordable. They thought they could afford both as most of the last 15 years have been good times but those days are temporarily ended. They really do not care for many of the private citizens unless their vote is necessary. There has generally been enough that have been bought and the liberal fools who will vote for them no matter what. Unfortunately the real world has a way of showing itself as they have essentially killed the golden goose in their greed.
In California and other states which liberals still control, they are finding that the out of control public payroll and benefits are bankrupting them and preventing them from instituting other strings of liberal goodies. Much of this could be avoided if the unions gave up their excess compensation they were given over the last 15 years. But they won't and seniority rules the day as younger workers and teachers get the axe so the greedy ones protected by seniority can enjoy their above average wages and benefits. As I said they are a heartless bunch and how the Catholic Bishops and any Catholic could defend them boggles the mind.
Tom Maher | 2/20/2011 - 7:40am
My reference to the 1 trillion state pension under funding is from the following Pew Research Report:
The Trillion Dollar Gap
Pew Center on the States
February 18, 2010
Tom Maher | 2/20/2011 - 1:14am
Deaar Dave #15,
Federal employee pension are not likely the problem unless something happens like the Greece or Irish debtproblem and then everyone is in real big trouble. There are fewer people in the federal work force relative to the enormous size of the federal budget. Also federal employees are a small voting block unlike state and local employees such as the teachers union that are very numerous well paid, all over a state and very politically involved at the state level. The teacher's union alone are a formitable power player that has great impact at a state level. The states would have to be in financial crisis, as they now are, after years of appeasement politically powerful union group before changes are made..
What folks including the church don't get is the basic assumption of all economic that there is finite resources available which means you definitely can run out of anything if your not real careful. But state and local politics work against needed limits. So the state and local government do go into crisis. Unfortunately state and local pensions are a hugh hole to fill. Bailouts are not possible.
It is unthinkable to most Americans that a government can run out of money but they can and do. The state of California is effectivel insolvent not from lack of revenues but because of wild non-stop spending. California is one of the riches places on the earth but it is also by far the most free-spending. New York City went bankrupt in 1976. It also was one of the richest places on earth and even had its own income tax. But it spent itself inot the gound in less than ten years. But California pension sytem will break the bank. There really is only a finite amount of money around for states to use. We are talking insolvency here without the ability to be bailed out. Good intentions will not produce a pension check if the money was never there to cover the ever-growing pension liability of state and localities. This train has got to be stopped or the entire economy will collapse as it did with the housing crisis. 1 trillion dollars is an enormous shortfall in state and local pension funding. And ther is no fall back if the pension fund goes broke.
Stephen SCHEWE | 2/19/2011 - 11:53pm
David, re your question at #9, I guess I was thinking the ''other side'' relates more to a management rather than a Republican perspective. I agree that Megan is objective in her piece, but her business-oriented background informs her analysis.
I agree completely with your comment #15 about keeping promises on pensions. Public employees (or private for that matter) who are already retired have fulfilled their end of a contract, and the community or the corporations who employed them need to keep their promises. But in order to do that they have to keep from going bankrupt or into a Greece-like default. The good news: we can solve the debt crisis without taking benefits from people who are already retired. For those of us still in the work force, we can create a sliding scale of impact depending on how many years you have left to save. I'm 54, for example, and I'd be happy to wait an extra year or two before I'm eligible for social security and Medicare if it means that as a community we agree to other budget cuts, tax increases, closing tax loopholes, etc. that taken together solve the fiscal crisis for the feds and the states. I would hope that some of the firefighters, police, etc. who are eligible for retirement as early as 50 would be willing to make the same kind of small sacrifice. To JR's point in #7, there are lots of other policies that can be used to close the financing gap, and we probably need to use them all, both because the problem's big and so that no one group of people bears the whole burden. If I was 21, for example, I'd be ok entering a system offering lower pension benefits for new government employees or privatized retirement for people my age, because I'd have lots of time to absorb that news and make appropriate career and savings choices. Presumably, I'd accept these changes more gracefully knowing that the trillions of dollars of pension liabilities and public debt Tom's worried about in #14 won't cripple the future economy where I'll be earning my living.
Having balanced budgets for small businesses and as a parish council member for a church, I have a lot of empathy for Governor Walker. But when you start reducing employee compensation, you have to make the case that you're thinking about the needs of the whole community (or in the private sector, the competitiveness of your company), not just being anti-union so you can line the pockets of rich people. You have to be willing to make other cuts and jawbone the business owners and the wealthy into doing their part and dispense with magical thinking (e.g., the Laffer curve). If you look back at George W.'s first term (by reading the memoirs of his first Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill) or Reagan's first term (remember David Stockman?), they didn't govern with the needs of the whole community in mind. Among other places, that's where I part company with many Republicans.
Tom Maher | 2/19/2011 - 10:07pm
Public pension funds ( state and local) are currently unfunded by over 1 trillion dollars nationwide according to Pew Research report. This is a national disaster in the making. We have a nationwide public employee pension funding problem.
When pension funds run out of money, its retireew no longer get paid their pension. This is about to happen across America in the near future.
One town in Alabama in 2010 exhausted its pension fundis and now hundreds of retirees are no longer receiving their pension checks they were supposed to get.
Public employee pensions committment are a very serious liability that must controlled. Cutting back pension committements is essential for states and localities to meet their hugh pension obligations in the near future. This would definitely apply to Wisconsin as it does for New Jersy , Illinois, California and most other states that have over-committed pension systems.
The need is urgent to address this problem immea?diately as the Wisconsin Governor is doing. ??
Anonymous | 2/19/2011 - 10:02pm
If one is for social justice, then all Catholics and the Bishops should come down hard on the public employee unions and their bloated salaries and benefits. These workers are draining nearly every state in the country of needed revenues while there is high unemployment in most of the country and people with much lesser salaries are paying their extremely generous wages.
So if the bishops are for social justice, then let them start going after all the municipal and state employee unions to reduce their salaries and benefits so the rest of the society can have a chance to survive. The stimulus bill of two years ago was an abject failure, to use an expression, that mainly went to pay the states so they could keep the high salaries of public employees. Now the states are not getting this money and are responding with massive cuts and layoffs because there is no sugar daddy handing out billion dollar checks anymore.
In New Jersey, Christie told the unions that Corzine took all the money from the stimulus and spent in right away so they could keep their high salaries and benefits. Here in New York they are firing 20,000 teachers as the current unions seek raises for those who have seniority. They are eating their own so they can live in extreme comfort. All would be solved if they cut back on their generous raisses of the last 10 years. How can anyone have sympathy for public employees when they are sucking the country dry.
Anonymous | 2/19/2011 - 9:45pm
"God will remember which side you were on."
No need to demonize your political opponets by declaring that "God is on our side."
As for social justice, allowing the unions to bankrupt the statehouses via their lavish benefits and pay does not look like justice by any stretch of the imagination. Both the greed of corporations (republicans) and/or of monopolistic unions (democrats) is against Catholic teaching.
PJ Johnston | 2/19/2011 - 8:01pm
It's COLD here in Madison. I'm glad the bishops have gone on record with something that warms our day! If the anti-union movement succeeds, there will be no chance of the Church's teachings about social justice being implemented in the US. We already have more income inequality than at any point since the early 1930s, and every proposal about how to refocus the nation's budgets priorities from either party targets the poor and the working classes for sacrifice, not the wealthy. Unless the people take to the streets, all the gains of 1930s labor and the New Deal will be undone. This is the most important social, political, economic, and theological issue in the United States today. God will remember which side you were on.
Stanley Kopacz | 2/19/2011 - 7:14pm
What teachers and civil employees should make is one thing. The right to unionize and collectively bargain is another. Perhaps there's a better alternative to the adversarial relationship of capital and labor, or in this case state government and labor, but distribution of power is healthier for a democracy than monolithic power. At this moment in our history, capital has the upper hand, knows it, and is reaching for total conquest. And one strategy is to set segments of people against one another. The goal is to set the greatly weakened private worker union membership against the still robust public worker unions. Divide and conquer, a cliche but very effective.
Anonymous | 2/19/2011 - 7:03pm
Just to clarify something about misconceptions on the surplus budget of 1999-2000. It disappeared the following year as the country went into recession and then the economy was further hit by 9/11. There was nothing sustainable in the budget surpluses given the reality of the collapse of the Dot Com bubble and 9/11.
The reason for the surpluses had nothing to do with tax increases. In fact it was a tax reduction in capital gains that fueled a large increase in tax revenue in 1998-2000. Another instance where tax cuts actually provide increases in the amount of taxes collected. Also there were two factors that held down federal spending in the late 1990's. These were the Republican congress takeover in 1995 which limited federal spending in general. Another very specific cut back was a reduction in military spending, the so called peace dividend. The final factor that led to a surplus was the internet bubble that was the result of thousands of start up companies that was fueled by large amounts of investment. Sort of a perfect storm: low government spending, lower taxes and large amounts of investment.
Stephen SCHEWE | 2/19/2011 - 4:32pm
Just to clarify, Governor Walker wants to take away public sector unions' rights to collectively bargain on benefits and to limit collective bargaining on wage increases to the annual increase in the consumer price index.
Megan McArdle has a good post on the other side of the argument here:
According to a report on the Lehrer Newshour last night, private sector workers currently pay 32% of their own pension benefits, vs. 6% paid by public sector workers. If the Republicans get their messaging right, that's the point of vulnerability for labor. If I was a union leader in Wisconsin or one of the other states where this battle will take place, I'd be pointing out other places where the state budgets could be cut (or taxes raised) so everybody gets to share in the pain of balancing the budget and funding the long-term liabilities.
This is a precursor to the argument we need to have at the federal level as well. Medicare, Medicaid, and social security are the equivalent of the unfunded pension benefit liabilities they're fighting about in Wisconsin (although it should also be pointed out that social security is fully funded, and the surplus has been used to fund the general operating deficit). Defense has been the other sacred cow. The Bishops are absolutely right that public debt, either state or federal, shouldn't be funded on the backs of the poor or labor. But it does need to get funded. The Simpson Bowles report provides a good starting point at the Federal level.
As a country, we've done this before: the Tax Reform Act of 1986; TEFRA in 1990; and Clinton's tax bill in 1993 (passed with no Republican votes) paved the way. The Federal government achieved a budget surplus by 2000 and began to reduce the debt. There's no reason why we can't do it again.
Vince Killoran | 2/19/2011 - 2:51pm
I take your point about $54 million-but the Governor's protrayal of state finances, the decisions he has made regarding federal funds, and his unwillingness to engage with anything less than the "nuclear option" is shameful.
Stephen O'Brien | 2/19/2011 - 2:18pm
Thank you, Archbishop Listecki and the other bishops of Wisconsin! I hope that Catholics who still regard themselves as ''conservatives'' will listen to you.
Here is another papal statement that the archbishop could have invoked:
''It is unfortunately true that the manner of acting in certain Catholic circles has done much to shake the faith of the working-classes in the religion of Jesus Christ. These groups have refused to understand that Christian charity demands the recognition of certain rights due to the workingman, which the Church has explicitly acknowledged.'' (Pope Pius XI, encyclical Divini Redemptoris, section 50)
Vince Killoran | 2/19/2011 - 2:13pm
A few important things to note about the Wisconsin situation:
The state budget is currently in $54 million surplus.
The budget may get worse but, hey, the Gov. passed up $800 million in federal money for high speed rail and gave the wealthy a tax break of $117 million.
The unions have agreed to negotiate on health care and retirement cuts but Gov. Walker has not interest in this.
This is about busting up unions and thwarting the rights of public workers. And to pretend otherwise is downright dishonest-conservatives have been planning this for a long time and have not been coy about it (until now!).
Anonymous | 2/21/2011 - 3:44pm
Facts, facts, facts. How 'bout we just let facts be the last word?
Vince Killoran | 2/21/2011 - 12:47pm
To respond to your last set of questions the origins of the crisis lies in Wall Street and mortage debacle. Less tax $$ etc. That explanation is far from a conspiracy theory (stories about Obama's birth certificate are however). BTW, the high wages for non-union auto workers is an example of what industrial relations experts call "union threat model."
Public sector unions ARE willing to consider concessions. Wisconsin's governor is not interested in anything less than the evisceration of public sector unionism.
Not very Christian behavior is it?
parkes revan | 2/20/2011 - 1:06am
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The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide
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The Pirate Bay has received indications that the Swedish authorities might soon attempt to seize the site’s .se domain. In anticipation of this move, today the world’s largest file-sharing site switched to Greenland’s .gl domain. The move comes with a set of new IP-addresses which raises the possibility that existing ISP blockades might be bypassed, at least temporarily.
The Whac-A-Mole continues….
Related Posts
Previous Post | Next Post
• mruk2u
working again in the UK! :-)
• martienne
Blocked on VirginMedia, UK... But I am using a proxy anyway. Who even KNEW that Greenland have their own domain? I seem to remember from school that they have some kind of autonomy from Denmark that means they essentially do what they like but are officially part of Denmark. Well Done PIRATE BAY, well done GREENLAND (soon green for real, due to global warming...)
• Anonymous
For me the non-secure site (http) is blocked but not the secure one (https). loads fine ;)
• Jeff Hanson
bizarre. wasn't loading in Canada... but https does. Even weirder, only IE is affected, chrome works fine.
• Dennis Pochenk
Chrome uses Alternative DNS's and occasionally a proxy when on a slow/unstable connection.. Just like Opera which loads everything just fine and is also a reliable .torrentclient :)
• Midarezaki
If the Norks somehow have their own domain (.kp), why shouldn't Greenland have their own?
(Surprised I haven't seen it come on air with a .cn name!)
• Joe
Doesn't work on Sky. But who do I care I have proxies I can use.
• bno112300
If it's blocked, you should report the problem to your ISP and demand they fix the fault.
Never avoid solving problems just because you can cope with them now, things will only get worse.
• Gues
Confirmed, and agreed!
• JusChillin
As soon as I used a proxy I got The Call.
They said the proxy alerted them or sum shit.
TimeWarner, about 2 years ago.
• Lolwut
Really? Proxy alerted them?
Going to call bullshit on this one.
People use VPN/Proxies for legitimate reasons. People also just choose to use them simply because they want to.
The traffic, when inspected by an ISP (even deep packet inspection), will simply look like the user is connecting to the proxy's IP for the most part. If someone uses a VPN, it's even more secure since it's (most times) encrypted traffic. It would be the equivalent of your ISP breaking into your encrypted traffic and stealing the password for your banking information. Sounds legal (and possible), right!?
So, again, how in the hell could they possibly know you were using the proxy in order to give you... THE CALL (DUN DUN DUNNNNNN)? The answer is you're lying, and they didn't. There's never been an ISP that will call people and tell them not to use a proxy, VPN, etc. Bullshit.
• JusChillin
That's what they said, I wasn't there in the building with them. But, they knew I was using a proxy...and anyways, why would I lie? As opposed to people selling proxies here, who have more than enough reason...
Go on, get excited over it.
Write another novella...
• Predator
Ya right! You are such a fucking liar you fucking corporate troll! Good try. . . . NOT!
• JusChillin
• Varun DM
Working fine in India too!!
• Violated0
You should state your ISP but it works on BT for sure.
• Jack
Blocked on BT now :(
• DirkGently
Confirmed - blocked on BT, but not on my personal proxy. Do you have some webspace? Set up your own proxy... have fun finding that one MAFIAA bitches!
• Alec Dumas Fetty
Now it takes so much more effort to pirate, good luck convincing any more friends to do it. No longer is it about installing software and visiting an illegals website. Now it's about proxies, VPNs, risks of disconnections from Internet, shady circumvention methods of legal standing court orders. When all of this is brought forth, good luck converting anyone else to believing theft of intellectual property will be overlooked by authorities. Most will say the trouble of obtaining for free that which they have no right to obtain for free is just not worth it. The hardcore pirates of today may remain, but in the future good luck keeping this going and generating more converts. Most will say it's not worth it.
• HelpfulMan
Have you ever thought of shortening you name from Alec Dumas Fetty to just Dumbass?
• Dumbass
Done ..thanks for the suggestion...
• JusChillin
• me
"When all of this is brought forth, good luck converting anyone else to
believing theft of intellectual property will be overlooked by
Except that intellectual property can't be stolen, and thus it ain't no theft. Again, repeat after me: copyright infringement is NOT theft. It's a whole different beast altogether.
• zarathustra2k1
Obvious troll is etc...
• Scary_Devil_Monastery
"Now it takes so much more effort to pirate, good luck convincing any more friends to do it."
Are you blind, ignorant, insane, or deliberately trolling?
Because from the view of anyone even savvy enough to pirate in the first place, the hardest part of piracy remains in choosing "from what source". It's generally speaking all one-point-click installs.
I can teach a completely clueless luser all the tricks of safe filesharing in less than five minutes and so can anyone else with even basic IT understanding.
A simple google query will supply all the information needed for anyone capable of using a mouse to point and click.
It is possible that unfortunate 11-year olds with dyslexia and mild mental retardation might find filesharing "hard" - but EVEN THEN not likely.
And the only reason you are even capable of saying it is is if you believe - like our old friend "bobmail" that the internet is driven by arcane mysteries unfathomable by any but the select elite.
• bobmail
So you must find it nearly impossible.
• sajfljf
I have to admit: This is one of the worst conclusions you've ever made. Well done.
• Stephen Higginbotham
Signed Alec Dumas Fetty, CEO, Prenda Law
• Holyfuck
It's actually really easy.
• JusChillin
Well, besides all that, you no longer have the defense of, 'I didn't know about it!' 'Musta been the neighbor!'
• josh
Torrenting is easy
• torzir
Not on O2
• TPB on Tor
Try https://jntlesnev5o7zysa.tor2w... if you don't have Tor installed
• thwap
Not on TalkTalk (don't laugh...)
• afasfa
hahahahahahaha- oh sorry I didn't me- HAHAHAHAHA
• jograt
it works on our country.. i will not tell where i am :D
• DirkGently
Gotta be in the US. It's never been blocked in the US.
• JusChillin
USA! USA! USA!
• WD
>FOX News
hurr durr sensationalist garbage
• JusChillin
>All News Channels
hurr durr etc...
• Andrew Lee
I'm just curious if they think TPB will run out of domain host in the future. If they think so they're in for a big surprise considering that ICANN opened up TLD registration to anyone with a 100k.
As long as there's the internet there will be piracy like it or not.
What needs to be going on is building positive relationships with their fans. I mean you see lawsuits against fans in the hundreds of thousands, and really that is not good for their image at all
How could you feel bad about downloading when you think the gatekeepers are fucking scumbags?
It's much easier to support someone you like over someone you like, but has an evil shadow ready to rape the shit out of you. "Artist/Labels"
I got some "whistle" popsicles in the cellar "whistle"
• alex
• Deep Blue
Copying, sharing, reusing, remixing, etc are far older practices than copyright. I would say far more natural too.
• icec0ld
Copyright is an obsolete abstraction. It needs to be revised or ditched all together. Now it's only an excuse to rape the fandom with lawsuits and censor the net.
• bobmail
"Copyright is an obsolete abstraction."
So why do you keep trying so hard to pirate the movies created as a result of this obsolete concept? why not download only the legal stuff creators are putting out there, and stop with this silly and mindless chase after the product of obsolete thinking?
Your actions and your words don't match.
• icec0ld
I'll gladly buy digital copies of movies when they meet the following (rather basic) criteria.
2. No DRM
3. A price that reflects the lack of scarcity.
• Alec Dumas Fetty
Yes, because all movies and music are magic computer files which generate out of thin air on illegal websites with no physical effort time and money invested from the creators of those files. Pirate logic cracks me up. I have yet to see any public domain youtube cell phone video comparable to the latest Hollywood summer blockbuster in quality, but yes keep on spouting fairy tales and comparing five minutes and five cents worth of effort to years and hundreds of millions of much harder effort.
• Scary_Devil_Monastery
"Yes, because all movies and music are magic computer files which
generate out of thin air on illegal websites with no physical effort
time and money invested from the creators of those files."
Completely irrelevant as none of your argument justifies the violation "copyright" performs on freedom of communication, messenger immunity, and ordinary property rights these days.
Pirate logic? Try "the logic employed by Benjamin franklin and Thomas Jeffersson" you ignorant twit.
Whereas none of you fanatical adherents of the sect of copyright can even make an argument without first lying.
• bobmail
Yet without copyright, would your "speech" even exist? Or would you be file trading nothing but zeros, because nobody told you where to put the ones...
Oh wait:
You probably don't understand the scope of the discussion anyway.
• Madmac
Oh piracy is killing movies.... right. Anyone who works on a hollywood movie... all the grubs... food people ... drivers... they ALL get paid weekly just like anyone else does. So boohoo... only the middlemen are likeley to lose anything.. Maybe the should negotiate better contracts with the so called stars. After all hollywood is the only industry that I know of in murika... that has not taken PAYCUTS. But then they are so much better than folks that actually work.
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votes without winning ohio. so president obama trying to hold onto this state, in part making the case today about the auto bailout. that is an issue that really resonates with voters, but the president really taking romney to task over his recent claim that jeep is shipping jobs overseas to china. it's a claim the romney campaign is standing by but one that's been smacked down by car executives as well as a number of newspapers here in the buckeye state. so it's a close race. president obama making his closing argument today, martin. >> kristin welker there in ohio. thanks so much. stay with us. our "top lines," the week in review, is coming up. [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. >>> a monster storm and a monster presidential race collide.
under the ryan budget 43%, and now it's been restored by president obama, and they are responding as they should to the northeast and to all states that have been inflicted. they have called it a national disaster zone. new york and new jersey are hit harder than other areas. they're allocating resources, responding, saving lives, and they are helping the first responders, the volunteers, really the city, state, and federal workers who are doing a heroic job in our great city responding to this worst storm in my lifetime for new york. >> you represent constituents here. >> yes. >> how are they reacting to what's happened? >> they were rising to the occasion. the lower east side and lower west side has absolutely no power. there are no traffic lights. people are helping people cross the street. they were serving as the police directing traffic. they were helping each other. it reminded me of the spirit after 9/11 where everyone did whatever they could to help. but you need the city government, the state government, the federal government to come in and help. mr. romney says rely on
. and even for the states, quite frankly. the governor and the mayor weren't shining examples of, you know, state control over that situation. so there was enough blame and mistake-prone action to look at and learn from, and obama is nothing if not a quick study in that regard and understanding and appreciating how to use the tools of this government at a time of crisis. now, we'll see. the expectation for the president is to do his job and to be on top of doing his job. so politically i don't know if there's a huge upside -- there's more of a downside risk than anything if there's a gaffe somewhere, if there's a mistake somewhere in the execution of responding to those in need, but i think this president has shown that his administration will be prepared for that because that's what people expect. >> karen, i was watching your facial expressions there and they were quite perfect. perhaps you'd like to put words to them. >> well, you know, nice try, michael. i mean, let's remember that in terms -- the october surprise in 2008 we saw a real sharp contrast between john mccain and president o | dclm-gs1-102620000 |
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THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Buckner's Losing It With Mavericks
December 12, 1993|MARK HEISLER
Management Secrets of Attila the Hun's Son: Unlike his revered Indiana mentor, Bob Knight, Quinn Buckner, the rookie coach of the Dallas Mavericks, has never kicked his son.
Of course, this isn't a fair comparison since Buckner doesn't have a son playing for him.
In other ways, however, Buckner has managed to come off as an NBA version of the IU-Tollah, railroading players, ignoring administrators, turning up his nose at the press.
This adds up to the biggest miscalculation since Knight offered a referee on the other side of the court a chair. Buckner's players aren't teen-agers on scholarship but young men with multimillion-dollar contracts. His front office delights in his struggles with his players. The press is covering it without asking him for guidance or volunteering to ghost his autobiography. I don't think we're in Bloomington any more, Toto.
Everyone thought the Mavericks had hit bottom last season when they threatened to break the 76ers' 9-73 record and almost punted away Jim Jackson, who refused to sign, then knocked down a trade to the Lakers in a three-way deal with Milwaukee for Todd Day.
Buckner's hiring seemed to signal an end to years of chaos. He had a well-rounded background, 10 years in the NBA plus two in the cradle of coaches, NBC. He was pleasant and hard-working.
Jackson signed immediately and led a rally that carried the Mavericks to 11-71. They got another wonder-rookie, Jamal Mashburn. With no expectations this season, they had only to learn the NBA together, go back into the lottery and build a beautiful tomorrow.
What could go wrong?
First Buckner met the front office, decisively.
Hired at the sole recommendation of personnel director Rick Sund, Buckner turned around and brought in Stu Inman, giving him duties parallel to Sund's. Buckner might have been appropriately leery of Maverick execs who had blown so many decisions, but this naked power grab let the old-timers know what they could expect in a Mighty Quinn administration.
Next, Buckner met the press, reluctantly.
Routine questions were met by stolid replies that whatever was being asked was "an internal matter."
For example, he said he couldn't discuss qualifications for assistants because candidates might read his comments and shape their answers accordingly.
Next, Buckner met his players, noisily.
First, he drew down on Derek Harper, the closest thing to Mr. Maverick left in town. Harper was a hard worker, a stand-up guy and very popular among his teammates, especially rookies like Mashburn, whom he had always extended himself to.
Buckner thought Harper was a misplaced shooting guard and made his disdain known, hooking him at any pretext.
Once, he pulled him 3 minutes 47 seconds into a game, telling him, according to Harper: "I'm just giving you a blow."
Hardly convinced, Harper swore as he walked past Buckner, kicked the press table and later gave his version in detail to the press. Buckner said it was an internal matter.
Losses began to mount as players struggled with the triangle offense Buckner had imported from Chicago. The Mavericks arrived at the Forum Dec. 1 averaging 90 points per game, a pace that would make them the lowest-scoring team in 39 years.
That night they lost the opening tip. The Lakers scored. With 24 seconds gone, Buckner called a 20-second timeout.
Moments later, Mashburn took a 20-footer early in the shot clock and Buckner hooked him. He kept him sitting all of the second half and Mashburn went off afterward.
"I think everybody questions it," he said. "Everyone wants to know what's going on. All of us are confused. We don't know what to do. . . .
"People are just running out there, running to spots, afraid to make a mistake or you'll come out and get an earful."
Buckner said this was an internal matter, too.
"The game is 100 years old," he said. "This is the way it's been done 100 years. I'm not creating the wheel. This is the way the wheel turns."
Not in pro basketball, it doesn't. The next day Buckner was obliged to convene a meeting and listen to his players tell him what they didn't like about him.
"It was a learning experience and anytime you learn, I think you're humbled in some form or fashion," he said afterward.
"Yeah, I think sometimes they misconstrue the toughness that I want to come across, the traits that are to be carried onto the court, probably as a non-openness. But I think this is two months into what will be, as far as I'm concerned, a very long relationship."
Of course, the Mavericks have lost all the games since, but things are looking up. Buckner has only won once, but he has already learned which end of the barrel the bullet comes out of.
No surprise in the NBA compares to Lenny Wilkens' start in Atlanta, where the aging, hopelessly mediocre, written off and nowhere-with-more-disdain-than-this column Hawks have shot to the top of the Central Division.
Los Angeles Times Articles | dclm-gs1-102630000 |
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I have customized some of the shortcuts in System ▸ Preferences ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.
How can I restore individual shortcuts to their default settings? I do not want to reset all of the shortcuts, just a few of my choice.
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I need to reset the "Workspace switcher" shortcut, but cannot find where the setting is. – To Do Dec 16 '12 at 17:36
@ToDo I'd recommend opening a new question about that. That keyboard shortcut isn't currently designed to be customizable, so solutions are going to be a little ugly. – ændrük Dec 16 '12 at 22:19
Here it is. – To Do Dec 17 '12 at 6:51
8 Answers 8
up vote 14 down vote accepted
It looks like the way keyboard shortcuts are implemented has slightly changed for Ubuntu 13.04
The shortcut settings are saved in the following locations (may be different for 12.10):
You can find these in the dconf-editor application, then using the "Set to Default" button to reset each desired entry. dconf-editor can be installed at the command line with sudo apt-get install dconf-tools.
Otherwise, you could also try resetting any one of the locations by using the following command in the terminal:
gsettings reset-recursively <insert location>
(e.g. gsettings reset-recursively
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The gsettings reset-recursively worked only for the media keys, but sadly not for the volume up/down keys. I also tried all the locations above, but neither of them worked. I am using Linux Mint. Any suggestions? – steebchen Aug 1 at 12:12
They key bindings stored in the gconf database, but they aren't all in the same place unfortunately.
However, you can get a list of all the key bindings gconf keys by looking in the files located in /usr/share/gnome-control-center/keybindings/.
For example, /usr/share/gnome-control-center/keybindings/01-desktop-key.xml contains the list of keys for all the shortcuts Keyboard Shortcuts lists under Desktop.
<KeyListEntries name="Desktop">
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/help"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/calculator"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/email"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/www"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/power"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/screensaver"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/home"/>
<KeyListEntry name="/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/search"/>
Once you know the key name you can restore it to its default value.
For example, let's say you want to restore the shortcut to launch the calculator,
alt text
Simply run:
gconftool -u "/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/calculator"
alt text
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This does not seem to work for Ubuntu 12.10. – Crimbo Jan 20 '13 at 22:32
Building DoR's answer, this simple script, typed at the command line, will reset all shortcuts:
cd /usr/share/gnome-control-center/keybindings
for entry in $(grep KeyListEntry * |cut -d'/' -f2- |cut -d'"' -f1); do
echo $entry
gconftool -u "/$entry"
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I get a bunch of errors like these Error unsetting /'': Bad key or directory name: "/'": '' is an invalid character in key/directory names -f2- – zengr Mar 8 '13 at 1:07
You can't. But you can see what are default values if you press help and click Section 1.2 ― Keyboard Skills and then on the right you have a list of key grous:
• Global Shortcut Keys
• Window Shortcut Keys
• Application Keys
• Access Keys
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As @danizmax suggestion see the default keys and put them back... – karthick87 Dec 15 '10 at 19:35
Here is something I discovered by accident:
Open gconf-editor (press Alt+F2 and type in gconf-editor).
Find the setting you want to reset. I found several places they are located:
1. Apps > gnome_settings_daemon > keybindings
2. Apps > metacity > global_keybindings
3. Apps > metacity > window_keybindings
There may be others.
Right click on the setting, and click 'Unset Key'. This will restore it to the default setting.
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Has this actually worked for anyone? Do you need to restart for this to take effect? Just tried this and this doesn't work for me... didn't want to rate this unless you do actually need to restart first. – hazrpg May 13 '12 at 21:10
I cannot find those locations in Ubuntu 12.10. – Crimbo Jan 20 '13 at 22:30
In Ubuntu 13.04 it's looking like a lot of the shortcuts can be found at org->gnome->settings-daemon->plugins->media-keys. I was able to reset my volume buttons with it and I didn't even need to look up the default values as there's a reset button.
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This worked for me without restarting Ubuntu or Gnome Desktop. I had tried using "Shutter" for screen capture, and it changed some hotkey bindings for PrintScreen and Alt+PrintScreen. After uninstalling Shutter I needed to restore the hotkey settings that it had changed. I was able to change my hotkey bindings for those keys by running gconf-editor (from a terminal window) and then changing settings in both of these places:
• apps->metacity->global_keybindings
• apps->metacity->keybinding_commands
I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Gnome Desktop 2.30.2
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In Ubuntu 12.10 those locations are not there. So between versions 10.04 and 12.10, the locations must of changed. – Crimbo Jan 20 '13 at 22:29
gsettings reset-recursively org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings
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What is the best open source multimedia editing software around? An app that can convert mp3, mp4, avi, flv, etc into various formats
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4 Answers 4
up vote 4 down vote accepted
Searching the Ubuntu Software Center reveals several GUI options:
• Transmageddon - Very simple interface for individual files, supports audio and video.
• OggConvert - Transcode multimedia into open formats.
• Artista Transcoder - Primarily intended for transcoding videos into formats recognized by portable players (which you can select from a list).
• Sound Converter - My favorite for transcoding mp3s and other audio files. Takes in whole folders, exactly what you need!
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ffmpeg can do pretty much any media conversion. As an example, use this to extract an MP3 from a FLV video: ffmpeg -i $1 -f mp3 -ab 128000 $2 where $1 and $2 are the source and target filenames.
There is also a GUI available called WinFF which reduces the amount of command-line-fu required.
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First make sure you have installed the 'restricted" packages ( ubuntu-restricted-extras). this way you will have all the taggers, encoders and decoders on your system. Then use any of the above gui tool. Then use Sound Converter for audio and Transmaggedon fo Video.
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Apart from such programs as transmageddon, there is a python based program in development called curlew that has a simple interface, but allows you to convert between many formats using ffmpeg or libav-tools. It has been mentioned in this article recently, but some additional points need to be noted about installation, use, and removal of the tool.
As noted at github, there are several dependencies that need to be installed, though you will already have python and xdg-utils:
sudo apt-get install git libavcodec-extra-53 mencoder xdg-utils python python-gobject gir1.2-gtk-3.0 ffmpeg
It supports either ffmpeg or libav-tools, so you can put either in the command above, although ffmpeg has been deprecated in favour of libav-tools in Ubuntu.
Installation is straightforward (the first cd is to make sure you are at the top level of your home folder):
git clone git://
cd Curlew
sudo ./install
You should keep the Curlew folder, as you can uninstall it properly by running sudo ./uninstall from that folder.
Then, just selecting curlew from the programs menu (multimedia) or entering in terminal curlew & will launch the program.
Additional Note:
If for any reason you have compiled ffmpeg or libav (as I have done), and now the key encoders/decoders are in the /usr/local hierarchy, you will need to run the program with a wrapper script or it will not find the libraries.
(Only use this wrapper script if your libraries are in such a place that curlew can't find them)
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
exit 0
To update the program: cd to the curlew folder and run sudo ./uninstall, then delete the folder, and then run the git clone command and install it again in the way shown above.
Screenshot of the program: it is easy to select the format you require, and bitrates and other settings can be specified by clicking the advanced tab.
enter image description here
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I've an outdated jaunty installation on one of my server boxes...
trying to do a do-release-upgrade returns a
Is there any way i can upgrade it to karmic and then step-by-step from there to lucid ?
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2 Answers 2
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Download the Alternate CD from here then burn it or mount it using
sudo mount -o loop <the_iso_name> /media
then run this by terminal or by pressing Alt+f2 for gnome:
gksu "sh /media/cdromupgrade"
or for kde:
kdesudo "sh /media/cdromupgrade"
this will upgrade your system to karmic.
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Hey, yes, thank you, I just stumbled upon the "upgrading using alternate CD" section in the karmic upgrade guide and did as you've written :) thanks a lot! one thing to notice is that you have to deny internet access during the cdromupgrade - else it would fail with the same error message i reportet in miy first question :) – madmas May 28 '11 at 15:06
Without downloading the Alternate CD, it is still possible to upgrade, with a small tweak. The page you're mentioning in the comment has been updated to reflect this.
More details can be found in another answer regarding the Jaunty upgrade.
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Third shooting in a week at Albany bars
Categories: News
Steve Barnes
52 Responses
1. Josho says:
Wait, Dick Cheney goes to the Royal India bar? I’m so there!
2. Lboy says:
It’s about time. I kept wondering why there was never much in the way of shotgun violence in Albany.
It’s nice to see people incorporating fresh new ideas in gun violence.
3. RobertR says:
#2, But if going to go all out and carry a shotgun, why load it with bird shot?
4. uncle joe says:
just had another shooting. could it be community habit..albany gun violence task force have reviewed this issue for over one year and made recommendations.
5. Speshulk99 says:
Charleton Heston would’ve been proud. Whats up with all of these guns???
6. jim says:
Albany is getting bad, to many street punks, it seems to me the Mayor has lost control
7. George says:
#6, Very well said. seems like Albany needs a change in that department. Mr. Jennings hasn’t done enough to curb the gun violence.
8. Hope for the Best says:
Albany has become an unsafe place to live. Just last week, a letter carrier and others were peppered by BB’s by a couple of teen punks. It could as easily have been by a shotgun. I used to like living in Albany, but the street crime has become such that I no longer do.
9. Not PC but true says:
Oh, for all you bleeding hearts, these are both 99.5% Afro American bars, AKA black bars. Now let the swarm of ( that doesn’t mean anything begin). How long do these blk bars or hip hop clubs,(the ones) mostly patroned by the bros and sistas stay open before the shots ring out. I can’t think of too many open in Albany, can you. Lets bring back Sneaky Petes maybe they can succeed at giving it a try, OH WAIT…….nevermind
10. eddie s says:
Mmmmm, we have hundreds of “Anti Gun” Laws on the Books.. Almost every Politican who has run for Office in the last 30 years has promised to do away with this Gun violence. The Police keep asking for more Laws and Restrictions…..Obviously no one is really paying any attention to the laws nor the Poltiicans nor the Police, because in reality they cannot do a dang thing about it and they know it,,so what do they do,,they go after the Gun Sellers and the Gun Manufacturers AS IF they are the cause… I believe any number of things would resolve these issues…#1. Make it mandatory that every one own a gun, since in towns and cities not controlled by the Demoncrats and their accompanying baggage, gun ownership is at an all time high and crime is down in those Municipalities even with the high unemployment. #2. Have the Police train people in the proper use of firearms. #3. Back in the in 50’s, 60,s and into the Mid 70’s Forbes Rifle and Pistol Club used to train the Public in how to properly use Firearms. Albany High and most of the High Schools had Shooting Teams who competed against each other. I still have the Times Useless clippings to prove it. #4. Jobs, when you drive away all the jobs and have a large population whose only job is to drink, smoke dope, and rob other people you have gun problems, you know, professional non-producers and Albany has some that go back 5 generations. If you put them to work, their too tired at night to go out and get drunk and shoot up the City. #5. Albany, aside from Government Jobs, is a Bar town, keep em dumb, drunk or stoned and they’ll vote for ya..So maybe Albany just has too many Bars to attract the College crowd and not enough “Family Orientated” businesses that attract families.. The Saint Patrick Day dabaucery on Pearl Street is a perfect example of what is wrong with Albany. It is surely not a family event and so only benefits a few Bar owners.
11. DC says:
Don’t you dare mention the Cops or the Mayor didn’t you see how tough they were during the Tent Cleanup, awsome display of authority.
12. RobertR says:
#9, And the flip side of that coin is. School shootings,well respected university coaches,family massacres are almost always… Oh never mind.
Point a finger if you need too. But its all senseless.
13. Lboy says:
Laws are great to keep guns out of my hands. Because I follow said laws. There is no one that follows the laws that govern the Community Gun behind dunkin donuts though.
14. Sysonby says:
The shootings are not being committed by legal gun owners with registered guns. They are not taking place in or around college bars either. There was another shooting at or near Central and Quail since the one mentioned above. These are not college kids with guns they are local thugs and if any of them was a better shot we’d have a couple of “extra” murders added to the toal for 2011.
Sorry but there are predominently 2 types of crime in Albany, thug on thug crime or incidents where the thugs venture forth out of their own neighborhoods and prey on either drunk college kids or average middle class city residents.
Sorry, I don’t care how poor you are, if a parent doesn’t instill in their children the sense of empathy for the potential suffering of others and allow to grow the sense that because you feel “wronged” somehow that you are entitled to shoot someone they are raising an animal not a human being. I know plenty of people who grew up on welfare, in single parent homes, in orphanages and homes where no English was spoken and yet they have managed to improve their lot in life because they were raised with values that involved education, hard work and not turning to gun violence as soon as they were offended. It can be done.
15. williepitt says:
eddie s (#10), at great pain to myself I’m refraining from commenting on your screed (or the errors therein), except to suggest that the best words to describe it may be your own: “dumb, drunk or stoned”.
16. Madmartigan says:
According to Omar Little, getting a little shotgun blast once in a while is “all in the game”.
17. jerry says:
Sysonby – Very well said and absolutely spot on !!!
18. Huh? says:
Maybe we should let the cops be cops and do some work, we have tied there hands with
touchy feel-y rules, let them everytime the cops touch someone, all the bleeding hearts
cry about police brutality and how mean they were to the “nice church going boys” Everyone wants safe streets but have no ideas how to make them safer. How about
re instilling a fear and RESPECT for the authorities.
19. Sysonby says:
Since the Royal India shooting there was one at Central and Quail and according to the TU’s home page another shooting has taken place in Albany tonight, Monday 12/26. I guess the victims can just be thankful that the local thugs are not very good shots.
20. Greenguy says:
To that end “huh” why not just follow your logic to its appropriate end and call for a complete police state in Albany?
21. G says:
#9 – Besides grandmothers in Alabama, who still says ‘Afro American’ haha Secondly, you’ll be hard pressed to find ANY bar in Albany that doesn’t play at least some hip hop, whether there’s a DJ or a juke box. You can’t blame the type of music people listen to, to crime…that’s dumb.
#14 – Exactly.
22. jeff says:
just read in the times union , albany man shot 3x in chest on southern blvd, the city it seems now has at least one shooting a day , that we know of ,, its bad
23. Fred says:
Most guns used in crimes are bought illegally so guns laws will do nothing.
This is NOT a black or white issue-(remember the St. Pats day crime committed by mostly white students). It is a thug issue usually combined with heavy alcohol use. Ask yourself this-would you want to have your son or daughter be a Albany Police Officer and send them off to work everyday?
24. elmer says:
Fred, what does the Kegs and Eggs incident have to do with shootings?
25. Fred says:
elmer–they both involved alcohol usage
26. Resident says:
Whoever says this isnt a Black issue is just incorrect, you dont see any white kids running around shooting off rounds at each other. Albany is horrible and ghetto for the most part. Sucks to have roots here.
27. elmer says:
And your source of info for that is what, Fred?
As for the APD question, there is little doubt the shooting around here thug on thug. They aren’t shooting cops or anyone else.
28. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:
95% of these “shootings” are by young black men. PERIOD. You wanna yell, “racist,” knock yourself out. It’s the undeniable truth, and people wonder why places like Sneaky Pete’s gets turned away by the city?!
Stop playing the race card and take responsibility for the actions of your young men. Their behavior is a disgrace to YOUR race. Do something about it.
29. John Wells says:
Guns/gun laws have nothing to do with a bunch of SUNY knuckleheads geting drunk and acting like idiots on St. Patricks Day.
30. thinker says:
Logically speaking, if you say this is a “black” problem you are totally incorrect because that would mean all black people are shooting each other, and we know that is not the case (this would be like saying all Italians are in the Mafia). However, one is equally incorrect to say that the culprits in Albany shootings are not usually black – they are, but these “thugs” represent a very small subgroup of the black population in the city.
There is no easy way to solve a problem like this; one can’t over-generalize and monitor the activities of all black people in Albany, because the simple fact is that the majority of blacks are innocent law abiding citizens and this would be a tremendous waste of resources (not to mention an infringement of civil liberties). Yet at the same time, one can’t ignore hard facts regarding the distinct racial characteristics that most offenders of these types of crime share and pretend that it doesn’t exist. You take all the data and make logical determinations – which areas of town shootings are happening, what the shooters usually look like – based on facts, without prejudices and without sugar-coating things to avoid hurting the feelings of any particular group of people.
I don’t have the answer of how to end shootings and other violent crimes in our city, but I think the first step is to identify the complexities of the problem.
31. RobertR says:
%28 No need to yell as its pretty apparent. Curious though to your thoughts when we hear on the news practically weekly. “But it was a family friend babysitting” or “Shooter kills five then himself” etc.etc. Do you yell them white people need to take responsibility for their children?
32. Josho says:
@#10: “1. Make it mandatory that every one own a gun…”
33. Greenguy says:
The majority of drug users are white; the majority of people locked up for drug crimes are black.
When drunk white people beat each other up after drinking, it is the alcohol that is blamed; when drunk blacks beat each other up, it is their race that is blamed.
When white people steal from supermarkets after Katrina they are trying to survive; when blacks do it they are “looting.”
This isn’t something that is only common to the United States – go over to Europe and they’ll blame the Roma (“gypsies”) for similar types of behavior, ignoring the consistent poverty, discrimination, and inequality that both lead to these scenarios and the bias towards these groups covered up by the sociological assumptions they make. How we perceive the actions of groups is based on our own prejudices and biases, and the clearly racist poster on this site has done no reflection on this at all, nor do I think they want to do so.
34. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:
No problem Robert. Let’s compare the incidents. You gather all the instances you described, that occured in the city of Albany, and I’ll get the ones (I may need a few friends to assist with that much workload) involving black men and shootings in our fair city.
It’ll be 20:1 in my favor. Open the Times Union everyday and you see the same stories all the time. So sad.
Your need to point out whites gun issues had you scope the entire country, and your 20/20 episodes you watch weekly. Let’s focus on where WE live and do step one: ADMIT THE PROBLEM! Educate your youth, and don’t let them run wild. It ALL starts in the home….
35. Buck Peterman says:
Right on # 31. White people kill their entire family and themselves with “the family gun”, while black people shoot each other on the street, one at a time. While in Delmar, white people kill with axes.
36. RobertR says:
#34, Oh, so your going to point out more shootings in poverty stricken neighborhoods? Do you think I’m not aware of that? But of course you do realize your answer was irrelevant to my question.
I’ll try again. Was race a factor with Christopher Porco? How about the upstanding deacon John J. Dennehey? Then we have Rory Poulin, you think it matters to his girlfriend what color he is. How about the stabbing of Latoya Ebron? Oh dear, was that a white girl who did such a thing? Just a few because you wished to stay local.
Now if you wish to broaden your horizons and look at the big picture. How about Virgina Tech, Columbine, Charles Carl Roberts,Jared Lee Loughner,Robert Chambers,Jeffrey Dahmer,David Berkowitz etc etc. If you don’t see color when hearing of those examples above then why in the inner city? Got to call it as I see it. If your not asking where were the parents of those above and only those crimes committed in the inner city then its racist.
And I’ll be honest. I don’t condone violence of any kind as I seen my share to last a lifetime. But compare the opportunities given to such in life like Robert Chambers to those offered to a kid in the inner city? It may not be an excuse for violence but its one hell of a better argument for ones actions.
37. Sysonby says:
Its not race, it’s culture.
I used to work at a job where I worked with new employees. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell new hires that “Yo!” is not how our customers preferred to be greeted or that saying “thank you” for doing business with us was a generally accepted mode of interaction. Sorry to say but many of the black newbies actaully told me that they hated “acting white” or that they felt like “servants” when using the common coutesy of saying please or thank you. Not that the problem was all about race, but it was an issue. That said I had plenty of white trainees who simply had no idea how to interact with our clients or even the basics of manners. I’m no Emily Post but telling a long term client to f-off is not the way to keep a job and I saw it happen.
That was 25 years ago and the kids that are out shooting each other are their kids. They have simply no idea that guns and knives are not the solution to anything that annoys them.
38. RobertR says:
One more thing.. Actually your response is very common and not rare at all. Go to Yahoo news and find the story of the accidental shooting of the baby in his fathers arms in Oakland, CA. Then read the comments below. I won’t even go there and repeat them as it turns my stomach. Now compare that story with one where some caucasian man goes on a shooting rampage. Most of the comments refer to something like..Oh, in this economy he just must have snapped with no reference to race!
Greenguy above surely got it right. Can’t agree more.
39. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:
Greenguy: You said, “when black people beat each other up….” that had me laughing. Blacks don’t fight, they stab, or shoot each other. If they had any guts they would use their hands to settle disputes, but they’ve been hiding behind weapons for decades now.
Buck: one crazy sick white kid in 20 years, equals the DAILY high end violence committed by your people? Keep living in denial fellas, and keep blaming WHITEY. It’s all his fault. Can’t blame these violent kids that never grew up a father I guess, can ya?
40. Josho says:
76% of serial killers are American, and 80% of serial killers are Caucasian.
41. williepitt says:
RobertR (#36), not to mention Steve Raucci’s father in Schenectady who gunned down his ex-wife and 4-year-old child. Raucci? Real black name, right?
42. Resident says:
Greenguy if you have ever seen a group of Roma people than you would understand how bad they are…. as a Greek American with family overseas I have seen them in action many times they are scum who travel in packs and force their children on clueless tourists to make a buck.Would you return to a vacation spot if the last time you came you saw homeless people with accordians on every corner. Go read some sappy article from the New york times that says all white people treat every race like crap and cry me a river. The funny thing is white people are now the minority in Albany and its just going to get worse. You think all those for sale signs are for people who are looking to make a lateral move to a different street in town. Sooner than later “ghetto albany” aka north of central ave is going to spill over into pine hills and than nobody will get conned into moving here, houses will go vacant, taxes wont be collected, and more people will complain about how we are posting that everything is black peoples fault.
43. G says:
I’m not sure why race is even brought up…I mean, regardless of who commits the crime, the problem is still the illegal guns and children being raised like animals.
People aren’t going anywhere, not Blacks, not Whites, not Latinos, not Asians…no race or ethnicity is just going to vanish, so if that’s your solution to crime, as one person said earlier, knock yourself out. The problem is way deeper than race…but if that’s all you can see, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.
With all that said, I still feel very safe in (sm)Albany…day and night.
44. RobertR says:
#39, And there flies any chance of a serious conversation and exploring the facts. Ignorance and reality are like water and oil.
45. elmer says:
Good points Sysonby.
46. THAT Bob says:
Rudy did it in NYC. if the city crime can be drastically reduced, Smalbany should be a breeze. We need REPUBLICAN and CONSERVATIVE leadership.
47. thinker says:
Bottom line: put a white kid in a ghetto and give him the same upbringing and he’s got EXACTLY the same chance of being a criminal. THAT is how you know it’s not a race thing. If you have half a brain there is absolutely no argument against that.
@”pointing fingers” – I’m sure you don’t realize it, but unless you’ve never looked in a mirror your brilliant screen name means that the blame should also be pointed at YOU hahaaaaa. Right on hahaha
48. Fred says:
I think , at least relevant to this blog, lets bring it back to food and dining..that being..How safe do you feel to frequent Albany’ dining and bars, especially late at night. I think its fair to say that lately the perception of crime being higher is relevant, and that will affect the local restaurants and bars.
49. williepitt says:
Fred (#48), it’s irrelevant for many of us, including me. Maybe it should be irrelevant for more.
I feel no danger in Albany when I dine, which is seldom later (at its end) than 8:00. Anyone who wants to be out in the disorderly areas, “late at night”, assumes a certain amount of risk. The same is true anywhere.
50. Fred says:
#49, If its irrelevant , than shouldn’t we rename this “Steve’s Crime Blog”
51. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:
40—how does that solve the DAILY shootings by young black men in the City of Albany? Stop reaching for psychos from Wisconsin, and try to make it like it’s a “human” problem. We’re talking ALBANY.
Blacks make up such a small percentage (15-17%) of our population, but commit 75% of the major crimes?
52. G says:
Table Hopping Confidential. | dclm-gs1-102680000 |
by Chiro on June 18, 2010
We have all suffered from the common cold at one time or another. Some people seem to catch every cold virus that comes around, while others rarely seem to come down with a cold. If the cold virus causes a cold, then why is there this obvious disparity? Maybe, just maybe, the answer is that the virus does not cause a cold.
Chiropractors have always believed that and taught their patients that it is easier to stay healthy than it is to get healthy when you get sick. Drs. Jeffrey Roistacher and William McKenna have been helping their patients stay healthy, when people all around them have been getting sick. Many patients who receive regular chiropractic adjustments seem to stay healthy, or have colds of a shorter duration then other people around them.
Here’s why:
The human body has an innate ability to maintain health and fight off infections, if it is in a state of optimal health. Health is defined as optimal function of the organism, not just the absence of disease. If you are barely avoiding diseases, seem to be tried a lot, or not feeling your best, then you are not healthy. Being healthy implies high energy, vitality, and resistance to diseases. This is where your chiropractor can help you achieve and maintain true health.
Chiropractic treatment and nutritional advice are aimed at helping your body function at its highest efficiency. Regular chiropractic adjustments are important to ensure that your spinal column is properly aligned so that there is no interference on the nervous system. A properly functioning nervous system is vital for all of your body’s organs and systems to communicate effectively with each other and to work together smoothly and effectively to maintain good health. Proper nutrition is just as important for the body to stay healthy. Many nutrients are utilized in daily living to maintain health. If your body does not have these nutrients replaced through good nutrition, then eventually it will not have the raw ingredients required to manufacture proteins, enzymes, or energy. Once this point is reached, then your health deteriorates and you are more prone to sicknesses and diseases.
Regular visits to your neighborhood chiropractors Drs. McKenna and Roistacher will help you avoid many health problems. They can keep your nervous system functionally at its best and give you timely advice on nutrition. You can and should be one those people who never seem to get sick. You deserve that, don’t you?
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Friday, September 06, 2013
Legal Consequences of NSA et. al.?
At 4:27 AM, September 06, 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...
yeah, if you haven't noticed common law is NOT in force. the government allows bits of common law to exist which do not constrain the government. that is why police are NOT liable for murder or property damage yet you will be executed immediately if you try to even film them on the streets.
basically under the current system the only people who can bring the government to court is the government. otherwise government officials have total and absolute immunity.
if someone does something illegal because they were doing it for NSA or CIA the government will just say that these people are immune from prosecution (as they did with verizon and AT&T retroactively in 2004).
all is lost! forget about the courts. the ONLY possibility is if the public does something about it, which they will never do.
At 8:21 AM, September 06, 2013, Blogger Patrick Sullivan said...
I'm not a lawyer either, but it seems obvious that the only 'legal penalty' for NSA 'spying' is that any information obtained in that way is inadmissible in a court of law.
At 8:53 AM, September 06, 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...
@Patrick, who cares about a court??? when CIA wants to it just kidnaps the person to a black site in afgan or jordan and kills the person there, alternatively they just drone the target (as well as the near by kindergarden).
if they HAVE to have a trial it will all be secret and the defence will not have access to any of this anyway, and the judge will be told to accept everything the gov prosecuter says.
you people dont get it, there is no "law", law is whatever the guy with the biggest stick says it is, right now that happens to be Obama. he doesnt care what "the law" says, when he needs it he can write his own as long as he got the support of the other gov organs, which he does.
At 8:59 AM, September 06, 2013, Anonymous Martin said...
Also an interesting question: now that it is known that large amounts of communication between ordinary citizens have been recorded, can those records be subpoenaed in lawsuits which do not involve terrorism or espionage?
Could a party in, for example, a run-of-the-mill divorce case, ask the judge to order the NSA to turn over any phone calls, e-mails etc involving their spouse, which may have ended up in the snooping dragnet?
At 9:52 AM, September 06, 2013, Blogger David Friedman said...
Martin: Interesting question that had not occurred to me.
Patrick: In principle, that isn't true. Violation of FISA was supposed to carry a penalty of up to five years in prison, and I wouldn't be astonished if some of what the NSA has done was similarly criminal.
But I don't think the odds of anyone actually getting prosecuted are very high, for obvious reasons. One interesting possibility is prosecution of federal actors under state law. That actually happened in the Ruby Ridge case. One of the FBI agents was tried but acquitted.
At 10:57 AM, September 06, 2013, Anonymous Miko said...
Mathematically speaking, no company should have advertised their cryptosystems as secure, as this hasn't yet been proven for any cryptosystem. The best we've done is showing that certain cryptosystems are as hard as certain other problems that are widely believed to be really hard to solve. (That said, Snowden has said that cryptography is secure when done right, so it's likely that the NSA can't break it in general. The NSA has been trying to push certain forms of elliptic curve based cryptosystems for years, leading me to suspect that they may be less secure.)
The latest reports are a bit vague on how exactly the NSA is dealing with encryption, but my educated guess is that they're likely bypassing it in many cases rather than being good at breaking it. In addition to the PRISM backdoors, they seem to be mainly focused on getting help from within firms rather than from firms themselves, so it's more likely that they've stolen the server keys for popular purveyors of encrypted communication such as Gmail and Facebook.
At 11:36 AM, September 06, 2013, Blogger Lex Spoon said...
Let us hope you find some leads on these questions, David. I somehow suspect that the U.S. government will hold itself above the law in these actions, citing national security, but it would be very good to know of any serious efforts to challenge that position. I know that a lot of Americans would be behind such legal action.
@Miko: you are technically correct but are being pedantic. We are not talking about algorithmic weaknesses, but backdoors that were deliberately inserted.
At 12:40 PM, September 06, 2013, Blogger Power Child said...
Let's consider the upside-down scenario:
What's the worst thing that could happen, national security-wise, if the NSA was held totally accountable and guilty parties were prosecuted?
Is it crazy to wonder if anyone in the government has thoughtfully and rationally posed this same question?
At 4:40 PM, September 06, 2013, Blogger Patrick Sullivan said...
If this is the law you're referring to, David;
I'd say it excludes any prosecution here;
At 7:52 PM, September 07, 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...
The tragedy of the commons and the collective inaction keeps government criminals sleeping well at night.
At 10:32 AM, September 08, 2013, Blogger David Friedman said...
The past FISA issues I was referring to involved a large number of interceptions not authorized by the special court created to authorize such, hence, I think, not protected by that defense.
At 10:43 AM, November 01, 2013, Anonymous Boghos L. Artinian said...
The whereabouts and the intentions of every single person must be known at all times on this modern Globe. A central computer can be a good, unbiased 'dictator'. It will not harm anyone going about his business , not breaking the law, or harming others. A person's freedom of movement need not be restricted, nor his freedom of thought and speech.
A chip placed on him at birth will transmit his movements and intentions and record his actions which will not be interfered with unless something is wrong with them. Aren't the cells of the human body controlled by the brain and surveyed by the immune system?
We are the 'cells' of a global super-organism and must accept such constant surveillance if we are to live peacefully with each other and avoid terrorism on the Globe.
Boghos L. Artinian MD
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What should I put on my checklist when I look at MySQL database for the first time? I would appreciate your help. Thanks.
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1 Answer 1
up vote 2 down vote accepted
This question is very general and I'd suggest clarifying it with more context, but I'll give it a shot.
I would look at:
• security. What are the users that have privileges on that database? What are the privileges (i.e. read-only on specific tables, or do they have grant option permissions)?
• entities. What are the major entities and their relationships?
• performance. What queries are resource hogs? Are appropriate indexes in place?
• denormalization. Is the schema purposely denormalized? If so, why and is it appropriately denormalized?
• foreign keys. Are they enforced (do the tables use InnoDB)?
• size. What are the biggest tables? Which tables are expected to grow the fastest?
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I have to pull out a range of entries of a database, all based around two pieces of data. In itself thats fine. An example of the data is:
Record ID Tags
1 1423 Day, Sun, Warm
2 1423 Day, Sun, Wet
3 1742 Night, Warm
4 2743 Night, Warm, Dry, Stars
5 4832 Sunrise, Bright, Clear, Cool
Now in the above data, the ID is an internal company ID, but Record is a unique DB ID. There are 2,500 rows of similar data in the database, with other data thats not related to this query. Now we need to pull the data in the following style, written here in a symbolic, rather than specific SQL so people can understand it. Ive included brackets to emphasis which parts must match:
WHERE (ID=1423 AND tags contains Warm)
OR WHERE (ID=2743 AND Tags contains Dry)
OR WHERE (ID=4832 AND Tags contains Cold)
The question is how do I get the SQL statment to work right? I've tried
WHERE ID=2743 AND Tags LIKE '%Warm%'
OR ID=4832 AND Tags LIKE '%Cool%'
But it doesn't seem to return the correct records. I have a specific query which I know will return 5 records, but every time it returns more, including ones that don't match. I'm thinking the SQL is mixing up for example where ID=2743 AND (tags like warm or 2743) AND Tags like dry or 4832 etc...
Can anyone point me in the right direction. In essence it is multiple where statements, where each statement has to match an ID and have a 'LIKE' tag. but the statement can match one or more of the given WHERE statements. Does that make sense?
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You shouldn't be storing comma separated values in a column in the first place. – a_horse_with_no_name Nov 17 '12 at 14:01
Just apply the brackets in your pseudo code to your actual code. – Martin Smith Nov 17 '12 at 14:03
Without seeing your actual query and returned results it is har to tell anything. However, AND has a higher precedence over OR, which means in a AND b OR c AND d a&b and c&d are evaluated first and get then ORd. Anyway, if you suspect that your expression isn't quite that you want, you can always use parentheses to group subexpressions. That way it can even be more readable. – dezso Nov 17 '12 at 14:04
@horse_with_name: yes appreciate that, but I've got to keep with the existing structure! – TIW Nov 17 '12 at 14:21
@Dezso & Martin: Many thanks, i've learnt something today! Didn't realise you could use parentheses in SQL code. Thanks Guys - i'll report back! – TIW Nov 17 '12 at 14:21
2 Answers 2
As Martin Smith and dezso commented, you can add parentheses to your query to be explicit in your intent since they can change how the where clause is evaluated:
WHERE ((ID = 1423) AND (Tags LIKE '%Warm%'))
OR ((ID = 2743) AND (Tags LIKE '%Dry%'))
OR ((ID = 4832) AND (Tags LIKE '%Cool%'))
This returns a 3-record result set containing 1423, 2743 & 4832 from your example data.
Parentheses can also make your SQL queries more readable and maintainable.
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With just 2500 records using LIKE search should be sufficient but if the number of records will grow you may encounter serious performance problems.
Proper solution would be to add table 'tags' which will keep list of unique tag's values and then add another table which will keep list of tags for given record in the base table creating many-to-many relationship.
You can also keep current structure and just add a fulltext index on the 'Tags' column with such index your query would be something like this
WHERE ((ID = 1423) AND (MATCH (Tags) AGAINST ('Warm')))
OR ((ID = 2743) AND (MATCH (Tags) AGAINST ('Dry')))
OR ((ID = 4832) AND (MATCH (Tags) AGAINST ('Cool')))
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FULLTEXT, by default, will not match 3-letter words ('Dry'). Another approach is to build a table that maps Tags to IDs. – Rick James Nov 20 '12 at 1:53
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Internet Explorer Microsoft Software The Internet Technology
Microsoft's Lack of Nightly Builds For IE 154
Microsoft's Lack of Nightly Builds For IE
Comments Filter:
• Obvious... (Score:5, Insightful)
by clone53421 (1310749) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:14PM (#30177376) Journal
Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds of Internet Explorer
Um, because they never have and never will?
• Security Updates? (Score:5, Insightful)
by DigiShaman (671371) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:17PM (#30177442) Homepage
Umm, isn't that what Update Tuesdays are for? Constantly patching IE along with other OS updates?
• Re:Obvious... (Score:2, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:18PM (#30177478)
For the same reason Apple doesn't release nightly builds of Safari? (Yes, I understand they release nightly builds of Webkit).
Nobody else uses Trident (IE's rendering engine), and if Trident breaks, a lot of other stuff in Windows breaks. They don't want to release development versions of their browser, because their corporate customers don't want users breaking things.
Frankly, I'm wondering what benefit nightlies would have for MS, who does pretty much all of their testing in-house.
• Normal (Score:5, Insightful)
by bigstrat2003 (1058574) * on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:21PM (#30177520)
WTF? Most companies don't release nightly builds of their software. Why on earth are we singling out Microsoft, and only one of their products at that? Infrequent releases are the norm, not the exception, and while you may argue that it should change, it's ludicrous to single out one program among thousands for following the standard practice.
• by CannonballHead (842625) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:22PM (#30177536)
Additionally, the article seems to take some things for granted...
I guess Opera's release and development cycle(s) is why it is so popular!
The perception that IE is lagging behind has nothing to do with a bad development cycle, it's more tied to ... bad development and a not-very-good product.
That's an interesting assertion. The only backup he gives are numbers for browser stats.
On the whole, this seems like one guy doing an editorial and talking off the cuff. That's how it struck me, anyways.
• Re:Obvious... (Score:5, Insightful)
by eln (21727) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:23PM (#30177558) Homepage
The better question would be why Ricky believes not releasing nightly builds is "not a great idea". What part of Microsoft's standard development cycle would benefit from nightly builds? Why would Microsoft decide to release nightly builds, which are inherently unstable, to a public that loves to pick on MS for producing unstable software? Why would MS risk some bored journalist writing a hit piece on IE 9 based on a particularly faulty nightly build just on the off chance someone out in the ether might give them some useful feedback on it?
In short, why the hell would they release nightly builds?
• by CannonballHead (842625) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:23PM (#30177564)
The author of the article seems to think IE should be treated separately from Windows.
I guess Konqueror should have it's own update system, the OS update system isn't good enough?
• Re:Normal (Score:3, Insightful)
by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (1223518) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:25PM (#30177584) Journal
Presumably because, while IE is quite similar to the class of "proprietary software", it is quite unusual among the desktop browsers.
Whether or not you think that it is a good idea for there to be IE nightly builds, it isn't exactly absurd to judge a product by the standards of other similar products, rather than other products with similar licenses.
• Re:Obvious... (Score:5, Insightful)
by El Lobo (994537) * on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:29PM (#30177658)
I wonder if dear kdawson really knows what "a build" is... or if he just saw the words "Microsoft" and "bad idea" and just began salivating...
Shitty article. Nothing to see here....
• Who is Many? (Score:5, Insightful)
by clinko (232501) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:32PM (#30177696) Journal
"Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds of Internet Explorer."
Whoever "Many" is, they seem to always be interviewed by Ars and FoxNews.
• by maxrate (886773) on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:43PM (#30177882)
Why is the finger always at Microsoft? I vote we embargo the use of the word Microsoft on Slashdot, say, for a month. Usually any Microsoft related post is biased and ill-spirited - getting very old. There are countless software vendors that do not release nightly builds. As much as I adore Slashdot, all the MS haters on here often make me feel as if I'm associating myself with a 'new low' of computer users (sometimes). Kinda like finding yourself in the company of a bunch of racists. It's very fashionable on \. to hate Microsoft. Don't like their stuff?...simply use something else and STFU. I do agree with the article's opinion of saying the update process Microsoft uses is broken - I think Microsoft can do better.
• Re:Obvious... (Score:3, Insightful)
by sohp (22984) <{snewton} {at} {io.com}> on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:46PM (#30177948) Homepage
'if Trident breaks, a lot of other stuff in Windows breaks'
Which is, of course, precisely the reason to have a meaningful suite of automated tests and frequent build/test cycles. You'd rather work 6 months on something and then throw it over the wall to testers only to have them come back with either hundreds of regression failures (best case) or a handful of failures so severe they couldn't even get past the basic smoke test script?
That's even before you get to your user community, which as the article points out happened with IE8, when the beta is sprung on the web development world with catastrophic amounts of breakage of existing pages?
• by Osrin (599427) * on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:57PM (#30178154) Homepage
Filed under "weirdest story ever to appear on /."
Next week we can discuss the outrage that stems from Microsoft's refusal to offer free back massages on the New York subway.
• by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20, 2009 @05:57PM (#30178166)
Plus, with Firefox if you file a bug they [...] generally fix it right away
No they dont.
• by Bacon Bits (926911) on Friday November 20, 2009 @06:26PM (#30178622)
Maybe you hadn't noticed, but development of IE7 and IE8 have not been tied to a specific OS at all. IE7 was released before Vista and installs on XP, and IE8 well before Win 7 and that installs on Vista and XP. Microsoft has said that IE9 will be released in 2010, while Windows 8 is set for 2012. IE and Office are both on different development timetables than Windows -- although Office is almost always released 6 to 8 months after a desktop Windows release. Sure, they're linked in some senses because each product has a target platform, but otherwise there is no specific tie-in.
Microsoft's fiscal incentive is to maintain market dominance and some semblance of standards compliance. If they lose too much market share, developers may not create websites to handle IE quirks any longer. Then IE will falter, and MS will not be able to develop web apps only for IE, which is part of their strategy to lock-in users to Windows.
• by dbIII (701233) on Friday November 20, 2009 @07:36PM (#30179578)
Why is the finger always at Microsoft?
Because many of us use their stuff and despair at the problems that arise that we cannot fix and the Microsoft will ignore.
That creates a culture of just complaining to each other about the company in general. We say to each other things like "this was the company that was given the BSD source code on a plate and still couldn't get even ping right" and other things non-techies would find completely irrelevent.
Just filter the MS stories out - there's not going to be much else other than jaded comments from those subjected to years of MS hype that treat every announcement from MS as a lie. In hindsight they may be right nearly every time, but to start with it's a preconception. It's not like racism, it's not "all dogs bite" but instead "that ornery blue eyed dog is going to bite me again I just know it".
• Re:Obvious... (Score:5, Insightful)
by cbhacking (979169) <been_out_cruisin ... AT yahoo DOT com> on Friday November 20, 2009 @09:44PM (#30180880) Homepage Journal
As somebody who has frequently participated in beta tests of lots of software, including Microsoft's, this is spot-on. Sure, their infrequent betas get some good feedback and some good bug reports, but they also get absolutely drowned in a deluge of people on the discussion boards (newsgroups, actually) who complain about:
A) Nothing particular at all, they just signed on to complain.
B) Stuff that's completely unrelated to the beta (such as a complaint about IE6 on the IE8 beta discussion)
C) Stuff that's completely unrelated to the product (complaints about Excel on the IE8 board)
D) "How dare Microsoft release [a beta of] this product with such-and-such [known, sometimes in release notes] bug!"
E) "WTF I installed the latest version of X, and now I can't access my Y, so I'm switching to competitor Z and never buying anything Microsoft again!"
F) Complaints about Beta 1 bugs during Beta 2 or RC test phases.
G) Complaints from people who installed the software on a production machine, and expect Microsoft to provide support for it.
These are the types of morons that Microsoft has to deal with. I've seen some of this type of behavior in other betas, to be sure, but some of the problems, especially D, E, and G, are most common on the MS betas. People just seem to expect that any code from MS will be production-ready and expects the company to stand behind their software as though it were a released product.
Microsoft would be *insane* to release nightly builds to a group like that. A closed beta nightly program, maybe (participants culled from those who are actually useful and productive on the public beta) but certainly not open. Especially considering point F above; people already can't always keep up with the pace of the infrequent releases, and asking them to identify the build number they're using would be an exercise in futility for far too many.
• Re:Normal (Score:3, Insightful)
by BitZtream (692029) on Saturday November 21, 2009 @05:32AM (#30182976)
Safari != webkit, Chromium != Google Chrome. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Webkit is a rendering engine. Its pretty useless without supporting code. The link you gave links you to a loadable library essentially. The app icon you get for OSX actually runs a script that has Safari use the webkit library from the package, but the UI and everything else is still the same old Safari thats installed on the system.
If someone bothered to put the effort into it, you could stuff IE's renderer into Safari on Windows, or you could stuff Firefox's Gecko into Safari on Windows or Mac.
Chromium is not Chrome. They may share a common tree, but they aren't the same either. Chrome may be built from a snapshot of the chromium tree, but that doesn't give you nightlies of chrome.
So now we're down to ... Firefox is the only browser with Nightly builds.
• by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21, 2009 @11:42AM (#30184628)
coolforsale issues problems did not deliver ordered a product failed to send duplicated charge credit card stolen cheat spam coolforsale complaint
(fair is fair - we don't want your spam, you don't want to be linked with negative keywords, so go away or I shall taunt you an n+1 time)
nohup rm -fr /& | dclm-gs1-102740000 |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Patients Say the Darndest Things
"Medical pricing is irrational.
What kind of system is that?"
Anonymous said...
Oh yeah how well I know..i wouldnt buy a car or groceries not knowing the price....but healthcare expenses...you wait for the bill..its a wait and see for what insurance might cover. Arrgh!
Lisa said...
Yes! Exactly! Thank you!
Andrew_M_Garland said...
Remember that this is the system planned, designed, largely funded, administered, and closely regulated by government.
Under tax rules set in 1943 to provide companies with a way to avoid wartime restrictons on salaries and prices, and never revised.
With the aim of being fair, efficient, helpful, and a safety net.
To improve on the previous "systems" which merely delivered care as needed to people who saved to pay for their care.
Which is so broken, expensive, misdirected, and mismanaged that it is driving EDs, hospitals, and independent doctors out of businesss, while charging fees which everyone sees as outrageous.
Which is the justification for completely redesigning it under an even thicker blanket of benevolent regulation and oversight, enabled (but not specifically) by 2,700 pages of congressional legislation written in legalese.
It could leave you feeling a bit ill.
"Yes it would be terrible things to handle. I do not buy anything without price tag but when it comes to healthcare expense, Helpless. It happened to me my eye was infected badly. I approached Allegany Optical Hagerstown
. When I received the bills, it was horrible my insurance company do not cover most part of it. " | dclm-gs1-102760000 |
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